EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT - REMIX

Here is the link to our project remixing the poem "Everything is going to be alright" by Derek Mahon. Group members are: Lilly Navarrete, Susel Garcia, Antonia Arredondo, and me. Hope you enjoy!!!

INTRO TO POETRY

Everything is Going to be Alright
by Derek Mahon

How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart;
the sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright. 
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

1) The title is significant because it foreshadows the purpose, meaning, tone, and mood of the poem. The author might have chosen this title to get his readers thinking even before reading the poem and analyzing how the author will structure it.
2) The tone of the poem is hopeful, encouraging, assuring, inspiring, and calculating.
3) Our mood was hopeful, acquiring strength, and motivating.
4) Yes, there is a shift. The shift is "the sun rises...beautiful and bright." It shifts from darkness, pain, and negativity surrounding him to all of a sudden positivity, happiness, and calmness around him. It not only shifts tone and mood, but it also shifts to the actual theme, resolving the main conflict and progressing towards climax.
5) The theme of the poem, what we discussed, is it encourages his audience to not give up based on couple hardships going around. We also discussed how he initiates movement and motivates his readers by involving himself and saying he has suffered through dark times too but they ended and joy and light came: from "How should I not be glad to contemplate the clouds..." to "I lie here in a riot of sunlight watching the day break and the clouds flying."

P.S. At first, we thought the author was creating juxtaposition by using a negative word with a positive one to create effect - "riot" with "sunlight" but then when we searched for the different possible meanings of riot, we came across this (which was perfect!!!): Riot: an impressively large or varied display of something; like "the garden was riot of color".
Sounds a lot similar to "I lie here in a riot of sunlight..." The author was getting his point across about how just as pain, darkness, and problems come together at the same time, happiness and hopefulness can also come together at the same time.

WROTE IN JUNIOR YEAR FOR A WRITING CONTEST: BY ME

"Dream and give yourself permission to envision a you that you choose to be."1
Quote repeatedly aggravating me.
Irked and unnoticed by everyone,
What else could I have done?
My life wasn't the way people saw it,
Just a girl on a string performing a skit.
"What're you planning?"
"Debating."
Hope in the heart abolished,
Following what everyone wished.
I walk alone, fall alone,
Get up and try again alone.
In the midst of all the hubbub about my future,
No one noticed that I viewed myself as a failure.
Just someone ordinary,
No talent viewed as if extraordinary.
Destiny wanted my hope alive,
Magic entered my life.
Only a beginner,
Now being noticed as a winner.
Confusion, Anger, Suspicion,
My idol said, "Go achieve your mission."
"What did you do?"
"Gave the happiness that belongs to you.
Your writing, your passion can inspire"
"I trusted you with it; it's you I admire.
You published my life through my work,"
She said, with a smirk,
"You never believed that dreams could come true,
but you never realized that your passion did accrue."
My life took a different course,
Surprised - not a hint of remorse.
Suddenly, I was looking at myself,
I saw my sister lose hope in her own future self.
"Sister, do dreams come true?
If they do, you be my guru."
My chance to pay forward,
"Yes sister, like me you'll be spurred."





1 Quote by: Joy Page

HAMLET: AN ICEBERG

            “…Be all my sins remembered.” Hamlet, on the surface, seems to be about madness, about revenge, about death or suicide but it’s not. Hamlet is an iceberg: there’s much deeper into it than is visible. It is about betrayal, obscurity of human nature, difficulty in bringing about physical action from mental determination and most importantly, intricacy of human relationships. Hamlet is a very complexly developed, dynamic character with diverse and unique aspects in his personality, visible through his thoughts, his actions, his intelligence, and above all, his language. In the line in his predominant soliloquy, “…be all my sins remembered,” he assures the readers of his knowledge about the significance in Claudius’s death.

            “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” Hamlet delivered this soliloquy when he was struggling to act upon his duty as a son and responsibility as a prince. He was certain that Claudius needed to be killed for the betterment of Denmark, or the “prison” as he called it, and to avenge his father’s death but he could barely demonstrate his anger through speech, let alone action. His uncertainty in whether to change or to stay the same – “to be, or not to be” – prevented him from fighting the iniquitous and ending his emotional and mental struggle, “…or to take arms against the sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?” “To die: to sleep; No more.” Death, in this soliloquy, can be taken to be literal but it can also symbolize the future – the unknown. No individual is aware what the future consists of and how it will affect their respective lives – “for in that sleep of death what dreams may come.” The ambiguity of the future was what Hamlet feared; the insecurity of the future was what Hamlet feared; the “death” of the future (or rather, in the future) was what Hamlet feared.

             The ambiguity, the insecurity and the ultimate “death” that the future consists of forced Hamlet to stop before acting upon his instincts. He questioned the worth of being disciplined if killing Claudius was the morally right act. But he blamed his questioning on the fear of the future: if unaware of what it held, then why commit to a responsibility whose outcome was also unknown – “for who would bear the whips and scorns of time,” why would a being bear through the hardships and sufferings of the present: only because of greater fear of the unknown (“to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death”). Hamlet didn’t fear Claudius’s death or him killing Claudius, but he feared the outcome of his death: not only on Denmark, not only on his mother, but also on himself. An action can never be taken back and time can never be reversed: how would killing Claudius have an impact on his personality – “the undiscover’d country from whose bourn/no traveller returns…” This fear was what made Hamlet endure all his pain, of knowing the truth yet unable to do anything, and all his confusion, of the outcome of Claudius’s death – “…puzzles the will/and makes us rather bear those ills we have/than fly to others that we know not of?” And this fear was what made Hamlet act crazy (where the concept of Hamlet’s insanity comes to place) and appear to be weak (concept of “he wanted to commit suicide”) – “thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” Through all these fears and uncertainty, Hamlet “lost” his ability to reach a physical conclusion – “and lose the name of action.” Finally, he ends up requesting Ophelia to remember him in her prayers: “…be all my sins remembered.”

            Hamlet’s “to be, or not to be” served a purpose of not only “self-overhearing” for Hamlet, but also to clarify for the audience that Hamlet, being a very determined and definite individual, is wavering not because of his “insanity” but because of his perplexity about the outcome of his actions in the future. Hamlet declares his definite knowledge of the value of killing Claudius, “when he himself might his quietus make/with a bare bodkin?” – locutionary effect; Hamlet delivers “to be, or not to be” to not only self-overhear but to create a sense of understanding for the audience, “and lose the name of action” – illocutionary effect; Finally, Hamlet elucidates his inability to act to the audience, “with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action” – perlocutionary effect. With the usage of the theory of performativity, the effect of Hamlet’s language and his speech results in a new intensity of depth. With this depth, Shakespeare was able to achieve the formation of Hamlet to be an iceberg: there’s much deeper into it than is visible. 

HAMLET ACT IV

• There were two parts to Claudius's solution for Hamlet: one, get rid of Hamlet and his (Claudius) sins with him.
• How will hamlet compare himself with the soldier?
• What's the difference between a purposeless man and a dumb animal?
• People who do bad are so much better than me: Hamlet
• On one hand: we have capabilities of reason; distinguishes between humans and animals. On other hand: take action first, then ask for reason.

RESPECT DAY VIDEOS

It's amazing how talented these kids are!! Hope this talent, appreciation, and positivity progresses in the right direction!!!

UN OSO Y UN AMOR (A BEAR AND A LOVE): SPANISH PROJECT

Here is the link to our project: Made by Lilly Navarrete, Gianni Rasgado, Antonia Arredondo, Kurt Gabriel, and me!!

Thank you so much guys for all your hard work and dedication towards finishing this project. It turned out amazing and a little comical (even though Mr. Brown said "no comic relief"!). But I'm glad that it did because we wouldn't have been able to understand it to this extent if it weren't. So, thanks again! You guys are awesome!!!