To Be Or Not To Be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMDNenV_MRE&feature=youtu.be

Literary Analysis #2

1) It begins with the only surviving sister reflecting on the past because there is an interviewer asking her questions of their life. Through  the book the sisters continue to tell the story of how they were able to get rid of their corrupt government system, and adding their own perspective. Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa (Mate)went to a Catholic all girls school, but Minerva was the one who became the first political because she met a girl named Sinita who apparently had lost a lot of her loved ones because of the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Since then Minerva began fighting against injustice and became the face of the revolution. The youngest daughter entered the cause after seeing her future husband. Then Patria entered after experiencing something horrific and decided to fight for her brothers and sisters( the people). Dede mostly maintained her distance because her husband Jaimito wouldn't let her join her sisters. Eventually they get caught so Minerva, Manolo ( her husband), Mate, Pedrito (Patria's husband), and Leandro (Mate's husband) all go to jail. The girls are there for about 9 months but come out changed.The sister's continue to visit their husbands in jail and after a visit they are ambushed and killed. Dede remains and takes care of their kids.

2) I would say that the theme was to just stand up for whats right to the bitter end, even if your a woman because they are a lot stronger than what they seem, especially if they are as courageous and intelligent as Minerva. There is something else that can be a theme for  example throughout the book people would think of Trujillo as a God, even though he was an abusive, corrupt, and perverted man.

3)  The author seem to speak of the girls as an admirer of their actions yet a little sad for how they are going to end up.

•  "Voz del pueblo, voz del cielo." - means "Voice of the people, voice of heaven" 
• "And that's how I got free. I don't mean just going to sleepaway school on a train with a trunkful of new things. I mean in my head after I got to Inmaculada and met Sinita and saw what happened to Lina and realized that I'd just left a small cage to go into a bigger one, the size of our whole country."
• "A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she doesn't want to be the only one left to tell their story."

4)  1. Foreshadowing: In the beginning the father said that, Dede will bury them "in silk and pearls". pg. 8
2.  Symbolism: The mariposas were the symbols of the revolution and freedom.
3. Diction: It used spanish words also to draw in more of their actual culture, and to remind the reader of the setting.
4. Bandwagon: Minerva was a very persuasive activist and was able to get most of her sister to help in the cause against Trujillo, especially Maria Theresa.
5. Flashback: Dede is the one in present time since she is the only one that survived so she flashes back to the point where the whole story began and that's how the story begins.
6. Imagery: Minerva was really good at describing how things trully were in the government and was able to open peoples eyes to Trujillo's corruption.
7. Syntax: I really liked how the author did the structure of this book it isn't like other books but the way that its structured gives you hints of how the book is going to end but you don't truly know so the curiosity gets to you.
8. Allusion: "Las Mariposas" was an allusion to the Mirabal sisters.
9. Degradation: " If they had only known how frail was their iron-will heroine. How much it took to put on that hardest of all performances, being my old self again."
10. Hyperbole: "That room was silent with the fury of avenging angels sharpening their radiance before they strike."

Characterization:
1. 2 examples of direct characterization would be like, " I guess after three months of addressing him, I was sure I’d feel a certain kinship with the stocky, overdressed man before me." and,"There were hundreds of us, the women all together, in white dresses like we were his brides, with white gloves and any kind of hat we wanted"
2 examples of indirect characterization would be like, "I opened a cage to set a half-grown doe free. I even gave her a slap to get her going. But she wouldn't budge! She was used to her little pen. I kept slapping her, harder each time, until she started whimpering like a scared child. I was the one hurting her, insisting she be free. Silly bunny, I thought. You’re nothing at all like me." and “I’d sooner jump out that window than be forced to do something against my honor.”
2. His diction does change for example since Maria Theresa is speaking his words embody the voice of a 7 year old little girl because it wouldn't make sense if she sounded really sophisticated it wouldn't make sense, so he makes her vocabulary sound like a little girls. His syntax usually starts from the beginning then goes back to a certain point then works its way up, he breaks it up into like three sections and does the same for all three sections.
3. The real protagonist of this story I would have to say is Minerva and I would say she is a dynamic round character because you do get to see her grow as a person but so do her ideas so does her understanding of the world, and near the end of the book she's even questioning herself and her own strength, yet has enough to continue going because she knows that she's gone too far and she's going to finish it, even if its the last thing she does.
4.  I feel like a read a character, I wish I could meet a person as brave as this but it seems to me that these type of great people only are in books even if they are in history books. Its just hard for me to believe that there is people like this, yet I know that there is people like this. It's just that I guess I've never met one so it's hard for me to believe in a person so great as this.

LITERARY FICTION & EMPATHY

After reading the article I was a little surprised that reading literary fiction could have benefits like gaining emotional intelligence and social perception. I always thought that reading in general would have the same educational benefits, but it does make sense to me after reading the article how literary fiction can help people perform better.” Literary fiction often leaves more to the imagination, encouraging readers to make inferences about characters and be sensitive to emotional nuance and complexity.” Hamlet's first soliloquy would be a great example of that because if I were to imagine myself in the same position as him, I would have been angry at my mother, so when I was reading it I thought of him as angry, furious and even betrayed. His father had just died and with her marrying within a month, it made it seem like his death and their marriage had meant nothing to her.

HAMLET ACT I SCENE II

• Claudius begins as appearing sorry and mournful for his brother's death.
• Yet says that we should not forget about ourselves and continue our lives but to keep him in our memories .
• He mentions how the kingdom has been brought together do to him marrying his sister in law.
• He tries to get everybody to unite against a common enemy, young Fortinbras.
• Claudius gives priority to Laertes and allows him to go to France to study,but denies Hamlet that right; instead he tell's him it's best if he stays there.
• Hamlet's first line,"[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind."
• Claudius tells Hamlet that it is very "sweet" and " commendable that he is still mourning his father but it is "unmanly grief", and that he should get over it. (as nicely as possible)
• After everyone leaves Hamlet unleashes his true feelings toward his mother and uncles's wedding. He accuses his mother of not mourning enough and from going from one bed to the other, because it was only a month after his father's death that she decided to marry again. He feels very upset and angry.
• Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo enter and tell him that they saw a ghost that appeared to be his father.
• Hamlet interrogates them of what they saw and easily believes them. He decides to go tomorrow in hope of seeing the ghost.

HAMLET ACT I SCENE I

• The scene begins with Francisco at his post  he is replaced by Bernardo.
• Bernardo and Marcellus say that they've seen a ghost, but Horatio doesn't believe them until he witnesses it himself. 
• The ghost appears,  Horatio questions it but doesn't answer him then disappears.
• The three men realized that the ghost appeared to be the late king. 
• The ghost appears again and seems like he's going to speak but the cock crows and he vanishes again.
• The men decide that they will bring this up with prince Hamlet.

Vocabulary #6

abase - verb cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
* I dislike to cause abase on others, it doesn't make me feel any better, so I don't see the reason for it.
abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations
* King Hamlet didn't abdicate his position, because it was taken from him.
abomination - noun an action that is vicious or vile; an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence; a person who is loathsome or disgusting; hate coupled with disgust
*I would consider a mutation between a fly and a mosquito and abomination.
brusque - adj. marked by rude or peremptory shortness
* When I am agitated I have a tendency to be brusque.
saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks; a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader
* My brother was the saboteur because he helped prank the teacher, which ended up with a bucket on her head.
debauchery - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
* A debauchery would be like the teen parties that we see in the movies.
proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly
* The radish seeds that we did an experiment on proliferated faster than what I expected.
anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred
* An anachronism would be like a caveman in modern time.
nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline
* Nomenclature would be like naming the animals in a food web.
expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
* Sometimes people have to edit their personal essays because they are expurgate.
bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight
* The bellicose students were ready to show their karate teacher that they have improved.
gauche - adj. lacking social polish
* Someone who doesn't know manners is considered gauche.
rapacious - adj. excessively greedy and grasping; devouring or craving food in great quantities; living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey
*Lions are rapacious since they kill other animals in order to live.
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself
* Paradox is a contradicting statement like, bittersweet and wise fool.
conundrum - noun a difficult problem
* I would consider, not being able to make a decision on what you want to study a conundrum.
anomaly - noun (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun); a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule
* For a moment I wanted to study the anomaly of planets I even bought a telescope.
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
* I ask myself why there is so many flies if they are supposed to be ephemeral.
rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment
* Rancorous is very similar to despising the difference is that one has accumulated hatred.
churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly; rude and boorish
* I find it hard to be around people who are churlish.
precipitous - adj. characterized by precipices; extremely steep;done with very great haste and without due deliberation
* Running up a precipitous mountain is such a hassle, I am surprised that people don't fall off of it. 

Transmedia Remix/Composition

 "Better is a rotten apple kept out of the batch than one that rots the rest." 

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 The apprentice did get fired for stealing so I asked myself what brought him to the point of doing that. How is it that that he became that way enough to lead him to a gambling addiction. He lost everything to someone who was like himself. Chaucer wants us to look deeper into the story so we can know the reason for it. What basic need did he not receive because he doesn't seem to have good morals.I feel that we all do have a good side and a bad one, but we are able to identify ourselves by the choices we make, but all of us make bad choices once in a while which makes us human and in this case fish ( basic human needs make us equal). The last picture is manly to just bring the main point back which was that we are different to a certain point and can be totally contradictory to who we think we are and who we truly are, until we peel back the layers.
I chose the video because while i was looking for pictures this video popped up and after watching it I thought it went well with what Chaucer was trying to represent.

Transmedia Draft

 

      

I would like to start it with the apprentice and his reasons for being fired and even though he was supposed to be an apprentice he neglected his duties and even stole from his boss, which is why I put the second picture also to explain that Chaucer wants us to look deeper into the story so we can know the reason for it. The fish can be interpreted in many ways but I feel that we all do have a good side and a bad one, but we are able to identify ourselves by the choices we make, but all of us make bad choices once in a while which makes us human and this case fish ( basic human needs make us equal). The last picture is manly to just bring the main point back which was that we are different to a certain point and can be totally contradictory to who we think we are and who we truly are, until we peel back the layers.

CANTERBURY OUTLINE

THE POINT OF CANTERBURY TALES IS...

Chaucer's Canterbury tales are used to bring many different aspects to a character which may represent vices and virtues of human nature. It shows the underlying layers of people and yet how similar they can be because of their basic human needs.

GREEN EGGS & HAMLET

 a) What do you know about Hamlet, the "Melancholy Dane"?
 Honestly I don't know anything about Hamlet other than the very famous phrase," to be or not to be."

b) What do you know about Shakespeare? 
 I know  Shakespeare was a poet. playwright and actor. His early works consisted of comedies. which practically means that characters didn't die. Then he began writing tragedies after having certain hardships in his life. I don't remember exactly what they were,but that's basically what I remember.

c) Why do so many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare"?
 Well I don't know why other people frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare" but I frown because it's  hard for me to understand him sometimes.

d) What can we do to make studying this play an amazing experience we'll never forget?
 I think this lesson can become more memorable if we were to do videos on sections of the story or actually act out the play, because it would make it fun and entertaining.

Vocabulary #5

shenanigans- noun secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering; silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief

ricochet - noun a glancing rebound; verb spring back; spring away from an impact
schism - noun division of a group into opposing factions; the formal separation of a church into two churches or the withdrawal of one group over doctrinal differences
eschew - verb avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of
plethora - noun extreme excess
ebullient - adj. joyously unrestrained
garrulous - adj. full of trivial conversation
harangue - noun a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion; verb deliver a harangue to; address forcefully
interdependence - noun a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups)
capricious - adj. determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; changeable
loquacious - adj. full of trivial conversation
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
inchoate - adj. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed
juxtapose - verb place side by side
perspicacious - adj. acutely insightful and wise; mentally acute or penetratingly discerning
codswallop - noun nonsensical talk or writing

mungo- noun cloth made from recycled woven or felted material

sesquipedalian- adj. (of a word) polysyllabic; long; characterized by long words; long-winded

wonky - adj. inclined to shake as from weakness or defect; turned or twisted toward one side
diphthong - noun a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

TALE OF A CANTERBURY TALE

The Cook's Tale: Prologue

The Cook was pleased by Reeves tale. Then said that the miller got what he deserved and quotes Solomon's works to back up his opinion that its dangerous to let someone stay in your home. The host refers to the Cook as Roger and tells him to make the story good so it can be entertaining.  I think the host tells the Cook not to get offended  by his playful critics, yet there might be some underlying truth. The Cook then tells the Host that the story will be about a hosteler (someone that lodges guests ).

The Cook's Tale:

An apprentice with the name of Perkin Reveler  was learning victuals (food) trade. He was brown, happy and a dancer. At every wedding he would sing and dance. He would also drink beer than work in the shop. If there was a festival he wouldn't leave until he saw everything and was able to dance himself. Then he would meet up with people and gamble . Then his boss /master noticed that he had been stealing money to use in parties, women, and gambling. So his master/ boss decided to relieve the apprentice of his agreement, and sent him off with a "Good riddance!" Since the apprentice wasn't able to steal anymore he had no money and lost his things to someone like him; whom happened to have a wife that was only for appearances. 

1) Perkin Reveler, the apprentice is the main character. 

• "Blithely he'd cavort Like a finch in the wood"
•  "He loved the tavern better than the shop"
•  "And he was free In what he spent--his master easily Had learnt this in the shop, for that is where He often found his box completely bare."
•    "  "A rotten apple's better thrown away Before it spoils the barrel." "
•   "He sent his bed and clothes without delay To a compeer, a chap of his own sort Who loved to dice, to revel and disport"

 These indirect characterizations give you the idea of how the apprentice was and his morals. He took on life with ease and with no concern for others only for himself, and how he could have a good time without having to lift a finger 

2)Chaucer's purpose for this story was to make people aware that nothing in life is free and if you are cheating through life by living off of others; then life is going to get you back and sometimes it'll give you a taste of your own medicine. 

CHARACTER STUDY (III)

Susie is awaken by a flush of unknown terror.  "Uh, it was just a dream." Then she notices that she is unaware of her surroundings. There is another bed in the room and there are 2  desks with only a few other objects to adorn the room.  She thinks, "where am I,and  wasn't I just in my own room?" All of a sudden a short girl with dark curly hair that seems to be from Latin roots; walks in and asks Susie , " Aren't you going to be late to your first class?" Susie still as confused as before asks, " What are you talking about and where am I?" The girl looks at Susie with a concerned look then says, " Man the stress must be really getting to if you don't remember where you are."  She continues , but with a tone that  would be used when talking to a child and with an edge of sympathy and impatience, " You are in UCSB, I'm your roommate, Cecilia, and your supposed to be going to your math class right now." Susie is bombarded from what she is hearing. Then she asks Cecilia," Is it okay if you walk me to my class, please,  I'm sorry I just don't really remember anything." Cecilia moans and saids, " Your really going to make me walk all the way there...fine, but just because we get along so well and I'm pretty sure you don't remember the rest of your classes do you?" Susie shakes her head, thankful that at least she can still remember her name. Cecilia continues and saids," I thought so, well I guess it will give me time to tell you where the rest of your classes are, and by the way you should really go to the student services and get checked out, because you are really starting to freaking me out." Susie nods and hastily gets ready for what seems to be her first day in university.

After being ushered  to her class, she walks in only to notice that nobody really cared that she was late and most of the students didn't even bother to to turn  around and see who had came in. They were so focused in the topic that they seemed in their own little world. Susie was thankful that Cecilia had shown her the rest of the classes that she would be taking today, before she got here so she won't be so lost after the class ends. Susie tries to pay attention but is only able to capture very little of what is being taught. She thinks," I really shouldn't have been worrying about  the essays because math seems to have less and less numbers involved as the years go by, but more letters." For the rest of the day, its practically the same thing she keeps failing to understand the material. She finally gets back to her dorm and is set to do the only thing she knows will make her feel better, when she's on the edge of tears. She grabs the phone and dials the number." Hello, Mom?" Her mom answers and asks her how she's been. Susie can't hold it anymore, tears are now streaming down her face " Mom I don't know what to do, I'm so lost and I miss you." Her mom is able to comfort her even though she is unaware that her daughter is on a whole other level of lost, since she can't remember a whole chuck of her life. Susie finally hangs up  trying to hold on to her mother's voice as long as she can only knowing that this was going to end soon enough. After hanging up Susie crawls into bed unable to take anymore of this awful and confusing day.

CANTERBURY TALES (II): WHAT A CHARACTER!

Character: Cook

• He uses direct and indirect characterization. He uses direct characterization to show how great the cook is yet has an ulcer on his knee and for indirect he uses euphemism (ulcer).
• Chaucer's tone seems admirable in the beginning when he is saying, "He  could distinguish  London ale by flavor," yet it isn't until you get to," But what a pity," that you see he was being kind of satirical. 
• The humor would be how he makes the cook into something different that what he was supposed to be which was, clean.