Lit Analysis #3

"HEART OF DARKNESS"


1.) Marlow is a sailor who travels up the Congo River to meet Kurtz. During his travel to Africa, Marlow realized the brutal treatment in Central Station, run. Later, his steamship sank and waited until it was fixed. Marlow and other agents pursue a long, difficult journey up the river. They discover a hut stacked with firewoods along with a note that they should be cautious. Shortly, the gang arrive at Kurtz’s Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a half-crazed Russian trader, who meets them as they come ashore, assures them that everything is fine. Kurtz lied to the natives that he was a god and went on brutal raids in the to search ivory. The skulls placed around the station is the consequence of his nefarious actions. Marlow listens to Kurtz talk. Kurtz hands Marlow personal documents. Later on, Marlow becomes ill and barely recuperates. He comes to Europe and goes to see Kurtz’s Intended. Even though it has been over a year since Kurtz’s death, she is in melancholgy. She asks Marlow what his last words were, but Marlow couldn't break her heart, so he tells her that it was her name.


2.) One of the themes in this book is madness which is tied with imperialism. It is defined as being removed from one’s social life and allowed to be the sole arbiter of one’s own actions.

3.) The overall tone of the novel is pessimistic. Marlow refers to darkness, madness, and fear throughout the story. Judging from my view, it is probably based on Conrad’s own negative experience to his voyage up the Congo River.

"A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth."

"I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. One was off. The thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal. I came upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. To the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stir feebly."

"The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence. And it moved not."

4.) Imagery: Helps me to visualize the text when I'm reading along. It leaves a better memory of the story. Symbolism: In this story, light eludes to darkness. Darkness represents the myteries of life. Lightness is darkness, darkness is lightness. It's complicated. Foreshadow: This Doctor foreshadows the upcoming danger and eventual madness that Marlow will face in the interior. Measuring Marlow’s skull is something akin to taking scientific observations of his brain. Allusion: Some references to the devil and Dante: The Divine Comedy allow the story to have a darker tone. Metaphor: The use of this device allows me to make connections between the person being compared to the noun.

"Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blind-folded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was somber – almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister."

"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slim one got up and walked straight at me – still knitting with downcast eyes – and only just as I began to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned round without a word and preceded me into a waiting-room."

“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’”

Brave New World Essay Darft 1

 

 

IN LIFE ALIENATION BRING OUT THE VALUES AND MORALS OF A SOCIETY.  IN THE NOVEL BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE AUTHOR ALDOUS HUXLEY REVEALS THE IMPACT THAT ALIENATION HAS IN THE VALUES AND MORALS OF A SOCIETY. HUXLEY PRESENTS THIS IDEA THROUGH THE ALIENATION OF THE CHARACTERS’ JOHN AND BERNARD. THROUGH OUT THE NOVEL JOHN AND BERNARD BOTH TRY TO DISCOVER WHO THEY ARE AND WHERE THEY BELONG, BUT THEY WERE BOTH ALIENATED FROM THE BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THE SAVAGE WORLD.

            IN THE NOVEL BERNARD IS ALIENATED MOSTLY BECAUSE OF HIS RACE. BOTH SOCIETIES DIDN’T ACCEPT HIM BECAUSE HE WAS AN ALPHA PLUS, WHICH WAS FROWNED UPON BY BOTH WORLDS. FOR BEING AN ALPHA PLUS THE SOCIETIES DIDN’T THINK THAT HE WAS INTELLIGENT AND BRIGHT, THEREFORE THEY EXCLUDED HIM. BERNARD ALSO DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THE REST, YET IT WAS NOT HIS FAULT BECAUSE AT BIRTH HE WAS MISTAKEN BY A GAMMA. FINALLY, THE SOCIETIES DIDN’T AGREE WITH HIS BELIEF OF INDIVIDUALITY. BERNARD ALWAYS TRIED STAYING TRUE TO HIMSELF AND THE PEOPLE IN THE SOCIETIES WERE ALL THE SAME, BUT HE WAS DIFFERENT.

            JOHN IS ALSO ALIENATED IN THE NOVEL. JOHN WAS ALIENATED MENTALLY, EMOTIONALLY AND SPIRITUALLY FROM BOTH THE BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THE SAVAGE WORLD. JOHN DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THE REST AND THEY DISLIKED HIM FOR THAT. HE WAS NOT WHITE LIKE THEM, HE WAS A DARK SKIN INDIAN SO HE WAS LOOKED DOWN ON. EVEN THOUGH JOHN PRACTICALLY OFFERED TO BE SACRIFICED FOR THE SAVAGE THEY DIDN’T TAKE HIM IN. HE ALSO HAD A DIFFERENT MENTALITY BECAUSE HE WAS SO FAMILIAR WITH SHAKESPEAR AND THE REST OF THE PEOPLE WERE FAMILIAR WITH TECHNOLOGY. THIS WAS VERY HARD FOR JOHN BECAUSE HE WASN’T ACCEPTED ANYWHERE AND THIS WAS A GREAT CONTRIBUTION ON HIS DEATH.

            ALIENATION CAN SHOW THE VALUES OF A SOCIETY OR CULTURE BECAUSE IT SHOWS WHAT THEY ACCEPT AND WHAT THEY DON’T. THROUGH THE CHARACTERS’ OF JOHN AND BERNARD, HUXLEY DID A GREAT JOB OF SHOWING WHAT BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THE SAVAGE WORLD ACCEPTED AND BELIEVED IN. JOHN AND BERNARD DEFINITELY DID NOT FIT IN WITH THE SOCIETIES.

March Lit Analysis

This month I am reading Heart of Darkness. So far I have no complaints about this book... I love it.
I am a little bit less than half ways done with it but hopefully I can finish it in a week. This weekend I am going to devote some time to read. This book is a really good and I recommend it to people. I don't want to say too much because I want people to want to read it.

Lit Terms Applied

The Lit Term Final was one of the hardest test that I had to take in this class. It was hard to concentrate when the passage switched every 20secs. I became more worried about the time left than the lit terms. This just shows me that I have to study more and become an export in the Lit Terms in order to pass the AP test. This is very stressful for me.

LIT ANALYSIS #2

 

Kafka on the Shore

By: Haruki Murakami

 

1. "Kafka on the Shore" is a story of two men who are traveling for different reasons. Murakami structures the work using magical realism. Kafka Tamura has run away from an abusive father; while Nakata is an older man who is able to talk to cats. Both men search for the door to a spiritual realm. Murakami opens the story with information about Kafka and his background; his mother leaves the family when he is little, taking his sister with him. This event motivates the father to be emotionally abusive towards him. Questions surround this character when he wakes up one day covered in blood. Kafka searches for answers. In contrast, Nakata is in search for a lost cat. Nakata's background is unique, because he just woke up one day with this ability. By the end of "Kafka on the Shore," the two men experience different types of relationships. They enter the spiritual world, but later return to the real world to continue their lives.

2. I feel like the theme is desire. The desire to what you want and learn for yourself. Kafka does this throughout the whole novel repeatedly. Even with other important characters they all do what they desire to do despite the outcome or what the odds are saying against it.

3. The author of this novel seems to me to have a sort of assertive tone as he lays out his story for the reader.

Quotes:

"From now on - no matter what - you've got to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive."

The Boy Named Crow, p. 5

 

"Naturally, I have zero friends. I've built a wall around myself, never letting anybody inside and trying not to venture outside myself. Who could like somebody like that? They all keep an eye on me, from a distance. They might hate me, or even be afraid of me, but I'm just glad they don't bother me."

Chapter 1, p. 9

 

"What I think is this: you should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for the other half of your shadow."

Nakata tugged a few times at the bill of his hat in his hands. "To tell the truth, Nakata's had that feeling before. That my shadow is weak. Other people might not notice, but I do."

Chapter 6, p. 52

4. Literary techniques that bettered my understanding of the purpose, theme and tone were diction, syntax, symbolism, and style.

Diction: The authors word choice helped me understand the tone a lot better because he used charged adjectives, very descriptive and to the point in the writing.

“But if something did happen, it happened. Whether it's right or wrong. I accept everything that happens, and that's how I became the person I am now.”

Syntax: The way he wrote his sentences and how they all had a purpose allowed me to enjoy the book as well as understand it. He used long descriptive sentences.

“The journey I'm taking is inside me. Just like blood travels down veins, what I'm seeing is my inner self and what seems threatening is just the echo of the fear in my heart.”

Symbolism: symbolism was used a lot in the novel. One major symbol that helped me understand the purpose of the novel was the crow. it symbolized Kafka's inner struggles and how hard things were going for him at this time.

Style: The authors style was unique and helped me get a feel for the writing and the meaning. The author alternates chapters with different stories every even and odd chapters. This was interesting and the two characters were so complex that it allowed me to stay completely interested in his point in the end of the novel.