Papel I!

Passage V: Outline- The Voice by Thomas Hardy

I. Introduction
a) Most of us have gone through a period where we have experienced the feeling of lost love after a heart break. In Thomas Hardy’s The Voice, Hardy demonstrates how he feels through this experience. He creates the use of diction and tone to create a sense of longing and desire for the woman he loved and the woman that once loved him.

II. Body
a) Throughout the passage, Hardy’s tone is very longing for this woman. He reminisces about her and the times they shared, “Standing as when I drew near to the townWhere you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,Even to the original air-blue gown!” He even remembers the blue gown she once wore.

b) The Voice title is very significant because it adds to the reminiscent and longing effect of the passage.

c) His diction is also seen with the questions included in the passage, showing how he is still longing and confused about the state he’s in, questioning the situation. “Can it be you that I hear?” These questions create a “really? Could it be?” type of feeling on the reader.

III. Conclusion
a) Throughout this passage, Hardy creates a scene of longing and desire for the person he loved and gives a reader a glimpse of his heartbreak. Although he is still in denial and hopes for her return, or hearing her “voice”, I believe that deep inside he does know she won’t come back and that’s it’s only a voice, “Thus I; faltering forward, Leaves around me falling, Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward, And the woman calling.”

Papel II- NOTE!

NOTE: Late I know, I'm sorry Mrs. D! I had trouble with the intranettt so I decided to print it out and give it to you tomorrow!? But since my bi-polar internet decided to connect now, I'm posting!
Thank you!


May 2007- Question B

“Literature is often about crossing boundaries, both physically and mentally. In what ways, and to what extent, does the crossing of boundaries contribute to two or three works you have studied?”

Paraphrasing: Writing is a lot like stepping out of the box, physically and mentally. Explain how this is shown in two to three works you have studied.

Element of Fiction: Theme/Diction…

Novels chosen: As I Lay Dying, The Bluest Eye

May 2001- Question A

“Compare uses and/or abuses of power as a theme in novels or short stories you have read. Say what this theme and its presentation contribute to each work you discuss.”

Paraphrasing: Explain how power is shown in two novels that you have read and include the purpose of this theme and how it helps develop each novel.

Element of Fiction: Theme/motif of power

Novels chosen: Darkness at Noon, The Metamorphosis

As I Lay Dying, characterizing Vardaman...

As I lay Dying is very unlike other novels. It not only starts without a normal introduction for the reader to get the gist of the book and its plot, but the chapters go by characters, giving each character in the novel a chance to tell his or her own little story. Vardaman, although the youngest of the Bundren family, plays a key role as a character in the novel. He helps develop the rest of the characters with his journal entries. His diction immediately shows how Vardaman is young at heart, especially when he characterizes his dying mother to a fish. Vardaman's mentality is very unlike the other characters, despite the fact that he is the youngest, Vardaman brings a whole new perspective to the situation at hand. Vardaman is the only child that can't comprehend the concept of death and his mother dying. He relates his mom to a fish because that is the only way he can comprehend her death. He also makes references to other animals like buzzards and horses.
Vardaman is a unique character in the novel because he is the most misunderstaning about what's going on in the family. His mother is dying yet he doesn't understand how that is possible. Darl, his bigger brother is seen as one of his role models because he follows in a lot of his footsteps. However, when the family crosses the river and the coffin falls into the water, Vardaman is very dissapointed by the fact that Darl wasn't able to catch the coffin his mother is in. Although he is the youngest, it seems as though he is the lost one in the family- no one is there to help him figure out or understand the concept of death, eventhough Vardaman pokes holes into his mother's coffin to help her breathe and mutilated her face. They watch while he roams around lost and confused. Darl, near the end of the novel is taken away for mental issues and this may have a connection between Darl and Vardaman because Vardaman mimics in many things Darl has, maybe showing some mental problems with Vardaman as well.
Through the lack of support of the situation that Vardaman is going through with his mother's death and his misunderstanding of the concept of death, Vardaman creates his own interpretation and continues with this image of death, and because of this misconception, Vardaman is left alone. This characterization relates to his name which refers to an "under-age orphan". This reference shows it's true identity because Vardaman is alone in thought and age difference in the family and he sort of becomes an orphan when he loses his mother. Also the last name, Bundren means league or confederacy and in this case is very contradictory because the family is very disconnected and tries hard to become a confederacy or close-knit group but fail in the end.
Overall, Vardaman creates a key part in the novel because he helps develop the other characters. Eventhough he has a very imaginative and childish mentality, the reader is helped by understanding a different aspect about Addies death and view of the other characters. Without the inclusion of Vardaman, we may not be able to understand the characters and plot in the novel at a simplistic level. Vardaman is lost and confused and he helps show how the family is as well with his characteristics because eventhough they travel to town to bury Addie as their main purpose, all family members go for hidden reasons of their own.

The Red Fox...

In Margaret Atwood's, Red Fox, Atwood uses imagery and use of tone to help with the them of hunger in this poem. She uses the extended metaphor of a fox that is usually associated to sly and cunning characteristics to create the tone of paranoia. Foxes are usually very sneaky and steal to get their food in order to survive. So when the speaker sees the fox, she addresses it with a very watchful eye. "but really watching the fox who could care less". Atwood characterizes the fox with humanlike qualities calling it a, "sly trickster" and smart and carefree when it's hungry. It is evident that the speaker is uncomfortable with the fox there because of the paranoid tone and how they keep a watchful eye and analyze it, "She's a lean vixen: I can see the ribs, the sly trickster's eyes, filled with longing and desperation...".

The tone, however, changes in the last three stanzas to a sort of cynical expression because the speaker addresses the problems of hunger and how a human reacts when they are hungry in desperation. Atwood speaks about how hunger is corrupt in society and yet the fox (or man) is still "in it for himself" eventhough "there are mothers squeezing their breasts dry" just to feed their children. Just like a hungry fox, when people endure the horrors of hunger, they become as sly and kiniving just to survive, "we'd all turn theif and rascal" just to get ahead and we "could care less"...

These are getting easier...

In Seamus Heaneys, From the Frontier of Writing, Heaney uses descriptive imagery and the literary technique of extended metaphor to describe his struggles in writing. The title, "From the Frontier of Writing" displays how Heaney refers to writing as a type of war zone showing the struggle perhaps that he goes through when writing his poems. Words like, "tightness", "nilness" and "inspect" shows the pressure he feels as a writer. The extended metaphor of how writing is a war to Heaney is represented by references like "troops", "rifles" and "sergeant". Heaney also shows how he may seem a bit held back from writing, "and everything is pure interrogation until a rifle motions and you move with guarded unconcernec acceleration." The troops can be seen to represent the publishers because they are "inspecting" or interrogating his "make" and "number" and Heaney feels as though these troops have all the power and the choice to decide whether they should publish his work, so he feels a little restrained with "guarded unconcerned acceleration".

He identifies how these pressures or obstacles like the "frontier" and "troops" act as difficulties in his "journey" of writing. At first he is stopped at a border while the troops inspect the car, or his work. Then further on in the poem he states how, "suddenly you're through, arraigned yet freed, as if you'd passed from behind a waterfall on the black current of a tarmac road" showing how he may have finally been able to overcome those obstacles of writing.

I'd like a break right now...

In Mid-Term Break, by Seamus Heaney, Heaney uses a somber tone and the reference to old and young/ big and small to describe the theme of separation and distance he feels towards his family. He uses references like "baby" and "old men" in the second stanza, describing both extremes of life and not really placing where he stands. The funeral occuring in this poem is noticeably of his younger brothers and being away at college, "I was the eldest, Away at school..." he feels very distant from the rest of his family because he's been gone for quite a while. The theme of separation is also seen when he describes the people at his house for the funeral as "strangers" and even identifies his own younger brother as a "corpse" rather than stating his name showing how distant he feels towards a family member,"I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now..."
The theme is also represented in the diction used and how in each stanza, there are many cuts or breaks in the sentence when going to the next stanza, like for instance, "...as my mother held my hand/ In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs." This break in the stanza shows his disconnectioin with his own mother. Heaney presents his emotions of the event in a very somber tone. He doesn't clearly let the reader know how the author is feeling about the situation and creates a theme of separation ocurring during this funeral. He describes the death just as how it is, "I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, Hey lay in the four-foot box as in his cot." This shows clearly the separation and distance the author is feeling towards the family, because even at his own brothers funeral- he is unable to release emotion or feelings about the situation.

"Woman's Constancy" or lack thereof?

In Woman's Constancy, John Donne uses the tone/mood of doubt and cynicism and rhetorical questions to question is the validity or everlasting love with the significant other. Although the speaker is not easily clarified, regardless of whether it is a woman or man, the speaker questions how long their love will last and whether they will always be true to eachother with their rhetorical questions and doubtful tone. "Tomorrow when thou leav'st, what wilt thou say?" this line displays the fact that the speaker may feel very cynical about love and is already concluding that their significant other will leave them because they are saying tomorrow when you leave me without including a maybe. In Woman's Constancy, the meaning of the title plays a key role in the poem because it may suggest the "woman's loyalty" to the man. This creates a double meaning because it may be that the woman is writing about her loyalty to the man and whether he will ever leave her, OR the man writing to the woman in a somewhat mocking way because of the title, saying how the woman may end up cheating on him. Because of the doubt all through this poem, it leads to the inference that maybe the speaker is cynical about love and always thinks about how it will end like when Donne says, "Or, as true deaths, true marriages untie." This suggests how the speaker is very stubborn about the fact that like death which is inevitable, marriages will also inevitably break, setting a doubtful and cynical tone for the poem. Another cynical aspect to love in this poem is when it states, "Or, that oaths made in reverential fear" stating maybe that love or marriage is just a fake and that we only make oaths to our significant others because it's the custom religious way of getting married. Overall, Donnes use of tone and rhetorical questions helps show his feelings about love and the significant other and also shows the pessimistic and cynical side of love and its "so-called" everlastingness.