Close Reading #2

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/how-not-to-choose-a-president/

       As we approach the election of 2012, the decision of who to vote for becomes increasingly eminent. How Not to Choose a President by Gary Gutting explains how people make this decision based on the wrong criteria every election. Firstly, Gutting's timing for his article fits perfectly, with the 2012 presidential election just around the corner. The election is already on everyone's mind, thus makes the article relevant to more people. Gutting begins his article by not taking any type of political opinion, so that those voters already devoted to one political party are not deterred by his article. Gutting considers his audience, knowing that politics can be a touchy topic for most. This lack of details helps the article stay applicable to a wider audience. In addition to a lack of details in some areas, the author also uses specifics to help emphasize his point--a presidency is influenced mostly by fate. He uses the example of bin Laden's death under Obama's term in office: "was it the president's careful judgement and planning, or just luck that things worked out for the SEAL unit raid?" 
     At the start of the article, it mentions how, unlike us, the Greeks acknowledge fate when choosing a leader. Both Achilles and Hector exhibited flaws in their leadership, but nonetheless are known as some of the greatest leaders of all time. Gutting explains how we "are more inclined to speak of luck or chance... but too seldom invoke either to explain why things go wrong for politicians." 
     In addition to relating the campaign to Greek mythology, the author relates the presidential race to "a faulty analogy between politics and competitive sports." Gutting uses figurative language to help the readers understand what Gutting believes is wrong in the way we vote. He continues to say "A team or player gets credit for a win even if their opponent was clearly superior and lost only from terrible luck... In a society that regards training in sports as training for life, it is easy to start thinking of any competitive situation as a sporting event" similarly to how president Obama is associated with the fluctuating economic situation: any decline in employment is the president's fault, and any increase is his doing, even though in actuality, it may have very little to do with him.  
     Lastly, Gutting employs the use of questions in his article, often asking the reader why? or what alternatives are there? This use of syntax helps engage the reader in the article, and make the article leave a more memorable impact. 

     
     

     

Open Prompt Response #2

2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a novel set 300 years in the future after the society we know today collapses. A new society forms where kids must undergo an operation to make them pretty at the age of sixteen. It is an operation that biologically enhances the features of these people to meet a certain standard of beautiful. After the operation, the kids are relocated to a new city where they are free to mingle with new pretties just like them. From a young age, these kids are told that they are inadequate until they receive this operation, thus they all dream of being "pretty." Though the majority do undergo the operation and live in the city, a rebel group forms, and plots to overthrow the government that forces the operation upon people. The protagonist, Tally, contemplates joining her suite mates in the pretty city, or following her friend Shay to the rebel group up in the mountains. Unbeknownst to Tally, the government has been trying to locate and exterminate this rebel group for many years now. After discovering that Shay has already started the journey to the mountains, the government jumps on the opportunity to use Tally as a rebel group scout. Although Tally does not want to endanger to friend Shay, the government threatens Tally with never receiving the operation, and having to stay ugly forever. Tally begins her journey to the mountains with a government tracker in hand. Once she makes it to the rebel group, she befriends them, and finds herself unable to turn them over to the government. However, she tosses the tracker into a fire and unintentionally sets off the signal. 

Tally only wants to do what is right; the only problem is that she is unsure of who is right. The Uglies society, a new set of morals and standards about society is set; what is considered beautiful? How much power should government have? What is right or wrong? Tally finds herself conflicted between her own morals and the ones society sets for her. Tally has grown up in a world that tries to defy nature that says that it is wrong to appreciate the way you were made, and that nobody is born beautiful. She sees her quest of betrayal as just her duty to her government.  Once she meets the members of the rebel group, she sees a new perspective on life, and starts to make her own judgments instead of the ones the government forces onto people. Although Tally's betrayal was not intentional, it was a fight against everything she had ever known. It was only Tally's moral compass that brought her to the conclusion of what is right. 

Response to Course Material #2

Since the last course material post, we have been getting a lot of handouts. There have been several readings about the different literary movements, writing styles and techniques, and literary terms. Although I have already learned about a lot of the concepts we are covering in class, such as aspects of comedy, or Greek archetypes and allusions, the class discussions and have helped me study these in more depth. For example, everyone knows what comedy is, but in class, we learned how comedy is created, and what is important to include in comedy to help it appeal to large audiences. Not only that, but there are so many different levels of comedy, adding to ways that humor can be conveyed in writing. Also in class we learned about the Theater of the Absurd. The American Dream, one of the most famous works of Theater of the Absurd, at first seemed completely nonsensical. After dissecting the play in class, different underlying meaning became clearer to me. The AP lit class has really helped me analyze what ideas different works of literature are trying to project. Meanings in literature are often subtle, and subjective to readers, so that more people can take away from readings in ways that relate to them. However, when reading different works, it is important to not bring false preconceptions with you, because it can cloud from the true ideas of the work or ideas of the author. The different literary eras in class have helped me organize literature. By learning the characteristics of each era, I find it easier to see patterns in literary material.

Close Reading

       To euthanize, or to not. When is it right? Jessica Pierce writes about this issue in her article Deciding When a Pet Has Suffered Enough. She begins by using imagery to open her article, describing a personal experience she has had with her own pet, Ody.

       ODY died peacefully last year... He was 14 and a half. Truth be told, Ody didn’t just die. I killed        him. I paid a vet to come to my house and inject a chemical solution into a vein in Ody’s back leg...             Ody had been in serious decline for six months. Partial paralysis of his laryngeal muscles made it        hard for him to breathe, and he would begin to pant at the slightest exertion. His once deep tenor        bark had transformed into a raspy Darth Vader croak... His muscles atrophied, and his walk was        crab-like and unsteady.

       Pierce describes the handicaps of her dog by retelling Ody's actions during his decline. "Raspy Darth Vader croak," "pant at the slightest exertion," "deep tenor bark": these phrases show how Ody sounded during his last days. Other phrases "crab-like" or "unsteady," help you imagine how Ody struggled to walk. This use of imagery helps the reader really envision Ody and sympathize with Pierce, which helps Pierce defend other treatments for pain other than euthanasia.

       Pierce's word choice is important in this article as well. Later, Piece describes pets as "companions," thus invoking relatable feelings in the reader. Piece also describes her decision to put Ody to sleep as an "imperfect judgment," letting readers know that it is never is easy for anyone to make a choice like this.
       This article has a more relaxed feel, helping readers connect with the ideas Pierce is trying to convey. The stress of this article is to let readers know that there are other ways to ease the pain in their pets other than euthanasia, and Pierce's diction helps the audience feel like they are not alone.
       The details in this article are quite specific when it comes to describing Ody. All of Ody's ailments are depicted vividly because Pierce wanted her readers to understand the difficulty of the situation. Afterwards, Pierce provides alternatives to this tragic scenario. By adding those details about Ody, it would persuade the reader from giving their own dog euthanasia as a cure for their pain to using one of the other methods, because Pierce obviously suffered from that experience.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/deciding-when-a-pet-has-suffered-enough.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion

Prompt

     One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
     
     In Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, the protagonist Anna faces the decision of saving her sister's life and saving herself. Her parents originally only had two children, Anna's sister Kate and her brother Jesse. After Kate was diagnosed with leukemia, her parents need to find someone who was a genetic match to her so they could donate bone marrow and keep Kate alive. After finding that no one in the family could provide the blood for Kate, her parents decided to have another baby, only this time they selected genes for the child that would ensure a genetic match for Kate. Almost instantly after Anna is born, transfusions begin. Years of painful treatment pass and Anna continues to supply Kate, often having to miss school, losing friends along the way. Seemingly, Anna has had enough of the treatments, and the book begins with Anna asking a lawyer for the rights to her own body over her parents. 
     The story continues with the fight over the custody of Anna's body between Anna and her parents. Anna is trying to free herself from the control of her parents, and argues that she doesn't need to put up with the transplants and longer. She is losing everything else and is left with  a family that seems to only care about Kate's survival rather than hers. While Anna's mom is fighting against Anna in the court case, is causes a divide in the family. 
       As the story goes on, we eventually see that Anna was not selfishly trying to save herself from the pain and her sacrifices, but instead her sister's. Kate had already tried to commit suicide because she was tired of living in such a helpless way, and when a vital kidney transplant was required, Kate made Anna promise to just let her be, which is why Anna began fighting in the first place. 
       In this novel, we see boundaries of ethics stretch. Anna is the result of a genetic enhancement. Is it right to choose what traits your child will have? Essentially, Anna's existence is because of Kate. Is it right for Anna to have to endure these treatments, even if it is to save Kate? When is saving a child's life wrong? This novel transcends the plot by evoking these types of ethical dilemmas in the reader's mind. The struggle for power illustrated here may have readers reconsider what is right and what is wrong. 

Response to Course Material

I had never really given it much thought, but AP Lit has really helped me see what types of ideas authors are trying to convey in their work. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor helped me see different perspectives and underlying motifs in literature. Also, Foster talks about how all literature is connected by common ideas and backgrounds, and how ideas in literature are hardly new, but instead reused in a new and interesting way. This helps me understand literature better, and draw connections with what I already know. The three presentations on the Spruz page showed me how to approach literature in a different way. The AP Test Essay Basics taught me how writing and reading for the AP exam is a very active process, and you always have to be thinking about how ideas are related, and how they are applicable to everyday life. Also, the rhetorical situation must always be considered, which ties back to how authors write with a very definite purpose. Considering the rhetorical situation aids readings and makes writings stronger.

Me Talk Pretty One Day & The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing

                Harvey’s book, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, explains many different aspects of writing that can be found in Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day. Starting from the opening sentence (Harvey 71), “At the age of forty-one, I am returning to school,” we can see that right off the bat, Sedaris gives us an insight as to where the story is going. In the next paragraph, the opening sentence doesn’t just give a good idea of what is in that paragraph, but ties back to the first paragraph. “I’ve moved to Paris…my school is an easy ten-minute walk away from my apartment.”  The second paragraph is explaining more about where the story is taking place, and what the main character’s situation is like. These opening sentences help strengthen Sedaris’s story.

                Not only is Sedaris’s story organized, but it is “graceful” as well (Harvey 46). Sedaris draws parallels (Harvey 50) in his work by comparing the misfit character to “Pa Kettle trapped backstage after a fashion show.” Some other examples of his parallelism are relating the foreign country experience where “it’s everybody in the language pool, sink or swim,” and comparing the teacher to a “wild animal, something completely unpredictable.”  A specific type of parallelism, tricolon (Harvey 53), is also exemplified in Me Talk Pretty One Day. Lists of three such as “movie theaters, puppet shows, and Festyland,” or “young attractive and well dressed,” reinforce effective writing.

                Good punctuation is evident in Sedaris’s story as well. Dashes, colons, and commas are all used in a way that helps dictate the story the way the author intended. The use of the dash in this sentence, “I absorbed as much of her abuse as I could understand, thinking –but not saying –that I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object,” lets the writer return to the main flow as quickly as he left it (Harvey 43). “I was determined to create some sort of identity for myself: David, the hardworker, David the cut-up,” contains a colon that organizes the passage into a neat list that supports strong writing (Harvey 41).

                I think Sedaris does a great job of writing clearly and effectively. He introduces ideas well, and also organizes those ideas in a way that the reader can follow. In addition, Sedaris makes the story interesting by adding parallels and doesn’t bog the essay down with extraneous ideas. Me Talk Pretty One Day is a very well written story.

Poetry Study Goals

1) Understand what the writer is trying to convey. What is their tone of voice? What is their message? What kind of clues can help you figure these things out?

2) Study poetic terms. Understand the difference between the meters or stanzas.

3)  Study different writing styles. Romantic vs. sonnet vs. lyric.

4) Know differences of the poem's history, which may help in understanding. What era was it written in? Who wrote it? What were the conditions of the times?

5) Pick up on second meanings and metaphors.

Diagnostic Test Review

Wow, I did not do so well on this test. Of course, I could blame the fact that I was trying to finish quickly because I'm leaving for New York tomorrow, and have yet to pack, but I would say I still did quite terribly nonetheless. Also, I took the test without printing it out, and they say that you retain about 30% less information reading from a computer than from a hard copy. That's just what "research" claims, though (possibly pseudoscience? Olstad's class, anyone?). Anyways, judging by this test, I don't think I would receive any type of college credit from the AP test, which would is the aim of the game, here. I found that I wasn't familiar with a lot of the vocab and literary terms on the test, or I had seen it before from Brit Lit or earlier, but couldn't exactly pinpoint the definition. I guess overall, this test just made me realize that I have a whole lot of studying to do for next year, which should be just terrific.