Blog Entry 11

Denisha Fernandez

11 December 2013

ENG102

Final Exam

Supernatural

        Humans use supernatural creatures in literature to teach lessons. Typically supernatural creatures are feared are even worshipped, so often authors may use supernatural creatures in their literature to further engage them in the story. Over the course of the semester, in English class we have been reading supernatural stories that often deal with personal growth of the characters. The characters have to cross the threshold that connects the real world to the supernatural world for reasons that often make them grow at the end when they return to the real world. A book and film that this is best represented in would be “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman, andSpirited Away.

        “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman uses supernatural creatures within the story to make the lead character Coraline face trials so that she can build character. Coraline has to cross the border from the real world to the supernatural world to rescue her real parents from the supernatural world. Through this journey she grows as a person and learns to appreciate in the real world. An example of this would be how before the journey, Coraline hated her real fathers cooking because he was creative when it came to recipes. However when she returned from the supernatural world from rescuing her parents, she appreciated his cooking more than ever (page 75). Sometimes in order to get an important message through to a reader, authors will use supernatural things as an aid.

        The overall message from the book “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman was to appreciate what you have and don’t take it for granted. Coraline going through all the mess she went through within the other world, made her realize how precious everything in the world was and should be valued. The use of supernatural in literature makes the battle seem harder to go through, therefore makes the end result of the lead character getting  happiness more dramatic and appealing to a reader.

        Aside from the written word, movies often use stories filled with supernatural beings. Such as werewolves, ghosts, vampires, fairies, and even angels. The films will use the supernatural beings as blocks that the leader has to go through in order to achieve their goal. In the film Spirited Away the lead  character Chihiro and her parents cross a threshold into a supernatural world where there are dragons, gods, spirits, and dragons. Chihiro main purpose was to turn her parents back from pigs and get back to the human world, but learns along the way many things and therefore grows as an individual. Chihiro starts off in the beginning of the film as a whiny child that complains to her parents about moving, even though she was just ten years old, she matures in so many ways. When she first arrives to the spirit world, she is afraid. With the use of the task she has to perform and friends she makes along the way, it helps her mature.

The use of supernatural beings in films helps the person viewing it to see how hard it was to grow as a person because of the danger the supernatural being can pose to a normal human, yet they still overcome it.

        Humans continue to create supernatural literature because it proves the point that a human can overcome anything possible. They use supernatural beings as the ultimate battle a person has to get through and therefore shows the strength the human possesses. It also can be an aid to getting through an important lesson for people. Such as what “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman and the film Spirited Away does. It is all about lessons and teachings, supernatural within literature just help prove the lesson and why a person has to learn it in order to grow.

Blog Entry 8 (Midterm Rewrite)

Denisha Fernandez

ENG102

3 December  2013

Midterm Essay

    Facing death is inevitable for all humans. However, how one responds to it varies. Some people accept it and wither away peacefully. Others refuse to accept it and make the decision to fight to the very last breath. A poem that this idea is best represented in is “ Do Not go Gentle Into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. Thomas uses metaphors,similes, and symbolism to convey the message that no human, no matter what life path they have chosen,should accept deaths inevitability.

        Symbolism in “Do Not go Gentle Into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas helps create the speakers point of view towards death. Thomas writes “ do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at  close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light”(lines 1-3). The speaker uses “night”(line 1) to symbolize  death, whereas as “light”(line 3) is a symbol for life. Night can also be a metaphor for death, being as though night is an inevitable part of the day just like death is an inevitable part of life.The speaker feels that one should fight against the ending of a life.

The speaker in the poem lists different men who have lived very different lives and tells them all the same, that they should fight death. For example, Thomas writes “good men, the last wave by, crying how bright”(line 7) and “wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight” (line 10) to show two different men who have chosen different ways to live life. But ends each stanza with “do not go gentle into that good night”  to show that no matter what life decisions you have made leading up to death, one should still fight against it. Even the wild men who have chose to soil wild oats rather than to live a meaningful life, and men who have had purposeful lives, they should still fight to the last breath.

    Similes also help show the speaker’s perspective of how someone should respond to death nearing. When Thomas compares how the “blind eyes”(line 14) could “blaze like meteors”(line 14), this helps reinforce how the speaker feels like a person should find the passion within and display an emotion  as powerful as a meteor. The “blind eyes”(line 14) can also symbolize something that is not of any use anymore, like a person whom is on the brink of dying. The speaker is telling them to renew their light and not give in to the darkness that is death.

     The poem begins to shift and become more personal when the speaker addresses their father. Thomas writes “ And you, my father, there on the sad height, curse me , bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night”(lines 16-18). The speaker is now begging their father to not go peacefully into death. Thomas writes  “curse me,bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray”(line 17) to show the speakers desperation.The speaker wants their father  to display  any emotion or to say anything to stay alive because to the speaker, accepting death is not an option.  

 Upon first reading, “Do Not go Gentle Into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, seems to be about different men whom are about to face death. The speaker lists men who lived very different lives and explains how they should respond to death. After a deeper analysis, the speaker uses the men to show that no matter what type of life one has lived, they should still fight against death. The personal touch by the speaker addressing their father, helped show how passionate the speaker felt about accepting death gracefully. Whether it was a peaceful, wild, or a full life, the speaker felt  a person should never bow down gracefully to death. They should go down kicking and screaming to their very last breath.

Blog Entry 10

Denisha Fernandez

ENG102

Research Paper Draft

Why Literature Matters

   

    The effect literature has on peoples lives varies from person to person. Some use literature as a sort of vacation from their lives and others use literature as teaching tools. Teaching tools meaning within literature they learn something new about either themselves or the world. A book that best demonstrates the idea that literature can be a teaching tool would be “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman. The book “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman was good teaching tool, especially for children, because it teaches the lesson that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

    The book “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman is about a young protagonist name Coraline. Coraline’s family has recently just moved to a new town and is just beginning to settle into their home. Coraline’s home is surrounded by neighbors whom she visits frequently during the book. Her parents work from home but often Coraline does not get to see them because they are always so busy. One day while she was bored, Coraline went into her parents office and begin to bother her father. Coralines dad then gave her a mini exploration task of counting all the doors and windows and everything that was blue  in the house and that was when she discovered a door inside of the houses drawing room. Coraline became curious of what was behind the door so she asked her mother to open it to satisfy her curiosity. When Coraline’s mother opened the door, there was nothing behind it but a brick wall.

    Archetypes play a very important role in the book “Coraline.” It makes it easier to dissect the persons character and find out why they are the way they are. Coraline in the beginning of the book demonstrated the Seeker archetype. According to “What Story are You Living?” by Carol S. Pearson and Hugh K. Mark, “ The Seeker is active in a person on a quest, pilgrimage, or adventure that takes place in order to satisfy and inner hunger or yearning”(page 108). Coraline first shows signs of The Seeker archetype when she was told to avoid a dangerous well by her neighbors and set off to find it (page 8). Throughout the book The Seeker archetype within Coraline begins to grow and become more dominant, especially when Coraline has to back within the other world to retrieve her parents from the evil that was her other mother (page 32).

Even when the book first began, Coraline initially acknowledged herself as being an explorer, Coraline wanted to explore, not to just entertain herself, but because she thought it was truly fun.

    Often characters that lack certain archetypes within themselves will look for it within another character. For example, being that Coralines parents were home most of the time working, she barely got to spend any time with them. Coralines parents lacked The Caregiver archetype, even though in some moments of the book their love for Coraline was definitely shown. The lack of the Caregiver archetype within Coralines parents, provided the growth within the Orphan archetype in Coraline. According to Pearson and Marr in “What Story are You Living?”, “ The archetypal character of the Orphan can be a child lacking the support of those who should be there to help”(page 90). During the moment when Coraline returned from the other world back to her reality, her parents were gone, she had to fend for herself(page 27-28). That lack of Coralines parents not being there, helped strengthen her Orphan archetype.

    Another archetype present within the book was the archetype Sage. According to ‘What Story are You Living” by Carol S. Pearson and Hugh K. Mark, “The Sage may be a scholar, a spiritual teacher, or just someone (often older) who has learned from experience what to expect and what not to expect from life or from any situation” (page 144). The character that best represented the archetype Sage was the black cat that assisted Coraline throughout her journey in the other world. The black cat was very sarcastic and often rude to Coraline but none the less has her best interest at heart. This is shown when the black cat helps Coraline retrieve one of the marbles needed to free the  children’s souls that were stolen from them by the Other Mother(page 66).    

    Another archetype that was very significant in the book “Coraline” was the Destroyer. The character that displayed the Destroyer archetype would be the Other Mother. At first when introduced to the Other Mother, she is shown to Coraline as being gracious, nice, and was willing to tend to every single one of Coralines needs. The Other Mother resembled Coraline’s real mother but she was also a scary version of her.  Gaiman states “ A woman stood in the kitchen with her back to Coraline. She looked a little like Coraline’s mother only...only her skin was white as paper. Only she was taller and thinner. Only her fingers were too long, and they never stopped moving, and her dark red fingernails were curved and sharp(page 18).  The Other Mother introduced herself as being loving and willing to cater to Coraline’s every need, but what she hid inside was a deeper darker motive.

The Other Mother wanted Coraline to stay with her inside the other world. Going deeper within the book, although the Other Mother was evil, she also demonstrated the Warrior archetype but in a negative way. According to Pearson and Marr, “ The Warrior enjoys competing and tends to embark on crusades. At worst, they are ruthless, like Attila the Hun, destroying people without regard to their civilization or culture”(page 96). The Other Mother demonstrated signs of the Warrior archetype when  she challenged Coraline to find her parents and all of the marbles that contained the childrens souls(page 49). The Other Mother loved games because it gave her the chance to win and be the overall victor. It was as is if she fed off making people know that they were the weaker ones and they need. Over and over again she repeats to Coraline throughout the book how she needs her because she can provide all the things she wants from her real mother that doesn’t get because her real parents neglect her.

Overall, I believe that the entire story of the other world within  Coraline actually took place all within Coraline’s head. Coraline was initially being ignored by her parents, so it is possible she created this “other world” so that she could see how it would be if she had perfect parents that catered to her every need. For example, on the day that Coraline was bored and her mom went to buy some things at the local shop, she went to explore the “other world” (page 18). The other world contained evil versions of the people Coraline encounters in her real life. Coraline imagined all of this so that she could eventually realize that what she had at home in the real world was what she needed all along. For example, Coraline could not stand how her real father cooked. Coraline’s real dad used to always make recipes out of simple dishes and Coraline would hate them(page 10). This changed when she rescued  her parents back from the Other Mothers grip within the other world her reaction to her real father’s cooking changed. Coraline   gobbles down the meal her father makes for her upon his return that night from the other mother(page 75). That showed how Coraline learned to appreciate what she had after returning from the world she’d created to see what it was like on the other side.

The book “Coraline” helps children re-visit the joy of using their imagination. Coraline used hers to imagine a world where she had gotten everything she’d wanted from her parents. It may at first seemed good to Coraline, but gradually the other world started to reveal itself for what it really was. Everything began to change to being an evil version of what Coraline had to deal with within her reality which made her appreciate everything she had before. Stories like these should matter to people because not only can children learn from this book but so can adults. Often people forget what the value of what they have already in their lives and fantasize about having what others possess. Not realizing that not everything looks good when you’re on the outside looking in. “Coraline” teaches people that the grass is not always so greener on the other side and that one should appreciate what they already have.

Blog Entry 9

The look or expression of archetype  I searched for in the film Stardust was the Warrior. In its positive form the Warrior was represented by Tristan, his mother, and The guard at the Wall. Tristan represented the Warrior in its positive form by setting out on the journey to save Yvaine from the evil witches that have captured her. He goes out to rescue his damsel in distress. Throughout the movie Tristan transforms into  a Warrior, he learns how to fight from Captain Shakespeare and gains a sense of dignity and strength throughout the battles he had to fight in order to save Yvaine time and time again. Tristan's mother Una represents the Warrior archetype by how she sets out on a goal, a goal to save Yvaine from crossing the wall because she would turn into stardust. Lastly, the guard at the Wall, his job was to stop anyone from crossing the wall, and even though he failed at that and Tristan and his father crossed the wall, him fighting them so that they wouldn't showed a code of honor. The Warrior in it's negative form would be one of the Princes Septimus, he was ruthless and killed if people did not help him in achieving his goal to find the necklace. For example when he wanted to know something from the man who could not speak normally because the witch had taken away his voice and made him sound like a chicken, Septimus thought he was fooling with him, so he killed him. Another example would be when he killed the man with the magic rocks because he was actually helping his brother instead of him. Overall Septimus was a very ruthless Warrior, killing his brothers just so he could become the next king of Stormhold.

Blog Entry 7

The archetype that I found problematic was the Warrior. The basic characteristics of the Warrior is that they have a high level of discipline, courage, and honor. There many different kind of warriors that fall under the archetype. Such as Um Thurman in the movie Kill Bill when she goes on a killing spree in order to avenge her husbands death, or Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman where Stewart takes on the Queen. Both of those examples were warriors but they were different because o their reason behind it, Uma Thurman's character wanted revenge and Kristen Stewart's character became a warrior because it was her only way out, she had no other choice to fight or the Queen would have no doubt killed her. The point where the Warrior archetype becomes problematic is when the warrior begins to kill any and everything in its path to achieve what they want. 

Blog Entry #6

The archetype I chose was the Lover. The basic characteristics of the lover is that they love all things, people, nature, and life. One challenger the lover faces is the fights within themselves to choose to have many lovers or commit to one person. Another challenge within the lover is when they are in a relationship, they might get so involved with the person that they lose their sense of self identity. According to What Story are You Living? by Carol S. Pearson and Hugh K. Marr, " The gifts of the Lover are intimacy, sensuality, closeness, and most of all a heightened capacity for love of others, of beauty, and of life"(page 115).  Some real life examples of the Lover archetype would be people that get married more than one time. They fall in love so quickly and open themselves up to people so easily because of that desire to be wanted and in love.

Blog Entry 5

Mid-term Reflection


So far the semester has gone by extremely fast. Before the course started, I had no idea how it was going to be. I have taken ENG 101 and Introduction to Poetry, and that was no walk in the park so I was a tad bit afraid coming into it. Something I found interesting was the archetypes and how a million things is derived from one general picture. For example the princess archetype, fair skinned, beautiful, ball gown, etc, but then there is also the Fiona, Brandy, and Drew Barrymore's version of princess. Even though the general archetype is "princess," there are many different variations of it. So far I've learned about that, how to identify and define symbols in poetry, how to somewhat analyze poems, and some basic poetry literary devices.Literary devices such as tone, symbolism, imagery, and alliteration. I have learned how to take apart a poem piece by piece through the use of annotations. I have also learned that there is no wrong answer for poetry it's all about your interpretation but your claim can be seen as false if your evidence behind it is not strong enough.