Indiana Cornbread Food Memoir

"The Rainbow" Essay and Analysis

In a world of much simplicity, where the men pride themselves on coming from the land and working the land, one woman is trapped on the inside looking out at the future that she could have herself if she were allowed to educate herself.  In The Rainbow, author D. H. Lawrence employs a metaphor characterizing the farm in which the men work as hell, a contrast between the life of education and the life without it, and a personification of the vicar in order to portray the woman as a woman who passionately yearns for an education.

                The passage opens on a peculiar phrase: “It was enough for the men.”  It was enough for them to live on a farm where they modestly grow their own food, and take pride in living off the land.  The woman, though, sees this from a different perspective.  She sees the men in a bloody struggle against nature.  She sees the men as creatures who naturally have “pain and death … in their blood.”  They beg for mercy from this perpetual cycle that they are “unable to turn around from.”  So instead of glorifying the work like the men might, through the depiction of farming as a battle against nature it is only natural for her to want an education so that she can “face outward” from this hell and move on towards the promising village.

                Once this farming is established as a hellish, unglorified struggle, she contrasts it to the life that she could have had if she was like “the vicar” that spoke “the other, magic language” of “knowledge.”  The knowledge that she could obtain if she was to be educated, personified as the vicar, is idolized by this woman.  “She craved to know” of the vicar’s movement through “worlds beyond where her own menfolk existed.”  This personification of her life after education, even though she was much smaller and weaker than her husband, promised a power over him in the form of knowledge.  This idolization of the personified knowledge shows the life that she believes that she could attain if she “faced outward” and defied the men’s wishes and got an education.

                When life on the working-class farm, characterized by Lawrence as a hellish, miserable place, is directly contrasted with the idealized vicar, who represents the woman’s life after an education it is clear that the woman passionately desires an education, even if it is against the men’s wishes.

Part II:

Initially my peer, Reilly Carr, scored my essay at an 8.  He said that my essay did offer a persuasive analysis of the prompt, just as the essay states.  In addition he wrote that it was well organized, and used apt and specific text references.  Though it does have characteristics of high ranging essays, one worry that Reilly had was with the voice.  He told me that in order to score a nine, one must use quite sophisticated language.  I agree wholeheartedly with his statements.  Though highly sophisticated language may only be explicitly stated as a deciding factor between 8 and 9 essays, it is always important to use the jargon of literary analysis in order to effectively communicate the points that you are trying to make to your reader.

Certainly as mentioned above, using highly sophisticated language can be very important as it comes to clearly communicating ideas, but it does no good if you do not have any noteworthy ideas to start with.  While I feel that I did well in outlining the principle literary devices use to characterize the woman in The Rainbow, after researching the author, D.H. Lawrence, reading the “Prose Passage” section in the 5 Steps to a 5 book, reading the 1-9 norming essays set as examples by College Board, and participating in class discussion, I have come up with quite a few ideas to include and areas to improve upon.  Though all of this took much more than the estimated 40 minutes given by College Board on the AP exam, some of the elements that I discovered can be applied even without the research beforehand.

Part I

The 5 Steps to a 5 is great help when looking to improve on the prose passage essay.  It gives great models that provide as close to a perfect formula for writing as possible.  Unfortunately though, this is English, not Calculus.  A perfect formula for writing about the devices on one passage may not hold true for a multitude of other passages that may be thrown at you on an exam.  Instead you must adapt to the passage and prompt, and write an essay that is specifically tailored to that.  While I believe that I did a good job structuring my essay into two parts, mirroring the structure that Lawrence uses when characterizing two groups (men and women), I still feel that my structure is very rigid, and limits what I may have to say.  In future essays I would like to transcend beyond the 4 or 5 paragraph structure limited to one thesis, a few points and then a conclusion.  Instead, I would like to be able to elaborate deeply on a subject, or literary device in a paragraph, and then be able to bring it back into a bigger meaning without waiting for the conclusion to wrap it all up.

As said before, effective communication is useless if you do not have ideas worthy of communication.  In my essay I feel that I quite effectively answered the prompt by showing how a multitude of literary devices contributed to the characterization of the men and woman in the passage.  Even still there is a strong element that is quite central to characterization but is somewhat absent from my essay: a discussion of tone.  Just as beefing up on the tone words is critical before taking the multiple choice portion of the AP English Literature Exam, it is also quite integral to the process of writing a prose passage essay.  The tone in which a character is introduced speaks volumes on the emotions and desires of the characters themselves.  The fact that the one isolated woman is introduced with a tone of longing, and the men introduces with a sense of complacency, is quite important, and though I danced around these ideas, it is always good to explicitly state that it is a specific tone that contributes to characterization in order to earn a higher score on the prose passage essay.

First Trimester Final Reflection

One of my strange simple pleasures in High School is turning a textbook back in after I have finished a class.  Whenever I am about to turn one in, I always feel like I have gained so much knowledge from it, and while I am glad to have successfully finished the class, I sometimes want to keep the book just for future reference if I ever wanted to look back on it one day.  Though only the first half of my AP English Literature class has come to a close and we are keeping our books for next trimester, a simple reflection is easy with the virtually all of my works from the whole trimester right here on this blog.

My favorite assignment, the American Drama project, is also the assignment that stressed me the most, but also yielded the most pristine project.  For it was a great and quite professional short story with Hollywood style graphics, great editing, and great acting.  We all channeled our inner little boy fantasies as we played ruthless gangsters, and had plenty of shoot-out scenes.  All the fun was not without some worries.  With a big film project with so many characters, having everyone present to work together was something that was integral to our success, but also something that we struggled with.  For many people had conflicts and could not work over the weekend, and directly after school proved problematic as well.  When we were finally able together, we were very rushed and all stressed.  We all learned that when participating in large groups, it is important for everyone to clear a time to work.  Perhaps in the future, we will choose to work more efficiently in a small group setting.

A second lesson that I learned came from my creative project for the Life of Pi.  I designed an image of what appeared to be abstract art at first.  This custom image though, had specially formulated colors to allow the observer to see a hidden image of a tiger.  This tied into the book theme as when the observer looked through the “rose-colored glasses” (a common metaphor for looking with favorable bias) they saw a tiger, just as Pi saw himself as a tiger instead of a ruthless killer.  This project took considerable thought, and a great amount of effort to complete.  When presenting this though, I feel that this was not conveyed to the best of my ability.  I learned that while working on a project is very important, the presentation requires serious work as well.  For even with a stellar project, a poor presentation will not earn you a good grade.

While many of the pieces that we have worked on thus far such as Hamlet, Ode to the West Wind, or The Life of Pi, are memorable and poignant pieces, I believe that what I will glean the most from this class is an improved work ethic.  With the beginning of the trimester we were directly split into groups to work with.  Together we analyzed poetry, looked at different methods of literary criticism, studied predominant time periods of literature, and I thrived.  For every powerpoint presentation that we designed, I was usually the chief architect.  I generally wrote an interpretation of each piece for my group members, wrote a thesis, and set out strong topic sentences for each one of my other group members to ingvestigate, and then wrote a conclusion as well.  One particular project, I remember, was due on Monday and it was 9:00pm on Sunday night and I was still the only group member that had done any work at all.  It is evident to me, and to my group that I had put forth a strong effort through each of our group assignments.

That night that I was the only one that did work for the whole weekend, I did not panic.  I left the other slides which others had agreed to work on for them overnight, and two out of three group members did them.  I remember vividly that the next day we were all quite angry at the fourth member of our group, for he hadn’t done any work at all.  Although he let the rest of the group down, for me, he proved the strength of the group project.  It is this dependency on one another that really is a great model for work ethic.  I did my work on the powerpoint each night not for my own grade, but because I felt that I owed it to the rest of my group.  This is perhaps one of the most powerful lessons that I have learned in High School, and I am sure that it would be put to good use as I will someday be motivated to provide for my own family.

After all these abstract, but valuable lessons that I learned, the most tangible proof of improvement in the class is the comparison of the diagnostic exam with the final exam.  I had two great, and quantifiable goals that I set out to achieve at the beginning of the trimester: to score just as high on the lengthy prose passages as the poetry passages on the multiple choice, and never to miss a question based on vocabulary.  And after some hard work, I am proud to announce that I met both of these goals.

The first goal, to score as high on the prose as the poetry on multiple choice was quite difficult to achieve.  After I took a second, shorter diagnostic exam at home mid-trimester I was able to pinpoint my problem when it came to the prose section: lack of focus.  When I read the lengthy passage, I would sometimes lose myself in the settings or the situations described.  I found myself wondering what I would do in the described circumstance or any other number of tangents that I could lose myself with.  While this may be good for an in depth, analytic reading, it is not the most ideal approach for a timed AP exam.  With a renewed focus on staying true to the task at hand, I was able to get a much higher score on the prose section.

My second goal, to never miss a question based on a lack of vocabulary was also achieved.  After I was handed a sheet with “tone” words on it, I was amazed at the number of words that I did not know.  I highlight each of them, and looked up their definition once I got home.  This helped immensely on the exam as I specifically recognized two words that I would not have known had I not looked up their definitions.  Although I am unable to turn in my textbooks yet, after achieving all of my goals and learning valuable lessons, I would say that I made great progress in my first half of my AP Emglish Literature and Composition class.

Hamlet Essay

"A Wrecking Ball Funeral" Blog Post #5

Poor Ophelia!  No one quite understands her.  She sings of a man who has “donned his clothes” (4.5.35) and of a maid who’s virginity “never departed more” (4.5.38)   Everyone in the castle in this time period is aghast at the permiscuity, namely the queen who asks her uneasily “what imports this song” (4.5.23) that she sings?

Oh where have we seen this before?  A young innocent girl, suddenly sings about taboo subjects for the attention that she craves.  I’ll give you a hint, she used to be a Disney star, and is now in controversy after a shocking VMA performance.  Of course, it’s Miley Cyrus!

So not only does the artist’s life have shocking parallels to Ophelia, but one of her most recent hit songs “Wrecking Ball”  expounds upon this character.  In “Wrecking ball” Miley describes a relationship (it is unknown if it is autobiographical) where she has given everything into a relationship.  Not only does Ophelia have one relationship that is like this, but she has two: Her love for Hamlet and her love for her father.  Arguably she could even have a third, which is her love for her brother, but we can stick to two loves for now.  This is not simple love though, it is an obsession.  Whenever she says to her father “you are keen my lord, you are keen.” (3.2.12)  or “you are as good as a chorus, my lord”(3.2.30) she means it with all her heart.  She takes this wisdom as if it were from a biblical scene.  But as much as she takes her father’s words nearly ass sacred as the word of God, arguably she loves Hamlet even more.  She fawns over his “power of beauty” (3.2.90)  Or how he speaks with “words of so sweet breath composed” (3.2.98)

But “Wrecking Ball” is not a story of the joys of love – after all, it opens with a close up of a teary-eyed Miley.  So just as Miley was hurt in the end by “falling under [the] spell” of another man, Ophelia was hurt twice over.  After she “did repel his letters and denied [Hamlet’s] access” (2.2.20) to her in order to follow her father’s orders, in her mind, she drove Hamlet mad.  So in her mind she caused Hamlet to be “Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;” (2.2.4)  How can a woman live with herself thinking that she caused a man to appear with “no hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd?” (2.2.6)  So on top of all this, her father’s death pushed her over the edge, and drove her completely insane.  Though she is not shaking her behind at the VMA awards, she suffers “wrecking ball syndrome” and this is why it would be appropriate for that song to be played at her funeral.

Lyrics

Wrecking Ball: Miley Cyrus

We clawed, we chained our hearts in vain
We jumped never asking why
We kissed, I fell under your spell.
A love no one could deny

Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can't live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

I put you high up in the sky
And now, you're not coming down
It slowly turned, you let me burn
And now, we're ashes on the ground

Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can't live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crashing in a blazing fall
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
And instead of using force
I guess I should've let you win
I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
I guess I should've let you win

Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crashing in a blazing fall
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

Hamlet Blog Post #4

How darest he criticize my father!  How can a begrieving daughter react to her father dying?  He was my guiding light in a black room as he spoke to me with “words of so sweet breath compos'd” (3.1.12) Yes he had his suspicions about my dear love Hamlet, but can thou blame him?  How dare Peter Seng declare that my departed father hath “catechize [me] in an accusation of guilt.” (Seng)   For he was simply advising me against that madness that he saw in Hamlet, which turned to be the very same madness that hath killed him!  For Hamlet hath murdered him in the end “dead and gone”! (4.5.20)  How can I ever trust again?  For I trusted my father with my everything, “with almost all the holy vows of heaven.” (1.3.30)  For he maligns my father by saying that “no one is to be trusted or taken at face value.”  And he was murdered by the man that I loved and trusted more than anything, or so I thought!  For indeed the song that I sing is correct and "By cock, they are to blame" (4.5.59-60).  O woe is me, I should have listened to my father.    For this “groundless slander” that Seng writes about is the very advice that I should have followed.  For now my father lay dead “Larded all with sweet flowers;” (4.5.120) Larded with me beside him.

Hamlet Blog Post #3

In perhaps the most famous soliloquy ever written, Hamlet questions the meaning of life itself.  So many horrendous things have happened in his life that he wonders if life is worth living.  He wonders aloud if the tragedies of life often outweigh the daily joys that life brings, what is the point living? Thus the eternal question uttered by Hamlet has reverberated throughout humanity for hundreds of years “To be, or not to be.”

Since Hamlet is so depressed one should not be surprised to find the harsh metaphor that pervades the speech: life is war.  To him, surviving the tragedies of life can be compared to surviving “slings and arrows.”  After all, surviving a war could be completely random -- you never know if you’re going to be shot by an arrow just as you never know when life will deal you an insurmountable blow.

This image of life being a war is central in his contemplation of life.  He softens the tone of death by saying, “To die, to sleep – no more.”  So far it seems simple, life is brutal war and death is blissful sleep – but there’s a catch.  Hamlet tells us that “To sleep, perchance to dream”  or “with sleeping comes the unknown dream”  Will the person be sent to heaven or hell?  He admits that this complication “Must give us pause” to the seemingly simple conclusion stated before.  He concedes that most people would rather “bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.”

Kenneth Branagh: In Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation, the soliloquy speech is stripped down to its basic elements.  With no other sounds except for Hamlet’s speech, and a level camera angle, the focus is entirely on Hamlet.  In fact, the entirely diegetic sounds serve to highlight how alone he really is.  While non-diegetic sounds can often be seen as a guiding force or even a force of god, this absence shows a serious agnosticism.  The mirror, and large empty room further accentuate the fact that with all the espionage in the castle, the only person that he can trust is himself. 

Laurence Oliver:   Clearly the most important difference between Oliver’s interpretation and Shakespeare’s script setting.  The scene, set atop a tall tower overlooking a seaside cliff, heightens the sense of danger.  With Hamlet’s unkempt costume, he appears very frantic and we think that he may be distressed enough to jump.  In addition the voice-over non-diegetic sound the audience hears what we think are Hamlet’s thoughts.  This, in combination with the precarious setting, adds a strong sense of suspense to the scene.

Mel Gibson:  In Mel Gibson’s interpretation, the setting, again, is manipulated.  Now Hamlet enters a dark, poorly lit tomb.  In the tomb, we only hear the diegetic soliloquy and its echo in the tomb, again symbolizing the lack of a higher guiding force.  In addition, as Hamlet descends the stairs into the tomb, he descends into death.  With his dark clothes, and excessively depressed tone, the audience can really tell that he is close to suicide.  His indecision, though, is shown with dramatic pauses, and close up camera angles.

Ethan Hawke:  In this strange contemporary adaptation of the scene, Hamlet is placed in a video store.  The ragged dress shows mental instability and the voice over corroborates this sense.  Though the setting makes this Shakespeare work seem out of place with a bit of comic relief, the scene is actually quite distressing.  The fact that this man cannot do what may be an everyday task for the rest of us without contemplating the meaning of life and possibly having suicidal thoughts shows deep underlying issues.

O my dear’st Hamlet, if only I knew how you felt.  Your slow saunter down the stairs into the floor of deat, O how it haunts me.  For I knew that thou has gone mad in recent times, but how dark arest thine clothes and how dark are thine words!  For it is now that I have finally seen thee in thy pits of despair contemplating taking thine own life that I can see in your true sorrows!  Pity be it that thou hasn’t told me for I could have provided home for thy lost soul.

Personally, though I believe that Mel Gibson’s interpretation of the “To be or not to be” scene is the most impactful, there is great potential in the Ethan Hawke version.  There are a few things that I would have added to make the message more poignant.  Firstly, the fact that someone cannot pick a movie in a store is not a good sign, and if the person who plays the modern Hamlet was characterized further we could see what troubles have completely taken the life out of the man who does not even have the trust or will to pick out a movie by himself.  Perhaps this could be alluded to by movie titles that he picks up and then discards, signifying the discarding of meaningful life experiences.

Hamlet Post #2: Do you still wait for me, dream giver – just around the river bend?

In the movie, Pocahontas, Disney retells the true story of some of the first encounters between European settlers and American Indians.  While a white man, John Smith, and a native woman, Pocahontas, fall in love the relations between their respective groups start to sour.  The two groups send spies to watch on the couple, but the spies run into one another, resulting in a lethal encounter that nearly sparks a war between the tribe and the settlers.

O woe is me, for I am the copper-skinned girl!  A lovers true love broken by the mistrust of families.  For he hath even “made many tenders of his affection to me (1.2.100) Everything was so merry just a fortnight ago.  I loved my love because I knew my love loved me, but now it is all for nil!  For the dearest Hamlet has become completely mad, so “far gone, far gone.” (2.2.185)  For the light of heaven he was “pale as a shirt; his knees knocking each other.” (2.1.80) And who has forburdened this upon our bond?  O of course it is the Lord Polonius and the Lord King!  For they have poisoned our blood with mistrust.  They hath sent the men in hopes of espionage just as the settlers and savages did upon each other in the colony of Virginia.  The hath hired men “to gather so much from occasion [they] may glean, whether aught to [them] unknown, afflicts him thus.”  Save the murder and war between the two – for now.  But the true casualty is the tragic death of the love between me and dearest Hamlet.  I have to wonder if, like Pocahontas, “all my dreaming is at an end.”  For as the good lord told me “I did repel his letters and denied his access to me.” (2.1.105)  As yonder copper skinned girl did, I fell in love with a man who my father betold me was a “prince out of thy star” and they hath been trying to divide us ever since.(2.2.132)  O woe is me.  I shall never love again. 

Hamlet Blog Post #1

O woe is me.  O dearest friends, I cannot decide what I am to do.  Won’t thou give me guidance as to my course of action?
It was just yesternight that Hamlet and I were two hopelessly trapped people in love’s tight embrace, but now my brother bespeaks to me the dangers of “Contagious blastments … in the morn and liquid dew of youth.”  (1.2.41)  And O my father lessons me on this as well.  He betells to “think [myself] a baby” (1.2.105)  O what infant am I?  For I only require a father for I hath not been married.  It seems that they think of me as a leech.  Nourished by thine self-righteous blood, I shall not be capable a severing my teeth from ye flesh.  For how can I be a wife if I am banished to be a daughter and a sister.  For Hamlet never hath betold me that I “speak like a green girl.” (1.2.100)  But how dishonorable would it be for I to not dutifully reply that “I shall obey, my lord” to each of his requests (1.2.135)  O what a disgrace for a gentile woman I would be!  And so I bequeath to you my most inner question.  Should I make like a dear woman and be wary of a love that “gives more light than heat” (1.2.117) or should I follow the light of my world, and hope that he is the gentle gent for me.
Thy Dearest,
Ophelia

Hamlet Character Rationale Paragraph

I have chosen to write all of my blog posts for this unit from the perspective of Ophelia, as she is notable through the play of Hamlet for many reasons.  The predominant reason that I have picked her, though, is because she is a character that is not well defined on her own, but instead looks to her relationships with other people in order to define herself.  For this reason, she is a great barometer of the mood that pervades the play.  For if her relationships with Hamlet sours, she will sour as well, and if her father or brother mistreat her, she will surely show it.  Ophelia as a sort of "straight-man" should be a good character to learn about the play, as each of reactions to many characters are very telling.

American Drama Project Rationale, Information Sheet and Script

American Drama Project Story Boards

American Drama Project: Arturo Ui

Creative Project

Comparison/Contrast Summer Reading Paper

Fairy Tale Presentation

Sonnets to Orpheus

Psychoanalytical Analysis of Literature

Romanticism Powerpoint

Coat of Arms Presentation

Blog Post #3 If my life were a fable...

To illustrate my life as a fable, I have chosen to outline two small experiences that I've had.  That's it: just two.

The first is a story of my hometown: Mason, Ohio.  Being recently named the seventh best place to live, Mason is pretty close to a small garden paradise -- but I didn't always think of it like that.  As a young kid I somehow convinced myself that I had to move to California.  I thought that everything there would be better: the weather, the education, the technology.  But when I visited San Francisco on vacation for the first time in my life, I saw a slightly different story.  I took an apple from the tree of knowledge, and learned of the poverty, hippies, and other things strange to me that existed in the real world.  Unlike Adam and Eve, though, I was able to return to my hometown, and realize that the grass really isn't greener on the other side.

Another story, which just happened a few weeks ago deals with a very complicated issue: racial relations.  For most of my young life I had always assumed the best in people.  I had always assumed that everyone was kindhearted enough to want to give and receive gifts from a knothole in a tree.  Until one day at the shoestore in which I work, an elderly woman made extremely degrading comments to my African American coworker.  As if an innocent man had been convicted right before my eyes, I instantly lost my innocence.  Though most of our population is filled with Atticuses, racism is not dead.

Blog Post #2: Diagnostic Test

I took my first practice AP "diagnostic test" today in class.  It was a bit strange getting to take what is essentially the final exam for a class that you have just started, but I really liked it for a few reasons.  For one, it very simply outlined essentially what the class is all about, and what we will learn.  But perhaps more importantly it assessed very clearly my skills from the very beginning of enrolling in the class.  From the start of the class to the final AP test in May, I will be able to very clearly quantify exactly how much I improved my skills in taking this course -- something is very rare in an English class.  But not only will I be able to see exactly how much I improved in the raw score, but I will see exactly in which areas and specific skills I improved.  And from this diagnostic test, I can quite clearly see which areas need improvement.

The most obvious are in need of improvement is the recognition of each type of literature.  This is most definitely because I have never been in a class that has given detailed differentiation between specific types of poetry and literature.  This is painstakingly obvious in the very first question -- which distressed me initially.  When asked simply which type of poem the passage was, I was alarmed to realize that I had never heard a formal definition of any of the answers and was left only to decide with my rare hearing of the words in context -- if at all.  An ode, like ode to joy?  A sonnet, a ballad, each sounding like a type of poetry but for the life of me I could not tell you the difference.  But will all the confusion, I was quite reassured that I could simply shrug it off for this test, surely I'll learn the difference in the class.  Of all of the mistakes made in the diagnostic exam, these types of questions clearly seem to be the easiest to correct.  By the time of the test in May, I hope to clearly know all types of poetry and literature, and be able to get every question of this type correct on the AP test.

A slightly more subtle mistake that I often make is with concentration.  With especially long passages, I seem to have less endurance and occasionally gloss over important details.  With an very small, highly metaphorical passages, I can easily tackle each complex turn in focus or tone, but with long, drawn out pieces, the main idea is extremely convoluted.  To me, it seems that with more words, there can be more problems and more ways for the reader to trip up or be misled.  With a short poem though, nearly every line is important; so there is not very far you can wander off to.  By the time of the AP test, however, I hope to improve my ability to sift through the "junk" to find the meaningful phrases and ideas.  I will hopefully have the same scores on sections with short and long passages -- and hopefully they will both be high!

So there are my goals.  This diagnostic test has done great things as it has clearly quantified the areas that I need to improve upon.  As I complete AP English, I will focus on learning how to identify different types of literature, and I will improve my focusing and sifting ability on lengthy passages.  With these skills in mind I am sure that I will learn a lot about literature and how to read it in this class, and hopefully get a 5 on the exam!

Blog Post #1: Rationale for the Design of this Blog

My blog has gone under a few changes, and is now custom designed.  Though it is still quite simple and minimalistic, every detail was chosen purposefully.  It is not crowded with details or put behind a giant watercolor because that is not me; I am a simple man.  In fact, the only picture to be found is a small silhouette of a few birds peacefully taking to the sky.  This picture is not to be stared at for its beauty -- after all, it is nearly just as plain as the rest of the blog.  It is meant to be a symbol.  A symbol for nature, a symbol for power or transcendence.  I prefer these simple designs because they are open to interpretation.  Anyone can see something that they like in it, whether its nature, elegance, power or any of the other interpretations that could possibly result.

This theme is continued much more subtly and personally with the background color of the blog.  This creamy color reminds me of the aging and yellowing pages of my favorite book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  This translation of a beautiful french piece is quite famous for its various interpretations, and minimal detail.  This is one of my favorite writing styles because the lack of detail makes the piece extremely intimate.  Without being bothered about unimportant descriptions of appearance or other superficial things, Saint Exupery describes only the personality of each character.  This enables the reader to essentially implement personal details into the story, instantly making the story and its morals extremely applicable.  This is a style of writing that I hope to implement when I write posts for this blog, so I hope that I will be inspired by these small details every time that I write a post.

Welcome to my Blog

Hello, my name is Jack Lund and this is my new blog that will house many of my future assignments for my AP Literature and Composition class.  My senior year at Mason High School is going to be pretty crazy with AP classes, college applications, cross country, track, and a multitude of other extracurriculars that I participate in -- but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I love every activity and class that I participate in, and I hope that I am going to love writing in this blog for class as well!