After two years of high school English, I have decided that the point of taking an English class is to convince you not to murder. Why do I think this? Here's the evidence:
Think about it:
In The Pearl (Steinbeck) Kino (dad) decides that he must attempt to attack the trackers following his family but as he is about to attack, his son cries, waking the sleeping trackers. When one of the trackers fires his rifle in the direction of the cry, Kino kills the trackers in a violent fury. Then Kino slowly realizes that the first rifle shot killed his son in the cave.
Message: don't kill your baby.
In Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) Svidrigailov shoots himself. Raskolnikov axes the old pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and her sister, Lizaveta. The ax is a weapon and so is a gun, and I'm sure if Raskolnikov had a gun at his easy disposal he would've used a gun instead. So it works, and even if you still disagree, the case of Svidrigailov still proves my point.
Message: don't kill a pawnshop owner, her sister, or yourself.
In The Last of the Mohicans (Cooper) Hawkeye shoots Magua and he plummets to his death.
Message: don't kill Indians.
In The Oedipus Trilogy (Sophocles) Everybody pretty much dies from a weapon. I'm pretty sure if they had guns then, that would've been everybody's method of doing so.
Message: don't kill your dad and fuck your mom, pull out your eyeballs or hang yourself.
In To Kill A Mockingbird (Lee) everybody's racist and decides they're going to lynch Tom Robinson, which fails, but he is eventually shot anyways.
Message: don't lynch.
In A Day No Pigs Would Die (Peck) the dad axes his son's pet pig.
Message: don't kill your son's pig.
In Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) Montag turns the flamethrower on Beatty and burns him to ashes.
Message: don't kill your boss.
In Hamlet (Shakespeare) pretty much everybody is killed - just as in other Shakespeare, such as Romeo & Juliet, Antony & Cleopatra, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, etc. - with swords, except for Cleopatra and her snake. That pretty much took care of anything written by Shakespeare, a substantial chunk of 'classic English literature.'
Message: don't kill your family members, your lover, your king, or yourself.
In The Most Dangerous Game (Connell) Rainsford is guided to an island inhabited by General Zaroff (a man-hunter) by the sound of a shotgun. Fault one of the gun. He is then hunted by Zaroff (who hunts with a gun). Fault two of the gun. Rainsford sneaks into Zaroff's bedroom for revenge and kills him. So at just about every level, guns can be held accountable for the sequence of bad events.
Message: don't own a gun or follow the sound of one being shot.
In Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) Lennie, the retarded friend, accidentally kills the foreman's wife and flees to a pool of the Salinas River where George, the best friend, designated an emergency meeting place. The men at the ranch discover what has happened and gather together a lynch party, so George finds Lennie. George tells Lennie the story of the farm they will have together and as he describes the rabbits that Lennie will tend, the sound of the approaching lynch party grows louder so George shoots his friend in the back of the head. Message: don't be friends with someone huge and stupid because you'll have to mercy-kill them anyways.
Therefore, if you have no insatiable need to kill, is English class a necessity? Questionable.
If you're planning on killing, spend a few semesters in English class. If the feeling is still there, well then it's probably legitimate and important that you do, so I say go for it.
