Preston Meyers

Keenan Coffey

10/5/14

Drama A

Character Analysis Can't Hardly Wait

Mrs. Rockne

Preston Meyers is one of the main characters in the film, Can't Hardly Wait. He is a great example of a typical high school student with both dreams of being what is considered "cool", and successful. Preston's character displayed the whole dynamic of how high school works, and the hardships that each and every student faces. He is unique in the sense that he was not like everyone else in his highschool, and he strongly conveyed this. Preston Meyers is hopelessly in love with a popular girl at his school, and had a goal to finally pour out his emotions to her before he left for college. He had many goals throughout the film, and showed the audience his bravery, courage, and determination.

Preston

Beowulf and chaucer work

Keenan Coffey

Beowulf

 

1)      A caesura is categorized as a pause or break in the text to provide emphasis or some meaning. “They were easy to find who elsewhere sought in room remote their rest at night, bed in the bowers, when that bale was shown, was seen in sooth, with surest token, -- the hall-thane's hate.” The double hyphen in the middle of the sentence is a caesura.

2)      A kenning is a compound expression in Old English and has metaphorical meaning. A few examples include an “oar’s-steed” which means a ship, “a breaker or rings” is a king, and “battle sweat” which means blood.

3)      The combination of Old English, Anglo Saxon values and beliefs, and the rise of Christianity create a sense of foreign history in Beowulf. The Anglo Saxon’s were a very barbaric group of people that pilgrimaged any village in sight. Their speech and language normally included very vulgar terms that always related to war in some way, shape, or form. An example of this language includes, “To Hrothgar was given such glory of war, such honor of combat, that all his kin obeyed him gladly till great grew his band of youthful comrades.”

 

Canterbury Tales

 

C1)  Chaucer characterizes many different characters throughout the novel Canterbury Tales. Three specific characters that interested me were the pardoner, the wife of bath, and the knight. The pardoner had many distinct things about him that made him unique. He is a really greedy person, that only thinks of himself. The way he makes his living is both deceiving and inconsiderate. He is in a high social class because of his variety of wealth. His appearance was "that of Jesus" and had long yellow hair. I believe his character is a priest or a pastor.

The wife of bath is also very unique. She had a lot of money, and was in a high social class. She had several husbands, but they all left her because she was so annoying. She is not the prettiest woman, and that is a reason why she cannot keep a husband. She made all of her clothes, and sold them to make money. She also travels to long distant lands.

The knight was a very honorable character. He was looked at as the most noble person there was. He always killed his foe, and was incredibly brave. He had a downfall though. He is full of himself, and very confident. Everyone does look up to him, but he looks at himself as a god.

C2) The men in the Canterbury Tales video are wearing street clothes and two of them were wearing hats. One of them was wearing a bucket hat, and the other was wearing a sideways hat. They looked like urban school teachers.

C3) The narrators voice sounds very close to a Russian or Germanic accent. He over pronounced his S sounds, and sounded very eerie. The emphasis on these words tell us that the narrator typically wouldn't be a guy to mess around with.

C4) In the Pardoner's Tale the tale of greed killing all three of the men in their search for death is ironic and terrible. They found death because of their search for gold. This was ironic because the pardoner takes things for his own "indulgences". The pardoner is a hypocrite, and Chaucer portrays this story to show how the pardoner does not have many morals.

C5)