Music Review

Blurryface is the fourth and newest album from Twenty One Pilots. The album came out earlier in the year 2015 and consists of fourteen new songs, including hits like "Tear in My Heart" and "Stressed Out." This album follows their break through album Vessel, and Blurryface is also the first Twenty One Pilots album to be Number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The debut was powered from pure album sales, selling 134,000 copies within the first week it was released. While many fans and music critics don't know what genre to classify Twenty One Pilots as, the songs on this album fall mostly under the Alternative genre; however, there are a few songs that could probably be classified as Indie Pop. The music on this album kind of contradicts itself. The music for each song is happy sounding and upbeat, but there is a similar deeper meaning in every song. The overall idea is that Blurryface is an unknown character. When asked, the lead singer Tyler Joseph says that Blurryface is supposed to symbolize the insecurities that we keep hidden, and he says that Blurryface could be sad or angry and drag you down. A lot of the music in the album is reflective of this theme, which is why I believe it to be contradictory. The only downfall to this album, or so it seems, is that one will either love it or hate it. I just so happen to be one of the people who love this album and every album by Twenty One Pilots.

A Principle to Keep

If our world ever came into a post apocalyptic state, some principles that would be necessary to hold on to would be kindness and forgiveness. In a world where there is nothing left, we should not simply make things worse by acting cruel toward one another. When there are only few people left, one would probably want the accompaniment of another. By maintaining friendly attitudes, humanity could stay in tact. One act of kindness would be to share resources. Although one might feel that it is an “every man for himself” situation, you would be more likely to succeed in surviving if you are not alone. As far as forgiveness goes, you should always forgive your peers and treat another as you would want to be treated. As I said before, everyone needs to work with one another instead of against one another. Think of it this way: What if, in our modern day, people did not speak kind words? What if people did not use manners, or did not apologize for their wrongs, or did not accept apologies? However, most people are polite to other people these days. But, what if we stopped showing kindness or forgiveness when our world needed it most? Our world would turn to even more chaos. There would be no trust, no loyalty, no friendship. Many people would not be able to survive on their own. If you ask me, an overall good attitude is the most important principle. One smile can go a long way.

A Classmate I'm Thankful For

This year, I am thankful for my classmate, and one of my best friends, Alex. Alex and I have been really good friends since the beginning of freshmen year, and I can't see us drifting apart any time soon. I'm grateful to have her as a friend because whenever I am stuck with homework or life, she always has the answers. She is also very trustworthy and smart, and I can always count on her to be honest with me, even if the truth is ugly. Alex is also very understanding and overall a great person to be around. I am thankful that she is a part of my life.

Margaret

In the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway, there is definitely a surprise ending. In an "attempt to kill the bull," or as the author would like you to believe, Margaret actually shoots Francis in the back of the head. After the event takes place she is crying and kind of acting like this was all an accident, but the Hunter, Robert Wilson, is accusing her of the murder of her husband. If you ask me, it seems that she shot her husband on purpose, and Wilson was right about her all along. When you look at Francis and Margaret’s relationship over the past few days of the story, they have been arguing a lot, going back and forth between who is superior in their marriage. She even cheated on him right in front of his face when she kissed Wilson and later left the tent in the middle of the night, then lied about it. As the short story states, however, neither one of them would be willing to leave the other because they simply have it too good with one another. Margaret was in it mostly for the money, while Francis stayed simply because he was not good with women. Over the past few days, Margaret had begun to feel superior to her husband because of his hunting failure. This made her feel more confident in the fact that he would not leave her. Toward the end of the story, when he has a successful hunt, he begins to gain confidence in himself. This probably threatens Margaret, since she wanted to be the one to call the shots in the relationship. Also, she feels that he now has the power within himself to leave her. When she sees her opportunity, she shoots and kills him because this way he is unable to leave their marriage, and it gives her the upper hand once again.

What did Margaret do?

     In The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Hemingway includes a very unexpected ending. From the title, we know that he had a short life, so one may be able to predict that he dies somewhere in the story. However, it would be quite difficult to predict the actual ending. At the end of this short story, Francis becomes really excited and confident in himself, so Wilson decides they should go back and finish off the bull. Once they are face to face with the bull, they are struggling to kill it. They shoot it many times, but each time they somehow miss their mark. Seeing the men having trouble, Margaret takes the gun from beside her and shoots it; however, instead of the intended target, she hits Francis. Now, in the literal sense, this is the complete answer. She shot her husband. But why? The story makes this incident seem like it was unintentional. To me, it seems that Margaret intentionally meant to shoot him because she wanted to leave the marriage. In the story, Hemingway says that Margaret would never leave Francis because he had a lot of money and he would only make more. It also argues that Francis would never leave Margaret because he was not very good with women, and he was afraid that he would not be able to find another if he left her. So basically at this point in their marriage, they were stuck in a dead end relationship. I think that on some level, Margaret could no longer stand the idea of staying with Francis, so in that moment she shot him. Besides what she did literally, she also set herself free, physically and emotionally.

6 Six Word Sentences

In that moment, she only sighed.

I wish you wouldn't leave again.

Some things will just never change.

This is so far from over.

Sometimes, just think: all or nothing.

I'm too busy, overwhelmed, and tired.

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

    If you ask me, the character of John Proctor is neither a hero, nor a stooge in The Crucible. However, I feel that he had the potential of being an aspiring hero in the play. Obviously Proctor is no saint. Some reasons that cause me to believe so is the fact that he does not go to church every Sunday, he can not name the Ten Commandments, and only two of his three children are baptized. He even committed lechery by "getting to know" Abigail. So why, then, do I think he could in fact be a hero? Well, despite the fact that he has made lots of errors and proved unfaithful more than once, he was the one who began to suspect that Abigail and the other girls were lying about the witchcraft just so they could get attention. Also, he was the one who wanted to take the matter to the court and try to free his wife, along with hundreds of others accused. He even admitted to his lechery in an attempt to make the judges believe his evidence. In fact, Proctor could have been the hero at this point, had Elizabeth not lied about why she fired Abigail from being their servant. Although John Proctor's evidence and claims were overlooked by the court officials, it was the thought that counted. Just the fact that he tried to help and tried to free the accused rather than just sitting around and watching it happen, not caring about anyone other than himself shows that he is most definitely not a stooge. While these claims may not prove that he is also not a hero physically, he had the mentality of a hero throughout most of the witchcraft nonsense, and this is why I believe that he could be a hero if more people had believed his claims and worked with him rather than against him.