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