Natalie Schuey
Professor McCoy
English 111
4 December 2024
As the semester is coming to an end, I look back and realize how much I have learned from this course. I was very unfamiliar with the 2008 housing crisis when I first started this class but now I am able to draw connections with it. I also have learned a lot of new terms which we call our course concepts. These concepts have been very beneficial for what we have been doing in class. The books we have read, especially our most recent book, Parable of the Sower. This book relates directly to the main course concept of expulsion, which really ties together with what we do in class. This sets an example for me and leads me to make connections with other books and work we have done previously in class.
To start with one connection between the housing crisis and the Parable of the Sower is expulsion. The main character Lauren was in two obvious cases of expulsion involving internal and external. Starting with how she felt internally, her emotions were all over the place. Lauren had lost her mother but this was not a major part of the story. Throughout the story she had felt a lot of loss. Her father was killed and her brother Keith had also passed away, after getting involved with bad people. Lauren has hyperempathy which makes her feel deeper for those who are in pain, or mentally in pain. She feels for other people which is a good and a bad thing. She is a young caring individual but this is bad for her because it makes it easy for people to take advantage of her. During all of this time of expulsion with herself and others she is going through a hard time because she feels it all. Her home was taken from her which hurt her internally because her image of home is no longer home for her. She has a lot of mental pain and expulsion. Although physically kicked out of where she lived, this sticks with her internally because her image of where she grew up and her memories are no longer there. Lauren had lost a lot and people were expelled from her life, along with her home.
She also was also physically expelled from her home like most during the housing crisis. She was forced to leave after her home and her neighborhood had been destroyed. She lost her family and her home which put a big impact on her decisions throughout the book. Her safe home with walls had physically been torn down and involved with the dangerous world that took her happy life away from her. This drug had forced people to act out and take away things from other people. Lauren was not safe and she was not the same person as she was in the beginning of the book. After what she had been through she went through a lot of character development.
Many people during the housing crisis struggled to find a home or somewhere to stay, which is very similar to how Lauren felt. Lauren was on and off with where she was staying, she found other people and had to get away from her home. Although she had reason to be forced out because of the new drug, what she called home was no longer an option to her. The book relates directly to the housing crisis, but at the same time has aspects that differ from one another. The arson causing drug and the hyperempathy were aspects of the book which did not relate directly to the housing crisis.
Mentally the housing crisis was a very stressful time, and caused a lot of people to be put under a lot of pressure. The housing crisis relates to Lauren because of how emotional it really was for the people involved,“In 2008 it was the entire financial system that was at risk. We were still short. But you don’t want the system to crash. It’s sort of like the flood’s about to happen and you’re Noah. You’re on the ark. Yeah, you’re okay. But you are not happy looking out at the flood. That’s not a happy moment for Noah. (The Big Short)” The Big Short, was a very supportive book which draws connections to the housing crisis. I was able to make this connection, and really feel it when reading Parable of the Sower. I could feel for Lauren when she was going through all of the expulsion and loss. It makes me think about how hard of a time she would have to go through with her hyperempathy. She lost her brother, her home, and was on the move. She had lost trust for people and could only rely on herself and those she was with. Lauren had been tired of waiting and searching for a home, “Walking hurts, I’ve never done enough walking to learn that before, but I know it now. It isn’t only the blisters and sore feet, although we’ve got those. After a while, everything hurts. I think my back and shoulders would like to desert to another body. Nothing eases the pain except rest. Even though we got a late start, we stopped twice today to rest. We went off the freeway, into the hills or bushes to sit down, drink water, eat fried fruit and nuts. Then went on. The days are long this time of year. (Parable of Sower 179)” I felt that this quote was related to the housing crisis, because although in the book it was physically draining, it shows how mentally draining it can be for those who became victims of losing their homes. Which relates directly to the housing crisis because communities and people were lied to and forced out of their homes without any offers or consideration.The housing crisis was where many people lost their homes and jobs due to the government giving out risky loans. This is very important to the books we have read because it shows how there can be a connection between losing everything and how it can be at fault from someone else. The housing crisis and Parable of the Sower go hand and hand which made it easier to draw connections and read the book.
While reading this book I found it very interesting to come across these things because it made me want to read on. It didn’t feel like I was really learning because I was being entertained. I had such an easy time reading this because I understood so much from previous material. The term expulsion has become a word that I have developed into my vocabulary. After reading King Lear, I became more aware of how many ways there can be expulsion involved. Lear, like Lauren, had been expelled from his own home. I also was able to connect the course concept toxic and toxin to Lear and Parable because of the toxic people and environments they both were involved in. Lear was in toxic relationships with his own daughters, while Lauren is around toxic people in a toxic environment. They also had a connection with the term toxic, because there was a lot of poison in King Lear, while Lauren is living with a drug which is forcing people to commit arson. I saw the biggest connections between these two books, even though they were very different it felt very similar. I had a really hard time understanding and reading King Lear, but I feel if I were to go back and read it again I would have an easier time understanding because of the other books and things we have worked on this semester such as, A Mercy and The Big Short.
I have learned a lot this semester and I have been able to tie in what we have previously done into the Parable of the Sower. As previously mentioned, I have connected the books to one another but specifically I had been able to connect the housing crisis to these books. I was able to see the struggle of the characters in the books we have read, and I connected it to the struggle of those in the housing crisis. Overall I have learned a lot about what the housing crisis consists of, and a lot about expulsion and other course concepts. I have gained a lot of understanding as a reader and a student in this class. The 2008 housing crisis, like the story line in Parable of the Sower, shows what happens when greed and inequality spiral out of control, leaving people to face reality and forcing them to find new ways to survive and rebuild. There was a lot to learn from the housing crisis and this book, to always plan ahead, and not to trust everyone and everything. I have gained so much from this course as an individual, I have learned so much and I will continue to draw connections and conclusions with what I have gained this semester.