ap lit 08-09 portfolio
DESCRIPTION
Works from the year.TRANSCRIPT
Eric BarkmanMaster Of The
Universe
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Table of Contents
Page 1- Title
Page 2- Table of Contents
Page 3- Essay 2
Page 5- Essay 3
Page 7- Essay 6
Page 10- Essay 7
Page 11- Essay 8
Page 13- Essay 9
Page 14- Essay 10
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Reflection
This year I have evolved much as a writer. Most of the improvements have been through my
creative writing class and not through AP lit. In creative writing, I began to deepen my characterization in
my writings and expand my descriptions of setting. Because of the deadlines in the class, I actually
finished some of my works which is a vast improvement from years past. I completed a short story
entitled “Minds in the Dark” that I submitted to Prelude’s. I always discovered the vast importance and
effectiveness of creating a rough outline. This skill aided me the most in my final project. We had to write
a script for a TV show. Most of the students decided to write an original episode for an already
preexisting show, but I, with my vast and immeasurable creative powers, created a pilot episode for a
complete original show. I outlined so well that the pilot episode, titled “The Art”, made it all the way to
the page requirements without even covering half of the outline. As for the AP Lit class, I learned very
few new things, and for the most part the class reiterated what I have been taught the last four years. I
found that an “audience” belongs nowhere within a formal essay. Also, the writer must take a stern stand
on the gender of the speaker. Using he/she is ill advised and ruins the flow of the work. Also, commas can
be helpful, but their usefulness runs out when the rhythm of the piece is bogged down with breaks and
pauses. Other than this points, my formal essays continue to be the most excellent works of BS every
created by a Roncalli Student.
Thank you and have a great day,
Eric Barkman, Master of the Universe
p.s. If this reflection proves off topic, I remind you that you said general reflection over our improvements in writing for this year. How do you like them apples?
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Essay 2
In Graham Greene’s “The Destructors”, a group of boys pass through a threshold into a new
chapter of their lives. The children lose their innocence in a destroyed district of post WWII London and
realize the power of adulthood. Greene masterfully establishes the plot and various symbols to convey this
message of lost innocence.
At the beginning of the story, the boys wish to spend their day on a fruitless task of trying to attain
the most free rides on the British bus system. A new initiate the gang proposes a new plan: to completely
destroy the house of the elder, Old Misery, next to their hangout. T, the new initiate, gains the groups
approval for this task. The boys first began to enter into maturity here when the young fifteen year old
uses organizational skills, a trait not seen in the group before, to allocate separate items to bring. The next
day, T again organizes the group and separates them according to distinct tasks. Blackie, the old leader of
the gang, notices this as well. “He had at once the impression of organization, very different from the old
happy-go-lucky ways”. The boys become so engrossed in their destruction that they do not even
communicate with each other except concerning their specific tasks. When T finds money, he burns it
instead of giving in to childish yearning to keep the small sum for himself. In the end, the boys even use
sly deception to trap Old Misery in his own out house in order to finish the demolition. Through the
course of events, the boys transform from semi innocent ruffians to young man with power over
something greater than themselves.
Coming from higher society, T leads the boys in their transformation. His real name, Trevor, and
its broken down from foreshadow the destruction that the gang will wreck. The boys start from the bottom
and began their journey upward to the top. All, besides T, came from fairly humble and common origins
while Old Misery’s house stood as a delicate remembrance of its once former glory in the derelict district.
The passage of time made the house weaker while the boys enter into their first stage in the chronicles of
their lives and find more strength. Exerting force and will, the gang topples down the higher society
standards along with the once expensive home. Along with the physical destruction of Old Misery’s, the
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boys indirectly destroy their innocence. “We’d be like worms, don’t you see, in an apple. When we came
out again there’d be nothing there”. T lays out his plan of action and unknowingly compares the gang’s
changes. Like T and his dream, the worms destroy the apple to create something new and grow. Greene
depicts the power of the destruction as a form of creation. T creates a new architectural image in the ruins
of the house. The boys create a new identity for themselves in the chaos made by their ordered tasks of
demolition.
T and his friends undergo a change in their identity from boys to young men. Through their
actions, they both destroy and create physically and mentally. In the new world left by the aftermath of
WWII, a small group of boys in London attempt to find themselves just as the rest of the world also
evolved and changed into a new identities and entities.
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Essay 3
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, she paints a dark in gloomy landscape weaved in with
themes of the ignorance of man’s pride in attempting to manipulate and control nature. Victor
Frankenstein exemplifies perfectly greed, ignorance, and pride as his tragic flaws that throw him into a
downward spiral which leads to his own destruction. Not only do these flaws serve to propagate his
torture, but they also inflict suffering onto all those around him.
Once Victor is studying by himself in Ingolstadt, he exhibits his first flaw which leads to his
others. He aims to control the power of god and create a creature of his own design. During one of his
inner monologues before the creature is imbued with life, Victor states that he will create a whole species
of sentient beings that will follow and look up to him as a child does to a father. Not only does Victor
wish to make a mass of disciples for himself, he also desires to cheat the natural order of things and
escape death. He never for one second stops to meditate on the consequences of what his endeavors could
bring about. During his mad obsession with controlling nature, he neglects all those who love him as he
spends endless hours in his laboratory toiling away on his experiment. Victor does not keep in contact
with his family and friends back in Geneva and does not even have the care to send them word of his well
being.
In thinking he can control life, death, and nature, Victor shows his unending ignorance. He
believes that man can learn to manipulate anything and everything in the world and bend it to his will.
Once he does realize the secret to life, he forgets the old saying “With great power comes great
responsibility”. When the creature comes to life, Victor runs from all the duties he owes to the poor
wretch. One of the ideas which fueled his quest, the desire to control a species, is lost as he runs from his
creation. Victor does not realize his own folly in not only creating a creature superior in strength to
himself but also abandoning it at the moment of its conception. Instead of guiding and instructing the
creature, he leaves it to fend for itself in a cruel and harsh world that rejects it.
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For the majority of the novel, Frankenstein’s pride inhibits him from correctly solving the
problems which he created. He finally realizes the folly of his action, but instead of seeking assistance
from others, he decides to try to tackle the creature by himself. Victor continually pushes away his family
and causes them grief in his attempt to keep them innocent from his mistakes. In the end, this mindset
kills off most of his family and friends. Towards the climax of the story, he believes the monster’s threat
of “I will be with you on your wedding night” means that the creature will attempt to murder him on that
date. Victor’s pride proves his ultimate downfall as he somewhat adequately prepares himself by carrying
a pistol and dagger but leaves Elizabeth, the creature’s target, by herself in order to search the house for
the monster.
A man who began with everything and ended with nothing, Victor Frankenstein displays many
traits of a tragic hero. Through his own accord and machinations, he successfully sent himself and his
friends and family through a dark and relentless hell. Victor’s greed, ignorance, and pride show the
weakness of humanity as a whole in their attempt to control and manipulate all around them without
proper guidance or aid.
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Essay 4
In the poem “One Art”, Elizabeth Bishop paints an image of a lover laminating and reflecting over
what is lost. Through his use of direct addresses and personal experience, the speaker conveys her
emotions.
As if written like a letter, the poem seems to initiate a conversation between the speaker and the
audience. At the start of the second stanza, she says “Lose something everyday”. Through this, she is
instructing his lost lover to become accustomed to the pain and inconvenience of loss. In the last stanza,
she says “In losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied”. She demonstrates his
remorse in lying and instigating the events that led to the separation. se also tries to console her lover in
saying that losing is not a disaster.
Throughout most of the piece, the speaker recounts all of her loses and how they did not end in
disaster. She moved many times, and even left her native continent to live in a foreign one. Even though
she was stricken with grief after she left her homes, she went on living. Through these examples, she is
imploring and promising her lost lover that life will go on. All of these inflicted sadness, and the recent
loss is reflected through her recounting of her former sorrows.
The speaker, most likely an elder, has experienced much and reflects upon her long life. Through
her direct address and personal examples, she apologizes and attempts to relieve her own guilt while
trying to console her lover in her time of grief.
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Essay 6
In Rachel Hadas’s Helen, many of Aristotle’s elements of drama are shown. The story centers
around the two main protagonists, Helen and Menelaus, and intertwines their incredible struggle with base
human feelings and emotions.
Stemming from the well known epic, The Illiad, Helen draws from much of the plot established in
the earlier story. Helen has spent the last seventeen years in exile. Her strife originates from a conflict
between the gods. Three goddesses arguing about their beauty allowed Paris, the prince of Troy, to settle
the dispute. Aphrodite, one of the goddesses, bribed Paris with the prize of Helen of Sparta. Hera, one of
the other three goddesses, tricked Paris by sending with him a phantom Helen and sending Hermes to take
the real queen to Egypt. Helen begins with the queen lamenting over her current situation. She recounts
the story of her family including the story of Zeus, disguised as a swan, courting her mother, Leda.
During her long monologue, she describes one of the reasons of her struggle, “My beauty was the bait”.
Her physical appearance serves as her tragic flaw. Aphrodite chooses Helen as the bribe because she was
the most attractive mortal. The entrance of one of the Greek warriors who fought in the Trojan War
further enunciates the reason for her grief. Teucer curses the Spartan queen. “Oh my god! What horrid
sight appalls/ my vision? For surely what I see/ is that vile woman, vicious enemy,/ my ruin and the bane
of all of us.” Unintentionally, Helen caused the deaths of thousands of Greeks and the mass genocide and
destruction of the state of Troy. Despite her reputation among the Greeks, she exhibits kindness to Teucer
by hurrying him to the Oracle so that the new king would not kill him. She then shows a mixture of two
base human emotions: grief and hope. During her dialogue with her servants, she constantly sways from
these two feelings. She then shows hesitation and fear when they suggest going to see the Oracle to learn
the fate of her husband. Throughout the story, Helen must constantly overcome the situation caused by
her tragic flaw: her beauty. Her beauty indirectly caused her exile, the Trojan war, and the deaths of
thousands of Greeks and Trojans.
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Spurned by the betrayal of Paris and his phantom wife, Menelaus collects his forces and unites
with his brother, Agamemnon, and all the armies of Greece. He retrieved his faux queen and aided in the
destruction of Troy. After the great war, the king spent seven years sailing endlessly on the sea. Through
the will of the gods, he met endless obstacles that prevented him from returning to his native Sparta.
Similar to his wife, Menelaus begins his role in the play with his own lamentation. He shows immense
sadness over the condition and situation he has come to. Once a great a powerful king, the grieving hero
comes to the palace battered and adorned with rags in order to beg for food and supplies. Later, Menelaus
emotionally begs for Theonoe’s aid. He appeals to her sense of justice and demonstrates his love for his
wife. In order to safely escape Egypt, the Spartan King shows cunning when he acts as a simple Greek
sailor in order to trick the Egyptian King. Menelaus demonstrates immense determination to get his wife
back through his ten years of battling, his seven of wondering, and his humbleness in attempting to save
the lives of his sailors and escape with his wife.
Helen exemplifies Aristotle’s element of drama through the depth and progression of the Helen
and Menelaus. Because of their human flaws and struggles, they become immersed in a epic situation, and
through their redeeming qualities, they finally are reunited after seventeen long years of separation.
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Essay 7
In the first article, “‘Put out the light’ in Othello’, Rodney Edgecombe concentrates on Othello’s
soliloquy before his murder of his wife. He constantly analyzes and decrypts the vague statements made
in the monologue. Edgecombe first contrasts Othello’s line of “Put out the light, and then put out the
light:”. At first glance, the phrase can be interpreted as “First put ou this candle, and then snuff out her
life.” Others may interpret it as Othello questioning his motives after stating them. Edgecombe connects
the first light he puts out as Desdemona life and then the second light as her supposed crime, adultery.
Othello’s murder is then viewed as an ritualistic action with a higher purpose. He believes that killing his
wife will prevent other women from committing adultery against their husbands. Edgecombe draws
comparison from Lady Macbeth’s murder of Duncan to Othello’s. In both, they provoke the heavens to
conceal their most horrid crime.
In the second article, “Shakespeare’s Othello”, Steve Cassal begins by focusing on Othello asking
“But why should honor outlive honesty?” Cassal draws the conclusion that Desdemona personifies
chastity or honesty and that Othello personifies honor. This assumption agrees with the play since Othello
really does outlive Desdemona. Cassal then compares the virtues of honor and honesty. Othello drew his
honor from public opinion of himself while Desdemona drew her honesty from personal integrity. Emilia
is then considered for the personification of honesty since before her death she has a long outpouring of
truth. During the time period, the male image of honesty was to be loyal and truthful while the female
image consisted of being chaste. During the lapse from civilization, Emilia embraces both images by
being first faithful to her husband and then being loyal to Desdemona and truthful.
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Essay 8
“The Pawnbroker” Group Essay
To deal with difficult situations, such as the death of a father, poets often write to express their
grief. Eloquently weaving a tale spanning before and after a traumatic event, Maxine Kumin expresses
her feelings about her father and the love he gave her. In “The Pawnbroker”, she utilizes diction,
symbolism, and imagery to connect the speaker’s inner emotions to the outside world.
In regards to diction, Maxine Kumin utilizes contrasting phrases, such as firsthand and
secondhand, to connect the inside and outside worlds of the speaker. Stating “Every good thing in my life
was secondhand” refers to the fact that her father’s profession of pawnbroker provided her with
previously-owned possessions. While her possessions were previously-owned, the speaker’s father gave
her unconditional love firsthand. Kumin also uses “in hock” to connect the outside and inside worlds.
While describing her father’s response to seeing his children barefoot, he asks “Where are your shoes? In
hock?”. After the death of the speaker’s father, the speaker states “no longer in hock to himself”
connecting the speaker’s inner emotions to the outside world..
Kumin weaves multiple symbols in her writing to mold many hidden, deeper meanings into her
poetry. Maxine Kumin paints a symbol of her socio-economic situation when she speaks of how her
father feels when she says “The sight of his children barefoot gave him a pain.” He is upset that he has to
work long hours to try and make ends meet, but he still cannot afford to buy his children shoes. This
reveals her father’s love and care for her and her siblings as well as his strong work ethic as in the
beginning stanza it starts off about how “my father’s feet which, after fifty years of standing behind the
counter waiting on trade…”
Throughout the piece, Maxine Kumin provides definite scenes and sights to convey her sense of
introverted perspective of her outside surroundings. She first describes her father and his profession. He
stands like a clerk, waiting for trade. Eventually, once he receives trade such as from “A red cap porter
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whose ticket ran out”, her father hands down many of the items being pawned to Maxine. Her guilt at this
way of life is constantly beat down on her. “He overtook my in the thicket and beat my black heart
white”. The pawnshop stayed open late on the weekends, and police officers stood watch outside to keep
peace and order. Many items came into his possession that he constantly worked on their pricings from
“watches, cameras, typewriters” to “cheap diamond rings and thoroughbred silver”. Once he died,
Maxine and her brothers chose to celebrate his memory with drink. While he was bring prepared for
cremation, the family opened up an old scotch bottle and eased their pains.
Maxine Kumin’s “The Pawnbroker” provides a glimpse into her external world as well as her
internal nature. The author utilizes diction, symbolism, and imagery to paint her life. She reflects
bittersweetly on the memory of her father and shows her hidden feelings for the man after his death.
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Essay 9
In her novel Obasan, Joy Kogawa reflects on the internment of her family and Japanese
Americans. Through the extensive use of figurative language and imagery, she conveys her feelings of
immense loss and pain.
Kogawa’s family relocates from the coast to the interior. The bleak weather of “rain, cloud, mist”
mirror the grief of her people. The internment camps, in the Canadian heartland, stand far way from
civilization. During their internment, the Japanese are to be the “hammers and chisels” to help shape the
wilderness to the government’s liking. They are “the fragments of fragments”, already people separated
from their true culture and now be driven from their new home. All Japanese Canadians ride to the
interior from the “scholarly and illiterate” to “the fierce and the docile”. These beginning phrases help to
develop the fleeting sense of pride and worth felt by the internees.
In the second half of the passage, Kogawa develops the specific scene of the train ride to show the
weariness of her people. The overly packed train proves uncomfortable as it “smells of oil and soot and
orange peels and lurches groggily.” Their belongings submerge the passengers in a sea of boxes, bags,
and baskets. A young woman sits on the train a few days after she has given premature birth. She is void
of all supplies needed to take care of her infant. Even though she feels sympathy, the young Kogawa is
too frightened to help out the mother.
During WWII, many people found themselves as prisoners in their own country. Even during their
immense hardship, the Japanese Canadians pulled together as a community. This form of surrogate family
becomes apparent with titles such as “ojisan” or “obasan” for aunt and uncle.
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Essay 10
In Shakespeare’s Othello, the protagonist sways between a multitude of conflicting emotions and
feelings. Othello’s mind tears from his love for Desdemona and Iago’s hateful plotting.
At the beginning of the play, Barbantio accuses Othello of charming his daughter with witchcraft.
This scene in the Venetian assembly chamber reveals Othello and Desdemona’s love for each other. This
love propels the plot forward and not brings Desdemona to Cyprus but also her servant and Iago’s wife
Emilia. For the first half of the play, Othello defends and stands by his wife’s honor in the face of
Barbantio’s blatant slanders and Iago’s more subtle influence.
During the third act, Iago’s plotting successfully takes hold of Othello. Once the soldier hints at an
adulterous relationship between Desdemona and Cassio, Othello begin to grow suspicious. His suspicion
seems to be confirmed through Cassio’s possession of the handkerchief. The general then chooses
revenge instead of a peaceful resolution and plays into Iago’s hands. He throws aside all loyalty and
caring for his wife and lieutenant and plots to kill them both. His inner conflict reveals itself in earnest in
the monologue before he slays his wife. He professes his love and how that love pains him to do what he
believes he must do.
Through this play, Shakespeare reveals the inner conflict that most humans experience on a
grander stage. Othello clearly exemplifies this conflict with his love and fear, but also Desdemona and
Emilia reveals this with the split between husband and friend.
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