Friday, January 31, 2014
The Time of My Life
Since we had a substitute teacher, we were accountable to use the 35 minutes we had in class to discuss the Dickens' books that we read. Our class decided to send some people up who read Great Expectations to give a quick summary to the people who didn't read it, and other people who read The Tale of Two Cities to give a quick summary. I thought this was really cool because we all collaborated as a class.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Literature Analysis #1
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
1) This novel is about four different mothers who are from China and their American-raised daughters. I found this novel to be a little bit confusing due to the many transitions between the four families so let me start off this summary by first introducing the four mothers and their daughters. In the Woo family the mother is named Suyuan Woo and the daughter is named Jing-mei Woo, also known as June. In the Jong family the mother is named Lindo Jong and the daughter is named Waverly Jong. In the Hsu family the mother is named An-mei Hsu and the daughter is named Rose Hsu. In the St.Clair family the mother is named Ying-ying St. Clair and the daughter is named Lena St. Clair. All four mothers make up the Joy Luck Club which is a club that gets together weekly to play a game called mahjong. Jing-mei is asked to take her mother's place when she passes away. Before Suyuan died, she had just found the address to her two daughter's house. When Suyuan was traveling to America she had to leave her two daughters behind but she swore to herself that she would come back to them one day. At Jing-mei's first club meeting the other mothers give her $1,200 for her to go and visit the twins and tell them about Suyuan. Suyuan always compared Jing-mei to Waverly and tried to find Jing-mei's hidden skill. She eventually signs Jing-mei up for piano lessons but that didn't go very well. Jing-mei and her father travel to meet the twins. Jing-mei is surprised at the culture here because she had a different picture of what China would look like in her head. The three sisters eventually meet and they all embrace and cry for their mother's loss. Jing-mei then takes out a picture and they realize they all look just like Suyuan. Waverly finds out that she has a gift for playing chess after convincing her brothers to let her play with them at Christmas. She was fascinated by the power each piece had and she spent the next few days studying an instruction pamphlet. Lau Po was an old man who played chess in the park and he began to teach her strategies. Eventually, she became a celebrity and people came to see her. After telling her mother about engagement to her boyfriend Rich, Lindo takes her to a restaurant. Whenever Waverly mentions his name, however, Lindo always changes the subject or ignores her so she invites Lindo to their apartment so she can see how serious they are. Waverly is scared that Lindo will criticize him as she did to her first husband. At a dinner with all of them, Rich makes a lot of blunders that embarrasses Waverly. Thankfully, Lindo eventually approves of the marriage and is invited on the honeymoon with Waverly and Rich. Waverly is ashamed of her Chinese heritage and Lindo is sad about trying to make her daughter half American and half Chinese as it is impossible. After realizing her and her mother have the same nose, Waverly finds herself becoming proud of her heritage and she tells her mother she will stop wearing two different masks (one American and one Chinese) all the time. Rose is hesitant to tell her mother about the fact that her husband Ted and her are getting a divorce. It is against the words of the bible. When Rose was younger her brother Bing was killed after he fell into the ocean. Her whole entire family blamed themselves for his death and they lost a lot of their faith that day. When Rose receives divorce papers and a big check in the mail from Ted she spends a lot of days being depressed in bed. Ted eventually calls and asks her why she hasn't signed the papers and she announces she will not leave the house and let him push her around. Ying-ying announced to Lena that she was pregnant. However, she eventually lost the baby and she continued to blame herself even though Lena tried to constantly comfort her. Lena tells us about how her mother is able to predict evil things that will occur in her family. When her mother visits her husband Harold and her in their new home she comments a lot about a list of prices of shared items Lena and Harold have. Ying-ying is surprised and lectures Lena on how she should not have to pay Harold back for simple things he does like buying her ice cream. When a vase suddenly breaks Ying-ying explains that that "You put something else on top, everything fall down". This is a warning about their marriage.
2) I think a really big theme of the novel is the challenge of immigration and culture transitions. All the mothers seemed to become disconnected to their daughters. Growing up in America made the daughters accustomed to the traditions here while the mothers still carried on their old traditions.
3) The tone of the book is very serious. Throughout the whole book all of the mothers are constantly giving their daughters advice. They don't want their daughters to make the same mistakes as they once did. "A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you,” she said. . . . “A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.” Back home, I thought about what she said. . . . [These] were words I had never thought about in English terms. I suppose the closest in meaning would be “confused” and “dark fog.”But really, the words mean much more than that. Maybe they can’t be easily translated because they refer to a sensation that only Chinese people have. . . ." "Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve." "And now I must tell her everything about my past. It is the only way to pull her to where she can be saved."
4) Literary Techniques:
-Dialect: "Your mother very smart lady." All of the mothers of the book speak in a broken English language.
-Rhetorical Question: "I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?"
-Evocative: "Except for the smell of camphor, it feels the same – as if Rose, Ruth, and Janice might soon walk in with their hair rolled up in big orange-juice cans and plop down on their identical narrow beds."
-Contrast: "Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and arch enemies who spent a lifetime comparing their children. I was one month older than Waverly Jong, Auntie Lin’s prized daughter. From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed…and later, how smart Waverly was at playing chess, how many trophies she had won last month, how many newspapers had printed her name, how many cities she had visited."
-Conflict: We were presented with a conflict at the very beginning of the book when Suyuan dies and Jing-mei is left with the mission to visit her twin sisters.
-Imagery: "So I walked closer yet, until I could see the face of the Moon Lady: shrunken cheeks, a broad oily nose, large glaring teeth, and red-stained eyes. A face so tired that as she wearily pulled off her hair, her long gown fell from her shoulders. And as the secret wish fell from my lips, the Moon Lady looked at me and became a man."
-Foreshadowing: At the beginning of each part of the book, we are told a parable that gives us a hint about what is yet to come. Example: Feathers From a Thousand Li Away
-Narrator: There are eight different ones in the book. (all the mothers and all the daughters)
-Similie: "I was like the wind." Lindo realizes that she is strong woman who is capable of anything.
-Personification: "I saw that lightning had eyes and searched to strike down little children."
Characterization:
1) Indirect Characterization:
-"And the answer, the one that was important above everything else, ran through my body and fell from my lips: 'You can’t just pull me out of your life and throw me away.'"Rose stands up for herself the first time and we can see that she has a lot of pride and is strong.
- "My daughter did not look pleased when I told her this, that she didn’t look Chinese. She had a sour American look on her face." Waverly is proud of her Chinese heritage and doesn't like when her mom says she looks all American.
Direct Characterization:
- "Standing perfectly still like that, I discovered my shadow. At first it was just a dark spot on the bamboo mats that covered the courtyard bricks. It had short legs and long arms, a dark coiled braid just like mine." Ying-ying gives a self description of herself as she looks at her shadow.
-"I looked in the mirror and saw a reflection of my mother. Light skin and dark hair."
2) The author's syntax and diction do change as she focuses on different characters. This book is told from eight different point of views; the mothers' and the daughters'. For example, when the mothers are telling their stories, they tend to talk in very long, complex sentences as they tell the readers stories of their past. They also use a lot of Chinese words in their descriptions. When the daughters talk they stick to English words instead of Chinese.
3) Jing-mei is one of the protagonists of the story. I felt like she was a very dynamic character. In the beginning of the story she didn't have a very strong connection with her mother. When her mother passed away and she learned about her twin sisters, she looked back on all of the things her mother said and taught her. She thought she didn't know a lot about her mother and was scared when the mothers gave her money to fund the trip to visit her sisters. However, when she arrived at the aiport she was able to connect with her sisters and she told them all about her mom.
4) After reading this book I did feel like I met these characters. Even though the book kept changing voices I was able to get to know all of the characters. I saw how the daughters all changed throughout the story and how the mothers really cared about their daughters. Amy Tan did a fantastic job at being very descriptive because during some of the stories that the mothers told, I was really able to picture the scene playing out in my head. "Saint took me to America, where I lived in houses smaller than the one in the country. I wore large American clothes. I did servant’s tasks. I learned the Western ways. I tried to speak with a thick tongue. I raised a daughter, watching her from another shore. I accepted her American ways."
1) This novel is about four different mothers who are from China and their American-raised daughters. I found this novel to be a little bit confusing due to the many transitions between the four families so let me start off this summary by first introducing the four mothers and their daughters. In the Woo family the mother is named Suyuan Woo and the daughter is named Jing-mei Woo, also known as June. In the Jong family the mother is named Lindo Jong and the daughter is named Waverly Jong. In the Hsu family the mother is named An-mei Hsu and the daughter is named Rose Hsu. In the St.Clair family the mother is named Ying-ying St. Clair and the daughter is named Lena St. Clair. All four mothers make up the Joy Luck Club which is a club that gets together weekly to play a game called mahjong. Jing-mei is asked to take her mother's place when she passes away. Before Suyuan died, she had just found the address to her two daughter's house. When Suyuan was traveling to America she had to leave her two daughters behind but she swore to herself that she would come back to them one day. At Jing-mei's first club meeting the other mothers give her $1,200 for her to go and visit the twins and tell them about Suyuan. Suyuan always compared Jing-mei to Waverly and tried to find Jing-mei's hidden skill. She eventually signs Jing-mei up for piano lessons but that didn't go very well. Jing-mei and her father travel to meet the twins. Jing-mei is surprised at the culture here because she had a different picture of what China would look like in her head. The three sisters eventually meet and they all embrace and cry for their mother's loss. Jing-mei then takes out a picture and they realize they all look just like Suyuan. Waverly finds out that she has a gift for playing chess after convincing her brothers to let her play with them at Christmas. She was fascinated by the power each piece had and she spent the next few days studying an instruction pamphlet. Lau Po was an old man who played chess in the park and he began to teach her strategies. Eventually, she became a celebrity and people came to see her. After telling her mother about engagement to her boyfriend Rich, Lindo takes her to a restaurant. Whenever Waverly mentions his name, however, Lindo always changes the subject or ignores her so she invites Lindo to their apartment so she can see how serious they are. Waverly is scared that Lindo will criticize him as she did to her first husband. At a dinner with all of them, Rich makes a lot of blunders that embarrasses Waverly. Thankfully, Lindo eventually approves of the marriage and is invited on the honeymoon with Waverly and Rich. Waverly is ashamed of her Chinese heritage and Lindo is sad about trying to make her daughter half American and half Chinese as it is impossible. After realizing her and her mother have the same nose, Waverly finds herself becoming proud of her heritage and she tells her mother she will stop wearing two different masks (one American and one Chinese) all the time. Rose is hesitant to tell her mother about the fact that her husband Ted and her are getting a divorce. It is against the words of the bible. When Rose was younger her brother Bing was killed after he fell into the ocean. Her whole entire family blamed themselves for his death and they lost a lot of their faith that day. When Rose receives divorce papers and a big check in the mail from Ted she spends a lot of days being depressed in bed. Ted eventually calls and asks her why she hasn't signed the papers and she announces she will not leave the house and let him push her around. Ying-ying announced to Lena that she was pregnant. However, she eventually lost the baby and she continued to blame herself even though Lena tried to constantly comfort her. Lena tells us about how her mother is able to predict evil things that will occur in her family. When her mother visits her husband Harold and her in their new home she comments a lot about a list of prices of shared items Lena and Harold have. Ying-ying is surprised and lectures Lena on how she should not have to pay Harold back for simple things he does like buying her ice cream. When a vase suddenly breaks Ying-ying explains that that "You put something else on top, everything fall down". This is a warning about their marriage.
2) I think a really big theme of the novel is the challenge of immigration and culture transitions. All the mothers seemed to become disconnected to their daughters. Growing up in America made the daughters accustomed to the traditions here while the mothers still carried on their old traditions.
3) The tone of the book is very serious. Throughout the whole book all of the mothers are constantly giving their daughters advice. They don't want their daughters to make the same mistakes as they once did. "A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you,” she said. . . . “A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.” Back home, I thought about what she said. . . . [These] were words I had never thought about in English terms. I suppose the closest in meaning would be “confused” and “dark fog.”But really, the words mean much more than that. Maybe they can’t be easily translated because they refer to a sensation that only Chinese people have. . . ." "Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve." "And now I must tell her everything about my past. It is the only way to pull her to where she can be saved."
4) Literary Techniques:
-Dialect: "Your mother very smart lady." All of the mothers of the book speak in a broken English language.
-Rhetorical Question: "I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?"
-Evocative: "Except for the smell of camphor, it feels the same – as if Rose, Ruth, and Janice might soon walk in with their hair rolled up in big orange-juice cans and plop down on their identical narrow beds."
-Contrast: "Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and arch enemies who spent a lifetime comparing their children. I was one month older than Waverly Jong, Auntie Lin’s prized daughter. From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed…and later, how smart Waverly was at playing chess, how many trophies she had won last month, how many newspapers had printed her name, how many cities she had visited."
-Conflict: We were presented with a conflict at the very beginning of the book when Suyuan dies and Jing-mei is left with the mission to visit her twin sisters.
-Imagery: "So I walked closer yet, until I could see the face of the Moon Lady: shrunken cheeks, a broad oily nose, large glaring teeth, and red-stained eyes. A face so tired that as she wearily pulled off her hair, her long gown fell from her shoulders. And as the secret wish fell from my lips, the Moon Lady looked at me and became a man."
-Foreshadowing: At the beginning of each part of the book, we are told a parable that gives us a hint about what is yet to come. Example: Feathers From a Thousand Li Away
-Narrator: There are eight different ones in the book. (all the mothers and all the daughters)
-Similie: "I was like the wind." Lindo realizes that she is strong woman who is capable of anything.
-Personification: "I saw that lightning had eyes and searched to strike down little children."
Characterization:
1) Indirect Characterization:
-"And the answer, the one that was important above everything else, ran through my body and fell from my lips: 'You can’t just pull me out of your life and throw me away.'"Rose stands up for herself the first time and we can see that she has a lot of pride and is strong.
- "My daughter did not look pleased when I told her this, that she didn’t look Chinese. She had a sour American look on her face." Waverly is proud of her Chinese heritage and doesn't like when her mom says she looks all American.
Direct Characterization:
- "Standing perfectly still like that, I discovered my shadow. At first it was just a dark spot on the bamboo mats that covered the courtyard bricks. It had short legs and long arms, a dark coiled braid just like mine." Ying-ying gives a self description of herself as she looks at her shadow.
-"I looked in the mirror and saw a reflection of my mother. Light skin and dark hair."
2) The author's syntax and diction do change as she focuses on different characters. This book is told from eight different point of views; the mothers' and the daughters'. For example, when the mothers are telling their stories, they tend to talk in very long, complex sentences as they tell the readers stories of their past. They also use a lot of Chinese words in their descriptions. When the daughters talk they stick to English words instead of Chinese.
3) Jing-mei is one of the protagonists of the story. I felt like she was a very dynamic character. In the beginning of the story she didn't have a very strong connection with her mother. When her mother passed away and she learned about her twin sisters, she looked back on all of the things her mother said and taught her. She thought she didn't know a lot about her mother and was scared when the mothers gave her money to fund the trip to visit her sisters. However, when she arrived at the aiport she was able to connect with her sisters and she told them all about her mom.
4) After reading this book I did feel like I met these characters. Even though the book kept changing voices I was able to get to know all of the characters. I saw how the daughters all changed throughout the story and how the mothers really cared about their daughters. Amy Tan did a fantastic job at being very descriptive because during some of the stories that the mothers told, I was really able to picture the scene playing out in my head. "Saint took me to America, where I lived in houses smaller than the one in the country. I wore large American clothes. I did servant’s tasks. I learned the Western ways. I tried to speak with a thick tongue. I raised a daughter, watching her from another shore. I accepted her American ways."
Monday, January 27, 2014
Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes
-3rd city=Manchester
-got the idea for the story when he was acting
-everything in the book he has suffered himself
-Helped Collins with a play "The Frozen Deep" 1857 and played Richard Water the hero of the play
-public performance should be done by perfessionals
-Lucie in The Tale of Two Stories was influenced by a girl he met, Ellen Yurnn, who he left his wife for
-1857 did public reading for profit instead of charity to start his career and established a new relationship with reader= greatest reader of greatest writer
-1858 separated from wife Catherine
-Main cities are London ad Paris
-he was brought to London as a 10 year old boy and the suffering was in the novel all the sights that haunted him
-the experiences gave him an experience of the city and he knew it all
-place of darkness but also fascination
-London is newspaper= everything there but all disconnected
- first visited Paris in 1844 and revisited it 15 times from 1844-1868
-two worlds of London and Paris are alike in many ways
-1860 first time book made into play
-he builds emotions and uses a lot of descripion for us
-people are mysterious to other people
-novel itself is warning about revolution
-armed in hunger and revenge
What's the Story?
Why did Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading/reviewing? What
in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion?
(Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at
least three techniques we've studied/discussed this year.)
The Charles Dickens novel I read was Great Expectations. This book was originally featured in a magazine and two chapters were published every week. I believe Dickens wrote this novel to show the dichotomy between the upper and lower class of England. "I had heard of Miss Havisham up town—everybody for miles round, had heard of Miss Havisham up town—as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion." Miss Havisham is a wealthy lady who helps Pip become an apprentice for Joe. Though she has a lot of money, she is a very lonely person as her fiance left her at the wedding altar hours before the wedding. Though Pip was raised in a different environment than Miss Havisham, he was always happy and positive about everything. "I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard, to look at my coarse hands and my common boots." Dickens's use of imagery helps readers to visualize Pip. When Estella comments on Pip's hands and boots, he becomes very self-conscious and rethinks everything about his life.''I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.'' Ever since Pip started visiting Miss Havisham and Estella, he became more ashamed of his life. By contrasting Pip as a boy and Pip as a teenager, we can see how a glimpse into the life of the wealthy has changed him.
The Charles Dickens novel I read was Great Expectations. This book was originally featured in a magazine and two chapters were published every week. I believe Dickens wrote this novel to show the dichotomy between the upper and lower class of England. "I had heard of Miss Havisham up town—everybody for miles round, had heard of Miss Havisham up town—as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion." Miss Havisham is a wealthy lady who helps Pip become an apprentice for Joe. Though she has a lot of money, she is a very lonely person as her fiance left her at the wedding altar hours before the wedding. Though Pip was raised in a different environment than Miss Havisham, he was always happy and positive about everything. "I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard, to look at my coarse hands and my common boots." Dickens's use of imagery helps readers to visualize Pip. When Estella comments on Pip's hands and boots, he becomes very self-conscious and rethinks everything about his life.''I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.'' Ever since Pip started visiting Miss Havisham and Estella, he became more ashamed of his life. By contrasting Pip as a boy and Pip as a teenager, we can see how a glimpse into the life of the wealthy has changed him.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Lit Terms #4
Interior monologue: A piece of writing expressing a character's inner thoughts
Inversion: When the normal order of words is reversed in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis
Juxtaposition: When two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or poem for compare and contrast
Lyric: A type of poetry that explores the poets personal interpretation of and feelings about the world
Magic(al) realism: A literal genre or style that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction
Metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed):
Extended: a metaphor that is extended or develops as far as te author wants to take it
Controlling: a symbolic story in which the real meaning is not directly put across the whole poem
Mixed: a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes it's terms so they are visually imaginatively incompatible
Ex: The president is a lame duck who is running out of gas
Metonymy: A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes for or is associated with
Modernism: rejection of 19th century traditions
Monologue: A dramatic soliloquy
Mood: The atmosphere of the story
Motif: object or idea that repeats itself through the literary piece
Myth: A story dealing with supernatural beings or heroes
Narrative: A collection of events that tells a story either through telling or writing
Narrator: One who tells a story
Naturalism: A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible
Novelette/novella: An extended fictional prose narrative that is longer than a short story but not quite a novel
Omniscient point of view: When the reader is seeing and all knowing
Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like what they mean
Ex: Pop!
Oxymoron: A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction
Pacing: The way the author speeds up or slows down the story
Parable: A story that instructs
Paradox: A situation it statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, it does not
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Lit Terms #3
Exposition: part of story where characters and setting are introduced and background information is given
Expressionism: writing approach in which a writer depicts a character's feelings about a subject rather than the objective surface reality of the subject
Fable: a short story that teaches an explicit moral or lesson
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Fallacy: a statement or argument based on a false inference; erroneousness
- The cereal must be good because it says so on the box.
Falling action: the action and dialogue following the climax that lead the reader into the story's end
Farce: type of comedy that relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to provoke laughter
Figurative language: language that has meaning beyond the literal meaning
- simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification
Flashback: interruption of the chronological order to present something that occurred before the beginning of the story
Foil: another character in a story who contrasts with the main character usually to highlight one of their attributes
- Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort
Folk tale: stories passed along from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth rather than written text
-The Three Little Pigs
Foreshadowing: important hints that an author drops to prepare the reader for what is to come, and help the reader anticiate the outcome
Free verse: poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme
Genre: type of form of literature, music, ect.
- country, fiction, mystery
Gothic tale: ? tale used to thrill readers by providing mystery accounts of murder and the supernatural
-Jane Eyre; Frankenstein
Hyperbole: exaggeration that is powerful and purposeful
- I've told you a million times!
Imagery: a term that incorporates all sensory perceptions
-He fumed and charged like a bull.
Implication: an indirect indication; a suggestion
Incongruity: when two unlike objects or people are put together in a story
-Lady who appears well groomed but has a messy house
Inference: to gain meaning from something that is not directly said
-The house is dark and quiet. You can infer there is nobody home.
Irony: technique that involves amusing contradictions or contrasts
-titanic promoted as being 100% unsinkable but it sank
Expressionism: writing approach in which a writer depicts a character's feelings about a subject rather than the objective surface reality of the subject
Fable: a short story that teaches an explicit moral or lesson
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Fallacy: a statement or argument based on a false inference; erroneousness
- The cereal must be good because it says so on the box.
Falling action: the action and dialogue following the climax that lead the reader into the story's end
Farce: type of comedy that relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to provoke laughter
Figurative language: language that has meaning beyond the literal meaning
- simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification
Flashback: interruption of the chronological order to present something that occurred before the beginning of the story
Foil: another character in a story who contrasts with the main character usually to highlight one of their attributes
- Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort
Folk tale: stories passed along from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth rather than written text
-The Three Little Pigs
Foreshadowing: important hints that an author drops to prepare the reader for what is to come, and help the reader anticiate the outcome
Free verse: poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme
Genre: type of form of literature, music, ect.
- country, fiction, mystery
Gothic tale: ? tale used to thrill readers by providing mystery accounts of murder and the supernatural
-Jane Eyre; Frankenstein
Hyperbole: exaggeration that is powerful and purposeful
- I've told you a million times!
Imagery: a term that incorporates all sensory perceptions
-He fumed and charged like a bull.
Implication: an indirect indication; a suggestion
Incongruity: when two unlike objects or people are put together in a story
-Lady who appears well groomed but has a messy house
Inference: to gain meaning from something that is not directly said
-The house is dark and quiet. You can infer there is nobody home.
Irony: technique that involves amusing contradictions or contrasts
-titanic promoted as being 100% unsinkable but it sank
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Lit Terms Remix 1-5
Circumlocution: when a writer uses very long and complex sentences to convey a meaning that could have been done in short sentences
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome tradition and reason
Cliché: overused expression that lose their original meaning
"He was scared to death."
Climax: point at which the conflict is the highest point
Colloquialism: use of informal words, phrases, or even slangs
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome tradition and reason
Cliché: overused expression that lose their original meaning
"He was scared to death."
Climax: point at which the conflict is the highest point
Colloquialism: use of informal words, phrases, or even slangs
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Lit Terms #2
Circumlocution: when writer uses very long and complex sentences to convey a meaning that could have been done using short sentences
- "At about 8 pm was when he reached the dinner party." Instead of "He arrived at 8."
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome tradition and reason
-the writer Homer
Cliché: overused expressions that lose their original meaning
- frightened to death
Climax: point at which the conflict is the highest point
- Climax in Cinderella is when the prince tries to find out whose shoe he has.
Colloquialism: use of informal words, phrases, or even slangs
-wanna=want to
Comedy: amusing event designed to provide entertainment or produce laughter
-Bob had his shirt on backwards.
Conflict: problem the protagonist of the story comes across
-Mary wanted to win the gold medal in track but she broke her leg.
Connotation: when words create emotions or feelings in the reader
-The autumn leaves were falling. (autumn=coming to an end)
Contrast: when an idea or object is used in opposition of another
- Her style when she was younger is much different than her style today.
Denotation: the literal/dictionary definition of a word
-They built a house. (house=literal while home could mean something else)
Denouement: final outcome of a story after the climax and plot; all loose ends are tied up
- in Romeo and Juliet the denouement is after they kill each other and their deaths are explained to their families
Dialect: language used by people of a specific area, class, or district
- "Yo, what's up?"
Dialectics: pertaining to the nature of logical argumentation
Dichotomy: the split or break between two opposing things
- dichotomy of good and evil
Diction: distinctive tone/ wording of an author
- Shakespeare "thy" "thee"
Didactic: intended for instruction
- The school textbooks were didactic.
Dogmatic: asserting opinions in an arrogant manner
- That club is for people with no lives.
Elegy: a poem or song written in honor of someone deceased
Epic: a narrative celebrating the feats of a hero
-Beowulf
Epigram: a remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way
-"I can resist everything but temptation." -Oscar Wilde
Epitaph: inscription on a tomb about the deceased person
- "Loving friend and mother."
Epithet: used as a descriptive device usually added to a person's name
- "Alexander the Great"
Euphemism: to say something harsh in a pleasant manner
- You are becoming a little thing at the top. (bald)
Evocative: calling forth memories and sensations
- The smell of pie reminded her of last thanksgiving.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
AP Prep Post 1: Siddhartha
1) Siddhartha features
substantial activity and narrative action. At the same time, it
is about one man’s largely internal spiritual quest. What is the
relationship between the internal and exterior worlds of Siddhartha?
How does Siddhartha negotiate these worlds?
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/siddhartha/study.html
- From the passage reading I believe Siddhartha's internal and exterior worlds are very contradicting. After reading the letter Siddhartha comes to a point of realization that throws off his original ways of thinking. He eventually ends up trusting in himself to decide the correct path that is right for him.
- This questions tells me that I should focus a lot on Siddhartha's way of thinking. I should pay attention to the steps he takes to come to the conclusion that he did and study it. This will tell me a lot about his character as well as why he chose what he did.
2) Discuss the
ways Siddhartha attempts to attain spiritual enlightenment. Which
approaches are successful? Which ones are not successful, and which
ones have limited effectiveness? How does Siddhartha progress from
one approach to the other?
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/siddhartha/study.html
- From the passage reading I believe Siddhartha's internal and exterior worlds are very contradicting. After reading the letter Siddhartha comes to a point of realization that throws off his original ways of thinking. He eventually ends up trusting in himself to decide the correct path that is right for him.
- This questions tells me that I should focus a lot on Siddhartha's way of thinking. I should pay attention to the steps he takes to come to the conclusion that he did and study it. This will tell me a lot about his character as well as why he chose what he did.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/siddhartha/study.html
- Due to the fact that I only read the passage and not the whole story, I can't answer this question. However, if I were to answer this question I would need to pay attention to the actions of Siddhartha, even his failures. I would also pay attention to how he reacts to these failures and see if he learns anything at all from them.
- To master the AP test I will focus a lot on the characters of the stories. I will try and characterize them as I read and highlight important sentences that might be helpful when it comes to answering questions such as this one.
3) Consider
Siddhartha’s relationship with Govinda. How are they similar, and
how are they different? What are the narrative functions of Govinda’s
reappearance throughout the novel? How does their relationship impact
the novel’s ending?
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/siddhartha/study.html
- To answer this question I would look at both Siddhartha's and Govinda's personalities. I would see how they react together and take notes so I could easily compare them.
- This question tells me that I should to work on my comparison and contrast skills for the AP test.
4) What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?
http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.html
- I think Siddhartha's enlightenment is an attitude because after he comes to his realization he changes as a person. He decides to do what is best for him and not for anybody else.
- This question tells me that I should pay close attention to a character's reaction and see how it changes them as a person. By comparing their character before and after the reaction, I will be able to see any changes.
5) What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence?
http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.html
- To answer this question I would again just take notes on Siddhartha as a character. I would study how he reacts in different scenarios and see how he learns from each one.
- For the AP test I think I definitely should study characterization. A lot of these questions have to do with answering questions about Siddhartha and how he changes and finds himself.
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