Our Class #2

Some more AP lit!!

Well here we are guys! Making it through the wonderful class of AP lit. Poetry has never been one of my strong suits and hopefully will become easier so it's probably very helpful that we are analyzing some as a class.

Promises Like Pie-Crust: At first when I read through the poem I had no idea what it was about. The language was kind of confusing for me and I just didn't understand what the meaning was at all. Than when we started to go through STIFS and DIDLS it started to come together. We started to come up with what the stanzas meant as a class and then I understood that it was about a relationship and what the speaker was trying to say. I think that the discussions are really helpful because than we have twenty people to bounce around ideas instead of just one or two if we analyzed the poem alone. It's also really helpful to create one theme as a group because than we can discuss it and make sure that it satisfied everybody's opinion.

Death of a Salesman: When we started watching the movie I really wasn't excited. I knew that after we did the close reading I would like the writing and the meaning of the play but I was scared that I really wouldn't like the story. After we saw the movie I was still a bit concerned, Willy was so hard to understand throughout the movie that I didn't like him very much. The other thing about the movie was that it was so depressing, I know it is a tragedy but it was just so sad.
    After I did the close reading I felt a little bit better about it. I was still upset with Willy and Biff because through the whole thing they were so rude to each other and moody. But when you actually read the story you understand that the movie didn't give the book justice, Miller put so much thought into the play that reading it wasn't as boring and depressing as I thought it would be. As we read criticisms in class and discuss the meaning I do appreciate the play and actually like that we are reading it. We read essays regarding whether the book was a tragedy or not, I think that it is. I think that the definition of tragedy can change over time just like other things do too. I think it's the fall of a character and it does provoke emotion in the reader. So yes in my opinion it should be a tragedy.

AP test: We have also been practicing multiple choice questions for the test and writing short essays from prompts so overall I'm really glad that we are doing it because I need all the practice I can get.

P.S. still not invited to AP facebook.

Love you class!

Open Prompts

2004 Student Responses

Student 1: I thought there essay was very well written. There were a couple of repetitive words and phrases like, "is this the best of all possible worlds" and "age-old", but that was the main issue that I noticed. They did a good job of analyzing the book that they read and also explained the meaning. The essay was well structured and thought out, as well as clear. I like how they explained what the character meant by "we must tend our garden" and how they related it back to the meaning of the entire piece. I think they did a wonderful job of finishing the essay, the conclusion talks about the meaning of the book as a whole and links even another piece of literature to Candide. The last criticism I have is that they didn't mention the author of the novel they were analyzing. Other than those couple things the essay was really good!

Student 2: The vary first thing that I noticed was how messy the essay is. This doesn't effect the content but I believe on something as important as the AP test you should write neatly. Than I noticed how short the first paragraph is, it needs more length so it can do a better job of setting up the rest of the essay. The first paragraph is very hard to read and doesn't give any real evidence towards the theme that the student is trying to back up. The second paragraph repeats some of what is in the first paragraph and the only thing that is relevant is in the last sentence. They did an okay job on the third paragraph and said some good things about the novel. In the conclusion the student talks about if the characters in Huckleberry Fin succeeded in finding freedom, I would like to hear the authors point of view on the question as well as the one given by the book. Overall I did not like the essay very much, it could have been done much more thoroughly.

Student 3:I thought the first paragraph was quite well written. I liked how the student said the title and the author and then immediately got to the point of the essay. I like how the student used specific events in the book they were analyzing to show how the theme fit with the novel, I thought it was well done and neatly executed. The student did explain the meaning which is very important. Although the essay is quite short and could have included more about DIDLS and how they are present in the book, the essay still gave a good analysis of the novel. I was surprised to see that the AP commentary gave it a three, I think it was better than that. I also don't know why they said the essay has promise but they gave it such a low score. I understand where the essay could have included more information but I think the student chose a good book and wrote a good essay.

The American Dream

The Basics:

     There only a couple characters in The American Dream. There is Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma that we hear from the most in the play but there is also Mrs.Barker and The Young Man. Mommy is a materialistic and manipulative, she always seems to control Daddy and strive for satisfaction. Daddy on the other hand is very submissive to Mommy, he still tries to stand up for Grandma but easily feels emasculated. In the novel he also has an "operation" (Albee 82) which in the book symbolizes that he has had a sex change. Grandma is probably the most complicated character in the play. She acts like she is too "old" to understand yet she really understands everything that is going on and when she enters a baking competition she fools the new generation with a store bought cake. She does other things that are unique in the play, for example she sits with the audience at the end and hides everything in the house, then wraps it in boxes so everything that had to do with her is magically gone. The Young Man symbolizes the new American Dream and Grandma symbolizes the old American Dream.
    
      The setting is Mommy's and Daddy's apartment the entire play, there is never any action scenes or change in scenery. I think the author did this because we need to be focus on the meaning of what the characters are saying instead of changing the setting. The plot is that Mommy and Daddy has this "bumble" about twenty years ago and they didn't get satisfaction because the bumble (child) died so they called Mrs. Barker to get their money back. However when Mrs. Barker got there everybody seems to forget why she is suppose to be there. The young man shows up in the end and replaces the bumble so that everybody is happy, by this time Grandma ends up leaving.

Motifs:
-Gender roll swaps
-Childish behavior
-Getting Satisfaction
-Materialism/Consumerism
-Transition of the old American Dream to the new
-Shallow younger generation
-Power Struggles
-Lack of Respect, empathy, and values
-Repetition  of Language
-Wanting Conformity
-Impotence

Narrative Voice:

   When Albee writes the book from a very critical point of view. He is very weary of the new generation of Americans and seems very afraid of Women. Mommy takes on the head of the household, dominant role and Daddy has had a sex change and is constantly emasculated by Mommy. Afraid of Women taking over consumerism much? It's pretty obvious that Albee has some hidden fears of women taking over the male role in society.

There are many symbols in the play:

• Bumble- It symbolizes the child that Mommy and Daddy adopted and then ended up killing years later. The young man is the bumbles identical twin that felt everything that Mommy and Daddy did to him.
• Uncle Henry- The fact that Grandma used a man's name is significant because she has almost no gender identity in the play. "Uncle Henry" could also be used to reference Uncle Sam or the American government.
• The Wheat Hat- The discussion about if Mommy's hat was wheat or beige signifies the materialism and shallowness of the new generation or new American Dream. 
• The Boxes- Also symbolizes how shallow the new American Dream and new generation was because all the cared about is how pretty the boxes look and how nicely wrapped they were not what was inside (the old American Dream) 

Important Quotes:

"Oh my; that feels good. It's been so long since anybody implored me. Do it again. Implore me some more." (Albee 95) 
This quote is important because it shows how weird the sexual relations are in the book. First of all when Grandma is saying this to Mrs.Barker who is a women much younger than her and Mrs. Barker only wants her to tell her a story but they use weird and creepy language. It is also interesting how nobody seems to get sexual satisfaction in the play but Grandma does with Mrs. Barker in a very weird way.

"Daddy's going to blush and giggle." (Albee 79)
With all of Daddy's gender roll confusion this is a clear example,when Mommy says "blush and giggle" is a way you would describe a little girl not a husband and grown man.

"Oh, I think so. There's too much women hatred in this country, and that's a fact."(Albee 84)
I thought it was interesting when Mrs. Barker says this because Albee has in general a negative view towards women so I was surprised that he added this into the play. I think the significance is that a women is saying this quote not a man so Albee thinks women think there is too much hatred but he does not.


        Theme: The American Dream written by Edward Albee warns that the current generation of Americans has gutted the heart and soul of traditional American values and replaced them with a materialistic drive to acquire complete satisfaction.

The phrase heart and soul refers to the part in the play when they are talking about the bumble. Mommy and Daddy slowly ripped the bumble apart by taking things out they didn't like, for example when the bumble (we also never know his name) called Mommy a bad word they cut out its tongue. The mutilated the poor child just to get satisfaction. By meeting the Young Man we see that he was exactly what they wanted. He didn't have anything the bumble had because everything that happened to the bumble he felt too being a twin, all that was left in the young man was a shell. The shell or the appearance was the only thing that Mommy and Daddy wanted.

When the theme says the traditional American values were replaced this is shown with the interaction with Grandma and the Young Man. Grandma was symbolizing the old American Dream and the young man was symbolizing the new. When Grandma leaves at the end of the story and she opens the door (literally) for the Young Man, the new American dream is taking the place of the old one. The new more materialistic values are replacing more traditional ones. Gender rolls can also come into play with this as well when you talk about traditional American values as having specific expectations of men and women, but in this play they seem to be all messed up and very confusing also suggesting that the gender rolls are somewhat reversed in the new American Dream.

The play suggests the idea of the new generation being very materialistic and worried about appearances. This is shown by several examples, one of which and probably the largest example is of the Young Man, he is a shell. He is the shell they have always wanted. Another example is when Grandma has all the boxes and all Mommy and Daddy are concerned about is how the boxes look and not what is inside them.

They talk about the idea of getting "satisfaction" all throughout the book. They can't get satisfaction with the bumble or with the appliances in the apartment. They can't even get any sexual satisfaction between each other, instead there is a creepy motif of incest. When Mommy has her moral dilemma of the wheat or beige hat and she got "satisfaction", she really didn't because it was the exact same hat and she even said that. She just got satisfaction because she made a fit and bought it again, satisfaction is a materialistic and social happiness to Mommy and the new generation. 

Romeo and Juliet Article

Romeo and Juliet

Don’t bite your thumb on it.

By Dana Stevens

The first thing that I noticed about this article was the title, it states “Romeo and Juliet, Don’t bite your thumb on it.” Just by reading the title you can already see that the author has a negative opinion on the new movie Romeo and Juliet. The second thing that I noticed in the article is that it is actually quite entertaining. I enjoy the way Stevens gets her opinion across.

Diction: Stevens uses diction to get her point across very effectively.  She uses words like “lush” and “bodice-ripper” in the first sentence; these are not words that are usually associated with describing a movie. It seems like the author is using the words in a good way but than in the second sentence she says, “without big stars or a modern interpretive concept” setting up that the words “lush” and “bodice-ripper” are being used in a mocking way.  There are also some other weird uses of diction that add to the piece like “petulant” and “impetuousness” which I think she added to make herself look as though still a reliable author and opinion even though the article is quite critical. A pattern that I noticed in the diction was she repeatedly describes Juliet as young, she says, “babyish features”, “childlike”, and “youthful”.  Stevens even uses a French word, “mélange” which translates to mixture to add some variety to the word choice.

Syntax:  I noticed that the author starts some sentences with conjunctions such as “And Lesley Manville..” and also “But it’s Paul Giamatti…” to make relationships between ideas and to create a smooth rhythm in the paragraph. The author also uses syntax to create the criticism of Romeo and Juliet in a humorous tone. She writes sentences like, “Steinfeld has an open, childlike quality that’s well suited for showcasing Juliet’s youthful impetuousness and idealism, but she doesn’t quite pull off the transformation to tragic heroine, occasionally sounding a petulant Valley Girl note that I doubt was intended.”  The last section of the sentence solidifies the fact that the author does not find the movie to be very impressive and states her opinion in a humorous and mocking way.

Details: There are many examples of when the author added specific details to add to the article. One of the details she uses is when she says, “Valley Girl note” which is important because she could use many other different descriptions but she chose “Valley Girl”. When she is talking about Juliet’s lines in the movie Stevens says, “It doesn’t help Steinfeld either, that many of Juliet’s best speeches are either cut entirely or pared down to the bare bones…” when she ads in “bare bones” in the end I think that is an interesting word choice but it’s also an important detail because it explains how in the movie they don’t give justice to Shakespeare’s play.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2013/10/romeo_and_juliet_directed_by_downton_abbey_s_julian_fellowes_reviewed.html