Possible Works for Culminating Essay

This is a possible list of works that I started in class today for my culminating essay. I will probably not use all of them, but I wanted to start to pick out some works for my essay. If anyone has any suggestions for books, plays, slogans,songs, video clips, movies etc... that would be helpful, please let me know!

• Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
  
• The Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift
• The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver
• A Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• America's Top Model, What Not Wear, shows like that
  

Beloved and Slaughterhouse Reflections

Beloved by Toni Morrison
-Beloved becomes fatter and healthier in almost a parasitic relationship as she lives off Sethe's love.
-Denver and Sethe have been ostracized from the community because of Sethe acts 18 years ago. The community kicked them out without knowing the reason behind Sethe's actions.
-When Sethe and Denver first meet Beloved, she is wearing a new dress and shoes symbolizing that she is a new person.

Slaughterhouse 5 By Kurt Vonnegut
CONFESSION: I am not yet finished with the book. I will come back and edit once I finish the book.
-A friend of Vonnegut tells him not to write anti-war because he can't stop war. The suggests that there are so many anti-war books out there that their shock value (beauty?) has worn off and thus the truth isn't as shocking.
-Billy Pilgrim is described as looking like a dirty flamingo. This implies that he doesn't have much value at all. Flamingo are birds that are often thought of as very showy, but Billy is described as not very good looking, which implies that as a flamingo and a soldier he is useless.

Spiders and Murders: Reflections on Kafka's Metamorphosis and Albert Camus' The Stranger

Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

• Gregor turns into a bug (or thinks he does depending on your perspective) and the whole story concerns people's reaction to Gregor's change.
• Gregor's bug body is not beautiful, but it is representative of what his life amounts to, the day to day drudgery of his work
• Appearances seem to match personalities in this story. When Gregor's father wears his old army uniform, suddenly he begins to act as if he was in charge again.

Albert Camus' The Stranger

• Mersault doesn't seem to care what other people think about him.
• Umm... I can't think of any other ones; I will post them if I come up with them!
  

"The Computation" By John Donne

• One of the possible interpretations of the poem is that the speaker is wishing that he could see a woman that he loved long ago. he is still in love with the illusion of her, and ignores the truth that she has left him.
• Another possible interpretation is that Donne is talking about the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars. He wonders which is the truth.
  

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (whew)/Rivers and Tides

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man By James Joyce

• Stephen spends the entire book trying to find the truth of who he is.
  
• Stephen is mystified by the eerie of the church rituals.
• Stephen idolizes Mercedes, his idea of a perfect woman, but in reality there is no woman that can live up to the standards he imagined.
• As an artist, Stephen is often struck by the odd beauty.
• It unclear whether the girl at the end of chapter 4 is real or not, if in truth she existed. (SHE IS FAKE!)

Rivers and Tides

• The man creates temporal art out of nature, art that will only last for a little while.
• He knows the truth of the temporary quality of his work, but yet it he still continues to create because of its beauty.
  

Playboy of the Western World

Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge

• Christy creates a new false, more "beautiful" image and tries to get others to believe him.
• Christy puts on a new set of clothes signifying his new identity.
• The truth is hidden beneath the facade.

Sorry for the short length! If I have any more revelations, I will add them.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
(Independent Study Novel)

• The monster feels ostracized because he is so ugly that he thinks people shun him.
• Many, many mentions of the word hideous.
• Frankenstein is inspired by the story of Prometheus, which involves Pandora and beauty...
• One of the themes the rights of the creator over the created.