The Importance of Being Earnest/Victorian Research

By researching the Victorian Age, I learned lots of important information that helped my understanding of the novel The Importance Of Being Earnest. One thing I learned was the large difference between the living standards of the lower and upper class. Since people who were rich usually inherited their wealth from the family, or were born in to royalty, they had exorbant amounts of free time. This ties in with the character's constant priority to pursue pleasure over many other things since they have nothing better to do, as demonstrated by Jack and Algernon, in their conversation with Bracknell, in which she describes smoking and how it gives him "somthing to do", like a job. This was unlike the lower class, which usually lived in sub-standard conditions, and usually were looked down on by the lower class as inferior and unworthy, and most could not marry someone of a higher class, since some of them could not produce parents, or wealth. This was satirized during the book, when Lady Bracknell rejects Jacks proposal to her daughter, supposedly wanting the "best" for her.
Another piece of information that I learned about while researching was marriage. It was very different in the Victorian Age then it is today, mostly because it involved the husband inheriting everything his wife owned, and it was his choice to will her any of it or not. As a result, Wilde, in the book ,believes it is not about love, but more like one big joke. This is evidenced by Jack and Gwendolens relationship, when she tells him that his "other" name is that of rich and intelligent men, and that it is the basis for her love for him, furthering the authors point.

Animal Farm Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTAxr0oTr8

Mockingbird Motif

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird has most definitely increase my understanding of the term "motif" and how it is used to create symbolism to relate to characters, events, and themes. The "mockingbird motif", is used to represent innocence in the novel, and there are many reappearences throughout the book to enhance themes and develop characters.
One example of theis motif relating to the theme, or a"mockingbird" in the book is Tom Robinson. He adds a symbol meaning, by exemplifying the theme of racism and prejudice, as he is the target of it throughout the story, during the trial, doing things for Mayella Ewell, all of which finally led up to his death near the end of the book as an innocent person. Hence the title of the novel. Another example is near the end of the book, as Atticus and Mr. Tate are discussing the fate of Boo Radley. Tate believes to put out Radley as a hero would be killing a mockingbird, due to his innocent nature and character throughout the book, but in fact not bringing justice would be bad as well. This ties in with the theme of justice vs. injustice, due to them being faced with the difficult to decison of leaving Boo Radley alone and not serving justice, or revealing him as a hero to the town and putting his quiet, innocent life in danger.

My Best Friend-Jackson

My best friend Jackson is a very smooth, easy going person. He is easily identifiable distinct black/brown curly hair, and eyes, and his AC/DC or Led Zeppelin shirts. Jackson enjoys playing the guitar and listening to music, though his tastes are pretty much limited to the two bands listed above. His tastes in sports leans toward baseball and basketball, and he is probably one of the better pitchers I've seen. Most peoples opinions about him are either love or hate, as he can be annoying sometimes, and rub people the wrong way, but most people would say he is a good friend and a cool person.
Jackson is very outgoing and cool to hang around. He doesn't really care what other people think about what he does, and enjoys being his own person, and is one of the most creative and interesting people I've ever become friends with. Some people may think he is isolated, and that nobody would want to be friends with such a "weird" person, but he actually has a very large circle of nice people that love his unique and awesome, me included.

One of My Earliest Memories

It was a cool trip to Miami, Florida, when i was about 2 or 3 years old. I remember staying at one of my dad's relatives house over in the suburbs, getting up in the morning in with my small blanket, or "bubba" (hehe) and eating some Alphabet cereal. Over at the beach, I hung on to daddy, squirting water at him with the little squirty toy I had. The water was warm, and the sun was blasting out some heavy heat. Meanwhile, my mommy was sitting on the beach, reading one of those big books, as we all had a fun, fun time.
Later during the trip, we went to visit one of my dad's other relatives from Cuba, who had come to the U.S. along with the rest of her family. She had this fridge full of Coke, which I much enjoyed, and me and my brother caught some of those teeny-tiny lizards that were scurrying into the cracks of the concrete. We also visited the chicken coop, and tried to touch some eggs, but those bad,mean hens really pecked at us and made me mad.

P.S Know it's not that early, but it's earliest full memory I can recall.

Catch-22: Tone

I believe the dominant literary element in Catch-22 is tone. Joseph Heller probably used this element heavily to enhance the main point of the story, which is its satirical value. The tone of the dialouge helps you to understand that Heller is making fun of military life, and how it affects the men under the command of their superiors. One example that particularly stood out to me is when one of Yossarians friends is talking to Colonel Cathcart, and the Colonel uses the typical "military" tone of voice and keeps telling him that he doesn't answer his questions, even though they make no sense at all.

Outside Reading Number One

I am somewhat enjoying my reading up to this point. Catch-22 is not the kind of book that would really grab your attention at first, but rather waits for a hook, and then drag you into it's plot, making it so you can't put it down. With that, I think it's going to be pretty good. Imagery seems to be the dominant literary element so far, though I am not sure yet. One example is when he describes one of Yossarians bombing runs, in which the author documents his every action to show that he doesn't care if he hits the target, as long as somebody else does and he does not have to go back. He may be using this to enhance the books satirical tone, as he makes fun of all of the soldiers who are afraid of the jobs they volunteered for. The tone appears to be remaining consistent through each chapter, with Hellers laugh provoking dialouge and imagery at the forefront, engaging you in the book.