Monday, January 30, 2012

Journal 13 - Masters

Read “George Gray” and “Lucinda Matlock” and answer the following questions.


1. What object symbolizes George Gray’s life? How is this object representative of him?

The object tha symbolizes George Gray’s life would be the sailboat. It represents him by saying that the when the sailboat is docked in the harbor with furled sails, it is him living his life simply and safely because he was to afraid to go out and experience life. Gray found that you should live your life and give it meaning, even if you are afraid.




2. How was Lucinda Matlock’s life different than George Gray’s? How do you interepret the last line of the poem?

Matlock’s life differs from Gray’s because she had accomplished many things in her time. She was not afraid to go out and experience the world, even if it meant sorrow. How I interpret the last line of the poem “It takes life to love life” is that everyone is given chances in their life, never knowing what is going to happen. You should use this in the future to learn to love and cherish the life that you have, since you don’t always know what’s ahead of you in the future.




3. How are “George Gray” and “Lucinda Matlock” examples of realism?

Both of these stories relate to realism because each of them focus on the fact that you should be going through life unafraid and give meaning to your life. Live your life full of love, and most of all, take chances that you normally wouldn’t take.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Journal 12 - Young Goodman Brown

1. “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory (symbolic narrative). What do the following represent?

Young Goodman Brown – a good person, innocent, but doesn’t understand the world and everybody’s true nature. He tries to remain good and resist the temptation throughout the story.


Faith – it represents not only his wife, but his religious faith as well. He talks about how Faith was holding him back, which can interpret as his religion holding him back from experiencing other things in the world.


The Elderly Traveller/Fellow-Traveller – personification of the devil. Everyone travels down the road of temptation


Goody Cloyse – corruption, hypocrisy


The Ceremony – this represents how everyone has a sinful nature to them. Celebrating a sinful nature and acknoledging that everyone has a sinful nature to them


The Pink Ribbon – when the ribbon falls and Goodman sees it, it represents the loss of faith


Young Goodman Brown’s Journey – in town people act a certain way, faithful, but in the woods, he learns the true nature of everyone.



2. Identify the following for “Young Goodman Brown”:

Theme Message of Theme Element Used to Establish



The theme for the story of Young Goodman Brown would be deception. Deception best describes it because in the story, it shows in the beginning that everyone in Salem is seen as faithful to God for the reason that they are all Puritans. When it becomes nightfall though, the main character starts to see everyone’s true nature, of which they were hiding. This true nature would be that they have become unfaithful. After learning this, the character starts to fall apart at knowing that everyone he ever knew that was at the ceremony was lie. The element that can be used to establish this story would be setting.






In addition, provide three direct quotes from the story that address your theme.

1. “There is no good on the earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is the world given.”

2. “leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil.”

3. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Journal 11 - Walden

Write a summary of the following selections and identify a direct quote that you feel best expresses its main idea.

“Where I Lived and What I Lived For”

live life only dealing with the essentials

Quote: “To drive into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”





“Sounds”
He listens to the sounds of society, how they interact with other people to be amused, but he talks about how went into nature and just amused himself.





Quote: “I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, ever those who were obliged to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theater, that my life itself was becomemy amusement and never ceased to be novel.





“Brute Neighbors”

Exaggerated the greatness of the ants to a heroic level to show how similar people are in their behaviors. Therefore, you can find a reflection fo what we are in nature. By doing this, it shows how unheroic we are.



Quote: “I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellem, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black .”





“The Pond in Winter”

The first paragraph shows that the speaker of the poem wakes up to an answered dream that we can sit there and ask ourselves what life is all about or we can go out and experience it for ourselves and find a non-verbal answer. The next few paragraphs talk about how the speaker is inspired by the fishermens way of life. They do not care about the authorities and that they do not live by “the book” (Bible). They do not care about following the rules and learn through their own experiences because they are not artificial people but rather they are natural.

Quote: “But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips.”




“Spring”

Everything is starting to move and change in the beginning of Spring. Regret should be let go and everything be forgiven. Creation of the entire world out of nothing. When winter changes to spring, to the eye everything seems to just blossom.




Quote: “As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.”

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Journal 10 - Insight

Othello’s Insight

Write a one paragraph response to the following question:

Often at the end of a play, Shakespeare’s tragic heroes often have a moment of insight. What is Othello’s insight? Look closely at Othello’s last speech before answering this question.



At the end of the play, Othello’s insight on what has happened to his life can be seen as logical. At the same time though, it is an interesting perspective on what his thought was on his whole situation. He begins to talk about how, throughout his life, he has obliged a great service to the Venetian Army. Continuing on that, Othello also describes how, basically, jealousy had overthrown all of his other emotions. By doing this, he had brought tragedy upon himself. Through this process, Othello had overall lost his identity of an honored soldier to a sort of lowlife murderer.