Paper 2 Essay

Paper 2 topic: What do you think of the assertion that the meaning of a text is fixed and does not change over time?

   To analyze this question, it is needed to be informed of the context of production of both texts studied: Fatelessness and To Kill A Mockingbird. Fatelessness was written in 1975 and the story takes place on the Second World War, which the author went through. All aspects on the text are meant to demonstrate the suffering felt by the Jews (the author included). On To Kill a Mockingbird, written in 1960, but positioned in the 1940's, the main theme is the racial inequality and the discrimination for a lawyer that is defending an African - American descendant. 

   These two contexts of production are essential for the understanding of the question. These texts have a reason why they were written and a form how were they written. It is certain that the meaning of the text does not change over time, but it's an equivocation to assume that the comprehension of the readers over decades is not altered. This has to do with the concept of context of reception; the context in which the reader receives the information. 

   What needs to be understood is that the aspect that is essential on the comprehension of a text  is not what the reader understands, but what the author wanted to express and how. In other words, what is important is not what the reader is able to savvy, but what the author intended to show with each one of the literary elements he/she implemented. This has a direct relation with what this texts are trying to make the author feel. The objective of the author is what is being questioned if the assertion wouldn't be true. There needs to be an understanding on what did the author desired or intended to communicate or express throughout the piece in order to deduce what the meaning was.

   Fatelessness and To Kill a Mockingbird are two books that have a big similarity: both texts are based on an author's negative personal experience. Imre Kertesz and Harper Lee both suffered and experienced what they relate or narrate on their texts. This could suggest a similar objective on their pieces: to show what it was like, to make the reader understand what kind of feelings were involved. 

   ¿How could time change the objective the author has? If this is true, and the objective cannot change over time, the meaning desired on the text would be unaltered. If this is true, the meaning is not altered by time. Although the meaning the author wanted the text to have is not altered, the understanding of different readers at different times could be different, or at least, their perception of the things going on is different than the author's. Equally, the importance they give to different actions, words and other elements is dissimilar to the importance the same author offered to these. In this sense, the reader could get to the conclusion that the meaning of the text could have been altered over time, as some things that were transcendent those days are not important at all in today's context. For example, a lawyer defending an African - American descendant is not something weird today, to the extent that is perfectly normal to see African - American professionals being lawyers. Although all this is true, it's not accurately stated. The conclusion the reader should have drawn is not that the meaning if the text has changed, but the meaning he (the reader) is able to understand from his own perspective and previous information about the topic.

   It can be said that all the problematic of the assumption is originated by the ambiguity on the term "meaning". Is it arguing about the meaning the author is able to assign to the text? Is it having a relation with what the author wants the readers from different times and contexts to understand? Or is it asking which is the meaning of the text itself, what is it about and what elements can be an aid to identify this meaning?

   The truth is, the third question proves to be the most accurate one. The meaning of the text is one: the one it objectively has. Every person may understand something different from different texts. For example, in a poem or a song there is normally more than one interpretation, even though the author only considered one. Therefore, the meaning that was meant to be understood is the same, regardless what each one of the readers may have distinguished on its own.

         It can be said that the assumption of the question is true. The meaning doesn't seems altered at the passing of the years (on Fatelessness, we still know the objectives and reasons why the author wrote it and the arguments behind why), but different readers from different times may interpret dissimilar things and assumptions (for us today, would be intolerable that a person decided to extinguish a whole race like in the holocaust, but as we know it already happened is not weird nor controversial nor taboo to speak or write about the Second World war). The meaning is fixed, the understanding is moldable.

Word count: 872

Lincoln Speech

The fact that Lincoln begins his speech with "my friends" is a way  of making the people listening feel close to himself. Its hardly possible that every person hearing the speech is Lincoln's friend.
Using strong words he captivates the listener's attention and transforms the speech into something deeper. This can be seen  on changing 25 years to "quarter century". An unnecessary change that transforms the speech into something more professional. He confirms himself almost as an owner of the land when he establishes that one of his children is buried in the land. If we think about it, this statement is actually not necesary, but if creates a very strong feeling of personal relation towards the land, the city and the people. 

Register

1. “Honoured guests, members of the board, Superintendent Johnson, and most importantly, graduates of the class of 2012, it is an honour to speak to you on this ocassion.”

2. “While I was pleasantly surprised by the menu selections for dinner service, I was disheartened by the lukewarm eggs at breakfast.”

3. “Yeah, right”

4. “I doubt it”

5. “I’m tired of your rubbish”

6. “I’m tired”

1. Formal

2. Formal

3. Casual

4. Consultative

5. Intimate

6. Consultative

Idioms and Ambiguity

1. Bite your tongue

2. Pull my leg

3. He is my English teacher

4. I saw the person with a telescope

5. She doesn’t like short men or women

1. bite your physical tongue / IDIOM: shut up

2. pull my literal leg / IDIOM: play a trick or joke on me

3. He is, actually, my english teacher / IDIOM: he corrects everything I say /AMBIGUITY: He is from England

4. AMBIGUITY: I saw someone THROUGH a telescope, or I saw someone with a telescope in its hand.

5. There is a girl that doesn't like short people / AMBIGUITY: she doesn't like short men and all women.

Truth Assumptions

1. I thought that today was your birthday.

2. I forgot that today was your birthday.

3. The teacher scolded me for not studying hard enough.

4. The teacher acknowledged that I hadn’t really studied.

5. The teacher realized the student had cheated.

6. The teacher assumed that the student had cheated.

1. non-factive

2. factive

3. factive

4. factive

5. factive

6. non-factive

Written Task: Jane'sDiary Entry

Dear Diary:

On this day, mr Rochester questioned me if I found him handsome. I refused to say yes, and a no was pronounced up my throat. I am beginning to think Rochester is more than just a man that has a preference for his governess, and other sinful and disgusting thoughts are growing inside his mind. The blood is pumping inside my head, my hands tremble as the pencil tries to express in words the deep dark feelings I scent, the paper is soaked with the tears that my eyes ejaculate for every fearful ghost that pictures an image on my subconscious mind.

The feelings I have are so heterogeneous, now I understand that... no... it cannot be possible... I am thinking this too much. It's weird. I've never received a kind response or treatment from someone or treatment from someone before, not like Rochester does. Are the voices on the house a dark omen about my future here? Is mr Rochester the demon, the devil, and am I an ember that fell into inferno, to hell, to the endless pit of fire? Is mr Rochester the fire, and am I nothing else than a burning soul?

I cannot be so innocent, Rochester didn't asked me if I thought he looked handsome, but was his way of asking: "Do you like me? Because I like you". He feels curiosity for myself, something never done by someone before! The anxiety consumes me. Is mr Rochester in... in... in love with me?

Let's bring all to the beginning, I can't stare at myself now, Im lost in the pathway of living, I'm burning in the sea, melting in the ice, and other cliche phrases and expressions. I don't belong here, I'm wrong positioned. Since I was young, I didn't belonged in the Reed's house, nor in Lowood School. All my life has been about other people torturing me, passing over me, but Rochester... no. Is Rochester the final solution? The end of the puzzle? The salvation?

I need to calm down, I'm too anxious. Now that I'm here, I cannot see mr Rochester as something bad or wrong. This is the only time I've been placed where I am loved, taken care of, loved, loved, loved... What if actually Rochester is a good choice? What if he is going to give me the life I desire, a dignified future and a noble family? When he asked me to show myself upon his presence, I blushed. Staring at his lips moving like a blood wave, appreciating his eyes... 

But there is something strange: he told me he liked my hazel hair and hazel eyes. My eyes are green, not hazel. Would that comment had any negative objective? I need to stop this, I cannot continue writing this way, I am thinking everything from sides that never existed. I can't go on this way, not as I am today. My mind is dishevelled, teared in pieces. Shall I continue my analysis of the feelings of mr Rochester and the torment his question provoked in myself or should I stop this nonsense of writing for writing without obtaining the minimum profit out of it. I need an answer! I wish I had something to guide me, something that was a model I could copy, not something evil as all the "models" I have acquired in my life that the only thing they teach me is bit to be like them, like mrs Reed or mr Brockelhurstl. I need a man, who could have the virtue of being organized, kind with the fellow, maybe not rich, but with enough money to live a peaceful life. A man that is cute with me, kind with me, that would show his love to me every day, every week, month, year, and that the passion doesn't fades away over the decades. I am so horrified that this description fits mr Rochester.

Mr Rochester needs to know I just needed time, I just needed to settle down all the information that was entering with vigorous speed inside my mind. I am ready to go out there and say. -"Mr Rochester, I do find you handsome, and actually, I love you". I cannot believe the pencil just write that statement, I cannot be so fragile in my way of thinking, I just broke as a stick made of glass, I shut myself only to the possibility of Rochester having good intentions. What if he wants something dark? I don't know him enough, I haven't discovered him behind the curtains of sociability. I require more time, but I'm not able to get it; I demand more answers, but the sleuth is just me; a choice has to be made, and I don't want to just improvise and answer and throw everything else out to the trash. In an important decision like this one, failure is not a possible option.

I hear his voice outside the door, I hear his footsteps. I must go now, try to avoid speaking about yesterday and continue like if nothing happened. But we both know, yes, we both know the feelings one has for another, but we just have a picture of the masks, not the revelation of the faces wearing them.

Rationale:
Sticking your mind into Jane's mind is never easy. Our modern mind is unable to understand most of the horrors that were considered something common and regular in the Victorian Times. Apart from all this, the best way to make a character tell you what they think is through reading inside his/her mind. Is not easy to use the same diction that Carllote used, but I think a little exageration of the level of english I would normally use was enough to fit this diction. Like "I refused to say yes, and a no was pronounced up my throat" for "I said no".
A mixture of feelings were also used, demonstrating the contant insecurity expressed by Jane in the novel due to the lack of education she suffered.
In statements like "I understand that... no... it cannot be possible... I am thinking this too much" we can see more a dialogue kind of expression, improvised. This way, the process of Jane of analyzing the situation can be highlighted. Doing this also shows the ability of Jane of being an analyst of every action that other characters do, being the main reason of which Jane is as it is.
Another important fact to consider is that as Jane analyzes everything too much, and is not accepted through society that a girl would be this way, being able to enter inside her mind lets us see her deeper thoughts and
feelings unleashed and without filter. For this reasons, a diary entry is the best way of knowing the truth inside the mind of the character.

The Princess extract

'Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;   ->ROSES
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;         -> CALMNESS                \
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:        -> FISHES ARE STOPPED  / NOTHING MOVES
The fire-fly wakens: wake thou with me.             -> He is remembering her

Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost, -> Peacock are full of colors, and this one is white: contradiction
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.             ->   White ghost, white light

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,           ->Danaë was someone killed in a lake
And all thy heart lies open unto me.                    -> Remembering her

Now lies the silent meteor on, and leaves      -> The thought goes away
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.         -> He wants to die when he thinks on her

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,       -> She was alive on top, and then...
And slips into the bosom of the lake:          ->...she falls to the bottom (metaphor)
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip   -> He is telling her to die...
Into my bosom and be lost in me.'              -> ... to "Die in me" stong metaphor

T: Maybe reffering to a royal woman

P: There is death of a woman.

C: Feelings from a living person towards a dying bride.

A: Sorrowful

S: Not present. Mantains sad expressions.

T: Now, the title is about HER princess, not an actual royal woman. 

T: How her death is being realized by white colors.