Journal #44

There are many contemporary movies that are great, and they all show characteristics of Post Modernism. I will write about the Harry Potter movies, because they will all have the same characteristics. There is a lot of fear in all of the movies, because in all of them, Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger all run and hide from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, otherwise known as Voldemort. Voldemort killed Harry's parents and has terrorized the wizarding world for years since then. Everyone fears him, and Harry was the only one that survived his attacks, making him famous. He still fears Voldemort, because he thinks that Voldemort will be able to kill him this time, and in the meantime, he is trying to destroy all of the pieces of Voldemort's soul that he has split into seven pieces. There is also assimilation, because they are all wizards trying to get by in the wizarding world while still managing to hide from Voldemort. There is also the opposite in effect, because they are still in the world with all of the rest of the humans without magic, which they call Muggles. So they are not the same as all of those people, and they have to hide the fact that they are wizards or witches from everyone else as well. The lack of the individual is shown some, because at points, they all think that there is nothing special about them and that they are just like everyone else. They are teenagers in these movies, trying to figure out who they are, so it makes sense that they sometimes feel inferior or the same as everyone else, without showing who they really are. The opposite is in effect here as well, because at times, they know that they are the only ones that would be able to do what they are doing and that no one else is the same as them. At times they are very individualistic and selfish, and that shows that sometimes they are very sure of themselves. Many characteristics of Post Modernism are in the Harry Potter movies, and here are just a few.

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Journal #43

Today we have to write about John Coltrane's song "Blue Train", which is a jazz song from the Modernism period of writing. This song shows a lot of different feelings and emotions in it through the tempo of the song and the range of notes that they play. In the beginning, the music starts out very slow, and it makes one really get into the music. I can picture the person in a small jazz club, playing their instrument with the drums and the piano in the background. I can see all of the people slowly closing their eyes and swaying along with the music. It quickly picks up speed, and the picture in my mind changes to a picture of people that are in rags for clothing all being together and celebrating something so they are dancing to the music. They are all extremely happy, and the beverages are definitely flowing. They have some people sitting on the side and just watching, but most of the people are dancing in the middle. They are being swung every which way, and their feet are moving at incredible speeds. The music then slows back down, and after a while the piano is the instrument that can be heard the loudest. This makes me feel like I am at an elegant party where the music is there on the side and everyone is socializing and talking to one another with flutes of champagne in their hands. The women are wearing beautiful dresses and the men are dressed in tuxedos. The music then speeds up again, but the piano is still the most easily heard. It is incredible how the transitions from slow to fast come so easily to them, because many people would not be able to make everything sound so smooth. Their group must have practiced this piece quite a bit, because it sounds absolutely perfect. They must have practiced incredibly hard when they were younger, and it definitely paid off.

Realism vs. Modernism

Realism and Modernism are both alike, yet also have many differences. Realism tried to be very realistic about what they were portraying. They wanted things to be seen they way that they were, and they did not try to make anything seem better or worse. Meanwhile, Modernism was often disillusioned, or showed signs of disillusionment. They enjoyed showing how people at the time had believed in so many different things like the government, society, and even their families, that all in the end betrayed them. They showed how there were many things that were happening at that time to cause them to second guess everything that they had believed in their entire lives. Realism, however, did nothing of the sort. They continued to discuss things realistically as they were, and did not try to put hidden meanings or motives behind it. Realism definitely worried more about what was happening here and now. They wanted to talk about what was going on in their lives at that very moment, and they were not really worried about their past or about their future. Modernism was much the same way, because they were more worried about what was happening to them right at that second. Sometimes they may look to the future and try to make some plans, but for the most part they were not really worried about it. They worked very hard to make do with what they had at the present, so they did not necessarily try to think about what they would have to come up with to survive the next few weeks or even days. Modernism involved things that happened at that time, such as the Great Depression, World War I, and the rations that many of them relied on for food daily. Realism was concerned about being in the moment, but they were not worried about it, because they had nothing huge to worry about. They may have had day-to-day worries, but it is a lot less likely that they had huge things to think about like the Modernists did. Realism also had many different aspects that can change the way that we think of it. We can think of it as Regionalism, which is a ton different than normal versions of Realism. Regionalism is nothing like Modernism. Regionalism is all about certain regions of the United States. Regionalism was more boasting about what a certain part of the United States had to offer than it was about different problems that Americans were facing at the moment. Regionalism and Modernism really are not alike at all, and that is just one more way that Realism and Modernism are so different. While both can have many advantages and disadvantages, they are both enjoyed by most people that read them. It is hard to compare the two because they can be so alike, but at the same time, it is possible to tell the difference, because they involve different topics that are both necessary. Realism and Modernism can be alike in many ways, but they also have vast differences that allow us to make them different things.

Job Shadowing

I job shadowed a teacher named Mrs. Petit from A-C Central. She taught a class of first graders that were really fun. There were only fourteen of them, but that made the day a lot easier, because I had less names that I needed to learn. The children were adorable, and very fun to be around. Some of the day was mildly boring, because I just had to sit there and listen. While I know that is what I am supposed to do, I would have loved to have been able to actually take part in helping to teach the children. I got to see them do many different things, such as music, physical education, computers, and library. It was fun to watch them all do many different things, and it helped give me a better feel for the different areas of teaching. I also got to see different reading levels, and that also helped me to realize that the children are not all at the same level. One of the young girls was a fantastic reader, but she had a hard time paying attention, so she ended up being put in the slow reading group because her mom requested it. This all helped me realize that teaching can be complicated, and working with parents on different topics is just as important as working with the children. I will need to be organized and engaging, and that will make everything go a lot more smoothly. I can definitely see myself teaching, and this experience only added to the knowledge that I am trying to gain to get there.

Journal #42

There is a lot of controversy over who people prefer to read, Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson. Personally I would prefer to read Emily Dickinson, because she makes a lot more sense to me than Walt Whitman does. Walt Whitman was a very complicated poet, and he made every poem that he wrote have multiple meanings. Personally I prefer to sometimes have poems that I can take at face value and that are very literal, so it is a lot better for me to read Emily Dickinson. I prefer to read some of the complicated poems every once in a while, but quite often I prefer to read the poems that are simple and easy to follow. Walt Whitman tried to talk about very complex things in every single poem that he wrote, because he tried to write about Self, the every man, God, Christianity, or America in every single poem that he ever wrote. It may not have always been about all of those things, but almost every time he writes about more than one of those themes. He also writes things in a very complicated way that is quite often very hard to follow. He is very egotistical in his poems, because he says everything is him and about him and he is God and everyone else is God as well, and I do not agree with that. I do not like Whitman from what I have seen from him, and he kind of makes me mad. I much prefer Emily Dickinson, because she is a lot more simple with what she is trying to say. It is also easier, because even if she is trying to be complex, she is still a lot easier to understand than Whitman ever was. Whitman and Dickinson were not popular during their lifetimes, because many people did not agree with them or did not have their poetry. Whitman and Dickinson were both extremely popular poets after their deaths, and many people continue to read them even today.

"The way I read a letter's this:" - Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was a unique poet that does not fit well into any specific literary category. She wrote many, many poems, that all became incredibly popular after her death. She wrote about any number of things, and her poems are very diverse. Some of them are incredibly literal and have nothing hidden in their meaning, but there are also some that are completely loaded with hidden meaning and other interpretations, so it is often hard to figure out what one will be getting in any given poem. I read a poem by Emily Dickinson that was called "The way I read a letter's this:". This poem basically talks about the speaker reading a letter from their lover. It talks about how the person wants to hide in the very back of their room and open the letter very secretively, so no one else can see the beauty of it or can feel how intimate it is. She is trying to show how meaningful and heartfelt that kind of thing can be, and how important they are to the person that receives them. Emily Dickinson talks all about how she checks every step of the way that no one is following her or sneaking in to see the letter. She talks about how she constantly feels for the letter, and makes sure that there is no way that she could drop it anywhere along the way. She talks about hiding in the corner so that she will be the only one to see how sacred and pure and amazing it is. She wants to make sure that she feels the full effect of the letter and all of the emotions that go along with it, so she makes sure to go into a private room that may well be a sanctuary for her. She talks about how she feels after reading the letter and soaking up all of the goodness that it can give to her. She talks about how much she wants her lover and how being with her lover would be heaven to her. Not the conventional heaven, but her heaven. This poem is very literal and it would be hard to take it different ways. It does not relate to Christianity, because this letter is more between lovers than it would be between a father and a son. It might be mildly awkward for people in those positions to have those feelings for each other, so it is difficult to think about. There is no hidden meaning that Christ wrote letters or received letters from lovers, so Christianity does not fit. There is not a hidden meaning, because only lovers should have these feelings for each other, because it would be awkward for family members to feel this way about each other. Friends might be able to feel this way about each other, but they might want something more with the other person if they feel this way. This poem is pretty simplistic, but it is still very meaningful and shows a lot of depth and emotion.

Dickinson, Emily. "24. “The Way I Read a Letter’s This.” Part Three: Love. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 21 Mar. 2011.

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