Final Writing Test

The Sorrows of Young Werther (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) presents many great topics as it depicts the life of an average young man. Even though he could be considered as average, Werther is extremely sensible and this will finally cause his death.

Werther doesn’t die simply because of his love for Charlotte. He lived many painful experiences and he comes to believe that happiness is nowhere else to be found. As he can’t get any happiness whether in Charlotte or in the rest of his life, he believes there is no other solution than committing suicide.

This literary essay briefly explains how Werther is too sensible which makes him think he suffers much and how Charlotte comes to represent the “final achievement” for Werther, an achievement he can’t get trough.

Firstly, Charlotte is not the only thing that bothers Werther. In his very first letter, you can already tell that Werther has many problems: “My dear friend I promise you I will improve; I will no longer […] continue to ruminate on every petty vexation which fortune may dispense”. It is pretty ironic that he says he will no longer worry about every little problems of his life since he simply finds a bigger one to forget them all. This first letter also shows how he is conscious of his defect. He his conscious of it until his very last moments, but his desperation overwhelms him. Werther says: "Must it be so that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?" which clearly shows his lost of confidence in life. During his last days, he states that he wakes up wishing he is death because he doesn’t want to remember his sufferings; sufferings which he had enough for a whole life according to him. Falling in love with Charlotte didn’t kill Werther; it simply pushed him faster to this inevitable ending.

Secondly, Werther thinks he can’t be happy without Charlotte because she is the representation of perfection for him, he says it many times: “An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses”. Perfection is what everyone looks for and for Werther, it is Charlotte. Considering the rest of his sad life, he has nothing else to care about. He will spend all his energy in seducing Charlotte, forgetting at the same time all his other troubles. The fact of not getting his perfection makes him think his life is a nonsense, he has no other life goal anymore. The proverb says: “the higher you climb, the harder you fall” and this is exactly what happens to him. He gets happier and happier, literally blinded by his love, and when he finds out he won’t get Charlotte, he opens his eyes and see all his problems again. If Werther had been happy before Charlotte, he would have probably got over that sad experience.

To conclude, many reasons pushed Werther to commit this dreadful act. His love for Charlotte did help him to do it, but if he wasn’t that sensible from the beginning, he surely wouldn’t have done it. Werther killed Werther; no difference in his life could have changed this. Because of his being, it was inevitable

(560 words)

introducing a literary essay

1. Biographical information
ex:
- Raised in a difficult environnement
- Suffered from alcoholism
2. Quotation (from a book or elsewhere) :
3. Definition : Insanity is doing the same thing all the time and expecting different results.
4. Element of fiction.
ex: Irony
5. life experiences
ex: Parallels
6. Very brief plot summary.
7. Philosophical concept.
ex: Everyone seeks(happiness)
8. historical background
ex: The american civil war lated for 5 years and saw 500,000 deaths.

LEL #3-#4

Career and Technical College Math Skills

1. Interest level

Like for the other LEL, I chose a mathematics course which interest me much. Unlike the first one, Course 1: Basic Concepts in algebra, this one was not easy. It was a great mental challenge and this is mainly why I liked it.

2. Difficulty level

This course was about my level, but it didn’t include advanced mathematics. It was mostly hard division like divisions with decimals: 2.9 ÷ 0.8758 for example, or simply complex equations.

3. What I learned (3 points)

I didn't learned much following this course. It is more a practice or level evaluation course.

4. My score

For this course, I did have a grade which is quite high: 97%. I am not surprised by this score since I am pretty good at mental calculus.

5. Course rating (/10)

I would give a 7/10 to this course because it is quite hard, but it isn’t accurately named. It isn’t Career and Technical College Math Skills: it’s simply mental calculus skills.

Grammar Skills 5: Basic Written Communication Skills

1. Interest level

For the other LEL, I followed Grammar Skills 4 which was to easy for me. This time, I chose Grammar Skills 5. It was not as interesting as the other one. It was way longer and
the questions were not as clear.

2. Difficulty level

This course was not too hard for me, but it was hard to get the good answer. Most of the course was about simplifying sentences and most of the time the correct answer was so short it didn’t mean anything.

3. What I learned (3 points)

- I learned that the intellectual look of a sentence isn’t always positive.
- I learned many different ways to avoid pejorative man and woman distinction.
- I revised mostly all I learned about writing in my French classes.

4. My score

I didn’t get any score for this course, there wasn’t even practices with marks like in Grammar 4 course. I guess that as I knew most of the theory of the course I would have had about 75-85%.

5. Course rating (/10)

I would give a 8/10 to this course because even though there was no tests or anything, the theory was well explained and there was a lot of content.

Hills like white elephants

The srtory reveals the rhetorical and psychological manipulation in the way the man relates to the woman. The story revolves around the couple discussing an operation, wich seems to be an abortion.

Paragragh 1:

The man consistently tires to convince her to get aborted, he says, "it's a simple operation"

Paragragh 2:

The woman, Jig, isn't sure what to do, nut she seems to accepts his proposal, for example, he says, "we'll be fine..." to convince her.

The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther has been written in 1774 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This epistolary novel is strongly inspired by the author’s life and even contains true facts. The story mostly takes the form of letters written by the protagonist, Werther, to his friend Wilhelm in which he depicts his life, his thinking and his feelings.

The story begins as Werther moves to Wahlheim to concentrate on his drawing and painting, but he rapidly falls in love with the easy lifestyle of the peasants and finally doesn’t accomplish much work. As fast as he fell in love with the village, he falls in love with Charlotte, the village bailiff’s daughter. He describes her as more than perfection for him or any other person, but he clearly knows they will never be together, because she already has a fiancé. Unfortunately, like any other lover, this won’t stop him, and as time goes by he gets more and more obsessed by this woman he will never have. Adding to his obsession, Albert, Charlotte’s fiancé, comes back in town and Werther and him turn out to be friends though Werther is persuaded that Charlotte would be happier with him.
This situation is slowly killing Werther who decides to leave Wahlheim without telling anyone to work in a far away town. This new adventure turns out to be less pain relieving than he thought and he has no other options than coming back to Charlotte. When he does, he finds out that his love for Charlotte has only gotten stronger during his absence. Werther feels incredibly hopeless and in a final attempt to get Charlotte, he tries to kiss her, but she refuses and orders him never to see her again. Werther then puts in place his final plan which he thought about since months. On Christmas night, at midnight, Werther shoots himself and dies the next morning.
“We took a few turns in the room to recover our breath. Charlotte sat down, and felt refreshed by partaking of some oranges which I had had secured,—the only ones that had been left; but at every slice which, from politeness, she offered to her neighbours, I felt as though a dagger went through my heart.”
“No, I am not deceived. In her dark eyes I read a genuine interest in me and in my fortunes. Yes, I feel it; and I may believe my own heart which tells me—dare I say it?—dare I pronounce the divine words?—that she loves me!
That she loves me! How the idea exalts me in my own eyes! And, as you can understand my feelings, I may say to you, how I honour myself since she loves me!”
These quotes are meaningful to me, because like for most of the story, I can identify myself to Werther. I never gave oranges to a woman during a date though once, a few weeks ago, I bought a drink to a girl I like and she gave about half of it to her friends and I can tell I felt the exact same as Werther. It’s hard to understand how something so natural can destroy the strongest man’s defences, leaving him vulnerable faced to the good willing of his love. It’s also impressing to see that even after 250 years, courtship didn’t change so much.

If I had to suggest a different ending for the story, I’d suggest the exact opposite: Charlotte would accept Werther in her life as her new fiancé and Albert, rejected, would have to face the same difficulties Werther did. It would be interesting, because Albert said many times that suicide was for weak persons and he would now have to accept it as a solution or not and live his life like a “strong man”, alone and desperate.

499 words (without the quotes)

MID-TERM EXAM

PART 1

- What is Louise Mallard’s opinion of marriage? Indicate the paragraph that suggests it?

Louise Mallard thinks marriage is a bad thing and indicates it when she says that now that her husband is dead, she would be free: “free, free, free!”. Paragraph 12 suggests it.

- Why does Louise Mallard suddenly stop crying? Indicate the place in the text?

She stops crying, because looking at the window, she understands that the death of her husband isn’t wrong. This death finally lets her be whatever she wants. (Paragraph 10)

- How does she feel about her future as a widow? Cite the line in the text, using just the first few words, then a series of dots …?

She feels free, she wonders about the numerous things she will do now that she is.

“Her fancy was…”

- Why is there so much description of what is outside the window when Louise is alone in her room?

The description of the outside is important, it reflects the main irony of the story: beautiful scenery versus death. Also, it’s important as this scenery makes Louise think of how it will be great to be free.

PART 2

The Story of an Hour, written by the American author Kate Chopin (1850-1904), is a short story about the loss of a woman’s husband and her reaction to it. The author mainly uses dramatic irony as a figure of speech in this text as Louise, the main character, is happy about the dead of her beloved husband.

At the very beginning of the third paragraph, the narrator admits that Louise didn’t react to the hearing of the death of her husband as any normal woman would have. Initially crying, she then went in her room and sat in her “comfortable” and “roomy” armchair. These two words begin the irony of the story as it is more important for the author to specify this than the feelings of the main character. Once she sits, Louise watches outside at the beautiful scenery well described: “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his ware”. All these positive adjectives mark a great difference between them and the death of the husband: it lets the audience the thought of it not being important for Louise. The paragraphs eight to ten counter this idea as the reader can clearly understand that she is affected by the loss of Brently (the husband): “now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought”. Suddenly Louise is hit by an idea, saying “free, free, free!”, she now understands that as Brently is gone, she will be able to live her live freely as she wants to; however, she admits that she did love Brently. This foreshadowing by the author is followed by the surprising ending of the story: Brently is alive and Louise dies when she learns it. The doctor says she died of joy which is ironic, because she actually died learning that her joyful dream of being free wouldn’t happen.

This story is a great example of irony as from the beginning to the end of the story; it does not make any sense if the reader does not understand it. This short story also presents a special view of human relations: a widow is happy of the death of her husband even though she loves him, making the reader think about the importance of freedom opposed to love.

424 words

Book report

(500 words)

1. Write the storyline.

2. Describe your favourite part.

3. Write a letter to the author.

4. Tell how you would react if you were a character.

5. Choose 2 or 3 ''quotes'' from characters and say why tey're meaningful.

6. What makes the book good or not.

7. Suggest a different ending or write a sequel.