Red Red Room

Hello, fearless scholars:

As you've already seen, pages 13-17 describe Jane's imprisonment in the Red Room. Reread those pages and then answer the following question(s).

Please refer to the blog rubric posted on Edline. Make sure to interact with your previous classmates' postings. Agree, disagree, or build on their points.

Why has Bronte elected to imprison Jane in a location that is infrequently visited and that is mostly furnished in red? How do these aspects contribute to Jane's devastating reaction? 

PASSIVE VOICE (first blog)

Hello ladies and gents!

One of the biggest problem I've observed in your writing is passive voice. Some are more heinous offenders than others, but either way, I want to deepen your awareness of it. This way, you will recognize it when you see it and therefore avoid it.

I promise that your college professors will appreciate that you know the difference...my first lit/comp professor MASSACRED me on my first paper for my use of passive voice and my overuse of the verb "to be."

Passive voice is not inherently bad; there are times when you SHOULD use it (creative writing is a nice place for it). However, in analytical writing, active voice is always the best choice.

So, here's your second weekend assignment (other than reading Young Goodman Brown"):

Watch the video here: http://www.flocabulary.com/active-passive-voice/

We're going to circumvent the system: it will ask you to log in...

username: erouleau@saintrays.org
password: englishrocks

If it doesn't come up, just type "passive voice" into the search engine. The full title is "Active and Passive Voice" by the Grammar Detective.

In the comments, either find a place where you've used passive voice and then correct it, or write two sentences--one in passive voice, and then that sentence rewritten to be in active voice.

Any issues, just jot them in the comments. I get email notifications every time one of you posts.

Just post before we meet again! See y'all Monday!

Monday Morning Quarterbacks

Hi, 2012-2013 APE! 

First of all, let me say it formally here: I am so very proud of you for taking and completing the course. I'm excited that you've taken the exam and have some time to take a deep breath. More importantly, realize that the pressure is off. We still have a few more assignments to round out the year, but I'd like our concluding activities to be reflective and pleasant. 

On that note, consider this your swan song--here, in your comment (worth 15 points, but completion credit only--no rubric!) tell the 2013-2014 APE group what you wish you had known/done/realized/understood. 

If you wished you had taken your work more seriously, say that. If you wish you hadn't freaked out so much, say that. If you'd like next year's bunch to known that they WILL evolve as readers and thinkers, tell them that. Think about when you were in the trenches--what did you wish someone had told you? 

There's nothing like a Monday morning quarterback, and nothing like a May 10th APE student. 

Comment below, lovlies. 

American Ambition

Hello, ambitious scholars! We must stop meeting like this.

So, the Death of a Salesman that you read was not the first draft Arthur Miller wrote (duh). In one of the original drafts, Willy says to Biff:

To enjoy yourself is not ambition. A tramp has that. Ambition is things. A man must want thingsl You're lost. You are a lost boy. And I know why now. Because you hate me you turned your back on all your promise. For spite, for spite of me, because I wanted you magnificent.

Clearly, you see a variation of that in the big ol' fight in the kitchen at the end of Act II. Now, it's not clear why Miller changed the script as he did (and elminated that particular tidbit), but Ms. Rouleau thinks it's probably because he didn't want the issue of materialism to be so heavy handed. Part of Miller's genius (and part of why DOAS is so enduring) is that the issue (problem) of American materialism isn't so in-your-face...it's lurking, quietly, in the corner.

So, here's the question: where is materialism apparent in the version of the play that YOU read? Is the materialism in the final play as effective as those abandoned lines? More effective? Less effective?

There are several key instances where you can point out "things," physical, material, tangible "things" that address that issue of materialism, but certainly in a quieter and less obtrusive way.

Sound off in the comments, chickees. And I want textual evidence. Feel free to use the page numbers in the textbook.

Hamlet, meet Harold. Harold, meet Hamlet.

Hello, dahhhlings.

So, Harold Bloom is THE expert on Shakespeare. If Harold Bloom says something, people listen. And now you'll know to pay attention to him, too. He's taught at Yale, Harvard, and NYU.  Not too shabby of a resume, huh? I'd say that he's probably the most celebrated literary critic in the United States. Okay, fine, Frank Kermode said that, but, you know, whatever.

Tomorrow in class, we shall handle a few discussion topics that you received TODAY, said by Bloom. However, in the blog, TONIGHT, I'd like you to handle this idea that he presented about Hamlet:

           “Part of the definitive Hamlet’s mystery is why the audience and readership, rather like the common people of Denmark in the play, should love him.  Until Act V, Hamlet loves the dead father (or rather, his image) but does not persuade us that he loves (or ever loved) anyone else.  The prince has no remorse for his manslaughter of Polonius, or for his vicious badgering of Ophelia into madness and suicide, or for his gratuitous dispatch of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their undeserved deaths.  We do not believe Hamlet when he blusters to Laertes that he loved Ophelia, since the charismatic nature seems to exclude remorse, except for what has not yet been done.  The skull of poor Yorick evokes not grief, but disgust, and the son’s farewell to his dead mother is the heartless ‘Wretched Queen, adieu.’  There is the outsize tribute to the faithful and loving Horatio, but it is subverted when Hamlet angrily restrains his grieving follower from suicide, not out of affection but so as to assign him the task of telling the prince’s story, lest Hamlet bear forever a wounded name.  There is indeed a considerable ‘case against Hamlet,’ urged most recently by Alistair Fowler, but even if Hamlet is a hero-villain, he remains the Western hero of consciousness” (409).

Do you agree with Harold Bloom? Make sure to look at those scenes that Bloom references, and to

reference them in your discussion. Remember the existing blog rules as well--interact with at least one of

your classmates' thoughts. And a simple "I agree with Sparkles" is NOT sufficient. Really evaluate what

Sparkles, or Mits, or Pink Chucks, or Banana, or Deanielle said about it.

Do a good job here--you're playing in Bloom's park.

As long as they're posted before our class tomorrow (BEFORE LUNCH, AHEM!) you're golden.

Thanks, kiddos!

And the arts integration continues...

Why, hel-LO.

Fancy meeting you fine folks here.

For this blog, take a look at the following cover art for Jane Eyre.










Your assignment is to explain (with textual evidence, mais oui) which cover strikes you as being most appropriate and most fitting, based on the parts of Jane Eyre that you have read. Also, specifically reference details on the book covers. Finally, ake sure to reference a classmate if you are not the first!

Peace, love, and Victorian-Era reform politics,

Ms. Rouleau

Oh, PS: This is due by Saturday morning at 10AM. Therefore, if you are prone to still be recumbent at that hour, I'd recommend getting this done in advance. #earlybirdgetstheworm