|
Senior Sendoff
Well, folks, it's that time of the year
again. Time to say goodbye to our seniors
and to make room for an incoming class of
English majors. As a senior who is soon to
be stepping off campus for the final time, I
can just say that it has been such an
amazing experience to have spent some of the
best years of my life on this campus. I am
sad to leave, but excited for the adventures
that await me. I also just want to say that
it has been amazing getting to know my
fellow English majors and that I am proud to
have been in such an amazing course of study
with you all. And to the faculty, from the
bottom of my heart (and those of my fellow
seniors, I'm sure): thank you. Thank you,
thank you, thank you for everything.
Congratulations, seniors!
Katie Argentine
What do you love most about being an
English major?
The best thing about being an English major
is that everyone in the major knows everyone
else, and we are a family. You always have
people to go to that have taken courses
before or that you are taking classes with
for help.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
Best work of literature would be "Daisy
Miller" by Henry James (American Survey II)
and worst would be Oranges Are Not the
Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
(Senior Seminar).
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The portfolio really was not as big of a
deal as everyone makes it out to be UNLESS
you don't save your papers. If you don't
save your graded essays throughout the four
years you're here, you're in a lot of
trouble.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
Senior Seminar is a lot of work, but it is a
great bonding experience for the people you
are in the course with. My favorite moment
so far is when the whole class came together
and tried to interpret Whitman as sexually
as possible.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
The advice I would give you is start working
early and lean on your peers to keep your
sanity.
Marcus Bailey
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love how, as an English major, it pushes
my boundaries and challenges me more than
any other class I have
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best piece of literature I've studied
here is probably Othello and the
worst would probably be "Heart of Darkness"
just because I wasn't as interested in it as
the others.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
My English portfolio is very basic. It just
has most of my old essays in it along with
my Education in Progress reports. There is
some poetry, but nothing that amazing. Some
advice I'd give would be to do your
Education in Progress reports every summer
because it makes it so much easier in the
end.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Talk as much in class as you can,
participate, and don't be afraid to go to
your professors for any help you need.
Ivy Bekker
What do you love most about being an
English major?
THe random conversations I have with fellow
English majors.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
Best: I'd have to say Oranges Are Not
the Only Fruit. I really enjoy it and
am writing my final paper on it. Worst: I'd
have to again go with Oranges.
Writing my senior paper on that book has
created a ver strong love/hate relationship.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It's a pain. Do your EIP's before you leave
for summer break every year and it will be
soooo much easier.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
5 stars! Favorite moment would probably be
Rob's aunt making him a zombie helmet.
Either that or trying to figure out where
Nancy went...
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Have fun. Don't procrastinate. Make friends
with your fellow majors, it makes the
experience immensely better.
Ryan Bronaugh
What do you love most about being an
English major?
The unique perspective it has given me
in regard to the world I live in (not
your world, but mine). I also love that
I have been focusing on what I used to
do to escape everyday life, which is
reading fiction.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best is hard
to distinguish, there really has been so
many amazing books and stories. But the
ones that have had the largest impact on
how I view literature and the world are:
In Our Time, Moby Dick,
"To Build a Fire" and Native Son.
The
worst is King Lear; though, I
am probably a better father--and
king--because of it.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It is like watching someone being set on
fire, when you know you are about to be
set on fire. Wait . . . that's the
Senior Thesis, it is like most
portfolios--different in real life than
the one you construct in the montage you
imagine when you discuss it in class. So
my advice is, let go of any ideas of
perfection and start rehearsing the
montage in your room when no one is
watching by your sophomore year.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
I would give my senior seminar
experience four and a half nooses. My
favorite moment was when, at least,
twenty people had to find and then crawl
back into their skin when Professor
Wilhardt asked his "question" during one
of the presentations.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Embrace the future you live in. And I
hope Donald Rumsfeld is being kept alive
by a machine in a basement in Kurdistan.
Robert Cook
What do you love most about being an
English major?
As
simple as it sounds, the practice at writing
papers and close reading texts. I think this
is something that I wouldn’t have got in any
other major.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best would be Rainer Marie Rilke’s
“Sonnets to Orpheus,” but the worst was
probably Adrienne Rich’s book which, in her
honor, and by her own suggestion, I promptly
used for kindling after finals.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It is just a representation of the student’s
work. The whole is great, I think, because I
never would have gone back and put my work
in a chronology to see how I progressed. As
for completing it, just KEEP EVERYTHING! And
keep it somewhat organized.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
Very high, but couldn’t put a number on it.
It has been great to have such a small,
discussion based class. It is everything I
always wanted in a survey. Professor Hale’s
“Doctor Nick, he dead” has been the
highlight so far.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Take more seriously than any class
you’ve ever taken.
Jackie Deskovich
What do you love most about being an
English major?
That's like
asking what I love best about breathing
but the way this faculty engages with their
students and their materials makes me hate
having to leave
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
Best work of
literature- anyone who knows me knows I'm
going to say TS Eliot's "The Waste Land."
Worst- Great Expectations; I'd say
Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto,
but at least that was short.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
As much as
the portfolio may seem like just a pain in
the butt hoop to jump through, it was kind
of fun to think back through the four
years and remember not just the work that
you did but the conversations that
surrounded it as well. Advice on it- DO IT
NOW. It's a lot harder to pretend to have
had goals your sophomore year as a senior
than it is to think about them your
sophomore year.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
Senior
Seminar has been a hoot of a time. This
paper might be slowly killing me, but it's
awesome to get to spend so much time talking
about great books with other people who love
them. My favorite moment so far has been
either Professor Hale telling us his aunt
made him a zombie helmet or the 10 minute
conversation surrounding "Did Nancy go with
you?"
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Remind
yourself every single day that it's just a
paper, a long one, but still just a paper.
Donna Dukes
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love the
students in the department. We all have a
lot in a common, but a lot of differences,
too. It's great that we got to go through
all four years of classes together because
we got to know each other well. The staff is
great, too. They're really supportive and
entertaining.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best
work I've studied in an English class here
was Beloved by Morrison. The worst
work was To the Lighthouse by Woolf.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It was
fun to see the progress I made from freshman
year to senior year, but also a little bit
stressful. Advice: DO THE EDUCATION IN
PROGRESS REPORTS for each year during that
year! Don't wait until senior year! Also,
keep a folder of your work so that you're
not digging through boxes of old papers
trying to find graded work!
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
My
senior seminar experience was incredible. My
favorite moment from the class was when were
discussing anti-zombie helmets and their
relevance to literature (There is a
connection, I swear).
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Put in
the work for your paper early so that you're
not trying to find a suitable thesis and
then changing it a hundred times. Don't
stress, just take it one step at a time.
Have fun. Participate!
Ivy Engebretson
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love being
introduced to authors and pieces of
literature I would not otherwise have access
to! I also love having so many people in the
major to talk to about what we're reading
and writing - it's just a great
environment.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
Hmm... this is a
really difficult question! I'd say the best
work of literature I've studied would
probably be Meridian by Alice Walker
for Professor Watson's ENGL 347. Everything
we read in that class was amazing. This is
definitely not the "worst" work of
literature by any means, but my least
favorite was probably Melville's "Bartleby
the Scrivener."
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The English
portfolio is definitely more overwhelming
than one would expect, especially since I
transferred from a different school and the
classes did not exactly match up. Keep your
binder from 200 and do your EIP reports
every year! Also, start on it when your
Senior Seminar professor tells you to. It
will be much easier than trying to put it
together in two weeks.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
Senior
Seminar has been great! The project and
paper are totally overwhelming, but the
class discussions have been great every day
of class which does not happen very often,
even in the best classes.
Mike Fenton
What do you love most about being an
English major?
The best
part of the English Major was working on
material I was passionate about, with a very
helpful group of professors.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
My personal
favorite work of literature would be
Gulliver's Travels, or really anything
satirical by Swift.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The English
portfolio is fine so long as you keep track
of your graded materials and write your
yearly retrospectives.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
I would
describe my experience with Senior Seminar
as highly stressful, but enjoyable.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Keep up with
your work, break it into smaller bits over a
longer period of time. I cannot stress that
enough.
Mary Grzenia
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love participating in a community of
dedicated and passionate learners. The
exchange of ideas and interpretations
that take place among English majors is
a powerful motivator that increases my
love for this major on a daily basis.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
I loved
the Selected Poems of W.H. Auden
that I read in Professor Willhardt's
20th-Century Poetry class. I did not
enjoy Henry James's "Daisy Miller: A
Study."
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The English portfolio is not difficult
to assemble if you allot yourself plenty
of time. Add graded essays to your
portfolio at the end of each semester,
and set up an appointment with your
advisor to have it checked over. Also,
write your EIPs at the conclusion of
each academic year while your goals and
achievements are still fresh in your
mind!
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
There is no way to fully express how
much I have enjoyed the process of
Senior Seminar. There is no doubt
that it caused moments of panic and
anxiety, but reminding myself that I was
one person in a community of nerds and
lit-crazed friends who were experiencing
the same anxieties always helped me
regain perspective. I enjoyed the days
when we could laugh about difficult
literature simply because it was
difficult.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Be
passionate. Be bold. Love it. Live it.
Alex Holt
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I have to say that my
favorite part of the major are the intense
close readings that happen in class, and
discussing the various interpretive
constructs with which you can attack a piece
of literature or poetry. I particularly
enjoyed these in the two Shakespeare classes
I took, African-American Autobiography, and
17th Century Poetry. The funny part is,
coming into the major, these were three
genres that I either didn't like, or didn't
care to look at; I flat-out despised
Shakespeare when I came to school. But, they
ended up being some of my favorite pieces to
discuss and write about. It's just a lot of
fun to really pick through dense language
and find out what, or how, it means.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
That's a tough one.
I'd have to say it's a tie between Ralph
Ellison's Invisible Man and
Hemingway's In Our Time for the best
pieces I've read here. As far as the worst
(worst in terms of actually getting through
the whole thing) was Milton's Paradise
Lost. It's hard to call that a "bad"
work, considering its canonical value, but
actually sitting down and reading through
all twelve books can be pretty tedious.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
I'm sure my advice is
going to be similar to most -- start the
portfolio early, keep EVERY paper you get
back from a professor, and do the
reflections when you're supposed to. If you
don't it turns what is truly a very simple
and rewarding task into a hectic one that
doesn't add the same value to tracking your
career in the department.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
I would say
that Seminar is a great way to finish out
the year. It can be daunting, and stressful
at times, but the discussions are great. By
this point, everyone has developed their own
voice, and their own aesthetic, which makes
the discussions extremely worthwhile and
meaningful. Rather than learning mostly from
the professor, you learn a great deal about
the literature from the different ways your
peers interpret it. As far as my favorite
moment, it would have to be our discussion
of Whitman's "Song of Myself." By the time
the conversation got into full swing, there
were several pretty radical interpretations
going around, and everyone was sticking to
their hermeneutic guns. It got to be a
riotous conversation involving vampires, the
universe, and hyper-sexualization of the
text. It was a good day to be an English
major.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Maybe not only for
Seminar students, but for English Majors in
general, I would say: "Believe in yourself."
Often students worry about the quality of
their opinions, whether it's expressing them
in class or putting them on the page for a
paper. However, the reality is that you've
spent years reading and writing, and you're
an English Major, so chances are, you've got
some valid opinions worth sharing. So
believe in yourself; don't be shy about
talking in class, and don't convince
yourself your paper isn't going to be good
enough. And, if you're really unsure, go
bother the faculty. They love it. Good Luck!
Alex Kane
What do you love most about being an
English major?
The English major
obliges me to spend all my time doing my two
favorite activities: reading and writing.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
It'd be hard to choose
a single best work, but Hemingway's In
Our Time, Hawthorne's "Young Goodman
Brown," and the Coleridge/Wordsworth
collection Lyrical Ballads were all
great reads. I find that I'm not a big fan
of nineteenth-century novels, despite that I
love Victorian short fiction. Especially
that atrocity called Northanger Abbey.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It isn't so daunting
as everyone imagines. Anyone who takes the
time to organize their graded papers over
the years and maybe even keep a short
journal of his or her college career will
have no problem compiling a solid portfolio.
(And remember: Do as I say, not as I do.)
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
It's a top-notch
class, which serves as an enjoyable but
challenging end to the whole slog. I've
enjoyed the shared experience of discussing
works in an intimate seminar format and
having a few laughs at one another's
expense.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Don't let stress
cripple you, if you can help it. Find refuge
in friends, and in the knowledge that your
journey as an undergraduate is finally
friggin' over. Make the time to read and
write for pleasure as well as for school.
Get out of the library when you can manage
it; it's just as easy to read on a treadmill
or park bench, believe me, and your sanity
will thank you for it.
Alex Nall
What do you love most about being an
English major?
The thing I
love most about being an English Major is
being able to have discussions on different
interpretations of literature and seeing how
they impact today's culture and society. I
always love asking myself after finishing a
book in class: How can I relate?
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The Best Thing I read while here was
probably Native Son by Richard
Wright, a very powerful work that opened
a new perspective on how to read
literature.
I think the worst thing I've probably
read was Emma by Jane Austen.
That book made me feel the same way Mark
Twain did about her: "If there was any
author I could dig up out of the ground
and smack with a shovel, it would be
her."
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The English
Portfolio is a double-edge sword: You get to
see all the work you have done and chart
your progress throughout your education, but
you have to do an enormous amount of
digging, reviewing, and self-analyzing as a
result. The best advice I can give is to not
let yourself think that the train stops here
after you graduate. Keep pursuing that
'perfect paper' you've been hoping to write
during your time here. Keep reading, keep
writing.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
Senior
Seminar is a great class where the students
lead the discussion, agree and disagree with
one another, and ultimately share
presentations on a number of works that take
us beyond the text on the pages, and into
the history, culture, and identity of the
author and the work. My favorite memory so
far is simply being able to take an hour and
a half out of my day and discuss literature
with my peers.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
All too
often, English gets pushed into that 'What
are you going to do with that major?'
category. It creates anxiety and frustration
that should not exist. Yes, there will be
roadblocks along the way and yes, you will
have doubts- just like any other student in
any other major will. The difference between
you and them is that you have chosen a major
that broadens your scope of the world. You
will be introduced to new ideas and theories
that at the time may seem irrelevant to your
life, but as the years go on and you
experience new things in your life, you'll
find yourself in the same situation as a
character you've read about, or better yet,
with an answer for how to get out of that
situation. The opportunities that occur in
your life are not determined by the major
you have chosen, or even the papers you
write for your classes, but are actually
created by the lessons you learn on your
own. The English major will introduce that
idea to you early in your academic career.
My advice? Take advantage of it and never
let it go.
Dan Pitts
What do you love most about being an
English major?
What I like
most about the English major is learning how
to master the art of insanity through the
means of specificity. It's great!
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
Best
literary work(s) would have to be Whitman's
Leaves of Grass and Jeanette
Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only
Fruit. Worst piece was Conrad's "Heart
of Darkness," even though I did not fully
understand what the hell was going on.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The English
portfolio is a long monotonous process. It
should be required to fulfill all
requirements at the end of each semester,
rather than waiting until senior year to
look back and write about your strengths and
weaknesses. For me, it was not a fun
process, but it is pretty cool to create a
portfolio of all the best papers accumulated
over the years. I feel somewhat
accomplished (for once).
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
Although
extremely difficult and incredibly
time-consuming, Senior Seminar has been fun.
It is kind of like a book club, but instead
of solely gathering together to discuss a
book, it is required that we do multiple
things outside of the club...multiple,
multiple, things. It is kind of like a book
club on steroids! My favorite moment of the
class was talking about Whitman and his
erotic fantasies. The vulgarity level
became overbearing for a couple of our
classmates to the point where they had to
leave the room for a drink of water. It was
awesome!
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Do the work!
I found that tears work best as ink, but
only after the eyes are patted dry, of
course.
Rachel Thiemann
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I really
enjoy interpreting the works that we read
and discussing how everyone else interprets
them.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
I really fell in love
with Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse and
I can't think of the worst thing that I have
read...
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
Any
advice on completing it? The English
portfolio is interesting because you really
have a chance to reflect on your work in the
past few years, you can see how you have
changed. The main advice I would give would
be to save everything!
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
I have
really enjoyed Senior Seminar. I really
looked forward to the presentations.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
It's
never too early to start thinking about your
thesis!
Brittany Van Duyne
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love the
atmosphere the English major offers between
peers. There are a lot of majors that don't
allow students to interact with one another
and I believe the English major does the
best job at this. We are all able to work
together on different meanings and
interpretations of works, meanwhile we can
also give each other constructive feedback
with essays and assignments. The English
major really gives students the support they
need in college to better their education
and lives.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best literature I have studied is
the Victorian era. I really enjoyed
everything we read during this section.
If I had to choose one piece of
literature as the overall best it would
be...Great Expectations by
Charles Dickens. The worst literature I
read during my time here is... King
Lear by Shakespeare. UGH THAT WAS
AWFUL!
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It wasn't that bad. My advice would be
to keep yourself and your work organized
at the end of every year. This will
help tremendously when it comes time to
look back and find work. If you do wait
until senior year to write the
reflections, this will also make that
process better. I would even suggest
making an outline of the reflections at
the end of every year if you aren't
completely interested in writing the
actual reflection. My suggestion to the
Professors would be to incorporate more
of the details of the portfolio during
classes. This would consist of asking
students to make goals for their class
and then writing a reflection in the end
on how they met or didn't meet certain
goals. I believe this would helps
students out a lot for the portfolio
process senior year. :)
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
I am torn about senior seminar. I really
disliked that the class was broken up
into 2 sections. I believe this has
caused a split between English majors. I
mean we can't even have the same T-shirt
as a senior sem class? I know the point
is to have a smaller group of students
for a "seminar" style learning
environment, but I think
it separated the senior class in the
end. It also segregated peer
interactions with the works and
assignments. Therefore, it hasn't really
lived up to my expectations. However, I
have enjoyed the works and presentations
in the class. I think my favorite moment
will be when I turn this 25 page senior
thesis in on May 8th! :)
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Um....
Enjoy it and take your time with this major.
I wish I could have spent more time in
college and spread out the classes better.
Leanna Waldron
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love that I'm in a major that I'm
completely passionate about and that my
fellow majors are also completely passionate
about it. I love that I can have
conversations with my friends who are in the
major for hours on end about my favorite
thing in the world: reading. And I cannot
stress enough just how much I love this
faculty.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best would probably be any of the
Sherlock Holmes that we read. I also loved
Lady Audley's Secret and "A
Terribly Strange Bed." Worst: "Heart of
Darkness." Hands Down.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
It's not too bad if you keep all your stuff.
Make sure you back up your files, too, so
that way even if something happens to your
graded papers, you have something to put in
your portfolio./
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
It's been completely amazing. It's really
made me realize how much I love this major
and how much I love this school. My favorite
moment(s) were finishing the presentation
and realizing that it wasn't a complete
disaster and getting to argue for the fact
that Harry Potter is, indeed,
revolutionary literature.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Love what you do. Have faith in yourselves.
Rely on your peers--and support them when
they need you. Trust your professors. Most
of all, enjoy every minute of it.
Shara Welter
What do you love most about being an
English major?
I love
being an English major because it offers
such a vast variety of ideas, beliefs, and
viewpoints. Also, it requires me to learn
more about the world and expand my knowledge
in other disciplines outside of English.
What is the best AND worst work of
literature you've studied in any English
class at Monmouth College?
The best work of
literature I studied was Benito Cereno
by Herman Melville. Honestly, I don't
have a least favorite. I really enjoyed all
of the works that I studied here at Monmouth
even if one gave me a difficult time.
What is the English portfolio like?
Any advice on completing it?
The
English portfolio is an amazing requirement
that made me realize how much my writing
advanced since my first year at Monmouth
College. Since I saved all of my papers and
labeled the courses yearly, I was easily
able to go back through each of my papers.
However, the pain of putting together the
English portfolio were the assessments. My
advice is to KEEP UP with them. Other than
that, the English portfolio is something
every English major, regardless of the year,
should take pride in.
How would you rate your experience
in Senior Seminar? What has been your
favorite moment of the class so far?
So
far, my experience in Senior Seminar is off
the charts incredible. My favorite moment of
the class is watching my classmates give
both creative and scholarly presentations
and experiencing that for myself, as well.
It is really neat watching myself and
classmates come so far in just several
years.
Any advice or final words of wisdom
for future Senior Sem students?
Use
Senior Seminar as a way to create and come
up with a unique thesis. Also, do not let
the 20-25 page paper bog you down. What I
found most useful in drafting my thesis was
breaking each section down like it was a
paper of its own. I even opened different
Microsoft Word documents so I would not get
overwhelmed by writing a 20-25 page paper.
Breaking each of the section down really
helped me to focus on a specific topic and
relate it back to my thesis more
efficiently. Stay calm while writing and
enjoy the process as much as you can.
|
As
English majors, we love stories. We put ourselves in
the place of characters, grow with them, cry with
them, love with them, and fight with them. We live
in the realm created by words as certainly as we
reside in the real world. I expect the same
qualities in my television shows. Joss Whedon,
creator of many witty scifi and fantasy shows,
gained a loyal following of fans from creating
multidimensional characters and interesting plots in
Buffy the
Vampire Slayer,
Angel,
Firefly,
and Dollhouse.
These are the shows that English majors should watch
and love because we love good stories.
meeting as a vampire and a vampire slayer. Buffy’s
first reaction to finding out that Angel is a
vampire is to kill him, but when she finds out that
he is a vampire with a soul, she changes her mind
and even starts to fight demons with him. Angel and
Buffy try to fight their attraction to each other,
but they are still drawn to each other.
Unfortunately, although Angel is as good as a
vampire can be without sparkling, keeping his soul
comes with the condition that he never experience
true happiness, or he will lose it. This moment of
true happiness happens when he has sex with Buffy
for the first time. Then, he loses his soul and
turns into to a cruel, murderous vampire that sets
upon Buffy’s friends and family. She is left with no
choice but to kill the man that she loves, but right
before she has to kill him to close the portal in
hell that he opened, her friend casts a spell that
gives him his soul back. Now, she has to kill the
real man that she loved who remembers nothing about
all the pain and death that he caused. The moment
when she does this, it is as emotionally affecting
to me as the death of Juliet and Romeo because it
hurts to know that the love that the viewer followed
and invested in could die with a matter of fate
against the lovers.
With
characters like singing demon Lorne and episodes
like the puppet episode where Angel is turned into
an adorable brooding vampire puppet, the show is a
comedy as well as a drama. Also, while Angel’s
organization saves people and solves problems like
other crime stopping teams, the threats are
supernatural rather than human, so the show is also
a fantasy with demons, vampires, time portals,
werewolves, and a truly evil corporation called
Wolfram and Hart. By not limiting this show to
fitting into one category, Joss Whedon creates a
dynamic show that shifts and changes with the growth
of the characters and progression of the plot.
good from here. Yes, yes, this is a fertile land and
we will thrive. We will rule over all this land and
we will call it this land.” Then, with his
tyrannosaurus rex he says, “I think we should call
it your grave.” So the plastic triceratops says,
“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.” The
T-rex says, “Ahaha! Mine is an evil laugh. Now die!”
This set of lines is funny to me and indicative of
Wash’s personality for several reasons. First, he’s
playing with plastic dinosaurs on the steering
equipment of the ship instead of being busy at work
checking on the rest of the crew that’s outside
stealing from the government. Second, he’s
imaginative enough to play with dinosaurs but not to
come up with a name for the imaginary land that the
dinosaurs are in. Third, he says all of this in a
laid back tone as if he does this all the time,
which he does do and say goofy things throughout the
show. Memorable lines and characters make me want to
revisit this show again and again much like when I
reread books over and over again.
be
used and afterwards to be free to live their lives,
but most of these recruits are running from trauma
in their own lives and they are really never
completely free from the dollhouse. As a show about
swapping people’s real identities for fake implanted
ones, a central theme in the show is identity. If
your personality is wiped clean, does anything from
yourself remain? The scientist in the show is
convinced through most of the show that wiped dolls
are like bison with blank stares that do not form
alliances but herds. Echo, the protagonist, proves
again and again to be innovative, independent, and
intelligent whether she is a blank doll or with an
implanted personality. Even before Alpha, a
psychotic former doll, dumps every personality in
the dollhouse into her head, her mind shows
retention of details that were supposed to be wiped
and a need to protect those around her. Eventually,
she is able to cobble together an identity from all
of the separate identities in her head. This focus
on identity and who people really are shows a
concern for the human condition and an interest in
what really makes a person.
