Wednesday, February 7, 2007
My goal (Self-Assessment)
My goal is to learn a wide range of colloquialisms and idioms, and I want as well to fix my pronounciation but more specificly my intonation. I would like to sound a bit more like a native speaker, even if sounding completly like one is nearly impossible. Learning at least 50 of those idioms would be great. It is both achieveable and realistic if it is due for the end of the sessions. However, I will need to invest a lot of my time to succeed this goal.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
"Tell-Tale Heart" exercices (February 7th, 2007)
Homework on the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (up to p.26)
Warm-up discussion topics
1- What are some stories, novels, or fils you have read or seen that use Gothic and Romantic elements like the supernatural?
Only movies come into my mind for now, and those are Silent Hill, Vidocq and Pan's Labyrinth.
2- Did you find these literary works or film scary? Why or why not?
Silent Hill wasn't scary because of the production, but as for the other movies, I am not scared easily.
3- What makes scary stories or films so popular?
People like the feeling of thrill and they usually love to fear what is going to happen next. Also, horror movies generally have original and superb pictures.
4- Have you ever read any works by Edgar Allan Poe? If so, which ones? Did you enjoy them?
No
Reader's response
1- What were your first impressions of the story?
I thought that the story was extremely well paced and written. Rarely I have found such rythm in a story made to be scary. I wasn't scared, but it is by far the best short novel I have read with "Le Horla" by Maupassant. It also reminds me of a Simpsons episode in which Lisa makes a maquette of the final scene of the novel.
2- What did you like best about this story?
I liked best the continuous feeling of suspense and obsession coming out from the text.
3- Was there anything you didn't like about this story? If so, what?
Basically, I liked everything.
4- What kinds of feelings or emotions did this story evoke in you?
As I have said before, the feeling of suspense, the need to know what is going to happen next, close to anxiety, was the highest one.
Close reading
1- Who is telling the story? What are his or her most prominent personality traits?
The story is told by the murderer, who seems to be ill of some unknown disease. He feels obsessed for his senses are rising. He can't stand that gleam of the old man's eye as well as the heart, as if he was disturbed to the core for he can't stand the feeling of being "seen through" by the eye. He will commit murder, but won't feel any guilt as long as he is in peace, away from the horrible eye and heart beat.
2- What is he narrator trying to prove to the reader throughout the story?
He wants to prove that he acted legetimately and that he wasn't mad. Either he is indeed mad or that the eye and heart were of the devil's, we do not know. The only thing sure is that he feels completely right about his doings.
3- What is the relationship between the narrator and the old man?
a) relatives
4- Wha does the narrator want to do? Why?
He wants to kill the old man because he can't stand the look of his hideous eye. He feels that he need to kill him to stop the "torture" of looking into the eye.
5- How does the narrator react as he commits the crime?
He feels as if he had everything perfectly planned and as if everything was completly legetimate. Nothing would happen as long as he was cautious, which he thought he was. With the old man dead, nothing could hurt him anymore as the eye did.
6- Why do the policemen come to his house?
When the old man fell of the bed, he shrieked. The neighbour called the police because he feared something bad had happened.
7- Describe the narrator's initial reaction to the policemen's investigation.
He felt completly safe and was not to harmed in any way. Everything was going as planned, and no one would ever find the body, even if they searched well.
8- Does his reaction to the policemen change? If so, how?
Of course it changes: he heard, in his mind or because of some sorcery, as it seems left to the reader, growing louder and lounder, the beating of the old man's heart. He could no longer keep silence as madness closed tight on him.
9- What is his emotional state at the end of the story?
He becomes mad and admit his crime to the policemen. He does so with the hope that this sound which makes him mad will stop. He prefers prison or death than this horrible beating. He can no longer bear to hear it.
10- How does he try to cover up the crime?
He washes everything out, after being extremely cautious, and he hides the disembowled body under the wood planks of the floor.
11- Which of the following adjectives could be used to describe the mood and atmosphere of this story?
a)nervous
12- Explain the significance of the title of the story.
It is the heart that makes the narrator tell his tale to the policemen. The heart forces him to admit is crime so that the tale he is telling us won't be secret.
Writer's craft
-First person narration and point of view-
1- What point of view is used to tell the story?
The point of view is the one of the murderer, with a complete absense of external or god-like point of view.
2- Does the narrator seem close to or distant from the reader? Justify your answer with proof from the story.
He seems close, because he adresses the reader as "you" : "but why will you say that I am mad". It is as if he directly talked to the reader.
3- How does the narrator engage (involve) the reader right at the very beginning of the story?
The way I said it in question number two.
4- Look carefully at the first sentence. Which points in time (past, present, and/or future) are mentionned?
"had been" past - "and am" present - "will you say" future
5- (Circle one choice in each parentheses.) The narrator is telling the reader a story in the present that took place in the past and is concerned about the reader's future.
-Choice of words-
A) Use of repetition
1- Find other exemples of repetition in Poe's use of adjectives, advers and concrete images.
- "but he had found all in vain. All in vain"
- "So I opened it - you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily"
- "It grw louder, I say, louder every moment! - do you mark me well?"
B) Use of imagery
1.1- Find and list at least three other expressions that indicate quiet sounds.
"low, dull, quick sound" - "gasped" - "a muffled sound"
1.2- Find and list at least three other expressions that indicate loud sounds.
"talked more quickly - more vehemently" - "argued about triffles" - "I swore!"
2- How does the transition between quiet sound to loud sound echo the narrator's sense of guilt?
As the heart beat rises, he fells more and more guilt, and when it climaxes, he finally gives himself in to the policemen. The sounds were also low when he felt confident during his murder.
3- How does this transition from quiet to loud add to the atmosphere of the story?
The suspense and the thrill of the story is nearly all paced on the evolution of the noise, as well as the repetition of words and expressions, nearly all linked with noise. There wouldn't be any nervous atmosphere without this transition.
-Use of literary devices-
A) Metaphor, Simile and Personification
1a- The beating of the old man's heart at the beginning of the story.
"I heard all things in the heaven and in earth. I heard all things in hell."(M)
1b- The beating of the old man's heart towards the end of the story before the sound becomes loud.
"I fancied a ringing in my ears" (M)
1c- The movement of the protagonist's hand as he opens the door the eighth night.
"A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine" (S)
1d - "... ray fell upon the vulture eye." (M)
1e- as black as pitch (S)
1f- stone dead (M)
2- Find the personification in the paragraph beginning "Presently i head," used to describe death. Explain the meaning of the personification.
"Because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his blach shadow before him and enveloped the victim."
B) Contrast of Opposites
1a- deadfully nervous - how calmly
1b- heard all things in heaven... - heard many things in hell
1c- sharpened my senses - not dulled
1d- The disease - how healthily
2- In paragraph 11 (line 68), the dreadful silence of the house is contrasted with "so strange a noise"
3- Describe the contrast, at the end of the story, between the perceptions and feelings of the police officers and those of the narrator.
The narrator is making noise, he swears, he brakes things. As for the policemen, they talk gentily, they smile, they act without any agression. The narrator perceives fear, and treachery as madness overcomes him. The policemen aren't noticing any of it while madness seems to fall on him alone.
C) Irony
1- Why is the end of the story ironic?
It is ironic because all along he felt that everything was under his control, that never the body would be found or that never again he would be troubled. However, all these three elements come against him. He loses control of himself while the heart beat gets faster and faster, until he falls into madness and surrenders himself to the policemen. The irony is there again for he was trying at the beginning to prove his sanity, but the end can let the reader feels his madness if he doesn't perceive it as a supernatural side of the story.
Warm-up discussion topics
1- What are some stories, novels, or fils you have read or seen that use Gothic and Romantic elements like the supernatural?
Only movies come into my mind for now, and those are Silent Hill, Vidocq and Pan's Labyrinth.
2- Did you find these literary works or film scary? Why or why not?
Silent Hill wasn't scary because of the production, but as for the other movies, I am not scared easily.
3- What makes scary stories or films so popular?
People like the feeling of thrill and they usually love to fear what is going to happen next. Also, horror movies generally have original and superb pictures.
4- Have you ever read any works by Edgar Allan Poe? If so, which ones? Did you enjoy them?
No
Reader's response
1- What were your first impressions of the story?
I thought that the story was extremely well paced and written. Rarely I have found such rythm in a story made to be scary. I wasn't scared, but it is by far the best short novel I have read with "Le Horla" by Maupassant. It also reminds me of a Simpsons episode in which Lisa makes a maquette of the final scene of the novel.
2- What did you like best about this story?
I liked best the continuous feeling of suspense and obsession coming out from the text.
3- Was there anything you didn't like about this story? If so, what?
Basically, I liked everything.
4- What kinds of feelings or emotions did this story evoke in you?
As I have said before, the feeling of suspense, the need to know what is going to happen next, close to anxiety, was the highest one.
Close reading
1- Who is telling the story? What are his or her most prominent personality traits?
The story is told by the murderer, who seems to be ill of some unknown disease. He feels obsessed for his senses are rising. He can't stand that gleam of the old man's eye as well as the heart, as if he was disturbed to the core for he can't stand the feeling of being "seen through" by the eye. He will commit murder, but won't feel any guilt as long as he is in peace, away from the horrible eye and heart beat.
2- What is he narrator trying to prove to the reader throughout the story?
He wants to prove that he acted legetimately and that he wasn't mad. Either he is indeed mad or that the eye and heart were of the devil's, we do not know. The only thing sure is that he feels completely right about his doings.
3- What is the relationship between the narrator and the old man?
a) relatives
4- Wha does the narrator want to do? Why?
He wants to kill the old man because he can't stand the look of his hideous eye. He feels that he need to kill him to stop the "torture" of looking into the eye.
5- How does the narrator react as he commits the crime?
He feels as if he had everything perfectly planned and as if everything was completly legetimate. Nothing would happen as long as he was cautious, which he thought he was. With the old man dead, nothing could hurt him anymore as the eye did.
6- Why do the policemen come to his house?
When the old man fell of the bed, he shrieked. The neighbour called the police because he feared something bad had happened.
7- Describe the narrator's initial reaction to the policemen's investigation.
He felt completly safe and was not to harmed in any way. Everything was going as planned, and no one would ever find the body, even if they searched well.
8- Does his reaction to the policemen change? If so, how?
Of course it changes: he heard, in his mind or because of some sorcery, as it seems left to the reader, growing louder and lounder, the beating of the old man's heart. He could no longer keep silence as madness closed tight on him.
9- What is his emotional state at the end of the story?
He becomes mad and admit his crime to the policemen. He does so with the hope that this sound which makes him mad will stop. He prefers prison or death than this horrible beating. He can no longer bear to hear it.
10- How does he try to cover up the crime?
He washes everything out, after being extremely cautious, and he hides the disembowled body under the wood planks of the floor.
11- Which of the following adjectives could be used to describe the mood and atmosphere of this story?
a)nervous
12- Explain the significance of the title of the story.
It is the heart that makes the narrator tell his tale to the policemen. The heart forces him to admit is crime so that the tale he is telling us won't be secret.
Writer's craft
-First person narration and point of view-
1- What point of view is used to tell the story?
The point of view is the one of the murderer, with a complete absense of external or god-like point of view.
2- Does the narrator seem close to or distant from the reader? Justify your answer with proof from the story.
He seems close, because he adresses the reader as "you" : "but why will you say that I am mad". It is as if he directly talked to the reader.
3- How does the narrator engage (involve) the reader right at the very beginning of the story?
The way I said it in question number two.
4- Look carefully at the first sentence. Which points in time (past, present, and/or future) are mentionned?
"had been" past - "and am" present - "will you say" future
5- (Circle one choice in each parentheses.) The narrator is telling the reader a story in the present that took place in the past and is concerned about the reader's future.
-Choice of words-
A) Use of repetition
1- Find other exemples of repetition in Poe's use of adjectives, advers and concrete images.
- "but he had found all in vain. All in vain"
- "So I opened it - you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily"
- "It grw louder, I say, louder every moment! - do you mark me well?"
B) Use of imagery
1.1- Find and list at least three other expressions that indicate quiet sounds.
"low, dull, quick sound" - "gasped" - "a muffled sound"
1.2- Find and list at least three other expressions that indicate loud sounds.
"talked more quickly - more vehemently" - "argued about triffles" - "I swore!"
2- How does the transition between quiet sound to loud sound echo the narrator's sense of guilt?
As the heart beat rises, he fells more and more guilt, and when it climaxes, he finally gives himself in to the policemen. The sounds were also low when he felt confident during his murder.
3- How does this transition from quiet to loud add to the atmosphere of the story?
The suspense and the thrill of the story is nearly all paced on the evolution of the noise, as well as the repetition of words and expressions, nearly all linked with noise. There wouldn't be any nervous atmosphere without this transition.
-Use of literary devices-
A) Metaphor, Simile and Personification
1a- The beating of the old man's heart at the beginning of the story.
"I heard all things in the heaven and in earth. I heard all things in hell."(M)
1b- The beating of the old man's heart towards the end of the story before the sound becomes loud.
"I fancied a ringing in my ears" (M)
1c- The movement of the protagonist's hand as he opens the door the eighth night.
"A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine" (S)
1d - "... ray fell upon the vulture eye." (M)
1e- as black as pitch (S)
1f- stone dead (M)
2- Find the personification in the paragraph beginning "Presently i head," used to describe death. Explain the meaning of the personification.
"Because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his blach shadow before him and enveloped the victim."
B) Contrast of Opposites
1a- deadfully nervous - how calmly
1b- heard all things in heaven... - heard many things in hell
1c- sharpened my senses - not dulled
1d- The disease - how healthily
2- In paragraph 11 (line 68), the dreadful silence of the house is contrasted with "so strange a noise"
3- Describe the contrast, at the end of the story, between the perceptions and feelings of the police officers and those of the narrator.
The narrator is making noise, he swears, he brakes things. As for the policemen, they talk gentily, they smile, they act without any agression. The narrator perceives fear, and treachery as madness overcomes him. The policemen aren't noticing any of it while madness seems to fall on him alone.
C) Irony
1- Why is the end of the story ironic?
It is ironic because all along he felt that everything was under his control, that never the body would be found or that never again he would be troubled. However, all these three elements come against him. He loses control of himself while the heart beat gets faster and faster, until he falls into madness and surrenders himself to the policemen. The irony is there again for he was trying at the beginning to prove his sanity, but the end can let the reader feels his madness if he doesn't perceive it as a supernatural side of the story.
Book Report (February 7th, 2007)
Book report on my favorite read English novel : The Lord of the Rings
Published between 1954 and 1956, the three tomes of "The Lord of the Rings" written by J. R. R. Tolkien sets the reader in a fantastic world unpreviously thought. This book is indeed a sequel of "The Hobbit", a tale about Bilbo Baggings and the founding of the ring, but it is of much greater substance and beauty. The three volumes were given the titles of "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King".
The first book slowly brings forth throughout many perils and doings a young Hobbit from the Shire named Frodo Baggins who, due to the burden of fate, shapes the future of Middle Earth. Later on the following books, while he suffers the sorcery of the "One ring", the mightiest craft of the Dark Lord Sauron, his quest to destroy it in the depths of Mount Doom brings him to face all the wonders and horrors of his world. While the quest gets further on, the scars left by the ring on Frodo's mind rise as well.
The second tome shows the expansion of the two evils, Saruman of Orthanc and Sauron of Barad-dûr. Finally, the last book is about the war that shall fix the end of the Third Era, for good or ill, as man reunite again under the banner of king aragorn.
This epic story of fate, friendship, life and death will make the reader discover the unique land of Middle Earth filled with strange creatures like the Ents, twisted ones like Gollum, mysterious evils like the Nazgûl, puzzled wizard like Gandalf the Grey and even such magnificient people as the elves. "The Lord of the Ring" is a must-read to anyway who likes fantastic or epic stories, and highly recommanded to everyone else.
Published between 1954 and 1956, the three tomes of "The Lord of the Rings" written by J. R. R. Tolkien sets the reader in a fantastic world unpreviously thought. This book is indeed a sequel of "The Hobbit", a tale about Bilbo Baggings and the founding of the ring, but it is of much greater substance and beauty. The three volumes were given the titles of "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King".
The first book slowly brings forth throughout many perils and doings a young Hobbit from the Shire named Frodo Baggins who, due to the burden of fate, shapes the future of Middle Earth. Later on the following books, while he suffers the sorcery of the "One ring", the mightiest craft of the Dark Lord Sauron, his quest to destroy it in the depths of Mount Doom brings him to face all the wonders and horrors of his world. While the quest gets further on, the scars left by the ring on Frodo's mind rise as well.
The second tome shows the expansion of the two evils, Saruman of Orthanc and Sauron of Barad-dûr. Finally, the last book is about the war that shall fix the end of the Third Era, for good or ill, as man reunite again under the banner of king aragorn.
This epic story of fate, friendship, life and death will make the reader discover the unique land of Middle Earth filled with strange creatures like the Ents, twisted ones like Gollum, mysterious evils like the Nazgûl, puzzled wizard like Gandalf the Grey and even such magnificient people as the elves. "The Lord of the Ring" is a must-read to anyway who likes fantastic or epic stories, and highly recommanded to everyone else.
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