Vendler Grid poetry

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (340)
By Emily Dickinson

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

Vendler Grid

Meaning: Dying inside.
Antecedent Scenario: Goes hand in hand with dying inside but different because also talking about a funeral.
Structural Parts: 4 lines.
Climax: Hearing a creak.
Other Parts: The words all go hand in hand.

Skeleton: 20 lines
Content Genre- games: ----
Tone: Sadness & despair.
Agency: ---
Roads Not Taken: not ending the poem, making us think about it ourselves.
Speech Acts: Saying "And"
Outer and Inner Structural Forms: Uses "-" a lot.
Imagination: I picture a head with a casket and someone banging on it trying to get out.

Lit Analysis: Bless Me Ultima

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

Bless Me Ultima takes place in Guadalupe, New Mexico, during World War 2. The main character Antonio Marez. His curandera Ultima tries to stop the madness between the daughters of Tenorio. Antonio struggles throughout the story when he witnesses the death of people. He wonders about his religion and questions his moral problems. He has to choose between two lifestyles: crazy and wild or calm and sane. Religion becomes and issue in this decision because Antonio tries to figure out who he is and what religion he chooses to follow, if any at all. 

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

The main theme of this novel is the loss of innocence. Antonio views things that make him lose his innocence several times. The first incident would be when Antonio witnesses the death of Lupito with Ultima. That was his first interaction with death and it stuck with him for a long time. 

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

The author's tone of the book is very serious, but curious because of quotes from the book like these: -"I could not lie. I knew he would find the lie in my eyes if I did. But maybe there were other gods? Why had the power God failed to cure my uncle?"-"You mean i can go out and sin,.....and when i'm about to die I just got to confession and take communion, and i go to heaven?"-"I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her (Ultima) I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things" 

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

-Symbolism: The golden carp mentioned in the novel was a perfect example of symbolism. It was said to appear to those who where believers and followed the church earnestly. However, it appeared to both Cico and Antonio, with Cico being a NON believer and Antonio, undecided.-Translational Dialogue: Many of the quotes have Spanish words or phrases. It is a bilingual book.-Narrator: "Sometimes I felt like Jason, like I wanted to shout and cry, but I never did."-Metaphor: "The sun was good. The men of the llano were men of the sun. The men of the farms along the river were men of the moon. But we were all children of the white sun."-Use of didactic: refers to literature of other types of art that are instructional or informative, in this case the bible when talking about God and religion.-Use of Nostalgia: written by narrator about events of his early youth-Imagery: I felt a sense of imagery within the characters as well, and it helped with my imagining of their character and their surroundings. -Implication: "He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career." 

CHARACTERIZATION 1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

Direct Characterization: The author did a great job of directly describing characters with enough detail where I was able to imagine what the characters were like as people as I was reading.
Indirect Characterization: Antonio is a good example of a character that was indirectly described. He was described through actions, but in such a strong way that I felt like I knew him just as well as the other characters.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

I don't think the author's syntax or diction changes from person to person, some examples are:-"I'll be sorry! Chingada I will! I can be the worst cabron in the world, and when I'm ninety-nine I can be sorry for being such a culo!..."- "we can't build out lives on their dreams."

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

I think the protagonist is dynamic and round because the character is described in detail about his relgious views and what he is specifically is battling. 

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

After reading this book, I think we all have something we are battling. Antonio was battling his own fears and i think we all do that. 

Tobemory explained

Tobermory is a weird short story... The cat can talk and the cat revealed all the secrets of these rich social class people at a party. The people of this party were really impressed with what the cat knew but wanted it dead because of all the secrets it knew. These people planned on killing the cat but it was torn apart by another animal instead. I don't get why the people were a bit angry about another animal killing their cat when they wanted to kill the cat in the first place.... Weird story with stale humor. The last sentence of the story i didn't really get. I searched German irregular verbs??? But I'm still confused Was it because the elephant was not German?

Essay for Brave New World

Question Everything & Be Happy

Happiness is the root of all problems but happiness is a state of mind that you get to check off if you are really happy or not. I believe that we all can really be “happy” if we want to and that’s our problem. We conflict unhappiness on ourselves. I believe the topic of how we can’t conform ourselves to society is because all we do is question while we are inside of it and that is essentially all of us. 

In the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, the character Bernard is a perfect example of someone who is outward conforming while inwardly questioning. I believe Bernard and many other people are just a-like, like you and I. I don’t know one person who doesn’t question one thing. Whether we ask these questions out loud is the difference between all of us. Bernard is just a person who stands out in this particular book because of him being in society while questioning it. So is Bernard happy? 

            Bernard is certainly a questionable person. Huxley wrote this book with much symbolism and confusing details, if you don’t really analyze the story one piece at a time. The story line is a futuristic world where people take a drug to feel happy, but Bernard knows something is missing and he stumbles across an Indian like civilization that is not controlled by the states. This area is not technologically advanced and the people seem to be happier even without this drug. Another interesting twist is that women do not get pregnant in this brave new world, instead there is a place where they make babies on an assembly line that all look the same but are sorted into different classes just like social classes and their lives are basically predetermined for them. This brave new world is certainly different because this book was published in 1932; it shows the past and foreshadows the future. 

Huxley mentioned Ford being their leader or god and the assembly line of how everyone is made and what categories/classes they are put in, like Henry Ford and his political past and business. This is a fine example of how we are raised today, we all grow up in a different social class and that means we are all raised and learned a different way. Huxley also writes about technological advances can certainly wreck us and it certainly makes me question whether all these new technology is coming about is a good thing. Birth control, casual sex, and consumerism are also other examples that Huxley mentioned in this story and we have all of this in our world today and it’s crazy to think that Huxley saw this coming. 

Bernard questions his existence in this brave new world because he doesn’t know whether this place is a utopia. These people take this drug called “soma” to be happy and carefree but Bernard doesn’t know if this is real happiness. In this utopia, it seems emotions are for the weak but happiness is wanted. It doesn’t make sense to portray no real love but casual sex is okay because of what we are taught outside of this book. We are taught love before sex but in this book there is no love but sex. It confuses me on what we are taught outside of this book because what we are reading in this book contradicts life but also goes with what is happening in this real world. 

Bernard is a primary character in this story and he is certainly does not fit in with this brave new world but is certainly trying to but is getting caught within him because all he does is question. Even though we all seem to not ask our important questions out loud, we can’t seem to not question at all. I think that is okay because we should all be questioning everything. If we didn’t then this world would be a boring place. Remember we are not robots and we can’t just check it off our list if we are happy or not. That is why the meaning of this book is crucial to understand that happiness is a state of mind, don’t stop being “happy” but also don’t stop questioning.

Brave New World

So this last week when we had the dicsussion of what I thought happened in the book was not so good and taught me that I can't just go read endings of book (even though I love to do that), I finally read the middle parts (which are very important). Yes, the day before I did read till Chapter 6 and got really tired and confused about the book and just said scre wit let me just find out what happens. So I went to Chapter 18, read, and was utterly confused (savage? what does savage mean? Jhaicelle read ALL of the book) but I got the point that someone hung themselves (not Bernard, lol) it was John who wasn't intriduced in the parts I did read. John is the director's son (plot twist) Sorry for the confusion! Did anybody see the foreshawdow of how John wanted to be the sacrifice for his town at the beginning when he was introduced? But I do stand my ground that is was a dissapointing ending because I personally love happy endings... Sorry I just look forward to the good outcome in every story. (Fifty Shades does have a happy ever after ending) Hanging yourself, how cliche of today's modern world. I also still believe that it's sort of a mix of our past, present, and maybe even future history. PAST history because he uses Ford as a clear representation of like where it all started. Assembly line=school??? Just a thought. PRESENT because modern ideas such as kids having sex. In class I said that we are all really kids (most still living with parents) and most kids have sex so casually like all the time. I'm not saying we all do but think about it, most kids in high school are already having sex and loving like they are adults. The casual sex is also how it's basically done now a days, most people don't wait till they are married and if they do then that's really rare! The use of technological advances and birth control usage is such a contreversy in our world, some love it and some don't. Woah weird how Huxley saw this coming! Social classes are in the past, present, and probably future but it's weird how Huxley descibed them on how each sort of class gets raised and how they learn. Also, consumerism plays a big role of this story and I think that's what he evolved it around. FUTURE, time will only tell! Chemical/biological warfare??? I hope not! I think it's very weird that on one side of the wold there is this Indian Civilization and then on the other side this technolocally advanced placed, that's sort of how today is! I also have to mention how Bernard and Lenina didn't end up together?! Huxley, come on give me hope at least that you value my emotions. Maybe Huxley does care about your emotions and that's why this is a warning into what our future could look like, or is this already us? It seemed like Huxley was portraying that actual emotions are for the weak in this book and to not stand by that because that's how a lot of people are feeling in today's world. I sort of feel like sometimes we are all robots getting by, by just crossing the checklist off everyday. I mentioned in class that Huxley was a genius because he learned to our/ his full potential like WE ALL coould! That's why I think Huxley is a genius! I have a love/ hate for Huxley becayse he made such a onfusing book have so much meaning that is hard to depict if I was just reading this book on the beach where I actually have to conversate with other people on how the book really went. Lastly, I want to address the question of what is happiness? why don't we have it? who sets the boundaries of this sort of imaginary/made up thing? Preston after class that day told me since I made that mistake, I'll probably remember the story more and I think he is right!

mike wallace interviews aldous huxley essay

As Aldous Huxley talks about the brave new world he mentions his ideals on how he sees this new world coming about, I think that our world is on the brink of turning into his book, "Brave New World." In the book the whole idea or main theme is conforming their world to a "new world" to make it the perfect place to be. In society we are conforming like in the book because of many reasons. One of the reasons I think we are on the brink is because of the vast amounts or let's say not so vast amount of companies that are out there. We are suppose to be free and we should be able to sell goods & products on a level playing field like all other countries or companies but that is not true anymore. Most companies are owned by a monopoly and most consumers don't see that, it's like we don't have the freedom to know about this because we are conformed into a set of ideals that we are free and we can all own or operate our own company. Another reason why I think we are submerging into this new world is how in America we all have to go to school, yes school is important, I'm not saying it isn't but how we learn is like a conveyer belt. If students don't learn one way then they are thrown out like they are a mistake and get lost and never able to get to their greatest potentials because they aren't the ideal learner because they need to learn a different way. Society also conforms us in every way possible; getting jobs you need to be type A or you don't get the job or  being presented to the public eye and being judged for what we wear or what we do. We conform ourselves to look the way we see celebrities and sometimes the trends are horrendous but it conforms us to be looking the same like robots. Aldous Huxley was genius for actually writing a book like this. We read it in school thinking it's educational but really bashes everything we come to know. Just crazy how true we are almost or already like the brave new world.