Lost Nights

            You wake up inside the janitor’s closet of the new club you checked out last night.  Apparently it was good, because you cannot remember how you got inside the janitor’s closet.  Or why you’re wearing a Hawaiian shirt, considering you’re pretty sure you were wearing a suit. 

You can only imagine what went down last night.  Girls, liquor, and of course the Bolivian Marching Powder.  You faintly remember a glimpse of what happened.  Something to do with making plans to go to Paris to check out its fine wines.  This memory makes you have a craving for wine all of a sudden.  Still laying down in the closet, you finally feel conscious enough to stand up and leave the club to get a taxi and go home.

When you get into the taxi, the driver asks you for your destination.  You respond with your old apartment’s address.  The one you shared with Amanda.  You think to yourself, why the hell did I just tell him to go to my old apartment? There’s nothing but bad memories there.  However, you’re too tired to correct yourself so you sit back and let the driver take you. 

The surroundings start to become familiar: the bakery, the newspaper stand.  Once you arrived to the apartment, you get out and pay the driver.  When you turn around, you are shocked.  Amanda is standing outside the building, waiting for something, or someone.  Filled with hatred and grief, you start running down the street to try to get away from Amanda but she follows you.  Everywhere you look, she is there.  Out of breath, you sit down and close your eyes, trying to get Amanda out of your head.  She does not leave.  Your only thought is to take more coke to try to calm down.  Only, you know she will never get out of your mind and will never leave you alone. 

"Bop To The Top"- The Story of Naval Officers in 1800s England

Changing Social Order in Persuasion

            Jane Austen uses satire in her novels frequently to poke fun at the society she was living in.  In Persuasion, Austen makes remarks regarding class structure and mobility, along with how people of different standings viewed each other.  Austen makes Sir Elliot the embodiment of pride and vanity.  He is obsessed with his family history and its placement in society.  He even reads the Baronetcy, the history of his family, for enjoyment as it pleases him to see his stature in society.  Sir Elliot also looks down on the men of the Navy because he believes the job gives them an undeserved climb up the social ladder.  He tells his family how being in the Navy “brings persons of obscure birth into undue distinction, and [raises] men to honours which their fathers and grandfathers never dreamt of; and secondly, as it cuts up a man’s youth and vigour most horribly” (Austen 13).  Sir Elliot is part of the landed nobility in England at this time who cherishes his rank due to birth and appreciates others of his similar standing.  Because these new naval officers are gaining wealth and merit and moving up the social ladder, even though they were not born with a good standing, Sir Elliot sees them as unworthy of being in the same level as him.  Sir Elliot carries this bias towards naval officers throughout the novel which shows his character’s emphasis on pride and rank.

Austen uses Sir Elliot’s character to show the change in the view of the typical gentleman.  During the early 1800s, the time when Austen was writing Persuasion, England was at war with multiple different nations and their Navy was at its prime.  Naval officers, having good manners and being strong and independent, were beginning to be seen as the new gentleman compared to the older landed gentry.  Austen uses many characters, such as Admiral Croft and Captain Wentworth, to show the increased appreciation for the naval gentleman.  When describing Captain Wentworth, Austen points out how “his genius and ardour had seemed to foresee and to command his prosperous path… He had distinguished himself, and early gained the other step in rank and… [has] made a handsome fortune” (Austen 21).  When Anne was engaged to Wentworth, her family and especially Lady Russell did not approve of the match because he was of lower ranking than Anne.  Because of him being poorer and less noble, Anne called off the marriage.  However, after eight years, Wentworth becomes a prominent naval captain and gains a lot of money, which puts him higher on the social ladder.  His acquirement of wealth and merit allows him to be seen as more of a gentleman and able suitor.  After learning of Wentworth’s higher importance, Anne’s family and Lady Russell agree to their marriage and accepts Wentworth.

            Along with the changing social order, Austen satirizes how people in society viewed each other.  Mary constantly makes remarks of how the Hayters are of lower standing than the Musgroves so she can never associate with them.  Also, while in Bath, Sir Elliot makes it a priority to befriend his cousin, Lady Dalrymple, because she is part of the nobility.  Sir Elliot and Lady Russell are two main characters who value place of birth and use ranking to decide who they associate with and the appropriateness of marriages.  Elizabeth, being Sir Elliot’s daughter, does not want to invite the Crofts to dinner because the Elliots do not want to be associated with them due to their lower standing.  Class placement is a frequent motif in Persuasion because social standing dictates who everyone hangs out with and how people view others. 

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1997. Print. 

Reaction to the Grotesque in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

            Joyce M. Wegs explains the appearance and significance of the grotesque in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”  Wegs describes grotesque as a “familiar world suddenly appearing alien… and [suggests] a transcendent reality which reaches beyond surface realism to evoke the simultaneous mystery and reality of the contradictions of the human heart,” (Wegs 99).  I found this use of grotesque similar to the way Oates gives two different descriptions of Connie throughout the short story.  Her one personality at home contradicts her personality away from home which gives the story different levels.

            I found it interesting how Wegs makes the connection with religion in the short story.  She explains how Oates “employs a debased religious imagery to suggest the gods which modern society has substituted for conventional religion,” (Wegs 100).  Connie takes superficial things and makes them into the things she praises and lives by.  The music she listens to, the places she goes, and the things she wants in life (boys) are the things that run her life.  The drive-in restaurant that Connie loves to go to is like a church or “sacred building that loomed up out of the night to give them what haven and blessing they yearned for,” (Oates 27).  Wegs sees how Connie and her friends believe that the restaurant is wonderful and nothing can ever go wrong when they’re there.  The music that plays in the background at the restaurant makes the place seem lighter and more significant, because Connie is obsessed with music.  She always plays music in her room and I believe the music is part of the connection she feels to Arnold Friend because he was playing the same music she was listening to when he came to her house. 

            Going along with religion, Wegs makes the comparison between Arnold Friend and Satan.  I liked her explanation of how Arnold imitated the devil in drawing Connie in and then eventually taking her to hell.  Arnold, like Satan, “is in disguise; the distortions in his appearance and behavior suggest not only that his identity is faked but also hint at his real self,” (Wegs 102).  Arnold wears a wig, make up, and even draws on a fake mole to add to his costume.  He also stuffs cans and paper into his boots to make him seem taller which shows how much of his appearance is a disguise.  Wegs goes on to show how Arnold Friend’s initials could stand for Arch Fiend which I thought was very interesting.  Also, Arnold says to Connie how he can see what is happening at the barbeque at that moment and describes to her who all is there.  His vision can connect to Satan’s supernatural all-knowingness, along with how Arnold knew everything about Connie and her family.  The grotesque mixing of reality and the subconscious is apparent when Connie gives up trying to fight Arnold and instead walks outside to go with him.  Connie’s unconscious, the boy crazy immature side, is attracted towards Arnold.  Wegs makes it clear when she says “in a sense, [Connie’s] body with its puzzling desires ‘decides’ to go with Arnold although her rational self is terrified of him,” (Wegs 105).  Connie’s confusion between her rational and irrational selves contribute to the grotesque terror in the short story. 

            Wegs’s critical paper on “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is very insightful to me.  I liked the points she makes about the religion in the story and Arnold portraying Satan.  Also, the mixing of reality and Connie’s subconscious is an interesting way to analyze how she acts at the end of the story, when she stops trying to fight Arnold and actually goes with him. 

Works Cited

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Print.

Wegs, Joyce M.  “’Don’t You Know Who I Am?’: The Grotesque in Oates’s ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” Journal of Narrative Technique 5, 1995. Print.

Expect the Unexpected

             The one show my family gathers together to watch is Big Brother.  This reality game show brings in twelve houseguests to live in one house for the duration of summer.  The houseguests are isolated from the outside world and can’t even watch TV or the news.  Every week, they participate in a competition and the winner is dubbed the Head of Household, or HOH.  The Head of Household then nominates two houseguests for eviction.  However, the two nominees have a chance to save themselves in the power of veto competition and take themselves off the block.  The week finishes with one houseguest going home and the new head of household competition.  Like any other reality show, there is always drama.  I personally always look forward to each season and guess which houseguests will form showmances (romantic relationship on the show).

Big Brother prides itself on bringing in a multitude of different personalities from across the country onto the show.  Every season there is always a small town girl, a mom or dad, and a free-lance bachelor, along with people of different race and homosexuals (there was even a transgender woman last season).  The producers include these conflicting personalities to, “front-load the probability for drama into the very premises of their shows” (Rushkoff 38).  One of the most popular seasons was Season 12 when Rachel and Regan would get in a fight almost every episode.  This bickering between the two characters would create drama in the house and appeal to viewers to watch the show. 

In a presentist culture, we live in an always-on “now” where our priorities are in the present, not the future.  Reality shows, like Big Brother, roll camera 24 hours a day, hoping to catch little snippets of conflict or drama.  In the house, “any moment is as potentially significant as any other.  It’s up to the editors to construct something like narrative, after the fact” (Rushkoff 36).  These disconnected moments of the houseguests’ lives create a choppy viewing experience, however the viewers do not mind this.  In present shock, in which we are living, people are now used to not having a sense of future or direction so the individual events in the house seem normal.

Another iconic part of Big Brother is Zingbot.  Zingbot is a robot that comes into the house every season to “zing” the houseguests.  The robot’s sole purpose in the house is to create drama.  It brings up houseguests’ pasts, secrets they have, and insults that would create tension.  Last season, Zingbot brought up the fact that a houseguest had a girlfriend back home, but he started a showmance with someone in the house.  This comment and the aftermath that followed allotted for at least ten minutes of the show.  The reason something like Zingbot would be created is due to the fact that in a presentist culture, we are living in a world without narrative so, “producers of reality TV must generate pathos directly, in the moment.  This accounts for the downward spiral in television programming toward the kind of pain, humiliation, and personal tragedy that creates the most immediate sensation for the viewer” (Rushkoff 37).  Embarrassing and degrading characters on the show attract more viewers and distract them from the fact that there is no narrative being told.

Big Brother’s catchphrase is, “expect the unexpected.”  The saying was coined due to the many twists the show throws at its characters to change the game.  Twists are just another way to add drama and suspense to a show that has no story being told.  Like video games and Game of Thrones, “the show is not about creating satisfying resolutions, but rather about keeping the adventure alive and as many threads going as possible” (Rushkoff 34).  The multiple changes to the game display the effort to keep the show interesting and engage the audience, which is hard considering it does not have a narrative to begin with.

Big Brother is a classic example of a show created out of present shock.  In this way of life, we do not look towards the future or have a sense of direction and instead focus on the moment.  The reality show incorporates different personalities and many twists to create drama between houseguests and engage viewers.  As Julie Chen always promises, “expect the unexpected.”

Works Cited

Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.

A Stylish Feast

Hemingway uses a specific style of writing his novel, A Moveable Feast.  He recalls his time in Paris through first person perspective. All of his memories and opinions of the people he met are from his own viewpoint.   A Moveable Feast is very detailed and conveys Hemingway’s feelings throughout the novel in every experience he has.  The tone is matter-of-fact because Hemingway is looking back on all his encounters and can write about them in a way in which he says it like it happened.  Hemingway goes into deep detail about every instance.  He includes street names, restaurant names, and every detail about the scenery where he goes.  These details allow us to experience Paris as he sees it.  Also, Hemingway uses polysyndetons often in his novel which is somewhat confusing by having so much information in one sentence.  As Hemingway works in a café, he, “went back to writing and entered far into the story and was lost in it.  He was writing it now and it was not writing itself and he did not look up nor know anything about the time nor think where he was nor order any more rum St. James” (Hemingway 18).  Hemingway’s style of including detail allows the audience to experience his encounters and make their own impressions of the people he meets.

            The chapters in the novel follow the time in Hemingway’s life and the events that transpire.  Because Hemingway is looking back at what happened, some details could have gotten mixed around and be portrayed differently than what actually happened.  The sequence of events, therefore, makes the story confusing and hard to follow.  Hemingway uses the seasons as a pathway for time, as well.  He sees spring as the best time of life while fall is leading to depressing times.  The occasions in A Moveable Feast are part of Hemingway’s prime time of life, or his spring.  Hemingway shows his opinions towards the seasons and how they affect life when he says, “you expected to be sad in the fall.  Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen… When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest” (Hemingway 39).  The seasons help portray how Hemingway feels about certain events.

            In AP Language, we study style in literary works and how style affects the argument made or the story.  Hemingway uses style in his novel, including polysyndetons and extra details, to help give personality to his work and put emphasis on certain parts.  The novel goes over Hemingway’s problem of writing a novel and writing something meaningful.  Hemingway goes over the difficulties he encounters when he meets the different writers and how to work with all of them.  A Moveable Feast is an autobiography because it goes over Hemingway’s own life in Paris.  The novel begins in the early 1920s when Hemingway is about 25 years old.  This is a time in his life when he meets many important writers and tries to develop his writing into something more substantial.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest.  A Moveable Feast. New York: Scribner, 2009. Print. 

You Passed High School? Great, now leave.

            Schools today focus on preparing students for their future, as well as teaching students that the minimum is acceptable.

            Neil Postman in his book, The End of Education, states different narratives schools take on for a reason to teach students.  One of the narratives Postman stated as outdated, the Economic Utility narrative, I believe is still in effect.  The Economic Utility purpose tells students that, “if you pay attention in school, and do your homework, and score well on tests, and behave yourself, you will be rewarded with a well-paying job when you are done” (Postman 27).  Public education is training students to pass high school, go onto college, and eventually get a career.  This practice is definitely apparent in our school environment, in which we have advisory every week whose sole purpose is to prepare us for getting into college and what to do afterwards.  With education shaped around this principle, schools are creating a future-minded and career-set public.  A public such as this one can be beneficial and/or detrimental to society.  On one hand, students are closer to figuring out what they want to do in the future and how to contribute, while on the other hand, students might not be learning or paying any attention to other subjects which will limit their education. 

            Also, public schools, especially in Florida, are now lowering their standards for standardized tests to pass grade levels and to graduate from school.  Students have recently been performing very badly on the annual FCAT, Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.  So, “In order to make sure that students succeeded on the test, the passing grade was lowered” (washingtonpost.com).  When public education is dumbed down such as this, it creates a public that believes the minimum is okay and that you don’t need to try as hard in order to succeed.  Society will be affected very badly if educators allow this to keep happening. 

            Schools in the twenty-first century create a public that has a large focus on students passing high school where the minimum is acceptable, and go onto college in which they prepare for a job in the future.

Works Cited

Postman, Neil. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Knopf, 1995. Print.

Strauss, Valerie. "Test Scores Plummet — so Florida Drops Passing Grade." Washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post, 21 May 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

Epicurus vs. Postman.... Who Will Win?

           The Epicureans would have had a blast in the 21^st century.  In the novel, Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, we are brought through a course of philosophy, covering all the major philosophers of all time.  Epicurus were one of them.  Throughout Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, he states how television is degrading our society and how all serious forms of discussion have turned into entertainment.  So, who were the Epicureans? What did Postman believe about entertainment, and why would the Epicureans and Postman disagree?

            Epicurus founded a school in Athens for philosophy around 300 B.C.  He was influenced by Aristippus who, “believed that the aim of life was to attain the highest possible sensory enjoyment,” (Gaarder 131).  Epicurus’s followers were called Epicureans and they followed a certain belief in how to live life to the fullest.  Epicureans emphasized that every action a person does should be for the purpose of pleasure, even if the outcome will not be advantageous.  As the philosophy practice progressed, the followers, “developed an overemphasis on self-indulgence.  Their motto was ‘Live for the moment!’” (Gaarder 133).  As we can all relate, many people in the 21^st century do things for the satisfaction of doing them, instead of learning and doing the best things for themselves.

            Neil Postman on the other hand believes entertainment and over-indulged pleasure in the modern world is dangerous for society.  The culture of television, “offers viewers a variety of subject matter, requires minimal skills to comprehend it, and is largely aimed at emotional gratification,” (Postman 86).  Postman takes on the more logical point of view in how our entertainment-based culture, based on ‘emotional gratification’, is making people less logical and unable to discuss clearly.

            In a debate between Epicurus and Postman, both sides would get very heated.  Epicurus had a faith in pleasure and that the best thing someone can do is receive satisfaction.  Postman would retort with how this pleasure would bring society down a notch in its ability to think clearly, learn, and be rational.  The Epicureans later believed to live in the moment.  Postman discusses this point and how it is present in today’s news.  News segments only last for a few moments, then go onto the next topic.  Whereas the Epicureans believed this living for the moment was beneficial, Postman believes it does not provoke thought and cannot be taken seriously. 

            So, do you agree with Epicurus that we should live for pleasure and satisfaction, or with Postman that too much pleasure is detrimental?

Works Cited

Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994. Print.

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin, 1985. Print.