H.O.P.E Volume 1 Issue 1 by hopehumanities

H.O.P.E. Volume 1 Issue 1

G E R

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Letter from Editors Dear readers, We hope this letter finds you well! This is the first issue of HOPE Magazine (Humanities Online Publications for Everyone). The HOPE editorial team consists of high school students across the United States and beyond who have a passion in the humanities. For our platform, We aim to select a set of humanities-related works by high school students that exhibit profound writing skills, originality, and creativity. Unlike other journals, we are a completely student-run organization and include all forms of writings which pertain to humanities. Works published will not only include prose, poems, art, photography, and literature analysis essays but also research paper and editorial articles as well. As high school students ourselves, we recognize the lack of opportunities for students to publish their papers and editorials. We also realize that it is difficult for student writers to extend their influences beyond their own institutions. Thus, we founded HOPE to provide a multi-national and non-profit academic platform, with the missions of advocating for the humanities and recognizing young writersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; outstanding achievement. Our platform also makes possible a close-knit community where writers and artists from diverse backgrounds can communicate and connect with each other. Finally, thank you so much for all your submissions. This issue will not be possible without your contribution. We also want to acknowledge the hard works our editors and staff have put in. We are looking forward to seeing more submissions and publications in the coming month. HOPE wishes all of you safe and healthy amid the global Covid-19 pandemics. Stay home and pick up writing! Sincerely, HOPE Editors-in-Chief

Table of Content Cover...........................................................................................Mask Tony H. 1........................................................................................Night Flight Rosie H. 2-12.........................................................................Samuel Levi Jones Andy X. 13..............................................................Ox Tongue and Calf's Head Isabel C. 14-17..............................................................................Worlds Collide Seth A. 18............................................................................................Saltland Holly Z. 19-20..........................................................................Ode to Boba Tea Andy Z. 21-23......................................................... Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Phillip C. 24...............................................................................Blowing Smoke Isabel C. 25-38.................................................................. Alberto Giacometti Ariston Z. 39........................................................................................ Addiction Holly Z. 40-43...................................................................The Great Gatsby Jonathan F. 44....................................................................................Juxtaposition Tim M. 45..........................................................................A Gust of Wind Charlotte W. 46-49.............................................................................The Odyssey Selena M.

Night Flight

the Night pours damp ink onto the ground, Grass repose their whispers toward the air. Lambently, Moonlight knocks on my window, bringing old secrets from afar.

She lent me a flying-machine woven from the blooming Narcissus. I shuttle, and shuttle in the ripples of thy deep night.

Rosie Huang, Chengdu No.7 High School

Samuel Levi Jones and the Ignorance of Society Andy Xu, The Kent School 21’ In 2010, a famous designer and architect named Fred Wilson proposed a public plan to recreate a sculpture of a black slave in downtown Indianapolis. The original slave sculpture was made as a Civil War monument and it held shackles. Wilson tried to change the slave sculpture to a figure holding the flag of the African diaspora1. Although the public rejected Wilson’s plan to re-contextualize the history, Wilson’s idea laid the egg for the young artist Samuel Levi Jones, who named one of his very first art show as “After Fred Wilson2”. Born as an African American and raised in Marion, Indiana, Jones was originally trained as a photographer and multidisciplinary artist, but later began investigating issues of manipulation and control in a broader sense3. Growing up in a city with little access to art museums, Jones explored the struggles between exclusion and equality in his work and furthered his study in thinking of the unresolved discrimination against African Americans in society4. In his current works, Jones frequently uses uncovered history books and assembles them together into a rectangle or square as his final work. Most of these books are about black history or even the black dictionary, and he hopes to use these works to raise people’s attention to the issues of discrimination. By using manufactured books that are in rectangular shapes and combining them in a geometric way, Samuel Jones’ Burning all Illusion and Selective Proof of Facts show influence from artists including Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, and even Marcel Duchamp. Burning all Illusion (Figure 1), which was painted in 2016, is currently in exhibition in Galerie Lelong, located in Paris. The artwork consists of dozens of deconstructed encyclopedias, law books, and African American reference books in rectangular shapes with various colors on the canvas5. Nevertheless, the covers of these books hide all the titles and in fact, 1 “Samuel Levi Jones on Raising Consciousness and Standing Rock,” Art Writing, November 23, 2016, https://artwriting.sva.edu/journal/post/samuel-levi-jones-on-raising-consciousness-andstanding-rock. 2 “Samuel Levi.” 3 Samuel Levi Jones, https://samuellevijones.com/bio. 4 Samuel Levi Jones. 5 Paulson Fontaine Press, last modified August 2017, http://paulsonfontainepress.com/wp-con-

present mainly darker colors. Although red, blue, and green can be seen from the artwork, the dominant brown or dark color palette seems to illustrate the existing large number of African Americans in the diverse nation. The Galerie Lelong also comments that this painting uses various colors to prompt ‘open-ended questions about the recorded and unrecorded histories of our collective experience.6’ In addition, most of the book-covers in the artwork are torn apart, which seems to indicate the existing frictions among the diverse races. By covering the books, the artist seems to emphasize the content of the books less, and instead focuses on the bigger concepts of racial discrimination by using color symbolism. In the same gallery, another similar work of Jones is also collected: Selective Proof of Facts (Figure 2). Jones also painted this artwork in 2016 and the materials that he used are mostly the same as Burning all Illusion. In this artwork, the artist still uses various historic books about African Americans and organizes them into a rectangular shape. Nevertheless, this time, the artist seems to arrange the books in a very organized way, and most importantly, he shows the title of the book on the book covers. In an interview with Jones on Art Writing, he mentions that by showing the names of the books, he doesn’t ‘want the viewer to come to the work and just simply see them as artworks made from books and then leave it at that.7’ In fact, he hopes to add mysteries into the artwork and he also hopes that the viewers could notice the meaning of the artist more easily by looking at the titles. He also encourages viewers to be challenged by the artwork and to raise questions about ‘what is going on’ in the art so that the viewers would actually ‘spend time with it8.’ In Selective Proof of Facts, the artist mainly uses green color and the book-covers are still old and some are torn apart. Nevertheless, by offering the titles of the books, the artist inspires viewers to interact with the artwork by even reading the books in their free time, which would increase their understanding about the artwork. Different from Burning all Illusion, the title of this artwork emphasizes inaccutent/uploads/SamuelLeviJonesOKTP.pdf. 6 Galerie Lelong, http://www.galerielelong.com/exhibitions/samuel-levi-jones/selected-works?view=slider. 7 “Samuel Levi.” 8 “Samuel Levi.”

rate “facts” about African Americans, which could also be illustrated through the organized arrangement on the canvas. Both artworks seem to address the potential or existing frictions between African Americans and other races in the society, at the same time criticizing people’s ignorance of black history or the inaccurate depictions of the history. Although emphasizing that his artworks are mainly inspired by his growing-up environment in a city without much access to museum9 and his racial identity, Jones’s works also share features with Paul Klee’s paintings like the use of brown or darker color palette, and organized geometric shapes in a rectangular or a square canvas. As a member of Der Blaue Reiter, Paul Klee mastered the ability of using various colors and color symbolism to express spiritual truths through his art10. Nevertheless, his visit to Tunisia changed his use of color and how he saw the world11. Within the visit, Klee wrote how he was enamored with the quality of the light in North Africa12. In one of his paintings in the Met collection named Hammamet with Its Mosque (Figure 3), the viewer can see both the use of a darker color palette and large number of geometric shapes. Despite the fact that both Paul Klee and Samuel Jones address the African culture, the first seems to implement the colors he mastered in the visit to the Tunisia desert and forms his own special Blue Rider style, while the latter hopes to raise people’s attention to the black history and the contemporary issues in a deeper and more meaningful way. In fact, the use of geometric shapes in Jones artworks could even be traced back to Pablo Picasso’s Cubism art style, which includes different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted13. Interestingly, Paul Klee, as a German Expressionist, was also an admirer of Cubism14. As mentioned by the Galerie Lelong, Burning all Illusion uses “rough edges” in the geometric-shape-books in the painting. This way of using rough and sharp edges first appeared in particular in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Figure 4) painted in 1907. Coincidentally, Picasso’s painting also focuses on the exotic culture from Africa by incorporating the African mask elements and brown colors into the painting. Different from Jones’ Burning all Illusion

and Selective Proof of Facts, which do not include any subject matter besides the books and encyclopedias, Picasso’s painting still mainly focuses on the traditional figure-painting in art. But, the artist uses the angular edges of each body part to illustrate his early experiments of Cubism, in order to offer people chances to view the artwork from various angles. In Picasso’s later Synthetic Cubist artworks, we can see the artist experimenting with collage using newspaper print and patterned paper15. Similar to Jones’ artworks, Picasso also started to use written materials with various colors, mostly brown and dark, to form the painting. Nevertheless, during Picasso’s Synthetic Cubism period, the artworks mainly depict still-lives, rather than subjects that have deeper meanings. While in Jones’ artworks, he hopes the audiences could rethink African American history and challenge their previous opinions based on common sense. Picasso’s experiment in creating artefacts in collage-type paved the road for the Dada movement, which also appears as an influence for Jones’ artworks. Dada is an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war16. Marcel Duchamp, as a pioneer of the Dada movement, questioned long-held assumptions about what art should be, and how it should be made, by proposing the idea of ‘art for art’s sake’17. Duchamp introduced the first concept of “readymade” to describe the works of art he made from manufactured objects18. This is similar to how Picasso used the manufactured newspapers in artworks and how Jones incorporates manufactured books into the artwork. According to Duchamp, by changing the contexts of where the readymade appears, its meanings changes. Nevertheless, his ‘art for art sake’ ideology also shows his idea that art is purely for visual appreciation but does not consist of much deeper symbolism or meaning. Similar to Duchamp, Jones also incorporates large numbers of books that may already been used in real life into his artwork. Nevertheless, Jones seems to emphasize more 15 “Cubism,” Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/cubism. 16 “Dada,” Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada. 17 “Marcel Duchamp and Readymade,” MoMA Learning, https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_ learning/themes/dada/marcel-duchamp-and-the-readymade/. 18 “Readymade,” Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/r/readymade.

deeply on the meaning of changing the context of these books. Containing certain inaccurate information about African Americans, these African-American encyclopedias and history books may seem only like decorations in viewers’ homes. But, in a museum, as mentioned previously, by using color symbolism, these books represent something more than a source of information, but also a chance for the audience to rethink the racial discrimination and the ignorance of the real history in their lives. As a result, although without sources indicating how Jones is influenced by the three artists and their movements mentioned previously, Jones seems to incorporate his own ideologies with the three movements into his art and raises a higher moral concern about race to the viewers. By creating artworks that are made from books we might see in our daily lives, Jones not only brings art to the general public in a closer way, but also encourages us to rethink our society and our past. For him, the most important outcome of his artwork is ‘how the viewer, through the work, experiences the idea or ideas19.’ Jones’ artworks could not be described as pure appreciation like Duchamp’s ‘art for art’s sake’ since he desires to educate the public, not only on our ignorance of history, but also on our disregard of the potential conflicts in the contemporary world.

Painting Index:

19 “Samuel Levi Jones,” Copenhagen Contemporary, last modified 2014, http://copenhagen-contemporary.dk/qa-with-samuel-levi-jones/.

(Figure 1: Samuel Levi Jones, Burning all Illusion, 2016)

(Figure 2: Samuel Levi Jones, Selective Proof of Facts, 2016)

(Figure 3: Paul Klee, Hammamet with Its Mosque, 1914)

(Figure 4: Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Avignon, 1907)

Bibliography: 1. “Cubism.” Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/cubism. 2. “Dada.” Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada. 3. Galerie Lelong. http://www.galerielelong.com/exhibitions/samuel-levi-jones/selected-works?view=slider. 4. “Marcel Duchamp and Readymade.” MoMA Learning. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_ learning/themes/dada/marcel-duchamp-and-the-readymade/. 5. Paulson Fontaine Press. Last modified August 2017. http://paulsonfontainepress.com/wp-content/uploads/SamuelLeviJonesOKTP.pdf. 6. “Readymade.” Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/r/readymade. 7. Richmond, Ben. “Paul Klee: ‘Color and I Are One.’” The Met. Last modified September 1, 2016. https://www.metstoreblog.org/paul-klees-favorite-light/. 8. “Samuel Levi Jones.” Copenhagen Contemporary. Last modified 2014. http://copenhagen-contemporary.dk/qa-with-samuel-levi-jones/. 9. Samuel Levi Jones. https://samuellevijones.com/bio. 10. “Samuel Levi Jones on Raising Consciousness and Standing Rock.” Art Writing, November 23, 2016. https://artwriting.sva.edu/journal/post/samuel-levi-jones-on-raising-consciousnessand-standing-rock. 11. “Synthetic Cubism.” Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/synthetic-cubism.

Image Bibliography: 1. Jones, Samuel Levi. Burning All Illusion. Image. Galerie Lelong. http://www.galerielelong. com/exhibitions/samuel-levi-jones/selected-works?view=slider#2. 2. Jones, Samuel Levi. Selective Proof of Facts. Image. Galerie Lelong. http://www.galerielelong.com/exhibitions/samuel-levi-jones/selected-works?view=slider#4. 3. Klee, Paul. Hammamet with Its Mosque. Image. The Met. https://www.metstoreblog.org/paulklees-favorite-light/. 4. Picasso, Pablo. Les Demoiselles dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Avignon. Image. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon#/media/File:Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon.jpg.

Ox Tongue and Calf's Head, Isabel Cai, The Groton School 21'

Worlds Collide Seth Amofa, Phillips Exeter Academy 21’ I find myself lost as I ponder the basic question “Where do I belong?” I could easily give one-word answers such as “Ghana”, “Chicago”, or even “Exeter.” My entire life has been defined by the big communities I have been a part of. These communities exposed me to a breadth of culture, experiences, and knowledge that has shaped the person I am today. Ghana (2002-2010) Ghana will forever be my home. Why? I spent the bulk of my childhood on this precious and fertile land. Back then, as a child, I only understood one thing: fun. My friends and I would run barefoot on the coarse hot sand throughout the village. I smelled the pleasant aroma of fufu (a fluffy ball of mixed plantain and cassava) and okro1 soup wafted over us as we maneuvered in and out of the various compounds to find ourselves in the local recreational compound. Here, old men in multicolored Kente clothes that extended from their shoulders to their feet reclined in chairs and played the traditional game, Oware (Mancala). Perplexed by the movement across the board, we retreated and continued our adventure. Here and there, some townspeople would scream and warn us to slow down. We didn’t stop nor care because we were kids, moving about quickly and enjoying ourselves. We were just kids. We belonged to each other. We were from the same compound in the village. Our houses were 15 feet apart. Our community values and heritage bonded us together. America (Chicago 2010-2017) Coming to America changed the course of my life, opening a pandora’s box of opportunities as well as challenges. Although I felt African and identified as African, America recognized and knew me as an African American. I didn’t quite understand this. I didn’t even have a say in it. I found myself quiet and withdrawn in school as I interacted with people who looked like me. They were black. I was black. They wore jordans. I had on a pair of black church shoes I was born in Ghana and learned Twi as my first language. They were born in America. English was their first language. I understood English, but speaking was a 1

In Ghana, we call it okro not okra as we do in America.

challenge. “What’s your favorite food?” Rasheed asked Tiana in the cafeteria. “Are you for real asking me what I love, like my favorite for real for real??” Tiana replied. “Boi I love my momma’s fried chicken and mac and cheese.” she said. Rasheed and others sitting at our table nodded. Rasheed added, “For sho, You can’t go wrong with fried chicken.” They all burst into laughter except me. I felt lost. What was fried chicken? What’s so special? Chicken is chicken. I just eat chicken. The English they spoke was so foreign. I could barely parse out the words. The words flew right over my head. They spoke rapidly and shortened their words into phrases. Their sentences defied the English grammar rules. I wanted to understand and fit in so badly, so I broke the rules too: “Want to” turned into “finna,” “alright” into “Aight” and “How are you?” into “Wassup chief.” These words as they slipped from my mouth felt strange. This wasn’t the English I was taught at home. Coming home from school was such a big relief. I didn’t have to pretend to fit in. Most people in the 26-floor apartment building I lived in were African. The sweet smell of cloves and maggie cube spices and jollof rice (orange rice, a mix of red stew and white rice) created a biome of its own in the hallways and elevators. It felt like I was back home in my Ghanaian village. Outside of the Ghanaian bubble in Uptown Chicago, everything seemed daunting and unfamiliar: the language barrier, cultural differences, and weather (What is this white powder? I asked when I arrived at O’Hare Airport for the first time). Within the walls of the African community in Uptown, I felt safe . However, I breached this safety when I moved out and attended boarding school in Exeter, NH. Exeter, NH (2017-present)

I am here at Phillips Exeter Academy, the best private school in the U.S they say, once again in a tricky situation. Most of the students on campus are white. The few black people I meet aren’t African. “Hello, my name is Seth and I am from Ghana, but I live in Chicago.” I said to Andre. “Hey what’s up chief. I am Andre and I am from Georgia. My family and I have basically lived there our entire life,” he replied. “That’s great! I moved here four years ago. It’s a lot different than Ghana.” I said. Each new place I have stepped in since 2010 has less Africans. From Ghana to Chicago to Exeter, the ghanaian population had decreased to one person. I was that one person. I was the only Ghanaian on campus. What do I do? I asked myself. What could I do to feel like I belong here? How could I navigate this new journey without any ghanaians? It took me about six months before I came to the conclusion that Exeter was my second home. In Latin club, we discussed the Odyssey, a greek poem about the hero Oddysseus’s return home from a long and cruel war. It was without a doubt, the best discussion I ever had. Not only did my peers demonstrate their love of classics through this discussion, but also touched upon the idea of what home means. “When I think of home, I think of a place of laughter, food, and people gathered in one place participating in some activity.” Joe said. Sarah jumped right in and replied, “I feel like I am at home when I am with my friends, like you all, or whenever I head back to my family.” “Well for Odysseus, Home was more than the people, celebrations and etc. He loved the physical place and what it had to offer. Also he didn’t want to die at sea and never be remembered.” Calvin, a cohead, interjected. “Does Oddysseus’s yearn for home compare with what and where you call home?” he continued.

“Woaahhh guys, are we philosophers?” Joe remarked. “No, we are not. We are simply pursuers of knowledge and happiness.” Calvin said and then adjourned the meeting. So many thoughts flashed across my mind. I was curious to know more and have more discussions like this. I felt that this discussion contributed to the nourishment of my critical thinking and reasoning skills beyond the classroom. I thought to myself, If this is how Exeter is going to be for the next four years, I can’t wait for more thought provoking and interesting conversations like this across all disciplines. Though these were mere conversations, Exeter felt like a home away from home. This was a different feeling from Ghana. The culture and environment aspect from Ghana was absent, but I was maturing physically and mentally. One’s identity didn’t matter whenever I interacted with them. We just talked like what people do. It felt strange. This was a good kind of strange though. Most of my life, I navigated this world by only relying on my Ghanaian heritage and background. Who would have ever thought that my eyes would be open to the multitude and diversity of experiences I have encountered? Through these experiences, I think I realised there are some places that I belong to and feel at home, but there are others where home vibes and sense of belonging aren’t apparent and strong. I can’t and simply won’t choose one place to define where I belong because that wouldn’t be true. I,Seth Amofa, typing these words would be deceiving myself if I declared Ghana, Chicago, or Exeter to be the only place I felt at home. I am me because of the myriad blend of experiences in each of these places. So, stop asking where do you belong? Turn that question into a statement of I belong, or I am XYZ because of XYZ things that have occured to me in my life.

Saltland, Holly Zhuang, Stuart Country Day School 21'

Ode to Boba Tea Andy Zeng, Phillips Academy Andover 20’ (Harvard University 24’) Nothing pleases the soul more than to hold your slender frame on a midsummer’s day. When I wrap my fingers tight around your waist and slip my straw deep into you and hear the satisfying “pop” I came to know, through our pas de deux, the evanescent radiance of love. The old minstrels sing of your different labels: boba, bubble, pearl, tapioca— but whatever they name you, wherever you were brewed, and whatever cup size you come in you will find solace at the tip of my tongue. You are so flavorful, so complex, contradictory, colorful, a divine concoction of creamy chocolate and condensed ambrosia. The moment you waltz onto my pallet, I feel a wave of pure ecstasy ride down my trachea, choking my soul. When I suck on your luscious black pearls, feeling them jiggle with my pursed lips, I can’t help but marvel at the perky texture that

seems to somehow always elude my caress by the length of a fingertip. You sound of a cacophonous symphony: Rich and mild, hard but soft, bitter yet sweet, harmoniously contradictory. As I savor your taste, I’m reminded of how you’re not like those other basic beverages. Not wine, with his debonair dullness, Or hot chocolate with her haughty heat; Not orange juice with her sadistic sass Or cotton candy Frappuccino with her cloying clinginess— You are irreplaceably irresistible. Yet, the course of true love never did run smooth. When the sea of tea runs dry, the last few pearls, once hugged by their sun-kissed skin, tremble naked at the grace of the straw— as if beckoning, not wanting to say goodbye. You, my darling, you— put an end to the age-old question: coffee or tea?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Democratic Party’s Latest Puppet Phillip Chao, The Lawrenceville School 21’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (frequently referred to as AOC), the newly elected U.S.

representative from New York’s 14th congressional district, has been a sensational figure on the internet ever since her election. Her age, identity, modest political background, and her unlikely and unexpecting electoral success have made her the center of discussion and the rising new star in the Democratic party.

The dark secret that the left-leaning media would not tell you was that Alexandria

Ocasio-Cortez was nowhere close to this independent-thinking and innovative politician she portrayed herself as but merely a puppet for her party. The Democratic Party has made good use of her identity as a female, Hispanic, and lower-middle class American as well as her unrealistic and provocative policies to attract the public’s attention and advertise itself through the process. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has frequently been the center of controversy for her unrealistic policies ever since her election. Examples include cutting current emissions of greenhouse gas in half in the next twelve years, enforcing seventy percent marginal tax rate for income above ten million, and nationalizing the entire healthcare system in the United States.1 Such policies have led to oppositions and criticism among experts and politicians in both parties. Even Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of the Representatives, downplays the role of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the party by saying there were only “like five people” on her side2. Although some people believe in the good intentions of these policies, they are nevertheless sources of controversies and sparked heated discussions in real life and the internet. In fact, most of the policies she promotes are not serious proposals— like the over-exaggerating headlines of gossip magazines, they quickly take over the media and spark more confrontation between the two sides. The viability of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez policy is never a concern for the leaders of the Democratic Party. All they want from her is the picture of an underrepresented, grassroots politician who seems to be fighting for the

great, liberal causes of economic equality and environmental preservations. The Democratic Party has no consideration for the people Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents, nor does it care about her future political career. The Democrats will keep portraying AOC as a blooming star in the party, as long as she is able to keep tossing out controversial statements and proposals to catch the attention of the public. The Democratic Party values Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her unique cultural background and identity despite her obvious lack of experiences in politics. She is twenty-nine years old, she is Hispanic, and she worked as a bartender. It doesn’t surprise me at all that many young people find her particularly appealing and approachable: they are tired of the “old-school” white politicians like Joseph Crowley, the long-time U.S. representative from New York’s 14th congressional district, whom AOC won the Democratic nomination over, and turn their eyes to this dark-horse candidate, feeling connections to her identity as an ethnic minority or her experiences as a middle-class citizen.3 These qualities make her a good public figure and an internet sensation, yet her obvious lack of political experience disqualifies her from being a professional Congress-member. We can see this lack of experience and professionalism among other freshman Democrats in the Congress: Ilhan Omar, the U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district who had been frequently under fire for her comments about Israel and her reference to 9/11 as “some people did something” on a CAIR(Council on American-Islamic Relations)-sponsored event; Rashida Tlaib, a fellow Democratic freshman in the Congress, also worded her support for Ilhan Omar.4 Tlaib had previously spoken on the 2018 annual banquet of CAIR5. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who hosted the event in which Omar made her speech, was a designated terrorist organization according to the United Arab Emirates.6 3

“CROWLEY, Joseph,” US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, accessed May 04, 2019, https:// history.house.gov/People/Detail/11748. 4 Karen Zraick, “Ilhan Omar’s Latest Remarks on Israel Draw Criticism,” The New York Times, March 01, 2019, accessed May 04, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/us/politics/ilhan-omar-israel.html. 5 CAIR GLA, YouTube, December 26, 2018, accessed May 14, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gRELFg-_vGo. 6 Adam Taylor, “Why the U.A.E. Is Calling 2 American Groups Terrorists,” The Washington Post, November 17, 2014, accessed May 04, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/11/17/why-the-u-a-e-is-call-

The rise to fame of Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, or Tlaib is no coincidence but a clear reflec-

tion of popular politics nowadays in the United States. It seems that the viability of a politicianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policies, the originalities of his/her ideas, and his/her political experiences no longer matter to the younger generation as long as the person is able to spark controversies and catch the attention of the public.

ing-2-american-groups-terrorists/?utm_term=.e5abaee62947.

Blowing Smoke, Isabel Cai, The Groton School 21'

Alberto Giacometti: The Profile of a War Artist

Ariston Zhou, Potomac Senior High School 21â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Alberto Giacometti, one of the 20th century’s most renowned sculptors, was born in Switzerland in 1901 and was involved in art at a young age due to his family’s artistic influence. Alberto Giacometti’s father, Giovanni, inspired his son’s artistic mind. Later, Alberto decided to continue his artistic education by moving to Paris. During the 1930s, Giacometti became a part of the Surrealist movement, and he started working on sculptures and paintings with a dreamy and imaginative nature. Giacometti later split with the group when he became attracted to Existentialist movement, a new way to express the human form. Influenced by the emerging Existentialist artists, his small, thin figurative sculptures resonated with the atmosphere of suffering, pain, and misery that was felt in the post-World War II era. These sculptures soon became famous, and many influential collectors and museums were trying to buy his work. Giacometti’s sculptures and paintings continued to evolve in the 50s and the 60s, during which he matured stylistically. Giacometti received numerous awards, honors and retrospective exhibitions throughout the latter part of his life, and peacefully died in 1966 in Chur, Switzerland. Throughout his career, Giacometti experimented with many sculpture styles, but eventually matured in the realm of logic and reality in the post-World War Two era in order to convey the social messages of the time. Giacometti lived through one of the most tumultuous periods of modern European history, where he experienced horror and fear during both World War I and World War II. These life experiences eventually became instrumental to the maturation of his style, and what viewers see in his sculptures are representations of his inner emotions and judgment concerning the horrendous acts of human abuse and brutal killings.1 Artists, such as Giacometti, created works of art that pushed the abstract boundaries of the humans’ consciousness. They used art as an escape from the violent world that was emerging in 20th century Europe and to address the anger and anxiety they felt. By using their creativity, the artists tapped into fantasy and dream imagery, and generated unique and original masterpieces in a variety of materials, showcasing their complex inner minds radically and symbolically.2 This new emerging style 2

“Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27” [Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27]. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Accessed May 8, 2019.

is now recognized as “Surrealism”, in which there was a sophisticated thinking process that uncovered emotions of anger and anxiety. Surrealist artists expressed these raw emotions through their works in a systematic and logical approach.3 When Giacometti joined the Surrealists in the early 1930s, he quickly made a name for himself by creating original sculptures which spread common themes at the time, such as the antiwar sentiment. Giacometti chose to abandon the sculpting of reduced human forms, in order to focus on the depiction of the truest human form, as he saw it. He was fascinated by the human body and how it could lead to essential discoveries on nature and perception. One of his inspirations during this period of transformation was Egyptian art. He was attracted to the upright and straightforward style of Egyptian sculpture, and which he exhibited in many of his mature works such as Standing Woman or Walking Man. 4Another aspect of Egyptian art that was striking for him was the theme of tombs and mummies because one represented the fragility of life and while the other showed the totality of death. Giacometti was attentive to the idea that life was fragile, and one will not know when death will suddenly reach you. In order to express his feelings and ideas, Giacometti went back to working with human models. In closely observing his model, he would often look right through the skin and flesh and pay much more attention to the bones. He was intrigued by ambiguous figures and images. Sometimes, the heads he created would look like an insect while the body resembled the erectness of trees. After the war, Giacometti continued his style while initiating the process on much larger sculptures, which ranged anywhere from five to eight feet in height. The new sculptures represented a drastic change in size from his pre-war sculptures which were as small as one to three inches. Giacometti’s style matured at the end of World War II period after spending the entire wartime in Switzerland. From experimenting with various mediums, he enjoyed working with bronze the most. Since plaster is soft, malleable, and quick to set, Giacometti found it easier 3 4

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81046. “Surrealism” [Surrealism]. The Art Story. Accessed May 5, 2019. https://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm. Mathews, Timothy. Alberto Giacometti: The Art of Relation. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2014.

to shape the sculpture models, giving him more flexibility when he made the models.5 Plaster suited Giacometti’s attention to detail well because the material is capable of capturing details, important to the final bronze casting. As the critics from Phillips Inc, a contemporary art auction house, said: “Giacometti treated plaster as a noble material, valuing it for its malleability and sense of fragility”.6 Moreover, Giacometti would often remake the plaster models for his sculptures over and over again until it was completely aesthetically pleasing to him. This meant that it had to fill the surrounding air and space, and most importantly convey philosophical ideas on life, death, and human nature. He was able to accomplish these things through the little details that he would often subtly place in his sculptures. Many of the seemingly unnoticeable features of the sculpture would not be discovered for many years. Giacometti’s mature style consisted of unnaturally elongated limbs, the uniquely textured surface of the skin of the sculpture, and a very fragile frame for a human being. The artist chose to do so because the longer limbs showed fragility and thinness, which, in the physique of the human body, shows a lack of strength and maybe even a feeling of fear. 7 In addition to the artist’s famous elongated limbs, Giacometti also incorporated an element of striding in most of his late works, and they all seemed to be strong and determined at heart despite their skinny limbs and bent backs.8 When Giacometti tried to convey the ideas of a geometric frame, he would utilize a narrow head, a sharp nose, and long limbs. The sculptures he creates captures the viewers because of their irregularities. Also, “if we place these under the concept shared by Giacometti’s judgment of our culture we, as viewers, can make a similar judgment of humanity and understand a single individual’s struggles to break free from the geometric cage of our scientific world.”9 Following the logic and reasoning of 5 6 7 8 9

McEwan, Olivia. “Seeing Beyond Alberto Giacometti’s Bronzes.” Hyperallergic. Last modified July 12, 2017. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://hyperallergic.com/389821/tate-modern-alberto-giacometti/. “Alberto Giacometti’s Work in Plaster.” Phillips. Last modified April 7, 2017. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://www.phillips.com/article/10682378/ alberto-giacometti-s-work-in-plaster. Mathews, Timothy. Alberto Giacometti: The Art of Relation. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2014. Mathews, Timothy. Alberto Giacometti: The Art of Relation. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2014. Bell, Richard H. “Giacometti’s Art as a Judgment on Culture” [Giacometti’s Art

the time, Giacometti started to use art as a realistic perception of the world, as opposed to a purely imaginative one.10 Giacometti abandoned his old style of using solely his creativity and imagination to create works and moved towards defining his sculptures with the rational world of science.11 Giacometti also focused on, besides the long limbs and the pointy nose, the rough and textured surface of the sculpture. The first detail one would notice when examining the surface of the artwork is the amount of uneven thumb sized streaks on the surface of the sculpture. These add to the complexity and a greater feeling of space and dimension, and Giacometti surfaced his works in such a manner because they represent the age associated with the theme of his artworks. The fascinating aspect of the sculptures is the fact that the sculptures can be admired from both afar and closeup. Giacometti’s sculptures can be fascinating to look at from far away since it gives the viewer an impression of dominance and control. When studied alone, the sculpture itself is enough to magnetize and surround the light and air, and the textures would release a sensation of weakness, anxiety, or even sadness. Those feelings rushing through the viewers were the same as the ones gushing through Giacometti’s mind at the time of the piece’s creation. Giacometti was initially a Surrealist, and The Spoon Woman (see Appendix A)12 is one Giacometti’s first major works during his Surrealist stage. The figure’s geometric head, chest, as a Judgment on Culture]. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Winter, 1989), pp. 15- 20 47, no. 1 (February 9, 2018): 15-20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/ 431989.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A11b4f36ced8671071dc54d69292d2f54&loggedin=true. Note: Published by Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics 10 Strout, Cushing. “N/A.” In American Political Science Review. Previously published in American Political Science Review. June 1955, No.2 ed. Vol. 49. American Political Science Review. N.p.: American Political Science Association, 1955. 321-39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/ 1951806?read-now=1&loggedin=true&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents. 11 Thackara, Tess. “Alberto Giacometti Abandoned Surrealist Success to Focus on the Human Body” [Alberto Giacometti Abandoned Surrealist Success to Focus on the Human Body]. Artsy. Last modified June 5, 2018. Accessed May 9, 2019. https://www.artsy.net/article/ artsy-editorial-alberto-giacometti-abandoned-surrealist-success-focus-human-body. 12 “Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27” [Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27]. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Accessed May 12, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81046.

and feet reflect the characteristics of Cubism, and its concave spoon stomach is likely to be influenced by the specific spoon carving techniques of the Dan culture in Africa.13 The Spoon Woman is one of his first sculptures involving the simplified and geometric shapes of the human body. The spoon-shaped abdominal region resembles the woman’s womb. Giacometti created this sculpture to be live size, standing at 144.8 cm tall14, causing the depiction of the woman’s womb to be flipped. As the art historian and theorist Rosalind Krauss has noted, “By taking the metaphor and inverting it, so that ‘a spoon is like a woman’ becomes ‘a woman is like a spoon,’ Giacometti was able to intensify the idea and to make it universal by generalizing the forms of the sometimes rather naturalistic African carvings toward a more prismatic abstraction.”15 Distinctly different from Giacometti’s Surrealist works such as The Spoon Woman, The Walking Man (see Appendix B) can be considered one of Giacometti’s matured Existentialist masterpieces. This sculpture has almost endlessly extended limbs, symbolizing the fundamental and natural form of the human body.16 Through the unnatural elongation of the figure’s limbs and the declined body, the sculpture is fragile to the viewers’ eyes. Giacometti also includes a strong determination in the motion of his artwork, which can be seen from its upwards and forward-looking gaze. The Walking Man indicates that he wants to find purpose, and the artist thoughtfully conveyed this idea to the viewers through The Walking Man’s final forward stride, his onward gaze, as if the future was on the horizon, and the lifting of his back foot, showing an intention to keep moving. Giacometti intentionally made The Walking Man tall and dominating, resulting in the sculpture standing at 183cm tall17, about 5cm taller 13

“Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 19011966” [Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 19011966]. The Art Institute of Chicago. Last modified 2013. Accessed May 3, 2019. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/37761. 14 “Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27” [Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27]. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81046. 15 Blessing, Jennifer. “Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman (Femme Cuillère)” [Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman (Femme Cuillère)]. Guggenheim. Accessed May 2, 2019. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/1421x. 16 Fontanella, Megan, Karole P.B. Vail, Valerie J. Fletcher, and Catherine Grenier, eds. Giacometti. New York, NY: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2018. 17 UNESCO.org > L’Unité des uvres d’art et des Projets Spéciaux. “GIACOMETTI, ALBERTO (1901-1966), Suisse” [GIACOMETTI, ALBERTO (1901-1966), Swiss].

than the average American18. Valerie J. Fletcher, noticing, this detail observed: “Although the sculpture’s eyes are almost on the viewer’s level, the figure remains essentially remote, staring out at an unseen goal. With its gnarled, devastated surfaces, Walking Man I stands as a symbol of humanity always striving, ever seeking, never at peace. The roughly modeled surfaces shimmer under different light conditions, as if indicating the transient nature of reality, and the figure’s nervous energy activates the surrounding space.”19 The sculpture is also an extensive exploration of the individual self and the occupation of the space by a single person. The Walking Man is seen as a metaphor for the post-war experience of doubt, alienation, and fear. The Walking Man20 and The City Square (see Appendix C) are both very thematically similar sculptures made by Giacometti on the topic of human alienation. The former is depicting a striding man, and the latter being a collection of seven men who are striding on a much smaller scale.21 From these pieces, the Art Institute of Chicago draws a recurrent theme of Giacometti’s depiction of man’s isolation. Giacometti represents the unprecedented inhumanity of man to man the world had borne witness to in the 20th century.22 Similar to The Walking Man, L’homme au Doigt (see Appendix D) was also created as a post-war response. Giacometti reflects on the brighter future that is ahead of mankind. Leaving behind these world wars, L’homme au Doigt stands with a high level of confidence, dominating the space it surrounds, but is does not give the original impression of more serious themes that is transparent throughout dozens of Giacometti’s mature works.23 L’homme UNESCO. Accessed May 10, 2019. http://www.unesco.org/artcollection/ NavigationAction.do?idOeuvre=2919&nouvelleLangue=fr. 18 Dr. Halls. “Stand Tall: Average Height for Men” [Stand Tall: Average Height for Men]. halls.md, Moose & Doc. Last modified August 28, 2018. Accessed May 7, 2019. https://halls.md/average-height-men-height-weight/. 19 “Alberto Giacometti, L’HOMME QUI MARCHE” [Alberto Giacometti, The Walking Man]. Sotheby’s. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2010/ impressionist-modern-art-evening-sale-l10002/lot.8.html. 20 “WALKING MAN I” [WALKING MAN I]. Fondation Alberto Giacometti. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en/database/173445/ walking-man-i. 21 Fontanella, Megan, Karole P.B. Vail, Valerie J. Fletcher, and Catherine Grenier, eds. Giacometti. New York, NY: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2018. 22 Authors and Curators of The Milton D. Ratner Family Collection. Alberto Giacometti. N.p.: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1974. This excerpt of three sentences has been rephrased. 23 Fontanella, Megan, Karole P.B. Vail, Valerie J. Fletcher, and Catherine Grenier,

au Doigt, however is not a sculpture Giacometti made to display human vulnerability, nor did the artist intend on elaborating on the themes of loneliness, isolation, and sadness in general. Jussi Pylkkänen, who is the Global President of Christie’s artfully explains the L’homme au Doigt themes in a short sentence: ‘Executed after the War in one incredible night of creative fervour, this noble figure points mankind to a brighter future beyond our limited horizons,’24 and he is exactly right when he describes the sculpture pointing towards a brighter future, since the sculpture was created by Giacometti two years after World War Two, in 1947.25 Alberto Giacometti’s works and imagination changed as the social climate in Europe turned messy and chaotic in the wake of the Second World War. The post-WWII era struck him with grief and sorrow, for the human suffering endured between 1939 and 1945, but also for the damage and destruction the war had caused. Such emotions pushed him to rethink the definition of life, and to reconsider the line drawn between life and death. Through Giacometti’s distinct and matured style, he succeeded in representing human potential and fragility. Alberto Giacometti’s message emphasizes the importance of remembering the past, but also stresses the need to look ahead to a brighter future.

eds. Giacometti. New York, NY: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2018. 24 “Giacometti’s Iconic L’Homme au Doigt (Pointing Man)” [Giacometti’s Iconic L’Homme au Doigt (Pointing Man)]. Christie’s. Last modified April 16, 2015. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.christies.com/features/ Giacometti-Pointing-Man-5910-1.aspx. 25 Museum of Modern Art. “Alberto Giacometti; Man Pointing; 1947” [Alberto Giacometti; Man Pointing; 1947]. MoMA. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81779. Publication excerpt from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 214.

Appendix A Image A126

Image A328

mage A227

Appendix B

Image B1

Image B229

Appendix C

Image C130

Image C231

Appendix D

Image D1

Image D232

Bibliography “Alberto Giacometti, L’HOMME QUI MARCHE” [Alberto Giacometti, The Walking Man]. Sotheby’s. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2010/impressionist-modern-art-evening-sale-l10002/lot.8.html. “Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27” [Alberto Giacometti Spoon Woman 1926-27]. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Accessed May 14, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/ works/81046. “Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 1901–1966” [Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 1901–1966]. The Art Institute of Chicago. Last modified 2013. Accessed May 14, 2019. http://www.artic.edu/aic/ collections/artwork/37761. “Alberto Giacometti’s Work in Plaster.” Phillips. Last modified April 7, 2017. Accessed May 14, 2019. https://www.phillips.com/article/10682378/alberto-giacometti-s-work-in-plaster. Authors and Curators of The Milton D. Ratner Family Collection. Alberto Giacometti. N.p.: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1974. This excerpt of three sentences from the original booklet has been rephrased a little in order to make sure that it makes sense in the context of the paragraph. Bell, Richard H. “Giacometti’s Art as a Judgment on Culture” [Giacometti’s Art as a Judgment on Culture]. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Winter, 1989), pp. 15- 20 47, no. 1 (February 9, 2018): 15-20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/431989.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A11b4f36ced8671071dc54d69292d2f54&loggedin=true. Note: Published by Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics “The City Square.” National Gallery of Art. Accessed May 3, 2019. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.56340.html. This is for an image, in Appendix C. Fontanella, Megan, Karole P.B. Vail, Valerie J. Fletcher, and Catherine Grenier, eds. Giacometti. New York, NY: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2018. “Giacometti’s Iconic L’Homme au Doigt (Pointing Man)” [Giacometti’s Iconic L’Homme au Doigt (Pointing Man)]. Christie’s. Last modified April 16, 2015. Accessed May 9, 2019. https://www.christies.com/features/Giacometti-Pointing-Man-5910-1.aspx. Mathews, Timothy. Alberto Giacometti: The Art of Relation. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2014. McEwan, Olivia. “Seeing Beyond Alberto Giacometti’s Bronzes.” Hyperallergic. Last modified July 12, 2017. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://hyperallergic.com/389821/tate-modern-alberto-giacometti/.

Museum of Modern Art. “Alberto Giacometti; Man Pointing; 1947” [Alberto Giacometti; Man Pointing; 1947]. MoMA. Accessed May 4, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/ works/81779. Publication excerpt from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 214. Schmitz, Julia. “Giacometti and Surrealism” [Giacometti and Surrealism]. SCHIRN MAG. Last modified November 28, 2016. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://www.schirn.de/en/magazine/context/giacometti_nauman/alberto_giacometti_surrealismus_andre_breton/. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. “Spoon Woman (Femme cuillère).” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Accessed May 14, 2019. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/1421. This is for an image, in Appendix A Strout, Cushing. “N/A.” In American Political Science Review. Previously published in American Political Science Review. June 1955, No.2 ed. Vol. 49. American Political Science Review. N.p.: American Political Science Association, 1955. 321-39. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/1951806?read-now=1&loggedin=true&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents. “Surrealism” [Surrealism]. The Art Story. Accessed May 14, 2019. https://www.theartstory. org/movement-surrealism.htm. Thackara, Tess. “Alberto Giacometti Abandoned Surrealist Success to Focus on the Human Body” [Alberto Giacometti Abandoned Surrealist Success to Focus on the Human Body]. Artsy. Last modified June 5, 2018. Accessed May 12, 2019. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-alberto-giacometti-abandoned-surrealist-success-focus-human-body. UNESCO.org > L’Unité des Œuvres d’art et des Projets Spéciaux. “GIACOMETTI, ALBERTO (1901-1966), Suisse” [GIACOMETTI, ALBERTO (1901-1966), Swiss]. UNESCO. Accessed May 3, 2019. http://www.unesco.org/artcollection/NavigationAction.do?idOeuvre=2919&nouvelleLangue=fr. “Walking Man I.” Artsy. Accessed May 10, 2019. https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alberto-giacometti-walking-man-i. This is for an image, in Appendix B. “WALKING MAN I” [WALKING MAN I]. Fondation Alberto Giacometti. Accessed May 7, 2019. https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en/database/173445/walking-man-i. “WALKING MAN I.” UNESCO. Accessed May 8, 2019. http://www.unesco.org/artcollection/NavigationAction.do?idOeuvre=2919. This is for an image, in Appendix B.

Addiction, Holly Zhuang, Stuart Country Day School 21'

The Divergent Readings of The Great Gatsby Jonathan Fu, Phillips Academy Andover 21’ F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby centers on the clash of two opposing parties of the upper wealth bracket. Tom Buchanon and his wife, Daisy, live on the exclusive, aristocratic East Egg of Long Island, while Daisy’s former lover, Jay Gatsby, resides opposite them on the equally wealthy but socially inferior West Egg. Through this geographical juxtaposition, Fitzgerald demonstrates the underlying conflict between “old money” (Tom/Daisy, East Egg) and “new money” (Gatsby, West Egg). The “old money” members gained their money primarily through inheritance and family bloodlines and thus they hold immense economic, social, and cultural capital. The “new money” members gained their money through hard work or illegal means and thus have equal economic capital, but inferior social and cultural capital compared to the “old money” members. Thus, Fitzgerald introduces the concept of socioeconomic class, the interrelation of both social status and economic wealth. In a 2012 exit survey for graduating seniors at Phillips Academy, The Great Gatsby was listed as a favorite text for full-pay students but was not listed at all for financial-aid students. Fitzgerald, in focusing on the conflicts of members of the upper wealth bracket alienates readers not in that same wealth bracket. By subsequently blurring moral and economic language in order to criticize Gatsby, Fitzgerald alienates financial-aid students. While full-pay students, due to their closer background connections to the characters of the novel, were likely able to appreciate Fitzgerald’s critiques, financial-aid students may have viewed Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby as both perpetuating the idea that members of higher classes determine acceptable moral practices and ignoring the complex issues surrounding socioeconomic class. Fitzgerald represents his critique of Gatsby (a representative of “new money”) through the blurring of moral and economic language. As Nick is leaving what would turn out to be his last meeting with Gatsby, he shouts, “They’re a rotten crowd...You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 154). Nick is referring not only to Tom, Daisy, and East Egg, but the entire social class that encompasses them. When he tells Gatsby that he is “worth” more than all of them, Nick might actually mean that Gatsby is worth more as a person, but

Gatsby likely interprets that Nick is saying he is economically worth more than Tom and Daisy (Fitzgerald 154). Fitzgerald blurs the true intention of Nick’s words and the subsequent interpretation by Gatsby, in effect causing readers to question why Fitzgerald obscured the words describing Nick’s admiration of Gatsby’s personal self-worth and conflated it with Gatsby’s economic self-worth. Fitzgerald furthers this “blurring” during Gatsby’s funeral, when another of Gatsby’s “genuine supporters,” (along with Nick) Owl Eyes, comments on Gatsby, “the poor son-of-a-bitch” (Fitzgerald 175). Fitzgerald blurs the true intention of “poor,” avoiding word choice that would have directly revealed Owl Eyes’ admiration and pity for Gatsby and instead choosing to further confuse the audience by obscuring the exact meaning of “poor” (Fitzgerald 175). It seems as though, in these two moments, Fitzgerald presents a harsh critique of Gatsby’s moral self-worth and mocks Gatsby’s inability to be viewed as a true person instead of his meaningless wealth. Fitzgerald portrays Nick and Owl Eyes as two of Gatsby’s true supporters and friends, and yet chooses those two to make these extremely damaging statements, albeit unintentional on their parts, that mock Gatsby’s personal and moral worth. As a result, Fitzgerald attacks Gatsby, questioning his personal and moral self-worth and valuing Gatsby purely for his economic worth, ironically similar to what Tom and Daisy did in the novel itself. Not only would students have been alienated by the novel’s focus on the morality of extremely wealthy members of the upper class, but they would have also been affronted by Fitzgerald’s underlying critiques of Gatsby and Gatsby’s moral background. In addition to Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby itself, Angela Leocata and Jennifer Sluka, alumnae of Phillips Academy, each made arguments concerning socioeconomic class in education and at Phillips Academy that are vital in understanding the results of the 2012 exit survey. In “The American Reality: The Effect of Socioeconomic Class on the Educational Process,” Leocata points out that, “Social class is not solely determined by income, but also by the extent in which work builds dignity and respect...members of higher classes and institutions determine acceptable behaviors in the class system” (Leocata 7). Leocata argues that people of higher classes (i.e. Fitzgerald), are the same ones who propose and determine the

moral standards of a society. This theme of socioeconomic class is placed into the context of Phillips Academy in Jennifer Sluka’s piece, “The Mythology of Hard Work and Exceptionalism: Reading Andover Through Barthes.” Sluka argues that students at Phillips Academy are affected tremendously by socioeconomic class, and perpetuate their own destructive myth of “hard work and exceptionalism.” Sluka argues that, “Andover’s current mythology causes many students to leave with a feeling of entitlement and superiority to their peers, perpetuating the tyrannical stratiﬁcation of society that accompanies elitism” (Sluka 14). Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby does nothing to combat this myth or the “entitlement” or “superiority” at Phillips Academy, where students of lower socioeconomic class are mixed into an education of higher-class, superiority, and exceptionalism. In his underlying critique of Gatsby, Fitzgerald not only blurs moral and economic language, but he also directly exposes Gatsby’s shady business partners and likely illegal business ventures. In doing so, he confirms Tom’s suspicions that Gatsby is some “bootlegger,” and reveals his intentions of representing Gatsby as a crooked and foolish man, criticizing his moral character and background. These moral critiques and attacks specifically on Gatsby must have alienated financial-aid students, causing them to view Fitzgerald as another “high-up,” haughty, and unrelatable moral commentator. Financial-aid students must have realized the irony in attempting to analyze the moral critiques of a man with economic, social, and cultural capital who focused purely on upper-class conflicts and ignored the complex socioeconomic issues at Phillips Academy raised by Leocata and Sluka such as “entitlement,” “exceptionalism,” and “elitism.” On the other hand, full-pay students, not as focused on the issues of socioeconomic class as financial-aid students, could appreciate Fitzgerald’s critiques. As a result, many fullpay students listed The Great Gatsby as their favorite novel while most financial-aid students did not.

Acknowledgements Thank you to my 2 Period English 300 Class for your contributions during various class discussions of The Great Gatsby and the pieces by Angela Leocata and Jennifer Sluka. Thank you to Dr. Kane for your contributions and lectures during class discussions. Thank you to my roommate and to my fellow dormmates for helping me stay focused in drafting, revising, and editing this essay. nd

Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Edited by James L.W. West, III, New York City, Scribner, 1925. Leocata, Angela. “The American Reality: The Effect of Socioeconomic Class on the Educational Process.” Phillips Academy, Aug. 2012. Manuscript. Sluka, Jennifer. “The Mythology of Hard Work and Exceptionalism: Reading Andover Through Barthes.” Phillips Academy, 30 Nov. 2012. Manuscript.

Juxtaposition, Tim Mei, St. Paul's School 21'

A Gust of Wind Charlotte Wang, Baylor School 20’ I want to be a gust of wind; Set off from an unknown corner, With the dewdrops in the early morning, And the aroma of herbs and flowers. Passing through deserts, mountains and rivers, Spend my whole life flying over wonder. To the snow mountain, Where the beautiful lotus blooming; To the grassland, Where flocks scattering as white blossoms on the green; To the forest in the fall, Where leaves are dyed in yellow and red; To the spectacular ocean, Where spindrift jumps high to embrace the lightening. Mountains stop the birds with upset face, But can’t prevent me from passing; Falling cascade catch the small boats, While I fly over the canyon as I am willing. I pick up a golden leaf, Dancing in the setting sun; Trop across the haze in the field, Leaving songs along my trace. When the lark starts her first cry for a new day, I visit the blooming garden, silently Kiss the petals with love and kindness And wipe out the tears of roses and lilies -- However, the gardener with keen eyes, Will never discern me. No one’s opinion would add weight to my burden, As long as I travel forward with a heart fearless; Nothing’s able to restrain me, As long as I set my mind free. I am a gust of wind A gust of wind -Who’s born in the arms of the nature And floating in the world lightly. No one tells me why I am here, And no one force me to somewhere. After I’ve visited all where I long to see, Loved all those who I want to love, And done all I wished to complete -I disappear as how I came here.

The Odyssey, Selena Meng, Stuart Country Day School 20'

Internal Driving Force In The Odyssey, Odysseus, being driven by his desire to return home and reunite with his family, is able to surmount fear, desire, and dependence on others in his ten-year journey. This painting portrays Odysseus’ internal driving force—his desire to return to his homeland. The beautiful woman in the painting is Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, and the ship surrounded by butterflies on the right side of the painting is Odysseus’ ship. Penelope’s waiting and longing for Odysseus’ return is depicted through the butterflies flying out of the horn, which is calling Odysseus home and strengthening him to surmount any difficulties. Odysseus’ journey is similar to our lives. Throughout our lives, we constantly encounter both internal and external obstacles and must work to overcome them. In order to do this, we need an internal driving force to give us purpose.

Overcoming Fear Fear is one of the weaknesses Odysseus has to overcome when he and his crew are imprisoned by the one-eyed giant Polyphemus in Polyphemus’s cave. Although the giant who eats men is frightful, Odysseus suppresses his fear, and tactfully devises and executes a plan to help his crew to escape. He gets the giant drunk on wine that he brought along from the ship and drives the red-hot stick into Polyphemus’ eye. When morning comes, Odysseus and his men escape from the cave, unseen by the blind Polyphemus. In this painting, I integrated characteristics of the giant into the cave where Odysseus and his crew are imprisoned. The eye stuck by a wooden stick on the top of the cave is Polyphemus’ eye. Polyphemus’ large mouth with sharp teeth also represents the opening of the cave. The ship escaping from the mouth demonstrates Odysseus’s success of overcoming his fear.

Overcoming Temptation As Odysseus and his crew approach the island of the Sirens whose sweet-voiced melodies captivate men’s hearts, Odysseus plugs his men’s ears with beeswax and asks them to bind him to the mast of the ship. He alone hears their song flowing forth from the island, promising to reveal the future. The Sirens’ song is so seductive that Odysseus begs to be released from his fetters, but his faithful men only bind him tighter and sail the ship away from the island. In this painting, I used translucent hands approaching Odysseus’s ship to represent the Sirens’ seductive songs, which are temptations to Odysseus. The ship which is sailing away from the temptation marks that Odysseus is able to overcome it and his desire to hear the Sirens’ songs.

Overcoming Dependence on Others Athena, goddess of wisdom and courage, helps Odysseus during his journey home. She only provides Odysseus with guidance instead of directly sending Odysseus home. In the painting, the eye staring at the seastorm and Odysseusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ship stands for Athena who pays close attention to Odysseusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; journey and offers help as needed. She uses the bridge of her nose to block some waves but refuses to completely remove the challenge for Odysseus. As a result, Odysseus still has to rely on himself to overcome the difficulty. Similarly, we should become more independent when we are solving problems in lives, since there is always part of the journey we have to walk alone.