Revision 4!

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses  story telling themes through Scout's Loss Of Innocence and Coming of Age to make us sympathize with her, and realize ourselves the racism and bigotry of the fifties south, and that in the end we are all people and that it is inhuman to be racist.
    
The second part of the book centers around a court case in which a black man, Tom Robinson, is accused of raping a white girl.  As the story goes on, Atticus Finch (Scout's Dad), easy proves that this man could not have raped her, with the real culprit being her own father.  But the jury finds Tom guilty, simply because he is black.  Scout watches the trial from the colored section and realizes it herself that he is innocent.  By having Scout see the trial, Lee effectively changes Scout's view of the world, along with her brother's, Jem.  Scout also understands her father more, being more proud of him.

Tom, after being convicted, runs away and is shot dead.  Jem feels betrayed by the legal system (along with Atticus).  Then, the girls father attacks Jem and Scout as they are heading home from  halloween pageant.  He is killed by the benevolent neighbor Boo Radley, who has been giving them small gifts throughout the novel.  Scout realizes simply that she should be nice to people who are nice to her, she had been getting into fights at school.

Scout learns as we learn, and Harper Lee designed the book in this way.  We see the injustice done to Tom Robinson and feel it with scout and Jem.  Scout learns even deeper about injustice and realizes that fighting others is not the answer to her problems.  This story is a Bildungsroman, a coming of age story, designed to effect the way we think about scenarios, and the meaning conveyed is to show us that people can realize bad things about the world, but it is in our changing attitudes that it may be saved.

Revisions 3

In Edward Albee's, "The American Dream", Mommy is a villain.  She is manipulative and controlling over her husband, and attempts to control her own mother (Grandma).  She's also materialistic and unflatteringly seeks attention from those designated to be more powerful then her (Mrs. Barker).  Albee presents the audience with Mommy simply as a type, with no personality or redeeming qualities being more of a robot programmed to operate in a certain way, symbolizing what a person would look like if they were wholly materialistic.  Her "type" contrasts with others around her to simply support what Albee said in a later interview about the characters, "don't be like them".  Albee paints Mommy as a buyer, as  a person being only a buyer of things and the personality that would come with being completely material oriented.  This is what Albee views as the American Dream, a distorted and materialistic mess.

Mommy constantly seeks approval from those in power, she changes her opinions, and eventually Mrs. Barker (the symbol of power), always gets what she wants from Mommy.  this shows that Mommy powerless to authority, acting simply as a willing tool for Mrs. Barker.  When Mommy bought a cream colored hat, and Mrs. Barker told her that it was beige, Mommy believed Mrs. Barker and she went back to the store demanding a Cream colored hat.  In a way, Mommy blindly follows what's on the market, no matter how useful or not it is.

Mommy also exerts complete control over her husband Daddy.  Daddy's "type" is that of complete emasculation. The play even hints that he may have had a sex change.  Throughout the play, Daddy quickly agrees with everything that Mommy says.  The one time he has a differing opinion is with Grandma and Mommy chews Daddy's head off for it.  This oppression confirms Mommy's "type" as a villain and also makes us hate Daddy for not sticking up for himself.  We (hopefully) should not be like any of these characters, Mommy's sexual gratification in shopping has left true intimacy a wasteland.

Another way to fulfill Mommy's role as the ultimate materialist is with her dislike of sex.  She views sex with Daddy as a chore and instead gets satisfaction out of shopping.  This is a depressing way of viewing a marriage and I am sure that Albee does not want us to get sexual satisfaction from buying things.

Mommy and Grandma have an interesting relationship.  Grandma plays the part of the subversive.  She is the only one of the cast who isn't quick to believing something.  She is able to confuse Mommy, and (literally) steal the rooms of the apartment out from under her nose.  Mommy attempts to have the same control over Daddy with Grandma but utterly fails, so her reaction is to want to send Grandma away.  She doesn't want anything to do with Grandma, since Grandma is not an authority figure, but also cannot be controlled by authority.

Every character in Albees play is a type.  None of them except Grandma have a personality, and they all are stereotypes of certain facets of American society.  Mommy plays the closest thing to a villain, a person who finds sexual satisfaction from shopping and not from her husband, and a person who has completely emasculated her husband.  Albee, by showing us Mommy's exaggerated consumerism, presents a warning to us, showing us the downside to finding, "satisfaction" from a hat.  To him, that is all the American Dream is.

Revisions!!! 2

"Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another."

In the novel, "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", by Oscar Wilde,  the self portrait of Dorian Gray represents several different purposes.  First it physically shows all of the evil that Dorian is doing in reality, from white hair to wrinkles and blood stains, while also showing how people can over idolize youth and physical beauty, instead of on actual character.

When someone creates a beautiful painting it stays the same forever.  In this novel Dorian has sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to remain physically beautiful as his portrait forever.  Instead of just natural aging, the portrait ages with every evil dead that Dorian does.  When he breaks a girls heart because he only loved her talent, the painting turns from a normal mouth to a scowl.  This means that even though Dorian is attempting to preserve the physical beauty of youth, he fails to grasp all the other things required to be youthful.  He may be physically innocent, but on the inside he becomes twisted and evil.  Moreover it shows that one cannot truly be good falling in love with an image instead of the real thing (talent of a person instead of the person)

Lord Henry is a horrible influence over Dorian Grey.  He laments about love and says that the greatest loves are those that last the shortest.  He also over idolizes youth, and this scares Dorian into believing that his beauty is running out of time.  That as he ages it will whither and die.  Tragically, what he fails to grasp is that the body might start to go, but the mind and soul don't twist with age.  They might become less innocent, but that knowledge has a purpose meant to channel a person into doing the right thing.  Since Dorian doesn't acquire this wisdom from not aging naturally, he's unable to care about anyone else, or develop the reasoning skills showing what his actions do to other people, since they physically don't effect him.  This all stems from the influence that Lord Henry inflicted upon him about youth.

Dorian Grey doesn't begin the novel as an evil character.  He changes quickly as the novel progresses, from a charming boy, to a coldhearted narcissistic creature.  He makes his full transformation at the end of the novel when he kills the artist of the painting, Basil, in cold blood.  Deciding to completely eradicate his conscience he stabs the painting, the only evidence of his madness.  This started with the seed of thought that youth will pass, and that the only things that matter are physical beauty, so Dorian sold his soul and watched his painting take away the evil from his face.

In the novel, Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R Tokien, Frodo's best friend Sam act at first as the readers best friend, but as the novel continues Sam actions become more and more heroic, ultimately triumphing morally over his best friend and main character Frodo's actions, Sam literally carrying Frodo to the fires of mount doom to destroy the ring.  Frodo would have not only failed his mission without Sam, but would have been killed.  Tolkien stresses the import and necessity of friendship in one's life in order to succeed and triumph over challenges presented to us. 


At the beginning of the novel Sam is reluctant to even leave the Shire, stopping to linger at the farthest point he's been from home.  Frodo helps him find his bearings as a traveler and also helps build up his confidence.  As the characters travel through book 1-3 their relationship remains this way, but when Frodo starts to be taken by the rings power Sam more and more becomes the strength behind the mission.  The entrance of Gollum marks Sam's strength of mind over Frodo's.  Signifying that Frodo couldn't get by without a little help from his friends.


When Gollum decides to  murder Frodo and take the ring, only Sam sees the evil happening while Frodo still believes that Gollum is on their side.  When Gollum tricks Frodo into believing that Sam had eaten the last of their food, Frodo believed Gollum and not Sam and Sam was sent away.  This fell right into Gollum's plan of taking Frodo to be eaten by a giant spider at which point he would take the ring.  Sam proves himself to the audience to be stronger then Frodo also by not leaving, he saves Frodo in the end from a group of orcs.  When Sam saves Frodo, Frodo finally realizes what he's done and that Sam is his true friend, without him Gollum would have stolen the ring and middle earth would have been doomed.  When Sam saves Frodo, Frodo finally realizes what he's done and that Sam is his true friend. Without him Gollum would have stolen the ring and middle earth would have been doomed.  Sam proves himself not only mentally more stable, but also physically stronger.  He carries Frodo up mount doom to where the ring must be destroyed.


Sam acts not only as a friend to the reader, but proves himself far superior to his best friend, the protagonist, Frodo Baggins, by saving him at many points, not being deterred by Frodo's doubts about him, and having a larger will to succeed then Frodo was able to have.  So in the end it's always the best friends of the greats, who have a lot to do with helping the hero.