The Story of an Hour

     In the short narrative “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin depicts the life of Louise Mallard, a woman who has heart problems both literally and metaphorically. Upon learning of the death of her husband, Brently Mallard, she becomes unexpectedly exultant, relishing in the idea that she is free at last. However, Lousie’s long-awaited release from her husband’s expectations become very short-lived, and in turn, lead to her own death. Through the use of third-person-limited, Chopin is able to bolster the agenda of her satirical writing by portraying an hour filled with pointed adjectives, the recurring theme of freedom versus oppression, and the use of situational irony.

Shortly after hearing of her husband’s death in a tragic railroad worker incident, Louise retreats to her room alone. Although she weeps at first for Brently’s death, it is not long before Chopin reveals that her protagonist isn’t truly upset. As Louise slumps into her “comfortable” chair, it was as if her eyes were suddenly opened to the Earth’s beauty. Descriptive phraseology such as “the delicious breath of rain was in the air,” “…countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves,” and “there were patches of blue sky” (Chopin Paragraphs 4-5) paint an eerily happy scene after such a tragic accident. Traditionally, rain is used as a symbol of gloom and sadness, yet because of the cheerful diction that Chopin uses, the natural elements foreshadow the fact that Brentley’s death is considered a relief to his confined wife. Although death usually causes heartbreak, Louise is finally able to feel like her heart is as free as the birds’ that she hears chirping outside her window.

     Within the last few paragraphs of “The Story of an Hour,” Louise’s happiness turns into fantasying. Despite the fact that she supposedly loved her husband “sometimes,” the idea that she is now free to live her life without his scrutiny becomes too much for her to handle. The thought that “There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature,” (Chopin Paragraph 13) illuminates Louise’s opinion on her husband’s death and illustrates Chopin’s dysfunctional theme: no matter whether it is out of love or spite, marriage is just a restrictive punishment both physically and mentally. Because of her husband, Louise was burdened with unattainable expectations and limitations throughout her life. Ultimately the restrictiveness of her marriage led to her twisted satisfaction at the prospect of Brentley’s demise. Rather than being permanently confined to her gender role, Louise was briefly able to envision the beauty of her new life.

     In the end, Louise’s learns that her husband didn’t actually die in the railroad calamity. After all of her dreams of freedom, the prospects of being able to live out her own life are quickly shattered. She is so shocked when Brentley returned alive and well, that her heart gives out and died completely. Ironically, the doctors tell everyone that she died due to the joy that she felt at the sight of her perfectly-well husband. However, Louise truly died because of the overbearingly sad realization that she wasn’t actually free after all. The “heart trouble” that she had endured from the beginning was not as physical as the doctor’s had presumed. Because of the repression that she had faced during marriage, Louise ended up dying from the final fatality of her ambitions and dreams.

Response to Barbie Doll

Barbie Doll

This girlchild was born as usual

and presented dolls that did pee-pee

and miniature GE stoves and irons

and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.

Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:

You have a great big nose and fat legs.She was healthy, tested intelligent,

possessed strong arms and back,

abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.

She went to and fro apologizing.

Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.She was advised to play coy,

exhorted to come on hearty,

exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.

Her good nature wore out

like a fan belt.

So she cut off her nose and her legs

and offered them up.In the casket displayed on satin she lay

with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,

a turned-up putty nose,

dressed in a pink and white nightie.

Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.

Consummation at last.

To every woman a happy ending.

~Marge Piercy


     In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, an unnamed girl is reared from birth in the ways of “true-womanhood.” As she endures the scorn and criticism of the society around her, she is ceremoniously provided with all the tools and toys that any conventional girl would need to understand her preordained gender role. From dolls that “pee-peed” to “wee” cherry lipsticks, her paradigm and place in the world begins on a self-critical and self-destructive path. Through colloquial language, parallel diction, and gruesome hyperbole, Piercy warns us of the potentially tragic destinies of any girl who attempts to grow up in the midst of society’s overpoweringly stereotypical pressure.

     Piercy’s tone throughout her poem is modern, blunt, and to-the-point. Rather than leaving the reader to ponder and question what the meaning to her tale is, her language usage is meant to send the same chilling message to everyone. The unnamed girl is provided with many modern things that girls continue to be enamored with today, causing a disturbing connection between female readers and her main character. In description, it is made clear that she has a “great big nose and fat legs,” which ultimately becomes more important to the critical society around her than her more enduring traits: good-health, intelligence, wit, and plentiful sexual drive. Because of the description, we fully understand both sides; the general public cruelly negates all that is good about her as an individual, which wears her down into a state of constant apology for that which once made her unique. The modern language used in “Barbie Doll,” creates a connection to our modern world, where the story of a degraded girl becomes a means by which Piercy can effectively teach everyone how fragile the human mind can become under too much criticism.

     Parallel diction is used throughout “Barbie Doll” to emphasize Piercy’s main points. In the beginning, the phrase, “You have a great big nose” demonstrates the lack of approval in the girl's appearance. By and by, “everyone” sees her physique as an issue. Eventually the]is overarching disapproval of her peers leads the girl to becoming so overly concerned about her minor physical differences, that she ends up committing suicide over them. The repetitive use of the word “everyone” and the phrase “fat nose and fat legs,” illuminates the true meaning behind Piercy’s satirical poem: we can’t live a happy life if we try to please all of the “everyone’s” in our lives. Much like the girl whose confidence was worn away like a common fan belt, when people conform by changing who they are for the sake of their peers approval, they will end up losing and destroying themselves.

     The image of a girl cutting off her both her legs and her nose is both extremely disturbing and grotesque. However, the extremities of such brutal imagery leads us as readers to reflect on the extremities and lengths that society can go to itself to force us into conformity. At the closing of the poem when the outside pressures of the world have ultimately caused the girl to kill herself, we fully understand the levity of humanity when it comes to how utterly we can destroy each others’ confidence. The sad ending of “Barbie Doll” leads us to question ourselves and the way we are living: is being “fat” honestly the worst thing we as humans can be? Is trying to look perfect or please everyone truly more important than the gift of life itself? As we visualize the case of this poor girl who finally ends up cutting off her limbs in a final and desperate attempt to make everyone else happy, the answer to society's’ questions become rhetorical.

This I Believe

     I believe that the colors brown and black clash terribly. It makes me cringe when my dad wears sandals with socks, and it makes me wince when boys brag about being able to fit into their sister’s pants. However, I believe even more in the idea that no matter what you choose to wear, that the most important thing is that you feel comfortable in those clothes. I believe that the greatest lesson for anyone to learn is how to be unashamed to be themselves whoever that self may be.

     I believe in the cognitive theory. I believe that the most important thing in a human’s life is the ability to think. There truly is nothing save thinking makes it so. Our thoughts influence how we interpret the world. What we think majorly influences how we face our personal challenges and goals in life. Whether these thoughts are positive or negative can impact everyone for good or ill. One person’s thoughts (or lack of) can change a world.

     I believe that there is no such thing as a perfect family. I believe that the family is a lot like playdough. Playdough is loved by everyone; it makes life a lot more bearable because it provides both fun and comfort to us. It comes in all forms, shapes, colors, and consistencies. If it isn’t loved and cared for, it will become hard and crusty, and if the playdough isn’t doing its best to stick together, it falls apart. Playdough can be formed into any assortment of figures; none of them are perfect; they are all different and artistic in its own sense.

     I believe more than anything that the world is a good place. I believe that hardships and tragedies can drive good people to do bad things or force them into unfortunate circumstances, and it is really sad. But I believe that it is important to try not to judge anyone no matter what they do or what they look like. Life is hard; all you can do is be good to everybody and try to imagine how their shoes feel.

     I believe that no matter how rough a situation is that people can transcend their circumstances and rise above the deck of cards they’ve been dealt. I don’t believe in chance; I believe that life is a masterfully crafted challenge that we can allow to make or brake us. I believe that we have an unlimited capacity to overcome obstacles and to succeed in life no matter what happens.

A.P. English Literature

     I haven't posted a blog post in a little over a month. Fortunately, I can't attribute this to personal laziness. Lately I've become totally consumed with studying for my three AP tests this month: AP Psychology, AP English Literature, and last but not least, AP English Language.
Although I haven't posted much writing on my blog, practice essays have become a ritual of my daily life for the past week.
Yesterday I timed myself to a random poem prompt for the literature test; it took me a half an hour to dissect two poems and scribble my own piece of mind on the paper.
I'm going to type out the two poems that the essay was written about, along with the instructions and my own essay in the hopes that it might some other struggling souls going through AP English Lit or Language.

2005 AP ENGLISH LITERATURE FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION (Form B)
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
SECTION II
Total time--2 hours

Question 1
(Suggested time--40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

Carefully read the two poems below. Then in a well-organized essay compare the speakers' reflections on their early morning surroundings and analyze the techniques the poets use to communicate the speakers' different states of mind.

Poem 1:

Five A.M.

Still dark, the early morning breathes
a soft sound above the fire. Hooded
lights on porches lead past lawns,
a hedge; I pass the house of the couple
who have the baby, the yard with the little
dog; my feet pad and grit on the pavement, flicker
past streetlights; my arms alternate
easily to my pace. Where are my troubles?

There are people in every country who never
turn into killers, saints have built
sanctuaries on islands and in valleys,
conquerors have quit and gone home, for thousands
of years farmers have worked their fields.
My feet begin the uphill curve
where a thicket spills with birds every spring.
The air doesn't stir. Rain touches my face.

Poem 2:

Five Flights Up

Still dark
The unknown bird sits on his usual branch.
The little dog next door barks in his sleep
inquiringly, just once.
Perhaps in his sleep, too, the bird inquires
once or twice, quavering.
Questions--if that is what they are--
answered directly, simply,
by day itself.

Enormous morning, ponderous, meticulous;
gray light streaking each bare branch,
each single twig, along one side,
making another tree, of glassy veins...
The bird still sits there. Now he seems to yawn.

The little black dog runs in his yard.
His owner's voice arises, stern,
"You ought to be ashamed!"
What has he done?
He bounces cheerfully up and down;
he rushes in circles in the fallen leaves.

Obviously, he has no sense of shame.
He and the bird know everything is answered,
all taken care of,
no need to ask again.
--Yesterday brought to today so lightly!
(A yesterday I find almost impossible to lift.)

2005 Free Response- Poetry

In "Five A.M." and "Five Flights Up" the respective poets allude to their own interpretations pertaining to the dawning of a new day. "Five A.M." is a flowing and metaphorical description that interprets the mysteries of allusions from the past, signifying that every day is a mystery to be embedded into the past. However, Five Flight up is a more literal interpretation. The poet uses broken enjambment and colloquial language to create a portrait of a less interpretive world as the poem explores how mornings begin, which in turn, complements a more modern state of mind.

In Five A.M., the poet uses personification to make his interpretation of the world come to life. "The early morning breathes a soft sound..." and "Rain touches my face." Not only create a tone for figurative interpretation, but also appeal to the senses of not only sight, but touch and sound as well. The poet creates rhythmic meter with long sentences with little to no breaks in between lines. This flow adds to the effect and tone of the mysterious allusions portrayed in the second stanza. The poet communicates a state of mind in which he or she views every morning as a scene of beauty, mystery, and unanswered questions as the author is enveloped in eloquent natural surroundings.

In the poem "Five Flights Up", the poet conveys the morning as a literal happenstance that is easily observed and can be described substantially with little to doubt or question. "Questions- if that is what they are-// answered directly, simply, by day itself." The poet then proceeds to use adjectives to describe how the morning appears to the world. Using enjambment, the poet creates a sense of blunt description, leaving the impression that like the poem's sentences, a morning lacks any eminent complexity and can be interpreted with little awe or wonderment.

"Five A.M." is a masterpiece communicating a mystery, surrounded by the dawn of a new day, defined by the personification of Earth's elements, complemented by flowing parallel syntax, and completed with allusions tracing back to the history of former mornings. "Five Flights Up" is a literal interpretation of a morning that is self-explanatory and presents itself bluntly through the use of juxtaposition, visual imagery and modern language that conveys the morning as a predictable, direct, and simple element to the every day flow of a provincial life.

Gender Roles

     "Heaven help the American-born boy with a talent for ballet" said Camille Pagila, an American author and active feminist. This statement rings true for many who try to reach outside the bounds of normal acceptance, especially pertaining to gender conformity. As a whole, the American society expects both males and females to conform to certain roles in life based solely on gender. Less than a hundred years ago, it was unexceptable for girls to wear regular every day pants, and it was less than fifty years ago that an equal rights amendment between the two sexes was turned down. It is true in many aspects that men and women, no matter how capable and talented think and act differently from each other. Although we are all similar in our needs and the want to feel included, we communicate these wants in different ways: men tend to be more competitive, women are more articulate in detail oriented tasks, and men tend to be more interested in giving advice than in giving empathy.

     "... men's talk is more instrumental, competitive, and focused on "the bottom line." (Johnsetal 75) Boys are more engaged when they play games with set rules and less talk, this associates why men generally seem to be more interested in playing both sports and video games than their female counterparts. Women would much rather be able to communicate with each other in many different activities with their friends and why they would rather chat than becoming completely engaged in one task for hours on end. Men enjoy competitive environments where they can test their skills and prove themselves to their peers, whereas women would rather not belittle anyone who may not be as skilled as them at a task. As a general rule, girls tend to tease and make fun of fellow girls for their shortcomings in competitive areas rather than trying to physically show each other up.

     The difference between boy and girl competitiveness has been evident to me personally from an early age. It was much more common in Elementary to see boys challenging each other to races and getting holes and grass stains on their pants from competitive sports than girls. Girls can be fantastic competitors and have proven themselves to be highly capable of great physical feats, however, when they compete they generally do it to satisfy their own wants and goals. I go to the gym a few times a week, and I know from experience that men will lift more weight if they know somebody else is watching them, especially if that someone else is a female. They feel the urge to prove that they are capable. Women are a lot less likely to flex and show off their weight lifting abilities when men are watching them, because they don't want to appear manly. Men tend to be more blatant in showing off and competing, while women are more conservative and intrinsically motivated when it comes to competition.

     Women tend to be more detail oriented than men in many aspects. When it comes to planning. They tend to like laid out written plans, which in turn work as a sort of calendar or schedule. Men generally leave their time more open and are less likely to be offended if someone invites them to an activity at the last minute. Women enjoy it when their houses are decorated and color coordinated, while men, though appreciative of nice homes, tend to be more likely to care about having home improvements such as a big screen t.v. and a nice car rather than having pictures, paintings, and flower arrangements.

     My family is generally busy, and we get a lot of phone calls. I've become quite talented in telling whether it is a male of female on the other line based solely on the length of the conversations. Women like to make sure that everything is in balance emotionally and well sorted out. Men quickly convey what needs to be said, and its surprising how few details they try to remember about their other male friends. My friend Jim was teasing me about how he's a month and a half older than me. After three years and after determining that we had become 'best friends,' he had forgotten that my birthday was in fact only two weeks after his. I asked him in  good humor what the date of my birthday was, and was not surprised surprised to learn that he had forgotten even after being invited to my past three birthday celebrations. When it comes to details such as remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and little details like favorite colors, women are much more sensitive in trying to remember every detail. Guys on the other hand have a tendency to remember major details and points that they see as most significant in their relationships.

     Oftentimes men seem a lot less surprised after hearing gossip, they easily accept information and strive to find out why there is a problem and fix it. Girls are stereotyped as dramatic, because many times rather than trying to fix a problem, they will tell others what they have heard to increase bonding. Unfortunately that usually spreads the problem to more people rather than solving it. Girls would rather talk through things until they feel comforted about it, unlike guys who don't feel a sense of closure to problems through talking alone, they like to make sure that everyone involved is okay and see a final resolution to any conflict.

     An example of this is when I talk to my dad about relationship problems and ask his opinion about it. He has a tendency to tell me to move on or apologize to a guy that I've been having issues with. He never empathizes with how horrible I may feel in any given situation, and he never compares my situation to relationship problems that he might have had in high school. He sees the big picture and suggests ways that could resolve or end the conflict. My mom on the other hand offers me lots of advice, relates to me, tells me to go with what I feel is best, and tries to prevent my feelings from becoming more hurt than they already are. My dad is successful in helping me solve problems, while my mom is successful in making me feel better about how I handled problems.

Senior Citizen Appreciation

     For my two hour senior citizen appreciation paper, I wore extremely dampening ear muffs over my head for two hours. Being hard of hearing was a lot harder than I ever could have imagined. When you hear about composers, like Beethoven, composing a symphony when he was entirely deaf, you feel impressed, but being impressed is definitely not the same thing as truly appreciating something because you’ve been in the same position before. I was only deaf for two hours, whereas some elderly folks’ sense of hearing can diminish over the course of many years, much like Beethoven.

     So that I could truly learn to appreciate my sense of hearing, the first thing that I decided to do (after putting dampening ear muffs on) was to go and practice the piano. Normally, playing the piano is my favorite hobby. I just love jamming out to upbeat songs as my fingers lightly glide over the smooth, white keys.
Truly enjoying your favorite activity is extremely hard when you can barely strain to hear it. I’m sure that my parents, in the next room, were awed by how well I could play for not hearing, but I wasn’t impressed with my own playing in the slightest. When I tapped the keys in a soft rhythm while playing pianissimo in dynamic, I literally could not hear a note to save my life. To dampen my spirits as much as my hearing, when I reached the gloriously loud and exciting parts of a sonatina by Clementi, I could still barely hear anything, even though I knew that I was playing obnoxiously loud. The only song I could really hear was when I was pounding out “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by the Beetles. No wonder the Beetles are still so classic, they are easy for the elderly to hear.

     When you’ve played an instrument for a few years, it becomes easier to play by ear. I winced more than a few times when I could actually hear myself playing a wrong note. The worst thing about it was that I couldn’t hear the piano well enough to try and fix my mistakes by ear. If I didn’t have a piece memorized, it was extremely hard to hear if I was actually playing the correct notes in the first place. Suddenly, I knew that it was time to stop trying to practice the piano. I got the point and I appreciated my ears a lot more than I had thirty minutes earlier, when I had reluctantly put the ear muffs over my ears.

    Not being able to play piano was only the beginning to my newfound discovery of my appreciation of being able to hear. Around the house, my parents can rely pretty heavily on me to do chores and help take care of things. Although they both knew and understood the gist of my psychology assignment beforehand, they became a little exasperated as I embarrassingly but honestly muttered, “What?” repeatedly when I couldn’t hear them. Sometimes, they had to repeat a phrase four or five times before I understood what they wanted me to do. The other times I would just do a random chore while in their line of sight to please them, I became rather good at guessing what they wanted me to do when I stubbornly didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t hear them.

     Most unfortunately, my parents and younger brother weren’t the only ones that I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t even hear myself. It was as if someone had put a gag over my mouth and I really had to spit out my words to be heard. There was absolutely no way for me to tell how loudly or softly I was speaking. It was embarrassing how loudly I was forced to talk. Now I really understand why senior citizens sometimes yell when they’re talking; it’s not necessarily because they want you to hear them, it’s because they can’t even hear themselves. That was by far one of the hardest parts of the assignment.

     I am a person who loves to play the piano, and quite apparently, I talk a lot more than I realized; that’s why not being able to hear was so hard for me personally. Not only do I appreciate my own sense of hearing more from this experience, I appreciate the diligence of the elderly in trying to hear others and be heard no matter how embarrassing it is.

East of Eden and Huckleberry Finn

     Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden have many similarities, yet they also have a few differences. Likewise, many of the themes and ideas such as the fight between good and evil, lying, and internal characters’ internal conflict and struggles become a major part to the story and how it plays out. However, the differences come about in the author’s different opinions of these struggles, Steinbeck continually shows through his novel that people have the right to choose, and oftentimes people will choose good over evil in the end. For the most part, Twain sees the evil in the world with a pessimistic outlook; evil people are not likely to change who they are, rather they will continually choose wrong if it conforms with society’s views.

     “We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.” In this sentence, Steinbeck stresses how everything, including our lives, is centered on the conflict between good and evil. Steinbeck’s opinion is that evil always changes to accommodate, but goodness always stays the same. Similarly, Mark Twain addresses the idea of good vs. evil. However, he is more cynical, addressing the conflict in a more negative way. Huckleberry Finn is faced with many hypocrites, liars, and vagabonds throughout his adventure. Twain uses a majority of his characters to point out the flaws in society and it’s lack of good, especially when it comes to the issue of slaves being property. However, it is symbolic that in the end, Caleb (who was constantly fighting doing what was wrong,) and Huck (who had to confront the issue of slavery head on,) chose to do good over evil in the end. The “good” side that they chose was the ultimate goal from the viewpoint of both authors.

     “Cathy was a liar, but she did not lie the way most children do. Hers was no daydream lying, when the thing imagined is told and, to make it seem more real, told as real. That is just ordinary deviation from external reality. I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth… But a lie is a device for profit or escape.” Steinbeck addresses lying head on, by telling readers what his own opinion of lying is. Throughout East of Eden, the characters who were really struggling with being evil or were already completely evil lied and twisted the truth to their gain. In the end, when Caleb’s brother Aron found out the truth, he could not handle it and ended up getting killed. This sad ending to an innocent character represented how lies can ruin a person’s life. Twain also believed that lying was wrong and hypocritical in many instances. In the church one day, the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons received a lesson on brotherly love, while the next day, they were killing each other over an issue of marriage. However, Huck lied straight out many times throughout the book to protect his friend Jim from being captured. Contrastingly, Steinbeck’s strictly negative view on lying is truly different than Twain’s belief that lying is okay if it is used as a means to an end for the right purpose.

     The internal conflicts between Caleb from East of Eden and Huck from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are startlingly similar. Steinbeck illustrates how Caleb’s mother was a monster, “And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?” Caleb’s mother Cathy was infinitely evil, and she never changed. He was forced with the fact that his mother was an evil woman who constantly lied and ran a brothel house. Steinbeck’s character chose to overcome the sins of his mother by deciding not to be like her and to become a decent person despite the evil part of her that was in him. Likewise, Huck’s father was evil, he beat Huck and was extremely racist. Huck was confronted by the fact that society had told him his whole life that if he helped a slave that he would go to Hell. Like Caleb, Huck’s internal conflict was solved when he finally made his decision. “Alright then, I’ll go to Hell.” The difference between the two is strongly different in the sense that Caleb will not jeopardize what he feels is right, while Huck will consort to stealing, and lying to do what he feels is ultimately right.

     Although Steinbeck and Twain’s optimistic and pessimistic views seem to contrast each other, the two authors have the same views on many things. Evil is wrong; like their characters, you can overcome it whether it is passed on through genes or all around you in society. Lying is wrong, but in Twain’s view, it is occasionally okay to lie to serve the right purpose. We all face problems that must be resolved, however, whether our decisions are good or evil, we will ultimately decide in the end.

Conflict in Men, Society, and Self

Dear Blog Readers,
     I apologize once again for publishing one of my essays for English, but I figure it will help someone out there. It recounts the external and internal conflicts of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in four double-spaced pages. I really liked that book, which was extremely surprising to me. I'd read the Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain beforehand. Personally, I hated the book and don't know why I finished it. Initially, I dreaded having to read a Mark Twain novel again. Well, I ended up being pleasantly surprised; you can't judge a book by one cover, and apparently you can't judge an author off of one book! Enjoy the read if you have the time, don't feel bad if you don't want to read it; it is an essay after all!

     In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck faces many trials as he and Jim down the Mississippi River on their way to Cairo. Throughout the book, Mark Twain’s personal opinions can be seen throughought his novel. His views from pre civil war times tell of his opinion on subjects including conformity, guilibility, greed, corruption, misunderstanding, slavery, and the importance of telling the truth. Huck and Jim’s trials throughout the book reflect the inconsistencies and issues in society and man, they also revealed major internal conflicts that were faced in the novel.

     “The pitifulest Thing out is- a mob; they don’t fight with the courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from the mass, and from their officers” (145.) Colonel Sherburn’s speech told of Twain’s views on society; movements in society are often fueled by cowards, who in turn are backed by followers with little courage themselves. These “followers” in society are men and women who don’t open their eyes and think for themselves; rather they will conform to the will of others around them or go with what is considered “popular” by the mass. Men oftentimes join the rest of society so that they might appear normal, thinking that they will be more accepted if they are like everyone else, sometimes that is true.

     Another example of corruption in society was the symbolism behind the Duke and the King. The Duke and the King represented all of the flaws and lies in society; in spite of their record of being complete phonies, they were almost instantly accepted into an ignorant society. Only the informed Doctor tried to defame The King’s feeble attempts of acting like Peter Wilk’s brother, “He is the thinnest kind of imposter- has come here with a lot of empty names and facts which he picked up somewheres; and you take them for proofs, and are helped to fool yourself by these fools…” (166.)
The gullibility of the town was shown when the Doctor offered evident proof of the King’s ineptitude to fake a British accent. The fact that nobody was willing to accept the Doctor’s proof shows that the society believed what it wanted to believe. If Huck and The Doctor hadn’t acted on behalf of what they knew to be true, Peter’s innocent, young, orphan nieces might have lost everything that they had.

     A great example of the corruption of men individually, and the conflict between good and evil was the conflict between Huck and Judge Thatcher with Pap. Pap says, “Look at it, says I- such a hat for me to wear- one of the wealthiest men in town if I could get my rights.” (35.) In his head, pap is seriously misguided by the idea that money is the only way that he could be happy and earn his rights. Rather than trying to work hard to achieve his American dream, he tries to make Judge Thatcher give him Huck’s money. There is a conflict when the Judge refuses to give Huck’s money away so easily, and there is a physical conflict when Huck doesn’t give Pap the money that he is desperate to obtain.

      Another conflict was shown when Jim and Huck have differing views on the tale of King Solomon. “Doan’ talk to me ‘bout yo’ pints. I reck’n I knows sense when I sees it; en dey ain’t no sense in sich doin’s as dat.”Jim personally didn’t believe that King Solomon was wise to want to cut a baby in half; Huck, on the other hand, believed that Solomon was using the threat of cutting a baby in half to suit a wiser purpose. This scene goes to show what lengths people will go to to stick with their beliefs. Men can be narrow minded when it comes to hearing other’s opinions, especially when their mind is set on a particular idea or ideal.

     Perhaps the most significant conflicts were conflicts that raged inside of Huck throughout the story. Huck was constantly fighting himself over the issue of slavery, and whether or not he should help Jim become free. At one point, Huck felt so terribly about what he was doing, that he almost wrote to Miss Watson to reveal Jim’s whereabouts, “I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide between two things, and I knowed it… Alright then, I’ll go to Hell” (107.) Huck had learned his whole life to fear going to Hell, but despite this, he decided in the end that he would risk everything and anything to help his best friend. Slavery was a huge issue during Twain’s lifetime, Twain’s views were reflected through the way that Huck finally sees the importance in helping a man who was like a brother to him, in spite of the consequences.

     Another conflict arose when Huck had to choose whether he would be honest with Mary Jane about The Duke and The King’s fraud to earn their money. Huck had grown up telling lies to save himself from getting in trouble or being beaten by his abusive father. He finally learned that sometimes it really is better to tell the truth, “I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks… I’m blest if it don’t look to me like the truth is better and actuley safer than a lie.”

     This concept of telling the real truth becomes significant again in the end. Tom was able to free Jim from slavery only through telling the truth. Tom, the romantic in the novel, made Jim sleep with snakes,write with his own blood, and eat sawdust. If Tom had never told the truth about Miss Watson’s death and will, Jim would never have been set free.

     There were many conflicts both internal and external in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They helped the reader to see Mark Twain’s personal views on controversial topics of the day. Issues such as lying, greed, slavery, misunderstanding, and cowardice through conformity were all addressed and resolved in the end.

The Crucible

     Crucible- 1. A heat resistant container in which ores or metals are melted 2. A place or a set of circumstances where people or things are subjected to forces that often make them change. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the unhappy plot unfolds as fear and revenge heat up the whole town, despite their best resistance to it. The hot temperature of the fire around the crucible continually soars as Reverend Parris tries to serve his own needs by interrogating his niece Abigail. Abigail helps intensify the heat of the inferno even more as she takes revenge on her lover John Proctor and his wife. Following in her wake, the whole town becomes a raging blaze, accusing others so that they may remain unaccused.

     Fear can change a person into someone completely different from who they truly are inside. As in the case of Mary Warren, she ended up having to choose between risking her own life to hanging or condemning the innocent John Proctor to his own death. Eventually her courage broke, and she accused Proctor of witchcraft even though that was something totally against her value of honest. The town girls kept accusing others so that the blame for their dancing in the woods would shift onto someone else. Realizing when they first started accusing that they were completely lying, knowing that lying was a huge sin, they tried to justify their own sin of lying by accusing others who had also sinned. Fearful of what might happen if they were caught lying made them feel like they had to continue these lies to remain safe.

     Gossip appeals to people emotionally because it spreads other people’s private actions and thoughts in a dramatic fashion that appeals to our senses. Eventually our strong belief in something that can’t be proved becomes so strong through our own self analysis that we begin to believe gossip that could be completely untrue about others. John Proctor rightfully accused Abigail of lying and trying to kill his wife, but Elizabeth ended up condemning her and her husband’s lives by not revealing the actual truth. Because of Elizabeth’s inability to tell the truth, gossip and lies seemed to be the only truth. The lies by gossip could not be proved or disproved, but the actual truth ended up being told and perceived as a lie, thus furthering the “evidence” that Abigail’s and the girls’ accusations were true.

     Because of the flames started by Reverend Parris’s questioning Abigail and Abigail’s lying, the heat that they caused in the town eventually melted their crucible, the once resistant resolve of the town completely crumbled. When Proctor chose to die in innocence of crime rather than living a lie and dishonoring his name, he took the heat of the whole town into his whole being. Proctor chooses to let them kill him in innocence rather than giving them the means to justify the fact that they had killed so many people already. A name can be compared to a person’s soul; a name is a personal describing adjective that describes who you truly are as a person. John Proctor realized that he could not be true to his name or himself by continually living a lie for the rest of his life; he knew that he hadn’t been true to himself in the past by cheating with Abigail, but he also knew that integrity was a value worth dying for. At the end of the book, an honest man realized that living life after denying who you truly are isn’t even worth it.

The Stories of King Arthur and Don Quixote

     If any of you finish reading this essay, then you are an Arthurian legend! I was rather proud of myself for this one, so bare with me. This was a thirty point part of a test that we had thirty minutes to write, and here was the result; my essay comparing the tales of King Arthur, and the parody Don Quixote (also known as Man of La Mancha.) Good luck, may Excalibur be with you!

     Though the lands of La Mancha and Camelot were far apart, the stories of both Don Quixote of La Mancha and King Arthur of Camelot have similar literary concepts. The stories are comparable in that they both involve a type of “courtly love” and romance as well as foils to help give characters defining characteristics. The Arthurian legends and the parody of Don Quixote still remain popular stories, because they can still inspire and entertain all ages.


     In the stories of Don Quixote and Arthur, romance plays a key part. Arthur was born to King Uther and Igraine, parents who were not married at the time that his mother first became pregnant. Although that isn’t exactly considered, “romantic”, the romantic notion of courtly love continued later in Arthur’s life when his best friend “Sir Lancelot” fell in love with his wife, Queen Guinevere. In the novel Don Quixote, Cervante’s concepts of romance are the same, even though they are skewed to make the story more comedic. The “knight errant,” Don Quixote, dedicated himself to a bar-maid whom he barely knew; she wasn’t even a noblewoman as was tradition! Don Quixote’s “courtly love” with Dulcinea was an insanely conceived way for him to try to follow the normal knight “code.” Despite the fact that his love interest wasn’t exactly ideal, he did worship her from afar, just like Tristan and Iseult, and Lancelot and Guinevere.


     A must in all medieval knight legends was the “side kicks” to the main hero, often a squire or a fellow knight. Generally foils were the complete opposite of the hero and lots of times they were everything the hero wasn’t, even though they were best friends or very helpful to their hero counterparts. In the tales of Arthur, Lancelot was the king’s counterpart. Lancelot was not as shining as his idol at first. He was a lonely young nobleman who wanted to prove that his outward appearance would one day be out matched by his skills and talents. He became who he wanted to be (while still an outsider) because of his idol, King Arthur. In Don Quixote, his sidekick (a married peasant and famer,) serves as a perfect squire to his crazy master and counterpart, Don Quixote. The short and plump farmer, who rides on a measly donkey, is completely uneducated, yet he tries to help his master see reality. Sancho provides many opportunities for Don Quixote to have humorous and witty lines that contradict him. It is significant to the comparison of the two tales that Arthur’s best friend became his foil, betraying him and in part, causing his downfall, while Quixotic’s newfound friend and foil, ironically, stays loyal to him until the end.

     Even in our twenty-first century society, there are still important parts of literature that almost every story has. There are problems that the heroes have to face, such as Arthur having to punish his wife over his best friend, and Don Quuixote being in love with a “lady” who is a common barmaid. Each individual Arthurian legend, and the novel of Don Quixote contains metaphors, descriptions, details, trials or problems, and at the end, everything is resolved (whether happily or sadly.) Because of Cervante’s, and the many authors of Arthurian tales, wonderful adventures, heroism, love stories, and humor, both stories remain popular to this day.

     Overall the stories of King Arthur and Don Quixote were fairly similar. Both stories included lots of romantic and chivalrous drama, as well as character foils to support both the plot and the heroes, and finally, because of the literary techniques and devices, both the heroes and their stories remain well known, highly acclaimed classics of literature.