Emily, Unfiltered

In The Great Gatsby, the eponymous protagonist achieves great wealth and fortune, displayed through extravagant descriptions of his colossal mansion and grandiose parties. However, all of the worldly success is not his ultimate goal; throughout the novel, Gatsby chases Daisy- or at least, his idea of her.  In Chapter 5, Gatsby reunites with Daisy after five years. At this moment, everything he's ever worked for and wanted is realized- the money, the house, the girl... yet still, Nick notices in Gatsby's face that "a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness." (Fitzgerald 95) Over the course of the five years without her, Gatsby had created this image of her that eventually, she became unreal, a mere embodiment of his idealistic fantasies.  Nick notices that this dream has swallowed Gatsby's consciousness, distorting his sense of reality- and his imagination "had gone beyond her, beyond everything" (Fitzgerald 95)- Gatsby

My letter is from the perspective of a parent writing to their young but conscious child, after reading the article under the fourth subheading: mental illness and violent images. Dear mini-me, When your friend gets the flu, you say you're thinking of them. If it's bad, we say that we're praying for them. These words of kindness are supposed to make someone like your friend feel better- since hopefully, she will know that we're rooting for them. But sometimes (and pretty often), "thoughts and prayers" aren't enough. Because when your friend gets sick, it was probably no one's fault- it's allergy season, it was really cold outside the other day, and she decided to go for a run... But when your friend gets hurt unfairly and intentionally, solely because of the color of her skin, then how are we supposed to react? To sympathize? It's a terrible feeling. But firstly, I want you to realize, and accept, that you will never fully understand. We as Asi

     The social construct of race has permeated into society by developing certain reputations and stereotypes that are both misconstrued and damaging. "A biological reality" delved into this concept as it pertained to athletic ability- how the changing racial competition of tennis "big four"  American urban cities corresponds to the evolution of sports and their compositions. The effects are felt even in our own comfortable Troy, in which facilities for sports such as tennis and swim are accommodated for. But if we drive just half an hour to urban Detroit, in place of swim clubs and golf courses are basketball courts- some with hoops but no nets, all mostly run-down and unused. When these sports go pro, you can see a clear distinction: while tennis is predominated by white Europeans (insinuated by the Laver Cup on the ATP tour, which pits "Team Europe" against "Team World"), basketball is a primarily black sport (73.5% of the NBA are black play

The literary and visual narrative of Maus subverts the conventions attached to the style of comics to create more profound storytelling that attempts to make sense of Vladek's senseless, indefensible past. Along the way, it captures Artie questioning his own sense of identity, as he carries a certain transgenerational burden of being a second-generation survivor.  pg41 to Maus II In the last panel of page 41, the first page of Maus II 's Chapter 2: Time Flies, we see Artie at his artist’s desk with his arms slumped over it. He is raised above what is a graphic visual of naked, dead mice in a heap over each other, portraying those who died in the Holocaust. Above him is a silhouette of a watch tower, and around him are flies that surround not only the decomposing dead, but surround the living Artie.  pg45 of Maus I, for reference Like the panel that we looked at as a class on pg45 of Maus I, this scene contains a conflation of the past and the present. The past is at his feet, l

Being that picture books were so heavily associated with childhood memories of grade school, it was nearly procedural for us to outgrew our short stories for chapter novels when we entered middle school. And when we were "promoted" to Troy High, we were weaned away yet again from recreational reading and instead steered towards literature that was considered more "intellectual". McCloud predicts our adult habits when he writes that our next transition is when we "finally arrive at "real books"- those with no pictures at all".  As a child, I lived in blissful ignorance, and never once questioned what was happening when we traded in our Geronimo Stiltons for our Harry Potters and Percy Jacksons, later for our Jane Austens and John Steinbecks. But reflecting now as a junior, one school year away from high school graduation, I realize now that they were great indicators of maturing.  We often hear that we are in the midst of four most formative years