Sunday, May 1, 2011

End of Semester. )=

If there was anyway I could go back and ask to go over more books, poems, and poetry on British Literature, and ask the Gods to freeze time forever in British Literature.

I would give up anything.

(( sorry, I'm watching Game of Thrones, read the book, by the way )).

This was just such a fantasitc semester, and I always looked forward to this class everyday, even though we didn't have it tuesday and thursday rather that I wanted it to be.

Dear CVCC administration,

Could you be a dear and change the math courses to go from everyday to three times a week at least, and change my British Literature class to monday-friday. Thank you so very much. xD

I'll miss this class...

And I'll definitely get reading on some other British books.

But class remember one question we answered in an essay at the beginning of the semester?

-What does British Literature mean to you?-

How To Train Your Dragon.

I wanted to say how absolutely amazing this book was, and how I really want to read the series now. It's just such an amazing and capturing movie.

It shows what the power of love is.

And how an average person could make such a difference in the world.

It reminds me of what being a kid with huge dreams was like.

Wanting to be a somebody, how to be famous and loved by everyone.

To be special.

Love.

It's such a powerful word.

And that's why I love "How To Train Your Dragon".

-Shan.(:

Heart of Darkness... it's British?!?!

So, I was looking around for books in my nook (( yeahh, I know I'm such a book nerd )).

And I was looking at some of the reccommendations for me and one of them was...

Heart of Darkness.

It sounded pretty cool, and I thought... why not??

So, I looked online for it, to find some sort of synopsis or comments on it, and I found a sparknotes article on it.

What I had found out was that it's considered British Literature, written in late 1800s, and all about heroism.

I thought it would be pretty cool to share, and I'll put the spark notes link so you could read the synopsis...

Absolutely one of the books I plan to read over the summer.

Heart of Darkness link.

Alice's Craziness In Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a novella about a girl's adventures in this so called Wonderland, where she meets a vas amount of characters who are crazy, silly, and plain weird and looking for someone to defeat the "Red Queen". Not only is the novella for kids, but it holds a lot of details and ideals that would excite adults. The novella is full of symbolism, mathematic, and logic for the adults, and imagery and sense of childhood for kids.

The entire novella is full of mathematical references throughout the enitre read. Lewis Carroll was a mathematican at once, so it only makes sense that he had put it there on purpose. His entire reason for this was to attract adults into feeling like a child, but also catching the math and logic in it catches them also. An example of this was in the book, during chapter two it says, "Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). This is an explanation where Alice tries to perform multipilication, four times five is twelve is actually possible in a different base, such as base 18. There is also signs of inverse relationships in logic for example. The novella is just full of logic and math for adults.

This also attracts children as well, with the visual elaborations throughout the book and the adventure Alice goes through. The book is filled with all the dreams of being a kid and actually experiencing life as a child. The book is by far something every child dreams of in their wildest dreams. It catches the child by the eye, by being able to close their eyes and dream up the world Alice is in.

Overall a good novella and an excellent example of the novels that catches both the adult audience and child audience.

Works Cited

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.

Anit-Hero Evidence in Harry Potter Series.

In the Harry Potter series, it is evident that the main character, or hero, is definitely not your average hero at all. He is actually quite opposite compared to most characters read in other books. In this post, I will describe and compare how Harry Potter is to normal literary heroes.

What does it mean to be a true literary hero? The main character is obviously male, just because through time women never really had a place. He has to look masculine, and he is huge. The character must look handsome and be good looking, if not he would not be perfect as people have tried to strive for. He must be pure, and almost definitely have a fatal flaw. A good example that I could think of is Oedipus Rex, where his obsession over his fate becomes his flaw.

Harry obviously is not a true literary hero. Yes, he is a man, but he lacks the ego, the masculinity, and the overall pureness. Though, he does have the courage of a true literary hero and he has his ultimate flaw: he is impulsive. Throughout this entire series, Harry Potter tries to save everyone and rarely thinks through the situation and consequences of his actions. Harry is nerdy and average looking, he wears glasses, and has a lightening scar on his forehead. The damsel in distress is Ginny, a girl in love with Harry, and most importantly he is a teen. This means he absolutely cannot be pure!

During this time in literature history, there are a lot more of anti-hero characters such as Harry Potter. There are females characters who are heroines. More than ever are they different, impure, and absolutely average. It is no longer about being perfect but being true.

Works Cited

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 1 May 2011.