Best Student Essays of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke Volume 13
Spring 2013
PHOTO BY ALEX WHITE
ReVisions
2 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Essays may cover any topic within any !eld of study at UNCP. We encourage submissions from
all !elds and majors, but we do not publish !ction or poetry. All submissions must be nominated by a
UNCP faculty member. Students who believe that they have a strong essay for submission are encouraged
to ask a faculty member to sponsor that essay. Nomination forms are available at http://www.uncp.edu/
et/revisions.
Manuscript requirements: no more than 3,000 words in length and double-spaced. Do not in-clude
any names or identifying information on the essay itself; use the nomination form as a cover sheet,
making sure to !ll out all parts of the form. Please submit electronically the nomination form and the
nominated essay in one Word or RTF !le to teagan.decker@uncp.edu.
All essays will be read and judged in a blind selection process. If a submission is chosen for publica-tion,
the author will be noti!ed and asked to submit a brief biography, and a photograph of the author
will be taken to be included in the publication.
Nominations to be considered for publication in the Spring 2014 issue will be accepted until De-cember
2013. For further information, contact Dr. Teagan Decker, Lowry Bldg. 313, (910) 521-6437,
teagan.decker@uncp.edu.
ReVisions: Best Student Essays is a publication designed to celebrate the !nest non!ction work composed
by undergraduate students at "e University of North Carolina at Pembroke. "is issue was designed
and produced by the students in PRE 3450: Computer-Assisted Editing and Publication Design.
Skyler Barnes
Shay Blue
Janae Curtain
Quintin Davis
Matthew Greene
Chanel Langley
Lavianca Ledbetter
Aaron Lowery
Ashley M. Williams
Jessi Woodard
Sara Oswald, Instructor
Editor
Teagan Decker
Dept. of English and Theatre
Managing Editor
Sara Oswald
Dept. of English and Theatre
Selection Committee
Bill Brandon
Dept. of Chemistry and Physics
Jane Haladay
Dept. of American Indian Studies
Jaime Martinez
Dept. of History
David Nikkel
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
The cover photo shows the image embedded in the terrazzo !oor at the entrance to the new Health Sciences Building, which
was dedicated in August 2012. The medicine wheel carried on the back of a turtle, designed by Durham artist Joe Liles, repre-sents
the University’s connection to its founding by American Indians. It is also an ancient symbol of health and well-being. The
photo was taken by Alex White, a senior business major and member of the Indianhead yearbook photography sta".
Front: Lavianca Ledbetter, Matt Greene; Middle: Quintin Davis, Sara Oswald, Shay Blue; Back: Chanel Langley, Jessi Woodard; Not Pictured: Skyler Barnes, Janae Curtain,
Aaron Lowery
Spring 2013 3
Don’t Turn Out the Light in My Mind ....................................................................................4
Daria Bannerman
ENG 3590: Creative Non#ction
Operatic Tolkien ...................................................................................................................................... 9
M. Gordon Byrd
ENGS 2160: Tolkien and the Middle Ages
The Devil’s in the Details ..................................................................................................................12
Matthew Cowper
ENG 2060: World Literature
Loss of Illusion; Seed of Insurgency ......................................................................................16
Carol Anne Fry
ENG 3040: Principles of Literary Study
A New Generation of Graduates .................................................................................................21
Jesenia Morales
ENG 1060: Composition II
ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Vol. 13
Click on any title in the Table of Contents above to go to the start of that essay. Click on the at the end of any
essay to return to the Table of Contents page.
4 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Daria Bannerman is a senior
at UNCP. She is majoring in
English, and she has a minor
in creative writing.
ernor Morehead School for the Blind on a "ursday
night in September. "e charter bus I was riding was
really cold, and I was bored. I mostly sat there, lis-tening
to the bus monitors talk on Walkie Talkies,
informing our parents that we would be returning
home because of the storm. It rained all of that day.
When I got o# of the bus, my mom came and walked
me to the car. I was so happy to be home. I was with
my family. Now, I do remember that night because
I wanted to sleep with my parents. Before then, my
mom was working on weaning me from sleeping in
her bed, but that night, I don’t think she really cared.
We all slept good, until we woke up the next day.
“Oh shit!” my father exclaimed. My mom just
gasped. A few seconds later, I would discover that
there was water in our home.
“Wow!” I screamed.
I didn’t think anything of it because I was seven
at the time. My dad walked me to a chair. I wanted to
drink some water from my water bottle, but my dad
didn’t think it was a good idea. I sat down, until my
parents decided to leave the home. I was short back
then, so I had to get on my father’s back. I think the
water would have been up to my chest; I’m not sure.
I probably would have drowned, if my dad did not
carry me on his back. I loved water, but I was very
afraid of drowning. I’ve always feared the possibility
of never returning to the surface of the water. Well,
we made it out of our yard safely. "ere was water
in the middle of the road, and I remember wanting
to play in it, but my mom kept telling me that there
might be snakes in there.
“Get outa that wata!” she said.
I kept trying to get to that water, until I was
taken to my grandmother’s house.
"ough I spent half my time in Maple Hill
and half my time in Raleigh, Maple Hill is where my
roots are. My family lives there. When my house ex-perienced
its !rst $ood, it marked a speci!c change.
When my family and I could move back into the
house, the !rst thing I noticed was the way the carpet
sounded under my feet. It was clear that most of the
water had gone, but some of it was still in the carpet.
"e second thing I noticed was the way it smelled. It
smelled like old water. Before the house was $ooded,
it still had that new house smell, kind of. Looking
back on this ordeal, I wish I had taken my house’s
!rst $ood seriously.
Maple Hill
“Don’t forget where you’ve come from.” "is
aphorism has been thrown around ever since… well,
My essay “Don’t Turn Out the Light in My
Mind” is about the memories I have of my
hometown; the memories try to capture the
good my town has to o!er, as well as the experiences I
have had in my life, such as my house "ooding. I felt the
need to write this essay because I wanted to remind my-self
of the good times I have had in my hometown. Before
I wrote this essay, I often focused on how isolated I felt
while being there. Also, I felt that memory was impor-tant,
and I wanted to capture what it was like to have
to go back in my mind and remember which house I was
in, which party I attended, etc. #e memories I share
come from my childhood, teenage, and adult years—in
that order. When events take place, most people use sight
to keep track of what happens to them, but I use my ears.
However, what I and most people have in common is
that we use memory to recall what has happened.
My House
My house is a strong one. In Maple Hill, my
parents purchased it in 1994. It has two bathrooms
and three bedrooms. When I open the front door, I
walk straight until I have to turn right to get to my
room. "ere are pictures on the wall, and before the
$ood, all the doors would shut all the way. I was an
only child; I used to have the room that was farthest
from the small bathroom. We had two TVs. It was
perfect until water invaded its insides. It has been
through four $oods. "e two strongest $oods have
been caused by hurricanes Bonnie and Floyd. Hur-ricane
Bonnie hit my (my parents’) home in 1996.
Anyways, I remember coming home from "e Gov-
By Daria Bannerman
Don’t Turn Out the Light in My Mind
Spring 2013 5
Daria Bannerman
Daria’s essay docu-ments
small-town life in
Maple Hill, North Carolina.$
Creative-non#ction narra-tives
often place readers
into pockets of visualization,
but Daria’s essay demands
readers not to see life lived
in a small town, but rather
to feel colors, textures,
language—as they relate
to how life is lived in Maple
Hill.
~Dr. David Marquard
I don’t know. Everyone and her mother says it. Where
a person comes from is very important. It’s her place
of origin, whether she likes it or not. I like my place
of origin just !ne; however, I know that someday, I
will have to depart from it. Life demands that I do
this.
Maple Hill is a small community in North
Carolina; it is equidistant from cities Jacksonville and
Burgaw, and from a small town called Chiquapin. Al-most
every house in this small community has a yard
where people can take time to relax, and most every
house has a porch. However, it takes me twenty min-utes
to get to any stores. In places where the stores
are located—especially in Jacksonville and Wilming-ton—
the entertainment and action are premade for
me. However, in my small community, I have to cre-ate
my own entertainment and action. For example,
my mom and I will sit on the porch and talk, or we’ll
have cookouts for no reason. Since most people who
live in Maple Hill know this—including me—I have
wondered why it is categorized as a stub on the Wiki-pedia
page. According to Wikipedia, a stub is a small
amount of information. I was curious about whether
or not my small community would be written about.
"at, and I was totally bored. When I read that the
information that was provided was a stub, I was kind
of upset. I say kind of because I expected it. "e only
people who talk about Maple Hill are the people who
live there. No one knows who wrote the little blurb
about this community. Reading Wikipedia articles is
like looking at a virtual commune. Everyone who is
not afraid of getting intimate with a working com-puter
is writing and editing information. However,
there was no commune-like structure with this little
stub about my community. Oh my word! "ere is
lots of other evidence about that town/community/
whatever it is. Man! "ere are photos of the small
community on Facebook, there is a Facebook group
named after them, and there is even a program for
the youth. Perhaps I should join the virtual commune
and add that little tid-bit to the “stub.” I’ve read the
article, and it has the population, and the amount
of square feet it has. It even has the coordinates on a
map. I’ll bet it’s placed in one little grid. I don’t know
how many houses are in Maple Hill; most of them are
probably buried in the woods.
Let Go, Please!
Teenage years are some of the most trying years
of one’s life. Before they arrive, one isn’t in a hurry to
temporarily get away from her parents. Now that she
is right in the midst of those teenage years, she is sort
of anxious. "is happened to me. I tried to stay with
a friend named Yessie when I was thirteen, but my
mom wouldn’t let me.
“Ma, I wanna stay with Yessie next weekend,”
I say.
“You can’t.” “Why?” “Because I don’t know her
parents. "is world is a crazy place.” “Ma, nothing
will happen to me; Yessie is my friend.” “I said no.
Don’t ask me again.”
Mothers have the tendency to be overly pro-tective
over their children; my mother was no di#er-ent.
"ough I knew she was trying to protect me,
this ruined most of my weekend. She wouldn’t let me
because she didn’t know my friend’s parents. But I
knew my friend, so why couldn’t I spend the week-end
with her? She was nice—well, she is nice. But,
I was angry with my mother because I felt isolated
when I returned home from school. I didn’t have
many friends at home. And, I didn’t want to be home
bored. OK. Scratch that. I didn’t want to be bored
alone. I wanted to be bored with other people who
were my age. Plus, it didn’t really help that some of
my friends were already spending weekends together.
"at made me feel even more isolated.
Franquette’s Birthday Party
I remember the !rst party I went to; I was six-teen
at the time. It was my cousin Franquette’s sev-enteenth
birthday. It was held at some building with
two rooms. Or was it three? I don’t know. All I know
was that my mom was making a huge deal out of it.
“Here, Daria. Put this out!t on,” she insisted. I never
understood why a change of clothes is required when
going to a party. I looked !ne in the clothes I was
wearing. Perhaps the out!t I had to wear looked a
little cuter. My mom did something to my hair. She
$at-ironed it, and then she made me up. "ough I
knew I was lookin’ fresh to death, I knew that the
only people I would be impressing were my cousins.
When I was completely dolled up, I headed for
the door.“You can sit back down,” Mom said. “It ain’t
time to go yet.”
I sat back down, watching Lord knows what
on TV. When it was !nally time to leave, Mom and
I went to the car. “You make sure you have a good
time,” she says.“I’ll try.” When we arrived at the
building, music was already playing at a loud vol-ume.
I was placed in a chair next to a table. Only
half the people showed up, but the longer I sat there,
the more people arrived. Most everyone was dancing
except me. Two of my cousins were coaxing me to get
up and dance, but I wouldn’t. Sure, I like dancing in
my room, in a place where rarely anyone visits, but I
wasn’t too thrilled about dancing in front of people.
Eventually, I gave in. At !rst I felt awkward because I
wasn’t sure of what to do. When I had !nally settled
6 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Don’t Turn Out the Light in My Mind
on just moving my shoulders, the girl I was danc-ing
with encouraged me to move my feet. In fact, she
taught me how to two-step. At this point, I was feel-ing
good.“"at’s right, girl! You got it!” she cheered.
“Put some oomph into it.”
When the !rst song ended, I was dancing with
another person. It was a much faster one and a little
bit harder to dance to. Fortunately, another famil-iar
person helped me. “Just do the two-step,” she in-structed.
I happily two-stepped to PYT, by Michael
Jackson. In fact, I felt so happy that I dropped it
like it was hot! “"ere you go! "at’s right!” some-one
shouted. I do believe I surprised myself, for I had
never attempted to do such a dance move.
I ended up dancing almost the entire time. I
didn’t arrive home until 1:00 that morning.
"e next day, most everybody knew I had gone
to a party the night before. When I visited my grand-ma,
she questioned me about it. “So, I heard you
went to a party,” she stated. “Yeah,” I smiled. “Did
you enjoy yourself?” “I guess,” I said, trying to con-ceal
my excitement. “You know you did.”
"e next thing I knew, Aunt Shawn and Uncle
Junior were questioning me about it, too. “I didn’t
know you were the partying type,” Uncle Junior said.
“Did you have fun?” “Yes.” “"ere’s nothing wrong
with that.” It was almost as if they were congratu-lating
me. Perhaps, I had done what seemed impos-sible.
I stayed up until 1:00 a.m., jamming to some
awesome hip-hop. "at night, I was really jamming.
"ere was no chair-dancing involved, no !ercely
mouthing words to a song I knew, and most impor-tantly,
there was no head bobbing. I bravely got up
and danced with the rest of the crowd.
Daniel’s and Mom’s Responses
Man, I sure do miss Raleigh, and I sometimes
get upset when Daniel, one of my friends—who hap-pens
to live in Raleigh—tells me something like “Girl,
we need to get you up to Raleigh soon.” Daniel is the
type of friend who loves hanging out with people; he
also loves to eat and play Mortal Kombat. Like me, he
is visually impaired, and most of his friends are scat-tered
across NC. I don’t have much transportation,
and, I know that my mom will take me to Raleigh,
but, when I ask her to, she’s like, “How are you going
to get there?” What she really means to ask is if I’ve
thought of who will take me. And, I always respond
by saying “I don’t know.” Somehow, my mom !nds
a way to get me there, even if she has to request the
help of one of my cousins. My mom is an awesome
person, inside and out. She will not hesitate to do
anything I ask, within reason, of course. She is the
type of person who will get o# of work just to visit
me. However, she doesn’t directly mouth the words
“I’ll do anything for you.” She is a woman of action.
The Schoolhouse
"e schoolhouse is over the creek, and it doesn’t
take us long to drive there. We hardly go there, un-less
we go to the annual parade. (I can’t wait until the
next one. I want my funnel cake!) Plus, I get to spend
some time with a few friends. Hopefully, it won’t rain.
Lately, though, it seems as if the amount of
people at the parade $uctuates. Back in the nineties,
it used to be on and poppin’! "ere used to be a lot
more vendors. My favorite vendors were the toy ven-dors,
even though people sold toy motorcycles. Of
course, I didn’t eat much food back then. Now, when
I go to the parade, I just eat and walk around. I lis-ten
to the cacophony of sounds that come from all
of the booths. Church music plays on stage, while
hip-hop and R&B plays in the individual booths and
$oats. One can get her praise on while attending the
auction (which was held in front of the stage), and
get crunked at the booth that sells chicken and !sh
plates. Hey, I !gure, if I’m going to be chilling at the
parade from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., I may as well
enjoy myself.
Fall Break
In October of 2011, I went home for fall break.
I was so excited about going home because the an-nual
parade would be held on that upcoming Satur-day.
Since I arrived home on a Wednesday evening, I
had to wait. I spent most of my time reading Brailled
magazines that had come through the mail, and read-ing
various blogs that my friends had updated. I sat
on the front porch a lot during that break because the
weather allowed it. Since my grandmother’s birthday
was that Friday, Mom and I celebrated it at her house.
Grandma’s house is bigger than mine; it has three bed-rooms
and two bathrooms, but the rooms are a little
bigger. Her house has two living rooms—I think, and
there are a few pictures on the walls. "ough there are
two living rooms, most of us sit in the one that has
the TV in it. When we arrived, she had a full house.
My cousins, aunts, uncles, and brother were already
there. Mom had cooked most of the food. We were
watching Jamie Foxx reruns while waiting for the
food to !nish cooking. When everything was ready,
we were waiting for Aunt Shawn to come to the table,
so we could say grace and eat. “Come on, Shawn,”
Deon urged. “We’re hungry. You done seen the wed-ding
episode of Jamie Foxx God knows how many
times.” “So, I still wanna see it,” she said. “I love
this episode. It looks so pretty.” When the show was
over, Shawn came to the table, and we said grace and
Spring 2013 7
Daria Bannerman
ate some fried chicken, string beans, spaghetti salad,
meatballs, macaroni and cheese, and cake. “Happy
birthday, Grandma,” I said. “"ank you,” she said.
When I !nished eating, we watched the hip-hop
awards. I didn’t get to watch the entire show because
my mom, brother, and I went home.
When Saturday came, I awoke at 7:00 a.m. be-cause
Loletha and her children—my cousins--would
be participating in the parade. I think they would
be performing some kind of dance. My mom had to
drive to Bernice’s house (Loletha was over there). I
had to sit at Bernice’s house for a while because they
weren’t ready to go. Her house is a little larger than
mine. When I walked in, I walked straight until I
found the couch. "e couch was a comfortable one,
with various items on it. I found mostly clothes, but I
pushed them over so that I could make room for me.
If I had turned left after walking through the front
door, I would !nd myself in Bernice’s small kitchen.
While I was relaxing on her couch, her puppy was
in the kitchen. Her name was Sexy. I am not lying.
I knew her name was Sexy because her owner was
yelling at her for pooping on the kitchen $oor. She
was a small, cuddly puppy with longish fur. She never
barked and I never got bitten. I have never heard of a
puppy with that name. So, I asked her if I could pet
Sexy. “Yeah. Here,” Loletha responded. She loved me
to death. I petted her and loved on her, and she acted
like she didn’t want to leave me. I didn’t want to leave
her, either, but we had to go.
The Parade
We listened to rap music all the way to the
schoolhouse, which wasn’t a long way from Bernice’s
house. When we got there, they practiced their dance
routine a lot! Man! I don’t understand Loletha’s logic
because all of the music on her CD was not edited.
Teenagers were not the only ones dancing to “"ey
Know” by Drake, and “Booty Work” by T-Payne;
little kids would also dance to those songs. I stood
on the side of the road for at least an hour until I was
tired of standing. “You wanna get in the van?” Lole-tha
asked.” “Yeah.”
I sat in the van. "ere were things on the $oor
and some things on the chair. I can’t stand to get in a
vehicle with $oors full of trash. Ugh! We rode up and
down the road. It was awesome, too! Teresa—another
one of my cousins—had some CDs of her own. She
has some really awesome songs. One of the songs I
liked was “Baby Makin’ Hips.” I loved that it made
me want to dance, and if I wasn’t afraid of chair-danc-ing
in front of people, I would have thrown down,
for real.
When it was time to get out of the van, I want-ed
something to eat. "e smell of food was every-where.
I smelled French fries, barbecue, grilled ribs,
fried chicken… I was wishing all of it was free. Now, I
usually eat savory food before I eat sweets, but on this
particular day, the reverse happened. “I want a funnel
cake,” I told Loletha.”“You sure? “You don’t want no
chicken or nothing like that?” “No.” We went to the
funnel cake booth. I got my funnel cake the usual
way, with powdered sugar. (I don’t like all that cin-namon
and strawberries on funnel cakes. "at’s too
over the top for me). It was scorching outside, so
I decided to take o# my UNCP hoody. I handed it
to Loletha. We were standing in front of the school-house
then. Various people were making announce-ments
of the future speakers and singers. I started to
get bored, so we walked back to the booth Loletha
was working at. I drank some water, listened to inter-esting
conversation, and I fell asleep. Falling asleep is
fairly easy to do when one is sitting in a lawn chair.
When I awoke, I wanted a doughnut. Sharell, my
godmother, had bought some from another booth. A
man whose name I could not recall handed me one.
“It’s good, ain’t it?” he wondered. “Yeah,” I said, with
a bit of doughnut in my mouth. Eventually, I would
return home.
Memories
Although I spent over half my life in Raleigh,
I have had some good times in Maple Hill. I’ve had
fun at the parades and at home. I didn’t always have
pleasant experiences (my house $ooded four times),
but, like a person who has been weighed down by
the e#ects of life’s trials, my house is still standing.
I’ve experienced twenty-three years on this Earth,
and these are the memories that are near and dear
to my heart. We all have those moments we think
about from time to time, especially the moments that
deal with family. Memory is a wonderful thing, and
everyone has (or has had) the ability to remember.
Some memories are vivid, other memories are not.
We have a selective memory. If we are participating in
an event and we believe it’s important, we will keep
it. We will choose to remember the details. However,
when we have unpleasant experiences, we choose to
bury them in the back of our minds. Details are very
important because no one likes vagueness. For most
people, remembering exactly how certain objects
look is not that di%cult to do. Some people know the
out!t they wore on the night they went to the mov-ies…
or something. If they can’t they have photos.
“My sister tagged me on Facebook,” one might say. I
can remember what my house looks like, in terms of
where various objects are placed, but I do not know
what color anything is. For instance, when I was de-
8 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
and the way others remember things is that I have to
use my imagination. I tried my best to be accurate,
but there were times when I knew I couldn’t be com-pletely
accurate. For example, I could have said that
the color of my house was white and brown, but I
could have been wrong. Of course, I could have asked
my parents, but I didn’t get around to it. I was skepti-cal
of trying to guess the colors of various buildings
because I couldn’t be precise. "e events that have
been written above are the ones that stick out in my
mind. "ey have stayed with me forever. Some of
the memories were !rsts. By that, I mean these ex-periences
were experienced for the !rst time. For ex-ample:
Bonnie was the !rst hurricane I remembered
experiencing, and Franquette’s birthday was the !rst
party I had attended. Actually, it was the !rst party
that lasted more than two hours. I have attended the
rest of the events multiple times. "e point is, I may
not remember the exact amount of times I attended
the Maple Hill parade or even the amount of par-ties
I’ve gone to. I remembered what it was like to be
there with people I know and don’t know. "at is how
everyone remembers; everyone cannot be exact about
what they remember, sighted or not.
Don’t Turn Out the Light in My Mind
scribing the inside of my house, I couldn’t tell you
what color the furniture or the carpet was. I couldn’t
even tell you what color the walls were. All I could
tell you was that there were rooms, and that one room
was smaller than the next. I’m blind, and the need to
provide descriptions is imperative. "ese descriptions
are not just for me; sighted people are not the only
ones who need to describe to me. I need to describe
things to them. "ough I can provide most descrip-tions,
this is really tricky.
“No, I wasn’t wearing a red shirt yesterday; it
was a green one. Or maybe it was blue.” When de-scribing
those events, I could remember most of
the dialog. Actually, the dialogue was just about all
I could remember. I could tell you what was said,
and I tried to describe other people’s reactions, but
when it came to describing the insides of houses, I
struggled a bit. I know how much people love details.
"e weird thing is people tell me that I have a phe-nomenal
memory. “Girl, you remember more things
than I do,” my mom would say. “You’re a genius,” an
uncle would praise. I am not a genius by any means;
I just have to pay attention more than anyone else.
"e di#erence between the way I remember things
Spring 2013 9
By M. Gordon Byrd
Operatic Tolkien: The One Ring to Influence Them All
In December, 2012,$M.
Gordon Byrd completed his
B.A. in English with two
minors at UNCP. Now he is
pursuing a graduate degree
in English education and
hopes to teach English in
China. Gordon’s admiration
of Tolkien’s work and career
grew during a literature
class on Tolkien instructed
by Dr. Roger Ladd.
“The whole of beautiful art and of great art
belongs here; their common essence is grati-tude.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Tolkien owes much to those who wrote his sto-ries
before him. "e Beowulf poet, the chroniclers of
Norse mythology, and those who remembered “"e
Battle of Maldon” in verse would hardly believe their
stories had been adapted to !t into a fantasy world
existing in the mind of a philologist professor at Ox-ford.
Even the Norse architecture and Anglo-Saxon
artifacts seem to take shape in the imaginary world
of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Is it any wonder then that
others, who were as a#ected by Tolkien’s work as he
was by the ancient world he studied, would come
along and interpret Tolkien’s world through their
respective artistic abilities? Other writers and novel-ists
draw from Tolkien to construct their own par-allel
universes involving the lives of men, elves, and
dwarf-kinds. Visual artists have put Tolkien’s words to
graphics on canvas, television screens, and computer
games. Tolkien’s in$uence was not limited to only
these artistic forms, but Tolkien has also found his
way into the world of music. Musicians, composers,
and song-writers have been attracted to Tolkien ever
since #e Hobbit was published. Besides the compo-sition
of the soundtracks for the numerous Tolkien
adaptations to !lm, Tolkien’s in$uence has stretched
broad and wide throughout the musical world, en-compassing
nearly every genre of musical form from
heavy-metal to symphonies.
Many of the musical references to Tolkien are
seen in the lyrics, which are copied verbatim from
Tolkien or are referring to Tolkien’s work either overt-ly
or with more subtle clues. Rush, the Canadian rock
group, has long announced their Tolkienian in$u-ence.
"eir song “Rivendell” is obviously a reference
to Tolkien. In an interview Rush’s bassist, Geddy Lee,
said, “"e song ‘Rivendell’ became Rush’s personal
tribute to Tolkien, being written at a period when the
most in$uential of rockers used Tolkien references in
their most classic songs.” "e song is peaceful and ex-presses
the joy of returning to a place that is relaxing,
pleasant, and familiar. "is song is much the opposite
of the Tolkienian in$uence found in Australia’s black
metal band: Summoning.
Summoning’s second album, Minas Morgul,
relishes in the darkness of Middle Earth. Complete
with screams from their vocalist and machine-gun
drums and thunder sound e#ects, the band dem-onstrates
how Tolkien’s world has many dark hues.
Even when the band focuses on the heroes of Tolk-ien’s
stories, it is dark. In their song “Khazad-Dûm,”
they scream words from Tolkien’s eulogies of Gandalf,
Durin, and Balin strung together with Galadriel’s dis-mal
prophecy to Legolas. "e overall e#ect of Sum-moning’s
style contrasts sharply with the pastoral mu-sic
of Rush. However, all of these themes are present
in #e Lord of the Rings and to e#ectively capture the
mood and voice of Tolkien’s masterpiece, both the
light and the dark elements need to be present. To do
this it takes the mind of a composer.
Paul C. Godfrey, an early admirer of Tolkien’s
work, began composing an opera adaptation of #e
Lord of the Rings in 1974 (Personal Interview). God-frey
says, “My own interest in the works of Tolkien
goes back now for over !fty years” (“"e Silmaril-lion”).
Composing such an opera for such a large,
high-density story is complex, but Godfrey has en-deavored
to introduce each character or motif with
unique instruments and $avors that are found in the
text. Godfrey says, “My personal use of the motifs is
far more instinctive and much more of a purely&emo-tional
reaction to the text” (“"e Silmarillion”). God-frey
uses musical motifs, like Richard Wagner uses
them, to represent characters in the opera.
Indeed, there are many references to Wagner’s
work in fantasy literature put to music. "e relation-ship
between Godfrey’s music and Wagner’s music is
much the same as the relationship between Tolkien’s
Ring and Wagner’s. Scholars have argued for decades
that the two men used the same ring as a character in
their respective works. Jamie McGregor does a study
comparing the two texts and the important plot ele-ments
involving the Ring. Comparing the two works
10 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Operatic Tolkien
Gordon did an excellent job
of analyzing the nature of J.
R. R. Tolkien’s cultural in!u-ence
in the opera world,
with special attention to
the work of composer Paul
C. Godfrey. He provides a
succinct, clear overview of
the larger cultural context
of musical references to
Tolkien’s work, and he e"ec-tively
uses research to put
this set of references into a
larger context of interac-tion
between literature and
music. He displays a deep
knowledge of both Tolkien
and the musical compari-sons
here, and makes a solid
case for his argument.
~Dr. Roger Ladd
is a touchy subject since, as McGregor says, “Tolkien
had an intense dislike for people noticing super!cial
resemblances between his works and others, especial-ly
when this tended to obscure what really mattered
about them” (133). McGregor argues for the posi-tion
that Tolkien did not “use” Wagner’s Ring, but he
“corrected” Wagner’s rendering of Norse material and
properly represented the Ring in #e Lord of the Rings
(McGregor 148). In McGregor’s study, he points out
nine plot points involving the Ring, which line up
identically with Wagner’s Ring. "e similarities are
unmistakable, but Tolkien was adamant about his
Ring’s uniqueness, especially compared to the Ger-man
composer’s, who was not a favorite of Tolkien
because of Wagner’s anti-Semitism. But, because the
two Englishmen, Tolkien and Godfrey, are both com-pared
to their predecessor, Wagner, it is necessary to
focus on this connection to establish any in$uence
either on Tolkien or on Godfrey.
McGregor establishes a strong degree of simi-larity
between Wagner and Tolkien’s Ring, despite the
opposition. "e opposition comes from Tolkien and
many Tolkien fans. Tolkien says of the connection,
“both rings were round, and there the resemblance
ceases” (Tolkien, Carpenter, and Tokien 306). Alex
Ross of #e New Yorker says that “Tolkien’s fans have
long maintained a certain conspiracy of silence con-cerning
Wagner.” Likewise, Wagner scholars and fans
(Wagner, whose life preceded Tolkien’s, cannot have
a say in the matter) reject the connection, because
Tolkien is a low-bred imitation (McGregor 135).
Nevertheless, the connections are undeniable and
they continue to in$uence the interpretations of #e
Lord of the Rings.
Ross shows the in$uence of Wagner on Pe-ter
Jackson’s recent !lm adaptations and speci!cally
points to Wagner’s in$uence on Howard Shore’s com-position.
Howard Shore’s score for the Jackson !lms
is noticeably Wagnerian. When composing a sym-phony
to complement a story about a ring that causes
epic battles, it is di%cult not to rely on previous
composers who produced such a similar and unique
piece. Ross points out the chord mergers and paral-lel
themes used in both Shore and Wagner’s scores,
but demonstrates how Shore remains aloof enough
from Wagner so as not to upset fans and to create
a new musical experience for the ground-breaking
!lms. Ross says, “Shore manages the admirable feat
of summoning up a Wagnerian atmosphere without
copying the original. He knows the science of har-monic
dread.” Ross’s technical knowledge of musi-cal
composition allows for a more in-depth analysis:
he points out that “Conventional musical grammar
says that these chords should keep their distance, but
they make an eerie couple.” "e same “eerie couple”
appears in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ross).
But, if the composer for Jackson’s !lms score is in$u-enced
by Wagner, a source Tolkien himself claims had
no in$uence on him, then that is no evidence to sug-gest
the existence of any direct connection between
Tolkien and Wagner. However, if the connection be-tween
the two Rings is useful enough for Shore to
carry over some themes, then musically the two Rings
could be said to be contrapuntal.
"e in$uence of Wagner on Tolkien-related
material does not stop with Shore. Godfrey, the com-poser
with the Tolkien estate behind him, also claims
Wagnerian motifs in his own work (Godfrey). God-frey
makes it clear that he di#ers from Wagner’s style
as much as Tolkien’s Ring di#ers from Wagner’s, but
he also admits, “I use an adaptation of Wagner’s sys-tem
of leitmotifs in the dramatic construction of my
music, and the same themes occur in all my Tolkien
work with the same signi!cance.” "e length of God-frey’s
opera is also similar to Wagner’s, spanning over
multiple evenings (Godfrey). "e main point here is
that when composers put Tolkien to music, it sounds
like Wagner.
Admittedly this could be due to the fact that
Wagner is one of, if not the most, in$uential com-posers
since the 19th century. Wagner used a similar
story with the same Norse saga sources as Tolkien em-ployed.
Both had a small golden artifact as the central
element, shifting the balance of power and moving
the plot along. If there is a comparable case, such as a
novel that features a woman locked into the body of
a swan (i.e., Swan Lake), then the movie adaptation
will most likely have a Tchaikovskian sound. Godfrey
and Shore have realized the similarity between the
two Rings, and whether they believe Wagner’s themes
should be grafted into Tolkien’s story or that Tolk-ien
himself wrote them knowlingly is unclear, but
the similarity between the two is evident. But what
is strange is Tolkien’s denial of the connection, and
what is more relevant to this topic is Godfrey’s denial
of the connection between Godfrey’s Tolkien work
and Wagner’s opera.
One possibility is that the loveliness of Tolk-ien’s
words, which evoke a musical theme, are a sharp
contrast to Wagner’s base words set to an emotionally
charged musical backdrop. Tolkien opens up Middle
Earth’s history with a literary symphony. "e whole
story unfolds by the changing and overlapping of the
original song performed for Eru Ilúvatar (Silmarillion
429). To compose this verbose melody a composer
must utilize dramatic melodies that contain such
boisterous themes as the battles and the joys of many
nations, and also the a#ecting tones of mournful ex-
Spring 2013 11
M. Gordon Byrd
periences and the stillness of nature. "e composers
who are drawn to this type of challenge are ones that
have been in$uenced by Wagner. Even though his
opera focused on the power of love rather than the
power of heroism, Wagner’s epic melody lends itself
nicely to Tolkienian works. But that is the critical
point. "e direction the media and adapters of lit-erature
to !lm have been going does not put Wagner
on center-stage, but rather as a looming presence in
the darkness, called upon only to lend support to the
lead actor, Tolkien. No !lm adaptations of Wagner
are coming to the silver screen, but Tolkien’s latest
will appear before Christmas 2012. #e Hobbit is just
the most recent installment of the Tolkien !lm legacy
which began with an animated-!lm adaptation of
#e Hobbit (1977) followed closely by an adaptation
of #e Lord of the Rings (1979). It is good foresight
on Tolkien’s part to distance himself from Wagner’s
Ring, since Tolkien would surpass his German pre-decessor
in popularity, variety of medium, and gross
sales. Godfrey and Shore have not done any work on
Wagner, but the audiences to whom these compos-ers
wrote their music certainly appreciate the motifs
and “eerie chords” they borrow and attach to Tolk-ien.
Howard Shore was awarded two Oscars for Best
Original Score from #e Lord of the Rings movies.
Godfrey has not received any Academy recognition
for his scores, but his fan base is growing.
"is study has looked into the di#erent musi-cal
compositions Tolkien has a#ected with his Mid-dle
Earth literature. Musicians from various di#erent
genres have overtly included Tolkien in their music
because of his fantastic stories (pun intended). As
the epigraph states, great art is gratitude. Gratitude to
those who in$uenced the artist, either to create some-thing
in imitation or adaption, or in Tolkien’s case, to
“correct” what came before.
Works Cited
Godfrey, Paul C. Personal interview. 18 Nov. 2010.
--. “"e Silmarillion.”&#e Music of Paul Cor$eld Godfrey.
Google Sites, 2007. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
Lee, Geddy. Personal interview. 28 Sep. 2004.
McGregor, Jamie. “Two Rings To Rule "em All: A Com-parative
Study Of Tolkien And Wagner.”&Mythlore: A
Journal Of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Wil-liams,
And Mythopoeic Literature29.3-4 [113-114]
(2011): 133-153.&MLA International Bibliography.
Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
Nietzsche, Friedrich.& #e Case of Wagner.& London: "e
Project Gutenberg, 2008.&#e Case Of Wagner. Web.
27 Nov. 2012.
Ross, Alex. “"e Ring and the Rings.”&#e New Yorker. "e
New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2003. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
Rush. “Rivendell.” Fly By Night. Anthem, 1975. Web
Summoning. Minas Morgul. Napalm Records, 1995. Web
--. “Khazad-Dûm.” Dul Guldur. Napalm Records, 1996.
Web
Tolkien, J.R.R.&#e Silmarillion.&England: George Allen &
Unwin Ltd, 1977. Kindle !le.
Tolkien, J.R.R., Humphrey Carpenter, and Christo-pher
Tolkien.&#e Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Boston:
Houghton Mi'in, 1981. Print.
12 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
By Matthew Cowper
The Devil’s in the Details
Matthew Cowper is a senior
majoring in English. He
enjoys literature of all types,
creative writing, and spend-ing
time outdoors.
In Part I of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play
Faust, the Devil we encounter isn’t the all-pow-erful
Lord of the Underworld that one would
expect. Mephistopheles, for all his cunning, corrup-tion,
and boastfulness, is at times thwarted by various
otherworldly rules and regulations. It makes him look
laughably pathetic when he runs up against a limita-tion
– surely that can’t stop the Devil himself? How
can we respect such a clown? But is Mephistopheles
really as restricted as he appears? Is he really a bum-bling
oaf, or is he actually wary and e%cient, using
what power he does have to perfect e#ect?
A close reading of Faust supports the latter
viewpoint. While Mephistopheles is certainly an
unorthodox Devil, he’s still enormously e#ective. He
lulls Faust – and the reader – into complacency in the
beginning of Part I; Faust, scholar and pseudo-mystic
that he is, seems more than capable of handling this
fool. But as the drama progresses, the sins – and the
dead bodies – accumulate. Mephistopheles, accord-ing
to Joakim Reinhard, proves to be both “a most
entertaining scamp, and yet the most dangerous devil
ever created by the imagination of man” (83).
We !rst encounter Mephistopheles in the play’s
prologue, when he visits God in Heaven. "e Lord
mentions Faust, an esteemed mortal he has hopes for:
“"ough now he serves me but confusedly,/ I shall
soon lead him where the vapor clears./"e gardener
knows, however small the tree,/ "at bloom and fruit
adorn its later years” (682). Mephistopheles disagrees,
claiming he can easily corrupt the restless Faust. It’s
a foregone conclusion to the cocksure Devil: “About
my bet I have no hesitation,/ and when I win, con-cede
your stake/And let me triumph with a swelling
breast” (683). Many critics, however, aren’t taken in
by this boasting. Jane Brown, who believes that Me-phistopheles
is ultimately “neither evil nor destruc-tive,”
argues that this scene “denies Mephistopheles’s
independent existence as an evil principle equivalent
to God” (476). Similarly, the introduction to Faust
in the Norton Anthology of World Literature states that
Mephistopheles presents himself here as a jester-type
!gure, “apparently more playful than malign” (Lawall
and Mack 679). "ese e#orts to downplay Mephis-topheles’s
power focus on what he can’t do rather than
on what he can. No, Mephistopheles can’t annihilate
the world like he wishes, but to say he’s a failure is like
saying someone who’s aiming for genocide is a failure
because they’ve “only” killed a thousand people. It’s a
given that Mephistopheles has severe limitations; it’s
also a given that he can still tally accomplishments in
his infernal ledger.
When Mephistopheles next appears, he’s a poo-dle.
A poodle? Yes, the Devil takes the form of man’s
best friend to get near Faust. He follows Faust home,
but is soon unnerved by all the talk of religion and
by Faust’s incantations; he begins to transform as a
perplexed Faust watches: “"is is no longer the shape
of a dog!/Oh, what a specter I brought home!” (703).
A humbled Mephistopheles, now in human form,
admits that he was discom!ted: “Profound respects
to you and to your lore:/You made me sweat with
all your cha#” (704). Right o# the bat, the Devil’s
image takes a hit, and we wonder if all his talk about
damning Faust is just bluster. "e two then discuss
Mephistopheles’s “job,” and Mephistopheles makes it
plain that being a destroyer is a frustrating occupa-tion.
Everything he eradicates grows back, everything
he upsets returns to a state of calm: “I could rage in
despair. . . . If I had not reserved myself the !re,/I
should have nothing of my own” (706). Poor Devil!
Life (or Death, more aptly) is no picnic. To make
himself seem even more impotent, Mephistopheles
claims he can’t leave Faust’s study because a penta-gram
on the threshold blocks him: “"e poodle never
noticed, when he !rst jumped in here,/But now it
is a di#erent case:/"e Devil cannot leave this place”
(706). When Faust suggests he leave via some other
exit, Mephistopheles explains that this is impossible:
“"e devils and the demons have a law:/Where they
slipped in, they always must withdraw” (706). Faust
is amazed and delighted, and why not? He’s snared
the Devil! Not for long, however. Mephistopheles
summons spirits to lull Faust to sleep, then orders a
Spring 2013 13
Matthew Cowper
rat to nibble the impeding pentagram. Once the de-sign
is broken, he’s o#, leaving Faust irritated because
yet another spirit has escaped him. Still, not a very
auspicious start for the seducer of souls, is it?
In the next scene, Mephistopheles returns to
Faust’s study, revealing even more limitations. "e
two hash out their famous (and infamous) agreement.
Mephistopheles will act as both a servant and a guide,
providing Faust with endless experiences, “more than
any man has seen before” (712). But if Mephistoph-eles
ever satiates Faust, the latter forfeits his life and
soul. It’s a dramatic moment – but then Mephistoph-eles
de$ates it. He lamely asks, “Could you give me
a line or two?” meaning he wants Faust to write up a
contract for the wager (713). A ba'ed and frustrated
Faust asks: “Is not my spoken word su%cient war-rant/
When it commits my life eternally?” (713). Not
for the Devil, it isn’t. It has to be done “properly,”
which means Faust has to put the agreement on pa-per
and sign his name in blood. Does Mephistopheles
require the document to be notarized as well? No, he
doesn’t, but it wouldn’t have been surprising if he did.
After all this back-and-forth, the meticulous Devil
!nally gets his malevolent contract, and the duo’s ad-ventures
begin.
After showing o# his booze-creating powers
in the “Auerbach’s Keller” scene, Mephistopheles
then transports Faust to a witch’s kitchen to procure
a youth potion for the mortal. Faust rightfully asks,
“Why just the hag with all her grime!/Could you not
brew it – with your head?” (727). No, the Devil re-plies,
because such a thing requires time and patience:
“"e Devil taught them, true enough/But he himself
can’t make the stu#” (727). When the witch appears,
she doesn’t recognize Mephistopheles, which leads to
harsh words on both sides. After correcting the hag,
Mephistopheles then explains how, like a fussy and
paranoid diva, he’s changed his name and appearance.
Even the most pernicious forces have to update their
image to stay relevant, it appears, though this obvi-ously
leads to confusion amongst the supernatural
community. But this supposedly comedic scene has
depth and historical relevance. Reinhard, in a pas-sage
discussing iterations of Satan throughout the
centuries, claims that the medieval Devil was “noth-ing
but a gigantic boogie-man,” a shallow proponent
of sin that was more childish than serious (83). "is
changed with the addition of John Milton’s Lucifer
in Paradise Lost to the Satanic canon, but Milton’s
rebel still had an “awful grandeur,” a trait that would
be repeated by successive writers (84). But Goethe’s
Satan is a new brand: new name, new image, with
twice the guile and “deprived . . . of every trace of
majesty” (84). Mephistopheles has changed with the
times, and that adaptability makes him even more
dangerous.
In the succeeding scenes, Mephistopheles !-
nally reveals how corrupting he can be. Faust sees
a young woman named Margaret, and is instantly
smitten: “By heaven, this young girl is fair!/Her like
I don’t know anywhere” (733). But Margaret snubs
him, so he turns to Mephistopheles: “Get me that
girl, and don’t ask why!” (733). At !rst, Mephis-topheles
balks, claiming that Margaret is too pure for
him to deal with: “Over her I don’t have any power”
(733). But the lust-blinded Faust will have none of it,
and “coerces” Mephistopheles into helping him. Me-phistopheles
“capitulates,” saying he can take Faust to
Margaret’s room that very day. Faust demands that
his devilish comrade !nd a present as well for Mar-garet,
a task which Mephistopheles has no scruples
carrying out.
But in the next scene, in Margaret’s room,
Faust’s lust dissipates. Alone, he looks around the
innocent young woman’s room, becoming confused
and remorseful: “Immediate pleasure was my bent,/
But now––in dreams of love I’m all but spent” (736).
When Mephistopheles enters, Faust yells, “Away! I’ll
never come again” (736). But Mephistopheles has
found a present for Margaret: a case full of jewels.
Surely Faust isn’t going to waste both time and Me-phistopheles’s
powers? Faust doesn’t forcefully object,
so Mephistopheles puts the jewel-!lled case in Mar-garet’s
chest, and the two exit. When Margaret !nds
the jewels, she’s con$icted: they astonish her with
their opulence, but they also highlight just how low
she is in life’s hierarchy. Her heretofore pleasant, care-free
life is already being undermined.
"e jewels don’t stay long in Margaret’s pos-session,
however. Her mother !nds them, and, sus-pecting
that they’re tainted, gives the mysterious lar-gess
to the church. Margaret is depressed at the loss,
according to Mephistopheles: “She, of course, feels
blue,/She sits and doesn’t know what to do” (739).
Faust demands more action from Mephistopheles,
demands that he deliver him Margaret, somehow,
someway: “Just !x it all to suit my will . . . Don’t,
Devil, act like sluggish paste!” (739). And so Mephis-topheles
goes to work again.
After putting more jewels in Margaret’s pos-session,
Mephistopheles comes up with a new plan:
he’ll access Margaret through her neighbor, Martha.
He visits the two at Martha’s house, and tells Martha
that her husband has perished. To rub salt into the
wound, he mocks their martial relationship, claims
that Martha’s husband had acquired treasure that’s
now lost, and encourages Martha to either remarry or
to take a lover. When Martha wants additional proof
Mephistopheles, the
devil with whom the
scholar Faust makes a wager
in Goethe’s Faust, is an
enigmatic #gure. Matthew
Cowper, responding to
critical opinions, presents
his original insights about
the nature and scope of
Mephistopheles’s power.
Matthew’s well-argued
academic essay is written
in an entertaining personal
style that suits the comic
side of Goethe’s devil.
~Dr. Monika Brown
14 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
The Devil’s in the Details
of her husband’s demise, Mephistopheles says he has
someone who can corroborate the story: namely,
Faust. When Faust hears he needs to lie to validate
Mephistopheles’s base, manipulative tale, he initially
refuses, but is eventually forced to give in: “For you
are right because I have no choice” (744). Margaret
will be there, waiting in the garden along with Mar-tha,
and that’s all that matters. Lying is just minor
annoyance, a mere stepping stone – albeit a slippery
one – on the path to Margaret.
Faust’s meeting with Margaret is rapturous.
"ey $irt, frolick, and kiss – but in the next scene,
Faust again tries to distance himself from his vola-tile
emotions. Taking a “sojourn in the wilderness,”
he believes he’s “renewing” himself (749). But Me-phistopheles
appears, shattering Faust’s solitude. He
mocks Faust, claiming Faust is falling back into his
old way of living, a way of living that he can’t sus-tain:
“[It] can’t last inde!nitely./Already you are spent
again,/And soon you will be rent again,/By madness
and anxiety” (749). Faust resists: “Let not the lust
for [Margaret’s] sweet limbs invade/And ravish once
again my frenzied sense!” (750). But Mephistopheles
keeps chipping away at Faust’s resolve. Faust feels the
inescapable pull of fate: he feels he’s going to be the
cause of Margaret’s downfall, and he knows he can’t
stop himself from corrupting her. Finally, he accepts
the inevitable: “Help, Devil, shorten this time of
dread./What must be done, come let it be./Let then
[Margaret’s] fate come shattering down on my head,/
And let her perish now with me” (751). He returns to
Margaret and convinces her to use a sleeping potion
on her mother; once she’s in a deep sleep, Faust can
enter the home undetected. He will !nally claim her
sexually, much to Mephistopheles’s delight: “I have
my pleasure in it, too” (755). Faust protests against
Mephistopheles’s jeers, but his words glance o# the
Devil’s granite-hard cynicism, doing no damage and
proving no point. "e sleeping potion, as it turns
out, is actually toxic – it kills Margaret’s mother. "e
tradeo# is horrible: to get one night alone with her
lover, Margaret has inadvertently killed the woman
who gave birth to her. "e situation has reversed: now
it’s the Devil controlling events, hurling insults, and
leaving corpses in his wake; all of his earlier handicaps
seem tri$ing.
With both Faust and his beloved Margaret spi-raling
down into despair, Mephistopheles puts the
icing on his insidious cake. Margaret’s brother Val-entine,
enraged because his once-pure sister has been
corrupted, attacks Faust. But Faust has help: Mephis-topheles
parries Valentine’s strikes and then weakens
his sword-hand. With Valentine now helpless, he tells
Faust to “"rust home!” (759). Faust does, and Valen-tine
is wounded fatally. Who’s to blame for this mur-der?
Mephistopheles didn’t drive the point home – he
just handled the parries. Would an incinerating blast
of hell!re from Mephistopheles have worked better
here? No, it wouldn’t, and neither would teleporta-tion
or a choir of sleep-inducing spirits, both tricks
in the Devil’s arsenal. Mephistopheles simply dodges
a few strikes and then lets Faust do the slaying. He
then claims that they must “disappear” immediately:
“[W]hile the police does not trouble me,/"e blood
ban is a thing I fear” (759). And so Faust again aban-dons
his “lover.” Even worse, Valentine curses Mar-garet
as he dies, bluntly calling her a whore, which
shocks her and damages her guilt-ridden mind fur-ther.
"is is the ultimate example of the true power of
Mephistopheles: his abilities lie not in godly powers
but in lies, innuendo, and misdirection. As he proves,
a blackguard can accomplish much without actually
doing much.
"e now-pregnant Margaret is left alone to deal
with the fallout. Once her baby is born, she kills it
and ends up in prison for the crime, where her mind
disintegrates into madness. Mephistopheles hides this
knowledge from Faust, distracting him with phantas-magorical
imagery in the “Walpurgis Night” scene.
Faust is furious when he discovers Margaret’s state:
“Imprisoned! In irreparable misery! . . . And mean-while
you soothe me with insipid diversions; hide her
growing grief from me, and let her perish helplessly!”
(774). Mephistopheles’s nonchalant reply: “She’s not
the !rst one” (Goethe 774). Reinhard notes the hor-rible
brevity of this statement: “Simple it sounds, and
yet ponder what is suggests, or conceals, as if behind
a veil” (86). When Faust continues to rant, Mephis-topheles
attacks him mercilessly: “Why do you seek
fellowship with us if you can’t go through with it? . .
. Who was it that plunged her into ruin? I or you?”
(775) Faust insists that Mephistopheles help him save
Margaret, but Mephistopheles can only do so much:
he “cannot loosen the avenger’s bonds, nor open his
bolts” but he will “make the jailer’s senses foggy” and
prepare “magic horses” for the escape (775). Here are
more limitations on the Devil, and Brown cites Me-phistopheles’s
inability to free Margaret – as well as
his inability to “deliver” her to Faust earlier in the
play – as proving that he “possesses remarkably little
power in the social realm” (479).
"is “social realm” of Brown’s is hard to pin-point,
for Mephistopheles has masterfully controlled
social relations in the latter scenes of Part I. Brown’s
de!nition of “power” here would probably be for
Mephistopheles to simply teleport Margaret out of
the prison and into Faust’s waiting arms. But what
would that accomplish? Nothing for Mephistopheles
Spring 2013 15
Matthew Cowper
– it would be too easy, completely devoid of anguish.
Like Valentine’s death, he makes Faust accept a heavy
burden. "e two travel to the dungeon, where Faust
sees his so-called beloved in misery. She regains her
lucidity, but still rejects her “beloved,” and Faust,
with Mephistopheles’s prodding, $ees the prison,
abandoning her – for the !nal time – to either tor-menting
con!nement or execution. Even though in
the last lines of Part I she’s “saved” by Heaven, it’s
little consolation – a mother, a brother, and a child
have died, and two people have been crippled with
guilt and grief. And thus ends Part I of Faust, with
Mephistopheles’s work consummated.
"e “pathetic” Devil of the !rst part of Faust
gives way to a master human manipulator, a being
easily capable of ruining lives. Mephistopheles doesn’t
need to raze towns or torture innocents to get what
he wants – it’s simply a matter of adding a little grease
to the wheels and letting the players annihilate them-selves.
When Faust says, “Too weak for great destruc-tion,
you attempt it on a minor scale” he probably
means it as slight, but as he learns, “minor” destruc-tion
is just as terrible, and much more personal, than
“great” destruction (705). Perhaps, by admitting his
faults and putting himself in ridiculous situations,
Mephistopheles disarms his prey, all the better to drop
the guillotine when the right time comes. Although
#e Norton Anthology states that “Faust’s su#ering has
enlarged him [and] his capacity for sympathy marks
his potential superiority to the Devil,” these things
are irrelevant, at least regarding Mephistopheles (La-wall
and Mack 680). "e Devil isn’t trying to be a
better being or increase his “capacity for sympathy”
– he’s trying to destroy. And judging from Part I of
Faust, he’s been very successful in his endeavors.
Works Cited
Brown, Jane K. “Mephistopheles the Nature Spirit.” Studies
In Romanticism 24.4 (1985): 475-490. MLA Inter-national
Bibliography. Web. 2 Aug. 2012.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust. Part I. Trans. Walter
Kau#man. #e Norton Anthology of World Literature.
2nd ed. Ed. Sarah Lawall and Maynard Mack. New
York: Norton, 2002. 681-780. Print.
Lawall, Sarah and Maynard Mack, eds. #e Norton Anthol-ogy
of World Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Norton,
2002. Print
Reinhard, Joakim. “Goethe’s Mephistopheles.” #e Sewanee
Review 5.1 (1897): 80-94. JSTOR. Web. 2 Aug.
2012
16 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
By Carol Anne Fry
Loss of Illusion; Seed of Insurgency:
Dissecting the Birth of Rebellion within The Hunger Games
Carol Anne grew up just a
few miles down the road
from UNCP in Red Springs,
NC. She is married with
two extraordinary children,
Matthew and Cassidy.
She’s always had a love for
literature and is returning
to school to pursue a new
career path.
the ruling Capitol, bringing about “Dark Days,” a
time that ended with the obliteration of District 13
by the Capitol and the implementation of a new set
of laws called “"e Treaty of Treason.” "e new laws
were established to ensure peace and to quell further
rebellions, and they also outlined an annual require-ment
that each district o#er up two children for par-ticipation
in the Hunger Games (18). Enforcement
of the new treaty was established in a variety of ways
to include constant camera surveillance, as well as the
insertion of armed Peacekeepers within each district.
In an interview with James Blasingame, Suzanne
Collins discusses another method of control used by
the Capitol, “the use of hunger as a weapon to con-trol
populations . . . ” (726). "is method, while
very e#ective in keeping the population undernour-ished
and physically incapable of !ghting back, also
opens the door for some means of subversion within
the districts as they !nd ways to obtain the neces-sary
foods to survive. "is is clearly demonstrated by
Katniss and Gale as they illegally hunt despite o%cial
restrictions on this practice imposed by the Capitol.
And the holes in the absolute control exhibited by
the Capitol are literal as Katniss slips under a “two-foot
stretch” of fence and remarks on the other “weak
spots” that allow entry into areas beyond District 12
(4-5). Also problematic for the Capitol is the fact that
Peacekeepers assigned to the District 12 are aware of
the illegal activities, but choose to ignore the infrac-tions.
Katniss remarks on this when she says, “Most
of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few of us
who hunt because they’re as hungry for fresh meat as
anybody is. In fact, they’re among our best custom-ers”
(6). "e Capitol’s own law enforcement has been
made vulnerable to the e#ects of near starvation and
in response they, too, must work outside the estab-lished
rules in order to survive. Ultimately, it is the
Capitol’s miscalculation in their use of hunger as a
weapon that leads to this initial breakdown of their
ability to control absolutely.
In addition to the use of limited food alloca-tion
as a mode of control, the Capitol has also em-ployed
other methods via surveillance with some
degree of success. To more fully understand the ap-plication
of this method, it is helpful to examine the
novel through the lens of Jeremy Bentham’s Panop-ticon,
an architectural vision created by the social
theorist for the purpose of controlling a population
through surveillance. His plans describe a circular
structure in which a central authority resides in the
center, a location that enables the monitoring of a
population positioned on the perimeter within di-
In #e Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins creates a
post-apocalyptic world called Panem in which
the government exercises a form of totalitarian
power that is centrally located in the Capitol and
brutally applied to the twelve outlying districts. "e
ruling regime attempts to control every aspect of the
citizens’ lives, but some weakening of its power is evi-denced
by the districts’ growing ability to manipulate
certain aspects of the Capitol’s control mechanisms. It
is within the state-mandated annual Hunger Games
that the Capitol displays its most barbaric method
of control as it requires each district to sacri!ce two
children in a televised !ght-to-the death event for the
entertainment of the Capitol audiences. During the
Games, the Capitol’s all-seeing gaze is present, but
because of the cameras, the separation between the
districts that has proven to be so vital to their con-trol
has broken down and no longer exists; and it is
the Capitol’s own media coverage that opens up the
districts to a sense of community that allows them to
bond together, making the possibility of rebellion a
reality.
"e Capitol’s need for absolute control can be
found deeply rooted in the history of Panem, but this
control, when applied to the extreme, back!res as
those residing in the districts are forced to !nd ways to
thwart the government’s rules in order to survive. "e
country of Panem, located in North America, “rose
up out of the ashes” following countless disasters and
war. It emerged as a “shining Capitol ringed by thir-teen
districts, which brought peace and prosperity to
its citizens.” Over time, the districts rebelled against
Spring 2013 17
Carol Anne Fry
In her paper on The Hunger
Games, Carol Anne deftly
explores the ways in which
a government’s attempts
to control its citizens
ironically creates the means
for the citizens to resist
that control. $Carol Anne
uses Foucault’s idea of the
panopticon and Bakhtin’s
carnival as lenses to explore
the dynamics of power,
surveillance, and resistance
in the novel. $Her ideas
are clear, organized, and
insightful, which make for a
well-written and engaging
essay.
~Dr. Susan Cannata
Capitol is located in the Rockies . . . [its] location
elevates it over the districts that it controls, mirror-ing
the warden’s raised watchtower that allows him
to survey, unseen, all the prison’s inhabitants” (149).
"e separation of the districts is strengthened with
barbed-wire fencing and the imposed restriction of
travel between the districts (Collins 41). "is division
e#ectively isolates the district populations, making
the exchange of information and sharing of grievanc-es
impossible. During the Hunger Games events, the
Capitol’s control seems to be even more heightened
within an arena that is !lled with both cameras and
microphones designed to capture all the nuances of
the game play. And although this panoptic arena is
smaller and even more tightly controlled than what
is found in the outlying districts, it is the subsequent
broadcast of images to the entire country that crum-bles
the walls of separation. "e districts are no longer
a “collection of separated individualities,” but a com-munally
linked group that is forced to watch their
children murdered, one after another.
Not only does the broadcast of the Hunger
Games cause trouble for the Capitol, but it is also
the element of carnival that exists in the Bakhtinian
sense that feeds into the resentment building within
the districts. In an essay that explores the carnival the-ory,
Shanti Elliot writes, “Carnival reversal implies a
change from principles of stability and closure to con-stant
possibility” (130). Carnival o#ers a new vision,
one that is completely di#erent from normal everyday
realities—a vision in which anything is possible. "is
change in reality is readily evident in the days lead-ing
up to the Hunger Games. Plucked from obscurity
and abject poverty, the contestants from District 12
are placed on “tribute trains” and “given [their] own
chambers that have a bedroom, a dressing area, and
a private bathroom with hot and cold running wa-ter”
(Collins 42). And in the days leading up to the
Games, the tributes continue to be treated like celeb-rities
as they feast on elaborate meals and are given
stylists and advisors who are utilized to present each
contestant as favorably as possible. Cameras follow
their every move as they are interviewed on carefully
constructed stages in the City Circle (Collins124).
"is is clearly a departure from the hand-to-mouth
existence Katniss and other tributes from outlying
districts have experienced growing up in Panem. And
to further illustrate the power of carnival, the trib-utes
themselves become swept up in the excitement
of the spectacle. "is is evidenced as Katniss responds
to the crowds in the stands during the opening cer-emonies
with “blow[ing] a few kisses to the crowd,”
and remarks on the experience with, “"e pounding
music, the cheers, the admiration work their way into
vided cells (Bentham). According to the French phi-losopher
Michel Foucault, this surveillance functions
on two levels, one in which those in power monitor
the prisoners, or in the case of Panem, the inhabit-ants
of the outlying districts, but also the subsequent
self-surveillance that occurs when the subjects, aware
of the monitoring, begin to self-regulate their actions
(Foucault 201-202). Katniss remarks on the panoptic
con!guration of Panem when she notes, “Even here,
even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone
might overhear you . . . So I learned to hold my
tongue and to turn my features into an indi#erent
mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts”
(Collins 6). In this reference, you can clearly see the
e#ect of the Panopticon. Katniss has learned to mod-ify
her behavior, even when there are no visible signs
of surveillance; her fear of being overheard silences
her. "e beauty of Bentham’s Panopticon lies within
the ability to control a large population with minimal
e#ort, and it is this element of self-surveillance that
has contributed to the Capitol’s ability to control the
districts from afar.
Another key element of Bentham’s architec-tural
design of the Panopticon is found within the
structure itself, and it is the breakdown of this ele-ment
that will begin to erode the Capitol’s ability to
control the district population. Michel Foucault de-scribes
this element as the “analytical arrangement of
space” (Foucault 203). In Discipline and Punish, he is
very precise in his description of the purpose of this
spatial separation:
Each individual, in his place, is securely con-
!ned to a cell from which he is seen from the
front by the supervisor; but the side walls pre-vent
him from coming into contact with his
companions. . . . If the inmates are convicts,
there is no danger of a plot, an attempt at col-lective
escape, the planning of new crimes for
the future, bad reciprocal in$uences; . . . "e
crowd, a compact mass, a locus of multiple
exchanges, individualities merging together, a
collective e#ect, is abolished and replaced by
a collection of separated individualities. (200-
201)
In other words, it is through isolation that
those in charge are better able to control the popula-tion.
By shutting down the inmates’ ability to come
together in any way, the panoptic structure elimi-nates
any type of collective rebellion. And in many
ways, the Capitol has applied Bentham’s conceptual
vision to its handling of the districts. Kelly Wezner
explores how the physical structure of Panem gives
rise to this in her essay “‘Perhaps I Am Watching You
Now’: Panem’s Panopticons” when she writes, “"e
18 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Loss of Illusion; Seed of Insurgency
and His World when he writes:
Carnival does not know footlights, in the sense
that it does not acknowledge any distinction be-tween
actors and spectators. Footlights would
destroy carnival, as the absence of footlights
would destroy a theatrical performance. Car-nival
is not a spectacle seen by the people, they
live in it, and everyone participates because its
very idea embraces all the people. While carni-val
lasts, there is no other life outside it…It has
a universal spirit; it is a special condition of the
entire world, of the world’s revival and renewal,
in which all take part (7).
In terms of the annual Hunger Games, foot-lights
exist in a very real sense, dividing the district
tributes in the arena from the television audiences.
And further destroying the carnival e#ect is the very
real division of the audience itself. "e Capitol citi-zenship
has no real connection with the children
within the arena, but the districts are directly linked
to the participants and this creates the division be-tween
those two audiences. "ese distinct divisions
are what further feed into the development of com-munal
links of the districts represented within the
arena. And as the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games
unfold, this unique set of tributes comes together on
a stage, one with glaring footlights put in place by
the Capitol, and they will begin to align with one
another in interesting ways that suggest community
more than competition.
"e !rst instance of a collective communal ac-tion
against the Capitol comes during the reaping
of District 12 for the Hunger Games. Knowing that
Prim’s selection is a death sentence, Katniss responds
by volunteering to take her sister’s place as the dis-trict’s
tribute. When implored by E%e Trinket, the
Capitol’s representative, to “give a big round of ap-plause
to our newest tribute!” the people of District
12 do not respond. Katniss remarks on their unique
reaction, “I stand there unmoving while they take
part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage.
Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not con-done.
All of this is wrong” (24). "eir silence is fol-lowed
by an unexpected salute to Katniss in the form
a gesture: “At !rst one, then another, then almost ev-ery
member of the crowd touches the three middle
!ngers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out
to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our dis-trict,
occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks,
it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone
you love” (24). And with the cameras rolling, as the
residents of District 12 stand shoulder-to-shoulder,
facing the Capitol representative, they are silent but
also decidedly de!ant in the face of yet another edi-my
blood, and I can’t suppress my excitement” (Col-lins
70). On one level, Katniss is fully aware of her
circumstances and realizes that soon she will be put
in the event arena with other children to murder or
be murdered. But in this moment of spectacle and
revelry created by the Capitol, she succumbs to this
remarkable change. Bakhtin highlights this aspect of
carnival when he asserts, “All the symbols of the car-nival
idiom are !lled with this pathos of change and
renewal . . . ” ( 11). "e Capitol has successfully cre-ated
new versions of the children by grooming them
and making them whole again with proper nourish-ment
and training. "is change and renewal of the
children is broadcast to the districts and it has the
power to haunt those residing there because this is a
vision that they know will not last.
But without the full application of carnival,
one in which the participants garner some feeling of
empowerment during this time of suspended reality,
the willingness to return to the status quo is less likely
as collective resentment builds within the audiences
residing in the districts. In her essay, “"e Harry Pot-ter
Novels as a Test Case for Adolescent Literature,”
Roberta Seelinger Trites discusses the purpose of car-nival
as she explains, “"e carnival exists as a steam-letting
measure that allows the masses to feel tem-porarily
empowered so that they will willingly retain
their disempowered social status” (Trites 475). Cer-tainly
on this stage and even in moments while in the
arena, the tributes feel an empowerment they’ve never
experienced before. But the Hunger Games suspend
reality only up to a point. "ere are no stage props
in the form of trick knives sprinkled throughout the
Cornucopia —no plastic blades that retreat harm-lessly
within a handle that leave the actors unscathed.
Yes, the tributes are empowered with deadly weapons,
but the steam-letting element that Trites writes about
is notably absent, both within the arena and the audi-ences
located within the districts. "e vision of the
newly created child has been quickly erased with im-ages
of these same children brutally murdered, and
the collective resentment only grows as they return to
a status quo that ends in death for all but one of the
district tributes.
Also absent from this narrative is the aspect of
universal participation that should be present within
a true carnival experience. In his essay, “When the
Carnival Turns Bitter: Preliminary Re$ections upon
the Abject Hero,” Michael Bernstein points to what
he considers carnival’s most de!ning feature: the
“abolition of all distinctions between participant and
viewer.” In other words, in order for the masses to
truly experience carnival, everyone must share in the
experience. Bakhtin makes this very clear in Rabelais
Spring 2013 19
Carol Anne Fry
Finally, the last power play orchestrated by
Katniss and Peeta in the !nal minutes of the Games
proves to be the most damaging to the Capitol, as the
tributes from District 12 protest yet another change
in the rules with the threat of suicide and ultimately
challenge the Gamemakers in a bid to control their
own destinies. "e Gamemakers’ rule changes are yet
another display of Capitol’s power and control over
the districts. "roughout the Games, the tributes are
subjected to arti!cially induced climate changes as
well as other disasters such as !re and $ood meant to
torture the contestants and thrill the Capitol viewing
audiences (173). "ey manipulate the environment
and torture the children simply because it entertains
those in the Capitol’s television audience. Katniss and
Peeta are able to turn the tables on the Gamemakers
with the threat of suicide—a ploy that works because
an ending with no winner would have been anticli-mactic
and totally unsatisfactory to the viewers. "e
Gamemakers respond to the threat when they enact
a quick reversal of rules yet again, allowing two win-ners
rather than just one. "is !nal, unprecedented
move by the members of District 12 emphatically im-plies
that they are not willing to play by the Capitol’s
rules any longer. Katniss and Peeta are successful in
throwing o# their adversarial roles, and instead come
together against a common enemy: the Capitol. And,
unfortunately for the Capitol, this rebellious display
is captured and broadcast throughout the entire
country of Panem.
"e old adage that a chain is only as strong as
its weakest link seems to be applicable to the Capitol
and their control over the districts of Panem. "eir
misapplication of control over the districts has cre-ated
opportunities for subversive behavior. "e grow-ing
resentment within the outlying districts increases
with the media coverage of the Games as the cameras
follow this unique set of personalities, who come to-gether
in ways that showcase an ability to thwart the
Capitol and also to control their own destinies. "eir
success leads to hope, and the transforming power of
this hope coupled with the desire to create a better
existence for themselves and their children will ulti-mately
be the !nal spark needed to ignite the coming
rebellion.
Works Cited
Bakhtin, M. M. Rabelais and His World. Cambridge, Mass:
M. I. T. Press, 1968. Print.
Bentham, Jeremy. #e Works of Jeremy Bentham, published
under the Superintendence of his Executor, John
Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11
vols. Vol. 4. Chapter: Letter II: Plan for a Peniten-tiary
Inspection-house. #e Online Library of Liberty.
Liberty Fund, Inc. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. < http://oll.
libertyfund.org/title/1925/116376>.
tion of the Hunger Games.
"e second, more subtle shift towards a com-munal
link between the districts is evident in Kat-niss’s
alliance with a young girl from District 11, who
is described as “wispy,” hardly the best pick in terms
of strength. "e choice is one that is driven by emo-tions
rather than sheer logic, and Katniss acknowl-edges
this when she mentally pictures her mentor,
Haymitch, “groaning” at her selection (201). Instead
of strictly seeing this member of District 11 as an
adversary, she likens the girl to her own sister, Prim.
And after the District 11 girl is injured by another
player, Katniss sings a lullaby as the girl slowly dies,
then carefully constructs a $oral tribute for her. "e
mourning of the girl, which takes time and ultimately
puts Katniss at risk of exposure to the other players,
mimics one that would occur in a community. It
shows honor and respect—and as the entire coun-try
of Panem watches, it links the districts together
in their collective grief. And in an unprecedented
move, District 11 acknowledges Katniss’s tribute to
their own with a costly gift of bread that would have
been sent to their tribute had she not died. Instead
of withdrawing the gift or redirecting it to their re-maining
male tribute, the people of District 11 make
the decision to give this to their neighboring district’s
tribute, Katniss. She understands their sacri!ce and
very deliberately “step[s] into the last falling rays of
sunlight” and o#ers up a thanks for her gift (239).
"is gift of bread can be likened to an early act of
diplomacy as District 11 o#ers it as a sign of goodwill
toward their neighbor, strengthening their communal
ties. "e space between the districts continues to dis-sipate
as the loaf of bread is handed from District 11
to District 12; and the cameras capture and broadcast
this throughout Panem.
Another communal link develops between Kat-niss
and the male tribute from District 11 that points
to a shared understanding between the adversaries. In
an unexpected move in terms of gameplay, the male
tribute from District 11gives Katniss the ultimate gift
within the arena—her life. In this sacri!cial move, he
gives nod to this growing sense of community when
he spares Katniss’s life. "e Capitol’s rules in the arena
are simple—kill or be killed. But when "resh real-izes
what Katniss has done for his teammate, he al-lows
her to escape when he says, “Just this one time
I let you go. For the little girl” (288). Nothing in
"resh’s action can be considered as self-serving, nor
can his decision to let her go be seen as aligned to the
Capitol’s rules within the arena. "is represents yet
another act of diplomacy between the districts and
as the relationships within the arena continue to de-velop,
the cameras are there to catch the action.
20 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
Loss of Illusion; Seed of Insurgency
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: #e Birth of the
Prison. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977. Print.
Trites, Roberta Seelinger. “"e Harry Potter Novels as a
Test Case for Adolescent Literature.” Style 35.3
(2001): 472-485. MLA International Bibliography.
Web. 22 Oct. 2012.
Wezner, Kelly “‘Perhaps I Am Watching You Now’: Panem’s
Panopticons.” eds. Mary F. Pharr and Leisa A. Clark.
Of Bread, Blood, and the Hunger Games: Critical Es-says
on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy. Je#erson, N.C.:
McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2012: 148-157. Print.
Bernstein, Michael André. “When the Carnival Turns Bit-ter:
Preliminary Re$ections upon the Abject Hero.”
Critical Inquiry Vol. 10. No. 2. (Dec., 1983): 283-
305. JSTOR. Web.7 Nov. 2012.
Blasingame, James. “An Interview With Suzanne Collins.”
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.8 (2009):
726-727. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 22
Oct. 2012.
Collins, Suzanne. #e Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic
Inc., 2008. Print.
Elliot, Shanti. “Carnival and Dialogue in Bakhtin’s Poet-ics
of Folklore.” Folklore Forum 30.1-2 (1999): 129-
139. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 18 Oct.
2012.
Spring 2013 21
By Jesenia Morales
A New Generation of Graduates
Like any high school graduate I came to college
with high hopes, great ambitions, and empty
pockets. Now, tuition and loan rates are rising
while employment rates continue to plummet, and I
!nd myself second guessing a decision that seemed
expected of me: attending college. Unfortunately, I’m
not alone. From a young age many of us are told to
go to college because education is the key to success,
but with success stories like those of Walt Disney, Bill
Gates, and J.K. Rowling becoming more popular it
is increasingly hard to see any truth in this statement
that has brainwashed us since our grade school days.
My conclusion? College isn’t worth the risk of invest-ment.
I know to some that may sound absolutely ri-diculous,
but let’s take a closer look at the cost of a
college education compared to the value of it. I at-tend
"e University of North Carolina at Pembroke,
UNCP for short. I pay approximately $14,000 per
year. Now multiply that by four years and it quickly
totals $56,000. Additionally, I must obtain a mas-ter’s
level degree in order to even be eligible for the
possible career path of a counselor; I have estimated
the total cost of my college education to equal nearly
$80,000. "at would be my entire !rst year’s wages
as a counselor. So is it worth it? Well at this point
one would say, “Yes, of course.” But since the rise of
college tuition has forced 94% of students to take out
government loans, a rate that has more than doubled
in the last twenty years, from 45% in 1993, the edu-cation
that would typically cost $80,000 will actually
cost more like $120,000 (Bentley).
"is rise in tuition is due to many factors, but
mostly a result of state budget cuts. State govern-ments
have reduced their aid to college education
by an estimated 25% this year alone, and from the
looks of it that number will continue to increase and
place more of the !nancial burden on the students
and parents (Bentley). Countless numbers of young
adults have had to trade in their acceptance letter for
a construction hat, or other basic full-time jobs, be-cause
they can’t a#ord college, or are not willing to be
enslaved to the government by massive student loan
debts. "e most recent evidence of this can be seen in
the controversy of the student loan bill and its fail-ure
to be passed. It became known as the “Stop the
Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012,” a bill
that was designed to maintain low interest rates on all
subsidized student loans o#ered by the federal gov-ernment
for another year (Madison). In a CBS News
interview, a representative from the White House
said, “It is extremely disappointing that Republicans
in the Senate today voted to ask millions of students
to pay an average of $1,000 each in order to protect
a loophole that allows millionaires to dodge payroll
taxes” (Madison). Communications major Andrew
Giordano said in his CBS News interview, “Col-lege
tuition here [College of Mount St. Vincent] was
about $18,000 to $20,000. Now, every year tuition
has gone up! Now we’re hitting, $30,000, $32,000!”
Andrew will graduate with $45,000 in debt, and
worst of all jobless (Bentley).
College students are facing tougher times now
than ever before. Student loans have become the
nation’s number one source of debt, and according
to a study released from Rutgers University, “Only
51% of young college grads have full-time employ-ment
and many are working at jobs that don’t require
a college degree” (O’Shaughnessy). "ese bleak and
dismal circumstances have turned myself and many
others away from college, or persuaded numerous
college graduates to continue into graduate school
in hopes of landing a job by out doing the competi-tion.
As a matter of fact, in the same study, Rutgers
University claims, “only 23% of grads believe they
can have a successful career with just a bachelor’s de-gree”
(O’Shaughnessy). Out of that 23%, two-thirds
have or plan to pursue a master’s degree or higher
(O’Shaughnessy).
I have seen many of my peers resort to enlisting
in the military simply to obtain the !nancial help and
job security that the military provides. Since the cre-ation
of the GI Bill after World War II, many eligible
young men and women have served in the United
Jesenia Morales has a
tender heart for people,
and because of this her goal
in life is to be a family and
marriage counselor. She
loves doing$volunteer$work
with youth and the home-less
because there is a
special place in her heart
for them. She is currently
an undeclared major, but
intends to declare a double
major in psychology$and
sociology.
22 ReVisions: Best Student Essays
A New Generation of Graduates
With her impassioned ar-gumentative
essay, Jesenia
has hit upon what should
be a concern for all of us in
academia: the high cost of
higher education. A balance
of data and personal experi-ence,
“A New Generation of
Graduates” proves topical,
well-researched, and pro-vocative.
I’m not surprised
that Jesenia produced
such a powerful essay for
her #nal assignment in
my course—throughout
the semester, she was a
standout student who
engaged in class discussion
and embraced the drafting
process. She is exactly the
kind of individual who
should be pursuing a college
degree. Jesenia’s maturity
and thoughtfulness will
serve her well, in college
and career.
~Dr. Jessica Pitchford
States military simply to attend college debt free. Be-cause
of this, many colleges award military students
college credit and hours based on their military train-ing
and coursework. Some students have even enlist-ed
after attending college because they are unable to
!nd a job elsewhere, and by serving in the military
not only will their debt be paid o#, but in the mean-time
they also have a job to support themselves.
"en there are stories like mine where neither
of my parents are willing, or able, to help me pay for
college. I have no substantial credit established, and
am therefore forced to rely on government loans to
cover what my scholarships do not. My biggest fear is
that when I graduate I will not be able to !nd work
and default on my loans like so many others, which
will then destroy what little credit I have built up. I
have gone into debt to avoid future debt, and this
is the same situation many college graduates are in
today.
I can’t help but think sometimes that maybe,
just maybe, the cure for cancer is locked inside the
mind of someone who is unable to a#ord an educa-tion.
Perhaps it is a long stretch to envision a world
where anyone can receive higher education a#ord-ably,
but something has to change before we end up
with a generation of graduates whose hard work and
dedication mean nothing in the world of capitalis-tic
business. We are already living in a society where
most people are afraid to pursue what they love in
fear of not being able to support themselves, and pay-ing
$30,000 for an education that doesn’t even guar-antee
them a job.
I remember as a child I wanted to be a profes-sional
ballerina, but I was discouraged by many be-cause
the career of a dancer only lasts about ten years.
I then decided to be a novelist, but again I was per-suaded
otherwise. Now as a college sophomore, I am
still undecided when it comes to a career path. Ad-ditionally,
as I watch the news, my options continue
to dwindle. I feel as though at some point in our edu-cational
career we must decide whether to follow our
dreams regardless of circumstances, or play it safe and
choose a career that will provide !nancial stability.
When I think about the debt that is accumu-lated
in pursuit of a college degree, and the risks taken
to obtain it, it reminds me of similar debt that my
mother, who is a non-graduate, and I faced. I grew
up in poverty and I know what a hardship it is. I re-member
going to bed still hungry on nights because
groceries had to be stretched, and walking to the store
because we couldn’t a#ord the gas it would take to
drive down the street to Food Lion. "is kind of debt
doesn’t just a#ect one person, but becomes a domino
e#ect a#ecting those around us. It is not only my fu-ture
that will be a#ected by my college debt, but also
the future of my soon-to-be husband, and our future
children. I don’t want any of them to su#er through
what I had to. I’m sure many of us share the same
thoughts when it comes to family, wanting what is
best for not only ourselves, but our loved ones as well.
An article in US News states, “"e e#ects of
student debt aren’t limited to today, or to today’s stu-dents.
E#ects span generations and will be a factor
for years to come. All of us should take notice, be-cause
we all could be a#ected” (Equal Justice Works).
Higher tuition leads to higher rates of student debt
which in turn a#ects the economy as a whole. As of
2011 this nation had one trillion dollars in student
loan debt alone. "at is roughly one-sixteenth of the
entire national debt considering it just hit sixteen tril-lion
earlier this year, and that may not seem like a lot
in comparison, but do we really understand just how
much a trillion is? One trillion seconds ago equals
roughly thirty-six thousand years ago, and one tril-lion
pennies equals ten billion dollars.
It’s a shame that education has become such a
source of debt. It breaks my heart to see such bright
young minds become limited because of the inability
to a#ord the costs of an education in the long run.
When I wake up each morning I have to remind my-self
exactly why I am here, and I have to motivate my-self
to pursue the education I know I am capable of
obtaining. Like any young adult, I overlook the price
I’m paying now and the struggle I will undoubtedly
encounter in hopes of one day being able to comfort-ably
raise and support a family, but if we don’t put an
end to this cycle of debt things will only grow worse,
and that will certainly lead to each of us experienc-ing
the e#ects of the issue (Equal Justice Works). If
we continue in this pattern surely student debt will
consume us all.
Works Cited
Bentley, John. “State Budget Cuts Making College More
Expensive.” CBS News. CBS Interactive Inc., 13
May 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Equal Justice Works. “Student Loan Debt A#ects Genera-tions
of Americans.” US News. U.S. News and World
Report LP, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
Madison, Lucy. “Student Loan Bill Fails as Senate Gears Up
For Protracted Battle.” CBS News. CBS Interactive
Inc., 8 May 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
O’Shaughnessy, Lynn. “Jobless Grads: What "ey Would’ve
Done Di#erently.” CBS News. CBS Interactive Inc.,
10 May 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Funding for this issue of ReVisions was provided by the O%ce of Academic A"airs at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
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