Timed Responses

Remembering the Past

Author's Note: This timed response was to the prompt: Discuss how this book would play out if it were placed in contemporary times, and not Victorian England. (What is there about the steampunk atmosphere this is alluring to readers?) Would the story hold up as well, or is the setting as important as the plot? Would the characters transfer in tact? Though this was the prompt I focused more on a different idea, a more universal idea, that we choose to remember and forget what we want. I used Victorian as an example of this and that is how I tied in the book.

We cannot change the past, nor can we predict the future. As the present goes onto history, all that is left of it is our memories. Yet memories are only hidden deep within our minds; our minds, which have the power to alter memories. Sometimes, we choose to only remember certain aspects; we can hyperbolize the fun times or exaggerate the unpleasant ones. Though we think the past is concrete, in our heads, we can remember what we want and forget what we choose. Not just in one lifetime do we do this; as stories pass from generations we change them to make them sound more dramatic or climatic. Often, we look back at certain times in history and romanticize them because we only remember the pleasant aspects.

Victorian England is a great example of this. In Clockwork Angel, the story takes place about a century ago during this time period. The author pays close attention to the idea of limited technology and communication. From the beginning we see that Tessa has little to no contact with her brother supposedly living in England , and further more she receives a letter from him telling her to come live with him and she has to trust him because that is all she has. Later in the novel, when Tessa is at the Institute, there are no televisions to see world news nor computers allowing you to Google search anything; there was barely any contact to the outside world. Though you would perceive the people living in these times to feel cut off, the residents of the Institute did not show signs of this. There was a sense of community and family all around that created a peaceful atmosphere

Today, as we busy ourselves trying to stay connected to the happenings in the world, we look back at our memories of Victorian England and loath our current situation. We know that we lack peace and contentment, so we travel through time inside our heads and bring up the stories we've been told about the past. These are inaccurate, though. When we want to remember a certain time as good we will forget the bad in doing so. When we romanticize Victorian England, we forget about the hardships of disease and death due to lack of modern technology. We forget about many aspects left out of the stories past down to us.

Whether you live a thousand year ago or in the twenty-first century, people faced trials and struggles, there were hardships and grieving, but in addition to that, there were many joyful aspects. Though we choose to exaggerate our memories, they are nothing but ideas in our head. Ultimately, it doesn't matter when you lived, nor how your past is remember, it matters what you choose to do with the time you live in.

Worldviews

Author's Note: This is an on demand, timed response to the novel Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I'm trying to practice this skill for the ACT and other timed tests. Mr. Johnson gave me a prompt when I walked into class and I had the rest of class (85 minutes) to craft my response.

Evil and good are two opposing forces of nature; the optimistic people believe that deep down everyone was born innocent  and has the ability to be good, while others think it is our human nature to be evil and goodness is a choice we have to make. This is a highly controversial issue, and there are strong supporters on both sides of the arguments. It usually just comes down to personal experience and opinion. Often, people take on their opinion of the world from those who brought them into the world, but eventually we all must create our own worldviews.

Tessa Gray, who has been an orphan since her early years, didn't have parents to craft her perspective on what the world looks likes. Living in these conditions, she formed her own opinion on human nature, and she saw the world to be evil. She didn't believe that people could be good because no one showed her what goodness was. Tessa Gray had lost so much and gained so little; it was hard for her to think that everyone was good because even Tessa struggled to show kindness. Because of her experiences, the eyes by which Tessa views the world have dark shadows cast upon them. In Tessa's life you see a common appearance of demons, hell, and death.

While trapped in the Dark Sisters house, Tessa is given a copy of the book Great Expectations, whose main character shares a similar experience as Tessa. Pip is an orphan. He, much like Tessa, did not have parents to implant thoughts into his head as he grew up. Because of this, Pip had to create his own perceptive on the world. Early on in the novel there are symbols of grave yards and death, showing that Pip sees the world as a naturally dark and evil place, too.

No matter how we form our perception of the world we live in, there is one common theme between all of them: they are based on our experiences and the stories passed down to us. For most of us, at an early age we believed everything our parents told us, but as we grew up we realized that even they were only human and didn't have all the answers. Coming to this realization, we had to begin to form our own opinions, and through our experiences we decided who we were. Every one of us must sometime take that step to disconnect from our main source of worldviews and craft our own based on what we believe to be true. For Pip and Tessa it was much sooner than usually, but for others it might take longer.