Lecture Notes

•The is a third city called Manchester
•Dickens life influenced his work
•His marriage didn't work out and he got a divorce from his wife Catherine. This may explain how some of his work is somewhat cynical.
•London is one of the cities. Dickens knew London very well.
•Paris is the second city, which he loved to go to. He had visited 15 times.
•"A Tale of Two City," was not published all at once.
•Dickens says "A Tale of Two City," is his favorite book that he has made.
 

Poem: Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

(Read the message, then read it again in reverse.)

Which generation do you belong in?

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The reason why I chose this poem is because it was interesting how the poem you could read in reverse, and it had a totally different meaning. I found it to be a great poem show casing two different generations.

Big Question Abstract

Is going to college really worth it? Many may say going to college means getting a better job. Though do they have proof that is true. There are many people who have gotten a degree with a major and then they work at Walmart.

The URL below is an article that shows great example of students graduating from college and then not having the future they had planned out: wsj.com/article/SB124181970915002009.html

After reading that would you still want to go to college? Well here's another URL that leads to am article that is another eye opener: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/15/opinion/la-oe-looney-greenstone-is-college-wo20110815

With these two articles contradicting each other you might wonder which one is true. Then there are other things to think about. College usnt just for the better job. It is an opportunity to get out in the world and know you can survive in it. You don't have your parents with you, your the adult and must make decisions for your life that can make you or break you. College helps you learn to be independent, it's an experience like no other. College can prepare you to become an adult. It will all be hard work and show you can survive in the real world. Life is not determine by the knowledge you know, but what you do with that knowledge.

Great Expectation- Charles Dickens first 10 pages

After reading the first ten pages and listening to today's earlier lecture. I see a common thread of how the mood of the story is dark. Reading a bit about Charles Dickins I have read how he lived in poverty, during a time which they had little food. Right away in his book, you begin to read about a young boy named Pip. He had hid bread in his pants already and even complained how he was hungry. Which tells you he is poor, relating to Charles Dickens life. Charles Dickens had a hard childhood, and probably puts his own experience in his characters because he can relate to them and gave a better connection with his character. I found another connection was how Pip didn't have a father. Charles Dickens' father had been in prison and it was probably tough not being with him.

Literary Term Narrative

Narrative: something that is narrated: story, account. The art, technique, or process of narrating. adj. Consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story.

-Narrative is the structure that gives shape to the story. It is used in all type of literature.

-There are different types of narrative structures: open, closed and linear structure.

-Narrative is told from first person

-Tells a story using events in order

-Uses figurative language

-Has a beginning, middle and end

This is an interesting video, that explains what a narrative is, gives the definition and explains the different structures of a narrative. Then it even goes into a man named Vladmir Propp who studied narrative

Literary Term Parallelism

Parallelism: The quality or condition of being parallel; a parallel relationship.  Likeness, correspondence, or similarity in aspect, course, or tendency.
-Items in a series, list, or compound must be in parallel form

Example

The girl is looking in the mirror and brushing her hair.
-the verbs are parrallel, they endings of the verb must be the same. If the verbs correspond then it is a parallelism. If the word had changed from brushing to brushes. It is not parrallel. Whatever you are comparing must be parallel if it is parallelism.

The video above, gives more example of parrallelism and even gives wrong examples. It explains parallelism a bit as well.

The video above gives even more examples. Except unlike the video above gives a wider range of different comparison. Showing whatever you compare must be parallel.

Literary TermPlot

Plot: is a literary technique; it is the rendering and ordering of the events and actions of a story, particularly towards the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect. Events that make up a story

The plot may follow that sequential, or chronological order, or, for artistic effect, it may relate the actions in a different order.

Main Elements of a plot

Exposition: background information a reader must understand in order to know what is going on in the story

Conflict: complication or problem the main character(s) must deal with; it gets the action moving

Rising Action: events (and more conflicts) that occur when the main character tackles the problem; level of excitement and suspense builds

Climax: the main character comes face to face with the problem; most exciting part of the story

Falling Action: things begin to get back to normal; life goes on (even if the problem isn't solved)

Denoument (Resolve): loose ends are tied off; allows reader to clearly understand what happened

The video above, focuses on elements of plot. It has other elemenst not mentioned above. It gives examples and even shows four different kinds of conflict. The video also provides a Plot structure.

A way to remember different plots, is the Hiker's Dilemma. Picture a mountain and two hikers. They have just made a bet saying who ever reaches the top of the mountain first and gets back to the bottom wins fifty bucks. They each start on different path. Now the hikers time getting to the top is the rising action. On the way up they may trip over rocks, meet creatures, who knows. When one of the hikers gets to the top he sees the other got to the top as well. This is the climax. The problem now is who ever gets to the bottom first wins. They both stare at each then race off. The falling action will be them racing down the moutain. Then finally the resolution a hiker wins and gets fifty bucks. That's a way I remember plot.