PROJECT PROPOSAL GLASS MENAGEERIE

English 1B Monday & wednesday 4-5:20pm

Group: K.C. Andrew, Pedro, Faith

Assignments:

Writer: K.C.

Director: K.C.

Editor: Faith

Set/Costume Designer: Faith

Actors: Pedro & Andrew

Rough Draft Essay The Letter "A"

Faith Lucero                                                                                                                                                                                           

Professor: Stacey Knapp

English 1B

4 May 2011

In the scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the letter A manifests in a variety of forms and places. Not only does the A manifest in various forms, but it also acquires a variety of meanings. It represents more than just the sin of adultery. Even as the original mark of adultery, the scarlet letter has a different individual meaning to the various characters.

To Hester, the A is a symbol of unjust humiliation. The A magnifies in an armor breastplate at the Governor's mansion to exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be acutely the most prominent feature of Hester's semblance. In truth, she emerges absolutely hidden behind it. The A grows to be larger than Hester signifying the town's view of her sin. They do not see the human being behind the scarlet letter, they only see a sinner. For Hester, the A is not only a symbol of adultery, but also a symbol of alienation. She is an outcast from society and the women treat her differently by constantly sneering at her in public. The scarlet letter is a symbol of what society wants to see and the decision to create a relativity. The townspeople soon began to accept her and believe that letter had supernatural powers. They decide that it meant able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength, that they were allowing her to remove it. Their opinion and vision of the scarlet letter changes into its complete opposite within a short period of under ten year's time. This opinion conforms according to their worldly view of convenience. To the Puritan community, it is a mark of just punishment. In the beginning of the story the letter struck fear into the society's hearts. It symbolizes the unfair humiliation she endures, such as humiliation standing on the scaffold at noon in public view. The ornately gold-embroidered A on Hester's heart, at which Pearl throws wildflowers and decorates with a border of prickly burrs. To Pearl, the A is a bright and mysterious curiosity which symbolizes her existence and the meaning behind it. In mockery, Pearl creates an A on her chest made of green seaweed which represents purity and innocence, but also signifies Pearl's future as the daughter of sinner. For Chillingworth, the A represents the need for revenge and is the spur to this quest. To Dimmesdale, the A is a piercing reminder of his the guilt engulfing his concealed sin. It drives him to punish himself and endure Chillingworth's torture. In addition, the A also symbolizes attributes other than adultery. On the night of his vigil on the scaffold, Dimmesdale sees an immense red A in the sky. It symbolizes Angel when a great red letter in the sky, the letter A, which the townspeople interpret to stand for angel, as it manifests in the sky on the night of Governor Winthrop's death. One of the most dramatic of the several A's the book hints at is the A so frequently seen earlier and which Dimmesdale finally reveals to be an A on his chest by most of the spectators who witness his confession and death. At the end of the novel, as a summary symbol, the scarlet A refers against the black background on Hester and Dimmesdale's tombstone.

Dimmesdale and the Change

Dimmesdale the minister and Hester’s secret lover watched Hester come out of prison for her crime of committing adultery. Although Dimmesdale’s congregation had not yet known that he was the secret lover, he slowly tormented himself of his shame and guilt and started to change throughout the novel. Dimmesdale would hold his hand over his heart as if something was hurting him; he started to act as if he was in poor health.  

Before Dimmesdale revealed himself, he and Hester decided to run away together. A bad side of Dimmesdale started to a crew, he wanted to do things he had never wanted to do before and saw and then began to see a future outside of his ministry, “Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!”She silently ascended the steps, and stood on the platform, holding little Peal by the hand. The minister felt for the child’s other hand, and took it. The moment that he did so, there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through his veins, as if the mother and the child were communicating their vital warmth to his half torpid system. The three formed an electric chain” (Hawthorne 101).

Dimmesdale needed to apply extreme self-control over his tongue to keep himself from destroying other people’s faith and lives. On election Sunday, he preached his last sermon and decides to confess to his congregation and to the people of Boston his secret by revealing the scarlet mark on his chest, over his heart- the mark of the sin, a letter A.  

Extra Credit Dimmesdale Glog:

2nd rough draft the flowers

The Flower

The female characters in the novel, The Flower by Dagoberto Gilb, Silvia, Cindy and Nica, share the traditional gender role of a woman. They all live in this patriarchal system where the man sets the rules and the women abide by them. The main character, Sonny, a fifteen year old boy, shows us the oppressive life style these women face and how their cultural heritage has played a huge role in their lives.

Silvia, the mother of Sonny, was described as a beautiful woman who always dressed so elegant, her clothes were always new, she smelled of perfume, wore sparkling jewelry, her nails were always painted and her high heels were always color coordinated with her outfits. Sonny described Sylvia as a sex object, “How pretty she was in a way men are flipping through pages of dirty magazines” (Gilb10). Silvia didn’t pay much attention to Sonny, he explained a time in the novel when she kissed him, “She kissed me right on the lips. I couldn’t remember the last time she kissed me anywhere, unless it was for show when she’d also be drinking” (Gilb18). Silvia manipulated her way through life by using men; Silvia met a man by the name of, Cloyde Longpre, who would take care of her and her son. Cloyd had provided a home, a car and money for them with the expectation that Silvia would be a stay at home mother, cook for him when he was hungry, cater to any guest who would come over and keep the house clean. Silvia found herself miserable trying to fulfill Cloyd’s expectations. She did not like to cook, did not like to clean, and before she moved in with Cloyd, she had a lady to come and clean her home. Silvia’s life became oppressive because of her dependence on Cloyd, a man she did not love! Silvia seemed to know, no other way to get through life but to use her beauty, it was though she didn’t even know how to love her own children because she was so focused on maintaining herself so she could get through life.

Then there was Cindy, poor little Cindy, a nineteen year old girl who was married to a man who paid no attention to her at all. Cindy flaunted around described as, “Her skin made curves, from a lot below her belly button way up, and it was hard not to pay attention to there because it came so close to those places you weren’t supposed to stare at but couldn’t  not at the same time. If the clothes seemed too small, also everything fit her good” (Gilb28). Cindy didn’t have any friends and was left at home with no money, no car and nowhere to go in life. Her husband Tino would work all day and whenever he came home, he expected sex and would then take off and hang out with his buddies. When she met Sonny and the fact that Sonny would acknowledge her, she used her only weapon which was her body and sex. Cindy would seduce Sonny and would vent to him about how miserable she was and how much she hated her husband. She did seem like a depressed young girl who would do anything for affection and to suppress her feelings of loneliness, boredom and feeling unloved, she would smoke weed and drink alcohol. In Cindy’s defense, maybe she knew no other way in her little world, due to her upbringing in life and was raised to grow up and find a man who is supposed to take care of her and in return her job was to put up with any situation that the man put in her way, even a situation of being dependent on a man. Whatever her situation may have been she did not think

or feel very good about herself, because she stayed in a marriage where she would continue to feel alone and unloved.

Nica was around the same age as Cindy. Nica was actually the opposite of Cindy. She was best described by Sonny as. “She was a little girl in a white chiffon dress and black shoes and a pink ribbon. But you do not tell!” She was a little girl” (Gilb164). Nica was pulled out of school by her parents so she could stay home and take care of her baby brother Angelito. It seemed the only two things in life her mother and step father allowed her to interact with, were her younger brother and the T.V. Her parents would not let her out of the house, so when she met Sonny, she was glad to have a level of conversation with someone of her own age. Sonny introduced her to pizza and gave her the opportunity to express her desires of wanting to change her name to Carmen or Cathy and how she did not like being Mexican and how she want to travel to Spain. Nica suffered from a life style that she had no control over. It was her Mexican heritage and upbringing of her own parents that kept her at home to care for her brother and neglect her education. They sheltered her from the world almost as it was her duty to be their personal slave until her debt was paid off!

From a feminist point of view, these women lived an oppressive life style because of the dominate stereotype image that has carried with us for hundreds of years. Until this very day, women suffer from the staggering motto of, “The Man Wears the Pants,” “The Man has the Better Education,” which means, “The man makes more money,” leading the women’s dependence on a man, which brings us back to Silvia, Cindy and Nica who share a common life style, they have all became dependent on a man to provide for them, even if it meant they lived a unhappy.

WEEK SEVEN "THE YELLOW WALLPAPER."

Based on the title alone, "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper," my breakdown of the story determine that, because we do not have a degree or lack the education that any specialist may have the advantage of, we as human beings could better diagnose ourselves than hearing it from an over educated specialist. I say this because, I myself have been diagnosed with an over active thyroid and was prescribed all these medications which I had refused to take, two or so months later when I went back to see the physician, he had run all the blood work all over again and when the test results finally came back, my Thyroid was back to normal. When the physican originally diagnosed me with hyper tension and offered me medication, I did not refuse it because I was being rebellious I wanted to try an alternative and my life style habits, such as exercising, the way I eat and so forth so I would not have my body become dependent on a medication. This is how I felt and I felt that taking a medication would not be the best thing for me so I tried and succeeded as Charlotte Perkins Gilman did. Instead of laying in bed and going crazy, she continued to live a normal working life.

Literary Terms:

"Transitions"

Addition Category:  again, also, and, and then, besides, equally important, finally, first, further, furthermore, in addition, in the first place, last, moreover, next, second, still, too
Comparison Category:  also, in the same way, likewise, similarly
Concession Category:  granted, naturally. of course
Contrast Category:  although, and yet, at the same time, but at the same time, despite that, even so, even though, for all that, however, in contrast, in spite of, instead, neverthless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, on the other hand, otherwise, regardless, still, though, yet
Emphasis Category:  certainly, indeed, in fact, of course
Example or Illustration Category:  after all, as an illustration, even, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in deed, in fact, in other words, in short, it is true, of course, namely, specifically, that is, to illustrate, thus, truly
Summary Category:  all in all, altogether, as has been said, finally, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in particular, in short, in simpler terms, in summary, on the whole, that is, therefore, to put differently, to summarize
Time Sequence Category:  alter a while, afterward, again, also, and then, as long as, at last, at length, at that time, before, besides, earlier, eventually, finally

Idea Paper/ROUGH DRAFT

I have been working really hard to use the rigth words so my paper is from a feminist point of view without saying from a feminist point of view just yet, this is what I have so far:

Faith Lucero                                                                                                                                                                                         

Professor: Stacey Knapp

English 1B

7 March 2011

The Flower

The female characters in the novel, The Flower by Dagoberto Gilb, Silvia, Cindy and Nicca, are portrayed as the traditional stay at home women. One or all of these women carries a duty to keep themselves up for their husband, take care of the child, keep the home clean, cook dinner and all the other ideal chauvinist jobs that one might think they should do.  Although through Sonny’s eye’s, he shows us the oppressive life style these women face and how their root heritage have played huge burden in their lives.

Silvia, the mother of Sonny, was described as this beautiful women who always dressed so proper, her clothes were always new she smelled of perfume, wore sparkling jewelry, her nails were always painted and her high heels matched all her new dresses. Sonny described Sylvia as a sex object, “How pretty she was in a way men are flipping through pages of dirty magazines” (Gilb10). Silvia didn’t pay much attention to Sonny, he explained a time in the novel when she kissed him, “She kissed me right on the lips. I couldn’t remember the last time she kissed me anywhere, unless it was for show when she’d also be drinking” (Gilb18). Silvia used her beauty, found a man who would take care of her and her son, Cloyde Longpre, who provided a home, a car and money for them. Silvia did not have to work but found herself miserable. She did not like to cook, did not like to clean, before she married and moved in with Cloyde she had a lady to come and clean her home. Silvia’s life became oppressive because of her dependence on Cloyde,

                                                                                                                        Lucero 2

a man she did not love! Silvia seemed to know, no other way to get through life but to use her beauty, it was though she didn’t even know how to love her own children because she was so focused on maintaining herself so she could get through life.

Then there was Cindy, poor little Cindy, a nineteen year old girl who was married to a man who paid no attention to her at all. Cindy flaunted around described as, “Her skin made curves, from a lot below her belly button way up, and it was hard not to pay attention to there because it came so close to those places you weren’t supposed to stare at but couldn’t  not at the same time. If the clothes seemed to small, also everything fit her good” (Gilb28). Cindy didn’t have any friends and was left at home with no money, no car and nowhere to go in life. Her husband Tino would work all day and whenever he came home, he expected sex and would then take off and hang out with his buddies. When she met Sonny and the fact that Sonny would acknowledge her, she used her only weapon which was her body and sex. Cindy would seduce Sonny and would vent to him about how miserable she was and how much she hated her husband. She did seem like a depressed young girl who would do anything for affection and to suppress her feelings of loneliness, boredom and feeling unloved, she would smoke weed and drink alcohol. In Cindy’s defense, maybe she knew no other way in her little world, due to her upbringing in life and was raised to grow up and find a man who is supposed to take care of her and in return her job was to put up with any situation that the man put in her way, even a situation of being dependent on a man. Whatever her situation may have been she did not think or feel very good about herself, because she stayed in a marriage where she would continue to feel alone and unloved.

                                                                                                            Lucero 3

Nica, was around the same age as Cindy. Cindy was actually the opposite of Cindy. She was best described by Sonny as. “She was a little girl in a white chiffon dress and black shoes and a pink ribbon. But you do not tell!” She was a little girl” (Gilb164). Nica was pulled out of school by her parents so she could stay home and take care of her baby brother Angelito. It seemed the only two things in life she was allowed to interact with were her younger brother and the T.V. Her parents would not let her out of the house, so when she met Sonny, she was glad to have a level of conversation with someone of her own age. Sonny introduced her to pizza and gave her the opportunity to express her feelings and thoughts of wanting to change her name to Carmen or Cathy and how she did not like being Mexican and want to travel to Spain. Nica suffered from a life style that she had no control over. It was her Mexican heritage and upbringing of her own parents that kept her at home to care for her brother and neglect her education. They sheltered her from the world almost as it was her duty to be their personal slave until her debt was paid off.

Silvia, Cindy and Nica all have one thing in common, they were all dependent on someone to care for them and provide for them, even if it meant they lived a miserable life.  From a feminist point of view, these women lived an oppressive life style. Until this very day, women still suffer from the staggering motto of, “The Man Wears the Pants,” “The Man has the Better Education,” which means, “The man makes more money,” leading the women to praise the man because he brings in all the income. Therefore, the women gets stuck feeling they should be taking care of the children, cooking and cleaning.

Blog #4

5. Re-examine character

I wrote about Sylvia and I think Sylvia is still looked at as a beauty icon in everyone’s eyes. Mary, Buds wife said, “Some women are just born with looks. My husband talks about her all the time”(p.185). Sylvia still dresses up every day and cooks very little but she start to explain how she is so bored at home that she starts to go out more and more and Cloyde starts to ask Sonny all the time where his mother his and he shows frustrastion because she is always gone. I can see Sylvia starting to hate where she is at but maybe feels like it is a good place for Sonny, maybe she feels like by her staying with Cloyde she is providing better for her son because her son is learning responsibility because Clyde gives him chores to do around the complex, and she has provided him with a man in his life. Maybe in Sylvia’s eyes she is staying with Cloyde even though she is very unhappy because she is not emotionally in his life and she has replaced herself by putting Clyde in Sonny’s life, even though Sonny expresses Cloyde as, “The Cloyde.”

6. Examine a female from a feminist perspective: Cindy

Cindy seems to be a very lonely young girl who is just crying out for any attention. Cindy is home all day and shows signs of depression by smoking weed all day and drinking wine or wine coolers and seduces a fifteen year old boy into have sex with her. Cindy begs Sonny to hang out with her and says she is unhappy with her life and mentions she is not in love with her husband. She tells Sonny how her husband  works all day and then goes out with his friends and does who know what! Sonny also mentions how she is always coming out of her apartment practically naked (p.195).  From a feminist point of view, that is a young girl crying out for affection and any type of attention. Cindy probably stays in her situation because she obviously married at a young age and did not finish school. She has become dependent on her husband and has nowhere else to go, no money, no car, she is completely stuck in the apartment with nothing to do, it seems like no one in the complex ever notice her but Sonny. Because she lacks the education and dependency it seems the only way she knows how to communicate with a male is by having sex, using her body in hopes of receiving a companionship and someone to love her. It is like when you hear about young girls who have baby’s at a young age so someone will love them back. It is sad but with the lack of knowledge and their upbringing, this seems to be the only alternative they know.                                                                                     

Blog #3

Topic #1 a Theme: Sonny Stealing

I would like to write about Sonny Stealing and why he does it throughout the novel.  Since the beginning of the novel Sonny had mentioned he would break into homes and then finally admitted he would pick up lose change here and there in places that he figured people would forget about it so it was not a big deal. He also mentioned he did not know why he did it and he didn’t like the way he felt after he did it but he did. Later on in the novel Sonny bumped into an older man who got real angry with him but because the old man tried to hurt him Sonny hit him until the man was down and stole his wallet.  It seemed the angry Sonny would get inside he would rebel by stealing. I believe it was the rush feeling he would get the made him feel somewhat better inside since no one paid attention to him and no one understood him.  I am only curious to see if he gets caught for all the money he had been steeling, he was already caught for steeling the magazines.

Topic#4 The significance of the car salesman

I think the salesman Pink is important in this novel because he is like Sylvia and Sonny who are not races. He gives Sonny a car in return ask’s Sonny to keep an ear out of what Cloyde might be saying about Pink. Pink knows Cloyde and Bud look at him funny because he sells and talks to black people and wants to make sure he doesn’t run into any problems with the landlord Cloyde  so it is Sonny’s job to make sure Pink is up to date with what anyone is saying about him.  Sonny got to ride around with Pink one time and seen how he interacted with the blacks and even though Pink wasn’t a big man he explained him as big man out on the streets. I think Pink was about making money and didn’t care about color and race. He knew in the future things would be different but people like Cloyde and Bud just made things impossible for colored people but it would change. I am going to predict that Pink is going to have problems with Cloyde because they are going to find out that he has given the car to Sonny. I bet Cloyde is going to kick him out of the apartment complex or maybe Sylvia is just going to have enough of Cloyde and Buds behavior since they seem to look down on Mexicans and Blacks that Sylvia and Sonny are going to leave Cloyde.

Blog Entry #2: Character Description: Sylvia

Blog Entry #2: Character Description:

Through Sonny’s eyes, his mother was like a sexual object “I was always seeing how men looked at her . . . How pretty she was in the way men are flipping through pages of dirty magazines” (p. 10).  He explained he never had a true mother, son relationship with her, “I couldn’t remember the last time she kissed me anywhere, unless it was for show when she’d also been drinking” (p.18). To me Sylvia reminds of a woman who had children at a very young age and has very little education. Finding Cloyd and not having to work and finally being a stay at home mother must have been what was expected from her in her own mind, I believe she used her beauty to get her way through life and marrying a man with some wealth is where she needed to be so to speak.  I somewhat am sympathetic towards Sylvia because even though we have the power to change our future, growing up learning and living such a narrow life it is hard to see past the box that surrounds us.

Sylvia’s relationship with Sonny seems to be vague because she seems be so caught up caring about herself and how she looks because she needs that in her life, but she also seems to lean towards sonny as a friend to talk to him about things that Cloyd seems to get carried away with, that they do not or would not have ever thought was a big deal like, “Do you know that he cares about toilet paper?”  “He cares about toilet paper. How much is used.” (p.50) But at that point the two laughed so hard together because they both thought Cloyd  was ridiculous for caring about something so private and personal.

I also get relentless  towards Sylvia because above all she should put her son first, I was a single mother with two children at one point in my life, I know it was hard for me to bring a new person into their life and I took my time and did my very best to think about their feelings  when I remarried so I lean towards Sonny and how hard it must be to have a mother who does not seem to try to understand his feelings and moving away and this new room and having to get rid of his dog.  But that is me judging her so that is also some burden that Sylvia probably does carry on her shoulders. She must feel it is so hard to do right and want better for your own children when it feels like there is so little you can do.

Overall Sylvia character plays a very important role because a lot of people are stuck in her situation till this day. They have children young and use their beauty to get their way through life and only expect and hope for more from their own children.

My father always.....

When I was younger, I would spend a weekend with my father every summer.He would drive from Oakland to Watsonville to pick me up. It was about a two hour drive. So when we got into his car, my father would try to fill a years worth of lectures all in one car drive. It was so annoying! I knew it was going to happen every year that I would see him, so I would dread the visits.

I am

I am Faith Lucero,

This is like my twentieth year in school (just kidding) I feel like I have been in school forever because I have been taking only a few classes at a time because I have been indecisive of what I was going to school for. After exploring all the different subjects I finally decided to go for an A.A. in Liberal Arts in multiple subjects and then transfer San Jose State University and take some additional Child and Adolescent Development, Preparation for teaching. I basically would like to become an elementary teacher.

My reason of interest is because I have three beautiful boys of my own and one step daughter. I believe these classes will not only get me a better education and a descent job but it will also benefit my teaching skills at home. Kids are so hard to figure and I have a hard time remembering when I was their age so these classes will definitely help me in the long run of my life.

About myself, I am 29 years old, I have been married for almost two years with a total of 4 children. I love to dance and I love to help out others in need. What I mean by that is I found that I am a very resourceful person, a lot like my mother, so I when I can, I love to guide people in the right direction. I have no pets because I have no additional time since I work a full time job, go to school part time and have four children which involves homework time, gym and sports and then time with the hubby! My other favorite things to do are watching movies with my husband or mom or the kids, I just love to go to the movies. I also love to eat out when we can afford it. I love to eat sushi and I live to eat at Red Lobster.

I have worked at my job for over seven years, I do customer service in the airline industry. We are the manufactures of chemicals that clean the actual engines in the airplanes to the disinfectants for the disease called SARS. We are also have a repackage division line with major companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, 3M and so forth. I Have a pretty cool job and work with really great people.