Refined Big Question

How does an adolexcent create a sense of identity through which others come to know him and he comes to know himself?

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Self search

I searched A.J. Franklin on a couple different sites and didn't really get anything that I thought was that good except for their is a guy who is a good singer.  So instead I searched my real name which is Alex Franklin and found that their is a popular basketball player named Alex Franklin and he took up pretty much all of the search sites I went to. There wasn't much else except for stuff about this basketball player.

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Thinking Outside the Box

Plato and Sartre both created a story that are very similar to one another.  Both express the idea of self entrapment due to lack of knowledge or not realizing what reality truly is.  They convey this message through their stories which can be seen as extended metaphors.  Plato uses the idea of the cave and the men in shackles to show that they believe what they see is reality but in fact all they are seeing is a representation of what is real.  In Sartre's "No Exit" he describes the idea of a living hell through the experiences of the three people being put in a room together who all in a sense hate each other.  I think that an important point to take away from both stories is that in order to fix this problem of the unknown everyone needs to be willing to share and teach the knowledge that they have.  I think a great example is our own class.  We have created a huge network of students who are sharing their knowledge with each other and it helps those who can't quite see reality get a little closer to the truth.  An example of this would come from Plato's story in the cave.  One of the prisoners is set free and leaves the cave and sees reality.  He then goes back to the cave and tells the others who haven't seen reality what is is about and what it looks like.  At first they don't believe him because they believe that they are in reality because it's all that they have seen.  But soon enough they come to realize that he is right and that there is so much more to what you can learn and come to know than what you all ready have.

A.j. Franklin
Period 2

AP Lit Term: Analysis

Analysis: A method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny.
I like to think of analysis as breaking something down into its original components so that you can see the basics. One example that came to me as I was thinking about analysis was when we talked in class about how it is important to be able to analyze information that is given to you on the web. You can't just believe that everything you read is from a credible source so it is important to know how to spot those sights that are credible, and those that are not.

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

The Big Question

What defines a person? Is it the way they dress or who they hang out with at school? Is it defined by the way they talk to others through media such as facebook or anywhere online? Is it the way they act around their parents, or their friends?

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Hamlet Essay #2

In many stories you here about the epic hero saving the day over and over again but eventually they are faced with the challenge of their own self destruction.  Along with the hero comes his flaw or downfall which he himself can’t seem to realize he has. What makes Hamlet so different from a character like Beowulf is that he is so concerned with himself and the choices he is making that he is his biggest self critique.  The way that he presents his thoughts to us in passages such as his soliloquy of To Be or not to be, shows us that he is looking for mistakes he has made and is looking for a way to fix them and fix future ones.

            Throughout the story Hamlet is constantly questioning his own decisions and thinking.  He plays through the events that have unfolded before him and asks him if he is following the right path.  He might not have chosen the right one since his choices eventually lead to his death but the way he presents his thoughts fives us a good idea of what he intends to do.  In stories such as Beowulf and Julius Caesar the hero of the story has no idea what is happening because of their own inner flaws.   They never show us what they are thinking about, only the actions that are currently taking place.  Hamlet uses a unique style of language in that he is constantly thinking about his own thinking.

            Another aspect of Hamlet’s use of language is that he never holds anything back from the reader.  You constantly know what he intends to do with his next move and how he is going to execute it.  He provides a lot of dramatic irony because only himself and the reader know what is going on but the other characters have no idea.  His language even differentiates him from other characters within the play.  Other characters don’t provide you with what they know like Hamlet is able to and it makes him a very unique character among many.

            Hamlet’s character utilizes his own self reflection to overcome his flaws and in the end he may have been killed but he accomplished his overall goal.  His use of language provides the reader with the experience of his own thoughts about himself and not others.  This is what makes Hamlet so different from other epic heroes.

A.J. Franklin
Period2

THe Major Concept

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One of the major concepts that I have taken away from this class is that technology is a resource that is readily available to us and it is important that we understand it and use it to our advantage.  Media is takeing over and is the future for our generation.  The more we know and understand about technology, the better off we will be.

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Literary Analysis #2

1.  Kafka on the Shore is a novel that takes you through the barriers of reality and into the world of magic realism.  In the story there are two main characters who's paths will inevitably meet.  Kafka Tamura is a fifteen year old boy from Tokyo who decided to run away from home because of his relationship with his father who was sometimes abusive.  Nakata is an elderly man who has a strange role in the story.  He is able to talk to cats and they can talk back to him as well.  As there lives begin to mesh in the story they find themselves on the search for the gateway to the spiritual realm.
2.  I think that a central theme or medium of the story would have to be that sometimes things are much different than what they first seem to be.  Throughout the story events unfold that you might think are non relevant but then as you look back and think about what really happen, you understand the true meaning. 
3.  the tone of the novel is very mysterious and exciting.  Because the story is written with magic realism you never know what could happen on the next page.  With people talking to cats and others trying to kill them and use them in order to make a flute the story can get confusing at some points.
4.  The main literary elements that I could see in this story are foreshadowing, allusion, and magic realism.  Magic realism played a huge role in the story.  It developed the characters along with the entire storyline.

Tools That Change the Way we Think

With all of the new advancements in media, technology, and the internet I have discovered that it is a lot more tempting to take the easy way out or the lazy rout when it comes to getting answers. Rather than trying to think my way through a problem or trying to truely research something down to the finer points, I choose to type the first three letters of a word that is meaningful to my search and then let the media, technology, and internet do the rest. It is way faster and much more simple to accomplish a search that way. The truth is that I had no idea that doing things that way was only giveing me a small percent of the whole. Now that I know how the concept of a filter bubble works I feel that it is important to inform my self of all the information that is truely their.

A.J. Franklin
Period 2

Literature Analysis: The Things They Carried

1. The Things They Carried is a story written by Tim O' Brien.  The main plot of the story is the journy he takes when he is drafted into service for the vietnam war.  Each chapter describes a different part of his journy, and he shares the hardships that he is foced to face.  Through his own journy he also tells the story of the men he was with while in the war. 

2. I think that one of the major themes in this book is to be courageouse.  Not in the sense of charging the battle field with blazzing guns but in the sense of forgiveing yourself for the mistakes you have made and survive what you must in the best way possible.

3.  The authors tone is very relaxed and easy going.  It is like he is telling the story to a friend whom he trusts and respects and knows is willing to listen.  His diction is not very complicated and his style is easy to read.  although he writes the story in this manner, his message is very clear and important.  The stories he shares about the battle field and the horrible things he had to see and experience gives the book a feeling of true reality.  There is no BS comeing from the stories he tells and you can tell as you read about what he has gone through.

4.  Some literary techniques that helped me to further understand the promt was his diction, syntax, , and characterization.  His use of less comples diction helped me to understand what was going on.  he simply explained everything that he needed to in a simple and organized manner.  His syntax was also very clear and easy to understand.  Everything lead into another part of the journy or the nest story he was going to tell about his time in the war.  Lastely his characterization was absolutely perfect.  For each character he provided backgrounds of their lives outside of the military as well as their rolles inside the military.  He talked about what they liked to do, what they prefered to eat, who the girl was they were talking to back at home, and so on and so forth.  Over all a very good book to read.