LETTERS

          Keat seems to be a very affectionate person. He seems to be deeply involved in the love he shares with Fanny Brawne. Keat has fallen in love very strongly with Fanny Brawne. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. From the letter, we can explicitly see that he is recalling the moments he spent with Kathy and still thinking about that. He couldn’t bear Fanny’s execution threat. This shows that Keat is living for his love, Fanny Brawne. He is considering Fanny Brawne as the person who brought meaning into his life. Keat’s relationship with Shelley is a very respected and professional relationship. He tends to share his thoughts on poems with Shelley. Keat also seems to seek Shelley’s advice and follow it. Keat thinks poetry as a dramatic effect which by many spirits of those days is considered the mammon. He says that a modern work is said must have a purpose. We can see two side of Keat. One is where he seems to be a very loving and sincere man in his love with Fanny Brawne. We can see the passion of love in his letter to his beloved, Fanny Brawne. On other hand, Keat is sincere person and passionate towards poems. This can be seen in his letter with Shelley.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Nelson Mandela has written of his dark years in Robben Island as prisoner. He is 46 years old that time and was undergoing life sentence as a political prisoner. He is a man who not relies on assumptions and predictions of others. This can be seen with his thought when Lieutenant Van Wyck offered a prediction on their early release. He too seems not excited with simple things. When his friends were excited about the plane trip, he remained calm and did not show the sign of anxious. He is a strategist person. He examined the scenery from the plane instead of admiring it and said that it is a good place to fight. He is also a brave man. He is not scared to voice his opinion. In addition, he also complained regarding the cell and the short trousers. He is a fair person where he insisted that all his African prisons should be treated in the same way in terms of wearing the long trousers. He is also a helpful person where he helped his friend Kathy in prison while doing works. He described Lieutenant Van Wyck as a pleasant fellow. He described his seven friends (Walter, Raymond, Govan, Kathy, Andrew and Elias) as being excited with the plane trip. He said Kathy as a slender fellow as he was not used with hard physical labor. Kathy was an Indian. He too has other friends from the prison namely George Peake, Dennis Brutus, Billy Nair, Neville Alexander, Fikile Ban and Zephania Mothopeng.

LEGENDS

          The main characters in the legend are King Uther Pendragon, Duke of Cornwall, his wife Igraine, Arthur, Sir Ector and Merlin. The other characters of this legend are Sir Ulfius who is a noble knight, Sir Brastias, Archbishop of Cantebury, Sir Kay who is son of Sir Ector and Sir Brastias.

          The main characters are related to Arthur. King Uther Pendragon is Arthur’s father. Duke of Cornwall is Igraine’s first husband. He is related to Arthur because Igraine is the woman who bore him. Igraine is Arthur’s mother. Sir Ector is the foster father of Arthur. He took care of Arthur following Merlin’s command. Merlin is the one who commanded Sir Ector to bring up Arthur. Other than these characters, some other characters were also related with Arthur. Sir Kay is Arthur’s foster brother.

native american story

NATIVE AMERICAN STORY

As I read the story, I personally felt that the girl was unsatisfied with the appearance and the style of grooms her parents brought. She usually comments on their look and the way they spoke. She was intensely looking for a handsome young man as her husband. First, she faced problems by refusing those grooms. Then, when a handsome warrior came, she fell in love immediately without realising the problem that she has to face soon. She fell for the man without knowing his origin. When she came to know that he is actually a serpent, she was very depressed at first. She regretted for her early behaviours of rejecting the men by commenting and condemning their appearance. She realised that good heart is valuable than appearance. Fortunately, she was saved from the problem by her dream and the grandfather (thunder). Her braveness was a vital element which helped to resolve her problem. If she wasn’t brave enough, she wouldn’t have followed the grandfather’s advice and got rid from the danger.

In my opinion, the problem is a universal experience. In this story, the girl was deceived by the serpent who disguised as respectful human. Nowadays, girls are being deceived by some men who disguise themselves as a noble person. In addition they believe them blindly and willing to sacrifice everything for them. The girls realise their fault only after some time in the relation. As the girl in this story, there are still many girls who give great importance in appearance of men they want to marry. This sometimes leads to a problematic relation as appearance alone will not guarantee a good relationship and understanding.

MYTHS

MYTH

Themes which I found from this myth are love and death of tragedy. The love theme was displayed by the two main characters, Pyramus and Thisbe. They were neighbours. They were friends at first. Then, love blossoms in them. Theirs was true love as they were willing to sacrifice their life for it. The communication they had was also through a cracked wall. They exchanged whispers through it. The whole myth was binding the theme of love. A strong affection and personal attachment can be seen between Pyramus and Thisbe. They had an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of one another.

Another theme which I've derived from this myth is death through tragedy. Even though, Pyramus and Thisbe ‘s love was seen all over the myth, their death has given a great impact for the readers. Their death is not normal. It was a tragedy. Pyramus sacrifices his live for their love thinking that Thisbe was dead. Actually, she wasn’t dead. After knowing what happened, she too took her own life. Their death has a great influence in the myth.

From my point of view, I don’t think that people will face such a conflict today as what Pyramus and Thisbe have experienced in the myth. We have an advanced technology today. We can do many things through it. Invention of handphone is one of it. Today, people can contact their loved ones and ask, “Where are you?”. They can easily avoid the situation experienced by Pyramus when searching for Thisbe.

FABLE

Title of the fable : The fox and the crow

Moral values :

i)                   The appearance of the fox was deceptive so what look good on the outside may not be so in reality .

ii)                A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner, from the mistake the crow will be able to learn a lesson. In future it will be an expert in handling the situation.

Title of the fable : The Jay and the Peacock

Moral values :

i)                   Be happy in what you are and believe every creation of god is unique on the earth.

ii)                In order to be a distinguished person, we need not to disguise into someone else.

Title of the fable : Androcles

Moral value :

i)                   One good turn deserves another, the good that done today will be helpful in future.

Fable of my own :

The Jungle Hospital

          Once a flamingo lived in a pond. She used to very cheerful. One day, the flamingo ate something strange and it had turned her face green. She felt very sorry for herself. This made her to alienate herself from the others. Flamingo, stood there crying the whole day. Pigeon, the good friend of flamingo was watching her the whole day. The next day, the pigeon appeared in front of flamingo. She asked “What’s wrong ?” The depressed flamingo told the pigeon everything. The pigeon tried convincing and advising her, but nothing seemed to make flamingo feel better. Then, the pigeon approached her “if you are a good friend of mine follow me to a place and please do not ask me anything now”. This time, the flamingo did not refuse. All she did was to follow the pigeon. The pigeon took her to the end of the pond, pigeon showed flamingo a frog. The frog had lost both his legs, some time ago. But he was still as full of fun as ever. The frog was talking to everyone and making them to smile. The flamingo realised the most important fact of life. “There’s always someone who’s worse off. So it is no use feeling sorry for myself.” She turned and looked at the pigeon. They left the place with a smile.

Ways in making use of fables in the classroom.

Words are the main carries of meaning. I feel the more words students are able to handle, the better their chances are in understanding English. Fables can help them to acquire more words. I will make use of fables in my class to make the students notice new words. I will teach adjectives with the help of illustration. Most importantly I will repeat the same fable for the whole week. Repetition is always worth doing in second language classrooms. I will make use of the vocabulary, to play bingo game and followed by matching or filling in the blanks. I’m sure this will be one of the effective ways to make use of fables in my language classrooms.

How to teach the students to write fables???

As I mentioned in above, at first I will make use of fables to teach vocabulary. When my students acquire adequate amount of vocabulary, I will ask them to write a fable that they have read before. In my next lesson, I will ask my students a few questions in order to guide them. 

a)                           If you are asked to share a situation that taught you a lesson in your life, which situation will you share?

b)                          By using your real life experience form a fable of your own. Change the human characters mentioned in earlier story into animals. End your story with the lesson that you have learnt.

THE SON OF THE TURTLE SPIRIT

To be frank about this folktale, its quiet an interesting piece to read. As I’m fond of reading stories, I could engage well with the story line. The main issues discovered in this folktale are the Chinese belief of supernatural power and the ultimate love. Both these issues are linked closely with each other. If we look at the ancient history of Chinese, their life aspects and culture are intensely influenced by the supernatural power. This folktale talks about the turtle spirit who transforms into human, purely to win the maiden’s heart. The love between them becomes intense that the maiden at last bears a child. This brings curiosity to the maiden’s parents.  At some circumstances, the truth has been discovered and the turtle has been brutally abused to death. However, the maiden who couldn’t disobey her parents and at the same time who couldn’t forbid her true love manages to collect the turtle’s bones and keep it secretly with her. Soon her son grows to the age of eight. He eventually gets to know about the challenge and the reward for the burial. After seeking his mother’s advice he leads to the unusual river which has a heap of mud shaped like a dragon. As soon as he arrives he remembers his mother’s words and places his father’s bones in the dragon’s mouth and the rich man’s grandfather’s on the horns. Accordance with the Chinese belief the dragon brings fortune, prosperity and wealth as well. So, fortune flourishes the young boy’s life. Just at the age of ten, he becomes an emperor and the son of the rich man becomes his minister. In conclusion, the supernatural power of the dragon and the ultimate love has brought to the success of the boy.

Ways to use folktales as a useful teaching material.

          According to my personal view, to make a lesson effective, we must engage the students’ attention. Folktale will be an essential teaching material to inculcate, integrate and to conduct the lesson. Folktales could be used as a listening text. Students listen to the text and answer questions prepared for them or match the sentence parts. In order to make the students to be more independent and confident, can let them to predict or guess the outcome. Besides that, as they listen they can even imagine the characters and draw it. Besides making use of it as listening text it could be used as a reading text too. Perhaps it will be useful to improve their vocabulary too. Students should also be encouraged to make use of the folktales to do a role-play. As the role play is conducted, students will be engaged to the imaginative world and they can express their creativity. In short, folktales could be used in many ways to make a lesson more interesting and effective as well.

FOLKTALES THAT HAVE SIMILAR STORY-LINE IN VARIOUS CULTURES

• SKUNK ORIGIN MYTH IN GREEK
• “TOKOYO” -THE GIRL WHO RECLAIMED THE HONOUR OF HER SAMURAI FATHER IN JAPANESE
• “KINTARO”- SUPERHUMAN GOLDEN BOY IN JAPANESE