Grammatical mood

In the world today there is police brutality, gang violence, and gun violence. People react to violence differently, some want to use guns as a way of protection while others hate guns and think that they are the problem with society. In the article “An Experiment in Empathy” by Lisa Miller the purpose of writing this article was to bring forth a very difficult topic, whether guns should be used or not. The people in the article talk about their personal experiences they have had with guns to…

The Way a Story is told: Surprising Points of Views in Sandra Scofield’s Swim Sandra Scofield’s new collection, Swim, contains three linked stories about a young, free-spirited woman who hitchhikes across the country. The main character is mostly nameless, but is referred to as Baby a few times. As we learn more and more about Baby throughout the stories, she remains both mysterious and captivating. What is peculiar about Scofield’s collection that I am interested in and will examine in this…

Human behavior often seems mysterious and hard to predict, and despite this, it follows rules and patterns that can be observed and studied. One such pattern is known as Dunbar’s number. Dunbar’s number is, in fact, a series of numbers that represent the number of friends a typical person has that fit varying categories of familiarity and closeness. Maria Konnikova writes about Robin Dunbar’s research in her essay “The Limits of Friendship.” Robin Marantz Henig discusses the current plight of…

George Boiardi was the unsung hero of every team that he graced with his athletic ability. George was a Cornell lacrosse player up until 2004 when he lost his life mid game from a shot that hit him square in the chest. It wasn’t necessarily his statistics that impressed everyone George encountered, but rather his work ethic and the way that he held himself stood out to everyone. George was truly an inspiration to everyone on his team. A selfless, driven, class act that wanted nothing but…

Do I Die Die or Hypothetically Die? The central idea of Tim O 'Brien 's "The Things They Carried" is that it 's not always the physical baggage that 's bothersome, it could be the emotional baggage. The story was about U.S. troops in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The soldiers had to carry tangible and intangible objects. One of them died. After putting the blame on himself, the lieutenant tried to change his ways to prevent the deaths of his other troops. The lieutenant was Jimmy Cross and…

In a world of digitally edited photography and Photoshop masters, Polaroid pictures have once more become a trend. The instantaneous image of life unabridged appeals because it refuses to portray life through any rose-colored or edited lens, instead allowing memory to appreciate the sanctity of returning to a moment lost. However, through this nostalgia, the brain crops and edits the photograph just as one would on a computer, freezing the moment in memory as better, brighter, and more beautiful…

We all know someone who 's had a child before they turned twenty one. Over two hundred thousand babies are born to mothers under the age of 20 in the U.S. The Mother Who Never Was by Lisa K. Buchanan is a story of a mother 's feelings years after surrendering her daughter only to find out she can no longer have children. Anna the protagonist can’t speak to her daughter and wants to know how she 's doing and who she is becoming as a person. The first person perspective allows the reader to fully…

Despite living in different time periods, John Updike 's "A&P" and James Joyce 's "Araby" share similar literary devices within the stories. Visual imagery and point of view are shared between both texts to describes characters mentally and psychically. While point of view is used to characterize the boy in each story, visual imagery is employed to describe the main girl. In Araby, these devices are used to exhibit the girl 's physical appearance and the boy 's mentality. Visual imagery and…

A calming silence broods over the small room lit by the light of a computer screen on the laps of a girl sitting on her bed with her back against the wall. It’s 9PM on a Tuesday night, not just any Tuesday but the Tuesday before the Wednesday of her English assignment’s due date. She had been procrastinating, but tonight she’s going to try and finish it, not that she already started on it. She sighs loudly to express her stress, though ended up sounding more like a snoring pig crying for food.…

to dribble with his head up, and how to shoot the ball with the proper form from about 5 feet or so from the basket. We had so much fun. There were many days where I came to practice in a bad mood, and the moment I would see Jake and hear him say “Hey Zach, come help me shoot” it would completely change my mood! Jake always had the biggest smile on his face and an awesome attitude, and we began to build a bond that would change who I…