United through "Pride and Prejudice" by Megan

United through "Pride and Prejudice" by Megan - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

As with all languages, English has changed over time to fit society. The slang we have come to speak was once more formal and complex. Unfortunately, older books are being read less and less often. Authors like William Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, and Jane Austen write such meaningful books but, because of the difficult language, many students do not want to try reading them. Knowing this, testing companies try to use older forms of English in their tests so that they can truly test students on their reading comprehension. It is important for more students to read difficult text so that they can do better on these tests. One book that will help the most with this problem is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It has amazing literary value, complex characters and, best of all, concepts that still have meaning today.

Although literary value is subjective, no one can argue that Pride and Prejudice has withstood the test of time and is still thriving. Austen is a fantastic storyteller with multiple books in circulation and scores of fans, including myself. Schools around the country have Pride and Prejudice in their curriculum. While not in the curriculum, my school included it on a voluntary reading list. Sophomores choose books off the list to read and then write dialectical journal entries about them. Many students overlook it because of how long ago it was published, but the ones who choose to read it, love it. The part of this book with the most value was the dialogue between characters. Older texts like this one tend to have more polite conversation and formal phrasing that can be difficult to understand at first. Once you unlock the secret to understanding it though, you can start to notice the subtle undertones that can make the discussion more intricate. It is almost impossible to find these intricacies in modern literature. Pride and Prejudice is the perfect book to prepare students for more complicated literature like Shakespeare.

Character interaction is important to keep readers involved. One of the problems most students have with required reading is that the books have uninteresting plots or characters that are hard to understand or like. This isn’t a problem in Pride and Prejudice. All of the characters are able to express themselves clearly through their words and actions. Interaction between them reveals more and more about them until the reader can fully understand the characters and their decisions. Although Elizabeth is both the protagonist and the narrator, the other characters help influence her decisions and, eventually, realize her true feelings. All of the different personalities were clearly expressed and defined and it is easy to see how their experiences led to their dispositions. Clear character definition is a substantial reason for reading this book. The book’s length allows it to be more specific than other books, but it isn’t intimidating. Students have short attention spans so this book’s ability to keep our attention is another reason it is important to read it before graduating.

I’ve noticed that students are starting to stop reading because they don’t like the books that are in the curriculum. Books that are considered to have merit by schools are generally depressing or have plots or characters that no one can relate to. Pride and Prejudice has concepts that are still prevalent today. Common experiences like misunderstandings based on lies, deceiving first appearances, and love overcoming pride make this book easy for readers to connect to and become interested in. Reading a book that students can connect to is important for them to want to continue reading. If they can’t understand a book, they won’t want to read it. Keeping the love of reading alive is too important and schools keeping books that students want to read is the first step.

There are many books that students can read before graduation, but my personal recommendation is still Pride and Prejudice. Even after two years, I still consider this book to be my favorite. Not only did it keep me interested from the first page, but it also gave me the opportunity to learn more about England in 1813. It is not often that you can learn about history from a fiction book and that, plus all of the other reasons I have listed, is why every student should read it before graduation.