Literature Analysis #2

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Collaboration: Hikaru Kasai, Bailey Reasner, Jared Dube, Marcel Dube.

TOPIC(S) and/or EVENT(S)

1. The essay I read was Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. The essay focuses on the peoples right to overthrow an unfair government.  Basically if an unjust law is passed you don’t have to follow this law if you believe it isn’t right. Thoreau for example believes that America is an unjust government at the time he wrote the essay due to slavery and wars. The best way to overthrow a government is to play no part in it since no one is obligated to participate the evils of an unjust government. All in all, he believes most governments are all bad and their only job should be to meet the wants and needs of the people.
2. I believe David Thoreau chose to write this essay on his dislike for governments after protesting the government by not paying taxes. Another reason could be that he wanted to spread his form of protest to the masses in order to incite a change in government.
3. The reason I decided to read this essay is because I really think Thoreau’s view on government is very interesting and gives a lot of insight from the past. I also picked his essay to read due to the rational thought process he uses to back up his ideals.
4. I found this book very realistic due to the way it brings in current events from the time period. When Thoreau mentions how the people should protest unjust laws it is similar to us today in that people dislike some aspects of our government but do nothing about it.

PEOPLE

1. Since this piece of literature is more of an essay, Thoreau does not present characters, but rather his entire essay is a deeper reflection of his thought. His thought process is extremely rational and mindful of history. The author is very questioning and reflective of himself.
2. Henry David Thoreau  strongly believes in individualism and questioning of the government (or self aware in general). He is very subjective and critical towards the American government, and also the American citizens.  He argues that citizens are not using intellect, and their voting in general reflects their own interests. His argument goes back to the core of the American people. Overall, Thoreau is more of a liberal thinker.
3. Thoreau is interesting to write about because his arguments and thoughts are very constructive and well thought out. Much of his explanation is clear and practical, but some of it can be seen as too radical or liberal. He is very self aware of his surroundings and very keen of outside influence.

STYLE

1. Thoreau did not use any notable literary techniques from fiction, he used a more journalistic style with a persuasive tone. Multiple time in his essay he would give his opinion on most things as well as supporting his opinion with references in history and quotes from which he strongly believed in. An example of this would be how he describes on how to counter an unfair law.
2. Thoreau uses mainly dialogue and action to to promotes his argument and uses example of people and history to strengthen its bonds, overall making the entire essay stronger to the reader giving out thoreau’s style of rebellion to the audience.
3. He uses examples of injustices acted out by the government ,society  and the use of his own personal opinion in order to create a mood of defiance and a tone of accumulating frustration.
4. Thoreau was annoyed by the government and went to reach out to the reader to take action against slavery and the escalating war between mexico and The United States of America.
5. Thoreau doesn't offer many outside sources but he does have a very appealing opinion and way of using it to its full effects. However there are a few quotes he used to get his point across .

ENDURING MEMORY

The idea of questioning and analyzing your surroundings is a huge concept. Many citizens of the United States are not familiar with how the government works, and yet complains. Citizens have just as an important role in being educated as the government officials are. The main idea in this piece of work is that you should always assess your knowledge and come to your own conclusions through intellect and rational thought.

Brave New World Ch. 4 Analysis

• Lenina is cold unlike Bernard
• imagery "It was warm and bright on the roof. The summer afternoon was drowsy with..."
• direct characterization "He was a powerfully built man, deep chested, broad shouldered, massive..."
• Helmholtz and Bernard are compared - both are conscious of their surroundings and themselves (how they fit with the rest)
• Bernard and Helmholtz go against the norm in the story - they have their own thoughts and feelings

How to Remotely Access your Computer

Tech: Connected Living

There is a neat program and app called Teamviewer that lets you remotely control your computer with your smartphone. For example, if you need your essay saved on your computer, but you are at school, you can use Teamviewer to navigate your pc and send that file to yourself. Your smartphone screen acts as the mouse, giving you complete control as if you were at home. You can use this feature anywhere as long as you have internet, and your computer is on with the teamviewer program open. It's handy whenever you need it, and it's also free. The program uses a password and pin to identify your computer, so security isn't a problem. It is available for both Mac, iOS and Windows, android. You can download it here.

Brave New World Ch. 3 Analysis

• juxtaposition - "The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters."
• simile - "brooded over them like a cat over its kittens..."
• allusion to Sigmund Freud (father of psychoanalysis)
• fallacy - "the world was full of fathers-was therefore full of misery"
• direct characterization - "Fanny's kind, rather moon-like face"
• Bernard Marx - symbolizes social experiments? (Karl Marx)

Brave New World Ch 2 Analysis

Chapter 2

• 3rd paragraph is full of imagery (when director opens the door)
• viviparous - bringing forth live young that have developed inside the body of the parent: referring to how people used to be naturally born and delivered, contrary to the factory production of babies 
• allusion to Henry Ford
• "you can't learn science unless you know what it is about" - seems obvious but still applies to today: students just memorizing scientific terms and getting it all right on a matching quiz won't really help unless he or she understands the relation and meaning behind each term
• Elementary class consciousness - propaganda on steroids 

Brave New World Ch. 1 Notes

• metaphor "the light was frozen, dead, a ghost"
•  "Hinted at the gravity of the so-called..."
• related to theme: "Out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature and into the much more interesting world of human invention."
• related to theme: "That is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny."

Reflection on Asimov's Interview

The love of learning is the framework to the vision of the future. When people study and do things related to something they have so much curiosity for, those people naturally leave legacies that other take for granted. Asimov's passion in astronomy led him to write many books on it, and he hopes that people will still read them after his death. Just as Asimov mentioned, the path to self learning out of pure love is not easily made in today's society. When people think of "learning", they only think of the one where you go to school and listen to lectures and do homework. In most cases, people believe that this type of forced learning is the only kind of learning out there. But the real truth is that learning can happen anywhere, anytime, for any subject. It is when people find that passion when their curiosity, creativeness, and thinking all start to come together like a strong gravitational pull and create a new level of learning that can only be experienced by that person's ability. The value of having this experience, and continuing to fuel your own learning transcends above the mass oriented curriculum that hopes to be a "one size fits all", and therefore should be of value to the vision of the future. There is a chinese proverb that says "the journey is the reward", and I think that is what the love of learning is. Sure, reaching the end is important, but the process of learning about your passion is far more valuable.

A thermostat that learns

Tech: Connected Living

Nest is a "smart" thermostat that replaces conventional ones. Many conventional thermostats waste a lot of energy, and rack up your energy bill. I can personally save up to $51 a year in my home if I switched to Nest. It's also a lot user friendly. The neat thing about Nest is that it learns how you use it every day so that it will start to automatically follow that pattern. Waking up with the heater already going, and having it automatically shut off when you leave your home can come in handy. Better yet, it does it so efficiently that you won't be wasting energy. You can also control it via smartphone. Although teenagers won't really need this, Nest can be a great present for your parents.

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was a writer, who mostly wrote novels, essays, and some poetry.. He came from a family of scientists and authors, who are well known. He was born in England, and lost most of his sight. He chose to write after that and even got an English degree. Huxley  is most famous for Brave New World which he wrote in 1931. The book is about cloning and genetics, something that his family members were researching.

Lit Terms 5

1. parallelism - Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter
2. parody - imitation of a writer, artist, or a genre for a comical effect
3. pathos - stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy and sorrow
4. pedantry - describes words, phrases, or tone that is overly scholarly or academic
5. personification - figure of speech in which the author presents/describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human qualities
6. plot - the sequence of events in a story
7. poignant - arousing deep emotion, touching
8. point of view - the perspective at which a story is told
9. postmodernism - a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism;
10. prose - a form of language that has no formal metrical structure
11. protagonist - the main or of the main characters in a story
12. pun - a play on words
13. purpose - the reason an author creates a piece of work, intends to persuade/inform/entertain/explain his or her ides
14. realism - attempts to represent familiar things as they are
15. refrain - a verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections
16. requiem - chant, hymn, dirge or musical service for the dead
17. resolution - the part of a story where the problem or climax is resolved
18. restatement - to state again in a new form for emphasis
19. rhetoric - the art of using language effectively
20. rhetorical question - asked just for effect or to lay emphasis on some point discussed when no real answer is expected
21. rising action - the part of the story leading up to the climax
22. romanticism - emphasized emotion over reason
23. satire - exposes and criticizes foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule; it is meant
24. scansion -  is the act of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical character of a line of verse.
25. setting - the place and time the story takes place in

AP test first impressions

The multiple choice questions seem mostly like medium to hard questions. The essay prompts seemed easier since it was more straightforward. Many of the prompts asks you to analyze and explain literary devices, which I feel comfortable with. As with all or most AP tests, I feel like you don't get enough time to answer the multiple choice questions.

Lit Terms 4

1. interior monologue - exhibits the thoughts passing through the minds of the protagonists
2. inversion -  the normal order of words is reversed in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter
3. juxtaposition - the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect
4. lyric - expressing the writer’s emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or recognized forms.
5. magic(al) realism - incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction
6. metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed)
7. Extended -  comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem
8. Controlling - metaphor that dominates or organizes an entire poem
9. Mixed - the use in the same expression of two or more metaphors that are incongruous or illogical when combined,
10. metonymy - a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated
11. modernism - literary movement prominent after WWI
12. monologue - a long speech given by a character
13. mood - what an audience perceives in emotion from a literary work
14. motif - idea that is constantly presented throughout a work
15. myth - a traditional story that includes supernatural beings or events
16. narrative - a report of related events presented to the listeners or readers in words arranged in a logical sequence
17. narrator - the subject who narrates the story
18. naturalism - literary movement of extreme realism, it sought to depict everyday reality
19. novelette/novella - A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel
20. omniscient point of view - A narrator who knows everything about all the characters
21. onomatopoeia - the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named
22. oxymoron - a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
23. pacing - the rhythm and speed in which the story is told by the author
24. parable - a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson
25. paradox - a statement that apparently contradicts itself but is often true