As the year comes to a close, one can look back at the year in Sophomore Honors English and see that each of the students could have written a novel of Shōgun length by the volume produced. Yet we will not dwell upon the hardships but in the glory of what was produced. And if we are to honour our work, how else but with an awards ceremony. Therefore, I begin to nominate towards the BIGWORDAWARDS (yes, it is one word).

The BIGWORDAWARD for Literature nominees are:

Of Human Bondage for the category of Best Supporting Novel, or AR Novel. Somerset Maugham’s work received its first nomination for the incredible characterization in the club-footed boy Philip. The book followed Philip through the formative years of his life and watched his evolution into a balanced but lonely individual. The simplest way of describing the book is by saying, "There’s this character Philip, and this is his life." Through the indirect characterization of a lifelong third person view, we see just how dynamic Philip’s character is by watching him react to the pain that others cause him and change to bear the pain. The reader comes to love Philip, to view him as a brother or a cousin, and to feel genuine pain at seeing him suffer. This characterization is so complete that Philip envelops the reader, a human being, a person who one would be likely to find walking the streets of any major city (although now he would probably be without the club foot). Such a full and thorough characterization is present in Of Human Bondage that I would not be surprised to find more realism in the character of Philip than in every other character in every other work we have read this year, combined [with an elaborate mathematical equation that is mine to cherish]. In honour of this deep and engrossing character, I nominate Of Human Bondage for the Literature BIGWORDAWARD.

Our Town is nominated for the category of Best Play. This is an odd selection, for the reason that I believe the play is more or less irrelevant. I selected it for the reason that Thornton Wilder’s approach was so different than any I have seen before or since. In the play he uses characters to represent the everyday and perfectly ordinary elements of the world to suggest the state of human togetherness and human inter-relation. This is a peculiar sort of symbolism, best referred to as minimalist symbolism in that the symbols are emblematic in that they don’t really exist. Unfortunately, a degree of analysis is requisite to realize this abstract symbolism which eliminates a good many people from understanding this deeper meaning. Yet the reward for those who do analyze the play is far more than sufficient to offset this minor inconvenience.

Philip is nominated for the category of Outstanding Character. I’d imagine that this would be quite a surprise after Of Human Bondage was nominated based on the strength of this performance. Most of the reason for Philip’s inclusion has been stated in the category of Best Supporting Novel, however I did not state Philip’s ability to influence the reader. Not only did Philip spend the novel in European locales of which American youths can only wonder of, but he also experienced a variety of lifestyles (which were well-written enough to allow the reader to live vicariously through Philip). Philip moves throughout Europe as a second-rate painter, becomes a doctor, an accountant, and so forth and so on. Upon finishing the book, I found myself driven to study the works of El Greco (I still stand bound to visit Toledo on his behalf), which were a source of inspiration for one of Philip’s friends.

The nomination for Best Supporting Character goes to Finny from A Separate Piece. Unlike Philip, this character was more of a fairy tale than a person: Finny was the ideal, purely benevolent and skilled to near divinity. Finny is also the ideal friend to Gene, trusting and loyal beyond all limits (it is said that Finny is loyal to each entity of which he is a member, ending with the universe). However Finny, by way of his perfection, is doomed to collapse and exist thereafter as a tragic hero, with perfection as his tragic flaw. Finny is evidence that the laws of the universe do not permit perfection to exist. Little more can be said.

In the Outstanding Use of Symbolism, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome won a narrow victory over Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. However, in Frome symbolism seems to be infused into every seam of the world, and finding the instances, in the reading of the book, became near enough to a treasure hunt. The reason that the symbolism in this book captured the nod is due to the fact that the symbolism allows one to see a complexly woven masterpiece behind the linear plot. In Ethan’s life the symbols seem to be unearthly forces guiding him towards an unknown end. Although in the end, the enjoyment of hunting through the (relatively short) book for hidden symbols was what grabbed my eye in this case.

For Outstanding Climax, the nomination goes to Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. Everyone (that I know of) that read this book walked away happy, the events were those that every boy can relate to from his own childhood. The book featured a climax so ridiculous that I could not help but nominate it. There were no strong candidates for this position so the hunt for a Nazi war criminal in Boy’s Life had little difficulty in snagging the top seed. I cannot support this choice well with literary attributes because I do not know of any attribute for something so ridiculous that it wins by merit of this peculiarity. The only other thing I can add is that the climax was quite gripping and a "page-turner."

III

The Literary Flop BIGWORDAWARD is awarded to the piece of literature that should have never been brought to the masses by the producers. This year the award goes to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This book is honoured for its incompatibility with the male gender: some books are presented for their historical or literary significance, but when the subject matter is so incongruous, it must be dismissed. Jane Eyre should have been dismissed. The reading of the book was one of the most tediously grueling procedures I have suffered through in the name of English, being unable to finish a night’s reading without struggling to stay awake. From tales I heard, I know that I was not alone in my scenario: quite a few other guys found the book as utterly appalling and pointless as I did. I can honestly say that the book had no positive effects on myself, my reading, or my intellectual status. The only thing I learned from the test is that I can get a ‘C’ on a significant test without paying the book any real heed, bolster my grade with extra credit and hard work, and still pull off the grade of an ‘A.’

IV - For Writing Produced by a Student

For its work in the prose category, "Question Your Morality: To Have Killed Hitler" receives its first nomination. I nominated this piece for I feel that it is the single greatest piece I have ever written: the analysis is thorough, the voice is clear, and the paper works well on the whole. I have used well-rounded arguments to debate both sides of the issue and used every tool in my power to remain unbiased in doing this. It is my impression that in this paper, the elements merged together more effectively and more smoothly than anything else I have ever written. The format of the paper is straightforward and linear, thus making this facet of the paper more conventional than I might have liked; although this format is necessary for the reader to easily follow the ideas and philosophies that I present therein. Beyond this, the paper has received a good deal of praise and commendation from the few who have had the opportunity to read it (and further beyond this, [the paper] earned me extra credit in the arena of content). I am more proud of this paper than any other creative work that my name has ever been tattooed upon.

In honour of its analytical content, "A Study of the Character Vernon Thaxter" (in response to (in response to McCammon’s Boy’s Life) receives the nomination for Best Analytical Piece. This paper received its laurels for the same reason that many of the other pieces have been honoured: the paper is representative and responsible for a change in the way that I viewed and interpreted literature. In this paper, I commented on a correlation between the author and a supporting character, who happened to be a touch tweaked in the head. This was one of my first instances of connecting a real world figure with symbolism inside the book to form a symbol in itself. Through a few suggestive quotations from Vernon Thaxter I set forth an adequate case proclaiming that Thaxter was in fact McCammon’s representation of himself. Through this I was able to use symbolism in the book to psychoanalyze Mr. McCammon and obtain a fresh perspective on his novel. This was not so significant in itself, but in its preparing me for future abstract analysis, which has been used on Our Town (heavily) and Ethan Frome (not so much).

"Question Your Morality: To Have Killed Hitler" receives its second nomination for An Assignment that Made a Relevant Connection to Something Learned in Another Setting. The work used German historical and cultural data from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawing highly on information gathered from lectures and films relative to the pre-World War I Germany as well as from conversations with pre-World War II Eastern European immigrants. More than this brief historical reference was the paper’s use of my debate skills: despite having been a member of the debate team for a mere two tournaments, I have skills honed through years of arguing and debate has given me a form for these arguments. The paper is, in structure, remarkably close to the layout and presentation of a Lincoln-Douglas debate. I did all I could to differentiate from this mold, but elements certainly do linger throughout the paper, elements that could be picked up on by any skilled Lincoln-Douglas debater. In the future I feel that these debate influences will creep further into my work as they do into my persona and my work will be stronger for this.

For An Assignment that was Enjoyable to Complete, my Chautauqua portrayal of Isaac Asimov receives a nomination. Although I did not realize it at my selection of Asimov, the man truly had one of the mammoth minds both of our time and of history. I greatly enjoyed the process of learning a few things about such a brilliant mind which happened to be attached to such a peculiar man. Probably one of the most memorable points was the reading of "The Reagan Doctrine" and finding a criticism of Reagan that was purely devoid of cynicism and based upon simple logic and reason. The paper was more lucid and logically sound than any other I have ever read, a true revelation as to the perfection of Asimov’s thought process. The man was also humourously ironic: he wrote of travelling to different worlds, but despised to fly and almost never took trips. From the mere volume of the topics that the man wrote on, one can get an idea as to his complexity. In addition to this, I delighted in the prospect of performing simply because that appeals to me. All in all, this composes an enjoyable project.

I nominate my Second Semester AP Book Reports for An Assignment that Reflected My Ability to go Above and Beyond the Highest Expectations. My performance in this arena went so far as to surprise even myself: I could never have seen myself going as far into depth as I did on these analyses. These typically exceeded 2,500 words in length, with Julius Caesar possessing a massive 3,300 words; also, these often picked up some obscure points of the book not even noticed in the reading, such as the "minimalist symbolism" in Our Town. In congruence with the motif of these selections, the AP Book Reports aided my gaining a new perception of the novel or the contents therein.

As you can see, the favorite going into the BIGWORDAWARDS is "Question Your Morality: To Have Killed Hitler" with two nominations (it nearly displaced "A Study of the Character Vernon Thaxter" for best analytical paper as well), followed by a tight bottleneck for the other awards; however, come Awards Night, (June 28, to be broadcast on Bravo! from scenic Miami, Arizona) only the envelope can tell us the winner. One thing’s for certain: most of the nominees bare a common trait in that each is responsible for shaping or refining my means of executing one or more tasks, so this list is a bit of a what’s what in my literary development this year. It’s been a good year.