I decided to ask Alejanda Goularte, my college counselor as well as my friend, to recommend a book for me to read because she is an adult that I highly admire. She is a great person and she was one of the people that supported and helped me the most in junior year. She is always willing to help and she is one of my role models. When I asked her for some books I could read she told me the following: Jane Eyre by Emily Bronte, Gtrat Expectations by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Then I asked her if she owned a copy of any of them but she said she had lent them out but had Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, which she said was also a great book, so she let me borrow it and I decided to read it. Below is the interview I had with her:
1. What is the main reason you recommended me to read Pride and Prejudice?
This was a book I really enjoyed reading when I was in high school. It's a classic book, and I think an important book for people to read. I think it's important for people to be familiar with Jane Austen's work because her work is important in English literature. I hoped that by recommending this book you'd be inspired to read other Jane Austen novels or to simply learn to love these classic victorian novels.
2. When did you read this book? How old were you?
I was in high school. I must have been approximately 16 years old.
3. What was going on in your life when you read this book? What grade were you in?
I think I was in 10th or 11th grade. I read it for my honors English class. During this time I was (and still am) a hopeless romantic and I always liked love stories. I think I enjoyed this book because it was a difficult read and a classic novel, but at the end of the day, it was simply a love story. I think there is something romantic about reading about what these characters go through and their feelings of love--a universal theme that we can still relate to, and can relate to the characters' feelings and experiences even though this novel was written almost 200 years ago!
4. Have you read this book more than once?
I think I only read it once. Now that I recommended it to you, I may have to read it again. I've recently seen movies based on the book.
5. Why did you read it? How did you hear about it?
I read it as a class assignment but I loved the book. In my adult life, there have been several references to Pride & Prejudice or to Jane Austen. I'm happy that I read this novel because I think it's a book that has been read by most educated or well-read people. Id like to consider myself in this category. :)
6. What is the thing you like the most about this book? Why do you consider it a "great book"?
One of the things I like about the book is that it is a challenging book. Not everyone can read it. People who read it have to be avid readers and have to appreciate English literature.
The second thing I liked about the book is a little bit of the ridiculousness of it all. I think it's a bit silly that one of the young women's goals in life was to marry well and meet her family's expectations of marrying a good and wealthy man. I know that the book is telling of the times when Jane Austen wrote it, but I always thought it was a little silly and humorous.
I also liked the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. I like how it takes Elizabeth a while to realize how she really feels about Darcy. I remember there are a few occasions in the novel where Elizabeth (or Darcy) can confess their love for each other, but they are both too proud to admit it. I think I could relate to this a bit in my own life (now and when I was a teenager). I think there are many times where we let our pride get in the way and prevent us from admitting or affirming our true feelings for another person. As I said before, I'm a hopeless romantic. :)
7. What were some of your thoughts or main ideas you got after reading this book?
I think the theme of being proud in love was one of the main themes I got out of the book. I think it served me as a reminder to swallow your pride, to be humble and to be honest about your feelings. I know this is easier said than done, but I think the book was a reminder of that for me. As I said before, there were times where Elizabeth or Darcy could've admitted their feelings for each other, and they could've been together a lot sooner than when try actually were. Their pride only prolonged their happiness. I think this theme is universal and anyone who reads the book can relate to this main theme.
Another important commentary has to
Do with following social and familial expectations. If you went against this norm, you were seen as immoral or even a good person. I think one of Elizabeth's sisters runs away with a man without marrying him. She is seen as disgracing her family. An important theme in the book is The idea of following social order and how this pressure is ingrained in the characters so much that all their decisions and actions are guided by these pressures. This is also a universal theme in that often our own family/cultural/religious pressures get in the way of our dreams or goals. Sometimes we have to go against these pressures to be happy. Just like we have to move away from home for college even though it means going against our families' wishes to stay home--we have to do it for ourselves and to create a better future for ourselves.
Speak
I decided to ask Sophia Michel, my older sister, to recommend me a book because she is an adult I admire because she was the first one in our family to graduate from college. She graduated from SDSU last June and she did it with a lot of hard work. When I asked her for some books I could read she told me the following: any books by Sharon Deraper and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I decide to read Speak because I had heard one of friends said that they read it and that it was a really good book. In the interview I had with her she told that she read Speak when she was in sophomore year in high school (when she was 15 years old) because it was a book she was asked to read for her English class. She said she really liked it because it was easy to read and it told the story of how a girl remained quiet for almost an entire year but was finally able to speak up and tell her story.
My sister said she also liked how it was like a diary because it better expressed what Melinda, the main character, was having to go through after what happened to her. It was also good that she read it in her sophomore year because the main character in the book was a freshmen and therefore she was able to relate to some of the things she was talking about and better connect with how Melinda might've been feeling. My sister says she wasn't going through a similar story as Melinda but she was definately able to understand and feel what she had to go through. She said the book Speak really taught her that no matter what she always has to speak up if there anything wrong happening to her and this has made her be closer to my mom because now she tells her anything that bugs her or she doesn't see right. At the end, she said that she hoped I enjoyed the book and to let her know if I needed anything.
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