Lessons Learned

Anneva, I was moved by the comment you made in your 7th blog. You wrote “Mustafa Sa’eed repeatedly uses large mountains and hills as metaphors for various destinations on his lifelong journey. This places emphasis on the nature of his journey--point A to point B, mountain to mountain, obstacle to obstacle. He is not simply free and along for the ride. He is worried about his immediate future and survival. Life is never easy, because between these mountains lies the metaphorical desert, vast and unforgiving. This desert reminds the reader that, despite his education, Sa’eed is a wanderer.” This is extremely relevant to Season of Migration to the North and the adventure of Mustafa Sa’eed but it also applies to so much more.
Your posting is a perfect example of what I believe Ben wanted us to learn how to do as readers. You clearly took an in-depth look at the assigned reading. You looked past the literal words on the paper. Then you applied context about who, what, and when this was written for. Next, you applied concepts, such as a metaphor and pulled out an “outsider” from the reader and other characters in the story. We hadn’t cover us, them, and it yet but you were already ahead of the curve in establishing who the target audience is, why the author is writing what he/she is writing, and what does the perspective of the reader/narrator do to implement these intentions. Lastly, you used your own feelings and insights to draw conclusions about what it is you just read, how it made you feel inside, and what effect it will have on how you understand this book, future literature you come across, and the world around you. I think it is safe to say that you have passed Ben’s test with flying colors! Congratulations!

This brilliant insight isn’t the only reason why I chose your quote for this assignment. The main reason why I selected this posting was because it seemed to be so relevant in summing up our own journeys within Reading, Writing, Telling, and Feeling. During the first 10-15 minutes of class on the first day of the semester I thought to myself “Oh boy, we are going to try and discuss these novels for 2.5 hours/week. Let the awkward silences and pauses begin!” It did not take long for my opinion to be completely flipped. I have talked to multiple people about this, and they all agreed, that the quality of discussion within this class was absolutely incredible. I was completely blown away. I mean there were multiple times that I would come to class with a thought about the book we had just read, sit down, and after 2 hours leave with a completely different outlook on the words I had just read. There are some incredible minds in this class and we have read some amazing works. So, to return to your quote, we in a sense just went from one “mountain” to the next by completing this course. As we go forth we are immediately faced with our own “survival” of our dreaded finals week, the rest of college, and our “immediate futures.” As we embark on these adventures I hope we all take away what we have learned about each other and ourselves with over the last few months. Thanks for the amazing time!