WHAT'S THE STORY

I think Dickens wrote this novel not only to show the time period, but to show his views on the time period, which we see through his interpretation of the characters and his attitude towards them. The following quote shows the setting of Miss Havisham and the wealth she soaked in, "She was dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, and silks - all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table." Page 49 This not only shows the state in which Miss Havisham, the richest woman around, lives in, but also shows her depression. I believe this quote is description or even imagery, but also has symbolism. The color white symbolizes her bland life, never seeing daylight, never changing her apparel, and never giving up her past. The white resembles the constant and unchanging lifestyle that Havisham lives. This quote shows Dickens attitude towards the rich and especially Mr. Jaggers, "'Very well; then you may go. Now, I won't have it!' said Mr. Jaggers, waving his hand at them to put them behind him. 'If you say a word to me, I'll throw up the case.'" Page 143 This shows how Mr. Jaggers is so wealthy and has so many clients that he can be rude and uncaring because he knows he will have another person lined up behind that one. This following quote shows how Dickens revealed his thoughts and story in a creative way and with a good use of figurative language, "All the truth of my position came flashing on me; and its disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds, rushed in in such a multitude that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew." Page 275 This is a great line that has alliteration, personification, and wonderful diction that makes the book interesting to read. 

Lit Terms and Definitions List 3

Exposition: beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas, and/or characters, in a detailed explanation.

Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic   representation of an inner idea or feeling(s).

Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.

Fallacy: from Latin word “to deceive”, a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound.

Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax.

Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue.

Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech (such as metaphor and simile).

Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events.

Foil: a person or thing that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent.

Folk Tale: story passed on by word of mouth.

Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; “planning” to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away.

Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme.

Genre: a category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, or content.

Gothic Tale: a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay, degeneration, and decadence.

Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement often used as a figure of speech or to prove a point.

Imagery: figures of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the senses.

Implication: a meaning or understanding that is to be arrive at by the reader but that is not fully and explicitly stated by the author.

Incongruity: the deliberate joining of opposites or of elements that are not appropriate to each other.
Inference: a judgement or conclusion based on evidence presented; the forming of an opinion which possesses some degree of probability according to facts already available.

Irony: a contrast or incongruity between what is said and what is meant, or what is expected to happen and what actually happens, or what is thought to be happening and what is actually happening.

Interesting Conversations Day 2

We talked about the same thing...

In class today, we talked about the journal and how Dickens brought out the real side of all his characters. He showed the evil side everyone no matter what class they were from or what their background was. We also talked about how Dickens has more of a bitterness towards the wealthy, but that they are not the only evil ones because the convicts and Orlick are also evil and of lower class. Although Dickens shows both sides of most of his characters, he seems to focus on the evil sides. Hannah mentioned that maybe he sees people on the side of road and uses them as his characters in his book. We also talked about the lecture yesterday. Although the lecture provided a lot of information and helped with the novel, it was kind of disappointing that the whole book was presented to us. I wish we would have had a chance to read the novel and discover some things on our own before the whole thing was presented to us. This may be strange to us because we have never done lectures on a book before we read it. I will reference back to the information given in the lecture, but I feel like I didn't have a chance to have my own interpretation because one was already given to me. This is helpful in the way I can clarify things when I don't understand, but I feel like that is something to be done at the end of the book or during the process. In our conversations about our lit terms, we shared our remixes with each other. I chose to link pictures to each of the words and I explained the most interesting picture to me which was a knot that represented denouement. Hannah explained how she made online flash cards and put a link to her blog, which was also very interesting. 

Reflection on the novel

I have read about 170 pages now and can't determine if I like the book or find it weird. When reading the book, I understand the plot and most of what is going on, but have a hard time understanding what some of the characters are saying at times and what exactly is happening. I get the overall gist of things, but cannot understand the specific things at times. I don't know if the book seems boring to me because I already know what is going to happen and am just waiting for it to unravel or if the book is really just not an attention grabber to me. When I read stories, I really like to connect to the characters and put myself in their shoes and their lives. In most books that is quite easy to do, but in this book it has been very difficult. I believe that is the reason why I am having a hard time really getting into the book. I have never known what it is like to be illiterate nor rich, so it is hard to connect to how Pip is feeling. The language is hard to understand because most of the characters are illiterate, but then there is a transition to scholarly vocabulary when Dickens is writing or when the rich and intelligent are speaking. This may be why it is hard to follow because it bounces back and forth. I still enjoy the story, but hope to be more enthralled in it as the story develops more and more. 

Interesting Conversations

In class today, we talked about the journal and how Dickens brought out the real side of all his characters. He showed the evil side everyone no matter what class they were from or what their background was. We also talked about how Dickens has more of a bitterness towards the wealthy, but that they are not the only evil ones because the convicts and Orlick are also evil and of lower class. Although Dickens shows both sides of most of his characters, he seems to focus on the evil sides. Hannah mentioned that maybe he sees people on the side of road and uses them as his characters in his book. We also talked about the lecture yesterday. Although the lecture provided a lot of information and helped with the novel, it was kind of disappointing that the whole book was presented to us. I wish we would have had a chance to read the novel and discover some things on our own before the whole thing was presented to us. This may be strange to us because we have never done lectures on a book before we read it. I will reference back to the information given in the lecture, but I feel like I didn't have a chance to have my own interpretation because one was already given to me. This is helpful in the way I can clarify things when I don't understand, but I feel like that is something to be done at the end of the book or during the process. In our conversations about our lit terms, we shared our remixes with each other. I chose to link pictures to each of the words and I explained the most interesting picture to me which was a knot that represented denouement. Hannah explained how she made online flash cards and put a link to her blog, which was also very interesting. 

ALL THAT DAVID COPPERFIELD KIND OF CRAP

I believe that Salinger is trying to say that David Copperfield thought his life was so bad because he would have to share his attention and life with a stepfather and step siblings, which was "crap" compared to a lot of the things other characters experienced. Like in Catcher in the Rye, the boy has to deal with a drunken father who holds him back from many things. Salinger is showing how the story of David Copperfield is nothing and barely a problem compared to what these other characters have gone through. This compares to Great Expectations in that they all suffer problems with their parents, but in Great Expectations, Pip has no parents, whereas David Copperfield cannot be happy with a mother and stepfather. Another way I can see Salinger using this phrase for is that the boy doesn't want to get into all the problems that he faces everyday. All these young characters have similar problems, but David Copperfield and Great Expectations go into great detail about their problems and complain about them a lot, whereas in Catcher in the Rye, he doesn't want to talk about his problems. He wants to focus on getting away from them and overcoming them, rather than dwelling on them. Dickens uses a style in which he goes deep into the characters mind and what they are emotionally feeling, whereas Salinger develops a plot and a way out, rather than contemplating what is happening in the characters mind. The authors take a different approach at defining their characters. Dickens shows what is happening in the mind of the characters, so that the reader has an understanding of what type of person the character is, while Salinger uses actions to define the type of person his character is and makes it more difficult to interpret the character.

Lit Terms List #2 Remix

1. Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served

2. Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance

3. Cliché: a phrase or situation overused within society

4. Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved

5. Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation

6. Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter

7. Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension

8. Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition

9. Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity

10. Denotation: plain dictionary definition

11. Denouement (pronounced day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion

12. Dialect: the language of a particular district, class or group of persons; the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.

13. Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth.

14. Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.

15. Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.

16. Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.

17. Dogmatic: rigid in beliefs and principles.

18. Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.

19. Epic: a long narrative poem unified by a hero who reflects the customs, mores, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).

20. Epigram: witty aphorism.

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

a) 1. A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, recounts the psychological or moral development of its protagonist from youth to maturity, when this character recognizes his or her place in the world. Select a single pivotal moment in the psychological or moral development of the protagonist of a bildungsroman. Then write a well-organized essay that analyzes how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole. 

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/apcentral/ap13_frq_eng_lit.pdf

2. In the beginning of the book, Siddhartha rebels against his father. Later on in the book, Young Siddhartha often rebels against Siddhartha. Which literary technique best describes this?

a) metaphor

b)anthropomorphism

c)allusion

d)foreshadowing

e)irony

http://snobles.grads.digitalodu.com/blog/groups/ap-english-2012-2013/forum/topic/siddhartha-multiple-choice-questions/

3. The main purpose of the first-person point of view in the passage, “I am no longer what I was, I am no longer an ascetic, no longer a priest, no longer a Brahmin” is to make clear?

a. The change in Siddhartha’s physical lifestyle, in order to follow his spiritual one

b. Show Siddhartha’s anger at the corruption present in his father’s position

c. Reveal the frustration in Siddhartha’s journey toward enlightenment

d. The views and beliefs of his family and his religion

e. Draw attention toward the excitement that Siddhartha feels now that he has less responsibility

http://snobles.grads.digitalodu.com/blog/groups/ap-english-2012-2013/forum/topic/siddhartha-multiple-choice-questions/

4. What does it mean to be “newly born” from Siddhartha’s point of view? pg 40

a) To be enlightened, or to have found Self

b) To be reincarnated, to have started life again in a new body

c) To be awakened, or having a new understanding

d) To have been educated, the feeling after you had met the Buddha.

e) To get to a new town and meet new people

http://snobles.grads.digitalodu.com/blog/groups/ap-english-2012-2013/forum/topic/siddhartha-multiple-choice-questions/

5. In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary.

http://mseffie.com/AP/Open_Questions.pdf

b) 1. I can answer part of this question in that the excerpt we read seems to be the turning point of the novel and is that moment that shapes Siddhartha's character, but I would not be able to explain how that single moment truly shapes the rest of the novel because I have not read the rest of the novel. I can assume that it is going to change the story entirely because Siddhartha goes from being in shackles to so much freedom he has no idea what to do with it. 

2. I think the answer to this question is d which is foreshadowing because it hints that Siddhartha's son (I'm assuming) is going to do the same thing that Siddhartha did to his father. The answer could also be irony. I am not sure exactly what the answer is, but I would go with d.

3. I am not entirely sure what the answer to this question is, but my top two would be e or b. E would be my first choice because we are finally seeing into his mind and his emotions. Not being told by a different person, but by Siddhartha himself. 

4. I would not be able to answer this question because I have not read the book, but I would assume that the answer would be a or c because in the passage we read he was enlightened and found a new self that he didn't really know what it would be yet. 

5. I believe Siddhartha's father is very important even though he is not a main character because if Siddhartha had not gotten resentment and decided to go against his father he never would have changed and become a new person. The theme would be entirely different because Siddhartha would not care so much about leaving his family and his tradition if his father was not a character in the story. Because his dad is in the story it makes this turning point more significant and difficult for Siddhartha. 

c) I feel that these questions were not extremely hard. I felt like I had a good grasp of what they were asking. I still need to work on finding my voice and developing that essay in a timely and sufficient manner, but overall I understood what the question was asking of me and could generate a draft of an answer. The multiple choice will always be difficult, but I felt good that I could at least narrow it down to two answers rather than not even understanding three of the answers. I do have work to be done because I didn't understand one of the words in the multiple choice question, but after a semester of lit terms, I should be ready to go.