Although this is a creative project, it should be well done and show deep comprehension of your book as well as theme or symbolism in the book. See definitions below for a refresher.
I am working through your revised essays for your Role of Lit/Storytelling papers. I will hand these back on Monday.
Theme: An implicit or recurrent idea. For example, "In my book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the theme of friendship and betrayal between Lenny and George was incredibly strong."
Other themes: overcoming challenge, good vs. evil, healing through love, inner turmoil and eventually triumph, youth culture in conflict with elders, coming of age, destiny, corruption and power, etc.
Symbolism:
- The practice of representing things (or themes) by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships
For example, in Of Mice and Men, Lenny's shows his "love" for the puppy by petting it so roughly with his incredibly strong hands that the results is the puppy's death. This symbolizes the power of the strong over the weak as well as how terribly wrong something can go even if you love it. Strangely enough, it is Lenny who turns out to be "too weak-minded" to survive in the world governed by men.Your artist statement should be at least 2-3 strong paragraphs. It should be MLA formatted and double-spaced. See the following for an example.
Ms. Brandy
Our Classs
English 3-4--periods all
20 January 2015
Sample Independent Book Project
(Below should be double-spaced but I'm not going to do that to save space)
Over the semester I read many books, but for the independent book project I chose to focus on the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. The reason this book stands out to me is that the story pertains to the struggle of a girl entering high school. Because I am a high school teacher, I can imagine her during her eighth grade summer, anticipating her next phase, being excited to feel more independent and grown up, and ready to explore high school with her tight-knit group of friends. The first scenes are so vivid in my mind--the summer heat, getting ready for a party, the party itself, a little beer-drinking, flirting with an older boy and then, suddenly, and shockingly, a scene that changes everything.
School doesn't go well for Melinda, the protagonist of the story. Melinda struggles with the aftermath of the event, the judgement of other students, and her own self-judgement. Everything has changed for her and she doesn't know how to proceed. Part of the trouble is that now she is entering high school with a reputation she is unprepared for. Because of this, Melinda does the only thing that makes sense at the time, she starts to make herself "invisible". Little by little she draws into herself. She slowly stops trying to make everything better, and even worse, she virtually stops speaking. Her only salvation is an art class with a zany teacher who has the wild idea of assigning each student an object or an image to focus all of their art on for the ENTIRE year. Out of the broken globe he passes around, Melinda pulls the word "Tree". This word doesn't immediately "speak" to Melinda, but with the teachers encouragement, she starts to see it as more than a tree and it becomes a journey to express herself. Throughout the book, Melinda's drawings of trees mirror not just the weather outside, but the weather, the conditions, and the state of Melinda herself.
For my project I chose to decorate the inside and the outside of a shoebox. On the outside, after covering my box in white paper, I drew all kinds of trees from withered, broken-limbed trees, to wind-blown, chopped down, and finally sprouting trees. These are meant to represent the important symbol of trees in the book, but also Melinda's journey. I painted the inside of the box black and put an image of a tiny candle flame at the center. Around the flame I drew silver silhouettes of a girl to represent how Melinda sort of became a ghost that year. Overlapping the silhouettes, I drew images of lips and glued them to the silhouettes creating what I hope is a three-dimensional look. I tried to make the lips look chapped because as things got worse for Melinda, her mouth literally began to dry and crack. This to me was hugely symbolic of the pain of her silence. The flame represents the strength of her spirit. I won't give away the book, but by the end that spirit begins to show what its really made of.
This book was a kind of coming-of-age novel, but it was also a story of the triumph of a young girl's spirit as she overcomes a disastrous event. I was inspired by the themes of bravery to overcome difficulty, but also impressed by the author's strong use of symbols throughout the book. I hope I have captured some here so that when students see my work, they just might be interested in reading Speak too.
Hope that example helps!
Ms. B
To see what is coming up, please scroll down. We will not be working on any writing about Things Fall Apart until the beginning of next semester.
