1. I strongly feel that myth #3 describes me the most. According myth #3, most people focus on to perfect their first draft and set unrealistic goals for it. I feel like I do that all the time. I always think I am going to write the best essay even before starting the essay.
2. High school research is more about searching on Google to find basic content, college research requires more in-depth research. I need to work on taking my time to read scholarly articles.
3. Argument in a college level essay does not mean you have to win, it means that you have to get your audience’s approval of your perspective.
4. The three kinds of writing assignments are engage in an open inquiry where the answer is not known at first, identify meaningful parts of the subject, and examine these separate parts and determine how they relate to each other. As a write, you first propose an inquiry, describe the meaningful parts of the subject, and describe how each part is related.
5. The three parts of effective writing are clear evidence in writing that the writer(s) have been persistent, open-minded, and disciplined in study, the dominance of reason over emotions or sensual perception, and an imagined reader who is coolly rational, reading for information, and intending to formulate a reasoned response. As a writer, you have to be persistent, and reason over emotions.
6. The author feels usage of first person is appropriate in clarifying who’s saying what and in an objective writing.
7. It is an bad idea to use “I” when you only use it once in your writing. It’s bad because the tone shift will jar the reader.

1. In the poem “Eastern War Time,” Adrienne Rich portrays a lot of vivid scenes about different people. Which one do you think is the best representation of the war images? And, how are these descriptions of other people, such as the driving woman of sixty, related to the main character, the Jewish girl?

In the poem “Eastern War Time,” Adrienne Rich portrays a lot of vivid scenes about different people. The image that stood out to me the most was when Rich describes the American Jewish girl in the beginning of the poem. Rich successfully creates an image in the reader’s mind of a girl who has been caught between school and home, and ignorant about the conflict in the rest of the world. In contrast, a Jewish girl in Germany around this time was probably fighting to survive the Holocaust. This image creates a juxtaposition of a Jewish girl in America and a Jewish girl in Germany. Furthermore, Rich moves on to describe a 60 year old woman. I strongly feel that this 60 year old woman is the American Jewish girl. Rich brilliantly shows the growth of the Jewish girl throughout her poem.

1: How does fear influence the characters actions? For example when all the Jews were called to go to the stadium in chapter 4 and they all went out of fear for what would happen if they didn’t go.

Fear plays the most essential role during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a systematic way to eliminate the Jews; but for this to be possible, there must be fear in Jews. Adolf Hitler understood this and used it wisely to carry out his plan.  Maus clearly demonstrates how the characters’ actions were driven by fear. For instance, when a friend of Anja’s father is executed for being involved in the black market business, he is left to hang for days. The Nazis left him hanging because they knew this would create fear in other Jews who are also doing business illegally. Furthermore, when all the Jews were called to meet at the stadium, they all went out of fear. They all knew that if they did not listen to the orders, they would face severe punishments – possibly death. There was another incident when Vladek sees German Soldiers beating Jews on the street. These soldiers knew that punishing Jews in public would serve as a warning for rest of the Jews. If there were no fear in Jews, then most of them would not obey the orders. Thus, creating fear was necessary to carry out such a horrific plan – the Holocaust.

3. Does this form effectively tell a Holocaust story? How does it differ from a conventional Holocaust story?

Art Spiegelman’s Maus differs from other conventional Holocaust stories, such as Eli Wiesel’s Night. Unlike Wiesel’s Night, which was based on Wiesel’s firsthand experience of the Holocaust, Spiegelman’s Maus is a second hand experience of the Holocaust – he tells the story of his father during the Holocaust. Unlike Wiesel, who had many different experiences to discuss in his novel, Spiegelman only had his father’s experience to discuss in his graphic novel. Thus, he was limited to only  one perspective of the story. Furthermore, Spiegelman does not use real human beings as his characters, instead he uses cats and mice to represent Germans and Jews. He does this because animals are not capable of comprehending or reasoning; similarly, many German Nazis found no reasons for killing Jews. He does not only tell an experience of the Holocaust, he also deals with a father-son relationship. Therefore, Spiegelman’s Maus is indeed not a typical Holocaust story, but it does succeed in showing the horrific side of the Holocaust.

1. Woolf has strong beliefs of the role of women in her society. Why did she believe that “…woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction..” and what were the differences between women of her time and women of the past?

Woolf makes a statement at the beginning of the story that “woman must have money and a room of her own to write fiction”. Woolf’s belief in such statement was mainly a result of her observances of how women of her time were treated. She recalls an incident when she was denied access to the library in Oxbridge University unless a male accompanied her. Furthermore, she sees that men’s colleges were funded by kings and nobles, while women’s colleges found it difficult to raise funds. Angered by such mistreatments, she accuses her mom for not being able to save money for her daughters only to realize that women’s money in the past belonged to their husbands. Thus, Woolf’s experience of discrimination lead her to believe that it is necessary for women to have money and a room to write fiction. It is not just a statement or a belief; she is suggesting that women should have equal facility in education as men. Woolf’s analysis of her society helped her understand that it is only when they have equal standard of education, they can fight the discrimination that they are facing.

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