Collaboration on Group Essay

So the paragraph that we decided i would do was about the comical lies/ or the mild lies. The three points that i'm using in my paragraph is Cecily making up her and Algernon's engagement in her journal, Cecily trying to make Miss Prism go away on a walk with Dr. Chasuble, and the topic of the reacurring motif of bunburying.
My commentary for my first point is focusing on how Celcily lies to herself to attempt to make her fantasy a reality in her own mind. So in a way, she is lying to herself. My commentary for the second point is about how Cecily dislikes her German lessons so much that she tried any thing possible to avoid her lessons. The commentary for my third point shows how Algernon uses Jacks lies against him to lie about himself being Jack's brother, Earnest, so that he can finally meet Cecily which then becomes an ironic situation for Jack and a lie that is made almost impossible to get out of.

Also, i would like to ask about my second point. I'm not really sure if my commentary adresses Cecily's lie correctly and if it supports the thesis properly. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

The Importance of Being Earnest/ Victorian Research

The research I did on the Victorian Era has helped me understand the book, The Importance of Being Earnest, significantly. Especially through the knowledge of marriages during that time period. In the Victorian Era, marriages were thought more as a closure on a business deal instead of for love. This is shown many times throughout the book, especially from Algernon who says to Jack "I thought you had come up for pleasure?... I call that business" after Jack said "I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her." I also learned that most children had very little education during the Victorian times. But children from rich families were able to afford to have governesses to teach them. In the book, you are able to realize through this information, that Cecily comes from a wealthy family, and this can be proved because she is taught German lessons by her governess, Miss Prism, which is what poor families weren't able to afford. Poor education is also mentioned by Lady Bracknell when she says "The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound" and when she is talking to Jack and says "Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever" which is showing satire towards education and shows that education was very poor in the Victorian Era but that family wealth is what was important.

What we consider important now, isn't necessarily the same as what people considered important during the Victorian Era. In fact, it was extremely different. Things like wealth, social class, and family history is what was very important to the people then. What people considered important was described many times throughout the book, like when Lady Bracknell says "to lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." This is what Lady Bracknell says to Jack after he says that he lost both of his parents which shows how ancestry was also very important to be able to trace back to. The information i gathered from my research has enhanced my knowledge of what's "between the lines" while reading the book and has helped me to be able to dig deeper into understanding what's really happening while reading The Importance of Being Earnest.

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.