Denitza's Week 5

1) In Class.

I was very happy when I heard that we were to have class outside! I could not believe that a teacher would have a class outside. I felt like I was in Hogwards for some reason.
Any way, we looked at different questions and made up some that we then put on the weekly schedule, such as:
- Is Marjane a hero or villain?
- Does anyone actually have a personality?
- If this autobiography was written in our era, what might the changes be?
-etc.

We were then asked to choose a question and get into groups and brainstorm.
The question that I wanted to work on was: How can we judge what is beautiful?
My group and I used the dictionary and thesaurus and our brainstorming to come up with some kind of an answer. The problem was that there was no right answer to this question because everyone is different. In the end we came up with these points and more;

*there are different opinions
*beauty is the enherent object that is pleasant to the ear, mind and eye
*different types of beauty; internal, external
*depending on fashion
*Marjane's difference makes her want to change her beauty into a beauty that would fit into the society that she lives in. (p.190)- her surroundings.

So when I got home to write a little paragraph about my question, I wanted to see what other people's opinions about this question were. I wanted to see how people judge what is beautiful and how. I found this great video that gave me ideas about how women from different periods of time judge what is beautiful in their culture. And even though the video did not give me a straight answer to my question, it did open my eyes to what can be considered beautiful. You can find this video at this web;

http://www.archive.org/details/what_is_beautiful

2) Things Mr. McG said.

Lately Mr.McG does not really talk much. He mostly lets us talk to each other, and once in a while he would just put his opinion in with ours. So, he talked whether beauty comes from struggle. I personally think that this is false because struggle is not always the answer to finding your beauty or anything about you. It is like say violance is good. But it isnt. People change, in either a bad or good way, for a reason in their life. In Marjane's life, struggle was what brought her into misery and then later on it was society that showed her that she was different from the rest, making her wanting to take stand and do something about how she looked and acted.
Also, Mr. McG recommended 'The Heroes' Journey' by Joseph Campbell.
I also recommend, once again 'The Hero with a 1000 faces' by Joseph Campbell. It is a great read to introduce you to different types of heroes.

"With great power comes great responsibility."
I forgot who said this line but I really liked it.

3) Snippets and Literary Features.

Fion (268, top 4 panels)

-The art is juxtaposed to the text. Emotion shows depression.
(Geneva)- Ying Yang (the art) and trying to balance herself.

Geneva (250, last panel)

-the city is falling apart because of disorganized governement. The art illuminates this message.
(Alice)- on page 281, marjane's drawing looks similar to the poster picture on pg. 250
(Mr.McG)- angles of buildings look like they are crushing her. The mood would be castrophobic. It is drawn this way to scare her.
(David)- the city is distroyed=no beauty.

David (pg. 273)

- the rats are the illusion to 1984.
(Mr.McG)- To rat someone out= to betray someone. Winston betrayed Julia, and Marjane betrayed herself and her family.