Life is Beautiful "take-home" exercise/test

Remember--be able to hand in 50 points worth of work by Tuesday.

In case you don't have the handout for your instructions, here it is:


Worth 70 points---any 50 points of the assignment is due by Tuesday, December 21. The remainder is due the “second” day back after Christmas break.

Do A, B and then either C or D, and then either E or F.

A. Print out your response to journal #3 Life is Beautiful found at Schoolsville (10 pts.).

B. Paint a picture for me. Or sketch a pencil drawing. Or compose a song. Or photograph. Or video. Or write in vivid prose in your own words … to depict any scene, image, or object from any story or film that we’ve studied this year, but especially The Cask of Amontillado, The Shawl, The Portable Phonograph, and The Stone Boy (20 pts.). N.B. films include Life is Beautiful and the Dick and Ricky Hoyt HBO special (found on the blog). N.B. if you choose to paint, sketch, video, sing, or photograph, you should do so in a competent manner. No stick figures, sloppy videos, or murky drawings. Write, if you’re not skillful at any of these genres.

THEN DO C OR D.

C. Focusing on setting or description, find a short story or a selection from a novel (a chapter, maybe, NOT the entire work) that we have NOT read in class and one that you enjoyed reading. Analyze its importance as it pertains to use of setting (verisimilitude, irony, organization, characterization, atmosphere, symbolism) or description (figures of speech, concrete details, connotative words, and sensory images). Your analysis should be similar in length (1 ½ - 2 typed pages) and detail (cite lines from the text and integrate them grammatically) as the in-class assignment on The Grapes of Wrath. (20 pts.)

D. Focusing on setting or description, find a short story or a selection from a novel (a chapter, maybe, NOT the entire work) from a work of prose fiction that we did read in class this year. Analyze its importance as it pertains to use of setting (verisimilitude, irony, organization, characterization, atmosphere, symbolism) or description (figures of speech, concrete details, connotative words, and sensory images). Your analysis should be similar in length (1 ½ - 2 typed pages) and detail (cite lines from the text and integrate them grammatically) as the in-class assignment on The Grapes of Wrath (20 pts.). Recommended works include (but are not limited to) The Cask of Amontillado, The Shawl, The Portable Phonograph, and The Stone Boy. (20 pts.)

THEN DO E OR F OR G.

E. Discuss the importance of any three settings and/or “shots” in Life is Beautiful. Recommended length is 4-6 sentences EACH (20 PTS.).

F. Discuss any three discussion topics listed on the Life is Beautiful handout (see below). Recommended length is 4-6 sentences EACH (20 PTS.).

G. IF YOU DID NOT SEE all or enough of Life is Beautiful, then you must complete both options of C/D to get your final 20 pts. (20 PTS.).

FINAL NOTE: DO NOT USE ANY OUTSIDE RESOURCES TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT


Here is the Life is Beautiful handout needed to complete option F:

Setting in the movie:

Tuscany 1938—countryside (Guido’s “kingdom”, town life (Uncle’s home, the prefect’s office, the streets of the town, the opera, the school where Dora works, the Grand Hotel where Guido serves)

Tuscany 1943— Guido and Dora’s home, Guido’s bookshop

The concentration camp—the train, the barracks in the concentration camp, anvil factory in the camp, dinner hall where Guido serves the Germans

Note anything that you “see” in the movie that stands out. This could be as general as the green fields of the Italian countryside or as specific as the Nazi soldier saluting the Ethiopian wedding cake.


Discussion topics in Life is Beautiful

Find examples of each and explain the importance of each motif

Physical humor and slapstick--
Benigni hoped that the humor of the story’s early scenes of misadventure and romance would only make the poignancy of what happens to Guido and his loved ones more deeply felt. Benigni continues: “I believe that laughter saves us, it forces us to consider the other side of things, the surreal and funny side. Being able to imagine prevents us from being reduced to ashes, from being crushed like twigs. It gives us the strength to survive the endless night.”

Linguistic (language) humor—riddles, “no spiders or Visigoths allowed,”



Cleverly foreshadowed running gags—



Mockery of Aryan Supremacy--



Prince Charming ("knight in shining armor") motif--



Willpower Gags--

Schopenhauer's analysis of "will" led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fulfilled. Consequently, Schopenhauer favored a lifestyle of negating human desires.

Schopenhauer Willpower: "Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see."


The Power of Imagination—Making Life a Game

Benign said, "For the Giosue character, I chose him to be at an age where he can understand everything yet still can believe that it’s only a game. Giosue probably knew exactly what was going on, the way children do, but he was willing to go along with the make-believe.”


Like or dislike the movie? Defend your answer.

Top Ten Reasons Why Life is Beautiful at St. Mark's

Top Ten Reasons Why Life is Beautiful at St. Mark’s

10. Hey, if you students are dressing down, I probably am, too. No tie, no problem.

9. So how much do you pay for an A line lunch? Teacher A line costs two bucks.

8. I enjoy watching The Young and the Restless, not the soap opera, but my former students who are now SMH teachers, like Albanese, Muscara, Strocko, Biafore, O’Keefe, Widdoes, etc.

7. Low teacher pay teaches me humility, one of the four pillars of a St. Mark’s education

6. I get a chance to keep my writing skills sharp drafting senior letters of recommendation

5. I really do feel safe with medics Johnston & Johnston and former cops Cocco & Maegerle walking the halls

4. Boy, I love my sophomore classes this year! (Class of 2011 punk)

3. I’m digging that gospel Alleluia that our choir sings at Mass

2. My sophomores have turned me into a HUGE Justin Beiber fan

1. If I don’t get into heaven with all of the blessings from Sr. Redempta and Sr. Sandy, then no one will

LIfe is Beautiful site

If you want to review parts of the film online, go to this youtube site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVG-qap7TmI





This is part 1, but you can find the other parts in tenshigirl25 ‘s videos. It's also in English, so you don't get to hear the "fungi friti, friti, friti." Instead, they're the "very fried mushrooms." Not quite the same.

Seniors #3 journal --Life is Beautiful

One of the themes expressed in Life is Beautiful is the ability of man to find hope and beauty even in the midst of the most trying of times. Certainly that notion is personified in the character of Guido Orifice, and perhaps more directly, in the person who is Roberto Benigni, the actor who portrayed Guido and who wrote the screenplay for this award winning film. With a Schopenhauer will of steel and a heart of Italian gold, Benigni's Guido displays an imagination and undying hope in the most unlikely setting of the Nazi concentration camp.

Benigni's Holocaust fable makes no attempt to realistically depict the horrors of the concentration camp. Instead, his film focuses more on the sudden change that was inflicted on Jews like Guido who were living the beautiful life one day but sent to the camps the next. The Tuscany period of the film is vibrant with colors, music, gags and goofs. It is Guido's spirit, though, his industrious imagination, that is behind every high note and funny caper. His abilities to make people smile (even a serious German doctor), make end runs around officious clerks and inspectors, and to woo and win a woman way out of his league are skills Schopenhauer could only hope to possess. His life is beautiful because he lives his life in a beautiful way, and nothing can deter him from making the best out of the whatever situation falls into his path.

Guido's beautiful life is put to the test as his family and the film move to the concentration camp. Faced with the potential loss of his family and his life, he doesn't despair, but with his comic spirit intact, he cleverly reduces the concentration camp experience to a "fun" game. Within the film, the game serves as a ruse to hide the cruel reality of the camp experience from Joshua.

But the true purpose of Guido's game is for us. We can win points in our own Game of Life by maintaining a sense of humor when confronted with arrogance and bigotry , by not "crying for our mommies" when the mean guys yell, and by being satisfied with a plain piece of bread when we'd really like bread and jam. If this behavior seems too submissive, too silly, too unmanly, well, let's consider how acting any differently would have benefited Guido. Likewise, when faced with challenges as daunting as his, do we always have to arm wrestle them to the ground? Sometimes, we can kill with kindness, too.

Guido jokingly uses Schopenhauer like magic to get Dora to face him in the opera and to get the dogs away from Giouse in the camp. In reality, there is no magic in Schopenhauer's philosophy, for he suggested that a great power can be gained from one's will. The brain can be mightier than the sword. Schopenhauer himself said, "Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see."

Guido's willpower to keep his family alive and intact represents "real" Schopenhauer willpower, not silly magical conjuring. In Tuscany, Guido shelters Giouse from the Nazi bigotry by joking about banning spiders and Visigoths from his bookstore. In the camp, Guido risks his life to pronounce his love to Dora over the camp loudspeakers, to play the Offenbach opera for her, and to save her at the end of the film before the Nazis can truck her away to her death. And Guido winks, smiles, and goosesteps off to his death so that Giouse can continue to believe in his father's game .

Oh, no, you say. I could never be this heroic. Well, you could, and maybe you have been, especially if you have ever really cared for someone. Real heroes, like Guido, realize "life is beautiful" when they are willing to love and to take chances for others.

Consider these four situations that might apply to you and your beautiful "heroic" life. Complete any one for your TAKE HOME TEST and also to hand in with your journal at the end of the quarter.

Choose any one (minimum of 200 words).

1. Describe a trying personal situation in which you were able to persevere, especially if you did so for the sake of someone else. How did you keep thinking positively and how did this help?

2. Relate a situation where you (or someone who know) were able to prevent a potentially troublesome situation from boiling over by using a good sense of humor or some other means.

3. Tell about a situation where someone (parent, sibling, friend, etc.) risked his own safety or reputation to protect you. Or vice versa. Whom did you save?

4. In your best imitation of a David Letterman Top Ten List, write a either a serious or mildly comic (but NOT mean spirited) Top Ten Reasons Why Life is Beautiful at St. Mark's High School. This option might not speak to your personal heroism, but it will make you consider the blessings you've been given already. Let's avoid "sarcasm," please.

Option #5--Tell us about some historical or well-known heroic person who was able to keep his or her life "beautiful" in spite of the hatred, war, poverty, racism, sexism, etc. all around him or her.

An Inspirational Story

Share this video of Dick and Ricky Hoyt with a friend or family member.

Seniors #3 journal--Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It?

This is your SECOND journal assignment of the second quarter.
Hopefully, you're reading this post for homework on Monday, December 6, to prepare yourself for a trip to the second floor Tech Lab tomorrow during class.

Rockin' Rod Stewart borrowed the old cliche that "every picture tells a story" for an uptempo rocker of a song (is there any other kind?) of the early 70s. Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Woods, formerly with Stewart's band called The Faces, plays a searing lead guitar in the song. Yes, I did see Rod Stewart and The Faces in concert at the defunct Spectrum in Philly.

Your assignment?

Analyze a painting or photograph

I'm hoping that by analyzing a piece of visual art that you'll be able to focus even more on description in prose.

Step I: Find a painting or photograph that you enjoy and that begs for closer study.

Step II: Look at the painting/photograph and describe what you see objectively without editorial comments. Note figures, colors, objects, etc.

Step III: Begin to analyze the painting/photograph, with attention to lines (specifically, where is your eye drawn?), shapes, balance, emphasis, contrast, proportion, unity, harmony, colors, etc. Here are some basic links to web sites to help novices like us to know how to analyze a photograph or a painting. As someone who doesn't understanding your genre completely, you don't have to analyze EVERYTHING.

Step IV: Now, based on WHAT you've seen, reflect on how the painting/photograph makes you feel and/or what story (or message) it tells. Look for symbols, especially, in doing this.

I suspect that we're all rank amateurs here (if there IS a artist in the class, please speak up and teach us the art), so don't feel intimidated or fear that you'll be wrong in whatever choice you make.

Here's a photograph by award-winning photographer Annie Liebowitz that I'll use as an example.

Pictured below are actress Gweneth Paltrow and her mother, actress Blythe Danner.

The photograph tells a very human and real story.

It was taken a short time after Paltrow's father and Danner's husband, Bruce Paltrow, passed away.

In the photo, Danner, in a mourning black turtleneck, has ironically assumed the role of her deceased spoused, that of the comforting father figure. Danner looks a trifle sad, but more brave. She peers directly into the camera lens. Nestled closely to her daughter, she provides physical and emotional support, embracing her around the waist, her left shoulder buttressing Paltrow's forlorn figure.

Paltrow, in a white dress that falls off her left shoulder, is Danner's little girl who submissively accepts her mother's warm embrace. Her eyes closed, she also looks sad, but peaceful. Note that Paltrow's hands are locked with her mothers. Paltrow's white fallen dress reinforces her need for comfort, to be clothed, warmed, healed, by her mother's touch.

This posed, staged, photograph, is a work of art. It was not snapped by some digital camera carrying fan and downloaded hastily on the internet. It begs for analysis, as it is more than just a "pretty picture."

Of course, so does Jamie Wyeth's painting Patriot's Barn, a print of which hangs in my family room. Headed north on DE 82, the barn can be found on the left hand side of the road about a half a mile before entering Centreville or about a mile after you pass the entrance to Winterthur.
Wyeth painted this soon after the tragedy of 9-11. I'm not entirely sure if the flag was ever really on the barn (it isn't on there now), or if Wyeth added the image for his painting.

Regardless, it is the flag that makes the barn, and the painting, so patriotic. It's emblazoned on the whitewashed barn, and its reflection (emphasizing and symbolizing both Wyeth and the barn painter's patriotism) is cast in the pond that lies at the base of the painting. The somewhat subdued blue sky symbolizes perhaps, the uneasy atmosphere that enveloped our world after the bombings. The red and blue colors of the flag, and the green of the rolling landscape are more alive. Alive with hope and patriotism, because of the patriot painters--the owner of the land and Wyeth. Their shared message is as loud and clear as the sight of the star spangled banner (and that the national anthem that it inspired) that flew over Ft. McHenry during the bombing of Baltimore during the War of 1812. American patriotism cannot be defeated.

To me, this painting is a patriotic equivalent to the Marines who raised Old Glory after the Battle of Iwa Jima during WW II (see link to this famous Life magazine photograph). I especially enjoy this painting because the barn sits about five miles from where I live, and when I pass it, I think of Wyeth's painting.

Here are some other examples of photos and paintings (that you may write about): (in order, Nighthawks, Edward Hopper; Willie Nelson, Annie Liebowitz; Elvis Presley's Phonograph; Annie Liebowitz; The Singing Butler, Jack Vettriano.



IMPORTANT NOTICE: AS SOON AS YOU BEGIN WORK IN A WORD DOCUMENT, SAVE IT AND NAME IT, IN CASE YOUR WORD CRASHES. IF THE DOCUMENT IS NAMED, IT CAN USUALLY BE RETRIEVED.




Please print me a copy of your photograph or painting to include with your written analysis when you turn in your journal at the end of the quarter.

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It? Part II

Congratulations to the 2010 Delaware State Champions!

Excellence.

Integrity.

Humility.

Faith.

'Nuff said.

Sophs #3 journal--NATURE-teacher, soother, healer

COMPLETE BEFORE TUESDAY, DEC. 9

The Romantic artists of the 19th century viewed nature differently from their neoclassic predecessors. To the Romantics, Nature wasn't just an orderly scientific force to be studied and predicted. The Romantics worshiped the beauty, the strangeness, the evolution, and the wildness of Nature. They looked to Nature as a teacher (To a Waterfowl), as a soother (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud), and as a healer (Thanatopsis).

What has been your experience with Mother Nature? Choose to write about one of these four topics.

1. I learned a lesson from this incident with or observing nature
2. This natural experienced solaced me
3. This natural experience exhilarated me
4. I have no such natural story. I prefer the indoors, and I'll tell you why

Need some brainstorming help? Think about your experience with animals, maybe your pets. The animals around your house. Your vacations at the beach, camping in the mountains, or just hiking through the woods. Nothing is too insignificant to write about. Remember, William Wordsworth wrote about viewing a field a daffodils (see link) how can still dance with the daffodils.