The Writing Samples of Brian Corcoran

The Writing Samples of Brian Corcoran January 15, 2019 Bcorcoran1992@yahoo.com (785) 331-6765

Table of Contents 1.

St. Issues’ Fire – This is a movie review/research paper I wrote during graduate school. It was originally in APA format.

2.

Astin/Sanford Case Study – This graduate school assignment is a mock email to a potential new student.

3.

4.

This is my blog: https://mojohorizon.home.blog/ These are web pages I developed for an acoustic musician and a full band’s online marketing.

A Look Back in Song (Roy Allen) https://www.facebook.com/pg/folkmusickc/about/?ref=page_internal

The Fade Aways https://www.reverbnation.com/thefadeawayskc 5.

This is a YouTube channel and video I created with the owner of Marcia’s Natural Soaps and Stuff: https://youtu.be/TApI7ObmGwE

St. Issues’ Fire Brian Corcoran University of Central Missouri

Film Summary

The 1985 film St. Elmo’s Fire centers around a group of recent graduates of Washington D.C.’s Georgetown University and their struggles to transition from being college students into their lives as working adults. One of the original taglines for the Joel Schumacher directed film was “They thought they'd be friends forever, but forever couldn't last.”

On the surface, this Brat Pack of friends leads a carefree mid-80’s yuppie existence, complete with ritualistic “booga, booga” cheers and Billy Idol murals. Although the Oasis song “Cigarettes and Alcohol” (Gallagher, 1994) wasn’t released until the next decade, it definitely applies to the characters here as well. In addition to exposing viewers to their nights of partying, St. Elmo’s Fire exposes viewers to the seven characters’ problems and issues.

The film opens with all seven friends at the hospital following a motor vehicle accident.

This scene introduces the viewer to all of the characters, including Rob Lowe’s character Billy “The Kid” Hicks.

Billy has just wrecked a new car which was given to his friend Wendy

(played by Mare Winningham) as a graduation present from her overbearing father. Wendy picks up the tab for the emergency room while the carefree Billy plays The Flintstones theme song on his saxophone to, apparently, entertain a female admirer. When Billy is told he’s being arrested for drunk driving and he responds, “Drunk? Definitely. I don’t know if you can call it driving.” As he’s being driven off in the back of a squad car, Billy asks Wendy if she’s okay and apologizes to her.

It should be noted that the only other time Billy shows any

seriousness or concern in this scene is when he warns a policeman to “Watch the sax”.

On the surface, Billy is a very toxic character. In fact, as the film unfolds, he appears to be the poster boy for everything that women hate about men.

He drinks too much, he cheats on

his wife, he loses every job he gets, he neglects his child, and generally thinks about nobody but himself. What, developmentally speaking, is Billy’s problem? Billy is definitely struggling to adjust to life after college and appears to be clinging to his party boy way of life. Billy makes an interesting case study for Arthur Chickering’s Seven Vectors of Identity Development.

Theoretical Review The Seven Vectors, according to Chickering (later with help from Linda Reisser) include Developing Competence, Managing Emotions, Moving Through Autonomy Toward Interdependence, Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships, Establishing Identity, Developing Purpose, and Developing Integrity. ( Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, Renn, p. 67-69, 2010) Chickering was smart to note that identity development doesn’t necessarily occur in a step-by-step, sequential fashion. “He used the term vectors of development ‘because each seems to have direction and magnitude – even though the direction may be expressed more appropriately by a spiral or by steps than by a straight line’ (p. 8). In other words progression is not necessarily linear.” ( Evans et. al. p. 66, 2010) At the beginning of the film, it’s obvious Billy is still dependent upon his friends to not only find him a job, but to keep finding him jobs: “Working for Senator Pomerantz wasn’t for me.” One might argue that Billy is getting by on his good looks, charming personality, and party lifestyle as opposed to pulling his own financial weight. He finds creative ways to get fired like getting caught in the boss’s hot tub with a lady friend. He is not independent.

This seems to put Billy primarily in the first and second vectors of Developing Competence and Managing Emotions.

He doesn’t seem to know or care about taking care

of himself, let alone his wife and son. When asked about whether or not he misses school, Billy mentions that “School was pretty out of hand. In everyday life, there’s just no way to be out of hand.” Furthermore, he definitely has not ventured into the fourth vector of Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships. “I just can’t deal with the little missis. Can I crash?”.

His friend Wendy is ready to surrender her virginity to him, but he laughs out loud at

her “SCUBA suit” and even says “You’re allowed to have fun when you’re screwing”. The whole experience, like his life, is a big joke to him.

Perhaps the most telling point of the film for Billy, is when he realizes how others see him.

He returns to his college fraternity hailed as a myth and legend, but his fraternity brother

only sees him as “somebody who can get us good drugs”. Soon after this, his wife mentions getting an annulment.

It’s obvious that he’s not emotionally ready for the responsibility of

a wife and child, let alone a career. As the film progresses, Billy does learn to take some steps towards maturity like pawning his beloved saxophone to pay the phone bill. He even pays Wendy some of the money that she’s leant him since the night at the emergency room.

Before departing for New York, he does show signs of Developing Mature Relationships and even asks Wendy if he’s abused their relationship too much. Maybe he’s started to learn to value his friends and personal relationships? In the end, Billy rescues his friend Jules (Demi Moore) from a suicide attempt by showing his empathy “We’re all going through this. It’s our time on the edge.” After initially vowing to change, Billy also admits that his wife and son are better off without him. In time, Billy could actually make an excellent counselor himself.

He proves that he can be good under pressure or when things get “out of hand”.

Throughout the film, Jules also struggles with her adjustment to the “real world”.

She is consumed with appearing like a “together woman of the 80’s”. During one of the opening scenes, she mentions her international banking career leaves her with “lots of cash” and also makes it a point to mention bailing her friend Billy out of jail – again. She seems to be struggling with the constant re-assurance associated with Chickering’s first few vectors.

Jules tries to take charge of her friend’s love life by setting up the heterosexual Kevin (Andrew McCarthy) with her homosexual neighbor. She assumes Kevin is gay because he’s never made a pass at her and even asks him “You know you’re the only guy at school who never made a pass at me?” . That definitely sounds like a need for constant re-assurance. Jules is projecting her own insecurity onto Kevin and her own issues about developing autonomy. During said visit to her place, Kevin asks how she can afford such a nice place. She responds, “Why do you think God invented credit? For fabulous people like me.” Jules also calls her friend Alec to “rescue her” from a cocaine-fueled evening at a hotel, but then immediately drops him when he turns down her offer to “come over for a while”. straddling the juke box in one scene.

Sex is a weapon for her and she is even seen

Jules mentions her struggles coping with the illness of her stepmother, whom she affectionately calls her “step-monster.” Jules apparently is worried about paying for her funeral.

As the story unfolds, Jules tells her friends she’s having an affair with her boss. When confronted about her “step-monster” obsession, Jules conveniently remembers she has to meet her boss to avoid discussing it. In the end, though, it turns out that Jules wasn’t being truthful about her affair or about her job.

She was fired and is heavily in debt. In one of the last scenes

of the film, she is seen trying to kill herself in her apartment. It’s only when Billy empathizes with her that she reveals some surprising information – she doesn’t really hate her step-mother, but she wonders “why her father hates her so much”. She is still struggling to develop mature relationships and establish her true identity instead of a persona.

Erik Erikson developed a different theory of identify development and would have a different perspective on Billy and Jules’ many issues. His Eight stages of Development include Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Initiative vs. Shame and Guilt, Industry vs.

Inferiority, Industry vs. Identity Diffusion (Confusion), Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs.

Stagnation, Integrity vs. Despair.

“Each stage is distinguished by a psychosocial crisis or

‘turning point’ that must be resolved by balancing the internal self and the external environment.

Each crisis must produce a developmental change in order for the person to grapple with later developmental crises.” (Evans et. al, p. 49, 2010) While it’s not revealed until one of the final scenes of the film, Jules’ remark about her father “hating her” is very telling. She obviously has trust issues and has been projecting her feelings about her father onto her step-mother. This seems to indicate that Jules has not successfully reached the turning point of Erikson’s very first stage of Trust vs. Mistrust. How can she trust any man if she can’t trust her own father? In a previous scene, Wendy tells Jules her will buy her a new car if she gets engaged to a man named Howie. Jules advises Wendy to sleep with Howie “and if you don’t like it, break the engagement. Then you can still (sleep with him ). ” She also claims to tell her boss that she’s looking for “love, companionship, and the vice-presidency” out of their relationship. Again, she uses sex as a weapon.

Billy, on the other hand, seems to be dealing with issues in Erikson’s fourth and fifth stages of Industry vs. Inferiority and Identity vs. Identity Diffusion (Confusion). While all of his close friends are at least trying to start their careers, Billy is languishing. He bounces from job to job, getting fired from each one along the way. Billy seems very confident when playing his sax (on or off stage), when hanging with his fraternity pals, or flirting with the ladies, but does not seem the least bit comfortable in the roles of working adult, husband, or father. Before announcing his departure to New York, Billy actually matures enough to admit he’s “not part of this after college life. Careers. Marriage.” In time, maybe Billy will eventually learn to balance his internal self and external environment. Perhaps he’ll have some success with a career in music and will come to see himself as working adult. It’s possible his struggles with marriage and fatherhood will be conquered at a later date.

Conclusion

St. Elmo’s Fire is a fascinating case study of recent college graduates and their respective struggles to adjust to their new roles as working adults. Any number of development theories can be applied to every single character and their different post-college struggles and issues.

One might conclude from the film that every person “has issues”, even the ones who appear to have it all or project a very successful image. Plus, people don’t necessarily flaunt their issues.

This makes applying the theories difficult.

Jules’ revelation that her “step-father hates her” is only uttered once, but explains a lot about her behavior and attitude towards men. Her unresolved issues are an enormous influence on her lifestyle. One can argue they’ll continue to be an enormous influence until she deals with them. Some of the issues seem to be more obvious like Billy getting fired from his numerous jobs. His struggle for identity and self-acceptance as a working adult is a good example.

However, what’s not as obvious, is his desire to be a musician. He’s seen playing his saxophone throughout the film, but his seriousness about it seems to be overshadowed by his personality or

attitude. (He’s an uninsured driver who was just arrested for wrecking his friend’s car and his sax is his biggest concern! Again, this is could be easily overlooked or misinterpreted, but is very revealing. All he cares about is music.)

Why do people do the things they do? It can be very difficult to tell from the surface.

However, the theories provide a lot of insight into what may be causing or influencing certain behaviors to both the characters in the film, but also students and people in general.

They are an attempt to explain what’s happening below the surface. Erikson and Chickering’s theories are an interesting contrast when applied to the film characters. The idea that Jules hasn’t progressed from Trust vs. Mistrust is a very compelling argument. Chickering, on the other hand, might say Billy does show sporadic signs of maturity beyond his years while still acting like an irresponsible, frat boy.

References

Evans, N.J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F.M., Patton, L.D., Renn, K.A. (2010). Student Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice .

Gallagher, N. (1994). Cigarettes and Alcohol (recorded by Oasis). On Definitely Maybe (CD).

Monmouth, Wales: Creation Records.

Schwartz, B. (Producer), Schumacher, J. (Director) (1985). St. Elmo’s Fire. (Motion picture).

United States: Columbia Pictures.

Brian Corcoran – Astin/Sanford Case Study – February 10, 2016 This scenario is an email to Anthony Reese. Anthony is a potential Baker University freshmen for Fall 2016.

He is interested in history/political science,

and played high school football, basketball, and tennis. He checked the request more information box for “What’s there to do in Baldwin City, KS?” “Anthony, Greetings from Baldwin City, KS! I’m EXCITED about your interest in Baker University! I’m happy to tell you there are numerous student clubs and activities that will provide you with leadership opportunities, the chance to make new friends, and just plain FUN! As an athlete, I’d encourage you to take a look at the long list of athletic activities.

Baker offers almost a dozen varsity sports for men (and the same for women). Go Wildcats! Also, our fraternities, four sororities, and four independent residence halls compete against each other in intramural sports.

The Collins Fitness Center features basketball, tennis courts, and much more!

Student clubs? Yes, please. Earth We Are, Student Senate, and KNBU radio are just a few of them. For a complete list of activities, check out http://www.bakeru.edu/student-life/undergrad-student-activities .

If you’re into history, you should know Baker’s founding in 1858 makes it the oldest university in Kansas.

War’s Battle of Black Jack.

Baker is also located near the site of the Civil Getting involved in activities at Baker is not only

easy, but it adds a lot to your experience on campus. I look forward to seeing you at the Fall 2016 Activities Fair! Please contact me with any questions.

Sincerely, Brian Corcoran, Director of Student Life

https://mojohorizon.home.blog/ A Look Back in Song (Roy Allen) https://www.facebook.com/pg/folkmusickc/about/?ref=page_internal

The Fade Aways https://www.reverbnation.com/thefadeawayskc This is a YouTube channel and video I created with the owner of Marcia’s Natural Soaps and Stuff: https://youtu.be/TApI7ObmGwE

The End