Poem analysis/ revision of Sonnet 18

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.19

English ll

Mrs. Guarino

Sonnet 18 Analysis

     Sonnet 18 is one of most famous poems within all 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare. This poem is written in old English; therefore, many words are not what we could found easily in a normal dictionary. It is a lovely poem about his lover, how he viewed her and how she will be forever beautiful in his heart. This poem also shows how Shakespeare wanted this beauty of his lover to be immortal within his poem, which in another way, also hoping that this poem could be existing and being read as long as possible. The starting of the poem comparing his lover with summer, could mean more than just summer time but also spring, what was wanted to be present includes the warm and loveliness during both spring and summer time. Other than the lovely part about this poem, a doubt and question was given to the poem. As people have known, this poem was originally given to noble young man in between the age of 20. Also, summer was often used to describe man within the age of 30, 40 and spring used to describe youth. Therefore during the line where it writes “Darling buds of May”, some readers refers what was wanted to present should more likely be as spring than summer. Later on, other readers thought that this poem could also be a homosexual poem; Overall, different views about Sonnet 18 were given. Sonnet 18 is a poem by Shakespeare describing the beauty of his lover and his desire wanting her to keep her loveliness long living, it uses rhyme scheme and other literal devices to create this poem into a fluent poem with matching meters. 

      William Shakespeare compares her to something that is beautiful or warm, and says that she is even more precious comparing to it. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” means shall I compare you to a summer’s day, but on the next line he wrote that she is even more lovely and constant than a summer’s day. Later on, he writes that even though by nature or by random, beautiful things could be taken away or faded, but, the beauty and youth of hers, won’t. According to this quote saying “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possesion of that fair thou ow’st, nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade” this refers to how because he have written this poem that won’t die, and as long as this poem exists, she will live and keep her beauty forever. The meaning of  Sonnet 18 is to show his love and a heart wanting to protect his lover. He tried to compares and describes her preciousness and glamorous within this poem. His reluctant to give up his lover. Overall, this poem is describing his lover’s beauty that he wanted to keep immortal. He wanted her to be remembered and long-living, in another way of saying, in his point of view and his heart, she will stay as beautiful and as young even though time have passed and over time, she will still stay the same in her best condition.

    Some literary devices being used in Sonnet 18 are personification, meter, rhyme, metaphor, comparison and repetition. But first of all, it is a sonnet, which contains 14 lines. The rhyme scheme for Sonnet 18 is: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g, with words like day-may, temperate-date, shines-declines, dimm’d-untrimm’d, and fade to shade. All of the ending word  in each sentences have the same rhyme with the next next sentence’s last word. Moving on,  In these three lines “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” it uses comparison to compare this person with summer, it also gives the reader different seasons’ description to describe his lover. It first asked if the lover should be compared as a summer then describing her as having more attractive characteristics. The line right after says, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”, is saying how the summer is way too short comparing to the person’s infinite beauty. Next on, “The eye of heaven” represents the sun, and could be considered as a personification since nor do heaven or the sun have an eye. Another personification in Sonnet 18, will be in the line where he writes “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade”, obviously death won’t physically grab someone under his shade. Next on, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines”, these two lines tells how good things and beautiful things (fair) will fade away as time pasts or by chance, coincidence that happens. Comparing to the first few lines, starting from this line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”, other than describing the person like summer using simile, the person is the summer, which is using metaphor rather than simile. Some repetition words Sonnet 18 has, are summer, thou, fair, and so long that repeats within the lines to create more meter, beat in the poem. In conclusion, Sonnet 18 is a beautiful poem about his lover’s long living beauty deep down he wishes and also a poem with many literal devices being used to present as a fluent, pleasant reading poem. 

Creative project:: Reading Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

https://youtu.be/VFapMiJjRVA

Thesis

    Sonnet 18 is a poem by Shakespeare describing the beauty of his lover and his desire wanting her to keep her loveliness long living, it uses rhyme scheme and other literal devices to create it as a whole. 

Peers review

      Kevin's poem is called What is a Good Friend, it is a warm and powerful poem I've heard from his recitation. For his analysis, he did a great job on the introduction paragraph, which is the first paragraph. He relates his experiences and feelings towards the poem, which I think is a good idea to start off with. He also mentioned some lessons that are related to the poem about friendship. Moreover, he gave some explanations to why he chooses this poem and how he had this same question as the title—What is a good friend?. He also has a great hook by saying "In everyone's life", so people reading this analysis will start off trying to connect their own experiences and ideas to this poem and to Kevin's analysis. 

        The second paragraph was also well done, because he tried predict and infer to how the author wanting to present the poem by not telling his opinion about friendship as the topic, but telling it step by step later on within the poem. The analysis's organization is also good since he wrote it clear for the reader to understand by giving short explanations right after a sentence he quoted from the poem. For the third paragraph, he started to explain the structures of the poem. Overall, he fulfilled all the requirements Ms. Guarino have asked for on the blog, both the poem's meaning and structure are given in his analysis. 

       On the other hand, something that I think Kevin should improve on and do better on is for the second paragraph explaining the meaning of the poem. I think he could give some deeper meaning of the poem rather than explaining it in a easier way. Also, he could add in his own definition for friendship and what a good friend should be like to compare and contrast with the author's idea. He could tell about how he agrees to it or not. He could also add in some background informations about the poem. Another thing to be improved in this analysis will be the thesis. I could not find any specific sentence as a thesis statement, so I think it will be better to come up with a thesis statement even though it's a analysis writing. Another advice I want to give is to list out some literature devices the author have used in this poem in the starting of the paragraph about structures, so it will be easier and more clear; Moreover, this sentence could be presented as the topic sentence for the third paragraph mainly discussing about the poem's structure. Otherwise and most likely he did a great job on his analysis for the poem What is a Good Friend. 

Comedy Tonight!

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.21

English ll

Ms. Guarino

                                                                  Theater Review

         "It was the funniest thing I’ve recently seen, not even kidding”, I heard someone saying this in the hallway, and I agree. This is my favorite drama of all throughout this year; Every drama presented this year were all great, but last night, this comedy became my favorite. It is light and relaxing comparing to other dramas I’ve seen. Most of all, I felt related to some of the skits, which made me enjoyed more. I have to say that this comedy made me laugh hard and all the audiences did, too. In my opinion, these skits are realistic and humorous. Some of the skits I like the most are “After Ever After”, “John Jiang, the Latte Boy and Rebuttal”, and “Morning Meeting Gone Wrong”. 

        “After Ever After” is a really interesting comedy,, the lyrics are funny yet realistic and criticizing about problems the world is facing right now. Four princesses from Disney singing the same melody as in the movies but with a new version of lyrics. I was laughing hard but then realized what they were singing was a real problem in the society these days. Ariel the mermaid’s lyrics mentioned the pollution under the sea and also how people are cutting fish fins off for food, then leaving them harmed in the ocean to die. Eventually, I think that behind their humorous lyrics that made the audience laughed contains a deeper idea and problems the society are facing recently. 

         “John Jiang, the Latte Boy” is also an interesting singing, I like the part where John sang his rebuttal song back to Sam. I was wondering along when I was watching this part if this whole song is written and made by Cheshire Academy’s students and teacher; If it is, I am even more impressed because it sounded cute and good. I had this question because the name Sam and John fits the beat in the song well. Last but not least, the “Morning Meeting Gone Wrong” was the one I laughed the hardest, so did the people sitting around me. This is one of the best moment I would say in the show. For a second, I thought Zola was actually Ms. Minahan. How every actors have acted during this scene were real and so similar to what I’ve seen every Thursday morning. It is fascinating how students have acted out how we have seen each teachers’ speech during morning meeting. I felt extremely related to this comedy therefore enjoyed it a lot and will definitely ask my friends to go watch it. 

    Overall, this comedy was vigorous and amusing.

Sonnet 18 analysis

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.19

English ll

Mrs. Guarino

                                                                      Sonnet 18 Analysis

        Sonnet 18 is one of famous poems within all 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare. This poem is written in old English; therefore, many words are not what we could found easily in a normal dictionary. It is a lovely poem about his lover, how he viewed her and how she will be forever beautiful in his heart. This poem also shows how Shakespeare wanted this beauty of his lover to be immortal within his poem, which in another way, also hoping that this poem could be existing and being read as long as possible. The starting of the poem comparing his lover with summer, could mean more than just summer time but also spring, what was wanted to be present includes the warm and loveliness during both spring and summer time. Other than the lovely part about this poem, a doubt and question was given to the poem. As people have known, this poem was originally given to noble young man in between the age of 20. Also, summer was often used to describe man within the age of 30, 40 and spring used to describe youth. Therefore during the line where it writes “Darling buds of May”, some readers refers what was wanted to present should more likely be spring than summer. Later on, other readers thought that this poem could also be a homosexual poem; Overall, different views about Sonnet 18 were given. 

           William Shakespeare compares her to something that is beautiful or warm, and says that she is even more precious comparing to it. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” means shall I compare you to a summer’s day, but on the next line he wrote that she is even more lovely and constant than a summer’s day. Later on, he writes that even though by nature or by random, beautiful things could be taken away or faded, but, the beauty and youth of hers, won’t. Because as he have written this poem that won’t die, and as long as this poem exists, she will live and keep her beauty forever. Overall, this poem is describing his lover’s beauty that he wanted to keep immortal. He wanted her to be remembered and long-living, in another way of saying, in his point of view and his heart, she will stay as beautiful and as young even though time have passed and over time, she will still stay the same in her best condition.

             Some literary devices being used in Sonnet 18 are personification, meter, rhyme, metaphor, comparison and repetition. But first of all, it is a sonnet, which contains 14 lines. The rhyme scheme for Sonnet 18 is: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. In these three lines “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” it uses comparison to compare this person with summer, it also gives the reader different seasons’ description. The line right after says, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”, comparing how the summer is way too short comparing to the person’s beauty. Next on, “The eye of heaven” represents the sun and could be considered as a personification since nor do heaven or the sun have an eye. Another personification in Sonnet 18, will be in the line where he writes “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade”, obviously death won’t physically grab someone under his shade. Next on, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines”, these two lines tells how good things and beautiful things (fair) will fade away as time past or by chances. Comparing to the first few lines, starting from this line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”, other than describing the person like summer using simile, the person is the summer, by using metaphor rather than simile. Some repetition words Sonnet 18 has, are summer, thou, fair, and so long that repeats within the lines. 

    

    

Poem recitation

https://youtu.be/hZ6LR1rTDLI

Music for poem

http://youtu.be/L-61bvmBUhc

I chose this background music because it is relaxing and it is called the green piano. And green automatically for me relates to summer and spring, just like how Shakspeare compared his loved as a summer day. The tone is bright and light. 

Poem Sonnet 18

SONNET 18

William Shakespeare 

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; 
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

Found poem

Original words:

There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong
I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we'll live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

Found poem:

Men kind, 

Voices soft, 

Words inviting, 

Hopes high,

Worth life,

Young summer,

Endless childhoods,

The dream I dreamed. 

Marinda, Nancy and Chantelle's shape short poem

(Found poem) Cheshire academy boarding life

Boarding students

17 states, 30 countries

Living on campus

Living across the hall from best friend 

Students learn, grow, explore

Prepare for life, maturity

Built friendships, lifelong connections and,

Home. 

Haiku (575) about spring

Colorful spring comes,

Sunshine finally wakens 

Those sleeping flowers. 

O Captain My Captain

O Captain! My Captain!

Related Poem Content Details

BY WALT WHITMAN

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, a

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, a

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, b

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; b

                         But O heart! heart! heart! C

                            O the bleeding drops of red, c

                               Where on the deck my Captain lies, d

                                  Fallen cold and dead. c

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; a

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, a

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, b

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; b

                         Here Captain! dear father! C

                            This arm beneath your head! D

                               It is some dream that on the deck, c

                                 You’ve fallen cold and dead. D

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, a

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, a

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, b

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; b

                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells! C

                            But I with mournful tread, d

                               Walk the deck my Captain lies, c

                                  Fallen cold and dead. D

                 First of all I chose this poem because I have read this and memorized a small part of it when I was in middle school. After Ms. Guarino's class about how a poem works with rhyme schemes, I was curious about poems I've read before knowing all these details about poetry. Therefore, I went back looking for this poem wanting to know if what I've read before could also apply to this technique. It was a little bit confusing to tell the rhyme schemes, because there is always one sentence in each stanza that does not have the same ending letter. After reading it out, it sounded similar to the previous word, so I'm even more confused. Overall, I really like this poem not just because I felt more familiar with it, but it is a little bit challenging for me to tell the rhyme schemes and also how it sounded powerful. 

               The author Whiteman was a nurse during the war and this captain he said in the poetry is Lincoln. He wrote this poem to mourn and memorize Abraham Lincoln as his hero that passed away. This poetry is related to history and is very touching at some point I think. Not like how we see our leaders and president these days on screen. What Whiteman have seen as a person working in war, he saw Lincoln going to work everyday, so what he felt towards Lincold was not only admiration. He respects him and hoped everything including his country and leader could heal after the war. 

           Basically, this poem is describing what the country have been through the hardness and now as the victory have arrived, their father—leader—Which is Lincoln had passed away because of assassination. This poem was also written with rhyme schemes as I labeled myself beside each ending of the sentences. 

        

Life is...

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

-Mother Teresa

Why did you choose it? 

I chose it because all of the sentences' starting word is exactly the same which caught my attention while searching for poems. 

What did you like about it?

I like how it looks simple, but at the same time tells a lot throughout every sentences. It encourages people to cherish their life and don't be afraid of challenges. Overall I think it tells people to view life positively. 

What is it about?

This poem is about life just like its topic "Life Is". 

Reflection on Love or Bread

Marinda Hsu

2016.04.25

Ms. Guarino

English ll

                                                          Reflection on Creative Project

            Famous movies and books often releases a new version or an additional version of story besides the main plot of the original movie or book. This idea came up to my mind after reading Pobby and Dingan, also after watching the movie Opal Dream. Therefore, me and my partner Chantelle decided to film a short movie before Annie and Rex moved to Lightening Ridge. This story about imaginary friends and the Williamsoms’ experience being misunderstood in Lightening Ridge actually gives a deeper idea and lesson to the audience. How everyone have their own strong belief and dream that no one else could see physically nor believe into. I was thinking how Annie must love Rex a lot to support his idea of living in a rural, coarse place like Lightening Ridge for opals. Another scene that made me came up with this idea of filming a story about Annie’s previous life before the plot in Lightening Ridge happened, was the scene where Annie was looking at her photos back in England with her almost-married ex boyfriend Peter Sidebottom, also was nervous to be found out when someone came in while she was looking at them.

                 We decided to film Annie’s previous life into four parts, this came out great where we filmed everything on time and with the script. First of all, memorizing the script was not as difficult as we thought; But out of our original concerns, filming the movie without laughing was a difficult part. It was suprisngly difficult to act real and control my facial expressions while filming. Because of this, the video might not came out as realistic. Another biggest mistake we made while filming this movie was to show the contraction between Peter and Rex. We have the idea on changing the outfits on both male character to show their differences on social level and personality. We also gave our movie this topic: Love or Bread, to tell how Annie was struggling between one rich man and another man with more love. It came out in results that the audiences felt like Annie was more in love with the rich man, Peter; which was the opposite idea we wanted to show in the movie. I will consider this as the biggest part that I would want to rectify among all other errors in this project. 

              First of all, we showed more scenes where Peter and Annie were in love comparing to Rex. Both Peter and Rex were gentle and kind to Annie, so this might confuse more for the audience on the reasons of Annie choosing Rex as her husband. To correct this mistake and to make our plot better fits out tops-- Love or Bread, I should make sure that our script fits more to the topic. For example other than outfits, I should show how Peter could afford and provide Annie a better life and future, I should show how Peter buys expensive gifts to show his love rather than actions. On the other hand for Rex, I should film more about how Rex has no money but a great passion towards opal and greater love towards Annie without any material ingratiating like Peter. 

              Overall, as my first time filming a movie as an important project, I’ve learned a lot. I learned a little bit more about filming and understood what my weaknesses were. I did a pretty great job for coming up with this creative idea to film Love or Bread, but did not act real enough nor made my main argument and idea about the story obvious enough throughout the movie to prove it to the audiences. To make my next possible filming project successful, I would plan everything into more details to make sure everything is logical.  

Progress on Creative project

   During this weekend, Chantelle and I have worked on our project. First of all, we rehearsed our script and I was struggling a little bit to trying not to laugh while speaking as the character Annie. We did not memorized our script exactly but could know what to say just through a few peeks on the script. Therefore, this would help our acting easier latter on without having difficulties to get familiar with the script. After getting familiar without the script and short discussions on how the film should be edited using iMovie. We cut down pieces that weren't natural nor good, and put all the successfully filmed videos together. We also added background musics into the film to try make it more romantic, emotional. We chose two different songs and edited them into our videos. These are our recent progress on the project. The first few parts are done filming and editing, now we are only left with the filming on the next few scenes. 

Pobby and Dingan Project Proposal

Marinda Hsu

    After brainstorming, I decided to film a short video about the events that were not being showed in the movie Opal Dream. My teammate is Chantelle, and she had took the role playing both Annie (the mother)'s ex boyfriend Sidebottom and her husband Rex. Me, I took the character of Annie. We decided to film this video into three separate parts to show the story of Annie before she came to Lightening Ridge. First, we'll film the part where Annie and John Sidebottom were having really lovely times together back in England. We wanted to show how Sidebottom was a typical rich gentleman from small details. For example, his great piano skills showing that he've been learning it since young, how he's dressed mostly with a blazer and how he gave gifts to Annie. Second part, we'll show how Annie started to know Rex and felt something different from him while Sidebottom had left England. We wanted to show how Rex was a totally different kind of person comparing to John Sidebottom; how he was more poor but passionate, full of dreams and enthusiasm. Annie was attracted by his unique dream and open mind. For the last part, we wanted to show how Annie had decided to leave John Sidebottom's rich family and go to Lightening Ridge to marry Rex, also to support his belief. 

     We will be filming these three major changes. Equipments we will be using are easy and just what we have—iPad and iMovie. Chantelle will be doing make up like a man; also, her clothes will be changed while filming Sidebottom to Rex, to show their differences. 

      I have chose to film a video for the creative project for a few reasons. First of all, I wanted to try filming since I had not did any projects like this in the past year. It would be really interesting at the same time to think about what stories might have happened on Annie before she came to Lightening Ridge. As the story said, Annie was looking at photos from England in the middle of the night after arguing with Rex. This could tell that she was missing her old times, maybe even regretting for a moment that she had came to a rural and neglect town. This part had grabbed my attention while thinking what to film that people haven't saw from the movie that could be creative and new. 

    In conclusion, Chantelle and I will be filming stories about Annie's life before going to Lightening Ridge and marrying Rex. The video will be approximately about 15 minutes with three characters—Annie, John Sidebottom and Rex. 

      

Opal is hope

Marinda Hsu

2016.04.07

      The quote "The secret of an opal's color lies not in its substance but in its absences" tell how even though opals are expensive (substance) but what really makes them so special is because how they're precious, difficult to find and do not appear easily (absences). This quote metaphors the meaning and lesson according to the novel Pobby and Dingan. Obviously for Rex Williamson, he was definitely attracted by the mysterious and uncertainty qualities from the opal. Also, the quote says that the absences are the colorful parts; the unseen parts are often just as important and charming. This is a hugely related to Kellyanne's view towards her imaginary friends—Pobby and Dingan. They are beautiful and brave as Kellyanne had described, even no one could see their attendance. For Ashmol, opal is what he and his father have been seeking for. It symbolized a dream to the family, not only for Rex himself nor Ashmol.

      Annie agreed to live in a place like Lighterning Ridge most likely because she loves, believes and supports Rex. Opal might be an important promise Rex had made to provide Annie and his family a good life. Yet he had not found any. Opals have been in a situation of "absence" for a pretty long time as the family lives in the town, looking upon opals just like everyone did in the town. Apparently in the story the opal was for a moment important to Ashmol because it was considered as Dingan's belly button. But deeply, finding an opal might be a way to warm up and resolve the intense situation between the Williamsoms. Annie could finally believe again into Rex's strong belief into opal. Back to the story, the opal had made the funeral for Pobby and Dingan possible, which made the whole town came together as one, moreover, made Kellyanne felt that her dreams are real. Many events have happened because of opal: Annie and Rex arguing about how real opals are comparing to Pobby and Dingan, and also offering a funeral with an opal without telling their father. For this part, it tells a small different between adults and children. Kellyanne told Ashmol that she's sure that her dad will sell it, but this is Rex's dream of becoming a billionaire and opals are what he've been waiting for with all his hard works. But for Kellyanne, it is just her best friend's belly button. Then for Ashmol, it was just a key to help Kellyanne and also a small dream of his, since he've been following his dad to the mine looking for opals. Just like how opal contains many colors, everyone in the family viewed opal differently according to their purpose. But over all, opal symbolizes hope to the family, no matter how they view its value. 

     The opals are rare and difficult to discover, just like how everyone, including the Williamsoms; how we all have invisible, unseen dreams that others won't believe untill they see it physically. The absences of the opal made its existence more important and precious to whoever that found it or simply to itself, how it is special and mysteriously beautiful.

Reading Quiz :: Pobby and Dingan

Marinda Hsu

2016.03.29

2. 

Rex had told Ashmol once that, ".....Lightening Ridge is now was once covered by seawater and how all kinds of sea creatures had been found fossilized in rock." For this statement, Ashmol responded with this idea relating to Pobby and Dingan, he said—"And suddenly I thought how maybe if this amazing thing was true, it was just possible Pobby and Dingan were true, too". Even though Ashmol regretted right away after this idea, this is also an important reminder about the entire story. For Kellyanne, Pobby and Dingan are so real that she felt physically sick because of her woriness towards their disappearance. This idea Ashmol had is like how everything could be possible; everything could be true if someone believes in it firmly. It is unbelievable that a place where Ashmol lives was once covered by seawater as he imagines it, just like how people might think Pobby and Dingan are unbelievable, but true to Kellyanne. Even though Ashmol had tried to prove that why don't exist, Kellyanne still believes in them. So within this small part of the story, it relates widely throughout the whole story about each family member's own belief that seemed unreal to others. 

5. (Rex)

Imagination and dreams are mentioned and connected throughout mostly everyone in the family. Her mother misses her elegant life back in England as we read through paragraph 6 when she was looking over photographs in the middle of the night. Another obvious imagination is Pobby and Dingan's existence in Kellyanne's own point of view. For Rex, his dream is to find opals and become a billionaire. He is working hard for two years without finding any opals, but his strong belief into opals did not stop. A point in the story where Annie and Rex was arguing about Kellyanne's imaginations, Annie said—"You haven't found any opal in 2 years. And opal's real enough for you". This is a highlight reminding the readers that, yes, why would people believe in opals if him himselve hasn't found any piece of it denies that a little girl's friends are just illusions? If you think it this way, it is right how Annie pointed out. It could be so real and worth paying energy to the opals for Rex, therefore why can't Kellyanne pay as much attention into Pobby and Dingan? Rex believes firmly on finding opals, it is just like how Kellyanne believes how Pobby and Dingan are true. In conclusion, everyone has their unseen dreams in the story that no one else could truly wake them up from it. 

Spring break

       The last two days before spring break were warm and nice in Cheshire, I was expecting to feel the exactly same comfortable weather back home at Taiwan; however, the weather back home remained humid, rainy and cloudy for most of the time when I was back. A good weather often makes me want to walk outdoor and eventually receives a positive mood just like the sunshine shinning. Therefore, the rainy weather made me felt sad. Especially when I have to take three hours of Toefl in the morning, I felt a bit worst, it made me sleepy. I found out that my reading comprehension wasn't as well as I thought throughout the results of all those small quizzes the teacher gave us. The other two Taiwanese students studying in Texas have really good grades comparing to me. I hoped that my English could be as fluent as theirs. They recognizes so much vocabularies that made me wanna start studying harder for either Toefl or SAT in the future. 

    Other than classes, I have enjoyed my trip to the countryside with my family. Because my brother is still in class and my father still got works to be finished, so we only went to the East of Taiwan for five days as a vacation. It was precious for me after a long time being far apart from them. I found my brother growing taller than I am and started texting girls in his class. It was funny how my mother likes a girl in his class and my father likes another, they both wanna persuade my brother to like one of them. My brother was always provoked, and always shouting that he do not like any girls in his class. After finding my brother one day after one day stepping into a teenager, I felt both happy and sad that my cute, silly brother might not exist anymore for me to tease. Me and my family went to a tribe where the indigenous people live, they welcomed us with their traditional meals which were special and delicious. Latter on, we climbed trees, walk through muds, and squeeze ourselves between rocks to walk through the forest. It was extremely interesting yet tiring after using all these muscles I hadn't been using for a pretty long time for being lazy. I felt all these sourness throughout my entire body the next day I woke up. 

    After all, spending my spring break with my family is fun and wonderful. I misses them and was happy to spend so much time with them once again to stay bonded. I hope to see them soon in the summer. 

Pobby and Dingan

Marinda Hsu

2016.03.09

English ll

Ms. Guarino

      I will describe Pobby and Dingan as what Kellyanne had described them as, quite and shy. I think imaginary friends will definitely look special and different from normal human but in a good way. I think they might be the reflections of what Kellyanne wanted her life to be like or how she wanted friends, people around her to be like. Mostly like an ideal type of person Kellyanne admires. In both the movie and the novel, it showed that people around Lightening Ridge are either rude or crude. Which are most likely the opposite kind of people a young girl will want to be facing in daily life. 

      It is obvious that Kellyanne aren't getting along with most of her classmates in school since she've been talking to the air (Pobby and Dingan) as her teacher told her parents. This could be the reason why Kellyanne depends on Pobby and Dingan even more, because she was lonely and wanted accompanies that could satisfy her wish of having understanding friends to play with in a small, sort of boring town. So I think Pobby and Dingan must have been imagined as two really beautiful and nice friends in Kellyanne's mind whom will always be on her side that gives her a sense of security. 

        In the novel, Kellyanne's mother said that she is a sensitive girl and blamed her dad for bringing them to a place like Lightening Ridge that caused her imaginations. Therefore I think her imaginary friends could be really different from the people in town. I suppose that their personalities are very friendly especially to Kellyanne. In the story, Kellyanne mentioned that Dingan has an opal on her belly button, she also said that she is very beautiful. For Pobby, Kellyanne said that he has a wooden leg and she had found them when they were hurt. I think in another way, maybe Kellyanne had made up Pobby and Dingan when she felt hurt and lonely because of something she met in life. After all, I drew Pobby like a superhero so Kellyanne would feel protected and secured. Then I drew Dingan with this dress made of opal's color with blonde hair. Since opal was considered valuable and beautiful in their town, it might be possible for Kellyanne to imagine Dingan wearing something related to opal's colorful look.

Vocabulary set #1 for Pobby and Dingan

Claim

Stating something as truth 

Khan’s and me and Dad were relaxing after a hard afternoon’s work out at the claim. “Potch. Nothing special.”

Wobbling 

Shaking

The noise of a car drove into our ears and a four-wheel-drive police jeep came wobbling down the creamy red track that leads to our claim.

Startled 

Excited or scared because of surprise 

My dad turned around, startled.

Figment 

Fantastic idea, unreal 

kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings.

Rummaged

Looking and searching for

He rummaged through piles of rocks.

Ute

American Indian people

I slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face

Crackpot

A crazy perso.m

Lightning Ridge was full of flaming crackpots as far as I could see.

Mello Yello

Soft drink. Soda. 

hiding my anger in a swig from my can of Mello Yello.

Mates

Another half. A member of a team. 

“I still say Kellyanne could do with some real-live mates,”

Opal

A kind of white shinny mineral 

My dad would come back from the opal mines covered in dust, his beard like the back end of a dog that’s shat all

Fairdinkum

Australian slang meaning fair or true. 

“Fairdinkum?” His excitement always caught ahold of me.

Imaginary 

Unreal. Imaginations 

Her imaginary friends 

Grub

Searching busily or bug. 

too. She said they were quieter and better behaved than me and deserved the grub.

Mammoth 

Extinct elephant. 

has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-

Are Pobby and Dingan real?

 In my opinion, Pobby and Dingan are not real. According to the story as Ashmol and his father have said, Pobby and Dingan are Kellyanne's imaginary friends. I believed stronger that they are not real when they were trying to find them and got caught on Mr. Sid's land. If they really do exist then people won't be that angry if they're trying find two missing children. One important quote that proves that no one else other than Kellyanne herself could see Pobby and Dingan was what her teacher said—"she wasn’t concentrating in class and was always talking to herself and hugging the air",this showed more about how Pobby and Dingan are only imaginations of Kellyanne. But one part that confused me and asked myself while reading if they're real was when Dingan got chosen as the Opal Princcess with Kellyanne. I also don't think they're real because I heard of many stories telling how younger children have their imaginary friends (normally in a horror movie and ghost story though). But on the other hand since this novel is a fiction, the setting could be that both Pobby and Dingan are real. Kellyane's mother even prepared meals for them. But in conclusion in my opinion, Pobby and Dingan are not real because imaginary friends are possible to happen for a young girl, also how the teacher reacted, views Kellyanne's action in school all proved that most likely no one else could physically sees Pobby and Dingan 

What did you improve on from first draft to final draft?

First of all, I added more words and give more opinions, arguments on how love has the power to change a person. Second of all, I finally added more quotes either from the novel, from the movie or lyrics from a song. I added a short poem, too, because it reminded me of the situation Lorenzo and Olvia has. I wanted to add this poem in between the paragraphs and also lyrics before introduction paragraph because I thought this might make the reader feel not as boring. It also proves that other people thinks that love can change another, too; showing how many people would also feel that love is warm and the lyrics I've chosen was connected to the act of caring from the movie Like Stars on Earth. This was what I added mainly from the first draft until the final draft. I also tried fixing most of the grammar errors I recognized.  

Favorite character in Once on this Island

I like the character Daniel even though he plays a bad guy that abandoned Ti Moune in the end. The reason why I like Daniel is because of all these arguments and questions surrounding him for the audiences. Is he truly in love with Ti Moune? Or is he just attracted because of her beauty? Why didn't Daniel choose Ti Moune if as he said in his singing that he loves Ti Moune? It is interesting to think about how Daniel thinks and why didn't he chose Ti Moune in the end of the story. Even though the promise of marriage are made between him and Andrea, if he deeply loves Ti Moune he could had made a decision to fight against his parents. If he didn't want to elope into the villages cause he was originally wealthy and used to his family, he could have brought Ti Moune into his family and live a pretty good life together. Unless he was worrying about how other people might think about him as a rich, higher social level man marrying a poor girl. I like this character because the audiences would have much to comment on him and also have different opinions on Daniel's actions. 

Once On the Island

Marinda Hsu

2016.02.28

Once on this Island is a beautiful story. I especially enjoy musical comparing to normal dramas without singing. I like how the actors sing out what the character's thinking and it's also more interesting to watch a musical. I found that the musical really uses a band on the side while acting and singing despite of using soundtracks that aren't live. This could be difficult and needed many practices I was thinking when I heard the sounds of flutes, clarinets and pianos in the back playing. I especially like the parts of percussion in the background music, it sounded energetic and made a better feeling like we're actually in a natural village environment. I also like the part where Daniel started singing a song comparing Ti Moune and Andrea. First of all the melody was lovely, second of all, I really liked how this song has told the audience the struggle inside Daniel on choosing who to love, who to give up. Although it is cruel and realistic where Daniel had chosen Andrea instead of his true love Ti Moune, it is still a beautiful story but sad. This part also tells how sometimes people might be forced to make a decision between their true feelings inside and realistic situations they must face. I didn't thought that the ending will be Ti Moune dying, it was surprising and unfortunate since she went so far just to be together with Daniel but recieved such a heart breaking ending. This story had reminded me of many kinds of fairy tales and story that people ended up becoming a tree, a river or a star. It is always an amazing idea and ending I thought, even though the person had died as a human. But the most important part is their spirits are preserved and always there in a different form watching people they love. This story has also reminded me of the story—Little Mermaid. When the princess had turned into foam because of her forbidden love for a man that is in another world of hers. This is just like how the lyrics have said in Once on this Island singing that how two different worlds couldn't get along and how they will never be connected. In the story Little Mermaid, the mermaid was originally from a world under the sea and the man living on land; they fell in love just like the way Ti Moune did, saving the boy's life. Their love weren't accepted by their parents nor the world because of their background and because of who they were. It is really unfair and sad how two people couldn't be in love because of who they are and where they came from. It is also important to make a more brave decision in order to protect your true love and be together with him or her. I think what Daniel did wasn't acceptable nor reposonsible to Ti Moune but Ti Moune was also too kind and innocent to go so far for him. 

Writing center

Marinda Hsu

I went to the writing center a few days ago with my draft and received some helpful tips to fix my essay from Ms. Swift. I learned these two vocabulary words—Protagonist, which is the main character and antagonist, which is the opponents, villain. Therefore I could use the word in my thesis or analysis, for example:"In both, Me and You and Like Stars on Earth, the protagonists' lives are changed by the influence of another positive person who enters their lives. Ms. Swift wanted me to read out loud my essay which was helpful because as I read it out, I found a few mistakes in the sentence and a few run-on sentences. As Ms. Swift asked me a few questions as a person that hasn't read Me and You nor watched Like Stars on Earth, I realized that I have to put stronger evidences and details for readers that did not know the plots for both stories in order to understand my concept and argument better. I also leanred a new technique or in another word, a new way to start off an introduction paragraph. The way is to start the introduction with a broad statement then gradually condense them into a specific thesis statement. It should be like an upside down triangle with the pointed side on the bottom as the specific, strong thesis that you're going to argue. We also came up with a short paragraph that I think could be useful in my latter revise and edit on the essay, this is what I wrote: "Sometimes people feel lonely and as if no one understands them. In the book Me and You by Ammaniti and the film Like Stars on Earth by Taare Zameen Par the protagonists, Lorenzo and Ishaan feel misunderstood by the people in their lives until someone reached out and gave them hope." After this paragraph more likely a summary, I'll put a more analysis sentence after it to connect this to my thesis. During the time I spent in the wring center, I had not decided yet what exactly is my thesis and argument. But this is what Ms. Swift and I came up as a temporary thesis that loneliness can be changed because the protagonists have discovered the potential and confidence within themselves and throughout the love they received from people around them. But on the other hand after I visited the writing center, I decided that I didn't want the argument to be too specifically about leaving loneliness behind, but instead, about how love has the power to change a close-minded person into a bright, open-minded person. In conclusion, after visiting the writing center, I received good tips on organizing the introduction paragraph like a upside down triangle, also the most important part is that I brainstormed a lot within that few minutes; moreover, I eventually found my direction on what specific argument I want to make after brainstorming and speaking, answering questions with Ms. Swift. It was a pretty helpful experience again and I will definitely include advices I recieved in the writing center into my next revision on the essay to improve it either grammatically, on the developments on ideas and also the organization that I wanted to improve the most. 

Reflect on Revised Essay

Marinda Hsu

English 

Ms. Guarino

2016.02.24

Reflection on revised essay

  My essay is already starting off to have a shape, direction and I had made a plan what to include in each prographs so the analysis could be clear and equal for both plots. First if all in my revision, I fixed a few grammar errors and ofcourse I included quotes since I didn't have any quotes for the first draft to support my statements. I read over some sentences and changed it because my classmates have told me throughout their revised on my essay that they thought some sounded weird and difficult to understand. I think my classmates' revision and reminder on my paragraphs were really helpful, because it is a little bit more difficult for myself to find errors. Therefore, I took their advice and added a few stronger statements supporting my thesis on the last paragraph for the revision this time. On the other hand, I also need to revise and reorganize my essay more for the final draft. This is how I plan to organize the essay—First paragraph with tan interesting hook, strong thesis and a little bit summary and analysis on the similarities on the novel Me and You and on the film Like Stars on Earth. Second paragraph will be specifically about the analysis with supportive quotes about Like Stars on Earth telling Ishaan (main character)'s situation and change. Third paragraph will be focusing on the analysis of the novel Me and You describing Lorenzo (main character)'s situation and change throughout the events in story. For the fourth paragraph, it will most likely contain a lot if analysis and most of the analysis for the essay comparing and contrasting both characters' change and how, what made them changed.  For the final conclusion paragraph, I want it to be strong with evidences from both stories supporting my opinion that love has the power to change through out its' act of caring and understanding. I think connecting direct quotes from the story is a little bit difficult and it is also difficult for me to write more analysis through out the events, I often start off writing too much summary. Also another weakness I has is that i always accidentally start being repetitive while writing. 

Favorite sentence and why

My favorite sentence in my essay is —"Both relationship from Olivia and Lorenzo to Aamir and Ishaan was about turning someone that was tired of living, disappointed and felt misunderstood into a person that believes in one's own potential and bright future." I like this sentence because it tells the biggest similaritiy I wanted to relate throughout the two relationships in both stories. And I think this is my main analysis and conclusion within a sentence. I also like this sentence because it is telling a really positive change in people. 

Body paragraphs (revised)

Marinda Hsu

2016.02.09

English ll

                                                          Love's Power to Change 

        Have you ever met a person that changed and influenced you positively? No matter if it's someone near beside you or a celebrity you adores. I believe that love has the power to change a person's behavior and notion through out its caring actions that brings warmth. In the movie Like Stars on Earth, After the encouragements Ishaan had received from Aamir Khan by agreeing, supporting his art works, he had realized that being unique isn't wrong, but instead you should be proud of yourself and believes into your own special potential. As Aamir said in the movie—:"There have been such gems amongst us, who changed the course of the world, because they could look at the world differently. Their thinking was unique and not everyone understood them. They were opposed, yet they emerged winners and the world was amazed." This was something Ishaan had never bear being told by his parents. Ishaan was originally a boy losing confidence because of his unique situation that no adults could understand, until he met this art teacher that brought back his confidence and leaded him to start doing what he's truly good at doing—arts. In such a competitive world, most parents wanted their children to act well and be successful in school; Ishaan wasn't, and of course his parents were disappointed. During this point, when his parents did not try their best to understand their son's idea, moreover even blamed him, have caused he's lost of self-confidence and happiness. This reminded me of Lorenzo's situation where he felt like no one understands him, even his closest family did not try understanding and caring about his real feelings deeply inside. All of these sadness and disappointment both main character felt have been fixed and redirected because of another important person they met in life. No matter because of Olivia from Me and You or Aamir from Like Stars On Earth, they both helped changed main character's hopeless attitude towards life into a positive and bright attitude that they both started believing in themselves; after meeting this one special person that gave another hope, no matter in what way—sharing friendships, feeling loved or encouragements by words they've spoken, all of these made a sad person started to believe in a better tomorrow. 

        Like Stars on Earth's main character is Ishaan, an eight years old Indian boy going through a change in his childhood. Ishaan wasn't doing well in school, his teacher thought he was naughty, lazy and unreasonable; so did his parents. Ishaan's elder brother was the smartest student in their school, he was also a great tennis player; he was the typical good son most parents wanted. This made Ishaan's parents misunderstood more about Ishaan's attitude being naughty, and felt more disappointed to him comparing to his older brother. Ishaan likes imagining and drawing, but as his parents pressures him and negates his ideas, he lost his confidence eventually. His parents, especially his dad was mad and decided to send him to a boarding school. After Ishaan went to the boarding school, he felt even more sad because of the separation between his family. Untill one day a new art teacher called Aamir Khan started teaching in his school.  He was a open minded and positive young teacher that had found the problem in Ishaan. He was shy and closing himself from the world because of all these people denying his idea in the past. Therefore, Aamir encouraged him and created ways to let Ishaan prove his talented ability on arts. After Aamir's complements and explanation, Ishaan had gradually built his confidence day by day. Aamir also realized that Ishaan has Dyslexia, this problem made Ishaan how he've been acting back in school—he couldn't read properly like normal people could. This story is warm and also showed how society these days caused parents' blindness and careless on their children's real problem and potentions. It also told me as an audience that it is important to find what you're good at, being unique isn't a problem. This movie had came up to my mind to relate it to Me and You. Aamir helped changed Ishaan's life and his attitude towards his own life. Both relationship from Olivia and Lorenzo to Aamir and Ishaan was about turning someone that was tired of living, disappointed and felt misunderstood into a person that believes in one's own potential, bright future. 

      Me and You's main character is Lorenzo, a teenage boy suffering from autism and his loneliness no one else knew. He has anti-social characteristics and had described everyone else as the "others". He was self centralled with parents that were not trying to understand his thoughts and feelings deep down inside him. He had been lying to his mother that he's on a skiing trip but in reality he was staying under the basement for a whole week while he accidentally met this important person that changed his life—Oliva, his half sister. Olivia was a rebellious young women that Lorenzo's parents didn't like mentioning infront of him. She was eventually addicted to drugs and run into Lorenzo when she needed money for more drugs and needed a place to stay. Oliva was suffering because of the symptoms from her withdrawal of Heroin during the time she spent in the basement with Lorenzo, but as Olivia let goes her emotions, Lorenzo felt a connection between himself and his sister. Both of them were lonely with no friends nor an understanding family, both of them were suffering from mental illness and physical illness while no one was taking care of them. Untill they met eachother and Lorenzo felt himself like a hero, no longer useless by trying his best to help heal his sister's pain from the withdrawal. Also untill both of them encouraged each other, gave eachother the feeling of love and friendship. All these events when Olivia danced with Lorenzo and Lorenzo hugging Olivia, giving her shelter, Lorenzo felt warmth that he hadn't felt for such a long time and felt himself no longer as a person that is disconnected to all the others. More importantly, Lorenzo and Olivia felt hope and started believing in a brighter future because they met each other. 

    In most of the story people found plots similar on the relationship between the main characters. Most likely lovers, then from friendships to all kinds of relationships that one person changes another because of what they went through together. Including Me and You as a novel to Like Stars on Earth as a movie, both of these stories were describing the events and outcomes when a person had been changed because of meeting another. It is common to see people change into a better person because they have met someone that was either special, important or inspiring to their situation stucked in. Some people are defensive and stubborn untill they meet someone that is either stronger than them in order to force him change or either soft and nice that made another remove his guard to change into a better person with love. Some people are weak and coward untill they meet someone that is positive and has strong impact in order to build up his confidence again and become a tougher person. No matter using what ways, people changes through out their experiences with people surrounding them. Olivia and Lorenzo were once so disappointed and even giving up on their life, but things have changes within a week they spent together. Love has a lot of different definitions and moreover the actions of loving and caring one person gave another could be unexpectedly inspiring. A positive relationship often gives both person benefits and with those having stronger bonds often receive a huge change into a better person. Sometimes it is needed to have a person that have the ability to  bring you through the darkness and pull you out of the swamp.