The Yellow Wallpaper Abstract

Author's Note: This is an abstract piece that I wrote based on the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. I would like feedback on my ability to summarize without summarizing too much. Thanks!

My essay title is called Lost in Your Own World.  In this essay, my main thesis is that the narrator of the story is lost in her own world of depression. No one could help her and drag her out of it, because she wasn't willing to help herself. Her husband, John, delievered her to a wonderful summer house for this season. He catered to her every need, making sure there was a full staff of housekeepers to wait on her needs. She was showered with nothing but love and affection from him. The narrator also had a beautiful new child living in her mist. Someone to love, nurture, raise as her own. Yet what does she do? Shove John out of her little shelter, refuse to take care of her own child, leaving a nanny to be its main caregiver, and leaving her husband without a wife. Why did she close in herself? Why was she not willing to help herself? The narrator wasn't because she didn't feel she had enough. Nothing could please her, she always wanted more. The most terrible part? She did not just destroy her own life. This woman brought down the lives of others, as well.

Mockingbirds and Mockingjays

Author's Note: This is an compare and contrast essay about Mockingbirds and Mockingjays based primary on the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, with some ideas from The Hunger Games added in. I would like feedback on my ability to analyze symbolism of animals and how they are conveyed through characters in a novel. Thank you and enjoy!

            As children, we all remember dancing around our neighborhood, totally carefree, no worries at all in our little world. Of course, we also remember the moment that changes. The time we put that innocence away and become defiant, willing to do anything for what we believe in. Innocence can be conveyed through many symbols, even a tiny bird called a mockingbird. To kill, harm one minuscule hair on this animal’s head, is harming something that has never done anything awful in its life. In contrast, defiance is conveyed through a headstrong bird named a mockingjay. A mockingjay should have never existed, and through its living it shows how you can be whoever you want to be, no matter the obstacles stacked upon you. Even though these birds themselves do not make an appearance in To Kill a Mockingbird, the symbolism of what these animals stand for are unmistakably shown in the novel.

              When mockingbirds are born, their innocence begins. No knowledge of the world, how it works, and the horrors tucked into it. As life continues for them, though, loss of that innocence begins to set in. Survival, attempting to find food, and quarrels between other mockingbirds has the world look like a terrible place to live in. This is exactly what happens to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. When she was born, nothing really troubled her, no ideas harmed her. Once Atticus, a lawyer and her father, takes his most risk-filled court case ever, innocence is suddenly stolen from her. Feedback from her neighbors and school peers filled her life with adult topics. Scout wasn’t eligible to be a true child anymore, which is exactly what mockingbirds have in their fate.

            Fuse together a mockingbird, a sign of innocence, and a jabberjay, a sign of defiance and being able to trick your enemies, and what is created? A little bird named a mockingjay. Government in The Hunger Games, accurately called the Capitol, never meant for these animals to exist. Jabberjays, these creatures’ fathers, should have died off in the woods. Yet they didn’t, and through them mockingjays were born. Since they defied the odds, they became a symbol of rebellion and defiance. As long as mockingjays existed, there would be hope. A mockingjay is shown through Atticus Finch, Scout’s father. He probably shouldn’t have been willing to conquer on Tom Robinson’s court case, yet he did. He was prepared to define the government and rebel against what society was in the 1960’s. As long as Atticus lived, the symbolism of the mockingjay would still live on.

            Even though they don’t even know it themselves, symbolism of animals shines through in the two primary characters of To Kill A Mockingbird. Scout and Atticus equally have the symbolism in their personalities. Scout, like a mockingbird, had an innocent aura about herself, and an ignorance of the terrors of the world around her. Adults living in the racist time period of 1960 were usually awfully mean-spirited people, who didn’t accept people unlike them. Yet sometimes, a mockingjay rises out of these types of people, and Atticus was that mockingjay. To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a truly thought-provoking novel that shows how the symbolism of unique types of animals shines through in the primary characters of her novel.  

Aunt Alexandra

Author's Note: This is a small character point of view that I did in the point of view of Aunt Alexandra. This piece's purpose is to show that Aunt Alexandra wasn't just an awful old woman who didn't have any purpose in life but to be a lady and to try to force Scout to be a lady. She wanted something else out of life, but discovered she couldn't get it. Enjoy!

Life has always been a hardship for me, ever since birth. I've always wanted something more out of life, a way to show people that I'm smarter than they think I am. That I'm not just a simpleminded lady, only thinking about how to act proper and gossip about the rest of the neighborhood. There's more to me than that! Yet I don't understand how to show those feelings. Ever since I was younger, a tinny child of only three years old, my true personality has been shunned. Shunned by everyone in my little world, all of my family. Don't do that! They screeched at me if I began to behave like a "tomboy." It was whipped into my brain that I couldn't be myself, to be prim and proper. Seen, not heard. Never let my opinion be spoken.

It was drilled into my head to place a impenetrable mask over my true self.ll

If I didn't, what would happen to me? I was to be ignored, like I wasn't even in the area. Whenever people looked at me, their eyes glazed and then passed over like I was invisible. That feeling was very well known. In a few years of unsensable rebellion, I threw the mask off and attempted to let people see the real me. After a few days of shock, everyone in my life began to ignore me. I assume they were doing so to make me snap out of it.

It worked.

So, ever since them, I had been Alexandra, perfectly prim and proper in every way possible. A tomboy, rebellious and unkept? Never! That was not me anymore. At least, on the outside. I have perfected the illusion. No one would doubt it, especially not my brother, Atticus. I was going to visit him while he took on his most riskfulled court case ever. Taking care of the children would become my task. Jem, I had no fears about. Scout, though, I was concered for. When I looked at her, I saw my eyes burned exactly into her beautiful face, filled of wonder and joy and curiosity. That final idea was the most frighting. Curosity lead to dangerous situations, where judgement lurked in every corner and being accepted was at risk. If I didn't dim that ray of light in her eyes, it would sweep and grow and take over her whole life, ruining it.

That could not happen to her. As her aunt, I would not allow it. Would it easily be the most challenging task I ever committed? Yes, of course. Would I fail? No. No, I would not.

Society could not allow it.

To Kill a Mockingbird Scene Impact

Author's Note: This is my reply to a journal entry we were assigned. I would like feedback on word choice. Thanks!

A scene that impacted my thinking of this novel was on Page Nineteen, when Walter Cunningham refused to take money from the teacher for lunch when he did not bring his own. He refused the money because he didn't want to own the professor anything. This impacted my view of the novel because it showed that just because people had a darker skin color in this time period, it did not mean that they have no pride for their life. My reaction when I read this was a sense of pride for the African Americans living in Maycomb. Just because they didn't have a lot, didn't mean that they didn't love and weren't proud of what they had. This scene really proved that topic of the novel for me.

Outcasts

Author's Note: This is a problem and solution essay about Melinda being an outcast in the novel Speak. I would like feedback on my ability to use good positive and negative parts of each option I listed. Thanks!

How would you feel if you were an outcast, not accepted by anyone? This is exactly what Melinda, the leading character in Speak, becomes after one fatal night at an end of school year party. No one at her place of learning wanted to be associated with her at all. Not knowing how to cope with that, Melinda fades herself into the background, barely even living. What she does not realize, though, is that her problem could have been fixed, in more ways than one. Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a complex novel that shows how a person could change their own issues, if the eff is set forth.

Being an outcast is an awful situation to be placed in. People who are outcasts have feelings of depression, a feeling of not wanting to continue with everyday life. What these outcasts don’t usually discover, though, is that they can make their lives improve. Melinda files neatly into this category, since there were a few options about her situations that she could have put into action. One idea was to start discussing topics with people, join some clubs, and try to become more involved with school life. If Melinda did this, her fellow colleagues might have responded well. She might have discovered it was possible for her to have acquaintances. What Melinda was terrified of, though, is that her classmates wouldn’t have answered gracefully. Being shunned even more, ignored more, was just one topic that might have gone astray. Rumors could have begun, awful comments said to her face and her back, and physical abuse was something that could have started if Melinda tried to make friends. To her, it simply wasn’t worth the liability.

If Melinda didn’t want to take the risk of attempting to put her spirit out into school life, it might have been a wise decision for her to transfer places of learning. Doing so would have provided a fresh, clean slate. At her latest school, she could have changed her whole personality. It would be possible for Melinda to start getting advanced grades, join after-class activities, and create different relationships outside of her family. Everyone there could have accepted her, and she would finally begin to love classes again. Sadly, it might have not turned out that way. At her new academy, students might have already heard from other acquaintances in her older school about what type of person she was, and what have happened to her. The chance of being able to start anew would have been shattered. If that happened, I don’t think Melinda could cope. Her whole world would have collapsed around her in her eyes, and life could not have been lived anymore.

Situations like Melinda’s are such an intense and horrible place to be in. Those human beings feel like they have no way out, no escape. Most of the time, these people are filled with such suffering that they can’t discover they have options to solve their problems. Melinda had at least two ways to fix her life, yet she wouldn’t, literally couldn’t, take those steps, out of fear of what could happen. The repercussions were so terrifying that she wasn’t willing to take the risk. Laurie Halse Anderson’s has written a beautiful piece of writing that is a thought-inducing piece, making you wonder how people could change their horrible situations.

Speak Scene Analysis

Author's Note: This is a scene analysis for when Melinda is hiding from the Heathers in the bathroom. I'm trying to analyze the purpose of this passage, along with its meaning and tone. I would like feedback on my ability to do so. Thanks!

"I hide in the bathroom until I know Heather's bus has left. The salt in my tears feels good when it stings my lips. I wash my face in the sink until there is nothing left of it, no eyes, no nose, no mouth. A slick nothing. -Speak, page 45.

All teenagers have a feeling of not knowing who they are, or what they want to be when they are in high school. No one knows where to go, where they fit in. That's exactly how Melinda feels when in the bathroom of her school. The tone she is conveying is a tone of loss and a tone of wonder. She doesn't know where she should be in life, and she keeps wondering that. It is a tone of loss, since this character is at a loss with the world.The meaning of this scene is that she doesn't know where to go in life, so she's trying to drift into nothing. Thats's what the washing her face in the sink is giving off. Laurie Halse Anderson wrote this passage in the novel with the purpose of showing Melinda's feeling of loss, her feeling of not knowing what to do. Her feeling of not knowing who she should be.

Speak Problem and Solution

Author's Note: This is a piece I wrote about the primary issue in Speak, and possible solutions to that problem. I would like feedback on my word choice. Thanks!

                Everyone in life has their crosses to bear. For some, those crosses are heavier than others. For others, those crosses are borderline unbearable. Melinda, the primary character in Speak, falls into that category. All of her classmates detest her, since she interrupted a summer party by calling the authorities. She has no friends, no one to speak with. Her life is awful. What Melinda doesn’t realize, though, is that this situation could be easily changed, if only she took the first gesture. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a novel that makes you think about issues that teenagers have in their lives, and ways to change the situation.

                In the beginning of Speak, we discover that Melinda is an outcast. She has no friends, no one to head into high school with. This girl was alone. Melinda had called the police on a party at the end of eighth grade, so no one would want to be associated with her. What she didn’t realize, though, was that if only Melinda had spoken about the terrible event that was inflicted on her during this gathering, all of her classmates would have understood the reasoning behind busting them all. Surprising to her, Melinda would more than likely would have been forgiven. Her life would have been much more enjoyable. The largest problem in her life could have been solved by her own action.  

                High school is a struggle for all teenagers. Feeling lost in the world, not knowing what you wanted to become. Feeling lost in the crowd, not knowing where you fit in. Sometimes, like Melinda, you must deal with fitting in nowhere, and having no one want to be around you. What most characters, especially the primary character in Speak, don’t know, though, is that you can change your life, as long as you try. Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a thought provoking novel that shows how people can fix their situations, yet won’t take the crucial steps.