Friday, April 17, 2015

END OF MARKING PERIOD 3

AGENDA:

MORNING REFLECTION:  Austin

Finish and turn in all missing work and NON-LINEAR STORIES!

Continue to read The Hours, look at handout, look at links to Michael Cunningham and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

Your next assignment will be to write in a genre you are most comfortable with (poetry, fiction or drama). The work needs two historical time periods and needs to weave in motifs in both time periods
.
What are some common motifs?
Go to http://homework.answers.com/english/the-most-common-motifs-in-literature
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/themelist.htm
Think about the motifs evident in The Hours.  You might want to use some of them.


Here are the discussion questions you will be working with next week:

1. Clarissa Vaughan is described several times as an "ordinary" woman. Do you accept this valuation? If so, what does it imply about the ordinary, about being ordinary? What makes someone, by contrast, extraordinary?

2. Flowers and floral imagery play a significant part in The Hours. When and where are flowers described? What significance do they have, and with what events and moods are they associated? How do flowers affect Virginia? Clarissa?

3. Cunningham plays with the notions of sanity and insanity, recognizing that there might be only a very fine line between the two states. What does the novel imply about the nature of insanity? Might it in fact be a heightened sanity, or at least a heightened sense of awareness? Would you classify Richard as insane? How does his mental state compare with that of Virginia? Of Laura as a young wife? Of Septimus Smith in Mrs. Dalloway? Does insanity (or the received idea of insanity) appear to be connected with creative gifts?

4. Virginia and Laura are both, in a sense, prisoners of their eras and societies, and both long for freedom from this imprisonment. Clarissa Vaughan, on the other hand, apparently enjoys every liberty: freedom to be a lesbian, to come and go and live as she likes. Yet she has ended up, in spite of her unusual way of life, as a fairly conventional wife and mother. What might this fact indicate about the nature of society and the restrictions it imposes? Does the author imply that character, to a certain extent, is destiny?

5. Each of the novel’s three principal women, even the relatively prosaic and down-to-earth Clarissa, occasionally feels a sense of detachment, of playing a role. Laura feels as if she is "about to go onstage and perform in a play for which she is not appropriately dressed, and for which she has not adequately rehearsed" [p. 43]. Clarissa is filled with "a sense of dislocation. This is not her kitchen at all. This is the kitchen of an acquaintance, pretty enough but not her taste, full of foreign smells" [p. 91]. Is this feeling in fact a universal one? Is role-playing an essential part of living in the world, and of behaving "sanely"? Which of the characters refuses to act a role, and what price does he/she pay for this refusal?

6. Who kisses whom in The Hours, and what is the significance of each kiss?

7. The Hours is very much concerned with creativity and the nature of the creative act, and each of its protagonists is absorbed in a particular act of creation. For Virginia and Richard, the object is their writing; for Clarissa Vaughan (and Clarissa Dalloway), it is a party; for Laura Brown, it is another party, or, more generally, "This kitchen, this birthday cake, this conversation. This revived world" [p. 106]. What does the novel tell us about the creative process? How does each character revise and improve his or her creation during the course of the story?

8. How might Richard’s childhood experiences have made him the adult he eventually becomes? In what ways has he been wounded, disturbed?

9. Each of the three principal women is acutely conscious of her inner self or soul, slightly separate from the "self" seen by the world. Clarissa’s "determined, abiding fascination is what she thinks of as her soul" [p. 12]; Virginia "can feel it inside her, an all but indescribable second self, or rather a parallel, purer self. If she were religious, she would call it the soul . . . It is an inner faculty that recognizes the animating mysteries of the world because it is made of the same substance" [pp. 34-35]. Which characters keep these inner selves ruthlessly separate from their outer ones? Why?

10. Each of the novel’s characters sees himself or herself, most of the time, as a failure. Virginia Woolf, as she walks to her death, reflects that "She herself has failed. She is not a writer at all, really; she is merely a gifted eccentric" [p. 4]. Richard, disgustedly, admits to Clarissa, "I thought I was a genius. I actually used that word, privately, to myself" [p. 65]. Are the novel’s characters unusual, or are such feelings of failure an essential and inevitable part of the human condition?

11. Toward the end of Clarissa’s day, she realizes that kissing Richard beside the pond in Wellfleet was the high point, the culmination, of her life. Richard, apparently, feels the same. Are we meant to think, though, that their lives would have been better, more heightened, had they stayed together? Or does Cunningham imply that as we age we inevitably feel regret for some lost chance, and that what we in fact regret is youth itself?

12. The Hours could on one level be said to be a novel about middle age, the final relinquishment of youth and the youthful self. What does middle age mean to these characters? In what essential ways do these middle-aged people--Clarissa, Richard, Louis, Virginia --differ from their youthful selves? Which of them resists the change most strenuously?

13. What does the possibility of death represent to the various characters? Which of them loves the idea of death, as others love life? What makes some of the characters decide to die, others to live? What personality traits separate the "survivors" from the suicides?

14. If you have read Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, would you describe The Hours as a modern version of it? A commentary upon it? A dialogue with it? Which characters in The Hours correspond with those of Woolf’s novel? In what ways are they similar, and at what point do the similarities cease and the characters become freestanding individuals in their own right?

15. For the most part, the characters in The Hours have either a different gender or a different sexual orientation from their prototypes in Mrs. Dalloway. How much has all this gender-bending affected or changed the situations, the relationships, and the people?

16. Why has Cunningham chosen The Hours for the title of his novel (aside from the fact that it was Woolf’s working title for Mrs. Dalloway)? In what ways is the title appropriate, descriptive? What do hours mean to Richard? To Laura? To Clarissa?


33 comments:

  1. Austin you did great! you guys really are creative and had really great editing and transitioning. You also have a great sense of humor! keep up the good work!

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  2. That was great cinematography, I loved every second of it. Spencer is a superb actor and I really enjoyed his performance. I'm assuming that Austin wrote most of the script and it's great seeing someone who I worked with find success on other projects. That being said Jacob Traphaus is a star!

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    1. There was actually no narrative or particular sequence when we filmed it. We filmed a bunch of random clips, and I put them in order and created the story.

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  3. For a health class project, that was very funny. I didn't expect to learn anything from the video in the beginning, but it was strangely inspirational. The story was interesting because it hit all the bases, like drug use, depression, and bullying. The editing was well done, especially the transitions between scenes. I find it very impressive that you were able to do it all in one lunch period too.

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  4. I really enjoyed watching Austin's short film for health class. It was humorous enough to draw people in, but serious enough in highlighting the key issues without being too heavy or melodramatic. Personally my favorite scene was the one with the giant blunt. Also, Spencer did a good job acting; he actually did look sad when he was supposed to.

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  5. OMG I LOVED AUSTINS VIDEO! I thought it was so creative and it embodied so many health topics that we covered in health class. I thought the fact that it was silent made the film more effective because while it was funny it did discuss real life serious situations. The choice of music was great as well because the instrumentals set the tone for the short film, by having at first a ditsy cartoon sound and then switching to a serious more sad song. I was also very surprised by Spencer's acting he actually did pretty well. Overall it was a great health project and morning reflection and Mrs. Mueller better give you an 100%!

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  6. This video was incredibly inspirational, especially for a simple health class project. The editing was really well done, especially with the transitions from scene to scene, as well as the props that were used. Despite being filmed in such as short time, the video comes across as a polished effort, if a little rough around the edges. The overall message was obvious, so I didn't expect to be moved by it, but I was honestly surprised by it nonetheless. The simple narrative produced a very complex moral that should be watched and understood by everyone.

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  7. I really liked Austins video, you guys did a fantastic job and were great actors.

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  8. I thought it was a very good movie. It depicted depression really well. i do however slightly disagree with the comment at the end about drugs making you make bad decisions. even under the influence, your decisions are still your own. drugs don't force you to do something you might have done other wise; they just lower your inhibitions so that you don't think it over as much. just because you did drugs, it doesn't mean you are going to go out and fight with a punk kid. doing the drug would probably however mean that, one, you would feel less and two you wouldn't worry about the consequences. irresponsible people will be irresponsible; drugs or not.

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  10. I was really fascinated by the short film and it's ability to use comedy to grasp the audiences attention but also the ability to not shy away from the truth. I liked how the film showed how drugs can affect not only you but those around you and can have devastating results. I found it really informative and well done.

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  11. "Another lonely soul says goodbye to the world." - favorite part.
    That was fantastic. Despite finding it humorous, the video had a very positive message. The filming and editing were done tastefully as there were no unnecessarily long scenes.The decision to make it a silent film really added a sense of drama and seemingly allowed the actors to remain serious. Well done!

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  12. I think that the messages in Austin's morning reflection was spot on. The affects of the music, editing and transitioning was used properly. The comedy was enough to draw your viewers in, it kept me interested. Great Job!

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  13. Clarissa was called ordinary because she was looked at in town as if she was a average house wife. But really she had lots of personal and marital issues.

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  14. Flowers were often presented in dark scenes in the movie and brought upon irony becasue of the situation presented.

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  15. The sanity and insanity barrier in the novel is within each character. They each have there own issues and problems but then are going insane but are sane in front of people. Clarrissa is facing a detrimental relationship where she cannot express her love but finds it hard to actually say.'

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  16. Karla
    1. Clarissa seemed like an ordinary house wife, but she had a lot of problems with herself and her marriage. Being ordinary is being just like everyone else, doing what everyone else does. Being extraordinary means you stand out from everyone else, you are different.

    2. Flowers showed up when Clarissa buys them for the party to congratulate Richard, and when in the beginning with Virginia, when she was looking at her surroundings. And when they wee in the house, and she switched the dead flowers, with new flowers. Flowers usually show up during dark moments.

    3. Sanity and insanity ties in with each character in the story, every character has their own issues. They all have their own problems but they make it seem like everything is fine when they are around everyone else.

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  17. 1. Clarissa Vaughan is described several times as an "ordinary" woman. However, it is hard to characterize someone as "ordinary". The definition of ordinary is unclear in that everyone is different, thus having different perceptions of normality. Clarissa is a woman of many secrets as she has a past life, which seemingly bleeds in to her present.
    2.Flowers and floral imagery play a significant part in The Hours. In the beginning of the film the three different women encounter flowers. The representation of flowers differ in certain cultures, however the most common representation of life and purity is a flower. The women throughout the novel are set in three very different generations, causing a contrast in their experiences as women in the ways in which they are treated.
    3.Cunningham plays with the notions of sanity and insanity, recognizing that there might be only a very fine line between the two states. This is apparent in Virginia as it is almost impossible to draw the line between her genius and her absurdity. Which raises the point that maybe there is no line to be drawn to differ the two.

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    1. 4.Virginia and Laura are both prisoners of their eras and societies. Clarissa Vaughan enjoys every liberty: freedom to be a lesbian, to come and go and live as she likes. Yet she has ended up, in spite of her unusual way of life, as a fairly conventional wife and mother. It is easy to see that in a society so split between traditional and progressive views, how gender roles still bind us to different realms of life. Cunningham may have been commenting on the seemingly inescapable constraints societal norms place on us.

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  18. Aleah
    1.) I don't believe that Clarissa is an ordinary woman. I don't think she's happy with her life or does anything for herself but somehow that was ordinary back then for women because they always tried to satisfy their men and put their lives on hold. However she lives with a woman Sally, whom she's having an affair with, and that wasn't normal for the 1950's.
    2.) Flowers are brought up when Clarissa goes out to buy them for the party congratulating Richard and flowers are brought up with Laura when her husband brings her yellow roses even though it's his birthday. I think the flowers are associated with trying to hide what's going on in reality and trying to hide how the characters of the novel feel.
    3.) I wouldn't categorize Richard as insane. I think he's going through dementia and AIDS is driving him to the point of not having anything to live for anymore but I do believe that Virginia is insane. She is constantly talking to herself and over analyzing what she wants to write about and her mannerisms just make her seem odd and insane.
    4.) I think this shows that even when you try to run away from society norms or don't restrict yourselves to what's going on in society you still get caught up with what's going on. I think the author wanted to show that whether you conform yourself or not you'll still find yourself somewhat being a prisoner to society.

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  19. Jaymee

    6. Richard kisses Clarissa, which is significant of their history and unresolved feelings. After all that time they are still tethered together.

    Laura and Kitty kiss, which is representative of a female connection and support that stems from their own issues as women and unhappiness within their marriage and personal short comings.
    Virginia and her sister Vanessa also kiss, which demonstrates a familial connection and also a sharing of pain.

    3. The way Cunningham plays with the notion of insanity in the hours is really interesting. All of the characters who experience it have a heightened sense of their own realities and personal pain and are also sensitive to the feelings of those around them. Cunningham passes insanity as something that comes with a deeper perspective of the world and the ability to actually see things for what they are.

    10. The sense of failure the characters feel is important to the story, it has a lot to do with their personal unhappiness in their conditions. Feelings of inadequacy are essential to the human condition. It acts as the driving force for many actions in the novel, as well as in real life.

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  20. 1. Clarissa Vaughn is an ordinary woman. She is no more sane or insane than the next person. What Clarissa is going through with Richard is not too crazy of a scenario to imagine. I would say her situation is more interesting than anything and is somewhat rare.

    2. The flowers and floral display are illustrated throughout each setting and timeline. For instance it is displayed in Richards’s apartment and Clarissa’s apartment. They are displayed in Virginia’s house and Ms.Dalloways house. The flowers coincide with Ms.Dalloways book that she is writing .I believe that they represent independence in a way. The flowers empower Virgina and gives her a sense of self importance.
    3. I believe that what Cunningham is trying to say is that the only people who are considered insane are the people who are aware because their brain and their way of thinking travels outside the accepted norm. Therefore Richard would be classified as insane because he is aware of what is happening to him and what is going on around him. I would not call Virgina insane but trapped in the role of being a woman during the early 1900’s as well as Laura except she was more so confused if anything.
    4. Women will always be viewed as a maternal figure no matter their sexual orientation or level or job description. Being a women in society no matter how powerful you are you will always be viewed as fragile, caring and loving. I believe that the author is implying there is a destiny that every woman is supposed to comply with and to go outside it is considered abnormal.

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  21. Allan
    1.) Clarissa is not an ordinary woman, she has seen and been through a combination of things that have made her the extraordinary woman that she is. So by the logic of the the book someone who is extraordinary is only ordinary.

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  22. 1. I don’t think Clarissa is an ordinary person. Although, she tries to make it seem like she is, it is obvious that she has some secrets. Being extraordinary means that you stand out from the crowd. You are different from others.

    2. Flowers are brought up when Clarissa goes to buy flowers for Richard to congratulate him. I think the flowers are meant to distract people and hide the truth

    3. It implies that there isn’t really a line between the two, and if there is, it is a very thin line. The characters talk to themselves throughout the novel, and I think that walk on the very thin line.
    4. I think that it means that no matter how you try to avoid being like the rest of society, you always end up a part of it. Whether it is a small part, or a big part.

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  23. 5.The feeling to fit into social norms is in fact a universal one. However, it is up to the individual to either fill the social norms or break away from them. Role playing is not an essential part of living in that you can chose to be yourself and not allow social standards and norms to categorize and mute who you are. All of the characters deny some amount of social norms as each of them have a certain edge to them.
    6. The significance of all of the shared kisses in this book is to challenge the "sexual norms" of each decade in which the three women live and to explore further ideas of sexual freedom and expression.
    7. The novel tells us that the creative process is different for everyone. The novel draws a parallel for the three women in that regardless of the differences within each process, all three women are met with challenge.
    8. Richard’s childhood experiences have made him the adult he is as everyone is a product of their environment. The experiences one has as a child tends to morph them into the adult they will eventually become

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  24. 5. This feeling is a universal one for both men and women because sometimes we do not know who we truly are because we play a role for society in order to fit in. We are so concerned for social acceptance that we hide the side of ourselves that we fear may not be accepted.

    6. Richard and Clarissa kiss which is significant to their past as a couple and the feelings they still have for each other currently. Also Laura kisses the neighbor (I forgot her Name) which is significant because it demonstrates how Laura feels detached from herself and does not know who she is.

    7. In the story the creative process used is very interesting and confusing as well because there are all these surprises and weaving of characters into each other. There are all these different story lines with different backstories, people and settings but they are all connected in some type of way. As the story develops the author adds more detail in order to open up the plotline to the reader more in order to give it this shock value.

    8. He has been wounded because of his mother’s displacement and not knowing who she is, is the main cause for Richards need for validation.

    9. Virginia definitely keeps her inner self separate from what she portrays outward to others. Although it is very obvious to tell that she was troubled from her outward appearance she remains mysterious in her thought process. Laura is obviously troubled but puts on this façade as the perfect housewife but struggles with herself about who she truly is.
    10. The characters feeling of failure is normal. Everyone goes through the emotions or feeling that they didn’t do something right or properly. However it becomes very unusual if you began to dwell on it for an immense amount of time.

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  25. Aleah
    6.) The three significant kisses were between Clarissa and Richard, Laura and Kitty, and Virginia and her sister Vanessa. Richard and Clarissa's kiss was significant because it showed their past love connection and also Richard has AIDS making it even more special that she still continues to kiss him. Laura and Kitty's kiss, and Vanessa and Virginia's kiss were significant because they were against the typical society norms and showed women's desire to experiment.
    7.) The novel tells us that the creative process varies differently for every character and they all feel accomplished in different ways. As the story continues the creative process is often referred back to, for example how Virginia often revises her story of Mrs. Dalloway and writes bits and pieces of it when she feels inspiration.
    8.) Richard's childhood influenced him into the man he is today due to his mother Laura abandoning him and his father at such a young age. He's been wounded because as a child Richard admired his mother and was very observant towards her, so once she left he was devastated.
    9.) All three essential women keep their inner lives separate from their outer ones. Laura as well as Kitty try to keep their housewife image, while they both aren't happy at all. Laura feels extremely lost and caged into a lifestyle she doesn't attest too. I don't feel Virginia keeps her inner self separate from her outer life because it's very apparent that she's suicidal and unhappy.

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  28. 1. I don’t think Clarissa wasn’t a normal woman because of her mentality and how she lived with herself. She always created a very glum atmosphere because of her negative outlooks on life. It is obvious throughout the linear show of the movie and her life, she is very discontent and goes about things differently than an ordinary woman would. Overall, she just didn’t have the urge and the want to live.
    2. Flowers show a sense of symbolism; in a use that woman can have a way to hid their feelings and direct attitude toward life and there situation. In most cases, the flowers are used to hide feeling between all the female’s feminine emotions. Although flowers are used frequently and are very symbolic for different reasons, they all have the same motives.
    3. Each character has a unique way of showing there sane. For example, some hear voices, others are severely living in a world where there mind constantly fights their emotions and tends to make them live days where they be weakened and consider ending their lives, for example.
    4. Author tries to imply that no matter how different you try to be in life, you will always be seen through the choice of whoever’s lenses. This means that you can try to make a positive impression, seek change in your attitude and actions, but people will always see you based off of what they feel towards you or how they think about you.
    5. At times it can be hard for a person with an emotional disorder and depression with negative outlooks to continue on in life as an ordinary person. It can be extremely hard and a battle between mind and heart and , surprisingly, as hard as somebody may try to see that person’s point of view, only that person knows the unexplainable battle they fight with themselves in their everyday life.
    6. When Richard kisses Clarissa, it proves that he actually does have a sense of love and affection towards her; even though as an outside point of view, it may not have seem so to us or her as well.

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  29. 10.) I don't think that the characters are unusual because it's normal to be ourselves hardest critic and we often set high expectations for ourselves and when we don't meet them we feel we've fell short. The feeling of failure is very essential to the human condition.
    11.) I don't think we're meant to feel that if they'd stayed together they would've been happier or would've lived a better life because they clearly both are gay or bisexual, and staying together would've left them unexposed to those relationships. I definitely think Cunningham implies regretting youth and regretting the lost chances during our youth.
    12.) Clarissa, Richard, Virginia and Louis all differ in their middle-aged lives in comparison to their youthful lives because they all are unhappy in a sense. Virginia feels trapped and has serious mental issues whereas Richard and Louis are in a relationship but its apparent that something is missing. And Clarissa feels she was only happy with Richard and nothing else in life has made her happier. I think she tries to resist the change from youth to middle-aged life the most because she continues to try and hold onto Richard and try to keep their relationship in tact.
    13.) Richard, Virginia and Laura all feel as though theres nothing left to live for and that their unhappiness overshadows everything else to come in their lives. Laura doesn't commit suicide but she contemplates it, whereas Richard and Virginia end up following through with killing themselves. The survivors are different than the "suicides" because the survivors such as Clarissa and Laura's husband and Virginia's husband all have people to live for such as Clarissa having her daughter and Sally.
    14.) I haven't read Mrs. Dalloway.
    15.) The gender-bending and changing of sexual orientations makes the novel more current because at the time of Mrs. Dalloway being written women felt very trapped in marriages and confined to certain sexual norms, whereas now more people feel free to be themselves and date whomever they'd like.
    16.) He chose the Hours because the entire book spans over a day, but more so 24 hours. For characters like Richard and Virginia it shows how much they contemplated life in a day and ultimately the hours were a countdown to their deaths.

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