LT4 Revision

Hey guys. I know the blog has fallen by the wayside a little, but was thinking that it may be useful to revive it for sharing of LT4 essays and/or revision chat. Hope you’re all doing well. Mrs M x

What would the modern day version of Celie be listening to on her iPod?

A song I feel would certainly be on Celie’s iPod is U2’s “Still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” The song is suited to Celie because even though she’s been through so much in her early life, and has met people she loves and cares for, she is not truly happy until the end of the novel. The lyrics “I have spoke with the tongue of angels, I have held the hand of a devil” refers to the religious connection that Celie shares. It could also refer to that even though Celie prays and asks for God’s help (Angel), she is introduced to horrible people in her life, such as Pa (Devil). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv-lKwOQvE

The second song I feel that Celie would listen to is “Everything I do (I do it for you)” by Bryan Adams. The song is about how the narrator will push himself for what he thinks is right and for the people around him that he loves. This connects very well with Celie because from the moment she is shown a picture of Shug, she wants to love and care for her and would do anything to make her happy, like the narrator in the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGoWtY_h4xo

What would Celie be listening to on her Ipod?

I think Celie’s favorite songs at the beginning of the novel would be extremely different to her favorites at the end of the novel.  At the beginning of the novel, Celie is a naive young girl who has been oppressed by men her whole life. I think at this point she’d be listening to something like “This is a Man’s World” by James Brown :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fd8_gojNXc

Being with Shug gives Celie a sense of comfort and empowerment. I think at this point in the novel, a point were Celie actually feels good about herself and is experiencing first love, she’d be listening to something like “You’re the Exception” by Paramore.

And at the end of the novel when Celie has her religious awakening, and expresses her new Pantheist view, I think the perfect song for her would be “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM

Cheesy I know 🙂

Celie’s Favourite Tunes

As soon as this task was given to us I knew exactly what song Celie would be listening to on her ipod. Throughout most of the novel, we see a very naive, innocent character that lacks in confidence and freedom, so I thought it was best to focus on the fragile side of Celie.

When Celie’s feeling hurt, abused and helpless during her early relationship with Mr — I feel Natasha Bedingfield’s “I Bruise Easily” is the perfect song to describe her feelings (see the link below.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAOdlgFJDAI&ob=av3e

Instantly, we can see that the opening line links severely to the novel, as “my skin is like a map of wear my hear has been” shows how her bruises live both on her outer shell, as well as her inner soul, so as like Celie the marks are both visible and emotional from the pain that she’s suffered.

“So I let down my guard, drop my defences” also highlights how like Celie, this victim is incapable of defending herself or standing up for what she truely believes in, as she has no form of defence to try and protect her from the pain.

There are also lines in the song that reflect her intimate relationships with both Mr– and Shug.

“Anyone who can touch you can hurt you or heal you” is best used to describe her relationship with Mr–, as it simply prooves that anyone has the ability to come into close contact with you in an intimate way, yet still has the ability to hurt you. In fact, this line is significant in relation to all the men that are involved in Celie’s life, as it shows that any male character who has contact with Celie has the ability to hurt her.

On the other hand, “anyone who can reach you, can love you or leave you” places emphasis on her relationship with Shug, as it shows that no matter how much someone can bond, and develop feelings with you can still leave you hurt and alone, which is what Shug did when she left Celie to marry her toy boy fellow.

To end my conclusion on why I think Celie would be listening to this track, I feel it is important to focus around the main title of the song, which is of course “I bruise easily.” The line “I bruise easily, so be gentle when you handle me” is a line that I feel describes Celie’s character perfectly. This is because she is such a fragile character who gets hurt so much by the mental and physical abuse of many. She is easily hurt, and feels shut out from the world, which is why she feels God is her only companion who she can talk to.

The inclusion of bruises also links greatly to the novel, as obviously bruises are usually purple in colour, which links to the novel’s title. The song gives a reflection of the hurt experienced by Celie during her ongoing period of both physical and emotional abuse, and conveys how she was injured both physically and spiritually during her long journey to developing into an independant woman. For these reasons, I think Celie would have been a huge fan of this track!

What would the modern day version of Celie be listening to on her iPod?

I appreciate it is a bit of a bizarre question, but I asked the same thing about Edna Pontellier to my Year 12 class and they came up with some awesome responses.

When you decide what song is appropriate you are going to have to consider which stage Celie is in? Is it the broken and lost child in the beginning or the empowered woman at the end? Or is there a song that suits all of that uncomfortable self discovery in the middle?

I am looking for: song and artist, significant lyrics and your analysis of why it is appropriate.

I look forward to ‘youtube-ing’ all of your songs….I am really not as hip and current as I thought I was (but I am sure you could’ve told me that). 

HAVE FUN 🙂 I know I will look forward to reading your comments! 

 

Because Everyone Likes a Bit Of Self Promotion

Hey guys.

I’ve started my own blog and I’d love it if any of you guys had a look at it.

My goal is to do a new post every week or so, depending on if I’ve got any ideas.

I’ve done two posts so far: one serious and one not so serious.

Here it is.

http://theamazingmisadventuresofaslightlyremarkableperson.wordpress.com/

Hope you enjoy it.

William Blake…

You guys may want to start thinking about William Blake. Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience forms the other part of the LT4 exam. I just came across this article linked to Blake – it seems tenuous but we’ll be coming back to it in relation to his themes 🙂

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/20/william-blake?CMP=twt_fd

If anyone comes across Blake related articles and info please post it here so we can start doing some pre-reading. Thanks!

*NERD ALERT* Kindle has a wild time in spain..

After speaking to MissJ yesterday about some of the books I’ve read this summer and class starting up the blog again, I thought that I would write a blog about the books I have read this summer.

Now, me buying a Kindle, plus two weeks in the sun, equals perfect book clubbing in my opinion. So I boarded that plane with only one thing in mind, and that was reading my ‘Summer11′ collection.

1, 2 & 3) To start my holiday, I re-read The Hunger Games Trilogy. These books are amazing and the film is coming out in March so once I heard this news I just had to read them again. I was not disappointed. I thought that as the last time I read these books I was a kid, I wouldn’t enjoy them again. I was soooo wrong! This time, as well as focusing on the (not so Twilight) love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale, I understood the themes more. Government control, power, downfall and loss turn out to be key factors to Collins’ series.

4) Maddy’s Oasis – Mmmm, I think I finally understand the meaning of ‘Lowri reads bad books’. I enjoyed this novella but I understand why people would slate me for reading the same type of books as the people off Jezza. Well, the ones who actually CAN read.

5) A Girl Like You – Loved it, fancied the pants off Lothario Robert! All about the secret to a successful singledom.

6) Die Laughing (Daisy Dalrymple) – I can finally say I’ve read a murder mystery book and found out the killer before the end! I’m so proud. I would love to be Daisy even though she’s from 1924.

7) The Skeleton in the Closet – A strange book. Basically, the two village weirdos pair up and decide to discover the truth of what happened in a train robbery that happened before they were born. I couldn’t help but imagine that if this turned into a film Mad Mary and Norris from Corrie would play the two mains.

8) That Summer in Ischia – What a fab book! Two young girls go to the Island of Ischia to nanny three children and one child get’s kidnapped. The story goes from the two young women, to their story many years after the incident when they have children of their own. A must read!!

9) The Motherhood Walk of Fame – I liked it, but don’t I like just about any chick-lit novel around?

10) The Accidental Time Traveller – Life on Mars as a comedy novel. Thumbs up 🙂

11) Making It Big – Set in a parallel world where big is in! Typical chick-lit ending.

12) Three Weeks to Say Goodbye – Ahh, this book was so sad! A couple adopt a baby only to learn after a year that the biological father’s family want the baby back. I know it’s not real but it scarred me for life.

13) Hedge Fund Wives – Gossip Girl for adults! LOVE LOVE LOVE ❤

14) The Stepford Wives – A bit shorter than I expected it to be. I also made the mistake of watching the film years ago, so I was a bit disappointed by the book

15) Clicking Her Heels – LOVE!! A girl gets falsely accused of cheating on her boyfriend so he boxes up her prized shoe collection and sells them on ebay! This badly affected me. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor girl as I know if something so traumatic ever happened to me, after having a mental breakdown I would travel around the world trying to get back my shoes too!

16) Why Don’t You Come For Me? – Another child kidnap story, but this one was extremely unbelievable. The start of the book was okay, but that ending was awful, I don’t even understand what was going through Janes’ mind when she wrote it.

17) The Lost Daughter (MIRA) – AMAZING! Please read this book, I don’t want to say anything just incase I ruin it. Just look it up online and read it! I actually cried and everyone knows that doesn’t happen very often :L

So as you can all see I had a pretty busy two weeks hols, and I managed to fit it all in around getting sports injuries, top creeping and dunking small annoying children.

The new Year 12s new blog…

Thought you guys may be interested in the blog of the new Year 12s! As promised, I created a new blog for them rather than you guys having to share. Some of them have started posting book reviews. It would be great if you guys could check it out and leave them some comments 🙂 http://pontyenglishblog.wordpress.com

Carol Ann Duffy: ‘Poems are a form of texting’

 

 

 

I know you guys like to keep up to date with the latest news from Duffy. What do you think about this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/05/carol-ann-duffy-poetry-texting-competition?CMP=twt_gu