MichelleSiard: November 2009 Archives

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I was very surprised to find out how different the book was from the movie. I have to say the book is better than the movie.

One of the things I first noticed was, that when the Wicked Witch of the West found out about Dorothy and her friends, she sent wolves, crows, and bees. The similarity between them was the number of them, which was 40. There may be no huge significance there, but it still grabbed my attention, in that there was a pattern where I least expected it.

One of my favorite quotes from this book was by the winged monkeys, "We dare not harm this little girl," he said to them, "for she is protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the Power of Evil. All we can do is carry her to the castle of the wicked witch and leave her there." Which made me realize that they aren't the bad guys, and are actually very helpful, making them my favorite characters. This also shows the classic Good overcoming Evil. Since Dorothy was kissed by the good witch, the evil witch couldn't hurt her, therefore causing her, and evil to fail.

My question is, why is the Power of Good, and the Power of Evil capitalized?

Something that dissapoints me however, is that the phrase, I'm melting, I'm melting spoken by the Wicked Witch of the West was never in the book. I always loved when she said that in the movie. It was funny. In the book however, alls she said was that she will be melting in a moment, and to watch out. A bit of a let down.

I was also annoyed with chapter 16: The Magic of the Great Humbug. Mostly because, the scarecrow, tinman, and lion went on to say how smart they were since the didn't doubt Oz, when in fact they were just stupid. Yes, Oz granted there wishes, but he was able to because of how gulible they were. Alls he did was put mush in the scarecrow's head, put a silk heart filled with dust in the tinman'd chest, and make the lion drink some unknown substance. He didn't do anything, but make them believe he was a true wizard, because they were gulible and stupid.

I really enjoyed the book, way better than the movie, which always confused me up until a few years ago. The book was easier for me to understand, even if that sounds odd. I think the book did a better job off portraying the importance of "There's No Place Like Home!" than the movie. However, the one thing I like about the movie......I'm melting, I'm melting!

Fosters, Chapter 25: Don't Read With Your Eyes

Don't read with your eyes, but rather with the eyes of those who lived when the story was written, or those in the story. Easier said than done. Why? Well because everybody wants their opinion to be right. But also because it depends on the story and how it's written. If it's interesting and attentiongrabbing then it's easier to look at from different point of views, and your better able to understand and appreciate the other views, seen from other eyes. However, if its boring, then you tend to miss crucial information.By reading from other point of views and seeing things through other people's eyes, you will better understand whats going on and why people act a certain way. Besides, it's more entertaining view a story in several different ways, rather than just your own. Your eyes may be clouded over with mundane things you normally wouldn't look twice at. I mean really, whats so interesting about celery, apples, and oranges? Well to figure that out , you need to look through the eyes of others.

Fosters, Chapter 26: Is He Serious? And Other Ironies:

"Are you Serious?" is one of my favorite lines in a story. Not always worded the same way, but with the meaning. I always want to scream at the characters who say this, "Of course they are, why else would they be saying it?" Then I have to back up and remind myself it's just a story and laugh at myself. The more I think about it, I begin to think, maybe it's a trick,irony, or something else. I always enjoy when a main character is told to do something, but they don't beacause they don't take it seriously. talk about wanting to scream, and that certainly does make me want to scream. But maybe the other reason they don't listen, apart from being stupid sometimes, is because something ironic is meant to happen. Still, it's annoying to wait for it to all play out for the character, when you as the audiance can already see what's going to take place. My biggest question is how do you know when its irony? In this chapter it says to just listen. Once again, easier said than done. 

   In the "Adventures of huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain has readers view Afro-Americans as superstitous and lazy. He hadthem being viewed as how they were thought to be or maybe how they were supposed to be and how they were stereotyped. Even though Twain uses the correct perception of how they were viewed, he adds his own twist. Twain has a strategy of doing this. He elaborates the racial stereotype in order to undermine them throughout the story. For example, with Jim, Twain portrays Jim as engaging in superstitous behavior, like all Afro-Americans do, but then contradicts himself by showing Jim as compassionate, shrewd, thoughtful, self-sacrificing, and wise. Throughout the story Twain undermines the stereotype put on Afro-Americans by elaborating on them, and then contradicting himself over and over again.