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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

MY TEAM

Today in class we all talked mostly about our projects. At our table, we all bounced around ideas and explained our different projects to each other. Rachel and I are still on course with our project and we are excited to start using our classmates as resources as we move forward. Other resources we will use are social media sites and sites like Upworthy.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

LAUNCH

Well since I have always had a knack for bringing up subjects that no one else likes to talk about, I am doing my project on body image. More than body image though, I also want to focus on positivity and the role that media plays in our definition of beauty and perfection. Rachel Shedd did a project with similar topics last semester so I will be working with her to expand on the ideas she came up with last semester and Kendall Villa will be working with us as well.

Walking around Righetti can be a fairly negative experience sometimes so the positivity aspect of our project will hopefully make the hallways suck less. A few parts of our project are secret for now so I won't say much about certain parts.

We definitely plan on using people as our main resource. We want to talk to as many people from as many walks of life as possible to make our class presentation complete. I think this is an important issue to address because it is something that an overwhelming number of people struggle with but don't always talk about. It is something is personally connected to my life so I think I will learn a lot getting input from other people.

I am really excited about this project. I am happy with the somewhat secretive work that we have done thus far and I am anxious to continue working on it and taking steps to move the project forward. I think it will be a unique and enlightening project.

Monday, February 24, 2014

I, JURY

I tried to comment on essays that used different prompts so I could read a variety of opinions on different topics about Brave New World. I was overall very impressed with the essays. I found that people's essays were rather well developed considering many people haven't read the entire book. Everyone seemed to have a strong understanding of the themes and importance of Brave New World. Reading other essays showed me that I need to be using stronger textual references. I mention parts of the novel but I am not using them as well as I could be.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

BRAVE NEW ESSAY

I will be writing on the wonderful prompt that Allyson found.

     It isn't a new concept that where we lives affects how we live but the extent of that effect isn't as clear. A person's surroundings can have either a positive or negative effect on that character's traits and this is definitely illustrated in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". In this novel, Lenina is a character whose entire personality is sculpted by a futuristic society. In Brave New World the surroundings create the characters and show the dangers of an all-powerful state. Huxley is able to create a setting that in itself, creates characterization.

     Lenina is a product of this new society that Huxley produced in Brave New World. She is pretty much just like everyone else in the novel. She does her job that she was assigned and she is happy in her social class. She responds well to the social customs of her society and lives the life that she is expected to. Lenina did not gather these characteristics on her own volition. She was programmed to have them due to her environment. She grew up in this strange society being programmed to do her job and live within her caste and be content with that, wanting nothing more or less. Lenina would not feel the way that she feels without her upbringing. Huxley was showing how manipulative an all-powerful government could be. The environment of the novel creates an atmosphere in which characters cannot think for themselves. They rely on the government to tell them when they are happy and what makes them content. There are of course some exceptions to this programmed society, but most of the characters are completely trapped out of individual thinking. Huxley created characters like Lenina this way to show how malleable people can be. How in a few years, a government completely rewire a population to think and act differently.

     The cultural surroundings of the characters in Brave New World determine their mental status's and moral traits. That's because the society's entire purpose is to mold and oppress the citizens. Huxley was precisely trying to show how environment effects human nature. Lenina was just one example of how people are receptive to their environment.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

BRAVE NEW ESSAY TOPIC

This is Question 3 from the 2005 AP Exam. It is: In a novel or play that you have studied, identify a character who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the work. 

This question makes me think of Brave New World and reminds me of Daniel's comment from class today. He talked about how he thought that Bernard was a conformist because he didn't rebel against society in an outright way. From what we've read so far, it is obvious that Bernard doesn't fit in with the social order. He finds many of its aspects disturbing and he is independent and individual. In my essay I would write about how Bernard represents the foil to the system and how he shows all of the things that are wrong with this new society. Bernard questions himself because he knows that he doesn't fit into his world.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I AM HERE

This first part of the semester has been fairly productive for me. I have a good hold on the academic aspect of the course and I have completed all necessary requirements for that. As for the senior project, I began work on that over winter break. Rachel and I are collaborating on a project aimed at promoting positivity among students. We have a met a few times to plan our project and have started certain aspects of it. Some aspects of the project are kept secret for now but more will be revealed as we continue.

Friday, February 14, 2014

WELCOME TO THE INTERDISCIPLINARITY

My project has to do with spreading positivity and promoting positive body image. I think that psychology will be important to look at for this project. Studying psychology will hopefully show the things that hinder positivity and encourage negative body image. More in depth studies on the media would be helpful as well. Since the media really influences body image and sets a lot of standards it is important to know more about it.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

LIT TERMS #6

Simile: a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison.
ex: A heart like a lion

Soliloquy: an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage.
ex: Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be 

Spiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme.
ex: Used in Sula

Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking.
ex: first person speaker, third person speaker
 
Stereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story.
ex: all teenagers are trouble makers

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: popular in postmodernism
 
Structure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization.
ex: loose structure

Style:  the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking.
ex: educational style, leisurely style

Subordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important  structures of language.
ex: Less important characters will not be as vividly described

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.
ex: Rene Magritte

Suspension of Disbelief: suspend not believing in order to enjoy it.
ex: People know vampires don't exist, but they read Twilight anyways

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

Synesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense.
ex: a "loud color"

Synecdoche: another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.
ex: "sails" can refer to a whole ship

Syntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence.
ex: "Powerful you have become; the dark side I sense in you."

Theme:  main idea of the story; its message(s).
ex: A theme in Sula is friendship

Thesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disproved; the main idea.
ex: Should be in the introductory paragraph of an essay

Tone: the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author’s perceived point of view.
ex: caustic, enlightening, calm, bombastic

Tongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; a.k.a. “dry” or “dead pan”
ex: Catch-22

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
ex: Romeo and Juliet

Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis
ex: I will be ready in 2 seconds

Vernacular: everyday speech
ex: conversations you hear around campus

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

Zeitgeist: the feeling of a particular era in history
ex: music can capture zeitgeist

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

HAFTA/WANNA

I think that my attitude towards life will be the same during and after high school. People complain soooooo much about high school and life in high school but really, you make your our choices and decisions so you should be able to find something good about every environment even the less desirable ones like high school. Life will be different after high school in that I will be able to more thoroughly study what I want. I realize that I can study what I want now but not as much as I will be able to when I am majoring in something. As much as I would love to just blow calculus off and spend my time/energy on studying things that interest me, that wouldn't fly with colleges that I'm trying to get accepted into. I balance the things I want to do and have to do pretty well. I grew up with a lot of freedom so I always knew if I didn't do the things that had to get done, then they wouldn't get done. I do make time for the things I want to do in different ways. I try to make things that I want to do into things that I have to do. I choose to join a dance company and make it a priority because it is something that I want to do. For myself,  I expect to not let myself get distracted. I know the goals that I have and I need to stay focused. I expect the world around me to allow me to pursue those goals and support me.

Monday, February 10, 2014

THE NOSE

1. What does Ivan Yakovlevich do for a living?
He is a barber.

2. What does Ivan find in a loaf of bread?
He finds a nose. The nose of Collegiate Assessor Kovalev, a man that he shaves.

3. How does his wife respond to Ivan's discovery?
She gets angry and threatens to report him to the police for cutting off someone's nose.

4. What does Ivan set out to accomplish?
He wants to get rid of the nose. 

5. When Ivan tosses the "package" in the river, for a brief moment he is happy; then he is arrested. What does this scene suggest about the role of happiness in Ivan's life/community/society? 
Happiness is transient and as soon as you finally find happiness it can be taken away in an instant.

6. Where does the title object belong, and how does it finally get there?
The title is "The Nose" and they nose that Ivan accidentally finds leads to a world a trouble that he wasn't expecting.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

LIT TERMS #5

Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.
ex: "Like father, like son."

Parody:  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.
ex: James Franco and Seth Rogen made a parody of Kayne West's Bound 2 music video.

Pathos:  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.
ex: Those really sad commercials where they show the sad abused animals and ask for donations are an appeal to pathos.

Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.
ex: If you ask someone a simple question and they go on and on using irrelevant information and extreme vocabulary then you can say they are being pedantic.

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or  abstract ideas.
ex: In Alice in Wonderland the rabbit, flowers, and playing cards are all personified.

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.
ex: The plot of Catch-22 doesn't follow the traditional plot diagram style.

Poignant:  eliciting sorrow or sentiment.
ex: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green is a poignant novel and you will cry when you read it.

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.
ex: 1st person, 3rd person

Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.
ex: Catch-22 

Prose:  the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.
ex: Nonfictional prose, fictional prose, heroic prose, poetic prose

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.
ex: Harry Potter is the protagonist of the Harry Potter series.

Pun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.
ex: An elephant's opinion carries a lot of weight.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.
ex: The purpose of the novel Sula was to show how human relationships change over time along with life events.

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

Refrain:  a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.
ex: Oh Captain! My Captain by Walt Whitman

Requiem:  any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.
ex: Mozart wrote many of these.

Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.
ex: The resolution of Sula is when Nel visits Sula's grave and apologizes.

Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.
ex: yes we can, yes we can, yes we can

Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.
ex: Speeches are full of rhetoric

Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.
ex: Are you stupid?

Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax.
ex: The rising action in Great Expectations is when Pip travels to London.

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.
ex: Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities

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

Scansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter.
ex: rhythm and meter

Setting: the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.
ex: The setting of Sula is 1920s-1960s Ohio.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

THE TIME OF MY LIFE

Today in class we were all fairly productive. I completed the journal topic and finished a couple other ones. Once we were all finished with the journal we all kind of collectively decided to have a class discussion about Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Daniel and Jake went up to the front of the room and talked to us about A Tale of Two Cities. They gave a plot summary and also talked about literary techniques that Dickens used. We asked them questions and took notes and then Rachel and Allyson talked a little bit about Great Expectations. By then time in class was running out so we turned in our notes. It was a productive day and I have a better feeling about both novels.