Macbeth Notes

Top 3 Picks for Literature Analyses

Dania Hatamleh's was, by far, the best. Yup.
http://dhrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/03/to-kill-mockingbird.html

Laura Wong
http://lwrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/03/animal-farm-video-presentation.html

Noe Bernal
http://nbrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/03/remix.html

Socratic Seminar Notes

• The internet provides new opportunities like globalization, localization, and relocation.
• The Table of Free Voices in Berlin, Germany, is about giving a voice to those who wouldn't normally magnified in the media.
• They aim to answer 100 questions donated by people all around the world, done in 9 hours consisting of 8 sessions that are 45 minutes each.
• Themes include: reinventing economics, conscious recognition, politics of violence, understanding power, the human footprint, the new global frontier, innovative acceleration, and a perceiving eye.
• The principles were inclusiveness, sustainability, copyleft, public ownership, transparency, and ownership.

• A study found that kids who played with blocks when they were young scored higher on language tests than kids who did not play with blocks.
• "Free, imaginative play is crucial for normal social, emotional, and cognitive development. It makes us better adjusted, smarter, and less stressed." 
• Play helps develop social skills, make friends, and become socially adjusted.
• A child that has rich exposure to play is more likely to become an adult who can manage unpredictable social situations.

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Literature Analysis Mindmap

She Walks in Beauty

-The dramatic situation is the appreciation of a woman’s beauty.
-The poem is structured in three stanzas, each with 6 lines in them, lines rhyming as ABABAB. Each verse has 8 syllables.
-The theme of the poem is exceptional beauty, found within a woman. The poem proceeds to explain different aspects of her beauty.
-The grammar is old fashioned since we don't write sentences like "And all that's best of dark and bright/ Meet in her  aspect and her eyes:", especially with that punctuation- or lack of- and long sentences. The syntax and diction  are distinctive to present day, with words like "climes" and "o'er". The meaning of the poem is that a woman walked in utmost beauty with beautiful aspects to her eyes, grace, face, smile, cheek, and brow.
- Imagery is included throughout the poem when describing the woman. For example, "Which waves in every raven tress/ Or softly lightens o'er her face:...". Figures of speech include the title and the first four words of the poem, "She walks in beauty", for one can't literally walk in beauty.
-Important words from the poem include "beauty", "love", and "pure" because they co ntain strong meaning.
- The tone of the poem is sweet and a bit sappy, for the author(s) seem to be idolizing this woman a bit.
- Literary devices: Alliteration: "of cloudless climes and starry skies"; Simile: "She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies." ; Metaphor: the light on the woman's face is the softness of her beauty. ;Diction: the vocabulary is clear and comprehensible.
-Prosody: The author kept it simple by keeping the poem short.  The flow of the poem allowed the reader to understand how her characteristics were appreciated and that time passed.

Charles Dickens Lecture Notes Remixed

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Analysis

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

1. The dramatic situation is the turmoil the narrator faces when in front of the fork in the road, trying to decide which path to take.

2. The structure consists of four stanzas, each with 5 lines each. The rhyming pattern is ABAAB and is in the past tense.

3. The theme of the poem is making choices/decisions. The narrator is deciding between which path in the road to go, which also represents his decision on which way to go in life.

4. The grammar is modern, simple, and easy to understand. The syntax and diction mostly consists of the colloquial words used today. The meaning of the poem is the inner confusion he is dealing with as he tries to decide which choice to make not only with which path to take, but with a decision in his life.

5. Figures of speech include “Because it was grassy and wanted wear”, since a road can’t truly want wear. Another figure of speech is “Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same…”.

6. The syntax and diction mostly consists of the colloquial words used today. Important words include “diverged” and “difference”, for these are the words that portray the two choices.

7. The tone is somber and distressed, as the reader can feel the speaker’s confusion.

8. Literary devices:

Symbolism: the two paths in a road portray two choices the speaker has to decide between in his own life.

Rhyme: “And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could…”

Parallelism: “Somewhere ages and ages hence…”

Personification: “Because it was grassy and wanted wear…”

Imagery: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,”

9. The prosody of the poem helps express Frost’s theme of inner turmoil by providing insight to the speaker’s thoughts, using literary techniques, and establishing the tone. 

Test Response

What I learned about the AP test practice is the swiftness of the tests. You must read, analyze, and answer the questions in a short amount of time, which is difficult. The test today was not too hard and a bit expected since I took the AP test last year, but it was still challenging.  This has helped me prepare for the AP test in that I now know I need to practice completing sections of the test in the small amount of time allotted. 

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens style of writing was mostly Realism, so he wrote Great Expectations following that style. Dickens wrote about the length of the life of a young boy named Pip, who grew in age and had personal growth. When the girl named Estella said about Pip "He calls the Knaves Jacks, this boy!... And what course hands he has! And what thick boots!", he began to feel ashamed of himself and longed to be a gentleman. This helped set in motion Pip's growth and his "great expectations".

Great Expectations Introduction Summary

          The novel began at a scene of a graveyard, in which an orphan named Pip is visiting his parents’ grave sites. An escaped convict approaches Pip, demanding food and a file to be brought to him the following day, or else a lunatic man will find Pip in his home and eat his liver and heart. Pip managed to steal some food from his sister, Mrs. Joe, and a file from her husband, Joe, who is a blacksmith. Upon receiving the stolen goods, the convict began sawing at the chain on his leg. Pip left home, obviously unaware that the convict was merely trying to intimidate him into bringing him what he wanted. Pip felt extremely guilty afterwards, afraid of what his stern sister would do if she discovered his act of theft.

Great Expectations Title

Charles Dickens named his novel Great Expectations because the story was of a young boy named Pip whom had great expectations for his future and aspired to become a gentleman and a man of high status, rather than a blacksmith’s apprentice. The title also hints that great things are to come for Pip in the future. 

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I selected The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost because of the complexity and depth of the poem. At first glance, it would appear as if when the narrator appeared in front of a fork in the road, he walked the road less traveled. Upon further analyzing the poem, it appears the two roads were equally untraveled and although he had told himself he would come back another day and travel the other road, he knew he wouldn’t. Therefore, he told himself he took the road less traveled by, but he knew that was not true. The common misconception about this poem made it intriguing to opt and analyze. 

What I've Learned (and a video!)

This year I have learned many things that will surely help in my never-ending quest for knowledge, but one thing that continues to be shoved into my mind, with consent of course, is that if I do not embrace technological advances, society will chew me up, spit me out, stomp on me, eat me again, regurgitate me, light me on fire, laugh and leave me behind. Civilization, so I'm told, is changing rapidly whether I embrace the change or not. In order to adapt to these changes I must make use of any and all resources available to me. I must also acquire new technological skills so that I am not completely baffled at the sight of what civilization will become in the near future. In relation to the video, besides being a cool song with an amazing video, it is as if I am one of the buffalo, but no matter where I go, change is just around the corner and it is imminent. Luckily, unlike the buffalo, I have a blog, which will serve as my headquarters for mastering these technological advances.

Not-So-Simple-Question

I believe that extensive internet/media/technology use has not changed the way I think very much, but has perhaps made it lazier and has definitely influenced the way i think. The reason for the laziness is that with sources such as the internet, I am able to find whatever it may be that I must find out rather quickly and easy as well. As for the influence, with the internet, I am able to learn about an infinite number of subjects which may spark my interest or broaden my intellectual horizons at my own leisure. Although technology creates an abysmal amount of distractions, if used properly and with a goal or focus in mind, can greatly improve one's thinking.

Literature Analysis

1) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about the tragic tale of a woman, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted for adultery against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, and is sentenced to a lifelong public shame for it. Her punishment was to wear a large scarlet "A" upon her breast for as long as she lived. As she perseveres through this shame for several years, she does not reveal the identity of the man of which she committed adultery with. Although the man, who is Arthur Dimmesdale, is not revealed to their peers, both he and Hester are constantly tormented by the crime they had done together and reminded of it by the daughter, Pearl, that was conceived through this crime.Chillingworth eventually discovers that it was Dimmesdale who had partaken in the crime with his former wife and tortures him for it in subtle, but effective manners. Dimmesdale then finally reaches a breaking point where he would reveal to the village that it was him who had committed adultery with Hester Prynne on the very spot that she was publicly shamed years before. After confessing this fact, Dimmesdale falls dead and Hester and Pearl leave town for several years, but only Hester would return, still wearing the "A" upon her breast and would even be buried in there along with Dimmesdale.

2) The theme can best be described as one of shame and how those who are plagued by it cope with the shame in various ways, be it through repression or through acceptance and perserverance.

3) The author's tone towards the novel is serious, formal, and solemn.
     -Satan dropped it there, I take it, intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence. But, indeed, he was blind and foolish, as he ever and always is. A pure hand needs no glove to cover it!
     -Many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.
     -The physician knew then, that, in the minister's regard, he was no longer a trusted friend, but his bitterest enemy.

4)Five literary elements or techniques used within The Scarlet Letter are circumlocation, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, and chiasmus.
     -"I am my mother's child," answered the scarlet vision, "and my name is Pearl!"
     -On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.
     -But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman.