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Mary Allen
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The Gravity Falls Gossiper
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Dear everyone who is currently working on a Thing, whatever that Thing may be,
Good luck with the Thing. You can do the Thing. You will do the Thing. You just have to do the Thing.
Best wishes,
Someone who is also doing a Thing
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Selfless Acts
By Mary Allen
November 21, 2017
Sir Nicholas Winton was a humanitarian who committed an altruistic act during World War II. Winton saved just under seven hundred children during the war in what is now called kindertransport. Winton saved Jewish children from an atrocious fate without wanting any recognition or reward in return. Learning Winton’s story can have people realize that you don’t always to need to be getting a prize for doing something good for someone else. Seeing someone act so selflessly can inspire anyone to go out and change him or herself for the better.
Winton kept what he had done for these children almost entirely a secret until 1988 when his wife discovered a scrapbook in their attic naming each child he had saved. The fact that Winton had not boasted about what he had done for all of the children certainly made what he had did that much more recognizable. Since he did not brag about it, he received a lot of respect and awe from people around the world. It inspires people to start doing good for people for no reason other than that it needs to be done.
Doing good for others has always been something I have tried to do as often as possible. I have also always tried to not ask or accept anything in return. Winton’s story has made me think about what I could have done differently to make what I have done for others even more selfless. Just recently, I drove a friend of mine to Red Bank to pick up her stepfather’s car. Her mother insisted on giving me gas money even though I repeatedly refused to accept it. I ended up eventually taking and using the money. Looking back on it, I could have been selfless and not accepted the money at all, knowing that she is going to need to be resourceful with her spending in the near future. Now, being inspired by Winton’s story, the next time her mother asks for a favor, I’ll be sure to refuse anything she tries to give me in return as it would be the morally correct thing to do.
Anyone can emulate Winton’s courage and selflessness in their everyday lives - even in the most simple of ways. For example, if I were to see someone getting bullied, I could step in and break it up because no one deserves to be harassed. If a friend of mine was having a bad day, I could do something to cheer them up because it is the right thing to do. Being selfless isn’t as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. Not being an extremely selfish person makes you easier to like, be around, and communicate with. Using Winton’s story to inspire one’s self can make you a better person.
Individuals today are inherently selfish. Being a little selfish is not always a bad thing, but we always have to be selfless in some way. Taking in Sir Nicholas Winton’s story, one can truly be inspired to look at their own personality and determine if they should follow in Winton’s footsteps, per se, and become less selfish. Winton’s story can inspire anybody to mirror his generosity and become a better person.
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Write about your favorite book.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story was written in 2006 by American writer Ned Vizzini. The novel tells the story of sixteen-year-old Craig Gilner who lives in Brooklyn and is determined to succeed. He wants to get into the right high school to get into the right college and, finally, to get the right job. He aces his way into the Executive Pre-Professional High School in Manhattan, but the pressure becomes too much for him. He stops eating and sleeping – only focusing on his school work – until he breaks and nearly kills himself. This lands him in a mental hospital where he meets a number of interesting characters while he deals with the sources of his intense anxiety. The author wrote this novel shortly after checking himself out of a mental hospital in 2004. Sadly, Vizzini died in 2013 from blunt impact injuries resulting from a suicide jump. When the story of Craig hit stores, Vizzini only hoped that this story shows that, sometimes, there is an unexpected road to happiness in the end.
This work has been a favorite of mine since seventh grade when I first read it. There was always something about how Vizzini wrote Craig’s narration. It always is like he is speaking from personal experience, which, I later learned, he sort of was. The use of his personal experience it was finalized my falling in love with this novel. The fact that I can personally understand what Craig is going through is what truly captured my attention with It’s Kind of a Funny Story. Anxiety and depression is something I am not unfamiliar with at all. Craig’s mental illness is an experience no one should have to go through, but sadly, many people do every day. The harsh reality of the main plotline is what caused me to actually buy the book and start reading it. This novel is not some fantasy of a world everyone wants to live in. It displays the cruel truth about the one we do live in.
I have read many books throughout the years and only one other character has stuck with me just like Craig Gilner has. I felt a connection to this character from the moment I started reading It’s Kind of a Funny Story. The way that Craig feels about himself and his life is something I have identified with for years and there are not many characters are able to be so easily identified with due to the sheer faux details of their stories. Craig is a unique character as is Vizzini’s style of writing which makes it all the more appealing.
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Write about your favorite song.
“Ring of Keys” is from the Tony-Award-Winning Musical “Fun Home” which is based on the graphic memoir of the same name by Alison Bechdel. Alison tells the story of her father’s untimely death, growing up with said volatile father, and her coming-out as a lesbian. The story is told through three stages of Alison’s life; Small Alison, aged around ten, Medium Alison, aged around eighteen, and Alison who is forty-three. “Ring of Keys” is sung by Small Alison when she is in a diner with her father. The song itself is an ode to a delivery woman she sees who she identifies with in a way Alison doesn’t yet know or understand. The song is about the first time you realize there is something different about you. In this case, it was the first time Alison saw a woman who she could not describe her feelings for until later in life when she learned the word “lesbian.” Personally, this song reminds me of the first female celebrity crush I had when I was six or seven. Everyone has a moment in their life when they realize something about themselves that doesn’t quite fit into what they have learned to be. This song is a big symbol of embracing who you are and experiencing the moment when a person realizes who they are.
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Adultery versus Witchcraft
By Mary Allen
October 13, 2016
Themes of a literary work are what make it its own. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible are two works that display multiple of the same themes. Those themes being hypocrisy, guilt, sin, and society. While the work themselves are not too similar, they encase similar ideas and themes that make them more alike.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play written in 1953 based on true events from the Salem Witch Trials. The play is set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1692 to 1693. Miller wrote the play in response to the McCarthyism era in the United States. He compared the hunt of communists to the hunt for witches during the seventeenth century. He saw that the blacklisting of the accused communists was similar to the hanging and arresting of the accused witches in Salem hundreds of years in the past. The play has characters that were once alive and dramatizes their stories – making them partially fictional yet still accurate to the time period. Miller’s work is a critically acclaimed piece for its raw yet hyperbolic staging of the witch trials as well as its easily understood theme of mass hysteria. The Crucible is Miller’s most produced work – a revival on Broadway just recently ending – and it will most likely continue to do so as time goes on because of its extreme popularity throughout theatre lovers.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of Hester Prynne – a woman in Puritan, seventeenth century, Boston who has a baby out of wedlock. Hester struggles after her prison sentence to start a new life while repenting for her sins and retrieving her dignity. As a punishment, she is forced wear a scarlet “A” on her bosom so everyone knows that she is an adulteress. Throughout the novel, a love triangle of sorts is formed between herself, her cowardly lover, and her husband. The feeling of want and guilt brought on by Hester has made The Scarlet Letter a masterpiece of its time and a critically acclaimed novel to this day
Hypocrisy was something that Hawthorne was extremely against. Yet, a few of his characters in The Scarlet Letter are massive hypocrites. For example, the character Governor Bellingham has a sister who is a witch, which is a punishable offense, but he is not turning her in because they are related. Yet, he is still insisting that Hester being continuously punished for her sins. Reverend Dimmesdale is also a hypocrite. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, Hester’s child, but he refuses to come forward and admit to it. However, Hester is still forced to be publicly shamed every day for their sin by the “A” on her bosom. “He has his hand over his heart! Is it because when the minister wrote his name in the book, the Black Man set his mark in that place? But why does he not wear it outside his bosom, as thou dost, mother?” (Hawthorne 225). In Miller’s The Crucible, Deputy Governor Danforth expects Giles Corey to give names of witnesses so they either be arrested or testify, but he does not make Abigail and the other girls testify. Danforth just takes the girls’ words for what they said they saw. Hypocrisy was a big part both of these works, but it was much stronger and more prominent in Hawthorne’s novel.
Guilt was a major theme in both the play and the novel. In The Crucible, Reverend Hale is responsible for the arrests and deaths of numerous people because he believed the girls and told the court as such. Due to this, he feels guilty. He feels that, if it weren’t for his word, maybe the court would not have believed the girls’ accusations. As for The Scarlet Letter, the theme of guilt was much more obvious to point out. Both Hester and Dimmesdale were guilty of committing adultery. Hester spent time in jail and was forced to wear the “A” on her bosom while Dimmesdale branded himself and grabs his chest out of guilt. “He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost,” (Hawthorne 87). Both Hester and Dimmesdale are guilty, but Hester is the only one being made to pay for it. The theme of guilt is again stronger in Hawthorne’s novel than Miller’s play, but it still has a huge impact on both works.
There are large differences between the sins committed in The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. In The Scarlet Letter, adultery was the case while witchcraft was the sin in The Crucible. However, in The Crucible, John Proctor, a married man, committed adultery with Abigail Williams, making the sins in both works the same. The sin of adultery was more focused on in The Scarlet Letter, though. Miller was more focused on witchcraft in his play. Many people were accused and killed over the witchcraft hysteria in Salem during that time. It was considered a sin to be working with the devil like that. “God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are!” (Miller 1332). In the novel, Hester is known for her sin and accepts the bad publicity that is brought onto her while John Proctor refuses to have his name soiled by it. Hester is more accepting of the shame of sins than anyone in The Crucible, making the two portrayals of sin completely dissimilar.
Puritan, Seventeenth Century, Massachusetts is the society of both Miller and Hawthornes’ works. Both societies are now considered theocracies, which mean they are ruled by the church. That is about as far as the similarities between the two go. Salem is in a mass hysteria over the witch trials. Innocent and good people are being accused of working with the devil over petty squabbles, grudges, and land. The people of this society are also extremely gullible. They all take the words of young girls looking for attention when it comes to who is and who is not a witch. The Scarlet Letter is set in Boston around the same time as the witch trials. Here, the people are just as unforgiving of sin as those in The Crucible. “At the very least, they should put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead…little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!” (Hawthorne 59). At first, the townspeople thought that Hester deserved worse than what she got, but they all eventually begin to see Hester differently. They started to see the “A” on her chest to stand for “Able” instead of “Adultery” as Hester does more and more for the community. In The Crucible, the townspeople were all very adamant about whoever was accused was more than likely guilty, no matter what. In The Scarlet Letter, the people started to forgive Hester for her sins as she paid repentance for them.
The themes hypocrisy, guilt, sin, and society were extremely important in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. All the themes were broadcasted differently throughout both works, yet they all still had significance and were easily found. The themes that are present make the work appear similar, but they are still greatly different, partly because of these themes. Nathaniel Hawthorn and Arthur Miller both used these themes to make their works unique and original, yet still applicable to their audiences, making the themes contributing factors to the greatness of their art.
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Bring Color to My Skies
By Mary Allen
March 7, 2016
“I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome,” (Salinger, 153). Holden Caulfield is a person usually uses wit and sarcasm to mask how he really feels. Many times throughout The Catcher in the Rye, he truly exposes his need for a connection with and comfort from someone. Holden does not have many people who want to be close to him. Those who have in the past drew back from him after a while. Being close to another person is something that everyone needs in order to be able to deal with their problems.
Holden is extremely desperate for a meaningful relationship with someone. This want starts off when he is with Sunny. She is a prostitute who paid to talk to. He was so desperate for someone to talk to he paid for a prostitute in the middle of the night. When Sunny was first there, he said to her, “I just thought perhaps you might care to chat for a while,” (Salinger, 95). Rather than take advantage of the almost naked girl in front of him who he was paying, he just sat there and talked to her. Holden wanted a friend so badly he was willing to pay just to have a small chat with a random girl. Holden mentions that he was too depressed to do anything with her, which adds to the implication that he is lonely and wants nothing more than for someone to comfort and listen to him.
Another time Holden’s vulnerability is shown is when he meets up with Sally Hayes. He originally did not want to do anything with her, but then he called her up and invited her out on a date. “I’m crazy. I didn’t even like her all that much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her,” (Salinger, 124). Holden admitted to not liking this girl at all, yet wanted some company so much he went out with her anyway. A close relationship is all he wants from someone and no matter how hard he has tried, the other person never seems to realize just how desperate he is. After flipping out on Sally for not wanting to run away with him, he has some drinks with Carl Luce. He admits to Carl just how lonely he is and begs him to stay for just one more drink. He does not get too upset when Carl leaves, but does end up walking around the city alone and drunk. Even though he did not really like either of them all that much, he is just tired of not having someone close to him anymore.
Eventually Holden completely falls apart. Holden was constantly being disappointed by these people who he repeatedly told he was lonely and just wanted to talk to. These multiple disappointments most likely played a part in his breaking down. Every time he sought out a companion, he was let down because they either were too busy or just did not care enough to listen to him. After Allie’s death, Holden felt that everyone was disappearing and that pretty much proved to be true after each person he tried to confide in turned him away. Holden got tired of everyone tuning him out and just broke.
Being close to another person is something that everyone needs in order to be able to deal with their problems. Holden never really became close to someone after Allie’s death, which resulted in him never truly dealing with it. The only person he was ever close to after the death of his brother was Phoebe, but she was far too young for him to confide in. Holden needed nothing more than for someone to show him that he had a friend but he never got that which lead to his breakdown. Holden just wanted at least one person to listen to him and give him closure. He just needed that one person to take him away.
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The Ballot, Bullet, or Dream
By Mary Allen
June 2, 2017
The Civil Rights Movement was heavily impacted by the leadings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X. These two men actively spoke out against the discrimination they constantly faced and impacted many others to speak and act out as well. Speaking up for black rights was one of the only things the two men had in common. King used his speeches, like his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, to promote a nonviolent approach to fight for integration. Malcolm X, however, used his speeches, like his “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech, to move forward with a more powerful approach to fight for desegregation. Dr. King and Malcolm X used their platforms to advocate for what they believed was the right outcome needed.
In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King took on the stance that nonviolent protests were the way to get black citizens to be considered equal to white citizens. King promoted for a nationwide practice of integration. This meant that blacks and whites would be mixed together in every setting – no separation would be present at all. In his speech, King said “In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred…We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” Dr. King was known for his peaceful acts of protests, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was all about using class and sophistication in order to show that they were serious about their cause and were not as horrible as they were made out to be. Dr. King used a calm, serious manner of speaking when doing to further showcase how momentous the cause truly was.
Malcolm X’s speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet”, Malcolm X’s way of promoting a more tactful approach for desegregation. Desegregation is when everyone is separate but equal. Malcolm X was one of the civil rights leaders who believed the path to desegregation was the only right way to go. He also believes in a far more active approach is needed to get the point across. In his speech, he stated, “It's not so good to refer to what you're going to do as a sit-in. An old woman can sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit, a coward can sit, anything can sit. Well, you and I been sitting long enough and it's time for us today to start doing some standing and some fighting to back that up.” Malcolm X was saying that all the sit-ins and boycotts that Dr. King had been organizing and encouraging were not enough to show how determined they were to resolve the situation at hand. He never outwardly told anyone to use means of violence to support the cause, but he mentioned several times to use “any means necessary” to fight against racism and discrimination. In his famous speech, Malcolm often used humor and allusions to past and current events to engage his audience and further prove the facts behind his words.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X were two men fighting the same fight with two different strategies. Both used word of mouth to inspire others to fight against hate in America but one used a more scholarly approach and the other a more easily relatable one. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech spoke more about what the future would look like if the right steps were taken during that time. “The Ballot or the Bullet” spoke of current events that Malcolm X felt could be defining ones for the Civil Rights Movement. Despite the differences and similarities in these two speeches, one similarity remains greater than all others. These speeches impacted thousands to take action and continue fighting for their rights in a world that told them they did not deserve any. These speeches became the words of the entire movement.
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Independent Cruelty
By Mary Allen
November 4, 2016
Ernest Hemingway’s character Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises is a uniquely interesting spirit. Lady Brett is based off a woman with whom Hemingway was in love, but could not be with. In the novel, Brett is a sexually ambiguous woman who does not fit into traditional gender roles. She has short hair, drinks, is strongly independent – she refuses to commit to just one man. Although Brett preferred the independence, she told Jake it made her awfully miserable. Like the other characters in the novel, Brett is aimlessly going about her life with no real intentions of what to do. She described her life as unsatisfying in this way. Even while being psychologically similar to the other characters, Brett is unapologetically different no matter what anyone has to say about it.
To be sympathetic is to exhibit compassion towards others. Lady Brett constantly toys with the emotional aspects of the men around her, particularly Jake. Brett claims she is in love with Jake – which she could be in her own way – yet she refuses to be with him because of his impotence. One day she says to him, “Love you? I simply turn to jelly when you touch me,” (Hemingway 34). She is declaring that she undoubtedly loves Jake, yet, later in the novel, when Jake says they should live together, she tells him, “I’d just tromper you with everybody,” (Hemingway 62). Brett is basically contradicting her own words. She is going from saying she loves Jake to say she cannot love him enough not to cheat on him. Knowing how much Jake loves her and using that for her own removes any chance of her being sympathetic towards others.
Lady Brett is sexually promiscuous, emotionally controlling and entirely what a woman is traditionally viewed as. Most people would take this and her excessive drinking into account and immediately announce her as the opposite of a good female role model. However, her independent lifestyle and refusal to be controlled by a man makes her a candidate for a decent role model. Many women still believe that they have to be subservient to men because it is their proper role in society. Lady Brett is a prime example of a woman who refuses to be controlled by someone else. She forced Pedro to leave her because “he wanted to make it sure I could never go away from him,” (Hemingway 246). In other words, Pedro wanted to restrict her from being around anyone she could potentially cheat on or leave him for. This way, he could be in complete domination over her. Brett refused to have someone dominate her which sets a good example for what a woman should be doing for herself.
The way that Brett treats her male friends is significant to the recurrent confusion of gender roles in The Sun Also Rises. Traditionally, in this time period, women treated men with deep respect and men treated women usually like an object. This part remains intact as Mike repeatedly calls Brett a “lovely piece.” Albeit, the way that Brett treats the males in this novel coincides with the accustomed way men would have treated women in this era. Brett regards these men as objects while the men, such as Cohn, talk of how they are in love with her – common with how women would have talked of men. To say that the way she treats these men is cruel would contradict what many men believe is their rite of passage with women. However, to conclude that Brett and the men of this time periods’ treatment of their respective opposite sex is cruel, would be sufficient. Brett deceives these men into believing that she is capable of loving them when her true instinct keeps her from doing so. Brett’s commonly reverse way of treating her male friends is callous and deceitful.
Lady Brett from The Sun Also Rises is an uncommon woman of her time with her number of masculine traits. Her profligate ways characterize Brett as a nontraditional role model to women as well as distinctly unsympathetic and somewhat cruel. Hemingway used Brett as a surrogate for someone he had once wanted to marry and possibly started to detest after she had married someone else – the same way Jake resented Brett a bit when her choice of partners was brought up by Cohn. Lady Brett distinguishes what a woman was thought to have to be and what they could be during the 20s. Hemingway’s choice of this depiction of women made a symbol that women would later begin to follow because of the individuality and independence they felt when assuming the attributes of this well-known lady.
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What was the last thing you read, heard, or saw that inspired you?
Last night, I watched a Ted Talk by a girl who had been in Darfur, Sudan before she and her family fled their home country. We breifly learned about this ongoing genocide in Mr. Bloom’s class yesterday - the very last day of that class. During this course, we learned of so many horrible actions and crimes committed in so many genocides. From Armenia in 1915 to Rwanda in 1994. Every time, people across the world - the UN, NATO; say “this will never happen again.” And yet, less than a decade after the end of the Rwandan genocide, the genocide in SUdan started in 2003. How can we as people continue to let this happen? Since the start of the genocide in Armenia up to the current point in Darfur, over 27 million people have been killed at the hands of a genocide. 27,000,000 people in just a few years over a century. I want to use this inspiration to gain information to educate people about all of these atrocious events and, hopefully, it will truly be never again.
1.23.18
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You are a children’s book writer. Write the first few lines of your new book.
Jodie ran downstairs as she heard the opening of a door.
“It must be daddy!” she thought.
AS she ran through the door, she realized it wasn’t her daddy who just arrived, but a police officer.
“Why is he here?” she wondered.
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What color do you feel like today?
I feel gray. Not the soft gray of your favorite sweatshirt or the sky on a cloudy day, but the dark gray of a rainstorm. Rain is pounding down on my shoulders, lightning strikes around me. Rain cascades down my eyes because today is a sad day. Gray is the only way to describe how I feel on days like these. A sad, dull color that captures the ache in my heart.
11.14.17
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Name one thing you have lied to yourself about. Why did you do this?
I lie and say that I am okay. I haven’t been okay in a long time.
I lie to myself because it is what is expected of me. If I don’t say that I am okay, then I am burdening everyone with my problems – and you shouldn’t do that.
It is not socially acceptable to be mentally and emotionally unstable. So, I convince myself that everything is all right, that I am okay, even though I most certainly am not.
I sit here crying my eyes out, trying not to put a razor to the tender skin of my wrist as I write this.
11.14.17
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Love, Simon and the Importance of Representation
By Mary Allen
Cheesy high school romances have been the subject of Valentine’s Day films for decades. Couples gather in the movie theater to watch the nerdy girl fall for the popular jock or an awkward guy falls for the cheerleader. Movies with romance filled with a comedic subplot of perfect for anyone to see with their valentine. But, what about the boy who has a crush on another boy?
20th Century Fox announced in November of 2017 that Love, Simon will be coming out in theaters on March 16, 2018. Love, Simon is based on Becky Albertalli’s best-selling novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. The novel follows the life of Simon Spier, a teenage boy just like any other, except he has a big secret. Simon finds out a classmate has the same secret and starts emailing the online persona of the classmate, Blue.
Love, Simon breaks the stereotype of high school films. Most movies will depict a relationship between a boy and a girl as that is what is a lot of people can relate to. Still, there are many teenagers and children who can identify with the inner turmoil Simon experiences while trying to come to terms with his own sexuality.
Many people may wonder why this is such a big deal. There is so much acceptance today, so why is this movie considered a huge breakthrough? This a valid question and the honest answer is there is a need for representation. Even with the ever-growing acceptance in the world, children and teenagers still grow up without seeing someone who they identify with in television, books, and movies. Many children will grow up thinking what they feel is not valid or is the wrong way to feel because they have never been able to relate to a character they see in shows. Giving adolescents representation in a normal, non-stereotypical way, similar to Simon Spier, can change their lives. By putting an LGBT character as the focus in a situation anyone can comprehend and empathize with, it is showing struggling children and teens that what they are going through is a normal experience.
Love, Simon comes out a month after Valentine’s Day, so, take your significant other or a friend out on a late date to laugh and cry along to the relatable, hilarious, and tacky story of Simon Spier.
#maryallenjournalism#writing#lovesimon#journalism#writer#books#creative writing#journalist#lgbt#queer
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