Anderson's Blog

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.

Dramatic Reading

TIEATIEAC

Poetry Writing

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). 

2.Guilt and Responsibility TIEA Analysis

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)

Unit Summary

Throughout this unit, we have learned to become a better speaker, reader, writer, and listener. The unit was divided into 4 parts, each part aims to improve one of my skills.

• The first part is improving speaking skills, in class, we learned techniques for communication through analyzing TedTalks, then we would try to apply these techniques into speech practice, by practicing the techniques, two things I learned that was the most beneficial from this part was the importance of breathing and power pose, breathing exercises improved my vocal strength. Power pose, on the other hand, developed my inner strength, before the actual speech, I tried to perform a short power pose and stand in front of the podium, to help relieve my nervousness.
• The second part of this unit is reading, I was slowly starting to understand how to analyze logos, ethos, and pathos of an article, which gradually makes me a better reader who has improved critical thinking skill, the analysis of essays and articles also helped me in writing.
• The third part of this unit was writing, we had been writing persuasive freewrite, TIEAs to help improve my writing skill, we practiced on writing in Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, the three most important variables for a good persuasive written speech. I believe I improved my “pathos” writing skill the most throughout this unit, from the annotation, it taught me that “audience make a decision based on emotion”, therefore, I would now think what’s thought-provoking, what’s emotionally appealing from an audience’s perspective while writing a speech.
• The last part of this unit was Listening, we had been watching TedTalks throughout this unit, as a listener, my job was to analyze how the speaker engages with me, the audience, and apply the techniques into my own speech. I learned how an audience is engaged and not engaged during a speech, I also learned to give constructive feedbacks/analysis about the speech. 
• One thing really important I learned from this summative is that I have to read the rubric! I forgot my introduction in the formative speech, I told myself to not forget, and yet I still forgot to introduce my topic in the summative assessment, now I probably won’t forget ever again haha. Next time read the rubric before doing any assignment. 

Speech (Script & Outline)

Speech (Video)

Reflection

“Life begins at the edge of the comfort zone.”  dixit, s. (2017). How can you step out of your comfort zone. lifealth. Retrieved 17 August 2019, from https://www.lifealth.com/mind-body-and-soul/happiness/how-can-you-step-out-of-your-comfort-zone-sd/33517/

I know! It’s hard to step out from the comfort zone, as hard as getting out of bed. Because outside of that comfort zone, is filled with the “unexpected “, which makes us fear. So there must be something that motivates us to keep moving forward, which is goals. However, not every goal is going to become a motivation, therefore, we need the right goals, and here’s the ultimate guide to setting the right goals.

1. Find a Goal

We all have goals that motivate us to step forward, it could be wealth, relationships, happiness, fulfillment. Therefore, to step out from that comfort zone, we need goals. However, not all goals are considered good goals, we should recognize our goals, and get to know about our “goal”, and here’s how

2. Get To Know Aout Your Goal

Ask yourself, is the goal achievable? is it in or out of my comfort zone? The goal should not be in the comfort zone, or it will not become a motivation, rather, that “goal” would become an excuse for more procrastination since achieving it requires no effort. The goal should not be too far from the comfort zone either when a goal seems impossible to achieve, it will not be a “goal” anymore, it is called a “dream”. So, how to set an appropriate and achievable goal?

Finding goals Vojkovich-Bombard, A. (2017). Cracking the code: 6 steps to achieving your company goals. The Asana Blog. Retrieved 17 August 2019, from https://blog.asana.com/2017/11/cracking-the-code-6-steps-to-achieving-your-company-goals/

3. Set a Goal

If the goal is too close to you, then you should move the goal a little bit further until it becomes more challenging based on your current ability, for instance, Assuming you 30 books, it means you’ve already expanded your comfort zone to 30 books, and this year you can challenge yourself to read 40 to 50 books instead of 32 books. Make sure to set an achievable goal that requires effort. 

Set your goal! Get SMART: How to Finally Complete Your Goals with the SMART Process. (2019). Lucidchart.com. Retrieved 17 August 2019, from https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/setting-smart-goals

4. Don’t Try To Eat The Entire Cake!

As mentioned, the goal can’t be too far from you either, one way to deal with a very tough goal is to divide your goals into smaller portions, like a cake! Once you finish one piece, you can take a rest, and move on to the next one. However, if you try to eat the entire cake at once, you will probably suffer from stomachache for the next few days, and you will not want to eat that cake ever again. 

Divide the cake! Have Your Cake And Divide It Too. (2018). 123 Design Blog. Retrieved 17 August 2019, from https://blog.123.design/kitchen/have-your-cake-and-divide-it-too/