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.

Literary Terms 4

Interior monologue- a form of writing which represents the inner thoughts of a character; the recording of the internal, emotional experience(s) of an individual; generally the reader is given the impression of overhearing the interior monologue

 Inversion- words out of order for emphasis [or to fit meter]

Juxtaposition- the intentional placement of a word, phrase, sentences of paragraph to contrast with another nearby

Lyric- a poem having musical form and quality; a short outburst of the author's innermost thoughts and feelings

Magic(al) realism- a genre developed in Latin America which juxtaposes the everyday with the marvelous or magical

Metaphor- an analogy that directly compares two different things imaginatively

Extended metaphor- a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it

Controlling metaphor- a metaphor that runs throughout the piece of work

Metonymy- literally "name changing" a device of figurative language in which the name of an attribute or associated thing is substituted for the usual name of a thing

Mode of discourse- argument (persuasion), narration, description, and exposition

Modernism- literary movement characterized by stylistic experimentation, rejection of tradition, interest in symbolism and psychology

Monologue- an extended speech by a character in a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem

Mood- the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece

Motif- a recurring feature (name, image, or phrase) in a piece of literature

Myth- a story, often about immortals, and sometimes connected with religious rituals, that attempts to give meaning to the mysteries of the world

Narrative- a story or description of events

Narrator- one who narrates, or tells, a story

Naturalism- extreme form of realism

Novelette/novella- short story; short prose narrative, often satirical

Omniscient- knowing all things, usually the third person

Onomatopoeia- use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning

Oxymoron- a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox

Pacing- rate of movement; tempo

Parable- a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth

Paradox- a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas

Literary Analysis: Into the WIld

1.       The novel Into the Wild follows the latter life of Chris McCandless as he journeys across the US and finally to his resting place although the stampede trail in Alaska. The book starts of by introducing Chris as a lifeless body found in the remote Alaskan bush. As the subsequent article in outdoor magazine is published, our author reads the piece and becomes entangled in the story of this young man. He writes the book tracing Chris’s travels and the people he meets and touches along the way. After following his trail and speaking with the people Chris held close the book ends with our author back in the place of Chris’s death.

2.       The informative novel try’s to explication the idea of the Hero’s journey and a very literal way, with this true account of Chris.

3.       The author use two distinct tones throughout the book, Narrative, and Investigative. When the author is telling the story of where Chris had gone and who he had met this is obviously when the author writes in a narrative tone. Whereas when he traces or relates stories such as, the story of the Anthropologist, he uses an investigative and almost informative tone to tie relevant knowledge to the overall understanding of Chris’s mindset.

Characterization

1.       Most of the novel used indirect characterization to describe Chris. Since it was a non-fictional piece, just as in real life we come to see Chris through his many personal relationships. For instance Mr. Westerberg often says that “the boy was very hard worker and never shied away from a dirty job.” This example of indirect characterization is not unique and actual quite prevalent. Direct characterization of the other hand is rare, the only time we have a clear picture of Chris is when we r being giving information about Chris’s running career or at his death.

2.       When it comes to the authors syntax and diction toward the character is seems as if the he almost sees himself in the young boy. There is a palpable empathy between the author and Chris.

3.       Chris is both static and dynamic, at times he is illustrated to us and this pondering wanderer just living by the wind. Other times we see Chris take a very active role in where he goes and how he conducts himself, this becomes more and more common as the novel progresses.

4.       After finishing the book Chris seemed like someone I have known for a very long time, he almost seem to embodied qualities I had in me.

AP Prep Post 1: Siddhartha

•  What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?
•  What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence

http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.htm

•       How does enlightenment relate to or have to do with knowledge?

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=AP+literature+questions+Siddhartha

•       Does verbal communication play a positive role in the spiritual progression of characters in Siddhartha?
•       How does the river speak to people?

http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/language-communication-theme.html

Seven Steps to Collaboration Happiness