Response to _To Kill A Mockingbird_

       For the next film, we have been watching To Kill A Mockingbird and it has really struck a chord with me. I found the fact that the main characters that initially drew the audience's attention to the story were children to be highly purposeful. The author truly set the stage for the audience to recognize growth or a change in the little girl nicknamed "Scout" from the beginning to the end of the film. This dynamic character perceived as an innocent tomboy child believing scary superstitions about their neighbor nicknamed "Boo Radley" in the beginning, clearly developed into a more mature, adult like state by the end as she accepted Boo as a person like herself rather than a fictitious monster. This transition reminds me of the children Holden imagines falling off the cliff that leads to adulthood in The Catcher In The Rye where innocence is lost, but more knowledge is gained. There still is the unanswerable question about whether or not this knowledge learned/experienced is for the better of the individual or not, but maybe it is inevitable that there will come a time when innocence is lost in an individual's life. One of my favorites scenes in this film was when Atticus was making his closing statements during the trial where Tom Robinson had been accused of raping a white woman. During his last remarks, he made it a point to declare that he himself recognizes that the court/justice system is not completely effective and it too has it's flaws. After reading that article that Ms. Bavaro had given is in class, it makes me question government and the justice systems we have in place. Everything that we as individuals perceive as natural in this day and age is only naturally because some people made it that way. The fact that I acknowledged that "some people made it that way" means that any invisible rules in place were created in a biased fashion. This makes me infer that the justice system can never truly be effective because it really was the "educated and rich" white men who created the laws in the first place. These "laws" everyone takes into account are only as good as the people who wrote them. I'm not even sure how we could go about "fixing it". Are films like this just replicating the ideal that these laws are "right and just" when we watch poor Tom Robinson be convicted of guilt after a perfectly winning argument made for him by Atticus? I don't know about you, but I was a bit pissed off at that. 

Response to _Precious_

       For our next film adaptation of a work of literature, we watched Precious. This was the first time that I've ever watched of or heard of this film and boy was it terrifying to watch!! The horrific topics it addresses from domestic violence to sexual abuse and people in poverty were so hard to watch I almost had to look away during some scenes. I believe that my profound reactions to the movie were just exactly what they intended on the audience having in order to get people to listen. I believe the movie's main goal was to force people to recognize the horrors in our society that they would normally choose to ignore in reality. The only reprieve from fear and disgust was located in the repetition of Precious' fantasy moments where she displayed an alternate happy version of herself with her ideal man. The significance of this repetition is for the audience to compare and contrast the dreams that Precious has with the reality she truly faces. At the end of the film, yes Precious receivers custody of her children and can read at an eighth grade level and it seems like a happy ending with her mother kicked to the curb, but in truth, Precious' fantasy life will probably never be in her grasp. The movie demonstrates that one can get through major conflicts and suffering in one's life if he or she perseveres through it, but this does not mean one's life automatically becomes perfect. I think it also forces people to be greatful and thankful for the lives they lead when they see horrible circumstances that cannot compare to their own trivial life problems. This movie was scary thought provoking! 

Reponse to _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ Movie

       After watching the last half of the movie because I was absent when the first half was played last Friday, I can say that this movie was an extremely odd, but in a good way. I caught on to the fact that that King Arthur was obviously on a quest for the "Holy Grail" and every direction they turned, there was yet another silly highly exagerrated obstacle in their way. For instance, at one point in their path to the castle stood a bunny. One would think the bunny would be absolutely harmless and easy to get through, but it turned out to be a rabid and violent murderer of a bunny killing several of the men as they approached it. I found there was a lot of irony and jokes like this throughout what I watched that obviously culminated together into one hell of a parody of King Arthur and life during that time period. I also found the Bridge of Death scene to be pretty hilarious even though I anticapated that travelling across the bridge would not be as easy as Sir Lancelot made it seem. I noticed they used the technique of repetetion in order to make the scene even funnier, utilizing the same first two question and switching up the third. The only thing I did not expect that literally made me laugh out loud was when the bridge-keeper was unable to answer a complicated question in return and was removed and thrown to death. It's always funny when you realize as an audience member that the characters you think are safe from harm are not really safe at all. I noticed that basically all the main characters die in the end, which was extremely abrupt that I didn't even realize it was the end at first. I think it was clever and sneaky of the movie makers to produce an ending so bizarre as this. Overall, I can understand why this movie was such a hit with a lot of people, but I don't think I could sit through it again.

Blog #12: Poem #8: Poetry Response to _When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer_ by Walt Whitman

       I felt that this poem, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman, provided a very relatable topic that is revelant to today's society. I felt that the author was trying to convey the importance of learning through experince rather than learning by just being taught in a lecture like setting. It was interesting because the poem was in first person point of view and I could feel the speaker's growing angst and annoyance at the during the lecture being given to him. For the first four lines, the speaker used repetetion and begin each line with the word "When" and then going on to state how the astronomer was explaing what he knew through the use of graphs, formulas, and etc in a classroom setting. It felt as though the speaker rolled his eyes everytime he said "When" because immediately following those lines, the speaker literally got sick and tired, annoyed with the praise and "much applause"this astronomer receieved when the speaker learned absolutely nothing from this astronomer's teaching methods. Once the speaker got sick and left the room to go into the "mystical moist night-air, it seemed that the alliteraton used conveyed that being outside in the night-air had a more profound impact on the speaker than the lecture given to him previously inside. It is ironic that at the end of the poem, the speaker is looking up at the stars peacefully because he had felt highly distraught when an astronmer, who knows everything about stars, proved to be an epically horrible teacher about the stars to others. Instead of listening to the confusing equations and formulas the "Learn'd Astronomer" discussed, the speaker "learn'd" more astronomy by literally looking up at the stars and observing them. He was able to experince them first hand rather than being told confusing information in a setting away from them. This all proves that everyone learns at a different pace in different ways and that it is easier to learn about a concept when you try to discover its wonders yourself rather than being told all the answers and not understanding how you got them in the first place.

Blog #11: Poem #7: Response to _The World Is Too Much With Us_ by William Wordsworth

         After reading the poem, The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth, I'm finding myself reflecting on the awfulness of humanity's increasing materialistic values and decreasing environmental values. I think the author did an effective job manipulating his first person speaker to voice his concerns and outrage at the growing blatant ignorance that humanity has for the value of nature. When reading the details in the second line about "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers," I automatically knew that the speaker was referring to this rise in consumerism where humanity has begun to dwell only on buying and taking physical items in which they place a lot of value in. By stating that "We lay waste our powers" the author is emphasizing that humanity is capable of compassion and respect for the Nature that provides all the resources we use in order to live, but chooses to ignore the fact that humanity is not offering a fair trade. Instead of caring about the environment that sustains us, humanity is deconstructing Nature through drilling, deforestation, polluting, taking advantage of natural resources and etc, destroying the beauty of nature and disrespecting the power it gives us. Wordsworth even personifies the wind stating that the wind was "howling at all hours" in order to convey complaint and fury that Nature has for humanity. It makes a statement that demonstrates that the relationship between humans and Nature should be a balanced give and take relationship, but is currently not. Overall, I found this poem to be extremely realistic to today's society and find it ironic that when I looked up when this poem was written, I found it was written in 1802 which was a really long time ago. It just goes to show how the past is more relevant than we think it is.

Blog #10: Poem #6: Response to _On Being Brought To America_ by Phillis Wheatley

       The next poem I decided to read was On Being Brought To America by Phillis Wheatley. I had chosen it partly because it was one of the shorter poems to read, but as I discussed previously, the shorter poems are more difficult to decipher sometimes. Originally after reading the title, I predicted obviously that it was going to discuss about people who journeyed to America, but after reading I honed in on the word "Brought" within the title. After analyzing this poem, I think the word "Brought" is used to distinguish the fact that Americans are trying to take control and "fix" the people in this world who specifically in this poem's case, are not Christian. It was interesting to break down shifts in dialect between the beginning, middle, and end of the poem. It seemed that in the beginning, the same dialect was used that may represent a "lower class" was of speaking using words such  as "'Twas" and "refin'd". While interpreting this poem, I came to an understanding that afraid or "Pagan" people to be more specific, immigrated to America whereupon the Americans try to teach and enforce in them Christian values like the fact "That there's a God". I could tell the voice of the speaker was starting to appreciate these teachings less and less and became more weary and creeped out by these ideals especially emphasized in the alliteration, "Their colour is a diabolic die". In this line, the speaker is referring to the "scornful eye" that criticizes the Pagan culture. By deeming the eye that represents the Americans, the become painted as evil and ill-willed towards the Pagans because they are trying to bend them to their Christian wills. Although in some aspects in the poem, the speaker learns their values and even shifts to a "higher class" dialect of English using words spelled so properly like "colour" and "redemption", the speaker ultimately takes control of his or her own personal cultural identification. It is ironic when the speaker shifted back to their original dialect that he or she said "refin'd" instead of refined due to the fact that to be refined, is to be extremely proper and by misspelling the word, the speaker has purposefully sent a message that his or her culture will not be ignored or deleted just because he or she moved to America. America advertises that we are a "salad bowl' of cultures, but do we really hold true to that fact? Hmmm....

'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

Blog #9: Poem #5 of Poetry Response to _This Is Just To Say_ by William Carlos Williams

       For this next poetry response, I decided to read This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams which has proven to be an even bigger challenge than some of the other poems I've tried to decipher due to the fact it is a very short poem to begin with. It's form consists of three extremely short stanzas which made me read this poem quickly and suggested the speaker's agenda was to be concise and directly to the point. After reading the title first, I noticed how odd it was that the words "Is" and "To" were capitalized in the title because normally they are not, but here, Williams purposefully  did this. I think he emphasized these words to connect it to the overall voice of the speaker of the poem. By marking "Is" and "To" at the same level of importance in the title, Williams is making an even more declarative statement to emphasize whatever it is that just has to be said.  This relates to the poem because the speaker declares he knowlingly ate plums that he knew were not his and that he was sorry, but then stated in a matter of fact way that it was worth it anyway. While analyzing the form of this poem, I noticed how the first and last stanza have lines that alternate between three words and two words long each, but in the second stanza there is a break in that pattern where one line consists of only one word. This one worded line may demonstrate the importance of the word "saving" to the overall theme of the poem. The speaker who lets us know his thoughts and feelings through first person perspective, emphasizes this word "saving" and having the readers pause while reading to recognize either the value or lack of value in saving something for later, whether it be food or any other item. The third stanza it almost seems for a second that the speaker feels some remorse for his actions when he says "Forgive me", but immediately after goes on to give his own logical thought process for why he ate the plums emphasizing his point through the repetition of the word "so" when he says the plums were delicious because they were "so sweet and so cold". These sensory details help the speaker try to convey to the readers that he was justified in taking the plum from the other person who was saving the plum for later. I'm almost not sure whether the author is manipulating the speaker to feel arrogant and proud about stealing the plums or is the speaker supposed to sound sorry about his actions. When I picture the speaker, I picture some macho guy who deep down feels bad abut what he did and this poem is him secretly relieving himself of any guilt he may feel about stealing what he knew was not his. Overall, maybe the bigger picture of this poem was to convince people to enjoy the savor the moments was has in the present rather than saving pleasurable moments for the future when the future is never so clear as it may seem. The speaker was enjoying the plums, savioring the present, while the other person who was actually saving the plums for the future, missed out on them and will have to suffer because he waited too long to eat them.

Response to _Rite of Passage_ by Sharon Olds

       I found this poem to shed light on some shockingly gruesome truths that society wishes to ignore, but are there regardless. When first reading the title Rite of Passage, I thought about how this poem would most likely be a coming of age type theme, but after reading and analyzing the poem using a TP-CASTT I believe it demonstrates the absence for the ability to "come of age". Instead, the author's main objective was to make the audience recognize how society denies children a "Rite of Passage" because they expect the level one is at after a "Rite of Passage" to be the level they are at when just children. Plus, the author demonstrates how this "Rite of Passage" that society designed specifically for males is a corrupt and immoral ideal to set as a standard. While reading the poem, it is noticed that the boys at a birthday party are referred to only as men and are constantly being compared at the same level as males who are adults, thus stating that the children are adults and the word child does not or should not exist. For example, in the text it says, "They clear their throats a lot, a room of small bankers," while referring to two six and seven year old "men" who are sizing each other up for a fight by "jostling, jockeying for place". The alliteration in the "jostling" and "jockeying" emphasize the immature and violent nature of these males and yet they are compared to bankers who are perceived as civilized men. Because it is perceived that bankers are civilized men and they are being compared to the immaturity of a six and seven year old fighting, it can be inferred that banker men are no different than six and seven year old men. Therefore, there is this concept created questioning the existence of a "Rite of Passage". This standard that society holds for all men at any age seems to be extremely corrupt because at the end of the poem, the speaker's son solves the conflict between the six and seven year old by suggesting that each could "easily kill a two-year-old" and immediately after there is a shift in the attitude of all men in the poem. The tension seems to have released as "They relax and get down to playing war". This statement in itself is extremely ironic, which I'm sure was intentional, due to the fact it displays how men are calmed by war which is a terribly violent matter that greatly increases tension yet it reduces the tension in men. My mind is blown.

Response to _To My Dear and Loving Husband_ by Anne Bradstreet

       Immediately upon reading the title of this poem and initially reading the poem once through, I at first got the feeling this was a really sappy romantic poem that is only meant for a loving and devoted wife to serenade her husband. Upon completing a TP-CASTT organizer, I started feeling slightly different about one possible overall meaning to this poem. I got the sense that although she is completely passionate about her love of her husband, I think it's more about the power she feels as a result of loving him or supposedly loving him so greatly. I think this speaker feels more proud of herself for self proclaiming her love to be much better and greater than that of the love that any other woman could have for her man especially when the speaker said, "Compare with me, ye women, if you can." It's almost as if she is daring other women to make a statement disclaiming that so she can have more of a reason to continue writing this letter to her husband. Although the title clearly suggests that this poem is a letter from the speaker to her husband, I get the sensation that the speaker wants to show off, wants to have other women read that letter in order to gain some sort of power of them. Maybe during the time and setting that this poem is set in, women were more inferior to men so the only way to get power was to obtain it over other women. Throughout the entirety of the poem, the speaker tries to convince the audience reading whole-heartedly that she thinks that the value of her love of her husband is far greater than the physical value of money, but I think the author created this speaker in order to show the audience how love is a powerful emotion that can be used and abused for all the wrong reasons. Overall, I think it is demonstrated that women are motivated to love their husbands passionately in order to gain power over other women while living in a "man's world".

Response to _Pass/Fail_ by Linda Pastan

       The most shocking thing about reading this poem was that I actually enjoyed reading it. This is due to the fact that the language was not in old English style and was phrased in dialect I could understand and also I could really connect with the subject matter of the poem. Immediately after reading the title, Pass/Fail, I felt like I, as a person, am only receiving two options in life: either to succeed or fail with no gray areas in between. After reading this first person perspective poem, I felt the attitude of the speaker was to assertively convey that failure will forever haunt you whether or not you are successful at times in your life. I felt convinced by this speaker that the imperfection of humanity is our fatal flaw, but I felt that the author manipulated the speakers feelings to demonstrate her differing opinion on the matter of life tests and life choices. I think that by displaying a pessimistic perspective about continually failing or continually being in fear of failing reflects an example of exactly the opposite of what the author wants the reader to feel after reading and reflecting about this poem. I think the author wants the reader to become more optimistic in life and realize that you can't be afraid of failure throughout your entire life or else you are not truly living and that failure is essential to our own development and growth as we age. The author suggests instead to reject the idea that there is only Pass/Fail options and suggests that the reader create and pave their own lives for themselves instead of thinking critically about the future and more about living in the present and without fear of epic failures. By reading this poem, I've learned that epic failures although can be dissatisfying can only help me, not hurt me.

Response to _We Real Cool_ by Gwendolyn Brooks

       When I first read We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks, immediately it's short and abrupt ending caught my interest. After reading and analyzing the poem, I believe a possible theme for it could be that people who try to raise their social status through indecent means will inevitably suffer. I feel this way because while first paraphrasing what the poem was about I came to the conclusion it was about teenage kids who become popular due to making bad choices like leaving school and lurking around after hours to drink and do other sinful things at a Jazz club type setting and  who eventually "die soon". The title of this poem demonstrates how the the narrator speaking in first person is stating that he/she and the group all believe themselves to be above everyone else and "real cool". It seems that throughout the entire poem the narrator speaks in the same nonchalantly confident voice and there is not really a hugh shift in voice. The only difference between the last stanza and the two previous stanzas is that the second line of the stanza does not contain alliteration. This may note a slight shift in the narrator's voice of one who is done making light of serious  with the use of alliteration with events like "sing[ing] sin". Instead, it was stated that "We die soon." This exibits that finally after making all these bad life choices like drinking and sinning in order to be "real cool" only ended up making their suffering deaths more imminent. Therefore, this poem conveyed how trying to be more popular socially by committing immoral actions eventually makes them suffer later on to death.

Reflection on _In the Waiting Room_

       I chose to read In the Waiting Room by Elizabeth Bishop off of the website with all the poems on it. As I first went through reading the poem, I though about how easy it was to read and understand at first because it was a relatable feeling to be sitting in a waiting room for someone at a doctor's office and sit there and pick up a magazine to read. What I did not expect was for there to be such violent articles and images that this child speaker was going to be exposed to. It was just shocking to read because I'm used to dumb entertainment magazines in a waiting room rather than really informative ones. While reading, I was fist confused because I thought that because the magazine was described as yellow that it was old until I read further and realized it was extremely recent. I was confused as to why Elizabeth, the speaker, was starting to question her identity and compare herself to everyone around her. Then, I realized at the end that there was a War going on and I guessed she was getting scared. Upon reading this poem a second time and completing a TPCASTT, I was able to analyze this poem more in depth and realized certain significant things like the fact that the word "black" had been used in repetition three times each time describing events that incited fear into the speaker and the reader which helped convey why the speaker was so scared about the War going on. I think the significance of the fact she was in a waiting room and reading about the horrors of the war and world at the same time is to demonstrate how just because one person is ignorant of what is going on in the world, it does not mean that the war stops and you become frozen in time.  It's hard to deal with disasters, especially when humans are the one causing it, and just as you cannot stop a natural disaster like a volcano, you cannot stop the harshness of humanity altogether. One must face the reality of war regardless of reluctance to do so and endure the pain of waiting for it to end which will usually not come so quickly.

Reflection on _Othello_ Passage

       When first reading through the passage from Othello, I read it relatively quickly and took a bunch of notes in the margins about the first impression I was getting from this supposedly heroic guy noting the high level language and figurative language that was easy to see like alliteration and repetition. I also underlined what I thought to be important words or phrases I knew were probably important, but that I didn't quite understand. Upon reading this passage a second time and meticulously filling out the TPCASTT, my understanding of the passage slightly deepened as I paraphrased and broke down the passage based on the different categories of literary devices in the connotation section of the reading. I was able to identify devices and also think about the importance of why it was there. For example, I recognized that the word "witchcraft" was a significant word choice and I interpreted that the author used it in order to convey how Othello may very well have fabricated all the dangerous events he supposedly recalled in order to receive Desdemona's pity (which is a word that was repeatedly several times in the passage) and manipulate her into loving him. Plus, an alliteration like how Desdemona "Devour[ed] up [his] discourse" helps to reinforce Othello's control over Desdemona's feelings for him because he created stories that made him sound like the stereotypical dreamy, heroic man every girl swoons over.

       Answering the questions for this passage was a mix between difficult and not as difficult, but still hard (if that makes any sense). Questions regarding the overall passage or paraphrasing little lines that had to do with just straight interpretation of what's on the page were relatively easier questions to answer. I had trouble with questions that asked me to choose an answer that could best replace or mean a specific word chosen in a line of a passage. I also had trouble with a question that made me compare two lines to each other and one that asked about the overall tone of the passage. The tone question I could have been difficult because it was hard to choose between two answers and also because some of the language and words used in the question and answers I were unfamiliar with.

My Close Reading Experience

       I believe that the close reading of this passage has definitely allowed me to grasp at some kind of "formula" for understanding literature, poems in particular, better in light of the AP test coming up. I think it helped me because it created this sort of road map for me to use while reading rather than reading through the whole poem and not being able to understand the poem by identifying literary devices. I found the paraphrasing to be quite difficult and maybe this is because of the syntax of the poem itself and the way poems generally say so much in so few words that often it will go over my head. I liked getting to answer one question after each line because it made me more aware of literary devices that could be analyzed further down the line if I were to have to quickly write an analysis essay about it. Although I enjoyed being able to have a process to work from when approaching poetry, I still find it quite challenging and will have to practice it to be able to understand each poem to the best of my abilities.

Analyzing Literature Reaction

       After learning about how to analyze literature, there are several notes I took that stood out to me. One important point that was emphasized was the fact there is a difference between the narrator and the author.  The narrator does not always reflect the view of the author. This is a hard concept for me to grasp and so now I will definitely try to keep this fact in mind while reading and analyzing the tone of a story. Something I actually didn't realize which I believe to be important is the fact that symbols do not "mean" things, rather they "suggest or remind or reflect". This reinforces the fact that there are many correct interpretations of a single symbol and they are there simply to emphasize the theme of the work. It's also essential to remember not to go way in over my head and not assume that everything has some symbolic implications. Lastly, it is important to remember the difference between mood and tone, which is something I am guilty of often forgetting. Mood is associated with the readers feelings while reading the text while tone is the author's attitude toward the text which are most commonly two different feelings.

       I still feel like I need to learn how to approach the text and know how to analyze it. Even while reading this packet and seeing an example, it is hard for me to picture myself reading this passage and quickly coming to the conclusions and interpretations of literary devices these examples explored. I realize that this is a difficult skill to acquire so maybe I just need more practice to get it. Also, I would like to expand my literary device knowledge, but at the same time I do not want to half learn a million new devices and not be able to use them properly on the test.

       One skill I feel I could teach others would probably be how to analyze characters and find "round", "flat", or characters that are foils to main characters. I feel this way only because I think analyzing character is a very logical process when you use the text as a guide.