Friday, January 31, 2014
The Time of My Life
Today in class we wrote our journal topic and did what was assigned on the blog. We decided to have groups go up and discuss the books by Charles Dickens. The first group discussed the Tale of Two Cities and we wrote notes on that. After that another group went up and discussed Great Expectations. It was very helpful. Also my group discussed and went more into detail.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Literature Analysis #1 - The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
GENERAL
1. To summarize the book it is that it's about a man, who is known simply as Stevens. Stevens is a butler for another man named Mr. Farraday. However, he receives a letter from a Miss Kenton and decides to take a five day trip to go see her. (She worked in the same manor as Stevens 20 years prior.) The present isn't exactly what Stevens focuses on though, he looks back at his life to see if he believes he truly lived up to the 'dignity' he thinks he needs to live a fulfilling life and also the life he may have had with Miss Kenton if he had done things differently. When he finally arrived and met with her, he realized nothing with her was going to change. They both expressed the feelings they once had, which was a huge step for Stevens, but both knew they could not dwell on the past. So Stevens begins to revise his definition of the word dignity and chooses to move forward in his life.
2. The main theme that I see throughout this novel is regret. It's expressed mainly with the life that Stevens could have had with Miss Kenton. On the journey to visit her, he looked back on his life to several different occasions where he believed that if he had done something differently, if he had shown his true feelings then they could have been together and lived a happy life. Stevens then also shows regret when he looks back at how faithful he was to his previous master, Mr. Darlington. Stevens believed he was a good man and in his mind was willing to do anything for his master in hopes of gaining dignity. However Mr. Darlington was a man who dealt with Nazis during WWII. Stevens knows he could have done something, but at the time was to caught up in his vision of perfection that he couldn't swerve away from it.
3. The author's tone was extremely formal. The narrator spoke in a way that would match the setting of this time. This is why it is easily understandable for the character to be so strict, in a sense. He was very focused and set on the path he was in. Also being a butler he wanted to show the people he waited on that he was a gentleman and worthy to be their server.
4. - analysis: explored when looking back on his life
-dialect: the author wrote in the way Stevens would think is best
-dogmatic: Stevens had a set definition for the word dignity and did what he did to gain it
-flashback: different situations Stevens thought about
-foil: Mr. Darlington next to Mr. Farraday
-imagery: author used great details to explain each situation
-interior monologue: all of Stevens memories
-motif: Stevens often spoke of learning how to banter
-pathos: audience feels when it's learned that Stevens cries about his life
-poignant: how Miss Kenton feels when learning of her aunt's death
CHARACTERIZATION
1. The author didn't use direct characterization all that much because the main character was not a very open person so it seems fit that the audience isn't given much to go on. There are brief descriptions of the people here and there, but that's about it.
The author uses indirect characterization when he continually has Stevens walking away from Miss Kenton's door when she's inside crying. Normally people would wait outside or even burst inside to see what was wrong. Stevens was not like them though. He was straight on his path towards gaining dignity. Also we see indirect characterization when Stevens is given a handkerchief at the end of the book. He doesn't outright say that he is crying, but through this simple token we can tell he is sad by that days turn of events.
2. I believe the syntax and diction remains the same throughout the book because it solely about the character, Stevens. It's his life and his thoughts we are exploring. Stevens was proper and a gentleman so the author wrote the book in the way that would match this character.
3. The protagonist is basically static and flat throughout the entire story up until the very end. He lets go of the perfect version he envisions himself to be and is simply a man. He expresses his feelings and shows his emotions. He grows in this stage of his life and changes so as to become the man his sees with his new definition of the word dignity.
4. I believe I read a character mainly because I have never met anybody like this. I have never seen a man so focused on one path that he shuts out anything that might get in the way of that. Also butlers aren't really needed in America so I don't quite understand their lifestyle.
GENERAL
1. To summarize the book it is that it's about a man, who is known simply as Stevens. Stevens is a butler for another man named Mr. Farraday. However, he receives a letter from a Miss Kenton and decides to take a five day trip to go see her. (She worked in the same manor as Stevens 20 years prior.) The present isn't exactly what Stevens focuses on though, he looks back at his life to see if he believes he truly lived up to the 'dignity' he thinks he needs to live a fulfilling life and also the life he may have had with Miss Kenton if he had done things differently. When he finally arrived and met with her, he realized nothing with her was going to change. They both expressed the feelings they once had, which was a huge step for Stevens, but both knew they could not dwell on the past. So Stevens begins to revise his definition of the word dignity and chooses to move forward in his life.
2. The main theme that I see throughout this novel is regret. It's expressed mainly with the life that Stevens could have had with Miss Kenton. On the journey to visit her, he looked back on his life to several different occasions where he believed that if he had done something differently, if he had shown his true feelings then they could have been together and lived a happy life. Stevens then also shows regret when he looks back at how faithful he was to his previous master, Mr. Darlington. Stevens believed he was a good man and in his mind was willing to do anything for his master in hopes of gaining dignity. However Mr. Darlington was a man who dealt with Nazis during WWII. Stevens knows he could have done something, but at the time was to caught up in his vision of perfection that he couldn't swerve away from it.
3. The author's tone was extremely formal. The narrator spoke in a way that would match the setting of this time. This is why it is easily understandable for the character to be so strict, in a sense. He was very focused and set on the path he was in. Also being a butler he wanted to show the people he waited on that he was a gentleman and worthy to be their server.
4. - analysis: explored when looking back on his life
-dialect: the author wrote in the way Stevens would think is best
-dogmatic: Stevens had a set definition for the word dignity and did what he did to gain it
-flashback: different situations Stevens thought about
-foil: Mr. Darlington next to Mr. Farraday
-imagery: author used great details to explain each situation
-interior monologue: all of Stevens memories
-motif: Stevens often spoke of learning how to banter
-pathos: audience feels when it's learned that Stevens cries about his life
-poignant: how Miss Kenton feels when learning of her aunt's death
CHARACTERIZATION
1. The author didn't use direct characterization all that much because the main character was not a very open person so it seems fit that the audience isn't given much to go on. There are brief descriptions of the people here and there, but that's about it.
The author uses indirect characterization when he continually has Stevens walking away from Miss Kenton's door when she's inside crying. Normally people would wait outside or even burst inside to see what was wrong. Stevens was not like them though. He was straight on his path towards gaining dignity. Also we see indirect characterization when Stevens is given a handkerchief at the end of the book. He doesn't outright say that he is crying, but through this simple token we can tell he is sad by that days turn of events.
2. I believe the syntax and diction remains the same throughout the book because it solely about the character, Stevens. It's his life and his thoughts we are exploring. Stevens was proper and a gentleman so the author wrote the book in the way that would match this character.
3. The protagonist is basically static and flat throughout the entire story up until the very end. He lets go of the perfect version he envisions himself to be and is simply a man. He expresses his feelings and shows his emotions. He grows in this stage of his life and changes so as to become the man his sees with his new definition of the word dignity.
4. I believe I read a character mainly because I have never met anybody like this. I have never seen a man so focused on one path that he shuts out anything that might get in the way of that. Also butlers aren't really needed in America so I don't quite understand their lifestyle.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
What's the Story?
"What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you're playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching of bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack." -Keith Richards
Why did Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading/reviewing? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques we've studied/discussed this year.)
Charles Dickens wrote the novel to explain and show his views on society and social status to society. Dickens takes advantage of literary devices like allusion, characterization, and foils to better establish the theme and characters within the story. He adds personal touches to the piece that display his own life. The main lesson I noticed was that despite everything that happens, everyone shares one thing in common, their imperfections. Dickens does a great job in creating the characters and resembling how real people are, which makes me think that the characters might be inspired by real people in the author's personal live.
Why did Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading/reviewing? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques we've studied/discussed this year.)
Charles Dickens wrote the novel to explain and show his views on society and social status to society. Dickens takes advantage of literary devices like allusion, characterization, and foils to better establish the theme and characters within the story. He adds personal touches to the piece that display his own life. The main lesson I noticed was that despite everything that happens, everyone shares one thing in common, their imperfections. Dickens does a great job in creating the characters and resembling how real people are, which makes me think that the characters might be inspired by real people in the author's personal live.
Lit Terms #4
Interior monologue: a literary attempt to present the mental processes of a character before they are formed into regular patterns of speech or logical sequence; stream of consciousness
Inversion: the reversal of a normal order of words
Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Lyric: Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a song like style or form.
Magic(al) realism: a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment
Metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed): a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object
-extended: when an author exploits a single metaphor or analogy at length
-controlling: symbolic story in which the real meaning is not directly put across the whole poem or may be a metaphor for something else; it affects the diction and the flow of a poem and normally used for political poems.
-mixed: a metaphor that combines different images or ideas in a way that is foolish or illogical
Metonymy: figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated
Modernism: characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse
Monologue: A long speech made by one person, often monopolizing a conversation.
Mood: a prevailing atmosphere or feeling
Motif: A dominant theme or central idea.
Myth: A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society
Narrative: Consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story
Narrator: one who tells a story or recounts a series of events, aloud or in writing
Naturalism: practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature
Novelette/novella: A short novel.
Omniscient point of view: a method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story
Onomatopoeia: formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Oxymoron: rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined
Pacing: the rhythm and speed with which the plot unfolds
Parable: A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
Paradox: a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true
Inversion: the reversal of a normal order of words
Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Lyric: Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a song like style or form.
Magic(al) realism: a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment
Metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed): a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object
-extended: when an author exploits a single metaphor or analogy at length
-controlling: symbolic story in which the real meaning is not directly put across the whole poem or may be a metaphor for something else; it affects the diction and the flow of a poem and normally used for political poems.
-mixed: a metaphor that combines different images or ideas in a way that is foolish or illogical
Metonymy: figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated
Modernism: characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse
Monologue: A long speech made by one person, often monopolizing a conversation.
Mood: a prevailing atmosphere or feeling
Motif: A dominant theme or central idea.
Myth: A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society
Narrative: Consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story
Narrator: one who tells a story or recounts a series of events, aloud or in writing
Naturalism: practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature
Novelette/novella: A short novel.
Omniscient point of view: a method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story
Onomatopoeia: formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Oxymoron: rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined
Pacing: the rhythm and speed with which the plot unfolds
Parable: A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
Paradox: a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true
Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes
-Third city: Manchester
-Background on how Dicken's inspiration for TTC
-He explains how Dicken's was inspired by real people to make characters in TTC
-doubleness of character DC, CD and Charles Dickens.
-London: where he found his creativity, He loved it but disliked it, extremes of wealth and poverty.
-Paris: Charming and immense impression, perfectly distinct and unique character. He was overwhelmed by its secret character and how well the city expressed it. Very impressed by Paris although half the size of London, lacked the craziness of London.
-End of TTC: reminds readers of the old Paris with a bastil.
-ChD would visit Paris all the time for lengthy visits. Paris was a brilliant, modernizing city.
-Fascinated by the dark side of Paris, attracted to visit the morgue
-Describes Paris' character with detail of the people and the places.
-Dickens wasn't a Rebel, he had a horror of mob rule but TTC was about it.
-Came out in weekly parts as a series.
-"Unprepossessing"
-Dickens thought everything out when selling
-Crazy how people would treat his series like TV series. And how popular this was.
-Demands of weekly series, Cliffhanger endings, contrasting installment, wrote as he went along, and he was pleased with the novel.
-thought it was the best story he had ever written.
-Dickens first had an idea to write this novel while acting
-He helped Collins in a play, which he also participated in.
-The love triangle in the play was modeled from the love triangle in The Tale of Two Cities
-Sydney (Mike) Carten sacrifices himself for love so woman he loved can be with someone else, someone she loved deeply
-The Tale of Two Cities: London and Paris
-Change
-Historical settings
-Time period 1757-1793
-Victorians haunted by memory and example of the French Revolution
-Fear of the revolution happening in England
-The novel itself is a warning about the revolution
-Background on how Dicken's inspiration for TTC
-He explains how Dicken's was inspired by real people to make characters in TTC
-doubleness of character DC, CD and Charles Dickens.
-London: where he found his creativity, He loved it but disliked it, extremes of wealth and poverty.
-Paris: Charming and immense impression, perfectly distinct and unique character. He was overwhelmed by its secret character and how well the city expressed it. Very impressed by Paris although half the size of London, lacked the craziness of London.
-End of TTC: reminds readers of the old Paris with a bastil.
-ChD would visit Paris all the time for lengthy visits. Paris was a brilliant, modernizing city.
-Fascinated by the dark side of Paris, attracted to visit the morgue
-Describes Paris' character with detail of the people and the places.
-Dickens wasn't a Rebel, he had a horror of mob rule but TTC was about it.
-Came out in weekly parts as a series.
-"Unprepossessing"
-Dickens thought everything out when selling
-Crazy how people would treat his series like TV series. And how popular this was.
-Demands of weekly series, Cliffhanger endings, contrasting installment, wrote as he went along, and he was pleased with the novel.
-thought it was the best story he had ever written.
-Dickens first had an idea to write this novel while acting
-He helped Collins in a play, which he also participated in.
-The love triangle in the play was modeled from the love triangle in The Tale of Two Cities
-Sydney (Mike) Carten sacrifices himself for love so woman he loved can be with someone else, someone she loved deeply
-The Tale of Two Cities: London and Paris
-Change
-Historical settings
-Time period 1757-1793
-Victorians haunted by memory and example of the French Revolution
-Fear of the revolution happening in England
-The novel itself is a warning about the revolution
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Lit Terms #3
Exposition: part of story where characters and setting are introduced and background information is given
Expressionism: writing approach in which a writer depicts a character's feelings about a subject rather than the objective surface reality of the subject
Fable: a short story that teaches an explicit moral or lesson
Fallacy: a statement or argument based on a false inference; erroneousness
Falling action: the action and dialogue following the climax that lead the reader into the story's end
Farce: type of comedy that relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to provoke laughter
Figurative language: language that has meaning beyond the literal meaning
Flashback: interruption of the chronological order to present something that occurred before the beginning of the story
Foil: another character in a story who contrasts with the main character usually to highlight one of their attributes
Folk tale: stories passed along from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth rather than written text
Foreshadowing: important hints that an author drops to prepare the reader for what is to come, and help the reader anticiate the outcome
Free verse: poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme
Genre: type of form of literature, music, ect.
Gothic tale: tale used to thrill readers by providing mystery accounts of murder and the supernatural
Hyperbole: exaggeration that is powerful and purposeful
Imagery: a term that incorporates all sensory perceptions
Implication: an indirect indication; a suggestion
Incongruity: when two unlike objects or people are put together in a story
Inference: to gain meaning from something that is not directly said
Irony: technique that involves amusing contradictions or contrasts
Expressionism: writing approach in which a writer depicts a character's feelings about a subject rather than the objective surface reality of the subject
Fable: a short story that teaches an explicit moral or lesson
Fallacy: a statement or argument based on a false inference; erroneousness
Falling action: the action and dialogue following the climax that lead the reader into the story's end
Farce: type of comedy that relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to provoke laughter
Figurative language: language that has meaning beyond the literal meaning
Flashback: interruption of the chronological order to present something that occurred before the beginning of the story
Foil: another character in a story who contrasts with the main character usually to highlight one of their attributes
Folk tale: stories passed along from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth rather than written text
Foreshadowing: important hints that an author drops to prepare the reader for what is to come, and help the reader anticiate the outcome
Free verse: poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme
Genre: type of form of literature, music, ect.
Gothic tale: tale used to thrill readers by providing mystery accounts of murder and the supernatural
Hyperbole: exaggeration that is powerful and purposeful
Imagery: a term that incorporates all sensory perceptions
Implication: an indirect indication; a suggestion
Incongruity: when two unlike objects or people are put together in a story
Inference: to gain meaning from something that is not directly said
Irony: technique that involves amusing contradictions or contrasts
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Lit Terms Remix 1-5
Circumlocution: when a writer uses very long and complex sentences to convey a meaning that could have been done in short sentences
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome tradition and reason
Cliché: overused expression that lose their original meaning
"Get your head out of your butt."
Climax: point at which the conflict is the highest point
Colloquialism: use of informal words, phrases, or even slangs
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome tradition and reason
Cliché: overused expression that lose their original meaning
"Get your head out of your butt."
Climax: point at which the conflict is the highest point
Colloquialism: use of informal words, phrases, or even slangs
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