POEM REMIX

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6-C1WnKK5w4

POEM COMPARISON ESSAY

     Opposites are easy. Night and day. Black and white. Positive vibes and negative vibes. Everything is Going to be Alright by Derek Morgan and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. A poem full of encouraging thoughts and a poem that leaves you feeling quite sad. 

     Everything is Going to be Alright automatically makes you feel happy just by the title alone. Which is the perfect title for this poem simply because it says everything he talks about in one sentence. Where the Sidewalk Ends is a very popular poem. I even have the book. I got it in 3rd grade as a gift from my teacher because she knew how much I loved literature. I can honestly say this poem never appealed to me. The mood of the poem was just confusing and sad. Especially as an eight year old. 

     I mean I could be totally wrong about Where the Sidewalk Ends but the first thing that comes to my mind is death. That's not very fun. That's why I like Everything is Going to be Alright. It makes a person feel encouraged especially if you already have a hard time finding that motivation you need simply to get through the day. Maybe for some people death is comforting. Mainly it can be depressing. 

LITERARY ANALYSIS #3

B1) The plot of The Age of Innocence is basically an extremely complicated love story. AND IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY! So Newland Archer "loves" Mary Welland and is engaged to her. Which is all fine and dandy until Ellen Olenska decides to come visit! She's Mary's cousin and came back to America because she separated from her husband. Long story short, Ellen is quirky and Newland loves it. He falls in love with her but he knows it can never happen so he rushes his marriage to Mary. It seems like everything is all good but Ellen goes back to Europe and returns again. They decide to have an affair but Mary's pregnant so Ellen's like NOPE and leaves and Newland never sees her again. He realizes that he needs to just move on. Which he does in his old age even after Mary dies. 

2) The first theme that comes to mind is society ruling over everyone. Newland and Ellen didn't come right out and defend their love because they knew it would be frowned upon. They could do it in secret and people could pretend that they didn't know about it, even though it was extremely obvious. Which leads to hypocrisy in the book. Women were "innocent" things. They were only allowed to do certain things that would not harm their image in any way. 

3) The tone of the book gave me a feeling of similarity to The Great Gatsby. Such fun events and parties and money and lavish things but underneath it was just sad. It's like everyone knows how this will end but no one wants to admit it. Until finally you're forced to admit that all of this love will end in despair. “In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.” “Archer had no heart to go on pleading with her; he was too much disappointed at the vanishing of the new being who had cast that one deep look at him from her transparent eyes. May seemed to be aware of his disappointment, but without knowing how to alleviate it; & they stood up and walked silently home.” “But after a moment a sense of waste and ruin overcame him. There they were, close together and safe and shut in; yet so chained to their separate destinies that they might as well been half the world apart.” 

4)

A) Setting- It took place in the 1870's in New York. "Golden Age" with wealthy peeps. 

B) Foreshadowing- Lots of it mainly through quotes by the two women of the story. Mostly about Archer and Ellen eventually having to stay far away from each other. 

C) POV- is through Archers thoughts and actions so that the audience could see the story from his point of view. 

D) Irony- Oh my god basically the hierarchy of New York. The hypocrisy and lies of the towns wealthy people is ironic because they say one thing and act like another. 

E) Symbolism- Flowers: tons and tons of flowers. Each flower has a different meaning which also led to different uses of foreshadowing. 

F) Allusions- The one I caught was Edgar Allan Poe being mentioned. 

G) Archetype- The whole star crossed lovers is a basic theme used in novels. 

H) Dysphemism- It's like the whole shunned love story is made to be more common and understood but outwardly people need to reject it so they make it seem more harsh than it actually is. 

I) Imagery- All of Archers feelings and thoughts were made so vivid it's like you were the one actually feeling them. 

J) Juxtaposition- society and death. (Also power) eventually New York would be doomed with people abusing their power. 

1) I would say the book is a great mixture of both direct and indirect characterization. Sometimes the narrator will tell you something straight up about someone. There is also a lot of dialogue so it's easy to form an opinion about someone right away. 

2) The syntax/diction used when someone of the upper New York society would talk/act would seem so careful. Like how they would normally talk and it would show their wealth and how they were brought up. When Ellen would talk she still had the wealthy tune to it but it less. You could tell it was different. The things she talked about how she said it. 

3) I'm going to say that Archer was a static protagonist. He wanted to very hard to be dynamic but he couldn't do it. He couldn't leave his wealthy society and be with Ellen. He almost did but something always pulled him back. I guess he did mature because he realized that it was never going to work. But he stayed the same nonetheless. 

4) Kind of. Not like Pride and Prejudice but I did sort of understand. It's hard to be raised one way and then question everything you've been taught and try to make something of it. It takes a lot to want something and realize that it's not going to happen. Not even realize it but come to terms with it. 

INTRO TO POETRY

Everything is going to be alright. 

1) Well the title basically summarizes the poem and tells you the theme for it. 

2) For the tone we came up with hopeful, encouraging, assuring, inspiring and calculating. 

3) For the mood we decided it was about giving someone strength and motivation. 

4) I would say the shift is from a depressing mood to an "oh hey everything with be okay" type of position mood. Which again, changed the whole theme. 

5) The theme is that EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT. No matter what you go through, there is always something that can/will make you feel good again. He made it personal so that it was easier to relate to. 

HAMLET ESSAY DOS

     It tends to be the most common piece of advice: be true to yourself. Or, just to make it sound more complicated, as Polonius would say, "to thine own self be true..." Polonius told this historic piece of advice to his son Laertes before he left to travel in Act 1 Scene 3. He basically told his son to do what he needed to be able to take care of himself. Don't do anything that would ruin your self image. Seems a bit selfish but at the same time it's true. You do need to put yourself first in situations that mean your reputation aka your position in those times. Although Polonius didn't go about it in the right way. 

     Polonius did a lot of things that were questionable. He obviously did them for his own benefit and look where he ended up. Actually, look where his whole family ended up. The advice given was almost so ironic it's comical. Polonius was a hypocrite for telling his son that bit of advice. He tells his children to not be phonies and yet he was the phoninest of them all! It got his son and his daughter, not to mention himself, killed. 

     It contributed to the story in a huge way. It seems to me that Shakespeare used Polonius as a type of joke. He showed what people in court were like while also portraying it in a comical way. I mean a whole family dying isn't very comical but the fact that they died while following Polonius' advice is just too ironic for it to be taken seriously. He spied on practically everyone, he manipulated anyone he could get his hands on and he followed the King around like a lost puppy. He did what he needed to in order to stay in his position. 

     Now in modern times this advice is used for literally everything. Your sexuality, your fashion, your culture, anything really. Do what you want to do and don't care what anyone else thinks. Although that also seems hypocritical because our society doesn't accept unpopular opinions. So maybe Shakespeare was getting at something with Polonius' character. Possibly foreshadowing? Or symbolism. However you see it, this advice became timeless and extremely popular. 

     Fifty years from now, I can guarantee you will continue to see this piece of advice on tattoos. Hamlet will continue to be studied and taught. Who doesn't love a good tragedy with timeless advice hidden in quotes you don't even understand? I know AP students do!