� 2001-2006 by Shiloh
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And then...it never happened. I was always shie a few credits, and then when my grades weren't straight As--oh, they were still good, but I needed As--which would've gotten me off probation, I was dismissed for a year. Thankfully, Susan helped me petition to overturn that and we succeeded. And this one last time she told me I was going to graduate. She carefully went over me transcript just to be sure. Truthfully, what with Dad's half serious jokes about my being a lifetime student and her telling me it was my last semester for three or four of 'em that I've been through, I was beginning to think an' feel that I'd never reach the end. I mean, for the last two years I've been sssoo close to the end, yet it (the attainment of my degree) seemed neverending. I know I am graduating in 12 days, that I'll be through with school till who knows when, but I guess what I'm trying to say through all this babble is it all seems surreal to me. Perhaps when I hold my degree in my hands it will finally feel real...
Thankfully though, I have my topic picked, unlike last time when I settled on the topic I eventually wrote on the day before the critical paper was due. Although...as I was reskimming one of the texts I'm using I saw a different issue or question coming out of it than the one I'd picked and we discussed in class. The question discussed in class and the one I originally picked is Has civilization improved or corrupted nature? This is a very good question and would stimulate much thought, however, the question I saw rising out of Montaigne's Of Cannibals after going over it a second time is this: Who or what is more barbaric? This pertains to the Old World "civilized" cultures as opposed to the more "natural" civilizations of the "newly discovered" New World. Montaigne brings the images of a "savage" and a "noble savage" into play in this particular essay of his.
My second text, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, when discussed in class side by side with the afore-mentioned text, went hand-in-hand to offer answers to the first question I mentioned. However, upon slightly changing my topic to the second question I mentioned, The Tempest--in my eyes--doesn't relate as well to this essay as it does in regards to the first. I had to scout around on the net for an essay that would hopefully help me gain insight as to how the play could relate in regards to the second question.
It took one poorly written, wordy essay by a student who attempted to explain the relationships Prospero, the orchestrator of all the goings-on on the island, had with the other characters to give me a glimpse of what I may use as quotes from the play. Annddd they all have to do with Caliban, Prospero's deformed and base slave. 'Course, I intend to use examples of the horrific treatment indigenous peoples suffered at the hands of the Anglo-Europeans. So that'll be pretty much my paper, and from that last part you know what side I'm on.
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If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand.
~Author Unknown~
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moon phase |
