WE: Record Two- Ballet. Quadratic Harmony. X.

WE  Yevgeny Zamyatin

In Record Two of the novel We, a dichotomy is produced. D-503 describes the spring almost poetically, 'the wind brings the yellow-honey dust from a flower of some kind. This sweet dust parches your lips'. However this poetic description conflicts with D-503's idea of 'logical reasoning'. This is also reinforced when he criticizes the poets who write about 'such stupid, sloppy, silly-lingering clumps of vapour', when he is using poetic features to describe the machine. For example, he personifies the machine: 'perforating machine curtsied, keeping time with some inaudible music'.
Also this machine D-503 so passionate about demonstrates the contrast between the unknown wild beyond the Green Wall and the One State city itself. The citizens of the One State view the world beyond the Green Wall as a 'wild' and 'invisible', whereas, to them, One State is full of 'marvellous expressions of mathematical equality', so 'absolute' and has 'perfect non-freedom'. The use of 'perfect non-freedom' is very ironic because from our (reader's) point-of-view, 'non-freedom' can never be 'perfect'; being restricted and controlled over everything we do is not our idea of a perfect world.

WE: Record One- A declaration. The wisest of Lines. An Epic.

WE Yevgeny Zamyatin

One State is a society where everything is logical and can be proved mathematically. The One State is 'mathematically infallible'.

It is a totalitarian state; everything is controlled by  and for the government, and the citizens of One State do not have the freedom of expression and speech.

In the first chapter of the novel 'We', there are some important aspects of this passage that we must note:'

• This passage is full of idiomatic language. Idiom is 'the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people' and that is defined greatly by the culture of the setting. 
• The method of narration: in first person. The narrator is main character in the novel. The readers and forced to see the world through the eyes of the narrator therefore readers' understanding is limited to the knowledge of the character and are trapped within the narrator's perspective. It is very personal and intimate
• The reportage in the State Gazette is almost like a propaganda (a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position). It is manipulating the thoughts of the citizens of the One State.
• The One State forces conformity of from the citizens; 'If they won't understand that we bring them mathematically infallible happiness, it will be our duty to force them to be happy.
• The use of Irony. This is when the writer purposefully constructs concepts that clash against each other. e.g. 'Savage state of freedom', 'mathematically infallible happiness'. As readers our thoughts conflict greatly with the views of the citizens of the One State. 

English 2010 June Mid-year examination

Literature consists of victors and victims. Discuss how the idea of victors and victims has been presented in a text you have studied. 

My introduction:

In Henrik Ibsen's seminal work, 'A Doll's House', it is distinguishable who is presented as the victor, and the victim. Nora Helmer, our protagonist is seen to be the victim under the constant dominance of her husband Torvald at the beginning of the play. Their family relationship is the society's ideal man-woman, husband-wife relationship. However, Nora reaches a moment of realisation that Torvald 'never loved [her]' and transforms into a victor; an independent woman breaking free from her 'doll's house'. This idea of victors and victims is clearly presented through the dialogue and the actions of the characters.

Basically, my introduction was on how Nora is the victim in the beginning of the play but she undergoes a transformation that leads her into becoming the victor. Also, both Nora and Torvald can be seen as the victims of society's stereotypical ideals of conventional family relationship; they are conforming to the roles of the weak, child-like woman and the strong, dominant man. 

Topic sentence for Paragraph One:

Society's stereotypical image of conventional family relationships is that the husband is superior over his wife; women were to take the sacrificial role, surrendering their freedom and dignity to those in authority.

Topic sentence for Paragraph Two:

However, the climax of the play is a matter of resolving identity confusions. Nora undergoes a transformation that allows her to break free from Torvald's grasp.

Topic sentence for Paragraph Three:

Krogstad's blackmail opens Nora's eyes to what the reality of her relationship with Torvald is like; how Torvald 'didn't love [her]' and that '[he] only found it pleasant to be in love with [her]'. 

Lan Presentation with Ashlee

How does the character of Lan depict the character of Kien in The Sorrow of War?

We can clearly see that Bao Ninh's work, The Sorrow of War is not only about the Vietnam War alone. It is also about dealing with life after the war has ended. The text conveys not just the immediate horrors of war, but also the psychological traumas it brings and the dislocation of lives it causes. People who have experienced the war are not able to move one; everything around them deteriorated because they were stuck in the past. We thought the main theme of The Sorrow of War was that no matter dead or alive after the war, it is impossible to gain freedom from the great emotional damage that war has done to one. Although it may not be true, people say that one of the reasons that ghosts do not move on to the afterlife is because they died so suddenly and violently that they do not realise that they are dead, or simply because they refuse to accept it. In this book, Bao Ninh says that Kien ‘even turned some of them into ghosts, sorrowfully making them appear here and there, in the jungles, in the dark corner, in dreams and nightmares.’

Lan is one of the many characters that appears in the text. Although she is mentioned in the story only briefly, she is a very significant character because she can be seen as a character that mirrors Kien himself. She has been affected by the war greatly; she has lost her loved ones and was left alone in the world. Just as a ghost cannot leave its place, Lan is reluctant to abandon her village where she had glorious days. It is evidently shown in her dialogue when she talks to Kien:‘A few years ago I decided to leave here…. But I changed my mind. I couldn’t leave my mother and my son lying over there. I just wait and wait, without knowing what I’m waiting for. Or for whom”. Even after all the deterioration and damage caused by the war, the soul of Lan is unable to forget the fountain of sentiments from the youth – those unforgettable days when love, friendship and human bonds existed. Through the character Lan, we clearly see how the effect of the war has caused her to lose her capacity of love. Although Lan is suffering from immense loneliness, she is unable to love anyone due to the destructive emotional damages the war has engendered. Through Lan’s dialogue: “I wish I could have had your child, Kien, but it’s impossible. That doesn’t depress me”, we realise the war’s capacity to taint love and its lasting and sorrowful effect. Love before the war is pure and fresh. One cannot imagine any scenario under which it might deteriorate and every incident or word is deeply felt and heavy with sentiment. ‘Ordinary love’, as Kien refers to it, is rapt with nonsense and petty elations. With a sense of nostalgia, Kien remembers how, before the war, ‘Those were the days when all of us were young, very pure and very sincere.’ However, after the war has ravaged the soul’s ability to be so naively hopeful and sincere, all interplay between the sexes becomes a desperate attempt to recreate this. In its absence, love is reduced to blind hopefulness which eventually deteriorates into lust.

The Sorrow of War presents the atrocities and sadistic destructions hat comes and follow after war; destruction not only physical, but also mental and spiritual. And therefore I think it is fair to say that… War makes ghosts of us all.

Link to Power Point
http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B85RNAnXaSfnYWMxZTczNjYtOGY2YS00MWY5LWJkOTUtZmZmY2Q4OTQzN2Vj&hl=en

Symbolic significance of the settings in The Sorrow of War

Often the setting in a text will carry symbolic significance, supporting as well the writer's key themes. Discuss these concepts in the light of The Sorrow of War.

The detailed settings described in Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War is very significant as it illustrates to the readers, past memories and the terrible consequence of Vietnam war. The settings in this text are noticeably described in depth, allowing the readers to feel the emotions (E.g. pain) that Kien is experiencing. Often, the setting described is very unpleasant as it is related to the tragic scenes of war. When a setting is described, a semantic field usually present and a majority of them create a negative image. For example, 'air is dull', 'the sky lead-grey' (page38) revolves around the idea of no-life present in the Screaming Souls Jungle. Life does not exist in this jungle, only death. 

The Sorrow of War - goolge books

On Google Books, I found this book, which is called The Vietnam War 1956 - 1975, written by Andrew Wiest. The first bit of the page above, talks about the feelings of someone after the war has ended. This can relate back to Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War because this reflects feelings that Kien might have felt after the war. Although they have survived the war, the influence of war was so great that it felt as if 'so much of [them] died in Vietnam' and there were times where they wished that they died at war instead of having to face the consequences after the war was over. We are able to see that the  experience they had at war haunts them forever.



This is another extract from a book that talks about the life after the Vietnam war.
The war is referred to as a 'heart-of-darkness' experience for the people who were involved and were affected by the war. It says 'guilt at surviving the war' which is what the previous book talks about. Although they have survived, it might have been better off to have died at war because the guilt and the psychological scars are too significant for them to overcome.

The Sorrow of War

Something I found interesting was the non-linear time scheme in The Sorrow of War.
This narrative by Kien, is arranged in no certain order; many analepsis are present in the novel, moving back and forth in Kien's memory. Because of this, the story is unable to be discerned for their chronological order. 
This non-lineal narrative is very chaotic and confusing to understand, but I think that Bao Ninh has purposely did this. The non-linear time scheme demonstrate to the readers the effects of war because it is often as chaotic in construction as the events it describes.
Also, as this non-linear time scheme has no order, it evokes Kien's view of the unpredictable events of war. 
Although it explains that the book could not be written in chronological order as 'any page seemed like the first, any page could have bee the last', I personally think that The Sorrow of War is much more meaningful written in non-linear time scheme as this structure can be a metaphor to the war. 

Krogstad

a) What role does Krogstad serve in the play?

Henrik Ibsen presents Krogstad as a antagonist in A Doll's House.
Krogstad used some villainous tactics over the course of the play. Nora had once borrowed money from Krogstad as her family had to take a trip to Italy due to her husband Torvald's health issue. She had forged her father's signature and due to Nora's actions, Krogstad has the ability to blackmail her. He uses this advantage when Torvald wants to replace Mrs Linde for his place in the bank. Krogstad intimidates, blackmails and threatens Nora to persuade Torvald to let him keep his place in the bank or else that he will tell Torvald about Nora's loan and her forgery of her father's signature. Furthermore, his 'villain' like qualities are shown when readers find out that Krogstad has previously committed a crime similar to what Nora has done; forging a signature on a document, although it was relatively a minor crime.

However, this character of Krogstad acts as a catalyst that enables Nora to find her Independence. The character Krogstad leads to conflict between Torvald and Nora, which allow truths to be revealed; this break Nora away from her doll-like character, and Torvald and Nora's false relationship.


b) In what way does Ibsen develop the charater, i.e. how does he change and for what reasons?

Although Krogstad might be presented as an antagonist who constantly asks Nora to pay back and a person who uses Nora's crime in order to benefit oneself in the beginning, as the story develops, readers are able to see that Krogstad is not necessarily a villain. Krogstad just wants to regain his standing in the community. He tells Nora, "I want to rehabilitate myself". Nora, our sympathetic protagonist, is guilty of the exact same thing. After the community turned its back on him, Krogstad was forced into the unsavory business of money lending and black mailing in order to support his family. In a way, it was the community's close-minded lack of forgiveness that created him. Here again we see the central motif of all of Ibsen's plays: the individual vs. society. Also readers are able to see that Krogstad is not without sympathy for her. One of the most poignant moments between the two is when they commiserate about their suicidal thoughts. He tells her, "Most of us think of that at first. I did, too – but I hadn't the courage". She replies quietly, "No more had I". And he also says, “Even money-lenders, hacks, well, a man like me, can have a little of what you call feeling, you know.” He visits Nora to check on her, and he discourages her from committing suicide. Moreover, Krogstad has reasonable motive for behaving as he does: he wants to keep his job at the bank in order to spare his children from the hardships that come with a spoiled reputation. Unlike Torvald, who seems to desire respect for selfish reasons, Krogstad desires it for his family’s sake.

The biggest change we come across while studing the character of Krogstad, is while Krogstad and Mrs Linde is having a conversation in the opening of Act 3. As soon as Mrs Linde tells him that she has always loved him and asks him to resume their relationship, he reveals himself as a more loving, joyful and merciful character. He is even willing to give up his place in the bank and take his letter that tells Torvald about what Nora has done. The biggest reason that led to Krogstad's change in character would be Mrs LInde.


c) What themes does the character assist conveying to the audience?

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity

During that summer - significance of that particular summer season, in the distant past -Carol Han 3/19/10 9:56 AM

When unicorns were still possible ;unicorn : metaphor/symbol of childhood when myth was possible  -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:01 AM   Metaphor. Childhood to Unicorns. When, young, innocent, imaginative-Carol Han 3/19/10 10:01 AM 
When the purpose of knees  enjambment : contributes to flowing passage of time -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:00 AM 
Was to be skinned;  caesura : creates pause, which makes the reader reminisce about his/her own childhood -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:03 AM 
When shiny horse chestnuts
    (Hollowed out
    Fitted with straws
    Crammed with tobacco
    Stolen from butts
    In family ashtrays)
Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization; young, innocent and imaginative childhood -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:07 AM 

always check stanza breaks to explore what changes. Typically tone and/or subject matter will change  -Carol Han 3/19/10 9:57 AM 

During that summer--repetition : emphasises a particular period of time -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:07 AM 
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was--
Watermelons ruled.The powerful memory to heighten past experience -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:24 AM 

Thick imperial slices  lexical choice :  water melons becoming governing -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:09 AM  'Thick, Imperial'  two pre modifying adjectives. Thick- size and power. Imperial- being controlling and governing. In what way? fill the senses and hook back to the memories of the past. Significance of the image-Carol Han 3/19/10 10:14 AM image of powerful, governing, controlling watermelon -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:18 AM 
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues imagery (gustatory imagery) -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:14 AM 
Dribbling from chins;  involves reader's senses  -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:15 AM 
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,  sound devices (plosive alliteration) with imagery-Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:10 AM 
To be spit out in rapid fire Sibilant alliteration  -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:17 AM 
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;

And when the ammunition was spent,extended metaphor of watermelon fighting -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:11 AM 
There was always another bite:Describing the abundance of watermelon in the summer. Endless -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:09 AM 
It was a summer of limitless bites,When young, there is no such thing as a 'Limit' Everything comes to them. Childish world of plenty -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:11 AM emphasises that the beauty of childhood is limitless -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:20 AM 
Of hungers quickly felt  Repetition of 'quickly' emphasises the speed -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:08 AM 
And quickly forgotten Enjambment. Lingers the first lines. Gives faster pace.  -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:22 AM 
With the next careless gorging.  lexical choice : creates intensity-Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:21 AM 

The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,Turning point of poem. Change from Childhood -> adulthood. From Part to present.   -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:04 AM   this is where tonal shift happens : -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:19 AM 
Swallowed reluctantly. the repetition (in a way rhyme) echos each other. -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:07 AM 

But in a jar put up by Felicity, -Significance in the name. The  watermelons bring back the past memories so vividly, allowing the poet to even recall the name of the person who gifted the watermelon pickle.Carol Han 3/19/10 10:20 AM The gift of Felicity- a way to childhood bliss. It was more than a gift as it brings back valuable memories.-Carol Han 3/19/10 10:25 AM 
The summer which maybe never was reinforces how childhood passes quickly , and how it is so easy to forget good and happy memories -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:21 AM 
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue: Repetition of And -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:03 AM 
Unicorns become possible again. tastes brings back the memories of childhood -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:12 AM 

John Tobias

 

 Tension between idealised past and unpleasant present-Carol Han 3/19/10 9:58 AM 

Taste and vision.... etc bring back the past -Carol Han 3/19/10 9:59 AM 

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle received from a friend called Felicity

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ac5RNAnXaSfnZHo5YjVidF8wZDV6d2QyYzk&hl=en


Ashlee and my Google Docs on Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle received from a friend called Felicity.

Written commentary intro on: 'Reflection on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Recieved from a Friend called Felicity'

Smells, tastes and sounds often evoke powerful memories of our past. After reading ‘Reflection on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend called Felicity’, I realised that these past memories can stay with us forever. John Tobias’ main idea in his poem can be seen in his title which provides the reader with detailed information of his childhood memory.

Poetic Devises in 'Reflection on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Recieved from a Friend called Felicity'

Metaphor:
When unicorns were still possible
Black bullet seeds

Repetition:
During that summer (stanza 1 and 2)
Against the wall/ Against the wind/ Against each other
Of hungers quickly felt/ And quickly forgotten
And when we unscrewed the lids/ And slice off a piece/ And let it linger....

Alliteration:
Plosive - The black bullet seeds
Sibilant- seeds,/ To be spit out

Caesura:
... ammunition was spent,/ Then was always another bite;/ It was a summer of limitless bites,

Enjambment:
Of hunger quickly felt/ And quickly forgotten/ With the next careless gorging

The Characters in A Doll's House

Nora Helmer

In 'A Doll's House' play, Nora is initially presented as a typical house-wife, a happy and childlike character. Nora is spoilt and lacks care about money, which emphasise her childlike characteristics. Also she is seen as Torvald's 'doll'; she is always catious around Torvald trying to be the perfect wife. However, as the play goes on, we can see that Nora is not what she seems. She secretly deceives her husband; for example, she denies that she has bought Macaroons to her husband when he asks. Nora's small acts of rebellion and deception towards her husband suggests that she is not as innocent as she seems.

Torvald Helmer

Torvald Helmer is presented as a man who is very work related and concerned for his status in the society. He enjoys having authority; both in the societ and over his wife. He treats Nora as a 'doll' to be admired at, loving her only for her beautiful looks, and also, he constantly looks down on her by using diminutives such as 'little' and 'squirrel'. He thinks greatly of the idea of male dominance in a family, and enjoys his power over their relationship.