A fancy English major

Halfway through my flight to Milwaukee, the man in the window seat next to me began to read the novel in my lap out of the side of his eye.

“My, that’s a big old book you’ve got there,” he told me cheerfully. “I’d rather dig my eyeball out with a spoon than read some stuffy old book like that.”

I smiled and nodded, informing him that I’m an English major reading the book for my senior thesis.

“An English major, huh?” he asked, with the air of someone who has just asked a riddle only they think they know the answer to.

“Whatcha gonna do with your ‘fancy English major’ when you get your degree? Better be able to balance a tray!” He laughed.

Any student of the liberal arts will be painfully familiar with this scenario and its endless variations.

An adult or peer actively tries to invalidate your decision to pursue English, history, gender studies or what-have-you as the whimsical and selfish path of a “dreamer,” rather than a calculated choice meant to be the launching point of a satisfying career in a field we’re passionate about.

While ultimately unsettling and oftentimes insulting, I personally believe that these probing questions are exactly the ones we should be asking ourselves as students of the liberal arts so we can have answers to those who call upon us to validate ourselves.

The study of liberal arts can provide us with the tools we need to not only navigate the social world, but also the business world.

Through reading, we learn how certain behaviors are presented and interpreted in certain situations.

We see the coldness of Mr. Darcy and the hopeful naivete of Alyosha Karamazov.

We hear the softened cruelty in the words of Chaucer’s Prioress, and we are able to internally make judgments of their conduct and compartmentalize our reactions.

A recent study by David Comer-Kidd suggests reading literary fiction scientifically improves our capacity for emotional intelligence, empathy and social
awareness.

In addition, the exploration of liberal arts allows us to understand far more about our predecessors on this planet and possibly the human condition as a whole.

Tracing modern perceptions of topics such as madness, aesthetics, illness, nature, love and relationships throughout the human record gives us incredibly valuable insight into where we’ve come from, how we’ve changed and how we’ve upheld similar values or digressed.

Karl Marx tells us “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

Promoting the gain of such knowledge will foster an
environment in which these aforementioned tragedies and farces are fewer and farther between.

Whether or not we use our liberal arts degrees on paper to pursue a stereotypical, liberal arts-related job doesn’t matter.

What does matter, however, is that the everyday skills we learn from these studies are put to use in almost every situation — whether it’s pursuing a Ph.D., a cubicle job or a friendly conversation on a plane.

­— mcaranna@indiana.edu