Abbie's College Workspace

The common theme in both “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Motorcycle Diaries”, which I have echoed in both my fiction and non-fiction pieces, is the suffering and hope of an individual within the society they live in. While Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel – “The Handmaid’s Tale” – focusses on social hierarchy and the government’s control over its citizen’s lives, Ernesto Guevara’s memoir titled “The Motorcycle Diaries” looks at social injustices and his hope for a better future for South America.     My fiction piece, “Liberator”, is a short story told from the perspective of a man named “Eros” as he reflects on his life within “Deusled”. The name of the society he lived in is a neologism made up of the Latin term “deus”, meaning “God”, and “led” to show how the citizens are being led by a greater power – highlighting the strict ideology of this nation and linking back to “The Handmaid’s Tale”, in which religion is a reoccurring theme. Latin terms are used throughout my short ...

Adults Versus Adulthood: Everything School Didn't Teach Us - Stimulus Text: The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Guevara Adulthood is a scam. You don't wake up on your eighteenth birthday in your very own detached house in the suburbs with a dreamy spouse, 2.4 children and an Instagram-worthy dog. You simply wake up a year older and not a shred wiser. Politics? Who's she? Mortgages? Aren't they a new item on the menu at McDonald's? We're all just big children with no life experience, who just so happen to have access to alcohol and engagement rings. That isn't exactly true; adulthood itself isn't the issue. The real scam lies in our preparation for adulthood. The United Kingdom's children spend an average of 13.24 years in school. And what exactly do they learn? What a noun is and how to recite Pi to ten decimal places. No mention of budgeting, debt, or how to go about applying for a mortgage. Yes, mathematics and literacy are vital skills, but w...