John Keats, the author of this poem, seems like someone who thinks a lot about time, life, and death. When I researched him, I found that he dies quite young. This is ironic and sad. Maybe it’s rude to say this is ironic, but oh well. Keats had TB. I’m not sure if he already had it when he wrote this poem, but he no doubt was aware of the threat because it ran in his family. So he no doubt had seen many tragic lives and deaths. This is definitely related to this poem, and sheds new light on it’s meaning. Specifically this is reflected when Keats writes things such as “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” and other deep insights about life and living it. This poem definitely took on greater meaning and emotional impact once I looked up the author and got some context.

If I were to have the opportunity to do this timed write again, I would definitely try to address the prompt better. I know this sounds a bit generic and predictable, but thats really what any criticism of a timed write boils down to, isn’t it? Specifically, I would relate my commentary about language to theme. I didn’t relate the word “meaning” in the prompt to “theme”. I actually think I did a good job of talking about language. I wrote about diction and tone and alliteration. But I needed to really B.S. the crap out of that essay and I didn’t. I definitely should’ve come up with some very fancy theme about nature and the circle of life and Time. My essay would relate the same elements of language that I already discussed with an elaborate and ridiculous theme. Then it would be very good. I think that this change would take my essay from a five to an eight.

A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences add much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

250 word minimum. This the #5 essay prompt on the common app used by UPS.

War Dances, by local author Sherman Alexie, was a thought provoking piece about life, love, and social interaction. There were too many unnecassary f bombs, which I didn’t like at all. But, if we ignore the controversial diction and focus on the positive aspects of this piece, we can see that as a human being, Alexie is very honest about himself. He admits that he stereotypes his own ethnicity, Native Americans. First of all, that’s a rude but all too common trait to display. But I guess it’s good that he at least realizes it.

I think that Alexie is a very cynical person who thinks he is better than everyone else. The way he responded to the lady behind him in line at Bartell Drugs was a good example of this. Also, just analyzing the way he describes just about any of his interactions with anyone. The one person he is nice towards, though, is his father.

I don’t really see this piece of writing as very literary. It seemed like a lot of dialogue and a lot of Indian jokes to me. But it was surely not a very good commercial piece because it was not very entertaining. Nothing seemed to really happen plot-wise. So I guess I will say that this short story is sitting right on the fence between literary and commercial. It is thought provoking in that it makes you analyze yourself. After seeing how Alexie thinks and acts, I am very comfortable with who I am as a person.

Paul’s case aptly points to the importance of having a dream and the grave consequences of impeding someone’s dream.