Literary Essay-I am legend

In a world overrun by the undead, the last living man struggles to survive. Richard Matheson’s book I Am Legend tells the story of Robert Neville, a man who survived the plague that turned every other person into a vampire. Matheson explores the idea of what makes something “ordinary” versus “legendary”. In a world where humans are “ordinary”, the vampire is the legend—a deadly nocturnal creature that has great power over humans. However, in a world where the vampire is normal, humans become the legend. In this case, the thing that is legendary is the one that is the most powerful, dangerous and rare.

            Before the plague, vampires had power over people. But when Neville was the only real person left, he found that he had power over the vampires. Vampires are frightening creatures that for us, only exist in stories. They have mythical powers and are much stronger than humans in many ways. In this book, the people are afraid of the germ that causes humans to become vampires. When the plague is breaking out, Neville is besieged by a frenzied religious group, praying for deliverance from this plague. “The people twisted and moaned and smote their brows and shrieked in mortal terror and screamed out terrible hallelujahs” (103). These people feel powerless against the germ and the undead, so they turn to God and religion to protect them. When Neville finds himself alone in a world of vampires, he becomes the one with the most power. Every day, he drives stakes through the hearts of the sleeping vampires and every night he sits in his house as the undead roam outside, powerless against his defenses, unable to get in. “Garlic on the windows and nets over the hothouse and burn the bodies and cart the rocks away and, fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch, reduce their unholy numbers” (18). For five months, the vampires have been not been successful in their attempts to kill him, but he has been slowly and surely killing them off, no matter how tedious or disturbing it is. He has the upper hand, he has more power than they do, and that is part of what makes him a legend in their world.

            Vampires were a danger to humans before the plague, but now Neville is a threat to the vampires. During the plague, no one was safe from the vampires and their numbers grew every day. Even after infecting everyone except for Neville, they are trying to entice him outside at night. “As he was pulling on his shirt, he heard Ben Cortman cry out, “Come out, Neville!”” (11). The plague threatened the human species, and the vampires’ mindless thirst for human blood was dangerous. However, Neville is now the threat. Because he has all of this power over them, it means that he is dangerous. Neville kills vampires every day. If he wasn’t stopped in the end, he could’ve obliterated the whole species. “After lunch, he went from house to house and used all his stakes. He had forty-seven stakes”. Legends are sometimes feared, and this fear contributes to their legendary status.

            When something is drastically different in a world of organisms that are all similar, it can be perceived as legendary. In this book, vampires are legendary because they are thought of as fictional, and when plague strikes, no one believes in them because they are so rare. Neville is reading Dracula and comes across this line, “‘The strength of the vampire is that no one will believe in him’” (17). This creature that is legendary is so rare and so frightening that people refuse to believe in it, and that is the real source of its power, because no matter how obvious it makes itself, we will still refuse to believe in it. Neville faces his death at the end, captured by a group of vampires creating an organized community, trying to recreate the world. He realizes that he is, “A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.” (159). He is a new legend, the only real man left alive, a source of fear for the vampires. He is the rare one, the different one, the one with power over a whole race of organisms. The rarity of his kind make him a legend.

Robert Neville, like all the other humans on Earth, thought that vampires were only legendary creatures. They have great power, are dangerous, and rare (if not nonexistent). When he is the only man left, he realizes that to the vampires, he is the powerful, dangerous, and rare creature. This is what made the vampires legends in a world of humans, and this is what made him a legend in the world of vampires.

            

Literary Essay-Martin Espada

Martin Espada (born in Brooklyn in 1957) is a Latino writer who has written many poems, most of them relating to Hispanic rights and white prejudice. His poems “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” all relate to this issue. Through these poems, Espada makes an effort to raise awareness, expresses his feelings, and demonstrates the real-life consequences of racism.

In one poem, Espada uses a specific example in order to raise awareness about racism. He writes about how people tend to mistrust and fear the things that they don’t understand. The poem, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” is about a principal who is using the bathroom when he hears boys talking in Spanish. “The only word he recognizes/ is his own name…So he decides/ to ban Spanish/ from the bathrooms”. This shows his distrust of his own students—but only the Spanish-speaking ones. Espada chose to use words like “constipates” to show the principal’s discomfort, and “relax” to show his relief at being able to understand every word being spoken. The principal is taking away the students’ right to express themselves in their first language, in one of the only private places in the school. His fear of what he doesn’t know “constipates” him, causing him to become hostile towards Hispanic students.

The poem “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” shows Espada’s wish to change peoples’ beliefs and correct their bias by taking a more aggressive tone. “Whenever my name is mispronounced/ I want to buy a toy pistol/ put on dark eyeglasses…hijack a busload/ of Republican tourists from Wisconsin/ force them to chant anti-American slogans/ in Spanish…” His anger does not come only from when people mispronounce his name, it comes from all of the times that he has been confronted with racism. Republicans from Wisconsin are a stereotypically prejudiced group of white people, and Espada uses this stereotype to represent all racists. Wanting them to chant anti-American slogans in Spanish may be a literal wish, but it also represents a broader wish—that prejudiced people accept those against whom they discriminate, and see the error of their ways. Then Espada writes, “…and wait/ for the bilingual SWAT team/ to helicopter overhead/ begging me/ to be reasonable”. Needing a bilingual SWAT team shows the barrier that language can cause, and means that the Republicans would be saved by the people that they have been fighting against.

The poem “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, describes a historical event. In every stanza except for the last, he repeats the words “more than”, expressing that more than all the horrors in the photograph, what makes him feel saddest and angriest are “…the faces of the lynching party:/ faded as pennies from 1877, a few stunned/ in the blur of execution/ a high collar boy smirking, some peering/ from the shade of bowler hats, but all/ crowding into the photograph”. He is disgusted by the fact that everyone attending the execution felt that it was a show, a form of entertainment, not the murder of two (probably innocent) humans. Mexicanos were treated as such inferiors to white people that their hanging was a festive (not solemn) event. In the first stanza, Espada writes, “More than the moment/ when forty gringo vigilantes/ cheered the rope/ that snapped two Mexicanos/ into the grimacing sleep of broken necks”. Vigilantes are self-appointed law enforcers. The reader can make the interpretation that these Mexicanos were not hanged for disobeying the law, but because of the bias of the vigilantes and the town.

Espada has reached out to readers through his poems, raising awareness of the world’s racism and its real-life effects, as well as his personal feelings. In these poems, he explores how language barriers can cause mistrust between groups of people, and how that effects the way people interact. He also makes the reader aware of the consequences of all this fear and prejudice. Espada’s work is very inspiring, and, if introduced into school curriculum, could greatly impact peoples’ beliefs and make a difference in our lives.

Argument Essay-Upfront

In China, one massive exam determines every student’s future. China has hundreds of “cram schools”, where students go from early in the morning to late at night, memorizing huge amounts of material for a single test. This monster test, the gaokao, is the only thing that matters for admissions to Chinese universities. Some believe that a test is an accurate measurement of a student’s ability. However, I think that it is extremely unfair for someone’s future to be based on a single test.

The process of preparing for the gaokao is incredibly stressful because the results determine a student’s future. Because of these high stakes, students are put under extreme pressure for years before taking the gaokao. In order to have a chance of getting into college, they must attend a “cram school”. Because of the intense pressure of the test, these schools are run with military precision. One of the best schools is called Maotanchang. This school’s curriculum is the same as any other—everything taught in 10^th and 11^th grade focuses on what the gaokao tests, and in 12^th grade, students just review, study and memorize what they have already learned—but their system is much stricter than other schools. “Maotanchang’s teachers dole out lessons, and frequently punishments…security guards roam the 165-acre campus in golf carts and on motorcycles, while surveillance cameras track students’ movements” (15). At Maotanchang, cellphones and laptops are not allowed, the dorms have no electrical outlets, and dating is banned. People say that your teen years are the best years of your life. Is it fair that these years are spent cramming for a single test? The pressure becomes even more intense as the gaokao nears. Teen suicide rates tend to rise, and a student posted a shocking picture online of a classroom of students who had been hooked up to intravenous drips so that they could study past the point of exhaustion. Yang Wei, a graduate of Maotanchang says, “ ‘If you connected all of the practice tests I’ve taken in the past three years…they would wrap all the way around the world” (13).

The results of the gaokao determine a student’s future. This is incredibly unfair. Even the best student could do poorly because they are having a bad day or they didn’t get enough sleep or they’re nervous. For example, Cao Yingsheng, Yang’s childhood friend and a fellow student at Maotanchang did not do well on the test. His future was manual labor—working in factories or on construction sites like his father. “His father had worked 12-hour days, 50 weeks a year, building high-rises in eastern China to pay the Maotanchang fees” (15). Cao would end up on a construction site just like his father. Students from poor families did not have equal resources and schools, meaning that there was less of a chance that they would do well enough to get into a college. Children from wealthy families could pay for tutors, and some even bypassed the system all together, enrolling in private international schools in China or going to school abroad. “But for those of limited means, like Yang, there is no alternative to the gaokao; a few points either way could determine whether he qualifies for a degree that could change his life—or nothing” (14). This system means that poor families have more obstacles to overcome and their children generally stay poor, while wealthy families stay at the top.

Some may argue that a test is a completely fair and accurate measurement of a student’s ability, especially because there is so much time to prepare for it and many do make it into college. In 2013, about 80% of Maotanchang students who took the test made it into college. However, this is only possible through the students’ sacrifice of any free time. School started at 6:20 in the morning and ended at 10:50 at night, even on the weekend. Electronics were banned, and there was no form of entertainment in the town. At Maotanchang, “There is nothing to do but study” (15) says Yang. Only through this abysmally strict system can a student hope to succeed. Some may argue that the gaokao is an opportunity to for students to attend college at all, instead of automatically becoming farmers or factory workers. Although this is an opportunity, it is extremely unfair to the students that deserve a college education, but cannot pay for the fees that a successful school like Maotanchang charges.

Cram schools put extreme pressure on students, just so that they can pass one test. A few points can be the difference between a life of hardship and manual labor, and a degree and a good, well-paying job. A student should not be judged on one test score. It cannot possibly reflect their ability as a student—only their ability to memorize material and whether or not they are good test-takers. While the rich can cheat the system, the poor have no choice but to take the gaokao. It is unfair for a single test to determine a student’s future.

Argument Essay-Banned Books

     One of the most controversial arguments today is whether people should have the right to ban books. Some of the top banned/challenged books range from children’s stories like Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey and In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak to more disturbing books such as The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and The Bluest Eye by Tony Morrison, as well as timeless classics like Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Giver by Lois Lowry. While many people (especially parents) feel strongly that certain books should be banned, many others argue that it is unethical to restrict books. Those who believe that it is fine to ban books say that there are parts of books that are inappropriate for any audience, challenged books have disturbing content and language, and feel the need to take their power away for those reasons. These are not legitimate reasons for a book to be banned. It is unethical to ban books.

            One reason why it is unreasonable to ban books is because a lot of bias can come from reading one part out of context. Many people misunderstand books because they only read excerpts. For example, Alexandra Petri, the author of the article “Searching for Offense” writes that, “If you object to the tiny naughty bits concealed in good literature, you run the risk of never again reading classic literature…” Petri is right—one must keep an open mind and read the whole thing before making any judgments. People who skim a text for offensive content will find it in almost every book they read—including well-respected classics—because they are incapable of appreciating the literature as a whole. This can greatly obstruct their view of what literature is and what it means to others. One can bias themselves as well as other readers by choosing to acknowledge/share only certain parts of a book. This is not fair to other readers because they are not being allowed to experience literature as the author wanted them to. This is also unfair to the author because their words are being manipulated to bias others against their work, when everyone should be able to read for themselves and develop their own opinions.

           

            Those in favor of banning books might argue that many books have offensive language and content that is disturbing for the reader. For example, Huckleberry Finn has been challenged by many for its use of offensive language. Terms like Injun Joe, half-breed, and nigger are replaced in some editions as “Indian Joe”, “half-blood” and “slave”. However, Mark Twain felt the need to use these words to paint a realistic picture of the time and place he was writing about. It is completely inappropriate to manipulate an author’s writing. No one person should be able to limit others’ options. Mark Twain is using very specific language to force the reader to really think about the negative connotation of certain words. When discussing the censorship of these words, Jones, head of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the library he works at, says, “Twain put it there because he wanted people to struggle with it. I think, as a country, we're big enough to struggle with it.” As a country, we need to be able to face issues like racism that have defined our country’s morals for a long time and contributed to our relationships with each other. Some say that books like this set bad examples for students, but talking through an issue like racism or death in a classroom can help students deal with these issues when they come into contact with them.

            The reason why many people ban or censor books is to take away their power and try to shelter themselves from the issues present in the book. However, declaring a book banned or challenged makes it even more desirable. It makes people curious as to why it was banned, and what content it could possibly contain that would cause it to be considered unacceptable. For example, when Ralph Ellison’s book Invisible Man was banned from schools in Randolph County, North Carolina, it sparked peoples’ interest in the book because, as one reader wrote to the newspaper, there is “No surer way to elevate a book to the Must Read list of teen readers than to ban it.” Those who are upset by issues discussed in books that they read should stop and think about what they are reading before they cast it aside. The reason that authors use powerful language and describe horrifying realities is to make us stop and think about the world around us—not hide from it. Challenging a book is a way that people hide themselves (and in some cases their children) from the issue discussed in the book, and the reality of hiding from conflict is that you will not be ready for it when it suddenly appears in your life.

            The issue of censorship is very controversial, especially when dealing with banned books. It is inappropriate for anyone to ban or censor someone else’s writing. Not banning books makes it easier for us as readers to appreciate the literature that exists in our world. It causes the reader to really stop and think about issues in the world around them and face ugly conflicts in our history that may have even spilled over into our lives today. Although there are many arguments in favor of banning books, they can all be effectively refuted because they are based on personal opinions which should not define other peoples’ standards.

Bibliography

1.      Moore, Martha T. "'Huck Finn' Navigating Choppy Waters Again." USA TODAY. 06 Jan. 2011: A.3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.

2.      Petri, Alexandra. "Searching for Offense." Washington Post. 19 Oct. 2013: A.13. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.

3.      Zucchino, David. "'Invisible Man' May Appear Again." Los Angeles Times. 25 Sep. 2013: A.8. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.