Blogger #18 - James Li - Period 9 - 11/1/21

Blogger #18 James Li Period 9 11/1/21
Sophomore 2022

Aim: How does Golding use descriptive language to create setting and convey meaning?

DO NOW: Take a few minutes to write/describe a detailed description of your favorite room. Write for the entire time (think of senses when describing).



        For the Do Now assignment, I wrote a description about my favorite room, which was the kitchen.

        My kitchen had a large window next to the marble counter, wooden cupboards, and cooking appliances. Whenever the sun was up, golden rays of light would beam through the window blinds, covering the kitchen with a mask of yellow. This sunny shine creates a warm atmosphere that turns the kitchen into a peaceful and relaxing paradise. A savory or sweet aroma would always dominate the kitchen whenever someone was cooking. In the center is the stove, the main piece that constitutes a functioning cooking station. Nearby is the refrigerator, full of fresh vegetables, meats, and dairy products. When cooked and prepared, these raw ingredients turn into delectable treats and exquisite meals full of sweet, tangy, savory, and spicy flavors.

        This description of the kitchen is rich in adjectives and details that creates imagery of my house’s kitchen. I included many uses of the senses like sight (covering the kitchen with a mask of yellow), taste (sweet, tangy, savory, and spicy flavors), smell (savory or sweet aroma), and feel (warm atmosphere). By using the senses, it creates a more comprehensive image of the room.

        Ms. Peterson shared her own response, saying that her favorite room is her cousin’s family room. In her writing, she details the feeling and memory of Christmas in the room. This is done by describing the festive decorations, the fireplace, chocolate drizzled roasted marshmallows on graham crackers, singing Christmas carols, and the Christmas tree. These objects along with her use of peaceful and soft adjectives such as “scents”, “soft”, and “sing” create a warm and family atmosphere. By detailing the objects in and related to the room, she also brings up all five of our senses.

TONE AND MOOD

        In our groups, we were told to discuss the differences between tone and mood. In my group, my peers and I agreed that mood is the feeling/atmosphere created through the content while tone is the way/attitude that the author expresses through the way they write. John Pierre then read the slide about mood.



        MOOD: the atmosphere that predominates a piece of content and evokes a specific emotion or feeling to the reader. It is created through music, diction, tone, theme, and other different types of mediums.
        Example: Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories involve dark and gloomy feelings and content which usually includes death, sadness, and madness.

        TONE: the attitude and perspective of the author toward a specific subject and audience. It is conveyed through their diction and point of view on a specific topic.
        Example: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (The Great Gatsby) The tone is earnest and nostalgic as the words used sound serious and solemn as well as talks about the past.


Ms.Peterson shared a time when she taught Intro to Music, where she had to teach movie scores as part of the curriculum. As part of an activity, she showed her class a segment of the movie Jaws without the suspenseful sound effects that built tension to when a person was about to be eaten. Her students exclaimed how the fear factor was totally removed when the music/sound effects were removed. The movie clip lacked the fearful atmosphere that created suspense. This is the same as in many other movies such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones.


READ ALOUD (PAGE 12)


For our next activity, we had to read a part of page 12 (page 13 on e-book) of Lord of the Flies. The segment described the island’s landscape and ocean. We were told to jot down words and emotions that came up into our mind while the excerpt was read aloud. The link to the Lord of the Flies can be found here.


Sensory Imagery: words that describe any of the 5 senses: see, smell, feel, hear, taste


        During the reading, some words that came to mind were: grand, natural, landscape, lagoon, lush, palms, green, sea, efflorescence, beautiful, and peaceful. The setting creates a peaceful and tropical mood in the excerpt. It describes the island as natural, lush, and beautiful with words like “efflorescence” and “glittering fish”. In our class discussion, Ilaria mentioned the words that she came up with, including “pink granite”, “coral”, and “green”. After that, Ms. Peterson asked for the moods of chapters 3 and 4. Angel responds that in chapter 3, they are anxious for food and survival and in chapter 4, there is agitation and hostility between some of the boys. This is a stark difference from chapters 1 and 2, where the boys believed the island to be some free playground without parental supervision. It is until they realize that work has to be done to survive that the children start to argue and realize their inexperience/immaturity. Afterwards, Reiko adds that Jack attacks Piggy in chapter 4, creating more tension and enmity between the two boys. Meng Ling incorporates that the boys finally killed a pig for food, illustrating the maturity that the boys have adopted in order to survive.

        We are then told to read the beginning of chapter 4. This segment describes the routine of the boys each day, from sunrise to sunset. Ms. Peterson connected this back to the Masque of the Red Death, which used the colored rooms to symbolize the 7 stages of life. Ilaria starts the interpretation of this reading as a metaphor for the journey of life, with sunrise and sunset representing birth and death respectively. The three stages of life (childhood, adulthood, elderly;death) are shown with sunrise, midday, and sunset. The diction and moods portrayed in this section represents these stages of life with detail. For example, the night is described as covered with darkness and “dropped on the island like an extinguisher”. The use of these words create a dark and creepy atmosphere, relating to the topic of death. At night, the little kids have nightmares and hallucinate, expressing fear. This can be interpreted as the kids fearing death, the last stage of life.

        After our discussion and activity, Ms. Peterson briefly told us about our upcoming project where we have to create an imaginary island. More details about the project would be told to us at the next class.



Reflection:
        Today, I learned about creating mood and tone using the setting and diction. In Lord of the Flies, the atmosphere can be expressed through the specific word choices by the author. For example, when describing the island in the first chapter, Golding uses diction to create a tropical and lush image of the island. The atmosphere feels very carefree and harmonious as the island is shown to be full of nature and lush species as well as being surrounded by a shining sea full of life and glittering life. I also learned the difference between tone and mood, which describe the attitude of the author and the atmosphere created by the context respectively. The reason why I learned these things is because it is essential to creating settings, moods, and tones to properly deliver the feelings and emotions that I want to convey. This lesson also helps identify the mood and tones of many writings that I would have to read either on a test or in a book that I may come across. This way, I can properly understand the author’s goal and motives for writing a certain way. I will use what I learned today in many articles, passages, and stories that I will read in the future. With this knowledge, I can identify the emotion/feeling that the author conveys through the use of tone and mood in their works. More specifically, this adds the understanding of the moods and tones shown in Lord of the Flies. While reading the book, I can take away the points and emotions that are stored within the setting and plots of each chapter.