Literature Analysis Extra Credit

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck


1.  This novel has two main characters that happen to be best friends; George and Lennie.  George takes care of Lennie because Lennie has a mental disorder.  These two men are headed to California but go around from ranch to ranch looking for a job.  The boss hires them.  George and Lennie meet other people that live on the ranch, such as, Candy, Curley, and Curley's wife.  When George and Lennie are alone, Curley's wife starts to flirt with them.  After, George tells Lennie to stay away from her, even though Lennie thinks she is pretty.  After, they leave back to work, they meet Slim and Carlson.  Later, George tells Slim the truth about them; George and Lennie aren't really cousins.  Explained that Lennie has gotten them into trouble many times before.  Curley later picks a fight with Lennie and Lennie breaks Curley's hand.  The next day Curley's wife flirts with Lennie and Crooks and Candy.  She eventually noticed that Lennie is the reason Curley's hand is broken.  That next day, Lennie accidentally kills the puppy. Curley's wife enters the barn where Lennie is and she lets him "pet her hair."  When Lennie was petting her hair, he starts to pull tightly and that makes Curley's wife scream.  Lennie then accidentally breaks her neck, then runs to the Salinas River.  The place they are suppose to meet up if things went wrong.  George and everybody else finds out, and they are set to kill Lennie.  George finds Lennie and talks to him about how they will be together in their farm land.  When talking about the ranch they will have, he shoots Lennie in the back of the head.  The other men show up and George lies to them about what has happened to Lennie; that George wrestled him for the gun and had to shoot him.
2.  I think that the theme of the novel is friendship.  Even though they do not talk about their feelings toward each other, it is obvious that they are very good friends.  George did not want to shoot Lennie, but he felt that it would put Lennie out of his misery.
3.   The tone of the novel I think is realistic and honest.  Steinbeck describes the characters as they are in life.  

•  (George) "“S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing.” Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. “We’d just go to her,” George said. “We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say, ‘We’ll go to her,’ an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.”"
• (Lennie) ""If you don’ want me I can g off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time." GEORGE "No—look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ’Cause I want you to stay with me.""

4. Literary elements that helped convey the theme:

• Imagery
• "Lennie said gently, "George… I ain’t got mine. I musta lost it." He looked down at the ground in despair.
  "You never had none, you crazy bastard. I got both of ‘em here. Think I’d let you carry your own work card?"
  Lennie grinned with relief."
• Foreshadow
• "Lennie looked sadly up at him. "They was so little," he said apologetically. "I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little. I wish’t we’d get the rabbits pretty soon, George. They ain’t so little.""
• Symbolism
• " (Lennie)"No…you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on…George. How I get to tend the rabbits."(George) "Well," said George, "we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—Nuts!""
• Diction/Syntax
• "Lennie knelt and looked over the fire at the angry George. And Lennie’s face was drawn in with terror. "An’ whatta I got," George went on furiously. "I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time.""

Thinking Outside the Box

I learned that Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave" and Jean Paul Sartre's "No Exit" shows that our thinking has limits and that it can be influenced from what other people think to what we have to see for ourselves.  Plato's and Sartre's characters were both secluded and had limitations on knowledge.  The cave men did not believe the freed man that saw the truth about what was going on.  They were comfortable with their shackles; they did not care for being free or escaping the shackles that kept them from the knowledge.  The characters from "No Exit" were each other's "shackles".  They influenced each other's thoughts and they couldn't think for themselves.  They were each other's knowledge.  The characters did not bother to look further than what was already there.  I think that to escape from other people's thoughts of influence, we have to not listen to what the person right next to us has to think or say and we have to think for ourselves.

Lit Term: Colloquialism

Definition: 
folksy speech, slang words, or phrases usually used in informal conversation


-It's everyday speech.  How you communicate with your friends.  You shouldn't use this type of language with a teacher.


Example:
Tonight's gonna be a good night.  (Tonight is going to be a good night.)
I wanna go get some grub.  (I want to get some food.)
He just sat down and dozed off.  (He just sad down and took a nap.)

Literature Analysis #3

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

1. The main character in The Awakening is Edna Pontellier who is twenty-eight years old.  Her family goes on a vacation from New Orleans to Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico for the summer.  When Edna's husband, Léonce, goes on his business trips for work, she spends her time with Adèle.  Adèle reminds Edna her duties as a wife and as a mother.  At the resort in Grand Isle, Edna meets Robert Lebrun, one of Madame Lebrun's sons.  Robert usually devotes chooses one woman in the summer that he devotes himself as an attendant.  That summer he chose to devote himself to Edna Pontellier.  Adèle told him to "let her alone."  Edna soon noticed that Robert started to distance himself from her.  One night when everyone at the resort went to the beach, Edna walked home and Robert soon caught up with her.  When they arrived to her house, they sat on the porch in silence.  Later on in the novel, Robert takes Edna to a cottage to rest because Edna felt drowsy.  That night, Edna noticed that she changed since they have stayed at Grand Isle.  She starts to desire to be with Robert and for social freedom.  When the vacation at Grand Isle is over, the Pontellier family returns to their home in New Orleans.  After they returned home, Edna starts to pull away from everybody and stop with her traditionally duties.  Léonce soon has to got o New York for business and their children stay with his mother.  Edna visits Madame Lebrun and she lets Edna read the letter Robert has written her.  She admits that her feelings for Robert are nothing like her feelings for her own husband.  Edna writes Léonce a letter telling him that she is moving out to a smaller house nearby. Eventually, Robert returns to New Orleans and he admits that he is in love with her and thought that the relationship would never work.  Adèle is in labor and she wants Edna with her, so Edna leaves Robert reassuring him she will be back.  When she returns to her little house, Robert isn't there; a note that said "I love you.  Good-by - because I love you."  Later that day Edna goes to the place where she first learned how to swim.  She swims out into the Gulf of Mexico and lets the water overtake her.
2. I think that the theme of this novel is woman and femininity.  Throughout the novel, Edna is constantly reminded of her duties as a mother, wife, and as a woman.  She has other desires: artistic and financial.  
3. The Awakening has different tones such as seriousness, sincere, and gloomy.
• "The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded."
• " Edna looked straight before her with a self-absorbed expression upon her face. She felt no interest in anything about her. "
• "She let her mind wander back over her stay at Grand Isle; and she tried to discover wherein this summer had been different from any and every other summer of her life."
4. Literary elements that helped me convey the theme:
• Symbolism:  various homes throughout the novel  "The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual."
• Diction: formal language "This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight"
• Syntax: long descriptive and flowed  “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.” 
• Character:  their actions and words  “I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldnt give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I can beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.” 
• Imaginary:  descriptive  “She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.” 

Big Question

WHY is the English language the official language in the United States of America?

Hamlet/Epics/Language Essay

The use of language in Hamlet differentiates him from an epic hero such as Beowulf.  Hamlet and Beowulf both were in battles and were well known.  Beowulf fought monsters and because of his strength and bravery, people all around knew of him.  Hamlet didn’t battle monsters like Beowulf, but his inner thoughts.  Hamlet lived in the palace and has royalty in his blood, so the hoi polli knew Hamlet.


In the poem of Beowulf, the main character can be described the complete opposite of the main character in the play Hamlet.  Beowulf wouldn’t think too much of what he would do; he took action.  Hamlet on the other hand had to think a loud to make his decision before he took any action.  Beowulf would kill a monster as soon as he could.  He would not think of how he should kill it or what the monster might do.  Hamlet on the other hand thought about what he should do.  It was not til the end of the play that Hamlet finally took action.


The two actions of the heros were for different reasons.  Beowulf killed for the glory and the peace; Hamlet’s actions were out of revenge.  Before Hamlet was able to take this revenge for his father, he struggled with what he should do.  In the poem Beowulf, the scenes were action.  There were hardly any, if any, scenes of him thinking of what or struggling with himself.  The play Hamlet did not show any action until the last Act.


Epic heros are usually thought of as strong, brave and courageous.  Hamlet’s problems are internal; the audience can’t see what is going on.  Therefore, Hamlet is more language oriented than action oriented.  Without the action scenes, the audience might see him a little crazy (I know I did).  Beowulf’s and Hamlet’s language are different because of the characters thoughts and actions.

What Have I Learned?

Hmmm.  What have I learned in AP English?  Well, I have learned that analyzing something is about ten times better than just skimming through something and then taking a test on it.  I also learned that getting a full grasp and understand the information on something is a lot more beneficial than just completing an assignment just to get it done and move on in the class.  Before, I would study something to get a good grade on a test, and forget about whatever it was I learned.  Now, I put to practice the new information I learn. 

Roy Christopher

   ·              “The medium is the message”

o   Medium is the most important thing

·             Didn’t plan to be in the computer business

oMagazines for BMX caught his eye on the internet

·             “Hip-hop culture the starting point for the twenty first century culture”

·             Technology offers a mixture of cultures

·             Older generations don’t trust younger generations

o   Internet is not only used for social networking and games; my generations (this class) also uses it for academic reasons

·              Technology challenges or opportunities in younger generations?

o   Younger generation can help the older generations with the technology that they don’t know

·              Multitasking?

o   Typing an essay and being on  Facebook – the essay would be more academic if a person is not on Facebook

o   Effects a quality on a certain task

Literature Analysis #2

The Stranger by Albert Camus

1.  The Stranger by Albert Camus is divided into two parts.  The main character, Meursault, shows how his life starts to change from the time his mother died, to the time he is sentenced to death..  In the beginning of the novel, his mother dies.  He doesn’t show any emotions of grief at her funeral.  Meursault does not seem to care about anything though.  He helps Raymond take revenge on a girl.  Later, Meursault, Raymond, and their friend go to a beach house for a weekend where they meet two Arabs on the beach.  They all start to fight; Raymond is stabbed, Meursault takes the two Arabs out, and he shoots the person that hurt his friend.  The second part begins with Meursault explaining his arrest and his trial.  In the trial, Meursault does not show any emotions in court.  Meursault says that he was never able to fill remorse for his actions.  At the end, he is found guilty and is put to death. 

2. The theme of this novel is how life is meaningless.  Throughout the whole novel, Meursault has no care for anything.  Albert Camus says that life is the unavoidability of death.  Since everyone will eventually die, there is no meaning to life.

3. The author’s tone in the novel is very plain and detached to everything and everyone.

“We just sat there like that for quite a while.  The woman’s sighs and sobs were quieting down.  She sniffled a lot.  The finally she shut up.”

“He went down.  I was about to help him up but he started kicking me from there on the ground.  So I kneed him one and slugged him a couple of times.”

“There are some things I’ve never liked talking about.  A few days after I entered prison, I realized that I wouldn’t like talking about this part of my life.”

4. The literary elements/techniques that help strengthened my understanding were:

Symbols: “The four o’clock sun wasn’t too hot, but the water was warm, with slow gently lapping waves.”

Diction: “He asked if I had felt any sadness that day.  The question caught me by surprise and it seemed to me that I would have been very embarrassed if I’d had to ask it.”

Syntax: “I could feel the blood pounding in my temples.  After that, everything seemed to happen so fast, so deliberately, so naturally that I don’t remember any of it anymore.”

Tone: “Maman died today.  Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.”

Characters: “…The strange feeling I had when I noticed that the young perfect reporter had turned his eyes away.  I didn’t look in Marie’s direction.  I didn’t have to…”

Tools That Change the Way We Think

"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. 'It will be included in people's brains,' said Page. 'When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information.'

'That's true,' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what's going on around them and suggest useful information.'

'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page,' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."

-From In the Plex by Steven Levy (p.67)



I think that technology is making it so we do not have to put much effort into things; it is making it easier for us.  The information the internet gives out, makes me want to know about a certain thing.  I also tend to remember more things because when I try to remember what I read I can think "Oh, that was before this happened."  Then I can concentrate better.  When I am learning at school, I do remember things, but I just want to learn the information, take the test, get a good grade, then I can forget about it.  Sometimes I do forget about the information, sometimes it does stay with me.  The ones that I do not care for, are the ones I usually forget.

In Search Of.

A) I learned that Facebook’s ads are based on what we “like”. I found that very interesting and a little weird. I still think it is interesting that two people can search the same thing and get different sites.
B) This information makes me of all the different results that could have been up, but isn’t there. I think of what I can be missing out on. I also think of what other people might get if we search the same thing.
C) A new question I have is if you can stop the filter bubbles when you want to.
D) To improve the effectiveness of searches, I can use different words and different search engines. I can also put quotation marks around the phrase for a certain result I want to find.


While I was searching William Shakespeare, keeping in mind the "filter bubble", I noticed that most of the search engines I used showed the same results for websites.  Since I do use Wikipedia frequently, that was why it was the first result most of the time.  

Notes on Hamlet

I have never read the novel Hamlet before.  The first time reading the play was very difficult for me.  I could barely read the words because it was in Old English, something I was not use to reading.  Now, reading the text of Hamlet has become easier to read.  I can understand what is going on in the play.  I didn’t know anything about the plot of Hamlet or any of the characters.  At the beginning of the play I thought that Hamlet was indecisive because of all his emotions.  But, by the end of Act III, Hamlet seemed to know what he wants.  He was able to function and do what he needed to do.  He killed Polonius without any hesitation.  He did think that Polonius was King Claudius, but he still did not stop or think twice about killing “the rat” behind the curtain.  I think that Hamlet will continue trying to kill Claudius without hesitation.

Who Was Shakespeare?

search engine: http://www.dogpile.com/

searched: who was shakespeare

urls: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

http://shakespeare.about.com/od/shakespeareslife/a/Biography.htm

William Shakespeare was a man that was born and raised in Stratford.  His birth date is still unknown.  He wrote many different plays, sonnets, and many different poems.  He is one of the greatest English writers in history.  His works were mostly comedies, historical events; his later years were mostly tragedies.  Shakespeare’s plays and poetry did not get well known until the 19^th century.

Most students’ think that Shakespeare’s work is hard to understand and boring.  I have to agree that at first, reading Shakespeare is difficult.  If you spend enough time reading and trying to understand what he is trying to say, then you have a better chance of interpreting what the words are saying.  I still have a hard time figuring out is going on in the text, but now that I have read Shakespeare before, it becomes easier to comprehend.

To Facebook or Not to Facebook?

Honestly, I thought that Facebook was boring.  You get on, see what everyone has been up too, tell them what you have been up too, and then get off.  Facebook helps people stay in contact with other people such as family and friends that you do not see very often.  Another benefit is getting a hold of someone you might not have their phone number, but you are friends with them on Facebook, so you can send them a message.  The main risk on having a Facebook is what you or someone else puts about you.  That can be a picture or what someone tags you in a status, or comment.

I already know what you should and should not put on Facebook, online in general.  I learned that kids that are twelve and under are using Facebook; 7.5 billion to be exact.  Yes, these kids should be careful on what goes on the internet, because there is the “digital footprint” that stays there.  The children ages twelve and under are probably putting certain information that should not be posted online.  That is when the "digital footprint" comes to play.  If they put certain things, that will always be there.

(Don't) Be Hamlet

Most people have thought or said the phrase “Oh, I can just die.”  People use that phrase very open and common now; but not in a serious manner.  This phrase is mostly used in an embarrassing moment or as simple as forgetting to do something important.  Hamlet’s dilemma, on the other hand, is very serious.  He wonders if he should keep living knowing that his own uncle killed his father, or just taking his own life away so he would not have to deal with his uncle’s sin or his father’s death. 

Hamlet should not end his life because there is an obstacle in his way.  He should overcome this obstacle in his life; which will make him stronger person.  People want their king to be a strong brave person, not someone who is afraid to take action or a king that doesn’t know what he should do.  When life gets tough, you don’t think about death, you try to get over it, even if it is just “slings and arrows”.  Hamlet killing himself would just mean that Claudius won the throne as king.  Hamlet has to try to be strong and even though he does not know what is right yet, I think that Hamlet will know what is right.

Yes, Hamlet feels betrayed by his own mother and his uncle Claudius.  Hamlet’s life is far from perfect, but it also is not the worst possible life to live.  In my opinion, Hamlet should think of his actions before he does it.  “To take arms against a sea or troubles…” Hamlet should take action on what he thinks is right.  Killing himself is not an answer.  But avenging his father’s death is.  The old King Hamlet deserves justice and his son can give that to him.  Hamlet can’t be afraid of living his life now that he knows his uncle was the one to kill his father.  People want a strong, brave king, which Hamlet can be if he can fix the wrong in his life.

There are many obstacles and dilemmas a person has to go through.  Hamlet’s dilemma whether to live or to die is an extreme dilemma.  Yes, other people may think that they should just die to make things easier, but death is not an answer.  Facing the problem is a way to make Hamlet a stronger person inside and out.

Literature Analysis #1

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
1.   All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is about three teenage boys that run away from home to go to Mexico.  When John Grady Cole, Lacey Rawlins, and Jimmy Blevins reach Encantada, Mexico, John and Lacey find work at a ranch with Don Hector.  After a while, Blevins finds his horse and gun in Encantada.  Blevins was also put to death for killing one of the people in the village.  John and Rawlins are put into prison in Saltillo.  Alejandra bribes Alfonsa to let John and Rawlins free.  Rawlins goes back to Texas, while John stays with Alejandra.  Alejandra does not leave with John, because she does not want to leave her family for John.  Later, John goes back to Encantada and retrieves the American horses.  John makes it back to Texas, very wounded.

2.   The theme of the All the Pretty Horses is challenging what is right, and what is wrong.  John knows that loving Alejandra is wrong, but he continues to see her.  When John was in prison, the captain and Emilio ridiculed John for “paying his way out of prison.”  John learns to surrender against committed beliefs, or views on certain things.

3.   The author’s tone is smooth and calm.
“By evening they’d bought a canteenful of stool and were passing it back and forth among themselves as they rode and soon they quite drunk.”
“My father had a great sense of the connectedness of things.  I’m not sure I share it.”
“He smiled and looked at them and as there was indeed time he told them all that had happened.”

4.   Diction: The author’s wording was simple and easy to understand.
“The guard stepped forward and unlocked the handcuffs.  The captain was looking out the window.”
Syntax: McCarthy’s sentences were detailed and long.
“He held the mecate while Rawlins undid the sideropes from the hackamore and knelt and tired them to the front hobbles.”
Character: The way the character’s spoke and their actions helped convey the theme.
“With the last of his money he bought coffee and tortillas and some tinned fruit and beans. “
Tone: The author’s tone also helped deliver the theme to the reader.
“He dropped the lead rope and slapped the horse on the rump and it went trotting out of the stable holding its head to one side so as not to step on the trailing rope.”