What I Learned Researching and Writing Literary Terms
Researching and writing the literary terms for Dr. Canada's class really
opened up my understanding of how great literature is written and the many
conventions that can be used to make a literary work more compelling and
interesting. It is very intriguing to note how authors use motifs,
recurring objects, structures, or concepts in a work, to add more depth
and scope to a play, novel, poem, or short story. For example, Genesis
is replete with stories involving sacrifice, showing how God requires a
lot on the part of humanity if they desire to serve him. Irony is
also used by authors to spice up a literary work by adding surprise twists
and allowing the reader to become more involved in the work, even if they
are aware of the irony early in the work. The audience knows Iago
is deceptive from practically the offset of the play, yet they still become
very involved in the play because they want to see if he succeeds in his
diabolical quest. Even though the audience knows it is ironic when
Othello and others refer to Iago as honest, seeing he is very dishonest,
it only serves to make the play much more interesting as it adds more suspense
and drama to it. Researching these two literary terms has also allowed
me to see how I can use such conventions to spice up my own writings.
