My Last Blog Post

This week in AP Literature we are debriefing from takin the AP exam. In my opinion I felt very prepared for this exam, the open question was a breeze. I had so many options to choose from and I am glad that we read all the books we read. Compared to other people I have talked to I felt with more books to choose from I had more of an opportunity to write on something different than everyone else. Doing all our outlines and practicing open questions really helped me feel confident. I felt extremely prepared for the multiple choice portion of the test, I laughed at the first passage (you know those sonnets, so easy). I am so glad that I got analyze and practice on real exams. Going though the right answers and analyzing what makes them right and what makes the other answers wrong. The most beneficial activities that we did in the class would be the dozens of times writings that we did in class. I am glad that we got that practice, once again it made me feel extremely confident about the three essays. The books that we read this year also gave me a lot of options to write about and gave me a lot of practice at close reading. After all of the stress and all of the sleepless nights, I really enjoyed the class. So suggestions for next years class would be to keep it the same, maybe add some more time to teach Earnst a little deeper. I am so glad I took this class, I feel extreme prepped for college after this year.

Earnest Blog #2

This past week in AP Literature we have been reading and analyzing Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. One of the most prominent themes that we were supposed to highlight, was Oscar Wilde making the serious aspects of life trivial and the trivial aspects of life serious. Oscar Wilde especially makes this known within the characters that hold upper class statuses. Wilde makes a clear distinction between the upper lower classes, by showing that the upper classes have the flexibility to act irresponsibly when the lower class takes responsibility for the upper classes immature actions. The classes play a very important role within the play, the social structure present certain barriers that each of the social class have to abide by. Another important theme within the play is also the lack of knowledge and lies, actually lies create this sense of lack of knowledge, and without the truth how can one know anything.

                The most important line in the play is “We live,” “in an age of surfaces.” Lady Bracknell says this line, it is ironic that she says this because her motives are driven precisely on material and “surfaces.” Lady Bracknell is the power center throughout the whole play, she is filled with masculine qualities that over power many of the men within the play. She sets an example for the other women in the play, such as Gwendolyn, Gwendolyn is merely the product of her mother’s influence as well as the effects of the upper class society in the city. Whereas Cecily creates her power, she hasn’t been influenced by anyone other than her governess, who she despises; Cecily creates her own influential stature, her creativity and naivety give her power over the lower class within the country society. The men in the play lack power, but they have the influence to dictate what happens in terms  of who gets hurt and how their action affect other people. The difference between men and women within the novel is that the women how knowledge and are well informed and conscious about how their actions affect other people. On the other hand, men in the play don’t know how their actions are going to influence other people, in this the women have much of the power in this topsy-turvy world that Wilde is trying to hold up to the Victorian society.

                The setting within the play also plays a huge role within differentiating the relationship between the characters. The two main setting are the city (aka London) and the Country. Obviously London is suppose to represent the wealthy scene where morality is loosely affected, in London people can get into “scrapes” and repent there scenes. The country represents the truth, everything is revealed in the country, and the impureness of the city is taken seriously at one point in the country, but then it is taken trivally when it is revealed that the country is really where the money is located. After it is revealed the Cecily is the richest out of all the characters she is respected and considered desirable. 

maybe it is important to be Earnest

This past week in AP literature we have been reading and analyzing Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. This play is absolutely hilarious, Oscar Wilde’s puns and word play is phenomenal. The play begins in Algernon’s English flat; Algernon anticipates the arrival of his friend Ernest. Once Ernest arrives, it is revealed that Ernest is attracted to Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolyn and intends to propose when her and her mother, Lady Bracknell come to Algernon’s place to ask Algernon if he would like to join them for dinner. Algernon mocks Ernest’s beliefs about marriage, Algernon believes that marriage is death of all freedom and that true love doesn’t really exist. After some more banter about marriage, Ernest asks about a cigarette case that he had left at an earlier visit, Algernon recalls the case but then notices that Ernest’s name is not on the case, the case has a message saying “to my favorite uncle jack,” so Algernon pushes the matter and it is revealed that Ernest has been living a double life. In the city Ernest is known as Ernest, in the city he can live a reckless life, where as in the country he is known as Jack who has be a responsible guardian for his niece, Cecily. Algy takes interest in this double life and claims that he too lives a double life, whenever he doesn’t want to  dine with Lady Bracknell he merely tells her the is friend “Bunburry” is ill and he has to go take care of him. Eventually Lady Bracknell and Gwendolyn arrive and Algernon separates him and his aunt from Gwendolyn and Ernest, in order for Ernest to propose, this is where Gwendolyn states that she is in love with his name and that she always knew that she would marry someone named Ernest. Lady Bracknell enter the room in a rage to see the proposal and separates Gwendolyn from Ernest and sits down to have a talk about Ernest’s past and to determine whether or not Ernest is a suitable match for her daughter.

In this play Oscar Wilde make two blatant criticisms about the Victorian era, one being the criticism of marriage and the other is gender roles within society. Obviously Algernon is Oscar’s voice when it comes to the negative ideas about marriage, he believes that marriage is merely a constricting force. Algernon believes that all of the fun in life is taken away when one embark in marriage. Wilde also flips the gender roles, with the characterization of Lady Bracknell Wilde makes the female character strong and influential. Gwendolyn asserts herself with the proposal, she tells Ernest that he is going to propose an she is going to say yes, Ernest had almost ask permission before he asked her. Lady Bracknell just purely represents power, she has a voice and controls all of the men around her, and example being her husband she actually takes away her husbands voice, when at this time it was the other way around.  

Timed Writing Debrief

This week in AP literature we were all about Emma, we had a two day seminar were we split into different groups and each group hosted a twenty minute session of where the other students discussed different perspectives of how to read this book. Some of the topics we discussed were: looking at Mr. Woodhouse as the antagonist of the book, the gender roles throughout the novel, Emma’s relationships, and the controversy of the ending. I actually used the stuff that we talked about with Emma’s relationships in my timed writing today, I discussed how her relationships keep her from developing as a strong character, but once she realizes that her relationship with Mr. Knightly is what will lead her to grow into a women, because he knows what is best for Emma were as with the other relationships Emma is vulnerable to conform into something that is destructive to her growth as a person.  So mainly my blog today is a debriefing of our Emma open question timed writing.

                Our timed writing today consisted of three choices, so I decided to write about the option which discusses how awakens within the novel lead the development of the novel and defines the author’s main purpose or idea of this novel. So to tackle this question the most logical thing that I could come up with to support Emma’s growth throughout the novel would be her relationships. The major realization of that Emma has is when she realizes that she needs Mr. Knightly as a companion, which leads her to give up her want to be socially involved into her becoming more engaged with growing herself as a person rather than a social dictator. Throughout the whole novel Emma rebels against Mr. Knightly’s advice and mentoring, by engaging in these inappropriate relationships with Harriet and Mr. Churchill, this is where her downfall starts when she meets Harriet. Emma begins the novel as a naïve young girl who is a blank slate, she is untouched to the outside world, but she is somewhat molded by the influence of her father. Emma has her first interaction with the lower classes when she takes on reforming Harriet, she begins become obsessed with finding some project or relationship to keep her busy, but they are very wrong for her because she is developing other characters  when she needs to grow herself.

                Over all this timed writing I feel like went okay, I feel like because I didn’t have to stay specific to certain quotes I had more freedom to elaborate more on the analysis. This timed writing I wrote more than I have ever written in any of my time writings. After this I feel like the open question timed writings are my strong suit because I have more freedom to discuss a whole lot more of analysis and development of certain pieces of literature. I felt this way after the practice exam as well, one the practice exam I wrote about Grendel and felt I could defend my beliefs with the text.

Emma Post

Unfortunately last week we didn’t have to blog, but now I am very ready to catch up on blogs about Emma. For the past few weeks it has been all about Emma and her silliness. Our focus for the past two weeks has been volume the third, so we are wrapping things up. Volume the third is primarily the conclusion and final events that happen to Emma and her collogues. Some very important events occur, such as the ball and Harriet’s experience with the gypsies, but the most important interaction that highlights Jane Austen’s ideas about society would be the relationship between Mrs. Elton and Emma. This volume is when the reader truly begins to see Mrs. Elton as Emma’s foil instead of Jane. An example would be at the ball; Mrs. Elton is a more mature(ish) Emma who knows how to use her wealth to get what she wants. I am not saying that Emma doesn’t do that, but Mrs. Elton is more out in open about it, where as Emma does it discretely, but Emma also knows how to control herself in a manner that is polite and she seems genuinely nicer and caring towards her friends of a lower class. This is where the book is completely pulled together.

In preparation of our seminar on Emma, I would like to talk about how Jane Austen completely flip flops the gender roles within the novel. Throughout the entire novel the men other than Mr. Knightly (obviously) are very feminine, Mr. Elton to be an example; he engages in some of the most womanly actions, even his personality screams out girly. Elton is very involved with finding status through marriage, as seen when he proposes to Emma, he also engages in some of the most deceitful/disrespectful acts that women would do, such as gossip and he even rejects a dance with Harriet which is extremely rude. Enough about Elton, Austen also uses women as the more masculine and dominant figures throughout the novel as well, all of the women have some sort of influence, especially Emma and Mrs. Elton. By creating these strong female characters, Austen is trying to comment on the way that society works within that time period, both of those characters are activist of their time, and completely contradict with the roles expected of that time. Although with some of the other characters are used to confirm the stereotypical woman, such as Harriet and Jane, they are the weak characters who lives get taken over by the socialites of Highbury. This is how Austen makes commentary on the social structure and the feminine versus the masculine roles of the men and women throughout the novel.

This part of my blog I would like to discuss our Tea party, because I didn’t get to finish writing my response in class. The tea part was definitely a unique experience, I was lady Deburgh and I had quite a high title which gave some freedom to do what I wanted to do. It was really fun to experience what it would have been like in that time period. It was definitely very different from today, but I felt very constricted and limited in my actions.   

Analyzing Emma Again

This week in AP lit class we are analyzing Emma, once again. For this reading we were assigned to read volume two of Jane Austen’s Emma A lot of stuff happens within this volume, we meet Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, and they both bring in a lot of drama to Highbury. Jane Fairfax is Emma’s foil, Jane brings out the worst in Jane and Jane brings out the worst Emma. Jane is Emma’s “friendemy” Emma acts friendly toward Jane but behind her back she exploits all of Jane’s flaws. Especially when everybody takes a liking to Jane, Emma gets jealous of the attention that Jane gets. Then on the other hand Jane brings out the un lady likeness in Emma. Behind Jane’s back Emma is deceitful. Especially when she is with Mr. Churchill, Emma reveals her beliefs about Jane and Mr. Dixon, which makes her looks very unlady like.  With Mr. Churchill Emma is deceived by his charming looks and his gracious manners, she takes a very fund liking to him and even sees herself having an affair with him, but he is only interested in Jane.

            This volume is all about the social structure, every issue the Emma runs into in this volume is created by her inability to respect the rules of the social structure and her enforcing the rules to much. First is Emma’s jealousy of Jane, she really doesn’t have any competition with Jane, but her insecurity leads to her down grading herself and making a fool out herself in front of Mr. Churchill. The other social contradiction is Mr. Churchill’s affection for Jane. In chapter seven he says that he is going to London “for a haircut” but he is really going to buy Jane a new Piano. He tells Emma this lie so that no one will suspect that he is “crushing” on someone that is in a lower class then him. Mrs. Elton is the major social rule breaker, she thinks a little too highly of herself. Mrs. Elton chooses to make Jane her new project, she wants to bring Jane out into society and it is also a way to get under Emma’s skin. Mrs. Elton comes in a stirs up the mix in Highbury, she is very disrespectful toward her companions in the higher classes. It is a huge deal when she calls Mr. Knightly, Knightly, she is too familiar with her upperclassmen.

            My favorite part of the whole volume was the rumor that was started about Mr. Knightly having affections for Jane. I love that Emma has little burst of jealousy about this rumor. She clearly has some sort feelings toward Mr. Knightly, or else she wouldn’t have defended the truth so thoroughly. Emma is also looking at the social suicide that Mr. Knightly would be committing if he did make a proposal to Jane. Emma is all for protecting the social structure, ironically she doesn’t really follow her own rules, she is the one that is choosing to against the social norm to marry.

Emma Blog #2

For the past week we have been analyzing Jane Austen’s Emma, and the regency era. Personally Jane Austen is my favorite author and I absolutely love the time period that she is trying to present through her writings. I love reading about the elegant parties and the romantic life that the people lived (of course only the people of wealth lived this way). There are many aspects about Emma’s life that intrigues me. She is very different from many of the women at this time; one of the debates that we had in class during our seminar was about whether or not Emma was an activist ahead of her time or if she chooses to act the way she does just for personal gain. Emma is also very open about her wealth, meaning that she isn’t afraid to flaunt it and she doesn’t have any fear of losing it. She differs in what she wants out of life as well, most ladies in this time were looking for a husband so they could fulfill their societal needs and hopefully makes some money for their families when they married, but Emma she doesn’t want anything to do with finding a partner for herself. She doesn’t really have any goals for herself as well, she only plays matchmaker because she is either bored, or she doesn’t have any inclination of what she wants to do with her life.

One take on Emma is that she is an activist way ahead of her time, the way she acts makes her seems like an independent woman who is interested in herself in the present rather than the uncertainty of what her future brings. Emma seems a lot like a feminist, she is all about herself being free willing and self empowering, but in order to do this she makes other people, especially her lady friends, feel powerless and encourages them to take the easy way out by marrying and taking the social expectations. Emma obviously doesn’t want to settle with married life, she wants to amused with her childish games and hopes of becoming a widower. Emma I think just wants to stay a child forever and doesn’t want to live in a world where she will have to give up her freedom, her voice, her immaturity, and her innocence. This is a power struggle between Emma and the social expectations on that time, because she wants to be one thing, but her society wants her to fulfill the gender roles of what is expected of her. Emma though is very different in respects to Harriet and the other women who she is involved with, because she has money, not her family has money, and she is going to be guaranteed $30000 dollars when her father dies. So Emma is trying to decide whether she feels obliged to meet the social expectations because her friends tell her she should or should she flaunt her right to be free and not conform to the social standard.