Resource of the Day #1

So since i'm not really sure what i'm supposed to write I am just going to tell you what I did today. Today, Whitney and I started our TV watching with Gossip Girl! The hit from the early 2000s! I'd say the first day was pretty successful!

Literature Analysis #2

1. The book begins with the Director giving a tour of the World State and showing how people are conditioned. There are five classes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Mustapha Mond talks about how they teach young kids sexual activities at a young age so they won't feel any emotional desires for human relationship. Fanny and Lenina talk about Lenina's sex life with a top Alpha, Henry Foster, but Lenina then admits she likes an awkward Alpha named Bernard Marx. Lenina and Henry are going on a date to play obstacle golf, while most of the other guys talk about how Lenina is fun to have sex with. Then as Lenina and Henry are on their date Bernard goes to visit Helmholtz Watson the other "outsider" like him, and they talk about their problems and how Helmholtz wants to do more with his words, but doesn't know exactly what. Lenina and Henry head home where they see where old people are cremated. Then they stop at a club where they play some 'erotic' music and have a bunch of soma. Bernard arrives late to the ford ceremony where they drop soma, eat ice cream and say chants. Bernard pretends to be into it but it makes him a loner. Next, Lenina goes on a date with Bernard who is weird, and doesn’t take soma with her and doesn't seem to want to have fun with her. They end up watching wrestling and then he takes her to look at the ocean which she doesn’t find interesting. After all that they still go back home and have sex. Bernard goes to the directors office and asks if he can go to the New Mexico Reservation with Lenina. While there the director tells the story of Linda and how he went with her there and she got lost and that he dreams about it. However upon realizing he is showing emotion he states that he didn’t care for her so it didn’t matter. After arriving at the hotel they leave and go to the reservation. Lenina is high on soma and they listen to the tour guide talk about the savages. Lenina and Bernard witness a ceremony and the whole time Lenina thinks its horrible. Bernard seemed to be okay with it. They, then, meet a young white boy who tell them his mother is from off the reservation and that his mother, Linda, was saved by some villagers. Bernard connects the dots and figures that the woman was the girl that the Director was talking about. They meet Linda who is a lot like Lenina except fat and ugly and tells them she is the village whore now. Her son John doesn't like that and doesn't understand thats the way she was conditioned. To avoid getting sent to Iceland, Bernard brings John and Linda with him to London to show off. When the director is about to exile Bernard, Bernard tell them that he found Linda and the Director had a natural born son. Immediately, the Director resigns and Bernard became very popular and finally starts acting like the normal people. John does not like the World State and doesn't like all the attention. One day he refuses to go to a party and Bernard loses his popularity and ends of having Helmholtz meet John. Lenina soon becomes obsessed with John and tries to sleep with him and he curses at her and basically calls her a whore. John visits Linda in the hospital where he witnesses her die. He gets upset when twin Deltas come to witness her death to condition them for death. He then becomes enraged and dumps all the soma out and tells people to be free. John and Mustapha Mond talk about Shakespeare and God and how there views differ. Helmholtz and Bernard are exiled to Iceland and John exiles himself. He lives alone in peace until low caste people discover him whipping himself and draws a lot of attention. He doesn't like this but finally breaks and takes soma and sleeps with women. He finally gave into their society and because of this he decides to hang himself to end his suffering.

2.The theme of this novel is that there is no such thing as a perfect society and that there will always people who question what life is really about. Another theme that I got from this book is the idea of dehumanization. The idea of creating a perfect society involves making people less human so that everyone can work together without problems.

3.The tone of the book is almost dark and twisted. There isn't much emotion in the writing and that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Characterization:

1. -Direct characterization- Bernard is described as short and mentally superior, but at the same time we do not get a complete feel of his character.

    -Indirect characterization- Bernard is shown as a rebel because he doesn't want to participate in what the World State does.

2. Huxley's diction changes based on the character that is talking. This occurs because Huxley uses a lot of dialogue.

3. John is a dynamic character because he is introduced as a savage that doesn't know about the world outside his world and is intrigued by it at first. Once in London he becomes angered at how everyone acts but he finally gives into it. 

4. I felt like I met each of the characters because of the in-depth dialogue and how all of the characters interacted with one another.

Super 5

5 Potential Experts/Role Models to Endorse My Work:

- I am going to try and contact directors of movies and see if I can talk to someone.
- Fellow movie watchers.
- My parents
- Other adults of different ages
- Friends

My Team

Whitney and I are going to work together to unmask the similarities between movies and the societies that they were created in!

Launch

• What am I passionate about?  What do I want to do?

I am passionate about many things. I like softball, television, hanging out with my friends, helping others and roller blading. For my project I will be working with Whitney and we will be taking our love of television and watching movies and seeing how they show the type of society that they were created in. We will be comparing how they change over time from us coming to our own conclusions about the movie to now where they tell us what they want us to think.

• How can I use the tools from last semester (and the Internet in general)?

Whitney and I will create either a website or a blog of some sort with different videos, post and pictures.

• What will I need to do in order to "feel the awesomeness with no regrets" by June?

I will need to stay on top of this project. Whitney and I can't procrastinate and wait until last minute to do this.

• What will impress/convince others (both in my life and in my field)?

The way we are able to present our project in a unique and amusing way while showing the creative ideas we have.

• How will I move beyond 'What If' and take this from idea --> reality?

Whitney and I will work on it each day.

• Who will be the peers, public, and experts in my personal learning network?

 Our classmates will be able to give us feedback and anyone else who would like to comment to it.

Brave New Essay Topic

Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two

or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.

I would answer this by addressing soma and how the people use it to avoid things that may make them unhappy. Things such as curiosity, things outside of their comfort zones, and things that they didnt know about.

Lit Terms #6

Simile:a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid

Soliloquy:an extended speech, given by a character alone on stage.

Spiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme. 

Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking. 

Stereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story.

Stream of Consciousness: the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them

Structure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization.

Style: the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking.

Subordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of language.

Surrealism: a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the irrational aspects of man's existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal.

Suspension of Disbelief: suspend disbelief in order to enjoy something.

Symbol: something which stands for something else, yet has a meaning of its own.

Synesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense. 

Synecdoche:   another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.

Syntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence.

Theme: main idea of the story; its message(s).

Thesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disproved; the main idea

Tone:  the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author's perceived point of view. 

Tongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; also called "dry" or "dead pan"

Tragedy: in literature: any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically (fatally) flawed

Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis

Vernacular: everyday speech

Voice: The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer's or speaker's pesona.

Zeitgeist:the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time