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The Coleman Prize in English: The Transformative Symbolism of White Flowers: Innocence or Guilt?
By Kelly Yang, Class of 2023
The Transformative Symbolism of White Flowers: Innocence or Guilt?
Editor’s Note: The Coleman Prize in English is awarded to the student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the most outstanding essay during the academic year.
If Dorian Gray were a flower, what kind of flower would he be? In the “Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde uses the Victorian language of flowers to comment implicitly on aestheticism and moral corruption. He reveals the corrupting influence of purely aesthetic lives through the symbol of white flowers. From daisy to narcissus, orchid, and rose, the transformative symbolism of white flowers charts Dorian Gray’s trajectory from a figure of innocence to one of degradation.
Before Dorian Gray is corrupted by a purely aesthetic life, Wilde chooses the symbol of the white daisy to represent Dorian’s innocence and youth. Even before Dorian Gray enters the story, Wilde uses the white daisy to foreshadow Dorian’s loss of innocence. The symbol of the white daisy first appears in a garden, alluding to the Garden of Eden. Just as the Devil corrupts Adam and Eve, Wilde implies that Dorian Gray is doomed to be corrupted by the aesthetic philosophy that Lord Henry inculcates in him. In the grass of the religiously symbolic garden, “white daisies [are] tremulous” (Wilde 6). Daisies are drought-resistant wildflowers that thrive without needing much cultivation (Southern Living Editors). Intentionally placing the wild daisies in the “Garden of Eden,” Wilde suggests the unaffected nature of Dorian Gray, who has not yet been exposed to Lord Henry’s corrupting influence. By using the word “tremulous,” Wilde personifies the daisy, implying that Dorian Gray’s ethical principles are unstable and impressionable, and his understanding of his beauty will be easily subverted by Lord Henry. The symbolism of the white daisy reappears when Lord Henry preaches the significance of vanity and beauty. When Lord Henry mocks Mrs. Hallward as “a peacock in everything but beauty,” he symbolically “pulls the daisies to bits” with his fingers (Wilde 8). By comparing women to peacocks in this simile, Lord Henry dehumanizes women as vain animals that flaunt their tails. His word choice “but” in the phrase “everything but beauty” also disdainfully expresses that he only sees aesthetic values in the external beauty of women and nothing else (Wilde 8; emphasis added). When Lord Henry expresses his philosophy of aestheticism, the daisies, which represent innocence and a lack of worldliness, are torn into pieces, foreshadowing Dorian’s self-destruction due to his indulgent pursuit of beauty (Kirkby 43).
(more…)The Redmond Prize for English Narrative: The Color Of Absurdism
By Ariel Cheng, IV Form
The Color of Absurdism
The Redmond Prize for English Narrative, presented in memory of Henry S. Redmond, Class of 1923, is awarded to the student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the outstanding piece of narrative during this academic year.
There you are. Just stay perched on the platform, like a bird about to take flight, for a little while longer. I’ll wade through the dusty coats and heavy smoke and excessive coffee stains. I’ll push past the glowing vending machines and clicking suitcases. While you wait, let me tell you a story.
In the crowd there is a man cupping an orange. Do you see him? From my perspective it looks like a sun, attracting the rush-hour like a moth to a flame. We are in its orbit. Our stares swallow and gulp at the bright flesh, desperate for light and sweat and cold. Now it is sliding down his throat, peeling away like a rollercoaster over a track. But why am I still looking? The man is gone, the orange is gone, their shadows are gone. The train is gone. There and gone.
What is orange, you ask? Have they not covered this in school yet? Orange is a color, a fruit, a symbol of prosperity. But your experience of orange – the orange you see, feel, taste – is unique. I can never know what an orange tastes like for you, or for that lady with the stroller. We are all forever stuck in the cages of our own imaginations.
(more…)The William Otis Smith Prize for English Verse: “Vignette”
By Ariel Cheng, IV Form
The William Otis Smith Prize for English Verse: “Vignette”
Editor’s Note: The William Otis Smith Prize for English Verse is given in memory of a member of the Class of 1907 and is awarded to one student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the outstanding verse during the past year.
Vignette
Sand
washing you down (washing
you out) wearing you
like a necklace. I try to lace
rope, a net, a knot
your fingers, twisted. Twisting.
Laughing. A broken fan, cards everywhere,
soap opera murmuring.
In a room with peeling walls
we were honest.
The William Otis Smith Prize for English Verse: “blue break of dawn”
By Sophie Chiang, V Form
The William Otis Smith Prize for English Verse: “blue break of dawn”
The William Otis Smith Prize for English Verse is given in memory of a member of the Class of 1907 and is awarded to one student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the outstanding verse during the past year.
“blue break of dawn”
no one ever crosses the cracked crosswalks
in the blue break of dawn. your mind flickers
into a sea-bloom of blue lights and credit cards,
of white powder and rolled-up dollar bills. you’ve
never been too cautious, these mannequins seem
to hold a gaze so intense it’s like you’re 17 and
speeding past red & blue flashes all over again.
you cry out and pick at your scalp, the one thing
holding together everything you’re made of,
the one thing you’ve ever been terrified to grasp.
there’s not much room to hold your new life next to
your mother’s faltering punch and your father’s
drunken breath. you wonder if this is universal. you
wonder if this is where it starts for people like you. you
wonder if that’s why when it matters, no one ever
crosses the concrete where you come from.
The Coleman Prize in English: Is Atonement Always Attainable?
By Madison Hoang, V Form
The Coleman Prize in English: Is Atonement Always Attainable?
The Coleman Prize in English, endowed by Joseph G. Coleman Jr., Class of 1899, is awarded to that student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the outstanding essay during this academic year.
“She [Briony] was calm as she considered what she had to do. Together, the note to her parents and the formal statement would take no time at all . . . She knew what was required of her. Not simply a letter, but a new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin. BT” (McEwan 321).
In a shocking conclusion to Part III of Atonement, author Ian McEwan inserts the initials “BT,” revealing the crucial fact that thus far, the whole novel had been a written retelling by none other than the novel’s protagonist herself, Briony Tallis. It is only after her confrontation with her victims, her sister Cecilia and childhood housekeeper Robbie, that Briony finally “begin[s]” her process of atonement. Readers soon realize that the narrative portrayed in Part III is entirely a product of Briony’s imagination; in reality, she never gets the chance to confront Robbie and Cecilia, and she never did write a “letter” or “formal statement” to begin her atonement. Instead, “a new draft” – alluding to the entire novel in of itself – shows how Briony’s role as a writer throughout earlier stages of her life is linked to her inability to face her wrongdoings. She thinks that an opportunity to retell her story is the only way for her to seek true atonement. As a writer, Briony grows by exploring new perspectives, experimenting with new stylistic devices, and developing her stories’ plots. As an adult, Briony also matures by becoming a more empathetic, accountable, and courageous figure, which ultimately allows her to attain atonement for her past wrongdoings.
(more…)The Evolution of Jane Austen
By Sydni Williams, VI Form
The Evolution of Jane Austen
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”1
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, upplaga (ex pbk ed.). ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 2009).
This opening line from Jane Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, is a summation of the time period in which Austen lived and wrote. The quote proves that, in eighteenth century England, an economically stable, unmarried man should pursue an agreeable, unmarried woman to acquire as a wife. After courtship, proposals, and financial negotiations with the woman’s father, a man and woman would be married through a process devoid of love. From the perspective of an eighteenth-century woman, Pride and Prejudice’s opening line demonstrates that a woman’s marital status decided her economic security and quality of life. Women had little to no opportunity to advance in society, beyond the man they married. Therefore, proposals, marriage negotiations, and weddings were an important landmark in the lives of many women; the landmark that decided their future.
Jane Austen, living among the eighteenth-century gentry, witnessed these events in her everyday life and wrote novels about this world: about marriage, love, hate, family, relationships, and humanity. Unlike many women of her time, Austen never married and spent her life dedicated to a writing career. Austen’s stories have transcended centuries, influenced the film industry, and remained on bookshelves and in classrooms. Although Austen’s “universally acknowledged truth” may no longer be true after the women’s rights movement, Austen and her novels have somehow remained relevant.
There is not much information existing on Austen’s personal life. Historians, biographers, and writers have theorized about her sexuality, gender identity, political views, and career goals. For almost a century after her death, Austen’s family members rewrote her life in biographies, profiting off of her successes. When remembering Jane, they manipulated her image to fit into society’s standards of a spinster, creating “Aunt Jane,” a caricature of Austen since used in many accounts and biographies. As a result of this image, Austen was an ideal conservative icon used in support of marriage.
(more…)Ely Speech by Yunxuan (Coco) Chen, IV Form, Eli Prize Winner (20-21 School Year)
The Ely Prize is presented to the student who gave the best speech in the III Form Global Seminar Public Speaking Competition each spring.
The Nickel Boys: The Formation and Destruction of Elwood’s Moral Compass
By Nick Sparrow, IV Form
The Nickel Boys: The Formation and Destruction of Elwood’s Moral Compass
Colson Whitehead’s latest novel, The Nickel Boys, is a story based on true events, which follows a bright and promising African-American boy with a strong moral code growing up in the Jim Crow South. The main conflict of the story is his sentence to a reform school where he finds himself facing a racist and corrupt sovereignty, which uses torture to discipline students. Elwood Curtis was on his way to college when nothing but bad luck and prejudice got him arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Throughout the novel, Elwood seems to be the only person willing to take a stand and face the system, unable to see that everyone else had already been defeated. After his first week of trying to do good at The Nickel School, Elwood is taken to “The White House” where he is flogged until he passes out. He ends up in this situation as a result of his bravery and nobility, which is what ultimately causes Elwood to lose sense of his moral compass and any hope of escape. This novel tells details the ways in which hate, racism, and prejudice will find a way to take good people down, even when they live sincerely and by the book.
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