How It Happened That I Became an English Major in the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century

Catie Freeman

            I definitely was not born an English major. Though I have enjoyed reading and writing since birth, I never even considered legitimately studying it when I was younger. I took the required English classes throughout high school, got A’s, and moved on to other things. I enjoyed most of the novels and only used Sparknotes once or twice, but it was definitely not my love yet. I learned to really appreciate English through my first love: music.

Raised alongside drummers and pianists, I quickly found beauty in the art of making music. One of the greatest attributes to the music world is individuality; no two musicians interpret a piece of music in the exact same way. Instruments entwine sound and the emotion of each individual artist, bringing listeners an entirely new perspective on the art form. The ability of a tune to express wordless emotion is uncanny.

            As I grew older, I saw numerous connections between literature and music and my love of music quickly transferred into a love of words. Both music and literature depict a story, told through the author’s viewpoint of the world, and involves the audience emotionally into the art. English shares the aforementioned individuality that music holds, yet I found that it gave me an even expanded outlet to express emotion. If a musical note is the equivalent of a word, there are ten to one words with the same meaning and only one “middle c” or “high g.” From the artists’ perspective, the possibilities for expression are limitless in each of these art forms, but I have found that writing has lent a more precise form of expression for me specifically.

            On the other end, I also find equivalent gains in experiencing musical and literary pieces. Each tells a story, involves the audience’s emotion, and displays a piece of the world through the artists’ eyes. I have found, through parallels to music, that literature is not only important because of the story, but because it allows one to see the world through another’s perspective. Jeremy Hsu states that, “Storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal across culture and through all of known history.” I agree with this because I see the strength of storytelling in my two favorite arts. Both literature and music are important in this way; I always leave a performance or close a novel with a more open-minded feeling about the world, once hearing or seeing it through another person. The storytelling ability of each of these arts connects artist to audience, and history to the present. I have found through my experience that Hsu is correct in stating the immense importance of storytelling throughout the history of the world.

            On the other hand, I completely disagree with Lee Siegel’s claims that literature leaves the reader with nothing good. As stated before, I always finish a novel with a more broader perspective on the world. While Siegel insists that people “keep busy in the depths of [their] little boat[s],” readers of the world are experiencing what it is like to travel from their minds to that of others, building a more open-minded world.

            I am so glad that I have come to appreciate literature as much or more than music. I have gained a new appreciation for literature through this discovery and have vowed to never again use Sparknotes like my high school self may have. Not only does English allow me to express myself more wholly, artistically, and accurately, but it also leaves me in the mind of an artist, seeing angles of the world that I would not see otherwise.