Group Essay Collarboration

My topic is ironic lies, and while I don't have my full paragraph complete I have bits and pieces together. Mt topic sentence is: Ironic lies in The Importance of Beinf Earnest by Oscar Wilde show the motives of charscters and mocks the social ideals of the Victorian Era. My only concrete detail I have at the moment is how both Jack and Algernon go under the name of Earnest, which is ironic because the word ernest means sincerity and truth while in fact they are both lying to impress their peers.

Victorian Era Research

When we initially began studying the Victorian Era, I was actually a little happy because I love history; its my favorite subject besides English. Even though I got a little bored with the research, it developed my understanding of the social classes and marriage; especially the roles Victorian women played in society. The most significant topic I learned about was marriage, and I think without my prior knowledge before reading the play I wouldn't have understood alot of the humor. For example, Lady Bracknell said, ""I hadn't been there since her poor husband's death. She looks quite twenty years younger", it pointed out that Victorian marriage wasn't about love and she was actually happier being widowed.

While doing the Victorian Era research I was shocked to learn about the Industrial Revolution and its strong impact on society. With all of the labor needed the middle class grew dramatically in size, yet the people lived in poverty. Many children were forced to work in hazardous conditions, and the people lived in the slums and suffered from disease. Along with learning about class I also found out the wealthy did not have to work in this era and instead earned profit of their land and investments, which was slightly evident in the book. The ladies occupied their time with teaching and learning various things such as German, and the men spend a good amount of their time socializing amongst themselves and even shredding up bills. Learning about the Victorian era significantly helped me understand the class structure in the book as well as the satire of things like marriage.

Victorian Era Research

New Year's Resolution

To be honest, I've never been a firm believer in resolutions. It may be from lack of motivation, or the fact that I think people should set goals for themselves year-round. After some thinking into the topic, however, I have decided on a reasonable 2010 resolution: to become more responsible, which includes better time management. Since the school year's progressed, I felt I've become pretty lazy and sometimes don't complete easy homework or don't put full effort into assignments, which I now regret. As far as extracurricular activities, my injury has been the main problem. Being immobilized over the past couple months has been very frustrating since I haven't been able to dance or twirl, but now that I'm almost recovered I feel that I need to make some significant changes in my life.
I plan to follow my resolution mostly with planning: Once I'm back on track from my injury, I need to schedule going to the gym to practice and exercise, and dance practice twice a week. Responsibility sets in by making sure I'm organized; which means keeping all of my papers organized and to not procrastinate on assignments. Instead of cramming, I will set aside some time each to day to work on the project. School has always been important to me, and it's beginning to sink in that the choices I make now will heavily affect my future. Science and math have always been difficult classes for me, and I think that if I stick to my resolution school won't be a burden. With my dance and baton, I am serious about competing and I want to do my absolute best. I know I have a lot of time to make up for, but hopefully with a lot of hard work in the gym it will all pay off, especially with my goals intact.

Animal Farm Project

On Animal Farm set forth Napoleon,
Vindictive and strong.
While not as passionate and hopeful as Snowball,
He was the real corrupter all along.

He soon raged with greed and power:
Work hours grew longer,
Rations grew shorter,
and hope became almost non-existent.

He established the rules, set in stone,
All animals are equal,
If only his comrades had known
The truth.

Time passed,
Promises were broken,
Rules were twisted,
And corruption was vast.

If he only felt the suffering of his followers,
Their hunger,
Their exhaustion,
Their fear,
Maybe his cynical power would
Vanish.

Poetry Out Loud Performances

I watched Jackson Hille's performance of Forgetfulness by Billy Collins. Billy's comfortable stage presence and smooth articulation made the poem enjoyable to listen to by the audience. His appropriateness of dramatization was evident as well: he was able to express the poem with wit and poise without going over the top to show the meaning of the poem. While the difficulty level may not be the strongest point, his solid performance in other aspects made it pleasing to watch.



The recitation of the poem helped bring out the main points: the humor and warm tones of the poem. My interpretation of the poem was quite simple: he shows how forgetting some little things in life (such as quadratic equations) is just a funny thing people experience throughout life. The traits that most brought out the performance of the poem was the easy pacing and overall presence: if it was performed awkwardly, I would have most likely lost the point of the poem.

Mockingbird Motif

By definition, a motif is a recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work. Before honors english I did not have a slight idea what motif was and to be quite frank, had never heard of it. When I was working on my summer assignment and found motif, it was actually the most intriguing part of the project to me. Catcher in the Rye had excellent examples of motif and symbolism, which gave me a greater understanding of the word and a greater appreciation for analyzing literature.

In reading To Kill a Mockingbird, motif was used abundantly and enhanced some key themes of the book, such as justice vs. injustice and standing in another's shoes. I also like motif in the sense that it gives more depth to characters and shows some of their motives. Most obviously the mockingbird motif represented innocence, which could be used to heavily describe characters such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. In context of Boo Radley, I think the quote “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird" describes him perfectly. Killing a mockingbird is ultimately destroying innocence, which is what happened to him as a child. Although he was corrupted his purity and goodness was shown when he helped the children, which to me helped tie in the motif. In Tom's case, his innocence became obvious during the trial. Tom's sincere and helpful nature was twisted into an unfair court verdict, which also helps tie in the theme of justice. vs injustice and show Maycomb's racial tension.

While in general I didn't love this novel I developed a greater appreciation for the book and it's literary devices. :)