Table of Contents

-College Essay

-Compare and Contrast-TTTC and SH5

-Position Paper Short Stories

-Frankenstein Essay

-Compare and Contrast-Whitman and Hughes

-Position Paper-Drama Elements-Helen

-Othello Literary Criticism

-Pawnbroker Group Essay

-Prose Response

-Open Ended Question

Author’s Forward

Explaining chaos is never an easy task but since I am the author of these works I

must try. The year has been a nice little journey for my writing skills. I started the year

with what I felt to be little practice in writing from the previous year and anticipated

doing more college level compositions. While this scared me, I was ready for the

challenge and to get myself prepared for the upcoming year as a freshman in college.

In retyping some of my older papers from the beginning of the year, I

came to realize that I wasn’t as horrible as I thought at writing. Most of the early papers,

like TTTC and SH5 and the Frankenstein essay, include well-written position statements

and transitions between paragraphs that make a nice flow. I feel that Frankenstein was

extraordinarily written and shows some of my best skills, while simple, that help make it

a good paper. Simple things like transitions, concrete examples and quotations, and more

in depth analysis of the work instead of general and repeating ideas help the essay stand

out. While the early papers aren’t bad, the middle period of the year I feel like I hit a

wall. The writing became sloppy and not well ordered; stand-alone quotations, poor

vocabulary, and weak position statements became commonplace in these works, such as

the Whitman and Hughes essay or prose response. While some of the essay were timed

writings and performed under stress, I know looking back that I could have written a

better essay if I had just taken the time to look at the simple errors.

The essays in this collection have been retyped and minor errors corrected,

sentences added and deleted, and better analysis added where I felt I could provide more.

While this is a desperate attempt to fix some of the unfixable, such as the prose response,

I feel it added more to some like Whitman and Hughes or the short story essay. The

simple grammar and syntax errors were corrected as I typed them in which made for

cleaner appearance and makes for easier reading.

The embarrassing essays, while more than I’d like, have really helped me learn

what not to do next year. Many times I simply failed to elaborate more into what I was

trying to say or used poor word choice, which caused confusion as well. When typing

essays like TTTC and SH5, I added more explanation to my position statement as well as

in some examples and how they tied back to the topic sentence. Sometimes the error was

simply moving words around or just adding a whole new sentence. I also added more to

the conclusion to wrap the paper up and finish with a different or new idea. The short

story essay was another essay I added quite a few changed too. Similar to the TTTC, I

was vogue and unclear in how I reached my analysis; I just added in a few sentences

where needed and definitely increased the analysis.

The essays I like the most are the Frankenstein piece and the Helen piece. I feel

that I had more time to really prepare for these essays and it shows in the overall work. I

used more quotes from the text, more complex sentence structure, better analysis, and

overall better order and thought process. However, in the Helen essay I had a very lousy

conclusion so I added more lines to draw more closure and not end with a quote. The

Frankenstein only needed minor changes as well; addition of analysis to stand-alone

quotes and addition of a comma or two. If the readers would focus on the most attention

on these two essays I feel that display a truer sense of my writing capability.

So here’s my work; just don’t judge it too harshly!!!

College Essay

Winning The Lottery

Every person learns through life’s experiences, the good and the bad, to develop into a

mature a mature adult. I had a profound experience that gave me further insight into

life’s meaning and my purpose in the world when I signed up for a service trip with my

high school to Charleston, West Virginia during the summer of my senior year. I learned

about the overwhelming power of love, hard work and selfless giving through the people

I met there as well as a desire to use my talents to continue to benefit others.

With my senior year finally approaching, I became inspired to become involved

in more school activities and service projects than I had in the past. As a senior, I wanted

to take advantage of my last year and push myself outside of my comfort zone to try new

experiences. The Appalachia service trip intrigued me but also scared me because I had

never gone an entire week to a site for service. I anticipated doing small home

improvement tasks, like handling power tools or fixing a roof; however, I never expected

to encounter a deeper knowledge of faith, the power to endure hardships, and

unconditional love in the process.

My high school works with a foundation in Charleston, West Virginia to choose

families in the community who need help fixing their homes due to financial situations or

other circumstances. We meet Sandy, a single, sixty year old woman who had adopted

her nephew, Adam. As the week progressed, we learned that Adam was born premature

and was given a short amount of time to live due to all of the complications associated

with his birth. Sandy welcomed Adam into her life and nurtured him with love and

attention to good health. Both Adam and Sandy needed each other over the next four

years as Adam underwent procedures and therapy, and Sandy and her husband divorced.

Sandy’s incredible endurance through her hardships and continued optimistic outlook on

life surprised me. She continued to love with all her heart, opening herself up to our

group and sharing all she had, physically and emotionally with us. I learned through

Sandy that life is unpredictable, but the important part of life is to take what is given to

me and do my absolute best to make the most of it.

While Sandy’s home was in need of repair, Sandy taught me that I was the one in

need of repair on my outlook of life. On our first day of work, Sandy greeted us at the

door with a big smile and welcome. Her words struck me and left a lasting impact on my

life. She told us the day was a good day because she had won the lottery; we were

confused until she told us that we were her prizes. After spending a week with Sandy;

she was wrong about only one thing; Sandy was definitely my prize. She never misses

the small and beautiful things of life that I so often look past, like a single bloom on her

Rose of Sharon that first day. She always put herself second and looked to make things

better in simple ways. Her outlook on life, her unconditional and unwavering love for

others, and determination to never give up has left a lasting impression on me that I will

always carry.

Through Sandy and my service trip, I further understand what I want to do with

my future. My goal is one day to become a physician and help those who are in need

physically; but I want to help them emotionally as well. I want to provide the best

healthcare I can while establishing a base of love and trust in my patients. I want to

touch the lives of others and offer hope to them when they feel lost. By serving Sandy

and Adam, I realized that medicine and therapy can only carry a person so far, while faith

in God and love provide the real healing. I want to further serve those in need through

my care in medicine and my outlook so that all my patients will feel as if they won the

lottery.

Compare and Contrast- TTTC and SH5

Heroes, in a traditional sense, are central characters in literature that perform great things

or are present in the climax of a plot. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and

Slaughter-House 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, heroes are characters who display uncharacteristic

traits of extraordinary courage and cowardice.

The central characters, Tim O’Brien and Billy Pilgrim, are not war heroes. The

novels do not glorify war and therefore do not present war heroes as glorified killers or

extreme saviors. Tim O’Brien is an average soldier who survives and O’Brien the author

presents this as enough to be classified as a hero. Tim O’Brien lives while his friends,

Kurt Lemon and Kiowa, die around him as well as his personality; however, Tim lives on

after his inner struggle of dealing with the experience compared to Norman Barker who

commits suicide. Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim is another antihero in the novel. Instead of

taking action against events, like his death or capture by aliens, Billy Pilgrim accepts

these events and endures the effects of them. These characters show cowardice in their

actions; never the less, the authors use them as tools to show war’s unflattering realities

by displaying their nonexistent attempts to accept or change what is occurring around

them.

While both novels claim that the events and people in their plots are made up,

there are truths and realisms that each novel holds. Furthermore, the authors use savior

motifs, like Christ, to display untraditional war heroes who take responsibility or display

acceptances of a fate that a standard war hero would not. In each novel, a savior motif of

Christ is evident. O’Brien portrays Jimmy Cross, the lieutenant, as a leader who takes the

lives of his men on his shoulders even though he knows he shouldn’t care about them.

Like Christ carried the cross, Jimmy carries the burden of keeping his men safe after he

feels he has let down one of his soldiers who is shot down in a field because of his

daydreaming. Vonnegut presents the savior motif in a central character with parallelisms

to Christ. Billy Pilgrim is a figure of ridicule, like Christ, for his looks as a lanky and

poorly dressed soldier who also knows how he will die but accepts his fate. The authors

extend further than the traditional war hero in their novels to highlight their views on war

as being dark and unnecessary.

In addition to untraditional characteristics and Christ like savior motifs, O’Brien

and Vonnegut present heroes who stand up for what they believe. Tim O’Brien, the

character, is afraid to go to war but also does not possess a strong enough personality to

defy war either; therefore, Tim risks his life for a war he doesn’t believe in to avoid

humiliation from his parents, friends, community, and country. Contrary to O’Brien,

Vonnegut’s character Derby stands up for his beliefs and country when he refuses to join

an American traitor. The authors stress their views of a hero through the actions of their

characters who stand up for what they believe.

While The Things They Carried and Slaughter-House 5 are war novels with

untraditional heroes, each novel presents an anit-American sentiment. O’Brien harasses

America for being involved with a pointless war that kills so many. O’Brien talks of

soldiers being forced with no other but to serve their country and of endless wandering

through Vietnam with no plan of action for defeating their enemy. Vonnegut also shows

similar anti-Ameican sentiment by harassing America for bombing Dresden and killing

American soldiers when Dresden held not threat. While both novels do not glorify war,

they hold truths about life and the emotions associated with every experience that are

relevant and relatable.

Position Paper Short Story

To captivate and demonstrate a central message, authors use different literary

tools and elements to highlight components that relate back to their message. In

“Eveline” by James Joyce, “Sin Dolar” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, and “The Secret To

Not Getting Stuck” by Jay Woodruff, the authors further their purposes of writing

through the literary tool of theme. The authors’ shared themes involve physical pain

versus emotional pain and the idea that pain affects a person more than any other

emotion.

In “Eveline”, Joyce portrays both physical and emotional pain through his

character Eveline and her life compromising decisions. As the protagonist, Eveline

endures many hardships, like loneliness, hard, physical work, and worries of money and

abuse. While Eveline wishes to escape this life, she chooses to stay with her father and

risk physical abuse rather than the unknown with her secret lover, Frank. Joyce provides

an escape for Eveline with Frank; however, the emotional pain of leaving behind her

father and brother overpowers her dreams of happiness to further endure physical pain by

staying. Joyce’s theme of pain highlights the idea that life comes with both emotional

and physical pain, which is unavoidable.

Boyle uses the theme of emotional pain being more burdensome than physical

pain in “Sin Dolar”. Boyle’s protagonist, Damaso, cannot feel physical pain because of a

birth defect; however, he does feel emotional pain which other characters fail to

acknowledge. Like Eveline, Damaso feels indebted to his family and exhibits his birth

defect as a means for providing money for them. Damaso doesn’t like portraying himself

as a “freak”; never the less, he undergoes this humiliation as self-sacrifice and endures

the emotional pain quietly. Though physical pain is not felt, Damaso’s emotional pain

exceeds its limit when he takes his life to escape the life he leads. Similar to Joyce,

Boyle’s purpose is shown in his theme that there will always be pain in the world, either

physical or emotional.

Though the use of theme, Woodruff’s protagonist also endures physical pain in

his wrestling and emotional pain as his parents complete their divorce and his father

commits suicide. As a wrestler, he pushes himself to the limit to become stronger and

powerful; however, he is not able to escape being emotionally weak. The death of his

father affects him to the core and as a result, affects his wrestling which causes him to

lose his match due to a physical injury. Like Eveline and Damaso, the main character

feels indebted to his father on the mat and always tries to win in order to have a

relationship with him; he sacrifices himself and pushes aside his emotions for his father.

Similar to Joyce and Boyle, Woodruff’s theme of being unable to escape pain is

conveyed by the struggle between the character’s emotional pain and physical pain.

The themes in “Eveline”, “Sin Dolar”, and “The Secret To Not Getting Stuck” all

include life with pain, both physical and emotional, and not being able to escape them.

Eveline, Damaso, and the boy all have duties to their families and sacrifice themselves to

some way in order to fulfill their duties; this develops the plot and thus the theme of the

stories. While pain will always be present, the authors’ purposes illustrate that escaping

pain is impossible and life without pain is not a reality.

Frankenstein Essay

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley embraces the Romantic Movement and style

throughout the work. Much of the setting of Frankenstein takes place in the country, with

an emphasis on its natural beauty and tranquility. Mary Shelly depicts the Romanticist’s

ideas through a genre of horror, which further stresses the theme of nature as being

beautiful, perfect, and unrestrained.

Shelley’s main character and tragic figure, Victor Frankenstein, attempts to test

the boundaries of nature by creating life. He works for two years to finish his creation of

a man; however, the creature is so ugly and disgusting after life is infused into it that

Victor runs away. Victor realizes that his creation is not something good but never stops

to think of his consequences, “I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but

when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such

as even Dante could not have conceived”(36). While Victor had expected the creation to

be ugly, he never imagined that the creature would bring so much ugliness into the world

in his actions. The monster displays a contrast to the ideals of Romanticism through its

character; the creature is ugly in appearance, evil when he kills and emotionally tortures

Victor, flawed in his ability to control his emotions, and inconsistent in his range of

feelings, all because he is not human, but rather in imitation.

Throughout Frankenstein, nature is viewed with a distinction of good versus evil.

Shelley portrays nature as good when the characters accept nature for its beauty and

embrace its virtuous features. The country is seen as a place of provision for the

creature’s human needs such as food and water. The country is also where the cottagers

live that taught the creature, unknowingly, the virtues of goodness; because of the

cottagers, the creature learns the qualities of acceptance, endurance, and unbound love.

Nature also played its role in bringing peace to the characters when burdened. Nature

bring Victor peace and rest and provides an escape for him from stress in his life, “I lay at

the bottom of the boat, and, as I gazed on the cloudless blue sky, I seemed to drink in a

tranquility to which I had long been a stranger”(112). Many times when Victor retreats

to the mountains for peace or Henry Clerval points out the beauty in simple flowers,

Shelley is depicting the Romanticist’s ideals of nature.

Shelley portrays the wickedness and evil of man trying to control nature through

her contrast in views of nature. While nature is seen as beautiful and perfect, Shelley also

portrays nature as isolate, bleak, and wild. The vivid contrast in the monster to nature

highlights the Romanticist’s ideals, “A flash of lightning illuminated the object, and

discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect,

more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed that it was the wretch, the

filthy daemon to whom I had given life”(50). Changes in nature such as a storm or

darkness bring death or the creature into Victor’s life. Shelley’s depiction of the setting

makes the contrast of what nature should be and what Victor has done as being unnatural

and outside a human’s control by creating life.

Mary Shelley illustrates the theme of humans being unable to control nature

through science in her setting of the county. Shelley wants to exemplify through her

setting that humans have a responsibility to embrace nature and to enjoy it. Shelley

believes that nature has a healing power, which if humans accept, will benefit them.

Furthermore, Shelley conveys that nature is uncontrollable and no human has the power

to act as a creator; thus, humans should consume the benefits of nature and leave the

power to the “Omnipotent”.

Compare and Contrast- Whitman and Hughes

America has always been composed of a variety of ethnicities and cultures

combined to form a unique and unified country. In “I Hear America Singing” by Walt

Whitman and “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, the positive undertones of the

authors portray optimistic and proud attitudes through their diction and tone shifts. Both

Whitman and Hughes themes portray America as a unified body.

Through diction, the attitudes of optimism and celebration are exemplified.

Whitman uses words like “singing”, “melodies”, and “robust” to describe the American

people. His diction implies an upbeat attitude that makes his subject light and inviting.

Like Whitman, Hughes’ diction holds tones of optimism. Hughes uses light words like

“beautiful” and “laugh”; however, Hughes also includes darker diction to contrast his

purpose. Hughes reaches to break down the racial barriers and include African American

population in the “unified America” that Whitman writes. Therefore, Hughes uses

diction like “darker brother” and “ashamed” which contrasts to his lighter diction.

However, both poems use the word “strong”, creating a link between the poems as they

are both describing a growing and changing America.

In addition to diction, Whitman and Hughes have dramatic shifts in tone that

highlight their attitudes. Whitman’s change occurs on line 9, where he shifts from a

variety of voices to a single unified voice. This change exemplifies his proud attitude

that America is varied and different but remains a single body; “each singing what

belongs to her, and to none else”. Like Whitman, Hughes’ shift occurs in line 8 from

scattered voices to one of unity. He says,” Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table” which

connects to his purpose of joining America as one.

Both Whitman and Hughes see America as one and are optimistic that America

will stay strong and collaborative in the future. Though both authors share similar

attitudes in their poems, their attitudes are within different contexts. Whitman celebrates

America as it is now while Hughes celebrates an America in the future sense. The

different perspectives of the authors creates a further emphasis that America is diverse

and made of many different options but she still remains one country.

Position Paper-Drama Elements-Helen

The story of Helen and the Trojan War are epic; however, Euripides’ Helen

portrays the heroine as escaping Greece and being transposed to Egypt. The internal

struggles of the characters create a complex story plot that intently focuses on universal

suffering. Rachel Hadas’ modern translation of Helen preserves the theme of universal

suffering displayed from a feministic position.

Through diction, Hadas’ feminist view on universal suffering is emphasized.

Much of the struggle and hardship encountered by the characters become a direct result

of Helen. However, Helen does not deny her fault in the war, “The fault is all my fault/

the shame, my shame”(157); furthermore, she internally punishes herself with accepting

the full burden of the death and pain experienced by others on her account. Helen’s

words while grieving, “screaming/ a shrill cry” and “melody and pain” create images of

women with music and shrill voices; however, the contrasting words display the

harshness and therefore the suffering of Helen (156). Not only does Helen suffer,

Menelaus and Teucer both speak dialogue laden with torment, which they blame on her.

Teucer calls Helen a “vile woman/ vicious enemy” while Menelaus rejects Helen for not

believing her to be the mortal Helen as he exits, “Not you- it’s my own troubles that I

flee” (153,174). Hadas’ feministic style is most resonant in the vocal chorus comprised

of women who encourage, “don’t be so sure that all he said was true”, and sympathize,

“Lady/ we know your pain”, with Helen (160,157).

In addition to diction, Hadas further portrays the theme of universal suffering

through the perspective of a feminist. The women’s position in society, particularly

Helen’s, are highlighted as the men in the story forbid her from escaping her situation

through their words and actions. Helen is repressed by her womanly nature, which

prevents her from becoming more active in escaping her suffering. Helen’s marriage to

Theoclymenus is destined though Helen feels disgusted by the idea, “Marriage might be a

bulwark against pain/ but could I live with a barbarian?” (160). Helen can not escape

because of her inability to provide herself with basic necessities as well as the emotions

of Greeks and Trojans alike who would avenge their own pain on her. Teucer, a fellow

Greek, proclaimed, “If I were not on foreign soil/ I vow/ this arrow would have shot you

dead by now”(150). Menelaus, her own husband, calls her, “the cause of all my misery”

as he conveys his hardships of fighting and wandering (164). Though easy for the men to

blame the war on Helen, an easy scapegoat, the “suffering and confusion that are the

legacy of war cannot dissolve into air like phantoms; they are all too real” (144). Helen

must deal with the deaths of the soldiers, of her family members, and the effects of the

situation on her children; furthermore, the Trojans must cope with their fallen city while

the Greeks remain without a king for several years. The effects of the war are long

lasting and devastating to many despite Helen’s happy reunion with her husband.

While suffering remains a constant theme throughout the play, the idea of

immoral gods controlling destiny is significant too. Like suffering, the theme of destiny

and gods’ wills hold feminist ideals. Hadas depicts Helen’s beauty as both a negative

hindrance as well as a gift from the gods. Without Helen’s beauty, no war would have

taken place; thus, the suffering endured by many would be nonexistent. The war was

willed to start and end at request of the gods. Furthermore, Theoclymenus accepts that

the will of the gods for Helen to leave and celebrates her, “take delight in her nobility- no

common trait in womankind” (225). The womanly chorus emphasizes the idea of the

role of the gods; “What is divine is multiform/ What we await may remain incomplete/

What seemed implausible/ god may make possible” (226). Hadas exemplifies the

powerlessness of woman at the time as being hindered by men and gods which is the

cause of Helen’s pain and others experienced in the war.

Othello Literary Criticism

In “Race and the Spectacle of the Monstrous in Othello”, Aubrey discusses

modern views of blacks and their preconceived ideas of their characters. Aubrey

describes the society during the time of Othello’s production to better understand the true

depth of the play. In the early 1600’s, blacks were still being incorporated into English

society and were relatively exotic and uncommon. While blacks were being used as

slaves or house maids, most people believed blacks to be monsters and beasts due to

media publications talking of blacks. Shakespeare wrote the play with the same ideas

and concepts in his mind which explains the many references to Othello as monstrous or

overbearing to fit the stereotype. However, Shakespeare adds more to Othello’s character

as Othello shows feelings and actions uncommon to this known stereotype. Aubrey also

discusses the idea that not only are monsters motifs in the literal sense but in the sense of

idea as characters talk of monstrous ideas being conceived and born. This article is

helpful in understanding the audience that Shakespeare was writing for and their

reconvened ideas of blacks at the time to fully understand the importance of Othello

being a Moor.

In the article, Taylor examines Iago’s role in instigating the drama and action of

play. In addition, Shakespeare uses Iago as the central character for irony in the play;

Iago is a deceiving character that undermines the characters into believing that he is an

honest and honorable man. However, Shakespeare has informed the audience of the

irony of Iago and allows them to witness Iago’s feelings and determination of cunning

against the other characters. In this sense, the audience can relate with Iago and see his

character as a reality so much so that the natural inclination is to despise the other

charactrs for not seeing the trickery of Iago coming. This article helps in pointing out

Shakespeare’s tool of irony throughout the play as well as getting a deeper understanding

of Iago’s actions to come.

“The Pawnbroker” Group Essay

In “The Pawnbroker” by Maxin Kumin, the speaker reflects on her outside and

inside worlds and how they affect her life and emotions.  Kumin’s outside and inside

worlds intertwine to create a loving relationship between her and her father.  For Maxin

Kumin, the harsh outside world contributes to the pain and love she feels in her inside

world, which is made evident through diction, imagery and symbolism.

The connections between the outside and inside worlds of the speaker are

depicted through vivid diction.  Kumin’s father’s occupation is connected with her own

feelings of grief and love at his death because of how closely connected her father was to

his occupation.  With words like “hurt”, repeated in stanzas 1, 4, 5, Kumin defines the

pain her father experienced in his occupation, which weighed down on her as well. 

Similarly, “secondhand0, in stanza 3, connects her father’s occupation as a pawnbroker to

how he provided for the family and their outside world.  In addition to “secondhand”

and20“hurt” Kumin uses words like “sharp”, “beat”, and “stains”, to display the burden

of the job on her father and the weight of his hard work.  However, the inside world of

Kumin is greatly influenced by her outside world.  In stanza 6, she shifts from

“secondhand” to “firsthand” to show her transition to her inside world.  Kumin uses

words like “love” and “grace” to describe her father as well as “prince” in stanza 8. 

Kumin highly regards her father and her grief is evident in stanza 1 where words like

“tender”, “smooth”, and “white” describe her father in death; making a stark contrast to

the sharp word choice in describing her outside world.  Lastly, Kumin refers to the

“sacrament” of taking over her father’s job and “closing down”; thus, the speaker

connects her father’s occupation to who he was and closing down his shop is like him

dying again to Kumin.

Imagery plays a predominant role in portraying both the pain of the outside world

and conflicted feelings of Kumin’s20inside world.  Life as a pawnbroker is not always

fulfilling and Kumin said her father was “standing behind the counter waiting on trade,”

(Stanza 1) which gives the idea of business being slow and weighing him down.  Kumin

also discusses the outside world pain her father felt due to not being able to provide

sufficiently for her family; this feeling “gave him a pain – part anger, part wonder; as

sharp as gravel inside his lisle socks” (Stanza 2).  The imagery of sharp gravel portrays

the intensity of his feelings and makes the comparison more alive.  The pain and

dedication of Kumin’s father intensified her love for him which made her grieve his death

even more.  Kumin described her relationship to her father as “a love ingrown tight as an

oyster” (Stanza 6); this oyster imagery conveys a relationship which is secret but still

very tight and close.  The death of Kumin’s father affected her significantly; “my first

prince whom death unhorsed lay soberly dressed and barefoot to be burned” (Stanza 8). 

The image of her father’s body laying dead conveys her true affection and love of her

father which she will always grieve even though he is dead and gone; Diverse imagery is

used by Kumin to portray the pain and emotions caused by her father’s occupation which

contribute to the great love and grief she experiences due to his death.   

Kumin connects the aspects from both, the outside world of hard work, and the

inside world of great love and grief, through symbolism.  His feet symbolize her father’s

journey.  In the first stanza his “tender and smooth feet” symbolize a long peaceful

journey through the outside world.  Although he put in much work, with great effort, he

worked with ease and pride.   In the second stanza, Kumin uses her father’s pain felt from

his children’s bare feet to symbolize his agony within his inside world.  To him, bare feet

mean his family lives deficiently.  Deficient living conditions suggest that he is incapable

of providing for his family, which in fact is untrue.   In stanza four Kumin states that his

feet ‘were graceful and clean’ better illustrating his peaceful journey.   However, this too

is=2 0symbolic of her father’s pure heart.  No matter how much he hurt, he continues to

work so that he may provide for his family.  Kumin realized this strong love from her

father, and uses an oyster as the ultimate symbol of their love for one another.  The oyster

a strong and protective yet simple creature brings a deeper meaning to the love between

this father and daughter.  The oyster shell compares to the work of the father, not

beautiful but protects and gives strength to the family.  The real gift is hidden beneath the

hurt of the outside world and is shown through the pearl of the inside world, that is the

love between Kumin and her father.

In order to maintain a healthy balance, Kumin realizes she must keep her inside

and outside worlds in equilibrium.  Kumin focuses on a good, loving relationship with

her father, which she nourishes by acknowledging by her father’s provisions, and love on

her outside world.  As beings of a complex universe, all aspects of life must be accounted

for in all aspects of relationships.  The inside and outside worlds of people contribute t o

the wholeness of a person.  Pain and grief are essential to understanding love and grace.

Prose Response

In the passage from George Eliot’s novel, Middlemarch, the narrator expresses a

mocking attitude towards Dorothea Brooke. Through much of the passage, the narrator

openly and subtly mocks her dress, religion, and personality as being ridiculous and

petty. Eliot uses allusions and point of view to express the narrator’s attitude towards

Dorothea.

Eliot’s use of allusions continually mocks Dorothea throughout the passage. In

describing her clothes, the narrator refers to the “Blessed Virgin” to depict the plainness

and lack of style Dorothea has. The narrator also refers to her elevated knowledge of

Pascal’s Pensees and Jeremy Taylor which drew her mind away from fashion and

considered fashion to be “Bedlam and unnecessary”. In addition to mocking her

clothing, the narrator highlights Dorothea’s “childlike ideas about marriage” when he

mentions the “Hooker” and “John Milton” who she would have made better husbands if

she lived in their times.

Furthermore, Eliot uses the point of view of the narrator to further instill a

mocking attitude toward Dorothea. The point of the view of the narrator is first person

limited, providing a more focused attention to Dorothea. By using first person, Eliot

portrays Dorothea less formally; however, he still provides a close and detailed, yet

mocking, examination of her. His use of similes and metaphors are exemplified by the

use of first person to create a more intimate and less formal tone. In line 28, the narrator

talks of Dorothea as “likely to seek martyrdom” and in line 45, “ like her religion” to

draw attention to her silly views.

Eliot’s use of allusions and point of view heighten his attitude toward Dorothea.

His attitude is clearly mocking yet holds undertones of admiration towards her. He

mentions her being “bewitching on horseback” yet dismisses this quality because the rest

of her personality is so ridiculous. Eliot portrayed Dorothea to be an “open, ardent” and

“yearning” woman who did not see her own potential.

Open Ended Question

In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, scenes of violence are incorporated

throughout the work. O’Brien uses scenes of violence to deepen the meaning of the book

and to better convey his thoughts on war and the affects it leaves on people. O’Brien

uses violence to make the story more realistic, play off the audiences’ emotions, and

discuss war to highlight his meaning.

By using violence such as war recollections and flashbacks to scenes of combat

for the characters, O’Brien makes the story and character of Tim O’Brien very realistic.

The characters remember the same scenes such as Lemon being blown up or the night

Kiowa died, making a repetition to emphasize the mental pain created by the situation for

war. The repetition of the same stories creates an a sense of realism as the same

character, event or detail is mentioned so often. The reality f violence is very prevalent to

the world, especially today, which is the message O’Brien tries to demonstrate by making

his war stories and flashbacks relatable.

In addition to making the book realistic, O’Brien uses the audiences’ emotions

regarding violence to highlight his mean and them of the book. O’Brien tells many

stories of pain and sorrow as he recalls losing friends to bombs and leaving behind family

and loved ones at home. He tells of one soldier being shot in the head and dropping dead

in front of them and the Captain’s obsession with a girl back home to allow the audience

to sympathize with the characters and understand their emotions even if the audience has

never been to war. He talks of soldiers killing themselves when they got home and

returning after the war for closure which also play on the audience’s emotions. O’Brien

wants the audience to feel as affected by the war as the characters in order to understand

that violence is horrible and war is extremely messy.

Violence is most prevalently used in The Things They Carried to convey

O’Brien’s feelings of war. While the entire book does not take place in Vietnam and in

combat, a large portion of the book concentrations strictly on the war and the affects war

being the central theme. The main character O’Brien does not like war and sees the

entire experience as a burden and not something he supports. The character O’Brien’s

feelings on war don’t change throughout the work; however, he learns to cope with his

dislike and does what he needs to stay alive. O’Brien wants the audience to see that

violence is unnecessary and an evil that affects the lives of so many in various and hidden

ways. The continuous negative tone towards the war throughout the book strengthens the

audience’s dislike for violence simultaneously.

Violence carries a lot of weight and negative connation with it that can be seen in

The Things They Carried. The characters carried with them all of the violence, hatred,

and various emotions that resulted from violence and war. O’Brien throws a twist in at

the end of the book by saying that the story isn’t real and these things didn’t happen;

however, he’s also saying they did happen and do happen at the same time. He stresses

that these men that carries the affects of war are the true war heroes, not those that kill the

most or win the most battles. O’Brien believes violence is wrong and it is up to the world

in how it chooses to stop or contribute to it.