Denitza's Week 6

1) In class.

We did not spend much time discussing english this week.
Monday- no school
Wensday- time to work solidly on socials works with conferences.

Thursday was the only time that we got to discuss Persepolis. So, on thursday we shared our snippets and had long discussions on analyzing things like the cover of the text.

Vocab to remember;

*Catharsis- Greek trageties. When you see a play that is tragic you feel good because your life is better.

*Hubris- fatal character flaw that brings the character down.

2) I like how we talk about the text, but we usually focus on talking towards Mr.McG. I think that we should refer to each other, and what one person said before the other and make it more comfortable to speach WITH each other, not like Mr.McG. is there assessing us. I also think that there are people that have either said very little this unit or nothing while our discussions. I think that those people should be pointed out to speak, otherwise they wont.

3) LIterary Features and Snippets.

*Kevin (the cover)- the circle of stares. Everybody is looking at each othe, but ina circle. Eye direction (towards the reader) are shown on pages 43 and 185. Anoosh is loking out of the though bubble and into the big picture of Marjane. He is breaking the 4th wall - like Aaron would say. An idea Mr. McG. had was that all of the people in the background might be foils of Marjane. Ex. Anoosh had to escape for a while, like she did to Austria. Granny and Anoosh have different hair colors (the motif 'hair' starts from the very beginning!) showing that their her mentors because they stand out from everyone else. Speaking of standing out, Marjane is the only one in the thought bubble wearing a white shirt- this could be to show who is the main character.

*Fion(304)- If partying, drinking, making love, having fun and all those things that are illigal, then people would keep on doing them behind the sights of the guards just because these actions are illigal. (Manny)- Ex. Stratford Hall's lunch problem.

*Myself(307-309)- I really like how the positioning of the each of the panels are. I mean there are some panels that are very thin and short, and some that are lengthened and stretched. This shows time progression in different ways. Ex. When the lady picks the phone and the door bell rings (307) all of those panels are thin and little because these things happen very fast. As this event progresses the panels become bigger and larger, showing that time is passing slowly- that could be because of the tension in the story.

*Megan(308)- Because on this page there is no dialogue, it makes the reader think and read visually. Moon= femininety. Maybe, when the guy is falling, he is trying to grab to femininety, the moon.

*McG.(302)- Marjane speaks up for herself by looking straight at her reader, basically like she is talking to us. She is playing around with the medium. She breaks the rules of the story by speaking to us.

*Fion(comparing 43 and 323)- art foil and/or juxtaposition, the guns and dragon/ soldiers are surrounding the family.

*Alice(327, 146, 25)- the half shaded faces. Alice talks about this on her blog and I completely agree that when someone face is haf shaded that means that they are showing a different side of them. Its like they are opening up to us and showing us something. On page 327 where Marjane and Reza are studying, I think that when you take the white half of Marjane's face and the black half of Raza's, and then combine it, you will get the ying-yang that Geneva talked about last week.

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.

Denitza's week 4

Hey!

Sorry for the fact that I can not write anything on week 4 due to not being in Canada.
I did think about 1984 through my Barcelona trip though. For example; we had to do aerobics for PE and there was this lady that had a microphone on her head and was shouting on the top of her lungs on what the students of grades 9-12 were supposed to do (thats about 150 people in a big area, something like the Big Top). The lady barely encouraged us to do anything. We were just supposed to know that it was our priority to follow. I felt like I ws being commanded to do everything because I was supposed to copy everything that the lady did, or I would get in trouble. This event reminded me of when Winston was doing his stretching and the lady from the telescreen was shouting at him to do a better job, but in a mean, rude way... kind of the same thing that happened to me in Barcelona.

Denitza's Week 2+3

Hello peers! Sorry for this delay. But this will only mean that this post will be pretty long, because it will contain all my ideas, thoughts and everything that everybody said in week 2 + 3.

1) In Class.

During these two week we did many important discussions. We began (week 2) with question discussions. My question was;
To what extent are people a product of their place and time?
I answered this question by splitting Satrapi's life into 2. The first part of her life is in Iran andn the second in Austria. I talked about how the protagonist and the people around her are affected because of their time and place.
For ex. Marji was taught in school (her daily surrounding) to love the king, yet her parents are against him (19). This confuses our protagonist on which side is correct to follow.
As time passes, rules change and people have to follow different things and change their surroundings and way of thought (like 1984, forces people to change their way of thinking, or another way said would be, doublethink). For ex. when Marjane tells her partner that it was weird how the teacher said one thing about the Shah and now changed her mind and told them to rip the pages out (memory hole, 1984. Losing all sorts of infomation that might bring up a memory) proving that the surroundings of Marjane confuse her, according to what was happening at the time (44).
It isnt until Marjane is Austria when she realizes who she is and what she feels and wants to follow. An ex. would be page 197, she finally found out who she really is. The fact that she exclaims the she is and "Iranian and proud of it", proves that the place where you have lived does affect your character.
I was happy to hear from my other two companions (Bhanesha and Lucy) and their ideas and realizations about persepolis connecting to their questions, because that gave me a wide variety of knowledge in different parts of the book.

*We continued with further discussing 3 points;
a. Marjane's parent's want to be religious modernists.
b. Heroes are always men.
c. Mr. McGuigan: Marjane is a hero behind a veil.

*We also taked about questions you can ask yourself while reading Persepolis;
a. How could you be more then your parts?
b. What you say +what you do, which one dictates who you are?
c. Is it fiction or non-fiction?
d. How does the drawing help you understand the concept and theme?

***

Next week (week3) we discussed perspectives in which you can write literature. They were;
-Feminism
-Racism
-Markism
-Religious fundamentalist
-Confusion reading
-Hollywood producer
-Mr.McGuigan's perspective
-Marchiavellian
-New Critism

We mostly focused on grammar (semi-colons and colons). I found it extremely helpful, because I know how unwell I use punctuation.

*Semi-colon
--> Between 2 independant clauses that mirror each other, but arent really connected.
--> Provides a further explanation and seperates multiples independant clauses.
--> Used to also replace a period before a connecting word (ex. indeed, anyways) with a comma after the connecting word.

*Colons
--> Used for a list, or implify or extend an idea. (colon words ex. likewise, therefore, etc.)

2) Things Mr.McGuigan said.

For both, week 2 and 3, Mr.McGuigan let the class teach each other and bounce off ideas off one another. I find this useful because that way we learn different perspectives that we might not have noticed but someone else has. The snippets and the discussions we have in class are very productive. There were somethings that I think are important to remember, which Mr. McG said;

*Simple drawings=anyone in the world

*More detailed drawings=more unlike you

*Writting from a different point of view illuminates your style of analysation.

*Tuning your guitar properly to make your show go smoothly= strong introduction.

(Think before you do.)

*The SUPER COMMA

*New Vocab--> recalcitrant= stubbernly unco-operative.

--> extentialism=people create their own meaning. (philosophy)

3) Literary Feature Hunt.

pg. 102

~Juxtaposition between both photos. The people in the panel are not given a face (this could mean the lower class because of the ironic idea of the golden key), they are censored, meaning they can be anyone.

pg. 116

~Great way to present imagery, because the battlefield that we see is what Satrapi the child is thinking in her head. We would think, why a child would be thinking of such horrid things? Well if we go back to the question 'to what extent are people a product of their place and time' we would realize that because of Marjane's surroundings (ex. parents) and the time that she lived, her personality is set this way.

~ I found it interesting that there was a door at the bottom of the page. I think that this door represents freedom, freedom to flee out of this war. This is foreshadowing to when Satrapi gets sent of to Austria. Geneva thought that the door meant entering childhood. I also partly agree with her due to the pursue of the story on page 117.

pg. 181

~Satrapi uses metaphorto express her idea and thought into the image. The image is juxtaposed due to her day dreaming about what the mother is talking about and the connection between her and Marjane. The angle of the shot is very important because it limits the reader from seeing the people sitting at the table. This could also have been done purposely because, like Mr.McG said, little detail means that it can be anyone in Iran, sitting close to the caspean sea.

pg. 189

~Allusion to superhero. She is growing up and changing through hyperbole. This panel reminds me of the hulk, but the statement 'Heroes are always men' keep coming back to me and I just can not accept Marjane as a hero in this panel, but more like as a weird allusion of her years of puberty.

4) Snippets.

pg. 71

-> She lost her religion for kicking God out.

-> Just emptiness. Very extential moment.

-> She isn't there, her bedroom is gone. She can't hold onto anything.

-> There is less white in each panel (starting from pg. 70-71), presenting how she is loosing herself and that she can not understand what is really happening around her. I think that the reason she is lost is because she is in a great depression here, due to her uncle's execution.

-> This connects to 1984, when Winston was also falling into space, because he too was in a depression for not having any freedom. He was lost too.

pg. 185

-> There is a great party going on in the room, but Marji is completely lonely and fearful because she is not used to this type of environment. Through the eyes of the character, Marjane is telling us that she isnt belonging.

-> This panel can be presented as an indirect and direct presentation.

->The author has placed Iranian art work (ex. wall, carpet, smoke) around the room to illuminate how much Satrapi was missing Iran at that moment.

pg. 156 (last 3 panels)

-> Examines the difference in social structures and the contrast of how girls are set to think according to their surroundings.

-> The last 3 panels show the difference in the text, as well as the graphics. Marji is dressed in dark colored clothing the Zozo's daughter, showing the difference between societies. The background is white, just like Zozo's daughter, telling us that Satrapi is in a different society.

gabe's week 2 snippets

the panel on page 178 portrays marji being thrown out of the nunnery by the head nun. This is a long panel that spans from one side of the page to the other and breaks from satrepi's standard 4cm by 6 cm panel. this panel seems elongated with the head nun and marji on opposite sides. The nun sits at a large empty table with the painting of the last supper above her head. with the twelve desiples around jesus visible and the nun sitting at an empty but large table, it feels as though the nun is breaking somthing important about the teachings of her prophet.

gabe's week 2 literary feature hunt.

The one panel on page 185 depicts marjane at her first party in Austria. She sits alone in the corner staring at the reader. The text talks about the difference between parties in iran and those in Austria. As well, a panel before it talks about pink floyd being played and how such a genre couldnt be played at an up beat iranian party. the smoke wafting up from the spliffs of the party goers is in a style resembling the art of her native iran. This is a contrast of the high iranian culture and what seems to her as almost barbaric western culture.

gabe's week 2 feedback

Through out Thursday's class, it seemed that culture was the thing that Marjane kept reminding herself of while in Austria. Iran has such a rich and old culture that for her, the impersonality and displacement of culture and history in Austria must have created a gap in her heart that she filled with the luxuries of western society, like drugs. Even the supposed rebels of Austria, the punks, were artificial and out of touch with culture of any kind.

week two class act

I am certainly realizing that there are more important parts to an english and socials assignment than there are fingers on my hands (and i have a lot of fingers). Does anyone else think that a list is in order? I understand that such a holy list could never be brought in to a final, but it seems that omitting one is the source of my constant annoyance and dismay, especially with the 1984 presentation. If i had my pick, follow instructions would be number one on such a list.

gabe's persepolis snippets hunt

on page 18, panels three and four show the army and protesters in standoffs, except she splits the panels in to two. instead of having one scene on which there is a demonstration turned violent, there are two panels each with the caption matching the picture even through the caption for the two panels is one sentence. this format appears on page 41 panels two and three where a sentence has two ideas and two panels to hold it in.

gabe's persepolis lit. feature hunt week one

on page 40, the third panel, it says "the end of the shah's reign was near." This panel struck me because i couldn't figure out who in the panel was pushing the shah. After looking at the panel above it that talked about the massacres, it told me that it was the ghosts pushing shah out. This metaphor is effective because it exclaims that it wasn't just the people pushing the shah out of Iran, it was the memories or the reaction against the shah that was fueling the revolution. though this metaphor rests on the fact that i cant identify who is pushing the shah.