"Immigrants, we get the job done."

Hello everyone, my name is J.N. and I take a humanities class called Stories at GCE Lab School. In this term, we learned about history, story structures, and how to portray different myths and morals in a certain way.

For this unit, we put an emphasis on the hero’s journey. The “hero's journey” is a plot structure that shows what the hero faces, and how he/she returns from it. It’s shown to be a cycle, and many times a person would go through a hero’s journey whenever facing a sort of conflict. This plot structure is shown both in fiction and in real life, which allows us to determine if a certain person could be considered a hero.

For this AP, I decided to look over a real hero and a fictional hero. My real hero is my mother, Dolly Z. She immigrated to America, went from poverty to a higher economic class, and now supports others. Meanwhile, my fictional hero is a boy named Carlitos. He is from the movie Under the Same Moon. He travels from Mexico to America to find his mother. Throughout the film, he is confronted by multiple challenges while gaining multiple allies.

In both stories, I found multiple comparisons in these heroes. But what I found the most intriguing is that they are round characters. They live their lives through the challenges they face and survive without fully winning or losing. Yet they change through those challenges. They gain experience which allows the potential for them to help others. Thus, you see them save the people they love at the end.

Either way, this is the story of two different yet similar heroes. There's a audio recording and a transcript on said recording. Still, I hope you all enjoy the powerpoint, listen to to audio, and read the transcript.

 

The Fox and the Gator

My name is J.N., and I study at GCE Lab School. In it, I have been taking a Humanities class known as stories. What we do is we study about literature and subjects such as symbolism, metaphors, and much more. For an assignment, we had to write a fable that had a symbol, anthropormophic or non- human characters, and moral for the story. I just want to say that I'm proud this project with the illustration created by myself. I am also proud of the story itself, and how it gets straight to the point. What I had struggle however is the symbolism in the story, which is consistant but is hard to find. Still, I hope you like it and that you can be able to find the moral.

There was once a group of young alligators and their father who went into a lake and ate most of the fish. The woodland creatures wanted to tell the large alligator to stop, but they were all too scared to do so. So, for the first time ever, both prey and predator went to the center of the forest to talk about what they were going to do. An owl, on the highest branch, became the leader of the group. Before the meeting began, she told everyone that no one was to be eaten nor killed. All the animals agreed and started with the meeting.

At first, nobody knew how to deal with the alligator. It wasn’t until a bear came up from the group. “I can certainly beat the scoundrel” said the bear. “But in order to do so, I wish to have another cave of my own, as well as all the honey I can eat”. Now, some the animals though the bear could do it. He was known to win, sometimes with just one swipe of his claw. The owl and other animals agreed that the bear was the right choice.

Before the fight, the sun had set, and it was so dark that most of the animals couldn’t see the event. When the fight was over, the bear had wounds from his shoulder to his belly. He was in agony, and said, “ I came up to him, trying to resolve this conflict peacefully, and he attacked me with full force. I came running back for safety.” All the animals shivered in panic for the upcoming future. The owl screeched and told everybody they would all have to adapt to the situation. They all agreed until a mouse came running in and stated that the alligator scared him off when he was taking a drink from the lake. Realizing that their largest water supply was taken hostage, the owl decided that whoever could beat the alligator could get the promised cave.

The stag tried, but he couldn’t run on water. The wolves tried, but the water was unclear at night. Over and over, challengers tried to fight the alligator, but they were always in the dark whenever it happened.

As the animals were ready to accept their fate, a small fox came around the corner and took the center of the group. “ Maybe I could help.” said the fox in a calm voice. “but only if you give me the cave for myself. ”

Now, the forest residents hated the fox almost as much as the feared the alligator. When he was young, he was a trickster. He would trick critters all day and would leave at night. But seeing how they didn’t have a choice, the animals all voted and gave the fox a chance.

At the sunrise, the fox proceeded toward the gator. The alligator looked fiercely towards the fox, ready to attack. The fox only smiled and said, “Gee, you seem tense. What, fox got your tongue?” .Now ,to most, this would seem terrible. But alligator laughed so hard that he almost forgot to breathe .

JN "Storybook" 2018, blogspot

As the sun rose, the fox laid down on the shore of the pond, speaking one joke to the next. Gradually, the gator trusted the fox and felt calm near him. After a long period of jokes, the fox tried to suggest something. “ You know… There’s a really nice pond a couple miles away. It has all the fish in the world, and if you go there, no creature would ever bother you again.”

The gator looked sternly at the fox and spoke. “So that’s why you'se here. You'se tellin me to git out like all the rest of them critters. Well, Ah would, but one of my kin died ‘cause of a ruthless bear. We was just mindin our own beeswax, when dis big old bear came runnin toward us, and tried kill me. I fought back, of course, but right before he was tuh leave, his claw swipes at my son and took his dear life. I won’t stop til I get justice.”

When the fox got back, he told the animals everything. At first, they all didn’t believe him, until he brought the alligator himself and explain his side of the story. They told the bear to leave the forest. As the sun rose, the bear was able to gain justice from the crime, while the fox got his cave. The sun had rose high into the sky, and the forest was able to see a lot clearer.

Cometa

Over in our Humanities class, we learned about stories and myths. We have gone to multiple FEs, one of them being at the Field Museum, where we learned the myths of central America and Egypt. So, for a project, or more better phrase, and Action Project.

First, I was want to stay is this story is in first person. The main reason being is so that the main character, being the brother of the creator, can be able to see her as all powerful, and reflect his feelings on to the audience. Second, I also want to say that this is the third version of the myth. The first and second version was too long, trying to establish character. Because of this, this project was extremely hard with not coming up with ideas, but rather simplifying it.

Third, I want to say that the creation of the two characters as well as the people stems from the idea of Genesis Adam and Eve, with them being created from a power in the sky, as well as the dirt from the ground. Even though it does have some major changes. Still, I hope you all enjoy.

I have never been the one to tell stories, nor the one to remember, but I suppose it’s for the best. My light will go out anyway, so you all might as well learn. But I can’t be able to tell you one part, one section, one place. I have to tell you the whole thing. I have to go back, back before I was even born.

My guess is we were a comet, and crashed on a planet, thus it’s name Cometa. Though, that’s only through speculation. For a long time, I could not feel anything. Then, as the days went by, I started to gain my sense, and I finally woke up in cool surfaced dirt. As I woke up, I saw a girl, crying in the middle of the ground. Even though I haven’t met her, I knew she and I were from the same place. I tried running towards her, but felt something when on the heated ground. It was like the flames of a sun was fiercely grabbing my hand and holding me tight. I quickly retreated back in the cool dirt, and watched her cry in agony. We looked at each other, both in pain.

Then, like mercy from the sky, the mist of her tears began to cry for her. It healed her wounds quickly, and swiftly cooled the ground, becoming clouds. As it end, she stood up slowly and walked towards me.

After that day, we decided to explore the terrain. But there was nothing but rocks and mountains as grey as her hair. One day, when we were walking by, we saw a comet blazing quick through the sky. Quickly, without hesitation, my sister ran towards our crater and came back some cool dirt. She then dropped it in a near by puddle, and waited for something to happen. Within seconds, a unknown material rose from the puddle, and scrapped the heavens. Using the material as a lasso, she grabbed a hold of the comet. The comet struggled and screamed, but with one mighty tug, he fell down to the ground. Before we ran to the crash site, I saw the used material, broken and torn. I knew it wouldn’t live, so I dug a ditch deeper than the seas and buried the material. 

When I caught up with my sister, the comet that fell was dead. While I saw the comet crack into two pieces, I realized my origin, and I felt like there should be more. I vigorously cut the remains into tiny pieces, and let it sink into the ground.

As time passed, we both saw that the material grew. I saw that it growing in different directs, colors, and uses. Soon, a whole diversity of wonderful plants came to be. The forest was born. As for the people, my sister and I both saw them create things. They would always build, break, or fight and were quite entertaining.

We weren’t the only ones though . Stars and comets began to spy along the heavens. Overtime, I began to know the stars better. They said their lives were boring, doing nothing but float. When they heard about “mortals” on Cometa, they immediately came. For a short time, everything was good.

The only problem was my sister. She didn’t care for the stars, only the mortals. Whenever, she went to see them, they would worship her immensely. She thought the more mortals there were, the better. She would capture a star, kill them, and cut them all to pieces for mortals to grow.

J.N, "Cometa" Own work  Oct 1, 2017 

When all celestial bodies heard, they immediately went back up in the sky. All except one star, whom I knew. He pleaded me to help him stay hidden from my sister. After seconds of thought, I decide the best way to hide would be beneath the planet. We worked on weeks on helping creating tunnels and caverns until they were finally done. As we traveled through the tunnels, I saw that everywhere he went, pieces of him would be left behind.The were a bit small. I ignored it. One day, I couldn’t find him. I searched all around the tunnels and saw his broken essence turn to gem. When I finally found him, he was dying .Too much of him was left behind. Like a flame blown out, his light was gone. His body, glimmering through the dark caves. His body turned to diamond.

I grieved for my friend, became weak. If went back to my sister, she would just be angry at me for keeping a star hidden. She tried look for me, but gave up along time ago. In some ways, I wished that she and I were still alone. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so sad.