Literary Genres and Techniques

What role does Tita's story play in the passage?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Magical realism provides the reader with a unique perspective of the world -we look on it with new eyes. The reader must go beyond reality to understand magical realism. Magical realism may be related to certain academic fields such as psychology because of the state of mind one must use to really know what is happening.

Magical realism can be characterized in many ways. Mainly, it depends on one's own opinion, but for me reading certain selections about it, one can get basically the same point of view from it. "Meticulous craftsmen all, one finds them In the same preoccupation with style and also the same transformation of the common and everyday into the awesome and unreal"(Flores 114). The "awesome and the unreal" are characteristics that usually represent what magical realism is. Many magical realists use it in their selections to give readers a brief idea about magical realism. It is not just the everyday word or meaning to life. It is an outlook on what life has to give one if he or she is willing to look further into it.

In the psychological field, Victor Frankl discusses something called "will-to-meaning." Frankl says that in one life meaning is love for one's children to tie to; in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving. In his studies, he stated that people survive to weave those slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of meaning and responsibility. Frankl poses three different lives in his theory. Either a person could be living one of the three or he or she could be living all three at one time. People just do not realize the magic. If one cannot find his or her "will-to-meaning in life, Frankl says that the sufferer fails to find meaning and a sense of responsibility in his existence. Later on, Frankl puts an answer issue to this by saying "A human suddenly realizes he has nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life." Frankl titles this idea as a mixed flow of emotion and apathy that is simply arresting. Also, Frankl gave a good meaning to his theory by quoting Nietzsche, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." That quote was a really moving statement to me.

In the story Like Water For Chocolate, a young woman named Tita was haunted by her mother when she died. The love for a man made her mother haunt her because of Tita's disobedience to her mother after she had died. In relation to Frankl's ideas to this story, Tita had a reason to live as well as Frankl did. Frankl lived to write about what he had learned. His family all died in concentration camps with no meaning to life whatsoever. Tita at first thought she had no reason to live until meeting the love of her life. As Nietzsche said, "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

Magical realism relates to certain academic fields such as psychology because of the state of mind one must use to really know what is happening. In Frankl's will-to-meaning, like magical realism, one has to have a realization of what is going on and a "why and how" attitude towards it. Both are based upon the "real and unreal" where a person look upon things with other minds, not just a person's own natural state (psychologically)-(magically). I think magical realism has become more popular over the last sixty years because it is shown to be a relation to things used today in our academic fields. I think that if it was not used then it would not be as fun to learn about it. When there are more perspectives, learning is a lot more interesting.

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Literary imagination has always challenged philosophy, as it has in the modern age, with its philosophies utopianism and disenchantment. The contest between two has been raging in Russia for some two hundred years, often taking the form of an antagonism between modernity and tradition, and it cuts through the heart of Tolstoy's fiction Tolstoy's fiction grew originally out of his diaries, in which he tried to understand his own feelings and actions so as to control them. Tolstoy's major work, War and Peace, appeared between the years 1865 and 1869. The epic tale depicted the story of five families against the background of Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Tolstoy's other masterpiece, Anna Karenina (1873-77), told a tragic story of a married woman, who follows her lover, but finally commits suicide. Tolstoy juxtaposed in the work crises of family life with the quest for the meaning of life.

Of Tolstoy's two epic novels, the War and Peace has always been more popular than Anna Karenina, perhaps because it includes features of mythology that are accessible to readers. Though this story primarily deals with the interactions between various members of the Russian aristocracy before and during the war, the novel is interspersed with evenly spaced historical analysis by Tolstoy concerning such things as causes of war, sources of secular power, motivations for specific actions or instances of inaction during the French-Russian conflict, and explanations of societal phenomenon expressed vis-à-vis the mob.

Its subject (to use Bezukhov’s categories) is "life-as-spectacle," for readers, diverted by their various incidents, observe its hero In this sprawling epic narrative Tolstoy manages to accurately describe the trials and tribulations of life, brilliantly deconstruct the mythic figure of Napoleon, and attempt to explain the meaning of existence.

Napoleon primarily from without. The tragic Anna Karenina, however, presents “life-as-experience”: readers are asked to identify with the mind of Oblonsky, whose motivations render him not particularly likable hero. Death is an integral part of everybody's life and no matter who it is, everybody fears death. To come to terms with death is something that takes a lot of courage and a full understanding of oneself. Tolstoy in his novel, has revealed to us the effect that death can have on a person and advocates us to not succumb to the daily life of the world which we live in, because it is all a delusion. Yet if we live as naturally as possible, we can get a better grasp on the true essence of life as Levin does in the novel. He finds joy out of working and enjoying the fruits of his labor, instead of indulging himself in the materialism of the hypocritical aristocrats.

In addition, Anna Karenina more than the War and Peace, suggests the complexity of the gods’ involvement in human actions, and to the extent that modern readers find this complexity a needless complication, the Anna Karenina is satisfying than the War and Peace, with its simpler scheme of divine justice. Finally, since the Anna Karenina presents a historically verifiable action – Leningrad siege, the novel raises historical questions that are absent from the War and Peace's blithely imaginative world.

Leo Tolstoy writes from the perspective of a country in turmoil and how his social commentary is then closely intertwined with the more general search for personal fulfillment. The result is the timeless quality of the works that are still enjoyed by a wide readership today. It explores how it is this timeless quality of his work, based upon his search for meaning in life, that most prominently begs for Tolstoy's inclusion in today's literary canon.

It can be inferred from the passage that a reader of the Anna Karenina is likely to have trouble identifying with the novels hero for which of the following reasons?

Directions: Answer the question based on the following passage.

Literary imagination has always challenged philosophy, as it has in the modern age, with its philosophies utopianism and disenchantment. The contest between two has been raging in Russia for some two hundred years, often taking the form of an antagonism between modernity and tradition, and it cuts through the heart of Tolstoy's fiction Tolstoy's fiction grew originally out of his diaries, in which he tried to understand his own feelings and actions so as to control them. Tolstoy's major work, War and Peace, appeared between the years 1865 and 1869. The epic tale depicted the story of five families against the background of Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Tolstoy's other masterpiece, Anna Karenina (1873-77), told a tragic story of a married woman, who follows her lover, but finally commits suicide. Tolstoy juxtaposed in the work crises of family life with the quest for the meaning of life.

Of Tolstoy's two epic novels, the War and Peace has always been more popular than Anna Karenina, perhaps because it includes features of mythology that are accessible to readers. Though this story primarily deals with the interactions between various members of the Russian aristocracy before and during the war, the novel is interspersed with evenly spaced historical analysis by Tolstoy concerning such things as causes of war, sources of secular power, motivations for specific actions or instances of inaction during the French-Russian conflict, and explanations of societal phenomenon expressed vis-à-vis the mob.

Its subject (to use Bezukhov’s categories) is "life-as-spectacle," for readers, diverted by their various incidents, observe its hero In this sprawling epic narrative Tolstoy manages to accurately describe the trials and tribulations of life, brilliantly deconstruct the mythic figure of Napoleon, and attempt to explain the meaning of existence.

Napoleon primarily from without. The tragic Anna Karenina, however, presents “life-as-experience”: readers are asked to identify with the mind of Oblonsky, whose motivations render him not particularly likable hero. Death is an integral part of everybody's life and no matter who it is, everybody fears death. To come to terms with death is something that takes a lot of courage and a full understanding of oneself. Tolstoy in his novel, has revealed to us the effect that death can have on a person and advocates us to not succumb to the daily life of the world which we live in, because it is all a delusion. Yet if we live as naturally as possible, we can get a better grasp on the true essence of life as Levin does in the novel. He finds joy out of working and enjoying the fruits of his labor, instead of indulging himself in the materialism of the hypocritical aristocrats.

In addition, Anna Karenina more than the War and Peace, suggests the complexity of the gods’ involvement in human actions, and to the extent that modern readers find this complexity a needless complication, the Anna Karenina is satisfying than the War and Peace, with its simpler scheme of divine justice. Finally, since the Anna Karenina presents a historically verifiable action – Leningrad siege, the novel raises historical questions that are absent from the War and Peace's blithely imaginative world.

Leo Tolstoy writes from the perspective of a country in turmoil and how his social commentary is then closely intertwined with the more general search for personal fulfillment. The result is the timeless quality of the works that are still enjoyed by a wide readership today. It explores how it is this timeless quality of his work, based upon his search for meaning in life, that most prominently begs for Tolstoy's inclusion in today's literary canon.

‘Does that make sense’… what is the implication of this phrase?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows:

Just as a chef is attuned to the subtleties of flavour and trends in the culinary arts, a presentation coach is attuned to the subtleties of language and trends in the communication art. One trend I’ve noted recently is the expression, “Does that make sense?” often used by a speaker during a conversation — or a presenter during a presentation — to check whether the listener or audience has understood or appreciated what the speaker has just said. Unfortunately, the expression has two negative implications:
- Uncertainty on the part of the speaker about the accuracy or credibility of the content
- Doubt about the ability of the audience to comprehend or appreciate the content.
“Does that make sense?” has become so pervasive, it joins the ranks of fillers, empty words that surround and diminish meaningful words, just as weeds diminish the beauty of roses in a garden. Most speakers are unaware that they are using fillers, and most audiences don’t bother to think of their implications.

Which of the options best fills the gap 11?

Directions: Read the passage and complete the gaps to make meaningful sentences.

Jane Austen’s novels ------9----- an exactness of structure and a symmetry of form. In Pride and Prejudice the plot is -----10----- chief interest, simple but pervasive. Austen’s later novels, Mansfield Park and Emma ------11-------  longer and more elaborate than other novels. The incidents happen so naturally out of the influence of character on character, that we ------12-----  that they are part of a design or scheme.

Which of the options best fills the gap 12?

Directions: Read the passage and complete the gaps to make meaningful sentences.

Jane Austen’s novels ------9----- an exactness of structure and a symmetry of form. In Pride and Prejudice the plot is -----10----- chief interest, simple but pervasive. Austen’s later novels, Mansfield Park and Emma ------11-------  longer and more elaborate than other novels. The incidents happen so naturally out of the influence of character on character, that we ------12-----  that they are part of a design or scheme.

Which of the options best fills the gap 9?

Directions: Read the passage and complete the gaps to make meaningful sentences.

Jane Austen’s novels ------9----- an exactness of structure and a symmetry of form. In Pride and Prejudice the plot is -----10----- chief interest, simple but pervasive. Austen’s later novels, Mansfield Park and Emma ------11-------  longer and more elaborate than other novels. The incidents happen so naturally out of the influence of character on character, that we ------12-----  that they are part of a design or scheme.

Which of the options best fills the gap 10?

Directions: Read the passage and complete the gaps to make meaningful sentences.

Jane Austen’s novels ------9----- an exactness of structure and a symmetry of form. In Pride and Prejudice the plot is -----10----- chief interest, simple but pervasive. Austen’s later novels, Mansfield Park and Emma ------11-------  longer and more elaborate than other novels. The incidents happen so naturally out of the influence of character on character, that we ------12-----  that they are part of a design or scheme.