Oakfield High School - Acorn Yearbook (Oakfield, ME)

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LIBRARY Library FOUR DUCKS IN A POND H OUR Ducks In a Pond, by Ruth Sawyer, is the story of a young girl, Tad Mason, whose hunger for life and fear of it battled in her for victory. Her father was a horrid, unclean, whining creature always complaining about his work on the farm: her mother was a tired, unkempt, irritable person who worked from dawn 'till dusk and yet never finished her tasks. The house was always in a clutter-dirty, greasy dishes stacked high in the kitchen, a sticky baby playing in the middle of the floor, swarming flies over everything, stale cooking odors prevailing, and dirt everywhere. In this murky atmosphere Tad had lived a daily life of hard unending toil for eighteen years, being the oldest of the eight Mason children. Tad was little and hollow-chestedg too gaunt to be pretty. She was now ready to leave this world for another-she was going away to State College. She hated her lifeg she compared it to the slimy, dirty duck pond behind their house. Ever since she could remember there had been dirty bedraggled ducks that raised every year a brood of fiuffy yellow ducklings who in their turn be- came more dirty ducks. The hopelessness of their cycle cut through Tad's sensibilities like a surgeon's knife. She wanted to get away from this existence but- What's the use, thought Tad. What's the use of trying to get out of it when you know something older, stronger than you, will pull you back in again? Both her father and mother objected to her going, only her oldest brother urged her on. One day she left. She walked down the narrow dusty lane eager to get away, yet- She happened to glance back at the duck pond, and it flung her a challenge, insolent and contemptuous: Go ahead, it said. See if you can get away from me. See if you can ever forget me! She had at college two staunch friends, Danny Herron, an Irish boy, and Bobby Campbell, her lively roommate. Both of them understood Tad and helped bring her out of her shell. She learned to swim, to dance, and how to dress. At the end of her first year, she was a happy, changed girl. She had cast from her mind the vivid details of the duck pond and was planning to spend the summer vacation at Bobby's home. She had her trunks all packed to leave for her much anticipated vacation when a letter came for her. It was from her father. Her mother was very ill and there was no money left, Tad must come home. There was not a moment's hesitation on Tad's partg she was going home-back to the duck pond. Joan Hint, English II. 45

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LITERATURE RECALLED TO LIFE N a manner unique and supreme, Dickens, in The Tale of Two Cities, em- bellishes trivial facts to portray realistically the horror, bloodshed and grief existing during the French Revolution. One of his themes is Recalled To Life. Dickens acquaints one with the times by describing them in contrasting style-he says, It was the best of times, it was the Worst of times, it was the age of Wisdom, it wasthe age of foolishness,--. Then, England's disorderli- ness and injustice, along with burglaries and smuggling, are introduced. Erench conditions are far worse-weak rule, discontented people, countless scenes of innocents placed in tumbrils, fed to the merciless guillotine, and watched by stone-hearted spectators who enjoyed the process which left a figure minus a head! Having described the era generally, Dickens goes to Dover Road, over which three passengers were traveling. Since the horses seemed disturbed, the driver got out and. saw that a messenger had stopped to iind out if a Mr. Lorry were in the stage-coach, then he gave him a dispatch from Tellson's Bank. Lorry, enroute to Paris on business, told Jerry to reply, Recalled to Life. Jerry was so confused that he considered Lorry drunk and unconscious of the reply made, but Jerry didn't know that Lorry dreamed about freeing a forty- five-year-old man from his eighteenth year of imprisonment. The coach reached Dover, and Mr. Lorry went in the Royal George Hotel to the empty coffee-room, and pondered on how he could free that soul. When Lucie Manette came to him, he told her that he was going to free her father whom she thought dead. Dead? In a sense, for, an eighteen-year imprison- ment couldn't offer much for a full life. Then, they went to Defarge's wine- shop on a handy corner in Saint Antoine where wine was spilled on the streets, soaked up in rags, and squeezed into thirsty mouths. Defarge led them to a garret where Dr. Manette, making ladies' shoes, was kept. The venerable gentleman was so stunned by his daughter's appearance, that it was immaterial to him whether or not he was dug out -or shall we say, Recalled to Life? Rose Sapienza, English IV. 44

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LIBRARY MODERN BIOGRAPHY ROM the flood of twentieth century literature, and from a list of successes, I select an autobiography which is about the famous personality, Madame Frances Alda, the versatile and glorious operatic star. The book was written to inspire others by revealing how life may exemplify a certain ideal. It has a catchy and magnetic title, Men, Women, and Tenors , instead of the old staid titles of yesterday's biographies. It presents a person as he actually is and does not contain stale hero-worship. The person's life is picked up in exciting pieces and then put together as a jigsaw puzzle. It consists of the subject's life-her possessions, profession, daily problems, an- ecdotes, amusements, and her associates. It contains humor, emotional power, eloquence, vividness, and irony. The book is full of wit, contains beautiful de- scriptions of life before and behind the footlights of the magnificent Metropol- itan Opera House, La Scala at Milan, and London's Covent Garden-the four stages which every singer dreams of triumphing. The temperamental tenors, foolish jealousies among actors, and depressing failures are to be fought by wholehearted determination, extreme courage, and a boundless will to work. The subject of this book is an excellent example of a youthful struggler for suc- cess, admiration, and, magnificence. Her associates are all famous individuals who are inhabitants of this modern world. Undoubtedly, this book is not fan- tastic, fairy-like and unreal, because it is true to life. It is typical of the tragedies, the comedies, and the composition of life. This autobiography is full of hilarity, love and useful advice. There is also, all the despair that can breed in the fertile soil of intimate association with life. Anna Damiani, English IV. -.+.- MAIN STREET By Sinclair Lewis 66 AIN STREET clearly presents the complex problems which reared themselves from the haphazard growth of our present-day Western cities. Employing a typical, ugly, undeveloped hamlet for an illustration, the author has forcibly expounded his theories on some of these modern riddles. The author, an experienced writer, is capable of accurate, detailed, power- ful narration which makes his scenes realities. He utilizes the confiicts caused by certain types of people and natural tendencies of the civilized world to ex- emplify his points. Through these, he plays most compellingly upon the emo- tions of the reader, and by the creation of certain events to fit into his scheme, he conveys his story and ideas to us. Since Sinclair Lewis has incorporated many personal ideas in this excep- tional book, I will attempt to describe only one. Mr. Lewis' idea is that these little settlements which dot the country are but a small edition of a nation. In these communities one finds the equivalent to Jim Farley, John Lewis, and the Du Ponts to parallel the famous ones. These town people play the same part for the nation. However, it is the small business men in the obscure vil- lage whose support is needed for local acts or whose condemnation obliterates other affairs just as the powerful middle class or bourgeois makes or breaks a nation. This principle, when pondered over, can hardly be thwarted for the sheer logic of it is easily perceived. Thus, by reading Mr. Lewis' answers to some of our modern-day problems, we are given new hope and courage to face concrete challenges which we meet. Julia Hint, English III. 46