Response to Course Material

       During the past week in Ap English Literature we have been building the basic skills needed to write a successful essay on the exam, but overall learning how to effectively read literature as well as learn to find meaning. These skills not only help us do well in the exam but they are skills that we will need later on. The simple acronym DIDLS, allows us to remember to look for basic techniques that an author uses and determine how they fit in to the literature's meaning. It finally allows us to move past the elementary practice of being told a meaning and look for it ourselves. We also practiced essay structure for quite a bit, and learned how create a well organized essay that clearly expresses our arguments using literary techniques such as diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax as support.
       Another extremely useful skill we learned is how to close read and annotate. Though I had in the past took notes in the margin of my books, the textbook taught us an effective way to write notes in the margins that illlustrate and explaine our understanding. The annotating allows us to practice actively responding to the literature and jotting down main ideas, possible symbols, and techniques so that we can easily write about the writing later.
      This week we didn't just learn things that would be useful for the exam, most importantly we immensely improved our reading skills, which is something that can help us in our everyday lives. Being able to find profound meaning in literature will allow us to look at our world differently and be able to make many more connection.

Open Prompt #1

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

Similar to how little kids desire to change and affect their world, authors sometimes strive to change their reader or society’s attitude in some way. In the play by JB Priestley “An Inspector Calls”, the selfish attitude of the Birling’s is the overall cause of death of the young woman.  The young girl represents the working class men and woman who are inadvertently victimized by those in power. Priestley, through vivid imagery, diction, and details portrays this and the need for society to, not only take care of its own, but of others as well.

The Birling family  were a part of the new upper class, their father Mr. Birling owned a a very successful business that provided a luxurious lifestyle for his family. Like others in their class, the Birlings applied their business attitude to their relations with the lower classes. Their attitude was a selfish one, that put others in needs last and in result ruined the lives of the poor. This is seen not only in the fact that the girl has many names, but in her cause of death. Her numerous names mean that she represents not one girl but a whole class. It wasn’t her name that counted but the fact that she was overlooked like many other working class men and women in the early 20^th century.  Her cause of death as well, being collectively caused by actions in which none of them thought about the consequences it could have had on her. For example, Sheila Birling had the girl fired from her job merely because she felt insecure.

                The selfish attitude of the Birlings represents that of the upper class in early 20^th century England. This selfish attitude is what Priestley sought to change. The inspector in the story highlights the family’s flaws by individually shaming each one by making them believe that they were responsible for a death of a young working class women. In order to achieve this the inspector brings in a picture of a woman, and shows the picture to only one person at a time, the picture takes on a different meaning, story, and character for each family member. Making them remember the young woman, who though they believe is the same woman another family member wronged could very well be a different one. The inspector’s tactic shows that the family is so guilty of selfishness that they could have been responsible for the misfortunes of another. The author’s vivid imagery that depicts the girl’s state shows the cruelty of the upper class. Along with image of the family dining comfortably while a innocent girl is dying.

JB Priestley’s” An Inpector Calls” advocates for social awareness and change. The play showcases the selfish attitude of the wealthy and the effect that it had on the working class. The young woman the Birlings killed represented the lower class that were being victimized by the wealthy. Priestley achieves this through the additions of details, imagery, and language.

Close Reading: In Love and War

     In Love and War

by Janine di Giovanni

http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/in-love-and-war/

           Di Giovianni's "In Love and War" tells about the rough time that her and husband endured while dealing with his alcoholism. As warside reporters, the pair of them faced and witnessed horrible sights and actions that left both scarred and heavily affected their life afterwards. This essay documents their post war journalism period, when the couple moved to paris, to have some peace though it was anything but. The author accurately portrays her and her husbands's raw emotion, passion, detachment, and troubled persona through well chosen rhetoric. Such as her diction, syntax, and imagery that affectedly depicts her situation to her reader.

           Throughout the essay her simple, informal, yet precise word choice gets straight to the point and gives off an almost gritty emotion. One that is genuine and obviously not meant to please. The vulgarity of her words further add to this raw emotion that is obviously emitted from her husband. The diction paints an image of him as being very tough but very sensitive at the same time, because of the terrifying and cruel aspects of war that he has been devastatingly affected by. War in itself is to the point, vulgar and takes all and any kind of casualty not caring who in the end it hurts to get to the means, which is exactly what her language conveys. An example of this is seen in the excerpt "this stuff really f****d us up for good?" her word choice here is simple, vulgar, and extremely to the point (Di Giovanni). Adding to effect of her diction the author, Laura di Giovianni, uses syntax as well to further emphasize the mental state of both her, the family of the addict, and her husband, the addict himself. Her short punchy sentences have almost the same affect of portraying the attitude of war, the one that has so royally messed up her husband and her. The frequent use of lists like" the graves, the fires, the bombs." create a war like rhythm that seemingly has no end. One that is creepy, depressing, and gloomy.   

           The use of imagery in the piece shows the detachment of both the author and the wife. He, who becomes detached from the world after getting sober and she, who becomes detached from him. Through imagery we can see not only aspects of the what affected him like in the line " fever rising, his head damp, and his limbs splayed, but also how it did. When she describes her husband during rehab, " his face was white, hollow, and thin," you can't help but envision death. Which I believe is exactly what the author is insinuating, that part of her husband died, a part that she will never get back.

           All in all the author's rhetoric leaves us with a gloomy, filled with despair account of their lives. Her use of simple yet vulgar words, disturbing imagery, and short rhytmic sentences brilliantly depict a husband who is detached from the world, and a wife who must readjust. Laura Di Giovianni's narrative does, I'm sure, intended it to do.