"Bright Future", "Big Expectations"

     You were always told you were destined for something great. Your teachers loved you, believed in you, supported you. You took all the advanced classes. You signed up for all the extracurriculars. You did the community service. You spoke well, dressed well, worked well. You had everything going for you. Where did you go wrong?

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     6 A.M. and the alarm clock won’t stop ringing. You threw a pillow at it a few minutes ago but for some reason the stupid thing just gets louder. Mornings used to be your favorite time of day. Now, you couldn’t hate them more. You get up, brush your teeth, wash your face, jam your glasses on, and throw on some clothes. You used to put more effort into how you looked. Now, you don’t see the point. Breakfast is a granola bar and bottle of water.

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     At work you take the stairs up to the second floor. It’s difficult. On one hand it all seems so damn pointless. On the other, you feel you have an obligation to keep working and striving. Your parents worked so hard to give you this chance. It can’t have all been a waste. You can’t accept that. You won’t accept that.

     So, every morning you drag yourself out of bed and head over to the office. It’s tedious and boring job, but it gives you something to do. It’s better than sitting at home hoping someone, somewhere is willing to take a chance on an unknown, inexperienced journalist. Somedays the situation seems almost comical. You grew up your whole life with this map. You had it all planned: school, internships, study abroad, work experience, career, marriage, kids, death. Somewhere along the way your map got ripped to shreds. You had the kid before marriage, failed marriage before career, and “career” ended up being working at any place willing to hire you.

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     At lunch you see a man propose to his girlfriend. She says yes and then cries. You used to laugh at people who would call ventures away from the plan, “happy faults.” Anything deviating from the plan was wrong. But after having Michael, you began to understand. He was the bright, shining light in the sea of darkness that became your life. You haven’t seen him in two years, but his father calls to tell you everything that’s happening in his life. You’re not a bad parent, you tell yourself, you’re doing this for him. You’ve been free and clean for almost 6 months now.  You can’t wait to see him again. You don’t want to jinx it, but you know your little boy is destined for something great.

You don’t want to put the same pressure on him that your parents put on you. They were crazy, you know. Anything less than an A and you slept outside. They weren’t proud when you were valedictorian of your class, it was expected. You barely ever saw them. They were either working or needed "quiet time": no time for you. You used to tell yourself they just showed their love differently. Then, you wondered if they even loved you at all. You don't talk to them anymore.

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     1 P.M. and back to the office. You dread it, but there’s also some pride hidden there. You’re working for your life, for your son. Maybe some day you’ll piece your map back together. Maybe some day your life will reroute back to the course you had planned for. But until then, this is your life. You play the hand you’re dealt.

We, Still, Like Our Own Best.

In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the author wastes no time to begin satirizing. We are first introduced to Sir Walter, the wealthy, although frivolous father of Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary. Sir Walter is depicted as being self-absorbed, selfish and, pretentious. He is not evil, he is simply old-fashioned. Austen uses his character to poke fun at the declining aristocracy. Sir Walter is a very impractical man who practices lavish living to maintain his appearance. However, his refusal to let go of this way of life threatens his family’s future. His situation is comical, and Austen uses heavy satire to express the predicament of being unable to “devise any means of lessening their expenses without compromising their dignity, or relinquishing their comforts” (Austen 11). Austen attacks Sir Walter as he upholds the importance of appearance and elitism. Sir Walter greatly contrasts to Wentworth, a self-made, manly man. Wentworth personifies Austen’s idea of a modern gentleman. 

Austen also pokes fun at how rigid her society’s structure is. The only way for social mobility in Austen’s world is through marriage, or by joining the navy. However, Sir Walter looks down even on the navy saying “I should be sorry if any friend of mine were belonging to it” (Austen 16). Austen also challenges the separation of work between a husband and wife. She advocates for a more equal marriage. Admiral and Mrs. Croft exemplify this marriage in the way they drive their carriage. Admiral Croft and his wife drive the carriage sitting next to each other and share the responsibility. 

Despite all this, Austen doesn’t entirely abandon ideas of class, and hierarchy. Her protagonist, Anne, is in no way a perfect egalitarian (not that I expect her to be). Although she strays from acting like typical women at the time, she is not catty, or hysterical. In fact, when Louisa smacks her head, Anne manages to keep a level head and care for her instead.  However, she also greatly dislikes Mrs. Clay simply because she is very against the idea of her father marrying a woman of lower class. Anne remains dutiful to her family. Instead of marrying the love of her life, she broke off the engagement because her father and Lady Russell did not think it was appropriate. When she finally does marry Wentworth, it is now safe. Wentworth has risen in wealth and social standing in the previous years, and thus, the marriage does not challenge the class system. Despite ideas of deviating from the social standards, Anne still returns to her known realm and doesn’t exactly step out of tradition.

Works Cited:

 Austen, Jane. Persuasion. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print. 

Friend Or Fiend?

 The job of a parent is in no way an easy task. The responsibility involved in bringing another human into the world — raising it, teaching it values, caring for it —can often seem an overwhelming mission. So, if you, when the parenting time comes, feel apprehensive about undertaking such a responsibility, or want to feel better about your own parenting skills, look no further than Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. Ironically, the title of the story happens to be the exact questions the parents of Connie, our protagonist, never seem to be concerned with asking. And, this is just the beginning of their parenting fails. 

A child’s actions and beliefs tend to be a reflection of those of their parents. Thus, Connie’s narcism and emphasis on the importance of beauty stems from her mother’s own superficiality. Despite the constant tension between Connie and her mother, Connie is convinced “her mother really prefers her over her…sister…because she [Connie]  is prettier” (Wegs 101). From her mother, Connie learns “real value lies in beauty” (Wegs 101). With this view, Connie is interested in only the glamorous and is consequently obsessed with how she looks. She had a “habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors…to make sure her own was all right” (Oates 1). Later, when she would meet Arnold Friend, her allure towards the glamorous and flashy: the golden jalopy, reflective sunglasses, dazzling smile, would make her slow to see just how dangerous this stranger was. 

While Connie’s mother was the embodiment of a bad role model, Connie’s father provided no guidance at all. He went to work, came home, ate dinner, went to bed. He “didn’t bother talking to them much”, and definitely took very little interest in Connie’s whereabouts (Oates 1). Further, since “none of them bothered with church”, Connie lacked adequate moral guidance in the absence of parental guidance. Thus, she turned towards pop culture. The values in the music she listened to, and the movies she watched became her own values. Connie, as a naive and abandoned youth, is then taught to believe in romantic love and youthful beauty, which only adds to her superficial views.

Connie’s incorrect views reach a critical point when instead of perceiving Arnold Friend as a threat, she views him as the “embodiment of the teenage ideals celebrated in pop songs” (Oates 102). Connie’s only roadmap of life, the fantasy worlds she sees on the screen, leads her astray because she has only ever seen life through rose-tinted glasses. Further analysis of the story, albeit perhaps far-fetched, suggests the lack of moral guidance in Connie’s life, whether religious or folk-related, causes her to be unfamiliar with demonic or evil manifestations, and thus, fails to recognize the wolf in sheep’s clothing, or rather, the fiend impersonating a friend. 

Works Cited:

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” New Brunswick: RutgersUniversity Press, 2002. Print.

Wegs, Joyce M. “’Don’t You Know Who I Am?’: The Grotesque in Oate’s ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” Journal of Narrative Technique 5, 1995. Print.