Songs

Anastasia Williams

Mrs. Sauer

Am/Lit 4th hour

26 October 2012

Discovering Love

After working hard to achieve your goals it is surprising to find that maybe that is not what life is about. In Glenn Slater’s song I See the Light, featured in the Disney movie Tangled, Rapunzel sings about the the discoveries she had made throughout the movie. At this point Rapunzel knows many things she never knew before. Rapunzel, like most people, is amazed when her dream came true, and then surprised to find she has a new dream, love. Slater’s song shows the great feeling that discovering love brings.

In I See the Light, Rapunzel discovers that the glowing lights she has seen since birth are in fact lanterns that celebrate the long lost princesses birthday. She had been seeing these lanterns light up the sky every year on her birthday and while discovering this, she also finds that she is in love with Eugene. In Slater’s song Rapunzel sings of how the new found love changes the way she looks at the world singing “All at once everything looks different now that I see you” (15-16). This discovery of love is also found by Eugene. He sings the same song with Rapunzel as he found that instead stealing money to be happy he found a new way of being happy, being in love.
Finding love is a great discovery to make. Although I have not yet found love most books, movies, and songs write about how it changes a person. It is a discovery that happens in many ways, and for some it may be found multiple times. Finding love for Rapunzel was finding that she can be accepted as she sings:

All those days watching from the windows

All those years outside looking in

All that time never even knowing

Just how blind I've been

Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight

Now I'm here, suddenly I see

Standing here, it's all so clear

I'm where I am meant to be (1-8)

Like many people finding this new feeling helps Rapunzel feel as if everything makes sense.

To Americans finding love seems both exciting and hard. There are millions of people in the United States and so there are many people to meet and to talk. Out of all of  the choices it is hard to pick who you will spend the rest of your life with, but in order to achieve the much strived for American dream of raising a family, the discovery of love is important. For Rapunzel and Flynn their connection was not obvious at first as they sing “And at last I see the light” (25). So for those people searching for love it may be just under your nose and if not keep looking because there is always hope of discovery.

Throughout Slater’s song both Rapunzel and Flynn realise that they love each other and are happy to be together. This type of love is dreamt about and many Americans wish to get the same kind of love that they share. Some say that “Love is found when you least expect it,” so finding love is difficult but will be worth it in the end.

I See The Light

Rapunzel:

All those days watching from the windows

All those years outside looking in
All that time never even knowing

Just how blind I've been

Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight

Now I'm here, suddenly I see

Standing here, it's all so clear

I'm where I am meant to be

And at last I see the light

And it's like the fog has lifted

And at last I see the light

And it's like the sky is new

And it's warm and real and bright 

And the world has somehow shifted 

All at once everything looks different 

Now that I see you

(Flynn): 

All those days chasing down a daydream 

All those years living in a blur 

All that time never truly seeing 

Things, the way they were 

Now she's here shining in the starlight 

Now she's here, suddenly I know 

If she's here it's crystal clear 

I'm where I'm meant to go 

Rapunzel & Eugene (Flynn): 

And at last I see the light 

(Flynn): 

And it's like the fog has lifted 

Rapunzel &(Flynn): 

And at last I see the light 

Rapunzel: 

And it's like the sky is new 

Rapunzel & Eugene(Flynn): 

And it's warm and real and bright 

And the world has somehow shifted 

All at once, everything is different 

Now that I see you 

Now that I see you 

Anastasia Williams

Mrs. Sauer

Am. Lit/ 4th hour

6 February 2013

Disney’s Discoveries

Finding objects that are intriguing makes the discovery more exciting. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s “Part of Your World”, from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”, is about a mermaid who finds human objects and ways fascinating and does what she can to collect all. This is often the reaction to a discovery, finding other things that are like the original discovery.

The mermaid has a whole cave of human goods that she has discovered throughout the years. She has so much stuff that she does not even know the names or uses for many of the objects, but each object is still dear to her because she has an interest in finding all human knick-knacks. Though she has much she is still searching for the feeling of being a human and searching for their knowledge. Having seen some of the wonders from the land she feels that she must know more (1-44).

Many Americans hold the same feelings as “Part of Your World”. They want to make new discoveries, experience different experiences, and receive better treatment. These feelings are most often felt when a person is a young adult because at this age there are new responsibilities and freedoms that give a small taste of the adult world. The mermaid feels this too as she believes that the humans “don’t reprimand their daughters,” (33)  and as she has hurt feelings her want of discovery is greater.

Often when my parents and I fight, I desire nothing more than to go to college and experience college life, just as the mermaid wants to walk. It is the feeling that there is something else out of the limits of your life, close enough to see, but not enough to hold. For the mermaid her limitation is her fin, for me it is my young age. Because of desires I have discovered much about colleges just as the mermaid has discovered much on humans walking on “feet”(21).

The mermaid uses her desires for becoming a human to find the objects they use everyday.Without the taste of freedom and the desire to want to be completely free, Americans would never receive an education. Without the want for finding what else is in the world, I would never have researched college. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman show that desire and discovery go hand in hand in “Part of Your World”.

Part of Your World

Look at this stuff

Isn't it neat?

Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?

Wouldn't you think I'm the girl

The girl who has everything?

Look at this trove

Treasures untold

How many wonders can one cavern hold?

Looking around here you think

Sure, she's got everything

I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty

I've got whozits and whatzits galore

You want thingamabobs?

I've got twenty!

But who cares?

No big deal

I want more

I wanna be where the people are

I wanna see, wanna see them dancin'

Walking around on those - what do you call 'em?

Oh - feet!

Flippin' your fins, you don't get too far

Legs are required for jumping, dancing

Strolling along down a - what's that word again?

Street

Up where they walk, up where they run

Up where they stay all day in the sun

Wanderin' free - wish I could be

Part of that world

What would I give if I could live out of these waters?

What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?

Bet'cha on land they understand

That they don't reprimand their daughters

Proper women sick of swimmin'

Ready to stand

And ready to know what the people know

Ask 'em my questions and get some answers

What's a fire and why does it - what's the word?

Burn?

When's it my turn?

Wouldn't I love, love to explore that world up above?

Out of the sea

Wish I could be

Part of that world

Anastasia Williams

Mrs. Sauer

Am Lit/ 4th hour

8 May 2013

Pocahontas

Although cliche, it is true that you learn from you students. Alan Menken’s “Colors of the Wind” demonstrates this in Disney’s “Pocahontas”. When John sailed to America people thought that they would be teaching the Natives, and the colonists did. But the Natives also helped the colonists discover important facts nature and humans interaction with other creatures.  

Alan Menken’s song “Colors of the Wind” shows the impact that the Natives had on America’s colonists due to their closeness with nature. His lyrics question the idea of “savage” by pointing out the greediness of “civilized” people (1-13). To help demonstrate the beauty in the land that the colonists were destroying Alan writes

“Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest,

Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth,

Come roll in all the riches all around you

And for once, never wonder what they're worth” (22-25).

Using examples that are common in the wilderness it is easy to find the greatness in the outdoors that many have forgotten about and so this is an effective way to teach the "teacher".

I too have thought that I would be the teacher when in fact I was meant to be the student, to discover what the innocent already knew. Every Thursday I spend an hour with second grade science students. My job is to guide them in their studies and act as a mentor but I soon realized that I was being mentored by Ellie and Siddheart. Both students taught me that there are simple solutions to complicated problems like swabbing areas for bacteria with a cotton swab. This may seem obvious but to me I was happily shocked at the simplicity of such an act. Alan shows the simple connection we all have with nature “The rainstorm and the river are my brothers, The heron and the otter are my friends, And we are all connected to each other, In a circle, in a hoop that never ends” (25-28). John was taught by Pocahontas after this line just as Ellie and Sid taught me.

This has happened in America’s history many times. Not only when colonists first came here but as immigrants continuously came to America different experiences created students and teachers whose jobs intertwined. Every culture teaches different lessons, and it was expected that as people came to America in the 1900s they would change their ways to fit in with America’s culture. Although many of the immigrant’s habits changed they taught Americans the way they live. Big cities formed filled with different cultures and people who taught each other their ways. These cities then flourished when people shared their ways to those who were thought of to know more.

It has been said time and time again that you make discoveries from your students. That if you just listen the young have important things to say like Ellie and Siddharth. Discoveries made from those you are suppose to teach is common and is even featured in songs like “Colors of the Wind”. It is interesting how a person may be influenced by others and how you may influence others.

Colors of the Wind

You think I'm an ignorant savage

And you've been so many places

I guess it must be so

But still I cannot see

If the savage one is me

How can there be so much that you don't know?

You don't know ...

You think you own whatever land you land on

The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim

But I know every rock and tree and creature

Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people 

Are the people who look and think like you

But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger

You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?

Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest

Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth

Come roll in all the riches all around you

And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers

The heron and the otter are my friends

And we are all connected to each other

In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?

If you cut it down, then you'll never know

And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned

We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains

We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still

All you'll own is Earth until

You can paint with all the colors of the wind