Essay #6

Cooper Feltes

English 9

Mr. Salsich

October 19, 2010

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall:

What Do People See in Their Reflection?

        (TS) It varies, what people see when they look upon their own reflection in a mirror.(CM) Some people see just what others see, their bodies, whereas others see deeper inside the mirror, who they are, their emotions, anything that they can decipher of what they see.(CM) People may render themselves a cast-away, never to be what other expect, or a person who is satisfied with their life. (CS) Either way, people judge themselves when they stare into that reflective rectangle.

          (TS) What do the characters in Tale of Two Cities see when they look at their reflection? Maybe the image of their bodies, the carriers of their soul through the world, or something more. (SD) If Lucie Manette were to see into the depths of the mirror, she would find a happy person standing in front of her. (CM) She is not influenced by what other people think about what she looks like, for she knows that she is acceptable both in physique and in personality. (CM) Despite her past, she lets no one sway her to be different, which is not the case for her father, the man who spent twenty years of his life in prison, twenty years that ate away at his sanity, the only thing his mind could clasp onto before he was saved. (Subordinate cumulative sentence)(SD) Dr. Manette would probably feel the same way as Lucie if he were to look in the mirror, with much satisfaction. (CM) Back during his imprisonment, he would probably see a sorrowful man with no hope in sight, but since then, he has grown to be a very successful gentleman with a nice home and a beautiful daughter.(CM) He lives well after he is released, and does not take in vane the many years dwindling away in prison. (SD) Mr. Lorry, on the other hand, is quite emotionless when looking in the mirror. (CM) As a “man of business”, he doesn’t have time to consider what others think of him. (CM) He might see a successful man and be pleased with himself, but otherwise, he doesn’t even consider what other people might think of him. (CS) All these characters have accepted who they are and look upon their reflection with satisfaction, and even with pure happiness.

         (TS)It is often looked over, in the real world, how we alter our image in order to please others. (SD) When I look in this mirror, I am subject to see a face that only other people can see, and not what I see. (CM) The only part of my face I have ever seen is the top of my cheek and the sides of my nose. (CM) Not everyone else sees the true personality in me when they look at me, for I am the only person in the world that can; what I see in the mirror is the only thing I have to offer them, for I cannot truly show them who I really am, a bright and enthusiastic young man, saying yes to anything with a smile, the biggest smile possible across the human face(subordinate cumulative sentence).(SD) Monitoring your appearance is often mistaken with monitoring your personality. (CM) Saying, “I’ll wear this so that they think I am cool”, means nothing in the real world; what really matters is, “I’m wearing this because I like it and I couldn’t care less about what other people think of me. (CM) Being true to yourself and not trying to meet the exact social specifications of others is something that I try to manage. (SD) Sometimes, though, my mind is not so strong, to the point where I break down and say, “is that really what I look like?” (CM) At these kinds of times, I look down upon my life and wonder what I would have been like If I didn’t say that one stupid thing back in second grade, or if I had only known this or that. (CM) Saying things like this is not helpful, I have found, and you end up looking the same in that mirror. (CS) Mirror, mirror, on the wall only displays what other people see when they look at you; unfortunately, they cannot see what you are on the inside. 

         (TS)The mirror, way back when, was invented to let people see what others see, the beautiful being standing in the frame.(CM) Improving yourself in the mirror's image should, however, not be used to make other people say things like, "they look really good tonight", but to make you say it.(CM) In order to let others accept you, it must be made clear that you approve your own image that lay in the reflection of the "magical" rectangle. (CS) That beautiful being will indeed be elegant, no matter how much conflict there is between your brain saying, "I must improve", and your body saying, "I am already beautiful."

Essay#5 Reunification

Cooper Feltes

English 9

Mr. Salsich

October 12, 2010

Long Lost:

An Essay about Losing a Parent Finding Them Again

(TS) The emotional trauma of losing a parent is staggering to ponder; being informed that that person has been alive after twenty years of thinking they have been dead is even more mind-blowing. (CM) In Tale of Two Cities, this is the story that Lucie Manette has been forced into. (CM) Dickens uses his superior technique to pop emotions out of the book and make them affect you like a lifelike situation. (CS) The emotional mood of this chapter of the book astonishingly unique and expresses the feelings of the characters very well.

(TS) The emotional ambiance of the unification of Miss Manette and her father reveal what true passion that Dickens can write with. (SD) For example, On page 48, Miss Manette displays her emotional turmoil, the rolling thunder and lightning of expression,  for her father, locked up for years by the French, held captive away from his family for so long, by repeatedly shouting “weep for it, weep for it.” (Coordinate cumulative sentence) (CM) The passionate words she exclaims resonate through the chapter and force the reader to sympathize for her woes. (CM) Dickens, using and reusing a phrase, pulls the chapter together in an earthquake of tears and joy of reunification. (SD) Dickens also uses Mr. Lorry’s machine-like personality to the situation’s advantage. (CM) Mr. Lorry supposes he has the situation under control until Miss Manette says, “I entreat you good gentleman, do not speak, do not move.” (CM) Mr. Lorry is bashed my an unfamiliar feeling of sorrow that he has not yet experienced due to his inability to feel emotions. (SD) Monsieur Dufarge and Mr. Lorry, having not been in this kind of position before, are unaware of the gravity of the situation. (CM) With two “lethargic” characters in front of them, they insist on packing up and leaving Paris.(CM) This forces them to end their bond that has seemed to have  lasted so long. (CM) Dickens uses characters and words to intensify the passion of the unification of Miss Manette and her father.

                (TS) If I were in Lucie’s situation, having grown up without a father for twenty years, my heart would be in a million different places when I would finally get to meet him. (SD) Meeting a stranger who was told to be my father would make me a little untrustworthy. (CM) I might believe that the man who comes walking into my life was an imposter and didn’t deserve my attention. (CM) Though there would be no easy way of knowing, If he were my father and I didn’t believe he was, I would go the rest of my life thinking what a “pretender” the man was, although he had done nothing wrong. (SD) Aside from my possible incredulity (word from TTC), I might spontaneously get angry at the man who had detached his life from mine for so long. (CM) If he were irresponsible enough to walk out on his child then I would certainly let him have it. (CM) However, if he was like Lucie Manette’s father, locked in prison for twenty years without trial or accusation, then I would definitely be more grateful and happy for his return into my life. (SD) Happiness and uncontrollable thankfulness would be predominant in my mind if he were actually my father with well-meant or forced, like doctor Manette, purpose for depriving me of his influence.  (CM) Reuniting with a long lost relative is one of the most tearful and most joyful occasions, but with a father who you haven’t seen in twenty years, the emotion, the driving force, the feeling of love, and down the scale to enragement and pure anger, the brutal passion of the brain, is amplified to an astounding degree (Coordinate cumulative sentence). (CM) My father would accept me and I would accept him as family and we would spend hours crying over lost time. (CS) My feelings would be all over the place is I was in Lucie’s situation, my father being gone for twenty years and finally getting to meet him.

                (TS) Losing a parent at a young age is frightening to think about, even more so when you are informed that that parent has been alive all the time that you thought they were dead. (CM) To Lucie, the thought is inescapable, for she experienced it when her father returned to her life. (CM) The mood of the situation was so strong that I experience all the emotions that Lucie was feeling, to the point where I thought I knew the trauma of losing a parent; reality came back into play, though, and Lucie was the one that really was feeling the mixed emotions of finding a long lost parent.(CS) Lucie has a strong mind, so brave, so accepting, so powerful, to accept her father, captivated for so many years, back into her life with open and loving arms.

Self Assessment-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An issue I see recurring in my work is the trouble of finding synonyms for certain key words that are used frequently, in this case "emotion". I especially like my varied use of sentence lengths, particularly noticeable in the opening and closing paragraphs. These paragraphs, though, are the ones I had the most trouble with, for a reason I am unsure of, though I think it was because of trying to combine both body paragraphs into two sentences to end the essay

Personal Grade: B+

MV writing

Cooper Feltes

English 9

Mr. Salsich

October 10, 2010

Martha’s Vineyard Freestyle Poems:

Poems from the Heart Written on Martha’s Vineyard

Ugliness of Nature:

Take nature, for example, and compare it only to what we see. What is available for us to look upon is limited by what we can discover. The creatures of the deep ocean need not be beautiful, for there are no eyes that are able to judge it. Whereas upon the shore, the people and animals are all easily seen by each other, for the haze of the murky water is unapparent. The people who experience utter and pure beauty on a regular basis do not know how to react at such vile looks, but the creature doesn’t mind, for it understands that these beautiful people know not what they do. From the creature’s point of view, this astounding beauty standing before him is incomprehensible. For days the beast tries to understand what it saw like an indoor cat that is let into the outside world for no more than  five minutes to explore everything it can, but when  the time expires, it is returned to its indoor environment. Naturally, the cat needs to get back out to keep exploring. Absorbing so many new things, as the creature has seen  so much unfamiliar beauty , the creature goes insane, even to a larger degree than the cat would, having seen such an unfamiliar world.

Keep them High:

Keep your thoughts high, for people will put you down, like the roaring and ferocious sea will see to it that the dunes will be destroyed and demolished by the raw power of nature. Dunes, using the same power, put the ocean back in its place by rebuilding itself. It keeps its thoughts high and realizes nothing that has happened in the past, and focuses only on rebuilding what it had, only better. The ocean is not satisfied. The waves keep trying and trying again, each time seeing the successful dune steal away its pride by becoming successively more powerful each cycle of tearing down and building up. The ocean doesn’t understand why it can’t defeat such a seemingly helpless enemy. The ocean hasn’t yet realized that the dune has a powerful mind that shields its eyes from the past and keeps looking towards the future. That is the way to live. The past can’t be changed, but it is only a matter of time until the once helpless dune basks in the defeat of its once more powerful enemy. That mental strength keeps the dune alive and strengthens it to a higher degree ever cycle of destruction and creation.

Hand Soap:

Forgiveness is like a full bottle of hand soap. A single person has only so much capacity to forgive a person until they realize that the people who constantly need forgiveness are the ones that can’t learn lessons. Patience eventually runs thin, and the bottle will run out of hand soap. Different people take different amounts of soap from the bottle of forgiveness, sometimes in big globs, or in little squirts. Being together with my classmates on Martha’s Vineyard for three straight days has taken out of my bottle, and I have had to forgive people time and time again for numerous different reasons. I am young, so my soap bottle is relatively full, but as I grow older, that won’t be the case. Refilling this soap bottle is a slow and lengthy process that can take years to reproduce any soap. The bottle itself gets worn down after decades of use, wear, and tear. Whether or not you decide to take the time to fill you bottle and concentrate on it, or whether you have noticed that people don’t break habits, you are eventually going to need a new bottle.