Jessica Dolberg
Crawford
English 11H – Period 5
25 Nov 2012
Introduction
During the course of this semester we have written several works pertaining to the
American Dream. The more explicit theme of my pieces, I believe, is perseverance. While
analyzing my pieces, I came up with an essential question that is answered in my passages: Is
facing and surpassing obstacles essential to the American Dream? Over the summer we were
assigned to read a book from a selected book list; I chose The Glass Castle. In the analysis of my
summer reading I discuss how Jeannette, the protagonist, faces obstacles in her life and
eventually perseveres to become a well-rounded woman. Similar to Jeannette, I also have many
dreams and visions for my life. My Dream Essay discusses my aspiration to become a teacher
and a mother. It talks about the possible complications that could arise in reaching my goal and
what I would do to endure them. The following piece is my group video pertaining to The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By modernizing Chapter 3 in the book, we showed how the
persistence of Huck and Tom to make Jim unpopular had an adverse effect. Like Huck and Tom,
Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter perseveres and eventually fails. In this essay, I discuss the
hardships that arose from Hester and Dimmesdale’s adultery sin. Throughout the book,
Dimmesdale has to persevere through the hardships and eventually dies due to the distress
showing that perseverance is not always the right way to reach an ultimate goal. I, like
Dimmesdale, have several different aspects of my life, which are explained in my Song of Myself
poem as I compare myself to a camera and its multitude of different parts and functions. By
using this metaphor, I describe that no matter how hard one tries, they can never fully understand
every part of me, and by persevering through my obstacles I have been forced to open up more
parts of myself to the world. For my interview component, I interviewed my mom on my
essential question and various other questions relating to my theme. During this process, I
learned that she believes that perseverance and making mistakes is the most formative
experience in a person’s life. Next, in the excerpt from my analysis of Survivor, I describe the
emphasis on conformity in our society and the perseverance required to be your own person. The
final work that I have added to my portfolio is my Original Oratory, which emphasizes the points
made in Survivor. Original Oratory is an event in Speech and Debate that requires the participant
to write, memorize, and perform a ten-minute speech about a societal issue that they are
passionate about. For my topic this year I chose to write about how we fixate on our supposed
lack of freedom, but in reality many of us subconsciously seek and even create our own
restrictions. I think that this speech pertains to my essential question as it discusses the obstacles
that we all face in life that force us to be better people. Finally, to answer my own essential
question: I believe that obstacles are the most formative part of any person’s life, and without the
perseverance needed to overcome them, many of us would not be who we are today.