tone and mood

     The two poems "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, and "Field Below" by Regina Spektor are both poems and songs. They both take place in a big city and are expressing their feelings of sadness for something that is gone and they don’t have anymore.

     The theme of "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell is that you should be thankful for what you have and you don’t always know what you have till it is gone. Getting rid of nature and replacing it with modern buildings and parking lots, is what is making the reader sad and angry. The reader/ listener of this feels sad and a little disappointed in themselves. The authors writes this to let today's people know that they have a lot and should be grateful for and all their nature is being replaced by modern buildings. T

     The theme of  "Field Below" by Regina Spektor is  that The author is sad  and is missing being able to see nature in the downtown area  where she lives . She is longing for nature in a big city and only sees building s and pollution. To top that of she has lost her friend. the author writes this to lets the listeners and readers know that she wishes there was some nature in the big city

    The tone is a little miserable and depressed. The mood is sad and feels bad. The songs and poems do have the same words but not always the same tone and mood. In "Big Yellow Taxi" the mood is happy and feels good. The tone is happy and laughable.  In the poem it is trying to get the reader/ listener to feel sad and a little disappointed in themselves. The tone is sad and angry. The two are different.  the tone of "field below" is  sad and depressed also. But unlike big yellow taxi, the song has the same mood and tone of the poem.

Was The North as Equal as Assumed?

The north… all the blacks in the south thought it was heaven, but was it? Were the blacks as free and equal as the white northerners made it seem, or was there more segregation and unfair laws then we were aware of.  There were some hidden racism and segregation that people weren’t aware of. Maybe the north wasn’t like heaven after all.

We all know that segregation played a big role in the 1800s.  In every part in America blacks were not equal, or even treated equally. They could not attend plays at theaters made only for white people; they could not sit across a table with white folks and eat a meal. Some neighborhoods were restricted to only blacks and job opportunities were denied to blacks for one reason only; the color of their skin.

The Great Michegan from 1910 to 1960 brought hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South to Chicago, where they became an urban population. Not only were blacks declined jobs for the color of their skin, they also couldn’t attend certain colleges oe own any property in their names .blacks were also not allowed to major in certain fields of education. Un happy with the laws blacks started to do all things secretly. They created churches, community organizations, and important business meetings so blacks could achieve what they wanted without being held back by the harsh cruel racists.

Although the first blacks entered government office in the late 1800's, blacks were basically excluded from political participation in the north and south states by such devices as poll taxes until the passage of the Voting Rights. With the blacks being excluded from the politics some of the blacks had no hope of there every being a change in the unfair segregation.

Even though the north was not as cruel and as segregated as the south it still wasn’t equal. So when  the blacks in the south thought the north was heaven, they would be in for a surprise.  There were some hidden racism and segregation that people weren’t aware of. the north wasn’t like heaven after all  but it was better than the south.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time( retelling)

       Authors Note: This is a retelling if the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.   

      Christopher had a mother until his father told him she died. But what is this, a letter mailed from his mother to him , mailed just one week ago!

By The Way.

By the way...

your mother

she did not die

she is alive

I know

you  spent weeks

balling your

eyes out

But then again

she had an affair

with Mr. shears

so I kicked her out.

      This is a parody of the book The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time. The speaker is Christopher's dad. The audience is Christopher. The tone of this poem is sorrowful and hateful. The mood of this is shocked and overwhelmed. 

The Stair Case of Life

Authors Note: This piece of writing is my thooughts of the poem, "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes.

    "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes is about a mother telling her son about having  troubles in her life. She is also telling her son that life can be hard but don’t turn back and give up. She wants him to go out his best foot and keep moving forward and continue to climb the stairs of life. no matter how hard it gets , she tells her son she is still climbing.

    Langston Hughes uses metaphors such as, "life for me ain't been no crystal stair."

Comparing  life to a grad stair case. When doing so, he creates a tone of motivation and perseverance. The mood set for the readers is encouragement , and hopefulness for the kid to keep going in life and don’t give up.

      Langston Hughes uses words like ,Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up ,And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare. He describes this poor staircase as the mothers of life.

The Mysterious Night

Authors note:  this piece of writing is incorporating the word choice skills in to a retelling of the first big main event of my book the mysterious incident  of the dog in the night time.

     It was 12:07pm. The dog was lying in a big heap on the dewy lawn in front of Mrs. Shears house. I squinted through my glasses that were slightly fogging.  It look as if the dog had been stabbed with a garden fork.  I shuffled diagonally across the street towards Wellington. When I got to the yard I crept slowly through the grass.

      Once I reached Wellington. I plopped down on my knees the grass sqishes under me  and I closely inspected him.  The garden fork was penetrated deep through his body and into the earth.  I let myself caress his head, it lulled down onto my lap. I slowly guided my shaky hand along his body and onto his muzzle. It was still warm and wet. My hand was cover in wellingtons blood, I didn't like that it was blood, but I did like the color.  I smeared the blood on to my wrinkled gray shirt and when that was sopped with blood I quickly wiped my hands on my blue flannel pajama pants. I saw Mrs. Shears scurrying  out of her house and down the stairs of her back  porch.

     I stood up quickly and my flannel pants started to blow in the wind like parchutes. Mrs. Shears was yelling at me, accusing me of killing wellington. I didn't like people yelling at me, especially if they were wrong accusing me of something I didn’t do.  She yelled, " you killed him, you killed him get out of my yard go home ,go home!"  she was screamin like Edvard Munch's painting, The Scream. I wouldn't leave not with wellington dead. I liked him too much when I wouldn't t go she continued to yell. Her night gown blew in the wind. If looks could kill, the look she gave me as she called the cops would have killed me.

      After 10 mins of watching Mrs. Shears  cry and scream at me, two police came.  They  stride from their car to the grass. I was  happy, I liked police . They were easy to trust. As the one cop talked to Mrs. Shears    , the other walked up to me and asked me what happened . I answered I didn't know . He must have not believed me because he put his hand on my shoulder and he said 'common son, the truth please."I don’t like people touching me so I punched him square in the face.

 

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Christopher Boone

Authors note:

This piece of writing is explaining to the reader the features and personality of my character .my character is Christopher Boone from the book The Mysterious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

         Christopher John Francis Boone is a 15 year old boy who has autism. He is six feet and two inches tall. He is very smart for his age and is doing A level math skills.  He knows every prime number up to 7,057 , and he likes to solve difficult math equations in his head to calm himself down and feel safe. He doesn't know emotions except happy and sad. He  enjoys writing and  is writing a book about his life and the big events that happen to him like the murder of his neighbors dog wellington.

         Christopher likes to solve mysteries, as he searches for Wellington's killer he discovers some things that can change his life completely. He develops some newly found emotions and continues his hard and rocky journey. He is convinced that someday he will achieve great things .He is ready for anything life throws his way, as long as you don’t touch him, and it isn't brown or yellow.