Close Reading 1

"Apple's Feud With Google Is Now Felt on iPhone"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/technology/apples-feud-with-google-is-now-felt-on-the-iphone.html?hp

     Lately, Apple and Google's break up is the most talked about since Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart split.  Because of this, the author of the piece "Apple's Feud With Google Is Now Felt on iPhone", Clair Miller, uses diction, figurative language, and imagery to play up the drama of the two companies' conflict.
     If Miller wrote about two companies having a business dispute, the reader would yawn and move on.  However, when Miller calls this conflict a "brawl" the reader is hooked.  The diction in the article is used to give the reader the impression that the two companies are "warriors" that are going "head-to-head" in a "battle" for the most users.  The connotation of the words makes a business conflict transform into something much larger than it is.  This exaggeration in word choice is exactly what the writer had the intention of doing to grab the reader and keep them involved in the drama of it for the whole piece.
     This drama is also created through the writer's use of figurative language.  For example, Miller writes, "Apple's move strikes at the heart of Google's core business."  This figurative language makes the companies appear human to relate to the reader, and to appeal to the reader's emotions and sympathy.  While most of this piece gives the idea that two warriors at war with each other, another example of figurative language reads, "it's the two big kids kicking sand in the sandbox."  The rest of the article attempts to amplify the feud, but this metaphor in the beginning downplays the conflict to remind readers that the companies are not truly at war and will not have a significant impact on the rest of the world.  Overall, the figurative language maintains the drama of the altercation.
     Lastly, imagery comes about from the use of diction and figurative language.  When reading the article, one begins to imagine two warriors on the battlefield fighting for their lives.  Many of the examples already used above exhibit this such as comparing Apple and Google's fight to a "brawl" where one "strikes at the heart" of the other.  In reality, the two companies are fighting it out in the courtroom but when the right words  are used, the reader sees a new setting.  To keep the reader's interest, Miller provided exciting images using diction and figurative language that again emphasizes the dramatic side of the scenario.

Open Prompt 1

1992. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much "the reader's friend as the protagonist's." However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on a poem or short story.

     When one thinks of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, the first thing that pops into most people's head is the unlikely romance between Elizabeth Bennett, a free-thinking  woman in the middle class, and Mr. Darcy, and extremely wealthy man high in society.  Rightfully so, since that is the main story line of the plot, though there are minor characters in the story who play just as an important of a part.  Specifically, Charlotte Lucas is not only Elizabeth's best friend and confidant, she also plays a role in delivering the message of the story.

     Elizabeth Bennett is a  feminist and romantic minded girl who does not play by the rules of her time, while Charlotte Lucas is much more realistic and obedient of societies rules.  By making Charlotte a foil for Elizabeth, Austen emphasizes Elizabeth's qualities.  These qualities are emphasized because they bring out the message that women should not be prisoners of society.  Charlotte is not just there to return Elizabeth's dialogue, she contrasts her to make Elizabeth stand out as a free-thinking and independent woman.  This function of Charlotte's is very important because Elizabeth's unusual qualities are what drives the main plot and message of the story.

     If the story was an experiment, Charlotte could be called the control group.  Charlotte obeys and even desires to become the average woman of the time.  At a mature age, she is eager to settle down and have a family even if it means she will not find love.  This scenario was common for the time period, and is the example of exactly what Elizabeth is running from.  Charlotte functions as the everyday wife who follows orders and social norms and gives the audience a picture to compare Elizabeth with.  The reader is able to see what Elizabeth is fighting, and why.

   Why does Elizabeth want to fight it at all?  Again, Charlotte holds the answer.  By today's standards, Charlotte (most likely at age 26)  would not be considered old, or too old to be single, however, in Jane Austen's era Charlotte was verging on becoming a spinster if she did not marry soon.  She gives an example of how unforgiving society was towards women.  Even more so because Charlotte was willing to give in to society.  The world was so cruel against an unmarried woman of a certain age that women were willing to give up their lives for men who they did not love.  

     In the end of Pride and Prejudice, love conquers all including society's power over people and relationships.  If the story consisted of only the main characters, however, this message would not have come through as clearly.  The supporting characters and plot lines are there to hold up the main idea of the plot and emphasize important themes.  Even though a character might just be seen as the "best friend", look closer and a new meaning will most likely be presented.  A story cannot have full meaning with only the obvious, the smaller things are what bring the message home.

Response to Course Material 1

        When I first started reading Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I wasn't expecting it to be the most interesting of books.  For obvious reasons it's not the type of book that you can't put down once you start reading it, however, I did learn a great deal from it.  Specifically, picking out symbols and what not out of literature and pop culture was much easier and I realized there are a lot of significant things in books and movies that I had missed before reading Foster's book.  When doing the Foster presentation assignment, I chose to use Titanic for my slide on "If she comes up, it's baptism".  Before, I did not make a connection between Rose wading in the Atlantic and her becoming a new person once she gets back on land until Foster told me so.  I was content with the ending of Titanic before I was aware of this, but recognizing her "baptism" makes it all the more meaningful.  Now, I am trying to be more aware of all the things Foster told his readers to keep an eye out for.  For example, when I sat down to watch "The Proposal", a silly romantic comedy, I realized that this movie also includes a baptism of a character.  Because this movie is meant to be a funny feel-good movie I did not except there to be symbols or the like to be prominent but now that I know what to look for and they seem to be everywhere.

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" Analysis

                David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a comical and entertaining essay about the trials and tribulations of learning French.  His essay is well written and relates to the audience by following the rules set out in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey, although he also breaks them.  Looking at the big picture, Sedaris obeys Harvey’s rules concerning style. When it comes down to the smaller details, however, he lacks some of the skills laid out by Harvey.

                One detail that Sedaris does follow is using the active voice over the passive voice.  Using the active voice means that the subject performs the action (Harvey 12).  Harvey warns not to use the passive voice too often because “the subject doesn’t do anything - it is acted upon…The doer of the action often drops out altogether,” (Harvey 16).  In Sedaris’ essay, the doer definitely does not drop out.  Almost every verb is spoken in an active voice making every character’s actions stand out which keeps the action moving.  In the sentence, “Two Polish Annas raised their hands, and the teacher instructed them to present themselves,” he uses the active voice twice (Sedaris 12).  The first is “two Polish Annas raised”, and the second is “the teacher instructed”.  While Sedaris uses this skill well, he does make mistakes in other areas.

                The error that stands out most in Sedaris’ writing is mistakes in parallelism.  When used correctly, parallelism organizes key words within a sentence to make it easier to read (Harvey 50).  Not to say that the essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is difficult to read, but it could be more clear and concise if parallelism was used more often.  An example of faulty parallelism is in the sentence, “They were limited in terms of vocabulary, and this made them appear less than sophisticated,” (Sedaris 12).  If parallelism is applied, the sentence reads, “They were limited in terms of vocabulary, so they appeared less than sophisticated.”  Not only does this make the sentence more simple, parallelism also “makes writing more comprehensible, graceful, and memorable” (Harvey 50).

                Even without proper parallelism, Sedaris’ piece is memorable because of its simple style.  Harvey’s main pet peeve that he mentions several times in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is writing in the pompous style.  According to him, the pompous style includes “big words, self-important phrasing, a flat tone, long gobs of prepositional phrases, nouns galore, and abuse of the passive voice” (Harvey 1).  The main way to avoid pompous writing is to keep it simple.  Some people may think they have to make every sentence grand and ornate to be a good writer.  Harvey and Sedaris both seem to agree, however, that the opposite does the job.  Sedaris constructs sentences such as, “I’ve moved to Paris with hopes of learning the language,” which uses everyday words and an active voice (Sedaris 11).  This downplayed style relates to the audience because it makes the story feel like a conversation about his trip to Paris.  No one would ever say in a conversation, “I have made the long journey to the bustling city of Paris, France with the desire of mastering the most romantic language in the world that is French.”  That just sounds ridiculous.  Leaving the pompous style behind makes writing more direct, so the audience is able to connect with it.

The connection a reader is able to make with “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is mostly due to Sedaris’ accomplishments on the essay as a whole.  However, with closer examination by Michael Harvey’s standards more errors could surely be found.  Slip-ups show up here and there, which is not something the average reader would pick up on, but if each one was corrected the essay would be improved.  Details aside, David Sedaris is a great writer with the ability to capture the audience with his humor and conversation-like writing.  Examining this piece for its correctness, and its mistakes, shows that no one is done learning and growth is always possible.

Poetry Multiple Choice

• Know more poetry terms
• Be able to pick out themes more easily
• Understand the tone of the poem
• Learn to identify type of poem
• Be able to read by the sentence rather than the line

One thing about poetry I have always had trouble with is simply reading it without getting caught up on reading it line by line, which can completely change and confuse a whole poem.  I get too caught up in the visual and the meter of the poem that it makes it hard for me to read it in sentences.  I have found that this problem is usually what keeps me from improving on a few of my other goals such as finding the theme and the tone.  Once I study the vocabulary a little more, I know the poetry terms and the types of poems will come much more easily, but re-learning how to read a poem is more difficult than it sounds.  My troubles with these five things were reflected in my mistakes on the practice test and I hope to improve on them this year.