THE TIME OF MY LIFE

At the start of class today, I read the journal topic and started brainstorming in the journal entry what I could do with the period so that it would benefit my education and improve my understanding of the two Dickens novels, The Tale of  Two Cities and Great Expectations.  In the middle of my entry, Daniel was asking who had read Great Expectations so that they could explain the main plot of the book to him so he could better understand the lecture that Dr. Preston gave in class yesterday and months before.  I needed to know more about The Tale of Two Cities, since I had read Great Expectations instead, so we came up with the solution that the groups who had read one novel would summarize it to the other groups who hadn't and vice versa.  I told him, however, that everyone needed more time to work on the journals.  Once I finished today's journal entry, I finished another entry from the day before that I wasn't able to complete in class. After ten minutes, Daniel and Jake got up in front of the class, and we got the class to quiet down and pay attention as they told us the main story line of The Tale of Two Cities, including characters, theme, and the symbol of the wine, which has a dual meaning of blood as well as wine.  When they had finished, I volunteered to summarize the first half of Great Expectations in front of the class and did so for the next ten minutes, answering any questions the class had, as Daniel and Jake had done before.  Rachel completed the summary of the book, and we made sure to mention the change in the characters. (i.e. how Magwich turns from a criminal into a benefactor due to Pip (bad to good), while Pip turns from a shy boy to an arrogant man (good to bad) due to the money that his benefactor Magwich gives him)  Those plot discussions went on until class ended.

LITERATURE ANALYSIS #1

1.  I read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.  It was divided into three parts called "The Window," "Time Passes," and "The Lighthouse."  On the surface, the plot is very straightforward, but in the novel, the main events are interlaced with descriptions of multiple philosophical conflicts and solutions in each of the characters.  The story takes place in a summer home on a bay where the Ramsay family stays while entertaining many guests.  In the first part, James Ramsay, the smallest Ramsay child, wants to go to a lighthouse across the bay the next day.  His mother says yes, if the weather permits it.  To this, his father chimes in that the weather won't be fit for sailing tomorrow, crushing James' hope of going to the lighthouse.  Later that same day, Mrs. Ramsay goes to town with "an atheist" named Charles Tansley, who falls slightly in love with her, as do some of the other male guests staying at the home.  In the evening, Mrs. Ramsay poses for a painting for a woman named Lily Briscoe, who does not want to fulfill the conventional female role of the time of marrying and serving to stroke the ego of men.  Mrs. Ramsay also awaits the return of a couple that she matched up because she suspects that they have gotten engaged.  When the group returns, dinner is served and the once distant characters seem to bond with candlelight saving them from the dark uncertainty outside of the house.  Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay's relationship is very strained.  He has a temper, but he also has a side that needs to be sympathized by Mrs. Ramsay for him to achieve complete self-confidence.  The second part of the book condenses ten years into about twenty pages.  The housekeeper Mrs. McNab tries to handle the upkeep when Mrs. Ramsay dies suddenly.  Eventually she can't handle it, and everything becomes overgrown or moldy.  Both of Mrs. Ramsay's two older children, with whom she took pride in their futures, die, one from childbirth complications and the other in World War I.  After ten years, Lily Briscoe and another former guest return to the house.  The third part starts in the morning, as if it is the morning after that dinner in the first part and no time has elapsed.  Lily Briscoe goes out to redo the painting that she had attempted a decade ago, this time succeeding in capturing it to her liking because she has had some distance from it to really understand what she was painting. Meanwhile, Mr. Ramsay takes an older James and his sister out to the Lighthouse, where his children see that he has changed over ten years, and they understand him better than they did ten years before, despising him less.  With this novel, Woolf intended to demonstrate that our perspectives of the world and the people in it can be altered with a little distance, like a decade of processing the personality of a person, as Lily did with Mrs. Ramsay.

Tale Of Two Cities Lecture Notes

WHAT'S THE STORY?

Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations to teach the audience that dreams are bittersweet.  Achieving goals can be sweet from the achievement but disappointing when you achieve the dream itself, whether it is getting accepted to a college or becoming wealthy.  We often will idealize the things we want, building them up beyond their practical worth or enjoyment.  For Pip, becoming a gentleman so that he could be worthy enough to marry Estella was his main purpose after he met Miss Haversham and Estella for the first time.  The tone of the novel, which seems nostalgic and reflective, in the beginning slightly foreshadows dismal prospects for his dreams with quotes like "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."  It is the negative connotation of the word "bound" in this comment by the narrator, or Pip, that hints a constricting dream or thought that will not be beneficial for the dreamer.  In breaking the fourth wall with that quote, Charles Dickens also has Pip as the narrator admit to the reader that the story they are reading is a reflection by Pip on his life, once again supporting the tone, which exemplifies Dickens' purpose to warn against the enticing dream of wealth because it can corrupt.

LIT TERMS #4

interior monologue: form of writing that reveals the character's inner thoughts and feelings

inversion: words put out of order for emphasis

juxtaposition: placing a word or phrase to contrast another nearby

lyric: a poem in musical form or with musical qualities; an outburst of the author's thoughts/feelings

magic(al) realism: genre that mixes the everyday with marvelous or magical

metaphor: a comparison between two things

extended metaphor: a metaphor developed as long as the author wants it to be

controlling metaphor: a metaphor that runs throughout the entire work

mixed metaphor: a metaphor that blends two or more analogies ineffectively

metonymy: a technique where the name of an attribute of something is used in place of the name of that something

modernism: literary movement of stylistic experimentation and an interest in symbolism and psychology

monologue: an extended speech by a character

mood: the atmosphere evoked by a work of literature

motif: a recurring name, image, or phrase in a work

myth: a story that attempts to explain some of the world's mysteries or marvels

narrative: a story or description of events

narrator: the one who tells the story

naturalism: extreme form of realism

novelette/novella: short story; short prose narrative

omniscient point of view: the narrator knows all things, usually in a third person perspective

onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning

oxymoron: two contradicting words or phrases put together to produce a paradox

pacing: rate of movement; tempo

parable: a story trying to teach the reader a religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth

paradox: a self-contradictory statement that could hold some truth

LIT TERMS #3

exposition: beginning of a story which introduces certain ideas and/or characters with lengthy explanations

expressionism: movement in literature and the arts that focused on unrealistic representations of feelings and ideas

fable: a short story with a moral; usually uses animals as characters

fallacy: false reasoning; a false notion, belief, or argument

falling action: the part of the plot after the climax

farce: a comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue

figurative language: descriptive language using figures of speech such as metaphors and similes

flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to previous events

foil: a person or thing that is opposite to another person to make them seem better or more prominent

folktale: a story passed on by word of mouth

foreshadowing: a device hinting an outcome to a reader, preparing them for what's to come

free verse: verse without a structural pattern

genre: a category or class of literature or the arts, usually with specific themes or characteristics

gothic tale: a style in literature characterized by a gloomy setting, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay or decadence

hyperbole: an exaggeration used to prove a point

imagery: figures of speech and/or vivid description that conveys images through the senses

implication: a meaning left by the author to be interpreted by the reader

incongruity: intentional combining of opposites or elements that are not appropriate to one another

inference: a conclusion drawn from evidence in the text

irony: a contrast between what is said and what is meant or what is expected to happen and what actually happens

LIT TERMS REMIX 1-5

1.)  In Shrek 2, Pinocchio uses circumlocution to avoid telling Prince Charming that he knows where Shrek is since he can't lie or Prince Charming will know.  This occurs in the first 45 seconds of the video.

2.)  Classicism reminds me of the genre of classical music so here is a classical music mix whose melody resembles the definition of classicism.

3.)  Cliched themes or techniques can be found in most medias.  This video gives some great examples of some of the most common movie cliches.

4.)  I think of a book like a mountain.  The rising action is the hard climb to the top, filled with suspense of what is to come at the top of the mountain, the climax.  The hike back down the mountain is much simpler, with fewer problems and returning back to the original spot, a state of normal.  That's why I believe that a climax can be perfectly well symbolized with this picture alone.

5.)  Colloquialisms are pretty common in speech today.  Many colloquialisms can be found in music as this video demonstrates.

LIT TERMS #2

circumlocution:  the use of many words where few would do; sometimes in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive

classicism:  a traditional style of literature, art, or music that is usually graceful and simple with parts that are organized in a pleasing way

cliche:  a trite phrase or expression; a hackneyed theme

climax:  the most exciting and important part of a play or work of literature that occurs usually at or near the end; the high point

colloquialism:  a word or phrase that is used mostly in informal speech

comedy:  a work of literature meant to make people laugh; things that are done and said to make an audience laugh

conflict:  a struggle or problem in a story causing tension

connotation:  implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition

contrast:  one element is thrown into opposition with another for emphasis or clarity

denotation:  dictionary definition

denouement:  loose ends tied up after the climax; ending; conclusion

dialect:  the language specific to a certain region, or class of people

dialectics:  formal debates

dichotomy:  a split or break between two opposing things

diction:  the style of writing demonstrated through word choice

didactic:  instructive; having to do with transmitting information

dogmatic:  rigid in beliefs and principles

elegy:  mournful poem or song for the dead

epic:  long narrative focused around a hero and his feats

epigram:  witty aphorism

epitaph:  a brief inscription on a tombstone

epithet:  an insulting word or phrase following a person's name

euphemism:  the use of a mild word in the place of an offensive or blunt word

evocative:  calling forth memories and sensations

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

1.)  What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence?

See original here.

If I remember correctly from reading the book a couple of years ago, self-denial, most prominent when Siddhartha becomes an ascetic, reminds him that he is living and that he has enough self control to deny himself daily pleasures.  Self-indulgence serves as a protagonist to Siddhartha and his choices as an ascetic.  Self-denial is more important in Siddhartha because it is Siddhartha denying himself any pleasure, even life eventually, that leads him to disillusionment.

2.)  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?

See original here.

To answer this question, I would definitely need to reread the entire book and not simply the excerpt on the class blog in order to draw parallels between the journeys of those four characters.

3.)  What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?

See original here.

Enlightenment in Siddhartha is an entire change in his state of mind and how he views the world, as any enlightening experience can be.  For this reason, it is both an icy cold feeling as described in the excerpt, as well as an attitude against returning home and continuing on with the past.  The feelings and the attitude form the basis for Siddhartha's enlightenment.

4.)  If you were the river, would you be enlightenment or would you know enlightenment? In other words, what’s up with the river? What is it’s relation to enlightenment?

See original here.

If I remember correctly, Siddhartha tried to drown himself in the river before reaching a state of enlightenment.  The river knows enlightenment, it isn't enlightenment itself.  Knowing enlightenment is the only way that it could teach Siddhartha (in a personified way), just as knowing what was outside the cave was one of the only ways that the enlightened prisoner in Plato's Allegory of the Cave would want to share with the other prisoners to bring them out of their mental and physical darkness.  If the prisoner was enlightenment in the first place, then he would not teach the others in the cave about the outside world because he wouldn't see the enlightened state as anything out of the ordinary.

5.)  The main purpose of the first-person point of view in the passage, “I am no longer what I was, I am no longer an ascetic, no longer a priest, no longer a Brahmin” is to make clear?

a. The change in Siddhartha’s physical lifestyle, in order to follow his spiritual one
b. Show Siddhartha’s anger at the corruption present in his father’s position
c. Reveal the frustration in Siddhartha’s journey toward enlightenment
d. The views and beliefs of his family and his religion
e. Draw attention toward the excitement that Siddhartha feels now that he has less responsibility

See original here.

My answer is a.  I believe that Siddhartha is ascertaining that he is leaving the past behind due to his new state of enlightenment and so he lists off every physical thing he can think of that represents the abstract concept of his past.

LIT TERMS #1

allegory: a tale in which the characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas; a story that uses symbols to make a point

Ex: Plato's Allegory of the Cave

alliteration:  the repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants  

Ex: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

allusion:  a reference to a person, place, event, or literary work that the reader is expected to recognize

Ex: "Go get her, Romeo."  (refers the romantic Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet)

ambiguity:  something with many open interpretations

Ex: They say that smoking is bad for you.  (who is they?)

anachronism:  something in the wrong place or the wrong time

Ex: Benjamin Franklin listening to an iPod.

analogy:  a comparison between two things to show similarities between them

Ex: "Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump

analysis:  a method where a work or idea is separated into its parts and given detailed scrutiny

Ex: An analysis of a poem includes determining its theme, its meaning, its tone, and the techniques used to write it.

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

Ex: "We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence...we shall defend our island...we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.  We shall never surrender." - Winston Churchill

anecdote:  a very short story used to illustrate a point

Ex: A parable from the Bible

antagonist:  a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative

Ex: The Joker in Batman

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

Ex: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."  - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

aphorism:  a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life

Ex: "Keep thy shop and thy shop with keep thee."  - Benjamin Franklin

apologia:  a justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action

Ex: Richard Nixon's speech discussing the Watergate Scandal and his resignation.

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

Ex: "Is this a dagger which I see before me,/The handle toward my hand?"  - Macbeth

argument:  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

Ex: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  - Pride and Prejudice

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

Ex: Of course everyone loves chocolate cake.

audience:  the intended listener or listeners

Ex: Students are the intended audience for textbooks.

characterization:  the means by which a writer reveals a character's personality or appearance

Ex: "His memory was good, and for so young a man he had read largely" - A Passage to India

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

Ex: "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live." - Socrates

HACKING MY EDUCATION

     I would like to attend a college where I can receive a liberal arts education.  Even though I am on the math and science career track, a liberal arts education means that I will be continuing on with my education in literature and the humanities despite my major.  For this reason, I will still need to develop a breadth of knowledge of literature and the humanities in high school to prepare my mind for those courses in college and any meaningful and educated discussions about literature that I may have with future colleagues.  My preparation for my math and science major in college is already solid.  However, I need this class to expand my skills in literature, writing, and vocabulary to meet the challenges of college next year.  In my network, I need people who are interested in math and science, but who also realize the importance of a well-rounded education in literature and the humanities as well as guidance from those whose sole focus is literature and the humanities.

What's In This For Me?

     I initially took this class to prepare for the AP Exam at the end of the year for possible credit in college and to challenge myself in a way that I thought the college prep English class wouldn't.  As the year has progressed, however, my purpose for attending this class has shifted to one that stretches beyond college to affect the rest of my life.  I desire to be familiar with the texts that are referenced often in life, whether it is talking about a certain book with a peer in the future or even mastering a question on Jeopardy! under the category British Authors.  Maybe this is too indefinite of a goal, but I aim to attempt attaining it at least in the next semester of this class.  I also want to delve into British poetry.  I love poetry, and I know some American poetry, my favorite poet being Emily Dickinson if you couldn't tell by the poem along the side of this blog, but I want to more familiar with English poetry to see if there are any contrasting and similar styles or themes between the two.