Help Notes: May 2013

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

How and why is the inner party social group represented in a particular way in 1984?

We are given
only a few glimpses of the lives of inner party members. However, those glimpses show us that
this small group of party members live lives of luxury that are completely different from those
of outer party members or proles.

manages to find access to inner party
resources. For example, she brings real coffee to the room above Mr. Charrington's shop. This
coffee is quite different from the foul imitation "Victory" coffee outer party members
drink:

"Its coffee," he [] murmured, "real
coffee."

"Its Inner Party coffee. Theres a whole kilo here,"
she said.

"How did you manage to get hold of all these
things?"

"Its all Inner Party stuff. Theres nothing those swine
dont have, nothing. But of course waiters and servants and people pinch
things..."

Not only does Julia procure the coffee,
she notes that "there's nothing" the inner party "swine" don't have. She
mentions, too, people (waiters and servants) completely absent from the lives of people like
Winston and his peers.

Julia and Winston also get a brief view of inner party
life when they visitshortly before they are arrested. As they step inside his apartment, Winston
notes the dark blue carpet which looks like velvet and thinks:

The wholeof the huge block of flats, the richness and spaciousness of everything, the
unfamiliar smells of good food and good tobacco, the silent and incredibly rapid lifts sliding
up and down, the white-jacketed servants

The walls of
O'Brien's flat are creamy white and spotlessly clean. All Winston has ever seen are grimy walls.
Both he and Julia are completely surprised that O'Brien can turn off his telescreen, something
forbidden to them. Moreover, O'Brien has his servant serve them wine, a drink they have never
had and which Winston comically gulps down instead of sipping it as he should.

The gap between inner and outer party members is huge, a chasm. This is done on
purpose, as explained in Goldstein's book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchic
Collectivism:

if leisure and security were
enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would
become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they
would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep
it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and
ignorance.

The inner party is the tiny elite that runs
the society. Although enough resources exist for everyone to live comfortably, the elite fears
this because they are afraid that if the common people had the time and energy to think, they
would throw the elites out of power. The inner party is fixated on holding onto power above all
else. Therefore, they waste society's resourceswhich could be used to raise the standard of
living to a decent level for everyoneon unnecessary wars so that they can keep their grip on
power.

Also, as O'Brien will later tell Winston, the only way you can be sure
you have power (at least in his opinion) is if the people below you are suffering. Therefore the
inner party keeps the standard of living between them and the outer party members as far apart
as possible.

Monday, 6 May 2013

What is meant by Nell's statement "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness"?

"€˜€˜Nothing
is funnier than unhappiness. Thoughis dark, there is humor in the play. Clovs confusion over
which items to fetch first and his antics with the ladder could be directly out of a film
starring Charlie Chaplin, whom Beckett admired. Commenting on Endgame himself, Beckett identi-
fied the phrase €˜€˜nothing is funnier than unhappiness as key to the plays interpretation and
performance. "

Sunday, 5 May 2013

What grade level could a lesson plan be made for A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle?

could probably be
adapted for a variety of class ages. I do think that 5th grade is probably the youngest age that
the book would work for, and a teacher's lesson plan would have to reflect the limits of the age
group. The book would likely work best in grades 6-8 because they are experienced enough readers
to tackle portions of the book on their own and old enough to begin limited discussions of the
book's theme. With all of that said, my undergraduate "Children's Literature" class
was assigned that book. Obviously, the professor's lesson plan was adapted for that particular
age bracket and style of class, but it does serve as a good example of how a good teacher can
adapt and tailor a lesson plan to the correct audience.

Saturday, 4 May 2013

Compare three themes in Night and in Catching Fire.

At
first glance, this seems like an odd comparison; however, the two books have a lot in common
when thematically compared. Both books have a strong thematic emphasis on loyalty.
Catching Fire explores loyalty through a variety of ways in that loyalty
exists between Katniss and family as well as between various combatants.
also shows loyalty as important through the way that families cling to staying together as much
as possible. That is why it is so heartbreaking to watch the prison camp systematically destroy
these bonds and loyalty between family members.

Two other themes that exist
between both books are violence and mortality. These two themes come hand in hand because the
violence directly leads to the deaths of major characters. The violence is similar in both books
as well because the violence exists as a form of control. The Nazis use violence to control the
prisoners and put them in a state of perpetual fear, and that isn't much different than how the
Capitol rules all of...

Friday, 3 May 2013

How does the poem "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou relate to journeys?

's
"" sets up a contrast between the titular bird and a "free bird." Each kind
of bird is described as taking a different sort of "journey," though the free bird's
flight is more explicitly linked to movement.

In the first stanza, the
speaker opens the poem by usingto describe the free bird's "journey":

A free bird leaps
on the back of the
wind
and floats downstream
till the current
ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun
rays
and dares to claim the sky.

These lines illustrate the flight of the free bird, who can go anywhere he chooses.
He rides the wind and "dares to claim the sky." He feels ownership of his world and of
himself.

On the other hand, the caged bird, with
his "clipped" wings, is trapped and only

sings
with a fearful trill
of things
unknown
but longed for still

The only journey this bird can take is an imagined one, and even that is difficult,
since his life has been so limited as to make that kind of adventure "unknown."
Angelou continues this stanza,...

In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, what quotes exemplify Oedipus's arrogance?

most
definitely characterizes as arrogant
in ; in fact, arrogance is Oedipus's fatal tragic character
flaw. We can especially see Oedipus's arrogance
portrayed in his argument with the soothsayer . When
Tiresias announces that Oedipus is the murderer of the late King Laius and responsible for the
city of Thebes' current plague, Oedipus accuses Tiresias of being unable to see
the truth, as we see in his lines:

There is
[strength in truth], but not for you. You don't have this, since you are blind in your ears and
mind and eyes. (390-91)

Oedipus even has the
audacity to accuse Tiresias as being a conspirator in Laius's
murder. The bitteris that all the while that Oedipus is accusing Tiresias of being untruthful,
Oedipus knows full well that he is indeed guilty
of some murder , though at this point he does not know it
was Laius he murdered, his own father, that he murdered. We first learn of the fact that Oedipus
knows full well he is guilty of killing an innocent man...

Why did sonnets decline in popularity during the Restoration Era ?

A sonnet is a
one-stanza poem of fourteen lines which is written in iambic pentameter. It was invented by
Petrarch, an Italian poet, in the 1400s but gained immense popularity in England under William
Shakespeare. The reason for the sonnet's popularity can also help us to explain why it declined
in favour during the Restoration: the sonnet came to be...

Thursday, 2 May 2013

What are two examples of foreshadowing in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?

When the family stops
at Red Sammys BBQ place for lunch, Red Sammy and the grandmother talk over their shared values
and disdain for contemporary attitudes and mores. Despite the fact that Red Sammy does not seem
like a good manhe speaks harshly to his wife (and he does so in front of strangers), he keeps
a monkey tied to a tree, and he is dirty and unkempthe has lots of ideas about what makes a good
man and what does not. He says to the grandmother, These days you dont know who to trust, and
the grandmother replies, People are certainly not nice like they used to be. These would seem
to foreshadow what happens later with the Misfit and his cronies. One would hope that anyone
stopping by a car thats been in a wreck is doing so to offer help, but this is not the case; the
family cannot trust the men who stop, and those men are certainly not good.

In the car, as they are driving, the grandmother asks to stop at a house she once knew, and she
entices the...

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

In the book The Art of Racing in the Rain, what are the turning points or significant events that affect the development of the plot?

When a
reader talks about "turning points and significant events" he or she is speaking
specifically about plot development. The plot of a story is comprised of six different parts:
the , the inciting incident (or conflict), the rising action, the , the falling action, and the
resolution. is a perfect novel to speak about these plot points as
"turning points and significant events."

In the exposition, the
reader learns about our narrator, Enzo, who is a dog. Even though the crux of the story centers
around Denny (the race car driver and Enzo's owner), Enzo's thoughts as narrator are very
important. It is not long before Enzo begins to run into serious issues that affect the humans
around him. As Eve (Denny's wife) gets sick and begins to die of cancer, we have experienced
the inciting incident or conflict of the book. Immediately, we enter the rising action as Eve's
parents take Zoe (Denny's child) from Denny. The tension rises as the trial looms. Denny
visits Zoe on weekends, and Enzo listens instinctively. Throughout all of the rising action, we
learn all about Enzo's thoughts about humans. Enzo's dreams continue when he sleeps during the
trial. Enzo dreams that he participates in the trial (with the help of a voice synthesizer) and
helps everything turn out okay. The climax (which is sometimes called the "turning
point") of the story is the end of the trial when Annika recounts the events, Denny is
freed, and Zoe is given back to her dad. During the falling action, we learn of Enzo's hip
troubles and other issues that prove he is getting old. It is not a surprise when Enzo dies in
Denny's arms, promising to come back as a human. The resolution of the story happens when Denny
gives a very young fan an autograph. The young fan's name is Enzo. The reader infers, of
course, that Enzo's dream of becoming "a man" has come true.

Based on chapter 5 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, what were Douglass's two biggest problems as a child?

At the
beginning of Chapter V,is a child on the plantation of Colonel Lloyd. Because he is so young at
this point, he really does not have to do much work. He also says that he...