Reading Helps Us Get the Jokes

Reading is a dying art in todays society. With the emergence of post-modernism works, which are questioning what we know about literature, we need to reflect on why reading is important in the first place.

"We read so we can understand the jokes"

In my Twelfth grade English class, I had the most amazing teacher- Mrs. Owen. The class I had with Mrs. Owen in the morning was a special class I will always remember. Not only was Mrs. Owen an amazing teacher, but my fellow classmates were amazing people as well. I think all my praise says a lot about the class itself, because I can honestly say that one: I hated High School and two: I really don't remember much else from High School other than this class. I learned so much in Mrs. Owen's class, specifically about relationships, the importance of education, and what I was going to do with my future. After I graduated from High School in 2015, I moved onto college, declaring a major in Literature and Writing studies, all because of Mrs. Owens class.

Why was Mrs. Owen's class so important to me? Besides learning so much from her and my classmates, I found my passion in literature and was able to find out why reading is so important and shouldn't be a dying art. Near the beginning of the school year, after the newness of classes had worn off and we were discussing how lame our summer reading was, Mrs. Owen said something that will stick with me forever. Amidst the sixteen to eighteen year old groans over Oedipus Rex, Mrs. Owen announced we would later thank her for reading about Oedipus, because we will now get the jokes. What did she mean? Mrs. Owen then said, "We read so we can understand the jokes". The class laughed this idea off as we continued to complain about how hard the rest of the readings were going to be for the year. Yet, for some reason, Mrs. Owen's statement stuck with me for the rest of the year as we read classics such as The Heart of Darkness and Pride and Prejudice. Slowly, I began to understand what she meant by understanding the jokes.

The more we read, the more we are able to understand where the intertextuality of these lines from literature begin to integrate in our daily conversations. When someone exclaims, "The horror! The horror!" we can laugh along with them, while understanding what they mean by making that statement. While someone could simply explain where the references come from, and do a quick synopsis of the novel, it is not the same as reading the book cover to cover and understanding what lead up to this memorable line in literature. Because of Mrs. Owen, I will continue to reiterate what she said to my twelfth grade class that day, and pursue my never ending mission to get more enthusiastic readers in the world. We need to read so we can continue to understand the jokes!!