Blog #3: AP English Literature Benchmark Prose Essay & Reflection/Revisions & Reflection

Prose Essay:

   In The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich, Mary and Karl arrive in the cold, foreboding town of Argus, Minnesota. The environment of Argus is unlike anything the siblings have previously experienced. Erdrich illustrates the impact of the cold on Mart and Karl. She also uses specific details to demonstrate how the tree effects Karl.

   When Mary and Karl get off the freight train at Argus, the severe cold is the first thing to greet them. It was so cold, "they stumbled and scraped their palms and knees through the cinders." The imagery of the cold symbolizes the unwelcoming harshness of Argus and implies something unpleasant may happen to the kids. In particular, Karl us shown to be not welcome in Argus. Initially, it is the cold that rejects him. Later, it will be the guard dog that chases him out of Argus.

   The on e redeeming quality of Argus, in Karl's perspective was the blossom tree. This tree was, "a scratch of light against the gray of everything else." Karl immediately gravitates towards this tree and ignores anything else. Erdrich points out the fine features of this tree that Karl is attracted to. She describes the "delicate perfume" and "tossed in a film of blossoms." Everything about this tree is elegant and graceful. A harsh contrast to the surrounding environment. By describing the tree the way she does, Louise Erdrich associates its characteristics to Karl and separates it from Mary and the rest of Argus.

   Mary and Karl have stumbled upon a new world in Argus, Minnesota. A world completely foreign to them and in some ways, a world that rejects them. The harsh cold and isolated blossom tree represent their relationship with the environment. Through imagery and specific detail, Louise Erdrich forges this connection and contextualizes Mary and Karl's place in the environment.

Reflection:
   This was my second attempt at an AP Lit essay and my first with a prose essay. To be frank, this essay was considerably worse than my previous attempt. For whatever reason – maybe I was tired or hangry – I stumbled around the prompt, struggling to uncover a deep meaning of the text. As a result, my essay is very basic in its analysis. Although I brought up imagery and specific details, I never really connected that back to the prompt or explained how the evidence connected to the environment's impact on Karl and Mary. As a result, my essay was unfocused and shallow. I believe this essay was worth the score of a 3. One way I think I could improve my score is to spend more time thoroughly sifting through the prompt, focusing on finding the smaller nuances of the text.

Comments:

http://tongnoahapliterature2015.blogspot.com/

This prose essay on "The Beet Queen" by Louise Erdrich does have potential, but in the end fails to effectively explain the points it makes. It touches on insightful points such as the lack of dialogue and symbolism. The essay just does not deliver a thorough analysis that would befit a higher scoring analysis. A score of a 3 is fair. Like the writer expressed, better planning of the essay and a deeper analysis of the prompt would improve this essay.

Blog #2: AP English Literature Benchmark Poetry Essay & Reflection/Revision & Reflection

    In the poem, For That He Looked Not upon Her by George Gascoigne, the narrator expresses his conflicted emotions when approached by a new potential lover. Gascoinge employs a metaphor in his poem to illustrate the thoughts that are racing through the narrator's mind as he struggles to get over his past experiences. The poet also uses rhyming schemes to portray the narrator's emotions.

    From lines 5-8, George Gascoinge compares the speaker's experience with a woman to a mouse wary of bait on mousetraps. He describes the mouse, having previously escaped a trap before, to be "still in doubt of deep deceit." The metaphor parallels what the narrator has probably experienced with his past lovers. The narrator likely had his heart broken in the past because of what a woman did to him. Thus, like the mouse, the speaker is now wary of any new love in his life, fearing that the past may repeat itself. By using this metaphor, Gascoinge shows how the narrator's conflict is completely natural, as even mice can experience the same emotions. By giving this subtle information about the speaker, Gascoinge allows the reader to understand the narrator's perspective and have some empathy toward him.

    Gacoinge also demonstrates the speaker's complex attitude through his rhyming scheme. In general, the poem is organized into groups of 4 lines where every other line rhymes. For example, lines 1 and 3 rhyme with strange and range, and lines 2 and 4 rhyme with low and grow. There are, however, two exceptions to this pattern. Lines 6 and 8 form an imperfect rhyme, with bait and deceit. The difference in these lines demonstrates how the narrator feels as these lines occur. Lines 6 and 8 both make up part of the mouse metaphor. By having a dissonance in his rhyming pattern, Gacoinge indicates that the speaker is conflicted himself. He recognizes the harmony that this new woman brings to his life, but his past experiences force a conflict inside. This is a subtle detail that Gacoinge uses to hint at what the speaker's attitude is.

    The exception to the rhyming pattern of the poem are the last 2 lines. These lines rhyme perfectly with each other, instead of continuing the every other line pattern from before. This may indicate that the narrator has set aside his qualms about the past and is willing to accept his new love interest, as she brings harmony to his life. These lines are also indented, which may further show that they are disconnected from the rest of the poem, disconnected from what has happened in the past. The narrator, it seems, is ready to move on to the  next step in his life.

    In just a 14 line poem, George Gascoigne is able to tell an intriguing love story. Through the use of purposeful rhyming and a descriptive metaphor, the reader is able to get a perspective on the narrator's emotions.

Reflection:
The poem For That He Looked Not upon Her by George Gascoingne was my first experience with analysing a poem. In this poem, Gascoingne describes a man who is skeptical of a woman’s love after his past experiences. Personally, I felt that I was able to understand most of what Gascoingne was trying to convey. For me the most learning resulted from deconstructing the metaphors between animals and the speakers struggles with love. Initially, I was a bit concerned about how I could handle the abstract language that many poems contain. Afterwards however, I was more confident in my ability to perform on the poetry essay. I believe, in general my essay contained a solid argument for my interpretation of the poem. It may not have contained the technical terms such as “ABAB rhyming scheme”, but I feel like I did understand the passage and did a decent job analysing it. I gave specific examples from the poem such as “still in doubt of deep deceit” that helped strengthen my essay. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but I think my first attempt at a poetry essay was quite good and deserves the score of a 6.

Comments:
This essay contains effective points on diction and imagery, and uses direct quotes from the poem to support its argument. The essay also attempts to make a connection between the quotes and  the speakers attitude that "regret is the only feeling when your love, your significant other is no longer with you." This connection, although apparent, is not fully brought to life as the essay does not delve deeper into how the poem's diction or imagery demonstrates the attitude of the speaker. Overall, this essay contains the right content to reach an upper level score, but ultimately fails to consider the nuances of Gascoigne's poem. A few small edits would increase this essay's score, but a mostly superficial analysis earns this essay the score of a 5. 

http://patelyashapenglish2016.blogspot.com/

This essay does well to discuss the imagery and figurative language of George Gascoigne's essay. The three points that the essay makes are each valid and are supported by evidence from the poem. However, none of the three points are explained sufficiently to reach the point of a high level essay. The analysis is rather barren and superficial. With some more explanation of the points, this essay would have been pretty solid. That said, the lack of adequate analysis brings down the score to a 4. Potentially shortening it to 2 body paragraphs may have helped the writer better explain his ideas. In general, this essay is not a bad start.

http://tongnoahapliterature2015.blogspot.com/

REVISED DRAFT:


In For That He Looked Not upon Her, George Gascoigne admits his weariness to commit to a new love. Gascoigne illustrates the speaker's conflicted emotions to reveal the forces that are pushing him both towards and away from a new lover. By utilizing specific metaphors of a mouse and a fly, as well as an imperfect Shakespearean sonnet rhyming scheme, Gascoigne crafts his poem to demonstrate the speaker's hesitance to commit to love after his brutal experiences in the past.  
In lines 5-8, Gascoinge compares the speaker's experience with a new woman to a mouse wary of bait on mousetraps. He describes the mouse, having previously escaped a trap before, to be "still in doubt of deep deceit." The metaphor parallels what the speaker has experienced with past lovers. He likely had his heart broken by the pain that a woman inflicted upon him. A similar metaphor is employed in lines 9-10, describing a fly that "once hath 'scaped the flame." Again, much like the mouse, this fly will tend to avoid the thing that had come close to taking its life. Thus, like the mouse and the fly, the speaker is now wary of any new love in his life, fearing that the past may repeat itself. By using this metaphor, Gascoinge shows how the speaker's conflict is completely natural, as even simple animals such as mice and flies can experience the same misgivings. By giving this subtle information about the speaker, Gascoinge allows the reader to understand the speaker's perspective and have some empathy toward him.
   Gascoigne also demonstrates the speaker's complex attitude through the sonnet form of his poem. However, Gascoigne alters the traditional Shakespearean sonnet form by crafting an imperfect rhyme between lines 6 and 8. These lines, ending with "bait" and "deceit", depicts the speaker's feelings during this part of the poem. The imperfect rhyme in the mouse metaphor hints to the reader the discord the speaker is feeling.  He recognizes the harmony that this new woman brings to his life, but like the mouse, his past experiences force a conflict inside. The imperfect rhyme is subtle sign of the speaker's complex emotions.
   The rhyming couplet at the end of the sonnet reveal the speaker's intentions for the future after his emotions have battled between themselves. In contrast to the imperfect rhyme in lines 6 and 8, these lines rhyme perfectly with each other,indicating that the speaker has set aside his qualms about the past and is willing to accept his new love interest, as she brings harmony to his life. Furthermore, these lines are indented, which show that they are disconnected from the rest of the poem, disconnected from what has happened in the past. The speaker has convinced himself that he is ready to move on with his love life and forget the tragedies of the past. This new woman completes him and he is ready to accept her.

    In just a 14 line sonnet, George Gascoigne is able to tell an fascinating love story. The speaker goes through a conflict of emotions before convincing himself to move forward in life. Through the use of purposeful rhyming patterns and descriptive metaphors, Gascoigne little by little reveals the speaker's intense, complex feelings.

Reflection:
After the 3 sentence thesis and shift activities, I feel like I was more prepared to analyze the nuances of George Gascoigne's poem. Like I told my group, I was able to analyze the meanings of Gascogne's words and not just regurgitate what he said. I think these activities helped set a framework for my essays to potentially reach the upper level scores. If I am able to continue my education of closely analyzing poetry, I think I will be able to write poetry essays at a high level.

Blog #1: AP Literature Multiple Choice Test Reflection

The practice AP Literature multiple choice test challenged me with abstract pieces of writing that forced me to deeply consider the author’s meaning behind his choice of words. With Love Poem by John Frederick Nims and Excerpt from As I Lay Dying, “Addie”, by William Faulkner, the practice test assessed my knowledge of the entire spectrum of literature. For me,the most useful element was the realization I needed to improve my ability to wield technical terms such as invective, parable, and enjambment. Previously, I felt that literature was mostly analytically and inferentially based, but there is still a significant portion where knowing the technical aspects is necessary.  This is perhaps to previous tests I have taken such as the SAT or AP Comp where the technical aspect of literature was not as accentuated. This is similar to becoming familiarized with new vocabulary words, as a wider breadth of knowledge certainly helps with making the right connections in studying English. Having experienced my first dose of AP Literature, I now realize there is more to literature than reading a passage and understanding what it it saying. This understanding will be essential to me as a learner because I would like to appreciate works of writing not just for their surface level meanings, but the symbols and hidden messages they convey. As a next step, I need to expose myself to the technical information of literature to journey further into true understanding of writing.