To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Review

To Kill a Mockingbird, based off of the novel by Harper Lee, was made in 1962 showing the coming of age tale of Scout Finch growing up in a racially divided Southern town. Scout, along with her brother Jem, stand by their dad, Atticus Finch, as he defends a black man accused and trialed for a crime he did not commit which causes  tension among their family and the town. Throughout the movie, Scout has a key lesson of how harsh this world is through the trail, showing the last summers of her innocence. The movie To Kill a Mockingbird is cinematic masterpiece as well, the shots so clean, the lighting very contrasting, that is the epitome of early to mid twentieth century cinematography.
One thing that I have always liked about To Kill a Mockingbird is that fact that the roles are sort of reversed, perfect examples to study are Scout and Atticus. For starters Atticus, is not a 'man' in the sense of what a man was back in that time period where he wasn't doing physical work, he was a thinker. One could even say he was somewhat effeminate as he nurtured his kids into being rational, being rational is something that is not something that is usually seen as homogeneous to a 'man'. However, it is not to say he isn't manly, as Harper Lee creates an in depth character to Atticus as he is very manly, in protecting and raising his kids, at the same time as he feminine. Scout is also interesting as she gets into fights at school and prefers to wear overalls to dresses, not to mention she likes to speak up when ever she can with her very tenacious personality. She is not the usual female role who is quiet and curious to others, which presents another deep character that makes this movie and book interesting.

Precious (2009) Movie Review

Precious (2009) is a movie about an overweight sixteen year old who all her life was abused mentally and emotionally by her mom, and raped by her dad. Precious the protagonist, at the beginning, is pregnant with her second child and gets kicked out of her school and finds education at an alternative school. She struggles at school and at home, which makes her feel stupid as she is told by her mom she will never amount to anything and she is basically ilterate; however, she has a sportive teacher who helps her learn and who eventually gets Precious out of living with her abusive mother. Precious has dark themes; yet, it is matched with hopefulness and even comedy, making it something that everyone can relate to.

One aspect of the film that I loved is that even though it holds serious themes, it is not as tragic by the added comedy that makes the whole movie lighter. This design is purposeful as is mirror’s Precious’s character. One thing that characterizes Precious is that she is hopeful and an escapist by day dreaming when times are tough. The light-heartedness of the movie when it is at the same time dealing with difficult themes mimics Precious’s character as she herself is lighthearted amongst her difficult life to make her life less miserable. This character trait of being an escapist is what makes everyone relate to this movie as everyone's difficult situations has a natural instinct to daydream, or joke, to escape the horrors of what they go through.

We Real Cool Analysis Response #4/30

               

We Real Cool

BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS

The Pool Players.
        Seven at the Golden Shovel.

            We real cool. We   

            Left school. We

            Lurk late. We

            Strike straight. We

            Sing sin. We   

            Thin gin. We

            Jazz June. We   

            Die soon.

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a rhythmic poem that mimics a singsong-y vibe of smooth jazz. It is very different from the other poems by how it is written and devised, as in the couplets the speaker indents to another line while the sentence is on going. Each of the lines ends with 'we' and if not it is easy to pick off a shift in the poem. This intention makes the rhyme scheme extremely noticeable, as the reader is forced to take a pause and take emphasis on the rhyme, almost like: 'we--Lurk late. We--Strike straight'. At the beginning there is an introductory phase of lines 1 and 2 where the speaker establishes the 'we' in this poem are pool players. This is introductory phase is made obvious by the shift that follows when the poem starts using 'we' at the end of every line; however, at the end there is another shift, the line only consisting of, "die soon," creating a dire tone, since the rhythm is thrown off without the 'we' and the nice almost happy rhythm stops. The tone becoming dire reveals a theme in this cool lifestyle that there is a price for living 'cool'. The life the pool players live is more of a fun lifestyle by drinking gin, staying up late, and leaving school earlier because 'they real cool'. The purpose of this poem is almost to say living recklessly with your life by trying to be cool is idiotic.

Ozymandias Response 2/27

Ozymandias

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The speaker in this poem talks about the time they met a traveler who told them about the old remains of a once great king, Ozymandias, buried in the desert. What once was a gigantic statue depicting the ancient king's great power is now ruined, "'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. . . . near them, on the sand, half sunk a shattered visage lies," these words shedding a gloomy tone with examples of "shattered" imagery. It is also of note that there are two meanings to the word 'lies' one which is resting or the other that is lying. Onwards to the rest of the poem, the speaker shares that there were words inscribed on the statue, "'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains," here, showing that the statue is lying as now all this great power is gone symbolized by the statue's remains. The poem ends of with the same gloomy tone, "Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away," as the statue is alone and these words denoting any power that once was. One of the themes presented is nothing can withstand time, specifically power. Ozymandias thought he was the king of kings; yet, now his works are long gone buried beneath the sands of time. The speaker’s gloomy tone is to discuss this gloomy subject of mortality and that nothing can last forever, even Ozymandias ‘the king of kings’ who symbolizes that.

Naming of the Parts Analysis 4/20

I. NAMING OF PARTS

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
          And to-day we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
          Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
          Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
          They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
          For to-day we have naming of parts.

The Naming of Parts is a poem about soldiers learning how to use a gun amongst the spring time. This is a poem I had to read 6 times over to really understand what was happening because I could tell and was confused about this poem talking about two separate things: guns and spring, simultaneously. In the first four lines of this poem it talks about cleaning, firing, and naming parts of the gun; however, at the end of the sestet, it goes on about flowers and gardens to talk about how during spring that have to sit around learning parts of a gun. This poem uses the device juxtaposition, setting two opposite things side by side to convey meaning, by how the speaker talks about war and spring to convey the argument of war being foolish.

One aspect of the poem that was done on purpose was prattling on laboriously about the different parts of the gun to create a bored tone replicating how one would fell when learning about useless information. By creating this bored tone it takes the importance of war and flushes it away, making war seem useless. Another fact is that war is conflict issued with violence, and it is placed beside the most peaceful time of the year, creating said juxtaposition, making war seem silly when it is set in such a peaceful time period such as spring. This juxtaposition is even more apparent in the play on the phrase 'easing the spring' by how the speaker uses it to describe the function of the gun and the coming of spring. This poem is criticizing war by pointing out how war can somehow exist during a peaceful time and raises the theme that war is nonsensical.            

The Youngest Daughter by Cathy Song Response 4/16

The Youngest Daughter depicts a daughter taking care of her ailing mother and wishing to leave. Throughout this poem the tone that has revealed itself: irritation. The poem opens up with, "the sky has been dark for many years," indicating that the speaker's tone of voice is not a happy one. Right after, the speaker then begins to show her irritation, literally, as they talk about their skin, head, and eyes burning and reddening with irritation, "lately, when I touch my eyelids, my hands react as if I had just touched something hot enough to burn. My skin, aspirin colored, tingles with migraine." The speaker shares how she takes care of her mother, giving her a bath. As the speaker is cleaning her mother she has a 'sour taste' and goes on to take the light hearted aurora of her mother's jokes in comparing her breasts to walruses, out of the atmosphere. While her mother is joking, the speaker relates her breasts to a literal function, "I scrubbed them with a sour taste in my mouth, thinking: six children and an old man have sucked from these brown nipples," indicating once again the speaker is not in a jovial mood and is irritated.

The irritated tone can express how the speaker feels about the theme of this poem: eternal youth of the aging. The theme of this poem is reveal through how the mother and daughter has switched positions, as the mother is now the baby taking a bath and the role of an irritated mother is played by the daughter; also at the end there are cranes taking flight as the mother and daughter are sharing a meal, the cranes specifically put there to mirror the eternal youth of the mother. The irritation of the poem can express how the speaker feels about when people age they basically regress back into infancy, and how they need to be taken care of. This poem is a good poem to look at when analyzing tone.   

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer By Walt Whitman Analysis

At the beginning of the poem the speaker shares what is going on in the lecture room about astronomy, and how he is just learning about charts and data, basically math; however, he tells about how he leaves the classroom to actually see what he learning about which he was not seeing in the lecture room. One theme I believe to be revealed in this poem is that knowledge is experience, as with just the mathematics side of things you can never fully learn something, just theoretically. At first I thought the speaker was going to be speaking about an epiphany that he had when listening to the learn'd astronomer; however, as it turns out he is criticizing education as making the point he is just hearing not learning. 

Another theme that I have noticed that this poem could be getting at is the fact that people often over complicate nature. At first humans saw stars, then started to question them, and them developed this elaborate science behind it with charts and diagrams enough to make someone dizzy with something once a simple thing. As I read the first quatrain, I could immediately tell there was a shift in the poem as the sentence length diminished and it became sensory in the second quatrain making the mood seem peaceful. The last sentence, "Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars," can indicated the simplicity to stars by using the word 'silence', which completely contrasts with elaborate science behind astronomy in the first quatrain; in addiction, the speaker uses perfect to describe the silence arguing that simplicity is perfection. By the speaker getting sick and having to leave the astronomy class, I believe another argument,  or theme, this poem is that people over complicate nature.