{"id":10790,"date":"2017-02-24T11:41:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T03:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/?p=10790"},"modified":"2018-09-19T22:50:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T14:50:43","slug":"mood-and-symbolism-in-creative-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/2017\/02\/mood-and-symbolism-in-creative-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Mood and Symbolism in Creative Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How does weather alter the mood of a story? Rain is a ubiquitous symbol in literature and film\u2014from the melodramatic scenes of protagonists weeping and wailing in the storm to the poetic celebration of the arrival of rain\u2014the significance of this symbol cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n<p>In one of my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/courses\/critical-reading-and-writing-formerly-english-for-dgjs\/\">Critical Reading and Writing<\/a> L8 courses, I asked secondary school students to write a short description of a rainy day. Despite the apparent simplicity of the given topic, it is not easy to craft\u00a0a convincing piece of writing that\u00a0evokes a myriad of senses.<\/p>\n<p>To do so, my students were instructed to recall\u00a0a memory from\u00a0their real-life experience. For instance, the unpleasant feeling of soggy shoes squeaking after accidentally being submerged in a puddle\u00a0was something that\u00a0could resonate with almost\u00a0everybody.<\/p>\n<p>In the piece of work that I showcase here, my student used a variety of literary techniques to immerse the reader in the scene. Instead of simply stating &#8220;it was raining cats and dogs,&#8221; my student described the reactions of various creatures, as well as that of the main character.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Splish! Splash!&#8221; is\u00a0an example of onomatopoeia used by her to portray the sound emitted from the rain; &#8220;&#8230;big, fat droplets launched themselves like miniature missiles&#8221;\u00a0and &#8220;&#8230;the sky gathered its leaden soldiers&#8221; are examples of simile and metaphor respectively. In &#8220;a gust of wind tugged at her coat&#8221; and &#8220;the soft fabric clung tightly around her feet,&#8221; inanimate objects are personified. Animal imagery is also seen throughout the story.<\/p>\n<p>Well done!<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-10790 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/2017\/02\/mood-and-symbolism-in-creative-writing\/raindescription1\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/RainDescription1-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How does weather alter the mood of a story? Rain is a ubiquitous symbol in literature and film\u2014from the melodramatic scenes of protagonists weeping and wailing in the storm to the poetic celebration of the arrival of rain\u2014the significance of this symbol cannot be ignored. In one of my Critical Reading and Writing L8 courses, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10790"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12360,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10790\/revisions\/12360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}