acceptance is sweet

Finally got into all four schools I ultimately wanted to get into, and I'm surprised I did it.
College is officially happening.

Super 5

My five potential experts have been chosen carefully. Bailey, my partner in crime for the rest of the year, is one. Dr. Preston, obviously. And can I use inanimate objects? I'm gonna anyways. My three books that Bailey and I are going to analyze thoroughly: Looking for Alaska, The Fault in our Stars, and The Host.

Literature Analysis #2

Brave New World

1. There is so much to the plot of this book, so I can only hope that I do it justice. Huxley sets the book in A.F. (after Ford) where the point of A.F. is that people are created by mass production, are trained to be in castes, trained to know only what they are told, and are matured by the age of four. And sexual activity is encouraged. The story is about Bernard, an alpha who does not fit in physically or mentally to the "brave new world". He rebels, meets "savages" outside of his world, brings them back to live in the world he disgusts so much, and soon one of the savages, John, gets too overwhelmed by the non-feeling, twisted world of not-so-free thinking.

2. The theme of the novel that I caught was freedom of the mind, and the ability to think and feel freely. Everyone takes something different from a book they read, depending on their standpoint and personal experiences. In my mind, while reading, Huxley proves how important our own humanity and feelings are to society, and how nothing would be normal without it. It occurs over and over in the book, so it just makes sense.

3. The tone that Huxley carries throughout the novel changes sometimes, but he is pretty dramatic and wise about most of the situations. “I am I, and I wish I weren't.” “No social stability without individual stability.” “...most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”

4.

• Personification: “I ate civilization. It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then," he added in a lower tone, "I ate my own wickedness.” 
• Allusion: "You got rid of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows or outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them...But you don't do either."
• Parallelism: “I want God, I want poetry, I want danger, I want freedom, I want sin.” 
• Rhythm and rhyme: “Ending is better than mending.”  
• Alliteration: "Mustapha Mond"
• Oxymoron: “Pain was a fascinating horror” 
• Simile: “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” 
• Verse: “The more stitches, the less riches.” 
• Imagery: “A squat gray building of only thirty-four stories.” 
• Amplification: “Words can be like x-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything.”

Characterization

1.Indirect: “All alone, outside the pueblo, on the bare plain of the mesa. The rock was like bleached bones in the moonlight. Down in the valley, the coyotes were howling at the moon. The bruises hurt him, the cuts were still bleeding; but it was not for pain that he sobbed; it was because he was all alone, because he had been driven out, alone, into this skeleton world of rocks and moonlight. At the edge of the precipice he sat down. The moon was behind him; he looked down into the black shadow of the mesa, into the black shadow of death. He had only to take one step, one little jump.. He held out his right hand in the moonlight. From the cut on his wrist the blood was still oozing. Every few seconds a drop fell, dark, almost colourless in the dead light. Drop, drop, drop. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. He had discovered Time and Death and God.”
Direct: "A squat gray building of only thirty-four stories."

Huxley uses the indirect to build up the feeling that you are actually there, while using direct characterization to paint an image for you in your head.

2. Huxley's syntax stays constant, and his diction changes based on the situation at hand. During the beginning of the book, he used bugs at one point to describe the dystopia and the people that were living in it. Different characters called for different words and descriptions. He described Bernard as a too-small-for-his-own-good Alpha who doesn't belong as much as Hemholtz does.

3. The protagonist, Bernard, is definitely a round dynamic character. He changes throughout the book from someone who is closed minded with his thoughts to someone who is capable of speaking his mind and setting forth his feelings about the twisted world they live in.

4. After reading this book, I feel like I understand the constant breakdown of emotions and feelings encompassing John and his constant battle against the confusingly robotic world that Bernard resides in. It made sense to me from the very beginning how frustrating the dystopia was without common ideals and differences of opinion.
"He was obscurely terrified lest she should cease to be something he could feel himself unworthy of." Here, Huxley is describing what John is feeling as Lenina seduces him; he feels so lost in himself and the world he is living in. But somehow, he conjures up the power of resistance.

My Team

My go to people are Taylor, Bailey. Hannah, Ian, and Meghan. We really understand more of any book when we discuss it and connect elements of the story to other stories and real life situations.
While we were talking about chapters 5 through 7 of Brave New World, I was confused by why the Director all of a sudden now decides to exile Bernard when he has been acting strange his whole life. Was it because he told Bernard too much about himself when they last saw each other, or is it because Bernard is a potential threat to their society? And is it even going to change anything that Bernard gets exiled considering there might be more people out in the world just like him? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Launch

Most people who know me would expect me to say that I am passionate about tennis. This is not true. Being passionate about something to me means that it's just so important to you that you can't picture yourself without it. I am actually really passionate about writing. I really like words, and putting my thoughts into something that people can understand and relate to, because everyone is just looking for words that make them feel less alone in the world. That's why I read. I relate to the words, and I feel understood by the author. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing to become what I want to be, but I think I want to be some sort of writer, maybe even a photographer for a magazine. That would make me so happy. It's ridiculous that I want to do these things, because I've been confused for the longest time with what I want to do when I get older. The tools from last semester, such as the essays we wrote, and our vocabulary lists could both be extremely helpful in writing. I write practically every day, I just don't tell anyone. So sh. To "feel the awesomeness", I'll just need to do anything to get an A. A's always make me feel like I did everything correctly. I think just letting people read the things I write down could convince people that I can write and write things that are relatable to others. That's all writing is really about, to me. Writing what could make other people feel understood in their heads, because that's all anyone really wants. Is to be understood. Well, I definitely DON'T want anyone to read anything I write down. But I think that some of the essays I write are decent enough to show to people to get to where I want to be. Not sure what this means, but my friends will probably be the ones I ever let read my words, so they'll be the critics of it all.

That was my previous ideas regarding the questions we answered, but I don't really feel like the idea I have now connects with what I want to do with myself in the near and distant future. But then again, I didn't know how to connect those two in the first place. What Bailey and I decided to do with ourselves is take our favorite, most relatable books we've read and analyze them like we would any AP listed novel. A lot of people might be like "woah that's a lot of work" or "why would you want to read MORE?", yeah, we like to read ok? I think it might be sort of fun anyway. It's like telling people about your passions and beliefs, but not directly, since it's someone else's books, and someone else's words. But it's a start to using my own words and speaking my own beliefs.

Brave New Essay

Doesn't it sound nice to be able to shut off emotions, to feel absolutely nothing? Wouldn't it save you a world of pain and sadness to be endured? Think of all of the benefits of having no feelings towards the people you do, let alone anything. Because everyone knows that the less you care, the happier you will be, right? Wrong. No feelings means no happiness, sadness, fear, joy, excitement- nothing. That is what Huxley tries to capture in Brave New World. He screenshots a world where no one feels anything, bad or good.

Too many people neglect the fact that we need processed and personal thoughts and feelings to function as a stable community. Without these scattered emotions flying everywhere, no one would have motivation, or drive to succeed. No one would have a purpose. Huxley brings to life what we all want, and shows us why we shouldn't. The lack of personalized thoughts in Lenina and Henry's minds exemplify why they are so important in everyday life. Bernard is the only normal person in the novel, which is ironic, considering he technically is not. People have the ability to think freely and outside of the box, but they are so shut inside their society's bubble of emotionless robots that no one realizes that they are being wrongly controlled. 

Brave New World Essay Prompt

I really liked this essay prompt, just because there's so many possibilities and branches to write about. 

How does the substitution of lack of feeling instead of unhappiness affect the morale and ability of the future community to function.