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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Literature Analysis # 2

Brave New World  by Aldous Huxely

GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

The plot of Brave New World has this one goal in mind which is technological progress. It describes how there society revolves around industry, economy, and technological growth and improvement. The town is brain washed since the day they were conceived. The babies were already being programmed into there designated life style. The scientist controlled everything that went being closed doors. They decided whether what type of baby they will be. There were the babies that received the DNA into becoming Beta children (scientist, teachers, doctors, etc.) Then you would also get the Epsilons  that were the dumbest kids, so they'd probably receive a job working as janitors for example.The Deltas were in between the Beta's and the Epsilon's."Delta children wore khaki. Oh no, I don't want to pay with the Delta children. And Epsilon's 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." (page 35) The author's purpose for this novel is to portray how the future could end one day. Technology will soon be inside every home and will become dependent on it. 

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme revolves around the idea of technology uprising the industrialism and the economic system. How the advancement of science can affect the human immorality.
Inside Utopia they are big on invention. believing in creating something new rather than repairing it.
"Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending."  (page 55)

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
The tone appears to be happy at first, everything is well put together and things seem to be working fine.The principle is speaking to the children and giving them a tour in the science facility and he is proud of the work that is being done inside those walls.
"Outside, in the garden, it was playtime. Naked in the warm June sunshine, six or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns, or playing ball games, or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs. The roses were in bloom, two nightingales soliloquized in the boskage, a cuckoo was just going out of tune among the lime trees. The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters." (page 37)
Disillusionment is an important tone that is expressed through out the novel. For example, the towns people can not really have  "formal relationships", in fact they they prefer them to have just relations with one another. "I really do think you ought to be careful. it's such a horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man. At forty, or thirty-five, it wouldn't be so bad. but at your age, Lenina! No it really won't do. (page 46)

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.)

Alliteration- "Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending"  (page 55)

Dialogue- "Explain what?"
                          "This." He indicated the pueblo. "That." And it was the little house outside the village. "Everything. All your life."
             "But what is there to say?"
                         "From the beginning. as far back as you can remember."
             "As far back as I can remember." John frowned. There was a long silence.  (page 116)

figurative language-  "to reconstruct. As though we were living on different planets, in the different centuries. A mother, and all this dirt, and gods, and old age, and disease..."  (page 116)

Hyperbole- "Like drums, like the men singing for the corn, like magic, the words repeated and repeated themselves in his head. From being cold he was suddenly hot. His cheeks burnt with the rush of blood, the room swam and darkened before his eyes."  (page 124)

Irony- "But cleanliness is next to fordliness," she insisted.
           "Yes, and civilization is sterilization," Bernard went on, concluding on a tone of irony the second hypnopaedic lesson in elementary hygiene."  (page 105)

imagery- "For suddenly there had swarmed up from those round chambers underground a ghastly troop of monsters."  (page 10)


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- "Solved  by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons. Millions of identical twins. The principal of mass production at least applied to biology...Ninety- six seemed to be the limit; seventy-two a good average. From the same ovary and with gametes of the same male to manufacture as many batches of identical twins as possible- that was the best ( sadly a second best) that they could do." (page 19)
The Director is directing this to the Science lab where all the babies are made. Explaining how much better they would be if they can produce a mass production of babies as fast as possible. There goal is to produce as many babies with in a short time, that way they can double up with the end result, which would be babies.

 Indirect-  "I'd simply love to go with you for a week in July," she went on. (Anyhow, she was publicly proving her unfaithfulness to Henry. Fanny ought to be pleased, even though it was Bernard) "That is," Lenina gave him her most delicious significant smile, "if you still want to have me."
Lenina here is just expressing how she likes to meet more guys and have more than one relation compared to just sticking with one guy. It shows how she is unfaithful and how she is just throwing herself at him means she doesn't have much respect for herself. She rather enjoy herself.  

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?
"...upwards of five thousand kilometres of fencing at sixty thousand volts." (page 98)
One of the settings in the novel takes place in London and there spelling of measurement is different from the United States. Lenina gave off a perfect example of kilometres vs. kilometers.
"Try to realize what it was like to have a viviparous mother"   (page 42)
Viviparous meaning bringing forth living young. Producing babies through feeding an egg, or in the sense of producing seeds that germinate on the plant
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.
" A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at  any rate among the lower classes; to abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep going to the country, even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for primroses and landscapes. It was duly found."
This shows the characters to be static and flat. They are programmed to not enjoy the beauty of nature but enjoy the idea to travel into the country. Transport out to the country so they can help out the economy when it comes to relations with money, industries, or businesses.

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.
"now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock... The screaming babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance. Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily as if to the tug of unseen wires...at the approach of the roses, at the mere sight of those gaily-coloured images of pussy and cock-a-doddle-doo and baa-baa black sheep, the infants shrank away in horror; the volume of their howling suddenly increased...Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks- already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly  linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or similar lesson would be webbed indissolubly." (page 30)
This has to be one of my favorite passages in the novel because, so soon in the beginning it is explaining how it programs the babies to like and dislike certain things. They program all the humans to fit the needs of their Utopian world. So they can improve economically, and technology wise. The humans are the consumers and the humans are programmed to consume what can benefit, not themselves, but the world.
This story is very out there and it just makes you think how twisted their world is compared to ours. There main motifs are efficiency, production, and consumerism. When you compare it to our motifs and values which happen to be family, love and success. 

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Premiering Today!! HAMLET

Watch the Film

I apologize for the travel of leaving my blog just to watch the movie. If anyone has any suggestions of uploading the film straight to blogger where you can watch on there then just comment. It would be very helpful for future reference!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Vocab # 9    RemiX



1)  Abortive- falling to succeed
ex,  Failure? Or that moment before success..

2) Bruit- any general abnormal sound or murmur
ex, Noise

3) Contumelious- scornful and insulting behavior
ex, Rudeness

4) Dictum- a formal pronouncement from an authorization source
ex, Principal lecturing a student

5) Ensconce- established or settle
ex, Coming to an agreement

7) Iconoclastic- characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions

8) In Medias res- a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning
ex, Babel

9) Internecine- Destructive to both sides in a conflict
ex, Two wrongs don't make a right

10) Maladroit- ineffective or bungling; clumsy
ex, Deena from the Jersey Shore

11) Maudlin- self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness
ex, drunk

12) Modulate- exert a modifying or controlling influence on \
ex, Modelo beer

13) Portentous- of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner
ex, hinting; indicating something

14) Prescience- the power to foresee the future
ex, psychic

15) Quid pro qou- a favor or advantage granted in return for something
ex, exchange; incentive

16) Salubrious- health-giving, healthy
ex, salud (health)

17)Saturnalia- the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry
ex, noisy party

18) Touchstone- a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized
ex, good/bad criticism

19) Vitiate- spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity
ex, value of a new car goes down once you drive it off the car lot

20) Waggish- humorous in playful, mischievous, or facetious manner
ex, The Three Stooges







tools that change the way we think..


Many people now own there own smartphones and have very equipped technology. Technology is very handy when it comes to finding something quick and easy. Something just straight to the point. Sure a quick fix answer is helpful, when in need. But we are slowly using less and less of our brains to do the work in finding the answers. we simply let a machine find it for us. We are not allowing ourselves to blossom into a full flower because we let things get in our way. I am gonna compare myself and my dad. our knowledge of the internet and of web sources are not at the same level. He is not as handy with computers and doesn't know how many sources there are out there on the internet. now whether they're safe or not...That's a whole other topic. I tend to find myself impatient when he is on the computer and wants to show me something that he found. He isn't as quick and to the point as I can tend to be. But his generation didn't have all the technology that my generation has. So of course it is all so new to him. I am also gonna compare myself with the babies that are being born today. These kids will grow up and will have technology surrounding them like crazy. I remember in first grade the LeapFrog was this cool new way to read books and to help us understand language. All of us kiddos found it supper cool and were so amazed by what that was. Well I now a days how much it has upgraded and I am amazed by how much LeapFrog has transformed. It was nothing like it is now compared to back then. I believe it is going to be something interesting to live through. How much technology we have and how the people will take it all in. Its pretty scary some to think of it.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

"Who was Shakespeare?" 

1) Shakespeare was borne in the year 1564 and died the year 1616. Shakespeare was the son of a merchant. William Shakespeare achieved some success as an actor, poet, and a play-write. His 38 plays he wrote or collaborated have firmly established his reputation as the greatest dramatist who every lived.
(  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html  ) I used Duckduckgo.com as my search engine.

Coming into high school I heard about how Shakespeare wrote the infamous Romeo and Juliet. This was the most well known play to me that was by W. Shakespeare. I felt a bit intimidated to read work written by W. Shakespeare. But, now I enjoy reading his work and I find it rather interesting and quiet different. Since Shakespeare was soooo back then in the 1500's and early 1600's, It is kind of mysterious to find out personal information, like exact dates of events he had in his life. I  am pretty many other students feel lost when reading his literature. I am one of them. But as we have broken it down and using other resources to help gives us the better understanding I am gradually learning to understand Shakespeare language. Once you read in between the lines then you can find some things to be quiet humorous. But the name alone is, like I said before intimidating...
His work over the years was split up into four different parts,
1-  Medieval Tragedies (1589-95)
2- "Joyous" Comedies (1595-1600)
3-  Great Tragedies (1600-08)
               - Included  Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth
4-  Romantic Tragedies (1608-1613)
              - Included The Tempest

I understand how Shakespeare's writing expressed a profound understanding of the nature of humanity. Some of the language he uses still confuses me at times and it can get tricky. Since his writing was written in the 1500's, he exclaims about some things that were used back then or relates to things of the time period.
" To Facebook or Not to FACEBOOK?"

Well I have had my Facebook since my freshman year. And I began using Facebook only because Myspace was changing into something different, something that was filled with adds and it was becoming more "user friendly". Facebook just seemed something new and it was way easier then Myspace. I began using Facebook more often then I should have. But you just can not help it but, talk to your friends and see what cool things there were to Like and you could have a mass conversation with all your friends. IM was always pretty cool in my opinion. Facebook was my door out to contact the outside world from my house, especially since I did not own a phone then.
A great benefit with Facebook is being able to inform yourself with the cyber world. You were able to contact friends and family who might live in another country. Facebook was always informed first with new drama (but that isn't what is important here..) People were able to create pages, and with these pages they can upload information about anything, could be something informative about a crisis that is happening somewhere around that world and they want to reach out to other people of different communities who can possibly help in some way.
Not only is Facebook great in informing yourself with news feed about anything, but it there can be the risk of strangers contacting younger people. And of course you can't fully trust the internet because you will never know what type of person is following your every move. That is why we should be careful and not put personal information out on the internet.
After reading the article, it helped me realize of how Facebook has become robotic. I say robotic because it is programmed to follow our Likes of pages, music, places, anything. It has very much become personalized, so personalized that it almost does the thinking for us. Every time we Like something an add might come up within the next 24 hours about something similar to what we Liked. I believe everyone should be informed on how personalized Google, Facebook, and other sites have become. So they can have a taste of how the information of themselves is being processed through the internet.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Hamlet Remix!

Act 3. sc. 1

Hamlet  -  Get thee <to> a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves <all;> believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?


This has to be one of my favorite scenes so far. I find it very humors how Hamlet just straight out tells Ophelia that she shouldn't even bother with him, in fact it is just best if she goes to a convent rather than produce. Hamlet is still trying to find who he is as a person, and being in the situation he is put it, it makes the journey ten times harder. He is in a sea of confusion. dealing with love, his mothers actions, and the killer of his father.



My Vocab Mid-term Autopsy

1) I did not do as well as I expected. It is my fault personally, didn't give myself enough time to practice the vocab words.

2) I need to study the words so I can become fluent with them. That way I will be able to use them in the future and make it apart of my daily language.

3) In preparation of the final I will need to not only practice each week's words but as well as all the words we have had all semester long. And also I should try using them in my every day language.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Vocab List # 8

1. abeyance- a state of temporary disuse or suspension

2. ambivalent- having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas of something or someone

3. beleaguer- set with difficulties

4. carte blanche- complete freedom to act as one wishes or thinks

5. cataclysm- a large-scale and violent event in the natural world

6. debauch- destroy or debase the moral purity of; corrupt

7. eclat- enthusiastic approval

8. fastidious- very attentive and concerned about accuracy and detial

9. gambol- run or jump about playfully

10. imbue- inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality

11. inchoate- just begun and not so fully formed or developed

12. lampoon- publicly criticized (someone or something) by using ridicule or sarcasm

13. malleable- easily influenced; pliable

14. nemesis- the inescapable or implacable agent of someones or somethings downfall

15. opt- make a choice of a range of possibilities

16. philistine- a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them

17. picaresque- of or relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of  a rough and dishonest but appealing hero

18. queasy- nauseated; feeling sick

19. refractory- stubborn or unmanageable

20.  savior-fair - the ability to act and speak appropriately in social situations
   

Reflection on Midterm

1) I studied the days prior to the test and felt some what confident. But coming to the test and sitting there just waiting I told myself to be confident and just relax and basically have a positive attitude while taking the test.

2) I didn't give myself enough time to study as much as I would have liked too. And when i was taking the test I was surprised in how many words I did remember and didn't leave so many blanked. But there were those blank moments were i just could not remember the word and the extra help in studying would of helped more.

3) After the taking the test, through out the day I was just going over some of the words that I still remembered and would just keep telling myself the definitions. I want the words to stick and am going to have to get use to putting the words into context. To keep practicing them.

4) Next time I am going to take the test much more seriously and be even more confident and just believe in myself more so I can receive the result I want to earn.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

First Presidential Debate ! Obama vs. Romney  

If you didn't get a chance to watch the debate live well here is the link to www.cnn.com 
Comment if you have anything to say! 

Hamlet! Full movie

If anyone would like to watch the full movie of Hamlet, well here is one source that I have found so far. It is off PBS.org. Comment and let me know what you think!

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/hamlet/watch-the-film/980/
Dear Ophelia,

Love is a very beautiful thing in life and everyone should feel the wonderful feeling of love. It can be a hard subject to touch on at times because some people are just too sensitive. The key is just trying to figure out the way to go about with Love.  But don't get me wrong when your so full of beatitude your can get lost in the feeling of love. You begin to blind yourself from reality. And having your father and brother advising you that it might not be such a good idea probably is best. In there point of view they believe it is a quixotic relationship. But now if you choose to go against your family then a vendetta might occur.. Especially how your father and brother see the situations your prince is in they do not want you to get in a parlous relationship. Now to expound my opinion of all this your family's opinion should come into consideration. And if they see something that you might not, that is possibly not healthy for you well in the end you are going to need the volition to try and make the most reasonable decision. Maybe if you and the prince can coalesce abut things and be civil then there is nothing wrong with that either. But falling into a relation would be risky with his life style.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Mid-term vocab study strategy !

-Rosa, Ruth and I have decided to work together. And we are going to re-write all the words because that is how we learn best. by re-writing the material.
-An idea I had was if we can use the words and create a word search. It can be fun and creative.