Blog #29 - Alan Shnir - Period 9 - 5/6/2020

Blog #29
Alan Shnir
Pd. 9
Sophomores 2020
5/6/20

Aim: How can the perception that Animal Farm is a Fable be demonstrated in our original fable visual representation & oral presentation project?

Activity Requirements: 
Yesterday, we presented our fables that we first wrote in March and were supposed to present in march. Through the writing of this fable, we were supposed to better understand what made a fable a fable and how these principles could be seen in Animal Farm by George Orwell. 

A Few Cool Fables In No Particular Order 

George: Two birds were watching the crocodiles play and the son bird asked why can’t he play with the crocodiles. The son asked why can’t he play. A swan had gotten eaten by the crocodile and the son never asked to play with them again. A cage is a metaphorical object where the prey should not cross the predators.
Moral: A false confidence can lead to danger

Sarah: A far away kingdom was ruled by an evil king where some peasants tried to kill the king. They failed and went to a dragon for help to kill their king. The dragon asked for magical water from a spring. The peasants brought the water to the dragon. The dragon held up his bargain but later said the peasants didn’t pay up their end, and it became the new king and was just as cruel.
Moral: Be grateful for what you have

Gabriel: Larry the laughing hyena liked to pull practical jokes. He changed a gazelles food with poison ivy and laughed tremendously when the Gazelle was in pain. Larry, changed a soccer ball with a coconut and injured the Apes who were having a soccer game. Leonidas the lion makes a plan to shove Larry’s prized bone collection into a tree with killer bees. Larry gets the bones but gets bitten by the Bees while all the animals laughed at him. He did not find the Funny.
Moral: Be ready to laugh at yourself when you pull pranks on others & Treat others like you would want to be treated.

Gabe’s Depiction of the Lion 

Carlos: Two sharks, one named shilable and the other named shlider, used to live in a Sea. Shilable was supposed to go hunting one day and he saw Shlider and decided that he would be his meal. Shlider convinced him not to eat him saying that he would be bigger next year. This went on for ten years. Until finally, Shlider met Shilable and this time, he was bigger, and Shilable would be the meal.
Moral: Be grateful for what you already have, don’t be greedy & a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.

My Interpretation of the First scene. 

Selina: One day a fox crosses a bear. The fox offers the bear his salmon for the bears honey but, the fox ended up running with both. The fox does the same to a lion. Boasts loudly across the forest. He boasts loudly of his cunning so all the forest could hear, but this got the attention of some hunters, and they chased him out of the Forest.
Moral: Hubris is dangerous

Wilson: In a forest, there lived an ant and termite colony. For years they kept fighting until one day an anteater ate both the termites and the ants. The ant queen knew that in order to get rid of the anteater, they would need to ask the termites for help. The termite Queen agreed, and together, the termites and ants fought off the anteater.
Moral: Unity is strength

Wilson’s Depiction of his Fable 

Irene: A groundhog is Stuck in the Forest and didn’t get any food for hibernation cause he was too busy playing during the summer. He sees two squirrels and asks if he can get some of their food. The squirrels give it to him. Then the groundhog makes a story that he has a starving family and they again give him food. He feels good about himself and breaks into their home because he saw it was nice. The groundhog destroyed their home and when they found him, they kicked him out but the damage was already done. Everyone was worse off.
Moral: Do not waste your pity on a scamp

A drawing of the Beaver 

Sam: Danny the donkey thought he was very ugly. He looked at Hugo the horse and wondered why he couldn’t be as handsome as Hugo the horse. Danny everyday would do things to make himself look better. He was so mesmerized at his reflection that he fell into the pond and got a gash and was uglier than before
Moral: Be grateful for what you have.

Jackie: In the middle of a Cheetah Community meeting a baby cub said it’s annoying to live here and ran away. He spent years wandering around the jungle, spending time with other animal communities but found that he did not like it there either. He went back and found that his childhood friends were happy and made a life for themselves, while he had ended up back where he started.
Moral: A person who is dissatisfied at home will never be satisfied.

Thoughts 

What is it like working from home? 
     Working from home is a very unique experience that I find to be working very well. Originally, I would need to commute 1 and a half hours to school and back everyday as I live very far into Brooklyn, but now, the only commute I need to make is from my bed to my desk.At first, my daily schedule was a little bit different from what it is now because I would wake up later than I do now since i felt that i could sleep till an hour before school. Now I wake up at 7 which is still far later than the 5:45 of the school day, but it is still earlier than 8. Also, I now feel much less pressured to get my schoolwork done, so I am now able to easily do it, and I have plenty of time left over to do my own activities. I also like the fact that I am not confined to a chair for 6 hours which feels really nice. Overall, I find working from home to be a generally good thing except for the fact that I can't see my friends.

What are the updates around the world regarding Coronavirus? 
     As of the time of this writing, there are 3.6 million cases of coronavirus worldwide with 257,000 deaths. The US, specifically NYC is still the epicenter. GDP has dropped at an annualized 4.8% decline and unemployment has reached 30 million people, or 17%, the greatest since the Great Depression. Locally, a funeral home on my block has been getting a lot of news coverage and police visits recently because of it storing bodies outside in their backyard. As of May 6th, half the nation has exited lockdown however, New York is still closed. As of May 6th, about a third of the world is still under Lockdown.

What are your own personal feelings and thoughts on what is currently happening? 
     I have a lot of thoughts on what is currently happening, but I am extremely thankful that my family has not been affected by Coronavirus. First of all, a lot of what we currently have could have been prevented or minimized, specifically in New York. First of all NYC was one of the very last places in the US to enter lockdown, which is even worse when you consider the fact that we are the most populated and dense city in the whole country, by a factor of 2. One of the biggest examples of this was the school system, as my parents were allowed to go home from work a full week before schools got shut down. This was in large part due to City officials. Now we are also starting to see the economic toll that widespread panic can have, and it is not looking nice. The federal government has done a lot though in order to ease this situation, through bailouts of small and large businesses. Interest rates have also reached near zero. These forms of Quantitative Easing have and will be very good for the economy, however, it does not fix the simple fact that when the world shuts down for 6 weeks, a decrease in output is inevitable. The reason I am writing this is because this might have an impact on my family, whether it be unemployment or someone getting sick, and worst of all, this was all done by the obviously unwise decisions of a select few.

Reflection 

     In today’s lesson I learned the various ways that we can express morals through fables. Whether the Moral was “Clothes do not make a man” or “Strength comes from Unity” we learned of all the different possibilities to make a story from a single line. I learned that as unique as all of our fables were, some were still similar. A lot of that similarity came from the fact that some of us had common morals, and through these morals, our fables were required to have been similar in at least one way, which was the message we conveyed. With each fable having conveyed one message or another, I saw the similarities they presented with Animal Farm. Whether it be an unfortunate message or the talking animals, or an association with reality, every fable had something in common with George Orwell’s novel. We learned and presented our fables in order to share their messages and to gain a deeper understanding of the texts we read whether it be Animal Farm, or just about any other Fable. I will use what I gained today in order to deepen my understanding of Fables, add more to my future writing, and get better at my presentation skills. Presenting is an extremely important skill to know and learn and with this I can do better in future projects or assignments.