Free Response 7 AHF

“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.”

From the very first page of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck grabs the reader’s attention by inviting us to read about his experiences. By using this first person narrative, Twain encourages the reader to relate events from the perspective of Huck, the protagonist of the story, and from the view of the detached observer, who knows how the story is going to end. Huck is able to contribute his own personal thoughts and immediate responses by telling the story in first person, while at the same time, able to foreshadow upcoming events and create suspense which holds the audience enraptured in Huck’s adventures.

Huck drags along his audience through each episode of his adventures. When Huck is “kidnapped” by Pap, when Huck finds Jim, when Huck meets the Grangerfords, and when Huck meets the duke and dauphin, the reader also participates vicariously through Huck. Because it is written in first person, the reader is able to delve into Huck’s thoughts and discover his naïve and child-like logic, providing the reader a source of entertainment and laughter. Thus the reader is able to observe Huck grow and learn through his experiences, watch his thoughts mature, and see changes in his values from shallow to profound.

Huck is also able to create suspense because after all, it is his story. After Huck touches a rattlesnake, he says, “Anybody that don’t believe yet that it’s foolishness to handle a snake-skin…will believe it now if they read on and see what more it done for us,” impelling the reader to continue reading. Huck foreshadows events here and there, but he tries to keep the readers in the dark as if they were also experiencing the adventure along with him. If Huck didn’t know what was going to happen next at the time, there was no way the reader was going to know. This interaction with the reader keeps the reader’s curiosity piqued.

Using first person may also be a technique which Twain purposefully employed: By utilizing Huck, Twain is able to imbue his own views into the story. Satirizing society, religion, racism, and petty conflicts, Twain is able to get all these messages across to the reader through Huck’s voice in a subtle yet clear way. When Huck declares that he would rather go to hell if people like Miss Watson were going to heaven, Twain was criticizing society’s absurd morality and religious rational. When Huck describes the cowardliness in mobs from different towns, Twain is emphasizing the ridiculousness of crowds.

However, though literary critics have deconstructed Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn prying it apart for themes and morals, this classic is essentially about an independent boy who learns through his adventures and people around him. By using first person, Twain is able to develop Huck’s character to make him more than just a character from a novel. Huck is able to communicate to the reader, and his insights and opinions on different people also make the reader prejudiced. Though this is not our story, we are able to empathize with Huck as he narrates his adventures – through his surprises, his successes, and his disappointments – because we have all been there too.

Romeo and Juliet #3 Fate

Fate: The power that predetermines the course of life and is inescapable.

The theme of fate permeates through Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, as the scenes unfold before the audience. From the very beginning, the chorus warns the audience that the lovers are “star-crossed” which will ultimately take their lives. Not only is the audience aware of this, but even the characters seem to sense that there is a transcendent power influencing the timing of the characters’ actions. Nevertheless, though their fates are sealed, this does not create a dull Romeo and Juliet who act mechanically which detracts from their love and passion. Instead, the stars contribute to the impact of Romeo and Juliet as heroes who create a beautiful yet tragic story.

Romeo and Juliet constantly see omens throughout the play. In Act I, Scene III, Romeo speaks before entering the Capulet’s mansion about an unknown consequence “yet hanging in the stars…bitterly [beginning] this fearful date”. Somehow Romeo expects something bad to happen due to what is already written in the stars above. However, though Romeo acknowledges fate’s hands in all the events, Romeo still believes that he can make his own choices and change destiny which contributes to his heroism. Romeo believes that he is acting according to his will. In the play’s climax when Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he cries out, “I defy you, stars,” completing the idea that the love between Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to destiny. When Juliet stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger, she is acting out of turmoil of passion and love. This beautiful ending underscores that Romeo and Juliet believe in a love more real and alive than fate can ever prove itself to be.

Because their deaths are destined, it enhances the tragedy of the play; tragedy in turn enhances and enriches the impact of Romeo and Juliet as heroes. They were desperately in love, and this love was violent and ecstatic, superseding all other loyalties and emotions, making it real to the two lovers. They did not see their deaths as an act of fate; rather they saw it as a necessity to preserve and retain this powerful love that they had. Romeo and Juliet’s determination to defy the stars and write their own destiny together by killing themselves makes them heroes who persevere to the very last.

Symbolism Essay

The Grapes of Wrath is highly distinguished from other novels for its forceful symbolism. Steinbeck imbues deeper meanings and universal truths in different characters and events to support the themes of his book. One of the most powerful and overarching symbols of the book is Rose of Sharon’s baby which represents the Joad family’s hope for a new life in the West.

From the beginning of the book, Rose of Sharon is pregnant. She and her husband are ready to make the jouirney west in hope of a new life, and together they dream of their own house with a room dedicated for the new baby, a studying job for Connie, and all the ice they could ever desire to cool them in the heat. The baby in Rose of Sharon represented this hope. There was life in Rose of Sharon, and it was a new life. This baby was going to change their future, and so was the journey west going to change their future.

As hardships mount for the Joad family, Rose of Sharon becomes more protective of her baby. The grandparents die, Noah and Connie abandon the family, and things are looking bleak in the west. Rose of Sharon desperately clings on to her last thread of hope which is her baby. She is determined to see the baby survive, and she is determined to become a mother who nurtures her children. As long as she had her baby, Rose of Sharon would continue to press on and continue the journey. The baby was the symbol of hope.

However, Rose of Sharon’s world crumbles down in the last chapter of The Grapes of Wrath. Her one hope in life is taken away from her when she gives birth to a stillborn baby. The death of the baby symbolized the desperation of the Joad family, and all the migrants in general. Things were getting from bad to worse: No jobs were to be found, the pay was not enough to sustain the family, and the fierce rain was doomed to destroy them all. It seemed to the family that things could not get any worse, and there was no hope to live for. People were left to steal, and if they were shot at, “they did not run”; if they were hit, “they sank tiredly in the mud.” People were tired of this miserable life, and the promises of the west were dead. But it was not the end.

The symbol of the baby serves one last purpose in the novel. Uncle John was given the task to bury the dead baby. He put the baby into an apple box and set it in the rising stream as the rain continued to pour. Uncle John said fiercely, “ ‘Go down an’ tell ‘em. Go down in the street an’ rot an’ tell ‘em that way. That’s the way you can talk.’ ” The dead baby was to become a symbol of hope again for the migrants. The baby would drift into a town, and many people would begin to realize the desperation of the migrants. The baby was their last chance and last gleam of hope, and it could relieve the migrants’ misery.

Steinbeck uses Rose of Sharon’s baby to symbolize hope throughout the entire novel. The baby was the promise of “the golden time in the West”, and people held tightly to that one promise. The people would not break as long as they still had this one hope. When their hopes were dashed, and things looked dismal, the baby would be their hope one more time – the messenger of the migrants’ grief and sufferings to the landowners, law enforcers, and uncompassionate people. Steinbeck uses this baby to powerfully emphasize the migrants’ plight.

Who is to Blame?

We can speculate on Mercutio’s death and ask a series of “If only” questions all day, but to me, it is obvious that it is Mercutio’s own fault that he died. True, it is Tybalt that actually stabbed Mercutio, but Tybalt did not intend to duel with Mercutio in the first place. Tybalt had his own matter with Romeo that he wanted to resolve, but Mercutio got in the way. Appalled at Romeo’s apparent cowardliness, Mercutio insults Tybalt and challenges him to “pluck [his] sword out of his pilcher by the ears”. Tybalt, who anticipates any sort of duel, takes up the challenge. Mercutio could have been phlegmatic to the entire fray as this fight had nothing whatsoever to do with him (for he is neither a Capulet nor a Montague), but Mercutio clearly was not thinking straight. Romeo begs for peace, but it is too late: Tybalt thrusts his sword into Mercutio - leading to his own-caused death.

If only Mercutio had been wise, and thus silent, he could have lived to see the end of the story.

The Death of Tybalt Capulet

Tybalt Capulet, 24, died November 18, 1303, in Verona, Italy, after being stabbed in the chest by a Montague teenager.

Though he was known for his hotheadedness, Tybalt was a respectable man who spent much of his days fighting for his family’s honor against the Montagues. Unfortunately, this has cost him his very life, but his valor will forever be known in the history of Capulets.

Tybalt was a member of a fencing club and a dancing club, and he enjoyed going to festivals, going to church, and going to sleep. His uncle said of him, “Tybalt was a good, young lad who was either in the midst of some fray or dancing with some young damsel. We will sorely miss him.”

A service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday, November 19, at Verona Catholic Church, 4612 S. Main Avenue.

Free Response: Romeo and Juliet

Act II, Scene ii, one of literature’s most well-known scenes, illustrates the beautiful archetypal love story of two youth coming from two rival families. In this early exchange between Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare succeeds in revealing and developing an atmosphere of passion and secrecy, but at the same time checked by caution and concern. Shakespeare reveals this aura of forbidden love by using diction, various sentence structures, figurative language, and foreshadow of the consequences of this secret love affair.

Carefully choosing his diction, Shakespeare heightens Romeo’s passionate love for Juliet. Romeo uses extravagant, poetic words in an effort to express his feelings toward Juliet: “Stony limits cannot hold love out” and “what love can do, that dares love attempt”. Again and again, Romeo repeatedly uses the word “love” which enhances the power and impact of his passion for Juliet. This passionate love is intensified by a mood of forbiddance, as the Capulet’s house is a dangerous place for Romeo, a Montague. Shakespeare demonstrates this risk by using diction such as “the place death”, “murder”, “peril”, “enmity”, and “hate”.

Shakespeare also makes use of the two character’s syntax to develop the mood of this scene. Juliet’s words are characterized by many short questions which is direct and concise, whereas Romeo’s is characterized by long, flowing, poetic sentences. This reveals to the audience that Juliet is hesitant and afraid that Romeo will get caught, again stressing the secrecy of this meeting. She is worried and pragmatic, asking “how cam’st [Romeo] hither” and how Romeo “founds’t…out this place”. However, Romeo’s long, poetic lines show that he is too much in love to worry about getting caught. Indeed, he says that Juliet’s “kinsmen are no stop to [him]”. Though Juliet is concerned, they both use blank verse which reveals the dynamic and passionate dialogue between the two lovers even in this dangerous situation.

Another way Shakespeare adds to the romantic atmosphere he has created, is by utilizing figurative language such as metaphors, personification, and similes. The metaphor Romeo uses, “with love’s light wings did [he] ‘o’erperch these walls”, reveals Romeo’s feeling of euphoria and light-headedness of seeing Juliet. Love is given the ability to “prompt” and “lend counsel”, and Shakespeare gives night the ability to “hide” Romeo from Juliet’s family. Romeo uses similes to express that he would travel as far as the “farthest sea” to see Juliet.

Shakespeare also uses foreshadow to develop the secrecy and danger of their love affair. Romeo says that he would rather die by their families’ hate rather than live longer, “wanting of [Juliet’s] love”. This secrecy and forbiddance mood is so heavy with Shakespeare’s inauspicious diction and powerful emotion that Shakespeare makes clear that something devastating will happen to the two lovers. This passionate love cannot last while their two families are in conflict, and fate will have it that they will both perish in love.

Shakespeare creates a beautiful scene of two lovers locked in intense passion and love in the midst of danger and forbiddance. Alone in a secret garden with “night’s cloak” to hide them, Romeo and Juliet pour out their love and concern for each other. This mood of passionate love is conveyed through Shakespeare’s use of diction, syntax, figurative language, and foreshadow, developing the impact of this scene in the overarching play.

THE LAND OF PROMISES... ...MADE TO BE BROKEN

Do you find pleasure in a hard day's work?

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for your family?

In California, You Can Do All These Things!

* Work is plenty! And we have no discrimination against the weak!
* We promise to pay you as long as you work hard
* Lots of community!

BY: Andrew Blythe and Julie Ahn

Bald is the New Beautiful

Every morning, girls spend an average of one hour messing with their hair. They wash it, dry it, blow dry it, brush it, and comb it. Then they try their hair in a neat bun, a French braid, a pony tail, pig tails, and finally they decide to simply let their hair down for the day. But it is already too late: The day is ruined.

If girls were bald, their lives would be much easier.

If girls did not have any hair, how much precious time they would save! Never again would they have to worry about how their hair looks or worry about that one strand of hair that is simply out of place. Never again would they have to look in the mirror to check if their hair is perfect. They can finally stop selfishly taking the only bathroom all morning, and they can concentrate on their studies. Girls will find they will have plenty of extra time on their hands if they were simply bald.

In the hot summers when the temperature reaches a scorching 35 degrees Celsius, girls with long hair are much more intolerant of the weather than boys. Their long hair sticking and covering the back of their sweaty necks, and their dark hair soaking in the heat, makes it impossible for girls to stay cool. The heat and sweat given off by the body as a cooling mechanism are trapped by their impermeable, long hair, insulating the body with an extra layer of heat. If girls had no hair, they would not be as hot and could let all the sweat evaporate from their shiny, naked heads. No more would they have to carry an extra hair tie in case of hot days.

Hair can also get icky. If a girl does not wash her hair in three days, the signs of uncleanness already become visible. Oil and grease drip from the hair, staining clothes, and dandruff covers the shoulders like snow. Girls spend much time and money worrying about which shampoo and conditioner to buy because they search for the one that will provide the best results. They worry about gross hair because no one likes to be near people with greasy hair -- but no one needs to have greasy hair if one does not have hair in the first place!

Hair is also very heavy – especially girls’ hair. Extra weight on the head is not good for the neck and may do considerable damage on the person, including neck discs. There was one case in Denmark when a woman’s neck was permanently paralyzed because the weight of her hair obstructed the brain’s function and thus affecting her neck. Heavy hair can be dangerous, and it can also be cumbersome as it drags the day along. If girls did not have hair, they could experience the freedom of tossing their heads and running with the cool wind bathing over their naked heads, which is an experience too savory to describe.

Girls worry too much about their hair. Too may times have I heard complaints of “bad hair days”. I have come up with an easy, profitable, and clean solution of getting rid of girls’ problems: Go bald. Some girls may object to being bald, claiming that it will make them ugly, but if all girls were bald, there would be no need to compare. Bald is the new beautiful.