Angie - Assignment 0

I’m Angie Christie, and I’m a junior. I am from scenic White River Junction, Vermont. White River Junction is a village in the town of Hartford, and the whole town is about 10,000 people. My high school was 800 students. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone, and gossip spreads like wildfire. My father, who used to teach automotive classes and coach football and track at my school, has taught or coached half the town, I swear. When I was younger, we would go out for a quick trip to the store, and Dad would always take 20 minutes longer than was necessary just because he was chatting. I suppose that’s part of the appeal of a small town, though… if a small town can be said to have appeal. The weather there is quite similar to Canton, though we tend to get a little more snow and a lot less wind.
I’m an English literature major, and I suppose I’m doing it because I’ve always enjoyed reading. I feel good when I’m expanding my literary horizons. It makes me feel like I’ve done something when I can say, “Why yes, I have read Eliot and Thackeray.” I have had mostly positive experiences in my English classes, though sometimes the amount of reading we have to do in a short period of time overwhelms me. The audiences reading these novels the first time read them in installments over years! How can I be expected to read the same thing in a matter of days? When the amount is reasonable, though, I also find reading to be a nice escape from my daily life.
That said, one of my biggest interests is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The man was a genius. I am absolutely captivated by the detail he used in his works. He invented 14 languages for use in Middle-Earth. And what’s more, all of these languages have the same linguistic developments and patterns that real languages have. I just think it’s so amazing. And I don’t care what people say—Peter Jackson’s adaptation was excellent. You can’t compare movies to books without ruining both, so I choose to appreciate them separately as the distinct art forms they are.
For our first paper, I think I’m going to write about the line from “Motherless Child” that reads, “Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone.” I find this line intriguing because “gone” is such an ambiguous term. Where does the speaker feel that he/ she is gone to? I think the poem as a whole is just relating the emptiness of the life of a slave. I like this poem for its repetition, ambiguity, and hint of uplifting themes at the end.
From this class, I hope to gain a better understanding of my roots. As an African American, I know what I have been through, and I’m obviously familiar with the historical difficulties, but I look forward to having a more personal insight into what others have experienced.