LITERATURE ANALYSIS #2

1.  I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.  In The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Jurgis and his family are a group of Lithuanian immigrants who travel to America in the early 1900's to fulfill the American Dream, only to find...

MY TEAM

Today in class, I brainstormed a lot with my group.  I made a team of Melissa, Rachel, Rebecca, and Miki, when she returns to school. We talked about each of our masterpieces, after discussing some of the literary terms like imagery and foreshadowing that were in chapters 6 and 7 of Brave New World, for some time.

LAUNCH

Ever since I attended a math and science summer program at the University of Michigan this past summer, I have been fascinated by genetics.  Genetics is a growing new field in the sciences that is producing significant and helpful results.  I want to know, however, if this could be the future that I want.  I know that I may not know for certain at this point what I want to do with my life because I might discover something new in college, but I would also like to learn, and to teach to my classmates, the role that genetics and the ongoing research with it has in the world.  For example, just recently, I read an article from my mom's Brown

I, JURY

It was interesting to see different interpretations of the topic that I had found an brainstormed on as well as of the topic that I did my essay on.  Reading Micaela Hellman's essay, I realized that I forgot to include direct examples from the text in the form of quotes.  I definitely need to work on that for the next essay.  In addition, I read Jake Hoffman's essay where I discovered that he had a similar take on one of the reasons why Huxley may have written the book, which I wrote about in my conclusion paragraph.  Lastly, I also enjoyed reading Colter's interpretation that Bernard was a light in the darkness of the society created by Huxley in Brave New World.  Overall, I noticed that the people whose essays I read had very distinct styles of writing.  Of course, there are always a couple of grammar mistakes and awkward sentences, but for the most part, the examples and supporting facts as well as the thesis were very clearly incorporated and explicated.

BRAVE NEW ESSAY

I chose to do the AP essay topic that Rebecca found for Brave New World:

Many people want to be part of the majority; they desire to be like everybody else in order to be socially accepted.  In Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley creates a society in the future where people are divided into social castes, such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, before they are even born and conditioned to enjoy a particular lifestyle according to their predestined occupation in society.  The social norms include a hate of nature outside of the city and an inclination towards erotic activities, short, non-romantic relationships, and the drug soma which provides a sense of euphoria if people are feeling miserable with their monotonous lives or simply feeling the slightest bit of discomfort.  However, in the novel, the character Bernard Marx, who specializes in the sleep-teaching conditioning that molds children into the type of adults that society needs, starts to become disillusioned from the superficial happiness of the people around him.  He is conflicted, though, with becoming a complete social outcast because he wants to win the heart of Lenina Crowne, a woman who is supposed to be the epitome of the female role in the society.

BRAVE NEW ESSAY TOPIC

Here is one of the AP essay topics from 2012 that could apply to the first few chapters of Brave New World:

"And after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny, or any supernatural agency."

- Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces

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.

I AM HERE

This past grading period, I have delved into the structure and various interpretations of the texts of Great Expectations, Catch-22, and the first few chapters of Brave New World.  I have even recently identified the concept of a catch-22 in a couple of different real life examples.  As for my senior project, I have slowly been forming it in my head.  It will definitely have something to do with science since that is the path I want to take for my future.  I actually wanted to base it off science before we started reading Brave New World, whose storyline revolves around scientific techniques that attempt to create a perfect society.  I think for part of my project I want to focus on the good that science has done in the world because I feel that some movies and TV shows nowadays have developed a stigma that scientists go too far during experiments or research and something bizarre or life-threatening occurs.  I want to show the real work and help that science has given the world.

WELCOME TO THE INTERDISCIPLINARY

As cliché as it might sound, nothing in the world exists due to one discipline.  A sunset, for example, is known for its beauty and it's array of colors, but what forms these colors in the first place.  A scientific explanation may pertain to the sunset, but sunsets can also be seen in artwork and photographs, or even on how they affect the minds of people in that people find them so entrancing.  Genetics is also interdisciplinary. Knowledge of the sciences, such as biology and chemistry, is necessary as well as collaboration between research scientists in order to produce results more quickly.  Even with today's technology, the ability to identify patterns and a high attention to detail should be developed.

HAFTA/WANNA

My academic learning during high school is structured and limited, while I see college as an opportunity to explore the many different classes and extracurricular activities that colleges offer.  Taking college classes will be different from high school classes in that my schedule may be different one day than the day before. I also think I will be a little different in college.  I could see myself becoming more outgoing because I will need to make a new community of friends, whereas now I already have a great community of friends and I haven't had the need to try and make more.  College will challenge me both academically and socially, and I am hoping to rise to the task.  I think I will be a somewhat different person, but my core values and some of my routines may stay the same.

The Nose

1.  Ivan Yakovlevich is a barber.  He shaves beards and cuts hair for a living.

2.  While he is eating breakfast, Ivan finds a human nose in the middle of his loaf of bread.

3.  Ivan's wife thinks that he pulled the nose off of one of his clients because she has heard them complain about how Ivan pulls at their nose when he shaves their face.  She orders Ivan to get rid of the nose because she doesn't want the police in her house.

4.  Ivan sets out from his home with the nose in a cloth to throw it away or hide it in the street somewhere.  However, he keeps running into people he knows who ask him where he is off to, and when he tosses the nose on the ground, a policeman points out that he's dropped something.  Ivan finally decides to toss the nose over a bridge and into a river, but when he does so, he is questioned by a police officer at the other side of the bridge.

5.  The fact that Ivan's happiness over disposing of the nose in the river illustrates that happiness in Ivan's life and in that society was ephemeral and a rare occurrence.  This theme is further shown when Major Kovalyov gets his nose returned to him.  His happiness and excitement is explained to last only a short two minutes for he realizes that he can't put the nose back on his face.

6.  The nose belongs on the face of Major, or Collegiate Assessor, Kovalyov.  He doesn't know how it left his face; he just woke up one morning and it was gone.  Major Kovalyov finally saw it in town wearing a uniform representing a better respected occupation than Major Kovalyov and praying in a cathedral, but the nose claims to know nothing about being the Major's nose and leaves.  Major Kovalyov tries to put an advertisement in the newspaper with a reward for the person who finds his nose first, but the clerk refuses his request because it could damage the newspaper's reputation.  Major Kovalyov then tries to put the Inspector of Police in the case but he wants to take a nap and refuses.  Major Kovalyov returns home where later that night, the same policeman on the bridge at the beginning of the story calls at his home and returns the nose that he caught Ivan throwing off of the bridge.  Major Kovalyov tries to out the nose back on, but it won't stay so he calls a nearby doctor.  The doctor says that  anything he does will only make it look worse, despite Major Kovalyov's objections, and leaves.  In the end, Major Kovalyov wakes up one morning and his nose is back in its rightful place and no one seems to notice, except for Ivan, that it was gone in the first place.

LIT TERMS #6

simile: figure of speech that compares one thing with another thing to form a more detailed description

soliloquy: a speech by one character that exemplifies their innermost thoughts and feelings

spiritual: a religious song

speaker: the narrator that tells the story or explains the plot to the reader, but most of the time without addressing the reader directly

stereotype: a widely held over-generalization of a specific group of ideas or people

stream of consciousness: a style of writing that illustrates the natural flow of thoughts and ideas of the narrator

structure: the arrangement of elements in a work of literature

style: the way an author uses language in a work of literature; a work of literature, art, or music that has characteristics typical of a certain time period or movement in the arts

subordination: the action of perceiving something as inferior to something else

surrealism: a literary movement that focuses on the irrational and and the potential of the mind

suspension of disbelief: the act of the reader suspending doubts until later in the story

symbol: something that represents or stands for something else

synesthesia: stimulating a sense that is mixed with another sense

synecdoche: where a part represents a whole thing or idea

syntax: how words are arranged in a work of literature

theme: the main message or topic of a piece of literature

thesis: a statement that is to be supported or proven in a written work

tone: the attitude given off by a piece of literature or art

tongue in cheek: type of humor; something that's ironic

tragedy: a play or other work of literature with an unhappy or tragic ending and plot

understatement: saying something is less important than it actually is for emphasis

vernacular: use of everyday, common, informal language

voice: the speaker of a piece of literature; who sets the tone for a piece of literature 

zeitgeist: the spirit or defining tone of a certain period of time 

LIT TERMS #5

parallelism: the sentence structure where two or more parts of a sentence are given similar form for emphasis

parody: an imitation or mock of a well-known piece of literature or art

pathos: emotional appeal to the reader or audience

pedantry: a presentation of learning for learning itself;

personification: giving inanimate objects or abstract ideas human or life characteristics/actions

plot: the structure or plan of a work

poignant: evoking sadness

point of view: the perspective from which the audience or reader comprehends a work

postmodernism: genre of literature with the characteristics of experimentation, radical forms of structure, and a fuzzy distinction between fiction and reality

prose: language without a rhyming pattern; normal, spoken language

protagonist: usually the central character of a work; must go against the antagonist

pun: a play on words

purpose: the intended effect of a work; what the author wants to establish in the reader

realism: a style of literature that attempts to depict real life

refrain: a repeated phrase in a poem or song

requiem: a song or work of literature to honor or commiserate the dead

resolution: the part if the plot after the climax that resolves the conflict

restatement: an idea that is repeated for emphasis

rhetoric: persuasive language that uses certain techniques to fulfill its purpose

rhetorical question: a rhetorical technique; a question that doesn't require an answer because the answer can be inferred from the question or context

rising action: the part of the plot leading up to the climax; may introduce the conflict

romanticism: style of literature where imaginations and emotions are valued over structure and reason

satire: makes fun of the weaknesses or wrongdoings of an idea, a company, an organization, a person, etc.

scansion: analyzes the meter, or rhythm, of a verse

setting: the time and place where a story takes place

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

Check out this amazing and inspirational video I found about the Landfillharmonic.