Literary Analysis A Farewell To Arms

A Farewell to Arms Literature Analysis
1. A Farewell to Arms takes place during World War II in Italy.  Henry is an American in the Italian army and is touring the country.  After he returns to the war he meets Catherine Barkley, who his good friend Rinaldi is interested in seeing.  Soon it becomes evident that the better match is between Henry and Catherine and rinaldi is left without her.  Eventually it comes out that Catherine had just lost her husband and in a way was using Henry to replace him.  This doesn't create any problems because the relationship wasn't deep for Henry at that point either.
Henry injures his knee in battle and is visited by three doctors who insist on six months recover.  He decides to get a second opinion and finds a doctor who will operate right away.  Catherine is transferred to where Henry is staying and is assigned to prep him for surgery.  The two continue in their romantic interests with each other and as Henry heals the relationship progresses.  When Henry is given 3 final convalescence weeks, Catherine tells him that she is pregnant.   The two are not fazed by this though they worry about bringing a child into the world during the war.  Before he is scheduled to leave Henry contracts jaundice.  Instead of getting more leave, however, he is forced back on the front because a nurse said that his condition was self-inflicted by excessive drinking.
Henry undergoes a brutal experience at war.  He is traveling with an ambulance through evacuating troops.  The ambulance gets stuck and he orders two men to help him get them out.  He shoots one when they refuse. Eventually the vehicles get stuck again and they are forced to travel by foot.  Henry finds a place to stay at a nearby farm and stays there.  The following day is a chaotic mess of executions.  The Italian soldiers kill any officers that they see.  Henry is caught but manages to escape before being killed.  He makes for the river and hides until it is safe for him to swim away.
Henry decides he is done with this war and decides to find Catherine.  The two reunite and live happily in Stresa, though sometimes Henry feels guilty for leaving his men.  Catherine is concerned about the baby being too large and drinks beer to keep him small.  The novel ends abruptly when Catherine dies giving birth to a stillborn baby and Henry walks back home in the rain.
 2.  The theme of this novel is loss.  Catherine lost her fiancé and flirts with Henry to alleviate here pain.  When Catherine and his child die, Henry must cope with his losses.  This theme captures the tragedy of war and begs a cease of violence.
3. The tone of the novel is sincere.  Henry does not try to make himself look good or defend his actions; rather he is telling the story as if he needs to get things off his chest.  Judging from the tragedies he underwent, this is a healthy reaction.  Examples of his honesty can be seen in these passages.
4.Hemingway uses a dichotomy on page 218 when soldiers claim to be part of the “peace brigade,” as if brigades ever brought peace.
He uses foreshadowing on page 292.  Catherine is drinking beer in order to “keep the baby small” because of her narrow hips.  This foreshadows the troubles she will encounter later when trying to give birth.
Hemingway has the narrator describe anecdotes all the time in the novel like on page 112 when he reflects on a dining experience.
Hemingway uses metaphor with “the enemy’s ears are everywhere” to convey the hostility of the barber when he thought that the narrator was an Austrian.
On page 96 Hemingway satirizes the medical field in that they can’t even agree on which leg is the left leg and  excuse themselves with a weak “ I was looking from a different angle.”
On page 95 Hemingway alludes to Cleopatra to capture the beauty of the nurse Miss Gage.
Throughout the novel Hemingway uses dialogue to convey character feelings.  This can be seen often between Rinaldi and Henry early in the novel and Henry and Catherine later in the novel.
Regional dialect is used throughout the novel to remind the reader of the setting.

Characterization-
1.Hemingway characterizes directly often when he is describing minor characters.  The characters are not significant to really portray themselves though their actions so their characterization is left short and to the narrator.  For example,  Count Greffi is “an old man with white hair and mustache with beautiful manners.”  Another example is one of the girls riding with the soldiers.  She is described as “plump and dark and looked about sixteen.”  For the main characters, however, Hemingway tends to use indirect characterization via dialogue.  Two examples of this are the long conversations Henry has with Rinaldi and the ones he has with Catherine.
2.Hemingway's diction tends to be consistently simple throughout the novel whether he is depicting character or not.  He does however use a lot of dialogue, possibly embellished to some extent to depict the characters.
3.Henry is a round character because he is developed in all aspects.  He is dynamic because he changes throughout the book as he fall in love with Catherine and then loses her at the end.
4.I felt like I had met someone because Henry was honest about his faults and human with his losses.  For example at the end when he walks in the rain.  This type of reaction is the only reaction I could picture anyone having to losing a child and a lover: utter despair and disregard for practicality.

Launch

On days that I have several hours of free time (weekends), unless I go on some type of adventure the day seems wasted.  But sometimes all you have is a few minutes of free time or a big storm front is rolling in bringing heavy rain for the day (this weekend).  So what can we do about this?  Well I read that planning a trip, whether the trip takes place or not, is good for mental health and actually makes you happier.  So I want to create a site where people can share their past adventures and plan their next one.  Part of the sharing idea is to post a picture of where you went  without sharing the location and have people guess where it is.  Hopefully this will encourage people to get out there to find/enjoy it for themselves. So basically I want to create an interactive site where people share their experiences and get ideas for new ones.  For me the main obstacle is learning how to create such a site.  I am still not sure if I want to do it as an individual website or simply make a blog.  Either way I have plenty of resources of people who have their own blogs and have their own websites, so learning that shouldn't be too difficult.  As things get rolling I will probably think of features that I want and will have to figure out how to establish.

Brave New Essay

In a novel or play that you have studied, identify a character who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the work.

In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World , Bernard Marx is a pariah in his society.  He lives as a normally as he can, but on the inside he knows that something is missing.  He conforms because that is what is expected of him  and it would take great courage to protest.  His society even allow him opportunity to protest.  So he continues his life; struggling to blend in to a crowded cloud of gray when his heart yearns for a vivid, sunny day.
Bernard does many things to conform outwardly.  Predominantly is his line of work.  Everyday is works with hypnopedia.  He is implanting messages into the minds of youth, but the messages are things he does not even agree with.  Still, the culture of his society doesn't even make it an issue that he would dissent.  Protest is so foreign that it doesn't come to mind when someone like Bernard is unhappy.  Instead, they make sincere attempts to conform so they too can be happy.  Bernard engages in "orgy-porgy,"  desperately trying to fit in and to become a normal member of society.  To his disappointment, he finds he is still the same dissatisfied individual as before.
The internal thoughts of Bernard reflect something else entirely.  He even acts abnormally by spending time alone.  He risks this detour from good World State Citizen behavior because for him being alone is important.  It means he can be alone with his thoughts and away from the actions he sees as superficial.   He does, however, develop an interest in Lenina Trotsky.  Lenina on the surface actually appears to be somewhat of an inward protester.  She mentions how she has not been too keen on promiscuity lately.  This mild dissension I believe attracts Bernard.  But, Bernard is disappointed to find out that she behaves just as a citizen of the World State should.  She doesn't understand his shyness about asking to "have her" and is perfectly willing to be treated as "a piece of meat."  This experience makes him more aware of his differences and makes his inner protest stronger
In order to survive, human beings try to blend in with their company.  Anything that stands out is more likely to get crushed.  Because of this, there are countless examples of people conforming for their safety but on the inside, enraged with the injustice of their situation.  Bernard is one of these people.  He has no choice but to conform yet he is painfully aware that there is something missing.  That something is the brightness that would liven a dreary gray society.

Brave New Essay Topic

In the following passage, the contemporary social critic Neil Postman contrasts George Orwell’s vision of the future, as expressed in the novel 1984 (written in 1948), with that of Aldous Huxley in the novel Brave New World (1932).  Read the passage, considering Postman’s assertion that Huxley’s vision is more relevant today than is Orwell’s. 

Then, using your own critical understanding of contemporary society and Huxley’s novel as evidence, write a carefully argued essay that answers the following question:

Is Aldous Huxley’s satirical Brave New World relevant today?

            We were keeping our eye on 1984.  When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves.  The roots of liberal democracy had held.  Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

            But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling:  Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing.  Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression.  But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history.  As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

            What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.  What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.  Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.  Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.  Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.  Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.  Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.  Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.  As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”  In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain.  In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.  In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.  Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

In attacking this essay, I would definetely answer yes, Huxley's novel is relevant today.  I would point out the foresight that Huxley had when it came to an increase in promiscuity and the effect it had on society.  having read 1984, I would also be able to elaborate on the twxt provided.  Armed with knowledge from the two novels and this text, I would be able to find many examples to answer the prompt.

I Am Here

So far this semester, I have come up with a couple of good ideas.  For my senior project, I have tried to come up with something that demonstrates my passions- so far my idea is for a website in which users share stories and pictures of their adventures.  At the very least, thinking about my senior project has made me well, think!  I am thinking more about my future and ways to capitalize on the low-risk situation that I am in currently.   Another idea that I have thought of this semester is to help prepare for the AP test, set up a collaborative working group of some sort.  This would involve going in at lunch and taking a look at some multiple choice questions and teaming up with others to share knowledge, especially about classic novels we are bound to see on the test.

Welcome to the Interdisciplinarity

My project idea was to create a website or blog where users could share photos of their favorite places.  They location would be undisclosed, and other users could take a guess at the location.  If they guess right, they would get a "point" and also get to read what the original poster had to say about their time at that location.  Users could also use their points to learn the location of a place they really wanted to know about, paying the set "price" by the original poster.
To complete this project I will need to learn a from a few different disciplines.  Primarily, I will need to learn how to create an interactive website, and make it appealing for an abundance of visitors.  Another discipline I will need to learn is psychology to a degree.  I need to get into the visitors head and envision what type of additions, ideas, and layouts would be well-received.

Hafta/Wanna

Life after high school will have a significantly greater opportunity to pursue independent interests.  In some ways, this will be good; in others, this will be bad.  As we are accustomed to a predetermined curriculum and being told what to do in order to be successful, it will come as a shock when it is up to us to determine our own futures.  That being this said, hacking this course to our liking can serve as an excellent warm-up, practice run, or trial for the big show in the future.  Most of us will experience a pretty big void this summer; not only will there not be school, but there will not be obligations we kept in order to get into college such as clubs and activities and high school sports.  For many, the void will be filled with the same things we usually use our freedom with.  But having so much of it, I think that we should use the opportunity to form new habits and explore new avenues.  There will be less things we have to do, and more opportunity to do what you want to.  I feel that we tend to use our time most efficiently when we have a balance of both-we are more urgent to get done what we have to and more excited to get done what we want to.  So that is how we should balance the two- using our feelings of urgency and desire.

Literary Terms #5

Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.

Parody:  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.

Pathos:  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.

Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or  abstract ideas.

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.

Poignant:  eliciting sorrow or sentiment.

Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.

Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.

Prose:  the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.

Pun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or

applications.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

Realism:  writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Refrain:  a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.

Requiem:  any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.

Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.

Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.

Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.

Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.

Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax.

Romanticism:  movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.

Satire-use of humor to point out flaws

Scansion-determining metrical character of verse

Setting- time, place, and mood of text