Blog Post #4 The Known World

The Known World Prompt

Edward P. Jones reveals the character of Moses in his passage “The Known World” through behavior and actions executed by Moses that mimics strong symbols of Christian culture.

                In the first paragraph, the reader learns that Moses is a caring and humble leader in his community. Moses’ humility reveals itself as Jones writes, “…he worked again well after he ended the day for the other adult, his own wife among them…. His own son among them…sent to prepare the late supper and…play in the few minutes of sun….” Moses, while the leader of the field, continues to work in the fields after all his employees have been allowed to leave. Not only does he work in the field, Moses’ family works in the field as well. This is unlike many historical rules who keep their families and themselves out of the manual labor and working class. Moses exercises his humility by performing the tasks of the working class, even though he is the leader.

                Humility is an emphasized quality of an ideal Christian. Similar to the way Moses acts, when Jesus was on Earth, he was a common carpenter, dressing in rags and commoner clothes, rather than ruling from a throne clad in royal robes and carrying a scepter. Jones sets up his passage by paralleling Moses’ humility and leading strategies to Jesus’—portraying him as the perfect Christian prophet.

                The setting Jones describes contributes to the idea of humility as well, placing Moses in between two mountains. It can be inferred then that Moses’ field is in a valley. Many of the altars and worship temples created in the Old Testament appeared on the top of mountains, where as one of the most iconic Biblical verses features, “the valley of death.” Mountains typically represent holy venues that are closer to God whereas valleys are farther away from the Lord and exemplify places of sin. Moses practices humility by not being placed on the mountain where he would be perceived as a superior and more holy being as he would be closer to God. Instead, he works in a valley, and must continue to remember that he is inferior to God and must work to walk in the light of the Lord.

                As the passage continues, Moses continues to exemplify the iconic values of Christianity. He eats the dirt of the ground and tastes, “…a metallic life,” realizing that man begins as dust and will return to dust, as stated in the Bible. As the strong and successful leader that he is, Moses realizes that he is one with all people and he knows that the dirt is a part of him, meaning, “almost as much as his own life.” Again, he practices humility by eating the dirt.

REFLECTION:

This was a struggle.

Moses is freed by the land which enslaves him

It’s this paradox that makes or breaks this essay and it broke mine.

I didn’t hit the complexity of the piece. And without that, everything else became void.

I did, however, find my own interpretation—focusing on the underlying Biblical references and the symbols Edward P. Jones implemented. But none of this would count since I didn’t grasp the overall concept.

But I am not in complete despair. After discussing in class the defining elements of complexity, I think I could hone my complex skills considerably as we move forward. I understand that in order to adequately analyze a passage, you have to analyze the contrasts. Had I done this while reading “The Known World,” I’m fairly confident that I would’ve seen the opposing perspectives of the land—the freedom and the enslavement of it.

I also missed the point of view concept as well. I was happy to hear, however, that I’m not the only one who notoriously skips over this facet of the prompt. It’s never a conscious decision. Typically, I just don’t know what to write about the point of view, so I start on a different element, and then I forget about it entirely.

Still, my essay did not reach the standards set by the 9 essays. My level of thinking was not up to par with what it needs to be to received a 9. It was not complex, I found my own interpretation instead of concentrating on the one intended by the author, and didn't have enough time-- and therefore evidence-- to support my own interpretation.

Had I blended my grasp of symbolic references and my newfound understanding of complexity, I might’ve received a higher score on the AP scale. My goals for the next essays are definitely to blend all my skills together to completely hit all elements of a “complex analysis”.

Blog Post #3 "Flowers Prose Essay"

Alice Walker crafts a Biblical metaphor in her piece, “The Flowers,” implementing symbolic imagery and an abrupt tone shift to convey her message that life murders innocence.

The piece begins by constructing a setting that alludes to the Garden of Eden. Walker lists “Around the spring, where the family got drinking water, silver ferns and wildflowers grew along the shallow banks pigs rooted.” At this spring, Myop and her family live in harmony with nature—like Adam and Eve originally did in Eden. Myop’s entire life consists of this simple beauty. This allusion is crafted through the imagery in Walker’s sentences. 

But then, Myop turns her back on her Eden, similar to Eve’s famous behavior. As she turns her back and begins to explore the woods, the tone begins to shift. The strung-along, descriptive sentences of Eden are left behind. Walker begins to implement shorter syntax, leaning more towards a factual, grave tone. Her diction switches from the light theme from earlier, incorporating words like, “skipped lightly… beautiful… golden surprise, “ to darker words like, “gloomy… damp.. deep.” This is our first indication that Myop’s belief that the world is as simple and beautiful as the spring will soon end, just like the descriptive and “flowery” syntax did.

             
As Walker shifts tones and moves Myop out of Eden, she gives us a bit of symbolic foreshadowing. Going back to her Biblical motif, Walker says, “…vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes.” The reader realizes that snakes – like the Snake from Eden – are in Myop’s woods and is prepared to hear that Myop’s innocence might soon be stripped away, like Eve’s after she saw the snake.

             
Then, the tone shifts entirely. Walker uses primarily short syntax as she describes the corpse, saying, “He had been a tall man. From feet to neck covered a long space. His head lay beside him.” As Myop studies the man, her innocence begin to die, as did the strung-along sentences and as the corpse symbolizes.

            
 Still, Myop perseveres as she picks up a pink rose to add to her collection. But she sees the noose, a historical symbol of human cruelty, dating back to lynches in the South, further to witch hangings, and further still to persecutions of the saints—all examples of humans turning on each other unjustly. Myop sets eyes on the noose and, sensing its symbolism and history, her innocence cracks. She lays down her flowers, objects that represent beauty and natural simplicity – qualities linked to innocence. The apple has been eaten and the snake has won. Myop’s innocence is hung and the flowers left to rot right alongside the man.

             
The closing line, “And the summer was over,” alludes to the cultural assumption that summer is meant for young children to have fun. Spring is for the newly born – proven by Jesus’ resurrection occurring in the spring and the saying, ‘spring chicken’. Summer grows out of spring, as children grow out of their newborn phase and into an innocent, light-hearted one. When Myop’s innocence ends, so does her summer phase. As life’s days pass, innocence is gradually left behind.

REFLECTION:

After our prose essay seminar on Friday, I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty good.

Now, this does not mean, by anyone’s standard, that I got a 9. Or an 8. Or probably even a 7. But I can see those high scores in my future – albeit they are far away, blurry, and I have to squint to make out their features. But they’re there.

My biggest surprise was I caught the allusions. I was able to follow the underlying Biblical plot and even the foreshadowing Alice Walker included when she described that Myop was, “vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes.” I talked about the contrasts between what I called, “light and dark” diction and I touched upon the difference between the beginning syntax versus the end syntax.

But of course, I didn’t use the correct vocabulary. After our discussion on Friday, I now know that I should’ve used the terms, “gothic and pastoral imagery” and I should’ve mentioned that the passage followed a bildungsroman plot. 

The biggest thing I didn’t do quite adequately throughout my essay was bring the whole thing together. I talked about each facet of the story – the Biblical allusions, the diction contrasts, the flower and noose symbols. But I didn't quite connect them all together. I didn’t quite expand on the main idea of the passage—something that is definitely a vital part of my essay if I want to earn that 9. I need to work on connecting my dots to make the full picture.

I have to tie everything together. If I can do that and relate everything back to my thesis and the main idea of the piece, I'll be able to received higher scores on my essay.

Blog Post #2 AP Multiple Choice Test Reflections

A famous saying coined by Neil Bohr states that, "An expert is any person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." By that logic, I should be an expert by now, because every single mistake that could possibly be made by a human being on a multiple choice test has been made by me. And yet, expertise has still not sauntered my way. I can say, however, that I've gotten better! From the beginning of AP Comp to the end, my percent error has lowered by a perceptible amount which I qualify as a plus. The cause for my slight success is definitely my newfound -- and still very rickety -- control of my stress levels.

By forcing myself to calm down, I've been able to take my time and actually analyze and annotate the text. Distinguishing allusions from normal sentences has become easier along with picking up on the tone of a piece -- the slower you read, the easier it is to hear an author's sarcasm. I'm quite good at playing right into the College Board's trap by eliminating all choices but two --  the choice that's the answer and the choice that's the distraction from the answer. Further eliminating the distraction is an entirely different ball game. Still, all in all, calming down and taking my time is definitely a good skill to have.

Today, however, this skill turned against me. I took too much time. By the time the bell rang, I had two passages left to read. I've entered a poison patch and it's time to start picking. Run out of time, but complete more accurate answers? Or finish on time, but complete more inaccurate answers? I also really need to work on my vocab. I thought I was fairly well versed in literature lingo from Comp, but I'm not. There were a couple times I had to guess at the meaning of words in the multiple choice questions and answers, and I even had to use context clues for some of the words in the passage.

But I'm going to try to be S.M.A.R.T. about it (pun intended, of course). By the time finals roll around for first semester, I want to be able to finish an entire multiple choice test in 55 minutes, allowing myself five minutes to go back through the test and review my chosen answers, while scoring at least an 80%. I'll start timing myself while doing take home multiple choice tests, training my brain to read analytically at a faster pace. In addition, I'll make flashcards of lit vocab and even flip back through my comp notes and review with those. By first semester finals, I'll have all my flashcards memorized. And for my third goal, (something that will benefit all my activities) I'm going to teach myself how to get some sleep. By the week of finals, I want to have a system that never fails to get my sorry butt into bed by 11:00, providing me with 6 hours of deep, stress relieving sleep. I'm fully convinced that the more rested I am, the better I'll perform anywhere. And then maybe, just maybe, I won't have to pick a poison at all.

Blog Post #1 Design Justification

I'm not trying to be a cookie cutter actress.

I want to find the truth in my performances -- I want to be genuine and authentic in every show and every line. But this is my only constant with everyone else. My personality isn't shaped to fit any specific stereotype. I'm quirky, straight forward, girly, and strong. My performances are truthful, but they have my personal twist etched into them.

My style choices are meant to mirror that. The standard choice an entertainer would choose for a blog template would be one of the two options containing spotlights. But I'm not trying to be that cheesy or that standard. The template I chose incorporates circular spots of light on a dark background, like spotlights in the rafters -- but different. They're the truth of what I am, a musical theater kid dreaming of her name in lights, with a twist. The color and font of my words follow the same process. They're a redder, off-base black on a Georgia font-- not the typical, black, Times New Roman lettering, but also not too far off. A little brighter, a little curvier -- Truth With a Twist.