BACK FROM WINTER BREAK: LITERATURE ANALYSIS: THE LAST SONG BY NICHOLAS SPARKS

1) Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to elements of plot that you've learned in the past courses. Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose.
a) Introduction/Exposition: The novel begins with Ronnie sitting in a room looking around and gathering the memories. She is then joined by her mother and it is revealed about the pain that Ronnie has been going through for the pas couple months. Ronnie then begins to tell her mom the story of her life changing summer at her dad's house.
b) Rising Action: The relationship between Ronnie and Steve (her father) is not the most traditional and expected one. They have their differences, mostly Ronnie - who likes to stay isolated in her own world. Ronnie meets this handsome boy at the beach, Will. Then her journey begins about truly discovering the meaning of relationships.
c) Conflict: There could be two conflicts possible: one could be Ronnie being unable to forgive her father and taking decisions solely based on her naive opinions; second could be Ronnie and her brother, Jonah, discovering their father's cancer.
d) Climax: First: After her father forgives and believes her that she did not shoplift, Ronnie began to realize that she might be wrong about who her father truly is. Second: the moment when Steve dies.
e) Falling Action: Ronnie decides to stay with her father until the end, until his death.
f) Resolution: Ronnie finally plays "The Last Song" by her dad on the piano and decides to take her career forward in music.

The author's third person omniscient point of view allows him to develop the characters and transform them along the way. He shows the gradual transformation of a typical high-school-graduate-teenager to a determined-career-seeker, something that all the readers have gone through sometime during their lives are are going through currently. His narration opened his characters and story up for the readers to analyze.

2) Succinctly describe the theme of the novel.
The theme of the novel, to me, is complexity of life and relationships. The necessity of love, faith, forgiveness, mistakes, are all too important to miss. Life is all about taking chances, staying true to yourself while doing so, letting go in life (forgiving), and most importantly - appreciate and love all that you have before it's too late. It is also about the transformation from a rebellious daughter to a mature and patient and positive one.

3) Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrates your points.
The author's tone was straightforward and completely non-biased. He was the kind of author who would present his facts to the audience with minute detail and then let them interpret it openly.

4) Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers.
1) Foreshadowing: "Thankfully, the pain in his stomach had lessened since the morning, but he'd been nervous for days, and he knew it would come back. He'd always had a weak stomach." (Pg: 13) 
2) Allusion: "'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.'" "Was that before or after you claimed to have read Tolstoy?" (Pg: 128)
3) Imagery: " The paint was peeling, the roof was missing numerous shingles, and the porch was rotting." (Pg: 15)
4) Irony: "Inside, the walls were painted cheery colors, and a vase of fresh flowers stood on the dining room table." (Pg: 89) [Describing Blaze's house, who's a goth herself.]
5) Flashback: "Ronnie hesitated; then, with a sigh, she began to tell a story that still felt utterly senseless to her, even with the benefit of hindsight." (Pg: 4)
6) Onomatopoeia: "Behind him, he could hear the steady beep of the heart monitor." (Pg: 80)
7) Metaphor: "Just off the bridge, summer traffic had slowed the line of cars to a crawl." (Pg: 7)
8) Simile:"He bent and kissed Ronnie gently on the cheek, feeling again the undertow of his love for her, a joy as intense as pain." (Pg: 168)
9) Characterization: "He was forty-eight years old. His marriage had ended, his daughter avoided him, and his son was growing up without him." (Pg: 14)
10) Point of View: "Ronnie slouched in the front seat of her car, wondering why on earth her mom and dad hated her so much." (Pg: 5) [Ronnie is the main protagonist of the novel]

CHARACTERIZATION:

1) Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end?
"But right now, Ronnie had no choice in the matter. Because she was still seventeen. Because of a trick of the calendar." - Direct Characterization. "They were both thin and pretty, with blindingly white teeth, and obviously used to being the center of attention and having boys drool all over them." - Direct Characterization.

"I don't want a Nemo shirt, okay?"
"Nemo's cool."
"Maybe if you're six," Ronnie retorted.
"Suit yourself." - Indirect Characterization.

"'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,'" he quoted, pointing to her book."It's the first line in your book. I always thought there was a lot of truth in that. Or maybe that's what my English teacher said. I can't really remember. I read it last semester." - Indirect Characterization.

The author approaches both direct and indirect characterization to appeal to the readers and have the characters seem more understandable and relatable. I believe that the author uses both in such a manner and to such an end that I knew about the characters like I would with my family or friends. Sparks took his time to deliver the past of the characters so well that the reactions of the characters seemed natural, expected, and able to analyze it.

2) Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
The syntax doesn't majorly change because of the point of view that Sparks uses. This point of view almost seems like an outsider, not playing part in the story whatsoever but still knows every detail of it, is narrating it. Since it's only one "narrator" of the story, there is no point (in fact, it wouldn't make sense) for the author to change syntax and diction when s/he focuses on one character.

3) Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
The protagonist(s) is/are dynamic and round. It might not be exaggeration if it were to be said that these are one of the most dynamic characters ever written by a writer. He achieves this because he portrays a third person omniscient point of view but provides different perspectives of the same incident through different characters' interpretation. This novel (kind of) becomes like a diary where readers have three-four main characters have their inner feelings and emotions revealed for readers to analyze. Even though a lot of dialogue does take place, the author takes his time to, extremely, gradually develop each character with a detailed description about their past, present, and hopes, goals, and wishes for the future. Sparks gives the words and pages a character and the readers truly need to grasp the reason behind a character's actions, thoughts, and feelings.

4) After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
After reading the book, I truly did feel that I had met a person but not just anyone - myself. I feel as though it would be extremely hard (and almost impossible) to find one textual evidence that summarizes my feelings. The kind of character that Ronnie is, caring but not able to show it or honest and expecting loyalty and honesty in return and many more, makes me feel like I am looking in a mirror. The character might not be a genetically identical copy of me in terms of dressing style or behavior or look, but the emotions that she felt throughout the book and the hardships and emotional obstacles that she went through, I knew who and what she was.

BACK FROM WINTER BREAK: MY MASTERPIECE

All this time, I imagined myself glued to my computer doing research for my masterpiece and giving a boring presentation in front of the classroom while what I really wanted to do was not even remotely close to that. My topic, as of now, is to connect the two most important aspects of my life that define who I am - writing and music. Both of these complete me in ways that's completely unexplainable through words. I'm someone who's not so willing to describe myself and my emotions to anyone and open myself up and so to express my emotions, I take the median of music and writing, hence this topic for my masterpiece. By combining these two, I'm not only enriching learning experience for my classmates, but also remixing the two most powerful median in media now and producing an output that every individual can relate to with different interpretations with their various experiences. This topic requires the very most important fields, connecting them directly and/or indirectly. For example, it takes calculation and planning to write a song; it takes skill and knowledge about rhythm and music to remix another work with our own writing; it takes some relation with psychology to write about a theme that all individuals must've experienced sometime during their lifetime; and finally, it takes writing skill to pour emotions on paper. I have written many poems but I haven't written as many songs to get the experience of it and write it with easiness. So as of now, the only plan I have is to communicate with Jisu and collaborate about our possible melody and lyrics and how we want the audience to feel when we do present. Along with the song, I want to have a one-on-one with our audience and get their perspective, opinions, questions, and comments about our song and its process. Personally, I think the only resource we both need is our thinking ability! But if we do have an option of meeting somebody, I would like to get an experience to meet someone who has had an experience with all three: music, writing, and presentation. I would like some background as to how to present ourselves in terms of body language, range of voice, and attitude. I think, for me, it would be extremely cool to make a kind of music video where there's only one or two individuals singing but the facial expressions or physical actions of many other individuals incorporating the lyrics with their own interpretation of it as the actual video. Also, first, I would like to show the video mute, then just the audio, and then both of them together and then ask the audience which one they could connect with the most and why. I will be collaborating with both Jisu and Dr. Preston (maybe even the class) and see what, how, and if I will be able to achieve this goal!

SOCRATIC SEMINAR NOTES

• Eliot uses a lot of symbolism: such as the yellow fog/ smog.
• Both Hamlet and Peufrock are similar in the manner that they can't bring their decisions to actions.
• But both are different in that one knows what to do but struggles and the other struggles to decide what to do.
• Prufrock's inability to take action makes him depressed and lonely.
• The poem is called Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock not because it's romantic or lovey-dovey (in fact, it's mourning and depressing). It's called that because of the possibility of Prufrock's life if he were to take action.
• Was Prufrock suicidal?
• Prufrock imagining himself "bald" and old proves his fear for his inability.
• The women coming and going could represent their status in society.

LITERATURE ANALYSIS # 3: THE ROAD BY CORMAC McCARTHY

1) Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to elements of plot that you've learned in the past courses. Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose.

a) Introduction/Exposition: The beginning of the novel introduces the father, the son and then the setting they were currently in. The event of the apocalypse is revealed. Even though the apocalypse had occurred, and both the characters suffer from freezing weather with no food, they hadn't encountered danger in the initiation of the story. They both decide to head south because of another approaching winter in the mountains.

b) Rising Action: Both the father and son were resting in a car. Father was awoken by a noise and they both flee to the woods. The fathers spots a goon clutching the boy's throat and fires a bullet from his gun, hitting that man right in the middle of his head. The man lies dead while the father wonders about only one bullet in the gun.

c) Conflict: The repetition of food shortage and struggle for survival.

d) Climax: The moment the arrow is shot in the father's leg.

e) Falling Action: The father struggles to continue their journey and finally dies in a forest, the boy next to him.

f) Resolution: Another family progresses towards the boy and takes him (helps him).

The author uses a mixture of point of views (narratives) but mostly, it's third person omniscient. This third person omniscient perspective not only assisted the author in characterizing his characters and explaining their personalities, but also allowed him to shift his perspective towards the father. It allowed him to have descriptive settings, paragraphs of father's emotions, thoughts, and struggles, and also have justice towards the son.

2) Succinctly describe the theme of the novel.

Of course, like most novels, there are multiple themes of the book but what stood out to me was the strength and determination of both of the characters. They both had experienced so much from a near death to murder of someone else but their dedication to achieve what they had strove for did not decrease. They weren't discouraged by defeat or broken by sickness - they kept moving to survive. The author uses the relationship between the father and the son to increase the effect of the theme and the meaning behind it.

3) Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrates your points.

The author has multiple tones, just like narrative. But the two most important ones are tender towards the duo - father and the son, and factual towards the the entire setting and situation. McCarthy is extremely talented in that his shifts in tone is noticeable and understandable at the same time.

4) Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers.

1) Foreshadowing: "But he knew that if he were a good father still it might well be as she had said. That the boy was all that stood between him and death." (Pg: 25)

2) Symbols: The revolver containing two bullets: the bullets could represent "life" and "death."

3) Imagery: "They crossed the river by an old concrete bridge and a few miles on they came upon a roadside gas station." (Pg: 5)

4) Irony: Throughout the entire book, the readers anticipated death by starvation of a character but the man ended up dying by an arrow (or his sickness, not cleared!).

5) Flashback: "They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you wont face it. You'd rather wait for it to happen. But I cant. I cant." (Pg: 48)

6) Personification: (The Woman) "I've taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot."
                               (The Man) "Death is not a lover."
                               (The Woman) "Oh yes he is." (Pg: 48)

7) Metaphor: The road - collapse of capitalism (McCarthy clarified in an interview).

8) Simile: "Drawing down like something trying to preserve heat. In time to wink out forever." (Pg: 75)

9) Characterization: "He stood up. I'm begging you." (Pg: 49)

10) Point of View: "When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him." (Pg: 1)

CHARACTERIZATION:

1) Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end?

"He mistrusted all of that. He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death." (Pg: 15) - Direct Characterization. "He was gone longer than he'd meant to be and he hurried his steps the best he could, the water swinging and gurgling in the shrunken swag of his gut." (Pg: 104) - Direct Characterization.
(The Boy) "Yes."
(The Man) "Dont pay any attention. There's no one here."
(The Boy) "Are they dead?"
(The Man) "I think so."
(The Boy) "I wish that little boy was with us."
(The Man) "Let's go." (Pg: 110-111) - Indirect Characterization. "You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?" (Pg: 65) - Indirect Characterization.

The author uses both direct and indirect characterization to develop both the characters more thoroughly. He uses indirect characterization more than direct because he 's the kind of writer that makes his readers interpret the characters and their personalities.

2) Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
The author's syntax changes when there is a dialogue between characters. They're brief, precise, and to the point.
(The Man) "We need to get out of the road.
(The Boy) "Why, Papa?"
(The Man) "Someone's coming."
(The Boy) "Is it bad guys?"
(The Man) "Yes. I'm afraid so."
(The Boy) "They could be good guys. Couldn't they?" (Pg: 87)
In terms of diction, it's doesn't change in terms of the elevation of the words, but it gets more innocent with the young boy.

3) Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
The protagonist is a round, dynamic character because of the conscious choices that he makes and emotions that he shows towards his son and his protection. The manner in which he gives hope, strength, advice, and shows affection towards his son shows that he, as a character, is capable of making strong decisions just as a live individual in real world.

4) After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
I felt that I met a person not because of the plot, or setting or even theme, but only based on the characterization of the man. He seemed like my father, ready to protect his child at any moment - even if it meant him losing his life. This is what connected me to the book the most and made me believe that the story, the characters, and their situations and choices made to get out of the situations - victorious.

KUDOS TO YOU!!!

Hey guys! So the Kudos blog is up and the link is here! We are giving authorship soon and there is an intro on the blog explaining everything. So please check it out and leave questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, etc. as comments for now and pretty soon, you will be able to post any kind of kudos you wish!

LOVE SONG OF ALFRED J. PRUFROCK BY T.S.ELIOT - QUESTIONS

1) What is the role of time in this poem?
Time plays a great role in this poem because it is the one aspect in his life that pushes him to keep moving but at the same time pulls him back from taking action.
2) What is the significance of Eliot's allusions to Hamlet and the "eternal Footman"?
Prufrock is characterized to be the kind of character that struggles not only to convert his emotional and mental process to physical action but he's also characterized as someone who fails to understand many of his duties and responsibiliyies and also becomes a little procrastinating to bring about the desired action and results. He differs from Hamlet in this because Shakespeare characterized Hamlet to be an extremely intelligent young man who knows what is expected of him but he's troubled in the manner about what his actions will bring about for him and how it will affect him in the "unknown" future. But both these characters are similar in their struggle with time and the necessity to produce an action.

3) Choose a moment when Eliot uses figurative language and:

• interpret the image
• explain how the image and its meaning contribute to your understanding of the theme of the poem.

"Time to turn back and descend the stair, with a bald spot in the middle of my hair (They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")

This moment in the poem contributes to the overall theme of the poem because it shows how Prufrock knows his inability to take action. His "baldness" and "thinning of the hair" foreshadows that the future is going to be same as how he is now.

COMPARISON OF POETRY

Poetry and ocean both require effort and analyzation to understand: both, at the shore, seem to be similar to their other respective kinds; but if "traveled" deeper and deeper, it is realized that they're as different as the polar ends of the world. Similarly, the poems "Everything is going to be alright" by Derek Mahon and "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein have similar themes approached through different paths of the road.

Mahon defines life to be hard with obstacles, pain, negativity, crime, etc. but he explains to his readera about the natural beauty of life and how hope and happiness arises from it - "the sun rises in spite of everything/ and the far cities are beautiful and bright." Throughout the entire poem, Mahon uses the sun as hope and how its rays of sunlight will shine bright over the darkness in everyone's life. He admits that life will one day end, "there will be dying, there will be dying, but there is no need to go into that," but he encourages the readers to not think about death while there can still be hope to acquire happiness in life. 

When he starts the poem, he asks to his readers about how can they not be happy when the dark clouds move aside and clear the sky for sunshine to shine through - "How should I not be glad to contemplate/the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window..." The clouds could symbolize the obstacles in one's life and he gives hope to the readers by making them realize the importance of the "clouds" clearing the "sky" one day and "sunshine" making the world a brighter place to live. Mahon achieves his theme of hope and standing up to the problems and having faith on life itself by using symbolism, rhetorical question and himself.

Silverstein, in his poem " Where the Sidewalk Ends," also highlights the theme of hope but instead of having faith on life and that the problems will end one day (Mahon), he asks the readers to seek for the positivity in their own life. He symbolizes the street as the normal, painful life and the end of the sidewalk is the place of happiness. He initiates a sense of movment and a requirement of taking action in the readers' hearts to find their own happiness. He admits there is pain, crime, negativity in everyone's lives but he also admits that there is a place (might be only emotional or mental, not necessarily physical) that we all need to approach to get what we want.

Unlike Mahon, Silverstein urges his readers to take action walk where the sidewalk ends - "Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black..." He also uses symbolism to increase the effect and intensity to his poem. Both the poets gives hope to their readers, assure them of the happiness the future consists and ask them to "hang on" but Silverstein, in particular, tells his readers to walk towards their own happiness if they want it. All in all, these two poems are like oceans: different temperature, different species present, different islands surrounding, but serves similar purpose to the world.