Blog Prompt 1_TKAM

What do you think is involved in making a fair judgment about a person or situation? Explain.

I believe that in making a fair judgment about a person or a situation, the first thing you would need to do is to put aside all the biases and unfair views towards the person or the situation you are judging. This is to ensure that in judging, your own views and thoughts on the person or situation would not affect the fairness of the judging, which is the main point of the whole thing.

Also, to judge a person, I believe you would need to know in the first place why you have that judgment of the person or of the situation. Is it because of something he did or because of some rumours? How reliable is the source of information to what he did? Example, if you saw a person shouting in class, some people’s first impression of this guy would be that he is a very loud, a very rude person. But just because of one incident, you were able to lay down a fair judgment of him? No! In order to make a fair judgment, we cannot understand the situation from just one point of view, but from several different sources for you to be able to view the situation or person from different perspectives. In actual fact, all of this still leads back to bias against others, which would be a crucial factor for you not to have in judging a person or situation fairly.

1st Person VS 3rd Person Narrative

1st-Person Narrative:

In a nutshell, I would use the first-person narrative when I want to allow the readers to understand the situations from one point of view, which may all be affected by bias viewpoints against a particular person or situation. Also, when using 1st-person narrative, we are able to bring out a more realistic feeling of inner emotion thoughts as compared to when you are writing in 3rd-person. By describing the scene from the first person's eyes, we are also able to only capture a limited scene, thus not as effective as compared to the 3rd-person narrative in terms of plot understanding.


3rd-Person Narrative:

I would use the third-person narrative when I want to describe the characters better in terms of emotional conflicts for all the characters. Also, using 3rd-person narrative can allow us to describe almost all the elements of a story in a better way than the 1st-person narrative (e.g. settings, characterization). The best thing about using 3rd-person narrative is that the scene is not necessarily from just one person's eyes. As such, we can describe two different settings, even if the characters are not witnessing it and also provide characteristics and physical attributes for every single character.

Beach Description

The sun was about to set as the brightness of the skies were half overwhelmed with night clouds. Seven boats were within sight, all of different sizes and types, swaying by the Coco Beach. The water was still, as streams of iridescence were spread out across the sea. The sea was clear, as though you could see into it. Not too far across the sea, an island could be seen, filled with forests. Small waves were crushing its way towards the coast, creating soft splashes as they hit the shores. At a great distance from the shore, two person could be seen, about the size of ants, on a platform, barely made out as a boat.

Comic Strip_Home Learning T1W4

By lohwk022497 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

By lohwk022497 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

1) Why did you choose the different pictures or background(s)?

The reason why I chose some of the pictures or backgrounds for these comic strips is because they are all exclusive to Singapore (E.g. Boat Quay, Merlion, Integrated Resort). For other pictures like the MRT station, it is to just used as an example for the narrator to talk more about it. For the hawker centre picture, it is specially used because it is bustling with people, showing that the population in Singapore is quite high.

2) How did they contribute to the elements (plot, setting, characterisation) of your narrative?

The pictures contributed to the elements by showing exactly how the place looks like, thus making the setting clearer for the reader to imagine.

3) How did you make use of the different elements to contribute to the theme you have chosen?

To contribute to the theme of "Identity" which I have chosen, I have decided to use many different settings in the story for the character to showcase more about Singapore. Other than that, there would also be many feelings of sadness and unwillingness to part Singapore to show how the character misses and liked Singapore so much.

Questions to novel reading

1. Why is it necessary to understand the historical and cultural context of the novel?

1. It is necessary to understand the historical and cultural context of the novel as it allows us to understand when this novel was written and if there were any events that happened in that time frame which led to this novel being written. The novel would prove to be easier to internalize if we were to read up more on the reason this novel was written.

2. How does it help to understand the author’s background? Is it necessary to learn about the author’s background?

2. It helps to understand the author’s background as many novels’ authors would write down some of their own experiences in the book. However, it is not a necessary requirement as most stories would allow the reader to make out the storyline without knowing the author’s background.

3. Is it possible to appreciate the text without pre-reading about the historical and cultural context of the novel / background of the novel?

3. It is still possible, but with higher level of difficulty to understand the novel.

Example: Reading up more on the background of this novel would allow us to know about how blacks are often discriminated in the past by the whites. Knowing the background would allow us to appreciate the story. (Know what is going on when the text is being written)

Prejudice

Know: What do I already know about Prejudice?

Prejudice is a form of unfairness towards a particular person for a particular reason. An example would be the case in the "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. In this book, there is a prejudice against the black people, who are known by them as the "niggers" or the "negro",which is a very offensive way of calling them. Most of the white people in the story feel that black people are inferior to them and thus, treat them very badly, not showing respect to them. To them, even those people who defend these black people, example being Atticus defending Tom Robinson in a rape case at law, are not well-liked. As such, those people even called Atticus a "nigger-lover".

Want: What do I want to know/learn about Prejudice?

I would like to learn more about why prejudice occurs in the world and why do people have disputes between each other, especially between races in some countries. I find it quite unfair that black people in some countries are actually prejudiced just because of their skin colour. All of us, be it black or white, are human beings in the world and should not be treated unfairly just because of this reason. I would also like to know some form of actions done to the people who are prejudiced and how do they actually cope with it.

Favourite Poem

Title : I carry you heart with me
Poet : E. E. Cummings
Poem :

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
my heart) I am never without it (Anywhere
I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
By only me is your doing, my darling)
I fear
No fate (For you are my fate, my sweet)I want
No world (For beautiful you are my world, my true)
And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
And whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
And the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

1. How are the figurative language used in this poem?

I carry your heart with me - This sentence makes use of personification. As we know, it is literaly impossible to "carry a heart". However, to emphasize on this point, the poet made use of this figurative language to show the importance of it.

And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant, And whatever a sun will sing is always you - This sentence is using personification as it is not possible for a sun to sing. This is to show how important "you" are.

And the sky of the sky of a tree called life - This sentence is metaphoring tree to a life.

2. Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

This poem is mostly free verse with a little use of alliteration especially on the first word (I, No). Also, the poem made use of imagination to describe (Whatever a sun will always sing is you) the feelings of the poet. There's also use of exaggeration in the poem (And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart). All in all, the main reason why I prefer this poem is that I find the mood of the poem very romantic as well as meaningful. By making comparisons and different figurative languages, the whole poem is able to bring out the true feeling thoroughly and allows the reader to seem to experience it himself.