rough draft

Zach Miller

Brit Lit B

Wilson

May 7, 2013

A Modest Proposal

            Jonathan Swift was a writer during the early eighteenth century who was known for using satire in his pieces. Swift used satire in his pieces to try and improve society and making people decent human beings. He did not enjoy Ireland because of the Roman Catholic natives and Scottish Presbyterian immigrants were people that he did not get along with. After becoming a priest, Swift wrote his most famous piece, The Modest Proposal, which was about the Irish culture during its hard times. Swift wrote a pamphlet that gave crazy solutions to the problems of beggars, starving children, shortage of money, and more that was going on in Ireland. He used vivid satire to hopefully shock the people of society and to make a change in society.

            In this piece, Swift uses verbal irony to persuade the people of Ireland of its problems. He uses the irony of parents teaching their children to steal until the age of six so that they could learn rudeness. Another thing that is ironic is the title itself. Swift proposes that they should eat their children once they are plump because it would decrease the number of useless children that are on the streets. He also proposed that you would sell the children too as food so the parents could make a good living. All of these proposals are not “modest” at all, they are quite horrific. With all of this being a satire, Swift is willing to make himself look like a crazy person to expose the gruesome behaviors of the culture of Ireland.

            Swift uses logical appeals to support his crazy propositions. He uses these logical appeals by providing six advantages for the people of Ireland. “I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many as well as of the highest importance.” (p.587 Elements of Literature)

            The six advantages say that the proposal will help with the bad economy they were currently having, parents wouldn’t have to take care of the children after a year, and married couples will get along better.  “Thirdly, whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings apiece per annum, the nation’s stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum,” (p. 587). This is an example of one of the advantages that use logical appeal.

            Not only does Swift use logical appeal, but he also uses ethical appeal to persuade the people of Ireland. In Swift’s concluding paragraph, he states that, “I profess in the sincerity of my hearth that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive that the public good of my country…I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing.” (p. 589)

            Swift is saying that he is trustworthy and has no ulterior motives because his wife can’t even have children no more and their youngest is already too old to be cooked. This is also ironic because he is using a tone that makes it seem like that the fact that he proposed of selling children as food was a great idea and that it could be something normal when really that is not good at all.

            Swift uses vivid satire throughout this persuasive piece to show that Ireland was going through a hard time. He uses irony, ethical and logical appeals to help support his satire. Jonathan Swift realized that people thought he was going to be crazy if he talked about a subject like this but didn’t care because he just wanted to prove a point and hopefully create change for the country that he lives in. He knew that if he went to the something of this extreme, that people would actually realize what was going on.

           

           

           

           

              

Pan's Labyrinth Essay

Zach Miller

Wilson

Brit Lit

April 2, 2013

Pan’s Labyrinth: Essay

I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.

xZach Miller

Cites:

Miller, Zach C. "Mise En Scene." Web log post. Zach Miller, n.d. Web. <http://zachmillerbritlit.blogspot.com/>.

Pan's Labyrinth. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Prod. Guillermo Del Toro, Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuarón, Frida Torresblanco, and Álvaro Augustín. By Guillermo Del Toro. Perf. Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, and Ivana Baquero. Picturehouse, 2006.

"Quotes About Mistakes." (270 Quotes). N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/mistakes>.

Wilson, ed. Pan's Labyrinth. 22 Mar. 2013. Tracking sheet.

Zach Miller

Wilson

Brit Lit

April 2, 2013

Pan’s Labyrinth: Essay

            Growing up is always a different story for every person. Whether you experience your adolescence in a happy or scary way you still learn about maturing and becoming an adult. The “Pale Male” scene is a pivotal moment for Ofelia’s journey because it represents the disobedience of Ophelia, which is the start of her becoming mature and a strong independent. Ophelia almost risk everything that she wants, just so she can eat a couple of grapes. She gives into the temptation of eating the two grapes off the table of the Pale male, even though she was told by her mentor, the faun. Though disobedience isn’t the exact start to adolescence, or the beginning of adult hood, Ophelia still learns from this lesson of disobedience. The director finds great ways to “tell the story” of the scene, and also to send messages without the characters being verbal. He is successful of this by using objects, angles, and sounds during the scene.

             After Ophelia gets the knife from the stoned wall, she walks up to the pale man and is scared. This is symbolizing the fact that Ophelia knows that the man is very bad and if she eats the grapes something bad is going to happen to her. There is also no music during the time she is walking towards the pale man. But after she starts walking across the table, Ophelia begins to walk next to the table and music begins to play and the camera begins to zoom up on her. This could be a symbol of Ophelia’s temptations rising as she gets closer to the grapes. Once she figures out what she wants, the camera moves away from her and goes to the full plate of grapes that just look so delicious. This is showing us that Ophelia really wants the grapes. She then turns to her left and the focus goes on the pale man. This is effective because it kind of gives us a hint that something is going to happen with the pale man when she eats the grapes. You can also predict that something bad is going to happen when the fairies are trying to get her to stop. Ophelia doesn’t pay attention to the fairies though and continues to eat a grape, she even takes another one to eat too. This is significant for her because once she eats the grapes the pale male comes alive and eats two of the faun’s fairies. When Ophelia comes to Pan’s Labyrinth she tells the faun what had happen to his fairies and this makes the faun very angry. The faun tells Ophelia that she had failed her tasks by eating the grapes and that she should have listened to him. This is a significant part in the Ophelia’s story because this helps her realize that she wants to be the princess and out of the real world more than anything. It helps Ophelia understanding the ultimate goal for herself and that she accepts the fact that she needs to accept her role as the princess and should do the right thing.

            “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” This is a great quote about learning lessons said by Mahatma Ghandi. The quote can mean that if an individual didn’t have the freedom to make a mistake, then he/she wouldn’t have the freedom to live. The reason why they wouldn’t have the freedom to live is because they haven’t learned anything by making these mistakes. I think this quote fits perfectly for Ophelia because she had that temptation to do something bad, even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to eat the grapes. A similar situation of this could be for any kid who is growing up with problems, like Ophelia not wanting to live with her step-father and wanting to be a princess. A problem for a kid could be being in an abusive relationship with either a friend or relative and they are too scared to tell anyone. But once someone finds out, and he or she is forced to tell then they realize that they should have done something from the beginning because of the results of the abuse stopping. This is all a part of growing up. So in comparison, Ophelia represents the abusive child who is looking for a way out of the situation. Ophelia eating the grapes compares to somebody finding out about the abusive relationship. This leads to the fairies dying and making the faun mad, which then leads to Ophelia learning her lesson because when she is told that she wasn’t going to be a princess anymore, she realizes that she wanted it more than anything and that the temptations of eating the grapes weren’t worth it. This part compares to the abusive relationship because if you are an abused child, you are too scared to tell people because you are scared about what is going to happen after you tell, but once forced to tell what his friends or relatives to do him because somebody found out and he or she was confronted they realize that they should have told somebody from the beginning. In the end, Ophelia and the abused kid learned a lesson of growing up.

            The pale man scene is important for Ophelia because it shows that she is growing up. By being disobedient, she gets punished by the faun and this helps her realize the big picture and what she really wants. The director does a great job during the scene to show us the emotions of what is going on through the scene. Basically growing up is not all about the happy stuff, but it is good for bad things to happen to you because you learn from that and you can move further into your adolescence and eventually take your lessons throughout your adult hood. 

Mis En Scene Analysis: Pan's Labyrinth

Setting
The setting seems to be in a really dark place where every thing has a dim tone to it or looks like a rock. It seems like this place could be somewhere underground like a dungeon or a cave. With everything being so dim in the scene you can expect something bad to happen because it puts you in a tense mood. By having fire in the background, it makes the scene more intense because fire can relate to dangerous things and just gives you that heated feeling. Overall I would say that the setting made me feel very intense, especially when the little girl starting running away in the dim tunnel.
Costume, hair, and make up
When I saw the little girl I could tell that this story was told from a long time ago. I could tell because the dress looked very old and they way how her hair was short and styled looked like from a long time ago too. When I saw the ugly creature sitting on the table I automatically though that it was going to do something scary because by the way it looked. Then when he came alive and put the eyeballs in his hands and made that terrifying growl you just knew he was going to try and eat the little girl.
Facial expression and body language
In the beginning you can tell that the little girl looks lost while she is walking along staring at the long table. Then when she sees the ugly creature she has the look of fear in her face and disgust as she picks up the plate of eyeballs. When the little girl notices the juicy grapes on the plate you can tell that she really wants to eat them. At the same time you can also notice that the fairies are trying to tell her that she shouldn’t eat them. But she doesn’t listen and proceeds to eat. You can tell that the fairies are disappointed with her because of there body language. At the end you can obviously tell that the little girl is scared because she is about to be eaten by something horrific.
Lighting
The lighting in the scene is all above the table. I believe the director did this because he wanted the focus to be on the food to make it look good, even though all the food were dark colors. I liked how he used fire as a light source too because it gives you that feeling of being in a cave or a dungeon which is kind of a scary feeling. With the lighting being so dim in the scene, it also makes you feel a little nervous or tense because you are thinking that something bad is going to happen.
Sound
The sound effects in this scene are very spooky. When the little girl looks at all the pictures of the creature and the babies, you can faintly hear babies crying in the background. The music in the background also makes the scene very edgy. When she is walking up to the table to get her
grapes the music is very spooky. Then when she does eat the grape, the creature moves his fingers and every time he makes a dramatic body movement the music goes at the same time. The makers of the movie did a really good job of setting a scary mood.

blog post #3

1) Technology has changed our lives by making it easier. It has changed the way business are runned. It has also 0helped improve medicine. Another thing it has done for us is "being connected" with all o the new social media. I believe it has really made America do whatever is the next "trend". A good example of this would be the Harlem Shake because it is a new phenomenom that everyone is doing because of social media. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harlem+shake&oq=harlem+shake&gs_l=youtube.3..35i39j0j0i3j0l2j0i3j0l4.46709.49758.0.49928.18.14.2.0.0.0.218.1673.8j5j1.14.0...0.0...1ac.1.KcsCgcYND8Y

2)According to The Center of Media Literacy... media literacy is about helping students become competent, critical and literate in all media forms so that they control the interpretation of what they see or hear rather than letting the interpretation control them.
At first, I believed that media literacy was just having a facebook or twitter page and knowing the lingo that goes along with having a profile or a tweet. Now I realize that it is for using those social media websites and putting education into it also. For example, me typing this blog is me having media literacy. Since I am interpreting how I feel about these questions that I am posting to my blog.

3) I would not consider myself "media literate". Even though I have learned a lot of educational things trough out technology and life lessons, I don't seem to take the time and talk about it through social media. First off, I don't even use Facebook anymore and the only time I am tweeting is when I am watching the Bengals, Cavs, Reds, or Celtics and they either do something good or bad. So I would consider myself a "sports media literate". Being at school is the only time I feel like a media literate.

4)I would have to disagree with Mr. Postman. I believe that he was a man from a time where technology was just starting to improve and that he was just too scared of change. Instead of seeing all of positive things that technology can do, like improving medicine and helping out business all around the world. Postman saw all the negatives thing it can do, like not reading books. I'm not saying that you shouldn't read a book, but why read a book when you can get educated by amazing technology? For instance, the DVD series Planet Earth is very educational and uses technology to the fullest to help us learn about the amazing things nature can do. You wouldn't be able to get all of the those beautiful visual learning's with a book!

About ME!

Zach Miller

I have accomplished a couple things I guess. I feel like getting a job was an accomplishment for me. Getting accepted to UC and NKU were pretty awesome too. Talent wise, I enjoy music alot. Learned to play piano around first grade and ever since I have taught myself to play guitar and drums. Qualities, I would say that I am well qualified for whatever life throws at me. Over my high school career, not only have I learned alot academically but I have learned even more about life.

I work at Skyline Chili on Western Row. I got the job during the summer of 2012. Getting a job has helped me learn alot about responsibility and being an adult. I time I learned about responsibility is when I showed up for work late and I almost got fired. My manager really put into my head that being responsible is important because in the work world, you need to be a reliable person or you won't be able to be as successful as you want. Music is a big part of my life because it has been around me for so long. I enjoy playing and making my own music. That has helped me learn to be patient and independent because making music takes a long time and you don't really have a lot of help if you are making music by yourself.