Karen Khvan, Period 2, 9/28/2022

Literacy & Learning

• Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.
• Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.
• How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

The main pieces of fiction we had covered in class so far were the different types of Cinderella

stories. Cinderella is a classic tale- in fact, I think it was the first fairy tale I remember being told.

Reading the different renditions was fascinating because you could see the key similarities and

stark contrasts simultaneously. The basic plot went as follows: Cinderella was abused by a family

member, Cinderella runs away and finds a spouse, then lives happily ever after. Although each

version had its own twists and turns, the consistency felt reliable. The structure of the story is

just the foundations- the additions that the author makes is their own and comes from home. A

story that really stood out was the story of Lin Lan. While it had the “happy ending” plot, it also

contained many different themes and deviations from the Cinderella that was presented to me

as being “normal.”


One thing that being in class has shown me is the definition of folklore and how this is a perfect

example. In fact, I could see this pattern in my own life- I remember my grandpa swinging me

on a hammock in Belarus as he told me a different type of Cinderella, one that incorporated

things that are culturally important to us. Culture plays an incredible role in the cultivation of

these tales. Each text was unique, even if it was almost verbatim in structure and themes to the

others. Learning about folkloric perspectives has taught me that it isn’t just the authors coming

up with the stories- they’re all influenced by their environment and the people that they’re

surrounded by. Similarly, analyzing the stories through perspectives had a great impact on the

characters and authors. For instance, if you examine Lin Lan through a feminist perspective, you

could say that she was a strong woman who knew that she deserved the best when she was

picking out her future spouse. When examining the same story through a marxist perspective,

however, you could argue that she was being a picky snob who should be thankful that people

were willing to help her escape from her horrible past. While I always considered perspective, it

was never truly analyzed past a reader-text relationship. This, mixed with the culture the story

came from, can truly help you learn more about the state of the world that the time of the story.

Learning about perspective has helped me realize how narrow minded I had been towards texts

previously. Now, in my own reading endeavors, I am trying my best to pick out different

perspectives in order to try to get to know both the characters and the authors better.

Perspective is a guessing game- you never know if things are left in intentionally by the author,

or are a shadow of their own desires and goals. Understanding the perspective of things can help

you understand the author's reasoning. If they wrote a text during the great depression, you

would get a much different marxist perspective then if it was written in modern day. These

drastic changes help show how far society has come, all throughout the analysis of something

that may have not been put in intentionally.