Peer Feedback #1

Essay #1:

                George Eliot personified her views on “old leisure” and her “modern” leisure in two very different ways.  When describing “old leisure”, Eliot used specific diction and syntax to portray the simplicity of “old Leisure.”  On the other hand, Eliot exemplifies “modern” leisure through concise and direct examples.

                “Happy is his inability to know the causes of things, preferring the things themselves.”  This simple syntax reveals that “old leisure” find happiness not in the complicated process of understanding something, but in the object itself.”  Liking the afternoon services best, because the prayers were the shortest, and not ashamed to say so; for he had an easy, jolly conscience.”  Once again Eliot expresses her content of “old Leisure” by describing it with diction such as “shortest, easy, and jolly.”  By depicting “old leisure” in this manner, George Eliot accomplishes her goal in persuading readers to understand the once blissful experience of “old leisure”.

                When illustrating the “modern” leisure that has consumed the present, Eliot gives direct examples to portray its existence.  “Prone to excursions, art-museums, periodical literature, and exciting novels.”  These direct examples prove that “modern” leisure has become fast paced and adventurous.  From the descriptions in the latter text, this new leisure appears to be the polar opposite of “old Leisure”.

George Eliot is obviously a creative author due to the fact that she expresses her ideas through the personification of simple ideas.  Through her stimulating vocabulary and candid examples, Eliot is capable of describing a part of life that so few ever give a second thought to.

Essay #2

                In the novel Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card, the author writes to a theme that addresses the social problem of youth disintegration.  Card is able to construct this theme by creating a futuristic setting that portrays characters that could possibly exist in today’s modern world.

                Ender, the main character, is a genius by the time he reaches the age of six.  Because of his extraordinary intelligence, he is stripped away from his youth and put into a galactic battle school.  Card then expresses his views on modern society by providing the novel with selfish and egotistical adults looking only to reap the benefits of destroying Ender’s innocent youth.  By doing this Card compares today’s world to that of the future in that they share the characteristic of slowly depriving away the youth of children.

                When Ender is taken to battle school, Card is merely symbolizing the fact that many of today’s children are being put into school or even labor at too young of an age.  Card wishes to see the longevity of a child’s and therefore wrote this novel.  He implies throughout the story that although it might take place far into the future, the events occurring in the novel are in actuality becoming modern events.

                Orson Scott Card wrote Ender’s Game in order to change a simple yet important part of modern society.  Although he could not directly accomplish this through a contemporary setting, Card was able to achieve his goal through a not so distant future.