Looking glass self

Homelessness is everyday life for the Walls family as they keep on the move around the country looking for their everyday needs. The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is a memoir about her life growing up in an unstable family while living in poverty. In the book, the parents try and fend for their kids to try and help them grow up the right way, but it doesn't always work out the way anyone would expect it to. Although there are many ways to cope with different situations and feelings,…

1) Who was Abbott Suger and why was he important? What surprising “building material” did he use? Abbot Suger is the man behind the visionary masterpiece, Saint Denis, which is a stained-glass piece of work that created historical importance in Cathedral glass structure. He is very important for his early work of gothic architecture and his style inspired many builders for years. The building material he incorporated in his work was the concept of light to reflect a symbol of god inside the…

While Pirenne exaggerated Gregory while explaining a strong Merovingian poetic tradition, he takes Gregory’s writing too literally when he describes 6th century Frankish architecture and makes a claim contrary to archeological evidence concerning Merovingian architectural prowess. The Frankish city Clermont, according to Pirenne, was “marked by Byzantine luxury,” (Pirenne, 134). In this case, Gregory agrees with Pirenne, describing the church walls as, “adorned with many kinds of marble,”…

of a pilgrimage, but I had never considered the idea of them needing to be grand and impressive for this same purpose. I have also failed to appreciate the economic influence pilgrimages would have on the local community and how it was in the town’s self interest to promote their cathedral as a destination for a pilgrimage. On a personal note, having taken part in a pilgrimage in the past, I now find myself recalling what I encountered during my journey and the social and economic connections to…

The Glass Menagerie is an extremely successful piece of literature by Tennessee Williams. Williams’s play was first written in 1944 and reflects on a unique view into the fragileness of a families’ structure. The story touches on preexisting social norms and values within society. In a world of complex characters, Laura Wingfield character speaks volumes. Williams describes Laura as a painfully shy, self-conscious young woman, who is physical disabled as a result of a childhood illness. She…

Inside, some of the accessories adorning the church are expensive but not all bought by the church. These artifacts and art pieces were not grandiose splurges, but rather they have been accumulated over the course of one hundred years. The stained glass windows depict not only the frightening foretelling of what could be for those who shun God, but they also show His mercy and love. Sunlight shines through them as rays of light beaming down from heaven, illuminating us and the basic ideas we…

by time and location, each ‘temple’ was created at a height of understanding by architects and masons who surpassed all others in their craft. Both temple and cathedral were constructed to induce a sense of awe and terror in the viewer so that by looking upon them one might be brought into an encounter with the divine. The Greek Temple in Athens, begun around 440 B.C., was the crowning achievement of the age and symbolized the culmination of man’s search to bring to light the order inherent in…

I chose to read “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams. I chose to read this because I had read it before but I wanted to catch up and reread it. This play is a memory play told by Tom Wingfield, the son of an overbearing mother, who is torn between leaving to follow his dreams and staying because he deeply cares for his “crippled” sister. The play in my opinion is really a story full of false hopes, illusion of the mind, abandonment, lost youth, and escape. The main symbols in the play…

How much did you depend on your parents growing up? The guidance and assistance-or lack thereof-provided by parents for their child can affect the child’s morals, values, and what they do with their life. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls and her siblings grew up surrounded by alcoholism, poverty, and abuse-physical, sexual, and emotional-while their parents were unhelpful when it came to providing for the needs of their children. The way a child thinks and acts depends greatly on how well…

Carrie Underwood joined James Corden on "The Late Late Show" on Wednesday, December 2, which can only mean one thing: another edition of Carpool Karaoke! She has joined the likes of rapper-songwriter Iggy Azalea, singer-songwriter Justin Bieber, record producer Mariah Carey, singer Rod Stewart and multi-instrumentalist Stevie Wonder, all of whom sat in the passenger seat as comedian actor James Corden's drove them around L.A. as part of "The Late Late Show's." The country singer was just the…