Thinking Outside The Box

In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” he talks about a group of people who are chained together, stuck inside a cave and are starting at the shadows on the cave wall being casted by the fire. The people aren’t there out of their own doing. In Sartre’s “No Exit” he is talking about three people who are trapped inside a room with only themselves. The people are there due to their own doing.


 For Plato, the people represent everybody, society, who is content with not knowing anything except what they are given. People who don’t want to explore and question things for themselves, and find out about different truths. Plato talks about a philosopher during his story, this philosopher, is the one who escapes from the cave and goes outside to see all the different things that there are. When he comes back to tell everybody this, they don’t believe him and think that he is crazy. This is understandable since nobody else has seen the things that he was talking about.


For Sartre’s, the people don’t represent anybody, they are merely there to show a different idea of what hell can be. Instead of being the traditional room filled with instruments of torture, they find out that hell is other people. They demonstrate this idea by arguing with each other so much that one of them tries to kill the other. However they are already dead and they realize that they have to stay with each other in this tiny room.


They are similar because in both cases there are opportunities for the people to escape and leave where they are. However in both cases the people won’t leave. They choose not to leave for different reasons, in “Allegory of the Cave” it is because the people were to afraid to leave and see anything else, other than they already know. In “No Exit” it is because the people in the room were afraid of what the people would think of them.

AP Lit Term

An anecdote is a very short story that illustrates a point. The word came about from Procopius of Caesarea. He produced Anekdota, which is mainly a collection of short stories from the life of the Byzantine court. Over time anecdote began to be used for what it means today. An example of an anecdote would be the story of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree. The point of the story is to always tell the truth. Another example is “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” The moral of that story is to never tell a lie.  

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rmc/lowres/rmcn231l.jpg moral of the story is to always encourage someone to follow their dream.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1iKNUQPyUA-2XIg2vX7wEuufP8nNqAhezMQpsi_7Xy1PHwCU5LhrbUN2PnbG6ga4y-6DiWBR3go_1EKEg52PFYkVZ25g-t3UHyRypg7kqefCcLPlYveaeWC1Tg7vQ8B4Rlc2BwU3DhmKl/s1600/www.marekbennett.com-03-MI_Clusters.jpg moral of the story is to do what you are told.

The Big Question (Refined)

How does the world of dreams relate to our awakening expierence of being alive?

Literature Analysis #3

 1. The plot of “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is of two workers, George and Lennie. Lennie has a mental disability and is taken care of by George. They go to a nearby ranch in search of work. George is the one who talks to the boss, to help hide Lennie’s disability. They are hired and then meet Candy, a fellow worker on the ranch, and Curly, the boss’s son. Later they meet Curly’s wife, who flirts with both George and Lennie. As the day goes by, the workers return back to the ranch, George and Lennie then meet Slim, another worker who has power over the ranch. The next day George tells Slim of Lennie’s problems, past things he has done to get into trouble. Slim agrees to give Lennie one of his newborn puppies to help comfort and distract him. Later that day Curly starts looking for his wife, he heads to the barn and starts to call out Slim on it. Slim scolds him as they return back to the bunkhouse and Curly now angry begins to start a fight with Lennie. Lennie hurts Curly’s hand in the fight, and is told by Slim that if he tells anybody he will be the laughing stock of the ranch. The next day Lennie accidentally kills his puppy in the barn. Curly’s wife comes in and tries to comfort him; she lets Lennie touch her hair. When she begins to freak out Lennie tries to make her stop screaming and accidentally breaks her neck, killing her. Lennie runs to a designated spot set by George to return to if they ever got into trouble. When the men at the ranch see what happened they form a lynch party in search of Lennie. George goes to the spot where Lennie is at, and shoots him. When the party arrives only Slim is able to figure out what really happened.

2. A theme of the novel is the impossibility of the American Dream. Curly’s wife talked about how she wished she followed her dream and became a movie star. George and Lennie want to own a farm and can’t because they can’t hold down a job.

3. The author’s tone is tragic. Lennie always seems to end up killing everything he holds dear. In the beginning it was the mice, then the puppy and then Curly’s wife.

4. Five literary elements that helped me understand the story were foreshadowing, imagery, irony, symbolism and metaphors. An example of foreshadowing was the killing of Candy’s dog in order to end his pain. Imagery was helpful to imagine the scenes that things were taking place in.

The Big Question

Why is it that when we wake up after we have dreamed, we can sometimes vividly remember what happened and sometimes we cannot remember anything?

Final Hamlet Essay

    In Hamlet, performance utterance and self-overhearing plays a large part throughout the story. It is what helps Hamlet think about what is happening to him and what he feels he needs to do. Hamlet shows his self-overhearing when he is saying his soliloquies. Discussing to himself what he could/should do.  Hamlet has nobody he feels that he could talk to, to discuss the situations he is in.

Hamlet’s performative utterance impacts the characters because of how Hamlet interacts with them. Hamlet chooses how he wants them to see him. He is the only one who really knows what is happening throughout the play and acts accordingly. The plot is impacted through this because the plot is dependent upon Hamlet’s choices. If Hamlet had chosen a different action, the plot could’ve been very different.

Hamlet’s self-overhearing compares to mine, in the sense that I also do what Hamlet did. I tend to talk things out, which can help me make a decision. Talking aloud can help you think, which can help you think of another solution. Hamlet did this many different times, and this was able to help him. The way that I reflect on my experience can create a sense of memory, because I can think back to what I was talking about and what it was that I said. This can help me remember different things that are possibly important.

In conclusion self-overhearing can help you discover new solutions, or reinforce your existing plan. For Hamlet, he knew what it was he had to do; it merely took him a while to figure out how he was going to do it. He was able to get there faster through performative utterance and his self-overhearing.

One Major Concept I Have Learned

One major concept that i have learned in this class is that you have to work hard and not procastinate. You need to be able to focus and really understand what is happening. Am example would be reading Hamlet, for me I had to focus and really concentrate in order to try to comprehend what was happening. If you don't concentrate and try your best, then you won't be able to fully succeed in the task.

Roy Christopher Notes

I thought it was interesting that Roy didn't have a smart phone. He would rather have the excitement of going home wondering if he has any messages waiting for him. Roy also said that the older generation are dependent on younger generations to grasp the use of technology and that they aren't growing up as the older generation has.