Essay: Miguel Street - Rationale

Rationale

Written task Miguel Street.

Text type: newspaper article from a newspaper in Trinidad & Tobago

Subject text: Laura (chapter 10 in Miguel Street)

Text Type

Characteristics of a newspaper article:

Ø The use of pyramid writing. In the first paragraph the most important information is given, in the last paragraph the least important information is given.

Ø The subjects discussed in newspaper articles are current (most of the time).

This text is written for a more ‘sensational’ kind of newspaper, not really gossip. If this would appear in a quality newspaper they would appear in the human interest section. Therefore the target audience would probably be woman, from the middle-class.

#Examples:

v Miguel Street – A dramatic story of a woman who kept faith in life but finally lost it.

à This is more dramatic than it is (or may seem), this would not appear in a quality newspaper. This title also makes you curious, how did this happen, and why?

v Overall, they believe other women must be jealous of her

à To make the audience think she was really, really ‘fantastic’. They may become a bit jealous as well. (example of emotive language)

The basis of this article is:

v Paragraph 1: Short introduction of who Laura is, where does it take place, and some questions which are discussed in the following paragraphs.

v Paragraph 2: A brief description of her ‘history’, and how others, living in her surrounding, see her.

v Paragraph 3: Turning point in the story about Laura, happy à unhappy. Try to discuss the cause etc, with the help of quotes from MS.

The language use and style

In this article, there is a big difference between the formal style of writing a newspaper article and the quotes of the inhabitants of MS, which are really informal.

#Examples:

v ‘An amazing woman was she’, ‘ everybody welcome there’, ‘Her children: happiest persons in Miguel Street, must be’

à These quotes all describe Laura, if you compare these to: Overall, they believe other women must be jealous of her, life must have looked a bit sunnier when you saw her.

This is a very clear difference between the informal language of the people in MS and the ‘informal’ language the writer uses.

v ‘It was baby, daughter had one’ and Her oldest daughter Lorna tells her mother she is pregnant, and gives birth to a baby.

à A clear difference between the informal, and shorter way of speaking in MS and the way of speaking/writing the writer uses in this article, which is a lot more formal.

Essay: Miguel Street

Miguel Street – A dramatic story of a woman who kept faith in life but finally lost it.

Laura, a woman living in Miguel Street always kept faith in life, even though life was harsh at some point. Laura has got 8 children, has had 7 different men, and hasn’t got a lot of money. As we are talking with neighbors the following quotes best describe her: ‘An amazing woman was she’ and ‘ everybody welcome there’. Hat, an inhabitant of Miguel Street says about her: ‘Her children: happiest persons in Miguel Street, must be’. Overall, they believe other women must be jealous of her, life must have looked a bit sunnier when you saw her. What is the secret of this woman? And how did it all go wrong? This is a try to answer these questions by stories of inhabitants of Miguel Street, and Laura herself.

Laura was born in Miguel Street, some decades ago. The first 6 kids she had, were created by different men. ‘she blamed god, and the wickedness of men’ tells Hat. But the strange thing was, she looked very happy with her kids. What surprised everybody was the fact that the 7^th and the 8^th kid she had, were created by the same men, Nathaniel. Eddoes, an inhabitant of Miguel Street quotes ‘Strange men, tried be one of guys, came not from here’. Laura didn’t like Nathaniel, as they could all could imagine. After her 7^th kid, she feared Nathaniel with the following: ‘You think because you give me one baby, you own me. That baby only come by accident, you hear’. Nathaniel left. When he was already left, she got her 8^th baby. She didn’t seem to have had problems with that at all, but what made her loose her faith in life?

‘It was the baby, daughter had one’ tells Popo, who is a carpenter and is creating the thing without a name. Lots of stories are told by the inhabitants of Miguel Street, but they all came down to the following. Her oldest daughter Lorna tells her mother she is pregnant, and gives birth to a baby. From then on, Laura cries heartrending. There are different opinions about this in Miguel street, for example Boyee: ‘She had 8^th babies herself’ and Hat: ‘She old now’, he understood her, she was a grandmother now, she was old now. And the most surprising came from B. Wordsworth, who is a poet, ‘She sees all misery she has had will happen again to her daughter, this life is really a circle, if nothing changes, the same misery happens to various generations, she realizes life can be harsh towards you, if you see what happens to others’. Laura will never be the same woman again. This dramatic story has a terrible end, Lorna drowns in the river, and Laura reacts like she doesn’t care very much, which in fact reflects she will never be the same woman again.

This is just one of the dramatic stories, which captures Miguel Street these days. People who seem to have found luck change dramatically by an event. They seem to have lost faith in life. As Hat summarizes the situation in this street: ‘Life is tragedy’.

Essay: Things fall apart

Essay on Okonkwo’s relationships

Thing fall apart, the novel in which the life of Okonko and a lot of traditions are described. Okonkwo, the very strong and successful man with his three wives, son, daughter and friends. It seems like he’s not a very emotional man, although I think his relationships are very important to him.

For example when Ikemefuna is shot, he feels depressed for quite a while. Why did he still shoot Ikemefuna? Because he doesn’t want to look weak towards his ‘friends’, I think, if he had had a choice, he wouldn’t choose to shoot him, because I think he sees Ikemefuna as a real son and really loves him.

Secondly, when Enzinma is carried away by the oracle, Ekwefi follows her through the night. Okonkwo behaves like he doesn’t really love his wives, but this example show the opposite; he follows them both to all nine villages and to the caves. I think he is very afraid of something happening to his wife and daughter, but he doesn’t really show this in his daily life, because he doesn’t want to somehow look weak towards others.

Finally, I think he does attach more importance to his relationships than what he actually tells us. This is also showed by various examples, the depression after the death of Ikemefuna, the journey through the night. So, actually relationships are very important to Okonkwo, although it doesn’t seem like that at the start. Okonkwo needs them all, just like we do!

Response to Phileas Fogg: 1st WW

Phileas Fogg

What are my feelings about this morning, when the Phileas Fogg came? The first word that comes up in my mind is probably impressive. The way she told us how the war must have been was almost scary, it felt like it was very close. Especially at the end, the last poem shocked us all, we all imagined how many people must have died in that terrible war. I think it’s a good way to teach history like this, because you’re one of them, you need to know how they must have felt.

If I had to make a comment, I would say; why don’t we do this far more often? I think the two actors could teach it way better this way than our usual history teacher can. And secondly, it was way too short! We were finished in about one and a half hour, we were all sorry it had finished so quickly.

What I also liked was the very positive mood at the beginning; ‘they would be back for Christmas’ and ‘fight for their country’, and they would all become heroes. At the end, none of this was left, everything was covered in terror of everything that had happened in the trenches, and all because of only a few meters of land.

Masterclass: The history of science

OpMaat:

My response,

My first master class, ‘the history of science’ it was called, I wasn’t sure what to expect, on the 28^th of October, 8:25 it all started. Mr. Gault was our speaker. He asked us a few questions about history and guided us ‘through’ history, basically it was a ‘history lesson’, but I learned a whole lot more than I would’ve done in a normal lesson!

At the end, the question came up: Which one is more important to you: the past or the future. If I could’ve chosen the ‘now’ I would’ve done that, mr Gault said: ‘the problem with the now is, that it takes very short’ and he is right. But if I have to make a choice I’ll go for the future, not necessarily because I think history is not important, because I think it is, because of history we are where we are now, and we can do and make a lot! But because of the fact if you only look back in life you will never get anywhere in life (and on school as well!).

But when I’m writing this I start to doubt, because of our history we are where we are now, our whole civilization, cities, languages and cultures are results from our history. And, when there wouldn’t be any history, would we still be walking around like hunters and gatherers? Or would we live the way we live today? And if we wouldn’t have any history we would not have any knowledge we use every day. When I’m looking this way I think history is more important, but I’m still not quite sure if you can and must make a choice between these two.

If there would only be history and no future, I would not be satisfied as well. If you can only look back on things you and others did in the past you do not really have a purpose in life, do you?

Maybe I took this question a bit to serious, because there will always be a history and a future, but I think these are my arguments. Overall I think future is a bit more important to me, because you cannot only look back, there’s always something new coming up!

I really enjoyed this masterclass although I thought this assignment was quite difficult! I’m looking forward to the next masterclass!

Column: 1st week of school

English column assignment

Criteria for a column:

Ø A column is an opinion, you try to convince others of your own ideas

Ø A column can have various subjects, there are no rules

Ø Columns often appear in newspapers or magines, they often have one- or more columnists who write about the news.

Ø Try to come up with a surprising end

Ø Don’t use exclamation marks, you need to be clear, so no! are needed

Ø Try to look at your opinion from different views/persons

Examples of columns:

Probably the most well known columnist in the Netherland is Martin Bril (1959-2009) Who wrote in ‘The Volkskrant’. Some other very well known columnists are: Jos Brink, Remco Campert, Jan Mulder and Youp van ‘t Hek.

Write your own column:

Exhausted

This first week of school was, expressed in one word: exhausting. On Monday we started with the introduction of the pilot ‘learning and ICT’, which took (in my opinion) very long, as well actually no crucial information was given. Back home, I thought of how long the holiday had been, and of how much time I had wasted on sleeping, but I can’t complain, it was, and this is probably the biggest mistake I ever made, my own fault. I comforted myself with the idea I have had so much rest, I probably didn’t even need any sleep this whole first week (okay, maybe a bit exaggerated, but still). On Tuesday morning, we started with a lesson of English, which was, in the last 3 years, one of the most ‘relaxed’ lessons in our timetable, but it was immediately clear it wasn’t going to be that relax this year anymore.. On Thursday evening I was in bed at about 21:00, and while I was lying there I was thinking of how many weeks it still took till the autumn break, way too many: 6 long, exhausting weeks. How was I supposed to get through this whole school year, with only a break once in a blue moon? Just don’t think about it, I thought.