Summary: The Fifth Business is about a man, Named Dustan, who is writing a letter to his headmaster. This letter starts with an event in his life when he was ten years old. Little did Dunny know that this one event was going to effect him for the rest of his life. Dunny and his friend/enemy Percy were outside playing, and Percy decided to throw a snowball with a rock in it, at Dunny, while Dunny ducked, it hit the unsuspecting Mrs. Dempster, who was pregnant, and went into labor, a few weeks too early. This event later ruled Dunny's life as he grew up, he felt responsible for Mrs. Dempster and her son Paul. As Dunny grew up, he lost his brother Willie, only after Mrs. Dempster brought him back from the dead or so he believed. After losing his brother, Dunny went off to war, and later saw Mrs. Dempster in the face of a statue as he was sure he was about to die. These events have convinced Dunny that Mrs. Dempster is a saint of some sort, which also fascinates him enough to study the history of saints, and he become a history major in school. As Dunny goes on in life, he meets some interesting people and I want to say maybe falls in love, but never marries. Eventually Dunny has really lost everybody he knows, he lost his brother, then his parents during the spanish influenza, then his long time friend and once infatuation Leola, who takes her own life, and then in the end his friend Percy (now called Boy) from his childhood is found dead, well murdered. Over all the sad story of how a small town boy from Canada is quite interesting, but very sad when you look at it in the end.
Analysis: The obsession that Dunny has with the saints as he grows up really all started when Dunny saw Mrs. Dempster raise Willie from the dead. I think Dunny realized that no one would believe him, and he had to do his own research, and he realized that he liked reading about saints, and wanted to learn more. The woman Leisl to me really represents Dunny finally finding himself, or at least finding someone who believed in him, and wanted him to succeed in life, it's just too bad that he didn't meet her sooner in his life. The book over all is about how events and reactions to those events can affect you and your choices in the future.
Quotes: "You must get to know your personal devil”
"I think you are Fifth Business," Liesl, p. 213.
Themes: Religion and Morality, Myth and History, How one deals with lose
Meaning of the work: How events affect people in different ways, Egoism, Finding yourself through events in your life, How people can shape future choices.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Hamlet
Summary: Well Hamlet's Father is dead,who is also named Hamlet. His uncle takes over the kingdom, and marries his mother, scandals! You never actually find out if Hamlet's mother and his uncle had an affair before, but it's assumed, because they got married only after two months the old king had died. Well the king becomes a ghost and tells hamlet to kills his uncle because his uncle married him. But to leave his mother alone. After this, Hamlet goes or acts crazy, I think slightly both, he ends his relationship with the fair Ophelia, and tells her to go to a nunnery. Well the king orders the king of England to kill Hamlet because Hamlet was headed for england, but Hamlet kinds out, changes the order, and gets kidnapped by Pirates! Before this he had killed polonius, who was Ophelia's father. Now Ophelia thinks all the men in her life had abandoned her, and she drowns herself, which back then means she was pregnant and not married, Scandal!! Hamlet gets back, hears that Ophelia is dead, and challenges Laertes, Ophelia's brother, to a duel. Laertes dips his sword in poison, to cheat because the king wanted him too, he scratches Hamlet, they accidentally switch swords and Hamlet scratches Laertes, meanwhile, the king is trying to get Hamlet to "take a drink of water" which is really poison, but the Queen, Hamlets mother, drinks it instead, and dies. So Hamlet and Laertes are dying, well Hamlet couldn't die with out killing the King, so he stabs him, and they all die. Hamlet knew that is anyone in Elsinore got the crown, it would still be corrupt, so he killed everyone, and Fortinbras, king of Norway, comes in and takes over the Kingdom of Denmark.
Analysis: The play is set in Elsinore, Denmark, which to the main character Hamlet, is more like a prison, compared to where he goes to school in Whittenburg. The point of view in which Hamlet was written helps the reader see how crazy Hamlet acts, and how crazy he actually becomes. Because Hamlet the character narrates, it's a new path into the story and the madness. The tone of the play changes as Hamlet changes, especially when Hamlet start questioning his religious views and his thoughts on the after life; the tone is more questioning than it was before he is faced with his father's ghost.
Quotes: "There is something rotten in the state of Denmark."
"To be, or not to be, that is the question,"
Themes: The complexity of death, Whether to act or not
Symbols: Yorick's Skull
Meaning: Decisions between right and wrong, Being the instrument or arbiter of death with regard to his uncle.
Analysis: The play is set in Elsinore, Denmark, which to the main character Hamlet, is more like a prison, compared to where he goes to school in Whittenburg. The point of view in which Hamlet was written helps the reader see how crazy Hamlet acts, and how crazy he actually becomes. Because Hamlet the character narrates, it's a new path into the story and the madness. The tone of the play changes as Hamlet changes, especially when Hamlet start questioning his religious views and his thoughts on the after life; the tone is more questioning than it was before he is faced with his father's ghost.
Quotes: "There is something rotten in the state of Denmark."
"To be, or not to be, that is the question,"
Themes: The complexity of death, Whether to act or not
Symbols: Yorick's Skull
Meaning: Decisions between right and wrong, Being the instrument or arbiter of death with regard to his uncle.
Pride and Prejudice
Summary: Over all it was a good story, a little hard to get through, but still pretty good. The movie was better, but maybe because I had seen it first. Well theres this family, goes by the name of Bennett, there are five sister, and the eldest is Jane, who is very beautiful. A young rich man comes to town, Bingley,with his richer friend, Darcy, Darcy's sister, Darcy's sister, and Bingley's sister, Miss Bingley. Well Bingley is infatuated with Jane, and Darcy, well he's very rude to everyone, they all think it's his pride, but really it's not, he's just quiet. Darcy meets Elizabeth, the second to oldest sister, and at first, doesn't even find her handsome. Well Darcy sees that Bingley really liked Jane, who is very shy by the way, and thinks that Jane doesn't return the feelings, so he whisks away Bingley, in hopes that Bingley will forget about Jane. In the meantime, Wickham, basically Darcy's brother but not by blood, arrives in town, and Elizabeth is very taken with him. They start flirting, but Darcy doesn't approve, because he knows that Wickham is a gold digger and went after Darcy's sister, just for her money, and broke her heart. Darcy, realizes that he loves Elizabeth, and decides to tell her he loves her, while insulting her at the same time. By then though, Elizabeth found out about Darcy taking Bingley away, and breaking her sister's heart, so she refuses Darcy, even though she loves him as well. Lydia, the youngest sister, runs off with Wickham and gets married, but only after Wickham makes sure that he gets money for marrying her. Eventually, Darcy brings back Bingley, because he realizes thats the only way to get Elizabeth, and then Bingley and Jane get married, and Darcy and Elizabeth get married. All this time, their mother, Mrs. Bennett is being sneaky and creepy, trying to marry off all of her daughter, don't like her very much. Mr. Collins, the girls cousin, visits and is a threat of taking the house away once Mr. Bennett dies, and tries to marry Elizabeth, but she refuses, so he marries Elizabeth's best friend, Charlotte Lucas, and Elizabeth feels very betrayed, but she eventually gets over it because they are very happy together.
Analysis: This book through out, you can easily tell what most people want, whether it is marriage, or education, or a character wanting to find love. When everyone else is clear in this way, the main character is not. Elizabeth Bennett clearly wants love, but you never notice that she actually likes Darcy, yes you can see some of the flirtation, but I think Jane Austin wanted the reader to realize that Elizabeth didn't know what she wanted until it was right in front of her, professing it's love. The setting of the book starts in the household of the Bennett's, but ranges very many different places through out the whole book. Elizabeth really is focused on keeping true to herself, even if that means sacrificing her family's financial security.
Quotes: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife
“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”
Themes: Love, Pride and prejudice, Reputation, Class structure
Motifs: Courtships and their journeys
Symbolism: Pemberley
Meaning: Have pride but don't let it become you.
Analysis: This book through out, you can easily tell what most people want, whether it is marriage, or education, or a character wanting to find love. When everyone else is clear in this way, the main character is not. Elizabeth Bennett clearly wants love, but you never notice that she actually likes Darcy, yes you can see some of the flirtation, but I think Jane Austin wanted the reader to realize that Elizabeth didn't know what she wanted until it was right in front of her, professing it's love. The setting of the book starts in the household of the Bennett's, but ranges very many different places through out the whole book. Elizabeth really is focused on keeping true to herself, even if that means sacrificing her family's financial security.
Quotes: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife
“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”
Themes: Love, Pride and prejudice, Reputation, Class structure
Motifs: Courtships and their journeys
Symbolism: Pemberley
Meaning: Have pride but don't let it become you.
Ceremony
Summary: First off, did not like this book. The author was obsessed with the "belly" and Tayo was throwing up all the time. It wasn't pleasant. Tayo was a war vet, and his best friend (Rocky), basically brother got killed. When he comes back, his aunt, Rocky's mother, blames him for Rocky's death, because Tayo was supposed to take care of him. Well Tayo goes on this search to find himself, meets Ts'eh (who is nature) and falls in love, not exactly with Ts'eh, but with nature, her spirit. People in town think he's crazy because they think he is spending a lot of time alone in nature, so this guy named Emo, who Tayo had originally stabbed in the stomach, convinces everyone that Tayo is crazy, except for Tayo's other best friend Harley, who ends up getting tortured to bring Tayo out of hiding. In the end, it's Eddie who becomes crazy, and Tayo is allowed back in town, and people accept him again.
Analysis: The narrative voice of this book is very unique to Tayo, the book is very cultured to the Laguna culture, and the reader can see the difference in american literature, and Laguna literature. The imagery of this book shows how Tayo went from being a normal Laguna person, to an American soldier, and them back to a Laguna native. This flip flop helps the theme go along in the book as well.
Quotes: "The haze from the beer was gone, like heat and dust washed out of the sky by a summer rain," (p. 58).
Old Grandma shook her head slowly, and closed her cloudy eyes again. "I guess I must be getting old, " she said, "because these goings-on around Laguna don't get me excited any more." She sighed, and laid her head back on the chair. "It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different.
Themes: How important story telling is in the Laguna culture, The differences between modern day America, and the tribal culture of Laguna. The importance of tradition, Importance of incorporating native culture and tradition into "the white world".
Symbolism: The word Belly, Vomiting, blue, mountains, nature
Analysis: The narrative voice of this book is very unique to Tayo, the book is very cultured to the Laguna culture, and the reader can see the difference in american literature, and Laguna literature. The imagery of this book shows how Tayo went from being a normal Laguna person, to an American soldier, and them back to a Laguna native. This flip flop helps the theme go along in the book as well.
Quotes: "The haze from the beer was gone, like heat and dust washed out of the sky by a summer rain," (p. 58).
Old Grandma shook her head slowly, and closed her cloudy eyes again. "I guess I must be getting old, " she said, "because these goings-on around Laguna don't get me excited any more." She sighed, and laid her head back on the chair. "It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different.
Themes: How important story telling is in the Laguna culture, The differences between modern day America, and the tribal culture of Laguna. The importance of tradition, Importance of incorporating native culture and tradition into "the white world".
Symbolism: The word Belly, Vomiting, blue, mountains, nature
Death of a Salesman
Summary: Willy, good old Willy. He was a great salesman, but only because he slept with the buyers interns, so they convinced their bosses to buy things from him. He cheated on his wife, but justified it by saying it was for the money. Wow he was basically a prostitute. Neve noticed that before. Interesting. Willy wanted his son Biff to be awesome like his uncle Ben, who only showed up in Willy's imagination, Ben could have been a figment of Willy's imagination as well. Happy was always ignored because Biff and Willy were always fighting. Happy kept telling his parents he was going to marry this girl, but really he had no girlfriend, and always slept with other mens wives, he just wanted the attention, that his parents still didn't give to him. Well Willy decides that since he is to old to have sex with people anymore, so he can't sell things, that he should kill himself so his wife Lynda and his boys will get the life insurance money. Lynda and his boys want to stop him, but in the end, he still kills himself. At the end of the book, you never are sure if they got the insurance money or not.
Analysis: Death of a Salesman is based in boston, in Willy Loman's house, with his wife, and his two sons visiting. When first buying the home, Willy and his wife Linda thought it a marvelous place, but after a few years, apartment buildings have sprung around it, creating a box. This shows how Willy feels by using imagery in the play. The treatment of time in this play creates two different parallels, Willy continues to go back and fourth between real time, and the past, where he cheated on his wife, and the days when he was proud of hi son. This time changing shows the reader what Willy is really thinking, and the guilt he feels about things he has done in his life. The significance around the stockings also shows Willy's over all guilt. Willy always got mad at Linda for repairing her stockings, when really it was misplaced anger, and he should have been mad at himself.
Themes/Symbols: Some themes would be the fact that Willy was trying so hard for the American dream (the financial security and perfect children), Abandonment, Willy lost Ben, and then was losing Biff as well because of his affairs. Symbols would be the seeds that Willy tried so hard to plant, Linda's stockings, and the rubber hose.
Quotes: "Nothings planted. I don't have a thing in the ground."-Willy
He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy- Charley
Analysis: Death of a Salesman is based in boston, in Willy Loman's house, with his wife, and his two sons visiting. When first buying the home, Willy and his wife Linda thought it a marvelous place, but after a few years, apartment buildings have sprung around it, creating a box. This shows how Willy feels by using imagery in the play. The treatment of time in this play creates two different parallels, Willy continues to go back and fourth between real time, and the past, where he cheated on his wife, and the days when he was proud of hi son. This time changing shows the reader what Willy is really thinking, and the guilt he feels about things he has done in his life. The significance around the stockings also shows Willy's over all guilt. Willy always got mad at Linda for repairing her stockings, when really it was misplaced anger, and he should have been mad at himself.
Themes/Symbols: Some themes would be the fact that Willy was trying so hard for the American dream (the financial security and perfect children), Abandonment, Willy lost Ben, and then was losing Biff as well because of his affairs. Symbols would be the seeds that Willy tried so hard to plant, Linda's stockings, and the rubber hose.
Quotes: "Nothings planted. I don't have a thing in the ground."-Willy
He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy- Charley
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The American Dream
Summary: The really odd book. I will forever remember this book as slightly disturbing.
It's about a married couple. The Wife's mom is staying with then, and is convinced they are sending her away to an old people's home. The couple had a child from adoption services, but killed it, but cutting things off because the child was using it's hands to do something naughty with itself. They called the adoption lady again, and end up getting this older kid, who turns out to be the other kids twin brother. Who could feel nothing, because they were connected and the parents already cut out his brothers heart.
Analysis: The American Dream is a book that shows readers how Americans should not be. The couple in the play obviously are not happy with each other, which we can see right away from the stage directions we have in the play, and they are sitting away from each other, almost like they don't recognize that the other is there. When they go back and talk about their child that they adopted, you can see that really Daddy did it because Mommy wanted one, and Daddy had no backbone of his own, so he couldn't say no. Grandma is an interesting case, some people say she represents the old American dream, where everyone got satisfaction, and were happy with it, where the new guy mommy and daddy get after the first represents the new (where everyone is wanting more and more, and are never happy), coming in and taking over the old America. Over all the book shows people how the old American dream is being pushed out by the New American dream, and it's quite ironic that the new American dream has no emotions or feelings, because of what Mommy and Daddy did during the old American dream's life time.
Quotes: "Well, I guess that just about wraps it up. I mean, for better or worse, this is a comedy, and I don't think we'd better go any further. No, definitely not. So, let's leave things as they are right now...while everybody's happy...while everybody's got what he wants...or everybody's got what he thinks he wants. Good night, dears," Grandma (p.93).
"We were identical twins...he and I...not fraternal...identical; we were derived from the same ovum; and in this, in that we were twins not from separate ova but from the same one, we had a kinship such as you cannot imagine. We...we felt each other breathe...his heartbeats thundered in my temples...mine in his...our stomaches ached and we cried for feeding at the same time...are you old enough to understand?" Young Man, p. 77.
Theme: The theme of this book is about how the American dream is becoming less and less amazing, the American dream is what is left of Mommy and Daddy's little apartment and their little life. The young man that comes in is showing how the American dream looks perfect on the outside, but on the inside it isn't what anyone wanted.
It's about a married couple. The Wife's mom is staying with then, and is convinced they are sending her away to an old people's home. The couple had a child from adoption services, but killed it, but cutting things off because the child was using it's hands to do something naughty with itself. They called the adoption lady again, and end up getting this older kid, who turns out to be the other kids twin brother. Who could feel nothing, because they were connected and the parents already cut out his brothers heart.
Analysis: The American Dream is a book that shows readers how Americans should not be. The couple in the play obviously are not happy with each other, which we can see right away from the stage directions we have in the play, and they are sitting away from each other, almost like they don't recognize that the other is there. When they go back and talk about their child that they adopted, you can see that really Daddy did it because Mommy wanted one, and Daddy had no backbone of his own, so he couldn't say no. Grandma is an interesting case, some people say she represents the old American dream, where everyone got satisfaction, and were happy with it, where the new guy mommy and daddy get after the first represents the new (where everyone is wanting more and more, and are never happy), coming in and taking over the old America. Over all the book shows people how the old American dream is being pushed out by the New American dream, and it's quite ironic that the new American dream has no emotions or feelings, because of what Mommy and Daddy did during the old American dream's life time.
Quotes: "Well, I guess that just about wraps it up. I mean, for better or worse, this is a comedy, and I don't think we'd better go any further. No, definitely not. So, let's leave things as they are right now...while everybody's happy...while everybody's got what he wants...or everybody's got what he thinks he wants. Good night, dears," Grandma (p.93).
"We were identical twins...he and I...not fraternal...identical; we were derived from the same ovum; and in this, in that we were twins not from separate ova but from the same one, we had a kinship such as you cannot imagine. We...we felt each other breathe...his heartbeats thundered in my temples...mine in his...our stomaches ached and we cried for feeding at the same time...are you old enough to understand?" Young Man, p. 77.
Theme: The theme of this book is about how the American dream is becoming less and less amazing, the American dream is what is left of Mommy and Daddy's little apartment and their little life. The young man that comes in is showing how the American dream looks perfect on the outside, but on the inside it isn't what anyone wanted.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Open Prompt Revision 4
1970 Also. Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.
Have you ever wondered what a pig head has to do with a group of boys crashed on an island? In Lord of The Flies, It means quite a lot. The pig head shows the savagery that the boys are facing, and also the fierceness of Jack and his "Hunters". In the book, the author, William Golding, uses imagery to advance plot points and illustrate the basic savagery inherent in humans.
The pig head represents that the boys on this island have the power of their own world. Being on the island with no adults guarantees that one person in particular is going to have to step up as a leader. When the boys decide that they need food, Jack goes to hunt a pig, and comes back with a very bloody pig head that he had cut off. This pig shows how the real world rules did't apply to them on this island. In the real world, if a little boy went off and cut off a pig's head, people (adults) would think the child needed help. Decapitating the pig in an act of violence shows the boys on this island that Jack is the kind of leader that will use his power to provide for the group and ignore the rules of the adult world, unlike Ralph, who wanted to keep all of the boys organized, and put rules up.
The pigs head marks the time in the novel when Jack realizes that he doesn't have to listen to Ralph and can create his own society and rules, Jack and the rest of the boys have never been used to a world with no adults and no rules, so being in this situation, causes Jack to become a tyrant. Jack's savagery at this point becomes a big factor in the book. By being the kid to kill the pig and cutting of it's head, Jack becomes a whole new person who thinks it is okay to beat up other children like Piggy who don't conform to his ways and still follows Ralph. The pig head really helped jack along his road to tyranny, and kept a reminder to the rest of the kids that he was the boss.
The pig head symbolizes the power and the savagery that comes out from the kids basic human nature when the children are put in the situation of being alone and with no adult. Having to provide for themselves cause a major rift in between all of the boys, creating a war zone like situation. Savagery and power are intertwined in the novel, and the pig's head is only one of the objects that symbolize this.
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