Melody Monday #17

Technically found this on monday, but hey who keeps track anyways? These past few weeks have been downers and I needed something uplifting. SO here is a song by J-Cole. I don't usually listen to this music, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to this type of music. ENJOY PLEASE.

I, JURY

ERICA M: The strength of her essay was powerful and made mine seem like a little ant. She uses excellent literary techniques to capture the essence of Bernard in Brave New World. Erica not only gives examples but she clearly elaborates and it shows her comprehension on understanding Brave New World.

JACOB H: I really admired that he wrote about Lenina because I was going to write about her but then I did not know exactly what to write. So he gave me a good understanding of her importance in Brave New World. He used many great vocabulary words and I really actually am liking reading about the different perspectives of other students.

COLTER K: Colter's essays are honestly one of my favorite things to read. I have known him since I can remember and he's always been one of those people who are very eloquent when they create essays. This essay, he was actually very straight forward to the point but straight forward in a way that it flows and is not choppy and out of place. Overall, Colter is one of those writers I look to for suggestions.

ELI E: His essay got to the point of comparing I just felt that he could have elaborated more. Though honestly, it was a good essay and he did a good job on comparing reality to "fiction"

DANNY L: He chose a very interesting topic about writing about the objects in Brave New World. Although he did not elaborate very much on his points, he at least address elements in the book that people may have been confused on.

OVERALL, I think everyone did a great job. I enjoy peer editing because I get to see the different perspectives my peers provide that I do not originally see. That is one thing that I am bad at is getting perspective. But it's okay.

This is definitely my Essay...

Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole.  Do not merely summarize the plot.

         To conform to society means to restrain the brain from extending its full potential growth of knowledge and experience. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, society is meant to be restrained and restricted from unleashing the true natural wonders of the mind to gain an order of unity. In didactic terms, unity is beneficial and can accomplish things because “together we stand, divided we fall”. But in ideal terms, the more unity there is, the more entropy is caused. The idea of having less entropy has left Bernard Marx in a rut. Marx, which alludes to a German philosopher, lives in a dystopian community where the caste system separates and predetermines the fates of all individuals. Through his eyes, readers are able to understand the corruption of being an individual and the sheer consequences acted upon people because of what they naturally are.

            Aldous Huxley presents readers a world full of controversial topics of today. Having polygamous relationships and being sexually active at young ages is a social norm. But what is even more odd is the fact of having parents, which is slurred as an unspeakable word. Lenina Crowne, another character, is criticized for her monogamous relationship with a guy named Henry, which in today’s society would be socially acceptable. Lenina is then talked “sense” into by her friend Franny and says to go out and enjoy the gifts given by other men. This indirectly infatuates her mind that what Lenina is doing is morally wrong. Huxley’s purpose of doing so is to create a contrast between a worlds that is currently making history to a world that could be the next history. Huxley wrote about theories that were fifty years ahead of his time. With him portraying his theories through caste systems, soma, mass production and etcetera, a dystopian community is not far from what history could become.

            Though, not everyone is easily influenced by their predetermined faiths. Bernard confronts an elder about what he is experiencing and how he thinks it’s a fluke in the system. This corrollates to how even in a uniformed society such as the government in the United States, not everyone is going to agree on terms on what high officials determine. Even though there was a great gap between the time periods of now and the future setting of this novel, what Huxley predicted is on the verge of becoming reality.

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Watch your fellow classmates participate in a parody video of four well known songs to our generation. This video was created out of pure fun and intended for entertainment as well as a possible $1,000 AVID scholarship. Enjoy!

I AM HERE

YES.
I
AM.
USING.
THIS.
COURSE.
PRODUCTIVELY.
I have actually started my senior project before he assigned the senior project. I have several projects running through my mind. One of them is the typical scrapbook/video of all my high school years through pictures/videos. The difference though is that when I was a sophomore I started an album where I took a picture everyday and ever since have not stopped. I am now on my third 365 day album. The first one was to record for fun, my second one was about focusing on doing kind things and experiencing new things (which was semi-successful in a way where I almost was too busy to even think or record these things) and now my senior ish album is dealing with new adventures to experience before I go to college and my journey there (similar to the first one but I have more of a purpose). My other senior project deals with me interviewing seniors to give advice to younger classmen, interviewing them about best advice, and things they want to do before they graduate. I also want to capture the best and worst moments of high school and such. I don't know how I can do that but it's possible. I also want to record these experiences seniors want to have. I could also split this idea up into two parts. My other idea was to have a blog with a collaboration with my friend Erica to focus on things and we can do vlogs every week or so. You know what I might just do that. Okay. Next idea is since we are all working on passing the AP exams, why don't we connect with other classrooms around the world and see how they are studying. From this we could probably meet new people and such. And lastly, (or so I think) I have been working on a  collaborative project since last semester. SHHH. That's how big of a deal it is. Collaboration is key for all of this and taking your learning into your own hands is also great, we can learn by networking and interacting with the folks all around. My big question was actually does life happen by fate or by chance and I am actually still trying to figure it out but I might have a gist of what could be the right answer.

(PICTURES WILL BE INSERTED SOON)


I have less than four months. I CAN DO IT!!

Brave New World

Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling

to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place,

between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile

can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.

Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether

that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you

analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience

illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable

literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.

My plan would first be to develop a list that displays the main characters of brave new world and from there differentiate which character has more experience relating to the AP topic. I would organize it in such a way that the there would be 2-4 body paragraphs. The first paragraph would be to describe and compare the alienation. The second paragraph would be to explain the benefits and didactics of the alienation. The third paragraph would be analyzing the whole process and what the "higher" meaning is. I would then start to write and continue until i get writers block.

Lit Sixxxxxxx

Simile: literary technique to describe things in comparison using like or as
soliloquy: a speech given by one character to oneself
spiritual: a higher or “other” feeling giving that goes beyond  ones senses
speaker: who is telling the text, who is auditing the story
stereotype: a label or category given to a person based on common trends that may or may not be relevant to race and preference.
stream of consciousness: Performative utterance. A way of writing without a filter about what is going on in one’s mind.
structure: how the story is set up.
style: the technique to how an author writes
subordination: to place in a lower rank
surrealism: create potential of the unconscious mind
suspension of disbelief: human interest and truth blended into truth
symbol: something that refers to a bigger meaning
synesthesia: a senses impression
synecdoche: part is made to represent a whole
syntax: how a sentence is written to create a deeper meaning
theme: what is a common occurring subject that comes up
thesis: a sentence or two that describes the summarizes the selection
tone: the voice in which an author is writing in.
tongue in cheek: not meaning what is written
tragedy: dramatic type of event that shocks both audience and characters in story
understatement: stating something that doesn’t add up to the full potential of a subject
vernacular: the spoken language
voice: who is speaking and what are they trying to say
zeitgeist: spirit or mood of a period through beliefs and ideas

Some resources?

connection to classrooms around the world

Classrooms to outside world

HAFTA/ WANNA

Explain similarities/differences you see between your life during high school and life after high school.  Is there a significant difference?  Will people somehow magically transform the day after graduation, or will they take their current habits of mind/word/deed into their next set of daily activities?  How do you balance the things you want to do and the things you have to do, and what are your expectations of yourself and the world around you as you move on?

Similarities, you're making little fetus (metaphorically) choose a path that will determine a good majority of their life. Girls that are barely moving onto high school or not even in high school yet are already committing to college? I may be a bit biased because I am a soccer girl but I have been doing club since I was in grade school and honestly I do not think I would have ever imagined wanting to play in college. Playing in college would be such a huge commitment and honestly ALOT of things can change in four years especially for these girls. Maybe it's an injury, maybe they want to be free and do what they please or maybe they don't "love" the game anymore. By love I meant they aren't playing the sport for themselves anymore but for others. Which is a very frustrating line that many athletes walk sometimes. 

Anyways similarities between my life and after high school is that I am still not going to know for sure how my life will end up but that I should pursue my passions and feed my hunger for knowledge. Yeah. NO YOU WILL NOT MAGICALLY TURN HOT, OR MAGICALLY BECOME TALENTED, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "MAGIC" unless you're Harry Potter, or from Hogwarts, then your something special. Everything is just an illusion to our minds and eyes. I can't really think right now, I'm going to come back to this post and elaborate.

Melody Monday #16

Taking it back to some nostalgic times. Just had my senior night tonight and it was such a weird experience. The night before we had such a lovely pasta party singing old songs. SO here is a list of some of those songs.

Jesse McCartney- Beautiful Soul

Jonas Brothers - Love Bug

Cheetah Girls- Cheetah Sisters

The Nose

1. What does Ivan Yakovlevich do for a living? 
He is a barber. 2. What does Ivan find in a loaf of bread? 
He finds... A NOSE!3. How does his wife respond to Ivan's discovery? 
She is upset and accuses him of a this awful crime of cutting off someones nose.4. What does Ivan set out to accomplish? 
He wants to get rid of the nose but keeps running into people he knows.5. When Ivan tosses the "package" in the river, for a brief moment he is happy; then he is arrested. What does this scene suggest about the role of happiness in Ivan's life/community/society? 
Happiness meant giving up a freedom. 6. Where does the title object belong, and how does it finally get there?
The nose belongs to Collegiate Assessor Kovalev. It gets to him by the police returning it to him.

Lit Terms 5

Parallelism: using elements in sentences that are grammatically similar or identical in structure, sound, meaning, or meter. This technique adds symmetry, effectiveness and balance to the written piece.

Parody: The definition of a parody is an imitation of something, particularly literature or a film, that is meant to make fun of it.

Pathos: Pathos is defined as a feeling of sympathy or sorrow.

Pedantry: is an excessive attention to the rules or paying strong attention to the minor points of learning.

Personification: is giving human characteristics to non-living things or ideas.

Plot: a marked off area that is intended for a specific use.

Poignant: is something that has a strong effect on emotions or the senses, especially smell.

point of view: is a way in which a person looks at the world or the angle from which a specific situation should be viewed.

Postmodernism: is a movement that focuses on the reality of the individual, denies statements that claim to be true for all people and is often expressed in a pared-down style in arts, literature and culture.

Prose: regular written or spoken language that is not poetry.

Protagonist: is defined as the main character of a story.

Pun: a pun is a joke making a play on words.

Purpose: a purpose is a goal or intention

Realism: a representation of how things really are, or being practical and facing facts

Refrain: a refrain is the part of a song or poem that is repeated.

Requiem: a song, chant or poem for someone who died.

Resolution: resolution is a plan for something to be done

Restatement: to state or affirm again or in a new way

Rhetoric: the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.

rhetorical question: a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply,

rising action: a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

Romanticism: the Romantic style or in literature and adherence to its principles.

Satire: the use of sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding, folly, etc.

Scansion: the metrical analysis of verse. The usual marks for scansion are ˘ for a short or unaccented ¯ or · for a long or accented syllable, ^ for a rest, | for a foot division, and ‖ for a caesura or pause.

Setting: the locale or period in which the action of a novel, play, film, etc., takes place:

Literature Analysis #4 (Spring Semester) Great Expectations

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).

         So I think the narrative fulfills the author’s purpose by exposing us to the truth about materialism and how it affects our relationships with people. I have a notion that every novel Dickens writes correlates to some event that happens in his life. Starting with the basic plot line, the exposition lasts up until the point of Pip’s sister getting terribly beaten. In the meantime, before the end of the exposition, he helps out a convict by giving him food and stealing Joe’s picket(or some tool like that) to help him survive. The inciting incident would then have to be when Pip’s sister gets injured. Pip was supposed to apprentice for Joe but instead went under the hand of Miss Havisham. The climax of the book would be considered as to when Pip starts putting all the pieces together and realizes Estella’s mother and father, and finds out that she is not marrying him. He also breaks down the walls of Miss Havisham, who acts cold hearted and relentless in the beginning. Last but not least, falling action would have to be when Pip meets back with Magwitch.

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

I believe the theme of the novel would have to be that materialism should not determine who and what you love. False expectations are granted with the idea of money and such, which leads to unused depth of loved ones. I could go cliché and say money can’t buy love, or money can’t buy you the world, but I’m supposed to avoid being cliché.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

The author’s tone for the most of the book had to be

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.) 

Pg. 20 “… Ghost in Hamlet” the purpose of using this allusion is to help the readers understand the time period this book was written in. There’s also another allusion to Noah’s Arc to create a comparison of size.

Pg. 59 “..and that I wished I was not a common” Dickens uses connotations to attach meanings of disparity and ruefulness to ones natural born status. To be a common was a negative connotation during this time because it meant you did not have money. Since a theme of Great Expectations deals with materialism, this negative connotation paints a picture in the readers head about what a commoner would be like.

Pg. 108 “… as if Time in that mysterious place…” So I don’t really know the particular literary device that is used when capitalizing the T in the time but I found it quite unusual that Charles did. It was as if he is stating that Time is another character in the story and plays an important role to what is happening. I think that Dickens chose to capitalize Time because that is the only thing that Miss Havisham has to live with, because she was left at the alter and her house is left just as if it was yesterday she was getting married.

Pg. 176 “…it was cut out and painted like a battery mounted with guns” This is a highly unusual description to a cottage because cottages are supposed to be homely and small, not so aggressive. Dickens’s uses similes to create images and setting in the readers.

Pg.  183 “I’ll show you a wrist” Dickens’s creates this scene of Mr Jaggers and his house maid getting almost into a conflict where Mr Jaggers clearly has power over her. The dialogue used makes the readers question what significance the maid is to the story.  

Pg. 206 “…love her, love her, love her!” This anaphora used to describe what Pip should do to Estella really catches the readers’ attentions because in this scene Miss Havisham is setting Pip up for failure. She is saying that even if Pip does get screwed over, love Estella until he can’t anymore. The fact that Dickens’s choses to say love repeatedly is also interesting because love is a very heavy subject and corrollates negatively with materialism, which Estella is made from.

Pg. 212 “…most elegant and beautiful creature” In this passage Pip is talking about Estella. At first it’s very romantic until it comes to the part beautiful creature. This is an example of a juxtaposition. Creatures have a connotation of being wild, or out of the ordinary and odd. When Dickens’s puts beautiful creature together, he is essentially saying as ugly as she can be, she has beauty deep inside her. Two words that are opposites but really capture the essence of what Estella is.

Pg. 240 “Which I meantersay, Pip” dialect is a highly used strategy through out the book. The reason being is that it signifies education and class status. Characters with eloquent speech can be deemed as having an education and characters with dialect  that is seen as lower class are displayed as characters who cannot speak well. This is important in this book to impose Dickens’s idea of expectations of the high class and social status of what money and materialism can do.

Pg. 258 “… I must give on chapter to Estella” breaking down the fourth wall is seen in this sentence. The readers get a sense of Estella’s important to Pip and the meaning of her character to the author (Charles Dickens). I think he did this so that the readers don’t forget why he wrote the novel.

Pg. 312 “Don’t go home!” This is an obvious example of foreshadowing, which readers can infer that something tragic may be up ahead.

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)?

I think the author uses both approaches of direct and indirect characterization to get the readers to look at the characters at a different point of view. He uses direct characterization to deliver first impressions of what the reader might have of the character and to develop initial thoughts. But the use of indirect characterization creates subtle character distinctions and pondering to why a character might act the way they do. For example Miss Havisham is first presented as a women who is heartless and cold because of being left at The Alter. Her actions such as adopting Estella to be her resentment and revenge on men show her weakness towards living her own life and accepting. Another direct characterization is when Dickens describes Estella and her beauty to Pip. The obvious reaction given by Estella left a lasting impression on Pip, which would foreshadow her meaning to him. It also displays the difference of the love for Estella compared to why he could not love Biddy.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

The author’s syntax/ diction actually does change when they focus on a character. For example, Pip is actually rescued from his desperate means of a home and is adopted and raised to be proper and gentlemen like. This form of character development can be seen through his dialogue. Pip was actively engaged in his learning and the progress from farm dialect to high-class society dialect is the example of diction change.

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

The protagonist is almost 99.9999999999% round. How so is that he develops his character through out the story as he goes through rapid changes in society and internally. He is also dynamic because as mentioned above, he changes to what happens to him. Through the adoption, schooling, money, love, hate, death, and such, he continues to learn more about himself and what he was meant to do in life.

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. 

One textual example is when Pip comes back to see Miss Havisham after figuring out who Estella’s parents are. She also severely burns herself in this scene and starts going hysterical and saying “What have I become and what have I done”.

Dickens’s books are not my cup of tea particularly so for the most part I felt like I read a character. BUT there are some points in particularly where I just wanted to know what happened or what will happen between two characters like Estella and Pip. For some odd reason, I did relate sometimes to Miss Havisham (have a shame if you analyze it). Mainly because I know how she feels in a perculiar way, other times because the heartless acts and resentment remind me of myself today and how I should move on.