Strikes, Balls, and Bunts – Trial and Errors December 10, 2009

 

The first half of this blog greatly affected how I approached the second part of the assignment. For instance, my Family stories and my Entertainment had so much in common: the water, birthdays, mermaids, an underlying struggle between good and evil. I was so sure that finding my Image of Wide Scope would be so easy…Error #1.

 

When I was done with my Community post, I realized that David Yulee and the Civil War didn’t mesh as easily with my Family stories and Entertainment as my Family and Entertainment meshed with each other.Sure, the Homosassa River was present in my Community Post. The plantation needed the river because sugar cane grows along the riverbank, so it was the river that brought the family here in the first place. Also, when the four scouts went back to the Yulee’s home after the Union showed up, they had to escape from enemy soldiers by paddling down a narrow creek. However, despite the presence of water, I didn’t feel as if water was that powerful in the Community post.

 

Trial: Were do I go from here? Since all my original ideas were contingent on water being the “thing,” I had to go back and see what sticks out as an image and as a symbol. The Yulee Sugar Mill, for example, definitely stands out as an image. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really have any significance inside the story or symbolic meaning.  Then I thought about Yulee’s involvement with the development of the Florida railroad system. Could I connect the meaning of trains to a Family story and Entertainment?  

As I thought about what trains mean–travel, mobility, power, speed, strength–it seemed to me that trains fit my stories about water, mermaids, and birthdays much better than any water symbolism could fit the story of David Yulee.  Suddenly, I went from merely drifting down a river to charging at this assignment with all the power and force of a stream engine locomotive.

Image of Widescope….Home Run! December 10, 2009

I cannot begin to describe how pleasantly surprised I am with the Image of Wide Scope revealed though my logo. If I could be known for only two qualities I would want those qualities to be and my integrity and my ability to persevere. These are the very attributes that impressed me most with each of the central people in my Mystories (David Yulee, Little Mermaid, and my Mom), and I never saw it coming.

I didn’t expect my Image of Wide Scope to capture an accurate impression of me if I didn’t use water as my “thing”. I grew-up in Florida; I have always been around water.  Fishing, swimming, and boating are some of my favorite activities. My blog address is seawilcox for goodness sakes (I picked the blog address before I even new what the blog was suppose to be about).  However, I knew that if I were to choose water, it would be forced and unauthentic. While trains might not—on the surface—seem all that relevant to my life, the attributes and atmosphere surrounding trains are very fitting.

So once again, I am shocked and amazed at how it all came together. I am sure if there were a part three to this assignment, I would be equally blown away at what a clear and candid image it reflects

Felt – Mermaids October 14, 2009

There is the obvious connection between My fourth birthday party watching the mermaid show and the story “The Little Mermaid”, but the connection goes deeper then that. When I saw the mermaids, I wanted to be a mermaid too and partake in all their fun. When the little mermaid saw all the people on the ship, she wanted to be apart of their world. The mermaid was a sea creature that always felt a strong connection to the land, where I am a land creature who has always been pulled towards the sea.

The Little Mermaid – Resolution October 12, 2009

“The culmination is the lighthouse toward which the dramatist steers his ship, and the resolution is the safe harbor towards which that lighthouse guides him. ” - The Tools of Screenwriting

Unfortunately, the prince married another. After the ceremony, the little princess lingered on deck and leaned over the edge. She sees her sisters rising out of the water. They said, “We have given our hair to the witch, that you may not die this morning. She has given us a knife. It is very sharp. Before the sun rises, you must plunge this knife into the heart of the prince. When his warm blood falls upon your feet, they will grow together again and form a fish’s tail, and you will once more be a mermaid and return to us to live out your three hundred years. But either he or you must die as the sun rises.”

However, the little mermaid could not kill the prince. She flung the knife into the water, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea. She began to feel her body dissolve into foam. However, as the sun’s rays feel unto the princess, she did not feel as though she were dying. The little mermaid saw that her body, now transparent, and that she was rising higher and higher out of the foam.

She was among the daughters of the air. One said, “A mermaid does not have an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she winds the love of a human. Her eternal destiny depends on the power of another. ” The daughters of the air explained that, though they do not have immortal souls, they could earn one by doing good deeds for three hundred years.

The daughters of the air said, “You, little mermaid, have tried with your whole heart to do as we do, You have suffered and have endured and raised yourself by your good deeds. Now by striving for three hundred years in the same way, you too may obtain an immortal soul.”

The mermaid joined the daughters of the air, “After three hundred years, we shall gain immortal souls,” she said aloud.

The Little Mermaid – Protagonist October 12, 2009

“The chief characteristic of the protagonist is a desire, usually intense, to achieve a certain goal, and it is the interest of the audience in watching him move toward that objective that constitutes its absorption in the story” – The Tools of Screenwriting

The central character of the The Little Mermaid is the little mermaid princess. She is the youngest and prettiest of all the sea princesses. The little princess loved to hear about the world above the sea. She made her grandmother tell her all she knew of the ships and the towns, the people and the animals.

When a mermaid reached her fifteenth year, she is allowed to rise up out of the sea. So the little mermaid watched and waited as each of her sisters, all six one year apart in age, take their turn to rise to the surface of the ocean. After six years it was finally the little princess’s turn.

Her grandmother adorn her with a wreath of white blossoms in her hair, and in every flower she placed a pearl.  When she rose to the surface of the water, she saw a large ship. The little mermaid peers into a cabin window. Though the porthole she observed a handsome prince celebrating his sixteenth birthday.

After a while the waves rose higher as a dreadful storm approached. The ship groaned and creaked under the lashing of the sea as the waves broke over the deck, and the thick planks began to give way. The little mermaid swam among the beans and planks that floated on the sea, looking for the handsome prince. When at last she found him, she brought him to the surface and laid him on the beach.  She waited near the shore for him to awake, and when he did she swam back to the palace, longing to rejoin her prince on land.