This is a segment McCarthy may have written for his novel The Road, before final editing. This is a segment to be inserted after the alteraction between the man and the boy on page 211.

Creative Piece

Playing baseball or maybe fishing. The man would wheel him to friend’s houses and school events. The man would help the boy with his school work. In the time before the man knew math but now he only knows how to add and subtract cans from the ever lightening load of the cart.

The boy wouldn’t ever have to eat his food out of a can again. The man would cook fresh meals every night and he and the boy would discuss their day over their dinner.

Maybe the boy wouldn’t want to talk. He trusted the man fully now but maybe the boy would be resentful as some children often were. The world lacked normalcy yet the boy was showing signs of the mindset common in children who’ve begun to grow weary of their guardians. The boy would have grown up eventually, the man knew, but growing up isn’t something people did anymore. People were just grown.

The man was tired but if he became too tired, the boy would realize and his independence would grow. The man could not decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Regardless of what awaited upstairs, the man had to go up and take a look. Regardless of the what the boy said, he expected it. And the man needed it.

Rational

A scene like this, a scene where the man reflects on what could have been, never occurs in McCarthy’s The Road. The man seems very in the moment, almost like he’s done all of his thinking in the years before this story takes place. This post apocalyptic world, as we know by the assumed age of the boy, has been around for a good amount of years. It’s very possible the man considered these types of things earlier on. However, I believe that if McCarthy had written a scene like this one, a whole different dimension could have been added onto the man’s character. The man would become an even more complex character, who was struggling with the guilt of the life he was forced to provide for his son opposed to the one he was planning on providing. The man’s character would struggle with his feelings on the boy’s inevitable independence and whether it made him feel worried that the boy no longer needed him or free to succumb to death and the ultimate freedom inherent with it.

The interaction preceding this inserted scene is simple enough, something common in today’s parent and child interactions. The man tells the boy they are doing something and the boy disagrees, protesting that the father never listens to him. To a modern parent, this is normal and probably unnoteworthy. To the man, this interaction meant the boy was passing into a realm the man was unfamiliar with. The boy had never questioned his father before and, if he did, he’d always concede to the father’s correctness. In this situation, the boy is unhappy with the decisions the man is making and calls him out for not taking his own opinions into consideration. The boy is showing signs of wanting to run his own life.

The motifs I used in my creative piece, the mention of cans and the phrase “Take a look”, are there to help the passage flow naturally with the story. I think it’s important to include the frequently occurring motifs in order for the passage to sound like it belongs. The motifs also add to the mood of the passage, creating the same dark and somber feeling present throughout the rest of the novel. The mention of the grey and hollow cans reiterates the coldness of the world the man and boy live in. The phrase “Take a look” adds to the complete uncertainty of the situation.

Cultural Fabric

Individualism, for the purpose of this project, refers to the ongoing theme of serving oneself and being unique in doing so. The following are a few examples of the individualist themes in modern literature, whether it be movies, books, or art.

Dystopian Novels

The popular novel, Divergent, is an example of young adults fighting for individualism in a society that punishes it. Kafkaesque in nature, the dark and dreary dystopia in the Divergent series is considered evil to author Veronica Roth’s readers because of its promotion of collectivism. Divergent’s government competes with the ideas that are heavily defended by today’s youth.

Fashion Blogs

Thrifting has become a trending topic in magazines and blogs. It’s the idea of purchasing things second hand and, in most cases, completely unique from anything else in the store that intrigues individualist culture. Blogs post about thrift shop finds and, in many cases, the thrift shop finds mirror a fad that’s been pre established by big name designers. The thrifting just allows for the guise of individuality, similar to the anecdote of Piper and his roommate.

Young Adult Novels/ Movies

John Green’s novel-movie adaptations like Paper Towns accentuates the fact that the main characters are “different.” In this story specifically, one of the characters is an enigma. She serves only herself and does things to please her and only her. The only thing that makes her interesting are these attempts to be different. The narrator of the story glorifies and romanticizes this compulsive need to be unique.

News

In the podcast, a New York Times article is mentioned titled The Age of Individualism. The author, Ross Douthat, says that individualism is detrimental in that it only caters to one's own loyalties. If Ross Douthat is considered a representative for his generation then it is safe to say that older Americans aren’t overly supportive of individualistic behavior. This article offers a contrary view, one in which individualism is a negative thing.

Art

Pertaining to the art world, a lot of recently produced art pieces are up for interpretation. This allows for the individual to project their own selves into the art.

The classic play, The Taming of the Shrew, written by Shakespeare is arguably the original romantic comedy. The Princess Bride, and 1980’s film, is a more modern romantic comedy, even though it takes place in a world resembling medieval Europe. The characters from the play that will mentioned most are Bianca, Lucentio, and Petruchio. From the Princess Bride, the characters of Buttercup, Westley and Prince Humperdinck will be analyzed.

There’s numerous similarities and differences between the characters but most similarities can be drawn from the interactions the characters have with each other. The two texts reflect that regardless of relationship status, men and women of a certain ilk will interact in set ways, portrayed in the roles they play such as dominant, subservient, or respectful.

“ Hic ibat as I have told you before Simois, I am Lucentio hic est son of Vincentio of Pisa Sigeia tellus, disguised to get your love.”

• Lucentio page 111 Act 3. Sc. 1 Lines 33-35

In this scene, Lucentio is letting Bianca in on his plan to wed her and win her love. He’s being sneaky outwardly as he is masking is true intent from prying ears by speaking his intentions in between lines of Latin.

Westley conveys his love using a similar train of thought.

“As You Wish” -Westley

In the beginning of the film, Westley was a  farm boy at Buttercup’s farm. Whenever she requested something of him he responded by saying, “As you wish.” Buttercup later realizes this is his way of saying, “I love you.”

Westley is discreet, much how Lucentio was, in professing his love. Both men confessed their love in ways that would only be understood by the intended, Buttercup and Bianca. These men are of a strong willed and honest nature and, therefore, are willing to do moral things to get their woman. These moral things can also be construed as romantic, another trait both of these men share.

A difference in the courtship methods of Lucentio and Westley  are the levels of discrepancy. Lucentio’s methods are much more humorous, as they are poorly veiled and obvious to Bianca from the start. Westley, on the other hand, speaks in riddles and codes. It takes Buttercup much longer to decipher the meaning behind, “As you wish.”

“This is the way to kill a wife with kindness”     

-Petruchio Page Page 153 Act 4 Sc. 1 Line 208

In this quote, Petruchio, the master of deceit and cunning, is making a speech to himself concerning the taming of his wife. He means to do horrible things to her, all in the name of love and kindness.

In the Princess Bride, there is a character whose evil tendencies do match Petruchio’s.

“Please consider me as an alternative to suicide.”

-Prince Humperdinck

Prince Humperdinck is Buttercup’s betrothed. He chose to marry her and she went along with it because she believed her true love, Westley, to be dead. In this point in the movie, she knows Westley is alive and tells Prince Humperdinck that she will not marry him and if she is forced too, she will be dead by morning. Prince Humperdinck agrees to send word out to Westley (who is being held captive in the dungeons) that Buttercup wishes to marry him and not the Prince. Of course, the Prince is bluffing and never sends out word, leaving Buttercup to believe her true love abandoned her and that she must marry Humperdinck.

Both men are manipulative. They’re of a cruel and conniving nature. This makes them likely to take advantage of weaker people, as they both did. Although Buttercup, being likened to Bianca, is the one being taken advantage of by Humperdinck, Katherine is the one being abused by Petruchio.

“Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.”

-Petruchio page 221 Act 5 Sc. 2 Line 196

In The Taming of the Shrew, near the end of the play, Katherine makes a speech about the role of women. After her sudden change of heart, her husband Petruchio tells her to come and kiss him. The play then ends shortly after.

Here is the most obvious difference in the two. The movie ends with Buttercup running away with her true love Westley while the play ends with Katherine becoming “tamed.” Both are considered happy endings, for their time period. Although the ends are vastly different, the connections between characters through their actions are still present. Petruchio and Humperdinck both expect their women to be subservient. The relationship Petruchio and Kate has is that of subservient/ dominant. This is the type of relationship Humperdinck wants from Buttercup.

Analytical Essay:

Human’s have a variety of coping mechanisms that allow them to continue living after something life changing has happened. It’s human nature to survive, so therefore, humans must find ways to keep living when life becomes difficult to handle. In order to deal with tragedy, loss, or difficult times, humans detach themselves from the situation at hand in order to cope. Different personality types detach themselves differently but overall, people dehumanize suffering in order to get through it.

In  Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the men have rituals that they carry out when they come across a dead Vietnamese soldier. The men do things like shake hands with the dead, toast the dead, and speak to the dead as if they were as alive as they. In this specific example, O’Brien’s talking about the way the men toast to a dead man they found. “It was more than mockery. There was a formality to it, like a funeral without sadness.” Most of the men aren’t rude about death. However, by removing the sadness from the atmosphere of death, they’re not associating their own emotions with the situation. Removing sadness from the equation removes the sense of attachment to the circumstances. By acting as if death is a game, the men not only separate themselves from the grief, but separate themselves from the guilt of taking another man’s life.   

O’Brien, in one of his interviews, says, “The one way to psychologically endure it all is to escape in your head.” O’Brien’s speaking about retreating into his imagination to mentally survive a hardship such as war. That was his specific way of detaching. It was also a way he expressed through the actions of many of the soldiers in his story. O’Brien writes a character named Kiowa, a native american young man who hasn’t let the war change his outlook on life. By staying true to his pre-war self, Kiowa lives in an illusion. He’s escaping into his mind, into what he was before he was surrounded by death and destruction in Vietnam. By refusing to change who he is, Kiowa is building a mental wall that keeps the war from destroying him psychologically.

In The Things They Carried, there is a chapter titled, The Man I Killed. The entire chapter is describing a man O’Brien shot and the backstory he imagined for the man.  O’Brien, when describing what the man looked like after he shot him, says “...and his other eye was a star-shaped hole.” This phrase, “star shaped hole” is used throughout the not only the rest of the chapter but the rest of the book. The repetition gives a sense of importance to the phrase. By saying it often, O’Brien is showing how difficult it is to separate your life from a death you caused

Later on, in the last chapter of The Things They Carried, O’Brien describes his first experience with death. His childhood love, a girl named Linda, died of cancer when she was nine. O’Brien refuses to accept she’s dead so he begins to see her in his imagination, so that she’ll never really be gone. “And at night time, I’d slide into bed knowing that Linda would be there waiting for me.” This is a direct example of coping with death through denial and detachment. The young O’Brien imagines his childhood love as alive even though she is very much dead because he can’t cope with reality. These coping mechanisms of separating oneself from reality don’t only apply to dire circumstances such as war. These coping strategies are used for everyday tragedies, such as the death of Linda.

These psychological coping mechanisms aren’t only relevant to soldiers, veterans or enlistees. These detachment methods are used, sometimes unknowingly, in everyday tragedies like death of a family member or loss of a job. Even children will employ these methods when faced with school bullies, ostracization or, more serious, parental abuse. Everyone will handle their grief differently but in general, humans will detach themselves and dehumanize their suffering in order to get through it.

Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.

"In the Name of Love." In the Name of Love. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2015.

Narrative Essay:

I attended Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry for 10 years. I know, it’s a little longer than most students spend at Hogwarts but I was a special case. Due to having to live a double life, as a wizard and a muggle. I started off at Hogwarts a lot younger than most, around the age of 4. Ironically enough, it was the same year my mom enrolled me in Pre-K at Epiphany of Our Lord Catholic Grade School, but between you and me that was more of a side gig. My real focus was on spells and magic, I never cared much for storytime or coloring books. I did a good job of keeping my magic life separate from my muggle life. I hid my Hogwarts school books with Cloaking Charms, I practiced my Hovering Charms while simultaneously doing my muggle homework with a levitating pencil. No one expected a thing.

For years, I studied the wizarding basics. How to brew a basic potion and how to transfigure a matchstick into a needle. Sometimes, Catholic school would interfere with my studies. Like in 3rd grade, when the teacher told me I was too young to be reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a required reading at Hogwarts. I explained to her that I must read it, as Professor Binns had assigned it as homework, due the following week. I suppose she didn’t appreciate that I was putting my magical studies before her class and she forbade me from reading it again. I began having to do my Hogwarts homework in secret at home, instead of in Catholic school where I usually did it.

What these Catholic School folks didn’t understand is, I put their school secondary to Hogwarts. I only went to Epiphany because those gosh darn muggles required all children to attend their schools. I didn’t see why I needed math to solve problems when I could brew a perfectly good potion or cast a spell instead.

As I continued through my education, I continued juggling my muggle work and my wizarding work rather successfully. Around 5th grade, however, things became more complicated. I loved Hogwarts, not only because the coursework was so exciting, but because everyone was my friend there. Whether someone was Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff, I was friends with them. In the muggle world, though, things were a little different. In 5th grade, all the other kids started having big birthday parties or weekend get togethers. I was rarely invited. I was so busy at Hogwarts though, I probably wouldn’t have found the time anyway. People started whispering about me being friendless. Obviously, I wasn’t, I had so many friends at Hogwarts, more than I could count! But... I couldn’t tell the muggles about that. It’s all part of the Wizarding Decree of Secrecy.

In time, I began to learn more complicated magic. I was succeeding in Hogwarts in ways unimaginable. I received 8 O.W.Ls, Ordinary Wizarding Levels, a type of wizarding certification that allowed me to further my education in my chosen fields of magic. I was Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and was leading my team toward the Quidditch Cup for the third year in a row. Things were really working out for me in Hogwarts.

In the muggle world, however, I faced more challenges. Teachers were getting aggravated with me, claiming I wasn’t paying enough attention in their classes. If I could only have explained the situation to them but I had learned my lesson in 3rd grade. If only I could have mastered that Replicating Charm, I could have been in two places at once! Alas, it seemed I was doomed to this double life.

Around my 9th year at Hogwarts and my 7th year at muggle school, everything became so hectic that my two lives began to merge. How I longed for simpler days of Wingardium Leviosa and times tables! I started getting confused. I couldn’t tell the difference between my American History textbook and my copy of A History of Magic. I was lagging behind at Hogwarts and my title of Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team was revoked. I started to loose my friends, I started to forget what they even looked like. My memories were fleeting and far and few between. I forgot my schedule, my spells, charms, hexes, potion recipes, and even the hallways of Hogwarts.

I had no trouble recalling my math homework or when the next Religion test was. I knew the names of everyone in my class and how to navigate the halls. I no longer swished and flicked my pencils, practicing the motions for spellcasting, because I no longer remembered how to cast a spell. I was becoming a muggle.

I left Catholic School the same day I should have graduated Hogwarts. It’s funny how things change. I graduated from the muggle school the way I meant to have graduated Hogwarts; top marks and a future lying ahead of me. I left Hogwarts though, a few months prior. No self respecting witch forgets how to perform basic spells, as I had. After ten great years, I lost my imagination. I lost my Hogwarts and I lost my magic. I had to face reality.

Even though an 18 year old is considered an adult,the national legal drinking age in the United States is 21,  Even with this age restriction in place, so many get caught under the influence at younger ages. Keeping in mind that the United States is the only developed country with a legal drinking age of 21, the rest being around 18, the U.S. is behind in the times. The United States should lower their drinking age to 18 and the U.S. needs to catch up with the rest of the world’s developed countries.

The United States is inarguably conservative with their Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA). Only 4% of the world’s countries set their legal age at 21 and, out of this 4%, the U.S. is the only fully developed country. 71% of countries have a legal drinking age of between 16-19, averaged at about 18. They’re MLDA, which was established in 1984, is outdated even though it was established long after countries like the U.K. established their drinking age. The United Kingdom passed the Intoxicating Liquor act in 1923, which restricted liquor sales to individuals over 18. This MLDA has worked well for them for 91 years so what’s to say it wouldn’t work for the United States.

The CDC states that 126,438 accidental deaths occurred in the U.S. during 2010 and of that about 88,000 were attributed to alcohol, coming out to about 69%. In the United Kingdom, 17,201 accidental deaths were recorded in 2010 with 8,367 of these deaths being from alcohol, a total of 48%. A country with a lower MLDA also has a lower alcohol related death rate. A lower drinking age does have an impact on the statistical, alcohol related deaths but it’s a positive one. People tend to want to do what they can’t so when an American 18 year old is offered beer at a party, they’ll drink as much as they can since this isn’t an opportunity that arises daily. If a British 18 year old was offered a beer, they’d most likely accept, but it wouldn’t be such a huge deal since they can go to the store and pick up a six pack whenever they please. If teens were educated properly and given the responsibility of drinking, then the U.S.’s alcohol related deaths would decrease.

Drinking is a matter of responsibility. One needs to be considered mature enough to handle the intoxication with class and not harm anyone in the process. However, it’s questionable about what age that maturity begins. The age to join the military has been set at 18 since 1942. There are soldiers who are considered mature enough for an AK-47 but not a beer. The logic in that is incredibly skewed. The United States trust these men and women with the lives of their comrades and civilians but can’t trust them with their own lives. If a citizen is old enough to enlist than they should be old enough to consume alcohol. Not only can a 21 year old enlist, they can apply for a credit card, serve on a jury, sign a binding contract, marry without parental consent, vote, and be charged as an adult in a court of law. A 18 year old is no longer a minor and is considered a full fledged adult in all aspects except one. Clearly, 18 year olds are considered mature enough for mostly everything so drawing the line at alcohol consumption is arbitrary.

Alcohol can be dangerous if not used responsibly, that much is clear. About 88,000 deaths are caused annually by alcohol. Only 5,000 of these were caused by underage drinking. According to Choose Responsibility, an organization in favor of lowering the MLDA,  the number of underage deaths has been going down since 1970, 14 years before the MLDA act was passed. Therefore, no correlation can be drawn between the two and the act is not responsible for decline in alcohol fatalities amongst underage people. Choose Responsibility says,"... twice as many 21-year-olds died in alcohol-related auto accidents as 18 year-olds. Such a staggering statistic speaks volumes: a policy that claims to be saving thousands each year may simply be re-distributing deaths over the life cycle to the point at which it becomes legal to drink alcohol..." If the MLDA in it’s current state is simply postponing drunk driving accidents until drinking becomes legal, then it seems the problem isn’t young people drinking, it’s how the youth is being educated on the dangers of alcohol. If educated properly, an 18 year old would be much more responsible than an uninformed 21 year old.

Soy Isabella pero me llaman Bella. Tengo quince años. Soy estudiante de Science Leadership Academy. Está en Filadelfia, Pensilvania. Es en veinte y dos y arco. Está cerca de almacenar. Hay quinientos estudiantes, veinte y cuatro profesores, cinco pisos. Es muy divertido y extraño. Tenemos café, “piscina”, y tres escaleras. Tenemos fútbol, el club de poesía y simulacro de las naciones unidas. Participa en poesía club y pista y campo. Porque muy interesante y divertida. Yo las disfruto.