Literature Analysis for "A Christmas Carol"

1. Most of us know the plot of "A Christmas Carol". Scrooge is a grump and dislikes the spirit of the holidays. He finds the time to be very inefficient and dislikes the small amount of work that gets done. He ruins the holiday season for those who's lives involve him. He is visited by ghost who is to show him memories of his past, events that are occurring at that very moment, and the future holidays that are to come for Scrooge. Scrooge doesn't believe the ghost and thinks he is hallucinating, after the ghost of the present shows him what is going on to others he begins to have a change in heart. After the final ghost shows him the future he is broken. He sees how horrible it is to treat others that this way and once he awakes he sets out to fix the problems that may be. I does not want the future he was shown, it frightens him and disgusts him.

2. The theme of the novel is simple and might be over used in stories but this is a classic. One theme commonly taken from the story is the golden rule of "do onto others as you would have others do onto you".
One less apparent theme that you could derive from this story is that nothing is set in stone. The future is ever changing and is affected by every action you make and every action you have made. There are ways to change the future if it is likely to lead down a path you do not wish to travel.

3. The tone of the author is serious, contemplative, and deliberate. The story however fictional it may be is meant to be a serious event and show how important your actions can be. (ex.

It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.  Nor can I tell you what I would.  A very little more, is all permitted to me.) (ex.

These are but shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. "They have no consciousness of us.) (ex. T

here is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!)

4.

• The dynamic characterization of Scrooge is extremely important to the story as it is the fact in the story that the most notable theme is based off of.
• The mood and atmosphere of the story parallel the tone of deliberation and help to promote what the author indented the reader to walk away understanding. 
• I believe the story is shown through a serious of small anecdotes when the ghosts show Scrooge of his past, present, and future. These stories are the basis of this novel, the theme revolves around the events that occur during these short stories.
•  The diction of the novel is direct and flavorful enough to fulfill the point. There is no use of excessive flowery language or description but the author describes in detail the elements that deserve to be embellished upon.
• I myself found the story to be evocative. It elicited thoughts from me that made me ask myself and reassure myself that I was not following the same path as Scrooge, or a path similar to his where it seems fine and then somewhere down the path there is a drop, and from then on there is no recovering from what your past actions were.

Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

It is dark and dreary
there is only the flicker of my life in front of me
there are others, others like myself
chained here in our world, our world is complete
we know everything and we are better for it
I believe everything shown in front of me as it is all
it is all there is in the world, it must be true.
I struggled and it broke, the chain it just broke.
it hurt and was horribly painful, but it broke none the less
I was started and amazed, aw.
I was in aw, no words to describe the world
the real world I could now see!
I must share this with the others, I must share this reality,
they refuse to listen, they are stuck in their false mentality.

"No Exit" response

The cave by Plato and No Exit are similar in their themes and how the others go about describing the theme and causing the reader to feel and understand what is meant to be transmitted through the works. Both show that we are our own torture, our own imprisonment. We hold ourselves back from the truth or freedom, we keep ourselves from resting or taking a break. We stress ourselves by simply following what we want to and not what is beneficial to us as a growing being. We hinder our own learning through denial and misdirection. Both authors use a melancholy tone, a somber tone that causes the reader to almost feel sorry for the prisoners, it causes the reader to almost feel the burden and punishment that the prisoners must suffer. In the cave the only restrictions are the people themselves as they have the ability to free themselves but are too afraid to. I think it is different in No Exit as it is a story that is supposed to show how human nature restricts us from what we think we want. They both show that other people or ourselves are the torturers. 

"No Exit" Active Reading Notes

• Garcin is overly worried about earthly things that do not matter to him now that he is dead
• Garcin handles the fact that he is to be tortured through his lack of rest, the lack of a break or moment of darkness unable to close his eyes, sleep, or turn the lights off
• Inez initially believes garcin to be the man who is to torture her
• Inez is annoying. I feel as if she will be the cause of many problems throughout the story
• Estelle is rather positive considering the condition they are in
• I dont understand why the two girls seem to be rude to Garcin, i believe he is trying to be polite and make it so that he wont be tortured by the company of the others but it only seems to be making things worse
• Estelle can close her eyes? i thought they weren't allowed a break of any kind, or is that only Garcin
• yogi- a person proficient in yoga
• Garcin cheated on his wife while his wife could hear
• Inez killed her cousin I believe
• Estelle drowned her new born daughter by tying a rock to it and dropping it into a lake
• Garcin asked for silence now he wont shut up. he asks too many questions 
• it never ends.

Plato Study Questions

1. In my opinion the allegory of the cave is showing how people view reality based on beliefs and former ideas.
2.The cave itself is a place of deceit, and their are chains that form links to reality.
3. it suggests that the process of enlightenment and education are rarely found by ones self and those who do find it should help others.
4.The shackles show how oppressed the cave dwellers are, it shows what a burden reality can have on someone.
5.there are multiple things that cause our minds to be chained down in today's world, the internet is often a place where the first thing read is what is most commonly known to be true, and there are substances that humans use to free themselves of life's burdensome chains like alcohol.
6. The free prisoner is in aw as to what he now understands to be true, he sees just how clouded and incorrect his previous beliefs were. The caved prisoners still only see what they believe to be true.
7.There is physical darkness that limits a persons understanding and then there is the limitation of already instilled beliefs that leave people in darkness.
8. The prisoners need only to simply stand up. they are however burdened in body and mind by this action so only a few follow through and complete the task.
9. reality is known through appearances. they are not the same as people may interpret an appearance differently from someone else, but the reality that human kind knows is put together of the most commonly understood and believed thoughts.
10. Um what? I do not understand this question and will be asking about it in class on monday

Sonnet

While searching for interesting sonnets I only found ones written by Shakespeare... Well he is not my favorite author and I do not often enjoy his writing so while looking at others blogs for authors I find more enjoyable to read I found sonnets written by Edgar Allan Poe (courtesy of Joshua Ng and Ubi Kim)

Silence

There are some qualities--some incorporate things,

That have a double life, which thus is made

A type of that twin entity which springs

From matter and light, evenced in solid and shade.

There is a two-fold Silence--sea and shore--

Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,

Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces,

Some human memories and tearful lore,

Render him terrorless: his name's "No More."

He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!

No power hath he of evil in himself;

But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)

Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,

That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod

No foot of man) commend thyself to God!

AP Hamlet PLN

has a few every simple guides to help better understand the themes of the poem easily
http://ncc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=213151&sid=1880271

another schools ap english webpage. they are working on hamlet as well and have a couple useful links
https://sites.google.com/site/auppsap/units/hamlet

i was impressed by the amount of information and additional links from this single colleges site
http://libguides.cdu.edu.au/content.php?pid=312972&sid=2751310

yet another impressive college webpage that has useful links and tips to better understand Hamlet
http://www.lonestar.edu/library/kin_Hamlet.htm

This site has posts from other students in our class. It seems that everyone has found it to be very helpful and has taken the time to comment on the work put into this site.
http://aplove.blogspot.com/2007/11/ap-lit-hamlet-actscene-notes.html