Collaboration Reflection

I really wish I had realized that this blog post was a part of the collaboration grade on progress book, but I guess better late than never, right? Overall I thought the process in which we went about constructing our presentation was effective. We all collected our definitions into the google doc. Afterwards we then went through and pulled aspects of each individuals blog post that we all agreed would make up a good group definition. We added a few pictures and came up with questions to finalize our project. I felt that the mixing of classes made it some what difficult to collaborate because we weren't all in the same class. Not seeing everyone in our group on a daily basis was definetely out of my comfort zone but it was a good type of discomfort. Online interactions without seeing the other group members was definately a taste of what the real world would be like cause not all confrontations will be face to face with the rapid change of technology and society.

Frankenstein Post Two

At the beginning of section two, chapter one, Victor Frankenstein is vastly devastated at the loss of both William and Justine. Frankenstein feels that he is responsible for both of these deaths and sobs at what he has done, more so of what he didn’t do: face the truth about creating a monster which he believes is the murderer of William. Justine fell victim to this injustice and thus Frankenstein feels her execution is also his wrong doing. After retiring to his house at Belrive, Frankenstein spends time after Elizabeth and his father have gone to sleep went out on the lake and "passed many hours upon the water" (Shelly 94). While he was adrift on the lake he allowed the boat to occasionally take its own course. Here on the lake, with "the only unquiet thing that wandered restless in a scene so beautiful and heavenly", Frankenstein found peace and tranquility as he escaped the horrors of Williams’s death and Justine’s execution (Shelly 94). By connection nature to tranquility, Shelly is trying to portray that nature can lift a human's spirits after suffering from a low period in their life.

Shelly's connection of peace and nature can be seen multiple other times throughout the section. At the beginning of chapter two, Frankenstein is embracing a journey into the mountain. It is here that natural scenes of the mountains and valleys gave "[Frankenstein] the greatest consolation [he] was capable of receiving" (Shelly 99). These natural wonders "elevate [Frankenstein] from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized" the sorrows of his losses (Shelly 99). From the context of the novel, it is apparent that Shelly's perception of nature can be concluded that she believes nature can be a mood brightener.

Not only does Dr. Frankenstein's mood become uplifted from nature, but also his monster's mood evolves into a happier one as well. Before the monster fled from Dr. Frankenstein's apartment, "on a sensation of cold, [the monster] had covered [himself] with some clothes; but these were insufficient to secure [him] from the dews of night" (Shelly 105). The monster, confused and unaware of his surrounding as a newborn child fresh from the womb, was "poor helpless, and miserable wretch; [he] knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade [him] on all sides, [he] sat down and wept" (Shelly 105-106). The monster was a train wreck; he had no idea the original era of his being, was isolated from his "family" and society as a whole, and had no shelter or "mother" to nurture him into society’s formalities. As he was sitting alone, weeping his eyes out, "a gentle light stole over the heavens, and gave [him] a sensation of pleasure" (Shelly 106). This light was obviously the moon as revealed from an author’s footnote. This natural occurrence provided a sensation happiness that motivated the monster to get up find berries for food and a cloak to warm him. Shelly's use of nature in the novel is clearly apparent that she is implying that nature can equate to one's happiness.

Clearly, Shelly's perception of nature is vastly expressed in the novel. The three examples I provided are only a few of which Shelly's message is presented. The use of the lake on which Dr. Frankenstein wanders, the mountains and valleys that he explores, and the moon that Frankenstein's monster gains strength from all clue to her main belief of nature: that the natural wonders of this diverse and interesting world can bring one happiness and relief from the tradgedies in their lives.

Frankenstein Post One

In chapter two of Shelly's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein establishes the setting of where he grew up. Frankenstein, being about five years old at this point in the novel, is a very happy child as he lived in Geneva, an area of Switzerland. He lived in a campagne on Belrive, an eastern shore of a lake, which was a league from the nearest city. This secluded home to grow up where a young child has all the room to romp and play  sets up a positive mood as Frankenstein reminisces fond memories of his times with Elizabeth, and his schoolmate Henry Clerval. At this point in the novel Frankenstein claims "no human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself" (Shelly 39).

By chapter four in Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein has been studying at Ingolstadt under M. Krempe and M. Waldman. Theses two professors taught natural philosophy to Frankenstein. Here at Ingolstadt, Dr. Frankenstein becomes so indulged in his work that he completely forgets about his friends and family. Because this portion of the novel takes place at an university, it establishes a serious and studious mood as Frankenstein looses track of time while he spends countless hours working and studying natural philosophy. While Frankenstein is fostering toward his studies "two years had passed in this manner, during which [Frankenstein] paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries which [Frankenstein] hoped to make" (Shelly 51).

After months of gathering and assembling body parts, Frankenstein made a peculiar discovery. "It was on a dreary night of November, that [Frankenstein] beheld the accomplishments of [his] toils"; he had finally figured out how to give life to an assembly of random body parts from different places (Shelly 58). The wet and cold night of November inculcates a creepy mood that suits the erie monster that Frankenstein has brought to life. After nearly two years of hard work, Frankenstein creates a monster that even he wants to flee from. Rather than a beautiful creation, Frankenstein's yellow skinned, veiny, black lipped monster scares him as he cowers into his room.

Formalism Criticism

Literary criticism, being the analysis, evaluation, description, or interpretation of literary works, has nine main subcategories. One of the earliest forms of the nine criticisms that came about was formalism criticism. Formalism rose to eminence in the early twentieth century as a response against Romanticism theories of literature, which centered on the artist and individuals creativity and instead retained the text itself back into the spotlight, to demonstrate how the text was indebted to forms and other works that had followed it. Two types of formalist literary criticism were established, Russian formalism, and later Anglo-American New Criticism. Formalism criticism, also known as Russian formalism, focuses mainly on how the sentences, rather than the content, compose the literary works. Formalism completely disregards what the author is trying to portray as the essential message of the book to the reader and simply breaks down the sentences into literary devices for the whole novel. The formalist approach diminishes the significance of a text’s cultural or historical content. This style of criticism not only includes grammar and mechanics, but also literary devices such as repetition, oxymoron, alliteration, and many more. Formalism criticism takes a whole piece of literature and breaks it down as a whole into the different literary devices. I would like to thank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_(literature) for assisting me on constructing such a wonderful definition of Formalism Criticism.

Beowulf Vocab Story

Beowulf has a royal pedigree, coming from decendants of kings and warriors. Beowulf's spartan fighting techniques provided for him to slay Grendal and his mother in a disciplined, macabre fashion, leaving the scence with blood and limbs. He gained a severve amount of homage from the people of Herot after this feat. Along with the honor, he gained pittance of silver and gold.

 Unfortunately when he was younger, Beowulf has a gadfly for a sister, named Sheowulf, who would follow him around and pester him all day. One day Beowulf spurned her from his family because she tried to overthrow his kingdom. She felt this was preposterous punishment for such an insignificant action. Sheowulf made a farce reinactment of the scenario, using a bombastic speech filled with meaningless statements to make a point. This crossed the line so Beowulf killed Sheowulf with one mighty blow of his sword.