Saying goodbye to my maiden name — It is traditional for a woman to take her husband’s last name and forsake her own. In the past, when a woman’s only identity was her husband’s, this name change wasn’t an issue, however, as women have created identities for themselves, separate from their husbands, this custom has been challenged…

A Study in Characterization Part 5 of 5 — All three retellings examined in this series are trading on the legacy of Alice that started with Lewis Carroll’s story to entertain three little girls. What came of it was a classic children’s story, but one that is confined by the conventions of children’s literature. The Queen of Hearts and…

Down the Rabbit Hole: Retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — A Study in Characterization Part 4 of 5 — Most retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, like Splintered, feature a Hatter who is mad, but some retellings, like the television series Once Upon a Time, creates a dynamic Mad Hatter character by placing the madness on the periphery. In the show, the Evil Queen Regina has cursed fairy tale…

Down the Rabbit Hole: Retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — A Study in Characterization Part 3 of 5 — The Mad Hatter’s madness is taken for granted by modern audiences of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its retellings, even though Lewis Carroll never labeled the Hatter as mad. What Carroll did, was set the Hatter up for madness. In the chapter leading up to the Hatter’s introduction, the Cheshire…

Down the Rabbit Hole: Retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — A Study in Characterization Part 2 of 5 — YA author Marissa Meyer is not new to the realm of retellings. Her bestselling series, The Lunar Chronicles, feature retellings of classic fairy tales, including “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” and “Rapunzel.” Her standalone novel, Heartless, tells the origin story of the Queen of Hearts from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland…

My experience teaching through Zoom — Small black boxes fill my screen. Each one is labeled with a name in white lettering, but give no other identifying features. The microphone symbol in the bottom left corner has a bright red slash through it clearly indicating the lack of participation I should expect. I have no way…

Confessions of a Secondary School Teacher: Part V — During the fall months, my students found it necessary to miss up to a week of school. It was the height of hunting season. I couldn’t understand this need but then again, I grew up in the city. We didn’t go hunting. Or at least, my family didn’t. Students would…

And what I’m doing about it I recently made a post lamenting my previous high paying employment with a wedding on the horizon. It was meant to be an affirmation of sorts. A kind of self-care for my soul. Instead, the universe had left me with my hand poised in…

How I lost a friendship in 2020 — In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the titular character contemplates life in the famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy: To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And…