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Yes. A lot of things done in schools and universities are dumbed down and especially so in the arts. The difference between Jane Eyre and that American book is the one is quintessentially English and the other is Yank talk. When at school you only have a brief time to sample what great works people have done in the past and I suppose it might only take one or two and that would show the children that there is more out there than the Mc culture we have today.
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Fair enough, you are entitled to your opinion. I do get the impression you probably didn't "get" the book though. Have you noticed the references to Burns in it? Did you know the book has actually been challenged by those in the censorship brigade?
It was also written as a play and a story at the same time, and the book is divided into acts for example
When I read it at school, in history where we studying the great depression so it complimented those lessons.
To suggest it was "dumbed" down though, would suggest the authour wrote the book to be "dumbed" down (when he was actually writing from experience), unless you mean the book was chosen to "dumb" down the lesson, in which case I disagree with you.
As for yank culture, well yes it's a book about America so what do you expect?
With regards to school yes it's true there is only a limited amount of time to sample the vast array of types of literature of which many countries have contributed too.
Of the top of my head at school I can remember we studied:
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck, A Christmas Carol - Dickens, Romeo and Julliet - Shakespear, Macbeth - Shakespear.
I can also remember snippets of other books and plays but it's going back a number of years now
Back to the book though, to be honest, no offence intended I think you are looking for a "dumbing" down where one does not exist.
I agree there has def been a dumbing down in education, but I certainly would not call a novel written in 1937 by a noble prize winning author dumbed down.
Ea of dune