Scott Pero
AP English Language—Mr. George
May 25, 2010
Outliers Prompt 1
I have always been an intellectually inclined student. As far back as I can remember, I was always the student who loved being a student. I think part of that was because of my inherent intelligence. I value humility, so it’s really weird boasting my intelligence; I do not like to do it often. Even so, I always earned decent grades, but that was because school naturally came easy to me. After reading Outliers, I am guessing my IQ contributed significantly to that fact. I have an IQ of 134, which, apparently, is enough to finish a graduate program. Also, though, now that I think about it, there were other factors that acted in an inverse manner to push me more toward academic success.
Whether genetically, or simply because I was too lazy as a child, I was always a big kid. I tried sports, but I just was not as good at them as other kids were, partly because I could not keep up with them. A perfect example is soccer. I played for six years as a kid, but I got bigger and just stopped playing. I love soccer and wish I could play it, but I physically do not think I’m capable. So, rather than apply myself to sports, I turned to academics and books. Because my physical self was not up to par, it made my intellectual self all the more prominent.
I have benefited from AP English because, I believe, it has helped me figure out my path in life. Up until this year, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I only took Honors English Classes because English was fun and in all honestly, I liked being in Honors rather than College Prep. It wasn’t until AP that I thought of turned my love of English into a career. It also helped me prepare for college, in a way. In theory, AP English was a college level course. If I could endure it, I could endure college. I think I have done well this year, and that makes me think I’m ready for college, thanks to AP.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Trojan Lion
Scott Pero
AP English Language—Mr. George
May 17, 2010
Me Talk Pretty One Day writing sample
The Trojan Lion
Resistance is…what? If you felt the uncontrollable urge to finish that sentence with the word “futile”, chances are, you are a nerd. And I don’t mean the good grades kind of nerd. I’m talking full out comic book loving, Star Trek watching, video game high-scoring geeks. You may think you know what nerdy is. My response to you is thus: …BAHAHAHAHA! After which I would promptly wipe the cascading tears of laughter from my eyes and hold my stomach like it was about to fall off. Unless you know my friends and me, you do not know what a true nerd is.
They are all nerdy in some type of area. And yes, nerdiness can come in different types, much like Mt. Dew with its 800 different flavors. My friends and I all differentiate in terms of our readings on the nerd-o-meter, but I must be the Grand High King Nerd of them all. My crown would be fashioned from old school game controllers and 20-sided die, my lustrous, flowing cape made from taped together comic books. Why am I the Chief Numero Uno with a pocket protector? Because I share in all of their nerdy tendencies. And I never realized what utters geeks my social group was until we tried introducing Troy into our band of friends.
From the get-go, I immediately likened the situation to a lion trying to coexist with a family of meerkats. The lion was bigger, more powerful, and looked out of place roaming the savannah with a herd of the sorriest animals on the Serengeti. I don’t know about you, but when I think of the name Troy, I picture someone with strong arms and a macho cleft in his chin, someone who would be right at home in a huge wooden horse in the war of the famous city for which he was so fittingly named. What we meerkats got was not so far off from our expectations. He was around 16 or 17, a junior, like us. Even so, however, Troy’s biceps and pectorals, straining beneath his T-shirts, would not look out of place beneath Grecian Battle Armor. Though he had no pronounced cleft that we could find, his hair was the type many romanticists would classify as “thick, wavy locks”. We Athenians were surprised. We expected a Trojan, not Achilles.
We first knew Troy was the complete opposite of us when we first hung out. Upon walking around town, we wondered why everyone was walking out of our way. Normally, we would be forced to blend through the oncoming crowd, and face the risk of inevitable dangers, like the White Collar Massacre of ’02, during which Harold had taken on a horde of businessmen, emerging with one black eye, two fractured ribs, and a terrible burning sensation no one could really ever explain to this day. Suffice to say, he was awarded a medal of honor for his bravery on that fateful day. Ever push past someone when you’re walking through a city street? Yeah, we’re those people. But when Troy joined the ranks, we were able to cross a crowded city square with no broken bones or bruises, not even a scratch. A young boy the age of 4 even came up to Troy asking if he was Superman. We were then dubbed the annoying reporters following Superman around to get his identity. The sad part was, we were the ones wearing the shirts that made us look like superheroes, and we had the thick-rimmed glasses that made Clark Kent an every day person. We were a collective invisible man. Troy was the pair of floating sunglasses that made us visible.
Troy was a transfer student, but when asked why he transferred, he responded with, “I just moved.” Our nerd hive mind would not accept that bland and cliché answer. There is nothing worse than a nerd’s imagination, and we soon devised plausible (to us) reasons why this boy now attended our school. “Maybe he’s an undercover agent sent to keep an eye on the first batch of government-created superteens!” Colleen suggested. “Perhaps he’s a mass serial killer that jumps from school to school, picking off anyone with a GPA of 4.0 or higher.” Spenser mused. “He might be sent from the Gods of Olympus to choose their next hero.” Daphne pondered. Huh. Now there was an idea. Troy certainly seemed Godly enough by our standards. I took it upon myself to quiz him on his Greek Mythology. Big Mistake:
“Who’s Persephone?” I’d casually inquire.
Troy would deliver his blank stare, then respond cautiously, “That’s the stuff they give you for like, syphilis, right?” There goes that theory. Anyone who would mix up the Goddess of Spring with Penicillin was not a demigod. They were probably a Roman.
Another thing about nerds—we don’t get out much. We don’t tan, we combust. Fresh air may trigger an asthma attack, and if we stray too far from our trusty inhaler, we may be forever crunching our math problems from the comic store in the sky. During one of our weekly game nights—chock full of RPGs and strategic board games—Troy arrived with a massive black plum in place of his right eye. We immediately began to think up reasons for it: He forgot to use a power-up, there was a complication during the beaming process, or that he didn’t have the +20 Defense bonus from the Shield of Azaroth. Troy was still fuming from whatever happened, and exploded with a litany of fucks and shits, crudely getting the point across that he’d been in a fight. There was an excited hush the swept across the gang like the plague. He actually swore, rather than use fudge or Sugar Honey Iced Tea—something we could only dream of in our wildest, fairly frequent daydreams. We’d heard of physical fighting before, but we always thought our highly developed intellects could get ourselves out of it, if push came to mental shove. Apparently, he had fought someone who had insulted him. That was another thing we didn’t understand. Why resort to brute violence, when silently loathing the person from afar seemed to work just fine? I noticed Eugene inconspicuously examining his rubber band muscles, then cringing when he saw Troy’s truck tires flex. None of us could fare in a fight like Troy could. We’d be lucky if we didn’t have a panic attack within the first few seconds.
The pièce de résistance of our unorthodox relationship with Troy was his immense physical ability. Most of us intellectuals tend to sneak through PE by feigning some farfetched illness or forging a doctor’s note. Troy, though, barreled through the gym battlefield, armed with merely two dodge balls he liked to jettison with the force of an artillery cannon. Befriending Troy gave us the advantage we finally needed. He steered clear of pummeling us to death, as was the usual game of dodgeball, but instead chose to massacre everyone else instead. The greatest day of PE history was when every bully lay face down and shellshocked from Troy’s mighty blitzkrieg. Nerds 1, Everyone Else Zip!
Being intellectually inclined, the gang had never heard of this concept called “sports”. We asked if Troy meant laser tag or live action role playing when he said he had a sports game coming up, and wanted to know if we could make it. We agreed, but as soon as he left, we divvied up the research load and set to work discerning what exactly a “sports” was. We figured it was some new-fangled trading card game, in the same vein as Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. What we deciphered was that sports, as they were so called, were duels of physical prowess, each with a specific set of regulations and tasks one must complete. Truly fascinating. Sports were comics for the popular kids, video games for the jocks. Our only task now was to observe this newly discovered species of pastime in the field.
We stepped out of our research transport, thanking my mom for driving us, and ventured into the unknown. Apparently, this specific sport was called “hockey”. I guessed it was invented by masochists, because even the spectators froze their limbs off just from the stands. We theorized, though, that the cold was one of the challenges of the game. Only later did we see that it kept the ice from turning into a pool, and according to natural science, one couldn’t really skate on water. Another factor that I believed linked the ice rink to masochism was the amount of violence that occurred per game. Had Conan the Barbarian lived in modern times, he would have strapped on a pair of skates and grabbed a puck in a heartbeat. Troy would have pulverized the mighty warrior though. Another sport that Troy monopolized was basketball. This was the sport my group of ragtag scientists had the most difficulty making sense of:
“It appears that the object of the game is to pass the ball through that net.”
“And what does that accomplish? Points in random ones and twos whose total must be higher than the other team’s to win? Then why does one not simply walk over and do the deed manually?”
“Apparently the ball must be dribbled, rather than walked. Perhaps a rite of passage in order to get to the hoop? There must be some reward or punishment if each team viciously protects their own net. Have you come up with anything for these ‘mascots’ yet?”
“Crude representations of the idols each team worships?” To this day we still do not understand the game fully, and don’t even get us started on conversions. But one thing we did understand each time we endured another attack on our intelligence: the smile that ruled Troy’s face when he saw us at each game. This was the same smile that made every female in our high school, and even some of the males, go weak at the knees. And here it was, showcased solely for us. If nerds are anything, we’re loyal. We aren’t athletic. We’re not up on current trends. We can’t even talk to the opposite sex without breaking out into hives. Troy can do all of that, and look good while doing it. He was normal, but he always sat with us at lunch and we always helped him with homework. We were his friends when he had none. From the moment we met Troy, we knew he wasn’t a nerd. But after Troy met us, he didn’t think we were either.
AP English Language—Mr. George
May 17, 2010
Me Talk Pretty One Day writing sample
The Trojan Lion
Resistance is…what? If you felt the uncontrollable urge to finish that sentence with the word “futile”, chances are, you are a nerd. And I don’t mean the good grades kind of nerd. I’m talking full out comic book loving, Star Trek watching, video game high-scoring geeks. You may think you know what nerdy is. My response to you is thus: …BAHAHAHAHA! After which I would promptly wipe the cascading tears of laughter from my eyes and hold my stomach like it was about to fall off. Unless you know my friends and me, you do not know what a true nerd is.
They are all nerdy in some type of area. And yes, nerdiness can come in different types, much like Mt. Dew with its 800 different flavors. My friends and I all differentiate in terms of our readings on the nerd-o-meter, but I must be the Grand High King Nerd of them all. My crown would be fashioned from old school game controllers and 20-sided die, my lustrous, flowing cape made from taped together comic books. Why am I the Chief Numero Uno with a pocket protector? Because I share in all of their nerdy tendencies. And I never realized what utters geeks my social group was until we tried introducing Troy into our band of friends.
From the get-go, I immediately likened the situation to a lion trying to coexist with a family of meerkats. The lion was bigger, more powerful, and looked out of place roaming the savannah with a herd of the sorriest animals on the Serengeti. I don’t know about you, but when I think of the name Troy, I picture someone with strong arms and a macho cleft in his chin, someone who would be right at home in a huge wooden horse in the war of the famous city for which he was so fittingly named. What we meerkats got was not so far off from our expectations. He was around 16 or 17, a junior, like us. Even so, however, Troy’s biceps and pectorals, straining beneath his T-shirts, would not look out of place beneath Grecian Battle Armor. Though he had no pronounced cleft that we could find, his hair was the type many romanticists would classify as “thick, wavy locks”. We Athenians were surprised. We expected a Trojan, not Achilles.
We first knew Troy was the complete opposite of us when we first hung out. Upon walking around town, we wondered why everyone was walking out of our way. Normally, we would be forced to blend through the oncoming crowd, and face the risk of inevitable dangers, like the White Collar Massacre of ’02, during which Harold had taken on a horde of businessmen, emerging with one black eye, two fractured ribs, and a terrible burning sensation no one could really ever explain to this day. Suffice to say, he was awarded a medal of honor for his bravery on that fateful day. Ever push past someone when you’re walking through a city street? Yeah, we’re those people. But when Troy joined the ranks, we were able to cross a crowded city square with no broken bones or bruises, not even a scratch. A young boy the age of 4 even came up to Troy asking if he was Superman. We were then dubbed the annoying reporters following Superman around to get his identity. The sad part was, we were the ones wearing the shirts that made us look like superheroes, and we had the thick-rimmed glasses that made Clark Kent an every day person. We were a collective invisible man. Troy was the pair of floating sunglasses that made us visible.
Troy was a transfer student, but when asked why he transferred, he responded with, “I just moved.” Our nerd hive mind would not accept that bland and cliché answer. There is nothing worse than a nerd’s imagination, and we soon devised plausible (to us) reasons why this boy now attended our school. “Maybe he’s an undercover agent sent to keep an eye on the first batch of government-created superteens!” Colleen suggested. “Perhaps he’s a mass serial killer that jumps from school to school, picking off anyone with a GPA of 4.0 or higher.” Spenser mused. “He might be sent from the Gods of Olympus to choose their next hero.” Daphne pondered. Huh. Now there was an idea. Troy certainly seemed Godly enough by our standards. I took it upon myself to quiz him on his Greek Mythology. Big Mistake:
“Who’s Persephone?” I’d casually inquire.
Troy would deliver his blank stare, then respond cautiously, “That’s the stuff they give you for like, syphilis, right?” There goes that theory. Anyone who would mix up the Goddess of Spring with Penicillin was not a demigod. They were probably a Roman.
Another thing about nerds—we don’t get out much. We don’t tan, we combust. Fresh air may trigger an asthma attack, and if we stray too far from our trusty inhaler, we may be forever crunching our math problems from the comic store in the sky. During one of our weekly game nights—chock full of RPGs and strategic board games—Troy arrived with a massive black plum in place of his right eye. We immediately began to think up reasons for it: He forgot to use a power-up, there was a complication during the beaming process, or that he didn’t have the +20 Defense bonus from the Shield of Azaroth. Troy was still fuming from whatever happened, and exploded with a litany of fucks and shits, crudely getting the point across that he’d been in a fight. There was an excited hush the swept across the gang like the plague. He actually swore, rather than use fudge or Sugar Honey Iced Tea—something we could only dream of in our wildest, fairly frequent daydreams. We’d heard of physical fighting before, but we always thought our highly developed intellects could get ourselves out of it, if push came to mental shove. Apparently, he had fought someone who had insulted him. That was another thing we didn’t understand. Why resort to brute violence, when silently loathing the person from afar seemed to work just fine? I noticed Eugene inconspicuously examining his rubber band muscles, then cringing when he saw Troy’s truck tires flex. None of us could fare in a fight like Troy could. We’d be lucky if we didn’t have a panic attack within the first few seconds.
The pièce de résistance of our unorthodox relationship with Troy was his immense physical ability. Most of us intellectuals tend to sneak through PE by feigning some farfetched illness or forging a doctor’s note. Troy, though, barreled through the gym battlefield, armed with merely two dodge balls he liked to jettison with the force of an artillery cannon. Befriending Troy gave us the advantage we finally needed. He steered clear of pummeling us to death, as was the usual game of dodgeball, but instead chose to massacre everyone else instead. The greatest day of PE history was when every bully lay face down and shellshocked from Troy’s mighty blitzkrieg. Nerds 1, Everyone Else Zip!
Being intellectually inclined, the gang had never heard of this concept called “sports”. We asked if Troy meant laser tag or live action role playing when he said he had a sports game coming up, and wanted to know if we could make it. We agreed, but as soon as he left, we divvied up the research load and set to work discerning what exactly a “sports” was. We figured it was some new-fangled trading card game, in the same vein as Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. What we deciphered was that sports, as they were so called, were duels of physical prowess, each with a specific set of regulations and tasks one must complete. Truly fascinating. Sports were comics for the popular kids, video games for the jocks. Our only task now was to observe this newly discovered species of pastime in the field.
We stepped out of our research transport, thanking my mom for driving us, and ventured into the unknown. Apparently, this specific sport was called “hockey”. I guessed it was invented by masochists, because even the spectators froze their limbs off just from the stands. We theorized, though, that the cold was one of the challenges of the game. Only later did we see that it kept the ice from turning into a pool, and according to natural science, one couldn’t really skate on water. Another factor that I believed linked the ice rink to masochism was the amount of violence that occurred per game. Had Conan the Barbarian lived in modern times, he would have strapped on a pair of skates and grabbed a puck in a heartbeat. Troy would have pulverized the mighty warrior though. Another sport that Troy monopolized was basketball. This was the sport my group of ragtag scientists had the most difficulty making sense of:
“It appears that the object of the game is to pass the ball through that net.”
“And what does that accomplish? Points in random ones and twos whose total must be higher than the other team’s to win? Then why does one not simply walk over and do the deed manually?”
“Apparently the ball must be dribbled, rather than walked. Perhaps a rite of passage in order to get to the hoop? There must be some reward or punishment if each team viciously protects their own net. Have you come up with anything for these ‘mascots’ yet?”
“Crude representations of the idols each team worships?” To this day we still do not understand the game fully, and don’t even get us started on conversions. But one thing we did understand each time we endured another attack on our intelligence: the smile that ruled Troy’s face when he saw us at each game. This was the same smile that made every female in our high school, and even some of the males, go weak at the knees. And here it was, showcased solely for us. If nerds are anything, we’re loyal. We aren’t athletic. We’re not up on current trends. We can’t even talk to the opposite sex without breaking out into hives. Troy can do all of that, and look good while doing it. He was normal, but he always sat with us at lunch and we always helped him with homework. We were his friends when he had none. From the moment we met Troy, we knew he wasn’t a nerd. But after Troy met us, he didn’t think we were either.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
PoDG Essay
Scott Pero
AP English Language-Mr. George
After reading The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, compose an argument on the subject of sin that incorporates characters from all three texts. Do you believe it is more successful to publicly bear your sins, or to deal with them privately? Be sure to distinguish a character’s end from how they deal with their sin.
Private Sin vs. Public: Round Two
Everything has its opposite. Every yang has its yin, every shadow has its light, and every evil has its greater good. Duality is an integral part of nature. For anything to truly be what it is, it needs something to exist to make it such. Without night, would day be what we imagine now? The contrast between something and its opposite is the best way to define anything. Even human nature consists of duality. Everyone sins, but it is our vices that best define our virtues. The good we draw from sinning is magnified by the sin itself. But how do we deal with that sin? Do we bear it in silence, or proclaim it from the mountaintops? Sin is best dealt with publicly, as demonstrated by the characters of The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, and The Picture of Dorian Gray; the characters suffered from concealing their sins and benefited from revealing them to the world.
Like all secrets or emotions, if one keeps it bottled up inside, the result will be anything but propitious. Abigail Williams, the lecherous vixen of The Crucible, exemplifies this fact. Abigail sinned by sleeping with a married man, but she does not confess. Instead, she keeps it a secret, and uses it to fuel her actions. She ignores the fact that she has sinned, instead passing it off not as a sin, but as a loving act with truth behind it. Abigail obsesses over John so much that she tries to accuse his wife of witchcraft, using her sin as her motivation: “It were a fire you walked me through, and all my ignorance was burned away…God gave me the strength to call them liars, and God made men listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! Oh John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again!” (Miller 150). Abigail ignores her sin, and even goes so far as to bask in it, saying that it was strength sent from God. Denial is not just a phonetic version of a river in
Because Abigail dismissed her sin, the sin was never resolved. It festered inside her, building and building without release. This is an excellent commentary on Miller’s part. The characters that do not confess their sin end up with horrible fates, but those who reveal their sin to the world for judgment are rewarded with absolution. Abigail’s plans are foiled by the man she so vehemently desired, and because of this, she flees, taking her sin with her. The bottled up sin haunts her, weighing her down like a constant rain cloud hovering over her. No matter what she does to stay dry, she will always end up drenched: “The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston” (146). Abigail could have sought redemption for her sin, but instead, she denied its existence and kept it secret. Because she did not confess her sin, her iniquity followed her and she eventually became a prostitute. Undoubtedly, this fate could have been avoided if she had come clean about her sin. Dorian Gray, similar to Abigail, ignored his sin and kept it private, believing it to be pleasure in disguise.
Dorian Gray was extremely handsome. It is his one defining characteristic that stays true throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian’s beauty compels the artist Basil Hallward to paint a portrait of Dorian. The picture’s celestial beauty, coupled with the influence of Basil’s friend Lord Henry Wotton, leads Dorian to his first great sin out of vanity: “‘I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But his picture will remain always young. […] If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that […] there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!’” (Wilde 28). Dorian unconsciously sells his soul so that he may live perpetually beautiful. He will never age, never wrinkle, and the portrait will bear the consequences of his actions instead of Dorian himself. Dorian soon discovers that not only does the portrait decay with age, but that it changes with each sin he commits. Dorian is unaffected, and everything he does has no repercussions on his own beauty. Dorian sees all of it as pleasure with no negative side effects. The effects in question slide off of him and affect the portrait, much like water sliding from a duck’s down.
Dorian’s sins affect the portrait, not himself. This is the ultimate free pass to life for Dorian—to have a scapegoat that bears all of life’s pain and suffering, while he only experience life’s ecstasies and joys. The portrait grows wretched from his sins, and so he hides it in his attic, shutting it off from the world: “No one could see it. He himself would not see it. Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul?”(125). Dorian’s portrait allows him to see the effect his actions have on his soul, a luxury no one has ever had before. Dorian, however, hides it away so that no one, not even himself, can see it. Dorian is the physical representation of keeping one’s sin private, or in Dorian’s case, locked in one’s attic. He simply sees the sins affecting his soul, but does nothing about them. Eventually, the culmination of this sin will lash out at Dorian.
Throughout the entire novel, Dorian has concealed his sin from the world in the form of his hidden portrait. Toward the end, however, he starts to feel the repercussions of his actions, especially for the murder of his friend, Basil Hallward. Dorian begins to see for the first time the extent of the damage he has done to his soul, and knows what he must do: "Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven.” (228). Dorian makes the choice to do good in hopes that the portrait will reverse itself. He actively wants to do the right thing. Despite the fact that he had ignored everything for the entire book, in the end he knows what to do. He knows he should confess, but he is simply unable to. No one would believe his story. It is far too preposterous. The important fact is that he knows and wants to both do good and confess. He simply does not have the means by which to do so. He may not actually confess or make his sin public, but the mere mindset of wanting to do so offers him a different fate than Abigail. She ignored her sins until the end, but Dorian knows he should make his sins public, and wants to do something about it.
So what does Dorian do? He stabs the only thing that will rid him of the burden he feels weighing him down—the painting. He wants his sin absolved and freed from his conscience, and the only way for Dorian to do that is by using the knife he had used to kill Basil: "As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings he would be at peace. He seized the thing, and stabbed the picture with it" (229). By stabbing the painting, Dorian has stabbed his soul, effectively killing himself. The portrait is where his soul lies, and to finally release it, Dorian must destroy the cage that keeps it. His soul is now free to affect Dorian as it would have if he had not sold it away. This does two things. The portrait is free of Dorian's wretched soul, leaving it pure and perfect, just as it was meant to be. Dorian, however, must now take back the burden of his soul, and all the baggage that comes with it. The portrait's soul was dead long before Dorian took it back, and so Dorian was killed from the sheer severity of sin his soul had endured over all these years. The desire to be rid of his sin, which stemmed from and included the desire to make it public, drove him to his fate. What, though was his fate?
Dorian never told anyone of his painting, and those he did ended up dead. His sins are private and never shown to anyone, but he earnestly wanted to change. The desire to change still counts towards one’s redemption: it is the idea, not the action that counts. Because Dorian wanted to change for the better, he is redeemed in death. In the one moment in which all of sins caught up with him, Dorian was punished for them, and, as Dorian believes: "There was purification in punishment" (226). Dorian endured the punishment that has been waiting for him all his life, and in that punishment, he was purified. Dorian saw his portrait and said that, "when that was dead he would be free" (229) and that, "without its hideous warnings he would be at peace" (229). The portrait is dead, and Dorian must no longer endure its hideous warnings. Therefore, he is free and at peace. Dorian dealt with sin privately, but at his pivotal moment in the text, tried to deal with it publicly and come clean about his sins. The mere purpose of trying to release one’s sins publicly can redeem any sinner, as Dorian has exemplified. John Proctor also, like Abigail and Dorian, dealt with his sin privately, but unlike Dorian, he actually took action in regards to his sin.
John Proctor, the man who committed lechery with Abigail in The Crucible, tried to restrain his sin like Abigail. He too ignored his sin, but did not deny its sinful nature. Proctor knew he sinned, and it plagued him every day. He felt the remorse of his sin, but he also knew he had to keep quiet. It would ruin his name in the town of
In due time, Proctor revealed his sin and was met with salvation. Abigail, in her seige of terror on the town of Salem, condemned many—including Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth—as witches, all to have Proctor to herself. Proctor knew this was the real reason behind her actions, and the thought only added to the weight bearing down on him. He was constrained by his remorse, Abigail’s treachery, and the threat to Elizabeth’s life to reveal his sin to the world: “I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name” (111). Not only does he confess to lechery, but he besmirches his own name in doing so. The sin and its aftermath grew to be too much, and burst violently out into the open. This will, ultimately, lead to his redemption, as
Like Proctor, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale of The Scarlet Letter internalized the pain of his sin. Dimmesdale committed adultery with another woman, Hester, and sired a child with her. Dimmesdale, being the man of the cloth that he is, hated himself every moment for indulging in sin. He desired to be free of the sin more than anything, and he wanted the truth to be known. He could not, however, because he was so highly esteemed by the people. If their perfect reverend had sinned, it would cripple their entire faith. When he tries to hint at the wicked iniquity that plagues him, they only venerate him more: “They heard it all, and did but reverence him the more…he had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood. And yet, by the constitution of his nature, he loved the truth, and loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore…he loathed his miserable self!” (
The only way for Dimmesdale to be free of his anguish is to make his sin public, but he is unable to because of the priesthood. This predicament troubles him for seven long years, during which he deteriorates physically and spiritually from both the pain he has inflicted upon himself and the pain of his sin. He is unable to rid himself of his sin until his last dying moments, where he admits the evil he has done to his entire congregation without fear: “With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed!...the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory” (228). Dimmesdale won against his sin when he was finally able to confess. He was freed of the burdening chains his sin had constricted about him, and he was able to die at peace with the world. Dimmesdale, in making his sin public, conquered his enemies and was accepted by his daughter, who had, until his confession, shunned him. Everything was right with Dimmesdale, and all because he publicly confessed his sin to the people.
Hester Prynne, one of the protagonists of The Scarlet Letter, exemplifies the advantages of publicly bearing one’s sin. Hester slept with Dimmesdale even though she was already married, sharing in his sin of adultery. She deals with her sin like the rest of the characters, but the difference between Hester and the rest is that they chose to reveal their sin; Hester was forced to confess because she grew pregnant with her child,
For seven long years, Hester endured the pain of the scarlet letter, but it was not all bad. In the beginning, she was ostracized from society and had to endure the condescending looks of others, but Hester took her pain and put all of her shame to good use: “Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them” (77). Hester used her skill with a sowing needle to embroider for the town, without asking anything more. Having already accepted her role as a devilish sinner, she endeavors to partake in charity as a saint. She uses her public suffering to better herself. After years of Hester’s beneficence, the people began to see her differently: “Individuals in private life…had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin…but of her many good deeds since” (147). Not only did Hester improve as a person, but her sin proved an effective way of bettering her stance in the public eye as well. People thought more of her, because she was able to do so much in spite of sinning so seriously. In the end, after her story had long since finished, she was even buried at King’s Chapel, a prestigious cemetery that anyone would be honored to lay to rest in.
All of the characters of the three stories had to cope with their sins, and all of them suffered in some way from that sin. The defining characteristic that shines through their tenebrous transgressions, however, is how they dealt with them. They were all sinners, but what they chose to do with their sin is what defines their end. Abigail ignored her sin, and viciously used it to her advantage; as payment, she spends the rest of her life in prostitution. Dorian indulged in hedonistic sin, letting his portrait take the brunt of the repercussions, but when he wanted to do something about it and make his sins public, he was redeemed. Proctor tried to let his sin pass, but he was soon left with no other alternative but to divulge his secret publicly. Because he did, he was able to die for a noble cause with his name untarnished. Dimmesdale punished himself in private for seven years before he was able to confess his sin to the public, but when he finally did, he was freed from the pressure of it and was able to die at peace with the world. Hester openly bore her sin for all to see, and used its publicity to better herself. Three out of the five characters publicly confessed their sins, with one extra trying to publicly confess, and those same few are the ones who die at peace. As The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, and The Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrate, publicly bearing your sins is better than locking them away inside. Publicity is the first step towards freeing yourself from the sin. Privacy only allows the sin to consume you until all that is left is the desire you had confessed sooner.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Dell, 1986
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
PoDG Character Analyses
Scott Pero
AP English—Mr. George
Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray is a narcissistic hedonist whose portrait ages for him after he is cursed with eternal youth.
Dorian is young and naïve, and on top of that, incredibly handsome. His beauty inspires his friend and artist Basil Hallward to paint Dorian’s portrait. While Basil is painting the portrait, Basil’s friend Lord Henry infects Dorian with his ideologies and witticisms, one of which is the importance and beauty and how it is fleeting. When Dorian sees the painting, he is angered that it will never age, while he does age. Dorian is obsessed with beauty, and, stemming from that, obsessed with pleasure. He would give his soul if the portrait aged while he did not, and, as he soon finds out, he got his wish: "Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins--he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame" (109). Dorian sins excessively in order to attain pleasure and is not affected by any of it. His portrait, however, decays as he would normally. Dorian is also incredibly narcissistic and proud. He knows he is beautiful, and only cares about something if it pertains to him.
Dorian is like a marionette puppet. Basil acts as his maker, and Lord Henry is the puppeteer. Lord Henry leads Dorian around by his strings, telling him what to do and what to think. Dorian, the helpless puppet that he is, cannot do a thing about it except blindly accept and do what he is told. Meanwhile, Basil has had his puppet taken from him and used for a puppet show he was never intended to perform in.
Dorian and Narcissus of Greek Mythology: both are so obsessed with their looks that they lose their humanity in pursuit of it.
Scott Pero
AP English—Mr. George
Basil Hallward
Basil Hallward is an introverted artist who cares for a person that only lives to use him.
Basil Hallward is the artist that painted Dorian Gray’s portrait. He is very shy and quiet, and only seems to talk honestly with his two friends, Lord Henry and Dorian Gray. He is great friends with Dorian, and cares for him more than anything: “Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charming to me […] Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain” (13-14). Basil can never think anything bad about Dorian, and always wants the best for him even if Basil is hurt in the process. The only thing that matters to Basil more than his art is Dorian, because he is “the one person who gives to [Basil’s] art whatever charm it possesses: [Basil’s] life as an artist depends on him” (16). Dorian is the ultimate muse for Basil, and as such, Basil worships him. Dorian, on the other hand, could really care less for Basil after he met Lord Henry. Still, though, Basil persists until his untimely death at the hands of the very person he cared for, perhaps even loved.
Basil is like a parent caring for a young child. The parent would do anything to make sure that their child is safe from harm, and that they make the right choices. The child, however, feels that the parent is being to obsessive and becomes rebellious, lashing out at the caring parent.
Basil and Ray from The Princess and the Frog are a lot alike: they both care deeply for something that does not reciprocate; for Basil it is Dorian, for Ray, it is a star.
Monday, March 29, 2010
PoDG Witticisms
Scott Pero
AP English--Mr. George
March 29, 2010
Witticisms
"Women are like rivers one must wade through. The only trouble with water is that it cannot decide whether to tempestuously bombard you one moment or refreshingly soothe you the next."
"Art is simply a masquerade, a pretty picture masking the empty air behind it."
"Mirrors are always such a let-down. Mine always show someone I do not know."
"Rainy days are my best friends. They encourage me to catch up on sleep and keep me safe from the people I would otherwise be forced to see in the sunshine."
"A smart man looks at a paper and knows it is paper, while a genius man looks at it and knows the myriad of things he can do with it."
"To hate is to worship with reason. To love is to worship without it."
"Emotions are to the soul what muscles are to the body—their means of strength."
"Religion is simply a rule book for those who do not have their own."
"Music is the drug of the intellectual, and literature their alcohol. Society is their means of sobriety."
"
AP English--Mr. George
March 29, 2010
Witticisms
"Women are like rivers one must wade through. The only trouble with water is that it cannot decide whether to tempestuously bombard you one moment or refreshingly soothe you the next."
"Art is simply a masquerade, a pretty picture masking the empty air behind it."
"Mirrors are always such a let-down. Mine always show someone I do not know."
"Rainy days are my best friends. They encourage me to catch up on sleep and keep me safe from the people I would otherwise be forced to see in the sunshine."
"A smart man looks at a paper and knows it is paper, while a genius man looks at it and knows the myriad of things he can do with it."
"To hate is to worship with reason. To love is to worship without it."
"Emotions are to the soul what muscles are to the body—their means of strength."
"Religion is simply a rule book for those who do not have their own."
"Music is the drug of the intellectual, and literature their alcohol. Society is their means of sobriety."
"
Sunday, March 28, 2010
PoDG End of the Book
1.) "Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he had told his own sin" (Wilde 228).
Throughout the entire novel, we see Dorian has concealed his sin from the world. No one knew of his monstrous portrait, and the few who did ended up dead. We see that for most of the novel, Dorian is perfectly fine with keeping his sin private, much like Abigail was in The Crucible. The difference between Dorian and Abigail, and even distinguishing between Proctor as well, as that, like Proctor, Dorian acknowledges his sin, but, different from Proctor, Dorian can actually see the consequences of his sin plainly before his eyes. Still, he chooses to ignore it. It is not harming him, so why should it matter? Toward the end, however, he starts to feel the repercussions of his actions. He makes the choice to do good, in hopes that the portrait would reverse itself. He actively wants to do the right thing. Despite the fact that he had ignored everything for the entire book, in the end he knows what to do. He knows he should confess, but he is simply unable to. No one would believe his story. It is far too preposterous. The important fact is that he knows and wants to both do good and confess. He simply does not have the means in which to do so. He may not actually confess or make his sin public, but the mere mindset of wanting to do so has to count for something.
2.) "As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings he would be at peace" (229).
We see that Dorian has succeeded in killing himself and ending his misery. He knows that his actions do not affect him, but that they affect the portrait instead. Anything he might do to himself would probably just alter the portrait in some way and leave him unharmed. Suicide is a sin, therefore trying to kill himself would simply mar the portrait even more. The only way to kill himself is to kill the portrait. That is where his soul lies, and to finally release it, Dorian must destroy the cage that keeps it. His soul is now free to affect Dorian as it would have if he had not sold it away. This does two things. The portrait is free of Dorian's wretched soul, leaving it pure and perfect, just as it was meant to be. Dorian, however, must now take back the burden of his soul, and all the baggage that comes with it. The portrait's soul was dead long before Dorian took it back, and so Dorian was killed from the sheer severity of sin his soul had endured over all these years. So, Dorian is dead and the portrait is back to normal, but what of Dorian still? Was his end good or bad? Did he get the redemption he wanted, or was he cursed to eternal damnation. I believe the book tells us he was redeemed. Dorian sees his portrait and says that, "when that was dead he would be free," (229) and that, "without its hideous warnings he would be at peace" (229). The portrait is dead, and Dorian must no longer endure its hideous warnings. Therefore, he is free and at peace. Dorian may not have had to withstand the punishment from his actions, but his soul did. When it was reunited with him, Dorian took in all of the punishment that he had been pushing off. Dorian believed that, "There was purification in punishment" (226) and that, "Not 'Forgive us our sins' but 'Smite us for our iniquities' should be the prayer of man to a most just God" (226). Through punishment, the soul can be purified. Forgiveness leaves us with no idea of how our sin has affected us, but punishment justly redirects the sin back onto us. Dorian had endured some punishment near the end of his life, such as the burden he felt of his sins and the desire to be freed from his curse. His true punishment came when he was reunited with his soul. Through that punishment, Dorian was purified. Through his desire to be free and to do good, Dorian was redeemed.
Throughout the entire novel, we see Dorian has concealed his sin from the world. No one knew of his monstrous portrait, and the few who did ended up dead. We see that for most of the novel, Dorian is perfectly fine with keeping his sin private, much like Abigail was in The Crucible. The difference between Dorian and Abigail, and even distinguishing between Proctor as well, as that, like Proctor, Dorian acknowledges his sin, but, different from Proctor, Dorian can actually see the consequences of his sin plainly before his eyes. Still, he chooses to ignore it. It is not harming him, so why should it matter? Toward the end, however, he starts to feel the repercussions of his actions. He makes the choice to do good, in hopes that the portrait would reverse itself. He actively wants to do the right thing. Despite the fact that he had ignored everything for the entire book, in the end he knows what to do. He knows he should confess, but he is simply unable to. No one would believe his story. It is far too preposterous. The important fact is that he knows and wants to both do good and confess. He simply does not have the means in which to do so. He may not actually confess or make his sin public, but the mere mindset of wanting to do so has to count for something.
2.) "As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings he would be at peace" (229).
We see that Dorian has succeeded in killing himself and ending his misery. He knows that his actions do not affect him, but that they affect the portrait instead. Anything he might do to himself would probably just alter the portrait in some way and leave him unharmed. Suicide is a sin, therefore trying to kill himself would simply mar the portrait even more. The only way to kill himself is to kill the portrait. That is where his soul lies, and to finally release it, Dorian must destroy the cage that keeps it. His soul is now free to affect Dorian as it would have if he had not sold it away. This does two things. The portrait is free of Dorian's wretched soul, leaving it pure and perfect, just as it was meant to be. Dorian, however, must now take back the burden of his soul, and all the baggage that comes with it. The portrait's soul was dead long before Dorian took it back, and so Dorian was killed from the sheer severity of sin his soul had endured over all these years. So, Dorian is dead and the portrait is back to normal, but what of Dorian still? Was his end good or bad? Did he get the redemption he wanted, or was he cursed to eternal damnation. I believe the book tells us he was redeemed. Dorian sees his portrait and says that, "when that was dead he would be free," (229) and that, "without its hideous warnings he would be at peace" (229). The portrait is dead, and Dorian must no longer endure its hideous warnings. Therefore, he is free and at peace. Dorian may not have had to withstand the punishment from his actions, but his soul did. When it was reunited with him, Dorian took in all of the punishment that he had been pushing off. Dorian believed that, "There was purification in punishment" (226) and that, "Not 'Forgive us our sins' but 'Smite us for our iniquities' should be the prayer of man to a most just God" (226). Through punishment, the soul can be purified. Forgiveness leaves us with no idea of how our sin has affected us, but punishment justly redirects the sin back onto us. Dorian had endured some punishment near the end of his life, such as the burden he felt of his sins and the desire to be freed from his curse. His true punishment came when he was reunited with his soul. Through that punishment, Dorian was purified. Through his desire to be free and to do good, Dorian was redeemed.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
PoDG Ch. 16-18
1.) "'To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.' Yes, that was the secret. He had often tried it, and would try it again now. There were opium-dens, where one could buy oblivion--dens of horror, where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new" (Wilde 189).
This is just like in Chapter 11. Dorian is using other vices to distract himself from the ones he's already given in to. By indulging in opium, he could forget everything that has happened to him. It is like the reset button on a video game. The only thing is, eventually, the same mistakes you made in the first level will catch up with you again. Dorian is looking for a clean white slate in a world full of black smudge marks. He's trying to find purity in drugs and the shady parts of town: "He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself" (193). His sins, especially Basil and Sibyl, are catching up with him. Those are two human lives that are no more because of his influence. Both are weighing down his conscience, and so he only wants oblivion: he wants everything to be erased and forgotten. That whole approach just seems childish to me, like he is some 5-year old. He messed up, and so now, instead of dealing with his wrongdoings, he wants a band-aid over his boo-boo and someone to kiss it to make it all better. Nothing is that easy, though. It is understandable, I guess, why he will not take responsibility for his actions. He is all about pleasure and a hedonist--nothing about responsibility would appeal to him.
2.) "Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201).
Though I've never had a relationship, I think I've read and watched enough to understand this quote. When we love, we think that that love is the greatest, heavenliest thing imaginable. When that love does not work out, though, we think we did not truly love. then, when the next comes along, that love is the greatest. Hence, romance could be considered repetition. Just because it is a different love, does not mean that the severity of our passion is not any different. We still feel that same way. The last part of the quote applies particularly to Dorian: "We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201). All Dorian tries to do is reproduce his pleasure. Dorian wants everlasting life, and so he tries to reproduce his 'great experience' as much as he can. That great experience is his youth, and so he lives as a youth, though now he should be nearly forty. He tries to act like a child, because he believes if he keeps acting like, his appetite for beauty will be quenched and he will stay beautiful.
This is just like in Chapter 11. Dorian is using other vices to distract himself from the ones he's already given in to. By indulging in opium, he could forget everything that has happened to him. It is like the reset button on a video game. The only thing is, eventually, the same mistakes you made in the first level will catch up with you again. Dorian is looking for a clean white slate in a world full of black smudge marks. He's trying to find purity in drugs and the shady parts of town: "He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself" (193). His sins, especially Basil and Sibyl, are catching up with him. Those are two human lives that are no more because of his influence. Both are weighing down his conscience, and so he only wants oblivion: he wants everything to be erased and forgotten. That whole approach just seems childish to me, like he is some 5-year old. He messed up, and so now, instead of dealing with his wrongdoings, he wants a band-aid over his boo-boo and someone to kiss it to make it all better. Nothing is that easy, though. It is understandable, I guess, why he will not take responsibility for his actions. He is all about pleasure and a hedonist--nothing about responsibility would appeal to him.
2.) "Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201).
Though I've never had a relationship, I think I've read and watched enough to understand this quote. When we love, we think that that love is the greatest, heavenliest thing imaginable. When that love does not work out, though, we think we did not truly love. then, when the next comes along, that love is the greatest. Hence, romance could be considered repetition. Just because it is a different love, does not mean that the severity of our passion is not any different. We still feel that same way. The last part of the quote applies particularly to Dorian: "We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201). All Dorian tries to do is reproduce his pleasure. Dorian wants everlasting life, and so he tries to reproduce his 'great experience' as much as he can. That great experience is his youth, and so he lives as a youth, though now he should be nearly forty. He tries to act like a child, because he believes if he keeps acting like, his appetite for beauty will be quenched and he will stay beautiful.
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