Tyler Sljukic, Period 2, 11/2/22

 Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.

I want to take a look back at our fairy tale unit for this blog, as this unit resonated with me in an uncanny way. With each fairy tale we read, each variation of Cinderella, even the Three Pigs that we discussed, we can see a recurring theme within all of them: hope. Humans, despite how intelligent and complicated as we make ourselves seem, are still creatures driven by desire and emotion. All innovation and progress is made through the dream of a person who thought it would be impossible. Ambition and drive are unique to humans in this way, yet it is limited by one key factor. When someone despairs, they feel as if nothing they do has purpose. Nothing they could ever achieve in their life would be meaningful, nothing could ever work the way they envisioned. This despair kills the human ambition in an indiscriminate and ruthless fashion. Fairy tales serve the main purpose of providing hope to the souls of our children, allowing them to believe that their ambition will always prevail. The villain always loses in the end, after all. We see this theme in Greek mythology as well, present in the intrinsic relationship between flowers and death. Humans need to see this light in the dark, and support their ambition with perseverance and hope, lest it all crumble around them, suffocated by their own ivory towers.

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

The way history seems to repeat itself is present in the way fairy tales are always told, and how they always end. Beyond the underlying and recurring themes of hope and good versus evil, it’s odd to see how fairy tales from completely different cultures all follow the same formula to achieve the same goal. Outside influence is unclear, yet so many different cultures follow the format of the villain being vanquished unequivocally vanquished after their cruel tyranny and dreadful deceit. The contents of these tales all vary greatly, along with their messages, yet the fact they are all told in such a similar fashion leads me to believe that we aren’t so different after all. These tales are a form of media which is eerily similar and transmittable across all people. The common factor in all humans in ambition.

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

Despite the common themes I have constantly mulled over in this blog, this unit has greatly improved my skill at critical analysis in texts and other forms of media. To create these connections, we dived deep into the wording and structures of these tales, comparing them and drawing several of these conclusions. Using academic critical lenses, such as the post-structuralism approach have changed the way I think of most texts I read. The main points and underlying messages have become much easier to identify, and I find myself able to identify key points and make prior connections even in scientific texts such as case studies