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Written by Bram Stoker who wrote seventeen novels, Dracula is his most popular work and tells the story of a solicitor Jonathan Harker who travels to Transylvanian noble Count Dracula to finalize the sale of an estate he purchases. He does not realize that Dracula is a vampire feasting on the blood of his victims, sleeps by day and stalks by night.

In the first episode of Books To Sink Your Teeth Into, your host Ethan, Abel, Jon, and Hayden will discuss the literal and figurative meaning of this book.

The debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga, the White Tiger is a Picaresque novel imbued with a dark humorous tone that helps in the telling of the story of Balram Halwai, a village boy who navigates India’s class struggle in a globalized world.

In the first episode of Tiger Talk, we discuss the literal and figurative meaning of the prominent theme of lightness vs darkness present in the novel, alongside other narrative symbols that we’ve encountered throughout reading. An unexpected winner and loser of the section we’ve read comes in the form of not characters, but ideologies. The group presents corrpuption as its winner while justice and good morals being the losers.

Tune in to our dynamic group taking down the White Tiger one section at a time, with renowned English students Peter Keo, Michal Czapla, Indiya Johnson, Miranda Sosa and Jacob Prunes serving as the hosts.

Book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Jasir Chavis, Jueni Austin, Phoenix Satterfield, Lyss Williams

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is a story about a young black girl who is mocked by other children for her dark skin. She prays every day for blonde hair and blue eyes because she thinks that’s what would make people love her. In our podcast, you will hear us discuss themes such as culture, colorism, racism, and beauty standards and how they appear in the book. Enjoy!

The Purple Podcast, episode 1.

By : Brielle Thompson, Saniyyah Ray, Mo Kelly, Kayla Kelly, and David Forgrave Literal and Figurative

In this episode we talk about many different things from the way they tell the structure of the book to the relationship between each character. From our podcast we lay out how it is portrayed in the book and we analyze and give our listening insight on how we interpret different pieces. There are many questions asked to get a further understanding of the context. It is very interesting because you get a different perspective from each individual. There is a lot of good content in our recordings and we hope that you guys sit back and enjoy our intake on the book The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

Evidence we used :“‘You got to let them know who got the upper hand’ ‘ They got it’” “But I don’t know how to fight, all I know is how to stay alive” (17) “I won’t leave, until I know Albert won’t even think about beating you” (75) calling him Albert for the first time after Shug says it 76

Link to podcast : https://youtu.be/2Rw3Ev3azXI

The Purple Podcast’s logo.

Tale of Two Tribes: The Podcast “Episode One”

CoHosts: Jakob Cantor, Ami Doumbia, Londyn Edwards, Justine Koffi, Maysa Wright

In Episode One of “Tale of Two Tribes”, Jakob, Ami, Londyn, Justine, and Maysa discuss their introductory reading of the novel Homegoing by Ghanian-American author Yaa Gyasi. From familial relationships to the definition of what love is, these five classmates take time to analyze the themes present in the book and what they mean for what’s to come next in the story.

Run Time: 22:31

Book References:

-8:06 : pg 68, Chapter “Quey”, “You were in England too long, Quey. Maybe you have forgotten that here, mothers, sisters, and their sons are most important.”

-18:53 : pg 72, Chapter “Ness”, “While there may have been a piece of paper declaring that seh belonged to Tom Allan Stockham, there was no such paper shackling her to the whims of her fellow slaves.”

Written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953, “Fahrenheit 451” tells the story of Guy Montag, a fireman whose job is to collect and burn books in a society where any feelings of discomfort from existential crises to mourning loved ones have been outlawed and the priority is happiness by any means necessary.

This podcast we will be discussing some of the major themes of “Fahrenheit 451”: happiness, love, and the lack thereof - which is why we declared Clarisse our winner and poor, poor Mildred our loser.

Presented by the Fire 451 Squad: Zoe Kwas, Tayah Brunson, Isabella Torres, Hawa Diakite, and Cameryn Roach

No Podcast for Old Men, discusses Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, taking a look at the Literal and Figurative devices present in the text. The text features a journey of a Man and his young child trekking south in a frigid, desolate wasteland, inhabited only by the worst humanity has to offer. No Podcast discusses the presence/absence of God in The Road, the symbolism of fire, and much more on this episode.

As far as off screen deliberations, the group landed on the mother being the “winner” of this meeting - in her own way. We also went on to state that everyone else in the book beside the mother, is a “looser”.

Episode Title: “Pah, the Devil!” Co-hosts: Lily Bromley, Elena Smith and Antonia Solar

The Master and Margarita is a novel by Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, about the Devil and his demon friends travelling to Moscow to wreak havoc on the citizens by exposing their sins. We go over the set up and the main characters that have been introduced as of Book One. In this podcast episode we delved into the context behind the time period The Master and Margarita was written in, as well as the themes of the Devil, Jesus, and the nature of humanity. We also mention the different ways the author uses satire to subtly critique Stalanist Russia.

List of Evidence: Love & murder quote (138), repetition of the word Devil (175, 227, 95, 95, 188), nature of humanity (120, 124) Jesus Subplot (19, 19, 41), How Bad is the Devil? (170)

Grendel’s Literary Elements

Vincent Cammisa, Margie Castejon, Annie Chen, Tristan Dini, Caleb McCreary

Welcome to our first episode! In today’s episode, we are going to be talking about the novel Grendel by John Gardner. We will be discussing key Figurative and Literal elements from the first four chapters. As you listen we invite you to follow these references.

• Pages 14, 9, 7 -The early chapter’s use of strong vocabulary terms and ideas: dogmatisms, falconswift, blind prejudice, justice, sanity.

• Page 8 - How figurative Grendel is in description: hyperboles, similes and metaphors. Languages between humans and Grendel

• Page 43 - The Shaper

Dive in with us and learn from the perspective of the Antagonist, Grendel.

Podcast link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JTIUP4M9PknVo5rO4_WDkZsSUM5W2avI/view?usp=sharing

Book: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Malcolm, Izzy, Aedan, Stella

Summary:

In the premiere of our podcast about Fahrenheit 451, we talk about Ray Bradbury’s writing style, the hound, and interpreting the figurative and the literal in this book. This book is about a society where the word ‘firemen’ becomes inverted to mean someone to starts fire to burn books. We explore this and much more. Please enjoy!

Book: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

By: Williams, Alex, Kevin, Karim

Summary:

In our first podcast, We talked about the how the author opens up the book, also she brings up the point that the father was abusing her and she went into details and this already gives the reader on what they are going to read about. we also speak on the grammar, at the person who is writing is trying to point out that the person was not that smart and we can soon tell that she is really not that smart since her fathers points it out to the reader and to her as well.

In this podcast we discuss some of the main themes and symbols in the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Here’s the link to our podcast! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OYIZocKQUfeC7NnxyZRtLbmOLTFJzXYZ/view?usp=sharing

Lucas Capitolo, Fionn Hyland, Michaela Berger

Book: There There by Tommy Orange

Summary: In this podcast, we discuss the literal and figurative meanings behind the characters and their actions. We also look into the many characters introduced by working to connect their stories using metaphors, symbols, and life events. Tune into “Here Here” to learn more about finding one’s identity and culture while also grasping darker issues like substance abuse and trauma. We hope you enjoy!

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Rape

Not Your Big Brother’s Podcast. Co-Hosts: Elliot, Matalai, Nicco, Sophia, and Amadou Episode: First Impressions: “Oceania Sucks”

In this first episode of Not Your Big Brother’s Podcast, we begin discussing George Orwell’s classic novel, 1984. Our discussion is focused on the Party and Big Brother, and the ways that they control the citizens of Oceania. As well as the protagonist, Winston Smith.

List of Evidence: Thought Police, (3) The Ministries, (4) Big Brother, (16) Party Slogan: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” (27) Reality Control : “ ‘Who controls the past’, ran the party slogan, ‘controls the future : Who controls the present controls the past’. “ (35-6) Winston’s Job in the Ministry of Truth: ”Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In that way every prediction made by the party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct;” (41) Newspeak, (53-4) Paperweight from Mr. Charrington : “What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different from the present one.” (95) “In this game that we’re playing, we can’t win.” (120)

Book: Nineteen Eighty- Four Author; George Orwell

By: Gia Torres, Ida McGrath, Noor Kreidie, Zoe Zisser, Andrew Bowers

Summary:

Throughout listening you will be engaging in a talk on how 1984 unravels many ideas of doubt. You begin to question and break down ideas in order to understand the meaning of life within this society. This society is controlled within the government by screens, everyone is being watched 24/7. With that being said theres a lot of talk about decisions that are being made. The outlook on the main character and what he emphasis on a regular through his daily tasks and interactions with other people within his time of secrecy. Enjoy Listening!

Nuala Cowen and Julia Dunn

Book: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

In this episode, we examine the complex relationships of Wuthering Heights’ many characters and how their personalities are depicted through surroundings and weather. In other pieces of literature, there is a clear divide between humans and nature; this is not the case for Bronte’s novel, and we attempt to analyze her figurative language through the podcast. We hope you enjoy!

Sections we mentioned:

Lockwood’s visit to Wuthering Heights/Thrushcross Grange- Chapters 1-3

Hate for Heathcliff- Chapters 4-5

Cathy + Linton’s Dog (character split) - Chapters 6-7

Cathy + Nelly Discussing Proposal- Pages 76-82

Storm After Heathcliff Leaves - Pages 84-85

Catherine’s Love for Heathcliff vs. Edgar- Page 82

Death Bed Insanity - Chapter 14-15

Description: In our first episode, we discussed our impressions of Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. During the discussion, we dived into the text, sharing common themes throughout each of the stories, while making connections to the real world. In addition, we answered each others questions and shared our views on these thought-provoking questions.

Group Members: Raven Tanpranadi, Kaleb Harris, Chris Jacobs, Tony Nelson, and Yasir Thomas

Our podcast episode was based on the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy in which we summarized and discussed the literary and figurative language used within the book. Whether it might be the weird mentioning of bridges that the characters never seem to cross or random burnt corpses scattered across the cold ashy barrens of this apocalyptic world. the episode is packed full of weirdly interesting events and more is to come.

Book references:

Mother quote: 57

Father’s opinion on religion: 8

Burnt Corpse: 49

Bridges that the author never seems to mention the characters crossing: 6, 41, 43, 46, 73, 76,

Our logo is the storyline diagram shown below the video. Why have we chosen it you might ask? This generic sequence of events. It is because for half of the book the story has only incorporated the exposition, lacking any rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. We chose the image to spite the author.

TheVision

Book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

James Kry, Nasir Duppins, Sukainah Hasan, & Tristan Mayberry

Podcast Summary:

In this first podcast, we covered how skin color played a huge role throughout the book and mostly the life of Pecola. In the book, if you’re not how everyone wants you to be, you get bullied for it. We went over Pecola’s very abusive father, who burned down Pecola’s home, leaving her with Claudia’s family for now. Page 5, before the actual story began, quoted “Pecola was having her father’s baby” along with her questioning how women produce babies, sparked a debate between Tristan and Sukainah about if Pecola will be impregnated by her father later on in the book. Towards the end, we predicted where the novel was going to go. It was collectively agreed that Pecola had a lot of issues that needed a backstory that hasn’t been provided just yet. So, in the pages to come, our prediction led us to Pecola gaining a larger role where her tense family situation will be revealed.

Link to Podcast:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HUvBy8ZsDf_PPe4Z-7gYf_gtqqYUgipz?usp=sharing

Mr. Todd’s Decision ’20 Project - Campaign Element #3: Party Platform & Presidential Debate (Ida McGrath, Nuala Cowen, Zoe Zisser, Fionn Hyland, Hayden Myers)

Planks include:

• Environmental
• Land/culture return with protections (Indigenous Rights)
• COVID-19 and Civil Rights
• Government reform (freedom rights, capitalist caps, abolishing the electoral college)
• Health Care
• Military spending
• Immigration
• Education
• Principles and Values (international relations)
• Economy

Strengths of a strong relationship

What do you know about strong relationships with your siblings? They can be annoying a lot of the time but it’s worth it. It’s just the same with these three siblings named Grace, Maya, and Joaquin. This relationship of siblings had to be found meaning they didn’t know each other at first because they were separated. When they found each other it was a relationship they all thought they would never have, a good relationship. But it wasn’t like that when they first met, it wasn’t quite what they had expected. In the long run it was an unbreakable bond.

Tips:

Being honest (it’s key to a relationship) but sometimes it’s ok to keep some things to yourself especially if you barely know them. Don’t make them feel like they are unwanted ( just because they sometimes hurt a person and you never know you might be the only thing to a friend that they might have.

Teen relationships

Teen relationships are not always something to look forward to. They don’t always end so while Grace knows all about it. Let me tell you little about Grace, she is smart and kind hearted but has a bit of a temper. She had a boyfriend named Max. They were doing good at first but then Max got her pregnant. Yes you heard that correctly “PREGNANT”. That didn’t sit with Max’s dad at all. He wasn’t having it, so Max had to leave grace. Max didn’t even speak up for himself, he just let it happen. Grace was heartbroken because that was really someone that she loved and knew he had to go because of something he put in her. #sad Not even that there’s also relationships like Maya’s (same gender relationships). They are not always smooth to get through just because of how the world/people take things. It’s not easy being same sex in a relationship because people like to judge but in this case we need parents to support there child’s just like Maya’s parents did.

Difference Hey wonderful people! I want to just tell you about a couple of topics that came up in our new book “Far From the Tree”. These were some very helpful topics just because we all know that these things can happen in life and are listened to and learned. Those are not the only things you guys have to look out for. Bullies are what I’m talking about; they need to be taught a lesson. It’s not ok to just talk about someone explicitly if it’s personality. You can make someone fall into depression and you can throw them into trying to kill themselves. Everyone just know your never alone and if you or yourself needs someone to talk to just call 800-help now or email Ineedhelp@gmail.com That’s all we have today folks, have a great weekend and don’t forget to be on the lookout for next week’s newspaper. On born a crime by Tevor Noah

Side Note: Sorry for the low quality and you might need to zoom in to see somethings. Once again sorry.