Saturday, April 5, 2014

Wk. 5: Option A




Use what you have learned from reading these pieces to write a paragraph that provides an analysis of how the theme of the pleasures and pains of growing up is depicted in the two pieces, addressing the writers’ use of style and diction.



As a starting point, you may want to consider what is emphasized, absent, or different in the two texts.



Develop your paragraph by providing textual evidence from both texts.
Use the provided lined paper to compose your response.
 
You must IDENTIFY the grammatical, literary, and syntactical terms (from this sheet in the middle column) WITHIN your paragraph.   Do not simply summarize and quote. Remember that this paragraph is about the writing, not an assessment of the characters' growth throughout the book.


Reading A: “The Secret Life of Bees”
By: Sue Monk Kidd
Pgs. 228-230
Reading B: “The Power of Love to Transform and Heal”
By: Jackie Lantry
Zach caught up with me as I reached the tomato garden.  He took my hand, and we kept walking, stepping over May’s wall, walking into the woods without speaking. 

Beneath the trees, moonlight trailed down.  I steered us toward the water. 

Water can be so shiny in the dark.  We stood on the bank and watched the moving pockets light, letting the water sounds well up around us.  We were still holding hands, I felt his fingers tighten around mine.

“There was a pond near where I used to live, “ I said.  “Sometimes I would there to wade in the water.  One day the boys from the next farm were there fishing.  They had these little fish they’d caught fastened onto a stringer.  They held me down on the bank and hooked it around my beck, making it too small to pull over my head.  I was shouting, ‘Let me up, get that off me,’ but they laughed and said, ‘What’s the matter, don’t you like your fish necklace?’

“Goddamn boys,” Xach said.

“A few of the fish were already dead, but most of them flapped around with their eyes staring at me, looking scared.  I realized if I swam out into the water up to my neck, they could breathe. I got as far as my knees, but then I turned back.  I was too afraid to go any further.  I think that was the worst part. I could’ve helped them and I didn’t.”

“You couldn’t have stayed out there in the pond forever,” Zach said.

“But I could’ve stayed a long time.  All I did was beg them to undo the stringers.  BEGGED.  They said to shut up, I was their fish holder, so I sat there till all the fish died against my chest.  I dreamed about them for a year.  Sometimes I would be hooked on the chain along with them.”

“I know that feeling,” he said.

“I looked as far into his eyes as I could see.  “Getting arrested—“ I didn’t know how to put it.
“What about it?” he said.
“It changed you, didn’t it?”
He stared at the water.  “Sometimes, Lily, I’m so angry I want to kill something.”

“Those boys who made me wear the fish—they were angry like that, too.  Angry at the world, and it made them mean.  You have to promise me, Zach, you won’t’ be like them.”

“I don’t want to,” he said.

“Me either.”

He bent his face close to mine and kissed me.

I believe in the ingredients of love, the elements from which it is made. I believe in love's humble, practical components and their combined power.

We adopted Luke four years ago. The people from the orphanage dropped him off at our hotel room without even saying goodbye. He was nearly six years old, only 28 pounds and his face was crisscrossed with scars.

Clearly, he was terrified. "What are his favorite things?" I yelled. "Noodles," they replied as the elevator door shut.

Luke kicked and screamed. I stood between him and the door to keep him from bolting. His cries were anguished, animal-like. He had never seen a mirror and tried to escape by running through one. I wound my arms around him so he could not hit or kick. After an hour and a half he finally fell asleep, exhausted. I called room service. They delivered every noodle dish on the menu. Luke woke up, looked at me and started sobbing again. I handed him chopsticks and pointed at the food. He stopped crying and started to eat. He ate until I was sure he would be sick.

That night we went for a walk. Delighted at the moon, he pantomimed, "What is it?" I said, "The moon, it's the moon." He reached up and tried to touch it. He cried again when I tried to give him a bath until I started to play with the water. By the end of his bath the room was soaked and he was giggling. I lotioned him up, powdered him down and clothed him in soft PJs. We read the book One Yellow Lion. He loved looking at the colorful pictures and turning the pages. By the end of the night he was saying, "one yellow lion."

The next day we met orphanage officials to do paperwork. Luke was on my lap as they filed into the room. He looked at them and wrapped my arms tightly around his waist.

He was a sad, shy boy for a long time after those first days. He cried easily and withdrew at the slightest provocation. He hid food in his pillowcase and foraged in garbage cans. I wondered then if he would ever get over the wounds of neglect that the orphanage had beaten into him.

It has been four years. Luke is a smart, funny, happy fourth-grader. He is loaded with charm and is a natural athlete. His teachers say he is well behaved and works very hard. Our neighbor says she has never seen a happier kid.

When I think back, I am amazed at what transformed this abused, terrified little creature. It was not therapy, counselors or medications. It did not cost money, require connections or great privilege. It was love: just simple, plain, easy to give. Love is primal. It is comprised of compassion, care, security, and a leap of faith. I believe in the power of love to transform. I believe in the power of love to heal.

11 comments:

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  3. you spelled Zach wrong in the Reading A it says "Xach"

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  4. In both of these passages, both the good things and bad things in growing up are brought out. The first passage uses imagery to show that one of the joys of growing up is love. Lily says “We were still holding hands. I felt his fingers tighten around mine.” By using this descriptive language, it makes it easier for the reader to create a mental picture. This passage also shows the downsides to growing up. “Those boys who made me wear the fish—they were angry like that, too. Angry at the world, and it made them mean.” This quote uses dashes as punctuation to add a pause, showing that Lily was upset recalling being bullied by the boys.
    Passage 2 uses word choice to represent the positive experience of love, while growing up. The author says “I believe in love’s humble, practical components and their combined power.” By using powerful words such as “humble”, it makes it clearer to see what the author is trying to say. The author of this passage also mentions the bad parts of growing up such as abandonment. “The people from the orphanage dropped him off at our hotel room without even saying goodbye.” The author used symbolism, using the orphanage to represent the child’s past, negative life, and the hotel room to represent a new life

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  5. After reading these two pieces side by side, I am able to compare how each author approaches the theme of the pleasures and pains of growing up. Sue Monk Kidd uses interactive dialogue in a realistic fiction setting to let the reader experience the pleasures and pains of growing up. Throughout The Secret Life of Bees, the reader experiences the same pleasures and pains of growing up as Lily and Zach. Kidd makes this possible by her rich use of emotional language, letting the reader know what each character is thinking, descriptive detail, and dialogue. In this piece from the book, pain is shown when Lily describes how a group of mean boys bully her. She tells Zach, “Those boys who made me wear the fish—they were angry like that, too. Angry at the world, and it made them mean.” Even though my first reaction to the acts of the boys was anger, I felt like Lily behaved like an adult by not retaliating. This shows that she is growing up. In fact, she told Zach about the experience, not so he would feel bad for her, but as an example of what she didn’t want to happen to him. She was afraid that Zach would become mean from being in jail. She makes him promise that he won’t. She says, “You have to promise me, Zach, you won’t’ be like them.” This piece ends with the pleasure of growing up which is—one’s first kiss. The piece by Jackie Lantry is different from Kidd’s piece for a couple of reasons. The first is her style. Lantry uses persuasive, personal narrative to tell the story of adopting an angry, scared little boy. Zach and Lily are teenagers experiencing the pleasures and pains of growing up. Luke is a toddler growing into childhood experiencing the pleasures and pains of growing up. The second thing that is different between the two pieces is the passage of time in the pieces. In Kidd’s piece, it’s just a moment in time. In Lantry’s piece, she tells the reader what happens over a number of years. She shows how the pains of growing up are made easier by love over a number of years. Lantry says, “When I think back, I am amazed at what transformed this abused, terrified little creature. It was not therapy, counselors or medications. It did not cost money, require connections or great privilege. It was love: just simple, plain, easy to give.” Her experience with Luke ends in pleasure. The two pieces are alike in their emphasis put on the power of love. Both authors clearly express the happiness and sadness of growing up, and how love can turn pain to pleasure.

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  6. When Lily was little, she did not have many friends and not a lot of people liked her. She had to deal with this while she was growing up because it is a part of life. In this passage, she was telling Zach about a time when she was bullied. Many people her age have to deal with bullying and a lot of other conflicts with people their age. However, as she gets older, she is also making a lot of friends with the Boatwright’s, and Zach. She didn’t have many friends at home, but when she went to Tiburon she had found a lot more. A friend that she liked was Zach because they had a lot of things in common. They both worked at the same place, and liked to work with bees. Zach and Lily got along really well with each other. This passage is neutral because it discusses a good and bad part of her life that goes along with growing up. The author uses description, and also uses words to make it seem as if we are there in the story. They do not plainly tell the story; they are trying to make the story come alive.

    When Luke was first adopted, he was terrified. He did not know the people that were adopting him, so it was a scary thing. But, as time went on, things got better for him, and he started to become a happy child because he was starting to get used to his parents. When he met his parents for the first time, “Luke kicked and screamed. I stood between him and the door to keep him from bolting.” But, as he got used to his new parents and the new place where he was living, he became “a smart, funny, happy fourth-grader. He is loaded with charm and is a natural athlete. His teachers say he is well behaved and works very hard. Our neighbor says she has never seen a happier kid.” Luke has had pains in the past with growing up, but when he was adopted it’s like he became a new person and was given a new life. Maybe if Luke was not adopted, he still could have been a happy child, because he would learn to understand once he grew up. Both of these pieces are informal, because they are written in first person view, and have dialogue. This piece does give description, but it does not use as much description as the other one. It has repetition with the words “he” and “I.”

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  7. The theme of the pleasures and pains of growing up is depicted in these two pieces because they both tell painful stories. Both of these pieces share a story full of pain and sadness, of being hurt. After, though, they show you love. They show how love was transformed and healed the person. In Reading A, the author tells the story of Lily being bullied when she was little. Lily was upset and talked about how she was unloved and hurt by the bullies. Then, Zach kissed her. Zach had loved Lily. In Reading B, Jack Lantry told a story about a young boy who was neglected. He was in an orphanage and was given no love. When Lantry had adopted him, the first few days Luke, the adopted boy, would cry and scream at the slightest thing. Then, Lantry explained how Luke was transformed by love. In the two pieces you could tell when the author was upset. They both used long sentences and long paragraphs. It was as if they were trying to explain the pain and the story. After the story, the sentence got short and abrupt. That is because the author knew and wasn’t confused. The author told that the kid and Lily were loved. As the text says in Reading A, “He bent his face close to mine and kissed me.” This shows that Lily was given love. Zach had showed his love for Lily. In the two pieces the authors use personification for love. They used it to show love and emotions were alive. As the text says in Reading B, “Love is primal. It is comprised of compassion, care, security, and a leap of faith. I believe in the power of love to transform. I believe in the power of love to heal.” The author used the personification to show emotions and how they felt in that scene. They used it to explain.

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  8. Both authors use their own writing style to provide the concept of the pains and pleasures of growing up. “They held me down on the bank and hooked it around my beck, making it too small to pull over my head. I was shouting, ‘Let me up, get that off me,’ but they laughed and said, ‘What’s the matter, don’t you like your fish necklace?’” Sue Monk Kidd uses dialogue in this quote to show the terrible experience with the fish necklace that occurred when Lily was growing up, which would be one of the pains of growing up. Sue Monk Kidd also uses tone in this excerpt to show the pains of growing up because Lily is talking very seriously and formal about her pains in growing up. On the other side of the coin, Jackie Lantry uses the title to his advantage by showing that while growing up one of the pleasures that can cure the pain is love. This author also uses syntax to show the pains of growing up for this poor orphan child. “Clearly, he was terrified "What are his favorite things?" I yelled. "Noodles," they replied as the elevator door shut.” By using such this simple sentence of conversation between the new parents that had adopted this child and the orphanage home people, the author shows that the people at the orphanage didn’t really care about the child, and this would be another great pain in growing up for an orphan. Overall, both authors use their own specific style of writing, and grammatical, syntactical, and literary terms to further emphasize the concept of the pains and pleasures of growing up.


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  9. Option A
    As you grow up, you’re like a tree- start off small, and grow into something big, full of life. You’ll get rained on, but you’ll also live in the sun – you’ll have your ups and downs, but in the end, you become something big and beautiful. Like a tree, you’ll go through both pleasures and pains as you grow. As it states in Reading A, “he bent his face close to mine and kissed me.” This shows how Lily, growing up into a teenager, is experiencing love and happiness. It also states in Reading B, “it was love: just simple, plain, and easy to give.” This shows how as the young boy Luke grew up, he was provided with love. A pleasure in life is how you get to experience love and affection from important people in your life. These two readings show us how love is given to us as we continue to grow. The author of Reading A uses the setting to show how love is in the air. As it states in Reading A, “beneath the trees, moonlight trailed down…water can be so shiny in the dark. We stood on the bank and watched the moving pocket lights…I felt his fingers tighten around mine.” Growing up, you’ll find love only surrounds you. However, you’ll also go through certain pains as you grow up. One pain would be you’ll always have to live with scars from the past, and you’ll go through pain, tears, and abuse (physically or emotionally). As it states in Reading B, “…and his face was crisscrossed with scars.” This shows how a young boy had to go through pain, and has scars that’ll pain him as he grows up. It also states in Reading A, “I dreamed about them for a year. Sometimes I would be hooked to the chain with them.” This quote shows how Lily had a terrible incident and had nightmares about it. Together, these two quotes depict how as you grow up, you’ll go through terrible things, and have scars, nightmares and other things to only remind you of them. However, you’ll always have love, and love overpowers anything. The author of Reading B uses personification to show us how love will heal our pains, “the power of love to transform…the power of love to heal.” This personification shows us how love has power to heal our pains as we grow up.

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  10. As one keeps on growing, one is bound to experience the pleasures and pain of it. There is no way to avoid it. The theme of the pleasures and pains of growing up is depicted in two pieces. In the excerpt from “The Secret Life of Bees,” water symbolizes the variable that makes you grow. It made Lily feel the pain of not being able to help the fishes and Zach stares at the water when he states he wants to kill something. When Sue uses capitals letters for begged, it emphasizes the fact that Lily wanted to go and relieve the fishes from their pain. Lily wanted them to stop the pain of growing up. Death is a natural part of growing up. The pleasures of growing up are shown when Lily and Zach hold hands and kiss. It shows that love in an intimate way is something that occurs when you grow up. In the “The Power of Love to Transform and Heal,” the repetition of “I believe in the power of love,” reveals that love is a pleasure of growing up. Love is primal. Also, it demonstrates that love can change the state of one so differently, that Jackie even writes, “When I think back, I am amazed at what transformed this abused, terrified little creature.” Love heals you as you grow, as the title implies. The pain of growing up is shown with Jackie’s word choice as she writes, “He was nearly six years old, only 28 pounds and his face was crisscrossed with scars.” This demonstrates that the word choice of only gives it that he is underweighted and crisscrossed with scars enhances the fact that he was abused despite his age. He had to undergo abuse until he was six years old. To sum it all up, the theme of the pleasures and pain of growing up in the two pieces is shown differently, yet with a similar reason. “The power of Love to Transform and Heal” shows that the pains and pleasures can change the person you are either positively or negatively. The excerpt from “The Secret Life of Bees” shows that bullying and abuse affects not only oneself, but to others.

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  11. In both of these excerpts, the pleasure and pains or growing up are shown. In the excerpt from the "The Secret Life Of Bees", Lily is experiencing a pleasure of growing up. When we are little, we are told how we should not grow up because we will have to worry about money and bills and just life in general. But did anyone ever say "Grow up, because life is beautiful and you get to experience new things every single day."? No, but in this part of the story, Lily shows one of the pleasures of growing up. Being able to fall in love and show that love to someone. In reading B "The Power of Love to Transform and Heal", it shows both the hardships of growing up and the good parts of growing up. For the boy Luke's case, he experienced both. For the first years of his life, he was abused which is not really a common part of growing up but unfortunately he had to go through it. But as soon as he was adopted, he got to experience the great parts of growing up. Like school, sports and most importantly, love. These both show that love is the most important part of growing up. We always hear the word love, but as we grow up, we get to learn what it feels like.

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