Zack Millevoi, Period 2, 12/12

Literacy and Learning 

Through our lessons in mythology, we have been setting ourselves to learning as much as we can and challenging ourselves in practicing new ways of analysis. Right now, I see myself working on critical analysis through different lenses, namely, critical theories. I set this as a goal for myself because I wanted to gain more value when reading each story in terms of the lessons I could take away from it. Reading is at its core about critical thinking, whether it be enjoying a story or picking apart a scientific notebook, reading in some way requires discussion about how a text is seen. I wanted to practice my critical interpretation skills through the power standards of this class.

In reading, I try to place myself in the shoes of not only the author who wrote each story, but also another philosopher's perspective on the story and how it would reflect in our modern world. For instance, looking at the book of Job, a passage of the Bible read in class, I first began to dissect the point of view of the author, that being the writers of the Old Testament. When discussing Job, and his trials against his fate and his friends after loss, the author tries to convey a moral that people should put their fate in God, regardless of if he blesses a person with good or not. If they do so, the author continues to show through the story that God gave Job all his belongings back after God took them away when he realized Job still had faith in God even in his hardships. However, looking through something such as a psychoanalytic lens, we open up new possibilities as to what meaning we can get from the story. We can infer using this, that Job’s “friends” are manipulative, convicting Job of crimes he may have not even committed without evidence. This shows that their faith in God may be used to cover up their own insecurities about their success in life.

This is one of many examples of creating new meaning and interpretations with every text read through use of critical theories. Throughout the remainder of this class, I will work and hone in my literary skills in many other ways, including the skills I have been developing so far.