Written by Esfir Tkach for Prof. Jeffrey Gandell Why me? Why wasn’t I good enough? Guilt overwhelmed me. The fear of any type of communication made my body tremble and sweat. The fear of laughter or rejection made my anxiety ever more noticeable. I found myself stuck in an eternal loophole. The same exact routine day after day. School was never something I looked forward to. At 8 am, I would come to school, and would sit down at the…

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Written by Meghan Elcheson for Prof. Robert Rose In George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant,” a British Imperial officer stationed in Moulmein grapples with his ambivalence towards his empire and the citizens of Burma as he comes to discover the true nature of imperialism. Orwell’s essay presents an English narrator caught in a moral dilemma when he is asked to deal with a local elephant that has gone “must.” At the height of the narrator’s internal conflict, he forgoes his…

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Written by Julien Gagnon for Prof. Patrick Barnard In Petrarch’s letter “The Ascent of Mount Ventoux,” which serves as an introduction of sorts to his work, he writes “we look around ourselves for what can be found only within us” (Petrarch 18). Throughout his Canzoniere, Petrarch seems like a man who values his inner world more than the outer world, and yet cannot help but draw quite a lot from the world around him. Laura, the subject of the poems,…

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Written by Emmanuelle Dastous Sara for Prof. Rebecca Million Behold! A victory may only come upon a land with the guidance and strength of its people. Yet certain prophecies must be fulfilled for the assurance of a victory. This concept was clearly portrayed in J. R. R. Tolkien’s second installment of Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. The beauty of Middle Earth is slowly perishing and the darkness within is emerging throughout the land. Middle Earth is slowly dying…

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Written by Cheyenne Thomas  For Prof. Tavish McDonell On a pack of cigarettes, we have a gruesome warning label, informing us of the health consequences we expose ourselves to when we smoke. When buying packaged and processed foods, we have a nutritional label at our disposal, to allow us to decide for ourselves if we want to fill up on calorie-dense foods with little to no nutritional value. We have ad campaign posters lining the hallways of maternity units, informing…

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Written by Sam Fisher for Prof. Liana Bellon James Joyce’s “The Dead” explores the theme of being alienated from one’s self. Gabriel, the main character in “The Dead,” is a member of the Irish upper class in early twentieth-century Dublin. Despite being surrounded by a rather conservative family and group of friends, Gabriel identifies himself as progressive, does not believe in class distinctions, and promotes the idea of leaving Ireland to explore the modern world. However, through an analysis of…

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Written by Sewsen Abubeker for Prof. Rebecca Million In several literary works, it is common for authors to abide by the guidelines of the archetypal hero described by Joseph Campbell. Indeed, this is true about J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. However, a particularity that can be observed in Tolkien’s work is the fact that he presents various elements of the Hero’s Journey by means of several characters. In addition, each personage has a specific way of portraying their heroism. Thus,…

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Written by Sania Malik for Prof. Neil Hartlen In society, adolescents and adults constantly find themselves feeling confused, or as though they do not belong. It is difficult to establish and maintain a space for yourself, especially when you do not know who you are. It is a known fact that the concept of gender is placed upon us by society, so that we can be pushed towards a specific role. Women are pushed towards being mothers and housewives, whereas…

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Written by Matthew Iakov Liberman Some might reproach me for my facetiousness. I reproach “such ‘serious animals’” for their “prejudice against all ‘frohliche Wissenschaft’; let us show that this is prejudice!” To attack the Musician of the Future with such a dour creaking machine of the intellect in ‘ernst,’ would be a heinous blasphemy. (Nietzsche, ernst nehmen) The Madman Shoots Lasers From his Eyes: Heliocentricism and the Marketplace ‘No, because Nietzsche wasn’t a time traveller…’ ―Herr Doktor Doktor Polakoff, pers….

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Written by Sahib Al-shemeri for Prof. Robin Feenstra In Oceana, power and propaganda are the main tools that the party uses to purge its citizens of their humanity and ultimately their self-worth. The goal of this endeavor is so that the party can create a populace where the sum of the whole is greater than its parts, a place where individuals do not have any value. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four offers its readers a warning that power seeks to establish…

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Written by Sarah Tue-Fee For Prof. Leland Young There is a pervasive but largely ignored bias toward White standards of beauty in Western mass media, a bias which is denied by many who argue that America is post-racial and point to African American beauty icons in the media, such as Beyonce or Tyra Banks, as evidence that American society is completely healed of its racist history. However, these exceptions to the rule only draw attention to how relatively rare they…

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Written by Jamie Sterlin for Prof. Neil Hartlen In the science fiction stories “Options” and “The Barbie Murders,” John Varley discusses the novum of body modification through opposing points of view. In “Options,” the author suggests that body modification can be a safe way to explore one’s gender and / or sexuality while still remaining oneself, if one takes into account their loved ones. However, “The Barbie Murders” explores a world where extreme body modification can end up causing issues…

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