blog 13

1. The ending of the story is the most unhappy and hardest part to understand. Beginning of the tragedy starts from the time when Ti Moune starts to want more than she originally desired. Before she met the Daniel at his hotel, her head was only full of Daniel's well being. However, after she starts to stay in that hotel, her desire was constantly growing and she wasn't a peasant girl Ti Moune anymore. It seemed like Ti Moune's desire that being a Daniel's wife might become true before Andrea, Daniel's fiance, came back. When Andrea came back, the mood changes in wierd way to Ti Moune. Daniel introduces Andrea and Ti Moune to each other and Daniel and Andrea say three people can stay all together which doesn't make any sense to Ti Moune. This part is one of the biggest part that shows how rich people think about peasant girl which is never going to be changed. They were thinking more likely her as a pet not a same level of human being with them. Eventually she gets kicked out from the hotel and ends up her life by beaten up with other peasants where she originally belonged. Even though Ti Moune ended up her life miserably, I wouldn't say this story is just a tragedy. Maybe Ti Moune's destiny was meant to be sad ending, but I think she had her happiest life right before she died. She had extremely hard but meaningful journey from the village to the hotel to achieve what she truly desired for her entire life. Whatever the ending was, I think the person who tried something for her life won't have any regret for the result. Everyone ends up their life with death, but not everyone doesn't have any regret in their life. Also, I think the author wanted to show that Ti Moune finally become free which was her true desire by showing the butterflies that came out after Ti Moune died.

2. The first thing that I learned from this book was the fact that the fate can never be changed. Before Ti moune leaves the village, Monsieur Bienconnu tells Ti Moune that "History cast our fate in stone" which foreshadows Ti moune's ending. So, while I was reading the book, I was focused on how she would change her destiny. However, her destiny has already been decided from the beginning, peasants can not be a rich and rich can not be a peasant, and the story ended with her failure of changing her destiny. After I finished reading the book and thought more about Ti Moune's death, I thought the ending is not the most important part is what this book is trying to teach audience. Ti Moune couldn't change her fate that a peasant becoming a rich, but I would say Ti Moune changed her life from being in the village where she wanted to get out to traveling the mysterious and unknown place where the freedom that she desired exists. Maybe everyone has their decided destiny, but the real point of the life that I learned from this book is focusing on how we end up to our decided destiny, not focusing on where we end up.

final draft

Would you come to see the play if there was a comic version of Romeo and Juliet? Probably most of people have never thought about the most famous romantic tragedy becoming a hilarious comedy. Basically, it is a love story about star-crossed lovers, from two different households which have been abhorring each other for a long time. There is no way that Romeo and Juliet can be together happily, The more they love each other, the more they get into uncontrollable tragedy. Also, there are so many beautiful and powerful lines from their inexorable love that impact readers to feel like they are going to fall in love too. Although the play is one of the most famous romantic tragedies, our group found some unreal parts such as Romeo climbing up on the wall and imagined how the story would go if it happened in the modern days, Also I wanted to prove that it is possible that every story can be interpreted in various kind of way depends on how we approach. So, we approached the play with totally new perspective and reinterpreted as a comedy. We chose the Act 1, scene 5, the first meeting scene of Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene 2, the balcony scene, and Act 3 scene 1, the fighting scene between Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt, and converted to the comedy. We used music, props, and exaggerated acting such as facial expression, voice tone, and mime to emphasize the ridiculousness of our performance.

 

In the first scene that our group acted, Act 1, Scene 5, we used music and exaggerated acting to emphasize the ridiculousness of the scene. In the original story, Romeo and Juliets' first meeting scene is very romantic and beautiful. They fall in love with each other at first sight in the party. Also, we could easily find out that Romeo and Juliet have something in common through their flirty conversation. Romeo says "My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." Juliet says "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hand that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss"(1. 5. 105-111). However, our group found several unrealistic parts and thought this scene wouldn't make sense if it happened in the modern life. First of all, we thought a party isn't a perfect place for the romantic first meeting because it's full of loud music and crowded people. Also, characters' lines in this scene are very emotional and quite serious like "Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged". Even though the characters are in very serious mood, it is too flirty and the fact that the characters are only 13 and 16 years old teenagers which are very immature makes audiences laugh. To describe the ridiculousness and make laughter points, we put some sources of real club in now days. First source that we emphasized was communication problem, We thought people need to yell at each other and keep repeat what they are saying to communicate in the club because of interruptions like loud music and crowded people. We put song 'Shot' by Lmfao which is really noisy and represents typical club music. Additionally, to describe the detail of club, other actors instead of Romeo and Juliet danced and sang right next to them when they were trying to flirt each other with heavy lines. They banged their head, jumped around really heavily, and lip-synced to the song enthusiastically like drunk people in the club. Those dance moves were one of the biggest laughter point in the first scene. So, Romeo had no chance but to keep repeat his flirty words which cuts off the flow of their romantic mood and converts the whole scene from romance to comedy. The main point of the first scene was changing the settings and emphasizing the realism of the modern days party to make the scene hilarious.

 

The second scene was a balcony scene which is one of the most beautiful and famous scene in the entire story. In the original story, Romeo and Juliet confirm their love toward each other in this scene. Everything becomes serious by that confirmation and the real tragedy begins from this significant scene. The author used the monologue to make the scene more romantic and dramatic. Audiences can know the characters's honest feelings that arouses more audience's attention to the scene by the monologue. Additionally, their extreme emotions are exposed by their lines. "It is the East, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon"(2. 2. 3-4). Romeo expresses how Juliet is important to him by comparing Juliet to the sun which is the most significant existence in our life. Also, the balcony influences structurally to audiences. It shows Romeo looking up at Juliet like a flower looking up at the sun. However, we tried to think outside of the box because we thought it will be extremely hilarious if we reinterpret this scene as a comedy successfully. Firstly, we slightly changed Juliet's characteristic from a lovely girl who fell in love to a girl who is crazily obsessed with Romeo. We tried to show the craziness that every normal girl has. Therefore, Juliet exaggerated her monologue, she spoke her lines jumping around the balcony with really loud and cracking voice "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny Thy father and refuse thy name, Or , if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet" (2, 2, 36-39). We tried to show Juliet's immaturity instead of her characteristic that is described in the story: calm and gentle. Second part that we emphasized to make the scene as a comedy was when Romeo climbs up the wall of Juliet's house and reaches to the balcony. It sounds really cool when the male main character climbs up the wall and reaches there like a hero, but we doubted it. We thought that it won't look really cool as how they described in the book in the real life and imagined some unexpected happenings such as his clothes and hair getting messed. So, we decided to make climbing scene as the biggest laughter point. We inserted music from the movie '"Mission Impossible" when I, Romeo in the second scene, mimed climbing. I pretended climbing up the rope and jumped in the air and used sunglasses as prop to make the scene more hilarious. Also, the important point of this part was Romeo acts like he is the coolest guy, but in audience's perspective, he is just a funny character. He says "Thy kinsmen are no stop to me" (2, 2, 74) which shows a guy who is crazy in love and cares nothing else but love. However, in the performance, when nurse called Juliet, he got really frightened and crawled on the floor acting like he is trying to hide somewhere. Generally in the second scene, Romeo and Juliet overacted to describe Juliet's craziness and how Romeo is not cool as in the real story. Not only making the scene funnier, we described the immaturity of Romeo and Juliet.

 

The final scene was Act 3, Scene 1 that we put most effort to make the scene funnier. In the play this scene is the beginning of the peak in the story. During the battle between Mercutio and Tybalt, their emotions become very intense and shows the severe fury between the two households. "Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An Thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here my fiddle stick; here's that shall make you dance"(3. 1. 47-50). Those two sub-characters die in the scene and this scene leads lots of people to death. Feud between Capulet and Montague flares, Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo kills Tyblat. After this scene, Romeo kills Paris, and finally Romeo and Juliet end up with the most horrible ending.  To convert this serious battle scene to a comedy, the first thing we started to think was changing the characteristic of Mercutio and Tybalt like how we did to Juliet and Romeo in the second scene. We made Mercutio and Tybalt cowards who pretend to be strong men. They spoke their lines with very intense and serious voice tone, but after Mercutio got stabbed, his voice tone changes like crying. And then we came up with an idea that it will be fun if there is a mood change when Romeo appears and speaks about love and peace while Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting. We put very serious and intense music from the movie "Crows Zero" when two sub-characters are fighting with serious lines "You shall find me apt enough to that sir, an you will give me occasion. Mertucito, thou consortest with Romeo"(3. 1. 42-46). However, to give an immediate mood change, we inserted peaceful, calm, and quite silly music from the TV show "Sponge Bob" when Romeo starts to give long speech about the love "The reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. I do protest I never injured thee but love thee better than thou canst devise till thou shalt know the reason of my love."(3. 1. 63-66). While Romeo speaks his line, Tybalt and Mercutio act like they are really bored at his speech which actually doesn't harmonize to the atmosphere of this bloody battle scene. Tybalt and Mercutio yawned, acted like they are going to fall asleep, and hunkered down and drew something on the ground in order to give an extreme mood change which caused laughter. In the third scene, we changed the whole setting, mood, and characteristics of the characters by putting two contrasting musics and showed it's possible to convert from serious battle scene to the hilarious comedy scene. 

 

Fortunately, most of our ideas that we intended came out successfully. All of our group members acted adequately based on the new characteristics that we altered. Also, new concepts and laughter points in each scenes worked properly as we meant. In the first scene, audiences mostly laughed because of the two sub actors which were playboys truly enjoying in the club. In the second scene, starting of the scene which is a Juliet's exaggerated monologue made audiences start to giggle and they tried so hardly to hold their laughing when Romeo mimed. In the last scene, combination of the changing of music and the Tybalt and Mercutios' acting when they gets bored while Romeo speeches was the most hilarious and successful part of our whole project. I love comedy mostly because I think laughter exist everywhere even if people can't realize it easily. Like how our group did to Romeo and Juliet, I believe that every kind of story can be converted to comedy by approaching with different perspective. 

 

Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine, and Gail Kern. Paster. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011. Print.

 

4 questions

1. What is the purporse of appearance of the lost kid in the chapter 9?

2. Describe situations that can be assumed that Gods helped Ti Moune during the journey.

3. What made the butterfly wants to escape from Ti Moune's cage?

4. Find and list some lines that are foreshadowing Ti Moune's destiny.

 * List all the maxims that you can find in the book

Someone who reminds me my past life

My favorite character in the story is the female main character, Ti Moune. She shows a lot of different characteristics from other peasants even though that is where she belongs. In the beginning of the story, peasants dance and sing on the hill to worship their God all together, but Ti Moune spends her own time instead of being in the group. She goes to the brook and lay down in naked which is breaking the rule of their society, and feels the God in her own way. Also, she keeps show her desire toward freedom and the new world by uncommon actions such as looking at the passing cars on the road and praying her wishes on the butterflies. Not only because she is different from other peasants, but also I like her characteristic because I felt so much in common with Ti Moune even though she is just a character of the novel.

 Few years ago, when I was about her age, I used to act exactly like Ti Moune. I always spoke and had desire for freedom. Most of students in Korea are forced to study by their parents and society, like Ti Moune is forced to work and everyone does. Every night, on my way getting back home from private tutoring centers, only thing I thought about was freedom and real life. Lots of student including my friends knew that the life that we are living was the life that the most of students live in our society and accepted it. However, as I grew up, I couldn't accept it like others did and desire for freedom got bigger. My parents consistently tried to convince me, but it didn't work. Finally, when I was 15 years old, I decided to do music and acting for my life which changed my whole life and characteristic. I started to fall in love with acting and music like Ti Moune fell in love with Daniel. My head was full of the new world and I didn't care anything else but those. I felt that I gained the purpose of my life and those days were the happiest time in my entire life. Unfortunately, that moment didn't last long like Ti Moune's happiest time with Daniel didn't last long either.

The other thing that I felt in common with Ti Moune was the fact that I also wasn't raised up by my real parents. My parents got divorced when I was 3 and I was raised up by my father, grandmother, and aunt. Although I lived with my father, I couldn't see him mostly when I was young because he was an extremely busy man. Thus, grandmother and aunt were my parents, and they gave me a countless love to me like how Tonton and Mama treat Ti Moune. However, as I grew up, I couldn't deny that I'm so different with them. My head understood that I receive inexpressible love from my family and also love them, but my heart was keep saying that real myself belongs somewhere else. That was one of the weirdest feeling which I had experienced and I still can't fully explain that feeling. And it feels extremely weird when I found this kind of feeling in common with a character in the book. I believe that the fact that Ti Moune wasn't raised up by her real parents effected a lot in her characteristic. Based on my experience, I assume that the reason why she prefers her own time rather than being in the group is because of the emptiness that can never be fulfilled even when she is with her own family. 

 I've never expected to feel the sense of kinship like this deep especially from a character from a fiction. Usually, I don't feel huge interests or feelings from novel and that is why I didn't enjoy most of story that I've read. However, My love, my love will be the most unforgettable book to me because it touched me in someway.

Question 4

 If I was to stage this novel as a play, I would costume Ti Moune like other peasants but put little bit of specialties. Most of peasants will wear dirty and messy brown or gray colored costume. Peasants don't have enough time and money to dress themselves up. Their only concern in their life is working which is huge contrast compared to rich people.
 However, the young girl, Ti Moune is quite different from other peasants. In the opening chapter, when most of peasants went up to the hill to worship their God, she goes to the river and stays alone which leads her to witness the car accident. After the rich boy appears in the peasant village, she doesn't care about anything else but caring the injured boy because she believes that it's a God's order to protect the boy. In order to show an outsider, a dreamer who longs for something different, I would put wreath and bracelet on her head and wrist which is made of various kind of flowers and leaves such as poinsettias, azaleas, ficus, and eucalyptus. Usually bracelet and wreath are representative of wealthiness, so the audience will feel she is more connected to the rich people than other peasants are. Also, I would put white or yellow wings that represents the butterfly which is the connections to the God on her cheeks by face painting.
 In conclusion, Ti Moune will wear similar quality and colored of clothes as other peasants, but because of her unusual interests and sensitivities, I would use wreath, bracelet, and face painting that show connections to the God and rich people.

harmonious of 4 Gods

The new book that we are reading in class is My love, My love written by Rosa Guy. This story is an adaptation of the fairy tale, little mermaid. The story is basically about the star crossed love between a peasant girl Ti moune and a rich boy Daniel. There are four gods which peasants believe in, Asaka, the goddes of the earth, Agwe, the god of the sea which also represents water, Erzulie, the goddes of love, and Papa ge, the god of death. Dualities between earth and sea, and love and death are represented by those god.

 There is a musical adaptation of this story, once on this island, which is our winter musical. If I was the stage manager, I would describe those four impressive characters by the costume, the way how they talk, gestures, facial expression, and their representative colors. First, Erzulie, the Goddess of love, will mostly have red and pink colored costumes. She reminded me aprodite in greek myth. She will be wearing very fancy clothes with red color. She will act nicely, but sometimes she will be a mean Goddess when She gets jealoused or mad. Erzulie will be the most unpredictable character among the four gods. Usually the image of love is positive, but also love has a dagnerous power that can make human to blinded person who doesn't care about anything but love. Secondly, Asaka which is the Goddess of the earth will wear a long green dress and brown wreath on her head. So that she can show the color of tree which represents the earth. The actor should be tall enough to show the authority and power of the earth. Erzulie and Asaka are both powerful and gorgeous Goddesses. However, if Eruzlie is a character like a girlfriend, than Asaka is more like a motherly character. When I think about Goddess of the earth, I can imagine the image of comfort and warmth like a mother. Thirdly, the God of sea, Agwe, will be a fatherly character. Even though the book described that they fight a lot, they still need each other and shouldn't be separated like a married couple. He will only wear a blue pants and nothing on his upper body or some body painting with blue color to show his masculine body off. Also, he will have a huge weapon like Poseidon's three pronged spear. Lastly, Papa Ge, the God of the death, will be the most mysterious character. He will wear all black clothes and white mask or all white clothes and black mask. If the mask bothers the acting, then it can be replaced by face painting. People usually only think about the negative side of the death. However, it is the natural part of human nature that happens to everybody. Also, some people come up with image of peace and calm when they think about death. Thus, to show that contrast, Papa Ge will have both black and white, not only the black.

Images of my love my love

poinsettias
flamboyant
azaleas


haiti villages