Blog #4: "Roots" Extension Activity

Passage from Beloved

     "There is a loneliness that can be rocked.  Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship's, smooths and contain the rocker.  It's an inside kind-- wrapped tight like skin.  Then there is a loneliness that roams.  No rocking can hold it down.  It is alive, on its own.  A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one's own fear going seem to come from a far-off place.

     Everybody knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name.  Disremembered and unaccounted for she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they don't know her name?  Although she has claim, she is not claimed.  In the place where long grass opens, the girl who waited to be loved and cry shame erupts into her separate parts, to make it easy for the chewing laughter to swallow her all away.

     It was not a story to pass on.

     They forgot her like a bad dream.  after they made up their tales, shaped and decorated them, those that saw her that day on the porch quickly and deliberately forgot her.  It took longer for those who had spoken to her, lived with her, fallen in love with her, to forget, until they realized they couldn't remember or repeat a single thing she said, and began to believe that, other than what they themselves were thinking, she hadn't said anything at all.  So, in the end, they forgot her too.  Remembering seemed unwise.  They never knew where or why she crouched, or whose was the underwater face she needed like that. Where the memory of the smile under her chin might have been and was not, a latch latched and lichen attached its apple-green bloom to the metal.  What made her think her fingernails could open locks the rain rained on?

     It was not a story to pass on.

     So they forgot her.  Like an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep.  Occasionally, however, the rustle of a skirt hushes when they wake, and the knuckles brushing a cheek in sleep seem to belong to the sleeper.  Sometimes the photograph of a close friend or relative-- looked at too long-- shifts, and something more familiar than the dear face itself moves there.  They can touch it if they like, but don't because they know things will never be the same if they do.

     This is not a story to pass on.

     Down by the stream in back of 124 her footprints come and go, come and go.  They are so familiar.  Should a child, and adult place his feet in them, they will fit.  Take them out and they disappear again as though nobody ever waked there.
     By and by all trace is gone, and what is forgotten is not only the footprints but the water too and what it is down there.  the rest is weather.  Not the breath of the disremembered and unaccounted for, but wind in the eaves, or spring ice thawing too quickly.  Just weather.  Certainly no clamor for a kiss.

     Beloved" (274-275).

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Summer Reading Prompted Writing Draft

           The last chapter of Beloved, by Toni Morrison, contains a passage that is effective in resolving the tone surrounding the encounter with the main character’s lost daughter based on its use of syntax and figurative language to show universal themes of love, strength, and diminished hope.

            The passage begins with a unifying quote that ties together multiple themes from the novel.  The three universal themes are married in the contrast between the two types of loneliness mentioned.  One, “…a loneliness that can be rocked” (274), festers inside its rocker, while the other “roams”, “alive, on its own”; it is a physical thing that is caused by actually being alone in the world.  This personification of loneliness, sets the scene for the entire passage by presenting the fact that the main character is physically lonely because she has lost her daughter twice, but her true loneliness comes from the fact that she has let this fester inside of her while so many others try to support her.  The love that the main character showed for her daughter made her vulnerable to her parasitic needs, leaving her both without her original strength, and the hope she showed in the beginning of the novel.

             To continue the passage, the author expands on the cause of the main character’s loneliness.  I quote, “It took linger for those who had spoken to her, lived with her, fallen in love with her, to forget, until they realized they couldn't remember or repeat a single thing she said, and began to believe that, other than what they themselves were thinking, she hadn't said anything at all” (274).  The repetition of “her” in the beginning of this quote draws upon the increasing stages of relationships that Beloved, the daughter, made as she tried to implant herself back into the main character’s life.  

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Summer Reading Prompted Writing Final

            The last chapter of Beloved, by Toni Morrison, contains a passage that is effective in resolving the tone surrounding the encounter with the main character’s lost daughter based on its use of syntax and figurative language to show universal themes of love, strength, and diminished hope.

            The passage begins with a unifying quote that ties together multiple themes from the novel.  The three universal themes are married in the contrast between the two types of loneliness mentioned.  One, “…a loneliness that can be rocked” (274), festers inside its rocker, while the other “roams”, “alive, on its own”; it is a physical thing that is caused by actually being alone in the world.  This personification of loneliness, sets the scene for the entire passage by presenting the fact that the main character is physically lonely because she has lost her daughter twice, but her true loneliness comes from the fact that she has let this fester inside of her while so many others try to support her.  The love that the main character showed for her daughter made her vulnerable to her parasitic needs, leaving her both without her original strength, and the hope she showed in the beginning of the novel.

             To continue the passage, the author expands on the cause of the main character’s loneliness.  I quote, “It took linger for those who had spoken to her, lived with her, fallen in love with her, to forget, until they realized they couldn't remember or repeat a single thing she said, and began to believe that, other than what they themselves were thinking, she hadn't said anything at all” (274).  The repetition of “her” in the beginning of this quote draws upon the increasing stages of relationships that Beloved, the daughter, made as she tried to implant herself back into the main character’s life.  The syntax emphasizes the power that Beloved held, yet the author’s choice to repeat the word “her”, showing the space that the characters have already begun to put between themselves and this mysterious girl who claimed to only offer love, but destroyed all strength.

             Separating each paragraph, the author choose to implement a form of the quote, “It was not a story to pass on” (274).  The quote shows that the speaker feels haunted by her encounter with Beloved, creating a tone of uncertainty.  This translates to readers as they, too, feel the eerie mood.  Combined with the mood created by the author's choice of repetition, the final word of the passage echoes unnervingly in the minds of readers, and plays on the universal theme of strength as the strength of "Beloved".

             The author of Beloved, Toni Morrison, effectively uses her ending passage to summarize the tone surrounding the main character's daughter.  The universal themes used in the novel, through Morrison's syntax and figurative language revolve around the novel's tone.  Repetition in her final passage built upon the feelings and understanding of the reader to create a mood based on the novel's overall tone.  Enhanced by figurative language, the author balanced love and strength in the midst of a somber and haunted world where the main character also learns to balance these values.


 


Blog #3: "The Black Walnut Tree"

   "The Black Walnut Tree"

Thesis:  The idioms “money doesn’t buy happiness” and “money doesn’t grow on trees” are well-known, yet in the poem, “The Black Walnut Tree”, situational irony occurs in the fact that selling the Black Walnut Tree would shame the family’s ancestry, but solve their financial problems.

Where am I?

The poem takes place in the fall because the “fruit [is] harder to gather away”(I. 14-15) normally harvested in autumn.  It’s in Ohio- “fresh and generous Ohio”(I. 24).  The poem describes a feeling of the outdoors and the daughter describes the life of the tree and the atmosphere around the yard bare of anything except the Black Walnut Tree- “emptiness we’d made in our own and our fathers’ backyard”(I. 28)

Who am I?

The speaker of the poem is a daughter debating with her mother (I. 1) We know it is a daughter because of her peaceful yet frantic tone as well as the description of the two women (I. 9).  The poem describes the family ancestry of the fathers of Bohemia- Czech Republic, Europe (I. 22).  The tone of the poem is described through the panic and debate of the the walnut tree to pay for the mortgage.  

What do I want?

The speaker, daughter, is debating with her mother whether they should sell their tree and relieve their mortgage or to keep the tree and find another way to pay.  The daughter wants to keep the tree, because something is moving her and her mother to keep it; they ‘talk but won’t do anything’.  

The Black Walnut Tree is a symbol for overcoming hard times and pride stored in heritage.  The author reveals through the main character that selling the Black Walnut Tree would be like selling her soul because it represents her ancestry and values.  They believe that selling the tree will leave them in shame and disappointment of the family pride.  Even though the speaker and her mother could take the shortcut to their financial problems by selling the tree, they continue to hold out against the “whip-crack of the mortgage”(I. 34-35) like they have for previous months.

WHAT IMPRESSION WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONVEY? WHY? WRITE ONE CHUNKY PARAGRAPH JUSTIFYING THIS, USING LINES FROM THE TEXT.

The impression we would like to convey through our performance to the class is that there are two women that are sitting in front of their old Black Walnut Tree and they are discussing selling the tree to pay off the mortgage and we use country accents to show they are from the farms. This is important because living on the farm shows how important the land is to them and that it is such an important resource. While they are speaking they have a little bit of a guilt tone when they describe how if they cut down and sold the tree they would “crawl with shame in the emptiness [they]’d made in our own and fathers backyard” (I. 2 7-28) They are not selling  the tree out of the guilt that they would have if they did. However they also have to worry about the “whipcrack of the mortgage”  (I. 34-35) every month.  Which carries a burden on their shoulder and they are conflicted on whether or not to sell it because they could be getting so much money from selling the tree that would “pay off the mortgage” because the burden of it is getting  “heavier”(I.13).So conveying a guilt tone will presenting it would show this to the audience.

WHICH PROPS AND COSTUMING WILL BE USED? WHAT KIND OF LIGHTING WOULD YOU USE? WHY? WRITE ONE CHUNKY PARAGRAPH JUSTIFYING THIS, USING LINES FROM THE TEXT.

To recreate the poem through acting, we would present outside to try to place the main character and her mother’s conversation near their topic.  The natural light would emphasize the nature that surrounds the family and their heritage of  “filling the blue fields of fresh and generous Ohio with leaves and vines and orchards” (I. 23-25).  For costumes, we would wear normal clothing, to highlight the fact that the mother and daughter have drifted from their farming ancestry in “Bohemia” (I. 22).  The props would reflect this history to show the shame that still burns in the characters as they decide to hold onto their values through the Black Walnut Tree.

WILL YOU DRAW ATTENTION TO CERTAIN PHRASES OR WORDS? WHY ARE THESE WORDS (OR WORD) IMPORTANT? WHY DOES THE REPETITION OF THIS WORD/THESE WORDS REINFORCE THE MEANING OF THE POEM AS A WHOLE. WRITE ONE CHUNKY PARAGRAPH JUSTIFYING THIS, USING LINES FROM THE TEXT.

We are going to try to add emphasis and draw attention to the last phrases of the poem. We are going to emphasize “So the Black Walnut Tree swings through another year.” (I.30-31) because that is the conclusion and closure to the poem. Although they opened the poem with the internal conflict between cutting down the tree for money, they end up not cutting the tree. Doing so the they are somewhat relieved because they no longer have to worry about upsetting or letting down their ancestors. Although that is no longer the problem, it seems they are going to have to find another way to deal with their financial situations. Also when talking the mortgage in the beginning of the poem, that is surrounded by words like “storm” (I.6)  and “dark” (I.7) which helps create a mood at the beginning the poem.

Group Close Reading of "The Black Walnut Tree"

   

 




Blog #2: Working with "Roots"

Blog Post #1: Design Justification

I consider myself to be a warm, inviting person, so naturally, when faced with the task of designing a blog, I levitated towards colors that reflected my personality.  Aqua is my favorite color- from my nails to my bedroom walls, it is apparent- so it was the first thing I decided to incorporate in my design theme.  Blue is more that just a color, it is an indication of serenity and peace, a reminder of security and order.  I wanted it to remind my viewers that even in a formal atmosphere, there can be familiarity and reliability.  These feelings, are also revealed in the warm, brown colors of the background.  Specifically choosing lighter shades (aqua and tan) of my two main color choices, allowed me create a light, yet earthly mood-- directly displayed by the tree blossoms in my blog's background.

To match such a light, and inviting color scheme, I chose fonts that reflect the same mood.  The title is in the largest font on the page, because it should show my viewers what to expect from so I wanted it to truly represent my personality.  "Crafty Girls" is a large, loopy type that showcases the free nature of my blog.  Although my title font is light, I chose "GFS Didot", a somewhat basic font, for my main text.  A spontaneous design and a catchy title help convey a blogger's mood, but what I though most about when I created my page was content.  "GFS Didot" provides a neutral mood, so as not to distract any viewers from the content of each post, but it's neutrality allows is to still mirror the mood of my blog as a whole.

I set out to create a blog filled with peace and serenity.  Taking one look at my page's warm colors and earthly designs transforms any viewer to a place of comfort.

Sources:
Color Psychology
Tone through Typography