Open Prompt - #4

1970 Also. Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.

     Many literary works use objects to represent greater meaning than what the objects actually are. For instance, the conch in The Lord of the Flies represents freedom of speech and order. In Edward Albee's play The American Dream, Grandma and her boxes symbolizes the values of the old American dream. Through language and stage settings Albee creates a mood of curiosity from the audience that leads the audience to understand the greater meaning of the boxes.

     Cluttering the stage, Grandma's boxes number among its more enigmatic objects. The play is empty of interesting objects and can only be followed by the characters' dialogue until Grandma comes in with the boxes. From then on, for much of the play, Albee toys with the audience's curiosity to discover what the boxes contain and what purpose they will serve. Although Albee has Mommy and Daddy continually complimenting the boxes' pretty wrappings, it is important that they do not consider its contents. Also when Grandma almost reveals the boxes' purpose and what they contain, Mommy silences her. Mommy and Daddy inadvertently shuts Grandma out of their presense and ends up never knowing the contents. Ultimately the audience learns that in reality, the boxes contain the haphazard list of objects that Grandma has accumulated over the course of her life. In a play where an outwardly perfect Young Man becomes the son who provides satisfaction, the boxes represent Mommy and Daddy's satisfaction with surfaces and their negligence of the old values by the American dream.

     The boxes also serve as a diversion when the household attempts to ascertain the purpose of Mrs. Barker's visit. They perhaps then also allegorize the composition of the play, which largely consists of apparent and perpetually surprising diversions that keep the audience from the heart of the matter. Just as every event in the story seems out of place and unimportant, the boxes function in the same way. The boxes are spatially referred throughout the entire play to provide distractions from the audience and perhaps remind them of their curiosity of why those boxes are even there. Because after the initial wave of curiosity has past, it is easy to forget about the boxes. Therefore Albee keeps referencing them through the characters dialogue to hint at their importance such as when after Mrs. Barker comes into play nobody knows why she is here, Mommy suddenly diverts the audience's attention to the boxes by suggesting that Mrs. Barker is here because of them. It is later shown that indeed Mrs. Barker has some relation between the boxes because of her association of the American dream. Therefore Albee's use of language in The American Dream hints subtly at the greater meaning and importance of the boxes.

Revised Open Prompt #3

1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work.

The character of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, shows the classic war between passion and responsibility. The major theme shown in  Frankenstein is responsibility for one's actions. Mary Shelley uses an intrguing conflict to illustrate Victor Frankenstein's emotional conflicts and to show him in the light of a tragic hero.

Victor Frankenstein's life story is at the heart of Frankenstein. He changes over the course of the novel from an innocent youth, fascinated by the prospects of science, into a disillusioned, guilty man determined to destroy the fruits of his arrogant scientific endeavor. While he is creating the monster, he never stops and thinks about the ramifications he may be bringing upon society. Only when his creation spins out of his control does he realize the huge responsibilities he must give the creature and backs off. This leads to the monster believing that Victor is neglecting him and destroys everything Victor loves. Though torn by remorse, shame, and guilt, Victor refuses to admit to anyone the horror of what he has created, as he wishes to take responsibility to destroy his creation. However, he also refuses that openly acknowledge that he is responsibly for the people the monster kills. The fact that the monster killed people whom Victor knew scars him emotionally until his death.

At the end of the novel, having chased his creation up north, Victor relates his sotry to Robert Walton, the captain who helped Victor, and then dies. Shelley gives multiple perspectives in order to give the reader with contrasting interpretations of Victor: A classical mad scietist, transgressing all boundaries without concern for the larger society, or a brave adventurer, who is not to be held responsible for the consequences for his actions. In either case, Shelley uses the emotional conflict of Victor about the monster he created, on his passion and responsibilities, to show Victor Frankenstein as a tragic hero.

Revised Open Prompt #2

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

 

No matter how hard we try, the past is unchangable. The past shapes who we are in the present. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Biff is forced to deal with his past experiences with his father, Willy. His struggle with some aspects of his past shows how empty society can turn people, and how they are futile in the pursuit of success.

Throughout the play, Biff often refers to Willy's affair. When Biff walks into the hotel room and sees his father cheating on his mother, his loses his faith in his father and is forever haunted by the experience. His struggle with once sympathetic his feelings for his father shows how in the end, your personality and how well liked you are do not matter. It shows that in our modern world, success is not brought depending on a person's personality, potential, or even contacts. To Biff, Willy was a well respected, well liked father, until he caught him cheating on Linda. As soon as Biff saw how Will wasn't really the great man he thought he was, he becomes hostile towards him. He begins to see the fallacy and futility in impressionability and realizes that talk is cheap, and that success can only be brought by hard work and the initiative to take action. This is the main reason why Biff is the only character in the play who is able to recognize this problem with Willy's personality.

Another aspect of Biff's past that seems to affect his present life is the fact that Willy was always exaggerating him up to be something the he was not. His father's false pride and overly extravagant confidence leads to Biff always feeling superior or entitled to high praise by others. When he was young, he tries to get by on his charm and strong presence, not by relying on hard work. Biff's inability to be successful throughout the play shows how personality and charm are worthless in the all business-like empty world that he lives in, where only results matter. His friend Bernard exemplifies this contrast between hard work and relying on relationships. Bernard ends up being highly successful as a lawyor capable of arguing in front of the Supreme Court, while Biff hardly makes a living doing hard labor out west. 

Plays often seek to capture the attitudes and traditions of their time and convey them to audiences. They also illustrate errors and flaws a society might have by exaggerating them in the play. Miller does just that in Death of a Salesman by frequently using past events in the plot to illustrate the idea that our society is changing from warm and like-able, to cold and business-like.

Revised Open Prompt #1

2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.

     One ring that has power over others. One ring to rule all. These words make people think about the Lord of the Rings series immediately. The theme of power is clearly outlined by J. R. R. Tolkien portrays this power struggle through the one Ring that can rule and manipulate others. Tolkien uses motifs and symbols regarding the ring in his self-created world of Middle Earth to show the struggle of Frodo to free not only himself, but the entire Middle Earth from Sauron's domination.
     Motifs are recurring literary devices that help develop the important themes of a novel. An important motif for The Lord of the Rings is the temptation for the One Ring. The temptation of the ring is the motivating force behind every action in The Lord of the Rings. Sauron seeks it constantly to restore his domination. Gollum attacks Frodo several times to try to take it from him. Even pure-hearted Sam ponders the possesion of the ring. No one is immune to its temptation, and Frodo is no exception. Frodo constantly fights his desire for it within. When he finally arrives at Mount Doom, even he cannot resist its temptation at it's fullest. At no other moment in the series is Frodo more tempted by the ring’s power than ever before. Frodo gives up the ring only because Gollum appears and fights him for it, a fight that leads to its ultimate destruction. 
     The One Ring, also an important symbol, gains multiple meanings as Frodo’s journey proceeds. Created by Sauron, it is at first synonymous with its maker’s evil power. Those who encounter the ring are overcome with longing for power over others, and the ring could give more power to Sauron. For all, the ring suggests the dangerous tempatation for evil that is present in any being in Middle-earth. It also suggests slavery and weakness, since whoever gives in to the temptation of the ring becomes a slave to it. Gollum is an example of what happens physically when one succumbs to the ring. The fact that weakness affects every race of Middle-earth shows the extent of the ring’s power.
     Lastly, the details Tolkien puts into the series creates a sense of reality in the power struggle for the ring. Tolkien goes into a awful lot of details on the One Ring's history so as to give the readers a sense of reality in the story. Frodo wouldn't have had to go on the epic journey if the ring was not presented to himself. Thus, the ring is center of plot and it enhances the meaning of The Lord of the Rings through the power struggle for the ring.

Synthesis of Course Material 4

Maybe this might be the last one. O well depends how I feel at the end, in the meantime, once again, enjoy!

Alright, we've covered a lot of ground but now we need to speed up here a little. So let's just dive into the material shall we?
- ok.........

Tell me about Ceremony.
- It was confusing.

And........
- *sigh* I guess I might as well get this over with.

Why you ungrateful simpleton! I'm the one who has to help you study when I could be playing golf outside.
- it's snowing........

Goto, Goto! Come on let's do this.
- Why are you talking in Shakespearean language in the first place?

Why not? It's AP lit and use to it by now you should be eh?
- ................................now you turn into Yoda.............................

Alright fine, I'll stop. And the term for that was actually a.........
- Chiasmus.

Good. Now continue.
- Ok, Ceremony sorta synthesized, hey, there's a coincidence, we're synthesizing too, the old traditions of the Native American culture with present day culture. It shows the old belief that time is circular and it emphasizes the importance of storytelling to preserve a sense of identity. There's really nothing more to it than some dude named Tayo finding himself through a ceremony he conducts himself. He just receives help from many charcters along the way such as Betonie and Ts'eh.

Ok good, this is such a controversial book with many different opinions, I won't even bother asking yours.
- Thanks for ignoring me then..........

What about Pride and Prejudice?
- Well, Jane Austen sucks at writing proposal scenes, I can tell you that. Probably because she has never accepted one. The piece is a satire of society in Jane Austen's time but is still quite serious. Mrs. Bennet just annoyed me so much at times but who can say that a mother's worries aren't the most important in the world?

Quite right......
- The two main couples were interestingly similar but yet so different. Jane and Bingley are both beautiful, cheerful, optimistic, yet they are weak-willed because their friends and family members can influence them so easily. On the otherhand Darcy and Lizzy are both stubborn, with strong opinions which leads to strong wills. The book basically shows how important marriage was for girls at that time.

True again. You really want to get this over with don't you?
- Truthfully................................. yeah.

Ok, I'll just ask you only last thing to do. Tell me about Hamlet.
- Tell you about Hamlet! Well I could go rambling on for hours with that play. Well, not really but I could see that Shakespeare just loves to put parallelism in situations and speeches and again, the idea that God is controlling our fate comes up, not our freewill. The play starts out with the rather bizarre appearance of the Ghost and Marcellus's line, "something is rotten in the state of Denmark" foreshadows the play to be a tragedy. Hamlet rambles on about the purpose of life, his favorite subject to talk about, boy he could talk to a insect and make it believe him. But look sharp! He is very good with his word choice with a lot of double meanings and masks. Hamlet loses faith in women and female sexuality when Ophelia dumps him and his mother marries his uncle. And he goes crazy, which is understandable because he gets dumped by a girl he loves, a feeling I know very well I might add, btw do you know what it feels like to be dumped?

No............
- Well you need a social life then. Anyway my questions is how crazy is he? We've seen a couple versions of Hamlet played as a movie and all had different interpretations. It's interesting how much Shakespeare just leaves stuff for different interpretations. Also many of his questions are never truly answered which supports that he doesn't really know what he is talking about but then again, he might just be trying to fool Polonius, who he kills by the way, and.........

Ok, I'll stop you right there before you go rambling on.
- But....... but........

You're starting to act like Hamlet himself.
- am I?

Yes, well you did enough for today. Hopefully we learn more so we can do well on the AP exam right?
- O definitely, we still have much to learn.

I say, since when were you so....... studious?
- I always was, I just pulled a Hamlet around you.

say.......... WHAT?
- I'm actually the best student not only in our class but in all the AP lit classes.

No........... way......... this......... is........ possible...........
- Well it is so suck it up. Well my friend, I have enjoyed our study sessions. I hope you learned as much as I did which now I think about it, I already knew everything. But anyhow it was fun. I hope we can do this before the AP exam again and until then, I will say.............................




















































 Adieu, Good Night my friend, sweet dreams.

Synthesis of Course Material 3

I won't even bother introducing my two "excellent students" here. Just sit back and enjoy.

Now I let you off last time on the terms. I hope you will study those before the AP exam because you will fail if you don't study them.
- Thanks..........

I won't badger you anymore on the matter. Quickly tell me about DoS?
- dos?????

DEATH OF A SALESMAN!
- Oh, I thought you were talking about the disk operating system. Thought you were having trouble with your computer or something....... well, the main character Willy Loman, loves to idealize the past rather than to live realistically, he loves his boys but fails to recognize their present situation...... and oh, he wants to be liked, to be remembered just like the salesman in his story.

That's a good start. Tell me more.
- He has a falling out with Biff because Biff finds him to be "phony" cheating on his wife and it's important to note that through his experience, he is the only one who changes in the play. Biff's somewhat foil is Bernard who achieves success, well who is virtually the opposite of what Biff is, successful, not very well liked but hardworking. Willy doesn't realize the new key to success and idealizes quick and somewhat "phony" version of success. He longs for adventure which is probably why he rambles on about the jungle.

Nice, don't forget, Arthur Miller is critiquing society here so we can reasonably infer that this is what America was like in his time.
- Quite right.

Now tell me, what are the eras of literature we studied?
- Classical Antiquities and the Middle Ages, The Renaissance, Romanticism, the Victorian Era, Naturalism, and Modernism. Did I get all of them?

Almost you only forgot Realism and Postmodernism. What can you tell me about each era?
- O dear I think I'm talking too much this feels weird........

Get use to it.
- Ok, ok, fine. For classical antiquities we have the Odyssey, eh, scratch that. I'll just say Ancient Greeks and Romans. Here we have poetry that is sung which is a oral tradition, mostly uses elevated language, and a lot of tragedies features a tragic hero with a fatal flaw.

What's that fatal flaw called and who coined that term?
- Hamartia coined by Aristotle, BOOMTOWN! haha

haha ok, continue.
- For medieval stuff just think about Beowulf or Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. It's translated from Old English and mostly uses elevated language that is very annoyingly detailed. For the Renaissance..... well that dude, Shakespeare, nuff said really. Writers here wanted to return essentially to classical antiquities. For romanticism and Victorian, authors start to look at gender roles, class, money, the industrial age yea basically all the problems perceived in their society and they finally start to write the way people actually talk not in all this elevated language I really don't like...... Realists and Naturalists examine the relationship between man and nature most notably Wordsworth and lastly, Modern/Post-Modernism tests the old conventional limits of literature such as chronological order or the absurdity of literature. And the playwrights love to critique the society around them. Hey now I think about it, Albee and Miller are both Modern/Post-Modernist people.

Lol, good for you to just notice that. Well I think we'll stop here. You did a better job this time but you can always make it better.
- You sound like my wrestling coach.......

Synthesis of Course Material 2

How should I open this interview up? eh, idk, here just read it.

Ok, I hope you studied a lot for this one are you ready?
- ready for what?

Uh, APLIT review???
- wait I thought we were on APGOV.......

Stop acting stupid, now what did you think about the American Dream?
- fine, well it was really an absurd play by Edward Albee, I really don't know what he was thinking when he thought of this play but in general it was interesting how Albee could present that changes in the American Dream throughout the generations through Grandma's attitude.

Why are the characters all unnamed?
- Idk, to represent the entire society probably, now I realize this we don't have names either so maybe we also represent the entire APLIT class?

Interesting thought but not everyone in APLIT is as absent-minded as you are......
- hey that was mean......

What else did you think about the play?
- The most interesting thing is the character of the Young Man. Unlike his outside appearance, he is completely hollow, incomplete and woefully damage. Also the entire play was very sarcastic and I just loved the last part where Grandma breaks the fourth wall and watches the "perfect family" destroy itself with the audience.

I can certainly see that you've studied.
- See? I told you ha

Well then tell me how to do multiple choice questions.
- O god, let me think for a moment........ uh....... um....... first....... you read the question.

Really? I didn't know that. Tell me more.
- uh...... you try to...... think...... about a...... about a........ Oh! that's it. You try to think about a right answer before looking at the answer choices. Then you look for that answer choice.

Nice job, well not really. ah ah ah let me finish before your outrage explodes on me. You also read the passage thinking about DIDLS and circle the main ideas. And don't forget to manage your time.......... Now ready for the terms test? You need to know these.
- ..................................................................

Synthesis of Course Material 1

Eh, about time I get started on this........ here's the first one....... thought maybe a QA session might make it more interesting.

So let us begin, what did we learn so far?
-did you really just ask that question?

ok, ok jk, I'll start with DIDLS. What does it stand for?
-diction, imagery, details, language, syntax!

What do they stand for?
-well diction is basically word choice, imagery is the details and language used to create imagery, details are just..... well details on the literature, language is the tone, style, voice, etc you name it, and syntax is just the way the piece of literature is structured!

Wow I'm you remember all that, now onto something different but relevant. What do you have to do when you're reading?
-You just read duh. ok ok seriously though when you're reading to a quick read for your own understanding, then on the second read, just read more closely to make your own idea about what the piece is about. And as a bonus, if you have the time, discuss your thoughts with classmates.

Tell me how to write an essay.
-O god, ok, first analyze what on earth the prompt is asking. Divide it up into sections and formulate a thesis that ANSWERS THE QUESTION. Seriously, you don't know how hard that is....... Try to funnel your intro into your thesis and always remember PLAIN STYLE!

Excellent, well I think that's all for today you better review for the next session.
-Oh no.........