4 months till graduation

Tomorrow brings the end of February. Tomorrow is also my wonderful mother's birthday. But today, today I realized how little time I have to decide where I will get my post-secondary education. Today, as I worked beside my mother cleaning houses as I do every weekend (except this one, didn't want her working on her birthday, Friday was more convenient as I had to get blood drawn, plus it was an early out), I related to her a conversation I had with Mrs. K (my AVID teacher). I told her how she constantly reminds me to tell her (my mom) that I will soon be gone, how I need to go after my own goals, after my own dreams, after my own life and journey. I told my mom how the conversation between me and Mrs. K included her (my mom's) reason for missing me, the constant shouting and ruckus I cause at home. My mom responded with tears in her eyes, by saying, "Si, tu eres la que alegras la casa." Which means, "Yes, you are the one that brightens up our home." I didn't want to cry so instead I burst up laughing, a normal reaction for me. Haha. But it made me realize how little time I have with my family if I do go away for college. It made me realize how much my mom's life will change, how much I will be missed, and how much I will miss my family, especially my hardworking, sensitive, hilarious, and amazing mother. My super mom. It also made me realize how much we take time for granted, because we don't have much.

These four years have definitely gone by so fast, and I sometimes wish I had more time to wallow in the easiness that is high school, but I realize that my life needs to go on, and that I need to accomplish my goals.

I guess this is just a mom appreciation post, or multiple small realization posts incorrectly titled '4 months till graduation.'

Literature Analysis #5 ~ 1984

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

Exposition: The book takes place in London, Oceaniain what is thought to be the year 1984. The main characters are Winston Smith, Julia, and O'Brien. These three characters live in a less-than ideal world, constantly being watched by Big Brother, constantly in fear of committing a 'thought-crime' and constantly watching their actions, gestures, expressions, etc. or less it be taken as unorthodox. Winston works in a building where history is 'fixed' to depict all of Big Brothers foretellings as true, history and the past don't necessarily exist, everything is falsified, events that occurred can be written out of history and out of the peoples' minds, people can also disappear and no one will ask questions. Winston is not generally with the Party (Big Brother), he despises the world he lives in and wishes he could go back to a time before the fifties or sixties, when he was a child, and when he knew things were not like this. Winston at first believes Julia is attempting to turn him in to the authorities, but it turns out she is actually in love with Winston, she is also against the Party. These two turn into lovers, finding pleasure in breaking the rule of celibacy out of marriage and only for the mere purpose of future informers(children). Winston also believes that O'Brian is against the party, but he only has a couple of glances and a dream to suggest this.
Inciting Incident: Winston buys a journal, a place where he sets all his thoughts, including those against the Party. For some reason he states that the journal is for O'Brian, that he writes in it for him.
Rising Action: Winston gets the opportunity he needs to speak to O'Brien when O'Brien personally invites him to visit his home for a 'dictionary.' All those glances and slight meetings that may have meant nothing actually did, O'Brian was a part of the Brotherhood, the group against the Party and Big Brother. O'Brian was allowing Winston and Julia into the organization, and allowed them to borrow the book that carried Goldstein's theories.
Conflict: Winston and Julia are discovered in the room above Mr. Charrington's shop. The church frame has concealed a telescreen.
Climax: Out of the telescreen comes a familiar voice, that of Mr. Charrington, singing the last lines of the church song, "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head."
Falling Action: Winston is take to the Ministry of Love and tortured by O'Brian, this is the "place where there is no darkness." Winston is brainwashed and forced to believe everything the Party says, he resists but is eventually broken. He also gives up Julia, telling the Party to torture her instead, this satisfies the Party.
Resolution: Winston has come to believe that the party is right, he no longer questions or challenges their views. He no longer cares for any contact with Julia. Winston has turned into a submissive and controlled citizen, just like all the others.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme is that we cannot escape the society that is yet to come. We will all eventually succumb to the Party, or we will die trying to rebel against it. The theme is that we ourselves are pushing into this form of society.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

1. "..they had the illusion not only of safety but or permanence." 
2. "History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." 
3. "We are the dead." 

The author's tone is hopeless. Orwell has his protagonist experience some sliver of hope, and then it is immediately shut down. Winston himself shuts down his and Julia's hope, usually their conversations end with, "We are the dead." And even when they remain hopeful for awhile, they are betrayed, "the Party is always right."

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

1. Allusion: "...over fulfillment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan." pg. 6
2. Juxtaposition: " WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." pg 7
3. Irony: "The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all... maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine gun nests." pg 8 "..tortures, drugs, delicate instruments that registered your nervous reactions, gradual wearingdown by sleeplessness and solitude and persistent questioning." pg 138
4. Hyperbole: "The thing he was about to do was to open a diary. ... If detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced labor camp." pg 9 
5. Foreshadow: "...Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees to clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear. It is written in his face." pg 47
6. Antimetabole: "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." pg 61
7. Simile: "...not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog." pg 109
8. Metaphor: "The room was a world, a pocket of the past.." pg 124
9. Alliteration: "We are the dead."

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
DIRECT:

1. "Katherine was a tall, fair-haired girl, very straight, with splendid movements. She had a bold aquiline face..."
2. "O'Brien's manner became less severe. He resettled his spectacles thoughtfully, and took a pace or two up ad down. When he spoke, his voice was gentle and patient. "

INDIRECT:

1. "What is it?" said Winston, fascinated. "That's coral, that is," said the old man. "It's a beautiful thing," said Winston."
2. "The young, strong body, now helpless in sleep, awoke in him a pitying, protecting feeling."

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

The authors syntax and diction do not change when he focuses on a character. Orwell provides the same attention to detail to each part of his book, whether it be concerning a Two Minutes Hate ceremony, or describing the face of a tired woman, he supplies the reader with very minute details.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

The protagonist is dynamic and round. He goes from being a rebel to completely being for the party. Winston had many outside forces pushing and pulling him, and he managed to transform throughout the entire novel. He even transformed with Julia, starting off as cold and animalistic, and transforming into a loving, passionate, and caring lover. But, Winston does take that nasty turn at the end, giving up Julia, and essentially telling the Party to harm her instead.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

Winston does seem like a real person, he goes through all the feelings and actions any person would under his circumstances. He experiences paranoia, he questions his situation, yet he is submissive and private in his ways in order to stay alive. One example that makes him seem real is when he is already meeting up with Julia to make love. It is a moment where she cannot make it and he angers, only to find her squeezing her hand and his entire attitude changes to one of affection, an idea that they do not need to make love every time they meet, but that being together is enough. It makes him seem human and in a sense, normal.

Brave New World - Chapter 4

• Allusion: Melancholy referring to Bernard's face > beginning of pharmaceutical work, saying how all things have a chemical equation
• Alliteration: "roof" > animalistic features to the lower class elevator man > also described as "doggily expectant," and commanded to "go down, go down."
• Allusion: Marx > leaderless society, the reason why Bernard is the one that is going to question his society
• Metaphor: Lenina with Henry floating above London > "The huge table-topped buildings were no more, in a few seconds, than a bed of geometrical mushrooms sprouting from the green of park and garden."
• Simile: Lenina looks on at workers changing shift > "Like aphides and ants, the leaf-green Gamma girls, the black Semi-Morons swarmed around the entrances.."
• "I am I, and wish I wasn't" > Bernard on his self-consciousness
• Simile: "...men who took their position for granted; men who moved through the caste system as a fish through water- so utterly at home as to be unaware either of themselves or of the beneficent and comfortable element in which they had their being."
• Characterization: Helmholtz Watson > "powerfully built man, deep chested... springly and agile...every centimeter an Alpha-Plus. ...had also become aware of his differences from the people who surrounded him."

don't mind how pixilated this video is.

Bree is in the bottom left corner. Dude, this girl was down for anything and everything! On the first couple of takes of this shot she was standing and dancing, but then she realized she had a dress on. Haha. Mind you, this was a project my best friend and I were doing for a child development project, Piaget's Stages of Development. I had completely forgotten about this video until now. Just wanted to share with you guys a small clip I had of Bree being her awesome self, and of course, helping in any way possible. Love you, Bree! (:

Brave New World - Chapter 2 & 3

Chapter 2

• Ironic and juxtaposition: "They were in a large bare room, very bright and sunny.." > depicts the unnaturalness of the situation, and how things are meant to seem "bright" and wonderful
• Pathos: emotion sought from readers as they discover how children are taught to hate things (shocks and other various forms of association with a negative response) >> "The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance."
• Diction: "sharp spasmodic yelps.." > makes the babies sound almost unhuman, sort of describing them as things, or even as animals
• Allusion: B.F Skinner - operant conditioning; ability to modify a behavior (interest) by its consequences > children won't enjoy books or nature because of the negative consequence
• Flashback: The Director keeps mentioning the past, past failed experiments with hypnopadia, past parent-child relationships, etc.
• Restatement: importance of social class standing instilled in children > "Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children, And Episilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read and write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."
• Metonymy: "My Ford" replacement of  "My Lord" >> religion replaced > "Oh, Ford!"

Chapter 3

• Juxtaposition (all of chapter 3): multiple conversations; Fanny and Lenina, Bernard and the other two men, and the Controller with students
• Allusion: Psychological theories of Sigmund Freud > the unconscious mind and how it affects the outer
• Symbolism: Soma > the happiness drug, keeping the people submissive and essentially "content and happy" under their unchangeable circumstances; to take "a vacation"

Vocabulary:

• aseptically:  Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms;   Lacking animation or emotion:
• posthumous: occurring or continuing after ones death
• indissolubly: incapable of being undone, or unbroken
• viviparous: bringing forth live young that have developed inside the body of the parent.
• maudlin: self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness.

why we need to continue reading

Marina Abramovic - Rhythm 0

When Preston was lecturing and he mentioned The Prison Experiment, and the increasing aggressiveness that the prisoners experienced from the guards, I remembered this artist and one of her performances/galleries. Her work focuses on the relationship between audience and performer. She has been described as "the grandmother of performance art."

Rhythm 0.

"‘What I learned was that if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you. I felt really violated – they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation’"

 

 

 

 

Article on the artist: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/12/marina-abramovic-ready-to-die-serpentine-gallery-512-hours

The Prison Experiment - Overview

• 70 Applicants > 24 chosen to participate
• "Our study of prison life began, then, with an average group of healthy, intelligent, middle-class males."
• 'prisoners' were picked up in a police car and booked (fingerprints and all) into the prison
• "Our prison was constructed by boarding up each end of a corridor in the basement of Stanford's Psychology Department building. That corridor was "The Yard" and was the only outside place where prisoners were allowed to walk, eat, or exercise, except to go to the toilet down the hallway (which prisoners did blindfolded so as not to know the way out of the prison). To create prison cells, we took the doors off some laboratory rooms and replaced them with specially made doors with steel bars and cell numbers."
• "The Hole," or solitary confinement. It was dark and very confining, about two feet wide and two feet deep, but tall enough that a "bad prisoner" could stand up.
  An intercom system allowed us to secretly bug the cells to monitor what the prisoners discussed, and also to make public announcements to the prisoners. There were no windows or clocks to judge the passage of time, which later resulted in some time-distorting experiences."
• on arrival prisoners were searched, stripped naked, and sprayed (allusion to lice/germs/filth)
• "It should be clear that we were trying to create a functional simulation of a prison -- not a literal prison. Real male prisoners don't wear dresses, but real male prisoners do feel humiliated and do feel emasculated. Our goal was to produce similar effects quickly by putting men in a dress without any underclothes. Indeed, as soon as some of our prisoners were put in these uniforms they began to walk and to sit differently, and to hold themselves differently -- more like a woman than like a man."
• The chain on their foot, which also is uncommon in most prisons, was used in order to remind prisoners of the oppressiveness of their environment.
• dehumanized > weren't called by name but by ID number
• stocking cap = shaved head > remove any individuality, as well as getting them to comply
• physical punishment was imposed by guards (push-ups, often with a foot on their back, or with another inmate sitting on them)
• when rebellion was started by the prisoners, guards responded with force
• ""Let's use psychological tactics instead of physical ones." Psychological tactics amounted to setting up a privilege cell. > The effect was to break the solidarity among prisoners."
• "By dividing and conquering in this way, guards promote aggression among inmates, thereby deflecting it from themselves."
• first prisoner to show disturbing reactions/signs of 'craziness' : "During the next count, Prisoner #8612 told other prisoners, "You can't leave. You can't quit." That sent a chilling message and heightened their sense of really being imprisoned. #8612 then began to act "crazy," to scream, to curse, to go into a rage that seemed out of control. It took quite a while before we became convinced that he was really suffering and that we had to release him."
• Prisoners allowed visitors, but with all the paperwork and such that is gone through in real jails
• Priest visit to see how realistic the prison is > "The priest's visit further blurred the line between role-playing and reality. In daily life this man was a real priest, but he had learned to play a stereotyped, programmed role so well -- talking in a certain way, folding his hands in a prescribed manner -- that he seemed more like a movie version of a priest than a real priest, thereby adding to the uncertainty we were all feeling about where our roles ended and our personal identities began."
• Parole Hearings > "Several remarkable things occurred during these parole hearings. First, when we asked prisoners whether they would forfeit the money they had earned up to that time if we were to parole them, most said yes. Then, when we ended the hearings by telling prisoners to go back to their cells while we considered their requests, every prisoner obeyed, even though they could have obtained the same result by simply quitting the experiment. Why did they obey? Because they felt powerless to resist. Their sense of reality had shifted, and they no longer perceived their imprisonment as an experiment. In the psychological prison we had created, only the correctional staff had the power to grant paroles."
• ended when a psychologist questioned the morality of the experiment, basing her question on the students treatment and physical/mental appearance.

http://www.prisonexp.org/psychology/1

With Bree in mind

It is amazing to know that Bree still keeps giving us gifts, even after her beautiful soul has left this world. The class I used to talk to Bree the most in was child development, it was this class that allowed me to form a stronger bond with Bree, the class where we would crack jokes and be silly, the class where we complained about all other classes, the class where we argued over who would get up to get the materials for the day.. The first day back to school I was terrified to go to this class, she sat right next to me, and I was afraid to see that empty spot, to once again be reminded of the hole that had just been punctured in my heart. But Bree's friend, the one that sat on the other side of Bree, was sitting in her spot. I won't say I didn't break down anyway, because I did, but the impact of her being gone didn't fully hit me, it honestly still hasn't. I will forever be grateful to Nadia for sitting in that seat, and for sitting in that spot from then on. Nadia and I weren't friends before Bree's accident, but we did unite in and after this tragedy. Bree left me and my best friend, with a wonderful new buddy, a girl that is as kind as Bree, that is as thoughtful and considerate of others, and a girl who is as genuine and analytical as her. In no way am I saying that she is a replacement of Bree, nobody can replace that girl, but we have gained an amazing buddy because of Bree. And because of this newfound friendship, I was able to get this gem of a picture, something I will cherish forever. Thank you, Nadia.

Brave New World - Chapter 1

• Setting: Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, A.F (After Ford) 632
• Director of Hatchery showing around students, and the process of fertilization
• Bokanovsky's Process: egg buds, proliferate, and divide > 8 to 96 buds (96 IDENTICAL TWINS) > PROGRESS! > mass production applied to biology
• Where does the advantage of the above lay? > Major instruments of social stability.
• All "humans" are 'predestine and condition[ed]'
• "we don't need human intelligence."
• "All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny." > doesn't sound like a utopia at all
• Repetition: "Straight from the horses mouth." > "from the most authentic source"

Vocabulary:

• largesse: generosity in bestowing money or gifts upon others:
• morula: a solid ball of cells resulting from division of a fertilized ovum, and from which a blastula is formed.
• sultry: (of the air or weather) hot and humid.
• corpus luteum: a hormone-secreting structure that develops in an ovary after an ovum has been discharged but degenerates after a few days unless pregnancy has begun.

Lit Terms #6

simile - noun a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as')

soliloquy - noun a (usually long) dramatic speech intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections; speech you make to yourself

spiritual - adj. lacking material body or form or substance;  concerned with sacred matters or religion or the church

speaker - noun someone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous)

stereotype - noun a conventional or formulaic conception or image

stream of consciousness - a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue.

structure - planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization

style - noun the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking

subordination - noun the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of writing

surrealism - noun a 20th century movement of artists and writers (developing out of dadaism) who used fantastic images and incongruous juxtapositions in order to represent unconscious thoughts and dreams

suspension of disbelief - suspend not believing in order to enjoy

symbol - noun something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible; an arbitrary sign (written or printed) that has acquired a conventional significance

synesthesia - noun a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occurs when another modality is stimulated

synecdoche - noun name changing; part stands for whole

syntax - noun the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences

theme - noun a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work

thesis - noun an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument

tone - noun device used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work

tongue in cheek - type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness

tragedy - noun drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity; an event resulting in great loss and misfortune

understatement - noun opposite of hyperbole, saying less than you mean

vernacular - adj. everyday speech

voice - the textural features such as diction and sentence structures that convey a writer or speakers persona

zeitgeist - noun the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation

A thought from early January.

When the mind is at a loss for preoccupation, it seeks to unravel the complexities of the world.

A random thought I had at the beginning of this year, as I sat without a care or worry, all applications done, scholarships for the moment finished, no home troubles, and I pondered at the existence of the world, and the existence, lifespan, and total life experiences each person has. I found this written in the notes on my phone, and I thought "what the f*ck, what quote is this?!" And as I attempted to find it on google and as nothing came up I realized and remembered that this was my own quote, past-me's quote. It is a pretty general thought, as I realize most people, or at least teens, question their existence often, or who they are, or even why they are here. I just liked the fact that I wrote it down, to preserve my random thought, and that I am now sharing it with other people on this blog.

Sonder

“The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”

(Definition by: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, website: http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com; can also be found in video format here>http://youtu.be/AkoML0_FiV4 )

LOVE OF LEARNING = VISION OF THE FUTURE (Short Essay)

Watch the following interviews and write a brief essay describing how the love of learning can inspire a vision of the future.

We can be educated in anything that "strikes our fancy," but we cannot, in a sense, be forced to comprehend or love to learn about something that does not interest us. Forced learning creates a sort of prison environment, something children must be put through, an activity that all children/teens want to escape from. Learning the basics at school, while including a subject that is loved by a child will aid in removing this thought of imprisonment. If people are learning what they want they will obviously want to keep learning, they will find a substantial reason to keep at it. Learning is not something meant strictly for children, it is not something that is meant to cease once a graduation occurs, learning is or should be life long. Focusing on something one loves to learn about creates and inspires a better worked future. The fact that people are learning about what they love, what they have an interest in, will insure that things are well-learned, or actually learned, and will improve all aspects of life.

Essentially, for this better future that Isaac Asimov has envisioned, we need to get past receiving an education to receive a job to receive a "pretty good" wage. It is an endless cycle of forced learning and unhappiness. We must all envision a love for learning, we must expect the younger generations to experience a love for a subject, and to pursue that love. We must evoke a passion from all those currently in education systems. Passion, or the love, for knowledge will create a better future. If everyone is passionate about one, two, three, a couple subjects, they will learn those subjects extremely well. The passion they maintain for the subject will be their drive to keep learning more. We must create a world in which success is defined by the action of intense acquisition of learning on a subject that one is enamored with. The love of learning must define "success."

I have a passion for helping people, but the idea of diseases, viruses, bacteria, etc. and how they spread throughout the body, how they manage to cause so much destruction, also interests me. For this reason I want to be a nurse. I want to learn more about things such as how different strands of a disease or infection are created, about mass prevention/infection, about the symptoms of dieses/viruses and more importantly, how to help people get better. This is my passion, and although it includes getting a degree, I will be successful once I am helping others with their health.

Isaac Asimov on the excitement and love of learning.

[When] there’s a subject I’m ferociously interested in, then it is easy for me to learn about it. I take it in gladly and cheerfully… [What’s exciting is] the actual process of broadening yourself, of knowing there’s now a little extra facet of the universe you know about and can think about and can understand. It seems to me that when it’s time to die, there would be a certain pleasure in thinking that you had utilized your life well, learned as much as you could, gathered in as much as possible of the universe, and enjoyed it. There’s only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it. And while it is inconceivable that anyone can grasp more than a tiny portion of it, at least you can do that much. What a tragedy just to pass through and get nothing out of it.

A Work by Aldous Huxley

I went searching for a poem and came upon one entitled "Love Song," which is found in Aldous Huxley's second book of poetry entitled The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems.

"Dear absurd child--too dear to my cost I've found--
God made your soul for pleasure, not for use:
It cleaves no way, but angled broad obtuse,
Impinges with a slabby-bellied sound
Full upon life, and on the rind of things
Rubs its sleek self and utters purr and snore
And all the gamut of satisfied murmurings,
Content with that, nor wishes anything more.
A happy infant, daubed to the eyes in juice
Of peaches that flush bloody at the core,
Naked you bask upon a south-sea shore,
While o'er your tumbling bosom the hair floats loose.
The wild flowers bloom and die; the heavens go round
With the song of wheeling planetary rings:
You wriggle in the sun; each moment brings
Its freight for you; in all things pleasures abound.
You taste and smile, then this for the next pass over;
And there's no future for you and no past,
And when, absurdly, death arrives at last,
'Twill please you awhile to kiss your latest lover."


Although somewhat morbid I enjoy the ending because this isn't an ordinary love poem, rather it depicts what will one day occur to all of us, death. In a way it reminds me of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," in the sense that it isn't really a love song either. I did a bit of research after reading this poem and found the following information, which explains a bit of symbolism and imagery.

"“Love Song” is spoken by a rejected lover and addressed to a hedonist whose soul is made “for pleasure, not for use.” She is associated with a cat, as her soul  “rubs its sleek self and utters purr and snore,” and with an infant, still trapped within the realm of the sensual.  There is something diabolical about this child, however, as its eyes are “daubed [with] juice / Of peaches that flush bloody at the core,” and the succession of lovers will conclude with “death.”  This is no Baroque memento mori, but is characterized by the recognition of the absurd throughout – the word “absurd” actually occurs in the first and second-to-last lines of the poem.  “Love Song” is thus an indictment of the attitude toward love as something purely pleasurable, sensual, and fickle (“You taste and smile, then this for the next pass over”); such an attitude is both threatening and patently “absurd.”"

Hedonism: a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

Memento Mori: Latin 'remember (that you have) to die') is the medieval Latin theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. It is related to the ars moriendi or “Art of Dying”

Surprising Book Facts!

Lit. Terms #5

parallelism - noun similarity by virtue of corresponding
parody - noun humorous or satirical mimicry; a composition that imitates somebody's style in a humorous way
pathos - noun a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow); a style that has the power to evoke feelings
pedantry - noun an ostentatious and inappropriate display of learning
personification - noun the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas 
plot - noun a secret scheme to do something; the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.
poignant - adj. keenly distressing to the mind or feelings; arousing affect
point of view - a particular attitude or way of considering a matter
postmodernism - noun genre of art and literature and especially architecture in reaction against principles and practices of established modernism
prose - noun ordinary writing as distinguished from verse; matter of fact, commonplace, or dull expression
protagonist - noun the principal character in a work of fiction
pun - noun a humorous play on words
purpose - noun an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions;the quality of being determined to do or achieve something; what something is used for; verbreach a decision; propose or intend
realism - noun the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth; (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that physical objects continue to exist when not perceived; (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that abstract concepts exist independent of their names; an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description
refrain - noun the part of a song where a soloist is joined by a group of singers; verb resist doing something; choose not to consume
requiem - noun a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person
resolution - noun finding a solution to a problem
restatement - noun a revised statement
rhetoric - noun study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking); using language effectively to please or persuade; loud and confused and empty talk; high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation
rhetorical question - a question asked for effect that neither expects nor requires an answer
rising action - a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.
romanticism - noun impractical romantic ideals and attitudes; a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization
satire - noun witty language used to convey insults or scorn
scansion - noun analysis of verse into metrical patterns

setting - noun the context and environment in which something is set; the state of the environment in which a situation exists

AP Resources

Looks somewhat doable. With a lot of writing practice I may be able to accomplish this. But then again, I did score a 3 on last years AP English test. But, I do doubt myself a lot, or so I've been told. The good thing is that I am still willing to push myself, to work hard to get my writing to where it needs to be and to push myself to write an amazing essay in the time that is alloted. As for the questions, I tend to be really good at the readings that are followed by questions. I just hope to keep learning literary terms to expand my vocabulary for my essays, as well as being prepared for multiple choice questions that include literary terms. 

Meatless Mondays

Imagine this, one day a week for all Americans could potentially save the lives of so many animals. 

Now imagine this, laws are now being set up to punish those attempting to rescue these mistreated, misfed, and suffering animals. AG-GAG LAWS. In some US states these laws have made it illegal to record the mistreatment of animals, illegal to expose the cruelty that millions of animals are forced to go through. 

Imagine this though, you are constantly being fed this abused and tortured meat.. By abused I do not only mean hit and beaten, but many animals are actually physically abused. Many are kept in constant fear, kicked, pulled, whipped, slammed.. 

I am not saying to completely discontinue eating meat, rather to educate yourself, and figure out where the meat you purchase is coming from. And know that just because it is considered "free range meat" does not mean that it was not mistreated. Free range being defined by the following: (of livestock, especially poultry) kept in natural conditions, with freedom of movement; "Free range denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals, for at least part of the day, can roam freely outdoors, rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 hours each day. On many farms, the outdoors ranging area is fenced, thereby technically making this an enclosure, however, free range systems usually offer the opportunity for extensive locomotion and sunlight prevented by indoor housing systems. Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming.")  Rather the packaged meat may only be barely meeting requirements.

It is time that something like Meatless Mondays actually gets going, it is time that we end the senseless abuse that continually occurs in our "farms." It is time that we take into consideration the animals that help maintain our population, because even though they are meant just for food, they have a right to an abuse-free life.

A Quote From Alice Walker

Lit Terms #4

interior monologue - a form of writing which represents the inner thoughts of a character; recording of the internal, emotional experiences of the individual
inversion - noun  the reversal of the normal order of words
juxtaposition - noun a side-by-side position to contrast
lyric - adj. expressing deep personal emotion noun a short poem of songlike quality
magical realism - juxtaposes everyday with the marvelous or magical
metaphor - noun a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity
metonymy - noun substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they counted heads')
modernism - noun practices typical of contemporary life or thought; genre of art and literature that makes a self-conscious break with previous genres; the quality of being current or of the present
monologue - noun a (usually long) dramatic speech by a single actor; a long utterance by one person (especially one that prevents others from participating in the conversation); speech you make to yourself
mood - noun verb inflections that express how the action or state is conceived by the speaker;a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; the prevailing psychological state
motif - noun  a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work
myth - noun a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people
narrative - adj. consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story; noun a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
narrator - noun someone who tells a story
naturalism - noun extreme form of realism
novelette/novella  - noun a short novel
omniscient point of view - knowing all things, usually the third person
onomatopoeia - noun using words that imitate the sound they denote
oxymoron - noun conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence')
pacing - noun walking with slow regular strides;(music) the speed at which a composition is to be played
parable - noun  a short moral story (often with animal characters)
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself