Thinking Outside the Box

 "No Exit" by Jean Paul Sartre and "The Allegory of the Cave" are both pieces of writing that explain how the people are limited to knowledge about the world. Both of the writings portray their main idea in a different yet similar way. "No Exit" only shows the main idea by dialogue while "The Allegory of the Cave" shows it by actions and dialogue among the characters.

In Sartre's play, knowledge is limited in the way that people view hell as. Nobody really knows what hell is like and most people just stick to the idea that it is just like Dante's inferno with flames all over the place. In the play, hell is described completely different from what it is said to look like. Sartre describes hell as a room full of people who cannot get along whatsoever, can't sleep, lights are always on, and there are no exits. The play also demonstrates that people are limited to the outside world because of the people around them. For example, Garcin wants to leave once the door is opened but Inez then begins calling him a coward. At that moment, Garcin has been influenced by Inez even though it is ironic that he is a coward for stepping out. Garcin had the opportunity to learn about what was out there but he refused too.

On the other hand, "The Allegory of the Cave" by Plato deals with prisoners who are stuck in a cave, shadows, and shackles. The limitation of one knowledge is reflected by the shadows, the cave and the shackles. The prisoners in the cave only see shadows and they have seen them for so long that now they think that that is what reality looks like. The cave is supposed to be the prison where people have locked themselves in to keep themselves from knowing what's going on in the outside world. The shackles are what hold the people back from going out to see what is going on in the outside world. Just like the characters in "No Exit", the characters are limited to knowledge because of the influences amongst the people. For example, the man who was able to go out and see reality was killed because all of them were stuck to the thought that reality are just shadows because of the influences they are surrounded by.

Limitations to the outside world are only created because people don't bother to take a chance and explore what is out there. People once they know something but knowledge can be expanded, only decide to stick with what they already have knowledge of. Sartre's "No Exit" and Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" are to pieces of writing that clearly demonstrate how people limit his/hers own knowledge.

Fable

Fable: A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.

 Examples: (Aesop's Fables)

•  "The Lion and the Mouse", the moral of this story is to not judge anyone or anything by the looks.

• "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", the moral of the story is that nobody believes a liar even when they are telling the truth.

Literature Analysis #3

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

•  Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker is about a young girl named Celie growing up with various obstacles in her life which she eventually overcame. She grew up with an abusive stepfather who would rape her multiple times and as a result, she got pregnant twice. The first time she gave birth, her father killed it and then the next time she gave birth, her father stole it. At that moment, her mom passed away as well. Later she is forced to marry a man who they called Mr.______ (Albert) by the stepfather because he didn't want Nettie, his youngest daughter, to marry him. He was another one of those abusive men who while with her cheated on her and did everything he could to make her life miserable. He would even hide letters from Nettie after she disappeared from home and Celie ended up thinking she was dead. One day, Mr.______'s lover Shug was very ill and ended up staying at Celie's and Mr.______'s house until she got better. While being there, Celie and Shug got very close to each other and ended up being great friends. She found out how Mr.______ would constantly beat her so Shug eventually decided to help Celie out. Because of Shug, Celie is able to finally obtain all of Nettie's letters which  after reading, she finds out Nettie is alive and safe. Nettie had left with some missionary people, Samuel and Corrine, to Africa. While being there, Nettie finds out that Samuel's and Corrine's kids Adam and Olivia, are really Celie's kids who Alphonso, the stepfather had said he had gotten rid of. Corrine ends up dying and the kids are given back to Cellie. Alphonso dies as well. At first Celie does not want to forgive Mr.______ but later she decides to and they begin to enjoy each others company. Celie also ends up being a successful woman owning a business.

• Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

 The theme of this novel would be "black women's rights" because of how the protagonist, Celie, is treated in the story. She is greatly abused by the men and does not do anything to save herself until the end when she finally stands up for herself.

• Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

Alice Walker's tones while writing the novel were depressive, hopeful, serious, and confessional. Throughout the whole novel, in all the letters she writes, she is hoping that her life gets better somehow. She is never throwing out jokes or ever sounds happy until the end. She admits that her life sucks and does not enjoy any minute of it. 

 *"I tell him I can fix myself up for him. I duck into my room and come out wearing horsehair, feathers, and a pair of our new mammy high heel shoes. He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway." (hopeful)
*"He go down to Harpo's to watch her sing. And just to look at her. Then way late they come home. They giggle and they talk and they rassle until the morning. Then they go to bed until it time for her to get ready to go back to work." (depressed, husband is cheating on her in front of her)
*Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me. (hopeful)
*"He beat me when you not here." (confessing how Mr. _____ beats her)

• Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

The author's structure was one main technique that the author used to help strengthen the reader's understanding of the novel. Alice wrote the book like diary entries and letters especially to God and the fact that they were letters written to God showed her faith and how she was hopeful that He would make a change in her life. Diction was also another technique Alice used even though it was slang--it seemed easier to understand because the words weren't too big as in you had to look up most of them in the dictionary. Another literary technique used would be syntax. With the use of syntax for example at the beginning, we know why Celie is the women she has turned out to be and why she acts the way she does.  A literary element she uses a lot throughout the novel would be symbolism. The color purple is one example of where she uses symbolism. It helps understand the novel better because when Shrug begins to explain the color purple, that's when Celie starts to give up on God and then Shrug explains why she shouldn't. Setting would be another literary element that helps us understand the plot of the novel since it takes place in the rural south during the twentieth century.

 *"Sofia gone six months, Harpo act like a different man. Used to be a homebody, now all the time in the road." (diction)
*Well, us talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?)..." (symbolism)
*"He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn't..." (syntax)
  

The Big Question

Given current trends, how will technology continue to develop and influence global citizens over the next thirty years?

Hamlet Essay Redo

Performative utterance is when something is said and because it is said, it is turned into a fact. For example, when the boss tells his employee "You're fired!" it is now made into a fact. The idea of performative utterance is one that makes a great impact in some literature and one example would be Hamlet by William Shakespeare. In Hamlet, performative utterance plays a big role because it is the one main thing that gives us insight on how the character is going to act and it makes the play even more interesting. "Self-overhearing" is another component that creates an impact on the plot and also in my experiences while reciting "to be or not to be".

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet has a conversation with the ghost and at the end of their conversation, he promises the ghost that he will take revenge for the his father's death. At that point, once Hamlet had said he promises to do something, performative utterance is done. With that statement that Hamlet made, it created all the action in the play and it was what kept many people wanting to know what was going to happen next. Even though Hamlet did not do much, the fact that he made that promise was what made what he said real.

Throughout the play, Hamlet, recites many soliloquies which end up being "self-overhearing". This component is what makes up the plot in the play Hamlet because without it, nothing would really be happening or the people would not know why it's actually happening. An example would be when Hamlet is reciting "To be or not to be" without that soliloquy, the people would not know why he is doing whatever he is doing, everyone would be confused unless it were just stated there but at the same time, that would not be as interesting. Also "self overhearing" is what Hamlet did to make the other characters think that he was a crazy man, and with that, the whole plot was made even more interesting.

"Self overhearing" for me while memorizing "To be or not to be" went from negative to positive thoughts. At the beginning, I saw the soliloquy and saw how long it was, and at that moment I began to think that I was definitely not going to be able to learn it. Later once I had learned more than half of it, that's when my "self-overhearing" became positive since I was actually getting something done.


Performative utterance and "self-overhearing" are two main components that can make writing interesting and actually make up what it's going to be about. Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a play that was made up by both of those components and both of those components made a great impact on it. It was what created the plot of the play and it affected the characters.

 

Essay #2 Hamlet

Epic heroes are usually described as brave, admirable, and glorious. The character Hamlet from Hamlet by William Shakespeare is an example of an epic hero but a completely different one from the usual. He is not the kind of character that perfectly has those qualities, he actually has the opposing ones.The quality that makes him unique though and different from Beowulf would be that he is based on language while Beowulf just says and does.

In the play Hamlet the author, Shakespeare, comes up with many soliloquies that Hamlet recites. Every time before a problem came up or he was about to do something to resolve it, Hamlet would think it over. For example "To be or not to be", since he had the problem of whether he should kill himself or not, he went through a whole thought process before deciding on what to do. Hamlet at the end though ends up not doing anything which makes him a coward. Several times Hamlet over thinks what he is going to do and at the end he fails to do it.Another example would be when he is about to kill King Claudius, again he starts thinking about it and ends up doing nothing. Beowulf on the other hand, he would say he would do something and never would he stop to think about what was going to happen to him. Beowulf was one one that was brave and courageous. Even though he knew he was in the risk of dying while fighting all those monsters, he still was willing to take the challenge. This character was not one that would let his problems get to him, he'd manage to get rid of them as soon as he could.

Hamlet was also not admirable whatsoever and it was mostly because of how depressed his thoughts would get him. Everything he would think would just bring pure negativity especially because he kept them to himself and would just act by them. For example all his thoughts about everything like his father and the revenge would make him just seem like a crazy person to all the others. He was definitely someone that was not to be admired in other peoples' eyes. He would always act in the way that people would just think pure negativity towards him. Beowulf though, everyone admired him. This character was a true hero to all his people because of all the actions he took. He also was the kind that did anything to make his people happy like at the ending when he let everyone have the treasure that he had. He wanted to make sure that every one of his people were taken care of.

The play, Hamlet, did not really have a glorious ending which means that Hamlet was not glorious. Hamlet did end up killing King Claudius but he was pretty much left with nothing. The protagonist did not have his love Ophelia because she was dead, his mother died, and even he died. Once he killed King Claudius all the characters put the pieces together but really they didn't think of him as that great hero that everyone praises, they pretty much just thought that they had been fooled the whole time. Beowulf though was glorious in almost all the fights with the monsters except for the last one. He was one that was able to experience glory and was viewed as a glorious leader unlike Hamlet.

Characters in literature can have so much in common but then again they can be the exact opposite. Hamlet from the play Hamlet by Shakespeare and Beowulf would be an example of two different characters. Being that Hamlet thinks over what he is going to do is what makes him different from Beowulf because of the fact that he does not think about what he's going to do but he just does it.

 


 

Major Concept I Have Learned in English...

Procrastination. This is not the best thing to do especially when you are memorizing something so complicated like "To be or not to be..." In most cases, procrastination will not lead you to get the grade you are aiming for but it can lead you to fail. Luckily I did not fail because Dr. Preston gave me one more chance but I was like an inch close to failing. I think procrastination can also lead you to stress--the whole time at the AVID trip I was enjoying it but at the same time stressing out on the memorization even though I had more than half of it memorized.An example though where procrastination lead me to failure would be me procrastinating on my math homework. I have not been doing my homework until the day before or the day of the test which of course is not the best option. I think I have learned my lesson since so much important things are coming up and senior year is almost over.

Roy Christopher (Highlights)

• Computers are supposed to be something that decrease time consumption but it has distractions as well and it's up to you to avoid them.
• "It's either program or be programmed" Roy said that we should not be victimized by technology but rather learn from it so that that way we will have already been prepared for what is next.
• He prefers to not have a smartphone so he could just get home and find what's new on his computer.
• With new stuff coming out, it's up to us if we want to keep ourselves up to date with it or not.
• Advent Horizons are good because you have the opportunity to excel in whatever your generation has started.
• Older generations have problems trusting the newer generations because of all the changes in the media and it'd be best if we trusted each other more. 
• Roy does not believe in multitasking. He says that the quality of his project is much better when he is focused on one project rather than on multiple ones. 
• In 10 years we will not be digital natives but we will be digital immigrants and it's really up to our generation to invent the next new thing.
• We have to be careful with what is put on mobile technology because that will be more important than it be possible to doing it.