Life of Brian

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It was yet another early morning after yet another long night. Brian slowly wiped the crust from his eyes and stumbled towards the shower, trying to clear the cobwebs from my head. After fully waking up as much as possible under a scalding shower, thought process finally started to begin and cognitive functions slowly returned to the body. Overall it was a good morning, Brian felt fine other than the permanently sore legs that were a product of daily soccer practices and no substitutes during games. After freshening up, the first major dilemma of the day was reached: whether to spend the energy to make breakfast or not. The decision was made and breakfast was not eaten. A quick perusal of the schedule revealed an early free and a sigh of relief was expelled. It seems that last night’s assignments would be completed after all. The fifteen minute drive to school allowed some time to wake up and go through the day’s schedule. The day had just begun and Brian was already looking forward to falling asleep again.
Brian parked and spent a minute collecting himself before opening his trunk and heaving his backpack out of the car and slowly trudged up the walkway leading to school. As he passed the gym, he groaned mentally at the thought of another long soccer practice under the desert sun. As he entered the quad a group of familiar faces greeted him and moved aside to let him into the circle of kids discussing various, meaningless events. The clock hit 7:49 and, almost in unison, the entire student body headed to their lockers or backpacks and made their way to class. First block class proved uneventful and Brian headed out of it feeling slightly more knowledgeable but drastically less energetic. It was going to be a long day.
The second block free period posed one of the most common, but demanding questions a senior Is faced with: homework or coffee? Brian chose the latter and rationalized the twenty minutes remaining when he returned would be sufficient to complete his AP Statistics homework. A quick jaunt to Hava Java resulted in a caffeine induced energy boost and a new outlook on the day. The Statistics assignment was rushed through but completed after taking few creative liberties with various answers. Lunch arrived quickly after another two classes and posed yet another question: where to eat? Taco Bell was decided upon due to the cheap prices and outstanding quality of service and food.
The drive to the restaurant was uncomfortable and enjoyable. Having six teenagers crammed into a sedan usually does not allow for a luxury drive, but Brian and his friends made up for it by blasting music obnoxiously loud and making fun of anything that was slightly out of the ordinary. Taco Bell left Brian feeling satisfied and slightly disgusted, but this was a common phenomenon after consuming lunch. Upon returning to school, Brian returned to classes and was pleasantly surprised after receiving a B+ on his AP Biology test and an A- on his English IV writing assignment. His classes were complete and the day was finally over save one obstacle: the community block. Brian and his classmates quickly dashed for the library in order to secure seats before kids started to get herded inside by the tag team of the Dean and the Heads of Clubs. After successfully avoiding any confrontation or , God forbid, a mandatory meeting with a club, Brian spent the last 50 minutes of the school day accomplishing nothing in the library.
Now came soccer and with it the dread of spending an hour and a half in the heat. Though he enjoyed the sport and playing with his teammates immensely, practice was never looked forward to. The long runs and the even longer drills were never a highpoint of the day, but they left Brian feeling satisfied and productive. After practice, Brian and his teammates trudged up to the parking lot for the drive home. He was greeted at his house by his parents and after some small talk retired to his room to begin work. It had been a good day, not great, but certainly nothing to complain about.

Character progression and change is an extremely important theme in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Throughout the play, the key characters evolve and develop into something different then the reader’s first impression. Instead of keeping the same personality and traits they possesses at the beginning of the play throughout the play, they main characters seem to change their personality as well as their role in the play as a whole. By, making the characters progress alongside the progression of the play, Ibsen allows the readers or audience watch and observe each character as they evolve using their dialogue and actions. The character that changes the most throughout the play is Nora Helmer. Nora starts out as an extremely submissive and childish middle-class housewife and behaves accordingly. This is shown by the way Torvald treats her at the begging of the play. He does not allow her to eat sweets, especially macaroons, and treats her much like a father would treat his spoiled daughter. Another example of Nora’s apparent immaturity is her attitude towards money. She believes that their family should borrow immediately in order to improve their quality of living and pay it back when her husband receives his promotion. This shows her childish and impatient personality that we are met with at the beginning of the play. However, as the first act progresses the reader sees unexpected hints of a different side of Nora. She stands up to Krogstad when he confronts her about the money and forgery, and refuses to be intimidated by his attempts at blackmail. Nora’s biggest change comes in the third act when she decided, quite surprisingly, to uproot herself from her tedious existence and start out on her own. However, it is unclear whether the reader is supposed to agree with Nora in her decision or not. We are proud that Nora has stood up for herself and abandoned her childish ways, but we are shocked that she has forsaken her husband and her children in order to do so. However, the reader’s perception of Krogstad was the one that changed the most dramatically. However it is important to realize that Krogstad’s traits and character did not directly change, but only our perception of him changed. The side of Krogstad that manifested itself near the end of the play was there all along, but had not been given the chance to be displayed. Ibsen makes an important point about human nature here saying that good times can bring out the best in someone, while harsh times can bring out the worst. Overall, character progression and sometimes revelation is key theme in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

Pride and Downfall in Antigone

Irony is the main concept that drives the ending of the play Antigone by Sophocles. However, this irony is far from humorous and is actually quite tragic. Sophocles uses this irony in order to convey the fact that too often in one’s life wisdom and humility come too late to do any good. The ending of Antigone displays this message all too clearly. The play ends in catastrophe as Creon’s decisions throughout the play lead to his son, Haemon, eventually killing himself after first attacking his father and his future daughter-in-law. Although Creon finally accepts that what he was doing is wrong, his epiphany comes much too late as the situation around him dissolves quickly into chaos and horror. The implied statement that humility and wisdom oftentimes come too late to do any good and that pride leads to downfall is a common theme in many works of literature and in often times seems to occur in everyday life. However, pride can be a very valuable trait to have and in many cases helps one achieve one’s goals. However, if pride comes in excess (hubris) then it can easily lead to downfall. Creon’s pride blinds him to the basic fact that he is committing a extreme wrongdoing by not letting Antigone bury her own brother. And although his humility and wisdom to come, they arrive much too late to stop the horrible tragedy that befalls his family.

Life of Pi

For my summer reading, I chose to read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. The novel made a profound impression on me and I have read it multiple times, most recently this summer, since first starting it in freshman year. One prominent aspect of the novel is the perspective in which it is told. Pi Patel narrates his story several years after it happened and periodically reflects on what he has learned. This is very important to the overall impression that the novel has on the reader. The narrator uses a very reflective tone throughout the book and this allows the reader to learn the lessons that the Pi Patel did throughout his journey. Pi Patel learns that
Another of the most prominent aspects of the novel is the intricate character relationship Martel develops between Piscine “Pi” Patel and Richard Parker throughout the novel. Martel uses the ironic fact that an animal and a human must rely on each other to survive to try and teach us that essentially we might be the same as animals. Richard Parker seems to be the physical representation of all the animal characteristics that are inherently present in human beings. During the course of their long journey on the raft, Pi realizes that he needs embrace his animal characteristics in order to even have a chance of surviving. Once Pi abandons his previous moral and ethical concepts on life, he gives himself a way to survive. This is a important concept in the book because it shows that all humans contain animal characteristics. Another interesting aspect of the book is the way Pi “trains” Richard Parker. Instead of giving up on the possibility of life Pi Patel does everything and anything in his power to stay alive for the duration of his trip.
The Most interesting aspect of the novel in m mind is the ending. Once Pi Patel survives his ordeal, he is confronted by a couple of journalists who want to ask him about his journey. In the end, Pi tells a completely different story involving no animals whatsoever, but human that closely resembles their animal counterparts (or vice versa). This is extremely interesting because it further shows the inherent similarities between man and beast. The reader is left in extreme confusion to which story to believe. Both stories are quite believable and neither one seems to make anymore sense than the other. However, the reader is inclined to believe the story in which there were no animals on the raft at all, but this also involves believing the unimaginable acts of cannibalism and horror that come with that particular story.
In conclusion, Life of Pi teaches the readers that all humans have inherently animal characteristics and extreme conditions can cause us to shed all of our moral and ethical learning that we have grown up and that define us. Before his journey, Pi Pate was a tri-religious vegetarian boy from a small village in India. His journey transformed him into carnivorous, potentially cannibalistic young man whose whole moral foundation was thoroughly shaken by his ordeal.

Life of Pi