Robyn’s Secret Hideout!

Thesis:

TS1:

TS2:

TS3:

Conclusion:

Ekwefi’s character: direct and indirect presentation, appearance, actions, personality, and motivation

Ekwefi gets her motivation from her daughter and all of the other children she’s lost. Her daughter is there to serve as a

All Ekwefi wants to do is live and create a good life for herself and her daughter. She’s greatly scarred from the fact that she has had only one out of ten children survive, and even the one survivor is very unstable.  She is strong and determined- which is very unlikely for a woman of her culture. She speaks her mind when she feels the need to, and she is not afraid to speak the truth. “and she said so” 33.

 “the wife who had just been beaten murmured something” 33 . even after she was beaten, she does not feel fear to stop what she thinks.  Her pride always stays with her even when she is laying on the ground, hurt once again from the life she’s chosen. 

Concrete Details

-          “and she said” pg 33

-          “the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot” pg 33

-          “he threw down the gun and jumped into the barn” pg 33

-          “he was too poor to pay the bride price” pg 34

-          “village beauty” pg 34

-          “Ekwefi was a woman of forty-five who had suffered a great deal in her time” pg 34

-          “Ezinma was always surprised that her mother could luife a pot from the fire with her bare hands” pg 35

-          “Ezinma was an only child and the center of her mother’s world.” Pg 67

-          “it was impossible to refuse Ezinma anything” pg 67

The first chapter of the story acts as an exposition. It sets the setting of the novel and reveals the story’s protagonist (Okonkwo). It also establishes the village of the story and characterists of the tribe. Being tough and a good fighter is what makes a man important, and that is why OKonkwo is so important.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” is the detailed journey of the poet, John Keats’ mind, as he discovers that the urn is a timeless perfection that only art can capture.  The poem takes on a theme of frozen time, portrayed by the urns images of never-changing lovers, a tree that will never lose its leaves, and melodies of musicians that will never be heard. The lovers can never fulfill their desires because they are frozen in time, but they will stay forever young. The musician will always play, but never be heard. The poem represents Keats’ philosophy that beauty can only exist in an artificial state, not real time, and is embellished in the immutable, lifeless, Grecian Urn. Beauty is something that is eternal, not life.

From my research I learned that the last couplet of the poem is the most recognized part of the poem and often stands alone. It is open for interpretation, but it reveals how Keat feels about the existence of beauty.  There is an overall paradox of the poem suggested by the dynamic pictures on the urn. The urn is made of cold, lifeless stone, but the pictures on it are full of life. However, the passion of the pictures can never be fulfilled because they are frozen. This proposes irony.

The urn acts as an idealism to the poem and slow time. Keat uses a negative tone to describe the advantages of frozen time, but the earn is expressed as striking and exists in the real world but is not effected by real time. Its beauty will stay forever, untouched by time.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/urn.html#general

http://www.articlemyriad.com/meaning_analysis_ode_grecian_urn_keats.htm

http://www.bookrags.com/Ode_on_a_Grecian_Urn

Rebus — “A representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle.”

The clay can resemble life and “what you are given”. The poem unfolds as it goes on, revealing more about the clay.

Honey means people? “There are no honeys so bitter” could represent aspects of her personality that “no one would willingly choose to take.”

If I had the oppurtunity to redo the timed write for “Evening Hawk” the first thing I would do is re-read the poem so I could pick up on all the things I missed the first time. Intensely looking over the poem in class definetely opened my eyes to new aspects and understanding of the poem, and I would include them in my timed write. Something I really need to work on is relating my commentary to the theme more. My essay relies on paraphrase and I didn’t go as analytically in depth as I should have to score better than a 5. I think the conrete details I used were relevant, but I needed to emphasize more on “end of time” theme. When the promt was handed out, I didn’t understand the poem at all, so I pretty much just tried to sell it as best as I could. Having a chance to redo this would be a productive experience, but it would be agonizing, horrible, excruciating, and make me suffer to the max times 1 million + the infinite limit as X approaches negative infinity.

The short story, “War Dances” by Sherman Alexie reveals the story of a lackadaisical Indian man who lives his life hidden behind comedic actions instead of showing his true feelings. Personally, I really liked this story even though it has few bursts of profanity. The story was not only about Alexie’s life, but it held a deeper meaning to life itself. The main theme revolved around the undying thought that no one truly knows what tomorrow will bring. One day we can be perfectly healthy and wake up deaf in one ear and with a tumor in our brain. Alexie is trying to illustrate that life comes with unexpected challenges, but no matter what, we need to continue to persevere through them in order to live. The main character in the story finds out that he has a brain tumor known as meningioma. He’s given little information about the disease, and like anyone else, he’s scared. But he decides to deceive his emotions and wear a mask. One example is his vulgar language. Personally I think Alexie uses such diction to create a sort of manliness about the character because “tough guys” seem manlier when the use bad language, and they don’t show their emotions. As his dad was dying, he still used cuss words instead of speaking his true feelings. He’s afraid to speak his mind because he doesn’t want to end up like a cockroach, curled up vulnerably on the ground, taken aghast by an unexpected event.

Overall, I would classify “War Dances” as a literary fiction because it centers mostly on the character development of the main character. It also holds that deeper meaning about being who we are because life can take unexpected turns.

Many things in daily life get taken for granted. In the short story “Everday Use” By Alice Walker, the importance of appreciating family and culture is shown through an inanimate object (quilt). The story reveals how things like family or past are so known to us that we often take them for granted.

A symbol is a literary device that an author uses to help the readers better understand a story.  Symbols can range from material items to even names of characters in the novel.  In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, there is a variety of symbols used throughout the story. The main symbol is the rocking horse, which resembles never-ending ambition. Paul is too old for toys, so he doesn’t ride on it for joy- he rides on it for luck. The motion of the horse as it goes back and forth quite rapidly, not stopping until Paul fulfils his purpose, represents how desire is never satisfied until someone feels accomplished.  The rocking horse never goes anywhere; it acts as a real thing or reality.

Another symbol in the story is money. The money represents greed or self-indulgence; it is most clearly portrayed through Paul’s mother, Hester. Nothing is ever good enough for her, and she raised her son making him believe that money is what brings happiness. And luck brings money. So in order to be happy you must be luck. That theory is what brought Paul to his death.

An allegory is a figurative representation that symbolizes something greater. The central allegory in the story is the whispers in the house. No matter how much money Paul wins in the races, the whispers never stop. They resemble the never satisfied greed of people and how people are so fixated on obtaining what they think will make them happy, but in all actuality makes them ravenous demons with “blazing eyes”.  However, family and love is what brings happiness, and that is what Paul is truly seeking in the story from his mother.

While I was researching archetypes, I couldn’t help but notice one that fit Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” perfectly. The scapegoat archetype is centered on people believing that they can transfer all of their sin and wrong-doing to one person or one thing, and that person or thing is sacrificed and everyone’s sins are depleted. Jackson’s entire story revolves around the central plot of eliminating one person in the town’s “lottery”.

Archetype symbols/situations in the story could include the task archetype. This is when a group of characters are given a sort of task to carry out, and its accomplishment takes most of the entirety of the story. The task in “The Lottery” is the lottery, itself.