The Complete Works of

Randall Woelfel

British Lit. 2008-2009

Forward

As I reflect on my writing this year, at the pinnacle of my high school career I’ve asked myself the question, “ Why does my writing lack quality?” I believe the answer to this question can be found in the topics. This year, as in past years I have longed for a writing assignment so complete that it changed my views on writing. A writing assignment that is completely open to ones wishes, over any topic, any length, with no boundaries what so ever. Every year ive asked teachers for such an assignment but every year I get the same answer. A reply that while I may be creative enough to complete such an assignment, other students in the class lacking the creative edge would ask to many questions and become frustrated with the assignment. This is a shame because I feel that my best work can be done on topics that I enjoy. Such as music, given I did write a paper on john Lennon but im not ass passionate about Lennon as I am other musical artist, this can be seen in my first assignment “college essay”. I am also passionate about speaking out against something I believe isn’t right. I feel if an assignment was created where a student got to pick a topic around roncalli they didn’t like they would enjoy it. Not a topic such as “ everyone at roncalli is a snob and I hate it” but an assignment that says, “hey I think this isn’t the way it should be and I don’t like it”. I feel with a writing assignment such as this students would put forth an effort and not just write a paper the night before it’s due. I feel with an assignment this awesome I would have enjoyed a writing assignment for once. I apologize if you feel I have criticized your lesson plan, this has been the same story since as far back as I can remember. I have enjoyed having you as an English teacher and I hope you enjoyed myself as well, despite my disruptive nature at times.

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Table of Contents Page

College Essay………………………………………………………………3 Chaucer Character Essay.………………………………………………...5

Beowulf Compare and Contrast…………………………………………..6

Gawain Critical Essay……………………………………………………..8

Diary Project……………………………………………………………….9

Modest Proposal Essay…………………………………………………..10

Prose Piece- “lady of Shallot”……………………………………………12

Literary Analysis-Victorian Piece……………………………………….13

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“college essay”

As I near the end of my senior year many questions arise: where to attend college,

what to study, and why. For many years I’ve questioned everything about college and

have changed my answer countless times. The only constant in my life since the seventh

grade has been music. After spending most of my junior year listening, analyzing, and

playing music, I (have come to) feel that I cannot live without music as a major part of

my life. One day I hope to own my own record label and with the help of a college degree

I will be able to pursue that dream.

Since as long as I can recall I have been interested in music. I remember that my

first CD was The Lion King soundtrack, followed by Weezer’s Blue Album. Although I

had listened to many bands before, it was not until Blink 182’s “Enema of the State” that

I was truly hooked. Everything about Blink 182 is remarkable. I certainly found it hard to

fathom that Blink 182’s potty humor could bring them global stardom. As exceptional as

their musical talent is, Mark Hoppus, a singer and guitarist, still doesn’t even consider

himself a musician. Blink 182 has had a lasting impact on my life and the life’s of

millions of other teens.

As far as musical talent goes, I lack it. I can play songs on the bass and guitar that I

learn, and play them well, but beyond that I do lack musical talent. As a result of this, the

only thing I can actually see myself doing when I grow up is managing a record label. It

is not even just managing (that interests me), I would like anything to do within the

general scope of music. Here in the local Indiana music scene I have found several bands

that I feel have the talent or could one day have the talent to join me in building a record

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label, because, of course, one cannot have a record label without music. Despite my lack

of musical talent, many local musicians come to me with questions about their songs. I do

not really understand why this is so, but I do seem to have a keen sense of what sounds

good in the areas of rock and folk music.

Musical preference on the other hand is my area of experience. Over the years I

have grown a large collection of music and quite the strong musical ear. As well as a

musical preference, I also know what it takes to produce a record. To get a record from

the artist to the consumer takes hours of time, work, and patience. Perhaps the one step

that goes unseen is the editing, where someone must spend countless days subtly

tweaking the song to make it sound perfect. I would love to spend the rest of my life

behind the scenes of the futures musical talent.

Music has ruled virtually every aspect of my life, and for that I will always love it.

At a time when I find myself questioning what is real and unreal in my life, I turn to

music- the only thing that has been real to me since day one.

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“Chaucer Character Essay”

I am the Dream Minstrel. In my every day live I tend to find the best of my

situations. My belief is that every thing, good or bad, happens for a reason. If a snake

bites me, it is to test my body’s health, altimetry surviving of course. I guess one could

say I am blessed in my perception of the world. I am the sunshine when it’s raining, if

your having a bad day im sure I can make it better with my optimism.

Most of my interactions with others on this spiritual trip have been good.

Although I had a poor run in with the knight, I guess im a little bit to optimistic for his

liking. Other then the knight everyone has enjoyed my presence here on the trip to

Canterbury. Perhaps the fellow travelers favorite thing about me is that I sing songs of

triumph and songs that tell stories of past events that had positive outcomes.

I am traveling to Canterbury for the soul purpose of entertaining those along the

way. Due to my extreme optimism I really don’t have a use for Canterbury other then to

learn from others. I have joined the travelers on this trip in hopes of making new friends

who will enjoy my joy and hopefully pass it on to others both on this spiritual trip and

when they return to their home villages.

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“Beowulf Compare and Contrast”

In the legend of Beowulf, the narrator portrays the epitome of a good warrior rich in

fame, glory and oral tradition. Beowulf is an epic poem written during the Anglo-Saxon

period. The author of Beowulf annunciates in Beowulf all the characteristics that the

Anglo-Saxons saw as virtuous. In Beowulf the main character, Beowulf, is a warrior and

leader of the Geats who fights for fame, glory, and the desire to surpass all others before

him. Beowulf not only to saves the peoples of Heorot from the evil Grendel, a half man,

half monster, but he also does it based on his desire for recognition. Through all of

Beowulf’s actions he embodies the ideal Anglo-Saxon warrior.

The many heroic deeds of Beowulf make him the perfect example of the epic

Anglo-Saxon nature. Beowulf’s bravery is seen throughout the entire epic poem. It shows

when he speaks of his previous battles in other lands and when he takes on Grendel, who

has previously killed off many Geats and men of Heorot. Beowulf easily succeeds in

killing Grendel. Then he fought off Grendel’s mother, “Now, angry and desperate, lifted

it high over his head and struck with all the strength he had left, caught her in the neck

and cut it through.”(ll 491-495). In addition to Beowulf’s other noble efforts, he helps

Wiglaf defeat a dragon in his old age. Beowulf’s bravery is seen when he fights the

dragon because there is no sign of hesitation. Even though the dragon kills him, he is still

brave for fighting it. For these reasons Beowulf can be characterized as a heroic warrior.

Another characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon culture is the role of fate. In Beowulf’s

tales fate dictates his every move. In the poem, Beowulf fights battle after battle knowing

that one day he must die. He disregards his physical health for his potential glory that will

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live on for ages. While he knows he is destined to die, Beowulf realizes his gifts of

strength and bravery. He knows it is his fate to follow in the footsteps of his father and

become a great warrior. Beowulf uses his fate to motivate him to fight for glory and

eternal life.

To call Beowulf loyal is an understatement. Beowulf shows complete loyalty to his

fellow warriors and to all the Danes. Beowulf is also loyal to his surroundings. He also

respects his father’s heroism, adding a piece of his father’s story into his own. Beowulf is

loyal to the people of Heorot because he says he will fight off Grendel, and he follows

through with it. Still, there is one instance when Beowulf looses loyalty and fights for

greed, wanting the riches of the dragon more than the glory of defeating it.

Oral tradition was important to the Anglo-Saxons so oral tradition was a huge role

in Beowulf’s life and in the story of Beowulf. Heorot, where most of the story takes

place, is a mead-hall where songs and tales of legends are sung and told. It is because of

the entire resident’s singing that makes Grendel attack them. The main goal in Beowulf’s

life is to be remembered as a warrior and for his bravery. To sum it all up; Beowulf is

looking for recognition. When Beowulf arrives in Denmark and tells of his past

accomplishes the people of Denmark so his stories will be remembered. Then when

Beowulf defeats Grendel the Danish put Beowulf in their songs.

All throughout Beowulf, Beowulf is portrayed in the traditional Anglo-Saxon

cultural manner. Beowulf remains loyal. He submits to the will of God. He undoubtedly

becomes the most awed warrior in all the lands with his stories being rooted in oral

tradition. This is all proven by the fact that hundreds of years later we are still telling the

Tale of Beowulf. He is Beowulf!

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“Guwain critical essay”

The article “Hiding the Harm” by Manish Sharma dicects the underlying themes of Sir

Gawain and the Green Knight dealing with the respect for life and the chivalric code.

The article tears apart Sir Gawains actions and protrays him as a heartless killing

machine, which he is far from. Sharma catogarizes the blow of Gawain as a “lack of

christian concern for human life”(363) and the first of his two falures. Ofcourse Sharma

portrays his second falure as his “concern for his own life outweighs all other

considerations” (Hiding the Harm: Revisonism and Marvel in Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight).

I believe the actions of Guwain were chivalric contrary to the speculations of the

article “Hiding the Harm” as written by Manish Sharma. Any knight whos chalanged to a

gomen of that preportion would make the same decision, that is to strike the green knight

with enough force to behead him. Afterall the Green Knight has the intent to return a year

later to do the same for him. When acepting a challenge of these preportions all that a

kinght is left to do is to give a blow with all the strenght he has.

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Diary Project

April 30th 1945

As I woke this morning something was different. A silence stretched across the

death camp as I asked myself what is the problem, why are these meaningless lives being

ended? I soon found my answer, meeting my mentor and long time friend Adolf Hitler in

a passage between two underground bomb shelters. I asked why he had ordered an end to

the killing but he said he didn’t have time to explain. He then ordered me to wait outside

of the shelter till I heard a gunshot. I wondered who was in the shelter that I couldn’t see

him murder, id been right next to him every time he killed an innocent Jew. Why was this

murder so important? As I stood in the musty, dark hall I could hear troops of the Red

Army above me. I wondered what must have been going on in my world. Just as the

thought pasted through my mind I heard the gunshot. I struggled to enter the room, it

appeared as if Adolf had blocked the door, ‘He must have really not wanted me to see

this’ I thought. Then I saw it, there was no murder at all, my friend had committed

suicide. I fell to the floor in tears over his body when I noticed a note in his hand. The

note contained instructions on how to dispose of his body, as well as his mistress Eva

Braun. Also it uncluded that we had lost, he had given up and soon the british army

would be under control. After pulling myself together I picked up his dead course and put

it in one of the bomb craters below the city, brought Eva down and ordered her to lay

with him. In tears I covered his and Eva’s bodys in Gasoline and set them ablaze. Soon

after I was captured by the Red Army. This must be what the end feels like.

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“Modest Proposal”

AIDS: The Simple Solution

In this day and age there is an epidemic of epic proportions. AIDS, or acquired

immunodeficiency syndrome, is killing people left, right, up and down. This disease is

mainly acquired by sexual encounters, whereby the carrier infects the uninfected person.

In 2007 alone, 33 million people suffered from having to live with AIDS. Some people

do not even notice symptoms of AIDS, and die unexpectedly. 36,000 people die everyday

from this horrible epidemic. If we do not stop this disease today, there will be no

tomorrow.

Our modest proposal will wipe out and annihilate any sign of AIDS in the entire world.

There will be no chance of this disease surviving our proposals. Who wants to think they

are secure when they could possibly be contracting this horrible disease? Well, there are

many solutions to this. If people have to register as sex offenders online, why shouldn’t

people with AIDS have to as well? They should have to go to some website like

knowyourpartner.org. Then, everybody would be able to see all people with AIDS and

their information.

The whole goal of this online database would be to educate the uneducated in their role of

being a responsible individual. It is the people receiving the disease’s fault for contracting

this, anyways, because they were not careful. Nobody can put the blame on the actual

AIDS carriers, right? In this website, offenders of receiving AIDS will have to enter

every single piece of information about them. They will basically be signing their sole

away knowing that the rest of the healthy people will be safe. Also, there should be a free

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feature on the website, ‘Free Mobile Alerts’. This way, everybody can be updated no

matter where they are!

Worldwide, 35 million people have been infected and 5 million have developed AIDS.

This shows that it is spreading like butter on bread. After parties, and going back to their

rooms, nobody is going to ask, “Do you have AIDS by the way? Just a precaution” Of

course they will not ask that, that is not their concern at that moment. With the mobile

AIDS database people will be able to type in a name and immediately see results!

“Since the first appearance of AIDS in the 1970’s, the fight against it has been political as

well as scientific.” It is not as difficult to wipe out as everybody makes it out to be! Who

cares about political and scientific research when you can just make people with AIDS

get tattoos that say so!? Carriers should, after they register online, be sent to an AIDS

declaration agency where they will get a tattoo where they want saying, “Caution, unless

you want my disease, stay out of my clothes!” Of course, this would be a long process to

get every carrier tattoos, but think about the good outcomes. Obviously people would

think twice if they saw this tattoo.

Overall, it seems people are worrying too much over a disease that can, obviously, be

easily wiped out! Some places are even closing pools down because of this epidemic.

There are some easy ways of ridding the world of this disease, and if everybody follows

the guidelines, nobody will ever contract it again. Think how much money this will save

the people who have lower income. Since AIDS apparently seems to affect mainly lower

class people, they become poorer even trying to rid themselves of AIDS. Once wiped out,

every single person in poverty would eventually increase their wealth. This would also

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allow more money for the government because they will not have to keep investing their

money in research for a scientific cure that will clearly never be found.

“Prose Piece: lady of shallot”

In the first part the poet describes the scenery of the towers. The towers that “the

lady of shallot” is trapped in. there is four towers in total, all gray. The poet also speaks

of how no one ever speaks to the lady, and only reapers hear her songs.

In part two the reader learns that the lady is cursed. She receives this information

by a whisper, telling her if she looks down to Camelot she will be cursed. Due to this she

refrains from looking anywhere. Also we learn that she weaves a web, Twenty-four

seven, a magic web of colours.

In the third part a knight is introduced. Wearing brass that shines in the light. As

he rides his armor makes a clanking noise along with the bells on his horse as he rides

near by the tower. Also the gems on his armor shine in the “blue unclouded weather”.

She is attracted by the shine of the armor and gems and looked down to Camelot. The

mirror then crashed and she knew the curse was happening.

In part four the skies break into rain and storm as she descends from the towers to

find a boat on the water. She puts her name on it, lays down and the boat takes her to

Camelot. She sings a song, her last song, as she sings she dies. When the boat reaches

Camelot all the ranking people, lords and ladies, and knights meet it in praise.

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“Literary analysis”

The overall mood of A.E. Housman’s “To An Athlete Dying Young” is due in a large

part to the style and tone in his writing. He portrays the athlete as a large public figure

both in life and after his death. He explains how the only way for an athlete and on a

larger note any public figure to gain eternal life in their awards is to die before at their

prime. In dying young they never experience the feeling of being yesterdays news.

Housman uses the parallels of a town hero being carried on the shoulders of his villagers

and the townspeople carrying a casket to the graveyard to set the initial mood of the

poem. Saying " the time you won your town the race we chaired you through the market

place ... to-day, the road all runners come, shoulder high we bring you home," (Housman,

lines 1-7). Housman uses the parallels of the athlete winning the race with laying the

athlete down to death to emphasize his youth. This is a very effective writing style

because it creates a mental picture of both the athlete winning a race and the common

funeral.

Housman touches on the intransigence of the athlete for dying before his glory fades. In

the lines "smart lad, to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay,"(lines 8-

10). This shines a light on the less fortunate of the public icons who did not die young

and in an attempt to gain some more limelight did very irrational things, such as O.J.

Simpson and many child stars. This is not to say that every young icon ends up washed

up and wrung out. Many young athletes have found very successful careers in their life.

John Madden, a former football player in the NFL has secured himself as the name of

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modern American football.

The Author touches on the death in the lines "Eyes the shady night has shut cannot see

the record cut," (lines 13-14). Due to the athletes death he will never see his record

broken, the ultimate fall of the athlete. Any athlete can relate to the feeling of holding a

record for a set amount of time, then the pain of loosing that record that follows. Of

course the only way to not feel this pain is to be dead when the record is broke, as the

Athlete in the poem does.

Because the Housman takes the roll of the narrator, a person of the town, he is able to

speak to the athlete. It appears that the narrator has seen or experienced the feeling of

losing a record to a younger, fit athlete. Housman is then able to portray a roll of a much

older, wiser spectator, maybe even a coach. In all Housman uses this role to speak to the

athlete in a different tone, a tone of someone who appears to have been there, lost a

record, and been forgotten. This happens to all to many athletes and the pain is

indescribable. Many ex-athletes in this position would give anything for one more game,

one more race, one more match.

Taking the author’s purpose into consideration, not everyone will get some life lesson out

of the poem. Still, it is effective in using stylistic and tonal subtleties to set an engaging

mood. It draws attention to itself by having somewhat of a counter-cultural message: it

says that it is better to die young and take full advantage of the time spent living. As a

literary work, the poem “To An Athlete Dying Young” is accessible and enjoyable.

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