Monday, November 16, 2009

Post 11:The external conflict (Ashley)

External conflict of the protagonist: an external conflict is a conflict outside a characters control.

Passages: Pg 38-39

"You Don't scare me" I said mostly under my breathe. He'd already turned to leave but now he whirled back. "what did you say?"
" You don't scare me," I repeated louder this time. A brazen feeling had broke loose in me, a daring something that had been locked up in my chest.
He stepped toward me, raising the back of his hand like he might bring it down across my face. " You better watch your mouth."
" Go ahead, try and hit me!" I yelled.
when he swung, I turned my face. It was a clean miss. I ran for the bed and scrabbled on to the middle of it, breathing hard. " My mother will never let you touch me again!" I shouted.
"Your mother?" His face was bright red. " You think that goddamn woman ever gave a shit about you?"
" My mother loved me!" I cried
He threw back his head and let out a forced, bitter laugh.
It's--- it's not funny," I said. He lunged toward the bed then pressing his fists into the mattress, bringing his face so close I could see the tiny holes where his whiskers. I slid backward toward the pillows, shoving my back into the headboard."not funny?" he yelled. "not funny? why, it's the funniest goddamn thing I ever heard; you thinking your mother is your guardian angel." He laughed again. " The women could have cared less about you.""That's not true," I said. "It's not.""And how would you know?" he said still leaning toward me.A leftover smile pulled the corners of his mouth."I hate you!" I screamed That stopped his smiling instantly. He stiffened. " why, you little bitch," he said. The color faded from his lips.Suddenly i felt ice cold, as if something dangerous had slipped into the room. I looked toward the window and felt a tremor slide along my spine."You listen to me," he said, his voice deadly calm. "The truth is your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she'd come back to get her things that's all. You can hate me all you want, but shes the one who left you."

Explanation: This passage really shows the external conflict of the protagonist because there is nothing that lily can do to erase what her dad told her from her memory. There is nothing she can do to stop it and it is out of her control. Even though she wants to believe that it is not true, she will never know for sure and now that she ran away, there is nothing she can do about it. The authors purpose of the passage was to show how helpless Lily is listening to this and how much it will affect her throughout the book. I know that this is the authors purpose because reading on I realized how much this one passage had such an affect on the protagonist and how she can do nothing about that affect.

Post 10:figurative language ( Ashley)

Figurative language: A technique in writing in which the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particular effect. This interruption takes the form of one or more figures of speech such as hyperbole, irony, or simile

Passage: pg 238 :

.. " He's not the daddy type"
"What do you mean"
"He yells all the time."
"At you?"
" At everything in the world. But that's not the reason I left."
"Then what was it Lily?"
" T- Ray he told me my mother..." The tears rushed up, and my words came out in high pitched sounds I didn't recognize."He said she left me, that she left both of us and ran away." A wall of glass broke in my chest, A wall I didn't even know was there....
I was pressed so close to her I felt her heart like a Small throbbing pressure against my chest. Her hands rubbed my back. She didn't say, come on now, stop your crying, every things going to be OK, which is the automatic thing people say when they want you to shut up. She said, " It hurts, i know it does. Let it out. Just let it out."
So I did With my mouth pressed against her dress, it seemed like a drew up my life load of pain and hurled it into her breast, heaved it with the force of my mouth, and she didn't flinch."

Explanation: The passage above is just on of the many passages that show figurative language. The part of this passage that shows figurative language is " wall of glass broke in my chest, A wall I didn't even know was there" This shows figurative language because it is not literal, but it changes the words definitions to make the sentence sound dramatic. The authors purpose was to make the scene more dramatic and let the reader have an image in there head of what lily is really feeling. I know that this is the authors purpose because when I was reading this I really felt like I knew how Lily was feeling because of that sentence and I knew just how terrible she felt.

post 9:The use of Imagery (Ashley)

Imagerey: The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. The use of expressive or evocative images in art, literature, or music.

Passage: Pg1: " At night I lay in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making the propeller sound, sound a high pitched Zzz that hummed along my skin. I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower , just flying for the feel of the wind,spilt my heart down it's seam.

During the day I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to static in the next Room, and I imagined them in there turning the walls into honey -combs, with honey seeping out for me to taste."

Explanation: The passage above is a part of the book where the author uses imagery. I think that the bees represent Life and imagination in the book because when lily hears the bees she always goes into deep thought and imagination. Also they represent life because they show how Lily would like to live like the bees instead of the way she's living now with T- Ray. She says " The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind..." this shows how much Lily admired how those bees flew and how she felt trapped with T- Ray. The significance of this passage was to show the feelings of Lily through a non literal way.Imagery is The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas

post 8:Rubric!!!

THE RUBRIC
Criteria
4 (exceeding standards)
3 (meeting standards)
2 (Approaching standards)
1 (Far below the standards)
Choosing significant passages
Students have chosen the most significant passages that add to the meaning of the novel.
Students have chosen significant passages that develop the meaning of the novel.
Students have chosen 10 passages in the novel that are meaningful.
Students have chosen 10 passages without thought.
Analysis of the passages
Each analysis is thoughtful and insightful. The students can recognize and understand the significance of a wide range of literary elements and use those
elements to interpret all the passages.
The students can recognize and understand the significance of a wide range of literary elements and use those
elements to interpret all of the passages.
The students can recognize and understand the significance of a wide range of literary elements and use those
elements to interpret most of the passages.
The students describe what is happening in the passages instead of analyzing the significance of the passages.
Conventions
The final draft shows evidence of thorough editing. In addition to editing moves we have discussed in class, the author has found other errors to correct.

The final draft shows evidence of editing. The piece does not contain errors that were addressed in class.


There is some evidence of editing. There are some places where words are missing or phrasing is awkward. Some mistakes addressed in class lessons remain.

There is little evidence of the editing process. The final draft may be the only draft included or the final draft may not show evidence of any editing strategies from class.

post 7: The significant Aspect (Natalia)

The Significant Aspect



The significant aspect I think is when at the ending of the book and Lilly decides to stay with the Boatwright sisters.

[pg296-297]


I didnt answer him, but walked over to our lady where she lay on the floor and lifted her upright. I could feel August and Rosaleen outide the, could almost hear their breathing. I touched my belly for weeks.

" What did you say?"

"I said I'm not leaving."
" You think I'm gonna walk out of here and leave you? I dont even know these damn people." He seemed to struggle to make his words forceful enough. The anger had been washed out of him when he'd dropped the knife
" i know them i said.

I chose this passage because its important because it shows the love that Lilly has gotten from the Boatwright sisters which want her to make her stay because she feels like she has a real family there. Also Lilly has gotten familar with them and they are like a big family together.

Post 6: The plot (Natalia)

The Plot



Lily, a fourteen year old white girl, lives alone with her father, a peach farmer, in Sylvan, South Carolina.T. Ray, her abusive father. Lily recalls her very last memory of her mother, Deborah, who died when Lily was a small child. Lily thinks that she played a horrible part in Deborah’s death. In a flashback, T. Ray told Lily that she accidentally shot Deborah while Deborah and T. Ray were fighting one day. Soon Lily and Rosaleen become members of the community centered around the Boatwright house, a close-knit group of African Americans, mostly women, who call themselves the “Daughters of Mary” and worship a three foot tall statue of a black Mary. Lily meets the honey farm helper, Zach, a handsome, intelligent, African American boy on whom she develops a crush. In the fall, she returns to school, which she attends with Zach and where she makes other friends. August and her community become Lily’s new family, and, at long last, Lily develops into a loving person.





[PG 38-39]

As i stepped inside my room, he stopped at the doorway." I have to go settle the payroll for the pickers,"he said. "Dont you leave this room. You understand me? You sit here and think about me coming back and dealing with you. Think about it real hard."

"You don't scare me," I said, mostly under my breath. He'd already turned to leae, but now he whirled back. "What did you say?"

"You dont scare me," I repeated, louder this time. A brazen feeling had broken loose in me, a daring something that had been locked up in my chest. He stepped toward me, raising the back of his hand like he might bring it down across my face. "You better watch your mouth."

" Go ahead and hit me!" I yelled.

When he swung, I turned my face. It was a clean miss.

I ran for the bed and scrambled onto the middle of it, breathing hard. "My mother will never you touch me again!" I shouted.

" Your mother'? His face was bright red. "You think that god damn women gave a Sh** about you?"

"My mother loved me!" I cried.

He threw back his head and let out a forced bitter laugh.

"It's--- it's not funny," I said

He lunged toward the bed then presssing his fists into the matress, bringing his face so close I could see the tiny holes where his whiskers. I slid backward toward the pillows, shoving my back into the headboard.
"not funny?" he yelled. "not funny? why, it's the funniest goddamn thing I ever heard; you thinking your mother is your gaurdian angel." He ;aughed again. " The women could have cared less about you."
"Thats not true," I said. "It's not."
"And how would you know?" he said still leaning toward me.
A leftover smile pulled the corners of his mouth.
"I hate you!" I screamed
That stopped his smiling instantly. He stiffened. " why, you little bi***," he said. The color faded from his lips.
Suddenly i felt ice cold, as if something dangerous had slipped into the room. I looked toward the window and felt a tremor slide along my spine.
"You listen to me," he said, his voice deadly calm. "The truth is your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she'd come back to get her things thats all. You can hate me all you want, but shes the one who left you."
The room turned absolutley silent.
He brushed at something on his shirtfront, then walked to the door.


I chose this passage because this passage is important without this arguement happening with Lilly and her father Lilly would of never ran away and she would of never met the Boatwright sisters. Also Lilly wouldnt have gone to Tiburon a place where holds her mothers secret past. I think the significance is that the author wanted to show the realtionship Lilly has with her dad.

post 5: theme (Natalia)

Theme: The theme in the book is mostly about the irrationally of racism.

[31- 33]

We came to Sylvan on the worst side of town. Old houses set up on cinder blocks. Fans wedged in the windows. Dirt yards. Women in pink curlers. Collarless dogs.

After a few blocks we approached the Esso station on the corner of West Market and Park Street,generally reorganized as a catchall place for men with too much time on their hands.

I noticed that not a single car was getting gas. Three men sat in deinette chairs beside the garage with a piece of plywood balanced on their knees. They were playing cards.

"Hit me," one of them said,and the dealer ,who wore a Seed and Feed cap,slapped a card down in front of him. He looked up and saw us, Rosaleen fanning and shuffling, swaying side to side. "Well look what we got coming here,"he called out. "Where're you going, ni***?"

Firecrackers made a spattering sound in the distance. "Keep walking," I whispered. "Don't pay any attention."

But Rosaleen, who had less sense than I'd dreamed, said in this tone like she was explaining something real hard to a kindergarten student, "I'm going to register my name so I can vote, thats what."

"We should hurry on," I said, but she kept walking at her own slow pace.

The man next to the dealer, with hair combed straight back, put down his cards and said "Did you hear that? We got ourselves a model citezen."
I heard a slow song of wind drift ever so slightly in the street behind us and move along the gutter. We walked, and men pushed back their makeshift table and came right down to the curb to wait for us, like they were spectors at a parade and we were the prize float
"Did you ever see one that black?" said the dealer. And the man with his combed black hair said, "No, and I aint seen one that big either."
Naturally the third man felt obliged to say something, so he looked at Rosaleen sashaying along unperturbed, holding her white-lady fan,and he said, "Where'd you get that fan, ni***?" "Stole it from church," she said. Just like that.
I had gone once in a raft down the Chattooga River with my church group, and the same feeling came to me now of being lifeted by currents, by a swirl of events I couldn't reverse.
Coming alongside the men, Rosaleen lifted her snuff jug, which was filled with black spirit, and calmy poured it across the tops of the men's shoes, moving her hand in little loops like she was writing her name Rosaleen Daise just the way she'd practiced.
For a second they stared down the juice, dribbled like car oil across their shoes. They blinked, trying to make it register. When they looked up, I watched their faces go from suprise to anger,then outright fury. They lunged at her, and everything started to spin. Therewas Rosaleen, grabbed and thrashing side to side, swinging the men like pocketbooks on her arms, and the me yeliing for her to apoligize and clean their shoes.
"Clean it off!" Thats all I could hear, over and over. And then the cry of birds overherd, sharp as needles, sweeping from lowbough trees, stirring up the scent of pine, and even then I knew I would recoil all my life from the smell of it.
"Call the police," yelled the dealer to a man inside. by then Rosaleen lay sprawled on the groound, pinned twisting her fingers around clumps of grass. Blood ran from a cut beneath her eye. It curved under her chin the way tears do.
When the policeman got there, he said we had to get into the back of his car. "You're under arrest", he told Rosaleen. "Assult,theft and disturbing the peace." Then he said to me, "When we get down to the station, I'll call your daddy and let him deal with you."
Rosaleen climbed in, sliding over on the seat. I moved after her, sliding as she slid, sitting as she sat.
The door closed. So quiet it amounted to nothing but a snap of air, and that was the strangeness of it, how a small aound like that could fall across the whole world.


This passage explains how African American people were treated, that they werent allowed to register to vote.The white people would beat up the African Americans just to register. I chose this passage as the theme of the story because the book is about the irrationally of racism and how it affects the town that Lilly lives in. The significance is that this is the passage were Rosaleen gets treated unfairly.

post 4:Setting Of the Novel (Ashley)


Setting:The context and environment in which a situation is set; the background. The time, place, and circumstances in which a narrative, drama, or film takes place.
Passage:Pg 51- " We started walking. If you think the country is quiet , you've 'e never lived in it. Tree frogs alone make you wish for earplugs. We walked along pretending like it wasa regular day. Rosaleen said it loked like that farmer who'd driven us here had a good crop of cantaloupes.I said It was amazing the mosquitoes weren't out.
When we came to a bridge with water running beneath , we decided we would pick our way down to the creek bed anf rest for the night. It was a diffrent universe down there, The water shining with flecks of moving light and kuduzu vines draped between the pine trees like giant hammocks. It reminded me of Grimm Brothers forest, drawing up the nervous feelings I used to get when I stepped into the pages of fairytales, where inthinkable things were likley - You just never knew."
Explanation: This is just one of the many settings in this book. I choose this passage because I felt that this was the best passage that explained the novels setting.The author's purpose of this passage was to make the reader feel like they were there with Lily and Rosaleen. She wanted the readers to feel lost but free at the same time. I know that this is the author's purpose because while reading this I felt exactly like that. I felt as if I was there with them.If closed my eyes I could just Imagine the creek and the darkness and the sounds of the crickets and frogs. I also felt really scared and lost for lily because they were in the middle of nowhere and she had no idea what to do once they did get toTiburon. I also felt Free because she was finally free from T- ray and she didn't have to live with him making her feel miserable.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Post 3:Flashback (Ashley)

Flashback:A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

Passages:pg17-19: " "Lily you're starting school tomorrow so there are things you need to know. About your mother. For a moment everything got still and quiet, as if the wind had died and the birds had stopped flying. When he squatted down in front of me, I felt caught in a hot dark I could not break free of.
" It's time you knew what happened to her, and I want you to hear it from me. Not from people out there talking. We had never spoken of this, and I felt a shiver pass over me. The memory of that day would come back to me at odd moments. The stuck window. The smell of her. The clink of hangers. The suitcase. The way they'd fought and shouted. Most of all, the gun on the floor, the heaviness when I'd lifted it.I knew that the explosion I'd heard that day had killed her The sound still sneaked into my head once and a while and surprised me. Sometimes it seemed that when I held the gun there hadn't been any noise at all. that it had come later,... now,
T-ray scooped up a handful of dirt and let it fall out of his hands." The day she died she was cleaning out the closest," he said. I could not account the strange tone of his voice, an unnatural sound,how it was almost, but not quite,kind. Cleaning the closet.I had never considered what she was doing the last minutes of her life, Why she was in the closet, what they had fought about. " I remember" I said " You were yelling at each other." A tightening came to his face. "Is that right?" he said.His lips had started to turn pale,which was the thing i always watched for.I took a step backward. " Goddamn it, you were four years old!" he shouted " You don't know what to remember." In the silence that followed I considered lying to him saying I take it back I don't remember anything, but there was such a powerful need in me,pent up for so long, to speak about it, to say the words...

Explanation: This passage shows Flashback in the book. The protagonist, Lily is remembering back to when her dad was trying to tell her what happened with her mom, and how she died. He thought that she wouldn't remember what really happened, and he could lie to her. He got really mad when he found out she does remember. I think that the purpose of this passage was to show the relationship between Lily and her dad During an early time. It really shows how T-Ray looses his temper really quickly with Lily, even when she was little. It also shows the fear Lily has of him when he walks her way and when his lips turn white. I know this is the authors purpose because She really goes into depth about how scared she was and how outraged T-Ray was. I think this is important to the rest of the book because it shows T- Ray and Lily's relationship more further and might explain something further in the book.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

post 2: foreshadowing (Natalia)

Foreshadowing:The novel opens with Lily watching bees fly around her bedroom. These bees foreshadow Lily’s interaction with the Boatwright sisters at August’s bee farm.[pg 1-] At night i would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracs of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high pitched zzzzzzzzzz that hummed along my skin. I watched their wings shinning like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing bulid in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower just flying for the feel of the wind split my heart down its seam.
During the day I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to satic in the next room, and I imagined them in there turning the walls into honey combs, with honey seeping out for me to taste.

The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned 14 and my life went to spinning off into a whole new orbit, and I mean I mean whole new orbit. Looking back on it now, I want to say the bees were sent to me.I want to say they showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary, setting events in the motion I could never have guessed. I know it is presumptuous so compare my small life to hers, but I have reason to believe she wouldn't mind; I will get to that. Right now it's enough to say that despite everything that happened that summer, I reamin tender toward the bees.

I chose this passage because in the beginning of the book it tells us about Lilly's in teraction with the bees. Then this moment foreshadows her interaction with the Boatwright sisters because they are beekeeping sisters.

post 1:Internal Conflict (Natalia)

Internal Conflict (natalia)
Motherless Lily lives unhappily with her emotionally detached father, who claims that Lily, as a small child, accidentally killed her mother. When her black maid and only friend Rosaleen gets arrested for confronting three racists, Lily decides to break Rosaleen out of jail. Together they run away to a place Lily suspects her mother once spent time.[PG 49-51] We stood on the side of Highway 40 in a patch of shade provided by a faded billboard for lucky strike cigarettes.I stuck out my thumb while every car on the highway sped up the second they save us. A colored man driving a beat-up chevy truck full of cantaloupes had mercy on us. I climbed in first and kept having to scoot over as Rosaleen settled herself by the window.
The man said he was on his way to visit his sister in Columbia, that he was taking the cantaloupes to the state farmers' market. I told him I was going to Tiburon to visit my aunt and Rosaleen was comingto do housework for her. It sounded so lame, be he accepted it.
"I can drop you three miles from Tiburon," he said. Sunset is the saddest light there is. We rode a long time in the glow of it, everything silent except for the crickets and the frogs shield as the burned lights took over the sky.
The farmer flicked on the radio and the supremes blared through the truck cab with "Baby, baby where did our love go?" Theres nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything so precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful. I laid my head against Rosaleen's arm.I wanted her to pat life back into place, but her hands lay still in her lap.
Ninety miles after we'd climbed his truck, the farmer pulled off the road beside a sign that read Tibruron 3 miles. It pointed letf toward a road curving away into silverly darkness. Climbing out of the truck, Rosaleen asked if we cpuld have one of his cantalopes for our supper.
"take yourself two," he said.
We waited till his taillights turned to specks no bigger than lightning bugs before we spoke or even moved. I was trying not to think how sad and lost we really were. I was not so sure it was an improvement over living with T. Ray, or even life in prison. there wasnt a soul anywhere to help us. But still, I felt painfully alive, like every cell in my body had a little flame inside it, burning so brightly it hurt.
I chose this passage because it shows the journey of Rosaleen and Lilly to get to Tiburon because it is one of their conflicts that they have because Rosaleen escaped from prison and now they are on the run. Lilly ranaway from her house.