Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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yaaa digggg??????

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

LA-Great Gatsby

1. Nick Carraway is a young man who moves to West Egg in New York. His next door neighbor happens to be a very popular, wealthy man by the name of Jay Gatsby. When he first moves in, he becomes closer with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband, Tom. They all attend Gatsby's parties later in the summer and Nick meets his love interest, Jordan Baker. They discover Gatsby's past secret love affair with Daisy and come to understand that the affair is continuing throughout the summer. When Tom becomes suspicious of this affair, he starts accusing Gatsby of crimes and put his hate towards Daisy (despite his own affair with a woman named, Myrtle). Later, Gatsby and the crew are driving into town and he accidentally kills Myrtle with his car. When Myrtle's husband finds out Gatsby did it from Tom, he kills Gatsby and then shoots himself. Nick ends the summer with Gatsby's funeral and leaves the town of West Egg, reflecting on the relationships he once knew.


2. The two main themes in this novel are the loss of the American dream and the lack of values in a high class society. The characters in the story focus on their status in public and their party life instead of going after the typical job, house, and family routine. They live off their family's money and don't have to work for what they own. Because of these low standards, their morals are reflect on the characters as snobby, rude people. They have no depth to them emotionally and don't know how to act humble despite their many properties.


3. Depending on what or who Nick is talking about, his tone adjusts to the scene and the action. When he discusses his opinion and situations with Gatsby, he has an almost admirable voice. "He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself," Nick would say, enamored by Gatsby's greatness. When it came to the other rich people in the town, he had a sense of disapproval towards their ethics. He frowned upon their rudeness and lack of integrity. "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry," explained the thoughts that were hidden in the mind of the high class. About love though, he portrayed relationships romantically and with a sense of hope. "He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God," he said, proclaiming his views on passion.


4. Fitzgerald used many literary techniques to explain his point through Nick's eyes. He used symbolism through the green light to display Gatsby's hope towards his and Daisy's relationship."A single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock," displayed the theme of the American dream and how it was barely staying alive in those times. His diction was thorough, describing every little idea with as much detail as possible. He used this kind of wording to show how much the upper class cared about money and wealth. When Nick met Jordan, he noticed her snobby ways through her body language; "She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall." Foreshadowing plays a big role in the events of the story, giving the reader something to keep in the back of their minds as the days unravel. When Gatsby gets into the car crash early on, it gives a hint of another automobile disaster in the future involving him. The tone involved while the foreshadowing takes place is mellow yet pertains to Nick's high standards of Gatsby.

Macbeth Quiz Questions


1. Macbeth won the respect of King Duncan by
A. slaying the traitor Macdonwald.

2. King Duncan rewarded Macbeth by dubbing him
B. the Thane of Cawdor him.

3. In addressing Banquo, the witches called him which of these?
"Lesser than Macbeth, and greater." (I)
"Not so happy as Macbeth, yet much happier." (II)
"A future father of kings." (III)
 A. I and II

4. When Macbeth said, "Two truths are told / As happy prologues" he was referring to
C. the predictions made to Banquo and to himself.

5. "Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it" is a reference to
A. the traitorous Thane of Cawdor.

6. Duncan's statement, "I have begun to plant thee and will labour / To make thee full of growing" is an example of
B. a metaphor.

7. Lady Macbeth characterizes her husband as being
B. "too full of the milk of human kindness."

 8. When Macbeth agonizes over the possible killing of the king, which of these does he say?
"He is my house guest; I should protect him." (I)
"Duncan's virtues will "plead like angels" " (II)
"I am his kinsman and his subject" (III)
B. II and III

9. Macbeth's statement to his wife, "Bring forth men-children only" signifies that he
C. has accepted the challenge to slay the king.

10. As part of the plan to kill the king, Lady Macbeth would
A. get the chamberlains drunk.

11. Trace Macbeth's transformation from a good man to an evil man.

12. What motivates Macbeth to take the evil path he chooses?

13. What influence do the witches have on Macbeth?

14. Contrast Macbeth's response to the witches' predictions with Banquo's.

15. Describe the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Trace how it changes over the course of the play.

PART 2
1. "Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight?" is a reference to the
B. dagger.

2. Lady Macbeth confessed that she would have killed King Duncan herself except for the fact that
B. he looked like her father

3. Shakespeare introduced the Porter in order to
B. remind the audience of the Witches' prophecies.

4. Malcolm and Donalbain flee after the murder
A. because they fear the daggers in men's smiles.

5. Macbeth arranges for Banquo's death by telling the hired killers that
C. he will eradicate all records of their previous crimes.

6. Macbeth startles his dinner guests by
A. conversing with the Ghost of Banquo

7. The Witches threw into the cauldron "Eye of bat and tongue of frog"(I) "Wool of bat and tongue of dog" (II) "Fang of snake and eagle's glare" (III)
A. I and II

8. The three apparitions which appeared to Macbeth were An armed head. (I) A child with a crown. (II) A bloody child (III)
C. I, II, and III

9. In Act IV, Malcolm is at first lukewarm toward Macduff because he
B. suspects a trick.

10. Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane when
B. the camouflaged soldiers make their advance.

11. What is the significance of the line "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (I, i, 10)?

12. How does Macbeth function as a morality play?

13. How does Shakespeare use the technique of dramatic irony in Macbeth?

14. How does Lady Macbeth overcome her husband's resistance to the idea of killing King Duncan?

15. Contrast Macduff's response to the news of his wife's and children's deaths with Macbeth's response to being told Lady Macbeth is dead


Sunday, April 1, 2012

the inevitability of death

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Homework - 2/16/12

Today was a good preview of what is to come on the AP test. When we started, it was the press for time that forced me to gather my thoughts and form a concise essay. I find over and over that it’s these timed writing assignments that push me to do my best. I think that the level of difficulty was equal to that we might find on the test, which is good to use for practice. I found that coming up with a clear idea on which to kick off my essay was somewhat easy but got progressively harder.