Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes

I don't have internet right now, and Dr. Preston knows this. I've been having to go over to friends houses when I have the time and I don't think I can watch the video for a while. I'm reading it though so hopefully a Literature Analysis will be sufficient :)

Lit Terms 31-56

Dialect: the language of a particular district, class or group of persons; the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others

Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth

Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things

Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words

Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education

Dogmatic: rigid in beliefs and principles

Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting

Epic: a long narrative poem unified by a hero who reflects the customs, morals, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time

Epigram: witty aphorism

Epitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on his tombstone

Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that may insult someone's character, characteristics

Euphemism: the use of an indirect, mild, or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, offensive, or blunt

Evocative: a calling forth of memories and sensations; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality

Exposition: beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas, and/or characters, in a detailed explanation

Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic representation of an inner idea or feeling(s).

Fable:  a short simple story, usuall with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth

Fallacy: from Latin word "to deceive", a false or misleading notion, belief or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound

Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax

Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue

Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech (such as metaphor and simile)

Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events

Foil: a person or thing that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more promient

Folk Tale: a story passed on by word of mouth

Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; "planing" to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away

Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme

Smart Goal

My only smart goal was to read more books, specifically eight. And they have to be classics. I have yet to come up with more than that.

Lit Terms 6-30

Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them

Analysis: a method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny

Anaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the begining of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences

Anecdote: a very short story used to illustrate a point

Antagonists: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative

Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness

Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life

Apologia: a defense or justification of some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology

Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly

Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or falsity of an idea in proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself

Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true

Audience: the intended listener or listeners

Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character's personality

Chiasmus: a reversal in the order of words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order

Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served

Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome (tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance)

Cliche: a phrase or situation overused within society

Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the point of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved

Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation

Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed to provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter

Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension

Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition

Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity

Denotation: plain dictionary definition

Denouement: loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion

Poetry Analysis

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye

 

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

 

This poem uses rhyming, imagery, and repetition of an important phrase (with slight change) for emphasis. It is obvious that Frye is speaking of death through the image of death and the poem comes off as a bit bold by asking that someone should not mourn at her death. This boldness, however, is perfectly displaced by beautiful imagery of what she becomes after losing life. Actually, I feel strange saying losing "life" because all the things she becomes are full of life. "I am not there; I did not die."

Literature Terms 1-5

Allegory: a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point


Alliteration: the repetition of similar initial sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words


Allusion:  a reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize


Ambiguity: something uncertain as to interpretation


Anachroism:  something that shows up in the wrong place or the wrong time

Spring Semester Plan 1

My plan for the Spring Semester is to read at least eight classic literature books, if not more. Along with that, I wish to learn the German language. I don't plan on being a pro, but just enough to be able to get by if I ever got lost there or run into a handsome young German. That's it so far! I sort of feel bad for saying this, but course work is one of the last things on my mind. I'm focusing more on getting money for colleges right now.

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

Here's a site with plenty of questions that could easily be put down as ambiguous essay questions.
http://www.greatbooks.org/resources/guides/novels/siddhartha/

From this questions on this site, you can tell that you have to understand the characters surroundings and how it effects them. More specifically, the supporting characters they interact with.

Numbers 1, 3, 6 and are the questions that got my most attention, so I'll go with those. It's not five questions, but it's been two years since I read the book and some of the other questions are very specific. (Cool part is they direct you to pages!)

1) What does Siddhartha mean when he refers to the "path of paths" that must be found? (p. 17) Why is he so certain that neither the Brahmans nor the samanas have found it?
A: I feel Siddhartha is referring to the path of the individual. It's one thing to follow suit with everyone else and adapt and it's another to be completely  unique and yourself. The fact that the Brahmans and Samanas all follow the same old routine shows they all merely adopted that life style and it didn't come from within. The "path of paths" is not with them because they all follow the same path, there is no inner one.
3) What is the connection between Siddhartha losing his friend Govinda to Gautama and Siddhartha's "awakening"? What does it mean that "the awakening man was on the way to himself"? (p. 37)
A: In Siddhartha's "awakening" he mentions multiple times how he is now "alone". Losing Govinda was one of the first most important things he loses that leads him to this awakening. Now that he's on his way to himself, he's on his way to discovery and enlightenment of the individual.
6) After waking up by the river, why does Siddhartha say, "I have nothing, I know nothing, I can do nothing, I have learned nothing. How wondrous this is!"? (p. 84)
A: This quote makes me think back to childhood. Being naive and knowing nothing. He finds it wondrous for the same reasons being a child was wondrous. Not knowing anything means not knowing of all the bad and evil in this world, being able to view it in a new light. It also means being able to learn all over again, one of the greatest human experiences.