Blog Post #16: Their Eyes Were Watching God Fishbowl

Blog Post #15: Linguistics and "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff"

Essay:
2009B Poem: “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”
Prompt: The following poem makes use of the story of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who developed an immunity to poison. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Housman employs literary devices in adapting the story to address concerns of the late Victorian period.

The late victorian period inspired many writers to convey their doubts and pessimism at the ending of an era known for its emphasis in moral responsibility and propriety. In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman alludes to the myth of Mithridates in order to argue that the way one can make oneself immune to the world's troubles is by reveling in the world's vices themselves. He reinforces this theme through symbolism, alliterations, and rhyming couplets. 

The symbology of alcohol and drinking and the connection of that to the myth of Mithridates emphasizes Houseman's message that by divulging in the sin itself can make one immune to its negative repercussions. The poison in question of Houseman's poem is symbolized by beer and other alcoholic beverages. This choice of poison is significant in that in the Victorian period, this habit of drinking would have been considered improper when held up to the high moral standards. However, with the disillusionment of these so-called proper Victorian values, which did no prevent many of the atrocities of industrialization from occurring, Houseman is implying that drinking can be viewed as beneficial, something to help forget the graver problems of the world. Since there is "much less good than ill" in the world, one should "face it as a wise man would/And train for ill and not for good" (ll.44,47-48). To prove his point he alludes to Mithridates who "died old" and bested those who had tried to poison saying "Them it was their poison hurt" (ll.74,76). The best method in being able to survive in such a bleak, harsh world is to indulge in its vices. 

The alliteration of the poem and the rhyming couplets work to emphasize Houseman's mocking, playful tone which he uses ironically to talk about subject that is serious and grave. This reinforces his belief that the age of prosperity and upholding high moral standards is ending and he satirizes the old Victorian belief that corruption can prevented by enforcing rules. "And malt does more than Milton can/To justify God's ways to man" (11.22-23). The unserious and lighthearted way this poem sounds while discussing how drinking away all you problems i more effective than setting up morals and rules emphasizes Houseman's disillusionment with the old Victorian views and his satirical ideas of surviving an unfair world.

Score: 5

Structuralism:

Structuralism is essentially the study of the form of language and how it relates to meaning. Because language is defined as a code which consists of signs to communicate ideas, language is full of patterns, which over time each have certain connotations and associations linked with it. Language is what is called the signifier, and the meaning that is conveyed is the signified. Structuralism is the study of the relationship between signifier and signified, how sometimes seemingly random symbols and letters are transformed into actual ideas and images. Structuralists ask not only the question of what is this piece trying to convey but also the question of how the piece conveys it. They study how sounds and words (phonology and morphology) form syntax, which creates literal meaning (semantics), and finally cultural, intended meaning (pragmatics).

"Terence":

Binary opposites:

Stupid vs. Smart

Drunk vs. Sober

Past vs. Present

Ill vs. Good

Short term vs. Long term

Moon vs. Sun

Trouble vs. Luck

In A.E. Houseman's "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", the use of binary opposites emphasized the futility of simply drinking away one's troubles in the face of the world's adversity, while reinforcing Terence's argument to dwell in the constant sorrow of tragic poetry. 

Sound devices:

Amiss

tis

horned head

Livelier liquor

brisk

stem

smack

sour

In A.E. Houseman's "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", the use of cacophony accentuates the harsh reality of late Victorian society while the euphony emphasizes the false contentment brought by alcohol. 

Diction:

"And while the sun and moon endure/

Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,

I'd face it as a wise man would,

And train for ill and not for good."

This line was significant because it explains a integral part of Terence's reasoning for reading and writing poetry that has sad subject matter and his worldview.

"train"- to teach a particular skill/behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time

etymology: Latin trahere- pull, drawThe meaning behind the word "train" has a lot to do with the drawing out of instruction over a longer period of time. This emphasizes the longevity of Terence's solution, which he will train for a long period of time to achieve, compared to his pub friends' temporary solution of drinking. Rhyme and Rhythm:
In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff," A.E. Houseman utilizes iambic tetrameter and rhyming couplets to reflect the humor and lightheartedness of the pub and contrast with the heavy subject matter Terence refers to. This ultimately asserts that the immediate pleasure of beer is short-sighted while the revelations through sad poetry are intellectual and more rewarding over time.
Syntax:
Alliteration: repetition of a sound in multiple words. Focuses readers attention on a particular section of text, creates rhythm, mood, and connotation.
Parallelism: when the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length. Creates rhythm and balance, highlights information to make a powerful point.
Antithesis: contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. Emphasizes ideas and highlights contrast.
Asyndeton: using no conjunctions to create the effect of speed or simplicity. Creates rhythm.
Anastrophe: inverted word order from what one expects. Rhythm, rhyme scheme, sense of depth or wisdom.
In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff," A.E. Houseman utilizes parallelism and alliteration to reinforce the idea that the world is full of ill will and the only way to prevent being ruined by such an understanding is to express and experience more sadness in the form of poetry.
Semantics and Pragmatics:
"I tell the tale that I heard told./
Mithridates, he died old."
Semantically, this line means that the Mithridates lived to an old age before he died. Pragmatically, this ties in the cultural idea that most human beings fear death and that dying old is a desirable thing. Since Mithridates died old, that means his method of slowly intaking the poison until he was immune to it worked and that we should follow his example in slowly processing the world's evil through dark, disconsolate poetry until we are also immune. 
Argument:
Terence's friends structure their argument inductively. They inductively presume that Terence is happy since he eats his "victuals fast enough" and drinks his beer. Terence structures his argument deductively. He asserts that the world has "much less good than ill" and the deduces that therefore he should train in "ill", meaning that he should continue to pursue sadness in poetry until one day he will become immune to it. This means he shouldn't continue to ignore the world's sorrow and keep drinking and merrymaking like all his pub friends. Terence's friends use pathos in their argument primarily, appealing to his emotions and desires to be happy and dance instead of remaining sad for no reason. Terence uses logos to reason why such doing is useless in making oneself better prepared for the world's tragedy.

Blog Post #14: My Darkly Gothic Poem

Untitled

the night falls as if slain by the sun, cold and alone are we.

the light for which you sacrifice yourself

flares once, then dies,

swallowed by a velvet ebon nothingness.

all hope must sicken and die.

your heart beats no more.

how could you not understand?

lost souls surround us, crying,

save us from ourselves.

• Slain comes from the old english of slean, which means strike or kill, particularly in a violent way. I chose this word cause I wanted that drama and also to create the irony of the sun, which is supposedly associated with good, murdering the night.
• The tone would be described as despairing, depressed, hopeless, and even raging.
• The mood evoked is sad and sorrowful.
• Binary opposites include the cold night and the darkness contrasting against the light of the sun. Hope and understanding clash with the idea of death.

Blog Post #13: "Witch" Hansel and Gretel Fairytale Allusion

Blog Post #12: "The Pomegranate" Demeter and Persephone Mythological Allusion

Blog Post #11: "The Second Coming" The Apocalypse Biblical Allusion

Blog Post #10: "Since There's No Help" Renaissance Literary Period

Blog Post #9: "A Very Short Story" Postcolonial Criticism

The exemplification of the failure of the American soldier to maintain a relationship with the Italian nurse demonstrates the Lost Generation’s feelings of inadequacy. In the beginning of the story, the young soldier had believed that he was secure and protected in his mutual love with Luz. “Luz stayed on night duty for three months” to be with him, which in the soldier’s inexperienced mind was proof enough of her devotion. He also thought of himself as worthy of her love, doing what he thought were valiant actions, “holding tight on to himself so he would not blab about anything” and taking temperatures of patients “so Luz would not have to get up from the bed.” After the armistice, Luz and the young soldier planned to marry; however, “Luz would not come home” until the American soldier could get a “good job.” This is the start of the soldier’s disillusionment with his own self-worth and development. Although he promises not to drink and reaffirms that he only wants to “get a job and be married”, it becomes clear that his frame of thinking is naive and that these expressions of love are undeveloped and shallow. When he and Luz quarrel over her “not being willing to come home at once”, the mood is heavy with dissatisfaction. 

The young soldier’s struggle in establishing his identity corresponds to how America had to prove itself in the world. In the end, the relationship was thought of as “only a boy and girl love” by Luz. Luz eventually chooses an Italian major over the American soldier. The American soldier wasn’t as mature and secure as the Italian major, which parallels America’s adolescent identity. Thus the story serves as a potential alterity since it compares the young soldier to the experienced, more worldly major. The soldier’s inability to maintain the relationship demonstrates America’s inability to prove its stability in the world. Luz chose to leave the devoted soldier for the major “she had never known before.” By the end the once promising relationship was dismissed as only an “‘affair” between a “boy and a girl” rather than between adults. This shows the overall disillusionment that emerged after WWI, and what Ernest Hemingway called the “lost generation.” Reflected in the lukewarm indifference of the rejection letters Luz sent is Luz’s realization of how unrealistic the fairytale marriage between the soldier and herself. Yet in the bitter end, it is the young soldier’s realization of his own insignificance as well as that of his wartime love that is the most devastating.

This could also serve as a local narrative within the metanarrative. A metanarrative seeks to reveal a big truth about the world through short stories. Hemingway’s In Our Time is a collection of short stories about life before, during, and after World War I. These stories highlight the maturation of Nick, the main character within all of these pieces. The war was a catalyst for sexual, intellectual and emotional changes within young men, yet these developments may not always be seen in such a positive light. Luz calls their affair, “...only a boy and girl love” which strips the intimacy from what was seen a meaningful relationship. This alludes to Hemingway’s main point that America is still a young and immature nation no matter what the outcome of the war. This is further solidified by the immature actions of the soldier when he, “…contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park.” The soldier’s difficulty with his own identity and relationships is a small story which reveals the hard truth about America being inexperienced and naive despite a strong presence in world affairs.

Blog Post #8: Life of Pi- Creative Project

Text: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Essence: Imagination and storytelling is essential in the struggle of survival.

Brief Summary of Text: The novel begins when the author encounters the story of Piscine Molitor Patel on a trip to India. Piscine himself then relays the story of how he as a young boy, self named Pi, grew up in a zoo with his family in Pondicherry, India. Extraordinarily, he adopts three religions, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, all at the same time. When he is sixteen, his father decides to move the family to Canada and on a ship crossing the Pacific, they travel with the zoo animals they are selling. A storm and an unidentified malfunction causes the ship to sink with the only survivors to be Pi, a wounded zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all clinging to survival on the same lifeboat. The story follows the adventures and perils of Pi as he struggles to survive on the terrain of an seemingly endless blue ocean and as he confronts the problem of coexistence with Richard Parker. Eventually, after 227 days of wandering, he finds land and while being interrogated about the sinking of the ship, reveals a more realistic chain of events with the animals replaced by human beings.

Prompt: 2011B. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist Edith Wharton states the following:

At every stage in the progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction, its vistas on infinity.

Choose a novel or play that you have studied and write a well-organized essay in which you describe an "illuminating" episode or moment and explain how it functions as a "casement," a window that opens onto the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Thesis: In Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the final scene where Pi Patel retells his story but replaces the animals present on the lifeboat with human survivors illuminates the conflict between factual truth and figurative truth. This clash exhibits the essentiality of imagination and storytelling in the struggle of survival.

Iceberg View of Culture: Rituals in the book that Pi follows help keep his sanity and give him great comfort. These include the religious routines and the daily schedules he made for himself to "keep [himself] busy" (190). The shallow and deep culture behind this include the definitions of insanity, patterns of handling emotions, and concept of "self". In Pi's self-created culture at sea, he associates insanity with lack of habits, of structure. He connects to his identity through the practice of prayer to avoid getting spiritually lost in the strange, sometimes sinister, situations he is thrust in. He also keeps his emotions in order by constantly using rituals as a way to mold what is abstract or ambiguous into a shape he is able to accept and comprehend. Though despair was often looming in the horizon as a "heavy blackness that let no light in or out", the darkness would be chased away and "God would remain, a shining point of light" and Pi "would go on loving" (209). This allows him to continue to believe in the metaphysical nature of his story.

Food is also a aspect of culture found in the book. Under the surface, food represents rules of conduct, relationships to animals, notions of leadership, and concept of "self". Compared to his former life in Pondicherry where Pi is a vegetarian and never has to worry about sustaining himself, everyday on the sea is a fight for food and water. Eventually Pi loses part of his innocence and humanity due to his effort to stay alive. He goes from weeping "heartily" over the "poor little deceased soul" of a fish to a violent hunter always in search of the next meal (184). Pi also uses food as a way to tame Richard Parker, to show who has the power in the situation, symbolizing his control over his savage, animalistic side.The difficulties food presents to Pi burden him with weight of realism as he strives to hold on to his idealistic story.

Creative Project and Explanation: An illustration depicting two eyes, one right and one left. The iris of each eye is filled with a scene showing one perspective of Pi's voyage.

In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the meaning of Pi's remarkable journey was to convey the magic and wonder but also the vital necessity of imagination and storytelling in the struggle to survive. Faced with the harsh reality of having to survive alone on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific, Pi turned to his resplendent imagination to weave for himself a story of non-literal truth. The major story element of having to cope with living with a tiger is revealed to be an alter-ego Pi created for his savage, animalistic personality that surfaced due to the extreme conditions he was thrust in. By bending reality and being able to tell the "better story", Pi is able to survive 227 days as the last human survivor on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific. The drawing of the two eyes embodies this message of dual truths, one factual and the other figurative. While one eye illustrates the amazement and joy Pi felt when he lifted himself out of his suffering through his storytelling skills to appreciate his awe-inspiring surroundings, the other shows the crude, hopeless reality of his existence and his descent into a primeval state in his fight for survival.

In the iris of the right eye, the marvel of a perfect day at sea for Pi is shown. Throughout the novel, Pi often describes these moments of wonderment and beauty in great detail, letting his imagination take him away as he loses himself in the scenery and not the hardships of the ocean. "[T]he sea is a city," Pi observes as he describes himself gazing down on "what Tokyo must look like at rush hour" (176). Not only does the mass explosion of life underwater take Pi's breath away, but also the magnificence of the sky. Musing that the stars shone so bright "it seemed absurd to call the night dark", Pi imagines falling out of Vishnu's mouth to behold the entire universe (177). The idealistic image of Pi and Richard Parker peacefully together in the lifeboat represents Pi's dual natures coexisting and cooperating together for his spiritual and physical survival, but also the distinct separation between the two characters. Pi refuses to acknowledge that his identity and Richard Parker's are one and the same. To make this contrast clear, he thoughtfully notes how Richard Parker's "brute strength meant only moral weakness" and compared to the strength in Pi's mind, "it was nothing" (122). Furthermore, the quixotic merging of the two skies reflects this perfect juxtaposition of Pi's two selves.

In the iris of the left eye, the flawless ocean scene is thrown into turmoil. The bitter reality is that life in Pi's lifeboat was awful. "Everything suffered," Pi lamented (238). The ocean below and the sky above were constantly his enemies, threatening to take away not only his life but also his spirit. "I felt even my soul had been corroded by salt," Pi admits, the physical suffering manifesting itself in his mental suffering (268). The foreboding sea and menacing sky surrounding Pi show how Pi was often confronted with this despair. The futility of being a castaway, of being "a point perpetually at the center of a circle", would be grasped by him over and over again (215). The other cruel truth is that there is no Richard Parker the tiger to keep Pi company, to help keep separate the two conflicting natures of Pi. Throughout the book, Pi struggles with maintaining his hold on his humanity and essentially his identity. "Something in me died then that has never come back to life," Pi quietly grieves after his devastating encounter with the Frenchman (255). "It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing," Pi says to explain the rapidity with which he became a ruthless hunter (185). The image of the tiger hovering above Pi demonstrates how the inner violent, savage nature of Pi has come out. The only way that this truth did not destroy Pi was because of his ability to tell the "better story".

The symmetry of the two eyes shows how one needs to be able to see through both frames of thinking in order to survive. While most people would emphasize the rational, reasoning view concerned with only "dry, yeast-less factuality", Yann Martel argues through Life of Pi that the imaginative, storytelling side is equally if not more important in one's will to live.

Blog Post #7: The Namesake- Compare-Contrast Summer Reading Paper

Blog Post #6: Surroundings Free-Response Essay

In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the main protagonist, Elizabeth Bennett, learns to both embrace and overcome her prideful, independent nature. Her character is molded by her cultural and physical surroundings, which change her for the better by the end of the story.

Elizabeth grew up in 19th century English society, born to a moderately wealthy middle class family in the countryside. For all her life, her mother, along with the rest of society, have insisted that young women must marry well and marry soon. The only way to ensure a comfortable, happy life is to marry a wealthy man. The idea of a single young lady having a bright future on her own was inconceivable. This constant pressure on Elizabeth has led her to develop her own ideas about marriage. Instead of having the effect of making her obedient to society's values, Elizabeth, seeing her mother's sometimes ridiculous efforts at match-making, has come to reject the idea that women must rely on men to take care of them. She is determined to make her own path and not be pushed into an undesired marriage. Her stubbornness to not conform with society is partly influenced by her father who is also slightly eccentric and prefers to dwell in solitude instead of attending the many parties and dances his wife insists on. It can also be noted that Elizabeth was closest to her father, admiring his intelligence and appreciating his humor.

Another aspect of her surroundings was the heavy emphasis on family reputation. Elizabeth's family was not the most socially gifted. Her mother and younger sisters often forgot social decorum in their pursuit of husbands. Furthermore, they were not terribly wealthy either and were often looked down upon. Elizabeth's self-esteem therefore could not be supported by her family, so she had to rely on herself. Her pride was also hurt quite easily, especially by others who had the wealth and the family reputation like Mr. Darcy, and she often overcompensated in fixing her pride by developing prejudices. However, her nature that was so proud that sometimes it bordered on insensibility also saved her from making what can be seen as rational, but joyless decisions. One example is her refusal to marry her cousin, the extremely self-conscious and dreadfully dull church parson. Although accepting his proposal would not only mean having a comfortable life but also keeping her family grounds, Elizabeth rejected him because she was to prideful to let herself be unhappy for the rest of her life.

But though her pride would save her in one situation, it would prevent her from seeing the true natures of other people. This can be seen in her trust and admiration of Mr. Wickham and her disgust and annoyance with Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth had to overcome her pride and acknowledge that she was wrong about the characters of both men in order to find her true happy ending.

I think I just fell into every pitfall that I was warned about in 5 Steps to a 5. First off, I don't think I chose the right novel to write about. While I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice very much and it was included on the list of suggested books in the essay prompt, I could have chosen a book I had studied in a more academic light and more recently too to write about instead. I thought I had a good grasp on Pride and Prejudice until I started writing the essay and had trouble coming up with the specific details to support my thesis. I didn't realize just how familiar I had to be with the novel I would choose to analyze. So that meant my whole essay was off to a bad start.

Things I did like about the essay was the freedom of choosing what you wanted to write about and the generality of the prompt. It was refreshing to write without so many limitations on content and focus. However, this freedom also made it difficult to organize my essay. In the essay above, I was more or less dividing my essay in regards to different aspects of the surroundings that had an effect. I saw other essays where they followed a more chronological order in regards to the book. Anyway, my structure did not show much complexity of thought. I was also bordering on vagueness as I discussed my evidence for the essay and more than once I had to stop myself and ask if I was giving too much plot summary.

Also, since the prompt is rather broad, my thesis and thus my essay did not address all parts of the prompt equally. In particular, I don't think I analyzed how the surroundings illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole very well. Since you have a full length novel to work with and draw examples from, it is difficult to condense your thoughts and your writing to just the most significant, relevant, and meaningful details. I had so much I wanted to write about and I think that really slowed down my progress as I was unable narrow down my examples and my writing became rather ineffective as I was trying to extract meaning from all these sources. I also tried to push myself to find the complexity in the story, which I tried to explore at the end but I didn't have enough time to expand that theme to illustrate the overall meaning of the piece.

To improve I'm going to have to practice. That's not new. And I'm going to have to prepare much better. My goals are:
1. Over the year, to keep a catalogue of all the works we study over the school year in class, since they're bound to cover a broad spectrum of types, literary movements, and themes, that I can use to write my free-response essays over. I want to make sure I'm really familiar with them and I understand the complexities and deeper meaning within each one. As I accumulate more works, I will probably keep a running list of them, so I can remember and go back if I have too, with a few notes on each one about its most important themes. This way I can have a broad mental library to draw from.
2. Familiarize myself with sample free-response prompts and sample student essays for those prompts. The prompts for the open question are all rather general and broad. If I can be used to seeing these prompts and figuring out how best to answer each one through reading sample essays, I will be able to start my essay more quickly and more effectively.
3. Write the actual free-response essays. Half the fight I believe is being able to make that decision and choose the correct piece to analyze. I can practice this and practice writing an essay about a full length of work in such a short amount of time. I really need to practice selecting the proper details and organizing my thoughts about the book to write a relatively condensed essay about it. And I need to make sure I'm molding my examples to be relevant to the prompt.

Blog Post #5: "Thou Blind Man's Mark" Poetry Essay

In the poem "Thou Blind Man's Mark" by Sir Philip Sidney, the poet expounds on the topic of desire. Through alliteration and metaphors, the speaker creates at first a despairing, accusatory tone towards desire's effect on him and then transitions, through use of personification and repetition, to a triumphant ending.

Sidney begins the poem with a bout of sophisticated name-calling, with which he uses to describe the maliciousness of desire. He uses metaphors with harmful connotations to bequeath titles to desire, such as "blind man's mark," "scum," and "fool's self-chosen snare." To emphasize these phrases and their underlying detrimental meanings, Sidney uses alliteration such as "cradle of causeless care." This extensive list of names gives off the feeling of both the speaker being scathing towards desire but also the heavy despair the speaker feels or felt towards it to continue ranting against it. By listing so many of desire's flaws and dangers, the speaker fully conveys the vast, evil hold desire has over him and how its "end is never wrought".

The speaker of the poem also seems to be speaking directly to desire as if the concept were a person, using "thou" or "thy" frequently when addressing it. By personifying it, desire becomes more of a tangible threat and concern, rather than just an intangible concept. Desire is described to be selling "worthless ware" which the speaker has "too dearly bought, with price of mangled mind." The repetition of the speaker's exclamation "Desire, desire!" and the comment of "too long, too long" help further to illustrate the futility the speaker felt towards fighting desire's grip on him and how desire did not help him like it should be, which is "my mind to higher things prepare."

Then the speaker transitions to a different tone when he starts repeating the phrase "in vain" at the beginning of his lines. Starting with "in vain thou has my ruin sought," the speaker emphasizes how all of desire's actions, making him "to vain things aspire", kindling "thy smoky fire," were to no avail in making him fall for desire's traps. This time the repetition serves to highlight the speaker's triumph in conquering over desire's effects as everything desire has done was "in vain." Sidney explains that "virtue hath this better lesson taught-- ", using a dash to make the final ending message distinct, to seek his rewards in himself and not elsewhere. The final line, "desiring naught but how to kill desire," concludes the poem on a positive, contented note. The use of the noun and verb form of desire helps to add that sense of a complete ending, but also highlights the irony behind the line, showing that one can never truly escape the clutches of desire.

After going through the norming packet, I am actually pretty okay with my poetry essay. A lot of the things I brought up here I saw in some of the higher-scoring essays there. For example, the transition in tone and how it was created by the repetition and also the effect of the personification of desire. So, I'm getting better at not only identifying the poetic devices but also explaining their role in conveying the speaker's attitude. And I actually finished my essay in the time limit! I think a lot of this is due to the fact that the poem we had to analyze was so short. This gave me more time to organize my thoughts about it and develop a complex thesis to base the essay off of. The fact that my thesis was stronger made the writing much easier since I had a central idea I could connect everything to.

I still have much to improve on. The first thing that struck me while I was writing my essay was I could not name some of the poetic devices. Terms I was looking for, like anaphora, I just could not remember. I would know that there was a poetic device being used but not know what to call it. So I just talked around it in my essay. Another issue that we went over in class was describing the structure of the poem and how it contributed to the analysis. I could not identify that it was a sonnet and being knowledgable about such structures would have facilitated and increased the depth of my interpretation. Also there were some aspects of analysis that I missed; for example, the introspective tone of the middle lines and how the repetition gave the effect of the speaker trying to persuade himself. I also did not clearly identify the central problem, which was that desire was preventing the speaker from seeking higher things. In conclusion, I could have addressed the complexity in the piece better. I still must teach myself to search for the complexity in the poem.

Another thing I noted was my use of textual evidence could have been more sparing. I tend to over-quote the piece I think, and that tends to just drag on the analysis portion of the essay. I need to be more selective with my quotes and choose the ones that I'm really going to analyze. In afterthought, I could also be better at organizing this essay and adding to its cohesiveness. Some of my paragraphs don't flow very well at all.

I feel like a significant portion of my problems have to do with the actual writing of my essay, though I can always work on my analysis skills of course. To improve on my poetry essay, I will:
1. Learn and memorize my poetic devices. I will go and dig up my notes on tropes and schemes and review them. I will also look at the powerpoint on sonnet structures so next time I will be more prepared to fully analyze them. Sonnets are commonly used on the AP exam so it will be helpful to be familiar with them.
2. Read more poems. Poetry was never something I read a lot of so I should start reading more if I am to be proficient at analyzing them. I know that poetry is a lot different from prose so it would be most beneficial if I were used to the way that poems convey their meaning. I plan to find ones in the Literature and Composition textbook.
3. Work on my writing. One thing that has always helped me was reading high-scoring example essays. They give me ideas on how to structure and communicate my interpretation of the poem. I plan to read the norming essays posted on Edline for this particular prompt. Another way to improve my writing would be to write more. So using my 5 Steps to a 5, I can practice writing to the poetry prompts they have provided there. I am not sure my writing is up to the level of sophistication that a 9 or 8 essay requires so I have lots of room for improvement.

Blog Post #4: "The Known World" Prose Essay- A Reflection

“When he, Moses, finally freed himself of the ancient and brittle harness . . . all that was left of the sun was a five-inch-long memory of red orange . . .” In the novel The Known World by Edward P. Jones, the author records the evening of a slave names Moses and through his description, reveals his inner character. Utilizing an omniscient third person point of view, specific details, and natural imagery, Jones creates the identity of someone whose sense of being is tied to the earth that he works on.

The first detail the readers learn about Moses is that “he worked . . . well after he ended the day for the other adults, his own wife among them . . .” Moses is portrayed as a lone soul who is not necessarily lonely; details such as his own wife and “his son among them” leaving the field ahead of him accentuates his solitude. The third person narrator furthers this effect of distance, the audience having to meet Moses from afar rather than an up-close first person account. Along with the continual reminder of his solitude are vivid descriptions of his surroundings, of nature. The sunset is described as “a five-inch-long memory of red orange laid out in still waves across the horizon.” These create the world of which Moses is so intimately connected to. This connection is essentially revealed in the following action: as Moses is working in his field, he takes “a pinch of the soil” and eats it, “not only to discover the strengths and weakness of the field, but because the eating of it tied him to the only thing in his small world that meant almost as much as his own life.” That the earth means so much to him that he feels the need to ingest it, to physically make it a part of him, is significant in the way that, although he is already legally tied to the land since he is a slave bound to work on it, he completely embraces this identity. And in doing so, he has found his own freedom in it-- the freedom to be with and do what he loves. 

This theme of tight kinship with the land continues as the narrator describes the taste of the land, being of a "metallic life," which will soon be replaced by "a sour moldiness" that signaled the "coming of fall and winter, the end of a relationship he had begun with the first taste of dirt back in March." Once again, he is faced with the option to return home and yet, "for the third time that week," he turns away from "home and food and rest." To emphasize what calls to him the most, where he feels most at home, the narrator narrates how "he turned his head slightly to the right and made out what he thought was the sound of playing children, but when he turned his head back, he could hear far more clearly the last bird of the day as it evening-chirped in the small forest far off to the left." The irony at the end is that "when he was an old man and rheumatism chained up his body, he would look back and blame the chains on evenings such as these and on nights when he lost himself completely . . ." Though he had gained his freedom through acceptance of circumstances, they were still chains nonetheless.

This is the aftermath of my second practice prose essay. It was . . . not exactly satisfactory. I'm definitely not where I want to be. As compared to my first essay, I don't think I improved by much. Again, time was my enemy. I did not finish my essay, though I did get further than last time. I felt like I needed more time to process the prose passage and to think through my argument than I should be. One of my goals was to practice analyzing passages so I could become faster and more proficient at it. This way more of my time could be devoted to the crafting of my writing. I kept thinking my thesis had to have complexity right at the beginning; however, when we were norming the essays in class for this same piece, a lot of the higher scoring essays developed their complexity throughout the piece. I always seem to get hung up on the first paragraph because I've been told that it's very important to have a strong introduction, but it's equally, if not more important, to have a strong body building that argument up.

I tried the organization method that I mentioned in my last prose essay reflection- the one where it follows the piece chronologically. I am not sure I used that method correctly. Looking back, I realize that I placed too much emphasis on identifying and examining the literary elements than I did on the deeper meaning of the piece: the development of Moses's character. I began the piece with quite surface level analysis. And though I did delve deeper into the piece, I was still describing one facet of his character, though an important one albeit. I'm not sure that would have earned me a high enough score. And because I was busy analyzing literary elements, I spent more time writing about the beginning of the piece than I did of the end. This was because I would bring up an example of one literary element, explain its significance, then have to move on to the next chronological literary element, explain its significance, when it would have been better to focus on one specific part of the piece and explain how it contributed to Moses's character and used the analysis  of literary elements to support that explanation. That would have made my writing make a lot more sense and having a structure like that would have facilitated my writing and hopefully I would have finished my essay in time.

I would give this essay a 5/6 score because I think I quoted too much from the passage and I didn't have enough of my own analysis. I did however touch on the complexity of the prose and deliver specific text evidence and have a thesis statement that made an argument.

Blog Post #3: "The Flowers" Prose Essay- A Reflection

"It seemed to Myop. . . that the days had never been as beautiful as these." So begins the "The Flowers" by Alice Walker, a short story that starts off light-heartedly enough, but through Walker's masterful use of connotative imagery and diction, as well as a suspenseful narrative pace, takes quite a dark, sinister turn. Walker is able to convey through her story the loss of innocence and naivety in a young child. 

Walker first creates an aura of a lovely autumn morning through her imagery. Myop, the little girl who is the protagonist, is found "skipp[ing] lightly" through her day, which is described as a "golden surprise," "light and good in the warm sun." As she wanders farther and farther form home, the imagery and setting began to take a more ominous appearance. Having to keep "an eye out for snakes" while confronting "strange blue flowers" and the "strangeness of the land itself, Myop starts to feel the day become "gloomy," "damp," "the silence close and deep." These all foreshadow the following events to come, the inevitable doom of a peaceful morning.

Walker also sets the pace for her short story to match the events that are unfolding. In the beginning, the sentences are longer, more complex to set a slow, relaxed mood. "She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment." As the day slides gradually by, suddenly it is punctuated by the one-sentence sixth paragraph. After this dramatic turning point, the syntax becomes shorter, more abrupt, to mirror the disrupting of peace and ultimately of the innocence of childhood. The dead man that Myop stumbles upon is described as this: "He had been tall man. From feet to neck covered a long space. His head lay beside him."  

Ah, my performance on this prose essay was pretty depressing. It's funny since analysis essays on the AP Language and Composition Exam were my favorite to write. I actually enjoyed taking apart a piece of writing and examining its components for its hidden meaning. And I thought I was decent at it. Obviously I am very out of practice.

My number one enemy was the time limit. I was completely thrown off guard by it. Judging how much time I needed to read the passage throughly, to plan and outline my essay, to actually write the essay-- all these things were jumbled up in my head as I started the assignment. I found myself floundering in deciding how I should actually begin the essay. Well, one strength, if you can even call it that, is I knew what was expected of me, meaning I knew what the prompt entailed of me. I knew I had to find specific examples of literary techniques and connect them to how they create the meaning behind the story and how they prepared the reader for the ending. And I didn't have much trouble finding them in the passage either. But I had no clue on how I should organize my essay, how I should put everything together. And this led to time running out on me since I didn't have a clear plan.

Usually I organize my essay to correspond with the chronology of the actual passage; I analyze the story from beginning to end. This gives it a cohesiveness and flow. However, this time it was like everything I knew before flew out the window. I even had a lot of trouble determining the meaning behind the story, which looking back, was actually quite obvious. I'm not sure why I found it so difficult, especially since the meaning behind the short story was a pattern in literature that has been found over and over again. I guess I was overthinking it and I had thought to myself, "That can't be it. It's too simple!"

In class, during our discussion over this, we were able to analyze the text much more comprehensively and profoundly. I really need to challenge myself to think more deeply over the prose, since I believe my analysis was relatively shallow compared to what we did in class. The themes of flowers, of seasons, of time, that we picked out of the story, I had missed. I've never been very good at analyzing symbols; I've always been more of the small details person-- diction, imagery, figurative language, those kinds of things. I need to be more proficient at the big picture analysis too. Also, being able to identify those in such a short time period, I need to be better at that too. But more than anything, I need to organize my thoughts. The essay I have written above is so sporadic. My examples jump all over the text. If my essay is to score any points, I need to write with a much more elegant and thoughtful structure.

My three goals this time are:
1. Get comfortable with the time limit. To do this, I will review, apply, and then adjust to my own personal liking the time suggestions in Chapter 5. And once I have my pattern down, I will be more efficient at tackling the prose essay. I will have to practice writing more essays under strict time limits. The sample prompts in 5 Steps to a 5 I will use to practice with.
2. Read and analyze prose pieces. Using examples from the textbook, I will practice reading, identifying the meaning, and determining the writer's craft used to create the meaning of short prose passages. This will make it feel more natural on the real thing. I will practice this every other week.
3. Look up and learn more ways to organize analysis essays. I can do this by not only reading up on papers that we got on this topic from AP Language and Composition, but also reading sample essays, especially the high-scoring ones. This way I can make sure that I am matching the depth of my content with the level of my writing. Reading sample prose essays would be extremely helpful in giving me ideas of how to write my own essays and in setting a standard for which I can compare the progress in my own writing.

Blog Post #2: Practice Multiple Choice Exam- A Reflection

After taking the Practice AP Literature Multiple Choice Exam in class and evaluating my performance on it, I have realized that there is a lot I have to improve on before the AP Exam in May. But first, I will assess my strengths in literary analysis. Most of these come from taking the AP Language and Composition class and exam last year, which has a similar test format. Consequently, I am stronger in prose analysis than poetry analysis, as prose was the primary type of passages we studied. Also, I am slightly more familiar with literary terms, such as alliteration or foreshadowing, than the average English student, though I do need a bit of refreshing. In AP Language and Composition, I was drilled to always search for and then keep in mind the purpose of the piece while I was reading. This skill helped me answer several of the multiple choice questions correctly. I am also quite good at reading and retaining the information of passages at a decent rapid pace, which is necessary to fulfill the strict time limit on these tests. All the basic skills that are needed to take an AP multiple choice skills I have a basic mastery of; these include focus, timing, process of elimination, the educated guess.

This leaves me with the elements of the AP Exam specific to AP English Literature that I am not familiar with or am anywhere close to mastering yet. My weaknesses were revealed to me one by one with each question I missed on the practice exam. First, even though I mentioned keeping the purpose in mind was one of my skills, I sometimes still lose this mindset when I am reading complex passages, especially if the questions ask of me specific details or lines of the passage. It is always important to keep in mind the big picture when answering inferential questions and not be muddled by particulars. Secondly, I need more practice with analyzing passages of poetry. Even though they seem to be easier to read, and take less time to read, the fact is poems need to be read with even more cautiousness than prose. The language used in poetry is much more intricate and each line has a complex meaning and purpose behind it. This requires a metaphorical way of thinking, which I found myself lacking while answering questions. Thirdly, I also had some trouble answering the "except" questions on the test. I would often be stuck between two answers, so I need to work on my elimination skills.

Now to construct a magnificent plan of improvement. I think the best way for me to improve is to take more practice exams just to get used to analyzing and interpreting passages correctly in such a short time period. Also, I want to bring these methods that I use to break down multiple choice passages into my classroom reading. Along with that, I will aim to ask of the literature we study in class the same types of questions that are asked on the AP exam so I will be familiar with the way of thinking the test-writers want me to have in order to do well. Furthermore, I will pay particular attention to analyzing poetry passages as I have not as much experience with them as I do with prose. In 5 Steps to a 5, there was a list of eminent poets that may show up on the AP Exam, so before May I will be sure to take a look at some of their poems as preparation. Another thing I have planned is I need to either review literary terms I already know or learn new literary terms that I don't know already; and not only that but be able to apply them to actual pieces of literature. On one question particularly, #47, it asked of me what meter the poem was in and I, who did not know anything about such a topic, was bewildered. So terms like that I need to learn what they are and how to use them.

The key to achieving what you want is to set good goals. My goals for this year are:
1. Practice the AP English Literature Multiple Choice exam. And by practice I mean taking practice exams and reading passages that would appear on the AP Multiple Choice exam and answering questions that would appear on the AP Multiple Choice exam. If I do this often enough with a wide a variety of passages and questions, this will be very good preparation. I plan to do one passage and its corresponding questions per week until spring, which is when I would practice full exams more often, timing myself of course.
2. Learn the literary terms I need to be successful on the exam. I assume we will learn these in class as the year goes on, but if I do encounter terms which I do not know or need a review on, I will be sure to look those up and keep track of them so I will be prepared next time it shows up in a question. Having a good grasp on the language of the test is key to achieving a good score on the test.
3. Take the skills I learned from taking the Multiple Choice exam into the classroom. The capabilities of comprehension and extension need for the multiple choice exam can be used in studying literature outside of the exam. Doing this regularly will not only help me analyze texts in class, but help develop these skills so I will be even more ready to take the AP exam. These skills include: going beyond the literal and finding the deeper meaning, keeping in mind the author's purpose and determine how the author develops it, reading carefully and closely to get a full understanding, etc.

Sources: http://topachievement.com/smart.html
5 Steps to a 5 AP English Literature
AP Literature and Composition textbook

Blog Post #1: My Design

The design for my blog was carefully chosen to set a tranquil, peaceful, yet professional mood for readers. I believe it is with this setting that people can be most intellectually productive and effective. To accomplish this goal I selected cool-toned colors, using a bolder dose of blue with tints of green blended in. Blue and green are both known to promote "calmness and serenity" as I wanted readers to focus on the text on the screen and not be distracted by other things. Blue, however, was also a color that bordered on aloofness, even a coldness, so I preferred a shade of blue that also hinted of green to warm up the tone, since I wanted my blog to be inviting to other readers. The title of my blog is white in order to contrast strongly with the background colors, which is also why the body text is black. This just facilitates easier reading and comprehension.

The font for the title of my blog is "Arial" which was chosen for its minimalist and modernist qualities. It's simplicity is refreshing, contributing to the soothing effect I wanted my blog to have, and it is easy to read, eye-catching in a subtle manner. It also gives off a very polished effect, as I want people to take my blog seriously. The font for the page text is "Georgia" which I chose partly for its more traditional mood to contrast with the title font, as I want each entity to stand out in its own way. "Georgia" is also quite effortless to read and still business-like, just traditional enough to give it a formal air but modern enough to avoid being out-of-style. I want the font to not distract from the content of my blog, allowing people to really take in my words, but also add a little style and class to my blog to make it visually appealing.

Sources: http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/color_green.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/color_blue.htm
http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/02/19/establish-a-mood-with-typography/