In this unit, we focused on analyzing films, we were trying to discover how each cinematic elements created different effects to the movie, and the impact it gives to the audience. At first, we started the unit by analyzing texts, such as Tim Burton interview, Scarlet Ibis story.etc, to get us “in shape” for the summative later on. Then we analyzed Edward Scissorhands, at first, I felt like the movie was only a really lame story, but then I found out that the cinematic techniques and the messages it conveyed was really meaningful. I analyzed The Sound of Music for my summative, I really loved the movie, so during the process of taking film notes and interpreting its meanings, I didn’t feel really stressful.

In this unit, we got a chance to express ourselves, and our beliefs. We analyzed I believe essays, wrote a lot of freewrites about ourselves, a final I believe essay and a video about the essay. Although this unit was challenging and time-consuming to finish the projects, I still found it really fun and exciting, because it linked with my interest, which is drawing and editing, so I didn’t feel tired to make the video.

 

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Risk-Taking

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Unexpected Happiness comes from an Unexpected Summer

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Unit Reflection

In this unit, we have been exploring different global issues through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. We focused on medical ethics, racial discrimination, religion, justice, and power. It has been an interesting unit, we took an in-depth look at issues happened in history and could link back to today’s society. Many topics we discussed also had connections to topics we were learning in other subjects- the issue of medical ethics was connected to our psychology social experiment, the topic of racial discrimination was connected to our history class.

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Discussion

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TIEA How does skloot use sympathy or empathy to develop an argument?

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Blogpost

Trust

Unsung Heroes

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Verbal Analysis

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Unit Reflection

 

The age and language barrier between my dad and mom has caused a lot of problems for us, and it is still a major problem. My dad has been a “cold” person on his outside, but he loves every one of us inside his heart, but the problem is, his coldness causes a lot of arguments and fights in the family since it is often misunderstood. He’s a very stubborn guy, so he doesn’t like it when other people tell him to say sorry or to change, and I believe this is because his parents raised him under traditional Japanese culture, in which men should be the backbone of the family, and men should be more powerful than women. A few years ago, my mom, who’s also a very determined woman, decided to start her own business, my dad gave full support until my dad’s business went downhill, and my mom’s “surpassed” his. He never said it but I could understand that he felt “ashamed”, because he wanted to keep his dignity. Well, my mom didn’t understand, as she became more successful, she started to instruct my dad what to do in to save his business, and of course, my dad was triggered. So they were pretty much-having arguments every week, it eventually caused distrust between the two, they even accused each other of a lot of shaming things that never happened. As kids, my sister and I played the silent role, because we could never build a bridge between the two, every time we tried to stop the fight, my dad would be more triggered, and started to fight me, and my mom would blame me for making the fight more intense. But as time passes, their relationship is getting better and better, my dad would try to be less cold, and my mom would be less commanding.

I believe the story of my family is related to the relationship between Rebecca Skloot and Deborah in the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because distrust played a very important role in both stories. In the story, since Rebecca Skloot is white, and Deborah has experienced a lot of unfortunate things that were involved with white people. She felt threatened all the time, even after they became friends. She would still doubt Rebecca Skloot for working for the other “white people”, and the distrust between the characters eventually led to a big fight. But they eventually get back together because they’re sharing the same goal, which is to reveal everything about Henrietta Lacks. Trust is a very important factor in any relationship, a lot of times, what led to a break up between friends or couples is when one unconsciously shows a little distrust to another.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Doctor George Gey sacrificed Henrietta’s privacy to gain success, he removed her tumor cells without her consent and sold it worldwide, which could grow infinitely, meaning scientists no longer had to do experiments on living things, which solved a lot of ethical problems, taking the development of science to the next level. Ironically, what’s unethical about this story was that George Gey and “his HeLa cells” became well-known names across the world, while Henrietta Lacks, the contributor of the HeLa cells, was ignored.

“Henrietta knew nothing about her cells growing in a laboratory” (Skloot, 42).

Henrietta became an unsung hero, what’s worse was that her family didn’t receive any benefits from her cells, it even took her children 2 decades to figure out exactly what happened to their mother.

The story of Henrietta Lacks reminds me of another unsung hero, Joseph Swan, the person who invented the Light bulb before Thomas Edison, Swan debuted his preliminary light bulb 8 months before Edison, but Edison improved on the light bulb, in which he eventually got all the credits. This is just light George Gey making HeLa cells useful but stole the credits and attention from the contributor. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to improve on someone else’s idea, but getting all the credits for it makes it very unfair for the people who contributed to the success of something.

Unit Summary

To be honest, I never share my feelings in poems, writing poems, especially back in 8th grade, was not a way of expressing feelings, I felt extremely stressful whenever I heard the word “poem” and “writing”. It literally took me 30 minutes just to think about the title, then my “thinking” slowly turned into procrastination as my brain didn’t want to function anymore. In addition, I had always put a lot of time and effort to make the poems sound fancy, but forgot to put my feelings and thoughts into the poems. This time, I decided to not over decorate my poems, but instead put my actual feelings into the poem. This decision helped me to generate a bunch of ideas and inspirations. I even felt excited about writing and sharing my poem, which barely happened. In conclusion, I loved this unit. I never thought poems could help me express my feelings.

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Dramatic Reading

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TIEATIEAC

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Poetry Writing

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Annotation

I forgot to take a picture, I will add it when school starts

Your Perspective Can Justify Someone’s Behavior.

This unit, although it’s not easy, I personally think it is so far the most interesting unit. We interpreted and analyzed Arthur Miller’s work The Crucible in details through various activities, the dramatic reading, TIEA analysis, and blogpost connections allowed us to inspect the darkness of humanity, it was also very thought-provoking while doing the activities, we tried to shift our perspectives to Miller, and his characters’ perspectives.

Lying is a major theme throughout this unit, we have been trying to justify or invalidate lying under different scenarios, such as justifying Abigail’s actions in TIEA and blogpost, but as the unit came to an end, I realized that if we change perspectives, everyone could be either a victim or a convict, this idea was in both my blog posts and comments. 

Here’s what we did throughout the unit:

1. Dramatic Reading (My Character was Reverend Parris). 

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2.Guilt and Responsibility TIEA Analysis

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3. Summative Blogpost Abigail, Convict? Victim? or Both? 

• • Comment 1 (Heloise’s Blog)
  • Comment 2 (Claire’s Blog)

 

4. Unit Reflection 

 

 

 

          

How would you describe Abigail Williams? Perhaps a vindictive, vicious, villain? 

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is often viewed as the convict, Under Miller’s portrayal, Abigail looks like a convict who pretends to be victimized, this allows her to gain trust from the authority, which leads to the deaths of the innocents.

ABIGAIL. I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin’ out!

DANFORTH. Child, I do not mistrust you. (Miller, 100) 

From this quote, we can clearly feel that Abigail is the victim. However, to determine if someone is a convict or a victim, we have to shift perspective and find the origin of the problem – Why did Abigail conduct the witchcraft? If we rewind to Act one, John Proctor and Abigail had an affair, Abigail was madly in love, yet John wanted to remain his integrity and reputation, in which he chose Elizabeth over Abigail. 

ABIGAIL. you loved me then and you do now! 

PROCTOR. Abby, that’s a wild thing to say- (Miller, 21) 

It is crystal clear why Abigail conducted the Witchcraft, it was her loneliness, her desire for John Proctor’s love, and yet John Proctor chose Elizabeth over her.

Besides John Proctor, it was the corrupted court that forced Abigail to start the hysterical accusations. Judge Danforth only values his reputation, he values how many people confessed, which encouraged Abigail to remain accusing. In Addition, although Hale is a good-hearted man, he promoted the idea of “If you accuse, you live”  among the Salem town, which motivated Abigail to accuse others in order to save her own life. Corrupted society is the origin of corrupted people. “When the Devil comes to you does he ever come – with another person? Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you know.” (Miller, 43) 

In The Crucible, Abigail is a convict in the Salem witch trial, yet she is a victim of this corrupted society. What determines whether she is guilty or not is our perspectives, neither side can be right, either side can be right, too.  

Abigail Williams reminds me of the case of O.J Simpson, he was accused of murder, all the evidence against him were hard as a rock, however, several evidence point out the Officials might have fabricated the evidence, this changed the whole event, the court result shows O.J. Simpson was not guilty. Whether if he is guilty or not is still a mystery, it is all about our perspectives. He could be the convict of murder, he could also be a victim of the corrupted authority. 

Citation:

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.

Wbur. “25 Years On, The Lasting Cultural Impact Of The O.J. Simpson Trial.” WBUR, WBUR, 12 June 2019, https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/06/12/oj-simpson-trial-murder-nicole-simpson-ron-goldman.

Stage Actors

The word Hypocrite means “stage actors” in Greek, Stage actors’ actions and behaviors are only presented to the public for entertainment and amusement, but they behave in accordance to what they act on stage. This is exactly like how hypocrites behave, In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses Reverend Parris’s different behaviors based on different seniors to represent his hypocrisy.

(Behind the masks. Figure 1.0) 

Mask-off

PARRIS. I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it. I saw a dress lying on the grass.

ABIGAIL, innocently: A dress?

PARRIS, it is very hard to say: Aye, a dress. And I thought I saw–someone naked running through the trees! (Miller 10)

In Act one, Parris claimed that he saw the girls were running nakedly in the woods, Parris would never declare such things regarding his reputation in Salem, however, this conversation is between Parris and his niece Abigail Williams. He is less cautious, less conservative in front of Abigail, she is who the minister of Salem can talk to without wearing a heavy, tight mask. Parris even declared that his primary concern is his own reputation, that his enemies will ruin him with the witchcraft scandal in his house.

Later on, in Act Three, Parris is publicly asked in court if he has seen the girls dancing nakedly in the woods, he said he never saw them naked, but he confirms that the girls have danced.

Mask-on 

PARRIS. I do not, sit, but I never saw any of them naked.

DANFORTH. But she has danced? 

PARRIS, unwillingly. Aye, sir. 

This shows how Parris’s behavior differ based on different scenarios, he wears his mask back in the testimony regarding his reputation, despite knowing things will aggravate, he still chose to protect his own reputation. This is hypocrites, people with vindictive nature that wears a happy, caring mask.

 

1. Lies, Rumors, and Accusations

in 1692, hysteria raged in Salem, vengeance is publicly expressed, everything is exaggerated, rumors and lies spreading like a wildfire,  Mrs.Putnam for example, who is highly sensitive and catatonic, accused Rebecca Nurse, she accused Rebecca Nurse due to her jealousy and resentment against her, this is similar to the Jewish persecutions during the 1350s, during this period, the outbreak of the black death killed millions of people, numerous Europeans whose family members were sick quickly pointed their fingers to a Jewish community, with few little knowledge about diseases, they firmly believed it was the Jewish people who decided to spread diseases with poisoning wells. This event is very similar to Ann Putnam in The Crucible because both sides of people lost their rational and logical thinking when a tragical or emergency event happens to them. In addition, Ann Putnam has built up hate against Rebecca already, and the Europeans have built up hate against the Jewish people due to their immunity of the black death, therefore, accusing these victims become a way of expressing vengeance and jealousy publicly.

(That’s how fast it spreads!)

via GIPHY

2. Religion

Religion plays an important role in both events, it had both negative and positive impacts on these two events. In both events, religion became a crucial role as emotional support for people who are involved with the situation, however, both events show us that religion will only support you mentally and empowers you as an individual, however, it can never change a fact, for example, in The Crucible, one of the most saintly and religious characters, Rebecca Nurse, was put to death for conducting witchcraft, ironically it was her belief that told her to not confess, which results in death penalty, a one side, it may be a good thing maintain the mentality to not admit someone else’s crime, but on the other side, this mentality killed her, so whether her belief has made a good impact or negative impact, is debatable. During the 1350s, after the massacre of the Jewish population, young Jewish children were forced to become Christian, in fact, the conflict between the Jewish community and the European community was religion, all of a sudden, religion became something that creates fear and chaos.

Citation:

1. Jedwab, Remi, et al. “Negative Shocks and Mass Persecutions: Evidence from the Black Death.” Institute for International Economic Policy, https://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2017WP/JedwabIIEPWP2017-4.pdf.
2. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, Penguin Group, 2003.
3. The Trial of George Jacobs Sr. for Witchcraft, August 5, 1692, Matteson, Tompkins Harrison. (Painting citation)