American Author Thesis
Now that you have written your essay, we ask that you reflect on the reading portion of the experience and write 100-150 words about your author.
Think of what you write as advice for someone next year and beyond, someone who (like you were doing last fall) is thinking about choosing your author - and maybe even the same three books - to read for the assignment.
5 comments:
I found Jack London to be a great choice for my author. I read Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf. London's books are mainly about animals or people getting involuntarily placed in the wild, and their struggle to stay alive. He gives a personal aspect to the animals in Call of the Wild and White Fang which I had never experienced before and I really enjoyed it. His writing is very solid but in some of the books the story seems a bit ridiculous; for example in Cal of the Wild, Buck, a dog, kills an entire tribe of Native Americans. Although it does seem superficial, all of the events bring character and excitement to the stories. All of the novels were relatively similar making it very interesting and easy to write the paper. I, overall, really enjoyed writing my Thesis about London.
Jack London is among the most famous authors on the list, odds are, most of you have heard of his books, you probably own some of them too, maybe Call of the Wild or White fang would be my guess. That was what I picked for. Wow am I stupid. I honestly could probably not have picked a worse choice, for all his fame. True, his books are short, but they are not very well written. Ok that just may be the understatement of the year. I tend to read a book straight through, like cover to cover—or as close as possible. It was like wadding through a sea of toilet paper, and not much more profitable, perhaps less pleasurable. I read the same books as did Adam but I disliked the fact that the characters were able to succeed in every venture, because it ruined any suspense in the stories. For those of you who actually intend to read your AAT books, I implore you: don’t be as dumb as I was and go with Jack London.
Jan (Dube) said...
I really enjoyed reading Jack London for my American Author Thesis. I found my experience to be much more similar to Adam's and I found it much more enjoyable than wadding through a sea of toilet paper. His books perfectly fitted my reading style, a fast pace and lots of action. I disagree with what Nicholas said because not all of his characters were able to succeed. His books are about struggle and survival in the wilderness. I read White Fang, To Build a Fire and Other Stories, The Call of the Wild, and South Sea Tales. I loved all of these books except for South Sea Tales which I found very hard to connect to London's other books. He has strong themes that run through his books and is fun to read. For an enjoyable experience with your American Author Thesis, I also implore you: be smart and go with Jack London.
Honestly, Jack London was not a good choice. Though it seemed good at first, I grew to regret it. I found my experience much different than everyone else's, solely for the fact that I found all of his books to be extremely repetitive. My first book, Call of the Wild, was exciting, and really pulled me in. I enjoyed reading it a lot, and it was one of those books that actually made me want to read it. With the others, The Sea Wolf and The Assassination Bureau, I noticed a trend that I was surprised nobody else had picked up on. Spoiler alert, all three books had the exact same plot line. Even though they were all well written, they lacked creativity due to the fact that they all used the same recycled plot, just presented with new characters. If you've read one London book, you've read them all.
At first, I enjoyed reading Jack London's book. But then I realized that his books are extremely similar, or at least between the books that I chose, which was The Call of the Wild and White Fang. A lot of plots are overlapping, it seems that if I read one of his books, then I know the basic summary of his other books. However, Jack London's writing style is very descriptive and full of details. London's books are well written. There are not a wasted word or thought. Besides that, the books that I mentioned are short novels and about dogs' story, it contains multiple realistic struggles that can relate to our lives.
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