Posts

Showing posts from September, 2018

Post 8: Open Question Benchmark Essay

Prompt: Select a novel, play, or epic poem that features a character whose origins are unusual or mysterious. Then write an essay in which you analyze how these origins shape the character and that character's relationships, and how the origins contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole. Essay: In Medea by Euripides, Medea is condemned by the citizens of Greece as a foreigner and is never able to assimilate. This ostracization in her new life pushes Medea to commit atrocious acts of murder and revenge. In Medea, the character's origins from another country propel the strife that befalls them in the play. Medea left her place of origin to follow Jason, the man she believed was her true love. As she left she had to kill her brother to ensure her and Jason's safety resulting in her exile from her home that lasted her life. Because of this decision, she was not able to ever return home, despite her new life growing increasingly dissatisfactory. In the myth predating t

Post 7: Star Wars Party

Image
The outfit I wore represents Rey at the end of the movie as she enters the Master of Both Worlds stage in her Hero’s Journey. The outfit Rey wears at the end of the movie is similar to her outfit at the beginning. The arm braces, leggings, and tunic are very similar. However, the outfit changes throughout the movie as she goes through the Hero's Journey. Where her outfit used to be rags and loose sashes at the end her outfit is crisp and clean symbolizing her transformation from a poor orphan to Jedi-in-training and member of the Resistance. In addition to her change of outfit, she now carries Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber. She has accepted that she has powers and needs to train to be a Jedi - a complete transformation from where she began at the beginning of the movie waiting for her parents to return. Rey Sabe(r)s the Day: chocolate dipped pretzels representing the lightsaber she now accepts at the end of her Hero Journey.

Post 5: Prose Benchmark Essay

Prompt: The following interchange, excerpted from an 1852 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, occurs when two characters who have been living on the Blithedale farm - a community designed to promote an ideal of equality achieved through communal rural living - are about to part ways. Read the passage carefully. In a well-written essay, analyze how Hawthorne portrays the narrator's attitude towards Zenobia through the use of literary techniques.  Essay : In the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the narrator attempts to reason with an old friend. The narrator contrasts his memory of their time together to the person she is now to convey his troubled feelings about her. Throughout the piece, the narrator uses vivid imagery, figurative language, and forceful diction to portray his disapproval and disappointment at her leaving. Hawthorne contrasts the opulent setting with their humble past with vivid imagery. He begins this section by describing "the brilliancy of the room" (l.2). The

Post 4: Petrarchan Sonnet

Petrarchan Sonnet based on the song Eastside by Benny Blanco I have adored you since my youth, my sweet. A pure and simple love it used to be Despite denial from your family. Every day on the Eastside we would meet Water in a desert is love of yore: Always in the distance, never mine to take. Give me a chance; your heart I will not break. Your eyes like the stars above I ask for Apart our lives have grown. Beneath a cage the joys of youth turn to ash with age I think back to being in love with you Would not you have stayed if only you knew The price on our love the future would lay? Let’s meet again and this time, won’t you stay? Key: P etrarchan conventions Conceit Figurative Language Original Lyrics: Uh Yeah, yeah When I was young, I fell in love We used to hold hands, man, that was enough (yeah) Then we grew up, started to touch Used to kiss underneath the light on the back of the bus (yeah) Oh no, your daddy didn't like me much And