https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1o2Kbe9RqpOdBx64VqMFfYBC_bQOGl15fcBQuTvZWb10/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

May 7, 2015

Pre-AP English I

Mrs. Wiersig

Richard Cory and JS/07/M/378: Unknown Citizens and Souls

“Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson and “The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden are both deep representations of the differences between appearance and reality. Robinson’s poem focuses on the life of a well-known citizen, his habits, and his underlying depression from the point of view of his fellow civilian. Meanwhile, Auden’s poem focuses on an unknown citizen’s government-pleasing qualities and achievements from the point of view of a government official. The soul-masking themed poems can be compared on the basis of their themes, points of view, and ironic outcomes.

Both poems share a common theme that a mask of false success and normalcy can hide depressions and insecurities. The speaker in “Richard Cory” recalls him as “a gentleman from sole to crown”, “always quietly arrayed”, and “richer than a king”, a man who had his life in order, was happy, and successful. Similarly, in “The Unknown Citizen”, the speaker praises the man for his normalcy and accomplishment o living his life “correctly”, for serving “The Greater Community” and for not being “odd in his views”. In both cases, the men were hiding behind a façade of perfection, conforming to the public, governmental, and societal idea of “good” and “right”, while underneath, contemplating “putting bullets through their heads”, the questions of “Was he free? Was he happy?” being “absurd”. In this way, both works depict the falsehood of an outward appearance of success in the presence of the reality of insecurity.

While both poems share similar themes, they differ in points of view of their speakers. For instance, the speaker of “Richard Cory” is a less-privileged citizen, and average man or woman who idolizes the “clean-favored”, and “pulse-fluttering” Richard Cory. Due to this close-up observation of Cory’s public behaviors, the speaker becomes slightly more personal than in “The Unknown Citizen”, causing Cory to appear more unique, an individual.Contrastingly, the unknown citizen is cast as a conforming, opinionless, “Modern Man” by the speaker, a government official with Bureaucratic views. While Richard Cory is characterized as friendly through his habit of saying, “Good morning”, the citizen is characterized only by his government-pleasing qualities, meeting requirements of the perfect man, a model citizen, a “saint”. While both speakers dwell on outward appearances and actions, leaving souls aside, the speaker of “Richard Cory” delves a little deeper into the personality of Cory than Mr. Bureaucracy does to the unknown citizen.

Furthermore, both poems can be compared on their ironic outcomes of a seemingly perfect-lived man being inwardly depressed, even to the point of suicide. Due to the speakers’ failure to capture Richard Cory’s soul and the unknown citizen’s soul, the underlying feelings of the men aren’t revealed until the end of the poems: Cory “out a bullet through his head” and the unknown citizen was “happy” or else “we should certainly have heard”, or more likely depressed and insecure. The men’s conformation because of insecurity contributes to hiding their inner selves; Cory was “admirably schooled in every grace” and thought of as everything, and the unknown citizen was “one against whom there was no official complaint”. This causes the abruptness of irony, shocking the reader when Cory “put a bullet through his head” and the unknown citizen’s feelings being forced to be only outward, “everything he did”, not everything he though or felt. Without each poems speaker, ironic outcome would be impossible. Therefore, the poems are similar in ironic outcome because they are similar in speaker point of view.

Though the poems share topics and aspects of treatment in their themes, points of view, and ironic outcomes, they are distinct and individual. While “Richard Cory” is abrupt for the reader, “The Unknown Citizen” is calm and indifferent for all parties throughout. Although neither ever address the souls of their individuals, the true emotions and thoughts of the men are heavily implied. For this reason, despite their differences, both “Richard Cory” and “The Unknown Citizen” are parallel poems and both are strong portrayals of human feelings.

Pre-AP English  -5

April 22, 2015

Document Jekyll and Movie Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde is one of those classic horror stories that falls right in line with Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It has the old-time charm mixed with absolute originality, seemingly only achieved by timeless horror tales such as itself. The movie adaptation starring Spencer Tracy, however, differs in ways that both add to and take away from Robert Louis Stevenson’s original intent.

— Negatives

~ Firstly, in the opening scenes of the film, during the dinner party scene, Jekyll openly discusses his theories and experimentation ideas. This takes away from the suspense in the novel by making Jekyll’s intentions and plans known to the characters and audience.

~ Secondly, in the movie adaptation, Jekyll is romantically involved with the character Beatrix Emery, whom is not a character in Stevenson’s book. In addition, Hyde, as well as the occasional Jekyll, lusts after the loose Ivy Pearson, a barmaid from “the wrong side of the tracks”. The romance/lust plot provided in the film distracts from the main plot of Jekyll vs. Hyde.

~ Finally, in the book Mr. Utterson is a major character while in the movie Dr. Lanyon seems to take his place. Not only does this take away from the suspense even more, but it also leads the change from Hyde/Jekyll’s death in the book and his death in the movie. While in the book, Utterson is called upon by Poole, and upon breaking down Jekyll’s cabinet door discover the self-murdered body of Edward Hyde, in the movie, Lanyon tells the police of Jekyll’s secret and they shoot him dead after he begins to transform.

— Positives

~ While Jekyll’s intentions being known in the movie takes away from the overall suspense, it does add insight into Dr. Henry Jekyll himself, thus providing the reader with a more intimate understanding of this curious major character.

~ Furthermore, though the film does slightly stray from the book, it stays true in Jekyll’s false assumption that he controls his transformations into Hyde. This is evidenced in the book in Dr. Jekyll’s full statement to Utterson and in the movie by Jekyll’s onscreen loss of control.

~ Lastly, while the movie adaptation does lose some characters and change some scenes, Hyde’s death by police gunfire rather than his own hand does make for a more climactic, dramatic ending.

Overall, Victor Fleming’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is dangerous yet compelling, unless that is you’re one of those die-hard stay true to the book folks. In my opinion, this adaptation is worth the watch.

Pre AP English 1 Period 5

October 8, 2014

Mrs. Wiersig

Frederick Douglass: A Man Against Trying Times

In the autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass presents the story of his life through a series of chronological experiences.  Douglass documents his birth into slavery which results in him having numerous physical and emotional hardships throughout his life.  Though Douglass faces being illiterate, being abused by Mr. Covey, and being in the bonds of slavery, he uses the scarce resources around him, his bare hands, and his cleverness to change his life and become a man.

One of the first obstacles Douglass faces is learning to read and write, which he achieves through using his limited resources.  After realizing that the white man’s power results from the colored man’s illiteracy, Douglass sets out to change his status by following a plan he devises to make, ”friends of all the little white boys whom [he] met in the street. As many of these as [he] could, [he] converted into teachers,” (52).  Douglass contradicts society’s standard rule that slaves should not know how to read and takes every opportunity that presents itself to gain more knowledge. His writing comes with less opportunity to learn and takes more practice, but my regularly visiting the shipyard he, “soon learned the names of these letters, and for what they were intended when placed upon a piece of timber in the shipyard. [He] immediately commence copying them, and in short time, was able to make the four letters named,” (57).  Douglass once again uses an unlikely resource to help toward his goal of becoming literate.  Once he learns to read, his goals shift to focus on writing. To become more fluent in his writing, while his mistress is gone “[he] used to spend the time writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas’s copy book,  copying what he had written.  [He] continued to do this until [he] could wrote a hand very similar to that of Master Thomas,” (57).  Douglass time-manages so well, using every opportunity he has to practice, that he succeeds in becoming fluent in his writing.  Therefore, through various technique including trickery, bribery, and  secretism, Frederick Douglass achieves literacy,the key to his future freedom.

Another major conflict Douglass encounters is being abused by Mr. Covey, a known “negro-breaker” he is sent to for correcting. Douglass handles his mistreatment by establishing himself as a man.  Not long after Douglass comes to stay with Covey he must begin to assert his place in the world due to Covey’s belief that slaves are no higher than brutes.  Covey’ unrealistic expectations of Douglass are not met, but when he orders Douglass to prepare himself to be whipped, Douglass “made no answer, but stood with [his] clothes on. [Covey] repeated his order. [Douglass] still made him no answer, nor did [he] move to strip [himself],” (71). Douglass defies Covey’s orders and this represents his disrespect for Covey, establishing him as his equal. Though they are truly equals, Douglass must still do as Covey says, as he is in charge.  When Douglass is ill from working in the sun all day, he sits down, infuriating Covey who,” took up the hickory slat …and with it gave [Douglass] a heavy blow upon the head…and with this again told [him] to get up. [He] made no effort to comply, having made up [his] mind to let [Covey] do his worst,” (77).  Douglass is not scared of what Covey may do to him and at this point does not see him as a threat.   He now has all he needs to stand up to him, and the next time Covey moves to whip him and “seemed now to think he had [Douglass] and could do what he pleased…at this moment-from whence came the spirit [he doesn’t] know-[Douglass] resolved to fight….The while six months afterward… [Covey] never laid [his] finger upon him in anger,”(81-82). By standing up to Mr. Covey as his equal, Douglass transforms from a brute to a man! Perhaps unknown to himself, he overcomes Covey by first seeing him as his equal, seeing him as no threat, and finally physically overpowering him, putting Douglass and Covey at a mentally and physically equal standpoint, simultaneously gaining Covey’s respect.

Due to confronting adversity and taking risks, Douglass has what he needs to become a free man: courage and intellect.  He begins to make plans to run away and escape to New York.  As soon as he has deterred Master Hugh Auld’s suspicion of his plan to run away, he puts his plan into action. Once he has emotionally and physically prepared himself, he sets out and “on the third day of September, 1838…[he] succeeded in reaching New York…. How [he] did so…[he] must leave unexplained…,”(112).  Douglass, after depicting his sorrowful life, gratifies the reader’s desire for justice by accomplishing his goals and changing his own life.  Now that he is a free man, he may do what he wishes, including marrying the woman he loves, Anna. They are married by a Rev. J. W. C. Pennington ij the presence of Mr. David Ruggles and Mrs. Michaels and “upon receiving this certificate, and a five-dollar bill from Mr. Ruggles, [husband and wife] set out forthwith to take passage on [a] steamboat for Newport, on [their]》way to New Bedford,” (115). Douglass contrasts his current situation to his previous life, transforming the mood of the story from dreary and depressing to hopeful by creating a picture of happiness.  With this newfound ray of hope, Douglass embarks on a journey, willing to do whatever it takes to earn his keep, even if that means finding,” new, dirty, and hard work for [him]; but [he] went at it with a glad heart and a willing hand.  [Douglass] was now [his] own master,” (119). Douglass characterizes representation of his willingness to be a man.  He proves that through planning, teamwork, and hard work, his goals are reachable and his conflicts resolved.

As a slave, Douglass faces many conflicts including ignorance, abuse, and slavery itself.  By taking action, Douglass overcomes his problems and changes into a man: brilliant, brave, and free.

Pre-AP English I

Expository Essay: Cell Phone Effects

Mrs. Wiersig

January 16, 2015

Face-to-Phone or Face-to-Face?

Ever seen a quote-unquote white girl in public? Did you notice how all of her attention was devoted to her pristine white iPhone? She could have spilled her Starbucks on her Ugg boots and she may not have noticed! Who hasn’t seen the ridiculous, I-must-have-my-eyes-on-my-phone-at-all-times kind of people? But truth be told, how many John Does and Mary Janes are guilty of the exact same technological obsession? The fact is that everyday people are consumed by their cell phones. Cell phones affect people’s lives by adding additional stress and clutter and by taking away face-to-face contact.

Extra stress and clutter are effects of owning a cell phone. For example, soccer mom Amy is constantly on her Samsung Galaxy scheduling the next orthodontist appointment, texting her fellow PTA moms, and working around weekend soccer games. Her life is filled with stress and clutter; she is constantly flying around town in her Honda minivan trying to make it to the next school function. Her phone beep-beep-beeps, reminding her to pick up Sarah just before her Facebook bings with updates. Life for even the no-lifed mom is hectic with a cell phone. A cell phone adds additional apps, deadlines, and repairs that demand attention and distract from life. It devours time, money, and attention. A cell phone can clutter even the most organized and prepared person’s life. For instance, CEO Tony’s life is consumed by his brand new iPhone 6 plus, constantly removing him from business meetings with calls from contractors, secretaries, and business partners. His already busy work schedule is even crazier with these added calls, updates, and stock market notifications. A cell phone adds stress and chaos to even the most organized CEO’s life. Having additional technological worries take away from focusing on completing tasks and making accomplishments. Rather than spending time with family and friends or making repairs around the house, people spend time texting family and friends and repairing their cell phones. With these added distractions, people from every lifestyle gain stress and clutter from their phones.

When people are focused on their cell phones, it is nearly impossible to look each other in the eye and have a conversation causing face to face contact to be lost. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine obsessed teens Stacy, Tim, and Christina are attending their friend Mark’s party. After presents have been opened, cake has been served, and coordinated games have been played, the three of them plop down on the couch and become instantly absorbed in instant messaging. “Happy B-day!” Christina texts to Mark who replies with smiley face and thumbs up emoticons. Though it is possible to share thoughts quickly and simply with smart phones, the use of Christina’s iPhone 5S at Mark’s party takes away from the much more personal act of simply saying, “Happy birthday!” while smiling warmly. Simply texting messages instead of saying them aloud, forces people to have their eyes glued to their phones. If people are constantly gazing at their handheld electronics, it is impossible to maintain face to face contact. The loss of face to face contact affects people’s relationships. For instance, a young newly wed couple Harry and Sally decide to head out for a romantic evening dinner on the return of their honeymoon. They have just been sucked back into the real world, once again having jobs to do, family to worry about, and bills to pay. Harry holds out Sally’s chair for her and they sit before they both yank out their HTCs and text, email, and post like madmen. Not once through their whole dinner do they converse aloud until the check comes and Harry asks if Sally is ready to leave. Rather than glancing lovingly at his new wife, Harry has glanced lovingly at his phone throughout dinner. He has been far more interested in raising his Twitter followers than growing his relationship. People disregard the importance of face to face conversation, much more engrossed by the lure of online popularity. The magnetic pull of virtual life’s connection to others drives people to neglect face to face contact to feed the craving for social media success.

Not everyone is an iPhone obsessed psycho, even if cell phones seem to over power everyday living. But regardless of how much time John Doe and Mary Jane dedicate to their phones, cell phones and other technology are a trademark of the changing world that can greatly benefit or destroy society.

Pre-AP English – class 5

Extended Metaphor Poem

Mrs. Wiersig

April 24, 2015

The City that Never Sleeps

You might think I’m just

a nerdy, stuffy, or even crazy teenager

with brown hair

and dark brown eyes

But I know I am more

way more than a shy, book-worm, plain-jane girl

not a cozy country farm or an American-dream, white-picket-fence-with-a-red-front-door house

not a small town in east Texas where “everybody knows everybody”

New York City

the bustling New York City that’s always Lit Up with life

When I’m creating, obsessing,

or flailing my arms about

When I’m Lady Liberty, leading my generation with my eclectic ideas

of the meaning of life

I am New York City teeming with activity

workers, crafters, millionaires, beggars scurrying about

on subways, in taxis, in cars, and on foot as FAST as they can

But once delved into

my city can also be home to the lazy bum and the criminal

one with plans to fail and the other with schemes to conquer the world

not to forget the eccentric artist, musician

or the cute, little bakery’s owner

or the CEO

My mind becomes the going going going city that never sleeps

even in rest, it delves into the second world of the night life

after a pause only long enough for a coffee and a caffeine shot,

I’m working again, making, DOING

making life happen

The brown-haired, brown-eyed girl

is NYC

a shining, speeding, classic place all in one city

Mya Plyler

Pre AP English

Mrs.Wiersig

Assignment: Stylistic analysis of Wiesel’s memoir, Night

November 21, 2014

In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel narrates his transformation from religiously devout, innocent boy to scarred, matured adolescent, mentally-marred by his experience in concentration camps.  To express his change, Wiesel’s language changes from chapters one through five to six through nine through the use of diction and syntax by becoming less shocked and more weary, more concerned with his father’s needs, and with more complicated thought, establishing how his experience has forced him to mature.

In chapters one through five, Wiesel establishes his own and his fellow Jew’s denial and fear of the camps by using abstract diction. For example, early in the book, Wiesel describes how the ghettos he was living in were “ruled by delusion” with a sense of “normal”(12, 11) surrounding them.  With the word choice, Wiesel depicts the false sense of security and state of denial surrounding the ghettos in Sighet, the people’s way of denying there was anything to fear.  However, once they are transferred to Birkenau and evil is staring them in the face, their fear begins to become unearthed. For instance, Wiesel describes himself and his fellow prisoners as being “petrified” after a threat of “you will be burned”, later describing a French girl as being “paralyzed with fear”, and describing the struggle he and his fellow prisoners feel in the presence of unguarded cauldrons of soup, only stopped by the fact that “fear was greater than hunger”(31, 31, 53, 59). Wiesel exemplifies the deep level of fear felt to convey how these experiences cause Wiesel and the other prisoners to become stricken with fear, the first step in Hitler’s plan to exterminate them. Therefore, in chapters one through five, Wiesel depicts the early effects of the concentration camps through the use of abstract diction to portray how the Jews’ calm became terror.

In chapters six through nine, Wiesel begins to contrast his word choice in one through five by using morbid diction that express his longing for death.  For example, whereas Wiesel was more concerned with safety before, he now puts “one foot in front of the other like a machine”, unable to go on, “chilled to the bone…parched, famished, and out of breath”(85, 87). These examples convey Wiesel’s growing desire to die, discouraged by the hardships he is forced to endure in the camps, now giving up on life itself. For instance, Wiesel and his fellow prisoners have “transcended everything- death, fatigue, [their] natural needs” (87); “there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight (99).  Wiesel embodies his weariness through detached diction by expressing how, as his condition is worsening, his will to live is decreasing, while in chapters one through five, he still had the urge to fight against the odds conveyed by his use of bold diction

Wiesel also uses syntax to express how he changes by starting out in chapters one through five with short, terse sentence structure.  For example, Wiesel begins individual scenes of his story with fragmented phrases like “spring 1944”, “anguish”, “the eight days of passover” and “night” (8,9,10, 21). Wiesel’s use of fragments conveys shock which is a result of his young age and trauma.  Furthermore, Wiesel continues to tell his story in short, simplistic sentences such as “days went by”, “we had left the tents for the musicians’ block”, and “there was instant silence” (43 ,51, 71).  Wiesel’s brief thought develops the speed at which Wiesel is experiencing the camps and how to him, everything is happening suddenly and quickly.  Through Wiesel’s use of fragmented sentences in chapters one through five, we see the events of the Holocaust through the eyes of a child.

However, in chapters six through nine, we begin to see the maturity that has been forced upon Wiesel through his use of longer sentence structure.  For instance, when Wiesel is looking back on a time when men fought like savages for a piece of bread, he reflects on a time “years later, [when he] witnessed a similar spectacle in Aden” (100) when natives fought over coins being thrown to them.  These longer sentences embody the more sophisticated thought process Wiesel has developed as he matured; he no longer thinks like a boy the way he did at the beginning of the Holocaust.  Furthermore, in chapters six through nine, there is a contrast to one through five as Wiesel develops a deeper understanding of his and his father’s conditions, realizing at one point the he “was no longer fighting with [his father], but with death itself” (105), and late seeing himself as “a corpse [that was] contemplating [him]” (115).  Wiesel’s use of more detailed, analytical sentences not only represents the maturity he’s developed with age, but the wisdom that could only be obtained through a year in concentration camps, something he had only begun to experience in chapters one through five. Therefore, Wiesel’s use of fragmented sentences in chapters one through five to extended sentences in six through nine expresses the way he has changed mentally.

In conclusion, in Night, Wiesel changes his style of abstract diction from chapters one through five to morbid diction in six through nine to portray how he has become more eager to die and less concerned his fear of the camps, officers, and future.  He also changes his sentence structure from simple to sophisticated to convey the transformation that has taken place in his thinking and view on the world. Therefore, Wiesel through the use of diction and syntax, Wiesel recreates for the reader how his experience in the Holocaust has changed him from an innocent Jewish boy, devoted to studying God’s word to a nearly-dead, permanently mentally scarred young man who has had years of his life stolen from him- years he can never get back or forget.  Even still, through it all, Elie Wiesel is a survivor.