Hey everybody! Good news, you're about to take Mrs. Duke's class. There are a few big points that are absolutley imperative that you know if you are going to be successful in Mrs. Duke's class. If you remember these things, than there is a good chance that you will be able to succeed in her class but if you get lazy and forget than bad things will happen.
Number 1: If you are not going to put a fair amount of effort and time into the doing the work that she gives you than the work is not worth doing. Mrs. Duke doesn't give you meaningless homework to do, so simply completing it without thinking about it or really trying to do it to the best of your ability is pointless. All the homework she gives you has a purpose and isn't effective if you don't put enough effort or time into it. Make sure that you give yourself enough time to do English every night, it really will help.
Number 2: Classroom discussions are just as important as homework. The discussions that we have in class are just as important to your understanding of the information as the homework that we do. So, try your best to be an engaged participant in classroom conversation because if you are, not only will you enjoy class more, you will also be better equipped to answer deeper questions about the topic which is very important in Mrs. Duke's class.
Number 3: When reading books for Mrs. Duke, actually read the books. Her class is nearly impossible to succeed in if you have not read the material she has asked you to read the way she asks you to read it. When we read in Mrs. Duke's class we aren't just reading, we are also looking for things in the book. We are looking for characteristics of that book's time period, themes in the book, important points that are made, and also whatever else Mrs. Duke tells you to look for. These things are very important to your understanding of the book as well as that of the material she teaches you in the class.
Number 4: Last but definitely not least, everything that Mrs. Duke does has a point. She never gives us anything that is not going to be important or that we are going to be able to forget. For example, if Mrs. Duke spends 3 days teaching something and going over it, you can probably figure out that it is important and that you are going to need to know that information. Mrs. Duke doesn't waste time either, she isn't mean and like, "all work all the time." She understands that we need breaks sometimes and she is willing to give them to us, but when it is time to work, don't dilly dally.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
Mini Essay
In both stories, the human condition is addressed, however, they say very different things about it. In Heart of Darkness we area shown how easily humans are able to praise ideas about someone especially whenever you have never met that person. Also, it shows us the human capacity for violence, driven only by employment. What Waiting for Godot tells us about the human condition is that it is simply made to exist. It is random and doesn't make sense most of the time on purpose. It is trying to show that life doesn't really have a meaning other than to live. It shows that people are just here to enjoy it and the human condition is just that, to be alive.
In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad we get a look at people from two angles. We get to see someone come to completley praise someone who they have never met and have only heard things about. It shows us how easily the human mind can be fooled into thinking that something is more than it is. That is exactly what we saw, the evolution of Kurtz from an idea that Marlow had which was the only thing that kept Marlow going as he continued down the river.He turned out to be just a normal, sickly man who was in very good with the natives. Another way that the novel addresses the human condition is how the natives were treated by the workers from the company. Cutting off of hands and other cruel forms of punishment all stemming from the need for the workers to work. It was so important that the ivory be collected and the money be made that it was worth the lives of people. However, the Europeans didn't view it them as people, it was still so.
In Heart of Darkness by Samuel Beckett something kind of extreme is said about the Human Condition. This is a play where nothing happens, it takes place in one place, the same time, and the characters do the same thing throughout the entirety of the play. The play tells us that human life has no meaning, but in real life humans will create distractions and diversions, trying to form patterns and purposes and meanings to get meaning in their life even if and when there is none. The two characters spend the whole play repeating themselves and acting foolish and saying random things all trying to tell us that life really has no meaning and we spend the whole thing trying to find out what it is. It is paradoxical I think.
In the two plays we have two things getting said about the human condition. On one side, we are told that humans are violent creatures who are able to completley praise something they know nothing about except stories. On the other side we are told that life has no meaning, and that people will try to pull a meaning out of it. it tells us that people, more than anything, need something concrete that they can believe in. As long as they know it's true(like the arrival of Godot) than they will cling to it. That is what the two stories tell us about the human condition.
In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad we get a look at people from two angles. We get to see someone come to completley praise someone who they have never met and have only heard things about. It shows us how easily the human mind can be fooled into thinking that something is more than it is. That is exactly what we saw, the evolution of Kurtz from an idea that Marlow had which was the only thing that kept Marlow going as he continued down the river.He turned out to be just a normal, sickly man who was in very good with the natives. Another way that the novel addresses the human condition is how the natives were treated by the workers from the company. Cutting off of hands and other cruel forms of punishment all stemming from the need for the workers to work. It was so important that the ivory be collected and the money be made that it was worth the lives of people. However, the Europeans didn't view it them as people, it was still so.
In Heart of Darkness by Samuel Beckett something kind of extreme is said about the Human Condition. This is a play where nothing happens, it takes place in one place, the same time, and the characters do the same thing throughout the entirety of the play. The play tells us that human life has no meaning, but in real life humans will create distractions and diversions, trying to form patterns and purposes and meanings to get meaning in their life even if and when there is none. The two characters spend the whole play repeating themselves and acting foolish and saying random things all trying to tell us that life really has no meaning and we spend the whole thing trying to find out what it is. It is paradoxical I think.
In the two plays we have two things getting said about the human condition. On one side, we are told that humans are violent creatures who are able to completley praise something they know nothing about except stories. On the other side we are told that life has no meaning, and that people will try to pull a meaning out of it. it tells us that people, more than anything, need something concrete that they can believe in. As long as they know it's true(like the arrival of Godot) than they will cling to it. That is what the two stories tell us about the human condition.
Brain Dump
- Much Ado About Nothing(Shakespeare)
Set in the 1500's, it features a few main characters. Claudio, Hero, Beatrice, Benedick, Leonato, and Don Jon are the main characters in the play. The play is a tragicomedy which is a story that has all the potential to be a tragedy, but instead of ending with death it ends with marriage or something else a little more lighthearted. Some issues that are addressed in the play are Courtly Romance and some class issues. In order for this play to work, the audience has to go along with what the play wants you to believe. If you were seeing it, you would have to assume that, even though the disguise is terrible, the audience has to go along with it. There are a lot of instances in the play where two characters' personalities would be completley similair to and they would attract to each other. (Beatrice-Benedick, Hero-Claudio)
- Comedy
The comedy that we dealt with has to do with Buffoonery, puns, quibbling, stereotypes, role reversal, and the other characteristics of comedy. To be funny, you have to appeal to the intellectual side of someones mind while using these characteristics of comedy, also you have to appear harmless or it will not able to be funny. Also, your joke has to go along with the joke-receiver's current surroundings .
-19th Century British Lit Unit(Dorian Gray, The Time Machine,, Frankenstein)
During the Nineteenth Century in England, we saw the rise of the scientific mind and a great increase in scientific interest and an almost decline in religious interests. The individual was more important during this period. Instead of trying to fabricate a story out of fictional elements, stories were written in a way that readers could relate sort of, but were obviously not historically accurate. In these novels, the character usually separates himself and tries to achieve peace through something. The novels challenge faith and religion and sort of represents them as the protagonist somewhat. Also, nature plays a very important role in the books as a calming agent. What i mean is that whenever someone needs guidance or healing, they seek nature for help.
-Romanticism
A movement that happened in the late 18th early 19th century in England. It was mostly represented in artistic/intellectual ideas. It emphasizes emotion, appreciation of nature, challenging social convention, and also imagination. Some Romantic ideals are isolationism, life and death, emotion over reason, fantasy, individuality, and psychology. There was a lot of industrial growth that causes urbanization. Really it was an industrial revolution and that caused all of these ideas. Also, education was a very hard thing to come by if you were not rich, white, and a boy. Magazines became popular. Also, some famous authors were Lord Byron, Wordsworth, Blake, and Coleridge.
-Victorianism
This period was in reaction to Romanticism and lasted during the Reign of Queen Victoria. Traditional values were more important during this time along with strong gender roles and spiritualism. The middle class rose, and so the class system was affected. The writer's approaches to the morality issues of the time differed, but ultimately that is wear the writing ends up. Darwin's theory of evolution was released during this time and it caused a major conflict centered around the questioning of religion.
- Modernism
Like most movements, it is a reaction to the movement before it; in this case, it is Victorianism. It occurred between WWI and WWII. Really what it is all about is being freed from the chains of everyday life and the tradition and structure of the English society at that time. Yeats was a famous Modernist writer.The use of imagery was very important in modern writing. Some characteristics of Modernism are open form, free verse, discontinuous narrative and others. It was very present in the art of the time.
-Postmodernism
No way, it was a reaction to modernism and also to World War II. There was a lot of separation between high and low culture for the same society. There was also a lot of use of irony, "black humor", intertextuality, and hyper-realism.
- Heart of Darkness
Written by Joseph Conrad, a frame narrative that tells the story of a man who travels through an ivory company into the Congo on a quest for ivory. It shows the way that people viewed each other, or specifically how the Europeans viewed the Congolese natives. It also incorporates an idea of Alienation because one of the main characters, Marlow sort of seems separate in mind from everybody else on the voyage. The story tells how colonialism affected the natives and also how workers were treated by Belgians. Also religion comes up periodically throughout this book as a sort of reasoning for certain actions. Darkness is a big source of symbolism throughout the book as well.
- Waiting for Godot
- Another tragicomedy, written by Samuel Beckett in a language that was not his first language. The play contains only two characters, Vladimir and Estragon. They are two people that are supposed to symbolize how life sucks and they are just talking and ultimately they are waiting for a man named Godot. Godot never shows up and we don't really know what the true identity of Godot really is. This play is able to be interpreted a huge variety of ways because of the way it is written. This play relates to existentialism in that it shows that life doesn't really have a point and we should just suck it up and have fun.
For the exam we need to be able to relate all the texts to their time periods and be able to identify certain characteristics of different time periods and use those to tell how the books relate to their time periods. Also, be able to talk about how each time period came from the one before and led to the next one with historical events and ideals. Also, answer the whole question on the exam. Make sure you hit all the parts of the questions.
Set in the 1500's, it features a few main characters. Claudio, Hero, Beatrice, Benedick, Leonato, and Don Jon are the main characters in the play. The play is a tragicomedy which is a story that has all the potential to be a tragedy, but instead of ending with death it ends with marriage or something else a little more lighthearted. Some issues that are addressed in the play are Courtly Romance and some class issues. In order for this play to work, the audience has to go along with what the play wants you to believe. If you were seeing it, you would have to assume that, even though the disguise is terrible, the audience has to go along with it. There are a lot of instances in the play where two characters' personalities would be completley similair to and they would attract to each other. (Beatrice-Benedick, Hero-Claudio)
- Comedy
The comedy that we dealt with has to do with Buffoonery, puns, quibbling, stereotypes, role reversal, and the other characteristics of comedy. To be funny, you have to appeal to the intellectual side of someones mind while using these characteristics of comedy, also you have to appear harmless or it will not able to be funny. Also, your joke has to go along with the joke-receiver's current surroundings .
-19th Century British Lit Unit(Dorian Gray, The Time Machine,, Frankenstein)
During the Nineteenth Century in England, we saw the rise of the scientific mind and a great increase in scientific interest and an almost decline in religious interests. The individual was more important during this period. Instead of trying to fabricate a story out of fictional elements, stories were written in a way that readers could relate sort of, but were obviously not historically accurate. In these novels, the character usually separates himself and tries to achieve peace through something. The novels challenge faith and religion and sort of represents them as the protagonist somewhat. Also, nature plays a very important role in the books as a calming agent. What i mean is that whenever someone needs guidance or healing, they seek nature for help.
-Romanticism
A movement that happened in the late 18th early 19th century in England. It was mostly represented in artistic/intellectual ideas. It emphasizes emotion, appreciation of nature, challenging social convention, and also imagination. Some Romantic ideals are isolationism, life and death, emotion over reason, fantasy, individuality, and psychology. There was a lot of industrial growth that causes urbanization. Really it was an industrial revolution and that caused all of these ideas. Also, education was a very hard thing to come by if you were not rich, white, and a boy. Magazines became popular. Also, some famous authors were Lord Byron, Wordsworth, Blake, and Coleridge.
-Victorianism
This period was in reaction to Romanticism and lasted during the Reign of Queen Victoria. Traditional values were more important during this time along with strong gender roles and spiritualism. The middle class rose, and so the class system was affected. The writer's approaches to the morality issues of the time differed, but ultimately that is wear the writing ends up. Darwin's theory of evolution was released during this time and it caused a major conflict centered around the questioning of religion.
- Modernism
Like most movements, it is a reaction to the movement before it; in this case, it is Victorianism. It occurred between WWI and WWII. Really what it is all about is being freed from the chains of everyday life and the tradition and structure of the English society at that time. Yeats was a famous Modernist writer.The use of imagery was very important in modern writing. Some characteristics of Modernism are open form, free verse, discontinuous narrative and others. It was very present in the art of the time.
-Postmodernism
No way, it was a reaction to modernism and also to World War II. There was a lot of separation between high and low culture for the same society. There was also a lot of use of irony, "black humor", intertextuality, and hyper-realism.
- Heart of Darkness
Written by Joseph Conrad, a frame narrative that tells the story of a man who travels through an ivory company into the Congo on a quest for ivory. It shows the way that people viewed each other, or specifically how the Europeans viewed the Congolese natives. It also incorporates an idea of Alienation because one of the main characters, Marlow sort of seems separate in mind from everybody else on the voyage. The story tells how colonialism affected the natives and also how workers were treated by Belgians. Also religion comes up periodically throughout this book as a sort of reasoning for certain actions. Darkness is a big source of symbolism throughout the book as well.
- Waiting for Godot
- Another tragicomedy, written by Samuel Beckett in a language that was not his first language. The play contains only two characters, Vladimir and Estragon. They are two people that are supposed to symbolize how life sucks and they are just talking and ultimately they are waiting for a man named Godot. Godot never shows up and we don't really know what the true identity of Godot really is. This play is able to be interpreted a huge variety of ways because of the way it is written. This play relates to existentialism in that it shows that life doesn't really have a point and we should just suck it up and have fun.
For the exam we need to be able to relate all the texts to their time periods and be able to identify certain characteristics of different time periods and use those to tell how the books relate to their time periods. Also, be able to talk about how each time period came from the one before and led to the next one with historical events and ideals. Also, answer the whole question on the exam. Make sure you hit all the parts of the questions.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Modernism Choice REading
For my choice modernism reading, I chose to read the Yeats poems. The first poem that I read was named The Second Coming. At first, I realized that he was talking about the second coming of Jesus. This goes with the huge dependence on religion that goes along with Modernism. He describes the second coming very gallantly. The second poem that I read was A COAT. In the poem he challenges social norms and asks questions that were not really "necessary". This goes along with Modernism because these things are common in it. The third poem, Sailing to Byzantium we see a little bit of the idea of a lost generation kind of thing. He says things like "dying generation" that make me say that. He talks about them having "unageing" intellect. He also, like the first poem brings in an important religious aspect to the poem whenever he talks about god and the "Holy fire". Finally, in the last poem, Among School Children we see more questioning of social norms and that sort of teenage feeling where we ask questions about everything and why they are they way they are. Also, he mentions class and he gives us something to think about when he says, "are you the leaf, the blossom, or the bole?"
These poems, honestly made no sense to me the first time I read them. I actually read them all all the way through one time, then again then again. I didn't repeat each poem individually because I find that reading the others helps to understand it. It is very hard to lock onto what the author is writing about in these poems because of all the weird language that he uses. These poems did seem a lot more light hearted than Heart of Darkness was. I like HOD more however, these poems were very hard for me.
These poems, honestly made no sense to me the first time I read them. I actually read them all all the way through one time, then again then again. I didn't repeat each poem individually because I find that reading the others helps to understand it. It is very hard to lock onto what the author is writing about in these poems because of all the weird language that he uses. These poems did seem a lot more light hearted than Heart of Darkness was. I like HOD more however, these poems were very hard for me.
Free Post 4:6
I think this may be may last free post this year, and because of this I think it is right that it relate to the ending of the year. I am ecstatic that this year is almost over with. I have been busier this year than I ever have before. This year I have been constantly bombarded with homework, books, projects, and other academic challenges in amounts I was not used to. However, I have made it to the other side! Now the only things that I have left in my way of the summer are the AP government assignments I have to finish and the remainder of the work that is left for my English class. I am so excited to be done with it all I actually think that I have the energy that I need to make it through this last week!
On a weirder note, I do not think that we are ready to take on the role of the senior class quite yet. I know for a fact that I am not ready to be a senior and have people look up to me as a figure of maturity and responsibility just yet. However, the idea sure is exciting. I have almost kind of been waiting for this for two years. After my Freshman Year was over and school was starting and I was a beginning sophomore, I realized how great the seniors had it and I could not wait to become like them. Now that it is here though, I feel differently about it. I am not so much anxious so much as I am convinced that it is about time. I feel like I have been waiting forever for my turn but now it is here and I cannot wait!
On a weirder note, I do not think that we are ready to take on the role of the senior class quite yet. I know for a fact that I am not ready to be a senior and have people look up to me as a figure of maturity and responsibility just yet. However, the idea sure is exciting. I have almost kind of been waiting for this for two years. After my Freshman Year was over and school was starting and I was a beginning sophomore, I realized how great the seniors had it and I could not wait to become like them. Now that it is here though, I feel differently about it. I am not so much anxious so much as I am convinced that it is about time. I feel like I have been waiting forever for my turn but now it is here and I cannot wait!
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Free Post 3:1
My Christmas Break was actually pretty boring, I got to be with my friends a lot, but nothing really exciting happened, aside from Christmas and New Years which were great. I got to play a ton of golf every day, and then do whatever i wanted at night with no school obligations which was terrific. I didn't really do anything super exciting but i did what i wanted to for two weeks and that was a pretty great feeling. But come last Monday i was ready to get back to the routine, well i was ready to start a routine. I guess i have never really had a routine that i did every day, i would always wake up at different times and really i would do whatever i felt like after school, which was sometimes homework, sometimes golf, and sometimes go to LSU for
E-STAAR. This is most of the reason why i waited so long to do all of my homework last year, but it is gong to be better this semester.
This semester i am forcing myself to be boring, I've established a schedule for myself throughout the week. On Mondays, I'm going to go to LSU and work on E-STAAR stuff so that i am not behind. When i get home, i just do all of my homework and get it over with, it has served me pretty well over the last week so i am looking forward to it.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Free Post 4:5
Well, the seniors are about to leave; it's sad, i don't want to see my friends go but i am also excited because that means that we are all about to be seniors. I have a lot of friends in the grade above us and i am going to be really sad to see them go off into college. I am also not looking forward to my grade becoming seniors. I'm excited about me individually but all together, i just don't know how good of seniors that we will be. Anyway, I am looking forward to graduation, i get to see my friends walk down the chapel isles and graduate from a place that produced so many memories and where we have basically lived in for however many years. And then i get to be there to congratulate them afterwards, it is going to be fun.
I am so looking forward to becoming a senior, it is going to be so fun knowing that i get to indulge in all of the privileges that come along with the title. We get to dress nicely any day we want which is probably what i am most excited about because i just love to get dressed up for no reason. I like to look nice. Also, i am excited about the extended freedoms that we get as seniors, but i really hope that people in our grade do not try to abuse them because that will result in the loss of the privileges and that would suck.
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