Literature Analysis: Tempest

Plot

1.      The play opens with the storm at sea (causes by Ariel and Prospero) that wrecks the nobles and brings them to the island. Upon being washed up on shore Ferdinand meets Prospero’s daughter Miranda and falls madly in love with her. Meanwhile the other noble looks for Fernand (who is imprisoned by Prospero) and are waylaid by Ariel several times. As Ferdinand works as a servant for the wizard, Prospero sees that his love for Miranda is true and allow them to marry. Then he sends for the nobles to be brought to him in which Antonio is belated to see him so is alive. They all return to Naples where Ferdinand and Miranda are married and Prospero returns to be duke of Milan.

2.      The main themes of this play, are the treachery of the nobles, the ability for forgiveness and the idea that love conquers all

3.      Shakespeare’s tone in the play is ominous, there always seems to be some sort of impending doom. Whether it’s the spirits that torment Caliban or the strange lightning storm that appears to foreshadow doom.

4.      Literary Techniques: foreshadowing, foreboding, soliloquy, anecdote, conflict, Dialects, evocation, Magic(al) realism, spiritual, stereotype

Characterization

2.      When characterizing Prospero the narrator uses powerful syntax and large diction with commanding tone to show the power of Prospero on the island

3.      The protagonist is a static character in that he is very stereotypical knight in shining armor; Ferdinand always is hard working and chivalrous.

4.      After reading the book I felt I knew all the stock characters when they were introduced and was not surprised by the actions, save of course Prospero’s relinquishing of his magic.

Brave New Essay

Prompt:

Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience. Explain how traveling and exile work in the book Brave New World?

Essay:

               “Community, Identity, and stability,” this is the mantra repeated time and time again in Brave New World. Ironically the World state doesn’t not welcome the idea of personal independence; in fact in the book, the state stresses the exact converse. Citizens are taught to be interdependent on others and the state at all times. For the most part everyone complies and stability is reached, but for every rule there is an exception, this is Bernard. Beginning in chapter six Bernard seeks to visit the savage reservation, most likely to fill his need to see what life is outside the World State. Edwards said that “exile can become a potent, even enriching experience,” and in his quest, Bernard seeks a sense of enrichment separate from the state in order to find his personal identity.

               With such a strong emphasis on dependence of its citizens the world state makes it all but impossible for individuals to have an identity. In Bernard we see this yearning for separation from others, as a reaction to his yearning for identity. Take for instance Bernard and Lenina’s helicopter ride over the English Channel (Chapter 6), where Bernard flies close enough to the ocean that the waves almost lick his craft, just in order to be far from everyone else. In the community Bernard is only a number, but out on the ocean, or the reservation or in Iceland Bernard can start to recognize himself and an individual. This motif is common even in the world today, the book Into the Wild illustrates the true story of a man who needed to escape his “community identity” in order to find enlightenment.

               Even for Lenina who is perfectly content in her bubble of having orgy parties and consuming soma, the idea of leaving her home is “strangely compelling to think about.” The notion is so compelling that she leaves all amenities to go with Bernard to the reservation, where she is met with horrors beyond her comprehension. In that moment we see the real Lenina, without the State, soma or any other dulling agent, we see her identity. The dependence that the state has imposed of this women has made the “rift forced between a human being and a native place” unsurmountable for her. Huxley uses this to show how to much interdependence can cripple a person, Linda’s inability to mend clothes is a prime example of this.

               Huxley’s use of the journey to the reservation underlines the different themes of exile, enrichment, separation, desperation, for his character in the book. If community is stability, the exile is disarray and adversity and in the book Bernard comes to learn that one doesn’t learn from stability, but adversity.

I am here

My performance this year has be different from last semester in that I am doing more in class work. I find myself spending less and less time checking my blog to see if it’s up to par, this I am changing. Also I have a mental disconnect between my project in which I live as a homeless man for two days and a meaning that can be related into the academic realm. This disconnect has rattled my brain for weeks now and I feel myself floundering.

Hafta/Wanna

Habits that are formed in high school are both permanent and temporary.On the surface obviously if one has a habit of procrastination that will carry on until the cycle is broken, whereas immaturities go with age. I would only home that when I graduate high school that the desperation of life on ones own will awaken me to be more conscious of my decisions. In the real world to balance what we want to do and what we need to do is a careful act. "All work and no play make johnny a very dull boy," the famous quote from The Shining illustrates that one must have both work and play to be functional and happy. To achieve that is a entirely different matter all together and a task that one must reconcile with oneself. For me I try to devote at least a hour at the beginning of the day and an hour at the end of the day toward reflection and personal pondering, and it has worked pretty good so far.