Reflection

Part 1: Thinking and Writing

The two pieces I chose for the blog were my Scarlet Letter essay and my memoir. For the Scarlet Letter essay, we got to choose any topic that related to the book to write an essay about. I wrote about how Pearl works as a guilty device on Arthur Dimmesdale's conscience. Pearl is Dimmesdale daughter that longs for her father to acknowledge her before the public eye. Everytime he sees her, Dimmesdale is reminded of the sin he committed. First, I found a quote by James Clarke that said if a man is brave he will reveal his inner thoughts. This relates to Dimmesdale because he is too afraid of what society will think of him to admit his sin. Then I searched through The Scarlet Letter and found three specific ways Pearl worked on Dimmesdale's conscience. When Pearl was a child, she reached up her arms to Dimmesdale, but he would not hold her. This example relates to the religious aspect because he is a preacher and it reminds him of God accepting him even though he sins. Another way Pearl works on his conscience is when she discovers that Dimmesdale has a public and private side. The public side denys her, while the private side accepts her. My last example was when Pearl washes Dimmesdale's kiss off at the brookside. Dimmesdale is now at the point where he must choose to keep living a secret life or tell the truth. Through writing this piece, I discovered more in-depth the character of Pearl. My feelings about her have changed because I now feel sorry for her. Her father never publically accepted her until right before death. I also learned how to write better thesis statements and where to insert transitions. My second piece was my memoir about a mission trip experience. In this essay, I descibed the worksite, the workload, meals, showers, and the rooms we stayed in. I learned that it is important to write about experiences because they become fonder memories. I learned how to use active voice, which is making the subject of the sentence do the action of the sentence. In using active voice you must try to eliminate being verbs. This was tough because I use being verbs a lot.

Things I have learned from writing in this class:

• Different brushstrokes to make writing more descriptive


• How to eliminate being verbs


• Writing is your perspective- there is not a right or wrong answer


• Brainstorm in my head instead of writing everything on paper
  

Part 2: Process of Revision

I revised my pieces in various places that I thought needed improvement. I also fixed places Mrs. Turner had left comments on. In my first piece, The Scarlet Letter essay, I fixed pronoun agreement, added transitions, and tried to stay in the same tense.

Examples of revisions:
Before-
The public Dimmesdale is ashamed of Pearl, while the private Dimmesdale holds her hand and accepts her. Not only does Dimmesdale realize this, but Pearl has caught onto it as well.

Pearl is persistent and continues asking Dimmesdale to accept her in the eyes of society.

After- The public Dimmesdale is ashamed of Pearl, while the private Dimmesdale holds her hand and accepts her. Not only does Dimmesdale realize this, but Pearl has caught onto it as well.

Now that Pearl has identified her father, she longs for society to know the truth. Pearl is persistent and continues asking Dimmesdale to accept her in the eyes of society.

In the above example I added a transition sentence which helped the essay flow better.

Before- The words Hester spoke struck his heart hard because he knew that he should stand on the scaffold beside her and openly admit his sin.

After- The words Hester speaks strike his heart hard because he knows that he should stand on the scaffold beside her and openly admit his sin.

This is just one of the many examples where I fixed staying in the same tense.

In my second piece, my memoir, my main revision was eliminating being verbs. I had over thirty in my rough draft, but now have only four. This took my piece to a whole new level because it seems to flow better. The essay is now more desciptive and I do not read "was" and "are" every other sentence.

Example of revision:

Before- The food was cafeteria style. It was not disgusting, but definitly could have tasted better.

After- Cafeteria style, the food fell short of disgusting, but certainly could have tasted better.

Before- The World Changers program is part of the North American Mission Board.

After- The World Changers program falls under the North American Mission Board.

Before- The saw was loud and the buzzing noise hurt my ears.

After- Hurting my ears, the saw made a loud buzzing noise.

Part 3: Learning from your classmates

After finishing my own blog, I read through several of classmates' blogs. They all did an amazing job! Through reading their blogs, I learned a couple of key things to remember. In Natalie's blog(http://natalierocksyoursocksoff.blogspot.com/), I read her Scarlet Letter piece. She picked some lessons to describe that she learned through reading the book. My favorite lesson was to not be judgemental. I think that is something everyone struggles with, but we must learn to look on the inside not the outside of people. Natalie had a great introduction and conclusion as well. When writing, this is important to remember because you have to grab the reader's attention at the beginning. If the introduction is boring, then the reader is less likely to read your piece. The conclusion is important because it wraps up the essay and ties all the points together. A good conclusion should leave the reader with lasting thoughts. I also read Kasey's memoir(http://kcremi.blogspot.com/). She wrote about when she got her dog from the animal shelter. It reminded me of when my family took in Sam. Kasey used great desciption through the whole piece. I really could visualize what was happening. This is extremely important to remember because you want the reader to have a picture in their head of what they are reading. Often times, I have good desciption at the beginning, but towards the end slack off. The last piece I read was Jennifer's memoir (http://jennheartsyou.blogspot.com/. She descibed a trip she took to Panama City, Florida. I loved her piece because she used dialogue. I think this is important to remember because it adds even more detail to your paper. The reader can feel emotion and overall the piece will have better voice. I hope I will apply the lessons I learned in my next piece.

Memoir

For most teenagers, summer represents pleasure and enjoyment, at least for a while. Eventually, summer days become dreary and seem to never end. No different, my summers unfold the same way. However, during the week of June 8 to 16, 2007, I experienced something like never before. I went on my first mission trip with my church youth group. We traveled to Huntington, West Virginia for a week with World Changers.
The World Changers program falls under the North American Mission Board. They have several camps in different places across the world each summer in which teenagers can participate. The 2007 theme, "Obedience, Choose to Serve" definitely sums up the week in four words. After much prayer and Bible study, I knew that God wanted me serve him through some type of mission work. In response, I obediently chose to serve when this mission opportunity arose. The camp my church chose stayed at Huntington High School. Girls stayed on the top floor of the school, while the guys stayed on the bottom. Each church that participated had one girl room and one guy room. On the hard classroom floor, my friend Melanie and I slept on my queen-size air mattress that lost air every night. Between texting on cellphones and frequent bathroom breaks, the girls from my church felt lucky to get just five hours of sleep each night. As for showers, the school had a total of sixteen. The guys had a locker room with eight and the girls had a locker room with eight. There were over 200 girls on the trip. We had three hours between getting back from our work site and dinnertime for 200 girls to get clean in eight showers. Can you imagine? I can illustrate it in one word: chaos! I had to wait at least an hour everyday for my turn to take a shower. I only got one hot shower the whole week. Cafeteria style, the food fell short of disgusting, but certainly could have tasted better. For breakfast we had a combination of eggs, grits, cereal, toast, biscuits, and donuts. Lunch and dinner varied, but some meals included pizza, chicken, sandwiches, and spaghetti. The school provided a salad, fruit, and dessert bar, too.
Organizers assigned each participant to a crew he or she would work with during the week. The Level Heads, my crew, had the mission to reside a house. Leaning sideways, the house alloted to us was not in the best part of town. The teenagers on my crew were: Mikki Dillard, Victoria Hull, Kayla Dyar, Elizabeth Brittingham, Jeremy Tabor, Steven Falen, Jake Thompson, J.T. Graves, Ashley Garrett, Bailey Coggins, Hunter West, Claire Robinson, Savannah Lowe, Chad Thompson and Doug Mackey. They were with churches from Alabama, Georgia, Illnois, and South Carolina. Chet Johnson, Missy Powell, Celia Keller, and Becca Bennett, our crew leaders, gave us the first task of nailing pink insulation over the old siding. Then, the real work began. Crew leaders gave each member a job. Some had to nail the siding, some had to clean up, and others measure and cut. I had to measure and cut! I cut the pieces of white siding with an electric saw to fit the measurements I took. Anxiety overtaking, my mother told me to not get hurt. Surprisingly I did not cut myself, but it I did get really messy. With each piece I sawed, sawdust, gritty and odiferous, flew everywhere. Hurting my ears, the saw made a loud buzzing noise. We worked seven-hour days for five days before we completed our assignment. The most memorable experience of the week happened when I got to cut the last piece of siding and watch as my teammates nailed it up. The smiles on the faces of the family that lived there made everything worth it. They could not believe the transformation that had occurred in their house. It looked like a brand new house even though it was actually eighty years old.
This trip taught me many lessons. My parents always tell my brother and me to be thankful for what we have. I met people who lived in a house that was falling in. I saw kids that did not have food to eat and money to buy shoes. I have learned not to complain about life because it could truly be much harder. I also now have a greater compassion and desire to help others. It could be as simple as helping someone who does not understand their homework to volunteering at the Habitat for Humanity shop or sharing what I have. I wish everyone could have had the opportunity I had. I plan to go on more mission trips for the humbling aspect. I know this is a trip that will be unforgettable because God really touched my heart that week.

Scarlet Letter Essay

James Freeman Clarke once said, "Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience." If a man is brave he will follow his conscience and reveal his inner thoughts to others. In The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale's conscience plays a major role by causing him to have inner guilt throughout the novel. He is reluctant to reveal his identity as the father of Pearl to his Puritan society. Hester Pyrnne, the mother of Pearl, is the only individual who knows he is Pearl's father. Both share deep conversations about their secret affair. Pearl becomes a living device that symbolizes the sin they have committed and causes their guilty consciences to be revealed. Thusly, the invisible child, Pearl, is an ongoing reminder of the secret pain buried deep in the chambers of Dimmesdale's heart.
From the first time we encounter Pearl in the novel, she is merely a three month old infant. Hester is carrying her from the spiky, dull prison door down the long, dirt path toward the public scaffold. As Hester's punishment for committing adultery, she must stand on the scaffold for three hours. During this time, Reverend Wilson instructs Arthur Dimmesdale to question Hester about the identity of her lover. Her response to this is, "I will not speak! And my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never know an earthly one!" (Hawthorne 21). This begins to affect Dimmesdale's conscience because his adultererous partner has denied to society Pearl will ever know him. The words Hester speaks strike his heart hard because he knows that he should stand on the scaffold beside her and openly admit his sin. However, Pearl recognizes him when, "Even the poor baby, at Hester's bosom, was affected by the same influence, for it directed its hitherto vacant gaze towards Mr. Dimmesdale, and held up its little arms, with half pleased, half plaintive murmur." (Hawthorne 20). Pearl reaches up her tiny arms to her father, but yet he does not have the courage to take her up his arms. Arthur Dimmesdale is the preacher at the Puritan society's church. He preaches to his congregation that they are all sinners but there is a God who still wants to love them. That same God wants to pick them up, hold them, and tell them they are a "child of God." Dimmesdale reaches for God, but not his own daughter. Pearl symbolizes a "sinner wanting to be picked up", but with no father who will claim her. Dimmesdale's conscience begins to grow full of guilt because the God of whom he preaches claims him, although he is a sinner, and he cannot declare to society the fact that he has committed adultery.
Not only does Pearl work on Dimmesdale's conscience in the religious aspect, but also when she asks, "Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, tomorrow noontide?" (Hawthorne 104-105). This quotation is taken from the scene when Dimmesdale leaves his home in the middle of the night to go stand on the scaffold. While he is performing a silent vigil, his spiritual torture becomes so overbearing he cries out with a shriek of agony. Hester and Pearl run into Dimmesdale on their journey home from the bed of the dying Governor Winthrop. The two join Dimmesdale on the scaffold, the place where seven long years earlier "Hester Pyrnne had lived through her first hours of public ignominy." (Hawthorne 99). The difference between the first scaffold scene and this one is the absence of the crowd. While on the scaffold, Pearl asks the minister if he will join her and Hester there at noontide tomorrow. Dimmesdale replies that their meeting will be at the great judgement day rather than in the daylight. Dimmesdale's guilty burden becomes heavier because Pearl begins to question whether he will acknowledge Hester and her in public. His two sides, the public Dimmesdale and the private Dimmesdale, become more evident to him. The public Dimmesdale is ashamed of Pearl, while the private Dimmesdale holds her hand and accepts her. Not only does Dimmesdale realize this, but Pearl has caught onto it as well.
Now that Pearl has identified her father, she longs for society to know the truth. Pearl is persistent and continues asking Dimmesdale to accept her in the eyes of society. While by the brookside, Pearl asks her mother in front of Dimmesdale, "Doth he love us? Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?" (Hawthorne 167). At his point, Dimmesdale's guilt has overtaken his life. This becomes obvious when, "The minister-painfully embarrassed, but hoping that a kiss might prove a talisman to admit him not the child's kindlier regards-bent forward, and impressed one on her brow." (Hawthorne 167). Pearl has pushed him to the edge where he is forced to decide to either tell society the truth about Pearl or continue to live a lie. If he cannot publicly accept responsibility for his actions, Pearl will continue to make him feel guiltier and deny him. "Hereupon, Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running to the brook, stooped over it and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water." (Hawthorne 167). Immediately when kissed by her father, Pearl washes the kiss off in the brook. She does not want to accept a kiss from Dimmesdale unless he will accept her in the public eye.
In the end, Dimmesdale gives an inspiring election day sermon. On the way to the banquet at town hall, the minster can scarcely walk. He comes to the scaffold where Hester stands holding Pearl by the hand. Dimmesdale pauses and calls Hester an Pearl to him. He ascends the scaffold steps with them by his side. The minister tells Hester that he is dying and must acknowledge his shame. Dimmesdale turns to the crowd, tearing his ministerial band from his breast, and declares that he is the father of Pearl. Then he sinks on the scaffold and asks Pearl for a kiss. Pearl kisses him and begins to weep. This is the most memorable scene between Dimmesdale and Pearl because this is the first moment when Dimmesdale is really the true father of Pearl. Society knows the truth and Pearl now can be held by her father with no judgement. After this, Arthur Dimmesdale speaks his last words "Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell!" (Hawthorne 211) and dies in the arms of Hester.
Pearl plays a significant burden on Dimmesdale's guilty conscience. She symbolizes a child longing for a father who will accept her not only in private, but publicly as well. I believe she is the driving force behind his confession. Through Pearl, Dimmesdale sees what he has done wrong. When he knows he is going to die, he chooses to live his last moments free of the secret that has bound him for many years. Dimmesdale's decision can be applied to our lives because we should not journey through life burdened by secrets. We should admit our faults, problems, and mistakes to others instead of carrying guilt. As people who sin everyday, we should not judge others when they admit their wrongs. We should be willing to help them overcome the battles with which they are struggling. While Pearl intentionally caused Dimmesdale to feel guilty, we should strive to build each other up and reach out to those in need. Imagine if everyone reached out to others, how much better people of the world would feel. The world would become a better place because of a simple word-compassion.