Literature Reflection Paper

James Kain wrote the essay “Why Literature” and from reading that, I got the various opinions about Literature from a Literature professor’s point of view. I really liked the quote "Students always ask why they have to read this stuff. I understand their position; they have been brought up in a culture that values eternal youth in a material world” (Kain). Throughout my years in school, I have never heard any teacher or professor that understands our pains and suffering of reading, analyzing and learning Literature. Literature class is not my best choice of a class but Prof. Kain made Literature fun and exciting for me. I am so happy that I got the chance to take his Literature class because he really made it fun for us. In the way that I see it, movies, stories and poems are all the same. One is on the screen and the other two are on paper. And they both have the same motive to express feelings, stories and problems. Throughout the essay by Mr. Kain, he wrote many things that really stood out to me. “The stuff of poetry, story and drama, written by a master of the language, helps us explore our own lives and destinies” (Kain). This quote really made me think about all of the wonderful works of words that we have read in this class. What this quote means is that certain stories, poems and types of drama makes me think of our own lives and what our dreams are. Another quote that really stood out to me is “The works of poets and storytellers differ from other writings because they expose questions, emotions, doubts and fears; they illuminate the writer’s inner life, and they vitalize our language – that is, they give life and meaning to words we normally take for granted” (Kain). When I read this, it reminded me of the poem that we read by Theodore Roethke My Papa’s Waltz. In that poem, the ordinary words that we would be using in our daily lives really came to life. That poem had a lot of inner emotions from the poet’s personal life since it was