Literature Analysis - Siddhartha

1. What drew me to this book initially was my interest in spiritual affairs as well as the importance that I place on the concept of self-discovery in my own moral philosophy. This book contains beautifully written and detailed accounts of a young man's struggle to achieve Nirvana (the highest form of enlightenment.) 

2. What kept me reading past the first 10 pages was my deep affection for the instantaneous introduction of inward moral questioning that the author causes the reader to contemplate. The novel left me curious and knowledge hungry, making me want to continue reading so that I might receive an answer to the questions.

3. My reading habits could best be described using the words "all in one sitting." If I pick up a novel, especially one I enjoy, I will almost always attempt to finish it all in one sitting. or in one day at least.

4. The plot of Siddhartha can best be described as man vs. himself. As Siddhartha journeys, he attempts to achieve enlightenment through experiencing different aspects of the world and life. But as he progresses, he realizes that time is passing him quickly and that he may never achieve Nirvana. He loses himself to worldly values, until his days of searching for enlightenment become nothing but a shadow of the past. Upon realizing his moral error, he loses hope and attempts to end his life, but it is in these potentially final moments of his life that he is filled with clarity, and the hope of achieving Nirvana is revived within him once more.

5. The theme of Siddhartha as I took it was, "In the end, only you are capable of leading yourself down the right path, and in the moments when all seems lost, you will find all the things that are still left, and those will become the most important aspects in helping you continue your journey."

6. The tone of the story  is one that can be described as pessimistically curious. "If you only remembered the other thing as well, you've heard from me, is that I have grown tired and distrustful of teachings and learning, and my faith in words, which are to us by teachers, is small."

"But let's do it, my dear, I am willing to listen to these teachings - though in my heart I believe that we've already tasted the best fruit of these teachings."

"....These are your teachings of overcoming the world, of salvation. But with this small gap, with this small breach, the entire eternal and uniform law of the world is breaking apart again and becomes void."

7. Some literary elements that I noticed were the overall purpose of the story serving a somewhat allegorical agenda. There were many religious allusions that gave the story enough religious undertones to be considered allegorical, such as numerous references to Hindu gods and the idea of Nirvana. The mood and tone went hand in hand, although the authors attitude the characters is mainly unbiased and left most of the feeling to be created by the mood. Since the story is told from a third person limited perspective, the only insight we gain on characters is from Siddhartha's mood towards them. There are multiple instances when short-term foreshadowing is utilized, particularly when Siddhartha is experiencing his moral decline and each bad thing led to another with heavier consequences. Towards the end of the novel, there are moments of vivid imagery, which really catches the reader's attention and gives the novel's final moments heightened meaning. Symbolism is consistent throughout the story, with one of my favorite examples being the symbolism of the river and how it consisted of a million voices that were indistinguishable yet all unique. The theme is incorporated multiple times in the dialogue of Siddhartha, who touches upon concepts I mentioned earlier in the "theme" section.

8. The author utilizes direct characterization when introducing characters such as Siddhartha and Kamala. In the beginning of the novel, the author paints a beautiful picture of Siddhartha in the reader's minds by describing his fine features by telling us how many people admired him for this specific reason. Kamala is introduced to us by a description of her beauty as described through the eyes of Siddhartha. When characters are introduced this way, we gain a sense of how they are perceived by others, but yet we are left curious as to what their true character is. Characters who are indirectly introduced include Buddha, the exalted one. We learn of  Buddha's character through tales of his actions and his fame that is spread throughout the land. Another example is Siddhartha's father, who we learn about through his personality and conflicts with Siddhartha.

9. The author's diction/syntax does not change particularly for any specific character, but rather the writing style takes on a different form when character dialogue takes place. The story is usually told in detailed accounts through the eyes and thought of Siddhartha, but when characters speak, the language used becomes more poetic in a way.

10. The character is definitely dynamic. The whole purpose of the story is to explain the life changing journey a young man takes in an effort to become a better and more enlightened soul then he was before.

11. I completely identified with Siddhartha and his want to become spiritually enlightened. I saw many of his views reflected in my own opinions of the world and the way I aim to live my life. Even though many of the ideas expressed in the story are very similar to my own, I've never read a story and felt like I had gained so much in doing so. 

Fahrenheit 451 Questions

1. The world that Montag lives in is similar in the sense that we've adapted as a society to living life more dependant on technology and technological forms of entertainment. Although our society is not as far gone as it is portrayed in the novel, the prospect of the world evolving to a point where it becomes very similar to the one described by Bradbury is not that farfetched. Although the world may be seen as a utopia through the eyes of characters such as Beatty, it is clear that this censored, war plauged reality is anything but.

2. Clarisse is an important character because she is one of the few people in the world with a sense of self identity and imagination. She is driven by her sense of curiosity, and Montag identifies with her because of it. Montag, who begins to suffer from a crisis of identity, attempts to find himself through his meetings with Clarisse.

3. I suspect that Beatty had suspicions of Montag and may have programmed the hound to react to him in an effort to scare Montag and keep him in line. 

4. The woman was so passionate in her fight for preserving knowledge and her books that she would rather burn with them then continue living in that world. Witnessing this, Montag begins to speculate as to why someone would be willing to die for the sake of such a trivial thing and his curiosity and want to explore literature grows. 

5. The description serves as a way to explain the painfully obvious pointlessness and mindlessness of the trash Mildred constantly indulges in. 

6. It shows the lack of appreciation for life and the therefore the pointlessness of it. If life is not valued and respected by society then what's the point of it? Clarisse's death was easily dismissed and was talked about as if it wasn't anything significant.

7. Montag is not so much physically sick as he is mentally and emotionally sick. He is overly stressed after experiencing the burning of that woman and her house and does not wish to go back to work without reflecting on his life and choices.

8. It shows the constant guilt and pressure that Montag must have been feeling throughout the novel. It explains many of the sentences that were intended as forshadowing for that moment of unveiling. Montag claims his hands have a mind of their own because he impulsively continued to steal books.

9. Beatty explains to Montag that society has evolved of its own accord to the point it is at. People became more interested in the "fast life" and left less time to enjoy in activities such as reading, and slowly it began to fade from society.

10. Ignorance is bliss, and it certainly seems to be the case with Mildred. My definition of happiness is the antithesis of how Mildred sees it. Mildred puts material values over anything else because thats what she has been conditioned to value.

LOCKDOWN

Completely unprofessional. The situation was handled poorly and the lockdown was executed in a very unorganized manner. I know because I was one of the students locked out of the damn classroom by my own teacher. Lockdown was executed with no warning during the final minutes of lunch. The alarm sounded with no follow up instructions with at least a 15 minute delay before someone spoke over the intercom. This left students scattering in all directions with little to no instruction from an authority figure. I had to find a security officer to unlock a classroom door just to let me in to somewhere "safe." At the time i was unaware that it was a non-emergency lock down, and I can confidently say that 90% of the students AND staff were unaware of the actual events taking place. I was crammed into a dark classroom full of loud rambunctious students all wildly speculating about what could be the cause of this infringement on our daily schedule. We were left to our speculations until about twenty minutes into the lockdown when we were then informed that the lockdown was a "non-emergency lockdown." Groans came from students mixed with the simultaneous sighs of relief from faculty. At this point we were all sitting expectantly, waiting for the "Go" to continue with our daily proceedings. But our patience was met with silence. And we were then forced to sit in the same position on the floor for FORTY MORE minutes. A whole period, wasted. And for no good, significant reason. I can now say that I am not at all confident in the security effort provided by the school, and had it been a real emergency, I among many other fellow students could have been caught in the middle of extreme danger. I am greatly disappointed as a third year student at Righetti High school to experience such a poor attempt at "providing safety." 

FAHRENHEIT 451 QUOTES

1.  "No." Said Montag. "My wife's dying. A friend of mine's already dead. Someone who may have been a friend was burnt less than twenty-four hours ago. You're the only one I knew might help me. To see. To see..."

2. "Don't step on the toes of the dog lovers, cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation, Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that!"

3. "No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive. And the three-dimensional sex magazines, of course. There you have it, Montag. It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, declaration, no censorship, to start with, no!"

4. "Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator.... Let's not quibble over individuals with memoriums. Forget them. Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean."

5. "That's the good part of dying; when you've got nothing to lose, you run any risk you want."

THE MASTER KEY

Kindling for the ignorant,

Bonfires built up with misconceptions

Of faith, 

With the intentions

 of a cleansing flame,

Unattended and unkempt, 

 It is ever consuming, 

with innumerable lives it claims,

 But still

 there is none to blame.

Venom spewed from the mouths of snakes whom hate Snakes,

Judgment passed by those whom wish not to be judged,

 yet live half-lived lives 

forever serving the idea of Judgement.

But whom holds the gavel, 

 And what force compels it to strike,

And is the hand that holds the gavel

not the same as the hand that  

 clenches the pen?

And when the pen moves, is it acting  upon the same intentions as the gavel?

 And if the intentions are unbiased then why is their judgment? 

Lies backed by lies,

Proof backed by faith,

Faith backed by preference,

Preference backed by bias, 

Bias backed by ignorance,

Ignorance backed by man.

And where in this formula lies the equation, 

 That sums up all variables, 

The fractions,

 and decimals 

that are carried over

by the conception of godliness and ungodliness? 

What lies at the end of the equal sign, 

begins at the end of ignorance.

Self - realization,

 not a lockpick.

But the key that effortlessly slides into the master lock.

- By Chase Kelly (P.O.W.) 

VOCAB CANDIDATES

1. Harlequin

2. Juvenile 

3. Delinquents 

4. Contemptible

5. Perished

6. Garment

7. Receptacle 

8. Veiled

9. Toil

10. Retaliation 

VOCAB: Definitions #7

DEFINITIONS:

Pratfall - a fall onto one's buttocks; a stupid and humiliating action.

Bewilderedly - to do something in a state of confusion or disorientation. 

Titillation - a tingling feeling of excitement.

Theremin - an electronic musical instrument. 

Tabloids - similar to a newspaper, but focuses mostly on popular pop culture happenings and drama. 

Centrifuge - a machine that applies centrifugal force to its contents to seperate fluids of different densities. 

Haltingly - done with uncertainty.

Probing - seek to uncover information about something.

Stagnant - having no current or flow and often producing an unpleasant smell as a result.

Cacophony - a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

SENTENCES:

Pratfall - Unfortunately, he couldn't slow down his momentum and took an embarrassing pratfall on the wet grass.

Bewilderedly - He awoke in the hospital bed, looking around bewildered, unsure of how he got there.

Titillation - He kissed her cheek and a feeling of titillation overcame her.

Theremin - He waved his hands over the instrument and the theremin began to emit different pitched noises.

Tabloids - Hey, did you see the picture of that alien they found in the tabloids?

Centrifuge - For his science project, he demonstrated the capabilities of his home made centrifuge to the class.

VOCAB CANDIDATES

1. Meloncholy

2. Noncombustable

3. Inefficient

4. Haltingly

5. Computed

6. Feigning 

7. Incinerator

8. Bewilderedly

9. Nonexistent 

10. Torrent 

FAHRENHEIT 451 QUESTIONS

What is the significance of the salamander symbol in Fahrenheit 451?

Based on prior mythological knowledge, I can make the accurate assumption that the salamander is incorporated for its connotations relating to fire and flame-retardant capabilities. Salamanders where most closely related to the mythological creature known as the dragon, infamous in folk lore for its fire breathing capabilities. It would be plausible that Guy would have a tattoo, to symbolize his resistance to flame and being burnt. 

Describe Montag at the beginning of the novel.  Do you think he's a hero?  Why/not?

Montag by my standards is certainly not a hero. At least no proof of him being so has been shown in the text thus far. He is a conformist. But he is also doing what he needs to survive. In his defense, based on his lack of knowledge of the past, it is safe to say this way of life is all he has ever known, Something I found interesting about his character, is that he is a "living" contradiction to the statement "ignorance is bliss." Although he is beginning to embody the statement "curiosity killed the cat."

Richard Cory

This is my recitation of Richard Cory.

ANCIENT STORIES

When analyzing the text and language used in the story the "White Buffalo Calf Women" I notice there is an acute difference between the common day to day language that I hear others use and the language that makes up the text of the tale. When speaking to others formally, I may make a special effort to use language somewhat along the lines of the kind used in the story, but in a relaxed and casual conversation I tend to "dumb it down" for the sake of maintaining a steady friendly relationship. I found the text to be very informative and well constructed. I fell this was done so that the story would be taken as more truthful than just as a story.

I believe, in stories such as this where the sole purpose of its creation is to tell a moral or teach a lesson, it is not particularly important the story is repeated back word for word. As long as the principal teaching or moral is maintained within the texts then the story is serving its purpose. Once the message has been corrupted, that's where altercations to the text are unacceptable. But, as with most stories, the moral is always clearly identified and usually well preserved upon retelling the tale.