SMART Goal
My SMART goal is to pass the AP exam in May and to attend a 4 year university where I will major in neuroscience, and eventually attend medical school to become a neurosurgeon.

Lit Terms 6-30

6. Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them

 

7. Analysis: a method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny

8. Anaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences

 

9. Anecdote: a very short story used to illustrate a point

 

10. Antagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative

 

11. Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness

 

12. Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life

 

13. Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology

 

14. Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly

 

15. Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or the falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself

 

16. Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true

 

17. Audience: the intended listener or listeners

 

18. Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality

 

19. Chiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order

 

20. Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served

 

21. Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance

 

22. Cliché: a phrase or situation overused within society

 

23. Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved

 

24. Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation

 

25. Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter

 

26. Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension

 

27. Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition

 

28.Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity

29. Denotation: plain dictionary definition(same image shown under #27)

30. Denouement (pronounced day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion

 

Poetry Analysis

Dover Beach

By: Matthew Arnold
 

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

 Dover Beach Analysis

 The speaker's tone was somber throughout the poem. The poem illustrates change, humanity, and the struggle for the truth. The imagery in this poem is breathtaking.

 

We Real Cool

By: Gwendolyn Brooks

 

THE POOL PLAYERS.

SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

 

 We Real Cool Analysis
The speaker seems to be concerned about the community and tries to interpret the mind of one of the boys. The word "we" is repeated multiple times througout the poem which makes the reader assume that the boys have a group identity.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers (124)

By: Emily Dickinson

 

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -

Untouched by Morning -

and untouched by noon -

Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection,

Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone -

Grand go the Years,

In the Crescent above them -

Worlds scoop their Arcs -

and Firmaments - row -

Diadems - drop -

And Doges surrender -

Soundless as Dots,

On a Disk of Snow.

 

 Safe in their alabaster chamber Analysis
The speaker talks about death throughout the poem and tells the reader that no matter what you do in your lifetime; when you die you are nothing. The more of the poem that you read, the more you realize that the speaker is talking about the nature of death.

Mending Wall

By: Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."
 

 Mending Wall Analysis

The theme of the poem is that the speaker blames nature for all the damages to the wall. As the poem progresses it is harder to understand the speaker's take on the wall.

 

 

To His Coy Mistress
By: Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love's day. Thou by the Indian Ganges' side Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast; But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart; For, Lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song: then worms shall try That long preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust: The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.   His Coy Mistress Analysis The speaker sounds very flattering when he describes the lady. He has a way with words and charms the reader. Death is most likely a theme of the poem because a description of the afterlife recieves a whole stanza. Sources: (http://edsitement.neh.gov/feature/twenty-one-poems-ap-literature-and-composition#01)

 

Literature Terms 1-5
 

1. Allegory: a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point

 (I am confused.......)

2. Alliteration: the repetition of similar initial sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words

 (Try saying that 5 times fast:)

3. Allusion: a reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize

(Everytime you see this picture, your mind thinks of something dirty.)

 

4. Ambiguity: something uncertain as to interpretation

(You have no idea who he is talking about.)

 

5. Anachronism: something that shows up in the wrong place or the wrong time

(This video speaks for itself:)





 

Spring Semester Plan 1
I hope that during the spring semester that I keep the momentum I had during the fall semester so I don't get senioritis. My goal for the spring semester is to acquire as many tools from the Internet as possible to help me in my future college classes. My other goal for the spring semester is to stay focused so I am able to pass the AP Exam at the end of the year.

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDARTHA

1.If you were the river, would you be enlightenment or would you know enlightenment? In other words, what’s up with the river? What is it’s relation to enlightenment? (http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.html)
2. What does he fear if he stays at home and continues in his father’s religion? (http://www.studymode.com/essays/Siddhartha-Reading-Questions-641015.html)
3. How was Siddartha able to put aside social expectations to pursure his path to enlightenment? ( http://www.gradesaver.com/siddhartha/)
4. In the beginning Siddhartha is following a traditional “devotional” path . Why isn’t this enough for Siddhartha? Do you agree that he should leave? Why? (http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/Default.aspx?tabid=2905)
5. What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence? (http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.html)

I can't answer any of these questions at the moment because I don't remember too much about the novel. I think if I reread the book it would assist me in answering the questions.

Literature Analysis #5: The Great Gatsby

General

1.      Gatsby is a rich man who is a war veteran who has come to Long Island to find his lost love. Daisy Buchanan is Gatsby’s lost love but she is already married to a man named Tom Buchanan. Nick first met Gatsby at one of his regular, crazy Saturday night parties. The narrator of the story is Nick Carraway and he helps introduce Gatsby to Daisy, however, he doesn’t realize that they had previously known each other from when they were younger. Tom is constantly cheating on Daisy with his mistress, Myrtle. Tom and Daisy have an affair up until; Tom meets Gatsby and goes digging into his past. He finds out that Gatsby came from a poor family but, he still didn’t figure out how he became so wealthy. Daisy ends up running over Myrtle; however, he tells Nick that it wasn’t her driving. Tom tells Myrtle’s husband who ran her over and he ends up killing Gatsby and himself while, Tom and Daisy run away.

2.      The theme of the novel is to let your past be your past. Gatsby should have never reconciled with Daisy because if it wasn’t for her he would have still been left alive. Because if we try and replicate our past then it forces us constantly back into it.

3.      The tone is cynical and ironic at times. Nick is a very cynical person so he makes the reader interpret the story in a cynical way which changes your perspective on some of the characters.

4.      Setting: The setting takes place in Long Island, NY.

 

Tone: The tone of the book is cynical and ironic. "I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a – of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn’t he?" She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation: "An absolute rose?"

 

Symbolism: The green light that is in the lighthouse far off from Gatsby’s house symbolizes the unattainable dream. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then.”

 

Mood: The mood is the same as the tone because the tone affects the reader’s feelings about the book as a whole and the reader.

 

Imagery: "Please don’t." Her voice was cold, but the rancor was gone from it. She looked at Gatsby. "There, Jay," she said – but her hand as she tried to light a cigarette was trembling. Suddenly she threw the cigarette and the burning match on the carpet.”

 

Diction: The author’s diction is very complex because I feel like Fitzgerald does a good job of writing in the way people talked during the time the novel was written.

 

Syntax: The sentence structure of the novel varies which makes the novel a better read. Fitzgerald constantly switches between lengthy sentences to simple and brief sentences.

 

Metaphor: “I decided to call to him. Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction. But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling.”

Characterization

1.      Direct Characterization: “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

 

Direct Characterization: “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.”

 

Indirect Characterization: “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.”

 

Indirect Characterization: “That’s my Middle West, the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark.  I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.”

2.      The author doesn’t change his syntax and diction when he is describing a character because he uses informal diction and syntax throughout the book and not just when describing characters.

3.      Nick is a static and flat character because during most of the novel he tries to help Gatsby out as a friend. Tom is constantly trying to find out Gatsby’s dirty little secret but, Nick is always watching out for Gatsby so he doesn’t do something he regrets.

4.      When I finished the novel I didn’t really felt like I met someone in real life because I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. I have never been in a situation like the one presented to the characters in this novel but, I still recommend the book because it was a good read.