Reflecting on my past work within this course, I have noticed a great amount of change within my work and understanding of the course concepts. Throughout my journey in English 111, my thinking has expanded in a variety of ways. Not only has my understanding deepened but it also improved significantly. This class has equipped me with skills in developing an understanding of characters and their relationships with one another as well as their relationships within themselves. As I delved deeper into N.K. Jemisin’s work, I found myself attaining a richer understanding of the meaning behind her words and got a whole new perspective and appreciation for her work.
As I reflected in my Lithosphere essay, at the time I explored the meaning of racialization and how that process was included into N.K. Jemisin’s trilogy. Jemisin embeds racialization into a fictional story about orogenes, it allows readers to explore without any preconceived notions and in turn may change readers’ view of the outside world. In the trilogy, orogenes were treated extremely differently than others due to their powers that were viewed as different. We see this in The Fifth Season when Uche, an orogene was killed; “these people killed Uche. Their hate, their fear, their unprovoked violence. They. (He.) Killed your son. (Jija killed your son.)” (Jemisin page 58-59). As I discussed in the Lithosphere essay, this shows the hatred and discrimination orogenes felt as they are not welcomed and ultimately viewed to be a group that is less than those who are non-oregenes. Although my thinking on this aspect of the trilogy has not changed, it has significantly deepened. As I continued reading Jemisin’s work, I began to get a better understanding of this aspect and why it occurred.
When I wrote the Lithosphere Essay, I felt she just included Uche’s death to create a storyline. As I came to the end of the trilogy, I found just how much deeper I needed to dig; I began to understand the importance of his death as it set the tone for the remainder of the trilogy. It shows the deep-rooted discrimination that they face every day; directly correlating to the discrimination people in our world face as well. This science fiction trilogy shows aspects of the real racism, sexism, or any other discrimination that thousands of people face every day. Based on some of my feedback, I referred to the course epigraph where I read “to demarcate human beings through differences among humans that are selectively essentialized as absolute and fundamental, in order to distribute positions and powers differentially to human groups.” (Heng 27). This quote allowed me to understand Jemisin’s work; that people both in our real world as well as Jemisin’s fictional world face discrimination strictly based on the differences among them. This then distributes powers within the community differently to groups based on these distinctions. Jemisin’s work allowed readers to dive deep to foster an understanding as well as compassion for those who are affected by discrimination, she used an alternate world for people to see this discrimination without any preconceived notions or ideologies.
Working through the entirety of the trilogy was extremely beneficial as I was able to fully understand and appreciate N.K. Jemisin’s work. Fully acknowledging the purpose behind the themes in the trilogy allowed me to fully engage and interact with the text. Allowing myself to not only deepen my understanding but also change my perspective and thinking about the characters and how they are portrayed.
Along with my expanded thinking that greatly progressed throughout these works, I was also able to apply my feedback from the Lithosphere Essay to deepen my understanding, correct my misconceptions, as well as recognize my mistakes. Something that I received as feedback from the Lithosphere essay that I took the time to understand and correct for future use was cross-checking my references and claims. This can make me vulnerable to plagiarism if it is not carefully fact checked. I have been careful to now cross-check my claims to be sure that I am attributing words to the correct person. In my Lithosphere essay I mistakenly quoted Geraldine Heng as saying; “According to Heng ‘race is ultimately constructed through culture; it is a process done to people and for people by institutions. If you are on the receiving end of power and privileges, some may say race is done for you.”’. This should have not been a quote from Heng as this was something that was discussed in class about her but not a quote directly from her. By quoting her I misattributed her for someone else’s words. Now that I am aware of this mistake, I have been sure to always cross-check my sources to ensure I am attributing the correct sources, so I am not vulnerable to any misattribution or accidental plagiarism. Again, this shows how my understanding and thinking has deeply developed and grown throughout the trilogy and course as a whole.
I made sure to go back and correct careless mistakes that turn into much bigger issues within an essay, such as cross-checking spelling errors. These errors are extremely important to catch as it shows a form of respect for the author and her work. Several times in my Lithosphere essay I mistakenly spelled N.K. Jemisin’s name incorrectly, writing “NK Jemison”. This shows careless cross-checking, after reviewing my feedback I understand just how important it is to avoid this in the future. I want to be sure that specifically her name is spelled correctly, as I would never want to show disrespect to the author by simple spelling mistakes in something so important as her name. I have grown now to always cross-check her name and other spellings to be sure I am doing the right thing; I have proofread several times everything I have written to be sure to catch any careless mistakes. Another quick spelling mistake was the word orogene written as “oregene”. I believe this was a careless mistake due to the complex terminology, this is a word I have never heard before as it was unfamiliar to me in the beginning. To fully appreciate Jemisin’s work it is important to understand the spelling and meaning of these important textual words. By reading my feedback from Professor McCoy I am reminded to “Keep going and keep slowing down”. In such a fast-paced world, it is important to remind ourselves to slow down and take the extra time to reread and correct any mistakes before submitting any work. This time to slow down and read and understand can catch several small mistakes that add up to something large that can have catastrophic consequences.
Reflecting on this course and my past assignments, I have witnessed incredible amounts of growth and development within my work and understanding of the course concepts. My viewpoints have expanded in diverse ways, not only has my comprehension of the material become more profound but it has also noticeably improved. This work has helped me better grasp the subject matter as well as deepen my understanding of the character’s importance. I have learned the importance of cross-checking sources as well as the importance of understanding the spelling and meaning of complex terminology to show respect towards the author and her work. Engaging with N.K. Jemisin’s trilogy I have acquired a deeper insight into the themes and morals of the story.