Life is Beautiful project post

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 (and it is "just" a 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 upon Italian 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 when his family and the film are moved to the concentration camp. Faced with the potential loss of his family and his life, he doesn't despair, but with his comic spirit and fatherly instincts intact, he cleverly pretends that the concentration camp experience is a"fun" game as a ruse to hide the cruel reality from Giouse.

But the true purpose of Guido's game can speak to all of 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 and his child. Consider this, when faced with challenges as daunting as Guido's, 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 conjure dogs away from Joshua 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, "Willpower 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 a fable. 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. To the end, Guido winks, smiles, and goose-steps 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.

Choose any ONE for your PROJECT response (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 you 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.

Check the archives for former senior responses. Type in "life is beautiful" in the Schoolsville search bar to check them out. 

Week of 4-28: Sophs and Seniors (SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE!)

Sophs: Monday (green and blue sections)/Tuesday (yellow section): read Gatsby chapters 1-3 and answer questions on handout---for Wednesday (all sections) type and print to hand in your central idea and thesis statement for your research paper

Seniors: sign up (even if you told me what you're doing) for your Cuckoo's Nest creative project on Schoolsville (zero if you don't before Monday morning)---for everyone who missed class on Friday, you will have to catch up on the first 10-15 minutes of the film Life is Beautiful.

Cuckoo's Nest creative projects due Tuesday, May 7.

Week of 4-24 (Thursday) Sophs and Seniors

Sophs: See post below for Gatsby reading assignments---make up your Civil War tests before the weekend

Seniors: Make sure that you sign up for your Cuckoo's Nest creative project before class on Thursday (see posts below)---make up your Cuckoo's Nest tests (objective or essay) before the weekend

Sophs: The Great Gatsby

The track curved and now it was going away from the sun, which as it sank lower, seemed to spread itself in benediction over the vanishing city where she had drawn her breath. He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever.

It's writing like this that makes you "hold your breath" when you read Fitzgerald, either in astonishment or bewilderment. Those of you who like it can only wonder how someone could write so beautifully. Those of you who don't might wonder why someone wasted his time with so much description.

I will attempt to teach you how the description is so important to understanding both the recurring motifs that "mean" something and the evocative moods that might find you falling in love with Daisy's voice, Gatsby's smile, or Gatsby's childlike attachment to his "dream." Hey, you even might appreciate the cheating golfer Jordan Baker even more, whose voice "usually" sounded like a fresh and cool green golf divot.

On the second day back from break you should have RE-read chapters 1-3 of The Great Gatsby and should have completed the notes/questions on the handout that you were given on the last day before break (it's at Studywiz if you need it, too).

Red Class: Cuckoo's Nest Creative Project Signup over the Easter Break

EVERYONE should respond to this and signup.

Tell me what project you're doing (don't tell me the number--explain what you're doing) and if you're working alone or with a partner (give me the name or names of your partner).

Purple Class: Cuckoo's Nest Creative Project Signup over Easter Break

EVERYONE should respond to this and signup.

Tell me what project you're doing (don't tell me the number--explain what you're doing) and if you're working alone or with a partner (give me the name or names of your partner).

Cuckoo Essay test info for those who missed today's class

For Part 2 of the test, you will answer in the form of a four-paragraph essay with an introductory-thesis paragraph, THREE body paragraphs with clear topic sentences, but NO concluding paragraph NECESSARY (unless you have time—I will offer extra credit for an original conclusion that goes beyond restating your central idea and thesis). The most important part of your paper will be your body paragraphs, but I still want you to clearly state your central idea and thesis in a short opening paragraph that is REALLY SHORT in its rhetoric.

When you come to class tomorrow, be ready to write with 4 to 6 pieces of lined loose leaf paper and a pen (you will write on the front side only). You may use prepared notes and a copy of the book. Do NOT come with any notes obviously printed or “borrowed” from a web site. I will check all of your notes to see if they are in your “own” language and take away ones that are not.  

PREPARE TWO OF THESE . I'LL TELL YOU WHICH ONE YOU'LL WRITE ABOUT TOMORROW. 

Here is a list of possible writing topics for tomorrow’s second part of the test:

   

a.       McMurphy is a Christ figure in the way that he preaches a gospel to the men. Write about THREE of his gospel messages, providing specific examples from the book of him “preaching” and the men “learning” these three specific lessons. Cite lines from the text as support.

b.      One of the themes of Cuckoo’s Nest discusses the blurred lines between who is sane and who is insane. Discuss how THREE of the characters in the novel are possibly “mislabeled” by   60s Society as to their sanity and need to be institutionalized. Use specific references from the text to show why they may need hospitalization or therapy but why they are not insane.

c.       Though Cuckoo’s Nest contains characters, scenes, descriptions, and language that are opening misogynistic and racist, these abhorrent elements are part of a larger Kesey purpose that is not misogynistic or racist. Cite lines from the novel in your supportive body paragraphs.

d.      Cuckoo’s Nest uncovered some of the poor practices, mistreatment, and abuses of the mental health system. Discuss three separate parts of that system that are criticized in the novel. Make sure that you cite lines from the novel in your supportive body paragraphs.

e.      The paranoid schizophrenic character of the Chief suffers through many instances/scenes where he cannot distinguish between what’s real and what is not. Examine three of those instances, briefly describing each, and then, most importantly, telling how each one is “the truth, even if it didn’t really happen.” Make sure that you cite lines from the novel in your supportive body paragraphs.

f.        This is the Chief’s book; he progressively gets bigger and comes out of his self-imposed fog. Write about three scenes that show this progression. Make sure that you cite lines from the novel in your supportive body paragraphs.

g.       CRITICAL OPTION: Some of you who have both read the book and “really” thought about it have made some excellent points about the novel’s problems, or maybe, your “problems” with the novel. Discuss three problematic areas of Cuckoo’s Nest that (despite your teacher’s insistence and excellent instruction) made you dislike or not understand the book.  

Sophs: Central Idea and Thesis Statement

Nothing will be due before Easter Break. We will talk about this on Thursday.

Seniors... Test Wednesday and Thursday, not tomorrow!

As the post title says... I will post some review files at Studywiz before 8:30 p.m. Currently resting up after a rough day on the links (lots of pollen out there today).

Sophs and Seniors: Week of 4-14 (TESTS)--SOPH UPDATE FOR GREEN CLASS

Sophs:  Test Wednesday on the Civil War Unit--I have posted two review files at Studywiz. This test will be taken in shortened periods. IMPORTANT! FOR THE GREEN CLASS--YOU DO NOT MEET ON WEDNESDAY, SO YOUR TEST WILL BE GIVEN DURING THE LAST 40 MINUTES OF YOUR BLOCK CLASS ON TUESDAY.

Seniors: Objective test Tuesday and essay test Wednesday on Cuckoo's Nest. To begin preparing tonight for the objective test, be able to recall characters, scenes, motifs, and themes in the novel. Also, be able to identify the topics that your classmates researched and posted at Schoolsville on March 21. We will review these (and many other items) tomorrow in class. For the essay test, you will have to write about one of the themes, problems, and/or motifs in the novel.

MLA Works Cited and Citation Help

In addition to doing things the old-fashioned way, you can use these two sites to make your source cards (which you'll include in your works cited page for your research paper) and your citations within your paper.

These sites are: Easy Bib and Citation Machine (click on either link).

Easy Bib will "sometimes" even do "all of the work for you" by just writing in the title of your work. But sometimes you'll have to enter the information manually.

You'll have to enter all of the information into Citation Machine manually. Make sure you enter in the "correct information." Remember: "junk in, junk out."

For either site, make sure you click on MLA form, not AP or Chicago or any other style.

Seniors Research Papers: Final Reminders

Students will receive 4 extra points for turning in the paper copy of the 8-10 page research paper and your 60+ note cards on Friday. You must put everything in a manilla envelope on which you have written your NAME and class section COLOR.

You may send your paper electronically on Friday or Saturday to receive 3 extra points if you also hand in your paper and note cards on Monday.

We have not gone over the MLA form for the Works Consulted page, but we will do this briefly on Thursday or Friday in class.


Here is a link to the OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue University for a sample MLA works cited page. I will require you to make a "works consulted" page that lists all of the works that you consulted (read, took notes from, and/or used) whether or not you "cited" them in your paper.

At Studywiz I have attached the general grading rubric for your research paper. It consists of three pages---look it over to see what is expected of you.

Finding and Evaluating Good Sources

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I will call your attention to the OWL (Online Writing Lab at Purdue University) for research paper help, specifically in this case, for finding and then evaluating research sources.

Here's the link to finding sources.

Here's the link to evaluating sources.

For each topic, there are pages of information that will help in addition to the linked "first" page of instruction.

Sophs and Seniors for Tuesday 4-8

Come to class in 367. No lab classes today.

Sophs, we'll go over how to take notes by paraphrasing and quoting.We'll talk about your organization strategies.

Seniors, finish Cuckoo's Nest before Thursday's class. Tomorrow in class we will try to decipher the Chief's stream of consciousness rambling hallucination as he recovers from a dose of EST.

Seniors: Week of 4-7

Alas, I'll be leaving for a golf match at 2:20 on Monday afternoon. So please bring your Cuckoo's Nest book for some quiet reading time for all or part of the period. The plan is to finish the book before the week and to have a test on Tuesday of the following week. Read pp. 288-309 (the chapter that ends "on the dorm lights at six-thirty.")

I hope to return your body paragraph work with some suggestions on Monday.

Sophomores: Week of 4-7

Come to class in room 367 on Monday instead of going to the Tech Lab.

You should have read "The Boarded Window" (found on Studywiz and written by the curmudgeonly Ambrose Bierce) and answered the questions that go along with it (that I gave out in class or asked you to print out from Studywiz).

Start doing some research for your research paper. The 25 note cards and 3 source cards will now be due on Thursday, instead of Wednesday.

4-1 Seniors: Lab work and other reminders

While you are in the computer lab, work on your research paper. I will check two pages of your research paper on Friday [previously I told you on Thursday].

For Thursday's class, read Cuckoo's Nest up through p. 288 [the electric shock] and complete the pre-reading questions posted on Studywiz.

Read my post on Cuckoo's Nest below on McMurphy as a Christ figure.