Outside Readings

Editorial Column

Opportunities and Perils for Obama in Military Action in Libya

By JOHN HARWOOD

Essentially this piece revolves around what Obama is doing in the Middle East and what the national reaction is to this act of war. All though reporters are supposed to be biased, it is never true, some are just better and hiding it than others, and Harwood is not very good at it. While he never came out and said it, it was obvious that he supports Obama and his actions. Harwood relies quite a bit on syntax, short, high impact sentences riddle this work. These short sentences not only draw attention, but they also help to build emotion in the reader, the emotion that is trying to be created by Harwood is support for Obama. Another form of syntax he uses is the spacing between paragraphs, most of his paragraphs are short, and some only consist of one sentence. This again draws the eye and thus creates more emotion then it would hidden in a large paragraph. Detail is also used in this piece quite frequently, he uses the apparent failings of other presidents to draw attention away from Obama’s own, and when he does address Obama’s short comings, Harwood merely glosses over them.

 The voice of Harwood is praiseful of Obama, and seems to take on an angry tone when he speaks of his opposers. For most readers the techniques mentioned above and the author’s own tone might inspire some good feelings towards the president. But for me as a reader this gross adoration of Obama and his poorly hidden biased behavior, disgusted and repulses me. Unforchantly this piece would work as an AP essay; poor journalism is again unforchantly not a disqualifier.

Book Review

WITCHES ON THE ROAD TONIGHT

By Sheri Holman

Reviewed By JULIE MYERSON

Published: March 25, 2011

For me this book review was quite succsesful, it draws the reader in and inticises their curiosity, or perhaps it was just me. The one reviewing the book is Julie Myerson who adopts a Formalism perspective when she rewivews this book.  She does this though focusingon the  heavy use of imagry, syntax, detail, and tone throughout the book. Myerson kept a proper tone, and while she of course talked aboutt he strengths of this book, she also disscussed its weakness. The general tone I got from the author and the blurred line between fantasy and reailtiy this book promises reminds me of Heart of Darkness. I recive this connection from the line between fantasy and reality that the author has ententially blurred. While Myerson took it way beyond whast Conrad did, the concept is still the same.

Reflective Essay

Matt Willis
Lincoln University, Class of 2007
From Jefferson City, Missouri

The Cultural Contradictions of American Universities

Through out this piece it was impossible to ignore Willis' strong, formal, passionate tone, it was very easy to see that he truly cared about what he was writing about. This intensity from the author is very hard to reproduce if they author doesn’t truly feel that passionately about what they write, thus this intense tone draws the reader in and emotionally commits them. Willis creates this strong tone through the use of syntax, when he wants high impact he either separates that sentence from the entire paragraph, or he uses the more convention short sentence. His diction is also quite a big part of this overall tone, his word choices are that of a highly sophisticated man, and mostly the words are emotionally charged words. Overall my response to this essay is one of agreement, his formal, passionate tone, as well as his reasoning make it hard not to agree with him. The overall structure, flow, and simply the style of this essay would fit perfectly for an AP essay.

*Ms. Holmes- I talked to you in class that there has been reconstruction in my house and thus I haven't had access to a computer and that’s why these outside readings are late.

Class Notes: March 7-11 and 14-18

            Looked at the poems The Hollow Men and The Love Song

Topics we discussed for The Hollow Men

• allusions to Gatsby, Dante's Inferno, Kurtz/HOD,
• The circles of hell and what punishments are there
• What the three kingdoms in death are(heaven, purgatory, limbo)
• Talked about eyes=God's eyes, or generally the sense of being judged

Topics we discussed for The Love Song:

• The mental state of the narrator
• allusions to Hamlet, Claudius, Dante the narrator's mistress
• Narrator's insecurities/ madness
• who is the narrator actually talking too.

We watched Bride and Prejudice

Class Notes-(2/21-3/4)

What is comedy?

• The comic is the product of a perceived incongruity between subject-matter/issue/situation/topic and its treatment/expression



Types of Comedy

• Low Comedy : little intellectual appeal, boisterous conduct in general, lacks seriousness of purpse of subtlety
• High Comedy: serious, appeals to intellect, arouses thoughtful laughter, follies of social nature
• Burlesque: ridiculous exaggeration and distortion, subline may be absured, honest emotions turned to sentimentality, seriopus matters treated frivolously, or frivously subject seriously
• Farce: light dramatic, highly improbable plot, exaggerated characers, slapstick elements
• Lampoon: broad satirical piece, uses ridicule to attack a person or group
• Parody: imiation of another serious piece of work, ridicules in nonsensical fashion an original piece of work
• Satire: ridicules follies and vices of a people or time
• Slapstick: Boisterous form of comedt marked by chases, collisions, and crude practical jokes
• Travesty : presents a serious, often religous, subject frivolously

The Comedic Ladder

• Comedy of Ideas: char. argue about politics, religion, sex, marriage. Char. use wit and clever langague to mock opponent. Suble way to satirize people and institutions
• Comedy of Manners: love affairs amoung upper clases, focus on witty langague, clever speech, insults,'putdowns'. Society often made up of cliques
• Farce: : plot full of coincidences, mistimings, mistaken identities. Characters=puppets of fate

Techniques



• Caricature
• colloquialism
• deflation
• disparagement
• euphemism
• hyperbole
• incongruity
• invective
• irony
• knaves and fools
• litotes
• malapropisms
• non-sequitur
• oxymoron
• paradox
• parody
• pun
• sarcasm
• stereotyping
• understatement
• wit

Six Elements for Humor

1. appeal to intellect
2. be mechanical
3. be inherently human and remind us of humanity
4. set of established societal norms
5. situation is inconsistent with societal norms
6. is harmless or painless to participants

Outside Reading-Article

News Article

Mercenaries Stream Toward Tripoli as Qaddafi Digs In

By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: February 23, 2011

The point of view of this article is clearly stated and is fortified through out the rest of the article. The obvious intent of this article is to first create sympathy for the demonstrators in Libya, and then create a sense of distrust and anger towards the government in Libya. The author uses high impact words such as mercenaries, menacing, and militiamen, to describe the government and how it is acting towards its people. These words draw the reader in and they also, one state the authors opinion on the topic, and two start to draw the reader ‘over to their side’. The authors of this piece create one individual voice by a strong use of imagery, the two authors are very forceful in their descriptions of the offenses the government has done against its people. This technique is highly favored as it is their job to make you feel like you are there. Another technique they use, which ties into imagery, is diction. They used, as I mentioned before, such emotionally charged words in place of thoughtless, almost meaningless words. Overall the combined voice of these two authors is powerful and emotional charged, which in turn translates over to the reader. In my opinion this article would make a good AP essay. It stays true to the formal third person view, which is obviously required on the AP. The piece is engaging and interesting, and through out the article they stuck to their original stand point of opposition against the government.

Class Notes: 2/7-2/18

During the second half of this two week period all we did was watch Apocalypse Now. This film is essentially based on Heart of Darkness, the setting for the movie is Vietnam, and the main character is on a mission to recover a renegade General. Along the way he becomes captivated by this General, although hes never met him, and that’s as far as we got in my class.

In the first week of this period we discussed a few different topics:

• Women in HOD-overall a low opinion of women, to be seen not heard kind of deal
• The fates
• Marlow’s general awkward behavior around women
• Kurtz's fiancé
• Marlow's Aunt
• The African women
• None of the women are named
• Eden and Hell
• corrupted paradise
• geography a big part of this book
• the river=snake
• heaven and hell are one in the same
• Darkness in HOD
• the primal instincts in all humans
• Africans
• never named
• Always described in terms of white-white teeth, white around the eyes, ect.
• Was Conrad racist?
• What was Conrad's real view on imperialism?
• seemed to condemn the slavery part of it
• seemed to support the industrial side
• was he pressured by his society to accept imperialism?
• Conrad's use of a frame narrative
• used a 'false' narrator that popped in everyone and a while
• never named
• this 'false' narrator begins and ends the story
• Marlow is the actual narrator
• tells his story with a few interjections from the false 'narrator'

Outside Reading-Essay

Egypt: The Cultural Revolution

By ROBYN CRESWELL

Published: February 10, 2011

Essay

When first reading this piece it is impossible to ignore the author’s own excitement about what is happening in Egypt. Although the author is not outright celebrating, the happiness is there, and it is sustained through out the piece. Overall the tone of this author is optimistic for the most part, but at times is criticizes and seemingly mocks the former government of Egypt and its former president. The opening paragraph of this piece helps create this tone by the use of heavy imagery; the author is trying to paint this scene of joy in the readers head. Creswell uses this technique through out the piece, thought not quite as heavily as in the first paragraph. He also used it to help outsiders understand part of the Egyptians fear of what may come “for too many Egyptians “modernization” means endless traffic jams and gated suburbs; “democratic reform” means bribery and fraudulent elections; and “social order” means the policeman’s club, or the interrogator’s electric prod.” This technique is so important tot his piece because most of us are so accustomed to living with traffic jams, social order and democracy; we have become blinded to its faults.

            Along with imagery Creswell favors diction as another tool to create his view of Egypt, past and present. Creswell uses diction to describe his view on the old regime, “Mubarak exploited this monopoly for his own needs.” This technique is again used to draw the reader in and try to help them imagine what the Egyptians lives were, and are like. Off of this use of diction springs the use of details. As I read this piece it occurred to me that Creswell was always adding, small, seemingly insignificant details. But it was these details that made the people he was talking about seem more human, then just a brief description on a page. When he described people important to the revolution, he not only described what they were doing for Egypt, but what small parts of their lives were like. He talked of a struggling writer, who was also a dentist, who also spoke out for the public in speeches and on this blog. It is these details that connected the reader even more to the piece, which overall made it a success in my mind. As for an AP Essay this piece would definitely work, it is in first person, plain style, and it has a strong base to back it up.

Class Notes (1/24-2/4)

Archetypal and Mythological Criticism

Basic Concepts

• both study the connections among apparently disparate texts in order to understand how an individual text is faithful to and how it deviates from common patterns
• common patterns=archetypes
• an archetype can be:
• plot
• character
• setting
• symbolic objects
• basically any element that is repeated over and over with out the core meaning being changed
• Archetypes are literary reflections of experiences widely shared by humanity
• Archetypes reflect deeply embedded pattern in the human mind

Important People

• James Frazer
• an anthropologist
• noticed that the myths tent to have striking similarities from culture to culture
• archetypes arise from experiences that are common to all or most humans
• Carl Jung
• Swiss psychiatrist
• speculated that the reason for recurring patterns in myths was an underlying structure of the human mind
• named these patterns psychological archetypes
• these archetypes sprang from an inherited aspect of the mind which he called the "collective unconscious"
• collective unconscious was a repository of emotions, ideas, instincts, and even memories shared by all humans
• Archetypes are symbolic representation of this hidden part of ourselves
• Joseph Cambell
• monomyth- one myth so pervasive that it unifies almost all other mythology
• basic stages of a hero's journey are:
• separation
• the road of trials
• and the return
• there are many substages and less archetypes for the hero's journey
• Nothrop Frye
• developed ideas of the anthropologist and psychiatrist into a working school of criticism
• postulated that there is essentially one story being told over and over

• Narrative Pattern: a culturally learned expected sequence of events in a storytelling; an ideal form that may not match any real-world text perfectly.
• Romance: a story that deceits
• a hero overcoming obstacles on his way to accomplish a socially desirable goal(basically a quest)
• these heroes are almost superhuman, they represent a kind of perfection of the social and natural world
• articulate what is most desirable to the members of society and showing that it is possible to obtain this ultimate desire if you follow the rules of society and its gods
• confirm the social order and a man's place in it
• Most popular in ancient times and the early middle ages.
• primary form
• has fallen out of favor
• Tragedy
• the movement from a desirable world into an undesirable one
• tragic hero is "better-then-average" man, a leader who represents his society
• through his experiences w can examine the nature of the particular society he leads
• often takes place in the realm of fate- the fixed and malevolent future
• at time involves hubris
• most popular during renaissance
• Comedy
• movement from undesirable world into a desirable one
• comic hero is an average man, often an outsider, he is an individual
• through him we can examine questions about the place of the individual in society and what is 'natural' to humankind
• often takse place in the realm of fortune-unexpected good luck
• generally expressions of hope
• dominate in the 18th and 19th century
• Irony
• ante-romance
• negates Romance by first paralleling and then departing from the usual Romantic structure
• instead of confirming social order, it negates it
• depicting society descending into tyranny or disorder
• postulating a meaningless world
• less then average man for the hero
• dominate in the late 19th century

The Novel

Basic Info

• english word novel comes from the Italian word novella
• in Italian novella means "little new thing"
• In most European languages the term novel is roman- derived from he medieval term romance
• In English a novella refers to a work of prose fiction that is usually between 12,000 and 30,000 words
• longer than a short story, but shorter then a novel
• Novel- a fictional prose narrative of considerable length-
•  between 30,000 and 100,000 words
• deals with imaginary human experiences
• narrative is conveyed by the author through a specific point of view
• connected by a sequence of events-plot
• involves a group of people in a specific setting

History of the novel

• relatively recent phenomenon
• has antecedents in narrative and verse in the tales of every age and every culture
• first European novel is usually considered to be Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, published 1605
• first took root in England in the first half of the 18th century
• Reasons for novels popularity
• growing middle class and their increased literacy rate and disposable income
• cheaper production and distribution of materials
• publication of novels in serial form
• the introduction of a system of circulating libraries

Common Types of Novels

• Prose Romance: a novel that is often set in the historical past with a plot that emphasizes adventure and an atmosphere that is removed from reality. The characters in a prose romance are either sharply drawn as villains or heroes, masters or victims; while the protagonist is solitary and isolated from society
• Novel of Incident: the narrative focuses on what the protagonist will do next and how the story will turn out
• Novel of Character: focuses on protagonist’s motives for what he/she does and how he/she will turn out
• Novel of Manners: Defines social mores of a specific group, often upper-middle class, which control the actions of the characters
• Epistolary Novel: 1^st person narrative progresses in the form of letters, journals, or diaries
• Picaresque Novel: relates the adventures of an eccentric or disreputable hero in episodic form.
• Historical Novel: a novel set in a period earlier than that of the writing
• Regional Novel: represents accurately that habits, speech, and folklore of a particular geographical section
• Bildungsroman: German term that indicated a novel of growth. Fictional autobiography that is concerned with the development of the protagonist’s mind, spirit, and character from childhood to adulthood.
• Roman a Clef: French term meaning a “novel with a key”; imaginary event with real people disguised as fictional characters
• Roman-fleuve: French term for a narrative that has a common theme or range of characters that stretch across a number of novels
• Sociological: depicts the problems and injustices of society, making moral judgment and offering resolutions
• Stream of Consciousness: presents the total range of thoughts, memories, associations of character in uninterrupted, endless flow.
• Gothic: combines a desolate setting and mysterious events to create an atmosphere of terror
• Gothic Romance: presents a stormy love relationship within a violent, brooding, atmosphere
• Satirical: reveals human folly and vices through wit, scorn, ridicule, and exaggeration with hope for reform

More Literary Terms

Forms Of Repetition

Anaphora: is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis. Ex. In time the savage bull sustains the yoke, In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure, In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak, In time the flint is pierced with softest shower.

Antistrophe: the repetition of words at the end of successive phrases or sentences. Ex.  “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.”

Anadiplosis: the repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next, Anadiplosis often leads to climax. Ex. “ Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Diacope: the repetition of a word or phrase broken up by only one or two intervening words. Ex. “ We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks.”

Epizeuxis: repetition of words in immediate succession, for vehemence of emphasis. Ex. “Words, Words, words.”

Polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses. Ex. "Standing still, I can hear my footsteps Come up behind me and go on Ahead of me and come up behind me and With different keys clinking in the pockets, And still I do not move."

Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds, usually consonants

Assonance: The use of similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containg different constants. Ex. “ A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.”

Consonance: the repetition of consonants or consonant patterns, especially at the ends of words.

Forms Of Parallelism

Antithesis: establishing a clear, contrasting relationship between two deas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often parallel structure. Ex. “ To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

Forms of Inversion: