Metaphors, Simile's and Cliche's

Wow. Look at the huge bow perched on my head like a pink flamingo. I can still remember the amount of hairspray and bobby pins that went into making it stay there. My costumes skirt puffed out around me in a cloud of pink cotton candy, overall giving me the look of a walking strawberry sundae. Even at the age of 4 I can still remember how nervous I was to dance in front of a crowd. I could swear my stomach was jumping up and down like an over excited toddler. At the end of the day everything turned out OK, and that ugly bow was FINALLY removed.

Looking at my nine year old self in this picture I think I've come a long way from the smiling pink blob above (lol). Though I'm smiling, inside I was shaking from the cold water, holding me tightly in it's icy fist. My small fingers gripped at the dolphins slippery skin, slippery as rubber coated in melted butter. My hair clung to my face like wet octopus tentacles, the suction cups stuck tight to my skin. After that picture was taken I was quickly pulled through the water by the energetic dolphin I was holding on to, but as was expected, I fell off and crashed down into the water :-)

Epic

Picture: The picture I chose to represent an epic is a picture that relates to Homer's Iliad. This is a picture of the warlord Agamemnon and Apollo's priest Chryses. Chryses is begging Agamemnon to give him his daughter back.


My Example: An epic is a poem or story that portrays the journeys/experiences/deeds of heroes in a exaggerated writing style.

3 Characteristics of an Epic:

1. The gods and lesser divinities play an active role in the outcome of actions: Because epic's are usually centered on "larger than life heroes" and gods, this is a common characteristic and can be found several times in the Iliad.
   ex: Lines 217- 224: "Now come on drop this quarrel, don't draw your sword. Tell him off instead." - Athena is telling Achilles not to kill Agamemnon. Athena (a goddess) has changed the outcome of the story in this passage because she keeps Achilles from killing Agamemnon which could have drastically changed the story.
   


2. Long, formal speeches are given by important characters- ex: Lines 263-300 "And when I talked in council, they took my advice. So should you two now: Taking advice is a good thing. Agamemnon for all your nobility don't take his girl... Nor should you, son of Peleus, want to lock horns with a king."- Nestor gives Agamemnon and Achilles a speech about all his experience with great people, and the advice he has given them and the advice his now giving to Agamemnon and Achilles.
   ex: Lines 236-260 "You bloated drunk with a dog's eyes and a rabbit's heart!" Achilles is is telling off Agamemnon like Athena told him to, and he is calling him a coward.
   


3. The action, often in battle, reveals more than human strength of the heroes as they engage in acts of heroism and courage: You will find this in the Iliad because the author uses metaphors, smilies and impossible tales to describe characters backgrounds, and hero's deeds. Many of the characters are part god, so this ads on to the story, and their "deeds" and experiences. Examples of this below: ex: Lines 279-283: "Caineus and Exadius and godlike Polyphemus, And Aegeus' son, Theseus, who could have passed for a god, The strongest men who ever lived on earth, the strongest, And they fought with the strongest, the wild thing, From the mountains, and beat the daylights out of them." This is a great example because it is said that these men single handedly beat and killed wild animals from the mountains and were "the strongest men on earth". ex: Lines 59-61 :"But aimed his needle-tipped arrows at the men and shot until death-fires crowded the beach. Nine days the god's arrows rained death on the camp." In these lines the author is explaining how Apollo is killing all these soldiers but when he says "shooting arrows" he means he was sending a fast spreading plague across the war camp.
   

1. gh


2. jhj

My Hero: William Tyndale

My public hero is William Tyndale. William Tyndale was born in 1494 and died in 1536. William Tyndale was the first person to translate the bible from Latin to English. Tyndale believed that everyone should be able to read the bible, and not just the Pope, the king or the rich who could afford to learn how to speak and read Latin. “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you!” -William Tyndale. He printed hundreds of copies of the translated bible. The people of England and the surrounding countries were so eager to read it that they were smuggled into the country in bundles of cloth, and in sacks of flour and other merchandise. At the time, he was mainly viewed as a villain due to the fact that he printed the bible without permission from the Pope or the king. He also disagreed with the Catholic Church's view of Christianity and included comments in his version of the bible that promoted his opinions. He also refused to follow King James' church of England. The leaders of the Catholic Church felt threatened by Tyndale because they believed that if everyone knew how to read the bible, the people of England would not look up to them and they would lose their power. King James eventually sent out men to find Tyndale and kill him, and after many years he was eventually found in Hamburg where he was living in hiding. He was betrayed by his friend Phillips who was working for the King, and after many months he was burnt at the stake. Tyndale's work is said to be as in important to the English language as Shakespeare's. The British library claimed that Tyndale's new testament was "the most important printed book in the English language" and paid more than one million pounds for it. According to an exhibit that was recently co-sponsered by the Library of Congress and the British library William Tyndale's work "was read by ten thousand times as many people as Chaucer." Tyndale is one of my hero's because I have grown up in a religious family, and I believe that I owe a lot to the bible, and if it weren't for William Tyndale's translation and edited version, around 70% of the bible would not be here today.