The part that really made me happy though was when Jason went home and spent a few hours translating a poem from French to English. He says that he spent several hours translating but that it felt like just a few minutes. This was a successful accomplishment because Jason worked hard and the end result was rewarding, which will motivate him to work hard again in the future. This is what every teacher wants from their students, because being able to focus and work hard is like a muscle you flex and train to make sure it still works.
Eva is pretty clear to Jason that she looks down on him for using a pseudonym. She says that Jason Taylor is not a name that he should be ashamed of, and that the poems will have more value if people can see that it is him doing the writing. This resonated with me because when I was a freshman, I did some writing of my own about Pokemon under the pseudonym Red Ados. This wasn't necessarily because I was embarrassed of my peers, like Jason, but because my parents were afraid of the internet and didn't want me to have an account anywhere (come talk to me in person if you would like to hear me rant about this!).
This past year, I have started writing again, and my name is plastered across the front page of my blog. Not using a pseudonym is more difficult, because you can't hide behind anonymity. When I first posted a link to my blog on a group on Facebook, I didn't necessarily enjoy all of the comments. I assume that this is what Jason feels like when the kids in his class make fun of him or trip him into puddles. However, unlike Jason, I have friends who have my back and stick up for me. The internet brings a whole new level to social groups and not-so-nice comments, but Facebook is not completely anonymous.
Actually in class I was thinking about how growing up is very different in this day and age. You're exposed to many topics that you may just glaze over or get you thinking. I wrote about disillusionment on my blog. With the internet you can get disillusioned that everything is fair and nice in the world pretty quickly. These inquiries then come back to the parents to answer. On the bright side, like you, one can also find a support group. They can post anonously about their troubles and maybe get a reply from a person going through the same thing. Teenage angst, we all went through it but don't talk about it in a way that the younger kids feel like we understand....
ReplyDeleteEva is pretty uncompromising about the whole pseudonym thing, and Jason does have a point when he notes that plenty of great writers have, for various reasons, published pseudonymously (including Sylvia Plath, though he doesn't mention her--The Bell Jar was originally credited to Victoria Lucas). But her strident views fit the larger themes of the novel, and his particular reasons for not signing his name to his work. She's harsh, but she has a strong point to make about the need for honesty in the kind of personal writing Jason is doing--and there's a related social point about not letting "hairy barbarians" determine standards for you that you yourself don't endorse.
ReplyDelete