Recasting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 1 (Essay)

In recasting the Canterbury Tales, I thought it would be appropriate to modify the Clerk into a good representation of Tech’s overall student body. Instead of a poor student of philosophy, the Clerk, in my setting, is an incoming freshman studying Aerospace Engineering. Student’s at Tech view Aerospace as one of the most stressful and challenging courses taking on the heaviest class schedule. With the amount of stress and pressure that comes with the territory, I see the Clerk as being a disheveled teenager who looks like he hasn’t showered in a couple of days. Hovering over countless amounts of reading material and several cups of coffee, the Clerk spends most of his time at the Library. Sleeping and studying are pretty much the highlights of his week, and he only leaves his dorm either to head over to the Library or go to class. This is a huge stereotype seeing as how not all student’s at Tech display this sort of character, but it’s not too far off of a description. In the Canterbury Tales, the Clerk is viewed as a dedicated student where he spends almost all of his money on books and learning leaving nothing to purchase proper clothing. He is said to look wan and threadbare. The Clerk, at Tech, has trouble developing any sort of female relationship due to his shy nature and undeveloped social skills. I mean he’s spent most of his life shielded from society by his parents. You couldn’t expect him to just jump into the student life and start being outgoing. But, in response to the Tales, I will recast my character as a some what multi-dimensional person who does in fact broaden his scope of learning. Rather than a student of just Aerospace Engineering, the new Clerk expresses a need to reach out to the minorities by learning multiple languages. Fluent in spanish, german, and french, the Clerk feels he can one day become an "ambassador" for the NASA program. His desire in life is to help unite the world's space technology to increase progression in space science and efficiency. Chaucer's perspective of the Clerk doesn't give him justice. Chaucer views him as being a nerdy kid who doesn't talk very much. Although the Clerk has this abundance of knowledge, his shyness gets in the way of expressing his own views and intelligence. It's almost as if Chaucer is trying to influence society to express their views freely and don't be afraid to take chances to portray your intelligence.