Saturday, January 29, 2011

Final Allusion Graphic, Poem, & Reflection


Sitting in the Rubble

Pressure, Stress

Losing my mind in everything

The yelling and the screaming

Just make it stop

All those hurtful words still ringing in my ears

Taunting me, threatening me, doubting me

If only I could seize it all

But I have no control

None

Only forced to watch

As everything falls apart

I beat the ground below me

And I spend endless days and nights

Pondering, Wondering

Staring into nothingness


Every now and then I ask myself

What did I do to deserve this

Really, what sin have I committed

Just tell me

Is it something that I can fix

No really, I want to be a better person

No answer

Dead silence

So I continue

Dealing with the pain that fell upon me

I go


But suddenly

A hand

Reaching out for me

Shedding an array of sunlight around me

In such confusion, I look and stare

As the green grasses grow

Wildlife spring about

Happiness filling the hearts of those around me

The rubble, the dirt

Dissolving, disappearing

Those relentless voices

Gone


I guess it really does exist

Hope


Reflection

At first, it was really difficult for me to find an allusion that would describe who I am. I wanted to do something on a bible story, but I found this an obstacle because I wasn’t as ‘great’ as the characters that were portrayed in the stories. They were so faithful and so perfect in a way. They’ve done so many great things that I just could not compare myself to them. So, I took a look at the Disney characters and the Egpytian and Roman gods and goddesses, but I found them a little boring because everyone else was using them. I wanted to shoot for uniqueness. So, I skimmed through “My Book of Bible Stories” children’s book and I tried to look for something of my liking. Luckily, I did find what I was looking for.


I chose to relate my life and the trials that I go through with Job’s experience. In the bible story of Job, his faithfulness to God was being tested by Satan. His cattle and camels were stolen, while his sheep were killed. His 10 sons and daughters were also killed by a storm. Satan then struck Job with a terrible sickness that took over his entire body. His wife began yelling at him, telling him to “curse God and die.” Three false friends also visited him and told him that he lived a bad life. However, throughout all of this, Job kept faithful to God. With this, he was able to withstand the trials that fell upon him. As a result, God blessed him with twice as much as he had before he was tested. He was healed and God gave him a beautiful home and many things.


This story was always my favorite out of all the other Bible stories. So, for the allusion project that we had, my goal was to relate my life to Job’s life. Although I may not have gone through the same things he has gone through, I did find some similarities. I used the base of the story to describe the trials that I go through in life. In my life, I go through a lot of pressure and stress. Sometimes, they are so burdensome that I can no longer handle it anymore. At times, I want to explode and sometimes I just wished I had to power to stop everything and seize time in its place. Every now and then, I just take the time to think and observe the many things that’s occurring. I try to find a solution to the problem, but it gets difficult because there are time when I just don’t know what the problem is. Like Job, he has not done anything wrong towards God, so he must have been confused, just like how I am when I am going through trials. Also, the people around me sometimes mock me and yell at me for something that I know I did not do. Some just do it to intimidate me and to confuse my mind. So, with this I was able to write the beginning of my poem. In addition, I wanted to end the poem with a message of ‘hope.’ Something along the lines of “good things come to those who wait” or “there’s always a rainbow after the hurricane.” Then, I began to think about the events that happened in my life. I did realize that after the obstacles that I overcame in the past, I was always rewarded for my hard work. With this, I found a perfect ending to my poem. I was so caught up in expressing my feelings that I began to add extraneous parts to my poem.


With the comments from my peers and my teacher, I noticed where I needed to make improvement. My goal for my final was to shorten it and to focus my poem on the important parts. So, I tried to generalize the poem - generalizing it in a way that is still focused (if that makes any sense). So, I thought about all the events that have influenced me a lot and I looked for all of the similarities that each of those events had with each other. With success, I was able to write out my poem. Towards the ending of my poem, I added the green grasses, wildlife spring about, happiness, rubble, and dirt. I wanted to achieve a bit of imagery, but at the same time I wanted these elements to symbolize “hope.” I was really happy with the outcome of my final poem, although I did struggle on finding the right words that would portray the right meaning.


In the rough draft of my graphic, I envisioned a hill with storm and lightning up above. Then, I would have me running away from it, symbolizing my wanting to escape from all of the difficulties that I go through in life. I was still iffy about my graphic because it seemed as though it was missing something. At first, I thought that I just needed to add a little text, but I didn't want that because I wanted my graphic to be pure imagery. After my commentary, I realized that I was missing the message of "hope". So, after I finished finalizing my poem, I picked out evocative words that existed in my poem and I tried to incorporate it with my graphic. It can be seen with the reaching out of the hand from the sky, symbolizing hope. The green grasses growing below me and the blue sky erasing the rubble also symbolize that message. The black and whiteness of the rubble behind the blue sky also represents the sadness and the trials that I went through in life. Then, you see me in the center of the graphic, looking up at that array of sunlight up above. My skin and hair have a little bit of a distorted coloring because I wanted to achieve that feeling of sadness and hurt. However, my clothes begin to receive color. This shows that I have finally found a way out of my troubles or a blessing for my effort in overcoming so many obstacles. You can also see a little bit of the story of Job in this graphic as well, which is what the allusion assignment was about anyway. (WOOHOO!)

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