Literature Analysis #5

The Jungle Upton Sinclair

General

1.     In The Jungle Jurgis and ona travel from their home country of Lithuania to America to start new better lives. The start their new lives in Chicago but face endless struggles. Their whole family is forced to work hard. Ona is forced to sleep with her boss and Jurgis ends up in prison for attacking the boss. After returning from prison he abandons his family because it is to hard. He feels like there is no way for a better life and Jurgis embraces the idea of socialism when wandering about the city and seeing a rally.

2.     I believe the theme of the novel is unfairity (if that is a word) in the workplace during the industrial revolution.

3.     The tone in this story is most likely critical because Jurgis is always under the lower end of the stick and cannot get a break in the world. The tone helps to create a helplessness in the world.

4.     Sybolism – Jurgis is a symbol for all the workers during the time period

Characterization – Sinclair describes Jurgis both indirectly and directly to truly show Jurgis as a character

Setting – The industrial revolution was a time that showed the true colors of the workplace so it was a perfect time period to tell the story

Point of View – As Jurgis as the narrator we get to see a point of view of the man that was living the terrible life and experience the things that he experienced

Tone – The tone helps to show the things wrong with the city and life itself during the time

Allusion – Sinclair ends the novel with the solution to Jurgis problems and we now know that he really attends a socialist rally

Plot – The plot helps to show the hardships and obstacles that jurgis is constantly going through in his struggle to survive in the new life

Irony – every time that we expect Jurgis to get a break in his life he is constantly being knowcked down and he never does get ahead except for maybe on a few occasions

Characterization

1.     Sinclair uses mostly indirect characterization to describe Jurgis. He is mostly described through his actions and thoughts instead of being blantly described. Because it is told through the first person.

2.     The syntax of Sinclair doesn’t really change that much throughout the story. It does change a little when he is describing the way other people react and treat Jurgis because they are completely different characters in the story. Jurgis is constantly being talked to like he is the lower end of society and isn’t treated with respect.

3.     Jurgis is a dynamic character because when he arrives to America he was set on achieving his goal to have a better life than the one he did back in Lithuania but as time went on he abandons his goal and of attempting with his family and has to struggle to survive.

4.     I felt like although I couldn’t really connect with Jurgis that I had met him and had experienced his hardships that he had experienced in his life.

Big Question

My big question I finally came up with in class today. It is "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Now I know that I'm definitely not the first to ask this question, but it has been pondered for many a decade and who hasn't wondered right? It is one of life's many great questions. So is ask you "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Lets see if you can answer it.

Literature Analysis #4

Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

There is no light,

There is no day,

Only the night,

No chance to get away.

Forced to live in a cave,

Bounded by shackles and fear,

Each man a slave,

There they stay year by year.

Until one man decides to strive,

To escape the false reality,

He found himself alive,

With new knowledge and vitality.

The rest, without any wisdom,

Are stuck to live without freedom.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1.     The allegory of the cave represents the different outcomes of how people perceive certain dilehmas and situations and how they tell the difference between truth and fiction.

2.     A key image used in the allegory was the imagery of shadows which represented reality in multiple ways.

3.     The allegory suggests that the process of enlightenment or education requires to erase your past experiences of what you once believed and to have to change and through the significant change you will become a more enlightened and educated self being.

4.     The shackles in the allegory represent the restraint and power imposed on the humans by a source that controls them and posing ignorance into the minds of the prisoners and the cave represents the prison and unfitted home of the prisoners where they live their lives of ignorance in which they cannot be freed from.

5.     In times today there are many shackles to the mind that may not seem like it at first. But all distractions and some rules can almost prohibit us from using our minds in was way that we had originally wanted to. Instead our minds are being controlled to do something that they originally had no intent on doing.

6.     The cave prisoners are ignorant toward the life outside of the cave because they have not known anything else their whole lives. But the freed prisoners have seen the light and the new and improved way of living and pity the cave prisoners for not being able to have them see for themselves the lives outside of the cave.

7.     With knowledge and understanding represented by light kept in mind there are two distinct ways that lack of clarity can occur. This can be through one never having the opportunity to experience the light on the other side and the other is one being cowardly, ignorant and/or stupid toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

8.     According to the allegory cave prisoners are freed through help. As if a friend was showing another the life away from drugs and gangs and into a community of knowledge and better life.

9.     Yes in that I completely agree that there could be a possible distinction between what seems real and what actually is. The mind is a powerful thing and it is so powerful that it can alter reality without the person even knowing that is happening. This can usually be seen through strong emotional conflicts that the mind can trick the person into thinking that something isn’t real when in actuality it is 100 percent real.

10. Honestly had no clue what the question was trying to ask…

Shakespearean Sonnet #14

Sorry about the video lagging I am not sure why it does that but I recorded it on my Mac and for some reason it is "laggy. Anyway you can still hear my voice so here it is... Sonnet #14.

Literature Analysis #3

General

1.     The Scarlet Letter is the symbol of adultery in the 17^th century Boston. In the story Hester, whom has the “Scarlet Letter” imprinted on her dress is paraded through the city. Her husband returns to town whom was thought to be lost, asks Hester not to alert the people of his return and takes the name of Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth however soon comes to believe that the minister, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is the person who had an affair with his wife. So as an act of revenge he haunts Dimmesdale for seven years while the guilt eats away at him. Hester and Dimmesdale decide to leave Boston and make a new life in England but the minister cannot go through with the plan because he confesses his sin to the public and reveals a scarlet A carved into his chest. Chillingworth dies and leaves all his money to Hester and Pearl who leaves Boston. But years later they return to the community and she wears the scarlet letter. Later in life, Hester dies and shares a gravestone with the minister and on the gravestone is engraved: “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules.”

2.     One of the more prominent themes in The Scarlet Letter is sin. Sin and sinning is a big part of the story. First of the “scarlet letter” is a visual representation of sin in itself. Sin is pretty vague so I’m going to say is how sinning affects the lives of people into believing something is wrong even if it is not.

3.     The tone in The Scarlet Letter is one that is satiric yet saddening. Hawthorne impedes on the thought and beliefs of the Puritans because of their actions and ideas. While also telling the sad story of a woman who was outcasted from her community because of adultery.

4.     Setting, tone, metaphor, simile, mood, irony, characterization, and symbolism all play a key role in the writing of the novel because of how easily these literary elements help to connect with the reader.

AP Hamlet PLN (Personal Learning Network)

These are some of the best resources that I found revolving around Hamlet:

http://drprestonsrhsenglitcomp12.blogspot.com/ (member blogs included)

            I went ahead and threw this in here because it is one of the best blogs regarding studying for Hamlet that I have seen.

http://hs.auburn.cnyric.org/teachers/Michael_Sullivan/AP/Hamlet

            This website was really helpful in studying for Hamlet. It had a character diagram of relationships that was pretty detailed and a list of what the different terms in the play that were “Shakespearian” really meant. It also had a historical map of what the reasoning behind prince Fortinbras appearance in the play which I thought was pretty cool.

http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/questions.html

            Although it is one of those sparknote type websites as it looks like, I do find it pretty helpful in terms of getting different things out of reading of Hamlet, but I will have to do more research on it in order to see if it can really be a helpful resource.

http://blogs.monashores.net/bradshawk/files/2010/02/Hamlet-ACT-I-V-Study-Guide.pdf

            It was a pretty good site because it had a long list of questions that acted like a study guide for Hamlet and although there weren’t really any answers they’re great questions to think about when looking deep into the play.

http://gallagherseniorhonors.blogspot.com/2008/02/hamlet-study-guide-for-act-11-31.html

            It was a great blog because it was very similar to ours and although it was a little outdated it looked like a great place to get some different views on Hamlet.

http://aplove.blogspot.com/2007/11/ap-lit-hamlet-actscene-notes.html

            I liked this blog because it was pretty simple I guess and it had a general summary of what each scene was really about which could be really helpful. But of course if I needed more detail I would research another site.