Senior Project

My thought towards the whole idea of a senior project was that it was a waste of time. I don't say this because I was lazy in doing it or anything, I just feel like we could've used all that time to focus more on the AP exam itself. What I found helpful in the project was the college, career, and scholarships research form. That forced me to take a deeper look into my future. The whole idea of having a senior notebook was complicated, but I enjoyed my end result. Now I can have something to look back on, sort of like a book of accomplishments.

Moving on to the research paper itself. I didn't enjoy writing it as much as I enjoyed learning all of the new information about my topic. To make the overall project more worthwhile, however, I think that the research paper should be more about plans after high school in order to get to your desired career. Things like how many years of college, what classes to take, your major, etc. Then they can go on to giving a brief overview of that career and mention things such as its growth rate and such. With all the time that was set aside for this project, changing it to this way would make it a whole lot more useful for future references.

Joe Smoe!

Dear Joe,

I've heard about how Pip has been treating you since he receieved his unexpected fortune. I'm here to tell you, don't take it to heart. At the end of the day he really does love and care about you. It's just that, well .. He's still a young boy. His priorities aren't straightened out yet and he believes that all of this new found fortune has opened up many doors for him. He's been blinded and mistaken, but he will come to his senses soon enough. As a father figure to Pip, you have done all that you can possibly do. You even educated yourself for him. You are a great man so there's no need to dwell on Pip.

On other news, I've heard about your marriage to Biddy. I want to personally congratulate you on that. She's a great girl and I bet you guys are great for each other. Best wishes to you and your new bride! Well, it's time for me go go to school now. Take it easy over there :)

Your New Friend,
Sandy Nguyen

The Eternal Struggle

Dear Diagnostic C,

You weren't as difficult to complete like I thought you would be. Compared to the others, you were the easiest. It seemt as though you were more concentrated on the tone, literary devices, etc. of the poems and passages than you were about inferring it. That didn't settle too well with me. For once, I actually understood all of the poems and proses. However, I had trouble when it came down to the vocabulary. There were certain things that I had difficulty remembering like "anaphora", "assonance", "apostrophe", etc. as well as the types of poems. Let me remind you that literature is not my forte. On the bright side, I was able to read all of the poems, proses, and questions with a tad bit of time leftover to run back through a couple of questions.

To improve our relationship, I think you should make me a list; a list of all of the common literary devices seen on the AP test. Then I could probably create some index cards. I know it sounds very elementary, but we have to start from the ground up if this is going to work out. We can also gear our sponges toward tone/literary device type questions. It's just a suggestion. Next time, I'll be ready for you.

Your Test Taker,
Sandy Nguyen

Oh Oprah!

Sandy Nguyen

Mr. Beddingfield

AP Literature/Composition

March 12, 2012

Beloved

The 1998 movie adaptation of Beloved, directed by Jonathan Demme, wasn’t an overall good portrayal of the novel. The scenes were all very brief and it provided few details and/or moments for the characters to fully develop. 

The first few chapters of the book were presented within the first five minutes of the movie-if even. It starts right at the haunting of 124 when the spirit injures their dog, Here Boy, and Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar, runs away from home. There was nothing much about Baby Suggs or her colors which was one of the main motifs in the novel. 

Eight years later we have the arrival of Paul D. Let me start off by saying that he was not nearly as handsome as I thought he would have been whatsoever! He was an old, hairy, and crusty man . Yuck, Beloved! The “red light” that appears as Paul D is entering 124 was also a bit harsh and unrealistic. I found that and the combination of camera angles, creepy music, and kid voices to be very odd. As for Sethe, I had no idea that Oprah was to play the role. She was a pretty good actor, but I found myself too stuck on who she was (Oprah Winfrey) to concentrate on her acting. 

Denver, on the other hand, was just as I expected her to be-attention hungry. Beloved was a bit too much for me though. She had bugs crawling all over her and that face, those eyes. They were like those of a play doll. When she first opened her mouth it creeped me the hell out. I guess you can say I eventually got use to it. From the novel, I thought that Beloved eventually got herself together and behaved more human-like than she did in the movie. She looked like a zombie or a possessed being with her eerie, baby-like movements. 

Despite the brevity of the movie in comparison to the novel, there were certain aspects of the movie that the book itself didn’t contain; for example, music. Because movies do not have a certain type of diction, they have music instead. The opening scene had some African singing in the background. The carnival had some content music, Sethe’s discovery that Halle was in the barn with her that one night had sad music, there was relief music when her and Amy reached the river, and so on so forth. There were also a couple scenes of trees, nature, and water. 

However, the movie was still a poor portrayal of the novel. The flashback scenes were very quick and back and forth. It just wasn’t as deep as Toni Morrison’s Beloved. There weren’t even any roses when the family went to the carnival. And how would I know that Sethe’s sudden urge to urinate when she first sees Beloved has anything to do with labor? If I were to only watch the movie (having never read the book before), I would be missing out on alot of big key points, motifs, symbols, and themes. The movie is like an animated Sparknotes of the novel. You may get the jist of the plot, but you can’t unfold the hidden layers it’s meaning unless you read it. Literary devices actually do make a difference.

Who Won the Debate?

Haha! The real question is, "Are you seriously asking me that?"

I honestly believe that my group won the debate today. We brought up many valid points and presented them in a firm and precise manner. To me, the other group was very repetitive and doubtful in their presentations. Their information was unorganized and the speaker for their conclusion statement was quite confused herself. How are you going to try to persuade something to us when it doesn't even seem like you're sure of it yourself?

To keep the debate going, however, if prejudice doesn't matter then why are people being bullied or even killed for being "gay" or "lesbian"? Are you saying that that issue is no big deal? If it really didn't matter then there will be no protests, rallies, or even acts such as "Don't Ask Don't Tell." All of these exist because prejudice matters. BAM BANG BOOM!

Yeah, I just wanted to get that off of my chest. I believe we won and I believe that you, Mr. Beddingfield, know that we've won. End of my blog.

Now, about that cookie ...

Make It RAIN!

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbolism-of-water.html

Can you guys see the connection between this article and Toni Morrison's Beloved?

It's pretty obvious. That's right, H20! As mentioned by Mr. Beddingfield this novel is drowned in water; figuratively speaking, of course. There's Sethe giving birth and Beloved coming out from a stream. Then there's Paul D escaping from a prison in Georgia because the rain freed him from the underground box he was locked in. Beloved also drinks alot of water when she first appears in the novel and Sethe's mother threw all of her children overboard except for her. Water, water, and more water!

The title of the article that I chose is called, "Symbolism of Water". It basically states that water is a universal undertone of purity and fertility. Furthermore, it also symbolizes one's subconscious, reflection, renewal, blessing, and life considering that 70% of our body is made up of water. This literary archetype has more one than just one specific meaning in this novel; it, alone, has many. In essence, water can be a sort of medium in which we travel back and forth from past to present and birth to death. Circle of life sort of thing going on here.

This article provided me with a more clear and concise definition of water in the literary world thus improving my understanding of this novel. I chose this topic because it's a major aspect in Beloved and because it was the first one that popped into my mind, of course. Oh and for the record, it's raining outside or thunder storming I should say.


Oh, the irony.

"The Past Never Dies" CHOOSE SONG

If the past were to just die, then we wouldn't be able to gradually become the person that we are now. We are who we are today because of our past. It has, in a sense, molded us into ourselves; into our skin. Our past is us.


Although the past is, well, in the past it continues to live on in the form of our memories. That moment in our lives may have already passed by, but it's remnants will forever remain and it is nearly impossible to remove it from history.

For Sethe, her past seems to be colliding with her present. There's a lot of flashbacks that goes on in this novel made almost undistinguishable by Morrison. We, the readers, don't even realize that its a flashback until we're back in the present again. This type of syntax contributes to the idea of Sethe's selflessness. As much as she tries to repress her memories of the past, she only seems to be getting closer and closer to its confrontation; the unexpected arrival of Beloved. In my opinion she is Sethe's past. Not only is she identifiable with Sethe's first born girl (whose now dead), she also effortlessly gets her to share stories about her past that she thought she was already erased from her mind. This just proves the point that the past can not truly die since it still existed in her subconsciousness. And just for the record the past can't die because it is not a living thing in the first place. Haha, take that!

As for the Piano Lesson the past obviously still lives on in the form of ghosts. The whole book (to me) was about the past. The piano was the family's legacy and it was a battle against that versus cold, hard cash. Boy Willie resembled his father while Berniece her mother. Its almost as if they had lived on through these two. But enough about that, this "novel" is nothing compared to Morrison's Beloved.

Just because you can't go back and change it doesn't mean that its not there. Oh, its there all right.

... Forever.