Quotes.another post:(

I would like help with the pg number of the quote where JESS THROWS SHIVS DOWN stairs and the quote when the glass breaks all around her and/or the quote when Jess talks back to her mother and Daniel Slaps JEss and possibly when Sarah Harrison says I cannot take Jess anymore

What is your favorite book out of all the books that you had to read at school, and why?

I Define My Own Katrina

When I first started thinking about what I wanted to do for The Anniversary, I realized that the very idea of August 29th was looming over me in a way that gave the storm more power than it deserved. Two years ago, I made the decision to come back to New Orleans because I didn’t want the storm to force me away from a place I loved. I remember standing in my dad’s kitchen, crying, and telling him that I wanted to make my own decisions based on what I wanted to do, not on something outside of me. Now I realize that this was naïve, but there is a huge difference between naivety and hope. I’m still hopeful. Maybe you thought it was naïve to spend the day focusing on the positives of the last two year as if that’s some sort of talisman against the pain in our hearts or another storm. But the hope of making a positive difference is what’s kept me going non-stop for two years, and now hoping is almost all I know how to do.

I came back to New Orleans, in large part, to provide a safe harbor for my students. Two years ago, your lives were hectic and unsure, and I wanted to help provide stability. I feel that same way today. You should come to school and feel safe; you shouldn’t have to come to school on August 29th fearing what “special” Katrina stuff you might be forced to do. Journaling is cathartic. As we’ve been discussing with The Icarus Girl and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” writing (or “work”) gives us an outlet. It’s a way to purge our pain, meditate, and develop our thoughts.

As an interested adult, I’ve watched you over the past two years and been continually impressed. You are survivors; you are resilient; you are pioneers; you are all those trendy words used to describe people struggling to live normal lives in the Gulf South. And your lives are remarkably normal. You go to practice; you study; you go to parties; you do homework (more often than not); you laugh and you love. But you cry too. I’ve seen how separation and disaster have forced a bond in your class and I’m amazed by you.

Then I look at myself, someone I constantly criticize, and realize that I’m not all that different from you who I admire. So, I decided that we should all focus on what we can be proud of over the past two years.

I was brave: I found out my house was unlivable the day before I left New York to come back to New Orleans. I was smart: I gave myself four days to drive the 1500 miles because I knew I was an emotional wreck. I was stoic: I hardly cried. I was a good friend: I smiled and when they left I said, “I’ll see you soon.” I was numb: I hardly cried.

But that was two years ago. I’m focusing on the positive and how awesome I’ve been since Katrina – remember? Well, what I’m proud of is that I stepped up. I said “yes, I can do that.” I said it over and over again. I said “yes, I’ll work Saturdays;” “yes, I’ll teach an extra class;” “yes, I’ll be your friend;” “yes, I’ll take that homeless dog;” “yes, I’ll be the youth minister at my church;” “yes, I’ll help you gut your house;” “yes, I’ll help you build your house;” “yes, I can.” I said these things because that’s the kind of person I always wanted to be, and Katrina gave me a chance to walk the walk. Katrina was an opportunity; she opened a whole lot of doors and left gaping holes where they had been, but she opened them just the same.

I’m proud that I was able to leave my apartment those first three months. Well, it wasn’t my apartment, it was my friend’s, but she wasn’t there, so I was alone. Very alone. The only thing that got me out of the house those days was work, and the only thing that got me here was my students. On the drive to school, I’d calculate my potential earning power at Burger King with the $125 weekly bonus. Then I’d think about the 30% pay-cut I had agreed to. Then I’d get to school and reassess what wealth means. I measure my value in terms of the impact I have on the world around me. I had always hoped this was a realistic assessment, but now I’m sure I’m right and the Wall Street Journal, and Merrill-Lynch, and even the Federal Reserve are spectacularly wrong. After two years of knowing that St. Martin’s is my shelter and the happy place I can think of when I need to fly up above the debris, I know I am indeed rich.

I’m proud that I have been able to say “yes” to other people, while also saying “yes” to myself. It was very easy to be the center of my own world over the past two years, but it was easier to use other people’s needs as a distraction from my own. It’s easier for me to help others than it is to help myself. I’ve know this for a long time and never really done anything about it. I think I grew up with some romantic ideas about martyrdom and sacrifice, and I thought people who took care of others with no regard for themselves were somehow better than others – unselfish. Teaching is a good profession for people like that. It’s easy for me to think about school and work all the time; this was especially true when I was worried about you in those first months after Katrina and then last spring. For two years I’ve worried about you and I’ve cried for you when I couldn’t cry for myself; I’ve learned that this is something that helps me heal.

I’m proud that I’ve made friends. Most of my closest friends left New Orleans after Katrina and only came back to salvage what they could from their wrecked homes. This was devastating for me. My family is far away, I worked hard to create my own family of friends here, and then they all left. Yes, I have best friends on the faculty at StM, but I felt that I couldn’t let work be my only social outlet. I determined to be more outgoing, more friendly, and more open to personal possibilities. Fearlessness is a good quality in a friend, and after Katrina I fearlessly decided to throw parties for everyone I knew. Happiness can be bought, and I’ve somehow managed to make more friends in the two years after Katrina than in the seven years I spent in New Orleans before the storm. I can’t remember the last time I ate dinner by myself!

Now that I’ve spent a few days thinking about what I have to be proud of, I realize that there’s a lot. I’ve grown, as I would have no matter where I lived or what I’d been through, but I live here and I went through IT and that’s my life. Some days it’s too much for me and I’m angry or alone or want to move or cry or scream, but most days it’s OK, because we’re still here. And I know it’s my choice to be here, and somehow that choice, that determination, and that intention make all the difference.

The "Real" Emily Rose

http://www.fotofetch.com/

SHIVS HELP

Does anyone have some Shivs quotes about her and/or her friendship with Jess? SOme good, quality quotes of importance in relevance to friendship and how the bond is real and not fake..PLEASE

Grendel

It would be really interesting if there was an essay or a book from another character's point of view. For example, the story could be told rorm Tilly's point of view, or Shivs's. Then we would have more insight into whether or not Jess was crazy, as well as better understand unanswered questions.

Sarah Harrison tells her husband Daniel that she CANNOT take her daughter anymore. She is too stressed out and too much a burden. Jess also later asks herself if her mother hates her and questions if she is heartless. Can someone shed some light on this. ALSO what is her relationship with her father? DOES JESS ISOLATE HERSELF FROM HER PARENTS OR DO HER PARENTS isolate themselves from her?

analysis of Oyeyemi's wiritng style

this article is a review about oyeyemi's writing style not necessarily Icarus Girl but all of her literary works

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/01/09/boyeyemi.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/01/09/bomain.html

Good Review from NPR

this review is great to see another perspective of Icarus Girl, good analysis

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4813330

Turnitin.com

Hey guys, please go to the homework site bulletin board, view your class's log-in information for your section of English IV, and then register at turnitin.com. The first draft of your Icarus Girl paper, which is due next Friday, must be turned in at turnitin.com, not to me via e-mail.

This is the student user help manual if you need it:
http://www.turnitin.com/static/pdf/tii_student_guide.pdf

This is a play Helen Oyeyemi wrote that got some pretty good reviews too. Its called The Opposite House.

Reminder

Don't forget that you must post at least twice a week. I'll be giving this grade on Friday, so make good observations and comments TODAY!

Puff-Puff Recipe

This link has a puff puff recipe. The food that Jess and her Nigerian side of her family made.
http://www.motherlandnigeria.com/recipes.html#puff_puff

ibeji statues

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/scultpureplastic/AfricanSculpture/AfricanArtAesthetics/TheExhibition/aa09sd.jpg

YeLLOw WaLLpApeR

Here is YELLOWWALLPAPER for LISTENING..for you auditory ppl. The 2nd one is the shortest..It helps alot to hear it
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=Yellow+Wallpaper&author=Gilman&status=all&action=Search

I mentioned this organization in class Monday

http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/

I don't know if my post is going to work but I think Helen Oyeyemi is crazy and if we asked her what her book meant she wouldnt even have an answer.

Homework for Friday Night

Read the article I gave you in class from the Telegraph about Helen Oyeyemi and read this article on twins in Nigeria.
http://www.randafricanart.com/Yoruba_Customs_and_Beliefs_Pertaining_to_Twins.html

The Cracked Mirror

Look at page 252. This is the scene when the mirror breaks in the bathroom: "The mirror crack'd from side to side" is used here in The Icarus Girl, but it is a quote from the poem "The Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson. The motif of the mirror is used over and over in "The Lady of Shalott" to juxtapose reality and myth, and to convey the theme of sight and knowledge. As for Icarus Girl, mirrors create twins in the way that twins "mirror eachother." It's important that Oyeyemi uses this quote here, because in the poem, soon after "the mirror cracks," the Lady of Shalott commits suicide (Her suicide is related to Launcelot). In The Icarus Girl, the mirror breaking causes an escalation of the tension in the novel. Jess's real fear of TillyTilly (who is death?) begins in the bathroom when TillyTilly tells her she wants to become her (essentially kill her).

From "The Lady of Shalott":
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

Follow this link for the full text of the poem:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/los1.html