Le’s AP English Lang. & Composition

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Hamlet Discussion Questions-Answers

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 12:07 pm on Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Hamlet: Questions-Answers For Discussion

1. Hamlet waited so long to kill Claudius because it was part of his strategy or plan. He hopes and wanted to see the guilt in Claudius’s eyes and be sure of the truth before he attempts to kill Claudius. In act 2, scene 2, lines 610 to 634 Hamlet is confused about what happened and what he should do, but in lines 627-630, “ The spirit that I have seem/ May be a (devil,) and the (devil) hath power/ T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,/ Out of my weakness and my melancholy.” After the scene of the Ghost’s conversation with Hamlet, he then hesitated to avenge for his father’s murder and with this doubt in mind; he hesitated until he came up with a plan. Hamlet comes up with the idea that would reveal truth through the form of a play that is similar to the events recalled by the Ghost about his murder to prove Claudius is guilty or innocent. Claudius’s reaction had prove to Hamlet that the Ghost was telling the truth. Hamlet had several opportunities to kill Claudius, such as when Claudius was kneeling down for prayer, it was the perfect opportunity, but he decided not to. He claims that he does not want Claudius to go to heaven and he would rather kill Claudius when he is committing a sin.
2. Hamlet want to feign madness as a strategy to find the truth and protecting himself from is uncle. His feign madness helps to hide the fact that he is plotting and investigating against his uncle. His appearance of insanity help him achieve his ends well because even though his uncle is aware of his melancholy; deep sorrow or madness for love, he is not aware that Hamlet had know the truth or that he is investigating. While Claudius does become very suspicious of Hamlet, believed that he had gone mad and madness is dangerous and must be watched carefully, act 3, scene1. Although, Hamlet is not sane throughout the play, rather he cross the line into madness or feign madness after he found out the truth from the Ghost and a strategy to keep he safe is to play madness. But his behavior toward Ophelia can be considered that he went mad, but it could also be bitterness again Ophelia or women in general, account of the fact that his mother married his uncle after his father’s death. He also cross the line of madness when he accidentally killed Ophelia’s father. Ophelia’s mad scent is rather real because in act 3, scene 1, Hamlet had called off the marriage after a fight, she claimed that the “noble mind: had gone madness at the end of act 3, scene 1. Her father’s death also contributed to her madness.
3. In act3, scene 4, Hamlet seems to unconsciously desire more in his mother than just a mother-child relationship. Freud in fact called this desire “Oedious Complex, but while Oedius actually enacts his fantasy, Hamlet repressed his desires. Hamlet is between the arrange of 20 years of age while Gertrude is about 30 years of age. Hamlet claims that he does not want her to be near Claudius. He confirmed that he wants and needs her by his side when he achieve justice and he urged his mother to repent choosing Claudius over his own father and avoid being with Claudius (bed). Gertrude is rather not guilty of her husband’s murder, but guilty for the fact that she had decided to marry the murderer of her husband. Hamlet allows his perception of his mother affect his behavior toward Ophelia because he turned mad and bitter when Ophelia wishes to return the love token he had given her in while he denied giving her one in act 3 scene 1 or 2. He is then bitter about women in generate and claims that women making men behave like monsters and contributing to the world’s dishonesty by painting their faces to appear more beautiful than they are. Because he is bitter about the unpleasantness of humankind, he urged Ophelia to enter nunnery then have her become a “breeder of sinners,” act 3, scene 1, lines 122-123. Hamlet claimed that he once loved her and never to have loved her at all, which shows that he did loved her, but the bitter had overcome his true feelings.
4. The idea of suicide in the play shows that it is a way to avoid the truth or facing problems. Ending life in a suicide attempt religiously one will be damned. Hamlet believe that, although capable of suicide, most human beings choose to live, despite that cruelty, pain, and injustice of the world because one who suicide will be damned in Christianity or Catholics. They will also not be burry and if they did, not properly. Most human beings choose to live through the rough time than committing a suicide because of the fear after that and they will go to hell.
5. III.iii.77-93. Hamlet
Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying.
75 And now I’ll do ‘t. And so he goes to heaven.
And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned.
A villain kills my father, and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
80 Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought
85 ‘Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged
To take him in the purging of his soul
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No.
Paraphrase
This was when Hamlet had the opportunity to attack Claudius while he is praying, but then Claudius would go to Heaven, easy as that. He thought about it for awhile, carefully considering the facts his uncle the (villain) killed his father and he is the only son to revenge, but he can not send this villain to heaven. He believes that it would only benefit Claudius even more. Hamlet wanted to revenge and kill Claudius when it is the right time, when Claudius confesses his sins, then he would go to hell.
This connect to the larger theme in the play because revenge is the main focus in play, for Hamlet to avenge for his father and at this point Hamlet had the opportunity to attack the murderer, but he decided to wait. Because Hamlet does not want Claudius to go to heaven, he decided not to attack Claudius while he is praying. Obvious religion plays a big role in the play since what matters more is after death, the way that one die effect their after life. Hamlet then waited, plan out a strategy and killed Claudius.

Prepare for Synthesis Essay

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 12:05 pm on Tuesday, June 3, 2008


Preparing for the 2007 Synthetic Question

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 9:31 am on Monday, May 12, 2008

Nicole Kim
Amanda Clark
Josh Ju
Justin Blackwood
Quynh-An Le

Introduction: Education is the key to success and school allows us to obtain a high education to lead us far, but there have been controversy whether standardized test is helpful or harmful and should the US replace it with the college exam like other nations. The teachers, parents and students expresses their opinion toward this topic, but the government are still struggling to make the final decision to keep the original exam or replace it a higher and more challenging exam?

Question: Should the U.S school system adopt (more rigorous curriculums such as) a challenge College Entrance Exam like other nations such as Japan, Korea, England, China, etc instead of having standardized tests?

Source A
The Rise of the Testing Culture
As Exam-Takers Get Younger, Some Say Value Is Overblown

By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 10, 2006; A09

Test preparation for children barely out of diapers is hardly something Lee learned while getting her education degree at the University of Maryland, she said. But it is what she says she must do — for the kids’ sake — based on her past experience teaching in a Prince George’s County elementary school.

“The child who can sit and answer the questions correctly is identified as talented,” Lee said. “It hurts me to have to do this, but it hurts the kids if I don’t.”

Lee’s approach underscores the culture of testing that reigns in the United States. Americans like tests so much that they have structured society around them.

“We are pretty much preparing [kids] for the SAT at the age of 6,” added Solorzano, who also worked at the Educational Testing Service, the world’s largest private educational testing and measurement organization.

Americans embrace tests because they are entranced with objectivity — or at least the appearance of it, experts say.

“Merely having a number associated with something makes it sound worthwhile, even if the number isn’t all that valid,” said Robert J. Sternberg, dean of Tufts University’s School of Arts and Sciences and former president of the American Psychological Association.

Although U.S. students have never been strangers to tests, President Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative has revolutionized the process. Implemented in 2003, the law seeks to hold schools accountable for results. It not only added a national mandate for testing, but also raised the stakes higher than ever. A single test today can determine grade promotion or high school graduation, a teacher’s salary or a principal’s job.

Proponents say standardized tests are the best objective tool to hold teachers and schools accountable; opponents argue that the tests prove nothing more than that some kids are better at taking tests than others.

The testing culture “has a lot more momentum than it should,” agreed Harvard University education professor Daniel Koretz, an expert on assessment and measurement. He said a lack of solid research on the results of the new testing regimen — or those that predated No Child Left Behind — essentially means that the country is experimenting with its young people.

Tests, experts say, also serve as self-fulfilling prophecies; the most elite schools accept only students with top scores and then brag that it is these students who do well. The current craze of ranking schools also perpetuates the importance of tests, they say.

“I’m so sick of caring about those tests,” she said.

“I think we have probably, as a culture and as a society, gone too far,” said Michael A. Morehead, associate dean of the College of Education at New Mexico State University. “We need to really reflect on what these tests imply. They don’t really evaluate character. They don’t really evaluate persistence of an individual.”

Standardized tests also don’t measure values or attitude, said Daniel Chambliss, a sociology professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.

Source B
An answer to standardized tests
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Sara Monempour was 2 when her family moved from Tehran to L.A. Then she did what most new Americans do: learned English.
Sara Monempour is studying to become part of an elite group responsible for vetting standardized tests taken by students each year.
By Bob Riha Jr., USA TODAY

Attending Los Angeles County public schools, Monempour excelled in class but scored “unbelievably low” on standardized reading tests, up to and including the SAT.

Then she noticed most of her bilingual classmates did poorly, too. “We were raised here … and yet this pattern was always a factor,” says Monempour, who spoke Farsi at home. “People who speak a different language at home or with their friends and family would have issues with testing.”

Now 23 and a doctoral student at the University of California-Los Angeles, she hopes to become part of a small but growing group of elite researchers, known as psychometricians, who do little else but think about standardized tests.

Once considered an afterthought, standardized testing now drives education’s most important decisions: whether students graduate, whether schools “need improvement” and even whether teachers keep their jobs.

No Child Left Behind, President Bush’s education reform law, more than doubled the number of standardized tests schools must give each year, and it very likely will double it again in coming years.

Importance of tests

Most test questions are field-tested with kids — the SATs, for instance, include a handful of questions that won’t affect students’ scores but are simply being tried out for future tests.

Even the simplest math or reading problem may be the result of months of research to determine if it’s clear, fair and difficult enough — but not too difficult.

“Errors aren’t new,” Hill says. “What is new is that the stakes are so high.”

Occasionally, things go haywire on the real test, with real consequences: Thousands of students in Texas, Massachusetts, Minnesota and other states have been wrongly told they failed high school graduation exams or other key tests; some have sued.

Such problems don’t affect just students. At least 20 lawsuits have been filed this year after more than 4,100 teaching candidates were incorrectly told they had failed ETS’ nationally administered Praxis teacher preparation exam.

It’s worth pointing out that even psychometricians say such tests shouldn’t be the sole criterion determining whether teachers can teach, whether schools pass muster, students graduate or colleges accept them.

“Test scores are limited in what they tell you about a person, and test users don’t always keep that in mind,” Walker says.

For her part, Monempour, who’s at UCLA with the help of a fellowship from testing company Harcourt, says she’s surprised by how important testing has become.

“I really never thought it was going to get this huge,” she says.

Studying the effects of testing on English-language learners, she says, is an issue that must be addressed.

“If we need to measure students’ achievement and capabilities, we need to do it right.”

Source C
This January, a record 377,400 students took the first round of tests; another occurred last month. But despite hard study and equally hard prayer at popular Shinto shrines, two-thirds of them were doomed to fail. While the winners got to breathe easy for the next four years - Japanese colleges are not noted for taxing their students -many of the losers will try again next year.

”Examination hell” is a well-known, much-condemned phenomenon. Critics charge that the system emphasizes rote memorization and stifles creative thinking. Japanese children, they say, emerge as worker bees with stunted personalities.

Every year some students crack under the strain. In February, a 23-year-old man who had tried six times to get into Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University hanged himself after having looked at the wrong list and concluded that he had failed again. His body was found just after the telegram arrived informing him that he had passed.

Pressure to get into the ”right” colleges is so intense that an increasing number of parents enroll their children in private preparatory schools that ride a steady track to the top. So many of the brighter youngsters are in private schools now that public-school students find themselves virtually locked out of the more prestigious colleges. But instead of easing anxieties for many youngsters, the tough competition for prep schools has simply advanced the process by six years.

Source D
What’s Wrong With Standardized Tests?

Are standardized tests fair and helpful evaluation tools?

Not really. Standardized tests are tests on which all students answer the same questions, usually in multiple-choice format, and each question has only one correct answer. They reward the ability to quickly answer superficial questions that do not require real thought. They do not measure the ability to think or create in any field. Their use encourages a narrowed curriculum, outdated methods of instruction, and harmful practices such as retention in grade and tracking. They also assume all test-takers have been exposed to a white, middle-class background. (See “How Standardized Testing Damages Education,” a FairTest fact sheet.)

Are test scores “reliable”?
A test is completely reliable if you would get exactly the same results the second time you administered it. All existing tests have “measurement error.” This means an individual’s score may vary from day to day due to testing conditions or the test-taker’s mental or emotional state. As a result, many individual’s scores are frequently wrong. Test scores of young children and scores on sub-sections of tests are much less reliable than test scores on adults or whole tests.

Do test scores reflect real differences among people?
Not necessarily. To construct a norm-referenced test (a test on which half the test-takers score above average, the other half below), test makers must make small differences among people appear large. Because item content differs from one test to another, even tests that claim to measure the same thing often produce very different results. Because of measurement error, two people with very different scores on one test administration might get the same scores on a second administration. On the SAT, for example, the test-makers admit that two students’ scores must differ by at least 144 points (out of 1600) before they are willing to say the students’ measured abilities really differ.

Don’t test-makers remove bias from tests?
Most test-makers review items for obvious biases, such as offensive words. But this is inadequate, since many forms of bias are not superficial. Some test-makers also use statistical bias-reduction techniques. However, these techniques cannot detect underlying bias in the test’s form or content. As a result, biased cultural assumptions built into the test as a whole are not exposed or removed by test-makers.

Source E

Usually created by commercial test publishers, standardized tests are designed to give a common measure of students’ performance. Because large numbers of students throughout the country take the same test, they give educators a common yardstick or “standard” of measure. Educators use these standardized tests to tell how well school programs are succeeding or to give themselves a picture of the skills and abilities of today’s students.

Standardized tests can help teachers and administrators make decisions regarding the instructional program. They help schools measure how students in a given class, school, or school system perform in relation to other students who take the same test. Using the results from these tests, teachers and administrators can evaluate the school system, a school program, or a particular student.
Back to the Table of Contents

How Do Schools Use Standardized Tests?

Different types of standardized tests have different purposes. Standardized achievement tests measure how much students have already learned about a school subject. The results from these tests can help teachers develop programs that suit students’ achievement levels in each subject area, such as reading, math, language skills, spelling, or science.

Standardized aptitude tests measure students’ abilities to learn in school–how well they are likely to do in future school work. Instead of measuring knowledge of subjects taught in school, these tests measure a broad range of abilities or skills that are considered important to success in school. They can measure verbal ability, mechanical ability, creativity, clerical ability, or abstract reasoning. The results from aptitude tests help teachers to plan instruction that is appropriate for the students’ levels.

Standardized tests have limitations. These tests are not perfect measures of what individual students can or cannot do or of everything students learn. Also, your child’s scores on a particular test may vary from day to day, depending on whether your child guesses, receives clear directions, follows the directions carefully, takes the test seriously, and is comfortable in taking the test.

Source F
Chinese students fight for college places
By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing

More than 10 million Chinese students face one of the toughest tests of their young lives in the national college entrance exams over the next few days.

With about twice as many entrants as college places, competition is fierce and students have employed a range of methods to make sure they succeed.

They have joined cramming schools, hired home tutors and attended relaxation classes to make sure they are not too tense on the big day.

I think I have failed my father… I’m not good enough
Shi Meng

Some have gone to even greater lengths to ensure exam success.

A newspaper in Tianjin, a city in northern China, reported local girls have been buying contraceptive pills to delay their periods.

They fear a period during the exams could affect their concentration and so lead to lower grades.

Parents are also getting in on the act. Some have booked their “little emperors” into hotels near exam centres to ensure they arrive on time for the tests.

The rest of society is also doing its bit to make sure students are not disturbed while taking their exams.

Police will not use their car sirens, and construction sites will be shut down between 2200 and 0600 to ensure the youngsters get a good night’s sleep.

Still, the pressure on Chinese students is great, with at least one teenager reported to have committed suicide.

Anything that is not focused on academic achievement is often frowned upon by parents

Exam entrants, such as 18-year-old Shi Meng who attends Beijing’s Hangtian High School, are being pushed by their parents to do as well as they can.

“There’s been a lot of tension in the family. There are always arguments, with my parents fighting about me a lot,” said Miss Shi.

“I’m always the centre of everything they do and I get angry sometimes because of the pressure.”

High expectations are often difficult to live up to, as Miss Shi explained.

“Actually, I think I have failed my father. He hoped that I could go to a good university, and was even prepared to pay a lot of money for me to go, but I’m not good enough,” she said.

Cramming

Nicole: sotheytellme@hotmail.com
Amanda: akclark@verizonmail.com
Josh: charzaku@hotmail.com
Justin: Justin@blackwoodenterprises.com

Modest Proposal

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 9:29 am on Monday, May 12, 2008


“A Common Life” Comic

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 11:24 am on Friday, May 2, 2008

“A Common Life” ComicComic

“Lying in Bed” by G.K. Chesterton

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 8:45 pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The article “On Lying In Bed,” by G.K. Chesterton, which he expresses with humor to connect with the readers, established a point of view and persuades readers on a level to agree with him. His first sentence introduce the reader to his humor side as he also connects to the reader, “Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.” Reader knows that that are no such pencil that could reach to the ceiling if you’re lying in bed, and his personal story with ironic ideas connect with readers. He starts out with a personal story/ experience that he later continues on to share his search for a space that he was hidden from him. His tone and voice sudden to, “Then the light of that white heaven broke upon my vision, that breadth of mere white which is indeed almost the definition of Paradise, since it means purity and also means freedom. But alas! Like all heavens, now that it is seen it is found to be unattainable; it looks more austere and more distant than the blue sky outside the window.” At this point his tone change to be serious and lost a sense of humor.

“As He Puts It” Downe

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 8:44 pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

In the letter John Downe wrote to his wife trying to convince her that life in America is wonderful. He shares the great things and opportunities America allows him to grasp. From the kind people he interacted, to the places and things that he could do in America, but not in England such as the great food that he could eat comparing to the food and the things he could do. At first he talks about how great America is, then he mention how he loves them so much he wished they could join. It was clear that they were poor and if only they had enough money he would have taken her with him. He compared England to America stating that America, “America is not like England, for here no man thinks himself your superior. There is no improper of disgusting equality, for Character has its weight and influence, and the man which is really your superior does not plume himself on being so.” Downe is saying that American isn’t line England because America is where everyone is treated equal and for their character.

Freedom of Speech…on The Internet!

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 9:48 am on Thursday, April 24, 2008

Freedom of Speech…on The Internet!

I believe in this…
As the world advance itself in a higher dimension with technology and equipments that deviated us to relied on it instead of making the effort to do it ourselves, we become lazy and worse ignorance. Tools such the Internet could be a great source to advance our education instead we spend countless hours on it to procrastinate with our daily lives, commit crimes, and problems for ourselves. Especially for teens, we tell our parents we need the Internet to “do homework,” but once we get our hands on it we cannot control ourselves to stop typing and clicking on the word “MySpace, Facebook, Hi5” or any online journals there maybe. Instead of leaving a few comments on our friend’s page, some might find it entertaining to stock on other strangers, which eventually becomes a habit and they become “an online predator.” Worse there are parents, doctors, layers and even teachers who abuse the use of Internet by harassing others online using false identities to protect them from the law. People are so ignorance that they would pose private and personal pictures of themselves, family or friends online to the public where billions of people could view it. People find the internet to be the place where they can be “someone else” and not get in trouble. They would harm others in various way and do various things that they would never have done in the real world, but online life is a whole other dimension that we’re are all lost in whether we’re on for a quick games, download our favorite movies or tunes, chat, meet people or even harass them, people do not use the internet efficiently it was purposely made for.

Or this…
We may agree that people do abuse the use of internet, but there are still others who got most out of the internet as much as possible. From grandparents to toddlers, we all could make use of the internet in the most efficient way. For kids after watching the PBS channel, an educational show, they could visit the websites to do fun and educational activities. This will allow the kids to learn as well as have fun and their parents could be happen that their children are learning but not having to go to school. They can learn more are an earlier age. For teens, the internet is a great source for research project, homework help or expression themselves about certain social issue to connect with other from the other part of the world. After school, homework may be an issue without teachers, but as the internet is such a powerful resource with just one key word, thousands of related topics and answer could pop up on the screen. Parents would use the internet as a source to keep up with such advance world. Instead of missing the news on the big back box, they can go to the smaller white box find the latest news whether if its local or international. Booking tickets for a vacation online is very convenience or purchasing a gift without polluting the world. People can learn so much from the Internet. It is the key to open their horizon to the world. Things people never seem, heard or read about, the Internet is their opportunity to learn more and gain knowledge of the world that they might not how a chance to visit.

Kennan-Outline

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 9:38 am on Thursday, April 24, 2008

Thesis: “In our country, the element of power is peculiarly diffused. It is not concentrated, as it is in other countries, in what we might call the ‘pure form,” of a national uniformed police establishment functioning as the vehicle of a central political will,” as this statement had clearly stated that “power” within the United States are not compelled to the government. Yes, we also must think that not every nation has the ability to hold or control power within the government or main holder of power that branches off to society. But we must also consider the United States was compared to the Rome Empire or as an Empire itself. If the United States has such impact and power within it, it should be able to be the root to power and branch it out to society.

I. Intro
A.    Power within one nation.
i.    Laws, rules and freedom.
B.    Thesis: Although, the United States are compared to be an Empire, yet, it holds little responsibility and control of power as a nation with such power and impact.
II. Body
A.    The Freedom and Opportunities
B.    Power existents in many other institutions
a.    Compare to nations like
i.    Singapore
1.    Strict, enforce and hold power
ii.    Finland
1.    Strict government
C.    Abuse of power
a.    Lack of enforcement
b.    Up to people to help “Americans place upon ourselves quite extraordinary obligations of conformity to the group in utterance and behavior, and this features of our national life seems to be growing rather than declining.”
c.    Lack of focus
i.    Between different community
ii.    Compare Shoreline to Seattle
III. Conclusion
A.    As a nation the U.S. has a strong government
B.    As a nation the U.S. has the Power
C.    As a nation the U.S. stands strong from the exterior,
D.    But need more work on law enforcement because it has the power to

Juxtaposing Images-”Home Sweet Home”

Filed under: Uncategorized — shorewood3 at 8:27 pm on Tuesday, April 22, 2008

“Home Sweet Home”

“House Portrait”

 

“A Warm Welcome to the Fitch Home”

    The word “home” typically allow people to grasp warm, pleasure, and most desirable feeling as well as happiness and the feeling of belonging and protected under one roof. Home always gives people a sense of welcome and comfort. The idea of having a home has always been idealized in society, but as individuals we all have our own picture in our mind of home. No matter big or smaller, where or when our home locates, we will always have the same value and appreciation toward it. Although, the media such as TV shows, movies and even stories typically lead us to believe that a home is consist of at least a three to five room building with glorious flower garden in the front, a vegetable field in the backyard with nice fence surround and a family under one roof. But in reality we know that “home” does not always necessarily seem as “perfect” as the media had portrayed it. The painting, “A Warm Welcome to the Fitch Home,” of a typical retirement home in Melrose, Massachusetts is rather a reality home for the elderly. Men and women over the age of 65 years of age are all welcomed to gather in this home under one roof since 1928 with an objective to “provide a real home with maximum comfort and a warm friendly atmosphere,” but comparing to “House Portrait,” which is a photograph of a typical house that was painted with oil painting through a professional company that turns photos into painting for a certain price depending on the size, clearly show the contrast between the two home of reality and the typical dream home.
“House Portrait,” is rather a modern home, a typical dream home that most American would wrap themselves up in work to be able to obtain it. At first glance it gives us a sense of happiness, as the color of the painting is bright with clear clouds and green, beautiful grasses as the background. The focus is distinctively to the home with the background color rather lighter and the home in contrast with a much darker color, solid shape and realistic.  Because it is a portrait of a house, it is proportion as the shape and size of the buildings balanced well. The white frame gives it a realistic dimension to the painting. The shade lines of yellow light shinnying from the sun to the grass gives a warmth and comfort of a home; the “ideal” home. The two trees next to the house give it a sense of belonging instead of isolation from the community.
On the other hand the “A Warm Welcome to the Fitch Home,” reveals the beauty of the residential community through warm colors and the balance of the painting that does not bring any particular parts to stand out in the painting. The warm color gives the painting a much stronger, older or rather “mature” perspective of belonging than the “House Portrait,” with bright, attractive colors, which brings it closer to a younger generation. The colors, lines, shapes, and textures give the painting an abstracting style due to the lacking of straight lines, clearness and focus. The buildings, trees, bushes, colors, and shapes blades into each other in the painting and gives it a warm and gloomy atmosphere.
Although, both painting is rather contrasting each other, both gives the sense of “welcome home,” and comfort. Because a home is symbolic to represent a permanent settlement, a family or rather a social unit with empathy toward each other, both painting reveals a strong connection of togetherness and in harmony. As an anonymous had quoted, “A house is made of walls and beams; a home is build with love and dreams.” Clearly stated that both home is a place for dreams to start or grow for the future. Ones who settle in the “House Portrait,” may dream of a happy and successful family, while “A Warm Welcome to the Fitch Home,” may allow elders to dream for a happy ending as their journey might end their. The background of both paintings happens to place the homes into a secure and safe location instead of being isolated or threaten in society. As both homes prevent a vivid image of an active lifestyle and relaxation to the settlers. The artists connect with the audiences through a sense of satisfaction for settlement, a roof to stay under.
The artists both express the sense of gratitude for a home and the warmth a home had provided them. The message to the audience who owns or are fortunate enough to have a home, a roof to stay under should appreciate it and for those who doe not to understand that there will always be a place that will welcome everyone together under one roof to called a “home.” The paintings maybe contrasting each other, but they both gives an impression of a sincere touch in heart because a home is always a safety net and a shelter to all.

The Big Art Company. “House Portrait.” 16 April 2008.
<http://www.thebigartcompany.com/details.php?id=8>

The Fitch Home Inc. “A Warm Welcome to the Fitch Home.” 2007. 16 April 2008.
< http://www.fitchhome.org/>

Think Exist.com Quotations. “Home.” 2006. 16 April 2008.
< http://thinkexist.com/quotations/home/>