Open Prompts Part 2

2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on a political oe social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

 In Veronica Roth's Divergent there is an underlying issue of both political and social issues. In the book the main character tries escape the government and hopes to cure the city of all of its inhumane practices. The author uses techniques such as mood, details, and empathy to highlight the issues of society in the novel and set up the central conflict. 

The mood in the novel is dismal but exhilarating at the same time because the character has to constantly fight with her own identity against the government of her city. The main character Tris is a "Divergent", they are people that the government cannot control because something is different in the divergent's mind. This is a problem for Tris through the entire book because she can never escape them, the government is constantly watching her and waiting for the right time to execute her if she is not careful and is exposed. Roth creates a mood of suspense and danger but also dismal as Tris could die at any moment, this heightens the impact of the governments threat. 

The author uses details to make the reader connect with the main character and sympathize her even know she is a "divergent" and the government is after her. Tobias is Tris' boyfriend and is also a divergent, this makes the reader hate the government even more in the book because now there are two people in danger. There are also details that bring out the problems in society and not just with the government in the city, Roth ads in a boy named Peter who tires to kill Tris just to save his own skin. This is showing that there are deeper problems than just the government, there are also huge problems in society itself. 

Tris is the main character so of course the reader will feel empathetic for her at some degree. However Roth creates empathy in the novel not only to bring an attachment to the main character but to also allow the reader to see the real problems in the city and see the true horrific things Tris has to live through. Tris' parents can't ever see her again, her brother has turned behind enemy lines, and her boyfriend is being hunted just like she is. Roth sets up the story so you have empathy for the character and despise the government, she used empathy to show how messed up society really is and that is what makes these conflicts more real. The conflicts in the story jump out at one from the page because of how the author and the book as a whole makes one want to fight for Tris. 

The authors literary techniques used in the novel makes the conflict between Tris and the government/overall society much more intense. It makes one feel the suspense and want to keep reading  while adding details that make the reader connect with the characters.  The author adds empathy in the novel to make the government seem like an even bigger monster. Roth is very successful in creating the central conflict so it's so strong that the meaning of the book is clear. Even if it's one or two against the world, there is always hope. Even if it is fighting something like the government, it's more important to fight for whats right. Roth is suggesting the meaning of the novel by using these techniques to make the political and social problems stand out to the reader. 


I was not aware when I was writing this, or was too tired, that Divergent is a young adult book. Will not happen again.

Our Class #4

WOW. That was a lot of Hamlet in the last couple weeks. All the movies were very interesting in their own way and definitely gave different perspectives on the play. I didn't however like one version over the other, I think they all had their own strengths and weaknesses. And to be honest after watching like five different versions in a row I was a little exaughsted of Hamlet overall,  all the movies just combined in my mind as one giant weird movie.

The one that I really didn't like was the more modern one, the one that was set in the 1900's but still had the original words. It didn't make any sense to me, if you have very old English words than don't pair them with a modern setting. Nobody talks like that today! So that made me quite angry because I think it mocks Hamlet's story and makes it seem like a joke to me. I am sure that is not what the director of the movie was going for but for me personally, I didn't get it.

I liked watching the different versions as a whole because we got to see what choices the filmmakers made in each one and how it had an effect on the overall story. Maybe not five of them because now I can't remember which one is which and like I said before they have all melded together. As a whole however it was a very good idea to compare the movies. Some of the decisions we saw in the movies I still haven't even decided myself, for example if Gertrude knew that the wine was poisoned before she drank it. In the actual words of the play you could argue both ways that she is oblivious or she knew and was trying to sacrifice herself for Hamlet. When I read it I think that she did have some inclination that something was going on with the wine but like I said I really don't know which is the right answer if there even is a right answer.

Another thing that I thought was interesting about the directors choices was how Claudius was portrayed. When I initially read Hamlet I found Claudius as an evil character, killing old Hamlet seems like an unforgivable action, but than some of the movies got me thinking. The fact that old Hamlet was portrayed as a ghost in this eerie and almost devilish way made me think maybe old Hamlet wasn't so good than, maybe he has some secrets that we didn't know about. Also some of the movies Claudius really didn't seem all that bad and Hamlet seemed the one that was being unreasonable, Patrick Stewart for example did not seem like an evil Claudius too me and I was almost sad when he died. I also could have been unconsciously bias from some of the other things Patrick Stewart has starred in. 

Aside from the rambling about some of the smaller parts in Hamlet I am really excited to finish it up. We have been have discussions for a while and I want to move on to motifs and theme statements so I understand the play to my full capabilities. I am also excited to start reading Gildenstern and Rozencratz Are Dead because I skimmed some of it and it looks really funny and modern like the American Dream was.

 How this all connects to my life. Well it really does! I was kind of surprised because all we have been doing is Hamlet and I didn't think I would see a whole bunch of references already.  I find myself in class like making Hamlet jokes and nobody gets them, it's kind of sad really. Like I will be sitting in class and say "thou lay my head upon your lap" and nobody understands what I'm talking about, it of course has a context. I don't just go screaming that through the hallways or anything. So overall I am glad we read Hamlet, it is a classic piece and I'm glad I can understand references on TV and when people mention quotes from the play.

Open Prompts #4

2009 Responses

Student #1
The first thing I noticed is the handwriting, I know the students have to write fast and handwriting isn't really their fault but it's really annoying and distracting when trying to read an essay. The second thing is the student did show a strong theme statement in the introductory paragraph which is a good start. The rest of the essay is very well constructed and has evidence to back up the authors ideas about the piece they are writing about. Some of the sentences are a bit pompous and wordy but the content and connections behind them are good. The last paragraph sums up all of the students points effectively and connects them all back to the theme.

Student #2
The beginning of the essay is a bit hard to understand, the thesis statement could be stronger and the theme presented doesn't seem strong enough to be the overall theme of the novel the student is talking about. There are also a lot of words and some sentences crossed out in the essay, it usually wouldn't be something that would count against the student but in this case there is so much it seems like the student was not confident about what she was writing. The structure of the essay is good, the content flows from one paragraph to another but still could have stronger claims. The student is very repetitive with the phrase, "the strong desire to cover up the truth" and seems to be using the same type of sentences to cover up the lack of evidence toward the theme statement.

Student #3
I have serious issues with the first paragraph. It is already extremely repetitive with, "power and strength" in the first two sentences and says power again in the last. There are only four sentences in the paragraph! Than the student says, "in my opinion" which is awful, we already know its the students opinion so they don't need to tell the reader. The theme statement in itself is not really a theme statement at all saying, "it symbolizes a higher level in power and the man who carried it was an intimidating man". What does that even mean? That is not at all a theme statement and it makes me enraged that someone who took AP lit would think that it was. The rest of the essay is poorly written and doesn't connect back to the students "theme" hardly at all.

Mourning Mandela

South Africa Announces Weeklong Memorial to Mourn Mandela

By: Daniel Politi

 http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/12/07/mourning_mandela_south_africa_announces_week_of_memorials.html

The author uses diction, details, and syntax to suggest that The former President of Africa was loved by many people and that Africa has suffered a great loss. The author makes the article very clear and to the point but it also makes the reader feel for the people who loved Mandela and relate to them as well. 

 In this emotional article about the death of the African President Nelson Mandela the author uses diction to suggest that the people loved their former leader and mourn his death. Politi uses words like "flock" and "pay tribute" to show that losing one of their own was a big event. The author also goes on to explain how the people will be putting on  a "week long series of events" using the words "week long" to state how much time and effort was being put into the memorial and not just saying "they were doing numerous things for the president" for example. 

 The details in the article further the idea that the people loved Mandela.  When the author says the people were "already paying their respects in diverse ways" it shows that they didn't wait for a formal memorial or funeral and were already started to mourn the president, it also shows that they were doing a lot of different things that may be more personal to one specific family. He also adds the quote "and form a public guard of honor" into the article to show that Mandela was not just respected but honored and needed a "guard of honor".

 The author uses syntax to add emphasis to the points in the article and add emotion from the people who loves Mandela. Politi uses many quotes from different sources to give a wider range of examples from different people. The author also uses punctuation to make the sentences flow better so you can focus on the information and the emotion in the piece. In this sentence, "Although many South Africans are already paying their respects in diverse ways, the week of mourning begins Sunday with a national day of prayer, followed by an official memorial service at a Johannesburg 90,000-seat stadium on Tuesday. " (Politi), the use of the commas make the reader focus on certain words like "diverse ways" and "prayer". The author is using syntax to make words stand out and emphasize them so the reader can feel the emotion of the people that lost their leader.

Politi is very successful in his use of literary techniques to get his main point of the article across. The use of diction, details and syntax stood out the most in the article and even with it being quite short Politi still made the article connect with the reader.

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