Friday 8/26/16

Storytelling Native Americans told stories based on dreams, visions, and through the spirits they believed were in all living things. Native Americans also told stories by ancient drawings.

Cont’d Most stories were accompanied with music or dancing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlHtzU133NI&noredirect=1

They had the concept that the land belonged to every living being They had the concept that the land belonged to every living being. There was no ownership. When the North Americans arrived in the early 1600s there was conflict because they wanted to own the land. White settlers had the native americans sign treaties, which they did not understand, to give rights of the land to the settlers.

The Native American oral tradition began when the natives crossed from Asia to Alaska via a land bridge, which is now covered by the Bering Strait. Sacred stories were often at the heart of religious ceremonies (not unlike today), and in society where myth and reality merged. Rituals were thought to link the spirit of animals and hunters. Example- Pixar’s movie “Brave” where the dangerous bear was once a man.

I Have Killed the Deer ~Taos Pueblo Song I have killed the deer. I have crushed the grasshopper And the plants he feeds upon. I have cut through the heart. Of trees growing old and straight. I have taken fish from water And birds from the sky. In my life I have needed death So that my life can be.

When I die I must give life To what has nourished me. The earth receives my body And gives it to the plants And to the caterpillars To the birds And to the coyotes Each in its own turn so that The circle of life is never broken.

Questions: What is a stanza? How are the two stanzas related? What do you think the circle in the last line refers to?

Stanza: a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse. How are the two stanzas related? In the first stanza the speaker tells how nature has nourished his life. In the second stanza he tells how he will become part of the eternal cycle when his body returns to the earth. What do you think the circle in the last line refers to? The interdependence among all living things.

How is the narrator’s tone How is the narrator’s tone? Is it playful, formal, intimate, angry, serious, ironic, outraged, baffled, tender, serene, depressed, etc? What point of view is this poem told in? The most obvious point of view is probably first person or "I." • The omniscient narrator knows everything, may reveal the motivations, thoughts and feelings of the characters, and gives the reader information. • With a limited omniscient narrator, the material is presented from the point of view of a character, in third person. • The objective point of view presents the action and the characters' speech, without comment or emotion. The reader has to interpret them and uncover their meaning.

1. What figurative language is used in stanza 2, line 3? A) Alliteration- the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. B) Assonance- in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible C) Onomatopoeia- the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named D) Personification- the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

2. What is one possible theme for this poem? A) Life is short. B) Take what is given to you. C) What goes around, comes around. D) Be nice to the plants and animals.

Life in the New World & from Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford. p.14 & P.15 Why did the Puritan’s adopt a plain style in their writing? Write a short summary of Bradford’s journal. Include his beliefs and his details of the journey. It must five sentences summarizing and responding to the passage. Turn in tomorrow.