Chloe's Corner

I would like to start this post off by clarifying that I am not a fan of either of the candidates for this year, seeing as I support neither Trump’s ban on Muslims and his statements on the Black Lives Matter Movement nor Biden’s disinterest in immigrants having to become citizens in order to make changes in our country, but I believe that either of them could be good enough with the help of the Congress, the Senate, and our American citizens.

Effects of the Electoral College

There’s really no way to know who is going to win an election until the final announcement itself, making it extremely stressful up until its very last moments. The 2020 presidential election is no different. As I am writing this currently, according to the Apple News app, Biden is in the lead with 264 electoral votes vs. Trump’s 214. As of right now it isn’t very close, but the entire thing can flip on its head within a moment’s notice; there’s just no way of telling.

As I said before, currently, by the looks of it, Biden seems to be on the path to victory; but that can always change. Swing states, for example, tend to be somewhat unpredictable as to whether they will end up being democratic or republican. “Biden won California, the nation’s biggest electoral haul” (Lemire), which was certainly a big win on his part, along with Colorado and Virginia, those three earning him 77 total. According to Apple News, Trump has now claimed Florida and Ohio, both giving him 47 more votes.

According to the bar at the top of the image, one candidate has to earn 270 electoral votes to win. We can see that Biden is currently 50 votes ahead of Trump. Also, though at a first glance the map may seem mostly red (indicating that those states voted mostly Republican), the smaller states in the northeast are worth a good amount as well, which all happen to be Democratic. Though, as indicated by the key below the map, most of the states that have not yet decided will most likely be Republican and give Trump their votes, it is still entirely possible that they can flip to being Democratic instead at any moment; it all depends on the majority of the voters in that particular state.

Covid Concerns

Without taking the electoral votes into account, though, there are plenty of other factors that can help us to predict the next president. For example, many “public health experts fear (…) [that] the U.S. [will not] be able to tame [the] perilous pandemic” that is Covid-19, and many citizens claim that that is solely because of Trump’s handling of the issue. “Trump has ignored the advice of his top health advisors,” says another article, “who have issued increasingly urgent warnings in recent days about the need for preventive measures” (Tanner). The fact that Trump has been doing this, as well as “falsely suggesting that the pandemic is waning” (Tanner), goes to show that he isn’t being as cautious as necessary with putting protocols in place for citizens to follow. Biden, on the other hand, “has rarely been seen in public without a mask and made public health a key issue” (Tanner). This virus is one of the largest concerns for voting citizens right now, and people want to make sure that the least amount of people die due to it as possible, which makes it a good bit more likely that Biden will win this election.

As I said, there really isn’t any way to know exactly who is going to win an election before all of the votes are counted and the winner is announced officially, but based on statistics, patterns, and opinions of citizens, we can at least make an educated guess. That being said, based on these factors, I believe that Joe Biden is going to be the one to win this election. Though Trump has put up an impressive amount of competition, Biden has very obviously been much more careful about Covid, which is something that is very important to people right now as well as it will most likely be for the few years to come. I’m not too excited to say this (not that I’d be ecstatic if Trump were to win, either), but I do like that he is planning on focusing on the citizens’ health and safety as well as environmental issues. He may not deal with them in the best way, but it’s extremely important to me that they get dealt with at all.

Works Cited:

Johnathan Lemire, Zeke Miller, Jill Colvin, and Alexandra Jaffe. Biden, Trump Locked in Tight Races in Battleground States. apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-election-day-966a3decc2c3262946c03baf2dd14e8f.

Lindsay Tanner. Public Health May be US Election Loser as Coronavirus Surges. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-pandemics-virus-outbreak-public-health-0715afa39a966935fe12ea4123cf62fc.

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is a short story that revolves around the story of a man who becomes stranded on an island, only to find that its most prominent inhabitant makes a game out of hunting humans for sport. In this story, the theme of fear and choosing instinct over reason is prevalent, as it would be in any dangerous situation such as this.

Fear in the Brain

In humans and other animals alike, fear is a reaction that exists in order to protect us from potentially harmful situations. The fear reaction occurs when a threat triggers a response from the amygdala, a part of the brain that detects things that stand out to us – like faces, animals, vehicles, or even colors and shapes. A threat could be anything that our brain registers as something that might cause harm, whether it be a living thing to a natural occurrence or disaster we have no control over.

Once a threat triggers the reaction, other changes occur throughout our bodies to help us become more prepared to handle that threat, such as our brains becoming hyper-alert and some organs that aren’t as important at that time slowing down in order to preserve energy for other ones that might be more useful under the circumstances.

There are many different types of fear. For instance, a commercial haunted house installs a different fear into its customer than would a rabid animal because we know and are able to assure ourselves that we will not actually get hurt. This makes it easier to control the fear as well as our response to it because we know we aren’t in any true danger.

Fear in The Game

In the case of Rainsford in “The Most Dangerous Game”, the fear that he experiences could be comparable to that of encountering a dangerous animal, seeing as that is basically exactly what happens. Even though he knows that General Zaroff is fair and honest and will stand by his word, he is still afraid of the danger that comes with his pack of hungry dogs as well as the game itself, because it puts his life at risk.

Though it’s hard to imagine just how much intense fear Rainsford experienced during The Game, studies in psychology can help us to understand how what he experienced was related to how he reacted to it.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happens-brain-feel-fear-180966992/

We’re all familiar with The Conjuring, right? Amityville Horror? Annabelle? Even if you haven’t watched these movies for yourself, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of them. They’ve done impressively well in the box office, and most of them are on Netflix or Hulu. What if I were to tell you that those movies – yes, even Annabelle – were all based on very true stories? Well, if you’ve heard of any of these movies, you probably already know that – it is a great sales point, after all. But I’m willing to bet you don’t really know the history of these films, and that’s what I’m here to tell you about today; brought to you by the brave souls named Ed and Lorraine Warren, a demonologist and a clairvoyant who dedicated their life to solving the mysteries of the dead.

1 Amityville Horror

Just outside of New York City stands the house at which the story of the Amityville Horror took place. On November 13, 1974 this house was forever changed from a normal home to the scene of a homicide. In the middle of the night, a 23-year-old Ronald J. DeFeo Jr. used an assault rifle to kill his entire family while they were asleep – two parents and four siblings. About 13 years later, the house was bought by a family by the surname of Lutz. As was to be expected, they only lasted 28 days before evacuating, no longer being able to handle the terrors that they were experiencing on such a drastic scale.

These experiences would include:

• Stepfather Lutz was said to wake up at 3:15 am every morning, which was around the time the murders were carried out.
• The Lutz family claimed to smell strange odors, see green slime oozing out of the walls and keyholes and experience cold spots in certain areas of the house. (This one is a bit more difficult to believe, I know, but stick around.)
• When a priest was called over to bless the house, he allegedly heard a voice scream “Get out!” He then specified that the Lutzes should no longer sleep in that room of the house.
• The children evidently levitated above their beds for prolonged periods of time.
• Other things include remote controlled objects moving on their own and utensils (a knife, specifically) being knocked around in their kitchen.

People tend to question the Validity of the Lutzes’ story even after both parents passed a test with a lie detector multiple times. Many of the children claim to still have nightmares to this day as well, and the murderer that lived in that house is still serving six 25-year-life sentences at a New York correctional facility.

2 Annabelle

The story of Annabelle, a doll who was allegedly possessed by a demon, began in the 1970s when a young nurse received the doll as a birthday gift from her mother. In the movies, Annabelle is depicted as a frighteningly semi-realistic porcelain doll. However, the real Annabelle was nothing more than a few-foot-tall Raggedy Ann She put the rag doll on her bed and began to notice it changing positions. A leg would be crossed, or the doll would be lying on its side.

After a while, the girl and her roommate began to find parchment paper lying on the floor with written messages, along the lines of “help me” or “help us.” They had no parchment paper in the house. The doll began appearing in different rooms and on one occasion, according to the girl, appeared to leak with blood. One day, one of her friends was over. He was taking a nap and woke up to the doll seemingly staring straight at him, while feeling like he was being strangled. There were proven to be deep scratch wounds on his upper body that were presumably not there before.

Speculation Begins

At first, they thought that there was an intruder that was moving the doll and placing the papers around the house. When that scenario was ruled out among a few others, the roommates decided to contact a medium and hold a seance. The girls were introduced to the spirit of Annabelle Higgins, a young girl who resided on the property before the apartments were built and died there at age 7. The medium supposedly told them that the spirit wanted to stay there with them because it felt loved, and they agreed to allowing it to inhabit the doll, but nothing more. From there, things only got worse.

The Warrens Save the Day

The story caught the Warrens’ attention, and they ventured to the apartment. According to the Warrens’ account on their website, “…the spirit was not looking to stay attached to the doll, it was looking to possess a human host.” The girls were in much more trouble than they expected to be in at the time, which is why you should always get rid of things like this as quickly as possible before the become a very real and very permanent problem. The Warrens took the doll with them (avoiding any busy roads along the way as to not take any chances) to the Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut where it still lives to this day.

I have never watched the movie myself, but from what I’ve heard it isn’t similar to what actually happened at all. Minus the doll itself, of course. On a somewhat unrelated note, my father and I had planned to go there one year, but were not able to. The Warrens’ Occult Museum has recently closed due to the violation of zoning regulations, and they seem to be looking for a new location to this day.

3 The Conjuring

The Conjuring remains one of the most chilling films to date, with an entire franchise of movies revolving around it (Annabelle consequently being one of them). The story begins in January of 1971 when the Perron family moved into a 14-room farmhouse (pictured below). Strange things started to happen almost immediately after they moved in, such as objects being misplaced and moved around. The five daughters of the family began to see spirits around and about, though most of them were harmless, generally speaking.

Deaths at the Farmhouse

Carolyn, the mother of the children, had done some research before they moved into the house, finding that it had stayed in the same family for eight generations and that many of the people who had lived there had died under mysterious or horrible circumstances. Several children had drowned in the creek nearby, some had hung themselves in the attic, and at least one was murdered.

Haunted by Bathsheba

According to the Perrons, a lady named Bathsheba Sherman was most likely the main spirit that tormented them during their stay at the farmhouse. She had been rumored to be a satanist as well as being involved in the death of a neighbor’s child, though she was never put on trial. “Whoever the spirit was,” says Andrea, the oldest of the five girls, “she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.” This put their mother in danger, which will be elaborated on a bit more later.

Also according to Andrea, there were other spirits that lived there too, ones that smelled of rotting flesh and caused beds to float above the floor. The father of the girls, Rodger, had recalled feeling “cold, stinking presence behind him” whenever he would venture down to the basement to fix the heating equipment that would often fail, possibly also the work of the spirits.

Due to financial instability, the Perrons were not able to move out of the house for ten years, by which the hauntings had thankfully ceased. The Warrens had come and gone many times by then, once conducting a seance in which Carolyn became possessed. “I thought I was going to pass out,” Andrea said. “My mother began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own. Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room.”

An important side note: In the movie, Ed was said to have held an exorcism rather than a seance, but this was not true because they both knew that an exorcism should be performed by no one other than a Catholic priest.

These movies have their charm, sure, but they can’t truly compare to the real life events that occurred within the walls of these homes. They’ll continue to haunt the world forever, with quite possibly many more events like this to come. Even with Ed passing away in 2006, their legacy is sure to live on through the ages.

“The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story told by James Hurst about a boy, his brother, and a bird.

The story begins with the narrator observing the gravesite of a loved one, comparing the normally positive sensations in the area to the times they remind him of. The one in the grave is his brother, Doodle, who he goes on to essentially say was the light of his life for those years they spent together. He was energetic, smart, and he loved his big brother no matter what he put him through – which was certainly something, considering he put him through a lot. The narrator – we’ll call him Brother – tells us the story of Doodle’s life, and how he pushed him to overcome the difficulties he faced as a result of his crippled state since birth, if only to boost his own ego. Closer to the end of the story, he goes on to reflect on his past self using Doodle’s achievements for self gratification, not quite taking Doodle’s wellbeing into genuine consideration. At the very end, this becomes evident when he leaves Doodle in the dust to get crushed to death by a fallen tree struck down during a storm.

#1: The Meeting of Expectations

The first universal theme that I’ll be discussing is the feeling of needing to meet someone’s expectations and to not be considered a disappointment.

Throughout the story, we can see Brother pressuring Doodle to do things that he might not be entirely comfortable with doing, such as when he attempted to force him to stand when he didn’t feel any need to (and he couldn’t anyway), and when he “made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar.” After this, he goes on to ask him if he really wants to be the same as the other kids that will be in his school. Because of the things Brother tells him, Doodle feels like he has to do those things in order to not disappoint his family and be abandoned by his brother, the person who he shares the strongest bond with of all.

At the beginning of the story, Brother admits that he considered Doodle a disappointment automatically because of his disabilities. He also repeatedly tells him later on that he will need to work hard to fit in with his peers at school, presenting yet another reason to push himself beyond his boundaries to not be judged harshly by the people around him. This would create an image in Doodle’s mind that, if he doesn’t meet everyone’s expectations, he will be abandoned.

#2: The Value of Pride

The second universal theme to discuss is pride. Throughout much of the story, Brother allowed his ego to get the best of him and take control of his actions, ultimately leading to Doodle’s demise.

Closer to the beginning of this story, their parents essentially force Doodle into Brother’s responsibility. Because of this, Brother attempts to make Doodle a reflection of himself rather than his own person, forcing him to be more like himself using peer pressure and the threat of abandonment (as mentioned in the section above). Since Doodle is his responsibility, Brother tries to make him be the absolute best he can be, setting impossible expectations for someone born with the disabilities that limit their physical capability such as Doodle.

Brother allows his pride to get the best of him in multiple situations throughout the story, like when he first taught Doodle how to walk, doing for his own benefit rather than for Doodle’s sake. Rather than teaching Doodle to walk so that he could be more independent, he taught him to walk in order to be proud of himself for teaching him and him succeeding. This first achievement would lead him to pushing Doodle harder and harder, forcing him to meet more and more unmeetable expectations. Brother treated him as more than an animal than a person, which caused him to not feel much remorse at the moment he decided to leave him behind in the storm. Only after Doodle was crushed by the tree would Brother realize his wrongs.

Thematic Statements

These two thematic ideas can be combined in order to emphasize some crucial thematic statements represented throughout this story: that it is extremely important to not let yourself be controlled by your ego, as well as not being controlled by other people’s expectations. Though these two statements are very different, this story shows us how they can go hand in hand. The evidence provided for the two thematic ideas above can also be used as evidence in reference to these statements.

Some questions to consider after reading may include:

• Why did Brother feel the need to be so proud of himself? Why would anyone feel that need?
• What could Doodle have done in that situation to get over his fear of abandonment and not care about how others saw him? Would it have been easier to get over this fear if he had been physically capable of doing more things?
• How do these two themes correlate? What is similar about these themes inside the story and in the real world?