Writing Portfolio English

Creative Writing Assessment

It was a normal day for me to enjoy my own time, to clear my stress and thoughts. Brown and golden leaves started to fall, the kids ran on them as the crunchy sound ringing my ear. I watched them from afar as a smile suddenly appeared on my lips. Moving my head away from them as I take a deep breath inhaling the fresh air. I continue to take my steps and explore the beauty of the park. Scanning the park, noticing those kids with their mum having a good time. Sadness quickly filled my body as I started to remember my mum. Think back on the time that we used to entertain each other and enjoyed the time together. Deep thoughts filled my mind as I continued my steps but stopped as I realized that I bumped into someone.

Turning my gaze down as I saw a little boy staring at me with his teary eyes makes me feel bothered. Getting down on my one knee to match with his level as I pat his head and ask what is wrong. Waiting for the response but, instead, he sobbed out loud, earning the attention of some people around us. I started to panic, and I didn't know what to do. I look back at him, who is continuing to shed his tears. I tried to think of a solution to stop the little boy as I remembered the leftover lollies that I hadn't eaten earlier, pulling them out of my pocket and giving them to him. I released a sigh of relief as the boy finally stopped crying. 

I was about to speak and ask the little boy but I was interrupted by a woman taking long steps going in our direction. Observing her actions as she hugged the little boy, fear and worries are visible through her eyes. The little boy wrapped his short arms around her as I stayed there smiling at them. I was about to turn around to leave, but someone stopped me. I turned around and saw the lady holding the boy's hand as they took steps towards me. She lost her grip on the boy's hand as he ran to me and hugged my legs. A chuckle escapes my mouth as I start caressing his head.  

The lady walked towards us as she thanked me for comforting and taking care of the boy. I smiled at her as she suddenly handed me money, widening my eyes as I aggressively shook my head and refused her offer. She continued to convince me as I kept refusing her. She finally gave up and asked me what she would do in return to repay me. I just smiled at her and told her that raising her son to be good, kind, and helpful to others is enough to pay me back. She hugged me as she said her final goodbye and walked away with her son. The boy looked back at me for the last time and waved his tiny hands as I waved both of my hands to him with a wide smile on my face. 

I looked at them as they finally out of my sight. I released a long breath, my lips curved into a smile as I continued to walk and enjoyed my time by myself. I can't stop smiling because of the scene that happened earlier. It makes my mood better. Little disappointment in my body as I remember that I didn’t ask for any information or even their name.  Time passes, I still can't forget that moment. I didn't expect that it would become one of the most important things that happened in my life without knowing them. If you're wondering why that small moment is important for me, and why that thing I didn’t take the money for, instead I asked her for a very simple favor. Because my mum once told me before she left me that we should have courage and be kind.

The Apartheid Close Viewing Assessment

During the Apartheid time, a lot of Africans are experiencing horrible discrimination and unbalanced rights in South Africa. The Power of One movie directed by John Avildsen is the exact movie that can show us what really happened during the Apartheid and how did black and white people treated differently. In a particular scene from the movie where Peekay and Gideon are running, they used different techniques such as lighting, camera angle, background sound, and dialogue. Each of these techniques has different purposes in the movie and helped the director's ideas to create an impact on the audience.

To begin with, in the scene where Peekay and Gideon were running together, there are multiple times where Avildsen has been using a tracking shot. This technique can be seen when Peekay was heading to Gideon’s house in Alexandria and when both of them were making their way to the city where English people live. Avildsen uses this for us to see the way of living in Alexandria and the kind of life of English people in the city. In addition, he shows us the full journey of Peekay and Gideon until they have reached their destination. This made an impact by letting us see the place where Africans live and the place where English people live. Moreover, because of the situation that we’ve witnessed throughout the whole scene, the sympathy of the audience for them was visible .This reminds me of the life of some people in my country. They were also struggling, trying to survive in their life because their knowledge is not enough for them to be able to get a job. If we're to compare them, there might be some differences, but I think a stable life is the most valuable thing for all of them. 

In the same way, music was also used throughout the scene. In the film, one example of diegetic sound is when the children in Alexandria used their flute to create music. The music begins to play at the start of a new scene in Alexandria when Peekay asks them for directions to Gideon’s house. Before Peekay approached them, the children continuously produced the music but it was replaced by the non diegetic background music and the  sound of their voices yelling as they started running after Peekay heading to Gideon’s house. It was used by Avildsen to show us how valuable  music can be for Africans in Alexandria. Furthermore, he wants us to see how music helps young Africans to get distracted by the discrimination that they have been experiencing. As the music started playing, it gave us a bright vibe even if we can see the background of people and their poor situation. However, because the music has cheerful rhythm it gave us reassurance about the life of young people in Alexandria during Apartheid. This is important because the music creates a cheerful vibe and we can tell that the people around them are enjoying it. We know that Africans in Alexandria are struggling and this type of music can help them to feel happy even a little. 

Lastly, we can also see the difference between their clothes and how it represents something. As we can see in Peekay and Gideon’s clothes, the color of their shirt and shorts are opposite. Peekay is wearing white shirt and black shorts but Gideon is wearing black shirt and white shorts. The director chose this color to connect it to black and white people. We can obviously see that the color of their top clothes were also representing their own human race and their bottom clothes represented each other's human race. This helped me understand that even the costume of the characters in the film also has its deep meaning and what does Avildsen purpose by using those colors in their clothes. Similarly, after seeing the clothes of people in Alexandria and the clothes of white people in the city. Their costumes represent how white people are more wealthy compared to Africa's costume in Alexandria. 

In conclusion, these 3 different aspects that I’ve just talked about have their own purpose and different ways how they built an impact. In addition, these 3 aspects have a big contribution in the film to make each scene better and be more meaningful for the audience. Each aspects in the film helps us to understand what does really happened during Apartheid and how people back then treated differently base on their human race. 

A Game Of Cards Essay Assessment

In the text “ A Game Of Cards” by Witi Ihimaera, the memorable idea was that every simple moment in our lives needs to be cherished and that every second counts in our life. The narrator in the text experiences a lack of time with his grandmother who is dying because of illness. This idea was memorable to me because it helped me to understand how important it is to appreciate the time with your loved ones. and how important our family and friends are in our life. 

One of the memorable parts of the text was that every simple moment in our lives needs to be cherished. This idea was memorable to me because it helped me to understand how important it is to spend time with our family. After the narrator’s dad said “ Your Nani Miro, she’s very sick “ the narrator started to think about all the memories that he had with his Nani Miro. This shows us that the narrator cherished all the memories that he had with his grandmother. This made the reader feel sad because we know that the narrator doesn't have much time left with his grandmother. In reality, we should indeed spend a lot of time with those people who are important to us. We should cherish all the memories that we had with them. 

Another memorable part of the story is when Nani Miro and Mrs. Heta play their last game of cards before she dies. This is important because it helped us to see the real relationship between them since in the first part of the story we can tell that they’re just arguing about the game. We see this in the text when both of them are playing and we can tell that they are having a good time. Nani Miro is laughing as she dies, this shows us that she dies happily with her loved ones around her. The message I took away from this is that we can’t tell when we're gonna lose our loved ones so we have to live happily with our loved ones and the memories that we had will never be forgotten. 

The final memorable idea in the text is the way how Mrs. Heta reacted after Nani Miro died. After Nani Miro stops laughing they know that she’s dead after that Mrs. Heta kissed her and said: “You cheat, yes Miro you cheat yourself.” This explained that Nani Miro cheated on herself because left her love ones without even telling them and the phrase that Mrs. Heta said was the phrase that both of them usually say during their game, but this time it has a different meaning. We can see in this part that Mrs. Heta cares for Nani Miro and she’s not only her enemy every time they are playing a game of cards. In our everyday life, there are always a lot of memories with our loved ones, this creates our memories. We can use the text as an example of what can happen in our lives. 

In conclusion, in the text “ A Game Of Cards' ' there could be more than one memorable idea and can be also memorable to us as an individual. These ideas were memorable to me because they helped to understand how life works and how important it is to cherish every single moment that we had with our loved ones. In addition, it also helped me to reflect on the story.