Monday, September 29, 2014
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Blog Post #4: Edited Summer Reading Prompt
Anna
Hayes
English
IV A
Mrs.
Wilson
29
August 2014
Summer Reading Prompted Writing
In Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, Walter Moody attempts to
understand the connection of every member of the gathering at the Crown Hotel.
This was a major theme throughout the course of the novel, which is an attempt
to understand how events and people can relate to one another through the
smallest of details. This passage demonstrates how twelve unaware people
gathered because of their “association to the events of the 14th of
January,” (342).
This passage was located at the end
of a long explanation, given by Thomas Balfour, to Walter Moody, the speaker. Walter’s
tone is very doubtful of the situation, because he believes that he is not
being told the whole story, although he does explain the presence of every man.
This is a turning point in the novel, as the recount of past events has finally
come to an end. He referred to the group, however, as a “confoundedly
peripheral gathering,” in which the word “peripheral” describes how he believes
to be an outsider to the situation, as it every other man in the room (342). He
notices that those who would have been able to shed more light onto the
situation, Anna Wetherell, Francis Carver, and Alastair Lauderback, were not
there. Without this, the reader cannot fully understand that the bulk of the
information came to them second-hand.
At the beginning of this passage,
the room was very quiet, and every person did not dare to speak. Moody
describes it as a “silence that, for a moment, seemed to still the breath of
every man” (341). This figurative language relates to the book, as many
question the presence of a ghost, and the silence could be a catalyst. The
image in the readers head shows the room as dead silent, so Catton uses imagery
to describe the background noise to break the silence in the room, with sounds
such as “an accordion, distant showing, an infrequent whoop, hoof beats” (341).
This shows how the world did not stop moving around them, an important thought
when, not long after, it is discovered that Francis Carver’s ship known as the Godspeed, was wrecked along the shore.
This boat has been at the center of the story from the beginning, which is one
of the reasons that Moody was even at the meeting. Every man in the room was connected
to the ship or to Francis Carver.
Catton’s syntax describes the
thought process of Walter Moody, by inserting his thoughts and comments while
describing his actions. He describes the explanation he had heard the past
night, for as “disjunctive and chaotic as it was, [it] had indeed accounted for
the presence of every man in the room” (341). He proceeds to look around the
room, and describe every man in the room, as well as their position. This
combination of syntax and imagery shows Moody’s attempt to interpret the
information, as well as to connect each man to one another, and their own fault
in the current situation.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Blog #4: "Roots" Extension Activity
Anna
Hayes
English
IV A
Mrs.
Wilson
29
August 2014
Summer Reading Prompted Writing
In Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, Walter Moody attempts to
understand the connection of every member of the gathering at the Crown Hotel. This
was a major theme throughout the course of the novel, which is an attempt to
understand how events and people can relate to one another through the smallest
of details. This passage demonstrates how twelve unaware people gathered because
of their “association to the events of the 14th of January,” (342).
This passage was located at the end
of a long explanation, given by Thomas Balfour, to Walter Moody, the speaker. Walter’s
tone is very doubtful of the situation, because he believes that he is not
being told the whole story, although he does explain the presence of every man.
This is a turning point in the novel, as the recount of past events has finally
come to an end. He referred to the group, however, as a “confoundedly
peripheral gathering,” in which the word “peripheral” describes how he believes
to be an outsider to the situation, as it every other man in the room (342). He
notices that those who would have been able to shed more light onto the
situation, Anna Wetherell, Francis Carver, and Alastair Lauderback. Without
this, the reader cannot fully understand that the bulk of the information came
to them second-hand.
At the beginning of this passage,
the room was very quiet, and every person did not dare to speak. Moody
describes it as a “silence that, for a moment, seemed to still the breath of
every man” (341). This figurative language relates to the book, as many
question the presence of a ghost, and the silence could be a catalyst. The
image in the readers head shows the room as dead silent, so Catton uses imagery
to describe the background noise to break the silence in the room, with sounds
such as “an accordion, distant showing, an infrequent whoop, hoof beats” (341).
This shows how the world did not stop moving around them, an important thought
when, not long after, it is discovered that Francis Carver’s ship known as the Godspeed, was wrecked along the shore.
This boat has been at the center of the story from the beginning, which is one
of the reasons that Moody was even at the meeting. Every man in the room was
connected to the ship or to Francis Carver.
Catton’s syntax describes the
thought process of Walter Moody, by inserting his thoughts and comments while
describing his actions. He describes the explanation he had heard the past
night, for as “disjunctive and chaotic as it was, [it] had indeed accounted for
the presence of every man in the room” (341). He proceeds to look around the
room, and describe every man in the room, as well as their position. This
combination of syntax and imagery shows Moody’s attempt to interpret the
information, as well as to connect each man to one another, and their own fault
in the current situation.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Blog Post #3 The Black Walnut Tree Analysis
Group Thesis: The black walnut tree symbolizes the author’s
struggle to balance sentimental and monetary values.
Where Am I?:
Ohio (blue fields of
Ohio, fathers’ backyard) what season? → Fall
(“leaves getting heavier…”) inside, surroundings→ dark, emptiness, farm
work, toil, mortgage, orchid, trees, poverty, cellar
Who Am I?
From point of view of the daughter who is speaking with the
mother. Tired, drained, stressed, threatened, survivors, courageous, trying to
problem solve, sentimental, doubtful, shameful
The mother is present in thoughts and in
interactions/conversations, and the hard work of the father is also inferred.
What do I want?
Keep the possession
of the Walnut tree, even though they are not able to afford it.She gives a
complete argument for why they should keep the tree, then does the opposite and
keeps the tree. Shows us with irony?
how is the Character showing us what they want? Details? (this should
get you into imagery, metaphor, conceits, metrics and other aspects of poetic
language. At this point you are ready to ask again, “What is this poem
about?")
Impression
The Impression we are trying to convey is the internal
conflict or struggle that the mother and daughter are faced with. They are
faced with the dilemma of having to pay the mortgage. The poem reminded us of
the great depression, a time when many people struggled with money. The setting
is in Ohio, which is stated in the poem (Fresh and generous Ohio).The debate
between the practicality of selling the tree (trying in a difficult time to be
wise) and the nostalgia of the meaning behind it (something brighter than
money) eventually comes to an end when eventually, the nostalgia of the tree,
and their roots in the land, proves to be more important than paying off the
mortgage.
Costumes and Props:
The purpose of the costuming with the mother and daughter in
older more rugged clothing is to convey their financial position as well as the
time period we are setting it in (The Great Depression). The tree is costumed
in a tree shirt and jeans to represent the branches and roots. The lighting
changes from darkness to dimmed to bright to dimmed to represent the mood of
the poem. The darkness to represent struggle and their dilemma, dimmed to
represent their transition period, when the mother and daughter are deciding,
bright to represent the choice to keep it, but darkness to end the poem because
of the financial struggle they still have to face.
Himaja→ Mom
Anna→ Daughter
Claudia→ Extraneous characters
Katie → The Black Walnut Tree
Eric → Stage Crew
Words and Phrases
In our presentation, we focused on the structure, theme, and
word choice of the poem. We selected specific words or phrases that best
supported the purpose. We emphasized the repetition of ‘the black walnut tree’
and the ‘mortgage’ at the beginning and end of the poem in order to demonstrate
the book-end structure of the poem. This purposeful structuring of the phrase
‘the black walnut tree’ reinforces it as a symbol of their father’s hard
work. Furthermore, this repetition
follows the archetype of a narrative: the rising action, “we could sell the
black walnut tree” (2-3) consists of the discussion about the tree; the climax
focuses on the speaker’s realization that they ought to also work hard because
of their ancestor’s hard work, by including flashbacks to fond memories such
as, “my fathers out of Bohemia filling the blue fields of fresh and generous
Ohio” (22-24). ; the poem concludes with the falling action with the repetition
of the phrase the black walnut tree and the mortgage. This narrative structure
supports the meaning of the poem as a whole because it shows the progression of
the speaker’s decision regarding the black walnut tree.
Therefore, we attempted to mimic this narrative structure
through the placement of the actors. the mother and the daughter will be center
stage at the beginning of the presentation, sitting around a table. Next, the
actors playing the trees, lumberman, and father will gradually enter the stage
in the background and help the audience visualize the memories and thoughts of
the speakers. As we reach the climax of the poem, we will turn on the lights,
which will be a visual representation of “but something brighter than money
moves in our blood-an edge sharp and quick as a trowel that wants us to dig and
sow” (16-19). However, the lights will go back off as the speakers fail to
reach a decision “so we talk, but we don’t do anything” (20-21). Finally, the
presentation will end with the speakers sitting alone in the dark, in the
“emptiness we’d made in our own and our father’s backyard” (28-29).
Furthermore, we emphasized the words sharp and quick. This
consonance in lines 18, helps convey a feeling of decisiveness and certainty.
These words stick out because they are in stark contrast to the previous
indecision of the speakers. This emphasis supports the meaning of the poem as a
whole because it shows how the speaker realizes that they should act and work
hard, however they fail to do so and crawl back into the emptiness of the
laziness
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
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