Poetry Out Loud Preformances

I watched the performance of "Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward", by Anne Sexton, being preformed by young woman named Amanda Fernandez. The way she preformed it, I could picture the emotions behind the story. Her voice was loud and clear. She had very clear diction and was interesting to watch. The performance was very theatrical, almost like an actress piece instead of a narrator piece, but I think it worked well for this piece.

For me, the meaning of the poem is of a a woman who made a mistake and now she must pray the price with the lost of the child. Throughout the poem the woman shows disgust towards the man who left her and it is presented by Amanda's voice getting louder and angry as she mentions him. Also the woman doesn't want get rid of her baby which is illustrated By the tenderness in Amanda's voice when she recites that part of the poem. How she says it makes me almost want to cry She effectively demonstrated the meaning of the poem.

Mockingbird Motif

The mockingbird motif is that it is very wrong to kill the innocent. The mockingbird itself is a simple naive song bird and so are Jem and Scout. the motif emphasizes many themes including loss of innocence or growing up. Scout is innocent and doesn't understand why people can be so cruel and unjust. This happens especially with the Tom Robinson case. Tom Robinson is innocent because he did not at all commit the crime and even Scout knows that, but he is still convicted and sentenced to death. Jem is very upset about it and can not see why anybody would do that to an innocent person. In this way, he is an slightly naive as well, but see's and doesn't practice injustice, like most other people.

To Kill a Mockingbird and its ever-present motif helped me to understand motifs better. Because the mocking bird is only nearby when representing something big and the meaning is obvious, I can actually remember and use motifs correctly. Motifs enhance the story because it gives the novel some hidden meaning and an air of mystery. Also, it portrays the themes in a image of the themes. The best picture I got from the motif was of Boo Radly. He is not described very clearly or obviously as some of the characters are except through the mockingbird motif. The mockingbird sings on the Radly's property, unaware of the danger of being on the Radly's property which tells Jem and Scout that Aurthur must not be home. Also the characters talk about how He killed Mr. Ewell to protect the children, and shouldn't be taken to court because he is innocent and was doing the right thing in protecting the children. If that was honestly the only way to defend them than he shouldn't be locked up in jail. It would not be fair to him.

Symbols: Extra Credit

People say the owl is the wisest of creatures. They can give you the impression they are watching you but can catch a drift of wind and fly off in a moment. This reminds me of Atticus Finch. He is a great shot, but had asked Uncle Jack to teach his kids how to use Bebe guns instead of doing it himself. Atticus is very modest and doesn't esteem actions, like shooting, as much as important ideas, like treating others equally and fairly. He does not often engage in active activities and is often very solemn despite his athletic ability.

Life Lessons

"Don't go in there." "Why mommy?" "Because I say so, now get away from there."Has your parents ever said that to you? Did you not like that they said it and went ahead anyway? I did and every time I regretted it. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that Mom is right most of the time. I know it sound cleeshay, but it is true, in my case at least. What happened, most recently, was that I was doing my homework and it was about 9:30 PM. Since i shower at night, Mom told me to go shower then and get back to my homework. Determined to get my homework done first I refused to listen to her, and by the time I got into the shower it was past eleven. The problem with that, however, was that my dad and my brother were asleep upstairs And Our showers make a lot of noise. I didn't want to wake them up but I had to get my shower in. I felt so bad for potentially waking my family and knew my mom was right.
I've thought about it a lot since than as a reminder. Whenever my mom asks me to do something that I think is ridicules or am convinced is not the best choice this lesson comes to my mind. I don't want to disappoint my mom or make her distrust me. This lesson helps me to take time to think about what I am going to say and with the extra time to think I end up saying "Yes mam" instead of asking "Why" and the situation turns out so much better. My parents are most often right because they are older and more experienced. God helped me see this and I continually thank him for it. I believe God has given his wisdom to the older generation to give to us. Praise God!