Blog #18 - Samantha Mekhael - Period 9 - 3/12/2020

March 12, 2020

Samantha Mekhael

Period 9 

Sophomores 202

Aim: 

How can a comparison of speeches reflect the continued relevance of ideas held in society today?

Do Now:  Get started immediately on the work from yesterday: “I Have a Dream Materials”

Notes & Class Discussion:

Class started as usual; instead of the usual Aim & Do Now on the board, we had plans from the previous day to work on the “I Have a Dream” document. 

We discussed the “What’s in a Name” document, which involved the interpretation of the animals & humans from Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Today, the majority of class time was spent working on two assignments from Google Classroom with our groups. One of the assignments was the chart that we had to finish under the “What’s in a Name” classwork. In this chart we evaluate the effects of naming and how it helps shape the reader’s impression of the character. In particular, George Orwell created his characters with specific people in mind.

    Mr. Jones- Mr. Jones is a negligent alcoholic. He was a generic human to the animals (as hinted to by the common name: Mr. Jones). Mr. Jones represents Tsar Nicholas II who was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution.

    Old Major- Old Major is a revolutionary who unifies the farm animals under one common goal: the defeat of humankind. His passion & old age make him credible to the animals. He references Marx and Lenin.

    Clover- Clover is a mother of four foals, in her middle age. Although she doesn’t have an allegorical reference in the text, she acts as a mother figure, even allowing the cat to nestle between her legs.

    Boxer- Boxer’s name literally refers to the characteristics of a boxer. They are of slightly lower intelligence and withstand hard hits because of their physicality. Boxer represents the working class in the USSR.

    Benjamin- Benjamin is a donkey representative of the older citizens in Soviet Russia. Although stubborn, his old age makes him less susceptible to future failure, & as Mrs. Peterson said, “His clock’s ticking; what does he care if it all fails?” 

    Mollie- Mollie represents the petit bourgeois. She tends to only care about menial things like vanity & appearance, noted by her attachment to the ribbons threaded in her hair.

    Moses- Moses has a religious connotation, Therefore, he represents the Russian Orthodox Church. Moses has loyalty to Mr. Jones, but will often partake in the animals’ gatherings. 

We then discussed the “I Have a Dream” document, & the persuasive elements of both Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, & Old Major’s Animal Revolution speech. 

Both speeches acknowledged the current state of affairs: who was obviously suffering & benefitting from the present union. For MLK, it was the segregation African Americans were facing before & during the time period of the Civil Rights Movement, under the overarching empowerment & “superiority” of white people. In Old Major’s case, it was the parasitic relationship in which the humans took & took from the animals, but never gave anything back.

To aid in the credibility of their speeches, & to further convince their audience, both MLK & Old Major utilize Ethos (Credibility & Reputation of the Speaker).  In Old Major’s speech, we see this in his frequent mention of his old age & “many years on the farm.” For MLK, it is the reference of “The Emancipation Proclamation,” previously given by Abraham Lincoln. Logos (Statistics or logical arguments to pique irrefutable evidence) were not very much used in the texts, but can be seen slightly in the reference to the obvious current state of the union in both speeches, ie: the suffering & unfairness. Pathos (captivating the audience by stirring emotion among it) was seen throughout both speeches when most of the convincing came from tugging at heartstrings or speaking with assertiveness for both MLK & Old Major, respectively. 

Reflection:  Today’s lesson compared the book we are currently reading, Animal Farm by George Orwell, to important historical moments. Although there is an obvious allegorical connection to the communist revolution in Soviet Russia, one can also see the influence of speeches by captivating leaders, as in this case, Martin Luther King Jr.. It is interesting to note how similar they are in actuality, as many speeches tend to be, by having a similar format to further call to action. It puts it into perspective of how even a tyrannical & evil leader can rise & gain followers with simply slight credibility, a logical statement or two, & a pull of the heartstrings or assertiveness.

Samantha Mekhael 

Blog #16- Michelle Lu- Period 2- 3/12/20

Aim: How can a comparison of speeches reflect the continued relevance of ideas held in society today?

Today, we spend the majority of the class period to finish the “What’s in a Name” and the “I Have a Dream Materials” assignment. During the last fifteen minutes of class, we went over those assignments. 

Assignment 1: “What’s In a Name”

Vocabulary:

• Proletariat - Workers or working-class people, regarded collectively (often used with reference to Marxism).

• Represented in “Animal Farm” by the character Boxer.

• Bourgeoisie - The middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes.

• Represented in “Animal Farm” by the character Molly.

Assignment 2: “I Have a Dream/Political Speeches”

Analyze:

“I Have A Dream” Speech

• Martin Luther King Jr. believed that white people are the ones benefiting under the current conditions. At this time, they were living in a racist nation where segregation took place, and the whites believed that they are “better” than the colored people. 

• According to Martin Luther King Jr., Black Americans are suffering under the current conditions. 

• Martin Luther King Jr. believed that better conditions meant equality for all, not just the whites. He hopes that one day, his children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

• Martin Luther King Jr. suggests that through peaceful protest could they achieve fairer conditions. He believes that by doing it in a non-violent fashion, they would be taken as more serious and appeal to more people. 

Old Major’s Speech

• Old Major believed that humans are the ones benefiting under the current condition. The humans are getting everything they want, while the animals gain nothing.

• According to Old Major, the animals on the farm were suffering under the current conditions. He started to give them harsh doses of reality, saying that after they serve their purposes for the humans, their only fate was to be killed.

• Old Major believed that under better conditions, the animals will run the farm as equals. 

• For Old Major, rebellions must occur in order to achieve fairer conditions.

Ethos - The ethical appeal. To convince an audience of the author's credibility or character.

Pathos - The emotional appeal. To persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions.

Logos - The appeal to logic. To convince an audience by use of logic or reason.

Reflection:

Today is a catch-up day. I learned how a name in stories could contain so many hidden messages and clues about that one character. I also learned how similar Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Old Major’s speech are. For example, they both want to bring equality and justice to their group of people. This goes on to show how much a book could correlate to real life. I learned it because there is a deeper meaning for everything in life, and it shows how books could literally have an indirect impact on our world. It teaches me to look harder and not to be so focused on the obvious. It will help me to better understand the hidden meanings and themes. Moving on, for every story I read, I will try to think outside the box and figure out how it relates to our surroundings and environment.

Blog #17 - Annie Liang - Period 7 - 2/12/20

March 11th, 2020

Annie Liang

Ms. Peterson 

Period 7

Aim: How can a comparison of speeches reflect the continued relevance of ideas held in society today?

    Today, the majority of class time was spent working on two assignments from Google Classroom with our groups. One of the assignments was the chart that we had to finish under the “What’s in a Name” classwork. In this chart we evaluate the effects of naming and how it helps shape the reader’s impression of the character. In particular, George Orwell created his characters with specific people in mind.

    For example, Mr. Jones is described as negligent and careless. He didn’t take care of the animals and resembled Tsar Nicholas the second who was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution.

    Old Major, on the other hand, rallies the other farm animals to unite together to take power from Mr. Jones into their own hands. He is a skillful orator that knows just how to incite anger and passion into the animals. He symbolizes the beginning of communism, most likely modeled after Marx and Lenin.

The following characters take on roles representing the different figures in the USSR society

    Clover is described to be a middle age horse with four foals. She is the motherly figure in this novel giving off the impression of caring. She is going to be the one that takes care of the other animals throughout the plot and supports the others.

    Boxer’s name takes a more literal stance as his name points to the literal career of a boxer. They are not the most intelligent and can endure pressure. He stands at 18 hands tall showing immense physical strength. He represents the working class of soviet society.

    Benjamin is a donkey that is old and stubborn. He is the oldest among the farmer animals and cares the least about treatment. He feels that it doesn’t really affect him so he represents the aged population or elderly. They don’t push for change as they feel they’re going to die soon anyway.

    Mollie represents the middle class or bourgeois. Her primary attribute is vanity as she tends to relate to humans the most. They plaited her hair and she liked bows and clothing. 

    Moses off the bat is a religious name. Therefore, he represents the Russian Orthodox Church. Orwell describes him as Mr. Jones’ special pet. For example, when Tsar Nicholas flees the church follows. Eventually the church returns but they were the tsar’s ally. 

Then we moved on to the next assignment where we compared the “I have a Dream” speech to Old Major’s speech.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Old Major both include five elements into their speeches. They first indicate who benefits and suffers from the current conditions. For Martin Luther King Jr., this was the white men that suppressed the blacks. Old Major states that the humans are benefiting from the system without any labor put in themselves. Of course, the ones suffering in both speeches are the people that the speakers represent. 

    Their method of gaining better conditions contrast at this point. King speaks of peaceful protests to gain their rights. These rights would be the ability to live freely just as their white counterparts do. Old Major, on the other hand, has a more violent approach. He rallies the animals to overthrow Mr. Jones and his family as their way of gaining control over themselves. He speaks of how they could run their farm themselves without needing to serve under the humans. They could be free and act as they please, which did resemble some of King’s hopes.

    Lastly, King and Old Major both use ethos, pathos, and logos to aid in spreading their message. Ethos relies on the reputation and credibility of the speaker. Old Major uses his reputation of an old and wise pig to gain the attention of the animals, while King recites part of Abraham Lincoln’s speech while standing in front of Lincoln’s memorial. Logos is the logical part of an argument that both speakers use to explain how their conditions could be better with their method of gaining power. Pathos relies on their orating skills. The way they deliver their message affects how well they captivate their audience. Good orators often have a magical effect on the crowd as it tends to be silent while they speak. This leads on to the second part where we began to analyze the different types of figurative language to see how they captivate their audience.

Reflection:

    In short, Orwell’s novel heavily uses figurative language to develop the plot. His way of naming cleverly alludes to different historical characters and figures. These different characters all point to Orwell’s stance and view of communism in the Soviet Union. His novel can be described as a satirical reference to the USSR as it criticizes them. Furthermore, words can be a very powerful tool as speeches have been used to incite revolutions and major changes in history. Leaders with significant orating skills are seen to incite passion and support for their cause with specific concepts such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Such leaders would include the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler. Overall, these speeches provide a key insight into how many leaders in history gained traction and followers.

Blog 18 - Andrew Shi - 3/12/2020 - PD 1

Andrew Shi 3-12-20 

PD 1 

Blog#18 

Freshman 2020

Aim: How does “Sailing from Troy” and “The Lotus Eaters” establish Odysseus’ role as a leader?

Characterization 

-method by which an author creates the personality and appearance of their character

Direct characterization: the author makes direct statements about the character (can be revealed through a narrator or through another character in the story). The author tells the reader what they want to know.

Indirect Characterization: indirectly characterization 

Steal

Speech: What does the character say?

Thoughts: What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings?

Effects: What is revealed through the character’s effect on other people? How do the characters feel or behave in reaction to the character?

Actions: What does the character do? How does the character behave?

Looks: What does the character look like? How does the character dress?

Student Reflection: Based on today’s lesson, we learned about what characterization is and the two different types, we learned about an acronym that we should use while reading the Odyssey. I learned about the types of characterization and STEAL and I learned it because when reading the Odyssey, we have to have an analysis of what the characters did that affect the plot of the story. I will then use these skills on making sure I can understand and annotate the story as I read.

Blog Post #18 Maya Lyatunovskiy P3 03/ 12/2020

Aim-  how can a comparison of speeches reflect the continued relevance of ideas held in society today

Today we cleaned up the work from yesterday and continued and finished analyzing from the Old Major’s speech as well as Martin Luther’s speech. 

Group team work: Today we analyzed the Martin Luther speech as well as analyzed these Spe aches by comparing the art in luther’s speech and the Old Major’s speech from Animal farm. Both motivational speakers held a great role in their societies and hel a very powerful influence over others by their persuasion of their words. 

Our work was plot into three parts. 

We began finishing up the first part; the allegories of the characters in animal park 

What’s in a Name?

Directions: An allegory usually gives characters names that suggest their qualities and the types of people or characters they might be.  The names are sometimes quite obvious: Faith, Temptation, Greed.  Sometimes they are more subtle: Goodman Brown, Beelzy (as in Beelzebub), Simon (as in Simon Peter).

Work collaboratively with your group to analyze the characters’ names, and their descriptions.  Use your findings to identify the qualities that seem to be suggested by the author, and see if you can ascertain what type of character they will be, or represent in the story and or allegorical significance from history.  Use Chapter 1 for assistance, and use Textual Evidence to support your explanations.  You have 15 Minutes to execute the task!

Animal Farm Character Names	Textual Evidence Character Qualities & Type of Character They Might Be, and Allegorical Significance they may hold
Mr. Jones	Mr Jones is portrayed as the enemy for the animals in that he is selfish and a lazy drunk. He barely feeds the animals, forgetting bout them often, and just keeping them around to make money or use them for food or labor.  “ Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.”
Old Major	Old major is an old horse who is very wise and well respected in his community of animals. He is portrayed as Lenin because although he doesn’t show exactly how to get everyone to rebel against the man kind, he motivates and inspires them to establish hatred along the men to succeed in what they want.  “ “ He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut.”
Clover	Clover is a mane who is gentle and who gave birth to four fouls and is reaching mid age. She is considered verbally kind and although she is skeptical about some ideas, she doesn’t show it because of how everyone else thinks.  “ Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.”
Boxer	Boxer is a mane who is very large and strong and carries on the group “ physically”. Boxer is not very intelligent but still holds respect.  “ Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together. A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.”
Benjamin	Benjamin is a donkey who seldom talks and usually makes nasty remarks about his life and how his life is worth nothing and that he lives too long. The allegorical significance that he holds represents the lack of care he has for future issues of society and his or anyone else’s life. He would rather be alone but still helps when it is needed  “ Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark--for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.”
Mollie	Mollie is very gullible and she likes the ribbon she wears, not understanding the real significance of things. Like Benjamin, she does not care what happens but unlike Benjamin, she desires happinesses and finds this in things like sugar or her own pleasures. She isn’t very intelligent but she follows with the group.  “ Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar. She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with”
Moses	Moses usually does not talk but when he does, he says things that seem unimaginable like a world far away where all animals are treated with respect, once they die. He represented a biblical figure since he inspires and shows the possibilities of reaching happiness and places that seem unreachable.  “All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door.”

Analyzing Political Speeches

PART I: Use this form to help compare the structure of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech with Old Major’s speech in Chapter One of Animal Farm.  While viewing the film, find “quotes” from Martin Luther King’s speech; that serve as appropriate examples and record them below.  After the viewing, you will work with your groups to complete Old Major’s speech. Remember to: Rephrase all questions as part of your answer!!!

Basic Structure	I Have a Dream	Old Major’s Speech
Describe the present situation According to the speaker, who’s benefiting under the current conditions?	Under Martin Luther King, the people of color are being benefited because thier motivation for equal rights, opportunities, and the civil disobedience against racial segregation is being supported by a huge crowd. HOwever, at this moment, when the situation is present, the whites have more power in government, employment, and economics, while the people of color struggle.	Old Major’s speech benefits the animals but has more aggression against the humans. They believe that the animals are in harsh labor conditions under humans and want the human race to end to prevent any harm and interference with freedom of the animals.
Prove unfairness According to the speaker, who’s suffering under current conditions?	Under these conditions , the people of color are suffering under the racial segregation.	Under these conditions, the animals suffer from poor labor conditions and the inequalities and starvation of the animals under human control.
Provide a vision of a better way What would conditions be like if the conditions were fairer than they are now?	If the conditions were fairer, All people would be treated equally, and civil disobedience would not be necessary for society. ALL people would have equal opportunity and rights	If conditions were better, the animals would not starve and would have breaks to recast form the labor while also benefiting from the crops and baggage that they carry and would get a percentage of that.
Call for Action What must be done to achieve fairer conditions?	To achieve fairer conditions, all of the people should reach out to help give complete equal rights and opportunities. Protests, strikes, and other motivational speeches should be made to exclaim why it is important for society to be treated with equal respect and protection.	To achieve fairer conditions, the animals believe they need to rebel against humans and establish a powerful animal race which is organized and strong.
Ethos, Pathos & Logos Find “1” example of each from the speech.	” the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” - pathos   “ There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. “- ethos  “Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:” - logos	But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?- logos  “Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade.” - ethos  “The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement. Almost before Major had reached the end, they had begun singing it for themselves.”- pathos

Reflection -  As seen in Martin Luther’s speech “ I have a dream” and the Old Major’s speech in an animal farm, have many similarities in its way of persuasion and its way of speaking to motivate and inspire others. In both speeches, ethos, pathos , logos, anaphoria, and other literary devices are used similarly in both statements. This activity was given to us to show us how similar animal farm is to many historical events such as different speeches. Also, we completed and analyzed the activity “ What’s in a name “, to analyze all the characters presents in chapter 1 of animal farm. This activity widened our knowledge and found different analogies for the characters, present during Karl Marx’s time. To answer the name, the relevance of ideas now are still being contributed and spread through a variety of motivational speeches, as times in history. This shows how important it is to understand why speeches are brought upon due to motivations which enable societies to stand up and rebel.