Our Class #3

Making through another couple weeks of senor year.....

AP lit has definitely helped me stay motivated despite my encroaching senoritus.  We finished up DOS and made a theme statement. After the all the discussions and hours of annotating I understand the meaning and plot of the play. Reading plays is not something I am experienced with to say the least, reading multiple is getting me prepared for Hamlet. I am also not the best at understanding Shakespeare's work but I am excited that I will be improving.

We have now finished reading Hamlet in class and I am about to start the close reading. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, thanks to Ms. Holmes's explanations I understood it. I am kind of excited to dig into the close reading however I do know it will be a long process. Of course the ending is sad with literally everyone dying but it is a good story and I am liking it overall.

Our little activities are very helpful in understanding how to analyze but also create literature. We have looked pictures and written paragraphs about them, teaching us how to use imagery more effectively. We keep doing our practice multiple choice to get ready for the AP test as well, I am finally getting some of the questions right.

 I started reading a new book called Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson and I realized after about 10 pages that I needed to start annotating it not just reading it. I retained some of the information from the book but I am not going to be able to write about it without doing a full close reading. So Ms. Holmes you have converted me to an annotator. I have noticed that a lot of the skills I have learned in class have helped me, even being as simple as how to approach a multiple choice test.

I am still excited to see whats next and to read more great stories!

Open Prompts #3

2003 Open Responses

There was no prompt listed, the only thing it said was "Tragic Figures as Instruments of the Suffering of Others" on the AP commentary.

Student #1: The introduction is well structured and gets right to the point. Its obvious that the student understands the three kinds of tragedies. In the first paragraph the student is talking about Gatsby's image, when they say, "contrasting with his public image as an enormously wealthy playboy", this statement does not help the point of the paragraph and is incorrect in that Gatsby was not shown as being a "playboy" in the novel. The first paragraph is well constructed and has evidence to back up what the student claims about the novel, they also explain how Gatsby is a tragic character. The second paragraph is not as well constructed and looks like an extra to the essay, it is talking about Nick Carraway and his influence on Gatsby but could be more elaborated on. The rest of the essay is very well written and explains how Gatsby's tragic flaws lead to his demise. In my opinion the AP commentators were correct in giving the student a nine, I might have given an eight but overall it is a very good essay.

Student #2: The essay is hard to read, not because it is written in cursive but the students handwriting seems to mask the content of the essay. The essay from the beginning is well constructed and it is obvious that the student knows how to analyze a text. The last paragraph wraps up the entire essay nicely and has a strong theme that is presented. There is some repetition of ideas throughout but not too many that it sacrifices the essay. I would also give this essay a six or a seven.

Student #3: The first thing that stood out to me was how short the introduction paragraph was. It was too short that it did not successfully set up the substance for the rest of the essay. The second paragraph is explaining the plot of the novel that the student chose, I don't it is necessary for it to be separated the way that the student made it, it comes across like it is a space filler and does not add to the analysis. The beginning is very choppy while the end of the essay is drawn out and doesn't seem to have one voice of the writer. The essay doesn't show a complex understanding of the text they chose and is very simplistic. There are not very many terms used to explain the novel and does not have concepts added throughout the essay. I also agree the the AP commentators on this essay that it should have gotten a five.

Death of a Salesman

Author Miller's Death of a Salesman suggests that valuing words instead of actions leads to a delusional perception of one's conventional success; this delusion leads to a deterioration of family and one's self. 

Willy throughout the play expected results to come from just believing in dreams and not actually putting effort into being successful. He was repeatedly upset with Biff that he was not like Bernard and thought he was lazy not having a steady career. At the same time Willy wasn't doing well at his job and contradicting what he was telling Biff. One specific time that he was hypocritical was at the end of the book when he told Biff to aim high and ask for a big number but when he went to ask not to travel for his job he started asking to make lower a week than what would support his family, and kept going down. Even know Willy may have had good ideas, if you just say things and value words instead of actions than you won't achieve success. After Willy finally took in that his dreams were dead and that Biff was never going to be as prestigious as Bernard, he slowly went crazy and relied on memories of the past to keep his partly sane. At the end he destroyed himself and his family.

The setting helps the theme because you can see the distinct difference between when Willy found himself to be successful in the past, it being bright and happy and then the present being gloomy and tense. The tone is depressing and dry as Willy slowly falls into this fake reality of a mix between miss perceptions and a yearn for the past. The style of the writing of the play makes you feel Willy's disappointment with his life and children. The theme comes out clear the more you analyze the play and look at Willy's confused mind.

Narrative Voice: Author Miller is a Jewish man, Willy's family is not portrayed as a Jewish family but since Miller was married to a Christan women at the time you can see both aspects of Christianity and Judaism in the play. There is not a lot of imagery in the play, it is more focused on Willy's interpretations of the past and present. The tone is dry and sad because of the way Willy is trying to hold on to the dreams he had but is slowly deteriorating.

Setting: Most of the play is set in Willy's home between the past and the present. When Willy is showing a flashback the set usually gets brighter and happier looking with a lot of movement and excitement. In the background of the flashbacks their is a graveyard, maybe foreshadowing his demise as he tries to escape back to the past. In the present the house seems dull and sometimes Willy is in the backyard that is a tiny plot of land surrounded by tall apartments solidifying the idea of confinement of the present. There are also little scenes in other places like the hotel where he had the affair and Charlie's office.

Plot: Willy is a salesman who at one point made a good salary and has two sons Biff and Happy. He also has a wife Linda who goes along with Willy out of love and that she wants him to always have his pride. Willy is constantly having flashbacks to the past that are more like hallucinations and makes him forget the present. Biff use to be a hotshot in high school and was a football star, after he failed his math class he went to see Willy in Boston and found Willy having an affair. Willy and Biffs relationship shattered at that point and Willy's life started to go down hill. Biff did not become a salesman and left his father for years working on a farm, Happy did have a good job but Biff was the one that Willy wanted to see succeed because Willy deep down feels responsible for Biff not having success. Willy than started to see his Uncle Ben who had died years before, this is when Willy really started to lose his grip with reality. After Willy got fired and Biff had cried to him Ben (Willy's mind) has convinced him to kill himself so that Willy's family would get the insurance money.

Main Characters:

Willy- We see the play through Willy's eyes. He is going insane, having hallucinations of the past constantly and seeing his dead brother. He treats Linda and Biff horribly while having good intentions to support his family. In the end he kills himself because he thinks he is more valuable dead than alive.

Linda- Willy's wife in the play. She deals with the way Willy treats her and loves him to death. She knows that Willy is going down hill fast and fights with the boys about it. She is very important to the play because she is the one that is always there for Willy, she doesn't know about the affair and by the end Willy feels very guilty for making the mistakes he did.

Biff- Constantly fights with Willy because he does know about the affair and thinks that Willy is a fake. Biff doesn't have motivation to live up to Willy's expectations and gets mad at Happy for trying to put off reality.

Happy- He is the youngest in the family, very looked over by the family. He always says things like "I'm going to get married" and nobody really pays attention or seems to care. He fights with Biff because he likes to set all the issues aside like there are none. Ignorance is bliss is a good description of Happy.

Uncle Ben- He is Willy's rich dead brother, he represents what Willy wanted but never got. Willy's hallucinations of Uncle Ben lead him to his death at the end.

Symbols: One symbol in the play was the tape-recorder, it represents the past and how Willy can't get it back. Willy hates electronics because he thinks they never work yet Howard has a tape recorder that plays the past over and over when that's what Willy has been trying to do the entire story. Howard has the power to play back exactly what happened and Willy goes crazy trying to hold on to memories. Another symbol is the seeds that Willy was trying to plant in the garden, he wanted to make something new grow and flourish so maybe he would as well. 

Qoutes:

"A diamond is hard and rough to the touch."

Ben is saying this at the end when Willy is about to commit suicide, he is saying that through death it will give something good to his family and it might seem dismal but underneath it is a diamond. The word diamond symbolizes the money that Willy's family will get from the insurance, something that Willy could not offer after he got fired from his job.

"Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground."

This is a small but very important quote in the book. It shows that Willy doesn't have anything that shows the worked hard all his life and wants to plant something and see it grow. He wants something to succeed in his life. There is a motif of nature in the play and this is partly shown by using seeds as a symbol.

Motifs: 

•  Nature
• Words instead of actions
• Childish behavior
• Guilt
• False sense of reality
• Selling yourself
• Getting Success
• Broken Promises

Close Reading #3

“Invisibility Cloak” Actually Just a Box

By: Will Oremus

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/11/08/invisibility_cloak_baile_zhang_makes_teddy_bear_disappear_in_box_but_not.html

\Will Oremus’s “Invisibility Cloak” Actually Just a Box implies that the way the discovery is being perceived, is absurd. The author uses many techniques such as diction, language, and imagery to make it clear that the “invisibility cloak” that has been made is not such a great thing after all.

The way the author uses diction helps to emphasize his point and create a mocking tone. The very first thing you read, the title has an example of this. When Oremus uses the word “actually” it makes the reader already have a strong sense of sarcasm toward the piece. Later when talking about the device he says, “utterly useless” making it obvious that the author has a strong opinion about the new device. Oremus using less sophisticated words and false words says, “light-bendy” and “prism-y thing” to further the idea of a mocking tone in the article. The diction in the piece helps to identify the meaning that the “invisibility cloak” is not a very grand discovery.

The language in the article suggests that Oremus does not think that the new discovery of the “invisibility cloak” is being perceived correctly. When Oremus says, “But hey, if you really do believe that the device in the video below can make a teddy bear disappear, I may know a guy who’s got a transmogrifier to sell you” he is obviously mocking the device because there is no such thing as a “transmogrifier”. By saying this he is creating a casual sarcastic tone that sways the reader into thinking that the device (just a complicated prism) really is not that great. Oremus also says, “A bona fide, Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak is, in fact, practically impossible” which is furthering the idea that the “invisibility cloak” one was hoping for when they saw this device on the news is not 

what it seems.

The author uses important imagery to emphasize the meaning of the article. When Oremus says, “Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak” it immediately makes the reader picture a piece of fabric that makes body parts disappear. This however is not true, the actual device is just a set of prisms that reflects the light away from the object, and this is what the author is trying to get across by using imagery, that the new device is not what one expected. Oremus also says, “And, unlike horseshoes and hand grenades” he using other objects to show a comparison to make his point stronger.

The author is suggesting that the new discovery made about an “invisibility cloak” is not much or one after all and should not be hyped up to be something it is not.