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A Novel of Reaction: Larsen’s Passing
By Charlotte Wood, V Form
A Novel of Reaction: Larsen’t Passing
W.E.B. Dubois wrote that “all Art is propaganda and ever must be…” He thought that artists and writers should try to make the world a better place through their work. Nella Larsen, the author of Passing, would not agree. Her novel centers on two light-skinned black women, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, and their respective decisions to pass as white or not. I believe she wrote this novel not to persuade the reader of something or to convince them to enact change, but rather to reflect the world how she sees it. The book is a reaction to society, not something for society to react to. Passing itself is portrayed as something that simply is, not wholly good or wholly bad. Both characters participate in it, and so the reader is not meant to side with one over the other. The relative passivity of its message is reflected in the passivity of its main character, Irene. Because she is not active, the intention of the novel is not active. Lastly, the ambiguity of the ending leaves the reader, like Irene, with more questions than answers. (more…)
Make Peace With the Day to Enjoy the Evening: Remains of the Day
By Gabriel Xu, V Form
Make Peace With the Day to Enjoy the Evening: Remains of the Day
There’s an old Chinese idiom that roughly translates to, “The person on the spot is baffled, the onlooker sees clearly”. Surely, this applies to the case of Mr. Stevens. As the aged butler in Remains of the Day travels farther away from the house he has been in service of for decades, he starts to see the truth of his former employer more clearly — a truth so dark and ugly that Stevens has tried very hard to escape. Although Mr. Stevens is forced to learn the tragic truth about his former lord and consequently his own small, yet undeniable contribution as butler to the evildoing his master was conducting, the meeting with Ms. Kenton, a former housekeeper, allows him to see value in his decades of service, to make peace with his past, and eventually to move forward into a hopeful future. (more…)
The Importance of Classics in the 21st Century
By Riley Lochhead, V Form
The Importance of Classics in the 21st Century
Editor’s Note: In Latin III Honors, the students wrote essays to submit to the Eidolon Essay Contest. The prompt called for an explanation and argument for why studying Classics is important in the 21st century.
Studying Classics has helped me with many things such as SAT vocabulary, gaining a better understanding of the foundation of the English language, and having a better grasp on the history of ancient Rome. Although all of these skills are valid examples of the importance of studying the Classics, they are not what makes studying Classics most valuable in the 21st century. It is crucial to continue to educate students in the area of Classics is because Latin and Greek create opportunities for students to be independent critical thinkers who are able to produce their own ideas and to ask questions that provoke them to question their previous assumptions about the topics being discussed. This skill can be applied to many other disciplines and is crucial to development of a growth mindset. (more…)
The Great Gatsby: Chapter 10
By Eric Zhang, V Form
(Editors’ Note: In Ms. Matthews’ American Literature class, this assignment prompted students to create a 10th chapter of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, utilizing Nick Caraway’s melancholic tone and including some type of closure for the characters)
It had been five years since the funeral, and I finally returned to this city that I once thought was haunted. Everything was so depressing. There were no sounds of the orchestra playing or shimmering sights of the girls wearing fancy dresses with decorations on their shoes. The city of New York had changed since that October in 1929, what was later called Black October. I wandered the streets of New York, and ultimately, I was pulled back to the Eggs and Gatsby’s mansion. What was once a (more…)
Un jour typique
By Kitty Chen V Form, Stephanie Moon III Form, and Rosanna Zhao III Form
Un jour typique
French 2 assessments this year have been largely project-based, and following each project, students submit video reflections through Voicethread. After finishing a video project this fall, their reflections offered three pieces of feedback: 1 – “We’d like to do bigger projects over longer periods of time. Sometimes it feels like we just do one project after the next.” 2 – “Working with others is fun, but sometimes it would be nice to do our own projects.” 3 – “What if we had more choices in HOW we present what we know?” Armed with this information, all 16 students and Ms. McCulloch brainstormed. (more…)
U.S. Historical “I am” Poems
By Samantha Sarafin, John Hart, George Littlefield, and Ginny Walsh, V Form
U.S. Historical “I am” Poems
Each of our United States History courses revolves around eight major themes prevalent throughout history. One of those themes is the question of “Who is an American” at any given time in the nation’s history. In keeping with our work and also trying to connect what we do inside our classroom to the broader St. Mark’s community and world at large, each class took their Community and Equity Day “I am” poems and looked at them from a historical angle. Each student was asked to look at an “I am” poem from the perspective of a figure from history. Some students were asked to be someone as specific as Alexander Hamilton, while others were (more…)
The Art of Calligraphy
By Sean Kim, VI Form
The Art of Calligraphy
As the Western Hemisphere settles down from all the hubbub of the new year, many nations in East Asia and their diaspora communities recently celebrated their new year: the Lunar New Year. Even with all the “westernization,” celebrating holidays based on the lunar calendar and tradition that come with the holidays have stayed an integral part of communities throughout East Asia and beyond. One of the traditions of the holidays is calligraphy. Calligraphy, which began as a crude pictogram in Ancient China, has been considered a work of art for millennia. Just as art did, calligraphy in East Asia developed and evolved, spawning numerous styles of writing that came and went as centuries passed. (more…)
La Realidad de la “Democracia Racial” entre Brasil (En Español and English)
By Theo Bartlett, V Form
La Realidad de la “Democracia Racial” entre Brasil (En Español and English)
Our core objective in our Spanish IV class is to study Latin American history in order to understand how and why Latin America has been shaped into the region that it is today. Within our curriculum, we accomplish this task by doing case studies on many different countries in Latin America, in which we study the national history of the country and then connect it to recent publications regarding its modern day situation. Within these case studies, we explore the demographics, economics, politics, and social scene of a country by immersing ourselves in Latin American literature, political debates, documentaries, and movies, and we reflect on what we have learned in both classroom discussions and written responses throughout the studies. Most recently, at the end of our case study on Brazil, we were asked to take the information that we learned in the PBS documentary “Black in Brazil”, which talks (more…)