Monday

 Reading Schedule 

11/2 page 178

11/3 page 194

11/8 page 228

11/18 Finish book

Wednesday

Today we are going to talk about Mr. Bob Dylan and read the chapter on "Visitors" 

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/times-they-are-changin/

39. "If the bell rings why should we run?" page 95

This quote applies to our every day life as well as back then. Except now it relates to the phone or the chime of an email. Why do we feel a relentless sense of urgency to respond? Why should our stress level climb with each new message? Rather ignore the next text message that comes in, take a breath, and ask yourself "why should I run?".

41. The title of Thoreau’s most important work is selfless in name. By naming the book after a pond, Walden, rather than “Thoreau’s experiment” he emphasises nature rather than humanity. This focuses on Thoreau’s theme of non conformity and honing in to the simple and important motions of life. Throughout Walden Thoreau argues that Americans spend too much of their time focusing on obtaining materialistic wealth without appreciating to the true beauty of life which can be displayed in nature. This title goes against American’s view of life thus challenging the reader to think differently and break from American conformity.

Tuesday

 First - go here

What unifies the structure of Walden has been much debated. Two of the most frequently noted structural devices are the seasonal structure (one year from summer to spring) and a dialectical structure in which pairs of chapters present thematic counterpoints to each other (e.g. "Reading" vs. "Sounds," "Solitude" vs. "Visitors"). 

Chapter 4 - "Sounds"

This is a strange, but poetic chapter that focuses on the sounds that Thoreau hears when living at Walden (and how the sounds make him feel).  There is this idea of Thoreau's that most of humanity doesn't quite listen to its soundings.  To be in-tune with the place you live is - in part - to listen closely to it, to hear it, and perhaps to respond to what you hear.

Micah has too really good dialectical journals on this chapter:

#16: "Much is published, but little is printed" p. 108

By published, Thoreau means made public, as in, anyone can observe/hear. There are so many sounds and things of that nature that are able to be observed, each with their own meaning and cause, but very few care to listen, and fewer still, care to write them down. This continues the thought that man uses nature only for what it can get out of it, and tries its best to remove itself from it. Mankind in general doesn't care about the chirping of a bird, or the chirping of crickets. When they do care, it is as an annoyance, a reminder of the world they seek to leave behind by becoming civilized.

#17: The train

In the 'Sounds' chapter, Thoreau goes to great lengths to personify the train that he talks about. How it perspires steam, how it must put on snow shoes, etc. This is done because in a way, the train represents a concentration of what makes humans terrible, at least to Thoreau. They are cold, calculated, used to transport things from one end of the world to another, all the while cutting surgically precise lines through the wilderness that Thoreau believes greater than man. It is a machine made for business, and the making of money on the backs of those who are too lazy and too luxurious to get what they need from the land around them.

"I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe." (116)

"Now that the cars are gone by and all the restless world with them, and the fishes in the pond no longer feel their rumbling.   I am more alone than ever.  For the rest of the afternoon, perhaps, my meditations are interrupted only by the faint rattle of a carriage or team along the distant highway."  (119)

Chapter 5 - "Solitude"

Thoreau makes a case for nature being a better companion than humans.

"I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.  To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating.  I love to be alone.  I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." (131)

"Next to use the grandest laws are continually being executed.  Next to us is not the workman whom we have hired, with whom we love so well to talk, but the workman, who work we are." (130)

 

10/26 page 135

10/27 page 150

10/28 work on dialectical journals

10/31 in-class writing prompt

11/2 page 178

11/3 page 194

11/8 page 228

11/18 Finish book

Monday

Today we are going to read chapter 4, but first let's think about the following: 

 

1.) Does Walden appeal to our "sense of rebelliousness and individualism"? Are we "inspired by his idealistic actions and principled and good-humored erudition"? Do we enjoy thinking about how we might take a more "Thoreauvian approach" to our own lives?

2.) How do modern conveniences and gadgets influence our culture? After reading Thoreau, are we now eager to give them up?

3.) Can we consider how doing and thinking for ourselves is made possible (or impeded) by modern educational and cultural institutions?

4.) To which "genre" (or genres) does Walden belong?

5.) What is Thoreau's relationship to his audience and to society as a whole? How does he situate his narrative persona? That is, what kind of person is the "I" in the text, and how do we know?

6.) How can Walden be considered as an application of Transcendental philosophy?

 

We need to start to discuss some examples of rhetorical devices in Walden.

Anaphora  -
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” (Winston Churchill)

Apart from the function of giving prominence to certain ideas, the use of anaphora in literature adds rhythm, thus making it more pleasurable to read, and easier to remember. As a literary device, anaphora serves the purpose of giving artistic effect to passages of prose and poetry.
As a rhetorical device, anaphora is used to appeal to the emotions of the audience, in order to persuade, inspire, motivate, and encourage them.

ANTITHESIS: (from literarydevices.net)

Antithesis, literal meaning opposite, is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.

Antithesis emphasizes the idea of contrast by parallel structures of the contrasted phrases or clauses, i.e. the structures of phrases and clauses are similar in order to draw the attention of the listeners or readers. For example:

“Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man but a giant step for mankind.”

The use of contrasting ideas, “a small step” and “a giant step”, in the sentence above emphasizes the significance of one of the biggest landmarks of human history.

OTHER EXAMPLES:

 Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

• Man proposes, God disposes.
• Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.
• Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
• Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit.
• Money is the root of all evils: poverty is the fruit of all goodness.
• You are easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart.

 Allusion (everywhere).

parallelism
parables, aphorisms, symbols, diction and syntax.

CHAPTER 2 - "Where I Lived and What For"

He goes to Walden Pond because he wishes to live deliberately, to slow down the fast pace of modern life and actually enjoy it.  He claims that you can't learn anything from newspapers about live ("The Revolution will not be Televised")

Quotes:
"As long as possible live free and uncommitted.  It makes little difference whether you are committed to a farm or a county jail."

"Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.  Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep.  Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering?"

"The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life."

"I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.  How could I have looked him in the face?"

"Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity."

"We do not ride on the railroads; it rides upon us."

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?"

"To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip."

"Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature."

"I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born."

Chapter 3 READING

Reading literature is the closest thing to living.

Reading great books requires training such training as athletes undergo.

Nothing truly can be translated.

"Most men have learned to read to serve paltry convenience, as they learned to ciper in order to keep accounts... but reading as a noble intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; yet this only is reading, in a higher sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury .. but what we have to stand on tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to."

"The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers."

"I do not make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my townsman who cannont read at all, and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects."

"We spend more on almost any article of bodily aliment or ailment than on our mental aliment."

Chapter 4 SOUNDS 

This is a strange, but poetic chapter that focuses on the sounds that Thoreau hears when living at Walden (and how the sounds make him feel).  There is this idea of Thoreau's that most of humanity doesn't quite listen to its soundings.  To be in-tune with the place you live is - in part - to listen closely to it, to hear it, and perhaps to respond to what you hear.

Walden

 We are going to look at "Reading" today.

Wednesday

 We are going to go back to Walden today. First I want to review "Self-Reliance" and chapter 1 of Walden, and discuss dialectical journals.

Moby-Dick Commentary: Ch.21-22

Going Aboard

Melville has dictated an entire chapter simply for the act of boarding the Pequod. Why? On the surface, it seems a chapter that easily could have been an extension on the chapter before or combined with the one following. Perhaps it is meant to emphasize the point of no return. Entering the rabbit hole.

Pg. 95 "Unless its before the Grand Jury."

Meaning God?

Merry Christmas

The title of this is peculiar to me, for I don't recall any indication that it was in fact Christmas or even the holiday season. There is no celebration, and only one comment about the date in the whole chapter. Christmas = Birth of Christ. Who is christ? What does christ symbolize in this novel? The launching of the ship = Birth of Christ? Who does it save, from what sins?

Self-Reliance

We are going to continue with "Self-Reliance"

https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/self-reliance/   

Walden - Economy

 Today we are going to discuss the first 60 pages of Walden and what you have posted for your dialectical journals. First we are going to look at a video on "line of reasoning" (Charles) and then look at Emerson.

https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/self-reliance/

HW: Finish chapter 1. 

Walden

 ESSAY QUESTION:

As describe in Walden what is Thoreau's assessment of American Culture (what is wrong with it)?  Using specific evidence from the text discuss and outline his argument.  Then respond to it.  Do you agree or disagree with his insights? 

This issue should cover the entire book - not just "Economy" - meaning you should trace his argument chapter - by - chapter also (think Structure), and use specific evidence from various section of the text.  Note, this essays needs to be at least five pages.  It can be longer.

NOTE- this is due of FRIDAY.  You will have most of the week to work on it in class. 

As far as structure goes, think about the following the cycle of a year (Summer - Spring), and find parallels (Pond in Summer vs Pond in Winter).  These parallels will have interrelated ideas or a return or expansion on an ideal.  Further think about the dialectical structure in which pairs of chapters present thematic counterpoints to each other (e.g. "Reading" vs. "Sounds," "Solitude" vs. "Visitors").


You should also look at the Thoreau's continue assessment of American or Human culture.  It is in all chapters - through, it is more subtle in most (examples will be shown below).

Bill McKibben's focus on Thoreau's practical advice for living, however, calls our attention to another structure in which the long opening chapter, "Economy," provides a diagnosis of what is wrong with American life: materialism. The body of the book then presents a cure for the disease of materialism: striving for purity and simplicity as exemplified by Thoreau's own experience and by the symbolic purity of Walden Pond. The final chapter presents Thoreau's optimistic prognosis that each individual reader has the potential to vastly improve his or her life by shifting priorities.

Think about particular themes of the book.

Self-Reliance

Materialism

Life, Consciousness and Existence

The interconnection of all things

Society and class structure

Visions of America

Technology/Modernization

How to live one’s life

Work vs. Enjoying Life

Liberation from traditional economic systems
Solitude
Self-Improvement
Practical and Formal Education
Nature as Eternal Guide and Teacher

 Chapter 1 - ECONOMY

DEFINITION (from dictionary.com)
- thrifty management; frugality in expenditure or consumption of money materials
- the management of the resources of a community
- the prosperity or earnings of a place

Questions:
What is real wealth?
What are the necessities of life?
Do luxuries corrupt?  Humans work their entire lives for luxuries.
What does it mean to be philanthropic?

Discuss Thoreau's house?

Quotes: "Cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately, or in the long run."

Example - house that costs $800 and which takes ten to fifteen years to pay off

"But lo! men have become the tools of their tools."

"Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants.  Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made."

Transportation - "the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot."  The fare of a train is almost a day's wages.

"This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it."
 

 

Monday

Today we are going to start Walden

 

1st - Themes: 

Self - Reliance
Living Simply
Social Criticism
Technology
Visions of America
Meaning of Existence

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

"To be awake is to be alive."

Live your life according to your convictions; have the courage to be different, regardless of what others say.

Living "simply" frees you of the worry about material possessions and rewards you with more time for what really counts.

Chapter 1 - ECONOMY

DEFINITION (from dictionary.com)
- thrifty management; frugality in expenditure or consumption of money materials
- the management of the resources of a community
- the prosperity or earnings of a place

Questions:
What is real wealth?
What are the necessities of life?
Do luxuries corrupt?  Humans work their entire lives for luxuries.
What does it mean to be philanthropic?

Discuss Thoreau's house?

Quotes: "Cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately, or in the long run."

Example - house that costs $800 and which takes ten to fifteen years to pay off

"But lo! men have become the tools of their tools."

"Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants.  Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made."

Transportation - "the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot."  The fare of a train is almost a day's wages.

"This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it."

FINNEGAN'S WAKE

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
linsfirst loved livvy. DIALECTICAL JOURNALS/ANALYSIS ESSAYS  Effective students have a habit of taking notes as they read. This note-taking can several forms: annotation, post it notes, character lists, idea clusters, and many others. One of the most effective strategies is called a dialectical journal. The word “dialectical” has numerous meanings, but the one most pertinent is the “art of critical examination into the truth of an opinion” or reworded “The art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation involving question and answer.” As you read, you are forming an opinion about what you are reading (or at least you are SUPPOSED to be forming an opinion). That opinion, however, needs to be based on the text – not just a feeling. Therefore, all of your opinions need to be based on the text. The procedure is as follows: 1. Either in your textbook or in a notebook and draw a line down the center of each page of the notebook. NOTE: I expect you to publish these journal entries nightly and number them as you go. 2. As you read, pay close attention to the text. 3. Whenever you encounter something of interest (this could be anything from an interesting turn of phrase to a character note), write down the word/phrase in the LEFT HAND COLUMN making sure that you NOTE THE PAGE NUMBER. If the phrase is especially long just write the first few words, use an ellipsis, then write the last few words. 4. In the RIGHT HAND COLUMN, WRITE YOUR OBSEVRATIONS ABOUT THE TEXT you noted in the left-hand column. This is where you need to interact in detail with the text. Make sure that your observations are THOROUGH, INSIGHTFUL, and FOCUSED CLEARLY ON THE TEXT. Note, most of you will record these on google docs and list the quotation followed by your interpretation.  Your analysis essay will be on Walden - make sure you read closely and publish your dialectical journals daily. Examples of dialectical journals: Moby-Dick: Ch. 107 Chapter 107: The Carpenter "If he did not have a common soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anoalously did its duty." Most of Melville's novel has seemed dedicated to redefining religion and religious practices. Many allusions have been made to Jesus and many characters display characteristics that seem representative of Jesus- Pequod launching on his birthday, Moby-Dick's seeming rebirth and immortality, Ishmael's lack of parental information, Queequeg's 'miracles' and heroic saviors, and Ahab's sense of higher power. This chapter, in a sense, define's what Ishmael percieve's Jesus (the greatest carpenter) to be. A humble man who was 'no duplicate', and simply followed out his orders and purpose willingly and succesfully. Hey, perhaps every character in Moby-Dick corresponds to a character from the bible? Melville did call this a 'wicked text'...did he rewrite- maybe even mock- the holy book? “We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a family tomb.” Page 36 This relates to our current world: with the way we are using up our natural resources prices now are lowering (such as gas in the lower 48 reach below 2 dollars) however, the next generation will have to deal with outrageous prices and depleted oil fields. Also, global warming is another issue that the previous generation gave us and we will pass on to the next generation. “Who bolsters you? Are you one of the ninety-seven who fail? Or of the three who succeed?.......where there is no house and no houskeeper” page 37 Thoreau is again referring to the uselessness of extravagance. Do the expensive "baubles" or decorations come at the expense of the many poor? He says there is no beauty in things man made that don't fulfill the most basic needs. Thoreau questions whether anything in a home is beautiful if the foundation of the house is not made from honest labor and toil.

Thursday

 So we are going to go over your answers, or share them, in class. Then we will move onto the last chapter of The Woman Warrior.

I do want to start Walden on Monday, but I'd like to have us finish Maxine Hong Kingston before we do. 

Wednesday

 Today we are going to discuss "Civil Disobedience" and answer questions 1,2, 10 and 12 on page 956.

First, you have three MC questions on AP Classroom.

 

Tuesday

 We are going to look at "Civil Disobedience" today - it is in your LANGUAGE OF COMPOSITION books on page 939.

At the end of the essay do question #12.

Monday

 We are going to look at Thoreau today. We will be moving into Walden later this week (so what we look at today in a foreshadow. Look at page 644.

You will be writing a precise on this - so do it well.