Defiance

A topic that particularly stood out in Frankenstein was the idea of defiance. We saw defiance displayed in both the characters of Frankenstein and his creature. Frankenstein, for one, created his own defiance when he crafted a human being; taking on the role of God. He also defied the law of nature, disproving the natural order of things by creating man artificially without the role of woman. His obsessive thirst for knowledge might have crossed a boundary that stood between what is known and what is not meant to be known. Therefore, Frankenstein busted out of the shell that encloses the scientific comfort zone of his day, and he created something that was not meant for humans to accomplish.

Next, we see defiance take on another form when the monster adapts his own personality, and realizes that his abandonment marks his loneliness. By living in isolation and fear of being spotted, the monster learns to despise Frankenstein for disregarding and hating him. The monster seeks to destroy Frankenstein's life and defies the role of creator and creation. He chooses to rebel against Frankenstein, which creates conflict for both of them.

Change in Frankenstein

Change is the transformation or alteration of something. The idea of change can be applied to anything. In literature, we watch stories and characters undergo change, and learn from their transformation. What makes a character change are his or her environment, personal conflict, and the people he or she interacts with. Victor Frankenstein, before immersing himself in the science world, was a young man who was uncorrupted by knowledge. However, once he grabbed hold of the idea of creating a living being, he changed dramatically and became obsessed with his work, and cut himself off from the world. All Frankenstein could think about was succeeding in his experiment, and he worked nonstop to accomplish his creature. At the time, he did not realize how desolate his state was, because he lived in the moment. Every minute he spent on his creature soaked life out of him as he grew weaker and less conscious of his own well being. The change Frankenstein exhibits results from his strive to accomplish the impossible, and his yearning for success made him obsess over accumulation of knowledge, which made him disregard his health and social life. However, Frankenstein never acknowledges his drastic change until he retells his story to Walton. The fact that he recognized a difference in himself shows that he awakened from his strange state, and will never take the same road again in his life.

Knowledge

Overall, Victor Frankenstein had his life set in two worlds. One stage consisted of innocent acquirement of knowledge, and the next stage was the consequences of accumulating knowledge. Therefore, Frankenstein is a great example of what accompanies the subject of knowledge.
Human beings are born with knowledge. And in life, we expand our natural knowledge by exploring and learning about the world. Knowledge is a gift, and we try to use it to our full extent, which is reflected in science and research. The problems of knowledge are that we don't know about the topic of interest, and are never prepared for what to expect. Knowledge is a never ending quest, because we feel we should know as much as we can about everything around us, and sometimes our ego can lead to disastrous ends, such as the atomic bomb and other destructive weapons. Knowledge is paired with moral standards, because people are essentially responsible for what they learn about, and how they put their new knowledge to use. In Victor Frankenstein's case, he kept his knowledge a secret, and the monster he creates is freed into the outside world and Frankenstein holds responsibility for what it has done.

Psychoanalytic Criticism/Theory

The critical reading theory I chose to study is the psychoanalytic theory. This theory, from what I know, focuses its studies on the human unconscious and how a person's irrational psyche plays a role in the person's acts and dream, but is unavailable to his or her consciousness. The theory studies human psychological functioning and behavior and interprets a character through his or her actions, words, and inner conflict. Much of this theory is partly due to the Austrian psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, who believed all humans possess an unconscious state that contains all their hidden desires and emotions. Freud also came up with the Oedipus Complex, which is often applied to many works of literature. The Oedipus Complex implies that children subconsciously have feelings of desire for the parent of the opposite sex, and compete with the same-sex parent for the attention of the other. This theory is an example of a person's unconscious state of mind, and his or her actions reveal that mindset.
The psychoanalytic theory can also apply to real-world subjects. For example, a person who has often been abused in a relationship may leave her abusive partner, but she keeps falling into an abusive relationship with other men, because this kind of interaction is all she's ever had. Therefore, she doesn't know this is happening, but she keeps letting it happen.

First Six Weeks

I think the past six weeks have gone by very quickly. I'm surprised by the amount of work we've done so far in AP Literature. I have never written four essays in that short amount of time before, and having done so makes me feel accomplished as a student. So far, the workload that has been given to me is much better than that of last year's, and I feel I can manage myself accordingly. I definitely enjoy being in my AP Literature class. I find it interesting and challenging, which I think suits me. As for senior year, I think it's great so far. I love most of my classes, and find this year to be refreshing, yet a long journey to accomplish. I'm just nervous for college applications, because I haven't really done anything to get started yet. I think it's great being a senior, because I can almost taste the freedom, but I'm not yet ready to leave home for college. I just hope the year will continue to flow as smoothly as it does now. I just have to wait and see!

Oedipus -- Tragic or Not?

Week 4 (9/7-9/10)


When I first read "Oedipus the King", a few skeptical questions occurred in my mind. First of all, I felt bad for Oedipus, because he had no way of escaping his fate, no matter how hard he tried to avoid the gods' prophecy. He was born to a doomed father, and also born with a curse that he had no control over. Therefore, I thought it was unfair for Oedipus to suffer so much, especially after earning the throne.
Next, I wondered why Oedipus never expressed any guilt for killing the men (whose identities he did not know) in the crossroads. In the story, Oedipus is viewed as a great man and ruler, and every one in his kingdom lionizes him and see him as their father figure. Oedipus did not appear tainted by murders he committed, and that appeared strange to me.
But in spite of all this, I think the series of events that occurred, because Sophocles wanted to convey that man is mortal, and can be bound for downfall at any time. If Oedipus had any flaws despite the great respect he is given in the opening of the play, his flaws may be his confidence, slight arrogance and ignorance of the situation around him.

Bartleby, The Scrivener

Week 3 Blog: (8/30-9/3)

This week, I learned by reading "Bartleby, The Scrivener" by Herman Melville that characters can influence each other in a story. In class, we examined both the characters of Bartleby and the boss. Bartleby was considered isolated, strange, perhaps mentally ill, and depressed. Because he acts strange and refuses to comply with his boss, the boss undergoes a change in his own character. Unsure of what to think of his strange, hard-working employee, the boss settles on a compassionate side for Bartleby and learns to become patient through understanding and consideration for the vagrant. In order to understand a story, I realize that a reader must first study the characters and acknowledge how they change, then identity the causes of the change. A story is written because an author intends to tell about his or her characters and show how their morality evolves as other characters and events encounter them.