Sunday, September 27, 2009

QW

Think about a person who you met who left an impression on you (much like Effie left an impression on Neil). Tell a story about this person on your blog. Try to use a combination of direct and indirect characterization. Please also use figurative language at least three times.

There once was a girl who was really weird. She was usually quiet but sometimes laugh out loud. However, she welcomed everybody as if she was a family with everyone. Her love toward other people was as hot as flame. I think that is the major reason why everybody tried to avoid her. I got to have a talk with her because I lost in game with my friends. I found out that she was as kind as my mother. She looked really happy. She laughed and sang a song. However, I figured out she also had a dark side.

Clue 4

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Clue 5

1. Who is Effie waiting for?
In this story, it does not clearly say who Effie was waiting for. I think someone who Effie was waiting for was not a normal person. I predict in this way because there won't be someone only coming when it's raining and thundering. However, the music part really gives me a grasp that this person or non person is not really a bad one. I think someone who Effie is waiting for might be a holy angel or God.

Bible Verse Related to the theme: Luke 6:27: '"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do well to those who hate you,' This verse is related to the theme because first, Neil didn't like Effie. However, after Effie left him, he wanted her back. This means that Neil followed God's will.

2. This story contains a lot of Christ imagery. Write down these separate sentences from the story that might symbolize Jesus and explain why Timothy Findley might have written these into his story.
- "On a cloud," she whispered.
This quote shows that this person who Effie is waiting for is not a human. I think this person on the cloud is God or Holy Spirit because none of the living creatures can be on the cloud. I think Timothy put this quote into show that God different then normal human being.
- "If there was even thunder and lighting and music then He'd come."
I think 'He' in this quote represents God. I think this thunder and lighting represents power of God while music represents grace and mercy. I think Timothy wrote this to show how great and powerful the God is.
- "Besides, it's not just me he's after."
I think this quote represents that God doesn't want 'some' people to have faith in Him. He wants everybody to believe in Him. Overall, I think Timothy wrote these quotes to empathize that there is the God and He is almighty.

3. Can non-Christian authors reveal truth about god's world?
In my opinion, non-Christian could never reveal truth about God's world. It is understandable that non Christian authors can write about God. However, without strong faith toward God, no one can see the truth about God's world. It is like summarizing the book by only looking at the cover. This is the reason why I think non Christian authors can't reveal truth about God's World.

4. What is the theme of "About Effie"
This story was the weirdest story I ever read. It was quiet difficult to understand the flow of the story. I'm not clear but I think theme of this story is if there is meeting there is always separation. First, Effie met Neil and after, Effie left him. I think this can be related to nowadays life. People always get separated because every people die. Another theme I think about is hate can turn into love. When Neil first saw Effie, he thought that she was crazy and stupid. However, he felt sad when Effie left him. These are the two themes I came up with after reading the story.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

READER RESPONSE

1. I sometimes go against my mother's wills.
2. Like Jing-Mei's mom, my mom took me to the America for the education.
3. Like mom forcing her to play the piano, my mom sent me to piano teacher even though I didn't wanted to play.
4. Like Lindo Joung, my mom has bragging friend who I really don't like.
5. Like Jing-Mei's mom, I disappointed my mom by not going to tutor.
6. When I was young, my mom asked me to do too much, but I couldn't do it.

I think this story is well related to nowadays life in Korea. Lots of Korean mothers expect too much from their children. They send their children to all these weird tutoring places. This may help to some of the kids but, it is not effective to most of the kids. It is important to find what kids are good or special at instead of doing tutor for all the subjects. I hope Korean parents will change their mind quickly.

Clue #3

1. Literary theme is an abstract idea which is expressed through a work of literature. Themes can be related to life, social, or human nature. Usually, themes are not stated directly but buried deep inside the story. Also, each story may have different theme with other stories because not all stories are the same.
- respect
- revange
- loyalty

2. Theme of my life is to be the best person I can be. It is easy for me to just forget everything that I aimed for. For example, I am sometimes mean to my friends even though I know I can do better to them. Also, I don’t study hard even though I know that I should. For these reason, I aim my life theme to be the best person I can be to be successful in my life.

3. In my opinion theme of God’s plan for this world is to teach people about words of his speaking. I think this is the reason why Jesus came down from the heaven to show us the word of God. Also, death of Jesus shows that God is trying to forgive us and to protect us for the sins. He wouldn’t have saved anybody if he was planning to teach us nothing about him.

Clue 3

What is a literary theme? 3 examples of truth about the universal human experience.
What is the theme of your life, as you see it right now?
In your opinion, what is the theme of God's plan for this world?
How can you figure out a theme in a short story?

1.

1. Title: Look into the title and think about what it is trying to tell us. Don’t just look at the basic meaning of it but think it through.
2. Character: We need to observe characters careful to be able to understand the theme. We need to dig through characters’ both internal and external conflicts.
3. Climax: We need to find out the climax of the story. We need to try to find out what author is trying to show us.
4. Resolution: We need to try to seek through if there are any relations to life, social, or human nature.

This is another way of finding out theme of the story:

Step 1
Begin the search for the literary theme by thinking about what the story is really about. Read the title. Get an initial sense of the topic and message.
Step 2
Look for a unifying idea within the story as you read it. Identify events that define the topic and events that contribute to this topic.
Step 3
Seek out central ideas such as the struggle against nature, the bonds of family, a child coming of age or other common themes in literature.
Step 4
Identify the actions of the characters and how they affect or define the central topic. Look for dialogue and actions that contribute to the most basic idea of the book.
Step 5
Determine a secondary theme, which is often present in a complex story. Look to the subject matter, storyline and characters to find the secondary theme as well.
Step 6
Think about the impression the book has on you. Identify the main idea, and compare that to the literary themes you identified from the story. Reflect upon what point the author tries to make, and how effective the story was at making that point.
(http://www.ehow.com/how_2078383_understand-literary-themes.html)

2. I think theme of "The Utterly Perfect Murder" is that some events could be painful to someone else even though you don't feel anything. I think this is the theme of this story because Ralph was having more pain while Doug thought that he had too much pain. This theme can be related to my personal experience. When I was 7 years old, one of my friend hit me accidentally with his arm. I was really mad at him because I was in such a pain. The day after, I was going to hit him back but I stopped. I saw him crying at the corner of the kindergarten room. He looked so miserable. By this, I realized that even though I was physically hurt, my friend was mentally hurt and he looked like he was having much harder time then me.

3. Moral and theme are different concept. Definition of moral is expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior. This means that moral is what author is trying to teach readers from the story. However, definition of theme is a subject of story, discussion, meditation, or composition. This means that theme is topic of the story. This tell us that moral is much more close to teaching while theme is closer to the subject or the topic of a story. For example, in the short story called "The Most Dangerous Game" the moral can be "do not kill innocent animals." However, theme of the story is "Human selfishness can cause destruction of the environment." As you can see, theme is closer to explanation than teaching while moral is closer to teaching than explanation.

4. John 3:16, it says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." I think this is the theme statement of the God's story because God loves us. That is the reason why he sent his only Son, Jesus, to save us from the sins. This can be related to the literature. Love reveals truth about the universal human experience because every human experiences love. It is natural thing that people love other people. For example, you can find love in "The Utterly Perfect Murder." In the childhood of Doug and Ralph, Doug loved Ralph as a friend. I think this is the reason why this can be related to the truth I might find in the literature.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Clue 6: What is beautiful about figurative language?

1. Authors use figurative language because it makes readers to imagine things much quicker and better. Figurative language is different then just normal words. It has meaning other than literary meaning. Figurative language can be also view as comparison between two ideas or objects. This also makes easier for readers to understand some of the difficult ideas. For example, if you are explaining about love, you can say that love is like chocolate. This is the comparison of love and chocolate which makes other people to realize some of the characteristic of love easily. Lastly, figurative language is interesting to readers. Just putting in literary meaning words could bore readers very easily. For example, this statement, “cat is like a cute teddy bear” is much more interesting than “cat is an animal which is very cute.”

2. 3 metaphors:
- "But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill."(William Sharp, "The Lonely Hunter")
- "Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food."(Austin O'Malley, Keystones of Thought)
- "Men's words are bullets, that their enemies take up and make use of against them."(George Savile, Maxims of State)

3.
Simile:
- Luke 3:22 'and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."'
- Luke 10:3 '"Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."'
- Luke 10:18 'He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."'
- John 15:6 "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."

Metaphor:
- John 4:21 'God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."'
- John 6:51 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."'

4. I think bible uses metaphor to clear the understanding of God that he is mighty and graceful. It also tells us how heavenly God’s world is. Figurative language used in Bible help me to get interesting in God’s World. Most of the metaphor and simile in the bible compare God with other objects. In my opinion, this is to make readers to understand God much easier. Using metaphor really helped me to have better understanding of God’s World because using simile and metaphor was like giving example to me. For example, in John 6:51, it says 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."' This help me to understand much better that nothing but believing God will lead us to heavenly world afterlife.

Clue #6

- Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. (using like or as)
- Simile: a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose." (using is, not using as, like)

Friday, September 4, 2009

What can plot structure reveal to me about the truths I will encounter in literature?

1. Reader response is when you contact yourself with the story. It is also interaction with the literature. Combination with personal experiences with texts makes up meaning. Active readers who have build and sumarized approach to the literature which comes from images we create and this guides it to the meaning.


Steps involved:
1. Read book that you chose
2. Pick and write major events
3. Organize them by plugging in to the plot diagram
4. Connect your self with the text you organized
5. Write down analysis

2. Reader Response helps people to connect self experience with the texts. As we organize the plots by using plot diagram, you see the deep side of the story. It helps you to dig out some information that you could not have found by just glancing over it. With this deep information, you connect it with your own experience. If you try to connect deep information from the texts, you need to dig up your own information from deep inside the heart too. This motivates you to dig up the feeling that was placed deep inside you heart. As you dig up your feeling and what happened to you, it helps you to open eyes to more truth as we read. For example, in the short story, "Marigold", Lizabeth destroyed Ms. Lottie's garden. If you just glance it through, it is totally Lizabeth fault, but if you look deeply, her environment have huge effect on this.

3. It is very important for us to interact with the literature we read because meaning comes from the combination of texts and personal experience. Without connection with text, it is just writing that doesn't mean anything. As it says on the Reader Response, you need to connect yourself with the texts to get the true meaning. If the text doesn't connect with you, than it is no use reading it. It would be very boring because there will be no point of reading it. Also, it won't make any sense if it doesn't connect with you. For example, if scientist was reading about professional science book, it will be interesting and useful for them. However, if you give that book to middle school students, it won't mean anything to him but just a words that are put together.

4. I read short story which is called "The Most Dangerous Game" during the summer. This story is about human hunting game between the general and Rainsford. Rainsford fell out of the ship by the accident and reached the island. In this island, he met general who plays hunting game with human being. At the end, Rainsford kills general after winning the game. In this story I learned that humans' selfishness and cruelty can cause whole destruction of natural life. I thought of this because humans hunt animals for fun. They kill every animal they see for the entertainment. The general shows human cruelty by playing deadly hunting game with the Rainsford. What caught me the most was the last sentence of the book. Rainsford slept in bed peacefully after killing general. This shows that humans' cruelty is so overwhelming that even killing human doesn't effect one's life.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Figurative Language

My life is like chocolate
My face shines like a sun
I'm son of Top and mother G-Dragon, my brother is 대성(korea signer)
I'm on fire
I am weak as Won Joon
I'm ugly as Dong Joo
I have many pimpils as Phillip

Clue #1

1. Beauty is attractive quality of features.

2. Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
(Putting yourself down in front of other people)
Proverb 31:30 - Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
(People need to fear God)

What can plot structure reveal to me about the truths I will encounter in literature?

1.
- Exposition: introduction of characters and setting.
- Rising Action: the event leading up to climax (interest and suspense occurs).
- Climax: turning point of the story. Main character face the conflict.
- Falling Action: loose end of the plots are tied up. Conflict and climax is resolved.
- Resolution: story comes to reasonable ending.

Exmple of Plot Diagram for Ender's Game















2. Stories need to be structured because constructing to stories help people to organize their thoughts much better. Organizing thoughts help people to easily connect themselves to the texts. As it says in reader response, connecting person and texts makes it the real story and without it, it is not a stroy. People need to construct understanding to know strong about the story. For example, there is no final building without constructing from the basic stuff. Also, if people just do the constructing roughly, final product will be weak and not sturdy. This is same as reading the stories. Constructing step by step helps readers to dig deep into the story. This helps them to realize what they couldn't have seen if they didn't think deep. People need to use plot diagram as the bone of the construction and this will lead readers to get a strong understanding of the stories.

3. When I first read the "Marigolds", I thought that Lizabeth was the bad one because she destroyed all the Marigold garden of the Ms. Lottie. However, as I organized the story with the plot diagram, I started to think differently. I changed my mind that I was not only Lizabeth's fault that she destroyed the Marigold garden. I figured out that environment that she was in has to do it with out come of the destruction. First, she had playful friends. Her friends were throwing stones and playing noughty tricks to Ms. Lottie. Second, she was poor. Her family was very poor and her father got frustrated. They were so poor that her father got the coat from the owner who he work for. Finally, his miserable life lead him to cry. Lizabeth was shocked because she has never seen his father cry. This motivated her to destroy the garden. Regarding to all these surrounding environment, it is not all Lizabeth's fault of destroying the garden.

4. I my opinion, major theme of the "Marigold" is just one simple destruction can ruin or effect crucially on people. In the story, Lizabeth destroyed Ms. Lottie's marigold garden after seeing her father cry. She ran up to the garden of Ms. Lottie and started pulling out marigolds. Soon after, Ms. Lottie came out but she didn't do anything but just looked at her destroyed garden. Garden for Ms. Lottie was not just simply "garden" but it was her last beauty and hope. After this, even though Lizabeth apologized and convinced her to plant marigold again, she didn't because it was great hurt for her. For Lizabeth, marigold garden was just a garden that didn't fit with the surrounding environment. However, it was very important garden for Ms. Lottie were there are all the hopes and beauties. This is the reason why the theme is simple destruction can
be great destruction to someone.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Ultterly Perfect Murder

I think this short story is going to be about one person killing other one perfectly that police can not find the harmer. There was the time when my brother ate all of my cookies so next day I ate all of his candy. I felt good at the first, but later, after seeing my brother cry, I felt terribly sorry.