Category Archives: English Learner Profile (ELP)

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

English EOY Reflection

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I think the most memorable pieces of work that I will take with me are Cyrano de Bergerac and The Great Gatsby. In both these pieces, the authors present interesting conflicts between the male characters and show how the course of their lives is ultimately dependent on women and the decisions that men make for them. In addition, these pieces are so memorable because, through the lens of the global issues of culture, identity, and community, the author characterises the males as egotistical and arrogant, when in fact they seem to be not in control over their own lives.

The biggest takeaway from poetry tasks has been the importance of showing not only what a poet chooses to and the effect it may have but also to question why exactly they chose to do so, and their intended meaning. By taking this factor into account, I have been able to elevate my analysis by exploring the literary techniques in more depth.

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

Unseen Text – Heart of Darkness

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Text A 

  • How would you describe this voice?
  • To what extent does it help us understand Heart of Darkness?
  • What does this introduction to Lord Jim say about Conrad’s preoccupations, concerns, and style?

The voice of the this passage begins with a fairly frustrating tone as the author struggles to understand how some reviewers felt the need to point out the credibility of the novel and thus failed to have a more creative vision of the novel. However, as the text proceeds, the tone of the author alters to be more reflective as he explains the formation of Heart of Darkness.

The text helps us to understand how the Heart of Darkness is a “free and wandering tale,” in which the author has intended to leave plenty of room for his readers’ to come up with their own interpretations as they follow the “simple and sensitive character,” that Conrad has created. The novel that Conrad has wrote is very much reflective of how it was created. In the sense that the event (pilgrim ship episode) was the only thought that Conrad initially had for this story and the rest that followed was not planned.

It is the fact that men talked “all the time” and “other men to listen for so long,” that the author explained is what made the novel in fact “interesting.” The text shows how the author came to the revelation that it is the “listeners’ endurance” that reasons why this novel is worth reading and more importantly writing in the first place.

 

 

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

Paper 1 Reflection

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Something I did well:

  • Pay attention to the isolated line, and how it is used as a turning point
  • Deep insights

Something I would like to do better:

  • Properly differentiating between “the speaker,” “the poet,” “persona,” and “his.”
  • Giving convincing arguments for lineation and the intention of the poet (e.g. enjambment)
  • More careful attention to small details
    • e.g. quoting correctly and therefore interpreting a metaphor correctly
  • More variation in terms of vocabulary
  • Better presentation of ideas in general.

 

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

La Belle Dame sans Merci By John Keats

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d) a sense of tension between imagination and reality, our interior worlds and our public ones?

John Keats’s poem La Belle Dame sans Merci, presents a speaker who comes across a “haggard-looking” knight who reminisces about a wild, and enchanted women who the poet perceives to be imaginary and a figment in the knight’s thoughts. Throughout the poem, Keats creates tension between the knight’s imagination and the reality in which he exists, which exposes the human desire to explore something unnatural and romanticised despite the danger of it being unrealistic and temporary.

The poem envisions a dream the knight had of the “pale kings and princes,” and wakes up still hoping to see the beautiful woman again. Keats shows how despite the “death-pale” appearance of the people in the knight’s dream, he still wishes to escape the reality where “no birds sing,” and relive the memories of the faerieland that he is warned against by the kings and princes. Keats is able to bring his readers back and forth between a secure yet “withered” reality and an inviting yet mysterious imagination whereby one can experience the beauty of a “faery’s child.”

 

 

 

 

 

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

What kind of statement does The Great Gatsby convey?

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The Great Gatsby initially is a representation of the ‘American Dream,’ where extravagant parties, frivolous spending and wild relationships are expected. However, through Fitzgerald’s characterisation of the male and female character, we can see how this novel is instead a representation of everything wrong in this idealised lifestyle and reveals both the cynical and romantic aspects of what it is like to be living in the US during the mid 1920s.

On one had, Fitzgerald presents the characters to be rather dark and selfish through the characterisation of Tom Buchanan and the description of the setting. By presenting Tom as a masculine husband who cheats on his wife with the wife of a a man who he treats poorly, we can see how this character is not sensitive towards the dignity of others and seems to not shy away from making others feel ashamed or unfortunate in comparison to himself. It is this sense of arrogance that characterises Tom as both powerful yet vulnerable, as he, without hesitation, feels the need to prove himself to others as a superior man. The setting of the “alley of ashes,” is described as a an awfully frightening place that is located in the middle of Gatsby and Daisy’s house. Fitzgerald perhaps centres this location to point out the unlikeliness that Gatsby and Daisy’s future relationship will struggle to succeed. This is shown by the ending of the novel where the death of Myrtle Wilson, caused by these two characters, is the abrupt ending of their relationship.

 

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

I Guess Everything Reminds You of Something – Discussion Thoughts

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In a brief summary, this story presents a father who finds a story that was written by his son. From this point, his father expresses his amazement of his son’s talent and his ability write so beautifully. However, the tension begins to show when both characters go pigeon shooting. In this moment, the father can see how his son is excelling whilst he is doing badly on his own, and we can see how the father begins to become slightly aggressive in his tone and rather resentful of his son’s success. However, the author allows the readers to question the son’s intentions as his advice to his father is what causes him to miss his shot multiple times. The son appears to be rather boastful and arrogant. What the author exposes is that the father trained his son to be a good shooter, whereas the story the boy had written was a shock to his father, something that he never would have expected. Additionally, as a writer himself, its almost as if the characters are put under competition, constantly making remarks that although sound perfectly normal, instead have contrasting intentions. It is at the end of this short story where the father comes to know that the “prize-winning story” was in fact completely plagiarised by his son. The author reveals that the “boy had never been any good,” and it was not his sickness that made him vile but that he was like this all along.

The story is written in third-person, yet narrated from the father and we can see how between dialogue, the author demonstrates how the father reminisces of past times that he is remembered by as the story progresses. One of the main values that have been embedded in this story and that can be observed is honesty. Throughout the story, the author shows how honesty can be used when a person has either good or bad intentions. Revealing too much information might appear trustworthy and sincere however by doing so, it is easy for one to manipulate another. Without giving enough, a person will clearly be seen as secretive and manipulative.

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

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In this short story, Carver offers several perspectives of love and therefore enables his readers to form interpretations based upon the discussion between the four characters presented in the story. Carver chooses to set the scene of the story with simplicity, which is used in order to allow readers to focus on what is being said and not use the setting and the character’s descriptions to form their interpretations. Instead, the author utilises these characters as a pathway to introduce several points of view, that both interlink as well contradict each other and offer challenging questions.

Carver’s tone in this story varies between characters. As Mel holds most of the dialogue, Carver is able to present Mel with the most distinct voice and the one that dominates the scene.  Thus enabling the readers to  easily note Mel’s actions and words, and thus perhaps finding themselves agreeing with this character’s rather contradictory perspective on love.

Mel is presented as a character who both appears disorderly and pessimistic, as shown by his relationship with Terri, but also perceives Mel to be a character with admiration and optimism, through his attitude towards the elderly couple who appeared to have a fairytale-like relationship. Perhaps this is why Mel progressively becomes more aggressive during this scene, as he realises that his relationship with Terri, which appears to be realistic, is not what he desires and therefore he challenges Terri and offers controversial ideas to the group. Carver indicates that Mel is possibly ashamed of his love with Terri and hence makes conscious decisions to ruin it and create tension, in which no other character responds significantly to. It is this silence, that Carver creates, which produces this idea that love is a mystery, and leaves the question of what is love and what it might look like unanswered.

Carver uses this piece as a form of providing perspectives rather than showing his own through each of the characters. Its this choice that makes the story more complex and allows questions and challenges to arise.

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

Tarot Card Interpretations

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Scythe: Could be a representation for harvesting and the work done to provide something new. This could connect to a fresh start for myself in my own life and the beginning of something pure and new as I move onto later stages in my life. However, it could also act as a warning, and indicate that there may be future danger in my personal life, where I must be careful and observe potential harm.

Mountain: A symbol of an on-going journey and current struggles and obstacles that could be in my way, as I attempt to navigate my way through school and onto later education. The reflection of the mountain may represent the idea of self-awareness and ensuring that one is completely acknowledgeable of themselves and their actions.

Fish: Could represent current and flow. It could be something that is inevitable and that I should allow to happen without interference. Or is could show sharing in a society where ‘schools’ come together to communicate and navigate as one, through any obstacles and challenges that may come their way.

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

Cyrano de Bergerac – Thoughts

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  • Cyrano takes pride in the fact that he is a man with morals and principles and does not require outer beauty to be respected and honoured.
  • Yet is open about the fact that Roxanne will never love him because of the way he looks.
  • He even shames those that only have “the looks” and not the “brains” or “the elegance within” which is hypocritical as he indirectly uses Christian to get closer to Roxanne.
  • Christian might be argued to be a placement character, who only serves to enhance characteristics of Roxanne and Cyrano, yet the ‘friendship’ formed between him and Cyrano help to show that he is a character who is vital in shaping both Roxanne and Cyrano.
  • Although at first it seems that Cyrano has no alternate motive to help Christian, other than being a ‘good friend,’ we can soon see how Cyrano benefits from this alliance.
  • We know that Christian does not have the same mind as Cyrano but he is used as the face of Cyrano’s words, yet when Roxanne is so in love from what she hears from Christian, she realises that looks do not matter.
  • This at first might seem to be beneficial for Cyrano, as he simply has what Roxanne wants, but it is much more complicated than that.
  • Through the system that existed between the three characters, Cyrano was able to love Roxanne from afar, without all the complications. By keeping this secret, he wasn’t “making a sacrifice”, he was being selfish. Without the alliance, he would not have a reason to express all these emotions to her, and by telling her the truth of his love at the beginning, he would risk the friendship they had.
  • Although at the beginning, we are made to place our sympathies with Cyrano, especially in the scene where Christian climbs up to Roxanne’s balcony and kisses her, we soon learn that Cyrano is satisfied with just the fact that his words are consuming Roxanne to all its extent.
  • Just like De Guiche uses his exterior to improve his social status, Cyrano uses the fact that he does not care about such superficial things as a facade to cover the truth that he is a vulnerable, incredibly sensitive man who is insecure about his looks, and also uses others for his benefit.
  • Although De Guiche is a character that is not liked until the end of the play, his honesty makes it easier to understand him, whilst Cyrano plays the role of a complicated man.
  • When Christian dies, I initially thought that Cyrano would disclose the truth, but instead he carried on for years, visiting Roxanne with it hidden.
  • His sudden death is what caused him to reveal the truth, but there was no real satisfaction in doing so.
Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

Is Odysseus a complicated man?

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I agree that to some extent, Odysseus is a complicated character, which can be seen through his naturally deceptive nature. However, by acknowledging the journey that he has undertaken, I find the majority of his decisions reasonable and justifiable. For example, after being sent off by the Phaeacians, Odysseus visits Eumaeus, but disguises himself and creates a story where he has come from Crete. Although Odysseus knows that he is back home in Ithaca, he chooses to lie. I believe that due to his struggle of making his way home, it would be difficult to trust anyone, even those who he knew before the battle of Troy. Perhaps, he believes that everyone and everything is against him, causing him to delay disclosing his true identity to anyone, even those who he used to know so well. Odysseus even questions Penelope’s loyalty and is worried that she might turn against him on his arrival. Odysseus connects this belief with the unfortunate situation that Agamemnon was put in when he arrived back home, where his wife, Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as her lover when he was away. However, when Odysseus reunites with Telemachus at the swineherd’s hurt, he immediately reveals his identity, which contradicts his other decisions where he has chosen to lie until he truly trusts the other person.