Literary Essay - The Nightingale and the Rose

Literary Essay
The Nightingale and the Rose

The Nightingale and the Rose is a short story written by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde was a famous author and poet. The Nightingale and the Rose was not a book nor a poem, but a short story that he wrote during his lifetime. Like in each short stories, there is a theme, in this one, the theme of the story is love and sacrifice. There are two ways that love is portrayed in this story, the first one is true love and the second one is a crush. When Oscar Wilde wrote this story, he wanted to reflect the cruelty of the world by showing the two faces of love.

The story begins when a young student is crying because the daughter of the professor told him that if he would bring her red roses, she would dance with him at the ball, but there is no red roses in his garden anymore. When a nightingale heard the student say that, it felt bad for the student and told itself that the student is a true lover, that he knew the true meaning of love. The nightingale decides to go search for a red rose for him, it went and ask all of the Rose-trees if they had any red roses but no success, they did not have any, but the last tree told it that there is a way to get a red rose, but it did not want to tell the nightingale because it was too awful, but the nightingale insisted so the tree told it. The nightingale had to sacrifice it’s life to build the rose. This is where the theme of sacrifice begins. The nightingale decides to sacrifice itself for the student, because it thinks that death is a just a little price to pay for love, that it is nothing important. It show that a life would be willing to sacrifice itself to make another one happy. By giving it’s life for the birth of the rose, we can see that the red rose is the reincarnation of the nightingale, because the rose was born from the blood of the nightingale.

In the beginning of the story, we think that the student felt true love for the professor’s daughter, but by the end of the climax, we discover that he was never really in love with this girl but just had a crush on her. We know that when we discover that when the girl denies the red rose from the student, he throws the rose that he was searching for so long into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a cart-wheel went over it. The student did not even try to convince the girl to go with him to the ball, he just surrenders like that. He also said that love is not half as useful as logic. If he was really in love with the girl he would not surrender so easily like that. The life of the nightingale was just wasted like that. The nightingale sacrifice itself out of love, true love, but that love was demolished, ruined, destroyed. The professor’s daughter also don’t know what is the true meaning of love, because she is a materialist, she just like people who buy her jewels, that is why she did not accepted the rose.

In conclusion, The Nightingale and the Rose is a touching short story that shows the differences between true love and a crush, and what a life is willing to do to make another one happy, in this story, it is sacrifice.

Novel Report - Watchmen

The book that I will be doing a report on is called Watchmen, a twelve-issue comic book series published by DC Comics and written by Alan Moore. It was published during 1986 and 1987 and then reprinted into a graphic novel. It was adapted into a film by Zack Snyder on March 2009.

The story begins when an ex-superhero was killed in his apartment, that superhero was The Comedian. The police had no leads of who killed him, which is why Rorschach, a superhero vigilante, decides to investigate further. The story focus mainly on four ex-superheroes; Nite Owl II, Silk Spectre II, Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias. Rorschach thinks that he has discovered a plot to terminate all superheroes, he then tells his superhero comrades, but no one believes him. When Doctor Manhattan was on television, he was accused of giving cancer to his friends, he then decides to teleport himself to Mars. Ozymandias, now a successful business man, was almost killed by an assassin. When Rorschach knew that, he was sure that there was really a plan to terminate all superheroes.Silk Spectre and Nite Owl decides to don their costume and resume being superheroes, but they are seen as costumed vigilante by civilians. Nite Owl and Rorschach discovers evidence that Ozymandias is behind the plan to eradicate the superheroes. The pair then confronts Ozymandias in his retreat at the Antarctic. Ozymandias than explains his plans, but it was not the same plan that Rorschach thought it would be. Ozymandias plan is to save humanity from impending Atomic war between the United States and the Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion in New York City, which will annihilate half of the population of New York City. He hopes this will unite the nations against a common enemy. It is also revealed that it was him that murdered The Comedian, and staged the attempt on his own life. Rorschach and Nite Owl tries to stop him but they soon discovered that he had already enacted his plan. The bomb killed half of the population of New York, as for the result, the world agrees to unite and cooperate against this new threat, just like Ozymandias planned it to be. The superheroes decide to conceal the truth about Ozymandias to prevent chaos, but Rorschach refuses to accept it and plans to reveal the truth to the world, but Doctor Manhattan kills him.

The novel really touched me because it is original, it is not like other superhero story that the bad guys wants to rule the world and the hero tries to stop him. The story is more deep and darker and reveals what a life would be willing to do to save another person's life. That is why I thought that the book was good.

If I had to do a sequel to this story, it would go like this; Nite Owl struggles by the facts that he knows what really happens to New York City and cannot live with himself. He then decides to go on national television to reveal what really happens. When the truth was revealed, the world eventually went to chaos, and the government decides to execute all superheroes for what they have done. By doing so, Ozymandias decides to launch a second nuclear bomb on New York City, but this time, it annihilates all of the United States. By discovering what he has done, Ozymandias could not live with himself, he then puts a bullet in his head and dies. The story ends as Doctor Manhattan watches New York City burning down by the bomb and tells himself: '' Humans really are disgusting.''

Inherit the Wind

Characters

1. Bert Cates, 24, high school teacher, defendant (accused), he believed in evolutionism vs creationism
2. M.H. Brady, politician from Nebraska, leads prosecution, celebrity/hero,  has strong Christian beliefs, oppose teaching of evolution.
3. Drummond, lawyer, defense, for E city guy.
4. E.K. Hornbeck, journalist, city guy, for C, against Brady.
5. R.J. Brown, for cration, preacher "fire and brinstone"
6. R. Brown, daughter, girlfriend of Cates, torn
7. The Judge, impartial, secretly prefer creation
8. The Townspeople

2. Its tells that the offence is not serious and not a threat.
3.It seems to Bevery religious and proud to show it by displaying banners singing christian songs
4.It shows that Brady is dependant and submissive
5. It tells that brady could be untrustworthy, convincing and manipulative.
6.Drummond is depicted as the devil or evil incarnate because he had previously defended hard-core criminal; however, the townspeople found him to be free thinking and a man of principle

Mid-Term Test

Part. A Short Answers

2. Why does Louise Mallard suddenly stop crying? Indicate the place in the text?

She stop crying, because she has realized that she is now a widow, and that she is free from the grip of her late husband. (paragraph 12)

1.      What is Louis Mallard’s opinion of marriage? Indicate the paragraph that suggests it?

She gave her opinion about mariage when she said "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they ahve a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature."( paragraph. 12)

3.      How does she feel about her future as a widow? Cite the line in the text, using just the first few words, then a series of dots …?

She feels free, as you can see when she said "free, free, free!"...

7.      Explain how Louise can feel joy and sadness at the same time?

She can feel sad because her husband died in a terrible way, and because she loved him sometimes, but she can also feel joy because there will no powerful will bending hers, so she is now free from the grip of her husband, no one can control her anymore, she is free.

Part B. Development Question

In The Story of an Hour, the author uses a lot of this literary term in his short story. The author already started using irony when he wrote the title, The Story of an Hour, because the story occurred in an hour. It took just one hour for Mrs. Mallard to realize that she does not need her husband to be happy, as for other wives that has lost their husband, they would take months or years to reestablish from their husband`s deaths.


 

Also, the way that she thinks after the lost of her husband is very ironic, because she feels happy. She thinks that she is now free from her husband`s grip, she felt restrain from him, now that he is gone, she thinks that she could do everything, that she now has freedom. Even the way that she enters the room and looks at nature is ironic, because for a new widow to sit comfortably on her chair and look at nature outside is almost impossible. Some of the widows would cry their eyes off. When she heard about the death of her husband; she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment. It would appeared to everyone in the house that she was very sad about the lost of her husband, but after that, once she was alone in her room we can realize that she was relieved, and the way that she describes nature: “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.” it is not something that a woman would describe if she has just lost her husband.


 

The ending in my opinion was the best way of using irony, as you know when she was in her room she was happy that her husband has died, she could finally feel freedom after all those years. After that, when she was out of her room, somebody opened the door, it was her husband, Brently Mallard. He was not dead, he was not at the scene of the accident, and he did not even know that there had been one. When Mrs. Mallard saw her husband, she collapsed and died from a heart disease, not because she was happy to see him but because her happiness was crushed, she would have no more freedom. It is really ironic because if somebody realized that her husband was alive, they would be happy, or even died of joy, but her she died of sadness because her joy was crushed.

464 Words

Using Quotes

• With a complete idea (:) ex. Hemingway uses action to emphisize a character trait: ­­( The girl looked ar the bead curtain...)  (ellipsie)
• With an incomplete idea (,) Ex. In Hemingway`s story, the girl said, (They look like white elephants.)
• With an incomplete quotation within a sentence. Ex. Hemingway`s story takes place at a railway station (between two lines of rails in the sun.) A quote within a quote .

1. early, but/early; however,
2. weight, so/weight; therefore,
3. still, and/still; moreover
4. cook, but/cook; however,
5. late, so/late; therefore,
6. well, and/well; moreover,

LEL 2: Grammar Skills for Writing 1: Punctuation in Sentences

1. Interest Level
This course, compared to the other that I did, really intrigued me, and in the other hand it helped me a lot because most of my errors in writting exams are punctuation. This lesson explains where and when to put punctuations in sentences.

2. Difficulty
In my opinion, I tought that this course was challenging, because I am not good in putting punctuations in a sentence. The course really helped me, because it was well explained and it gives you advices on where to put commas, comma splice, etc. I tought that this course was a college level course, not too difficult nor not too easy, it was alright.

3. What I Learned
I learned about commas with independent clauses that are joined by a conjunction.

4. My Score: n/a
It did not tell me my score but I remember that I had atleast 10 errors.

5. Course Rating: 9/10
I thought that this course was really helpfull and it will surely help me in the near future when I will write some essays. I strongly recommend this course to everybody.

LEL 1: Fundamentals of Writing 1: Prewriting

1. Interest Level
In my opinion, this course did not help me at all. It just explains the basics of writing, for example: how to do a brainstorming, how to dissect the main subject and how to do a plan. I have learned all of this when I was in high school, it does not look like a college level course. It did not appeal to me in any possible way.

2. Difficulty
Like I said, it is a high school level course, secondary 2 to be precise. The exercises were to easy, and the answers were often pretty predictable. In the other hand, the exercises were well explained, somebody could ready the exercises and understand right away what to do.And the exercises were fun to do.

3. What I Learned
Unfortunately, I did not learn anything by doing this course.

4. My Score: n/a
Half of the exercises asked about your opinion, so the computer did not analyze it. I had to correct it myself by judging from the possible answers from the exercises. If I calculate, I had 2-3 mistakes.

5. Course Rating: 6.5/10
I do not recommend this course if you are comfortable about writing. I do recommend this course to anybody who has difficulty making ideas and do not know what to write because of the pressure.