I Am Here

This semester has proven to be just as stressful as all other semesters in years past. I am here to dispel the myth the senior year is a year to relax, a "walk in the park." There is still nightly homework but in addition we now have to worry about scholarships, college applications, resumes... the list never ends! Last semester I believe I managed my time very well in relation to college applications. Unlike most things in my life, I chose to actually not procrastinate on my applications. I cannot tell you how good it felt to have everything turned in and finished a week before the due date. Unlike most of my frantic classmates, I was relaxed and confident in what I sent in. My efforts have been further rewarded because I have already received acceptance to the University of San Francisco (my top school) and Loyola Marymount because I applied early action, Although this semester doesn't have anything coming up that is as looming as college applications, there is still lots to do. I have focused a lot of my time these past few months on applying for scholarships. I feel that at this moment in time that is my top priority because as we all know college is expensive so why not try and lessen the burden while I can?

Lit Terms #6

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

Ex. She’s as pretty as a sunflower.

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

Ex. To be or not to be

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

Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking.

Ex. Holden in The Catcher in the Rye

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

Ex. Jocks are stereotyped as not smart.

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

 ex: Essays of Montaigne

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

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

 ex: formal syle

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

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

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

 ex: People watch Harry Potter even though they know magic isn’t real.

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

 ex: The green lantern is a symbol of hope in The Great Gatsby.

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

 ex: a "soft smell”

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

 ex: Counting heads can mean counting people

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

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

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

 ex: I typically have my thesis in the first paragraph.

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

 ex: anxious, exciting, dreary

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

ex: my sense of humor

Tragedy: in literature: any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically (fatally) flawed

Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis

 ex: She did one assignment her whole high school career.

Vernacular: everyday speech

Voice:  The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s pesona.

Zeitgeist: the feeling of a particular era in history

Hafta/Wanna

Thinking about the future evokes a million different emotions within me. I'm anxious, I'm nervous, I'm excited... I guess I'm a little bit of everything. I can't wait to embark on a new experience and meet new people and go new places but at the same time I'm nervous to leave my comfort zone. I have only lived in Santa Maria in my whole life and have had the same friends for years and years. The thought of all this changing within a few months is enough to make me nauseous. My top choice for college right now is The University of San Francisco. I am beyond ecstatic to move to the big city that has so much going on in it. Although Santa Maria has offered me a bubble of comfort for the past seventeen years, I think I am ready for my bubble to be popped and to enter a brand new, very exciting chapter in my life.

Lit Terms #5

Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.

Parody:  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.

Pathos:  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.

Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or  abstract ideas.

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.

Poignant:  eliciting sorrow or sentiment.

Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.

Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.

Prose:  the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.

Pun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

Realism:  writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Refrain:  a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.

Requiem:  any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.

Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.

Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.

Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.

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

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

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

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

Scansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter.

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

Lit Analysis #4

Plot: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway centers around an American young man named Ferderic Henry serving as an ambulance driver for the Italians in WW1. In the beginning of the novel Henry spends much of his time with his friend, a doctor named Rinaldi. The men stationed with Henry spend most of their time drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and eating. One day, Henry goes to the local hospital and meets a nurse named Catherine. The pair joke about love and getting married one day. Later on, a grenade blows up and injures Henry’s knee. He is transferred to a hospital away from the front and waits to have surgery. Catherine is also transferred to work at the same hospital and her bond with Henry grows stronger and stronger. Around the same time Henry is close to being released to the front, Catharine tells him she is pregnant. They both pledge they will have a life together after the war. Henry goes out to bring ambulances to troops with some men but the mission fails. He is captured by police but escapes and swims away in a river thinking of Catharine the whole time. He reunites with Catherine and the pair is forced to flee to Switzerland overnight in a row boat so that Henry does not get arrested for abandoning the army. The pair live a quiet, happy life in the mountains for a few months. When it is time for Catherine to have the baby many things go wrong and both she and the baby die. The novel ends very abruptly with their death and Henry walking back to his hotel.

Theme: I believe this novel emphasizes the question “Is it better to have loved and lost or to never have never loved at all?” Before Henry met Catherine he was a simple man with a grim outlook on both the war and his surroundings. At the height of his and Catherine’s relationship, Henry is ecstatic and filled with feelings of love and joy he had experienced. However, these new highs come crashing down probably far below a low he had ever experienced before when she dies. Hemingway alludes to Henry’s numb state in the end of the novel but does not go into detail about how Henry feels. This leaves the reader to infer what happens next. Judging by the fact the only thing that kept Henry sane on the front was the thought of reuniting with Catherine, I think Henry might now contemplate suicide because he feels as though he now has nothing to live for.

Tone: The authors tone throughout the novel is pretty somber. From the description of war life to the troubles Henry and Catherine face there are only short stretches of happy stress free living. Much of the novel consists of wishing for the future. A future free of fighting, death and love barriers. Although there is optimism in both characters, Hemingway writes a pretty pessimistic story.

“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“I’m not brave any more darling. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Literary Techniques:

Diction: Hemingway purposely uses simple word choice and short sentence structure to create an atmosphere of disillusionment in the novel.

“There isn’t always an explanation for everything.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

First Person Narrative: Because the story is written in the first person, it makes the events much more real. The “I”s used helps the reader feel like they are there experiencing the events too.

“Keep right on lying to me. That's what I want you to do.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Allusion: Obviously many historically relevant things are mentioned throughout the novel because it revolves around WW1. However, Henry himself makes a few allusions that date even farther back.

“Napoleon victories; any Napoleon. I wished we had a Napoleon”

-Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Juxtaposition: The juxtaposition of happiness and sadness, of love and pain is evident all throughout the novel. Hemingway contrasts life’s highs (love) with life’s lows (death and destruction) frequently.

“And you'll always love me won't you?

Yes

And the rain won't make any difference?

No”

― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Simile: Similes are used at various times during the novel in the character’s dialogue.

“You look healthy as a goat.”

-Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Hyperbole: Hyperboles are used on the story to emphasize and exaggerate certain things. Hemingway’s characters can be very dramatic so the use of hyperboles is appropriate.

“But millions of fools like you don’t know it”

-Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Symbolism: Symbolism is used a great deal throughout the novel. One of the most prevalent symbols used in this story is alcohol. The ever present liquor represents the escape all the soldiers wish they could make. The flowing wine, brandy, etc. are used to help forget the present devastation.

“Wine is a grand thing," I said. "It makes you forget all the bad.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Characterization

1.       Hemingway uses direct characterization when describing Henry’s friend Rinaldi. In the beginning of the novel, he flat out states that Rinldi is a drinker who like to have a good time and mess around with Henry. Another use of direct characterization is the description of Catherine’s friend the nurse. The nurse tells the two she disapproves of them and hates Henry and Henry describes her as cold and bitter. Indirectly, Catherine is characterized when she tells Henry about the baby. She is very nervous and apprehensive so the audience is able to infer that she is very distraught at the thought of Henry leaving her. Henry is indirectly characterized when he rows all night to Switzerland. This shows his determination and strength in stressful situations.

2.       For the most part, Hemingway’s syntax and diction remains the same no matter what character he is talking about. However, the dialogue between Henry and Catherine is a little more dramatic than the rest of the novel.

3.       I believe Henry is a dynamic character because love changes him. He goes from numb to ecstatic to back to numb at the end of the novel. In the beginning of the novel we see his feelings for Catherine growing stronger and stronger as his views on love begin to change. Meeting Catherine gave him an even greater yearning to leave the war forever and live a life of peace. Love consumed him and ultimately destroyed him.

4.       I came away from this novel as if I was a part of Catherine and Henry’s tangled love affair. In the end, when Henry was waiting for Catherine to have the baby, I was stressing and worrying probably as much as Henry was. When Catherine and the baby were pronounced dead I could not help but feel lonely and betrayed by the world. It was as if I felt Henry’s pain when he did.

 

Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes

·         Dickens wrote and played a part in amateur play  “The Frozen Deep”

                          -plot line and characters similar to Tale of Two Cities

·         Cheated on his wife with Ellen

                           -Ellen similar to Lucy

·         Dickens warns society by mentioning a revolution

·         Novel initially published in monthly parts

                            -concerned with building suspense for readers

·         Dickens would write as he though; no formal plan

·         Fascinated by London’s poverty, loved Paris

What's the story?

I believe Dickens wrote Great Expectations for a variety of reasons. On a surface level we could say Dickens wanted to entertain his audience, to engage society. However, if we look a bit deeper there are themes and literary techniques used that suggest that Dickens was trying to make a statement about social class and society. Dickens juxtaposes the rich and the poor frequently throughout the novel. An example of this is when a very poor Pip falls in love with high class Estella. The majority of the novel’s plot revolves around Pip trying to better and improve himself so he will fit in with the rich. Irony is used in the novel because Pip has such great expectations for when he is older and richer, however as time passes he learns that life is not that much better. Pip learns the important lesson that money does not always guarantee happiness. Lastly, imagery is used excessively throughout the novel to detail and exaggerate the setting as well as different character’s qualities.