Apology, By Brad Watson

Everyone has a desire, something that they want to achieve or obtain for them. Whether it is ethical or immoral, having desires is almost inevitable. Sometimes these desires make people go through tough times. Tragic occurrences such as death and broken relationships shape the lives of people positively or negatively. In the following essay, “Many Rivers to Cross” and the short stories, “Two Kinds” and “Everyday Use”, the protagonists of these texts struggle to achieve their desire, but because of those struggles the main characters do eventually come to a revelation.

“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two stories that reveal the consequences of individual suffering. These consequences include estranging relationships, bitter behavior, and even illness, addiction, or death. Throughout each of these stories, Sonny and John’s wife, known as the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, continue to suffer due to John’s and Sonny’s brother’s, known as the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues”, failure to meet obligations and familial compassion. Neither the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” nor the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” serve as the villains of the stories, however, I believe we are able to see how both their inabilities to effectively

When disaster strikes, two responses exist: lose hope, or find an inner strength to rise above. “Werner” is an essay where the author, Jo Ann Beard, presents the idea of rediscovering yourself, rebuilding a life after loss, and rising above adversity. Werner, Beard’s main character, finds that the only way to truly move on after a tragedy is to take a leap into what is unfamiliar. After a fire burns down everything Werner has, he is forced to grow and become a new man, leaving his old life behind. Throughout the essay, Beard illustrates a man who faces challenges to his sense of self, and who sequentially must change and become someone new to find who he is again. Beard’s use of the third person, candid diction, and conflict resolution compose an elaborate work that focuses on the concept of becoming a new and better person after a traumatic event.

Authors often create texts that share common themes to teach readers importance of certain aspects and hardships of life. Theme may be expressed through an author’s use of rhetorical devices and many other contributing factors such as figurative language and repetition. The essay, “Once More to the Lake” written by E.B. White and the poem “Forgetfulness” written by Billy Collins, both contain a theme of identity loss. In “Once More to the Lake” E.B White connects to a lake at young age and when returning with his son years later is unable to identify himself. In similar theme “Forgetfulness” describes different factors of human life and everyday things being forgotten and lost. Both White and Collins use repetition and metaphors to further push the theme of identity loss throughout the texts.

Society often fail to understand and see the mental pain that individuals carry throughout their lives. Some people bear its burden, while others suffer greatly because of it, to the point of choosing self-destruction. The narrators from “The Gargoyle” (Davidson) and “Walk to Morning” (Boyden) both experience this pain that ultimately sets them on a course to a deep pit. They survive their near-deaths and later encounter unique life-changing people. As a result, they become better individuals.

1. What descriptive details does the author use to make it clear that the setting of the story is a small town?

I rarely read the assigned readings in English 1A and expected to do the same for 1B’s course. However, when I received the daily checks back and got zero after zero I realized I had my work cut out for me. This class challenged me, for the first in my English studies I had to work hard to earn an acceptable grade. Our first essay however, I was not too thrilled to have to write about Michelle Boisseau’s “Self-Pity's Closet”. I felt that her work was already self explanatory; the title said everything about the poem that needed to be said. The beginning of Boisseau's poem starts off with a slur of emotional turmoil, “depression, loneliness, anger, shame, envy” (Boisseau l1).I did not like the writing style because it bluntly listed how the character felt at the time. I wanted to investigate the core of why she felt a certain way but instead I was handed her emotions. I felt the urge to expose the character as an over emotional train wreck who feed off of empathy. At one point in my analysis I wrote “The speaker's life is consumed by fear of what others may think of her. She constantly is searching for the answer which would lead to acceptance not only from others, but also within her own self”. I had not gained any sympathy for the character. I felt that if she wanted to gain acceptance from others she would first has to accept her own flaws and not sulk in misery. The purpose of the assignment was to create a response. However, I found myself analyzing Boisseau’s

In Without Apology, filmmaker Susan Hamovitch made me experience a wide range of emotions as I learned more and more about her brother Alan. Within the first minutes of the film, I began to feel despondent. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea that in 1958 the advice given to Alan’s parents by the best medical professionals was to place their child in an institution and forget about him. From the moment they left Alan at Letchworth Village the family seldom spoke his name. Therefore, when Susan said “I didn’t see him as a real person” I thought how difficult it most have been for her to go on this journey. It was towards the end of the film that I started to feel hopeful. This journey that Susan decided to embark, which began by her going to a support group, then visiting Alan at Letchworth, and reading Alan’s records, was very inspiring. For me, the film evoked these feelings as sadness as well as feelings of joy. I knew that it was a real life story and if this was the experience of one family who knows how many more families went through the same or a similar situation and were broken up. By the end of the film I was hopeful because of many reasons. Alan was not alone in this world. There was someone that cared about him enough to have the courage to expose her most protected secret.

Betrayal and loneliness are two of the hardest emotions to encounter in life. Nevertheless, at some point everyone will experience and be forced to deal with them. This is made even harder when they are caused by someone you love and trust.  In Meredith Hall’s “Killing Chickens”, she uses various literary devices such as metaphor, simile, and imagery as she processes her husband’s affair and describes having to kill chickens. Hall’s literary nonfiction is based on the happenings of a specific day that was truly hard to handle after being deceived by ones she loved:

Repression of memories is a psychological concept that has haunted modern psychology for years. Repression of memories also known as “rememory” defined by the mind pushing away traumatic or shocking experiences into a dark corner of a person’s unconscious. As this idea developed and began to be studied more thoroughly, slavery became an institution in which researchers saw promise in drawing conclusions about the dangers of repressing memories. In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, the character narratives of Paul D and Sethe exemplify the dangers of repressing memories. Both disconnect from and push away unwanted emotional traumas or experiences from their past. However, this effort doesn’t pay off and their repression of memories is not successful. Through the use of symbols such as Paul D’s tobacco tin and Sethe’s scars and lost child, Morrison demonstrates how repression of the past isn’t effective and how it always comes back to haunt a person who doesn’t correctly cope with their trauma. Paul D and Sethe live unfulfilled lives as a result of repressed memories.

In a country where Divorce is more normalized than ever before, one can be guilty of neglecting to consider the pain it can cause, not just the couple, but also their children. The short story “Hot or Cold” by Maile Meloy is a remembrance from the author's life which communicates the divorce of her parents represented in a nostalgic memory from her past. In the piece, the author’s young self plays in a van while her parents deal with an unexpected encounter with a bear. After a brief chase, the parents escape and the family drives away. The author masterfully develops the story by hinting at the nature of the parents relationship by adding clever metaphors, until it is apparent that the parents eventually divorce and that the story is only a dream. In the short story, the author utilizes juxtaposition, a motif, and metaphors, to suggest that memories create narratives, true or otherwise, that help one comprehend events that are otherwise incomprehensible.

Raymond Carver was one of the most dominant American authors of short stories. Carver was born in the state of Oregon on May 25, 1938. In an interview Carver recalled himself as a boy telling stories. At a time in Carver’s life he suffered from alcoholism and tried very hard to let go of his addiction. However, alcohol plays a contradictory role in Raymond Carver’s short stories. The characters use alcohol to form social bonds, as a social lubricant which allows them to interact with other characters and also the apprehension of death experienced by some characters. In the following stories which will be discussed are as follow: “Cathedral”, “Where Am Calling From” And “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love”. The concept of impermanence of life and love are discussed in these stories. However, in some of the stories alcohol allows these characters to truly express themselves and to speak and perform activities they would have never been able to do. The contrasts and perspectives of using alcohol, can have negative impacts on the characters’ lives and also define their moral values. While, alcohol acts as a socializing figure it allows the characters to unite with one another through stories, tends to create anxiety, stress and between dear ones and furthermore, separate them by breaking up the social bonds.

This essay will claim that overall the speaker is in a depressed state, related to social isolation, which leads him to discover that the only escape is through death or a reversion back to

The tone of this story is one of fear, regret, and guilt. The story first leaves the reader with impression that it may be a recount of the life of a daughter who was lost due to neglect. Soon it is evident

I sincerely enjoyed this book, Socrates made me rethink my own views in a different manner. At the beginning of the Apology, I was a little lost on who was speaking to who. After I read Apology and started to read Crito, then did I start to understand who was speaking to who? I enjoyed being able to read Socrates views on piety, justice and the earth in general. His words opened up my mind to think about life in a philosophical sense. I was pleasantly surprised that I had the same view on life after death and the soul is reborn like he did. Socrates was a brilliant man and spoke with confidence in what he believed in. I respected the fact he did not physically push his ideas onto others but, he did present them in a way they could choose if