Blog Post # 9 Ride that horse to hell!!!
There are many symbols in this short story. One of them is Paul’s name. It is symbolic of the life of Paul (the one from the bible. His life is terrible and the house is full of hatred, but after a truth is revealed to him (in the story, luck; in the bible, the truth), he does everything he can to save people (in the story, his mom; in the bible, the non believers). Both in the end die for fighting so feverantly to save. Blue fire is another undeniable symbol. The weakest part of a flame is the bottom, the blue core, the base. Repeatedly noting the blue fiery eyes of Paul is symbolically illustrating his instablitiy. Clearly, the boy has problems. What kind of mentally stable person gets his bets for horse races my riding a rocking horse? The horse is a symbol as well; one of luck. Just as one rocks back and forth on a rocking horse so too does one’s luck fluctuate. The rocking horse was a sort of allegory as well. The concept of the fluctuation of luck can be applied to life outside of the story too and Paul’s life (metaphorically human life), when centered around luck and its inconsistency, leads him to a quick, targic, deprived end.
Blog Post # 8 The Lottery!? oh I hope I win!…oh, nevermind…
The most prominent archetype in the lottery is that of a task. It is common to find that in many pieces of fiction the plot revolves around a task which must be completed. Much like The Lord of The Rings series only extremely condensed, “The Lottery” is about conducting,to conclusion, a task, the lottery itself.
The only character archetype that is consistent throughout the entire piece is that of an old, wise, sage type character. In ”The Lottery” this archetype is fulfilled through Old Man Warner. He is consistently referred to in the text as the person who knows the most about the lottery and the way it should be conducted.
One archetype that emerges near the end of the piece is that of an outcast. Mrs. Hutchinson, though she was the only one late, fit in with the rest of the crowd and was accepted until she discovered that someone in her family would ”win” the lottery. Immediately, she stuck out of the crowd with her continual opposition to the lottery. When it was revealed that she had “won,” the division between herself and the crowd was enough to grant her outcast status as they stoned her.
Blog Post # 7 An Intameresting Case!!!
In “Paul’s Case”, it is evident that Paul has a serious case of social inferiority and self deception. All of the normalcy in his life he describes and sees in negative connotations. He dispises and rejects the idea of coming home, seeing his father, looking at the horrid yellow wall paper in his room. When he sees something of the upper-class like a painting or a play or an orchestra, he is lost in it’s beauty. Constantly through the motif of flowers we see the colorful, lush dream he sees the upper-class to be. He wants to be someone else. He wants to be rich and powerful, He wants to live easier and so he lies. Just as he crafts lies to his teachers and father, he begins living the lie that he is better than all of them. The ultimate testament to this is when he realizes that in New York, he doesn’t have to lie. This is because his existence there is a lie like an actor on stage he is merely “dressing the part.” When the truth begins catching up with him, when the beautiful flowers of the upper-class begin to wilt, he can not face his drab reality again and so decides to take his own life while he can still operate under the illusion.
Blog Post # 6 the Lesson… was learned
Sylvia is a dynamic character. In the beginning she depicts herself as an over-confident, egotistical, haughty girl “back in the days.” This indicates that now, in the present, she is no longer this way. She may have believed that “everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and (her) and Sugar were the only ones just right,” but it is the clause at the beginning that indicates that a change has been made in her character. Her story unfolds with her younger self remaining the arrogant, terrible person she is, but in the end the change begins. Sugar, her friend who she believed to be “just right” starts sprinting off toward a restaurant in which they together had decided to spend the money they pocketed. As her friend gets ahead however, she doesn’t care because she decides to go “over to the drive to think (the) day through.” Perhaps this was the moment she made a step away from her old self and her old thoughts about the world or maybe she thinks that now, she’s the only one who is “just right”for she does conclude by saying “nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.”
Blog Post #5 100% Gooseberry Juice
“Gooseberries” was written to illustrate the passiveness by which the majority of society treats societal problems. The title, which later is revealed to be a passion of a character, has the most juvenille and silly connotations to it. Children can often be heard using the term “silly goose”, and no one ever went to war over a berry, there are so many that they are insignificant. The connotations of the title coupled with the intrest of the character in them (gooseberries) results a message conveyed that most people’s priorities are inappropriately organized with unimportant things like gooseberries at the top and helping the poor at the bottom. Ivan remarks several times upon how these priorities keep people happy and keep them from confronting societal issues, especially poverty.
“We see the people going out to market for provisions, eating by day, sleeping by night, talking their silly nonsense, getting married, growing old, serenely escorting their dead to the cemetary; but we do not see and we do not hear those who suffer, and what is terrible in life goes on somewhere behind the scenes…”
Blog Post #4 Good Country Ppl….. ARE CONS!!! ^_^
“Good Country People”, in terms of illustrating Christian redemption, does not hold enough significance on the topic to be cast in that light. The piece is more about how many claim to be Christians and are not or how those who abuse the title by using it loosely create hypocritical stereotypes in society. This is not a story of “redemption” but of a tale of con. Joy’s atheist beliefs are never redeemed into acceptance of God, but are instead confirmed. This “good country” man who has dazzled her with his innocence had planned from the start to steal her most valuable possession.
If anything, this illustrates that Christians are only Christian to receive the benefits of being Christian, i.e., the additional trust strangers give to people who claim to know/love God. This con also carves out the bible in order to hide his flask. The symbol of Christianity, the word of God, is revealed not as a tool of conversion and truth but rather as a false front and a tool to do an evil deed. Redemption is not the case in this story. “Good Country People” does not illustrate redemption. It more so supports Hulga’s atheist view that “We are all damned…but some of us have taken off our blindfolds and see that there’s nothing to see.” That is her “salvation” and the only redemption found in this story.
Blog #3 Walker Research ^_^
Walker first began writing as a vent. Since her eye had been wounded at a young age by a BB gun, she had to withdraw from regular school activities due to her partial blindness. This withdrawal from her peers was accompanied by a wave of loneliness. The loneliness is what made her first start writing poetry to express herself.
Alice Walker had her first brush with the Civil Rights Movement at the first college she attended, Spelman College in Atlanta. It is by the Civil Rights Movement that Walker met her first husband who was a civil-rights lawyer. The marriage ended in divorce after producing one child, Rebecca.
Blog 2 Plot Arc Wha????
The term “plot arc” is not one with which I am familiar. Arc must mean shape of the story seemingly, in terms of action so therefore, forgive me if I assume incorrectly.
The exposition is smooth. Nothing much happens as the prime character is introduced. The Turning point occurs when the main character falls overboard providing the first real action in the piece and a problem to be born. The arc begins to twist. The action continues to rise as our protagonist discovers more about his predicament. The discovery of boot marks, the unveiling of the mansion, the truth behind the hunter who lives there, and when the hunter, our protagonist, becomes the hunted are all visible bends in our arc toward the climax. It is in the general’s final attempt to find Rainsford that the climax is found. This is the highest point on the arc. The falling action is essentially the remainder of the story that clears up where and how exactly our protagonist avoided the hunter. Our arc begins to curve back toward smoothness. The story cannot end this way though. Justice must be served and the action must return back to smooth sailing so in the resolution, the protagonist slays the hunter.
N!ko devours Ethnicity
Slater, Peter Gregg. “Ethnicity in The Great Gatsby.” Twentieth Century Literature 19.1 (1973): 53-62. JSTOR. Web. 25 Aug. 2009.
1) Clear, Pointed, Eye opening, New Angle
2) “The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that in Fitzgerald’s masterpiece of the 1920’s, The Great Gatsby, a heightened awareness of ethnic differences does constitute a significant element in the book.” (53)
3) The racial differences found in The Great Gatsby are part of what makes the book a historically representative masterpiece.
4) Slater chooses the perfect example to illustrate to the skeptical reader such as myself that Fitzgerald intended to focus in part on racial differences in The Great Gatsby. By pointing out the deeply detailed description Nick miraculously pieces together in the dark of Meyer Wolfsheim’s appearance (56), Slater makes it clear that Nick had to be created (at least in part) to show that ethnic stereotyping was a theme Fitzgerald wrote in intentionally. Truly, it wasn’t until I read this page that I thought racial differences were present enough in Fitzgerald’s work to be noteworthy seeing as Tom could easily be written off as a snob for the awful ethnic comments he makes.
It is where Slater starts to discuss the American Dream theme in The Great Gatsby (58) that his points begin to dull and stretch. He ties his point to distant from its origin and the connection that racial differences has to do with the American dream is either unclear or unreasonable.
N!ko’s Experience and Anticipation
The teacher of AP Lit is very passionate and enthusiastic about Literature and this student is excited to see just how sophisticated he can become with the assistance of such a teacher ^_^
