Literature Analysis: Great Expectations (Extra Credit)

This was a collaborative experience and the other parts of this book analysis can be found on these blogs:
Serena Nichols
Ian Steller
Hannah Savaso
Taylor Dugaran
Annette Sousa
Meghan Martella

3. Pip, the protagonist in "Great Expectations" is a dynamic and round character. At the beginning of the novel is a small child about the age of seven and by the end he is  about twenty-three years old and has matured into a very respectable and matured gentlemen. When he begins, he is a misbehaved orphan living with his older sister constantly running off and getting into trouble. And when he inherits a large amount of money and moves to London he becomes cocky and ignores his good friends Joe and Biddy. But as time passes, and he experiences more of life he realizes that he mistreated his friends and has been really selfish. He makes a transformation and becomes an admirable young gentlemen. 
4. After reading this novel, I felt like I met Pip. It wasn't my favorite book to read so it was hard to really get into it, but since it was written in first person, the reader saw all of Pip's thoughts on everything he experience which really helped me to get to know him better. And since I did learn a lot about him, personally it felt like I was good friends with him, going through everything he went through, rather than just reading a character.

Lit Group Post #3

Chapter 44:
- Confound: confuse
- Haggard: appearing worn and exhausted

Chapter 45:
- Tacit: implied
- Rakish: dashing, stylish

Chapter 46:
- Superannuate: to retire as old

Chapter 47:
- Antipodes: regions south of the equator
- Plenipotentiary: a diplomatic officer with full authority
- Necromantic: pertaining to sorcery

Chapter 49:
- Bemoan: to express grief over
- Spurn: to reject
- Discursive: rambling

Chapter 51:
- Sniveling: whining with snorting
- Abeyance: cessation
- Spluttering: speaking fast

Chapter 53:
- Besetting: troubling
- Goad: urged to action

Chapter 54:
- Capsized: sunk
- Vex: disturb
- Hempen: made of hemp

Chapter 55:
- Exordium: introduction in composition

Chapter 56:
- Indelible: permanent
- Nosegays: small bunches of flowers

Chapter 57:
- Underlet: sublet
-Errant: wandering

Chapter 58:
- Complier: one who gathers materials from other documents

Chapter 59:
- Matronly: motherly

Practice Essay

As humans, it is our nature to judge others by their actions and how they react in certain situations. In Jean Sartre’s “No Exit” and Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” the character’s reactions to the situations they are placed in help the reader understand where each character comes from. Let’s say, for example, one friend from a group goes to see the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. The next day, this one friend tries to explain to the others how the “games” worked, but they could not understand because they have not seen it yet. This friend is like the enlightened prisoner in ‘The Allegory of the Cave” and the others represent the prisoners still shackled down stuck staring at the shadows.

In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” the one prisoner has to courage to step out into the unknown from the safety of the cave. When he comes back to the cave and attempts to explain the new world he has seen, the other prisoners cannot comprehend what he is telling them because they only know what they have seen. This event is similar to the situation presented above. Since the others have not seen the movie, Catching Fire, what the friend is trying to explain is outside their “known world” and they can’t appreciate what he is saying to them in attempt to try and enlighten them on something new. This friend now becomes an outsider because he can see more than the others can. The actions of the character’s in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” help the reader understand where the author is coming from. In a sense, the enlightened prisoner represents Plato because he uses this allegory in attempt to share with others of his view on reality. And we, as readers, are the prisoners inside the cave, because this is a new idea and it is difficult for us to get a hold of.

Estelle, in Sartre’s “No Exit” is the exact opposite of the enlightened prisoner. She is one of the people where they think, “If I close my eyes, maybe it will go away.” If she was placed in that situation, her goal would be to avoid it at all costs rather than to face it head on. In Sartre’s “No Exit” she does not want to accept the fact that the three of them are all dead and stuck in hell. She says, “Please, please don’t use that word (dead). It’s so crude.” It also takes her half of the play to open up and share the reason for why she ended up in hell. Unlike the enlightened prisoner, she is extremely stubborn and does not agree with change and what’s to just live in the now.

Both authors, Sartre and Plato, develop characters and use their actions to get their point across. Some characters will succeed like the enlightened prisoner in “The Allegory of the Cave,” but others will just crumble and fall like Estelle in “No Exit.” Both authors use their characters to represent the split of what reality is in society.

I Can Read

Here is the link to the video of me reading "Fox in Sox" by Dr. Suess

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZyX6K82ddo

Lit Group Post #2

Chapter 17:
- Guinea: an English coin
- Sluice: a passage for water
- Untoward: improper

Chapter 18:
- Evince: to show or demonstrate clearly
- Pugilistic: having to do with boxing

Chapter 19:
- Amalgamation: consolidation
- Clemency: mercy
- Flaccid: soft

Chapter 20:
- Confectioner: a person who makes or deals candy
- Guileless: candid, innocent

Chapter 21:
- Disgorged: spit out

Chapter 22:
- Acquiesce: to comply passively with another's will
- Shod: wearing a shoe
- Circumjacent: in the surrounding area
- Imbue: to influence fully
- Languor: laziness

Chapter 23:
- Baronetcy: a rank of honor
- Vellum: a fine parchment made from a lamb or calf

Chapter 25:
- Bijou: a delicate trinket
- Tarpaulin: a tarp

Chapter 26:
- Nigh: near

Chapter 27:
- Blusterous: like a loud violent wind
- Pettish: fretful

Chapter 28:
- Choleric: hot-tempered
- Incommoded: bothered

Chapter 29:
- Dormouse: a small rodent
- Sinewy: lean and muscular
- Yore: a distant past

Chapter 30:
- Akimbo: hate
- Victualling: gathering food
- Engender: to produce or cause

Chapter 31:
- Diadem: crown
- Primeval: relating to earliest ages

Chapter 32:
- Portly: stout

Chapter 36:
- Aback: unexpectedly
- Per annum: by the year

Chapter 37:
- Jorum: a large drinking bowl
- Rubicund: having a healthy appearance

Chapter 38:
- Avowal: an open admission
- Leer: to stare maliciously

Chapter 40:
- Dandle: to pamper
- Uncouth: ill-mannered
- Mire: deep slimy mud

Chapter 43:
- Loiter: to linger purposely
- Blundering: Clumsy

Lit Group Post

In my lit circle, I have the job of finding any vocabulary words, so here it goes...
Chapter 1:
- Beacon: signal or guidance device
- Elude: to escape
- Lair: den of a wild animal
- Pollards: trees cut back so the lower branches are removed and the upper branches form a ball

Chapter 2:
- Forge: blacksmith
- Larceny: the wrongful taking of someone's personal goods
- Squally: stormy; threatening
- Decant: to pour gently

Chapter 3:
- Rimy: covered with rime (ice particles)
- Ague: a fit of fever or shivering
- Imp: a little devil or demon

Chapter 4:
- Prodigiously: extraordinary in size
- Declamation: exercise in oratory or elocution
- Penitentials: pertaining to the expressive of repentence

Chapter 5:
- Cravat: necktie
- Manacled: handcuff

Chapter 7
- Epistle: a letter of written communication
- Anvil: a heavy iron block with smooth face

Chapter 8:
- Disdain: attitude of arrogance
- Farinaceous: having a powdery texture
- Recluse: someone who lives in seclusion

Chapter 9:
- Adamantine: hard and unyielding
- Metaphysics: the branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality
- Reticence: reserved

Chapter 10:
- Ophthalmic: relating to the eye
- Refractory: resisting control

Chapter 11:
- Sanguinary: bloody
- Dexterous: skillful use of hands

Chapter 12:
- Depreciatory: lowering in estimation or esteem
- Homage: official expression of high regard

Chapter 13:
- Abject: the most miserable kind
- Augur: to look for and read signs of omens
- Vagary: unpredictable action

Chapter 15:
- Hermitage: a retreat
- Maudlin: excessively sentimental
- Plume: to preen or show off

Chapter 16:
- Aberration: eccentricity or abnormality
- Vagabond: a vagrant wanderer

Thinking Outside the Box

Compare how Plato and Sartre describe the limitations of our thinking and imply solutions to the problem.  Be sure to analyze their literary techniques, especially their use of allegory and extended metaphor.
Plato describes our limitations of our thoughts on reality through an extended metaphor and an allegory. Each prisoner believes that the shadows are reality, but they're not. All they have to do is turn their heads and see the real reality but they don't know any better. Plato also tells us that in order to become enlightened someone who knows the real reality has to set you free. Sartre believed that our vision is based on other's evaluation of us. In "No Exit", Estelle had to rely on Inez approval because she had no mirrors to see herself. He believes that we have to put our trust in other's which is extremely hard to do because "Hell is other people." They both use dialogue and didactics to get their points across and the characters play an important part in each of their ideas.