Short stories / War / Archetypes I thoroughly enjoyed reading "On the Rainy River" by Tim O'Brien because the narrative is filled with so much emotional depth and virtue. When I looked through the text, I noticed that there are many symbols, characters, and ideas in the writing that relate to various archetypes.
Tim O'Brien reminds me of "The Coward" archetype. This is because he faces a problem at the beginning of the story and he does not follow through with his plan to overcome it. Tim mentions that his problem is that he was drafted into a war that he hates (O'Brien). This causes him to run away in the hope of escaping the war. At the end of the narrative, Tim states: "I was a coward. I went to the war." This shows that he eventually gives up on running away from the war and succumbs to enlisting into it. Cowards are scared of change, and this is evident when Tim states: "I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid of walking away from my own Iife, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything that mattered to me." In this situation, Tim is scared to do what he believes is right. Tim's cowardly actions showed me that there is often a great sacrifice involved in making the right decision. Another archetype called "The Initiation" is represented in this narrative. This archetype is an initiation into adult life. It is represented at the climax of this narrative when Tim and Elroy go fishing together. This is when Tim becomes more mature about his problems and faces reality. In this moment of initiation, he states: "And what was so sad, I realized, was that [running away to] Canada had become a pitiful fantasy. Silly and hopeless. It was no longer a possibility." Later on, he mentions: "That old image of myself as a hero, as a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream." In these two statements, Tim comes to terms with how illogical his decision to escape the war is. This initiation helps him to become a more mature person and accept his failure to follow through with his plan. Elroy Berdahl is a great representation of the "Wise Old Man" archetype. He offers Tim support, maturity, and fatherly comfort that allows him to develop himself. Tim states: "[Elroy] offered exactly what I needed, without questions, without any words at all. He took me in." In this situation, Elroy is very similar to a wise old man in literature who offers help to a hero on his journey. This archetypal character shows readers that there will often be a person in our lives that will give us the support we need to overcome a problem. During the climax of the story, Tim and Elroy are fishing on the Rainy River. The archetypal symbol in this situation is the water that surrounds them. Water is a symbol that represents and inspires rebirth. Tim is "reborn" when he realizes that he should give up on his idea of running away to Canada. What I mean to say is that he is reborn as a more mature person. Tim asks readers: "Would you jump [in the water and escape from home]? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and your childhood and your dreams and all you're leaving behind? Would it hurt? Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did?" Tim is inspired to not jump in the water because of how much he would have to leave behind. This shows why the water has such a forceful impact on his decision about whether or not he would escape to Canada. The final archetype that I identified is "The Fall": the cross from a higher state of being to a lower one. This archetype is represented when Tim realizes that he must leave his home in order to escape enlisting in the war. Tim states that the catalyst to this change was when he felt something break open in his chest. He says: "I don't know what it was. I'll never know. But it was real, I know that much, it was a physical rupture - a cracking-leaking-popping feeling." This made him fearful about the future, causing him to escape from his familiar life into the unknown. "The Fall" is often followed by gaining an entirely new perspective on something. Thus, there are various archetypal symbols, characters, and ideas in the narrative, "On the Rainy River." Works Cited O'Brien, Tim. "On the Rainy River." The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. “Picture of Tim O'Brien.” LibGuides, libguides.spsd.org/thingstheycarried/obrien.
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English / Writing / Tips Let's face it, essays are hard to write. Throughout my years in high school, they have been some of the most challenging tasks that I have been assigned. It's probably because of all the steps that are needed to make them.
For me, the most stressful step in essay writing is creating a thesis statement. This one sentence has to give the reader a preview of your entire essay. It cannot be too broad of a statement, and it must make a claim. One of my teachers told me that when I begin to write my thesis statement, I should make a general claim that I want to prove. After this, I would make that claim more specific. For example, if I'm analyzing Romeo and Juliet, I can make a general claim like: "Love is dangerous." Then, I'd make it much more specific by saying something like: "The play, Romeo and Juliet, teaches teenagers that love is dangerous in three ways." A great resource for prewriting your essay is an outline. If your teacher doesn't provide you with one, there are plenty online. Essay outlines can help you develop the individual sections of your essay with greater attention to their requirements. Outlines are also important tools because they organize the evidence that you need to support your topic sentences. It is very easy to write your essay after completing an outline because your ideas and evidence have already been listed. When creating the supporting points for the topics in your essay, I strongly recommend discussing them with your peers. One reason I say this is that your peers can let you know when your points are either overlapping each other or weak. One last piece of advice I have for you is this: proofread your work at every step of the essay writing process. If you catch the imperfections in your work earlier on, the final draft of your essay will turn out wonderful. Good luck with your future essays! Music / Plagiarism / Creativity If You haven't heard the songs, Here they are:(Click the text to play each song) "Picture Book" by The Kinks They sound really similar, don't they? I think it's crazy that Green Day's recording studio (JingleTown Recording) didn't pick up on the fact that the sound of the guitar and bass throughout "Warning" was so similar to another song. "Warning" has also been accused of ripping off another song called "Never Got the Chance" by a small band called The Other Garden. The law states that the people who write a song (and copyright it) own the legal right to it. This would mean that if the Kinks sue Green Day and they win in court, Green Day would be unable to play "Warning" for audiences. That would suck. I really like that song. As much as I like Green Day, "Warning" was a rip-off of "Picture Book." This is because the sound of the bass and guitar from "Picture Book" is used for Green Day's entire song. However, this situation is different from the case of "Ice Ice Baby" copying the bassline of "Under Pressure" because Green Day slightly modifies the bass and guitar sound. "Warning" and "Picture Book" are of different genres; thus, it makes sense for Green Day to modify the sound a little. I think that Green Day should have consulted with The Kinks to see if they were okay with "Warning" sounding like "Picture Book." If it was possible, Green Day should have credited "Picture Book" as the inspiration for their song to avoid any disputes. Logically, this means that The Kinks would be entitled to a portion of Green Day's income from their song. Creators on platforms like YouTube are only allowed to use 15 seconds of licensed music in their videos. If they exceed this time, their videos will be taken down. I know this because a few months ago, my friend and I created some short films that were taken down from YouTube for the same reason. If music creators apply this rule to their songs, I believe many disputes about artists copying one another would be resolved. SOURCES “04 Never Got The Chance.” SoundCloud, soundcloud.com/the-other-garden/04-never-got-the-chance. “Green Day - Warning (Video).” YouTube, uploaded by Green Day, 27 Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eebfMFzJHNs. “The Kinks - Picture Book (Official Audio).” YouTube, uploaded by The Kinks, 25 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7encWb7lNQ. Podcast / Murder / Justice Today I spent some time listening to the first episode of the Serial podcast. I felt that the host, Sarah Koenig, did an excellent job discussing the murder of Hae Min Lee. I like people like Sarah because they have a burning passion to serve justice. After more than 16 years since the court ruled justice on her supposed killer, she continues to gather as much information as possible to discover what really happened in Baltimore that day. I think investigative journalism in podcasts are profound because they present everything that the listeners need to know. They also let listeners interpret what really happens in these crimes. Sarah explains the facts to her audience, along with testimonies from people. In these testimonies, you can hear how the person is feeling about what they are talking about, and I really like that. Back then, a male named Adnan Syed was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Sarah explores his alibi during this episode, and her findings leave her surprised at how little this case was explored. In these kinds of cases, it's important to think about all the angles. Would Adnan Syed's family be okay with Serial becoming such a popular podcast?
I think they would. Adnan has many supporters (including his family), and they want to find the truth about what happened to Hae Min Lee. Whether this outcome is good or bad for Adnan, people believe that this case was not evaluated enough by the court. The exploration of whether Adnan was guilty or not was absolutely enthralling to listen to. According to one alibi, Adnan was at the local library at the time Hae Min was murdered. According to the other, he strangulated and buried her 20 minutes after school had ended. Many interviews on this podcast lead to answers such as: "I can't remember anything" (1:51-1:54). This is a common answer that Sarah receives because she is researching a case that took place years ago. The fact that this took place years ago makes me question the accuracy of the testimonies of people who did remember what happened all those years ago. Adnan's friend, Jay testified in court many weeks after the body of Hae Min was found. The court used this testimony as their entire case against Adnan. This shows the lack of evidence about this case. The fact that this testimony was taken weeks after the murder could mean that it was somewhat inaccurate. I'm excited to listen to the next few episodes of this podcast to decide for myself whether Adnan is guilty or innocent. I look forward to the day where concrete evidence is presented to the court that rules this case officially closed. SOURCES Koenig, Sarah, and WBEZ Chicago. “The Alibi.” Serial, uploaded by Serial Podcast, 3 Oct. 2014, serialpodcast.org/season-one. Courses / Prerequisites / English
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