How It Happened That I Became An English Major In The First Decade Of The Twenty-First Century

Linda Wells

Perhaps in conjunction with the title, it would be suitable to explain how I became an English major. Raised by a librarian, it was always assumed I would read and continue to read various books in my life for enjoyment.  However enjoyment is just the foundation and basic response to interaction with literature. I wanted to know why I liked it and what drove me in that direction. In my sophomore year in school I was pushed in a direction of science that I didn’t feel consciously encouraged. One day I took a walk and saw words in graffiti on a wall that read: art saved your life. Literature was to me art and a way of life as well as a science to be explored. These words were a push in the right direction and that day I changed my major from biology to English Literature. English (as an umbrella term for literature and theory) offered a chance to explore those nooks and crannies where words begin and end.  Needless to say, it is a “science of the mind” (Hsu).

Siegel notes that Harold Bloom believes that literature teaches us to “be alone with ourselves.” The first time I read J. D. Salinger’s novels was all mine and I was free to interpret it as an individual. There was no set read of the novel and it was relative to my life.  It let me explore the inner workings of my mind and wonder at the art of writing and how and why it was formed the way it was.  Language, I have gathered, is an individual yet universal creature, reaching out to everyone in its own way, changing with every read; it is a boggart or chimera, if you will, almost a mystical shape-shifting presence.

Story-telling and language have more impact than I could give credit for; it exists in our everyday lives, and are the main reasons humans have been able to evolve. It wasn’t a surprise, but more of a shock to realize the magnanimity of it role in history and people. It is an invisible and perhaps not appreciated by those who may not take the time to look that the language creature, but those who step back and realize how large it is, can’t help but wonder where it begins and ends and where it will grow from here. Considering Darwin, is it not true that creatures never stop evolving, that were they to become a stagnant presence they would in fact cease to exist and become obsolete? Yes, and it is exciting!

Three things that struck me in Hsu’s article were the presence of empathy, romance, and social status. When it comes to the idea of evolving humans, it is strange to me that these three things (especially the first two) would be a priority of evolution, even in story-telling. When I think of evolution, I think of vertebrates growing, fins sprouting, and a misshapen creature walking on two legs for the first time. In the art of human evolution and story-telling, it had not occurred to me to realize the evolution of rationalization and enlightened thinking. I imagine a detached unfeeling formation of cells and bacteria. However, being aware of these traits, as Hsu discusses, shows human capability of imagination and emotion, both of which are the key to accessing literature, which is familiarity. The familiar, the other, and an endless opportunity of exploration into stories suggest community for the social creature that is literature and potential for it to evolve individually within our own minds.