What's The Story?

The novel of A Tale of Two Cities  was published in the year 1839 from the months April through November.  The novel was completed in thirty one weekly installments.  The novel is divided into three major sections.  The novel revolves around a French aristocrat and a British barrister, symbolizing the distinct difference between the two social classes.  Dickens use of characterization reflected his own life in that his affair with Ellen Ternan can be seen as the role of Lucie Manette.  Dickens also portrays a large allusion in his novel by setting the main plot line in both cities of Paris and London, knowing that the reader should already be aware of the major class distinctions of that time.  

Dickens Map

1.) Considering that I have yet to begin the novel, from now until Monday I plan on evenly distributing the reading throughout each day.
2.) http://www.shmoop.com/tale-of-two-cities/questions.html. Honestly it was very difficult to find any other high-level AP questions concerning this novel. 

1. How heroic is Sydney Carton’s death?
2. Would the novel be different if Lucie had killed Madame Defarge? How?
3. Is A Tale of Two Cities a novel about revolution or a novel about rape?
4. Is revenge ever justifiable? If so, when?
5. How is "honor" defined in this novel? Are there multiple versions of honor? If so, which is the most effective? The most respectable? Who is the most honorable character?

 3.) I believe I should be tested on these ideas in that if I am able to find a previous AP test on the Tale of Two Cities I should simply complete the entire test without any online resources. 

Lit Terms: 6-30

Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them
 
Analysis: a method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny
 
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

Anecdote: a very short story used to illustrate a point
 
Antagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative
 
Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness

Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life
 
Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology
 
Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly
 
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
 
Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true
 
Audience: the intended listener or listeners
 
Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality
 
Chiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order 

 Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served 
 
Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance 

Cliché: a phrase or situation overused within society

Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved 
 
Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation

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
 
Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension
 
Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition

Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity
 
Denotation: plain dictionary definition 
 
Denouement (pronounced day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion 

POETRY ANALYSIS

Obscurity and Selfhood
by C. D. Wright
Not far from a college. Nevertheless. A man living by himself kept his fighting cocks in plain sight. Each had its own tether and miniature shed and dish with embossed sobriquet. Their domestication reserved for battle before the table. Gallus gallus domesticus. A young male, a cockerel, my husband's patronymic before the adoption. Some hens are disposed to poach another's egg. Once there were teeth. Given certain conditions they could come back. If not a full set. Even now a breathing hole has to be pipped for the offspring to break out. This is done with an egg tooth. Not a true tooth. Love among the chickens involves a circle dance. He is a wonderful dancer. It goes straight to her brain. Before and after they prefer to wash off in dust. Ashes will work if no dust. If they aren't forced into shedding one another's blood, they can live until their heart gives out. The cock the man could not resist loving. He withdrew from the ring. Yet relinquished. To settle an unforgiven debt. My question is this: Would you describe yourself as a wanderer, a friend of the court, amicus curiae, falsely construed as a snitch, a blue yodeler,    an apostate, a lost cause, a bird in the house, a biter, a common blogger, a contender, a purse    snatcher, a false witness, a palterer, a silkie, a backyarder, channeler for malevolent spirits, girt in the loins, figure on a shard of black pottery, moderately active, a fog    machine, a visionary miserabilist, a chook or a cuckold, a roundhead, a little seditious, a slow-wave    sleeper, a dead mule, a gongorist, honey on the comb, half goat half god, a white throwback, crossed    with a mongrel, a genesis, a retired fighting cock, a doll named Memphis. This poem explores the many different lives that human beings can lead.  The general summary concerns a fighting cock that the master decides to pull from the ring because the master loves it too much.  The tone is very powerful and thought provoking because it directly asks the reader who they think they are.  I found the diction to be more advanced once the author began to ask the reader who they truly are. To My Mother   by Edgar Allan Poe Because I feel that, in the Heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of "Mother," Therefore by that dear name I long have called you— You who are more than mother unto me, And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you In setting my Virginia's spirit free. My mother—my own mother, who died early, Was but the mother of myself; but you Are mother to the one I loved so dearly, And thus are dearer than the mother I knew By that infinity with which my wife Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life. I find this poem to be confusing but very intriguing.  Poe seems as if he is merely talking about his own mother until the line, "Was but the mother of myself; but you Are mother to the one I loved so dearly."  This sentence makes it seem as if the mother Poe is portraying was not his own mother.  The tone is filled with love and passion for the mother he is talking about.  The diction is very simple and did not give me any problems. #4   by Jane Miller Do you know how long it has been since a moral choice presented itself and the wrong choice was made not two minutes why is it not quiet between lightning and thunder as if someone were asking do you have other articulable feelings if so express them now tragedy ensues with a laser blast from the cockpit the dangled finger of God makes contact PLEASE CALL FOR SEVERAL THOUSAND PHYSICIANS QUICKLY One of the most irrelevant yet thought provoking poems I have ever read.  The immediate theme that jumps out at me is that in life there are negative decisions made even when a positive one presents itself.  However I begin the doubt that theme by the end of the poem when the author begins to talk about lasers, God, and physicians. "Out, Out—"   by Robert Frost The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, As it ran light, or had to bear a load. And nothing happened: day was all but done. Call it a day, I wish they might have said To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work. His sister stood beside them in her apron To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap— He must have given the hand. However it was, Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh, As he swung toward them holding up the hand Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all— Since he was old enough to know, big boy Doing a man's work, though a child at heart— He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off— The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!" So. But the hand was gone already. The doctor put him in the dark of ether. He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright. No one believed. They listened at his heart. Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it. No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.  This poem I believe suggests the idea that life itself can end so very suddenly.  The beginning of the poem seems optimistic however by the end a somber tone finishes the poem.  The poem is about a boy that is hurt by a saw and then loses his life after surgery.  Overall the diction is quite simple. 1492   by Emma Lazarus Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate, Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword, The children of the prophets of the Lord, Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate. Hounded from sea to sea, from state to state, The West refused them, and the East abhorred. No anchorage the known world could afford, Close-locked was every port, barred every gate. Then smiling, thou unveil'dst, O two-faced year, A virgin world where doors of sunset part, Saying, "Ho, all who weary, enter here! There falls each ancient barrier that the art Of race or creed or rank devised, to rear Grim bulwarked hatred between heart and heart!" From just the title the reader is able to grasp the idea that this poem will most likely concern Christopher Columbus.  The poem describes how Columbus was refused by the environment around him which caused him to travel west towards a new world.  The theme presents itself as how the world can change so very quickly.

St. Crispin’s Day Speech

I found this assignment to be the most difficult assignment of the entire year so far.  The memorization itself was not difficult, rather the environment in which it was placed made it extremely laborious to complete.  I know Dr. Preston did say during class that he understands the stress each student is enduring, however this speech merely added to the overwhelming emotional feelings that is affecting each and every student.  At this very moment it is physically and mentally draining to complete this assignment, however when a certain free moment makes itself known I promise to take advantage of that moment and finish the memorization. 

LIT TERMS 1-5

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

 
Allusion: a reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize
 
Ambiguity: something uncertain as to interpretation 

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

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

I could not find any AP related multiple choice questions concerning Siddhartha.  After reviewing Siddhartha today in class I felt as if I needed to take into greater consideration the literary elements being used by the author.  I tend to read, like most, only for pleasure enjoying in general the main theme of the passage or novel.  I believe that if I am able to master the ability to simultaneously enjoy the novel while doing some kind of investigation, the AP exam will be a breeze.

SPRING SEMESTER PLAN 1

My goal for this semester is to receive at least 15-20 scholarships/loans that will pay for most of my college experience.  I plan on applying for 1-2 scholarships each week while networking with my fellow peers to get ideas on what scholarships they are applying for.  To be even more specific, I have decided to spend at least 20 minutes a day on scholarships alone so that the process in its entirety does not feel so gruesome.  Finally I feel as though it is necessary to visit the College and Career Center n a weekly basis so that I am constantly on top of upcoming financial aid options.

"What's In This For Me?"

I want to gain confidence in the classroom and in life by evolving into a more accomplished writer and communicator. I hope to fulfill this goal by lots of practice. To put a little twist on the old adage, PERFECT practice make perfect.

Honestly, I do not want to take the simple baby steps that make me a better writer.  I would like to be thrown into a pool of sharks (figuratively of course) and see how I do against the best.  I am very competitive but I also love to learn from the best.  I guess my athletic background has fueled my determination to always "play" against a stronger opponent because that is the only way I feel I am going to get better.