Vocabulary #9

1. Aficionado (n)- an ardent devotee; fan, enthusiast

- She is an aficionado of their clothing brand as she wears the brand everyday. 

2.Browbeat (v)- to intimidate with overbearing looks or words; bullying
- The mean girls browbeat the little boy everyday.


3. Commensurate (adj)- having the same measure; equal extent or duration
- It is only fair if the benefits for the workings were commensurate. 

4. Diaphanous (adj)- very sheer or light; almost transparent
- The cheap shirt was diaphanous.

5. Emolument (n)- profit, salaries, or fees from office or employment 
- The product was successful as it brought in a lot of emolument. 


6. Foray (n)- a quick sudden attack
- The countries foray surprised everyone. 


7. Genre (n)- a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique
- I love to read different genres of books. 

8. Homily (n)- a sermon; an inspiring saying or cliche
- That homily is very commonly used in my church.  
 
9. Immure (v)- to imprison; to shut-in
- They immured the snake in the cage.


10. Insouciant (adj)- free from worry; carefree; nonchalant
- Her insouciant attitude showed that she was not worried about the test. 


11. Matrix (n)- a point when something else originates, develops, or takes form
- The matrix of the rock was when the crystals formed. 


12. Obsequies (n)- a funeral rite, or ceremony
- It is tradition to wear black at an obsequies. 


13. Panache (n)- a grand manner; style; flair
- Her boss walked around with a proper panache. 


14. Persona (n)- the characters in a play
- Her favorite persona from the play was Mary. 


15. Philippic (n)- any speech of bitter denunciation
- Everyone was surprised from her philippic at the meeting. 


16. Prurient (adj)- having lustful thoughts or desires
- She felt uncomfortable by the boys prurient glances. 

17. Sacrosanct (adj)- extremely sacred
- The sacrosanct book was important to her family. 

18. Systemic (adj)- of or pertaining to a system
- The boys disease became systemic as everyone was affected. 


19. Tendentious (adj)- having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or propose
- During the game of darts, he won with his tendentious throws. 

20. Vicissitude (n)- a change or variation occurring in the course of something
- He went through a vicissitude when he lost his great job. 

Tools That Change the Way We Think

"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. 'It will be included in people's brains,' said Page. 'When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information.'

'That's true,' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what's going on around them and suggest useful information.'

'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page,' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."

-From In the Plex by Steven Levy (p.67)

How does use of the Internet, media, and/or technology change the way you think?

I believe the internet, technology, and media all greatly influence the way we think. The internet changes the way we think because we are influenced by what other people are saying as we are able to see everyone's thoughts. This can be a positive thing because it widens our perspectives on that certain topic. Technology changes the way we think because instead of trying to remember or figure something out, we immediately go the internet for the answer. The internet is so convenient and people have become lazy due to the fact technology is able to do the work for us. Before the internet and greatly evolved calculators we have now, people had to go to the library to look through numerous books for answers or work out problems on paper. Media also changes the way many people think. For example, people think the world has become a bad place as there are many robberies and murders occurring. The reason for this belief, however, is because the news on television just focuses on the negative crimes rather than the positive news. Police car chases are much more exciting than a local beach cleanup and more people will tune into the news to hear about these exciting crimes. 

The Performative Utterance in Hamlet

-not a play about a man who can't make up his mind, but a play about a man who could not make real what was found in his mind

-Hamlet unable to move duty from mental to the real

-dividing line between what is said and done in the play (language doesn't describe action but acts in being spoken) 

-Austin divides Performative ability of language into three main forces: the locutionary force (the ability if language to deliver a message), the force of mutual intelligibility (what is being said like denying a request or giving an order), and the perlocutionary force (what is achieved from being said)

-central problem of the play is that people represent their feeling and their intentions in ways that are contrary to reality

-Polonius's narrow vision of what madness is and entails hurts him

-Polonius is vulnerable to Hamlet because of his mechanistic vision if human nature

-Polonius is the premodern man while Hamlet is the modern man   

-Claudius is incapable of controlling his own definition if self and is trapped 

-bloodshed over sons who seek revenge against their father's killers 

-Hamlet's evolution is an evolution towards fath, closure, and acceptance not action 

Thoughts on Hamlet (in progress)

A lot has happened since the beginning of Hamlet. My opinion of Hamlet has changed because at first I felt really bad for him but after he murdered Polonius and acted so nonchalant about it, I lost some respect for him. He has been through a lot like finding out his father had been murdered by his uncle who them married his mother. He was then visited by the ghost of his dad urging him to seek revenge against Claudius. This, however, shouldn't take over Hamlet's life. I feel like he is so wrapped up into avenging his father's death that he is oblivious to the way he is treating people like Ophelia, for example. I predict more chaos in the next acts. I believe more lives will be lost and Hamlet will do anything he possibly can to avenge his father regardless of the consequences. 

To Be or Not To Be Soliloquy Video

Here is my performance of the soliloquy. I recorded the video on my phone but when I tried to send it to my computer, it would only allow me to send it in two parts. Therefore, during the video there may be a noticeable break off where I connected the two videos, but I promise I recorded it in one video! (Sorry for the bad quality. It looks better on my phone.)

What I Think About When I Think About Act 3

When I think about act 3, the first thing I remember is Polonius died. Hamlet thought Claudius was spying on him and Gertrude and stabbed him, but the spy was really Polonius. Another thing I remember is Claudius reacted just the way that Hamlet predicted he would during the play. Hamlet was then sure Cladius murdered his father. Claudius feels guilty and prays to God asking for forgiveness but I believe this is all an act. 

Literary Analysis #3

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

(I absolutely loved this book and I recommend everyone to read it!)

1) This book is about a girl named Hazel who is a sixteen year old with cancer. We learn that she is just like any normal teenage girl with her sarcastic, humorous attitude and her obsession with America's Next Model. Hazel is also a very kind-hearted girl as she does everything possible to make her parents happy like going to Support Group meetings. One day at one of her meetings she meets a boy named Augustus (Gus). Augustus has a fake leg due to the fact that he had osteosarcoma. He goes to these meetings to support one of his good friends named Issac who has eye cancer. Augustus and Hazel start to spend a lot of time together and end up eventually dating. Hazel, however, is very reluctant to this idea because she doesn't want to die and leave Augustus alone. They take a trip to visit Peter Van Houten who is the author of An Imperial Affliction. Hazel and Augustus spend a lot of time talking about this book and Augustus ends up spending his "wish" on organizing a trip in which they get to meet him. Unfortunately, Peter is not the guy they imaged as he acts very rude and churlish when they finally meet up at his house. We then learn that Augustus's cancer has returned and his future does not look good. They are both devastated and start to spend even more time together as they become inseparable. Eventually, Augustus dies. I found this to be very ironic because I feel we were led on to believe Hazel would be the one who dies, not Augustus. At Augustus's funeral, Peter shows up. He confesses that he had a daughter with cancer and Hazel reminded him of her at his house which is why he acted the way he did. The story ends with Hazel finding a letter that Augustus wrote about her to Peter.

2) One theme of this book that really jumped out to me was the struggle of life with cancer. Cancer affects not only the diagnosed, but also the family and friends of the diagnosed. Hazel's dad was constantly crying over the fact that Hazel was going to eventually die. Hazel's mother tried to hide her grief but Hazel was always aware of all of this. She felt like it was her fault for everything including her family's depression and the fact that her parents had little money because they have to pay for her medications. When Augustus passed away, his whole family came together and just grieved together. Hazel had a hard time dealing with his death, but his death also made her relationship with her parents stronger. 

3) I think the tone of this book was very frank yet humorous. We saw the whole book through Hazel's point of view. Hazel is a teenager yet she is very mature for her age. Therefore, we see her come across real serious situations in a humorous manor. She has accepted the fact that she will die and she is just trying to live her life as any other teenager would. 
-"I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die."
-"I went to Support Group for the same reason that I'd once allowed nurses with a mere eighteen months of graduate education to poison me with exotically named chemicals: I wanted to make my parents happy."
- "And so we thought, just as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards."

4) Literary Techniques:

- Dialogue: 

Hazel: "Please just let me watch America's Next Top model. It's an activity." 

Mom: "Television is a passivity." 

Hazel: "Ugh, Mom, please"

- Sarcasm: "If you want me to be a teenager, don't send me to Support Hroup. Buy me a fake ID so I can go to clubs, drink vodka, and take pot."
- Rhetorical Question: "Why did the cast rotate?"

-Similie: "He was looking at his hands, which he'd folded into each other like the top of a tepee." 

-Imagery: "It delivered two liters of oxygen to me each minute through a cannula, a transparent tube that split just beneath my neck, wrapped behind my ears, and them reunited in my nostrils."

- Diction: "So you look around and think, as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards." John Green uses a lot of curse words in his writing but I think it does a good job at characterizing Hazel as just youraverage  teenager. 

- Personification: "Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, if takes the rest."

- Parallelism: "I was looking pretty dead- my hands and get were ballooned; my skin cracked; my lips were perpetually blue."

- Characterization: "I want to minimize the number of deaths I am responsible for." This shows how kind-hearted Hazel is.

- Hyperbole: "HAZEL! IT'S YOUR THIRTY-THIRD HALF BIRTHDAY!"

Characterization:

1) Indirect characterization:

- "I went to support group because I wanted to make my parents happy." This shows that Hazel is a loving girl who would do anything if it were to put a smile on her parents' face.

- "I had a touch of osteosarcoma a year and a half ago, but I'm just here today at Issac's request." This shows that Augustus is very caring towards Issac. Even though he doesn't need to be at the Support Group, he is there to support his friend. 

Direct characterization

- "I'm Hazel. Sixteen. Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs."

- "The only redeeming facet of Support Group was this kid named Isaac, a long-faced, skinny guy with straight blonde hair swept over one eye."
I personally like indirect characterization over direct characterization. Indirect characterization lets the readers characterize characters on their own by making inferences rather than just straight out being told that a character is mean or rude. Direct characterization is important however, definitely in the beginning of a story, as it introduces us to characters by revealing one's name, age, looks, etc. 

2) I do not think that John Green changed his diction when he began to talk about different characters. The book was told in Hazel's point of view and she kept a constant voice throughout the whole book. This involved a variety of different curse words and frank statements. 

3) Hazel was a dynamic and round character. At the beginning of the book Hazel tended to alienate herself from others and not voice her opinions. After she meets Augustus, she becomes more social and open. Hazel was a round character because she played a great role in this book not just a small role. She was the main character and everything revolved around her. 

4) After reading this book I did feel like I actually met Hazel. All the emotions she was going through after Augustus's death was so well explained and brought about that I felt as if I could feel them. I even teared up a bit towards the end. "That's the thing about pain. It deserves to be felt." The pain she went through was clear and it just broke my heart that this character, at only sixteen years of age, has gone through so many cancer treatments and has been surrounded by so many deaths.

Dear Ophelia

It seems as if both your brother and father believe this prince is an abomination! However, this is your life and you should make your own decisions. Do not let your relatives abase your prince. You should always follow your heart. If your father or brother start to act churlish towards your prince, simply tell them he means a lot to you. Try to stand your ground but at the same time, be kind so you don't make them bellicose. This love shouldn't be ephemeral if you truly believe what you are feeling is love. In conclusion, you should never abdicate what you believe just because someone tells you otherwise. Follow your heart!

Vocabulary #8

1) Abase: (v) to lower; to put or bring down; degrade

2) Abdicate: (v) to give up a throne, right, power, claim, or responsibility 

3) Abomination: (n) anything greatly disliked; detestation 

4) Brusque: (adj) abrupt in manner; rough

5) Saboteur: (n) a person who commits or practices sabotage 

6) Debauchery: (n) excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures; intemperance

7) Proliferate: (v) to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively

8) Anachronism: (n) someone or something that is not in it's correct historical or chronological time

9) Nomenclature: (n) a set or system of names or terms by an individual or community; the names or terms comprising a set or system

10) Expurgate: (v) to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness; to amend by removing words deemed offensive

11) Bellicose: (adj) inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent; pugnacious

12) Gauche: (adj) lacking social grace; awkward; crude; tactless

13) Rapacious: (adj) inordinately greedy; predatory; extortionate

14) Paradox: (n) a self-contradictory and false proposition

15) Conundrum: (n) anything that puzzles; a riddle whose answer involves a pun or play on words

16) Anomaly: (n) someone or something that is abnormal or does not fit in; peculiarity; abnormality; exception 

17) Ephemeral: (adj) lasting a short time; short-lived

18) Rancorous: (adj) full of or showing rancor (hatred)

19) Churlish: (adj) boorish; rude; mean

20) Precipitous: (adj) extremely steep

The play Hamlet starts off with two watchmen explaining a conundrum of seeing King Hamlet's ghost to Horatio.  Horatio witnesses the ghost and decides to report this anomaly to Prince Hamlet. King Claudius is acting churlish as he tells his people to stop being depressed over the death of King Hamlet and instead, be happy over the fact he has married Gertrude. Hamlet is rancorous because his mother's grieving of his father was ephemeral since she has married Claudius just two months after his death. Claudius gives Hamlet a brusque talking to when he states everybody dies and he should stop his grieving immediately. Meanwhile, Ophelia tells her brother, Laertes, and her father, Polonius, she likes Hamlet but they act as if Hamlet is an abomination. Laertes then goes on to abase Hamlet and tell Ophelia to steer clear of him. Hamlet meets the ghost of his father who tells him that he has been murdered by Claudius. Perhaps Claudius had been rapacious and wanted to be king so badly, he didn't mind murdering his own brother. Hamlet becomes a saboteur as he starts to plot ways to gain revenge for his father's death.

Literary Fiction and Empathy

I was very intrigued by this article as I never would have imagined that reading literary fiction can help one gain better social skills. Albert Wendland explains that people who read literary fiction have to participate in the character's dialect just as one would do in real life. Popular fiction leaves no room for imagination because the author has full control. Wendland also explains that reading about peoples' lives can help you really get to know them by putting yourself in their shoes. You then are able to understand their position or situation they are going through and gain empathy towards them. For example, as I was reading Hamlet's first big soliloquy I was able to really feel his emotions by imagining myself in his position. If I were to have gone through the tragic experience of having my father murdered by my uncle and then having my mother marry my him only two months after the murder, I would feel just as frustrated and angered as he was. 

Vocabulary #7

1) Shenanigans: (n) mischief,  trickery

2) Ricochet: (v) to move in this way, as a projectile

3) Schism: (n) division or disunion; the parties so formed

4) Eschew: (v) to abstain or keep away from; shun; avoid

5) Plethora: (n) over abundance; excess

6) Ebullient: (adj) overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited

7) Garrulous: (adj) wordy, diffuse; excessively talkative in a rambling manner

8) Harangue: (n) intense verbal attack

9) Interdependence: (n) the quality or condition of being interdependence, or mutually reliant upon each other

10) Capricious: (adj) erratic, unpredictable of change

11) Loquacious: (adj) talkative, chattering; to talk much

12) Ephemeral: (adj) lasting a short time; short-lived

13) Inchoate: (adj) not yet completed; not yet developed

14) Juxtapose: (v) to place close together for comparison and contrast

15) Perspicacious: (adj) having keen mental perception and understanding

16) Codswallop: (n) nonsense, rubbish

17) Mungo: (n) a low-grade wool from felted rags or waste

18) Sesquipedalian: (adj) containing many syllables, given to using long words

19) Wonky: (adj) unsteady, shaky, unreliable, boring

20) Diphthong: (n) a vowel sound, occupying a single syllable, during the articulation of which the tongue moves from one position to another, causing a continual change in vowel quality 

Everyone stood there shocked as the black car drove away at such an alarming speed, that the rocks on the floor started to RICHOCHET off the building. Since Haley was a jokester the group began to wonder if this could be just another one of her SHENANIGANS. This prank, however, would have involved a PLETHORA of planning so they came to the conclusion that Haley had been kidnapped. Micaela suggested that the group split up in search for Haley, but this suggestion formed a SCHISM as not everyone thought it was a good idea. If they split up, someone else might get kidnapped and everyone wanted to ESCHEW anymore kidnappings from occurring. 

Everyone was really nervous but no one was speaking which made an un-GARRULOUS car ride for a few minutes. No one was EBULLIENT because of what had just occurred. Caroline began to HARANGUE Micaela because Caroline never thought it was a good idea for Haley to stay out by the car unattended. Everyone was INTERDEPENDENCE on one another in search for Haley. It was such a CAPRICIOUS trip no one was sure of what was to come of it. 

Everyone began to become LOQUACIOUS because they were beginning to panic which was not EPHEMERAL. As the day started to go on we didn't even care that

 our vacation was INCHOATE. We then decided to JUXTAPOSE all of our belongings to see if there was anything we had that could help us get our friend back. We knew that in order to get our friend back we had to exhibit PERSPICACIOUS judgment.

Haley's cry for help was no use... Haley was kidnapped and there was no one who could get her out of this. She could only hope for the slight chance that her friends might miraculously find her. She knew she had to tell her friends her secret, but would they think that it was a bunch of COLDSWALLOP? Haley couldn't stand the MUNGO that the men wrapped her in.  She couldn't understand the SESQUIPEDALIAN words the men were using, but she knew it couldn't be good. All of a sudden Haley's head felt very WONKY, as she felt like she was going to pass out. She didn't know what was happening to her! She wondered why so many of the words the men were using were DIPHTHONGS?

What I Meant to Say Was

Here is my new thesis statement:

In order to captivate and entertain his audience, Chaucer portrayed each one of his diverse characters in a uniquely, humorous way.  

Green Eggs and Hamlet

A) I do not know very much about Hamlet, the "Melancholy Dane". However, from his nickname I can get a sense that he was a depressed, gloomy person. 

B) I know a lot about Shakespeare as I studied his writing all throughout my sophomore year. William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright who married Anne Hathaway. He is known as the greatest dramatist who ever lived and he got this title from the 38 plays he wrote. 

C) So many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare" because his writing is very confusing. So many people complain about reading his works because nobody can understand exactly what he is saying. 

D) To make studying this play an amazing experience that we'll never forget, I think we should not only read the play, but also watch the play so we are able to see everything acted out. Shakespeare's writing was meant to be performed so I believe that watching the play being performed will help us to better understand the play as a whole.

If I Just Had More Time

If I just had more time for this midterm, I feel like I could have improved both my essay and my vocabulary list. I felt very rushed during this test because it was very time consuming and the class period was shorter due to the fact we had a rally. I didn't have a lot of time to think about the essay topic or plan out my essay. For the vocabulary, I couldn't remember a lot of the words but if I had more time, I know I could've remembered more. If I had known the test would have been like this, I would have reviewed Chaucer and memorized the vocabulary words more.

The Comparison's Tale

My group read the Monk's tale and I think it can relate to the Merchant's tale. The Monk's tale was about numerous, different tragedies. These tragedies included stories of Lucifer who fell from heaven into hell for his sins, De Oloferno who made everybody follow his rules and eventually was murdered, and Hercules who was a strong man that died from a shirt full of venom. I think the purpose of the Monk's tale was to steer people out of the path of sinning by scaring them with tragic stories of sinners who all eventually died a tragic death. The Merchant's tale was about a blind man named January who married a women named May. January helped May climb a tree, but in that tree May cheated on January. God saw this and decided to give January back his eye sight. I think the purpose of the Merchant's tale was to show that people who perform good deeds eventually get rewarded for them. These two different tales relate to each other because of their purposes. Both purposes were to help make the readers and listeners better people. People should not sin as they will be punished, but instead perform good deeds as they will be rewarded. 

Tale of a Canterbury Tale

The Monk's Tale

The Monk will be telling us about tragedies. Lucifer was an angel who fell from heaven into hell for his sins. Adam was driven out of his original ways into sin. Sampson is told as a very strong man. He sinned at his wedding when he told his wife a secret. Hercules was also a very strong man who was given a shirt of venom. Nabugodonosor is a king who had many treasures and the wisest of his children Daniel disobeyed him. Balthasar is a proud man who is also the son of Nabuhodonosor. He drank a lot. Cenobia  was a queen who was very pretty. She was also strong during battles. Her friends forced her to get married and she was suppose to have a child. De Petro Rege Ispannie was a noble man from Spain. He was betrayed when his brother made him flee. De Petro Rege De Culto was a king who was envied. De Barnabo De Lumbardia was sent to die in prison by his nephew. De Hugelino Comite De Pize was in prison with his three children who were in desperate need for food. Nero was a vicious, proud man who eventually killed himself. De Oloferno made everybody follow his orders. A women murdered him during his sleep. De Rege Anthiocho Illustri disliked Jews and God didn't like that. De Alexandro's story is common that everyone has heard of him. De Julio Cesare is a wise man who was murdered. Cresus is a rich king who was too proud. He had. Daughter named Phanye and he hung himself. 

1) The monk told stories of different characters and he used some indirect characterization to describe them. 

- "Three hundred foxes took Sampson got ire, and alle hir tayles be togider bond, and sette the foxes tayles alle on fire." This shows Sampson is a very strong man as he defeated the foxes by himself.

-  "But on his bak this sherte he wered al naked, til that his flesh was for the venim blaked." This shows that Hercules was not a smart man as he was poisoned by a shirt that was given to him.

- "This proud kind leet make a statue of golde, sixty cubytes long, and seven in brede." This shows how vain and self-interested Nabuhodonosor was.

- "But atte lasted hir frendes han hir maried." This shows how uninterested Cenobia is romance as her friends had to force her to get married.

- "But he made every man reneye his lawe." This shows how Holofernes is a forceful person who wants everyone to be obedient.

2) I think the purpose of Chaucer telling the Monk's tale is to prevent people from sinning. "I wol biwayle in maner of Tragedie." In the very beginning of the Monk's tale he stated that he will be telling us of tragedies. I believe he tells these tragic stories to try and steer people away from the path of sinning.