Here's another essay from a class I took at OSU. It's a little blurb about one of the most moving books I've ever read. We'd been discussing why Richard Wright published such a nasty review of Hurston's book when it came out, so my report begins with him. I hope that everyone will run right out and read the book if they haven't already; it's a true American classic.

Women’s Studies 367.04                                                        Emily Marlor

Critical Response #2                                                                       2/7/06

Their Eyes Were Watching God

          Richard Wright was not Hurston’s intended primary audience for Their Eyes Were Watching God. Clearly, he was so accustomed to having all art and media geared toward an assumed male audience that when he read a book by, about, and for a female sensibility, he didn’t understand it at all. Because his male experience was not foregrounded and privileged in the book, he dismissed it as without theme, message, and thought.

          I am also not Hurston’s primary audience, being white, but I can certainly appreciate the themes and message of the work. Perhaps that is because I, as a twenty-first century woman, am much less invested in the racist patriarchy in which I live than was even a black man in the early twentieth century. As a woman, I have been obliged to adapt to male-centered media, arts and popular culture my whole life, so I am used to putting myself in another’s place.

          The message that I brought away from my first reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God was a strong one of resilience and resistance. Janie survives her 20-year marriage to Joe without losing the spark of light that makes her special. Many women facing such a marriage in those times (or these times) would find it impossible to retain any vitality or individual personhood, some even slowly wasting toward death without really noticing. My belief is that Hurston wanted to tell a story that would inspire women to hold on to their divine dreams and grasp happiness when it came their way. By having Janie meet Tea Cake relatively late in life, when most women would have been sliding into sedate matronhood, Hurston shows us that it’s never too late to live happily, even if it isn’t “ever after.”

          I think that Hurston’s title reveals the main point of the story; that by keeping sight of the wonder and joy of life, Janie was able to weather the emotionally barren years of her marriage to Joe, and come out on the other side with her faith intact. The title is dramatically illustrated during the hurricane that Janie and Tea Cake live through. The folks huddled up in their flimsy shacks are helpless in the face of Nature’s fury, and all they can do is sit with big eyes straining to track the storm that might kill them. The narrator says they, “sat in company with the others…their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God,” (pg 187). In this way can powerless people survive the most horrible tragedies that befall them – by maintaining contact with something beyond their own lives and greater than even the most powerful earthly forces.

Old Stuff

Here's an essay I wrote for college a while back. I was taking an English course called "Writing Creative Nonfiction," which I very much enjoyed, and one of the assignments was to write about an object. I chose my refrigerator out of desperation and the fact that it was right there in front of me. Coming up with ideas of what to write about has always been the hardest part for me - if someone gives me a topic, I can talk for days, but making the choice on my own is impossible.

Emily Marlor

English 268

Prof. Steve Kuusisto

1/8/01

            It’s both common and unique; both a place and an object. From the outside it looks like an alien monolith, come to rest in my kitchen by mistake. I think maybe it was headed for Salisbury Plain to join its big brothers in Stonehenge and took a wrong turn somewhere. The unsettlingly ice-white exterior is camouflaged with old horoscopes and family photos held in place with brightly colored magnetic letters and crowded around Michelangelo’s David (today modestly clad in jeans). On the lower section I see more of the alphabet securing pizza coupons and a news article featuring a photo of my grandfather and his Jeep Wagoneer, all dressed up for Memorial Day. Also a rare magazine photo of Marilyn Monroe casually dressed and engrossed in a book, no cleavage in sight; this is one of my favorite images of the icon.

            The refrigerator is somewhat oracular for most Americans. We go to it when we don’t know what we want. We stand bathed in the chill and the 40-watt glow and we wait for some kind of gastric epiphany – we have faith that the perfect food is lurking there, just behind the pickles or last week’s mac and cheese. It will satisfy our cravings and fill our souls, we’re sure. Or at least we hope it won’t give us food poisoning. The challenge is to find just the right thing without upsetting the delicate eco-system that seems to appear in even the most regularly cleaned appliance.

            I remember when I moved into my little second-story nest, I was so excited to have a brand-new, real, grown-up-sized refrigerator. After the last one I had, with its less-than-reliable condenser and chronically constipated freezer compartment, it was so nice to imagine all of the gourmet leftovers I would be able to preserve in the gleaming depths of this new Frigidaire. But as I swing the door open from my unaccustomed position on the kitchen floor, contemplating the actual contents, I realize that the reality has rather a different look to it. The door seems to have some reasonably edible bottled goods – salsa, salad dressing, mustard, olives. But then my gaze falls on that jar of applesauce that moved in here with me two years ago and I’m now afraid to open, and I realize just why I eat at Wendy’s so often. The grape jelly next to the applesauce has a light green film on top, but I don’t have a biohazard suit, so there it will stay.

            The main compartment of the appliance is more crowded than usual due to an influx of groceries following the Christmas cash-giving season. I see a carton of actual eggs between the week-old take-out salad and the mysterious aluminum foil lump that may be something from the office holiday pot-luck. I’m proud to notice that I actually have produce in my “Fresh Produce” drawers – clementines and apples.

            The next shelf up supports the Kroger brand mayo that I’ve decided is just as good as Hellman’s because it costs about two dollars less. A bottle of peppermint schnapps keeps the black olives and beer company, right by the cherry preserves I got during last summer’s family vacation in Michigan at the height of cherry festival season. Something lurks in the depths of this least-visited shelf, but I’m afraid to look any closer. Let the mystery remain for a while. After all, look what happened to those overly curious people who looked into King Tut’s tomb...

            The most frequently used stuff is on the top shelf, so I don’t expect any surprises here. Still-fresh skim milk, cranberry juice, water filter, cottage cheese and month-old bread are the major players. Some fizzed-out tonic water stands forlorn in the corner, just hoping to hang on for a couple more days, maybe a week, before I get ambitious and start throwing things away. One unusual item is the jar of home-canned peach jam that was a Christmas gift from one of the bosses. For someone with no fresh bread in the house, I certainly have plenty of toast toppings.

            I have a friend who says you can tell who lives in a house just by looking in the fridge. When I had a roommate and a big kitchen, we always had at least four meals’ worth of food in our fridge and my friend would open the door and declare, “Chicks live here.” His own immaculate refrigerator contained no more than mixers for his cocktails and olives soaked in vermouth – sometimes there’d be leftover pizza, but only for one night before it was devoured. Chicks did not live there.

            When I go to my dad’s house, I invariably find myself gazing into his wall of food as if it has some answer that my callow young Frigidaire lacks. The fact that this was the source of countless after-school snacks and now harbors mid-western delicacies like stuffed peppers and pot roast that I can’t get at MacDonald’s seems to infuse the parental fridge with some kind of additional power. Like the stuffed animal my grandmother gave me on my second birthday and who still has a place at the foot of my bed (ok, sometimes under the foot of my bed), the old home refrigerator fills me with memories of a time when the most I had to worry about was whether Mom and Dad would try to feed me liver and onions for dinner.

            I find that there are some items that I always have, even though I don’t want them, just because we always had them around when I was a kid. It seems like my fridge, and its contents, link me to my past in a way I never noticed. I’m not even sure I like cottage cheese but, by god, I always have some in there.

Reality Check

Here's a job description for a position I've just applied for at OSU, plus my cover letter. I think it sounds pretty good, but I'd appreciate any feedback y'all would care to share with me. Thanks!

-E

Direct from the HR posting: "Provides administrative support for regional advancement program; maintains calendars; assists with developing and producing various written correspondence and documents; prepares and monitors budget; makes travel arrangements; processes fiscal and human resources forms; answers phones; maintains filing system and databases; provides excellent customer service to inquiries from staff, donors, university administrators and other constituents, maintaining a high level of confidentiality and performs other duties as assigned."

Dear Ms. XXX,

Thank you for considering me for the position of Office Associate with the Ohio State University Foundation.  You will find that my professional experience, work ethic and personal values make me a good fit for the position.

By always seeking to provide the highest quality work, I have successfully held positions with progressively increasing responsibility levels and a wide range of tasks.  My commitment to learning new skills and pushing my own boundaries in order to get the job done has enabled me to develop skills in communications, document design, logistics and schedule management.  I have demonstrated expertise in customer service, calendaring, writing, budget tracking and executive support.  In addition, I have successfully worked under conditions requiring frequent juggling of competing deadlines and shifting priorities, as well as handling sensitive and confidential information.

Because of my focus on small business, non-profit, and University offices, I have wide-ranging experience with all office functions.  I’ve done everything from working the reception desk to making budget and long-range planning judgments to creating complex reports and manuals.  I can set up efficient filing systems, create effective print materials and presentations, plan meetings and events, proofread dissertations, maintain websites, work out scheduling challenges, resolve equipment problems and manage databases.  My ability to see beyond emergent challenges and to envision creative long-term solutions has made me an invaluable resource to past employers.

For four years, I managed operations in a busy church in downtown Seattle.  I served as the communications liaison and public face for the parish, coordinated all events and activities on the church campus, created countless documents for internal and external use, arranged travel for clergy, managed several budget line-items and handled all purchasing for the office and facilities.  As an active participant in all stewardship campaigns at the church, I proofread and edited letters, tracked pledges and gifts, and generated thank-you notes using the mail merge functions of both Word and a church-specific database.

I am able to learn new tasks with minimal training and have excellent interpersonal skills.  I have experience working with a diverse array of personalities and ages, and truly enjoy interacting with people of different backgrounds.  My observation has been that individual differences make the team stronger and mutual respect allows people with varying points of view to work together productively.

I hope that you will agree that my qualifications and skills would make me a valuable addition to your team.  If you would like to contact me, please call 614-XXX-XXXX or email XXXXX@msn.com.

Sincerely,

Emily Marlor