The ending of the story “Tiger Mending” is a big shock that I had not seen coming. Just like the woman I had expected some human to be causing the pain and anguish of the tigers. The thought that the tigers did to themselves never even occurred to me. I honestly had many different emotions going on. For one I was relieved that a human hand had not been the source of the tigers suffering. Yet knowing that they do it themselves had as the writer put it been “unsettling”. Not only was it unsettling, but it made my heart hurt. Why would a living thing hurt itself, and to the point of needing to be mended? It is a scary thought that not only humans, but animals as well do things to hurt themselves and it cannot be explained. Is it like that of a human, do they do it for attention, affection, out of boredom maybe? Or is it something beyond that? Is it something that we as humans cannot understand and connect with? Is it a learned behavior, or instinct? It makes me ill that they damaged themselves beyond their own repair, and then after all of it seek out help to repair the damage that they themselves have caused. I cannot help but see it through human eyes. Do they need that love and attention, a way to have a bond with something outside of their species? It is odd that an animal could have that sort of human instinct, I have never heard of such a thing before, especially from such a wild animal in which we are told to fear. Also, throughout the story she gives a very mellow feeling to the story, this makes the ending more surprising. When she first agree to do the job it was surprising to me that she was not at all interested in what it was, she just agreed to it, like sewing was something that calmed her, and as long as she was doing it, it didn’t matter where or what particular task she would be doing, so long as she got to sew. In the beginning when the tigers first start coming I had the thought, that they were being tortured by humans. It amazed me that she felt she had to know what was happening to them in order to fix them properly, I suppose when you love something that much you want to know why exactly you are doing it to feel accomplished. I am not exactly sure how I would have felt upon seeing them rip themselves open, I would be torn between disgust and pity. When finding out what was happening to them I did not feel like a curtain had opened to a window and I could clearly see. It was a completely opposite feeling, such as a heavier drape had been hung over an already dark and mysterious window that I could not look through. I was unsettled, but more confused than anything.

Responding to literature

We respond to literature in various ways, and everyone responds differently. How we respond also depends on how familiar we are with the material. If what we read or listen to something that we can connect to and understand chances are we will have a more in depth response. Some people use personal connections to respond to literature, as others may respond with things they have seen or maybe even read or heard about. Not everyone is willing to put their true feelings out in the open, and this is the reason that one may choose to respond by recalling something that didn't particularly involve them. One must analyze the reading to understand it more in depth. When one reads something sometimes once is not enough, one must look beyond the words, to fully understand the message or story. Writing down ones thoughts about literature allows one to construct meaning through writing which allows for the ability to think critically. Asking questions is also important when responding to literature. There are very few times when one hears or reads something and doesn't have questions about it. By asking and answering questions you will have to support the answer with evidence from the information, and therefore you will have to pay more attention to the literature. Good questions are those such as what a word or phrase means, or why you did or didn't like the work. Writing questions like these gives an opening for discussion.
Looking at the story from a different point of view is also good for response, in literature it is always good to have more than one way of seeing things, it allows for us to learn more and may clear up questions we had before hand. By responding to literature we are challenging ourselves to learn and teach ones self. It is about looking at something and instead of expecting it to explain itself, one has to analyze it themselves and make interpretations as wehll. Responding to literature also teaches one more about how different writers writing styles can be.
I believe that by responding to literature effectively we can learn a lot more than me enitially may have. If you simply read or listen to something and only hear or see the words what was the point of waisting your time with it? If I am going to read or listen to something I am going to make it worth my while. I want to understand what is happening and why. By aknowledging the words for more than words or phrases we can get more out of things, and learn more as well. We learn how to teach ourselves, and interepret things. It may even give us insight in how to handle situations in life, if we can take someones words and read into them we may have a deeper understanding of what they mean.
Being able to respond efficiently to things not only to reading and writings but to people as well is an important part of life.

Literature, when I hear the word I automatically think writing, although I believe that literature is much more than just writing. Literature offers an escape in my life, when I sit down and read something I forget about all of the things that are weighing on my mind, and am fully induldged in what I am reading. Alot of the times I feel I can connect with the characters in whatever it is I am reading, and when I can do this I feel like I am more connected to the book itself, and it makes me want to read more and more. Relating things from books to my own life makes me feel better with certain situations in my life, like I am not the only one going through certain trails. Literature is the base of so much in the world, wiathout it I would not know nearly as much as I do today, there would be no tv entertainment, and I would be a very bored young woman. This is why it is important to me, it has had such an influence in my life and without it our society would deffinetly not be what it is today.

I greatly enjoy reading, although I agree with the literature textbook in that when I go to read a textbook it is like my brain tells me that I will not enjoy what I am about o read and that it will be of no interest to me simply because it is something I hankve to do, not want to. I had never thought about it before, but it is true. Now that it has been pointed out I realize that I do think this most of the time when doing school work. I am going to try and change that, because a lot of things that we read in textbooks, especially literature books are very interesting and make one think about a lot of diverse things and situations.

Literature changes me everytime I read it, it puts ideas in my ldhead and inspires me to do things within my life that I probably would not have thought of doing if I hadn't read about it somewhere. It changes my views of things as well, I may see a homeless man as a drunk, but if I were to read a story about a man who sold everything he had to get his daughter through cancer I would no longer see him in this way. Not that when I see homeless people I think they are drunks, but just as an example as to how it can open someones eyes up to something.

I believe that all books are informing, even if they are not telling facts. When reading I can get an idea about how the writer thinks, and how they view the world. The way a writer describes things is important and will let me know if the book will be a good read or not. I like to be able to feel like I am in the book, like a character of it. So when reading I like great detail, if the writer is vague I will probably not be interested in reading that particular book as much as I would one with vivid descriptions.

While writing this I realized how much literature is used in the world, and how my life would be so much different without it. It made me realize that a lot of the things we have today would not be if it had not been for literature. So many things are based on literature and yet everyday it goes overlooked. Just this one assignment has informed and changed me.