Dixie Chicks Article:

1. How effective is the headline?

The headline is clever as it uses a pun to get the massage across.  The words the author chose are effective, using “Chicks” to represent the Dixie Chicks. This helps the article feel more casual and gives the serious topic a more fun edge. The way the author wrote the “in the Line of Fire” was clever as it helped was talking about how the band had been in trouble for their slur against President George W Bush but it also made reference to the fact that they where talking about the war and troops being sent overseas.

2. The journalist has chosen not to include an extensive byline. Do you think this is a good decision? Explain your answer.

I think the idea of not using an extensive byline was a good idea because some people would have found the content of the article very confronting, as it is a serious topic.

3. How does the introductory paragraph help your understanding of what the article will be about?

The introductory paragraph gives some information on the Dixie Chicks and their beliefs and how and when the slur was made. So it just gives the reader some insight into the situation and what happened.

4. What kind of tone do you think the journalist is trying to achieve? Provide examples to explain your answer.

The author does seem to use slightly plain text when writing the article. However the author does show their own opinion where they seem to be defending the Dixie Chicks so it is obvious that he is siding with them. The author has both a plain stating tone much like that of a news reporter would have. Few other stations played Not Ready to Make Nice, and while it has done well on iTunes, it's quite possible that in singing about their anger at people who were already livid with them and were once their target audience. This segment of the article puts forward that the author does have some issues towards the hate that the Dixie Chicks were getting and was quite disgusted by it.

5. What do you think the journalist's purpose was in writing this article? Provide examples to help prove your answer.

I believe that the author purpose of writing this article was to defend the Dixie Chicks and their beliefs. This is visible because towards the end of the article you realize that the things the Dixie Chicks were doing were positive and that they good side in the argument whilst everyone else who was attacking their views were wrong.

6. The journalist makes considerable use of direct quotations throughout the article. How does this affect your understanding of the article and influence your opinion of the band members? Use evidence to support your claims.

The quotes throughout the article really help the reader to understand the situation more clearly. The quotes also let the reader develop their own opinion because they are hearing from people who where a part of it not just from the author who already has their own opinion. This is shown in the article where is states, "a four-minute f___-you to the format and our listeners. I like the Chicks, and I won't play it." This quote shows the reader some of the different reactions of people to the Dixie Chicks.

7. How effective do you think this article is in achieving the journalist's purpose? Explain your answer in full please.

I believe that the author has succeeded in achieving his purpose of getting his views across about his opinion of the Dixie Chicks event. I believe this because at the end of reading the article I know that the author felt that the Dixie Chicks where right in saying what the said and that that was the corrects stance because everyone deserves to exercise their right to freedom of speech. 

"Not Ready to Make Nice"

The Dixie Chicks reputation has suffered ever since one of their European concerts in the early 2000’s. Natalie Maines made a comment about President George W. Bush about his decision into sending America and many other countries into war. In protest, almost all of their fans have deserted them and their names have been branded by the event ever since. The Dixie Chicks where shocked by the reaction and where asked to apologize, in particular Maines was asked specifically. However Maines said that apologizing to Bush would be her lifes greatest regret. But still their reputation was ruined and therefore the Dixie Chick recorded a song called “Not Ready to Make Nice”.

“Not Ready to Make Nice” is a song that was written by the Dixie Chicks as they thought that if they further explained their beliefs people would react differently. They wanted to tell he world how ridiculous they felt it was for people to react this way. This is shown in the quotation, “And how in the world can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they’d write me a letter sayin’ that I better / Shut up and sing or my life will be over”. They also wanted to show the audience how it was to be them and have to go through this.

Anger is a very prominent emotion felt in the song where they use words such as ‘hate’ and ‘shut up’. The Dixie Chicks seem to be outraged because of how people have shut them down because of their beliefs. The band felt that the reaction of people was immature. For an Example, “It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her / Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger”. There is sadness there as well as Maines and the rest of the Dixie Chicks would have felt sad for how people have gotten so involved in such a bad way and they would have felt sad that a child has even gotten involved.

There are a total of 9 stanzas within the song consist of four lines each. Not Ready to Make Nice has an interesting rhyming scheme as such that in the first 2 stanzas the first two lines rhyme. In the chorus rhyme every second line. In the next stanza there is no appearance of any rhyming but in the next 2 stanzas, they rhyme on the last 2 lines. As you read on there is a use of repetition of stanzas and the first stanza of the song, is then repeated at the end of the song.

Similies such as “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby” this line talks about how even though everyone is angry about what Maines said she still has no regrets about what she said. This is confirmed in the next line, “With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’”. The Dixie Chicks are suggesting that they don’t regret the incident; they are not guilty at all – because they believe that it is the right thing.

The band uses different fortes of sound levels with the start of the song beginning softly and the middle of the song being quite loud and powerful. This is successful in the song because it really does enhance the emotion of the song and make the louder parts of the song really stand out. The audience now knows that they are really angry about it. Because when listerning to a song one does not always take in the lyrics to the change in volume would have put across their anger just as the lyrics did.

Overall the song is very powerful and emotional and really helps the listener to take in their beliefs and understand how it was for the band to be shut down like that. All they wanted was to have their opinions heard and this song helps them to do that. 

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

S- this poem is about a man who foresaw his own death and talks about its inevitability.  

P- The poet talks about the inevitability of death and how it is uncontrollable. The purpose is to warn people about death. The purpose of this poem is to talk about the fear of death in war.

E-The emotion through this poem is sad and grave. The poets’ emotive language about death creates a grim and depressed mood. The mood throughout the poem stays as the same gloomy and harsh as it was before.

C- The poems effect is achieved through the harsh tone and emotive language through the poem

S- The structure of this poem is 16 lines and one stanza.

L- The language through out the poem is very emotive which helps create the emotion and mood.

I-  There aren’t any examples of similes, metaphors or personification

M- no movement found.

S- There is a rhyme throughout the poem on lines 3 and five, seven and nine, 11 and 13.

S- The whole poem has a strong impact about the reality of death and is very successful. 

Chapter 3 Summary- Maus

Chapter 3:

Art returns again to Rego Park to visit his father. Vladek begins to tell Art about how he joined the army at 21, in 1939, and Vladek was sent to the German front. Vladek is captured by the Nazi Army and made POW's. The Jewish prisoners are forced to live outside in tents in the bitter autumn cold and are fed only crusts of bread, while the Polish prisoners stay inside in heated cabins and receive two meals a day.  He volunteers, and when he arrives at the camp, he is given his own bed and a full day to rest. The labor is hard work, literally moving mountains to flatten the terrain, and some men are too weak or old to do it. Vladek dreams of his grandfather, who tells him that he will be released from the camp on the day of Parshas Truma, a special event in the Jewish calendar. Three months later it is Parshas Truma, and the prisoners are released. He boards a train, which takes him through occupied Poland towards Sosnowiec, but the train travels past Sosnowiec. He is finally let off in Lublin, in the heart of the Reich Protectorate, where Vladek finds that the Jewish POW's where only released so that they weren't protected by the Polish Laws that protect prisoners so now the Jewish prisoners could be shot on site. In Lublin, Vladek is led to a camp of large tents and hears stories about the last train of prisoners that arrived at the camp, from which six hundred Jews were marched into the forest and killed. Jewish authorities in the camp have bribed the guards to release prisoners into the homes of nearby Jews, and Vladek tells them that he has a cousin in Lublin. Vladek runs immediately back into his tent. The next morning the cousin arrives, and Vladek is set free. A few days later, he boards a train for Sosnowiec. He does not have the proper traveling papers, but by pretending to be Polish, he enlists the help of a Polish train conductor, who hides him from the German soldiers. He arrives first at his parents' house. His father, a very religious man, has been forced by the Nazis to shave off his beard. Vladek then is reunited with Anja and his son, Richieu. In this chapter you also see the controlling nature of Vladek and the tension between father and son when Vladek throws out Art's coat. 

There are four main themes in chapter three of Maus. They are family, love, survival and war. 

In this chapter it shown the beginning of Vladek's hardships and the start of his involvement in the holocaust and WW2 it also shows the alterations to his personality as of his experiences in the war, such as his slight OCD and his interference with Art's life. The reader learns about how Art acts towards his father in this chapter is shows his frustration with his fathers compulsive tendencies and how he tends to get side tract. But it also shown Art being very dismissive of his father worries about Mala which leaves the reader questioning whether he cares a lot about his father. Mala is shown to the reader to be a bit sadistic because of the way Vladek talks to Art about her trying to steal his money. 

Vladek throws away his son's coat at the end of the chapter, behavior that stands in sharp contrast to his overwhelming compulsion to save. The best explanation for this seemingly uncharacteristic behaviour lies in Vladek's reasons for saving. It becomes clear that Vladek wishes all of his money to be left to his son. His compulsive saving, then, reflects his desire for his son to live a good and prosperous life. Vladek is therefore offended by the sight of his son wearing an old and shabby coat, and he conspires to replace it with one that he thinks is better.Chapter 3 also elaborates on the book's discussions of race and class. When Vladek boards a train from Lublin back to Sosnowiec, he is drawn wearing the mask of a pig, signifying that he is hiding his Jewish identity by pretending to be Polish. So the author is suggesting that race and nationality are only man-made classifications and that underneath these masks, we are all more alike than we are different.

Spiegelman uses flashbacks and the animal categories he puts different religions and nationalities into. This flashbacks helps the reader to understand the themes more by letting the reader see Vladek in the war and after the war so that the reader is able to see the change in his personality. The flashbacks also help with showing the perspectives of Art and Mala. The masks that categorise the characters in Maus are helpful for the reader as they show the discrimination of the people during the war and also to make it clear to the reader who is who. 

Paragraph Response: Chain of Hearts Cont...

1. Uncle Jimmy is integral to Sophie’s emotional recovery. What does he do that helps her rebuild her confidence and find happiness?

Jimmy’s help is integral to Sophie’s recovery; he introduces her to pottery, which she finds soothing and calming. It helps her to find herself and fill her time with something more productive. “What about you making us something?... I wish I could but I cant sew or knit or cook and I’ve never done any artwork… Actually I can make pots”(P237) This was the start of Sophie beginning to start making pots. Jimmy was the one to convince her to make the pots, which begin her recovery.  “And there was Sophie. The girl coming alive before my eyes. The pots she was making where ordinary enough. Nothing wrong with them, but basically just plain dishes and simple little vases and things to put plants in… Jimmy acts as if hey are the most beautiful things he’s ever seen… I can see she’s touched by Jimmy’s high praise.”(P247) Jimmy gives Sophie some confidence back by praising her work and makes her feel good about herself. This is important to her recovery because a lot of her problem is feeling like she has no idea what she wants to do with her life and that she is worthless, but the pottery seems to give her meaning and worth. 

Paragraph Responses: Chain of Hearts

Chain of Hearts: Extended Responses

1. Geraldine and Fran had events from their past that ruined their relationship as sisters. Explain what unfolded between these two women that led to their hatred of each other (include direct quotations). Who do you think was in the wrong? Do you think Geraldine should forgive Fran or was she right to hold a grudge against her?

Fran and Geraldine’s relationship is shown to be extremely rocky right from the start of the novel. There is one event that starts to crumble the relationship between the two sisters. When Geraldine’s fiancée Paul calls of their wedding and Fran isn’t entirely supportive and finds herself falling for Paul. “In an answer to your question I knew then that I absolutely shouldn’t marry Gerry… Because at that moment I was looking at you and thinking, I wish it was Fran. She’s the one I really love.” (Page 59) This was the moment where their relationship began to show its first sign of cracks. Even though Fran didn’t think that Geraldine knew that Paul was in love with her it would have made it uncomfortable between the two because of Fran’s feeling of guilt. “If you remember, I also loved Paul Healey’… ‘Can I ever forget I had my first love affair with you ex-fiancée?”(P332) At this moment the reader realises that Geraldine knew about her affair with Paul and doesn’t react in the way you think she would. She acts as if she has nothing to be ashamed of and taunts Geraldine. This part of the novel shows you a huge crack in their relationship and you see why Geraldine holds such a strong grudge against Fran. I believe that Geraldine has a right to be angry and hold a grudge at Fran but she should move on and forgive Fran for having an affair with Paul. She is happily married to Robert and shouldn’t still be upset because is she had married Paul she would have been in a loveless marriage and would have never found Robert and have the life that she does now.