Humanities – Catherine

Category: Humanities

Stranger than Fiction

Notebook pages are introduced from left to right. Apologies for not being able to put a slide show, the internet refuses to upload it to my media library.

The book I read for our unit, ‘Stranger than Fiction’ was ‘Unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand. Unbroken is an immersive biography that depicts the experiences and hardships of Olympic medalist Louis Zamperini, otherwise known as Louie. The book covers the happenings of World War II from a firsthand experience, presenting Louie as an unruly child who grew to become a war veteran and a firsthand witness of the cruelty in Japanese POW camps. The bellicose environment these men were required to survive is a stark reminder of what those before us did, and how we have come to where we are today.

Texts are Complex

The first page that I include is ‘Texts are Complex.’ This is a one-pager where we were tasked to identify the earliest central ideas. The ideas are written clearly beneath the subtitles, and the explanations are in red boxes beside their respective ideas. One of these two ideas I identified is that “encouragement from family is essential in becoming successful.” The evidence supporting this states that “watching Louie, whose getaway speed was his saving grace, Pete thought he saw some talent. He wanted to make a runner out of him. The following quote can be found on page 15. Predictably, this central idea will alter multiple times over the course of the book. The illustrations on the page act as space cosmetic decor, although the two butterflies represent Louie and Pete; flying higher and achieving greater feats together.

Narrative and Informational Elements

The second and third pages I include are the two that take a closer look at the different elements that make up a literary nonfiction piece. These two pages,s in turn, are also synthesis pages. In the portion of text within the red box, I explain how the ideas interlink to form a common pattern throughout the book. There are multiple notable narrative elements within ‘Unbroken,’ yet one particularly stands out. Imagery. An example can be taken from the book: “…felt a tearing sensation, then scorching pain in his ankle and knee…” This phrase thoroughly describes the sheer agony prisoners from POW camps endure while going through beatings.

As I have noticed, there are more informational elements than narrative within the book. This provides factual content, categorizing it as a member of the nonfiction genre. A couple telltale signs of informational elements may include graphs and photos from real events. For example, a graph of a B-24 bomber is presented on page 54 and a photo of gunner Stanley Pillsbury manning his artillery is on page 82.

Theme and Central Idea

My fourth and fifth pages are dedicated to the themes and central ideas I managed to identify. The content is clearly labelled with subtitles and separated clearly. A theme that I have found is that “never give up hope, even if the odds are stacked against you.” This is taught to us through Louie’s continuous hope upon the raft, even when all seemed hopeless. “Phil, Louie and Mac would soon be in dire trouble…they’d be rescued. Today, perhaps tomorrow.” This quote can be found on page 108. This gives good insight into Louie’s optimistic and hopeful view of his situation, despite being on the brink of death.

Along with the theme, I also dug up a couple central ideas from the book. One of the duo is that “WWII was a cruel and unforgiving environment.” A couple quotes of evidence can support this: “In one barracks, men lost an average of fifty-four pounds over eighteen months…twenty men fainted each day…(Page 193).” According to the small box of reasoning beside the evidence, I agree that the Japanese knew no limits in how poorly they would treat these men.

Connections Page

This is another synthesis one-pager that I did for my sixth page. It decipts the multitude of central idea, forming a series of pattern to conclude on a final large central idea. Arrows pointing between each sticky note describe their relation to one another. The map gives a visual representation of how the story is linked together by the series of central ideas.

Town Hall Notes

The seventh and eighth pages contribute to the Town Hall notes taken during and before our short presentation of our “should” statements. The “should” statement connects back to the central idea I identified earlier, one that claimed WWII was a ruthless and cruel era. The first part of the two pages is made up of notes from other groups; everything is clearly labelled. My own evidence is written below, with quotes along with reasoning for each of them.

Humanism: Does it Truly Shape Our Society Today?

October 7, 2024 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Introduction

The Renaissance was a significant era of diversity and prosperity with the revival and creation of several differing philosophies, ideas, etc. Yet, how does that affect what makes us truly human?

A Short Explanation:

Yes, I am 90% humanist. I agree with its teachings and what the philosophy states, although some ways this belief presents itself are only sometimes the best. For example, they could have used unlawful tactics to gain books from other regions for libraries (e.g., bribing priests to smuggle out religious tests, etc.). Overall, however, I support and agree with humanism.

In Our Own Lives

Humanism emphasizes individuality and the idea that we can control our lives and achieve greatness within them. In our lives, both yours and mine, humanism affects our society. It encourages secularism, which allows innovation and further advancement in literature, technology and science, which is what shapes our society today. It laid the way for a modern government that shapes our lives today.

Humanism is often present even in smaller environments, such as your own family. My parents urge me to think for myself and do what I wish. They encourage me to focus on myself instead of unthinkingly following what someone else tells me to do. This example can be considered an example of individualism, the belief that you can achieve greatness alone.

Book Recommendation

Essays in Humanism – Albert Einstein, 1950

As a Lamb to the Slaughter, as a Man to his Deathbed.

August 26, 2024 / Catherine / 0 Comments

The Found Poem displayed above is a multimedia visual representation of the underlying themes of “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. I applied multiple forms of visual arts to create it, including the use of colored markers, colored pencils and paint markers.

“Lamb to the Slaughter” is a short story that describes how Patrick Maloney decides to leave his pregnant wife, Mary Maloney, for some unknown reason. This leads to his eventual murder and Mrs. Maloney meticulously covering up the crime and even going as far as feeding the other officers (colleagues of her late husband, who was a detective) the very leg of lamb she had used to commit the crime.

In the background, it is depicted that there is a woman smiling ominously at the reader (reference photo). The woman portrays Mary Maloney. Her eye sockets are pitch black and “empty” to represent her lack of emotion towards the death of her husband, as the eyes are commonly regarded as a great conductor of emotion. The bright crimson liquid (intended to be blood) shown to be leaking from Mrs. Maloney’s eyes represent the faked tears that she had shed over her husband’s dead body. The few splattered blood droplets upon her lips show the way she had fed the lamb to the other detectives; removing her from the suspicion list and destroying the tool used to commit the crime. In the background, right behind the illustration of Mrs. Maloney, is the lamb. This presents the events relating to the conflict, and how it was “resolved;” her deceiving outer shell veiling the death of her husband.

The lamb is drawn to be mostly black and white, just like the greater part of the rest of the drawing. Yet the leg of the lamb is colored bright red, the same color depicting the bloody substance seeping from Mrs. Maloney’s eyes and mouth. This shows that the leg was used for malicious intentions, since it is commonly regarded that red is representing a “bloody” or “bad” color. This allows the leg to stand out against the rest of the drawing and imply strongly that the leg had something to do with the murder. Through this element in my poem, it shows the conflict when Mrs. Maloney had murdered her husband.

In the original text, the underlying theme of the story are presented through Mrs. Maloney’s actions. The murder of her husband, her intent to get away with the crime. The theme revolves around betrayal and revenge, portrayed through Mr. Maloney’s betrayal and the revenge Mrs. Maloney takes on him. Underlying concepts as this that are closely intertwined with the conflict are shown through the mask she puts up, and the carefully erased evidence.

Never assume that things will be simple and transparent; more often than not, looks are the most deceiving part.

The conflict presented in the story is mostly external. This is shown through the death of Mr. Maloney, when she had brought a frozen lamb leg hard down onto his head, as presented on the seventh paragraph of the fourth page. (“At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.”) Another instance of external conflict is when she reported the murder of her husband. It was clearly difficult for her late husband’s former colleagues to manage to find what had happened to Patrick Maloney, shown on pages 8 – 9 (“The car came very quickly, and when she opened the front door…..The four men searching the rooms seemed to be growing weary, a trifle exasperated.”) A third moment of where external conflict was presented is when Mr. And Mrs. Maloney initially had their argument prior to Patrick Maloney’s death, shown on pages 2 – 3.

Catherine

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein