Practice Identifying Meaning (Synthesis Post)

            Now is the time to show the practice we have done in analyzing literature this year.

The American Dream – In his play Albee makes his meaning apparent, the new American dream is just a shell, a shiny exterior that is only empty inside, unlike the old American dream which was sturdy and dependable.  Albee shows this by including details of the Young Man’s character, he cannot love, feel, or empathize with anyone.  The Young Man is the new American dream coming to replace Grandma, the old American dream, who is described as “from pioneer stock” and is compared to nature.  Albee makes the point that society is choosing a new American dream, but it is much worse than the old one.

Death of a Salesman – Miller writes his play to make his point that the American dream is unobtainable and destructive.  Throughout his play Miller writes of the conflicts among the Loman family as Willy tries to obtain the American dream.  The American dream is so destructive that in Willy’s pursuit of it he tears his family apart, he wants to be well-liked and he fakes his popularity and achievements, when Biff realizes this it tears him away from his father.  Willy also spends most of his time remembering times in his past, dwelling on important decisions; this takes away from his desire to live in the present and creates problems in his life.  Willy can never obtain the American dream, but that is all he can imagine for himself, in his pursuit of the American dream he tears his family apart.

Ceremony – Silko’s novel shows an interesting meaning of how connected to the world we are, and how the land can be healing.  Tayo’s journey and relationship with Ts’eh are the focus of the novel and through them the land where the Laguna live is healed.  Tayo brings healing to the community by having a relationship with Ts’eh (the land), he gains Ts’eh’s love and she returns it, in human form and as nature bringing back the rain after the drought.

Plain Style Revison of Open Prompt December 2

1975 Also. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator's voice to guide the audience's responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience's responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters' responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.

               The job of an author differs depending on the medium they use.  Plays might be more difficult since they do not often have a narrator; in order to guide the audience in the direction the author intends they must use other means instead of an overhead monologue.  In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, Miller uses the conflicting relationships and unstable mind of his main character, Willy, to guide the responses of the audience, making them wonder what has caused such a dysfunctional family.

                 The conflicting relationships in Death of a Salesman are best seen in Willy and Biff’s relationship.  Biff, Willy’s son, has been wandering around the country trying to find himself, when he returns home the conflicts between himself and Willy flare up again, drawing the audience’s attention.  The relationship was once a positive one, when Biff looked up to Willy,  and Willy was always proud of Biff; but this relationship changed it was soured when Biff went to Boston to ask for Willy’s help in a problem and Biff catches Willy cheating. At this point Biff realizes that Willy has been a fake, all along Willy has been faking many of his achievements and his popularity too.  Biff can never see Willy in the same light again, and this confrontation helps the audience understand why Miller has been showing all the disagreements between the two in the present.  Miller used this confrontational relationship between Biff and Willy to catch the audience’s attention and then keep it until he explained what had actually happened between the two.

                The mental instability of the main character Willy also catches and guides the responses of the audience, the audience must wonder what has happened to this man that he has gone crazy.  Willy has frequent flashbacks and he talks to himself, he has flashbacks to important moments in his life, choices he could have made differently, things he thinks would have given him a different life.  One of these flashbacks includes a discussion with Willy’s older brother Ben, Ben offers him the opportunity to go to Alaska to make a life, but Willy declines it.  This is one of those decisions that continue to haunt Willy, one that makes the audience wonder what else has happened to him.

                All the confrontational relationships and the unstable mind of the main character make the audience follow the central characters and they guide the audience’s responses by making them wonder what has happened to cause such dysfunction in one family.

Plain Style Revision of Open Prompt October 28

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

            “Remember; remember the Fifth of November the Gunpowder Treason and plot.  I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.”  When people watch V for Vendetta and some can even quote that line, they are watching a dystopian story play out in London, the author wants the audience to know something is wrong and needs to change or else the world could end up like this.  Another author who successfully writes a dystopian novel is George Orwell; in 1984 this is very apparent.  Orwell warns that if we do not stop this habit of war and the societal structures we set up to keep such wars going the world will end up in a state much like this dystopia, the world Orwell sets up through imagery and details gives the reader a clear idea of what Orwell is saying will come to exist.

            The world Orwell created in 1984 showed readers a terrifying glimpse of a possible future for the real world.  When the book was written the world was full of tension from the Cold War, this sterile environment that 1984 showed was a real threat.  The government could take over and become like Big Brother with telescreens, always watching you and controlling your actions.  This warns against the actions the governments were leaning towards at that time.  The imagery is clear in the descriptions: the elevator is broken and always has been, there aren’t any colors in the city, it is an unpleasant world to live in.  Orwell tells us, this is our future, let’s change it, and change it fast, let’s end this war to stop our government’s chances at pulling a change like this on us.

            The societal structures that George Orwell creates are disturbing to the readers.  The fact that there are two separate levels with the proles, the lower class, and the upper classes does not sit well with most people.  The details that show the main character’s attempts to escape that system for the entire book bring the reader’s attention to how horrible it is. 

            Orwell creates a novel that shows the future for his world, one full of unhappy lives where the government watches everyone, and the country is perpetually at war.  The country is split into two separate social classes and the world is displeasing.  1984 challenges the reader so that when the year 1984 came and passed people could rejoice and say things like “Ha look at that George, the world’s not as bad as you said it would be.”  But we must be careful to not let down our guard because if we get lazy we will be in an even more vulnerable position to let our governments become the atrocities seen in Orwell’s book.  Hopefully the novel 1984 will continue to stand as a warning to all future generations, be on your guard, it may seem extreme but only a few steps away is Big Brother and a telescreen in your home.

Plain Style Revision of Open Prompt September 30

1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of recognized literary merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to the more realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot summary.

            There has always been the age old battle over whether humans can control their actions or not, it is present in literature as well as religion.  Shakespeare often uses the theme fate versus free will in his plays.  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth he uses an encounter with the three witches at the beginning of the play to introduce a theme of the play, whether Macbeth has free will to choose to fulfill the prophesy or to stop, or if Macbeth is fated to do so and has no choice.

            Shakespeare uses the opening scene of Macbeth to introduce the witches for his play, and then after meeting Macbeth and foretelling to him that he will be king, they are not seen again in the play.  This encounter with the witches then affects the rest of the play, it creates the conflicts that later occur, the murders Macbeth commits to fulfill this prophesy, like King Duncan, and the others he has carried out for him.  All these things stem from that first encounter with the witches, before this Macbeth had been honorable and good man, the diction used to describe him when he meets the King shows Macbeth was the glorious warrior.  But following the encounter Macbeth begins to plan and plot the downfall of King Duncan, becoming a traitor himself, he descends into his own mind and becomes obsessed.  He cannot fail in his plan to become King.  Macbeth even has his friends killed to reach this position, and their children.

            The reason for all this bloodshed is called into question, is Macbeth responsible for all of this, does he have a choice to kill his friends, the King, and all who stand in his way? When Macbeth met the witches and they told him what he would become, did that mean that Macbeth had to fulfill this prophesy or did he still have free will to choose whether or not to kill his friends and those he was loyal to? Since we live in this day and age when free will is so widely accepted, I think that Macbeth did have a choice in his bloody path to kingship and he could have stopped in his plot and avoided the death he brought on himself.  In the time Shakespeare wrote the play in, however, there was not as much free will and so there could have been more stress on the fate side of this conflict.

            Shakespeare uses the encounter with the witches in the beginning of Macbeth to influence the rest of the play, Macbeth takes his prophesy to heart and struggles to fulfill it, killing friends and acquaintances left and right. The encounter with the witches causes all this bloodshed and creates a theme for the play, does Macbeth have free will or is he fated and he has no choice to fulfill this prophesy and kill those in his way as he does so? Shakespeare, such a master of his craft, used two scenes to affect and create a whole play.

Plain Style Revision of Open Prompt September 16

1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

            There are simpler ways of time manipulation than traveling back in time like what happens in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, such as rearranging the order of events to disrupt the chronological order; Vergil chose this technique for The Aenied.  He begins the story in the middle of a storm on the open seas while Aeneas is on his journey from Troy to Italy.  The manipulation of time in The Aeneid is used to create a more epic poem, Vergil begins in the middle of things and then arranges to have Aeneas tell his story later to bring the readers back to the present, in doing so he grabs the reader’s attention in the beginning but still tells the complete story.  Vergil’s use of time manipulation creates a more complete and epic poem that draws the readers in and creates an atmosphere distinctive of an epic.

                Vergil uses the manipulation of time to create a more epic poem; he adjusts the beginning time to be in the middle of the action of the story, where Aeneas is struggling to survive, a characteristic of an epic poem.  He uses imagery to describe the action and suddenness of the scene by saying “the waves reach the sky and the troughs allowed the boats to touch the sand on the bottom,” to describe the storm whipping up the seas that Vergil uses for the beginning of his story. The time manipulation also brings diction with it, since Vergil is trying to create an epic poem, he uses the time manipulation to create the in medias res which is a characteristic of the epic, but he also uses epic language, the level of formality of the diction is higher than the common speech of that time.  When Aeneas arrives in Carthage he recounts his tale and describes the events leading up to his arrival with the language used to tell an epic story, one full of hardships and war, death and near escapes.  This elevated language and diction helps to create an atmosphere, a feel that readers associate with epic poems and stories.

                Using time manipulation is a handy tool for authors, it helps to create an atmosphere that readers are pulled into, and it creates an epic.  Vergil uses time manipulation in The Aeneid and this poem is indeed an epic, not only an imitation of older epics like The Odyssey or The Iliad.

The Way We See Stories (Synthesis Post)

            There are many different ways we see stories, this is the basis of literary criticism.  We are learning how to see a work from many different points of view, which helps us create a better picture of what the author may mean from the work.  Some of the many types of criticism are:

• New Criticism – the structure and form of the piece: Is it a poem or prose?  Are there similes? Are there other techniques the author uses to shape the form and do they affect the meaning of the piece?
• Psychoanalytical – the psychological state of the author, the characters, and the audience: Why did the author write this piece this way?  Are the characters in a certain psychological state for a reason?  What is the psychological state of the audience and how will the work influence them?
• New Historicist – the historical context of the piece: How does the work fit into that society and historical time period?
• Marxist – the power structure of the society: How are the people divided into classes?  What are the power struggles and relations in the work?
• Feminist – the way the work relates to women: How does the work portray women?  Is there a statement being made about women? How are women treated?
• Post Colonial – the role imperialism has played in the work: Is there a conquering group in the piece? How are minorities treated in the work?
• Archetypal/Mythological – the archetype the work fits: Is the work a tragedy? What about a comedy? Or a romance or irony?

These are some of the types of criticism, but there are even more that cover other ways to look at literature too.

The Way Stories Work (Synthesis Post)

            Another important concept we have learned in class, is how stories work, the archetypes of stories.  Thanks to Northrup Frye we have some clearly defined concepts of the different types of stories you can have.  The four main types of stories are:

·         Tragedies – a hero who falls

·         Comedies – a hero who rises

·         Romances – a hero who falls and rises again

·         Ironies – a low person who rises to a point and then falls back to his original state or lower

These are the basic archetypes of plots according to Frye, but not all critics agree with these definitions.  Comedy and tragedy have many different definitions, and there are many different types of comedy and tragedy too.  The different types of comedy include: farce, burlesque, travesty, lampoon, parody, and satire.  The definitions of tragedy have changed too, from Aristotle’s definition of “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude” that is written to accomplish katharsis to Miller’s definition of a common man who refuses to give up his dignity or place in society even though it is hopeless.  The definitions might not be the same, but there are reoccurring ways plots behave that are the archetypes of literature.

Don't Just Read, Close Read (Synthesis Post)

For part one of the synthesis of the material we have learned in class this year, let’s start with the important task of close reading, which we have spent so much time on.

How to start your close reading: look for the techniques the author used with our “handy dandy” pneumonic DIDLS. This awesome tool for looking at literature means:

Diction – the words, where are they on the continuum? Are they slang or epic or somewhere in between?  How are the words used?  Do they show a dialect or regionalism?  How about the connotations of the words?

Imagery – the images the words create, how vivid are they?  What senses do they appeal to?  Do they make the reader feel the exact same way as the character?

Details – the specifics the author includes, do they have a deeper meaning?  Did the author choose them for a reason?

Language – how does the author use language?  Are there: similes, metaphors, personification, analogies, hyperboles, irony, etc.?  Why does the author use these?

Syntax – how did the author construct the sentences? Are they short and choppy? Or are they long and flowing?  How about a mix of these?  What does the syntax emphasize?

Thanks to DIDLS we now have a good understanding of what the author was trying to do to create effects.  These effects are things like mood, setting, and tone.  How are these used by the author?  What sort of feel does the author create for the piece?

All of these techniques and effects that we identify in a piece all go towards the overall question we have been trying to ask ourselves, what does the author mean?  What is the meaning of the piece?  After we have identified all the techniques the author used (with DIDLS) and the effects we should have a better idea of what meaning the author gave to the piece.