"I am Charlotte Simmons": HONORS 391
This 10 week seminar/discussion is an intense interactive discourse about college life. Emphasis is given to the 2004 Tom Wolfe novel, I am Charlotte Simmons which chronicles the college experiences of an 18 year old low-income undergraduate female, Charlotte Simmons, during her first semester at DuPont College. The second book is the 1965 (republished 2012) novel, Stoner by John Williams, about the college life of English professor William Stoner. The seminar will mainly explore the trials of Charlotte as she deals with issues such as sexuality, acceptance and rejection, narcissism, grade inflation and deflation, depression, disclosure, fraternity/sorority culture, glorification of student-athletes and elitism. Amazingly, Professor Stoner's life in many ways are similar to Charlotte's but from a generational and gender point of view.
This is a class that I had wanted to take ever since Freshman year. Professor Spigner was one of the guest speakers for an HONORS 100 Lecture, and he immediately struck me as someone who I'd want to be taught by: he had no bullshit, seemed very earnest about his field of study. For Assignment 4 in HONORS 100, I wrote this about the class:
I really like the sound of this course because it perfectly encapsulates my interests. I’m on a premed track, but so many people see that as just prescribing someone pills while it is actually one of the must humanistic jobs one can have. The themes in this class, combining this sense of morality to the medical world, really appeal to me. In addition, the professor Clarence Spigner really seems to understand that concept of marrying the two qualities I think are absolutely necessary to be a great doctor, so I look forward to taking his class one day.
After taking the class, I can say that it didn't end up being as applicable to premed as I'd thought it would be. Tom Wolfe's novel deals with several public health issues, but very little (if anything at all) that would be useful in guiding practices as a physician. That said, the class was not a disappointment by any means. In fact, I think that it's one that every Honors student - and really, every college student period - should take. At the very least, the novel is one that every college student should read. Despite the fact that it verges on caricature from time to time, the novel touches upon several themes that I think all college students would find profound and pertinent to their own lives.
In fact, the entire time I was reading the novel, I kept thinking to myself "Wow, Charlotte is basically me in the first two years of college." It was surreal to see all the thoughts that had swirled through my head at some point printed on the page before me. Charlotte is the perfect blend of insecurity and confidence that I think characterizes many high achieving students, and seeing it in front of me like that had me actually shaking my head in disappointment and pity: not just for Charlotte, but for the old me as well. It put into perspective what kind of person I had been, when I would vacillate between happiness and despair, naive optimism and brutal pessimism, when any and all negative events in my life would be dramatized into horrific injustices done to me.
Charlotte Simmons is a character possessed by misguided notions of destiny, reminding me very much of my own romantic ideals. However, after finishing the book and taking the class, I can say with no small amount of relief that romantic ideals are not necessarily negative, as long as they are not predicated upon naivety. For the novel made it clear that there is an enormous difference between romantic notions of grandeur and delusional notions of grandeur, as I touch upon in a reflection below.
I really like the sound of this course because it perfectly encapsulates my interests. I’m on a premed track, but so many people see that as just prescribing someone pills while it is actually one of the must humanistic jobs one can have. The themes in this class, combining this sense of morality to the medical world, really appeal to me. In addition, the professor Clarence Spigner really seems to understand that concept of marrying the two qualities I think are absolutely necessary to be a great doctor, so I look forward to taking his class one day.
After taking the class, I can say that it didn't end up being as applicable to premed as I'd thought it would be. Tom Wolfe's novel deals with several public health issues, but very little (if anything at all) that would be useful in guiding practices as a physician. That said, the class was not a disappointment by any means. In fact, I think that it's one that every Honors student - and really, every college student period - should take. At the very least, the novel is one that every college student should read. Despite the fact that it verges on caricature from time to time, the novel touches upon several themes that I think all college students would find profound and pertinent to their own lives.
In fact, the entire time I was reading the novel, I kept thinking to myself "Wow, Charlotte is basically me in the first two years of college." It was surreal to see all the thoughts that had swirled through my head at some point printed on the page before me. Charlotte is the perfect blend of insecurity and confidence that I think characterizes many high achieving students, and seeing it in front of me like that had me actually shaking my head in disappointment and pity: not just for Charlotte, but for the old me as well. It put into perspective what kind of person I had been, when I would vacillate between happiness and despair, naive optimism and brutal pessimism, when any and all negative events in my life would be dramatized into horrific injustices done to me.
Charlotte Simmons is a character possessed by misguided notions of destiny, reminding me very much of my own romantic ideals. However, after finishing the book and taking the class, I can say with no small amount of relief that romantic ideals are not necessarily negative, as long as they are not predicated upon naivety. For the novel made it clear that there is an enormous difference between romantic notions of grandeur and delusional notions of grandeur, as I touch upon in a reflection below.
I enjoyed this class immensely because it affirmed how much growing up I've done this year. I've learned that "growing up" doesn't mean "becoming boring". I still have the vibrant imagination that I've always had, and I'm still very much enamored with romantic notions of life. But my enchantment is not an inherently delusional one like Charlotte's, but one that finds grandeur and glory in even the most insignificant details of ones life. Based on the tragedy of Charlotte's story and my own experiences during the first two years of college, I realize now that the key to happiness, fulfillment, and contentment in life is to recognize that grandeur and glory do not have to be pursued: we already possess them, so long as we stop and take a moment to open our eyes.
