Exercise 7.1

My senior year of high school I took a class from one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Palmer. It was a class that I had always wanted to take since I Knew Mrs. Palmer and thought her an excellent teacher. We read many books that year that had never even considered reading before. This was an experience that helped me to grow and develop a deeper level of evaluating literature. I will however never forget reading the Heart of Darkness and writing the essay that was due at the end of it.
The Heart of Darkness is quite confusing especially to me. In our class discussions, for better or worse, I would always put in my opinion about what I thought the text meant. I soon discovered that Mrs. Palmer was not opened to other interpretation of the novel. Class discussions were not so much discussions as they were question asking. I am, however, stubborn and was significantly more interested in my own thoughts than I was in hers. When the final essay rolled around I decided pointedly that I would travel my own road and display the Heart of Darkness as I saw it, with all necessary evidence to back it up.
I wasn't excited about the essay, but I was excited about proving my point and with all the energy I could muster I went through the entire book again looking for any sliver of evidence that would prove my point. I found a lot and wrote my paper with the assurance that I, with my non-conformist attitude would show Mrs. Palmer that my own interpretation was legitimate. It was with confidence that I laid my rebel paper down on her desk a few days later.
When everyone got their essays back a week later I had the lowest grade in the class. How was this possible! The next entire week was spent with a half hour after class fighting my case before my lone judge, Mrs. Palmer. I would show her how I had proved this idea or that concept, but it always came back to one thing: "I told you that your idea was wrong in our class discussions", Mrs. Palmer would say, "you shouldn't have continued with that topic."
Well, I might have got a D on that paper and that did reflect in my overall grade, however I still got into college. I still interpret books with my own thoughts and I wouldn't have had it any other way. It's funny how right or wrong you can justify anything to yourself. I was right, by the way.