literary analysis #4

Literary Analysis of

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

General

1. The Road is the story of an unnamed father and son’s several months journey along a road south to the coast, after the world has been almost completely destroyed. The earth has been scorched by fire and no plants or animals are alive. Only a few people have survived whatever devastating event occurred several years ago and some of the people have turned to cannibalism to survive. The father and son, travel along the road, foraging for edible canned food amidst the ruins, and trying to avoid other people. The son had been born after the devastating event and he might be about 8 years old. Ash is everywhere in the air, presumable blocking adequate light for vegetation to grow despite the frequent rain and snow. The father believes it to be October at the beginning of the story, but hasn’t been able to keep track of the days for years now. Ruins of buildings, vehicles, dead burnt trees and dead bodies are scattered across the landscape. Although the father and his son travel for several months in the story, the setting does not change very significantly. They come across some usable stuff and food in various locations, but death, devastation and distrust covered in ash is all that the earth has become. With this setting, the author creates a world seemingly void of all hope. Even when they finally reach the coast, the situation shows no improvement. The boy’s mother had committed suicide around the time of his birth, leaving the father alone with the child. The father considers his son, his only reason to live. “If he (the son) is not the word of God, God never spoke.” Several places throughout the story, the father refers to his son as his only connection to any god if one existed.

2. The theme of the novel is a warning that great environmental destruction could befall the Earth, but despite the desperation, we see an example of positive human existence when the father and the boy don’t feel as if they can go on anymore and all is becoming too hard, the father is able to comfort the boy by saying that things will be ok because “We are carrying the fire”. In a world that seems to have illimitable darkness this perception of “Carrying the fire” provides the father and the boy with hope to carry on. This perception of the fire and the hope that it brings is made ever brighter by the fact that they are surrounded by such darkness. The will of the father and the boy to stay alive is amazing. They are faced with many hardships and events where they could have easily given up. The true distinction between good and evil behavior is how people survived in abandoned civilization and how one encountered its hardships. The struggle between good and evil influences the main struggle of survival throughout The Road.

3. The tone is overwhelmingly desperate, but the mere fact the man and boy struggle without giving up to stay alive each day is a testament to man’s will to survive and perhaps to a type of faith. We are left to imagine how you could still believe in a god when he has so forsaken the place, but this is always the contemplation of mankind who has free agency. So perhaps we should always be gratefully and hopeful and in being so, some measure of joy or happiness will exist.

4. The author uses frequent foreshadowing and the ending is partly expected with the father dying, but a somewhat unexpected twist leaves the boy with a small amount of hope for the future with a new family. The father is frequently coughing. Ash is everywhere in the air so they wear cloth to help filter it. The father’s cough gets worse as the journey progresses and he starts to cough up blood. Other important foreshadowing is that the boy sees another boy early in the book and periodically talks about him. After the father dies, it is this boy’s family that takes the son with them. The father finally gives in to his disease and dies in the end saying he could not bear to see his son die first. The boy and his father struggle to survive through the story, as they are “good” guys “carrying the fire” looking for other good guys. In the end the son is found by other “good” guys “carrying the fire”. Although the world still remains in desperate destruction, the father’s journey is over and the boy has some hope for the future.

Characterization

1. The characters are mostly revealed through direct characterization. I can’t really imagine the world becoming as depicted in the book, but it is not an uncommon struggle to feel desperate and alone even in a world where survival is “easy”. I find it unrealistic that people have survived for years with absolutely no vegetation, bugs or animals. I would think that at least cockroaches would survive. The story is such an ultra-extreme depiction of an earthly condition that I question the sanity of the main character(s). They are able to survive the impossible situation carrying whatever supplies they find in a couple of backpacks and a shopping cart.

2. There are only two main characters in this story, the father and his son. They are developed through direct characterization as you learn who they are through their own thoughts, dialog and actions. Both the characters are quite heroic in nature. The father, although he has witnessed the almost complete destruction of the world, he struggles because of his love for his son to stay alive. The son who knows only this totally desperate world and it’s emanate dangers, trusts and loves his father and shows compassion for those they do encounter on their journey. The father in the attempt to keep his son alive keeps him away from everyone, possible even from those who could potentially help them. They are supposedly on a search for other “good” guys but the father is too paranoid and distrusting to ever find them. One person they encounter in the book grabs his son, so the father shoots him. This unfortunately seems justified as the people, they encounter are either most certainly going to die or are the people who are eating other people to survive. This no win situation for the pair only resolves itself with the death of the father. Despite the desperateness of it all, the father demonstrates that he unconditionally cares for his son. For example when the boy forgets to turn off the valve on a camp stove they found, and the gas that should have lasted for weeks is gone in a day, the father does not get mad at his son instead he takes the blame. The son also shows compassion beyond what might be expected for the situation. He encourages his father to give some food to an old man that they met on the way even though it won’t prolong his life much.

3. Although the father has many admirable characteristics when it comes to his compassion and caring toward his son, he is distrustful of everyone else, so it would be a little hard to get to know him. The son seems like someone who would be nice to know because he is caring and compassionate.

4. The characters resemble people in real life but the situation they are in is so extreme. I think the characters are developed this way to make the point that even in the most desperate situation, you are defined by your relationship and connection to someone else. Even as the father was dying he tried to pass on hope to his son by saying that his son can talk to him in his imagination after he dies. When his son asks about the little boy he had seen on the way, his father says “Goodness will find the little boy. It aways has. It will again.”

Thinking Outside the Box

The use of metaphors and extended metaphors shows throught both plato's and sartre's work.  For both, the characters are stuck in a circumstance or situation.  The cave for plato and the room that represents hell for sartre.  In both of these, the reasons for this is always internal.

No Exit

I believe that you create your own hell, so my hell would be mostly just consequences for my sins that I live through and struggle with.

I think that Hell can be described as too much of anything without a break.  Too much of even positive things can make it loose value and become a negative.

By his description of the setting he helps to create that hell.  Being stuck in a place seems very toturous to me especially because I get closterfobic easily.  Not being able to close your eyes makes a hell to me. 

Allegory of the cave sonnet

Living in a dark reality

Never questioning the validity

Darkness in the cave

Ignorance until the grave

One must break threw the shackles

And see that life outside the cave sparkles

This one has a responsibility

To fix the others' askewed reality

By questioning the shadows

The puppeteers will show

The unknown brings fear

But why live in a world so unclear

You could find the light

And discover what's right

Life is awaiting to be discovered

Don't stay in the cave ignorantly covered

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1.According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

- The allegory of the cave represents being in the darkness. The unknown if you will. It is simply lost with no worldly help.

2.What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
  -Key elements used in this allegory include the wall, the dark, the sun burning and irritating the slave. And so forth.   3.  What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or            education?

- The allegory suggests " the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. " about the process of enlightenment or education.

4.What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

-imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners that they are lost. They do not know about the world because they have been trapped since childhood. Shackles on the mind. Forbidden to learn.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

 - I believe that as one of the most powerful nations, (USA), it's mind shackling that as we are slowly decreasing in power that we remain at peace. I know that sounds intense and brutal but to increase in power and we need to take control of resources, then trade with other countries, as well as bring back the goods to the USA. Just as Great Britain did way back when and they still get resources from places like India and Africa.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

-Freed Prisoner : Able to learn...explore...breathe in new life where as a Cave Prisoner knows not. Never able to learn beyond where he lies. Not because he does not want to but because he is being forced beyond control.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

-According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. They are "I mean to say that objects of sense are of two kinds; some of them do not invite thought because the sense is an adequate judge of them; while in the case of other objects sense is so untrustworthy that further enquiry is imperatively demanded.

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?

-Prisoners get free "But the release of the prisoners from chains, and their translation from the shadows to the images and to the light, and the ascent from the underground den to the sun, while in his presence they are vainly trying to look on animals and plants and the light of the sun, but are able to perceive even with their weak eyes the images in the water (which are divine), and are the shadows of true existence (not shadows of images cast by a light of fire, which compared with the sun is only an image) --this power of elevating the highest principle in the soul to the contemplation of that which is best in existence, with which we may compare the raising of that faculty which is the very light of the body to the sight of that which is brightest in the material and visible world --this power is given, as I was saying, by all that study and pursuit of the arts which has been described. "

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

-The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. I agree because hamburgers on tv look a lot better than the actual hamburger.
 
10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
  

literature analysis #3

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

General

1. Brave New World is set several hundred years in the future in London where a “utopian” society exists in which everyone is “happy”.  In order to create this happy stable society, science has had to compensate for the potential sources of instability in a society, by getting rid of parents and families, and by scientifically engineering each person in test tubes from fertilization to decanting, women no longer give birth, and then by behaviorally conditioning the mass produced population during their youth for their specific purpose in society.  Should there ever be a moment when one becomes the least bit dissatisfied with some aspect of their lives, they can simply pop a few pills and be brought instantly back to “enjoying” their inescapable social destiny.  No lasting relationships exist between people as “every one belongs to every one else." The main plot involves a slightly different, alpha male named Bernard Marx, who takes a typical beta girl, Lenina on a trip to the Savage Reservation, where modern science has not interfered and the people behave like savages, still having families, and uncivilized “unhappy” lives.  Bernard asks permission to take the trip from his Director, who tells the story of the time he had visited the Reservation twenty years earlier and had lost the woman he traveled with in a storm. Bernard goes to the Reservation and happens to find the woman, Linda, in the Directors story.  She has a son, John, who is most likely the Director’s son. Bernard knows he is in danger of being sent to Iceland because he has been showing some dissatisfaction with his life, so decides to bring Linda and John, back to the Brave New World of London to shame the Director because he is a “father”.  This works and he stays in London with John, the savage, who gains celebrity status because of his strange reservation life, but John’s mother dies and he is discouraged in his attempts to have a relationship with Lenina.  John starts a riot and is arrested with Bernard and Bernard’s friend, Helmholtz Watson, another dissatisfied alpha male, and they are brought to the office of Mustapha Mond, one of the World Controllers.  Mond explains to John that stability and happiness is more important than humanity and can only be achieved by sacrificing love, family, art, science, and religion. John replies that without these, life is not worth living.  Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled to distant islands and John retreats to an abandoned lighthouse outside the city.  John is caught beating himself and hordes of people come to watch him whip himself including Lenina, which disturbs John and he goes wild and joins in an orgy that ensues.  The next day he is so ashamed he hangs himself.

2.  The theme of the novel in the author’s own words as written in the Foreword to the book “is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals”. The new world state’s motto is “Community, Identity, Stability” which is achieved only through the misuse of the sciences such as biology, physiology, and psychology.  Community is achieved by creating a single identity of “every one belongs to every one else” and genetic engineering and physiological and psychological conditioning allows for the creation of social classes of individual programmed to be completely accepting of their designated class.  If you equate freedom or purpose of life with the ability to choose, you can see that in the utopia of a Brave New World there is no freedom or purpose in life.  The focus of the new utopia is keeping everyone happy, and it achieved this goal or shipped you off to some distant island, but even the World Controller, Mustapha Mond contemplated what it would be like if “the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge?” 

3. The tone of Brave New World is bleak and depressing for those that have knowledge or experience of a different way, but for the properly condition members of the new world society, they see the old ways as uncivilized and savage as this passage implies about the obsolete condition of motherhood:  “Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet. My love, my baby. No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn't allow them to take things easily, didn't allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty–they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?” (Chapter 3)

The story presents a kind of demented happiness which everyone is conditioned into accepting.  When Linda returns to London, she goes on a permanent soma holiday which will drastically shorten her life but it’s presented as if it’s a good thing: “Soma may make you lose a few years in time," the doctor went on. "But think of the enormous, immeasurable durations it can give you out of time. Every soma-holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to call eternity." (Chapter 11) The story also has a mood of helplessness as nothing can really be done to return society to any sort of natural life as  God and everything unpleasant is cured by soma. “there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears–that's what soma is."  (Chapter 17)

4. Personification is used as a literary element to enhance the tone: “The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters.” (Chapter3) Dramatic visualization is used to describe the conditioning techniques used on infants:  “The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance. Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily as if to the tug of unseen wires.” (Chapter 2) Flashback is used in chapter 6 when the Director recall his visit to the Reservation 25 years ago and this story is also an example of foreshadowing as Bernard finds the missing girl when he goes to the Reservation. Imagery is used often to describe in detail the setting: “Impulse arrested spills over, and the flood is feeling, the flood is passion, the flood is even madness: it depends on the force of the current, the height and strength of the barrier. The unchecked stream flows smoothly down its appointed channels into a calm well-being.” (Chapter 3) Irony is used in the story when John is considered the “Savage” even though he is better educated and has real life experiences outside the very controlled world of the “civilized” people. Onomatopoeia is used in the Orgy porgy chant that the citizens recite before they engage in an orgy.  Huxley uses paradox in the story when he describes the electric fence that surrounds the Savage Reservation as it is unclear as to keep the savages in or the “civilized” out.  There are also dead animals near the fence because animal “never learn” and conditioning is one of the main dehumanizing processes used by the World State.  But even animals cannot be conditioned, what does that say about the “humans” of a Brave New World? The major plot twist in the story occurs in chapter 8 when Bernarnd find John on the Reservation and discovers he is the Directors son. (Chapter 8) The novel is a satire of the society that the author saw with respect to consumerism and technology advancements occurring at the time, for example individual happiness being equivalent to having your fundamental needs met and being able to withdraw from your problems with designer drugs. An example of symbolism in the novel is the use of Ford to replace “Lord” or God.  As science and materialism has replaced the need to believe in a higher authority. Huxley uses allegory when even in this world where every detail is painstakingly controlled, Lenina in Chapter 13 accidentally misses giving an immunization to one embryo because she has actually flustered by her desire for John.  This is perhaps the only moment of hope for the utopian society that some event could occur to dehumanize them.

 

Characterization

1. Huxley uses mostly direct characterization in this novel mostly due to the fact that in this society people have been conditioned to behave and think exactly alike for their particular class and function in life; however, both the main characters, Bernard, Marx and John, the Savage, have private thought and feelings and are revealed in the story through direct and indirect characterization.  When Bernard Marx is introduced in the story, he is portrayed by Lenina’s friend Fanny as being different so it’s not surprising to find that he has emotions of anger and jealousy that should have no place in this Brave New World.  In chapter 3 Fanny calls Bernard small and ugly.  He did not look his alpha plus class. Bernard appears early in the book to be the hero, because he is dissatisfied with the World State, but later he joins in and we can conclude his dissatisfaction has more to do with his small appearance.  Bernard’s thoughts in chapter six about the costs of leaving the tap of cologne running gives us the first indirect insight into the potential shallowness of his character.  His motives for taking John and Linda back from the Reservation are also selfish.  Helmholtz Watson on the other hand, is a flawless alpha plus male.  He is also dissatisfied with the world State.  Helmholtz character is developed directly in the descriptions of him being “super attractive” and “super intelligent”.  He is also indirectly developed as he feels embarrassed for Bernard when Bernard begins to feel sorry for himself.  In the end it is actually John, who is the main protagonist.  He is developed by direct characterization as we find out that he is very attractive and by indirect characterizations as we follow his actions and find out that he is indeed principled, courageous and sympathetic.  John, the Savage, becomes the symbol for real civilized behavior.

2. The author's syntax and diction changes when he focuses on the main characters as compared to the lost characters of the World state.  Huxley uses tremendous scientific detail when describing how the individuals are engineered and conditioned and the characters that reveal these details have totally bought or been conditioned into the ides that this is the way to have a stable happy society.  Huxley allows John to be more real and less detailed.  The conditioned and brainwashed characters mostly just repeat their sleep-taught sayings, like “was and will make me ill, I take a gram and only am” and “ending is better than mending”. 

3. Bernard Marx is actually a dynamic character as he is able to overcome his loneliness and insecurities after his association with John, the Savage increases his popularity.  Bernard resists the ideas of the World State in the beginning because he is small for an alpha and is insecure, but later he joins in with the elements of society he criticized. John on the other hand remains stable in his convictions despite his popularity in the World State. Helmholtz Watson and John, remain truer to their characters throughout the story.  They are dissatisfied with the World State because it is truly dehumanizing and not just because they feel insecure in it.  Bernard’s character is therefore fairly flat, but John and Helmholtz are well rounded characters.  Most of the World State population would be very shallow flat characters. 

4. After reading the book, I definitely felt like I had read characters and not met them, mostly because I agree with the author that the people of this Brave New World defy any reason to exist in the first place.  I agree with John in chapter 17 when he says “I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."  Wanting these things is what gives live meaning otherwise you just have an existence, but no meaning.  

Vocab Midterm

aberration - (noun) an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image; a disorder in one's mental state; a state or condition markedly different from the norm
abeyance - noun temporary cessation or suspension
abortive - adj. failing to accomplish an intended result

acerbity - noun a sharp sour taste; a sharp bitterness; a rough and bitter manner
acumen - noun a tapering point; shrewdness shown by keen insight

accolade - noun a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction

Ad hoc- (adverb) for the special purpose or end presently under consideration

adjudicate - verb bring to an end; settle conclusively; put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
adumbrate - verb give to understand; describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of
affinity - noun a natural attraction or feeling of kinship; inherent resemblance between persons or things; the force attracting atoms to each other and binding them together in a molecule;(immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an antibody; a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character; (biology) state of relationship between organisms or groups of organisms resulting in resemblance in structure or structural parts; (anthropology) kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship
aficionado - noun a serious devotee of some particular music genre or musical performer; a fan of bull fighting
ambivalent - adj. uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

apocryphal - adj. being of questionable authenticity; of or belonging to the Apocrypha

apogee - noun apoapsis in Earth orbit; the point in its orbit where a satellite is at the greatest distance from the Earth; a final climactic stage
apostate - adj. not faithful to religion or party or cause; noun a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.

apotheosis - noun the elevation of a person (as to the status of a god); model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal
apropos - adj. of an appropriate or pertinent nature; adv. by the way; at an opportune time
ascetic - adj. practicing great self-denial; pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline; noun someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline
attrition - noun the act of rubbing togeter; wearing something down by friction; a wearing down to weaken or destroy; sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation; the wearing down of rock particles by friction due to water or wind or ice; erosion by frictionh
bane - (noun) something causes misery or death
bathos - (noun) triteness or triviality of style; a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one; insincere pathos

bauble - noun a mock scepter carried by a court jester; cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing
beatitude - noun one of the eight sayings of Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount; in Latin each saying begins with `beatus' (blessed); a state of supreme happiness

beguile - verb attract; cause to be enamored; influence by slyness
beleaguer - verb surround so as to force to give up; annoy persistently
bete noire- noun someone or something which is particularly disliked or avoided; an object of aversion, the bane of one’s existence

bicker - noun a quarrel about petty points; verb argue over petty things
bilious - adj. suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress; relating to or containing bile; irritable as if suffering from indigestion
bode - verb indicate by signs

bravado - noun a swaggering show of courage

bromide - noun any of the salts of hydrobromic acid; formerly used as a sedative but now generally replaced by safer drugs; a trite or obvious remark
browbeat - verb discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate; be bossy towards
bruit - verb tell or spread rumors
Burgeon- verb grow and flourish
cantankerous - (adj.) having a difficult and contrary disposition; stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate
carte blanche - noun complete freedom or authority to act
casuistry - (noun) moral philosophy based on the application of general ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas; argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading
cataclysm - noun an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; a sudden violent change in the earth's surface
chauvinist - noun an extreme bellicose nationalist; a person with a prejudiced belief in the superiority of his or her own kind
chronic - adj. being long-lasting and recurrent or characterized by long suffering
coalesce - verb fuse or cause to grow together; mix together different elements
cognate - adj. having the same ancestral language; related by blood; related in nature; noun a word is cognate with another if both derive from the same word in an ancestral language; one related by blood or origin; especially on sharing an ancestor with another
commensurate - adj. corresponding in size or degree or extent
complement - noun something added to complete or make perfect;either of two parts that mutually complete each other; a word or phrase used to complete a grammatical construction; number needed to make up a whole force; a complete number or quantity;one of a series of enzymes in the blood serum that are part of the immune response; verb make complete or perfect; supply what is wanting or form the complement to
consensus - noun agreement in the judgment or opinion reached by a group as a whole

contretemps - noun an awkward clash
contumacious - adj. wilfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient
contumelious - adj. arrogantly insolent
convolution - noun the action of coiling or twisting or winding together; a convex fold or elevation in the surface of the brain; the shape of something rotating rapidly
corollary - noun (logic) an inference that follows directly from the proof of another proposition; a practical consequence that follows naturally
cul de sac - noun a street with only one way in or out; a passage with access only at one end
cull - noun the person or thing that is rejected or set aside as inferior in quality; verb remove something that has been rejected;look for and gather
curmudgeon - noun a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas
dank - adj. unpleasantly cool and humid
debauch - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity; verb corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
de facto - (noun) in fact; in reality
depredation - (noun) an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding; (usually plural) a destructive action
derring-do - noun brave and heroic deeds
diaphanous - adj. so thin as to transmit light
dichotomy - noun being twofold; a classification into two opposed parts or subclasses
dictum - noun an authoritative declaration; an opinion voiced by a judge on a point of law not directly bearing on the case in question and therefore not binding
didactic - adj. instructive (especially excessively)
disingenuous - adj. not straightforward or candid; giving a false appearance of frankness
disparate - adj. including markedly dissimilar elements;fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind
disparity - noun inequality or difference in some respect

dissimulate - verb hide (feelings) from other people
divination - noun the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means; successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck; a prediction uttered under divine inspiration

dogmatic - adj. characterized by assertion of unproved or unprovable principles; relating to or involving dogma; of or pertaining to or characteristic of a doctrine or code of beliefs accepted as authoritative
eclat - noun brilliant or conspicuous success or effect; ceremonial elegance and splendor; enthusiastic approval
ecumenical - adj. of worldwide scope or applicability; concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions

effusive - adj. extravagantly demonstrative; uttered with unrestrained enthusiasm
elixir - noun a substance believed to cure all ills; a sweet flavored liquid (usually containing a small amount of alcohol) used in compounding medicines to be taken by mouth in order to mask an unpleasant taste; a hypothetical substance that the alchemists believed to be capable of changing base metals into gold
emolument - noun compensation received by virtue of holding an office or having employment (usually in the form of wages or fees)

empathy - (noun) understanding and entering into another's feelings
empirical - adj. derived from experiment and observation rather than theory; relying on medical quackery
ensconce - verb fix firmly

euphoria - noun a feeling of great (usually exaggerated) elation

exculpate - verb pronounce not guilty of criminal charges
expound - verb add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing; state
factionalism. noun refers to arguments or disputes among two or more small groups within a larger group
fastidious - adj. giving careful attention to detail; hard to please; excessively concerned with cleanliness; having complicated nutritional requirements; especially growing only in special artificial cultures
faux pas - noun social mishap, party foul
fervid - adj. extremely hot; characterized by intense emotion
fetid - adj. offensively malodorous

flamboyant - adj. richly and brilliantly colorful; elaborately or excessively ornamented; noun showy tropical tree or shrub native to Madagascar; widely planted in tropical regions for its immense racemes of scarlet and orange flowers; sometimes placed in genus Poinciana
folderol - noun nonsensical talk or writing
foray - noun an initial attempt (especially outside your usual areas of competence); a sudden short attack; verb briefly enter enemy territory; steal goods; take as spoils

fulminate - noun a salt or ester of fulminic acid; verb cause to explode violently and with loud noise; come on suddenly and intensely; criticize severely
fulsome - adj. unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech

fustian - noun a strong cotton and linen fabric with a slight nap;pompous or pretentious talk or writing
gambol - noun gay or light-hearted recreational activity for diversion or amusement; verb play boisterously
gargantuan - adj. of great mass; huge and bulky
gamut - noun a complete extent or range: "a face that expressed a gamut of emotions"; the entire scale of musical notes

gothic - adj. characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque; of or relating to the Goths; of or relating to the language of the ancient Goths; characteristic of the style of type commonly used for printing German; as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened; noun a style of architecture developed in northern France that spread throughout Europe between the 12th and 16th centuries; characterized by slender vertical piers and counterbalancing buttresses and by vaulting and pointed arches; a heavy typeface in use from 15th to 18th centuries; extinct East Germanic language of the ancient Goths; the only surviving record being fragments of a 4th-century translation of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas
genre - noun a class of art (or artistic endeavor) having a characteristic form or technique; a kind of literary or artistic work; an expressive style of music; a style of expressing yourself in writing

harbinger - (noun) an indication of the approach of something or someone; verb foreshadow or presage
hauteur - noun overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors
hedonism - (noun) an ethical system that evaluates the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good; the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle
heyday - noun the period of greatest prosperity or productivity
hoi polloi - noun the common people, the massesineffable - adj. too sacred to be uttered; defying expression or description
homily - noun a sermon on a moral or religious topic
iconoclastic - adj. destructive of images used in religious worship; said of religions, such as Islam, in which the representation of living things is prohibited; characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions
imbue - verb suffuse with color; fill, soak, or imbue totally; spread or diffuse through

immaculate - adj. completely neat and clean; free from stain or blemish; without fault or error

immolate - verb offer as a sacrifice by killing or by giving up to destruction
immure - verb lock up or confine, in or as in a jail

impasse - noun a street with only one way in or out; a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible
imperceptible - adj. impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses

imprecation - noun the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult); a slanderous accusation
inchoate - adj. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed
in medias res - into the middle of things  
incubus - noun a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; someone who depresses or worries others; a situation resembling a terrifying dream

ineluctable - adj. impossible to avoid or evade:"inescapable conclusion"
infrastructure - noun the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area; the basic structure or features of a system or organization

inhibit - verb limit the range or extent of; to put down by force or authority
insouciant - adj. marked by blithe unconcern
internecine - adj. characterized by bloodshed and carnage for both sides; (of conflict) within a group or organization
inveigle - verb influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering

jeremiad - noun a long and mournful complaint
kudos - noun an expression of approval and commendation

lackey - noun a male servant (especially a footman); a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage

lackluster - (adj.) lacking luster or shine; lacking brilliance or vitality
lagniappe - noun a small gift (especially one given by a merchant to a customer who makes a purchase)
lampoon - noun a composition that imitates somebody's style in a humorous way; verb ridicule with satire

liaison - noun a channel for communication between groups; a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship

licentious - adj. lacking moral discipline; especially sexually unrestrained
lucubration - noun laborious cogitation; a solemn literary work that is the product of laborious cogitation
lugubrious - adj. excessively mournful
maladroit - adj. doesn't do well under stressful conditions

malcontent - (adj.) discontented as toward authority; noun a person who is discontented or disgusted
malleable - adj. capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out;easily influenced
matrix - noun mold used in the production of phonograph records, type, or other relief surface; the formative tissue at the base of a nail; the body substance in which tissue cells are embedded; a rectangular array of elements (or entries) set out by rows and columns; an enclosure within which something originates or develops (from the Latin for womb)
maudlin - adj. effusively or insincerely emotional
mellifluous - (adj.) pleasing to the ear

mercurial - adj. relating to or containing or caused by mercury;relating to or having characteristics (eloquence, shrewdness, swiftness, thievishness) attributed to the god Mercury; relating to or under the (astrological) influence of the planet Mercury; liable to sudden unpredictable change
metamorphosis - noun a complete change of physical form or substance especially as by magic or witchcraft; the marked and rapid transformation of a larva into an adult that occurs in some animals; a striking change in appearance or character or circumstances

mete - noun a line that indicates a boundary
mnemonic - adj. of or relating to or involved the practice of aiding the memory; noun a device (such as a rhyme or acronym) used to aid recall
modulate - verb vary the frequency, amplitude, phase, or other characteristic of (electromagnetic waves); adjust the pitch, tone, or volume of; change the key of, in music; fix or adjust the time, amount, degree, or rate of; vary the pitch of one's speech
monolithic - adj. characterized by massiveness and rigidity and total uniformity; imposing in size or bulk or solidity

mot juste - noun the approprite word or expression

mystique - noun an aura of heightened value or interest or meaning surrounding a person or thing
nemesis - noun (Greek mythology) the goddess of divine retribution and vengeance; something causes misery or death

nepotism - (noun) favoritism shown to relatives or close friends by those in power (as by giving them jobs)
nihilism - noun a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake; complete denial of all established authority and institutions; the delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist; a sense that everything is unreal

non sequitur - a conclusion not based logically on evidence, not based on premise

noxious - adj. injurious to physical or mental health
obloquy - noun state of disgrace resulting from public abuse; a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions
obsequious - adj. attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner;attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery

opportunist - adj. taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit; noun a person who places expediency above principle
opt - verb select as an alternative; choose instead; prefer as an alternative
palliate - verb provide physical relief, as from pain; lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of

pander - (noun) someone who procures customers for whores (in England they call a pimp a ponce); verb arrange for sexual partners for others; yield (to); give satisfaction to
panache - noun a feathered plume on a helmet; distinctive and stylish elegance
parameter - noun a constant in the equation of a curve that can be varied to yield a family of similar curves; a quantity (such as the mean or variance) that characterizes a statistical population and that can be estimated by calculations from sample data; any factor that defines a system and determines (or limits) its performance
parlous - adj. fraught with danger
patrician - adj. of the hereditary aristocracy or ruling class of ancient Rome or medieval Europe; of honorary nobility in the Byzantine empire; belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; noun a person of refined upbringing and manners; a member of the aristocracy
peccadillo - (noun) a petty misdeed
persona - noun (Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to the world; an actor's portrayal of someone in a play
piece de resistance - (noun) the most noteworthy or prized feature, aspect, event, article, etc., of a series or group; special item or attraction.
philippic - noun a speech of violent denunciation
philistine - adj. of or relating to ancient Philistia or the culture of the Philistines; smug and ignorant and indifferent or hostile to artistic and cultural values; noun a member of an Aegean people who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century BC; a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits
picaresque - adj. involving clever rogues or adventurers especially as in a type of fiction

polemic - adj. of or involving dispute or controversy; noun a controversy (especially over a belief or dogma); a writer who argues in opposition to others (especially in theology)
populous - adj. densely populated
portentous - adj. of momentous or ominous significance; puffed up with vanity; ominously prophetic
prescience - noun the power to foresee the future
probity - noun complete and confirmed integrity; having strong moral principles
prolix - adj. tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length
propitiate - verb make peace with

protege - noun a person who receives support and protection from an influential patron who furthers the protege's career

protocol - noun code of correct conduct; forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state; (computer science) rules determining the format and transmission of data
prototype - noun a standard or typical example
prurient - adj. characterized by lust

punctilio - noun strict observance of formalities; a fine point of etiquette or petty formality
pundit - noun someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field

quagmire - noun a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
queasy - adj. causing or fraught with or showing anxiety; feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit; causing or able to cause nausea
quid pro quo - noun something for something; that which a party receives (or is promised) in return for something he does or gives or promises
quixotic - adj. not sensible about practical matters; unrealistic
raconteur - noun a person skilled in telling anecdotes

remand - (noun) the act of sending an accused person back into custody to await trial (or the continuation of the trial); verb refer (a matter or legal case) to another committee or authority or court for decision; lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
risible - adj. arousing or provoking laughter
sic - adv. intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase); verb urge a dog to attack someone
refractory - adj. temporarily unresponsive or not fully responsive to nervous or sexual stimuli; not responding to treatment; stubbornly resistant to authority or control; noun lining consisting of material with a high melting point; used to line the inside walls of a furnace

repartee - noun adroitness and cleverness in reply
resplendent - adj. having great beauty and splendor
sacrosanct - adj. must be kept sacred
salubrious - adj. favorable to health of mind or body; promoting health; healthful
saturnalian - Of unrestrained and intemperate jollity; riotously merry; dissolute.
savoir-faire - noun social skill
sine qua non - something essential, irreplaceable

stigmatize - verb mark with a stigma or stigmata; to accuse or condemn or openly or formally or brand as disgraceful

sub rosa - adv in secret, privately

supervene - verb take place as an additional or unexpected development

sublimate - adj. made pure; noun the product of vaporization of a solid; verb direct energy or urges into useful activities; vaporize and then condense right back again; change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting; remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation; make more subtle or refined

sycophant - noun a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
symptomatic - adj. relating to or according to or affecting a symptom or symptoms; characteristic or indicative of e.g. a disease
syndrome- (noun) a complex of concurrent things; a pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease
systemic - adj. affecting an entire system

tautology - noun useless repetition; (logic) a statement that is necessarily true
tendentious - adj. having or marked by a strong tendency especially a controversial one
touchstone - noun a basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can be evaluated
traumatic - adj. psychologically painful; "few experiences are more traumatic than losing a child"; of or relating to a physical injury or wound to the body

truckle - noun a low bed to be slid under a higher bed; verb yield to out of weakness; try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
truncate - adj. terminating abruptly by having or as if having an end or point cut off; verb make shorter as if by cutting off; approximate by ignoring all terms beyond a chosen one; replace a corner by a plane

unconscionable - adj. greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation; lacking a conscience
unimpeachable - adj. beyond doubt or reproach; completely acceptable; not open to exception or reproach; free of guilt; not subject to blame
vainglory - noun outspoken conceit
vendetta - noun a feud in which members of the opposing parties murder each other
vestige - noun an indication that something has been present
vicissitude - noun mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another); a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something
vitiate - verb take away the legal force of or render ineffective; make imperfect; corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
volition - noun the act of making a choice; the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention
volte-face - noun a major change in attitude or principle or point of view
waggish - adj. witty or joking