Yesterday/Journal Topic

Yesterday with Mr. J being our sub basically didn't do anything at all except for responding to the journal topic which I'm about to do right now. If Holden Caulfield had walked into this room right now I'm sure that at this point I would probably be used to his tardiness yet still give him a sarcastic answer as to why he may be late. Similar to how Dr. Preston would respond if Chase would walk into class late any other day. Holden is the type of person who would probably not really care about whether or not he showed up late to class or even if he went to class at all.

I'm Here!

Right now it's accurate to say that my blog is going in and out of a coma really because I was not a fan of doing this blog originally and for me it's safe to say that I'm still not on board with the whole idea of this blog and how it would "change our own idea of thinking." But that's purely my own opinion, I know that I need to post more about "The Catcher in the Rye" or responses to all of the chapters. Slowly I will start to get us to the idea of this blog despite the fact hat we are already past the halfway mark of the year.

The Catcher in the Rye Chapter Presentations

Chapter 1: First of all I want to say what an amazing job that Morgan Ethan and Megan did in doing that wonderful presentation today on Chapter 1. Out of all the presentations other than the Chapter 8 presentations, this one will definitely stick out in my mind. In Chapter 1 we get introduced to Holden is a very unique character, we quickly expresses his view on his brother who everyone views him as a wonderful and successful businessman, yet to Holden he's viewed as a phony, cheat and a liar.

Chapter 3: We find that Holden has started to read three different books, (Return of the Native, Bondage and Out of Africa), these books seem to capitalize on Holden's feelings of wanting to escape and maybe explore the world. Holden appears to be someone who enjoys being obligated and is starting to show a deep affection for his mother yet at the same time seems very sarcastic. His history teaches uses a certain "fancy" word which instantly frustrates Holden.

Chapter 4: Holden and a new character Stratlater is introduced and right away we get a sense of some of Holdens' true feelings for those closest to him. For instance how he talks about Jane in a sense of affection, he also switches his emotions by saying how he feels that Stratlater is very lazy and isn't responsible.

Chapter 5: Starting to evolve into this bigger and more emotionally deep person

Chapter 7: Holden is heading into Mr. Ackley's room and reveals to him that he feels alone and that maybe he doesn't belong in society. He makes a point about Catholicism which hits a nerve with those that are around him at the time, which shows that he can be very insensitive about his thoughts and feelings as well as those around him.

Chapter 8: When Holden decides to head to the train station he runs into this older lady who asks him about his Pencey jacket and he replies that he used to go there and then the old woman talks about her son who currently goes there now and the more that she talks to him the more that Holden realizes that who she's talking about is a complete and utter douchebag who Holden doesn't hold back in revealing this to her. Later throughout the course of the train ride Holden wants to feel like an adult so he tries to ask the same old woman to buy him a cocktail, she refuses and then Holden goes into this long rant about how he has brain cancer and that he's going through all of this treatment when in reality he's just making up this story as he goes along.

Chapter 13: Holden is taking this incredibly long walk to this hotel where he is staying and throughout the walk is drinking this bottle of whiskey and when he finally arrives at the hotel he gets into the elevator and this guy comes up to him and asks if he wants to have this fling with a prostitute. Holden decides what the hell and accepts the offer, Holden is trying to make a statement by saying that he is up for whatever may happen. Finally the time comes and the prostitute shows and Holden comes to the conclusion that he can't go through with the deal and decides to back off and has to almost fight the prostitute to get out of his room and go away making him feel like a coward.

Chapter 6 (Pgs. 43-46)

From the first half of Chapter 6 we start to see how Holden is starting to show that he really cares for certain people, such as Jane his date as well as his brother. We then see Stratlater having a moment of unclarity when he punches the air and Holden even has a time lapse of events. In which eventually turns into an argument between both Stradlater and Holden. They seem to argue constantly over, Stratlater constantly is telling Holden to shut up and keep his mouth shut. 

Music as Literature

Music is something that can send some sort of message to all of us, whether the song describes love, sadness, joy and peace. I like to think that music is a different form of literature. If you were to ask anyone they would most likely tell you that literature has to do with reading and books, however the literal meaning of literature is a body of written works of a certain culture or period of time. A novel is a fictitious narrative of great length, whereas a poem is a piece of writing which usually refers to the nature of speech. A song is a composition of words that have a various collaboration of instruments and voice. Rap is a form of a song that usually tends to rhyme. An opera is a dramatic act which is sung with great power, a symphony is a composition of musical instruments usually in an orchestra.

Early Final Review

• Ourselves, conflicts are never boring, conflicts happen everyday, conflicts are set up for people to fail and to create tension between one another.
• In "Young Goodman Brown'' his perceptions of people for who they are, are completely destroyed by what he knows now.
• Patience yet persistence, everyday people will do the good the bad and the so/so.
• Sometimes by asking the questions that aren't always asked, by doing that you open up to a whole new "dimension" of opportunities
• Emphasis on how we as a people are very complicated, we talk about our various "examples" of ourselves
• Diction, what is it, the words an author chooses
  -How does one create the tone in a story (an author's attitude towards the audience and or the subject)
  -Hawthorne's diction influences the tone (non-cultural words "thither", remembrance of things past)
  -Hawthorne's syntax (his dialogue is short) Why? When you are walking their is a lot of dialogue going on)
• Dialogue focuses on one thing at a time (understand what characters are going through)
• Allusion is a reference to something that an author expects the reader should know
  -Genre is the classification of literature
  -Mood is the reader's emotion
  -Intransigent means to be stubborn and unwilling to change your views
  -Carping is to complain  
• In "Young Goodman Brown" we see the sunset as a symbol, why is it a symbol, it's a border between time we can't see the unseen
  -Foreshadowing can allude to something that may happen later on in the story
• The characters are what can develop a story and make it much more personal
  -Dynamic characters change all throughout the story
  -Static characters stay the same
• Maybe not everything is always as clear cut and in front of your face as you want it to be
• In a way "Young Goodman Brown" is taking a finger and pointing it at religion and saying that not everything is as it seems
  -Irony is when an author contradicts what we all believe is the opposite
  -Epigraph is something written before the beginning of the story
  -Self determination is going against your idea of what you should do

Fahrenheit 451 summary notes

• Montag is introduced as a fireman, the tone immediately changes, Montag becomes a very different person when he takes off his firefighting uniform 
• "Turned the corner" usually refers to beginning a new chapter of "something"
• In the story the candle is referred to as a symbol of comfort, intimacy and is easily created
• All science, starts with science fiction
  -Passage from Pg. 5
  "The autumn leaves blow over the moon lit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving seemed fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward."-sliding walk?? What does that mean, the wind itself cannot carry someone
  -Passage from Pg. 7
  "Her face bright and white as snow." The author is talking about his view of people, which in a sense is the babbling idiot inside all of us
• Montag starts to realize how much Clarisse has gotten him to start thinking about himself and his relationship with his wife seems to be showing how there is a feeling of separation and as well as a lack of intimacy between the two of them.
• Ray Radbury tries to predict many things that turn out to be happening in todays modern time
• People have stories about to tell about big influences or changes in their life
• The conflict between Captain Beatty and Montag are easily noted and we later learn more information about Beatty knowing that he is secretly a reader and that this conflict will continually start to manifest itself into another conflict.
• Hero's Journey -A call for adventure
• Pg.51 -Montag starts to have an epiphany and slowly begins to change his life, so he ultimately decides that the kerosene and matches need to be ditched immediately
• Pg.52 -Montag becomes worried over whether or not to tell Beatty about asking for a day because he knows that Beatty is starting to grow suspicious of Montag's actions.
• Pg.56 -"Click, Pic, look, eye, Now'' How is this essential to taking a photo or video?
• An observation; the newspaper that we all get today would be the exact amount of news that people in the 18th century would get for their entire lives.
• "I think, therefore I am"
  -Ergo, sum cogito ergo sum Reme desearts