The Biggest Regret of the Prideful Boy – Exploring the universal themes of “The Scarlet Ibis”

This article is a discussion and reaction to both pages of the Achieve3000 article, “Wanted: More Women in Top Jobs” The point of this isn’t to convince or argue, but to simply give my opinion.

The main purpose of this article is to inform people of the lack of women in top jobs such as CEO’s, VP’s, and other managerial positions and to also call for companies to fix that problem. In my opinion, companies should be able to hire whomever they want no matter how monoculturalistic this leaves the company. As the article states, there are a few other reasons why women aren’t hired for top jobs as much as men besides misogyny.

The part of the article that I have the most vexation with is the paragraph that talks about Emma Arkell and her first-hand experience of a problematic workplace. In case you haven’t read the article, Emma Arkell is a top attorney at a large London law firm with very famous and wealthy clients. After she had children, she and many of her female colleagues found it near impossible to balance work responsibilities, with the responsibilities of parenthood. So, they made their own company that allowed more flexible work hours. The reason that I have a problem with this is that Emma expects to receive special work hours just because she has a family. It isn’t a requirement for her to take off work to tend to her family because her husband could take off to help with the family. If she already knew that she would pursue a better career, not get any help from her husband, and still have children, I think that it is somewhat obvious that there is not enough time to work that schedule daily.

From the companies perspective, all they care about is making as much money as possible. That means that if they run into an employee who doesn’t cooperate with working hours and responsibilities, they will terminate that person and find someone who will. I’m not saying that Emma was wrong for leaving that company because I think that she deserves to be able to pursue multiple aspects of her life at once. I think she is very brave and powerful for creating a workplace environment that she believes is better, instead of settling for less.

In conclusion, I think that companies should be able to hire whomever they want even if that means that means they aren’t very diverse.

OR

This blog is a reaction to the Newsela article, “Handwriting beats typing when it comes to taking class notes”, by Diane Lincoln, so you can go read it if you want. The purpose of the article is to convince people that students of all ages, but more specifically focusing on children learning to read and write, should still be practicing handwriting instead of typing on a keyboard. The author recalls information from multiple studies and provides quotes from Van der Meer, a neuropsychologist, and Joshua Wiener, also a neuroscientist, to get strong evidence for her claims such as the time she included “young children should learn to write by hand successfully, and, at the same time learn to manage a keyboard”. (Meer, 3) She claims that writing by hand uses certain parts of the brain that typing doesn’t which could “improve memory and enhance learning” (Wiener, 17). Writing by hand also “gives the brain more ‘hooks’ to hang your memories on” (Meer, 5)

Agree or Disagree?

In short, I mostly agree with the points of this article. I think that children should learn how to type and how to write for 2 reasons.

Personal Preferences: Children need to try both in order to find what they like best.

Pros and Cons: Each of the 2 methods have their pros and cons. For example, writing simply takes longer than typing, while writing improves memory and learning capabilities.

I think that the quote that raps it up the best is when the author includes a quote from Meer saying, “I would use a keyboard to write an essay, but I’d take notes by hand [in class]“. (Meer, 15) This quote proves my point earlier that different people may have different preferences on which method they would use for different situations, while at the same time showing a pro and con of each method. That being that typing is faster so it would be more efficient to type wether than write out things like essays. As well as, writing is better for learning because it takes longer which allows for improved memory of the content.

I have a biology test on Thursday, so I decided to make a list of the 4 macromolecules and everything you need to know about them. For a quick recap, the 4 macromolecules that we will be tested are Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids. On the test, you have to be able to classify the models of each (Level 2), list 2 functions of each (Level 2), use models to list 2 unique structural characteristics of each (Level 3), and explain how the structure influences the function inside of living things (Level 3). Enjoy!

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in them. You can also tell carbohydrates apart by the hexagonal shape. However, some nucleic acids also have parts of them with a hexagonal shape, so you must remember that carbohydrates are only the hexagon and nothing else. The two functions of carbohydrates are that they are the primary source of energy and also help support plant cell walls. One example of how the structure of carbohydrate affects its function is found in cellulose. Unlike a normal disaccharide, cellulose monomers flip over 180 degrees each time bond. This allows for more bonds between the tops of some monomers and the bottoms of others. This is important because is allows cellulose to be stronger and more resistant. That is why cellulose is found supporting plants’ hard structures.

Lipids

Lipids can be told apart by their lack of a repeating monomer and their long hydrocarbon tails. Also, lipids have a giant phosphate head that holds all of the hydrocarbon tails. The two main functions of lipids are that they make up cell membranes and they are a secondary energy source. The hydrophilic nature of the phosphate head allows for it to be attracted to the water inside and outside of the cell. This makes for a strong bond between the lipids which also provides strong support for the cell wall.

Proteins

Proteins can told apart by their alpha carbon and their intersection like structure. The center of a protein is called the alpha carbon. The alpha carbon is a single carbon atom that connects all of the different groups together to form the intersection like structure. There are many different proteins with tons of different functions, but 2 common functions are carrying oxygen in the blood to other cells (hemoglobin) and to produce hormones.

Nucleic Acids

Nucleic Acids can be told apart by their atoms and groups. Nucleic Acids are the only macromolecule to have a phosphate atom in them. Also, Nucleic acids have three groups to tell them apart. The sugar, the phosphate, and the nitrogenous base. The 2 functions of nucleic acids are to store genetic information to produce proteins and to carry that genetic information to your offspring. The nitrogenous groups being in pairs, not being in pairs, and which order they are in allows the nucleic acids to convey information.

“The Scarlet Ibis” is a story of a boy taking pride in the physical progression of his younger brother, Doodle. This emotion goes too far when it leads to the death of the toddler.

This story was full of excitement and emotion, but the biggest thing that I took from the short story was the universal themes. The major theme in the story is “Expectations and Acceptance”. The narrator and his parents have high hopes before Doodle is born. His parents, naming him William Armstrong, and the narrator himself, expecting William to play with him wherever he goes. When William is born however, they realize that he isn’t properly developed. This means that he might not even live until his first day of school. The expectations change jurasticly as the parents have a little mahogany coffin prepared for William, and the name Doodle is given to William by his brother because he doesn’t expect anything from someone named Doodle. Ultimately, everybody loses their original expectations of Doodle being a normal boy, everybody except his brother. The narrator begins to sneak Doodle out of the house every day to teach him how to walk, even though the doctor says he will never be able to do so. However, within months Doodle is able to walk across entire rooms of the house without any aid. Now, the narrator teaches Doodle how to do everything that he wants him to do. These activities include rowing a boat, running, and swimming. Each day that goes by, the narrator’s hope for Doodle’s success grows. But one day, a storm comes crashing down over the boys as they are playing, so the narrator decides that he and Doodle will run back to the house as quickly as possible. As they are running, Doodle says to his brother that he cannot go any farther. But, filled with the highest expectation of Doodle being normal and also the shame that he currently isn’t, the narrator continues running, leaving Doodle far behind. When the narrator gets so far ahead that Doodle isn’t is sight, he becomes worried for Doodle. He starts running back to where he saw Doodle last and he sees him houdled up in a ball, dead. The narrator realizes that he had tried so hard to get Doodle to be normal and to lose the shame that he felt because of him, and it led to him having no brother at all.

 

3 Quality Questions

1. How would Doodle do in school if he hadn’t died?

The first day of school for Doodle was just around the corner. He was almost at the level that the other kids would have been at, but not quit there yet. Also, his endurance was still lacking at that point. (Hence why he died) School would be quiet the adventure for him.

2. What would have happened to Doodle if his brother didn’t teach him how to walk?

Before the narrator helped Doodle, he not able to do anything on his own. Even, if Doodle lived, he still would never be able to achieve much since he couldn’t do anything.

3. What other creature could be a good replacement for the scarlet ibis?

The scarlet ibis was important in the story because its awkwardness as it died falling from the bleeding tree represented death. More specifically, Doodle’s death. I think the strongest replacement for the scarlet ibis would still probably be a bird, but I’m not sure.