‘Honesty is the best policy’ means that it is always to be honest even if you have done something wrong. In the folktale of ‘The Blue Rose’, the gardener’s son chooses to be honest not only to the others but also to himself that there is no blue rose anywhere. Instead of making up one, he uses his wisdom to make the white rose becomes blue by showing the Princess the rose in a blue room at sunset. I think the gardener’s son is courageous and admirable for being honest.
To be honest, one has to have courage and it reveals our characters. It is easier to be honest than telling a thousand lies to hide one act of dishonesty and create more and more troubles for oneself. Honesty is at the heart of who we are and what we believe in. It is a choice and we make it each day. The choice is ours, either to stand with dignity or to lower ourselves to standards of dishonesty and fall.
This is not a story simply about shooting an elephant but again it involves prejudice, neither against African nor black American, but the natives in Burma, the conflicts between the east and the west during the colonial ages.
The natives of Burma have no freedom and are in inferior status in their own country because of British colonization. They are humiliated for being occupied, humiliated by British immoral and unethical attitude. Therefore they resent the presence of British and there is a constant tension between the natives and the British.
So the main themes for the essay are like prejudice, resentment and freedom.
I think the narrator faces an internal conflict. He could choose not to shoot the elephant and walked away. But he has no courage to go against the will of the crowd. Instead of choosing honour, he chose to go against his conscience. Too often the same kind of situation of choosing between right and wrong happens in our society.
Here is a link to the text of “Shooting An Elephant” of George Orwell with a very thorough analysis which can be used in the classroom. And check out this link which consists of worksheets of a graphic organizer and activities related to “Shooting An Elephant”.
I would like to share this "The Elephant Song" with you. It's by Kamahl. The lyric of the song is as below.
Tell me said the elephant
Tell me brothers if you can
Why all the world is full of creatures
Yet we grow in fear of man
Tell me said the elephant
tell me why this has to be
we have to run from man and hunter
never safe and never free
people kill without regret
although they fly by jumbo-jet
let the word all may remember
let the children not forget.
Gentle is the elephant
Pulling loads and everything
we love to hear the children laughing
when we,re in the circus-ring
Happy was the elephant
Happy was his jungle life
and then they came, the cruel hunters
with their rifle and their knives
Listen, please listen, said the elephant
if we want the world we know, to stay alive
Then man and beast, we must work together
And together we will survive
Listen said the elephant
It is conservation time
So take the warning when we trumpet
For the future of mankind
‘Robben Island: The Dark Years’ was written when Nelson Mandela was convicted the second time with life time prison where he and other convicts were transferred to Robben Island and became the world’s most famous political prisoner. This autobiography is definitely not a light-hearted one.
When he talked to the warder, his tone wasn’t with hatred though the warder was of different colour and treated him with lousy manner. Rather, he used wise words and made the warder had no point of argument about the long pants. At this point, I learn that it is not the fierceness and the loudness of voice that make a point but wisdom.
I particularly like the part when he jumped up to help Kathy with the wheelbarrow. It shows that his heart is at the right place and that’s what leads him on this struggling destiny. The other part that I like is when he worked cooperatively with his other friends to fulfill the duty of filling the big bucket with gravels. Their perseverance reminds me of a Chinese proverb, ‘the man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.’
His patient, his sense of struggling, fighting and declining to surrender is the spirit that I should learn when dealing with difficulties in life.
“I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther
King is recognized as one of the best speeches ever given. It was delivered at
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on the 28th of August in
1963 and more than 200,000 people witnessed the inspirational speech.
The purpose
of the speech was to encourage the enactment of change amongst the American
people, and government, in relation to their improper views towards different
races or ethnic groups in their society. In my opinion, this speech can be used
in the classroom to promote unity among multiracial nation in Malaysia. It is
mostly true that all people are created equal and it should be the case not
only for now but for all time, not only in Malaysia but the entire human race.
Unfortunately,
he was assassinated at the age of 39 and his last speech was ‘I’ve Been To The
Mountaintop’. His assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than
100 cities.
Compared
to King’s dream, my dream seems selfish. My dreams are all about what I want
and what I wish, related to my family and friends. The highness of spirit in what
he fought for is the role model spirit to me, to us.
This is the song that King requested a musician named Ben Branch to play in a meeting on the night he was killed.
Actually, this novel, The Curse
written by Lee Su An, is the novel I use for script writing for the subject of
Theater In TESL. Since I love the story, so I would like to keep it in my blog.
See, “MY BLOG”, the sense of ownership. (Giggles…)
This novel is
in Form 5 English syllabus. The main theme of the story is love, parental love,
forbidden love and unrequited love. Both Saleh Abdullah and his wife love Madhuri
dearly like their own biological child indicates parental love. Mohd. Asraf and
Madhuri secretly loves each other that eventually led to Madhuri’s death is
forbidden love. While unrequited love is Azreen had a crush on Mohd. Asraf
during school days.
There are some other themes but I want to focus and talk about the theme
of love only. Love is all around us and it is a force of nature. It happens to
anyone without any notifications, like I fell in love with my children right at
the moment I learn that I conceived them. There are different types of love.
Security love can be described as the type of love parents have for their
children. Friendship love is between friends. Romantic love goes to all lovers
on earth. And unconditional love is the kind which cannot be destroyed and this
love overcomes everything. What do you think it is?
When you don’t love, the word ‘love’ is still there. See? Love is a topic
that you can never place a full stop for it.
I have chosen Roald Dahl’s “Lamb To The Slaughter” to do my
position paper. I have read the story before and I read it for more than a few
times (certain parts) to try to discover the thesis statement I can draw from
it. So I misunderstood and thought that to write a position paper is as if I’m
Mary’s attorney. Not attorney then. It is just me defending my belief about the
story and my belief is that Mary Maloney is not as weak as she seems.
My heart fell out for Mary Maloney each time I read to the
part where her husband told her that he’s having an affair and wanted a
divorce. For, me too, is a mother, and just imagine how it feels when your
husband declares a divorce while you are six months pregnant with his child! Mary
Maloney is doing herself a favor by killing her husband, not only for herself
but for her soon-coming child good too. She is losing her husband by hook or by
crook, so better lose him with dignity. (sounds cruel?) I’m not encouraging
people to kill their unfaithful spouses, but if I look from Mary’s perspective,
since she has killed him and he’s dead, so better look at the bright side and look
forward. She gets to inherit her husband’s property and she managed to get away
from the law which will bring her a peaceful life with her baby in the future.
I doubt if a part of her will always feel guilty for killing her husband. She’s
such a strong woman, both mentally and emotionally.
The language used for Book 1 of
Malory’s Arthurian legend “Le Mort d’Athur” in the module is archaic and I do
not quite understand it until I get the modern English version of the story
from the internet. So it’s The Legend of King Arthur and it is about the rape
of Igraine by King Uther. Then, King Arthur is born, fostered by Sir Ector,
draws the sword from the stone and his coronation.
The main characters in the legends
are King Arthur, Uther Pendragon, Igraine, Merlin the magician, Sir Ector and
Sir Kay.
Uther
Pendragon and Igraine are King Arthur’s parents. Sir Ector is King Arthur’s
foster father and Sir Kay is Sir Ector’s son and therefore he is King Arthur’s
foster brother. Merlin the magician was the one who magically made Uther assume
the likeness of Igraine’s husband, in disguise, Uther visited Igraine and
became Arthur’s father.
Legends
are valuable in teaching and learning as they are usually structures
chronologically making them easy to follow and understand. Legends also provide
a safe place for students to experience fear, hope and magic. They can be used
to enhance many skills such as listening and oral comprehension (listen to the
story and demonstrate their meaning through texts, pictures or animations),
reading (practice reading aloud, drama or spoken interpretation of text) and writing
(fundamental themes relevant for all kinds of readers).
Some of
the Malaysian legends that I can use in literature classes are like “Legends of
Mahsuri” and “The Origin of Malacca”. Click the links below to check out the
stories.
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