You could actually begin your essay here, if you'd like.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Manifesto blog task--due March 12
You could actually begin your essay here, if you'd like.
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You could actually begin your essay here, if you'd like.
95 comments:
First comment! Yeah!
_One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest_ is my favorite of the novels that we have read. _Cuckoo's Nest_ provides me with loads of material with which I could write. Allusions to religion, metaphoric power structures, and revolutionary rebellion are all engaging topics that would easily meet the 12 page Manifesto requirement.
I would love to participate in and complete a Feat. Unfortunately, I have not an ample supply of ideas for for _Cuckoo's Nest_-themed Feats. Contrarywise, although I enjoy _Cuckoo's Nest_ more, _Life of Pi_ irrigates the drought of Feat ideas.
I was thinking that I would create a series of poems, of which I already have many applicable, and link them to _Life of Pi_'s raised conundrums and pensees about religious practice and doctrine.
The question that sizzles from my lips would be whether or not we can combine two or more novels for our Feat. Because _Cuckoo's Nest_ has so many allusions and symbolic reference to religion, especially Christianity, I think that morphing the two novels would be wholly possible.
If you do read these, C, I'd love to know whether that is legal. If not (that you don't read these) then I can ask in person. If not (it's not legal) then I guess I'll have to petition my educational legislature to change the laws on the books.
When thinking of what to do with my Manifesto, I knew I would like to do something with either One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or The Life of Pi. I have chosen to do The Life of Pi as the focal point of my Manifesto. I have also decided to group with the wonderful Shannon Backer and the classic Abby Castle for our feat. I have chosen these two intelligent ladies because I already know from past experiences that we work very well together and are sure to succeed in any project we may be confronted with. I would not choose just anyone to assist me in the completion of the feat, this proves that we all understand what we are up against and we trust each other to take on the responsibilities in order to finish it in the best way we can. In being in a group, I must help my friends stay on track and they must do the same for me, otherwise the likelihood that it will be finished in time is very slim. We have decided to make a short video-- similar to those videos seen on airplanes as a precaution-- about the novel in a some what comedic fashion, hoping to cause the viewers to be not only humored by our ridiculous angle of the story, but also to become increasingly curious about the story. It will be exceedingly difficult to find the time in which to accomplish such a daunting task due to the fact that none of us share a Literature class and we each have jobs with compromising hours. I know that in completing this large and some what scary project ahead of us, we will all feel very accomplished and will grow as teammates, having a good time in the process.
Huizenga 7
For my manifesto I will select poetry as the main topic and I am currently unsure of which literary works I will select, but I do know that I will be selecting option 12 once I have fully developed my parameters. I do intend to include works from Poe for sure and most likely I will stick to the darker poets for my work. As for literary scholars, I do not currently know of any literary scholars whose work will add to the depth of my own. One challenge that will arise is that we will not be studying poetry for some time yet. This limits my time to gather information as I do not yet fully comprehend what to analyze in a poem for this type of project. Another problem that could arise is choosing a limited amount of poems from the infinite number of poems and the just as infinite number of authors. To include all the works and authors I feel deserve recognition would take not just an essay, but an entire series of novels, for I believe that there is so much great poetry out there and so much to be learned from said poetry. I am definitely going to attempt a feat in order to reduce my page requirement, but even though I am lowering the minimum number of pages, I will most likely still be well over that on my page count. My feat will most likely involve the relationship between music and poetry and will focus highly on the lyricality of poetry. How exactly to go about this raises another problem, because there are so many different ways to tackle this feat, I am unsure about which path to choose. Even though I may not know all the details yet, I do however have a strong feeling that this is going to be my greatest English assignment of the year.
After realizing that my last comment was not 300+ words, I thought I would add some. In regard to which scholars I will involve in my Feat, I hereby select one...Zeke Wieser. He seems to be a worthy companion on the quest of Feat, being that he both is a formidable poet himself and is “..the craziest guy that I know.” So he’s got that going for him.
I can predict there may be some difficulties in the process of conquering my Feat.
1.) Learning how to join seemingly unrelated poems into a cohesive unit of literary use.
2.) Selecting correct word pairings to make these poems both:
a.) Enjoyable/ necessary to listen to
b.) Literarily helpful
3.) Managing to tame the wild beast that is the Zeke, in order to utilize his powers for quality, interwoven, poignant poetry rather than drinking copious amounts of the most delicious watermelon juice.
All-in-all, I predict that despite the glaring difficulties a Feat presents, I will be able to rise to the poetic challenge and ride off into the poetic sunset on my poetically noble, Zekie steed.**
**It’s not weird. Zeke riding is all-the-rage, man. It’s the travel of the future! Just get a saddle first, otherwise it’s uncomfortable, but you know how it goes.
You are welcome to combine novels in a Feat, Brendan. Whatever promotes growth and inspiration.
Robert Berndt pd 3
I have been pondering what I was going to do for my manifesto for a long time. I had been leaning back and forth between an analysis of one of the books we have read and with writing a narrative of an account before the adventure on the boat from the eyes of Richard Parker, or an account of what Chief Bromden did after leaving the facility. I have finally decided to tell about Richard Parker’s thoughts were as he grew up living in the Pondicherry Zoo and his accounts in the wild. Even though he was only in the wild for maybe a few months, it would be interesting to see what was going on through the young tiger cub’s mind as going through the capture and going into captivity and how drastic the shift could have been.
The reason why I chose to write about the younger Richard Parker, is because there is a back story behind Pi. He was able to share his thoughts in how his life and how he was able to sort out the problems that he had been experiencing. We do learn a bit about how Richard Parker had received his name, but what was going through his mind? What were his feelings on watching his mother become sedated from the tranquilizer? Off course you would think that the young cub would be scared but that is only an assumption. Then again, you know what they say when you assume. Without out the complete back story of Richard Parker, I feel like he is less of a character than Pi. He is in almost every chapter along with Pi and he plays just as an important role as Pi. I have always wanted to know what it would be like to look into the mind of a tiger, smart and intelligent, and be able to understand what they actually think. Is it the basic necessities of the mind to operate and function or are they able to think like we do, but just can’t verbalize it like we can?
I am starting to think of the legendary status I plan on achieving with my Manifesto. I hope to select option number one, writing another chapter at the end of Cuckoo’s Nest through the eyes of Chief Bromden. I found Chief Bromden to be an incredible narrator and a fascinating character. I have hope to end Cuckoo’s Nest with a version constructed in my own mind that brings justice to Kesey and the novel. Twenty-eight pages would be the lengthiest of my compositions, but I feel I can do it. I plan on making an outline of ideas and including literary devices as I write. I do not plan on making a feat; I will let my writing speak for itself. Writing a chapter to be connected to all of the chapters Kesey created is daunting. Confidence and persistence are vital to my success. Creativity and originality must not be lost on the wayside while pushing towards 28+ pages.
It is thrilling to be able to focus on writing a chapter while leaving sources and comparisons for the birds. Using 10 literary techniques will not give me much trouble: Kesey used ten folds throughout 300+ pages. I have been an author of an original work less than five times in my life… maybe it is my calling? One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest reaffirmed many values I hold dear to my heart: originality, tolerance, compassion, purpose. Kesey helped me realize that everyone holds value and you can learn a little something from everyone. Tolerance of others, no matter how different they may be, is quite possibly the most important idea on Earth. Kesey was a wise man who moved the masses with his originality. I hope to write a memorable essay that is different from the rest.
Looking through the 210 Manifesto Directions, the many options for this essay are a bit overwhelming, yet freeing. Anything you could possible want to do are offered as choices for this assignment! The three choices that most appeal to me are an argumentation essay discussing which perspective or lens is the most important and useful, a casual essay that defines why we studied the classic pieces of literature that we did and what makes them universal and ageless, and a letter to a friend or family member that attempts to convince them to read 4 pieces of literature from this year that I enjoyed and details what makes those specific pieces fabulous. Choosing one might prove to be difficult.
As I begin brainstorming ideas for my Manifesto, I believe that I will first choose to write about The Lord of the Flies. Although I thoroughly enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Life of Pi, I feel that I was able to pick up on the deeper meaning and the symbolism throughout The Lord of the Flies more than compared to the other novels. It boosted my confidence as a literary critic tremendously. After that, Life of Pi is my second choice. I have not finished the book quite yet, but I absolutely love it! Written in an extremely captivating manner, Life of Pi is difficult to put down once you start. I am not sure how much symbolism I am picking up on, but I enjoy the book nonetheless.
I am unsure of the literary theorists that I will consult for bits of wisdom, but if I choose to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I will make use of the articles that Mr. C. made available to us. Another thing I am unsure of? A Feat. It seems like an excellent idea and opportunity to shorten the length of writing I must do, but no outstanding ideas have struck me yet. I’ll keep brainstorming.
I am going to do an argumentation essay about what lens a book should be read through. I have not yet picked out a lens because I am still researching. I want to find one that I find very interesting and one that I would like to read books through. There are so many lens theories out there that I plan to make sure my essay shows that this one is the best. This is such an interesting topic with so many theories and ideas I find it fascinating and fun to write about. I will be using a lot of literary devices but also a lot of literary theorist ideas about the lens I choose. One lens I have in thought would be doing a feminist theory lens because I find this one very interesting and somewhat easy to understand, yet challenging. To explain my reasons why I will be using literary experts and using examples from movies and books to get my point across. There will be many challenges throughout this process but once I would through them it will become easier. Researching and reading on this topic will take a lot of time but it will make my essay a perfect one. Staying focused on this will also be a big challenge because it can become overwhelming, especially to someone like me, but I plan to start early to be able to take my time and to put a much effort of thought into it. I plan on doing a feat with some of my good friends, Karly. N and Katie. E. Together we are very outgoing and very creative and we plan to make a memorable feat. Our goal and plan is to do something with all the religions, we have an idea but not a final outline yet! This is going to be a very fun and creative project that I get to do and experience with my friends! I am actually looking forward to the outcome of out feat!
House 2
The thought of writing the manifesto terrifies me. All last semester, I struggled with writing the essays. Although I noticed my writing changing and progressing a great deal through those few months, the idea of writing a paper this long frightens me. I question if I will succeed as I wish. I have always been indecisive so trying to pick a topic to write on will be difficult. I like the idea of the first option; however, it seems kind of long. I do not know if I will be able to reach the page requirement there. I like the idea of option three--comparing and contrasting two novels we read. If I did this option, I think I would compare and contrast Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. If I did this, I think I would focus the majority of the essay on the themes of the novels. Lord of the Flies focuses on savagery and men are in power, while One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest have women dominant over males and discusses the idea of conformity. It would be easy to enter excerpts from the novels to fit the idea of the manifesto and help add content. I really like the idea of writing an argumentative essay about a line from a particular novel that spoke to me. There have many lines in Life of Pi that I have found fascinating and could see myself pondering. I really enjoyed when Pi discussed the difference between atheists and agnostics, and how he is ok with atheists because they at least know where they stand unlike the agnostics. I do not think I will do a feat to go along with my manifesto. I find it hard enough to come up with a topic to on for this manifesto, I do not know how I could come up with an idea for the feat, especially one that would impress Mr. C. Although I am unsure of what to write about or how to go about starting it, I am willing to give this manifesto a shot and try my best.
2 Williams
Little boys driven to murder and grown men driven to suicide. What could be a more uplifting topic to write a dozen pages about?
For my manifesto I will be taking on the task of completing a comparison-contrast essay evaluating the similarities and differences between the Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this type of essay and these novels because I believe that these two books have a lot more in common than it seems. For example, they all have something controlling them. In Lord of the Flies, fear, or the beast, rules over the island. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Society, or Nurse Ratched, rules over the ward and the Outside. Furthermore, both settings have a leader that leads mayhem (Lord of the Flies, Jack; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy), a supporter (Lord of the Flies, the Choir Boys; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief Bromden and some of the other patients), and many other key elements. I do not know what scholars’ works I will be utilizing yet for I have just begun my research.
I will also do a Feat to further explain my thought process behind my manifesto. I currently have a very detailed and thought out idea for my Feat, but I am sure that I will need to make revisions if necessary. For this Feat I will create a sculpture that will morph the island of Lord of the Flies into the ward of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I envision a couple Christmas wreaths of sorts to surround and enclosure the sculpture with a detailed replica of both settings inside. I will also build up walls around the wreaths to show that the boys on the island and the men in the ward feel trapped by their surroundings. Lastly, I will have a doll symbolizing Nurse Ratched above everything in the ward and a doll to represent the beast over everything on the island.
I have decided to do my Manifesto using the narrative style. The narrative style is a lot longer than the other manifesto styles but I am actually very excited to write it. I love Life of Pi so I gladly decided to do my manifesto over it. I will write a chapter through the eyes of Richard Parker because I think it will be very interesting to see how Parker would see things. I would really like to do a feat seeing as how this would lower my page count from 28 to 21 pages. My problem is that I have a very little idea of what I am going to do for my feat. I would like to maybe do something with the Great Plains Zoo. As for if I would do it with someone else, I am not sure yet. Since I can start my essay here I’ll probably just write a little for practice.
The strange creature tasted like a Dhole, only it had been larger and sounded stranger and tasted strange, everything was strange, except for the Predator. I was too hungry to notice Predator at first, this single kill had taken too much energy. I had waited, waited for there to be only one kill to make, waited for the shaking of this strange bowl to stop, now I was tired and the shaking never stopped. I took the chance to look out from the bowl but all I saw was water, bad smelling water, more water than I had ever seen, that’s when I smelled him, Predator. I turned to look at him. He was watching me, I had to show my dominance or he would attack. I snarled slightly, the fact that I had finally escaped the Predators only to be caught in this rocking bowl with one enraged and terrified me. The elder Mahisha had warned me of Predators, even the Predators that fed us, that watered us, they were Predator and they would not hesitate to kill us if we fight their rule. This Predator was small, young, I could see it, he did not rule, not yet atleast. I would make my presence known, I would not let Predator rule. I met his eyes, angry at this turn of events, angry this Predator had followed me, and suddenly a movement. We looked at the tiny rodent, both in surprise. That’s when I learned something new about Predator, they feel fear too.
For the Manifesto, I think I will write a comparison-contrast essay over brains vs brawn throughout each novel. I would think there would be a lot of research over this topic on the Internet as it is a very controversial topic. Reading though each novel, you can easily find excerpts displaying the brains of leadership and the brawn of leadership. I always found it interesting when Mr. C brought up the topic of brains vs brawn because there are many different ways in which each power should be able to top each other. You could always count on Mr. C to provide comic relief such as imagining Brock Lesnar in office instead of Barack Obama. In nature (e.g. wild animals), the whole leadership system is based more on brawn unlike us humans who are more of the brains. We discussed The Lion King in class on how Nala should be the leader because she has more knowledge instead of Symba who will have the brawn in the future but maybe not the smarts. I do not plan on completely a Feat as I have no clue what I would make. I’m not expecting that many problems to arise. I think I can find enough research to compare and contrast the brain vs the brawn. Also, every novel we have read contains many examples of where the brain is in power and where the brawn is in power. A problem that may arise is writing the full 12 pages as I have trouble writing long essays without making them dull and blah. I thought this topic would give me the ability to write all 12 pages as there is a lot to write about from each novel. It will be a persistent effort and I will have no time to procrastinate.
Breitzman 3
For my Manifesto, I am thinking of Comparing and Contrasting Life of Pi to Lord of the Flies. Though Cuckoo’s Nest is my favorite novel that we have read so far, I believe it will be easier to compare Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi, since they have similar qualities. Both books involve children being stranded in nature alone without adults. However, the books also differ vastly. Lord of the Flies involves a group of young teenage children, while Life of Pi deals with the survival of just one individual, Pi Patel. In Lord of the Flies, the kids mainly deal with conflicts from within, such as controlling their fear of the beast and getting along with each other. In Life of Pi, Pi deals more with conflicts from other sources, such as how to outsmart a 450 pound Bengal tiger.
Writing twelve-plus pages of material for the manifesto essay will present a great challenge. Nevertheless, it is a challenge I am looking forward to, for I believe this essay will be fun and intriguing to write about. I look forward to reading the ideas and opinions of several qualified literary scholars, and citing these in my essay. I hope to find an idea as to how the beast in Lord of the Flies and the tiger, Richard Parker, in LIfe of Pi relate. Both are the biggest obstacle for survival for the characters, but I eager to find a more in-depth analysis of this question and many more that compare and contrast these two famous novels.
At this current time, I do not plan on completing a feat. Though I would not have to write as many pages for the essay, I am not a very artistic person and therefore I plan to simply write a masterful twelve page essay. I am open to changing my plans, though I doubt that they will change. I plan to make this essay the best it can possibly be by providing incredible insight and knowledge about the two novels that we have read in class.
When I found out that we would have to write a paper this semester that will most likely have to be more than 10 pages I may have freaked out a little. I am not the type of person that can just come up with things to talk about for many pages at a time. However, I do think think that I have became a better writer since the beginning of this class, but I still need a lot of work. After looking at the list of choices we have for the manifesto, I began to think a great deal on which topic would be best for me; which one I would be able to talk the most freely about; which one would come easiest to me. I like the option of topic number one, the narration of a chapter, but I do not like the length of it. That scares me. The idea that is calling my name the most is topic number three. This topic will allow me to compare two books that we have read this semester in class. If I chose this topic, I would probably compare and contrast The Life of Pi with The Lord of the Flies, because the characters in each book are both stranded somewhere and have to learn how to survive with what they have. In Lord of the Flies, little boys were stranded on an island, and in The Life of Pi, Pi and Richard Parker(a tiger) are stranded on a Lifeboat out in the Pacific Ocean. I feel like these two books are the most closely related to each other and can easily be compared. Lastly, classifying eight short stories by a system I would invent is interesting to me. I enjoy breaking literature apart and discovering what truly lies beneath it. I think it is very cool to look at literature in different ways and think about what is really being said or told. I am pretty nervous for this manifesto essay, but I am going to try and pace myself so that I can do my best on it and not have to rush. I am sure this will make me a better writer for my future.
For my manifesto, I have chosen the argumentation of literary lenses option. I am excited to research and argue my reasoning as to why a certain literary lens is best for analyzing literary works. I will be connecting my research on Feminist, Psychoanalytic/Freudian, Marxist, Structuralism, and Deconstruction to Life of Pi and using Martel’s work for examples for each type of literary analysis lens. I will be referring to Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and other scholars from Purdue University. While writing my manifesto, I am expecting to run into difficulties when it comes to length and how exactly I was to word my sentences. I also believe sentence fluidity and structure might pose a slight problem for me too. An overall challenge for me might be understanding the differences in the lenses and being able to accurately explain each of them in my writing. I am considering creating a feat in order to lessen the load on the page length. With the feat incentive in mind, I soon will begin brainstorming feat ideas and hopefully create something literary, artistic, creative, and unique.
Beginning and/or optional paragraph for manifesto:
When an author writes a work, their words are filled with meaning. That meaning can directly or indirectly relate back to the author’s life--their childhood, their youth, their young adulthood, their later life. Experiences, feelings, stories, and life lessons they have learned all play into their writing style and their story. Through literary analysis lenses such as Feminist, Psychoanalytic (otherwise known as Freudian), Marxist, Structuralism, and Deconstruction, readers and scholars are able to analyze the author’s meaning in their works. Throughout the years, literary scholars have created these techniques for analyzing literature to give readers multiple, diverse ways to break down the author’s literal words and discover the deeper meaning behind them.
The option I am going to select is the comparison-contrast essay. The two novels I am going to juxtapose are Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I choose this option because there are a lot of similarities with all the books we are reading and I thought these two novels had a lot in common. The biggest challenge will probably be having enough to write about to get to 12 pages. The characters in both novels are similar in the way that Jack is like Nurse Ratched, Simon is like McMurphy (both christ-like figures), and Ralph is like Chief Bromden. Nurse Ratched is an extremely manipulative character just like Jack is. This makes both of them able to easily seize power over the others. The overall theme is similar too. Isolation from society causes people to lose their connection to the outside world or become frightened by it. Being isolated for a long amount of time causes one’s state of mind to change. When given the opportunity people can become cruel and unjust to gain power. Their inner savagery instinct comes out. Increasing isolation can cause one to gradually become more savage and uncivilized. There are a lot of differences too within both novels. In Lord of the Flies they are on an island, while in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest they are in a psych ward. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the patients are mentally ill versus in Lord of the Flies they are young boys who become crazy. I think this project is going to take some research but it will be interesting to see how much both novels relate and differ.
Right now for my Manifesto I am not set and stone but I am leaning towards compare and contrasting the three novels we have read. I am also planning on making a feat but this is also subject to change, but I do have a few ideas in mind. I have chose this because although it is writing an essay I think it will be fun to pick out all of similarities and differences. The three novels we have read are all very different but all hold similar ideas. For example, in LOTF the conch symbolizes civilization and keeps the peace, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Nurse Ratched is suppose to do this and in Life of Pi the orange whistle is what keeps the peace between Pi and Richard Parker; or it at least helps Pi become the Alpha and keeps Richard Parker from eating him. An opposite symbol of that would be savagery. In Lord of the Flies as soon as the boys, besides Ralph, stop keeping their focus on keeping the fire lit, they have lost hope of being saved and civilization. In Cuckoo’s Nest as soon as McMurphy arrives we see signs of the same savagery that occurs on the island when the patients start talking back and acting out against the big nurse. In Life of Pi, Pi has to go against his vegetarian lifestyle in order to survive. This means that he must kill a fish, and to do so he talks about how he had to cover the fish up so he didn't have to see it when he snapped its neck. These are early signs of savagery and he even admits it later on in the story. The hardest part could potentially be coming up with 9-12 pages about the similarities and differences which is the whole reason why I chose it in the first place. Ironically I am struggling more with coming up with differences then with similarities and all these books are far from being the same. It will be a challenge but I am excited for the outcome.
The idea that I had for my manifesto is to add another chapter to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I am going to write from McMurphy's perspective, and have his ghost interpolated in my story. I have here a sneak peak on the intro of my Manifesto. I was cold and alone, no one was around me. I could only see a plethora of the color white. I was lost, I couldn’t see anything until suddenly everything was completely clear. I saw myself laying there limp and the life taken from my body. I realized I was dead… Chief Bromden had killed the infamous Randall McMurphy. He suffocated me until my eyes were no longer filled with life. I was struck with denial, how could I be dead, no I must be unconscious or dreaming. I stood over my body, bent down and shook my body.
“WAKE UP YOU FOOL, YOU CAN’T BE DEAD!” There was no response, only quiet. All of a sudden I could hear the pitter patter of footsteps coming my way, it was Nurse Ratched with the other nurses coming to what I thought was my rescue. They were walking towards my flaccid body. Nurse Ratched kneeled down and just stared at me.
“He’s dead, there is nothing we can do now, he was a lost soul. He was hopeless from the beginning.” I could see her perfectly, in fact I tried to touch her, I slapped her, and touched her large breasts. I could feel the sensation, but she could not. I continued to hit her in hope she would feel the pain that I feel. After I attacked her previously I was well aware of my upcoming operation. My lobotomy was the real end to my life, I would no longer function the same way. This was perhaps the best thing to happen to me, this could very well be a sign that my work is not finished. I have unfinished business.
As of now, I believe I will compose my manifesto by way of a letter. I will write to my cousin of whom lives in Phoenix. I am sure I can conjure up plenty of content to write about for Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Life of Pi. For my fourth literary work I will probably choose one of the poems we read that speaks the most to me, or that I feel I can expound upon the most. I think I could manage to write roughly four pages for each work if I make the letter personal and add memories relating to the literature. I also think I could have the first section of the letter be more of an eye-catcher and only write in-depth enough to get her attention to read the literature. Then, have a separate section that would serve as discussion points. I believe this strategy would assist in achieving more pages, as well as demonstrating my knowledge of the works. Using longer excerpts might also help to achieve the page requirement. I think I might try to use of the theorists I found most interesting from the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest forum and try to find more analyses they did on the other three works. This also may alter what my fourth work will be; I might settle for a less interesting work if the analysis is more interesting. This concept may be far-fetched and impossible to make work, but I’m sure the theorists Mr. C introduced us offer a fine, respectable place to start. I have not yet delved into this aspect of my manifesto. The biggest challenge will undoubtedly be the page requirement, but beyond that I do not foresee this task to be too overwhelming. Time consuming, for sure, but not impossible. As for a feat, I’d love to figure something out, but as of now I have zero ideas. If I have a stroke of genius, there is nothing stopping me from doing a feat.
Chmela 2
At first when the manifesto was brought up, I was worried that it would be very difficult. However, the only hard part is trying to figure out what book and what topic to write about. So, I decided to go with Life of Pi as my book choice. Then, I needed a topic and while pondering I decided to analyze Pi’s choices and try and decipher where they came from, and why he makes the decisions he does. I want to compare his actions to someone with survival instincts. I think that Pi has a natural survival instinct and his decisions must originate from things like religion or being a zookeeper's son. There is no possible way someone without any survival training can make the decisions he makes without some sort of drive. Whether this be religion, morals, or pure hope, Pi is doing something right, and I want to find out what is driving him. This interests me a great deal because there is no way somebody can have that much natural talent in something that must be learned. I also plan to connect him with the characters Jack and Ralph in Lord of the Flies. They all show great survival skills and none of them should have any learned abilities because of their backgrounds. I am going to analyze everything I know about them as well as their authors to find out why the characters are driven to do what they do. I do not find the topic hard anymore only complex and creatively challenging. It should be very fun to do and the finished product will be very educational and interesting to read. I plan to research things that can change someone's perspective and make them do things that they do not normally do and things they are uncomfortable with. Things like training a tiger or killing friends. This should be a very fun project.
When deciding on how I will create my manifesto I decided to go with the letter option. I have chosen this style to write with and about the literary works of my choosing, because I get to explain to my listener why I enjoyed reading the books I had the chance to read this year during my Literature class. This option is 16 pages long, but after creating my feat it will be less. I have decided to use the works we have gone over so far in class, because I have genuinely enjoyed every book. This would include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Life of Pi, and Lord of the Flies. For the fourth option I will decided from the last books and short stories we read in class. If one of the short stories is loved more than one of the books I will replace the book with the short story. (Since that is all the letter is really about. Expressing your favorite books and why you enjoy them.) One challenge that will arise while creating my Manifesto is time management and how I conduct my work time while writing. I feel like if I do not stay on task and give myself a schedule for how much of my Manifesto is done at a certain time it will go much more smoothly and will ease my stress. In the directions for the letter it says to just write about four literary works that spoke to you. I might also add in there a listing in order from my favorite work to still one of my favorites, but not as treasured as my favorite book. I will also add in there how if they were to read the books I recommend they should read them in a specific order to get the full effect of each, since Life of Pi, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Lord of the Flies all relate and feed off of each other.
Burch
Pd. 3
Looking through the 210 Manifesto Directions, the many options for this essay are a bit overwhelming, yet freeing. Anything you could possible want to do are offered as choices for this assignment! The three choices that most appeal to me are an argumentation essay discussing which perspective or lens is the most important and useful, a casual essay that defines why we studied the classic pieces of literature that we did and what makes them universal and ageless, and a letter to a friend or family member that attempts to convince them to read 4 pieces of literature from this year that I enjoyed and details what makes those specific pieces fabulous. Choosing one might prove to be difficult.
As I begin brainstorming ideas for my Manifesto, I believe that I will first choose to write about The Lord of the Flies. Although I thoroughly enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Life of Pi, I feel that I was able to pick up on the deeper meaning and the symbolism throughout The Lord of the Flies more than compared to the other novels. It boosted my confidence as a literary critic tremendously. After that, Life of Pi is my second choice. I have not finished the book quite yet, but I absolutely love it! Written in an extremely captivating manner, Life of Pi is difficult to put down once you start. I am not sure how much symbolism I am picking up on, but I enjoy the book nonetheless.
I am unsure of the literary theorists that I will consult for bits of wisdom, but if I choose to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I will make use of the articles that Mr. C. made available to us. Another thing I am unsure of? A Feat. It seems like an excellent idea and opportunity to shorten the length of writing I must do, but no outstanding ideas have struck me yet. I’ll keep brainstorming
I am currently leaning towards doing an argumentative essay and to display how a single quote can mean so much to the life of someone and to the lives of others as well. I want to make differences in people’s lives and show them my views on quotes that are so much deeper than the word on the page. I will extract my quote from Life of Pi. Life of Pi has such a deep meaning within the works and can be taken so many different ways. The literary scholar I will involve will be Yann Martel. Since he is the author I believe he has a certain image in his head of what he is trying to make the reader see while reading his book. I will then compare his thoughts with my own and see if they compare or are totally different. I expect the views to be different due to the age difference between us and that my mind probably works differently then this great author. I will face the problem of reaching the length off of only one quote from the book. I believe this can be solved if I choose a broad enough quote and then dig extremely deep into it. Another problem I could have would be others disagreeing with my interpretation of the quote that I choose. This can be both a positive and a negative. It can be a positive because if people do disagree with my views then that will cause discussion and possibly create a new idea off of the two separate interpretations. I do plan on creating a feat for this project. I enjoy visual learning the most and I believe that creating a feat will help me visualize the context to the fullest extent. I, however, am unsure if it will or will not go along with my manifesto.
My Manifesto will be formated along the lines of the causal essay using the novel Life of Pi. This novel is the only book that we have read so far that grabs my attention every time I pick it up and read. Also, this novel connects to my passion for animals, adventure, and creativity. The literary works that I am going to use in this Manifesto essay have yet to be chosen but I do have a few in mind. I will definitely have to look through all of the literary scholars and works in order to decide my final list to include inside my essay. My biggest challenge for this manifesto is going to be putting all of my thoughts onto one or more pages and organizing them to fit my explanation for Life of Pi. Another problem may occur in the explaining area as well as the reasoning for what I think about the book. Problems and/or challenges are only going to help everyone’s essay become more empowering. When the essay is finished it will be super enlightening, not just mine but everyone’s, with all of the important thoughts and ideas they have listed. I do in fact have a couple ideas for a Feat, the problem is picking one and starting it with a strong progression.
As I looked through the options for the manifesto, I felt a bit overwhelmed, but good that there are that many options to choose from. I feel as if it is better to have more options rather than a few so others can be more creative with their work. I am anxious to write my manifesto because I feel as if we haven't written essays in so long. This will be a very fun, and creative project for students to participate in. There are so many choices to choose from and all of them will be equally difficult, but the one I had thought about doing was the narrative. Writing from you own creativity and imagination is something I do well. I am not a big fan on constant research, but the factor that is really pulling me away from writing my manifesto in the narrative option is that you have to have 28 pages or 21 if you decide create a Feat. I may create a Feat with my writing, but that will make everything a little more challenging. If I decide to do this, I will more than likely continue on with the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. I do not have an exact idea of what I will write about, but this is the book I found the easiest and most interesting to read. If I do not end up writing in the narrative form, I will more than likely end up doing the comparison and contrast way. I will compare and contrast Life of Pi and Lord of the Flies. These two books are quite similar, but they are also very different. They are similar in the aspect of getting stranded out in the middle of no where, trapped with things that could eventually kill them, and just fighting for their lives. It will be interesting to see the points I can come up with.
I have decided that I am going to use a compare and contrast essay for my manifesto. I choose this one because I enjoyed it the most when we wrote essays first semester. I also feel very comfortable writing this way. I will be compare and contrasting all three novels: Cuckoo’s Nest, Lord of the Flies, and Life of Pi. I will only use two of the books as I compare and contrast individually, but by the end of the manifesto I will have used all three books multiple times. I will be using all three authors as literary experts, as long as Robert Boyers, Leslie Horst, and other literary experts we have discussed about recently. There will be multiple challenges along the way, there is doubt about that. The biggest thing for me is probably going to be the combination of spring fever and senioritis. Each of these “diseases” are difficult to overcome individually, together they present a very, very difficult summit to overcome. On top of dealing with those two things, there is having multiple college classes concluding at the same time. This means that there will be mound and mounds of homework, scholarships, and studying that needs to be done. 12 pages is a lot of work, it obviously able to be completed, but not without multiple sleepless nights of hard work. However, between the three different book it should not be that hard to find enough stuff to write about to fill 12 pages. I do not currently plan on doing a feat, but we will see. If I feel that I can write 12 pages effectively then I probably will not do a feat. However, if I find filling 12 pages is going to be difficult, I will likely then create a feat.
Alex Hillestad Period 7
For my manifesto, I am debating whether I want to do a comparison and contrast between Lord of the Flies and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, or write a letter to recommend a friends to read the novels and short stories we have studied (or will study soon). I think the letter might be easiest to write because I enjoyed writing letters most during Composition 101. A comparison between LOTF and Cuckoo’s Nest would be pretty easy too because I was making connections between them while we were reading Cuckoo’s Nest.
I was also thinking of suggesting an essay where I do an in depth analysis of a few of the characters we have met during our reading through Lit. At first I was thinking about doing an analysis about the characters just from Lord of the Flies, but now I am thinking it might be more fun to write about characters from all the different stories we have read this semester. That way I could analyze them “in their own books” and compare and contrast them to characters from other books as well.
I think the hardest part about writing the manifesto will be thinking about what exactly to put on paper, how I should organize my thoughts, and where to begin. I have been nervous for the 12 page paper all year, and now that it’s finally here I realize how close graduation is!
I am thinking about doing a Feat because writing 9 page paper sounds a lot easier than writing a 12 page paper. The problem is that I do not really know what I would do for my Feat because I am not very creative or particularly skillful at anything, especial not anything I would know how to tie into my essay. I plan on thinking of something though!
Although undecided about which Manifesto I am going to do, the one that I am leaning towards the most and is most intriguing to me is also the longest. I am considering doing the one where you right 28 pages in the eyes of another character. I will choose to do Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I will write pretty cynical; however, I will try and make readers sympathize with her and see why she is so harsh on the residents. I will make writing harsh on Bromden and especially McMurphy. Or should I be hard on Bromden considering he is essentially nonexistent in her eyes? This is intriguing to me not because I think it will be easy, but because I think this is the most open ended topic. I feel like ideas are strictly original and and limitless. I would possibly take out two chapters from the book and just reverse who is narrating them. A challenge that I am worried about having arise is running into too much repetition and becoming monotonous and boring with the way I choose to write. One literary scholar I plan on mentioning is Frank Davey. Although challenging, I am not to worried about running into any problems that will arise as this will probably be the most fun (yet daunting) essay I will write all year. I will be completing a Feat even though I am undecided what that will be. Drew will be my partner. I don't feel like I have any major talents (especially artistically) so I think we may incorporate sports somehow.
After reading these past three novels, I have narrowed it down between Life of Pi and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Upon looking at the essay choices, I also have not chosen a particular essay. I really am interested in the argumentative essay involving taking one quote and tying into real world life. I feel as though Life of Pi exhibits many valuable quotes that can relate to life. Cuckoo’s Nest also has a few quotes that relate, but I really am enjoying Pi more than any other book that we have read over the course of the year. It catches my attention and urges me to read on. I also have thought about doing the narrative as a different perspective. I think writing as Richard Parker would be interesting, but it would have to be a very long essay. I am more looking into the first one as that was the one that caught my attention. As for the feat, I would really be interested in completing a feat with a buddy or two of mine. Reid and Riley would be great to work with as they are inquisitively smart. However, we are such good friends that we could get off task. I would not just pick to random people though, and I feel like we will be able to accomplish a lot if we choose to work on this feat together. I feel as if we could tie in some sport method or other skill that we all possess into a literary component. The feat is a big deal as it cuts down on the length of the essay even though I believe that the length will not be a huge issue. I am worried about problem arising however. I worry that Riley, Reid, and I will not have time to complete a feat of liking. I also worry that I will not be able to balance my time and complete the essay to my liking.
In my manifesto I will either write an extra chapter for Life of Pi or Cuckoo’s Nest. I haven’t written creatively in a long while and I think it would be really fun to write as an extra character. I could write a chapter as Chief Bromden after he escapes the ward. I could write a chapter as Nurse Ratched in her diary or something along those lines. I could write one as Richard Parker, that one would be tough because we don’t know what he is thinking. If I choose to do this assignment there would be a struggle to find interesting plot points at times.
I might also do a comparison-contrast essay between Life of Pi and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I would include a feat in some way, possibly an artistic diagram. I could also make a movie or a song comparing the two. Either way, I would definitely make something memorable and something Mr. C. would want to show other classes. When I compare and contrast, I will have to read and reread the books in our classes, which will take tons of research and hours. I am not sure what literary scholars I will include, but I will research that more and find the perfects scholars to include in my essay. I might email the authors and ask a couple questions about the book.
When faced with the assignment of a manifesto I have had no idea what I want to do. As well the fact that I haven’t written an essay since last semester is intimidating. All of the books that we have read so far in Literature 210 are ones that I have enjoyed reading. Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Life of Pi have all made it on my list of my favorite books that I have read. I hope to incorporate all of these books in my manifesto in some shape or form. A couple of the choices on the manifesto list have caught my interest. The options of writing a letter, writing an argumentative essay on a quote or excerpt that have impacted us, and the choice of writing about why we study these books in our class are all things I have been thinking about doing. I’m interested in writing a letter because I would like to share why others should read these amazing books. Also I like the idea of writing about a quote/excerpt that has impacted me and writing about it. There have been many quotes/excerpts that have stood out to me while reading these books, I hope to maybe include multiple to talk about. As well writing about why we study these books around the world is interesting to me. Each of the books we have read have deeper meaning and so much more in them for us to learn about. Writing about that would be a way to show not only why I enjoyed reading these works but also why they are chosen for us to learn and read. Within each of these options I hope to learn more than I already know by doing research and finding deeper meaning in what I thought I already knew. The idea of doing a feat is really tempting for me. As a creative and artistic person I love the idea of completing a project. My mind is thinking of different things that I could do with the books that we have read. If I complete a feat I hope it is one that is proudly displayed in Mr.C’s room. I know a struggle I will have during the creation of this manifesto will be procrastination. I tend to procrastinate on different things that will take me a while to complete. So I am still thinking about what I will officially be doing for my manifesto but I have ideas and I just have to chose which one I wish to accomplish. I wish us all luck on our manifestos as we near the end of our high school careers.
I am going to do a feat with Lilli Jasper and Katie Erickson about the Life of Pi; I will write my manifesto about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, though. I am going to do a feat with those two because we came up with a pretty good idea and we believe that we can actually build something pretty cool. I’m writing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest though because that book had the most symbolism and allusions making it easier to find deeper meanings.
Our feat is going to be of Pi’s head and have a brain inside of it and we are going to show the confusion of all the religions. We plan to make it out of chicken wire and tissue paper/paper mache like how you build a float for a parade. We will incorporate the colors of the book and also write parts from the book all over his brain with the main religion he chooses standing out against the rest. The challenges that will arise I think will be mostly in building our feat because there will be confusion from miscommunication and there will be hardship when trying to build the actual head. I will also expect challenges while writing my manifesto because One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is not as fresh and juicy in my head anymore so I will most likely have to do quite a bit of refreshing before I can get down and dirty with my writing.
My current belief is that I am going to do an argumentative essay with one quote and determine it’s importance. I think this will be good for me because I am much better at arguing my point than analyzing my point. I will either do that or I will find something else to write about and get it approved by you, Mr. C.
After the introduction of this manifesto, I felt very overwhelmed because I do not feel I am the best writer. Although, I have improved tremendously over the course of the year and feel that I can confidently compose such a work using incredible literary devices. I honestly am still going back and forth between a few ideas that I have roaming through my jam packed brain right now about this essay.
First of all, I really have a strong idea going for the comparison and contrast essay. If I were to do this, I would compare Lord of The Flies and Life of Pi. I really think that these books are very comparable as both have characters stranded in a unique environment. Also, in both novels the characters slowly begin to show more animalistic characteristics. I found that this would be kind of hard to write 12 pages about but if this is the topic I choose to do, I would look at these books much more in depth.
Secondly, I really like the narrative essay option. Except the page number is extremely overwhelming. I thought writing 8 page essays were tough, and now we bumped it up to 12! If I were to write this essay, I would compose it with Miss Ratchet as the narrator so I could write her point of view on everything that goes on in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
As of right now, I do not have a feat planned. I do not have the creative ability to create one by myself. I do have a few ideas. I just do not know how to make them ‘feat’ worthy. But, if anyone is wanting a partner I am would love to work on it with you! It would be incredibly nice to have the page amount knocked down to 9 rather than 12.
For me I personally want to write more about the amazing stories we have read so far. I will be discussing and writing about Life of PI, Lord of the Flies, and Cuckoo’s Nest in a comparative-contrast essay. The reason I want to write a comparison-contrast essay is because in the past I used to write reviews for books once I completed them. I feel as if writing in length about each book tailors more to my strengths. What really helps me in this journey is having three books to write about, and having to compare and contrast these books. Each book itself has a plethora of great excerpts and ideas to use for a comparison-contrast essay that I know the manifesto will be not such a challenging task as it seems so far. The forums have already given me ideas towards what to write, and what each book brings to the table that can be compared to other books in our canon. The difficulty in writing this essay will be the nice weather. Though I usually increase in productivity when the weather is better, sometimes I can hit a very attention less spans of time where no work will be completed. Personally I have no interest in creating a feat. I think a feat more than likely is a great idea, but I enjoy writing about books too much. Therefore, I am opting out of doing a feat unless I have some crazy idea come to me. Writing a whole twelve pages over three books seems reasonable for me, so I am excited to begin writing this essay. I am worried I will run out of ideas to juxtapose or discuss but otherwise I have high hopes for this essay. I am confused as to who are the possible people that can be used as our literary scholars, or who the options are so I have not given that too much thought.
For my Manifesto, it became clear to be that I’d find the most enjoyment from juxtaposing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Lord of the Flies, and Life of Pi. Within each novel, I find that the main and/or secondary characters all find themselves into a new identity based on their different circumstances. I’d like to explore the ways in which McMurphy developed into the character he was through immense scrutinizing from Nurse Ratched. Also, Jack, how he developed from an innocent boy to a blood thirsty savage. Lastly, Pi, who has developed into a whole new character being as he must fight for survival each and every day … while keeping close quarters with his only friend who happens to be one of the most ferocious animals in existence. I found numerous accounts of Literary theorists whose ideas I find quite compelling at times, but difficult at others. Jonathan R Durden who looks deeply into the psychological effects wearing down on someone searching for survival. Caroline Leach who looks in depth upon the struggles within a patient in this ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Lastly, Skylar Hamilton Burress digs into the savagery in Lord of the Flies. All of which sources, I feel could hold a strong tie to one another within the novels. I’m excited to begin research on this being as its quite interesting looking into the psychological effects that occur due to such situations and the possibilities each author attempted to portray.
I will be doing a feat as well. Along with Jake Comeaux and Reid Grode. We will be constructing a tree which will branch off into multiple different sections with quotes, themes, etc. The tree will hold many different things in order to symbolize some of the heavy meanings found within each of our novels! We initially thought of building a boat, but that seems to be out of our league!
For my biggest obstacle in english so far, the manifesto, I am going to write a compare and contrast essay. I feel that compare-contrast essays have a lot of potential to research facts, which is a requirement, and fulfill a length of twelve pages. I have a few ideas so far but the best one would be to compare and contrast Free Choice vs Authority. In all of the novels we have read this year, the characters struggle between self-governing and conforming to authority. The main theme in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is conformity versus rebelling against the Combine. I would take that aspect and relate and differentiate it from the self governing part of Lord of the Flies. I would like to incorporate Life of Pi in it also but haven’t thought of how to tie it in. In each book, they have symbols that will assist with the idea of my essay- the conch, combine, and whistle. I am going to pose the questions like “How does authority affect society”, “Why do humans like set schedules”, and “What happens when humans do not have authority or schedules”. To support my questions, I am going to research the 1960’s and the rebelliousness that occurred in that era. Also, in Life of Pi he conditions Richard Parker with the whistle so I will tie that in with research about Ivan Pavlov and his conditioning of dogs. I am not sure what literary scholars I will involve in my essay. My biggest obstacle to overcome in this essay would be to stay on topic for twelve pages, how to put my ideas into words and form a plan with them, and to not procrastinate this hefty task. If I was more creative, I would attempt a Feat but it was a hard task to think of a topic so I most likely could not create an extravagant art project.
I am unsure of what I will be writing about and analysing. But I do feel that a comparison and contrast paper will be what I do. We still have so much to read and experience that I am unsure of the what content to use. Should I wait to see? or just jump right in and work with what I have at the moment; three books that have left an impression on me. I would then use many of the experts from the folder you gave us to gain more insight on cuckoos and read more about Life of Pi and Lord of the flies. It is quite the dilemma because I am anxious to get started with it. I know we still have a few weeks until the first 25 percent is due but I like to get things done so I do not have stress and if I think of something I can add it in with time to spare. This thought also goes to the chapter analysis that I have finally started on.
I do plan on creating a feat. I am just not sure what it will be and what materials I will use. It will probably involve Life of Pi or maybe something else from the poems we will read. I think that if I go with Life of Pi I might try to make a boat out of sheet metal. That is of course if Greisey lets me use the shop. I would then use the engraver to engrave a few quotes that really meant a lot to me on the sides of the boat. I would hope to make it water tight but no promises on that.
I will probably try a different format on this essay. I will likely use EPA instead of MLA. Which makes me nervous because I have never used it before. I have faith though that if I need help it will come.
For my Manifesto I plan to Compare and Contrast the three novels (Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Life of Pi) we read in class. I want to draw major focus on the different aspects of water as heaven and hell (life and death). In each book there is many instances where the water is very prominent and has multiple hidden meanings. I have found that throughout my readings I have been interested in these specific parts of the books and have noted many quotes that have drawn my attention. Water is commonly correlated with purity, but is this always true? I believe that it is not and am excited to discuss why.
For example, In Lord of the Flies whenever a boy died, he was washed up by the ocean that kissed the sand. There is much significance to these instances. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Cheswick dies in the water where McMurphy has an epiphany about what the institution’s goals are for the patients inside of it. Also, the ocean where many of the men take a fishing trip is filled with symbolism, mostly relating to McMurphy and his internal fears. Lastly, the story Life of Pi is literally and figuratively set around water which gives me various hooks to compare and contrast to the others.
To tie in to the water, religion relates to each of these topics seamlessly and with that I think that my essay will bring up many interesting points for the reader to contemplate.
Ashley Guthmiller pd.6
As the manifesto due dates start arising, it is time to pick an option. Yet, I am left stuck contemplating the options that have been placed before me. All of the options are so intriguing and I can not wait to see what my fellow classmates will impress me with. One of my options is writing a causal essay on why the literary works we have been studying/will study are studied in this course and courses just like it. I think this would be an interesting option to explore because Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and Life of Pi have all been banned in some schools for challenging beliefs and humanity, and yet people still fight for them to be allowed into our classroom, minds, and even our hearts. Another option that I have in front of me is comparing and contrasting Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi. I like how both of these novels puts young characters in emotionally and physically challenging situations and we get to watch their struggle with humanity. I also like how these stories allows one to think about what they would do in situations like the ones these boys struggle with. There are a lot of similarities in these two books as well as differences. In both of these options I would email English professors from different colleges to ask for their expert input on the specific topic. A challenge with these options would be writing 12 pages about it. Although it would alleviate some pages, I do not think I will complete a Feat because I do not have the creatively artistic mind to create such a project! I do applaud anyone who gives it a shot! I am sure with a little more contemplation time I will be able to cement down my choice so i can begin writing!
Palmer 3
As I begin my manifesto, I realize there a variety of different angles and approaches I could take. While we have not finished all of the great literary works that we will be introduced to this year, I have a few ideas for my manifesto already.
As of now, I am planning on writing a letter to a friend who lives far away. This will either be a past foreign exchange student from Korea who I knew very well, or a family member from Kansas City. In this, I will explain the importance of various different works we have read this year. One of the novels I will heavily discuss is “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I will discuss the book through a feminist lens, and will be sure to include some of the critics theories that were shared with us earlier this year. There were many influential feminists who disagreed with Ken Kesey and greatly disliked his book. However, I believe it is still important to examine his views. Kesey also had many other views on social life and conformity that could be life changing to any reader. In this letter, I also plan on discussing other great works and novels, including “Life of Pi.”
However, I may find that I am more influenced by the short stories that we are going to begin reading in the next few weeks. If I find the stories more influential and moving, I will write a classification essay using eight short stories. I realize I will need to find other stories outside of class, which I could find in old English textbooks, in the high school library, or on scholarly websites. While I have not yet read these stories so I can not make any definite decisions, I am thinking about writing least to most influential to mankind.
I am excited to begin my manifesto and demonstrate what I have learned so far in this class. I am considering completing a Feat, but I am still searching for ideas and inspiration.
For my manifesto project, I have (finally) decided to use the essay option of comparing and contrasting two or three of the novels that we read in this course. I carefully chose this wonderful essay option because it quickly brought several very good ideas to mind, and many of these ideas that I would use would be plenty of material to get something rolling with this project!. As I have been reading these novels during this course, I have payed extremely close attention to the multiple times that the themes in the novels mimic, overlap, and contrast each other. The books that I have decided to really focus on for my manifesto include: The Lord of the Flies; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Life of Pi. I am not exactly sure on what literary scholars I am going to involve in my essay (I have not looked into it with much detail yet), however, I do know that when comparing the works I will involve scholars that have studied the different lenses of literary criticism. When you use the different lenses of literary criticism, you are really able to see how the themes and general ideas of the books mesh right together. I am extremely unsure at this time if I am going to attempt a Feat, it really does sound like it would be fun (and could potentially save me a lot of time and stress in the writing process) but like I said I am not quite sure as to what I am going to do yet. Either way I feel that writing nine or twelve pages will not be too big of a challenge. At this point, my biggest challenge is how to start the manifesto, but I am not overly concerned about it.
For my manifesto I am leaning towards doing a causal essay. When we did the causal essay last semester I found it slightly easier to do, minus the citing of sources, but I do like writing essays with statements-- that is not having to make up something based on my creativity. I want to see how Life of Pi ends before I pick a novel, because to fully understand a book you have to get to the end. I have really enjoyed all the novels we have read but at this point it will either be Life of Pi or Lord of the Flies. I am actually kind of excited to see what I can come up with for the topic of why we study this piece of literature. There are a ton of reasons why our society has chosen these books to study, and I will explore that more in my essay. I cannot give away too much now. The challenges that I will face will probably have a lot to do with length. Twelve pages does not sound so bad, but once you start writing it and come up a few pages short-- you realize the task you have at hand. Also I with that length I will have to watch myself to make sure I do not just continually repeat myself. A feat would have been kind of cool to do, but again I am not very creative at all, so I will have to leave those up to others more capable than I. I am excited to see what kinds of feats the kids in our grade come up with, I know there are a lot of creative and smart kids among us. The manifesto will be a challenge that everyone will have to self motivate themselves to finish, and do with great care, but it will be a challenge that will be good for us in the long run.
I am having a hard time choosing which Manifesto prompt I want to complete. The two options that I am debating between are the Narrative Essay and the Biology Research Essay. Both options have pros and cons to them. If I were to choose the Narrative Essay, I would pick a chapter out of Life of Pi to narrate as Richard Parker. He is a very complex character who changes throughout the novel. I think it would be interesting to write a segment about how he views Pi and the predicament they are in. The only problem with this option is that it has a very long page requirement that I am not sure I would be able to reach.
I am also compelled to choose the Biology Research Essay because I am interested in possibly having a career in environmental biology. This essay option would allow me to further explore the Earth’s ecosystem and the possibilities of there being acidic land much like the island that Pi encounters. There are always new scientific discoveries being made everyday, so I believe that there is the possibility of acidic land existing somewhere in the world. This essay would require extra research on my part, which I am not opposed to. I am not in AP Biology, so it has been awhile since I have learned about these environmental topics. Thus, it may take me longer to do research for the essay. By completing this essay, I may find it helpful in college to already have background knowledge of the environment from my essay.
I do not think that I am going to complete a Feat with my Manifesto. While a Feat sounds like a very interesting and exciting thing to complete, I fear that I would not be able to come up with something that is truly impressive. I am still open to the possibility of a Feat though, so I will keep thinking on it. At the moment, I am leaning towards writing the Narrative Essay, but I hope to figure out what I am doing for sure in the next few days.
After much consideration, I have decided that the biology research essay is the best choice for my manifesto. While I was reading the Life of Pi, I became very interested in the biological possibilities of the island that Pi encounters. The island is obviously completely fictional, however I began to wonder what parts of it could be plausible. I plan to compare the biology of the island to that of known biological factors such as algae species that already exist and their range of functions such as acid excretion. It will be a challenge to be able to cross examine real world facts about plants and ecosystems with the biology from the book because Pi never actually gets into details about how the plants are able to do the functions they do. For example, Pi understands that the sun is able to somehow turn off the acidic properties of the algae during the day but he doesn’t understand how and doesn’t have the resources to do so. Pi is so focused on survival that he can’t focus too much on the biology of the island. I am considering making a feat that looks like a cross section of the island and that outlines the biological features of the island along with some of the literary significance of certain symbols such as the big tree and the meerkats. The author would not have the island filled with millions of only one type of animal unless they held some sort of symbolic significance. My other possibility for a feat is making the big tree with the teeth that Pi encounters and linking literary symbols and terms from the book around the tree. I feel as though the Life of Pi is the best book for me to analyze for my manifesto because it was the most comfortable book for me to read and I was more easily able to see the symbols and themes that the author was trying to get across to me.
For my manifesto I think that I will chose to do the compare and contrast essay choice, because I feel I that I do better on essays when I have more subject matter to use. With three books I think I should be able to come up with enough work. I also liked different characteristics of each book and to incorporate them all into an essay would be cool, and it will help the reader of my essay to understand my points of view. The three books that I am thinking about using are: Life of Pi, because it has almost unlimited amount of symbolism to use; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, because I feel that it has a lot of symbolism also but it also contrasts well with Life of Pi; Lastly, I will use Lord of the Flies, because it works well with the aforelisted books and will provide me with very good comparison and contractions points. I am not for sure, yet, which literary scholars I will use, but a good start would be with the Cuckoo’s Nest literary theorists. The main problem that I have encounter it the nice weather outside, I makes me not want to sit behind a computer even though I am aware of how important this essay is, but I will prevail and get it done. Lastly I will be doing a feat with Alex Wilde, and Jake Comeaux. We thought about making a boat, but none of us even knew where to start. So, we decided to make the tree with the teeth instead, a little easier to accomplish but will still end in the same result. We plan on using wood to create a base for the tree, and we will construct the tree out of wood. We will use the leaves/teeth to place our quotes and other literary messages on, so that we can have a positive impact on our fellow classmates, and hopefully help them create a better understanding of the book.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an interesting novel with interesting characters, hence the reason that I have decided to write a narrative from Bromden's perspective. I connect with good ol' chief, he lives a life that parallels that of mine. I have began to type some, but I have only reached page three out of twenty-eight. I have decided to contact some of my family who have connections to professors from universities such as South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota. I also will have peer editors to examine in depth my use of literary devices in my narrative. The Manifesto that I will type will be far larger than 28 pages, so I will have no need to worry about a feat. If I find spare time(which is rare) I will try to complete a feat just for the experience. My narrative will be about the travels and the things that the lurid Bromden sees on his journey. I will expedite Bromden as a young child playing the intricate game of ISpy or Find Waldo.
I will be doing my manifesto over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I loved everything about this book. I am thinking of doing the narrative, and writing a section of the book from Cheswick’s perspective. I think Cheswick exemplifies McMurphy’s influence over the men, as well as demonstrating how powerless the men of the ward feel. This will be a lot of pages of work, but I believe that with hard work and dedication, it will be completed. One challenge will be making sure that I don’t stray too far from the original story. Cheswick’s own daily routine and interactions with the staff are not really described, so I will have to pull a lot of material from my imagination, while ensuring that it remains pertinent to Cheswick’s character and role in the novel. I plan to examine Cheswick’s feelings and reactions to McMurphy first joining the ward, as well as the things he was trying to accomplish when he stood up to Nurse Ratched. I will also spend a good amount of time analyzing his suicide and the reasoning behind it. I think it will be challenging to communicate all of this information while creating a story that flows. The perspective will be much different than the original novel, as Cheswick suffers from different disorders than Chief Bromden and views the world and the ward in a completely different light. I hope to give insight into the workings of Cheswick’s mind, as well as the others on the ward, and give better explanation for why they act the way they do in the novel. I think that some inner themes of the novel might be lost, because the ward might not function in the same way in Cheswick’s eyes as in Bromden’s. I have been considering writing in a way that does not make Nurse Ratched out to be cruel and dominating, and focuses instead on what she has done for the ward and why she behaves the way she does. However, this is a risk because it will be very easy to change the story too much.
For my manifesto, I plan on expanding on the literary masterpiece, Life of Pi. Although it will be near impossible to write like Yann Martel, I am going to do my best to create a continuation of the novel in the point of view of Richard Parker, after he takes off running, once he and Pi reach Mexico. Richard Parker, in my continuation of the novel, is going to have a story of his own. He will not be just a piece in the life of Pi Patel, but the star in the story of his own life. From where he ends up, to what he decides to do once he gets there. Making a tigers life more than just hunting and traveling around land may also be a challenge. Tigers do not do a whole lot that can be documented because we do not know what they are thinking. Therefor, I am going to make Richard Parker seem as though he is more of a person. I enjoy using my own thoughts and ideas when writing rather than looking up a ton of information by researching. Using my own thoughts allows me to write a greater amount of pages and make the manifesto my own in every way possible. Reaching 21 pages may be a big challenge for me. Doing a feat is on my to do list in order to reduce the number of pages from 28+ to 21. I have never had to write something so lengthy. I hope that I do not have to drag out minute, boring details; I want to hook those who choose to read it and try and keep them interested the best that I can. This may be a challenge, but I am more than ready to try and overcome it.
I believe I shall write a narrative essay, about either the prequel, or the midst of Lord of the Flies, only from Simon’s point of view. Simon has a ton of levels and quirks, and I feel that he would be the most fun to write about, and yet, the most distressed to relate with. I am thoroughly excited to write about Simon, and create such a new story. After all, why write so much about something one has no interest in? So far, Simon is my favorite character in all the books, and there are many ways to take his personality to the next level. (Personally, I cannot wait to write about the pig head, or when he finds the “beast”, because his mind could be so twisted, almost like Pi’s madness, only in a totally different sense.) I wonder if I could add more depth to him, so that he personifies the true meaning of “the beast within”, more than Ralph and Jack ever exemplified. My belief is that because Simon is not the focus of the book, my manifesto will be easier to be creatively write. However, Simon could, on the other hand, be a little tricky to work with, because he has so many layers. I will probably struggle on writing so many pages, but I am sure that once the gears start forming, I can get them to turn. Another frustration might be the ability to hit the deadlines, because there is so much going on, however, I feel that once I start, there is no stopping. I am going to participate in a Feat with some others; we are going to perform an interp piece about Life of Pi. I sincerely anticipate this Feat, because it will be done rather creatively, dramatically, and professionally. This will also by my last probable interp performance, and I am delighted that my interp career will have such a great ending.
For my manifesto I have decided to select the Comparison-Contrast option. I plan on comparing the stories Life of Pi and Lord of the Flies. I chose this option with these literary works because I feel that there are a lot of similarities to point out within the books other than the obvious that they both at one point take place on an island. I will share the ideas of other scholars that have posted their analysis of the books on the internet in order to cover topics that I myself could not think of. I will look at articles by C. Rosenfield and D. Spitz. I believe that some challenges may arise, but I will be more than ready to overcome them. These challenges could include a problem with finding information, organizing information within the essay, or a problem with technology (that one is the most likely). I plan to complete a feat with Shawna Coyle and Abby Castle. We have determined that informing others about the story Life of Pi while providing a humorous aspect would be sufficient for a project. We will do this by creating a random video. Random is the right word to use for this video we have planned because it is basically a compilation of all of our thoughts about Life of Pi put into a video. This video will consist of a corny ‘How to Train your Tiger’ portion that will mock airplane safety videos. It will also include a dramatic skit showing one’s discovery of what the most dangerous animal in the zoo really is. Even though Pi did not have an iPod aboard the lifeboat, we have comprised a playlist just for him. The songs were chosen based on his situations and emotions…and other comedic reasons. Songs like ‘I Will Survive’ and ‘Lonely’ have made the cut. I believe that my group will have a lot of fun making this feat and I hope that others enjoy it too.
As of right now, I do not have set in stone about what I want to write my manifesto about, but I do have a few ideas. I will either be comparing/contrasting Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi or I will be writing an argumentative essay on the importance of analyzing in a feminist viewpoint. One reason I am considering comparing Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi is because both ultimately are about others trying to survive when stranded. I feel there are many instances that show how the boys stuck on the island, are the same as Pi as he is stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean struggling for survival. There are also many items of the two books that make the book different from each other. Such as Pi being stuck with a tiger, and the boys on the island are fighting against each other for power. The reason I also want to write about analyzing stories in a feminist view is because I believe feminism is very important for not only other women, but for men to. It is important to see how women are put down purely for their gender and men are always shown as overpowering women. Being a feminist myself, I feel it is important to stand up for women after being put down for centuries. In this generation, women are still attacked for how they dress when men do not have that same issue. Feminism is still prevalent to today and I feel it is important to show that. A problem I have with writing essays is it is hard for me to be able to write about one topic for potentially 12 pages. That is why I am hoping to incorporate a feat so not only bring down the number of pages, but to make something that shows how I studied these books.
I will be selecting the fourth option, which is an argumentation essay about which analytic lens is better. There is a choice to select which lens you would like to argue, so I chose the feminist lens. I chose this lens because I am really into feminism and I do consider myself a feminist. This seemed like an essay that I would really like to talk about and argue about. Also, it would be good for me to talk about something that I am passionate about. If I was not passionate about what I wrote about, then it would become extremely hard to write nine or more pages. If I had to include any of our novels, I think that Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi would be the most obvious choices. These two novels would be perfect because they are about a boy or boys surviving against the odds. I could argue that if Pi was a woman, she would not survive. This is because both Pi and Richard Parker are male, not female. If they were female, then they would have perished quite quickly. I also could argue that if the children on the island in Lord of the Flies were girls, they may or may not survive and thrive. Of course, they could also have become savages just like the young boys did. This will be something I could argue. I do not know which literary scholars I will involve just yet, but I will research this in the weeks to come. I think that the hardest thing to do will be to connect the feminist lens to our novels. I do think that I will do a feat, not because I want to shorten the length of my essay, but because I want to do a project.
For my Manifesto I have been considering a few options. The first would be option 3, to compare and contrast two to three of the novels we have read in any and all ways. My other idea would be argument number four. I have argued for different lenses all throughout class so I think I have a basic understanding of how to argue the lenses, but I would have to choose the one I want to argue. I think for the feat Greg Lundberg and I will be composing a song on a music writing website to describe different scenes throughout different novels. Maybe we could even attempt to get our works published! If I compared the novels I would want to compare three novels, two of them being Life of Pi and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The third is up for deciding. I have chose these first two because of their opposing views on feminism and other main topics. I feel that they will be easy to contrast, but hard to find similarities in. Hopefully I can find some other articles or ideas online that I will be able to site in my essay.
The last option I am considering is option number seven. This option asks the question why colleges or schools study these novels. I find these novels extremely interesting and to see why they were chosen is a topic I would love to explore. This would give me a more inside look to the understanding of not only the people who teach these novels but also those who wrote them. Hopefully, I will be able to narrow down my options and make a choice soon, as I have ideas to start all of these. I feel the most challenging part of the Manifesto will be the length. I can write a few pages, but to write for nine or twelve pages and not bore the reader will be a challenge.
I will most likely do number 3 on the Manifesto Sheet. I will be juxtaposing Life of Pi and The Lord of the Flies. I have already seen many similarities as well as differences. Both stories are about young men who have become stranded. The also both contain similarities in that these boys need to do whatever they can to survive. There is murder, starvation, and man turning on his fellow man. The literary scholars I will involve will be Edmund L. Epstein. He was a literary scholar who was so taken by Lord of the Flies, that he printed the book in paper back, making it a hit in America. He believed in the book. He was also one of the main factors in helping the book reach its full potential. He helped it reach popularity. In 1954, there was no Amazon. Good books needed to be told of person to person. For Life of Pi, I will refer to Enver Rahmanov. He also grew up in India, and has an interesting take on the novel. He speaks of his own religious practices and wants to become even more enlightened. The challenges that will arise will be the decision to write all the similarities and differences together or to alternate them. I am leaning towards alternating them. I will also find it difficult to make the essay fluid and not choppy. I will probably complete a feat. I like projects, and I feel that is the best way for me to be creative. I may make a sculpture of pi on one part and someone like piggy on the other. I may also do a combination of the mother sow who was killed and Richard Parker who are both humongous symbols in life of Pi. I do not know if I am going to do another wood burn or a painting.
I would like to attempt option 7: the causal essay of why these literary works are studied in this course. I like this because I like knowing that what we are studying is important, not just to me, but to the world. It makes me feel slightly connected to the world knowing that these works influence me as well as many others. I would like to do the literary works Life of Pi, Lord of the Flies, and Cuckoo’s nest. These works influenced me and made me think the most. The challenges I expect to encounter are the sources I need to incorporate in my essay, and finding how these works influence others, not just me. I would like to create a feat, however, I’m just not quite sure how to incorporate it in my essay.
Tristin Pliska 6
I am debating between two options for my Manifesto. It is between the Narrative Essay or the Math Research Essay. I believe the Narrative Essay would be fun, I would plan on writing it as the Life of Pi but from Richard Parker’s perspective as a tiger stranded in the Pacific. I believe this would be a relatively simple task, as I already have an outline for the entire essay from reading the book. The main challenge that would arrive out of this would be writing twenty-eight pages. To write this essay I think I will break it down by chapters that Richard Parker is mentioned in. Then I will proceed to write out a story with the same idea however I will be including Richard Parker’s thought processes to the situations he encounters. I also have an interest in the Math Research Essay because pi is an interesting topic and I would enjoy doing research to learn more about it. It would be cool to learn about pi as it is kind of a mysterious topic to me. As pi is one of the few open ended math devices that has not been completely discovered. I find it intriguing how pi has not been completely discovered yet, however, it is still a central piece to many math equations. Discovering how pi has enlightened humanity sounds like a great literary adventure. My concern with this topic is my essay may become bland as math is not often an engaging or gripping topic. This essay would include many quotes from math scholars. To write this essay I will be doing a lot of research before I begin writing. A Feat is an option that I will more than likely not engage in, unless some creative genius strikes me I believe I will be writing either a twenty-eight or twelve page essay.
For my manifesto, I am planning to write a literary-mashup, combining story elements (plot, characters, symbols, themes, etc) from Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Life of Pi in order to to make one cohesive narrative. I selected this option because it allows for creativity as well as superior knowledge of all three novels we have read thus far.
Currently, I am brainstorming various ways to blend these stories. I might use the plot and setting from Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi. A ship carrying mental patients sinks, and multiple survivors wash up on shore. I am not quite sure on character selection, but I am leaning towards the idea of Nurse Ratched, Richard Parker, and Piggy as the main ones. The plot would relate to Lord of the Flies. Having these three figures battle for leadership over the island would be quite interesting and amusing to write. As I continue to map out the exact storyline, I will continue to add memorable scenes from each book.
The most formidable aspect of this idea is going to be consistency and flow within my own work. These three novels are written differently with different personalities doing different things. Attempting to combine such unalike stories may be challenging, but it is a challenge I cannot wait to begin.
I am also planning on accomplishing a feat with the marvelous Marina Gillespie and the cool Courtney Stegenga. We have thrown ideas around for awhile, mainly of doing a music video relating to the novel, possibly to the tune of Uptown Funk. However, composing our own music is another option we have. We could make a “soundtrack” for Life of Pi, various portions symbolizing chapters from the novel. Whether our three minds are deliberating upon lyrics or chord progressions, I believe that we can successfully achieve our goal.
What have I chosen to do for my manifesto? The better question would be, “How are we going to ever recover our exploded minds after reading this amazing work of literary prowess and mental fortitude?” I have chosen to write a manifesto in the literary style of the infamous Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. You may ask, “Why would one want to emulate such a nefarious and evil man? Obviously the man had no redeeming qualities, as he decided to kill innocent citizens!” However, I would rebut that the man did introduce one advancement to the human race: the modern individual’s manifesto. The Unabomber was the modern man’s man when it came to distilling his message into a written form that would be consumed by many. Unfortunately for those innocent people, the man was a poor wordsmith, and his manifest wasn’t read extensively for the man’s ego. In order to “boost his book sales,” Mr. Kaczynski decided to blow up an office building. And then a university. And another building. And maybe just one more. Finally, he was caught, but until after his manifesto had been thoroughly analyzed and seen by many. It is for this reason that I have decided to emulate this horrible man: his ideas have been studied, and will be studied, for generations. However, I am not so egotistical that I would blow anyone up. I have decided to write a manifesto from the point of view of a man similar to Kaczynski, except I am writing from the confines of this wonderful place called The Oregon State Mental Facility. I hope that you all enjoy the ravings of a man obsessed with every time a woman has ever slighted him! I have also decided to complete a feat. You may say, “A feat? What amazing, insightful, great activity could this obviously off-balance lunatic ever complete that would change us, or make us think? It is impossible!” All I have to say to that is: your minds are small, and my plans are large, in both scope and reach.
If I am being honest, I am still not quite sure what I am going to do for my manifesto yet. I really want to do it on Life of Pi because I actually really like this book. I am leaning toward doing the argumentation essay and extracting a quote from the book. I feel like this method would be the most natural for me to accomplish. However, I am not quite sure which quote I would use if I went this method. There are so many to choose from!
Since I do not yet know which quote I am using or even if I am going to use this method at all, I do not know which literary scholars I will involve yet either. I will have to see about getting all of that figured out once I figure out what exactly I am doing.
I am not sure what kind of challenges will arise should I choose this method. Writing tends to come semi-naturally to me, so I should not have any problem getting a lot of content -- though 12 pages may be a stretch. Rather, research is a weak point of mine. I may have problems writing quality content and involving a lot of literary scholars. I know that I will need to improve on this for college, so it is a good thing I am getting good practice on it here in high school.
I will have to check with the rest of the 100% Squad to see if we plan on accomplishing some kind of feat. Maybe we will throw down another hot rap with E-Z Money providing some more sick beats. Maybe not. Either way, if they decline, I do not think I will have the time nor the energy to complete a feat on my own.
I will be partnering with Reid Grode and Alex Wilde. We chose to do the feat. We contemplated on building a smaller boat out of wood but we found that too hard to create considering a few of us do not have any carpentry skills. We ended up agreeing on building a wooden tree resembling the tree on the island Pi and Richard Parker landed on. The literary devices that will be used in our project are anything that we feel that most students have trouble understanding. For example we probably will not include Irony because everyone should know that term at this age in their life and if they do not then so be it. I will also take a few examples from the feats that have been created by students in the past and include them in our feat. Some challenges we may run into will probably include actually building the tree itself but I believe we can work past that. I think it will be difficult to actually get the shape of a tree out of a couple boards of wood. Next I think we will have to overcome the obstacle of carving, cutting, or sanding the wood to create tree branches. Within the next couple of months we will have to decide what we will be using for the the fruit. I think we could use crumpled up paper that we could roll into balls and then paint them greenish leafy colors. Similar to the little project of the tooth wrapped in leaves you showed us in class.
I am not sure which essay I plan to pursue for the manifesto. I do think that I have narrowed it down to the math or science essays, as those subjects are what I am most interested in of all the options. The options are both centered around Life of Pi, so I suppose that is what I will have to write about. I am not so sure about the vocabulary constraints in the biology one, as they might limit the potential of such an essay. The mathematics one seems more reasonable, as it is, more or less, just a history essay and I tend to like those more.
There might be challenges with either of these manifestos. Some difficulties may arise with the research of the biology essay, as there might not be much written on the subject. It may be interesting to read about the whole two core thing with the algae, but who knows.
The mathematics thing might be easier. It seems pretty cut and dry, a simple research essay. The difficulties may arise with the whole relating it to the book thing, but I am sure that it wouldn’t be impossible. Math has been interesting, so I am currently leaning towards this essay.
I am not sure about the feat thing either. While I am sure I could maybe come up with something interesting, I am not sure at this moment what that interesting thing is. Creating a structure might be interesting, but I am never sure of my technical prowess, and less sure of my artistic ability. If I attempt a feat, I hope that I can create something without cutting my hands off or maiming myself in any way. Does the feat have to be related to the manifesto? Creating something related to the island or mathematics might be difficult.
7 Ripperda
I am not 100% certain on which template I will use for my 12 page manifesto. I have only a few pages remaining in Life of Pi and am going to finish before making my final decision. With that said I am currently leaning heavily towards option 3 (Compare/Contrast) or option 13 (Pi). I feel that I am best served in choosing one of those two options. Specifically I am interested in writing about the history of the greek letter Pi. It plays a major role in our society, it consists of a seemingly endless amount of digits and is simply summarized as just 3.14. Pi is important in the use of Mathematics, it is crucial to the calculations of circles, spheres, and cylinders. Science also requires the use of in the use of Thermodynamics and Electromagnetism. Pi is vitally important to our societies continued enlightenment. Obviously I will be relating the use of it to the novel that we read in class. I also think that it would be fun to write an essay that compares and contrasts One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Life of Pi. I think both books were written well by their respective authors. I believe that there is alot of possibility to relate these novels to each other. Whichever option I choose I know that it will be alot of writing (12 pages), but it will help me become better at understanding each of the novels, as well as Literature in general.
Comparison-Contrast essay. I would like to do the compare and contrast essay because I think it would be much more in my thought type to write. It would be interesting to compare books with such similarities and differences. I plan on writing on my manifesto on the Life of Pi and The Lord of the Flies. I think I will enjoy comparing their journeys to each other similarities will be more metaphorical rather than literal even though their struggles are similar in a sense of being stranded. I thought it would be interesting to write the differences and similarities since they are both stuck away from civilization and would eventually be rescued over a similar and extremely different, yet difficult journeys. The difficult part will be connecting their journey, they may both be stranded, but in the Lord of the Flies it is a group of boys with abundant food and even a mock society(even though it fails). While in the Life of Pi he is alone with a tiger which could be referred to the monster in the Lord of Flies. A possible comparison would also be how he was still young when getting stranded on boat, like the children who got stranded on an Island. Contrast on the other hand will be much easier I think. It could easily show how Pi was alone except for a tiger while the boys had each other, an ample supply of food, and a much more stable shelter from the elements at least for the physical side of the essay. For literary scholars, I have no clue on who I will use for my manifesto. I may put the authors thoughts, with some critics who I will look up later and hopefully find some insightful ones. I may attempt a Feat to make the number of pages from nine to twelve. I am not to sure on what I may or may not make but hopefully if I do attempt it will be consider a feet so I can get the three pages off.
Since the time the Manifesto assignment was assigned, I have been pretending that I have zero responsibilities and have not even made an effort as small as creating a document for it. I had a wonderful idea in mind of which I will not share on here in fear it will be stolen. However, my idea fit under the narrative essay choice of twenty-eight pages. This may seem like an easy task to others, but for myself I struggled immensely last semester in composition in completing simple five page essays. Not to mention that when I finally finished those essays they were exactly five pages. No more, no less. So, there is fear here.
I have started looking into other options such as the argumentation over which literary lens is the best or the argumentation explaining a quote that impacted me poignantly.
If I choose to argue over literary lenses I feel as though I should probably know exactly what each one is--because to be honest, I still do not understand. The question will come to if I will actually take the time to fully understand what each one means or not.
However, if I choose arguing over an impactful quote, I think I will spend entirely way too much time attempting to find the perfect quote. Also, when I finally come to find this quote, I will begin writing about it, find what I chose is impossible to write about, and go right back to where I began.
Honestly, I have no idea what I am doing.
Manifesto is an assignment I was warned about before signing up for this class. While in classes with last year seniors, I heard a lot about this ever-so-famous Manifesto essay. Last semester in composition, writing the mere five pages was sometimes a daunting task; now to write twelve or more pages terrifies me. The one that initially sticks out to me is the math research essay. Math has always been my favorite subject and grasped my attention more than anything in school. I have never thought about linking math with English, but now thinking about it has sparked much interest. Not only will I be connecting math and English, but logic (math and science) with emotion (reading and analyzing). Relating the number pi to Life of Pi is an appealing task. Thinking deeply into the number will also allow deeper thinking into the novel.
My main challenge in writing an essay is always the length. I like to keep everything short and sweet so this essay will take a lot of research. Specifically with the math research essay, a works cited page is mandatory and also a time-consuming task. But also, this essay will be exciting to me.
I want to do a feat of some sort, however, I have not given it much thought yet. I hope to be able to harness my skill in math and engineering while still utilizing much creativity. I think I will do it in a group or at least a partnership.
It has been too long since I’ve written a story. So naturally I will choose to embark on the adventure of writing a twenty-eight page chapter from a character’s point of view (or a twenty-one page chapter, I suppose, if I include a feat of some kind). As far as which character from whose perspective I will write from, I don’t know. As of the moment, I suppose I will write from Richard Parker’s perspective, as that seems the most interesting, the most fascinating. I am considering writing from a third-person-limited point of view of Richard Parker, as I have some ideas of how I’d like to go about it. I feel that writing Richard Parker from a first-person point of view would be quite . . . odd. Writing from that perspective is something generally attributed to humans, as not many books have animals as their narrators - and who really knows how animals think, really? Thus why I’d want to do a sort of ‘outside’ perspective, but from Richard Parker’s stance, if you will. But ultimately I don’t know. I’m tossing ideas around in my head, and I’m sure I’ll play with methods of writing and ideas for this fanfiction of a chapter some.
My manifesto plans, however, are not set in stone. We still have many poems, many short stories, and “Othello” to read as of yet. If I can find a character in any one of those pieces that we shall soon explore that I like better, or that I believe will fit better as far as writing a chapter for him/her/it, I will certainly consider switching my plans from writing Richard Parker to writing said character, whichever one he/she/it might be. For certain will I write a twenty-eight (or twenty-one, I’m really not sure yet) chapter, though. I’m really looking forward to having be forced to make time to write a story, soon. I miss it. Which is why this option, really, is the perfect one for me to pick.
Kuehn 2
For my Manifesto, I will do the third option on the Manifesto directions document. This is a compare-contrast essay in which I will juxtapose two of the novels we have read in Literature 210 in every possible way. The novels I will juxtapose are Life of Pi and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this option because as I was reading Life of Pi, I found myself making connections to parts in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I will be able to apply these ideas that I have already thought of to my Manifesto essay, along with continuing to compare them in order to find more similarities. I think I will be able to find many similarities between these two novels, but also many differences. Through this project, I will hopefully be able to form a deeper understanding of both novels. I am unsure about what literary scholars I will involve in my essay, but I will find some literary scholars who know these two novels well. I will find useful excerpts by these literary scholars that I can apply to my Manifesto to add insight that I might not have come up with on my own. I believe the biggest challenge this project will bring is the challenge to manage my time. I will need to make sure I work on the Manifesto in advance, so I do not leave a large portion until right before it is due. I may also find it a challenge to reach 12 pages in length, but I am unsure of what other challenges may arise as I complete my Manifesto. I do not plan on completing a Feat, I will write all 12 pages. If I find it difficult to create 12 pages with quality information, I may decide later to add a Feat.
Andrews 6
I am stuck between writing a narrative or doing research for my manifesto. I can see myself easily writing within the given guide lines for both of the essay options. For my narrative, I’m hoping to write the story from Richard Parkers point of view; giving readers more knowledge about what he was feeling and thinking as well as his upbringing, similar to what we learned about Pi. Basically, what I’m envisioning for my narrative option is Richard Parker is in Pi’s place, he is telling his story to someone (who is an author) and they are hoping to write a book about how he escaped his face-to-face encounter with death with the odds against him. For my research topic, I keep going back and forth between the biology option and the math option. Researching the probability of the island in Life of Pi sounds exciting, to a certain extent, but there are many requirements to live up to and I think it would be the most challenging for me over all. Researching how the math symbol Pi (𝜋) has influenced us also intrigues me because we have, or at least I have, been hearing, seeing, and learning about this symbol ever since I began to learn basic algebra; knowing the history behind it would be pretty interesting I think plus it would be pretty funny to just blurt out random facts about Pi (𝜋) in the future and see peoples reactions. I find both of the research options appealing and interesting but I’m afraid I would start it and not be able to write at least twenty eight pages. For the narrative I believe I could write twenty eight pages but I’m afraid I would start to add in unimportant details and the story would get dry and boring to read. Either way, whatever topic/option I choose to write on will be a challenge for me, I think, because I have never written something so long before. It is very overwhelming to think of writing twenty eight pages while trying to keep the reader interested throughout the entire essay.
Eichelberg 6
For my manifesto I would like to either do the poem option or the option of drawing a quote from a work of literature and analyzing it. I immensely enjoy reading poetry and the passion behind it, that seeps through is absolutely incredible. I think even short poems have a lot of latent meanings and that would be fun to explore. Because I already have an interest in poetry I decided that it would be a manifesto that I could seriously invest myself in and enjoy. I am not positive on how I would like to classify them, but I was tossing around the possibility of poems that relate or draw into the general theme of the books we’ve read thus far. Each book would have a set of poems that related to the main principles, but not necessarily the book itself. For example, cuckoos nest could have a poem about the awfulness of matriarchy or the strength it takes to stand up to authority. On the side of drawing a quote from a work of literature I would greatly enjoy analyzing a block quote from one of the novels. My favorite part about reading books in literature is annotating and researching other people’s deeper analyses and so once again my manifesto would be enjoyable for me to do. I will use the literary theorists that have been shared with the class, but I will also independently search for some of my own. I think procrastination in itself is always a challenge, but aside from that I think that writing twelve coherent and non-repetitive pages could be a little tricky. I think that with enough outside opinions and thought though it shouldn’t be overly difficult. I have not thought excessively about a feat yet, but with projects like this I think there is potential for a mind blowing and that would be my goal if I do attempt one.
I am not one hundred percent sure on what I am going to do for the manifesto, however, I am leaning towards writing a letter towards a family member, or a friend, to read four or more of the literary works that we have read this year. I believe this is the most beneficial route to take because it allows me to review what I have learned from the works, as well as give others the opportunity to learn something from the novels as well. I believe I will write about Life of Pi, Cuckoo’s Nest, Lord of the Flies, and (if I can) the Fountainhead. If I cannot write about the Fountainhead, then I will have to find another work. I believe all of these novels have very good stories behind them, which allow the reader to take certain morals, ethics, or lessons from them. These may be different from person to person, but, I believe it would be hard to read these works without at least thinking about something greater than the story itself. I do not believe I will take part in a feat, at this time. If I think of something as I go further into the manifesto, I will make sure to conjure something up. My main goal with the manifesto is to allow someone else to enjoy the novels that I have, and allow them to take what they will from them as well. I definitely would not have read the books that we read this year if I had not taken the class. I needed something to be a catalyst for me to actually read the novels, and I hope that the letter will do the same for others. I’m not sure who I will write it to yet. I was originally thinking I would not write it to a singular person, but to multiple.
For my Manifesto, I will be creating a 12 page masterpiece comparing and contrasting Life of Pi and Lord of the Flies. I will be comparing how Pi reacts to how the boys on the island reacts. The main characters in these two novels both have very similar situations; the boys on the island are all probably orphaned from the war much like Pi. Another similarity is that neither of the characters expected to end up as they did, but does anyone ever predict a life changing situation? Ultimately, the boys act similar to each other, but not the same. Pi was a vegetarian, he was disgusted by eating meat and could not bring himself to eat an animal. As the time Pi spent on the boat wore on, he began to eat fish, turtles, and everything else that swam close enough to his boat to eat. He abandoned his morals to survive similarly to Jack and the boys. The boys immaturely abandoned their morals when they could have survive while they remained intact. They acted like savages; their sole focus was on killing. The large group of them made mob mentality easy to come by. They killed pigs, the island, and each other in their time on the island. When they were saved by the adults, they were disappointed in how they survived. The adults thought the boys would be able to work together and create a civilization. I have hopes for my manifesto, but I have yet to decide if I will complete a feat or if I will simply write 12 pages. I do not have many ideas of what kind of a feat i would create, so it might be easier to complete.
I am not 100% positive what I am going to do for my manifesto, but I think I am going to do comparison-contrast essay. The two essays I am going to compare and contrast are Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi. Some challenges I might approach when writing this essay is finding similarities between the two novels. There are many differences between the novels, such as in Lord of the Flies the story is about a group of boys and in Life of Pi, the story is about a boy and a tiger. One main similarity between the two novels is how in both novels the boys become savage. In Life of Pi, Pi eats anything that is edible, he evens tries eating a tiger’s feces. And in Lord of the Flies, the boys try to kill each other. Another major similarity is in both novels the characters are trying to survive. In preparing for writing my manifesto, I will research different literary scholars and use their viewpoints in my manifesto.
The greatest challenge I will encounter when writing the manifesto is beginning it. I have a hard time just sitting down and starting something. And when I do sit down to write, it is a challenge to keep focused and not getting distracted by things. I have many ideas in head, but putting them on a sheet of paper is a challenge.
In a perfect world, I would be able to come up with a feat and have the resources to create it; however, it is not a perfect world. I do not think I will be able to come up with a feat. Over the last few weeks I have tried thinking of different ideas, but I just cannot think of something to do. I will keep thinking, but I do not think I will complete a feat; I will just write the 12 pages.
The greatest challenge for me will be finding time to write this essay with the nice weather approaching. After analyzing all the options for my manifesto, I think I am leaning towards the comparison-contrast essay. Earlier in the year, I compared and contrasted high school to college. My comparison-contrast essay was my favorite of all the essays I composed this year. I think it would be fun to compare Life of Pi to Lord of the Flies because both books have great plots and are extremely interesting to read. I really enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies because all the symbolism that happened on the island. Life of Pi interests me because it is unlike any other book I have read. These books have similar plots, but have many different aspects to them. Pi Patel, an indian boy, has to spend 227 days on a lifeboat with a 450 pound bengal tiger. The boys in Lord of the Flies have to overcome the fear of a beast and survive on the island. I am excited to compare the many interesting things and contrast the differences between the two books. Currently, I am unsure if I will be participating in a Feat or not. I am motivated by the idea of creating something creative to end my last quarter of high school.
Although this essay will be challenging and lengthy, I believe that I have what it takes to compose a great essay. I will write to several literary scholars to get better insight and cite these thoughts in my essay. This manifesto will be helpful for all students because it will show us what to expect in college.
The Manifesto is a heavy loaded grade. I fear that Senioritis will kick in and take a toll on my grade. I am determined to not let that happen and stay focused. I am not set in stone with which option I am going to do for my Manifesto but I am leaning towards causal. I enjoy finding reason and answering why something is done or, in this case, studied. I find it fascinating that these books are studied all around and have been for awhile. Studying Life of Pi, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Lord of the Flies is what I will be doing. I will add more as we view and study them. Many lessons to all these stories appear. In Lord of the Flies one main lesson I found was the fact that all people have a beast inside of them. If they are put in a tough situation, the beast will appear. But letting the monster out is partially choice and who or what you are surrounded by; the saying, “Nature v. Nurture.” In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I see the book as showing that people struggle for power and will do anything to keep that control. The book also showed all different kinds of people from different walks of life. Life of Pi I have not entirely figured out yet but after tomorrow’s forum I will hopefully see other people’s views. I will look up authors or people who look into the books and see why they advocate or reprehend these books or poems. I will definitely do a feat to cut down the pages. Doing a project is more hands on and that is work I enjoy doing. I do not have any ideas for a feat yet because I need to get into my Manifesto more. There have been many great ideas shown to us. I would like to incorporate hockey. Obviously I can tie ideas to hockey real well and hopefully something creative will come from it.
I am writing a comparison-contrast essay for my Manifesto. I have chosen to compare and contrast the falls to savagery and insanity of Pi from Life of Pi and The boys (specifically Jack Merridew’s tribe) from The Lord of the Flies. I feel that the psychology of these castaways and their actions in the books is extremely interesting. Their situations are incredible in their own way, but the reactions of these young people is what makes me most curious. I think comparing and contrasting the reactions of the characters within each novel will shed some light on the topic. My own morbid curiosity about the darker places of the human mind excites me to write my manifesto. Weather it be harmless acts of violence like killing a fish, or the savage crime of taking another human beings life, both Pi and the Boys fall to their instincts. I plan to explore this, and many other points that prove their lunacy within my essay. Literary scholars I will use while writing will be doctors, professional literary analysts, as well as my own classmates. I personally see my classmates as some of the best literary analysts, as they usually have fresh views when it comes to discussion. I will use professionals to back up thoughts that I have if I see any doubts within them. The odd literary scholars out are doctors. I will use medical professionals to study what truly happens when a feral human being comes back and tries to reinsert himself into the modern world. I will also use medical studies that include studies of extreme weathering upon one's body and mind. I hope to peak not only my own interests, but the interests of others. I will not be completing a Feat, as I know I will have no problem writing to or past the required amount of pages, and would rather focus my energy on writing an essay that I can be proud of.
Although my idea is not set in stone yet, I am leaning toward writing my manifesto on the option of choosing a quote and explaining how it pertains to life. I believe that Life of Pi has many inspirational, yet harshly real quotes. One major issue will be selecting just one single quote to base an entire essay on. However, I believe that Life of Pi has quotes with enough depth and thought provocation that writing an entire essay will be possible. To make the task even more accomplishable, I think I am going to create a feat to lessen the length of the paper. My feat will probably consist of household objects or objects that are easy to obtain. I will use these objects to craft a masterpiece that will be able to help myself and others understand the depth of the chosen quote.
When it comes to obtaining information and insight from scholars, I plan to use a lot of Martel’s insight. As the author of a fabulous novel, Martel will be a huge benefit in writing my essay. I plan to obtain a lot of his insight and knowledge from our session in skyping him and also possibly through exchanged e-mails. When it comes to obstacles I think that this could be one of my largest. I am shy when it comes to asking people for information on what they believe or try to portray. However, I think that there will be enough opportunities to gather the needed information to write a successful paper. Another obstacle I will have to overcome is my sense to procrastinate. This project is a large one and will take many hours to complete. I will have to start working on it early so I am not in a rush to complete it. By starting early on this project, I will be able to put more thought into it and complete it more thoroughly.
For my manifesto I will be juxtaposing the three novels we have studied thus far in class. I am looking forward to this task because I believe it will be challenging. I will cover a plethora of topics. Comparing and contrasting these novels will be very fun as they all contain the same elements but in different ways. I plan using a variety of different literary scholars, I just do not know which ones yet. One of the topics is human nature. How humans react to stressful situations and when survival instincts kick in and we become savage. Is there a certain point? Or is it just the level of madness we all contain that sets it off. Narration has a strong correlation to these stories. I really appreciate different kinds of narration because it opens my mind up to an infinite amount of other thoughts.
Of course with all literature, one must view it from the time period it was composed to truly get a feel for it. The relation to society then and today will be a very interesting section. All of these books contain a deeper meaning dealing with oppression, whether it be from society or from themselves. All of these novels have given me a new perspective on life. Especially Life of Pi. The struggles and hardships he went through and the wisdom he shares from it is astounding. There is so many quotes that leaving thinking about my existence as well as the whole human race as well. It is truly amazing that a fictional book can affect your life so strongly. Where there is good, there is also bad. I will compare all of the negatives ideas in the books as well. I will be looking through many different lenses throughout this manifesto. Hopefully I will be able to share my intelligence with everyone else and they will benefit from it.
I have been going back and forth between the comparison-contrast essay or the argumentation essay of which lens is the best to view literature with for a couple different reasons. Reason number one: Which one sounds more interesting in the long run, and reason number two: Which one will be more of a challenge? After a lengthy battle with my inner thoughts, and one minor setback of something called scholarships that made me give up a little time, I have finally made my decision to go with the argumentative essay as well as perform a feat with Brendan Gayken, Zeke Weiser, and a few other people.
The main reason for why I have decided to go with the argumentation essay is because I feel like it will be a good challenge. I will try to look at all of the books we have read so far with many of the literary lens. The literary scholars that I will include people who have influenced these lens. I believe that trying to figure out which lens is the best to use with literature because there are some authors that write using a certain lens, so of course, there are some lens that would not work. You can always use more than one literary lens to look at books but I am really going to try to figure out only one that may be crowned the ultimate champion, master literary lens. The one truly worthy of being used to look at and understand all literary works.
Moving to the feat, I believe that there are six of us who are writing out a reader’s theater that ties literature terms and some of the books we have read and we are going to them out. Maybe not act out literature terms but they will definitely be included throughout the piece.
Currently I am considering four of the manifesto options: the letter, the argumentation essay about the literary theorist, the argumentation essay about the single quote that impacted me, and the math research essay. Each of these essays strongly appeal to the kind of writing I feel I have a propensity for, but I am leaning greatly toward the argumentation essay discussing a literary theorist and his or her works. In this essay, I would like to research and discuss Aristotle; I have always had an interest in exploring and seeking better knowledge of his literary criticisms, techniques, and philosophies. He is one of the most intelligent men of his time, and I feel he is well worth researching and understanding. Additionally, I would like to discuss our most current novel, Life of Pi, because of its theme of religion. My religion has been a significant part of my life for many years, and I appreciated Martel’s inclusion of it as a theme in his book. I enjoyed the many ideas he related about religion, such as how God is the important factor, not which religion one practices.
With this essay, the main challenge I will be faced with is meeting the page requirement. This will be the first time I have had to write more than just a few pages. However, with the writing skills I have gleaned from our first semester in English 101: Composition I, I have faith this challenge can, and will be, overcome. Currently, I am considering completing a feat in order to reduce my page requirement, but I am unsure of what to create. As I usually do, I would like to somehow incorporate my passion--aviation--into the project. Perhaps, instead I will determine to expand my creativities beyond aviation, since my use of it has become quite banal.
While thinking of how I was going to layout my manifesto, I had many ideas, and many ways to accomplish those. Overall, the best idea that came to mind was to compare and contrast the narrators in the stories, and how the authors shaped these narrators. The way in which I will set this up is beginning with Lord of the Flies, then moving on to Cuckoo’s Nest, then finishing with Life of Pi. Also, within each section, I will take a chapter or so from the book, and explain what it would be like from the perspective of another character, or possibly an omniscient narrator.
In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph is the narrator, so everything we see comes from him. This may skew some details, considering he has both friends and enemies on the island. Since Piggy spends a lot of time with Ralph, I don’t believe that their perspectives will differ as much as I would like to show, so I will explain a section through Jack’s perspective, or I was possibly thinking of discussing the end through the navy man’s perspective.
In the second novel we read, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, we had a decently unreliable narrator, Chief Bromden. Throughout, I will discuss how that changed the story, and what parts I believed were true or not. Kesey put a major part of himself and his era into this novel, and I will make sure to note that. After this, I will talk about how a scene played out in Nurse Ratched’s head. This will nearly flip to a completely new side of this story.
Lastly, in Life of Pi, I will discuss the narrator Piscine Patel. He may or may not be descending into madness while on his stranded boat. His reliability becomes more questionable the longer he is on the ship. To end, I will explain a section of this book from an omniscient narrator.
While thinking of how I was going to layout my manifesto, I had many ideas, and many ways to accomplish those. Overall, the best idea that came to mind was to compare and contrast the narrators in the stories, and how the authors shaped these narrators. The way in which I will set this up is beginning with Lord of the Flies, then moving on to Cuckoo’s Nest, then finishing with Life of Pi. Also, within each section, I will take a chapter or so from the book, and explain what it would be like from the perspective of another character, or possibly an omniscient narrator.
In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph is the narrator, so everything we see comes from him. This may skew some details, considering he has both friends and enemies on the island. Since Piggy spends a lot of time with Ralph, I don’t believe that their perspectives will differ as much as I would like to show, so I will explain a section through Jack’s perspective, or I was possibly thinking of discussing the end through the navy man’s perspective.
In the second novel we read, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, we had a decently unreliable narrator, Chief Bromden. Throughout, I will discuss how that changed the story, and what parts I believed were true or not. Kesey put a major part of himself and his era into this novel, and I will make sure to note that. After this, I will talk about how a scene played out in Nurse Ratched’s head. This will nearly flip to a completely new side of this story.
Lastly, in Life of Pi, I will discuss the narrator Piscine Patel. He may or may not be descending into madness while on his stranded boat. His reliability becomes more questionable the longer he is on the ship. To end, I will explain a section of this book from an omniscient narrator.
6 Duncanson
More than likely, I will use a comparison-contrast essay for my manifesto. At the moment, I will likely use Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Life of Pi. One of the points that I will be contrasting is how the books portray society. Lord of the Flies seems to portray the viewpoint that without society, the world will collapse. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest seems to give the opposite viewpoint. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gives the perspective that society is removing all individuality from humans and has a negative impact on the human race. Personally, I believe people can take lessons from each side. Another point I plan to use is the reliability of each narrator. Life of Pi and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest both have unreliable narrators where Lord of the Flies has a reliable narrator. I am also considering including the effect books like Life of Pi and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest give the reader when the narrator is a character in the story. In my mind, an added level of enjoyment is introduced when the narrator plays a role in the story. Another point that I was thinking about doing was a comparison point about fear. In all of the novels, some aspect of fear shapes the actions of the characters. The beast in Lord of the Flies scares the kids into taking unneeded measures. The fear of being sent to the shock shop forced the inmates to stay in line in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Pi’s fear of Richard Parker also affects how he is able to survive. In all of these, fear is one of the main reasons that the main character(s) are not able to accomplish their goals. It is only in Life of Pi that Pi is able to conquer his fear and survive the trip.
I have decided to write a letter for my manifesto. The letter interested me the most because it was not just about one book or just poems. I know two of the four literary works that I will do for sure. I am going to do Life of Pi because I have been most engaged with this book and I actually want my family in Colorado to read it. I have enjoyed reading Life of Pi and I would love to read it again to pick up on things I did not catch the first time. The other book I am going to share with my family is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because it was a true eye opener and made me look at insane asylums differently. Writing about four pages per literary work is a way I am going to balance my essay, so then they will not hear too much about one book or short story. I am planning on doing a feat along with my essay, so I only have to write twelve pages instead of sixteen. I am not sure if it is doable, but I want to find some wood and create it into a pi shape. Then, I will paint tiger print, zebra print, Orangutan, and something to represent Pi on it. I will put meaningful quotes about each one on their section. My biggest challenge will be to not procrastinate. I am glad that Mr. C has broken it up and not have it all due on one day. This way I can not leave too many pages to do in one week. I am setting a goal for myself to have it all done one week before it is due, so I can edit it and make it the best essay I have wrote. I am excited to begin my manifesto and my feat.
I have not chosen for sure which option I will do for my manifesto. I am debating between
doing the causal option, where I would write about why exactly the literary works we
learn about are taught, and the argumentative option, where I would agree/disagree with
something Yann Martel states. I am deciding between these two because I feel as if
they would both be very interesting. I would like to do my manifesto about either One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Life of :Pi, because so far both of these novels have been my favorites that we have read in this class. I am planning on doing a feat as well, so that way I will be able to cut my manifesto paper down a few pages. I will choose to do a feat with the ever-great Shannon Backer, the amazing Emma Baier, and the prime Shawna Coyle. We will be doing our feat on the novel Life of Pi, because we all thoroughly enjoyed it and we feel as if we will have a grand ole time doing our feat on that particular work of literature. We currently have a few ideas on what exactly we could do for it but we have yet to decide on one just yet, but I’m sure we will soon enough.
Danny Eitreim
Period 2
Graduation looms and senioritis beckons for most seniors around this time of year. The recent bloom of Spring weather has only been another reminder that my time at BVHS is coming to an end. However, before I walk across the stage in May there are still a few hurdles to climb: perhaps the largest being the Manifesto. While perusing the multitude of options that were given for this assignment, one immediately stood out to me. The narrative essay, the style I enjoyed writing most in Composition, was surely the right choice. Although that part of my choice came easy, the choice of what story to retell has been more troublesome. None of the novels we have read has seemed to be a good choice, at least in my mind. We will be reading Othello and a hefty pile of short stories in the future and I will hopefully find inspiration there. I have already begun to read some of the short stories hoping that one will catch my eye.
Once the challenge of choosing a topic is vanquished, new challenges will take its place. Writing a narrative essay for the Manifesto requires that one create 28 pages of content, almost transforming the assignment from an essay to a novellette. Despite this, I am not too afraid. For my narrative essay last semester I ended up at 8 pages and felt like I could have written more if I needed to. As I see it, the difficulty doesn’t lie in writing 28 pages, it lies in finding an idea that I can write 28 pages about. Finding this elusive idea might be fairly hard but I intend on being diligent and proactive in the writing of my Manifesto so that my final product on May 4th is one worth being proud of.
As the manifesto date gets closer, I am starting to worry about tackling this daunting essay. Twelve pages is quite a feat to pull off, but since I have enjoyed the books we have read so far, I am optimistic about the outcome. I am still deciding between two essays that we can choose from. First, the causal essay seems to be a great choice for me because I enjoyed writing the first causal we wrote in composition. I also believe that it will be a easy task to find easy reasons why we study these novels. I am not sure which sources I will draw from in this essay, but I am sure I can find experts who already have many reasons as to why these books are important to study and analyze. The most challenging task that I believe will arise from this essay is including term tuesday terms with them since I will have to pick ones that correspond with importance in literature.
The second essay that I am currently thinking about writing is the biology essay. I have a passion for biology that is perfect for this essay. I have some prior knowledge from being in AP Biology that I believe will help in this essay. It may be a hard task to find journals that are specific enough for the topic at hand, but I think it will be easy to include the given terms within the essay. I think the best way to get started on this essay is to meet with Mr. Lovrien and Mr. Stadem and ask them their opinions and if they know of any scientific evidence that may help my case. At this current moment I have debating on wether I am going to do a feat with my pod mates. Doing the feat with definitely lighten the load of the essay and it will be fun to work with my group again.
For my Manifesto, I plan to do a causal essay on why we (and other colleges) study these literary works. I chose this topic because I think I do well with casual essays and I enjoy doing them. I am curious also to the reasons they choose certain novels over others to be qualified as “scholarly”. I will use all the literary works we have studied this semester including: Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Life of Pi. I am also curious to see what the scholarly reasons are to why we read them, opposed to what I believe are the reasons we read them. Some literary scholars I will include are A. K. Ramanujan, Kathleen Coburn, and Marc Shell. One problem I think will arise, are trying to find the difference between objective and subjective facts. Like one scholar may believe one reason why we read the book, while another may believe the opposite. Also it may be hard to find a universal truth on certain symbolism or allusions. I also have a hard time finding reputable sources sometimes, but that is only dependent on the subject of the essay. I may complete a Feat, but I am not sure yet because my best creative ideas come late at night and a day before it’s due (it’s true). So I will see if anything turns up in my mind before then, otherwise I am fine with 12 pages. I would like to do a Feat though because it would be cool to have some artwork or something around your room for future student to admire, like I have of everything in there. It does say doing a film counts as a Feat, so I might do that since I enjoy doing that in my free time already.
Deciding on a topic for my Manifesto has been a struggle. I am very indecisive when it comes to making decisions and deciding on a topic has not been easy. I do, however, have a couple options that interest me very much. One of these options I really like is the argumentation essay about extracting a single quote from a literary work and relating it to the real world. I love quotes and connecting them to my own life. I always find myself connecting a character to myself or other people when reading, but this option would be difficult because I would have to choose just one quote. Another option I'm thinking about writing my Manifest on is the comparison-contrast essay. I think there are a lot of comparisons among the books we have read in class making this a somewhat easy Manifesto topic. I also know this option could be very difficult. The last option I am interested in for my Manifesto is the letter. I think this would turn out to be a fun Manifesto. I really loved the books we have read in class and recommending them to a friend or family member would be easy, but I'm not quite sure if I can write 16 pages for it though. No matter what option I choose, I will make it a priority to research different scholars and include them in my Manifesto. I know there will be many challenges like not getting enough pages or running out of content to include but I know I will be able to surpass these challenges to complete my Manifesto. I am not sure if I will do a Feat or not. It is always a possibility. As much as I am dreading this Manifesto right now, I know it will all be worth it in the end.
For our final essay task, the manifesto, I am considering a couple options and will soon make a final decision as to which one I am going to go with. No matter which option I choose, my manifesto will end up being an Argumentation, which is one of the types of essays I most thoroughly enjoyed last semester.
The option I am considering involves writing an Argumentation and picking a statement from an Anticipation Guide to agree/disagree with. From this option I have narrowed it down to two possible statements. I will either use, “War veterans deserve respect and financial support, but should be expected to swiftly assimilate back into capitalism,” or I will use, “Women constantly look for ways to dominate men in our historically patriarchal culture.” I would choose to disagree with each statement. Both statements come from the Anticipation Guide that belongs to Cuckoo’s Nest. This has been my favorite novel thus far, so I would enjoy writing about these topics and how they pertain to both the novel and present-day life in America. I believe I would use the strategy of using passages of Cuckoo’s Nest to demonstrate my stance. I would also make sure to cite many experts regarding the topic. Overall I would make sure to tie every technique together to best demonstrate my point, which is disagreement with the statements.
I feel the biggest challenge I will face during this process will be reaching the page length requirements. Twelve pages seems like a daunting task, however I always remind myself that I nearly accomplished that with my causal essay last semester as it was ten pages. Some other obstacles I may face is finding credible sources to support my stance and properly piecing all the information together. I feel like information can easily get lost in twelve pages, so it is important to pay special attention to the flow and arrangement of the paper. Despite these fears, I am overall very excited to start the process as I feel it will challenge me and I enjoy writing tasks.
I have not decided for sure on a feat yet (I would like someone to team up with if I do end up doing one). But I may create a large, graffiti, Banksy-like piece that would strongly demonstrate the concept of my Manifesto. Banksy always creates artworks that catch people’s eyes and makes them think, so I think that I could effectively create something related to the themes in Cuckoo’s Nest that my manifesto is exploring.
Jeremiah Burkman P2
I have decided to choose the comparison and contrast essay option for my manifesto. Not only will writing more about these novels we have read help me remember their various concepts and ideas, comparing and contrasting them should pound them into my memory. The two novels I will write about have many similarities I think. The two novels are Life of Pi and Lord of the Flies. I enjoy the two works and their basis of survival. I will be able to chain these novels together to make them even more memorable. They also have a great deal of extreme circumstances. Life of Pi has many more troubles. I shall ponder about our past forum fridays and the ideas that came with them into this essay. Many good points and ideas were shared in which I really liked and thought more about. Whether it be symbolism or the savageness of the two novels that bring them together, I feel they will come together nicely. Writing and expanding on one idea rather than sharing the love with other ideas could be a challenge that arises. I feel I will want to write much more about one idea than the others. I will have to expand equally on ideas to not make the manifesto lopsided. It could be an arduous task such as climbing a light pole covered in lubricant. If not the comparison and contrast option, I may write the causal essay. Thinking about it puts my mind in motion with ideas to talk about. I feel writing the essay would also benefit me. I myself want to figure out why we learn about these stories and novels. It is a great conversation starter. Hopefully I will fulfill each requirement and create a great essay in which I may look back upon.
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