Saturday, May 12, 2001
Cliff’s notes lasting
legacy to all students
By Bill Whitaker
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Cliff Hillegass’ death last weekend
may have gone unnoticed by millions of high school and college
students, but most have had at least one occasion to read his
works.
Whether they gained scholarly edification
from his contributions or merely a passing grade is another matter.
Sooner or later, though, most budding scholars
consult Hillegass’ creation — Cliffs Notes, succinct,
readily analytical, boiled-down versions of everything from Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Melville’s Moby Dick to
Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
Although summaries of great novels have
become commonplace on the Internet in recent years — and
for free — students still find occasions to avail themselves
of Cliffs Notes. On occasion, even teachers use them.
“We had to read Great Expectations
in school and it’s pretty boring,” said 15-year-old
Abilene High student Bobby Greer, referring to the intricately
plotted Charles Dickens classic. “Our teacher described it
as slightly less boring than the King James version of the Bible.
“So I used the Cliffs Notes. In fact,
our teacher used it for a breakdown he did of what was going on
in the novel.”
Such has always been the charm of Cliffs
Notes — cutting through artful prose, rambling descriptions
and convoluted plots to render a novel to its bare-bone basics.
But few have paused to wonder just who “Cliff” was —
or if one even existed.
Exist he did. Hillegass, who died at age
83 last Saturday at his home in Lincoln, Neb., founded Cliffs
Notes in 1958, writing the first study guides in the basement
of his home. His premiere guide tackled Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
whittling the Bard’s brilliance down to size.
“I’ve probably used them for every
English paper I’ve ever done,” admitted 21-year-old
Abilene Christian University student Sara Kerens.
“They’re short and to the point
and I don’t have to read a 500-page novel to find out what
it’s about.”
That said, Kerens acknowledges students
are finding other ways of mastering great literary works, including
checking out movie versions: “But you have to be careful
and check out the Cliffs Notes, too, because in the movies a lot
of the endings are changed.”
Although teachers don’t necessarily
condemn such tools as Cliffs Notes out of hand, they also emphasize
the importance of the original novels and plays, if only because
of the nuances in character, setting and irony.
“Our motto is it’s a great supplement,
but not a substitute,” said Verne Popelka, head of Cooper
High School’s English Department.
Popelka suggests Cliffs Notes have taken
something of a hit in popularity, precisely because of numerous
Internet summaries and popular film versions of literary works.
She recalls some students basing papers on a popular film version
of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
The students’ primary source for their
theses quickly became apparent, she said, “because in the
movie Hester and Dimmesdale ride off into the sunset and he doesn’t
die, and I had a lot of kids who really messed up on that one.”
Jason Mida, 20, ACU’s student body
president, suspects that while students may use Cliffs Notes plenty
in high school, usage drops significantly once they reach college.
“I used them in high school a lot,”
said Mida, planning a career in law. “Wuthering Heights,
Jane Eyre — really anything by the Bronte sisters. And Heart
of Darkness. Of course, I knew they missed something when it got
down to important things like characterization.
“But don’t get me wrong —
they got me through the Bronte sisters.”
Contact story editor Bill Whitaker at
676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com.
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Copyright
©2001, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps.
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