Practice AP test

Vendler graph "Out, Out" Robert Frost

model explained
Vendler Grid: 'Out, Out' Robert Frost

Meaning	If it isn't about you then you don't care. The lack of importance put on human life. The control that objects have over us.
Antecedent Scenario	Not sure right now what year it was written. I will look it up.
Structural Parts	Personification of the buzz saw. The youthful and naive reaction of the boy to his accident. The lack of response from everyone else.
Climax	The boy's hand is cut off.
Other Parts	There was back and forth between peaceful and anger in the beginning. The sister was something that the boy had a connection with. the way the accident's immediate aftermath didn't explicitly say it, but you definitely know what happened. I liked that and felt in the loop. The last paragraphs didn't include the saw because it had done its work already.

Skeleton	It begins with the snarling saw. Then the soft setting gives the tone. Back to the snarling. Then again to exposition. The sister coming to say dinner then it happened. More personification of the saw and hand. As if there was interaction. His response was so full of shock that terror was in a quieter form. The young boy, the victim. It goes from aggressive saw to innocent boy who lost the battle.
Content Genre- games	an ironic poem, a nostalgic poem, a poem for reflection and incitement, a calmly disposed poem
Tone	This is third person pov. The tone is direct and somewhat relaxed and at ease. tone is angry when talking about the saw, innocent when talking about the boy, secure when about the sister, remorseful in the aftermath although the bystanders weren't. The last paragraph has no hope. There were two short times of heightened emotion.
Agency	Yo, the buzz saw was super aggressive and took of the poor boy's hand for no reason. He was so close to going to dinner. The innocent youth never got to grow up. He was a sweet boy until death and the saw was a monster all the way through, as well.
Roads Not Taken	It mentions that if the work day had just ended earlier the accident wouldn't have happened before it happened. Then there would be no climax. shout out to Robert Frost for writing both of these poems. I like him. The road taken was a sad one and left an impact on the reader because of the lack of impact left on the other characters.
Speech Acts	The saw is on, then the scenery is nice, but the saw is idle and the boy is tending to his work, almost done with s peaceful day. The boy's sister comes to call him in, then his hand gets caught. His first reaction was almost trivial. Then reality set in and he realized that he is bleeding out and doesn't want his hand gone. It shouldn't have happened to a boy.
Outer and Inner Structural Forms	The sentences are shorter but straight forward. Adjectives and many other words on point, like "rueful laugh," "spilling," and "spoiled."
Imagination	I feel very repetitive with this grid, but I really like the story. Frost brought the saw to life, personified the object so that when it did its deed its presence was no longer needed or even missed. The boy was innocent and therefore perplexed and still not completely understanding of what the accident meant. He had his sister to somewhat confide in. The medicine put him under and he never came back. Everyone gave up before even trying to save him, though. That was what I really noticed at first -the lack of all that after sorrow. As long as they were not the dead ones it didn't really matter. How selfish. We had emotions drawn when reading about the boy and then our hearts were ripped out by the lack of response from the present characters. Reflection of selfishness.

Tobermorey Explained

short story here

In class:
Theme, tone, characterization

Cornelius Appin- direct characterization, barely invited, once he is there he has lost his first name status, 

Tone- gives me a negative connotation of the character, 

Other characters waiting for him to prove himself, they're just waiting to be entertained 

People care about what you do and not who you are

Reflection:
plot in terms of theme and tone
     The last line of the short story reminded me of how the judgmental hypocrites, aka the party guests, only cared about their own reputations. In order to protect themselves, they'd tear down others, especially Appin and Tobermorey once the guests were the victims. The  author's formal, direct narration supported the statements that Tobermorey was dishing out. The cat's nonchalant way that he approached the situation was to contrast the stress, embarrassment, and anger that the guests were feeling. Clovis suggests that Appin "got what he deserved," when it was the gossiping guests who should have been punished. The outsider from the start automatically became the scapegoat, no mater how intelligent and correct he was. I took from this short story that no matter how smart or right you are, if you're threatening to others who think that they're above you, they will want to terminate you.
     It makes me mad that Appin died with the elephants, who were suggested by the party guests, then it was said by those same people that he deserved it. 

Passion Project

March 29, 2015

Hello, my name is Victoria Tonascia and I’m here to ask you about what makes you happy. This is a little project that I’ve decided to start. I haven’t done anything like this before, but I would love to see how it goes. After having a few conversations with a friend about how much we enjoy listening to people talk about what they’re passionate about I had an idea. What if I could gather many stories from a large amount of people, take their pictures, and put them into one piece of work, such as a book? I’m confident that I can make this happen after working on a yearbook page earlier this morning in which I asked students questions and received personal answers. We are all very different people with unique lives and I’d love to listen to your perspective on what you love and what you are passionate about.

We don’t get to appreciate one another like we should or even recognize one another for who we are. I’m hoping that through this book I can create a unique piece of work that does both of those.

I am asking that you take some time and reflect on paper about what it is that makes YOU happy.

What are you passionate about? What do you love to do? Who do you love? What does it for you? Why do you do what you do? What makes you happy and why?

If you could respond with as much writing that you are willing to share, I would really appreciate it. My email is vtonascia@gmail.com. I’m also willing to receive hand written responses or do voice recordings if that would be more convenient or a better way to share.

Sincerely,

Victoria Tonascia

p.s. Thank you in advance for contributing to the Passion Project.

Progression and Passion

My masterpiece includes being involved and helping with as many masterpieces as possible. I'd like to help Elizabeth, Shailynn, Melissa, Alyssa, Daniel, and anyone else who wants my help! I should just put a sign up sheet or something for my labor ha! I'm honestly open to help and work on anything. I like organizing and being creative if that helps. This is kind of like me searching for a job. Pleas hire me because that's the only way this masterpiece will work. I'm working on making a separate blog or adding tabs on to this one specific to the masterpiece stuff. I'm taking pictures along the way and will add those into my masterpiece as well. It's definitely going to be a combination of several projects. I can say that I'm passionate about doing a lot of things at once. 

Yearbook

I have poured countless hours of my time into the making of this yearbook. My position as Co-Editor either gives me the praise or blame of how it's received by my peers. I'm nervous for that part. I think that part of my masterpiece includes the yearbook, nay, most definitely includes it. This Friday is the final deadline and after that I don't have to worry about finishing it! I'm beyond happy to have my work come to an end, but being the type of person that I am, I know that I will be my worst critic and I won't be completely satisfied. I do give myself props for taking this on for a newbie and creating something that I am proud of. 

March 19, 2015

Who I Was in High School from John Green

Huxley: Essayito

     First of all, I don't know what about him that really irritated me, but it did. Maybe because it was that I didn't agree with him on many of the topics he touched on. Maybe, it was how he touched on the topics that bothered me, too. To me he seemed too overconfident in his responses. Okay, well there's that. I do not believe that we are living in the brave new world that Huxley predicted. I might be influenced by how much I was irked by the man.
     He spoke about enemies of freedom being two things: overpopulation and over-organization. I did not like the claim he made about the Catholics being against abortion to help the Communists. I don't think that overpopulation is so much of an enemy to freedom. I am not in favor of killing people off or not letting them be born. I understand that supply is not going to meet demand at one point or another, but I 'd hope that people will figure out how to help one another.
     The over-organization part I can see where he's coming from since he is in the fifties (?) and historically a lot of bad people were coming into power along with the end of the Second World War. He was experiencing these things first hand and had a good reason to believe that sometime the propaganda and dictatorship will take over so much that there's no turning back. He did say that it won't be a "who," but a "what." That being technological advancements.
     I would hope that the general population could be responsible enough with the technology that we're being brought up with. The idea of potential misuse was very accurate, I do agree with that. Maybe being someone who is more conscious about it, I like to believe that it won't turn out badly. I don't exactly think that the devices are going to grow legs and terrorize us, so I'm not too clear on the start of whatever harm occurs. Unfortunately I have noticed in my lifetime the dependency we have on technology.
     We are not living in the brave new world that Huxley was speaking about in his interview or the book, but there are glimpses and signs that what he was saying had validity. He still bothers me.