Portfolio Reflections

Ilise Green

English 112

Karunanyake Priyanimal

14 May 2014

Looking Back…

            When I first signed up for English 112 I did not really know what to expect. I had just taken English 111, so I was guessing it would be formatted a lot like that, but with a different theme. I emailed many of the English 112 professors to see what their theme was going to be, and I picked the class that I thought would be the most interesting. Going into the first day of class I had three main goals that I had set for myself: become less of a procrastinator, earn an “A” in the class, and learn to use a lot of detail in my works without repeating myself. Each time that I would begin to work on one of the inquiries, I would be sure to keep my goals in mind, knowing that they were something I would have to work towards, and weren’t going to just happen.

For inquiry 1, we had to close read a text that had to do with resistance. The text that I chose to close read was the song “Revolution,” written by The Beatles. I believed that the song conveyed a message of resistance, and was therefore fitting for the assignment. The lyrics greatly depicted the theme of resistance through saying that they will play no part in destruction, even if that’s what everyone else is doing. They also say that they do not want to be a part of changing the constitution, and that they would rather change the heads of the people that want to enact the change. Not only did the lyrics of the song depict resistance, but so did the music video itself. The Beatles wear normal clothes in the video, and the whole video is all taken from the same place. In most music videos, people dress up and there are many different scenes and settings. At the same time, the change of camera angle and who is being shown throughout the video can be seen as resistance. Also the sound changes immensely throughout the song. The song starts off with a scream and then throughout it there are extremely high notes, as well as many different guitar solos of different speeds. I felt that I did a good job on this essay, especially for it being my first essay written in English 112. I received a B+ on this paper, which is not bad for my first paper, but I knew that I could do better, and so I revised it. One major theme that I saw in my final draft was that I wrote about controversy a lot, and my professor commented that “controversy is not necessarily resistance,” so it therefore did not support my thesis. I then had to go back and either take out all of the parts about controversy, or rephrase them so that they related back to my thesis. I also received the comment that I, “tend to repeat words,” which I knew coming into this class. I looked through my paper and tried to change any words that I overused before turning in the revised copy. After revising the copy, I knew that I could achieve my goal of getting an “A” on the paper, and I was very happy and proud of that.

Inquiry 2 consisted of us interrogating a historical event that involved resistance. The historical event that I chose was The Holocaust, specifically the movie, Masterpiece Classic: The Diary of Anne Frank. The movie was based off of the book The Diary of a Young Girl, written by Anne Frank. The story is told from Anne’s perspective, where she goes into great detail about her daily struggles, and what it is like living in the crowded annex. It is a story about resistance because it shows Jewish people resisting the wishes of Hitler by hiding out and documenting the trauma they undergo, instead of going to the concentration camps. It also shows Anne resisting the norm that girls should not read and know more than boys; as well as Anne resisting what everyone else wants her to do, and doing what she wants instead. Anne’s personal resistance can be seen throughout the movie since Anne gets into an argument with almost every single character. Gender-based resistance can also be greatly seen throughout the movie. This can be seen greatly when Mrs. Van Daan tells Anne that she should not be reading books. She says that reading and writing should be left to the boys, and that girls should spend their time otherwise. Anne is greatly offended by this because she loves reading and writing, and it is the only thing that keeps her sane while living in the annex. The last major theme of resistance seen in the movie is racial resistance. Racial resistance is the main issue and reason for The Holocaust. Hitler felt that the ” Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community,” and that was why they needed to be eliminated (The Holocaust). He tried to get rid of the Jews by putting them in concentration camps, but many resisted by going into hiding. Anne’s family is a perfect example of this because they hide in her father’s attack for over two years. Racial resistance can also be seen in The Holocaust be the Germans who hid Jews in their basements, cellars, etc. Here the Germans were resisting their own race and what they were being told was right. Just like there were many different races involved in The Holocaust, there were many different perspectives. I did a better job on inquiry 2 than inquiry 1, and was actually very proud of my work. It was something that I was very passionate about since I am Jewish, and therefore I worked extremely hard on the paper. Although I received an “A-“ on the paper, I still revised it so that I could get my goal of an, “A.” One comment that I received on my final draft was that I needed “to refer to more secondary resources,” so for my revised final copy, I added in two new sources that I included throughout my paper. I did not receive the comment that I repeated myself throughout the paper, so I was proud of that. After turning in my revision, I should achieve my goal of getting an “A.” I also turned in all of the parts on time, including the revised copy, and I worked on the paper thoroughly.

Inquiry 3 consisted of us resisting a piece of work by making a new one that portrays a message. The text I subverted was, “The Silence of the Lambs” movie poster. My project did not exactly follow the guidelines because I did not really resist the original movie poster, but it was okayed by my professor. My remake argued in favor of Unicef and all of the good they do in the world. I replaced the original girl’s face with one of the Unicef “poster girls.’” I then added a surgical mask to her mouth because one of the main things that Unicef stands for is treating sick children that have HIV, AIDS, malaria, tetanus, and many more diseases. I changed the title to “the silence of the children,” and made the subtitle, “from 190 terrifying countries.” This is because Unicef helps underprivileged kids in over 190 different countries.  I then decided to replace the actors’ names with all of the Unicef’s main initiatives. I also decided to change the rating to “S’ for “saving” and “salvaging” because that is what Unicef is doing, saving and salvaging children. Although there were many different options for inquiry 3, I am very proud of the route that I chose and think that I had a very creative and unique approach. I believe that I deserve an “A” on this inquiry as I followed all of the requirements and had a very creative idea. Since it was a movie poster and not a paper, I did not have much room for repeating myself, so I did not have to worry about that. I also started working on the project when it was assigned, so I did a good job at not procrastinating.

Overall I learned a lot from this class, especially about resistance. I did not realize that there were so many different forms and approaches to resistance, and this class really opened my eyes up to it. I think I did a good job at working toward my goals throughout all of the inquiries and assignments. I definitely became less of a procrastinator in this class, which could be seen through my starting all of the assignments the day that they were assigned, and turning them in on time. I still, however, need to work on not repeating myself, while still using a lot of detail. As for my grade, I am not sure what is it because there is not an active grade book for this class, but I am hoping to come out with an, “A,” as I think that I deserve it after all of the effort and time I put into this class.