Project 1

Short Story emulated from Jack Gilbert:

She was a junior in high school and good grades fueled her ambition. She knew this was the year, the year that would make a difference for college acceptance letters. Knowing this she took AP classes and filled her schedule completely. She walked through the halls like someone who had something always on her mind and felt empty. She only thought of homework, classes, and school. She would obsess over the slightest quiz; going into study mode and not coming out until she felt completely prepared. She was never the kind of person to share a lot of friends. She took hard classes and believed that she could do it all by herself. She kept going even when it seemed hard. She worried that she would make a bad grade, so she did everything in her power to make sure it would never happen. She would wake up early and go in for morning tutorials until she understood. She worked her hardest to make good grades and rarely spent any time with her friends outside of class. She spent her time in her room studying, making flashcards until the ink of her pen ran out. Until one day, she realized that grades didn’t define her as a person. She now knew that she could still have a life outside of school and still do good in school. She still worked hard at school but also took the time to hang out with her friends, to look for relationships and build on them. She had gone through life believing that she could do everything on her own and that she didn’t need anyone. She had been interested in having a boyfriend but she always decided against it. But during the fall of her junior year her philosophy changed because of a one in a million boy. This is when she met him and he was amazing. He was different from everyone else in her grade. He had this way about him that was new to her. He wasn’t just a typical high school guy. He was tall, handsome and filled her with butterflies the first time they met. When she compared him to her sister’s past boyfriends, he was the most respectful and kind person she had ever met. He was polite, funny and best of all he made her a better person. He taught her that sometimes you just need to relax and that trying your best is all you can do. He made her happy and filled her with so much love. He showed her that chilling out and being silly is good for you to do occasionally. She began to do activities that weren’t just making flashcards and reading textbooks: she started to have fun doing things like rock climbing. She now feels good about her grades and secure in her ability to do her best. She was fulfilled because he had found her.

Artist Statement: I chose to emulate the piece “Michiko Dead” by Jack Gilbert because I like the use of repetition throughout his poem. The repetition builds on the meaning and emphasizes the message of the poem as a whole. The hardest part of trying to emulate this was to make sure that I did something entirely different but with the same style. Finding a topic to write about made me think but I eventually thought of something that would be a good topic to write about using the style that Jack Gilbert used. I reread the poem to get a better understanding of the way Jack Gilbert writes; this helped me to better emulate his writing style in my short story. I’ve learned that mimesis is valuable because if people can write a piece that emulates another then they have understood and learned a new writing style. In “Michiko Dead” the repetition of the word “he” and how it starts off several sentences with that word, emphasizes the importance of his life and how he gets through it all. I plan to use this same technique to highlight an important part of my life. In my story I am going to emulate how he starts off with what he can’t do or isn’t the best at and then at the end he shows how he overcame that and can now do it without assistance.