Lit Terms 1-5

Allegory- A story that uses symbols to make a point.

Alliteration- The repetition of similar initial sounds in a group of words.

Allusion - A reference to a person, place, event, or literary work that the reader expects the reader to   recognize.
 (Animal Farm & the Russian Revolution)

Ambiguity- Something uncertain as to interpretation.
(Side of a beautiful young woman... or an old woman's face)

 Anachronism- Something that shows up at the wrong place or the wrong time.
(Medieval cell phones?)

S.M.A.R.T. Goal :)

S.pecific- Get a Special Intelligence rating in the United States Navy

M.easurable- Rank up to E-9 by my 15^th year of service and become a SI officer in the Navy

A.ttainable- Joining the service is a process but is definitely possible for myself

R.e-enforceable- Get my tattoos removed through the Liberty Program, get a great score on the ASVAB by studying the subjects of the test, then wait until I get shipped off to Bootcamp

T.imely- I’m legally able to join once I graduate with my GED as long as I have my tattoos removed, then I just have to wait until they ship me off for Bootcamp

What's In It For Me?

I think this title is misleading... because now instead of just reading this post to read it, you're now doing so expecting something I just am not willing to deliver. I'm doing this assignment because I "want an A" to quote Preston's do not quote these cliches post. What I really want from the next 6months in this English class is to get my credits and graduate so I can follow my dreams. If not simply so I can be gone and done with this prison yard disguised as a school to move toward my military service, I'm in this class because I don't want to be bored out of my mind... not that I haven't been while attending. If you want to know what I wish to accomplish in the next 6months FROM this class, well....you're shit out of luck, because I have no clue. I just want to be me and move on with my life.

To Kill a Mockingbird Literature Analysis (:

General

1.       To Kill a Mockingbird begins with the narration of an assumed now adult Scout about her life as a child with her father and brother. There was a mysterious man who stayed in his house named Boo Radley, who because of his abuse as a child alienated himself from the community. Scout, her brother Jem, and others at the introduction to Boo’s existence were scared of him. On a separate note a trial formed from lies about the rape of a white woman that caught Scout’s family’s attention. The trial separated the black and white community further and Scout’s father, Atticus, represented the black man in court with almost seamless evidence, but still lost. The father of the “raped” woman, Bob Euell, began to separate Scout’s family from the community out of anger and the trial led the children to their first encounter with the bad of the world. In the end Bob Euell attacks Scout and Jem, who are saved by the mysterious but obviously caring and kind hearted Boo Radley.

2.       The theme of the novel is that judgments made in ignorance should not be solidified. Without knowledge of someone’s past, we can’t claim to fully understand their thoughts and actions in the present. To judge character based purely on the present could be to accept a serial killer or dismiss an angel.

3.       Harper Lee’s tone is enlightening in To Kill a Mockingbird. It shows how a child’s moral compass develops over time; when Scout is able to see Boo Radley as a real person instead of some mysterious and terrifying being. Scout realizes during the Tom Robinson trial that justice doesn’t always prevail. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”

4.       Antagonist- Lee uses the evil in people as the enemy of Scout throughout the story

Gothic Elements- The Boo Radley house is given this evil connotation at the beginning of the story by the community children

Flashback- The entire story is centered around the flashback of Scout to her childhood

Setting- The story is set in a farming town during the depression, which helps guide the actions and attitudes of the townspeople

Narrator- The novel is a first person narrative by Scout

Symbolism- Tom Robinson is one of the books mockingbirds. The mockingbird represents innocence and the death of Tom is illustrative of humanities underappreciating the people who do no wrong to them. “The senseless slaughter of songbirds.”

Motif- A reoccurring concept throughout the novel. In To Kill a Mockingbird loss of innocence is a repeating idea

Characterization

1.       Boo Radley is directly characterized by Scout as being thin, pale, and by having colorless eyes. Through his saving of Scout and her brother he is more than just a creepy man, he’s a person of valor and love. “Maycolmb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it.” The town was old in age but it’s implied that it was used up and lacking vitality.

2.       The diction of the townspeople is different, to represent the different social classes and understanding. “That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?”

3.       Scout’s a very dynamic protagonist. This is easily seen by the reader and understandable considering Scout’s only a child at the beginning of the novel. Her outlook of the world changes as she is exposed to the indecencies of humanity. She would be considered a round character, because she is open-minded and so willing to learn. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

4.       After reading this novel I felt like I read the protagonist, but met the ominous man named Boo. He was everything I love and everything I feared in people. His character struck a chord in me and represented the human race in a way I’d never really seen it before. The fact that he was mysterious meant I couldn’t trust him fully, but it also meant there was still hope that he could belong to the incestuous and father detesting side of the force.  

Of Mice and Men Literature Analysis

General

1.       Two farm hands, Lennie and George, start the story at a pond discussing the future. They have it all planned out and are about to meet a new employer. Lennie is not only slow, but extremely powerful. This combination has got them in trouble in the past so it makes George weary of the new job. As they are hired on a new farm they learn about the others, including a woman married to Curly who causes mischief with the men on the farm. Later on Lennie accidentally kills a puppy he was playing with, like he kills every small animal he touches, and tries to cover it up. Curly’s wife comes into the barn and sees Lennie hiding the dead puppy and compares her hair to the softness of the dead animal’s fur. She encourages Lenny to touch it, he’s too rough, and she screams. Lennie shakes her and accidentally snaps her fragile neck. He leaves the ranch for the pond at the beginning of the story and waits there. George finds the dead woman and puppy and runs off to the pond as well with a head start on the others who now want to lynch Lennie. George arrives at the pond where Lennie is waiting, tells him again about the farm they’ll buy together and the rabbits, and shoots Lennie in the back of the head.

2.       The theme of Of Mice and Men is that friendship isn’t about equality, but more about what the other person brings to our lives. George may always have to take care of Lennie, but without him George wouldn’t be the person he is today. Lennie brings an innocence and hope to George that he wouldn’t be able to obtain on his own, and without George to look after him Lennie wouldn’t be able to function properly in normal society.

3.       John Steinbeck’s tone throughout the story is sad. There is a lot of death and loneliness in the author’s writing that is created through the characters and their lives with one another.  Crooks, the only black man on the ranch never has anyone who cares about him. Lennie, a main character, gets shot in the back of the head. Innocence in the form of a grown man kills innocence in living things.

4.       Foreshadowing- "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog." Candy tells George this towards the middle of the book.

Conflict- Internal conflict between the love of a friend and what’s best for them within George.

Figurative Language- "Lennie covered his face with huge paws and bleated with terror." Connecting two things that don’t at first seem related like Lennie’s hands and huge paws.

Motif- Lennie’s attraction to soft animals and just soft objects in general is a reoccurring concept throughout the story.

Setting- A placement of the characters that helps guide their actions and the storyline. In Of Mice and Men the setting is a farm.

Irony- It’s ironic that Lennie is the gentlest character in the story but seems the most dangerous. He is constantly, yet accidentally, killing things with his strength but doesn’t by any means want to or wish harm upon anything or anyone else.

Symbol- The mice that Lennie crushes are symbolic of the fragility of life as well as of Lennie himself

Point of View- 3^rd person omniscient.

Characterization

1.       Crooks is directly described as the only black man on the farm as well as being a cripple. Through his diction and the way he describes his existence, Crook becomes less a crippled black man and more a lonely soul who attempts to cover up his pain with a crude disposition in any new encounter. Curly’s wife is introduced to the reader as a trouble maker and somewhat of a harlot.  As the story progresses however, the author uses her conversations with Crooks and Lennie to portray a woman so far forgotten by her husband and so lonely as to seek the company of anyone who looks her way. She’s no longer this trouble making, horrible wife in the readers’ eyes, but a woman misunderstood and forgone by society.

2.       Steinbeck uses different diction with different characters in the story to show social belonging. Lennie and Crooks being the best examples of this change in diction. Lennie talks as a mentally challenged person would and Crooks’ diction reflects that of an uneducated black man during that time period. As for syntax I didn’t notice much change when the author focused on character, his writing structurally didn’t seem to alter as a result of a switch from scenery to character description.

3.       The protagonist, George, is a rather static character. His views of the world and others don’t alter much and he pretty much stays the same guy all the way to the end. However, he is a round character and has his different sides; the outward cynic and the internal softy.

4.       This was definitely a real person story. I came away from the reading filled with a palpable feeling of loss and sadness.  The death of Lennie is especially difficult because the reader feels the way George does…Lennie didn’t mean to hurt anyone.

Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis :)

General

1.       A plane full of British boys crashes into a deserted island. Leaders quickly arise and attempt to recreate civilization within the group. There’s a clash of interests between leadership; one wants rescue and the other hunting. The boys slowly deteriorate the structure of their old society as they begin to embrace their animalistic instincts. The original group breaks up and they begin to fight with each other to the point of a taken life of two innocent children. At the very brink of savagery the boys are saved by a passing ship. It is unknown to the reader how a reintroduction to civilized society will be handled by those who’ve gone beyond the borders of socially acceptable behavior and thought.

2.       I believe the theme of Lord of the Flies is that within us all is a constant conflict between savagery and civility. Only human will can decide which of those demons we let rule our behavior.

3.       William Golding portrayed the story in an unsettling tone. "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'" This is very disturbing to say the least, that a child would make a connection like that after such a short time period of self-governed existence. It’s also frightening to know that the boys could reach a state of savagery to where they would take another’s life without regret, at least in the physical sense. Golding tells his story in a way that is realistic so as to be unsettling to a people so used to rules and regulations. "Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life."

4.       Connotations- The conch shell was used in this story to represent law, order and civility to the boys.

Denouement- This is the very end of the story after the climax. When the ship comes and rescues them.

Dialogue- Helped me get an understanding of the characters and their internal conflicts without having to listen in on their thoughts. "'after all we aren't savages really...'"

:)*Hyperbole- This was used frequently by the boys to help the reader further into the adolescent mind that is left without the guidance and protection of its origins. “’ We're English, and the English are best at everything.'" (Clearly not flying)

Irony- Helped me to enjoy the book by unintentionally making it funny to me. "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." The symbol of law and order to be destroyed by a ricochet of savagery.

Gothic Details- The authors tone was well created by the at times horrifying settings that dwelled within the story and the imaginations of the children. Simons encounter with The Lord of the Flies (pig head on a stick that talks)

Personification- By giving the dead pig head the ability to speak (at least to Simon) it helped me relate it more deeply to my perceptions of the world and what governs it. It became not just a dead animal, but a symbol of human will and how it controls our minds and our actions.

Characterization

1.       Golding describes Piggy as fat and having glasses but later through his dialogue and actions shows Piggy to be the voice of reason and the last lingering hope for civilized society. As Ralph is introduced to the reader he is beautiful and strong, with the qualities and brains of a true leader. Once indirectly characterized through his decent from rules to instinct, Golding left in my mind a boy far from his roots and lost in his inability to remain the person he had always seen himself to be.

2.       William Golding doesn’t alter his syntax or diction when he focuses on character. His writing style is consistent throughout, helping to make the connection between man and wild because one is not written of any differently from the other.

3.       The protagonist, Ralph, is a very dynamic character. He starts off on the island as a symbol of law and regulation, and through time transitions to an instinctual beast with the lust for all that his former conscious had fought against. Ralph isn’t a round character however because we see only what is done and said on the outside. His flatness gives the reader the freedom to roam within their own wishes and imaginations of what he could be wanting and thinking at any moment. As far as the writings of Golding however, the reader is never to truly understand the thought process behind the boy turned beast.

4.       I feel I met a boy by reading Lord of the Flies. The writing felt to me as though I was there to witness a decent to madness firsthand and lose a rational and respectable friend to his primal instincts. Ralph wasn’t just a character in a story; he was human will destroying itself through its hopeless quest for what is right and true in the world. “Even the sounds of nightmare from the other shelters no longer reached him…” He was in my mind what a real person would, if lost from civilization, become.