In an English Literature Class, there often comes a time when a student will have to choose between reading a long, involved book and going to a job, or attending a party or a family obligation. Still, students everywhere can take advantage of already existing summaries of the great works of world literature. For a very simple example, take the ‘Old Man and the Sea.’ Hemingway’s brief treatise on an old man determinedly hanging on to the catch of his life while sharks mercilessly whittle away his gains is sad and triumphant all at the same time. Even though the Old Man came back to shore with only a gigantic skeleton, and relentless sea vultures had stolen away every tangible (edible) bit of sustenance from his journey, the Old Man was left with a great story and a whopper of a trophy. And the reader is invariably left with a profound moment of reflection on human perseverance, while at the same time poignantly cognizant of the evanescence of all achievement.
But, of course, you would not know that if you didn’t read the book. If you didn’t read the book, you are bound to get a lousy grade on your assigned paper.
Or are you? Actually, if you give the Cliff Notes version a serious and heartfelt rendition in your brain, you might get enough of a sense of it to pull an A. The keys to pull this off successfully are to read the Cliff Notes as if you were reading the story itself- except that the story is very fast moving and gets right to the point almost instantly. You must be very careful to allow your brain the time and space it needs to get a sense of each character and how they relate to the plot as a whole. You won’t have as much time to do this as if you were actually reading the novel, because Cliff Notes don’t set the scene or give you voluminous amounts of extra dialog to get to know each individual. You will have to construct the book’s reality on the fly.
This article was written by the Editor in Chief at www.Goodtermpaper.com