Category: Literature

Analyzing the Text

The Jungle is set in a slaughterhouse and cannery, while Fast Food Nation is set in a flavoring lab. Sinclair aimed to expose the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions, while Schlosser wants to educate his readers as to the various ways in which man-made flavorings deceive our taste buds without us even knowing.

His description of the IFF’s work shows that it is indeed possible for them to manufacture the taste and smell of chicken in a flavor lab.

In The Jungle, the passages describing the methods of producing food and the injuries the workers suffered provide vivid examples of what really happened in that factory. In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser’s descriptions of how smoke flavoring is created and what smells were inside Grainger’s glass bottles provide sensory details to help the readers understand what it would be like to visit IFF or a similar lab.

Both selections address food – in particular, what’s in it. Both writers write in a journalistic style, but one difference is that Sinclair’s piece is actually a fictionalized version of what really happened, while Schlosser’s is a completely true account.

Analyzing the Text

The party that “would make war” is the South/Confederacy, while the party that “would accept war” is the North/Union. This sentence sets the tone of the rest of Lincoln’s speech by pointing out that both parties are in some way responsible for this war.

Both sides read the Bible, p>
Ap>
Lincoln highlights similarities in order to make Americans realize the common ground they share. He highlights their differences in order to show the work that must be done if peace is to be finally achieved.

The Emancipation Proclamation, which he signed, officially freed all the slaves in 1863. However, the Civil War unexpectedly continued to rage on, even though the problem that caused it had been solved.

Lincoln is saying that, if it is now time for slavery to end, it must be supposed that God will make both the North and South pay for their role in it through violence and millions of dollars in resources. The violence and wealth echo the violence inflicted on the slaves and the wealth acquired by slaveowners due to the slaves’ work.

Here, Lincoln is telling the country to trust in God. He says that what happens is God’s will and surely there must be a reason for everything.

He uses religious references not only to give a sense of authority to his message, but because his listeners would have been very familiar with the Bible. These references would help them to understand the point he was trying to make.

Here, Lincoln uses repetition and very clearly states what he sees as the country’s goals for the next four years. Through repetition, he drives home the point he is trying to make. The theme, or point he is trying to make, is that everyone must work together if the country is to “bind up its wounds” and achieve lasting peace not only within its own borders but with other countries as well.

Critical Vocabulary

When almost all of the neighbors on the block had small children, many of them continually asked me to babysit. Requests for my services abounded.

At my mother”s college graduation, the ceremon was opened with an invocation.

I showed timidity when I met President Barack Obama beause he is such an influential and intelligent world leader, I was awestruck.

I used subtlety when I asked my dad for a raise because I wanted him to see for himself that it was a good idea.

Analyzing the Text

Dickinson means that the Soul closes the door to anyone she does not chose, “selects her own Society” (1). It changes the tone because it give the Soul selective power/authority.

The Soul is unmoved. The repetition creates rhythm and emphasizes the unfazed nature of the Soul.

Analyzing the Text

These places are a reminder of time passing, a child grows into an adult and heads to death, grain grows and then is picked and dies. These are places where Death is active.

The speaker’s attitude in the first three stanzas is rather light-hearted, a friendly trip with Death, as shown by the use of words like “kindly” (2) and “Civility” (8). This changes in stanza four when the speaker realizes she is seeing her own eventual demise (the death of all things in the end). The transition is evident with the diction and line, “He passed Us” (13) and “chill” (14).

Analyzing the Text

The main criteria for madness and sense is the Majority, which decides what is mad and what is sane, “’Tis the Majority/In this, as All, prevail.” The speaker is also saying that madness is sanity and vice versa.

Paraphrase: If you agree, you are sane, but if you disagree you will be considered mad and dangerous, perhaps locked away. The diction makes the theme of a majority consensus clear here, as all those that would disagree may find themselves, “handled with a Chain” (8).

Analyzing the Text

The narrator means to tell the truth in a circular way, to get at the truth in an indirect way, through the “Circuit” (2).

The narrator compares this with “as Lightning to the Children eased”(5). The comparison works because the narrator wants the Truth to “dazzle gradually” (7), or for the bright light of the truth to take place slowly and softly (to ease into place).

Analyzing the Text

The dashes make the reader pause and reflect on the words preceding the dash. In such they emphasize certain words and help clarify what is important in the poem. For example in “The Soul selects her own Society,” the dashes first help create a reflective and authoritative tone, it is impossible to read this poem quickly. Second, the repeated dashes after “unmoved” in lines 5 and 7, emphasize the steadiness and purpose of the Soul.

Death’s character is ironic because he “kindly stopped”(2) for the speaker even though the speaker is headed towards him. The point of view of the speaker allows the reader to see a kind and civilized Death, which courts his living victims even though they are all headed “toward Eternity” (24). This is ironic because Death does not need to court or stop for anyone.

The speaker in “Because I could not stop for Death” is along for the ride: the repetition of “we passed” demonstrates this. The speaker in this poem is not in charge of her destiny or her company. In comparison, the speaker in “The Soul selects her own Society” is incredibly active. As the title states, she chooses her company and instead of riding in the carriage, “unmoved”(5) she “notes the Chariots” (5) outside.

The majority in “The Soul selects her own Society” refers to the Soul’s royal or selective power in choosing who surrounds her. The majority in “Much Madness is divinest Sense” refers to the external Majority (Society) which determines what is sane and what is dangerous. We can infer from this that the poet thinks somewhat poorly of the Majority, as the Majority is selective, elitist and subjective.

They indicate that the individual is educated and knows legal terminology (as both of these words have legal connotations.) They could also indicate that the individual is a woman, as demur is a word specifically used by courtly women.

The paradox in “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” is that the speaker wants the entire truth to be told, but indirectly. This is a paradox because telling the truth indirectly is not telling all of it. The paradox in “Much Madness is divinest Sense” is that madness and sense(sanity) are not so different, when in fact they mean exact opposites. Both of these truths convey the inherent subjectivity of truth and reality — the subjectivity of life.

The poet uses this term because it refers to the internal character/personality of a person. It goes beyond the physical/material choice of a person and into the spiritual decisions of souls. Both this poem and “Because I could not stop for Death” personify the soul and reflect the activity of internal life.

Metaphors: “the Setting Sun,” “Fields of Gazing Grain,” “Dews drew quivering and chill.” These metaphors express the natural and inevitability of death. She pairs these metaphors with the kindly, courtly Death so as to show that Death is a friend, a way into Immortality.

Analyzing the Text

He moves into the woods because he wants to live deliberately, purposefully, so much so that when he dies, he will have felt that he has lived fully. It relates to his purpose in writing Walden, as he abandons the unnecessary and “spend[s] one day as deliberately as Nature” (94). Walden is how Thoreau will help the reader, and himself, do this.

Metaphor: “In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life,” which means that civilized life is full of unnecessary things and concerns. This nautical metaphor is repeated in the Conclusion, when Thoreau says “I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world” (209-211).

He is exaggerating man’s feeling of consequence, “as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels” (81). The purpose of this is to ridicule the feelings of importance felt by men in relation to their impact on mankind.

Thoreau argues that you are never really alone, “what sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary” (137-8). Solitude is not the distance between people as shown in line 139, but rather oneness with nature. His observations of nature develop these ideas as, “I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself”(114-5). Nature is full of animals, life and sound, as his observations make clear, so solitude is not lonely.

“The pond in Winter” compares the pond and the surrounding winter to “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads” (155). “Spring” compares nature, or the impression that nature gives, to “universal innocence” (195-6). In both of these Thoreau is giving a divine quality to the nature surrounding him, alluding to the bible. However, where “The Pond in Winter” is heavenly and above reproach (godly), “Spring” is animalistic but innocent (human).

Thoreau thinks that living honestly is important, that those who live simply, live best and that appreciating the small things is key. Quotes: “We will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality” (232), “Receive without misgiving” (246), “It is life near the bone where it is the sweetest” (267-8).

Thoreau’s goal was to go outside the normality of civilized life, and so when his life at Walden Pond became “tradition and conformity” (209), he needed to leave. He was able to appreciate the small things, to live his life, however mean (236). The ideas in the Conclusion connect to the introduction because they show how Thoreau “live[d] deliberately,… front[ed] only the essential facts of life” (26-7).

His style is effective because it is descriptive and reflective, allowing the reader to picture Walden pool and therefore reach the same conclusions. Thoreau wanted to show how one could live simply with nature, and his natural focus demonstrates this. His honesty in saying why he left the woods makes him a reliable narrator/trustworthy.

Analyzing the Text

The author uses the word “gambler” to imply that there is an equal chance of winning or losing. He also shows the reader that the main character will bet on anything, just wanting to be ‘open’ to the possibility of maybe winning. In such, we can expect that the main character will ‘gamble’ on her ability to escape, even if it is unlikely that she should escape.

The setting, a boat (15) en route to a new safe place, creates suspense as we catch her in the middle, not quite to safety but on her way. We therefore are still unsure about her success.

History tells us that most house-slaves were women, so this strongly indicates that Freeman is a woman. In addition when she rides behind Titus (59), this is a clue to her gender. Lastly, when she changes her clothes and says she will shave off her hair (67-68), these are all indicators of gender.

It helps keep Freeman’s gender a secret as well as allows the reader to know what Freeman is thinking more intimately. It also blends together the other people present, echoing the confusion of the escape with the confusion of identity.

It leaves the reader with a sense of ambiguity because it is non-specific. Caesar says “white folks” (113) instead of white men. This is more significant when we know Freeman is a woman, and so if she is free, perhaps she can have the same rights as white folks (as stated in the Declaration of Independence), or that it has less to do with gender and more to do with race

There are more risks for Freeman since if her gender is discovered, the British will probably remove her from the army. It also makes her a liar, which complicates her situation as she falsifies her identity.

The narrator means that Freedman has the deed of liberty but is not yet free — she is not free to be herself, not quite yet.

It is ironic that she considers this deed precious because it guarantees the liberties of a man, an Alexander Freeman. It does not guarantee the freedom of Dorothy. And so in fact, it may not be useful as the liberties granted are for a different person.

Critical Vocabulary

It is deep because unfathomed means we don’t know where it ends. If it was shallow, we would know how deep it was easily.

It makes them upset because it tells them of many negative and upsetting events.

He was content because he did not see solitude as a bad thing or his enemy.

It was always there. Being perennial, it was of a long duration.

He would criticize the position. It doesn’t make sense to ascribe morality to nature.

They are more likely to party too hard. They tend to be extravagant and wasteful.

Critical Vocabulary

I possess life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as unalienable rights. These rights are God given, so no person can take them away from me.

My friend forgot my birthday, so she gave me a gift a week later.

I have tried to understand quantum physics, but I am still unable to figure it out.

I am allergic to most animals, so I could help clean litter in the parking lot.

Analyzing the Text

The list characterizes nature as uncaring, unsentimental, ascribed meaning only by man (9). The degree of man’s influence on the portrait of nature grows according to the development of the list. The list structures the argument because it is a point by point path of how her argument will develop in the essay.

Oates uses this narrative to introduce the topic and to take the reader, along with the narrator, “out of time” (26). She therefore opens up the text for an analysis of nature.

She realizes that the earth is “hard, emphatic…a genuine force”(48-9) and that the sky is “blank…empty” (70-71) and infinite (75). Together, these two forces make the narrator feel very small and insignificant.

The idea is that Thoreau attempts to depersonalize himself by depersonalizing Nature. He finds the beauty in the impersonal death/violence of Nature but then is incredibly human himself through the death of his brother. Oates’ tone, which is aggressive and to the point, echoes the highly personal note — proving her argument that men are not impersonal, unlike nature which is “coolly detached” (199-200).

Writers and artists perpetuate “nature-as-experience” rather than “nature-as-itself” by filtering nature “through our optical nerves…our fiercely romantic expectations. Nature that pleases us because it mirrors our souls” (141-3). Poets and writers glamorize, “exaggerate the significance of anything we focus the white heat of our creativity upon” (150-1). This helps them feel more important.

The ants represent words about nature, or the tools for Oates to write her poem about Spring. It bookends the narrative at the beginning by putting the narrator back in time, instead of out of time — and so bringing the reader back to the present reality, after having engaged in abstracted thought brought on by the first narrative.

It is effective as literary criticism because it pulls in examples from other recognized literary authorities to both prove and disprove her argument about nature. She shows, through the use of literary sources, how poets/writers talk about nature in a self-reflecting way. The structure follows the list placed in the beginning (in a type of road-map) and the two narratives open and close the philosophical discussion of the middle with some real experiences in nature.

Analyzing the Media

Patrick Henry delivered his speech entitled, “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death” in 1775 with the purpose of liberating Virginia from British colonial rule. It is considered a foundational US document because the speech encouraged the residents of Virginia to take action against the British government. Henry spoke about how the colonizers were using America only for resources.

Critical Vocabulary

I have wanted autonomy in setting my own bedtime because I believe that I know how much sleep I need.

The Emancipation Proclamation has resonance because it is filled with meaning and still has an impact on all f our lives.

I see leaves falling to the ground as a harbinger of winter.

So that I would not let my team down, I played the entire set of volleyball even though I had broken my wrist during the first play.

I evidently enjoy learning new things and spending time alone based on my love of reading.

When my mother asked if I left the gate open, I pointed out that I had mowed the lawn and walked the dog and was very tired.