Prompts

Dec.3rd

2008. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of a minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil for the main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain the character Buck is used as a foil to the main character Huckleberry. The two boys are almost the same age, have very similar names, and become very good friends. The author puts this character foil in the book in order to show the reader that upbringing and social status aren't everything.
The character Buck comes from an aristocratic family, one of high social class and incredible wealth. The family however, acts very uncivilized and uneducated towards another family, the Shepherdsons, whom they are having a feud with. You would not generally thing high social class and brutish characteristics go together, but you also wouldn't think a poor upbringing by an awful role model of a father would create a child like Huck; someone very clever, witty, and ethical.
This contrast of Buck being well off and still being ignorant to Huck coming from a lower social class and having sensible morals shows the reader that Mark Twain wanted them to realize that a person can never chose where they come from, but they can always chose where they go and who they become from there.
Due to the character Buck being Huck's foil, you can more clearly see what differentiates Huck as an individual. The reader finds out he has a good sense of whats right and whats wrong, even though he came from a very unfortunate atmosphere as a child.

Nov. 13th

1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, there is a deep conflict between the main character Willy, and his son Biff. The biggest reason for the conflict between them is Willy's inability to accept Biff as his own being, and instead views much like he views Uncle Ben; as a sort of idol. Arthur Miller created Willy's idolization of Biff in order to show how parents dreams for their children can shape a child's being.
Throughout the entire play Biff speaks of wanting to move out West again to do farm work. This dream of his is a rough contrast to his fathers dreams for Biff of being "successful". To Willy, Biff won't be a great unless he's bringing in a handsome sum of money; something Willy thinks Biff can do because of his similarities to Uncle Ben, who was successful in Willy's eyes.
The similarities Uncle Ben and Biff share are that they are both not only liked, but well liked; along with the fact that Willy doesn't see himself in Biff. Willy takes comfort in not seeing his own personality in Biff because he knows he hasn't been successful in the business world, and the thought of Biff being unlike him gives Willy hope.
If Willy had accepted Biff's dreams to farm instead of to enter in the business world, this parent-child conflict wouldn't occur. However, this conflict is put in by Miller in order to show how much parents dreams for their children influence the child's life. Biff would be happy if he didn't have his fathers opinions of what it is to really be successful and a great man riding on him all the time, and because of his father's opinions his pursuit of happiness is faltered.
Arthur Miller creates many different character conflicts in Death of a Salesman in order to show different meanings. The conflict between Willy and Biff makes the audience think about how parents influence their children.


Oct. 28th

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

Many people in this day and age have read the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It's just one of those books; not only a classic, but a book that changed the world. People often wonder, what makes one of those books? In the case of Huckleberry Finn, it was Twain advocating social change and tradition. He took a very untouchable subject in that time period; the wrongs of slavery, and made it touchable, so to speak. He made this happen by using such techniques as language, imagery, diction, and most famously, satire.
Language in Huckleberry Finn accentuates the need for social change through the character Jim. Jim speaks in a rough, southern dialect, unlike all the other characters. This signifies the difference between education of white Americas during this time period opposed to African American slaves. An example of Jim's unpolished speech is when he says "I doan’ hanker for no mo’ un um, Huck. Dese is all I kin stan’." Though this language slows down the reader, it is also a red flag as to the difference between main character Huckleberry and slave Jim. Twain was trying to tell the reader that this sort of indifference wasn't right through the use of written speech patterns.
One of the strongest uses of imagery in this book is when Jim is captured in the end and made to live in a tiny little shack full of snakes, insects, and other nasty creatures that frighten him. He is given almost no food by the people that capture him, and is treated very harshly. This makes the reader feel bad for Jim, and sympathizes with the fact that the people in the book treat him on a lower social status due to his race.
This piece is well know on the controversial topic of Twain's use of the N-word. He uses such diction in order to show that people during that time period didn't give the word a second thought, well people nowadays take high offense and think very negatively of this term. Through use of the N-word the reader can see more clearly that the writer thought that the average white America's treatment of slaves was appalling due to having the N-word be used by such a young and innocent character such as Huck. Though Huck didn't think anything of the word, we as reader's view that diction as a very big thing, and it leads the reader to believe Twain was trying to make the point that we treat slaves wrongly.
This book is most well known for one thing- satire. Mark Twain uses it constantly throughout this book in order to poke fun at certain issues of the time. An example of this is "“by and by they fetched the n*******s in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed” (5). This makes fun of of the fact that Miss Watson tries so hard to be a good christian, yet she's doing something very wrong by owning another human being and considering them property, yet not thinking anything of it. Another example of Twain's religious satire is in the dialect "anybody hurt?" [asked Aunt Sally.] "No'm. Killed a nigger." "Well, it's lucky...two years ago...the old Lally Rook...blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man. He was a Baptist...I remember now, he did die." This shows that the characters think nothing of an African American dying, but everything of a white Baptist mans death. Twain is clearly trying to make the reader think that way of thought is ridiculous, and by that trying to say that racial inequality isn't right.
Though the use of language, imagery, diction, and satire, Mark Twain puts a pretty good argument as to why slavery is not a good thing in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Clearly Mark Twain wanted the reader to make a more ethical decision on the topic of slavery.




Oct. 14th

2002. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

The book My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult features the main character Anna, a thirteen year old girl with a very unique situation. Anna was born in order to keep her older sister Kate who is a severe leukemia patient alive. By using Anna as a savior sibling, Kate was able to be kept alive through Anna's bodily donations. However, your feelings as a reader towards Anna change drastically when she refuses to donate a kidney to her sister. Without Anna's kidney, Kate's death is almost guaranteed.
This dilemma in the plot can bring the reader to view Anna as morally ambiguous. The whole situation makes the reader wonder if Anna is morally correct in wanting to declare her own medical emancipation, even if that means taking away her own sisters life. She has the rights to her own body, and no one- not even her family, is able to infringe upon those rights. However, this decision of Anna's to fight back really makes you feel conflicted because you have to decide for yourself if what she's fighting for is ethical.
Anna's moral ambiguity is significant to the book as a whole because the entire plot is centered around the case for individual rights. The question of whether Anna's fighting back for her own body is good or bad is what ultimately pulls the reader into this book.
For these reasons you can definitely say that the main character Anna in My Sisters Keeper is a morally ambiguous character. Due to the question of Anna being right or wrong in her thoughts, the entire plot to the book is formed.


Sept. 30th

2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.


The book Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is no laughing matter. The plot centralizes around a school shooting that left many dead and injured from a single student who was bullied too far. Throughout the novel the same question runs through the back of the readers mind- "Do we ever REALLY know someone?" Picoult shows us that you may not know your friend, your significant other, or even your child as well as you think you do. By having this question become apparent again and again in the book, it creates a deeper meaning than just a book about school shootings and bullying, into a case of relationships between individuals and trust. The deeper meaning throws a whole different element of interest and emotion into an otherwise plot based book.
There are different relationships that example the reader's thought of "Do we ever really know someone?" in Nineteen Minutes. First off, there's the relationship between Josie (the main character) and Peter (the shooter). They were friends when they were very young for a few years until Josie drifted off into the popular group, leaving Peter to be made fun of my the same friends she'd joined. The reader has to wonder "Could Josie have seen the shooting coming? Could she have ever know Peter was going to do what he did?" The author does many flash backs to the times when Josie and Peter were friends, making the reader feel bad for Peter even though he's a murderer.
Then there's Josie, who has two other huge relationships in the plot; one to her mother, and one to her boyfriend Matt. At the end of the book, Josie is put on trail as a witness. There, she tells everyone that she shot her boyfriend. At that point the reader has got to be thinking "What the...?" But then you think about Josie's mom. What do you think a mom is like who just found out her daughter committed murder. Probably a more advanced form of that same question the readers asking. The reader knew that Josie's mother trusted her a great deal, and now shes probably feeling like she doesn't even know her real daughter.
Another relationship that brings on the feeling of "Do we ever really know someone?" in the book is between Josie and Matt. Though they didn't fight around people, Matt was very abusive to Josie, which led to her shooting him. The abusive in their relationship makes you think "Gosh, I hope no couple I know is like them." You could never know what someones hiding, and in Josie's case, their "perfect relationship" to everybody else was half romance and half a living nightmare.
Lastly, you can't forget the relationship between Peter and his mother Lacy. Every mother that's ever read this book is probably thinking "How did she not know?" Well, Picoult explores that question through the character Lacy; a mother so perfectly relate able. She's the perfect, caring mother, so how could she have created a monster? The author draws deep emotions of pity towards Lacy, because she never could have known her son would do what he did; yet everyone in the town is blaming her for his actions like she committed the crime.
All throughout Nineteen Minutes the reader feels a sense of diminishing trust between relationship bonds. It leaves you feeling like there might be some people where you don't know their whole life picture, even if you felt that wasn't the case before. Jodi Picoult did a great job of using this deeper meaning question to draw emotion and feeling from the reader.


Sept. 16th

1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.


In Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" the last three lines are "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." These lines create a very profound meaning to the poem. Having those lines in the poem show both diction, abstract language, and meaning to the author.
Frost uses the word I repetitively in the this poem. By saying things such as "I doubted if I should ever come back" along with "I could" "I stood" and many other I sentences, he's making it more announced to the reader that in the poem, the road he's taking is HIS decision.
This piece has the feeling of a writer trying to be abstract with his language. Frost doesn't want the reader knowing every single detail, he doesn't try to make the scene appeal to the senses. It's as if he wanted the reader to make up their own visual of what a "wood" is, or what the "difference" is, so that each person can take away a little something different from this poem.
These lines of text also show us as readers a deeper interpretation of the poem. The impression I got after reading and rereading this poem is that Frost is trying to say that in life, there are going to be many different paths you can take. You're free to chose whichever one you want; but keep in mind that whichever road you take will lead you to a different outcome. If you're just reading this poem as a surface read for the first time, you might not get those thoughts from reading the close to his poem. You just might think "Alright, this guy chose a road! Good for him." when in fact, he's trying to say something much deeper.
All in all, the last three lines of Robert Frosts poem really do have a deep meaning that is seen throughout the entire poem. He uses great diction and abstract language to show the reader a deeper meaning of a person in the woods trying to chose between to roads.