you go glen coco

Dear Mrs. Saunders,

For my last blog, I am going to dedicate this blog to the class of Dystopian Lit. I want to thank you so much for creating this class because out of all of the classes that I have taken at Hinsdale Central, this has not only been my favorite, but one that I will continuously think of for the rest of my life and remember forever. Even though there were many times in the class that I would strongly disagree with what people were saying, this class made me realize that I am not always right, and that there are always so many opinions on every single situation, and it is important to look at them all and analyze them before creating my own opinion. It was the disagreements that made the entire class closer, and that will remind me that it is okay to speak my mind and share my opinion even if it may not be what everyone else is saying.

I believe that this class will continue to be the one that I look back upon, even many years from now, and recall the memories made not only through the coursework, but through the class itself as well. You really helped encourage the class discussions and helped everyone to speak their opinion and develop who we all are. Not many of my teachers will allow us to use the words, "prostitution whore", "ass", and all around shouting, but because you don't filter what we say (unless it's really bad), it makes each and every one of us feel comfortable and feel that we can speak our minds.

Even though I am very sad to be leaving this class, I am happy that I will be able to go on taking classes and have the knowledge and background I received from this class. Thank you so much for being such a fantastic teacher and for the patience you have for putting up with all of our antics.
-Caroline Oakum

Blindness

Despite the fact that Blindness scared me half to death, I have to say that I enjoyed this book more than any other this semester. The writing style was extremely different than any other book I have read before, and it took a while to get used to, but once I did it added to the beauty of the literature.

This book made me completely rethink the way that I looked at the world and how I looked at my actions. Even though I have never experienced anything remotely close to the happenings in this book, it made me think a lot about what I would do in a situation like this and honestly take a look at my morals. The part of the book that really made me second guess my perspective on things was when I realized that if I were the one person who was able to see, I think that more than likely I would not tell anyone of my capabilities, and sadly, I think I think I would do this out of fear for not being able to help everyone, not because I would think that that's what's best for the group.

I think that the other part of this book that is enthralling is that it may be a book written about a nonexistent blindness epidemic, but it is really a writing about the workings of the human mind and how we interact with one another. It amazed me that this book wasn't originally written in English, yet the diction and syntax in the book were incredibly powerful and made the messages even more clear and important in the book.

Overall, I think that this book should be included not as a "choice" book, but as a required course reading. In my opinion, I believe that this book had more of an impact than Life as We Knew It. Although that book  also presented a dystopian view of the world, I think that Blindness created a more realistic, important, and introspective view of the world.