Pick up a Guitar! Save the Music!

Final Project Timeline

I think I have a plan that will allow me to get this all done in two weeks. I just need to put in the work. I need to use all my class and lunch time to make sure I get at least one good song recorded that can be used as an example in the final product. I recorded a drumline and outro today, and I'm super stoked about it. After school I can get the interviews I need from random people around town. I should take just one day to get some words from people here at school. It might be a good idea to get some words from Sugano and the band teacher. I might even ask Sugano to let me capture portions of his guitar class and music production class on video. The blog can be created and designed in two hours' time, probably less. I might do that after posting this to my course blog. I can take 15 minutes after this to think out some good questions to ask at school and on the road tomorrow. Once I have all that, I can finish editing the presentation together. That can be done in a night. I might need to spend an hour tonight planning text for the presentation and figuring out what music to use. "Pick up a Guitar! Save the Music!" is a sort of movement against the awful "music" being played on our radio stations, and against the diminishing number of music and all art programs in schools. When pirate radio tells me they play all the greatest classic rock hits, I do NOT want to hear Taylor Swift. Unfortunately, that's the world we live in. I think if I can show people how easy it is to pick up a guitar and start learning on their own, it might encourage people to make music and stomp out the noise pollution. It's just something fun to do, and it stimulates the mind in a way that formal education doesn't. It makes people happier; I've seen it. I think I'm rambling a bit now. I'll leave the rest to be seen. =P

Final Project Progress

My project is coming along nicely so far. I've decided to title it, "Pick Up a Guitar. Save the Music". I've already shot some footage for the final presentation, and written three songs since last week, hopefully one of which will be recorded in time to make it onto the final presentation. I still have some footage to shoot, and I have to get at least one of my songs recorded. Then, I have to put the presentation together, and that's a one night job. I can get the footage I need in two days. I should use all my class time to work on recording my song, since I won't have access to the recording equipment after the two weeks is up. I'm sure I can do it. I'm also considering creating a blog to go along with this...movement? Depending on how well the rest of the shooting process goes, and if I can get other people to follow through. I just want to show people how easy it can be to just pick up a guitar or whatever it may be and start learning. I think music is extremely important, and learning to play an instrument can be beneficial. Then there's the increasing number of art programs being cut in schools to make more room for remedial learning classes. Not to mention the awful music being produced these days. That's my opinion anyways. I thought it would be a nice idea to encourage people that share my opinion to do a little something about it. Learn to play, and make music that you like to listen to. I thought if people took it seriously, and after I show them how easy it can be after teaching a few chord progressions to a few different people, it would be cool to have a place where we could share our progress and keep in touch. That's something I'm really excited about. =D

Project Plan

So, during this last month of school, I'll mostly be focusing on my music and lyrics, preparing to start recording as soon as I move to Arizona. I just love doing it, and my only real goal is to create music I like that's representative of who I am. It would be a bonus if along the way, I could make someone smile or laugh or just think differenly. Eventually I'm going to need more than the equipment I have now. I still need an amp, my own mic, a pedal or two, ya know, things to record with. For now, I'm getting by with Vera, a pencil and some paper, and the equipment i use at school. As of now, I have one recorded song, and seven written songs all with chord progressions under my belt. I would like to have two songs written by the end of every week at least, and by the end of the year, have at least two more songs recorded. Not quite sure how I'll be able to present the finished product. The obvious answer would be some sort of multi-media presentation. Maybe a quick look at the creative process and footage of the work that goes into the recording process, and if I can figure it out, maybe a sample of my work. Oh, this is going to be fun. ^^

April 25 Journal Entry

So, today after school I looked through some essay prompts and wrote two different essays to practice for the exam. It's what I struggle with the most- writing essays under pressure. One thing I did find is that I do much better if I take the time to do a pre-write before writing the essay. I never took the time to do one before because I was already stressed about having the time to write the essay on it's own. But, I took five minutes for the prewrite, and it helped me gather my thoughts, stay on topic, and I was able to get my ideas into the essay way quicker. I'm just starting to get better at writing essays of decent length in a specific amount of time, and now I need to work on writing quality essays, and to do that, I need to get out of the habit of just giving plot summaries. They warn you at the end of every prompt to avoid plot-summary, but I never seem to be able to provide enough textual evidence or examples of literary techniques in my essays. Personally, I think my inability to do that comes from my inability to analyze a piece of literature to begin with. I've never been good at it, and I'm not sure how to get better at it. -.-'

Open Essay Prompts Applicable to Macbeth.

• 1973
• An effective literarywork does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require to the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay discuss the end of a novel or play of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
• 1979
• Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might, on the basis of the character's actions alone, be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.
• 1995
• Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a play or novel in which such a character plays a significant role, and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions and moral values.

AP Exam Study Plan

Step 1) Memorize all lit terms by the end of this week.
Step 2) Do some practice essays over the weekend.
Step 3) Use next week to re-memorize vocab from last semester and take some practice tests.
Step 4) Use next weekend to practice analyzing poetry.

Hopefully, if I keep to this schedule, I'll be ready in perfect time for the big test.

Character Analysis: Macbeth vs. Lady Macbeth (a study tool)

Macbeth Lecture Notes Day Two

• Lady Macbeth
• determined, manipulative, animus, evil, pure force
• Macbeth can persevere through the guilt because he owns up to what he's done
• this makes him slightly more admirable
• Lady Macbeth can't admit to herself she's done anything wrong
• she's unaware that she feels guilt inside, and it destroys her from within
• the ultimate control freak, once she loses control of her husband, she reaches her breaking point and commits suicide.
• Their relationship in the beginning:
• Macbeth and wife are a real couple
• they love and support one another. they talk things out before doing anything
• after the murder, they start to move apart
• Macbeth is moving on and making decisions without his wife, determined to set his life in order again.
• all his worries are purely psychological
• no one suspects him yet he's paranoid.
• he's betrayed his value system and wants to forget so he won't have to feel guilty for what he's done.
• with each murder he commits, he believes he's doing something good, securing his position as king, but he's becoming more and more inhuman.
• he loses the ablitity to feel sensitive about life, and the link between himself and other human beings is severed.
• there's no longer any value to his life without someone to share it with
• his life has become empty (*see soliloquoy)
• he has everything but cares about nothing
• The Witches
• they remind us of the evil that secretly lies in everyone and drives us to do certain things
• they don't force Macbeth to do anything
• they give him the idea of being king and inform his own thinking
• Macbeth and his wife had already discussed him being king
• Macbeth was looking for something to give himn permission to do what he already had thought about doing
• they're pure evil, there to tempt and torment mankind.
• *Banquo
• he's important as a character because his reaction to the witches is in complete contrast with Macbeth's.
• he's happy for his children's destiny, but wouldn't want it if he had to do something he knew was awful.
• his honor was more important to him
• Macbeth listens, but doesn't care.
• he wants to believe the witches because he likes what they have to say more.
• possible possitive values in the witches???
• they are outcasts of society and women, completely excluded
• yet, they hold all the power in this story
• they are above the natural world
• a final thought:
• though Shakespeare doesn't specifically say, after Macbeth's death, the witches are still left to be dealt with, somewhere in the world. Almost as if to say that evil still exists in the world

Macbeth's "Tomorrow"

The audio is a little quiet, but I definitely know this!

Macbeth Retold Part Eight

Macbeth Retold Part Seven

Macbeth Retold Part Six

Macbeth Retold Part Five

Macbeth Retold Part Four

Macbeth Retold Part Three

Macbeth Retold Part Two

Macbeth Retold Part One

Macbeth vs. Hamlet (A study tool)

Just in case I'm ever asked to compare two pieces of Shakespeare...I'd like to have already come up with some ideas.

Macbeth Lecture Notes (Day One)

The Murder of the King

• Rise and fall of a good man.
• Act III- he becomes king
• rest of play is focused on the downfall
• his flaw is his ambition
• tragic because he started with so much potential
• he can't be happy with what he has after the witches tell him his future.
• the witches gave the suggestion, but made him do nothing.
• Macbeth and wife had discussed becoming king before.
• witches maybe response to a desire already there?
• Macbeth constantly changing his mind
• always weighing pros and cons of his actions
• he KNOWS right from wrong, but chooses to do wrong
• he'd be a full villain, if it weren't for his conscience.
• he suffers inside for the rest of the play after Duncan's murder.
• definition of tragic hero- reinforce values of society
• Macbeth fails royally at this
• he ends up alone, no friends, no wife, and hated by everyone
• doesn't want to kill king, but can't stop invisioning himself as king
• Lady Macbeth has no problem pushing her husband to murder Duncan
• she has no conscience. the embodiment of Evil
• Animus= masculine (not male)
• Anima= feminine (not female)
• Lady Macbeth is Animus
• the hallucination of the Knife as Macbeth is getting ready to murder Duncan
• he's psyching himself out, and the more he thinks about it, the more he doesn't want to do it.
• he can see his goal, so close to being king, but he can't bring himself to do it.

Macbeth as King

• he's dealing with guilt for the rest of the play.
• he's overcome with fear and paranoia.
• the courage he has is an outer one. he's not afraid to fight.
• starts making more bad decisions
• possibly a conscious decision?
• self-destructive behavior makes the ending pretty much inevitable
• maybe he thought it's what he desserved? who knows...
• Lady Macbeth handles the guilt differently
• she can't handle the torment inside.
• the one time she embodies stereotypical female=being fickle
• the sleepwalking is a metaphor
• "being there, but not being there"
• she's trying to wash the blood from her hands in her sleep
• confessing her sins
• a residual haunting on repeat in her mind
• reliving her crimes in her nightmares
• she feels guilty, but isn't aware of it, and therefore doesn't know how to deal with it
• unable to deal with the guilt she feels, she commits suicide.

Macbeth is Explained...

Today's Macbeth Test

1)Macbeth won the respect of King Duncan by:
             -slaying the traitor Macdonwald.

2)King Duncan rewarded Macbeth by dubbing him:
             -the Thane of Cawdor

3)In addressing Banquo, the witches called him:
             -lesser than Macbeth and greater, not as happy as Macbeth yet much happier, and a future father of kings.

4)When Macbeth said, "Two truths are told/As happy prologues" he was referring to:
            -his titles of Glamis and Cawdor

5)"Nothing in his life/Became him like the leaving it" is a reference to:
            -the traitorous Thane of Cawdor

6)Duncan's statement, "I have begun to plant thee and will thee labour/to make thee full of growing" is an example of:
             -a metaphor

7)Lady Macbeth characterizes her husband as being:
            -too full of the milk of human kindness

8)When Macbeth agonizes over the possible killing of the king, he says:
            -"He is my house guest; I should protect him", "Duncan's virtues will plead like angels", and "I am his kinsman and his subject."

9)Macbeth's statement to his wife, "Bring forth men-children only" signifies that he:
           -has accepted the challenge to kill the king

10)As part of the plan to kill the king, Lady Macbeth would:
           -get the chamberlains drunk

11)Trace Macbeth's transformation from a good man to an evil man.
           -There was a small, short-lived time where we got to see Macbeth as a good man. He fought bravely and fearlessly for the King, and he was greatly admired for his valor and merit. King Duncan calls him a "valiant cousin"and "a worthy gentleman", and he even gives Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor. That all changed quickly after his first murder, and he kept going out for more and more blood until he could feel safe that he'd be King for the rest of his natural life.

12)What motivates Macbeth to take the evil path he chooses?
            -Macbeth is motivated by his ambition and desire to be king, witch may have never even became apparent to him had the witches not told him his fortune. Not only would the idea of being king never have come into his head, but he may not have gone through with the murder if it hadn't bee for his wife's constant pushing and bullying him into it. Once he learned he would be king, he knew the only way to make his fortune come true would be t overthrow and kill King Duncan. Rather than be content with knowing that he would someday be king, as Banquo was glad to know his descendents would be kings, Macbeth had to do whatever he needed to get instant gratification.

13)What influences do the witches have on Macbeth?
           -The witches are the ones that put the idea of being king into Macbeth's head, and trick him into thinking he was greater than any man and that he couldn't be defeated.

14)Contrast Macbeth's response to the witches' predictions with Banquo's.
           -Macbeth was told by the witches that he would be Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King. This created an ambition and desire in him that he hadn't had before, and he would stop at nothing to make his fortune come true. Banquo was told that while he was lesser than Macbeth, his descendents would go on to be Kings, and he was happy to let the chips fall where they may.

15)Describe the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Trace how it changes over the course of the play.
          -They start out as a lving couple, treating each other as equals. Macbeth is excited to tell his wife about the news of his fortunes, and she wants to help him achieve his destiny, and she helps plan the murder of the King. She was definitely the stronger of the two at first; more sure of what she wanted and how to get there. It was her constant bullying and harping on her husband that aided his decision to be more like her and act immediately upon his decisions. It ws when she was no longer needed by him that she was driven mad.

Part II

1)"Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/ To feeling as to sight?" is a reference to the:
             -dagger

2)Lady Macbeth confessed that she would have killed King Duncan herself except for the fact that:
             -he looked like her father

3)Shakespeare introduced the Porter in order to:
             -provide comic relief

4)Malcolm and Donalbain flee after the murder:
             -because they fear the daggers in men's smiles

5)Macbeth arranges for Banquo's death by telling the hired killers that:
             -Banquo had thwarted their careers

6)Macbeth startles his dinner guests by:
              -conversing with the ghost of Banquo

7)The witches threw into the cauldron:
              -"eye of bat and tongue of frog" and "wool of bat and tongue of dog"

8)The three apparitions that appeared to Macbeth were:
              -an armed head, a child with a crown, and a bloody child.

9)In Act IV, Malcolm is at first lukewarm to Macduff because he:
              -suspects a trick

10)Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane when:
              -the camouflaged soldiers make their advance

11)What is the significance of the line, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair"?
              -the line lays out from the very beginning that things won't be as they seem to be, and it blurs the line between good and evil that Macbeth can't seem to distinguish.

12)How does Macbeth function as a morality play?
              -the story of Macbeth teaches people of the consequences of ill-gotten gains. It warns against doing something you know is wrong to get what you want in life. Macbeth murdered a good man to take something that didn't belong to him, and in the end he was brutally killed.

13)How does Shakespeare use the technique of Dramatic Irony in Macbeth?
              -we see a good example of dramatic irony in the last act of the play. Macbeth cannot see or refuses to believe that his reign as king is about to come to an abrupt end, and all the while we know what's coming.

14)How does Lady Macbeth overcome her husband's resistance to the idea of killing King Duncan?
               -Lady Macbeth is extremely determined, and she's not above insulting her husband, saying that he's less of a man for going back on his word after they had decided they would kill the king. She also knows her husband well enough to convince him of how easy the murder will be.

15)Contrast Macduff's response to the news of his wife's and children's deaths with Macbeth's response to being told Lady Macbeth is dead.
               -Macduff is a good man, and at first doesn't want to believe that his wife and children are dead. When he finally accepts what he is hearing, he feels pain. Macbeth, who has chosen a path of evil, is quick to accept the news of his wife's death, and it's almost like he doesn't care. He says that life is meaningless and that everyone dies eventually.

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five: The Remix

Macbeth Notes

• Written in 1605-1606
• twisted history
• intense, psychological, political, history, tragedy
• addressed political agenda of King James
• intertwined mythologies and realities
• (Raphael) Holinshed's Chroicles of Scottish History
• 11th century Scottland
• collection of gossip and tales
• flawed source of information behind Shakespeare's Macbeth.
• Shakespeare chose bits and pieces that made a good drama
• altered historical records
• referenced events occuring in England at the time in his play
• Gunpowder plot
• The historical Macbeth
• lived during the Dark Ages
• 1040: Macbeth becomes king
• overthrows and kills King Duncan
• rules for 17 years
• 1057: Duncan's son overthrows and kills Macbeth
• King Malcolm III
•  married English Princess (Saint) Margaret
• not much else is known about King Macbeth or his wife Grunnich

Top Three Lit Analysis Remixes

dania hetamleh, dhrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com                                                                                 mari kagawa, mjkrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com                                                                                         trenton class, tacrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com

William Blake's "The Tyger" Remixed

William Blake's "The Lamb" Remixed

Mnemonic Device: 9 Components of Poetry.

1) Dramatic Situation

2) Structure

3) Grammar & meaning

4) Important words

5) TOne

6) THEme

7) Literary devices

8) Prosody

9) Figurative language


*David Spade Surely Gets InTO THE Ladies' Pants Frequently.*

Reflecting on Today's Micro-AP Exam

I have to say that nothing about today's exam was easy or expected. I was feeling slightly optomistic about starting the two-part exam with a multiple choice section. What I wasn't expecting was a switch-a-roo and starting with the three fifteen-minute short essays instead. I find that I struggle most with timed essays. One forty minute essay is difficult enough for me. My three essays ended up as three big paragraphs, one for each.


The three questions were clearly different, but after rereading my answers with what little time I had left, I thought all of my answers were very similar. I don't know if that's because of the wording of the questions or because of the way I understood each question. (I'm thinking it was most likely ME). I tend to panic under pressure and doubt myself and become discouraged, (I know, I'm a repeat offender of the Ten Commandments) and that has a negative affect on my work. As painful as this was, though, I'm glad for the experience. I can customize a plan for myself that will help me improve on my weaknesses with essays. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect", and I fully intend on challenging myself with more practice essays until, hopefully, a forty minute essay will seem like a breeze.

Practice AP Essay Prompts

I've always been terrible at writing timed essays. So, I found two sources with practice essay prompts that I'm totally going to take advantage of. =D

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/english_lit/samp.html?englit

http://sb169.k12.sd.us/Prompt%20list%20for%20IR%20with%20AP.htm

10 Commandments of AP Literature and Composition

Thank you Dr. Preston for finding these and posting them to the blog. These were very helpful to me and my anxiety issues with the AP exam, so I'm stealing these and putting them on my blog for easier/quicker access. =P

*Written by AP Lit and Comp teacher Martin Beller*

1. I am the Prompt, thy Prompt; thou shalt have no other Prompt before me. Thou shalt read the Prompt with rapt attention; the Prompt is thy friend. Thou shalt address the Prompt. Thou shalt not just get the general idea of the Prompt, nor shalt thou fight the Prompt or substitute thine own ideas for the Prompt.

2. Thou shalt not postpone, omit or bury thy Thesis Statement.

3. Thou shalt not commit plot-summary, nor shalt thou cohabit with Reading Comprehension, for it is an abomination in my sight.

4. Thou shalt not commit free-floating generalization, but shall support and develop thy every assertion.

5. Thou shalt not confuse complexity with confusion, or subtlety with
indecisiveness; thou shalt not attribute thine own insensitivity or ignorance to authorial ineptitude. The fact that thou gettest not the point doesn't mean that the passage hath no point: thou hast missed the point. Deal with it.

6. Thou shalt read every Multiple Choice question with the same exquisite care that thou devotest to the essay Prompt: thou shalt not 'get the drift.' By the same token, thou shalt strive to read what the writer actually wrote, not what thou expectest him or her to have written.

7. Thou shalt not finish early. Thou shalt spend plenty of thy time planning thine essay responses and reading them over.

8. Thou shalt guess when thou knowest not the answers.

9. Thou shalt not merely identify literary, rhetorical and stylistic devices, but shalt show how they function.

10. Thou shalt never permit thyself to become discouraged: I am the prompt, thy Prompt. Thou shalt maintain thy focus, attention and confidence. Yea, though thou hast totally screwed up thy last essay, this next essay maketh a fresh start.

A Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes

• 1857: wrote "The Frozen Deep"
• inspired A Tale of Two Cities.
• self sacrifice
• love triangle
• 1857: fell in love with actress name Ellen and left wife
• Ellen inspired Lucie's character
• Other characters:
• Charles Darney and Sydney Carton (originally named Dick Carton)
• doubleness of character
• Charle's Dickens' initials
• 1858: public readings for prophit
• separated from wife
• left his editors
• 1859: new editor
• first three chapters of A Tale of Two Cities are pubished
• experiences in London gave him a "profound knowlege of the city"
• a dark and fascating place
• "everything is there and disconnected
• Paris: 1844
• "most extraordinary place in the world"
• strange, striking things
• half size of London
• visited 15 times
• public charity readings
• last visit was 2 years before his death
• vibrant modernizing city
• had a darker side:
• dark, wicked place, but wonderfully attractiv
• liked visiting the Morgue
• public attraction
• attraction of repulsion
• Worlds of London and Paris were the same in his story
• people were haunted by memory of French Rev.
• very brave for confronting that fear in his story
• published in weekly and monthly volumes
• restricted his focus
• "Best story I've ever written"
• 1860: first stage version of book
• 1899: The Only Way
• another stage play
• 1908: Silent film
• 1935: sound film
• Thomas Carslisle
• friends with Dickens
• influence
• "History of the French Revolution"

Complete Fall Vocabulary List

Fall Semester Vocab List -

Complete List of Lit Terms

AP Lit Terms -

Great Expectations Chapters 10-12

Great Expectations Chapters 10-12 -

Great Expectations Chapters 7-9

Great Expectations Chapters 7-9 -

Great Expectations Chapters 4-6

Great Expectations Active Readin Notes Chapters 4-6. -

What's in a Name? (Great Expectations)

The title almost says it all. Great Expectations is about a poor boy being raised by his horrible older sister and her much kinder husband. He falls in love with a yound lady and goes to the trouble of becoming a gentleman to woo and marry her. But, when his dreams are realized, it turns out to be nothing like what he expected. 'Sounds very depressing.

Great Expectations Chapters 1-3

Great Expectations starts off very somber and depressing right from the get-go. We learn within the first few paragraphs that Pip's mother, father, and five out of his six siblings are deceased, and the story starts with him at a graveyard crying. Charels Dickens uses depressing, emotionally charged words like "bleak" and "dark" and "graveyard" and "damp" and "misty" to set a sort of spooky, creepy mood. I love the imagery and dialect of the characters, and I totally understand now just how good he was at making his characters realistic and believable. I can see the connections between the tragedies in Pip's life and his own. It makes enough sense, since this was written after some of his darkest days. I mostly felt very depressed reading these first few chapters, and I suppose this might have been how he was feeling, or had felt before writing Great Expectations.
Great Expectations chapters 1-3 -

A Poem Worth Loving

"The Poor Children"
-Victor Hugo


Take heed of this small child of earth;
He is great; he hath in him God most high.
Children before their fleshy birth
Are lights alive in the blue sky.

In our light bitter world of wrong
They come; God gives us them awhile.
His speech is in their stammering tongue,
And his forgiveness in their smile.

Their sweet light rests upon our eyes.
Alas! Their right to joy is plain.
If they are hungry Paradise
Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.

The want that saps their sinless flower
Speaks judgement on sin's ministers.
Man holds an angel in his power.
Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,

When God seeks out these tender things
Whom in the shadow where we sleep
He sends us clothed about with wings
And finds them ragged babes that weep!

Time Trial: 40 Minute Open Literature Question Essay.

    I can't help but feel pity and compassion for Victor Frankenstien from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Though his creation was a murderer, it was Frankenstien's actions that drove the creature to kill, and to act like that monster that everyone thought he was.


   Frankenstein's first sin was to experiment with the laws of nature and create life not in the natural way, but by using a beaufitul force of nature to animate a collection of limbs and other body parts that had been very cruedly sewn and stitched together. His second offense was abandoning his creation after seeing what a monstrosity he'd brought into the world. This is neglect and abandonment. A parent would never get away with neglecting a child with physical or mental deformities, and neither should Victor Frankenstien's actions be forgiven. It is a parent's job to guide their children- teach them right from wrong. Victor Frankenstein failed miserably at his duties and obligations as a father. It was this carelessness and abandonment that drove his creation to become and evil mastermind and a true monster.


   Still, I can't help but to feel compassion for the man. The whole story is a flashback, and he's reflecting on the decisions he's made in his life, and most likely regretting them. Mary Shelley used very little dialogue in the story; almost to the point that it becomes painful to read. She goes in depth and describes the torment, the tragedy, and tha pain that he is enduring. In this way, she makes the reader feel and share his pain. She forces the reader to empathise with him, whether they want to or not. At the time that he's telling his story, he's an old man, weary from the suffering he endured as a young man and from the constantly having to stay on the move, running from his past and running from his monster. His actions were reprehensible, but I shed a tear or two for him, and I feel more compassion than contempt for him.