Readers Interest in The Crucible Essay Example for Free

Readers Interest in The Crucible Essay The Crucible takes place in Salem, a small town in seventeenth century Massachusetts, where religion, fear and hysteria ultimately lead to the famous witchcraft trials in 1692. At the time The Crucible was produced, Senator Joseph McCarthy was in power as the chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Due to relative events and the paranoid hunting of pro-communists, The Crucible is seen to be a metaphor for the McCarthy era. Throughout The Crucible, Miller employs several techniques and writing styles to create tension and suspense and to stimulate the audiences interest. The most important reason why The Crucible retains the interest of the audience is because the plot maintains a slow burning, yet consistent pace. Act one is a prime example of how information is released gradually and atmospherically. The very start of the play leaves us oblivious to what has happened, with Parris praying over his inert daughter. This is a great method to grab the audiences attention immediately as we are in the dark right from the start, and naturally are curious about what has happened. As the act progresses, patches of information are revealed, but the uncertainty and contradiction present engages the audience as they are forced to decipher for themselves the truth; at one point Abigail is denying all charges profusely: We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And theres the whole of it. However, later, as other charges are brought about, she concedes to them. This way the story keeps momentum as well as suspense. Act 2 employs the same technique to maintain tension when Mary Warren comes home and the information in reference to the court is informed to us. Acts 3 and 4 stay true to this structure and a good example is in act 4 when John Proctor is undecided over his confession, whether or not to sign it- No, it is not the same! What others say and what I sign to is not the same! The audience is on tenterhooks, hoping he will sign (or perhaps not, in some cases). Another main element to The Crucible, which engrosses the audience, is the technique of dramatic irony. In The Crucibles case, dramatic irony is where the audience is aware of something in the play that not all of the characters are. In The Crucible the dramatic irony is that we know that there is no witchcraft, and that Abigail and her friends are pretending, but most of the other characters believe it, or at least take advantage of it. Some of the characters must be left ignorant in order to form a basis to the theme of hysteria and madness, but the idea of dramatic irony is so that it creates the ironic and incredulous situations, and involves the audience more proactively as they know what is going on. In act 1 we think that the girls lies will be dismissed as they seem to us so ridiculous, but in Act 2 the true impact of the situation starts to take shape as information of arrests and trials is revealed. By Act 3 the original accusations have manifested into sheer madness which we, as the audience, can see, but the characters cannot. Act 4 does not utilize the tool quite as much as by then Abigail and her peers have unofficially been exposed. The dramatic irony concerning the presence of witchcraft helps to emphasise the theme of hysterical behaviour which, in that respect, has a larger impact on the audience and produces more interesting scenarios from the audiences 0point of view. Another example of dramatic irony is during Act 3 when Elizabeth Proctor is asked to explain to the court her reasons for dismissing Abigail as her servant, unaware that John had just admitted his affair with her. This scene is perhaps the tensest in the entire play as the fate of Salem rested on Elizabeth confirming that Proctor was an adulterer. However, she lies and tells the court Proctor was not a lecher, not wanting to get him into trouble. Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell This is said by Reverend Hale as he too is trying to stop this insanity, and the audience is also frustrated with the situation. Which is one of the key emotions that dramatic irony provokes to sustain the audiences attention- frustration. Our hopes that the situation will be resolved and our almost angry views to some of the characters ignorance involves us in the plot and helps to share what John Proctor and some of the other characters must be feeling. In order to maintain the suspense and atmosphere in-between acts, Miller makes sure to end the first 3 acts with suspense and cliff-hangers and Act 4 with a big finale. In the ultimate scenes of Act 1, the tension created throughout the start of the play reaches its climax with Abigail and the other Girls accusing various Salem citizens of witchcraft to relieve themselves of attention. Miller has chosen a fantastic way to draw the Act to an unmistakeable close but still retaining the interest of the reader; it draws the events of the night together, satisfying the reader in one element, but has at the same time unleashed a larger and more complex crisis upon Salem, rousing the inquisitive eagerness experienced right from the very start of the play. Act 2 also ends dramatically with Elizabeths arrest after Abigail utilizes Marys poppet to frame Elizabeth. As in Act 1, it draws the nights events to a satisfying climax with Elizabeths arrest, but also leaves the reader expectant of Act 3s events with Proctor and Mary planning to expose Abigail. My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me! This powerful sentence from Proctor gives the audience hope for Elizabeth and, at the same time, makes sure the audience knows that dramatic events are yet to come. Additional to suspense-filled endings, Miller employs the use of time lapses in-between acts in order to maintain the pace. Between both Acts 1 and 2, and Acts 3 and 4, there is a significant time jump. This way it stops the plot from appearing too dragged out and makes sure that the suspense doesnt die down so the audiences interest is still at its peak.

The Newspaper as a Learning Tool -- Education Teaching

Newspapers have a long history of being regarded as a useful educational tool, and their use in a classroom setting dates back further than most might expect. Take, for instance, this quotation: "Much has been said and written on the utility of newspapers; but one principal advantage which might be derived from these publication has been neglected; we mean that of reading them in schools, and by the children in families?newspapers are plenty and cheap ? the cheapest book that can be bought, and the more you buy the better for your children, because every part furnishes some new and valuable information! (Cowen 1)" Although this statement reads like an educator or newspaper publisher of today might have said it, it comes from an article printed in the EasternHerald, June 8, 1795, in the state of Massachusetts. Exemplifying the fact that newspapers have long been viewed as informational tools, this statement also speaks to the tenure of newspapers as an institution. Actual recorded uses of newspapers in the classroom are dated in the 1890s, and in 1911, "The Volume Library" gave great attention to the value of teaching with newspapers. There are many events throughout the twentieth century that also helped develop the prevalent use of newspapers we see in classrooms today. The outbreak of World War II lead to a greater number of students reading the newspaper, both for informational and instructional purposes. In 1929, Richard S. Kimball published a book titled Current Events Instruction. This book was widely accepted by educators of the time, and because it contained suggestions for incorporating current events in the classroom, also became used extensively. Part of Kimball?s instruction for students becoming strong citize... ...A Manual for Teachers and Newspapermen on the Use of Newspapers in the Classroom. New York: American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, 1967. Brody, Jeffrey H. and Robert G. Picard. The Newspaper Publishing Industry. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. Cowen, Marlene Stone. "History of the Newspaper in Education Program." American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. ERIC Digest, Washington DC. 1978. DeRoche, Edward F. The Newspaper: A Reference Book for Teachers and Librarians. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Inc., 1991. Newspapers In Education. Partnerships in Education, The Buffalo News. 13 Nov. 1998. . Shipley, Barbara. "Integrating Mass Media Instruction: ?Connecting? NIE and TV Programs for the 21st Century." Annual Conference on Newspapers in Education and Literacy. ERIC Digest, Florida. 15-17 May 1991.

Close to the Water’s Edge Essay

Close to the Water’s Edge is a short story written by the Irish writer Claire Keegan. The main character in the story is a boy who just turned 19. He is a student at the Harvard University or as he call it himself Cambridge, which is the town where Harvard University is situated. Through out the story he is staying at his mother’s penthouse apartment near the ocean. His birthday party is marked by a dinner at the fancy restaurant Leonardo’s. But the atmosphere at the dinner is cold and cynical. The conversations between the main character, his mother and his millionaire stepfather is not comfortable and cheerfully but more snide and spiteful. The millionaire stepfather is trying several times to discuss about homosexual men as a part of the military with the main character, but every time his mother tries to change the subject to something else like: how he is the top of his class at Harvard or how good the olives tastes. The grandmother of the main character is the only person who really gets him, and through flashbacks you hear of her life living on a pig farm with a husband that she did not love, and the regrets of her life that she did not leave him and try to make a better life for her self. It is important for a person to take decisions in life, decided and chosen by themselves, decisions that will create and lead on the way to the future and finally to form a unique identity. In life many people have tons of roads to choose between, and it is the way you choose that will defined you as a person. In the choice of the road the person is finally going to choose, many people are trying to influence the chose, but in the end you have to decide for yourself to create your own future and unique identity. This is shown in the short story Close to the Water’s Edge, where the main character is struggling to find his own way in life but his mother is trying to choose for him and plan his future as she wish it to become. The main character is a very sensitive, polite and intelligent young man. But underneath the surface he feels impotencies, he feels void towards his parents who will not accept him for whom he really is, gay and careless of wealth. His mother thinks that wealth means happiness â€Å"You play your cards right and this could all be yours someday. He’s god no kids. You wonder why I married him, but I was thinking of you all along† (p. 3 l. 76-78). But he don’t care about wealth, it seems unimportant to him â€Å"He does not care for these rooms, with the vicious swordfish mounted on the walls and all these mirrors that make it impossible to do the simplest thing without seeing his reflection. † (p. 1 l. 4-7) In the story there are lots of clues that points that he is gay â€Å"He stays out on the beach and though his shades watches the bathers, the procession of young men with washboard bellies walking the beach. (p. 1 l. 8-10) â€Å"He will never marry; he knows that now† (p. 4 l. 165-166) Through the dinner at Leonardo’s his millionaire stepfather tries scornfully to influence subjects that points out his sexuality or just to pan homosexuality â€Å"Did you hear about this guy Clinton? Says if he’s elected president he’s going to let queers into the military† (p. 2 l. 88-89) â€Å"How come you never bring a girl down? † (p. 2 l. 123-124). The mother is a beautiful hot tempered woman, a bit superficial and wears expensive clothes and lots of make-up. She married the millionaire Richard, in hope of giving herself and her son the best chance for success in life, but she forgot to stop and ask her son what it was he wanted of life and in what way he wanted to achieve success in life. Richard, the millionaire stepfather is an unsympathetic and cruel man throughout the entire story; it seems like he doesn’t care for anybody but himself, it is shown in the way that he take no notice of his wife’s wish about not bringing up the fact that her son is gay. And in the way he is taunting the main character by giving him a pink cake as a joke, the stepfather think it is funny because the main character is gay. â€Å"It is a pink cake, the pinkest cake the young man has ever seen, like a cake you’d have at a christening party for twin girls. The millionaire is grinning. † (p. 3, l. 135-137) The Grandmother tells the drearily story about a wasted life. Through flashbacks the story about how her biggest wish was leaving the Tennessean pig farm where she was living with her husband, and run away to go to the Atlantic. One day her husband finally agrees in fulfilling her dream. When they arrive at the Ocean he tell her that she got one hour and if she is not back by then he will leave her. At five minutes past the appointed hour, he slammed the car door and turned the ignition on. But the grandmother jumped into the road and stopped him, and afterwards she climbed into the car. She later told her grandson, the main character, that if she had her life to live again, she would never have climbed back into that car. Her life is the symbol of the wasted life, where other people chose the decisions for her and chose the roads she had to go. The story is told by a limited omniscient 3. person narrator. This effect the story. In a way makes it more serious, because a limited omniscient narrator creates a focus on the deep and almost melodramatic thoughts of life that the main character has. If we had heard the mother’s thoughts instead of his, it would create another story with all new perspectives. But because it is the main characters point of view, it makes it much easier to see the moral of the story. As stated earlier on, the main character is not free. He is not in the process of choosing his own road towards his future and identity, but is being controlled by his mother and the stepfather. His mother is trying to make him choose the lifestyle she has decided is best for him, rich and successful. At one point in the story, there is a clear symbol on how the mother is holding him down and pressing him, it is in the first part of the story, when the boy is out on the balcony and his mother is tiring his tie in a â€Å"unnecessarily tight bow† (p. 3 l. 70). Later on after the dinner at Leonardo’s he is walking down the beach and starts thinking about his grandmother, who lived a life in where she was total controlled by her husband and did not have the freedom to make her own chooses, and how she regret that she did not stood up to her husband. He realizes that just as his grandmother he is not living the life he wants to live. He wants to break free of the life he is living where he is not able to choose for himself, he loosens the knot around his neck as a symbol of how he is breaking the controlling grasp his mother has on him. The main character is now standing in a central point of the story. He is standing close to the water’s edge on the beach. He is going to have to choose either jumping in the water and taking the chance with his life that his grandmother never took, she was afraid of how deep the water was, but she later regret that she did not take the chance, the other opportunity is staying on solid ground well knowing how the rest of his life will turn out, planed by his mother. He takes the risk and jump into the water, not knowing what will happen, but it is a chose of his own. The way of how he is going into the water is a symbol of rebirth. The main character is going through a development deep inside of him, he is breaking up with the controlling of her mother and starts taking his own choices and controlling his own life. In the meanwhile this development of his life is happing another developing is taken place, where he is going from being a boy to being a man.

Case Western Reserve Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university with an acceptance rate of 29%. Located in Cleveland, Ohio,  Case Western Reserve  is frequently ranked among the top 50 universities in the country. CWRU offers over 95 undergraduate degree programs with engineering, business, and biological/life sciences among the most popular. The university boasts an impressive 11-to-1  student/faculty ratio  with fewer than 20 students per class in more than half of all undergraduate classes. Considering applying to Case Western Reserve University? Here are the admissions statistics you should know, including average SAT/ACT scores of admitted students. Acceptance Rate During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, Case Western Reserve University had an acceptance rate of 29%. For every 100 students who applied, 29 students were admitted, making Case Western Reserves admissions process competitive. Admissions Statistics (2017-18) Number of Applicants 26,642 Percent Admitted 29% Percent Admitted Who Enrolled (Yield) 18% SAT Scores and Requirements Case Western Reserve University requires that all applicants submit either SAT or ACT scores. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 58% of admitted students submitted SAT scores. SAT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile ERW 650 730 Math 700 790 ERW=Evidence-Based Reading and Writing This admissions data tells us that most of Case Western Reserves admitted students fall within the top 20% nationally on the SAT. For the evidence-based reading and writing section, 50% of students admitted to Case Western Reserve University scored between 650 and 730, while 25% scored below 650 and 25% scored above 730. On the math section, 50% of admitted students scored between 700 and 790, while 25% scored below 700 and 25% scored above 790. Applicants with a composite SAT score of 1520 or greater will have particularly competitive chances at Case Western Reserve. Requirements The writing section of the SAT is optional at Case Western Reserve University. Note that Case Western Reserve participates in the scorechoice program, which means that the admissions office will consider your highest score from each individual section across all SAT test dates. SAT Subject test scores are not required at CWRU. ACT Scores and Requirements Case Western Reserve requires that all applicants submit either SAT or ACT scores. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 59% of admitted students submitted ACT scores. ACT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile English 31 35 Math 29 34 Composite 30 34 This admissions data tells us that most of Case Western Reserves admitted students fall within the top 7% nationally on the ACT. The middle 50% of students admitted to Case Western Reserve received a composite ACT score between 30 and 34, while 25% scored above 34 and 25% scored below 30. Requirements The ACT writing section is optional at Case Western Reserve. Unlike many universities, Case Western Reserve University superscores ACT results; your highest subscores from multiple ACT sittings will be considered. GPA Case Western Reserve University does not provide data about admitted students high school GPAs. Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph Case Western Reserve University Applicants Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph. Data courtesy of Cappex. The admissions data in the graph is self-reported by applicants to Case Western Reserve University. GPAs are unweighted. Find out how you compare to accepted students, see the real-time graph, and calculate your chances of getting in  with a free Cappex account. Admissions Chances Case Western Reserve University has a competitive admissions pool with a low acceptance rate and high average SAT/ACT scores. However, Case Western Reserve has a holistic admissions process involving other factors beyond your grades and test scores. A strong application essay and glowing letters of recommendation can strengthen your application, as can participation in meaningful extracurricular activities and a rigorous course schedule. You can also strengthen your application by participating in an optional interview. Students with particularly compelling stories or achievements can still receive serious consideration even if their test scores are outside Case Western Reserves average range. In the graph above, the blue and green dots represent accepted students. You can see that the majority of successful applicants had high school grades in the A range, combined SAT scores of 1250 or higher, and ACT composite scores of 26 or better. Your chances of receiving an acceptance letter will be much higher if your grades and test scores are above these lower ranges. All admissions data has been sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics and Case Western Reserve Universitys Undergraduate Admissions Office.