Walt Whitman: Sea Drift: Out of the Cradle and Endlessly Rocking.

OUT of the cradle endlessly rocking,

Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,

Out of the Ninth-month midnight,

Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child
         leaving his bed wander'd alone, bareheaded, barefoot, 

Down from the shower'd halo,

Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if
         they were alive, 

Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,

From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,

From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fall-
         ings I heard, 

From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with
         tears, 

From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,

From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,

From the myriad thence-arous'd words,

From the word stronger and more delicious than any,

From such as now they start the scene revisiting,

As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,

Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,

A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,

Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,

I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,

Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them,

A reminiscence sing.

Big Question: Abstract

Background:  Debussy composed in a time where many were trying to diverge from Classicism.  The period before Debussy was Romanticism, a period that, too, revolted against Classicism, however, to make no real, significant changes.  Composers still wrote in Sonata form, with four bar motives, and resolving dissonance.
   
     "Romantic: a label that to my mind has no significance.  The language of Schumann, Berlioz, and Liszt is the classical language.  I hear in them all the same kind of music." --Claude Debussy.

Essentially, they wrote with the same aesthetics, or musical language, as Debussy put it.  He, having learned all of classical music, ten years at the Paris Conservatoire, disliked all of it, questioned all of Classicism's dogma.  He didn't believe music was anything his teachers said it was.  Due to this thinking, Debussy changed classical music, and now, many study his mind and music to understand why and how.

Need:  The need to study Debussy's mind and music is to unveil and understand this enigmatic and revolutionary composer.  This, sense he led a somewhat secluded and secretive life, is quite difficult and has been pursued since before he died.

Purpose:  Debussy accomplished something different.  Yet the inter-workings of this accomplishment remains shrouded and misty.  The purpose of my work is to remove the veil of dust and mist around his mind and music.

Structure:  This work will be structured mainly in two parts:  The psychology and life of Debussy that resulted in his philosophy and view on music as well as the technical, compositional, and the musically theoretical side of him.

AP Essay Practice: Number 1

"By their deeds shall ye know them." We often judge people by what they do; therefore, we consider people who commit cruel or reprehensible acts corrupt, base or amoral. In literature, however, authors often introduce us to characters whom we learn to like or even respect, despite their deeds. 

Write an essay about one such character for whom you developed admiration or compassion. Briefly explain why you felt his or her behavior to be condemnable or contemptible, and how the author's techniques influenced you to admire that person. Do not summarize the plot. (40 minutes)

            In the light, or perhaps shadow, of Holden Caulfield, the quote, “By their deeds shall ye know them,” is wrong.  Caulfield is not nearly understood when just looking at his deeds.  A person’s deeds can say a lot about their character, psychology, or culture, however, deeds can, too, be misleading.  People act certain ways regardless of their typical disposition when put in difficult situations.  There are so many outer world variables and forces influencing a person’s actions that, in some cases, one’s actions may be completely determined regardless of that one’s own desires, thus revealing to the watcher of the one’s deeds, a falsity, an incongruity between person and deed.  In Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger wrote Caulfield, on the surface of deeds, to be extremely disagreeable.  However, within Caulfield’s depths, we find a different truth.  This is revealed to us by Salinger through plot, and first person narration.        

Thinking Outside the Box: Plato & Sartre

Plato, through his "Allegory of the Cave," expresses that our senses, a primary mode of attaining our knowledge of our world, cannot be trusted.  What we sense, isn't always the whole truth.  What we perceive is an imitation of the truth and thus we must not rely entirely on our senses.  We must look from different perspectives; we must turn around.  Our senses are narrow, we must use all senses to determine from one point what something is, then change our location entirely and perceive all over again.  Again and again.  In order to attain more truth of what it is we are sensing.  In order to change our location, in order to carry out this search action as described, we must be free of binds.  The prisoners in the cave were comfortable with their binds and their location and thus did not free ourselves.  Our comfort is our self-set limitation on our knowledge.  By stepping outside our comfort zones we expand them, permitting more truth.  Often times thinking differently is uncomfortable and difficult, and more than often this is what changes your thinking and attains knowledge.  Plato expresses that thinking differently and searching for knowledge is an acquired skill, as staring into the bright sun got easier as the one prisoner continued to do it.  Our limitations are self-created, self-accepted.

"GARCIN: Inez, they've laid their snare damned cunningly-- like a cobweb. If you make any movement, if you raise your hand to fan yourself, Estelle and I feel a little tug. Alone, none of us can save himself or herself; we're linked together inextricably. So you can take your choice. Hullo? What's happening?"

This quote from Sartre's play, "No Exit" can be interpreted to say that our knowledge is dependent upon the knowledge of those around us.  Our knowledge has been accumulated by the distributed information from others, albeit false, true or otherwise.  In a sense, the knowledge of others is both our limitation and our expansion.

"Alone, none of us can save himself or herself; we're linked together inextricably."

Alone, we can question and ponder, we can experiment and reason, but our thoughts and enterprises can never be validated without others, we can never know how close to the truth our thoughts and opinions are without the scrutiny of others.

AP Term: Anachronism

Defined by AP to be "something that shows up in the wrong place or the wrong time."

Perhaps this could mean a plate of food showing up in a public restroom or a character wearing sunglasses in a time period when sunglasses did not exist.

Here are some visual examples of Anachronism:

Anachronism often creates a sense of displacement with various effects:  either humor, discomfort, sadness, or maybe for symbolic meaning.

Big Question: Has One Ever Wondered

Do People choose to think a certain way or is it a habit that has been formed over time?  How much of our thoughts are dictated by our conscience and sub-conscience minds?

Literature Analysis: The Scarlet Letter

1.)  The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne begins with an introduction entitled The Custom-House, which introduces the narrator and the setting of the story (which is in Salem, Massachusetts, 200 years prior to this narration).  The narrator while working in this house discovered documents and other papers which he then decided, in his life, to compile into a story called The Scarlet Letter.  The novel begins with the main character, Hester Prynne stepping out before a crowd in a plain gown adorned with a lavishly and extravagantly embroidered scarlet letter A.  The A is the symbolic of Prynne's sin; Adultery.  In this Puritanical Massachusetts colony, Prynne is set before all the public to be ridiculed and shamed for her sin.  Here, it is revealed that Prynne's husband was lost at sea and presupposed to be dead.  She, under this notion, fell in love and had a child with another man, whose identity at this point is unknown.  Standing before the crowd, Prynne holds tight to her daughter Pearl, another symbol of Prynne's guilt.  Fathers and other clergymen of the colony essentially publicly try Prynne, attempting to break her and pry from her the identity of her partner sinner.  It is conveyed here, that this colony is very strict, rigid, dogmatic, and vicious against all sinners to the point of making it a duty to find the second sinner and bring him the punishment he deserves.  Towards the end of this scene, Roger Chillingsworth is introduced.  He is a physician and Prynne's husband.  He has come seeking revenge on Pearl's father.  Only Prynne knows this.

Now, Prynne is found in a cottage-like house isolated from the rest of the colony; Prynne and Pearl have been shunned and ostracized.  Prynne learns to cope with her new circumstances, she cares for Pearl, her only happiness, and works as the local seamstress.  When Prynne does enter the town most people fear her, some children tease and harass her.  Pearl grows into an impish child and eventually harasses her mom as well.  Pearl is characterized as very intelligent, devilish, impish, yet with an aura of beauty and happiness about her which fuels Prynne to strive through her adversity.  As time passes, the town settles and Prynne's Scarlet letter becomes a regular site to all.  In addition, Prynne receives help from the one sympathetic character, Arthur Dimmesdale.  He defends Prynne against the other clergymen who try to take Pearl away from Prynne.