Thinking Outside the Box

Compare how Plato and Sartre describe the limitations of our thinking and imply solutions to the problem.  Be sure to analyze their literary techniques, especially their use of allegory and extended metaphor.

Plato and Sartre both send a message of restriction through an extended metaphor. Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is centered on the lives of three prisoners who are constrained to their dark, sheltered cave. They make assumptions based only from the foggy shadows that flash in front of them, but the pain of reality keeps them satisfied with their aloof lifestyle. In a similar way, the characters in "No Exit" are limited. Garcin, Estella, and Inez are extremely flawed individuals stuck in Hell. Sartre sees others as the catalyst of destruction. He sees liberation from society's negativity as the key to enlightenment. The moment you step back and look to yourself for answers, drop the worry of a "faux pas", and separate from the pack, the truth can surface.

Literature Analysis #4

A Christmas Carol
By: Charles Dickens

1. Summary

A Christmas Carol is centered around the main, dynamic character, Ebenezer Scrooge. He starts as a greedy, independent, fun-killer. He is stingy with his money, has not an ounce of festivity, and has been a loner for years since his partner Jacob Marley passed. He is met in this story by the ghost of Marley himself, and three Christmas ghosts with the intent to change his boring, unfriendly ways. The first, being the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Ebenezer back to his relationship with Belle, which failed due to his self-interest. The second, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes him to the frugal life of the Cratchit family. He witnesses the handicapped son, Tiny Tim, and this is the turning point of Ebenezer's outlook. His complete transformation, however, comes when the third ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, informs him that he is the dead, rich businessman on the tomb stone. From this point on, Ebenezer becomes jolly, philanthropic, and kind. He makes a point to be in the "Christmas spirit", and is extremely helpful and giving to Tiny Tim.

2. Theme

The main theme in A Christmas Carol is kindness. The saying, "Honey will get you further than vinegar.", is exemplified in this fictional story. Ebenezer starts as a sour, cranky old man. He has wealth, but no relationships or family in his life. When he lightens up at the resolution, he is loved and enjoys life much more.

3. Literary Devices

Simile:

• "Old Marley was as dead as a doornail."
• "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire."

Imagery:

• "...Candles were flaring in the windows of the neighboring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air."
• "Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting cold!."

Personification:

• "To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale."

Diction:

• "Bah. Humbug."

4. Characterization

Dickens uses direct characterization throughout the story.

• "Secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."
• "(Scrooge) a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner."
• "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his his cheek, softened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."
• "It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful to put his hands in his breeches' pockets."

Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

Prisoners locked up
No sense of reality,
Because knowing the truth
Can be such a calamity.

So much knowledge
In so little time,
But who knew the leadership
Could require such climb.

Taking the plunge
To reveal the great wonders,
Is too often held back
With the fear of encumbers.

Deviating from the norm is hard at first,
But take action early to avoid being immersed.

Plato Study Questions

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

The cave represents reality. The prisoners think they are aware of their surroundings, but in reality they have no idea of who is passing behind them, but only the blobs of shapes their shadows make.

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?



3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?

Sonnet Memorization

Literature Analysis #3

Gulliver's Travels    
By: Jonathan Swift

1. Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, follows Lemuel Gulliver's sea-bound journey among many English colonies after his business goes under. He makes his way to four colonies, the first being Lilliput. This land is colonized by tiny "Lilliputians" who welcome Gulliver with open arms. They treat him as royalty, and see him as a great asset to their province. Some conflicts arise with the emergence of a palace fire, and Gulliver is forced to travel to his new destination, Blefuscu, the Lilliput's enemy. He is only here for a short time, to fix his boat and return to his family in England. He doesn't remain in England long, and after two months, he is of to his next land, this time occupied with giants, Brobdingnag. He is sold to the Queen as some sort of joke, and used for his entertainment value once again. It is an unwelcoming experience for him. The people have no boundaries and are completely ignorant, so fortunately he is carried back to sea. Gulliver, however, hits another bump in the road when he comes across pirates and is forced to make landfall in Laputa. This land is night and day from the last destination. The inhabitants are educated and completely engulfed in their studies. Feeling aloof, he stays on the move, and sets on his fourth and final journey to an unknown land. This time the population consists of houyhnhnms, horses, and yahoos, the human counterparts that rule the horse-like creatures. He wears out his welcome quickly, and the houyhnhnms soon see him as a yahoo, and he is banished. After his reflection on the idea of colonialism and the regions he has encountered, he comes to the conclusion that all of the land belongs to England.

2. The theme in this novel is alienation. He travels to the different provinces of England and the audience gets the feel for the different utopias, and how each land is completely different and unaware of the outside world. For example, in the Brobdingnag land, the people are completely clueless, and treat Gulliver as this amazing tiny, entertaining toy.

3. The tone in Gulliver's Travels is satirical. At first Gulliver has an innocent and candid outlook. He goes on his beginning journeys with hope and curiosity. By his last destination, he has lost respect for the civilizations he has visited, and thinks that they are ignorant and useless. This is satirical to England, and the colonization of English utopias.

• "...that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.” 
• "…he leaves me worse than in ignorance, for I am led to believe a thing black when it is white, and short when it is long.” 

4. Characterization: Gulliver narrates this novel in first person, and Swift uses indirect characterization. We learn Gulliver's personality and his views as he goes on his voyages. As for the minor characters, Gulliver directly informs the audience.

• "...taller than his brethren by the breadth of a human fingernail.”
• "in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language; wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.” 

Symbolism: The countries that Gulliver travels to are symbols of the utopianism in England during the eighteenth century. The imaginary lands that Gulliver visits, the Lilliputians, the Brobdingnagians, the Laputans, and the Houyhnhnms all represent the real English colonies.

• "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.” 

Foreshadowing: With Gulliver witnessing ignorant societies every place he stops, he is bound to eventually reject the civilization as a whole. This occurs on his fourth, and final journey to the land of the Houyhnhnms.

• "I observe among you some lines of an institution, which, in its original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions."

Sonnet Analysis Part 1

I have chosen Robert Frost's sonnet, Design. This work appealed to me as it contains imagery and will be relatively easy to visualize while memorizing. My knowledge of sonnets at this point ends with knowing that they are poems of fourteen lines, typically having ten syllables per line.

Big Question

If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don't like, and like so many things we don't do?

Vocabulary Week 11

Affinity- relationship by marriage

Bilious- of or indicative of a peevish ill nature disposition
Cognate- of the same nature

Corollary- A proposition inferred Immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof 

Cul-de-sac - a pouch

Derring-do- a daring action

Divination- The art or practice that seeks to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge due to the interpretation of omens 

Elixir- A substance capable of prolonging life indefinitely 
Folderol- a useless accessory 

Gamut- an entire range or series

Hoi polloi- the General populace

Ineffable- incapable of being expressed in words 

Lucubration- to study by night 

Mnemonic- intended to assist memory

Obloquy- abusive language

Parameter- an independent variable used to express the coordinates of variable point and functions of them

Pundit- a learned man 

Risible- provoking laughter

Symptomatic- having the characteristics of a certain disease but arising of a different cause 

Volte-face- a reversal in policy

Sonnet: Design by: Robert Frost

Design

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth --
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth --
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small. 

Robert Frost

Hamlet PLN

Here are my fabulous 5 outside resources for Hamlet. :)

1. www.bcsd.org/webpages/chall/ap.cfm

This AP Literature class's website is a great source for those students who enjoy studying through discussion and study questions.

2. www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=hamlet-quiz-ap-english-literature-composition

This link leads to a quiz on Hamlet, created by AP students, for AP students.

3. chisnell.com/apeng/lists/hamlet/allitems.aspx

This link is my personal favorite, and a critical discussion of Hamlet among AP students.

4. http://www.crawfordsworld.com/jaimie/engIVH/hamindex.htm

This website has an array of Hamlet links with notes, text, and character analyses.

5. flashcardexchange.com/tag/hamlet

This contains quizzes on specific acts in Hamlet and also flashcards.