Outside Reading: Reflective Essay #5

Reflective Essay: "Mariya Morgaylo's Reflective Essay"
By Mariya Morgaylo

Published December 19th, 2008

      “Mariya Morgaylo’s Reflective Essay” uses a reflective and enlightened tone, along with imagery, details, and diction to communicate her realization on life to the reader. She describes her experience at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where her exploration of “embracing the random” and making new discoveries began (1).

       

     One rhetoric element Morgaylo uses quite a bit is detail. She uses details of the exhibits to show the reader how they changed her perspective. An exhibit mentioned very thoroughly was a screenplay, beautifully satirizing “prostitution, Nazism, and greed,” while getting a laugh out of the audience and recognizing the absurdity of it all (1).  The writer tells how the applicability to real life moved her.

      

     Morgaylo also uses diction to add to her point and display her enlightened tone. By using somewhat exaggerating words she gives the reader a sense of the wonderment she was feeling and that this wasn’t just an ordinary everyday experience to her, but instead changed her outlook on life. She uses phrases like “absurdist insight” and “employed satire beautifully,” conveying her aw and surprise.

        

     The last element shown in the piece is imagery. Morgaylo describes the art as almost magical, displaying its powerful impact on her. “Blurred details, beautiful colors, outlines of nature” and “the New York skyline” interpretation with “no definite form…harmony or balance,” contribute to her discovery of the random and abstract (2). Even though the art is abstract and out of the box, certain aspects are relatable to reality, therefore people are able to understand them and alter their perspective.

This would definitely work for an AP essay because the enlightened tone inspires the reader, persuading them about the point she is trying to make. “Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean that you can’t write about it, it’s all the more reason to explore it” (2). 

Outside Reading: Book Review #5

Book Review: "A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars"
By Liesl Schillinger
Published March 11, 2011

     Liesl Schillinger’s book review analyzes “The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea Obreht, using formalism and historicism critical perspectives along with an excessive amount of detail and some imagery.

       

     Schillinger focuses on the historical and allegorical parts of the novel. She points out “events borrowed from the headlines” and the way the author “illustrates the complexities of Balkan history,” which add to the quality and understanding of the piece (1). Later in the review she looks into Obreht’s background including where and when she was born, and where she lived during the war. Even though the author didn’t experience those awful war impacted years, the novel was “filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seemed firsthand” (4).

         

     The writer uses imagery to describe parts of the novel and describe Obreht great writing techniques. She explains the way the author retells past generation experiences, how “old and new memories collide in a vibrant collage that has not date” (5). By providing this colorful, exciting imagery, it gives the reader the idea that the novel truly is that intriguing without Schillinger actually having to say that.

       

     This book review also contains a formalistic critical approach to uncover the literary techniques the author uses, which contribute to the brilliance of the novel. The reviewer notices that the narrator is a key aspect, adding to the quality of all her novels. In an almost over-excessive amount of detail, Schillinger describes the narrator and her journey throughout the novel. This defends her claim, however, it is also so much detail the reader might get bored, discouraging them to read the book. While also using a formalistic approach, Schillneger compliments the way Obreht juxtaposes Natalia’s matter-of-fact narration with contemporary folk tales that are simple, enthralling and sometimes brutal as fables” (3).

      

    There don’t exactly seem to be many connections between this piece and other class material. There is no extreme focus on any specific critical perspective and not too many references to literary techniques. Plus there is too much novel summary.  Obreht’s “The Tiger’s Wife,” reviewed by Schillinger, is analyzed with formalism and historicism critical perspectives, communicating the reader the fantastic quality of this novel. 

Outside Reading: Editorial #5

Editorial: “Pay Teachers More"
Nicholas D. Kristof
Published March 12, 2011

  
     Kristof's editorial, "Pay Teachers More" uses elevated diction, details, and syntax, to create a strong voice, supporting his clear point of view on the benefits of increasing teachers' salaries.

     

     Throughout the piece, the writer displays elevated, professional level diction, which gives the reader more confidence in the reliability of the writer. This also causes the voice to sound strong and certain, like they are well educated in the topic they are supporting.  With all of the diction against salary cuts containing a negative connotation, elevated diction emphasizes Kristof's point. Rather than saying we're losing money from teachers being overpaid is a bad false statement, Kristof says it is "a pernicious fallacy" (1). 

      

      He also uses some syntax to draw attention to ideas and statements. One example of this is the first very short sentence of the second paragraph, “That’s a pernicious fallacy.” By using such a short sentence it puts all the focus on the idea he is trying to communicate to the reader without an overabundance of insignificant words.

     

      However, the most used rhetoric element is the use of details in provided research. This piece is filled with evidence from different studies. By offering teachers a higher salary, the writer believes better educated people will apply, and supports his claim by providing data from a study that found that “47 percent of America’s… teachers come from the bottom one-third of their college classes” because the more “brilliant” ones are going to higher paying jobs like lawyers and doctors (1). He also reasons that based on studies from Los Angelos and Stanford’s Hanushek, quality teachers are essential to “eliminate the black-white achievement gap” and cause an “increase [in] their students’ [future] earnings” as much as twenty thousand dollars, therefore improving the economy (1).

      Kristof makes many very convincing arguments supported by a significant amount of evidence, defending his reasons to increase teacher salary. He uses a strong, AP essay-appropriate voice that perfectly persuades the reader to his side. The writer also organizes the editorial in the English class-taught way of including the other argument and then stating its faults before discussing his position in depth. Overall this is a practically perfect editorial. 

Notes March 7-18

Modernism
"Make it New," disillusionment, psycological focus, WWI, one universal truth

• "make it new"- they didn't want anything like WWI to happen again so they wanted to change the way they were doing things. 
• WWII- end to modernist era
• believed artists were responsible for disaster of world- manipulative
• Techniques of era:
• unreliable narrators
• multiple narrators
• minor characters as 1st person narrators (Great Gatsby)
• nonlinear narrative
• stream of consciousness
• Modernist interested in multiple points of view
• Picasso- painting has different angles on face layered together 
• don't want to force one point of view on people

Post Modernism

• Old generation grows up and WWII creates new angry young generation.
• TV- can see different people in different places with different points of view
• PoMo= Modernism - Universal Truth + Irony
• All truth is local- no universal truth
• blending of high and low culture
• self-reference- like characters are real, can move from media to media
• medium referring to itself
• only understand references if you're familiar with it. 
• The Simulacrum
• eventually we can mimic something until mimicking seems more real and replaces original. 

Surrealism

• Arts movement between WWI and II
• Uses unexpected juxtapositions in ways intended to activate subconscious associations- highlight hidden truths
• dream-like, playful, sometimes eerie or bizarre
• influenced by Freud and Jung
• psychological world