Cotillion

On December 4, 2006, I attended my first formal dance, Cotillion. I had been stressing over it since the beginning of the school year. This one day of the year became my entire life, making me worried and tense, (adjectives shifted out of order) for the past three months, and now it was here.
Although I was excited, I did not set aside the entire day to prepare for the event, unlike many others. When I finished getting ready, I went over to Nicholas', my date's, house to take pictures, nervous and excited all at once. However, on the way there, the metal buckle on my high heel snapped in half as I was pulling the strap through it, further more adding to the stress. I couldn't believe it! Everything had gone perfect and now this. Sinking fast, my heart felt heavy as a boat, (absolute) and I felt as if there was no possible way it could be mended and my whole evening was ruined. I started to become a little anxious as I walked up to his door almost in tears.
When he answered the door, I explained to him what happened as I entered the house. He immediately went to his mother and we all began the search for a solution. It seems like nothing would work. We tried super glue, duct tape, and tying the straps together as a last resort. After many attempts, his dad found a roll of black electrical tape in their garage. Working diligently, we finally attached (participle phrase)the straps on my shoe back together and went on taking pictures and chatting about school and what not as if there was never a problem.
Nick and I continued the night as planned. We went to my friend's house with several other people to take pictures together. I have never seen so many flashing lights at one time. All of us were expecting to see spots for hours (active voice). Afterwards, we rode to Sullivan's to eat dinner where were actually in our own private room. As we finished eating, we took even more pictures there and finally decided to go to Cotillion. The dance was held in the school cafeteria, which smelled of pizza and cleaning products. There was a DJ and colored lights all around with people dancing everywhere. The heat was almost unbearable, not to mention my dress wasn't very comfortable either. We stayed there for about an hour until my date went home and I stayed the night with a friend. Through all of this, my shoe stayed taped together. In fact, I hardly even noticed it!

Reflection

Part I

"Chillingworth vs. Dimmesdale" In this piece I was trying to compare and contrast Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale from The Crucible. The main idea was that the characters were very different, yet similar at the same time. The point was to depict their roles in the novel and relate them to real life. While writing this piece, I learned many new synonyms for words. I also learned I had been misspelling some words for a very long time. Looking at my work, I often use the same sentence structure and try to find deeper meanings for things.

In "Cotillion" I described my experience the night of my first formal dance. In comparison to "Chilligworth vs. Dimmesdale", this piece was a little more informal. I used a more airy, light tone. While writing this piece, I learned how to incorporate brustrokes in my work. I also learned how to decrease my use of being verbs and increase my use of detail.

Part II

In "Chillingworth vs. Dimmesdale" I added why Hawthorne had the two characters in the novel and their purpose. I also added how his views on Romanticism and his feelings towards science and religion. As far as repition goes, I tried to avoid it as I was writing the piece. I did however use phsycologically as opposed to mentally in some cases, where as I had repeated mentally three or four times.

I think "Cotillion" was an overall good essay. I didn't feel I made as many errors. It had more of informal tone so I don't feel it was as difficult to write because of the sentence structure used. I incorporated all of the brushstrokes we learned in class and they are all bolded. I also edited out several of being verbs because it made the piece sound repetitive.

Part III

In Meredith A.'s nature essay, I really like her use of sarcasm. She did it in a tasteful way while still relating to the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau. I also like how Hank used a bible verse in his Scarlet Letter essay to relate to the story because I think religion is important and can relate to everything in life. I loved Cauley's funny tone in her nature essay. It made me laugh but I still understood her views and ideas. Three important things about writing I learned that I want to remember is the use of commas, brushtrokes, and how to use other words in place of being verbs. I think these are important enough to remember because they can be applied to every paper and can be very useful.

Chillingworth vs. Dimmesdale

Sometimes two people can be completely different on every level of their personalities, and other times they can have things in common they never noticed. In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale are polar opposites. They differ in their physical appearance, their personalities, and their intentions. However, they do have one thing in common. Although Chillingworth's intentions differ from Dimmesdale's, both of them share evil motives. I think these motives add suspense to the novel, almost making it a little bit of a horror story.
Chillingworth is described as an old, deformed, unattractive scholar from England. After his arrival in Boston and his discovery of his wife and her newborn child, Chillingworth decides to seek revenge against her unknown lover. Throughout the novel he begins to become a rather malevolent character, using his knowledge and wisdom to disguise himself as a doctor. Because Dimmesdale has been ill since the affair and continuously clutches at his chest, he asks Chillingworth to live in his home to take care of him. During his stay, Chillingworth becomes suspicious and drugs Dimmesdale only to discover a mark on his chest, revealing his identity as Hester's lover. He uses this as an opportunity to seek revenge against him. "Calm, gentle, passionless as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy" (91). This is the point in the novel where Chillingworth can really be considered wicked. In his own way, he mentally torture Dimmesdale, almost attaching himself to the minister to watch his actions around his wife, Hester.
On the other hand, Dimmesdale is a very handsome, young, minister of Boston. Dimmesdale, who is Hester's nameless lover, has a rather dull personality. Although he feels guilty, he does not take responsibility for his sin and Pearl, Hester's daughter. Dimmesdale physically and mentally tortures himself for the remorse he feels. Unlike Chillingworth, who fools everyone into thinking he is a doctor so he can get revenge, Dimmesdale uses his way with words and religious beliefs to speak to the Puritans about God rather than use his talents to do cruel deeds. Dimmesdale is not said to be good or evil. He does not commit any considerably good acts in the novel; however, his treatment towards Hester immoral. "What say you do to it, once again, Brother Dimmesdale? Must it be thou, or I, that shall deal with this poor sinner's soul?" (18). In this quote, another Reverend is telling Dimmesdale to force Hester to confess the identity of the father of her lovechild. This further shows Dimmesdale selfishness in upholding his reputation because he does not step up to expose his secret.
The one thing Dimmesdale and Chillingworth have in common are their malicious intentions, but not toward each other. Chillingworth is vengeful towards Dimmesdale after he finds out about his wife's affair. On the contrary, Dimmesdale ignores Hester because of the incident, and does not take responsibility for his sin to protect his status in the community. In my opinion, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale's differences can symbolically relate to the real world today. Chillingworth represents science with him being a scholar and posing as a doctor. Dimmesdale would represent religion, or spirituality, in the fact he is a reverend and believes only God can punish him for his sin. Science is always trying to overcome religion just as Chillingworth is trying to mentally overpower Dimmesdale. Hawthorne exhibits his views of Romanticism through these two characters by making them the antagonists. Chillingworth is in charge of science, which Hawthorne did not like, and Dimmesdale is in charge of religion, which Hawthorne also disagreed with. Overall, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth could not be any different. While Chillingworth is nasty and hateful, Dimmesdale is sort of dull and uninteresting. They both have evil inside of them though and it is evident throughout The Scarlet Letter. I think Hawthorne included these two characters in the novel to create mystery and suspense, and also to get the reader to form their own interpretations and opinions them.