Pic of the Day #16

Lit Terms 2

• circumlocution
  
• classicism 
  
• cliche 
  
• climax
  
• colloquialism 
  
• comedy
  
• conflict
  
• connotation
  
• contrast 
  
• denotation
  
• denouement
  
  
  
• dialect 
  
• dialectics 
  
• dichotomy 
  
• diction
  
• didactic 
  
• dogmatic
  
• elegy
  
• epic
  
• epigram 
  

All That David Copperfield Kind of Crap

If by "all that David Copperfield kind of crap" Holden means all the unfortunate circumstances and happenings surrounding David Copperfield, then I guess he's a total hypocrite. That's Holden though, he sits from afar judging everyone without actually judging himself. He does it because he can't face his "inadequacies", and that is part of the reason why he gets kicked out of so many schools. He spends most of the story complaining about people and how they're all "phonies", and has this grand scenario where he will go away and live as a logger or something. The more I think about it Holden isn't very different from Pip. They both have a "tale of woe", and they both go through life trying to rid themselves of their inadequacies and reach this final destination that it turns out they don't really want anyway. Pip realizes the truth about the world, and Holden realizes that what he wanted all along was to be innocent again and not know the truth about "phonies". The difference between Pip and Holden is that even though they both have expectations about the world and people, Holden is miserably in the present with both feet stuck in reality while Pip still has his wild imagination.

Dickens style is really distinguished by his characters and their impossible situations, and the imagination that comes from that. Salinger tried to separate his characters from Dickens because he wanted them to be real characters that you would find in everyday life to parallel everything Holden hates about phonies. This made his novel seem more realistic and made Holden even more blunt and disillusioned.

AP Prep Post 1: Siddartha

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. What are the conflicts in Siddhartha? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) did you see in the novel?

3. What are some themes in the novel? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

http://classiclit.about.com/od/Siddhartha-H-Hesse/a/Siddhartha-Questions-For-Study-And-Discussion.htm

4. Why did Siddartha try to leave the teachings of the Samanas and Buddhists?

5. Describe Siddartha's feelings toward self-love and loving others.

http://www.csun.edu/~pjs44945/sidd.html


1. To answer this question I would need to know what prompted Siddartha to leave behind his old life and go against his parents.

2. Siddartha has many moral conflicts about giving up being a brahmin and emotional conflict over leaving his family. He also has intellectual conflict with himself about whether or not he's making the right decision

3. Some of the themes are those of self-realization and going after your dreams which relates to Siddartha going against his family and way of life. Another theme might be breaking tradition and starting on a new path.

4. I assume Siddartha wasn't happy and he finally realized that the Samanas wouldn't make him happy and he had to follow his heart. I don't know the exact reason why.

5. Siddartha feels like you need to love yourself so that you can find out who you really are and make the right choices. He also feels like loving people is important because maybe he thinks that loving others helps them love themselves.

Pic of the day #15

Intro to Poetry

1. The poem is "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe. The significance of the title is that he feels alone and isolated from those around him.

2. The poem has a very somber tone.

3. My mood as I read it was sad and thoughtful and I was in awe.

4. The shift starts at "Then..." when he shifts from describing in what context he felt alone to describing the cloud that hung over his head because of it.

5. The theme of the poem is isolation and the effects of being different.

Poe vs. Frost

In the poem “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe, the author talks about being different and feeling isolated from those around him. Although Robert Frost does feel a sense of isolation in his poem “Birches”, it isn’t isolation from society, it’s isolation from himself. Frost demonstrates this with his nostalgic tone and child-like imagery, while Poe achieves his feeling of isolation through his somber tone and moody diction.

In Poe’s poem he feels isolated and different from the people around him. This causes him to have a somber tone, which is seen when he says “From the same source I have not taken my sorrow.” When Poe says he doesn’t take his feelings from the same place as everyone else, it has a very dreary tone because it suggests that he has experienced unusual tragedies. In contrast Frost’s poem has a very heavy and nostalgic tone that is meant to stick with people, and get them thinking about childhood and life. Frost achieves this tone with this quote, “So was I once myself a swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be.” Frost is talking about childhood innocence and freedom, and how he wishes to have that again. He feels a certain isolation from a part of himself that isn’t naïve anymore. In this way Frost writes with a heavier, and more nostalgic tone that is very different from Poe’s dark and somber tone.

Frost talks of innocence and feeling isolated from himself, as compared to Poe who feels isolated from everyone else. Frost uses a lot of child-like imagery to accomplish this feeling of isolation, while Poe accomplishes it through his use of moody diction. “I should prefer to have some boy bend them as he went out and in to fetch the cows.” In this quote Frost is talking about swinging on birch trees and bending them. He is saying that he would rather a boy do it than the ice, which adds to his feeling of isolation from that childhood innocence. Frost is reflecting on a time in his life that he wants to relive again, “I’d like to get away from earth awhile and then come back to it and begin over.” The imagery of leaving earth and coming back is very innocent and child-like in essence, as is the boy swinging on the tree. These images add to Frost’s feeling of isolation from that time in his life that he wish he could go back to because he is seeing it through the eyes of a child. In “Alone” Poe uses a lot of moody diction, the title being one example. He uses words like “torrent” and “thunder” and “demon”, which add to his feeling of isolation from those around him. These words are very dark and withdrawn, which is exactly how Poe feels. They only enhance his feeling of isolation because they allude to inner torment. This separates Poe from other people, and makes his poem all the more moody and isolated.

Although Frost feels isolation from a time in his life he wishes he could go back to, Poe feels isolation from everything around him. Poe accomplishes his somber tone and moody diction with words that allude to his inner turmoil, while Frost accomplishes his nostalgic tone with wistful thoughts and explains his isolation through child-like imagery. “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”