Core Concept Notes (2/07- 2/17)

Heart of Darkness
-geography

• the idea that marlowe is decening into hell, references to dante and lots of demons
• as well as hell, it is also eden, lush forest and the "birthplace of man"
• heading south to run amuck

-characters

• the two women, the Intended and Marlowe's aunt are in need of "protecting"
• the african woman )mistress) on the other hand represents the fertility and soul of the congo, she is an Anima
• Kurtz has fallen in love with the congo and can never go back
• the old woman at the beginning spinning black wool are the Fates
• the russian trader is the "fool"

-HOD is an ironic guest, although the quest has meaning, it is lost on Marlowe, so for him it was meaningless

Apocalypse Now
-set in Vietnam instea of the congo
-the anima is not as present in this version
-the ending is different, we are lead to believe he heads deeper into the jungle
-for whatever reason (probably film) it seemed more graphic

Core Concept Notes (1/31- 2/04)

The Novel
-comes from the Italian word novella, meaning little new thing
-usually 30,000-100,000 words
-it has plot complexity, using characters
-Three early british writers

• Daniel Dafoe
• Samuel Richarson
• Henry Fielding

-novels soon became so poular becuase of four things

1. a larger educated middle class with a little extra money
2. cheaper production and circulation
3. publication of novels in serial form
4. a system of circulating libraries

Terms
-Repetition

• anaphora: emphasizing words with repetition at the begining of the clauses
• antipostrophe: the repetition of words at the end of successive clauses
• anadiplosis: the repetition of a word from the en of a clause to the beginning of the next
• epizeuxis: repetition of words in amediate succession
• polysyndeton: the repetition of a conjunction
• alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds
• assonance: the repetition of vowal souns in close proximity, with different consonants
• consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the end

-Parallelism

• antithesis: juxtaposing two ideas by joining them together

-Inversion

• anastrophe: inversion of common western word order ie: yoda
• chiasmus: two or more clauses are related by inverte parallelism
• antimetabole: the repetition of words in successive clauses with transposed order

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay

I Think I Found Your Cat
By: Sef Willen

This is a slightly disturbing reflective essay about an encounter that the author, Sef Willen, had. She is trying to inventory a burned down home for the insurance company. The disturbing aspect of this essay begins when she enters and describes its state as the home of a hoarder. It gets worse until the answer to the overarching question is answered, where is the family cat. Well needless to say, not alive.

Willen takes a tone of humor at the beginning, until the cat is found, when her tone switches to one that makes it sound as though she is genuinely sorry for this family and the illness they are dealing with. She creates this tone, at first, by displaying how ridiculous the home is. She uses almost unnecessary amounts of detail and comparisons to make it easy to picture the mountains of pink gumballs and other trash that is heavily detailed. She uses this detail when explaining her fall through the ceiling, which is funny but also disarming, lightening the mood and making the situation even easier to laugh at. When she switches her tone, she uses the twisted humor of some high school kids helping her, to make it obvious that this is not funny because she has stopped joking.

This switch in tone is a strength in this essay because it strikingly highlights the change in the situation that she is writing about. She is able to show what she finds funny, and what she thinks was not funny but undervalued during the experience. The weakness of this essay is the detail itself, even though it helps her to create the tone, the detail is disturbing. This much detail of the gross half-burned contents of the house makes it difficult to continue reading as the reader imagines wading through molten candy sludge and things that may once have been valuable.

The tone of this essay would not be appropriate for an AP essay because any of the evidence that was used would not be able to be taken seriously. This would defeat the purpose of writing the essay because it would be difficult to convince the reader to take the writer seriously. The way she created this tone on the other hand would be perfect for an essay. The descriptive details and comparisons would be excellent for supporting your evidence and claims. They would also help when describing the evidence itself, the more clear the evidence the better it will be able to connect to the claims.

Outside Reading: Book Review

Hearts full of Sorrow
By: Rebecca Goldstein

This Book review is about the book “Great House” by Nicole Kruass, Rebecca Goldstein discusses how Kruass’s new book compares to “The History of Love” that many readers already like, and how it stands out as a book of its own also. She comments on the tone of the two books and how they differ to portray a similar plot, but also how “Great House can stand on its own in a new and effective way.

Goldstein’s tone shows how much she really enjoyed both of Kruass’s books; she praises the new book with comments that support the complicated characters and relationships that the author has created. This tone is made by Goldstein’s diction choices; she uses words that make it evident that she is speaking positively of the books. For instance, she uses “immaculate” to describe the way the two contradictory tones of the book blend perfectly. She also describes some of the content of the books almost poetically because she enjoyed it, enriching the way it sounds to make it even more motivating for the reader to go get a copy.

The strongest part of this review is the detail of the book that is included in it, without any spoilers, and the positive response to the book, which makes it very motivating. Although, in some ways this is also a weakness, by taking such a firm stance on the book, and drawing connections to the author’s other book, she alienates and discourages readers that may not like this kind of book or didn’t enjoy “The History of Love”.

This review is from formalist perspective, analyzing the different things in the text that Kruass has accomplished well, she also makes a comparison to the author’s other book drawing in some of her past, adding a new historicism aspect to the piece.

One of Goldstein’s main analyses of the book has to do with the tone, which is a subject that we learned about earlier in the year. She discusses how the two distinct tones in the book create the complex main character.

The way all these things are accomplished is very different then the other two book reviews that I have read. It definitely takes a much more strikingly positive spin, and encouraging the reader, emphasizing the positive attributes of the book, but nowhere are any shortcomings mentioned. In the other reviews it was a more unbiased approach, where both sides were displayed and it is up to you to decide whether the book is right for you.

Core Concept Notes (12/13-1/7)

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead:
-explores the idea of what happens to characters when the play is over
-the opening scene represents their birth as the play begins, and then they die at the end

Death of a Salesman:
-Willy is portrayed as a child
-Linda is motherly, but more so towards Willy than her own children
-Happy is striving to get out of Bif's shadow but can't, and so continues to pursue
  Willly's goals to prove they were worthwile
-Bif grows the most throughout, and discovers who her is
-explores the difference between being loved and well-liked

Core Concept Notes (11/29-12/10)

Existentialism:
-Claims

• Mankind has free will
• Life is a series of choices, create stress
• Few decisions are without negative choices
• Some things are irrational and absurd
• If one makes a decision, he or she mst follow through

-A philosophical system concerned with free will, choice, and personal responsibility. Since it is based on choices that each of us make individually, there are no concrete guidelines
-refer to the Existentialism 101 sheet

Theater of the Absurd:
-extravagant humor masks meaninglessness being portrayed
-anti-heroes replace the common heroes
-people are seen as bewildered in a incomprehensible world

Hamlet Films:
-we watched three different versions of Hamlet
-the BBC film took a traditional stance with a minimalist approach to the set and wardrobe choices
-the Olivier decided to show Hamlet as gay
-the Branaugh version showed Hamlet as angry and insane

Outside Reading: Column

The Rules : Time-Tested Secrets for Getting and Keeping a Job in this Economy

By: Alison Rosen

As enlightening as the title leads you to believe this column will be, it’s really just about a good laugh. Rosen creates a light atmosphere and a joking tone, using a persona crafted to be someone who can be trusted for advice, like a coworker, or friend.

The syntax that she uses adds to this persona because she uses series of questions to create a sense of a conversation, as though the reader is being badgered by the persona into making confessions about their workplace. This acts to actively engage the reader and has them examining their job.  The diction that she uses creates the persona, she uses common conversation words, easy low level language that makes the persona read like the reader is discussing these secrets face to face. This works to disarm the reader and encourages them to be more open to the joking message.

In general I think this persona makes the joking tips easier to laugh along with because it is like playful banter between coworkers, it works well to deliver the tips and make it clear that these are not actually supposed to be put into practice. I like the column and I think personally it was funny and it appealed to my sense of humor. The funniest thing that was mentioned in the column was to have an egg timer with you at work, so that you can make sure to hang up on your boss after three minutes, after all you need to get back to ignoring your work.

The persona is a strength, in that it is able to deliver the message more effectively. Although it makes an excellent vehicle for the jokes it is also a weakness because someone going into the column actually looking for tips would not only be disappointed by the information, but would also not be in the mood for lighthearted banter, and so would most likely have a poor response to the column.

This would definitely not be an appropriate persona to create on an AP essay because by definition this persona is not trustworthy. The joking tone is the worst way to address the AP essay because it is self defeating. A writer who does this would not be very convincing while trying to answer a prompt effectively, and it would be impossible to come across as a reliable source of information, since it would be difficult to determine whether or not the writer was serious.