position paper: the five points

Novel:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Thesis Statement:
Estella represents Miss Havisham’s revenge towards men.

Supporting points:

Miss Havisham’s bad experience made her despise men.
• She was left by her fiancé, Compeyson on her wedding day.
• Lead to her action of living in seclusion and stayed as an old woman who was stuck in the past.
• When she adopted Estella, she automatically dragged her to be stuck in the same dull life.

“…blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter – as I did!” (Chapter 29, page 221).


Estella was purposely raised and trained to break men’s heart.
• She does whatever Miss Havisham asked her to do regardless of her own feelings and needs.

Miss Havisham said“If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger it will ear deeper – love her, love her, love her! Hear me Pip! I adopted her to be loved, I brought her up and educated her to be loved.” (Chapter 29, page 221)

Herbert said “That girl’s hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and has been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak vengeance on all the male sex.”
(Chapter 22, page 162).

Estella doesn’t see Pip as her possible future husband, but as victim.
• Her relationship with Pip is just another chapter of Miss Havisham’s plan to achieve her motives.
• Estella intentionally treated Pip coldly because she did not care much about his feelings.

Pip was “…so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry-”
(Chapter 8, page 590)

According to Estella, “I have no heart, no sympathy, no feeling.”
(Chapter 26, page 220)

Estella did not marry Drummle out of love.
• The marriage was merely another connection she has with the high class society, compared to her lower status if she married Pip.
• She suffers a miserable life when she chose to marry the cruel Drummle who treated her harshly.
• Finally she learnt to rely and trust her inner feelings.

“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching… I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape”. (Chapter 59, page 442)

Estella and Miss Havisham chose to spend their life fixated on vengeance that Estella forgot how to love.

• Miss Havisham destroyed her ability to express emotion and interact normally with the world.
• She was unable to express love even towards Miss Havisham.

“I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me” (Chapter 38, page 281)

5 Ways to Use Manga And Other Graphic Novels In The Classroom

A lot of us love to read cartoon strips, comic and manga, plus nowadays we can easily download them from the net or buy them in any bookstore. And guess what? Today teachers can utilize this genre in classroom teaching especially literature, as proposed by Adam Sexton, there are five fun ways to use them in the classroom.

1. Examine the relationship between words and images on any page of a manga or graphic novel.
a. What information is conveyed to the reader strictly by means of an image or images? (The ways in which characters and settings look, for example, and the things characters do in those settings: the story’s dramatic action)
b. What information is expressed strictly by means of words? (Characters’ speech and their thoughts – vs. their feelings, which we can often see in their facial expressions and body language)

2. Choose one scene from a manga or graphic novel adaptation of another work. (Recommended: the famous balcony scene from the Wiley title Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: The Manga Edition and the text of the play it is based on.) Compare the original and the adaptation. Ask students what storytelling effects are best achieved by means of…
a. Words?
b. Pictures?
c. Words and pictures (manga/graphic novels)?
d. Motion pictures (film)?
…and why?

3. Ask students to think of three effects unique to the manga/graphic novels/comics.
(Examples: thought balloons, breaking the frame around an action-containing panel) Are there things that only books and movies can do?

4. Ask students to pick a short scene from a novel, short story, or play with which the class is familiar, and adapt it as a mini-manga. Students can pair up, with one student choosing the words to include (cutting from the text is not only allowed, it’s necessary!) and another drawing the pictures.

5. Screen a film (The Road to Perdition, Ghost World, The 300, Persepolis) adapted from a manga or graphic novel. What has been gained in the transition from one medium to another? Has anything been gained?

There you go, teachers, a new approach to literature teaching and learning. I’m sure kids love this, but I would like to remind you that viewer discretion is advised on all four films, and that you should carefully choose and adapt materials for this approach. Good luck!

Malaysian Celebration

During this lecture hour we had a brainstorming activity concerning the various festivals and celebrations we have here in Malaysia. Together we had come out with about 36 celebrations that later were categorized under cultural celebrations, religious celebrations, and others.

Interestingly, most of the festivals fell under the religious category such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Christmas, followed by those related to cultural practices like Lantern Festival and other events celebrated nationwide such as the National Day and Valentine’s Day. Having them written down in our list, Dr. Edwin grouped us to complete a reading passage on one celebration for each group. I worked with Nurulhazhan and Siti Fariha to come out with an article about Hari Raya Aidiladha.

We e-mailed the first draft to the class representative for compilation and after the lecturer reviewed our first draft of the article, we were asked to add more information and compose it in the form of paragraphs for each subtopic. These include the date of celebration, its origin, the nature and practices during the celebration and the greetings as well. After refining it twice we inserted some photos in between the details and complete it before submitting the full article.

From this activity, we were able to discover other celebrations that we never know existed or celebrated by certain ethnic groups from certain religious practices in Malaysia, Naw Ruz and Onam, for instance. Apart from that, I gain more knowledge about all the festivals because each of us has a copy of the celebrations as reading materials that surely comes handy for our classroom teaching in the future.

My Perceived Image as a Literature Teacher

Today on 25th of March, I faced something new that I needed to put on my other higher order thinking cap to solve the question raised by Dr. Edwin. The question was “How do you perceive yourself as a teacher and as a literature teacher?” and it made me stare at the letters in my notebook blankly for a full three minutes, or more. It struck me then that I never thought of giving myself an image of what kind of teacher I am becoming and based on my recent state of knowledge and experience, I realized that I am lacking of certain values and experiences and therefore, not fully equipped to be sent off by UPM to teach.

Another issue was determining the image that suits my perceived teacher-to-be values, which took me another minute to think. Later I came out with the image of ‘an ironed shirt’ which I felt quite appropriate for me. The lecturer accepted my idea as I asserted that it would represent me as a teacher that is well-prepared and ready to be worn by those who need me to cover certain parts, for me it is the part where literature is concerned. When the shirt is buttoned up and covers the torso completely, I perceived that as me achieving my objectives to cover the necessary knowledge and deliver optimum input for my student’s benefit. Besides that, an ironed shirt is surely clean, crisp and fresh which would suggest my fresh ideas and approaches I wish to apply to my future students.

Dr. Edwin had some opposing opinion about me saying that those who wear ironed shirt would gain more respect than those who don’t. Well, I was not implying that the statement goes to everybody but that was how I perceive myself, gaining respect from my students due to my authority as a teacher and an icon of discipline. And finally I do hope that I would be able to use all the experience about reading and studying literature in college into the teaching and learning environment in school.

The Freedom Writers and The History Boys

We agreed that this was one of our favorite assignments, viewing a movie during class hours. Well, it was actually my liking to watch educational movies with my friends and was able to share opinions and thoughts later on upon finishing the viewing. I loved this movie as a whole as it portray the real lives of people on the other part of the globe and somehow acted as the representative of the reality and existentialism in life.
The character of Miss G was absolutely well presented as a teacher who was willing to do more for the sake of her students. I was happy to see her change her students’ perception on literature by introducing texts that are familiar to them, such as The Diary of Anna Frank, and took all the trouble to have Anna’s friend share her experience with the students. The issue was really happening nowadays where people are still being racist, which I wonder why they make life more miserable by doing things that are not necessary when they can just walk on the same ground and breathe the same air.

In History Boys, what attracted me so much was Hector, the big, literary scholar. He was indeed an interesting character despite his tendency for harassing his students. Anyway, I think the most crucial thing I learnt from these movies were that different teachers have different approaches in teaching. In this case, they were basically teaching literature as well as history. It tapped my mind that these two can’t be separated as we also learn history and culture and other many things through literature, and that’s miraculous. In Freedom Writers Miss G utilizes literary texts to teach Holocaust and help the fix their cold relationship with their classmates. As in the other movie, Hector applies literature heavily to somehow teach history, whereas the new professor, Irwin had more linear way of having them to write good history essays in order to prepare them for Cambridge and Oxford.

The Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is an eye opener for all nations of the world. I rarely know things that had happened or are happening in the world if I do not take literature seriously. It is amazing how different genres of writing can affect people that much, especially when it was written by great leaders like Nelson Mandela.


This autobiography is an authorized version and consented by Mandela so we can assume that it is reliable and the information is valid to be read for pleasure or for educational purposes. It is quite trustworthy judging that he is a politician who really fight for his people’s rights and already established a great credibility. It also covered his thoughts and experience living in the society that practiced apartheid. It revealed the dark truth of life then, and acted as a way for him to channel his emotions, share his beliefs and ideas with others.

Tales, Myths, Legends: Ovid’s Metamorphosis, “Pyramus n Thisbe”

This tale is not foreign to me because we have read it in the play Midsummer Night’s Dream that we learnt in a previous course. That day, Dr. Edwin had assigned En. Abu Bakar to assist us during class. Based on the text given in the compilation book, we were asked to develop a reading text of about 150-200 words and come out with a pre-reading task and two while reading tasks from it.

Throughout the two hours, my partner, Rhodhila and I had written down the simplified version of Pyramus and Thisbe and managed to complete the activities for the reading stages. For the pre-reading activity, we instruct students to underline the names of the characters that appear as teacher reads the story. We decided to ask students to read the story again and identify the plotline as the first while reading activity. They are expected to mark the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and the resolution. Later, for the second task, students are to draw the plotline and write down events that happen at each point.

Completing this short assignment was quite tiring as my partner and I had to crack our heads simplifying the story and design the tasks for the two reading stages. But we were so relieved that we managed to finish on time and later found ourselves smiling at each other, mutually thinking how we could complete such task in merely two hours and how we usually take more time doing it on our own at our cozy rooms. Well, it was quite fun sometimes, looking around the class and saw my friends put up a serious expression and immersed in thoughts with “I’m thinking hard” written on their foreheads. While walking out of the class, I knew what I am capable of doing. Speaking of which, I had learnt to write well, simplifying an archaic text trying not to water down its important events and message plus designing the reading activities. Truly, I grew to love literature more that day.

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Break, break, break”

After reading this poem twice, I personally think that the persona is Daedalus, the father of Icarus. He is talking about what the people on the land did when his son has fallen down from the sky. Obviously, Daedalus was sad beyond words can express when he witnessed this tragedy but there was nothing he can do. As he weakly watched the ship sailed away, he also witnessed his son’s hands vanished into the water and his voice silenced by the sea, as stated in Stanza 3. Tennyson wrote “Break, break, break” in the first and the last quartet to signify Daedalus’ broken heart that he could not utter his thoughts knowing Icarus was dead and the poor boy would never come back to him. Tennyson also used rhyme scheme that is a, b, c, b to portray the intense emotion and the expressions “O Sea!”, “O well” and “But O for the touch…” as sighs to define Daedalus’ feelings towards the fall of Icarus.

Position paper - The thesis statement

The lecturer had asked us to think of some topics or thesis statements that we wish to analyze. At first, we just write them down in our books for him to see but later we wrote the on the whiteboard and wait for approval. I had come out with some thesis statements from A White Heron and Great Expectations. These are some of my choices:
1. Loyalty to nature should come first before the desire to fulfill our own needs.
2. Innocence made Sylvia choose loyalty to nature.
3. Miss Havisham gains nothing out of her revenge.
4. Estella represents Miss Havisham’s revenge towards men.

I chose to work on the fourth thesis statement because I felt that there are many things to discuss from it.

Tales

Folktales and folklore have always been my favorite since I was about four or five years old. My first piece of literary reading is the famous tale, The Red Riding Hood. I never know it was literature, but I love it and eager to have my sister teach me how to pronounce the words. It was very interesting for me to read by myself then, and later I kept asking for more books to read.
For me, folktales are part and parcel of a child’s growth and that every one of us might have our own favorite tale, no matter whether we have read it somewhere or heard it from our parents as bedtime stories. According to Carl Tomlinson and Carol Lynch-Brown's Essentials of Children's Literature, folktales are stories that grow out of the lives and imaginations of the people, or folk. They are a form of traditional literature which began as an attempt to explain and understand the natural and spiritual world. Interestingly, the folktales that traveled by land changed a great deal because of the retelling process, while those that traveled by sea were more similar in version.
There are several distinctive elements of folktales. First is the introduction which introduces the leading characters, time/place of the story and the conflict or problem to be faced. These may be short such as "Once upon a time". Setting is also stock such as a road or a palace or in a forest. Then the action mounts steadily until it reaches a climax, where the problem or conflict will be resolved. Typically, the hero or heroine faces many obstacles and is usually reduced to helplessness before the climax. Finally is the conclusion which is usually short and sweet. The heroes and heroines are happy and the villains are punished. One convention conclusion is "and they lived happily ever after." They also appeal to a child's sense of justice – good is rewarded and evil is punished.

Daedalus and Icarus - the poem by W. H. Auden

This poem is written by W. H. Auden, based on the painting “The Fall of Icarus” by Peter Breughel that he had seen in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. Auden who visited the museum in 1938 wrote that "In so far as poetry, or any of the arts, can be said to have an ulterior purpose, it is, by telling the truth, to disenchant and disintoxicate."

The poem juxtaposes ordinary events and extraordinary ones, although extraordinary events seem to deflate to everyday ones with his descriptions. Life goes on while a “miraculous birth” occurs, but also while "the disaster" of Icarus's death happens. Even the shepherd, the farmer and the sailors ignored Icarus who has fallen into the sea because they have many other things to do to keep their own survival. This situation painted by Breughel is stated in a form of poem by Auden, which I find done rather metaphorically yet beautifully. I guess they saw him falling and it was actually extraordinary witnessing such a sight but they didn’t care less and continue doing their business.

Our first assigned reading was Daedalus and Icarus, and we were asked to print out the painting by Pieter Bruegel entitled “Fall of Icarus”. We searched the net and found some other paintings with the same title.
The painting was about a landscape of land and sea, where Icarus had fallen from his flight with his father, Daedalus. One might not notice him as the only visible feature is his legs pointing out on the surface of the water. From the class discussion, I acknowledge that the painter purposely made it insignificant than the title, probably because to emphasize one paragraph of the text which I found quite interesting. As we can see the shepherd and the fisherman did not even bother about Icarus falling into the vast ocean as they thought that he and his father were Gods soaring across the sky.
Other than that, Dr. Edwin asked us to simplify the text which I only took about fifteen minutes to complete. I found out that the simplified version would be more suitable for secondary school students from both high and low level of proficiency. But the most basic thing is the simple plotline that covers all points according to the conventional plot structure. As instructed by the lecturer, it should include the reason Daedalus invented the flying device, how Icarus was thrilled with his flight and caused his own death by flying near the sun, and his burial.

my reflections

Since I had some experience posting journals in this site, I don’t find it hard to do except for composing the entries. For the first blog, I would start by doing some reflections about my experience and expectations for the course.
First of all, I had this thought that this course would be just the same with my previous literature course, well, maybe what differs is the more difficult texts to study. I was quite right but it obviously has more distinct features than that. Skimming through the course outline and the compilation book, I noticed that we are to study different genre of literary works, such as letters, folk tales, diary entries and also fables. They somehow ignited my interest in reading them especially the folk tales.