This week you have 4 Assignments:
Assignment 1: Due before September 11th.
While we know that the Creator is responsible for all of creation, we also know that God is creative. When you write your creation myth- feel free to give a narrative to the story of creation. For example, perhaps God was inspired to create spots on a leopard because he spilled his coffee on a sheet of paper. Why do Armadillos have shells? Do you know an anteater walking backward looks like a dinosaur? Maybe that's where the dinosaurs went! Use your imagination! There is no right or wrong answer!
Requirements: Creation myth should be a minimum of one paragraph and a maximum of one page. Feel free to use framed narrative to tell your story. Please email me your myth before our next class time. If you are artistic- Feel free to include a drawing or painting illustration.
Assignment 2: Due before our next class time
Finish up The Secret Garden and the blog from August 15th. Our new BLOG question is:
The Secret Garden, as its title suggests, is a novel organized around the motif of secrets. Which are the narrative's most pivotal secrets? How are they discovered? Explain the significance of how they are discovered.
Assignment 3:
Journal Entries: Due by September 11th. Will be discussed in class on September 11th.
1. In your opinion, does Mr. Craven, after subjecting his son to years of neglect, deserve redemption? Why, or why not? Is there another character in literature that is similar to Mr. Craven? Perhaps in another piece of writing or the Bible? Do you think his name holds any symbolic meaning?
2. Watch a film adaptation of The Secret Garden. Screenwriters and directors select sections of the book or add to the book to tell their version of the original story. After watching the movie, discuss how the changes made by the screenwriter affect the story. Does the film change or modify the plot, character development or themes?
Assignment 4: To be discussed in class on September 11th.
To finish out this week's assignments, please read and summarize the following poem by Wordsworth. For the purpose of this exercise, please summarize or tell me what the poem is literally saying. If you would like to explain the symbolism or analyze the poem, fabulous!
Lo! where the Moon along the sky
Sails with her happy destiny;
Oft is she hid from mortal eye
Or dimly seen,
But when the clouds asunder fly
How bright her mien!
Far different we--a forward race,
Thousands though rich in Fortune's grace
With cherished sullenness of pace
Their way pursue,
Ingrates who wear a smileless face
The whole year through.
If kindred humours e'er would make
My spirit droop for drooping's sake,
From Fancy following in thy wake,
Bright ship of heaven!
A counter impulse let me take
And be forgiven.
Note: Our next reading selection will be Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and King Arthur. Feel free to find a version/edition of these stories that work for you. Begin reading September 11th.
Garrett
ReplyDeleteI think the most important secret in the story is finding the hidden friendship in others. The children discover friendship by finding the garden and then through curiosity, searching for things together, and being nice to get others to help them on their quest to restore the garden. This secret is important because friendship is good and it teaches them about how the world works. If you are kind to people instead of being rude they will in turn be kind to you. You might make a friend where you didn't expect one. Your life will also be better if you are happy and when you are kind you are happier.
A great friendship starts with the second greatest commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31 In the beginning of the story Mary treated everyone as a slave, not as her neighbor. By the end she knew what it meant to have friends and care for them.
DeleteI think that one of the most pivotal secrets in the Secret Garden is the mystery around the late Mrs. Craven. Almost everything that the characters do in the story is because of her. I think that she is one of the most important and overlooked characters in the book. We don't even know her first name! The secrets about her death, her garden, and her son are all HUGE themes throughout the story, and it proves to me just how big of an impact her death had on this family.
ReplyDeleteGarrett
DeleteMaddie, I never thought about Mrs. Craven being so important to the story. BUt now that you point it out, I think you are right and it makes a lot of sense. Maybe the author should have given us more information about her, it might have made the story even better.
Maddie that is an interesting secret. It is not surprising that it was Mrs. Craven that came to Mr. Craven in the dream and talked him into returning to the garden. Just as dreams can't cultivate from nothing, Mr. Craven must of had the ultimate desire to return home and his wife was the inspiriation.
DeleteMaddie~
DeleteWow!! I never thought of it that way...very insightful thought! Who do you think Mrs. Craven represents in real life? I think it is interesting that her fall—pretty literally—killed the joy in the Craven household. Do you that could be representative of the figurative fall in the Garden of Eden?
~Janae
In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel there is a hidden boy and a hidden garden to which there is a hidden secret key. However, hidden secrets are meant to be shared. The hidden boy, Colin, cries because he thinks he has a hunchback and will die young. Mary wakes up in the middle of the night and hears his crying. She ventures off into the darkness to the hidden rooms of manor in search of the sound. It is significant in that she did not want to be kept in the dark literally or figuratively. She finds a boy that is full of himself in his fears. She does not coddle him, for she looks at his back and finds he doesn’t have a lump, even the size as a pin. She does not have any sympathy for him other than feeling sorry that he had been hidden away by his father, secret number two.
ReplyDeleteIt was Mary’s rebellious nature that led her to Colin but with no thought of her own she was led by a robin to find the most magical secret, the hidden garden.
Hudson~
DeleteVery interesting post! I love how you discribe Colin and his interactions with Mary. Do you think that, overall, Mary's 'rebellious nature' helped or hurt her?
I am not sure I agree that Mary was not prodded a little by her own thoughts about the Garden when led by the Robin. Do you think that her own curiosity could have played a part in that discovery?
This is Janae, sorry I didn't sign in :)
DeleteThe Secret Garden consists of more concealed motifs than its title suggests. Not only does Mary accidentally find a hidden garden, she also finds a lonely, hurting, scaredy-cat, boy hidden away in the manor where she came to live. This boy, Colin, was thought to be crippled. The secrets in the novel are revealed in ways that show the makeup of the person. Mary’s rebellious nature is revealed when she disobeys Mrs. Medlock and searches for Colin’s crying. She appears to lack empathy when she completely disregards his hunchback, but eventually yields to true friendship when each day she and Dickon take him to the garden to regain his strength. Colin stands, takes steps, and eventually the secret is revealed; Mr. Craven returns to find his son able to walk to him. Mr. Craven’s true love for his son was revealed by his happiness.
ReplyDeleteThe Secret Garden’s most pivotal secrets are the Garden and Colin. The Garden is discovered by Mary when prompted by the Robin and her own curiosity. After the Robin leads her to the key, the wind blows away the ivy on the Garden wall, revealing the door. Colin is discovered after a series of incidents involving the wind and Mary’s excellent ears. In the house, there were a few nights where the wind seemed to be howling especially wildly, however, the shrieking and whining was eventually attributed to one Master Colin Craven. The descriptions of these discoveries are especially important because they add to the theme of nature that pervades the book. None of the discoveries would have been possible without the “help” of some natural element, whether it be the Robin, the wind, or some other entity.
ReplyDeleteThis is Janae, sorry I didn't sign in :)
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