Homelearning 25 May 2010

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Task 1
This poem “Rainbow Death” is written by Hubert Wilson, a soldier during the Vietnam War (American versus Vietnam). He was sent to Vietnam to fight for USA and stayed there for about 18 years. As he stayed there, his heath started to deteriorate greatly, and doctors then could not diagnose the disease. Having limb pains, Hubert Wilson’s mobility deteriorate and retired as a soldier. Like his father, he turned to writing poems as his pastime and wrote many poems, mostly about war.

The poem “Rainbow Death”, a war poem, depicted the modern warfare during the Vietnam War. As trench warfare was not common during that time, both sides, especially the US used ‘Agent Orange’-a highly dangerous contaminant. ‘Agent Orange’ was made using several man-made and natural materials, which was invented by an American Scientist. ‘Agent Orange’. This method had killed millions of people, and also affected the health of the living.
This poem tells us that the impacts of modern warfare (in this case, gas attacks) are great and not only will it kills many lives, it will also affect the younger generations. From “Generations untold WILL pay”, unborn babies will suffer from birth defects and the word ‘WILL’ emphasises on the huge impact Agent Orange will bring to mankind.

The poet’s intention of writing this poem is to tell readers the dangers modern warfare can bring to mankind. This is caused by the cruelty of men who want to win at all costs. As war ended, it may seemed that people would not be affected anymore and they could therefore lead back a normal life, however, they were wrong as younger generations would also be affected. The poet is trying to convey the message to us that “Think twice before starting a war!”.

Task 2 (Critical analysis of poetry)
**I merged the points Evidence and Elaboration together as it is easier to visualise.**

1) Point of View:

-An American soldier: As “America did not foresee” the great impacts of ‘Agent Orange’, an everlasting war was created and many generations were affected. All these were caused by “Nefariously America led astray”. The actions of the Americans were cruel and unhumane. As the war went on, USA were “expecting others (The Vienamese) to pay a high price” but the price was just too high for Vietnam to pay. “All the deceit continues to spread”. The hatred and sadness of the Vietnamese would continue to spread to younger generations. This war would never end.

-A neutral person: When the poet wrote “toll on the innocent and unborn”, we can know that he was writing in the view of a “by-stander” watching this war, supporting neither sides. If he were an American, he would have rejoiced as Vietnam had lost but he did not. However, if he were a Vietnamese, he would not have asked the Americans to “think twice” before their actions, inferring that .


2) Situation and Setting:

-Emotional: “All the deceit continues to spread” The poet felt this way as he thought it was unfair for Vietnam to suffer this horrendous treatment.

-Saddening: “Generations untold WILL pay” In reference to the story ‘To kill a mockingbird’, the younger generations of war are ‘mockingbirds’ as they suffered when they did no harm to the society. In the poet’s opinion, this was saddening.

-Hatred: “Toll on the innocent and unborn” and “All the deceit continues to spread” As Vietnam ‘tolled’ on the innocents, their minds would naturally be filled with hatred and revenge on the Americans. The word ‘deceit’ refers to hatred that the people would continue to spread so that one day, Vietnam could seek revenge on USA.


3) Language/Diction:

-“Potpourri” It means a mixture of materials or substances. However, in this poem, ‘potpourri’ means the mixture of deaths inflicted as a result of war.

-“Toll” It means a payment or price people have to pay. In this poem’s case, “toll on the innocent and unborn”, the Vietnamese would grieve and regret for their decision to fight the Americans. Now, they would have to pay the price.


4) Personal Response:
War is cruel and both sides will resort to anything just to defeat the enemy. In the case of ‘Rainbow Death’, the Americans resorted to gas attacks to defeat Vietnam. As a result, Vietnam had to pay a huge price that would even affect the younger generations.


Done by: Andy Lim (2o219)

References: Wikipedia (Information about Hubert Wilson)

Interpersonal (Interview)

I have done my interview with my neighbour (a fourteen-year-old), regarding prejudice and discrimination. Below is the transcript of the interview.

Me: Do you know what prejudice means?
Her: I think it means to have an unfair opinion on a group of people or someone basing on their skin colour, sex or country they live in.

Me: What is discrimination then?
Her: Isn’t this the same as ‘prejudice’?

Me: Discrimination is when a group of people is treated unfairly by the rest.
Her: …so ‘prejudice’ is to have an unfair opinion and ‘discrimination’ is to treat some people unfairly?

Me: Can you give me examples of discrimination?
Her: The treatment towards Blacks in the 1950s and the first-class citizens discriminating the second-class citizens

Me: How would you feel of you are discriminated?
Her: I would tell my parents or settle it myself by telling the people who discriminated me to stop their insults?

Me: Is there any way to solve discrimination?
Her: There are a lot, like killing, threatening and so on. But the best way is to sort out the differences between the two parties.

Me: Have you read the book ‘To kill a mockingbird’? If yes, can you give me examples of discrimination or prejudices?
Her: There are lot as this book was written in the “Unfair treatment towards Blacks”-era. Some examples would be the treatment towards the Negroes and the prejudice feelings towards the Boo Radleys.

Me: Is there any discrimination in Singapore?
Her: We are indeed very lucky to live in Singapore because it is discrimination-free!

Me: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me

Please comment on what some questions can be asked during the interview. Thanks!

Intrapersonal (Diary entry from Atticus)

I will be writing a diary entry of Atticus in TKAM. Below is my diary entry.

Date: 1 March 1948

Time: 9.47pm

Mood: Disappointed and learnt something at the same time


Dear Diary,

My children just slept. I could really see they were disappointed about the verdict but I was glad to let them see the true side of people.
Today, I represented my client, Tom Robinson to court today, regarding Mayella Ewell’s case. Before the trial, I knew Tom would surely be sent to jail because he was a Negro. However, I just could not believe that people of Maycomb could be so prejudiced towards Negros. The prejudice feelings among the white people are so strong that no matter how many times I proved that Tom was innocent, they still remain ignorant towards it.

The verdict of this case solely depends on the colour of the accused, and not the evidence produced during the happening of the case. What has this world changed to? Why is this world so unfair? Negroes are humans too, and they deserve human rights like us, the white people.

During the trial, I know I cannot lose because this concerned the life of a Negro and his family but I also know that this was the time of “unfair treatment towards Negroes”. I was reluctant to tell this to Tom before the trial, but I knew he knew this too. Still, he remained optimistic and told me “Atticus, I hope to see this change for the better.” My eyes went wet because I expected him to be angry and would kill the Ewells.

I attempted to potray an image of the Ewells’ family background and also proved that Tom was a cripple. Actually, I knew that the judge and the jury knew that Tom was innocent but they could do nothing due to the fact that white people were pressurizing them. If I were the judge, I would acquit Tom and face the insults from my fellow white people. This is because I know that there is nothing wrong in acquitting an innocent fellow.

What I can do now is to sigh. I am sighing because of the unfair treatment towards Negroes. I am sighing because no one dared to speak up for Negroes. Now, I can only hope that in the future generation, there will be a democracy and prejudice-free place!

I am going to turn in now.

Goodbye.

Regards,
Atticus

About my learning profile

(Click on the picture to zoom out)


My two best intelligence are interpersonal (people smart) and logical (numbers smart) and my two weakest are musical (music smart) and linguistic (word smart). I feel that it is quite true because I am good in mathematics and also communicating with people. I don't really like music because I will go dizzy after looking at music scoresheets.

For Maths, I like solving puzzles or word problems, because it gives me the sense of satisfaction when I managed to complete difficult maths problems. I was exempted from Maths last year and hope to be exempted again this year. I don't really like all types of maths problems. I like geometry the most and algebra the least.
I am really weak in music, ever since I was primary one. I think I am not born with a musical 'brain'! When I was told to play the pianica (the small piano), I was completely buffled and failed my test in the end.
I feel that we should really thank the person who created the multiple intelligence test because from his test, people now know that we can be intelligent in many ways, not just IQ. After doing the test, we know our talents and also, our weaknesses. As a result , we can better know ourselves and therefore, improving faster than before.

Fourth post for 2010

Hi again, I read an online newspaper (www.asiaone.com/news) just now and decided to write about it.
The post in the newspaper said that a honest student admitted to carrying a cellphone to the College Entrance Exam (CEE). This is a serious offence because this exam is important because it decides the college that you will enter. You will think that since this student admitted his mistake, the school will let him off or just give him a lighter punishment. However, you are wrong and the school accused this poor student for cheating during the examination and punished him accordingly. When I read this, I was totally shocked and questioned the Taiwan's examination system. Moreover, when I read on, the post says "There are 30 such cases in Taiwan, which students are like him, getting punished because of honesty."
I nearly fainted and reprimanded the Taiwan's MOE. Is this how they catch people cheating in exams? Is it wrong for students to admit their mistake? Do they rather want students not admit their mistakes? Are they so stupid to think that "cheaters" will admit to their offences after the examination?
As a result, this student is given a straight 'zero' for that subject, affecting his results greatly. This is really unfair because, instead of trying to catch cheaters in the examination, the school went to punish honest students.
Is honesty an offence?
Luckily, justice went all out to help that poor and HONEST student. As this matter spreads to the media, many people went to appeal to the Examination Board and the Directors of Education were now involved ! All I can do is to hope that the school will not punish the student but reward him for his honesty!
So what is your view about this matter? Should the school really punish the student?

3rd post for 2010

Hi people, this will be my third post. Hurray! I will be talking about the censorship of pornography materials if it should be exercised fully.
Pornographywhich can be any form like pictures or videos, convey sexual messages to audience. It is common in the world, especially in the Internet; a vast forum for people to communicate. Some pornographic materials convey messages to people that women really want to be raped and they are degrading. Usually, people engage in porn to get monetary benefits.
Pornography gives people the wrong impression that women really want to be raped or they are treated as 'sex objects'. This is false as the women did it just for money.
In addition, pornography today is more male-orientated. By doing this, more and more people will treat women as 'sex objects' and the society will turn worse if this is not stopped. There is more pornography today than the previous generation because the media today is wide and people can access pornography materials anywhere, anytime.
In the view of people who read sexual content, they think that doing this can satisfy they desires, which is totally wrong. They think that pornography advocates sexual experimentation therefore regard pornography as "scientific materials".
The media, with the help of government should exercise full censorship pertaining to pornography materials by blocking the sale of pornography materials into the country/state. This can therefore prevent sexual materials from circulating in the country. Although some people may think that some pornographic materials are useful to one's learning, I feel that all pornographic materials are harmful to one's knowledge of sex. If teenagers want to know more about sex, they can approach their teachers or parents, who will be very willing to help them.
Censorship of pornography materials should be banned totally, by media and government so that the society's mindset towards sex will not be influenced in a negative way.