Roy Christopher Notes

Some important concepts I grabbed from the lecture was that technology is advancing and instead of ignoring it we should embrace it. Another thing is that technology is not nececeraly to be a great invention but it should be something that should be used wisely. It can help create opportunities in a time were success is rare amongst us.

Literature Analysis III

Frankenstein Literature Analysis
 
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.

The plot to Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is very simple. It basically tells the creation of a man made man. Dr. Frankenstein attempts to create life using the dead and electricity. He does create life but he is terrified by his own creation thus leaving it in isolation. Once the creation, Frankenstein, is isolated it wanders alone suffering rejection from everyone he meets or encounters. At one point we are shown Frankenstein's humane side when he encounters a little girl near a lake tossing flowers in the water. He is shown emotions of affection by the girl as they begin to play, but Frankenstein messes up by the tossing the girl in the lake. He later flees and hides near a house. He spends time near the house and observes the inhabitants talk and spend family time together thus allowing him to learn how to speak. After a while he grows tired of isolation he seeks out Dr. Victor Frankenstein so he can create him a wife. Victor goes with it but backs out halfway thus killing Frankenstein's wife. Out of rage Frankenstein swears revenge on Victor. In the end Frankenstein kills Victor but feels remorse for it thus killing himself.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

The theme of the novel is isolation. It proves the condition of humanity caused by isolation and how it makes life unbearable. Another theme is the development of human nature, how Frankenstein learns how to speak, feel, hate, and forgive.

3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

The author remains a somber tone throughout the whole novel. Some examples include how Frankenstein is shown to be alone without anybody. Another is the tone when Dr. Victor Frankenstein feels remorse for creating another monster then killing it without it gaining life. Lastly when Frankenstein kills the little girl a tone of melancholic emotions is shown.

4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

5 literary techniques used include the tone of isolation. The syntax used to describe the events, the atmosphere created in the novel for example when Frankenstein kills Victor there is an atmosphere of depression and regret created. A sense of confusion when Frankenstein can't comprehend why the girl died instead of floating.

Big Question

What can cause a genius to avid the social norm or to not conform to society thus causing them to become a sociopath?

Hamlet Essay

Hamlet since the beginning demonstrates that he is a unique hero that can differentiate him from another hero. This is due to the fact that he is maybe one of the only heroes that communicate with the audience. Hamlet's strong use of his language and communication truly differentiate him from any other hero, for example Beowulf. Not only that but Hamlet's strong reflection on his emotions also compell us to see him as unique.
Since the beginning of the play we are introduced to Hamlet's constant reflections of life and choices he makes. For example, "To be or not to be, That is the question whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer..." this goes on for a while but it demonstrates something that is key to the character development of Hamlet. Beowulf would have never reflected on his life or at least not continuously because that's not the type of hero Beowulf was.
Another thing that Hamlet does is his constant use of his communication with the audience. Hamlet truly takes the time to inform us of what's going on. Hamlet's soliloquies are a perfect example of his communication with the audience. Not much heroes take the time to tell one their thoughts and intentions, they leave their thoughts to be overshadowed by their strength but not intelligence. Hamlet actually takes time to simplify the play.
One other thing tells Hamlet apart from any other hero, his constant display of emotions. Hamlet is always overpowered by his grief, depression, and his anger. He always reflects his actions off his emotions. When Hamlet goes on to display his love for Ophelia he is vulnerable, but as soon as he discovers Ophelia betraying him, he quickly changes his love to disrespect. This shows that he is a hero that is not far from human. He displays his actions in a human way, Beowulf never diopside his emotions, well maybe at the end but it wasn't constant as Hamlet did.
Hamlet has truly displayed his position as a unique hero. His constant use of language, emotions, and thoughts differentiate him from heroes like Beowulf. Hamlet is never outshined by his dilemma but rather embraces it to make decisions.

Video

  One of the most important lessons that I have learned from the class is that there is glory in the attempt. For example if something is done and is not high quality then it will be better than if the assignment was ignored. It is as Dr. Preston has stated,"There is glory in the attempt". That is something not only applicable to school but also for life. That's why the video I chose is a song that talks about attempting life and trying to make it day after day.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/5Rkf5H7J-S0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Literature Analysis #2

1. The main plot in Kafka on the Shore revolves around a boy who runs away from home in order to feel free and find his long lost sister and mother. While this happens two other stories take place, one about a man who speaks to cats and one about a teacher. Kafka takes a bus to a city in order to find a new life. On the bus he meets a woman who he is attracted to and starts a conversation with her. He asks her about his sister but is not given the response he was hoping to hear. Once reaching the city he enters a library where he befriends the person at the front desk. He tells her about his intentions and she says he could stay at a small shack up the mountains not far from where he is now. After a while of staying there he is allowed to stay at the library's guest room. Here he encounters the owner of the library who is a woman. He befriends her and starts somewhat of an attraction with her. On the first night there he witnesses a ghost an tells the library attendant about it. The books ends up with Kafka having a sexual relationship with the library owner but also the girl he met on the bus who is later revealed to be his long lost sister.  The story involving the man who speaks with cats is about him looking for a cat throughout the the story. He later finds out that cats around the neighborhood are being kidnapped and killed in order to be used for a ritual. This all ties in with Kafka in the end.

2. The main theme to this is love and human nature. The author Haruki Miramaki really explores the human nature throughout the story like sexuality, isolation, violence, and imagination. Love also plays a key point through out the story.

3. The authors tone is serious. He does shift into a happy tone in occasion but he usually stays on a serious tone to create an atmosphere to the reader.

4. 5 literary elements the author uses on the book include dialect. The dialect really demonstrates the characters intentions but also their emotions. Another technique he uses is imagery, he uses this by creating a surrealistic yet realistic environment for the reader. Another technique is tone. The tone creates the setting of mood the book is meant to be read and comprehended in. Another technique includes diction. The words he chose allowed certain sentences to flow clearly to be taken into thought rather if it was choppy.

Tools That Change the Way We Think

The use of all the new technology has made me think in a new perspective like maybe it is a good thing only if the people know how to control it but if people use it excessively it might end up affecting them negatively.

Technology has given me an upper hand in education in the sense that if I don't know a word I am capable to look it up and come up with an answer in seconds unlike when using a dictionary, it can take up to two minutes just to find the definitions of a word. The new technology does not really affect my concentration since it doesn't really captivate my attention.

The difference between previous generations and modern day generations is that people now a days depend on technology to teach them how to survive, how to think, how make it in life. They have no basic instinct and are dependent on technology for most of their problems. This is not true for all generations but it is for a couple of people. Now older generations relied on their instincts, their knowledge, their thoughts to help them survive in life when things came to a pause.

There is a positive side to the new technology, but once again it depends if the audience know how to even out the usage of technology. It allows us to be informed about life outside our county and country. We are even informed about outer space. So I guess in a way technology is a step forward with society

In Search of

   After watching the video posted up on the blog, it made me realize that even though it may seem that we are in charge of what we look for, in reality we are far from in charge of the internet. The thing is that there exist filter bubbles on certain search engines like Google, bing, and yahoo. Something else that caught my attention was the fact that everything we look up is sent somewhere and is added into an equation that determines what we would like to search when in reality we are searching for something on the opposite end of the spectrum. After learning this I decided to redo my research on who was Shakespeare, but this time taking into consideration what I learned from the video. I went to a search engine that does not have the Miss Cleo effect thus not giving me random searches but searches I specified fort. I went to duckduckgo.com for example. Another thing I did was put parentheses around my search words to make it specific. Once this was done all my searches didn't give me random websites about furniture or music but rather history sites and even PBS.com.

Notes on Hamlet

Since we began reading Hamlet my thoughts have remained then same due to the fact that I have read it before but some things have popped up at me that I didn't notice before like Gildenstern and Rosencrantz working against Hamlet even though they are friends. Since the ghost apeared at midnight I tend to feel this dark atmosphere around the whole play. Some things I also begin to comprehend as we entered deep analyses of certain fragments or snippets from the play, one example being Hamlet's famous "To Be or not To Be..." soliloquy. this really helped me understand Hamlet's thought process along with how everything ties in at the end.

Who Was Shakespeare

After some searching I came to the conclusion I've always had about Shakespear. Shakespeare was a writer whose themes and topics usually revolved around upper-class hierarchy which raises some very thoughtful questions. How did Shakespeare know so much about the royal lifestyle if he himself was but a peasant. This led people to the conclusion that maybe the writer behind various Shakespearean plays was a actually of royal descent, in this case Edward de Vere. In the end I conclude that Shakespeare was the writer behind many plays.
Search engines used included Google, Bing, and Duck Duck Go. Websites used include PBS and wikipedia.

To Facebook or Not to Facebook

My first impressions on facebook was that it was a very simple and generic social website. It didn't really leave an impression on me. The benefits of it include that people could meet other people to socialize and to catch up with current events. Some of the risk involve children getting kidnapped, privacy getting intruded, and people targeting kids with advertising. After reading the article and discussing in class I learned that maybe security and privacy should have a limit and is not important to facebook nor society. Also it helps donate money and it actually gathers society together to share common interest and thoughts.

(Don't) Be Hamlet

Hamlet seems to face various dilemmas when it comes to making a decision concerning murder and suicide. He demonstrates this throughout his well known soliloquy. He discusses death, his hard life, and other subjects.

For Hamlet I would have to say to not murder anyone nor lean tirades the thought of suicide. Hamlet, in the soliloquy, discusses death and what may await him after death. I would have to say that he try to cope with the dilemas he faces each day. "To be, or not to be," as stated by Hamlet demonstrates or advices the reader he is trying to make up his mind. Hamlet should think about maybe talking out his problems to his friends see their opinion.

"Must give us pause. There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life, for who would bear the whips and scorns of time." Hamlet is correct that maybe with a pause of thought will make him think clearer and allow him to make his mind up since life is very hard. Hamlet should maybe dig more into his choices instead of anaylizing the two black and white choices. Mostly I believe Hamlet should just cope with his problems and not drag death into it.

This is basically what I believe my opinion or advice would be to Hamlet. The main and repetitive advice would be to cope with the problems. Sounds harsh, but I believe death would bring guilt that may worsten his life a bit more.

Paradise Lost Literary Analysis

1. The main plot to "Paradise Lost" by John Milton is the downfall of man and Lucifer. It describes how Lucifer attempts to temp Adam and Eve into sinning in order to get beck at God for sending him to hell. He mostly goes after Eve since she is a bit weak willed. Lucifer fails after Michael, an angel from god, shows Adam the future generations life of greed, violence, and death.


2. The main theme of the story was human nature and the obedience to that which is right. It was meant to show how people can be tempted into their own flaws but also if one disobeys what's right, in this case god, everything will end horribly.


3. The authors tone was serious in the way that the events that were being described were serious and not much joyful moments were described. For example "Into this wild abyss the wary fiend, Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while". "The First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject- Man's disobedience and the loss thereupon Paradise". Lastly, "War, therefore, open or co esker, alike; My voice dissuades: for what can force or guile".


4. 5 literary techniques used in "Paradise Lost" include motifs, symbols, syntax, tone, and character motives. This helped me understand the theme of the story greatly. For example the motifs of the story like the constant reminder of darkness and light sets the atmosphere of war and chaos surrounding the story's environment. Some symbols include the wrath of Adam, the demonstrates that even mankind had moments of weakness. The syntax made things clearer to understand and the tone made everything seem understandable in a certain aspect rather than a comical epic. Lastly character motives really helped understand what intentions each character had thus making the theme clearer.