A Tale of Two Cities 10 - 15

Dickens is setting up the place and time the book is set in. Taking place in England and France in 1775.  In England people there is utter chaos. People are stealing from everywhere, it is very unsafe. There is no real protection, from the police. In France they are having extreme and excessive violence issues.

Literature Analysis

1.      The plot of “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger is of Holden Caulfield telling his story that took place between the end of the fall semester and Christmas. It starts off with Holden being in the Pencey prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. This is his fourth school that he has had to transfer to for failing. Holden gets into a fight with his roommate Stradlater, over a girl that he likes. After their fight Holden decides to leave Pency and return to Manhattan. Holden takes a cab and checks himself into the Edmont Hotel. In his hotel room he calls someone who he thought used to be a stripper, hoping to get some. However he is denied. He then proceeds to go into the Lavender Room, where he meets 3 women in their thirties. He dances with one of them and starts to like her; however the 3 women leave him. Holden eventually ends up going back to his hotel room. While taking the elevator to his room he meets Maurice, who offers him a prostitute. Holden accepts, and when “Sunny” shows up he has second thoughts and decides to not do what he was planning on doing. He pays “Sunny” so she will leave, and goes to bed. The next day he calls Sally Hayes, a girl he dated in the past. They arrange to meet up, and when they do they go to a Broadway play. Afterwards they go ice skating, and after both being horrible at that they get a table. Holden tries to talk her into running away with him but she says no. Sally leaves and Holden calls Carl Luce, his former student advisor. They meet for a few drinks, but Holden eventually ticks Carl off, who leaves. Holden who is drunk now, sneaks into his apartment building to wake his sister, Phoebe, up. He tells her everything, which makes her mad at him. Holden leaves and calls his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini; he meets at his house, where he spends the night. The next morning he leaves and goes to Phoebe’s school with a note saying he is leaving. Phoebe wants him to take her, and they go to the zoo.

2.      A theme of the book could be isolation. Holden constantly gets annoyed with himself or others and can never seem to get close to anyone. He always distances himself.

3.      The author’s tone is sarcastic. Holden constantly makes sarcastic comments about people or towards them. Almost every chance he can make a sarcastic statement, he does.

4.      Five literary elements that helped me understand the story were symbolism, imagery, irony, tone and theme. The tone helped set the mood of the entire book, being sarcastic and arrogant.

BQ

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Mitchell Edmondson

Dr. Preston

AP English

29 January, 2012

How Do Dreams Relate To The Real World?

            To start off what is a dream? A dream has many different meanings. The first being that it is a form of thinking that occurs when there is a certain level of brain activity. The second is that a dream is something we experience because the thinking of the dream feels very real and actually incorporates our senses. The third is a dream is what we remember when we wake up, so it is "a memory" of the dreaming experience. The final meaning is a dream can also mean the story of the dream that you tell others about.  As this is the only way anyone else can ever know about somebody else’s dreams.    

Throughout history, civilizations have wondered what dreams are, that they mean or how dreams work.  For example the Greeks and the Egyptians thought that dreams contained important messages, foreshadowing a good or bad fortune. The Romans thought that the dreams would happen based upon who you were as a person. Believing it was your job, social status and your overall well-being that affected your dream.

Every night when you go to sleep you enter two basic forms of sleep, and throughout the night you cycle through these forms. The first is called Slow Wave Sleep

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(SWS). The second is known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM). The SWS stage has three parts to it. The three parts are called Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM). The first stage of this called N1 is when you are “drifting off to sleep” it only lasts for a few minutes. In N2 you lose consciousness, as you enter a deep sleep. The final stage, N3, you enter the deepest sleep. Typically this is when sleepwalking will occur, as this is the hardest sleep to wake out of. After SWS you enter REM.  Most scientists who work on dreams and dream theories tend to agree that your dreams occur when you enter this stage of sleep. In REM, your body paralyses your skeletal muscles. This way you don’t act out what you are dreaming. However this is also how sleep paralysis can occur, as you consciously become awake, however your muscles are still paralyzed. People will have sleep paralysis and actually dream that something is nearby ready to harm them, and it causes a scary experience, as you feel awake but you cannot move.

When you are sleeping your brain is still very active, it never rests. While you sleep your brain is does different things. One of them is recovering forgotten skills. As you sleep your brain helps restore and remember skills that you have learned during the day.  Research at the University of Chicago showed that people, who learn a difficult task at the beginning of the day, can’t remember it very well 12 hours later. However after a nights rest they were able to accomplish the same task. Another task researched at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston College is your brain decides what memories to keep and enhance so that you won’t forget them and what memories to let

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fade away. Your brain decides based upon how emotional you felt that the experience was. The more emotional the event, the stronger your brain makes that memory.

Bibliography

"Dreams: FAQ." UC Santa Cruz - Information Technology Services - ITS Template. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/FAQ/index.html>.

Common Questions About Dreams - International Association for the Study of Dreams." The International Association for the Study of Dreams. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.asdreams.org/subidxeduq_and_a.htm>.

Dominationtnn, PopUp. "What Is Your Brain Doing While You Are Sleeping?" Advanced Life Skills — Strategies for Positive Change. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://advancedlifeskills.com/blog/what-is-your-brain-doing-while-you-are-sleeping/>.

"Dream Moods: Dream Research: The Sleep Cycle." An Online Guide To Dream Interpretation. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamresearch.htm>.

"Dreaming and Dreams FAQ Frequently Asked Questions." Memory Brain Mind Research Technology Induced Altered States Using Binaural Beat Brainwave Syncronization Tapes Brain Wave Entrainment Technology for Altered States Meditation Relaxation Lucid Dreaming Stress Management Sleep Aid Enhancedlearning Depression Anxiety Self Help Zen. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://web-us.com/dream/dreamfaq.htm>.

Grohol, John M. "While You Sleep, Your Brain Keeps Working | World of Psychology." Psych Central - Trusted Mental Health, Depression, Bipolar, ADHD and Psychology Information . Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/08/03/while-you-sleep-your-brain-keeps-working/>.

"Why Can’t You Remember Your Dreams? – Sports Science Zone." Sports Science Zone. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://sportsj11.imascientist.org.uk/2011/06/why-cant-you-remember-your-dreams>.

"Your Brain Refuels While You Sleep." Wellformative. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://pressman.wellformative.com/your-brain-refuels-while-you-sleep>.

"Why Do We Dream - Theories of Why We Dream." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm>.

Why Do We Dream? | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-literary-mind/200911/why-do-we-dream>.

A Tale of Two Cities Explained

I think that Charles Dickens named his book “A Tale of Two Cities” because it is set in two different cities. Both of which are having problems. The French city of Paris is showing the peasants who are being under minded by the aristocracy. In the English city of London the British barrister is being depleted.

Poem

An Unaverage Poem by Karlee Arnold

I bet you expect me to write about something every one writes about
Something that rhymes and is silly
Or something that is serious and focused
But I am here to do neither
I am here to write about my unaverage poem
I write about the things no one cares to write about
The things no one cares to look upon
I am not a chameleon who blends in
I am a golden dove in a sea of white doves
A red tulip among only white tulips
I write just wrote the poem no one cares to write about

My reason for choosing this poem is that it is a poem that no one has thought of. The poem is unexpected because there is no real reason for writing this poem. It doesn’t have a real point to it other than, there is no point.

Big Question Abstract

Many different cultures all interpret dreams to their own degree. The Egyptians and Greeks both thought that dreams contained important messages, foreshadowing a good or bad fortune. The Romans thought that the dreams were based upon the person. Believing that it was the person’s job, social status and their overall well-being that affected the dream. The point of finding out is to really understand what goes on in the brain, when it is trying to connect things in the dream world to the real world. What is happening in there? To find information about this I plan on learning more about the brain, through book and the internet, mainly online articles.