Everyday Life

Empathy is a crucial component in the exposition of Stalin’s regime, satire fails to induce this feeling, but realism does. Through Ivan Denisovich, the audience learns to feel empathy and sympathy towards those in the gulag camps. This by far is the most impactful way to showcase the failures and actions of a regime such as Stalin’s. We as the audience see that guards, motivated by fear, beat and assault prisoners, something that is absent in the satirical text of Animal farm. We can also see…

Death is an inevitable natural fact of life. Grief is just as natural. “Grief” is defined as a deep sorrow, especially one that is caused by someone’s death. Some handle the death of a loved one better than others. However, there is generally a process that a person tends to experience after the passing of a loved one. It starts with the initial shock of losing a dearly loved person and ends with finally accepting their passing. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross explains the process of grieving as “The Five…

An inherent part of Halloween are the sorts of skulls, bones and whole skeletons that can be found in abundance not only in stores but also in pharmacies, toy stores and supermarkets. They come in different sizes and with different functions. Some of the skeletons suddenly begin to shake, to publish the cemetery sounds and waving his arms, when a bystander passes by. Skulls clacking teeth, a hoarse voice shouting curses and sparkling eyes in the dark. If this happens unexpectedly, you can really…

and great activities usually create great memories. The cabin as a retreat gives a person the opportunity to catch up with their inner selves. The cabin allows for the opportunity for life to slow down. I wake up when I want, I eat when I want, I go to bed when I want. There are no alarms nor schedules. Everyday changes to how I want it to be. I’m in control, I got this. Stroll outside feel the cool grass on my bare feet and follow a simple nature trail. I gaze at the deer prancing across…

character Frederic Henry and his lover, Catherine Barkley. Throughout the entire novel, Hemingway uses nature and weather in symbolic ways to gain the attention of readers. One of the greater symbols is the rain. Most people would agree that rain means life and that it does not have a negative symbolic use, but Hemingway uses rain as a symbol for death and despair. During the story, it would start to rain, foreshadowing a death of a character or multiple. Readers who observe this will become…

Water is an essential commodity for today's world. It is essential for making and processing food, producing steel, washing, bathing, even producing newspapers. Most importantly it is essential to life on earth. Water is used every second of everyday for something, one of those things is profit. Water that is most likely taken from a municipal water source, put into plastic bottles with a pretty label stuck on it and sold ubiquitously for much more than its offered out of the tap. Simply buying…

I like plays that make me think. Of One Chord presented me with a scenario where my best friend’s girlfriend had died and my girlfriend who I love is abusing me. I had to ask myself what I would do in the face of such inner torment. The senior theater project Of One Chord employs the elements inherit to drama—performance, lines, set, and props—to communicate that suicide is not the answer to pain. Katie accurately embodied the character Michelle’s hurt and hate. Her body language suggested…

In the story Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Ha is a girl who has lived in Saigon for her whole life. When the war gets dangerously close to home she is forced to flee her home. In the panic of war Ha and her family leave everything but what is necessary. With her move to America challenges follow. Bullying, racism, and lack of language skills are challenges that all refugees face. Inside Out and Back Again, provides an example of the universal experience of refugees. In Ha’s story,…

expectations from aging, the anxious and dread feelings to not accomplish certain things in life seem to be cause for concerns to fear the end. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom sheds light on this issue as we follow along his story with his former teacher, Morrie Schwartz, diagnosed with ALS, a terminal illness. Through their short time together, the former student reflects on the significance of life and the nature of transformation of him and Morrie. Throughout his final thesis, the author…

our eyes are loaded with images we come across by; different people, an abandoned car by the side of the road, construction sites, and much more. As we go through our days we often get caught up in our busy schedules and miss out on the beauty of everyday sights that we have all too much have come accustomed to. Sometimes it takes artists to help us remember that there is beauty in the simple things and one such artist is Michael Stasinos. Michael Stasinos work captures the beauty of a variety…