Literature Analysis #5

1.    Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

Into the wild is not written in a chronological order of events but written in a way where we get to understand Chris as a person and why he did the things he did. Right off the back (even in the summary of the book) it is stated that Chris dies. But how Chris dies and his journey to his final days is what makes the story. In the exposition we are given back ground information about his parents, families, and previous life along with the scene to where he is actually dying or is found dead. The inciting incident would have to be when the readers get to the part of the story (again) where Chris meets Jim Gallien to get a ride to Anchorage. This then leads to the climax of Chris’s adventure of actually living out in the wilderness, to the falling action of how he could have possibly died, and Jon Krakaeur investigating the death. The purpose of this book was to tell a story about a man who had intentions and was naively killed. What happens to be most intriguing about Chris as a character was that he had everything going for him with grades, athletics, and family, yet he decided to get rid of everything?

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

The fact that this book is not biography or novel and more of a non-fiction genre about the life of Chris Mccandless, makes it hard to depict what type of themes are in the novel. A theme I could think of though is to be cautious and knowledgeable about big risks you can take in life. If you jump into an idea very naively you might not get the results you expect. Chris was hoping to live off the land for a month or so, and despite being very intelligent he failed miserably which led to his death.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

Krakauer’s tone throughout the book was understanding and unbiased. He never really took sides on peoples remarks about whether Chris was naïve and idiotic or intellectually curious.

“When Mccandless turned up dead in Alaska… many people concluded that the boy must have been mentally disturbed. The article about McCandless in Outside generated a large volume of mail, and not a few of the letters heaped opprobrium on McCandless- and on me, as well, the author of the story, for glorifying what some thought was a foolish, pointless death.” (Pg. 72)

“I encounter evidence of McCandless’s presence where my vision rests…I feel uncomfortable, as if I were intruding, a voyeur who has slipped into McCandless’s bedroom while he is momentarily away.” (Pg. 178)

“Starvation is not a pleasant way to expire…it would be nice to think McCandless experienced a similar rapture” (pg. 198)

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.) 

(1 & 2)“Nor was McCandless endowed with a surfeit of common sense” (Pg. 65) Direct Characterization/ foreshadowing. In this passage that we get this quote from, the reader learns about Chris’s working skills and what type of person he is. This is part of direct characterization. The foreshadowing of this statement is that it correlates to Chris’s naivetés and common sense of surviving off the land. He was very intellectual but just because a person is intellectual doesn’t mean they can adapt and learn in sudden changes in environment.

(3)” Perhaps inevitably, parallels have been drawn between John Waterman and Chris McCandless. Comparison have also been drawn between McCandless and Carl McCunn…” (Pg. 81) Didactic. The use of the comparison of these characters is to try and understand the intentions and journey of Chris McCandless. Krakauer uses these comparisons to also provide another insight of understandment.

(4) “A half century later McCandless sounds eerily like Ruess when he declares in a postcard to Wayne Westerberg that “I’ve decided that I’m going to live this life for some time to come…” (pg 92) Allusion. The frequent allusions used in the book correlate to Chris’s constant of reading a variety of books. He read things from Tolstoy to Thoreau.

(5) “Everett twice etched the name Nemo- Latin for ‘nobody’- into the soft Navajo sandstone” Epitaph (pg. 93) This reference to Everett is used as a way to show the deterioration of a persons mind living in the wilderness. Another fact to understand Chris’s snow bound expedition.

(6) “Reading of these monks, one is moved by their courage, their reckless innocence, and the urgency of their desire. Reading of these monks, one can’t help thinking of Everett Ruess and Chris McCandless” (page 97) Analogy. The journey of Chris McCandless is quite an interesting one because there have been many stories similar, but his has stuck out the most. Using this comparison explores the importance Chris is to Jon.

(7) “… The troopers immediately shifted their search there for the hiker’s next of kin. An all points- bulletin turned up a missing person named McCandless from eastern South Dakota…” Analysis (Pg. 100) This passage was a very long passage describing the process it took to find Chris after getting the missing persons report. The passage went very in depth of how the process went.

(8) “The hardest part… is simply not having him around anymore.” Dialogue (Pg. 104). Even though dialogue is almost in every book and a very beginner term to use, it had a prominent use in this book. Taking into accounts the many people Chris met, Jon was able to get to know the type of guy Chris was.

(9) “He kept track of everything and showed me how to do it…” Indirect characterization. (Pg. 120) Through out the book, the audience was scattered by personal accounts of Chris through other people’s eyes. He was indirectly characterized by his actions like helping people with their jobs, or quitting his job randomly. This helps the audience better understand him.

(10) “Both were perceived to have lacked a requisite humility…” pg. 180. Understatement.

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

(i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

Two examples…. I will actually combine this because since this book is a biography type book, there are a lot of direct characterizations from other people. Indirectly, it was his actions of traveling through rigorious and risky situations that we have assumed that Chris is a fearless and adventurous being. He studied well for some potential risky situations, sometimes succeeding, and ultimately in the end doesn’t. Directly, there are way too many examples to include, he was mostly coined as a gentle, loving, and kind intellectual being. I think the author uses both approaches because since Chris is dead, we can’t really ask him directly to understand his point of views and perspectives on certain subjects to understand the person he is. So when asking other people for accounts on him, we get a more genuine and complete answer of who he was by the people he affected.
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

 No I don’t really think that the author’s syntax or diction changes when he focuses on the character. I think it changes only when he gives his opinion but besides that, to tell the story Kraukaeur tries to give it from Chris’s point of view.
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain. Honestly its hard to tell because he’s dead. Jk. But really I think he is a very dynamic character and round character because he adapts very much to every condition he is put in and at the same time impacts every person he meets. He has affected them each differently that they all were shocked that his end came so soon and very young.
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. 

Yes I did. The way that Krakauer presents Chris, is as if he was a person that you knew. The stories other people would tell about Chris definitely reminds the audience about that one person who was just always innately good and never  did anything to harm anyone.

IS THERE AN EXPERT IN THE HOUSE?

YES THERE ACTUALLY IS.

Dr. Preston was ever so kind to introduce Lesther and I to Matt Damon's Videographer, Michael Rosen. We are very fortunate but I really need to reply back to his email! I need to hone up my skills. 

Also, there are several youtubers such as Devin Graham, Casey Neisat and Mr. Ben Brown that I could contact and show them a profile of my skills. Some of these experts aren't professionals but they know well enough in the field that if they saw my page I think they could get a feel for what I could improve and not.

THIS IS ONLY A TEST

TEST:
Something that measures capabilities.

I believe the test I should be given is one that focuses on my basic skills of videography and how to story tell through videos. On my website with Erica I have a specific tab that has the videos that I want to display or showcase. These videos are what I want my expert to focus on because they show my skills and progress in them. *More to come soon*

Melody Monday #20

SO it's been awhile, but here I am. This song that I am about to post is quite old in my opinion since I have been listening to it forever. It's got a pretty psychadelic feel so enjoy and listen (:

HUXLEY'S BRAVE NEW WORLD

In a blog post entitled HUXLEY'S BRAVE NEW WORLD please explain how listening/watching the author himself changed your perspective on the work and the essay you turned in.

Well, I guess you can say it really made me think about our society. His work seemed to make more sense as to the message he was conveying. The part about brainwashing all seemed to make sense and relate to the society we are living in. We are brainwashed easily and to just about anything. We don't take the time to learn about facts, we just eat it and let it settle (not the best analogy here). Back to my essay, it honestly was not my best work. I know I could have done better, and I honestly gave up the last part of it. But now that I watched the interview, I see why we give more sympathy to bernard or the savage.

Rough Draft

In a dystopian society, marriage, parents, and love act as an outlandish idea to most people. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, one character chooses to defy societies rules and develop a foreign perspective. Bernard Marx a character that alludes to Karl Marx, a worldly profound philosopher, is a displaced character in the city of a new world London. Compared to the average people of today’s culture, Bernard is considered an outcast and not belonging to his society, making him a target for exile and ridicule. The perception of immoral in Brave New World is the fact that someone would believe in concepts such as marriage, parents, and having feelings. These subjects create internal conflicts within readers because of the absurdity of how inappropriate to the time they are. The portrayal of Bernard Marx in Brave New World, creates images of sympathy towards himself in order to establish the meaning of his character.

            Bernard Marx’s character is directly foiled by the presentation of his love interest Lenina. She is the complete opposite of him; wanting different intentions, appreciating the wrong things, and influencing him to take what he is trying to stay away from. “…why don’t you take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You’d forget all about them.” Lenina’s dialogue with Bernard, helps define the alienation of developing individual thoughts; a practice in the book that is considered immoral. But readers are drawn to feel more sympathy to him because they can relate more to his ways of thinking than any other practice in the book. The fact that Brave New World was written fifty years before the current times, is shocking because everything written was predicted. This leads readers to feel sympathy for Bernard because the normality in the book is not socially acceptable now. Having monogamous relationships could be considered disgraceful to some religions, which is also another component that the brave new world is lacking. Lenina’s character did happen to be the foil to Bernard’s character but never really proved to be a significant character in the whole plot.

            “When people are suspicious with you, you start being suspicisous with them”. Bernard has a way of making himself stand out. He doesn’t drink soma as often as the rest, he truly tries to enjoy the beautiful things in life, and is a very logical thinker. The fact that these are all qualities of humans now a days, helps connect the readers with Bernard so they can understand his struggles of living with alpha, betas, epsilons and etc, people who don’t quite understand him. He also alludes to Shakespeare various times through out the book to portray his feelings. Bernard is a sympathy gathered character that cannot help but put himself in situations against himself.

            “He was revenging himself on his two friends for liking one another more than they liked him.” With all of Bernard’s indirect remarks and internal dialogue, the audience can’t help but relate to him. His character provides an outsider that deserves to be recognized for innovative ideas.

LEARNING [in a] BRAVE NEW WORLD

I know this is a couple days late, but it is better late than never.

Discussing our perspectives of what we have read in our groups has actually made me take on new perspectives of a Brave New World. There were little context clues or things that I didn't catch before like the Shakespeare's Tempest allusion and Ford T references. I never connected the fact that Ford invented the process of mass production and in Brave New World, mass production is one of the many accomplishments of the people.

Learning this way also spreads information easier than just on blogs because not everyone has the time to check every class mates blog and read what they had to put for their thoughts on Brave New World. While you can thoroughly explain on here what your thoughts were on the previous chapter, talking in the groups gave opportunity to express and dissect answers.

Le Dix Question

Well I think I would like to aim my questions towards a traveling enthusiast who explores the many cultures with compassion.

1.) What country or place was the biggest culture shock to you and why?
2.) If you were to recommend a place to travel right this second, what country would it be?
3.) Every country has a different perspective on America and it's people, what countries were the friendliest and which countries were more hostile?
4.) How do you go about affording all these travels and making every place you visit a special experience?
5.) Many people can't tell the difference between compassion and passion, what would you say is the defining difference between the two?
6.) When traveling, how did you communicate with people who didn't speak the same language as you?
7.) There are many ways to traveling abroad, what are your strategies and how have they benefitted you through out your years? What was a moment in your life where it was a failure?
8.) If you could teach one lesson to every culture, what lesson would that be?
9.) What do you think is the most difficult topic to portray to other cultures that would teach them a lesson?
10.) When does traveling become something that is more than just an experience? How has your perspective changed through out the years and is there ever such a thing where you travel "too much"?

Benchmark Project

So I don't know where to start... I guess we can go from the beginning.
It all started with a trip Down Under.
(yes this is a selfie of me and the Sydney Opera House)

It was the first time I was out of the country and the first time I've traveled outside of the country without my family. I've never sat on a plane for so long until(... you must read until the end for me to finish the sentence). Australia for some reason was my favorite country and still is, so visiting this country really was a dream come true. Honestly. What I got out of traveling was a symptom called wanderlust. The sudden urge to travel to places you've never been to. And that's when I started to plan my next trip; Uganda. I wasn't even finished with my 17-day-expedition in Australia when I started planning to raise money for going to Uganda with a fellow Honors English teacher of mine.

(My fellow gang and I during free time)

Traveling to Uganda brought me many firsts such as traveling with a small group that had many possible but unlikely risks. Camping. Sitting on a plane for a full day and experiencing culture through poverty. This trip had shown me the greater things in life and made me want to rid all of my clothes and preserve water when I got home. But how realistic is that? Very realistic to a certain extent. Yes I did get rid of some clothes and I preserved water for a couple weeks but it just wasn't the same. What I missed so much about Uganda was how compassionate and appreciative the people were no matter how little they had. They showed amusement to the smallest things such as a balloon, and it helped me realize that life is made up of the little things. The fascination of a phone to a young kid is a wonderful innocence to observe and experience. It really took me back to when I was young. Now, this trip was almost like a social experiment to me too. What did Uganda have that we didn't? And what did we have that they don't? It may all seem very simple as the answer is technology, but when observed more in depth, it became clear that the answer lied in the human relationship between people. Even if they had low quality phones and such, people still made an effort to communicate and make face to face interaction. They didn't even have road signs, street lights, and paved roads in Uganda, yet they knew where they were going EVEN IN THE DARK! I feel as if sometimes these people aren't given enough credit, and are done no justice with those commercials of starving kids. Not everyone in "Africa" (I put it in quotation marks because Africa is not just all dark-skinned people) is a bone thin starving person. This inspired me to think of not what they need but how they could be innovative with the materials they have. After this trip, many things had came to mind. How could I help improve their living situations? When can I go back to Uganda? And where will my next destination be? 

(Goal: To fill this out before it expires)

Above you see is my passport, my teacher Mrs. Byrne suggested a goal of getting my entire passport filled out before it expires. I have about 7 years left and possible 10 or so countries to visit before it is completed. I've visited only 3 countries, but I've been trying to find ways to raise money to go to Europe this summer. Anyways back to the whole point of this benchmark post. My big question before I entered Senior Year is "Does life happen by chance or by fate?" As I started realizing that it's a mix of both, kind of like a symbiotic relationship. Fate is determined by whether or not you decide to make a move in life while chance is given to those moments where there is neither action or intention to commit something. If that made sense to you, I gave you an A+. So how does this all lead to my senior project? Well let's tie the ends together.

I present to you my senior project launch draft. It tells about everything I hope to accomplish before I graduate along with my passions and hopes and dreams.

But do you honestly really want to know what I wrote about? Because if you do, I'll just link you a previous post where I've about this launch project, I could also write another post with my launch paper word from word. Here is my sorta summary to my senior project. Anyways, I've created this website with my friend Erica that focuses on human compassion and exploring. 

I've created a list of things to also do before we graduate and some tabs on exploring and adventures.

I have also been wanting to create videos that show our potential of our talents of helping people and using my video skill. 

We even have a little bio about ourselves and our mission.

So I guess you can call me crazy. Or out of mind. But really all I want is to help people. Using my talents, her talents, everyones talents. We all are part of the same world situation. We all can help each other. What I'm trying to accomplish is enjoying these last few months while making something out of myself and achieving my goals and others goals too. I want to make a meaningful few months, accomplish the incredible, give back, and build a portfolio and work that I can hopefully show to future employers. What I need to do now is finish what I've started, started what I've been meaning to finish and start getting this project rolling. A major part of this project comes out of the help of YOU! Yes you, my peers. I need advice, lots of it, for videos for critique for acting, for quite alot of things actually. This project cannot run without the help of others. So please, if you want to join this movement or help with my senior project that would be splendid. I promise I have some good things in store (: This will conclude my benchmark project.

POST 100!!!!!! Is going to be Melody Monday #19

Sooooo I hit 100 posts today on blogger, where's my email notification saying I did? Jk jk (you'd understand if you had a tumblr). Well so today I've chosen a song that is quite an uplifting one. I believe this song is very video worthy and makes you want to go out and be passionate about compassion and travel the world. Experience the wonders of life and people. This song is called Resolution by Matt Corby. Spread this song around. It's seriously so uplifting, that it's made my monday a bit better. Now check it out.

Resource of the Day: Matador Network

http://matadornetwork.com/
Focuses on the aspects of traveling and helps people with discovering places to travel to and what to do in situations.
I felt that this resource was really beneficial because I love traveling and I actually wanted to incorporate a part time travel piece on my website!

Le super Cinq

Deanna Byrne: She's been a traveling enthusiast herself and very passionate about being compassionate. I recently went on at an expedition with her to AFRICA which was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. She has connections to many people to and is a very kind spirit.

David Preston: Well he is my english teacher and he is very big on collaboration and building a network. So you know what this leaves? Someone who provides MANY connections to MANY things. We're also currently collaborating on a project together, so using him as one of my super five is beyond suiting.

Lisa Malins: She's great with everything, technology, people skills, action, and so on! She would be the first person I would look to when it comes to help with building my website and such.

Cathy Cachu: My aunt, who happens to be a former rotary president, is also a person with many connections. Through her I was able to get hooked up with a job I started freshman year AND find ways to make money through her gift basket business. She is a person I would look to for connections and how to make money so that I can fund my trips that I want to make. She is super cool, and well yeah!

My peers: They are a big part of my project. I need their help in order to accomplish some video projects and activities. Using them is perfect because they can help give advice to younger underclassmen too!