September 22, 2016
This unit we are working on reading poetry and making sure we have an understanding of how to be able to understand what we are reading. This first helpful hint to be able to fully understand the poem that you just read, you first must read the story through with no pauses or questioning of what the author means by a phrase. The second time you read you attempt to make a more thorough connection with what the author means by the words used or where they are located in the poem. After having an understanding of what the author means by each line in the poem, you then paraphrase what you just read. When you paraphrase, you put everything into your own words. It is much like summarizing, but you are able to add your own perception of what is happening in the story instead of just the facts.
There are four types of poetry; Lyric, narrative, dramatic monologue, and didactic. Lyric poetry is a poem written in first person and expresses their thoughts and feelings. Also lyric poetry is written in a song-like form that has the same emotional impact as music. Narrative poetry tells the story, it is much like a fictional story. Narrative poetry creates the setting and characters while also keeping the reader engaged. Dramatic monologue is a poem that is written as a speech made by a character at a very important point in the story. This is when the main character, or the one giving the speech, addresses those in the story who are silent. Lastly is didactic poetry is written as a statement or to teach knowledge to the audience. Didactic poetry teaches the readers life lessons along with moral lessons.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Saturday, September 17, 2016
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
September 17, 2016
The story of 'The Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant is about a woman, Mathilde, who belongs to the lower social class level, when she believes that she should be in a higher class. Mathilde's husband, who is a clerk at the Ministry of Education was invited to an event at the Ministry and to bring his wife along with him. When Mathilde was given the envelope that contains the invitation she began to cry because she knew that they would look out of place if they attended. Her husband was so concerned about making his wife happy that he gave her money so she was able to purchase a new dress for the important event. A few days before the ball Mathilde was back to believing that she is unable to attend because she didn't own any jewelry, and if she wasn't wearing any they would look poor. Mathilde's husband had the idea of borrowing a necklace from a higher class friend and returning it after the ball. The night of the ball came, Mathilde was the star of the shoe in her dazzling dress with her diamond necklace. When Mathilde and her husband got home from the ball, she noticed that the diamond necklace was missing. For weeks the couple searched for the necklace with no appearance of it. Mathilde and her husband decided that they would replace the necklace to give back to the friend. The couple picked up extra jobs to be able to pay for the necklace and loans they had to take out. A few weeks after Mathilde returned her friend’s replaced necklace, she ran into her friend down town. Her friend recognized the struggle that Mathilde and her husband have been faced with lately, and Mathilde explained the whole story of losing the necklace to her friend and how they replaced it with a new diamond necklace. Later on in the conversation, Mathilde was told that the necklace was a fake diamond, and cost only one tenth of the price of a real diamond.
I answered a few questions at the end of the reading of ‘The Necklace’ this week:
The story of 'The Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant is about a woman, Mathilde, who belongs to the lower social class level, when she believes that she should be in a higher class. Mathilde's husband, who is a clerk at the Ministry of Education was invited to an event at the Ministry and to bring his wife along with him. When Mathilde was given the envelope that contains the invitation she began to cry because she knew that they would look out of place if they attended. Her husband was so concerned about making his wife happy that he gave her money so she was able to purchase a new dress for the important event. A few days before the ball Mathilde was back to believing that she is unable to attend because she didn't own any jewelry, and if she wasn't wearing any they would look poor. Mathilde's husband had the idea of borrowing a necklace from a higher class friend and returning it after the ball. The night of the ball came, Mathilde was the star of the shoe in her dazzling dress with her diamond necklace. When Mathilde and her husband got home from the ball, she noticed that the diamond necklace was missing. For weeks the couple searched for the necklace with no appearance of it. Mathilde and her husband decided that they would replace the necklace to give back to the friend. The couple picked up extra jobs to be able to pay for the necklace and loans they had to take out. A few weeks after Mathilde returned her friend’s replaced necklace, she ran into her friend down town. Her friend recognized the struggle that Mathilde and her husband have been faced with lately, and Mathilde explained the whole story of losing the necklace to her friend and how they replaced it with a new diamond necklace. Later on in the conversation, Mathilde was told that the necklace was a fake diamond, and cost only one tenth of the price of a real diamond.
I answered a few questions at the end of the reading of ‘The Necklace’ this week:
1)
Why does Mathilde borrow her friend’s diamond necklace
for the ball? What do her motivations reveal about her character?
Mathilde borrows her friend’s necklace for the
ball, because she believes that if she doesn’t wear something that makes her
look like she’s from the upper class than she is a failure in her mind. Her
motivations prove that she is a very selfish person that didn’t work hard to be
the best that she can be, and get the best outcome in her life.
2)
Why does the protagonist not admit to her friend that
she has lost the necklace?
I think that Mathilde does not admit to her friend
that she lost her necklace, because she would have had to let her know that her
and her husband would not be able to afford to repay her. If Mathilde would
have told her friend that they lost the necklace, they wouldn’t have had to go
through the financial struggle they faced when attempting to pay for the real
diamond necklace.
3)
What is ironic about the story’s conclusion?
The conclusion is ironic because Mathilde’s friend
tells Mathilde that she the necklace is not a real diamond that she lost the
night of the ball. It is ironic also because Mathilde thought that her friend
was so rich that everything she owns would be real.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Bullet in the Brain Under the Microscope
September 11, 2016
Today I am going to break down the characters in the story, "Bullet in the Brain", by Tobias Wolff. This is a story about a lonely, ill-tempered book critic who makes it to the bank just in time of closing. Anders, the book critic, then has to stand in line behind two chatty women who believe that they should be helped right this minute. The bank is robbed just seconds after the closing of the bank, and Anders cannot help himself from laughing at the two fugitives as they repeat lines from movie and books. Anders ended up being threatened multiple times by the two robbers and ended up being shot through the skull.
One of the chapters we read in our class book was about characters and how we distinguish what type of character they are throughout the story. Anders, the main character, had the stereotype of being a cranky, lonely book critic. With falling into the stereotype, Anders becomes a stock character to this story. He is also falls into the category of being a round character, because your perspective of him changes throughout the story. Once the bullet enters Anders' skull, you are then taken to the time where he thought speaking incorrectly was an alright thing to do. This shows a side of Anders that makes you believe that maybe he isn't all bad and he doesn't like being the critic that he has become.
Other characters in the story are the fillers of the story. The robber who was in charge of the lobby and the customers would be considered a flat character because Anders describes the fugitive's eyes as he stares at him while being threatened. Anders only stated one major characteristics from this robber, making him a flat character. The two women who were standing in front of Anders would be considered a static character, because neither woman truly change their attitude towards the whole situation. They were continuously mad at something when they would be brought back into the story. First they were upset at the tellers for closing down their counter, but then they became upset at Anders for talking back to the robbers and putting their lives in danger.
Today I am going to break down the characters in the story, "Bullet in the Brain", by Tobias Wolff. This is a story about a lonely, ill-tempered book critic who makes it to the bank just in time of closing. Anders, the book critic, then has to stand in line behind two chatty women who believe that they should be helped right this minute. The bank is robbed just seconds after the closing of the bank, and Anders cannot help himself from laughing at the two fugitives as they repeat lines from movie and books. Anders ended up being threatened multiple times by the two robbers and ended up being shot through the skull.
One of the chapters we read in our class book was about characters and how we distinguish what type of character they are throughout the story. Anders, the main character, had the stereotype of being a cranky, lonely book critic. With falling into the stereotype, Anders becomes a stock character to this story. He is also falls into the category of being a round character, because your perspective of him changes throughout the story. Once the bullet enters Anders' skull, you are then taken to the time where he thought speaking incorrectly was an alright thing to do. This shows a side of Anders that makes you believe that maybe he isn't all bad and he doesn't like being the critic that he has become.
Other characters in the story are the fillers of the story. The robber who was in charge of the lobby and the customers would be considered a flat character because Anders describes the fugitive's eyes as he stares at him while being threatened. Anders only stated one major characteristics from this robber, making him a flat character. The two women who were standing in front of Anders would be considered a static character, because neither woman truly change their attitude towards the whole situation. They were continuously mad at something when they would be brought back into the story. First they were upset at the tellers for closing down their counter, but then they became upset at Anders for talking back to the robbers and putting their lives in danger.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Deeper into The Lottery
September 1, 2016
In class today we learned how to dig deeper into the story by picking apart a paragraph from the short story, "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson. To begin our analysis, we first began with Jackson's biography. As a class we picked out two major events that occurred in her lifetime that may have influenced the writing of "The Lottery." Shirley Jackson's adolescent years came during the Great Depression, but also she experienced the horrors of WWII. I believe that the biography of Jackson helped me realize that she lived in a time period where there was no extreme emotion and no one felt remorseful if something was done for the good of the people.
After learning about the different types of analyzes that you can do, the class was then able to look at "The Lottery" a lot closer. As a class, we used Formalism as a way to dig deep into the meaning of a certain paragraph from the story. The closer we looked at the paragraph the more you realized how much emotion took place inside of three sentences.
For fun then, I picked out my own paragraph from "The Lottery" and decided to analyze it using Formalism. I used paragraph 77, beginning with "Tessie Hutchinson...", in the first sentence there were multiple words that had a deeper meaning than just their face value. The phrase "...was in the center of a cleared space by now..." gives you the eerie feeling of the crowd before the drawing, and afterward when Tessie Hutchinson revealed she was holding the black dot. Also the clearing of the area really adds to the scene because you then realize that everyone was there for the show and Mrs. Hutchinson was the main act. Later on in the sentence it says, "...she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her..." I feel like the villagers at this point are in autopilot, Jackson never states that the villagers ever interfere with the process of the lottery, nor did they have any emotion towards Mrs. Hutchinson as she was trying to reach out for their help. The final sentence of the paragraph, "A stone hit her on the side of the head.", is extremely powerful. The sentence made you feel some sort of relief that Mrs. Hutchinson was put out of her misery, but again Jackson states no true emotion from the villagers.
Thanks for reading my analysis of "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson.
Madison Mason
In class today we learned how to dig deeper into the story by picking apart a paragraph from the short story, "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson. To begin our analysis, we first began with Jackson's biography. As a class we picked out two major events that occurred in her lifetime that may have influenced the writing of "The Lottery." Shirley Jackson's adolescent years came during the Great Depression, but also she experienced the horrors of WWII. I believe that the biography of Jackson helped me realize that she lived in a time period where there was no extreme emotion and no one felt remorseful if something was done for the good of the people.
After learning about the different types of analyzes that you can do, the class was then able to look at "The Lottery" a lot closer. As a class, we used Formalism as a way to dig deep into the meaning of a certain paragraph from the story. The closer we looked at the paragraph the more you realized how much emotion took place inside of three sentences.
For fun then, I picked out my own paragraph from "The Lottery" and decided to analyze it using Formalism. I used paragraph 77, beginning with "Tessie Hutchinson...", in the first sentence there were multiple words that had a deeper meaning than just their face value. The phrase "...was in the center of a cleared space by now..." gives you the eerie feeling of the crowd before the drawing, and afterward when Tessie Hutchinson revealed she was holding the black dot. Also the clearing of the area really adds to the scene because you then realize that everyone was there for the show and Mrs. Hutchinson was the main act. Later on in the sentence it says, "...she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her..." I feel like the villagers at this point are in autopilot, Jackson never states that the villagers ever interfere with the process of the lottery, nor did they have any emotion towards Mrs. Hutchinson as she was trying to reach out for their help. The final sentence of the paragraph, "A stone hit her on the side of the head.", is extremely powerful. The sentence made you feel some sort of relief that Mrs. Hutchinson was put out of her misery, but again Jackson states no true emotion from the villagers.
Thanks for reading my analysis of "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson.
Madison Mason
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)