A famous adage goes by “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, and this is exactly what happened with this fantastic novel. The The Turn of the Screw was a compelling book that caused many heated discussions and aroused emotions. At first I thought that the 87 page book would be child’s play but, much strenuous work was put into trying to comprehend and totally understand the book. I worked hard over spring break, during the trial preparations, and during the trial itself; therefore, with the level of work put into the project I think I deserve a B.

This great novel was first introduced to me a couple days before spring break had begun. I had originally planned to start reading about 10 pages of the book every day of spring break, but of course procrastination started to kick in. I went to Wisconsin for 3 days, and this vacation was the start of the destruction of my 10 pages a day plan. I had originally planned to bring the book and read at the hotel, but as luck would have it I left the book at home. I also didn’t read for the following 2 days. It wasn’t until Saturday night that I read past the first page of this novel. I did follow all the rules that I was given for the first time I read the book. I took notes on only what I understood when reading the book, and unlike some people I did read the whole book the first time through. Throughout my time reading the book, my emotions were building up. I was really pumped at the end of book because of the ambiguous ending. At that moment in time, I thought the governess was a really strong, courageous woman for being able to live with such a task a taking care of two kids in a gigantic mansion like Bly. Although I did follow what was expected of me, I think that I didn’t meet my own requirements and standards. I was just lucky that I had my weekend to read the The Turn of the Screw. For meeting the requirements, but not meeting my personal standards, I think that a B for this project was justified.

The trial preparation was one of the hard parts of the project. My preparation for the trial focused on the governess’ mental illnesses. The prosecution wanted to prove that the governess was crazy and it was my job to prove that she had a mental illness. My proving she had insomnia and Dissociative Identity Disorder which is also known as split personality disorder. My group and I were given this task on the very first trial preparation date. We each decided to split up and analyze our given chapters, but by the second trial day only two of the seven members of my group had actually done the assignment. My group was lucky that Roshan and I had actually done our chapters, instead of branching out into our own topics which we wanted to prove without telling the group at all. From the chapters that were analyzed, the group proved that the governess didn’t sleep well for at least 11 days. This period of weary nights could easily be used to prove that the governess had insomnia and that she developed split personality disorder from her disease. My group had one of the hardest tasks of all. We had to prove our points in order for all the other points to be able to work. During the trial preparations days, the days that we met after school, and the mock trial, the prosecution had a good schedule going that gave each important point a good amount of time. Some members thought that this was unfair because not all the points were getting across. These members were usually the people who are always stubborn and think that their point was the best. Our prosecution leader agreed with them, and the schedule was thrown out. This whole fiasco happened on the very last preparation day, so all the hard work that was put into making the most important points into the best and strongest points was thrown out the window. As before all the minimum requirements were accomplished, but I didn’t push myself further. I should have at least tried to convince the rest of the prosecution that we should limit our points and stick with the best ones, but instead I became a puppet and just listened and observed to what was happening around me. For my mediocre leadership skills, but for my hard work and good research, a B is the accurate grade that I should be presented with

The day at the trial was one of the nervous days of my life. I had waken up at 5:45 am instead of waking of 8:15 am, the normal time I wake up for late start days, and the fact that I had waken up about 2 hours more angered me. I was to walk to school by 6:30 so that I would be able to attend the morning trial preparations. The preparations were a complete waste because only about 15 people were present, and too many new ideas were being presented. The trial itself was a complete failure for the prosecution side. When it was my turn to go make my points and prove she had insomnia, I was told I had 45 seconds to prove it. This statement made by our so called leader was very frustrating to me. I was not able to prove she had insomnia or the split personality disorder. The trial was then wasted on the points which focused all on hypothetical questions. Our group wasted about 15 minutes trying to prove whether or not the governess would be able to see Peter Quint out of a window or not. Danielle was brought up and asked to stand about 15 feet away and then 30 feet away from the governess. I believe that that was a waste of time. The leader’s group wasted 30 minutes on their points while some groups got 4 minutes, and some groups didn’t even get to go. The most frustrating part for me was the fact that most of these points were never brought up in the mock trial that was held during the second preparation day. After a certain amount of time, it was clear to the whole prosecution team that we weren’t going to make any points. We then started saying to ourselves that the rebuttal was the key to win the trail and it was. I think that neither teams made any points, but the winner of the trail was based on rebuttals. The prosecution did have better rebuttals than the defense even though defense probably had the better premises. The best rebuttal that I personally made was when the governess stated that she wouldn’t kill anyone, and I asked if she would kill a man that was trying to kill Miles and Flora. This question trapped the governess. If she said yes that would mean she is a liar and if she said no it would be proven that she is a bad governess. She responded by saying no she wouldn’t kill the man. This led me to infer that she would endanger the lives of Miles and Flora, thus proving that she is a bad governess. Another reason that the trial was won by the prosecution was because the defense started badmouthing us. All we could do was just sit there and take it though. We could not rebut or object at all to what they said in their closing statement. The jurors noted how wrong that kind of a closing statement was and they voted for the prosecution to win. As with the rest of the whole project my expectations were not met. My work and my questions were completed and ready to go, but because in general the whole prosecution was not prepared which is everyone’s fault, I think that I deserve a B for this project.

With the work that I put into this project over spring break, the trial preparation, and the trial, I think that I should be receiving a B for this project. If I had a chance to redo the trial, I definitely think that I would be capable of meeting my standards so that I can justify that I deserve an A, but this trial was a once in a lifetime thing. I have learned a lot about how working with people is like. People don’t always care about what is best for the group in general, but all they care about is talking so that they can get a high grade for this project. If this trial has taught me anything, it is that organization is a key part to success and without this valuable trait, life is sure to fail.