Open Prompt #4

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.

     Deceitfulness and betrayal are the central conflict in Death of a Salesman. In the story we see that Biff and Willy are always fighting. Miller made it seem like Biff is the fault for everything. Although it is true, but Biff is the only one in the family that is not living under lies and he is the only one that knows the truth to his father’s betrayal.

     The Lomans are almost all extremely self-deceptive, and in their respective delusions and blindness to reality, they fuel and feed off of one another. Willy, the main focus of the story, convinced himself that he is successful, well-liked by all, famous everywhere, and that both of his sons are destined for greatness. Unable to cope with reality, he entirely abandons it through his vivid fantasies and ultimately through suicide. Linda and Happy similarly believe that the Lomans are about to make it big. Not connected with the reality, and believe that Willy truly is famous. But the other members of the family, Biff, grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the cycle of lying.

     Biff went away from home for a few years. He wants to get away from Willy, and get away from these lies. He knows he is not good enough of a person or worker. And he knows he cannot be successful in the world of business. He wants to be himself and not the person in his father’s dream. Biff knows the lies his family is living under, he tries to convince everyone in the story, but he was accused for being lazy and not trying. While Biff is the only one that sees the reality, he was cast away from the rest of the family, causing conflicts to happen within the Lomans.

     Death of a Salesman is full of betrayal. Willy betrays Linda’s love and Biff’s trust with his affair. As the chief betrayer himself, Willy is preoccupied by the fear of betrayal. His frequent accusations that Biff is spiteful reflect his understanding that Biff’s failure in business is a rejection of Willy’s own dreams of success, and that Biff’s inability to keep a job is related to Willy’s love affair. Even outside of his family, Willy feels that his boss is betraying him by firing him, but Howard says that there’s no room for feelings of betrayal in the business world.

     No one else but Biff knows the story behind Willy’s betrayal. Biff was the only one at Boston when he caught Willy having an affair with a young woman. He immediately loses all of his respect toward his father. Unable to accept the truth, Biff left the family without saying a word to the rest of the family. After he came back, Biff said Willy was a fake but refuse to tell why, causing conflicts between Linda and himself. Willy feels everything that went wrong is a betrayal toward him. And Biff is the only one that knows the wholes story, he is also the only one that understand the Lomans are living under a lie, so Willy feels Biff is betraying him in everyway.

Close Reading #3

Facebook’s Impact on Student Grades
By REBECCA R. RUIZ
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/fbook-grades/?scp=4&sq=facebook&st=cse

     This article is pretty interesting because it relates to almost all high school student. I was surprised when I found this article, because I was surprised that someone finally care about grades enough to investigate. And I was even more surprised when I read the outcome. And now I can tell those parents who think "Facebook is the root of failing grades", you are only partially right.

     According to Mr.Junco from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania Facebook can actually make students participate in more extra curriculum activities. Students that use Facebook as a way to socialize with friends tend to have a higher grade. Yet students that don't socialize but still use Facebook a lot tend to have a lower grade.

     Facebook is there for us to socialize with friends when we want and it is a way to contact people more efficiently as Ruiz tried to point out. More students participate in events outside of the school when they "shared links on Facebook or checked the site to see what friends were up to." But if students use Facebook as a way just to tell people how they feel each seconds, they tend to perform frightful academically.

     Ruiz doesn't have a strong DIDLS involved in her article, but she does bring out the message of using Facebook as a way to communicate with peers and get in touch with multiple activities, even if it is school related. And don't use Facebook as a source for selfish use. Then Facebook will actually help students not just by being involved in the activities, but help in relation to school. And perform better at school. And if every student is able use Facebook efficiently then of course there won't be anymore parents screaming over your shoulder.

Responses to Course Material #3

   I just have to say that I like annotating "The American Dream" It was helpful, and I am able to understand the poem better when the whole class is discussing. But I think when we discuss, we tend to over think, for instance. "You would rather sleep with me wouldn't you Daddy" this is a very simple sentence that means exactly as what is sounds like. But when discussing in detail my class had a twenty minute discussion on whether Grandma really meant it in a sexual way or not. Which I have to say is very unnecessary...
   We didn't really do much these few weeks except reading and annotation "The American Dream". Oh and one last thing, on Friday fifth hour were reviewing the terms for the test. It didn't help me at all, I would really rather study the words slowly by myself, than having ten other people study with the speed of light. I don't remember stuff as fast as most people do.

Open Prompt #3

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.

     When it comes to writing about contrasting places, Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities shows the stunning history of the French Revolution which was right after the American Revolution. The “tale” of the two cities is quite different, in that London is portrayed as heaven where crimes are supposed to be justified yet Paris is hell where the French Revolution booms. Even though two completely different events go on in the two cities, the sense of injustice was shown by Dickens throughout the novel.
     In A Tale of Two Cities the two cities, London and Paris, are contrast in the incidents that occurred. Britain just experienced the loss of America in the American Revolution. The war caused Britain to rest and fall back on extreme military use. When there is no war, there is no huge loss of money and troops. Citizens follow orders, and everyone is happy, but the court is not taking cases seriously, they judge by how ever people want things to be. There was no real law either, because everyone is so free of will. Meanwhile in France, aristocrats are getting nastier and demanding more from citizens. The class differences are getting so big and ridiculous that the aristocrat needs four people to make breakfast for them. Soon the French Revolution begins, killing numerous aristocrats and anyone that has power or money, France immediately turned into a blood shedding land. The blood shedding of aristocrats soon turned to the blood shedding of anyone who does not like the guillotine. The injustice that occurred in both cities creates either fear or carefree mood.
     Dickens portrayed London as a heavenly place where everyone is nice to each other, no war, no battle, no real crime, no real law, no precise court, and no justice. Yet in Paris people are chopping off each other’s head. Paris started out as a revolutionary, an act to make the country better and bearable for everyone. The act then soon turned into random blood shedding, killing about forty thousand people. Dickens’ extreme contrast of the neighboring lands showed how London and Paris affect each other, either in violent way or justice.
     In the end Dickens points out that the two countries are so different yet they are both injustice. In Paris thousands of people died without a real reason, and none of those that died had a chance of defending themselves before they were sent to the guillotine, and this happened every Saturday morning. While in London, those who committed crimes are not being punished enough, but those that didn’t do anything are being punished. The judge of the court are lacking on their job, judges listen to public desire and allows the desire to become reality. While the two cities might seem very different in that one is killing thousands of people and the other is so peaceful nothing happens. They are actually really similar in that there is no justice.

Close Reading #2

Sprint’s Shares Fall on News It Lacks Money for Upgrades
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/technology/sprints-shares-fall-on-news-it-lacks-money-for-upgrades.html?ref=technology

     I thought Sprint was done for, nobody likes Sprint because their server sucks and they are more expensive. But I was shocked to see them still struggling to stand back up. In the passage it talks about how Sprint is buying iPhone 4S from Apple. But from my own perspective, unless Sprint can keep the selling of iPhone a lot lower than both AT&T and Verizon Wireless. There is no way anyone would buy it from Sprint. I simply feel sorry for Sprint; it had a good run, but was outrun by AT&T and Verizon.
        Diction: The author of this article had a great diction use. The very first word I spot in this passage was “struggling”. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS could have used “strive”, it seems like a lot of articles use strive to show that something/ someone is still fighting on. But THE ASSOCIATED PRESS used “struggle”, as in everyone knew Sprint is as good as dead, but by signing a contract with Apple indicated that there is still the tiniest hope.
The rest of the dictions are just general ones that are used to draws readers into reading the article.
        No imagery was found while reading this article. I don’t think we need an image of how bad Sprint is doing or how they are signing contract to try and save the company.
        Not a whole lot of anything else can be found in this article. The main reason I chose to read this article is because I was shocked that Sprint is not dead yet. And upon reading the article, I don’t think Sprint has much fight left in them. They might be able to attract some costumers but they won’t get enough profit to pay for the amount of iPhone they bought while making profit of their own.

Responses to Course Material #2

     I learned a lot this past few weeks as to a more in-depth of syntax use, essay structure, and also I read a very interesting and childish play yet it has a structure that can create a very confusing mood to audience. For instance  I thought that Grandma was suppose to be the dum-dum that doesn't know anything, because from the beginning of the play Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma herself kept on saying that "old people" is suppose to be "dumb", "annoying", "ignored". But in the end we find out that Grandma is on top of everything. She is the master mind of the entire story. Even though this play is very childish and sexual in ways, but I learned a lot of DIDLS from the play. In the play there Albee used DIDL to emphasize his characters. and used S to create a confuse readers.  I learned how to use syntax, and how to find them in a text. It is very hard to figure them out. But  with more practice, I think we can all manage to master Syntax, and master the magical use of DIDLS.

Open Prompt #2

     1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.

     Almost every good novel or story starts out with a very catchy scene, a scene that is usually the setting of the whole story, scenes such as murder. Like Curtains, the Broadway musical written by Rupert Holmes. Jessica Cranshaw was mysteriously murdered at the beginning of the story. When Holmes wrote the story, he was careful not to show too much detail as to what had happened that caused the dramatic death. Yet viewers would immediately figure out this is a comedy-tragedy musical.

     In the beginning of Curtains, Jessica, the lead singer, sings rather poorly. With each word pronounced wrong and very off key. Viewers knew that this is supposed to be a joke, and that something will happen to Jessica. At follow by the fall of the Curtain. Jessica died. At the point everyone knew that Jessica was supposed to die, but no one knows how or why. Holmes carefully wrote the murdering scene. He made sure that no viewers notice the oddness of two people going up the stage from two directions to present flowers. And the abstract of the colors of the flower, even if someone did notice, no one would suspect that one of those flowers is the weapon that caused Jessica’s death.

     In the second half of the first scene, viewers learn that no one likes Jessica, and everyone hoped she either leave or die. So at that point everyone was considered suspect. Lieutenant Frank Cioffi, local Boston detective, showed up and locked up everyone from the show in the theater. Immediately viewers would see that Cioffi is now in charge of the scene. Everyone is under his control. Viewers might not know what would happen next, but comprehend that the rest of the musical would occur inside the theater. At this point viewers would understand that there is a killer on the loose, a detective trying to catch the killer, and everyone inside the theater is a suspect.

     A lot of writers would show a dim detail of the plot which provides the basic background of the story at the first scene. This writing style prevents readers/ viewers from knowing too much about the detail of the story, yet understand what is going on and would guess around for answers. It creates a mood for the audience causing them to predict what would happen later on in the story. Holmes’ Curtains is one of the stories that provides enough information for audience to predict but not enough for audience to know the detail.