Animal Farm: Corruption of Ideals

We lived in a farm,
The Manor farm,
Where Jones the farmer worked;
With his whip, his beer, and the worker men too,
They tortured us, starved us, worked us to tears
And there was nothing we could do.

But a pig, a pig, a very wise pig,
Named Major once told us something of hope.
Rebel! Rebel! Rebel against Jones
So that you can be free some day.
Free from cruelty, starvation, and even humanity.
You can all graze in the fields of hay.

Rebel! Rebel! Said the farm animals at night.
They all cheered with fantastic delight!
We shall be free some day,
When we all shall graze
In the wonderful fields of hay.

Major may have died,
But everyone went off with pride,
For the rebellion did succeed.
Jones was gone;
All was won,
So everyone must’ve dreamed.

Things began to change,
As Snowball rearranged,
A plan that would surely help.
But Napoleon had a scheme,
That would crush everybody’s dreams
And their dreams would no longer be there.

Napoleon, conceited as he was,
Took over the farm with force,
For the animals only feared
On what could be worse,
Then if Jones, himself, were there.

The animals, stupid and innocent
Hoped things would become pleasant,
And that their dreams would be more than dreams some day.
But if only they knew,
What Napoleon was going to do,
Then they would’ve stopped him then.
But Squealer would convince,
That they were living in bliss,
And for them not to worry a hair.

As time went by,
Not everything was fine.
Working night and day,
Was more than a pain,
It was draining the animal’s dead.

But they animals continued to dream,
That things were better than they seemed
Even if it was worse than ever compared.

Things didn’t end well,
After the spell
Of trade, death, money, and slavery,
Nothing became good of these things.

Pigs now ruling,
Began to talk rudely
Of the other animals there.
They now walked on two’s,
Instead of all fours,
And now were more equal than them.

Poetry Out Loud Performances

The poem that really stuck out to me was "Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward" by Anne Sexton which was read by Amanda Fernandez. Her physical presence was really great. She got really into her poem and showed interest in the poem she was reading. The dramatization that she showed was awesome, she acted out the feelings of the poem and interpreted them into actions that fit the feelings of the "unknown girl in the maternity ward". Her overall performance was amazing and most definitely caught my attention right when i started listening to the poem that she read.

What i got out of the poem was that it was about a girl who was staying at the maternity ward. Her baby was six days old and the woman priced and cherished her baby with the love and care that she possessed. The doctors wanted to take the baby away from her because they feared she couldn't support her child in her condition and without the baby having a father to help take care of it. The woman was in an institution which ment that she probably had some sort of problem mentally. When the nurses come in to ask questions of her, they ask her who is the father and she said there is none. Her baby is then taken away from her and she must let her baby go.

Mockingbird Motif

To Kill a Mockingbird has enhanced my understanding of motif by showing me how there can be one major motif throughout the book and how there doesn't have to be multiple motif's throughout the book. The "mockingbird motif" is the mention of the mockingbird throughout the book. It started with Atticus saying "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" from that point on the "mockingbird" was used to describe how innocent people shouldn't be harmed. It shows how some people may seem bad but really they're just misunderstood which causes prejudice against people. This motif adds a symbolic level of meaning to how people judge and make assumptions of other people.

The mockingbird is used as a symbol of the harmless and how if they've done nothing wrong, then they should never be harmed. Throughout the book, the mockingbird helps develop the themes like prejudice, growing up, and innocency. The mockingbird shows how peoples prejudice can get any the way of the truth and whats really the right thing to do. It shows how innocent people are harmed even though they've done nothing wrong. The mockingbird may describe who some people really are and how people might not even realize it and may even harm them without realizing the trouble it could cause.

Symbolism

I chose this picture to symbolize the character (Scout) that I portrayed in this weeks dramatic reading because of how Scout seems to be misunderstanding, yet she can be caring at times. The two different eye colors represents Scout's behavior, at times she can be cynical and childish and others she can be calm and obedient.

To represent Scout's behavior i could've chosen a picture of any animal that has two different eye colors but instead i chose a white cat to symbolize Scout as best as i could. The white cat symbolizes her curiosity and innocence like the saying "curiosity killed the cat" and how white represents innocence because of it's purity. Scout may say that she knows what adults are talking about but really she's just trying to act older than she really is by just pretending she understands hence her innocency. Curiosity represents Scout's undventurousness and willingness to learn about things and her curiosity to know what's going on and to discover new things.

Life Lesson

Throughout my life i have learned many lessons that have helped me be able to survive the outside world. My mom has probably helped me the most. She has taught me that as long as i try hard at what i do then i will achieve great things. She has taught me to not care what other people think of me and to just be happy for what i have and for my accomplishments. She has told me many times that she is proud of me for how hard i work even if it's not good enough but that as long as i try my hardest and im determined to do my best that that should be good enough for me and that i shouldnt beat myself up for when i dont succeed.
Knowing this has helped me not to give up and to try even harder at everything i do. When im dedicated, determined and when i try my hardest i can accomplish anything. It's helped me to become confident in what i can do and has helped me to be able to try even harder. Whenever i get a bad grade or something and i know i tried my hardest then i shouldnt beat myself down about it, but i'll know that next time i'll be able to try even harder and i'll be able to accomplish great things.

My Best Friend

One of my best friends is Ashley Simon. We met the summer of going into 6th grade when she moved into a new housing development which is where i moved into a few months before. She came to visit the neighborhood a few months before she was going to move into it to see what it was like. As she was walking her dog by my house she came across me and my sister washing my mom's car and spraying each other with water. We were laughing and we probably didnt give a very good first impression on her and her family as they began to talk to us about them moving into the neighborhood. A month or so later they moved into their house. Me and ashley became amediate friends one day as i was hanging out with my cousin. I started talking to her and then she joined me and my cousin in a game. It has been around 4 years since we first met and we have become great friends. We now have sleepovers that consist of watching movies while eating raw top romen, popcorn, and sometimes my homemade cheesy nacho's and then do yoga at 4:00 in the morning before we go to bed.
Ashley is very caring and is always there to talk to. Whenever you ask her for advise, she'll help you as best as she can... even if the answer is'nt what you want to here. Ashley is most definetly an extrovert. she's always willing to put what ever's going on with her aside to help a friend. She's always outgoing and everyone love's to hang out with her because she's just an all around likeable person and a awesome friend.

Memories

As a little girl i was trying to find my way in life, who i was, who i was going to be, what my talents were, and who i would look up to. My sister helped me for the most part. She was an artist, left handed, and a fantastic student. Now that i look back, i wanted to be just like her. later i found out that i was also left handed. i remember one time when my sister got a how to draw Spongebob Squarepants book, she decided to try to draw squidward, so i decided i would draw squidward too. apparently i was a pretty good drawer and my sister was pretty impressed considering the fact she's almost four years older than me. But the one part i could never be better than her at was at getting better grades than her... she's super smart and get's all A's except for the last two years in high school which she only got two B's in... she's very smart.

I still look up to my sister, but i still ponder how she always does so well in almost everything she does. she isnt pursuing art anymore, but i am. i love art, it's one of my passions, and i now look up to my grandpa for artistic advise. he's a fantastic artist and i wish to be as good as him someday.

the Catcher in the Rye: Irony

In "the Catcher in the Rye" the author used irony as the main literary element to help portray Holden's attitude about the world. In the book Holden is always sarcastic, he lies and then calls people phonies and always says he hates phonies. Holden is very hypocritical, he says he doesn't like when someone does something and then he goes on doing it himself. He does'nt really seem to realize that he's practically contradicting everything he says he hates by doing it himself because he continues to do those kindof things throughout the entire book.

Holden is very negative about everything. He randomly says throughout the book that something is depressing even if it's something really small. Irony helps to portray this whenever Holden finds something he doesnt like about a person because then he says it's depressing and continues boing the things that the other people are doing. Irony also shows how Holden seems to be unsure about things, he always changes his mind and continues to act like a phony even though he mentions in the book how he doesn't like phonies.

Outside Reading

The book im reading is Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. i havent read very much of it yet but i can already tell it's an awesome book. i think it's hilarious how Holdin describes old people, it made me laugh. This book drew in my attention almost right from the start. I think it's how Holden talks is what really drew in my attention. i was shocked to find out that the author uses low diction. I think it's really cool how the author portrays himself to be a teenager because of how well he wrote the main characters personallity, i feel that Holden is just like any other teen and can relate.
I have a feeling that the dominant literary element is irony. within the first 35 pages i had already sticky noted 6 literary elements that were irony. But im not really sure yet cause i havent gotten very far into the book yet.
I think the author used irony in the book to help portray Holden's personallity and how he can be sarcastic and can be hard to predict. He always brings up something random that can totally catch you off guard but that's partially what makes this book interesting.
Im thinking that the tone of the book is morallistic and vexed because Holden seems to get irritated and annoyed with other people really easily and judges how people look, just like he did with the old man and Ackley with his mossy looking teeth.

If you feel differently about the book or about what i think about it or have any opinions about what you think you could help me please comment to let me know because i'm having some slight difficulties with figuring some things out right now. THANK YOU! ;)

Reading

When i first open the pages of a book that doesn't capture my fascination or confuses me i simply give the characters in the book an accent or a unusual voice that makes it sound more interesting and intense. i absolutely love to read, it's like watching a movie in your head except your the one who gets to decide what everything looks like using the words that describe the people, places, and things that are in the book. But i do tend to be a very picky reader. when the story gets confusing or i feel like ive missed something i just go back and read the section again.
When my ideal reading place that is free of distractions isn't available to me i try closing out everything that is around me and focus on the book that is in front of me. Whenever this isn't possible and everything around me is just too much of a distraction i tend to read the book without processing whats going on so then i have to reread the section that i missed.
I like reading in quiet places with few distractions and no people around me. I hate reading in places where there is the slitest bit of noise, it's too distracting and i love really getting into a good book because it makes me feel like im in the characters position, but when those distractions are around me it's extremely dificult to read. i love reading drama's and adventures, and books that draw you in and capture your attention right from the start. I absolutely adore books that take you into the unknown and lets you experience things that are outside of reality, books that expand your imagination and let you dream the impossible.
I read fiction because it extends my imagination beyond the worlds expectations for how things should be. It opens my mind to a new reality and of how things would be if the world was different. It expands my thoughts of what is possible. Fiction lets me dream of things that aren't possible but of what exists outside the box. Outside of the box is a different world of different adventures and some of happy endings.