Title of Show
I think the name for this course is incorrect. When I got my schedule for senior year, I saw English 12 with Chris Doire and was immediately overjoyed! I had been in Chris’s class last year and had an absolute blast, then I got the syllabus and right at the top in big bold letters said:
English 12 - Home and Exile. Now, forgive me, but I wasn’t very interested in the topics of home, exile, or, frankly, any of the texts listed. Nevertheless, we jumped straight into Hedda Gabler, and from the very first line, I was hooked. Here was this classical Norwegian play, with all the hidden meanings and metaphors of an academic text, and it immediately made me burst out laughing. Hedda Gabler surprised me, delighted me, and instilled an enthusiasm about the class I was astounded to find. And we kept reading, observing, and analyzing other texts I had previously thought would be a snooze fest. Surprisingly (to me at least), Hamlet got me thinking about morality, deception, and revenge. Oedipus had me pondering fate, guilt, and the pursuit of truth. The Wedding considered themes of race, class, and interracial relationships. Late Spring and Past Lives made me contemplate identity, connections, and traditions vs modernity. But if there was one text we read this year that had me examine my own lease on life, it would have to be Pale Fire.
Pale Fire challenged me in ways I had never been challenged before. It is the worst book I have ever read, and the best. When you first read the novel, it seems very easy to understand. Then, when you start to break it down and investigate the tiniest words, you find a whole new treasure trove of meanings and hidden messages. I thought I had understood when I read it at home. The text seemed fairly straightforward. Then we would come together in class, find out a buried secret deep in the text, and my mind would be blown. At that point, I started getting frustrated. I would try to solve these puzzles on my own, but would always draw a blank. I think Pale Fire is just one of those texts that you have to read with other people, you need collaboration to decode all those hidden messages.
As we wrap up the year, I was reminded again of the name for this course, Home and Exile. Does this name reflect the texts we’ve read? I guess. However, I feel a more appropriate title for Chris Doire’s English 12 class would be Marriage and Connections. Think about it! Hedda Gabler is obvious. Hedda and Tesman’s relationship is the main plot of the play. In Hamlet, we spend a good deal of time pondering Gertrude, Claudius, and King Hamlet’s love triangle as well as Hamlet and Ophelia’s courtship. Oedipus is undeniable; he married his mother and concentrated all his energy on figuring out what he had just done. In Late Spring, Noriko grapples with her relationship with her father, whilst the societal pressure to marry aches on her. In Past Lives, Nora struggles with the dichotomy of her first love from South Korea and her Husband, whom she met in the U.S. The Wedding is incredibly straightforward. Can this upper-class black woman marry a lower-class white jazz musician? Last but not least, Pale Fire confronts John and Sybil’s marriage while Kinbote stalks them from afar.
So, to wrap this reflection up, I’ll bring it back to a classic. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, famously states. “What’s in a name?” She surmises that the title of something doesn’t always completely define its essence. But just as the lovely lady Capulet loved her Montague, I thoroughly loved, enjoyed, and grew from Home and Exile. I just think it needs a better name.
Sara Flax. Out.