English Writing 1101 Class 6 Questions

Andrew McTigue
Professor Young
English Writing 1101
9/25/16
1) How does Hal use blame to protect Cully and himself? What is Hal trying to protect himself from?

3) Dex begins to befriend Willa. Is his friendship genuine? Why does he befriend Willa? Does he blame himself for what happens to her?

4) Use an institution to discuss why "they" are speaking and why "they" are blaming.

The friendship between Dex and Willa appears to center around the desperation to be liked rather than a genuine connection. Life has always served Dex with constant reminders that his father is at the drilling station and he is the resurrection in the eyes of his shamefully overweight mother and to his younger sister. He does his best to give pride to his mother, yet he sees the football players he carries equipment for, “drinking hidden beers,” and feels befriending them would ridicule his father’s last words, “She’s a good person, and you respect that. Always,” (Steinke, 75, 37). In such a cycle of despair, he has searched for a connection between his “inside self that was still unfamiliar to him” since his father’s departure and an exterior source of hope: a person who had the heart of his own and the grace of mind that embodied the “tomorrow of” himself (Steinke, 40). In school, Dex could always look past his “skinny and unsmooth,” “just as liable to get laughed at as liked”, appearance and view someone who was quiet in speech yet neat and graceful on paper, "Like a neatly arranged ink garden," (Steinke, 40, 213). When Willa becomes the victim of a sexual assault, Dex does not feel blame for what happened, as he had instincts that Willa “wouldn’t be a drinker,” (Steinke, 105). However, he knows he would betray his father’s creed had he not acted as the “good person.” If he were to extend his reach to help a stranger to his thoughts, he could leave knowing the only guardian of his identity could think of his son on the rig and smile. He goes to visit Willa, helping her on her science project. His mother would be proud that he could help where she would be emotionally unfit to help. He never speaks sentences lasting more than four words; the image of his father appears to imply this. He may have left feeling his nameless hatred with his colleagues would presume, but he had meant the world to the tomorrow of himself, to his mother, to his father.

While Dex is doubtful if the unexpected collaboration was a success, Willa appreciates that a few are able to not dismiss her as “trouble.” She had already turned to the church to seek the comfort of hindsight, only to become accused of "being careless" about traditional values, (Steinke, 161). In the third chapter of Acts, it is written, “Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from the people,” (Acts 3). However, Willa had “only attended church for a few years but never made a formal declaration of faith,” (Steinke, 182). Her closest connections to religion were the words of her parents, people who “stopped looking directly at her face,” or those who kept secrets from loved ones (Steinke, 23). Such disconnect only furthers in her conversation with her meeting with the priest. She goes to the church hoping to learn that she was a “good person” and not an unforgivably lost soul (Steinke, 186). After all, the Book of Psalm promises that the Lord and Savior “will never permit the righteous to be moved,” (Psalm 55). She had already appeared to find hope through her confusion.

Emily Dickinson's words have always appeared to welcome Willa's abnormalities.

Nonetheless, the church makes textbook analysis to disguise their accusations. What would their image of hope be to the masses if they were to reach out to the sinner, the one who appears to choose treat artificial pleasure as the cathedral of her emotions? Every rumor that the citizens of Friendswood have circled around about Willa seeking to end “lush without a church or home” and worrying her mother becomes collected to target the normal desires of any teenager, (Steinke, 186). This is the last time anyone at the church had ever talked to their client. The book of Acts says she must be cut off. The Ten Commandments demand her to be cut off. The gospel according to John proclaims that she is “not living in the truth,” (John 1). Why should they feel the need to give her forgiveness? Why should the devil find the “four angels guarding the sky” like the righteous had (Steinke, 220)? It would turn the other sinners away had they not left her to cry in confusion.

"Find people who you trust, who can help support and strengthen your faith."

Willa’s only feeling of comfort appears to be the fact that her perpetrator also appears to be cut off from his former self. His father, Hal, is left to at last use honesty to In the first two sections of the novel, Hal had viewed Cully’s grace on the football field as an excuse to focus on his blessings and ignore his faults. In the first book, Hal uses Coach Salem’s words that “they’ve been looking alive-looking crisp” as an excuse for his stream of consciousness discussing Avery’s “reliance on other’s goodwill,” (Steinke, 45). In the second book, however, the smell of bourbon rots Cully’s image to his father as the tomorrow of himself. Nonetheless, Hal feels the opportunity to feel “inwardly rejoiced” as his son swears he will stay from alcohol with “just a thin hint of fear in his voice,” (Steinke, 135). The third book, however, sees his own thoughts and conversations “bouncing back to hit him,” Hal becomes the witness of Cully falling apart “like a snowman when the guy bumped into him, and in the next quarter, Cully dropped an easy pass,” (Steinke, 205). These memories tarnish Hal’s self-esteem. He is left to stare at the father of the one who was smart to rely on other’s goodwill, “smiling, his blue shirt neatly pressed, still tucked into his trousers, his tooled leather belt,” (Steinke, 202). There he is to despair, realizing he is no longer able to hide in the teachings of Christ.  A laziness in the field is a smarter shortcoming than a laziness of character.

Friendswood Class 4 Questions

Andrew McTigue                                                                                                                                                   

Professor Young                                                                                                          

English Writing 1101                                                                                                                                             

 9/11/16

1) Discuss the perception of City Hall officials to Lee. How do they treat her? What quotes support this? Are they fulfilling their responsibility to protect?

2) Discuss the response of the EPA to Lee. What is their response to her? What quotes support this?  Are they fulfilling their responsibility to protect?

The local government of Friendswood, Texas label their choice of silencing the words from the unofficial prophet with claims of providing stability. Lee Knowles simply presents findings that “concentrations of benzene have actually declined five percent since the chemicals were buried,” and cancer rates are “five times the national average.” However, she knows there is no emotional connection to persuade the high court, especially not Mrs. Dawson, the EPA representative with “one of those overly animated faces,” (Steinke, 88). The devil always appears to make the choice to not lose energy “trying to get” those who do fear to view health defects in the mirror, as he knows they choose to ignore the “one mistake after another rising up to laugh at” them (Steinke, 12, 13). He therefore constructs the arrogance of those with success so such people can think an outsider’s beliefs would “hurt” local businesses. Anybody who ever felt cursed leaves the courthouse feeling their beliefs, that they had built tirelessly through a lifetime of experience “can’t get any better than that” of written evidence (Steinke, 91).

Nonetheless, when the council responds to Lee’s claims that “there was no container on the site the day after [she] supposedly took those photographs,” she finds her weariness abruptly churns into a focused fury (Steinke, 90). The repetition of “so much flatness, so much indifference” delivering excruciatingly obvious dishonesty in her memory made her patience become completely dissolved (Steinke, 90). She could practically feel her filter for her rage against unfeeling implode on itself. She finds her mind to speak for herself as she praises her “common sense,” seemingly acting uncaring of those who are about to claim, “You’re good. You better watch yourself,” (Steinke, 91).  Thus, the mental hierarchy of Friendswood, Texas makes protection of basic living become practically a figure of Jess’s imagination.

“I’d be happy to take a look at your results,” (Steinke, 90). The shock from Mrs. Dawson’s response ended Lee’s outflow. Any sense of optimism, however, once again became ignited under instruction the subsequent night. As Lee read the Ecological Defense Manual, a book from a colleague who works with the EPA, she felt as if every teaching she received from Avery Taft became reflected back to her. The “misspellings, illustrations like panels from a comic book [and] cheerful tone like a cruel teenager’s” gave the appearance of the devil’s strawman, but there was a line in the longest chapter (Steinke, 94). The agency attempted to defend their audacity of arrogance through claims of purpose “to protect itself from the greedheads,” (Steinke, 94). Lee closed the novel being devastated to be unsurprised. The EPA stood as an icon of governmental hierarchy disguised as protection. Just six years prior to our protagonist’s tirade, the agency claimed the air in Lower Manhattan was “safe to breathe.” Fifteen years later, the apology former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman has become another sign of insincerity among first responders. "If she was sincere she would have walked the halls of Congress with me. If she was sincere, she could have gone to one of the 154 funerals with me. She was reckless and careless because of her words, and believe it or not, words have consequences. God's going to be her judge." If the Environmental Protection Agency chose not to fulfill their promise to those who gave their lives to rebuild America after its darkest day, how would they be selfless enough to fulfill their promise to a forgettable location in Texas farmland?

"Security protocols are crucial. Above all, do not get caught," (Steinke, 94).

Works Cited

Ginger Adams Otis (2016). Ex-EPA boss Whitman offers first-ever apology for bad info on post-9/11 air quality: ‘People have died because I made a mistake.” New York Daily News. Retrieved from <http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ex-epa-boss-whitman-apologizes-bad-info-9-11-air-quality-article-1.2786706>.

English Writing 1101 Class 3 Questions

Andrew McTigue                                                                                                                        Professor Young                                                                                                                             English Writing 1101                                                                                                                       9/7/16

Who should speak? The citizens of Friendswood? An esteemed institution? Why?

The citizens of Friendswood should speak about the health and economic effects of the chemical dumping at Banes Field, primarily due to the lack of restriction on location. There is hardly a procedure or guideline to prevent any citizen of Friendswood from searching for yet another “different artifact in the ruins,” (Steinke, 9). Steinke praises such an advantage in the discussions of local citizens the McHughs. “Lee remembered how the McHughs had tried to have a pool installed in their backyard, but they couldn’t make the excavation stable because the dirt contained so much oil, which also leaked up through the cracks in the cement of their driveway.” Nonetheless, the Environmental Protection Agency always “took a sample closer to the house, which was procedure, and the soil came up nearly clean,” (Steinke, 34). A lack of accurate testing also shows distinct parallels with the agency’s testing of an East Chicago, Illinois U.S.S. Lead testing plant in 2011. While the EPA concluded that “breathing the air, drinking tap water or playing in soil” would not be “expected to harm people’s health,” the Indiana State Department of Health revealed in July 2016 that twenty-nine children had elevated levels of lead in their blood in a nearby housing development. Hence, the citizens of Friendswood should use their absence of guidelines as a defense for free speech.

Another reason the citizens of Friendswood should translate the conditions at Banes Field into their own words is their experience with the area. Nearly every citizen seems to act as daily “unofficial guardian” to the aftermath whereas the Environmental Protection Agency has chosen to discard Banes as a successful project. Due to the fact that investigators Steinke describes the field as “charred with bright pink and brown stain,” and the air brings an audaciously overbearing mist of “empty commotion,” (Steinke, 9). Lee unfortunately appears to be the only individual who can visualize the aftermath. The text reveals that Lee is left to act as the therapist of Banes Field since the field stopped being a place of daily inspection “a year or two after” Rosemont became vacant for the contamination of nostalgia (Steinke, 4). The lack of experience and failure to communicate knowledge is not limited to the external conflict that Steinke creates for her fictional characters. From January 2005 to June 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig undertook 16 fewer Mineral Management Services than the minimum required amount, according to the Huffington Post. Within three years of each other, both Banes Field and the Gulf of Mexico became locations where the ignorance of authority traded solace with ruins. Hence, familiarity serves as another advantage for the citizens of Friendswood to challenge the fallacies of the federal government.

"The ugly field had seemed benign for so many years, fooling everyone with its open space and common weeds, its sorry-looking stooped trees." -Rene Steinke

When is it okay to dissent?

Dissent should be spoken only if the speaker is able to prove his opinion is stronger than the common belief. Rene Steinke identifies such a hard truth in her 2014 novel Friendswood. The protagonist, Lee Knowles, has used dirt-filled “empty, sterilized jelly jars” to represent the health hazards at Banes Field. However, her argument for environmental reform that she has voiced has repeatedly been silenced under the “two one-thousand-page binders of evidence from federal agencies, clearing Banes Field for human health,” (Steinke, 34). The fact that she could not capture a picture of the chemicals at Banes with “anything around it to put to scale” cancelled any redemption that Lee could have done for her daughter (Steinke, 29).  Once again, the characters' primary conflict creates its own parallels with the struggles of the world of the audience. In a 2016 interview with Buzzfeed, an anonymous woman claimed how she knew Judge Persky’s reduction of Brock Allen Turner’s sentence of six months for sexual assault would produce a determination to “speak even louder,” particularly due to Turner’s defense of promiscuity. “By definition rape is the absence of promiscuity, rape is the absence of consent, and it perturbs me deeply that he can’t even see that distinction.” The New York Times proved the anonymous woman’s theory correcting, reporting shortly after the sentencing of the creation of a recall challenge to Persky’s ruling. Thus, those who disagree must present evidence that the igniter's argument holds against objection.