Sugarcoat it, baby!
Chelsea BrandweinStaff WriterThe day I found out my sophomore English class would be finishing the year by reading “Much Ado About Nothing,” I let out a squeal of disbelief. Sure, the play is counted among the greatest works of William Shakespeare, and has withstood the test of time. But it’s also - a comedy?Until my class picked up “Much Ado About Nothing” from the textbook room, I was convinced that there was a contract between high school English teachers everywhere that students should never, in school, be allowed to read something that made them chuckle.My literary education in school has been one long string of suicide, family strife, racism and war. Take William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” the classic tale of school boys crash-landing on a deserted island. It doesn’t take long for the boys to turn into savage beasts. The pages are filled with ghastly and graphic descriptions of bloodshed that tend to provoke queasiness. The primary lesson that stands out in “Lord of the Flies” is: Don’t eat your friends.Call me a mouse, but I cringe whenever I hear the words “Of Mice and Men.” John Steinbeck’s novel delves into the lives of two migrant workers, George and Lennie. The pair find work at a ranch and all is great until, — well, I don’t want to give the ending away, but let’s just say that the story doesn’t end with a smile.Of course, there are alternatives to the dreariness. Jane Austen’s “Emma” tells of the young Emma Woodhouse as she plays matchmaker in Highbury, England. A hopeless romantic, Woodhouse is determined to see that her friends find love. Hilarity and happy endings ensue as a result.Like Austen, esteemed writer, Charles Dickens, always ends on an uplifting note. While his characters go through rough patches such as in two of his most popular works, “David Copperfield” and “The Old Curiosity Shop,” Dickens finds a way for his characters to work through their ordeals and come out unscathed in the end.While I always knew there is uplifting literature in the Western cannon, I never believed that such works might be incorporated into my government-sponsored education. After all, life isn’t beautiful! The woman will always run off with the dashing baron, while the honest stable boy dies of tuberculosis.But I’m not complaining about “Much Ado About Nothing.” Unrealistic as any expectation of a happy ending may be, I doubt reading the comedy will seriously damage anyone. And besides, if you haven’t figured out by age 16 that life is not all fun and games, you probably haven’t been doing your English homework anyway.