Open Prompt: October 29th

1975 Also. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator's voice to guide the audience's responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience's responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters' responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.

The playwright Hamlet focuses on the central conflict between the protagonist Hamlet and his desire to kill his uncle, King Cladius, for betraying his father to claim the thrown. To show the audience the struggles that Hamlet faces, this play uses techniques such as blank verse, soliloquies, and foils to guide the audiences responses to characters and actions of the play. 

The playwright uses blank verse to add emphasis on the emotions of the characters. This technique gives the audience a sense of what the character is feeling as he speaks and how strongly he or she may feel about what is going in the play. For example, lines 33-68 in Act 4 scene 4 form a blank verse as a part of a monologue spoken by Hamlet that adds emphasis on how he is feeling. He compares the bravery of the soldiers to that of his conscience of killing King Cladius. Hamlet is trying to help himself understand that bravery is found behind the principal of one's action, and not in the manner in which it is performed. Thus, the audience is able to interpret that Hamlet is not killing out of honor, but rather out of the love that he has for his father. 

The soliloquies Hamlet gives during briefs moments of the play gives insight to the audience about what Hamlet's motives are, and how the audience can relate to the complexity of emotions he feels. For example, when Hamlet states "Oh what a rogue Peasant Slave Am I" ( Act 2 Scene 2) ,he discusses how nervous he is to kill King Cladius yet how badly his desire is growing to kill him. Thus, the audience understands Hamlet's selfishness and anger. 

The character Fortinbras foils Hamlet to allow the audience to understand why Hamlet acts the way he does. Fortinbras has many similarities to Hamlet such as he is also a son of a deceased king whose uncle has taken over the thrown and he also seeks avenge death of his father. However, Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle, King Cladius, purely out of hatred as Fortinbras seeks avenge out of honor and dignity for his country of Norway. These two contrasting motives to kill are shown in action when king Cladius is praying and Hamlet does not kill him because he believes the act of personal vengeance will send King Cladius to heaven as Fortinbras is not considering these morals when he kills his uncle. Thus, showing the audience that Hamlet has morals and a strong faith in his religion. 

This playwright uses these techniques to show the complexity that the Hamlet feels before killing his uncle, King Cladius, and how the audience is to respond to these actions of the play. 

Close Reading: "Study: Nearly 1 in 8 Shy Teens May Have Social Phobia"

Social Phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder,occurs when the anxiety that people feel becomes so persistent that it interferes with their daily lives.  It is linked to other health problems such as depression, anxiety and drug abuse and studies show that it is more prevalent in teens who are 17-18 years old rather than teens who are 13-14 years old. A new study done on teens with this disorder has shown that it complicates the way they interact with others and their environment, but that treatments such as behavioral
therapy can cure it.

Depression, anxiety and drug abuses have shown a link to social phobia, but have not proven whether or not it is either a cause or an effect of the disorder, but it has shown that it impacts the way teens interact with the environment. Those who have this disorder have more difficulty in school, family and peer relationships. This type of behavior results in the lack of ability to interact with other people properly, and the outcomes could be vital to how the other person may not be able to work in a social environment. In this day and age, social interaction is critical for finding a job, even if it is a job that requires you to work in a cubicle or work from home, one still has to be interviewed for that job. This could affect the success or failure of one's life, and may lead to depression, drug abuse and other mental health disorders.

Behavioral therapy is a tactic that reinforces a positive outlook on social activities. The goal is to get one acquainted with his or her environment, and make him or her feel comfortable in getting out there. It is also a way to make one realize how their behavior affects their feelings. This can easily make those with social phobia have a normal life again.

Social phobia is a disorder most prevalent in teens, and can negatively impact the way they interact with their environment. However, behavioral therapy and antidepressants can cure this disorder and give teens a positive outlook on those that surround them.

3rd Response to Course Material

As the year progresses, my ability to apply and annotate literature only becomes better. In this past week, I have learned how to find DIDLS in my readings and how to analyze it. This is a mandatory skill needed for the AP test, and I am sure that the amount of work I am doing in preparation for the test will only benefit me.

I will admit that analyzing Albee's The American Dream seemed like a tough task to me, since I had very little experience with annotating literature, but through practice in class and in small groups, I have figured out how to break each dialogue down and find DIDLS. This play had a lot of hidden meanings that were symbolic of ideas, but if it were not for our group discussions on how diction, imagery, language, detail and syntax relate to these ideas, I would never have made the correlation later on in my own readings. The diversity of annotations that were brought up in conversations also helped me understand on how I am supposed to annotate my own readings. Although we are now supposed to annotate individually, I feel as if I am ready to assess my own annotations in the same aspect that we did in class.

I am glad that I now have learned how to accurately annotate literature using DIDLS, this should help me next week when we start annotating Death of a Salesman. I am sure that I have learned another mandatory skill for the AP exam, and it will only get better as the year progresses. 

Open Prompt: October 16th

1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken"  is symbolic for the struggles that people face in life when it comes to making decisions.  The last 2 lines of the poem "I took the one less traveled by, and the has made all the difference." relates to the work because it shows the outcomes of the decision making process and this is effective because it claims that the "road less traveled" is actually the better decision to be made. 

The last 2 lines of the poem shows the outcomes of the decision the author makes on which road to travel and is glad that he took the one less traveled by. In the first stanza, the author is "sorry" that he was unable to travel both roads, and "stared" down both paths, deciding which one would have a better outcome. These concepts are idealistically metaphorical for when one has to look at both decisions that are presented to him or her and acknowledge which one would be more beneficial to him or her later on in life. 

These last two lines are effective because it claims that the "road less traveled by" is the decision that is less favorable but, "...that has made all the difference." meaning that it is more beneficial. The traveler saw, "two roads diverged in a yellow wood" but had taken time to contemplate why he would choose one road over the other. This describes when one is portrays the pros versus the cons in a decision. Thus, it is effective because it shows how the author conclusively was led to the road less traveled, and how it impacted him. 

The "Road Not Taken" is symbolic for the the tough decisions that people have to make in life, and analyzes the decision making process and how the outcome is effective because it is least favorable. 

Close Reading: "Why Pancreatic Cancer is So Deadly"

Pancreatic Cancer is predicted to kill around thirty eight thousand people this year, and is the fourth leading cause of death from cancer. This type of cancer can be inherited, caused by smoking, or happen by chance, and it is only controllable if the pancreas is removed before the cancer has spread throughout the body. The reason why it is so lethal is due to the fact that usually when it occurs, there are no symptoms when it is most treatable. 

Nearly 95% of the people who have this cancer will die from it.  The risk of developing this cancer is one in seventy-one, and as people age, the chances of developing it increases. The average age in which it is diagnosed is seventy-two. It is more prevalent in males than females, due to the fact that males use tobacco more commonly than women. 

Pancreatic cancer is caused by DNA mutations than can occur by chance, smoking or inheritance. By the time that Pancreatic cancer is discovered in the body, jaundice or advanced stages of abdominal pain may occur. Jaundice is a condition is which the eyes, skin and mucous membrane have a yellow discoloration due to the deposition of bile salts in these tissues. 

The standard way of treating pancreatic cancer was chemotherapy but now, two new drugs that constrict the rate of blood flow of the tumor throughout the body are said to help fight off this disease. Research that is being done consists of developing a way of finding biomarkers so that simple urine test or blood test can be done. 

As of now, there is no routine way of knowing whether or not a patient has a tumor in their pancreas, thus making pancreatic cancer a very deadly disease. 

2nd Response to Course Material

The immense amount of practice that we have done with analyzing literature and writing an essay, including the introduction, thesis statement and topic sentence, has been a good repetitious tactic for me. I have acquired the skill to organize my thoughts, and refrain from stating the obvious in an introduction paragraph.

Throughout our practices of writing an introduction essay, there has been one ideal concept we have been analyzing; techniques. In nearly every essay prompt, it asks you to analyze the "techniques" the author uses to create a certain appeal to the essay. I have learned the types of techniques that are out there for one to analyze. This has been especially helpful, and I feel like I am ready to tackle the introduction paragraph of the Ap english essay portion of the exam.

Although analyzing syntax was not as easy to me as analyzing diction, I have learned to break apart sentence structures and get a feel for the tone of the sentence. Syntax can help determine how the author talks and how the sentence is arranged to appeal to the audience. If it were not for the practice that we have done in class, I would not have realized the effects of sentences due to the arrangement of words.

Another thing I have realized about my introduction paragraph is that I have a tendency to state the obvious. For example, in one of my introduction paragraphs I stated that the Theatre of the Absurd uses diction, irony and hyperboles to appeal to the audience. All plays use tactics to appeal to the audience, and the the purpose of the Theatre of the Absurd is to make the audience laugh, thus my earlier statement is an obvious generalization that becomes pointless to state. Thanks to Ms. Holmes making me realize this, I have become more aware of what to state in my prompt.

Overall, I have grown as a writer in Ap English , and I hope that my essays continue to advance as the year progresses!

Open Prompt: October 2nd

1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot.

In the Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is a character who lives in a high class society in the suburbs of New York City. He is exposed to the luxuries of the American Dream, attending parties and envying the materialistic lifestyle that his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, leads. Although Nick wishes that he could be more like his neighbor, he realizes that the money Jay possess and the society that Jay lives in does not define his morals or character as an individual. Nick is an observer of the society he lives in and learns how hypocritical and arrogant once they have money; he then changes his delusional way of thinking and decides that the way you act defines they who you are, not the materialistic possessions that you own. 

Jay Gatsby is a soft spoken man in West Egg who is one of the richest man that Nick knows, and has an appeal of modesty and wealth in Nick's eyes. Nick perceives  Jay as "a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty." However, as time progresses and Nick starts observing how people interact with Jay, he notices that Jay does not have as many friends and loved ones as he assumed. Nick also dislikes how Jay was having an affair with a married woman, one who was in love with the rich lifestyle that Jay had but would not dare runaway from her husband and admit that she was in love with someone else. This notion of dishonesty made Nick realize how unfaithful people are, and the amount of money one owns does not determine how you act or think. 

Once Jay passes away and no one attends his funeral, Nick then discovers that no one actually knew Jay nor did they like him, they were only interested in the parties that he threw and what he had to offer. This implicates that society was selfish and only wanted what was best for themselves. This shallow behavior that once appealed to Nick made him realize how disgusting and hypocritical people were. Nick does away with the idea that rich are "classy", and that it is better to be poor and modest. 

The society in which Nick lives in makes him realize how money can destroy virtues and human character, and how shallow and hypocritical society can become with materialistic possessions. Thus, Nick responds in the sense that he does not conform to society, and lives happily as an individual who has morals.