Final Reflections

     This quarter has gone by so fast and I cannot believe how many texts we were able to get through! One of the most interesting aspects of this class for me was dealing and looking at unreliable narration through different genres from the spy to graphic novel through time. I found it interesting how each novel/book we read were reflections or memories for the main characters which is what made the works unreliable. From Marlow to Changez, each character was unreliable in their own ways and posed major questions for us to unravel in both lecture and section. I love reading novels and short stories with twists at the end so I really enjoyed re-reading "A Pale View of Hills" by Ishiguro because, even though I had read it before, it was almost more of a mind blow the second time around. (I also loved "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" as well!) Since taking this class I find "unreliable narratives" everywhere now from the newspapers to songs I hear on the radio. One thing that got me thinking was defiantly how much our government censors the media for us and what little legitimate information we are receiving concerning military operations and occupations in the U.S and worldwide.
     At the beginning of the quarter when we discussed tourism, I was driving in my car one day and just so happened to have my iPod on shuffle when Sean Kingston's song "Take You There" came on and it dawned on me that he was singing about the two differing types of tourism that are sought out for many people trying to escape their banal day-to-day lives. (Kingston is singing about Jamaica ironically too which made me also think of Kincaid's "Small Place") I will be more critical of all of the information, from pop culture, "credible" as well as"objective" news reports and not take what is being reported at face value but instead read a bit deeper into what is being reported but more importantly pay closer attention to what is being left out. I really liked this class and once again Christine opened my eyes to various U.S atrocities that I had no idea were even happening and for that I am thankful for this new knowledge. Now I feel a little bit less naive and plan on being a close reader of ever text I run into from here on out and always ask myself, "What about this text is unreliable?"

I thought that it would be fun to include Sean Kingston's song for you all to enjoy and analyze!
Good luck to everyone finishing up final papers and studying for final exams!! I will see you all for the last time on Thursday!!

Best,
Meagan Davis