Time To Wake Up!!

What’s going to happen days from now when we don’t spend all our time thinking of new ideas for blogs, or disagreeing/agreeing with people on their blogs?

It’s time to get back to the same 10th grade English class like the beginning of the year. Hey I didn’t say anything was wrong with it, it’s just going to take awhile to get back in the way of things. This project has really taught me a lot. When we were first assigned this project I didn’t realize what an obsession I would have with it. My first thought was “Oh, here goes another English project…” Now looking back on everything I wouldn’t have changed one thing.

Blogging has now become one of my favorite things to do. I love that I can express my feelings on the internet rather than in person because I feel a lot more comfortable and confident. I usually don’t like speaking out in class just in a case I say something wrong and look not so smart. Other classmates and people all over the world can read my blog entries and have their opinions over my thoughts and then I can read how they feel about what I’ve written and if I didn’t see it from their point of view. It’s an awesome way to expand out minds. It’s not just like any other class project. This one allowed my classmates and me to have open opinions without being judged about how we interpret different things. When we open this to the real world they can see how there are very many ways to analyze this book by 10^th grade students. I bet there’s a million other ways with different age groups also.

When Mr. Long first assigned us this I think it was a challenge to see if we could actually successfully fulfill what he wanted. From what I know, I think that we did an awesome job! I love how he assigned our partners by each of our unique attributes that we can help contribute to our groups. My group personally did an amazing job. We worked so well together and communicated all the time making sure everyone was staying on task. We all accomplished everything we hoped for. I know we are going to do well because of the team work and all the hard work we put into this project.

I loved having a project that was basically a “do what you want” but while we knew what we had to get done. Mr. Long kept us up to date and let us lead ourselves down the rabbit hole. I felt a lot better doing this without being under pressure. I’m so excited to get graded from people we don’t know. I feel like it will be a better way and it’s not just one person being the judge of us. We can have people that have just come and followed our blogs but don’t know us as a person, but as a writer.

I’m very sad that this project has come to an end, because I truly loved expressing myself and thoughts through these blogs. Like my group discussed on a CoveritLive, this was like our own “wonderland” and this was our adventure to take us through new paths and for us to discover the bigger picture. I really feel like I learned a lot more because we learned the symbolism through the story. I know I’ll be looking for symbolism in all new books I read from now on. Unfortunately, it’s time for all of us to wake up from this “dream” of ours and get back to the normal routine. I will miss coming in class everyday not being able to do things that go along with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But I would like to thank my group for doing such a great job and Mr. Long for assigning this amazing project! 🙂

14:Rescue From Without/15:Crossing of the Return Threshold/16:Master of the Two Worlds

These are the last three steps on Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”.

Step number 14 is when a person out of nowhere comes and saves the hero. It’s an unexpected source that rescues them and or a person forgotten in the story that doesn’t seem very important. In the story Alice doesn’t ever get rescued from anyone. I guess you could say she rescues herself by waking up. She becomes worked up at the end of the story and eventually wakes up and realizes it is all a dream. If I was Alice I would be disappointed that is was all a dream because she was away from the real world and in a fantasy land where anything could happen, and she didn’t have to have her parent’s approval for anything. So I think she rescues herself from anything bad that could have happened to her. Say for example, the Queen shouting “Off with her head”. But as we all know she never really went through with that.

Step number 15 is Crossing of the Return Threshold. This is when the “hero” has made is home and is safe once again. They won’t have to worry about anything bad happening to them because they are back where they know everything around them. This can be hard or easy for the character this is happening too. Alice never really returns home, she just wakes up from her dream. this could be easy for Alice because it was never a real thing happening it was all a fantasy, but it also could be hard for her if she became attached to wonderland and all the things it involved.

The last step is number 16, Master of the Two Worlds. This is when the hero has fully been returned and now has been the “master” of both worlds… or in Alice’s case she is an expert for her home land, but also wonderland. She has gone a long way to get through it all and come out and still be the person she is. She could take this all into perspective and change her ways and be more careful or she could take it as a fun experiment and something she doesn’t regret.

***

As I finished writing all my blogs on Campbell’s series, I’ve learned that not all characters will qualify to be a hero in the end. I showed what Alice has in common with the different traits but she doesn’t follow all of them. I wouldn’t say Alice is a hero after all. She was just an average little girl who made a “mistake” and fell down a rabbit hole. I think that she had a fun time and was pleased it was all a dream. When she wakes up in reality she is still a happy girl, but I think it’s all a little more than a dream.

12:Refusal of the Return/13:The Magic Flight

After the Ultimate Boon has happened the character doesn’t want to leave their “happy place”. They don’t want to go back to the normal life after they have experienced all of this. Like I said before, Alice never really has her “goal” reached, because she never made on in the beginning. Maybe it’s just the satisfaction of being in wonderland and being somewhere that is different and interesting to her. She enjoys wonderland because it is different and not like home. She can be anything she wants and be happy there. There’s not actual proof of Alice saying “I don’t want to go home”, but wouldn’t you say that she seems happy in wonderland? We never really saw her at home but being in wonderland would be happy for a seven-year old girl.

The magic flight is when the transition begins or the process of going to the previous existence. This is when the character tries to hurry home after the goal has been accomplished. But in the story like I said there is no goal that has been made. She never set one in the beginning of the story. Alice also never at any point in the story tries to rush home. She enjoys being there because it is different and something she has never been through before. Alice wakes up from the dream to realize it never actually happened. I think she was disappointed by this because she had a fun time. But isn’t it weird she can remember everything that happens? usually when I have a dream I forget it. I find it really weird she can tell the whole dream to her sister without leaving anything out and her sister can relate and say she saw the same thing.

10:Apotheosis/11:The Ultimate Boon

These are the next Hero’s Journey steps, 10 and 11.

The first one describes the character basically getting a higher place. As Alice goes through her journey she continues to get to know the other characters a lot more. When she goes to the Queen’s house, she really connects with the Duchess. They talk a lot, and get to know each other pretty well. Alice is kind of creeped out by the Duchess but she doesn’t let it bother her. She also gets closer to the Queen and everyone starts to like Alice a lot more than from the beginning. This is where she starts to realize that she has been changed as a person and the transition can be stated with the appearance change of the character. She doesn’t change at this part in  the story. Alice changes at the beginning of the story when she keeps changing sizes. But that’s a different part of the hero stage. But we do see Alice change again in the court room. She begins to keep getting taller and eventually almost get kicked out of there for being to tall.

Next is the Ultimate Boon. This is when the goal of the journey is reached. This is probably after a battle or when the great treasure is reached. Alice never had a physical battle with anyone and I don’t really think she had a goal of her journey. Her adventure started out because of a mistake she made by accidently falling down a hole. This can be the climax of the story or anything where is qualifies where the “goal” is accomplished.

8:Woman as the Temptress/9:Atonement with the Father

These are the next steps for the continuous Hero’s Journey.

Woman as the Temptress is when the character meets usually a female who becomes her temptation. I don’t think anyone qualities to play this part. I think she is a little to young and not complex enough to even follow this. As we see once again, she doesn’t follow this which is another proof of my believing she isnt a hero. But everyone has their own opinions and can still believe that she truly is going to be a hero.

Atonement with the Father is when the character comes in contact with a father figure. There usually is a complicated relationship between the two but eventually becomes in good terms together. Sometimes the person can be a god or a person that has a high authority. I think that the father figure is the Cheshire Cat. He is the one who really helps her a long the journey and supports her. I don’t think they ever had a “head butting” moment. They had always gotten along.

This leads to the next steps which are the apotheosis and the Ultimate boon.

6:Road of Trials/7:Meeting with the Goddess

I started writing about the Hero’s Journey at the beginning of this project. I definitely saw that Alice isn’t a hero at all. She might have some qualities that hero’s have but that doesn’t make her one.

The next of Campbell’s steps is number 6, Road of Trials. This is the path and journey of the character as they go through and what happens in their adventure. Alice did have this aspect in her adventure through wonderland after she got through the rabbit hole that’s when her journey started and most of her things from there on are now qualify her for her journey to begin being a hero. But don’t most all characters have the path of learning the good and bad of things. Alice learned a lot from her adventure but will she use any of it when it’s all over with?

Next is step 7: The Meeting with the Goddess. This is found in more hero’s stages through their adventure but it doesn’t always happen, just like every step here. This is the road when they meet a female figure that influences them. I think that her influence was the Queen of Hearts. In one of Kristen K’s blogs she relates the Queen as a sister figure that helps her out through this adventure. The “goddess” can be a mystical or supernatural person along with someone they meet.

So I believe Alice isn’t a hero right? But she does relate to a lot of these qualifications. Maybe she is her own hero.

Newsflash! WE Have Become the Guinea Pigs Now.

Whoa. I know this is mind boggling. One minute I’m trying to think of a final blog to post before I have to depart from my beloved Alice project *sniff sniff* and then it comes to me like BAM.

During English class today, the final day of Alice, Dr. Davis and Mr. Kellam came into our class to observe us working for the first time. It was just like any normal day in class, but I was definitely having some writer’s block. Thinking, thinking, thinking…I have analyzed everything to the best of my ability and to be honest I’m getting a bit sick of that a word.

Once I stop focusing on Alice to clear my head, I notice Dr. Davis and Mr. Kellam.

Surprisingly they were analyzing us! I never noticed how truly unique this project is because I’ve been apart of it since day one. To outsiders, this must be a really remarkable thing to see, teenage students working on laptops in a classroom that is more like the editing floor of a newspaper, than anything else. We are diligent and determined. The outside world has become so fascinated with us, what we are accomplishing, and this new direction education is taking. It really didn’t hit me until now.

While we have been putting Alice under a magnifying glass, the outside world has been putting us under a high-power microscope! It’s a bit nerve-wracking to know that the world is watching you, and maybe you think I’m exaggerating when I say world (Hey we’re top 3 on the second page of Google! I would say that’s pretty huge.). By world I mean just other people, the public. It’s a big deal when your work goes form just being graded by a single teacher that you may or may not care about, to creating something that will last forever that anyone in the world can find and judge for themselves. It makes this project much more powerful.

What really takes the pressure off is focusing on Alice. It’s like we are peeking in on her life, while others are peeking in on us.  “I always feel like somebody’s watching me “, that is the song that just came to mind as I’m thinking about this overlap of observation and analyzing. It’s something we as a class have never really talked much about before because Alice was our many priority, but now that we can step back from it, we can see what we’ve accomplished and how other people perceive us.

This is like freaky experimental-type teacher stuff if you ask me. We are in our own bubble, our own Wonderland, because we are Alice and we have always been, we just hadn’t  noticed. Once we wake up from this dream, the on-lookers will discover the legacy we have left, and finally analyze US.

P.M.S

Cool your jets people, I know what your thinking.  No I’m not talking about some girl’s time of the month, this is still entirely related to Alice. It’s just a coincidence that the acronyms are the same, not my fault!

What I’m talking about is Post Madness Syndrome.  Alice probably has a good case of P.M.S. when she comes back home. How do you go back to real life after an experience like that? Dream or not, to Alice ,Wonderland was real.  Now every time  she passes by a white rabbit she will try to follow it, or even talk to it. There will always be remnants of Wonderland around her. They will be everywhere she looks and anywhere she goes, because Wonderland had so many things that were present in her real life as well. She has been mentally changed forever, and no one else will understand her.

She will probably go to her mum and try, unsuccessfully, to describe the world she has just lived in. And her mom will say “Alice dear, it was just a dream. There’s no use in talking nonsense, it’ll get you no where in life”. But I feel her  new enlightened type of thinking, that will develop as she  matures, will take her places in life.  Her mother is somewhat ignorant in a sense. She has no knowledge of Wonderland, so she has no reason to empathize with Alice, let alone believe her. It’s like a child telling stories of a Boogeyman or imaginary friend.

This is a sad fact because Alice won’t have anyone to share Wonderland with…or will she? Alice’s sister had a dream of Alice’s dream at the end of the story, but who knows if their two dreams were anything alike? Perspective changes the story and Alice’s sister is older.  Whatever her perspective, at least Alice will have someone to share her journey with, because it’s just too much for her mother to comprehend at her point of maturity and adulthood.

Waking up from her dream is also like metaphorically an awakening of something inside her. A new Alice wakes up and I doubt her connection to Wonderland will ever fade away.

Modern Days

My group and I did a CoveritLive on Monday night discussing the new SyFy “Alice” and also the new upcoming movie by Disney. We compared and contrasted a lot of the things we saw when we watched the “trailers” for the two items. I found a lot more differences then I did similarities. I also brought up about how creepy the new movie looks.

Do you think this could just be because of the creativity that Tim Burton has? Or could it be because this is the way he sees wonderland, and the other characters. Tim Burton is has done a lot with movies with either directing or producing movies. Some of the popular movies that you have probably heard of are; Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. If you have seen any of these movies before or even heard about them you will find that they all have that “creepy” feeling to all of them. I think Burton does a very good job on creating these stories and using a different aspect from other directors.

Another thing is that when you compare the SyFy version of “Alice” to the Annotated version you will find very many differences. In the upcoming show, Alice is a brunette and is very much older than in the book we’re reading. In the upcoming movie Alice is a blonde but also much older. In the book the Annotated Version, Alice is a young blonde girl. I find it interesting how so many people picture her differently.

This is from the SyFy “Alice”

http://www.daemonstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/nup_135521_0225.jpg

This is from the upcoming movie “Alice in Wonderland”

http://janezlifeandtimes.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/aussie-mia-wasiklowska-as-alice.jpg

This is Alice from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: The Annotated Version”

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Alice_par_John_Tenniel_30.png

Next I find it interesting that wonderland was never really described in the book to us, so basically anyone can have their own imagination and think whatever they would like about wonderland. One person could think of it as a bright happy place while another person could see it as a dark place where not everyday things happen. But what it looks like to me in the show and new movie, it looks like a dark place. It wouldn’t look very inviting if you asked me.

Why do you think Burton and the creator of the new series “Alice” would make Alice so much older?

I think maybe they are trying to appeal to the older age of people because those are the people willing to spend the money to go see the movie or the ones who know when a TV show is going to by airing. If they make it for little kids, they can’t always do what they want or watch what they want. Why would they do this? Carroll wrote this book for children but now it’s turned to an older age group. Or maybe the new movie is aiming for a young age but more likely get an older age group just depending on everyone’s opinion on it.

The Alice Project Experience.

This COVERITLIVE event sums our Alice Project Experience up. It includes our academic progression throughout the project as well as our opinions as Alice critiques.

Must everything have symbolism, even if it is subconscious symbolism?

The Aftermath