Wendy AP Language

What do you think about the reality of an astronaut’s job?  Except for the occasional and sometimes rare space mission, we can find many similarities to the job of a normal business person.  Do you think this is disappointing for people to have a dream of being an astronaut, and doing these great space missions, because that is what the job is made out to be, to find out that they may be able to travel to space only one time in their entire career?

Why would America, the country famous for its “freedom”, deny a person who has done nothing wrong and has worked harder than most Americans every will in their lives, the right to have financial aid for school and the right to a paying job?  How was the woman in the story different from the average American?  Can we compare her to Chris McCandless, and Thoreau’s ideas, in any way, especially their work ethic or opposition to the certain aspects of society?

Throughout her essay “Onward, Christian Liberals” from the American Scholar, Marilynne Robinson describes her beliefs and troubles as a liberal Protestant.  She explains that she is exploring her “personal holiness,” of which there are two types.  There is was you believe yourself, and what everyone else thinks you should believe.  The path Robinson has chosen is not something she has created herself, but is a deep, spiritual belief that many churches do not agree with.  She believes that everyone is holy: it is something we have, not create.  She also knows how much of an impact our mistakes have on our lives.

Originally, people recieved their “personal holiness” through some sort of spritual awakening during the times of Calvinists, and also in times of plague and famine.  There was also a divide in America among Protestants.  There were the believers who had sudden “conversions,” and those who believed in their faith firmly and did not need to be born again in order to have faith, the liberal side. 

The Great Awakenings were both based of of difficult times, and some motivational preacher came and told the people that they were all going to Hell if they did not follow the law of God.  They basically told the people that they were the cause of the hard times going on in the world.  And now there is a fundamentalist movement taking place, which many people are very much excited by, but Robinson’s opinion is different.  She believes that the “Third Awakening” happening right now does not promote equality and has more to do with politics than religion. 

The neo-fundamentalists believe strongly in the literal meaning of the Bible and a “right to life.”  However, they do not seem to have read far enough along in the Bible to truly understand that God is always with us and is still in every aspect of our lives.  Yes, he expects us to take care of each other, but he is still taking care of us.  Robinson explains that she hopes that in writing this essay, people can remeber what they truly believe in, not just what everyone else is telling them to. 

The liberal way of thinking is somewhat “predestinarianism,” but not extreme.  They believe that you cannot just do some good deeds and beg God for mercy and have power over a lot of people and expect that you are also great in God’s eyes, as it says more than once in the Bible.  Love is key here.  You can do everything spiritually righteous, but if you don’t love your neighbors and care for them, it means nothing.  If you are loving and merciful, it is then left up to God to decide your holiness in the end. 

In this essay, Robinson urges her fellow liberals to remember what they believe in, and the reason that they are divided among other Protestants.  She states that if we were all more accepting of each other we would be able to live in a better world.  If every religion truly based their words and actions on “grace, generosity, liberality” there would be more peace.  Robinson is basically stating that being a liberal Protestant is the way to be and if everyone was more accepting of its beliefs we would all have stronger faith.

Vocab

inhere- verb- to belong by nature or habit

laissez-faire- noun-  a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights 

elan vital- noun- the vital force or impulse of life

eschatological - adj- a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind

passim- adv- here and there

ecumenism- noun- principles that are worldwide or general in extent, influence, or application 

disparagement- verb- to lower in rank or reputation

poseur- noun- a person who pretends to be something they are not.

Tone

assured, persuasive

Rhetorical Strategies

Paradox- “This supposed new awakening  is to the first two awakenings, and this neo-fundamentalism is to the first fundamentalism, as the New Right is to the New Deal, or as matter is to anti-matter.” (215)

Epicrisis- “After all, Jesus did say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven… but do not have love, I am nothing.” (216)

Mesodiplosis- ” This view of things implies that no doctrinal tests exist to distinguish the true faith from the false, real Christians or poseurs, the orthodox from the erring.” (217)

Mark Danner calls the war in Iraq, the “War of the Imagination” because of the poor knowledge and planning that went into it.  There were two phases planned before the war began, which was the “Real Iraq War” and the post-war.  During the “Real Iraq War,” the plan was to knock Saddam Hussein out of power and take over the Iraqi government.  That part for the most part went as planned, but the post-war has been going on for the past three years without much improvement.  Trying to set up and stabalize a new government in Iraq was harder than planned.  In fact, there was not much planning done at all.  There was merely a Plan A, and when that wasn’t approved, there was no backup.  The Iraqi people were not as supportive of the Consitution as the US had hoped, and there were broken promises that caused them to lose trust in the US government.  The war was not well planned, and in the words of George F. Kennan, “…you never know where you are going to end.”

Vocab

sheikh- noun- an Arab chief

technocrat- noun- a technical expert; one excercising managerial authority

indomitable- adj- incapable of being subdued; unconquerable

conundrum- noun- a question or problem having only a conjectural answer; an intricate and difficult problem

neoconservative- noun- a conservative who advocates the assertive promotion of democracy and United States national interest in international affairs including through military means

paean- noun- a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph

maelstrom- noun- a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius

vituperatively- adj- uttering or given to censure : containing or characterized by verbal abuse

concentric- adj- having a common center

vociferously- adverb-  marked by or given to vehement insistent outcry

Tone

critical, informative

Rhetorical Strategies

Allegory- “This time, after Herculean efforts of persuasion and negotiation by the American ambassador, most Sunnis were expected to vote.” (29)

Anthypophora- “Out of this maelstrom, how does one fix now on ‘how we began’ in Iraq?” (38)

Appeal to Pathos- “Shia leaders respond with death squads, whose members drawn from party militias and often allied with the Ministry of the Interior and Iraqi police, have now totured and assassinated thousands of Sunnis. …These bodies… “often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones (back, hands, and legs), missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails.” (40)

In her essay “Passion Flowers in Winter from PMS, Molly Peacock begins by describing a woman named Mary Delaney who lived in the 1700s.  At seventy-three years old, she began the artwork of collages, and did beautiful, life-like pictures of flowers.  Her art is truly amazing; it is precise on every stem and petal, making it hard to distinguish from the real thing.  And to think she started this at seventy-three years of age.

Peacock looks to Mary Delaney as a role model for herself.  Our lives are constantly changing and we always need someone to look to for help, even after we grow up.  Peacock explains that she has had many role models, and now some are not even alive, including Delaney and Peacock’s own mother.  She says that they are better role models because their lives are already complete and everything, the decisions and what came out of them, has already taken place. 

Mary Delaney grew up in the 1700s with royal blood.  She planned to be a “maid in waiting” to the Queen, but things did not work out as planned and her family had to flee to the country.  She was forced to marry a much older man when she was sixteen years old.  He was an alcoholic and she had to stay in his gloomy home for ten years until his death. 

Peacock is able to draw many similarities between her life and Mary’s, because her father also had a drinking problem.  She can feel Mary’s fear of the “drunken older man” and her worries every day as to how she would escape. 

Peacock’s mother, on the other hand, was an independent working woman at the age of sixteen and moved away when she was twenty-two.  She got a factory job and would soon be married to the nephew of her boss.  Being married to an alcoholic threw her into a depression and it took her twenty long years to get out.  As Mary Delaney was going into a second marraige when she was forty-five, Mrs. Peacock was just getting out.  Peacock questions herself for comparing the two, also to herself, in such detail, but there are so many things to compare and contrast, so she continues.

Mary began her work of collaging after a wonderful marraige with her second husband.  Peacock figures she must have been so good at it because of her earlier work doing silhouettes as a child in school.  Her mother also treasures a silhouette that was done of Molly as a child.  It must take so much patience to do such detail with so much precision.  But this became the rest of Mary Delaney’s life.

Peacock points out that Mary Delany’s life seems so much greater than her mothers.  Of course, there was a difference in the periods of time and their social classes and wealth, but Mary Delaney dealt with her troubles with a different attitude, and always had a positive perspective on life.  She kept going.  Peacock’s mother, on the other hand, made goals, but always settled for less.  She did not put herself out there.  She gave up.  But by doing this, she made her daughter a better, more driven person.  Both women are inspirational to Peacock.  By comparing what these people meant to her life, she realized that “we need our role models long past adolescence.”  If you can look at people’s experiences for help with your own, the outcome will probably be better.  We are always stepping into new points in our lives and sometimes we may need help, and that is exactly what role models are for.

Vocab

sub-rosa- adjective- secretive; private

succinct- adjective- marked by compact precise expression without wasted words 

piquant- adjective- engagingly provocative; also : having a lively arch charm

tete a tete- noun- in French literally “head-to-head”; a private conversation between two persons 

tendril- noun- a leaf, stipule, or stem modified into a slender spirally coiling sensitive organ serving to attach a climbing plant to its support 

Tone

passionate, inspired, comparison

Rhetorical Strategies

Allusion- “…to live in a kind of Jane Austenesque exile away from intrigue.” (176)

Ratiocinatio- “Is it ridiculous of me to compare my role models- my own mother, who died at seventy-three, and Mrs. Delaney, who literally came into a second flowering?  I wonder if I am overmanufacturing these links between my role models and myself.  Are these details really silhouettes within silhouettes, upside down and inverted, tissue thin?” (180)

Simile- “…Counting the colors of the pieces of paper is as bewildering as counting the papers themselves.” (188)