Monday, June 3, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Essay #9, Still partying like 1999
Death has forever boggled the human mind. Poets for centuries have taken on this ideological challenge, including the poets John Kreats and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These two poets took on the issue very similarly in there use of imagery of the sky, and first-person stream of conscientiousness approach to writing their own thoughts on the subject. Their relation of death to words took on two very different forms however. Kreats viewed death as sweet nothingness to embrace, and Longfellow saw it simply as a loud blast to take you away from that of which you once knew. The two authors analyzed deaths very similarly in their approach and form of their poems, but differed drastically in the theme of which they emitted when dealing with death.
At a very fundamental level, the two authors wrote in very similar style. Both referenced themselves directly, and followed the emotions of which they felt as they wrote. Fear was the first emotion to come to each of their minds, and each looked back to their pasts for answers. The key to these similarities is the use of first-person pronoun references, such as the word "I" which is used in each. This technique helps share their personal thoughts via "Montaigne" self-reflection style, which helps make it more relatable for the reader.
The authors are also very similar in the imagery that they relate the sense of death with. Their use of the sky is very similar, both with clouds in the sky, and the setting being dark. This represents the unknown for both authors, as neither knows what is to come. It is a distant setting which had not been explored to extent during this time period, and allowed for very open ended imagery. This wide open space helped convey a sense of vastness of death, and how it puzzles the mind.
Although the style and imagery of the two authors is very similar, the message of each of them varies quite a bit. While both focus on fear early in their poems, Keat's ends up accepting death, while Longfellow simply fears its embrace. These two feelings are conveyed through a similar sense- sound. Acceptance comes through sweet silence, and the worries of the natural phenomenon come through harsh, thundering sounds. These two messages, while conveyed in similar ways, show very different feelings on what death means to the individual author.
At a very fundamental level, the two authors wrote in very similar style. Both referenced themselves directly, and followed the emotions of which they felt as they wrote. Fear was the first emotion to come to each of their minds, and each looked back to their pasts for answers. The key to these similarities is the use of first-person pronoun references, such as the word "I" which is used in each. This technique helps share their personal thoughts via "Montaigne" self-reflection style, which helps make it more relatable for the reader.
The authors are also very similar in the imagery that they relate the sense of death with. Their use of the sky is very similar, both with clouds in the sky, and the setting being dark. This represents the unknown for both authors, as neither knows what is to come. It is a distant setting which had not been explored to extent during this time period, and allowed for very open ended imagery. This wide open space helped convey a sense of vastness of death, and how it puzzles the mind.
Although the style and imagery of the two authors is very similar, the message of each of them varies quite a bit. While both focus on fear early in their poems, Keat's ends up accepting death, while Longfellow simply fears its embrace. These two feelings are conveyed through a similar sense- sound. Acceptance comes through sweet silence, and the worries of the natural phenomenon come through harsh, thundering sounds. These two messages, while conveyed in similar ways, show very different feelings on what death means to the individual author.
Essay #8
Scanner didn't do so well on this one for some reason, but if anyone wants to fill in the blanks for research comment here and I can try and send a message of all the parts that got messed up.
Essay #8 Attempt 2
Essay #8 Attempt 2
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Poetry Essay #4
Fourth and last essay of the weekend.
Analyze two conflicting sides of a character and explain how this conflict illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.
Book chosen: Hamlet
Forks in the road offer up unique opportunities to show values held by individuals. These decisions help reveal themes within a story, and paint a picture of the author's intended message. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist goes mental agony throughout the book. His decision on life or death drives the story, and is summarized in his famous soliloquy To Be or Not to Be. This inner conflict of whether to live or die allows Shakespeare to share his message of internal struggle and revenge's folly to his audiences and readers.
The choice that Hamlet must make is one based on internal conflict. He struggles with the pain related to the death of his father, and the cruelty of life, and faces the decision of whether to face his trouble, or to end it in one fatal sweep of a knife. Shakespeare explicitly magnifies this conflict in Hamlet's self reflection. On one hand, Hamlet wonders if he should face his troubles and deal with his inner emotions. On the other he wonders whether he should just end them and his life. This shows that Hamlet doesn't have a handle on his inner emotions, and his passion driven actions are clouded in misdirection, and this leads to tragic revenge.
One choice Hamlet ponders is that of ending his life. To make his own suffering end in an instant. This particular choice reveals the struggle that he faces. The harshness of life and the desire to just make your challenges go away in a blink of an eye. This highlights internal struggle, and Hamlet's inability to think straight. His other option is that of facing his issues. He takes this route, but due to his struggle, he follows the path of revenge, and ends up paying the price for his actions.
Analyze two conflicting sides of a character and explain how this conflict illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.
Book chosen: Hamlet
Forks in the road offer up unique opportunities to show values held by individuals. These decisions help reveal themes within a story, and paint a picture of the author's intended message. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist goes mental agony throughout the book. His decision on life or death drives the story, and is summarized in his famous soliloquy To Be or Not to Be. This inner conflict of whether to live or die allows Shakespeare to share his message of internal struggle and revenge's folly to his audiences and readers.
The choice that Hamlet must make is one based on internal conflict. He struggles with the pain related to the death of his father, and the cruelty of life, and faces the decision of whether to face his trouble, or to end it in one fatal sweep of a knife. Shakespeare explicitly magnifies this conflict in Hamlet's self reflection. On one hand, Hamlet wonders if he should face his troubles and deal with his inner emotions. On the other he wonders whether he should just end them and his life. This shows that Hamlet doesn't have a handle on his inner emotions, and his passion driven actions are clouded in misdirection, and this leads to tragic revenge.
One choice Hamlet ponders is that of ending his life. To make his own suffering end in an instant. This particular choice reveals the struggle that he faces. The harshness of life and the desire to just make your challenges go away in a blink of an eye. This highlights internal struggle, and Hamlet's inability to think straight. His other option is that of facing his issues. He takes this route, but due to his struggle, he follows the path of revenge, and ends up paying the price for his actions.
Poetry Essay #3
Show how McCarthy's techniques convey the impact of the experience on the main character.
Dramatic experiences must be felt, and relived by a reader. McCarthy does just this is his novel The Crossing, retelling the chilling story of a man trying to put to rest the life of a wolf in the wild. He brings the author to the scene with vivid imagery, relives the action play-by-play, and takes the reader with him. The struggle with death can also be seen allegorically through the smoldering fire, and the nature that encompasses him. Through his action-to-thought structure, symbolic imagery, and his third person writing style, McCarthy conveys the main character's psychological struggle, and their connection to nature that they gain through the experience.
This insert in the essay is structured so that the reader goes through the actions in the main character's eyes without pause, then hear his inner thoughts. This form serves a two pronged purpose. The first half of the insert allows the reader to tell real time, through indirect characterization, how the main character was impacted by the experience first hand. His very careful and delicate proceedings with the wolf show his care of the animal. In doing this, you get a raw feel of the emotional connection that the main character has with the wolf. The second half of the insert has to deal with the inner workings of the character's thoughts. His self reflection on nature shares how he feels part of it, and how even a vicious creature is an integral part of the world how we know it, as are we.
The author uses very powerful, symbolic imagery throughout to help tell the story. A smoldering fire helped represent the struggle to stay alive. A wolf running through fresh morning grass before the rise of the sun showed the fresh and innocent view on life. Blood running from the wolf showed its life was whisked away from it. This was able to share the character's inner thoughts without explicitly saying the feelings that they had. It allowed for a more free flowing, action oriented text, with still conveying the significant impact the experience had on the main character.
In writing in third person, the author is able to gain a third person perspective on the character. By doing this he was able to share the characters perceptive in a different manner. He allowed the character's actions to speak for themselves, and for his inner thoughts to paint a picture fore the reader. By objectively peering into his inner imagery and thoughts, a general view on how the character changes through the experience can be made.
Dramatic experiences must be felt, and relived by a reader. McCarthy does just this is his novel The Crossing, retelling the chilling story of a man trying to put to rest the life of a wolf in the wild. He brings the author to the scene with vivid imagery, relives the action play-by-play, and takes the reader with him. The struggle with death can also be seen allegorically through the smoldering fire, and the nature that encompasses him. Through his action-to-thought structure, symbolic imagery, and his third person writing style, McCarthy conveys the main character's psychological struggle, and their connection to nature that they gain through the experience.
This insert in the essay is structured so that the reader goes through the actions in the main character's eyes without pause, then hear his inner thoughts. This form serves a two pronged purpose. The first half of the insert allows the reader to tell real time, through indirect characterization, how the main character was impacted by the experience first hand. His very careful and delicate proceedings with the wolf show his care of the animal. In doing this, you get a raw feel of the emotional connection that the main character has with the wolf. The second half of the insert has to deal with the inner workings of the character's thoughts. His self reflection on nature shares how he feels part of it, and how even a vicious creature is an integral part of the world how we know it, as are we.
The author uses very powerful, symbolic imagery throughout to help tell the story. A smoldering fire helped represent the struggle to stay alive. A wolf running through fresh morning grass before the rise of the sun showed the fresh and innocent view on life. Blood running from the wolf showed its life was whisked away from it. This was able to share the character's inner thoughts without explicitly saying the feelings that they had. It allowed for a more free flowing, action oriented text, with still conveying the significant impact the experience had on the main character.
In writing in third person, the author is able to gain a third person perspective on the character. By doing this he was able to share the characters perceptive in a different manner. He allowed the character's actions to speak for themselves, and for his inner thoughts to paint a picture fore the reader. By objectively peering into his inner imagery and thoughts, a general view on how the character changes through the experience can be made.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Poetry Essay #2
Poetry Essay #2:
In June, amid the golden fields,
I saw a groundhog lying dead.
Dead lay he; my senses shook,
And mind outshot our naked frailty.
There lowly in the vigorous summer
His form began its senseless change,
And made my senses waver dim
Seeing nature ferocious in him.
Inspecting close maggots' might
And seething cauldron of his being,
Half with loathing, half with a strange love,
I poked him with an angry stick.
The fever arose, became a flame
And Vigour circumscribed the skies,
Immense energy in the sun,
And through my frame a sunless trembling.
My stick had done nor good nor harm.
Then stood I silent in the day
Watching the object, as before;
And kept my reverence for knowledge
Trying for control, to be still,
To quell the passion of the blood;
Until I had bent down on my knees
Praying for joy in the sight of decay.
And so I left; and I returned
In Autumn strict of eye, to see
The sap gone out of the groundhog,
But the bony sodden hulk remained
But the year had lost its meaning,
And in intellectual chains
I lost both love and loathing,
Mured up in the wall of wisdom.
Another summer took the fields again
Massive and burning, full of life,
But when I chanced upon the spot
There was only a little hair left,
And bones bleaching in the sunlight
Beautiful as architecture;
I watched them like a geometer,
And cut a walking stick from a birch.
It has been three years, now.
There is no sign of the groundhog.
I stood there in the whirling summer,
My hand capped a withered heart,
And thought of China and of Greece,
Of Alexander in his tent;
Of Montaigne in his tower,
Of Saint Theresa in her wild lament.
In June, amid the golden fields,
I saw a groundhog lying dead.
Dead lay he; my senses shook,
And mind outshot our naked frailty.
There lowly in the vigorous summer
His form began its senseless change,
And made my senses waver dim
Seeing nature ferocious in him.
Inspecting close maggots' might
And seething cauldron of his being,
Half with loathing, half with a strange love,
I poked him with an angry stick.
The fever arose, became a flame
And Vigour circumscribed the skies,
Immense energy in the sun,
And through my frame a sunless trembling.
My stick had done nor good nor harm.
Then stood I silent in the day
Watching the object, as before;
And kept my reverence for knowledge
Trying for control, to be still,
To quell the passion of the blood;
Until I had bent down on my knees
Praying for joy in the sight of decay.
And so I left; and I returned
In Autumn strict of eye, to see
The sap gone out of the groundhog,
But the bony sodden hulk remained
But the year had lost its meaning,
And in intellectual chains
I lost both love and loathing,
Mured up in the wall of wisdom.
Another summer took the fields again
Massive and burning, full of life,
But when I chanced upon the spot
There was only a little hair left,
And bones bleaching in the sunlight
Beautiful as architecture;
I watched them like a geometer,
And cut a walking stick from a birch.
It has been three years, now.
There is no sign of the groundhog.
I stood there in the whirling summer,
My hand capped a withered heart,
And thought of China and of Greece,
Of Alexander in his tent;
Of Montaigne in his tower,
Of Saint Theresa in her wild lament.
1982 Poem: “The Groundhog” (Richard Eberhart)
Prompt:
Write an essay in which you analyze how the language of the poem
reflects the changing perceptions and emotions of the speaker as he
considers the metamorphosis of the dead groundhog. Develop your essay
with specific references to the text of the poem.
Poetry Essay #2
Transitional shifts in tone and perspective are very necessary to the power of poetry. In the poem "The Groundhog" by Richard Eberhart, the shift can be found through the speaker's mental and physical transition in the middle of the poem. The groundhog, once seen as rotten and disturbing, is now seen as in the vast circle of life. Peace is found through the years that the poem sifts through, and this can be seen through the language difference before and after the shift in the poem. The poem starts off very somber with grotesque and unsure language, jumps to self reflection right before the shiftt with a pause, and then shifts to a very free flowing second half which embraces nature for what it is.
The poem's language starts off very uneasy and fearful. The imagery in the first few stanzas paints a bleak picture with words such as "dead", "frailty", and "maggots". This shows the first reaction to seeing the dead groundhog. The narrator becomes unable to think clearly, emphasizing on his or her system shock. They tell every emotion concretely, and do not let their thoughts flow at this point. The uneasiness can be seen through the use of the words "naked", "senseless", and "trembling". These points of uncertainty and fear set the stage for changing emotions, and this emotional stage for the narrator sets the stage for the theme of the poem to shine through.
Right before the shift in the narrator's perspective, he enters a brief period of deep thought. This period starts at the line "My stick had done nor good nor harm." and ends with "Mured up in the wall of wisdom." Sadness turns to indifference in this time, with the second viewing of the groundhog. Here the diction changes to using very calm words and adjectives for the tone. The words "quell", "control", and "wisdom" all convey this new perspective. The middle of the road attitude is also seen through the use of antonyms when his feelings are described, such as, "I lost both love and loathing.". This leads up to the shift in which the speaker changes their perspective once more.
At the shift, the narrator's attitude drastically changes from indifferent to accepting and joyful. The dead groundhog is all but gone, and in its place is a beautifully described scene. In juxtaposition with the previously dead groundhog corpse, the setting is now "Massive and burning, full of life". The use of the word life contrasts with the the use of the word dead in the first stanza, and shows a concrete change in viewpoint. Instead of emotions being described, the narrator focuses on the scene before him, showing his acceptance of nature, and his inner peace.
The groundhog offered a medium that the narrator's change in mentality could be shared through. The tone, diction, and psychology of the situation changed throughout the poem in accordance with the narrator. The narrator's final peace can be seen through the allusions used in the last stanza. It relates each individual to where they found their peace at, and the narrator found theirs in nature.
Poetry Essay #1
Pre-write
Body Paragraphs:
Paragraph 1: Fundamental Differences in Speakers.
To Helen: Speaker views statue as beautiful, glorious, a sight to behold. Once which brings both joy and comfort. Yet is distant to the narrator himself. Uses allusion to Rome.
Helen: Speaker sees the statue as a destructive becon. One which signifies the downfall of roam. It's fault lies in its perfect beauty. Hatred comes from its larger than life persona
Paragraph 2: Imagery/tone
To Helen: Describes beauty, welcoming in contrast to the lonely seas. Tone is calm, longing.
Helen: Very harsh tone, using the word hate on multiple occasions. Describes a statue that is too perfect, almost mocking. White, juxtaposition between the two.
Paragraph 3: Diction and Form
To Helen: Alliteration, Anaphora, iteration. Uses Greek references making the statue feel in place. Beauty, longing, Admiring
Helen: Hate, Past Ills, and wish for future destruction. Clear diction, no olden or cosmopolitan language.
Body Paragraphs:
Paragraph 1: Fundamental Differences in Speakers.
To Helen: Speaker views statue as beautiful, glorious, a sight to behold. Once which brings both joy and comfort. Yet is distant to the narrator himself. Uses allusion to Rome.
Helen: Speaker sees the statue as a destructive becon. One which signifies the downfall of roam. It's fault lies in its perfect beauty. Hatred comes from its larger than life persona
Paragraph 2: Imagery/tone
To Helen: Describes beauty, welcoming in contrast to the lonely seas. Tone is calm, longing.
Helen: Very harsh tone, using the word hate on multiple occasions. Describes a statue that is too perfect, almost mocking. White, juxtaposition between the two.
Paragraph 3: Diction and Form
To Helen: Alliteration, Anaphora, iteration. Uses Greek references making the statue feel in place. Beauty, longing, Admiring
Helen: Hate, Past Ills, and wish for future destruction. Clear diction, no olden or cosmopolitan language.
Essay #1
Objects of great beauty often are met with contradicting views, such as Helen in the poems To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe, and Helen, by H.D. In Edgar Allan Poe's Helen, the speaker sees Helen as a beautiful, welcoming, caring figure. He gets lost in his words, and is found in the poem through Helen. She is described through long, flowing sentences, with very complimentary words. In H.D.'s Helen, the speaker views Helen with great contempt. She is seen as the beauty which brought down their society, and sees her as perfect to the point of flaw. She is painted as a purely white figure whom caused disaster for Greece, and these descriptions are accompanied with vindictive words. These drastically conflicting views of Helen can be seen through the speaker's tone, imagery, diction, and form in which they delivered their viewpoints.
The speakers in the two have two different stories about Helen. In Poe's version, the speaker tells of a beauty across a lost sea. Of someone who brings great comfort and homage to those whom allow it. Troy is seen as home to the speaker, and Helen a motherly figure. In contrast, in H.D's version the speaker viewed Helen with great enmity. As the single factor whom destroyed their beloved Greece with her beauty. This beauty has brought great distress to Greece, and the speaker shares this side of Helen. The two sides from which the story of Helen is told lays the foundation for the speaker's viewpoints of her.
In accordance to these views, each speaker uses unique imagery to describe Helen, and in conflicting tones. To Helen's describes a the contrast between the lonely ocean waves, and the relaxed beauty of Helen. The speaker uses a very calm tone to describe the comfort they feel when viewing Helen. In Helen, the speaker has a very harsh tone, using the word hate on multiple occasions. They describes a statue that is too perfect, almost mocking.The imagery of a perfect white statue is used in juxtaposition with the tone used.
The different views on Helen can also be seen through the narrator's word choice, and how they put their story together. One speaker gets lost in their words, often repeating and emphasizing their comfort in Helen through both an alliteration and an anaphora. Their story is one of longing, and solace through Helen. In the other poem, the narrator uses very harsh words in very short lines to describe their hate of Helen. They describe their current hate, why they hate her, and their desire to be rid of the beautiful figure.
Both speakers acknowledge the beauty of Helen, but one sees it in comfort, while the other through hate. Comfort is seen through a very calm, easy tone, which describes the lonely seas. Through long mellifluous sentences which ooze harmony with the statue. The other has a hatred of Helen, and is very clear of this through harsh words, and viewing the beauty as flawed.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Poetry Analysis
Title
of poem means |
|
Paraphrase
parts of the Poem |
|
Connotation
of some of the words – changing literal meaning to implied or associated values |
|
Attitude
What is the attitude of the author, characters or yourself? |
|
Shift
At first we think or feel one way – then there is a shift: identify the shifts and explain them |
|
Title revisited
Any new insights on meaning or significance of title? |
|
Theme
(Your soul is the key to your freedom)
|
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Seventh Reading
My favorite author is Edgar Allan Poe, but to brighten the mood of poetry and this class, I have chosen a poem by W.B. Yeats, a free-spirited Irish man.
A Crazed Girl, by William Butler Yeats
That crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.
No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.'
A Crazed Girl, by William Butler Yeats
That crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.
No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.'
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Essay Skeletons
For each of the books that there was a mini-presentation on, I am going to structure an essay for each based on an essay prompt given by the group. Here goes nothing.
Themes known from presentation:
1. The difference between dreams and reality
2. The power and beauty of mucis in the world
3. Interactions between family members.
Characters in Kafka:
Kafka and Nakata (One and the same?)
What I know about character relationships:
1.Kafka has a bad family life, with a longing to see his mother and sister whom also ran away
2. There is a similar sex life as in Oedipus Rex.
3. Kafka's plotline meets up with Nakata's plotline.
General Statement to summarize essay:
Through Kafka's broken family affairs, the author exhibits the sense of longing and confusion which encompass him as a character.
Paragraphs:
1. Based on how he comes from a broken family life. Shows how broken his life is at the beginning of the book. He plotline is completely seperated from Nakata's, and he begins his journey to find himself
2. Plotlines converge. Nakata's character and Kafka's seem to become one as they come together. Through the murder of Johnny Walker, you are able to see both Kafka's mental and physical struggles in the book.
3. Confusion. He confusion in his sexual relationship with his family.
Essay Prompt:
Is bullying a good enough reason to kill? Use examples from the novel "Carrie" to support your position.
Themes:
1. Need of acceptance in society
2. Revenge on those who deserve it.
3. The play of religion and its restrictions
Bullying in Carrie:
1. Other girls are mean to her
2. Her parents tell her everything she does is wrong and sinful
3. A group of girls pour pigs blood on her at a dance.
4. This causes Carrie to unleash pyschic powers, killing 440 people in the town in a rampage called the assassination.
Ideas:
1. Hard topic to relate to since it encompasses the death penalty argument. Stick to things in the novel.
2. Schadenfreude
3. They drove her to the breaking point. So she broke them.
4. They lead their own fate.
General Statement for essay:
The book Carrie exhibits a situation in which characters in the book seal their own fates through horrible deeds that go unpaid for expect through their untimely deaths.
Paragraphs:
1. Bullying. The effects it has on Carrie, and how is slowly drives her to the breaking point
2. The assassination. How Carrie went crazy on the member on the town, and the way she wasn't completely in control as it happened
3. How it was deserved. The members in the town made her life hell, and she sent them there.
Essay Prompt: Religion plays a big role in Life of Pi. Discuss the part of religion in the novel and how it affected Piscine's journey.
Themes in Life of Pi:
1. Self Discovery
2. Religious Acceptance
3. Territorial/Animalistic Behavior
Religion in Life of Pi:
1. Piscine grows up Hindi, and lives his life in that manner, until he meets a priest and accepts Christianity, then meets an Imam and adds Islam to his list.
2. It is a story of self discovery, and he takes the best parts of all three religions, and refutes none of them.
3. He takes religion in a very pure manner, just wanting to worship god.
General Statement for the Essay:
Religion plays a role in Piscine's story by showing how he discovers himself through the ideas and experiences he meets and accepts throughout his life.
Paragraphs:
1. How Pi sees all three religions. How he accepts each one as it comes.
2. How Pi shows the three religious leaders how poorly they are acting towards each other. How his purity opens their eyes.
3. How through his journey on the boat, he truly finds himself, and how his background in spirituality plays a vital part in this discovery.
1. Kafka on the Shore:
Essay Prompt: Explain how the author develops a character through the use of relationships and encounters with othersThemes known from presentation:
1. The difference between dreams and reality
2. The power and beauty of mucis in the world
3. Interactions between family members.
Characters in Kafka:
Kafka and Nakata (One and the same?)
What I know about character relationships:
1.Kafka has a bad family life, with a longing to see his mother and sister whom also ran away
2. There is a similar sex life as in Oedipus Rex.
3. Kafka's plotline meets up with Nakata's plotline.
General Statement to summarize essay:
Through Kafka's broken family affairs, the author exhibits the sense of longing and confusion which encompass him as a character.
Paragraphs:
1. Based on how he comes from a broken family life. Shows how broken his life is at the beginning of the book. He plotline is completely seperated from Nakata's, and he begins his journey to find himself
2. Plotlines converge. Nakata's character and Kafka's seem to become one as they come together. Through the murder of Johnny Walker, you are able to see both Kafka's mental and physical struggles in the book.
3. Confusion. He confusion in his sexual relationship with his family.
2. Carrie
Essay Prompt:
Is bullying a good enough reason to kill? Use examples from the novel "Carrie" to support your position.
Themes:
1. Need of acceptance in society
2. Revenge on those who deserve it.
3. The play of religion and its restrictions
Bullying in Carrie:
1. Other girls are mean to her
2. Her parents tell her everything she does is wrong and sinful
3. A group of girls pour pigs blood on her at a dance.
4. This causes Carrie to unleash pyschic powers, killing 440 people in the town in a rampage called the assassination.
Ideas:
1. Hard topic to relate to since it encompasses the death penalty argument. Stick to things in the novel.
2. Schadenfreude
3. They drove her to the breaking point. So she broke them.
4. They lead their own fate.
General Statement for essay:
The book Carrie exhibits a situation in which characters in the book seal their own fates through horrible deeds that go unpaid for expect through their untimely deaths.
Paragraphs:
1. Bullying. The effects it has on Carrie, and how is slowly drives her to the breaking point
2. The assassination. How Carrie went crazy on the member on the town, and the way she wasn't completely in control as it happened
3. How it was deserved. The members in the town made her life hell, and she sent them there.
3. Life of Pi
Themes in Life of Pi:
1. Self Discovery
2. Religious Acceptance
3. Territorial/Animalistic Behavior
Religion in Life of Pi:
1. Piscine grows up Hindi, and lives his life in that manner, until he meets a priest and accepts Christianity, then meets an Imam and adds Islam to his list.
2. It is a story of self discovery, and he takes the best parts of all three religions, and refutes none of them.
3. He takes religion in a very pure manner, just wanting to worship god.
General Statement for the Essay:
Religion plays a role in Piscine's story by showing how he discovers himself through the ideas and experiences he meets and accepts throughout his life.
Paragraphs:
1. How Pi sees all three religions. How he accepts each one as it comes.
2. How Pi shows the three religious leaders how poorly they are acting towards each other. How his purity opens their eyes.
3. How through his journey on the boat, he truly finds himself, and how his background in spirituality plays a vital part in this discovery.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Literature Analysis: The Signal and the Noise
Prelude: This is my second economics book, in a series of very different books which I am reading relating to my eventual major in the field. This being said, I am still analyzing the book based on literary elements, as well as how the author decided to puts thoughts into words. So here it goes.
Summary: The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver is a book based on predictions in today's world. How to make them, why you should be cautious, what can be seen, what can't, etc. The main message of the book, is that in an information intensive day and age, we have to sift through endless amounts of information to determine what is truly important (signal), and what can be forgotten (noise). Prediction plays a key role in economics, and failed predictions can lead to events such as the market crash in 2008, after the housing bubble exploded. And here is where the book begins.
"Big Data"
The book has logos strewn into its pages into the fullest extent, using series of numbers and graphs to help prove its point. These numbers are brought about in one of two ways. Either through an anecdote, or by raw data.
Anecdote: " It was October 23, 2008. The stock market was in free fall, having plummeted almost 30 percent over the previous five weeks. Once esteemed companies like Lehman Brothers had gone bankrupt. Credit markets had all but ceased to function. Houses in Las Vegas had lost 40 percent of their value."
Raw Numerical Data: "IBM estimates that we are generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, more than 90 percent of which was created in the last two years."
In order to keep the book both interesting and relevant, the author wrote about pop culture incidents to keep the reader's attention, as well as data that affects many of us on a daily basis.
Allusion: "At the time Michael Lewis was busy writing Moneyball, the soon-to-be national bestseller that chronicled the rise of the Oakland Athletics and their statistically savvy general manager Billy Beane."
The book also uses personification in one part to make the ideas more easily understood by general audiences
"The fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Hedgehogs are type A personalities who believe in Big Ideas-...Foxes, on the other hand, are scrappy creatures who believe in a plethora of little ideas and in taking a multitude of approaches toward a problem."
Pun: "How to know if your forecasts are all wet."
Now much of the book is about numbers. Recessions, earthquake forecasts, loan forecasts, how the stock market reacts to different phenomena. However, there were parts of the book which significantly peaked my younger minds interest in the subject. Starting with this quote:
"Voulgaris had watched a lot of Lakers games: he liked what Jackson was doing with the club. So he place $80,000- his entire life savings less a little he's left over for food and tuition- on the Lakers to win the NBA championship."
This being a success story in a sea of failed gambling yes, but the author included it to show what happens when predictions succeed. From that point on he used both keen knowledge of the sport, along with a computer program specifically designed by himself, to gamble on almost every professional sports game, earning 1-3 million dollars a year on the craft. Now from this side story, he introduces a very important equation to the prediction style that the author supports. Bayes's theorem. Like Hayek's book, the author mixes in relatively unimportant interesting topics, in his the heart of the subject to both keep the reader interested, and get the message across in one fell swoop. Which is what seems to be the pattern between the two economics books that I've read so far. More to come.
Summary: The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver is a book based on predictions in today's world. How to make them, why you should be cautious, what can be seen, what can't, etc. The main message of the book, is that in an information intensive day and age, we have to sift through endless amounts of information to determine what is truly important (signal), and what can be forgotten (noise). Prediction plays a key role in economics, and failed predictions can lead to events such as the market crash in 2008, after the housing bubble exploded. And here is where the book begins.
"Big Data"
The book has logos strewn into its pages into the fullest extent, using series of numbers and graphs to help prove its point. These numbers are brought about in one of two ways. Either through an anecdote, or by raw data.
Anecdote: " It was October 23, 2008. The stock market was in free fall, having plummeted almost 30 percent over the previous five weeks. Once esteemed companies like Lehman Brothers had gone bankrupt. Credit markets had all but ceased to function. Houses in Las Vegas had lost 40 percent of their value."
Raw Numerical Data: "IBM estimates that we are generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, more than 90 percent of which was created in the last two years."
In order to keep the book both interesting and relevant, the author wrote about pop culture incidents to keep the reader's attention, as well as data that affects many of us on a daily basis.
Allusion: "At the time Michael Lewis was busy writing Moneyball, the soon-to-be national bestseller that chronicled the rise of the Oakland Athletics and their statistically savvy general manager Billy Beane."
The book also uses personification in one part to make the ideas more easily understood by general audiences
"The fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Hedgehogs are type A personalities who believe in Big Ideas-...Foxes, on the other hand, are scrappy creatures who believe in a plethora of little ideas and in taking a multitude of approaches toward a problem."
Pun: "How to know if your forecasts are all wet."
Now much of the book is about numbers. Recessions, earthquake forecasts, loan forecasts, how the stock market reacts to different phenomena. However, there were parts of the book which significantly peaked my younger minds interest in the subject. Starting with this quote:
"Voulgaris had watched a lot of Lakers games: he liked what Jackson was doing with the club. So he place $80,000- his entire life savings less a little he's left over for food and tuition- on the Lakers to win the NBA championship."
This being a success story in a sea of failed gambling yes, but the author included it to show what happens when predictions succeed. From that point on he used both keen knowledge of the sport, along with a computer program specifically designed by himself, to gamble on almost every professional sports game, earning 1-3 million dollars a year on the craft. Now from this side story, he introduces a very important equation to the prediction style that the author supports. Bayes's theorem. Like Hayek's book, the author mixes in relatively unimportant interesting topics, in his the heart of the subject to both keep the reader interested, and get the message across in one fell swoop. Which is what seems to be the pattern between the two economics books that I've read so far. More to come.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Slaughterhouse-Five 20 Literary Elements
20 Literary Elements in the book, Slaughterhouse-Five:
1. Motif: The repeated phrase which signifies the theme of the story is "So it goes." "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes."
2. Metonymy: The third bullet was for the filthy flamingo, who stopped dead center in the road when the lethal bee buzzed past his ear.
3. Allusion: "Weary looked like Tweedledum or Tweedledee, all bundled up for battle. He was short and thick."
4. Illustrations: Vonnuget actually provided three or four small illustrations to add to the writing. (Page 79)
5. Dark Humor: "Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel. This was in accordance with the Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton...This can be useful in rocketry."
6. Aphorism: "There is no why."
7. Juxtaposition of attitudes: When Billy was stuck on a boxcar to be sent off to a German camp, he had a hobo is his car who stated, "I been hungrier than this. I been in worse places than this. This ain't so bad."
8. Symbolism: "But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them"
9. Irony: "The dog, who had sounded so ferocious in the winter distances, was a female German shepherd. She was shivering. Her tail was between her legs.She had been borrowed that morning form a farmer. She had never been to war before. She had no idea what game was being played. Her name was Princess."
10. Perspective: "The soldiers' eyes were filled with a bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh."
11. Repetition: "The congregation had been theoretically spotted from the air by a theoretical enemy. They were all theoretically dead now. The theoretical corpses laughed and ate a hearty noontime meal."
12. Direct Characterization: "He had been unpopular because he was stupid and fat and mean, and smelled like bacon no matter how much he washed."
13. Indirect Characterization: "They supposed that he was a splendid specimen. This had a pleasant effect on Billy, who began to enjoy his body for the first time."
14. Figurative Language: "The hobo could not flow, could not plop. He wasn't liquid anymore. He was stone."
15. Antagonist: Paul Lazzaro. Vows revenge on Billy Pilgram.
16. Dialect: ""Yank," told them "Good show," promised them that "Jerry was on the run," and so on."
17. Allusion #2: "He was given a book to read. The book was The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane. Derby had read it before."
18. Onomatopoeia: "Poo-tee-weet?"
19. Hyperbole: "An unseen hand turned a master valve. Out of the showerheads gushed scalding rain. The rain was a blowtorch that did not warm. It jazzed and jangled Billy's skin without thawing the ice in the marrow of his long bones."
20. Protagonist: Billy Pilgram. Travels through time and space realizing this will go how they will.
1. Motif: The repeated phrase which signifies the theme of the story is "So it goes." "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes."
2. Metonymy: The third bullet was for the filthy flamingo, who stopped dead center in the road when the lethal bee buzzed past his ear.
3. Allusion: "Weary looked like Tweedledum or Tweedledee, all bundled up for battle. He was short and thick."
4. Illustrations: Vonnuget actually provided three or four small illustrations to add to the writing. (Page 79)
5. Dark Humor: "Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel. This was in accordance with the Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton...This can be useful in rocketry."
6. Aphorism: "There is no why."
7. Juxtaposition of attitudes: When Billy was stuck on a boxcar to be sent off to a German camp, he had a hobo is his car who stated, "I been hungrier than this. I been in worse places than this. This ain't so bad."
8. Symbolism: "But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them"
9. Irony: "The dog, who had sounded so ferocious in the winter distances, was a female German shepherd. She was shivering. Her tail was between her legs.She had been borrowed that morning form a farmer. She had never been to war before. She had no idea what game was being played. Her name was Princess."
10. Perspective: "The soldiers' eyes were filled with a bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh."
11. Repetition: "The congregation had been theoretically spotted from the air by a theoretical enemy. They were all theoretically dead now. The theoretical corpses laughed and ate a hearty noontime meal."
12. Direct Characterization: "He had been unpopular because he was stupid and fat and mean, and smelled like bacon no matter how much he washed."
13. Indirect Characterization: "They supposed that he was a splendid specimen. This had a pleasant effect on Billy, who began to enjoy his body for the first time."
14. Figurative Language: "The hobo could not flow, could not plop. He wasn't liquid anymore. He was stone."
15. Antagonist: Paul Lazzaro. Vows revenge on Billy Pilgram.
16. Dialect: ""Yank," told them "Good show," promised them that "Jerry was on the run," and so on."
17. Allusion #2: "He was given a book to read. The book was The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane. Derby had read it before."
18. Onomatopoeia: "Poo-tee-weet?"
19. Hyperbole: "An unseen hand turned a master valve. Out of the showerheads gushed scalding rain. The rain was a blowtorch that did not warm. It jazzed and jangled Billy's skin without thawing the ice in the marrow of his long bones."
20. Protagonist: Billy Pilgram. Travels through time and space realizing this will go how they will.
SO IT GOES
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Brave New World Pre-write/first draft
Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using
characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender,
race, class, or creed. Choose a play or novel (BRAVE NEW WORLD)
in which such a character plays a significant role, and show how that
character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions and
moral values.
Pre-write:
Character alienated: Bernard Max
Why alienated:
-He thinks for himself more than the other characters
1. Society's tendency to follow orders, and do what is told of them for "the greater good." Following tradition blindly
-Alienation due to Bernard's reluctance to such ideas
- Soma, orgy-porgy, elderly being sent off
- Motifs
2. Happiness. Things that make Bernard happy don't seem to affect others around him. Others seek artificial happiness.
-Use of soma
-Conditioning
-Setting and description
3. Repression. Bernard accepts reality outside as it is. He allows himself to be sad, even angry. Others don't care to feel such emotions, and simply but these emotions off.
-Reservation
- Lack of use of pathos by any character besides John.
First Draft:
Society is an idea born out of the ideas of the people that encompass it. Those who feel attuned to this ideology share commonalities of value with those around them. Those who have contradicting ideals are able to highlight what the society values through the juxtaposition of there own ideas. In the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, these contradictions of society can be seen through the character Bernard Marx. Huxley uses Bernard to show a society that has lost its humanity as well as its individuality. As a character, Bernard is seen to struggle through his own sense of being in a society which acts as a single being. Bernard's alienation in the society, seen through the literary techniques of motifs, setting, and a general lack of pathos by others in society, exhibit themes of lack of individual thought, artificial happiness, and repression of feelings within this world.
The society thinks as one omnipresent being. Individuals are all taught to enjoy the make things, and to not make any decisions of there own intellectual thought. The use of soma, hypnopaedia, orgy-porgies, and the caste system are all examples of this. These individual things are used as motifs for the author, which with its own individual significance. Bernard is seen as reluctant to these things throughout the book, and the several of these are introduced through Bernard. The society seems to think that it is all working for the greater good, and Bernard is challenging these ideas though reflection.
Everyone in the society is conditioned to one thing. To be happy. Happiness is the only care for the individuals in the society. Soma helps keep this up artificially, as does everyone being conditioned to love their individual caste. Bernard is able to see beauty and happiness is ways that others can not. Others are conditioned to hate nature, while Bernard wonders why he still has love for it. The author puts Bernard's happiness in the book through subtle undertones of reaction to the setting around. Bernard's enjoyment of natural beauty shows his potential for true happiness, and the lack of such feeling in the general public.
The society as a whole is quite devoid of genuine human emotion in general. They repress their sadness, their anger, their anxieties. Another outcast revealed at the end of the book shows this repression. When John is exiled, and flogs himself, the others don't feel pity or horror. Instead they culminate their efforts through an orgy-porgy to get rid of such poor emotions. Bernard also does not take soma on the savage reservation, and instead allows himself to be exposed to such things as old age. A majority of the characters defend their society through the use of faulty logos, and the use of emotion is minimilized to get rid of any discomfort.
Brave New World shows a society that is almost inhumane. Not fully enjoying the human experience through the denial of anything negative shows such feelings. The author is able to put forth this message through characters that don't quite fit this mold of inhumanity, such as Bernard and John. The author's use of motifs, setting, and logos, all contribute to his general themes throughout the book.
characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender,
race, class, or creed. Choose a play or novel (BRAVE NEW WORLD)
in which such a character plays a significant role, and show how that
character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions and
moral values.
Pre-write:
Character alienated: Bernard Max
Why alienated:
-He thinks for himself more than the other characters
- He questions certain traditions that the society has, seen in such things such as reluctance in Ford Day, and not taking soma while at the Savage reservation
- While Lenina is distraught at the sight of the elderly, Bernard takes it in calmly
- Bernard values little things in life, such as nature, which the others among his society have been conditioned to disregard. Seen through him staring into the ocean and viewing the clouds as beautiful.
- He feels emotions different than any of the other characters, and accepts these emotions as his own. When sad, he doesn't take large gulps of soma to repress these feelings of sadness, he deals with them more on a personal level.
1. Society's tendency to follow orders, and do what is told of them for "the greater good." Following tradition blindly
-Alienation due to Bernard's reluctance to such ideas
- Soma, orgy-porgy, elderly being sent off
- Motifs
2. Happiness. Things that make Bernard happy don't seem to affect others around him. Others seek artificial happiness.
-Use of soma
-Conditioning
-Setting and description
3. Repression. Bernard accepts reality outside as it is. He allows himself to be sad, even angry. Others don't care to feel such emotions, and simply but these emotions off.
-Reservation
- Lack of use of pathos by any character besides John.
First Draft:
Society is an idea born out of the ideas of the people that encompass it. Those who feel attuned to this ideology share commonalities of value with those around them. Those who have contradicting ideals are able to highlight what the society values through the juxtaposition of there own ideas. In the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, these contradictions of society can be seen through the character Bernard Marx. Huxley uses Bernard to show a society that has lost its humanity as well as its individuality. As a character, Bernard is seen to struggle through his own sense of being in a society which acts as a single being. Bernard's alienation in the society, seen through the literary techniques of motifs, setting, and a general lack of pathos by others in society, exhibit themes of lack of individual thought, artificial happiness, and repression of feelings within this world.
The society thinks as one omnipresent being. Individuals are all taught to enjoy the make things, and to not make any decisions of there own intellectual thought. The use of soma, hypnopaedia, orgy-porgies, and the caste system are all examples of this. These individual things are used as motifs for the author, which with its own individual significance. Bernard is seen as reluctant to these things throughout the book, and the several of these are introduced through Bernard. The society seems to think that it is all working for the greater good, and Bernard is challenging these ideas though reflection.
Everyone in the society is conditioned to one thing. To be happy. Happiness is the only care for the individuals in the society. Soma helps keep this up artificially, as does everyone being conditioned to love their individual caste. Bernard is able to see beauty and happiness is ways that others can not. Others are conditioned to hate nature, while Bernard wonders why he still has love for it. The author puts Bernard's happiness in the book through subtle undertones of reaction to the setting around. Bernard's enjoyment of natural beauty shows his potential for true happiness, and the lack of such feeling in the general public.
The society as a whole is quite devoid of genuine human emotion in general. They repress their sadness, their anger, their anxieties. Another outcast revealed at the end of the book shows this repression. When John is exiled, and flogs himself, the others don't feel pity or horror. Instead they culminate their efforts through an orgy-porgy to get rid of such poor emotions. Bernard also does not take soma on the savage reservation, and instead allows himself to be exposed to such things as old age. A majority of the characters defend their society through the use of faulty logos, and the use of emotion is minimilized to get rid of any discomfort.
Brave New World shows a society that is almost inhumane. Not fully enjoying the human experience through the denial of anything negative shows such feelings. The author is able to put forth this message through characters that don't quite fit this mold of inhumanity, such as Bernard and John. The author's use of motifs, setting, and logos, all contribute to his general themes throughout the book.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
March Literature Analysis
The current book that I am reading is called the signal and the noise. It is yet another book related to economics, and its general theme is that through all of the information we get now, we have to figure out what is important (signal) and what is not (noise). It is based off of today's technology, and what is available to us, as well as predictions as we know them.
Monday, February 18, 2013
I AM HERE
Explain my process this semester.
My most progressive part of this semester has been the process to my smart goal of reading and analyzing economics books. Being in the last semester of high school, it is nice to transfer work to be very relevant to what is coming up for me in education. I have enjoyed analyzing the literature parts of the books, which try to focus on facts, but have to keep the book interesting for those reading it. My first analysis is out, and I am hard at work on the second one, and on track to finish that goal. Other than that I have kept fairly up to date on the rest of my work for the course, but need to start my collaborative working group up once more.
My most progressive part of this semester has been the process to my smart goal of reading and analyzing economics books. Being in the last semester of high school, it is nice to transfer work to be very relevant to what is coming up for me in education. I have enjoyed analyzing the literature parts of the books, which try to focus on facts, but have to keep the book interesting for those reading it. My first analysis is out, and I am hard at work on the second one, and on track to finish that goal. Other than that I have kept fairly up to date on the rest of my work for the course, but need to start my collaborative working group up once more.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
More Lit Terms
Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth.
Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.
Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.
Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.
Dogmatic: rigid in beliefs and principles.
Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.
Epic: a long narrative poem unified by a hero who reflects the customs, mores, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).
Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.
Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.
Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.
Dogmatic: rigid in beliefs and principles.
Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.
Epic: a long narrative poem unified by a hero who reflects the customs, mores, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).
Epigram: witty aphorism.
Epitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a
tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the
person who wishes it to be on his tombstone.
Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that may insult someone’s character,
characteristics
Euphemism: the use of an indirect, mild or vague word or
expression for one thought to be coarse, offensive, or blunt.
Evocative (evocation): a calling forth of memories and
sensations; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a
sense of reality.
Exposition: beginning of a story that sets forth facts,
ideas, and/or characters, in a detailed
Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music
consisting of unrealistic
representation of an inner idea or feeling(s).
Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as
characters, designed to teach a moral truth.
Literary analysis: Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
Introduction to the analysis: This is an analysis on an economics book, but don't stop reading quite yet. This will be an in depth colloquial analysis for your enjoyment and insight. Though not an AP reading list book, there is still value in the analysis of literary devices used by the author in this particular piece. Enjoy. Page numbers taken from the Nook reading device.
The intended audience of F.A. Hayek was not who actually ended up reading his piece. He wrote the book for a few intellectual economists as a persuasive piece, using very extravagant language expecting the common man to simply pass it up. The common man in fact did pick it up, and it become common reading for the time period for economists, and even caused Hayek to write preludes to his American audience, as he had written specifically to the English, using the phrase "home country" referring to Englad.
"From monarchy, simple and structured, to democratic, relying on the people. Neither evil in the right hands. The nature of our civilization has been seen more clearly by its enemies than by most of its friends". (Page 78)
The book is started revealing an important viewpoint of the author, that there are no wrong forms of government. That success of a system can not simply be declared by its own people, but seen from the outside world.
"Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom. Socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." (Page 84)
This is actually a quote from another author, that Hayek decided to include. Being an opponent of socialism, Hayek is able to relate to the public good all the same by including this quote. Many times throughout the book he references outside economists in order to further back up his own points with evidence.
"...conclusions of his studies there and in Germany and Italy in the statement "Socialism is certain to prove, in the beginning at least, the road NOT to freedom, but to dictatorship and counterdictatorships, to civil war of the fiercest kind. ""
Having recently fought against Germany and Italy, Hayek analyzes what caused the government to be able to become so corrupt. This particular quote is an allusion to the dictatorships which could be seen in both countries only years before this piece was published.
"In no system that could be rationally defended would the state just do nothing." (page 97)
In a logical progression, after going against too much government intervention, as in the case of socialism, he balances his views stating that government is indeed needed for balance. He structures his book in such a way that he presents his views, backs them up, then reacts to the possible counter arguments.
"The welfare and the happiness of a man, depends on a great many things that can be provided in an infinite variety of combinations." (page 110) " "The attempt to direct all economic activity according to a single plan would raise innumerable questions to which existing morals have no answer and where there exists no agreed view on what ought to be done."
One of Hayek's main arguments was the inefficiency of a government system which was one size fits all. That you can't take into account everybody's wishes to be happy. He applies ethos is this part of the book, noting that ethical conduct is indeed subjective to any given individual, and the more you bundle everyone's views together, the less of them you are actually retaining.
"It may well be true that our generation talks and thinks too much about democracy and too little of the values which it serves." (Page 120)
Hayek responds to Romanticism in a very pragmatic way. Democracy is often a term that is used to signify all the good in the world, or at least in America. To spread democracy is good. However, democracy in itself is not pure. It can be just as corrupt as any other form of government. Instead he analyzes the pros and cons of what it brings to the individuals that are under its rule. Pure democracy in fact would always rule against the minority on the issue, even if they may be more informed about the given situation. Pure numbers aren't always correct.
"The ultimate ends of the activities of reasonable being are never economic." (Page 134)
As a pure economist money is never the pure overall goal. This ends up being a very morale point brought up. That money is simply a tool used to promote work and competition in a world of scarce resources, not an end goal for any given individual. That money in itself has no value, but what money itself represents.
"We could, of course, reduce casualties by automobile accidents to zero if we were willing to bear the cost - if in no other way - by abolishing automobiles."
This statement responds to pathos often used by the argument for more safety regulations. Even in safer conditions are able to be produced, the rights and conveniences taken away for such safety may not be pragmatic in the long run. In giving more power to the government, you are therefore willing to give up more rights for what is best served in accordance to those ruling.
"There has never been a worse and more cruel exploitation of one class by another than that of the weaker or less fortunate members of a group of producers by the well-established which has been made possible by the "regulation" of competition." (Page 163)
This quotation is particularly interesting due to its outright protection of the upper class. That being able to control competition, and therefore the winnings for those who come out on top, leads to cruel exploitation of the system which is intended to promote winners of competition. In fact, when referencing the upper class, he uses the intense phrase "cruel exploitation".
"We must not deceive ourselves into believing that all good people must be democrats or will necessarily wish to have a share in the government." (Page 167)
Why doesn't a representative democracy always work? According the the author, the best people for the job will not necessarily want the job, and at that point you are simply voting for those who are viewed best in public opinion, and also have the drive and will to put forth the effort to obtain the spot to begin with.
"He will be able to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently." (Page 170)
Another threat of democracy is that it is a pure numbers game. No matter how much you know about the process, your vote is equal to a person who knows nothing about that given situation. There are those in this system who will follow blindly no matter the actual issues, and that individual will be gaining free votes, not based on actual policy.
"The most effective way of making everybody serve the single system of ends toward which the social plan is directed is to make everybody believe in those ends." (Page 181)This is a continuance on a previous chapter which discussed the morality of having a single system to rule over many different viewpoints. The book simply extends on this point, saying that a single system can have control, if it finds issues everybody believes in, or everybody can be convinced to believe in.
"It is most decidedly unwilling to sacrifice any of its demands to what are called economic arguments; it is impatient and intolerant of all restraints of their immediate ambitions and unwilling to bow to economic necessities." (Page 219)
This statement has a striking application to modern day economics in America. When spending isn't cut, and isn't going to be cut, necessities will be put aside, and the government will not run as well due to this. This point can be argued on either side, and constantly is, in today's world.
"Freedom to order our own conduct in the sphere where material circumstances force a choice upon us, and responsibility for the arrangement of our own life according to our own conscience, is the air in which alone moral sense grows and in which moral values are daily recreated in the free decision of the individual." (Page 226)
Instead of having a government decide what is right and wrong overall, Hayek argues that individuals, while motivated by material circumstances, will live according to their own morals and create moral values on their own.
"It is neither necessary nor desirable that national boundaries should mark sharp differences in standards of living, that membership of a national group should entitle one to a share in a cake altogether different from that in which members of other groups share." (Page 232)
Near the end of the book he begins to talk about international economics. He views the system of countries as unneeded, and that all countries have the potential to be equal economically.
"But whatever we do, it can only be the beginning of a new, long, and arduous process in which we all hope we shall gradually create a world very different from that which we knew during the last quarter of a century."
(Page 246)
The conclusion ends with what is to come, whether good or bad, things will indeed change...
The intended audience of F.A. Hayek was not who actually ended up reading his piece. He wrote the book for a few intellectual economists as a persuasive piece, using very extravagant language expecting the common man to simply pass it up. The common man in fact did pick it up, and it become common reading for the time period for economists, and even caused Hayek to write preludes to his American audience, as he had written specifically to the English, using the phrase "home country" referring to Englad.
"From monarchy, simple and structured, to democratic, relying on the people. Neither evil in the right hands. The nature of our civilization has been seen more clearly by its enemies than by most of its friends". (Page 78)
The book is started revealing an important viewpoint of the author, that there are no wrong forms of government. That success of a system can not simply be declared by its own people, but seen from the outside world.
"Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom. Socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." (Page 84)
This is actually a quote from another author, that Hayek decided to include. Being an opponent of socialism, Hayek is able to relate to the public good all the same by including this quote. Many times throughout the book he references outside economists in order to further back up his own points with evidence.
"...conclusions of his studies there and in Germany and Italy in the statement "Socialism is certain to prove, in the beginning at least, the road NOT to freedom, but to dictatorship and counterdictatorships, to civil war of the fiercest kind. ""
Having recently fought against Germany and Italy, Hayek analyzes what caused the government to be able to become so corrupt. This particular quote is an allusion to the dictatorships which could be seen in both countries only years before this piece was published.
"In no system that could be rationally defended would the state just do nothing." (page 97)
In a logical progression, after going against too much government intervention, as in the case of socialism, he balances his views stating that government is indeed needed for balance. He structures his book in such a way that he presents his views, backs them up, then reacts to the possible counter arguments.
"The welfare and the happiness of a man, depends on a great many things that can be provided in an infinite variety of combinations." (page 110) " "The attempt to direct all economic activity according to a single plan would raise innumerable questions to which existing morals have no answer and where there exists no agreed view on what ought to be done."
One of Hayek's main arguments was the inefficiency of a government system which was one size fits all. That you can't take into account everybody's wishes to be happy. He applies ethos is this part of the book, noting that ethical conduct is indeed subjective to any given individual, and the more you bundle everyone's views together, the less of them you are actually retaining.
"It may well be true that our generation talks and thinks too much about democracy and too little of the values which it serves." (Page 120)
Hayek responds to Romanticism in a very pragmatic way. Democracy is often a term that is used to signify all the good in the world, or at least in America. To spread democracy is good. However, democracy in itself is not pure. It can be just as corrupt as any other form of government. Instead he analyzes the pros and cons of what it brings to the individuals that are under its rule. Pure democracy in fact would always rule against the minority on the issue, even if they may be more informed about the given situation. Pure numbers aren't always correct.
"The ultimate ends of the activities of reasonable being are never economic." (Page 134)
As a pure economist money is never the pure overall goal. This ends up being a very morale point brought up. That money is simply a tool used to promote work and competition in a world of scarce resources, not an end goal for any given individual. That money in itself has no value, but what money itself represents.
"We could, of course, reduce casualties by automobile accidents to zero if we were willing to bear the cost - if in no other way - by abolishing automobiles."
This statement responds to pathos often used by the argument for more safety regulations. Even in safer conditions are able to be produced, the rights and conveniences taken away for such safety may not be pragmatic in the long run. In giving more power to the government, you are therefore willing to give up more rights for what is best served in accordance to those ruling.
"There has never been a worse and more cruel exploitation of one class by another than that of the weaker or less fortunate members of a group of producers by the well-established which has been made possible by the "regulation" of competition." (Page 163)
This quotation is particularly interesting due to its outright protection of the upper class. That being able to control competition, and therefore the winnings for those who come out on top, leads to cruel exploitation of the system which is intended to promote winners of competition. In fact, when referencing the upper class, he uses the intense phrase "cruel exploitation".
"We must not deceive ourselves into believing that all good people must be democrats or will necessarily wish to have a share in the government." (Page 167)
Why doesn't a representative democracy always work? According the the author, the best people for the job will not necessarily want the job, and at that point you are simply voting for those who are viewed best in public opinion, and also have the drive and will to put forth the effort to obtain the spot to begin with.
"He will be able to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently." (Page 170)
Another threat of democracy is that it is a pure numbers game. No matter how much you know about the process, your vote is equal to a person who knows nothing about that given situation. There are those in this system who will follow blindly no matter the actual issues, and that individual will be gaining free votes, not based on actual policy.
"The most effective way of making everybody serve the single system of ends toward which the social plan is directed is to make everybody believe in those ends." (Page 181)This is a continuance on a previous chapter which discussed the morality of having a single system to rule over many different viewpoints. The book simply extends on this point, saying that a single system can have control, if it finds issues everybody believes in, or everybody can be convinced to believe in.
"It is most decidedly unwilling to sacrifice any of its demands to what are called economic arguments; it is impatient and intolerant of all restraints of their immediate ambitions and unwilling to bow to economic necessities." (Page 219)
This statement has a striking application to modern day economics in America. When spending isn't cut, and isn't going to be cut, necessities will be put aside, and the government will not run as well due to this. This point can be argued on either side, and constantly is, in today's world.
"Freedom to order our own conduct in the sphere where material circumstances force a choice upon us, and responsibility for the arrangement of our own life according to our own conscience, is the air in which alone moral sense grows and in which moral values are daily recreated in the free decision of the individual." (Page 226)
Instead of having a government decide what is right and wrong overall, Hayek argues that individuals, while motivated by material circumstances, will live according to their own morals and create moral values on their own.
"It is neither necessary nor desirable that national boundaries should mark sharp differences in standards of living, that membership of a national group should entitle one to a share in a cake altogether different from that in which members of other groups share." (Page 232)
Near the end of the book he begins to talk about international economics. He views the system of countries as unneeded, and that all countries have the potential to be equal economically.
"But whatever we do, it can only be the beginning of a new, long, and arduous process in which we all hope we shall gradually create a world very different from that which we knew during the last quarter of a century."
(Page 246)
The conclusion ends with what is to come, whether good or bad, things will indeed change...
Monday, January 28, 2013
Dickens Map
1. Review schedule for the rest of the book. At chapter 20 so far. (In chapters)
January 29: 21-28
January 30: 29-35
January 31: 36-41
February 1: 42-47
February 2: 48-52
February 3: 53-56
February 4: 57-59
2. Questions:
1. What role do laws play in Great Expectations?
2. Was the Industrial Revolution a good thing?
3. What portrait of London does Charles Dickens paint?
4. It is widely said that it is far better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Discuss
5. Why do servants run Mr. Matthew Pocket’s household?
January 29: 21-28
January 30: 29-35
January 31: 36-41
February 1: 42-47
February 2: 48-52
February 3: 53-56
February 4: 57-59
2. Questions:
1. What role do laws play in Great Expectations?
2. Was the Industrial Revolution a good thing?
3. What portrait of London does Charles Dickens paint?
4. It is widely said that it is far better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Discuss
5. Why do servants run Mr. Matthew Pocket’s household?
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Lit Terms Continued
Analysis: A method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny.
We will have to do an analysis on analysis for people to analyze our analysis skills.
Anaphora: A device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases or segments.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
Anecdote: A very short story used to illustrate a point.
Once there was a frog and a scorpion. The scorpion stung the frog, and the frog died.
Point: Scorpions are dangerous
Antagonist: A person or force opposing the protagonist
Not always evil. If the main character is evil, the antagonist can be good. Or the antagonist and protagonist can be the same person. I'm looking at you Fight Club.
Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness
Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life
"Time and tide wait for no man."
Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology
Supreme Court defends the Constitution.
Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly
Hamlet talking to his dead, reanimated as a ghost, father.
Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or the falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself
Now how could a coconut travel to Europe? By African swallow you say?
Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true
Any movie where there are actors deeply sighing in bed next to each other while waking up.
Audience: the intended listener or listeners
Why you! You reading this. You are my audience! Feels good doesn't it?
Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality
John's hair is brown. He enjoys smiling. Now you know a little more about John.
Chiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order
They don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care
Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served
"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin.
Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less.
Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.
Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.
Five is right out.
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance
The Parthenon. It's in Greece and the architecture fits the time.
Cliché: a phrase or situation overused within society
I'm not even going to write an example. YOLO
Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved
The big Harry Potter vs. Voldemort fight.
Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation
Yo dawg waz up?
Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter
Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension
Finding the Holy Grail in the previous term's example.
Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition
That last piece of cake sure looks good...(I want that cake.)
Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity
I just got a C on my paper. It's not like I created a Death Star or anything.
Denotation: plain dictionary definition
^
Denouement (pronounced day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion
In the end, Harry and Ginny got together, as did Ron and Hermione.
Dialect: the language of a particular district, class or group of persons; the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.
I'm Canadian, eh.
We will have to do an analysis on analysis for people to analyze our analysis skills.
Anaphora: A device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases or segments.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
Anecdote: A very short story used to illustrate a point.
Once there was a frog and a scorpion. The scorpion stung the frog, and the frog died.
Point: Scorpions are dangerous
Antagonist: A person or force opposing the protagonist
Not always evil. If the main character is evil, the antagonist can be good. Or the antagonist and protagonist can be the same person. I'm looking at you Fight Club.
Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness
Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life
"Time and tide wait for no man."
Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology
Supreme Court defends the Constitution.
Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly
Hamlet talking to his dead, reanimated as a ghost, father.
Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or the falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself
Now how could a coconut travel to Europe? By African swallow you say?
Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true
Any movie where there are actors deeply sighing in bed next to each other while waking up.
Audience: the intended listener or listeners
Why you! You reading this. You are my audience! Feels good doesn't it?
Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality
John's hair is brown. He enjoys smiling. Now you know a little more about John.
Chiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order
They don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care
Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served
"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin.
Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less.
Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.
Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.
Five is right out.
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance
The Parthenon. It's in Greece and the architecture fits the time.
Cliché: a phrase or situation overused within society
I'm not even going to write an example. YOLO
Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved
The big Harry Potter vs. Voldemort fight.
Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation
Yo dawg waz up?
Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter
Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension
Finding the Holy Grail in the previous term's example.
Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition
That last piece of cake sure looks good...(I want that cake.)
Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity
I just got a C on my paper. It's not like I created a Death Star or anything.
Denotation: plain dictionary definition
^
Denouement (pronounced day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion
In the end, Harry and Ginny got together, as did Ron and Hermione.
Dialect: the language of a particular district, class or group of persons; the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.
I'm Canadian, eh.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Literature Terms
Allegory- A tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or setting represents abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point.
A story to be taken on multiple levels of meaning. Tortoise and the Hare, where the Tortoise represents a hard slow valiant worker, while the Hare represents one that rushes through everything. Not particularly a story just about racing talking animals.
Alliteration- The repetition of similar initial sounds in a group of words.
All alliterations are all announcing alike (words).
Allusion- a reference contained in a work that the writer expects the reader to understand
Bad Luck Brian. Chemistry Cat. Insanity Wolf. And if you don't know these, well you don't get my allusion then.
Ambiguity- something uncertain as to interpretation
The movie Inception. Is it still spinning? Well is it?
Anachronism- something that shows up in the wrong place or time
A watch in ancient times doesn't exist. I'm looking at you Spartacus.
More to come soon
A story to be taken on multiple levels of meaning. Tortoise and the Hare, where the Tortoise represents a hard slow valiant worker, while the Hare represents one that rushes through everything. Not particularly a story just about racing talking animals.
Alliteration- The repetition of similar initial sounds in a group of words.
All alliterations are all announcing alike (words).
Allusion- a reference contained in a work that the writer expects the reader to understand
Bad Luck Brian. Chemistry Cat. Insanity Wolf. And if you don't know these, well you don't get my allusion then.
Ambiguity- something uncertain as to interpretation
The movie Inception. Is it still spinning? Well is it?
Anachronism- something that shows up in the wrong place or time
A watch in ancient times doesn't exist. I'm looking at you Spartacus.
More to come soon
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Poetry Analysis
Butterfly Laughter
by Katherine Mansfield
In the middle of our porridge plates
There was a blue butterfly painted
And each morning we tried who should reach the
butterfly first.
Then the Grandmother said: "Do not eat the poor
butterfly."
That made us laugh.
Always she said it and always it started us laughing.
It seemed such a sweet little joke.
I was certain that one fine morning
The butterfly would fly out of our plates,
Laughing the teeniest laugh in the world,
And perch on the Grandmother's lap.
This poem has a playful mood, and a thoughtful one. Very childlike in manner with such words as sweet, butterfly, and teeniest. The purpose of this poem is the limitless childhood imagination and joy. Gentle in nature and meaning alike.
Imitation
by Edgar Allan Poe
A dark unfathomed tide
Of interminable pride -
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem;
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen,
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision of my spirit;
Those thoughts I would control,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sigh as it passed on:
I care not though it perish
With a thought I then did cherish.
A much darker tone than the first. Such words as wild, spirit, spell, soul, means that it's based on humanity and individual tones. It talks about the loss of this childhood hope, of things that the author once that cherished in their life.
A Fish Answers
by Leigh Hunt
Amazing monster! that, for aught I know,
With the first sight of thee didst make our race
For ever stare! O flat and shocking face,
Grimly divided from the breast below!
Thou that on dry land horribly dost go
With a split body and most ridiculous pace,
Prong after prong, disgracer of all grace,
Long-useless-finned, haired, upright, unwet, slow!
O breather of unbreathable, sword-sharp air,
How canst exist? How bear thyself, thou dry
And dreary sloth? WHat particle canst share
Of the only blessed life, the watery?
I sometimes see of ye an actual pair
Go by! linked fin by fin! most odiously.
This poem uses much more emphasis on how the words are put together. The question marks, as well as exclamation points show this. It is almost a hyperbole as a definition of a fish, in a very outlandish and fantastical way. The poem's purpose deals all around the perspective of everyday life.
Le Reveillon
by Oscar Wilde
THE sky is laced with fitful red,
The circling mists and shadows flee,
The dawn is rising from the sea,
Like a white lady from her bed.
And jagged brazen arrows fall
Athwart the feathers of the night,
And a long wave of yellow light
Breaks silently on tower and hall,
And spreading wide across the wold
Wakes into flight some fluttering bird, 10
And all the chestnut tops are stirred,
And all the branches streaked with gold.
This is a poem written as an extended metaphor. It speaks of the sun and its rays, and the beauty that it emits by such simply being. The poem's purpose is to point out the natural beauty and miracle of life the sun brings to us each day. Written in a very dreamlike tone, very calm and relaxed, as if waking up.
Infant Joy
by William Blake
"I have no name;
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!
Pretty joy!
Sweet joy, but two days old.
Sweet Joy I call thee:
Thou dost smile,
I sing the while;
Sweet joy befall thee!
This is the simplest selection that i have chosen for the assignment. Very short sentences, very innocent word choice. The inversion in the second line tries to connect to the mishaps in grammar we commit as young children. A very warm, and happy tone to exhibit the joys of being a child.
Source: http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=author_list
by Katherine Mansfield
In the middle of our porridge plates
There was a blue butterfly painted
And each morning we tried who should reach the
butterfly first.
Then the Grandmother said: "Do not eat the poor
butterfly."
That made us laugh.
Always she said it and always it started us laughing.
It seemed such a sweet little joke.
I was certain that one fine morning
The butterfly would fly out of our plates,
Laughing the teeniest laugh in the world,
And perch on the Grandmother's lap.
This poem has a playful mood, and a thoughtful one. Very childlike in manner with such words as sweet, butterfly, and teeniest. The purpose of this poem is the limitless childhood imagination and joy. Gentle in nature and meaning alike.
Imitation
by Edgar Allan Poe
A dark unfathomed tide
Of interminable pride -
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem;
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen,
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision of my spirit;
Those thoughts I would control,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sigh as it passed on:
I care not though it perish
With a thought I then did cherish.
A much darker tone than the first. Such words as wild, spirit, spell, soul, means that it's based on humanity and individual tones. It talks about the loss of this childhood hope, of things that the author once that cherished in their life.
A Fish Answers
by Leigh Hunt
Amazing monster! that, for aught I know,
With the first sight of thee didst make our race
For ever stare! O flat and shocking face,
Grimly divided from the breast below!
Thou that on dry land horribly dost go
With a split body and most ridiculous pace,
Prong after prong, disgracer of all grace,
Long-useless-finned, haired, upright, unwet, slow!
O breather of unbreathable, sword-sharp air,
How canst exist? How bear thyself, thou dry
And dreary sloth? WHat particle canst share
Of the only blessed life, the watery?
I sometimes see of ye an actual pair
Go by! linked fin by fin! most odiously.
This poem uses much more emphasis on how the words are put together. The question marks, as well as exclamation points show this. It is almost a hyperbole as a definition of a fish, in a very outlandish and fantastical way. The poem's purpose deals all around the perspective of everyday life.
Le Reveillon
by Oscar Wilde
THE sky is laced with fitful red,
The circling mists and shadows flee,
The dawn is rising from the sea,
Like a white lady from her bed.
And jagged brazen arrows fall
Athwart the feathers of the night,
And a long wave of yellow light
Breaks silently on tower and hall,
And spreading wide across the wold
Wakes into flight some fluttering bird, 10
And all the chestnut tops are stirred,
And all the branches streaked with gold.
This is a poem written as an extended metaphor. It speaks of the sun and its rays, and the beauty that it emits by such simply being. The poem's purpose is to point out the natural beauty and miracle of life the sun brings to us each day. Written in a very dreamlike tone, very calm and relaxed, as if waking up.
Infant Joy
by William Blake
"I have no name;
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!
Pretty joy!
Sweet joy, but two days old.
Sweet Joy I call thee:
Thou dost smile,
I sing the while;
Sweet joy befall thee!
This is the simplest selection that i have chosen for the assignment. Very short sentences, very innocent word choice. The inversion in the second line tries to connect to the mishaps in grammar we commit as young children. A very warm, and happy tone to exhibit the joys of being a child.
Source: http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=author_list
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Spring Semester Plan 1
Basic English goals for final semester:
By end of semester, read and analyze at least four book written on economics.
Post on a bi-weekly basis (at minimum) on my Global Perspectives blog until end of semester.
Eventual Life goal:
Win a Nobel Prize. Presumably in Economics as that is my intended major. To show intellectual contribution to society that is officially recognized as a major accomplishment. Before I die.
By end of semester, read and analyze at least four book written on economics.
Post on a bi-weekly basis (at minimum) on my Global Perspectives blog until end of semester.
Eventual Life goal:
Win a Nobel Prize. Presumably in Economics as that is my intended major. To show intellectual contribution to society that is officially recognized as a major accomplishment. Before I die.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
AP Prep Post 1: Siddhartha
Questions: From http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.htmlhttp://faculty.salisbury.edu/~jdhatley/101sidd.htm
- If you were the river, would you be enlightenment or would you know enlightenment? In other words, what’s up with the river? What is it’s relation to enlightenment?
- What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?
- What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence?
- What is it meant by knowledge and why can it be communicated while wisdom can not?
- Is it good that Siddhartha fails to help his son?
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