Absalom, Absalom!

At 17-years-old, I embarked on my senior year AP English class with Mr. Stachura.  English was my favorite subject, but I was thrown for a bit of a loop when we
started reading William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! - a novel          
set in the 19th century about the moral crises that destroyed the
South. Mr. Stachura warned us that this was a very advanced level
book - one that a lot of college students wouldn't even dare to read. Most of Mr. Stachura's colleagues would laugh when he told them
his high school students were reading Faulkner. Needless to say,
our senior English class was a little nervous.

I started reading the novel and didn't understand a word. It only made sense when we went over the chapter in class together. I decided to get the book on CD. I listened to it throughout the day, and in the car on my 30 minute drive to and from school every day. Slowly, day after day, week after week, I started to make sense of Faulkner's words. About halfway through the book, it clicked. I realized I could understand the chapters on my own, and I didn't rely on class time to explain what we had read.

As we neared the end of our Faulkner unit, I found myself eating up the end of the book, and writing analytical essays about this literary classic. Reading a work of such an advanced level, and even being able to write about it, left me with a huge feeling of satisfaction with my 17-year-old self. I dove right into this book and discovered that I could push my young mind to a higher scholarly level. I was thinking at a more advanced academic level. Not only could I think at that level, but I realized it felt good to push my mind to think that hard. It was making me a better student and a better person. I was able to read about and understand Faulkner's deep and conceptual themes like race, morality, incest, love, and hatred, and I learned from them. I explored the deep waters of Absalom, Absalom! and found that I could keep my head above it.