Open Prompt

10/30/11

2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

                  Whether you realize it or not, symbols are evident in all literature. These symbols generally are placed into literature for a reason. They represent an idea, or something much larger than just the outward appearance of the symbol. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Scarlet A upon Esther’s bosom is an obvious symbol in the novel but it also acts as a symbol beyond its literal meaning, giving great meaning to one little letter.

                  The scarlet letter is initially placed on Hester’s bosom as a symbol of shame for her sin of adultery. She is forever cursed to wear the letter as a symbol of her sin and yet she takes on this punishment confidently, and bravely. This courage causes the meaning of the letter to change throughout time. Hester wears the letter confidently making it part of her identity. As time passes and people forget about the meaning of the letter they begin to start up rumors on what it may mean. These rumors become the exact opposite of what the letter initially meant. Instead of it being a sign of her sin and her shame, it becomes a sign of her being able and kind and hardworking. The letter loses its old meaning and gains it’s new opposite meaning. 

            This shift in meaning of the letter emphasizes a major theme in the story that criticizes the society present in this novel. The society feels the need to come up with a symbol of her adultery as if the child that was perceived from the adultery was not symbol enough. In addition, the symbol that initially was supposed to make Hester feel guilty, becomes a good symbol that gives her a reputation of a handworker in the village. This just additionally shows how ineffective the society was at this time period. This also touches on another theme of this novel of how tackling adversity head on with courage helps you get through it and maybe even turn a bad thing into a good thing. This is shown with Hester’s confident attitude throughout her life. No matter how badly the village treats Hester, she remains kind and hard working thus changing her image from an adulteress into a great woman to look up to.

            Therefore, symbols tend to stand for many things. In the case of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the letter A stands for the adultery committed by Hester as well as eventually becoming a symbol of Hester’s hard work and overcoming adversity.  

Close Reading

The Paradox of the New Elite

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/opinion/sunday/social-inequality-and-the-new-elite.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

In this article, the author effectively uses proper diction, details, and imagery in order to properly convey his point that the U.S. is in fact unequal and needs to be fixed.

In this article, the author uses the perfect diction in order to get his point across. He uses words such as "elitist, and historical accident to get his point across more effectively. Although he could've very easily used much simpler words, by choosing this certain word choice, he is able to make his point much more effectively and make a stronger point. Especially with the word elitist, which many find to be a strong word that can cause certain controversy which he does with how he uses it in this article.

Lots of details are used as well to make his point even stronger. He uses many adjective beyond what is needed in order to be more descriptive so that his point is better made. He uses words such as "affluent, educated, and diverse" to be more descriptive and get his point across more fully. 

Lastly, this author also uses extensive metaphors to better illustrate his point through imagery. He starts by using a metaphor and many descriptive words to show America as a puzzle that you can really picture in your head through the details. Then he continues with much more imagery that effectively helps get his point across. 

Response to Course Materials

10/22/11
In class, we have mostly been working on the annotation of The American Dream by Edward Albee. I still am not sure how i feel about theater of the absurd, because while some of it holds great meaning and makes a lot of sense, some seems with lack of a better word, absurd. Although i do feel better about annotations and feel that i am finally capable of doing them on my own, however the class annotations do still help me see certain things that i did not spot on my own. I enjoyed having the practice of spotting DIDLS use in actual plays like we did with Albee's play because it finally feels like we have gone away from the practice sheets and gone into actually applying these techniques to real world literature. Everything right now is going well in class and i feel as if i am finally getting a sense of annotating at least with Albee's play. I look forward to reading Death of a salesman to see if i have actually gotten better at annotating or if it is just that i now understand Albee's play. The only thing that i have to worry about in class currently would be getting down to memorizing the many words that we have to know for the test which just comes down to studying. Overall class is going well as of now. 

Open Prompt

2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

            Betrayal occurs for many reasons, but often there is no legitimate reason at all. That is exactly the case in Shakespeare’s famous play Much Ado About Nothing. The betrayal in this play occurs due to a man’s unreasonable hatred towards his brother that causes chaos and shapes the conflict in the play.   

            Don Jon, the antagonist in this play holds bitter feelings towards his brother, Don Pedro. As a result, he looks to hurt his brother in any way possible. This occurs when Don Pedro’s closest friend, Claudio falls in love. Don Jon immediately sees this as an opportunity to conflict pain on his brother. He cleverly gains the close trust of Don Pedro and Claudio just to have them fall for his tricky scheme that ultimately breaks young Claudio’s heart and makes Don Pedro, look like the villain. The whole play is built around this betrayal and the central idea of misconceptions. This betrayal acts as the conflict as well as the climax giving the play most of its meaning.

            The central repeating motif is the harm of misconceptions and being too quick to believe things without proper evidence. This betrayal continues this motif, giving the play its central meaning. This betrayal is built around getting Claudio to believe something that is not true, which gives the play its central theme. The play is given meaning because of this betrayal. Without this betrayal, this play would just be a series of small misconceptions that do not have any deeper meaning but because this betrayal occurs, the conflict is brought to life and also the idea of true love is brought to light giving the play its true meaning that Shakespeare intended for it to have.

            Therefore, the central meaning of Much Ado About Nothing, would not exist without this main betrayal occurring. Although many other slight misconceptions do occur throughout the play, without this main betrayal occurring, the theme of being to quick believe the wrong people without proper evidence would not be brought to light to the reader.

CLOSE READING

Up From Ugliness

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/opinion/sunday/douthat-up-from-ugliness.html?_r=1&ref=opinion 

 In this New York Times article, the author talks about the effects of Steve Jobs on society. He effectively uses, details, diction, and imagery to get his point across that Steve Jobs played a huge role in shaping society today. 

The author uses very descriptive imagery to describe the world today and how Steve Jobs changed it for the better. He uses words such as "We wore leisure suits and shoulder pads, buried heart-of-pine floors under shag carpeting, and paneled our automobiles with artificial wood," (Douthat). This mostly appeals to the sense of sight and effectively gets a good picture across allowing the reader to get a good picture in their heads. He uses many descriptions like this, talking about the world in a pejorative sense, and then he comes in with Steve Jobs and the piece takes a whole different approach with better, brighter imagery, showing that Steve Jobs changed the world for the better. 

This author also uses diction to get his point across. He uses many words that do a fantastic job of getting his point across, even though they are not generally commonly used words. He uses words such as "junk architecture," and "new urbanist." These saying do a great job getting his point across, which shows that he clearly used proper diction in this piece. 

He also uses a great amount of details to get his point across. Once again going back to the imagery point, when he describes the world, which he does for the majority of this piece, he uses great amounts of imagery and details to explains his points. He uses phrases such as "ziggurats of cement," which are details that are not crucial to the story but are added anyway as additional details to help prove his point.  

 

Response to Course Materials

10/8/11
In class we have been mostly doing continuous practice with thesis, and AP essay practice. Writing introductions has gotten easier due to the practice but i still struggle with organizing the essay based of the thesis. I think that i finally understand how to apply all three parts of the intro (TEM) but structuring the essay still causes difficulties. Especially since time is limited and ideas for structuring do not come to mind nearly as fast as it needs to. One of my major issues is that i fear that with closed prompts, i will not have enough time to analyze the piece given appropriately. It usually takes me a very long time with help to completely analyze poems and such, which i know will not leave me enough time to actually write my actual essay.
We have also been learning about the American Dream, and theater of the absurd. It seems that most authors view the American Dream with a sarcastic, unrealistic tone, making this dream seems ridiculous and unachievable. The theater of the absurd still confuses me greatly, more specifically Albee's American Dream was a very different piece of literature, unlike anything I've ever read before. I think that the multiple reading of this piece will reveal a lot more than the first reading did.
Overall, things are slowly starting to make sense, but continual ap essay practice would probably be beneficial.

Open Prompt

Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

            In literature, there are often characters that cannot be categorized as purely good, or purely evil because their actions make it impossible to pin them into one of these groups. Often these ambiguous characters can prove to be the most important. In the case of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of these ambiguous characters exists by the name of Mr. Darcy. Although many are quick to think of him as evil at many points in the novel, when you closely observe Mr. Darcy’s actions and behaviors you cannot pin him into one of these categories and yet he is the most crucial player in this story because his actions make up the majority of the plot in this novel as well as causes the conflict. 

            Mr. Darcy is described right from the beginning as a very rude, and difficult person to like. In his debut at the first ball, he is described as having terrible manners and in general just being a hard person to be around. It also did not help that he was always around his best friend Mr. Bingley, who in contrast was the most well mannered, pleasant person to be around making Mr. Darcy look that much worse in comparison. The whole town admires, Mr. Darcy for being wealthy and of high social status but at the same time, they talk behind his back a lot, simply because of his terrible manners. Also, Mr. Darcy is described as being very selfish and haughty, thinking that he is always better than everyone else. As a result, he refuses to dance with anyone at the balls with the exception of Elizabeth Bennett. After meeting Elizabeth, we really get the details of Mr. Darcy and of what kind of person he truly is. Shortly after this we receive crucial (although false), information about Mr. Darcy from the wicked Mr. Wickham. We learn that Mr. Darcy actually took a lot of money from Mr. Wickham that was rightfully his and essentially screwed Mr. Wickham over. This adds to the build up of Mr. Darcy’s character officially putting him over into the evil category. Elizabeth, confused at her feelings for Mr. Darcy, grows to despise him because of this lie that was planted into her mind by Mr. Wickham.  

            However, after the Mr. Wickham incident, we learn about an entirely different side of Mr. Darcy. This side seems to be completely the opposite of what we have been told up to this point making the reader question the morals of Mr. Darcy, and therefore causing him to seem morally ambiguous. We soon learn that Mr. Wickham’s story is in fact not true, and that the true bad guy of the story was Mr. Wickham and not Mr. Darcy.  We also learn about the loving side of Mr. Darcy. We learn from his maid that he actually is incredibly charming and loving, especially towards his sister and his family. This causes the reader as well as Elizabeth to question everything about Mr. Darcy. On one hand, Mr. Darcy was incredibly haughty and rude at the balls, but on the other hand, we see that Mr. Darcy is actually very caring and generous. The major event that causes the most confusion is when Mr. Darcy pays Mr. Wickham a tremendous sum of money so that the Bennett’s can keep their house, and have a happily married daughter. This shows us a selfless side of him that has not been even hinted at prior in the novel. Elizabeth at this point becomes incredibly confused at what to believe and whether she is in love with Mr. Darcy or not.

            This ambiguity is crucial to the plot development of the novel. If you really think about this classic Jane Austen novel, without this ambiguity and confusion as to what kind of person Mr. Darcy really is, the plot loses much of its meaning and meat. A lot of the novel consists of the Bennett daughters, more specifically Elizabeth, and their pursuit of a husband, in Elizabeth’s case Mr. Darcy, and without this ambiguity causing the conflict in the novel; there would be no novel.

            Therefore, the ambiguity of Mr. Darcy as seen throughout the novel is crucial to the plot of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. This ambiguity causes the conflict in the novel as well as makes up most of the plot and therefore, serves to be of great importance.