Macbeth Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEao6TxBZR8
:D

Ten Literary Devices

Simile
“Anyway, it was December and all, and it was cold as a witch’s teat”
(p.4)

Metaphor
“Life is a game that one plays according to the rules”
(p. 8)

Hyperbole
“All you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in Siberia and she’ll hear you"
(p. 158)

Consonance
“I can read that kind of stuff...all day and all night long. Kid’s notebooks kill me”
(p. 161)

Situational irony
"Almost everytime somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad"
(p. 52)
-Receiving gifts makes most people happy. For Holden, however, he hates how his grandmother gives him gifts because he usually throws them away afterwards. Later in the story, Holden gets Phoebe a broken record as a present. Phoebe nontheless keeps the pieces, but later realizes that Holden had gone shopping before school was over. Thus, she concluded that he had been kicked out of school and starts to discipline her older brother. Holden's intentions of bringing Phoebe a gift turned into his sister threatening to tell their parents about the expulsion.

Symbolism
“My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way”
(p. 212)

Alliteration
"I'm not too tough...if you want to know the truth"
(p. 46)

Allusion
"He's carrying this copy of Oliver Twist and so's she"
(p. 138)

Onomatopoeia
"He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of times during a whole piece"
(p. 138)

Verbal Irony
“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”
(p. 188)
-Holden, according to this description, is an immature man. Fearing corruption in teenagers' lives, he wants to die nobly to catch 'people falling off cliffs'. In effect, he is no longer part of the teenage norm. However, in the process, Holden quits school since he considers most of his friends childish. The sacrifice of not completing school to ideally save people is, according to the quote, the mark of an immature man and thus discouraged. Normally, though, people are considered heroes by fighting for what they believe in. In this case, Holden is criticized for wanting to save others.

Naturally Immoral

There is a saying that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’. An examination of history supports this argument: from Louis XVI’s harsh treatment of critics to his execution, from Hitler’s totalitarian dictatorship to his suicide. Unregulated power leads to greed, egocentrism, and ultimately defeat. Dictators, despite knowing that absolute power is immoral, repeatedly make the same mistakes. This quality of immoral stubbornness is not caused by ignorance, but rather by human nature. Humans are naturally selfish and corrupted; their sense of morality is not inherited, but rather taught.

Since humans are descendants of animals such as monkeys, an analysis of animals reveals why morality is not innate to humans: it is not necessary for the continuation of life so it needs not be inherited. To explain this concept, humans lost their ability to dangle off trees because they didn’t need the function. Likewise, animals lost their morals because they mostly cared about surviving. Some of them can rip other animals’ flesh to pieces just to live another day. In other words, while selfish beasts survive, selfless creatures die. In S.I. Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action, the author notes that the “fittest” are those people who can bring to the struggle superior force, superior cunning, and superior ruthlessness. In other words, the fittest species, humans included, lack morality. This concept is true upon examination: weaker species tend to protect each other while stronger species ruthlessly and immorally hunt for other animals.

According to Darwin’s natural selection, which stresses the elimination of incompetent species, the strongest species, or the least moral ones, survive and the weakest species, or the most moral ones, die. The contrasting outcome of two different species leads to the weakening of the morality gene represented by the innocent creatures and the strengthening of the survival gene represented by the beasts. As animals’ descendants, we thus are blinded by genetic instincts and priorities to survive; we will never possess an innate emphasis on morals.

Expanding on how the animal’s desire to survive justifies the disappearance of morality as a genetic trait, human’s selfish actions such as cheating and stealing support that morality can only be taught. In the ‘Parker-Hulme Murder Case’[1], a girl with the help of her friend used bricks to bash her mother to death, who wanted to separate the two girls because they were too noisy. Scared of isolation, the girls therefore killed the mother to stay together. Had the daughter had an ounce of morality in her, she wouldn’t have exploded so erratically. Evidently, the girl did not inherit morality; she needed to be taught. But taught she wasn’t.

Both examples demonstrate that morality is not congenitally passed down from generation to generation. If it were, animals would not be fighting and all humans would act peacefully. If it were, no laws would ever be needed because everyone would act orderly. If it were, the naturalistic mode of fiction would disappear for the description of evil would be completely irrelevant to society. Realistically, however, morality is not inherited. It is rather taught, for humans and animals alike are naturally selfish and corrupted.

http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Digitised/ParkerHulme/Page26.asp

I Guess the End Does Justify the Means

My ideal life style is to work in a successful and reputable corporation and to attend sport games. Specifically, I dream about working on the East coast and going to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. In elementary I would read on-line biographies about successful business managers in Boston or New York and wonder how to follow their steps. The more I read, the more I realized credentials are important. The more I realized credentials are important, the more I focused only on results—such as getting high marks and winning awards. After all, these biographies never told me how these managers enrolled into top universites. They just told me that they excelled and later became millionaires before turning 30 years old. Unbeknownst to myself, reading the biographies has convinced me that I need to become a successful businessman. As a result, I have developed a fear—the fear of losing and of failing.

This fear of losing and failing started when marks became a part of my life; they play an important part in college admission. If dragged down by low marks, I have no way of getting into my desired university on the East Coast. As a result, I won’t be able to live and enjoy my desired life. To rid myself of the horror, I read more biographies. The more success stories I read, the more I ensure myself that I, too, can be one of them. However, I am wrong.

Although mentally secure, I have adjusted my own actions to only aim at the outcome. I don’t care about how I got an ‘A’; I just care about getting an ‘A’,, as long as I don’t lose. As a keen baseball fan, I have come to realize that winning or losing depends on the number of runs a team scores, but not the number of base hits a team smacks. In using that model, everything I have done is for the result. Bleakly put, it can be considered a means to an end. Doing school work effectively is to get high marks for university application. Playing piano is an extra-curricular activity for university application. Attending university leads a well-paying job. Ultimately, getting a well-paying job is to become rich for the relaxing life style of watching baseball games.

I have imagined such a beautiful life to lead, but I am not certain if I can lead it. I panic; I cringe; I fear. To rid myself of the horror, I rush through all my work and pretend everything is fine. I forget the process, and only care about the result. One example was in English 8. While interpreting quotes from The Diary of Anne Frank, I wanted to prove to the entire class that I was the smartest by writing the fastest. I hastily wrote down a few but meaningless sentences and handed it in, wishing to find out my mark faster by distinctly handing it in first. Everyone got it back at the same time though. The only distinction was my mark—the lowest in the class.

In conclusion, I have developed a fear of losing. I constantly need to hurry, to compete, and to succeed. In the midst of all this, I have allowed my narrow thoughts, purely focused on the results, to spread like a malignant tumour. And like a malignant tumour, I don’t know how to cure it. How I fear this fear...

Holden Holding On

In The Catcher In the Rye by J.D Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is, at first, unsure about his surroundings and his future. This is perhaps the result of curiosity or attempt to gain comfort as a teenager in a materialistic world. For example, he asks many strangers where ducks in Central Park go in the winter when the ice is frozen. Also, he hesitates when thinking about his future after getting expelled from Pencey Prep School. The author, to highlight the character’s uncertainty, uses verbal irony and demonstrates a general indecisiveness of a teenager’s transformation into adulthood through the main character. On the other hand, though, Salinger uses symbolism towards the end of the novel to signal Caulfield’s change in character.

To begin, Salinger provides an example of faulty logic in Caulfield’s conversation with his History teacher Mr. Spencer: "One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies" (p. 13). This excuse, if examined, backfires on Caulfield later on. Although he hates others for being “phonies”, Caulfield himself is a phony as well (p. 13). For example, he tells his friend’s mother that his name is Rudolph Schmidt, when the next sentence reads “Rudolph Schmidt was the name of the janitor of our dorm” (p. 55). The irony lies in that Caulfield is unknowingly criticizing himself, even though he is often very proud of himself. In fact, he arrogantly blames headmasters or students for his expulsion, but never himself. This quote not only shows that Caulfield is a phony, but also highlights a sense of instability and aimless wandering—how his comment earlier in the novel does not match with the later ones. The lack of logic relates to Caulfield’s confusion about his future: he first considers the possibility of going to a ranch in Colorado but then deciding to stay after his sister’s persuasion. The author utilizes Caulfield’s verbal irony to imply that teenagers as a whole are often lost in their entrance into society. Teens don’t know their goals and plans for the future, much like Caulfield not knowing his remark’s ability to backfire on him.

In addition to verbal irony, J.D Salinger further suggests teenagers’ confusion about entering the real world through vague references and the voice of an authoritative figure. On one night, Caulfield visits his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini, for advice on to succeed in school. The teacher warns “[some people] were looking for something they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started” (p. 187). The fact that the words ‘they’ and ‘something’, like characters in “Hills like White Elephants”, are never specified shows Salinger’s desire to comment on teenager as an entirety or leave interpretations up to the readers (p. 187). One possible interpretation of ‘something’ is safety (p. 187). In the 1950’s, the decade when this novel was published, World War II had finished a few years earlier. Parents were searching for jobs after the war so they often ignored their children. Children as a result thought safety couldn’t be provided at home so they joined gangs for a sense of belonging, as evident in “The Destructors”. Unfortunately, activities in gangs affected and destroyed the communities. Vandalizing, stealing, doing drugs are some examples of destructive behaviour. In relation to the 50’s social trend, Mr. Antolini’s warning of a “special kind of fall—a horrible kind” evidently refers to the fall into criminal activities (p. 187). Through the teacher, the author suggests that, if Caulfield does not change, he too will end down that path, having dropped out of school after all.

While often affiliating Caulfield with the ‘teeanger’s group’, Salinger at times using symbolism separates him from that classification. This is best exemplified when Caulfield describes his future goal: “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...I’d just be the catcher in the rye...I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (p. 173). The cliff represents ‘the special kind of fall’ that Mr. Antolini mentions (p. 187). Meanwhile, the rye symbolizes a type of protection. If someone falls over the cliff and left unattended, he/she would break many bones and most likely die. However, landing on a stack of rye, he/she wouldn’t be injured, much less dead. Caulfield would then be a hero and a maturing man by saving these people. In other words, Caulfield is separated from the teenage group because he is certain of his future. The symbolism serves as Caulfield’s transition from a phony boy into an altruistic man and author’s way to indicate Caulfield’s round and dynamic characteristics.

In conclusion, the three quotes above not only show Caulfield as a phony but also as an adult. More specifically, the quotes support Salinger’s message that Caulfield, as a teenager uncertain about his future, develops into an altruistic adult hovering over other teens, protecting them as they fall onto a stack of rye. Thus, he becomes the ‘catcher in the rye’.

T3XT15M = :)

Like technology, our English language is constantly evolving: more texts and e-mails include slangs or abbreviations. From ‘hahaha’ to ‘lol’, from ‘wait a moment’ to ‘brb’, responses in English have gotten shorter and shorter. Some people view this change as a disgrace to the language. I believe, however, abbreviations in the right context serve for faster communication and understanding. After all, language is ‘communication of meaning in any way’ (dictionary.reference.com). This shortened form of ‘communication’ should be treated as a special characteristic of the 21st century, not as a degradation of the language.

Abbreviations are the epitome of our fast-paced era. All aspects of life nowadays are designed to increase productivity. From Little Caesar’s ‘hot-n-ready’ pizza to Apple’s iPhone, products stress speed. Every second counts. In relation to capitalism, consumers aim for these time-reducing tools to spend less time waiting and more time working. Likewise, abbreviations have become a faster mean of communication by diminishing the necessary letters. It’s faster to read 'tmr' than 'tomorrow'.

In addition to faster communication, abbreviations provide an alternative form of expression for some people. Nobody is the same. Not everyone can write in complete sentences or impeccable grammar. Perhaps these people write better with numbers and logos. As a result, communicating in abbreviations is easier for them. To write in abbreviations is a choice. We shouldn’t degrade others based on how they write, nor deem their writing ‘colloquial’. Embrace it like a new fashion. In twenty or thirty year’s time, at least we will be noted for our attempt to simplify our modern-day language.

As our History of English booklet says, language change ‘is inevitable, a sign of healthy growth, not decay’ (p. 92). The transition from our current writing to a simpler one is perhaps a result of technological advances. As computers become faster, so does our writing. Humans are constantly on-the-go. Fading and redundant, conventional writing is now being replaced by faster and more effective abbreviations. Consider such a change an evolution, or natural selection, of our modern-day needs. If not, at least don't deem abbreviations 'colloquial'. Regardless of the method, formal and informal languages are just two distinct ways to get the same message across. After all, cavemen developed languages simply to communicate with each other, not to determine which way is better.

Caulfield and his Rebellion

Written by J.D Salinger, The Catcher in The Rye (Blog doesn't allow me to underline) is told through the perspective of Holden Caulfield, a private school student from Pencey Prep. Recounting numerous flashbacks throughout the book, this main character gives me the impression that he is both rebellious and impatient. At the same time, he is actually very selfless and witty deep within.

From the novel's very beginning, Caulfield is noted as a sincere but rebellious student. For example, after receiving an expulsion letter from his headmaster, Caulfield visits his ill history teacher, Mr. Spencer, to say one last farewell in a weather as “cold as a witch’s teat” (p. 4). Despite his hands frozen, nose red, and ear hurting, Caulfield is determined to reach Mr. Spencer’s house. After surviving and reaching Mr. Spencer's house, Caulfield talks to his teacher about future plans and life lessons. Although the student has good intentions, he randomly complains about the smell of medicine in his teacher’s room after their conversation: “I just couldn’t hang around there any longer... [with] that grippy smell of Vicks Nose Drops all over the place” (p. 15). I would imagine that if Caulfield could withstand the harsh weather, he could have also tolerated the smell. Not only does this quote show impatience, it also demonstrates Caulfield's lack of respect for adults: he can't pay attention to Mr. Spencer's lecture. Perhaps Caulfield never focused on their chat! Maybe he was thinking about how he could escape from the nose drop smell as soon as possible.

In addition to impatience, Caulfield also displays a sign of mental rebellion. When he leaves the school after being expelled, he rides a train back to town; he meets one of his classmates’ moms along the way. The mother asks for Caulfield’s name to tell her son about their encounter afterwards. Caulfield replies “‘Rudolph Schmidt’... [He] didn’t feel like giving her [his] whole life history. Rudolph Schmidt was the name of the janitor of [his] dorm” (p. 55). While Caulfield may not want to ‘give her [his] whole history’, he also has another reason why he lied (p. 55). He was expelled. As a teenager, Caulfield has great pride in himself. If the mother told her son that she met Holden Caulfield, her son would laugh and explain to her that Caulfield has been kicked out. The mother would then spread this message to the entire private school mothers and Caulfield would therefore be very embarrassed.

With such rebellion and pride in him, Caulfield is a very relatable character, especially to teenagers. If someone tells him to study, he will intentionally not study to anger that person. For example, when his roommate tells him not to smoke in the room, Caulfield purposefully “ignored him. [He] really did. [He] went right on smoking like a madman” (p. 42). This quote shows how Caulfield continuously goes against tradition and other people’s will. He believes that adults are all “phonies” and that adults constantly patronize teenagers (p. 142).

This is especially true when Caulfield tries to order alcohol: waiters and bartenders refuse to serve him Scotch because he’s a minor. As a result, he stands up when he orders Scotch so adults can see how tall he is and “not think [he] was a goddam minor” (p. 142). Caulfield is always challenging tradition: why must students study, why do people like sophisticated plays...He doesn’t want to follow ‘the trend’ of going to university, get a job, and start a family. As stated above, he thinks adults, having been brainwashed in society, are “phonies” (p. 142). Caulfield simply wants to stay young and innocent. He admits his innocence by saying “my sex life is lousy” (p. 147). While many of his classmates have had multiple relationships and affairs, Caulfield has remained pure. Ironic as it may sound, Caulfield is rebelling against the norm by staying innocent. Nowadays, teenagers rebel by breaking the law. Some people drink. Some do drugs. Some shoplift. Whichever their method, teenagers are rejecting society’s expectations, much like Caulfield. Therefore, the main character in the novel connects well with teenagers: both sides want to rebel.

My prediction of this novel is that Caulfield, after getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, goes home to his parents. He then has a profound conversation with them. Disappointed, Caulfield’s parents send him off to another private school. On the way there, Caulfield realizes his stubbornness, accepts his responsibility and role as a student, studies hard, and enters the mainstream of society.