The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest is mainly addressing dishonesty.  This dishonesty shows in the epigrams of the novel such as, "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it."  This statement is saying that a man who marries without partying and the ability to be deceitful will not have a good marriage.  The epigram is about deception!  Dishonesty in satire of marriage is also a widespread theme in the play.  At one point, a character says that three is better than two in a marriage, suggesting that to have a good marriage, one spouse should have a mistress/other lover!  Because "Ernest" is spelled a lot like "Earnest," the irony of dishonesty associated with the character named Ernest is always present.  Jack decides that he wants to be rechristened "Ernest," which is ridiculous because changing one's name is not a very Earnest thing to do! Another recurring theme in The Importance of Being Earnest is the pursuit of pleasure, and how it higher on the list of priorities for people of higher society.  In order to put pleasure before responsibility, the play shows that dishonesty is the only was to get there.

The characters all show some form of dishonesty in the play.  Jack and Algernon tell a full on, big lie about going to visit their brother/friend in order to party without guilt or a needed explanation.  On the other hand, most of the other characters just omit facts or twist words to manipulate or passive aggressively anger someone.  Every time someone lies, it results in a huge issue and gets people into scrapes.  I think that Oscar Wilde is saying that although dishonesty sometimes seems harmless, it is the basis for many problems in life.

AF Project Evaluations

Leah Dornfeld posted a comic strip.  I thought her post was funny and interesting.  It was a really clever idea to show irony by writing what squealer says in on speech bubble, and what he actually means in the other.  It was pretty short, however, and I would have liked to see more!

Brooke made a song using Garageband.  I thought her song showed foreshadowing when new notes were added to a part of the song right before a new movement.  This also helped the song flow smoothly.  Themes also seemed to be present in the song--anger, betrayal, and joy were all there!

Alena made a movie trailer.  I thought her movie effectively conveyed irony.  This was visible when napolean's followers re-writing his own laws.  The funny side of this video related to the tone from the joyful parts of the novel--whimsically playful! 

Olivia wrote a haiku.  The rich, dark language she used revealed the somber tone in the otherwise silly story.  I didn't really think very hard about how serious this parallel story was until I read Olivia's poem!  It was a little short, though.  I wish there were a whole page of haikus to continue the story! 

Britney G. created a computer generated image.  I loved it!  The symbolism was so strong.  It was raining over the windmill, which represents success.  I thought that this was a great way to convey the symbolism through art.

Katie did a song using a computer.  I really liked the song.  The tone related to the somber tone of AF.  The repetition in the song shoed the fluctuations in success on Animal Farm.  I think the tribal sounding men symbolized the KGB and their harsh unfairness.

Zach sang a song and recorded a scene from animal farm.  The song was transcribed to a key that related the tone of Animal farm.  I thought that that was a great idea.  The scene was clever and unique, but was also relevent to what we learned about the book.

Sean did a cartoon.  His ideas were so unique!  The first part of the cartoon foreshadowed corruption.  The middle showed irony when napolean changed his own laws.  The end, however, was my favorite!  The very last line was, "the pigs had become the humans."  Next to this line was a photoshopped picture of a man and a pig morphed together.  It was hilarious and really conveyed the power theme.

Sara created a picture on tux-paint.  Her symbolism was fantastic.  The farmhouse was on a hill to represent power.  It was raining over the barn to symbolize the horrible conditions the animals live in.  There was even a rainbow to represent the pigs' easy way of life!

Donna filmed a movie.  I loved the way she chose to symbolize power.  She put the pigs on a pile of books to represent their "superiority."  The other animals were just on the ground.


Even after viewing all of these (mostly) great projects, I am still proud of ours!  We put a lot of effort into it and, in my opinion, conveyed all of the elements effectively.  It was creative, unique, and polished.  I feel like it definitely measures up! 

Animal Farm Trailer/Minimovie :)

Use this link to view our artistic response to Animal Farm!
With... Kady Zeller (Also editor and movie creator!)
Molly Peters
Sarah Duncan
and Grace Bell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt-ZM9Rkm78

Poetry Out Loud: My Poem

               As I was scrolling down the list of poems on the Poetry Out Loud website, I would randomly click and skim before going back to the list.  I'll admit, I was getting pretty frustrated.  All of the poems were nice, some even beautiful--but none of them seemed to relate to ME, personally. Then, I saw a title and stopped scrolling.  I just looked at it for a few seconds.  Solitude was its name.  I thought about how powerful the title was.  It literally gave me chills.  It is packed with connotation, and can mean a different thing to every person.  To someone, it might mean isolation, exclusion, and sadness.  But another could see it as a word describing serenity and rejuvinating peace.  I clicked the link.  As soon as I began reading, I was lost in the words.  The writing was beautiful.  I read it aloud.  I simply spoke it, yet it sounded like a song with delicious language and a lovely melody.  Ella Wheeler Wilcox created a poem that spoke to me. 
              
                The most prominent lines in the poem, in my opinion, are in the following section:
"There is room in the halls of pleasure,
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain."

In a way, this line voices my worries, but I also disagree with the poet which makes this poem perfect for me.  Everyone worries that their friends are only around us because they want a share of your happiness, energy, wealth, whatever.  That they don't care about us personally.  I know this is not true, however, but the poem is still touching.  My friends are there even when I am at my worst, my unhappiest. Human nature is to avoid people who bring you down, though, and I think that this is true in a lot of cases.  The only things that can overcome this shallow human tendency is love and care.  When you actually care about someone's feelings, it isn't difficult to stay with them even at their worst. 

Developing my Skills for a Second Paragraph...

           When I returned my 5 part paragraph, I had forgotten one of my transitions!  I was writing so fast and moving so quickly that I simply forgot it!  I have no idea why I, or someone else didn't catch it before I presented.  I also used very boring verbs in my To Kill a Mockingbird paragraph.  Another thing I told myself I would work on was my sentence types.  Reading over my paragraph I noticed that my sentences didn't really vary in length--they were all complex sentences!

             This time around, the key was to SLOW DOWN.  I have a problem with speed: talking, writing, EVERYTHING.  My life goal should be to slow down and smell the roses!  :)  While writing this second paragraph, I realized I needed to take my time to perfect it.  I went slowly, checked my rubric, and carefully chose words.  Hopefully this time I won't leave something out, and my paragraph will be an improvement on my first try!

Poetry Out Loud

Part 1, website cruising:
1.  Grief
2.  Life
3.  a) Dog
b)  Alone
4. a) Kindness
b)  Fairy-tale Logic


I liked Fairy-tale Logic because it was whimsical and reminded me of magic.  Grief was also a beautiful poem, but it was depressing.  Since it will take work to learn a poem, I want to make sure it is the perfect poem that relates to me.  I am most interested in Fairy-tale Logic.  It personally relates to me because I like to write fairy tales and I understand exactly what the author is thinking.  I enjoyed most of the poems I read, but not one of them seemed just right.  I'll have to keep looking! 

Reading the criteria made me nervous!  I will have no problem projecting, because I have a loud voice.  I am a little worried about the pacing issue--I talk REALLY fast, Especially when I'm nervous!  Also having good posture and a "confident stance" will be hard.  I tend to slouch sometimes.  I know that I can make eye contact with my audience; I know lots of my classmates and have no problem making eye contact when I speak. 

I watched Stanley Jackson's performance of Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem.  It was a great performance for one main reason--Stanley looked confident.  He acted, used hand gestures, and his eyes didn't just stay in one place.  He never looked at his feet, and his pace was perfect.  The next video I watched was a video of Sophia Soberon reciting Bilingual.  I loved this one!  Sophia was so confident in Spanish as well as English.  The contrasting two languages made the poem more interesting.  I also loved her facial expressions.

The website was really well-organized, and it's great that they have this program available in so many places!  I am excited to find and learn a poem that relates to me, but I am also nervous to recite it.  What if I forget the words?  Or get really nervous?  I just have to work hard to learn the poem well and hopefully everything will run smoothly.

The most important skill...

                    The most important thing that I have learned in English so far is how to analyze the symbolic meanings of poetry compositions.  I never knew that there's sometimes an entire story beneath the surface of a poem.  I now know how to recognize irony, satire, connotation, metaphors, and theme.  These tools of the writer are what make poetry special, irreplaceable.  In the past I have wondered, "Why do people like poetry?  It's dull and pointless."  But now I know that there is so much more to a poem than what is gathered from first glance. 
                       Take shoulders, for example.  A man walks down the street in the rain with his son.  I'd have thought, "Awesome.  Why do I care?!" Now, I know why.  Because beneath the literal meaning is a statement about the human race:  everyone needs to help eachother through the many obstacles in our long lives.  Poets are brave enough to say things that everyone is thinking.  They say it beautifully in a way that creates a piece of art out of a simple message.  Poems mold to the reader like a pair of running shoes.  The reader can relate his or her own experiences to the poem.  The meaning is slightly changed in the mind of each reader.  People might get different things from a poem, and that is why poetry is so unique.  Poets think differently, and it takes a new perspective and some knowledge to appreciate their work.  Learning to analyze poetry has given me the key to a new world I never knew existed.