Thinking Outside the Box

• My hell would be filled with lots of scratchy grass, spiders, and sharks. Also, annoying people and noises, and i t would be dark all the time. 
•  Yes, if you let things get to you and stay there, even if you're in a happy place your mind can still torture you.
• Of course! all you have to do is lat go of all your pain, annoyance, and problems. Then wa-la! Peace you have.
•  Yes, I feel like I can almost visualize what is happening to the characters.
• I would rather die then stay awake forever with the lights off.
• My whole day is not one entire routine, however i do have a small few throughout the day. I know if they were to get jumbled around I would be a mess. 

Plato Study Questions

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
Socrates connects the Allegory of the Cave to how each of us perceives our world.
2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?  
The shadows, because we see them and they follow us everywhere but they are not actually physical things.
4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
 The perspectives and views of the cave dwellers consists of narrow mindedness and little view of the real world.
5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
There is a long line of things that "shackle the mind".  Addicting games, Facebook, anything internet related that consumes your time and "pulls" you in for hours, and many things on TV.
6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The prisoners still consumed in the cave only understand what they can see, shadows, but the freed prisoner can see the light and begins to see the world through reality.
7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The first is by birth and being born into a world where we cannot think for ourselves. The second is when we let our perception of what something is when it gets in the way.
 8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The prisoner is dragged out and I think he had to be dragged because the prisoner was used to being in the cave or was to weak and tired to be released out on his own.
9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
I agree, mainly because I know how it is to pretend you are feeling one thing but really feeling horrible inside. Take high school for example, everyone acts a little in their life. Wether it's  putting on a smile and feeling bad inside, or crying and creating drama just for the attention.10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
 10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions? 
I agree with him but I think the two alternate metaphysical assumptions ARE reality.. I guess.

LAQs #3

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 Great Gatsby is focused around Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, who moves to New York in the summer of 1922. He finds himself in West Egg, an area that is populated by the rich. Nick Carraway's neighbor is Jay Gatsby, a rich, highly mysterious man, who throws lavish over the top parties every weekend. Nick gets invited to one of Gatsby's parties, and through Nick's newfound love interest, Jordan, Nick is able to learn a bit about Gatsby. He founds out Gatsby is madly in love with a woman named Daisy, who he has not spoken to in years. Daisy happens to be Nick's cousin and married to a man name Tom. Regardless of this marriage, Gatsby and Daisy start a love affair. Things turn awry when Tom confronts Gatsby. This confrontation leads to a distressed Daisy taking Gatsby's car and driving off. In the midst of all this chaos Daisy ends up hitting and killing a woman named Myrtle. Myrtle's husband thinking Gatsby was driving the car ends up shooting Gatsby and killing him. Nick throws a funeral for Gatsby where there is little attendance. Nick then ends up cutting off all relationships he has in West Egg and returns to the Midwest.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of the novel The Great Gatsby the destruction of the American Dream. These characters were after wealth rather than happiness. Being so consumed by money and social status eventually led to the corruption of the true American Dream. This corruption not only destroyed the American Dream, but also destroyed relationships, like that of Gatsby and Daisy.

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

 The author's tone in The Great Gatsby is cynical.

"This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose."  "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..."  "I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child."

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.)
The author used similes, imagery, symbolism, allusion, and foreshadowing in order to convey the theme and tone.

Simile: Similes occur regularly throughout this novel: "In his blue garden men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."Imagery: The author is very detailed when describing the world that Nick has entered.example of imagery is the constant use of the color green throughout the novel.Symbolism: The green light at Daisy's house represented the unattainable for Gatsby  "A single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock..."Allusion: There are numerous references throughout the entire work to literature, such as the John L Stoddard Lectures, and Hopalong Cassidy. Foreshadowing: Throughout the entire novel the author foreshadows the demise of Gatsby. "He snatched the book from me and placed it hastily on its shelf muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse.”

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)? Jay Gatsby is dynamic because how he is perceived changes throughout the book as new information comes to light.  He is also a  round character because he is fully developed so the reader has a good picture of their looks and personality.

Fall Vocab #11

Affinity- relationship by marriage

Bilious- of or indicative of a peevish ill nature disposition
Cognate- of the same nature
Corollary- A proposition inferred Immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof
Cul-de-sac- a pouch
Derring-do- a daring action
Divination- The art or practice that seeks to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge due to the interpretation of omens
Elixir- A substance capable of prolonging life indefinitely
Folderol- a useless accessory
Gamut- an entire range or series
Hoi polloi- the General populace
Ineffable- incapable of being expressed in words
Lucubration- to study by night
Mnemonic- intended to assist memory
Obloquy- abusive language
Parameter- an independent variable used to express the coordinates of variable point and functions of them
Pundit- a learned man
Risible- provoking laughter
Symptomatic- having the characteristics of a certain disease but arising of a different cause
Volte-face- a reversal in policy

1. Literature Network

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/hamlet/

 I really like this Website, and have been using it to better understand some of Hamlet. I think it has a pretty accurate view on what Hamlet is about.

2. University of Houston: Shakespeare Festival

http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2012/may/0518HSF2012.php

 This article was informative and official. It gave few examples on Hamlet, but my computer is old and i could only find so many sites to review.

3. Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Existentialism

 http://www.apstudynotes.org/english/sample-essays/character-analysis-hamlet/
  Not the best resource but it's a good review.

 

4. AP Lit-Comp-Hamlet-Act/Scene Notes

 http://aplove.blogspot.com/search?q=hamlet

 Suffices as a good summary of most of the scenes in each act.

 

5.  MindMeister: Hamlet Motifs

http://www.mindmeister.com/fr/48932332/hamlet-motifs

Personally this is my second favorite. It is clean, precise, and easy to understand. The whole of Hamlet is carefully mapped out.

Vocabulary List #10

aficionado- a serious devotee of some particular music genre or musical performer
browbeat- to discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate
commensurate- able to be measured by a common standard
diaphanous- Of such fine texture as to be transparent or translucent
emolument- Payment for an office or employment
foray- A sudden raid or military advance
genre- A realistic style of painting that depicts scenes from everyday life
homily- An inspirational saying or platitude
immure- To confine within or as if within walls; imprison
insouciant- carefree or unconcerned; light-hearted
matrix- a substance, situation, or environment in which something has its origin, takes form, or is enclosed
obsequies- A funeral rite or ceremony
panache- A bunch of feathers or a plume, especially on a helmet.
persona- The role that one assumes or displays in public or society; one's public image or personality, as distinguished from the inner self
philippic- a bitter or impassioned speech of denunciation; invective
prurient- unusually or morbidly interested in sexual thoughts or practices
sacrosanct- Regarded as sacred and inviolable
systemic- Of or relating to systems or a system
tendentious- Marked by a strong implicit point of view; partisan
vicissitude- A change or variation

LAQs #2

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).
 in the Lake of the Woods starts with John and Kathy Wade, a married couple, sitting on the porch of their rented cottage in the woods of Minnesota. John had just lost the Senate election badly, this was the end of his political career. The Wades were renting the cabin by The Lake of the Woods in order to get away from everything, but they both seemed to be taking it hard. He developed an alter ego, "Sorcerer," after his friend soldiers noticed his knack for magic. After he lost the Senate race, he went into a downward spiral of depression and, well, some might call it "craziness." One morning his wife disappeared, and it took him an entire day to decide that something was wrong and he had to go look for her. From then on, John is the primary suspect in his wife's disappearance. Search parties are sent out, the lake and the woods are searched, but nothing ever comes up. John doesn't believe he had killed his wife but there is no way to be sure. However, there is the possibility that Kathy quietly left him in the night, to leave all of the unhappiness she had been dealing with.
2.Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of In the Lake of the Woods can be the opposite of reality itself ; it is present throughout the entire book. John, tricks himself into living in some other reality; one where his father was a great man, and one where he was Sorcerer. Kathy also was part of the delusion at some point: they imagined a life together, post-politics, where they would own their very own dream house, travel to Italy, and have all the children they wanted.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
Tim O'Brien's tone seems to be very reporter-like (after all, the narrator is someone who is writing a book, so he remained largely unbiased throughout the book). The best examples of this are the interviews thrown into the story, but also in the actual story. He is also reporter-like in the way that he is very inquisitive; he is always adding questions in the story and footnotes. Some examples of O'Brien's tone include "At no point did John Wade admit to the slightest knowledge of Kathy's whereabouts, nor indicate that he was withholding information information."; "Can we believe that he was not a monster but a man? That he was innocent of everything except his life? Could the truth be so simple? So terrible?"; "Maybe, in the end, she blamed herself. Not for the affair so much, but for the waning of energy, the slow year-by-year fatigue that had finally worn her down." (The narrator hypothesizes throughout the entire book.)
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.)
 One technique that the author used throughout the book was the repetition of a certain phrase, "Kill Jesus." Wade muttered and thought this to himself over and over, because it was the worst possible thing he could think to say. The way O'Brien had him repeat this so many times reinforced the fact that Wade was not quite "right," and how the loss of the election seemed to be his tipping point after a lifetime of hardship. The phrase was used mostly when John felt the lowest; when he felt the need to destroy something. ("...how it surged up into his throat and how he wanted to scream the most terrible thing he could scream-Kill Jesus!-and how he couldn't help himself and couldn't think straight and couldn't stop screaming it inside his head-Kill Jesus!-because nothing could be done, and because it was so brutal and disgraceful and final."; "After a while later he kicked back the sheets and said, 'Kill Jesus.' It was a challenge--a dare."; "'Kill Jesus,' he said, which encouraged him, and he carried the teakettle out to the living room and switched on a lamp and poured the boiling water over a big flowering geranium.")  Another technique employed often was rhetorical questioning. The questions showed that the narrator was not totally sure about anything, either; this reinforced his inquisitive and journalistic tone. The questions are sometimes about human nature in general, and sometimes specifically about the characters/situations; they encourage the reader to consider the answers and apply them in his/her own investigation that he knows must be going on as s/he reads. (Footnote, in reference to "Other" stats in the Minnesota primary election results: "Aren't we all? John Wade--he's beyond knowing. He's an other....the man's soul remains for me an absolute and impenetrable unknown..."; "Can we believe that he was not a monster but a man? That he was innocent of everything except his life? Could the truth be so simple? So terrible?"; "Does happiness strain credibility? Is there something in the human spirit that distrusts its own appetites, its own yearning for healing and contentment?") O'Brien also uses many flashbacks; this is probably expected in a book about a war veteran. The storyline often goes backwards in time to significant events in John and Kathy's lives; it builds a focus on the past, and explain why things had happened the way they did, and to give background (adding more detail every time the memory was brought back around). ("When he was a boy, John Wade's hobby was magic."; "When he was fourteen, John Wade lost his father...What John felt that night, and for many nights afterward, was the desire to kill."; "There was  a war in progress, which was beyond manipulation, and nine months later he found himself at the bottom of an irrigation ditch. The slime was waist-deep. He couldn't move. The trick then was to stay sane.") Motifs were also present in the novel, including the ever-present idea of living out of reality. John and Kathy lived in another reality when they dreamt of a life full of travel and a "busload of babies," John escaped "behind the mirrors in his head," and John had an alter ego, "Sorcerer," that ended up helping him cope: "Sorcerer, they called him...And for John Wade, who had always considered himself a loner, the nickname was like a special badge, an emblem of belonging and brotherhood, something to take pride in."