We are all trapped somehow, and it is mostly by choice. The literary works we have read illustrate that to us; that we can all leave somehow, we can all escape. In A&P, Sammy wasn't forced to work in the grocery store, he put it upon himself. Only until he saw the three girls walk in with bathing suits, did he realize that we can't all be put in a box. That we all need to rebel against a system in which we are taught to trap ourselves in our own lives. This is what the song "Little Boxes" is mostly about. It is trying to show us that there is a pattern in society, where you grow up, go to school, learn how to function in society and then you get trapped in long circulating system that never ends. "And the children go to summer camps, and then to the university where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same."

In Blind Melon's "No Rain", it deals with the same concept that society is trying to put us into a "little box". However this song is a lot more optimistic than "Little Boxes" in the sense that the bumble bee girl finds people like her. The song illustrates to us that we shouldn't give up, we shouldn't let others tell us to think or express ourselves differently from who we actually are. This song can relate to Gimpel the Fool; throughout the entire story, Gimpel thought he was a fool. He only realized that he was wrong when escaped from his village and learned about who he actually is. It shows that he was put in a box and was forced to accept what society labeled him, much like the bumble bee girl. The two of them leave and find happiness elsewhere in place where they can be accepted.

"In search of an Exit" deals mostly that we are trapped in something that we do not comprehend ourselves. it can easily be compared to "No Exit" by Jean Paul-Sartre, in that we are all forced to live with a group of people we may not like and we all want to escape but don't know how. Unlike the twilight zone episode, "No Exit" mostly deals with themes of social acceptance and the fact that others affect us in a very strong way. Other people can make us change and makes us do things we will regret. Sometimes this includes others putting you in a little box.

I have learned through the literary works that i can't let society put me in a box. I can't be labeled or let others make fun of me, because in short, it's all up to me. I can choose whether or not i'm gonna let society control me. For the universe, we all have to embrace the mystery. The universe is absurd, the more we let superstitions take over our lives, the more they will come true. We can all end up like Gregor Samsa and get turned into a useless cockroach. Or we can become like Sammy and break free from our own enslavement and change the world!
-Matthew Lupovich, English 11

I think a lot of the characters from our short stories can relate to the bumblebee girl. They are all out of place in society. However, none of them give up or change the way they are for somebody else for the most part. They all feel down on themselves until they realize that they aren't alone in the world. Someone else has their same qualities. For example in A & P, Sammy knows he doesn't fit in with society, however he doesn't actually act upon it until he sees the girls walk into the super market. At that moment he knows that he isn't alone and that he doesn't have to conform with the rest of society.

I am from bagels and butter
from spiderman comics and kool-aid stained lips
from pointing a water hose upwards to make rain
from wanting to be michael jordan
from time being infinite and happiness cheap

I think that george killed lennie because he simply didn't want to have Lennie suffer later on. He wanted Lennie to have a peaceful death instead of what the ranchers were intending to do. Also, since Lennie committed murder it would be impossible to run away without getting caught, and also the fact that they wouldn't be able to buy the farm they always dreamed of. It's safe to say at the time, that George would expect that Lennie would be in a better place (Heaven).

I think that the house is sort of an echo of the emotions that are displayed by the characters, such as the mother and father. Basically showing that whenever the parents display any kind of greed or negative emotion, the house will whisper "there must be more money". which, in my opinion, doesn't actually mean that the family needs more money, it just reflects on how they have a needed desire for something that isn't that important and choose to ignore the actual problems of the household, such as Paul.

A&P extra paragraphs
John Updike

Theme: Freedom

I walked down Cherry Wood Lane, my bow-tie was unraveled and hung loose underneath my collar. The soft summer breeze rustled the maple leaves. down every sideblock and every corner, I looked for Queenie and the others. In fact, i looked for any girl in a bathing suit. I yearned to see that beauty once again, the delicate white rose petals that pulled out the dollar bill was stilled etched in my mind; and all i saw were rustling maple leaves that shimmered from the hot July sun.
I saw my neighbors watering the leaves, trimming the hedges. The same thing that they always do. The same thing; everyday. Now my perspective of them changed, these people were not the same. It's as if someone cleaned the dirt off the window looking into life and i could see the true emotions that were beneath every plaid summer shirt the neighbors would wear, maybe it's even a brand new two-piece green bathing suit.

Here are some things i liked and some things i didn't like about the short film

things i liked: some camera angles were pretty good and caught my attention, my favourite one being when the american asks the waitress about the drink where he is in the background, i found to be very creative.
another thing i liked was the production value and how it looked like a lot of care was taken into the setting, despite it being a low budget movie, i also liked how the story changed from when the two are in bed to when they are in the bar, which i found to be pretty interesting.

Things i didn't like: the acting felt extremely robotic and unnatural, the only good performance i saw in the film were from the waitress, who actually delivered some realistic and emotional lines despite how insignificant they were.
Furthermore, the music kind of got redundant after a while and didn't add anything to the emotional depth of the characters or story. there were also a lot of fade outs that looked very digitalized and fake and distracted me from the actual story and i would have preferred it if they weren't there. There also needs to be a better variety of camera angles, not that some of them weren't good as i stated before, but there wasn't any kind of establishing shot to set the scene and the extreme close ups were kind of irritating.
All in all, I found the film to be pretty mediocre in my opinion, and still needs a lot of work.

I think that the significance of the coat of arms is that it pretty much tells us that Montresor (The Narrator) does not accept any kind of disrespect from anybody no matter who they are (This includes friends). This is why Montresor kills Fortunado.

She was a new student that just came in from Argentina.

I think that the main character was so obsessed with the girl that she was all he could think about, which lead to him becoming somewhat of a "monster" or "Creature" where his only concerns were with this girl; who was taking over his life.