The Ugly Duckling

David Denby paints us a picture of how Hollywood portrays high school life in movies. The very first movie of the Bring It On series, titled Bring It On, fits his description almost perfectly. The main characters in this movie are high schoolers that are very passionate about cheerleading. It sounds like an innocent movie that everyone can watch, but this movie contains a lot of adult humor. Denby described Hollywood’s portrayal of high school as a “never ending nightmare” (p. 366). He…

When Alice went into the school she saw an emperor, ugly duckling, mermaid, uniformed soldier, and a ragged little girl with a tray full of matches. Alice had wondered how she got to the school, and the professor explained how they spotted her when she was in different states. So since they were the first to…

Since, I was seen as the “ugly duckling”, and the “black sheep,” I got so much judgement from any little thing I did. For example, my aunt picked on me for being small chested at my age; she also called me immature for not partying like my cousin. As a child, I got lectured for calling…

Cathy the lead character is deemed by most an ugly duckling particularly in the Nether where everyone is obsessed by beauty. She finds her fantasyland in Mundanus where beauty is not so much celebrated, where she can live as she wants. Engaged to the well-meaning but obviously culturally compromised William…

When you're only focused on your physical appearance, it really doesn't allow you to develop on the inside. "Growing up is learning to deal with the 'ugly duckling' stage, which all girls go through. So if you have plastic surgery rather than go through that stage and learn to deal, you really won't be prepared for the world"(Ryan & Cocotos). A study shows that the brain is only about 80% developed in teens…

The Swan at Edgewater Park – Essay Response In The Swan at Edgewater Park, Schwartz uses a swan as a fascinating extended metaphor in a way very rarely seen in poetry. It continues through the entire poem, tumbling and reflective, calling light to a life half sad, half hopeful. The characters, too, are a motley mix of qualities, forlorn and shabby but also graceful. The poem is complicated, both in meaning and structure, and I ended up with several varied interpretations. There are threads of…

man wants to see in a woman. He then becomes brutally honest and tells her “she dresses like Wreck-It Ralph and wears the wrong size bra giving her a “uniboob.” Sarah Kendzior states in her essay, “The Princess Effect,” “Women are not allowed to be ugly people… (205). Kendzior’s quote applies to the film because even Bianca realizes that women must remain oversexualized in order to look attractive. As women become more attractive they receive more attention, but then women who tend to look…

Transitions, influenced by interactions with others, enable a person to overcome obstacles that restrain them to transition. Billy Elliot, the film directed by Stephen Daldry, and Jennifer Niven’s novel Holding Up The Universe both explore transitions through defying social standards and acceptance. Billy Elliot explores transitions of Billy entering a world of ballet in the disapproving society of Durham during the Miners Strike. Holding Up The Universe explores the transition of Libby Strout,…

Tarra Kooker Essay 5 Within both “Who Invented the Jump Shot” by John Edgar Wideman and “Television” by Lydia Davis, the readers were presented with two narrators having obsessions. In “Television” the narrator is identified through being obsessed with tv shows. While in “Who Invented the Jump Shot”, presents a narrator that appeared to be more obsessed with racism, prejudice, and how the “white man” acts towards minorities. However, both narrators captivate themselves in other issues other…

Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats illustrates the complex dynamic of failed relationship with images of swans and ducks, which also appear throughout Desmond Hogan’s Children of Lir. Hogan’s collection of short stories including “The Children of Lir” and “Southern Birds” feature Irishmen who embody English loyalty and use their masculine power to initially control native Irish civilians. Both Carr and Hogan illustrate feminine protagonists who are shunned from their society, but who also take a…