Cody AP Blog

In the story “Paul’s Case”, written by Willa Cather Paul has the main case of social superiority or inferiority rather. His social status is what causes Paul to want to be farther up in the social ladder. He is constantly talking about how he is displeased with his home life and school life but when he is surrounded by upper class people at his job, it is like a huge burden has been lifted up off of his shoulders. “Paul never went up Cordelia Street without a shudder of loathing”. (238) That shows his increased disappointment of his house and the location of where he lived. Words like “ugly, old, grimy, cracked, dripping, and hairy”, were all used to describe his house. Those show a tone of sorrow and disappointment. “Paul had had often hung about the hotel, watching the people go in and out, longing to enter and leave schoolmasters and dull care behind him forever.” (237) Paul said this which shows extremely how he wishes to leave his washed up home and school life to become something bigger on the social chain. He wishes to move up, because he feels he is socially inferior to most.

“The lesson” by Cade Bambara, produces a static character in Sylvia who stays the same throughout the story. In the beginning Sylvia shows how she is very arrogant, independent, and acts harshly. In no way throughout the story does she change her way of thinking, or the way she acts. From the beginning she believed that only her and Sugar were, “the only ones right..” Her actions in the story are still harsh no matter what people do or say to change that. She still goes about her business thinking she is the best and no one will be better than she is. “But ain’t nobody gonna be me at nuthin” (202) was the very last sentence of the story showing that no matter what happened that day nothing changed her mind or way of thinking. Sylvia from the beginning was the only “good” person along with sugar and to Sylvia it stayed that way until the end. She was unchanged.

In the story “Gooseberries”, by Anton Chekhov, the over-arching theme of the story has to do with people going about their business and trying to achieve their goals no matter what the cost. As you read the story you hear about Ivan’s brother who achieves his goal of owning his very own farm, but for him to have achieved that he hurt a few people along the way. His wife was a huge one in which he didnt treat her very well at all. “He went on living frugally after marrying her, and kept her short of food, while he put her money in the bank in his name” (pg. 207). That is something that helped Ivan’s brother achieve his goal but it was done with mistreatment to his wife. He achieved his goals without being a nice person, and some of the time whether you think so or not the bad people will achieve their goals even if they hurt people along the way.

Christian Redemption was a big part of Hulga’s daily life even though you don’t think it would be. Hulga does such a well job at going about her business not caring or believing about anything people say to her. However Pointer comes in and brings her out of her shell. He sways her into believing something but true to his nature he leads her into a trap making everything he said fake. While Pointer claims to help by sellng bibles it just goes to show that Christian Redemption occurs whether you want it to or not. When Hulga gives into what Pointer want her to believe she opens up to him and reveals what she hasn’t revealed to many other people. Then right when she does she gets shut down by the boy which makes you think she will only recoil into a deeper silence. She will be less likely to open up and believe what people have to say to her. Christian CAN be a art of every day life whether you think so or not.

Born and raised in Georgia Alice Walker was the youngest of eight children! An interesting fact about her home life was when she was shot in the eye with a BB gun but because no car was present at the time it took a few weeks before they made it to the shospital. In the end her eye was blind because it took so long to get her attention. She is an American author who is best known for her writing on the subject of race and gender. Her most famous piece is The Color Purple, which also helped her win the Pulitzer prize for fiction. She was the first black woman to win that and also the National Book Award.

Sanger Rainsford is in for the experience of a lifetime when he becomes a missing person on “Ship-Trap Island”. Ship Trap island supposedly is a nightmare for sailors who never ever want to get stuck there for fear of who knows what happening to them. However as the story goes, Rainsford falls off of a yacht and just happened to swim to the shore of the dreaded island. Not knowing where he was, it was after learning of General Zaroff and the general’s lunatic game  that knocked some sense into Rainsford. Rainsford always liking to the be the hunter and not the huntee finds himself the huntee with reason for General Zaroff to play with. While they are both hunters, Zaroff has the advantage living on the island and hunting on it almost everyday. Giving Rainsford three days to elude his grasp, makes it almost impossible, for on the thrid day the dogs are brought along for the journey. Rainsford, however learning the true meaning of fear manages to escape the grasp of the General, and all the while turning the tables as he beats General Zaroff in the end. “He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided,” (85) speaking of Zaroff’s bed after his cunning victory.

Boyle, Thomas E. “Unreliable Narration in The Great Gatsby.” The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 23.1 (1969): 21-26. JSTOR. Web. 25 Aug. 2009.

Gut Reaction: Arrogance, evidence, forceful, detail, and bold.

Thesis: “Although he makes only cursory reference to The Great Gatsby, Booth draws two conclusions, both of which, I submit, are wrong.” (21)

Paraphrased: Nick is a major factor of the events that occur during the book and he is an unreliable narrator.

Before he mentions the thesis, Boyle starts off with a very bold statement that can catch the reader off guard, giving his essay a powerful effect already. The first paragraph after the thesis is a very strong paragraph for Boyle’s argument. He provides information that his views are not original and credibility to the fact that his ideas are not mistaken or taken for a joke. One of the more unclear points for his argument are his paragraphs on Gatsby’s origin; which is the conflict of the Mid West and San Francisco.  The ending is also very strong giving both sides of the argument whether you believe Boyle is wrong or correct. He then ends with a quote from the end of the book to make his argument that much more solid.

Cody McKenzie

AP Literature

Wuthering Heights

Style

Emily Bronte’s style is very thorough and unique. She makes sure that when something needs to be explained it will be explained well enough so that almost anyone will be able to understand. She is also very thorough in all of her descriptions. Emily never fails to leave out a detail when describing even the smallest of items. The objects that seem to have the littlest significance are the ones which get the most attention and make you think more. Miss Bronte uses a very Gothic form of writing this novel. While she gives well detailed expressions she uses her Gothic tone to achieve a genuine style. Her depressing style gives the book, of course, a gloomy setting. Reading it you feel sad for everyone in it and yet you can’t help but to hope that in some way the book will become happier. Some parts are happy but it never fails to become gloomy again in one way or another. For the reason that this book is based upon the same ideas of her life the reader can very well make out that she lived a tough life and wanted everyone to know it. She pointed out every little detail and gave almost everything very much recognition. By doing so it can only make the reader feel like she is making sure everything is taken care of in the book, but not the same can be said for her home life where she was not attended to often. Her Style was simple but was also very thoughtful making sure everything was explained while also being blatantly clear. Now, telling the story through Mr. Lockwood is an odd way to write a book it is also very clear as to what is going on. Mr. Lockwood was told the story by his servant showing that the story was so enthralling that we didn’t need to have him live out the experiences on his own to get the full effect.

Plot Structure and Organization

Emily Bronte starts off with you could say the falling action of the book. When she starts in present time it shows that when the story begins that is where all the action will begin. By returning to the present time and then finishing the book it is essentially the falling action to the climax which happened in the story that Nellie told Mr. Lockwood. Starting in the present, going back in time, and then finishing in the present is a very interesting way to organize a book, but she pulls it off wonderfully. With organizing her piece this way, the reader is almost inclined to go back and read the beginning when they have finished because then they will know the characters and it would make more sense. Having the story told and then ending back in the present time gives the reader a very clear view of all characters and which ones are the bad ones or what ones you just want to slap in the face so that they will see what’s really going on. Starting the book off in the present time and then going back you get to see all the rising action and climactic points that do occur before coming back into the present time. When you come back you are faced with the events after the main climax and eventually the bully who you wanted to be killed first is actually dead by the very end of the book. That leads to some peace in the reader’s mind but also adds spice to the already complex plot. Many things went on throughout the book but the structure of the plot was organized well and brought great details to the table.

Literary Devices

Motifs, different themes, and tone all stood out to me as main literary devices that Miss Bronte used. Tone was a big factor in the success of the book. As a reader I wanted Heathcliff and Catherine to be together but the book was so depressing in many ways that nothing ever seemed to go right. In the end however even though nothing seemed to go as planned, the book was stronger than ever. The different themes and motifs that were used throughout kept the reader involved and thinking as to what the significance may be of the moors, social class, or even the religious aspect of Joseph. Joseph is a very religious man but yet Bronte uses him and contradicts his own views. He is always preaching the word of God but then he will go out and do something against what he preaches. He is a very peculiar character and grumpy most of the time. Constantly in the book the reader was reminded of the social aspect of those days. It was made well known that Heathcliff was not well liked because of his poor behavior or manners which put him in the classification of a servant. Without the structure of a social class this book would not be what it has become. Social Class had a huge impact on the characters of this story which all relate in many different ways. Most of the Lintons die from being weak while Catherine married Edgar because he was a nice well-mannered man. Heathcliff out of spite marries Isabella even though she is never loved which is almost true of Edgar not being loved so much by Catherine. Many characters relate to one another in a way but it always seems that Heathcliff is the smartest and manipulates almost any character to act the way he wants them to. Thus creating a chaos filled book with much going on.

General Theme

Emily Bronte does a well job portraying the general theme of the book throughout. She starts with attracting the reader to the present time where she introduces the characters. Then to better the understanding of what is going on she simply tells the story through one of the characters servants. Reading through the story helps to explain all the characters and how they behave the way they do. When the story ends in the present time it becomes very clear who everyone is, and why they all act in such peculiar ways. The beginning of the book confuses me because I have no prior knowledge of the characters to help me better understand their significance. Once the story was told the plot became very interesting. While I read and was disgusted by the treatment of certain characters somehow it made me more enthused and excited to find out what would happen next. Many times I felt like reaching into the book and strangling Heathcliff or at least hoping someone would slap him and get away with it. His brute force over the characters made it very riveting but way too sad. Now his love for Catherine was never mistaken but the torture which came about from their love for each other was common throughout the book. Heathcliff being picked on for almost his whole childhood obviously had pent up anger which was expressed through his brutality on the other women or even men in the book. Heathcliff married Isabella not for the love but for the hope of bringing jealousy upon Catherine. His cruel nature brought him down low enough to seduce a young female into marrying him and then once he got what he wanted from her, he stored her away and anxiously awaited for Catherine. Catherine loved both Heathcliff and Edgar but chose Edgar thinking that Heathcliff would wait and stay in love with her. Catherine and Heathcliff present a very clear picture of the general theme of this book.

The Great Gatsby

Style

In a way the style of The Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights is similar. The Great Gatsby is told through the perspective of an onlooker onto the whole situation which is presented before him. In Wuthering Heights they also use the perspective of a new guy to get the story going. In The Great Gatsby Nick is way more involved being related to Daisy but the idea of the story being told through his perspective is very clever. Not only do we see the whole story through Nick we also receive his insight and thoughts on what’s going on. Seeing the story from an onlooker such as Nick really gives the whole picture. You rarely just see the one side of the story with a narrator, which is a very good thing because you know both views and where each side is coming from. While Nick was good friends with Gatsby and slowly grew fond of him, he never was one to be biased to a particular side. He gave his own opinions of things but his opinions weren’t enough to sway a reader to side for either person or like one character more than the other. Fitzgerald’s style of writing is unique in the way that he uses color all throughout the book as symbolization of things. The green lantern was the main one but all in the book you would be able to see different colors or shades of color to help distinguish different meanings or even moods. With the colors also came the mysterious factor which Fitzgerald did a nice job especially at the beginning. He keeps Gatsby from being known until a little ways in and then he also keeps all of Gatsby’s or even Tom’s work affairs totally in the secret. His style in that way reveals certain things in the right moments of time thickening the plot for the reader.

Plot Structure and Organization

The plot structure in this book is a very common layout. The difference is that there are two possible climactic points in the book that occur towards the end. Gatsby’s death or When Daisy goes with Tom and leaves Gatsby. Many events lead up to the climax and it is really your choice as to what you believe the climax to be. If you think it is when Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby, then Gatsby’s death would be the result of the climax. The falling action is really quite depressing cause you spend the whole book thinking about how popular Gatsby was, but when his funeral comes around it was like no one ever knew him. The structure and organization of the book keep the reader believing things but when one thing goes wrong, many things start to fall apart as well. If Gatsby’s death was your climactic point then the funeral with no attendance would be the falling action of the book. The author organizes this book so that once myrtles death happens; everything starts to fall apart from there. With myrtle dying so did her quest for the American dream and slowly after the American dream became less valuable. Gatsby who received the American dream dies after myrtle dies and with him also went a piece of the American dream. The author’s organization of the deaths is good because they don’t come right after each other but gives the reader a little bit of time to recover. Then Gatsby’s death comes unexpected at first but as a reader it becomes less surprising as the novel progresses. The structure of the plot has many rising action details before most of the climactic parts occur towards the end of the book. This keeps me really interested for the most part because while nothing insanely huge happens, there are enough twists in the story to keep it interesting.

Literary Devices

Plenty of motifs were presented in The Great Gatsby such as the green lantern and TJ Ecklesburg’s eyes. A main theme that occurred throughout was the issue of class and the pursuit of the American dream. Gatsby’s story is so interesting because it involves his rise from the lower classes to the upper class which is one of the major themes in the book. Once he becomes worthy enough Gatsby goes to extremes in order to show Daisy all the cool things he has to try and persuade her into his arms by books’ end. Through the many literary devices Fitzgerald can really show the importance of fame and fortune during that time period. Not only does Fitzgerald show the needs of that time period he also makes the readers think and analyze what that green lantern may mean, or what do the eyes have to do with the story? The tone that happens to be present in the book seems to be very enthusiastic especially when Nick becomes aware of Gatsby and the whole story that followed. However towards the middle end of the book the tone shifts to a more gloomy tone. A few people die, Daisy chose Tom or maybe was forced too, and then Gatsby has no real friends who he genuinely knew. While reading this book I was forced to take into account the time period which gave me a real good understanding of the American dream and some of the motifs or symbols in the book. Almost all became evident and clear so I was able to pick up on the little character meanings such as those who want the dream don’t always get it and sometimes working so hard for the dream won’t bring you happiness but instead it will end up being unpleasant for you some of the time.

General Theme

A true love story, this book was very tremendous in the way it was written. I thought that the fact a man who rose from being not worthy enough to being well worthy enough fights for the love of his life who is already married. However money came in to affect because it was written in a time where the American dream was to become wealthy and to have all the new “stuff”. Gatsby works hard to make it to the level he currently possesses but to what avail? The girl he so desperately wants is confused not knowing what to do which makes the story that much more interesting. All throughout the book many different signs of living the American dream become evident through Daisy, Myrtle, and even Gatsby. As a reader Myrtle really pops out as someone chasing the American dream, or rather her version of the American dream. Even though she is married she can’t settle with just that. Not only does she want to be a part of Tom’s life but she constantly shows her lust for money and desire to be a part of the upper class. Gatsby shows his quest to achieve the American dream when he proves worthy enough to finally be with Daisy. Reading the book you know that Gatsby’s whole intention of becoming rich was for Daisy, and she being the selfish one she became led Gatsby on in a way. She flirted and hung out with Gatsby maybe because she never lost feelings for him but I like to believe she becomes so fond of him because of what he has become. Wealth and class are the two themes in this book and are portrayed throughout until the near end. Even though wealth was good, in a way that was what ended up killing Gatsby and ruining his life.

This class has been very interesting. I am excited to see how much I can learn and am able to expand my literacy. Lets have fun!

This I Believe

Never give up. This I believe has gotten me to the athletic level that I currently possess. With the intention of never giving up, I know that I am able to accomplish many things. I am not ignorant to the fact that I can’t accomplish everything I want to, but I’ll never give up. I am a firm believer in finishing what you start.

My brother is the main inspiration behind my belief of never giving up. After many tough games my brother is there to support me. He sends me the inspirational texts that motivate me to keep going and not give up. Without hearing some of the things he said I almost quit a few times but instead I listened. He always knows exactly what to say to make you feel important. I was struggling with my basketball team when I was younger and not getting much playing time. However my brother was there to let me know that by giving up I wasn’t going to gain any ground. I continued to go to practices and work hard and I did everything I could, leaving the rest in the coach’s hands. In the end of that season I was not happy with my playing time for I knew that I was better and more deserving than some of the players. However I never gave up and finished strong and for that I thank my brother along with the rest of my family for all of their support. While never giving up can build confidence it can also prove to others that it does make a difference. My team was proud to have me because I worked hard even though I wasn’t the best. My coaches were proud of me for sticking with it. Now I will be playing Varsity Basketball for Fife High School for the main reason that I never gave up.

Baseball is a big test when it comes to never giving up. There have been many times when I pitch and my defense messes up. I don’t let it get to me for the most part, because I remind myself to never give up. You have to display your dedication if you want others to follow. In that case I never cut corners during practice hoping that others will follow my lead. If I want my team to perform then I must first show them that it takes work. If I give up then I show the rest of my team that I don’t care, which makes them not care either. It’s a chain reaction that I can make either better or worse.

In all my sports I do my best to never give up because by giving up I let my family, friends, and most importantly myself down. I don’t want to regret giving up and have it haunting me for the rest of my life so I continue to work hard through all obstacles. Through motivation mainly from my brother and family I can handle any situation. No matter what I can not give up if I ever hope to reach my childhood dream. This I believe.