Literary Analysis #2

The Catcher in the Rye

A.     The Catcher in the Rye is about a young man named Holden Caulfield. Who basically has something wrong to say about others, he also claims how everybody around him are phonies and fakes. He is very lonely, foolish and selfish at times. The story begins were he goes to a school called Pency. Where we learn he has just been kicked out for flunking four out of five classes. He refuses to go home and hopes after a couple days of his family getting the news of him getting kicked out of another school. They won't be as angry. He leaves Pency early after getting in a fight with roommate, which ends him getting slugged in the face. He stays at a hotel where he tries to get drunk and lucky with various women. Though when his elevator man suggest a prostitute for him to go meet at his room, is where things went bad to worse. Holden wasn’t a confident man and really only wanted to talk to the girl. Later the guy and girl come back and beat Holden and take money they thought they deserved. Through out the story Holden meets up with old friends, only to have each reunion end badly with them getting annoyed or angry with him. He gets drunk and makes more foolish decisions. He goes to visit his sister Phoebe late at night, because he needed to talk with someone and was also low on cash. After the encounter he leaves, with extra money, and goes to an old teacher’s house. Where he plans to stay the night. In early morning he is woken by his teacher stroking his head. Holden flips out and leaves immediately. Where he gets his bags from the station and has came to the decision of running away. He informs his sister Phoebe what he has decided, and she comes and surprises him declaring she wishes to run with him. After him blowing up at her he tells her he will stay and takes her to the zoo and ends where he sits and watches her ride a carousel.

B.     I believe a major theme for this story would be solitude. Throughout the story I believe Holden is very lonely. One point in the story he has a prostitute sent to his room, but wants nothing more then to have a conversation with her. He called up a person he knew from college but referred to him as a phony, but nevertheless he wanted to get drinks with him. He always tried to strike up conversations with others, he even talked with a nun about Romeo and Juliet, he says though he didn’t really like the play, but was glad he could say something to her they both could discuss. These events show Holden only wanted to talk with others and have company, even if he didn’t fancy them.

C.     The author tone changes around in the story. The tone always had a negative aspect, cynical. He always was pointing out the negatives of others. Like when he went to the bar and pointed out how the piano player was too good he started to sound phony. He says the same thing at a play he went to where the actors where so great at performing it started to disgust him. Another scene would be how he explains the reason he flunks out of school is because he hated the rules and all the phonies there.

D.     In the book there are many literary elements.

·        Metaphors where used in the book. The teacher in the beginning told Holden “Life is a game that one plays according to the rules. Another metaphor is when Holden is with the taxi driver, and he asks where the ducks go when it gets cold. I believe this is him trying to wonder where he should go. Comparing himself to the ducks in needing a place to fly to. Another metaphor is when Holden compares the suitcases and uses them to compare to the owners. Saying you can tell a roommate is rich or upper class when they have nice leather suitcases, rather then if you see poor looking ones. You know their owner is not wealthy.

·        Symbols: The ducks can also be used as a symbol. A symbol of how Holden feels, a place he needs to go to, where no one knows where they leave too. The red hunter hat is a symbol of his lost brother Allie and reminds him of his red hair. His brother’s baseball mitt was a symbol of his lost brother as well, and gave us a more deeper side of Holden and saw him as compassionate.

·        Setting I think played a key role in the story. The hotel not being the best and was at the bad side of town. Gave the feel and helped set the tone with it being cynical. A lot of the bars were dark and nothing was described as bright. Another setting that added to the dark affect when he was walking around the streets at night and phoned Sally. The setting was gloomy and him being drunk acting like he was shot, had the setting be perfect for the character's actions.

Tools That Change The Way We Think

Internet/media/ technology has changed the world. It already has me thinking what the future holds for us. There is a vast expansion of technology already. A new thing is being thought up everyday. Without technology I feel I wouldn’t know as much as I do now. Media and internet keeps us informed of things happening around us, where we are able to get information quicker.  When I think of older generation and how they obtain information I think of how little they new in a timely manner. They didn’t have the ability to just use a computer and find any information they wanted by a press of a key. For them they probably had to get information from a book. I see how technology has evolved immensely. It makes you wonder how we would be if we didn’t have a computer, phone, or TV. We would get most information from printed material. Hear of events from newspapers or simply by others. I believe the older generation probably socialized more than we do. We simple just send messages to one another. When back then if they wanted to talk to a friend they would go to one’s house.

There are many positive but there are some negative in having our society rapidly progressing. A major negative would be people will only become lazier. In the future, I have no doubt, they will probably make a computer where you don't even need to type and you simple tell the computer what to look up and it does it. They already have the iphone where you can speak into it and it will translate it in text message format. Now wait until they put the same idea into every technology such as: computer and television.

I found a couple different sites, which named each generation and gave description of each one and how they differ from one another.

http://www.aect.org/edtech/edition3/ER5849x_C025.fm.pdf

http://biznik.com/members/leslie-lyon/articles/thinking-in-generational-differences

In Search Of

I learned the internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see. I learned about a filter bubble and its your own personal unique universe of information that you live on online. And in your filter bubble depends what you do and who you are, but it's out of your control what gets put into this bubble and you don't get to see what gets edited out. I also learned that even if you search the same things, anyone can get different information or results.

My thinking process has changed when example if we get the same project to do in a class. The information we obtain to get it can be significantly different from others. Others may not see or find what I did even if we write the same words in the search engine of Google. It makes me think what information I am missing and that I don't get a chance to view because of this algorithm. Almost like I am being cheated out information I may want but may never get.

If we have no control of our filter bubble, how do we tell it to give us information we rather have? How will things progress, will filter bubbles continue? Are there changes being made to these algorthm? What does the future hold for us? And how will social network change? What benefits or loss do I get with this filter bubble? Since I live in a house of five and we all use the same computer, it makes me think it will truly never even give me information I want. The filter bubble on my computer has the idea of what five people like. So this only makes me think that the filter bubble doesn't even know the links I click on, coming to a conclusion I don't even have my own filter bubble. The filter bubble was described as your own universe but for me it is the universe of five girls put together. Or am I wrong? Does sharing a computer change things immensly? There are an endless sea of questions that come to mind. But will they ever be answered is the real question.

A way to perhaps I could try to improve my searches, would be to use multiple searches. Or trying to be more clear in what I am searching for. Maybe not even using the internet but going to the library. And do the old fashion way of finding information.

While I looked up information on Shakespeare I tried the technique in using to differnet search engines. I used Yahoo and Google, in all honesty though I found not that much different information. There were different articles, but the information didn't really change. I did see some different articles that here helpful that had slight different information, which was good. But I still came to the same conclusion in that there is no real solid evidence.

Who was Shakespeare?

Shakespeare is the name everyone would know. His plays being his foundation, everyone is mostly familiar with Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet. He was a well known poet, whose work was greatly admired. The main conflict seen is did Shakespeare write these plays? Evidence, I guess, has been found saying and Edward de Vere wrote the books. Saying events cloes to his life match the plays. Can the they actually say the evidence is factual. It more of a second thought process if you ask me. They don't really have and documentation to prove their points. Many claim Shakespeare was illiterate, and could not have written those plays. It is now questionable if Shakespeare did even write these plays. In reality though I feel we will never know and is a waste of time to try and figure out this mystery. If they can't find any hard evidence then know one will really be convince. It is a sad thought is if Edward de Vere did write these plays, he should get the right to have his name on his works and deserves credit.

Student's perceived Shakespeare's work as "Old English." Over the years I was never really a fan of Shakespeare's works. I didn't like Romeo  and Juliet and I felt Julius Caesar was alright. Once I started to read Hamlet I liked the book a lot. And started to understand his work more. I think the way I had read his words may had threw me off when I was younger. I do remember not understanding not much of it and seeing the story's plot as horrible. I think taking Acts step by step has made me understand it better. I also think though the plot to Hamlet got my attention. The language is th only thing I sturggle with, it is sometimes hard to understand what he is saying. I feel if I didn't have the foot notes in my version of Hamlet, I probably woud have not understand it well at all.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html
http://www.bard.org/education/studyguides/shakespeare/words.html
http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2011-10-19-72784.113116-Movie-review-The-case-for-Edward-de-Vere.html

Notes on Hamlet

In Hamlet  I seen a great character change in Hamlet. In the start of the play he was mournful of his father's death. After the visit from the ghost, Hamlet isn't mournful and wants revenge. He begins to mentally struggle with everything, and others see him him as insane. He talks of death and thinks it may be better at one point. He starts to lash out at others and not trust others. At first he wasn't sure his uncle was guilty and wanted to make sure. Once he was positive he sets out to kill him. A mistake he made is when Hamlet thought Claudius was hiding in his mother's room and satbs him but it was really Polonius. This is the point where everyone will believe he is insane.

I almost believe Hamlet is going mad, in trying to kill his Uncle. He wants to kill him perfectly when he is sinning, so he won't go to heaven. He is planning more things out, in the end I think Hamlet mental struggles will only get worse and destroy him in the end. After seeing Hamlet not hesitate in trying to kill the king but accidently killing Polonius. I see Hamlet killing his Uncle, Hamlet is at the point of no return and will stop at nothing for revenge for his father.

To Facebook or Not To Facebook

When I first came across facebook, I thought it was a waste of time and no use for it. Just like Myspace I didn't really see a point to having these Social Network. I felt we have texting and emails, why do we need another way of communication. I think Facebook is used for many reasons, some more reasonable then others.

In my opinion I feel Facebook is mainly use to vent feelings. You don't know how many times I see something like: "Why won't he talk to me?", "Worse day ever!", "I'm tired of everyone," "My life sucks!", etc. Almost like they want attention and have someone go: "What's wrong?" Or "Who?". I really see no point in writing things like that. Why not just say: "Someone want to talk to me?" Instead of throwing out hints you need someone to talk to. I feel this is not reasonable use for Facebook.

I still keep that impression that there is no use for a Facebook but feel it is handy to get a facebook. It is an easier way to get a hold of someone. Especially when someone loses their phone or doesn't check their emails. I never check my email, and I do check Facebook everyday. It's faster to chat then with text messaging. It's also handy when you can see up coming events or birthdays. I always forget my friends birthdays and forget to put on my calendar. It's nice to know so you can tell them the next day or message them wishing them a great day. I like how you can see events as well. My leader from my 4-H group always post when meetings are. I feel that is one very useful aspect of Facebook.

There are many risks with Facebook though. I know for a fact if someone wanted to find me they probably could. It's not like I post my location, but I do have where I go to school and that I play on the tennis team. With there being only one Stephanie on the team it's not that hard to figure out who I am. It's not that difficult if you think about it. With Facebook having a GPS Locator, people can see: So and so have just arrived at Olive Garden. Then there are those who put on status things they don't attend for use. Someone could say, "going to the lake with family this weekend." Now you just alerted to everyone you are not going to be home and neither is your family. You might have not meant it but that's what others may see. A thing I figured out as well with Facebook if someone becomes your friend on facebook, and they have a smart phone, they could get your number. If you ever sent a photo from your phone, facebook has your cell number. Those with a smart phone automatically gets the number in their contact list. So if you add someone you don't really know and they have a smart phone, they easily get your number.

Another major risk I see with Facebook is fake profile. I remember someone told me that they had four Facebook accounts. It is so easy to make a new email address and another Facebook account. There is no doubt in my mind that people have fake accounts. So how can you say your talking to a person you know, when really you might not know them at all. Someone might say their a seventeen year old girl, when really they could be thirty year old man.

There may be some benefits in having a Facebook but where there are benefits there are risks. Depending how you use your facebook, depends how safe you are. I think there are more risks then benefits in Facebook. The article we read only made me more aware of the risks and had me think more if I should even have a Facebook. It had me thinking to make things private and think before posting anything that could be harmful to myself.