Thursday, May 17, 2012

My Plans

My plans for the rest of the year are not completely clear yet. Cambria and myself are trying to look into the global causes thing and somehow connect with that musically. Other than that I am sort of interested in the big question library thing but I have not looked into it yet.

Monday, April 30, 2012

My AP Study Process

Today I was actually humbled while studying with my group. I realized that I didn't know the literary terms as thoroughly as I had previously thought. As we all yelled out terms expecting to hear their definitions repeated, everyone was silent yet my silence was the loudest to me. I thought I had all these terms down. Well I guess I was mistaken and am definitely taking another few looks down that list tonight. With everything else I still feel pretty comfortable but after today I am having second thoughts in those areas too.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

My AP Plan

My plans for this class and my future in it are simple. I'm going to collaborate with a few close friends to get a little bit better at what I need to work on in my essays. Other than that I feel confident that there isn't much that I need to work on.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Socratic Notes

The information that I picked up from our socratic seminar today that I can use in my life is plentiful. The main realization that I myself came to today is that I need to do a little more introspection on my life and how this class can help prepare me for the real world and what I can accomplish once I'm thrust into it. These discussions have shown me that every person must make these choices for themselves and no one can make them for them. I have flourished in this class to an extent, but not as much as I'd like to see myself do. I have all of these tools to utilize right in front of me, yet I've only scratched the surface. This is a valuable lesson for anyone in life. You can't just sit back and let someone tell you what to do as much as they'd like to. You need to be active in making what you want to happen, actually happen.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Lit Analysis 4: Lord of the Flies

1.  Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel written about a plane full of young school boys that goes down on a lost island which causes them to attempt to survive on their own with no adult supervision. Their wills to survive and even their humanity is tested. At first, the boys see a use for an attempt at civillized democracy, however this soon begins to crumble. The boys' adolescense comes into play as their rules break down and fear of a beast on the island destroys what little control they have left. At this point some of the children are injured and ostracized. However it still gets worse. Humanity is completely abandoned when the one boy still hlding onto civillized views is killed. After this tragic event they are rescued and forced to come to terms with what they have done. But did they leave one world of animosity to another?

2.) The theme of the book is how we are all animals inside, and as much as we think that we are civillized, really we aren't. It is showing us that human nature itself is flawed, and no matter how much one person tries to fight this (Piggy), nothing will change until we all fight our inner animosity.
3.) Golding's tone was one of pessimistic apathy. He simply stated things as if he were an uninvolved observer who ended up being disgusted in what he saw. For example:
  • "Ralph did not take the hint so the fat boy was forced to continue." (Page 11). Instead of feeling bad for the "fat boy", the author simply stated the obvious with no remorse. 
  • "For now the littluns were no longer silent... They begun to cry in sympathy, two of them almost as loud as Percival." (Page 87).
  • "He used all the bad words he could think of in a fit of temper that passed into yawning. How long could you go without sleep?..." (Page 190)
4.) Six techniques very critical to the novel were personification, imagery, foreshadowing, motif, dialogue, and irony.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Poem Analysis: Dovahkiin

From analyzing this poem, I can tell that the dramatic situation is the rebirth of Alduin, and the hope of mankind resting in the arms of the Dragonborn. The structure of the poem is that of a chant almost, or a song. The poem's purpose is a call to arms to the Dragonborn, to stop Alduin's conquest. The speaker writes in rhyming couplets. Many very vivid images are conjured from the poem, such as the horrors that await mankind upon Alduin's conquest. This conveys the importance of the Dragonborn's existence and destiny.