For my sticky essay which scored 20/20 on the exam, I got a score of
Passive Sentences: 16%
Reading Ease: 40.7
Grade Level: 13.8
Interesting exercise - I wonder if other people have created algorithms, etc. to measure how expressive writing is.
This was the text I used in the essay.
Authors incontrovertibly create their works in a way that reveals much on their opinions of the world around them. Whether they will or no, it often transpires that are at odds with facets of society which they wish to change, and these opinions are engendered by their works. Some write to educate, reason, and challenge; thereby informing their audience of a new opinion, perhaps something they'd not have seen normally. For instance, Marjane Satrapi in her niche graphic novel "Persepolis" depicts a view of life under Islam during the Iranian Revolution in order to disqualify the grounds on which most Western countries prototypically base their prejudice. Tennessee Williams' play 'A Streetcar Named Desire' shows his qualms as a homosexual individual with the profound culture of discrimination prevalent during the time of writing in 1950s America through his exploration of the gay character's (Allan Gray's) tribulations. The esteemed Russian poet and philosopher Антон Чехов (Anton Chekhov) in his play "The Cherry Orchard" captured the essence of the sociocultural flux in 19th Century Russia following the Emancipation of the Serfs in order to portray his views on the era. In all of these cases, the authors have had a clear manifesto which pervades the plot of their texts.
'Persepolis' is autobiographical / graphic novel hybrid written by Marjane Satrapi whose content matter is concerned with the daily lives of those living under repressive regimes during the Iranian Revolution circa 1980. The autobiographical elements show the author's world from the perspective of a child, and it is clear throughout the text that it was a war of politics and religion - entities largely separate from the values embodied by the vast majority of citizens. The text shows how the lives of all citizens were affected; it deals with the crime, corruption, and propaganda, and Satrapi went to great lengths to show these factors reigned supreme and governed the lives of the citizens. But moreover, she importantly strove to delineate the farrago that was the regime as being attributed to a few frenzied fundamentalist individuals. Without detailing the stylistic features of her graphic novel that made this possible, it's ostensible through the metastructure that Satrapi intended to show how the citizens of Iran are normal, placid people whom hate revolution as much as any Westerner. In doing this, she hopes to allay some of the prejudice unfairly directed at the innocent migrants who detest terrorism and preach pacifism, having been subject to what was undoubtedly far worse than virtually all Westerners might have dealt with. Satrapi here has shown her opinions; she doesn't stand for the established culture of prejudice in Western countries, and in order to undermine it she's authored her text to educate her (prominently) Western audience to her side of the story.
Tennessee Williams also wanted to educate his audience, albeit in a subtle manner. What is significant about Williams' issue with society is that he was a homosexual in 50s America; a period where it was - to put it lightly - heavily frowned upon. Had he been openly gay, it would have been safe to assume that the punishments would have been heavy. For Williams, there was plenty of reason to suppress his sexuality; he might be lobotomized just as his autistic sister was under the umbrella justification that it's a "mental illness". So, for Williams, a sledgehammer polemic against the administration was out of the question. Instead, he had to subtly protest his qualms with society to those who might elicit some empathy - the educated. His text 'A Streetcar Named Desire' contains a tacit but nonetheless profound example of this. Whilst primarily concerned with the flux in sociocultural and economic trends during 50s America, and arguably the protagonist Blanche DuBois' descent into madness as a subsequence of this, it stands to reason that a particular minor character in the book distinctly serves the role of portraying the suppression of homosexuals. Allan Gray is but a blink in the eye of the play - an easy character to overlook. Whilst widely accepted as a character whose function is to catalyse Blanche's descent into insanity, he doubles as a messenger to the astute reader of the times, bearing Williams' plea for an accepting society.
In the text, he is wedded to Blanche, cheats on her with a man, is found by her, and commits suicide. The heart-wrenching scene is brief, but it sheds a lot of Williams' emotional baggage. Allan Gray in the text had to deal with the profoundly heteronormative society or face the consequences of his situation. He married to keep up the appearances of a heterosexual and avoid persecution, and committed adultery in order to maintain his sanity and experience love. When caught by Blanche, he has to face the music. In essence, elements of shame due to being gay, due to being caught having an affair, due to being caught having an affair with a man, and being caught having an affair with a man by his wife as opposed to any other individual consumes him and he commits suicide. The message is obvious - Williams must have faced similar circumstances every day, and he wanted people to know about it. Central to the problem is the fact that he's used Gray, a very minor character in a short play, to posit his problems with the society in which he lives - and in spite of that he's even concealed the message by guising the character's role in the play as being solely that of catalysing the protagonist Blanche's descent into insanity. Williams has specifically structured his text this way in order to ensure that only the most astute reader - most likely the most educated, enlightened, and unbiased - would appreciate his message. These people are more often than not those with the power to change the world, in addition to typically being free from the bias that clouds the minds of commoners who pander to societal norms. In effect, Williams' use of Allan Gray engenders his problems with the heteronormative society in which he lived. He specifically utilises Gray as a minor character in a small play with a tacit message in order to share his reality with those in the know - those educated enough to change the world without bringing his toppling down.
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