English 11: Topics of the week ("a lot", there/their/they're, and less vs. fewer). British Literature timeline. Pp. 6-7 in the lit anthology.
English 11 Honors: Topics of the week, timeline, 1984 quiz, and essay assignment for 1984.
English 10: Survival scenario and writing assignment.
MME Test Prep: Survey, videos on the ACT English, 2 passages in the ACT English test.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
http://www.helium.com/items/1146423-lord-of-the-flies-allegory-novel
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, as an allegorical novel
by Marijane Suttor
The Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel written by William Golding in the post World War II era. Golding uses the concept of stranding young boys between the ages of 6-12 on an island due to a plane crash as a way of pointing out all the warts and flaws of mankind.It presents the age old question of whether goodness and evil are inborn characteristics or if it is learned behavior. Would young boys imitate adults if they had the opportunity to be independent of themselves? In the novel, Golding explores these quandaries while using allegory and symbolism to elevate the tale beyond simply the plot of an adventure story.
First we must establish a definition of allegory. An allegory is an extended comparison that encompasses a longer work of literature. If we throw out a phrase such as life is a rollercoaster, we get the impression that life has ups and downs. In an allegory we may establish that life is an amusement park as an overall theme, and then there are several smaller allegories that can be held in comparison about life to the amusement park. Allegory is more in depth than a simple metaphor or simile. With allegory a case is made. To analyze one can find a series of pieces of evidence that make up the comparison and the message that the author is trying to convey.
There are several levels of allegory in the novel including government, intellect, power, and religion which will be addressed here. Lord of the Flies is rich with allegory beyond just these areas as well.
GOVERNMENT
One of the most dominant allegories in the novel is government. Golding early on establishes Ralph as chief. Within a few chapters Jack is already jockeying for power. Later on in the book there is an underlying hint that Roger is increasingly desirous of power too. With this, Golding establishes that leadership is a very tenuous string that is easily cut by those that wish to usurp its strength. The conch is a symbol of government on the island. It provides initial order and control. The boy that has the conch has the right to speak. As the novel progresses, the boys increasingly abandon the conch which was a symbol of order and control. With the later destruction of the conch, it is symbolic that government, order and control have been abandoned on the island. Through this allegory Golding conveys the fragility of government.
INTELLECT
Another important allegory in the novel is intellect. Piggy, with his glasses, embodies the importance of intellect in the world. Piggy is able to see the problems as see the truth from early on. He realizes the boys are acting rashly with the early lighting of the fire. He sees the growing unhappiness of Jack and views him as a threat. He understands that gathering names and shelter are important to their fledgling society. On the other hand, Piggy's intellect is not valued by the boys.
Intellect does not always come in a pretty package that sells well. Piggy was not a pretty package nor an articulate messenger. He was insecure, but correct in his judgments. Ralph immediately disregarded Piggy due to his outward appearance. By the end of the book Ralph can see the value of intellect. He sees through the pretty packaging of Jack and understands that truth is not always pretty.
With this allegory, Golding establishes how society regards intellect. It is something that is disregarded as unimportant. Power trumps intellect in the society of mankind just as it does in Lord of the Flies.
POWER
Power is another level of allegory in Lord of the Flies. At the beginning of the novel, power lay in government, order and control. Increasingly power comes to lie in the ability to hunt and gather food. Jack grows in power because he has the ability to gather food for the group. The lure of food is much like a baby. A baby does care who is holding the bottle, if it is hungry it will suck. The boys represent citizens of the world. They are depicted as simply going along with the events of the world just as the boys go along with Jack just because he supplies the food. They throw their lot in with the one that they feel will benefit them the most.
As Ralph's power degenerates and Jack's power accelerates, the abuse of power becomes an increasing temptation. This level of allegory depicts that whoever is in power as letting it go to his head. Just as Ralph's power is usurped, there is a growing sense of power in Roger. Roger represents and even more extreme abuse of power: brutality and bloodlust. With the killing a Piggy and the hunting of Ralph, brutality and blood lust have trumped order and intellect.
RELIGION
On a different level The Lord of the Flies represents a religious allegory. Simon is often analyzed as Jesus figure in the novel. He represents goodness and truth, but when he comes to tell the truth to others he is symbolically crucified for it. With the destruction of the symbol of religion in the novel it opens the door for all other forms of evil and brutality to dominate the characters. Mankind is depicted as sinners in this level of allegory. Power trumps religion as well.
With these multiple layers of allegory, Golding depicts the world of mankind in an unflattering light. There is good, order and intellect in the world, but they are triumphed over by evil, brutality and bloodlust. Golding is trying to depict to his audience that the island in The Lord of the Flies is just a microcosm of the real world.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Research Paper Links for College Writing
Annotated Bibliography directions:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
Sample Annotated Bib:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090309032047_614.pdf
*Remember that your research paper will be in APA format (American Psychological Association):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
Sample Annotated Bib:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090309032047_614.pdf
*Remember that your research paper will be in APA format (American Psychological Association):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf
Long Answer Portion of Pride and Prejudice Test
Directions:
Select three of the following themes and explain why they are significant in Pride and Prejudice. Your response should be two to three fully developed paragraphs with specific examples from the text that demonstrate how the theme relates to the story. Consider what Austen is trying to say about each theme (her message/purpose). It may be appropriate to include information from the Regency period as it applies to the theme.
Jealousy is the theme that drives the play Othello. Iago, the villain, incites the conflict because he is jealous of Cassio getting the lieutenant’s position instead of him. Because of his own jealousy, Iago leads Othello to believe that his wife is having an affair with Cassio. Roderigo is also jealous of Othello’s relationship with Desdemona, so Iago is able to use him in his plan to ruin Othello.
Jealousy is Othello’s tragic flaw. Because of the jealousy that Iago instills in him, Othello kills his wife. Iago also dies as a result of his jealousy, because his wife reveals his plot to the other characters in the play. Roderigo also dies because he is manipulated by Iago. If Othello would have trusted his wife and not allowed his jealousy to overcome him, he would have lived happily ever after.
Friday, May 6, 2011
PP Test Prep
Make sure you know the characters and events in the story, and also be able to write thoroughly on three of the following themes: marriage, pride, prejudice, gender roles, social class, and the use of satire.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Links for Career Day
Please preview the following 3 links to make your choices for Career day.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K2Bn_WGxtXZfT3gxmjif01r5WOmCjV4R53sWKC-Fdto/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPzL7OkE
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13RQS_AMdcGQhcE0wPRZjuH5JbokAiWeNFHnrt90hrak/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMSnwasC
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BJ39s5UO65onEbtgrw9pW5Lk916c6GkTeXI_J1mSb8Q/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPfE7vsM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K2Bn_WGxtXZfT3gxmjif01r5WOmCjV4R53sWKC-Fdto/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPzL7OkE
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13RQS_AMdcGQhcE0wPRZjuH5JbokAiWeNFHnrt90hrak/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMSnwasC
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BJ39s5UO65onEbtgrw9pW5Lk916c6GkTeXI_J1mSb8Q/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPfE7vsM
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Scholarship Websites (Do #1 first)
fastweb.com
1. Healthy Lifestyles Scholarship (Deadline: April 30, 2011) This $5000 scholarship is open to students currently enrolled as high school students or first-year college students. To be eligible for this award you must be under 25 years of age and answer both of the essay questions.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/8809/healthy_lifestyles_scholarship_scholarship.php
2. Dial My Dentist Scholarship Program (Deadline: May 6, 2011) This $1000 scholarship is available to students between the ages of 16 and 21. In the fall of this year (September 2011), the student must be attending College or University full-time.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/9838/dial_my_dentist_scholarship_program_scholarship.php
3. S.S. Scholarship Program (Deadline: June 1, 2011) This $1000 scholarship is available to any student that is 21 years or under, as of June 1, 2011.
Website:
http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarshipprograms.php
4. Big Dig Scholarship (Deadline: June 1, 2011) This $3000 scholarship is for students who submit an essay that is under 1000 words and are currently in high school or in their first two years of college/university.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/8864/big_dig_scholarships_scholarship.php
5. 2011 ICBC Scholarship (Deadline: June 15, 2011) This $1000 scholarship is open to students that are between the ages of 17-21 that are residents of the US or Canada. A student can be enrolled or intending on enrolling in any course of study in the fall semester of 2011.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/9839/icbc_scholarship_scholarship.php
1. Healthy Lifestyles Scholarship (Deadline: April 30, 2011) This $5000 scholarship is open to students currently enrolled as high school students or first-year college students. To be eligible for this award you must be under 25 years of age and answer both of the essay questions.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/8809/healthy_lifestyles_scholarship_scholarship.php
2. Dial My Dentist Scholarship Program (Deadline: May 6, 2011) This $1000 scholarship is available to students between the ages of 16 and 21. In the fall of this year (September 2011), the student must be attending College or University full-time.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/9838/dial_my_dentist_scholarship_program_scholarship.php
3. S.S. Scholarship Program (Deadline: June 1, 2011) This $1000 scholarship is available to any student that is 21 years or under, as of June 1, 2011.
Website:
http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarshipprograms.php
4. Big Dig Scholarship (Deadline: June 1, 2011) This $3000 scholarship is for students who submit an essay that is under 1000 words and are currently in high school or in their first two years of college/university.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/8864/big_dig_scholarships_scholarship.php
5. 2011 ICBC Scholarship (Deadline: June 15, 2011) This $1000 scholarship is open to students that are between the ages of 17-21 that are residents of the US or Canada. A student can be enrolled or intending on enrolling in any course of study in the fall semester of 2011.
Website: http://www.studentscholarships.org/scholarship/9839/icbc_scholarship_scholarship.php
Thursday, January 27, 2011
College Writing: 26 January 2011
Hand in summaries of Learning to Write.
Read chapter on Invention from Patterns for College Writing pp. 17-22.
Assignment: Complete exercises 1 and 2 on lined paper (will turn in later).
Assignment: Read The Roseto Mystery from Outliers (in groups if possible). Write a summary (may be done in pairs or trios if time allows, include all contributor names on summary).
Read chapter on Invention from Patterns for College Writing pp. 17-22.
Assignment: Complete exercises 1 and 2 on lined paper (will turn in later).
Assignment: Read The Roseto Mystery from Outliers (in groups if possible). Write a summary (may be done in pairs or trios if time allows, include all contributor names on summary).
College Writing: Examples of Narration
Only Daughter, by Sandra Cisneros:
http://www.cabrillo.edu/academics/english/100resources/'Only%20Daughter'.pdf
Sixty-Nine Cents, by Gary Shteyngart:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/03/070903fa_fact_shteyngart
My Mother Never Worked, by Bonnie Smith-Yackel (on page 115):
http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/resourcefile.php?ID=1859
Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police, by Martin Gansberg:
http://schoolweb.dysart.org/TeacherSites/uploads/5649/PDF/38%20Who%20Saw%20a%20Murder.pdf
Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell:
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/
Indian Education (Fiction), by Sherman Alexie:
http://comosr.spps.org/Alexie.html
Finishing School, by Maya Angelou:
Recently a white woman from Texas, who would quickly describe herself as a liberal, asked me about my hometown. When I told her that in Stamps my grandmother had owned the only Negro general merchandise store since the turn of the century, she exclaimed, "Why, you were a debutante." Ridiculous and even ludicrous. But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life's necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparations for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a tea cup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid- Victorian values with very little money to indulge them....
We were required to embroider and I had trunkfuls of colorful dishtowels, pillowcases, runners and handkerchiefs to my credit. I mastered the art of crocheting and tatting, and there was a lifetime's supply of dainty doilies that would never be used in cacheted dresser drawers. It went without saying that all girls could iron and wash, but the finer touches around the home, like setting a table with real silver, baking roasts and cooking vegetables without meat, had to be learned elsewhere. Usually at the source of those habits. During my tenth year, a white woman's kitchen became my finishing school.
Mrs. Viola Cullinan was a plump woman who lived in a three- bedroom house somewhere behind the post office. She was singularly unattractive until she smiled, and then the lines around her eyes and mouth which made her look perpetually dirty disappeared, and her face looked like the mask of an impish elf. She usually rested her smile until late afternoon when her women friends dropped in and Miss Glory, the cook, served them cold drinks on the closed-in porch.
The exactness of her house was inhuman. This glass went here and only here. That cup had its place and it was an act of impudent rebellion to place it anywhere else. At twelve o'clock the table was set. At 12:15 Mrs. Cullinan sat down to dinner (whether her husband had arrived or not). At 12:16 Miss Glory brought out the food.
It took me a week to learn the difference between a salad plate, a bread plate and a dessert plate.
Mrs. Cullinan kept up the tradition of her wealthy parents. She was from Virginia. Miss Glory, who was a descendant of slaves tha had worked for the Cullinans, told me her history. She had married beneath her (according t Miss Glory). Her husband's family hadn't had their money very long and what they had "didn't 'mount to much."
As ugly as she was, I thought privately, she was lucky to get a husband above or beneath her station. But Miss Glory wouldn't let me say a thing against her mistress. She was very patient with me, however, over the housework. She explained the dishware, silverware and servants' bells. The large round bowl in which soup was served wasn't a soup bowl, it was a tureen. There were goblets, sherbet glasses, ice-cream glasses, wine glasses, green glass coffee cups with matching saucers, and water glasses. I had a glass to drink from, and it sat with Miss Glory's on a separate shelf from the others.. Soup spoons, gravy boat, butter knives, salad forks and carving platter were additions to my vocabulary and in fact almost represented a new lanuage. I was fascinated with the novelty, with the fluttering Mrs. Cullinan and her Alice-in-Wonderland house.
Her husband remains, in my memory, undefined. I lumped him with all the other white men that I had ever seen and tried not to see.
On our way home one evening, Miss Glory told me that Mrs. Cullinan couldn't have children. She said that she was too delicate-boned. It was hard to imagine bones at all under those layers of fat. Miss Glory went on to say that the doctor had taken out all her lady organs. I reasoned that a pig's organs included the lungs, heart and liver, so if Mrs. Cullinan was walking around without those essentials, it explained why she drank alcohol out of unmarked bottles. She was keeping herself embalmed.
When I spoke to Bailey about it, he agreed that I was right, but he also informed me that Mr. Cullinan had two daughters by a colored lady and that I knew them very well. He added that the girls were the spitting image of their father. I was unable to remember what he looked like, although I had just left him a few hours before, but I thought of the Coleman girls. They were very light-skinned and certainly didn't look very much like their mother (no one ever mentioned Mr. Coleman).
My pity for Mrs. Cullinan preceded me the next morning like the Cheshire cat's smile. Those girls, who could have been her daughters, were beautiful. They didn't have to straighten their hair. Even when they were caught in the rain, their braids still hung down straight like tamed snakes. Their mouths were pouty little cupid's bows. Mrs Cullinan didn't know what she missed. Or maybe she did. Poor Mrs. Cullinan.
For weeks after, I arrived early, left late and tried very hard to make up for her barrenness. If she had her own children, she wouldn't have had to ask me to run a thousand errands from her back door to the back door of her friends. Poor old Mrs. Cullinan.
Then one evening Miss Glory told me to serve the ladies on the porch. After I set the tray down and turned toward the kitchen, one of the women asked, "What's your name, girl?" It was the speckled- faced one. Mrs. Cullinan said, "She doesn't talk much. Her name's Margaret."
Is she dumb?"
"No. As I understand it, she can talk when she wants to but she's usually quiet as a little mouse. Aren't you, Margaret?"
I smiled at her. Poor thing. No organs and couldn't even pronounce my name correctly.
"She's a sweet little thing, though."
"Well, that may be, but the name's too long. I'd never bother myself. I'd call her Mary if I was you."
I fumed into the kitchen. That horrible woman would never have the chance to call me Mary because if I was starving I'd never work for her...
That evening I decided to write a poem on being white, fat, old and without children. It was going to be a tragic ballad. I would have to watch her carefully to capture the essence of her loneliness and pain.
The very next day, she called me by the wrong name. Miss Glory and I were washing up the lunch dishes when Mrs. Cullinan came to the doorway. "Mary?"
Miss Glory asked, "Who?"
Mrs. Cullinan, sagging a little, knew and I knew. "I want Mary to go down to Mrs. Randall's and take her some soup. She's not been feeling well for a few days."
Miss Glory's face was a wonder to see. "You mean Margaret, ma'am. Her name's Margaret."
"That's too long. She's Mary from now on. Heat that soup from last night and
put it in the china tureen and, Mary, I want you to cary it carefully."
Every person I knew had a hellish horror of being "called out of his name." It was a dangerous practice to call a Negro anything that could be loosely construed as insulting because of the centuries of their having been called niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows, boots and spooks.
Miss Glory had a fleeting second of feeling sorry for me. Then as she handed me the hot tureen she said, "Don't mind, don't pay that no mind. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words... You know, I been working for her for twenty years."
She held the back door open for me. "Twenty years. I wasn't much older than you. My name used to be Hallelujah. That's what Ma named me, but my mistress give me 'Glory,' and it stuck. I likes it better too."
I was in the little path that ran behind the houses when Miss Glory shouted, "It's shorter too."
For a few seconds it was a tossup over whether I would laugh (imagine being named Hallelujah) or cry (imagine letting some white woman rename you for her convenience). My anger saved me from either outburst. I had to quit the job, but the problem was going to be how to do it. Momma wouldn't allow me to quit for just any reason.
"She's a peach. That woman is a real peach." Mrs. Randall's maid was talking as she took the soup from me, and I wondered what her name used to be and what she answered to now.
For a week I looked into Mrs. Cullinan's face as she called me Mary. She ignored my coming late and leaving early. Miss Glory was a little annoyed because I had begun to leave egg yolk on the dishes and wasn't putting much heart in polishing the silver. I hoped that she would complain to our boss, but she didn't.
Then Bailey solved my dilemma. He had me describe the contents of the cupboard and the particular plates she liked best. Her favorite piece was a casserole shaped like a fish and the greenglass coffee cups. I kept his instructions in mind, so on the next day when Miss Glory was hanging out clothes and I had again been told to serve the old biddies on the porch, I dropped the empty serving tray. When I heard Mrs. Cullinan scream, "Mary!" I picked up the casserole and two of the green glass cups in readiness. As she rounded the kitchen door I let them fall on the tiled floor.
I could never absolutely describe to Bailey what happened next, because each time I got to the part where she fell on the floor and screwed up her ugly face to cry, we burst out laughing. She actually wobbled around on the floor and picked up shards of the cups and cried, "Oh, Momma. Oh, dear Gawd. It's Mamma's china from Virginia. Oh, Momma, I sorry."
Miss Glory came running in from the yard and the women from the porch crowded around. Miss Glory was almost as broken up as her mistress. "You mean to say she broke our Virginia dishes? What we gone do?"
Mrs. Cullinan cried louder. "That clumsy nigger. Clumsy little black nigger."
Old speckled-face leaned down and asked, "Who did it, Viola? Was it Mary? Who did it?"
Everything was happening so fast I can't remember whether her action preceded her words, but I know that Mrs. Cullinan said, "her name's Margaret, goddamn it, her name's Margaret." And she threw a wedge of broden plate at me. It could have been the hysteria which put her aim off, but the flying crockery caught Miss Glory right over her ear and she started screaming.
I left the front door wide open so all the neighbors could hear.
Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasn't Mary.
http://www.cabrillo.edu/academics/english/100resources/'Only%20Daughter'.pdf
Sixty-Nine Cents, by Gary Shteyngart:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/03/070903fa_fact_shteyngart
My Mother Never Worked, by Bonnie Smith-Yackel (on page 115):
http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/resourcefile.php?ID=1859
Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police, by Martin Gansberg:
http://schoolweb.dysart.org/TeacherSites/uploads/5649/PDF/38%20Who%20Saw%20a%20Murder.pdf
Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell:
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/
Indian Education (Fiction), by Sherman Alexie:
http://comosr.spps.org/Alexie.html
Finishing School, by Maya Angelou:
Recently a white woman from Texas, who would quickly describe herself as a liberal, asked me about my hometown. When I told her that in Stamps my grandmother had owned the only Negro general merchandise store since the turn of the century, she exclaimed, "Why, you were a debutante." Ridiculous and even ludicrous. But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life's necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparations for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a tea cup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid- Victorian values with very little money to indulge them....
We were required to embroider and I had trunkfuls of colorful dishtowels, pillowcases, runners and handkerchiefs to my credit. I mastered the art of crocheting and tatting, and there was a lifetime's supply of dainty doilies that would never be used in cacheted dresser drawers. It went without saying that all girls could iron and wash, but the finer touches around the home, like setting a table with real silver, baking roasts and cooking vegetables without meat, had to be learned elsewhere. Usually at the source of those habits. During my tenth year, a white woman's kitchen became my finishing school.
Mrs. Viola Cullinan was a plump woman who lived in a three- bedroom house somewhere behind the post office. She was singularly unattractive until she smiled, and then the lines around her eyes and mouth which made her look perpetually dirty disappeared, and her face looked like the mask of an impish elf. She usually rested her smile until late afternoon when her women friends dropped in and Miss Glory, the cook, served them cold drinks on the closed-in porch.
The exactness of her house was inhuman. This glass went here and only here. That cup had its place and it was an act of impudent rebellion to place it anywhere else. At twelve o'clock the table was set. At 12:15 Mrs. Cullinan sat down to dinner (whether her husband had arrived or not). At 12:16 Miss Glory brought out the food.
It took me a week to learn the difference between a salad plate, a bread plate and a dessert plate.
Mrs. Cullinan kept up the tradition of her wealthy parents. She was from Virginia. Miss Glory, who was a descendant of slaves tha had worked for the Cullinans, told me her history. She had married beneath her (according t Miss Glory). Her husband's family hadn't had their money very long and what they had "didn't 'mount to much."
As ugly as she was, I thought privately, she was lucky to get a husband above or beneath her station. But Miss Glory wouldn't let me say a thing against her mistress. She was very patient with me, however, over the housework. She explained the dishware, silverware and servants' bells. The large round bowl in which soup was served wasn't a soup bowl, it was a tureen. There were goblets, sherbet glasses, ice-cream glasses, wine glasses, green glass coffee cups with matching saucers, and water glasses. I had a glass to drink from, and it sat with Miss Glory's on a separate shelf from the others.. Soup spoons, gravy boat, butter knives, salad forks and carving platter were additions to my vocabulary and in fact almost represented a new lanuage. I was fascinated with the novelty, with the fluttering Mrs. Cullinan and her Alice-in-Wonderland house.
Her husband remains, in my memory, undefined. I lumped him with all the other white men that I had ever seen and tried not to see.
On our way home one evening, Miss Glory told me that Mrs. Cullinan couldn't have children. She said that she was too delicate-boned. It was hard to imagine bones at all under those layers of fat. Miss Glory went on to say that the doctor had taken out all her lady organs. I reasoned that a pig's organs included the lungs, heart and liver, so if Mrs. Cullinan was walking around without those essentials, it explained why she drank alcohol out of unmarked bottles. She was keeping herself embalmed.
When I spoke to Bailey about it, he agreed that I was right, but he also informed me that Mr. Cullinan had two daughters by a colored lady and that I knew them very well. He added that the girls were the spitting image of their father. I was unable to remember what he looked like, although I had just left him a few hours before, but I thought of the Coleman girls. They were very light-skinned and certainly didn't look very much like their mother (no one ever mentioned Mr. Coleman).
My pity for Mrs. Cullinan preceded me the next morning like the Cheshire cat's smile. Those girls, who could have been her daughters, were beautiful. They didn't have to straighten their hair. Even when they were caught in the rain, their braids still hung down straight like tamed snakes. Their mouths were pouty little cupid's bows. Mrs Cullinan didn't know what she missed. Or maybe she did. Poor Mrs. Cullinan.
For weeks after, I arrived early, left late and tried very hard to make up for her barrenness. If she had her own children, she wouldn't have had to ask me to run a thousand errands from her back door to the back door of her friends. Poor old Mrs. Cullinan.
Then one evening Miss Glory told me to serve the ladies on the porch. After I set the tray down and turned toward the kitchen, one of the women asked, "What's your name, girl?" It was the speckled- faced one. Mrs. Cullinan said, "She doesn't talk much. Her name's Margaret."
Is she dumb?"
"No. As I understand it, she can talk when she wants to but she's usually quiet as a little mouse. Aren't you, Margaret?"
I smiled at her. Poor thing. No organs and couldn't even pronounce my name correctly.
"She's a sweet little thing, though."
"Well, that may be, but the name's too long. I'd never bother myself. I'd call her Mary if I was you."
I fumed into the kitchen. That horrible woman would never have the chance to call me Mary because if I was starving I'd never work for her...
That evening I decided to write a poem on being white, fat, old and without children. It was going to be a tragic ballad. I would have to watch her carefully to capture the essence of her loneliness and pain.
The very next day, she called me by the wrong name. Miss Glory and I were washing up the lunch dishes when Mrs. Cullinan came to the doorway. "Mary?"
Miss Glory asked, "Who?"
Mrs. Cullinan, sagging a little, knew and I knew. "I want Mary to go down to Mrs. Randall's and take her some soup. She's not been feeling well for a few days."
Miss Glory's face was a wonder to see. "You mean Margaret, ma'am. Her name's Margaret."
"That's too long. She's Mary from now on. Heat that soup from last night and
put it in the china tureen and, Mary, I want you to cary it carefully."
Every person I knew had a hellish horror of being "called out of his name." It was a dangerous practice to call a Negro anything that could be loosely construed as insulting because of the centuries of their having been called niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows, boots and spooks.
Miss Glory had a fleeting second of feeling sorry for me. Then as she handed me the hot tureen she said, "Don't mind, don't pay that no mind. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words... You know, I been working for her for twenty years."
She held the back door open for me. "Twenty years. I wasn't much older than you. My name used to be Hallelujah. That's what Ma named me, but my mistress give me 'Glory,' and it stuck. I likes it better too."
I was in the little path that ran behind the houses when Miss Glory shouted, "It's shorter too."
For a few seconds it was a tossup over whether I would laugh (imagine being named Hallelujah) or cry (imagine letting some white woman rename you for her convenience). My anger saved me from either outburst. I had to quit the job, but the problem was going to be how to do it. Momma wouldn't allow me to quit for just any reason.
"She's a peach. That woman is a real peach." Mrs. Randall's maid was talking as she took the soup from me, and I wondered what her name used to be and what she answered to now.
For a week I looked into Mrs. Cullinan's face as she called me Mary. She ignored my coming late and leaving early. Miss Glory was a little annoyed because I had begun to leave egg yolk on the dishes and wasn't putting much heart in polishing the silver. I hoped that she would complain to our boss, but she didn't.
Then Bailey solved my dilemma. He had me describe the contents of the cupboard and the particular plates she liked best. Her favorite piece was a casserole shaped like a fish and the greenglass coffee cups. I kept his instructions in mind, so on the next day when Miss Glory was hanging out clothes and I had again been told to serve the old biddies on the porch, I dropped the empty serving tray. When I heard Mrs. Cullinan scream, "Mary!" I picked up the casserole and two of the green glass cups in readiness. As she rounded the kitchen door I let them fall on the tiled floor.
I could never absolutely describe to Bailey what happened next, because each time I got to the part where she fell on the floor and screwed up her ugly face to cry, we burst out laughing. She actually wobbled around on the floor and picked up shards of the cups and cried, "Oh, Momma. Oh, dear Gawd. It's Mamma's china from Virginia. Oh, Momma, I sorry."
Miss Glory came running in from the yard and the women from the porch crowded around. Miss Glory was almost as broken up as her mistress. "You mean to say she broke our Virginia dishes? What we gone do?"
Mrs. Cullinan cried louder. "That clumsy nigger. Clumsy little black nigger."
Old speckled-face leaned down and asked, "Who did it, Viola? Was it Mary? Who did it?"
Everything was happening so fast I can't remember whether her action preceded her words, but I know that Mrs. Cullinan said, "her name's Margaret, goddamn it, her name's Margaret." And she threw a wedge of broden plate at me. It could have been the hysteria which put her aim off, but the flying crockery caught Miss Glory right over her ear and she started screaming.
I left the front door wide open so all the neighbors could hear.
Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasn't Mary.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
College Writing: 25 January 2011
*Get a 3-ring binder strictly for College Writing
*Save everything from this class in your binder
Use the following website to assess yourself on The Top Twenty:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriterhs4e/default.asp#588399__593354__
Print and hand in your scorecard when you are finished.
*Save everything from this class in your binder
Use the following website to assess yourself on The Top Twenty:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriterhs4e/default.asp#588399__593354__
Print and hand in your scorecard when you are finished.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Scholarships
Check out local scholarships:
http://coopersvillebroncos.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=eWMeCIdXAHo%3d&tabid=185&mid=780
http://coopersvillebroncos.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=eWMeCIdXAHo%3d&tabid=185&mid=780
Monday, January 17, 2011
Scholarship for Seniors
Templeton Press is sponsoring two scholarship contests, each of which carries a first prize of $5000.
Entrants need only write an essay or compose a video response to excerpts from the book New Threats to Freedom, which is available at the contest website. There is a short form contest (short essays and videos), and a long form contest (2000-3000 word essays). Sample topics include "The Loss of the Freedom to Fail" and "Campus Censorship in Academia."
Students who intend to be enrolled in an American college or university by the start of 2011 school year are eligible to enter.
http://newthreatstofreedom.com/contests/
Entrants need only write an essay or compose a video response to excerpts from the book New Threats to Freedom, which is available at the contest website. There is a short form contest (short essays and videos), and a long form contest (2000-3000 word essays). Sample topics include "The Loss of the Freedom to Fail" and "Campus Censorship in Academia."
Students who intend to be enrolled in an American college or university by the start of 2011 school year are eligible to enter.
http://newthreatstofreedom.com/contests/
Final Exam Materials
Beowulf
Anglo-Saxons
Othello
Elizabethans
Shakespeare
Punctuation/Grammar (,';: their/there/they're, to/too/two, less/fewer)
ACT Reading
ACT English
ACT Writing (multiple choice)
Online Sources:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/othello/
http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/index.html
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/anonymous/Beowulf.htm
Anglo-Saxons
Othello
Elizabethans
Shakespeare
Punctuation/Grammar (,';: their/there/they're, to/too/two, less/fewer)
ACT Reading
ACT English
ACT Writing (multiple choice)
Online Sources:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/othello/
http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/index.html
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/anonymous/Beowulf.htm
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