Ouch! What is the Prognosis for Too Much Critical Thinking?
by Christine Neilson
This past month, I had an academic assignment. It was my mission to select a complex concept and break it down for a university online course I will be teaching. Critical thinking is painful. It literally hurts to think in this manner because our everyday thought process is free flowing. I decided to simply dissect the course's title. Now, that may seem simplistic, but putting into words a complex concept isn't easy for an English instructor since the interpretation of literature is subjective. So let's get to it.
Title: "Literary Genres Across Cultures." The course's objective is to introduce the theme of the human experience across cultures as viewed through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Breakdown time: "Literary" and "Genres." "Literary" relates to, or dealing with, literature and its themes. A theme explores timeless and universal ideas. "Genre" categorizes forms of literature: nonfiction and fiction. Fiction has subcategories: short stories, plays, poetry, novels. The remaining portion of the title "Across Cultures" is clear. "Across Cultures" is the core of the course, as it will address assigned readings by majority and minority writers in various countries and time periods.
To break the monotony of thinking too hard, I ventured to my favorite coffee house toting my laptop. A young woman in her 30s, Colleen, starts a conversation from across the room. She inquires about what I am writing and it leads to a discussion on classic novels. (Anything to avoid complex concepts).
"What book by a well known author is the best one to start with . . . early work or most recent?"
"The first one because it will be the most autobiographical," I answer. "You know the cliche 'we write what we know.' A writer consciously or subconsciously will bring parts of their lives into their plots and characters. For instance, in The Great Gatsby, the writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is Nick Caraway, the observant character narrating the story. Daisy, the main character, is believed to represent Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, whose zany antics and social apathy of the nouveau riche was well known in New York society at the time."
Harper Lee
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I mention I believe it is important to read a brief biographical sketch about a writer before you begin to read their novel. I offer a suggestion. Look up author Harper Lee.
Lee's life and career was largely defined by a single work about childhood - the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She spent most of her days in seclusion after the burst of acclaim that followed its publication. There are two literary rumors about her penning this acclaimed novel. One, that adoration made it difficult for Lee to allegedly successfully produce a follow-up to Mockingbird. The second one is that the novel was written by her lifelong friend and confidant writer, Truman Capote. She did collaborate with Capote on his 1966's novel In Cold Blood.
Truman Capote
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In Cold Blood details the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife and two of their four children. Two older daughters no longer lived at the farm and were not there at the time of the murders. When Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. He was accompanied by Lee, and together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. The killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested some six weeks after the murders, and Capote ultimately spent six years working on the book. The book became the greatest crime seller at the time. Some critics consider Capote's work the original nonfiction novel.
As a result of this afternoon chat, and a desire to avoid continuing my academic assignment, I notice an area playhouse has a production up of To Kill a Mockingbird. I invite another young friend who hasn't read the book or viewed the movie starring legendary actor Gregory Peck as small town Attorney Atticus Finch.
Gregory Peck and Mary Badham
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The theme of the novel and play is that Finch must teach his children, Scout and Jem, difficult lessons about racial tolerance, violence, and prejudice when he goes against the community by defending a young black man falsely accused of a crime against a white woman. I am excited to share my friend's first reaction to the young girl's lies that pit the small town residents against one another.
The director of the play must have been struggling with complex concepts because the meat of the plot was deleted and the play sectioned off in two-acts. My friend is silent as we drive home, only thanking me for the invitation as she is closing my car's door.
A few days later, at the coffee house she reveals she didn't understand the play's plot adding "I should read the book." I agree and start breaking down the complex concept of the title: To Kill a Mockingbird.
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