Victor's Responsibility.

I do believe that Victor is responsible for the actions of the monster. It’s true that he isn’t the one directly telling the monster to do terrible things, but he nevertheless created it. By default he’s the one who should have to answer for this newborn creature.

To me it’s the same as if you were the parent of a young child. Someone that’s really young doesn’t understand why his or her actions may be right or wrong. Therefore, until they learn to take responsibility for themselves, it’s the parent who is responsible for them. You are the one who brought the kid into this world so you’re the one who needs to answer for it when they cannot. Until the thing you are taking care of is capable of making responsible decisions and can take care of itself, you are the one who has to watch over it.

Victor spent years of hard work obsessing over bringing the monster to life. It completely consumed him and cut him off from reality to the point of not speaking to his own family and even his beloved Elizabeth for years. You would think that if he were that excited to have his experiment be a success, then he’d be more than ready to take on the role of being the owner of his creature. Obviously that wasn’t the case, as he reacted with horror and shame rather than happiness at his triumph. Now he’s paying the price for flaking out and abandoning this thing that was depending upon him for guidance in the world.

Eventually I think that Victor is going to have to answer for what he’s done. His negligence and fear caused the abomination that he brought into this world to escape, and people are dying because of it. Victor truly is the one who is to blame for all of the troubles that the monster is causing. If he hadn’t been so determined to mess with things that he should have been, the monster never would have come into existence so yes, I think that all of the blame should be placed upon Victor.

Passion vs. Obsession

I would define passion as an intense enjoyment or love of something. It can be applied to a lot of things in life. Some people have passions for sports, hobbies, or learning, and other people apply it to relationships. However, to me a passion is not something that constantly takes up your times and is always in your thoughts throughout your day. You can control how much time you spend on whatever hobby or subject it is.

Obsession is similar to passion in that you really enjoy a particular thing or person. However, it’s more extreme and to the point that you’re unable to stop thinking about that thing or person. People with obsessions tend to care less about everything else in their life that isn’t somehow related to the object of their obsession.

I don’t think that having a passion for something is a very dangerous idea. People can usually control their passions and focus on other things when they need to. I do believe that certain obsessions can end badly for someone who has them. Individuals who have obsessions with learning and traveling, like Robert Walton for example, may end up learning things that they never really wanted to know and end up in places that they never wanted to be. People who have obsessions with other people are technically called stalkers, and that’s just no good at all. So yes, I’d say that obsessions are not always healthy.

I have what’s probably borderline passion and obsession about the television show Supernatural. I really enjoy it, and sometimes I do have a hard time not talking about it with other people who may not necessarily care. Of course I can stop thinking about it in order to focus on schoolwork and other things that I need to get done, but I can go off on it in conversation for a really long time if given the chance. It’s not the worst thing I could be obsessed with, but sometimes people think I’m weird because of it.

Semester Plans.

Out of everything that I did last semester, I am most proud of getting a 3.8 GPA. That’s the best GPA I’ve ever had, and I’m going to try and get a 4.0 before the end of this school year. Having a good grade point average will look excellent on my college applications.

I do wish that I'd been able to get an A in Psychology, and it's my fault that I didn't because I didn't put forth the effort to study as much as I should have for the quizzes. I also wish I’d paid more attention in Government class. Not because it’s a hard class, but because all the things we discuss in there are relevant to life, especially considering I’m going to be out in the real world very soon. 

When I graduate the thing I'm looking forward to the most is just getting out of high school. I'm ready to go on to college and start getting my own life going. I’m excited to finally be independent from my family, even though I appreciate them a lot. Moving out into the world is something that I’m excited for.

I’m not worried about much as far as graduating goes. I suppose having to be financially independent for once in my life is going to be difficult. Achieving a balance between having a job and keeping up with my classes is going to be a challenge.

This semester I’m going to try and really buckle down to get everything done. Not only that, but produce a high quality of work in order to maintain the best GPA that I can. I’ve really got to watch out for classes like Economics and Government, since I tend to slack off a little in those subjects. It’s not that I don’t try; I just pay so much more attention in classes that I enjoy because they interest me.

It may be the final semester in my last year of high school, but I don’t plan on coming down with “Senioritis” any time soon. It’s not over until I have my diploma, after all.

Quote Responses

Quote One: "Frailty, thy name is woman." Hamlet said this in a soliloquy about his mother. He means that women are weak minded and depend upon a man to protect them. I do not think that this quote applies in the modern age. Women nowadays are much more intelligent thanks to being allowed to attend school, and are capable of being independent from men.They can take care of themselves when the need arises.

Quote Two: "Brevity is the soul of wit." Polonius says this to Claudius and Gertrude. It means that being well spoken and having knowledge of how to use words in conversation makes you intelligent. I think that this is very applicable to life today. It's important to be well learned and know how to speak well and with at least an air of intelligence about you.

The Line Between Caring and Overbearing.

I believe that parents do have the right to know what is going on in the lives of their children. It’s only natural to be protective of your kids. However, there are boundaries that parents should respect. I imagine that adults wouldn’t like having their privacy constantly invaded and being treated as if they were untrustworthy, so expecting teenagers to put up with that sort of treatment isn’t exactly fair. I can’t see any teen that I know going along with the agenda of nosy parents either.

At younger ages, such as fourteen, parents should pay close attention to what’s going on with their kid. There’s a lot of changes that go on during that time and sometimes kids don’t deal with it as well as others might. Having enough insight into how a teenager is feeling and what they may be dealing with can really save a lot of trouble from happening down the road. Kids that are that young aren’t mentally mature enough to make the right choices in some situations, so I think parents need to be there to give them guidance and support. Rules like where they go, who they see outside of school and how late they’re allowed to be out may seem unfair and I know they make most teenagers angry, but those are only set in place for our own good.

For example, when I was growing up my parents told me I had to be home before the streetlights came on (which in my opinion was ridiculously early, but alas). Sure, I whined about it because come on, it was a stupid rule, and I always pushed the rule to the limit. Nevertheless, I look back on it now and I know they only made that rule for my own safety. They just didn’t want their thirteen year old daughter running around the neighborhood in the dark alone.

However, as teenagers get older parents should learn to ease up on how controlling and prying they are with their kids. Nineteen years old, for example, is a bit old for a parent to be telling them what time to come home and who they can’t hang out with. Eventually all teenagers have to grow up and move out, essentially becoming independent from mom and dad. Keeping too close of a watch on someone who just wants to grow up makes them feel stifled and quite frankly irritated with their parents. Of course we know that adults mean well, and they only want to protect us from at least part of the bad things in life, but they can’t do that constantly. Restricting us in too many ways keeps up from experiencing life and learning valuable lessons first-hand.

Revenge

I think that the act of getting revenge on someone for wronging you is a more common thing than people think. It doesn't necessarily have to be something extreme like in a Shakespeare play. Getting revenge on someone can be doing something simple to him or her as payback. I don’t think that many people really realize that they’re getting revenge whenever they decide to take defensive actions against someone. We just see it as “getting even”.

A lot of crimes that people commit are fueled by the desire to get revenge. If someone has a loved one who is murdered, they may feel like killing the person who did it will make them feel better. Still, something as serious as death doesn’t need to be involved. People who are stolen from may take something back from the thief, or might try to give a disrespectful person a little grief in their life.

An example that I can think of is something that I witnessed a long time ago. I won’t mention any names, but an individual that was my friend during middle school did not get along with another student. It was pretty much a hate/hate relationship. They were always fighting and making life tough for one another. One day the other kid took this person’s books from their bag and hid them around the classroom before class could begin. When my friend discovered what had happened, and who was behind the disappearance of their reading materials, they told me that they were going to get them back.

This final act of revenge didn’t occur until about a week later. The middle school served breakfast every morning. On this particular morning, a cold December day, the tile flooring had become slick due to snow being tracked inside on people’s shoes. The “enemy” of this scenario was walking to one of the tables with their juice and toast, and as they moved past our own table my friend quickly stuck out their foot and tripped them. Of course the person went flying and their breakfast wound up all over the floor in a giant mess. As if this embarrassment was not enough, the entire lunchroom burst into laughter at their misfortune. My friend was able to conveniently blame the slick flooring on it, but the other person knew what had really happened. So, the battle between them continued on for the rest of the year.

I learned from this experience that revenge is a common thing that people do without really thinking about it. I also realized that while cathartic at the time, revenge scarcely solves the problem entirely.

Joanne Rowling

Dear Joanne Rowling,

I was in fourth grade, and perhaps nine or ten years old at the time, when I got my hands on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I remember being excited and just as equally terrified as I opened that book and began to read. All of my friends had been reading the book and absolutely loved it, while my parents had told me that it was not something I would ever be allowed to read due to it clashing with their religious beliefs. You can then imagine my apprehension with sneaking a copy home from the school library, hidden behind my math folder inside my book bag, and reading it under cover of night in my room.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to read. In elementary school I would get my books taken away in class because I’d rather be lost in a story than paying attention to the lesson plan. However, as often as I would make trips to the library to check out another book, I never found a novel or book series that really grabbed my attention for longer than a few weeks at most. That’s why, when I finished the very first chapter of Sorcerer’s Stone all those years ago and kept going until I was nodding off with my face in the book, I knew that the story of this orphaned boy with messy hair and a scar was special. However, I don’t think I quite realized at the time how much the Harry Potter series would grow to be a part of my life for years to come.

When you put aside the magic aspect of the series, there are still a lot of valuable lessons to be learned (the importance of love and friendship and honesty, to name a few). I think many people miss out on these due to focusing on the fact that it is labeled a book series meant for children about wizards and such. There’s no rule written down that says kid stories aren’t capable of encompassing life guidelines, after all.

The importance of doing what is right rather than what is easy, even when others push you to side with them is the biggest thing that I’ve taken away from Harry’s story. If Harry had simply given up and stopped fighting, stopped caring for his friends and the fate of everyone else to join the evil side just because it was easier, the story would have ended far differently and not in a good way either. I’ve learned through all of the trials the characters go through during the course of the series that life is hard, it is not always fair, and good may not always prevail over bad but you can’t just give up. I credit my will to keep fighting and never quit to these books. I’m a much stronger person today because of this.

I am now seventeen years old, and a senior in high school. In less than one month I will be going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one on opening night at the movie theater with my friends and family, all of whom are avid Potter lovers (yes, my parents came around to Team Potter as well, much to my relief). I own every single Harry Potter book and have read them multiple times, the spines of them well bent with use and a few pages now slightly dog-eared or stained with occasional inky fingerprints. Of course I am teased by my other more “serious” peers for admitting that Harry Potter is my favorite book series. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t dare change it. I’ve grown up right alongside the small boy who lived in a cupboard under the stairs for eleven years of his life, and in a way I can relate to Harry, Ron and Hermione better than I can people my own age.

The story of Harry Potter has essentially been my entire childhood, contained within the pages of seven wonderful books. Your incredibly, magical story has made me very happy for many years, and will continue to do so until I’m old and in my rocker. There are things in life you never forget, and this story is one of them. I can only hope that the future generations of children will read your story and gain as much as I have from it.

Sincerely,

Kaitlyn Graves