Last Blog Second Question

1.       2. Write an essay about Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”  and compare or contrast the use of use of death in the poem to another poem we have read in class using the following passage:

“The whisky on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy:

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy. “ (Roethke, 354)

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “On My First Son” by Richard Lovelace the authors contrasts in writing of these to poems. They use imaginary, symbolism and persona in difference ways. They both make use the theme of death with different meanings.

Last Blog First Question

11. Write an essay about Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”  analyzing Mrs. Mallards character. Your essay should be clear, concise, and grammatically correct.

In Kate Copin’s “The Story of an Hour” Mrs Mallard is a character full of ambiguities who is happiest for herself is stronger upset about the loss of her husband’s life.  Firstly, Mrs. Mallard initially tries to fight back her ironic feelings of happiness in her room after being told of her husband’s death.  Secondly, Mrs. Mallard accepts that she is happier for freedom from her husband. Lastly, the interactions of Richards and Josephine with Mrs. Mallard are indicative that Richards and Josephine believing that Mrs. Mallard is going to be devastated which is to the contrary.

Week 12

Provincial Budget released Tuesday, Dunderdale Government agrees: no consultation needed

Leaf’s fans say “We’re really all about being passionate......about golf and financials”

Study shows: “ageing is key factor in average death”

Newfoundland and Labradors Federal NDP Party Wins by A landslides, Newfoundlanders agree will vote conservative in upcoming provincial election

Study shows: Woman agree, Men are the source of the world’s problems

Week 11

James Joyce’s Araby is similar to his Eveline in many way but yet each is unique it is own way. First, both stories begin with a person looking out the window into a Dublin Neighbourhood. Each story describes the neighbourhood, and both neighbourhoods have mostly brown houses. Each of the Characters talks about people who had died. The girl talks about her brother, mother and Tizzie Dunn who have died, and the boy talks about the priest, who was a tenant, who died in their back drawing room.  They also both describe scenes in which they played in the streets surrounding their house, and tried to avoid their guardians who would try to send them inside. Both characters, comment on their infatuation with a connotation that it was foolish.

Another similarity, is both character describe their work, the boy assists his aunt in running errands and carrying parcels for her, and, the girl,  describes her time working in a stores in a market for a lady called Mrs. Hill.  The boy and the girl both have struggles with money, and more specifically getting money from their uncle and father, respectively, on Saturday.

In the end, both the girl and the boy had both had doubts about what they had set out to do. The boy does not get the gift for Mangan sister, and the girl does not leave home for South America. i.e. they both have an epiphany which changes their frame of thinking. It is also worth noting that they both had their epiphany after they had taken train rides, but before they are about to do what they intended to do when they got to their definition.

An Island Description

Prose writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, often succeeds or fails on description.  The ability to accurately, evocatively, and memorably describe something is important to novelists, journalists, and office managers alike.  Your journal activity this week is to practice descriptive writing.  Choose a person, a place or a thing that you want to describe.  It can be anything.  If you're having trouble thinking of something to describe, describe the room you are in as you write.

1. Write a florid description.  In one paragraph, describe your subject in as much detail as you can.  Use every adjective or descriptive phrase you can think of.  Over-write.

Fair Island is a relatively small island in North Eastern Newfoundland located in a large bay. Fair island is longer from its southwestern tip to its north eastern tip than it is wide. It shaped like an upside down letter Y when looking at a map. Fair Island is about 2 km’s long from its south western point to its north eastern point, and is 750 meters wide. The western side of Fair Island is dotted from north to south with cabins 50 cabins in array of different colors from white to green to red to blue. Some of the cabins are well taken care of a have modern vinyl siding, but others are a reminiscence of 100-150 years old house and in bad state of repairs as of 2013. Across the channel or tickle about 400 meters to the west is another island half as small again, but runs parallel and symmetrical for a distance of 1 Km with Fair island and this island is called Paul’s island and has a lone remaining cabin on is south eastern side about 300 metres in the channel. To the west of Fair Island is a large north Atlantic bay scattered with Islands and well protected from the harshness of open waters. Fair Island is the most easterly Island in the bay before hitting open waters. The cabins on Fair islands situated on the western side are protected by a hill with a gradual slope of 1:10 ft ratio of rise to run which rises to a maximum height of approximately 250-300 feet above sea level. The hill protects the cabins from exposed harshness of the open North Atlantic on the eastern side of the island

2. Write a stark description.  In one paragraph, describe the same subject using as few adjective or descriptive phrases as you can while still getting across what the subject is and what it is like.  Under-write.

An island in Newfoundland with cabins on it. Some are cabins old and some new. The island is longer than it is wide but less than 2 km wide. There is a smaller island across the channel running parallel on one side and the other side is exposed to the open Atlantic.

3. In as many paragraphs as you like, describe the subject a third time, being as florid or as stark as you like.

Describing Fair Island in the summer, Fair Island is an island in North Eastern Newfoundland which is 2 km long , shaped like an upside down Y on a map and 750 metres wide. The west side of the island is lined from north to south with cabin in a wide assortment of colors ranging from white, blue, red, green and more. Some of the cabins are modernized as of 2013, but some are over a century old and in bad state of repairs. These older cabins were built in wooden instead of the popular modern vinyl, and a few old cabins and stage have old paint which is well weathered and worn from decades of the north Atlantic storms in some spots the bare wood can be seen. In other spots, the paint is just faded. Some of the cabins are well attended to with mowed and manicured laws, and others host grass taller than the average person. Accompanying the cabins, stages are like boathouses which line the western shore of this small island. The stages are like a shed for fishermen on the water, and coming out from the door of each stage is the owners wharf or dock where their boat is tied off.  From the western shore, the hill gradually climbs to approximate 300 over 750 metres of land to the summit of the Island where a large boulder sits on the horizon as if it fell out of the sky. The hill is grassy with small 10 ft cliffs jutting out in random places and small boulders scatter the hill side. In contrast, the eastern side  and southern sides of the island have sheer cliffs which drop 200 or more feet into the ocean. Across the channel on the western side is a smaller island that runs parallel with Fair Island. 200 metres up from the western shore runs a main road i.e. foot path which runs north and south along the island. In the middle of the main road lies the concrete foundation of what use to be a school one time before Newfoundland had joined confederation in 1949. South of the school is lies two hand dug wells where people use to get their water on is on the main road and another slightly more west downhill below the main road. 500 metres south down the main road there is a fork which goes east or continues south. The eastern fork remains fairly level and goes around the base of a cliff through boggy land to a cleared perfectly rectangle black bog patch with no grass. This was once used as a skating rink for hockey in the winter months on Fair Island. Continuing south on the path which eventually leads sharply up hill and slightly to the east to a relatively flat plateau on the southern part of the island which over looks the vast and open ocean as far as the eye can see. The next land mass from here is Ireland. After getting to the plateau, there lies a grave yard in the trees slightly protected. In the graveyard are headstones which date back to the early 1800s, and many are so faded the encryptions on them have long faded. The grass in the graveyard is over grown in the years since the people have left their island home.

4. Think about how many details and how many adjectives work best and why.  Your answer says something personal about the kind of writer you are, but also gives you some insight into what makes a good writer good and what makes a bad writer bad.  You don't have to write your reflections down, but feel free to if you wish to do so.

Outline for "Deadmen's Path" by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe’s “Deadmen’s Path” is a story about why change should not be militant, but instead be change should be gradual in an attempt to keep the peace with others who hold opposing views.

1.        Michael Obi is a progressive and enthusiastic young headmaster who has no respect for the elder generation or “old ways”

a.       “He was out spoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones.” (269)

b.       Michael Obi’s believes the views of the older ones are narrow, but his unwillingness to accommodate them and co exist shows that Michael Obi’s views are narrow themselves.

2.        In the end, Michael militant and rigid values are counter-productive to making his dreams a reality.

a.        “The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school, the flowers trampled to death and one of the school buildings pulled down....That day, the white supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a nasty report on the state of the premises but more seriously about the “tribal –war situation developing between the school and the village , arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster” (271)

b.      Not only did Michaels progressive get destroy because of his militant attitude toward change, but he also lost support from the Government Education Officer, and the towns people.

3.        Michael had the opportunity to avoid the destruction of his progressive if he could compromise.

a.        “Let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch” (270)

b.        Mr Obi is blatantly rude to the village priest of Ani because the priest values are contrary to Mr Obi’s own. 

Outline for: Boys and Girls

“Boys and Girls”  by Alice Munro encourages rebellion against societal stereotype regardless of success or failure.

1  1.The female narrator works with her father in the fox pens despite her mother desiring her to be in the kitchen.

a.       “It seemed to me that work in the house was endless, dreary, and peculiarly depressing; work done out of doors, and in my father's service, was ritualistically important.  I wheeled the tank up to the barn, where it was kept, and I heard my mother saying. "Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you'll have a real help." “

b.      The female narrator is rebelling against traditional gender sterotypes for woman by taking stereotypically male roles

2.The two horses in the story Mack and Flora symbolic represent laird and the female narrator. The  horse named mack represents Laird and the horse named flora represents the female narrator herself.

a.       : “Mack was an old black workhorse, sooty and indifferent. Flora was a sorrel mare, a driver. We took them both out in the cutter. Mack was slow and easy to handle. Flora was given to fits of violent alarm, veering at cars and even at other horses”

b.      The horses represent her and laird. Laird is the male horse who is easy to handle and indifferent which means he is willing to accept the role others impose on him. However, the female narrator is Flora representative of the narrator who does not accept the role other decide for her, but instead feisty and tries to defy the role imposed on her in exchange for a role self determined.

3.  The narrator lets the horse get away through the gate even though she knows that the her father and Bailey will probably track down the horse and kill her anyways

a.       “Instead of shutting the gate, I opened it as wide as I could.”

b.      The narrator releases the horse because the horse represents rebellion against the role of death that masses i.e. her father, Bailey and laird have decided for the horse. Her father, Bailey and Laird are representative of society, and they represent society imposing stereotypical roles onto a minority group of individuals. 

Muskrat Falls (Lower Churchill): A Qualitative Analysis

The Muskrat Falls Hydro Electric project has much strength and possibly even more weaknesses. The major strengths of the project come from its ability to provide electricity independently to Newfoundland and Labrador into the future. This is important because the ability of the NL economy to grow is dependent upon its ability to provide electricity to NL. There are concerns of consumer protection, and rising electricity costs, but this is probably inevitable regardless of whether this project goes ahead. However, when we look at the big picture without looking at the numbers, not slowing economy growth should trump raising electricity bills because the tax revenue generated from the investment in heavily electricity consuming industry such as mining should outweigh the cost of the to the consumers through higher electricity bills. This is true because the same consumers which will pay more on their electricity will also be receiving benefits through the additional tax revenue (from companies which require this electricity) they will receive these benefits through government expenditure (health care, road work, pensions, and many other social services) of the tax money derived from companies who need this energy. Next, there is potential to sell energy to Nova Scotia through the submersed lines to Cape Breton, and Nova Scotia’s Emera has the potential to sell it to New England and other provinces. There is also strength in the jobs created directly and indirectly through spin off companies such as mining companies in Labrador. For example, I have read of at least two rare earth companies waiting to start production in Labrador but cannot get power they need. We should consider not only the direct jobs and project but the indirect jobs that depend upon this energy. So, 3000 jobs for the project is not as relevant, but the projects from growth in the economy could be. There is strength in not having to buy power from Hydro Quebec because they have proven to have little ethic or decency in doing business in the past, so having an alternative supplier independent of Quebec Hydro is a strength to this power.

The weaknesses of this project are numerous as well. First, Quebec is building a competing generation station according to the financial post “Hydro-Québec is constructing a comparable hydroelectric complex on the Romaine River, 350 kilometres closer to southern markets.” And this project is supposed to be cost less then the Muskrat falls. Next, there are legal concerns with the Muskrat falls project because of its location downriver from Upper Churchill Falls in which Hydro Quebec has a 34.2 % equity position. Because the water for Muskrat falls is dependent upon cooperation from the existing Churchill Falls generating station. Next, Nalcor PC government under Dunderdale have gone to great lengths to expedite the Muskrat Falls project by changing public access to information laws, and by refusing to allow an extended review from Newfoundland’s Public Utilities board which is suppose to protect consumers. There is also weakness in the fact that Muskrat falls line to Cape Breton and its export markets is not certain because it is conditional on approval from Nova Soctia’s Public utilitys board. In addition, there are no known/public contracted buyers for electricity in Labrador for electricity, and some analysts believe that there won’t be many buyers with the costs the project because Muskrat will have to charge too high of a rate. Also, as of now, Nalcor seems to be proceeding without a water contract with Upper Chuchill.

Newfoundland and Labrador residences should have concerns with this project. They should ask:

1.      Is there sufficient demand for the supply that Muskrat falls will create?

2.      Is NL’s economic growth dependent upon obtaining additional electricity sources?

3.      Looking beyond just the project, will this project produce more revenue to NL economy and government than it will cost?

4.      Why is the Dunderdales current PC Government deny access to information to the residences? Is this purely strategic and business move in the best interest of Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans? Or , is this a violation of our democracy and the government has gone to far?

5.      Are the benefits from the tax revenue the province and its residence receiving from the projects and future business venture dependent upon the electricity worth the increase in NL’s electricity bills?

6.      What are our alternatives? Keeping in mind the 500 million already invested.

I I believe that Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans should be asking these questions, but they need to keep the big picture in mind and realize that our economy is dependent upon supplying it with electricity to operate. We need to be reasonable and ask ourselves why we are doing this project? Does it make economic sense? Or, are we just trying to spite Hydro Quebec? And, if it doesn’t make economic sense we should support pulling the plug before we have invested to deeply. Also, we should look forward to the Gull Island Generating station, and if this is a bad business decision we can still stop this from going forward because it is going to generated over twice as much energy. Lastly, we should realize that there has to be a balance between our ability to do business and our democratic right to information, and consumer protection. We should ask ourselves: does Newfoundland and Labrador have too much public information and consumer protection which is slowing our business or is the government seriously violating our democratic right and not protecting NL residences.

Some additional resources:

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/n-l-to-proceed-with-7-5b-muskrat-falls-hydroelectric-project-1.1082010#ixzz2MJS2s514

http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/12/18/muskrat-folly/

Gull Island :

http://www.nalcorenergy.com/images/Phase-2-Map.jpg

(We should seriously consider the viability of this project)

Week 6

Pied Beauty

By Gerald Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—

                For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

                                For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

                Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plow;

                                And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

                Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how ?)

                                With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

                                                Praise him.

Glory be to              dappled things—

                For skies of couple-                                         ow;

                                For rose-moles                                                 that swim;

Fresh                     chestnut              finches’ wings;

                Landscape                           old,       low,       low;

                                                                                                    

                                With swift, slow; sweet,               dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is             change:

                                                 raise him.

“Days gone by”

1.

And the snow fell covering the earth’s skin,

My nose detecting the burning wood fire.

The man he invited all of his kin

Into the country, my utmost desire.

To explore the backwoods, see what I see,

That water flows clear from unfrozen streams

The wildlife spy from behind the tall tree,

As I breathe in heavy and dream a dream.

One where the city streets are but no more,

And the skyline is made of pines and spruce.

One where the sea is filled with fish galore,

And resources have escaped all misuse.

Yes, this is where my wild dream has led me

Off into the past where I long to be.

2.

“Days gone by” is a Shakespearean sonnet written in iambic pentameter.  It has four stanzas. The tone of this poem is reminiscing of the death of a time now in the past. The tone hints that the author is from a rural place i.e. probably from the bay, definitely not a townie. And, they want to revert to living off the land, or they are older and remember the city before it was a city. We can tell this from third stanza where they mention that they wish cities didn't exist, and people lived off the land like people did in the past. The line “One where the sea is filled with fish galore” may be a reference to cod moratorium.

Week 5

Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a poem about not dying peacefully when you become old. By this, Thomas means that one should not die peacefully, but instead should be filled with passion, rage, and strong emotion opposed to death. Through symbolism, Thomas’ poem says people should not die peaceful because they should value life, and therefore should fight for every last bit of it.

First, Thomas’ poem portrays that it is about not dying peacefully, but fighting for to enjoy ever y bit of life through the poems tone. Majority of the line of the poem are stated with intensity which is conveyed through his choice of words.  For example, Dylan uses words such as : burn, rave, rage and lighting.  All of these are meant to produce powerful emotion in Thomas’ readers, and this  is intended for the readers to relate to Thomas’ message of being passionate about life through emotion of these words. We can also infer this through his use of command i.e. Thomas’ says “Do not go gentle into that good night” is intense because he is telling the audience what to do in contrast to asking. 

Week 4

You can do whatever you want to do

A sonnet has ten syllables a line

And this, sir, I was taught to be quite true

Wait, you got it wrong, I said ten not nine!

Bad beginnings turn into ripe winnings

Starting like death turned into a fun fest

So, here we are in the seventh inning

I am on a roll so here comes the rest.

I can’t help but think this drives me to drink

Just kidding you fool don’t act like a tool

There is more going on here than you think

But deep inside there is a great duel.

Man of the past and a new sonnet rule

What’s this poem about? You went to school.

Week 3

1.    An analyze of the form of Gwendolyn Brooks ``We real cool`` a number of future related to the poems form stand out. First, the number of words per sentence is 3 per sentence.

Next, the poem has 4 stanzas with 2 sentences per stanza i.e. it’s written with 4 couplets. The stanzas are closed form because they have the same amount of words per sentence and sentences per stanza.

Also, the poem has specifically end each line (except the last line) with “We”, but the rest of the sentence is in the next stanza. It is also should be noted that the author has used capitals in the middle of her sentences.

2.    2.  In B.P. Nichol “landscape: 1”, the rhythm is similar to that of a run on sentence. This poem does not rhyme. There is no stanza because a stanza is a group of two or more lines with a space, but in landscape: 1 there is only one sentence and one line. A distinct aspect of the form of this poem is the line across the bottom of the poem.

Music and Poetry

The Orange and The Green

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen. 
Me Fodder, he was Orange and me Mudder, she was green.

Me Fodder was an Ulster man, proud Protestant was he. 
Me Mudder was a Catholic girl, from county Cork was she. 
They were married in two churches, lived happily enough, 
Until the day that I was born and things got rather tough.

Baptized by Father Riley, I was rushed away by car, 
To be made a little Orangeman, Me Fodder's shining star. 
I was christened "David Anthony," but still, inspite of that, 
To me Fodder, I was William, while Me Mudder called me Pat.

With Mudder every Sunday, to Mass I'd proudly stroll. 
Then after that, the Orange lodge would try to save me soul. 
For both sides tried to claim me, but i was smart because 
I'd play the flute or play the harp, depending where I was.

Now when I'd sing those rebel songs, much to me Mudder's joy, 
Me Fodder would jump up and say, "Look here would you me boy. 
That's quite enough of that lot", he'd then toss me a coin 
And he'd have me sing the Orange Flute or the Heros of The Boyne

One day me Ma's relations came round to visit me. 
Just as Me Fodder's kinfolk were all sitting down to tea. 
We tried to smooth things over, but they all began to fight. 
And me, being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight.

Me parents never could agree about my type of school. 
My learning was all done at home, that's why I'm such a fool. 
They've both passed on, God rest 'em, but left me caught between 
That awful color problem of the Orange and the Green.

I choose “The Orange and Green” performed by Artists Such as The Irish Rovers (Irish-Canadians), Wolfe Tone and others. I enjoy this song which presents a very serious and controversial issue in a comical sense. However, it was written by an individual who was very much at the centre of this conflict. The conflict I speak of is the conflict in Ireland between the Unionist/Loyalist (Support the U.K.) and Nationalist (Support an independent Ireland). The conflict has a religious association as far as most Protestants are Unionist/Loyalist, and most Catholics are Nationalists. The two groups have been in conflict for hundreds of year in Ireland, and the conflicts range from arguing to rebellion, sabotage, explosion, assassination etc. In the song, the artist refers to the Protestants as “The Orange” and the Catholics as “The Green”. The Artist was born in the middle of this conflict as his father was a Protestant and his mother was a Catholic, so he was born into a conflict between two groups where the two sides of his family had fought each other for hundreds of years. The song feature many cultural names and traditions such as the names Pat and William which are very associated with the two different groups. For example, Patrick, Paddy or Pat is a common catholic name due to it being conservative in the sense that St. Patrick brought Catholicism to Ireland which was the Original Christian denomination. And, William is a common Protestant name due to its association to King William who is a important protestant figure due to him saving Protestant Irish who were besieged in Ireland by the Catholics among other facts. This song is quite unique in regards to the fact that it is of subject matter that wouldn’t be comical because of its sad and serious nature, but it is one of the few songs on the subject matter which is comical. So, it is very much an inappropriate humor, and it would seem that the writer who was caught between these political conflicts has attempted to produce laughter from a situation that has produced many more tears, or for lack of a better phrase, make the best out of a poor situation.

The Irish have always been interesting to me because having a Newfoundland background usually means having a partially Irish ancestry. I must point out that the comical views of the writer are not the views of my own, and apologize if this song offense anyone. 

Here is the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqs4EbU02As

Blog No.1 Jan 9th

1.

I believe all of the approaches that McMahan presents are very relevant, and they are key to owning a full set of “literacy tools”. However, the most appealing or intriguing approach for me is the Historical approach, and of the historical approaches, the cultural approach is most appealing. This is most appealing to me because of my general interest in history, politics, business and society in general. Also, it is very useful in these subjects for analytic purposes. For example, using the historical approach we can look at the ideology, conduct, way of living, scientific perspectives of those before us, and most importantly how they speculated future events and facts. We can compare their speculation to what we know factually happen after their time period. This is useful to use because we can compare it to our own current speculation and can give us insight into what we currently believe and speculate. To me this is invaluable because it help ground us, and ensure that we constantly question our current believes.

2. I can analyze “The Red Wheel Burrow” by William Carlos Williams using the historical perspective. Although the “The Red Wheel Burrow” is a mere 15 word poem, the time period and the poem itself tell a lot about the authors work. For example, the time period the author lived in: 1883-1963. The fact that the author wrote the poem in 1923 and the setting takes place on a farm which can tell us that unless most likely the Red Wheel Burrow was the means to accomplishing the production on the farm at that time. We can tell this because some during the authors time period the means of wheel burrow as a main piece of equipment was still common place. The setting is most likely a farm because of the presence of chickens. However, it is important to note that another person interpretation could be completely different then mine.