To Pursue Dreams :: Graduate Admissions Essays

To Pursue Dreams   I was born and raised in a rural community in the Appalachian Mountains. Most of the local people work at farms, factories, or mills. Education is not deemed terribly important, since even a high school pedagogics is of little practical value. My mom dropped out of high school because she was pregnant, and has been a factory seamstress for fifty years. My beat dropped out after 8th chump because his own father ran out on his family, leaving him to have to work. He has been a welder in a steel mill my whole life. They expected that my bookworm career would be roughly similar to theirs. My own goals, however, were much higher I valued to go to college -- and not just any college. I wanted to go to a really good one. I thought that a higher education was my ticket to a better life than my parents had, and so I focused on college with a driven passion.   My dream schools included the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, Dartmouth, and Brown. I made l ists and charts, and papered the walls of my room with pictures and statistics of these four institutions. The evening I received my SAT fool (1300), my parents came home from work and I ran out to tell them that I might be able to get into one of my top choices for college. Though my head was in the clouds, my parents had their feet very firmly planted on the ground. They asked me if I knew what kind of kids went to those schools. Hesitating, I said, ...not really. My mother explained how the kids who went to those schools were wealthy and well-educated, with lots of connections that would help them get into college. She told me that I was neither well-situated nor terribly smart, and thus should consider schools that were more my speed.   I got applications for UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, and UNC-Asheville the next day. My father looked only at the UNC-Asheville booklet and said that it looked nice. My mother agreed, express that I had finally chosen one school that I po ssibly could attend in reality. My mother wouldnt even read the application booklet for Penn. My father snorted angrily if I so much as mentioned Northwestern. I was crushed. I began to wonder if my dream schools were just that a fanciful dream.

How the Authors Create a Feeling of Fear and Terror in The Ostler, The

How the Authors Create a Feeling of Fear and Terror in The Ostler, The Red populate and The Superstitious Mans Story In tramp to answer this question I read the relevant stories, i.e. The Ostler by Wilkie Collins, The Red Room by H.G. Wells and The Superstitious Mans Story by Thomas Hardy in great detail. I will now attempt to compare the methods the authors have utilised to create the impact mentioned above. In order to see which one has been more effective in conveying fear and terror, suspense and the extraordinary, in my opinion. Furthermore, I will endeavour to point out the similarities and differences in tense, style and prose between the stories, using quotations where appropriate. Moreover, I will discuss the roles the various characters play. These bulk are important, as the reader needs to identify to some period with the narrator and his description and interpretation of his human props as well as the setting they are placed in. The openin g to any story is crucial, since the reader may not decide to continue with his intention to read all if he/she is not sufficiently interested in the first few sentences. In The Superstitious Mans Story the reader is struck right off by an air of mystery, and somehow feels privy to a secret. This is a story steeped in hearsay. The narrator (the seedmans father) painstakingly talks us through every gauzy detail putting away the irons and things, and preparing the table for his breakfast in the morning. By placing so much emphasis on mundane issues the impact of the extraordinary is in stark contrast. It is almost as if the reader is lulled into a sense of security, ... ...e unknown is intriguing to many. Even though the three stories have a different nest they all centre of the supernatural. They are all written pre-1914 - well before the advent of technology, which has accelerated at an alarming rate. Nowadays, our culture revolves around technology a nd people require proof. It is essential for an author to set the scene, draw the reader in and when that is accomplished deliver the punch line. All of the authors succeed in doing this. The Superstitious Mans Story is overly stark, and puts the reader on guard as to its content. I prefer the gradual style of the other two stories. In The Red Room and The Ostler the settings and the characters enhance the plot immensely. The characters are not essential enough in The Superstitious Mans Story, and the setting is rather boring.