Thursday, December 3, 2009

Compare and contrast two songs

1) Compare and contrast the lyrics of the song "Circle game" and "God will make a way". These songs reflects two different ways of looking at life. What are the differences and how would affect the way stories are written?

Circle game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XOV34vsjfg
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star

Chorus
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when you're older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,Take your time, it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur Coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.


God will make a way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hOjYR8UZT8

God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we can not see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way

Also take note of the different metaphors used in the two songs.
The first song looks as at life as a carousel of time and the second song looks at life as a journey in which you need to make your way/ path through. In the stories you have been reading "The Durian" by Catherine Lim sees life as a cycle of seasons while "Going for the Bread" by Patricia Grace sees life as a path or journey. Does the use of these two different metaphors change the tone of the story?

18 comments:

isabella claudia said...
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isabella claudia said...

The song lyrics change the vision towards the story. As we can see in the stories of durian, revenge keep on coming back. During childhood Bia was abused harshfully, and when she reached adulthood and she was now richer than her aunty, she took revenge to her despite the advice of the nice aunty that she should help her aunt. This cycle will keep on coming back, repeating like a circle, never ending because the grudge will always stay.

On the other hand going for bread is the moral to keep on going and find a way, not repeating the lifestyle they had, the poor lifestyle. This point was very obvious by the last line of the mother. They swear that someday they will eat bread, go to school with taxi, and go to the doctor when hurt. This shows the prestigiousness her mother wants their life to be. To find a way to be like that, and leave the life they had now.

So the different is Durian story probably will continue with another story of revenge, by either Bia or her aunt. While Going for the Bread may end happily with god guidance to better life.

Hoang Anh Quynh said...
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Hoang Anh Quynh said...

The Circle Game sends a message that life is like a circle that people get stuck in. It's also the same as Durians. We will be rewarded with what we did to others before. This life follows the rule that 'What goes around comes around', "up and down" like a merry-go-round.

In contrast, Going for bread and God Will Make A Way are alike. The journey is described as a straight line that we have to go along.

Unknown said...

"Circle game" and "God will make a way" talk about the way they look at life and are for opposite kind of people. In "Circle game", life is looked as a carousel, a circle which is repeatedly around and around. Meanwhile, in "God will make a way", life is looked as a straight way, like the journey people will take. "God will make a way" is kind of encouragement to those who are too pessimistic about their lives, believe in God and he will make the way for you. In stories, if we we write stories about life as it's a straight journey, just keep moving forward and just look back 'cause it can never be taken back. If the stories is the circle of life, then the life will have its own rule and it will repeatedly happen on the whole. By the way, looking at life as a journey will encourage the readers more, especially who are having the pessimism on what they did. On the other hand, looking at life as a circle just for those who are hoping about something that will happen again, as they believe in the circle of the Earth. In conclusion, the stories may be changed due to the way the writer looks at life. Therefore, it will have different effect on readers

Adrianne Walujo said...
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ND said...
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Krissy said...
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Idawati said...

Both song lyrics are telling us about life, in the first song, it tells us about life which is keep on turning round and round. As the story of Durian, while she was young, her aunt had never treated her nicely, as the child in the song which is afraid of the thunder and falling star. As time went by and she became successful, she knew that her aunt is poor and needed help. In spite of helping her, she took revenge. This is going to be a circle of revenge and again and again.

The next songs lyrics, "God Will Make a Way", they told them that we should believe that God will make a way for us. They told us that in our life that behind all things that happened, there were something that God is trying to do, and we might not understand. As in the story of the Bread, her mother is trying to herlp her kids, without trying to took revenge. She just came to the naughty girls' house, trying to tell their mother with hope that they might stop hurting them. Though their mother rejected her arrival and even look down on her, she did not took revenge.

These are two different way in facing their life, one is trying to take a revenge as what she felt while she was a little girl. The other is trying to just accept and try to avoid it to happen again. They believe that God will make a way for them.

Idawati Bustan

ND said...
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ND said...
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Mr Linh said...

The 2 songs both talk about the way people look at life.
The first one, by saying life is like a carousel of time, everything seems to happen in a natural way, like the way that the carousel goes and one has no choice. The second one sees life as a journey where people can choose their own path. Moreover, in the first song, once one has got into the carousel, one can't go back and have to continue until the end when it slows down and finally stops. In the second song, one is to have a way and if he had chosen the wrong one, he would be given another.
The first one is like the "Durian" story, everything just goes round and round. The second one feels like the story of "Going for the bread", when people keep looking for the ways day by day.

marvellamethyst said...
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marvellamethyst said...

The lyrics "The Circle game" and "God Will Make A Way" are both stories about the road of life with entirely different story lines. However, these metaphors still effect the tone of the story The Durian and The Bread. It opens another view of those stories.

Lyrics of The Circle Game is relatable to The Durian. In the Durian, Ah Kun never forgets how her Aunt, Uncle and Cousin treated her. She kept hating them for the horrible things they did to her. Even until she is married and moved out of their house, the hatred is still in her heart. So, when her aunt needed help, Ah Kun decided it was payback time. Since she had always hated her aunt, revenge was something she would gladly enjoy although it was a long time ago since she was tortured by her aunt. If we relate the lyrics of The Circle Game to this story, we can see that it tells the same pattern of life. Ah Kun kept on living with hatred and revenge for her aunt in her heart. It is like a wound that would never be cured in her heart. This is the same with the boy in The Circle game. He kept on being immature and living in the same circle. This explains that the Circle Game effects the Durian's point of view by changing the assumption of the future for Ah Kun. Since she keeps hating her aunt and keeps living in circles, another payback is bound to happen.

The Bread is relateable to "God Will Make A Way" because they both tell a story of the hard and rocky road of life, but different with The Durian, Mereana, the main character of The Bread, kept on moving with her life. In The Bread, Mereana was also badly treated, on the other hand, she didn't hate her torturers and forgave them. She sees them as another obsticle in life that she must overcome and leave. "God Will Make A Way" also tells how we should keep moving in life and that we should never give up. Before we relate "God Will Make A Way" with the Bread, we just seemed to see what happened back then, we didn't get a point of view of what would might happen. Now that we have express the Bread with the metaphor of "God Will Make A Way", we see that Mereana would not stay in the same state because she keeps on moving.

Therefore, the metaphors of "The Circle Game" and "The Bread" have changed the tone of the story. By using those metaphors we could get a view of what the future might be for both stories.

By Delania

Nhi Nguyen [Judy] ツ said...

"The circle game" captures the rule of life as it is a wheel going 'round and 'round and a carousel that everyone has a seat on their wooden colorful pony. Everything happens repeatedly and accordingly. "God will make a way", howver, potrays a different aspect of life as if it's a path the Divinity created for every individual. God will make a way and be a guide of your life. These two songs seem to have common points like "The Durian" and "Going for a bread". They both express views of life and those views are both true although they seem to be a paradox placing next to each other. With a smooth tone like a lullaby, "The circle game" captures a lifetime of a boy streaming tranquilly as a merry-go-round. Mixing with wisdom advices, the song sows the seed into the listeners' minds of how life looks like. Similarly, "God will make a way" succeeds in depicting such a abstract term, "life", into more practical image, "a roadway in the wilderness". In a word, both songs are psychologically meaningful. And in variety perspectives way to see life, both prove to be genuinely true.

Nhi Nguyen [Judy] ツ said...

The previous comment was mine, Jodie! Sorry I forgot to put my name there. The one starting like this "'The circle game' captures the rule of life as it is a wheel going 'round and 'round and a carousel that everyone has a seat on their wooden colorful pony. Everything happens repeatedly and accordingly..."

icecreamninja said...

The two songs Circle Game and God Will Make a Way sharply contrast with each other in the meaning of their lyrics. They indicate two quite differct ways of looking at life. We can see that via the metaphors used in these songs.
In Circle Game, the writer has compared life to the carousel of time, in which we keep going round and round without stopping. According to her, no matter what we do, at some point in life, we will go back to the very beginning and start it all over.
On the other hand, the writer of God Will Make a Way has suggested that life is a route, which no one else but we have to find our own way to go, to reach whatever destination we have aimed for. Sometimes we seem to have reached the dead end, but if we have faith in ourselves, we will find a way sooner or later.
Both of the ways mentioned above are quite interesting and inspiring. Although they seem to be rather opposite, they both encourage us to live a positive life, which, after all, is the ultimate purpose of living.

ND said...
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