Editoral #4 (2.14.10)

Could she reach the top in 2012? You betcha

By Frank Rich

Published: November 20, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/opinion/21rich.html

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This story, which is about Sarah Palin’s chance for being a president of the United States of America, starts up with one of her quotes, which states that she can be on the top of the world. Then he goes on by saying that she has the potential to become a president of the United States of America on 2012. Author crafts his narrative persona and a “voice” here by using these literary techniques: diction, syntax, and imagery.

Rich describes Palin’s life as “a perilous rock climb”, which is a vivid imagery. This imagery seems to generate sympathy feelings for Palin. In addition, he states that Palin’s popularity will “keep floating above the pack indefinitely”, pack representing the people who dislike her, which means that Palin will be invincible. The use of imagery seems to be the one of piece’s strengths since the author uses powerful imagery to describe her.

“Enshrined”, that is the word that Rich used to describe Palin and her husband, Todd. Rich also uses the word “vanquish” to describe how her new book is going to be popular than George W. Bush’s one. Instead of using the “more popular”, the author decided to use the word “vanquish”, thus creating negative and cruel feelings toward Bush’s new book.  In addition, the author describes Palin’s G.O.P favorable rating as an “awesome 80 percent”. This clearly shows that author supports Palin. At last, Rich describes some republicans’ attempt to criticize Palin as “spitballs”. The word “spitballs” seem to generate feelings of pathetic, thus author is trying to show that it is hopeless to criticize Palin. The choice of diction is also one of the strengths of this piece. Readers can clearly see author’s position toward Palin.

Use of syntax is another way for Rich to support Palin. For example, he describes the opposition of Sarah Palin as “so-called Republican establishment”. By using “-“, or as known as dash, Rich was able to make fun of critics of Sarah Palin. Since Rich managed to write this short essay with excellent literary techniques, there is no weakness in this piece.

By using these literary techniques, the author managed to craft a narrative persona and a “voice”, which is that he supports Sarah Palin by using optimism voice and harshly criticizing Sarah Palin’s opposition. Because he used techniques effectively, I find this piece very influential and interesting. I laud him for using such techniques. This story is not appropriate for AP Essay for its speaker use 2^nd point of view such as “we’re” and “you are kept guessing”, which is informal.

Book Review #4 (2.13.11)

Book Review

In his own words, a singular man’s double life

By Dwight Garner

Book: Under the sun” by Bruce Chartwin.

Published on February 17, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/books/18book.html

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“In his own words, a singular man’s double life” by Dwight Garner seems to criticize the book called “Under the sun”, whose book is by Bruce Chartwin. He uses some of literary techniques to show this.

Garner describes Chartwin as “not thoroughly likable”, which is a harsh diction choice. It shows disapproval toward him. Garner also describes Chartwin as “wicked”, which seems to suggest that Chartin is not kind. This seems to be one of the strengths of this piece. The use of diction clearly shows the author’s position.

Imagery is one of the techniques that Garner used. He states that reading Under the sun is like “watching an angry gecko seize a passing trouser leg.”, which clearly creates negative feeling toward the book itself since gecko on trouser leg tends to create negative feeling. This also seems to be one of the strengths of this piece since imagery contains strong vivid images about certain things and can contain vital information regarding the subject.

Garner uses syntax as well to criticize the book. For instance, he states that Chartwin “restlessness- he need to be “perpetuum mobile”…-made him one of the least conventional men on the planet.” The use of “-“, or also known as dash, creates extra redundant and boring sentence, thus creating negative feelings toward Chartwin. Because Garner uses literary techniques well and that book review is well constructed, I have unable to find any weakness in this piece. The critical perspective of this particular book review seems to be New Historicism. Not only Garner focuses on the book, but also author’s background. 

There seems to be a connection between this piece and Anne Frank’s diary, in which I read in freshman year. Dwight Garner states on Under the sun, the voice “grows lovelier, grainier, more confident, more wicked.” Anne Frank’s diary’s voice seems to do that, too. In the beginning, the voice seems to be weak. For example, it seems to have less confident. However, as the story progress, it becomes stronger and more confident more than ever.

Core Concept #5 (2/7/11-2/21/11)

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In the class, we have discussed explicitly on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

-The women: We discussed that there were different types of women in this book. For example, the witch (the spiritual one?) and the weak one (Mr.Kurtz’s fiancé)

-Racism: There are lots of examples of racism in this book. However, does that make Conrad racist?

Connections: I read “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain on American Literature. There are LOTS of racism. Does that make Twain racist? 

-Theme: Does Conrad support colonialism? Does he oppose racism?

Connections: In the beginning of school year, we have agreed that the literature is like the forest that is up to the people to explore the forest. Thus it is up to readers to interpret the theme of this book.

We have also watched “Apocalypse now”, which is based of “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad.

-Similarities between two:

• The protagonists are on a mission to find Mr. Kurtz
• The protagonists dislike their sailors/soldiers
• Their sailors/soldiers get injured
• “Heart of Darkness” and “Apocalypse Now” both shows the heads of savages, which are on sticks.
• The protagonists both travel by boats on river.
• The protagonists both got attacked by savages.

-Differences between two:

• “Apocalypse Now” takes place in Vietnam while “Heart of Darkness” takes place in Congo
• “Apocalypse Now” shows girls dancing on the state while “Heart of Darkness” doesn’t.
• In “Heart of Darkness”, the protagonist’s aunt gave him the job. In “Apocalypse Now”, the soldiers gave protagonist the job.

Things we did in class:

·        Discussed Heart of Darkness

·        Watched “Apocalypse Now”

      Homework:

• Huck/Pride read and annotate due Feb. 29^th.
• Psychology of Heart of Darkness Forum due Feb. 10^th.
• Techniques in Heart of Darkness Forum due Feb. 17th

Core Concept #4 (1/10/11-2/7/11)

Core Concept # 4

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We have learned explicitly on forms of repetition.

Forms of Repetition:

l       Anaphora: Emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginnings of neighboring clauses. Ex.) “We will go to beach. We will have fun. We will go to parties”

l       Antistrophe (also known as epistrophe or epiphora): The repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. Ex.) “I went to party when I was a kid. I hated dinosaur when I was a kid. I hit my brother when I was a kid”.

l       Anadiplosis: The repetition of a word or phrase from the end of one clause or phrase at the beginning of the next cause or phrase.

l       Diacope: Repetition with only one or two words between each repeated phrase.

l       Epizeuxis: Repetition of words in immediate succession. Ex) “Horror, Horror, Horror.”

Connection: When my brother was a year old, he used to call me “Bro” exactly 6 times. No matter how hard I tried to change his speech, he still insisted calling me “Bro.Bro.Bro.Bro.Bro.Bro” It really entertained me.

l       Polysyndeton: The repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses.

l       Alliteration: The repetition of initial sounds, usually consonants.

l       Assonance: The use of smilar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants. Ex) A city that is set on a heill cannot be hid.

l       Consonance: The repetition of consonantns or consonant patterns, especially at the end of the words.

Forms of Parallelism:

Antithesis: Establishing a clear, contrasting releationshup between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them often in parallel structure.

Forms of Inversion:

l        Anastrophe: A figure of speech inversion of the ordinary Western order of words.

l        Chiasmus: Figure of speech in which 2 or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point.

l        Antimetabole: The repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order: Ex) I know what I like, and I like what I know”
Connections: To make my little brother mad, i often said " I hope what i love and i love what i hope". My brother always asked, "what do you love?" I just laughed and walked away

We have also talked about the values of literature. We learned that as the time goes on, the society’s values changes. For example, in medieval time, Christianity dominated the literature.

DIfferences between a novel and novella

Novel= 30,000 words or more

Novella= 30,000 words or or less

Connections: Heart of Darkness, in which we have annotated, is a novella. Harry potter #6: Half blood prince, in which i read last summer, is a novel

Things we have done in the class:

l       Write Free Response regarding the “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins.

l       Discuss Heart of Darkness

l       Studied intensively on Semester one final exam

l       Psychology forum due on February 10th.

l       Evaluation on peer’s Core Concepts and Outside Readings due on February 17th.

Homework:

l        Annotate and finish reading Heart of Darkness by February 4th.

l        Annotate and finish reading Pride and Prejudice or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by February 28th.

l        Outside Readings and Core Concepts due on February 21st.

Reflective Essay #3 (1/10//10)

Reflective Essay

The Value of College

Published on September 25^th 2007

Andrew Hardin

http://essay.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/the-value-of-college/

This essay describes why it is important for American students to attend colleges. It explains the benefits of attending colleges and consequences of dropping out of colleges. In addition, it explains why attending colleges for some people will result in a chaos.  

The tone of this essay seems to be mixed with sympathy and anger. He expresses praise toward highly educated people who pursue their degrees in colleges rather than those who only go to colleges for parties and their friends. He states that those who go to colleges for educational purpose will “obtain a successful career, and live a wealthy life.” In addition, he wrote that those who pursue degrees on colleges will be “the future of our country”. The diction choices that Hardin used such as successful and future create positive feelings for readers toward people who attend colleges for their educational purposes. This seems to create sympathy tone in this reading. This seems to be the strength of this essay, by using technique such as diction support author’s position in this reading, thus makes his stand clearer to understand.

Then he uses strong diction such as using active voice to produce anger tone. For example, one of the quotes that he used, state that “[Those] people attend college because their friends or girlfriend go there” should not be attending colleges at all.  He uses party as a verb, thus making reader feel negative toward the parties in colleges. He also expresses this by describing history .He states that in 1950s, most people attend colleges solely for their futures and jobs that they could get after graduation of college. Now he criticizes that most students’ priorities for going to college are for parties, not because of learning in college. He also uses static data. He declares that more than 30% of freshman in the famous school, Brown, dropped from college, thus saying that our future is not depend on them. However, this seems to be the weakness of this reading since he creates the anger in his tone by using some of static data and history rather than using diction or syntax. Those seem to create the negative feeling or anger toward those who go to colleges for parties or those who drop out of colleges.

Because of his use of tone, I feel sympathy towards people who go colleges for graduation and their educational needs and feel pity and anger toward other who drop out of colleges or go to colleges just for their friends. His use of tone makes this reading enjoyable to read since it describes them efficiently.

                                                                                              

The tone of this essay seems to be appropriate for AP free response. He creates the tone well by using diction. In addition, it is formal and readers can relate themselves to this article. For those, I laud Hardin.

Outside Reading #3: 1/10/10

Book Review

Conversation across centuries with the father of all bloggers

Patricia Cohen.

Published on December 17^th, 2010

Book: How to live by Sarah Bakewell

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/books/18montaigne.html

This essay is about the Sarah Bakewell’s life and her book, “How to live”, which explains the nonfictional character, Montaigne.

Cohen lauds the book that Bakewell wrote by using several literary terms. For example, she praises the book as “a form of a delightful conversation”. She also states the book as a “superb, spirited introduction to the master”. In addition, she stated that the book got a “rare review” from Britain. Those dictions are positive, convincing readers to feel sympathy toward Bakewell’s How to live. Those dictions seem to be the strengths of this essay since it reinforces the praise that Cohen wants to make readers feel the same way as she does.

The critical perspective of this work seems to be New Historian since it Cohen focuses more on the Bakewell’s life rather than the book. For instance, Patricia discussed about Bakewell decided to write when she was living in London. Patricia rarely comments on the choices of the Bakewell had made such as syntax, diction, imagery, figurative language, and so on. This seems to be the weakness of this essay since Cohen rarely focuses on the book, thus readers have no idea why Cohen is praising the book for. Cohen should have listed the techniques that Bakewell have used such as diction and imagery in her book so that reads can have ideas of what the book looks like.

.

The connection between this work and other course material is the similarity between Bakewell’s nonfictional person, Montaigne and Edgar Allen Poe. I have heard about Edgar Allen Poe on 8^th grade year English class. My teacher declared him as the eccentric horror fiction writer ever lived. Edgar Allen Poe’s life was eccentric, indeed. He was orphan at young age when his mother died and that his dad abandoned him. He married his 13 years old cousin. Cohen describes Montaigne’s life as eccentric, also. His dad forced him to speak only Latin, even though his native language was French. Even though their lives were harsh and unusual, they both had been able to produce great literary works that other people look up to.

For her conclusion, Cohen states that Montane, the nonfictional person in Bakewell’s book, did not accumulate the fact that he was lonely and not exposed to other people’s works. Bakewell proposed that he should have followed other people’s works, “which was all he really wanted to do.” Maybe that is how to live people’s lives, by following at other people’s works and try to make their works interesting.

Core Concept #3 (12/13/10-1/10/11)

Core Concepts (12/13/10-1/10/11)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead

Information from “Lecture on Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”:

l       Traditional drama has action goes through conflicts as characters try to solve this problem and in the end, conflictions resolved in the end. It also has this idea of “horizon of significance” which is a

l       Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, however, is completely different than the traditional play. It has conflicts that are not resolved in the conclusion; does not have “horizon of significance”, and it is mostly dominant from the confusions that are created throughout the play.

l       Theatre of the Absurd:

 -Does not have any horizon significance

  -Does not have logic nor confidence about memory and space and time. Sometimes, even characters are not sure of their own identities.

  -Characters cannot understand the world.

-Characters trying to deal with this world are also absurd.

-Often, the emphasis on verbal humor is one of the major attractions of Absurdist Theatre.

-Another example of this is “The love song of J. Alfred Prufock” by Eliot. The speaker in this poem is confused about the romance

Connection: Simpson episode often include verbal humor that is funny; homer and Margie are great example of it. They often don’t understand each other, Margie being the one who is intelligent and Homer the one who seems to be confused about everything.

Death of a Salesman:

In class, we have discussed several things about this play. Few of the things that we have discussed were…

l        The difference between “being loved” and “being well-liked”

l        Willy being a kid even though he is old enough to be a grandfather.

Connections: Peter Griffin, one of the main characters in the TV show called “Family Guy”, often acts like a kid even though he is a father of three kids. For example, he acts immature around his daughter by pulling pranks and joking about her new boyfriend.

l        Is Linda actually a “parent” model for Willy rather than a wife?

l        Relationship between father and son

Connections: Hamlet and Oedipus Rex, plays that we have read doing the class, also stresses the relationship between father and son; the passing of knowledge or power to sons.

l        Willy and his American Dream: Willy wanted to be a successful salesman even though he was good with hands such as planting a garden and fixing house. His unachievable American Dream may have caused his downfall.

Connections: Last year, in American Literature class, I learned the Romanticism, which stresses nature over city, urban areas, human. Since Willy was good with hands and that he kept complaining about his apartment being small, big tree being gone, and not being able to see the sky because of huge apartments suggest the aspect of Romanticism.

Assignments:

l        Annotate and finish reading the Death of a Salesman due Jan 3^rd.

l        Core Concepts and Outside Reading due Jan 10th

l        Comment 3 times on “Father” forum due Jan 10^th.

l        Comment 3 times on “Tragedy” forum

l        “Lecture on Stoppard” reading due on December 14^th.