Prose of Horror

Read the following passage from Frankenstein

by Mary Shelley and, in a well-organized essay explain how the author uses literary devices to create a ubiquitous

atmosphere of consternation in the passage.


It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. 


How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how to delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I have endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful ! Great God ! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriance only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips. 


Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.At length lassitude succeeded to the tumult I had before endured, and I threw myself on the bed in my clothes, endeavoring to seek a few moments of forgetfulness. But it was in vain; I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch – the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed;and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs. I took refuse in the courtyard belonging belonging to the house which I inhabited, where I remained during the rest of the night, walking up and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life.

More Productive/Effective

The process of completing the senior project was meaningless to the point that the amount of work wasn't necessary. Little amount of work and requirements could also be extensive and productive as well. For an example, as some of the classmates have mentioned, the 50 bib cards was unnecessary. Aside from that, to produce a more effective way of presenting the career or research topic of choice, the students should be focusing on their career beforehand before it's time to work on the senior project. You should probably talk about the senior project early to the students of next year and give them a glimpse of your requirements and expectations. Another way that I think could work is to have students present their "career" during the school year before the senior project so that students should start focusing on a career, if not already done. Basically, have them present what the general class are doing, presenting their career in class and then have them focus on a topic about their career. For the workload, the HSAY should be started at the beginning of the school year and have the students keep a binder specifically for it. Thus, students will then keep track of the assignments and can check off assignments already completed and ready for the senior project.

Letter to the Unexpected

Dear Molly,

          You have been a housekeeper for Jaggers and your identity is mysterious for people like me. I would like to know you more and your relation with a young girl name Estella. How did you end up being Jaggers' housekeeper and have you ever realized that your daughter is still alive? I can assume that you were poor and might have accidentally had Estella with Magwitch, but not trying to find your daughter is quite cruel. Estella, having been raised by a heartbroken woman, was a bad decision because she was taught to be cold towards men. However, in your case, I would think that was your idea; to have your own daughter being raised to hate men and break their hearts. Another thing that fascinated me was the coincidental connection between Miss Havisham and Mr. Jaggers. Either Mr. Jaggers works for Miss Havisham or the convict, but his connection to both of them is quite mysterious. However, you work for Mr. Jaggers as a housekeeper and Mr. Jaggers has a connection with Magwitch, your husband. Did you ever realize that? In addition, Miss Havisham, who is the wife of Compeyson, your husband’s partner and greatest enemy, raises your daughter, Estella. How do you feel about this connection? It feels to me that this link was planned out, not fated to happen. The title of the novel, "Great Expectations," could play a huge role in this part. From my assumptions, your "great expectations" was to have Estella be raised by Miss Havisham to obtain her wealth and to find her husband and avenge your husband. I would like to see your response and hopefully my letter would reach your heart and make you find your daughter.

Sincerely,

Tien Bui

CHALLENGES!

Well, at this point, our class has gotten better in essays and more so in benchmarks. However, we still have some weaknesses in certain areas that we need to improve during this 5 week-period before the exam. Briefly, I would say that my weakness right now is understanding poetry and what ideas are being posed in it. I certainly have trouble in poems that use lots of complicated diction and especially, the form of writing. With this, I tend to misinterpret the overall message of the poem and write whatever I feel from the poem. I don't know if I can actually work with interpreting poems in a correct manner, hopefully there is a method for this. Also, I would say that vocabulary is another problem that we are currently facing (the benchmark today). Some words I did not know and some words I'm a bit skeptical about. Other than Fatima's suggestion of improving our memorization of terms by having multiple choice questions for the  sponge, we should do the regular routine of bringing in a poem, but this time, we should bring in a poem that covers a term and allow our classmates to identify it within the poem. Its different from Fatima's idea because we can focus on more than one term rather than having a passage that probably only covers one or two terms. We can't have a passage that contains a bunch of terms in it, that's just a massacre.

Beloved vs Film Adaptation

           The film adaptation of the novel, “Beloved,” struck me with a surprise like no other film adaptation for any novel I’ve seen. The 1998 film of “Beloved” was on point on every single scene and it captured every main point of the novel. The novel had explicit dialogues of every main character for readers to know the characters themselves and also their feelings inside. However, the film covered every main character and their personality by the actions that they’ve done in certain scenes. This film adaptation of Beloved is flawless to the point that there’s yet to have no difference from the novel.  The film was carefully created exactly like the content of the novel and it successfully avoided the confusion of the flashback and present unlike the novel.

          What was more appealing to the eyes were the structure of the film and how the director thoroughly and creatively constructed the background of major scenes. For example, the appearance of Beloved near the stream was fantastic, such that she wore all black, her creepy voice, and all the insects that crawled around her. This film adaptation had exactly every scene in the novel that can be summarized by the film with vivid imagery and as well as background effects.  The scene when Paul D enters 124 and a red light flashes upon his face was hilarious, in a way that made him frightened by the house that was haunted by Sethe’s baby daughter. This scene foreshadowed how Sethe had killed her daughter when Paul D was just about to see Sethe in the shed holding her dead baby.

          However, there was a lack of information about the character’s past for both Paul D and Sethe. In the film, Paul D did not mention about his past when he was imprisoned in Alfred, Georgia that led him lock his tobacco tin box. No one knew what Paul D had gone through those past eighteen years being separated from Sethe or anyone from Sweet Home.  There should’ve been a scene in which Paul D would remember or have a flashback of his life in those years when he had trouble sleeping, the scene before Beloved seduced Paul D in the cold house. Another awkward thing in the film was how Sethe did not have a reaction to Beloved’s pregnancy, but only Denver knew because of the noise Paul D was making in the cold house with Beloved. What made all the characters become abnormal was how Beloved had the power to possess Paul D, Sethe, and partially Denver. Denver was the only one who had the power to be immune to Beloved because what Denver desired was to have someone beside so that she can have fun with or take care of. Furthermore, Denver was conscious about the things that were happening around her, that’s why she was the one who seek help from other people at the end of the novel and film.

         All and all, the film and the novel were great and I was really amazed of how the film had every important scene in the novel and was well-displayed.  As an overall, the actors and actresses were pretty awesome, especially Beloved and how she displayed a newborn baby in a woman’s body. The ending of the novel when Beloved vanished into the air when Sethe left her was a perfect scene, a better one than the novel. The reason is because the novel left readers blank without telling readers who or what was Beloved. The film made a clear point that Beloved was the baby ghost in a woman’s body and was vanished forever because Sethe could finally leave her forever and that Sethe had faced her fear of the schoolteacher made her attack the schoolteacher, not being afraid of the schoolteacher like before when she killed her baby daughter. I really liked the novel and the film as a whole because it gave great points of slavery and what drives a mother into killing her own child in order to defend them from slavery.

The Debate 2

          I've got to say that this debate was more organized than the previous debate we've had in class so far. Maybe because of the sufficient time, less people in a group, or the topic at hand was more appealing than the one before. Anyways, the debate today was fantastic. Each team did well in developing their arguments and rebuttals and coming up with ideas around the definition of prejudice. What was funny about our debate today was the shift from color/race into politics. However, I would say Team 2 (Prejudice is a problem in our society today) won the debate because we came up with more examples of how prejudice is effecting our society. Team 1 had mentioned statistics. 

         Statistics can't determine if a set of data is true or false because that deals with probability. It’s like saying statistics shows 78% of blacks are in jail would mean that all blacks have negative characteristics and we should all not trust them. Another thing was about Angelina Jolie in "Salt." She was chosen because the director might want to show how a feminine is punished and mistreated rather than Tom Cruise, a man that can take bruises. All and all, I believe Team 2 won the debate some points that Team 1 had tried to argue could also be defined as being prejudice and may cause debates like the one we had today in class. Prejudice is still a problem in our society because without it, people will view things the same as everyone else. Prejudice caused our world to suffer because if a majority of a population believes in one negative perspective then power is derived from those people that will cause havoc and destruction in the world. That is how we have war conflicts going on right now.

The Urge To Live

          When I saw this article, the novel, "Beloved," lit my light-bulb by an idea that was in the story. This article is basically about improving our health and making our lifestyle better even at an old age by providing some type of drugs. However, from "Beloved," what is the point of trying to stay alive? Is it for freedom or is it to escape a nightmare? From Paul D and Sethe, they've escaped from hell and had many memories that they wish they wouldn't remember. So why not just suicide in prison or die on the farm. Paul D gets tortured in prison and had to face all those pain and Sethe had been raped multiple times and then barely survive when she escaped from slavery while pregnant. I just want to bring up an idea about the will of survival. What is the goal that we accomplish by staying alive "longer" than we should rather than dying of old age or suicide from grief/suffering? Isn't it great to have Alzheimer’s for Paul D and Sethe?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/magazine/06dialogue-t.html?pagewanted=3

The Mind Projects "Rememory"

         The influence of the past of everyone shapes our personality and even teaches us a lesson of things that we should do or should not do again. However, the perception of the past brings forth two opposing ideas of a past. It could be the past of a bad experience/terrifying/horrifying moment that we wish we would not remember it or a past in which we experience total bliss for the first time.
          I truly believe that a past will never die and always be a part of us however we try to diminish it from our existence. Even though most people face depression in their lives, the past could not be erased. What most people could control is to try and lie to themselves. In order to do this, we control our mind to create an illusion that drifts our attention to something else. From Sethe's philosophy in "Beloved," the past will never die even when we try to forget it. According to Sethe, "rememory" occurs when we see an image in reality that strikes our brain to remember a similar image we've seen in the past. Most of the time, memorizing things from the past actually benefits us because it enhances our understanding of the world we are in and we can keep track of changes. If we don't have a past, how would we know the people we see every day or know our own family?
          From the novels of "Beloved" and "A Piano Lesson," the past holds an important value for both women as they suffer from it. The ability to remember the past in their case allows them to be who they are in the present: how they act now, decide now, and think now. Their way of living changes every time a significant experience in the past is brought upon them and their brain reacts to this. However, it’s important to have a history of ourselves but even for good/bad experiences in our past, we must acknowledge them and appreciate the lessons that shape our personality. We must also let go of those pasts and seek for better ones, better for the ones that was already good.
          For an example, not a dramatic one, but I once had two goldfish that made me happy by having it and seeing it "alive" every day I come in my room. However, when it died, I felt bad for it but I still continue to buy and own a "better" one. I understand that the past was pretty depressing but I learn from that mistake and find a best alternative choice in buying a fish. Thus, a betta fish was born.