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Socratic Seminar Notes

I took notes but what I took from the discussion was that you can't always do what you love so sometimes you have to love what you do.

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

1. During the beginning of WWI a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of school children. At first the children are over joyed by their separation from civilization and order. They build a small society. As their time on the island rolls on they begin to speculate of a ''monster'' that lurks in the surrounding woods. Their paranoia soon engulfs the clan and the turn on each other. Just as all hell is about to break loose, they are rescued by a passing navy vessel. 

2. The theme of Lord of the Flies tackles the all to present human emotion of fear and paranoia. Both play an extreme roll in someone's ability to survive. In times of extreme isolation any little bump in the night can send a person into a downward spiral. Its about not letting your fear swallow and consume what makes you human to begin with. Your sense of reason, ability to discern reality from the imagination, and problem solving. 

3. William Golding wrote in a dark underlying tone. On the surface it might seem like just another adventure/cast away story. But if you read deeper into it there is a very present sense of darkness. They boys on the island begin to worship a pigs head on a spear. They call it ''lord of the flies'' because of all the flies the severed head attracted. However ''lord of the flies'' translated into latin (Beelzebub) means Satan or Prince of demons. If that right there isn't a red flag, I'm not sure what is. The boys also speak of a monster they believe exists in the surrounding forrest. Their fear of this monster leads them to kill one of their own because they mistook him for it. 

4. There were a lot of metaphors and similes in the story. I already mentioned the pigs head on the spear as a metaphor for the devil. The island itself was a representation of hell. Last but not least, the sailor who rescues them in the final chapter was described dressed in all white and standing on the beach as the morning sun finally brought light to the island. That could be symbolic of a salvation of sorts. With the sailor being God or an angle. The characterization of the characters (that sounds a little redundant) was fairly cryptic at times. One character was described as fat and wore glasses. His real name was never said. The rest of the children called him Piggy. This lends credence the tone being very dark and uncaring at times. 

The Raven Poetry Elements

Dramatic Situation: The speaker is a man in an early 1800's Victorian setting.
Structure: The poem is broken up into 18 stanzas with 6 lines each.  No discernible syllable count.  always ends each stanza with "-more"
Theme: The poem has to do with life and death as does a lot of Poe's work.
Grammar and Meaning: This guy is talking to a raven, symbol for death, in a common dialect of English which makes the poem easily understood.
Important Images:  Images of the Gods, and heaven, as well as the darkness of his house and the raven.  The altar above his door and the bust of the Goddess Athena are also important.
Important single words: Heaven, Gods, Nevermore, Lenore
Tone:  very dark and ominous
Literary devices: metaphor, allusion, symbol, simile
Prosody:  implores an ABABBB rhyme pattern which creates a nice flow while reading the poem.

Micro AP Essay

I expected to be writing an essay using Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities as textual support.  I am decent at writing standardized essays, so that was easy.  It was difficult to think of textual support since the book wasn't in front of me to quote and I could merely summarize what happened.  I didn't learn anything new about the AP questions that you haven't already learned or knew.  I work fine under pressure which has never been an issue and I normally finish the multiple choice or the essays with time to spare.  The actual exam will require time and effort to pass.

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

1.  Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy who tells the story of the weekend he spent in New York before he went to a mental hospital for treatment.  He is sixteen years old and is bored of school and all the people around him.  He gets angry, as teenagers do, and decides to run away.  He goes to Manhattan and checks into his hotel.  Holden can't help but judge everyone around him, because he is a teenager.  He thinks that everyone around him are phonies because everything they do is not altruistic and they are just trying to move up in life instead of doing things that they want to do.  Holden swears a lot, because he is a teenager.  Holden is also very angsty, a very stereotypical teenager characteristic, because Holden is a teenager.  He also likes to talk about himself, because he is a teenager and the world revolves around him.  If anyone ignores him, it makes Holden feel like he is alone in the world and will more than likely think that that person is a phony, but it really isn't their fault because Holden likes talking about ducks in  a pond, which is a very uninteresting topic, so he should stop blaming other people and talk about something interesting if he wants people to listen.  This is when Holden puts on his red hunting cap which is a metaphor throughout the book about how Holden protects himself from the world, because yet again Holden is angsty and a teenager.  He buys a hooker and tries to talk to cab drivers but no one cares.  No one cares because he is a teenager and the world does not revolve around him but Holden never learns this or anything really throughout the novel because he is a teenager.
2.  The theme of this book is that teenagers suck at life.  Teenagers are emotional yet reserved.  They think that sharing their emotions is a sign of weakness and that no one would listen to them anyway so they stay quiet as a way to protect them self from getting hurt.  Holden demonstrates this throughout the entire novel with his angst and the red hunting cap.
3.  The author's tone was aimless.  This was not a traditional story with a beginning middle, climax, and  an end.  Instead it is just a lot of exposition.  The reader learns more about Holden throughout the novel without it really advancing any kind of story.  There is also no moment of resolving the problem because this is a realistic story where problems are just magically solved through deus ex machina, instead life just continues and the problems are always there.  The book also just ends with no real resolution once again because life just continues without any exciting ending.  This is because it was written in the 1950's during the Lost Generation, where people, after World War II, felt lost in their own world and just got drunk a lot (see Ernest Hemingway).  This led to a plethora of classic authors who wrote about a person living life aimlessly moving thorough life without any overarching plot line.
4.  The book uses tone, metaphors, characterization, dialogue, and irony to convey the themes in the book.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.' Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Nameless here for evermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating `'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door - Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; - This it is, and nothing more,' Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, `Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; - Darkness there, and nothing more. Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!' Merely this and nothing more. Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. `Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice; Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore - Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; - 'Tis the wind and nothing more!' Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore. Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door - Perched, and sat, and nothing more. Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, `Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven. Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore - Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door - Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as `Nevermore.' But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered - Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before - On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.' Then the bird said, `Nevermore.' Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, `Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore - Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of "Never-nevermore."' But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore - What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking `Nevermore.' This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er, She shall press, ah, nevermore! Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. `Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' `Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! - Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted - On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore - Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' `Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore - Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' `Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - `Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted - nevermore!