During my semester of ENGL 215, we read several works that all contained the theme of “discovering new frontiers.” The literature greatly varied each other by genre, century, and speaker; a translation of the writings of the Spanish explorer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza De Vaca, the short stories of Jack London, and Oregon Trail, just to name a few. Each day of class started with a quiz on what we had been assigned to read the day prior. These quizzes quickly taught me that I had to re-evaluate how I was reading in order to better retain information. Additionally, our classes were all discussion-based, which helped to give each other insight, something that was especially helpful with some of the denser readings. Besides exposing us to great works of literature, a goal of the class was to examine the challenges of “modern frontiers” having read the experiences of great frontiersmen/women.

For our final paper, each student picked their own “modern frontier” to research. In our papers, we were to reference the works we had already read in class to draw comparisons, discover challenges, and offer improvements. In my paper, which is attached below, I wrote about the ‘Me Too’ Movement as a modern frontier and referenced Willa Cather’s novel Death Comes for the Archbishop. Researching this topic was a truly enlightening process and comparing it to Cather’s novel offered a unique experience. I grappled with subjects such as criticisms of the movement, effectiveness in creating institutional improvements, communicating with sympathy, and the role of bystanders.