Best Work

Truth and Bright Water Visual Project

I felt this was the best visual project I have ever done. I am not an artistic person so I was very happy how this project turned out. I put so much effort into the project and it was very rewarding to get such a high mark!

Poetry Assignment 

1. Abstract - hard concept to grasp, out side of the box

    Alliteration - the use of the same letter in a row

    Concrete - constituting an actual thing or instance.

    Context - parts of a written or spoken statement that follow a specific word that effect the meaning of the statement

     Imagery - the description in literature painting a picture in your mind

     Dramatic Irony - when the audience knows but the characters do not understand

     Situational Irony - Actions have the opposite effect of what was intended

     Verbal Irony - Sarcasm

     Line - verse of poetry or actors part in drama

     Paradox - a hidden truth behind contradiction

     Persona - characters or narrator

     Personification - giving inanimate objects living characteristics

     Repetition - the act of repeating

     Simile - using like or as to describe something

     Speaker - a person who formally speaks to a audience

     Stanza - an arrangement of a certain number of lines

     Symbol - used to represent a deeper meaning 

     Understatement - a representation in a weak way that does not show the true facts

1. Allusion - making reference to a different book, person, or place. 

ex. “Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;”  The World Is Too Much With Us, Williams Wordsworth, line 13

Malapropism - am ac or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound. 

ex. “the new grass leapt to solidity” Death of a Young Son Drowning Margaret Atwood, Lines 23-24

Milieu - Social environment: surroundings, location or setting

ex. “it was spring, the sun kept shining,” Death of a Young Son Drowning, Margaret Atwood, lines 22

1. Poetry - the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. Poetry is a written art, expressing emotion and open for interpretation by the reader in whatever direction they chose.

1. Build Context 

“He, who navigated with success / the dangerous river of his own birth / once more set forth” (1-3) These first three lines in the poem Death of a Young son by Drowning by Margaret Atwood created context by discussing the dangerous river, but that it could be navigated with caution.  

Thematic Ideas

“He jumped or he was pushed.” (8) 

In the poem Essay on Adam Robert Bringhurst argues the theme of corruption. 

The poem discusses whether he was pushed or he jumped, because the other three options weren’t exciting. Both being pushed off a bridge or choosing to jump of the bridge is corrupt. Ending a life before it was meant to end is corruption at its finest. “Whether the demons work from the inside out or from the outside in.” is the true question about corruption the author is asking, does an individual corrupt them-self, or are they swayed by an outside force to become corrupt. 

Empathetic Response

“I stood turning it over in my hands, turning it over in my head. Human skin.” (10) In the poem The Book, the author, Miller Williams, uses imagery to get peoples emotions going. “I held it in my hands while he told the story.” When handed a leather bound book, most people would just hold it and think how beautiful it was. Finding out it was “human skin” would be very traumatic. People emotions are played when they start to think who’s skin it was, and who would be so awful to skin a human and make it into a book. 

2.In the poem One Perfect Rose by Dorothy Parker describes the emotions and relationships connected to a rose. The theme represented by a rose is love, yet a flower can represent how love does not last forever. The author explores these feelings through out the poem, saying all she ever gets is a rose.In Truth and Bright Water, Helen always tries to make dead flowers beautiful again, and this poem discusses how flowers, like love, is only great for a short period of time, which Helen did not realize. “Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet,” (3) creates the context that when love is new and pure it can be represented by a rose, yet as it goes on the rose begins to wilt as does the relationship that was once so pure. In the beginning relationships feel as if nothing could ever wreck their beauty, like the fabulous smell of fresh roses. Yet when it wilts, there are no longer wanted, like a relationship when you find others flaws. When you find true love it does not wilt, “Why is it no one sent me yet One perfect limousine,” (9)and a limousine represents how true love does not die. Dorothy Parker uses One Perfect Rose and the item a rose to play on peoples emotions. Many view roses as a serious flower, and Dorothy Parker creates some humour within the poem, “Ah no, its always just my luck to get One perfect rose.” (10) True love is searched for, and wanted by many, but many keep on just getting a rose, which eventually wilts and is no longer lovely.  

3. The poem What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where and Why? developed the thematic idea of loss and pain using many literary techniques.  Edna St. Vincent Millay uses imagery in this poem to describe the way it feels when you are going through loss or a traumatic experience. “Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,” (9) creates imagery as well as describes how one feels when going through a loss of a loved one to create a deeper meaning in the thematic idea. Other uses of imagery give the reader the sense that they are in a sad unforgiving place.  “That in me sings no more,” (14) is a personification to describe how the happiness represented by summer is gone when you lose someone. The seasons are used to represent feelings, summer being happy and warm, and winter being dreary and cold. The author used examples of things that people wouldn’t want out of their lives, “What birds have vanished.” The poem used things we take for granted everyday and makes emotion stir about how it would feel if they were gone. The loneliness and pain is represented in many different techniques to build the theme of loss and pain.  

4.Robert Kroetsch uses punctuation and capitalization to paint a picture with his word in Stone Hammer Poem. Capitalization and punctuation help for the poetry to be read aloud properly with the right emotions. Brackets are used multiple times to create a softer tone, or an underlying comment. “He kept it (the stone maul),”(133) uses brackets to deepen the context of the story, it can mean a thousand different things, by using brackets the author communicates his story much more clear than without brackets. Punctuation such as a period or coma is a main component of writing, telling you when to pause and when to end a sentence. “WHAT HAPPENED”(76) creates the effect that this is meant to be shouted, or said with intense emotion. “The Blackfoot (the Cree?)” (66) uses both question mark and brackets, asking the question what it really the Blackfoot’s stone? When “the Cree” was put in brackets it makes a bigger point that he is questioning what he knows about the “maul.” Italics are used to represent a title or a name of something, in the Stone Hammer Poem “Gott im Himmel”(65) is italicized to represent the name of an object or saying. A semi colon is used when a sentence could be ended but is continue. In this poem “the buffalo’s skull is gone;” (11) could be its own sentence but is liked with another thought. 

5.The poem The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth uses imagery to deepen the meaning behind the words. “Little we see in Nature that is ours;” (3) the author creates the picture that we no longer embrace nature. This poem being written during the 1800 when the industrial revolution was just occurring most people left their country life style and moved to cities where nature could not be embraced. “Getting and spending, we lay waste in our powers;” (2) a juxtaposition that when the industrial revolution began people became much greedier, the use of words in this line creates the image of someone perishing in all of their materialistic things with nothing but greed. The power that people now have is ruin their relationship with the world and we have forgotten what is important. “Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;” (12) describes that if it were to go back the way it was before the revolution the nostalgia the author was feeling may subside. Proteus was a Greek god, and the stories mark back thousands of years, and “Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;” (13) presents the image of a better time before materialism took over our world. “I’d rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,”(10) a Pagan being someone with a different religion than the majority is a rather big statement about the world we have created. The feeling behind being part of a religion where there would have been consequences for not being creed creates the imagery that materialism is not what this man supports. 

6.Michael Ondaatje creates the milieu of a tropical paradise during the time after the second World War but before 1990. The poem Sweet like a Crow the first hint that it is a tropical milieu is “like a scorpion being pushed through a glass tube”(1) which is a big hint since scorpions are not found in Canada, along with “coconuts,” (5) “mango.”(11) From the details an author chooses to include you can learn many things about the milieu and time-period. The time-period is after the “bible” (5) but before the computer era, because of the “typewriter.”(18) The milieu is described by things native to Sri Lanka, and is know immediately by the language used makes the reader picture a tropical town with the imagery used. The different objects discussed also make it easy to decipher when the poem was set. 

7.In the poem The Starry Night the author, Anne Sexton, repeats the lines “this is how I want to die.” (6) By repeating this line multiple times the reader gets the sense that the author has come to terms with death. By using repetition an author can prove a point they want to be heard. With the repetition about wanting to die, one could connect with this poem about being at peace with death, and that it is a natural part of life. The repetition of “oh starry, starry night,” shows that if you are around things you love, such as the stars, death doesn’t seem so harsh and unforgiving. When using repetition an author can use it to paint important details into their work that would other times be missed. In Truth and Bright Water almost all the adult characters say the like “you know whats wrong with this world?” and the repetition in that is showing us a main theme of appearance versus reality. 

8. In the poem Icarus, Icarus is only referred to as he, which can take away a persons identity. “He’s out of the story and into the song,” by only referring to Icarus as he throughout the poem a sense of disrespect is created. When they discuss his death not until the last line to they call him by his name. 

The poetry assignment that we completed after Truth and Bright Water was a lot of work to complete.  I am very proud of this assignment because poetry was not my strength but I persevered and got 100% on this. I also consider this my best work because I now enjoy reading poetry and have learned much from it. 

Reel Injun

The key idea that Neil Diamond conveys is the portrayal and judgement of  Indians based on stereotypes from movies. The documentary discusses movies from the 1930’s to present and contemplates how the different portrayals of First Nations affected people’s perceptions and subsequent treatment of First Nations. “Raised on Cowboys and Indians, we cheered for the cowboys never identifying the Indians we saw on screen” demonstrates that the portrayal of Indians was so skewed that First Nations children on an isolated reserve didn’t realize that the “Indians” in the movies were a portrayal of their people. Most First Nations never wore feathers and few rode horses, but still to this day many people have this preconceived idea of First Nations. In the early years of films, the Indians were portrayed as positive strong warriors. When the depression hit, white society needed someone to blame and the Indians became savage killers. As we view more recent movies created by First Nations, we see their true culture such as Fast Runner, where the verbal story and life lessons are passed down from the Elders.

The use of symbolism is very significant in Reel Injun. Early films presented Indians as positive warriors that helped the settlers. When the Europeans came to North America, the First Nations helped them live in the new found land. As trade partners the First Nations did many things for the settlers. They lived among each other in a cooperative relationship. When the great depression hit, the settlers needed someone to blame for the hard times, and the relationship between Whites and First Nations became rocky, both in movies and real life. In movies the actions of John Wayne weren’t even upsetting to white people because of their prejudice towards Indians. He could stab an already dead, buried Indians eyes out so they could not see in the after life, and no white person would even think of it as a wrong doing. Movies like these were being made, when First Nations children were being sent to residential schools and First Nations weren’t allowed off their reserve without permission. Indians were thought of as a dying culture. White people were unconcerned with the culture dying as long as it made good movies. Now movies are being created by First Nations about First Nations. Movies such as the Fast Runner give a different perspective on First Nations. “If I don’t tell people about Natives they will just think we are all a bunch of drunks.”  As the perception about First Nations continues to become more positive, movies portraying them start to do the same. When the stories First Nations Elders pass down to future generations are created into movies by First Nations themselves, it gives society a much different perspective on their culture. 

My education about First Nations throughout school gave me a prejudice before watching this documentary. What we are taught in school about First Nations is only the white person’s perspective, it is an eye opener to get a First Nation’s perspective. Many people have such strong negative opinions about how First Nations are favoured on the reserves based on what they have learned in school without researching the complete facts. Society has raised people who do not question information presented to them, and believe everything movies or teachers tell them. Most people only know the negative actions that happen on reserves. I feel this movie exposes viewers eyes to the amazing First Nation community in Canada, and that we are missing many of the important spiritual connections of the First Nation’s culture. 

The director creates a very moving documentary that opened my eyes to a totally different understanding of First Nation society. I never realized that the way Indians were portrayed in movies had such a strong effect on society’s actions towards First Nations. A very strong symbolic connection is made between the perception of First Nations in film and their treatment throughout the years of the Europeans settling in North America. The human condition revolves around appearance vs. reality, and the documentary proves that appearance vs. reality plays a large role in our actions. “They are gonna think...we can all ride bare back” as this is how Indians appeared in movies but reality is radically different. In life appearance will influence our reactions, but we must look for the reality to make clear decisions and the ensure we act correctly. 

The Reel Injun movie we watched prior to reading Truth and Bright Water expanded our knowledge of  First Nations people in North America. I am proud of this project because it changed my view on First Nations and their culture, which I would love to learn more about.