Jalen's World Lit Blog

    I should start this by mentioning that I am a procrastinator. More than once, I have left a project undone until the very last minute. I think college is finally the time to overcome this bad habit, and I am hoping this project will be me placing a good food forward in terms of my productivity and effort in research and presentation.        I have never had to do a research project on this level before, so I am a bit worried about the process. Maybe it is just because the library is huge or because the word "scholarly" is intimidating, or both, but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of doing research. For those of you that have started, how is it? Are you mostly reading books, articles, or some other form of media? My biggest fear is that all the sources are huge novels that I won't have the time or energy to read effectively.      My other concern is the idea in which I present. I am thinking about doing the conflict in Bosn...

     One of the central themes I have been tracking as I read Shamsie's Home Fire is the question of assimilation or conforming. Perspective helps illuminate this argument, with Shamsie not taking a particular side, instead allowing the characters to share their own perspective to provide the reader with the various answers to the question of immigration and culture. Thus far, we have seen two very different responses to the pressure British Muslims face.       Isma being the first character introduced, is fairly neutral in opinion. She despises Karamat Lone, feeling very much that he is a traitor, while simultaneously understanding that assimilation is an unfortunate necessity, like when she is interrogated in the airport. Eamonn, the next character, twists our idea of Karamat Lone. Assimilation, from Eamonn's perspective, is not abandoning your people, but a necessary part of keeping up with society's standards. He describes Islam as a "cancer" and d...

      I have always enjoyed music. One of my favorite hobbies during the pandemic quickly became biking to the beach while listening to some new artist. The experience of listening to new artists is one that few other things can match. Choosing my favorite music is a difficult decision for this reason. In terms of genres, I am big into hip-hop, RNB, and alternative rock and roll. Some of my favorite artists and bands include Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Gorillaz, and the Strokes. While they don't have much in common, they do share the same qualities that makes all great music so addicting. They all take the human experience- the emotions, struggles, and rituals we all know- and highlight important lessons within that. Kendrick Lamar is famous for his poetic descriptions of racism and class-struggle. Gorillaz explores themes of environmentalism, love, and capitalism with a sound that is both up-beat and serious. Music is an exploration of what it means to be human, and that...

      Annotating has always been an annoying task for me. I despised teachers that would force me to annotate a specific amount of times or with a certain word-count target. Often, I felt as though I was fully capable of reading without annotating. The whole process seemed tedious and pointless. I would stress over how many times I had annotated on each and every page, usually to satisfy some teacher's rubric. Forced annotations make the process of reading feel like a chore.       It wasn't until later on in high school that I would begin to love annotating. AP Literature required a lot of reading, but my teacher was really laid-back on annotating. She allowed us to do it to our own standard- which made the process much more enjoyable. It was then that I really began to enjoy annotating. Before, I would read mostly for comprehension, leaving little room for deeper though about what I would read. That all changed when I began annotating for fun, rather ...