Fairy Tales

We are studying fairy tales, and the task today was to examine a lot of fairy tals and see what aspects did any of those had.

Fatelessness book trailer

This is an activity in which we needed to make a video representing a video trailer of the book we are reading, fatelessness.
I hope you loke it :)

Chapter 3, intresting quotes

Now I will present 3 important quotes from the third chapter of the book "Fatelessness" and analyze them using the PEE structure, explained some posts below.

1: The idea of Nazi superiority is expressed in the book, where Jewish population is segregated, in a way of racism. “He turned toward the gendarmes, ordering them, in a bellow that filled the entire square, to take the whole Jewish rabble off to the place”. This quote is said by the protagonist of the story, when he is entering the “labor camps” for first time. The meaning of this quote is that Jewish are an inferior group, that should be commanded by the Nazis.

2: Georg was astonish when he first enter the labor camp, and he realize that it was worse than he thought they were. “ They led us on into a maze of gray buildings, before we suddenly debouche onto a huge open space strew with a #141414 gravel”.  This clearly represents the protagonist feeling of fear, because of it’s unknown reality.

3: The idea of concentration camps was something unknown for the Jewish population. They were eager to figure out what was going on. “The attempted mainly to figure out what consequences the episode might have for them; from what I could hear, thought, there were about as many different views as there were men”. This quote is said by the protagonist as he observes a group of grown up Jewish workers, that gathered together to discuss about the police actions of stopping them wail going to work. The meaning of this quote is that people didn’t know what to do when policemen stop their buses.

Written task

That Girl

Alberto García

IIM°A

            They got us all Jewish people out of the bus. I was obligated to wait there under the burning sun until some Nazi would decide to move, but it was an interesting and different opportunity to know other people. After a while, I could not avoid looking at a girl that was at the end of the disoriented crowd: a little girl, I would say seven years old, blond haired and with a light blue dress ruined by a yellow star in her chest.

            She seemed to be on her own; sadly looking at the ground. I decided to go and talk to her. As I walked through the crowd, that felt like walking through a night full of stars, I saw her turning every time sadder. Every second, as I walked... I first saw her without any kind of smile, her skin was turning pale white, a tear went out of her blood injected eyes falling towards the ground.

            It was such a horrible thing to see, but I continued my way towards her. As I was next to her, I said kindly -"Hello there!" She didn't made any movement, but opened her mouth for less than half a second to answer -"Hi". I asked her afterwards if everything was all right, and I received a bigger answer than I expected:

            -"If you really want to know", she said with a beautiful voice, but covered in melancholy with sorrowful depression, and suffering. "I am alone in this world now, my parents were murdered a while ago". She paused for a moment. "I'm not that alone though, misery loves my company" -"Oh my god!" I said "I'm so sorry to hear that" She looked at me -"I won't worry for something like that, they were old already, my mother was 79 and my father 82, but what really affects me was how they died".

            I was there, sure that I will have to wait for hours, and there were no signals of something going on soon, so I decided to ask this girl her story.

            -"My father, who adopt me three years ago, was one of the most important people in all Hungry. He... he was too worried about making all of our people in this country to feel home, and was making plans for equality for everyone and everything, but everything changed when the Nazi regime attacked."

            I interrupted her a second. -"I'm sorry, I didn't ask your name" -"Arella" She said. -"Arella! What a beautiful name" I answered. -"My name used to be Keffhira, but my stepfather decided it was a horrible name, so I decided to call me Arella." I smiled. "-Well, my father had a lot of work to do all the time, and few days ago, he was sent to a labor camp, but he remain hidden, and when Nazis enter our home looking for him, they took my mother. There was a gunshot, and right after that, he ran out of his hideout, took a look outside, and he began to cry. The next day, he started moving a group of people to protest against the Nazis; that group you see over there!" And she pointed with her finger at a group of people outside the place we were locked in, with their hands in the wall looking downwards. We heard a countdown. -"5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Shoot!" and he hear a lot of explosions and all the "group" falling to the ground. -"OH JESUS CHRIST!" I said. -"My father ended like them in the morning, and I was present. the last thing he said was "I will avenge my town, I swear I wi..." they didn't let him finish, and his body fell to the ground.

            The Nazis made us begin to move and march though the streets. I got separated from Arella, couldn't say  goodbye, but the walking gave me time to think, and realize that for the Nazis, all Jews were all the same, independent of their "society rank", we were just "Jews" for them. Misery was the company of all Jews now, there was no doubt about it.

            That made me think about a lot of things. All Jews were treated the same way even though they were important for society or not. I felt quite identified with the story of her father and the labor camp, even though mine wasn't that bad. I was sad, I began to imagine all this people around me killed, crying, hopeless.

            Even though Nazi policemen didn't looked aggressive, and actually, looked as disoriented as us, another group appeared, some Nazis with a black suit. I was able to distinguish "GESTAPO" written on their uniforms. They began to punch their way through Jewish people as if they were trash. -"All these to Auschwitz" one of them said.

            I wonder that could be the labor camp my father was sent to, but I didn't know if to be happy for that at all, considering what happened to Arella's parents. I decided not to be happy nor sad, I'll just see how everything goes, but with poor hope.

RATIONALE:

            I have chosen to write an extra piece of the third chapter of the book Fatelessness, by "Imre Kertész". I did this because it is the best way of showing the actions, following the line of the story and trying to use the same format and structure. This way also, it can be Georg who tells to the audience and reflects his feelings in much a deeper way than a letter or a news report would.

            Another advantage is that the audience is the same of the book (Professional and scholarly audience) and this is good because the same people can understand the story the same way. In the case, for example, that it was a police report, the structure and language used would be different, and that would cause that the reader would need some investigation to understand some vocabulary and structures present in the text.

            I tried to use the language as similar to the book as possible, so that is uses that colloquial, but not offensive language. This is essentially hard because the author uses different kinds of vocabulary for the different actions of the character. ("The whole thing was beginning to bore me slightly by the time he eventually tucked the fountain pen away after all" [page 7] - "Nor did it escape my attention that he always strove to have a go at this separately, [...] he first appeared to hesitate, first mistrustfully flashing his spectacles around...[page 51]), is slightly more complex when referring to descriptions, and I tried to apply that mainly in the description of Arella at the beginning.

            The title makes an allusion to the main thought that Georg got finally, this was a Jewish girl, just "that girl", nothing important for Nazis, as any other Jew.

"That Girl":       853 words

RATIONALE:   295 words

Narrative techniques

Authors use different techniques in their novels and works to be able to tell the story. Some of them are:


Point of View: The point of view is the relation to who is telling the story. (First person, second person, third peron)

Narration: This answers to the question Who is the narrator talking to?(Us,[direct], no one specifically [indirect] )

Speech: This answers to the question How does the narrator speak? (Direct, [-"Hi" i said] Indirect [I said hi]).

Tense: This answers to the question When does the story take place? (Past [I said hi] Present [I am saiying hi] future [I will say hi] )

TONE V/S MOOD

Tone: Is the author’s attitude towards the writing (his characters, the situation) and the readers. A work of writing can have more than one tone. An example of tone could be both serious and humorous. Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details. Words to Define Tone:: Amused, Humorous, Pessimistic, Angry, Informal, Playful, Cheerful, Ironic, Pompous, Horror, Light, Sad, Clear, Matter-of-fact, Serious, Formal, Resigned, Suspicious, Gloomy, Optimistic, Witty.

Mood: Is the general atmosphere created by the author’s words. It is the feeling the reader gets from reading those words. It may be the same, or it may change from situation to situation. Words to define Mood: Fanciful, Melancholy, Frightening, Mysterious, Frustrating, Romantic, Gloomy, Sentimental, Happy, Sorrowful, Joyful, Suspenseful.

We could sumarrise that the difference is that the mood is the overall atmosphere that all characters in the story make, and tone is a certain atitude a character took during a certain moment or speech.

Narrative techniques summary

-Alussion: When characters or events stand for other events or characters of history.

-Alliteration: Repetition of the same sounds.

-Allusion: Reference to a person or event, literary or historically.

-Climax: The part of the story with greater intensity or suspense.

-Connotation: A mening that goes beyond the word, kind of using the word as a symbol.

-Denotation: Dictionary definition of the word

-Flashback: An abrupt and quick jump to the past.

-Foreshadowing: Clues of what will happen in the future.

-Gothic: Usiong of mysterious elements, also a kind of horifying places and supernatural events.

-Hero: A noble character.

-Hyperbole: An exaggeration

-Lyric poem: A melodic poem that describes an object or emotion

-Metaphor: A direct comparisson if two different things.

-Narrative poem: Aa story told in verse.

-Onomatopoeia: Using word that are similar to sounds.

-Personification: Giving human attributes to something not human.

-Plot: Sequence of events in the story, includes characters and a conflict.

-Point of view: The perspective in wich the story is told

-Setting: Where and ehn the story takes place.

-Simile: A direct comparisson without the use of "as" or "like"

-Soliloquy: A kind of monologue,  chracter speaks alone, reveals his thoughs

-Stanza: A group of lines in a poem.

-Symbol: Something that means more than what it is.

-Theme: An in sight about human life.

-Thesis: Tthe subject or opinion in an essay.

-Tone: The authors attitude towards the writing.

-Litote: When something says less than it was intended.

Chapter 3 quote analysis

I'll be analyzing 3 quotes from Imre Kertez's Fatelessness chapter 3.

There are moments in wich the nazis usually don't show agressive against the jews, but they just followed orders of someone who do.
"I could see straight away that he had nothing against us - nor indeed he could have, naturally" (P. 41)
In this quote can be appreciated that the police officer didn't wanted to hurt the boys, but he was following ordes

Chapter 2

Title: Fatelessness
Author: Imre Kértesz
Genre: Aautobiographical novel
Setting: Hungary, Budapest. His stepmother`s house and mother`s house
Historical context: WWII, the holocaust.


Author`s purpose: Here the author gives us an idea of Georg`s routines and also how he feels when his father leaves. He now has much more responsabilities without his father nearby. Also he gets closer with Annemarie.

Main idea: The important decisions and changes that Georg faces after his father leaves.

Theme:

Characters:
Protagonist: Georg
Antagonist: Nazi regime
Static character: Mr Sutto
Dynamic character: Georg

Literary devices: We have flashbacks during the story.

Tone: He is being straight foward.

Point of view: Georg`s point of view, as he is always speaking aboyt his feelings and emotions.

Conflicts:
External: The conflict between his mother that says that his place is with her and what his father said, that he had to stay with his stepmother. Also that his father is gone.

Internal: He is having a lot of thoughs and doubts that generates the internal conflict.

Anne Frank

Anne Frank's diary is one of the most important fonts from one of the witnesses of the hollocoust. The needing of hidding and the desesparation shown in the book are just a little of what Anne suffered later that she was captured. Without this diary, a lot of what is known about the people that hid duing the nazi regime woudn't be known.

Chapter 1: Fatelessness

1.  What characters are introduced in this chapter?
Georg Koves (Main character), Mr Sütó, Annamarie, Georg's Father, Mother and stepmother, Granparents, and other members of his family (Uncle Willie, Uncle Lajos, Uncle Steiner, Uncle Fleischmann, Uncle Dini). Also, we are presented the Baker and his wife.

2. Choose two characters and select a quote to describe them physically or psychologically.
Uncle Willie: "His head is pear shaped, broad, bulging, and bald on top, but narrowing at the cheeks and toward the chin". (P.17)

Mr Sütó: "Yellowish red light-spots were dancing like busting pustules all over his round, brownish-skinned features with the pencil mustache and the tiny gap between his two broad, white front teeth" (P.6). Also, it's important to note that he was a jew but he didn't wear a yellow star.

3. What is the narrative technique? Provide evidence

Point of View: Narrator in First Person. ("I didn't go to school today", P.3)
Narration: Indirect  ("We were already on the upper floor when it occurred to my stepmother that she had forgotten to redeem the bread coupon. I had to go back to the baker's." P.12. The narrator talks about others and about himself, but he is not intentionally talking to the reader.)
Speech: Reported ("We were already on the upper floor when it occurred to my stepmother that she had forgotten to redeem the bread coupon. I had to go back to the baker's." P.12. The narrator tells the main events that happened by summarizing them.)
Tense: Past tense. ("I didn't go to school today", P.3)

4. Describe the setting of this chapter
The first chapter takes place in Budapest, Hungary. The character's life is affected by the Second World War that's taking place, and the common Air Raids in the city. In fact, they have a special room to hide from Air Attacks. 

Interview

The author of the book fatelessness, Imre Kertéz presented to an interview that you can see if you click RIGHT HERE



Questions
1.- According to the visit to the monument to the Holocaust. In whar ways do you think he represents the reality in the concentration camps?

2.- Which is the paradox the presenter mentions regarding Imre Kertész and the place where he lives?

3.- Refer to antisemitism before and after Auschwitz according to Kertész.

4.- In what way do reminders of the past in historical books make us "much richer"?

5.- Which metaphor does Imre use to exemplify the effect of Fatelessness on its readers?

1. They were all the same, without mattering if they were "big or small", and being big makes you feel as insignificant as the jews against the nazi regime.

2. That he feels secure in the country that he was captured and retained in more than he does in his home country.

3. The antisemitism before wants a new auswitz, more totalitarian.

4. They show things from a much more precise perspective.

5. If we don't know about the past this would become an entity lock down in a box trying to break down the wall. Or, in other words, if we don't know the past this will become our future and we will fel into the same mistakes.

Timeline of the Holocaust

We were told to make a timeline with the main things that went on in the WWII, so here it is!

You can find the very-detailed timeline clicking on ME!

Analyzing an image

I. Observation
What do you see?
A hand with all its muscles contracted, pointing to the top of a fence filled with spikes. at the other side, there are trees and a house.

II. Inferences
Based on the observations make three inferences.
The genre of the person is uknown intentionally. Maybe the photographer wanted to express that all the people in between those fences were trapped, and they were children, women and men, so this hand represents them all.
At the other side of the fence there's freedom, represented by the trees.
The owner of the hand is desesperated for going out, shown on the contraction of its muscles.

III. Questions
1.- What questions does the image rise in your mind?
2.- Describe the mood.
3.- What information do you already know about the Holocaust?

1. Why cant he/she get out? Why does he/she want to get out? How many more people are trapped with him/her?
2. Sadness and desesperation, desesperation for going out of whenever he/she is in.
3. Poor, but I could say that that hand is owned by a jew trapped in a concentration camp.

FInd examples (at least two) of men writing as women, and women writing as men. Many critics have pointed out that Jane Austen rarely presented a male character with a private internal monologue, or in a scene that wasn't told from the point of view of a female observer, due to her extremely limited social circumstances, and a desire to retain a sense of authenticity in her writing. 

What are the benefits and limitations of this approach?

Why do other authors, like McEwan, take the opposite approach?

A problem could be that she can't know how men really think, so she can't express the same feelings in a man than in a woman.

Other authors could be the writer of the really popular book Harry Potter: JK Rowling.
Another one could be CS Lewis, with "To kill a mockingbird".

ATONEMENT Part 2

Now, the questions of our IB programme book about an extract.

1.- What is happening?
2.- What ideas or fealings are being suggested?
3.- Who is the narrator?
4.-Who's speaking in the passage?
5.-Who's seeing the events taking place?
6.- What's the setting?
7.- What do you know about what's going on?

1. French army retrats the battlefield leaving british's alone.
2. British soldiers are not going to get out alive.
3. Briony (like telling the story from the future)
4. Robbie (Briony is making as if she was he)
5. All the british troops, including Robbie.
6. A coast near France
7. Is the time of the second world war, so they all are scared that are going to die.

ATONEMENT

We are doing the same exercise as with pride and prejudice (some posts below this one) but with the book atonement.

1. What sort of social and cultural setting does the Tallis House create? What emotions and impulses are being acted upon or repressed by its inhabitants?
A ritch family is showed almost instantly, this already gives us the context that maybe the problem will be involved in some aspects of the aristocrats family. This even could have some relationship with the tragedy drama in the old times. All the tragedy always happened to the ritch and powerfull people in the ancient plays.

2. A passion for order, a lively imagination, and a desire for attention seem to be Briony's strongest traits. In what ways is she still a child? Is her narcissism - her inability to see things from any point of view but her own - unusual in a thirteen-year-old? 
All children creates stories, adding things out of the truth, not for essentialy being bad, but because they have a fast mind and imagination.

3. Why does Briony stick to her "version of the story" with such unwavering commitment? Does she act entirely in error in a situation she is not old enough to understand, or does she act, in part, on an impulse of malice, revenge, or self-importance? 
Children stick so hard to their stories, that they actually end thinking that its true, even if they weren't sure at the begining.

4. As she grows older, Briony develops the empathy to realise what she has done to Cecilia and Robbie. How and why do you think she does this? 
This shows us that their actions were just guided by her childish mind.

Pride and prejudice part2

Now, some questions of the book of the IB programme:

1.- What degrees of emancipation and/or conservative reinforcement of 18th century family values does Elizabeth Bennett's marriage to Mr. Darcy support?
She goes against what her family wants, her marrige with mr Darcy.

2.- What attitudes to marriage does Pride and Prejudice convey? What other options did Elizabeth Bennet have?
 This book shows that women should me able to decide who to marry freely, in fact, she decided to marry him or not.

3.- How does this introduction affects your reading and approach to the novel?
It shows me the context of production, so I can understand the book better.

4.- How could the social circumstances and contexts of P & P apply to different cultures and contexts today?
 Im some cultures, like mussulman religion, in which men still got the power to decide and women don't, but in occidental cultures, this has been erradicated.

Pride and Prejudice

Some weeks ago, we watched some pieces of the movie called Pride and Prejudice, and we were told to answer some questions, and that's what i'm going to do now.

1. Why do you think "Pride and Prejudice" continues to be a referent for modern tales? 
I state that is because it has most of the items and themes treated nowdays, as love, steriotypes, and judging books for their cover. This is being repeated from those days till now, so it's a good reference.

2. What do you think is the effect that these different authors (film directors, producers, modern writers) want to achieve in today's audiences?
Show how contexts can affect the interpretations of some situation.

3. If you had to choose one of the previous versions to analyse [we watched some trailers], which would be the one and why?
The trailer of this same book, but with zombies :P
I personally would select that one because even if it's a parody, the authors maybe took different facts surrounding the book that would be only funny if you know the context of the actual book.

PEE Structure

What is PEE structure?
No, it has nothing to do with the natural necesity of the body of extracting fluids.

The PEE (that stands for: Point Evidence and Explanation) structure is one of the best ways of showing your point of view about something.


First, you need to express what you want to express: "That girl over there is really mean". Then, you have to show the evidence to support your point, usually with a quote.
"Once, she began to insult my family for no reason at all", and finally, you need to give an explanation about the evidence. "A normal person won't do that".

This is the clearest way of showing your points of view, and the receptor can understand and check if the information you are giving to him is correctly given.

Jewish traditions

As we are studying the book fatelessness, that talks about the jews and nazis, it might be important to know about jewish traditions.

It's said that there are 7 pillars or parties you need to celebrate to be a jew.

MEZUZAH:
It's a bar of different materials, inscribed with words and phrases from the torah, the bible of the jews. According to halalka, the mezuzah should be placed on the right side of the door or doorpost, in the upper third of the doorpost, within approximately 8 cm of the doorway opening. Care should be taken to not tear or damage the parchment or the wording on it, as this will invalidate the mezuzah.
This object would bring protection to the house.


TEFILLIN:

The ultimate origin of Hebrew "tefillin" is uncertain The word "tefillin" is not found in the Bible.
The tefillin are to serve as a reminder of God's intervention at the time of the Exodus from Egypt.
Originally tefillin were worn all day, but not during the night. Nowadays the prevailing custom is to wear them only during the weekday morning service.

SHOFAR:
A horn, traditionally that of a ram, used for Jewish religious purposes. Shofar-blowing is incorporated in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Shofar come in a variety of sizes.

HANUKKAH: 
also called Feast of Dedication, it's a Jewish eight-day festival that conmemorates a past important victory of the Jews.

KOSHER:
It's a word that means that the object that we are talking about is fit to the dietary words. Kosher meat, for example, means that that meat can be eaten according to the Jewish religious laws. The laws of “Kashrus” include a comprehensive legislation concerning permitted and forbidden foods.

TZEDAKAH:
More than an item it's an obligation. All jewish people must do charity works.

SABBATH:
Weekly day of rest or time of worship observed in Abrahamic religions and other practices.

The help

1. In your own words, write what was meant by "separate but equal." How did people in Jackson, Mississippi - including the ladies of the Junior League in "The Help" - try to apply this principle?

2. Do a simple online research about Jim Crow Laws. Identify what outcomes - forced upon domestic workers - were present in "The Help".

3. Explore the themes in "The Help" and develop your ideas by continuing the following sentence: "The maids in The Help took a risk by telling their stories. Even though they knew they could be shot to death in their front yards, they went ahead with the project. If people are not willing to take risks..."

 

1. They are all persons, but for some reason, they separate them, for example with the toilets.

2. This laws were trying to avoid the treatment that was being given to black people, almost slaves.

3. The maids in The Help took a risk by telling their stories. Even though they knew they could be shot to death in their front yards, they went ahead with the project. If people are not willing to take risks, the book of the prothagonist would never go out and people would never realize what was going on with the rasicism and all that stuff. This book and story telling opened the eyes to those close minded people.

Essay

We needed to make an essay about the choice of the author of having a little girl as narrative voice.
I had the best possible grade! A 7!!!

I developed the ideas and the different possibilities that the author could provide if Scout wasnt the voice

TKM Part 1 Analysis

1. What is the reason for the author's choice of a young narrator?

2. How does Jem and Scout's views of Boo Radley change during  part 1 of the book?

3. How do you think Atticus managed his role as a single parent?

4. Discuss race issues in part 1 of the book.

5. From your reading of part 1, What does To Kill a Mockingbird teach us about how people cope with issues of race and class? Do you classify people in your world as different "folks?" Do you see those sort of distinctions today? 

6. Who is your favorite character from part 1 and why? 

1. To show how the innocence of the point of view of a child to an adult world.

2. As they began to be more mature, they start looking at him more as a person than a ghost.

3. He did well, as he teaches his sons to be good people and teach them to be critical.

4. Mostly, the problem here was discrimination. Cecil Jacobs and Mrs Dubose are the ones incharged of showing this racist part to the book.

5. The discrimination today is nothing compared to those days. Personally I think all the different skin colors are the same, in fact, my New Zealand trip made me understand this. I have like 4 black friends in facebook now, and is not weird or something for me.

6. Scout, as she is smart and begans to understand the world slowly, being really curious. Scout is also like a "time machine", as she brings all the good things of this time to the time of the novel.

TKM Chapter 1 Analysis

1. What do you learn in this chapter about Maycomb, Atticus Finch and his family?

2. Describe Calpurnia as Scout depicts her in Chapter 1.

3. What does Dill dare Jem to do?

4. The townspeople of Maycomb have some fears and superstitions about the Radley place. Describe these fears and superstitions.

5. How important is bravery to Jem?

6. What do you notice about the narrative voice and viewpoint of the story?

 

I would like to answer all this in one idea.

Maycom Showed to be quite a boring town were poor action was seen, for that reason everytime something happens was important for the children. Thats why Dill dared Jem to go and touch the front door of the Radley place, they needed something to have fun on, and for this same reason, is why the children have invented that the Radley place is invaded by a ghost, Boo.

The viewpoint of the story is from a little girl, Scout, and changes as the story develops because Scout is everytime more and more mature.

To kill a mockingbird context

Context, can be important as we saw some posts below.
So, if we are examining a novel, is important for us to know wich is the context in wich this story was created.

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Among Lee’s childhood friends was the future novelist and essayist Truman Capote, wich was his inspiration for many aspects in the novel TKM and others. (Was an inspiration for him in general). These personal details notwithstanding, Lee maintains that To Kill a Mockingbird was intended to portray not her own childhood home but rather a nonspecific Southern town. “People are people anywhere you put them,” she declared in a 1961 interview.

Yet the book’s setting and characters are not the only aspects of the story shaped by events that occurred during Lee’s childhood. In 1931, when Lee was five, about nine "negroes" were accused for raping a girl, and about the half of them was found guilty even without prooving them guilty, it was  suspected that the women who had accused the men was lying.


Lee began TKM in the mid 1950s, after moving to New York to become a writer. She completed the novel in 1957 and published it, with revisions, in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement.

At that time, all these things were afecting the "atmosphere":
Civil war
Economic depression
The dust bowl
Racial segregation
Northern and southern differences in USA

Fonts: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/context.html
http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/mockingbird/historical.htm
http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/mockingbird/historical.htm

languaje and gender

You tell me, wich of the next brooms would you buy?
  Broom "Mansoo", its a broom

Broom "Bye Dirty Witchy", magical powers for your kitchen

I bet you would buy the second one, because of the girl in it, mostly.

Gender is used in publicity almost always, using the stereotype of the girl/man/type of person that will use the product.

Makeup line "400 elegant"

Makeup line "raise"

Again the same question.

Complex texts x.x

We were told, a few weeks ago, to read two complex texts from very complex novels, "The Leopard" by Giuseppe Tomasi and "Notable American Women" by Ben Marcus.

They were reaaaaly hard for us to understand, I barely understood some words.
This shows us:

• "Reading is not simply a decoding of letters and words but a process through which we understand what a text or author is suggesting and what the words mean"
• "We all bring knowledge and experience to our reading of the text"
• "To be an informed reader is to be a reader who may know it is impossible to know and understand everything about a work of literature, but who understands the forces on an author, on the meaning and interpretation of a work, and on his own personal reactions"

Voicethread coloured radio activity

(I don't know why, my computer wont access voicethread, so I recorded myself in my own computer and put the download link of the audio file in .WMA)
To download the voice file, go to this link:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/90384425/black%20trial.wma


In case you need it .mp3 (because I dont really know if IMacs can read that sound file), you can post it in the comments and I will post the link for the mp3 version)



Terrible, terrible, terrible.
The astonishing case of Tom Robinson, coloured man accused for raping the daughter of Bob Ewel, a farmer in
the local city of maycomb was found guilty by the jury.

Several negroes are accusing racisism in the decition and strongly defend that the evidence shown by the
lawyer Atticus Finch is enough to proove him innocent.

"Atticus Shown Tom didn't do it, show that he was innocent and that was not even possible for him to do so,
this jury is filled with racisism. Is not ethic that a black man is placed in fron of a jury filled with
white, the jury must be grey." Stated one of the members of the black community that assisted the trial.

Several hours of pain, hope, unhope, illusion and broken dreams were suffered inside the tribunal, and
has been the hardest case that the jury have ever had, as one of the members said in yesterday's
newspaper interview.

Look, I am a colored man, but would this make me a criminal? I mean it. Its not moral that the jury is all
white, because there, the racisism involves in its decition. Why is important he colour of the skin?!
God created us all, and love us all, just some people are not able to understand it.

Just to give an example, i personaly heard in the morning a white radio, saying that the result was
awesome and trating tom robinson as a "bastard nigger". In my opinion, this must stop.

Boo Radley's diary

April 13th, 1931
              Dear diary:
                               It is weird that this these children I see treat me like a man, like a person, more like a ghost as most people treat me and see me. I... I think I like this children, I would like to experiment what do they think of me and how do they see me.
                                But I won't be able to do so if any of the kids get seriously injured, like what this guy... what's his name? Bob Ewel wants to do. I know that Bob is planning to hurt this kids because he wants to take vengance of Atticus.
                              I won't let him or anybody else hurt the children that saw me like a person for the first time. The only way I can be sure that these children are healthly and all good is following them and protecting them, everywhere. The danger may be after every corner, and I will not loose the only thing that I've ever cared about for me not doing nothing! I will protect this children and I will find out what do they think of me!

April 30th, 1931
             Dear diary:
                              Is incredibe the astonishing amount of problems these children get in! They had entered to black balconies in it's father court, they have been in black places drinking alcohol (at least, i saw them drinking something inside a paper bag, I think it is alcohol).
                              The other day, I was seeing them eat at miss Mudie's house, and a friend of her entered the room after the kids left, saying that Bob has accosed Atticus in the morning, saying he will take revenge. I need to be more attentive than i've never been, i a not going to let Bob get to this children!

May 21st, 1931
             Dear diary:
                          Today, after the party... Bob attacked the children. Luckily I was there in the forest and stop him, but i could not stop him from hurting Jem. I took him home, leaved him on he first bed I saw, and when I was about to go... I heard Atticus' steps. I ran and hide behind the door. I was there for hours, waiting for all of them to leave, but they keep arriving the medic, the detecive, Atticus and Scout. I could not go out.
                          There was when Scout saw me, she closed the door, showing my position, and I saw her closely o the eyes for the first time. That second my heart stopped, Would she like me? Would she ran scared? But I recovered the breath instantly as I saw her smile, arising in his face. Then we had a moment to... share looks in her swing, I was to shocked to talk, but it was nice to finally see that this childre really like me and that they now see me like the real person I am.

different experiences

My bigger experience with other cultures and razes definitively was when i was in new zealand, there i could share with a lot of black and yellow people that here in chile we don't usually see.
Before NZ, i had no black or chineese friends, and for me, chineese, corean and japaneese was all the same.

After new Zealand, in my facebook I added at least 5 black friends and 4 corean and 3 chineese, and one japaneese. I serously amply my horizon to new limits i've never expected. Now, for me, seeing a black or yellow person doesn't make any feeling in me than any other white person would do.
I am really happy i could do that journey, that marked a "before" and an "after" in my life.

TKAM activity

Ch. 12

1. Comment on Jem's and Scout's visit to First Purchase Church. What does Scout learn about how black people live?

2. Explain why Calpurnia speaks differently in the Finch household, and among her neighbours at church.

Ch. 13

3. Aunt Alexandra thinks Scout is "dull" (not clever). Why does she think this, and is she right? 

4. How does Aunt Alexandra involve herself in Macomb's social life?

5. Comment on Aunt Alexandra's ideas about breeding and family, in contrast to Atticus' visions. Who's right, do you think? Why?

Ch. 14. 

6. Comment on Atticus' definition of rape. How suitable is this definition as an answer to Scout?

 

ANSWERS:

1. Some were welcoming and really kind to them, in contrast to the low amount of money and education they had.

2. She needed to speak as other black people, instead of proper english as other white people, because other black people would thought she was atheist.gtvf

3. Because she doesn't belive Scout act's like other girls.

4. Talking good of her family, and being really prod of them.

5. Aunt Alexandra always speaks about her family as if they were a diamond, but she treas Scout badly, I think that is the reason why Atticus thinks the opposite of her.

6. He did what he belived correct, he always had teached scout directly and withouth "rounding" the situation, and i think is good that he continues with the same idea of teaching. Apart from the fact that Scout is enough mature to understand it.

Contexts

What contexts are?


Contexts are what surround a text or situation.

If we don't know the context of something, we may misunderstand what is going on with the text or situation. This both images are some examples.





The image above happened just after a guy beated the blue haired guy.

 
In the image above a guy just gave a candy to the green guy. But if you only read the sentence... you may misunderstand.

There are two main types of contexts:

CONTEXT OF PRODUCTION
CONTEXT OF RECEPTION

The first one is the context (historical, usualy) that surrounds the author of the text. The context of reception is the context of the reader (like you).

To kill a Mockingbird: activity

Answer this questions about the author:

1. What is the cultural and educational background of the author?
2. What are the values and aesthetic concerns of the culture of the author (literature movement, cultural movement, society of that time, etc)? And: What important social, political or economic issues took place in the author's times?


ANSWERS:
1. Nelle Harper Lee was born in 1926 in the town of Monroeville (Alabama, United States). She became a writer in New York, after she went to "University of Alabama", because there she realized that she didn't liked that life and she decided to go to New York, to write. She needed to work in an airline to win some money, and then, her boss gived her as a gift, a year of vacations for her to dedicate her writer's life. That's the educational context and which were the motivations and advantages that she had to become a writer.


2. In that time, the principal movement that was having influence in the US was the fight of the rights of the black population, so that's why there is a lot of that influence showed on the book.
There are two main genres that we are able to identify in the book, the "Bildungsroman" and the "Southern Gothic" 



(Font: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/context.html)

politically correct language

We were told to answer this question:
Language changes? All people who speaks English speaks with same words, accent, intonation? Do you have the same 'key words' or 'codes' that a person from the South or North of Chile?

Langage is different everywhere. Actually, one person changes its language (the register) along the day, as he interact with other people.
The register depends a lot on the class. A homeless person won't speak the same way as a president making a campaign.

And the Slang used in every place also varies. In USA, saying "Owned" is a slag that refers to someone that that ridiculizes you. Like if in a 50 meter race, one guy beats the other one for 5 seconds, the other guy was "owned" by the first one. But that slang is not used everywhere, so thats an example.

Reading comprehention.

There are three important things that you can identify in a text. Three things are:

• Theme; the genereal idea that the text is about. Love, sadness surprise, etc.
• Topic; particular idea of the text. "Sadness of Tom, for losing his father".
• Main idea; is the  the message that the author want´s to give to the audience.

Source, audience, purpose, genre, tone, register, etc. Are other types of things you can find.

new zealand exchange

Ten of us, went to scot's college in new zealand (loosing our holidays :( ) to share with a different reality, know new people, and share experiences.
It was a nice experience that i would like to do again.

While I was there, in our school they were having the "british week", having fun and making different activities.

week 9: language in cultural context

*the color of the letter changed on its own and I dont know how to revert it. Thats why this post looks so bad, sorry*

This week, we discovered that language is directly connected to a lot of things, in fact, it has a lot of facts that could make it change:

-Changes with time and space

-Language, culture and context determine the ways in which meaning is constructed in texts

-Meaning comes from complex interactions between text (or speech, or image), audience, and purpose

______________________________________________________________________

We also saw a video in in wich we had to answer some questions:

1) How many languages does Alex speak?

2) Does context help in the process of acquiring a new language?

3) Are there any languages that have similar pronunciation?

4) Which of the languages spoken by Alex seem more colloquial?

5) Is class a more important factor in language variation than geography?
6) Do you think, the ability of learning a language is innate or learned?
7) According to you, are some languages more or less difficult  to learn than others? Talk about your own experience.

 

ANSWERS: 

1) He speaks eleven (11) languages.
 

2) Yes it does. If everybody surrounding you speaks that language you'll learn ir way faster.
 

3) Maybe italian will be kind of similar but i don't really think so. Greek has a pretty similar pronunciation tough.

4) I dont really know, i just know english and spanish, but i would say spanish.
 

5) Both are. One (geography) will say "this is the language you will speak", and class sais "this is how you are going to use it".
 

6) Humans need to communicate somehow, and they found that talking is the way, but i dont think we born with the hability.
 

7) I dont know if "difficult" is the correct word, but I will say somes need more practice because they are more complex, in the fact that they have more words. In english you just say "the", in spanish you say "el, la, los, las". You use "some, a" for "unos, unas, un, una".