Jackie’s drug addiction is one of her most realistic complexities.  Addiction is a widespread epidemic in the real life of nursing due to the availability of narcotic medications.  She claims to have issues with her back from the many years of physically demanding hospital work.  Jackie, as a round character, contradicts herself in many ways with her addiction.  She preaches to her patients and coworkers about addiction, yet she is waist deep in it.  In one episode a young married woman arrives in the emergency room withdrawing from opiates, and Jackie greets  her by saying, “You can’t just stop taking opiates just like that; you have to taper off them. You’re on a slippery slope. Trying to get pregnant while taking painkillers recreationally is not a great plan.”  Ironically, Jackie tells the patient she will give her information to an addiction specialist, and as she is rooting through her purse for the information she pulls out a Vicodin tablet that just happens to be stuck to her notepad.  She then proceeds to swallow the narcotic like a pro and goes about her daily hospital life.  Who said all fictional medical shows are boring?  Nurse Jackie is so much more satisfying than watching George Clooney from the show ER perform chest compressions to save a dying patient. 

            Jackie has an extramarital affair throughout the show with Eddie the hospital pharmacist.  This behavior notes the other parts of her complex “life”.  Affairs are something we all unfortunately know too well of, but when they are fictional it is so juicy and fun!  It seems that she is happily married to her gorgeous husband Kevin, and has two beautiful daughters Grace and Fiona.  On the contrary, she lives a double life that she hides extremely well from all of her coworkers; they do not even know she is married with children!  After a fight with Eddie, her best friend and fellow nurse Mo-Mo asks why she is frustrated, and she says, “I had a fight with my…boyfriend.”  He gasps in shock and says, “Boyfriend?”  She quips, “Honey, you do all the talking.”  Her dearest friends have no idea about her real family life!  This is truly great television.

            Grace, Jackie’s eldest daughter, has issues with extreme anxiety and obsessive compulsive behaviors.  Grace’s school calls Jackie and Kevin in for a meeting with the school psychologist, nurse, and Grace’s teacher.  They explain her anxiety ridden behavior, and Grace’s teacher says, “She circles her desk three times before she sits down.  She told me it’s so planes don’t fall out of the sky.”  The school nurse then suggests counseling and a low dose anti-anxiety medicine.  They both start to panic, and Jackie shouts, “Thanks for your time. It’s amazing to me, you think a kid has a problem and you just make him take a pill? That’s nice work.”  Please note the ironic statement that came from the prescription drug addict.  Irony is the perfect recipe for an amazing television series!  Their solution to help fix their stressed out child is to foot the expensive bill to a private catholic school.  Jackie feels helpless as a mother in this situation, and she proceeds to do what she does best; she takes more pills. 

               Our heroine’s motivations are purely implicit.  Jackie never quite says what drives her, what she is trying to accomplish, or what her dreams may be, but as an audience we do know that she is trying to make the healthcare system a better place for patients to thrive. Zoe, a student nurse, tells Jackie, “You’re a saint.” She sees the softness in Jackie despite her tough outer shell.  Jackie goes above and beyond by making sure she always becomes friendly with the family of the patients, and she is always there to help the other nurses.  Her tough love works wonders with the student nurse Zoe as Jackie says this to cheer her up:

What’s this about, nobody ate your muffins? You found an ear in the toilet?  So what?  This job is wading through a shit storm of people who come into this place on the very worst day of their lives. And just so you know, doctors are here to diagnose, not heal. We heal. All Saints is in the business of flipping beds, that’s it, end of story. The fact that you have even the slightest inclination to help people puts you miles ahead of 100% of the population. So stop crying, okay? Buck up. If you need to cry, go to the ladies’ room. Is that clear?

She shovels through the drama, tragedy, and less than comedic moments with great dignity every day she works.  She has great compassion for all the patients that really need her help, and she teaches the ones that do not need her help to have compassion.  Jackie is taking the fictional hospital healthcare system by storm each shift she works.  Jackie’s portrayal of a fictional nurse is very much parallel to a real life nurse and it makes the show all the more appealing. 

               Jackie is furthest from a flat character.  Her round characteristics include drug addiction, an extramarital affair, an anxiety stricken child, and a true passion to help patients.  She is a static character throughout the show because it does not seem like she wants to kick her drug habit or stop having an affair with Eddie.  Jackie is not ready to better herself, and that is very refreshing for a television series to show the protagonist as a real life person with real life problems.  If that does not constitute an excellent show, I am not sure what would.  What more could you ask for in a great television series?  Nurse Jackie has sex, drugs, beautiful people, and kind hearted compassion.  It is very rare that one finds a fictional show that is so realistic.  I would like to pose a challenge to all the critics that think television writers produce flat characters: Watch Nurse Jackie with a warm bowl of buttered popcorn, a hot chocolate beverage, and a favorite pet, and I think you might just change your mind.

Youth, compared to an older generation, seem to have a disillusioned concept of loneliness.  We see this very clearly in Hemingway’s story when the two waiters are having a discussion on the attempted suicide of the elderly deaf man (we assume the older waiter is asking the questions):

     “Why?”

     “He was in despair.”

     “What about?”

     “Nothing.”

     “How do you know it was nothing?”

     “He has plenty of money.”

The younger waiter cannot understand why someone would be in despair with so much money.  The older waiter, however, clearly understands that money is nothing without someone to share it with.  Bloom explains, “To the young waiter, nothing, nada, is unimportant, it is a lack of reason for death. Because the old man has money, he should be content. Yet to the old waiter nothing is clearly something, and the despair of this something is a readily understandable cause for suicide.” 

            I clearly understand that  many people believe being alone is a terrible world of darkness; and that these people most certainly search for a clean, well-lighted place to thrive.  I however, enjoy being alone and cherish the time where silence is the loudest sound in the room.  I ask myself this question for clarity: If I was alone, with no one close to me and afraid that tomorrow would never come, would I have the same desire to be by myself?  I cannot clearly answer that question yet, but stories like “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” help me to understand the other side of loneliness, where silence is not a choice, it is an unhappy way of life.  My silence is a choice, and I hope I always have the power to keep it my own.

            My feelings were parallel to Mary Grace’s when she was sitting in the doctor’s office simmering over Mrs. Turpin’s abrasive comments.  Mary Grace immediately pin points Mrs. Turpin’s behavior as “holier than thou” at their first encounter ,“The girl raised her head and directed her scowl at Mrs. Turpin as if she did not like her looks.”  It is incredible how this story has lit a fire under me, because I have absolutely no tolerance for individuals like Mrs. Turpin who think they are better than everyone else.  I have stumbled upon the revelation that Mrs. Turpin is the long lost twin of a person whom I know too well.  “Grumpy” is a devout Catholic who is the furthest example of a “good Christian” but believes she is God’s gift to mankind.  “Grumpy” is extremely nasty, intensely mean, and excruciatingly judgmental.  Whenever she is present her negativity radiates through the walls and the mood becomes funereal.  Check please!  If you are not a practicing Christian you will certainly not find your way on her radar.  She is extremely contradictory in every way; she says one thing and always does another. She is verbally abusive to people, and then wonders why no one wishes to speak with her.  She once became very upset that another acquaintance used the term “colored people”, but then the next week she was caught calling an Indian student a “brown boy”.  Politically incorrect?  I think so!

            I have zero tolerance for condescending individuals who focus on social status.  This issue is deeply personal to me because I embrace people with an open mind and a kind heart.  It absolutely repulses me when someone passes judgments and stereotypes on people they do not know a thing about.  I believe many people spend too much negative energy judging people, when they should be worrying about more important things in life, like improving themselves.  Go Team Mary Grace!!

Kathleen Feeley’s critical essay explored O’Connor’s short story in a deeper spiritual meaning that enhanced my understanding of the great literary piece of work.  She introduces the fact that Mary Grace is the prophet that God speaks through to reach out to Mrs. Turpin.  This theory highlights the religious theme of the story that speaks volumes.  I did not quite interpret the story in a religious nature until the end when Mrs. Turpin experiences the revelation.  Feeley explains how Mary Grace is the prophet of revelation when she says, “The prophet is conceived as one through whom God speaks, as through a mouthpiece.  Mary Grace, a fat Wellesley student with acne and obvious emotional problems, becomes a prophet of salvation for Ruby Turpin, a middle-aged, complacent matron.”  As a reader I believed Mary Grace was just an intelligent young woman that was extremely irritated and frustrated with Mrs. Turpin’s haughty demeanor.  Her foul language and ignorant biases would make anyone’s blood boil.  Feeley opened my eyes to a different side of the story, one which Mary Grace was compelled to physically harm Mrs. Turpin and utter the revelation not by her own actions, but those that God intended for her to do.  Mary Grace was merely a pawn in God’s game to knock Mrs. Turpin off her high horse.  Feeley helped me realize that religion played a huge part in making this story mysterious and successful.

            Feeley’s best insight in her critical essay explains that, “Natural virtue does as much for fallen men as parlor treatment does for pigs: it does not change their intrinsic nature.  Only one thing can change man: his participation in the grace of Redemption.”  Feeley’s critical view helped me as a reader understand the story better by incorporating the religious points into her essay.  My favorite part of the story and Feeley’s critical essay was when the procession of the souls over the bridge.  This holy walkway showed people like Mrs. Turpin at the end of the line behind the white trash people, the freaks, and the lunatics.  The bridge procession illustrates a hard but important lesson to learn: You cannot judge a book by its cover.

            Benjamin is born in his mid-eighties and is portrayed as a wrinkly old baby in the film.  His mother dies giving birth to him, and his father, Thomas Button, who seems scared out of his wits, takes Benjamin and drops him at the doorstep of a nursing home.  A couple who runs the nursing home, Queenie and Tizzy, discover Benjamin on their steps.  Queenie falls in love immediately with Benjamin and decides to make him her “honorary” son.  She consults with a doctor on staff at the nursing home and he explains, “His body is failing him before it has begun.” (Roth CCBB).  Queenie’s enthusiasm to care for Benjamin and her devotion to him evoke sentiment from audiences, and we become emotionally linked to the film because we feel happy and sad at the same time.  The audience has sympathy for Benjamin because of his condition, and then they are delighted that Queenie takes him under her wing. 

            Benjamin fits right into the nursing home, and the elderly occupants welcome him with open arms.  Queenie introduces Benjamin to everyone, and an elderly woman exclaims that she can take care of any child and she takes one look at him and says, “He looks just like my ex-husband!” (Roth CCBB)  Her reaction is wonderful and comedic, and there is no sense of disgust in her voice.   He starts his life with many of the physical disabilities of a geriatric person.  In the film he does not stand out like a sore thumb like he does in Fitzgerald’s story.  “It was actually a stroke of brilliance by Roth to place Benjamin in such a setting for his formative years” (Tapley pg. 1).   No one judges Benjamin as he progressively grows larger, and they all seem loving and accepting of him.  Queenie has much to do with this because she is loving and supportive towards him.  One night when Queenie and Benjamin are in their bed’s sleeping and Benjamin is worrisome and asks, “Momma? Some days, I feel different than the day before.”  Queenie soothes him by saying, “Everyone feels different about themselves one way or another, but we all goin’ the same way” (Roth CCBB).

            In the film, Benjamin experiences love at first sight with Daisy.  They connect from the beginning and Daisy even as a young child accepts him for who he is.  They experience a rendezvous in a make-shift tent in the nursing home at night, and Daisy asks, “Are you sick?” Benjamin replies, “They said I was gonna die soon but, maybe not.”  Then Daisy realizes he is just a child, and says, “I knew you were different” (Roth CCBB).  She was very excited to find out that he was just like her, and she was not judging him at all.  They continue to bond through their “childhood”, and when he leaves for war she says, “Send me a postcard from everywhere” (Roth CCBB).  She is very adamant about him keeping in touch with her.  Daisy is always accepting of him and that is the main reason the spark between the two always stays alive.  Benjamin pursues a relationship with Daisy throughout the film, and this ignites emotion from the audience because people, women especially, love to be pursued by someone with undying devotion for them.  When Benjamin and Daisy have a full blooming relationship before she becomes pregnant, they have a conversation about their future.  Daisy says, “Would you still love me if I were old and saggy?” Benjamin smiles and replies, “Would you still love me if I were young and had acne?  When I’m afraid of what’s under the bed?   Or if I end up wetting the bed?”(Roth CCBB).  Their conversation shows how at peace they both are with Benjamin’s odd age reversal.

            In Fitzgerald’s story, there is still love at first sight between Benjamin and Hildgarde, and she accepts him at first.  A young Hildegarde is completely smitten with an “older” Benjamin when they first meet and she says, “I like men of your age.  Young boys are so idiotic.  Men of your age know how to appreciate women” (Fitzgerald Ch. 5).  She also made this premonitory comment about marriage, “I’ve always said that I’d rather marry a man of fifty and be taken care of than marry a man of thirty and take care of him” (Fitzgerald Ch. 5).  After he starts to grow younger, Hildegarde starts to despise him. She realizes that she is babysitting a younger man.  Benjamin returns the same emotion as he falls out of love for Hildegarde because he loses his attraction for her.  Hildegarde stops supporting Benjamin, and as an audience we are sad that this is not the beautiful romance it once was and the vitality is lost. 

            The mood of the movie is positive and inspiring.  It gives people hope that even if you have a deformity or if you are unusual people will still accept you with open arms.  Roth’s screenwriting enhances this by creating characters that are loving and full of life.  In Fitzgerald’s story it seems that if you are different, you are hidden away and forced to be like everyone else.  Queenie is always supportive of Benjamin, who always says this when Benjamin is feeling blue, “Baby, you are just different” (Roth CCBB).  Her words are encouraging and caring, and as an audience we are drawn into the warmth.  She welcomes him as her son right away and that also pulls at our emotional heart strings.  She is a wonderful mother to him and loves him from the beginning.  “He is a child of god” (Roth CCBB). 

            Outsiders for the most part do not bat an eye at him, mainly because in the beginning he looks like a tiny old man, but also because they might not know the situation.  When Benjamin accepts a position to work on a tugboat, Captain Mike does not care about his age or appearance, just as long as he can do the work.  Captain Mike notices that Benjamin is appearing younger and healthier by the year, and Benjamin sums it up to “You are always drunk Captain” (Roth CCBB).  He does not pass harsh judgment on him and just laughs the situation off.

When Daisy is faced with the life changing event of her pregnancy, she still wants Benjamin in her and her daughter’s life.  She accepts the consequences of him aging and still supports him and wants to be with him.  “We will make this work” (Roth CCBB).  Daisy’s commitment to Benjamin is more appealing to audiences, unlike Fitzgerald’s story where after a certain age Benjamin is thrown away by everyone closest to him.   

            Benjamin has to hide his age throughout his life in Fitzgerald’s story.  Every age he surpasses he is still not quite good enough for those around him.  The story is a fun and comical read, but its appeal to readers is lost by the lack of emotion.  When Benjamin is born, Mr. Button tries to conceal his age by cutting his beard, dying his hair, and dressing him in children’s clothing.  “Even after the new addition to the Button family had his hair cut short and then dyed to a sparse unnatural black, he had his face shaved so close it glistened, and had been attired in small boy clothes, it was impossible for Button to ignore the fact that his son was an excuse for a first family baby” (Fitzgerald Ch. 3).  His wife Hildegarde wants him to stop growing younger, and thinks he can change his age by choice.  His grown son Roscoe becomes disgusted with a younger Benjamin and wants him to act older. “You better turn right around and start back the other way.  This has gone too far to be a joke.  It isn’t funny any longer. You—you behave yourself” (Fitzgerald Ch.9).  It seems in Fitzgerald’s story no one ever truly accepts Benjamin. 

            The “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is a hit either way, on paper or on a movie screen.  The movie however appeals to more people because of its vitality and emotional connections.  The move is relatable to life in the aspects of being different, being in love, and experiencing the great joys in life.  “In the original version Benjamin is born as a fully formed 87 year old at 5ft. 8in. and virtually smoking a cigar.  I thought that would have leant itself to comedy and I didn’t want to write a comedy, per se.  I wanted to write something… a little more meaningful” (Roth Interview).

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Dir. David Fincher. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Perf. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Paramount Picturers and Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008. DVD.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Tales of the Jazz Age. New York: Scribner & Sons, 1922. American Studies at the University of Virginia. University of Virginia. Web. 28 Oct. 2009. <http://xroads.virginia.edu>.

Roth, Eric. “Interview: Eric Roth.” Interview. Www.guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited. Web. 28 Oct. 2009. <www.guardian.co.uk>.

Tapley, Kristopher. “Page to Screen: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by Eric Roth.” Rev. of “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Web log post. Www.incontetion.com. N.p., 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 28 Oct. 2009. <http://www.incontention.com>.

Jackie’s drug addiction is one of her most realistic complexities.  Addiction is a widespread epidemic in the real life of nursing due to the availability of narcotic medications.  She claims to have issues with her back from the many years of physically demanding hospital work.  Jackie, as a round character, contradicts herself in many ways with her addiction.  She preaches to her patients and coworkers about addiction, yet she is waist deep in it.  In one episode a young married woman arrives in the emergency room withdrawing from opiates, and Jackie treats her by saying, “You can’t just stop taking opiates just like that; you have to taper off them. You’re on a slippery slope. Trying to get pregnant while taking painkillers recreationally is not a great plan.”  Ironically, Jackie tells the patient she will give her information to an addiction specialist, and as she is rooting through her purse for the information she pulls out a Vicodin tablet that just happens to be stuck to her notepad.  She then proceeds to swallow the narcotic like a pro and goes about her daily hospital life.  Who said all fictional medical shows are boring?  Nurse Jackie is so much more satisfying than watching George Clooney from the show ER perform chest compressions to save a dying patient. 

            Jackie has an extramarital affair throughout the show with Eddie the hospital pharmacist.  This behavior notes the other parts of her complex “life”.  Affairs are something we all unfortunately know too well of, but when they are fictional it is so juicy and fun!  It seems that she is happily married to her gorgeous husband Kevin, and has two beautiful daughters Grace and Fiona.  On the contrary, she lives a double life that she hides extremely well from all of her coworkers; they do not even know she is married with children!  After a fight with Eddie, her best friend and fellow nurse Mo-Mo asks why she is frustrated, and she says, “I had a fight with my…boyfriend.”  He gasps in shock and says, “Boyfriend?”  She quips, “Honey, you do all the talking.”  Her dearest friends have no idea about her real family life!  This is truly great television.

            Grace, Jackie’s eldest daughter, has issues with extreme anxiety and obsessive compulsive behaviors.  Grace’s school calls Jackie and Kevin in for a meeting with the school psychologist, nurse, and Grace’s teacher.  They explain her anxiety ridden behavior, and Grace’s teacher says, “She circles her desk three times before she sits down.  She told me it’s so planes don’t fall out of the sky.”  The school nurse then suggests counseling and a low dose anti-anxiety medicine.  They both start to panic, and Jackie shouts, “Thanks for your time. It’s amazing to me, you think a kid has a problem and you just make him take a pill? That’s nice work.”  Please note the ironic statement that came from the prescription drug addict.  Irony is the perfect recipe for an amazing television series!  Their solution to help fix their stressed out child is to foot the expensive bill to a private catholic school.  Jackie feels helpless as a mother in this situation, and she proceeds to do what she does best; she takes more pills. 

               Our heroine’s motivations are purely implicit.  Jackie never quite says what drives her, what she is trying to accomplish, or what her dreams may be, but as an audience we do know that she is trying to make the healthcare system a better place for patients to thrive. Zoe, a student nurse, tells Jackie, “You’re a saint.” She sees the softness in Jackie despite her tough outer shell.  Jackie goes above and beyond by making sure she always becomes friendly with the family of the patients, and she is always there to help the other nurses.  Her tough love works wonders with the student nurse Zoe as Jackie says this to cheer her up, ”What’s this about, nobody ate your muffins? You found an ear in the toilet?  So what?  This job is wading through a shit storm of people who come into this place on the very worst day of their lives. And just so you know, doctors are here to diagnose, not heal. We heal. All Saints is in the business of flipping beds, that’s it, end of story. The fact that you have even the slightest inclination to help people puts you miles ahead of 100% of the population. So stop crying, okay? Buck up. If you need to cry, go to the ladies’ room. Is that clear?”  She shovels through the drama, tragedy, and less than comedic moments with great dignity every day she works.  She has great compassion for all the patients that really need her help, and she teaches the ones that do not need her help to have compassion.  Jackie is taking the fictional hospital healthcare system by storm each shift she works.

               Jackie is furthest from a flat character.  Her round characteristics include drug addiction, an extramarital affair, an anxiety stricken child, and a true passion to help patients.  She is a static character throughout the show because it does not seem like she wants to kick her drug habit or stop having an affair with Eddie.  Jackie is not ready to better herself, and that is very refreshing for a television series to show the protagonist as a real life person with real life problems.  If that does not constitute an excellent show, I am not sure what would.  What more could you ask for in a great television series?  Nurse Jackie has sex, drugs, beautiful people, and kind hearted compassion.  It is very rare that one finds a fictional show that is so realistic.  I would like to pose a challenge to all the critics that think television writers produce flat characters: Watch Nurse Jackie with a warm bowl of buttered popcorn, a hot chocolate beverage, and a favorite pet, and I think you might just change your mind.

This story is sadly corresponding with the some minor discriminatory events happening in my work life.  I am experiencing inequality in my place of employment.  My fellow employees treat me unfairly due to my age and educational status.  I am a 23 year old successful college student, yet in their eyes I am a mere child.  Carver created the perfect ignorant comment when the husband said, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I know. And his being blind bothered me.”  The husband’s words were very naïve, yet very impactful because it shows the thought process of a discriminatory individual.  I have recently been wounded by a coworker who said, “What does she know?  She is just a tech.”  Those few words were like a knife through my heart.  I am a fabulous, intelligent, and witty individual and for someone to say such derogatory comments about me is ludicrous!  

I found it ironic that at the end of the story that the husband said, “But I had my eyes closed.  I thought I’d keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do.”  The husband had an epiphany and was finally able to understand the blind man.  In the real world I wish that scenario happened like that more frequently.  I can however offer hope for those who are currently being discriminated against.  My boss Tracie recently told me, “Ali, I commend you for your helpful nature and kind attitude towards others; I hear wonderful things about you and have yet to hear a negative comment.”  I will not let people who discriminate against me bring me down.  It makes me work harder at setting an example for others who discriminate.  I will always rise above them and teach them the right ways through my kindness, just as Robert did in “Cathedral”.

The article deeply saddens me because I know how great of an impact it is to be able to understand and verbalize your thoughts on a piece of literature.  My mom, Darlene, read to me when I was a child, and I credit her for my love of reading.  Ever since I was young I have read everything I could get my hands on.  My reading frenzy started out with “The Berenstain Bears”, R.L. Stines “Goosebumps” series, and then progressively grew to more sophisticated literature like “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.  I am not sure how the adolescent horror series “Goosebumps” led me to love historical fiction, but it goes to show that once you get your creative juices flowing your interests only flourish.  Every book I finished was a stepping stone to another piece of literature that had more depth and meaning to it.  Crain states, “Perhaps readers venture so readily outside because what they experience in solitude gives them confidence.  Perhaps reading is a prototype of independence. No matter how much one worships an author, Proust wrote, “all he can do is give us desires.”  Reading somehow gives us the boldness to act on them.”  I agree with this reference because I have experienced it firsthand.  I have great confidence to go out and try new things.  My knowledge of literature and vocabulary makes me confident in my speech and therefore I feel more positive about myself.  I also believe that my passion for reading has helped me accelerate in school, sports, and extracurricular activities.

Many of the authors’ viewpoints coincide with my strong beliefs about how reading can positively affect your life.  One of my most imporant points about reading is that it enhances critical thinking skills which are essential for success in school.  Reading is a healthy and  beneficial exercise for the mind.  I have noticed that reading is not as popular as it once was, and it is a scary but true fact.