REFLECTION: GRACE

I can’t remember how it was to be fifteen years old and that was only three years ago, trying to be a five year old is much harder then one thinks. In the group project we picked Flight Pattern to portray. My character was Grace the daughter of William and Marie. For the project we decided to each pick a character and keep a twitter account on each. Trying to be Grace was very difficult because I personally don’t remember what it was to be five years old. Another reason it was hard was not much was said about Grace but about one paragraph.
By what was said in the story, Grace seemed to be very smart and hippie like. I imagined her to be fascinated with nature and culture. One main reason I believe this its how she is described and what she says about cutting her hair and not wanting to be a boy or a girl but a leaf. A girl that wants to cut her hair and just wants to be a leaf at the age of ten must be really into nature and Zen moments. Putting this information helped me get more into the character. One thing that made it easier to be Grace was looking at the twitters of my fellow group mates. I looked at what Marie and William would write about her and then I would follow along with that.
A lot of the times as I was writing the updates it was difficult, my roommate told me to remember how it was to be five and how it felt when your parents went away to trips. I tried this technique but got nowhere. In reality I couldn’t remember much about being ten except having to wear ponytails all the time that hurt my head because she pulled it back really hard, when it came to missing my parents my parents where always around they where not big on traveling.
I learned a lot about trying to be this character. Since there was not much on her I had to analyze everything to the point in order to get a good update on her. It made me try to remember how it was to be ten didn’t help much but I was able to look back at my past. Having this as a final made everything easier, yet it has its difficulties when trying to be a character. Yet you can see how people interpret each character. I might have had an idea on how Grace or any other character are and their personalities it doesn’t that’s how everyone sees them. My idea of Grace was that she was a strong pretty independent child. She saw life in her own way and most likely felt like many people didn’t understand her or didn’t see the world the same way she did. She was a child yet had a mind of a 20 year old.
One thing that made this project more interesting was the idea of a five year old having a twitter. This helps the idea that she was really smart. If a five year old can use a computer and type correctly without misspelling most words that proves that she might be a very smart kindergartner. When a five year old talks about cutting all her hair off that means she’s really thinking about life and how it really is. This was interesting to play. I actually believed at the beginning of the project that she was older. I had forgotten that in the book it said she was a kindergartner. The entire time I believe she was ten because it made more sense with what she said in the story.
All in all I loved playing the character of Grace it was fun and exciting to be a a smart five year old. It made the project more interesting to me.

Twitter Link
http://twitter.com/grace4president

Antigone

In all stories that we read from the past from authors such as Shakespeare we always get a maiden is despair. The women is never portrayed as strong and independent. The women has always been the one in need of help, the one that is not as respected and most of the time looked down on. This becomes a difference in the play of Antigone. Antigone is a character that is full of life and full of energy. She is a rebel and says what she wants to say when she wants to say it. From the beginning you can notice that she has issues from what has happened to her. The mention of her family, like her brother and her father and mother, it seems to change her life and make her the way she is. The way she speaks she seems very upset and traumatized about her past life. She is willing to stand up to Creon and not accept any of his decisions. She is willing to stand up and speak her own thoughts. She is a women with values and has her own ideas. You can see that she wont let anyone bring her down or turn her ideas around, instead she will say what she wants to say and will do anything make everyone agree with her. Antigone can be seen as a tragic hero. She owns her own life which is something that many women character in plays usually don’t they are meant to be left in the unknown but Antigone makes her own life and decides what she wants and doesn’t let a man take over her life.

Bartleby

Bartleby the scrivener is a very unique character. He spends a lot of his time by himself and that’s the way he likes it, in some levels. His facebook page would be just as unique as he is. When it comes to his info page of course it would say the basics male, his birthday maybe around April and May, his Zodiac sign would be Aries, because of what the sign is. Most Aries traits go with the traits that bartleby has such as self-confidence, opiniated, forceful, irritable, and straightforward. By the way he acts and his personality I take him to be conservative therefore a republican, maybe even independent. No religion would interest him, but not exactly atheist. His activities would involve being in his computer all the time, and maybe reading some type of science journal with new technology. His interest would involve, computers, computers, and more computers. When it comes to music he prefers to listen to debussi. Seeing that he spends most of his time on his computer there is no time for TV unless watching the latest elections. His about me section would be short and to the point, not wanting to waste time explaining himself and expecting everyone to understand him by just looking at his page, he decided to write as little as possible. His friend section is not as full as other people sections. It involves pages from newest technology and his boss and co workers. Other than that his page would be very simple and to the point. He doesn’t waste his time on explaining just telling it like it is.

Revised Essay

Have you ever had a dream where you sitting somewhere waiting for something to happen? It is a place that you know, you have been before, it is natural to be there but you can’t pinpoint the exact location of where you are. You can see yourself sitting in a bench, maybe standing. There are people all around you but you don’t know who any of them are. You can be anywhere a garden, house, or even a metro. “In a station of the metro” is a poem that explains the end of life and how something or someone can move on to the stage of life. This can be just like a dream you have any other night. You see yourself waiting at a metro station for something to happen, you are dreaming of a metro station. One can see the death explained in the poem by the meaning of the words of the poem, by the rhyme it takes, and by the lines and symbols it uses.
The poem gives the meaning of life coming to an end by the wording itself. The first line states “The apparition of these faces in the crowd,” meaning that there is ghostlike figures standing around waiting at the metro station. When you imagine apparitions you can imagine white ghostlike figures sitting, standing crowded at the metro station waiting, just waiting. What are they waiting for? It can be interpreted in many ways but one of the things that they can be waiting for is the next time in life, the afterlife. They can be waiting for the train to arrive to take them to the next stage, the new life that they will start. This is a train that people wait for after the die, the spirits. The apparitions are the spirits of the people that have died and are waiting to move on.
The second line states “ Petals on a wet, black bough,” in other words the petals have fallen to the tree. The flower that once might have been beautiful has died and has lost its petals. These petals then can be seen on the black wet tree. The tree is black, which can mean that somehow the time of season is winter. Winter is the time where all the leaves have fallen off the tress and it starts getting cold. By putting these ideas one can get that it is the time of coldness and death. This all gives the definition of what death is and how it comes to be. Its something so beautiful coming to life and dying. The flower started as a seed planted on the ground, where it was watered an taken care of then it grew into a beautiful flower then winter came and the wind and rain that it carried with it ended up killing the flower. Slowly the flower lost its petals, which then fell on the tree. This whole scene can be pictured next to the crowd in the metro station as a sign of life and death. Symbolizing the death that came to the crowd in the metro station.
The poem only consists of two lines one stanza. The shortness of the poem can go with the theory of life and death. Life can be short and in one instant one can die. Death comes to many people faster than one can imagine. The poem makes more of an emphasis with it being short and to the point than it would have with it being long and to dragging. It can also be seen as one of the symbols of the poem.
The symbols of the poem show the relationship death has to the poem. One of the symbols is the word black. Black has always been portrayed as the “bad” color. Black is known to bring darkness to wherever you have that color. If you are sitting in a room painted black, with no light, you are standing in complete darkness compared to standing in a room painted with a different color. Darkness can be connected with death, when you die you are left in complete darkness, with nothing else left in life. Along with black, apparition can be a symbol for death. Apparitions go along with ghosts, and paranormal stuff. You can come to realize that the crowd is somehow the spirits of people. All of this goes side to side with death and an after life.
To use the word bough instead of tree gives another good illustration of the meaning of the poem. The word bough gives it a darker feeling then the word tree. Tree is a word that everyone uses when describing parts of nature. The idea of nature is always connected to trees. This point brings a positive vibe and makes a scene more beautiful and serene, whereas a negative synonym like bough does not. The word bough, not only helping it rhyme with the last word in the first line but it gives the poem the sense of darkness to the tree, that the tree would not have if only using that word itself. The word bough is not used by many and not really known by just hearing the word itself it gives you a darker image from the start, a more disturbed idea of that moment in time.
The meaning of the poem at the end suggests death and the waiting for it or even the coming to it. The words of the poem can easily be translated to mean anything you want them to mean but the words in this poem reflects some sort of darkness to the world that Pound is trying to illustrate. The poem uses its symbolic words, the translation of the lines, the poems length to help translate the meaning of the poem as a whole. It brings death to a fulfilling circle. It explains it in many ways and is able to illustrate it in a perfect way. Overall the poem gives the sense of death and waiting for it to come and to pass to a new life. Gives a whole new meaning to that dream you have at night when you where waiting for what you are really not sure what it is. It gives being at a metro station a whole new meaning.

Draft Essay "In a Station at a metro Station"

Have you ever had a dream where you sitting somewhere waiting for something to happen? It is a place that you know, you have been before, it is natural to be there but you can’t pinpoint the exact location of where you are. You can be anywhere a garden, house, or even a metro. “In a station of the metro” is a poem that explains the end of life and how something or someone can move on to the stage of life. This can be just like a dream you have any other night. You are waiting at a metro station for something to happen, you are dreaming of a metro station.

One can see the death explained in the poem by the meaning of the words of the poem, by the rhyme it takes, and by the lines and symbols it uses.

The poem gives the meaning of life coming to an end by the wording itself. The first line states “The apparition of these faces in the crow,” meaning that there is ghostlike figures standing around waiting at the metro station. What are they waiting for? It can be interpreted in many ways but one of the things that they can be waiting for is the next time in life, the afterlife. They can be waiting for the train to arrive to take them to the next stage, the new life that they will start. When you imagine apparitions you can imagine white ghostlike figures sitting, standing crowded at the metro station waiting, just waiting.

The second line states “ Petals on a wet, black bough,” in other words the petals have fallen to the tree. The flower that once might have been beautiful has died and has lost its petals. These petals then can be seen on the black wet tree. He tree is black, which can mean that somehow the time of season is winter when everything is cold and dying. This all ties up with death. Its something so beautiful coming to life and dying. The flower started as a seed planted on the ground, where it was watered an taken care of then it grew into a beautiful flower then winter came and its wind and rain that it carried with end up killing the flower. Slowly the flower lost its petals that ended on the tree. This whole scene can be pictured next to the crowd in the metro station as a sign of life and death.

The poem only consists of two lines one stanza. The shortness of the poem can go with the theory of life and death. Life can be short and in one instant one can die. The poems shortness allows the reader to finish reading the poem in an instant and can help the point of the poem. Death comes to many people faster than one can imagine. In many cases death does not take its time, instead it just hits one in the least expected moments. The poem makes more of an emphasis with it being short and to the point than it would have with it being long and to dragging.

The symbols of the poem show the relationship death has to the poem. One of the symbols is the word black. Black has always been portrayed as the “bad” color. Black is known to bring darkness to wherever you have that color. If you are sitting in a room painted black, with no light, you are standing in complete darkness compared to standing in a room painted with a different color. Darkness can be connected with death, when you die you are left in the complete darkness, with nothing else left in life. Along with black, apparition can be a symbol for death. Apparitions go along with ghosts, and paranormal stuff. All of this goes side to side with death and an after life.

To use the word bough instead of tree gives another good illustration of the meaning of the poem. The word bough gives it a darker feeling then the word tree. Tree is a word that everyone uses and thinks more of nature, and beauty than of negative synonym. The word bough, not only helping it rhyme with the last word in the first line but it gives the poem the sense of darkness to the tree, that the tree would not have if only using that word itself.

The meaning of the poem at the end suggests death and the waiting for it or even the coming to it. The words of the poem can easily be translated to mean anything you want them to mean but he word in this poem reflects some sort of darkness to the world that Pound is trying to illustrate. Te poem uses its symbolic words, the translation of the lines, the poems length to help translate the meaning of the poem as a whole. It brings death to a fulfilling circle. It explains it in many ways and is able to illustrate it in a perfect way. Overall the poem gives the sense of death and waiting for it to come and to pass to a new life. Gives a whole new meaning to that dream you have at night when you where waiting for what you are really not sure what it is. It gives being at a metro station a whole new meaning.

"In a Station of the Metro"

Ezra Bound's poem "In a station of the Metro" can be as short as two lines and you can still feel the way a poem makes you feel, confused.  A poem always makes you think more than you really want to think, it expresses feelings that you don't really know how to express.  We can start by stating the obvious a poem has lines and stanzas.  There is no rule that states how many stanzas a poem should have but a stanza is composed of 2 or more lines, Bound's poem has two lines making it one stanza long.  You can also read the rhyme that the poem has.  It is made up of near rhyme by the end rhymes.  The words are crowd, and bough which are the last words of each line. 

  We can also get wonderful imagery from the two lines.  Like the first line says "the apparition of these faces in the crowd;"  When the author uses the word apparition one gets the image of ghostlike figures in the crowd, one can also get the mage of a dark, lonely metro station with these ghost like faces waiting.  The second line gives you a second image that brings the first line to whole new meaning. The second line states "Petals on a wet, black bough," it is such a simple line yet it has so much meaning to it.  One can get the image of flower petals on a black tree branch.  This gives the idea of death, something beautiful coming to an end like a tree that once might have been beautiful green is now black and wet, with petals from flower falling on it.  The poem can be interpreted as the end of life, maybe the lives of the faces in the metro.  The metro station can be seen as a stop where people are waiting to continue on a new life a different life.  

If something so small as these two lines can have so much meaning, but one has to search deep down in order to get a meaning out of it, it makes it a poem.  Its the searching, rhyme, and the thinking that one has to do that lets these two short lines become a a poem.

Flames "Casabianca by Felicia Dorothea Hemans"

By hearing the word fire one can get many ideas in their heads.  It can go from red, orange, to danger and pain, all these words give us an idea of what fire is.  In the poem Casabianca by Hemans the  image of flames and fire is can be pictured trough out he whole poem.  Other images that she uses in the poem are death and blood which both can lead to the image that is mentioned the most flames that burn around the young boy.  All these images manage to stay the same in the whole poem they don't change the idea that is given b the poem.

Hemans shows how the flames turn into a choice at the end.  In life many times we have to chose between going on or coming back from a certain situation.  In this poem the young boy has to make this choice by the end of the poem.  As he sees the flames that are beginning to come up close to hi he has to chose wether to go back to his dad or move away from the fire that is getting closer.  Through out the poem the boy is trying to get out of where he is.  He looks for his father in order for him to tell him to leave.  He never once sees the fire that is burning around him.

One can see the author has made the little boy as the source f the fire "The boy stood on the burning deck....shone round him o'er the dead."  The fire is surrounding him and he can't leave without his father word but somehow he ends up killing the dad with the fire he is caring.  Yet he doesn't know if he should go back and save the dad or just leave.  Many times people do exactly that.  They create some sort of pain for others, or hurt other people not meaning it or even on purpose yet they don't know what to do at the end. 

At the end the young by somehow disappears it can be seen that he died as well.  But even though the fire burned and killed everything it got close to the waters where somehow there to stop it from making anymore damage.  The flames have always been seen as a scary issue in ones life.  It is something that one runs away if it comes out of nowhere.  The boy shows this in some ways he doesn't know what to do justas a regular person wouldn't either.  

Life changes day by day.  As you look back at the days you have lived you realize many things of your current life.  You learn from the past and create a future for yourself.  All of these actions make up what life is and what one makes of it, these are the elements of life.  What we g though everyday, what we learn who we are and what we are becoming, make up the elements of life.

Elements of life is a broad saying that can be interpreted in many ways; it all depends in ones life  WIth this title i feel as if i can explain anything in this blog, i can go anywhere with it.  There are no limits and no exceptions in topics because life has many elements that make it up and create a whole.  Such elements can be people, music, love, peace, elections, global warming, and even literature.  All of these things make up ones life and can be explained in many different ways. it helps this blog be able to go any way it can lead to.  

With ELements of Life i feel like people can read it and get there own idea of the blog and what i write in it.  The title actually came form a friend.  After sitting down and thinking about the title i chose to make it the main title because i realized it was exactly what i was looking for. That is when everything came to me and it made much more sense about what life is and what one can make it, and what this blog can turn into.