Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Objective: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings in order to prepare to analyze author's purpose to communicate an idea.
Monday, Jan 4
Figurative Language examples in Movies - assignment on slide deck in "classroom" under "Figurative language / Magic Island"
Introduction to Magic Island by Cathy Song
Cathy Song lived in Hawaii during a time when interracial marriages were not generally accepted in the USA in 1955. Therefore, parents of many cultures arranged marriages for their children.
Arranged Marriages - The tradition of arranged marriage is most commonly found in eastern-based cultures, including Indian, Japanese, and Chinese cultures. However, it was at one time equally popular in western culture.
This poem is about a couple whose marriage was arranged for them in Hawaii. The figurative language in the poem should help you visualize their lifestyle, how they feel and the major theme od the poem.
Magic Island
A collar of water
surrounds the park peninsula
at noon.
Voices are lost
in waves of wind
that catches a kite
and keeps it there
in the air above the trees.
If the day has one color,
it is this:
the blue immersion of horizons,
the sea taking the sky like a swimmer.
The picnicers have come
to rest their bicycles
in the sprawling shade.
He would not in his own language
call it work, to cook
the sticks of marinated meat
for his son circling a yarn
of joy around the chosen tree.
A bit of luck has made him generous.
At this moment in his life,
with the sun sifting through
the leaves in panes of light,
he can easily say he loves his wife.
She lifts an infant
onto her left shoulder
as if the child
were a treasured sack of rice.
He cannot see her happines,
hidden in a thicket of blanket
and shining hair.
On the grass beside their straw mat,
a black umbrella,
blooming like an ancient flower,
betrays their recent arrival.
Suspicious of so much sunshine,
they keep expecting rain.
Under each tree, a stillness
of small pleasures:
a boy, half in sunlight,
naps with his dog;
a woman of forty
squints up from her book
to bite into an apple.
It is a day an immigrant
and his family might remember,
the husband taking off his shirt
to sit like an indian
before the hot grill.
Quizlet for Magic Island by Cathy Song
