CULTURAL STUDIES: Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

Summary:

Anyanwu lives in West-Africa and is immortal. She is found by Doro, who is also an immortal. Even though she feels someone watching her as she attends to her garden, she believes that they don't pose as a threat so she continues to work and is mindful of the intruder's location. Once Doro presents himself he immediately ask her to drop everything and move him so they can procreate together. Although Anyanwu is hesitant because she is unfamiliar with this man, she eventually leaves everything behind with assurance that her family will be left alone and safe. Anyanwu leaves with Doro because she wants to have children that she will never have to watch die because they are immortal too. Doro promises her this will be true but she soon finds that these are empty promises. Anyanwu leaves with Doro and travels to his American colony. During the voyage, Anyanwu struggles with her impending future and tries to reconcile these worries with the idea that Doro's people will be well taken care of. Doro introduces Anyanwu to some of his "creations"/ sons who also have special powers. Isaac is taken with Anyanwu and she likes him as well although they don't speak the same language. Upon landing on the American colony Anyanwu is overwhelmed by the difference between her culture and the American culture yet she does her best to assimilate. Doro makes every attempt to control her and forces her to marry Isaac, bear his children, and remain on the colony. Once Isaac is dead, Anyanwu runs away and takes the form of a dolphin for many years to hide from Doro. Eventually Anyanwu creates her own colony, which in many ways is more successful than Doro's and protects her people until Doro once again finds her and forces her to have her children breed with who he sees fit. Anyanwu is once again enslaved by Doro but in the end it proves Doro and Anyanwu both needed each other in some way and they can't live without each other.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Seed_(Octavia_Butler_novel)#Summary)

My Criticisms:
   
      It is interesting to read some fantastic stories like what this novel contains. This novel shows a moral lesson  of being contented on what we have in life. It is overwhelming to read such novel with such lessons. The storyline is fairly developed, some parts were confusing. The characters are not believable, we all know that there are no immortals ever. The novel simply explains the quote "no man is an island". Overall, cultural studies was shown in this novel because the immortal characters have their ways to save their mankind and to prolong their existence.

DARWINISM: Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

Plot Summary:

In March 1912, in the event some people called the "Miracle," Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, including its inhabitants, disappear suddenly overnight and are replaced with a slice of an alien Earth, a land mass of roughly equal outlines and terrain features, but with a strange new flora andfauna which seems to have followed a different path in evolution.

Seen by some as an act of divine retribution, the "Miracle" affects the lives of people all around and transforms world history.

The book describes the life and the adventures of Guilford Law, a young American photographer. As a 14-year-old boy, Guilford Law witnessed the "Miracle" as shimmering lights moving eerily across the ocean sky. As a grown man, he is determined to travel to the strange continent of Darwinia and explore its mysteries. To that end, he enlists as a photographer in the Finch expedition, which plans to travel up the river that used to be known as the Rhine and penetrate the bizarre new continent's hidden depths as far as possible. He lands in the middle of the jungle in the midst of nationalistic skirmishes, in which partisans attack and wipe out most of the party of the Finch expedition on the continent that they believe to belong to them.

Law brought an unwanted companion with him, a mysterious twin who seems to have both lived and died on an alternate Earth unchanged by the Miracle. The twin first appears to Guilford in dreams, and he brings a message that Darwinia is not what it seems to be, and Guilford is not who he seems to be.

A startling revelation soon arrives. By the end of the story, it is revealed to all the characters that it is really now the End of Time and that the Universe, the Earth, and all the consciousness that ever existed are really being preserved in a computer-like simulation known as the Archive. The Archive was built by a coalition of all the sentient beings in the Universe in an effort to saveconsciousness from death. However, "viruses" (parasitic artificial life-forms) known as Psions have invaded the system of the Archive. Guilford Law eventually learns that he and those like him serve as instruments in a cosmic struggle against the Psions for the survival of consciousness itself.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_(novel)#Plot_summary)

My Criticisms:

      The novel is interesting yet not that enjoying to read. This talks about how important being conscious is. It takes a headache first before you understand what the novel is all above. The storyline was into well developed one. The characters are really not that believable, because we ourselves didn't experienced that kind of events in their lives, some characters are not that proven existed. The novel is somehow interesting but confusing to understand. The novel is about special evolution that made this included in the Darwinism Theory.

ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Summary:

Ben’s story starts in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota in June 1977. He was born deaf in one of his ears. Ben’s mom, Elaine, was the town librarian, but died in a car crash a few weeks before. He now lives with his aunt and uncle a couple miles across Gunflint Lake from the house he grew up in. Ben has never known his dad, but feels a pull to find out who he was. Ben discovers a bookmark in his mother's book, Wonderstruck inscribed to his mother that ends with the words "Love, Danny." Ben thinks Danny must be his father and proceeds to call the number listed on the bookmark. As he is calling, a bolt of lightning hits his house, travels through the phone line and causes him to lose his remaining hearing. He wakes up in the hospital, unaware of where he is. A short time later, he decides to run away from the hospital and journey to New York City, eventually hiding out in the American Museum of Natural History. While at the museum, he meets Jamie, whose father works at the museum. Jamie takes him on tours of the back areas of the museum and helps him to hide in an unused storage room. Ben is still determined to track down his father, so he leaves the museum to locate the bookstore listed on the bookmark he found in his mother's book. Once there, he encounters Rose and they try to piece together how they might be connected.

Rose’s story starts in Hoboken, New Jersey in October 1927. She is kept at home with visits from a tutor because she is deaf. Unhappy and lonely at home, she runs away to New York City to see her idol, actress Lillian Mayhew. In New York, Rose travels to the theater where Lillian Mayhew is performing. She sneaks in and is found by the actress herself, who we learn is actually Rose's mother. Mayhew is furious, despite Rose telling her that she came because she missed her. Mayhew threatens to send Rose back to her father, so Rose runs away again. This time she goes to the American Museum of Natural History. She is found there by her brother, Walter. He takes her back to his apartment and promises to speak to their parents. At this point, Rose's story skips forward 50 years, and we see her as an older woman entering a bookstore. It is there she meets Ben. It is then revealed that Rose is Ben's grandmother, and Danny was both Rose's son and Ben's father. Rose takes Ben to Queens and leads him into the Queens Museum of Art where she tells her story, what caught me here was Rose showed Ben an EXTREMELY detailed mini New York City that she hand-made for the "World's Fair" in New York, in 1964. Also she explains how Danny met Ben's mother, Elaine, and how Ben's father died from a heart disease.

The book ends with the 1977 blackout occurring as Ben, Rose and Jamie (who followed them to Queens) look out at the stars waiting for Rose's brother, Walter, to pick them up.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderstruck_(book)#Plot_summary)

My Criticisms:

      The novel is not that enjoying to read, it seems the story looks very familiar to everybody. It is not that an ideal novel to read because again, its confusing however, this novel shows a moral lesson of being persevere without limits. The readers may feel sympathy to some of the characters. The storyline seems skipped into another new events.

GENRE CRITICISM: 1984 by George Orwell

Summary:

The story unfolds on a cold April day in 1984 in Oceania, the totalitarian superpower in post World War II Europe. Winston Smith, employed as a records (no, not vinyl) editor at the Ministry of Truth, drags himself home to Victory Mansions (nothing victorious about them) for lunch. Depressed and oppressed, he starts a journal of his rebellious thoughts against the Party. If discovered, this journal will result in his execution. Now that’s playing with fire. For the sake of added precautions, Winston only writes when safe from the view of the surveying telescreens. And when that shot of industrial grade "Victory Gin" kicks in.

At work, Winston becomes curious about "the brunette" (a.k.a. Julia), a machine-operator in the Fiction Department. Although at one time he feared that she was a member of the Thought Police, all such paranoia ends when she slips him a note reading "I love you" in the corridor one day. The two begin a secret love affair, first meeting up in the countryside, and then in a rented room atop Mr. Charrington’s shop in the prole district. All of these places are away from surveillance – or so they think.

As Winston and Julia fall deeper in love, Winston’s views about their government (the Party) change. There’s something about Ingsoc that doesn’t seem quite right – is it the manipulation? The changing of history? The all-around sketchiness? Winston is drawn to the revolutionary "Brotherhood" because, well, they’re revolutionary. Eventually, Winston makes contact with O’Brien, who Winston thinks is a member of the Brotherhood, but who in actuality is a member of the Thought Police. O’Brien arranges for Winston to receive a copy of "the book," a resistance manifesto which supposedly exposes the how and the why for the resistance. 

Unfortunately, Winston never finds out the why. Instead, he gets tortured. But before the torturing, he and Julia are apprehended by the Thought Police. Turns out that secret hiding place wasn’t so secret after all. The happy couple is then brought to the Ministry of Love, where criminals and opponents of the Party are tortured, interrogated, and "reintegrated" before their release and ultimate execution. O’Brien runs the show as far as Winston’s torture sessions are concerned.

Months later, Winston is sent to Room 101, where a person is faced with his greatest fear. Rats…why did it have to be rats? Musing on the impending rats-chewing-on-his-face scenario, Winston calls out "do it to Julia!" That’s pretty much what O’Brien was looking for, so Winston gets to go back to being a happy member of the rat race. Released, Winston’s heart is filled with love for the Party. Even when he and Julia meet again by chance, they feel apathetic towards each other. The last man in Europe has been converted and destroyed. Quite the fine point there, George.

(http://www.shmoop.com/1984/summary.html)

My Criticisms:

      This novel once again, is about love. This can gain readers who are fond of reading love stories.  The storyline is fairly developed because of the fast resolved incidents and are also confusing. The characters characterizations are very common, the novel doesn't give aspect of the human condition. Some readers would not be willing to read this kind of typical novel. 

NEOCLASSICISM: The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding

Plot:

An orphaned 13-year-old girl named Catherine ‘Cat’ Royal lives in the Theatre Royal, after the owner, Mr. Sheridan, who named her after the theatre, found her as a baby. She knows well the Theatre and its surroundings, later 18th century England. Cat befriends an African boy violinist, Pedro, who arrives to be the musician’s apprentice. Cat also meets the aristocratic Avon family, and the children, Lord Francis and Lady Elizabeth, who are not as arrogant as other wealthy people. She meets Johnny, the new prompt with a rather unmistakable talent for art, specifically controversial political cartoons, and a mysterious past. She learns that Johnny is the “Captain Sparkler” accused of treason for the cartoons against the king. Johnny had had a romantic past with Lady Elizabeth.

One night Cat overhears Mr. Sheridan and his colleague Marchmont, discussing a valuable diamond hidden in the theatre. Cat is intrigued, but she promises to protect it for Mr. Sheridan.

Cat learns that the diamond is not a real diamond, but it is actually Johnny, the prompter. He is of value, because of the reward for his capture.

However, a street gang led by Cat’s enemy Billy “Boil” Shepherd, learns about the diamond, and assumes it is a real diamond. He breaks into the Theatre to steal it. Cat and Pedro manage to evade him, but Cat is arrested for having money that was supposed to be for smuggling Johnny out of England where he will be safe. Boil is also arrested for stealing the money, although 2 of his gang member actually stole the money.

Johnny eventually gets out of England, and Cat is reunited with her Theatre and everyone in it. In the end, Mr. Sheridan tells her that there was no real diamond, nor Johnny, as a metaphorical diamond. Cat is the true diamond of the Theatre Royal, and the Theatre would be nothing without its "Cat."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_of_Drury_Lane)

My Criticisms:

      The novel is such a simple one, with a discouraging ending. The events were directly stated and are confusing. Nothing is special with this novel, it is just a novel somehow without sense. Only few can appreciate this novel. The storyline is properly developed, the characters curiosities are somehow believable. It discusses the importance of the main character as a part of the family of her foster parent. 

MODERNISM: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Summary:

                     Gustav von Aschenbach is an aging German writer who is the paragon of solemn dignity and fastidious self-discipline. Determinedly cerebral and duty-bound, he believes that true art is produced only in "defiant despite" of corrupting passions and physical weaknesses.

                     When Aschenbach has the urge to travel, he tells himself that he might find artistic inspiration from a change of scene. Aschenbach's subsequent trip to Venice is the first indulgence he has allowed himself in years; it signals the beginning of his decline. Aschenbach allows the languid Venetian atmosphere and gently rocking gondolas to lull him into a defenseless state. At his hotel he notices an extremely beautiful fourteen-year-old Polish boy named Tadzio, who is visiting with his mother, sisters, and governess. At first, Aschenbach's interest in the boy is purely aesthetic, or so he tells himself. However, he soon falls deeply and obsessively in love with the boy, although the two never have direct contact.

                     Aschenbach spends days on end watching Tadzio play on the beach, even following his family around the streets of Venice. Cholera infects the city, and although the authorities try to conceal the danger from the tourists, Aschenbach soon learns the facts about the lethal epidemic. However, he cannot bear to leave Tadzio and stays on in Venice. He becomes progressively daring in his pursuit of the boy, gradually becoming more and more debased, until he finally dies of the cholera, degraded, a slave to his passions, stripped of his dignity.

(http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/venice/summary.html)

My Criticisms:

                   The novel at first is just like an ordinary one we usually see in dramas. As you read on the next events, you wouldn't expect that such event can happen. This is somehow a story that is suited for homosexuals who enjoy loving their opposite sex that they think of it as a pleasure in their lives. The storyline of this novel is not that well developed because transition of events are too fast. The character is believable because nowadays, there are such people who are like them especially those who also fight for their love in exchange of their lives. The novel achieve to bring out the hidden feelings  and emotions of its readers. 

ECOCRITICISM: The Land of Little Rain by Mary Hunter Austin

Summary:

                The Land of Little Rain is a book of sketches which portray the high desert country of southern California, where the Sierras descend into the Mojave Desert. Mary Austin finds beauty in the harsh landscape: "This is the sense of the desert hills--that there is room enough and time enough. . . The treeless spaces uncramp the soul." Her story begins with the water trails that lead toward the few life giving springs--the way marked for men by ancient Indian pictographs. Life and death play out at these springs. Rabbits fall prey to the coyote; buzzards hang heavily in the sky above. She then writes of individuals who eke out their living in this land of scarce resources--an itinerant gold prospector, a sheepherder, a blind Indian basket maker. Austin's spare prose creates unforgettable vignettes: "Choose a hill country for storms. . . I remember one night of thunderous rain made unendurably mournful by the houseless cry of a cougar whose lair, and perhaps his family, had been buried under a slide of broken boulders . . ." Anyone who sees beauty in the Southwestern deserts, or who just enjoys good nature writing, will savor The Land of Little Rain.

(http://librivox.org/the-land-of-little-rain-by-mary-hunter-austin/)

My Criticisms:

               The book shows description on the current situation of our nature. It is good to know that The land of little rain or the desert areas can be described more appealing to the readers' imagination. This book rules because it really affects the emotions of the people who are going to read this book. It can help those readers to be a nature lover through applying the teachings and ideas from this book. It was so interesting that a reader can reread the contents of this book. It simply shows the current issues we are experiencing in our environment that we should be aware of. 

MORAL CRITICISM: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Summary:

In 1993, mountaineer Greg Mortenson attempted to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain, located in the Karakoram range of northernPakistan-administered Kashmir, as a way of honoring the memory of his deceased sister, Christa. As a memorial, he had planned to lay her amber necklace on the summit of K2. After more than 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and three other climbers had their ascent interrupted by the need to complete a 75-hour life-saving rescue of a fifth climber. After getting lost during his descent, alone, he became weak and exhausted. Instead of arriving in Askole, where his porters awaited, he came across Korphe, a small village built on a shelf jutting out from a canyon. He was greeted and taken in by the chief elder, Haji Ali of Korphe.

To repay the remote community for their hospitality, Mortenson recounted in the book that he promised to build a school for the village. After difficulties in raising capital, Mortenson was introduced to Jean Hoerni, a Silicon Valley pioneer who donated the money that Mortenson needed for his school. In the last months of his life, Hoerni co-founded the Central Asia Institute, endowing the CAI to build schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to the book, Mortenson faced many daunting challenges in his quest to raise funds for the building of more than 55 schools in Taliban territory. Some of these challenges included death threats from Islamic mullahs, long periods of separation from his family, and being kidnapped by Taliban sympathizers.

Reflecting on the state of a post-9/11 world, Mortenson advocates in his books and during his speaking engagements that extremism in the region can be deterred through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Formerly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, schooling focused on boys. Because educated boys tend to move to the cities to find jobs, they seldom return. By contrast, educated girls tend to remain in the community and pass their enhanced knowledge to the next generation, thus, Mortenson suggests, educating girls has more of a lasting benefit for their community.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Cups_of_Tea#Summary)

My Criticism:

The book has lots of lessons that is needed for changing a person and the world. First it is not understandable yet as you scan again the book, it is very inspirational. It shows moral values that is very essential for having benefits in our society. The book rules because it is showing good deeds done by the character that is needed in becoming a better person. This book shows a story about moral values that our God wanted for us to do.

POST MODERNISM: Ada or Ador: A Family Chronicle (1969) by Vladimir Nabokov

Plot Summary:

Ada tells the life story of a man named Van Veen, and his lifelong love affair with his sister Ada. They meet when she is eleven (soon to be twelve) and he is fourteen, believing that they are cousins (more precisely: that their fathers are cousins and that their mothers are sisters), and begin a sexual affair. They later discover that Van's father is also Ada's and her mother is also his. The story follows the various interruptions and resumptions of their affair. Both are wealthy, educated, and intelligent. Van goes on to become a world-renowned psychologist, and the book itself takes the form of his memoirs, written when he is in his nineties, punctuated with his own and Ada's marginal notes, and in parts with notes by an unnamed editor, suggesting the manuscript is not complete.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_or_Ardor:_A_Family_Chronicle#Plot_summary)

My Criticism:

The novel is not that interesting because its theme is very usual and common known by people. The story line is not that well developed. The characters are believable as we can see in our social situation. The novel is somehow based on the experiences and memories of an individual. We can see now after modernization, people have changes and we can see lots of immorality.

TERRITORIALISM: Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill

Synopsis:

Widower Ephraim Cabot abandons his New England farm to his three sons, who hate him but share his greed. Eben, the youngest and brightest sibling, feels the farm is his birthright, as it originally belonged to his mother. He buys out his half-brothers' shares of the farm with money stolen from his father, and Peter and Simeon head off to California to seek their fortune. Later, Ephraim returns with a new wife, the beautiful and headstrong Abbie, who enters into an adulterous affair with Eben. Soon after, Abbie bears Eben's child, but lets Ephraim believe that the child is his, in the hopes of securing her future with the farm. The proud Ephraim is oblivious as his neighbors openly mock him as a cuckold. Madly in love with Eben and fearful it would become an obstacle to their relationship, Abbie kills the infant. An enraged and distraught Eben turns Abbie over to the sheriff, but not before admitting to himself the depths of his love for her and thus confessing his own role in the infanticide.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_Under_the_Elms#Synopsis)

My Criticism:

The playwright is about a conflict between the father and his son. The theme is about love because it is about the love quarrel between Abbie, Ephraim and his son Eben. The dominant tone of the playwright is serious, it talks about being faithful and loyal to the one you love. This play shows desire of the faithful and loyal love and desire for the continuous operation of Ephraim's farm.

STRUCTURALISM: WEST SIDE STORY (1961) by Arthur Laurents

Plot Summary:

On the west side of New York City, the Jets and the Sharks are white immigrant (primarily Eastern European) and Puerto Rican gangs respectively who hate each other and who battle each other for territory in their neighborhood. Their feud makes a small connection when at a gymnasium dance, Tony, one of the founders of the Jets but who is now inactive in the gang, and Maria, the recently arrived sister of the Sharks' leader Bernardo, spot each other across the crowded room and fall in love at first sight. For many of the male gang members, that connection is the last straw in their feud that leads to the decision to have a rumble to determine territory once and for all. Conversely, Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend, supports Maria's decision to romance whomever she wants, even a Jet. However, even Anita may be able to endure so much in her stance to support true love. As Maria and Tony try to meet each other clandestinely at any opportunity, Maria makes a request of him to foster peace between the Jets and Sharks, which inadvertently leads to a series of tragic events not only for the collective but personally for Maria and Tony.

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/plotsummary)

My Criticism:

The book is about lovers who are a member of two different gangs in west side of New York City. The genre of this book is romance. The style in writing the book is not using humor, the setting is essential and has connection to its title. The story is very usual as the television drama uses to show us most of the time. As stated earlier, there is love between a boy and a girl and differences of gangs they belong. The motif or pattern goes on by using the theme to narrate events about the result of their affair.

NEW HISTORICISM: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Synopsis:

The prologue opens with an account of Diamond's conversation with Yali, a New Guinean politician. The conversation turned to the obvious differences in power and technology between Yali's people and the Europeans who dominated the land for 200 years, differences that neither of them considered due to any genetic superiority of Europeans. Yali asked, using the local term "cargo" for inventions and manufactured goods, "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" (p. 14)

Diamond realized the same question seemed to apply elsewhere: "People of Eurasian origin... dominate the world in wealth and power." Other peoples, after having thrown off colonial domination, still lag in wealth and power. Still others, he says, "have been decimated, subjugated, and in some cases even exterminated by European colonialists." (p. 15)

The peoples of other continents (Sub-Saharan Africans, Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians and New Guineans, and the original inhabitants of tropical Southeast Asia) have been largely conquered, displaced and in some extreme cases – referring to Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians and South Africa's indigenous Khoisan peoples – largely exterminated by farm-based societies such as Eurasians and Bantu. He believes this is due to the societies' military and political advantages, stemming from the early rise of agriculture after the last Ice Age. He proposes explanations to account for such disproportionate distributions of power and achievements.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel#Synopsis)

My Criticism:

The author may want to fill a gap in historical literature by examining a topic that other historians have neglected. The author believed that being free from natural calamities made people less prone to beliefs which are only from the product of the mind. The author also had based his work from earlier works of different famous author. This book is written with historical basis and that is about Eurasian society, culture and civilization.

AMERICAN PRAGMATISM: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Plot Summary:

The novel opens with a prologue relating a paragraph-long Dick and Jane tale in which none of Jane's family will agree to play with her until a friend comes along at last. The tale is then repeated two times, each time with less punctuation or fewer spaces between words, until finally all the words are squashed together.

The novel is alternately narrated in first-person by Claudia MacTeer and in third-person omniscient, focusing on various other characters. 9-year-old Claudia and her 10-year-old sister, Frieda, live in Lorain, Ohio with their parents, who take two other people into their home: Mr. Henry, a tenant, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house has been burned down by her wildly unstable father, who is widely gossiped about in the community. Pecola is a quiet, passive young girl with a hard life, and whose parents are constantly fighting, both verbally and physically. Pecola is continually being told and reminded of what an "ugly" girl she is, thus fueling her desire to be white with blue eyes.

Pecola appears to have thoughts contrary to Claudia, who is given a white baby doll to play with and, though frequently told how lovely it is, despises and spitefully dismantles it. Unlike Pecola, Claudia resists the white racial standard in her society, is aggressive and determined, and has a strict but ultimately stable family. While living in the MacTeer household, Pecola experiences menarche, bringing up the first of the book's many themes of sexuality and adulthood. Likewise, ideas of beauty, particularly those relating to racial and class characteristics, are a major theme in this book.^[3]Insults or praises toward physical appearance are often given in racial terms. For example, a high yellow student named Maureen Peal is shownfavoritism at school. Claudia and Frieda initially feel a confusing mixture of both hatred and attraction toward Maureen. They finally befriend her after they all stumble upon Pecola being bullied by a group of boys and are able to dissolve the confrontation. However, Maureen herself immediately then insults Pecola regarding rumors about her father and the MacTeer girls furiously chase Maureen away in Pecola's defense.

Throughout the novel, it is revealed through flashbacks that not only Pecola but also her dysfunctional parents had a life as young people full of hatred and hardships. Her mother, Pauline, feels alive and happy only when she is working for a rich, white family who affectionately call her "Polly." Pecola's father, Cholly, is a drunk who was left to live with his aunt when he was young but later ran away to find his father, who ended up wanting nothing to do with him. Equally troubling to Cholly as a young man was his loss of virginity, interrupted by a pair of voyeuristic white men who humiliatingly forced Cholly to continue having sex in their presence, while jeering at him. By the time of the story's current setting, the adult Pauline and Cholly have by now both lost the tender and affectionate love they once had for each other in their youth.

Another motif is a contrast in the novel between the world shown through cinema and the one in which Pauline is a servant, as well as the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant society and the existence the main characters live in. Most chapters' titles are extracts from the Dick and Jane paragraph in the novel's prologue, presenting a white family that may be contrasted with Pecola's; perhaps to incite discomfort, the chapter titles contain much sudden repetition of words or phrases, many cut-off words, and no interword separations.

One day while Pecola is doing dishes, her intoxicated father rapes her. His motives are unclear, seemingly a combination of both love and hate. Cholly flees after the second time he rapes Pecola, leaving her pregnant. Claudia and Frieda are the only two in the community that hope for Pecola's child to survive. Consequently, they give up money they had been saving to buy and plant marigold seeds with the superstitious belief that if the flowers bloom, Pecola's baby will live. The marigolds never bloom and Pecola's child, who is born prematurely, dies. Near the novel's end, a dialogue is presented between two sides of Pecola's own imagination, in which she indicates at strangely positive feelings about her rape by her father. In this internal conversation, Pecola speaks as though her wish has been granted: she believes that she now has blue eyes. Claudia, as narrator a final time, describes the recent phenomenon of Pecola's insanity and suggests that Cholly (who has since died) may have shown Pecola the only love he could by raping her. Claudia lastly laments on her belief that the whole community, herself included, have used Pecola as a sort of scapegoat to make themselves feel prettier and happier.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bluest_Eye)

My Criticism:

The novel is very interesting to read especially to those people who admires something. This makes the reader continue living life with contentment even if there are times we dream to have something we want. The storyline is  well developed but confusingly resolved. The characters are believable because even today there are people who degrade or discriminate other. Pecola is very practical in living her life like normal people who admires something  yet other people doesn't understand her situation.

ROMANTICISM: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Plot Summary:


Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a tomboy in her childhood, by the age of 17 she is "in training for a heroine" and is excessively fond of reading Gothic novels, among which Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho is a favourite.

Catherine is invited by the Allens, her wealthier neighbours in Fullerton, to accompany them to visit the town of Bath and partake in the winter season of balls, theatre and other social delights. Although initially the excitement of Bath is dampened by her lack of acquaintances, she is soon introduced to a clever young gentleman, Henry Tilney, with whom she dances and converses. Much to her disappointment, Catherine does not see Henry again for quite some time. Through Mrs Allen's old school-friend Mrs Thorpe, she meets her daughter Isabella, a vivacious and flirtatious young woman, and quickly becomes friends. Mrs Thorpe's son John is also acquainted with Catherine's older brother, James.

James and John soon arrive in Bath. While Isabella and James spend time together, Catherine becomes acquainted with John, a vain and crude young gentleman who incessantly tells fantastical stories about himself. Henry Tilney then returns to Bath, accompanied by his younger sister Eleanor, who is a sweet, elegant, and respectable young lady. Catherine also meets their father, the imposing General Tilney.

The Thorpes are not very happy about Catherine's friendship with the Tilneys, as they (correctly as it happens) perceive Henry as a rival for Catherine's affections. Catherine tries to maintain her friendships with both the Thorpes and the Tilneys, though John Thorpe continuously tries to sabotage her relationship with the Tilneys. This leads to several misunderstandings, which upset Catherine and put her in the awkward position of having to explain herself to the Tilneys.

Isabella and James become engaged. James's father approves of the match and offers his son a country parson's living of a modest sum, 400 pounds annually, which he may have in two and a half years. The couple must therefore wait until that time to marry. Isabella is dissatisfied, having believed that the Morlands were quite wealthy, but she pretends to Catherine that she is merely dissatisfied that they must wait so long. James departs to purchase a ring, and John accompanies him after coyly suggesting marriage to the oblivious Catherine. Isabella immediately begins to flirt with Captain Tilney, Henry's older brother. Innocent Catherine cannot understand her friend's behavior, but Henry understands all too well, as he knows his brother's character and habits. The flirtation continues even when James returns, much to the latter's embarrassment and distress.

The Tilneys invite Catherine to stay with them for a few weeks at their home, Northanger Abbey. Catherine, in accordance with her novel reading, expects the abbey to be exotic and frightening. Henry teases her about this, as it turns out that Northanger Abbey is pleasant and decidedly not Gothic. However, the house includes a mysterious suite of rooms that no one ever enters; Catherine learns that they were Mrs Tilney's, who died nine years earlier. Catherine decides that, since General Tilney does not now seem to be affected by the loss of his wife, he may have murdered her or even imprisoned her in her chamber.

Catherine persuades Eleanor to show her Mrs Tilney's rooms, but General Tilney suddenly appears. Catherine flees, sure that she will be punished. Later, Catherine sneaks back to Mrs Tilney's rooms, to discover that her over-active imagination has once again led her astray, as nothing is strange or distressing in the rooms at all. Unfortunately, Henry joins her in the corridor and questions why she is there. He guesses her surmises and inferences, and informs her that his father loved his wife in his own way and was truly upset by her death. "What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English, that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? ... Dearest Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?" She leaves, crying, fearing that she has lost Henry's regard entirely.

Realizing how foolish she has been, Catherine comes to believe that, though novels may be delightful, their content does not relate to everyday life. Henry lets her get over her shameful thoughts and actions in her own time and does not mention them to her again.

Soon after this adventure, James writes to inform her that he has broken off his engagement to Isabella because of her flirtations with Captain Tilney. The Tilneys are shocked, and Catherine is terribly disappointed, realizing what a dishonest person Isabella is. The General goes off to London, and Eleanor becomes less inhibited and shy away from his imposing presence. Catherine passes several enjoyable days with Henry and Eleanor until he returns abruptly, in a temper. Eleanor tells Catherine that the family has an engagement that prevents Catherine from staying any longer and that she must go home early the next morning, in a shocking, inhospitable move that forces Catherine to undertake the 70 miles (110 km) journey alone.

At home, Catherine is listless and unhappy. Her parents, unaware of her trials of the heart, try to bring her up to her usual spirits, with little effect. Two days after she returns home, however, Henry pays a sudden unexpected visit and explains what happened. General Tilney (on the misinformation of John Thorpe) had believed her to be exceedingly rich and therefore a proper match for Henry. In London, General Tilney ran into Thorpe again, who, angry at Catherine's refusal of his half-made proposal of marriage, said instead that she was nearly destitute. Enraged, General Tilney returned home to evict Catherine. When Henry returned to Northanger from Woodston, his father informed him of what had occurred and forbade him to think of Catherine again. When Henry learns how she had been treated, he breaks with his father and tells Catherine he still wants to marry her despite his father's disapproval. Catherine is delighted.

Eventually, General Tilney acquiesces, because Eleanor has become engaged to a wealthy and titled man; and he discovers that the Morlands, while not extremely rich, are far from destitute.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey)

My Criticism:

The novel is very interesting especially to those teenagers. The events of the story are very exciting that you don't want to miss something. It also tells that we should not trust people who are just good when we are with them. The storyline is well developed, characters somehow are believable. The aim of this kind of novel is to show the importance of imagination of what do we think would happen next. The novel begins showing Catherine's innocence.

HUMANISM: Lullaby for a Son (Sumerian Poem)

The Poem:

Ah, ah, may he grow sturdy through my crooning,

may he flourish through my crooning!

May he put down strong foundations as roots,

may he spread branches wide like a cakir plant!

Lord, from this you know our whereabouts;

among those resplendent apple trees overhanging the river,

may someone who passes by reach out his hand,

may someone lying there raise his hand.

My son, sleep will overtake you, sleep will settle on you.

Sleep come, sleep come,

sleep come to my son,

sleep hasten to my son!

Put to sleep his open eyes,

settle your hand upon his sparkling eyes—

as for his murmuring tongue,

let the murmuring not spoil his sleep.

May he fill your lap with emmer

while I sweeten miniature cheeses for you,

those cheeses that are the healer of mankind,

that are the healer of mankind,

and of the lord's son, the son of lord Culgi.

 In my garden, it is the lettuces that I have watered,

and among the lettuces it is the gakkul lettuce

that I have chopped.

Let the lord eat this lettuce!

Through my crooning let me give him a wife,

let me give him a wife, let me give him a son!

May a happy nursemaid chatter with him,

may a happy nursemaid suckle him!

(http://www.humanistictexts.org/sumerlove.htm#8   Lullaby for a Son)

My Criticism:

The poetry style is considered as free verse since there is no consistency of the rhyme scheme. The redundant number of syllables per line ranges from nine to eleven. The poem is about a mother who wants comfort for his son while she is singing a lullaby for her son to sleep. The poem uses techniques such as symbolism, metaphor and simile. The poem simply focuses on man.

DECONSTRUCTION: Aswang (2011 film) directed by Jerrold Tarog

Summary:

The story revolves around the abuwak race (Aswang). Thru the generations their numbers had declined and the only way they can grow in numbers again is through the rare ability that only the soon-to-be queen of the abuwaks, Hasmin (Lovi Poe) possesses. 

Abuwaks look human when they're in their normal state, but they can fly and move underground when they transform into raven type of bird. They can also burrow their way underneath the soil.

They are quick and strong, and they can attack and eat humans whether in complete darkness or broad daylight. Hasmin doesn't like all of these, preferring to congregate with humans and even protecting them when her fellow creatures attack the village. 

Meanwhile a hired killer named Daniel was forced by circumstances from he was very young. Like Hasmin, he doesn't really like killing the innocent, and this reluctance is what leads him to the abuwak lair, suggested to be somewhere in Pampanga.

Along with two other killers, they went to Pampanga to finish-off the two remaining members of the family that they massacred in Quezon City.

(http://pinoymoviesynopsis.blogspot.com/2011/11/aswang-2011.html)

My Criticism:

The movie changed the idea of what aswang really is based on the traditional feature of aswang have before. Some scenes look over acting because aswang in that movie are visible even if it is already morning. It is not an ideal movie to watch because the effects are unbelievable than those movies before. The ending is appropriate because the main characters finish-off their race because they don't want it. The movie lacks unity because, when we say aswang it should look like a monster but in this movie, they look same as human. In addition, whatever it takes, Aswang is always aswang they can eat humans whenever they want.

READER'S RESPONSE: America by Allen Ginsberg

The Poem:

America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.

I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

Asia is rising against me.
I haven't got a chinaman's chance.
I'd better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic.

America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they're all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don're really want to go to war.
America it's them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader's Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job.
It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

(http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html)

My Criticism:

The poem is in free verse. Some lines are too long, some are too short that's why the syllables are indefinite. The poem is trying to portray the life in America. It is obvious that the author seeks changes to his country. The poem is both descriptive and narrative. It contains techniques like symbolism, irony and metaphors. This poem is a bit humorous yet there is something that the author wants to tell to his country America.

EXISTENTIALISM: The First Man by Albert Camus

Plot Summary:

The novel takes Jacques Cormery from birth to his years in the lycee, or secondary school, in Algiers. In a departure from the intellectual and philosophical weight of his earlier works, Camus wanted this novel to be "heavy with things and flesh." It is a novel of basic and essential things: childhood, schooldays, the life of the body, the power of the sun and the sea, the painful love of a son for his mother, the search for a lost father. But it is also about the history of a colonial people in a vast and not always hospitable African landscape; about the complex relationship of a "mother" country to its colonists; about the intimate effects of war and political revolution.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Man)

My Criticism:

The readers of this kind of novel can relate to its theme that made them interested to read it. It shows that we should live life to the fullest and be contented of what we have. The storyline somehow is fairly developed. The character's life is believable like to those people who was a product of a broken family. The novel is about being visceral and vulnerable of the character and the author as well in a chaotic world.

PSYCHOANALYTIC: The Bully Book by Eric Khan Gale

Summary:

There is a book that teaches how to be a bully, and it will ruin Eric Haskins’ life. It all starts when his best friend, Donovan, ditches him and befriends Adrian Noble, the tallest kid in class, and a karate-kicking 10-year-old Eric calls Jason Crazy-Pants. The three boys systematically tease and humiliate Eric, eventually turning the entire class against him. When even that isn’t enough, they sabotage the friendship of his grade-school crush, Melody Miller.

​How did 5th grade go so wrong so fast? Adults offer little help: Eric’s single mother doesn't listen, and Tony Clark, the school’s principal, misinterprets every situation. In a chance encounter with a 6th grade loser, Eric learns of a school-district-wide conspiracy theory: “The Bully Book.” According to local legend, a devious 10-year-old wrote a Machiavellian manifesto for the 5th grade, instructing its readers how to gain power in the school. The Bully Book’s lynchpin is the selection of a “Grunt”—the kid who will become “the lowest of the low.” The Grunt unites the class around a common goal (making his life miserable) and gives the possessor of The Bully Book a platform on which to demonstrate his dominance. The Grunt is selected through a specific, but mysterious process. Eric believes that discovering the specifications used to determine the Grunt will allow him to change himself in the necessary way, and escape The Bully Book’s all-encompassing grasp.

​Eric becomes a detective of The Bully Book, seeking out its former Grunts in the middle school, perusing historical documents, and even coming into possession of a single page of the storied text. Meanwhile, the world is growing up around him. Melody begins “going out” with one of his key tormentors, Jason Crazy-Pants, and his mother carries on a relationship with Tony Clark, his principal.

​The story of The Bully Book is told in chapters that alternate between entries from Eric Haskin’s journal and passages from the actual Bully Book. As the novel progresses, the two documents inform each other and their relationship is made clear, while Eric grows ever closer to The Bully Book and the dark secret at the heart of Arborland Elementary School.

(Source: amazon.com)

My Criticism:

The novel is somehow nice. There is always the feeling of hopelessness that the character's life would not become normal anymore because of the different frustrating events in his life. The novel is essential to parents that they should listen, support and trust somehow their children. Furthermore, this teaches us to continue life even there are problems around us, its normal anyway. The storyline is well developed. The characters are also believable like those acted lives of different people in TV shows like MMK and "Magpakailanman".  The main character reflects the life of the author Eric Khan Gale on how he was bullied when he was a child, felt hatred and rejections from the people around him.

POST COLONIALISM: The Seige of Krishnapur by J.G. Farell

Plot:

The story is set in the fictional town of Krishnapur and tells of a besieged British garrison which holds out for four months against an army of nativesepoys. Among the community are the Collector, who is an extremely Victorian believer in progress and father of small children and who can often be found daydreaming of the Great Exhibition; the Magistrate a Chartist in his youth but who sees his youthful political ideals destroyed by witnessing the siege; Dr Dunstaple and Dr McNab who row over the best way to treat cholera; Fleury, a poetical young man from England who learns to become a soldier and Lucy a "fallen" woman rescued from a bungalow who eventually runs a tea salon in the despairing community. By the end of the novel cholera, starvation and the sepoys have killed off most of the inhabitants, who are reduced to eating dogs, horses and finally beetles, their teeth much loosened by scurvy. "The final retreat of the British, still doggedly stiff-upper-lipped through the pantries, laundries, music rooms and ballroom of the residency, using chandeliers and violins as weapons, is a comic delight".

The Siege of Krishnapur is part of Farrell's "Empire Trilogy", which concerns the British Empire and its decline in three locations. Other books in the series are Troubles, about the Easter 1916 rebellion in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before the invasion of Singapore by the Japanese in World War II, during the last days of the British Empire.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Siege_of_Krishnapur)

My Criticism:

The novel is somewhat like interesting. It looks very inspiring to those who are going to read this. It is essential for the people who loses hope sometime, this can help to fulfill their dreams somehow. The storyline is fairly developed. The characters are believable since this shows different attributes of human. The novel examines the culture, politics, history and former colony in India. The book portrays an India under the control of the East India Company, as was the case in 1857,