Revenge and Release in High School Lexicography
Eighteenth Century British literature can be a hard sell for high school students: excepting Gulliver’s Travels, it seems they would rather chew through the ossified gum underneath their desks than the period’s personal essays and heroic couplets. Given their general reaction to the century, studying Dr. Johnson’s lexicography would not seem a sure-fire plan for pedagogical fireworks. Nevertheless, it was; I had underestimated the emotional potential of high school lexicography. Simply reading portions of Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language did not ignite my students’ interest, but reading his entries with the prospect of writing their own caused a few mental sparks. It was, however, the process of defining and sharing these words--their words and their world--that brought literary ignition amidst a seemingly inflammable century. Why? There are peripheral reasons which I will discuss, but the central fuel was the emotional element of lexicography, the potential for revenge and release.
Our crucial first step was acquaintance with "the Great Lexicographer" (Dixon 220). We needed the invigoration of knowing the man, and his friend Boswell introduced us. In our text’s excerpt from his The Life of Samuel Johnson, the passage which ingratiated Johnson with students was his initial joke at the biographer’s expense:
for with that quickness of wit for which he was so remarkable, he seized the expression "come from Scotland," which I used in the sense of being of that country: and, as if I had said that I had come away from it, or left, retorted, "That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help." (578) Perhaps Johnson’s cockiness or Boswell’s reaction--"This stroke stunned me a good deal; and when we had sat down, I felt myself not a little embarrassed, and apprehensive of what might come next" (578)--resonated with the students’ experience. Either way, reading and discussing this passage coalesced the 18th C. parlor and the 20th C. locker room, instilling some respect and preconditioning recognition of Johnson’s witty agenda.
Analysis of Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language deepened their relationship with the lexicographer. We appreciated his sarcasm in contrasting his labor with that of other scholars and artists: Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries . . . doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which learning and genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
By allowing the reader the "[privilege of] the soldiers experience" (Chattarji) it shows how difficult it is to get rid of the weight as begins to define you and the more it becomes a part of a person the harder it is to remove an aspect of yourself. In his repetition, O'Brien wants to give readers a deeper meaning into the everyday struggles of soldiers. He portrays the ways that soldiers were effected in the war and focused on the burdens that developed. O'Brien highlights how war changes those involved as "[the individual dreams of soldiers rise and fall and] their hopes riddled by disillusionment, their fantasies broken by shrapnel edged realities" (Timmeran). Wartime altered soldier’s perception and caused them to develop these emotional and physical weights that followed them for years. When many solider returned they were now stuck with daily burdens that had started since the day they landed in Vietnam. Constantly, these soldiers endured the long lasting results of participating in the war and unable to escape or forget the weight that they endure. "The Things They Carried" serves as a constant reminder to readers about the true realities of soldiers and the impact of war. How soldiers are not stable as they return home because of these weights that have become a part of them and how simple acts such as carrying around a weapon has now manifested itself into an emotional burden that will not leave. Often the realities of being a soldier are not portrayed accurately but O'Brien attempts to put into perspective what it really is like to go through warfare by drawing on his own experiences as a foot
Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing the character’s psychological burdens.
In the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” a family comprising of a grandmother, a father, three children, and a wife is headed on vacation has the misfortune of meeting a murderous band of serial killers. The Misfit and his band of serial killers are recently escapees of a federal prison. In the following paragraphs this paper looks into the issues of, what one would do in a situation such as that and the background of the the family and murderers as well.
Murray, J. A., & Burchfield, R. W. (1933). The Oxford English Dictionary (Vol. 1): Clarendon Press Oxford.
The novel, “The Things They Carried”, is about the experiences of Tim O’Brian and his fellow platoon members during their time fighting in the Vietnam War. They face much adversity that can only be encountered in the horrors of fighting a war. The men experience death of friends, civilians, enemies and at points loss of their rationale. In turn, the soldiers use a spectrum of methods to cope with the hardships of war, dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions all allow an escape from the horrors of Vietnam that they experience most days.
Even though Samuel Johnson’s childhood was filled with illness and poverty he grew up to become a big powerful man. He lost sight in one of his eyes and...
Paul Dean.The Review of English Studies , New Series, Vol. 52, No. 208 (Nov., 2001) , pp. 500-515
Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. “Thomas Morton, Historian”. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 50, No.4 (Dec., 1977), pp. 660-664. The New England Quarterly, Inc. .
The way in which Samuel Johnson is depicted in Life of Johnson by James Boswell differs in various way from other biographers of Johnson as well as other works of Johnson. In Jeffrey Meyer’s Samuel Johnson: the struggle Johnson’s relationship with women is shown differently than it was in Life of Johnson. In Life of Johnson Boswell tries to depict a very manly and masculine Johnson. Whereas in Meyer’s biography of Johnson readers are able to see a side of Johnson that isn’t as chauvinistic and is sympathetic towards women. Even though, many might see Johnson as being misogynistic in reality Johnson did support both women and one can see this if examining and inquiring deeper into Johnson’s writing and his relationship with women becomes clearer. Further, Boswell’s depiction at times might be flawed but it was strong enough to provide a lasting impression of Johnson being chauvinist when in reality he did support women in their educational and intellectual interests.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907-21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html
"Neoclassicism." A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies. Comp. English Department Brooklyn College. 6th ed. Landmarks of Literature. Brooklyn College. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: American Literature Notes. London, ON: University of Western. Fall 2014. Lecture Notes.
Stevenson, Angus. Oxford Dictionary of English. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010.
When Samuel Johnson ascribed to a new work "such extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of both ancient and modern learning as not often attained by the maturest age and longest experience," he was speaking of young Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711), written when he was about twenty, and published when he was only twenty-three years old (in Mack 177).1 Others have not been as generous in their comments about the prodigy's efforts. One history of criticism textbook describes the work rather ingloriously: "There are repetitions and inconsistencies, some conventional pronouncements along with injunctions of lasting value; but nowhere . . . are the principles organized into a coherent whole, and no cut-and-dried theory [of criticism] therefore emerges" (in Morris 145).2 Despite this harsher pronouncement, Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism 1 Johnson's evaluation of Pope's Essay has been upheld if for no other reason than that so many of the work's bon mots have established noteworthy careers in daily household English. As Mack observed (177), "Pope will sometimes manage a verbal maneuver so simple in appearance, so breathtaking on reflection, that the common sense of mankind has plucked it out of the poem and made it a part of speech: 'A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing' (205); 'To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine’ (525); `For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread' (625). And several more. Next to Shakespeare, we may recall, Pope has contributed more to our common language than any other poet. It is a gift not lightly to be dismissed."