"Jurgis was confident of his ability to get work for himself, unassisted by any one....

             ....He had gone to Brown's and stood there for no more than half an hour before one of the bosses noticed his form towering above the rest, and signaled to him. The colloquy which followed was brief and to the point:-

'Speak English?'

'No; Lít-uanian.' (Jurgis had studied this word carefully.)

'Job?'

'Je.' (A nod.)

'Worked here before?'

'No 'stand.'

(Signals and gesticulations on the part of the boss. Vigorous shakes of the head by Jurgis.)

'Shovel guts?'

'No 'stand.' (More shakes of the head.)

'Zarnos. Pagaiksztis. Szluota!' (Imitative motions.)

'Je.'

'See door. Durys?' (Pointing.)

'Je.'

'To-morrow, seven o'clock. Understand? Rytoj! Prieszpietys! Septyni!'

'Dekui, tamistai!' (Thank you, sir.)

And that was all. Jurgis turned away, and then in a sudden rush the full realization of his triumph swept over him, and he gave a yell and a jump, and started off on a run. He had a job! (page 35.)"

Zach Gardner

Mr. Cheng

4^th Hour

Things Fall Apart

            How do you want to live your life, by strength, or weakness? Will you live it by someone else’s standards, or your own? How will it compare to others around you, will you live how you want, or how others want you to live? The book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is about a man and his success and failure in living an exemplary life in the Nigerian village of Umuofia, in the mid 1900’s. In Things Fall Apart, the main character, Okonkwo, thinks he is a perfect man by being strong and determined, and not showing compassion or other feminine traits, which eventually leads to his tragic ending.

Okonkwo is the perfect man, according to his standards. Of all of the people in his Nigerian village, Umuofia, and all of the other eight villages, Okonkwo was the most exemplary figure of all. The following quote provides perspective on how ‘perfect’ he is by his standards. “Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all, he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time” (pg. 8). The next quote describes how his achievements have affected his life, politically and socially. “His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat” (pg. 3). Because of all of these achievements at such a young age, Okonkwo lives a very successful life. Throughout the story, Okonkwo thinks very highly of himself and has the idea that because of his achievements, he is the most exemplary and perfect person throughout all nine villages, according to his standards.

Secondly, besides lots of great achievements, Okonkwo is very strong and determined, and this makes him a popular leader of Umuofia. The first quote describes Okonkwo’s  popularity, while the second explains what he is determined to do in life. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond” (pg. 3). “His life had been ruled by a great passion – to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring. And he had all but achieved it” (pg. 131). The first quote illustrates his social life, while the second quote portrays how his social life will help with his life-long goal. To elaborate on this example, Okonkwo is extremely popular in all nine clans of the nine villages, and because his life-long goal is to be a lord of the clan, being well known throughout Umuofia and beyond will help him achieve his goal. This shows that Okonkwo is strong and determined because of his outstanding achievements at such a young age, and his great will power to never give up until his destination is reached.

Finally, Okonkwo feels that showing compassion, or other feminine traits, is a sign of weakness, and that it is not a good sign of manliness. Okonkwo describes how whenever he feels troubled by his father’s weakness and failure, he thinks of the manly things that he has done. “His mind went to his latest show of manliness. –‘I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy’” (pg. 66). The preceding quote is part of a conversation between Okonkwo and Obierika. In their conversation, Okonkwo was describing how Nwoye is too much like his grandfather, which brings Okonkwo to feel disturbed by his father’s weakness and show of feminism. So when Okonkwo thinks of his most recent show of manliness, he thinks of the murder of Ikemefuna, and compares it to how Obierika did not go to kill him. In Okonkwo’s mind, this shows weakness and disobedience to the gods, by disobeying the message of the Oracle, which was to kill Ikemefuna. The reason why Okonkwo thinks of himself as so manly compared to everyone else, is because he compares his manliness to other people’s show of feminism. He compares his strength to other’s weakness. This shows that he only thinks highly of himself, and lowly of others, which in the end, is his greatest weakness.

In the story of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is the ideal man in his mind. He thinks he is perfect, by being strong and determined, and not showing traits of feminism. Although these traits show Okonkwo’s manliness, these traits also show how weak he really is. We see multiple examples throughout the story that elaborate on his manly achievements. Secondly, because of these achievements, he has very extreme goals for himself; he set the bar so high when he was so low. Finally, Okonkwo is always comparing his strength and manliness to other’s weakness and feminism. In the end of it all, we see that Okonkwo is a strong leader, and in the end of the story, he decides to attack the white men, and nobody follows him. Since he is still determined, he follows his plan anyway, and the story ends with Okonkwo taking his own life. This is significant, because throughout the story, we think of Okonkwo as a very strong man, but in the end, he shows the most amount of weakness.

Zach Gardner

Mr. Cheng

4^th Hour

Things Fall Apart

            How do you want to live your life? Will you live it by someone else’s standards or your own? How will it compare to others around you? The book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is about a man and his success and failure in living an exemplary life. In Things Fall Apart, the main character, Okonkwo, thinks he is a perfect man by being strong and determined, and not showing compassion or other feminine traits, which eventually leads to his tragic ending.

            Okonkwo is the perfect man, according to his standards. Of all of the people in his Nigerian village, Umuofia, and all of the other eight villages, Okonkwo was the most exemplary figure of all. The following quote provides perspective on how ‘perfect’ he is by his standards. “Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all, he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time” (pg. 8). The next quote describes how his achievements have affected his life, politically and socially. “His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat” (pg. 3). Because of all of these achievements at such a young age, Okonkwo lives a very successful life. Throughout the story, Okonkwo thinks very highly of himself and has the idea that because of his achievements, he is the most exemplary and perfect person throughout all nine villages, according to his standards.

            Secondly, besides lots of great achievements, Okonkwo is very strong and determined, and this makes him a popular leader of Umuofia. The first quote describes Okonkwo’s  popularity, while the second explains what he is determined to in life. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond” (pg. 3). “His life had been ruled by a great passion – to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life spring. And he had all but achieved it” (pg. 131). The first quote illustrates

Osama bin Laden's Death

I think that his death is one of the most historic events of the century. I think that it brings our nation together, and brings pride and hope to America. I feel like this is a trigger effect of war, similar to World War I. It started with an assassination of a political figure, and it kept escalating with alliances until it was an all out war. Because of this, I feel that the death of Osama bin Laden is almost a mistake. The reason I feel this way is because when al-Qaeda retaliates, it is going to be big and it is going to be bad. I think that once they do retaliate, we will also retaliate, and alliances with both sides will get involved and it will start World War III. However, I also think that this can be linked directly to Harry Potter, and also Star Wars. Obama is Harry and Luke, while Bush is Dumbledore and Obi Wan Kenobi. Osama bin Laden is Voldemort and the Sith (in general). When Bush's term was up, Obama came in, and when Dumbledore and Obi Wan died, Harry and Luke came in. TeThroughout both stories, there are events between the pro/an-tagonists and in the end of it all, Osama bin Laden, Voldemort, and the Sith are destroyed. I feel that in general, the whole conspiracy with ObL directly relates to the Hero's Path/Mono-myth. Besides all of the events of the past and upcoming future, we need to concentrate on what is going on in the Present. Right now, Americans, Republicans and Democrats are together because of these recent events. Our nation has put aside it's differences and has focused on America being one country as a whole. I absolutely am glad that ObL is deceased, but I am nervous about the future and the war in the years to come.

-Zach Gardner

The Graduate

Zach Gardner



Right from the beginning, The Graduate shows character and the general "feel" of a classic movie. The kind of feeling you get when you know you're going to enjoy the next two hours. For me, i really admired the way the graduate uses various editing styles to portray the meaning and effectiveness of the story. I think that The Graduate uses sound editing to effectively portray the storyline of the main character.

The Graduate directly uses modern music (from that era) to portray the lifestyle of the main character. The first thing i noticed relating to sound editing was the opening song of "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. Right away you can tell that the main character has a slow, lonely life. Later in the movie, when his life is a little better, a happier, modern song plays. But then Sound off Silence is repeated multiple more times throughout the film. One thing that really caught my attention was how on song was played, then it finished, then it instantly replayed again. I thought this was very intriguing because it really shows how repetitive Ben's life is. Overall, I think that modern music really helped tell the story of The  Graduate.

Maus and Night Comparison

Zach Gardner

The books Maus by Art Spiegelman and Night by Elie Wiesel both observe the tragic events of the Holocaust. They are very different stories in the way each story tells its line of events. Though they have the same main idea (the Holocaust), they differ in the way the characters explain the atrocity of the death of millions of innocent people. Maus doesn't even start with anything to do with the Holocaust, but more of a short prequel. It is all about how the main character's normal life is completely ordinary and it slowly eases in to the mishap. In contrast, Night starts off pretty much right to the point, and that being the beginning of it all when Jewish people start to disappear and more and more mouths continue to exchange frightful rumors. At first Night and Maus seem different, but they have a much more important similarity and that is both tell the story of events of what the Jews did just to stay alive and fight for each other.

The first important similarity I noticed was that of the sorting of the uninformed Jews.  In Night, Elie first gets to Auchwitz with his whole family and Elie and his father go left and and Elie's mother and sister go right, straight to the crematorium and death, completely uninformed of their fate. This also happens in Maus at the gates of Auchwitz beneath the sign 'Arbeit Macht Frei,' which means 'work makes freedom.' I think both authors did this as a form of foreshadowing to show that only the people able to WORK will be FREE from death, for some time at least. I think that the main relevancy this example has is that both stories talk about how people who were selected to go to the right ran back to the left to try to be reunited with their family members. The terrible thing is that they had no idea they would be condemned to die immediately.

Secondly, I think another important similarity is that in both stories, the Jews had places that they could hide to stay safe from the Nazis. In Maus, they have special places in attics and cellars before they were taken to Auchwitz, and also they have the tunnel of shoes while in Auchwitz. In Night however, it is a little different. In Maus, all of the hiding places were either built by them or planned ahead, while in Night it was a spur of the moment and after Elie and the other prisoners ran forty-two miles, Elie and his father found a shed and they slept in it for the night. I think that the authors wrote these stories with this specific theme of hiding as an example of fighting for freedom and showing how harsh and corrupt the Nazis were to the Jews. In my opinion, any human would go to such extreme standards and risk so much just to survive, as the Jews tried, even though the Nazis did everything to stop them.

Finally, besides the Jews helping themselves to stay alive and find their own family members, they also helped people they had never met before, because they were all in the same situation. In Maus, they are hiding in the attic before they are taken to Auchwitz and they open the chandelier and see another Jew. He says that he is just looking for his family, so Vladek and his family help him. But the problem is that he is working for the Nazis. In Night, it is the other way around, where a complete stranger helps Elie and his father. When in the sorting line, a man asks them their age, and tells them to lie about it so they will both be able to survive. Elie and his father have never met this man before, but the man knew it was the right thing to do, to help more people survive the sorting. I think that both authors depict the story this way to show that instead of each Jew being one individual person, they are all together as one body of people, to fight together. During the Holocaust, Jews didn't only help themselves, but they helped each other too.

I think that the main similarity between the books Maus and Night is that of all the fighting to stay alive and fighting for each other. I think that this similarity is really important because it shows how during the Holocaust, all of the Jews, family, friends or strangers, all fought to stay alive and stay together. In my opinion, this similarity between the stories exists because even though Elie Wiesel and Vladek Spiegelman never knew each other, they both wanted to keep their families together for as long as possible. The similarity plays into the point the authors are making by showing that no matter what happens, your family needs to stick together and they need to do that by fighting to stay alive and fighting for each other. Overall, I think that both stories have the same effect on the authors in shoing the way families fight to stay together.