TyroCity: Major English XI Notes

Wet Saturday

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Wet Saturday
by John Collier

Summary of Wet Saturday

It was a Saturday in July. The weather was wet Mr. Princey, his wife, his daughter, Millicent and his son. George was in their house. They were discussing the bad thing Millicent had done. She had killed the local priest; Withers Millicent had been in love with Withers. She met him in the stable. He told her that he was going to marry another girl. Millicent became very angry and hit Withers on the head with a metal stick. She killed him.

Mr. Princey thought no-one would have seen Withers come to their house. He was saying, “Who would kill Withers?” when a man called Captain Smollett came in. Captain Smollett laughed because he thought Mr. Princey was making a joke.

Mr. Princey asked Smollett to go to the stable. They told him that Millicent had killed Withers because they were afraid Smollett would guess the truth anyway. Mr. Princey said he would kill Smollett if he told anyone that Millicent had Withers. Mr. Princey said he couldn’t trust Smollett, so he made it look as if Smollett had murdered Withers. George hit Smollett in the face to make it look like there had been a fight. He made Smollett touch the post that used to kill Withers, so that his fingerprints would be on it. Mr. Princey pointed a gun at Smollett and forced him to drag the dead body into a drain.

Now many things made it look as if Smollett had killed Withers. Mr. Princey said he did this to make sure Smollett would never tell anyone about the murder. However, as soon as Smollett had left the house, Mr. Princey called the police.

Dream Variations

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Dream Variations
by Langston Huges

Summary of Dream Variations

The poem Dream Variations by Langston Hughes is a nostalgic lyric which poignantly expresses the singer’s wish for a carefree life away from color persecution and racial discrimination. This poem is notable for its musical changes. In Hughes’s own words, his poetry is about “workers, roustabouts and singers, and job hunters… in New York, ….in Washington or… in Chicago- people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten…”

The poet wants to enjoy different types of games in some sunny place. He likes to move and dance until the end of the happy day. Then in the evening he wants to rest under a tall tree until it is dark. This is his dream. But the reality is different. He has to work in spite of the hot sun. He keeps on working as if he were dancing and moving round. Because he is very busy, the day passes so quickly. He feels weak in the evening and wants to have a rest. But his desire to take a rest is incomplete. His desire to find a tall, slim tree remains incomplete in the city.

The night comes painfully reminding him that he is black, not white; like the night which nobody likes. In this poem the poet longs for the freedom of a less complicated world. This nostalgic look at Africa was typical of the work of many writers at that time.

The first stanza describes the poet’s dream. He wishes for a carefree life away from color persecution and racial discrimination. In his dream even the nigh is not black: it is only dark. In the first dream he is not in the city. He is completely engrossed in the rural area. But in the second stanza, he dreams after the tiring day’s work. The dream to take a rest under a tree remains unfulfilled. The first stanza describes his nostalgic feelings which he enjoyed in the past. In the second one his dream is incomplete. There are different types of dreams described in the poem. That’s why the poem is entitled ‘Dream Variations’

In the first stanza, there are nine lines, but in the second one there are eight lines. In the first stanza we find twenty-two stressed syllables and in the second there are twenty-one stressed ones. In the first stanza mostly we find unstressed syllables between stressed ones, but in the second stanza we find two lines where there is not an unstressed syllable between the stressed syllables.” Dance! Whirl? Whirl! … A tall, slim, tree … “This quick tempo matches with the sense. To quote Alexander Pope, “The sound must seem an echo to the sense”.

O My Loves Like a Red, Red Rose

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

O My Loves Like a Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns

Summary of O My Loves Like a Red, Red Rose

Stanza 1
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

Summary of Stanza 1
The speaker presents two similes, the first comparing his love to a rose and the second comparing his love to a melody. The speaker also uses repetition to echo his sentiments–my luve’s like in lines 1 and 3; that’s newly and that’s sweetly (pronoun, verb, and adverb combinations) in lines 2 and 4.

Stanza 2
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Summary of Stanza 2
The speaker addresses the young lady as bonnie (pretty). Bonnie is derived from the French word bon (good). In the last line of the stanza, a’means all and gang means go. This line introduces to the poem hyperbole, a figure of speech that exaggerates.

Stanza 3
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

Summary of Stanza 3
The speaker links the first line of the third stanza with the last line of the second stanza by repetition. The speaker continues hyperbole in the second and fourth lines. He also again relies on repetition in the third line by repeating the third line of the second stanza.

Stanza 4
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve,
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!

Summary of Stanza 4
The speaker again addresses his beloved, noting that though he must leave her for a while he will return for her even if he must travel ten thousand miles. Repetition occurs in the first and second lines, and hyperbole occurs in the last line. Fare-thee-weel means fare thee well.

Of Cocks and Men

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Of Cocks and Men
by Clifford Geertz

Summary of Of Cocks and Men

Men in Bali love cocks and cock-fighting. A lot of Balinese language refers to cocks. And Balinese men spend a lot of time taking care of their cocks. They get special food, baths with herbs and their feathers are brushed.

The Balinese people see animality (being like an animal) as the opposite of humanity (being like a person). They hate behavior that is like an animal. So children are not allowed to crawl on the ground and when children become adults their teeth are made smooth so that they do not look like an animal. Balinese people think that eating and going to the toilet are disgusting. So these actions are done very quickly and privately. Balinese people hate and are fascinated by the “Powers of Darkness“, the double nature of man being both animal and human. Cocks make Balinese men think of these things.

The Balinese use the cockfights as a way of calming evil demons. They are thought to be a form of sacrifice. Cockfights are held for natural disasters and religious festivals. The lights are very violent, and they always end in the death of one cock. The owner of the winning cock takes the body of the dead cock to his home. An owner who has a losing cock may become mad and curse the gods for his bad luck.

Paper

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Paper
by Catherine Lim

Summary of Paper

Tay Soon dreamed of having a beautiful house with a swimming pool. His wife, named Lee Yian, and his children also dreamed of having a wonderful house. At the time of the story they were living in the house of Tay Soon’s mother, but Lee Yian was unhappy there. Tay Soon and his wife had already saved 40,000 dollars, and they wanted to borrow the rest of the money that would be needed to buy the house.

At that time, the stock market became very popular. People were buying shares in companies and then selling them when the price of the shares went up, They were becoming rich doing this. Tay Soon and Lee Yian bought shares and soon the value of their money doubled. They told Lee Yian’s sister to buy shares, and she also made money. Tay Soon‘s mother, however refused to buy shares.

After some time, just as Tay Soon was dreaming of being very nice. The price of shares went down, and he began to lose his money. He did not sell his shares because he thought the price would go back up again. However, the value of his shares continued to go down until he had lost all his money. Lee Yian and Yee Yeng’ also lost their money.

Tay Soon went mad. His dream of owning a beautiful house had been destroyed. He stopped going to work and he beat his children. Finally, he had to go to hospital.

Tay Soon’s mother said she would pay for his funeral. She asked a man to make a paper house to look exactly like the one Tay Soon had dreamed of owning. The house was made of the best quality paper. It was beautiful. It had a paper swimming pool and paper cars like the ones Tay Soon had dreamed of owning.

The paper house was burned at Tay Soon’s funeral. It burnt in three minutes.

When Icicles Hang by the Wall

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

When Icicles Hang by the Wall
by W. Shakespeare

Summary and Critical Analysis of When Icicles Hang by the Wall

In winter the dipping water freezes and hangs; the shepherd breathes his finger-nails to warm them; Tom carries wood to the fireplace; milk is frozen in the bucket while taking it home; people feel biting cold and the roads are muddy because of rain. At night the owl stares and sings a happy song. And the cook prepares steaming soup to keep the family members warm. The blowing of the wind can be heard everywhere. When the priest starts preaching, his voice cannot be heard because of the cough. In the snow birds protect their young by covering them with their wings. Marian has to clean her nose continuously. So it has turned red. In the kitchen small sour apples are being roasted to make jelly, and the owl sings a happy song at night.

At the conclusions of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost are two songs, one in praise of spring, one of winter. The pleasure of spring is the obvious ones of the outdoors. As in a debate, in the second poem, “When Icicles Hang by the Wall,” the second speaker presents the claim for winter. He is willing to concede the disadvantages of winter-its cold, its muddy roads, its wind, the throat and nasal discomforts we all endure-nut his plea for winter is a subtle one. The poet presents the harshness of winter without using words like “cold” or “unpleasant”.

For this he uses the following expressions: ‘blow his nail’, ‘blood is nipped’, ‘ways be foul’, ‘all aloud the wind doth blow’, ‘coughing drowns’, ‘nose looks red and row’. All these represent the harshness of winter-its cold, its muddy roads, its wind, the throat and nasal discomforts. He arranges each stanza to move us indoors, for there we experience the pleasures of his season. Roasted crab apples sizzling in hot cider, steaming soup tended by a perspiring maid, a warm room: these are pleasures all the keener for the cold we know is just outside.

Two false approaches often taken to poetry can be avoided: the first is that approach which always looks for a moral or a lesson, and the second that which expects to find poetry always beautiful. This poem has no moral, nor is it beautiful. Poetry may deal with common colds and greasy kitchen maids as legitimately as with sunsets and flowers, and give no message or noble truth about life, and still continue to be a favorite among readers for nearly four centuries.

Buffalo’s Bills

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Buffalo’s Bills
by E. E. Cummings

Summary of Buffalo’s Bills

Buffalo Bill’s by e. e. cummings plays with more than one possibility of meaning and attitude of the poet towards the subject, the dead hero, Buffalo Bill. In one sense, the poem is an expression of respect towards the heroic personality of the man. But if we read the poem critically, we sense that the poet is satirizing the traditional heroism of killing the arm-less and harmless animals with guns, from a distance! The reader is left free to interpret in his own way.

Even after reading the poem it is difficult to say for certain whether the poet is writing about Buffalo Bills life or death, heroism or cruelty on animals, his achievements or the irony that he also died the same death, or something else. Whatever the poet’s intention, we also know that he has left it deliberately untold, and so we are entitled to make multiple interpretations of the poem. The theme of the heroism is also true, but the theme of the irony of Cody’s un-heroic death is also equally true. This is truly a modernist poem in which one and certain meaning is neither intended nor possible.

After all, Cummings attitude toward William Cody could really have been ambivalent (mixed). This unique ‘concrete poem’ is based on the legend of Buffalo Bill, or the American Cowboy William F. Cody. It is partly a tribute to the legendary hero who ruthlessly killed buffalo as well as pigeons, and partly it is an ironic poem that tells us that no one is heroic in front of death. The poem’s typography (typing on the page) is alike a pistol and a gun. Its “howness”, as modern critics say, is more striking than its themes and meanings (or whatness).

Buffalo Bill is “defunct” or dead. The poet remembers how he used to ride a horse and go hunting. In his hunting spree, he would shoot down many pigeons or buffalo at a time, in a series. The poet laments: “Jesus”. This handsome man is no more. What he wants to know now is whether death liked the “blue-eyed boy” or Buffalo Bill. He addresses to death formally as “Mr. Death” and asks this curious personal question. Of course death doesn’t discriminate. The question turns out to be very ironic on a second thought.
The poem begins with the news of the hero’s death. But the word ‘defunct’ is unusually inappropriate. Defunct means “no longer operating, functioning or being used” as in the case of a machine or a law. This is unsympathetic. May be heroism has died with the hero! No one is mortal or even forever famous. The hero used to kill so many animals recklessly. William Cody, a former scout, became a hunter and killed thousands of American brown buffalo, which was almost pushed into extinction. This man was death for the animals. But his own death would not leave him. Cody later became an actor and stereotyped hero of hundreds of novels. He also became the cowboy symbolizing the Wild West. All this popularity and power of the “blue-eyed”, handsome Cody did not last. The poet becomes intimate with Mr. Death at the end of the poem, and he asks pretending not to know that death takes everyone whether it likes them or not. The question is rhetorical.

The poem is inconsistent in tone and theme. It begins with a neutral tone, which on a closer attention is actually ironic. Then it develops into serious lament at the word “Jesus”. But again, the address to death makes it ironic. The poet “I” establishes a closer relation with “you” or “Death” than with “he” or Buffalo Bill. Thus, the somehow sincere regard indirectly paid to the legendary hero is also complemented by a satire on his reckless killing, and the irony of his death that didn’t spare him.

The visual or typographical dimension of the poem is notable. If we draw lines around the two halves of the poem, the upper half up to the word ‘Jesus’ males the shape of a gun. But the gaps and line breaks are indicators of pause. The typography is also a direction for the reader as to how to read the poem.

A Small Place

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

A Small Place
by Jamaica Kincaid

Summary of A Small Place

This essay is about the Island of Antigua. In the essay, the author is addressing The Tourist. The Tourist is referred to using “you”.

The essay has the following themes:

The way tourists see Antigua is different from the way local people see it.
What tourists think of themselves is different from the way local people view them.
Antigua is a poor country and tourists come from rich countries.
There is corruption in Antigua.

These themes are developed in the following ways:

Tourists see the clean airport but do not see the poor schools and hospitals.
Tourists do not want rain. Antiguan farmers want rain.
The taxi driver drives dangerously. They live in small houses, but they drive expensive Japanese cars. This is because the Japanese banks will lend them money to buy Japanese cars.
Antigua is in a bad way. When the Prime Minister is ill he goes to the U.S. A because the local hospital is very bad. In 1974 the library was destroyed by an earthquake. It has never been repaired.
Antigua used to belong to Britain and the British people used Antiguan people as slaves. Now rich foreigners and drug dealers own most of Antigua.
The food the tourists eat was brought in from other places.
The tourists love the sea, but they do not know it is much polluted.
Tourists travel because they want to get away from their own countries.
Antiguans hate tourists and laugh at them.
Antiguans are poor and do not have enough money to travel.
The tourists come to the place that the Antiguans want to get away from.

A Very Special Pet

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

A Very Special Pet
by Nicholasa Mohr

Summary of A Very Special Pet

The Fernandez family lived in New York City. They had 2 pets: a cat named Marialu and a hen called Joncrofo. The family had bought Joncrofo to get an egg, but she had never laid any. She lived in the kitchen of the house. All the children in the family loved the hen very much.

The Fernandez family was very poor. Mr. Fernandez hoped to get a better job so that the family could buy a farm. Mrs. Fernandez was worried became Mr. Fernandez was ill and was not getting any better. She decided to kill Joncrofo and cook it for the family’s dinner. She told the children to go into another room, so she could kill the hen without them knowing. She planned to say that Joncrofo had flown away.

Mrs. Fernandez chased the hen all around the kitchen. When she caught the hen, it bit her, and she had to let go. She hit the hen with a broom many times until the hen was lying on the floor without moving. The children came into the kitchen because they had heard a lot of noise. They cried and shouted because they thought their mother had killed Joncrofo.

Mrs. Fernandez was sad. She knew she would not be able to cook the hen because the children would never eat it. The hen made a noise. Mrs. Fernandez picked it up, washed it, and gave it water and alcohol. Joncrofo recovered Mrs. Fernandez told the children the hen had been sick, and she had had to catch it to give it medicine. Then she started to clean the kitchen, and she dreamed of returning to a farm in the mountains.

Major English XI

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Mosaic: Family

Mosaic: Initiation

Mosaic: General Role

Mosaic: Identity

Mosaic: Class Conflict

Mosaic: Power

Alienation

Child Care in China

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Child Care in China
by Bruce Dollar

Summary of Child Care in China

In this essay, the author tells us what he thinks about the way the Chinese care for children before they go to school, His views are based on 2 visits he made to China when he travelled 2500 miles and visited many places.

The Chinese care for young children in several different ways. When their mothers are working the children are often left with grandparents, friends or neighbors. Young children are also looked after in pre-schools and kindergartens.

The way children are looked after is not the same in all places. For example the way children are cared for in villages is different from the way it is in cities. However, there are many similarities between the different places. Children usually play in groups. They are encouraged to share things and help each other.

The author is interested in the way teachers deal with improper behavior. The Chinese teachers he met prefer to control children by talking to them and persuading them to behave properly. They said they did not use punishment. The author also watched the way the children played, and he was impressed at the way the teachers join in with the games.

Children in China are often looked after by several women at the same time. The author calls this multiple mothering. The most important thing is that the women who look after children are constant warm and giving.

Although most women in China work away from the home, this has not had a bad effect on Chinese family life. The family is still very important and men are often seen looking after their children Finally the author says that Chinese people are happy when they are helping to make China a better place.

Pandora’s Box

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Pandora’s Box
by Rosalind Vallance

Summary of Pandora’s Box

In this play only The Chorus and The Leader of the Chorus speak. The Chorus is made up of l2 people. Normally they all speak at the same time. Sometimes only 6 of them speak-this is called The Semi-Chorus.

The other characters are Pandora (a girl). Epimetheus(a boy) and Hermes(a god). They do not speak. They only mime. The chorus and the stage directions describe what they do.
Pandora enters first alone and plays with an imaginary ball. Epimetheus enters and they throw the ball to each other. They are playing. They are happy.

The Leader of the Chorus is worried. Then Hermes enters and The Leader thinks he has come to bless the children. Hermes is carrying an imaginary box. Pandora is fascinated by the box. Hermes warns her, then smiles and leaves.

Pandora and Epimetheus begin to play again but Pandora is still fascinated by the box. She hears a voice coming from it. She lifts the box up and then opens it. The Troubles escape from the box and begin to attack her. Epimetheus and Pandora manage to beat The Troubles away.

The Chorus explains that Pandora has let evil out of me box and it is impossible to put it back again. Pandora hears another voice from the box. She listens carefully and, even though she is frightened she opens the box again. This time, Hope flies out.

Explanation

At the beginning of the play the world is trouble-free. It is a perfect world where children can play safely. The Troubles of the world are trapped in the box. Hermes brought the box with The Troubles inside and left it near Pandora. The god did not open the box; a human being opened the box. In other words, The Troubles would not have been released into the world unless a human being (Pandora) had not been curious.

When the box was opened, The Troubles came out into the world. This was the worst situation, because there was no hope. However, when the box was opened a second time, Hope was released. This explains the world as it is today. There are troubles, but there is also hope.