Blog 13: Questions the hard

The novel My love my love of the peasant girl is similar, or have some kinds of connection with the fairy tale little mermaids. In the end of the little mermaids, the witch who traded the little mermaid with beautiful voice to human legs, told her that if she uses a knife to kill the prince, and let the blood flow, then she can go back to her palace deep in the ocean, and forget about everything that hurt herself.  She didn't. She loves the prince, and she doesn't even dare to think to hurt him. So does the same in this novel. The gods, play the similar role as the witch does. They are all magical and powerful. After Ti moune found out that Daniel "betrayed" her and he falls in love with another girl, her heart was broken. Then the gods, specifically Agwe and Papage gave her a shinning blade, and told her to kill Daniel. "Here, take this knife. Strike hard, strike deep. Let his blood flow heavy. Let it run down the sides of mountains. Let it spread over the land. He has betrayed you -- betrayed us all. Only then will the gods be assuaged." (Page 115, Chapter 15)She couldn't make that decision, but that was a trick made by Papage. and Lucifus, who was the god Papage throw her out. After she went outside, she still did not want to leave. She still wanted to have some chances to come back. But when Daniel came through, he did not recognize her, as usual. It's just like he never put Ti moune in his heart, but just a funny little girl, a friend or even a pet. Then she went in the city, soulless. The ending for her is coming closely too. She died, in the crowd of people. Then, something pure and beautiful comes out. "Suddenly,  swarms of papillons appeared on the hill. They winged over the crowd-- big, beautiful butterflies hit against the heads, the mouths, the eyes of peasants, policemen and guests." (Page 167, Chapter 16) Just like the bubbles when the little mermaid dies and changes into. Again, her ending of her beautiful life is just like the falling leaves. They are red, shinny red, falling down from the sky, and that red burn people eyes by its pureness and faith. 

I think this novel tries to tell us that in some way, everything we do and when we make decisions, we are trading and exchanging. Especially when it comes to the topic of extreme love, just like the last reading we did, Romeo and Juliet. They make their decisions to fall in love, and try their best even go through death as the only ending. So does the same with Desiree. She used to be a simple, pure peasant girl from a small village in an island. But when she met Daniel when he was in the car accident, her desire comes out. Her desire to have different life, to be rich, to be married with that stranger Daniel, the white horse prince of her. But one's desire is just like the Pandora's box. Once it opens, it never ends, unless the payment with death. So it's Ti moune's decision. She chooses to take advantage to the outside world, which just like the lyrics from the musical, "A fish swim in the land". 

4 Provoking questions

1. What difficulties are Ti Moune and Daniel facing in their relationship?

2. Do you think the gods in this novel really exist? Why?

3. What are the inside desires of Ti moune?

4. Why Ti moune fall in love with the stranger so fast? Why? 

My love my love is...

My love my love is a kind of realistically romantic book. It is related, or linked with the little mermaid, with the similar idea the plot from the novel. It is always sighing the depress of funny destiny, poor young cinderella falls in love with a handsome prince with white horse. But the difference is, the prince does not seem like that he falls in love with the girl in a same way. This book let walk through the inner world of a poor peasant girl, taste every shake from her heart. 

If you let me to mention and introduce my favorite chapter,  it must be the Forth chapter. Although I have only read not much from the book, I still like the early chapters from the book, especially the parts when the story has just started. For example, I like the balcony scene from the play Romeo and Juliet because it is the start point of the love between Romeo and Juliet, and their first announcement of their relationship and feelings to each other. I would like to call it "the golden point".

The story of this book goes smoothly, so does the same of the feelings of the beautiful peasant girl to the handsome, rich stranger Daniel. Ti moune was taking care of the young stranger. It was from her first sight of him when he was in the car accident in front of the village. Although other peasants don't care about the stranger from the "outside" world, she still tries her best to take care of him. She told her aunt and uncle that she will not let this young man die, and she won't let the god of death Papage takes him away from her. "Mon Dieu! the healer said when she saw the leg, "What to do now? Even in big hospitals where they say miracles are worked man die of such wounds." "He must not die?" Desiree cried. (Page 39, Chapter 4) The uncle and aunt realized that the young man is unusual, to the peasant girl. 

For several days of taking care, Ti moune cares more and more of the stranger. He even smiles to her when he was awake from the unconscious! Now this man is like a treasure to her. But also a door to the outside world which she always wants to experience and have a look. When she saw the car and touched it, she feels unreal: The "modernized" machine that she has never touched! Everything special to her from the young man tells Ti moune: this stranger means the chance of her special new life. Just looked at his face, Ti moune likes him more and more. Until a day, she prays to the gods. "Agwe, you who are responsible for my life. Erzulie, mother of love. Have mercy. Drive this demon of death from my sight. I swear I shall give my soul for the life and happiness of my love -- my love!" (Page 47, Chapter 4) When I read through this, I was totally shocked. I didn't know that her love was so true, real and hard! Love comes too fast, just like the tornado. The tornado is blowing in her heart, just like the fire on grassland -- never ends. 

The performance of gods

The story of the book my love my love seems so completed even though most of the settings are all made up. Even  the gods of the peasants believe in their small village. There are four gods in total, and two of them are goddess. They are Asaka, the goddess of Earth, plants and Erzulie, the goddess of love. And the two gods who are male. Agwe, the god of ocean and Papage, the god of death. The male and the female god are opposite to each other, for example the goddess of Earth towards to the god of sea; the goddess of love towards to the god of death. 

For me if I will stage them into a play, I think I will make them look significantly. The goddess of earth Asaka should wear a long dress with green color on it. It represents earth, plants and lives and also the color of hope. The god of sea Agwe should wear a kind of ancient clothes with water blue color. It represents the deepness of the sea. It is also in every fairy tales. This "pair" of the two gods are the true and real origin of life and our plant. Every places can't leave without them. So they should always stand together, and have a kind of connection. Because there won't be land for human beings to live without water, and in another way there can't be sea without land or even islands for human beings to live with. When it relates to the story of the novel my love my love, although the island is in the sea, but it's still dry out of raining and water. So if both of the two gods and goddess don't have close relationship, people can't live well. So this is also another reason why the native people set them into different gender. 

The goddess of love Erzulie can wear the dress with either red or pink color. She should make up or dress either with live happiness or romantic and mature. She should be bright warm, kind, and hopeful. Then her "partner", Papage the god of death should be silent, cold, strict and hopeless. Just like the opposite of the goddess of love. Because love and death are always opposite in our society right? He should wear a full white robe, and bring a sickle with him. His face should be strict, no emotion on it. A scared, strange mask would make this better. He is doing his job every second, and judge human beings sins. The face of the god of death would be remembered in everyone's heart, deep inside, with the name of fear. Both of the god or goddess of love and death are the symbols of two ending point of our lives. One part is the reason why we have chance to come to this world: love. The birth of human being's life is the collection of love. But then it also brings us death, as the same time we have our life. 

Pics

Final Draft

Rough Draft

    Romeo and Juliet is a play that was written by Shakespeare in 1597. It is one of the most famous performance in this world, and also one of the most successful play of his products, just like Hamlet. It is about two young, star crossed lovers story. They were born in the ancient city of Verona, Italy. Their families are enemies for century, and I would like to describe it with a word that fits really well: "feud". They are the well known families "Montague and Capulet". This play is a tragic one, with a kind of bad ending as most of us think. But the purpose of our project is to make it funny. This is our way to make the adaption creative. We staged Romeo and Juliet as a comedy rather than a tragedy because modern audiences view the play as unrealistic. To show this, we modernized the setting, made the characters ridiculously funny, and used music to change the atmosphere of the play.

    The first scene that our group chose to act is the Act 1 Scene 5 of the play. This is the important scene that Romeo and Juliet first meet each other, and also one of the most important parts of the play. It brings up the story of the star crossed relationship, and begin the main story of the play. Shakespeare shows through his script that their first meeting is really impressive, magic and beautiful.  But this is not helping our modern audiences can understand their feeling well, or a silly can make it more "impressive". 

    In our group work, we decided to set it into a club. The background is really crowded, which makes our Romeo and Juliet "can't hear each other well". So they have to repeat couple of times.For example "Romeo.." "What?" "Romeo!" "I can't hear you! What?" This is the one way we make it funny. There are four members in our group, and the first meeting only required two actors for both Romeo and Juliet, so others will participate as the friends who come to the club with Romeo. I am one of them. Romeo and Juliet repeat the lines again and again, in a crowded club, with loud background club music. Juliet shakes Romeo, people are dancing, and Romeo's friend are making fun of Romeo. In the this scene, me and my partner of "the mess group" dance in the scene, and we encourage Romeo to go for Juliet, and we are happy about the the well-done of their "sweet first meeting". My partner and I are dancing with the background club music, and I am wearing a pair of sunglasses which is really helpful about the "club setting".  Due to the setting about modern era, Romeo as a modern teenager is flirting a little bit with Juliet. " O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do " from line 114, Act 1 Scene 5 of the play Romeo and Juliet. Teenagers have their way to show their "interests" of each other. The well known first meeting scene is adapted by us with the extremely funny atmosphere and performance, I believe that is helpful to let the performance make more sense for modern audiences.           

    The second scene that our group choose to act is the Act 2 Scene 2, as one of the most well known and classic scene of the play Romeo and Juliet. They have already known each other, and the seeds of love are growing in their young hearts. But they are not sure about each other's situation and thoughts. They are thinking about each other all day long, they are excited about the feeling of love, although this kind of love comes quickly and unexpectedly. Until one day, Juliet was standing on the top of the balcony in her house. She speaks alone, only to herself and the moonlight. She tells her feeling of Romeo, how she feels bad about their poor situation about their feuding families which is making their relationship become impossible. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. What's in a name? Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title" from line 36-39, Act 2 Scene 2 of the play Romeo and Juliet. But she does not know that her young lover was just under the balcony, just under her feet. Romeo was encouraged and really excited about her words. His goddess comes to him at that night, and tells him that she already falls in love with him, a poor mortal. 

    In our group work, we decided to use the same set in the original play. But we will act to make it funny. There are three scenes that we are doing in total, and the four members of our group we have 3 boys and 1 girl. So the girl needs to act Juliet in the first two scenes, and our 3 boys are acting as Romeo one by one for each scene. Unfortunately I don't participate in this scene. But I believe my group is doing great enough even without me in this single scene. In the beginning of this scene, Juliet shows up on the "balcony" first, and acts creepy about Romeo. To be honest, when we try to make this adaption funny without changing the scripts from the original play, the best way we can do is testing our acting skills. Obviously our group actors are good at this. The girl acts creepy when she was alone and says about Romeo, but when Romeo comes up to the top of the balcony, she acts "shocked as hell", then she changes into a "goddess" again, but being sweet to Romeo. In this scene, Romeo is funny by the way he shows when he climbs up the balcony with funny actions. And then we play the music Mission Impossible during his "climbing action" to make the nervous atmosphere. He also acts super scared when nurse shouts Juliet's name (In this scene we didn't make anyone to act nurse but just shout from outside of the stage.) for example he falls every single when he hears the voice of nurse shouting. As oppositely, Juliet acts warm and soft compares with the beginning of the play the "creepy acts".  

    The final scene that our group choose to act is Act 3 Scene 1, as the one of the biggest turning point of the story in the play Romeo and Juliet. In this scene, the style of the play and the destiny of many characters in the play begin to change a lot, and it towards to the tragic ending directly. In this scene, Tybalt and Mercutio are about to fight with each other with blades. Under the background of the feud between the two families, and the event of Romeo came in the Capulet's family party. Romeo arrives and tries to stop the fight, therefore he comes into the fight. However, he blocks Mercutio and unexpectedly Tybalt stabs Mercutio and makes him died.  Then the young Romeo can not control his anger any more, he pick up the blade and fight with Tybalt. Finally and unfortunately he killed Tybalt. Then he ran away. In the early of the play, it is basically peaceful. The young teenager's love, the feud without blood. But this is the first time blood comes out in the play, and the two important characters for both of the two families died one by one. The feud of the family brings up into the highest place. And the judgement from the prince is hurtful, too. He is kind, instead of giving Romeo a death penalty, he gives Romeo banishment to leave the ancient city of Verona. But for Romeo, within his words, "so much worse that death." He has to live without his lover, which is he can't bear about. Then their dangerous plan comes out, and towards to the tragic ending: both Romeo and Juliet died, and they buried their life in the same tomb. So I see this scene as the most important turning point of the play. 

    In our group work, we decided to use blades to fight, which was the same setting in the original play. I am the Romeo this time. The point of comedy that we thought about is the secret weapon: Background music. We let Tybalt and Mercutio almost fight with each other in the beginning of the scene, the first part of the music that we chose is from the movie Crows Zero, it is the fighting and excited music. We played this music when the two boys are about to fight. Then me as Romeo comes in to the stage. I am there to stop the fight and conflict. Our group choose to find a lot of lines that let me to say them together to make it long and peaceful, just like the old professor is teaching high level maths class: the key word is boring. "Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain am I none. Therefore farewell.  I see thou knowest me not... " from line 63-66, Act 3 Scene 1 of the play Romeo and Juliet. When I was doing my "speech", the two boys who were about  to fight start to act really boring and sleepy, they couldn't stand well even, and fell down couple times. As the most important, our secret weapon background music, we choose one from Spongebob Squarepants, which is really slow and peaceful. The big differences make the scene very funny, we really had a hard time try not to laugh when we were practicing. So I believe this can bring the best feeling for our audiences also.  

    These are our jobs. The creative and unique way to make modern audiences understand. Nowadays, this play now represents the young, immature and impulsive lovers with tragic ending. It shows us about how the teenager's inner world about how they think and consider "love" in their life. I believe that the teenagers never change, even through centuries. If you don't believe it, come and watch our scenes, and you will have a little bit different ideas.  

 

Revising!

There are two magical words can make your work better: review and revise. Because as the first time, not everyone can do it well or good enough to stop looking at it again. So then it takes the time for revising. I believe that every single professional writer revise their literature production lots of times, then it becomes a classic one. So probably every time when there is an important work waiting for me to do it, I will try to revise it at least once, then I can avoid a lot of mistakes. After I know the more mistakes that I have made, the less of them I may make in the future. So it is really helpful I believe. 

The words that the teacher of writing center gave me are really helpful. First of all, without a long time of reading my essay, she just asked about a little bit details about my performance, then she pointed out one of the most important point, which is also my English teacher told me in class: Due to the major style of our play is trying to be funny, I have to describe more about how I acted, how I performed to be funny, and the details of staging about the funny part of the play. I find a feeling that the teachers who are really professional at writing may have the similar ideas of what is the soul, and what is the most important part of the play. 

Then it moves on to the grammar part. This is the worst part of my English I guess. First of all, is the tense part. Just a simple idea to follow in this essay: Make it all present tenses when I talk about the analyze part of the essay, and then use all past tense of the performance part of my work. It makes more sense and more clear of my essay when I correct these mistakes. Then one of the most serious problems comes in. I can't write my sentences in a correct way. It means when I start to write, the structure of my sentences are really complicated. She tells me a "secret", when I have to write an essay, read it out loud after I finish it. Then I may find out where and why the mistakes of my sentences. This is probably the better idea that I have ever heard of! Imaging that I can revise by myself without any others' help! It practices my spoken language I guess. I feel like now I am clear about what I have to do, and how to revise. Revising is also a serious work, and I believe after that I may get better grades that I have expected about.

The feelings of writing and literature needs more practice and more reading. All the skills take much more time than I think, but the results are excited. The writing skills may come just like the first rain of spring, someday or somehow, but never late or absent to come.