“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Dear students, we started our academic year with the Romantic poets and “Mad Shelley” . Now it’s the end of our English class together and (quoting Shakespeare) “the wheel has come full circle”.
As usual while I was preparing your next lesson I had a look at You Tube and found some incredible videos. I find it so incredibly interesting when I can “give VOICE, MUSIC & FACES” to all the concepts and books I had studied and read but never … seen alive if not in my imagination. Your approach to this topic and this last author of ours is going to be so different from mine. You can now hear Kerouac’s voice while he reads his own work ( so fundamental to appreciate the “beat” and flow!), you can see him and the images of New York in the background, you can have it explained sitting at your desk and have a taste of Jazz music. I really hope you’ll appreciate all this and one day…while driving around the USA, you’ll … remember your “crazy” teacher of English 🙂
Dal programma Cult Book in italiano ( la pronuncia di Kerouac e’ errata. Corretta = Keruac)
The next Clip is an American introduction to the author and book. Lovely jazz music in the background. ““I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”
Jack Kerouac, interviewed by William F. Buckley Jr. from a documentary on the soul of the Beat Generation. Beat, (a)politics, (non)hippies, drunkenness and television.. ”Everything is going to the beat — It’s the beat generation, it be-at, it’s the beat to keep, it’s the beat of the heart, it’s being beat and down in the world and like old-time lowdown and like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat…” Jack Kerouac – Desolation Angels
This is the link to GOOGLE MAP of Kerouac’s On the Road.
Kerouac reading the last page of “On the Road” with pictures of Jack and Neal.
I even came across a video of Johnny Depp reading Kerouac ( you never know what you’ll end up with while searching YouTube!!), a strange interpretation of his philosophy of living for “kicks”. It certainly conveys that psychedelic atmosphere.
Infine ecco the Beat generation in Wikipedia. Un doveroso omaggio a Fernanda Pivano che ci ha lasciati il 18 agosto 2009 e grazie alla quale l’Italia ha conosciuto gli scrittori e la letteratura americana. Una grande donna, non so se ne parlerete mai in Italiano ma non può venire dimenticata!
I cannot help adding also some stunning photos of Big Sur. I drove from L.A. to San Francisco in 1988 and still haven’t forgotten those fantastic views. Should you go to California one day you cannot miss the City Light Bookstore in San Francisco.
TASK: Next time, after finishing our module on the Beat Generation leave your “last optional” comment to this post of your English literature class 😉
Thanks
cimy
Ok, last but not least I’m here to write down some thoughts. I have to admit that I decided not to read all the other comments just not to be influenced by them. So sorry if I’m repeating you, but this is what I really think.
First of all I want to thank you ALL, just for sharing with me five years of my life. Five intense years in which I grew up a lot, and if I am what I am now is also because I learnt something from you.
Thank you Mrs. Cimetta for bearing, supporting, teaching and believing in us.
Sometimes I still can’t realize that FIVE years are passed, it seems me yesterday that we started this “adventure” an now it’s almost over. So many moments, really…
Now, talking about literature, I have to say that in these past years I realized that I’m not a “humanistic” person, but the way we deal with literature makes me appreciate it. We studied so many authors and every lesson was full of meaning. I learnt how is it possible find so much depth in simple WORDS. Moreover through literature I better understood the customs and traditions of a certain society in a certain period of time, that sometime we don’t analyze in history lessons (because of few time).
So this is our last topic, the Beat Generation, it seems a little strange to say after all, and I think we could have not concluded in a better way. First of all because is a more contemporary one and secondly because is really soft and understandable, but at the same time formative (I must say that I’ve never treated it before).
Jack Kerouac is so different from all the authors we saw, and I appreciate the way in which the lessons were organized (music, videos etc…) not because we did nothing, but because we could appreciate effectively what this group wanted to share and how the reacted immediately after the World War II.
Furthermore the idea of traveling is really close to us in this moment of our life, the moment in which we choose a street and not the others, and in which we begin to build our future as adult people.
Thank you from the heart to teaching us not only english but so many notions of life more than a simple teacher!
N.B. All the struggles makes us STRONGER!
Love u all!
Sorry, there are some mistakes I didn’t see before 🙁
Hi guys! First of all I must say, I loved reading all of your comments. I’m very happy to see that you’ve enjoyed these five years together and even if the road has been long and not so easy, I will certainly miss being a part of this class.
I’m also very glad Mrs. Cimetta decided to deal with the Beat Generation as the last topic of this year because yes, I agree with those of you who said that this movement and the novel “On the Road” in particular is much closer to our feelings, wishes and thoughts as teenagers. I can totally see myself traveling all around the US as the protagonists of the book sooner or later, as I love feeling free and peaceful
I wanna thank Mrs. Cimetta for being the best English teacher I could wish for. Even though there were some incomprehensions along the way, I can’t deny you put 100% in everything you do and you deserve all the recognitions you get. I of course thank my classmates for being lovely and supportive. I will definitely miss you!
Love you all!
By the way I remember you asked us at the beginning of the year to write down on a piece of paper our wishes for the future, and said you would have given that back to us at the end of the year… Still waiting for mine to come back! 🙂
Hi guys! I’m not going to repeat what you have already said, because I share your opinions.
I want only to tell you that I totally agree to the fact that our English path has been heavy inspiring and interesting both thanks to the topics, novels and authors that we have done that to our great English teacher, Mrs. Cimetta.
Even if this blog has been my nightmare for five years, I have to admit that has helped me to improve my English a lot and also has given us the opportunity to learn in a different way and share our opinions.
As you have said the Beat Generation, in particular Jack Kerouac, is the best way to end our program, first of all because is something closer to a teenager’s mind that is going to end his high school’s journey and to start his life’s journey as Silvia said; in second place because it deals with what I’m going to do the next year.
As Yuliya has said it can be a “guide” for me to overcome my problems (obviously I won’t become an alcoholic and a junkie, I’m already crazy so I don’t need it) and also to understand that it’s not important if things won’t go as I’ve imagined because the only thing to do is to “keep rolling under the stars”.
I will bring this book with me and I will read some of my favorite quotations in order to remind me what to do, because it is really inspiring.
I want to end by saying that though this comment is the last one, it doesn’t mean that it is the minor one. I’ve loved the beautiful things that you wrote here.
So thanks for everything, you all will always stay in my heart.
Love you.
Sorry I missed a sentence: “I want to thank you all” at line 9.
Bye 🙂
Hi everybody!
I was reading your comments and I realized in this very moment how much time is passed from our first comment here in the blog and how much we have changed.
I can’t deny that, these last days of school are being both extremely stressing and also extremely precious. Precious because during these years we have argued, we have disagreed and maybe even now we don’t fit one to the other at best, but we have created a close-knit group, I will also say a great big family and I want to
I can’t believe, as you guys said, this will be our last “scholastic” comment in the blog and as you, Mrs Cimetta, said “the wheel has come full circle”.
I can remember, as you just said, the “prophetic” phrase with whom all began: “ Why do we study literature?” and our puzzlement in finding a pertinent answer.
I can remember me asking why some poets should lose their time asking themselves about the power of nature or the importance of love.
But what I will for sure remember forever is the passion in making what we love we received from these authors, and above all from you Mrs Cimetta and the effort we tried to make in participating during the lessons and in studying also things we couldn’t understand or we found nonsense.
I can say literature has opened my mind to new ideas, new points of view and helped me learning dealing with different issues in a “positive critical” way.
Talking about the Beat Generation, I think that no theme could be more appropriate than this to finish our way together; as my mates just said, we are now a bit “on the road” too, as some of us are trying to make the right choices for the future and some others feel paralysed and don’t know what life will set aside.
Honestly I found all your comments so appropriate and touching that I don’t know how will be mine.
Thank you all,
Love you
…hello everybody! As many have already said, it’s quite difficult to realize that we’re here. MAY 2016 , dealing with the last topic of our English literature course , the BEAT GENERATION. … as for this post, I find it really inspiring. What I like most is the quote at the beginning, which I personally find to be very true: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”Jack Kerouac
To be hungry of life. To have a soul burning inside, like a fire. To behave madly and to live passionately. Could you indicate some other features which define real people better than these ones?
I think Literature has helped us in a way. Through the different authors we’ve studied so far, different perspectives on life have come into our head, and in each single case, we’ve been able to elaborate our own opinion starting from the author’s ideology. I can say that the book has always been a good starting point, however, I sincerely think that mrs. Cimetta has done the best a teacher could ever do in this 5 years together. What is it? It’s not magic. It’s commitment ( a rare beauty today!)
So, how could I describe our English literature lessons in my own words? Well, if you think of literature as a vast dimly collection of all written works of a nation, author, group or culture… our English teacher was the one able to shine a light on the amazing stories the world of literature had to offer. Thanks to the blog she’s set up, and all the other creative learning methods she’s taken up from time to time ( flipped classroom, schoology, TED talks, “fish ball game”and so on..) , she’s succeeded in making each lesson interesting.
I guess it is in mrs.Cimetta’s nature to seek and create authentic things..to share anything (photos, videos, articles, songs, poems ..) that stimulates her with her students. I must admit it’s a brilliant way of “feeding our needs” as far as education and knowledge are concerned. Now that “the wheel has come full circle” (quoting Shakespeare as our teacher did) I can tell from experience that this learning method has proved successful. It’s definitely worth the effort ( from both the side of the teacher and the side of students)!
Getting back to “now” I’m glad that we’ll watch “on the road” together .. I know it’s a great movie based on the important novel of the same name by the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, but I’ve never watched it fully before.
What is important, to me, it’s the message of the story: just like the protagonists, we should be ready to “hit the road, doing anything and everything to ensure that new experiences never end” and seek out our own freedom.
I find this kind of attitude highly influential but also rewarding…though very pertinent to the situation today, with the new generations, which often experience bewilderment. I just want to say that, to me, no one should ever forget about one simple thing : along the way, no matter how difficult it is, we find who we really are, who our friends are, what it is to be young, and the meaning of being free. After all, to confront the highs and lows of self-discovery it’s something we should forever be proud of, as long as it’s an “ingredient” for personal development 😉
That’s life, enjoy it!
Hi guys!
Here I am, writing my last comment of the year. It’s a bit strange to say, because,thinking about it, is about to finish something, but at the same time is about to begin something else….a “new travel”,if we want to stick on the point.
I must admit that i could not conclude in the best way these years of English literature if not with one of my favourite books : “On the road”. On the back of my book there is a quote of BoB Dylan about it : “On the road has changed my life,and that of many others” . Well, my for sure…in this book there is so much music,so much road and madness that made me dream and travel at the same time ,and that is why i’m delighted to end the year with Jack Keruac.
The 50s and 60s are so interesting and I really like how we are developing them in class,with jazz music as background to give the right atmosphere. Listening to Louis Armstrong in class,I think I understood now what meant Sal in the book when he said: “ Once there was Louis Armstrong who played as a god in the middle of the swamps of New Orleans” !
Therefore, i lost myself in this wonderful book,and now at school….missing only undertake the long route for real 😉
Bye 🙂
Hey guys,
We’re not even out of this place and I’m starting to feel nostalgic already -now don’t get me wrong, as all of you probably are, I too am totally done with this stressful, demanding, draining environment, but besides all that I’ve always lived it pretty much as a second home…I hate it…and I kinda love it at the same time.
I believe I’ve done more growing up at school than anywhere else in my life so far, yet it seems like I still have a looong way to go! The weird part about it is that after this year we won’t be together anymore. Every single one of us will hit the road to wherever it is that fate will guide us. Man, we’ve gone through so much together, I can’t even describe how much I’m gonna miss y’all!
About our Class…well, I’ve always loved reading, but never actually paid too much attention to the Literature Classics we’ve gone over during these three years (just two for me with ya) -not before we studied them, that is…and to be honest, I’m glad we get to go to school and are somewhat “forced” to read them because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gotten hooked on them!
Besides Literature itself, I’ll say that I loved the way we approached it, the way we studied it, not just to learn what the poems or the novels etc. said, but to use them as a spark to think bigger, to reflect over them and get to a higher level of understanding not only of History, Language or Literature, but of our own selves. Now, I’m quite pleased that Mrs. Cimetta had us end on such a “good note” (no pun intended 😉 ) with the Beat Generation. I myself find Music to be a fundamental aspect of my life and personality, and am head over hills for the kind of songs we’ve been listening to while working in class. Furthermore, as a lot of you guys said, I find myself agreeing on many of the things the people who belonged to this generation believed in, but I won’t linger too much on it, as I don’t wanna repeat what was already said.
I’m most grateful and feel very lucky to have had the chance to spend this significant part of my life with you all, I couldn’t have ever asked for better classmates, or a better teacher!
I’m having the hardest time believing this is my last comment on the Blog, so Imma just say that I’ll keep on reading it regularly and that I’ll probably be crashing in to say a couple words every once in a while.
Well then, I believe I’m running out of things to say and I don’t wanna get more sentimental than this, so Mrs. Cimetta, just know that I’m very thankful for everything you’ve done for us -for me!
Love you guys and cya in class! 🙂
-Virgi
Hi everybody 🙂
So I don’t know what to say in this last comment but I’ll try.
The year is ending and the end of this will totally change our lives. In these five years we have learned and matured a lot we are grown all like a big family and it was tough, we all had periods of crisis, times when we wanted to give it all up but we did it.
This last year has passed quickly and it was undoubtedly the best because we have become a unit class and we also established a good relationship with some professors. This year was especially nice and interesting for topics that we addressed that were more contemporary starting from Shakespeare and ending with Kerouac with his nonconformist way of seeing life.
We have even discussed about current topics with Rosanna and I think it was very useful.
We have studied many authors and certainly did not share all their thoughts, I like Orwell and especially his spot of 1984.
I really like this blog because everyone of us can express freely what he thinks.
And a special thanks to her Mrs Cimetta, who always gave her best for her work and has always put passion and love in what she did, one of the few teachers who really loves her job. One who prepares the lessons at home cronometrandole and trying to bore the least possible her students think it’s really a model teacher. Also because she is bringing the technology in the level of learning and I think that one day all her work will be rewarded, in a few years there will no longer paper books but it will all digital .
Thank you for your passion and patience and please she have to be polite in the exam hahahaha 🙂 I’m joking…
Bye
Martina 🙂
I’m almost there: the end of this imprisonment and the beginning of my adventure.
Many times I have wondered and imagined how it would be my life after school but I never couldn’t find a clear image, it was like a swirling flow of situations, places and people whizzing in my mind.
The only thing that I remember was the incredible feeling of being free : no anxiety, no hurry, no regrets, no need to prove something to others…everything was/will be in my hands.
I don’t know what kind of person I’ll be, how I’ll live, what I’ll do and ,above all, into what trouble I’ll get , but this will always remain my personal dream and inspiration:
” There was nowhere to go but everywhere,
so just keep on rolling under the stars. ”
The Beat Generation and Kerouac, in particular, reflects me a lot as lifestyle and as ideals that were aimed: the desire to be free, to feed spiritually yourself from people you meet, the desire to discover the world , becoming (with great devotion and admiration) its ”master”.
Discover ourself and others is something that has always fascinated me and hurt at the same time, but being part of a society that has endorsed everything and doesn’t allow spontaneity, I have never been able to figure things out to the end.
The strength to say no, not to passively accept everything, to seek a solution in a life that oppresses us I think that this is the real message of this generation, and I am convinced that there is no better way to end the year, if not prompting us to improve and discover ourselves, doing what we really love without regard to the society’s rhythm…just as you did, Mrs. Cimetta!
Despite the general monotony of routine in recent years and the consequent depression, there have been many beautiful moments, which surely will miss … first of all the amazing trip to Budapest.
One of my merits / faults is that I fall in love very easily with people: everyone has a particular aspect that catches my attention and does make that person unique at my eyes, in fact , I won’t miss my house, things or city…I’ll miss you.
Every single person who’s been there during my growth.
I wish each of you the best. Find what makes you alive even if it does not make you earn, continue to dream even when you live in a nightmare and do not waste time…at the end is never enough!!
However, despite everything, I have to thank the school because he has grown in me the desire to know, to discover, and above all to read.
I didn’t follow the homework I should make, but I felt to write this comment
Love u guys
P.s: chi si assomiglia, si piglia (confronta commento Chiara Tomasini)
Ahahahahahaahahaha no words!! Spero lo legga anche Mattia 😉
I’ve cried!! You have written a wonderful comment. Thanks
Loved the comment (especially its ending)! You definitely made me laugh with this one 🙂
Hi everybody!
Well, honestly I don’t know what to say right now because I’m focused on studying science and italian literature so my brain is about to blow up!
However, I just wanted to say that i’m thinking about what we have done during our english classes and, although we had just three hours per week, we studied a lot of new things and I think that this is the best achievement possible!
We have talked about the most important and most famous english writers like Shelley, Wilde and Orwell (just to mention some of them) and at the end we are here, we are studying our last author, J. Kerouac! Right now i’m a little bit melancholic and I want to finish my last school year with good marks though I admit that it is difficult for me..
This is my last comment so I wanted to confess that I know that I can have higher marks in English but i’m very focused on studying other subjects, so i’m really sorry if I don’t participate a lot on schoology..
Endly, I promise that I will do my best this month and I’m really excited to study the beat generation and the 50’s/ 60’s as last topic because I’m really fond of music, dance and crazy artistic movements! I think that it reflects my personality and I will finish this year studying something really close to me!
Dear classmates and dear Mrs. Cimetta, Maybe we will see again in the future or maybe not, but one thing is important to say: we have to follow our dreams and what we like the most, no matter if it seems impossible to achieve or if it requires a lot of effort and sacrifices (for example, I dream to become an actress) , just do what you really want in your life and nothing will be impossibile!
Thank you for everything,
Shadè <3
Hi 🙂
It’s the last comment and, as always, I don’t know how to begin. There would be so many things to say about this author, about his unconventional ideas and lifestyle but I think that the most important one is the fact that he always fought for what he believed in, without listening to anyone who told him that he was wrong, that what he was doing was not the right thing to do, and I think that this is the key to live a life that won’t be forgotten.
Every author that we’ve studied in these three years made a change in the way people used to see things at his time: starting from Shakespeare and his innovative way of writing and ending with Kerouac and his nonconformist way of seeing life and literature.
What I’ve learnt in these three years of literature is that we don’t have to be afraid of going against the stream because if you believe in what you do, you’ll never regret your choices.
Everyone of us with his own ideas is important and can make a change, so we don’t have to hide them. I really like this blog and the fact that we can write our comments, because it’s a way of expressing our ideas, which I think is one of the aims of studying literature, becoming capable of having your own opinions.
Even if this is my last post here, I’m sure that next year I’ll open again this blog sometimes because I’m sure that I’m going to miss this way of learning, through videos, etc. and reading the comments of the new students, I’ll remember the time when I was in their shoes 🙂
The Beat Generation is totally different form the other literary movements we’ve studied previously and this is why I really appreciate this topic. The figures of this movement are eccentric and so far from the tradition but at the same time they faced themes that are still current now.
J.Kerouac deals with the theme of the travel in his book “On the Road”. Just like the protagonists of the novel move from a place to another, some of my classmates next year will do. In addiction to being an adventure book, it can also be considered as a guide for those people who’ll decide to take a gap year and go to a foreign country or for those who can’t physically escape form the everyday life and the only way they have is by reading.
Hi guys!
Given that this will be my, and our, last comment on the blog maybe I’ll be a bit melancholy but I hope not too much 😉
So, I want to start saying that I love this last period of school, first of all because now good days have arrived (except today -.-) so we can realize that we are at the end, we can realize that in two months our lives will be completely changed. Moreover we can realize that this “school’s tediousness”, which the majority of us have criticized but which has been for us a sort of guide line that we have to follow and has given to us ‘sense of security’, now is finish. This make me feel a bit disoriented, because I don’t know what is waiting for me, I don’t even know my passions, I don’t know where I’ll go, with whom, I don’t know nothing about the world of work and neither if I’m ready for it or not, if I’m sufficiently free-standing. What I certainly know is that I will try to do my best with all my forces and I won’t care if I’m wrong, I won’t care about people who will tell me that I can’t, I will try everything and I will make my mistakes, but then I’ll always pick myself up and try again, learning from those errors. The only thing that I want to do, so my own goal, is to be proud and satisfied for what I have done during my life, not to feel remorse, resentment or, even worst, envy for the other’s life. I WANT TO BE HAPPY AND TO LIVE A LIFE WORTH LIVING!
So this is connected to the second reason for which I love this period of school, that is because more or less in all subjects we are dealing with arguments in which I could reflect myself, my way of thinking, and one perfect example is exactly this module about the beat generation and more precisely the Kerouac’s book “On the road”. I’m in love with the 50s, which were characterized by a big restlessness and dissatisfaction with life, I’m also really fascinate by those people (who belonging to the Beat Generation) who reacted against society, the spread of capitalism and puritanical values and morality, I’m bewitch by their philosophy of life and also by their way of interpreting things. One of my favorite sentences is the one that Ms Cimetta showed us at the beginning of our last lesson, which is: “I have nothing to offer anyone except my own confusion” said by Jack Kerouac.
Finally I hope we’ll finish the year in this way, which in my opinion is the best one; I also hope that one day we’ll meet us again and I wish the best for all of you!
Thanks for all.
I still remember the first lesson of literature: “Why do we study literature?” The first answer was of course “Because we have to!”, but then Mrs. Cimetta replied something that changed my perspective in life forever “We study literature because it feeds our souls.”. Believe me, this is true. We started a long time ago from national heroes as Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales, passing through the cultural awakening of the Tudor’s Era with the unforgettable and eternal Shakespeare, who taught us the real meaning of everlasting love. A shiver still runs down my spine when I hear:
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
And then the Civil War and the Golden Age, the industrial society with Blake and his Chimney Sweeper, the gothic novel with the world known Frankenstein by M. Shelley, the Romanticism period with my beloved poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats and P.B. Shelley. We also met Wilde, Joyce, Orwell and now finally Kerouac. Little by little all these writers helped me to discover new parts of myself and to create my own personality.
So here we are, last comment. While I’m here sitting on my chair trying to jot down ideas, I feel weird. It sounds like a big part of my life is soon going to end. Furthermore outside is raining hard, so it makes the atmosphere even sadder.
“On the Road” was probably the best way possible to conclude not only this year of English literature but also the long path we have gone through together. As Kerouac, we are too on our road. Many worries, tensions and stress crowd into our minds at the moment. We are half way adulthood, exactly at the dividing line between our youth and our future.
Kerouac teaches us that life is a long journey and we can only discover its real meaning through experience. The willingness to pick up and hit the road, not just literally but in the way of embarking upon a new chapter, and the prioritization of self-exploration are, in my opinion, the most relevant features of this novel.
“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”, one of the best quotes of this book. It can actually be two-way interpreted, but regarding me there is just one right: every single moment of our past is absolutely meaningful for the development of our personality. We left nothing behind us because we couldn’t be what we are without it. After all, experience is the best teacher.
In the world of “On the Road”, is all about rushing headfirst toward the horizon, arms outstretched, yelling “Okay, world! Here I am! Show me whatchu got!”. And that’s exactly my best wish for all my friends and schoolmates. Even though the future scares all of us, never let your fears decide your fate (as Awolnation says). Just go for it, everywhere your heart leads you!
Last but not least, a big big THANK YOU to Mrs. Cimetta for the care and attention lavished on helping me through all these years, not just with your extraordinary commitment to your work, but also because you have always been to me a steady point ahead.
Bye bye,
Valeria 🙂
Hi everybody,
I can’t believe that I’m writing the last comment of my high school career. Honestly I don’t really know how to start; it’s difficult to resume what literature has been for me in these 3 years.
First of all I think that the choice of the Beat Generation as the last argument was the best way possible to conclude our literature course.
In my opinion we have something to learn, thank above all to Jack Kerouac ( the most representative writer of this generation ) who spent a lot of his life traveling back and forth across the states. He developed a lifestyle based on travel, adventure and love for nature. I disagree with a part of his life, in which he destroyed himself taking drugs and drinking alcohol ( in order to ” find spiritual understandings”), trying to live like bohemian; nevertheless he became an idol, an example of a dissonant way of thinking and a different life which was totally incongruous with materialism and characterized by meditation and communication with nature.
As we can easily understand, the most relevant thing in life for the members of this group was freedom; therefore the choice of making us watch videos with the lecture their novels harmonized by jazz music, helped me to understand better their message, but at the same time it relaxed me and gave me the opportunity to enjoy what I was doing.
Now I want to focus on the entire literature we have studied during these 3 years. I have to admit that at the beginning of the third year of high school I didn’t want to study it: I didn’t like reading and I didn’t want to read love poems or to study the existential and sentimental problems of the English poets. However today I must confess that I changed my mind. During this period of hard work I’ve learnt the history of different countries, I’ve understood different way of thinking, different point of view about life,I’ve appreciated how the different authors expressed their inner being and how much important was writing for them.
Literature is much more than a subject, it opened my mind, helped me to develop some abilities like the comprehension of texts, allowed me to learn how to express my opinions in a more consistent way and through it I understood the history facts which characterized our history.
To conclude I want to thank Mrs. Cimetta for all the strong commitment she put in order to make more understandable the various arguments we had studied and for all the different activities she prepared helping us to develop our skills.