Looking back on what I have learned from this course I think I have learned more about our society itself, than about the literature we were reading. I find this very interesting, because it is not what I expected coming into the class. However, I am very pleased that I decided to take this course. What stood out to me (and I’m sure it stood out to a lot of people) was how closely our generation mimics the themes in many of the books and articles we read. I personally am guilty of saying “Why do I need to learn this?”, “This has nothing to do with my life.” The list goes on and on, but now I will think twice before saying those mindless comments. I do not want the future of our world to be anything like any of the books we read. There would be no culture, variety, or individuality. Everyone would be exactly the same. The worst part about the characters in many of the books we read was that these people did not even realize how brainwashed they had become.
Fahrenheit 451 was not my favorite book we read this semester, but it was a big eye opener to me. There are so many people today that are fighting for censorship in books, and people who just simply are not interested in reading. The characters in Fahrenheit 451 influenced their society to be the way it is. They had no interests, hobbies, or true friends. They were too absorbed in their room sized television sets to realize how unhappy and unreal they actually were. After reading Fahrenheit 451 I immediately thought of Culture Jam when Lasne was writing about families that did not even know each other and could not stand to be away from a TV for a weekend. The thought of this is ridiculous to me. I cannot imagine feeling closer to a TV set than to my family and friends. There are TV shows that I regularly watch, but I would be more than willing to miss an episode to hang out with my friends.
Plentitude and Consumerism were two concepts that really stood out to me during the semester. I knew how consumer driven our culture is, but to read about it and talk about it with others made it even more real to me. We buy all of these items to make us happy, but our happiness with these items is so short lived so we purchase even more items to fulfill our “need”. It is scary how much the media and advertising influences our lives. There is literally nothing we can do to get away from it or stop it for that matter.
I was surprised as to how many people in our class had the same opinions as I did. It seemed like many of them are interested in reading, seeing their family, and they realized how ridiculous reality TV can be. If a small group of people all share the same opinion, than who are these American stereotypes being based off of? Perhaps its people that did not go to college, or the generation below us?
