One of my favorite short stories I've read is "The Story of An Hour" by Kate Chopin. In the title, the "story" refers to that of Louise's life. She lived in the true sense of the word, with the will and freedom to live for only one hour. The untrue love and untold feelings between a husband and a wife. I like the way the story evolves.
Most people carry the belief that marriage should occur only when two people are in love, though people marry for many reasons.
We dream a relationship that is built on openness, intimacy, and trust, but the truth is, our relationships do not always work that way. More often than not, our intimate relationships involve secrecy and deceit. In fact, if you want to look for deception and betrayal in your own life, the best place to start is close to home.
Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare is poem where the persona who is immensely in love with his beloved, deeply admires his love and compares her with summer. The comparison is done based on the beauty of summer’s day and its wonders.
However, the persona finds his belove being more beautiful than summer and its elements; the sun, flowers, nature’s movements, and the summer of his heart and life is and will be forever beautiful and warm.
Besides that his beloved’s beauty is eternal. Life is full of meaning to the persona as the beauty of his life remains forever. Even as summer fades, the love of his life will remain intact as long as people are alive to read and appreciate the beauty of his beloved in the poem.
Robert Frost’s poems are very interesting as they touch the nature revealing an appealing atmosphere and inviting comfort . The Road not taken is of his poems which have themes that are related to us..... as we walk on the pathway of our lives.
Synopsis:
This poem is about the poet who is enjoying his walk in the woods. He came to a point where the road branched into two. He had to make a choice to choose which road to travel, so he stood there wondering which one to take. Then , he decided to choose the less travelled one. He hopes that he can return on the other day and explore the other road. However, he did not get the chance to do so as the road he choose took him further and further in life. After many years, he looked back and ponders about his decision he had made many years ago. The choice he had made many years ago have brought a great influence upon his life(shaped his life) and eventually making him the man he is today.
Amazingly William Shakespeare’s literary works are used widely in schools and educational institutions around the world until the present day although he died in 1616. Being a very distinguish playwright and actor, he wrote dramatic and non-dramatic plays and insert poems in them. His sonnets deals with human emotion which touches the issues of love, beauty and immortality. The words he used reveal the human dimensions relating to the joy and sorrows of life which eventually creates a magnatic force where the readers get engaged in his beautiful, aesthetic works.Sonnet 18 is one of the sonnets of William Shakespeare which is used in the upper secondary level to test their critical and creative thinking skills.
This is a universal experience across all country, society, race and religion because no matter how much people get of something, they want more and more. Some of them are very greedy and they are not thankful or grateful to god and the people around them. In relation to the real life, the people nowadays are very materialistic. No matter how much they earn, they are still not satisfied with what they have and they always want more and more! Another example which I can relate to is some people are not satisfied with their marriage life so they end up having extra marital affairs. Referring to the story, the girl was deceived by the handsome outlooks of the man who turns out to be one of the horned serpents. We can use this story to teach our students to be grateful and be satisfied with the simple things they have. They need to appreciate their god, parents, teachers and etc. for the things they have given to them. They also need to learn that having something is better than having nothing! For example, having an old bicycle is better than having none. Other than the above, another moral value from the story is not to trust someone based on their looks because they might have bad intentions. They look good from the outside but they are bad inside.
The Awakening is a novel full of symbolism; within each narrative segment there is often a central and powerful symbol that serves to add meaning to the text and to underline some subtle point Chopin is making. Understanding the meaning of these symbols is vital to a full appreciation of the story. Here are listed some of the major symbols with explanations of their import. It is important for you to discover symbols and meanings on your own, and these are here only to offer assistance. It might also be useful in considering all symbols in the text, not just those listed below, to remember this quote by Sandra Gilbert:
Porches and pianos, mothers and children, skirts and sunshades - all these are the props and properties of domesticity, the key elements of what in the nineteenth century was called "women's sphere," and it is in this sphere, on the edge of a blue gulf, that Edna Pontellier is securely caged when she first appears. . . she is confined in what is not only literally a "woman's sphere" but, symbolically speaking, the Woman's House. . . every object and figure [here] has not only a literal domestic function and a dreamlike symbolic radiance but a distinctively female symbolic significance" (47).
Art:
Art becomes a symbol of both freedom and failure. It is through the process of trying to become an artist that Edna reaches the highest point of her awakening. Edna sees art as a way of self-expression and of self-assertion. Mlle. Reisz sees becoming an artist as a test of individuality. Edna fails because her wings are too weak.
Birds:
Birds are major symbolic images in the narrative. They symbolize the ability to communicate (the mockingbird and parrot) and entrapment of women (the two birds in cages; the desire for flight; the pigeon house). Flight is another symbol associated with birds, and acts as a stand in for awakening. The ability to spread your wings and fly is a symbolic theme that occurs often in the novel. Edna escapes her home, her husband, her life, by leaving for the pigeon house. Mlle. Reisz lectures Edna on the need for strong wings in artistic endeavors.
Clothes:
Edna is fully dressed when first introduced; slowly over the course of the novel she removes her clothes. This symbolizes the shedding of the societal rules in her life and her growing awakening and stresses her physical and external self. As she disrobes, the reader is presented with an internal voyeuristic view. As MacCurdy points out, "Edna's dress opposes external nature, but more importantly, it begins to oppose her inner nature. A division exists between her and her environment as well as between her social character and her awakening instincts" (59). When she commits suicide she is finally naked, she has shed everything she has in her quest for selfhood. But it is not only Edna who is symbolized in clothes, Adele is more "careful" of her face in the seventh chapter and wears a veil. Both she and Madame Leburn constantly make clothes to cover the body, and the woman in black and Mlle. Reisz never change their clothes, symbolizing their distance from any physical attachment.
Food:
There are several symbolic meals in the text and each stress mythic aspects in the text. The meal on Cheniere Caminada occurs after she awakens from a fairy tale sleep; the dinner party in chapter thirty is viewed by some as a re-creation of the Last Supper.
Houses:
There are many houses in the novel: the one on Grand Isle, the one in New Orleans, the pigeon house, the house in which Edna falls asleep on Cheniere Caminada. The first two of these houses serve as cages for Edna. She is expected to be a "mother-woman" on Grand Isle and to be the perfect social hostess in New Orleans. The other two are places of supposed freedom. On the island she can sleep and dream, and in the pigeon house she can create a world of her own. In the same way, places have a similar significance. Grand Isle itself is a place of women. Most men only visit on weekends, and while there go to places of their own like Kiles's hotel. Cheniere Caminada is then a place of escape off this island of women, into a new, romantic, and foreign world. It is also similar to a garden, a Garden of Eden, where Edna gains knowledge. New Orleans is the bastion of societal rules, of realistic life and duties. Kentucky, for Edna is simply New Orleans in a different place; ridged with rules and full of unhappy memories. New York and Mexico are men's Grand Isles, and both Leonce and Robert leave Edna for these places, where they do business with other men.
Learning to swim:
Edna has struggled all summer to learn to swim. She has been coached by the men, women, and children on Grand Isle. In chapter ten, Chopin uses the concept of learning to swim as a symbol of empowerment. It provides Edna with strength and joy. Also attached to the concept of swimming are the ideas of staying afloat and getting in over one's head. Edna manages to do both.
The moon
The moon has many symbolic meanings in The Awakening. It is used as a symbol of mythic power and connects Edna with the goddess Selene and the associated implications. She is strong and commanding, the goddess of the hunt. She is sexually aware of Robert for the first time, the fertility aspect of Artemis. Moonlight also symbolizes the struggle Edna has with the concepts of sexual love and romantic love. At the end of chapter ten, delicate images of "strips of moonlight," are interposed with strong sexual feelings, "the first-felt throbbings of desire." Joyce Dyer suggests that this juxtaposition "symbolically anticipates the problems Edna will have determining the relationship between sex and romance" (58).Go back and reread chapter 10.
Ocean, Gulf, or Sea:
The ocean is a symbol of both freedom and escape. Edna remembers the Kentucky fields of her childhood as an ocean, she learns to swim in the gulf, and she finally escapes into the sea. The ocean is also a source of self-awareness, both an outward knowledge of the expansion of the universe and an inner direct obsession with self. The sound of the surf calls to her, comforts her throughout the novel, and acts as a constant beckon in the text. As you read, notice how often, even in New Orleans away from the sea, the language mimics the sound of the surf or the actions of the water.
Piano playing:
Music is an important symbol in text, both Adele and Mlle. Reisz play the piano. Each woman functions to underscore a different aspect of the narrative. Adele is considered a musician by Leonce, but she does not play for art, instead she does so to keep her husband and children cheerful and to set time for parties. Mlle. Reisz, on the other hand, is disliked by all, but is granted status as a musician by only Robert and Edna. The issue of the piano playing echoes the issue of placement in society. If you follow the rules and norms whatever you accomplish is considered great, if you defy those rules you are shunned and dispairaged. Thus, the piano playing becomes a symbol of societal rules and regulations.
Sleep:
Sleep is an important symbolic motif running through the novel. Edna's moments of awakening are often preceded by sleep and she does a great deal of it. Robert Levine calls it the "sleepiest novel in the American literary canon" (71) and sees Edna's sleep patterns as a rebellion against natural rhythms. Sleep is also a means of escape and of repairing her tattered emotions. In fairy tales, sleep is a key ingredient.
Since fables are related to moral values, we must first teach the moral values related before taking a dive into the story. We must try to relate the moral values with real life situation before going into the story to increase students’ background knowledge in the moral values which they are going to grasp from the story.
I would use folktales/fables/myths or legends in the classroom by creating group activities to induce the students’ interest in the subject matter. Group activities are good to encourage and increase co-operation level among the students. This is vital because the co-operation skill will be applied by the students in the tertiary level and also in their respective careers.
The examples of some group activities which can be carried out in the classroom are as follows:-
a.) Simplify the language used in the story.
b.) Turn the story into dialogue form.
c.) Brainstorm on the important issues found in the folktales/fables/myths or legends.
d.) Using role-play and simulation in the classroom. The best example is the mock trial.
e.) Rewrite alternative endings for the folktales/fables/myths or legends.
f.) Write their opinions about the characters and the story.
g.) Carrying out drama activities based on the folktales/fables/myths or legends in the classroom.
The examples of some individual activities which can be carried out in the classroom are as follows:-
a.) Reading comprehension.
b.) Identification of plot, characters, themes, point of view, settings, symbols, metaphors, tone, style, irony and etc.
c.) Sequencing activities such as unscrambling the events, filling in the missing events or charting the development of the plot.
d.) Paraphrasing or retelling of the story such as gap filling exercises, summary writing and story telling sessions where students take turns to narrate the story until it is completed.
e.) Predicting the events in the story.
f.) Linking / perceiving relationships such as identifying the cause-effect relationship of characters and events in the plot.
g.) Analysing conflict in characters.
h.) Responding to characters in texts.
i.) Insight into characters in literary texts. Examples of activities are matching characters and traits, inferring characters’ traits, perceiving characters and analysing character relationships.
j.) Using extrinsic visual support to teach folktales/fables/myths or legends in the classroom. Examples of extrinsic visual support are illustrations and pictures, maps, photographs (including slides), objects, video recordings and so on.
Then the students will be required to present their work to the class and submit the written version of their task to me, the teacher.
Pyramus and Thisbe is written by Ovid. The myths reminds me about the Romeo and Julie by William Shakespeare. The characters in both stories are struggled in the same external conflict. Both of their conflict is their parents would not allow the lovers to be together. If the lovers could not get their blessing from their parents for their relationship, they will suffer a lot just like Pyramus and Thisbe. For me, the most miserable thing in this world is that the couple love each other very much, truly from the bottom of their heart but death separate one of them.
There is another reason that Pyramus and Thisbe could not be together in their life time, their fate. It is their fate to meet death on the night they eloped. If the lioness does not appeared at that night, everything will be different. Happiness will be the one waiting for them in other city. I like the sentence in "Pyramus and Thisbe" : Only death could have separated you from me, but not even death will part us. Activity that can be carried out in the classroom is let the students to study the soliloquy of both lover and complete the table below:
Character:
Character involve:
Conflict: internal /external conflict
Action Taken:
Result:
After the students have fill in the table, there will have a discussion on their finding.
The Chinese have told each other stories for many different reasons - to teach things to their children, to make each other laugh, to record their feelings and observations and to explain how things got to be the way they are. Thus, common themes in Chinese folktales and myths revolve around filial piety in "Madam White Snake", triumph of good over evil in "Journey to the West", supremacy of wisdom over sheer physical strength in "the Romance of the three kingdoms", "Hua Mulan", cleverness and resourcefulness in "Wu Song kills a tiger", everlasting love in "Liang Shanbo and Zhu YingTai", "A Dream Of Red Mansions", "The Cowherd and the Girl Weaver", supernatural in "The Goddess Of Mercy", "God Of Longevity", "Zhong Kui", "Nuwa Repairs the Heaven", "Pangu Creates the Universe". Through these stories, Chinese values, traditions and customs are passed from one generation to the next.Follow the series "The Son Of The Turtle" showing an everlasting love.
The story of "The Son Of The Turtle-Spirit" have given us thoughts about supernatural powers. The childs mother shows brave, selfawareness characters dealing with happen around her. The mother character shows itself she is a typical chinese. Chinese believe that their old people who dies must be pray and ceremony to sending of their soul must be handled carefully. The believe are followed by chinese traditional families till today to face succeed life with the help of their forefathers.
The son character obey the mother`s order to place the bones of his father`s in the dragon`s mouth and hang the other bones on his horns. The son follows it exactly and one day he have became the Emperor. So, it have given a positive thinking attitudes to the reader to hear what ever advise from the parents. Parents advice are to be followed to succeed in life.
The reason why we are introducing tales, fables, folktales to motivate children to read as they get some information about real life. Another reason to make the teaching and learning process occur in the open classroom.
