April Course Material

At the start of the month we finished Ceremony and commenced analysis! Our discussion was pretty fruitful, but I liked 1st hour's theme statement best, because it focused on balance and accepting new ideas. The part that seemed tricky for me was avoiding a contradicting thesis, with the importance of adapting with new influences, but also maintaining your original culture foundation. It's hard to achieve both, since they're opposite beliefs. Yet they both seemed to fit Ceremony's message.

After Ceremony we did the weebly assignment. This was a lot like a research paper, but was tough to find information on! I was grateful for the in-class time we got. I liked working with other people, but sometimes I simply didn't like the direction they were taking. It's great to be able to divvy up work and review each others' writing, but there are certainly some frustrations when working with other people. Nonetheless, we came up with a very professional-seeming product, I think!

With that assignment behind us, we are now making our way through the final parts of Fifth Business. Admittedly, I'm a little behind because of being out of town for a week, but it's under control. So far, the novel is interesting and pleasant to read! The narrator's voice is entertaining, kind of sarcastic, which I like! So far, though, I don't see why Ms. Holmes selected it for the class. Not that it isn't a great story, and I'm sure that in discussion we'll explore the literary amazement that was snuck in there, but as of now, I don't find myself as impressed as I was with Ceremony. I bet that once I finish it and think on it more it will come to me.

Open Prompt Practice

2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or
play that focuses on a political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how
the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to
the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck travels along the Mississippi River with an escaped slave, and along the way he begins to question the way blacks are treated in his society. Twain's piece speaks against the social injustice of slavery in the southern United States through his characterization of Jim, the slave, and also by satirical humor aimed at southern people. These literary elements show how years of exposure to one way of life can cloud one's ability to recognize injustices when they are widely accepted as the social norm.

The character Jim is shown to be very considerate and mature. This is evident when he and Huck discover something floating down the river, and realize it's a dead body. Jim refuses to let Huck see the face and leads him away, despite Huck's curiosity. Jim does this to protect Huck, demonstrating mature morals and consideration. Jim is presented to be a very upstanding man later as well, when he is later caught and locked in a cabin. Huck and his friend Tom help Jim escape, but Tom gets shot in the get-away. Knowing it will blow his chance of escape, Jim stops running to care for Tom and his injury. This selfless act demonstrates how kind hearted Jim is, which highlights the cruelty of how he is treated because of his skin color.

Twain also utilizes humor in a satirical way to emphasize the ignorance of a racist system. As Huck and Jim make their way deeper South, the people become sillier and sillier. They encounter a family called the Grangerfords, who are at war with another family, the Shepherdsons. When Huck asks why the two families hate each other, the Grangerford daughter confesses that no one really remembers how it started anymore. This illustrates Twain's idea that antebellum Southern society held on to grudges that don't have bearing any longer. The people don't know when it's time to let old ways go and allow for a more peaceful existence. Also, Jim and Huck wind up traveling with two scammers, known as the Duke and the Dauphin. They pull all kinds of far-fetched schemes and easily dupe the townspeople wherever they go. Their outlandish antics are framed humorously, but also satirically because they poke fun at the idea of Southerners being ignorant, or slow to catch on.

Twain's portrayal of Jim's good nature, and of Southern society's inability to recognize that and adapt their ways, point out the social injustices that happened for so many years in the Southern U.S. The novel exposed the need for social reform, particularly in the South, where the social norms were rooted so deeply, and were harder to change. Huck encounters this first hand, as he gains a true companion in Jim and can trust him more than any of his white friends despite the way society treats him like property. Even though he sees this, Huck is not very alarmed by this social issue. That is because he has grown up where that treatment of blacks is acceptable. He develops doubts about the system, but shows no signs of taking up the cause. By this, Twain illustrates how difficult it is to identify a problem when one simply doesn't know anything different.

Ceremony

~Author~
Leslie Marmon Silko is of Native American descent, of the Laguna Pueblo tribe just like her characters in Ceremony. She is actually mixed race, with some Mexican and some White mixed in. Because mixed race identity issues are a motif of Ceremony, this should be noted.

~Setting~
Primarily around the Laguna reservation and the neighboring desert or woodsy mountain. Also a bit overseas when Tayo fights the Japanese in WWII, and occasional visits to neighboring towns (such as where Night Swan lived.)

~Plot~
*I'm going to go chronological, not necessarily in story sequence.

Tayo's mother abandons him at his Aunt's home, where he and Rocky are made to be brothers. Auntie is mean to Tayo, resentful that he is mixed race and evidence of her sister's poor choices and "betrayal" of the tribe. Tayo appreciates the Laguna values, while Rocky deviates and embraces a more 'White' lifestyle. At some point, Tayo visits his uncle Josiah's girlfriend, the mysterious and alluring Night Swan, whom he sleeps with. Josiah buys a cheap herd of cattle. Tayo and Rocky enlist for war and go off to fight the Japanese. Rocky is killed in action, leaving Tayo an emotional (and nauseous) wreck for a while. Simultaneously, Tayo's uncle Josiah dies back at home, and Tayo has visions of his face. Tayo tries to feel better by drinking with his old friends, but gets into a bar fight with Emo when he starts glorifying the war. After that Tayo avoids Emo's crowd, becoming somewhat reclusive. His family encourages him to have a ceremony done to help heal him, and he does it to appease them. As part of his ceremony, he decides to find Josiah's cows, which wandered off without Josiah to watch them. Tayo encounters a woman, Ts'eh, and becomes infatuated with her. He has sex with her and goes off to find the cows. After an encounter with a mountain lion he has to steal the cows back from a rancher. They get caught and penned at Ts'eh's cabin and he inspires Tayo before disappearing. The reservation believes Tayo to be crazy because of rumors spread by Emo. Tayo hitches a ride home with two mutual friends of his and Emo's, but they get him drunk and ditch him and the truck in the desert Tayo wakes up at night and hides before witnessing Emo torture the friend for letting Tayo escape. He nearly jumps out and attacks Emo, but doesn't. Tayo decides not to blame people, but to blame evil. His epiphany is that no group can be classified as evil and everyone is susceptible to witchery. With that, the ceremony is complete and Tayo and the earth are at peace, more or less.

~Characters~
Tayo: protagonist, indian/white, represents Laguna values sun father

Emo: foil to Tayo, evil, all indian

Night Swan, Ts'eh: mixed, reincarnations of corn mother, mysterious, wise, alluring

Rocky: a different foil to Tayo. Wants to join white community, but is all indian.

Josiah: Role model for Tayo, wants to provide for family, community

Betonie: A sort of contemporary blended with tradition medicine man, assigns Tayo the ceremony

Auntie: Bitter, judgmental, hypocrite (looks down on Indians mixing with whtes but practices white religion and acts kind of white and ignores Rocky's white-wannabe act.)

Old Grandma: Tayo's great aunt, blind and weak, but wise and versed with the traditions.

~Style~
Silko weaves the story of Tayo with poetry, broken into pieces and inserted at seemingly random times in the text. The poems tell odd little fables that highlight Tayo's situation. The reader can often identify specific characters in the ambiguous hummingbirds, gamblers, spiders, etc. of the poems. This is a unique technique that adds to the idea of Tayo's own story being legendary or that Tayo is a sort of reincarnation of a legend (i.e., Sun Father.)

The sentences are often fragmented, and fail to identify the objects of the sentence sometimes. This is deliberate to illustrate how all of life and ideas flow together and one often has to work to make sense of nature. Life is ambiguous by nature, and so her writing attempts to mimic that.

There is huge emphasis on color and directions as well, as South is associated with home and tradition and North is intruding influences. Yellow is associated with Tayo, because he is related to Sun Father.

~Motifs~
directions
animals /instincts
vomiting
flashbacks
mixed race guilt, identity issue
stereotyping
drinking (alcohol)
good v evil

~Quotes~
"Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war."

Tayo and his community are frequently putting up barriers to separate themselves from others. They pursue a feeling of universal community and belonging.

~Theme~
Silko's Ceremony suggests that one must be receptive to outside influence, and must adapt in order to achieve natural balance and peace.

~Prove it~
The mixed race characters are presented in a better light that most pure race characters. The blend of cultures provides a deeper insight and inner peace for Tayo, Ts'eh, etc.

March Course Material

Hey. Why are we doing this now instead of at the end of the month? There's another half to this month!

The closed prompt practice was extremely helpful. I would love if we did even more of them to practice for the AP, which we probably will. I actually really loved the writing style of Cisneros, and I wish I could write in that style! Maybe with lots of practice I can. :)

After essay practice, we read lots and lots of info about Native American culture to prep for Ceremony. I'm embarrassed to say, but I didn't absorb a whole lot of the content. It's just so foreign to me that it's difficult to remember the details, but in reading I recall the references like "corn mother." But I don't necessarily remember the backstory and significance.

I feel a little lost in Ceremony. The more I read, the more I like it and adjust to Silko's style. She writes in a very wandering manner, and the third-person POV doesn't help me too much. Nonetheless, I do like the story so far and her style is growing on me a we read on. I'm looking forward to all the native culture we're being exposed to; At the start of this unit I was more than a little ignorant about this culture and had little background knowledge. I love learning about other cultures and values anyway. Hence, my running of the world language/cultures club.

Lastly, we discussed literary lenses. So... I somehow totally forgot about the assigned reading on the lenses, and then made an idiot of myself in class and disappointed Ms Holmes. So that sucked. Don't worry, though, team. I went back and caught up. And sorry, Ms Holmes. It was an accident.

Good luck, everyone, on keeping caught up with your reading of Ceremony! I'm still hoping Ms Holmes is going to say "I was just kidding; You don't have to annotate that whole book!" but we'll see...

Open Prompt Practice

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present
activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must
contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which
you show how the character’s relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work
as a whole.

In Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, the main character Willy Loman is frequently reaching to the past, reliving memories both good and bad until he can figure out where he went wrong with his life. This causes dysfunction in his family, as he interacts with them as if nothing has changed between the past and present. Because he can not be content until he accepts responsibility for his past mistakes, the play conveys a universal message that one can not simply bury bad memories in the back of their mind; rather, one must face reality and learn from their mistakes lest they become trapped in the past.

At any moment throughout the play, Willy Loman may be mentally teleported to a past memory without warning. He recalls his son, Biff, when he was in high school and remembers Biff's popularity and success with sports. When he comes back to the present, Willy speaks to Biff about how well-liked he is an insists he go get his old job back. This is just frustrating for Biff because that part of his life is over and his father's statements are inaccurate.

Because Willy resists remembering his big mistake--which was having an affair that Biff witnessed--for much of the play, he doesn't understand why his relationship with Biff isn't what it used to be. He continues interacting with Biff as if nothing is wrong, which really offends him and only hurts their relationship even more. It's not until he finally faces that memory that he can really talk to his son.

After facing his past regrets, Willy is able to move forward in his life. Unfortunately, this means he is finally able to finish his goal of committing suicide. While he was avoiding dealing with his past he was stuck in life, and his interactions with his family were inappropriate and based on their past situation instead of the present. After he deals with his past problems he can finally understand his family's dynamic and find peace for himself. This suggests that one must contend with their past in order to move forward.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Author:

Tom Stoppard, or T-Stopz, if you prefer. Fun fact from Wikipedia (so whip this one out at your own discretion): " "Stoppardian" became a term describing works using wit and comedy while addressing philosophical concepts " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Stoppard#Themes)

Plot:

- R and G are on stage in an undeveloped, vague, void-like setting. They flip coins which come up "Heads" without fail every time, which troubles Guil who continues betting on "Tails." He questions the law of probability.
-The two can not remember why they are there, but only know they were summoned by a (mysterious) messenger to travel this way.
-The acting group comes by, offers themselves as prostitutes, then start to leave after rejection. Guil and the Player bet on a coin toss, which actually turns out "Tails" and the players repay the bet with a play.
-Suddenly R and G are absorbed into the play of Hamlet, where Claudius assigns them their task of figuring out why Hamlet is so stressed out.
-The two play word games which yield no progress and they meet with Hamlet and it's just confusing for everyone; they can't figure out exactly why Hamlet is so strange or if it's true madness.
-Play-ception happens.
-Hamlet kills Polonius and R and G are assigned to take him to England.
-R and G realize that the King's letter says to execute Hamlet, but they decide not to change the course they are already on. In the night, Hamlet swaps the letter for one ordering R and G's execution.
-The actors jump out of barrels and pirates attack.
-Guil reads the new letter and in his desperation stabs the Player, who "dies" but then gets back up because the knife was just a stage prop.
-The two realize their deaths are coming and Rosencrantz exits, emotional. Guildenstern talks about how there should have been another option / a time to say "No" and avoid it all. He fades out, dying.
-The play ends with the Hamlet cast all dead while Horatio delivers a closing speech.

Characters

Rosencrantz: The more relaxed of the two. He would rather calmly seek a solution to their problems than philosophize and reason endlessly like Guil does. He reacts to the situation with indifference but to death with emotion and fear.

Guildenstern: A know-it-all type. He reacts to the situation with frustration and fear, but to death with indifference (just a little regret). He overthinks and therefore makes no real progress.

The Player: He's very mysterious and implies that he understands the situation R and G are in. The Player represents low-culture, foiling R and G. (He interprets entertainment as simply sex and violence)

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. You know.

Stoppard's Style

Stoppard uses extensive stage directions, which allow the play to read well like a novel (kind of). Often the little commentary can add a burst of humor as it complements or contradicts the dialogue around it.

Symbols

coins = failure of logic, rules, balance
England = heaven, afterlife
boat = life. just life.
the letter = opportunity to change your fate

Theme 

One must take control of their own life, rather than allow others to make decisions for them. Failure to take charge and responsibility for one's own choices is self destructive and yields a meaningless existence.

Quotes

"There must have been a moment... at the beginning... where we could have said, No"
(Illustrates that they should have seized the opportunity to change course.)

“Rosencrantz: Shouldn't we be doing something--constructive?
Guildenstern: What did you have in mind? ... A short, blunt human pyramid...?”  
(The desire to make their own progress, and the mocking of that notion.)

Rationale

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to take control of their own life when they continue on their way to England, knowing their undeserved deaths await there. That's clearly self-destructive. Ros and Guil also look to the Player for answers and guidance (DIRECTION), but just going with the flow of the play lends them no understanding of why things are happening. They never obtain adequate answers or direction this way, but would be better off simply arriving to their own conclusion and creating their own rules as they do in word-games.

February Course Material

Doesn't it seem weirdly early to be doing this again? We're only halfway through the month...

So we read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, did a whole bunch of analyzing, and were informed that we sucked at writing thesis/intro paragraphs. But it's okay, because Ms. Holmes gave us a workshop to hone our skills, and put them to the test the following day.

Maybe an easy place to begin is the intro paragraph boot-camp we did. As of now I have not revised my open prompt's intro, but I plan to do that before they are peer edited and graded and such. I'm glad we did that practice, because I needed some guidance with the essays. I wish we did a little more writing practice in class regarding how to structure the essays. In history themed AP essays it was easy to make a tricolon thesis and there you have your three body paragraphs. Anyone who took AP World especially knows exactly what I'm describing. AP Science essays are just detailed explanations that follow no structure (and therefore, I'm great at those!) but what do I do for lit? I often find that my theses argue one thing, or maybe a two-element idea, but even then how do I fill body paragraphs? Do I argue the same thing from three different angles? Any advice on structure..?

With regard to R and G... My hour has been discussing this idea that Ros and Guil are characters and so their lives are controlled by fate as the author (Shakespeare) wrote it. The Players are outside of Hamlet and see that R and G's lives are fated, believing themselves to be different. But we (audience of real people) are outside of Stoppard's play and see that the Players are also fated by the words that Stoppard wrote for them. So are we free from fate and driving our own boats? Or is there a superior power out there that writes the play we are all trapped in?

One last thing, I was listening to Pandora radio and a song came on that totally sounded like it fit the theme of R and G are Dead and I was so excited that I jerked and the cord to my earbuds pulled taught and my phone was hurled off my bathroom counter, where it shattered into phone, battery, and battery cover all over the tile. Pandora did not save the track history, so the song is lost forever. But believe me, it fit so closely I wonder if the artist based it off of Stoppard's play!

We'll never know.

Actual Open Prompt #2

2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may
betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their
own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written
essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the
work as a whole.

In Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, the main protagonist, Willy Loman, betrays his family by having a steady and secret affair with a mistress. This betrayal damages his entire family, and its consequences force Willy to finally face reality and admit to his mistakes.

All throughout the play Willy is weaving between the present time and his past memories. For much of the story, Willy exclaims things like "they know me up and down New England!" and assures his family that his success in business has earned him a great reputation across the entire country, but none of that is true. He rejects the reality of his situation by lying about it. This trend stops after his memories finally bring him to the moment when his son caught him with his mistress. Willy realizes that he can not keep running from the truth. His son knows what happened, and can hold him accountable for the affair. When Willy's betrayal caught up with him, it forced an end to his delusional frame of mind.

Willy not only betrays his family, but himself as well. He loves his family, and this is obvious when he brags about his son's high school popularity, saying "Remember how their faces used to light up whenever he[Biff] walked by?" He betrayed his own values when he cheated and exposed his son to betrayal by someone he loved. After witnessing his father's treachery, Biff gives up on his schooling and his future. Willy has not only destroyed his own ability to avoid facing reality, but has destroyed his son's life, which in turn tears his family apart.

Death of a Salesman illustrates how an act of betrayal, especially when caught in the act, ultimately forces the character to face reality, and accept the consequences of their action. This can destroy the things the character loved most, like Willy Loman with his family.

Hamlet Summary/Analysis

Author: Shakespeare. (Enough said.)

Setting: Elsinore Castle in Denmark, with references to Wittenberg, England, and a pirate ship.

Plot:

Act 1

• The guards talk about having witnessed the ghost of Old King Hamlet
• Horatio sees the Ghost and attempts to talk to it, but it does not cooperate
• Everyone attends the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude
• Laertes is given permission to go to France, with permission of Polonius and Claudius 
• Hamlet is not given permission to go back to Wittenberg, and is bothered by having to be around the "incestual" relationship.
• Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghost and they plan to confront it 
• Laertes (leaving for France) warns Ophelia not to fall for Hamlet and not to trust him.
• Polonius says the same thing and orders her not to see Hamlet.
• Hamlet and co. see the ghost but it beckons for Hamlet to join it privately. 
• The Ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius and wants Hamlet to avenge his murder.
• Hamlet makes his friends swear to secrecy.
•  
• Act 2
• Polonius does not trust Laertes in France and sends someone there to watch him
• Ophelia was visited by a crazed Hamlet after avoiding him for a while.
• Polonius thinks that Hamlet is crazy because Ophelia will not see him.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent to spy on Hamlet by Gertrude and Claudius.
• Polonius tells Claudius that Hamlet is crazy with love for Ophelia. They set up a test of his feelings for Ophelia.
• Hamlet knows that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spying for Claudius.
• Hamlet decides to prove his uncle’s guilt by staging a play, The Murder of Gonzago.
•  
• Act 3
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern cannot figure out what Hamlet's problem is. 
• Hamlet considers suicide with "To be/Not to be" speech
• He sees Ophelia and is nice, but becomes angry and insulting when he realizes it's a test, announcing that he doesn't love her.
• Claudius determines love is not the cause of Hamlet's behavior
• Polonius suggest Claudius let Hamlet talk to his mom before he's sent away to England.
• The play occurs. Hamlet and Horatio watch for a reaction from Claudius.
• The Player King is killed by having poison poured in his ear.
• Claudius gets upset and leaves.
• Hamlet is asked to go see Gertrude, and Polonius hides to spy on the meeting.
• Claudius starts to pray and Hamlet wants to kill him there, but cannot because then Claudius would go to Heaven.
• Polonius hides behind a tapestry in Gertrude’s room.
• Hamlet enters and scares Gertrude, who calls for help. Polonius then calls for help.
• Hamlet, thinking that Polonius is Claudius, stabs the tapestry.
• Hamlet argues with Gertrude for marrying Claudius, when the Ghost appears and he is the only one who see it. Gertrude thinks he is mad.
•  
• Act 4
• Gertrude tells Claudius that Polonius is dead. Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Hamlet, and they can not find the body.  
• Claudius orders Hamlet to leave immediately for England. Claudius tells the audience he plans to have Hamlet killed there.
• Hamlet sees Fortinbras and his army.

•  
• Act 5
• Two clowns (gravediggers) dig up Yorick’s bones to make room for Ophelia, even though she killed herself.
• Hamlet has his “fall of the sparrow” speech.
• No longer fearing death, he goes to duel with Laertes
• Gertrude drinks the poison wine intended for Hamlet, who gets mortally wounded by Laertes' poison-tipped sword. Hamlet is able to stab Laertes with the poison, too.
• Gertrude dies and Hamlet kills Claudius before he and Laertes die. Horatio lives and watches as Fortinbras storms the castle and takes over (without a fight).

Characters:

Hamlet: prince of Denmark, main protagonist, very emotional and confused.

Claudius: Hamlet's uncle/step father, murdered Old Hamlet, constantly spying/plotting

Gertrude: Hamlet' mom, not a great example of a wife or mother really, but she shows selflessness at the end with her death.

Horatio: has bromance with Hamlet, a good-natured guy

Ophelia: Hamlet's girlfriend who sides with her father and betrays Hamlet

Laertes: Ophelia's brother, he does not like Hamlet and conspires with Claudius to kill him.

Polonius: father of Ophelia and Laertes, assistant to the King, more clever than he seems.

Ghost: only really interacts with Hamlet. It is unknown if he's even really the spirit of Old Hamlet, but it is suggested that he comes from Hell.


Symbolism:
Yorick's skull = the inevitability of death, equal for every person
Ophelia's flowers = the life and vibrancy that has been lost at the castle


Quotes:
"Frailty, thy name is woman!" (Act I, Scene II)
     This quote can be used to show generalizations about women, or Hamlet's immaturity. Hamlet says this when referring to his mother's new marriage/apparent lack of morals

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
     Corruption and evil abound at Elsinore. This implies that it's fate causing the evils.


Theme:
Shakespeare's Hamlet illustrates how self doubting and losing touch with one's values can inhibit moral judgment. This leads to a degradation of society.

When the ghost confronts Hamlet, it makes him doubt himself. Before that meeting, Hamlet knew what he wanted--to be a student at Wittenberg. Now he isn't sure what his priorities are. He doubts himself and his values/morals slip away. This causes him to do things like stab Polonius out of impulse and have Ros/Guil killed. The affect of these actions is a breakdown of society. Ophelia goes mad and kills herself, Claudius has to try to keep Hamlet from ruining everything which leads to Gertrude's death, and everything gets turned upside down.

January Course Material

In this tiny fraction of a school month we wrapped up Hamlet and worked on a collaborative review as one big team!!

Oh, Hamlet. I'm still not 100% satisfied with my hour's theme statement. I don't think the other hours had it quite right, either. I plan to spend some time re-thinking it independently after finals and before the summary/analysis blog is due. The loss of identity part seems solid, but it's what that causes that I don't know yet. My hour kept wanting to say it's an opposition to providence, which just doesn't seem right to me. Its more big picture than that, and providence is so religion-specific. It's more like Hamlet doubted himself, and so lost his direction and ultimately his conscience. I'm not sure... Any opinions are welcomed!

Personally I think an AP Lit chat roulette review collaboration would be pretty great, so we wouldn't miss seeing each other as we studied together from the comfort of our own homes. How exciting!

Surprisingly, the collab review was super productive. I was impressed by how organized it turned out! With that many students working on it, it should have been more scattered. The thing is, though, that it's so lengthy and wordy. It has tons of great info, but I'd prefer it simplified into a study format. For example, when studying comp physics I saw that my notes read "Johannes Kepler, German, used Tycho Brahe's data and found that planets move in elliptical orbits, not circular." But that' too wordy so on my hand-made study guide I wrote "Kepler = elliptical orbits." I kind of wish our lit study guide was simplified that way. We already learned the material in-depth. The review should be simply memory-jogging and solidifying relationships between topics. Because studying from it is going to take so long...

Dreading finals more than usual this year...
What about you guys?

Open Prompt pt II

In the novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith, the massive tree for which the book is named serves as a crucial symbol for the story. In many ways, it directly symbolizes the main protagonist herself. The tree illustrates the life of Francie Nolan, and is able to highlight her struggle to break out of the disadvantaged life she was born in to. The tree gives us insight into her character and also the central theme of the novel.

Early in the story, the reader is told of a sapling that is growing in a crack in the sidewalk of a Brooklyn street. The people who pass by scoff at it, remarking that it's impossible for the tree to grow; surely it will die before long. Later in the story, one realize that the sapling did survive, and in fact grew into the massive and beautiful tree that creates a curtain of foliage over Francie's balcony. It represent her life. She was born in a poor family in a hard, urban life. Just like the tree, nobody expects her to blossom into anything, due to the disadvantaged way her life began. Despite all odds, Francie works hard and eventually is able to attend the University of Michigan and make something of her life.

The central theme of the novel is that the struggle the impoverished must face to survive is what makes them such strong people. The symbol of the tree illustrates this theme, as the tree's long struggle and "determination" yielded not only a healthy plant, but a thick and formidable piece of nature in the middle of the merciless urban landscape. It symbolizes the hope for those willing to work hard, like the Nolan family. Francie and her brother even discuss how their friend who hails from a wealthy family is actually unfortunate, because the lack of hardships will leave her a weaker person.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn depends upon the central symbol, the Heaven Tree, to convey Smith's message of hope, and provide a visual representation of the struggle and accomplishments of a young girl trying to flourish against all odds.