Prompt #3 - Two Contrasting Places

1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

America: The Dream vs. the Reality

In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, the audience sees the struggles and eventual downfall of an average man as he strives for the one thing all Americans long for sometime in their lives: the American Dream. Willy Loman is a salesman in his sixties, getting older and more worn out with each working day. Though his life is nothing short of glamorous, he never loses hope that someday, he and his sons will become the successful, wealthy men he has always imagined they would be.However, the affluent world Willy dreams of is a very different place from the middle class world he lives in, and tragically, it is the opposing forces of these two worlds that lead Willy to his ruin.

Willy Loman and his wife, Linda, live with two grown sons, Biff and Happy, in a tiny house in New York City. The play takes place in 1940s post WWII America, a time when many migrated to the cities, hoping to make it big. The whiff of the American Dream was in the air, and Willy Loman was no exception to it. All his life, his only goal was to be successful, for himself and for his family. He longs for it even more when he sees the lives of others who have made something of themselves, like his neighbor, respectable businessman Charley, and his lawyer son, Bernard.

Willy’s role model had always been his deceased older brother, Ben, who adventured into the wilderness of Alaska to find their father, only to, out of complete luck, strike it rich in Africa on diamonds. One of Willy’s deepest regrets has always been missing out on the chance he had to go with Ben on his adventure, a regret he carried with him until the end. Throughout the play, there are many moments when Willy has “talks” with Ben, whom he imagines is standing right there, next to him. Ben often lures Willy to join him, to find “diamonds” in the “jungle”, only adding to the fire of Willy’s hopes and imaginations of a life of prosperity.

However, the reality of the world he and his family live in is very different. Their small house is wedged in-between tall apartment buildings on all sides, crowded and uncomfortable. Willy works as a traveling salesman, making long, exhausting drives to New England, with a job that barely pays enough to cover all of his family’s bills. He feels old, overweight, and not liked by others around him, always making up grand stories to tell, hiding behind a wall of lies. This life represents the confinement and poverty that Willy desperately tries to escape.

The clash in his mind between the world of the rich (the American Dream) and the world of the middle-class (the American Reality) takes a toll on Willy, who longs for the former but is stuck in the later. Using the conflict between these two worlds, the play expresses the conflict many average, middle and lower class Americans face. Whether it is back then in the 1940s or now, in the 21st century, they all have hopes and dreams for a prosperous future but are held back by the circumstances they find themselves in. Some overcome these obstacles and achieve success, but some, like Willy, never see their dreams become reality. Ultimately, his misery and desperation overcome him; he takes the advice of Ben and goes headfirst into the “jungle”, where Ben says it is “dark but full of diamonds”, taking his own life and bringing his tale to a tragic end.

Prompt #2 - Character in Conflict

Prompt #2: Choose a character in a novel or play of your choice (from the AP List!) and write about the conflict(s) that arise since they are in conflict with the society they are from. This may be socially, religiously, and/or morally. Dig deep! You should also address whether your character comes to a good/bad fate due to this conflict(s).

The novel Brideshead Revisited explores the high-class, refined, strict world that is the Catholic aristocracy of early 20th century England. It is a society decorated with wealth and elegance and upheld by firm religious values, one that Sebastian Flyte finds himself suffocating in the grip of. Sebastian, the son of one of these Catholic aristocratic families, is a youthful, eccentric, lively young man, fond of doing what he wants, whenever he wants. This type of personality and behavior unavoidably sets him up for conflict with his religion and society, particularly his own family, his rebellion eventually turning into a losing battle against a fate he cannot avoid.

Lord Sebastian Flyte is the son of Lord and Lady Marchmain, and he and his family live at Brideshead, a beautiful, opulent mansion most can only dream of. All his life, Sebastian has known nothing but a life of wealth and luxury; he has always had someone, whether it is a maid, a nanny, or his own mother, by his side to take care of him and meet his every need without even having to lift a finger. For others, they would love to have this kind of life, but for Sebastian, it is one he loathes. He feels as if he is smothered, unable to breathe the air of life and freedom, to be independent, which explains his rebellious nature. It is because of this repression that Sebastian constantly defies his family’s rules and eventually ends up running away to live on his own in Morocco.

The other half of Sebastian’s life is his religion. Catholicism has always been one of the key foundations of the Flyte family. The matriarch of the household, Lady Marchmain, is strongly religious, and constantly tries to imbue the same principals in her children. The others follow her footsteps, but Sebastian does not. For most of the earlier part of the novel, Sebastian tries to escape his religion, something that can be attributed to his mother’s strict rules and conduct that seem to be on the verge of authoritarianism. But unfortunately, he finds himself fighting a losing battle, choosing to escape through alcohol. As his depression and anxiety, brought on by the stress and pressure put on him by his mother, worsens, so does his drinking, eventually leading him to become a serious alcoholic.

When others, mostly Lady Marchmain, try to intervene, Sebastian, along with his longing to be free and independent, becomes angry, packs his things, and leaves Brideshead behind. He eventually ends up in Morocco, living with an injured German soldier whom he takes care of. He feels he has finally escaped his old life, but ironically, he ends up in the care of Franciscan monks in a monastery for health reasons. When he gets better, he even tries to join them, wanting to move to a leper colony. This shows that even though he tried, even though he fought, he can’t avoid his religion; it will always be a part of him, no matter what. The biggest conflict Sebastian faces is the inner conflict between his happiness and deepest longings versus his duty to his faith. In the end, his duty as a Catholic wins; he finds that despite all the struggle and rebellion, that even though he’s left behind Brideshead and his family, he can’t escape his religion and God.

Time: 48 min (I’m sorry I went over the time limit!)

And Still We Rise - Assignment #3

Assignment #3: Miesha: "My Talent is Perserverance"
*What is your talent/gift?
*What are you going to do with it?
*Compare your talent with Miesha's

Literary Connection: Jesus' Parable of the Talents
NOTE: In ancient times, a measure of gold was called a talent: There once was a master and he had three servants. He goes on a trip and gives gold to each of them. The first one spends it having a good time, the second one purchases a rug in the market place. The third one goes out into the fields and buries it. When the master returns, he asks them what they did with the gold. The first one says, "I spent it and had a great time with my friends." The master says, "Very Good." The second one says, "I purchased a rug in the marketplace." The master says, "Very Good." The third one says, "Master, you will be most proud of me! I buried it in the fields and here it is!" The master beats him and send him out of his house.

What do you think is Jesus' point? What lesson does he teach and how does it connect to you and Miesha? How does this story work on more than one level?

To be honest, I had a really hard time thinking of what exactly my “talent” is. But after contemplating for more than half an hour, I finally settled on “diligence”. Thinking back to my elementary school days, as a student I was far from diligent. I wasn’t interested in nor did I truly appreciate school back then; to me, it was just another thing, another chore that I had to deal with. Sure, I would finish assignments on time all the time, but I wouldn’t care about how well I’d actually done it (I just wanted to finish it and then play), nor was I very persistent; if I came across, for example, a hard math problem I couldn’t solve, instead of actually trying, I would just lazily give up and go to my mother for help.

But once I got to fourth grade, everything changed for me because of my teacher that year, Mrs. Ramirez. She showed me just how much potential she saw in me to do well in the future; that, if I chose to commit myself to my education, to want to do my best, to not settle for doing “enough” and instead strive for “more”, for “better”, I could make something of myself. And it was then that I changed my attitude and actually pushed myself when it came to schoolwork. She taught me what “quality” meant, and since then, I’ve always tried to put “quality” in my work. No matter what assignment it is or what class it’s for, I always persist to do my best and put as much effort into it as I can. I push myself to work hard, to never take the easy way out, and to always see things through to the end.

I know that my “talent” of diligence will help me with whatever I do in the future, whether it’s academically or dealing with my personal life. Being diligent has gotten me this far, to my senior year in high school, and if I keep up my focus, determination, and industriousness, I’m certain that it will carry me through college and towards my goal of becoming a doctor. Whatever goal I set for myself, I can use my diligence to succeed in achieving it.

I think my talent is pretty similar to Miesha’s talent of perseverance. Both diligence and perseverance involve seeing things through to the end and refusing to give in or give up, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem. Though her situation is a lot more extreme than mine, I think we both share that characteristic of working hard and having strong persistence through whatever challenges we face.

When it comes to Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, I had to sit down and really think about what it meant. I won’t lie; at first I was really confused and had no idea what the point was. But I think that what Jesus was trying to get across was that God gives all of us our own talents, just as the master gave each servant a bit of gold. Our responsibility is to appreciate our talents by fostering and caring for them, by nurturing them and allowing them to grow. The master approves of the first two servants because they make use of their talents. But he admonishes the third servant for being foolish and stupid with his talent; I mean, come on, who goes out and buries gold in the dirt? Basically, the master scolds him for wasting something so precious and valuable, something that others would love to have but don’t.

The lesson to learn here is that you must appreciate and make use of the “talents” you posses, whatever they may be. It works on more than one level because it’s a lesson that everyone can learn from; it doesn’t just have to be about “gold” or religion. People who squander their gifts, whether it’s something physical like money or intangible like intelligence, will eventually find themselves with nothing in the end; they’ll end up nowhere, as a nobody.

The parable of talents connects to Miesha and I because our talents of diligence and perseverance are like the gifts of gold the servants received from their master; they are treasures, things to appreciate and make use of, not waste. In "And Still We Rise", Miesha wrote in her biographical essay, “The hardships that I have faced for the past year have taught me that I can overcome any obstacle in my life’s path. At the same time, I learned to be thankful for everything that I’ve been blessed with. God gives everyone a talent, and it is up to each individual to focus on that talent and perfect it.” (pg. 80) I think what she says here pretty much explains what the parable of talents is trying to get across to everyone: Make the most of yourself and what you’ve been blessed with in life.

Prompt #1 - Symbolism

Prompt #1: Read the following prompt and answer to the best of your ability! Choose a symbol used in a novel or play of your choice and discuss its function in the world of the work. Be sure to give the title of the work and its author in the Introduction paragraph. You should strive for 4 - 5 paragraphs. Good Luck!


Tennessee Williams’ play "The Glass Menagerie" is, as one of the main characters and narrator Tom Wingfield says, a “memory play”. It is the story of what happened to a crumbling family, trying to keep everything (and everyone) together but finding it slipping from their grasp a little more each day. Amanda is the ambitious mother who wants nothing but “success” for her two children: Tom, who works at a factory to support their family but wants nothing better to do than quit and escape, and Laura, shy, self-effacing, and always alone. Their father had abandoned them long ago and now only his picture remains on the wall of their living room.

In the play, there are many symbols to recognize and contemplate: the fire escape, “Blue Roses”, alcohol, the movies. But the one that really caught my interest was Laura’s glass menagerie, her little collection of glass animals. I find Laura’s connection, her bond to it to be fascinating, and, after sitting and thinking about it in depth, I discovered there were many ways one could interpret the significance and meaning of the glass menagerie.

The play takes place in America during the Great Depression in the 1930s, so right off the bat, the reader knows that life is hard for the main characters, financially, physically, even mentally and emotionally. Because of this, the characters all find ways to escape their problems: Tom leaves the house on the fire escape and goes to the movies, losing himself in alcohol, while Amanda relishes and constantly reminisces about her past as a young socialite in the South, her glory days now far behind her. But for Laura, her way to get away from her problems, particularly the stress and pressure her mother puts on her, is to occupy herself with her glass menagerie. When she connects with it, it becomes almost like her own private world, where she can get away from reality and just be safe, be herself, without having to worry about what others think or say.

The glass menagerie is, in a way, like Laura. Both are fragile, delicate, and can break with the slightest mishandling. Laura is a very sensitive person, and when speaking or interacting with her, you have to be careful and use extreme caution or else you may “break” her. They’re also similar in the way that when you first look at them, they just seem pretty plain and unassuming. At first glance, glass just appears to be clear, transparent, nothing to notice about it. But once you shine the right light on it, it becomes absolutely beautiful. It shines, it glows, it sparkles…and a rainbow of colors comes bursting forth. Laura is just like this. When one first meets her, she is a very quiet, boring girl, with nothing so special about her, nothing to grab your interest. But once you see Laura in the right light, once you get to know her and she opens up to you, you’ll see the multitude of colors she’s made up of. You’ll see that, like glass, she has that beauty that is deep within her, something you can’t see on the surface right away, but must look hard for.

There is one piece in the collection of glass that is of great importance, symbolically. The unicorn that Laura shows to Jim, Tom’s friend and the gentlemen caller that he invites over for dinner, is, in an interesting way, a representation of Laura herself. Both are unique, very different when compared to other horses or humans. (To think about how rare Laura is, consider that unicorns are thought to be extinct or not having existed at all). Physically, they are different from everyone else: Unicorns have a horn on their forehead while Laura has a crippled leg. Laura’s “disability” as she thinks of it has, ever since childhood, made her feel that she never could fit in with other people; she feels so nervous around others that she even threw up and quit her classes at the business college her mother enrolled her in.

But then later on, as Laura and Jim are dancing in the living room, they accidently bump into the table and the unicorn falls onto the floor, its horn breaking off. Jim starts apologizing but Laura stops him, saying, “Now it is just like all the other horses” (pg. 1766). When he continues on, she tells him, “It doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise” (pg. 1766). This moment, when Jim gets to know Laura and she becomes comfortable and starts to enjoy herself, is important in that it is a turning point for her. She finds herself opening up to a person that not only did she just start getting to know, but a person that she’d admired ever since high school, someone she never dreamed would even take the slightest interest in her. Her words to him, particularly about the “blessing in disguise”, represent what she feels Jim has done for her: he’s made her feel that she can fit in with others, that she is more like them than she believed she was and that she’s not such a “freak” anymore; she’s finally able to be normal. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to have a normal, healthy relationship with another man.

What brings this crashing down though is when Jim eventually tells Laura that he is already engaged. The moment these words come out of his mouth, Laura’s face falls and she becomes quiet and withdrawn once again. But before Jim leaves, Laura, to his surprise, gives him the broken unicorn, as, she says, “a souvenir”. The symbolism in this is that by giving him the unicorn, still representing Laura, she wants him to remember, to see and realize what he’s done to her. She wants Jim to know that he’s broken her; she’s broken beyond repair, emotionally, because in that moment, he's broken her heart.

And Still We Rise - Assignment #2

Assignment #2: After reading this book review, what do you think your experience reading this book is going to be like? Do you tend to look at book reviews before you purchase a book? Do you use book reviews to influence your book purchases? Are you more apt to listen to a friend who recommends a book to you? Your response should be at least 250 words.

Reading Mark Welch’s overall review of And Still We Rise has only assured what I’ve thought of the book from reading the first sixty-one pages: I will absolutely love this book. Books such as these, ones that tell the true stories of people who have faced such unbelievable hardships and circumstances but do not ever lose hope, are my favorites. I like inspirational stories, ones that tell you the story of a person, from the past or present, and the problems they’ve faced, the odds they’ve overcome, and (hopefully if it ends happily) the success they find at the end of their journey. The reason why I feel I’m so attracted to books like these is because reading them makes me feel better about my own life. It makes me appreciate what I have by realizing that there are plenty of other people out there who have it much worse. It also shows me that though I have problems of my own, issues I feel are impossible for me to overcome, I can succeed because others in the world have overcome things far more challenging than what’s on my plate. But most of all, the one thing I appreciate sincerely from books like And Still We Rise is that you can be assured that you are not alone in this world. Pain and suffering is universal, and whenever I feel absolutely terrible, when I just want to pull my hair out or break down and cry, when I feel that no one understands what I’m going through, books like these show me that I’m not alone.

In the past few days during which I read the first sixty-one pages of the book, I’ve found myself going on an emotional roller coaster ride. There were times I felt shocked, times I felt like tearing up, and times I felt frustrated or angry at what was happening to the characters or the wrong decisions they were making. All this aggravation and I’ve only read about three of the twelve students whose stories fill the pages. (Sigh). I know that there’s probably a lot more in store for me as I continue on with the book, but in all honesty, I’m excited. I want to find out what happens next to these students, who, though I know I probably will never meet, I have much respect and support for. When an author can make you care and take such interest in the characters of their book, fictional or not, that is how you know that they can write.

When it comes to considering what book to buy and read at my local bookstore, I rarely read book reviews before I make my purchase, especially those people post online. I respect entirely that other people have their own opinions, thoughts, and feelings about books, movies, music, etc. But I never need to read reviews to know what I like and what I want. Furthermore, I don’t like reviews so much because I don’t like to be influenced at all one way or another before I start something, especially when it comes to a book. There are always people who like it and people who don’t, and I don’t like to be influenced at all, even in the slightest way, before I start reading a book. I like going into things with an open, empty mind and creating my own opinion of something before I hear or read the opinions of others.

But there are times when I stand in the aisles at Borders or gaze up and down the shelves at the public library and have absolutely no idea what to read. In those circumstances, the only people I would trust to ask for their opinions and suggestions are family and friends. If I had a review of a book in the newspaper versus the words of my close friend, I would listen to my friend. I know for a fact that I can trust in their recommendations for me because unlike reviewers in the newspaper or on Amazon.com, my friends and family actually know me. They know what I like and what I don’t like, and so I can put my full confidence in them, trusting that they will suggest something that I will truly like or dissuade me from reading something I really won’t like.

And Still We Rise - Assignment #1

Assignment #1: Read pages 1 - 61 in the text! Write a response to the 1st 61 pages with this prompt: What is Crenshaw High School like in comparision to Mililani High School? You may write in terms of the community, the layout/enviornment of the school, and the students/faculty/teachers? This needs to be at least 300 words. You may use quotes from the text to support you.

“During the years of beatings by her mother, years of being whipped with an extension cord, smacked in the mouth with a telephone, pounded against a wall, punched in the lip, dragged by the hair through the hallway, tossed in the shower, and scalded with hot water, school was Olivia’s salvation. The only kind words she heard, the only love she felt, the only compliments she received, were from her teachers. At home, no matter how she was tormented, no matter how long she cried, when the beatings were over, she always read her assignments, and prepared for her tests.” (pg. 9)

Wow. That was the first word to fall from my lips as I read the book’s opening words from the point of view of Olivia, one of the gifted, inner-city students whose story is told in the book And Still We Rise by Miles Corwin. This passage surprised me so much, I had to go back and read it a second time to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating or anything. (And I know many other people probably did, too) This is just a taste of the hardships the gifted students at Crenshaw High School in South Central must face every day of their lives, many having to make it on their own at such a young age.

Let’s be honest here: Many of the students at Mililani High School, gifted or not, dread having to wake up at early hours in morning, five days a week, and drag themselves to what they consider to be their own “personal prison”. They whine at having to sit for a little over an hour in, at the most, six periods a day, only being able to use the restroom with a signed planner and being chased by security guards in golf carts for wandering the halls during class time. They sink into thick pools of anxiety and stress just looking at the massive loads of homework they receive from teachers that they know will take hours to finish at home, staying up until the early hours of the next morning. Many of Mililani High School’s students think they have it bad. But, once anyone starts reading this book, they’ll know that we have nothing on these Crenshaw students.

In the first sixty one pages, you will meet three of the school’s gifted students: Olivia, Sadikifu, and Toya. Olivia, a bright, promising girl is haunted by a past filled with constant beatings from her mother at a young age and the traumatic experiences of moving to various foster and group homes in South-Central Los Angeles, taken care of by selfish guardians and having to put up with the craziest of girls. Sadikifu is an outspoken, intellectual young man raised by a single mother, trying to leave behind his violent past of getting involved in South Central’s gang scene. Toya, who had to face the tragedy of losing her mother to a drunk, abusive father, is trying to hold onto the bright future that is slowly slipping from her grasp due to her teenage pregnancy.

These are hardships that very few of us living in Mililani will ever even come close to facing in our lives. Abuse, gang violence, sexual molestation, teenage pregnancy, abandonment, losing one (or a few, or even several) loved ones, having to live on your own trying to make a dollar out of ten cents…the list of problems for Crenshaw students goes on and on. And many deal with not only one, but many of the issues on this list. When I read these stories, they were tales that I’ve only seen on the silver screen at the movies or on my weekly television soap operas. It was hard for me to face the fact that this stuff is real, that it goes on in many schools in communities like South-Central across the nation.

Just thinking about the tragedy these kids, who are the same age as me, face on a daily basis makes me look at the community I reside in and think “I’m so blessed to live in a place like Mililani.” From a personal standpoint, I know what it’s like to live in place where, for many (but fortunately, not for me) face hardships due to dysfunctional families or poverty. Before I moved to Mililani in the 7th grade, I had grown up in Kalihi, where, again, in all honesty, isn’t exactly the easiest place to live. Until I was twelve, I lived with my parents and grandmother in a tiny, cramped, one bedroom apartment, not even as long as one of the usual classrooms you’ll find at Mililani High School, our bathroom barely bigger than the closet in the room I have now. My playground was the hard, asphalt parking lot downstairs where cars drove to and fro. Our family’s transportation (until we were fortunate enough to buy a car) was always The Bus; on it, a fifteen minute drive to Ala Moana turned into a trek that took three times as long. In elementary school, I couldn’t even imagine what it was like to live in a three-bed room house with a front and back yard; so few of my friends, which were mostly either Filipino or Chinese, could, either.

Fortunately, though, my childhood was wonderful thanks to my hard working, selfless parents and grandmother; I never got to see first-hand the drug abuse and violence that I know goes on in a neighborhood like Kalihi. But when I read this book, even a place like Kalihi can barely compare to the streets of South-Central LA, where death and despair is around every corner for many; where wealth and success, a stable family and a modest house, is a far-off, infinitely distant dream.

As far as the teachers and staff go, there were those at Crenshaw that reminded me of some of teachers at our own high school. While admittedly, some teachers (probably many at Crenshaw) are only interested in the pay (considering the community they live in), there are other teachers, like Ms. Little and Mr. Braxton, who take genuine interest in the work and lives of their students; they actually care. Their dedication to ensuring that their students become successful and set out on the path to a bright future is surprising at times; the fact that Ms. Little would be willing to pick up Olivia to make sure she made it on time to school shows that. I know that they are teachers at Mililani High School with the same dedication to not only their students’ educations but futures as well. It is a comforting thought to know that I have adults to talk to about my problems, and, most importantly, who I know will listen.

All the time, I hear students at Mililani High School complaining about how dirty or worn they think the campus is, how fights go on so often, how much they dislike the school. But, when reading about Crenshaw High School, about how it’s filled with rival gangs that never miss the opportunity to start a fight and shoot someone, how many students and their families live off of welfare, how metal detectors, which you usually see at the airport, want to be put into place to find dangerous weapons on the students, you realize that our school isn’t that bad. You start to open your eyes and see that there are thousands of students in ghetto communities like South-Central that go to schools that are way worse than ours. And, like I most definitely have, you start to appreciate everything that, at one time, you hated and took for granted with every ounce of your being.