Literature Bookwork Pgs. 4-14

From Legend to History (A.D. 449-1485)

Historical Background:
-The Celts invaded the British Isles and settled into Britain (Brythons) and Ireland (Gaels)
-Julius Caesar and Rome invaded Britain years later, ruling for 300 years
-The Anglo-Saxons then took over from Germany, falling to barbarian tribes but allowing the Celtic Christian Church to remain
-Columba and some monks gained converts to Christianity, prior to the Danish invasion of the Vikings; Alfred the Great took the Wessex throne and became a national hero, keeping Danish civilization intact and preaching learning and education

My Opinion Isn't (A) Right

I understand the concepts that Jamie Whyte poses, but it doesn't always make things fair.

Reflections on Week 1

1. Honestly, I feel as though the only thing that is going to affect my participation or experience in this class is my own self. Yes, I have an EXTREMELY busy schedule with a lot going on and a lot of AP classes to tend to-not to mention the fundraising I need to do before summer to go on some world travel trips I really want to go on. But I've had a busy schedule and a lot going on since I was in elementary school-I'm one of those people that likes to try most things at least once, and it's easier for me to maintain a pleasant life when it's jam-packed with busy schedules and things rather than one where I remain stagnant. It's always been this way for me and has never affected me negatively, and I don't see this year being any different. The only thing holding me back would be my lack of desire to share things with others. When it comes to sharing things (especially writing) I'm more of a listener than anything else. It's not because I don't have plenty of my own thoughts and ideas because believe me, I do. It's just that I don't feel there's a strong motivation in me to share them, because people are going to believe what they want to believe and I honestly just don't really care what they think about what I have to say, because those are my words and no matter what others tell me, I believe in them. No one else's opinion really matters too much to me. That said, I do like to think I'm a very open-minded person. I like to listen and learn and hear what other people have to say; I like to hear and take into account their thoughts and ideas, which could ultimately contribute to the development of my thoughts and ideas. It's going to be a big step for me to put myself and my writing out there this year, but I suppose I had to get over it sometime.

Vocabulary #1

Thank you to Siera and Dr. Preston for making it a whole lot easier and less time consuming to find the definitions for the words in Vocab List #1!

1987 AP Exam

I found questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 28, 30, 47, 49, 50, 53, 54, and 56 all relatively easy and straight forward. A lot of these questions focused either on literary/vocabulary terms, or implications right out of the texts and I managed to get them all right.

Montaigne/Austen Essay

Although Montaigne's Essays are lengthy and combine a lot of wise words from historical figures past into a few hundred pages, they don't even begin to touch on the depths of what he was trying to get across. True, Montaigne's Essays do combine a lot of prevalent thoughts of different people together to support several pressing ideas. And in retrospect, because of the array of people and examples used, most of the topics of the Essays cover a lot of ground and give a strong insight as to different thoughts and ideas that occur. But those thoughts are only of a certain handful of individuals which lived at the time or before, and do not begin to explore the ideas of other peoples of the time, or even today. With Montaigne using an array of quotes and examples from other people, the Essays show that he was well-read and had a "stream of consciousness" type of thinking, which he shared with Jane Austen, though in a different manner.

Poetry #1

1. The commercial "borrows" the poem The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski.
2. The use of this poem by a corporation could be considered ironic because the poem is all about not being tied down by this world and being free to live your own life, while Levi's is advertising a material product, highly contradicting the non-materialistic poem.
3. The poem does reflect the reputation of Bukowski, especially in his later life. The first part of his life was spent being abused and criticized by not only his peers, but his family as well. He worked his way out of his "dank submission" (the life he lived in abuse from his father as well as being bullied by his peers) into a life of his own, one where he took chances both romantically and in his writing career. He lived his life in a way that would make him happy, escaping his prior state of darkness.
4. For #1, I listened to the first words of the poem and typed in, "Your life is your life," into the Google search box. I then clicked the first source that came up, because it seemed to be a reliable poetry source, (thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com) which gave me the entire poem with the title and the author. As for #3, I looked up "Charles Bukowski" and first read up on his information/life on Wikipedia. I then clicked on what I felt to be a more reliable link, bukowski.net. Both these links combined gave me the information I needed to answer #3.

Essay #1

The term "home" is often defined as a place where one lives. However, in today's age, many would beg to differ and argue that home is not necessarily a material place of birth, but rather where one feels secure. Whether that be in a concrete house or a lover's arms is up for interpretation. In the The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Leah Price is whisked from her birthplace in Georgia to travel on a mission with her family to a place foreign to them all: Africa. While at first Leah is excited for this new chapter in her life, and the opportunity to learn and explore, she quickly realizes that the African environment is not as comforting as was Sanderling Island, GA. That is until she meets someone who serves as somewhat of a substitute for her lack of a place to call home, a teacher in the village named Anatole. From her first encounters in Africa to starting a family with Anatole, Leah Price experiences both the positive and negative effects of exile and how it shapes her views on what "home" really is.

Essays (Montaigne)

In reading just the first passage of Montaigne's essays alone (titled "To the Reader") I was already beginning to plunge deep into thought. By the second to last line of Montaigne's introduction, I was questioning why I was reading the book at all. Montaigne concludes his preface with saying, "... I am myself the matter of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and vain a subject." Most people in life try to be as reasonable as possible. Therefore, continuing on reading this large book of different ideas of one man who lived so long ago, as Montaigne said, would be pointless and a waste of time. But of course I wasn't just going to not turn the next page, for two main reasons. One reason being the obvious one: I had to read the book in order to complete my summer assignment and get credits for my class. And two: If one short passage could make me put as much thought into it as the first page of Montaigne's Essays did, there had to be some worth in continuing on and reading what else he had to say. Because I figured even if I didn't agree with it, it would make me see things from another point of view other than my own, which I feel is necessary for growing and expanding in the world that we live in. So, despite my desire to be a reasonable person, my curious, rebellious side got the better of me, and I disregarded the author's advice against reading his thoughts and turned the page anyway.

Pride and Prejudice Notes

Volume I:
Characters:
-Mr. Bennet is the husband of Mrs. Bennet and father of their five daughters. He is a kind and loving person in general, and maintains a laid back persona throughout the story. Though he is the head of the household, he seems to somewhat stay out of social affairs as much as he can, unlike many of the other strong male figures throughout the novel. He loves all of his daughters but seems more so attached to Elizabeth, who he shares the same ideas with (they seem to be the wisest out of all the Bennets and are both more focused on happiness and their own personal desires than those of politics and money).
-Mrs. Bennet is the wife of Mr. Bennet and mother of the Bennet household. Unlike Mr. Bennet, she is more concerned with social status and money and is constantly pushing for her daughters to marry, despite their opinions on the situation. She is a very selfish person and not a good mother to her daughters, basically wanting to pawn them off for the social aspect of the marriages.

The Poisonwood Bible Notes

Book One: GenesisOrleanna Price begins narrating the story of her and her children trudging through a forest. She describes herself as, "Southern Baptist by marriage, mother of children living and dead." This implies that maybe her religious views aren't necessarily hers, but that of her husband. She is the mother of four girls who she is with in the forest. Kingsolver uses vivid imagery and many descriptive words to give the reader an accurate depiction of where the story is taking place, as if the reader were there as well. Orleanna switches throughout the first passage from a first person P.O.V (speaking of herself and her travels using "I") to a third person P.O.V (speaking as if she were watching the accounts, referring to herself as "she"). She also mentions how the passage is directed to "you", referring to her favorite child. Her interaction with the okapi seems important. The story is taking place in the 1960's, the time of Kennedy and space travel. Orleanna describes her husband as unloving. Contrary to her daughter's beliefs that their mother has no life of her own due to her controlling husband, Orleanna states that she very much so has a life of her own, she just chooses to keep quiet. The big question she poses is, "How do we aim to live with it [referring to one's own fortune]?" She replies that the answer lies within individuals (her daughters) and how they live throughout the story.