Frankenstein at Peace

"A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility."
-Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly

In this passage, Victor Frankenstein expresses his feeling that the "perfect human" is at peace with himself constantly. As humans, however, it is impossible to achieve this status. We all have flaws that contribute to our humanity and, because of this, can never be in a state of perfect tranquility.We have emotions that make us unique and give us our distinct personalities. In not allowing passion or desire to drive our actions, we block out one of the things that makes us human. Because of this, a human being in perfection is not a human at all; in striving to become "perfect" we lose the part that separates us from the rest the rest of the creatures on Earth. Despite the fact that these animals have emotions, they do not use that passion to drive them to make innovations. That is why humankind prevails. Whether it is a weakness that brings us down or a strength that makes us what we are, it is a part of us that can not be denied. Instead, one should pursue desire in moderation,  not getting to carried away but not losing it entirely.

Erica W.

Where I'm From

I am from nature

from plants and animals

I am from the lion in Africa

(Growling, it sounded powerful)

I am from the coconut tree,

the pineapple bush,

whose hidden fruit tastes

so delicious on a hot day.

I'm from wild tuna and exotic birds,

from the Alps and Death Valley

I'm from the butterflies and the flutter-bys

I'm from the breathe in and breathe out

with an instructor

and ten poses I can do myself.

I'm from daisys and roses,

prickly yet beautiful;

from the fruit that the tree gave

to the small boy

who was hungry and alone.

In nature, there are interactions and reactions,

all affecting other relationships.

I am from these interactions,

before I bloomed.

-Alyssa R.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- Making Connections with Contemporary Society

One connection to real life I saw while reading the novel was Alice’s changes in size and loss of identity. With the help of the “Drink Me” and “Eat Me” drinks and cake, Alice changes sizes constantly, sometimes larger than an entire forest, and sometimes small enough to fit in a keyhole. Interestingly, after Alice transforms into a giant, Alice seems to be lost in her own trail of thought and forgets who she is. To reaffirm her identity as Alice, she begins reciting one of her lessons and finds that she recited them wrong. Based on this mistake, she makes a logical fallacy and compares herself to Mabel, a girl she knows that also does not know the recitations.
I thought that this was very related to real life since, sometimes, as children make the transition from childhood to adolescence or adulthood, they find their physical transformations to be very odd and question their own identity during the changes. This connected to a scene in the novel when the Caterpillar asks her “Who are you?”; Alice is unable to answer this question since she has gone through so many physical transitions, similar to children in today’s world, and is frustrated with her physical transitions that obscures even her own identity.

Alice Explores the Meaning of Words

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice often discusses the various meanings of words during her conversations with the inhabitants of Wonderland. These words or phrases seem to confuse Alice and, oftentimes, she leaves the discussion to contemplate the appropriate words and phrases that should be used. This may reflect her views of language. As a child, she questions the world she is beginning to take part in. Also, if this takes place in her imagination, it makes sense that the characters she meets use words incorrectly; it is Alice's way of sorting through the confusion she feels. She makes sense of the real world by creating an imaginary world in which anything can happen and people sometimes personify their titles.


-Erica W.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-Cause and Effect Relationships

Within the book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", I noticed a lot of cause and effect relationships. For example, because she got bored reading a book with no pictures, she decided to follow the white rabbit down the rabbit hole, with the effect being that she ended up in Wonderland. In addition to this, there have also been some more simpler cause and effect relationships. These include the potion that says DRINK ME, which affects Alice by shrinking her. She then eats a cake, and due to this, she is affected by growing larger again. All of these cause and effect relationships happen early on in this book, which is a harbinger that it will play a major role within the rest of the book. Had it all happened by chance, then this pattern wouldn't even matter, but everything that happens to Alice, occurs because of her own actions, and every action has a reaction!

-Alyssa R.