Friday, September 26, 2014

Ontology: AP Literature and Composition



    Ontology is the philosophical study of natural characteristics in the world. Humans use ontology in order to form the basis of what we believe things may be in our world; it helps us learn and understand our realm.

In Dante's Inferno, he providers readers with a story about the circles of hell and what is in them. What I've noticed is that he never really describes how the beings in his piece look which goes back to ontology. How we have been raised and how we have learned to associate words and descriptions to piece together our conceptualizations on things leads to how we interpret and visualize information given to us. While Dante doesn't really give descriptions, we as readers take the information given to us and conceptualize in our minds. We as readers envision the character descriptions however we have previously learned to or we incorporate given information which will form judgments for the future, just as we would when envisioning Minos in the story. This is where they begin to exist.

 There Minos stands,
Grinning with ghastly feature: he, of all
Who enter, strict examining the crimes,
Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath,
According as he foldeth him around:
For when before him comes the ill-fated soul,
It all confesses; and that judge severe
Of sins, considering what place in Hell
Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft
Himself encircles, as degrees beneath
He dooms it to descend.




In The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, readers face many descriptions of all different mythological creatures and demons. From descriptions, the beings begin to exist in our minds. While stories create an existence in our minds, many movies are made each year based on them. Past stories or movies might have created an idea of how a vampire or demon look, every time we see a different idea of how one might look, we stamp it into our brain. Movies bring every reader's envisions into actual existence in our world where we have to then aquire those learned associations which continuously shapes future ideas of existence in our minds.



 "Everything you've heard... about monsters, about nightmares, legends whispered around campfires. All the stories are true."- The Mortal Instruments

Friday, September 5, 2014

Archetype: AP Literature and Composition

      As Carl Jung has provided for the eyes of psychological perspectives, humans contain archetypes that help describe and reveal our motivations in life. 

      In East of Eden by John Steinbeck, one of the character's of the novel that presents characteristics of the archetype the innocent is Adam Trask. Adam is very naive and fails to notice the bad things in people such as Cathy or his father. His father favored him over his brother Charles and he never noticed just like how he favored his son Aron over his other son Cal. He was even oblivious to his own actions. While Adam always tries to remain positive and see the good in people such as Cathy, the woman he so blindly loved, he is way too trusting and he fails to notice the bad in her until it is too late. With his faith, optimism, and naiveness, Adam Trask embodied this archetype which helps create a contrast of his goodness compared to the bad in Cathy as well as other characters in the book.



     In the movie The Wizard of Oz, naive Dorothy resembles the archetype of the innocent because she too is always extremely positive and is always persevering to make everything great and to get back home again. She faces many challenges throughout the movie and manages to remain optimistic. An example of her extreme positivity is shown when she sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the lyrics in the song are all positive and mention getting rid of troubles and dealing with very happy, sappy things. Dorothy's archetype helps tie in the motif of good versus evil. Dorothy and Glinda are good, the wicked witch of the west and the flying monkeys are bad. She has to overcome the bad in them while maintaining her optimism in order to get past their evil.



Somewhere Over the Rainbow: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU