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.

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.