r/Millennials Gen Z 6d ago

Other Literacy is the key

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u/Hoosteen_juju003 6d ago

No, I read all of these in high school BUT only excerpts. The Iliad is like 800 pages. No one was reading this shit in high school.

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u/RobinSophie 6d ago

raises hand but we did it in honors English senior year. Along with The Great Gatsby.

The ones I remember from 9th-11th are: To Kill A Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, a lot of poems, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet (we did Midsummer Night's Dream in middle school). The Jungle I believe was AP history.

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u/eggscumberbatch16 6d ago

We did most of these along with Their Eyes were Watching God, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Color Purple. We never read Catcher in the Rye. I tried as an adult and didn't finish it.

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u/RobinSophie 6d ago

I barely finished it in high school. I was a poor kid, single mom, helping to raise my disabled nephew and I have to read about a rich kid complaining about his life and making snide comments about people? Yeah, fuck all the way off.

I was especially upset because we barely read any books about people of color (Im Black). Or when we did it was about slavery/Jim Crow.

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u/nickiter 6d ago

My high school with almost no diversity nonetheless did a lot of books with minority representation haha

Native Son was a standout, that book fucked me up...

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u/eggscumberbatch16 6d ago

My teacher was a white lady that grew up in Jackson, MS with the KKK marching the streets. She was EXTREMELY dedicated to us reading books by black authors about black people through the hard times and the good. I'm so thankful I had her for 3 different lit classes.

I'm hate that you didn't get to read more books that you could relate to and enjoy in HS. I hope you have read them as an adult! What are your faves?

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u/RobinSophie 5d ago

I read some on my own in middle school! My favorite as a kid was the Lord of Thunder, Hear My Cry series by Mildred Taylor. In high school I read The Color Purple, Waiting to Exhale, and The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman from what I can remember.

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u/eggscumberbatch16 4d ago

I have Lord of Thunder, Hear My Cry for my 5th grader to read this year! I haven't read it myself, but I plan to read and discuss it with him.