Figurative Language - With a Little Help From My Friends

Metaphor: a form of figurative language that compares two unlike things.

Example: Life is a roller coaster.

Simile: a form of figurative language

Example: This homework is a piece of cake!

Hyperbole: a form of figurative language that over exaggerates something to get the point across.

Example: I was so hungry I could eat a whole horse.

Quote:

Type of Figurative Language:

Explain the effect that each use of figurative language has on the story/idea:

My life became one long running Oprah show, minus the free luxury accommodations in Chicago, and Oprah (paragraph 1).	Metaphor	This metaphor emphasizes how Dumas’ life is like an Oprah show. She’s comparing her life to the Oprah show which is full of action minus the “free luxury accommodations.”
I tried my best to be a worthy representative of my homeland, but, like a Hollywood celebrity relentlessly pursued by paparazzi, I sometimes got tired of the questions (paragraph 9).	Simile	This simile to a Hollywood celebrity emphasizes how people were interested in her life. It really shows how ignorant the Americans were. They thought that they traveled on camels, had no electricity, and asked about the Sahara. She felt like a celebrity with all the attention and questions but at some point, she was sick of the attention.
This  avalanche of kindness did not make our impending departure any easier (paragraph 16).	Hyperbole	This hyperbole exaggerates how hard it would be to leave the US, after how kind the Americans were to Dumas and her family. She uses the word “avalanche” because it means an “overwhelming quantity” of kindness.
If someone had been able to encapsulate the kindness of the second-graders in pill form, the pills would undoubtedly put many war correspondents out of business (paragraph 15).	Metaphor	This really explains how kind the second-graders were towards Dumas. The author uses the phrase “undoubtedly put many war correspondents out of business.” to exaggerate how the students behaved towards one another.

Examining Context - With a Little Help From My Friends

Category:

Details from the Story that explain the following aspects of the social/historical context:

Quotes:

Explanation to support an insight about America, American identity, and/or what it means to be an American immigrant:

Politics	After the Iranian Revolution, Iranians were thought of in a negative way. This caused Americans to treat immigrants from Iran poorly.	“We remember the kindness more than ever, knowing that our relatives who immigrated to this country after the Iranian Revolution did not encounter the same revolution.”	Americans treated the Iranians differently after the Iranian Revolution. Before the Revolution, Americans were kind to take care of them, just like Damas. This explains how Americans can be unfair and unkind to others that are not like them.
Traditions	There was a Halloween parade and one of the parents knew that Iranians didn’t celebrate Halloween so they brought one.	“On Halloween, one family brought over a costume, knowing that I would surely be the only kid in the Halloween parade without one.”	This is an example on how this family had to adopt new traditions such as celebrating Halloween. They probably have traditions as well, but Americans celebrate this through parades, trick-o-treating, and candy.
Food	The foods that they ate in Iran were much different than in the US. For example, some foods that might seem normal in Iran were gross to Americans. Some Iranians never had any food that Americans ate and the same thing goes for Americans.	“Most people in Whittier did not know about the famous caviar and once we explained what it was, they’d scrunch up their faces. ‘Fish eggs?’ they would say. ‘Gross.’”	Damas uses this example to show how these immigrants had to adjust to American culture. Iranians were used to eating things like fish eggs which are gross to Americans. It’s all about what kind of culture people grow up with. Damas has to get used to America as well. They begin to eat different food like traditional American meals and snacks like oreos or peanut butter cookies.
Values/ Beliefs	In the story, one of the boys that went to Dumas’ school kept asking about the camels in Iran. He was probably mistaking Iran for another country because they didn’t own any camels. He was disappointed to hear that. He also asked her about the tents they lived, access to electricity, and the Sahara.	“None of the kids in Whittier, a city an hour outside Los Angeles , ever asked me about geography. They wanted to know about more important things, such as camels.”	This proves how ignorant  Americans can be. Many other countries could assume all Americans are ignorant, just like how we assume all Islamic people are terrorists. Labeling people isn’t right, but that’s what Americans do. When the boy relates Iran with camels, no electricity, and the Sahara, he is stereotyping Iran.
Geography	Dumas and her family understood their Geography, and where they live but no one else understood what they were talking about.	“I had to learn the shape of Iran, and the location of its capital… we shared borders with Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and the USSR.”	Being an immigrant and understanding the geography of the U.S was a great advantage. It allowed them to understand their culture, even though they didn't live there. Once Damas and her family learned that no Americans knew where they lived, they were confused on how ignorant they were. They thought it was weird. She had lived there all their life thinking that people knew where Iran was and it's culture.

Individual Post-Current Events-Morgan Soto

A place that shares people’s circumstances is the “Love Lock Bridge.” This symbol of commitment begins when a couple falls in love, gets married or starts dating. The couple then buys a lock and key, writes their initials on it, lock it on the bridge, and throw the key in the water. Many people would visit the bridge with their lover to proclaim their love with the lock. People from around the world visit Paris for the bridge. It’s attraction has caused many people to buy locks.

It is believed to have originated in China. The tradition in China was thought to be after two got married to lock a lock on a fence or gate and throw away the keys. It symbolically means that they are locking their love forever. A lot of people go to the bridge to admire how many have fallen in love, or want to proclaim to their love. People also like to wonder how many years ago they were put there and how long they will be there. It helped people connect more emotionally than physically. It helped people understand what other people are experiencing.

Individual Post - Current Events - Tania Castillo

In the story "The Writing on the Wall"  it explains how the immigrants wrote on the walls to express their thoughts and feeling as a way to connect through time and distance, and today there is a movie theater in Palm Valley, Arizona. To elaborate, in the woman's bathroom throughout the stalls there are some anonymous teenage girls who go in the stalls to write out their problems in life that they have and they sometimes go in there to ask for some sort of help or to just express their feelings and thoughts. The thing is no one really knows who started all of this or when it had started. Personally I think that it has helped girls get through their problems in life because other girls go in and give them good advice and sometimes they write a little lecture to give them the positive and negative outcomes of their next move or on the previous person's advice.
Sometimes people go back in there to see if the anonymous person had worked out their problems in life or if they are still asking for help. I wouldn't say this would change the world but I would say that it will change they way these anonymous teenage girls who write on the girls bathroom stalls think about themselves  and the way they should view the world that they live in. There are three types of people when it comes down to this, there are the ones who spill out all there issues in life, there's the ones that help them out and write back, and then there are the ones who just decides to have nothing to deal with it and do their business.

Individual Post - Current Events - Jazmine Ramirez

In the text “The Writing on the Wall” it is saying that how many people have thoughts and feeling on are based on anything and the is places that will let people communicate in that way and today there are many ways of this happening. This can relate to a lot of people who were in middle school and used textbooks. You see where i’m going with this? I want you to think about how people would mess around or communicate in school. A lot of kids would write in the textbooks to where other people can see and write back. Kids would play around sending you page to page and in the end writing, “ I wasted your time, have a nice day :) !!”. Other examples of more communicating is maybe asking a question and people responding to that question and it just keeps going in circles.

    Many many kids follow this “method”. I'm not sure when it started but it was probably brought up out of curiosity. It is such an easy way of talking to people in class and many times I have done this.What brings people to reach out in this form is anything. There is questions asked and people really are some what interested in reading them and seeing what other people wrote. If you think to yourself you might have done the same thing! But in a way this is very commutative and is followed many people.

Individual Post - Current Events - Amy Whitler

People connect with others through social media, journals, art, and so on. One way people connect is through music. Man has always made music in some way through rhythms, beats, chords, and lyrics. Music can express emotion, teach history, comment on social issues. For example, currently there are many songs about the “black lives matter” movement. Artists can use music to express themselves as well as their opinions or experiences. It gives people a voice. Music can express individuality as well as a whole generation. A lot of music has been written about war, for example. Generally, people enjoy listening to music for entertainment but it can also be used to help express what they are going through. Overall, it helps people feel less alone.

Most people listen to music because it relaxes them but others might listen to the lyrics and really focus on what that artist was trying to point out. For example, the song “Roar” by Katy Perry was written to demonstrate how she was pushed around but then realized she shouldn’t allow that and made herself and her opinions be heard. This encourages others to feel the same way, strong and in control. She uses sound devices that help get her point across like “roar, louder, louder than a lion”(metaphor). The tone is sad in the beginning but then it turns inspiring and powerful. This song has become popular and kids that might be going through the same thing might listen to this song and feel less isolated knowing that someone else has had the same experience.

Music revolutionized human connection because it has become so popular and most everyone listens to music. Music has always been around but when technology was invented like the radio, it brought people together where it became a shared experience. Throughout time, music became more popular and more ways to share music was created. In some restaurants, people are allowed to sing their songs or any song that is important to them. This allows regular people that aren't in the music industry to communicate with others through music. Just like the blog written by Camille Dungy, others were able to put the poems to use.

Author's Style: Word Choice- The Writing on the Wall

• Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

In my own words, alliteration is using several words in a row that start with the same consonants.

Example~ Sally sells seashells on the seashore.

• Assonance: rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words.

In my own words, assonance is a repeating vowel sound in the middle of the words but all the words begin with a different letter.

Example~ “Men sell the wedding bells.”

• Consonance:  repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase.

In my own words, consonance is the same sounds at the end of a word.

Example~ cheer, beer, sent, went

• Mood:  a literary element that gives off certain feelings or vibes to readers through words and descriptions.

In my own words, the mood is how the story makes you feel personally after reading the story.

Example~ loneliness, unfulfilled, depressed, jubilant.

• Tone:  an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience through the choice of words.  The tone can be formal, informal, serious, comical, sarcastic, sad, and cheerful or any other attitudes.

In my own words, the tone is how the writer addresses the story which influences how the reader will comprehend it.

Example~ scared, anxious, tired, positive or negative



Examples of Sound Devices from the Story:

• An example of alliteration is shown in the story when it says,” “The Chinese immigrants, in particular, raised with a tradition of public poetry, composed carefully crafted verses that drew on Classical traditions, forms, and allusions.” or  “Scholars are researching the poems, and people and poets like me, who need to believe in the power of poetry to speak beyond the here and now, can stand in front of those walls and understand the power of poetry; to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.”

• An example of assonance is showing in paragraph 3 when it says, “Feeding on the wind and sleeping on dew, I tasted hardships.”

• An example of consonance in the story is when it says, “Likely separated from friends and family by thousands of miles and piles of bureaucracy, these writings turned to the ancient tradition of public poetry to reconstruct their sense of self.”

• The mood of the story is emotional and sympathetic.The use of sound devices helps influence how the reader feels after reading the story. It really highlights the difficulties of immigrating to America. For example, the quote used for the example of assonance focuses on the challenges immigrants would be facing. While I was reading the story, I felt so bad for the immigrants. It also makes me emotional to know that I have a place to live everyday with my family and friends.

• The tone of this story is very serious. The author has a strong opinion on the hardships of immigration so she shows no signs of silliness. The use of sound devices helps with the tone of the story as well. The example of consonance that I pulled from the story showed how being “miles and piles” from your family and friends was no laughing matter.