Saif Ali
I live in New York City, and in the city when you don’t have a car, the subway system is your best friend. I also love being on my phone and just browse or play games. However, whenever I am on the train I can’t use my phone to the extent I want it to because I don’t get signal inside the train. So I can’t play most of my fun games, browse social media, or watch videos to pass the time. I just have the ability to listen to music. I use the train a lot and for long periods of time most times so I always have nothing to do. That was until I downloaded an app called Webtoons.
I was able to download and read manga from this app on the train which helped me pass time and emerge myself into different and crazy worlds. I told myself I will only use this app when I am on the train to pass time because I never really liked reading and to me it felt uncool and a waste of time. That was until I started reading this manga series Magician. This 400 chapter long story blew me off my seat and I found myself not only reading it on the crowded train while washing away all the unnecessary sounds and distractions and making an hour train ride feel like ten minutes, but also at home eating dinner or when I am about to go to sleep. I felt a whole new connection and feelings toward this series.
It took me two months to finish reading this series and once I finished reading it, my perspective on English literature has changed dramatically. I learned to appreciate the effort authors put into a piece in order to control the emotions we feel while reading a piece. I learned to understand different aspects of storytelling. For example, Magician does a really good job at making everything come back in a circle. All the events and characters in the beginning chapters would make the reader think that they are not important in the story but in fact towards the end play a big role which left me shocked. This experience also showed me how important character development actually is. The story starts off with the two main characters as little kids and ends with them being adults. This may not seem too important but it really set the tone on how this series would play out. In the first season the story seems joyful and fun with a lot of adventures and exploring but in the later seasons take a dark turn where almost every situation is a life or death scenario. Every single one of these life threatening events has shaped the protagonists into something much more serious and mature and us as readers have seen every single step of this happen which also connected us with the protagonists in a spiritual level.
After reading Magician I realized that there could actually be a lot more English literature where the plot can be exciting and the reader grows a connection with the characters’ hardships and fun moments they each face. Because of this typical manga piece I believe I can open my eyes and be more understanding about the deeper meaning in English literature.
