Alejandro Estevez
Prof. Crowe
Freshman Composition
28 September 2020
Cover Letter for WLLN
In my WLLN I chose to discuss how comic books and graphic novels help me to appreciate literature and deepen my sense of analysis and understanding text. I found this rather interesting because there is an irony in how books with fewer words and more pictures help me appreciate books with thousands of words. In graphic novels, there is far more information than regular novels and other forms of literature (e.g. panels, speech bubbles, colors, composition, etc). Thus, there is more information to question and study, making well-orchestrated graphic novels extremely dense and sometimes denser than literature. I partially take a bias in this comparison through my passion in the field of fine arts and fictional superhero universes (e.g. Marvel and DC). Some examples I used in the essay include Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Under the Red Hood, and Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet. Since this revelation occurred in my senior year of high school, this essay is more retrospective and then I make the piece more introspective through questioning why I prefer viewing art in comparison to reading. I acknowledge that this only the beginning of understanding myself and my preferences and it will probably take the rest of my life to fully understand why I enjoy art more than reading.
I think this essay topic resonates a lot with the themes of the texts and resources given in class. My audience would pertain to people who view comic books as things of simplicity. Similar to the authors reviewed in class, in my essay I try to educate the audience on this form of literature and explain its legitimacy and complexity. Also, like the texts in class that discussed different Englishes and how society views them as incorrect or improper, there is a preconceived notion of comic books as simple or not rigorous, when in fact, they are the exact opposite. Examples of resources that have a similar argument to my argument include, “Mother Tongue”, “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You”, and “3 Ways to Speak English”. To fully support my argument, I use my own personal experience and my analytical deductions from select pages of the comic books listed earlier in my SLLN.
In the Phase 1 project, I achieved some of the goals outlined in the Course Learning Outcomes. In the development of my essay, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to convey in my WLLN but, I had made deliberate choices to reinforce my rhetoric and strengthen my argument. For instance, I used logos when I decided to compare romantic literature and romantic art pieces. What helped me structure my argument was the examples in class and our Rhetorical Analysis. Therefore, the second Course Learning Outcome, “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations”, was crucial in the construction of my essay. In refining my essay, the criticism given through the peer editing session allowed me to incorporate different criticisms and perspectives to improve my essay, which is achieved through the Course Learning Outcome, “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”. Overall, I enjoyed this essay prompt and Phase 1 entirely. It opened new horizons in understanding English and it’s social implications.
Alejandro Estevez
Prof. Crowe
Freshman Composition
16 September 2020
WLLN Draft
To be very honest, the use of language did not really interest me in high school. In Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior year reading and writing especially did not interest me at all. Plays from Shakespeare and other classics like Frankenstein bored me and writing about these texts were more of a chore than something enjoyable. It was not until my Senior year where I began to find more enthusiasm towards language and its usage. My teacher (Mr. Quartuccio) had a huge impact on my approach to reading and writing. He was always energetic and open to ideas presented by the students; he pushed us to our limits with the intention of us diving deeper into the material. Constantly he would say, “In this class, your ideas matter more than mine,” which somewhat empowered me to stay engaged with the texts. Mr. Q centered his lessons on analytical reading and analytical deductions that connects the characters to a larger theme. In many ways, this intrigued me. I always read at a very superficial and surface level of reading, which in many ways made reading boring to me. Once I really spent time with the texts, I could see the complicated layers to character development, and I began to appreciate the author’s work more as a masterpiece than a requirement for a class.
Since this was a seminar class, we would constantly be sharing our ideas, perspectives, and views on the text, which was another element of the class that kept me engaged. It was amazing to understand how my peers’ analysis would lead them to their claims about the texts. Perhaps another interesting thing was that sometimes their interpretations of the reading could be radically different or very similar, even though we would read the same text. This led the class to often disagree with someone’s claim while someone would support them. On the other hand, sometimes we would merge all our ideas to create a complex character analysis or overarching themes. For example, we were all discussing the mysterious identity of the antagonist in the novel, Stephan Florida, and someone tried to explain their analysis, but it created a weak connection between the suspected character. This led the entire class to disregard and reject his statement. Although we were all in disagreement and we all had opposing ideas of the identity of the antagonist, this led us to analyze together and Mr. Q motivated us by asking guiding questions. After this seminar, the drive of curiosity and knowledge did not allow me to put the books down. I was constantly annotating and immersing myself in the diverse worlds that exist in between the book covers.
One of the texts covered in the class that fascinated me was The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, which is a graphic novel that covers the story of Batman. Since it was a graphic novel about Batman, it combined my two most favorite things, superheroes/supervillains, and art; so, I was extremely excited to closely read the text and analyze the composition of the pages. While this unit was being covered in class, I realized that art and writing may seem like polar opposites, but they are very similar when you analyze them. The only difference between them is one uses words as a medium, while the other uses images and color to convey meaning and symbolism. Therefore, I was left with a reflective question for myself, why does writing and reading bore me when art fascinates me?
The parallel between art and literature was a completely new revelation of self-reflection when I began to enjoy reading. Similar to interpreting texts, art could have radically different perspectives or similar perspectives, which makes their value completely on a subjective basis. Another similarity in interpreting art and literature is analyzing the piece to understand the author’s intent through assuming every action is deliberate. Thus, literary devices like symbolism, imagery, and diction are present in art, they are just translated to images in a composition. After all, literature is essentially tapestries of words that create images through evoking the senses in the text. Also, art and literature are both responses to larger social movements. For instance, Frankenstein was written in the romantic era where nature was considered more powerful than humans, which rejected industrial development. Romantic art also emphasized the awe and power of nature, which also rejected the industrial movements in that time period. Even though art and literature are very similar, I think the reason why art fascinates me is that understanding art is instant when understanding texts is gradual. My self-reflection starts here, and it will take a lot more experience to gather a full understanding of literature to inform my opinion.
SLLN
