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.