Week 13: Essay - Aren't You Glad You Know English

This picture just reminds me how thankful I am that English is my native language and I don't have the monstrous task of trying to learn it as a second language. I mean, have you ever really stopped to think about how hard it would be to learn English as a second language? There are so many rules stacked on top of the rules with exceptions to said rules when it comes to spelling alone. We were all raised on these rules so they seem totally commonplace to us, but if you really start to consider the most basic component of the written English language, spelling, it's a marvel that anyone who wasn't conditioned to the language and its inane idiosyncrasies as a young child is able to learn the language at all. I've always like imagine exactly how an teacher of English for non-English native speakers would explain some of the spelling rules that we native speakers probably don't give much thought. Let's explore some of these rules, shall we?

First, silent letters. I remember learning back in kindergarten about how some letters just don't make a sound in words - and we just accepted it, no questions asked. However, if I had started learning English around the same time I started really learning Spanish, I don't think I would have been so accepting. It's right around middle school that you begin to notice when teachers are actually teaching and when you have simply been given "busy" work, so it is also right around that time that you begin looking for the "point" in everything you do in school. It's during this time that I can imagine myself being taught that the "e" at the end of the word "line" does not make a sound, nor does the "k" at the beginning of "knife" bear any consequence, and responding by saying "well why the heck is it there?!" I, like many students, am frustrated by the arbitrary, like busy work, like silent letters. I can't fathom the level of frustration felt by students learning to write English who have to learn to throw an inexplicable extra letter in a word. What's the point?!

Next, let me just talk about words that rhyme, and words that don't. For example, imagine, if you will, a beginner learning to read and write English and he feels he's got a pretty good handle on the sounds each letter makes, and he's even began to grasp blended sounds like the "ou" and "au" sounds. Now you come upon a list of the following words: "cough," "rough," "through". Your teacher wants to know if these words rhyme and you say well of course they do! We English speakers would snicker at this poor soul's ignorance - of course those words don't rhyme! But if said person then asked us to explain why these words don't rhyme, we'd be absolutely stumped. Logically, one would think that words that are using the same sound combinations would sound alike but we know very well how that is not the case. Now we have to explain why while "cough" and "through" do not rhyme, for some reason, "phony" and "bologna" (and I won't even start in on the spelling of bologna) do. If I were told this as a non native English speaker, I would assume this was a joke.

The funniest thing about the comic for me is that the fact that its reference to the age-old spelling rule of "i before e except after c" even classifies as a spelling rule rather than an exception. There are more words in the English language that break this rule than follow it which just illustrates the consistent inconsistency of these so called spelling rules. I don't know why we even bother with this little diddy - if I were learning English, it's deceptive simplicity would just make me furious. Since I know the language and know when the rule is applicable and when it is hooey, it only manages to annoy me slightly.

I find it amusing to look at anything commonplace or ordinary from the perspective of an outsider because it forces you to really think about why certain practices or norms exist. When it comes to the English language, doing this makes the whole language seem silly, which I  think is a fun way to think about language in general. I mean, if there is any proof that language is a man-made construct, it's in the English language with all of its made rules and laws. My hat is honestly off to anyone who learned English as a second language - you have the patience of a saint.

Image information: Spelling Rules (source: BlogSpot )

Week 13: Storytelling - The Party Girls on the Twelfth Floor

The RA on the twelfth floor of the freshman residence dorm had had it! She knew, she knew that her girls were regularly breaking the dorm's strict week-day curfew, but she didn't have any solid proof. She had spent hours watching their door and she had people watching their windows, but no one had ever seen one of the girls leave her room after curfew. But come on, it was completely obvious that the girls were spending every night out partying.  Every morning, every single girl on the hall emerged from her room donning a giant pair of sunglasses and reeking of frat party -  the smell of cheap beer mixed with vomit and sweat couldn't be mistaken for anything else.  The RA was determined to figure out how these party girls were getting past her every night.

Eventually, everyone in the building wanted so badly to know the secret of the Twelfth Floor Party Girls that it became a contest as to who could discover the truth. If someone could just manage to get into one of the girls' room before curfew, he could witness how they were able to get out of the building undetected. However, these attempts to infiltrate the twelfth floor were ultimately unsuccessful. Many a frat boy had been invited in secret to pregame on the twelfth floor but every boy came back with the same story - he had passed out too early in the night to see where the girls went. Each boy who accepted an invitation to the twelfth floor in hopes of discovering for himself the mystery of the party girls suffered a fate worse than death - facing a walk of shame down to the lower floors knowing that everyone knew that he had been outwitted.

One day, a new boy moved into the building. He had just transferred from a rival college where even its student body was buzzing with gossip about the Twelfth Floor Party Girls. This new boy had it in his mind to discover the secret which eluded everyone else. As a member of a top frat on campus (he had been in the frat at his previous school), he quickly received an invite to one of the infamous twelfth floor pregames. However, as he did not drink (no matter how much the girls pressed him) he did not blackout before the time of curfew. He pretended to consent to a drink, which he feigned drinking, until he'd had enough for it to seem reasonable that he was rather drunk and ready to pass out.  Once he had pretended to do so, the girls in the room pushed a button hidden on the frame of a lofted bed. Suddenly, a  door popped open revealing a stairwell. Each room, the frat boy observed through his half shut eyes, appeared to have its own door to the stairwell and the girls from the other rooms began to come through. Once all the girls were gone, the frat boy decided that he should follow the party girls to discover where it was they went at night. However, the boy did not want anyone to see him. He took of his Polo shirt which was embroidered with his frat's letters. There. Now he was practically invisible.

He slipped through the door and down the stairs behind the girls making sure to stay a few paces behind so they wouldn't detect him. The stairs went so far down that when they finally reached the bottom, the frat boy was sure they were underground. Now they were walking through a narrow tunnel, the girls talking and giggling about which house had the cutest guys and which would have the best punch. Finally, the group had reached the end of the tunnel and began to climb up a ladder to reach the surface through a hole overhead. When the frat boy himself came through the hole, he found himself on a street in the middle of Greek Row. The girls were already hurrying to the first house. The frat boy decided he may as well join them as he was invisible without his letters and could finally see what happened at other frat parties. He hurried after them.

All night the Twelfth Floor Party Girls bounced from house to house. The frat boy was thoroughly enjoying himself but he remembered to collect evidence from every frat they went to - Solo cups and empty Keystone cans, and he even managed to grab a few paddles. The girls didn't decide to head back to their dorm until at least four in the morning and by then, the frat boy was more than ready to pass out for real. He hurried ahead of the girls so they would see him still passed out on the floor of the girls with whom he had pregamed. They walked back in and snickered at his apparent snoring thinking that they had bested yet another dumb guy and soon they were snoring themselves.

The frat boy pretended to sleep until the whole hall had left for their morning classes, giant sunglasses and all, then crept out of the room to get the RA. He showed her the secret button on the bed frame and how it opened the door to the secret stairwell and then supplied his evidence from the party. The RA was delighted and wasted no time in calling the dean of the college as well as the girls' parents. The girls returned from their classes for the day to find their parents waiting for them, having lost permission to leave in the student dorms, to take them home. The frat boy became widely famous as having discovered the secret of the Twelfth Floor Party Girls and essentially became king of the campus. Every now and then, when he felt like being anonymous, he would take off his letters and hop the frats just as he had that night with the Party Girls.

Author's Note: this story is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses from The Brothers Grimm (LibriVox) Unit. I wanted to retell the story in a modern context so I decided to use the idea of twelve girls sneaking out of their dorm after hours to go frat hopping. In the original, the princes who are recruited to discover where the twelve princesses go at night are killed when they fail to discover the secret, but this was a little too grim (no pun intended) for the purposes of my story so I decided to make the punishment for failure be to do the walk of shame - a fate worse than death. The prince that does end up discovering the secret of the twelve dancing princesses is given an invisibility cloak so that he can follow the princesses without being seen. I wanted to keep the story somewhat realistic so I came up with a way for the frat boy to become "invisible."

Bibliography: "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm. Translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes, illustrated by R. Anning Bell. 1912


Image information:
Dorm Hallway (source: The Prospect )
Frat Party (source: The Stanford Flipside )

Week 13: Reading Diary - Brothers Grimm (LibriVox)

Brothers Grimm (LibriVox)
Part A: Favorites
The Frog Prince
The ending of this story bothered me. A princess loses her little golden ball in a spring and a frog offers to retrieve it if she will let him live with her. The princess is shallow and agrees but really has no intention of letting the frog live with her. But he outsmarts her showing up at her palace so she is obliged to house him. After he lives with her three days, he turns into a handsome prince, revealing that he has been a cursed prince all along. The princess and the prince marry and live happily ever after. I did not like that the princess seems to be rewarded for acting shallow.

Rapunzel
This is pretty much the typical story I know of Rapunzel - a girl taken from her parents and kept in a tower alone with long hair that can be used as a ladder (her hair is not magical as Disney would have you believe). The only real difference between this story and my previous knowledge of this story is the end part about Rapunzel living in exile with her children until the prince come and rescues her. I guess most versions of this story wish to keep a chaste image of Rapunzel and leave the part about her giving birth to children out of the story.

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean
This was a funny little story. I like how it involves the personification of objects rather than animals - it is pretty common to see talking animals in fairytales, but no so much inanimate objects so that was a nice change. This story also gives a little etiology for the black-eyed pea as the bean in the story laughs at the misfortune of her new friends the straw and the coal who have drowned and she explodes. Luckily for her, a man comes along who is able to sew her together, but since he uses black thread, the bean now has a black stitch holding together the two brown halves.

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
This story I believe is a warning about the importance in realizing that everyone has their place. When these three friends try to do each other's job, each meets his demise. All it takes is a little word from some of the bird's other peers for him to think that he is bigger and more important than his position. From then, the set way of living of the three friends is changed and eventually all three die as a result. It is a good lesson in understanding that while every job may not be glamorous every job is important and specialized.

Briar Rose
Briar Rose is basically the story of sleeping beauty. This is interesting because in the Disney adaptation of Sleeping  Beauty, Arora is given the alias Briar Rose while she is in hiding. This makes me curious as to why these stories are listed separately.

Part B: Favorites
The Queen Bee
This story seems to give a lesson in the importance of treating others with respect because you never know when people will come back into your life and how they will be able to help or hurt you. This is illustrated by the behavior of three brothers as they journey throughout the world. They come upon several situations in which a smaller or lesser being can be taken advantage of but the youngest of the three brothers alone stands up for these defenseless creatures. In return, later in his travels, all the creatures that the younger brother spared come back to help him when he is in need and are even able to bring him happiness by enabling to marry.

The Twelve Huntsmen
This story was very interesting as it involved the use of deception in order to obtain love. It also combined aspects of different stories with which I am familiar, for example, the Princess and the Pea. The overall message of the story was not one that I necessarily agreed with because it made it seem as though it is okay to break vows or given word. This idea is manifest in the young prince who scorns his love in favor of a princess that his father has picked out for him but then turns back and scorns this woman as well in favor of his old love. There is also, however, something to be said in this story about the power of true love and fate as the two loves end up finding each other in the end despite all odds.

Jorinda and Jorindel
This is another story that seems to illustrate the power of true love. Here we see two lovers separated and one who will not rest until his love is returned to him. The story does have a happy ending which I believe serves as a positive message about the reward perseverance and tenacity will bring.


The Twelve Dancing Princesses
This happens to be one of my favorite fairy tales. A man has to find out the secret of where 12 princesses go to dance at night (for their chamber is locked up at night). The man is able to trick the princesses into leading him straight into their secret world. I think my favorite type of fairytale is one that involves the tricking of a party that believes itself too clever to be tricked. It is always fun to see the unflappable outsmarted.

Week 12: Essay - My Personal Guide to Writing

I think I can honestly say that I've done more writing for this class this semester than I've done in all my other semesters of college combined. I think it's great because I am basically writing everyday. Writing so much, it would seem as though I would grow weary of it, especially now since it is getting close to the end of the semester but really, the opposite is true. I've had a lot of time to learn about my strengths and weaknesses where writing is concerned and nail down a few strategies that I typically employ when writing.

Choosing a Topic
So in this class, we've pretty much been given free reign to write about whatever we want. This is exciting at first, but then it becomes a little bit daunting because there are endless topic from which one can choose. How on Earth does one narrow it down? I went through this momentary panic when I was choosing a storybook topic. The one thing I can say about choosing a topic is that it helps to write about what you know or in which you have an interest. Even a little bit of background information gives a good starting place to begin writing. I have a pretty strong church background which led me to choose to write about the gospels for my storybook. However, that doesn't mean writing about what you know won't teach you anything. It's your chance to really dive into a subject and learn more about it. Before writing about the Gospels, I had never really put much thought into who the authors were, so researching who is thought to have authored the Gospels was really fascinating.

Starting Out
This, for me, is the hardest part of writing a paper. Staring at that blank word document can be scary and a little disheartening. The best tip I can get for moving past this stage is to just start writing. Really. Anything at all related to your topic. I find that sometimes it helps just to see words on that blank page. It also allows for some clarity - you've got all these ideas and thoughts jumbled up inside of your head and it's incredibly helpful to see your thoughts on paper. Then, with the blank page gone, you will feel encouraged to keep going. Another thing that I've found works for me is skipping the intro. This may have caused the heads of English teachers everywhere to explode and for that I apologize. However, most of the time that I get stuck on starting a paper, it's because I simply do not know how to begin the intro. Once I've got a few ideas down on paper, I then have an idea of how I want to lead into said ideas, so then I'll go back and write the intro.

Editing/Proofreading
Confession: This is the part of paper-writing with which I struggle the most! However, I can give a few tips based on lessons I've learned the hard way in regard to this process. First, it's a really good idea to have someone else look at your paper. Whether that person is a parent, a roommate, or a professor, it helps to have a fresh set of eyes look over your writing. This is where you'll discover any awkward wording, grammatical errors and technical things like that. Next it is also really important to get feedback from the assigning professor. The professor who gave the writing assignment knows exactly what he or she is looking for so you don't need to worry about whether you're going the right direction with your paper. Make sure of course, that you give you give yourself plenty of time to fix whatever is not working with your paper - you don't want to have to completely rewrite a paper two days before it's due, my roommate and I can both attest to that!

I fully believe that the more you write, the easier it gets because frequent writing allows you to develop a formula almost. These strategies are from my own personal formula but I hope to add more as I continue reading and writing for this class.

Image Information:
The Blank Page (image source: Word Press )
Proofreading: (image source: Dreams Time )

Week 12: Storytelling - The Three Little Wolves and the Big Fat Pig

Once upon a time, there was a little village called Wolfville right in the center of the forest. Really, Wolfville was just like any other animal village one might find in any old forest - there was a baker, a blacksmith, and there was even a little market where all the mother wolves sent their wolf-children to pick up milk and eggs. The wolf-children liked to play hide-and-seek, Red Rover, and all of the other silly games that children like to play, but they especially liked to run about the woods on the edge of the village. All children knew that one could not go too deep into the forest, for there were horrid creatures that lurked in the shadows. There was not a wolf-child in Wolfville who had not heard of the Big Fat Pig who gobbles up naughty little wolf-children. The story of the three wolf-children and the Big Fat Pig made even the bravest of the wolf-children unwilling to venture deep into the woods!

There were once three wolf-children, brothers, who decided one day that they were old enough to go out and live on their own. Their mother pleaded with them to stay, for they were still very young, but saw that they had set their minds on leaving. With a sigh, she consented to their journey, but before the brothers left, she gave them each a lunch basket and a piece of advise:

Now, the woods be mighty lonesome
The woods be mighty big
Venture, ye, not deeply
Else you'll meet the Big Fat Pig

The brothers each picked up his lunch basket and went on their way.

Once they reached the woods where they intended to build their houses, a great debate arose concerning the material for the house and it was decided that each brother should build his own house out of whatever material he chose. The wolf brothers all went their separate ways in order to find the building material they wanted.

The eldest wolf wanted to build his house of straw and took off into the woods in one direction, gathering bits of straw along the way. He was so consumed with his task that he didn't realize how deep into the woods he was. Once he had enough straw, the eldest wolf built a fine house and when it was done, he decided to go in and take a nap. While he was sleeping, who should find this neat little straw house but the Big Fat Pig! The Big Fat Pig walked right up to the door and called sweetly,

Oh, wolf, oh wolf!
Are you about?
I want a word
Won't you please, wolf, come out?

The eldest wolf was not to be fooled that easily! He replied,

Away with ye, Pig!
You not be so clever
You ask for a word
I give you one: Never!

At this, the Pig was very angry so he simply knocked the house down and gobbled up the eldest wolf for breakfast.

The middle wolf wanted to build his house of sticks and took off into the woods in the other direction gathering sticks along the way. He was so consumed with his task that he didn't realize how deep into the woods he was. Once he had enough sticks, the middle wolf built a fine house and when it was done, he decided to go in and take a cup of tea. While he was having his tea, who should find this tidy little stick house but the Big Fat Pig! The Big Fat Pig walked right up to the door and called sweetly,

Oh, wolf, oh wolf!
Are you about?
I want a word
Won't you please, wolf, come out?

The middle wolf was not to be fooled that easily! He replied,

Away with ye, Pig!
You not be so clever
You ask for a word
I give you one: Never!

At this, the Pig was very angry so he simply knocked the house down and gobbled up the middle wolf for dinner.

The youngest wolf was the most clever of the three brothers and wanted to build his house out of brick. So he ventured into the heart of the woods to gather mud and water to build his bricks. He was so consumed with his task that he didn't realize how deep into the woods he was. Once he made his bricks, the youngest wolf built a sturdy house and when it was done, he went inside and locked the door. After he locked his door, who should find this study little brick house but the Big Fat Pig! He walked right up to the door and called sweetly,

Oh, wolf, oh wolf!
Are you about?
I want a word
Won't you please, wolf, come out?

The youngest wolf, being quite clever answered

Aye, Pig! I'm here!
But you cannot come through
This door here be stuck
So here's what I'll do

My chimney be wide
It may sound absurd
But down my wide chimney
You'll have your wee word

The Big Fat Pig climbed up on the roof and took a peek down the chimney. He saw that the youngest wolf had a pot of water boiling over the fire - what a clever trick! So the Pig waited and waited on the roof until finally the youngest wolf unlocked his door and poked his head out to see where the Big Fat Pig had gone. The Big Fat Pig jumped down from the roof onto the wolf and ate him up for supper.

Of course, when the wolf-children of Wolfville got older, they realized that the story was nothing but an old fairy tale - something the mother wolves told their wolf-children when they thought they were getting too smart for their own good. The story, though frightening, was far too absurd to be real. I mean honestly, a pig that eats naughty little wolves - everyone knows that such awful creatures as pigs are nothing but make believe!

Author's Note: This is a retelling of the story of The Three Little Pigs from the English Fairy Tales Unit. I thought it would be fun to completely reverse the roles in the story, making the pig the "bad guy" instead of the wolf. I tried to use the repetitive structure used in a lot of the fairy tales in this unit and used rhymes for dialogue to give it more of a fairy tale feel. I changed the ending of the story making the third wolf get eaten because I wanted the story to be seen as somewhat frightening from the perspective of children such that the story would be a good story for mothers to tell their children to keep them from being naughty, which is the way I've set up the story.

Bibliography: "The Story of the Three Little Pigs." English Fairy Tales. Joseph Jacobs, illustrated by John D. Batten. 1890.

Image Information: Three Little Wolves (image source: Daily Motion )

Week 12: Reading Diary - English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales

Part A:
Tom Tit Tot
This was one of my favorites! Ever since I joined the Once Upon a Time fandom, I've been utterly obsessed with all things to do with Rumplestiltskin. This story was very similar to the traditional Rumplestiltskin story. A mother is singing about the gluttony of her daughter who has eaten five pies in one day. A passing king overhears the mother speaking of this and, embarrassed, lies and says she was singing about how her daughter could spin skeins (which, according to Google, is like a bundle of yarn.) The king decides he would like to marry this young lady who can spin skeins and tells the mother this, but warns her that if her daughter is unable to do what the mother has promised, he will kill the daughter. The mother agrees to this thinking that after awhile the king will have forgotten about this stipulation. He, however, does not and the time comes when he puts the daughter in a room and demands she spin five skeins every night for the next month or he will kill her. Just as the daughter is sure she will die, a magical imp appears to her and promises to do her spinning for her every night, but she must guess his name by the end of the month or else he will make her his slave. The daughter guesses every name she can think of, but it isn't until she hears from her husband, the king, that he has seen an imp dancing around and singing his name, Tom Tit Tot, that she is able to outsmart the imp. The imp vanishes not to be seen again. I liked this story and found it very amusing, but it left me to wonder what the daughter would do the next time the king demanded she spin skeins - she never did learn!

The Rose Tree
I found this story a little bit more macabre than the light-hearted first story. The story begins with two half siblings, a boy and a girl. The sibling are very good friends, but the mother of the boy hates the little girl for her beauty and charm. The stepmother plots to get rid of the beautiful girl and one day tricks the girl into lying her head in the lap of the stepmother who proceeds to cut the girl's head off. The evil stepmother cooks up the poor girl and feeds it to her clueless husband but the girl's brother refuses to eat what he is given and instead finds the remains of his poor sister and buries her beneath a rose tree. One day, a white bird emerges from the rose tree - it is the girl and she sings about the brutal murder she has suffered. She entrances several people with her song into giving her items. She drops two of the items, a pair of red shoes and a gold watch as gifts for her father and brother, and when the stepmother comes out to see what gift she will receive from the sky, the bird drops a stone on her head. I like that, even with a brutal murder, the story had a sort of happy ending. That is - at least the stepmother got what was coming to her. I also liked the irony of the stepmother's greed and jealousy being the thing that killed her daughter and the thing that killed her.


The Old Woman and Her Pig
This is what is known as a cumulative story and it reminded me a lot of the song "I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." A woman is trying to get her pig over a stile which it is too afraid to cross. So (starting at the end) she gives a cow a bundle of hay so that the cow will giver a saucer of milk to give to a cat so that the cat will kill a rat so that the rat would gnaw a piece of rope so that the rope wouldn't hang a butcher so that the butcher would be able to kill an ox so that he ox would drink water so that the water could quench a fire so that the fire would burn a stick making the stick beat a dog so that the dog would bit the pig to make the pig jump over the stile *deep breath* I enjoyed this story a lot despite the fact that there were some parts that made no sense (if a fire is quenched, how could it burn?) but I think that added an element of silliness that made this story a lot of fun to read.

Mouse and Mouser
An extremely unusual story, this was, and I don't necessarily understand the point of it. Basically, a mouse goes to visit a cat - it makes it seem as though the two are friends. Then transpires an exchange between the two in which they both speak in short verse with the mouse speaking first and the cat responding. The cat's responses seem to get more and more sinister until she eventually pounces on and kills the unsuspecting mouse. This ending was quite unexpected and abrupt; I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But nonetheless, I liked the back and forth between the cat and mouse which is why I included it.

Cap o' Rushes
This was a version of a Cinderella story. Cap o' Rushes is the name given to one of the three beautiful daughters of a rich gentleman after he turns the girl out for saying that she loves him like salt loves fresh meat (he is unimpressed by the simile). She disguises herself by making herself a cloak with a hood out of rushes and becomes a maid for another rich family. One night, there is a great dance and all the servants are allowed to go, but Cap o' Rushes  says that she is too tired to go. Once everyone leaves, she sheds her disguise and attends the dance dressed in finery, capturing the heart of her own master's son. She does not reveal her true identity to anyone and leaves the party so she can het home before everyone else. She does this every time there is a dance and the poor master's son gives her a ring, but when he cannot find the mysterious woman, he becomes so heartsick that he has to take to his bed. Cap o' Rushes offers to make gruel for the sick man and places the ring at the bottom of the bowl. He quickly figures out who she is and they get married at once. She requests, though, that at their wedding banquet, all the food be prepared without salt. When her father (who is invited to the feast) tastes the unsalted food, he weeps thinking of his daughter and how now he understood how she loved him. Cap o' Rushes reveals herself to her father and soon everyone is happy. I loved the cleverness and creativity of Cap o' Rushes when she decides to reveal herself. I think it is a way of making those around her be truly appreciative of her.

The Three Little Pigs
This was basically the classic story of the Three Little Pigs that I am familiar with. The only difference really was that the Big Bad Wolf seemed a bit more tenacious. Instead of giving up once he is unable to blow down the third pig's house of brick, the Wolf continues to try to trick the Pig into leaving his house so that the Wolf can eat him. The Wolf keeps inviting the Pig to go places at a certain time, but the Wolf keeps arriving at the discussed time to find that the Pig has already gone without him. Eventually the Wolf becomes so frustrated that he decides to simply go down the Pig's chimney. The clever Pig, however, places a pot over the fire and the Wolf falls in so the Pig cooks and eats the Wolf. What a surprising twist!

Part B:
Molly Whuppie
The story begins in a very Hansel and Gretel-like way. A man takes his 3 youngest children to the woods because he has too many children to feed them all. They wander the woods for awhile before coming upon a house. They ask to be let in and given something to eat. The woman inside allows them in but warns them not to be around when her husband, a giant, returns. However, they are too late to leave and the giant comes. One of the children Molly Whuppie, tricks the giant into killing his own children instead of her and her siblings. They get away from the giant's house and end up at a castle where they tell the king of their recent adventures. The king is impressed but says he will be more so if she goes back two more times to steal from the giant. If she does so, he will marry her sisters to his sons. After she is successful, the king asks Molly to go back one more time and if she comes back, he would give his youngest son in marriage. This time when she goes back the giant is ready for her and he catches her and asks her what she would do if she was in his position. She tells him she would put him in a sack with a dog, a cat, a needle, and thread, and shears and then she would beat the bag with a stick. He plans to do just this and once she is in the bag he goes to find a stick. While in the bag, Molly tricks the giant's wife into getting into the bag herself and her husband beats the bag, unable to hear her cries over the sounds of the cat and dog. So Molly goes back and marries her prince.

Mr. Fox
This story was like something straight out of a horror movie! Lady Mary is beautiful and all the men around her want to marry her, but she only likes Mr. Fox and they decide that they will get married. Once betrothed, Mary begins to think how strange it is that Mr. Fox has never let her see where he lives so she sets out to find his castle. She finds it and to her horror discovers a room filled with the skeletons and bodies of dead women. Mr. Fox returns suddenly, dragging with him another young lady. She is wearing a ring and Mr. Fox cannot get the ring off of her so he chops off her hand which lands right in the lap of Lady Mary, who is hiding. She runs back to her home. The next time she sees Mr. Fox, she claims that she has had a bad dream in which she saw all the horrors that his home held. Mr. Fox denies that any such thing could occur at his home but Lady Mary reveals the hand of the maiden he had dragged off the day before. At once, everyone present jumps up to kill Mr. Fox. I can't imagine being told this story as a child as a bedtime story. It is positively horrifying! But at the same time, it is somewhat intriguing - just like a horror movie.



Johnny-cake
A variation of the story of the Gingerbread Man. Instead of gingerbread, this little man is a Johnny-cake that runs away from a little boy and his parents, two well diggers, two ditch diggers, a bear,  and a wolf taunting each as he passes. Then when he comes upon a fox, he passes by bragging that he can outrun the fox just as he has everyone else, but the fox pretends not to hear Johnny-cake. When Johnny-cake goes closer to the fox to make himself heard the fox eats him. To me this is a classic tale of pride coming before the fall. Boasting literally was Johnny-cakes demise.

Mr. Miacca
I can imagine my mother telling me this story in order to dissuade me from misbehaving. It is pretty scary from a child's perspective. Mr. Miacca in this story, serves as the punisher of little boys who do not obey. Tommy Grimes' mother warns him not to go around the corner alone or else Mr. Miacca will get him. Indeed, one day when Tommy decides not to listen to his mother, Mr. Miacca grabs Tommy and takes him home to eat him. While Mr. Miacca is gathering herbs to cook with poor Tommy, Tommy manages to trick Mrs. Miacca into letting him go home in order to get a pudding for her. Tommy escapes but has clearly not learned his lesson as he goes off around the corner by himself and is once again snatched by Mr. Miacca. This time, Tommy is made to sit under the sofa so he doesn't escape but he once again outsmarts Mr. Miacca by sticking out a leg of the sofa to be chopped off instead of his own and then making a break for it. Finally Tommy has learned his lesson
ccs

Week 11: Essay - An English Major's Dream

I want to begin my essay with a clarification: this is not meant to be a dig at English majors in any way. I found this comic funny because its overt irony. It is ironic in that it is the exact opposite of the stereotypical plight of the English major. The rock star persona this English major seems to have embodied - fighting off the ladies, taking calls from the president, rolling in cash - is humorous because all things that one would never think to attribute to an English major. These particular panels are meant, I believe, to draw special attention to a few very real problems that English majors are doomed to encounter.

First, it is my experience, just from holding counsel with a great number of women on a daily basis, that the ladies do not typically "go for" the English majors - at least the type of ladies that are portrayed in this comic. These "groupies" are representative of women who come to college intent on receiving an M.R.S. degree, that is, they are focused on landing a husband with no real interest in actually getting an education. Getting an M.R.S. degree is something that many women, myself included, often joke about. My friends have often make jokes about lurking around the pre-med club or pre-law club meetings in order to find a man, but you don't often hear women talk about lurking around the English department. If a woman is in college to find a husband (I know they exist, though I've never encountered one) she is likely looking for a rich husband and is more apt to seek out the pre-med or pre-law type, those that typically do end up making a fair salary (once they pay off student loans!) This is not to say, obviously, that there are not women vying for English majors, just not maybe as blindly and indiscriminately as I have witnessed some women go after doctors.

"But what will you do with a degree in English?" I imagine English majors hear this all the time and are probably sick of it. There are, incidentally, a great deal of things one can do with a degree in English or any humanities subject, really. However, with humanities majors in general, I think it is a good idea to go into that degree field with some sort of plan for after college -  to teach, to write, or what have you - or else you may end up working in an area that has nothing to do with your degree, which I imagine would be rather heart-breaking. There are some places of business that only require applicants to have a degree and it doesn't matter in what. It is highly unlikely that an English major is going to feel validated at one of these jobs because it will be highly unlikely that they will get to apply anything that they have learned in their four years of college. And then there are the jobs that do require a specific degree. There are, of course,  jobs that require English degrees, but they are more difficult to come by than, say, jobs looking for business majors, and are, therefore, highly competitive. So it is not impossible by any means to find a job as an English major, but it is difficult, particularly if you desire to work in your field.

While we would all love to believe that one day our knowledge set is going to come in handy at just the right moment - some important official will need a poem analyzed, one of the great American writers will wish to discuss literature with a  worthy, well-read contemporary, or for me, I will be on a game show in which I have to identify the proteins used in DNA replication - the fact is, the extensive knowledge we have gained in many different areas will go largely unappreciated. If you are an English major with an office job, it is not likely that your knowledge of Shakespearean poetry will be used in your everyday life. Not to shatter anyone's dreams, but the president is not going to call asking you to analyze a play. Nothing you learn is useless, for sure, but some of the knowledge we gain just isn't going to be used practically on a daily daily and this is especially true, for humanities majors who work outside of their field.

This cartoon is funny but it is also quite frightening, frankly, English major or not. As a Biology major, I often worry about what I will do if the whole medicine thing doesn't pan out. In a way, this comic illuminates what is the very real fear of students everywhere - the idea of all of our efforts being for naught and the very opposite of this comic becoming our reality. Basically, I'm laughing to hide my fear.

 

 

Image information:

Perks of Being an English Major (image source: Blogspot Cartoon); Leonardo DiCaprio putting on a brave face at the Oscars (image source:Pinterest)