Their Eyes Were Watching God Presentation

Their Eyes Were Watching God Close Reading

Reflection:
Although many warned me that Their Eyes Were Watching God wasn't the best of novels to read I decided to read it anyways since my teacher had told me it was her favorite book of all time, it soon turned out that I should have listened to my friends since the story was extremely difficult to read due to the diction. The story's message seemed to be a little repetitive to the other stories I had read in the year about women's rights and the breaking the social contract. Personally I would not recommend this novel to anyone that would like an easy read since I had to read it about 2-3 until I understood each section of the story.

Close Reading:

Analyze and discuss Zora Neale Hurston’s writing themes, style, diction use, symbolism, allusions, etc, in each of the following excerpts from Their Eyes Were Watching God:

#1- Lias asked Tea Cake and Janie whether they want a ride east to safe ground with his uncle and him before the hurricane comes.

“De Indians gahn east, man. It’s dangerous.”

“Dey don’t always know. Indians don’t know much uh nothin’, tuh tell de truth. Else dey’d own dis country still. De white folks ain’t gone nowhere. Deyy oughta know if it’s dangerous. You better stay heah, man, Big jumpin’ dance tuhnight right heah, when it fair off off.”

Lias hesitated and started to climb out, but his uncle wouldn’t let him. “Dis time tumorrer you gointuh wish you follow crow,” he snorted and drove off. Lias waved back to them gaily.

“If Ah never see you no mo’ on earth, Ah’ll meet you in Africa.”

Others hurried east like the Indians and rabbits and snakes and coons. But the majority sat around laughing and waiting for the sun to get friendly again.

#2-Tea Cake and Janie are cuddled up indoors are the hurricane arrives to their town.

The Wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with in the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.

A Doll's House

Reflection:
This was a very nicely written play it was short and to the point yet it contained a very powerful message within. The theme of women's empowerment an allowed me to really connect with the main character Nora since she thought throughout her life everything was going well until the very point she had messed up and her  life was flipped which really draws a reader in. I would recommend this play to anyone since it has an amazing and powerful message.

A Doll's House Presentation:

Kabul

Kabul Poem - Saib e-Tabrizi

 

Reflection:

When writing this essay I thought of both the books A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner, both two side of the same coin meaning two views on the same event. Both books were amazing, although it depicted Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan once it had been destroyed this allowed for the poem "Kabul" to describe what the place once was and get a better feeling of everything was before and after the revolution.

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Essay:

Kabul, as described in many stories as once a magnificent city that was then engulfed by the Russians and then the Taliban, Muslim extremists. A once radiant city, full of young, self-empowered, and educated people, became hell on earth, land mines blowing up children, random snipers shootings, and houses being targeted by live missiles resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians. Iranian, Saib-e-Tabrizi depicts Kabul prior to the first Russian invasion; he uses imagery and personification to convey Kabul as a beautiful place.

Throughout the whole poem, Saib-e-Tabrizi uses imagery to describe the geography of the city. He describes it with passion "my song exhalts her dazzling tulips" or "her gusts of powdered soil, slightly sting my eyes... but I love her," it gave the tulip and dust an extraordinary feeling that they were not any ordinary tulips and that even though the terrain may be difficult to deal with it is beautiful all the same. He states in the last line, "and even the trumpets of heaven envy their green pasture," that this one city was heaven on earth or even better. These examples show how the author viewed Kabul as a wonderful place, despite the rest of the world and the chaos, it was harmonic and special prior to the fighting.

Even though the whole poem used imagery, the author included personification, "her laughter of mornings has the gaiety of flowers," made it seem as if he was talking to a real woman yet he spoke about nature and her beauty. "And at the beauty of her trees, I blush" and "for her mountainous brought him close to the delights from heaven" two very good examples of the poet's feeling about the area, by speaking about nature as a woman it allows the audience to gain a better understanding and realization how important and wonderful this place truly is that is compared to heaven and the effects of a man when he sees a pretty lady. As a woman, this allowed me to engage with the poem better, understanding the true beauty and majesty of this one city, Kabul. Kabul became this delicate thing that must be protected by everyone from man kind. This wonderful place, just by the look, feel, and sound of its nature gives joy and enlightenment to many including Said-e-Tabrizi.

Kabul a now rugged and deserted place as depicted in different stories was indeed a once a beautiful place to be. The fertile lands were delightful to experience and were once a place that many wanted to live in due to its nature. Said-e-Tabrizi paints a wonderful picture of Kabul in his poem "Kabul" by using colorful imagery and beautiful personification.

Piano Lesson Presentation

Piano Lesson Presentation: Racism Today

Reflection:
This was an interesting topic for me, I had to really evaluate what prejudice and discrimination has become into today, obviously it is a lot less then what it was back in the day but it still exists today sadly. It has evolved into different form in which everyone encounters everyday, this saddens me since I would like to think that everyone is equal in all eyes and one would not be judged by their looks versus their actual actions.

The following is a link to the presentation:

Year Reflection

First entering senior year, I didn't really care how the year would go; I would slack off in all my classes, be late to my morning class every other day, and not care about anything. Throughout the year I've been slowly climbing out of the whole I dug myself in, throughout the first quarter. I significantly improving my writing each Friday, constantly reading the commentary my teacher leaves me and fixing it, thinking each and every time I have to do better, I have to concentrate and not make the same mistake twice. I have accomplished my goal recently by getting my first 20/20 in my timed writing and I definitely agree that it was one of my best essay I have written this year. My biggest difficulty was finding enough evidence to support my thesis but I accomplished that this time. I would like to further this accomplishment by continually getting 20/20 on future essays. I believe that this skill I have learned will help me in life because everyone needs to write they need to be able to communicate and elaborate to get a point across.

If one cannot properly write and get a point across then miscommunication can occur and on the professional level that is not okay, it can cause mistakes that cost much money to repair or a loss in a opportunity. This is while I plan to go into college trying my best to better who I am now. I will not stop my growth only because it is the end of the year I will continue on for the rest of my life, looking back at this very moment and remembering that nothing that I did was for waste. Although I plan to go into biology and psychology one must be able to express a finding in the most detail on paper otherwise a finding could be misinterpreted or misdiagnosed affecting others’ lives.

Although I have been a senior for a little less than a year it has felt much shorter in my eyes, and yet I feel that I have grown a tremendous amount in this time. I have become an even better student and yet improved in one of my passions soccer. I have become captain of my high school team alongside my best friend and a leader in that hand. I have taken up responsibilities in volunteering which shockingly I have greatly enjoyed from day one, thus making me realize I truly want to go into a profession where I will be first handedly helping others such as a doctor or criminal investigator. Although these jobs have some very negative outcome they are high reward in the sense that one will be saving lives in each and directly helping another human being.

Lastly I would like to state that this year I have had to make some tough choices for my future including where I will go to college, I would love to go through every bit of hardship that I have gone through at this school against, life is too short as many say, though it is the longest thing anyone ever does, well high school was definitely short I remember my first day of school here and how I loved being here. I realized that now during my adolescences/ young adult phase is where the memories that I will carry onto the rest of my life are made, the place where I will have grown the fastest that I will every grow in the rest of my life it will be where I get my first real job, where I’ll meet my possible spouse and many more. This time right now it is the most important though I believe I have grown so much, I know for a fact I have a lot more to grow until the end of my life.

Life of Pi

Reflection:
While writing this essay, I thought about survival instincts and flight or fight responses, I find it interesting how you never truly know how you will react in a situation unless you are thrown into it. The moment your life is threatened a natural instinct to survive surpasses any other action causing an unpredicted reaction. Through this essay I will discuss how Martel displays the theme nature of truth in the story Life of Pi, through the use of symbols and ghastly situations the truth of an individual's true personality can appear in unfamiliar environments.

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Essay:

No one ever expects to be placed in a situation of complete isolation, in Life of Pi, Piscine, also known as Pi, is involved in a shipwreck and forced onto a boat with a few other survivors. He had a limited amount of resources and no outside human interaction other than his fellow survivors, forcing each individual personality to be displayed. When human are placed in difficult or uncomfortable situations their most true form emerges. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel develops the theme, nature of truth, through the use of symbols and gruesome situations.

In Life of Pi, Martel uses many symbols on the life boat to elaborate on "nature of truth," some being: a hyena to represent the crazy cook, an orangutan to represent his caring mother, a zebra to represent the calm and collected sailor, and lastly a tiger to represent Pi's inner savage. Each represented their true nature, a personality that would be brought out in the most darkest of times. Humans can imitate other emotions though when push to the the edge of their existence, their instincts to survive would over power them thats when the individual's true nature appears, which is represented by each animal. Richard is a great example of a human's instincts to survive surpassing sure will. Richard appeared when Pi lost control after his mother's death, when Pi became delirious, and when he was attacked by the other castaway. The theme nature of truth was supported by the use of symbolic animals in place of humans causing the story to be that much empowering.

Martel describes some gruesome situations to develop the theme the nature of truth throughout the story of Pi. Martel illustrated the Belgium tiger as a savage hunting down a goat after not being fed for three days. Richard, the tiger, chased the goat around his cage back in the zoo to the point one could only see white and orange blurs. This is the first encounter that Pi had with true nature, a memory he could never forget. Pi's second encounter was during the cooks killing spree, this is when he discovers that when people are pushed into difficult situations they can react in unpredictable ways. Pi's most personal experience of true nature would eating his first fish, being a vegetarian this was difficult to bare. It is quite possible that Pi would have never eaten meat his entire life if he wasn't placed in the boat, thus developing the theme nature of truth further through the use of terrifying situations.

To conclude, throughout improbable situations no one can be truly trusted because in any given situation an individual's reaction can be unpredictably. During isolation one must break out of their confort zone and do things that may seem unethical and wrong to survive. In Life of Pi, Martel uses abnormal symbols and interesting situations to expand and develop the theme of true nature.