These last weeks we have been concentrating on finalising a presentation in our literary circle groups. My group, Afonso, Amilcar, Faustina and I. As we have been focusing on the “essay question” we choose at the beginning: “Symbols can help a writer convey ideas that develop characters, establish atmosphere, etc. To what effects were symbols employed in The Handmaid’s Tale.” This is a question that caught our eye, as symbols are used all throughout the Handmaids tale. However We were given a list of symbols to focus on Religious references,Names.Colours: Red, Red shoes, the Eyes, Eggs, Blood, Mirror and differebt Flowers. We evaluted each of symbols locating qutoes and analising the meanibg of the symbols and they were used to portray a deeper meaning and help emphazize themes and/or ideas. For the presentation we each had a symbol to analyze with Amilcar being an exception as he was doing the introduction and conclusion.The symbol I choose was Eggs. Throught the Handmaids eggs are symbols used to represent the purpose of women in Gilead. They are used to portray childbirth,fertility,rebirth and real eggs inside of women. Due to the standards men have set in Gilead eggs are now seen as a holy symbol for women in Gilead. As they await for their eggs. I looked for many qutoes where eggs are mentioned and had to analyze what the egg was representing in the certain qutoe. Afonso had the symbol of flowers while faustina had color. All 3 of these symbols were choosen from the list due to them all representing Fertility,Birth and Inequality throughout the Handmaids tale.

Each of us had to provide a minimum of 2 slides for our symbols. For flowers Afonso used the different types of flowers throughout the Handmaids tale, for example : Tulips and blue flowers. While Faustina used colors she analyzed the colors red and white. When it came to my symbol(eggs) there wasnt different types of eggs or anything like that. Eggs were a symbol used throughout the book but they were used in different parts to represent different ideas. I disscused how Eggs are a symbol used to represernt 3 different things throughout the book. The first being fertility womens purpose in Gilead. The second was birth and rebirth the same idea an Egg represents in christianity. The third and final one being the people in Gilead. I used quetoes for all 3 of these ideas and I went into detail analyzing the qutoe.

Once we had each found quotes for our symbols and analyzed/broke them down them we were able to make the presentation slide by slide as a team. This helped me with my collaborative skills as we were all adding in more and more ideas/text as we were making the presentation and giving each other feedback.

In conclusion The team work was very beneficial. We were able to work together analyzing quotes and pieces from the book to decipher the meanings of different symbols and when it was time to present to the class we were ready and we had everything we needed. We were even able to set a order to go in so we can lay out points for each other throughout the presentation

In the last two classes we had 2 debates. In the first class I was part of the debate as it was my team and I against another team. My teams stance in the debate was how abortion should be consider morally wrong, while the other team had the opposite stand being abortion is should not be considered morally wrong. Everyone in my group had different research to do, I specifically had to research from a religious point of view. I looked at the 2 main religions of the world today: islam and Christianity having more than 3 billion followers which almost around 50% of the world. I researched why abortion is considered wrong in these religions and I had to justify these statements with quotes from the holy bible and the Quran which explained how being pregnant was gods gift and creation and only god himself had the right to . During the debate everyone had different roles, our team captain was Afonso while I was the second speaker. Being second speaker meant that I went second in my group. After our first speaker Faustina had gone it was now my turn. I discussed how from a religious point of view abortion was considered morally wrong and when I was told that “not everyone follows religon or bases their morals on religon” I replied by saying that “well almost more than 3 billion people do which is the majority of the world” i then proceeded to justify my points using many quotes I found from the holy bible and Quran. In conclusion I felt like my team did really well we were able to provide very valid points to our argument and backed up each point with sufficient evidence. I specifically was able to justify how abortion is morally wrong from a religious islamic and Christian point of view. We had a lot of people that sided with us due to our argument although they stated that they were against our stand before the debate which I saw as a successful debate. In the second debate where there were 2 teams one side stood for fetus having rights while the other side opposed. At the begging of the debate I saw myself siding with the side that discussed how fetuses deserved rights but as the other team went into detail and discussed that the right of the women carrying the fetus are more important than the right of a human that isn’t even alive yet, this persuaded me to the opposing side which I never would have saw happening. This is why I enjoyed the debates I was able to see all of the points of views on these different controversial topics, as we discussed the woman’s point of view which is highly forgotten when mentioning abortion today and more importantly we talked about the outside factors that are also never mentioned, these included the woman’s situation of obtaining the baby(rape, incest and etc) or her financial status which will affect the baby’s living style. The main point of this whole debate was to be able to relate it to the handmaids tale.

I was able to see a similarity relating to the handmaids tale in comparison to our debates. The first relation I was able to see was how women’s rights were being opressed by men. In the handmaids tale women do not poscess any rights as men decide what they can and cannot do. During the debate we discussed the passing of abortion being illegal in countries and states. These laws were being passed by men. In most of these countries it was based on religon just like Gilead where abortion was considered murder. Men were then again telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodys.

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A political cartoon, a type of editorial cartoon, is a graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist’s opinion.A political cartoon is used in order to allow the public to see what the other side of politics are like. In class, we investigated the following 4 different political cartoons in the image above:

The first political cartoon (top right) was made by Nick Anderson it is based off of a comment made by Donald Trump to Billy Bush back in 2005. These comments were said thinking that conversation was private but Donald trump mic was on therefore causing the comments to be recorded. The comments were released during his presidency run in 2016. The comment was: “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.” Using this political cartoon, the artists is trying to express how when Donald Trump becomes president, he will abuse his power more specifically with women.

The second political cartoon (top left) was made by Adam Zyglis and it shows Donald Trump with an elephant in a suit that is representing the republican party, and they are both walking away from a statue of Lady Justice. The statue has hand prints on it which match the elephants and Donald trump’s hands. A speech bubble is seen saying “When you’re a star they let you do it”. This is a reference to what he said in 2005: “”When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” This political cartoon is sending a message to its audience of about the abuse of power by Donald Trump his political party which is the republican party which in this political cartoon is seen through the vandalism of Lady Justice statue which represents the legal system.

The third political cartoon (bottom right) is called “Young Lady Here to See You, Mr. Weinstein”, and was drawn by Bruce MacKinnon. This cartoon is a reference to the Weinstein sexual abuse allegations. Due to all of the allegations Weinsteins career came to and end as he was fired from the academy of motion picture arts. A dozen of women accused Weinstein of rape sexual assault and sexual harassment over a period of 30 years. Bruce Mackinnon use symbolism throughout this cartoon to convey his message he uses Lady Justice to symbolize the “Justice system”and how it comes knocking down through the door to come get Mr. Weinstein for the consequences he’s been avoiding for the past 30 years

The fourth and final political cartoon (Bottom left) “Assault of Lady Justice” was made by Bruce mackinnon on the 26th of september 2018 which was published in different newspapers including The Chronicle Herald Which is best known for reporting news that detail controversial stories surrounding celebrities or people of power. Bruce mackinnon created this in regard to the Brett Kavanaugh’s case. Brett Kavanaugh is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States he was accused by two women of sexual misconduct, he was later found innocent of the allegations. Bruce mackinnon uses labeling and symbolism in order to inform his audience how Brett and any man  with power is able to his power to escape justice henceforth naming it “Assault of Lady Justice”. 

As I previously said my group and I have been reading the book the Handmaid’s tale my group and I agree on how many chapters or pages to read and once we’ve read it we are all tasked with different jobs which are; summarising,clarifying,predicting and my favorite questioning. I started off with summarising, my task was to summarise the first hundred pages of the book. Once I completed my task and the rest of the people in my group completed theirs we would have a discussion. I would read what i’ve summarised to my group and everyone would read their own task.The first literary circle I was tasked with summarising so I summarise the first 100 pages which were from chapter 1-16 in the circle I discussed the main events that took place throughout each chapter. Since it was the first literary circle we had done we all had a ton of questions The first literary circle I was tasked with summarising so I summarised the first 100 pages which were from chapter 1-16 in the circle I discussed the main events that took place throughout each chapter. Since it was the first literary circle we had done we all had a ton of questions .

I have completed the paper 1 assessment which was the analysing of non-literary techniques. We knew that the options that we would have on the practice were going to be one of the political cartoons we’d done in class. In preparation for the test I went over the all the political cartoons we had previously done in class and I revised the techniques or devices the used in throughout making the political cartoon. We had learned the context behind these cartoons and the background information regarding them, so I thought it was only right to imagine that we will have to make connections with the context and the techniques used. I studied different techniques from the list that we had in class I but i tented to focu on Irony,symbolism and labeling as those techniques were frequently used more than any other ones.

The actual assessment went decently. I was given an option between two cartoons one of them my group and I had already done in class so I chose that particular cartoon. Before beginning I took some time to plan what I was going to say, how i was gonna say and basically planning the overall structure of my intro,body and conclusion before writing so that I could be able to write without stopping every second in order to think what I was going. I was told by my teacher that my writing was somewhat good but it was still a bit messy as the structure wasn’t good. I think that the reason for this was the fact that as im writing i began to have new ideas and tend to restructure what I was originally going to say. A good example would be my introduction which my teacher asked me to redo since it wasn’t the best. I think I was able to do a good job at providing background information and context, relating to what the political cartoon was originally talking about/inspired by and what was ludy justice what does she represent my teacher said I did a good job at that. My greatest mistake was the misinterpretation of summarising and labeling as I switched the two and that was due to them being very similar. I feel like I was still able to do a good job summarising my work at the end. I can improve by being more direct with my work and being able to keep my reader focused rather than jumping from place to place I also could improve my structure which would make it easier to read my work.

For homework in class we have been reading the book the handmaid’s tale. Up until now my group and I have read 200 pages and every 100 pages we read every person in the literary circle has a certain task to complete like: Summarising,clarifying,predicting and my favorite questioning.

Ive really been enjoying the book as it has a different story than anything i’ve ever read as I tend to read a’lot of science fiction, this book has paved a new way for me to start reading a genre of books. The book itself I’m also beginning to watch the tv series in order to get a better understanding of everything going on. I think it highlights major points or problems in today’s world that a lot of us go through. For example I found the book to highlight gender inequality and how women are considered objects. In Gilead, women are categorized into classes based on their relationship to men or usefulness to men. If you’re lucky, you’d be a “wife” in Gilead which would be the best thing a women could hope for. I think that this highlights the sexism and inequality women face everyday as a lot of women are considered to only be here to serve men which is completely wrong and sad to think of. Another major topic that the book highlights is racism. The book shows how in gilead people of color are disposed. Black people who are called “Children of Ham” in the novel have been relocated to settlements called the national homelands in the Midwest away from anyone else. The book highlights many more topics but these are the main ones I could find.

The political cartoon “Assault of Lady Justice” was made by Bruce mackinnon on the 26th of september 2018 which was published in different newspapers including The Chronicle Herald Which is best known for reporting news that detail controversial stories surrounding celebrities or people of power. Bruce mackinnon created this in regard to the Brett Kavanaugh’s case. Brett Kavanuagh is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States he was accused by two women of sexual misconduct, he was later found innocent of the allegations. Bruce mackinnion uses labeling and symbolism in order to inform his audience how Brett and any man  with power is able to his power to escape justice henceforth naming it “Assault of Lady Justice”. 

The following image is one of the political cartoons we analyze in class(the first one actually). This cartoon is called assault on lady justice since as you can see the women being assaulted is lady justice.The following political cartoon was made in order to spread awareness about the abuse of power by members of the republican party. As you can see in the image a women is being pinned down by a man from the republican party we know hes associated with the republican party because of the symbols on his sleeves as they represent the party itself. We also know that that is lady of justice because of the scale in the background and the blind found wrapped around her eyes. This cartoon is very powerful because lady justice represents balance equality and most importantly justice and a man from the republican party (which is the current party of the president) is a something very powerful showing the american people how balance has been lost. This comic is aimed for everybody so everyone can see the inequality happening but more specifically it’s aimed for americans and people who support the republican party

Intertextuality is the the relationship between texts, especially referring to literary ones. examples of intertextuality can include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody. Intertextuality is a literary device that helps lead to a much better reading experience as it brings another context, idea, story into the text at hand this is important in our studies course since throughout the year we will be reading analysing and interpreting different stories. I think that using intertextuality in the following two years will help me throughout this course as it will make English easier.

When I was going into this course I was expecting a harder version of english in year 11. After the first two classes I learned that  this class will be more complicated and advanced in its own ways but it won’t necessarily be harder. After just learning about the three areas of exploration I feel like I now have a better understanding of how this course will be going. I read some of the reviews of the books we will be reading and they all look really interesting. I can’t wait till we start.