Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Great Expectations

GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
 
A young orphan named Pip is taken in by his sister and her husband who is a blacksmith. Great Expectations is the story of how Pip grows up encountering many unforgettable people. Some good, some bad, and some dynamic, they all change the way Pip sees the world.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
Dreams are but a step away from delusion... so is loyalty for that matter. Pip is so devoted to his childish view of the world  that he comes close to never realizing his fallacy.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
Dickens is always very descriptive when he writes. He uses imagery to relay what his characters are seeing at the time. A few examples of this are:
1) The convict coming out of the marshes. "... as if he were a pirate come to life, come down, and going back to hook himself up again. It gave me a terrible turn when I thought so; and as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze at him , I wondered whether they thought so too." pg. 5
2) Upon describing a room in Satis House. "I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that room, too, the daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air - like our own marsh mist." p. g71
3)Describing the Magwitch.  "Moving the lamp as the man moved, I made out that he was substantially dressed, but roughly; like a voyager by sea. That he had long iron-grey hair. That his age was about sixty. That he was a muscular man, strong on his legs, and that he was browned and hardened by exposure to weather. As he ascended the last stair or two, and the light of my lamp included us both, I saw, with a stupid kind of amazement, that he was holding out both his hands to me." pg. 270
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

Foreshadowing: through out the story Magwitch's return is imminent. Why would Dickens have started the book with giving Pip such a strong impression of the convict?

Metaphor: The metaphor of the mists is resolved on the last page, "... as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the the evening mists were rising now." pg. 417


Motifs: the reoccuring doubles through out the novel are a way that Dickens shows how connected Pip's world is. For example, Magwitch and Miss. Havisham both want to shape a child to do their bidding in life. Magwitch makes Pip a gentleman and Havisham makes Estella a heart breaker.



Point of View: The whole story is told through Pip's eyes. "Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before, so blessedly, what it is to have a friend." pg. 293

Foil: Orlick is a foil for Joe Gargery. Joe is kind and loves Pip, whereas Orlick is a spiteful slime ball who cripples Mrs. Joe and blames Pip for ruining his life.


Doppelganger: I would argue that Miss. Havisham is the ghostly figure of her former self. In this case she is her own haunted counter part.

Aphorism: "...
life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a white-smith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a copper-smith. Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come." pg. 192 Wise statements are given by different characters through out the story.

Imagery:"He looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves , to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in." pg. 5

Syntax: "... who appeared to have now become constitutionally green and yellow by reason of me." pg. 201

Allusion: The allusion to Shakespeare was in chapter 31 when Herbert and Pip attend Mr. Wopsle's Hamlet play. "The joy attended Mr. Wopsle through his struggle with Laertes on the brink of the orchestra and the grave." pg. 219


CHARACTERIZATION 


1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end?
Direct:
1) Joe's blue eyes turned a little watery; he rubbed, first one of them, and then the other, in a most uncongenial and uncomfortable manner." pg. 39
2) "I found him to be a dry man, rather short of stature, with a square wooden face... " pg. 145
Indirect:
1) "That girl's hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree."Herbert to Pip about Estella pg150
2)"Is HE changed?" Miss Havisham asked her.
   "Very much," said Estella, looking at me.
pg. 203 Estella describes Pip.
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

Yes, Pip's dialogue changes through out the story as he becomes more and more educated, but Orlick was one whose diction and syntax were dramatically different from those of other characters. "... afore I kill you like any other beast -- I'll have a good look at you and a good goad at you. Oh, you enemy!" pg. 363

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

Definitely dynamic, just like Magwitch, Herbert, and Estella Pip's character is formed as he grows up. A head-in-the-clouds child becomes a fully aware of himself adult.
4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
I felt as though Dickens exaggerated Pip's character in order to get his points across. I did feel like I had just read a character, but his mate Herbert was my favorite character, I felt like he could've been an actual person. "Herbert Pocket had a frank and easy way with him that was very taking. I had never seen any one then, and I have never seen any one since, who more strongly expressed to me, in every look and tone, a natural incapacity to do anything secret and mean. There was something wonderfully hopeful about his general air, and something that at the same time whispered to me that he would never be successful or rich. I don't know how this was."pg 151

AP LIT TERMS #31-56

Denouement: loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion

Dialect: the language of a particular district, class or group of persons; the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.

Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth.

Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.

Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.

Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.

Dogmatic: rigid in beliefs and principles.

Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.

Epic: a long narrative poem unified by a hero who reflects the customs, mores, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).

Epigram: witty aphorism.

Epitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on his tombstone.

Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that  may insult someone’s character, characteristics

Euphemism: the use of an indirect, mild or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, offensive, or blunt.

Evocative (evocation): a calling forth of memories and sensations; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality.

Exposition: beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas, and/or characters, in a detailed explanation.

Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic   representation of an inner idea or feeling(s).

Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.

Fallacy: from Latin word “to deceive”, a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound.

Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax.

Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue.

Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech (such as metaphor and simile).

Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events.

Foil: a person or thing that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent.

Folk Tale: story passed on by word of mouth.

Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; “planning” to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away.

Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme.

Genre: a category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, or content.

Gothic Tale: a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay, degeneration, and decadence.

Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement often used as a figure of speech or to prove a point.

Imagery: figures of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the senses.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Tale of Two Cities ARNs

Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities - Dr Tony Williams - Gresham College Lectures
Actually, 3 cities:---->
London, Paris, and Manchester
Preface --> it had a close connection to Dickens himself
In 1857 Charles helped write a play called The Frozen Deep. This ended up having a close connection with To2Cs.
-Dickens later met the Turnons and fell in love with their daughter Ellen.
Lucie is Ellen
-Sidney Carton: talented man who sacrifices himself for the woman he loved
----->Double sets of characters (double faces)
pnt of crisis 1857
-marriage was rough, Little Dorit had been published.
-he profited from public readings + became very popular
Jun 1858 was when he made it official that he had separated from his wife, starting journals that could be profited from
---London
---Dickens was brought there as a boy
---he saw many unsettling sights
---he described the city as his magic lantern
---a city of extremes

---Paris
---extraordinary to dickens
---city had its own lively character
---every person he walked past inspired him
---900,000 people in the city at the time
---1850s-60s changed the city a lot, but Dickens described the old parts that had been changed
---1844-1868 he visited paris 15 times
---Vibrant, modernizing city

Dickens had the attraction of repulsion and an eye for detail.


 The two worlds of London and Paris are alike in many ways
"best of times"
"worst of times"
With his opening he takes us back to the time. The story takes place between 1757-1794.
Dickens didn't like to rebel, but everyone feared that the french revolution ideas would come to England.

#cliffhangers

Dickens was very happy with To2Cs
1860 was the first time the book had been made into a play.
He built up suspense even though we know how the history resolved itself.
Dickens and friend Carlyle were great mates
He builds and builds the emotions of the surroundings. We ride this wave of description that Dickens creates for us.
People are mysteries to other people.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

AP Lit Terms #1-30

1) Allegory: a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point
Alliteration: the repetition of similar initial sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words

Allusion: a reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize



Ambiguity: something uncertain as to interpretation

Anachronism: something that shows up in the wrong place or the wrong time
A TROLL FACE
Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them





Analysis: a method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny



Anaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences


Anecdote: a very short story used to illustrate a point


Antagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative
Scar, Loki, Joker, Hotspur, etc.

Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness


Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life
"Know thyself?" If I knew myself I would run away.

Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology










Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly


Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or the falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself
Your mother was a hamster and you father smelt of elderberries!
You lie!
No I don't!
Yes you do!

Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true

Audience: the intended listener or listeners

Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality

Chiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order


Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served


Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance


Cliché: a phrase or situation overused within society
"Go home, Sarah. You're drunk."
"I just tripped over a backpack, it's a perfectly clumsy yet normal thing to do!"

Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved


Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation


Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter
hahahhahhaaaa. Ehehehhehehehhe! Mwahahhahahahahahaha!

Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension
I can't find my bull dosser. Me thinks it must have dozed off in yonder forest. Get it? Get it? ha.

Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition

Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity

Denotation: plain dictionary definition
Denotation: plain dictionary definition

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Henry V

Here is a video I made to help people better understand Shakespeare's Henry V. We had to memorize the St. Crispin's Day speech and this was meant to help other students better grasp the context.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

LIT TERMS 1-5

Synesthesia:
Why can't words be tasty and letters colorful?

Refrain:
 
 Paradox:
 
 
Fable:


 Vernacular:




Monday, January 14, 2013

SPRING SEMESTER PLAN 1

My goal is to get ready for college and that means walking away from the hovering instruction of the teachers that surround me. Becoming an independent will help me now and later on as I get older. My long term goal is to become a nurse. Whether I stay in California or go to Tennessee has not been decided yet, but I'm pretty sure what God is pulling me towards. Anyway, doing some hospital work, some traveling, and then becoming a nurse practitioner is the main plan Jackie Chan.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

St. Crispin's Day Speech

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.”
As Henry gives this speech to his soldiers he realizes that they are scared to 
fight the French who have a larger army.
Westmoreland wishes for more men and the king counters his statement,
O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!
by telling his men that if they die, they will die in honor and if they live?
"The fewer men the greater share of honor."
Here's a link to the speech from the 2012 BBC television production of "The Hollow Crown."

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Ode To A Nightingale by John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
    My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
    One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
    But being too happy in thine happiness, -
        That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
                In some melodious plot
    Of beechen green and shadows numberless,
        Singest of summer in full-throated ease.


O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
    Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
    Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
    Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
        With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
                And purple-stained mouth;
    That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
        And with thee fade away into the forest dim:


Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
    What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
    Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
    Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
        Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
                And leaden-eyed despairs,
    Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
        Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.


Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
    Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
    Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
    And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
        Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
                But here there is no light,
    Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
        Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.


I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
    Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
    Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
    White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
        Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
                And mid-May's eldest child,
    The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
        The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.


Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
    I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
    To take into the air my quiet breath;

Now more than ever seems it RICH to die,

    To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
        While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
                In such an ecstasy!
    Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain -
        To thy high requiem become a sod.


Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!

    No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
    In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
    Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
        She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
                The same that oft-times hath
    Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
        Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.


Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
    To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
    As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
    Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
        Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
                In the next valley-glades:
    Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
        Fled is that music: - Do I wake or sleep?

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

In that post, please: a) list the five questions you chose and the URLs where you found them; b) answer the five questions to the best of your ability (if you listed an interesting question that you can't answer because it's not covered in the passage, explain what information you'd need to do a proper job); and c) explain what the questions tell you about the skills/content you need to master for the AP exam.

Question Sources:
http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/siddhartha/study.html

1. Wouldn’t it be nice to just, be completely and utterly at peace with where you are in the world? (as an essay topic)
Yes Siddhartha believed that in order to become enlightened he needed to first, find himself within himself.
2. Discuss the role of the mystic utterance Om in Siddhartha. In what ways does it foreshadow Siddhartha’s spiritual progression?
"Om" is the peaceful sound Siddhartha makes when he needs to reflect inwards. By uttering this word he can go to his "mind palace" and have a tea party, as it were. I would need to know the rest of the plot in relation to the "om" to complete to last question.
3. Consider Siddhartha’s relationship with Govinda. How are they similar, and how are they different? What are the narrative functions of Govinda’s reappearance throughout the novel?
Siddhartha wants a more long term enlightenment whereas Govinda doesn't see the point in that. If I remember correctly Govinda needed to find his own niche. They both reached enlightenment separately, but still together.
4. What is the relationship between the internal and exterior worlds of Siddhartha?
He lives in them separately in the beginning and closer to the end of the book he has found the balance between living in the world and in his spirit all wrapped up in the same vegan burrito.
5. Siddhartha concerns the quest for spiritual enlightenment, and by the end of it four characters have achieved this goal: Govinda, Gotama, Vasudeva, and Siddhartha. Is the enlightenment achieved by each of these characters the same? Why or why not? What distinctions and similarities exist between the paths these characters use to reach their final goal?
For this question I would need to know the story of each of those characters individually and then analyze their enlightenment similarities.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

What's In This For Me?

I'm on the launching pad.
It starts when I say go
aaaaannndddd I said go on December 16, 2012.
Life has started. You don't know how invigorating that is for me.
The time is here,
Let us welcome it with courage and cheer!
Sorry I watched Les Mis a couple of days ago and I haven't been able to get that song outa me head.
I'm looking forward to rockin' this semester and ending with the confidence I need to start my life.