English Homework - Prejudice

Prejudice: The feuding families in Romeo and Juliet create tension and conflict, not unlike feuding cultures in today's society.

Families in the modern day society when two people fall in love it tends to bring the family closer to each other and give them time to get to know and explore each other’s family. The love that Romeo and Juliet have although it came about very suddenly is not like the way two people would usually fall in love in the modern society. The conflict and tension that is shown by the two families does not give them the chance to experience the real love between Romeo and Juliet, as they will never want to be together. As Romeo and Juliet grow closer and begin to understand how strong their love for each other is we begin to see the tension and conflict between the two families grow. We see examples of how Juliet doesn’t feel as close with her family as it becomes obvious that she hasn’t told her father about the fact she will marry Romeo as her father has already set her up to marry someone else. Juliet has a hard time trying to find a way to express this to her father, as the two families do not get along very well. In the modern day society families tend to connect and experience the true love that is occurring. This is very different in the play of Romeo and Juliet.

English Homework - Fate and Fortune

How significant is Romeo's belief in fate and fortune when it comes to the audience's understanding of the events leading up to Act III, Scene ii?

Romeos belief in fate and fortune plays a large role in the play as Romeo is constantly throughout the play known to be a strong believer of the idea of fate and fortune. Foreshadowing is used to show the role of fate by Romeo in act I scene v, line 105 – 110 when he states “I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date with this nights revels, and expire the term of a despised life closed in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death.” This is showing that there are obviously consequences that will come from this and he believes this is due to the idea of fate and fortune. We can clearly see that Romeo very much believes in the idea of fate and by using the technique of foreshadowing the audience is able to get a sense that something bad may be about to happen as a consequence for being an extremely strong believer in the idea of fate and fortune. 

English Homework - Love vs Lust

Romeo and Juliet are obsessed, infatuated, out of control, and irrational. Sounds like lust to me.

Romeo and Juliet constantly display their love for each other and show how deeply they have fallen for each other. They have become obsessed with each other and their love is like nothing any one has experienced. Throughout the play Romeo is falling more and more deeply in love with Juliet to the point where he wants to marry her and be with her for the rest of his life. We see a change in Romeo from being totally obsessed with a girl, finding out she doesn’t love him back and becoming depressed, to finding someone more beautiful and falling deeply in love with Juliet. Romeo has loved Juliet from the moment he saw her at the party, which is known as love at first sight. Romeo throughout the play always speaks about Juliet in a very poetic way as if she is a saint. Juliet constantly reprimands him and tells him not to be so over the top when he describes her. In act II scene vi we start to get a clear indication of how their values lie with each other. Throughout we see that they both have true feelings for each other and this becomes more and more obvious when Romeo asks Juliet to marry her and she says yes. 

English Homework - Representations of Love in Romeo and Juliet

In Act 1, we are already made aware that there can be multiple representations of love. Based on what we know of Romeo at this point in the play, how does Shakespeare represent love through the character of Romeo.

Shakespeare uses many different techniques to represent love through the character Romeo in the play. Shakespeare is representing love as a very important part of life by using Romeo and showing that he is very in love with a girl that doesn’t love him back. Shakespeare represents love in the play through the character Romeo as disheartening. This gives us the idea that when you fall in love to hard it can make you very upset. This is shown when Shakespeare shows that Romeo wants to be alone and doesn’t want to be around anyone which gives us the idea that when you fall in love and they don’t love you back, it can make you extremely depressed. Shakespeare uses imagery to show how Romeo is feeling when he finds out that the girl he is obsessed with doesn’t love him back which gives us a clear image in our head of his feelings at this time. Shakespeare shows us that the character of Romeo only loves physical beauty in a girl and he believes that the girl he loves physical beauty is going to waste. This makes the audience question why Romeo would fall so hard for someone based purely on how beautiful she is. This also impacts the way we view the love that Romeo has for girls in the play. Throughout the play the theme of love is clearly represented through the character of Romeo.

Possible Paragraph/Essay/Discussion Starters

1.            What do you think is more effective in getting a message across to an audience, traditional poetry or songs? Consider your own age group and experiences before you answer this. I believe that both traditional poetry and songs are effective ways to get a message across to an audience. Traditional poetry is a more effective way to get a message across to an older age bracket and songs are a more effective way to get a message across to a younger age bracket. Songs are an easier way to grab a younger audience, as they are more likely to listen to a song rather than read a poem. Whereas an older age bracket may enjoy reading a poem more than listening to a song. Therefore they are both effective it will just depend on the age bracket of the audience.
2.      Some people argue that the attitudes towards war, as presented in poetry, have changed over time. Why might this be the case? This may be the case as different eras have experienced different things therefore the attitudes presented in poetry would be very different back then to now. The generations that were around when the war was still going would have a different view of the different attitudes were like during war and will be more knowledgeable. Whereas those who were not around when war was on have only heard stories so those generations make assumptions on what they believe war was like. The attitudes presented in poetry have changed because of the different generations and their experiences. 

Practice Paragraph Writing

11.   The setting of Chain of Hearts helps reinforce the idea that I can be hard to escape the past. Discuss. The setting in Chain of Hearts tells us that it can be hard to escape your past. This is shown mainly through the characters of Sophie and Fran. Throughout the story, Sophie and Fran are put in many situations that take them back to things that have happened in there past and these situations remind them of times in their life, some good and some bad. In the story Sophie is taken back to her aunts house and while she is there she meets lots of different people from her aunt Fran and her mother Geraldine’s younger years. This reminds Fran about the times when she was younger and the stories that Fran tells Sophie remind her of things that have gone on when she was younger. This story really represents the idea that its hard to escape from your past.

22.  The language choices that Maureen McCarthy makes throughout her novel, Chain of Hearts, help the reader to understand the emotions of the characters. Discuss. There are many language choices that Maureen McCarthy makes to show that the characters in the novel Chain of Hearts are being emotive. This is shown a lot when Sophie is telling Fran about when she was involved in the car crash that killed Mai, she uses emotive language to describe the fact that Sophie is very emotional when remembering this time. She describes Sophie crying, to show her emotions.  Maureen McCarthy uses statements like “her voice dropped away” and “she turned her head slightly so that I couldn’t see her face”. This gives us an image in our head that Sophie is upset about the incident that happened with Mai.

   3. The relationships between the characters in Maureen McCarthy’s novel, Chain of Hearts are reinforced to the reader by using of multiple voices. Discuss.  In the novel Chain of Hearts Maureen McCarthy uses multiple voices for the Characters. This gives the readers a sense of the different emotions and feelings that the characters have. It also lets us see the situation from a different point of view when a different character is talking. In the novel the start of the new chapter is a new characters voice, this gives us a clear idea of whose point of view we are hearing at the time. This is also good as it gives the readers a different prospective of the situation that is being spoken about in the novel.

Geraldine's Diary Entry

Dear Diary,

When I decided to send Sophie to live with my sister Fran for a while, it was because she’s impossible to deal with, and I mean impossible! I don’t have very many options anymore. She has adapted a lot of bad habits that Rob and I can’t control! I have never gotten along with Fran, we are both very different in our personalities and she was defiantly always the favorite between mum and dad. To be honest I have always been jealous of her. She did such a great job looking after dad when he was very sick. After Sophie was involved in that incident with some of her friends, she has given up. She doesn’t try anymore with her academics, she never has friends come round to the house and she has developed bad eating habits. I just don’t understand! I mean she has always been an excellent student in everything she does! I’m still really shocked that Fran agreed to have Sophie stay with her; she was our last option for Sophie! If she hadn’t agreed to have her we would have had to have Sophie but into hospital for a while. I mean its a lot for me to ask Fran to have Sophie as she is still recovering from the recent death of her husband so this is a big thing for her to take on. It’s kind of strange that this whole strange behavior all started not long after dad’s death.  Now that I think about it i probably should have gone and visited dad with Sophie and I should have helped out Fran and my other sister Monica with looking after dad. I haven’t spoken to Monica in a while either. I kind of feel like I have completely drifted from my sisters. I’m really hoping that Fran can get Sophie out of these terrible habits and help get her life back on track. Maybe she will help bring me closer to Fran.

Fran xx

Diary Entry

Pretend you are one of the characters in the story and write a journal/diary entry that challenges the representation of women that is found in the original story.

The fairytale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs represents women as objects rather than humans.

Dear Diary,

I am so sick of being treated like I’m nothing, I just wish people would know that I am human I have the same rights as everyone else. When the huntsman dumped me in the forest, I realised that I have been treated so unfairly. Its like they all want me to survive on my own, its like they don’t want me here anymore. My stepmother doesn’t support me much in this either. I’m scared that nothing will be the same again. The forest is so empty and I don’t think anyone ever comes here. I don’t think anyone should have to deal with this or have this happen to them ever in their life. It’s a horrible feeling, being left here alone in the cold at night, having to find your own way around. I’m only 7 years old, which makes matters more difficult and confusing. I have never been taught any ways to survive on my own, so I’m out here alone, clueless. I wish that I would soon find someone out here to help me and guide me to somewhere that I could stay.

Snow White xo

Homework Task 2

Mean Girls

1. What does the main female character look like? Pay particular attention to the question of whether she is considered beautiful.

 The main character Cady in the movie mean girls is not considered the most beautiful by the girls in the pink group, but at the same time she is considered beautiful to some of the boys in the film for example Aron Samuels.

2. How old is she?

In the movie, Cady is 16 years old. 

3. Is she in a position of power or not?

In the movie the group "the pinks" are considered to be in power as they rule where everyone sits at lunch and decide if Cady can sit with them or not, so in the movie Cady isn't in the position of power.

4. What does she do?

 As Cady is the new student to the school, she tries to make a good impression and she tries to find people to hang around with. She meats Janice and Damien who become her friends, but when she gets invited to have lunch with the pinks, she accepts the offer to find out information for Janice and Damien. 

5. What are her personal characteristics?

Cady's personal characteristics are nice, naive and friendly. This is shown in the movie when she is with Janice and Damien and they are purposely missing her maths class, she gets worried that she's doing the wrong thing, and trusts her friends.

6. What happens to her?

 In the end the whole of the pink group who are considered the most popular split up and Cady returns to being friends with Janice and Damien.

7. How do males react to her?

 In the movie most males like her personality and are automatically attracted to her, because of her friendly personality.

8. How do other females react to her?

 Females around her are usually nice to her, except when she joins the pink group other girls start to change their minds about her because a lot of the other females are in some ways scared of the pinks.

9. Is she punished or rewarded by the story? What is she punished or rewarded for?

She is rewarded in this story as in the end she becomes friendly with everyone and fits in nicely with the other students and has lots of friends. 

10. How is she punished or rewarded?

She makes lots of friends and everyone is nice to each other and respects others which was her goal.

English Homework Week 1

Same Love - Macklemore

1. Women are described in the text, through the lyrics as an important part of life and that the support they provide is important in the growth of family's, and that women's characteristics are important in families also.

2. Women's characteristics are important in the lyrics of this song, it describes how their characteristics are important and how no matter what you should always show respect towards women and that women shouldn't have to change, they should be able to be themselves.

3. The Males in the song, show the females that they are perfect the way they are and the males are trying to show other males to show respect towards all females because they are an important part of life.

4. The main message that is being portrayed to the audience is that, women and men should be respected equally no matter who they are or what their interests are because we are all human and we shouldn't have to change for anyone.