Daily Archives: May 15, 2015

Comparative Essay – Dandelion Wine and “Sonnet 73”

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Dandelion Wine and “Sonnet 73” Comparison

In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73”, the speaker tells of death, love, and aging through a series of metaphors that also reveal important paradoxes. The speaker does not want to be forgotten and unloved at the time of his death and almost pleads to be loved and remembered. Similarly to not wanting to be forgotten and losing memories in “Sonnet 73”, Ray Bradbury’s novel Dandelion Wine characters are faced with death, aging, and love through the course of a 1928 summer filled with young and old alike making memories, not forgetting old memories, and not forgetting the elderly. The central theme connecting these two works involves taking chances before time runs out and death catches up. This theme is revealed through the process of aging, youth, and death.

Both Bradbury and Shakespeare link the central theme of using time before it’s gone through the process of aging in both works. For example, Bradbury sets the scene of the protagonist’s Great-Grandma lying on her deathbed and describes her life as she has aged: “Looking back on thirty billions of things started, finished, and done…” Bradbury reveals how she had aged and all she has done while aging. Similarly to showing the process of aging through Great-Grandma, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of “the glowing of such fire, that on the ashes of his youth doth lie…” (lines 9-10) to reveal the speaker’s once fiery and youthful spirit that, through the process of aging, has slowly been broken down like Great-Grandma. Through this metaphor, Shakespeare is depicting the speaker’s life, like Great-Grandma’s, through the process of aging. Also, Bradbury describes this process of aging through a lonely widow named Mrs. Bentley who was deceived by three children into thinking she has and always will be her old age. Mrs. Bentley come to an epiphany: “These things don’t belong to you here, you now. They belong to he so long ago” (75). Through this insight, Bradbury portrays how deceived Mrs. Bentley has become as a result of the process of aging. Likewise in Shakespeare’s Sonnet, the speaker is also emotionally affected by the process of aging almost seeming insecure about his aging, “In me thou seest the twilight of such day, as after sunset fadeth in the west…” (lines 5-6). By the sunset fading and the twilight of the day, Shakespeare is achieving the speaker’s emotional insecurity about the process of aging because he does not want to die alone. Both works, through insights and metaphors, share the theme of aging and the fear and understanding of the process of aging.

Along with the process of aging, fear of youth fading and no longer having a sense of youth is tied into the central theme both Shakespeare and Bradbury connect to. For example in Shakespeare’s Sonnet, the speaker is remembering and somewhat grieving his lost youth, “… the glowing of such fire, that on the ashes of his youth doth lie…” (lines 9-10). Through this metaphor, Shakespeare describes the speaker as a once youthful person and how the youth has slowly been burned out of him. In comparison, Bradbury again uses the elderly widow Mrs. Bentley as she is pondering what the three children have almost convinced her of: “She may have been a girl once, but was not now. Her childhood was gone and nothing could fetch it back” (75). Similarly to Shakespeare’s metaphor of once being young, Mrs. Bentley also begins to understand that although she may have been a young child once, that time is gone and she needs to let go of that to enjoy the rest of her life, much like in Shakespeare’s sonnet. Thus, both authors portray youth as a fleeting moment in time that needs to be remembered, but once youth passes it is gone for good.

In conjunction with aging and youth fading, both Bradbury and Shakespeare share an aspect of tge central theme of fear of dying and being forgotten coupled with the inevitability of death. Such as in Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine when the protagonist Doug’s Great-Grandma is walking to her room pondering her last thoughts, Bradbury eases into the thought of her death, “Now, chalk in hand, she stood back from life a silent hour before reaching for the eraser” (181) to soften the blow for both her family and the reader. By easing into Great-Grandma’s death, Bradbury portrays the mortality of people and how the calm before the storm of death is in the mind of the dying as they begin to reflect on their life. Likewise, Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73” speaker also depicts death and pondering back to youth as he dies, “That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, as the death-bed whereon it must expire, consumed with that which it was nourished by” (lines 10-12). Similar to Bradbury using death to reveal thoughts of youth, Shakespeare uses youth to show how the speaker dies, in a youthful spirit although his physical body has grown old. Both authors couple death with youth to better elaborate the death of a character or speaker and make their death more elegant.

Therefore, both Dandelion Wine and “Sonnet 73” share a theme of using time on earth wisely before it runs out and appreciating youth. Through this theme, Bradbury portrays the innocence of youth through the protagonist Doug and how his naivete is stripped away when his Great-Grandma dies. Along with youth, Bradbury shows the process of aging through the elderly coupled with making memories. In comparison, Shakespeare also uses death, youth, and aging to achieve the theme by using metaphors revealing paradoxes. By sharing the theme of taking chances before time runs out and the inevitability of death catches up, both works describe death, a glimpse of youth, and fear or aging in order to show the reader that mortality cannot be escaped.

Expository Essay – Choose Your Own Prompt (Extracurricular Activities)

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Thomas looks at the clock, only ten seconds left in the final game of his high school career. He takes in the floor, scanning, surveying, and finally he finds an attack point. Like a wild mustang, he drives into two defenders, breaking free from the six-foot, burly boys. Just as he’s ready to make a layup, he sees the only freshman on the team and passes the ball at the last second. Just like Thomas gave up his last shot of the season in his era of extracurricular sports, many students’ extracurricular activities help students to improve themselves through learning to share the spotlight and discovering their identity.

Extracurricular activities help students improve themselves by teaching humility. For example, Joe is the star running back and receiver on the varsity football team and is taking his team to the state playoffs. However, during this crucial game of his final season, he finally understands the good ‘ole, infamous, said-by-every-coach-in-the-world: “There is no I in team.” This epiphany hits him in the final quarter of the game with only a minute left on the clock and four yards to go on the fourth down. The moment he hears the play called, he knows his personal game plan- give the ball to a less successful teammate and give them their moment to shine. Just like Joe, many students in extracurricular activities have this same moment of learning it’s not the all-about-me-show, but that it’s about everyone else involved as well. Therefore, extracurricular activities help students improve in humility and selflessness.

Furthermore, students also improve themselves through extracurricular activities by developing more confidence. For example, I’m involved in the White Oak Future Farmers of America Chapter and am on the area champion, state-bound, undefeated Milk Quality Products team. Through these amazing, unique, and hilarious trips and practices, I’ve learned to accept myself through my teammates and chapter members, ten times more than I would have if I weren’t involved in my chapter. Not only have I found myself and accepted who I am, I’ve also gained immense confidence in myself and feel more comfortable in my skin than before. For many students, extracurricular activities are not only enjoyable, but a way to find their own beat to march to. Therefore, extracurricular activities help students to improve by giving them confidence and acceptance of themselves everyone should have.

The freshman, Terry, catches the rough, leather, orange basketball and stands in his place, as though he’s in quicksand, paralyzed with fear, shock, and awe. Terry sets his feet and form, then swish! and the crowd is roaring. Not only do extracurricular activities teach students a specific skill set, those activities also teach students to improve themselves and accept themselves.