Well...

...i feel like kiling myself a little bit because I honestly cannot find Ms.Clapp's blog, or the space she set apart for our book clubs. Or maybe I'm being delusional and it never happened and I only think she said something about setting up a spot for each of our groups. Or maybe I just don't know how to work a blog. Yes, that must be it.

I give up.

Theme Essay Boot Camp

Jezebel

Per. 3

Faith Lost

The loss of a person’s faith can lead to isolation and cynicalness as displayed by Goodman Brown in the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The theme is composed by the thrusting of the protagonist into an unfamiliar location where he is first alone and tempted, then he is shown the good faithul people of his town performing a ritual that defies everything he knows of his neighbors; thus, when he comes back into the village having lost his faith he can no longer look his nieghbors in the eye and becomes a “distrustful” man. Young Goodman Brown encounters a companion who serves to him a symbol of temptation who the author utilizes to implant doubt in the mind of Goodman Brown. Once Goodman Brown has lost his faith, he has all the reason to be bitter and distrustful and none to be good-natured.

Goodman Brown is a religious and faithful man surrounded by pious people. He has never strayed as he tells his companion he will not be the one to take “this path”, that he “abides no such wickedness”. His companion serves to tell him he is “well acquainted” with Goodman Brown’s family and they have all taken many a “pleasant walk” through the path he refuses to take. Goodman Brown acquiesces eventually as his faith takes the ultimate dive. He sees many people of his town gathering to perform a ritual. If even his catechism teacher is using “wolfbane” and the “fat of a new born babe” to anoint herself with and is proclaimed the friend of the “devil”, Goodman Brown has no reason to trust anyone. His mind is distorted by the image of his friends committing sin. Yet, if all his neighbors are faithful and religious and they commit sin then Goodman Brown has no reason to view them as pious and just people, merely hypocrites. Goodman Brown is changed by the test given to his faith that he does not pass.

Goodman Brown is seen coming into the village and the imagery describing his actions portray a an isolated and cynical man. When his minister bestows a blessing upon him, he “shrank” from the “venerable saint” and wonders aloud “what God doth the wizard pray to” in reference to Deacon Goodkin praying. Goodman Brown even passes his wife “without a greeting”. He is physically distancing himself from the rest of the village which in turn leads to isolation. Goodman Brown was no longer the optimistic and cheerful man in the beginning of the story who would “cling” to his wife’s skirt and “follow her to heaven”. Goodman Brown now questions God indicating the loss of his faith. Goodman Brown is “a distrustful” man, where blessings and preaching cannot enter his ear “because an anthem of sin” reaches it instead.

The author shows Goodman Brown as a religious man so the doubts for his religion would be considered a poignant moment in his life. Even though what the protagonist saw in the story was just a “fearful dream”, the dream was fearful enough for him to lose his faith. The loss of his faith then distances him from his town and congregation because he no longer believes in God and sees no reason to consort with the faithful people of his town. He becomes an isolated and cynical man in the end, where not even a “hopeful verse” was carved on his tombstone, “for his dying hour was gloom.”

Faulkner Style story

Faulkner style

Tainara Candido

AP English

The Rebirth of Jane

Holding her nose as familiar hands plunged her head underwater, Jane’s family speculated upon her particular choice of path in life. A devout Christian whose mornings,noons, and nights were spent kneeling upon the cold hard ground of her bedroom reciting prayers and asking for a blessing from God in her life, Jane was considered a parent’s great blessing. Most teenagers of her period worried themselves with their primping and their manner of dress but Jane took time apart for the Lord. Never would Jane dream of going out to the movies unattended with a member of the opposite sex, or in fact even going in the first place. Jane was a well-respected young woman and now there was finally proof of her devotion to God, proof of her hard spent moments of Christianity, she was gaining favor in the eyes of the Lord, for what else is there to gain? Truly, all Jane needed was the favor of the Lord, for why would she need anything else?

Jane’s heart had begun to beat at a faster pace, threatening to burst out of her chest and onto the ground as Jane expressed doubts in her mind of the actions she was taking. As the cold, wet hands of her Pastor and Deacon touched her head and shoulders in an effort to hold her body underneath the water and raise her back up, Jane shuddered as a feeling of helplessness came upon her, nagging at her mind to stop whatever she was doing. She pushed the throughts far into the back of her head and forced herself to concentrate upon the task at hand; her baptism. This is it! Finally, I’m getting baptized, Jane’s thoughts conveyed a message of longing and happiness for her supposed dream was being realized, but her feelings and body betrayed Jane. She suddenly felt an emptiness that reached the depths of her soul and nullified her spirit, and Jane could not fathom why she was being submerged in water at that moment. That defining moment in Jane’s life when her mind and heart connected as she released herself from their hold and sprinted towards the sand. Upon falling to her knees, Jane did not pray for the forgiveness of God and felt no guilt towards her actions, on the contrary Jane felt relieved. Her family, friends and church members rushed to her but the scream of no emitted from her lips so fiercely and harshly, everyone stopped in their tracks and stared. Jane’s pressure caused her escape from the hands of God and subsequent breakdown. She felt empty precisely at the moment God’s spirit was supposed to have entered her.

Months later, after her strange behavior, initial breakdown and then hospitalization, members of the Church congregation whispered to themselves that the devil had overtaken Jane’s body and she found herself unable to resist. Her family members racked their brains for any sign of trouble they might have percieved or any moment where anything went wrong. They didn’t realize at the moment Jane was dunked into the water, the emptiness that arose in the pits of her stomach rivaled the love Jane had felt for Jesus Christ and through a brief struggle for control, that feeling of emptiness had won. For the feeling had been so strong, Jane couldn’t tolerate it and escaped to feel better. However, in the months that had followed, Jane felt guilt claw its way into her body and stopped tending to it. Jane felt guilt at her actions and guilt for no longer loving God, her life had lost meaning the moment she lost God. Guilt had been the only thing on Jane’s mind and as it consumed her, Jane stopped eating and sleeping. Her parents had as a last resort hospitalized their daughter and on the first day, Jane threw herself out of her window, hitting the pavement and died upon impact.

They had always trusted their daughter, yet at her suicide took it upon themselves to investigate its cause. They scoured Jane’s room as explorers who had first scoured the ocean, not knowing what to look for but hoping to find any sign of land. No one knew the reason for her suicide and as was common, placed the blame on themselves. The mark of Jane’s suicide had been imbedded into the hearts of her family and imprinted in their minds, a lasting tattoo that served as a reminder of Jane. Underneath Jane’s bed her diary was located precisely beside her Bible and with its finding, came the discovery of a sinister nature. Jane had not only begun to feel helpless against her religion, but had taken to questioning her orientation and a God who loathed her for what Jane thought she could have been. Upon the burning of the diary and amidst the crackling of the fire soaring towards the heavens, Jane’s secret was cremated and hidden by her family members, who did not wish to become the subject of a scandal and forced themselves to forget about Jane’s secret, as if it had been carried to her grave.

Symbol Essay Boot Camp

Tainara Candido

Ap English

The Children in the Basement of Society

The child in the basement of the city of Omelas and the city itself in the short story, “The Ones who walk away from Omelas” written by Ursula LeGuin, represents society with its problems and suffering people. Omelas is an Utopia where anything desired can be acquired. The child is symbolic of the suffering that can exist in a city, even an utopia. The inhabitants of Omelas do not condone the environment the child lives within, yet the ones who walk away from Omelas do so silently and are still part of the problem. The author’s message conveys the attitude of society towards problems in the world. The town of Omelas is a happy and carefree town where festivals and celebrations occur year-round; yet for there to be happiness there must also be suffering. The child who lives in the basement of the city of Omelas suffers for the rest of Omelians to be happy.

Omelas represents society and its actions towards suffering in the world. The citizens of Omelas are “joyous!” and were focused on happiness. The author describes other people as no longer being able to “make any celebration of joy” and the people of Omelas are the opposite of that, they can describe a happy man for they themselves are happy men. Society today is often too self-absorbed to change anyone’s life. The people of Omelas were too hapy to rescue the child in the basement, the child’s suffering justified by the fact that his suffering made possible the happiness of the people of Omelas. Indeed, if the child were saved, all the “prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed.” In Society, there are people who suffer for the luxury of others. Sweatshops run rampant among popular clothing stores in America, although they themselves are not situated in America. The working and laboring class around the world recieving two dollars a day to make the cheaper clothing of middle-class citizens are suffering and nothing is being done. Society today operates on a basis of “almost-giving”. Many people speak of shows or of stories they have heard where children are being abused and they felt so terrible that they almost “gave” to the children but don’t. The same is true of the people in Omelas who “often go home in years, or in a tearless rage”. A person may become upset, but they will not act upon their feelings and the problems of this world persist. The people of Omelas come to accept the “terrible justice of reality” for to help the child would disrupt the happiness of thousands of lives in Omelas. Exactly the same in society where to take time and to help someone in need, would be to take time out of their busy day and that simply cannot be done.

The Ones who walk away from Omelas are part of the problem as well. They are not seen coming back to the village of Omelas and rescuing the child, they disappear. The ones who “leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.” They remain silent and ignore the problem. If the ones who walked away from Omelas were to do something great and help the child, they would be heard of again in the town indicating that they then became part of the solution. But they do not come back to help the child, they ignore the problem. Some members of society decide to help suffering peoples of the world by contributing to charity and are then absolved of any guilt they might have felt through not helping. However, contributing a small amount of money is not impacting the lives of daily sufferers enough for them to be absolved of any guilt. These members of society do not truly want to help and they too have realized the significance the suffering peoples of the world hold.

The short story of Ursula LeGuin serves as a reminder of human nature. Humans will not solve another person’s problem they deem important to their solution just as the citizens of Omelas will not help the suffering child when his suffering is ensuring their happiness. The Ones who walk away from Omelas are not part of the solution, but still a part of the problem since they are never heard of again. Society realizes they need lower class working peoples that are suffering for the middle-class and upper-class peoples’ luxury; like Omelas realizes the need for the child in the basement of its Utopian society and who is central to their happiness.

Tainara Candido

AP English

So, let me show you how it’s done...

Jorge Luis Borges, author of The Gospel According to Mark, incorporated irony as a literary technique into his short story to establish an ironic Jesus in the form of the protagonist, Espinosa, who unintentionally gives his followers permission to crucify him. Espinosa holds all the characteristics of an ironic Jesus: his age, his appearance, his teachings and most significantly the lack of belief in his teachings. Espinosa reads the bible every night to the Gutres family, the foreman and his family of the ranch where Espinosa was invited to spend the summer. Through his reading of the Gospel According to Saint Mark, a book of the bible, Espinosa unwittingly teaches the Gutres family he is Jesus Christ and confirmation is seen through his miracles. Espinosa preaches salvation to them but they misunderstand that salvation comes through the form of the crucixion and must be repeated with Espinosa.

Espinosa is a man thirty three years of age who possessed an almost “unlimited kindness” and a capacity for “public speaking”, and had even “grown a beard.” All the qualities Espinosa contained profiled him as a Jesus Christ figure. He taught the Bible to the Gutre family reading the text of the Gospel According to Saint Mark but did not necessarily believe in what he was teaching. Espinosa was labeled early on in the short story as a “free-thinker” which is ironic of him as Jesus Christ, because Christians are not free-thinkers. Rather, Christians follow the Christian doctrine and the Bible and believe in its laws and teachings. Espinosa performed miracles in the Gutres household healing a pet lamb and for any problem that occurred in the household, Espinosa was consulted. The Gutres looked to him as a guide and Espinosa gave “timid orders, which were immediately obeyed.” Espinosa preached salvation to the Gutres, but they misunderstood him. Jesus Christ was crucified to save the people from their sins forever and the Gutres believed Espinosa had to be crucified in order for them to be saved of their sins. Espinosa had been established as a Jesus Christ figure in the Gutres household and now he was going to be crucified like Jesus. Jorge Borges uses irony in that Espinosa did not believe what he preached and was therefore an ironic Jesus Christ figure who died for something he didn’t believe.

Espinosa was an ironic Jesus in that he did not believe in his teachings, yet was murdered for them anyways. He unknowingly showed the Gutres he was Jesus Christ and they believed that in order to be saved, they had to crucify Espinosa and reenact the same crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Irony is used in the story first to establish Espinosa as Jesus and then to cruciify him. The purpose of the story was to establish an ironic Jesus and once that was done to have him die the same way in which Jesus Christ died as the final detail in the establishment of him as Jesus Christ. He basically showed the Gutres how it was “done” and they being good sheep of the Lord, set about doing the deed.

Tone and Style Essay Boot Camp

Tainara Candido

AP English

A Sanctuary for those in Need of Escape

“A Clean Well-Lighted Place” demonstrates a place of good repute where customers visit to escape from nothingness and the protagonist, the waiter, can readily identify with this feeling in Ernest Hemignway’s short story. A calm and despairing tone mixed with a minimalistic style in the story give rise to a place considered a sanctuary to those in need of escape. The old man spoken of in the beginning of the short story attempted to escape life by trying to commit suicide and failed, so now his final hope rests in the cafe, but a cafe that is necessary for it to be “clean and pleasant.” The protagonist of the short story, the waiter, speaks of a place that a person needs in order to maintain an ounce of dignity. A person cannot stand in a bar with “dignity”, yet the establishment the waiter works at is not a bar but rather a “clean, well-lighted cafe”. Therefore, a person can maintain their dignity in such a place when the “nothing” takes hold of them.

The tone of the short story is undoubtedly calm as the story is not rushed along, yet the style is minimalistic and expressed in such a way that it gets to the point but does not make the reader feel rushed. The tone and style of the story explain the purpose, which is a person’s need of a sanctuary, where the clean well-lighted place represents. The waiter says that each night he is “reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe.” The waiter expresses his desire at times for a “clean well-lighted place” when the nothingness comes over him and decribe it as “nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada.” The waiter knows the importance of a “clean well-lighted place” during those times of “nada” or nothing. When the nothingness or his insomnia at night comes on,a nice and relaxed place is needed for the individual to be able to relax. The author uses a despairing tone in order to maximize the importance of a place that would help the individual, which is the “clean well-lighted cafe”. His companion does not understand his need and is condescending towards him, calling him a “otro loco mas”, or another lunatic.

The use of a calm tone and a minimalistic style emphasize the importance of a place that an individual can go when they need to wind down or relax as the purpose of the story is to show that such a place is a “clean well-lighted place.” A clean and well lighted place is often calm and to the point as people do not wish to go to a place to further complicate matters and the minimalistic style reflects that need. The waiter knows that when he is confronted with “nada”, his need becomes one for a sanctuary and that is provided to him in the form of a clean and well lighted place that calms him down, and does not further complicate matters.

Setting Essay

Tainara Candido

AP English

Pretending to be Bad

Greasy Lake as the setting of, “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle provides a place of transformation and point of rebellion which serves as the purpose for the short story. The setting the author chose serves as a place of change for the characters of Boyle’s story who are not originally predisposed to be bad as they do not fit the criteria. These characters are learned and well-educated teenagers who read “Andre Gide” and who write in formal diction. These characters are changing their true nature and strive to prove themselves as bad and tell themselves that “we were bad”. The teenagers of the short story are not prepared to handle the consequences of bad and the story shows their inability to handle being bad. The characters become scared as they realize they were over their heads and the purpose of the story is to show these teenagers as being bad while being over their heads and the setting provides them a place to demonstrate their actions.

The characters of the story want to be seen as bad teenagers who “didn’t give a shit about anything”. The characters are living at time when “courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad.” They believe that it’s sytlish to be bad and at Greasy Lake can express that style through drinking and partying. The protagonist along with two of his friends, Digby and Jeff , beat a man to a pulp, but are not prepared to deal the with the consequences of truly being bad. There exists a line between their copycat situation and the grim reality of the lives led by “bad” people these teenagers are trying to emulate. These characters are not prepared to handle the consequences of their bad deeds and show fear when they believe they’ve crossed the line of pretending. They were “bad characters” and were “scared and hot and three steps over the line”. When they cross the line of pretend into reality, they start to feel the consequences of their actions come into their head and can “envision the headlines, the pitted faces of the police inquisitors” as fear starts to take hold in their minds.

The fear that creeps into their minds serves as a reminder of their consequences and force these characters to take a step back to realize being bad isn’t worth the trouble. At the end of the story, the protagnist thought he was “going to cry” and all he wanted to do was “crawl into bed” at his parent’s house. Greasy Lakes provides these characters a place of freedom where they can feel like delinquents without actually being delinquents. The purpose of the story could not be achieved without such a setting where the characters pretend to be criminal, yet at the same time learn they cannot be criminals. They learn to accept their place at the end of the story and no longer strived to be bad.

Greasy Lakes provides an impetus for the characters to rebel and be corrupt, while teaching them a lesson in the process. The setting of the story lets the characters rebel and pretend they are bad. But then when they taste the other side, they realize not only is it not for them but its too much for them to handle. The consequences they face as their car is destroyed makes them want to “cry” and head home for the comfort a warm bed and their parents can offer them. These characters are not bad people, they are educated and most likely belong to the middle-upper class of society and their desire to be bad is suddenly overturned by the consequences they faced from their “bad” actions. The characters rebel at Greasy Lake but are ultimately reborn at the end as their desire is transformed; no longer do they wish to be bad, but longed for the comfort of home.

P.O.V. Boot camp essay

Jezebel

Ap English

Miss Emily’s Secret

Faulkner uses the first person narrator a participant P.O.V. through a town member in “A Rose for Emily” to demonstrate the town’s feeling of Miss Emily and of the events that transpired in her home, to build curiosity and suspense, and to shock and unnerve the reader. Miss Emily Grierson is the protagonist of hte story who has little interaction with the town members and by using a first person P.O.V. through one of the town member’s eyes, Miss Emily is seen as they see her: A mysterious neighbor, almost a stranger. Faulkmner builds an air of mystery and suspense aorund Miss Emily’s house in that no one goes in and not a soul save Miss Emily’s manservant known what happens inside of the house. The reader acquires a sense of curiosity concerning Miss Emily and her house along with the rest of hte townsfolk and also wonders what happens inside of her house.

The townsfolks’ feelings for Miss Emily are those of curiousity, sympathy, but they also think her family arrogant. Miss Emily does not interact much with the town and no one has even been inside of her house for years, which was why the women came mostly out of “curiousity to see her house.” Already, the reader sees Miss Emily as a character he knows almost nothing of and is curious to learn more abomut. From the first person participant P.O.V., the reader senses that Miss Emily is an outcast in the town. The town used to send their children to her; but they stopped and eventually abandoned her. Miss Emily is als oa character that the town feels burdened withi, especially since Colonel Sartoris “remitted her taxes.” The town feels a sort of obligation towards her as Miss Emily had been “ a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” Miss Emily had a strange smell in her house which the cause of is not revealed until the end and the townsfold took it upon themselves to resolve the problem; the narrator notices that people had “begun to feel really sorry for her.” The reader has already experienced sympathy for Miss Emily when the narrator describes that her father chased all suitors away and it can be seen from the town’s perspective how lonely Miss Emily was. Miss Emily experienced tramautic events such as her father’s death and a later on her “sweetheart” had “deserted her”. Faulkkner chose this point of view so that by the end of the story the reader sees Miss Emily’s struggle with loneliness and is sympathetic of her but also curious.

At the end of the short story, the reader is shocked to discover the source of the smell the townsfolk had complained about and that Miss Emily was more than just dysfunctional. When Miss Emily dies, the townsfolk attend her funeral held at her house and the P.O.V. of the story is most crucial at that point. For the first time in forty years, they enter Miss Emily’s bedroom to find a horrible and appalling sight. Miss Emily’s lover who everyone believed had deserted her, was found decomposed on the bed, having already been dead for twenty years. The indent of Miss Emily’s head was apparent on the side of the bed which suggests she had been sleeping beside him. The P.O.V. was crucial during this moment because no description are given of how the townspeople felt upon that discovery. The reader is left to infer the townsfolks’ feelings and to form their own opinions of the ending. The P.O.V. allows the reader to arrive at his own conclusion in the end towards Miss Emily’s mental state and then his feelings towards the protagonist. Faulkner’s purpose at the end is to shock and unnerve the reader at the reveleation Miss Emily has been sleeping with a dead man.

Faulkner used the first person P.O.V. in a “Rose for Miss Emily” to influence the reader’s view of Miss Emily, to describe her status as an outcast, and to shock the reader with the revelation of Miss Emily’s activities in the end. Miss Emily had always been a lonely figure who had only heer father nad upon his death had no one left. Everyone always left Miss Emily, and her lover was assumed to have left her as well, until his dead body was seen resting in her bed. Miss Emily murdered her lover with poison before he had a chance to leave her as everyone seems to have left her. The P.O.V. through a townsmember’s eyes shows the reader the lonely life Miss Emily led and it helped to build curiousity for Miss Emily. The reader is shocked during the end but reaches his own conclusions of Miss Emily and is left to wonder what lied inside the recesse of her mind.