Sylvanus Thayer Award

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the Commanders run a society lacking authentic emotions and relationships. They use threats of removal to the colonies and death to fulfill their desire for order. A Handmaid’s only purpose in life is to produce offspring for their Commander, and they have no connections or feelings for each other. Offred says that Handmaids like her are for “breeding purposes” and are merely “two-legged wombs…sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices” for their Commander’s…

In the movie, Awakenings, there were many actual depictions of what happened during the trial. The actual events of the drug trial were performed by Dr. Oliver Sacks who asked that his name be changed in the movie. During the 1920s there was an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica that spread worldwide. Symptoms of encephalitis begin with high fever, headache, and sore throat. Progression of the disease has symptoms of muscle pain, tremors, slowing of physical and mental response as well as…

In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian world of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale, we are introduced to a totalitarian world in which fertile women are captured and it is their duty to have children for elite couples. Throughout the novel, the primary handmaid and protagonist, Offred, reminiscences on her former life as she reveals the realities of her new life with a somber tone. I argue that Offred being stripped of her purpose and being suppressed into someone she is not intensifies her desire for…

The President's Plate Joyce’s family was gathered around the table to celebrate her special day. Today, Joyce has turned five years old. After summer, she will go to school with the big kids. “Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear Joyce!”The family sings loudly and off-key. “Sto Lat!” Busia sings. Busia is Joyce’s grandmother. Busia cuts the cake. She puts a piece of cake and a scoop of ice cream on each plate. “The president’s plate goes to Joyce. Happy Birthday, sweetie, may you live…

Mrs. Price believes it is Rachel’s sweater because Sylvia Saldivar said that it belongs to Rachel. Sylvia noticed that Rachel was quite skinny and thought she would fit the sweater. However, she also may not have liked Rachel so much so she decided to embarrass her. In Eleven, in lines 33-36 it says, “An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. Price believes her. Mrs. Price takes the sweater and puts it right on my desk, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out.” Mrs. Price…

James Horner: Some of the best movies made today are so great thanks to the advances in video production technology and special effects. However, one of the biggest contributors to a successful motion picture is the soundtrack. The soundtrack to a movie sets tone for the action on the screen and has the ability to truly enchant the audience, creating an emotional stage of relativity between the movie storyline and the audience. We recently lost one of the greatest American composers of such a…

Charlie Chaplin The Speech Charlie Chaplin directed, produced, and starred in the film “The Great Dictator” in 1940. The film was considered by most a propaganda film that showed through comic satire that those that were against us as a country were incapable, untrustworthy cowards. The idea was to create something that would lead the audience to those same conclusions. The speech included in the film became an iconic proclamation of our own issues in the United States at the time. In the film,…

This was the first time anyone in the room had heard that the doctor actually found something. “What did you find?” Logan asked. The truth was, he wasn’t sure. Bond took his cell phone out of his pocket and said to no one in particular, “Anyone know how to read French? It’s in my cell phone.” Jenny replied, “No, but Google does. Hand me your phone.” The doctor scrolled up to the picture he took that night in the museum. “Here you go little lady, take your best shot.” “What did you find…

Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House depicts the tale of four strangers in a dark secluded house called Hill House. One important character is Eleanor Vance, the improbable protagonist of this novel. Throughout the novel we see instances of her deteriorating mental stability through her childish behavior, her insecurities, her over active imagination, and her “connection” to the house, all of which lead to her unfortunate death. From the very start we see Eleanor as childish. We…

The narrator, Offred, describes how she and other handmaids slept inside a gymnasium in the new nation of Gilead. There are two Aunt, Sara and Elizabeth, who has cattle prods around their waist in order to put fear into the handmaids. The women are not allowed to speak with one another so they must resort to lip reading when the aunts are not looking. The handmaids were allowed two walks a day around the former football field. While the women are walking , the guards stand with their backs…