Connectivity

There were a lot of important connections made in English this year. In my opinion, every activity or material was connected in some way to a past section or historical event. The most profound example of connectivity in my learning was during our unit on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. As an introduction to this book we learned about existentialism and the myth of Sisyphus, a king of Ephyra punished for chronic deceitfulness. He was forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever. These myths created a backbone for my understanding of the material and also presented ideas of a revision of history.

After reading Act 1 of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, we were instructed to write a reflection on how the play was related to existentialism. In this response I reflected on how the first act of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead related to existentialism and the meaning of life. I connected the questions asked in the play with the questions asked about life and its purpose. I compared the unknown nature of life to the mysterious nature of the two main characters in the play. In this response I made realizations and connections that brought out the meaning of the novel and its existential qualities in a new light. I ended the response by asking the question “What if the questions are not meant to be answered? What if the questions are the meaning of the novel itself?” Thus making the connection from Sisyphus to Stoppard. Throughout the course, I have learned to read closely and make connections on my own before our class comes together for discussion. I find that my unique experiences and literary knowledge helps me to better understand the works we have read and gives a richer reading of the text.