Lit Terms 3

exposition: the beginning
expressionism: movement, unrealistic representation
fable: story with animals that teaches a moral truth
fallacy: false notion
falling action: part of the story after the climax
farce: boisterous comedy with dialogue
figurative language; language characterized by figurative speech
flashback: a flashback
foil: opposing characters or things
folk tale: Oral tradition story
foreshadowing: hinting at what is to happen
free verse: verse without a pattern
genre: a category of a book
gothic tale: tale characterized by gothic elements
hyperbole: overexaggeration
imagery: vivid description
implication: something that the reader has to arrive at
incongruity: joining of opposite elements to balance each other
inference: judgement based on evidence
irony: incongruity between what is said and what is meant

Thanks Laura!

http://www.lauraritchie.com/2015/01/25/piece-story/


Laura has helped me and Erica I with our masterpiece. I hope that you all will be able to share your stories with us!

What's The Story?

(I wrote this while listening to the Brain Food playlist on Spotify. I really like it.)
     Reading Great Expectations is like reading society itself. Fiction is reflective on society and human nature. In dreams when you see people, they have all been seen before at one time or another. You may not recognize a face but subconsciously you remember them. In fiction there are many themes that seem new, but they have all been seen before. The author may intend to write for the sake of writing yet meaning is conveyed subconsciously just as faces in dreams are seen subconsciously. The themes that we read about have been seen in society and copied down in a book. Dickens wrote Great Expectations because he wanted to reflect on how when the human instinct is to want and be greedy, it will lead to a state of decay and corruption by the fortune one craved dearly in the beginning until simplicity is craved instead.
     "So imperfect was this realization of the first of my great expectations, that I looked in dismay at Mr. Wemmick. "Ah!" said he, mistaking me; "the retirement reminds you of the country. So it does me."" Through the use of foreshadowing Charles Dickens exploits a child's dreams/expectations of becoming something great and better. Foreshadowing is present in the title, this quote, and the broken phases of Pip's expectations. When a child is asked what they want to be, most will respond with something that would be nearly impossible to attain. Pip wants to be a gentleman. He craves something more than the simple life that he has had no choice to live with. Pip's desire is the first stage of his false expectations that wealth is perceived to bring.
     The two men that develop Pip's expectations are foils. Most of these expectations are derived from shallow and materialistic perceptions of the lifestyle and personality these people represent. Joe has a colloquial diction and tone. It is very clear that he is uneducated, yet he is satisfied with his lifestyle. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have sacrificed his position in society to save Pip. Unfortunately, all Pip sees is a man who is kind, yet ignorant of the life he could have. Jaggers is an educated, wealthy man. He could buy just about anything that he wants, except for the happiness he had lost from the power he got from his wealth.  He abandoned his daughter Estella and feels no remorse. His diction and syntax is formal and has a business-like connotation because his business is what gets him power. From the drastic foil comparison Dickens created, wealth comes to represent a poison of decay.
     Wealth symbolizing corruption is a cliché that may seem unusual for a great author to use. Dickens used this cliché because it is a thought that can be seen in society through various rulers throughout history. By using something that is incredibly mundane, Dickens allows the audience to focus on the decay of Pip and his returning want for simplicity. In doing so, the audience is able to connect to Pip on a more emotional level.

Funny Commencement Speeches

I know it's a little early for commencement speeches, but these ones are really great :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmDYXaaT9sA






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Y0F0cNLDM

Schooling

So today in French I really felt like blogging about the class but couldn't so I'm doing it now. I love French(the language, not the class) and I love the culture. Someday I would love to be bilingual in a language. As much as I love the language I have this hate for the class. Today, I couldn't help but notice how many times I stared at the clock wondering when I was getting out. This class is the epitome of traditional schooling. A group of kids forced to sit in a room and be told to learn, while everything in our bodies is telling us to count the minutes left. I'm not purposefully bragging about myself, but I am one of the smartest students in there. Not because I get an "A", but because I pay attention. The students in this class literally refuse to learn. Even if you just sat in the class you could soak up a little French. But no, it's as if the students are brick walls instead of sponges. How much learning can be accomplished by talking to a brick wall? It's not entirely the student's fault though. Teaching French from a 1980's textbook is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Why I decided to blog about this is because I think how sad it is that we are expected to be bricks, so therefore we become bricks. And our refusal to learn is going to make us ignorant and deviate from our dreams so that we're brick walls in a cubicle counting the minutes 'til we get to go home.

Please don't see this movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci7eKlNRiuw


You have got to be fucking kidding me right now. This movie is praising one othe shittiest time-old messages out there: To fit in, you have to change the way you look.

January 21 in class conversations

• Lower class tends to be more humble and fairly satisfied 
• Higher class tends to be evil and unsatisfied
• Dickens sees materialism as a poison 
• Materialism is used to replace feeling which can only be made from emotion not an inanimate object
• Yet class does not stop the craving of wealth
• Joe was humble, caring, etc
• Jaggers (Daggers??) Is evil and wants power as a life source
• Havisham has decayed possibly because of her wealth