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Frederick Douglass & The Power of Literacy
By Riya Shankar, V Form
Frederick Douglass & The Power of Literacy
In Frederick Douglass’s autobiographical narrative, he explores the power of education in slavery, one of the most important themes in the narrative. Literacy is initially the beacon of hope that reminds Douglass that there is ultimately freedom from slavery. However, learning to read reveals to Douglass the horrific truth of slavery, transforming his views on the opportunities that are rooted in literacy. He realizes that learning to read has only pushed him further into the depths of slavery rather than helped him fight for liberty. Though the immediate impact of literacy on Douglass reveals the paradox of education in his life as a slave, Douglass’s views on literacy ultimately shift from paradoxical to positive. Douglass finds that education has only led him deeper into the chains of slavery, but he eventually sees the power to be gained from literacy and the potential to use literacy as a tool to fight against slavery. (more…)
World War I Primary Sources Collection at the Library
By Marion Donovan, Assistant Librarian
World War I Primary Sources Collection at the Library
As a librarian at St. Mark’s this fall, I have begun to “weed” through our history collection and have taken a deep dive into time travel. In the past, I was a history teacher myself, so the primary sources that bring the past to life call out to me. A particular section in the library especially rich in those sources covers World War I. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWI on the Allied side, one as a doctor and the other as an engineer, so I grew up with stories and artifacts of “The Great War,” as it was first known. When I applied to graduate school for history at the University of Chicago, I discovered that La Verne Noyes, an American inventor and manufacturer of agricultural equipment, book holders, and windmills, had left the bulk of his fortune to scholarships for Allied veterans of WWI and their direct descendants. These scholarships have now expanded to include 48 colleges. April 6, 2017 will be the one-hundredth anniversary of the United States’ entry into WWI. The European side of the war began in 1914, so many newspaper and magazine articles have already examined new and old perspectives on those events. More will be coming with April 6 in view. We at St. Mark’s are lucky to have an extensive collection of first-hand material (diaries, letters, memoirs, news reports, propaganda, art, photographs) from marshals and generals to privates and civilians on wide-ranging aspects of this war. (more…)
Competing in the FIRST Robotics Challenge
By Kate Sotir, VI Form
Competing in the FIRST Robotics Challenge
Working in the basement level of the STEM building, using lots of power tools, and occasionally throwing out words like “kickoff,” “drivetrain,” or “STEAMworks,” we are FIRST team 3566, also known as Gone Fishin’.
Gone Fishin’ competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” The robotics competition, open to any high school student, was created in order to promote the STEM fields and offer a competitive yet collaborative atmosphere for robotics. In the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), teams are given a challenge, in the form of a game, and then have six weeks to build a 120 pound, $10,000 robot to meet this challenge. After those six weeks are up, teams compete in various regional events. The ultimate goal is to go to the world championship, held in St. Louis, where around 800 teams gather to play the game. (more…)
America: A Country of Apple-Eaters (Salinger’s “Teddy”)
By Minjae (Izzy) Kim, V Form
America: A Country of Apple Eaters (Salinger’s “Teddy”)
A seven-year-old child is in a math class learning simple addition and subtraction of single digit numbers. To logically approach this mathematical concept, the instructor employs the analogy of cookies; she asks, “If your mom left four cookies on the table, but your sister took two of the cookies, how many cookies can you eat?” A smart and logical child raises his hand and says, “I can eat two cookies!” and the teacher rewards him with a lollipop for correctly answering the question. However, according to Salinger, that child does not deserve a lollipop because he only answered the question logically, not spiritually. Although logic is the primary approach people take to solve most problems, in “Teddy” from Nine Stories, Salinger highlights the conflict between spirituality and logic and uses this dichotomy to guide the readers in interpreting the enigmatic epigraph. To accomplish this, Salinger kills Teddy at the end of the story to verify Teddy’s esoteric wisdom of spirituality, condemn the American view on spirituality, and usher the readers to interpret things spiritually rather than logically. (more…)
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Reflections on Miller’s The Crucible
By Carrick Zhu, V Form
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Reflections on Miller’s The Crucible
A lack of decency and empathy has caused many unnecessary deaths and trauma throughout history. As Joseph Welch once asked Senator McCarthy during the “Red Scare” hearings, “Have you left no decency?” [1] The Salem Witch Trials depicted by Arthur Miller in The Crucible took place more than three hundred years ago, yet Miller’s message has not lost its relevance in modern society. The hysteria surrounding the story still has the potential to reoccur in America. Arthur Miller portrays the evil side of humanity through the trials by depicting the selfishness, impressionability, and the atrocities committed because of fear. These characteristics portrayed in The Crucible remain poignant today because of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Red Scare of the 1920’s, and the Third Reich regiment. (more…)
Maturity and Youth: Connection in “For Esme, with Love and Squalor”
By: Helynna Lin, V Form
Maturity and Youth: Connection in “For Esme, with Love and Squalor”
In J.D.Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the rebellious teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield, leaves school and wanders in New York City, trying to resolve his hatred towards the ingenuine, superficial adult world and his nostalgia of youthful innocence. The theme, conflict between youth and maturity, is continued in Salinger’s short story, “For Esme, with Love and Squalor.” The story takes place in an English town where American soldier Sergeant X prepares himself for battle and meets Esme, a 13-year-old girl who has recently lost her parents in war. They have a good conversation, at the end of which they promise each other to exchange letters. After D-Day, Sergeant X experiences a mental breakdown and loses the courage to live, but the arrival of Esme’s letter brings him strength to continue living. In this story, the wartime and battlefield are representative of the dark sides of society, and the two characters are symbols of adults and adolescents. By describing the connection between Esme and Sergeant X, Salinger proposes that youth and maturity can resolve one another’s struggles and fight against the downsides of society. (more…)
The Mask: Art Inspired By The Loss of My Grandfather
By U Jin Jo, IV Form
The Mask: Art Inspired By The Loss of My Grandfather
“Do you ever wish you could just take off your mask and show people what is going on inside of you?”
I have been asked this question multiple times before. However, I never really understood what it meant before I experienced the death of someone whom I loved. In fact, his absence is still hard to believe today.
My grandfather – my best friend, my mentor, my everything – passed away two years ago when I was in 7th grade. The pain of the loss was unbearable for my 13-year-old self. However, having to tough through each day of school, I maintained the bright smile on my visage and carried my sadness within me. Day after day, I became more tired of burying my feelings inside. Eventually, I could no longer hold back the tears that flooded inside of me. I needed to show people what was going inside of U Jin Jo.
For this piece of art, I wanted the background to be important without having too much information because I wanted the focus to be on the inside. Hence, I used red acrylic paint and created a gradation behind the person. For the hair, I used a black felt-tip pen for the hair-like patterns. Under the mask of the girl, I wanted the section to express an entirely different feeling than the rest of the page because it is the focus of this piece. I looked through fashion magazines and cut out images of thunderstorms, clouds, and tears to create an ominous collage. Everything else was done in pencil. (more…)
Get Well Soon: Dialogue in the Style of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”
By Mei Mei Arms, IV Form
Get Well Soon: Dialogue in the Style of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”
Editor’s Note: The purpose of this creative writing assignment in IV Form Writing Workshop was to build a better comprehension of implicit and explicit facts in writing pieces and to become acquainted with a specific creative writing style. Students chose to emulate the writing style of one of three short stories read in class: “Harrison Bergeron,” “Hills like White Elephants,” or “Cathedral”. Students were expected to employ the same literary devices that the authors of the original short stories used. Those who chose to imitate “Hills like White Elephants” were expected to convey a message without directly stating it.
The room held flowers, cards, balloons, bears, and stale air. The flowers had long since lost their sweet aroma to the cruel hands of time. Cards sat unread. Those shiny stiff “get well soon” balloons still bobbed halfheartedly in a corner by a window. Along the bed sat bears, tens of them, their kind bead eyes meant to make you feel some sort of happy, but were left collecting dust with (more…)
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