Poem Interpretation

1. The main character is excited to go to war, but later finds out, war is cruel.  The main character is a young boy who joins the army.
2. The structure of the poem is in lines of pairs called couplets.
3. War is nothing but hatred
4. The first of each pair of lines will begin with "They said," and the second are his responses.
5. The images are descriptive. You can just see the emotional shift of the main character as the poem goes on.
6. Phil George, the author, repeats "they said", which the men tell the main character of what to do. He also has responses from the main character in each pair. For example They said, "You are no longer a lad."
I nodded.
7. The tone of the poem is tragic. A young boy is a victim to a war.
8. The author uses imagery and uses a lot of repition.
9. The structure of the poem helps the author convey his message by seperating each line into couplets with repeating words, "they said" and having an emotional change as the poem goes on.

AP Test thoughts

Overall the practice AP test we took in class was what I expected.  I expected some parts to be hard but also some parts to be easy.  I believe I did better on the essays rather than the multiple choice questions.  I thought that the multiple choic questions had questions where it seemed as if all the choices were correct. I learned that I have to study some practice AP questions and to study/review my AP terms.  By taking this AP practice exam, I believe it helped because I get a taste of what is to come for the real AP exam.

Dr. Tony Williams's Gresham College lecture on A Tale of Two Cities

• Despite Paris and London, there was a third city, Mamchestor.
• Concieved the idea while acting in a frozen deep.
• Each of Dickens' novels are portraying his life in a certain way.
• He lived in London because his father worked there. (His father later went to prison from his actions)
• He got the overall idea of the story from his experinces of his every day life there.
• Saw many different and unusual things in London, which resulted in him writing this story.
• He knew everything about London and Paris.
• He referenced London as a newspaper, everything is there, but nothing is connected.

Great Expectations Study Questions

(first 100 pages)

1. What is the title, "Great Expectations" refering to?
2. How does Pip's life represent Charles Dickens life when he was young?
3. What happened to Pip when he was visitng his parents grave stones?
4. Why does Pip live with village blacksmith Joe Gargery?
5. What is surprising about the attitude of the two convicts towards one another?
6. How did the first convict show his appreciation for Pip's loyalty?
7. How does Dickens satirize public education in chapter 7?
8. What is implied about England's government when Dickens has Joe tell Pip that Mrs. Joe, being given to government, does not want him to be able to read and write?
9. How does Estella criticize Pip, and what does his reaction to her criticism reveal about Pip?
10. Pip is ashamed of his home, and is unhappy there: why doesn't he run away?




Answers:
1. Pip runs into a lwayer who tells him that Pip will recieve money and great expectations in the near future.
2. Like Pip, Charles Dickens had a tough childhood. Dickens had to live on his alone and had to earn his own money as did Pip.
3. A convict dressed in rags seized him and demanded Pip to give him food and a way to saw of the chains that were on his foot.
4. Since Pip is an orphan, he has to live with his sister and her husband who is Joe Gargery.
5. Both the convicts, Magwitch and Compeyson, are sworn enemies and given half a chance they would immediately kill one another. Both of them have escaped from the prison ships and are in hiding on the marshes waiting for a suitable opportunity to make good their escape.
6. The convict shows appresciation by making sure Pip does not get in trouble for helping him escape.
7. Dickens explains that all public education cares about is the profit they recieve from housing the children and not the education they get.
8. Mrs. Joe is being compared to the Englush government because Dickens says that the English government does not want its lower classes to be educated. He believes that if the lower class recieves education they could rebel and take over the goverment.
9. She critisizes how Pip is just a common labouring boy. Pip for the first time feels ashamed of being "common". He felt inferior to her and later cries because of her cruelty.
10. Pip decides not to run away because he had no where lese to go and Joe had always been friendly and nice to him.

Great expectations first 10 pages

In the beginning of the story, pip, the main character is introduced. It starts with him in an england churchyard. We later find out that pip was an orphan who lived with his sister and her husband. This is similar to Charles dickens life because dickens had to live on his own as well. The beginning also showed how it was very tough to live in England.