Sunday, February 24, 2013

February Literary Analysis


GENERAL

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
Death of a Salesman is about the American Dream. The novel focuses on the Loman family, mainly Willy Loman – the father. Willy, above everything else, holds appearances, popularity and his salesman title as priorities even though he has not completely acquired these characteristics. He has created this false image that he and his family are successful, but in reality they are on the edge of poverty. He faithfully believes that they will soon get their “big break” that they so greatly “deserve”. But as his mirage slowly begins to crumble and he begins to see he is really a failure, he slowly goes insane – has flashbacks and talks to his self-created apparitions. In the end he dies as a failure and not many people show for his funeral.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of this novel is that of the American Dream. Willy believes that the key to success is through attractiveness and likeability, however the real path to the American Dream is through hard work. Since his dream doesn’t happen, Willy goes through a physiological breakdown.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
The author’s tone in the play was monotone and gloomy.

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers.
Syntax:
 “but now his old friends...they're all dead, retired”
Anaphora:
“He is not just liked, but well-liked” which shows his materialistic views
Symbolism:
“What the hell is that seed?”
Foreshadow:
“From the darkness is heard the laughter of a woman.”
Allusion:
“Smell the stink from that apartment house!”
Characterization:
 “He is past sixty years of age, dressed quietly.”
Conflict:
“Don’t you care whether he lives or dies?”
Epilogue:
 “Linda doesn’t react. She stares at the grave.”
Euphemism:                              
“Ah, it’s a dog’s life.”
Point of View:
“The curtain rises.”


 CHARACTERIZATION

1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
Direct and indirect characterizations have different purposes in a play. Direct characterization is meant for the actors so that they could imitate the characters. Indirect characterization is meant for the audience during the production of a play.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How? Example(s)?
When the author focuses on character description, the diction and syntax become simpler and more directed towards specific people.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.
The protagonist is a static flat character. His inability to grasp reality and his constant lying to his wife show that he doesn't really change during the play.

 4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
It feels like I read a character. His reactions to certain events made it seem unreal. A real person would have reacted through actions, instead of being in denial of being a failure. 

Friday, February 22, 2013

FIRST QUARTER REVIEW

I believe I've done alright on required assignments. It takes me a few days to catch up on the assignments I've missed, but I will complete them. I have gathered information through the group I'm working with and am trying to reach new connections. I expect to get a good score on the AP Exam, pass the course and leave a footprint with my senior project. 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Lit terms 108 to End

1. Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.

2. Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement toward climax.

3. Romanticism: movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.

4. Satire: ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of indivduals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.

5. Scansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter.

6. Setting: the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.

7. Simile: a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison.

8. Soliloquy: an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage.

9. Spiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme.

10. Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking.

11. Stereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story.

12. Stream of Consciousness: the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them.

13. Structure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization.

14. Style: the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking.

15. Subordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of language.

16. Surrealism: a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man's existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal.

17. Suspension of Disbelief: suspend not believing in order to enjoy it.

18. Symbol: something which stands for something else; yet has a meaning of its own.

19. Synesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense.

20. Synecdoche: another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.

21. Syntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence.

22. Theme: main idea of the story; its message(s).

23. Thesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disaproved: the main idea.

24. Tone: the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author's perceived point of view.

25. Tongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; a.k.a. "dry" or "dead pan"

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

BOB I

I will be listing my top 10 blog in no particular order. These are blogs that are almost always on top of things. Most of them are.


  1.  E'ana Bordon
  2.  Sarah Gutierrez
  3.  Kathryn Greenup
  4.  Josh Montero
  5.  Socorro Ramirez
  6.  Ubi Kim
  7.  Katelyn Porraz
  8.  Hayden Robel
  9.  Ryland Towne
  10.  Will Veroski

Friday, February 15, 2013

I AM HERE

For the first grading period, I have struggled to get my assignments done on time but I am catching up. Im almost caught up and I already started the new literary analysis.

I put my senior project on hold because I'm having to apply for scholarships. I know what i need to do to get it done though. All I need left is to send a letter and communicate with everyone involved.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Lit Terms 82-108

Omniscient Point of View: Knowing all things, usually the third person. 
Onomatopoeia: Use of a word whose sound on some degree imitates or suggests its meaning. 
Oxymoron: Figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox. 
Pacing: Rate of movement; tempo. 
Parable: A story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth. 
Paradox: A statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas. 
Parallelism: The principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form. 
Parody: An imitation or mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well known artist. 
Pathos: The ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness. 
Pedantry: A display of learning for its own sake. 
Personification: A figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
Plot: A plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose. 
Poignant: Eliciting sorrow or sentiment. 
Point of View: The attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; physical point from which the observer views what he is describing. 
Postmodernism: Literature characterized by experimentation, irony, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary. 
Prose: The ordinary form of spoken and written language, language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern. 
Protagonist: The center character in a work of fiction, opposes antagonist. 
Pun: Play on words, the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications. 
Purpose: The intended result wished by an author. 
Realism: Writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightforward manner to reflect life as it actually is. 
Refrain: A phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus. 
Requiem: Any chant, hymn, or musical service for the dead. 
Resolution: Point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement. 
Restatement: Idea repeated for emphasis. 
Rhetoric: Use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade. 
Rhetorical Question: Question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion. 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Dickens LAQ's

Great Expectations

GENERAL 
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
Pip is a poor orphan who helps a convict after being startled by him. The convict is captured but lies for Pip and says that he stole the supplies himself. Pip then is taken to Miss Havisham´s house where he meets Estella. After meeting Estella he wishes to become a gentlemen so he can marry her. Pip continues to go to Miss Havisham´s house until he is ordered to become a blacksmith. He is then granted his wish of becoming a gentlemen, mysteriously, and goes to London where he finds out the man who gave him the money was the convict, who is also Estella´s father. The convict dies, Pip wants to go and marry Biddy but he discovers that she is married to Joe. At the end, Pip finds Estella and they live happily ever after.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of Great Expectations revolves around social class. He has to deal with feeling unwanted because he wasn’t a gentlemen and once he became one he lost a lot. In the end where you stand does matter. It can open doors like it did for Pip, or it can hold you back and not they you move forward with yourself.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
Pip’s tone is somewhat sad, but hopeful. He mentions the things that happened in his life and uses his tone and diction to paint a picture. His tone demonstrates the hope for his expectations and desires to be loved.
--"I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be."

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)
Narration:
"...I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip”
Personification:
"He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather cock."
Colloquialism:
"You fail, or you go from my words in any parickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver..."
Foil:
"Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!"
 Simile:
"So, we had our slices served out as if we were two thousand troops on a forced march instead of a man.”
Point of view:
"I looked all around for the horrible young man, and could see no signs of him."
Allusion:
"...and give us Mark Antony´s oration over the body of Caesar."
Apostrophe:
"Ah! poultry, poultry! You little thought," said Mr. Pumblechook, apostrophizing the fowl in the dish,"
Chiasmus:
"Yes a gentleman may not keep a public-house; may he? said I. "Not on any account," returned Herbert; "but a public-house may keep a gentleman."
Anaphora:
"... one [man's] a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppersmith. Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come."

CHARACTERIZATION 
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
Direct Characterization: 
The author uses direct characterization to describe the characters physical features. We can see this when he introduces several characters.
--"mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow.."
--"A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head."

Indirect Characterization:
The author uses indirect characterization to describe a character´s personality. We can see this when the characters talk with one another.
--“You made your own snares."

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?
The author's syntax does change. When not focusing on a character he writes using the same style, but when he does focus on characters his syntax changes.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.
Pip is dynamic and round character. In Pip's life, his surroundings dramatically change, causing his character to learn countless lessons. He becomes a completely different person once he moves to London and at the end of the story is left as a round character because of his dynamic experiences.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
It felt like I read a character because not everyone would take the route Pip took. Pip has feelings and a heart that feels for another person. But when you consider the actions he made after becoming a gentlemen, I knew I was reading a character.

Lit Terms 56-80

Gothic Tale: a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay.
Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement used to proved a point.
Imagery: figures of speech or vivid descriptions conveying images through any of the senses.
Implication: a meaning or understanding thats to be arrived at by the reader but isn't exactly stated by the author.
Incongruity: the deliberate joining of opposite or  of elements that aren't appropriate to each other.
Inference: a judgement or conclusion based on evidence presented; the forming of an opinion which posses some degree of probability. 
Irony: a contrast between what's said and what's meant, and what's expected to happen and what actually happens or what's thought to be happening or what actually happens.
Interior Monologue: a form of writing that expresses inner thoughts of a character.
Inversion: words out of order for emphasis.
Juxtaposition: the intentional, placement of a word, phrase or sentences of paragraph to contrast with another.
Lyric: a poem having musical form and quality; short burst of the author's inner most thoughts and feelings.
Magical Realism: a genre developed in Latin America which juxtaposes the everyday with the magical.
Metaphor: an analogy that compares two things imaginatively.
Extended: a metaphor that that developed or extended as long as the writer wants to take it.
Controlling: a metaphor that runs throughout a piece of work.
Mixed: a metaphor that ineffectively blends two or more analogies. 
Metonymy: literally name changing a device of figurative language in which the name of an attribute is substituted for the usual name of the thing.
Mode of Discourse: argument, narration, description, and exposition.
Modernism: literary movement characterized by stylistic experimentation, rejection of tradition, interest in symbolism and psychology.
Monologue: an extended speech by a character in a play, short story, novel or narrative poem.
Mood: the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece.
Motif: a recurring feature in a piece of literature.

Friday, February 1, 2013

THE TIME OF MY LIFE

I used those 35 minutes to work on my senior project. I also talked to Dr. Preston about the changes I made. I'm doing my project on education and the limitations we have at my daughter's daycare. I hope all goes well.