Update #2

My blog that I will be making will focus on Allan Hancock Community College, and will a number of blogs showing information about higher education from a student's perspective.

Update

I was going to do programming, but upon further evaluation of the subject matter, I realized that it wasn't for me. Now im going to instead help with chelsey's college project.

My Plan

As of now my plan is to look into the programming group to see if that interests me. Other than that I also may join the literature group and want to keep my eyes open to see if any other groups look interesting as well. I will probably need to use resources such as the internet and books

AP Exam Practice

I used the practice exam with the answer's included so that I could check my answers. It was hard not to cheat though, but if I honestly put what I thought it was it was a little surprising how many I could actually get right, but at the same time the sort of concepts I was missing. Some of the literary terms that are more vague or not as commonly seen were hard to remember off the top of my head. It was good to get a look at the sort of things that I did know, and what I need to spend a little more time with.

Macbeth Essay Prompts

1. 1983, pick a character who is a villain and explain how they affect the play. Evil and temptation are big parts of the play, so this is an important subject. 2.1994, choose a character who appears briefly but who is important to the play as a whole. Macbeth has the witches, who arn't in it for very long, but are very important. 3. 1975, write about a stereotypical character from a work of merit. Macbeth is a very typical character, corrupted by power, leads to his own demise; but it is very important to the work.

My Plan

My plan to prepare for the AP test is to learn the vocabulary well, review how to analyze poetry, and how to write more concisely and efficiently. I need to work on keeping the focus of my writing on a single subject, and not let it flip around with my thought process.

Macbeth Lecture- The Sequel

• Lady Macbeth- Lack of inner-will • Macbeth- kills to ease his mind, does whatever he can to ease his mind • Would’ve been in the clear, but continued to murder after Duncan. Self-destructive • What matters to Macbeth post murder isn’t good or bad, but on easing his mind. • Begins as man, ENDS AS KILLING MACHINE!!! :O • Refuses to evade what he has become • Cares about no one, not even his wife • Witches have malicious intentions, prophetic power • Manifestations of evil, tempt people • Similar to “Monkey’s Paw”/Garden of Eden • Constant reminder of evil, temptation in the world • Witches could be looked at as proletariat (common people) (juxtaposition?)

Macbeth Lecture

• 5 act character driven play
• Act 3 scene 1 he becomes king
• Scene one meets witches, 2 kills Duncan, 3 becomes king, last 2 scenes are his descent from greatness
• No humor or humanity in play, except for maybe the scene with the porter which can be looked at as black humor
• Play focuses on what Macbeth is thinking or doing, what evil brings to himself
• Macbeth- tragic hero- critical flaw- contributes to his demise
• Starts play in good position, good man/warrior
• Loses everything over its course
• Does it to himself, architect of his own demise
Murder of Duncan
• Ambition (simple)
• Wants to be king
• When Macbeth sees the witches he doesn’t question them
• Witches are a response to his desires
• Desires to be king, but at first doesn’t want to do the wrong thing, sense of right and wrong, political savvy
• Knows he has to violate what he believes
• Tries to frame chamberlains for Duncan’s killing
• Banquo doesn’t believe the witches prophecies as Macbeth does
Lady Macbeth-
• evil impulse, tool of destruction to Macbeth
• Has no conscience like Macbeth
• Doesn’t seem like a mother at all
• Pesters and taunts Macbeth to be more evil
• Macbeth decides to kill Duncan himself- hallucinates sees dagger- horrified about what hes about to do
• Dagger sort of pulls him toward the wrong thing to do
• Consumed with regret after killing Duncan
Macbeth as king
• When play gets tragic
• Begins to kill more and more people, slippery slope
• Quality of mind is poor, singularity of focus on maintain power and easing his mind
• Won’t compromise, map any price, make any decision
• Irony- The evil Macbeths commits makes him terrified of himself- Lady Macbeth falls apart

Today's Macbeth Quiz

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. A
5. A
6. B
7. B
8. C
9. C
10. A
11. Macbeth begins the play as a courageous and brave, but later after hearing the witches his ambition gets the better of him and he begins to act in ways he knows are wrong.
12. Macbeth is motivated by the power of being king, he is ambitious and has Lady Macbeth pressuring him as well.
13. The witches seem to have great power over Macbeth, they change him to let his ambition control his actions, and make him fear the death the prophesized for him, yet feel all powerful because of it.
14. Macbeth takes them to be fact right away, Banquo is more cautious about the witches and their predictions.
15. They begin as a normal, equal couple, but after Lady Macbeth learns about the witches, she begins to manipulate him and his new ambitious nature.
Part II
1. B
2. B
3. C
4. A
5. A
6. A
7. A
8. C
9. B
10. B
11. That things are not always as what they appear to be.
12. Macbeth gives into evil, knowingly doing what he knows what is wrong, and it turns to be the death of him. This shows that people who are ambitious and not right with their motives will not succeed.
13. The witches allow us to see some of the play that the characters don’t, also the point of view, where we can see all the characters and what they’re planning. As with Duncan, who prior to his murder is happy and joking, because unlike the audience, he has no idea Macbeth is plotting to murder him.
14. She pressures him into doing things that he knows are wrong by continually pestering him, and frequently assaulting his manhood, and saying that she wished her husband would do these deeds for her.
15. Macduff is devastated when he learns of his families’ death, while Macbeth is unphased and seems stoic. This shows the contrast in the two characters morals and mindsets.

1984 by George Orwell

• Oceana
• “The Party” is in control, Central figure is Big Brother
• Everywhere around the society there is Big Brother’s face and a reminder that he’s watching
• The Party controls everything and everyone, free thinking is a crime, speaking without using “newspeak” is a crime because they’re afraid of rebellion
• Thoughtcrimes – Thought Police
• Winston Smith
• Winston buys a diary and writes his illegal thoughts in it so he has somewhere to put them, doesn’t like the control of the party, but thinking so is a crime
• Wants to contact O’Brien who is high up in the party but who he believes is secretly against it
• “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
• Winston works at the Ministry of Truth notices attractive women (which is a bad thing to do)
• The women later gives him a note that expresses her feelings to him, she’s named Julia
• They have a relationship, which is against party rules
• O’Brien sends for Winston t meet him, he tells him and Julia that he is in fact against the party.
• Police barge in and arrest them all, they’re taken to the ministry of Love (that he always had wondered about)
• Here he learns O’Brien is not what he said, but did that to incriminate him
• Winston is tortured and brainwashed until he loves Big Brother and feels nothing for Julia.
• “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
1. Setting, symbols, tone are important elements
2. When and why it was written-shortly after WWII when totalitarianism is a real fear in people’s minds, Orwell writes what will happen without change in the world

Macbeth Notes

-Though he started off as a good leader, Macbeth about 7 years in turns into a villainous and twisted leader.
-King James I (king of England and also Scotland) into witchcraft, so the wierd sisters are in the book, who provide his witching outlet
-Shakespeare's principle source was Holinshed's Chronicles of Scottish History--was a loose collection of gossip, tales and fantasies, so what he was using as fact was flawed
-Only used what caused good drama
-Macbeth killed Duncan to become leader, ruled for 17 years
-Of 8 of the Scottish kings furing this time 7 died of unnatural causes
-Duncan's son overthrows and kills Macbeth becomes King Malcolm III
-English and Scottish don't like each other
-Robert the Bruce leads Scotland to Victory against King Edward
-Lady Macbeth gets fascinated with murder, wants her husband to be one

The Top 3 Peer Blogs

kerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com
erlrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com
http://chadenglitcomp.blogspot.com/

Of the blogs I looked at these three were my top choices, especially Katie's blog.

The Things They Carried Powerpoint

My Mind in a Map

http://www.mindmeister.com/127714107

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

·         Tom Joad recently released from jail for manslaughter, travels home in Oklahoma.

·         Oklahoma affected by dustbowl

·         Meets Jim Casey- former preacher, doesn’t see all in life as holy- who goes with him to his home

·         Sees his home deserted, learns that everyone has headed to California because there is nothing really left in Oklahoma

·         Finds his family, packing to head to California, where they hear there is work and arable land

·         Grampa Joad dies during the journey to California

·         Travel in rickety used truck

·         When they’re almost there, they hear that there may not be as many jobs as they’ve heard, and that there arnt enough jobs for the amount of people migrating

·         Noah and Connie abandon the family, fearing that they’ve gone for nothing

·         Locals are hostile towards the immigrants from Oklahoma, call them Okies.

·         Jim Casey arrested for attacking police officer

·         The camps they arrive to work in a way to keep the immigrants dependent on the owners, and very poor so they have no option of leaving

·         The Joads live in a government camp for a while, but leave after they think the police are going to shut it down.

·         Find jobs as fruit-pickers, run into Jim Casey who has been released from prison. He has been rallying workers, therefore has the police after him.

·         They later have him killed in front of Tom, who kills one of the police officers, and then has to go into hiding

·         The family has to move again cause of Tom, until one day Ruthie tells their neighbors that her brother is nearby and is a fugitive

·         Tom is warned and leaves to assemble the workers

·         The season for picking is over, and fear ensues that there will be no work

·         Rose of Sharon who was pregnant over their journey, gives birth during the flood to a stillborn child

·         The family finds shelter in a barn where a child and his dying father are taking refuge

·         Realizing she can help him, Rose of Sharon feeds the man, as she is now producing milk because her body was prepared for the baby which passed away.

Tom Joad- Jailed for manslaughter, released at beginning of novel. Strong thoughtful, but because of prison has a mentality of only caring of the now. Changes into someone who cares about making a better future. Creates unions for the field workers. Learns from Casey, who teaches him of brotherhood and how a single person cannot have a very profound effect on the world. Begins to care about the well-being of others more than himself and his family.

Ma Joad- Loving mother figure, as Pa becomes less of the head, she assumes his position.

Pa Joad- The trials faces by the family make it hard for him to continue being the head of it. Really loses this position when after he cannot get a job, escapes into his mind. Character doesn’t grow, but shrinks over the novel.

Jim Casey- Former preacher, acts as mentor to Tom. Thinks of holiness of life, not of the afterlife. Organizes the migrant workers, which leads to his death, but Tom Joad takes over where he left off.

Rose of Sharon- Begins the novel as a high spirited rambunctious girl, whose pregnancy changes her into a women. Helps others live, even after just losing her own child.

Discussion Notes

• Internet brings people closer together who have the same questions
• Communication, lets more people connect from various places which allows questions to be answered by more people more quickly
• Open-mindedness is good
• Freedom creates more creative thinking, structure can hinder it
• Do what you love, but also love what you do?
• People don't always want or know what to do with freedom if they've never really been exposed to it.

These concepts can help later because I know know to be open minded and get answers from the interwebs. I will be more creative afterwards because of the new found freedom, but without the rewards and structure it may be more harder to get the initiative to learn some things. But I'll be able to look up things that interest me and love it, because it's what I'm doing.

They can maybe help with the AP test because I can get answers to questions from some other resources. But really these ideas will help more in the future, because these ideas seem more about how to use freedom and learn on your own, not learn the specific criteria set in front of you as with the AP test.

I can participate more in conversations. I don't enjoy doing that, it's better to watch everyone else try and come up with answers. There's something to be said for someone who can sit and listen, and that why I feel obliged to do it. To me it's easier to learn just listening, as against the idea of our conversation that is. I can involve myself more into the learning network so that my listening will be more effective, that is one way I can improve the information exchange.

Poetry Analysis Remix

“Sonnet 1” Edmund Spenser

1.       Dramatic Situation- Poet writing about his love for a woman. It’s sad, but happy in a sense that it’s meant for the women to read the poem.

2.       Structure of Poem- Sonnet, iambic pentameter

3.       Theme-Poet wants to be seen as if he sees his love

4.       Grammer/meaning- Proper English, very loving

5.       Important images/figures of speech- “Angles blessed look”

6.       Important Words in Poem- “Leaves, Lines, and Rhymes”,”helicon” (sacred site due to greek gods)

7.       Tone- Sad from poets perspective, happy from the readers, His lover/lady

8.       Literary devices- imagery, metaphor

9.       Prosody- The flow of the poem makes it seem as if the poet were speaking from his heart, which in fact he is. The last two lines however sum up the whole poem.

“The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” by Christopher Marlowe

1.       The shepherd wants to express his feelings to his love

2.       Pastoral Poem

3.       Love

4.       Very descriptive and emotional

5.       Sheep, nature, the pasture

6.       Shepherd

7.       The tone is very warm and loving

8.       Imagery, rhyme scheme, imagery

9.       The structure (Pastoral Poem) shows how the author wants to show how nature and living a simple life is the best. (Go sheep!)

“Sonnet 39” by Sir Philip Sidney

1.       He can’t sleep, but he really wants to, describes sleep and why it’s awesome.

2.       Sonnet, iambic pentameter

3.       Escapism- describes sleep as an escape from life that we all can use

4.       Descriptive of what it’s like when you sleep, where you sleep, who desires it

5.       Bedroom, darkness, escape

6.       Sleep

7.       Admiring, he admires sleep

8.       Imagery, metaphors

9.       Examples of why sleep is awesome and how it makes problems and the world around disappear. Theme of escapism (freedom) juxtaposed why the structure of the sonnet (constraint)

The Things they Carried Literature Anal.

1.       The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien is the story of a Vietnam veteran writing a book about his time in the war. He recollects on past experiences and the experiences of his fellow squad mates in the various chapters with him narrating as though he were going to be writing his book. Along the way he tells of the burdens that soldiers carry with them, physical but also emotional and mental, like guilt, fear, and anxiety. This helps him convey his messages about the burdens put on by warfare and why people tell stories. He tries to show that we tell stories so that we can keep alive the people and things that we’ve lose in our mind and in the minds of others, as the soldiers hope to do with their comrades. And about how with storytelling, if you want to effectively get a truth across, you often must use lies. For instance, when recollecting memories, while the major events may be true, the events leading up may be all made up, not to embellish, but so that the important ending is better understood.

2.       The major theme of the novel is about burden that soldiers carry. They’re not just physical but emotional and psychological. Losing their friends and having the constant fear that they could be killed at any time has a toll of them, and they begin to be weighed down not just by their gear but by their minds as well. This causes soldiers in the story to shoot themselves to get out the war, joke about the deaths of others to try and seem unaffected, and even to commit suicide when they are home because they feel as though now they have no purpose and guilt weighing them down.

3.       The tone in the novel is sad. He seems to solemnly be writing the stories and that it’s difficult for him to narrate the memories of himself and his comrades.

“If you weren’t humping, you were waiting. I remember the monotony. Digging foxholes. Slapping mosquitoes. The sun and heat and endless paddies. Even deep in the bush, where you could die in any number of ways, the war was nakedly and aggressively boring. But it was a strange boredom. It was boredom with a twist that caused stomach disorders. Well, you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right when you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.”

Here we see him talking sarcastically almost to try and describe the fear that they felt, with a somber back tone as well.

“And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war… it’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.”

Here O’Brien’s sadness come through when he writes about how people don’t care enough to even listen to their stories, and leave them to face them alone.

“I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war.”

Here O’Brien writes about his sadness and how he felt cowardly for not running away from the war. Which is ironic, because that is cowardly as well, but he didn’t stay to do his duty, he stayed because he didn’t want people to think badly of him.

4.       Some literary techniques important to this novel are irony, point of view, imagery, mood, and symbolism.

You admire the fluid symmetries of troops on the move, the harmonies of sound and shape and proportion, the great sheets and metal-fire streaming down from a gunship, the illumination of rounds, the while phosphorus, the purply orange glow of napalm, the rocket’s red glare.” It is very ironic for him to describe instruments of death like this as beautiful; though they bring death they also bring beauty. Confusion like this leads more to the confusion placed on the soldiers who are there.

Point of view is something very important to this story in every regard. The main character is ahead in time, writing his novel, though he flashes back to various events that happened to him and his comrades and tells of them from and omniscient third person. There are a also a few of his memories that he tells in first person. This allows the reader to see and feel the emotions of all the characters, but also in some intense situations get down and feel what O’Brien felt.

“He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole.” Here O’Brien creates a vivid image for the reader of the person he kills. It shows the burdens that the soldier feels, and how he remembers all the things that he has to do because of his job as a soldier.

“There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I’m left faceless responsibility and faceless grief.” Here the mood of grief is ever prevalent, and we see how O’Brien feels about seeing the dead, but being too afraid to look into their faces, and how that has haunted him more than anything else.

The Vietnamese boy that O’Brien killed two quotes ago is an important symbol. It symbolized how people feel about how people feel about the horrible things they see and do in war. O’Brien talks on and on about who he thought he was, how he thought he could be someone just like him and in blink of an eye he took his life. He is horrified by this, and cannot accept that he may have had part in taking the life of another, and though never tells how he feels, shows the grief and pain he feels.

Micro-AP Test

The test itself was in its entirety not what I thought, because I was expecting it to be a multiple choice test. The questions were sort of challenging, but for the most part getting started wasn't too hard, and once I began it wasn't too hard. I learned that I can write essays in 15 minutes, I win at English.

Tale of Two Cities Lecture

-Dr. Tony Williams-

·         3^rd city involved Manchester

·         “have done and suffered what is in these pages”

·         Falls in love with woman named Lucy and leaves his wife, women in Tale of Two cities named Lucie

·         Parallels between Dickens and the leads. Characters were to have initials CD and DC

·         London and Paris

·         Dickens brought to Paris as a child because of his father’s work- bad experiences, haunting and dark. “wretchedness and darkness, but also of great fascination.”

·         City of extremes in wealth and poverty- looked at it bleakly

·         Visited Paris later in his life, liked Paris when he first went there “most extraordinary place in the world” “novelty, novelty, novelty”

·         The period was good and evil, opening tells about this

·         Strikes connections between pre-revolutionary Paris and contemporary London

·         Inevitability of history

·         Mannette put into prison before Lucie was born

·         Sydney Carton puts himself into Charles Darneys place to die, sacrifices himself for love so that Darney and Lucie can live together because he loves Lucie

A Tale of Two Cities (1st ten pages)

Dickens first starts by explaining the parallels between Paris and London, and explaining the sort of situation that the cities are in. He delves deeply into the dismay and lawlessness that take place in London, and the indulgence and power-hungry French aristocracy. You can understand why he wrote about both things the way he did by remembering how he grew up poor and in a harsh environment. Then you can see why he knows so much about the ways of the London streets, and is resentful of the nature that was present in Paris pre-revolution.

Literature Analysis #1 (2.0?)

1.       The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the story of Hester Prynne, who is condemned to wearing a large “A” on her chest so that everyone can know that she committed adultery and she will have to live with the shame. She has a daughter named Pearl, who was a product of her affair, but will not confess to who she had the affair with, which is why she has to wear the “A.” Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, finds out who she had the affair with, Arthur Dimmesdale, and subtly tortures him to the point that he goes in front of the town and in an enraged sermon confesses to the affair with Hester and then drops dead. Hester and Pearl leave town and are never heard of. But eventually Hester returns and dies in the town, and is buried with Arthur.

2.       The theme of the book is revenge. Throughout the whole story Chillingsworth exhibits revenge on Hester and Dimmesdale, in fact the hate that he feels seems to have changed him from the man that he used to be. Chillingsworth turns into someone whose whole existence is to make Hester and Arthur feel shame and guilt for what they have done. It is a central part of the story.

3.       The story has a very serious tone. There aren’t many laughs, but instead focus on the problems with the society Hester is a part of and the hardships that she has to endure.

 “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer.”

“Thus, we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the whole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very hour.”

“Dreadful as it was, she was conscious of a shelter in these thousands of witnesses, It was better to stand thus, with so any betwixt him and her, than to greet him, face to face, they two alone.”

4.       There are many important literary techniques in this story. One of the most important is setting. Early America was a harsh theocratic place. The laws of the religion (which were very strict and harsh) were the laws of the land, and that is the world Hester finds herself in. Another important technique is symbolism. Though her letter is an important symbol, probably the most important is Pearl herself, who represents her sin.  Another important one is the point of view. The narrator allows the reader to get into the heads of all the characters, as well as put in his own thoughts here and there. Imagery is another important technique; it allows the reader to vividly picture the events that are unfolding in the book.  The diction is also very important, as it creates a story with a very specific message.

A Tale of Two Cities

The title seems to be self-explanatory, it's the story of two cities; London and Paris.

Big Question Introduction

How does geography influence accent and social belonging?

Geography can have a profound effect on people and the way that they speak, act, feel and/or think. Many of these cases that we still see today stem back to times when travel and communication inhibited people from seeing people other than those located near them. This led to pockets like-minded persons coming together and creating their own identities. May it be the farming south or the urban north of America some two hundred odd years ago; the identities created were varied and could be either positive or negative.

                Certain regions promote different professions and livelihoods.  People yearning to live in a metropolitan area most likely won’t live in New Mexico, but rather a somewhere in the northeast; while a farmer wouldn’t live in the New York City because there is nowhere for crops will not flourish. This is why you can find people who have similar jobs and have similar mindsets.

                Sociolinguistics is a relatively new field studying something that people have been looking into for much longer. It is the study of how things such as geography, race, gender, ethnicity and social class speak and use language. This study combines sociology with linguistics to look at how society affects language, this shows the sort of affects that society (geography included) has on language. (Accent)

                It wasn’t until around 1930 that the western world deemed it necessary to create a field to explain how language is affected by society. Thomas Callan Hodson coined the term in 1939, officially creating the field of sociolinguistics. It was something that Japanese and Indian linguists had begun to look into, but Hodson was who brought it into the western world.

                Geography effects on social belonging doesn’t stem from sociolinguistics, but instead in psychology. Psychology is the study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. There are mental repercussions for just about anything, positive or negative, and where someone is from is not to be excluded.

                Psychology is a study that dates back to the great ancient civilizations. It helps us understand why people think and reason the way they do. It looks at many of the factors that have occurred to get a glimpse into their minds. One major thing is where they’re from; because in certain regions there are certain expectations that are to be met and people are expected to do certain things and breaking the mold or trying to show you’re different than the stereotype of your home can be a daunting task.

                The three focuses- geography, accent and social belonging- all are interconnected. They all have effects on each other; geography isn’t the only thing holding them to together. Accents that come due to the geographical positioning of a person when they learned to speak can be a major effect on how they view themselves or how others view them in society. One with a southern drawl is thought to be unintelligent, but really cannot tell you the intellect of a person; while one who speaks with a British accent is not guaranteed to be smarter than the average man. There are certain prejudices that come with certain accent and people from certain places; social belonging is something that can easily be affected.

                Geography has many sociolinguistic effects as well as psychological effects on people. It alters their speech, mindset, and image to others.  It is something that has a much broader effect on society and the individual than people realize, even now when the world seems so small, there are still variants from region to region.

Works Cited

"Accent (linguistics)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_(linguistics)>.

Dye, OPINIONBy Lee. "Foreign Accents: People With Accents Judged Untruthful in University of Chicago Study - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/foreign-accents-people-accents-judged-untruthful-university-chicago/story?id=11262339>.

"Effect of Accent and Dialect on Employability. - Journal of Employment Counseling | HighBeam Research."Research - Articles - Journals | Research Better, Faster at HighBeam Research. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-146789155.html>.

Gluszek, Agata, and John F. Dovidio. "The Way They Speak: A Social Psychological Perspective on the Stigma of Nonnative Accents in Communication." Personality and Social Psychology Review. Yale University. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://psr.sagepub.com/content/14/2/214.abstract>.

"H2g2 - Why Villains in Movies Have English Accents." H2g2 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 15 Jan. 2003. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A891155>.

Haller, Kirsten M. "Dialectal Variation in the United States."Http://www.wesleyan.edu/psyc/mindmatters/volume01/article03.pdf. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

"Psychology." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology>.

"Sociolinguistics." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics>.

Spolsky, Bernard. "History of Sociolinguistics." Http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/35389_5434_Wodak_Chap_01.pdf. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

"Untitled Document." Home | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.unc.edu/~gerfen/Ling30Sp2002/sociolinguistics.html>.

Poem: "O Captain! My Captain!"

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.


O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; 
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.


My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead. 


Walt Whitman 


I chose this poem because I like the rhythem that it has.

AP Practice Exam #1: The Open Question

The AP English Literature & Composition Exam includes three types of essays: 1) Response to Poetry, 2) Response to Prose, and 3) The Open Literature Question. The Open Literature Question is designed to choose a piece of literature they've already read (Hello, Literature Analysis database!) and discuss it as it relates to the prompt. Please read the following prompt and give yourself 40 minutes to write the best essay of your life. Bring the hard copy to class on Tuesday, January 17.

"By their deeds shall ye know them." We often judge people by what they do; therefore, we consider people who commit cruel or reprehensible acts corrupt, base or amoral. In literature, however, authors often introduce us to characters whom we learn to like or even respect, despite their deeds.

Write an essay about one such character for whom you developed admiration or compassion. Briefly explain why you felt his or her behavior to be condemnable or contemptible, and how the author's techniques influenced you to admire that person. Do not summarize the plot. (40 minutes)

                In literature there are often characters who commit acts that are vile, bad natured and in some cases not acceptable, but we still respect them or at least understand why they did that they did. Often when faced with ultimatums literature characters are forced to do things they wouldn’t normally do. One such example is in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, where the father will do anything to protect his son.

                The world that McCarthy creates is a bleak one, full of violence and strife; and this father is thrown into the middle of it with a son to protect. There are scenes where he murders people and even tells his son that if things go bad that he has to just kill himself. These sorts of things aren’t what most people would be inclined to do, they are morally and ethically wrong, but when you look at the situation you can see why it was necessary for the father to act in the way that he does.

                Murder is something that most people cannot imagine committing, and that is looked down upon for religious and lawful reasons to name a few, but it understandable why the father commits these acts.  If he had chosen to not kill when he did, then he and his son would’ve been killed themselves and the marauder who they chose to kill would keep on killing; it is reasons like this that we can understand a person having to commit heinous acts such as murder. We can see similar motives with him instructing his son to take his own life should things go badly, he wants to protect his son from being taken captive by the sorts of people who are found patrolling the wasteland that they live in.

                Sometimes tough choices have to be made and people are forced to act in ways that are violent, extreme and in some cases unethical. It is a common occurrence in literature that characters are put into situations where this is necessary, but sometimes you can see why they had to do these things and are still able to respect them afterwards. Sometimes it is unfair to judge people on what they do, because their motivations and end results can justify the choices that had to make.

Big Question Abstract

How does geography influence accent and social belonging?

                Before the times of internet, telephones and personal, when geography caused groups of people to be isolated from others, people began to adopt their own unique accents and dialects depending on the factors were present in these regions. An accent is a distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language.  These groups of people also developed their own niches in society, i.e. royalty had their own adopted accent in England, while the working class spoke with a cockney accent. To understand why people who speak the same language can speak it so different and to see how this affects how they’re seen in society, you have to look at how these accents developed; and one of the major factors of the development of different dialects and accents was geography. This lets us see why, for example, a person from the Southern United States and a person from the Northern United States not only speak the same language in a different way, but also how they view their own roles in society.  Linguistics and sociology are subjects that have been looked into since the earliest civilizations. The study of linguistics can be seen in ancient India, and sociological studies are thought to of began in ancient Greece. Understanding the effects that geography had on people gives insight into the development of the unique speech and societal belonging of these people.