Senior Writing Portfolio Students
Millikin University

Aaron Bynum

biography

Aaron H. Bynum will graduate Millikin University with a B.A. English-Writing in May 2007. Aaron H. Bynum is a writing major.

To be a writing major, a student must ravenously train his mind and soul 'til they swell with an indefatigable greed for genius in literature. It is to comprehend the most complex of motives and it is to be able to devise the truest and most elegant of criticism, without flaw. To be a writing major, a student hopes to be redeemed of his iniquities by the saints of literature past; lending his trust to none but a pen and some paper.

His hobbies include deciphering the value of literary criticism, reading 19th Century Western philosophy (G.W.F. Hegel, in particular), reading comic books, interpreting song lyrics, contemporary aesthetics, critical reading and researching, journalism, social psychology and closely following and writing about the Eastern and Western animation industries.

In order to acquire future success, Aaron aspires to utilize his skills in information processing and editing to the best of his ability.

Writing Theory

The Art of Discovering the Truth of Things Unseen

I write because I believe that there are subjects and ideas in this world that are best expressed or explicated as written word. There is an infinite type of theory and an infinite arrangement of criticism that any researcher can make sense of time and time again, but I believe that it is through writing that an individual may discover the finest truth of things unseen and the best explanation of shared ideas.

You can think with and perform through writing and literature in ways deemed unimaginable in other media. Taking what I have learned from studying so many different authors and so many different areas of interest as covered by those authors, one of the most influential aspects of literature that I am positive will stick with me after graduation is the notion that a pencil and a piece of paper are indeed more durable and more powerful than any other craft. Writing is a versatile art form.

Additionally, I believe that in order make use of the versatility of writing as art; writing must come from a desire to continue learning, especially beyond that which is expected. Education is the foundation on which a knowledgeable writer-artist constructs a competent and influential article that will be worth reading years after its initial creation. I do not believe that everyone and anyone, who considers himself a writer or critical thinker, is capable of achieving such a balance between learned knowledge, personal experience and skill. But I do believe that those who have indeed found this kind of equilibrium are noticeably hungrier for the Writing Experience; and as such, we need to learn from them.

Article Sample || essay

Introduction to "Dickinson's #303"

The essay "Dickinson's #303: The Gifted Soul and Solitude as the Impetus for Pure Consciousness" is included in this portfolio in part because it was awarded the 2006 Honorable Mention for Literary Interpretation, of the Grace Patton Conant Writing Competition: a series of literary awards granted to students by the English Department of my school, Millikin University. The writing competition itself is a heavily monitored struggle for recognition in the areas of creativity, research and interpretation amongst English Majors.

This essay in particular is a personal interpretation and extrapolation of Emily Dickinson's essay, labeled #303 by Johnson. I believe that the poem is a remarkable example of the inner conflict the soul embattles every day and is a vivid representation of how Dickinson was able to evoke the very most out utilizing of the very least. Self-assurance is rarely wholly assured and the discernment between solitude and aloneness is often more difficult than first perceived.

"Dickinson's #303: The Gifted Soul and Solitude as the Impetus for Pure Consciousness" is an analytical essay from beginning to end. The essay interprets Dickinson's poem, stanza-by-stanza, line-by-line, and word-by-word, ultimately devoting the time and energy to this particular poem by Dickinson that should be granted to all of Dickinson's work. I enjoyed writing this article because the professor who gave the assignment was fairly open-minded, and simply allowed me to interpret and analyze the piece of literature in any way that I felt satisfying. Perhaps intellectually-rewarding is a more descriptive term than mere "satisfaction;" nevertheless, the purpose of the article was to prove that "the Soul is convinced that only the most comfortable universe for the self to exist in can only be registered from within," as I commented within the essay.

I did however have some reservations about the essay while it was in production. One of them being the fact that Emily Dickinson, in being a literary goddess to many, has had oodles of literature written about her and her work. Therefore, it was at times difficult not so much to find something new to say, but rather to discern the quality secondary sources from the haphazard secondary sources. Another reservation that I had to overcome was the concept of audience. The goal of the course for which this was written was to increase the students' familiarity with numerous forms of literary criticism; and as such, many students (myself included) had trouble switching to and from different perspectives and critical eyes to comprehend and explain different kinds of literature.

(abridged for web sample)

Dickinson's #303: The Gifted Soul and Solitude
as the Impetus for Pure Consciousness

Emily Dickinson's piece "The Soul selects her own Society--", also referred to as poem #303 Johnson, is wonderfully crafted poem about the selective nature of one's consciousness and the tender absoluteness of a self-assured mind. Formally analyzed as a piece of literature unto itself, poem #303 tells the story of a "Soul" whose existence is defined by her decision-making.

This poem is a first-person account of a consciousness, which when convinced of what is best for the Self, immediately disregards alternative ideas. Intriguing due to its allegorical personification, symbolism and word play, #303 renders a vivid and complex image of the Soul. Emily Dickinson often wrote about the ways in which the human mind endeavored to become and to remain individual apart from outside persuasion or other, societal coercions. This particular piece of poetry, only three stanzas (and twelve lines) in length, perfectly illustrates how consciousness is indeed self-reliant.

The author's diligent aloneness is also a contributing factor to the nature of this poem. Dickinson's renunciation of societal responsiveness and selective and preferential approach to environment begot poesy that was brilliantly merciful. Genevieve Taggard's bio-historical account of the nature of Dickinson's publications, The Life and Mind of Emily Dickinson, holds that the author's mapping of the human mind stems from the "extreme" solitude, "into which she could introduce and in which she could examine, analy[z]e, and dissect life in quantities minute enough to be properly handled" (226-227). And as such, the origin of Poem #303, Dickinson herself, was a subject of solace capable of discovering the "taste" or "preference" of the common consciousness to estimate the fate that befalls the soul (Taggard 226).

[…]

Poem #303 is a detailed division of the complexity of consciousness into parts, perhaps even "components" (Juhasz 158). And as a result, the reader's understanding of the ultimate function (and decisiveness) of the soul is dependent upon the efficiency of the far-reaching mind: introspection.

The speaker of this poem has "learned her lesson," as John Crowe Ransom writes in an essay concerning the many narrative approaches Dickinson's speakers take in her poetry (95-96). The speaker of poem #303 understands the Platonic notion that the Soul's "society" acts as a guiding authority for all conscious behaviors. The "human drama becoming to her situation" forces the speaker's "renunciation" of what perils she sees as dangerous or offensive to her personal growth. Whether this stems from her previous experience with whatever it is she rejecting or whether this decision arrives as an instinctual method of dealing with related circumstances; it is nonetheless a true reflection of the Soul's being (Ransom 95-96).