Monday, December 10, 2012

Literary Analysis 5

5.) Grape of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  • Summary: This book is about a family during the great depression in the 1930's. They are moving from Oklahoma to California to look for a better life to live. The book is about their travels and the problems they encounter along the way.
  • Theme: The theme I noticed was how the Joad family got treated so badly the whole trip for no particular reason. In the end, the lack of judgment really hurt the people. You need to treat people the same way as you want to be treated.
  • Tone: The authors tone was very specific on how he wanted to describe the great depression and I believe he did a great job on doing so. He described every little situation with great detail and it made me learn a lot about the great depression that I never knew.
  • Characterization: Steinbeck chose to use indirect characterization so he could focus on the bigger situation which is the great depression. He does a great job of describing a scene without using dialogue.
    • Diction/Syntax: Steinbeck influences the story a lot by changing his diction and syntax throughout the story. He changes the characters point of view throughout also.
    • Character: Tom Joad is considered to be dynamic because he changes as the story goes on. In the beginning he really has no dreams or goals when he comes out of prison, but in the end he creates dreams and goals that he wants to achieve in California.

Literary Analysis 4

4.) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Summary: Brave New World is all about a controlled society, or a perfect one. There is no such thing as random or chance in this world. Everyone is put into a level such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so on. In this story a man named Bernard is a Alpha plus and a strange man named John who left his country to come live in the perfect world. Once John gets there and realizes how awful it is to have every predetermined or simulated, he hates it and tries to stay out of the way. Once he starts doing his own thing, the public is very angry at John and gets to him. The coward that John is, he ends up hanging himself to escape it.
  • Theme: The theme is that our imperfections is what makes us who we are. Without our imperfections and differences we are all the same and it is just basically boring. In the story John realizes that he would rather take his own life than to live a depressing, non motivational life. 
  • Tone: Aldous Huxley uses a hopeless tone to show how useless a perfect society is. I believe he realizes that the way our societies in our world are headed that this kind of thing can happen in the future. The way he speaks of it you can easily tell that he does not like the idea of a perfect society.
  • Diction: His diction in this story our choice of words shows his view on the thought of a perfect society. He uses descriptions that are bland and boring to show how uninteresting this type of society would be for him.
    • Syntax: The syntax used by Huxley seems to be very straight forward. He uses lines that are just very basic and easy to understand but not interesting at all.
    • Satire: The satire in this novel is very important because it shows that he thinks this is a possibility in our world. He believes our society is headed down the same path.
    • Repetition: The authors repetition helped show his stance on a perfect society. He kept using pointless and boring descriptions of events and made it sound really bad.

Fact of the Day

Today is my Birthday! I started to think of all the things I can do now.
  • No more curfew so I can stay out past 11PM legally
  • I am able to gamble or participate in the lottery
  • I am an adult now so everything will go on record and I can be arrested and sent to jail
  • Now I am legally allowed to drive anyone I want without restrictions.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Fact of the Day

Im watching the Packers vs. Lions football game and they showed a clock that was 15 minutes fast. They said that Vince Lombardi, one of the most famous coaches ever, demanded his players be 15minutes early to everything so he had a clock created with time 15 minutes ahead of the actual time. Interesting, but affective.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Fact of the Day

Today was the first time in the history of the Heisman Trophy that a freshman won the award. Congratulations to Johnny "Football" Manziel for winning such a prestigious award!

Literary Analysis 3

3.)  Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • Summary: The Lord of the Flies by William Golding begins with a group of young boys that are evacuating their school because of a on going war. They get on a plane and while they are on the plane, it gets shot down and it crashes on an island. Once everyone alive finds each other, they elect leaders. They choose Ralph and Jack. While Ralph is the head leader Jack is in charge of the hunting. Ralph and Jack don't get along. While the boys have a fire going, it gets out of control and burns down most of the island. While they are roaming around two of the boys say they saw a beast. Once other people start believing in the beast, pretty soon the whole group believes and the beast lives within them. Ralph and Jack are fighting more than ever. The island gets separated into two groups when Jack claims he is the new leader. Jack and his hunters go kill a pig to sacrifice to the beast. As it is on the stick, Simeon comes over and sees the head covered in flies so he calls it the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies tells Simeon that he lives within everyone and there is no beast! Simeon goes to tell the others but it was too late as they already started killing each other like savages. Ralph hides in the forest and buries the pigs head then passes out on the beach. He wakes up with a officer looking at him asking if he was alright.
  • Theme: I believe the theme of this story is innocence. These kids are still little and have a lot to learn but once they are thrown in this situation it all comes at them. I think their innocent little hearts got overtaken by the "beast" within them. 
  •  Tone: William Golding wrote this in a very dark tone. Once the plane had crashed, there became a sense of chaos and panic which then led to dark thoughts. Thoughts such as "should we have laws and abide or just hunt a kill" show the darkness that corrupted the boys.
  • Five Literary Elements/Techniques: 
    • Diction: Golding's diction in this book helps the reader understand what is going on by giving great descriptions such as, "The crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore."
    • Plot: The plot is shown significantly by the boys not only killing animals and hunting but also hunting and killing their own kind; each other.
    • Tone: The loss of a structure really showed how the tone was dark and corrupt.
    • Symbolism: The one major symbol in this book is the conch which calls everyone together. Once the conch gets broke, all civil actions are tossed out and it is straight chaos.
    • Characterization: With all the characters being so young, it helps the reader understand how messed up the situation really is. Little boys do not come close to doing any of the stuff they do in this book which shows the loss of innocence.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Fact of the Day

Its about that time when people start complaining how "cold" it is here. People don't realize our cold is everyone else warm! I wished it snowed here instead of being so hot! Then i started thinking of snowflakes.  Most snowflakes form with 6 tips or branches. Generally, the colder it is when the snowflake is formed the sharper and more defined the tips will be. Thats why our snowflakes, well are just water...

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Fact of the Day

The only animal with four knees is the elephant. My knees hurt so thank god I don't have four of them hurting!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Fact of the Day

Over Christmas break my family and I are supposed to go to New York but my father is terrified of planes. So, I just told him that more people are killed from donkeys in a year than planes; which is interestingly true!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

My Sonnet

My Sonnet

School is our job; day in and day out.
8:00am to 3:00pm; no ways out.
Each year our learning gets tougher,
With opportunities waiting at every corner.

Most people see school as living hell.
Some even compare it to being like jail.
I sit back and laugh at these ridiculous statement's,
Because I come to school to better my education.

Without school their is no future ahead,
So don't complain, just work harder instead.

Literary Analysis 2

2.) The Great Gatsby
  • Summary: Nick Carraway just moved to West Egg in New York in 1922. His neighbor, Jay Gatsby, is very wealthy and has parties every weekend. Nick goes to one of his parties and this girl Jordan, tells him about Gatsby. He finds out Gatsby is in love with a girl named Daisy. Daisy happens to be Nick's cousin and is married to a guy named Tom. Even though she is married, Gatsby and Daisy start an affair. Her husband Tom confronts Gatsby and things get crazy. Daisy takes Gatsby's car and drives off and ends up killing a woman named Myrtle. Myrtles husband kills Gatsby thinking that Gatsby was driving the car but he wasn't. Nick ends up throwing a funeral for Gatsby but very few people show up. Nick moves back to the Midwest after all this chaos happened.
  • Theme: The theme of The Great Gatsby is rich corruption. With money and popularity at the hands of Gatsby, he still needs Daisy which leads to the affair which leads to all the chaos that leads to his death. 
  • Tone: The tone of this story is very cynical. With the affair between Gatsby and Daisy corrupts everything. Then the killing of Myrtle gives her husband motive to kill Gatsby even though he wasn't driving.
  • Literary Elements:
    • Imagery: The author is very descriptive with the details of the scene and setting. The color green is throughout the novel also.
    • Simile: The other compares a lot of things to others. Such as "In his blue garden men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars." Similes often has the word like or as.
  • Characterization: The characters maturity affects the authors diction in this novel. Also Gatsby is a dynamic character because the way we view him changes whenever we are given new information about him. He is also round because we can visualize how he truly is and we understand well.

 

Fact of the Day

A lot of people consider me tall. Especially girls given that they are shorter. But not this one! The tallest girl in the world ever recorded was 8 feet 2 inches tall!! She died at the young age of 17 because of growing too fast.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Literary Analysis 1

1.) No Exit
  • Summary: I believe the summary of this book is how people torture us. This day and age we let people limit us and put negative thoughts in our heads. We choose to believe other people's opinions rather than just doing your own research and having your way of doing things or your opinions.
  • Theme: We don't believe in ourselves. We let other people control our actions, thoughts, and words by letting them fill our mind with garbage. Have self confidence.
  • Tone: The authors tone is very harsh. The way he describes the torture for Estelle, Garcin, and Inez is very cruel and hard. I think just being in one room with the same people everyday can kill a mam. Describing hell even when they don't want to is very harsh also.
  • Literary Elements: 
    • Symbolism: Hell is supposed to be torture and awful but instead their hell is nice with couches and sofas. Also the torture chamber is just a drawing room. 
    • Diction: The way the characters talk to each other and always bicker and fight is a interesting choice of diction.
  • Characterization: There are so many different ways of characterization and one is Garcin's lack of confidence. He always ask for other peoples opinions and approval. The protagonists are static because they don't stop the mind games going on by all of them. They go crazy without even realizing they can avoid it.

    Fact of the Day

    As my hair gets longer and longer I am realizing there is so much hair on my head! The average human with a full head of hair contains between 85,000 to 150,000 hairs. Thats a lot!!

    Sunday, December 2, 2012

    Fact of the Day

    I was thinking about hurricane sandy and all the damage caused by it and then I saw the damage to the subway system. The subway system to them is like a road to us. There are 722 miles of subway track in New York city and the majority of it got destroyed.

    Saturday, December 1, 2012

    Fact of the Day

    This is interesting:  
         The 2nd president of the United States (John Adams) and 3rd president of the United States (Thomas Jefferson) both died within just a few hours apart of each other on the same exact day of July 4th 1826. They are the only two presidents to die on the same day of the same year.