Oakfield High School - Acorn Yearbook (Oakfield, ME)

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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

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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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LIBRARY IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE Sinclair Lewis N idealist of modern literature possessing extreme enthusiasm in the field of political controversy, Sinclair Lewis, writes his novel to satisfy the more satirical and ironical people, to present pictures of the jigsaw puzzle in Europe, and to inform the citizens of this country on our thrifty and industrious nation. This writer wishes us to read the novel not only for appreciation, but he encourages us to study facts. He speaks of Jew financiers controlling practi- cally all business and currency, labor unions submitting themselves as money- grabbers, Jew spies posing as American liberals, arguments for and against Fascism and Communism, debates on Social Democracy and communism, and differences of liberals and conservatives which enter into the lives of the peo- ple. Something very striking and noticeable is his portrayal of the conservative Senators, United States Chamber of Commerce, giant bankers, monarchs of steel motors, electricity, and coal, brokers, and the holding companies to the Bourbon kings of whom it was said that they forgot nothing and they learned nothing. Digging into economic situations causes him to reveal that money isn't everything in our progressive world, that our country needs discipline to restore its senses, and that the need of highbrow intellectuality and book-learn- ing is rapidly decreasing. Politics enters Mr. Lewis' life because of his keen interest in showing the difficulties of a modern nation. When a country has gone money-mad, and our labor unions and workmen with their propaganda have raised income taxes so that the thrifty and industrious have to pay the people, then Mr. Lewis thinks that to save the lazy souls and get some iron into them, a war might be a good end. There is no country in the world that can get more hysterical or more obsequious than America. This book is the product of a talented writer who has a clear imagination, and who forecasts with powerful vision, a most logical picture of the scenes which stand out in a simple, truthful, and vivid manner. Angeline Mosco, English IV. 47