Literature Analysis # 4

1. The story opens with Jake, one of the post war expatriates living in Paris.  He along with his friends- which include Robert Cohn, a man who peaked in college and now is a failure, and Lady Brett Ashley, who is a strong and beautiful, yet rather shallow woman- live generally fast paced and dangerous lives.  Although Jake and Brett love each other, Brett will not be with Jake, as an injury from the war left him unable to copulate, and also because she is engaged to a man named Mike.  Cohn loves Brett, and they go on a trip to Spain together, basically because Brett likes to engage in intercourse.  Bill, Jakes friend visits, and Jake’s group of friends, including Bill decide to go to see the Bullfights in Spain, although everybody just wants to go to party, with Jake being the only person who actually likes these fights.  After more exposition is gained from Jake’s talks with Bill and things are set more clear, the friends go to Spain and meet up with Brett and crew.  Everybody parties, and to the dismay of both Cohn and Jake, Brett starts an affair with the young bullfighter Romero.  Jake does not like this, as he sees Romero as innocent and that he destroyed that by introducing him to Brett, and Cohn does not like it because he likes Brett.  Cohn’s irrational love for Brett causes many problems in the group, and this comes to a head when Cohn beats Romero horribly in a fight.  After this, everybody goes home rather depressed.  Jake tries to go away by himself, but Brett stops him and says that they could love each other.  Jake rejects her, as he has lost all faith in humanity.  Jakes idea about humanity not mattering any more fulfills Hemingway’s purpose, as the title The Sun Also Rises suggests that the actions of people do not really matter, and that the world would exist without us.
2. The theme of the novel is a loss of faith in the human race, as derived from the Great War.  The fast lives, and lack of trust for love shown by Jake and his friends make this theme evident.
3. The tone of The Sun Also Rises is extremely cynical, as shown in the actions of the characters, especially when Jake feels that it is “pretty” to think people could actually love each other, the constant partying displayed by the characters, as this is evident that they view the world as so far begone that there is nothing meaningful to do so they should just have a good time, and Hemingway’s use of the fact that Brett Ashley as just a pretty face who is there to hurt people through the sin of lust.
4. Symbolism is used, especially with Lady Brett, as she symbolizes the evils of sex.  Allusion is used in the title, as the title is a quote from the Bible.  Repetition is used many times in the story, with short statements being repeated through a passage.  Imagery is also often used, as locations are often explained in depth.  Verbal irony is used in the novel many times, one example is when Jake says “Besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny.  I never think about it.”  In chapter 4.  The last statement can also be viewed as litote.  Narrational point of view is used throughout the entire book as a way of characterizing Jake directly, and his descriptions of the people around him is Hemingway using indirect characterization.

Characterization:

1. Direct characterization is used frequently, albeit not from a reliable source, as Jake is the narrator, so we get his opinions of everybody.  This is seen in the book when Jake describes Robert Cohn at the beginning of the novel, and again with his more accurate description of Cohn.  Indirect characterization is seen through Jakes thoughts, as these are his actions, and they characterize him, and in how he describes the actions of others, like Romero, who’s graceful actions while bullfighting mirror his purity.
2. Yes, Hemingway’s diction changes when talking about different characters, as everything is masked with Jake’s opinion with the people around him.  If he likes them, like Cohn (for the most part at least), more positives than negatives are used, but when he talks about Brett after her affair with Romero, he is much more critical and uses more negatives.  Truthfully, these changes are only minor, as Jake has a rather negative view about humans, due to his thoughts of disillusionment about the war.
3. Jake is a round, dynamic character.  He is round because we see him at every level of his being as the book is narrated by him.  We see his hopes, dreams, and hardships, as well as his thoughts about other people.  He is a dynamic character based on the fact that he spirals deeper and deeper into disillusionment, and by the end of the novel, does not even believe in love.
4. I do not feel like I have met a character, as in this day in age, I do not completely understand the disillusionment felt by the world after the Great War, especially the extremely strong disillusionment felt by the expatriates like Hemingway.  Although I feel that I met the man in The Old Man and the Sea, I do not feel like I met real people here for the same reason I did not feel I did after reading The Great Gatsby: I do not see anybody today living like this, and it feels so illogical to do so that I can not completely comprehend these people as truly people.

WHAT'S THE STORY

Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities because he wanted to warn England of revolutions, as he felt that Victorian England was on the path to this because of the ever increasing class divide due to the industrial revolution.  He also wrote the book as an allegory of christian redemption, as Carton sacrifices himself for the basic intention of doing something good in his life for a better after life.

Tale of Two Cites Lecture Notes

• Manchester is involved
• Dickens conceived this novel while acting with his children
• Proves to be a very personal work for Dickens
• In 1857, Dickens's helped write The Frozen Deep, and stared in it 
• It was about two men who liked the same women, and had self sacrifice because it was based on cannibalism in a arctic expedition
• In this, he met his Lucy, and left his wife for him
• Dickens likes Carton, and almost originally named him Richard (Dick, again copying the play) 
• In 1858, he started public readings for profit, which established him as a popular reader
• 1858 was a time of changing ties for him
• When Dickens was 10, he first went to London, and he did not like it, yet was fascinated by it, as he saw all the poor and suffering there.  
• He always writes about London, as all of the bad in the world was there, and it inspired him
• Dickens first visited Paris in 1844
• Dickens truly loved Paris, as it was completely alien to him
• Paris fascinated Paris in the exact opposite way that London did
• Because of the French problems, Paris was much more organized than London, as it was destroyed many times.  This made it a much more palatable for Dickens
• Another reason that Dickens liked Paris, was that it was constantly being upgraded, again, because of the revolutions
• Dickens still liked the dark sides of Paris.
• Many wine houses in Paris, which caused him to write some of Tale of Two Cities in a wine house
• Before Dickens wrote his book, two books, one about London’s locations, and one on Paris’s, influenced Dickens in writing, and provided many of the locations of the novel
• These books alluded to much of the history used in Tale of Two Cities
• In the opening, Dickens alludes to his bi-polar views of the cities, and the rich/poor class divide which he hated so
• Victorian England was haunted by the First French revolution, and its reign of terror
• This revolution terrified England, due to the fact that Victorian England, with its industrial revolution, was going much the same way that France was before the French Revolution
• Therefore, Tale of Two Cities was a warning to England
• The book was released in monthly parts in England and America
• Written with cliff hangars to make the audience return
• He wrote each part each month to see how his audience reacted
• Dickens wanted Tale of Two Cities to be his greatest work, and wanted it dramatized for the French
• Many dramatizations focused on Sydney Carton, and the same man played Carton in many of the adaptations, including the silent film, as an older man
• Even though he writes about history, Dickens is still able to build suspense with all of the little things he writes about in his work
• Dickens became good friends with Carlyle, who became a bit like a younger family member to Dickens, a man who wrote about the French Revolution
• Therefore, Dickens got historical help on his work from Carlyle
• Carlyle was one of a select few to read the book early
• The storming of the Bastille section was drawn directly from history with the help of Carlyle, yet was still suspenseful in Dickens novel
• To demonstrate this, Dr. Williams spends 7 minutes reading this passage
• The historical storyline is just as important as the multiple personal story lines
• Lucy is about the same age as Dickens's Lucy
• Finishes with Carton’s Death scene

LIT TERMS REMIX

Circumlocution:


Classicism: Turn the sound of your computer on now! This blog is based of classicism- the music is (now regarded as [although I have 3 baroque period compositions, one romantic period composition, and a only two actual classical pieces]) classical, and the background is based on the classical science astronomy.  So, this blog in itself is just a remix of two things: classicism, and Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which apart from being a scientific educational program is also a classicism remix.  

Cliche: 
The nick of time

Climax:


Colloquialism:



Comedy: I understand that this is not one of the words that we are required to do, but I hold comedy in high regards, may I suggest some media from the country which, in my opinion, has truly mastered the art of comedy:

Books:
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Jeeves and Wooster by P. G. Woodhouse
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Movies:
Submarine
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Life of Brian
Time Bandits
And Now for Something Completely Different

Television:
The League of Gentlemen
The Mighty Boosh 
Blackadder
Saxondale
Red Dwarf
All Creatures Great and Small
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Little Britan
Snuff Box
Mr. Bean
Coupling
Do Not Adjust Your Set
At Last the 1948 Show
Fawlty Towers
Ripping Yarns
Look Around You 
The IT Crowd
An Idiot Abroad
My Family
The Inbetweeners
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Jeeves and Wooster
Black Books
And some of Doctor Who

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

NOTE: To get to the original URL where these questions are found, click on them.

Consider Siddhartha’s relationship with Govinda. How are they similar, and how are they different? What are the narrative functions of Govinda’s reappearance throughout the novel? How does their relationship impact the novel’s ending?
I do not remember Govinda well enough to throughly answer this question, but I do know that he was Siddhartha's best friend and would differ from Siddhartha in that he was a follower and never reached nirvana, while Siddhartha reached nirvana by going off by himself.  Obviously, this question shows that you need to understand passages on many levels, not just comprehension ones.

What purpose does self-denial serve in Siddhartha? What about self-indulgence? 
Self denial and self indulgance are both negative and positive separately in this novel, because denying yourself luxuries leads you to not need them, but you should not deny them, you should simply not want them, and self indulgence is important, because when you are in nirvana, you will not need to indulge, but you do need to experience life with and without self indulgence in order to get there.  This question shows that you need to connect topics to your knowledge, and to pay attention to themes in the novel.

If you were the river, would you be enlightenment or would you know enlightenment? In other words, what’s up with the river? What is it’s relation to enlightenment?
The river is what allows Siddhartha to connect to the universe on a much deeper level, because it allows him to connect his life with what he sees in the universe.  Obviously, look for and understand symbolism.


What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?
To Siddhartha, enlightenment is being completely content with the world, no matter what its trials are, as he understands the cosmos on a deeper level.  It is neither a feeling or an attitude, but a state of being.  This shows the importance of thinking about character's emotions and the meanings of occurrences in passages on a deeper level.

Does verbal communication play a positive role in the spiritual progression of characters in Siddhartha?
I do not remember the book to this specifity, but I know that Siddhartha needs to fully understand the world to reach enlightenment, and he learns much about the world around him from talking to many people.  I feel that experience is much more important though.  This tells us that we must pay attention to what moves passages along, and what small things in writings are truly important.

Hacking My Education

When I get out of university and graduate school, I hope to have an doctorate of one sort or another and to do medical research at a university, while being a professor, in order to fund my work.  I feel that this course is already tailored towards helping me get their, because I intend to be an academic, and should strive to learn everything I can.