Close Reading #1

The article I read was a commentary in the New York Times. The article, by Diane Ackerman, is called “Underwater, Feeling Our Ocean Origins.”  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/underwater-feeling-our-ocean-origins/

            This commentary is written about an experience of scuba diving and the revelation it caused in the thought process of the author. The vivid imagery, powerful and concrete words, and reoccurring figurative language make the article interesting to read and really help the author convey her experience.

            One of the first aspects I noticed about this article was how descriptive it was. The phrases that she used to describe the feeling of being underwater and to describe the underwater beauty really painted a picture in my mind and made me feel as if I was experiencing what she had experienced. Sentences such as “After a 10-minute swim, we suddenly came to a maze of underwater canyons thick with enormous sponges and coral fans, around which schools of circus-colored fish zigzagged. Plump purple sea pens with feathery quills stood in sand inkwells” describes the atmosphere of underwater in the ocean and helps the reader to visualize the vibrant colors of the fish and the sponges. The sentence “My guide’s eyes questioned me through the fishbowl of his face mask” especially stuck out to me because not only does she describe the face mask, she uses ‘fishbowl,’ a term relating to fish and water, which is the general context of this story. The amount of detail that goes into the descriptions is intentional because it’s the author’s way of allowing the reader to be submerged in the ocean alongside her as she goes through the scuba-diving experience.

            Ackerman’s diction, which goes hand in hand with her imagery, is also one of the strengths of the article. She uses concrete words such as “spellbound” to indicate that not only is she happy, but that she’s overwhelmed with happiness and frozen for the moment because she’s trying to take it all in. The connotation of that one word brings the idea of ‘breathtaking’ and it seems that Ackerman uses this word because of its connotation and association with that idea. Another word that caught my attention is “cell-tickling” because this word is used to describe a feeling and is great example of a concrete word. It is a very specific word that cannot really be used in many circumstances, so the fact that it was used here, helps emphasize that the feeling wasn’t one that people normally feel. “Hooked” is also used in the article to describe the feeling of being drawn to something, however instead of saying that she uses the word “hooked” because she is sticking with the theme of fish and water, and hook is a common term used water activities such as fishing. In reading the article, I can see that many of the words were chosen carefully to create the right effect in the reader.

            Figurative language is found throughout the article most commonly in the form of a simile or a metaphor. In using these comparisons, the Ackerman is trying to help the reader understand and experience the same thing that she saw and felt because she knows that many of the readers, such as myself, haven’t been scuba diving. Therefore, she is using the figurative language to connect with the audience and show them what they couldn’t see before. When she says the simile, “On a coral butte just in front of us, a dark sea whip jutted out between the canyon walls, its Medusa-like hair straggling in the current. I laughed. That sea whip’s hair is just like my own” it does multiple things. First, it illustrates to the reader what a sea whip looks like by comparing it to the common Greek reference of Medusa’s hair. She uses a common Greek reference like that because she knows that many of the readers will know what she is talking about. Secondly, she compares the sea whip’s hair to her own, which helps the audience visualize what she looks like. In doing so, she not only compares her hair to the sea whip, but she also compares her hair to Medusa’s creating an image of a wild, tangled mess. A metaphor she uses is “The simple, stupefying truth that, as a woman, I am a minute ocean, in the dark tropic of whose womb eggs lay coded as roe, floating in the sea that wet-nursed us all…” In saying this, the entire article comes together in that she’s comparing herself, and every other woman, to an ocean. This quote shows that the entire article was to describe this metaphor, that as the fish and creatures lived and thrived in the ocean, the eggs in the female live and thrive in the womb. This metaphor also connects and makes sense of the title “Underwater, Feeling Our Ocean Origins.” Our ocean origin being that every person started out living and thriving in the womb of their mother, as the fish live and thrive in the ocean.

            Analyzing the imagery, diction, and figurative language in the article creates much more meaning because it helps the reader to understand the intent of the author and the reason behind the word choice, descriptions, and comparisons. Initially looking at the article, it seemed like a quick commentary about an experience of scuba-diving, just an easy story to read.  However, after analyzing the various literary factors, I realized the entire point of the story was to make the unlikely connection between the ocean and a woman. Ackerman did a wonderful job displaying these literary elements.

            

Open Prompt 1

1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work.

            Shakespeare’s characters Romeo and Juliet in his play Romeo and Juliet both face the internal war of deciding between passion for each other or responsibility to their family.  Romeo’s family, the Montagues, and Juliet’s family, the Capulets, have been in a long standing feud that affects the entire city of Verona because of the constant duels and deaths between the families. It is in this atmosphere that Romeo and Juliet’s secret forbidden love begins to blossom and the war between passion and responsibility begins. The war has many battles in that there are many situations where both Romeo and Juliet have to decide which side to take, passion or family responsibility?

            Once Romeo and Juliet realize they are in love with someone from the house of their family’s enemy, they both are incredibly shocked and upset. It causes both of the characters distress to have gone against their family and they are both conflicted with what to do. This is the first time they face the decision of choosing passion over their responsibility to family. At this point, passion wins out, and Romeo and Juliet secretly get married, complicating the plot even more due to the secrecy.

Soon, Tybalt and Romeo meet and Tybalt wants to fight causing Romeo to again have to make a decision between passion or responsibility. Tybalt is now Romeo’s family member, although it isn’t known to anyone yet. According to his family’s expectations, he needs to fight Tybalt because he is part of the enemy family. But, if he did fight Tybalt, it would hurt his Juliet’s feelings because that is her family. Again, passion wins out and Romeo tries to avoid a fight with his new relative Tybalt.  

Julie hears later that Romeo has killed one of her family members and has to decide between her love for Romeo or her family. If she picks love, she would forgive Romeo, but if she picks her responsibility to her family, she would leave him for committing this act against her family. Passion wins out yet again as Juliet makes the difficult decision and picks Romeo and therefore decides to forgive him.

As the play goes on, the two characters continue to face many situations where they have to decide whether to choose their love for one another or their family. Each time, passion wins out, which seems to show that in conflicts where passion is one option, it always wins. Having the characters go through this type of internal conflict time and time again builds up suspense in the audience as they are watching the play, making them wonder if the characters will continue to choose passion over responsibility, or if they finally had enough. Also, it constantly reminds the audience of the difficult decision and the sacrifices Romeo and Juliet had to face in order to make their marriage and love work and it really emphasizes their love for each other. In conclusion, the famous tragic lovers Romeo and Juliet go through the classic war between passion and responsibility found in many classical pieces of literature. 

Response to Course Materials 9/9/12

During the first week of school, we worked on memorizing the literary terms for our quiz on Friday. At first, I thought I could analyze literature well, because I thought I knew everything I had to look for, like diction, sentence structure, imagery; basically all the terms we had learned up until now. I hadn’t realized there were still so many terms and techniques that writers used that we hadn’t been exposed to yet. After looking at all the literary terms we needed to learn for the test, I realized there was a lot more to sentence structure than I had originally thought. Words such as anadiplosis, anaphora, antistrophe, and chiasmus had never come across in my reading or vocabulary before. While I had seen sentence structure like that before, I had never known that it was a literary technique. But after understanding what these words meant, I realized that many of the books and movies that I have seen and read employ these strategies to draw attention to those sentences.

For example, in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, the famous quote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” uses the antistrophe technique because of the repetition of “of times” at the end and the anaphora technique because of the repetition of “it was” at the beginning of the two phrases. Before understanding these terms, I would have never caught the significance of the sentence structure of this sentence. Another example is the song “Life is Wonderful” by Jason Mraz, his lyrics “it takes an egg to make a hen/ it takes a hen to make an egg” is a great example of anaphora because both phrases start with “it takes.” It is also an example of chiasmus because the phrases have reversed the order of the words. Before being able to understand and apply these words, sentence structure like this, would have gone right by me. But now, especially after we work with these words and techniques more, I can distinguish the different literary devices. This will help me not only understand an author’s writing and style better, but it will help me when I am analyzing literature in the AP Exam.