Literature in Film Blog #3

In my entire High School career I feel that To Kill a Mocking Bird was one of the best books I ever read. The film itself captures the book similarly.

Enough good things can't be said about this movie. I don't think there is any other racial injustice movie or discriminatory based movie that you may be able to compare to "To Kill a Mockingbird". This movie puts you in a feeling where you are able to sympathize with people who are being discriminated against, and along with that people who fought for those people. One of the parts that actually gets to me is when Atticus is exiting the court room and Reverend says to Scout that he needs to "stand up your father is passing".

Gregory Peck is one of the best actors of all time. The role that he has played in this movie was one of the best roles he has ever done and he was does an amazing job at it in my opinion.

Literature in Film Blog #2

Precious 

Personally, I love drama movies because it allows me to feel what's going on in the movie. I was disappointed at the way the movie ended because I wanted to know how Precious would really be living her life without her mother in her life and 2 kids. I feel like the mother got what she deserved. You know the saying, "you never know what you have until it's gone". And basically what the mother did was took advantage of the fact that she had a daughter to take care of. When they were in that meeting at the end of the movie, I feel like if Precious went home with her mom, everything would have went back to the way it was. Precious did not do anything to deserve the abuse she received from her mother and I really felt sympathy for her all throughout the movie. Precious was a strong character because even though she struggled at home and school, she still managed to find a way to make herself happy and not let anything turn her down. This movie shows that even though someone struggles so much in their life and they don't have much they can still make it somewhere.

Literature in Film Blog #1

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Personally I did not like this movie at all, and I did not think it was funny. This is mostly because there was way too many action and I'm never into action movies like that.  

I feel like there was hardly even a plot itself. King Arthur of Camelot looks for the knight so that he can join him, and after so many accidents he and his knights (in which they barely provide context for) go on a mission to bring back the Holy Grail for God. If the Python God really does exist, why couldn't he bring the Holy Grail back by himself? It seems that the writers of this movie couldn't make the plot work and it isn't good enough in order to prove a change in a character. Also, the idea of trying to find Holy Grail is not completely followed throughout the movie which lead to a bunch of scenes that was irrelevant to the plot. 

Blog #12

"My Papa’s Waltz”

Theodore Roethke

When I first read the title of the poem I immediately thought that this poem was about someone speaking over their dad. When I read the poem that is exactly what it sounded like, the lines of the poem insist to me that the speaker's dad makes the whole family unhappy. In the third stanza of the poem, the speaker says "The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle", and this tells that the father is in a way abusive to their family also. The first line of the poem that reads "The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy" immediately shows that the father has been drinking.  It also insists that since the boy was a young child, he had to deal with an alcoholic father.  He confesses that "such a waltzing was not easy" and that he "hung on like death". At the same time, there was a moment of resistance and there was also surrender. The boy had to just take in the smell of his father's breath. The poem uses a simile, "like death", to make an implication that he thought this father's wild actions would never come to an end and this was something he had to deal with for a while.

 At a young age, he realized that it was no easy feat having to deal with an alcoholic. “Could make a small boy dizzy” may imply the persona’s noteworthy strength, but it is also suggestive of the boy’s respect and fear for his father’s patriarchy.

Blog #11

On Being Brought from Africa to America

By Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley describes in her poem the positives sides of being an American slave. The surprising thing is that she is not complaining about her life as a slave woman because of the fact that she was able to get closer to being in the religion of Christianity. 

At first reading this title I thought that she would be the person that is complaining because she has to work for the whites. Throughout the poem Wheatley explains that her beliefs has changed drastically after she came to America and she realized how badly Africans were treated when they were not in Africa. She explains in the poem that because she is now in Christianity she understands that she can pray so that sins can go away and she is reminding the white people that minorities can also be with her when she goes to heaven.

The word that is used best in this poem is "Benighted". What the word literally means is that you are in a state of darkness or night or that you are overtaken by darkness or night. Phillis Wheatley uses this word to explain that she is a African American female and she also uses it to explain what is going in her life at the current moment. She uses the phrase "mercy  brought me" to explain how she was kidnapped and the title of the poem indicates this also. She also indicates that she forgives anybody who put her in this certain situation. Even though she was a slave, in her poem she states the fact she is still a slave and that African are not originally born enslaved but instead they have equal right just as any other person does.   

Blog #10

John Donne, “Death, be not proud” 

When I read this title for the first time I thought that it meant that the speaker in this poem is speaking directly to death as if it were a person and at some point in the poem, the speaker will mock death.

To paraphrase the poem, it is basically saying:

Hey Death, don't be so prideful, even though you are known to be powerful and dreadful, you're not because of all the life you took away from people

will never really be gone, but you can't kill me either

What you really are is a long lost rest

death itself is amusing and it will always be

you can take the lives of people we care for

but that's only if you provide them with a good rest and trip to somewhere else

men, kings, chance and fate will always overpower you

your friends are no good, they are just desperate

other things can put men at rest way better than death can

but after death, which is a short rest, comes eternal life

there will be no more death, and it will die.

The theme of this poem is that simply no one should fear death because death is weak and it dies in the afterlife. When you go back to the title of this poem, you see that it is titled "Death, be not proud". When I go back and reflect on the poem, I realize how the speaker is really talking to death as if it was a person, basically saying to death that it should not be proud of what it is doing to people making people die. The speaker is also telling death that it should not be proud because killing people is pointless because there will be an afterlife anyway.

Blog Post #5

Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” 

TPCASTT:

Title: The first thing that came to my mind when reading this title is that this poem is about some sort of memory, the speaker is going to talk about something or someone who is very important to them. It indicates that there were so many Sundays like this one and that this memory is not just one thing that happened in a lifetime but its a typical Sunday through the speaker's childhood. 

Paraphrase: In the first stanza, the speaker is talking about how his father used to do sacrifices for his family and he regrets that no one ever thanked him but sometimes his father used to be angry and they would all be scared.

 The speaker remembers all the sacrifices his father made for him. The speaker remembers a moment of his childhood and gives its power, for the purpose of the poem's meaning is determined by the differences between what the boy knew back then and what the man who is the father know now.

The second word that is in the first line, "too", shows that actions have occurred in which the father on days such as Sundays to help his family out. In the first stanza I can see that the father gets up to heat up the house before the rest of the family gets up. The very last line in the first stanza is one of the first examples that displays the poem's theme which is "No one ever thanked him." This poem indicates the them that love does not always appear in a friendly and warm form.

I like this poem because it tells a story and I like poems that tell stories because it gives the poem a meaning to it. 

Poem Response #4

Linda Pastan, “Pass/Fail” 

"Pass/ Fail" by Linda Pastan 
you will never graduate 
from this dream                             
of blue books. 
no matter how 
you succeed awake, 
asleep there is a test 
waiting to be failed. 
the dream beckons with two dull pencils, 
but you haven't even 
taken the course; 
when you reach for a book-- 
it closes its door 
in your face; when 
you conjugate a verb-- 
it is in the wrong 
language. 

now the pillow becomes 
a blank page. turn it 
to the cool side; 
you will still mother 
in all of the feathers 
and have to be learned 
by heart.

TPCASTT: 

Title: I would say the title of this poem relates to a person who can't come to a conclusion if he/she passed of failed something in a certain situation. 

Paraphrase: This poem is basically in terms of the speaker's inner self and how they feel an anxiety that they will never escape but they can heal it. The speaker is scared that he/she won't ever succeed. The speaker also has an nightmare for test taking and they are scared. 

The view from the speaker vs the author is needed to understand in any poem, but also they way it sounds and looks. In this poem, the author and the speaker are two separate people. The speaker in this poem is the voice inside someone's mind that is making the anxiety and the stress worse. This is a man vs man scenario. The person taking the exam is nervous about what success they will end up having and the speaker is basically saying that they will most likely fail. 

"You will never graduate/from this dream/of books" (Pastan, 1-3). In this line, Linda Pastan uses a tone that shows patronizing. I like that this poem is also more relatable to people my age because I go through the same thing sometimes and I'm pretty sure other high schoolers do too. Another important thing about this poem is that the sounds are effective because of the way the lines are paused. One line will be stopped and then another line would be continued without a pause. The lines go back and forth and this constant was consistent throughout the poem. This could most likely represent how the test taker is not sure whether they will pass or fail. 

 

Poem Response #3

Anne Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”

It is obvious that the speaker in this poem is speaking to her husband, because the poem is obviously called, "To My Dear and Loving Husband". She is basically saying to him that she and him need to stay together forever and there's no one else she feels can love her more. She says that she values her husband's love more than gold or the riches of the east. She is very grateful for him because of his love and she can never really repay him for that. She is convinced that they should love each other forever so that when they die, it still lives within them. She feels that the only way she can repay her husband for this is to turn her sights heavenward. When they finally unite in heaven, that's how their love will continue.
I feel like this poem is very powerful. Because it shows a perspective of a woman who is happy in her marriage. This poem also made me feel happy, because when I tend to read poetry I put myself in the shoes of the speaker and that is exactly what I did for "To My Dear and Loving Husband"

Poem Response #2

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

The first thing that came to my mind while reading this poem for the first time was the this poem was speaking about the world or society and how corrupt it is. After reading this a second and third time, I was able to realize more of what the poem is actually saying. It's describing the features of nature that we take that for granted every day.  We ignore the wonderful breezes and the winds that are provided to us everyday. We don't appreciate the sea and all the power and beauty that it contains. And because of this he says, "we are out of tune; it moves us not."  Most people just don't "get it."
Basically what I got out of it is that the speaker is complaining that the world is so overwhelming and we as people don't appreciate it as we should. We are so concerned about the little things such as money and time that we use up most to all of our energy. People, or should I rather say humans are loosing their connection to nature. The themes that are present in this poem are Man and Nature, Sadness, and development. The speaker is also criticizing people that don't deserve this world. It explains how people get wealthy, work and earn money and spend. And after a while, we as humans loose our youth and we take it for granted. 

After reading this poem, it left a positive feeling on my chest. It made me think of how we all need to live life like its our last day everyday and don't take life for granted. This poem is great because it opens the readers eyes to things we may not pay attention to in life 

Poem Reflection

Reflection to "Since there's no help"

The first time while reading this poem, I really did not know what was going on in this poem nor did I understand what the title had to do with it either. But after reading it a second time, I actually got a gist of what the poem was about. After breaking it down, I came to a realization that the poem was about a couple breaking up. 
When it came to the questions, any question that asked for the theme or for some sort, I found that it was easier to answer. But the questions where you had to refer back to the lines in the poem because they asked for things that should be obvious but for me it wasn't.

Poem response to "This is just to say"

This Is Just To Say

BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

This poem was a very interesting one. The first thing that stood out to me is the length. The poem so short yet still has a hidden meaning to it. When first reading the title, the first thing that came across my mind is that maybe this poem was not really written for a reason and so it was written for no reason at all. It is simply saying that the speaker in the poem ate the plums and someone who lives with the speaker (could maybe be his wife) was saying the plums for breakfast. The speaker as for this person to forgive them and he explains that they were so good that he just could not resist.
When reading this poem, I felt like I was reading a poem that a elementary school student wrote. But to be honest, even as a child I would of never wrote a poem as simple as this. I feel like these are one of the poems that just comes to you when it comes. This is the sort of poem that you just write whatever comes to your head, and there it is. You don't force it to have a particular form. You just want it to sound pleasing to the ear and what it was really meant to be which is a response that comes from total honest to a moment in time.
However, this poem does set a theme of choices in which he has a choice to make and he knew what was right or wrong. The fruit that he ate did not belong to him but he ate it anyway and he basically followed his conscience. He felt guilty for eating the plum which is why he feels the need to explain why he ate it.

Poem interpretation

- "Margaret are you grieving over Goldengrove unleaving?" 

-this line simply means that a young girl named Margaret is being questioned about whether or not she feel sad about the leaves falling off the trees in the forest supposedly called Goldengrove 

"Leaves like two things of man, you with your fresh thoughts care for, can you?"

-Margaret is really young and innocent therefore she is able to care for the leaves

"Ah! As the heat grows older. It will come to such sites colder. By and by, nor spare a sigh."

-Margaret won't show the same type of sympathy that she would if or will or when she was/is older

"The worlds of wanwood leaf meal lie; And yet you will weep and knows 

why"

-Margaret won't cry over big pile of dead leaves when she grows older , She was still crying in the future but instead she'll know why

"Now no matter, child the name: sorrow springs are the same."

-The references of sadness are the same even if his younger old and it doesn't really matter what we call them

"normal head, no nor mind, expressed. What heart heard of , Ghost guessed."

- The references of sadness are hard to express even if it's for the young people or the old people

"it's the blight man was born for, it is Margaret you mourn for."

-The references of sadness happens to everyone

What are 2 new skills you feel you still need to learn? What is 1 skill you can teach others?

1. Identifying the mood/tone in the beginning (ex. prompt header)

2. Structuring my sentences with surface phenomena & structure



1. Predicating subjects, words objects 

What are 3 important things that you learned?

"It's not what we say... it's how we say it."

Formalist Criticism Mantra

1. Words and phrases mean more then they first appear. This is extremely important because you may want to include words or phrases in a piece of writing but the writing is not complex because it is not elaborated it enough which is why it's the way you say it that is important. I found it helpful to discuss form in this way. This helped me to realize what kind of words I need to look for when I'm reading a piece of writing. This is enlightens my understanding of what I knew before and it allows me to apply so much more meaning. 

Tone vs Mood

2. Often times in the past I would always confuse the difference between the mood and tone. In the video, I learned that the tone is the author's attitude towards the subject they are writing about and the mood is how the reader feels about that subject. You will hardly see mood and tone in the same exact story at the same time. Before I thought that the tone of the story was how the story sounds like, for example the tone of a story can be sad. And I thought the mood of the story is how the story makes me feel, and I was right. But I could not tell the difference the two as much as I see it now.

The "Rules" of a structure 

3. Wholeness, transformation, self-regulation