David Muhieddine

FIQWS

Prof. Dalton

12-16-18

Reflection

Prompt 1

Before attending this particular class, I was never interested in reading books out of pleasure unless it had a biographical context. With this being said, as a reader, I am solely interested in non-fictional stories mainly because I lack the sense of creativity and imagination. However, when being assigned to read graphic novels, the illustrations greatly assisted me into imagining what went on throughout the text and to get a grasp of what the perspective of the author is. With comic books such as Ms.Marvel and El Deafo, sharing a “coming of age” theme, establishes a connection between the protagonist and I primarily because of my age. Moreover, as I continued to read the assigned texts, I developed a bond with the characters in which helped draw my attention to the storyline. Thus, the “coming of age” theme and the illustrations made me very interested in reading these particular novels. As a result, I feel that my reading skills have strengthened since I developed the ability to connect with the characters in the story. Throughout the semester the class did not approach any novels or stories with such great complexity mainly because we oriented ourselves with novels that contained a huge amount of illustrations that guided us to our objective.

Prompt 2

When writing, I try to drift off and develop a sense of imagination in order to enhance the plot or storyline of what I’m constructing. In the short story that I wrote this year named, “The Man Without a Limb”, is a story about a U.S soldier who took part in the fight during World War II, utilizing the form of espionage. Moreover, as he moves towards his objective of accumulating information within enemy lines the U.S soldier gets caught in the act and has to face the consequences of coercion and/or physical torture. As a result of this, the U.S soldier loses all his limbs but miraculously survives the ordeal. After the War, he struggles to maintain a healthy and positive life but discovers happiness through the use of politics to impose justice. The disabled World War II veteran establishes a series of contributions that birthes a utopian society within the United States. To be specific, the main theme of this particular short story is “coming of age” and/or “embiggening”. When writing fictionalized stories I discovered that it is vital and significant to create a protagonist with dynamic characteristics. Thus, the dynamic characteristics can potentially result to the protagonist’s growth as a character. In addition, this may enhance the plot and establish a more interesting storyline.

Prompt 3

I do feel that the James Baldwin quote applies to me as a reader throughout this semester. Although according to this particular statement, I did feel a sense of separation/ divorce from the real world based on the materials that were given to me. With focusing on fictionalized stories and graphic novels there was no basis of reality which lead me to fantasize and to utilize my senses of imagination and creativity. In better words, with always being surrounded by biographical and nonfiction texts, this particular class took me out of my comfort zone and taught me how to adapt and to explore new environments.       

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