HTRLLAP Chapter 20

          'Daffodils' by Mark Slaughter encompasses the use to season to describe setting and provide information. Without the word "April," I would not have know when daffodils bloomed, nor would I probably have cared enough to find out. However, by including this one word to show the time of year, Slaughter connects the poem together, by showing both the daffodils and their state of bloom, while the reader can interpret their own Spring-ish background to the story.

I fell in love –
Taken by the innocence of 
Child-face daffodils: 

Their perky April fanfares – 
Clarion calls from yellow-ochre brass bands
Presaging, rejoicing, calling us: 

‘Here we are! Here we are! ’

HTRLLAP Chapter 19

          Geography is very important in George Orwell's Animal Farm. The farm itself is of course geography, it's size shows how even a vast area can be taken over by just one charismatic dictator, Napoleon the pig. The windmill is geography, it symbolizes the "prosperity" of Animal Farm, by showing they had the resources to built it, when in reality slave labor and existing materials were used to construct it. The farmhouse in which the pigs begin to live in once they assume more control is another method of using setting to progress the plot. The farmhouse is where the dictatorial farmer Jones lived, and when the pigs move in, it shows their final step in becoming exactly what they once despised: humans. Lastly, the barn on the farm is the last important part of geography in the novel. The barn is the last untouched, uncorrupted part of the farm. It's the only pure, healthy, and operational part of the farm that remains after the pigs take over.

HTRLLAP Chapter 18

          While reading this chapter, I realized that a baptism doesn't have to involve religion at all, but water is often a key factor. One of my favorite fiction works, Cormac McCarthy's The Road has a literary baptism that drastically impacts the father and son and the rest of the novel. When the father and son arrive at the ocean, they see a ship and the father swims out to it to scavenge for food and supplies. He obviously gets very, very wet. When he returns to land, he finds his and his son's shopping cart of supplies has been stolen. When they track down the perpetrator, the father takes everything back from the man, and more. He takes even the clothes from his back.
          This symbolic swim changed the father. Before, he wouldn't have been so severe to someone who simply stole their stuff, he would have just grabbed it back, made some threats, and left with his son. However, after he risks his life getting to the boat, he realizes that anyone who hurts his and his son's chances of survival basically needs to die. If not by his own hand, the resulting cold from being naked will do. If the son hadn't intervened and made his father give the man his initial belongings back, he would have certainly died a slow, agonizing death.

HTRLLAP Chapters 16 & 17

          One of the most memorable books I read in AP Lit last year (and totally hated at the time) was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. There is some seriously implied sex in the novel, especially when Heathcliff and Isabella get married. Heathcliff, who has no real interest in poor Isabella, lets her become enamored with him as revenge because she is Catherine's sister in law, when all he really wants is Catherine. So they elope and get married as the ultimate act of defiance to Edgar and Catherine, and some sexy times are seriously implied here. This helps develop Heathcliff's character as brutal and ruthless, he did get married to/ have sex with this poor woman just to make Catherine jealous, and Edgar angry. It also shows he's fairly lacking in the feelings department. It also symbolizes the ending of Isabella's freedom and happiness, because she lives most of the rest of her short life essentially imprisoned at Wuthering Heights. Then she dies after Linton in born, showing Heathcliff stole her innocence and her life.

HTRLLAP Chapter 15

          Greek Mythology is some of my favorite fiction ever. It's a whole bunch of stories basically saying you should listen to people who either know what they're talking about/ have power in a situation. My favorite Icarus's Wax Wings (I don't know if this is the title, but it's what I've decided to title it). Icarus is trapped on Crete with his craftsman father, Daedalus, who makes him some wax and feather wings that he can use to fly far away from the island. Daedalus warns him not to fly too close to the sun, because the wings will melt. Icarus blows him off, flies too high, his wings melt, and he falls and drowns. (Although, because of the height he likely fell from, drowning wouldn't be his largest problem. From a certain distance, falling onto water would be more like hitting concrete because of the surface tension...) So even though Icarus "drowns," his flight was symbolic of freedom up until his wings melted. He was escaping his life and struggles, and intended to start anew elsewhere.

Poor guy. Shoulda listened to your Pops.

HTRLLAP Chapter 14

          Shrek is a christ-figure. I think. Not being too familiar with Christianity, (I have a limited background in the business with an Atheist Mumsy and an I-Work-All-The-Time Dad being my outlets to learning stuff) so I might not be super accurate here, but I'm going to try.
          Shrek is awesome. He kicks butt and does what he wants, which isn't super Jesus-y, but he does meet some page 119 criteria. He gets shot in the butt with an arrow (close enough to the side), he's in agony over his land becoming a fairy tale creature refugee camp, he is eventually good with his adorable little ogre children, he's probably in his 30s, he totally has a donkey friend, spends time alone in the wilderness, he was confronted by the "devil" (Prince Charming's nutty Mommy, in Shrek 2. This was the worst one of the four, by the way), and used to be around thieves and other various jerks.

Bam, Christ Shrek.

HTRLLAP Chapter 13

          To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is beyond a doubt very political. In Foster's words, the book isn't political, it's "political." It wasn't written to make people think just about politics, and it wasn't meant to anger people either. It's "political," a novel where the politics creep in subtly under the plot, not dominating it. In Harper Lee's iconic novel, the politics seep in when Atticus Finch is defending the black man accused of murder (whose name I do not remember...) in court. he is found guilty by (surprise, surprise) an all white jury. In the south in the 1940s/50s, this was common and racism was rampant. While Lee never goes out and says trying blacks under this screwy justice system is wrong, she implies it through Scout's unhappiness during the proceedings.