Showing posts with label Yahya Hafez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yahya Hafez. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Senior Memoir Projects
For the past month (and a half?) we've been working on our senior memoir projects in and outside of class. The goal of the project is to create a memorabilia that we can all proudly look back on and show others of our life in high school and as seniors and even before that. The project is bittersweet. I want to make it look great and make it as good as it can be, but I'm not the most creative so I'm getting help from friends and family. The project makes you look back at your whole life and at high school, and you just can't help but think that time has gone by so fast. Not only that, but the idea that we're turning in this grand project reflecting on our entire life thus far is scary in its own right because it reminds us that graduation is only a few weeks away, and pretty soon, all of our lives are going to be changed. As I'm wrapping up this project, I can't help but feel that another chapter in my life is complete, but I'm also excited to think that a whole new chapter is about to begin.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Les Miserables
In my book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, the author begins telling us the story of man named M. Myriel, describing him under the title of "A Just Man". Hugo details the story of how this man ended up becoming the renowned bishop of a town by the name of D---- (Hugo doesn't explicitly state the names of the main cities in his novel, probably so that the reader is not tempted to check the historical accuracy of the events, but rather view them as a separate piece of history). Hugo then describes the extreme selflessness of this man, who the townspeople end up calling "Monseigneur Bienvenu" because of the extent of his generosity.
Hugo goes into great detail about this man, but surprisingly enough, this character doesn't even make it past the first-tenth of the book. Rather, the focus is shifted towards a character named Jean Valjean, a galley slave who has recently been freed from his 17-year sentence in prison. Jean Valean meets M. Myriel and is originally seen as a sort of minor character who although pitiable, was an ideal "foil" of M. Myriel, possesing a deeply ingrained hatred of society and mankind as opposed to M. Myriel's love and care for society. Yet the incredible detail Hugo attributes to (what can be seen as) the sub-plot of M. Myriel helps the reader understand the extent in which he is able to impact our protagonist Jean Valjean. M. Myriel shows Jean Valjean extreme compassion, accepting him into his house, feeding him, offering him his most prized possession, and saving him from arrest officers, on terms that Jean Valjean turns his life around and follows the path of God. After rejection from every house and every Tavern in D---, this profoundly impacts Jean Valjean, and our knowledge of the story of M. Myriel helps the reader see exactly how and why.
Almost all the life and actions of Jean Valjean in the rest of the book seem to be directly caused by the effect of M. Myriel on him. By using this tactic of emphasizing a sub-plot in great detail then tying it back into the main plot, Hugo is able to vastly increase the emotional and literary depth of his story and progress the plot and show character changes in ways that most authors are unable to. He uses this interesting technique several times in the text-- almost every time he introduces a major character. In fact, he uses this technique three times (so far, at the point where I am in the story) to describe the protagonist, once as "Jean Valjean", once as "a stranger saving a child", and once as "Monsieur Madeleine", showing the reader different perspectives of the same character and increasing the reader's understanding of him/her.
Hugo goes into great detail about this man, but surprisingly enough, this character doesn't even make it past the first-tenth of the book. Rather, the focus is shifted towards a character named Jean Valjean, a galley slave who has recently been freed from his 17-year sentence in prison. Jean Valean meets M. Myriel and is originally seen as a sort of minor character who although pitiable, was an ideal "foil" of M. Myriel, possesing a deeply ingrained hatred of society and mankind as opposed to M. Myriel's love and care for society. Yet the incredible detail Hugo attributes to (what can be seen as) the sub-plot of M. Myriel helps the reader understand the extent in which he is able to impact our protagonist Jean Valjean. M. Myriel shows Jean Valjean extreme compassion, accepting him into his house, feeding him, offering him his most prized possession, and saving him from arrest officers, on terms that Jean Valjean turns his life around and follows the path of God. After rejection from every house and every Tavern in D---, this profoundly impacts Jean Valjean, and our knowledge of the story of M. Myriel helps the reader see exactly how and why.
Almost all the life and actions of Jean Valjean in the rest of the book seem to be directly caused by the effect of M. Myriel on him. By using this tactic of emphasizing a sub-plot in great detail then tying it back into the main plot, Hugo is able to vastly increase the emotional and literary depth of his story and progress the plot and show character changes in ways that most authors are unable to. He uses this interesting technique several times in the text-- almost every time he introduces a major character. In fact, he uses this technique three times (so far, at the point where I am in the story) to describe the protagonist, once as "Jean Valjean", once as "a stranger saving a child", and once as "Monsieur Madeleine", showing the reader different perspectives of the same character and increasing the reader's understanding of him/her.
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