Mid-term break (continued)

b. How does the use of literary devices describe the mood in this poem?

The use of literary devices describes the mood by showing the emotions of the people in the poem.

In the second stanza, the father is said to be crying. And, in stanza 5, the mother is coughing out "angry tearless sighs". The poet was able to use metaphors and other literary devices to describe the mood.

Thus, the use of literary devices describes the mood by showing the emotions of the people in the poem.

Mid-term break

a. What are the persona's feelings in the first five stanzas of the poem? Explain how the poet described these feelings through the careful choice of words used.

The persona was feeling embarrassed and confused in the first five stanzas of the poem.

The persona was feeling embarrassed because there were old men in his house, and the old men went up to him to shake hands with him. This made him feel embarrassed as the old men treat him as an adult, shaking hands with him. Some people also told strangers that the persona was the eldest in the family, making him feel more embarrassed. The poet was able to show the feelings of embarrassment by using the word "embarrassed" , thus directly telling the reader that the persona was feeling embarrassed.

The persona was feeling confused because his father and mother were reacting to the baby's death differently. The mother was sighing angrily and tearlessly, whereas the father was crying. It was also strange to the persona that usually his father never cries during funerals, but he was crying this time. The poet was able to show the confusion by showing contrast between what the parents were doing.

In conclusion, the persona was feeling embarrassed and confused in the first five stanzas of the poem.

My poem

School is so lame
everything is about doing well
test marks, exam marks
its like running a race

School is mainly hell
you are always waiting for the bell
it is a dreaded place
but you will still do your work for some ace ;)

Nevertheless, school is still our second home
it keeps us from being alone
it provides us with knowledge
we have no choice but to acknowledge

School can be fun
school can be boring
school is for everyone
school is about scoring.

My favourite poem

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

1. The figurative language is used in this poem as hyperbole (Past the pits where the asphalt flowers go)

2. I like this poem because it is about a place where things are better than they are here.The poet uses words like "peppermint wind" to show the childlike glow that this imaginary place has”. These words are setting the mood for our imaginations to take over and think of an amazingly perfect place. The poet is trying to get us away from the "place where the smoke blows black " .He is saying that we should free ourselves from the world full of pollution and concrete and go to the beautiful place where the sidewalk ends. He is saying that if we could all believe in things like the sidewalk coming to an end in a magical place we would stop with so much of our polluting and wastefulness.

Alice in wonderland

Review

In my opinion, I feel that the movie was quite interesting. The storyline is very different from the actual Alice in wonderland book. The storyline is more based on the storyline of the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. The bad thing about the movie is that its 3D rendering was not as good as I expected, as compared to movies like Avatar. But overall the movie was okay. If you like the book, I recommend going to see the movie as watching everything taking place before your eyes is quite a experience, very different from just reading the book.

Differences between the book and movie

1.The jabbawooky did not appear in the book

2.There was no white queen in the book

3.The red queen did not have so much control

4.Alice was older in the movie

5.There was no battle between the white queen and the red queen on a chess board

Animal Farm play

Which character was the most memorable in the play

In my opinion, I feel that Squealer was the most memorable in the play. He was the right hand man and propaganda agent of Napoleon, the tyrannical ruler of animal farm. Squealer is able to use his amazing speaking ability and persuasive powers to convince the other animals that whatever Napoleon does is right.

Review

W!ld Rice seems unable to hit a wrong note these days, following its award-winning Importance Of Being Earnest of 2009. Animal Farm, based on George Orwell's classic political critique, continues this respected theatre company's stellar record.

This is a solid piece of theatre, first and foremost. High production values, a fantastic cast, tight direction and an eloquent script come together for a memorable experience that touches the audience intellectually and emotionally.

Reprising the physical theatre elements from an earlier staging, the 2010 production of Animal Farm seems to have perfected the recipe of animal movement and sounds that the actors incorporate seamlessly throughout

the running time. Chickens are evoked with a pointing of elbows and bobbing of heads, and turn in a flash into high-steppin' horses that trot and whinny. The seven cast members play a gamut of roles (and species), with ingenious ways of shifting from one character to another. Denise Tan, who plays a domesticated bird (Mollie), a more adventurous one (Moses) as well as a brief turn as a pigeon, captures the "birdy-ness" of all the fowl while representing each one as separate individuals: from the vain, pampered Mollie, to the Filipino-accented pigeon. Tan conjured up the essence of each creature with zest and panache. Gene Sha Rudyn also captures two heavy roles impressively while maintaining the distinctness of each. His Benjamin, an old and cynical donkey, is as memorable as his Snowball, the charismatic revolutionary pig.

The horses, Boxer (Ghani Abdul Karim) and Clover (Yeo Yann Yann) are more sombre, tragic characters, and they are brilliantly balanced out by a hyperactive Squealor (Pam Oei), the right-hand pig to the Leader of Animal Farm, Napoleon (Lim Yu-Beng). Oei's Squealor is a hilarious villain-clown that implements the dastardly policies of Napoleon (like cutting rations and extending working hours) with a blind zealor that brings to mind the fundamentalists of today.

Indeed, the true allure of Animal Farm lies in its subtle, not-so-subtle, and outrightly overt references to Singapore's political system. Turning the slogan "Two Legs Bad, Four Legs Good" into a public campaign (complete with flyers) was one of the less subtle references. But while the references to a society shifting away from agrarian production towards industrialisation and commerce seem to place Animal Farm in a particular Socialist context, the introduction of a George Bush / APEC satire at the end really hit a current chord about the state of world affairs today. That said, the production is not so narrowly focussed, and the more universal themes of power and corruption are clearly fleshed out.

The company seems to have drawn inspiration from its successful pantomimes to borrow a few audience participation tricks - which add to the colour and humour of the work.

All in all, this production is evidence that theatre old-timers are able to mature, hone skills and grasp wisdom - all of which benefit the audience and the larger arts scene.

Review of the play(mine)

The play 'Animal Farm' is quite a good play. The storyline is based on the book of the same name, which is set in a farm known as Manor Farm. After being ill-treated by the owner of the farm, Mr Jones, the animals started to rebel against Mr Jones and finally kicked him out of his own farm and renamed it Animal Farm. All animals would be equal. The pigs, being the cleverest began to manage the farm. There were mainly two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. They are both always arguing and disagree with everything they could. Later, Napoleon banished Snowball from the farm. Eventually, Napoleon became more and more like humans. The equal society the animals have longed for was not created. The play was very nice, with many humorous parts. It also changed the plot slightly, making it more interesting. This is a must- see play. I would look forward to watching it again.

Differences between play and book

In the play not all the animals could talk fluently. The ending in the book was completely different than that of the movie. In the book, Napoleon and Pilkington engaged in a card game where they played the same cards and quarrelled. In the movie however, there was no card game. Also, the title of the revolution song is 'Beasts of England' in the novel but is called 'Beasts of this land’ in the movie. There were also some characters that were not shown in the play: Muriel, Minimus, The Cat, Bluebell, the brood of ducklings at Major's speech and the messenger pigeons. Another difference is that during the animals' confessions and executions, the "traitorous" animals were shot to death in the play. But in the novel, the dogs tore the animals' throats out.

The Amish

The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons.

Today, the most traditional descendants of the Amish continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch. The Amish believe that having a lot of children are blessing from god. So the Amish have large families A person is more of a member of the family, rather than an individual. Each member has a job, a position, a responsibility, and a status. Chores within the home are normally divided by gender. The Amish traditional family provides much of the education for the child. Although the formal education ends after they finish eighth grade, the boy or girl is trained for their adult tasks, such as farming and tending the house.

To a large extent, there are many advantages to Amish life, the lives of the Amish will be more carefree than modern life and they are environmentally friendly. However, to a certain extent, there are disadvantages to Amish life because Amish life is not sustainable.

Amish life is good as their lives are more carefree than modern life. They do not have to worry about many things that we worry about such as stock prices. It makes them more happy. They also do not pollute the environment as they do not use cars. Instead, they use horse carts.

Of course there are disadvantages to Amish life. Many young Amish children are leaving the older generation because they want to live in the modern world too. Thus, the older generation will be left alone. Soon, there will be no more Amish people left. So the Amish life is hard to sustain.

In my opinion, I feel that Amish life is okay, but I definitely not be able to adapt if I were to become an Amish. This is probably because I am very used to technology all around me and I will probably not be able to leave my favourite stuff behind (eg. computer). Thus I would probably not want to become one of the Amish people.