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In seventh grade, I was first introduced to the theory of evolution in my general science class. I never questioned it or thought it to be controversial, as I was never taught the idea of creationism.  When I learned about evolution more extensively in high school, I again did not really think it was a controversial subject matter because my professors did not force us to whole-heartedly believe the theory, they simply told us the facts and moved on to the next topic in the course.  

The Origin of Species was the central topic discussed during the evolution portion of the course, and I did not ever consider reading the actual text and simply thought of it as a stepping stone in biological history that was mentioned in biology courses.  This is why I am finding it difficult to read as a novel.  I have a preconceived notion that The Origin of Species is a scientific text that radically changed the way that human evolution was thought to have occurred, from having a religious influence to being backed by empirical scientific facts.  So during the small groups, when we were analyzing the language used by Darwin, who he wrote it for, and how personal he made the text, I began to think of it as a novel, which I am somewhat uncomfortable with.  Hopefully, throughout the course of the semester, I will be able to find a balance between accepting The Origin of Species as a novel as well as a scientific paper.