Insight From a Soon-to-be Former Student

An English 131 class is required for all freshmen that attend Lenoir-Rhyne University, unless of course one already has taken it or an equivalent course. That being said, I can honestly say, I am not disappointed to have selected this one. English has never truly been one of my favorite subjects, nor one of my best ones. Beforehand, the only reason that I took such an extensive high school senior English class was because I knew even though I would have quite a bit of work in front of me, I would be much more prepared for college than if I hadn’t; and I was right. That class was a yearlong and it continuously pushed me to make my usual works better, but because of it I felt I was prepared for this class and the depth that it made me develop my writings into. The variety of assignments that were prescribed throughout the course of this class provide me with a certain satisfaction because each individual in this class was always given a choice in their writings to make it something that they find the most interesting.

Because of other continuous methods and features of this course, I believe my most significant piece of work to be produced in this class would be the analytical essay on the topic of the play Our Town. This essay forced me to not simply analyze the actions of the characters of the play, but made me question the approaches in the play about certain aspects of it, for example, the way author wrote the play to contain a character that would narrate the acts as well as break the fourth wall between the characters and the audience led me to question his motives for this character throughout the work “Now, is there anyone in the audience who would like to ask Editor Webb anything about the town?” (Wilder 24). Additionally, the last act of the play focused around the subject of death and how the characters experience the gloomy afterlife which made me believe the play to hold a more intricate, somewhat darker meaning, than I originally thought.

However, I feel that I would have not been able to develop my analysis on this essay in such depth if it had not been for the repeated methods that were executed throughout this semester such as the choices to see the plays/ interview with the author, the ability to revise with the aid of technology, as well as keeping a journal for this course. It was truly valuable to me that I was able to see an actual performance or an interview with the author, and usually both, of each longer piece that we were assigned to read. Doing so greatly aided my interpretation of the works, especially the two that were written as plays. I also enjoyed the fact that we were made to compose our first drafts of the analysis, on each of the four longer pieces, working long hand. Last year in my AP Literature and Composition we did this repeatedly, probably over twenty times, but we seldom were ever able to go back and improve the work to our liking. I do realize my former teacher did this because that was the most similar to the actual AP exam, but I always felt so unpleased when I was forced to hand in a writing that I could easily go over and improve. Additionally, I appreciated when we were assigned to write a small amount in our journal, more specifically concerning the text we were currently reading. During such instances, as well as afterword when we went over them as a class, I was able to further my development for the topic and analyze matters discussed that had not occurred to me.

Am I sad to see this class end? A little bit. If I am being completely honest I do not enjoy just writing for the sake of writing, but I am happy to have taken this class to progress my writing skills a bit further because I am aware that skillful writing is going to be a part of every single class I take a college student and there is nothing wrong with improving on that. Our last assignment is this current reflective essay and it has made me realize I should have appreciated this class more while it was happening. After this class has come to an end, I believe I will miss it, and realize I should have cherished it more while I was experiencing this course, which reminds me of another quote from Our Town; “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?” (108).

 

 

 

Works Cited

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.

 

 

 

 

Annotated Bibliography

Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man.” Esquire, sept 2003, http://www.esquire.com/news-

politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod, Accessed 8 Sept.2017.

This excerpt from an article written by Tom Junod depicts the appearance of a photograph of a man that was captured while he is falling from one of the buildings of the World Trade Center. He goes into great detail describing his expression and predicts what this man might have been thinking, making the situation seem calmer that it actually would have been.

Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Vintage, 2004.

The Devil in the White City depicts historically accurate information centering around the famous World’s Fair, held in Chicago, which indirectly aided the also famous serial killer H. H. Holmes with supplying his victims. This non-fiction book goes into detail concerning this murderer and how he was able to kill so many people with the help of his own design his intricate, malicious Hotel.

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan.

2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-

tradition.html.

Richtel seems to be a mostly objective source, merely stating statistics and quotes stated by teachers and professors on their stance on whether the few but long task of a term paper or the more frequent shorter blogs are a more effective writing assignment for their students.

Shrek, Heidi. Creature. Samuel French, 2011.

Creature is a play set in the early 1400’s concerning a woman, Margery Kempe, and her escapade of wanting to be revered as a saint. Margery is a new mother who has seemingly been having visions of a satanic creature, but upon her stating that she has had a new vision of Jesus Christ, now devotes her life to showing her love for Christ.

Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media

Company, 4 Aug. 2017, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-

smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.

This article gives a plethora of statistics that seem to prove that smartphones having harmful effects on people, more specifically the younger generation that she gave the name “iGen.” Twenge repeatedly states studies that time and time again prove that the excessive use of smartphones and other smart devices are detrimental to the “iGen’s” overall health.

Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad is a science fiction novel which depicts the famous intricate passages from the south to the north as an actual railroad that is located underground. This tale centers around one runaway slave, Cora, who begins her tale in Georgia and through a long tragic journey, finally makes her way to freedom.

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.

Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, is a play that depicts Wilder’s take on the classic American town during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The acts of this play tend to center around two main families in the town, the Webb’s, and the Gibbs’.

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Exploring the Line Between Life and Death

Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, is a play that depicts Wilder’s take on the classic American town during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The acts of this play tend to center around two main families in the town, the Webb’s, and the Gibbs’. By this point in the play, the daughter of the Webb’s, Emily, has passed away due to complications during her second childbirth, leaving behind her son and her husband. This play has not only impacted the lives of all that see it but change the way we view it as a play, for example, a man by the name of Donald Margulies stated that this play “exploded the accepted notions of character and story,”(xv) which is evident by examining pages 103-109, in act three.

Even though Emily has passed away, we, as the audience, are still able to observe her, as well as other characters that have previously died, in the afterlife. During Emily’s own funeral she learns, from the other dead that it is possible to witness her memories again. Emily decides to visit her twelfth birthday, which initially is delightful for Emily, because she is able to remember the past and observe how much it has changed. However, she begins to feel miserable, just wanting that memory to be real, and for the others in her memory to acknowledge her “Oh, Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama fourteen years have gone by. I’m dead” (Wilder 107). She begins sobbing as she has a small breakthrough “I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed” (108), implying that she wishes she would have paid more attention to surroundings and loved ones when she was alive.

After having this small breakthrough, she is more down than ever when she returns to the fellow dead. When Mrs. Gibbs, her mother-in-law who warned her not to go back in the first place, asks her if she found happiness in her memory, Emily snaps “No. . . I should have listened to you. That’s all human beings are! Just blind people!” (109) wanting those who are still alive to observe how wonderful life is compared to the depressing afterlife she is currently experiencing. After hearing this another man among the dead, speaks up agreeing with Emily and going a little farther, describing the world of the living as “. . . a cloud of ignorance. . . [i]gnorance and blindness” (109), along with some other chosen words, letting us conclude that he took his own life. However, Mrs. Gibbs is quick to correct him stating “. . . that ain’t the whole truth and you know it,” (109) implying that she understands that life can get you down, but it is not and will not always stay down, just as the weather isn’t always dark and gloomy.

This excerpt from act three it truly holds up to Margulies claim for several different reasons. Our Town did not portray the afterlife as something happy, joyful, and something to look forward to, instead representing it as a gloomy somewhat lonesome place where the dead accumulate.  This play was also one of the first of its kind to call out the living and label them as “blind and ignorant” and have a character compare living to “a waste of time” (109). Our Town has influenced a number of film productions including the award winning movie It’s a Wonderful Life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

Margulies, Donald. Foreword. Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Harper Perennial, 2003, pp. xi-xx.

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cruelty Reveled to be Absolute Monstrosity

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, depicts historically accurate information centering around the famous World’s Fair, held in Chicago, which indirectly aided the also famous serial killer H. H. Holmes with supplying his victims. This non-fiction book goes into great detail concerning this murderer and how he was able to kill so many people with the help of his own design his intricate malicious Hotel. The chapter “All the Weary Days” (pages 363- 368), divulges into the investigation against homes by detective Geyer revealing through observed and collected evidence the true cruel methodical character of HH Holmes.

This chapter begins with Detective Geyer on the search for Howard Pitezal, son of  Holmes’ confidants, whom he turned on and murdered, Benjamin Pitezal. Geyer was keeping busy following and chasing every possible lead in hopes that he would be able to determine Howard’s fate. When the intricate Hotel was inspected hopefully to determine clues for Howard “[e]ach they delved more deeply into the secrets of the “castle” and each day turned up additional evidence that homes was something far worse than even Geyers macabre discoveries indicated” (Larson 363). These investigators found such horrendous evidence of murder that one claim estimates the number of his victims to be near two hundred (364). This chapter continues to go into the intricacies of his hotel layout, including airtight rooms and a vault that could have gas pumped into it. The most despicable portion of the hotel was the basement which contained “a vat of acid, . . . mounds of quicklime, a large kiln, a dissection table stained with what seemed to be blood” (364), most of which contains human remains.

Geyer had already been to Indianapolis, but returned when he received more information to the possibility of finding Howard Pitezal, or what was left of him.  After arriving in Indianapolis Geyer, with the help of an inspector named Gary, followed every lead and it so happened that their last, in a town named Irvington, they caught a break. It was there, in Irvington, that they found a real estate office who remembered HH Holmes and whom he gave the keys to one of his houses. Geyer and Gary came across a man who installed a wood stove in this home for Holmes. When this man asked Holmes why he would install a wood stove and not a gas stove, homes sadistically remarked ” that he did not think gas was healthy for children (367), then use the wood stove to burn young Howard’s remains after he had murdered him.

Howard’s mother, Benjamin’s wife, had to identify her son was indeed dead by identifying his belongings that the detectives recovered in the house in Irvington, which included; Howard’s coat as well as his favorite toy that his father bought him from the World’s Fair. These examples of cruelty shown throughout this chapter perfectly show the true appalling character of H. H. Holmes.

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Vintage, 2004.

Insight into an Oppositely Viewed Marriage

Creature, by Heidi Schreck, is a play set in the early 1400’s concerning a woman, Margery Kempe, and her escapade of wanting to be revered as a saint. Margery is a new mother who has seemingly been having visions of a satanic creature, but upon her stating that she has had a new vision of Jesus Christ, now devotes her life to showing her love for Christ. She becomes so set on proving herself to be a pure Christian that she begins fasting, weeping, wearing white, and spending all her time at church, which makes her family life deteriorate, more specifically her marriage. This current toxic state of her relationship to her husband, John, is depicted in scene eleven, pages 55-57, which reveals, through dialogue, the true characters of Margery John and how concerned they both are with this current state.

The scene begins with Margery standing alone in her kitchen, praying, believing that she just had another encounter with the satanic creature, Asmodeus. John finds Margery and begins joking with her, calling her “little witch” (55), as well as calling himself “[a] demon” (55). Margery does not find this funny, in fact she takes his words very seriously and subsequently scolds him by yelling at him “JOHN! Don’t joke about that” (55). And, as Margery begins explaining her meeting with Asmodeus to John he does not take his wife seriously and simply states that she “[t]ake off that stupid dress” (55), mocking the fact that she wishes to wear white. John continues to try and persuade his wife to also go and speak with Father Walter and not Father Thomas, whom although she enjoys spending time with, is not considered a real priest. John wishes this for her so that Father Walter, who is considered a real priest will be able to help her mental state and be able to vouch for her so that she will not be in danger of being killed like those who are acting similarly to Margery are. John seems to just want Margery to “stay home here with me and the baby” (56), so that his wife and overall life will return to normal.

Margery’s rather strong willed character seems to be wavering when she refuses to eat the steak that she insisted her household nurse make for her in an earlier scene, but it is only when John is there that she returns to not wanting to end her fasting. And when John tells her of the possibility of her being murdered, she replies that she isn’t frightened, “. . .just hungry (56), which if she were truly fasting for holy reasons– to help others– she would not be focus on food. Margery’s character is again called into question when she states the reason for her fasting as “[i]t’s not what God wants from me” (56), but how could she know that if her vision was so brief? And John begins to question his wife, asking her, “Have you no mind of your own little frog?” (57), wanting her to think for herself not as she perceives the wants and actions of others. Nevertheless, John loses his temper when Margery refuses, again, to eat, even spitting out the food he gave her, shouting at her “EAT! EAT YOU STUPID BITCH! EAT!” (57).

However, at the end of this scene, Margery’s character proves resolute and confirms that she will be going to church, paying no mind to her husband’s protests. And, when he begs her to stay a final time and “[j]ust love me again” (57), Margery instructs God to “[s]mite off his head if he touches me!” (57), which also reveals a cold and cruel to her character when it concerns her husband. The entire depiction of Margery’s character adds to the play as a whole by sympathizing with the main character and well as displaying elements of her the audience might not like as much, all to make her character more complex as the audience tries to understand her.

 

Work Cited
Shrek, Heidi. Creature. Samuel French, 2011.

Volunteering at Gordon Hospice House

Gordon Hospice House is a facility in Statesville, North Carolina, that caters to those who are terminally ill, less than six months to live, to make the last moments of their life as comfortable and as easy for the patient and the patient’s loved ones as possible. At least, that was my experience when my mother was a patient there, and ever since then, I knew that I wanted to give back to this facility that had given much to my family. So when I was given the task to volunteer fifteen hours for my senior project at my High School, I knew that this was the place I needed to be.
I began with two training days in November of last year, learning the regulations, procedures, and the all around best way to help those who needed it; whether it be nurses, patients, or guests. While I was there, I spent most of my time behind the front desk, usually with another volunteer. However, sometimes I lent a helping hand to the nurses on staff, who were either getting ready for a new patient or taking care of a patient that was being removed. I also showed the way to visitors who were unsure of where the rooms were located. And, my favorite thing to do was to visit with the actual patients by carrying on a conversation, reading to them, or just by sitting in their room.