Vignette 1

Alexandra Hendricks

Vignette #1

11/5/15

Catcher in the Rye meets Dead Poets Society

(Revised Copy)

We’d gone to New York that morning for this fencing meet with McBurney School.  Only, we didn’t have that meet. I left the equipment on the subway while searching the map to see where we got off.  I was trying to locate where we were in the expansive New York City.  The Buildings were dull, grey and brown as the sky, and the city itself was lied out like a giant labyrinth.  But instead of worrying about a minotaur trapped here, I was worried about my team’s reactions once they found out I left the foils on the subway.

“You WHAT?!”

“How are we supposed to compete?”

“You did this just to tick us off! You never take anything seriously!”

That last verbal punch came from Henry.  He was tan, brunette, and had light green eyes.  He was one of those phonies who acted sweet and empathetic towards those who fit his definition of “cool”. He was as bad, if not worse, than Mr. Haas.  Henry had the similar self-righteous, arrogant, and judgemental personality.  The difference, Henry wasn’t afraid to yell your “flaws” in your face.

“Why the heck did you become manager again? You don’t care about fencing or for your team.  In fact, you probably did it because you thought our plight was funny!”

That last remark ticked me off. I was about to yell back that he was lazy and judgemental until Arthur spoke up.  Arthur is usually quiet and very strange.  I have never heard him say much of anything, just a few words here and there when necessary.  He has black hair, black eyes, and a crooked nose that looks like it was broken-- but Arthur doesn’t seem to be the kind to get into fights or do nonsensical leaps of bravery.

“Caulfield is not the only one at fault here.  He was the only one in charge of things-- traversing New York, finding the right metrobus, and carrying the foils.  There was bound to be error.  Instead of spacing out, we could have done something to help him.”

“Holden is the team leader, he should be on top of things,” Henry was staring at Arthur with a mixture of hate and surprise.  I was surprised to see Arthur stand up for me, especially since he was standing up to a group of physically fit boys who knew how to use swords.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t help him at all.  We are a team and therefore should work as a team.”  Arthur spoke with a touch of anger to his voice.  He was really trying not to explode.

Henry stood there dumbstruck, shouting curses at Arthur as he walked calmly back to the metro, the rest of the team following sulkily behind.  I didn’t feel so bad about leaving the foils back on the bus, Arthur was right, the team should have helped me.  And, it was a little funny seeing the fencing team sulk back onto the subway, deflated by a few small sentences.

Vignette 2

Alexandra Hendricks

Vignette 2

11/8/15

Prompt 4:  Capture a scene from a childhood memory that you like to recall. It could capture what you would like to change about the memory, or it could focus on why this memory provides you with a sense of pride or comfort.  You may focus on setting or characterization within the scene.  Think about what the audience will learn about you from the reading of the scene.  

It was a February night when I got the email.  Grand Master Kim, who was battling lung cancer, had just died.  Around four months beforehand, Master Marner confided in me a secret that I was only allowed to tell a few trusted friends.  I asked her how Grand Master Kim was doing, since he just got off chemo.  She told me that the chemo shrunk 70% of his tumor, but 30% still remained.  He was alive for a while longer.

I wanted to write Grand Master Kim a letter like I did my next door neighbor Jim, to say farewell.  It is not like me to show emotional attachment.  I always fear that people will reject and judge me, so I have a tendency to act cold and detached towards people, even my own family.  However, Jim really needed that letter at the time.  He needed to be told how much his life mattered and it was ok to die.  He was so proud of that letter when I read it to him.  It helped him to die peacefully.  I wanted to let Grand Master Kim feel the same way.

There was only one problem.  I am a terrible procrastinator, and I really didn’t want to be flowery with my writing.  But I wanted to let Grand Master Kim know that had changed me dramatically.  When I first entered Tae Kwon Do, I was spacey, unfocused, and sloppy.  After eight years of training, not only was I a dangerous weapon, but I was also modest, respectful, Tenacious, focused, and I had more self-control.  My Tae Kwon Do extended beyond molding my skills in fighting, but molding my personality.  I learned how to keep calm in scary situations.  I am terrified of roller coasters, and my cousin wanted to do Space Mountain in Disney World.  When I went up that first hill, I was about ready to pass out.  This is going to be a painful two minutes.  Then, before I started panicking, I remembered my tae kwon do training.  Clear your mind.  Control your breathing.  Relax.  I did that, and it seemed like the ride went slower.  I actually sort of enjoyed the ride once I calmed down.  But I would never do that again.  My Tae Kwon Do training helped me to overcome my fears, and has made me a more courageous person, but I had no clue how to say that to Grand Master Kim.

My mom helped me out by writing sample letters.  Each version made me less and less enthused.  I didn’t want to sound too flowery.  So, I put off writing the letter.  One month passed.  Nothing.  Two months passed. Nothing. Three months passed. Nothing. Four months passed. Nothing.  I thought I had six months to write the letter, since my mom estimated he had that long to live.  So I still had two months right?  No.  On a Tuesday night in February, I got a mass email from Mrs. Kim telling everyone that Grand Master Kim passed away last night.

That night was a Tae Kwon Do practice.  Originally, I wasn’t going to show.  But after brooding for an hour after that email, I thought it would be nice to show up for support.

After Master Marner told the class that Grand Master Kim was dead, and the organization was going to be run by a few Masters from all of the schools, she came over to us, the children black belts.  She wanted to thank us for coming and supporting the students when hearing this information and helping the Masters deal with the emotional weight.  

I was upset with myself for not writing that letter.  I feel like I was lazy and selfish, and let Grand Master Kim down.  I was also disappointed in myself for planning on not attending practice.  I saw the impact it had on the people there and shamed myself for being remotely selfish for planning on staying home.  Lazy.

That week, I went to robotics practice and told my friend Anusha, who was also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, that I was writing a letter to Grand Master Kim, but didn’t finish it before he died.  Anusha told me that she once wrote a letter to her Grandfather, but he died before she could give it to him.  That made me feel a little better, that I wasn’t so lazy and selfish, that time was against me.

It is disappointing that I didn’t write that letter to Grand Master Kim.  I could have helped him die more peacefully.  But because I was lazy and scared of his judgement, I passed on the opportunity.  If I could go back, I would have written that letter.  Eventually, I stopped beating myself up about it.  Next time someone who is close to me is on their deathbed, however, I will not hesitate to write them a letter.

Vignette 3

Alexandra Hendricks

Vignette 3

11/20/15

Prompt 1:Write a vignette that centers on an object but reveals information about you within the vignette. (Consider the baseball mitt.) Think about the qualities you would like the vignette to express about you prior to writing.  Remember, this quality or qualities should not be stated directly, but the audience should be able to infer this.

Nothing is more terrifying to a seven year old girl than a bunch of drunken parents hanging around their house setting off fireworks.  I was terrified, and so was my friend Jessy.  It was the 4th of July, and my parents were hosting the party.  All of my friends were there, most of them watching my dad and another one of my friends dad set off fireworks illegally.  Boom!  My dog Maggie cowered as My dad set off a firework.

“Mom! Dad’s going to burn down the house!” I yelled, angry at my dad for being so careless.

“He is not. Now the two of you pick out a movie.  Hopefully it will drown out the noise.”

Boom!  That was my friend’s dad setting off the firework.  He was holding a beer in his hand and watching the firework as it exploded right next to my house.  A little too close for comfort.

I had two shelf cabinets full of movies.  The smaller cabinet was my parents movies.  The larger cabinet was my movies-- most of them I have never watched.  Jesse and I went through the movies in my cabinet, and embarrassingly, we chose to watch Barbie Fairytopia.  I am embarrassed to say that I watched Barbie movies when I was younger, and I am even more embarrassed to say that I liked them.

I remember when watching that movie, I wondered why Barbie didn’t fight back when captured.  Actually, I always wondered why many lead female in animated movies wouldn’t take out bad guys, even when they would have been easy to take out.  Why be at the mercy of your enemies when you could choose to fight back.  The situations Barbie is in when she is captured could be easily fixed if she fought back in the simplest manners, such as stomping on the insteps of her enemies feet, kicking them in the shins, or twisted her arms in a certain way to break their grip.  Like in Fairytopia when the fungus grabbed Barbie by the arm and dragged her away.  What the Heck!  She put up little to no resistance and was less threatening than a mouse. At least a mouse can bite you and give you rabies!  She fought back peacefully by twisting her arms towards a certain direction, but she just chose to be drug away.

I told Jesse this, and she nodded in mild agreement, trying to do anything to ignore the explosions next to the house and the cheering of our fathers and more daring friends.

Later, when I was twelve, I chose to revisit the Barbie Movies.  At that time, I haven’t watched those movies for years.  Even though Barbie is the weakest most vulnerable person in the whole universe, she can be pretty cunning.  She tricked a giant into tying himself to a wall so she could escape his stew pot and not get eaten.  That is pretty cool, and a good quality for little girls to copy.  The Barbie movies teach more of a mental way of fighting than a physical.  And, even though intelligence over brawn is an important message,  it gets too pacifistic.  If someone tries to kidnap you, it would be more than stupid to let them drag you away, and in the Barbie movies, all the fighting is left to the supporting characters.  In some ways, Barbie send mixed messages of empowerment.  Fight with your mind and fight smart, but don’t fight back physically, let others fight for you.  This not the best message to be sent to innocent, vulnerable children.  They need to know that they should fight back when violated.  They need to know that they won’t have a friend to fight for them.  If they are ever in danger, it is up to them to fight back, and them only.  It is great to be peaceful and fight passively. But realistically, children need to know when to fight back using violence, and Barbie is teaching the exact opposite.

Vignette 4

Alexandra Hendricks

Vignette 4

11/24/15

Prompt 5:  Create a vignette in which you perhaps are involved in an act of kindness for another person.  Consider adding imagery to even a small gesture of kindness that may have gone unnoticed by another individual, but could have made a difference in their day or life.  Capture this act of kindness in a vignette, and then move to a theme or moral by the end of the vignette.

“Alexandra. Cassie. Up for sparring.”

“Yes Sir!”  I shouted ferociously as I entered the ring.  It was Grand Master Chung’s 2014 tournament, and I was about to compete in sparring.  Usually, I get first every time when sparring.  It doesn’t help that I am the only black belt girl competing in my age group.  However, the last tournament I went to, my winning streak was defeated, brutally.  A temp black belt who I competed with last tournament won in our sparring match and left me hurting for days afterward.  There is a rule in sparring that the sparrers can't hurt each other and must pull their punches.  However, it is hard for the referees to call unless there is blood spilt, or the opponent is really hurt.  I was very nervous facing her again.  She was at least 70 pounds heavier than me and was a foot taller.  I did not want to be pummeled out of the ring again.  

We entered the ring together, and before we faced the judged together to bow to them and ourselves, I asked her a favor.

“Could you please pull your punches a little more, last tournament I was hurt for days afterward.”

“Yes, of course. So sorry.”

She kept true to her word.  We faced each other, bowed, and when the referee yelled “start,” I went after her.  I kicked her, aiming for the head.  She quickly blocked and counterattacked. She bruised me a little, but I expected that.  We are two blackbelts sparring after all.

“Point!” yelled a corner judge about 30 seconds later in the match.  Every Time someone sparring scores a point, judges stationed in the corners of the ring yelled point and voted on who got the point.  I got the first point, kicking to the side after kicking to the head.  The referee started the match again.

“Point!” many judges yelled this time.  The point went to Cassie for clean,y punching me in the stomach.

After two minutes, the match is automatically over and whoever has the most points after sparring wins.  If someone scores three points before the two minute mark, they automatically won.  Our match lasted approximately two minutes, and Cassie left the ring with three points compared to my two points.

“You did really well out there.  Hey, did you know that you left your stomach exposed whenever you went to kick me?  I was trying to aim there during the match.” I told her while exiting the ring.  It was in my nature to correct people on their mistakes, since I  teach Tae Kwon Do.

“Thanks, you did well too.” She replied.

After everyone was done competing, one of the judges ran to get trophies.  Strangely, the judges were in deep conversation, and when the judge returned with the trophies, the lead referee gave him a trophy back and told him to exchange it.  I thought their behavior was very strange.

“Black Belt winners, Cassie, Alexandra, Morgan, come into the ring,” the referee yelled.  The judge who faced me smiled and gave me my trophy.  I accepted it with a bow, and realised he gave me a first place trophy!

“We ran out of second place trophies, so we had to give you a first place,”  the referee yelled to the crowd.  I ran back to my mother after being dismissed and showed her my trophie.

“They said that they ran out of second places.” I explained to her.

“No, there are plenty of second places, they  gave you a first because they were impressed with you helping that girl with her sparring even though she beat you.

I was slightly stunned.  I thought it was a little extreme to give me a first place Just because I was a good sport.  I thought it was just expected.  I realised that people still do recognize you when you act sportingly another.

Vignette 5

Alexandra Hendricks

Vignette 5

11/24/15

Prompt 8: Create a vignette that captures two scenes.  One should be the setting that you dislike and one should be the setting that you prefer.  You could bring the scenes together by recalling a scene from the past and contrasting this with a setting in the present OR you could start with a scene from the present and contrast this with a scene from the past.  By the end of the vignette, the audience should learn more about you through your description and your conclusion, or inferred theme at the end.

I usually don’t like the city-- I am more of an outdoorsy adventurous person--  but there can be some really fun places and cool shops in Cincinnati.  Like the Cincinnati Museum, The NewPort Aquarium, and the Cincinnati Zoo.  However, those places are usually surrounded by the dampest and most violent parts of Cincinnati-- usually the places that we get lost in.

“Don’t get out of the car!”

“We can’t trust anyone!”

My parents yell at me when we are lost and I suggest we stop inside a store and ask for directions.  I hate those areas.  Those places are always crumbling and have a color scheme of dull reds and greys.  Graffiti covers the roads and buildings, and the roads are impossible to navigate-- so many one way streets and confusing civil engineering.  The people are suspicious too.  My mother once drove into a part of the city where children were sitting on the sidewalk smoking pot, and everyone there stared at my mother while she drove by.  She was terrified of being attacked.  Out of all the places on Earth, the city can be one of the most abominable.

As I said before, I like the outdoors and areas I can explore.  One of my most favorite places on Earth is the Ohio Renaissance Festival.  There is at least a hundred small outdoor shops that sell the weirdest of merchandise-- like spinning rings, fake nose cuffs, medieval attire, dragon- blood incense, hair twirlers, marshmallow catapults, beard gel, and other strange stuff sold nowhere else.  My mom and I love to go look at all the shops, talk to the shopkeepers, and try on all the jewelry.  The shopkeepers have a great sense of humor.  Once my mom and I were trying to find a place on the map.  She couldn’t read it, so she handed it to me.

“Oh, so you want me to read it now.  I thought I was inept at map reading,” I stared at her as she handed me the map and walked away.

“Have you ever thought to stop and ask for directions,” I told her sarcastically as she wandered around completely lost, paying no attention to me.

“We sell clothes! Do you need any help young lady?”  A shopkeeper dressed in medieval attire asked me as I stared at the map confused.

“Yes. Thank you.  We are trying to reach this area.  Mom! I found someone with a sense of direction!  Mom? Where did she go?”  I glared at once I found her walking away.  She was more than 200 feet away from me, and showed no signs of stopping.

“Mom! I have directions!”  The shopkeeper yelled towards my mom.

I may enjoy certain places in Cincinnati, but the city itself is dull, grey, and dangerous.  I can’t talk to the anyone, and god forbid we get lost.  We have to search every street for an hour just to get on a familiar road, and we must remain constantly vigilant and keep all the doors in the car locked, just in case someone tries to attack us.  That setting contrasts the Renaissance festival.  There, I can at least stop and ask someone for directions if lost, my fear of being attacked decreased.  Once, I got lost there when I was three.  I was lost for hours.  No harm ever came to me, and the people running the park shut down every exit and checked everyone for any sign of me.  The security is much tighter there than at Cincinnati.  Finally, even though I am a complete weirdo and have a warped sense of humor, there will always be weirder, and more warped at the Renaissance Festival.

Studying our Writing Models-- Assignment 2 House on Mango Street

1. Deliver Interesting information
• "But the house on Mango Street was not the way they told it at all.  It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath." (Pg 4 Sandra Cisneros)
• The imagery above sets up the antagonist in the book-- poverty.  This imagery delivers the antagonist in a short and interesting way.  The main character is tired of having to live in a small run down apartment, was promised a big white house, and instead gets a small run down house.  The imagery above sets up the main issue of the book and shows the characters attitude towards it for the rest of the book.
2. Employ techniques of a narrative
• "Where do you live," she asked.  "There," I said, pointing up to the third floor.  "You live there?" (Pg 4 Sandra Cisneros)
• The author uses dialogue to show why the main character is so disappointing towards her living condition.  The dialogue shows in an interesting manner the main internal struggle of the main character-- disappointment and embarrassment of her families living condition-- and how that was set on.  The main character saw other people looking disappointingly at her home and therefore she thought her home was embarrassing.
3. They exhibit perceptivity
• "I knew I had to have a house...For the time being, Mama says.  Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go."(Pg 5 Sandra Cisneros)
• The main character exhibits perceptivity when her parents tell her that the house is temporary and she doesn't believe them. The author is writing the character as coming to terms with reality and not believing the dreamy words of her parents.  The main character is now starting to realize that her parents lie to her to make her feel like their situation is improving, only when it isn't.  The author shows that she knows parents will lie to their children to get them to stop worrying, but in the end, the children figure it out.

Catcher in the Rye 9-10 Option 2

Holden is a complex and contradictory character.  In chapter 10, he shows how he can be  a little bit of a hypocrite.  Holden thinks his sister is really smart for memorizing movies, writing stories, and being able to follow a conversation silently.  However, when he meets the three women in the lavender room, he automatically labels them as "dumb" because "They didn't invite me to sit down at their table-- mostly because they were too ignorant-- but I sat down anyway." (Pg 82 Salinger)  Holden has a hypocritical label of "smart".  He doesn't see intelligence from other's point of view and will automatically label a person dumb if they don't talk to him or talk anything of interest to him.  He could be the stupid one for not realizing that the women didn't want his company, or that he wasn't interested in their interests.  His label of smart is hypocritical.

Holden is labeled as a romantic character, one, for his differentiating views on society, humanity, morality, etc. than the mainstream belief.  He is more pro women than most men and more respectful towards them, shown in chapter 10 when he called his sister "smart" and himself "dumb".  The stereotypical man during that time would have thought women to naturally be dumber than them, so Holden admitting that his sister is smarter than him shows how he has a different view than most of society, and therefore ties in with the romantic belief of looking at things differently.

Blog Comment #2

The museum vignette in chapter 16 of Catcher in the Rye is an important moment in the book.  How Holden describes the museum as never changing and why he likes that shows an important characteristic of him-- he likes predictability.  Life can be rough, unpredictable, and unforeseen. Obviously Holden is not adapting to life easily, and taking the ever-changing events with hardship.  That is why he likes the museum.  He can always get his bearings in the museum and know exactly where everything is.  ""Nobody would be different.  The only thing that would be different would be you..." (page 135) The museum vignette has a message in it-- the importance of a safe place.  When life is fighting against you, you need a safe place to relax and concentrate.  That is shown in this vignette.