Summer 2010 English 1A Journal Entries on One Post

Entry One: Write about someone you know who is afflicted with concupiscence, which traps them on the "hedonic treadmill."  Or write about someone  who thinks he or she is rising when in reality he or she is falling. 

Entry Two: Write about your denial over a personal shortcoming followed by an awakening.

Entry Three: Describe someone you know who is flourishing in a paragraph. Or: Write about someone you know who benefitted from perdition. 

Entry Four: Write about how you conformed to peer pressure and how this blind obedience to peer pressure made you feel regretful afterwards because in part you compromised who you are. You compromised your integrity. And you compromised your values. The purpose of this journal entry is to have a salient first page for your research paper. 

Entry Five: Write about a time in your life when you succumbed to nihilism. Or write about someone you know who is a nihilist. Tell the students about your teenage friend who tried to bulk up to 300 pounds and failed. 

Or write about someone you know who exercised noble disobedience to use for your conclusion. 

Entry Six: Provide personal examples of determinism and free will, either in yourself or someone you know.

Entry Seven: Write about a personal experience you had where the abuse of power resulted in the loss of someone’s humanity. You could write about a bully, a cruel teacher who humiliates students, or some authority figure. Or you could write about how you exercised power in a way that you made feel regretful and guilty afterwards. You could use this anecdote for the first page of your essay. 

Entry Eight: 

Think of someone you know who, like Mel, suffers from egotism and solipsism. This one-page profile could be used for the first page of your essay. 

Entry Nine:

In a paragraph, describe someone you know who, like the narrator in "Cathedral," has over time become disaffected.

Entry Ten: Write about a chimera you became obsessed with, how it propelled you into the world of solipsism, and how it crushed you with devastating disappointment.

Entry Eleven: Write about an ironic reversal in your personal experience or in someone you know. 

Entry Twelve: Write about a sibling rivalry that contains the symbiosis evident in Donald and Pete.

Entry Thirteen: Write about someone who is spoiled and narcissistic in a way that reminds you of Mark from the story "Desert Breakdown, 1968."

Entry Fourteen: Write about a personal "back in the world" experience.