Reading Quiz #2 - Argument Paper

          Literature and poetry are cultivating and educational activities to engage in. In Mario Vargas Llosa’s work Why Literature he states how cultivating and entertaining engaging in literature is. Also in Robert Frost’s work Education by Poetry he states that Poetry is necessary in teaching metaphor, analogy, and parable. Frost even goes so far to say, “Suppose we stop short of imagination, initiative, enthusiasm, and originality – dread words.”(pg. 48) Both of these authors have a passion for the written word and the beneficial effects that come from it. All I can say is that I agree with them completely.

          As I was growing up, like most children I did not like to read but also like most kids I couldn’t avoid reading because it’s everywhere. All of my teachers through elementary school gave me the assignment to read thirty minutes a day. By my sixth grade year, I was fed up with reading because I felt it was all I did. I would read before school, during school, and after school reading was involved with my homework and many of the video games I played. I felt trapped in a way because I couldn’t escape this activity that I disliked so much, so for a long time I loathed reading and couldn’t allow myself to see any of the benefits that it gave me.

           After I graduated from elementary, I still disliked reading but somehow started gaining some respect for it. As I began junior high, I also began to realize that reading was a necessary skill I would use for the rest of my life. Because of my perfectionist attitude, I decided that I would take reading as a challenge and become the best I could be at it. At that time of my life, my seventh grade year in junior high was the first time I started in any way to appreciate literature and the knowledge it gave me. It became a fun hobby instead of a chore because I decided that I wanted to excel in that area of my education.
           To shorten my story a tiny bit, let’s just say that through each year of my education reading became more and more important to me. In my sophomore year of high school, I found another side to reading though that I thought I would never understand. I finally understood that reading was not only for my education but that it had deeper powers; it could be a cultivating escape. My sophomore year was the year I found out that my older sister struggled with a strong type of depression. She struggled with thoughts of suicide and didn’t feel she had a purpose or a joy in life. I came to find out later on that literature is what saved her. Whenever she got to a point she felt she couldn’t rise above, she would open a book and escape. Those short hours while she could escape from her own life are what saved her and gave her the strength to not destroy it. From that time on, literature has been a love of mine.

My beautiful sister :)

           After my sister’s crisis, I started reading more. I didn’t read for school, I read because I wanted to. Once I started finding books and poems that I found interesting, I found I learned to escape into literature like my sister did. That is when I saw what a cultivating and entertaining activity engaging in literature was. I got into music (poetry) at that time and because of my personal experience, I can say I agree with Frost’s earlier statement that without poetry there would not be imagination, initiative, enthusiasm or originality.
          People may say after reading this argument “literature is only educational and entertaining for some people.” All I could say to that is that I thought that once too. When I was little I never thought in a million years that I would have a passion for literature and poetry but as I started to understand it, my opinion changed. Loving literature and poetry all comes from understanding literature and poetry.
           In conclusion, literature and poetry are cultivation, educational, and entertaining activities to participate in. They teach metaphor (things of the world), personal enthusiasm, and give you a sense of originality. They are an escape from everyday life and once understood, are activities to be cherished.