1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.
The opening scene in a play is important. They introduce character, setting, plot and even theme. In Albee’s The American Dream the play’s major themes are introduced in the opening scene. Albee introduces the concept of dissatisfaction for Mommy and Daddy. He also foreshadows the plot of the play. This sets the stage, so to speak, for the real meaning of the work being of consumer dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction is clearly found in the opening dialogue between Mommy and Daddy. The pair complains about Mrs. Barker being late, about the apartment managers not fixing their icebox or doorbell in a timely fashion and about Mommy’s new hat. They are clearly dissatisfied with what they think they deserve. This dissatisfaction is tied into the meaning of the play. Mommy and Daddy are concerned with materialistic things and being satisfied by them. Mommy wanted her hat to be beige and when it was called wheat she threw a tantrum until she received a false sense of satisfaction by receiving the same hat as before. The dissatisfaction so closely following the initial satisfaction as portrayed in the opening scene shows how absurd their behavior is.
When Mommy just discards the beige hat for the same beige hat under the illusion that it is a different hat, Albee is foreshadowing that Mommy will want the Young Man after having discarded his twin brother. Mommy discarded the Young Man’s twin after he displayed undesirable traits such as talking back and touching himself. The Young Man is assumed to be identical to the other child. Mommy only wants the Young Man become she seems him as something new and shiny.
The fascination with the newest consumer goods is shown in The American Dream through Mommy’s need to get new things and gain satisfaction from them. However this feeling is fleeting because there is always something newer that just came out and therefore you no longer have the newest consumer good causing dissatisfaction.
The Beginning of a play can tell you a lot about the rest of it. Albee’s The American Dream introduced the feeling of dissatisfaction and even foreshadowed the entire play’s plot in the first few pages. The feeling of dissatisfaction permeates the first pages and becomes more specifically consumer dissatisfaction as the play progresses.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Revision #3
1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.
Fathers and sons don’t always get along. Their relationship can be strained for a variety of reasons. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy and Biff don’t get along at all. Willy is constantly on Biff about his lack of a career while Biff is unhappy with Willy because he cheated on Linda. Miller uses their now strained relationship to further his analysis of the American dream.
Willy has a typical American Dream for his family. He wants them to have financial success. Willy’s view of the American Dream is that a person can be successful just by being liked. He tries to push this on his family by stressing popular sports like football and not caring about school and an education. Willy also uses this idea as a basis for his affairs. Bribing secretaries with stockings, Willy gets sex and quick access to the buyers. His success at being a salesman comes from the secretaries liking him. This new American Dream ideal highly favors money over values and enjoyment of ones work. On the other hand, Willy’s son Biff has a very different view of the American Dream. He finds satisfaction in going out west and working on the farms. Biff claims that he likes being out there and using his hands. Biff represents the old American Dream where making money wasn’t as important as your values and happiness.
Willy, the father, and Biff, the son, used to be a loving pair. However after Biff discovers his father’s affair, they become estranged. Their symbolism as the new and old American Dreams brings them to a head on collision of dislike for each other. Biff is unforgiving of his father’s affair because of its unethical ways in pursuit of more money. Willy on the other hand is upset with Biff ruining his potential by going out west. He thinks that Biff is wasting his time making no money and can’t see that it is what Biff wants to do.
Willy and Biff’s relationship with each other creates a deeper meaning in the commentary that Miller creates about the old and new American Dreams. The distance and fractured feelings between them create a vivid image behind the main plot.
Fathers and sons don’t always get along. Their relationship can be strained for a variety of reasons. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy and Biff don’t get along at all. Willy is constantly on Biff about his lack of a career while Biff is unhappy with Willy because he cheated on Linda. Miller uses their now strained relationship to further his analysis of the American dream.
Willy has a typical American Dream for his family. He wants them to have financial success. Willy’s view of the American Dream is that a person can be successful just by being liked. He tries to push this on his family by stressing popular sports like football and not caring about school and an education. Willy also uses this idea as a basis for his affairs. Bribing secretaries with stockings, Willy gets sex and quick access to the buyers. His success at being a salesman comes from the secretaries liking him. This new American Dream ideal highly favors money over values and enjoyment of ones work. On the other hand, Willy’s son Biff has a very different view of the American Dream. He finds satisfaction in going out west and working on the farms. Biff claims that he likes being out there and using his hands. Biff represents the old American Dream where making money wasn’t as important as your values and happiness.
Willy, the father, and Biff, the son, used to be a loving pair. However after Biff discovers his father’s affair, they become estranged. Their symbolism as the new and old American Dreams brings them to a head on collision of dislike for each other. Biff is unforgiving of his father’s affair because of its unethical ways in pursuit of more money. Willy on the other hand is upset with Biff ruining his potential by going out west. He thinks that Biff is wasting his time making no money and can’t see that it is what Biff wants to do.
Willy and Biff’s relationship with each other creates a deeper meaning in the commentary that Miller creates about the old and new American Dreams. The distance and fractured feelings between them create a vivid image behind the main plot.
Revision #2
1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
An ending is just that, an ending. After one reaches this point there is nothing else. Endings can be either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Edward Albee uses his play The American Dream to display an indeterminate ending that is appropriate and satisfactory for his purposes. Having Grandma effectively end the play, Albee contributes to his idea that the lives of Mommy and Daddy’s lives are not to be followed and actually avoided. This creates a message about fleeting nature of the satisfaction achieved through today’s consumerism.
The ending of the play has Mrs. Barker introducing the Young Man to Mommy and Daddy as their new child. Hiding “on stage” but unseen by the characters (except for the Young Man), Grandma observes the action. Just as the characters seem to be happy and satisfied in the outcomes of the current action, Grandma addresses the audience that “[the play had] better go no farther...[leaving] things the way they are right now…while everyone’s happy” (Albee 127). Mommy and Daddy are both satisfied with Young Man that they now have for a child and the Young Man is satisfied at having a job where he gets paid. Throughout the play the characters “can’t get satisfaction” or if they gain satisfaction it is fleeting (Albee 61). When Grandma ends the play when “everybody’s got what [they] wants”, where they are satisfied, inferring that if the play were to progress more that the characters would become unsatisfied again (Albee 127). The ending is set up to teach us what the characters don’t learn. While the characters are focused on having this artificial and fleeting sense of satisfaction, Grandma is letting us see that we can have deeper meaning and a fulfilling satisfaction in our lives. The ending in itself is unsatisfying because we don’t know how the lives of the new family will work out or how they will search to find happiness. Therefore the ending of the play fits the overall theme of being dissatisfied.
This fleeting satisfaction is foreseen in the indeterminate ending of the play and helps promote the message about today’s consumerism. Mommy is briefly with everything she buys. At first, she enjoys her newly purchased hat and at first she enjoys the little bundle she got from Mrs. Baker but, she becomes dissatisfied. She seems to have even married Daddy for his money, a decision designed to get her more consumer goods. In all cases she is unhappy shortly afterwards as she will be with the Young Man soon enough. Ending the play early makes us wonder about what will happen and propels Albee’s message of the frivolousness of consumerism.
Edward Albee purposefully made the ending of The American Dream a bit of a cliff hanger so that you could draw your own conclusions about how the satisfaction of Mommy and Daddy and even the Young Man will wane because of its artificial and fleeting nature.
An ending is just that, an ending. After one reaches this point there is nothing else. Endings can be either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Edward Albee uses his play The American Dream to display an indeterminate ending that is appropriate and satisfactory for his purposes. Having Grandma effectively end the play, Albee contributes to his idea that the lives of Mommy and Daddy’s lives are not to be followed and actually avoided. This creates a message about fleeting nature of the satisfaction achieved through today’s consumerism.
The ending of the play has Mrs. Barker introducing the Young Man to Mommy and Daddy as their new child. Hiding “on stage” but unseen by the characters (except for the Young Man), Grandma observes the action. Just as the characters seem to be happy and satisfied in the outcomes of the current action, Grandma addresses the audience that “[the play had] better go no farther...[leaving] things the way they are right now…while everyone’s happy” (Albee 127). Mommy and Daddy are both satisfied with Young Man that they now have for a child and the Young Man is satisfied at having a job where he gets paid. Throughout the play the characters “can’t get satisfaction” or if they gain satisfaction it is fleeting (Albee 61). When Grandma ends the play when “everybody’s got what [they] wants”, where they are satisfied, inferring that if the play were to progress more that the characters would become unsatisfied again (Albee 127). The ending is set up to teach us what the characters don’t learn. While the characters are focused on having this artificial and fleeting sense of satisfaction, Grandma is letting us see that we can have deeper meaning and a fulfilling satisfaction in our lives. The ending in itself is unsatisfying because we don’t know how the lives of the new family will work out or how they will search to find happiness. Therefore the ending of the play fits the overall theme of being dissatisfied.
This fleeting satisfaction is foreseen in the indeterminate ending of the play and helps promote the message about today’s consumerism. Mommy is briefly with everything she buys. At first, she enjoys her newly purchased hat and at first she enjoys the little bundle she got from Mrs. Baker but, she becomes dissatisfied. She seems to have even married Daddy for his money, a decision designed to get her more consumer goods. In all cases she is unhappy shortly afterwards as she will be with the Young Man soon enough. Ending the play early makes us wonder about what will happen and propels Albee’s message of the frivolousness of consumerism.
Edward Albee purposefully made the ending of The American Dream a bit of a cliff hanger so that you could draw your own conclusions about how the satisfaction of Mommy and Daddy and even the Young Man will wane because of its artificial and fleeting nature.
Revision #1
2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on a political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
As World War II came to a close, Communism and its ideals threatened the ‘free’ countries such as England and the US. George Orwell’s novel 1984 explores the political issues of Communism’s control over people’s lives. In 1984, Orwell used language and details to explore the oppressive political issues that dominate the book. This politically oppressive regime helps send the message of the dangers of communism.
The language used in 1984 has a lot of symbols. The telescreens are symbolic in that they are always present. One can never turn them off completely as they are always spurting news or propaganda about the Party. They also have a more sinister function of spying on the residents, watching for any misbehavior. This symbolizes to what extent a totalitarian government can abuse technology instead of putting it to good use and benefiting its civilians. It also supports themes throughout the novel such as the abuse of technology, the dangers of totalitarian governments, the control of information and psychological manipulation. Big Brother is another symbol that Orwell uses through out his novel. The words “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” are posted on posters everywhere in Oceania. Big Brother is symbolic of the government and how its protective, in reference to brother, yet ominous, in reference to always watching. It is an obvious abuse of power by the government of the inalienable right of privacy.
Many details in the novel help push the political issue of Communism into the minds of its readers. Orwell uses such details as the government banning sex with people to really push into the minds of his readers just how far this government has gone and abused their power, how Communism is controlling people’s lives and that this could happen to them. Another detail is that by the end Winston loves Big Brother. Tortured for months and brainwashed, O’Brien finally makes Winston love Big Brother taking away the individuality treasured among people and his ability to think for himself. Both of these are fears that Orwell has about Communism that he is conveying to us.
Using the language and details of 1984, Orwell created political issues. Winston's love of Big Brother in the end strikes fear into anyone loving the rights that are enjoyed here in the US and in England. Orwell used 1984 to prompt the fears of communism.
As World War II came to a close, Communism and its ideals threatened the ‘free’ countries such as England and the US. George Orwell’s novel 1984 explores the political issues of Communism’s control over people’s lives. In 1984, Orwell used language and details to explore the oppressive political issues that dominate the book. This politically oppressive regime helps send the message of the dangers of communism.
The language used in 1984 has a lot of symbols. The telescreens are symbolic in that they are always present. One can never turn them off completely as they are always spurting news or propaganda about the Party. They also have a more sinister function of spying on the residents, watching for any misbehavior. This symbolizes to what extent a totalitarian government can abuse technology instead of putting it to good use and benefiting its civilians. It also supports themes throughout the novel such as the abuse of technology, the dangers of totalitarian governments, the control of information and psychological manipulation. Big Brother is another symbol that Orwell uses through out his novel. The words “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” are posted on posters everywhere in Oceania. Big Brother is symbolic of the government and how its protective, in reference to brother, yet ominous, in reference to always watching. It is an obvious abuse of power by the government of the inalienable right of privacy.
Many details in the novel help push the political issue of Communism into the minds of its readers. Orwell uses such details as the government banning sex with people to really push into the minds of his readers just how far this government has gone and abused their power, how Communism is controlling people’s lives and that this could happen to them. Another detail is that by the end Winston loves Big Brother. Tortured for months and brainwashed, O’Brien finally makes Winston love Big Brother taking away the individuality treasured among people and his ability to think for himself. Both of these are fears that Orwell has about Communism that he is conveying to us.
Using the language and details of 1984, Orwell created political issues. Winston's love of Big Brother in the end strikes fear into anyone loving the rights that are enjoyed here in the US and in England. Orwell used 1984 to prompt the fears of communism.
Synthesis of Course Material #4
Writing and other test taking skills are something we learned in AP Lit
When writing an open prompt you should….
• Don’t read the list it might mess you
• Pick a work based on the question
• Don’t ignore pre-question stuff; it’s the starting point
• Label all the goals of the prompt
• Prove everything
• ALWAYS have meaning
• Pick a work you know
• Write a thesis that addresses the goals, includes a why, includes a theme and meaning
• Try a broad opening sentence followed by a bridge to your thesis
• Your topic sentences should be able to stand by itself
• Put 3 pieces of evidence in each paragraph
• Conclude each paragraph with a little flash of meaning
• Plain style
TAP
• Thesis Answers Prompt
Talking with the Text
Think Aloud
A. Go back and forth with a partner reading lines and stopping every few seconds to discuss and ask questions
Annotation
A. 1st read through
a. Vocabulary
b. Odd words
c. Elements of style
B. 2nd read through
a. Patterns, words and ideas that are linked
b. Shifts in viewpoint or tone
c. Themes
d. Pose questions
C. 3rd read through
a. Write for 3-5 min about the section
Graphic Organizer
A. Paraphrase
B. Identify literary element
C. Consider its effects
Analyzing
A. Ask “how” questions
B. Look above!!!
Developing a Thesis Statement
A. Needs to…
a. Focus on specific characteristics of the poem’s style and structure
b. Recognize complexity
Organizing a Close Analysis Essay
A. Do what you want basically
4. Integrating Quotations
A. Use a quote and a few sentences of explanation for it
Working with Two Texts: The Comparison and Contrast Essay
1. Developing a Thesis Statement (Remember the prompt! & Look at deeper differences)
2. Organizing a C&C Essay (Text-by-Text & Element-by-Element)
When writing an open prompt you should….
• Don’t read the list it might mess you
• Pick a work based on the question
• Don’t ignore pre-question stuff; it’s the starting point
• Label all the goals of the prompt
• Prove everything
• ALWAYS have meaning
• Pick a work you know
• Write a thesis that addresses the goals, includes a why, includes a theme and meaning
• Try a broad opening sentence followed by a bridge to your thesis
• Your topic sentences should be able to stand by itself
• Put 3 pieces of evidence in each paragraph
• Conclude each paragraph with a little flash of meaning
• Plain style
TAP
• Thesis Answers Prompt
Talking with the Text
Think Aloud
A. Go back and forth with a partner reading lines and stopping every few seconds to discuss and ask questions
Annotation
A. 1st read through
a. Vocabulary
b. Odd words
c. Elements of style
B. 2nd read through
a. Patterns, words and ideas that are linked
b. Shifts in viewpoint or tone
c. Themes
d. Pose questions
C. 3rd read through
a. Write for 3-5 min about the section
Graphic Organizer
A. Paraphrase
B. Identify literary element
C. Consider its effects
Analyzing
A. Ask “how” questions
B. Look above!!!
Developing a Thesis Statement
A. Needs to…
a. Focus on specific characteristics of the poem’s style and structure
b. Recognize complexity
Organizing a Close Analysis Essay
A. Do what you want basically
4. Integrating Quotations
A. Use a quote and a few sentences of explanation for it
Working with Two Texts: The Comparison and Contrast Essay
1. Developing a Thesis Statement (Remember the prompt! & Look at deeper differences)
2. Organizing a C&C Essay (Text-by-Text & Element-by-Element)
Synthesis of Course Material #3
We read The American Dream, Pride and Prejudice, Ceremony, Death of a Salesman, and Hamlet.
The American Dream
• Mommy, Daddy and Grandma all live in a house.
• Centered around satisfaction
• Theatre of the Absurd
• No one can remember the recent past in accurate detail
• They don’t recognize people
• Mrs. Barker plays a universal role
• Grandma enters her day old cake into a competition and wins money because they love it
• The Young man is replacing Grandma in the house
• The new shiny and appearance based American dream in replacing the old American dream of depth, happiness and old fashion values.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, Jane, Mr. Bingley, Charlotte, Mr. Collins, Lydia and Wickham
• Elizabeth is prejudice against Mr. Darcy
• Mr. Darcy is too prideful to admit his fancy of Elizabeth
• Elizabeth is always true to herself and comes out on top
• Jane isn’t as true and comes in second
• Charlotte sells out and gets Collins
• Lydia basically ruins herself and gets Wickham
Ceremony
• Live at Laguna
• Pueblo nation
• Tayo and Rocky go to war, Rocky dies, Tayo comes home and is messed up. Tayo lives with Grandmother, Robert and Aunite. His friends are Harley and Leroy (they’re always drunk). Josiah is his dead uncle whom he loved to death.
• Emo = evil sorcerer. His full name is Geronimo. Geronimo is the hero of the enemy clan aka the enemy of the
• Thought-Woman and Sun Father are the parent gods
• Sun Father is like yellow and
• Thought-Woman = lady making the web of thoughts
• People like (Ts’eh) function as deities too
• Loose NA language = loose NA culture
• Medicine man = Betonie
• Huge circle motifs → the whole book moves in a counterclockwise circle to counter the sorcery of Emo
• Circles in weather or season, in direction, in wind patterns,
• Betonie encourages a combination of the cultures for survival (oral tradition and book; modern NA medicine techniques; ect)
• Gallup = evil town where the NA live dirty and drunk on the streets, too proud to go home to their reservations or too addicted to leave
• Night Swan = Mexican whore that seduces Robert and Tayo along with other NA men
• Lots of nature descriptions and flowery words
• Tayo finds Josiah’s cattle, steels them back from a white guy (who he thought would never steel because he is white) and meets Ts’eh
• Ts’eh = Mountain range that helps try to cure Tayo. Also his lover
• TAyo is very caught between the white and NA worlds
• Huge motif of the stories being created, born, kept in the belly
• Stabs Emo in the end to kill the stories that are evil
Death of a Salesman
• Willy, Linda, Happy, Biff
• Unsatisfactory consumerist lifestyle → things are often referred to as being good one moment and then sucky the next
• Idealized past → Willy claims a lot of things about the past but none of those actually happened
• Capitalism takes its toll → dumping Willy on the streets when he’s too old kindof treating him like the appliances and other commercial goods that we throw away with out a care or that don’t last as long as they should
• Willy obsesses over being well liked
Hamlet
• King Claudius kills Old Hamlet and marries Gertrude. Hamlet is not happy that his mom married his uncle and when the Ghost of his dad comes back to tell him that Claudius killed him it gets ugly.
• Denmark is corrupt and that’s why everyone has to die in the end and Fortinbras can then take the thrown and purify it.
• The first scene is a mini set up to the whole play
• Reality vs non-reality
• Hartio is the skeptic
• Hamlet is set up as a kindof Jesus figure
• Denmark is compared to a human body, with the crown being the head, it’s a repeated analogy
• This is all I have on Hamlet for right now because I’m still annotating ☺
The American Dream
• Mommy, Daddy and Grandma all live in a house.
• Centered around satisfaction
• Theatre of the Absurd
• No one can remember the recent past in accurate detail
• They don’t recognize people
• Mrs. Barker plays a universal role
• Grandma enters her day old cake into a competition and wins money because they love it
• The Young man is replacing Grandma in the house
• The new shiny and appearance based American dream in replacing the old American dream of depth, happiness and old fashion values.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, Jane, Mr. Bingley, Charlotte, Mr. Collins, Lydia and Wickham
• Elizabeth is prejudice against Mr. Darcy
• Mr. Darcy is too prideful to admit his fancy of Elizabeth
• Elizabeth is always true to herself and comes out on top
• Jane isn’t as true and comes in second
• Charlotte sells out and gets Collins
• Lydia basically ruins herself and gets Wickham
Ceremony
• Live at Laguna
• Pueblo nation
• Tayo and Rocky go to war, Rocky dies, Tayo comes home and is messed up. Tayo lives with Grandmother, Robert and Aunite. His friends are Harley and Leroy (they’re always drunk). Josiah is his dead uncle whom he loved to death.
• Emo = evil sorcerer. His full name is Geronimo. Geronimo is the hero of the enemy clan aka the enemy of the
• Thought-Woman and Sun Father are the parent gods
• Sun Father is like yellow and
• Thought-Woman = lady making the web of thoughts
• People like (Ts’eh) function as deities too
• Loose NA language = loose NA culture
• Medicine man = Betonie
• Huge circle motifs → the whole book moves in a counterclockwise circle to counter the sorcery of Emo
• Circles in weather or season, in direction, in wind patterns,
• Betonie encourages a combination of the cultures for survival (oral tradition and book; modern NA medicine techniques; ect)
• Gallup = evil town where the NA live dirty and drunk on the streets, too proud to go home to their reservations or too addicted to leave
• Night Swan = Mexican whore that seduces Robert and Tayo along with other NA men
• Lots of nature descriptions and flowery words
• Tayo finds Josiah’s cattle, steels them back from a white guy (who he thought would never steel because he is white) and meets Ts’eh
• Ts’eh = Mountain range that helps try to cure Tayo. Also his lover
• TAyo is very caught between the white and NA worlds
• Huge motif of the stories being created, born, kept in the belly
• Stabs Emo in the end to kill the stories that are evil
Death of a Salesman
• Willy, Linda, Happy, Biff
• Unsatisfactory consumerist lifestyle → things are often referred to as being good one moment and then sucky the next
• Idealized past → Willy claims a lot of things about the past but none of those actually happened
• Capitalism takes its toll → dumping Willy on the streets when he’s too old kindof treating him like the appliances and other commercial goods that we throw away with out a care or that don’t last as long as they should
• Willy obsesses over being well liked
Hamlet
• King Claudius kills Old Hamlet and marries Gertrude. Hamlet is not happy that his mom married his uncle and when the Ghost of his dad comes back to tell him that Claudius killed him it gets ugly.
• Denmark is corrupt and that’s why everyone has to die in the end and Fortinbras can then take the thrown and purify it.
• The first scene is a mini set up to the whole play
• Reality vs non-reality
• Hartio is the skeptic
• Hamlet is set up as a kindof Jesus figure
• Denmark is compared to a human body, with the crown being the head, it’s a repeated analogy
• This is all I have on Hamlet for right now because I’m still annotating ☺
Monday, March 5, 2012
Synthesis of Course Material #2
Terminology ☺
I have learned a lot of technical terms and general information on the literature as a whole. That will be covered here!
The function of all literature is to create function. We point out stuff like DIDLS to find the hidden ‘so what?’ question.
Poetry – Language that is condensed for artistic effect
•Evolves from the oral traditions because the techniques made it memorable
•Takes longer to explain then to read
Doggerel – rhymed rhythmic prose
Prose – what isn’t poetry
•Takes longer to read then to explain
There are also many terms that I learned. I will not list them all here because that would be a pointless waste of time. However there are a lot of them. We took a vocabulary test on them. This went very well. Then for our final we had to identify them. This did not go as well. Its hard to identify something using definitions that don't mean a ton to me. I think more examples would have been a good thing. Haha.
What is Close Reading?
o AKA explication of text
o Means → developing an understanding of a test that is based on its small details and the larger ideas that those details evoke
o Analyzing not what but how
Tone and Mood
• Tone → speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the work
• Mood → is the feeling the reader experiences
• Try to use at least 2 precise and very specific words
Rhyme
o Free verse (no rhyme)
o End rhyme
o Internal rhyme
o Near rhyme
o Rhyme scheme
Meter
o Iambic pentameter
o Iambic tetrameter
o Blank Verse → unrhymed iambic pentameter
Form
o Recognize a traditional form? --> Comply? Or defy?
o Patterns?
• Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet (Divided into 8 and 6 lines, First have has the issue, second half the answer)
• English/Shakespearean Sonnet (3 four line stanzas and a couplet, 3rd stanza provides a turn, Couplet is a witty remark)
• Elegy
• Lyric
• Ode
• Villanelle
Poetic Syntax
o Run on lines
o Caesura
Sound
o Alliteration
o Assonance
o Onomatopoeia
o Cadence
Annotation
• 1st read through ---> Vocabulary, Odd words, Elements of style
• 2nd read through ---> Patterns, words and ideas that are linked, Shifts in viewpoint or tone, Themes, Pose questions
• 3rd read through ---> Write for 3-5 min about the section, Paraphrase, Identify literary element, Consider its effects
We also studied Critical Lenses
Lens that are based on the text are as follows
• New Criticism
• Structuralism
• Formalist
• Psychoanalytical
Lens that are based on the reader are as follows
• Reader Response
• Post-Structuralism
• Psychoanalytical
Lens that are based on the Culture are as follows
• New Historicist
• Marxism
• Feminism
• Post Colonial Theory
• Literary Darwinism
• Mythological-Archetypal
• Psychoanalytical
I have learned a lot of technical terms and general information on the literature as a whole. That will be covered here!
The function of all literature is to create function. We point out stuff like DIDLS to find the hidden ‘so what?’ question.
Poetry – Language that is condensed for artistic effect
•Evolves from the oral traditions because the techniques made it memorable
•Takes longer to explain then to read
Doggerel – rhymed rhythmic prose
Prose – what isn’t poetry
•Takes longer to read then to explain
There are also many terms that I learned. I will not list them all here because that would be a pointless waste of time. However there are a lot of them. We took a vocabulary test on them. This went very well. Then for our final we had to identify them. This did not go as well. Its hard to identify something using definitions that don't mean a ton to me. I think more examples would have been a good thing. Haha.
What is Close Reading?
o AKA explication of text
o Means → developing an understanding of a test that is based on its small details and the larger ideas that those details evoke
o Analyzing not what but how
Tone and Mood
• Tone → speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the work
• Mood → is the feeling the reader experiences
• Try to use at least 2 precise and very specific words
Rhyme
o Free verse (no rhyme)
o End rhyme
o Internal rhyme
o Near rhyme
o Rhyme scheme
Meter
o Iambic pentameter
o Iambic tetrameter
o Blank Verse → unrhymed iambic pentameter
Form
o Recognize a traditional form? --> Comply? Or defy?
o Patterns?
• Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet (Divided into 8 and 6 lines, First have has the issue, second half the answer)
• English/Shakespearean Sonnet (3 four line stanzas and a couplet, 3rd stanza provides a turn, Couplet is a witty remark)
• Elegy
• Lyric
• Ode
• Villanelle
Poetic Syntax
o Run on lines
o Caesura
Sound
o Alliteration
o Assonance
o Onomatopoeia
o Cadence
Annotation
• 1st read through ---> Vocabulary, Odd words, Elements of style
• 2nd read through ---> Patterns, words and ideas that are linked, Shifts in viewpoint or tone, Themes, Pose questions
• 3rd read through ---> Write for 3-5 min about the section, Paraphrase, Identify literary element, Consider its effects
We also studied Critical Lenses
Lens that are based on the text are as follows
• New Criticism
• Structuralism
• Formalist
• Psychoanalytical
Lens that are based on the reader are as follows
• Reader Response
• Post-Structuralism
• Psychoanalytical
Lens that are based on the Culture are as follows
• New Historicist
• Marxism
• Feminism
• Post Colonial Theory
• Literary Darwinism
• Mythological-Archetypal
• Psychoanalytical
Synthesis of Course Material #1
DIDLS
What is it? Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax
• The Elements of Style
Diction
• Word choice
• Single words at a time
• Denotations
• Multiple dictionary meanings
• Consider all of them
• Connotations
• Meaning beyond dictionary definitions
• Consider these too
• Look for slang words that can affect the tone too
• Colloquial
• Questions for every work
• Which of the important words are general and abstract and which are specific and concrete?
• Are the important words slang? Informal? Formal? Colloquial?
• Are there words with strong connotations?
• Elevated language
• Dialect
• Large region
• Dejorative
• Negative in meaning
• Gaunt vs willowy
• Honorific
• Positive in meaning
• Gaunt vs willowy
• Vagueness vs Concrete
• Puns
• How does that one word change the meaning or give you a better picture of the world?
Imagery
• Uses all 5 senses
• Look for…
• How the impressions are made
• Patterns
• Questions for every work
• Does it use figurative or literal language?
Details
• Important facts shared in the text that create meaning
• This is pretty self explanatory
Language
• Includes…
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Analogy
• Hyperbole → overstatement
• Understatement
• Paradox
• Irony
Syntax
• The arrangement of phrases, clauses and sentences
• Are they simple? Or complex?
• Word order
• Phrase order
• Repetition of stuff
• Questions for every work
• Word choice order?
• Are nouns or verbs more prevalent?
• Syntax applies to the phrases or sentence structure. It can be anything from colons, to Subject-Verb-Object order, or maybe even run-ons or fragments. These different techniques create different affects. Maybe it makes it seem as if the speaker is crazy, or creates a sense of confusion at what is happening in the piece. Long story short, it can do a lot.
What is it? Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax
• The Elements of Style
Diction
• Word choice
• Single words at a time
• Denotations
• Multiple dictionary meanings
• Consider all of them
• Connotations
• Meaning beyond dictionary definitions
• Consider these too
• Look for slang words that can affect the tone too
• Colloquial
• Questions for every work
• Which of the important words are general and abstract and which are specific and concrete?
• Are the important words slang? Informal? Formal? Colloquial?
• Are there words with strong connotations?
• Elevated language
• Dialect
• Large region
• Dejorative
• Negative in meaning
• Gaunt vs willowy
• Honorific
• Positive in meaning
• Gaunt vs willowy
• Vagueness vs Concrete
• Puns
• How does that one word change the meaning or give you a better picture of the world?
Imagery
• Uses all 5 senses
• Look for…
• How the impressions are made
• Patterns
• Questions for every work
• Does it use figurative or literal language?
Details
• Important facts shared in the text that create meaning
• This is pretty self explanatory
Language
• Includes…
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Analogy
• Hyperbole → overstatement
• Understatement
• Paradox
• Irony
Syntax
• The arrangement of phrases, clauses and sentences
• Are they simple? Or complex?
• Word order
• Phrase order
• Repetition of stuff
• Questions for every work
• Word choice order?
• Are nouns or verbs more prevalent?
• Syntax applies to the phrases or sentence structure. It can be anything from colons, to Subject-Verb-Object order, or maybe even run-ons or fragments. These different techniques create different affects. Maybe it makes it seem as if the speaker is crazy, or creates a sense of confusion at what is happening in the piece. Long story short, it can do a lot.
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