Humanities Base Text

Coming to college was a big step in my life. Not only was I far away from home, I had to become accustomed to more difficult classes and a new environment. After being in an English class nearly every year that I have ever been in school I didn’t expect anything different than any of my other English classes. This was not true. I was exposed to much more in the two semesters of English classes than I have in all of my previous English classes. What I learned was not necessarily about grammar or reading, but it was about the environment around me.

Reading the Humanities Base Text opened my eyes to many issues in the United States that I was not aware of. Some of these issues do not apply today, but they showed me a lot about the past that I was not aware of. The story that had the biggest impact on me was “Savage Inequalities”. This story showed me that there are parts of the United States that are struggling and are not getting any help from anyone. The United States is portrayed as being such a great place to live, but after reading this story I began to question whether the United States is really all that it is cracked up to be.

Not only did I learn about current issues that are affecting people of our country today, but I learned about issues that affected people in the past. Reading “Learning to Read and Write” opened my eyes to what it was like for slaves to live in 1800s. This story dealt with problems that they faced and how they struggled every day. Since this was a firsthand account of Frederick Douglass’ life as a slave it was easy to visualize how he was living. This was the reason why this story had a big impact on me. I believe that since I was able to visualize what it was like for Douglass and I was also able to add in my past knowledge of slavery it made a surprising impact on me as I read it.

Overall the Humanities Base Text made a big impact on me. I did not believe that I would experience anything different when I came to college; I thought I would be reading the same type of literature that I had been reading for years. I am glad that I have been exposed to this type of writing and I am now more aware of what is taking place around me. The introductory English classes that I have taken so far in college have definitely made an impact on my life.