Category Archives: Grade 9

Fun House Mirror

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Match

Fun House Mirror

Everyone wants an adventure,

Over here, let’s go inside

Let’s try the funhouse!

It will take you on a ride

Look into the mirrors

What do you see?

Are you insulted? Amused?

Perhaps it’s your perfect reality

Because the funhouse of love

Sort of warps your perspective

Take a closer look

The mirrors are more than reflective

Neon lights surround their frames

Curiosity draws you near

Teeming with anticipation

Casting aside thoughts of fear

The mirrors will lure you in with their charming smiles

Promising they will take your heart into safe keeping

You’ll be the perfect match

There will be no more weeping

It sends chills down your spine

You know something’s not right

An aura lurking behind

Temptation is stronger than fright

Transfixed by the image,

You both begin to cohere

Step by step,

The image still isn’t clear

Until it shatters to the floor

Slivers clatter on the ground

You couldn’t help yourself

The chains of allure had you bound

Revealing its intentions

It was just fun and games

Say goodbye to so called perfection

Knowing all along, you are equally to blame

But it’s alright

Funhouses don’t last forever

Perfect portraits portray what you want

To break the mirror, you must be clever

Some peer into the mirrors and are satisfied

Mystified, by its abilities to lie

Mesmerized by the horrific beauty

They are gratified

But mirrors can harm you

Your soul, they will slice into

So admire and desire

Do not touch and keep

For getting to close to a mirror

Will cut you skin deep

                The poem “Fun House Mirror” by Alyson Young is a metaphor for the dangers of love. The main focus is that love, just like mirrors can deceive you. Through that deceit they can be captivating and intrigue you. It also addresses the question of why we as humans chose to do the wrong action although we know it is wrong. Curiosity becomes the puppet master and we become slaves to our desires. We chose the wrong decision because often it is more interesting than the other. The wrong decision can seem more enticing and it provides false hope. The poem focuses on the idea that love can distort reality by clouding judgement. If love is taken to an extreme, it becomes the wrong choice. Alyson then continues on to divulge the consequences of choosing poorly, as investing in love too much will only lead to your defeat. She concludes with the idea that love is not necessarily bad, but it should not be pushed past some limits.

 

Whirligig Activities

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Here are my activities that I did for the novel “The Whirligig” by Paul Fleischman.

Whirligig Introductory Assignment

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The Raxacoricofallapatorius Review: The Teenager

by Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer (Alyson Young)

Teens

From April 15th until the 20th, I visited planet Earth to observe the average teenager of 2016. Borrowing the skin of one of the young inhabitants, I disguised myself as a human and enrolled at “Riverside Secondary School”.

After having attended several classes, I observed that the teenagers were somewhat anaesthetised. Clearly they found the material infantile, as I did; otherwise, why wouldn’t they want to learn? The few that did pay attention were obviously the imbeciles who knew little about the subjects.

On April 17th, a group of teenagers insisted that I come to a party in the evening. Upon arriving at the party, I overheard a male exclaim that his parents “sucked.”. He released his emotions through venomous words and angry gestures. Other teenagers comforted the first one, reassuring him that “tonight they could forget all about this,” passing him a glass bottle and a small roll of burning paper. These appeared to be mind-erasing devices, rather advanced technology for such an underdeveloped society.

The device appeared to have malfunctioned. The distressed teenager began laughing and doing an odd dance. I never did get a clear understanding of what a “whip” was. As the night progressed, the devices evoked truths. Other stressors were later revealed: social anxieties and difficulties with education. The teenagers were not as intelligent as I had perceived.

There seemed to be several side affects from these mind erasing devices. The teenagers had no respect for the property in the household, and they began to speak a different language. One teenager approached me to tell me my outfit was “on point”, but I reassured her there were no spikes protruding into my clothes.

At one point, a certain subject named Fred attempted to involve me in their strange ritual, pressing a concoction in my hand and saying, “Live in the moment!” I declined.

My trip to the planet Earth made me fear for the human race. Their dependence on mind-erasing technology is worrying, and their intellectual capabilities are limited. It would be best if the Slitheen race were to invade Earth and put an end to their miserable existence.

The Veldt Summative Assignment

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High On Technology

By Alyson Young

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*Note, please zoom in and enlarge to see full detail of the image.

 

Blue light on your face, a good time in mind

Open a new tab, look at the things you can find

From pictures of Zayn to simulated games,

Four hours later, this was never your aim

 

No one calls you for dinner; they’re all on their phones

You can’t even remember whether or not they came home

A family of drones, because to you home, home is where the apps are.

A place to swipe left and right, to do as you want

So caught up that even your dreams it will haunt

 

At night you lay down, “relaxed” in your bed

Only to re-play Candy Crush in your head

You’re so addicted, eager, to get back to your phone

Because technology is your drug, but not yours alone

How else would you bond, spend time with others?

No time to talk, just send a text to your mother

 

The shrieks of life don’t seem to reach your ears

When an opportunity arises you always seem to disappear

You’re wasting precious time, ignoring your stupidity

All the while the world chuckles at your idiocy

 

It’s not hard to see why you live your life unhappily

But, look! Amazon has a sale and you need to purchase rapidly

Distractions are your attraction from the chain reaction of your actions

You don’t have to face the truth that you are fading

As long as Twitter is functional and working

 

No longer are you greeted by the warmth of open arms

But rather by the heat of your computer, doing no good but harm

Relationships are replaced with virtual reality games

No more cooking with others; we have Cooking Mama to blame

 

 

Teaching face to face is becoming obsolete

Just take the class online; it’s easier to complete

Why sit next to someone and hold hands with each other?

Less communication is required if you have an online lover

 

Every time you start to realize this is the path to a futile demise

You dismiss it, believing that this is the way to thrive

How else would you live in this “modern” day and age?

There’s no going back, so why acknowledge it, you say

 

I’m a hopeless case and so are the others

We’re wasting away with no time for one another

Who could save us if everyone is addicted

No one wants to wake up and realize they’re omitted

 

You are consumed, devoured, devoted to technology

But back in ancient times, all this was just mythology

This machinery is your drug, and you are your dealer

To quit your addiction only you can be your healer

Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath- Analysis

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Mushrooms             Sylvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.

 

This poem is a metaphor for how women in the 50s were oppressed. In “The Friday Everything Changed” the women and girls were given specific gender roles and told to stick to them, to be well-mannered and polite. The characters in this story agreed with these ideas until a girl named Alma questioned them. Up until this point, no one really noticed the women unless they were looking for them. The women then were told to be “bland-mannered, asking little or nothing, ” They were not necessarily seen as people, but objects.  “We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek,” Shelves and tables are needed in our everyday lives, but they are often treated without great importance. They’re just expected to be there.  Women were always “Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes.” Women would get small opportunities to further promote the idea of equality. It takes time to change the way that people lived, the change couldn’t happen so quickly. We are trying to go against tradition and reset the way of living. “We shall by morning, Inherit the earth, Our foot’s in the door.” But surely, women will be able to obtain equality because they are progressing.