New Big Question

In 20th century, how does race matter? Is there any lesson we learn from racism to work more collaboratively? How can we share/emphasize the things we have in common more than the things that distinguish us?

AP Term

In literature, tragedy is any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic tragically flawed.

The best method for me to memorize this term is thinking of Shakespeare's plays. We recently read Hamlet in our class and encountered a tragic event when Polonius' death led to Ophelia's,which led to Laertes', Gertrude's Claudius', and eventually Hamlet's deaths.




There are others plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth that incorporate tragedy.

Self Search

After searching my name, I found some interesting things...

- One was a research officer who worked with the Governments of Uganda, South Sudan and Tajikistan.
- Another was a shopping website...weird
- A kid who celebrated his fifth birthday with a pirate swim party.
- A Doctor who served a number of roles with Duke Integrative Medicine.
- A painter born in a Quaker family in 1682.

Thinking Outside the Box

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

Both Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" and Sartre's  "No Exit" elucidate the idea that prisoners are confined in the "dark/Hell" by themselves. The prisoners who are chained up in the cave are relentless to discovering new ideas and concepts they encounter. They got so used to the shadow that they are afraid to compromise to the light a.k.a. reality. When one the of the freed prisoners manages to escape, search for the truth, and come back to tell the others, he was mocked. They thought he was crazy and spoke nonsense. Garcin in "No Exit" has a chance to leave, but he realizes that no matter what he does, he won't be able to escape Hell and decides to stay. The people who were with him were the actual torturers, not the fact that they were in Hell.

Literary Analysis #3

Heart Of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

1.Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.

     Marlow is a sailor who travels up the Congo River to meet Kurtz.  During his travel to Africa, Marlow realized the brutal  treatment in Central Station, run. Later,  his steamship sank and waited until it was fixed. Marlow and other agents pursue a long, difficult journey up the river. They discover a hut stacked with firewoods along with a note that they should be cautious. Shortly, the gang arrive at Kurtz’s Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a half-crazed Russian trader, who meets them as they come ashore, assures them that everything is fine. Kurtz lied to the natives that he was a god and went on brutal raids in the to search ivory. The skulls placed around the station is the consequence of his nefarious actions. Marlow listens to Kurtz talk. Kurtz hands Marlow personal documents. Later on, Marlow becomes ill and barely recuperates. He comes to Europe and goes to see Kurtz’s Intended. Even though it has been over a year since Kurtz’s death, she is in melancholgy. She asks Marlow what his last words were, but Marlow couldn't break her heart, so he tells her that it was her name.
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

One of the themes in this book is madness which is tied with imperialism. It is defined as being removed from one’s social life and allowed to be the sole arbiter of one’s own actions.

3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

The overall tone of the novel is pessimistic. Marlow refers to darkness, madness, and fear throughout the story. Judging from my view, it is probably based on Conrad’s own negative experience to his voyage up the Congo River.

"A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth."

"I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. One was off. The thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal. I came upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. To the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stir feebly."

"The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence. And it moved not."

4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

1)Imagery : Helps me to visualize the text when I'm reading along. It leaves a better memory of the story.

2)Symbolism:  In this story, light eludes to darkness. Darkness represents the myteries of life. Lightness is darkness, darkness is lightness. It's complicated.

3)Foreshadow: This Doctor foreshadows the upcoming danger and eventual madness that Marlow will face in the interior. Measuring Marlow’s skull is something akin to taking scientific observations of his brain.

4)Allusion: Some references to the devil and Dante: The Divine Comedy allow the story to have a darker tone.

5)Metaphor: The use of this device allows me to make connections between the person being compared to the noun.

"Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blind-folded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was somber – almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister." 

"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slim one got up and walked straight at me – still knitting with downcast eyes – and only just as I began to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned round without a word and preceded me into a waiting-room."

“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’”

The Big Question

There's a cliche that goes "Don't judge a book by its cover." Likewise, why do people judge their peers by their outside appearance? What makes one race "superior" to others? In fact, is it actually true that one race dominates others, or is it just a stereotype thats been reinforced repeatedly?

Hamlet Revised Essay

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is based on a man named Hamlet who seeks to avenge his father’s death. Throughout the play, his use of performative utterance influences the way he behaves toward other characters, and Hamlet eventually transforms from a man of words to a man of action. As a result of self-overhearing, it changed the way I behaved similar to Hamlet.

In the beginning of the play, the apparition (King Hamlet) informs Hamlet that Claudius has murdered him while he was asleep. Hamlet swears to the ghost that he will remember him and set out to accomplish his mission. His mind was full of grief and hatred towards Claudius, the murderer of his father. Instead of putting his thoughts into action, Hamlet waits patiently to confirm the crime and delays the kill. Having this in mind, Hamlet starts to act strangely in front of others. When Polonius comes to greet him, Hamlet pretends like he doesn’t know him and asks if he is a fishmonger. Polonius, flabbergasted by his bizarre reaction, believes that Hamlet is “mad”. Hamlet’s act of mimesis allows him to cover up his scheme to kill Claudius.

Hamlet was a man of words than action. Many of his soliloquies consist of his inner feelings and how he should deal with the current situation. When Hamlet had an opportunity to kill Claudius who was praying, he didn’t take action because he was aware that it wouldn’t be a good revenge to let Claudius go to heaven so he delayed the act. Not only until the battle with Laertes does he realize the long, postponed action. All of a sudden in Act 5, the tempo speeds up and literally everyone dies in an instant. First the queen dies after drinking the poisoned cup prepared for Hamlet, followed by Claudius who dies by Hamlet, then Laertes, and finally Hamlet himself who is cut by the poisoned sword.

Self-overhearing influenced the way I perceived things. Whenever I make a decision, I talk to myself consciously or unconsciously, to make the wisest decision. Whenever something goes wrong, I think to myself what went wrong and change my perspective on the same topic. Whenever I make the change, it goes well and I tell myself that I should look at every outcome possible before I make a decision.

Hamlet’s strange actions throughout the play were very confusing, but after reading about J.L. Austen’s explanation on performative utterance, his motive is justified. Hamlet is able to put his words into action at the end of the play where the perlocutionary force took place. The oath he made with the ghost is finally settled and he can rest in peace free from all the discrepancies he went through. Similar to Hamlet, I too was able to change the way I perceived the consequences beforehand and make wise decisions.

Hamlet vs Beowulf Essay

Both Hamlet and Beowulf are two great classic literary works written. Hamlet, the “Melancholy Prince”, struggles to act out his intentions immediately while Beowulf, the hero of the Danes, acts as soon as opportunities are offered to him. Shakespeare writes the story using many soliloquies for Hamlet to express his inner feelings to the audience. In Beowulf, however, we aren’t able to get a closer insight in Beowulf’s thoughts.
When Hamlet encountered the ghost and discovered that his uncle, Claudius, has killed his father, Hamlet doesn’t seek to kill him. Instead, he even questions whether or not the ghost was telling the truth. Hamlet devises a plan to confirm Claudius’ crime. Not only until the end, does Hamlet realize his postponement and fulfills his goal by risking his life. Beowulf, on the other hand, asked for a dangerous challenge, “By one; death was my errand and the fate They had earned. Now Grendel and I are called Together, and I’ve come. Grant me , then, …A single request!” Beowulf comes to Denmark and kills both Grendel and his mother without hesitating the consequences.
Hamlet’s soliloquies gives the audience more information about Hamlet and his connections with other characters. “To be, or not to be--that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them.” The readers are able to dig deeper into the thoughts of Hamlet and anticipate what will happen next according to his speeches. Beowulf, however, doesn’t contemplate on what he should do…he just does them. “My heart is firm, My hands calm: I need no hot Words. Wait for me close by, my friends, We shall see, soon, who will survive This bloody battle.”
Hamlet and Beowulf are two distinct characters who differ by their use of language. Hamlet is a man of words while Beowulf is man of actions. Hamlets struggles to kill Claudius instantly due to his lack of confidence. Beowulf bravely encounters Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon and kills all of them. Both Hamlet and Beowulf have tragic endings with Hamlet dying due to his delayed action and Beowulf with his high hubris.

Major Concept

One of the major concepts I learned in this class has to be the poem "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski. This poem has encouraged me to come out of the darkness and discover the light of my path. It also reinforced the idea that I'm the one that should make my own decisions rather than allowing others to influence them.

Notes from Roy's Talk

I wasn't present during the video conference, but I went home and saw the video and took notes on what Roy said. The important highlights I personally got from it were that:

• Multi-tasking is a myth: 
•  I instantly remembered this concept when Dr. Preston questioned it to us during sophomore year. I thought that multi-tasking is probable because I always see my mom making food and talking on the phone at the same. I realized that this isn't possible because what we do comes down to the same purpose if we analyze it. 

• "Program or Be Programmed": 
•  We, as the new generation, have the choice to choose whether or not to take advantage of technology. We can use it to it's maximum potential and benefit the society, or just use it for our desires and pleasures and eventually define it as the source of destruction of our society.

• Older Generations/Younger Generations: 
• During the conference, Roy said that older generations are dependent on younger generations to handle the complex/complicated use of technology. We, as the younger generation, aren't aware as much adults anticipate. We are in the progress of learning just like everyone else. Therefore, both generations should cooperate in discovering the mysteries of technology.