Over the course of this semester, my CPBs tended to change based on the novel we were reading and the section we were at in the book. I made sure a few things were true throughout all of my CPBs besides the very first one when I really wasn’t sure what I was to do for it. The first thing that stayed consistent throughout the semester was formatting; I made sure to have an intro with an outside source, followed by quotes from the novel, and then most of the time finishing it off with a picture either representing what I was talking about or relating to the novel in general. Another little addition that I made sure to include was a source section so that if anyone would happen to come across my page they would be able to find the source I got my quotes from. I kept all the outside sources as scholarly as possible aside from ones that were assigned to us that came from a website like the Archives Common Place Book entry we did. I didn’t focus on any one source I tended to jump around scholarly articles that sparked an idea. However, in terms of where I would look for scholarly articles, I would go to the UNE online library and for a few articles, I looked on Google Scholar. My CPBs formats are not the only thing that is related or consistent throughout the semester.
I would have to say a common trend through most if not all of my CPBs and QCQs would be meaning/ representation in terms of human nature. I like thinking about what someone has said or done really means or what that has to show for their character. I tend to think deeply sometimes and that doesn’t mean “what is the meaning of life” it really means once I start thinking about one thing it could lead to another and then I am completely zoned out of the real world and tend to focus on what I am thinking about. It also doesn’t help that I am very imaginative and when I think of things happening I can picture them in my head. So when one thing leads to another I am not simply changing thoughts I am reimaging what is playing out in my head. To real this tangent back to CPBs and QCQs I would have to say that even though it isn’t right in your face like many of the CPB entries that are directly talking about how human mentalities and behaviors are often shamed or disregarded are seen through the monsters; however, my questions for my QCQs were not about what the meaning of the quote I pulled was instead there was an underlying point that I wanted to get to the bottom of to really understand what was happening in the novel.
Coming off of this idea of the way I do my deep thinking and after seeing how I formatted my Common Place Book I think it is evident to understand that as the semester progressed the development of my entries evolved into better and better entries. It wasn’t just a picture I put together with a quote and short entry throughout the entire semester like my first one. No, it evolved into using multiple quotes from the novel we were reading like my third entry. Then moved into only using one or two well-fitting quotes like in entries seven and eight. As Kelsey McKinney mentions that these Common Place Books are like roadmaps of our intellectual development. Mine is clearly seen developing as the semester progressed and new ideas on what information I wanted to include changed.
Moving on to talking about the entries I have made over the semester. My favorite would probably be entry 4 talking about the Shiva because it was the first CPB that made me actually want to look even farther into what I had already found. Not to mention, depending on the way that you look at the picture I showcase in this entry you could have it fit in just about any novel that we read this semester not just Jane Eyre, but in Jekyll and Hyde, The Beetle, or Frankenstein. Even though this was my favorite I feel as though that is as far as I would want to go with the topic of the Shiva.
I would have to say that another one that I enjoyed writing/showcasing would be entry 6 because it made me really look at the perspective of monsters in a different way. Instead of monsters being monstrous and evil all the time they are actually just trying to figure out how things work in the world. No one wants to be evil 24/7 even if someone does bad things all the time they still have some humanity in them to where they will be soft towards something or someone. This was just an interesting concept to consider when monsters are first experiencing the world. With this in mind, I think I would want to look at further monsters that are considered evil and try to find the subject or object that they end up being soft for.
One of the CPBs that I think I would continue would be the last two CPBs (entry ten and eleven) I did because I ended up using the same source for them. Not only did it talk about Dracula and what he represented but it also brought in what werewolves and ghosts represent. I like the idea of supernatural beings having meanings and being more than just gruesome monsters. I really like the quote, “For instance, vampires may be perceived as representing the danger of succumbing to sexual desires, whereas werewolves can denote the infinite depths of human rage, and ghosts can mean the absence of heaven” (Harenda, 171). I feel like this makes us more connected to what we consider monsters even more than before. We may call something a monster simply because we do not know what it is but, in reality, I think we call the unknown “monsters” because we are afraid that it will bring our weaknesses out and we will no longer be able to hide behind the facade we have built up towards the world. In hopes that after being beaten down nothing else is able to get through ever again to bring individuals down to that low level they once were before.
