Literary Essay #2

     We Grow Accustomed to the Dark, by Emily Dickinson, and Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost, both have the theme of dark, which can be interpreted as pain and/or depression. They both have very different points of view. We Grow Accustomed to the Dark is said in the we-voice, unlike Acquainted with the Night which is narrated from an I-perspective. If the reader ties the two poems together, he can extract that everyone has pain and depression. Only the strongest, the bravest, have the power to swim through the dark. If they're just strong enough, they might even find light, where they no longer carry so much weight, and can fly again.

      We Grow Accustomed to the Dark is told from the we-perspective which makes the reader infer that the narrator is a large group of people, or it is one person speaking for all of mankind. The poem is about how “we” get familiarized to the dark, which can be taken as pain. The poem writes that you must spend time in it, and your eyes adjust, and you can soon see. “The Bravest-grope a little-/And sometimes hit a Tree/Directly in the Forehead-/But as they learn to see-” is speaking of how the bravest of people are able to learn to see, though even them hit a bump or two along the way. “Either the Darkness alters-/Or something in the sight/Adjusts itself to Midnight/And Life steps almost straight.” is speaking about a person adapting to the darkness, and finding a type of light. This light represents hope that if you survive the dreaded dark, it will fade slowly, and transform into light and happiness. It is portraying something much like a bright butterfly emerging from its drab cocoon.

     Acquainted with the Night is about one man or woman's (told from the I-voice) painful experiences. “I have been acquainted with the night.” tells the reader that the narrator has felt constant pain. The reader knows that it is constant because of “I have walked out in rain-and back in rain.” Rain symbolizes pain similar to dark, because like pain, if enough is poured on top of you, you will drown. After some time, you are too tired, and have no energy left to swim, to stay at the top. Before a person can no longer stay at the top, they must lose hope. The narrator of Acquainted with the Night has lost his/her hope. “I have outwalked the furthest city light.” The city light is referring to the last sliver of hope they saw. The last stanza, “Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right./I have been one acquainted with the night.” reveals that the speaker, whether it is Robert Frost, or “I” as in the world, has come to believe that depression is a way of life. If something isn't wrong or right, it is just normal, not bad nor good.

     At a certain level of depression, there is no light, or hope, to brighten the dark. When there is no hope, you forget what the colors look like, and what the rays of sun feel like on your arms. Eventually, you believe that pain and sadness is a normality for everybody, that there is nothing wrong in your life. When a person is really depressed, it feels like there is no end to it. Every time the person tries to help themselves, they sink deeper into it. The pain is like quick sand with nothing to grab hold of, and normally, no one to grab hold of the person sinking. If that person is strong enough though, their will power will act like a thick vine, and will slowly pull them out, and they can plant their feet on firm ground once more.

Poem Essay

     Those Winter Sundays, by Robert Haden, and My Papa's Waltz, by Theodore Roethike, are about the love given from a father to a son. Both are narrated by the son, telling the story of their relationship with their father. They take place in the houses of working class families. The reader can take the message that there are different ways to love from comparing the two poems.

     The father in Those Winter Sundays is showing his love for his son by working very hard. The reader can infer that the son is going back and realizing that his father did love him, just in a different way, and he is wishing that he could go back and fix things, but it is too late. One line from the poem is “Sundays too my father got up early...with cracked hands that ached from labor...No one ever thanked him.” When the narrator says this, he is implying that it includes him as well. An additional line is “Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out in the cold and polished my good shoes as well.” These are acts of love that the father had committed. The endmost line is “What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?” The reader can decide that the son is justifying himself, for he was young, and didn't know enough to perceive that his father had another way of loving him.

     My Papa's Waltz is about one specific event that expressed how much his father loved him. It is a short story of a father dancing playfully with his son in the kitchen after a long day of work. The first line of the poem is “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” The reader can gather from this line that the father drinks alcohol when he gets home after a stressful day, possibly too much. Another line is “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle.” People get battered knuckles from doing tough physical work, and a large amount of it. Readers can conclude that this time together makes the man and boy very happy, and it would make this time that much more special and precious if they don't see each other as much as they would like to. Less time makes it harder to take things for granted.

     The two poems are similar to fire and ice, in that they are both significant and appreciative ways to love, but are much different. The father in Those Winter Sundays showed he loved him through things like polishing his shoes and working hard to take care of him. The father of My Papa's Waltz danced with the boy when he got home. The father in Those Winter Sundays used the time away from his son to love him, rather than taking the little time they had together and making it special. There are many ways to show feelings, and many are fair. The other lesson that may be extracted from these poems is that you don't need to be rich to love. You can be anybody, in any situation, and can love in the way you'd like. These poems portray beautiful messages that should not be forgotten.c

My New Song, Pain

Pain is real,

Yet it's in my imagination.

Does this mean,

That I don't know what to feel?

Look at my face,

Can you tell what I am thinkin?

Cause I don't know,

What's going on inside me.

Please!

Tell me what's going on!

Please!

Tell me!

Oooooohhhhh.

Tell me

Walking down the halls,

Why is everybody staring,

I doubt it's cause,

I'm so freaking amazing

I wonder how,

Humans got to be such haters,

I've grown a fear,

Of coming home in tears

Please!

Tell me what's going on!

Please!

Tell me!

Oooooohhhhh.

Tell me

Things have happened to me,

And I'm not saying this untruthfully,

I have notches in my heart,

Marking my pain

Is it everybody,

Though I can't wish it on anybody,

I wish life wouldn't be this way,

And I'm sorry to myself and everyone else,

But it's never gonna happen,

No, it's never gonna happen

Please!

Tell me what's going on!

Please!

Tell me!

Oooooohhhhh.

Tell me

      I have just finished writing the lyrics and guitar chords for my second song, Pain.  As you may have guessed from the title, it is about my life's experience of pain from bullying.  The song also hints that my worst bully happens to be myself.  Without realizing it, people inflict mental pain on themselves when they question themselves.  Self inflicted pain is worse than the pain brought to you by others, because the most important thing is what you think, not what they think.
     The first stanza is about how I have felt pain, so I know what it is, but my mind is astray because I'm not sure where it's coming from.  The second stanza goes on to almost plead for help, because I need someone to tell me where my thoughts are going.  They are swirling around my head, picking up the bad, and leaving the good thoughts behind.  I feel as though finding bad is as easy as finding a lit flashlight in a small, dark room.  Finding good thoughts in your head is like trying to make out what a tiny voice is saying under a roaring crowd.  The chorus is finally asking why I can't find me inside myself, not the one that tells me I'm ugly, but the one that tells me I'm beautiful..
     The third and fourth stanzas are giving examples of what happens to me.  I truly do wonder, why in the world are humans so hateful towards each other?  When I wrote this line, I really meant everyone, including me.  We are all hateful, and if not to others, than to our selves, like cats chasing their tails.  These two stanzas are more about being hateful towards others than they are about being hateful to ourselves, though.  The last two stanzas sound the angriest, express me the most.  It first explains that I know what it's like, and I have scars to prove it.  Each time I was bullied, it was like a little piece of my heart was carved out.  The next stanza wonders and hopes that it's not just me going through it, though I don't really want it for anyone else because it hurts you so badly.  At the end of the stanza, I speak the truth and say sorry, but that is the way humans were made, and unfortunately, they're not changing anytime soon, if ever.

I hope you enjoyed reading my song and short essay about it.

-Meredith

Should College Athletes Get Paid?

Middle School 51 Meredith Lunceford

English 1/27/2014 707

Should College Athletes Be Paid?

     The NCAA has a rule that college athletes aren't allowed to be paid, and this rule is being heavily debated by many people. They have been looking at the athletes' busy lives that include of many hours of practice. Their schedule is so full, between school and their practice, that they have no time to make money for themselves, wrote Aaron Cheslock. If a person can't make money for themselves, someone must give it to them. Aside from that, some players make billions of dollars for their schools, and don't get anything out of that. It's not fair to the students that young adults, some still in their teenage years, give everything of themselves to their sport, and then they don't get enough out of it.

     Micheal Wilbon implies throughout College Athletes Deserve to Get Paid that any student who makes money for their school deserves to get some of it. He writes that the NCAA makes $10.8 billion because of the players who don't see any green at all. That is almost $11 billion, too much money to be ignored. Aaron Cheslock says in Should College Athletes Be Paid? that a student athlete, Fluker, who had experienced homelessness and poverty stated that he,“just like every other player, didn't see a dime” and another athlete, Rojers, was said to never had been paid as well. That's just two students among many that don't get payed though they practically pay for their school to continue to run. CNN Money published a video that has multiple people say that everyone can make money but the players.Cheslock said that they made “45 million in profit that year.” That's only what one school made.

     There are many alternatives in how the players could get payed because in the video NCAA Holds Firm:No Pay for Play people say that not every school makes money. They could be given food after every practice, no matter what time it is, because they don't have cash. Sports are dangerous, so if an injury stops an athlete from playing anymore, they shouldn't have their scholarship revoked. They could also be given the promise that their kids and grandchildren, etc. could go to that college for free. The video made by CNN also said that they have a room with nice and comfortable furniture, which might be a good place to hang out in after practice. Maybe schools could make their players' rooms nicer and more comfortable, supplied with a small refrigerator filled with food. These are only a few of many ways that colleges could pay their athletes.

     There are also many people on the NCAA's side that believe that student athletes shouldn't be paid, and there is no disagreeing with some of their points. Jeffrey Dorfman believes that with their training, scholarship to the school, physical therapy, tutoring, and other things that they already “benefit greatly.” He also says that all of this stuff can add up to a total cost of 125,000 dollars. He writes “That sounds to me like they are getting paid.” Thinking about it that way, they are getting paid, but what if a student needs some shampoo or some more toilet paper and they don't have any cash to go to the store and buy it? If they want to go out for dinner once in a while, they can't afford it, and if they are at practice late and they don't make it back in time for dinner, they don't eat. As well as that, they miss some school when they're making time for their sport.

     The student that wrote this essay can only hope that this will make a difference in such a large debate. The issue will most likely continue for months, if not years, until a choice is made, and the rule is changed or kept. The stories will be changed, and people's opinions will be changed as well, but this essay will always stay the same, nothing changed in it's opinion. It states that college athletes deserve to get paid, and it stands strong.

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

     Reading Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie over the past few months has been very interesting because it is such an intriguing book.  Steven changed so much in the book, and the changes weren't expected, as they are in many books.  Another thing about this book that made it special for me is the fact that I can relate to it so deeply.  Steven had so much pain because his little brother, Jeffrey, had cancer, and this touches me because my mom had cancer just over two years ago, and it was quite hard.  Seeing how another person might cope when they see a loved one having cancer was very different.

     When my mom was originally diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, all I knew was that was a disease.  The not knowing may have hurt me more than if I had known.  Steven knows exactly what it is when he finds out, and it makes him feel like someone had just punched him in the stomach, and it put him into denial.  When I found out, I went straight to the guidance counselor's office, because I am the kind of person that must talk about the pain to let go of the pain.  Steven keeps it a secret for weeks, until someone tells a teacher.  It is strange that how people deal with their pain can be so different from how you might. Another thing that's different between us is that he had to man-up so much, where I didn't so much because I was younger, and my older sister was given that responsibility.  I now wonder how that may have affected her, and she doesn't like to talk about her pain, like Steven.  Maybe she was in a silent denial, similar to him. The last difference between us is that it didn't change my place like it did for Steven.

     Steven changed enormously, almost like he was a new person.  He had for many years been in love with a girl named Renee Albert, the eighth grader who was sought after by all the boys.  He hadn't realized that a beautiful girl that liked him very much was sitting right next to him.  Renee was also on the top of the schools hierarchy, unlike Steven, a geek with "inch thick glasses."  It is slightly ironic that they got to be best friends throughout the book.  He also really stepped up in his family trying to keep Jeffrey busy and watched after, made him feel comfortable when he was at doctor appointments.  He became a man to everyone, and that is admirable, and I know that if there was a sequel, carma would come around, and give him something special.

Book Club Response

     How does society put pressure on the characters in our books?  Pressure put on the characters in our books caused them to have trouble with finding where they belong.  It causes them to make decisions that are not great, or make decisions they don't want to make.  The lesson that can be extracted from this question and statement is that you need to make decisions for yourself, for your needs, and these decisions can't be affected by the people around you.  There are many paths a person can take, and that is why there are books.  Books show you through real and fictional examples how you will be affected by your choices, and help us decide what to do.

     The book I read was Wonder, a book about a boy named August.  August's face is deformed, and has trouble with people accepting him because of how he looks.  He had been home-schooled all of his life and 5th grade is his first year in "real" school with other kids.  Jack is one out of two friends he is able to make in the beginning of the year, but on Halloween, he hears something different.  Jack says to Julian, a popular boy, that he isn't really friends with August.  He actually does want to be friends with August because he is so nice and fun, but he is scared that he will not have any other friends.  Pressure was put on him by popularity, and he broke under the weight.

     There are many other people in this book that are socially affected by August's appearance.  His sister, Via or Olivia, depending on who you are to her, is one of those people.  She has carried the "sister of a deformed kid" for so long, and this is her first year in highschool, and a chance to have a fresh slate.  Olivia doesn't tell anyone about her brother for a while because she wants to be known for herself, and have real friends, not just people who feel sorry for her.  Through out this book, I wondered what Auggie's parents were thinking, wondering if they thought he was normal, that they weren't emotionally affected by it.  The only person that you got to truly see and read about that doesn't care what August look like is Summer.  She first sits with him because she feels bad for him, but it blossoms into true friendship.  Honestly, I would have trouble with maintaining a friendship with Auggie, and in a way, I'm amazed that she can do it.

Juvenile Offenders Prosecuted as Adults

     Should juvenile offenders be prosecuted as adults?  This is a very serious matter affecting many minors' lives.  There are many people voicing their opinions on this situation.  These opinions have helped me build what I think.  I believe that juvenile offenders shouldn't be charged as adults unless they have committed first degree murder or rape, what I think of as the worst crimes.
     Juvenile offenders should be given a second chance.  They are under aged, and if they are under eighteen, they are not adults and shouldn't be accounted for as one.  Adolescents have a greater chance of rehabilitation, or getting mentally better than adults have.  The article states that ninety percent of teen offenders do not become adult criminals, and this is a large cut.  That is only a tenth away from being one hundred percent.  The article also says that scientists have proved that the part of the brain that provides impulse control isn't yet fully developed in teenagers.  Looking at what a young teenager did doesn't secure what he will do in the future.
     For serious crimes like first degree murder and rape, it is largely unfair to the victims for that person to not be punished.  If your sibling, child, or relative was killed by a person meaning to do so, it would hurt all the more, wondering why in the world someone would hate them like that.  You would want to seek revenge, and I believe that you could do something horrible in the process.  When a person is raped, it puts a large mental scar in you.  It could be very hard to feel comfortable again with anybody.

People should be punished fairly to what they have done.