So we are reading the Poisonwood Bible right now and I am the "New Critic" who is the person who identifies and analyzes important passages of the book. So here is the first post. I discuss the book by the chapters.
Orleanna Price:
The first paragraph of the Poisonwood Bible is really heavy on the imagery and it kind of seems like a giant foreshadowing of everything to come next in the book. It starts with a lot of images of violence and war. "...poisonous frogs war-painted ike skeletons...vines strangling their own kin...a single-file army of ants...sucking life out of death. This forest eats itself and lives forever"(5). The wat references are woven into this scene as to say that violence is intertwined with life.
In this chapter, Orleanna also talks about the idea of her own life. It's odd she submits two contradicting opinions within two pages of the book. On page 8, she says, "My daughters would say:You see, Mother, you had no life of your own. They have no idea. On has only the life of one's own". The implication is that she disagrees with her daughters' opinions. However on page 9 she says, "I had no life of my own. And you'll say I did". These lines introduce the theme of freedom, or possibly the lack of it. Because of all the contradiction, I think the author wants us to really examine what freedom is. I examined the differences in the construction of these sentences and there were some discrepencies. In the the first opinion, it is her daughters that are judging her. She also responds in an impersonal way using "one" instead of "I". She is talking in general instead of about herself. In the second opinion Orleanna says "you" will judge her and we don't really know if she means the reader or someone else. Then she says "I had no life of my own". In this sentence she speaks about her own life, setting herself apart from the generalization she made earlier. In examining this, I have absolutely no idea if it means something or nothing. These lines just stuck out to me so I wrote about them.
"Life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by so quick you can hardly catch it going." Tennessee Williams
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
SAT Reflection
So we did the practice SAT the other day and can I just say that I would rather take the other 3 hours of the test than write the essay. I cannot understand how I am supposed to write a well formed essay in 25 minutes I mean how good is an essay written in 25 minutes really going to be. Since it usually takes around that time to think of an idea to write about. And that is what we are most heavily graded on, our ideas. When I write these essays I always feel like I don't have anything to say about whatever topic I'm writing about.
I also hate how the 6 scores only go to the essays that introduce a new and brilliant idea. These essays don't actually answer the question posed in the beginning they just talk around them. Mr. Watson said that all of the 6 essays demonstrate the complexity of the question and the complexity of life. The thing is I could write a really awesome essay that shows complexity and examines the question from every angle, but it would take me maybe and hour and a half. Or on the other hand, I could pick a side and go with a one-sided opinion. This might not be as strong an essay, but I would finish it in the 25 minute time limit. The problem I see is condensing all of that complexity and squishing it into a 3 paragraph essay that can be written before the test is over.
The other thing I struggle with is finding examples to fit the essay topic. Mr. Watson told us to pull examples from what you are reading at the moment or something you are very familiar with. However sometimes the essay topic has absolutely nothing to do with the book you are reading or what you are learning in Social Studies. Then what do you do? Use a personal experience as an example? I always feel like personal examples are weaker like it says you don't ever read so you can't use an example from a book. I suppose you just have to mold what you know to fit the question.
I guess I just don't see why such a small section counts for so much of your overall score. You get like two hours for your math and verbal sections each and yet only 25 minutes to write this essay. I honestly wasn't even able to write this response in 25 minutes. O well I guess practice makes perfect, or at least gets you better.
"What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate." Leonard Cohen
I also hate how the 6 scores only go to the essays that introduce a new and brilliant idea. These essays don't actually answer the question posed in the beginning they just talk around them. Mr. Watson said that all of the 6 essays demonstrate the complexity of the question and the complexity of life. The thing is I could write a really awesome essay that shows complexity and examines the question from every angle, but it would take me maybe and hour and a half. Or on the other hand, I could pick a side and go with a one-sided opinion. This might not be as strong an essay, but I would finish it in the 25 minute time limit. The problem I see is condensing all of that complexity and squishing it into a 3 paragraph essay that can be written before the test is over.
The other thing I struggle with is finding examples to fit the essay topic. Mr. Watson told us to pull examples from what you are reading at the moment or something you are very familiar with. However sometimes the essay topic has absolutely nothing to do with the book you are reading or what you are learning in Social Studies. Then what do you do? Use a personal experience as an example? I always feel like personal examples are weaker like it says you don't ever read so you can't use an example from a book. I suppose you just have to mold what you know to fit the question.
I guess I just don't see why such a small section counts for so much of your overall score. You get like two hours for your math and verbal sections each and yet only 25 minutes to write this essay. I honestly wasn't even able to write this response in 25 minutes. O well I guess practice makes perfect, or at least gets you better.
"What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate." Leonard Cohen
Sunday, February 25, 2007
SAT Essay
So in class, we did an SAT practice essay. The question was something about whether or not the media influences and determines what is important to us.
In our modern world the media plays a huge role in shaping our culture and values. From the commercials to the movies, they all scream what things are important of certain ways that we should be.
An example of how the media affects people's values can be seen in Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. In this book, a family from Georgia moves to a small village in the Congo. This family, which has been influenced by the media throughout their lives in Georgia has now moved to Africa where the natives barely have clothes let alone a television.The Price family comes to Africa with a sense of what is important. The eldest daughter, Rachel, for example is quite caught up in appearances. Because the media has taught her to balue looks, she is a bit obsessed with the appearances of herself and others. Rachel valued outward looks so much that when she first arrived in Africa, her only comments were concerning the villager's grotesque style of dress. She walked by all of the poverty and horrible living conditions because the media implanted the significance of appearances in her.
This is an example of how the media can warp the values of a person or a culture. Everyone would say that poverty outranks appearance as being more important. However, because of the media's influence, the importance of looks was placed before poverty and suffering in the mind of this character. While the media is not the only element that shapes our morals, it without a doubt helps to define our culture and mold our thoughts and standards.
"Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be." Henry David Thoreau
In our modern world the media plays a huge role in shaping our culture and values. From the commercials to the movies, they all scream what things are important of certain ways that we should be.
An example of how the media affects people's values can be seen in Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. In this book, a family from Georgia moves to a small village in the Congo. This family, which has been influenced by the media throughout their lives in Georgia has now moved to Africa where the natives barely have clothes let alone a television.The Price family comes to Africa with a sense of what is important. The eldest daughter, Rachel, for example is quite caught up in appearances. Because the media has taught her to balue looks, she is a bit obsessed with the appearances of herself and others. Rachel valued outward looks so much that when she first arrived in Africa, her only comments were concerning the villager's grotesque style of dress. She walked by all of the poverty and horrible living conditions because the media implanted the significance of appearances in her.
This is an example of how the media can warp the values of a person or a culture. Everyone would say that poverty outranks appearance as being more important. However, because of the media's influence, the importance of looks was placed before poverty and suffering in the mind of this character. While the media is not the only element that shapes our morals, it without a doubt helps to define our culture and mold our thoughts and standards.
"Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be." Henry David Thoreau
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Recap
So this assignment asked us to review all of are previous blogs and try to look for common themes. I know that the blogs I have written so far have mainly focused on how we should live in this world, one of the essential questions of English 2. Especially after reading articles like The Singer Solution to World Poverty and The Gift, the responsibilities and obligations we have in this life and to each other are really put into light.
The first essential question of English is: what kind of world is this? From my first few posts, the outlook there is on the world is that it's kind of unfair. When looking at the examples in the Singer Essay and the Water Buffalo Video, there are a lot of hard circumstances examined. This relates to one of my first essential questions: why is there so much suffering in the world? I think many of my posts have discussed what kind of suffering there is but not really the why. To relate this topic to the other essential questions, I would like to explore what we can do about all this suffering and what our roles are in the world.
I actually haven't really examined any of my other essential questions so maybe they are not as "essential" as I initially thought. One of my questions was: is there good and evil? and I think I would like to ammend that question. I want to explore whether doing nothing is as wrong as committing an "evil" deed. This idea is touched upon in my responses to the Singer Essay and and slightly in my This I Believe podcast. It's the idea of not telling the truth or not saying anything is as bad as telling a lie, however there is a lot of gray area when actions are concerned. I think that changing this question will make it more relevant to the direction my blogs have been going.
"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks." Mary Wollstonecraft
The first essential question of English is: what kind of world is this? From my first few posts, the outlook there is on the world is that it's kind of unfair. When looking at the examples in the Singer Essay and the Water Buffalo Video, there are a lot of hard circumstances examined. This relates to one of my first essential questions: why is there so much suffering in the world? I think many of my posts have discussed what kind of suffering there is but not really the why. To relate this topic to the other essential questions, I would like to explore what we can do about all this suffering and what our roles are in the world.
I actually haven't really examined any of my other essential questions so maybe they are not as "essential" as I initially thought. One of my questions was: is there good and evil? and I think I would like to ammend that question. I want to explore whether doing nothing is as wrong as committing an "evil" deed. This idea is touched upon in my responses to the Singer Essay and and slightly in my This I Believe podcast. It's the idea of not telling the truth or not saying anything is as bad as telling a lie, however there is a lot of gray area when actions are concerned. I think that changing this question will make it more relevant to the direction my blogs have been going.
"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks." Mary Wollstonecraft
Friday, February 16, 2007
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“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” Joan of Arc
Monday, February 12, 2007
A Moment of Nature
After reading the first two paragraphs of The Poisonwood Bible, our teacher asked us to go outside and write a description of a place in nature. Here is the description of a random place that I decided to sit down.
The bitter maroon ti leaves shake and bend at the mercy of an invisible breeze. They are paper thin with veins like ridges running through them. Their centers are filled with deep, saturated color while death drips slowly around the edges. Branches are dried and cracked, splintered at the tips. Life thrives around this battered plant. Ferns grow strong on the ground below. Leaves dipped in fluorescent green invade every inch of soil and choke sunlight out of the dirt. From beneath them ants devour their roots, bringing the carved meat back to their nest. A gust of wind rattles the starved leaves from their branches. The elderly tree stands proud as it sheds its tears, sheds its years. Another moment passed.
"... everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence." George Santayana
The bitter maroon ti leaves shake and bend at the mercy of an invisible breeze. They are paper thin with veins like ridges running through them. Their centers are filled with deep, saturated color while death drips slowly around the edges. Branches are dried and cracked, splintered at the tips. Life thrives around this battered plant. Ferns grow strong on the ground below. Leaves dipped in fluorescent green invade every inch of soil and choke sunlight out of the dirt. From beneath them ants devour their roots, bringing the carved meat back to their nest. A gust of wind rattles the starved leaves from their branches. The elderly tree stands proud as it sheds its tears, sheds its years. Another moment passed.
"... everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence." George Santayana
Sunday, February 11, 2007
This I Believe
Every year people receive cards, whether it is a birthday, Christmas, or a get well soon card. These small pieces of paper are easy to write since they simply conatin a kind word or a fond memory. Though they may seem insignificant, they have the power to bring a tear to your eye, or a smile to you face. What I believe is based on the power possessed by something as small as a card. I believe that the world would be a little better if we all took the time to always write a card.
My friends taught me the importance of a card. Over the years, I have accumulated a collection of cards that I still keep in the top drawer of my bedroom dresser. Most of the cards have accompanied presents However, I believe that the cards are the important part. After all I don't have a drawer filled with all of the presents I have ever been given. Some are store bought from Longs with pictures of balloons and glitter, but my favorites are those that are handmade.
There is one in particular that can always make me smile. I got it from one of my best friends for Christmas in 8th grade. It's written with pencil on a piece of folder paper folded into fourths. Although I'm pretty sure that it was written in the five minutes before I got it, it never fails to make me feel better about being me. And while it may seem like a somewhat pathetic card, I know it will be remembered for far longer than the present it came with.
The act of writing a card represents a simple kind deed and I guess that's what I really believe in, small acts of kindness. For the people who don't save lives on a daily basis, an simple action like writing a card is a way to make the world better and is better than doing nothing. Doing small things like smiling or holding the door open really do make a difference that could change someone's day. A card also shows that you care enough about someting to write it down. It shows that even though writing your name on a sticker label would easier, the thought is important and should be written down. Even if it is written on folder paper.
So that is what I believe in. I believe that small acts of kindness are better than not acting at all. I believe the thought is what counts and is worth writing down. Most of all I believe in always writing a card.
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless." -Mother Theresa
"The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life." -William Wordsworth
My friends taught me the importance of a card. Over the years, I have accumulated a collection of cards that I still keep in the top drawer of my bedroom dresser. Most of the cards have accompanied presents However, I believe that the cards are the important part. After all I don't have a drawer filled with all of the presents I have ever been given. Some are store bought from Longs with pictures of balloons and glitter, but my favorites are those that are handmade.
There is one in particular that can always make me smile. I got it from one of my best friends for Christmas in 8th grade. It's written with pencil on a piece of folder paper folded into fourths. Although I'm pretty sure that it was written in the five minutes before I got it, it never fails to make me feel better about being me. And while it may seem like a somewhat pathetic card, I know it will be remembered for far longer than the present it came with.
The act of writing a card represents a simple kind deed and I guess that's what I really believe in, small acts of kindness. For the people who don't save lives on a daily basis, an simple action like writing a card is a way to make the world better and is better than doing nothing. Doing small things like smiling or holding the door open really do make a difference that could change someone's day. A card also shows that you care enough about someting to write it down. It shows that even though writing your name on a sticker label would easier, the thought is important and should be written down. Even if it is written on folder paper.
So that is what I believe in. I believe that small acts of kindness are better than not acting at all. I believe the thought is what counts and is worth writing down. Most of all I believe in always writing a card.
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless." -Mother Theresa
"The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life." -William Wordsworth
Sunday, February 4, 2007
This I Believe...
I was having the hardest time thinking of something I believe in so I waited for inspiration to come. I was getting a little worried until inspiration did come at carnival.
I saw this man carrying a stroller up the stairs at science center and he dropped his water bottle without noticing it. A girl sitting on the wall nearby picked it up and ran after the man to return it. That struck me as such a nice thing to and showed me I believe in little acts of kindness.
My idea for my this I believe paper is "Always Write a Card".
I think I can use this idea of writing a card to say that the small thoughts are always remembered. Sometimes for me at least, the cards are more meaningful than the presents themselves. I think in a world that is so focused on material things, cards are a way to show that it's the thought that counts. The philosophy about writing cards can be a way to show that the little acts of kindness are what is important.
So I guess that's my zero draft. I think I like the idea, but if anyone has suggestions/comments on how I should present the idea, that would be helpful.
"More kindness will do nothing less
Than save every sleeping one
And night-walking one
Of us.
My life belongs to the world. I will do what I can." James Dickey
I saw this man carrying a stroller up the stairs at science center and he dropped his water bottle without noticing it. A girl sitting on the wall nearby picked it up and ran after the man to return it. That struck me as such a nice thing to and showed me I believe in little acts of kindness.
My idea for my this I believe paper is "Always Write a Card".
I think I can use this idea of writing a card to say that the small thoughts are always remembered. Sometimes for me at least, the cards are more meaningful than the presents themselves. I think in a world that is so focused on material things, cards are a way to show that it's the thought that counts. The philosophy about writing cards can be a way to show that the little acts of kindness are what is important.
So I guess that's my zero draft. I think I like the idea, but if anyone has suggestions/comments on how I should present the idea, that would be helpful.
"More kindness will do nothing less
Than save every sleeping one
And night-walking one
Of us.
My life belongs to the world. I will do what I can." James Dickey
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