Analysis of Baxter's Gryphon Essays

In the story “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter, a strange substitute teacher teaches in 4th grade class in Five Oaks, Michigan. Her name is Ms. Ferenczi. She is strange in the way how she is super superstitious and tells strange stories and believes them as well. This story is told from the point of view from one of her students, Tommy. In the beginning, the class’s real teacher gets sick. The next day, Ms. Ferenczi shows up as substitute. The day after the next day, Ms. Ferenczi appears again and decides to reward the class for being a good class. This time, her reward was a fortune telling with a tarot pack. The problem was was that one of her students got the death card. That kid told on Ms. Ferenczi and got her in trouble. Tommy heard about this and got in a fight with the kid because Tommy liked and defended Ms. Ferenczi. In the story, Tommy’s behavior and actions showed that Tommy liked things that were strange and new because Five Oaks is so boring. Ms. Ferenczi is just the opposite since she is strange and mysterious. That is the reason why Tommy defended Ms. Ferenczi. Some of Tommy’s behavior across the story show that when he likes something, he defends it and also.

In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, we see that the character of Jordan Baker is quite different from other women of her time. She has beliefs and values that are radically different from everybody else's. Through her actions, it is clear that she represents the emergence of a different type of woman -- one who is self sufficient -- in the 1920's. Fitzgerald uses this individual to symbolize the changing ways of life in America.

One example of this can be wherever Prose gathers the reading lists from eighty-some schools round the country. She notes which works are read most frequently, therefore providing factual knowledge to support her claim regarding what styles of things high school students are reading. Another example of this comes once Prose tells America the way literature is being instructed. She cites, as an example, the San Francisco Board of Education's demand that literature be tutored in a very manner that may mirror the range of the community. By telling America this, she lays the premise for her argument that literature is being tutored in the wrong manner, which this type of teaching is a frightening student from serious literature. Her claim regarding what styles of things high school students are

In the short story entitled “Gryphon” by author Charles Baxter, the author begins to formulate a storyline about a young boy named Tommy and his experience with his new substitute teacher, Miss Ferenczi. Miss Ferenczi being a new substitute teacher in Five Oaks, Michigan provides Tommy’s class with a unique atmosphere. Ferenczi’s personality and teaching methods are particular features newly encountered by Tommy. Moreover, Miss Ferenzi’s is presented as a strange individual amongst Tommy’s class because of her attire and the two lines present across her face. Tommy and other classmates begin to alter their perspective on Miss Ferenczi’s as her character begins to unravel. Further, characters such as Miss Ferenczi and Tommy begin to change behavior through the continuation of the story. For instance, Tommy starts to develop his imagination and Miss Ferenczi begins her ascension as a fictional storyteller. As the story progresses, each character experiences continuous changes such as Tommy’s development of a sense of imagination and Miss Ferenczi’s implantation of fictional storytelling.

“For when textbook authors leave out the warts, the problems, the unfortunate character traits, and the mistaken ideas, they reduce heroes from dramatic men and women to melodramatic stick figures. Their inner struggles disappear and they become goody- goody, not just merely good.” (Loewen, pg. 29). “Lies My Teacher Told Me” is a non- fiction book written by author, American sociologist, and historian, James W. Loewen. The popular belief is that schools buy the textbook that best fits the curriculum, and by following these textbooks, students are learning to the best of their ability. However, Loewen challenges this belief by providing evidence from eighteen different American history textbooks. He believes that people in history should not be depicted as heroes when they simply are not. To continue, Loewen states that students find history to be so boring since they can not relate to it or the people in it. On page 354, he even concludes his book by stating, “Students will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbook stop lying to them.”

In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, the protagonist, a freshman named Melinda must learn the key to recovery after enduring extreme trauma. She struggled to find someone to speak to, due to the school shunning her for calling the police at the party. Throughout Speak, Melinda seeks to recover from the trauma she experienced, especially the cruel actions from her ex-friends. Through symbolism, Laurie Halse Anderson displays the theme in Melinda's perspective.

James W. Loewen wrote the book “Lies My Teacher Told Me” to help students understand the past of the United States, and how it is effecting the present time. “Lies My Teacher Told Me” looks at 12 different American history textbooks, and points out the different lies, flaws, and sugar coated stories the textbooks present. Lowen explains how textbooks practice heroification, and how race and race relations are a major issue when it comes to American history. Among these topics, Lowen also sheds light on the truth about social classes in America, and how textbooks lie about the past and try to avoid the recent past all together.

Foreshadowing – “ And there was the living room, signs of a struggle. I already knew Amy wasn’t phoning back.”(31) This gives the book a fairly dark twist, suggestion that the wife might be dead, or murdered.

The book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, begins with an introduction in which author James W. Loewen empathizes with the students. He discusses how History, specifically American History, is taught incorrectly. Loewen is able to share his understanding of why high school students think history is boring. He begins his argument with facts and numbers by saying that out of all the subjects in school, history is almost every student's least favorite subject. He goes on to say that teachers also misrepresent history to students by teaching history as a ¨set of facts¨ rather than ¨showing how we got to this point.¨ Loewen’s writing style is much more relaxed than a typical non-fiction

20. “The docking module – which looked a lot like a giant version of a propane container you might hook up to your barbeque, only orange…” (Pg. 188) A simile is used to describe the docking module by comparing it to a propane container.

In James Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, he talks about misconceptions in America school textbooks. Are these actually misconceptions though? What is the author saying about American history when details or whole event are untold? Lowen delves into these deep topics head on and gives examples as he goes. This book is not only intended for those who have read an American history book, but for those who have never heard the truth. Lowen wrote this book in order to uncover and educate; furthermore, this is important because events never told are now brought to light. Using detailed information concerning racism, governmental over watch, and the Vietnam War the author argues that the American history textbook has covered up things in

Jo Boaler, a non memorization activist says that mathematical ideas are different than blind memorization. This is true because learning why multiplication works is very different than knowing that 3 times 7 is 42. Knowing facts are just a tool in a bigger picture and this bigger picture is the ability to solve tough problems that children should be exposed to.

The evidences that Evolutionists have, does not clearly support the theories that they made, such as the Big Bang. Similarly, Evolutionists say that they discovered the age of the universe estimating to be 15 to 20 billion years and the age of the earth by radiometric dating, estimating 4.6 billion years. They have been always estimating the ages and they do not have a precise number. These are all theories and therefore, theories which does not have real evidences should not be taught in schools, only facts should. Even though, teaching theory as a theory can be acceptable; but as a fact is absolutely not acceptable.

During the Roaring twenties, social class was an important aspect of society. All different classes were for the most part separated by where people lived. In other words, by no means would anyone from a lower class be caught in an uptown setting. There are a variety of characters in the novel that come from different economic backgrounds. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald successfully uses location to differentiate social status amongst his characters while the weather and seasons of those locations help guide them.   Each character helps represent and support the differences of social class and the four main locations, The East Egg, the West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and New York City.

The most influential person in my life has been my younger brother, Spencer. Spencer and I have been best friends ever since he was born, we have always been thought of as twins due to the fact we were only fourteen months apart and sharing a special bond. When my brother was only six years old it was discovered he had dyslexia. This discovery had brought many hardships for Spencer, throughout the years one could see that he would often become frustrated with himself, not understanding why he did not grow as fast academically as all of the other students. In the meantime, while he was still confused by all of this, a hidden talent was discovered. He had been blessed with the gift of hockey. Watching him put in everything, with all the hours of working out, shooting 500 pucks in the garage daily, all the things he