What I Read Mattered

                Little did I know, my sophomore year in Mrs. Salvadore’s Honors English class was that I was going to read a novel that I truly enjoyed, and the best part was that it counted for a grade. As a class, we were reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and although at the time I had firmly believed that reading check quizzes were a tedious way of making sure the students were keeping up every week with the scheduled chapters, reading a novel that I thought interested me, had me liking the class and the topics we were discussing as a group a lot more.

Many students realize that sophomore year is usually a time when they are exhausted of testing and school work after the wide variety of standardized tests they take throughout the year. However, after reading Steinbeck’s novel, I came to realize that the school year may have seemed like it was passing by slowly, but conveniently, my curiosity in the history behind the story about the effects of capitalism, the 1920’s Great Depression in the United States and the significance of the Dustbowl in the mid-western states kept my interests alive. I became more aggressive with my reading habits while reading The Grapes of Wrath, eventually elevating my grade In Salvadore’s class and helped the weeks in the school year proceed a little faster. In order to pass the time when I wasn’t occupied with class work, I would take out the novel and read in my other classes as well. I became more willing to read for my English classes over the years, as well as more diligent and productive with my time, in hopes to read another novel that would peak my interests in a way that I wasn’t left bored with a grade that was slowly decreasing.

After reading Steinbeck’s novel, I found myself paying more attention to descriptive details and references in the way I write as well as in the styles of other authors. Steinbeck used a great deal of creative words that seemed to flow into long sentences and made even the more simple objects, such as a glass vase, a more intriguing piece of work to look at, rather than its conveniences acting as ordinary. Like any novel, The Grapes of Wrath did have its moments when the chapters were really moving at a slow pace, however that forced me to pay closer attention to the author’s diction and comparisons. If I knew Steinbeck personally, I would say he was quite the gentleman with a way of words. It was unexpected that I would have truly enjoyed reading this novel, because of its length and simple cover, but I suppose that’s why the saying goes, “never judge a book by its cover”.