PROMPT REVISION

1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.

This was the first open prompt I did in for the blog, and I used a pop-culture novel (My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult). That was a huge mistake because Ms.Holmes hates that, and now that I look at it, it just looks dumb analyzing that novel after reading so many classics. Therefore, I am writing on a whole new novel, which I know isn't a revision... but OH WELL. 

          Parent child relationships are common in novels and plays. However, a meaningful conflict in this kind of relationship could be hard to find. In Arthur Miller's famous play, The Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman and Biff Loman's relationship depicts a perfect conflict that contributes to the meaning of the work. The difficulty Biff has of trying to understand his father and Willy's stubborn beliefs not only initiates the conflict but acts as fuel to heighten the tension.
          From Biff's childhood to teen years, he admired his father, Willy. Willy also had great expectations of Biff; he hoped and saw Biff's future for himself. Willy believed that in order to be respected in the future, Biff had to chase after the idealistic values of the American Society. Throughout the flashbacks, it shows that Biff agreed with Willy's idea. Biff dreamed of becoming a famous football star and making his father proud. From the start, Willy had too high of expectations for a young boy in the wrong mindset due to the regrets that he had for himself. Through Willy, Biff believed that being favored by others should be prioritized over education. Willy's wrong expectations was what initiated the greater conflict.
         It isn't till soon after where Biff realizes that what he's dreamed of was falling apart. As he hopes that his admiring father could help him, the conflict rises with Biff witnessing his father's affair and betrayal. Biff is even more distressed as Willy does not accept the fact that he was not committed to his family. The conflicts leads Biff to the west uneducated. The west signifies the American dream where new opportunities are created. Biff learns the hard way and tries to reconcile with his father in hopes of bringing the family members to the west. 
         In the midst of Biff's attempt to talk to his father, he only realizes that Willy's stubborn personality and his past will never accept the true ideas. The clash between Willy and Biff's ideals of the real American dream never settles. The little conflicts caused them to separate and find their own pathways. The growing conflicts allowed Biff to face reality and gradually accept Willy's behavior. The conflict became big enough to the point where their resolution only ended in another difference in ideas. Without Willy and Biff's conflict, the idea that the American dream everyone hopes for is different for each person would not have been attained. 

Ceremony Summary & Analysis

Leslie Marmon Silko (March 5, 1948- present)

• Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe
• Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• Learned traditional storytelling from her family (grandmother)
• She is one-fourth Laguno Pueblo

Setting

• Laguna Pueblo Reservation
• Some parts of U.S (California)
• Shifts from before 1942(Bataan March) to present 

Plot (divided into time frames)

•  BEFORE THE MILITARY (childhood-enlistment)
• Tayo is a half white and half Native American boy born to Laura
• Laura is Native American but strays away from the culture; she was alcoholic and went out with white men
• Before Tayo was born, Laura's sister, "Auntie" saw her walking by the river early in the morning in heels and no clothes
• When Tayo was young, Laura died and Josiah, Tayo's uncle brought him into the family
• Tayo can't ajust well due to the fact that he's biracial. 
• Auntie never liked the idea of taking care of Tayo because their family gets judged enough. She never showed it in front of grandma, but made sure Tayo knew that he didn't belong here
• Auntie didn't was her son, Rocky, to be associated with Tayo by any means.
• Rocky and Tayo both knew, but gradually became close as they grew up. Rocky is much different from Tayo in a sense that Rocky wants to leave the reservation ASAP. 
• Tayo was closest with Josiah and helped him and Robert (Auntie's husband) with the cattle work. He also kept Josiah's secrets about night swan (Josiah's Mexican gf) and the desert cattle
• When a military recruiter visits the reservation, Rocky persuades Tayo and both sign up to enlist in the military
• Harley, Emo, Pinkie, and Leroy are Tayo's childhood friends from the reservation. Emo and Tayo were never on good terms.
• DURING DUTY
• They must fight the Japanese, but Tayo just can't kill people.
• Rocky dies during duty; Tayo doesn't believe that Rocky's dead and watched the Japanese soldier shoot dead Rocky
• Tayo is held hostage in the Japanese Prison.
• During war, he's at a point in which he was shoot the Japanese soldiers but fail to do so because he saw uncle Josiah with the Japanese. He knows that can't be possible because Josiah died at the reservation while Tayo was gone to military.
• Tayo understands the relationship of White men and native women or any men in military wear with white women
• Tayo also curses the rain away in the jungle and feels guilty that the six year drought at the reservation is his fault. 
• Emo always boasts about his killings and starts conflicts with Tayo.
• PRESENT
• White doctors say that Tayo is struggling through PTS, however grandma disagrees and insists that he sees a medicine man
• All the other friends are also affected but with alcohol
• He comes back to the reservation from the white walled hospitals in California
• He decides to help Robert out with the Cattle
• Ku'oosh introduces Tayo to Medicine Man, Betonie
• Tayo tells Betonie everything while Betonie share stories and the value of Ceremony
• Betonie insists that Tayo must complete the ceremony despite the interferences
• In order to do so Tayo goes in search of Josiah's "desert" cattle
• The mountains are under close watch and finding the cattle is not easy
• With the help of T'seh, Tayo ends up to his final destination, the mine safely
• However, His friends are with Emo and he has to watch Harley get tortured by Emo. (emo's strategy to get Tayo to come out)
• Tayo survives and finishes the Ceremony in which the drought also comes to an end.
• Grandma believes that Tayo is a recurrence of Sun god
• Characters
• Tayo
• Protagonist; struggles with identity. He is half white and half Mexican; struggles through PTS after the war and can't let go of Josiah and Rocky's death
• Josiah
• Tayo's favorite uncle; he was dating a mexican (night swan) Grandma and Auntie were strongly against. He dies in the middle of the story; he had the wish to start a cattle business with the "all-purpose" desert cattle
• Auntie
• Tayo's aunt, Rocky's mother, Josiah's sister, Robert's wife. Claims to be a christian and treats Tayo like a responsibility to get to heaven. She wants Rocky to follow his dreams and become more white. 
• Grandma
• Tayo's Grandma; she doesn't care if other people judge or talk about the family. She's always sleeping or quiet but is always listening
• Rocky
• Tayo's cousin; doesn't want to be associated with native culture in any way. dreams of being a football player and heading out to the states after school. He signs tayo and himself up for the military but ends up not returning due to death.
• Betonie
• Medicine man that Ku'oosh introduces. He is also of mixed race and he intimidates Tayo at first but ends up healing him and leading Tayo into the right direction of fulfilling the ceremony. 
• Laura
• Tayo's mother; alcoholic, prostitute? a disgrace to the family
• Harley-> Leroy-> Pinkie and Emo
• All Tayo's childhood friends who also enlists in the military. Emo always hated Tayo and is the last interference in Tayo's ceremony. 
• Quotes
• " It seems like I already heard these stories before - only thing is, the names sound different."
• where grandma believes that Tayo is sun god and that all that he's gone through was just trial 
• Narrative voice 
• The narrative voice not only shifts from past to present, but just everywhere throughout the book. There are little short storytelling going on down the center of a page at an interval of every so pages and the narrative voice is never identified. Sometimes, when he/she talks about whats going on, it's a simple and straight foward, detailed explanation. However, there's times when first and second person pronouns pop up. Usually when night swan talks about her story or when Tayo is speaking. 

Response to Course Material

Ugh, I know this is late, but I swear it isn't "senioritis: slack on anything". I was actually gone the whole weekend with no access to computers... my apologies.

       Tracing my memory since the last Response to Course Material, we started and finished Ceremony with discussion here and there. I enjoyed this book; it was definitely better than R&G. I just think that if there is a plot or premise to the book, it's probably better than a play full of repetition and absurd questions. Ceremony didn't have the comic side that I'm used to seeing in AP lit however. Some of my friends thought it was really difficult connecting the time settings that were weaved throughout the novel. That wasn't so difficult for me. Two years ago, I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and the time setting fluctuated from past to present every few pages. Totally different genre, but having read that was very helpful. To be honest, I couldn't finish the book by the first reading date. Not that it was long, not that it was switching settings on me, but grasping the symbols were difficult. Yeah, I got the surface understanding, but every time I read a line or page over again, It felt like I was being exposed to something brand new all over again. Something I found interesting was that Tayo struggles through an identity crisis and stumbles on deciding to live or die like all the other characters we've covered in this class. The difference I saw in that idea was that Tayo struggled from every point: family, friends, himself, background, and culture. He also didn't have a father problem unlike Hamlet or Biff/Willy. Ceremony is probably something that I would read again just to challenge myself in what more I could come across and how "deep" my thoughts are at each read... lawls.

Prompt Revision

     "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" by Henry Longfellow is a brief yet powerful poem which emphasizes naturalism.  Longfellow simply delivers the message of life using several literary devices such as repetition and symbolism to support the complex meaning of "tide rises, the tide falls."

      After giving it a couple reads, readers are able to catch on to the surface meaning of the  line "tide rise, the tide falls" symbolizing the interminable time that passes. Longfellow uses repetition of this line a total of four times. He places it in the beginning at first and as the last line for each stanza respectively. By doing so, one values the significance of the repetitious lines.  The repeated emphasis in each stanza provides an analysis of the nature moving on despite the tide rising and falling. By this, one can see that no human being can interrupt a nature's continuity. The way Longfellow describes the tides rising and falling relates to the poem as a whole; a symbol of life. For example, the tide rising describes a new life while the tide falling represents the end or death of life and how the pattern continues.

     Going deeper, one can see that Longfellow incorporates a brand new meaning to the same line. When reading these lines, one can see Longfellow’s views through the period of Romanticism. For instance, the nature of rising and falling follow the idea of intuition over reasoning and the tides liken with the nature and freedom. While the first two repetitive lines expressed the ongoing life-cycle of nature and human, the same line expresses the after-death in a different stanza. Once the tide rises again and falls, it reaches out and fades the footprints. In other words, a human's mark will eventually be forgotten after their death, and the tide will continue to rise and fall, connecting back to the surface meaning

     Although Longfellow is a writer of Romanticism, Naturalism is also evidently shown when humans cannot interrupt the sequence of nature; they cannot try to overcome or oppose it either, which signifies limited freedom of the people. When the man hastened toward the town, Longfellow’s diction shows that the man is hesitantly trying to overcome the time. No matter how much he tries, he eventually cannot come back (referring to death).

     As a reader, one can see the effectiveness of the line "the tide rises, the tide falls" has on the poem. Unlike the light, rain, or any other nature effects, a tide is something that will recur as long as the earth exists. It marks the beginning and end; it symbolizes time. Longfellow does a phenomenal representation of an on-going cycle, death, and time with a line of poetry.

For the revision, I re-read the comments from peers on the first draft. Julia suggested that I analyze more specifically by adding the structure of the poem. I talked about how the repetition of the line marking the beginning and ending of each stanza provided emphasis. Greg insisted on adding how naturalism plays a role. While reviewing the literary time periods, I noticed that it tied well into Romanticism as well because Longfellow is a writer of that period. Lastly, John suggested that I put more literary element connections, so in addition to symbolism and repetition, I briefly added the use of diction. 

week late R&G summary analysis

Tom Stoppard (1937-present)

• British Playwright 
• as a child, his family moved around a lot 
• Stoppard left school at age 17 and worked as a journalist
• Serves as on the advisory board of the magazine Standpoint 

Setting

• woods/ forest
• Elsinore Castle
• boat
• similar time frame as Hamlet 

Plot

• Act I
• Play opens up with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tossing coins and getting heads each time
• Guildenstern brings up the law of probability and more references to physics
• Both repeatedly forget what is going on (being called by the king and their earliest memory)
• Guildenstern is frustrated with Rosencrantz illogical comments
• They faintly hear music and the Tragedians (players) enter
• Tragedians offer them a show in the woods 
• Rosencrantz shows them the coin trick, but this time, it end up tails
• This suddenly leads both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Elsinore Castle where Ophelia is in act
• Claudius and Gertrude ask them for help and to find out the core of Hamlet's madness
• Very uncertain of what's going on, they plan and recite what they would ask Hamlet.
• Act II
• as they speak with Hamlet, Hamlet plays with his words and evermore confuse them
• They get nothing out of the conversation and are left with no idea
• Tragedians enter into the castle called by Hamlet. They prepare to preform the new script given about Claudius
• Meanwhile, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern contemplate over the mystery of death
• The next day, tragedians are ready and Alfred is dressed as Gertrude
• The play is actually a story of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but they fail to notice
• Claudius is furious with the play of his portrayal 
• Through the king's order, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in search of Hamlet and where he put Polonius's body
• They fail to catch him and instead, the guards bring Hamlet to Claudius
• Claudius orders Ros and Guil to take Hamlet to England 
• Act III
• Soon, both realize that they're on a boat with Hamlet to England
• They are unaware of what to do because Hamlet is asleep
• they talk about how much they received from Hamlet, but Ros doesn't tell him.
• Guil gets mad and Ros becomes sad and talk about fate
• Guil remembers that Claudius has given them a letter and takes it out
• the letter tells the English king to kill Hamlet
• both are confused and feel guilty 
• Hamlet blows out the lights and Ros and Guil are fast asleep?
• Hamlet then switches the letter
• In the morning, they hear the tragedian's music once again
• The pirates attack their boat and goes into chaos
• Hamlet is gone and Ros takes out the letter to read that they, instead of Hamlet shall be killed
• Ros realizes that this is the end and leaves. 
• Guil is alone and cries for Ros
• the Story ends with all corpse on the ground

Characters

• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
• both childhood friends of Hamlet
• Each act, they're roles change
• Guildenstern studies his life
• Rosencrantz is carefree
• they both forget who they are and are always uncertain over their identities
• Player
• seems to know and understand what's going on
• leader of the tragedians. 
• tragedians are a group of male actors putting on plays
• Rest of characters are in Hamlet

Motif

• Absurdism
• illogical comments
• rare connections between plots
• repetition in dialogue between R&G
• Identity
• both R&G mix their identity up
• mystery of fate
• mystery of death
• roles switch in each act
• Imagination over Reality
• coin flipping and getting heads 99 times
• using physics to back up their uncertainty

Quotes

• "Words, Words. They are all we have to go on" 
• even though this play uses repetition, word play, illogical comments, words play a significant role. Through words they believe in physics even though it fails to work on them. Through words they find out their deaths. It's everything through words that the story goes on
• "Life in a box is better than no life at all"
• R&G debate about the mystery of life and death. The box signifies Shakespeare's boundaries with Hamlet and they realize they can't escape from it. 

Response to Course Material #7

      ZOMG. WE HAVE LIKE 8 WEEKS LEFT OF HIGH SCHOOL.

We recently finished Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (R&G); I have to admit that it was pretty funny. Analyzing poems and MC practice is also what we've been doing since AP exam is getting closer by the day. Hm... we started the Native American novel, Ceremony, which I find really interesting and a bit difficult with all the symbol and time differences going on. 

      I would love to share a summary about R&G but there really isn't a story line to it. Sometimes it branches off of Hamlet, sometimes it branches off of absurdism, and sometimes it's the two talking about death and fate. Honestly, the play became more interesting after we finished the read because we were given two essays on the analysis of Stoppard's play. I think the one I read was the "spectre" one and it was about how Shakespeare is god in R&G. It stated things like how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to escape from Shakespeare, but fail to do so because their set in they're boundary. In addition, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were compared to the players. I noticed that the players seemed much more serious and logical while I just couldn't even follow along R&G's dialogue. It was pretty awesome to find out the reason why. Apparently, this happens because the players are dependent on Shakespeare and they know their dependency while R&G are totally clueless. This is what I was able to grasp from R&G. However, as Ms.Holmes always says, plays and classical novels always have a new layer of meaning when you read it again. Maybe one day I'll read that play and see a whole new side to it. 

     In my previous Response to Course Material, I talked about how difficult MC questions are. We practiced them some more but unlucky Gloria Chang was absent those two days. I say unlucky because I really don't make an effort on a weekday nor a weekend to study AP MC questions... Well, that's what I didn't do, but a couple days ago, I talked to some classmates and came up with some new strategies. Although the MC questions were a downer, I'm actually too proud about my poem/essay analysis. For one of Shakespeare's play excerpt, I think I did a great job. I was able to see the several shifts in tone: bitter, humble, anger, and arrogance. I was able to see the biblical allusion of Lucifer's Fall and the diction of
glory". For a 40? 50? minute essay, I would pat myself on the back. 

That is all. 

Late PROMPT REVISION

1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

    

     A contrast between two places is significantly evident in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. The characters in this novel are settled either in East or West egg which represent two distinct forces. East Egg is established with individuals who are wealthy from the roots, while the West Egg is known as "new money", a place that attracts un-original wealthy people, people who desire to be like the East Egg. Fitzgerald uses two distinct towns to represent opposing wealth, attitude, and status which contribute to the flow of Jay Gatsby's ambition to become wealthy and win his first love, Daisy Buchanan, back.

Fitzgerald represents the East Egg and West Egg as two different classes of social status and wealth. This is shown when despite Gatsby's lie to Daisy about his prosperous family, she gives up waiting for him  and chooses to marry Tom, a wealthy man from East Egg because East Egg has been home to the elites and upper class. As mentioned before, the East Egg is referred as the old money. When Gatsby throws lavishing consistent parties at his mansion in hopes to attract Daisy; people in the East Egg don't make their way to his party. It takes Nick and Jordan to persuade Daisy and Tom to visit the West. It becomes clear that not only does Fitzgerald incorporate status into locations but also the time period. This is also supported when Tom and Daisy are absorbed to the past traditions and aristocratic values of East and refuse to change unlike Gatsby and Nick.

On the other hand, West Egg is consisted with lower/middle class people who made their own fortune and money without being born with it. The people from the West are new to this wealth and they look up to the stable social standings of the East. This sparks Gatsby to work and reinvent himself to get Daisy back; he settles in the West across the bay from Daisy's home. While these two cities symbolize the difference in society, Fitzgerald uses the West to represent the new present, opposing the old money.  In comparison to Daisy and Tom who are fixed in the past, Nick and Gatsby who live in the West are ready to change and reform. They live in present time and work for the future.

Throughout The Great Gatsby, readers are able to see the difference in wealth, status, and attitude between the East and the West Egg. Fitzgerald creates Tension between the two contrasting places  to represent opposing ideas to the plot. In doing so, the story not only gets interesting, but it connects to past American history and literature. The way Fitzgerald portrayed the West in comparison to the East showed the opportunities provided in both places. It's obvious to see that Gatsby followed the American Dream towards the West to seek fortune. The divided setting of the novel contributes to the symbolic meaning and theme of Fitzgerald's story as a whole.

I took into account of Chris, Julia, and Alison's suggestions. Although I dislike the new structure of the essay, I tried to separate the East and West into two separate paragraphs for less confusion as asked by Alison and Julia. I agreed that missing a thesis creates an unclear point throughout the writing as a whole. I inserted a old-fashioned three point thesis for clarity. I still like my first draft better; maybe it's easier to comprehend for me because I wrote it myself ...