Conclusion

Going over the blogs that I have written, I have come to realize that when I write I tend to write about things that I can relate to. Within every post that has thus far been posted by me, I can find some deeper meaning that ties in with the story of my life. Whether it be through something that I found resembles me through a piece of literature, or a random topic that I was lead to with Mrs. Gilman's instructions. This blog has all truly been about who I truly am, the opinions and feelings that I have toward people, writing, books, etc. I looked back through all my post's and saw just how my writing has changed and improved, yet it has stayed the same. In the sense that it is still clearly me, throughout the year I still have made it possible to stay true to who I am by finding meaning that relates to me within everything. I learned about myself that probably like most people, I like to write about things that I've experiences. For example the blog where we got to write about our first childhood memories. Writing about things that interest you, writing about something that is known by you to be a fact is easier and more interesting than writing about something like a book or poem, that could have many meanings. Even though having to discover and prove what you believe to be true may be more interesting. I believe that not only writing personal things that are filled with imagery and emotion, but reading them is something that people would much rather want to do. Another blog that was a personal favorite of mine to write was the blog that we got to describe our best friends. Looking back, the way that I wrote wasn't as well formed, and basically not as good as it is now. Rereading it I caught my mistakes right away, and got a little bit frustrated with myself for two reasons. The fact that I had made those mistakes, and the fact that I now, months later want to go back and rewrite it so it sounds better. Over the course of this year I have written a lot about books and plays that were being read during class, I have written about essays, and questions that I may have had at the time of reading the books and plays. I do wish that there would have been more opportunities to write about things freely, like the things that I talked about above. I feel like we spent a lot of time focused on something completely set up. Writing about something that only had one category to fall under. Looking back, I wish now that we would have been able to write more freely about things that interested us. May I suggest that in the future you throw in more open ended blog subjects? Some people, like me, really enjoy writing about things more freely. I personally don't like feeling so tied down, that is something that is emphasized in essays. That is the conclusion, to this seemingly endless blog.

Essay Writing

I feel that my essay writing abilities have gone from a five on a one to ten scale to a now maybe eight and a half or nine. Throughout the year I have learned a lot about writing a good essay. As far as literary analysis goes, I believe that I know what's going on. I think literary analysis is extremely beneficial when writing a paper of a novel or play. It helps you to thoroughly understand what your reading and why its important, or relevant.

I feel like my essay as is doesn't have a very strong conclusion, or very good three fold transition sentences. What I have written is good, but could definitely improve, which I plan on doing this weekend with the extension that Mrs. Gilman has given the class to make it better. I think that at this point my paper is only a B grade.

Summer reading list

For my summer reading list there are two specific books that I have heard good things about, the first book is My Sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult. The book was recommended to me by Nikki Herbison, she said that even though it's very sad it's a great read. Another book that is on my summer reading list is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was recommended by three of my friends that don't necessarily like to read but said that it was a great book.

Culture Shock

Taylor Swift's song "Love Story" is all about being in love and has direct references to the play "Romeo and Juliet" In the beginning of the song Taylor sings about how she is Juliet and the person she "in love" with is Romeo. She starts with "I'm standing there, On a balcony in summer air, See the lights, See the Party, the ball gowns," These lyrics are in direct reference to the play. In the play there is a party and Romeo goes beneath Juliet's window/balcony and they talk. References to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is used all over still; in many different ways, most of the time showing "love".

Extra Credit Blog

I suppose that when I started in Honors English in the beginning of the year, I thought that it was going to be a piece of cake, I'd done very well in my English classes all the years before freshman year. I was set, and confident. I'd never anticipated that I would be needing to memorize and recite poetry in front of the class though, speaking in front of the class is a weakness for me, nerves over power my ability to function. Oh boy, then we have diagramming sentences... well, I don't have very nice things to say about this topic. I think that diagramming sentences is no fun at all and it takes a long time, knowing where to put certain words off straight lines, dashed lines, or weird looking lines is not easy. I must say, that just flies right over my head. All in all, I think that I've learned a lot from Honors English, and I'm glad to have taken this class. Just not so glad that I had to read the novel Great Expectations (I would underline the title but I can't figure out how, bear with me) in my opinion that book was really boring and hard to get through. How to Kill a Mockingbird (yet again, bear with me) was a better book, and one that I liked.

G.E. Skit Prep

The first idea for a skit that I have is, the part in the book where Pip is walking on the Street and Trabb's boy comes frolicking along. I think that it would make a good short skit, because it would be entertaining and fun for the not only the people watching but for the people acting it out also. My second idea is where Miss Havisham catches fire and Pip tries to slap the fire off of her, i think this would be a good thing to perform because watching people flail around pretending to be on fire is something that I personally would start laughing quite hard at. Finally the last part of the book that I think would make a good skit is when Pip first meets Miss Havisham in her dark and desolate home, with her bride's dress still on and the clocks all stopped at the same time. This scene would be interesting to see how the actors would interpret it.

Questions about Great Expectations

I guess one of the things that I didn't really understand in this chapter was in chapter 44 on page 387 in my book. What i don't understand is why is Pip asking Miss Havisham to pay the rest of the money needed for Herbert? I understand that he is trying to help make things right between Mathew Pocket and his family, and help her understand that they are not like the Pockets lurk around Miss Havishams house. But I'm not sure why he is trying to get her to pay for Herbert's Business.

Great Expectations: questions about a passage

One thing that I am not to certain about in this weeks reading is when Pip is having dinner at Mr. Jaggers house and Mr. Jaggers brings his house keeper, Molly over to show everyone her wrists. "'I'll show you a wrist. Molly, let them see your wrist.' . . . The last wrist was much disfigured - deeply scarred and scarred across and across." (chpt. 26 pg. 228) I don't really understand what the point in showing everyone her wrist's was, or why Mr. Jaggers is referring her scarred wrists to something of strength.

My Question is: Why would Mr. Jaggers refer to strength as his house keeper, Molly's deeply scarred wrist's, and what is the significance in the story?

Great Expectations

In the book Great Expections, the quote "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." Pip is referring to the lie that he had just told to his uncle, his sister, and to Joe. He told the lie to protect Miss. Havisham, and Estella from the humiliation and judgement of society. The day altered Pip by the lies that he had told, and the guilt that he would have to live with. Pip has developed into a more mature character, he is starting to understand social classes in his community, where he falls in those classes, and understanding that he doesn't want to be a poorer class, he want's to be something that Estella would want "worthy" of her. This day is memorable to Pip, because he is becoming more self aware, and has developed him as a character by showing that he is growing up and becoming more mature in the way that he thinks.

The event that began the sculpture of who i would become was meeting a little girl named Tylee. Tylee was a little girl that had cancer that i am proud to say had worked her way into the hearts of my family and I. The day that Tylee died was the day that I actually realized that life and death go hand in hand. No matter how young or old you are, no one is invincible. I think that the entire experience made me mature a great deal, I think that being able to understand that accidents happen and people die turned me into a more careful person. Someone who is cautious but can still have fun. I believe that was the first link in the chain that has created who i am today.

The Importance Of Being Earnest: Group essay

The three main points that i'm going to be talking about in my body paragraph are specific points in the book that show how strong relationships can make it through tough problems together. My three concrete details are 1. When Gwendolen finds out that Jack had been lying to her all along about his name being Earnest. 2. When Cecily and Gwendolen are "fighting" over who is marrying Earnest. 3. When lady Bracknell is saying that Jack and Gwendolen will never be married. The commentary that I have chosen is helping to make it obvious that only a strong relationship could make it through all the lies and confusion that the couple (Jack and Gwendolen) have had to go through. My commentary helps to show that not all people would be able to forgive someone for lying to them about what their name is, because they wouldn't know if anything else they had said was true or not. Which proves that only a truly concrete relationship could pull through a lie so large. My commentary also helps to prove the thesis because after hearing that a parent doesn't approve of someones engagement, and at the time the couple needing consent, most people would have given up and tried to find another; Yet Gwendolen and Jack keep trying and find a way to try and get Lady Bracknell to give her consent, which shows the couple overcoming more obstacles.

The Importance of Being Earnest

By doing the research on the victorian era, it helped to enhance my understanding of the time period, which in turn helped and is still helping me to understand the play more than I dwould have had I not had some back round information about the time period. I found out things about the time period from information on the social classes to facts about the period and the things that were occuring during the time.
I learned from doing the research how it was determined what social a class a person would be in. I had learned that you were born into a certain class depending on how much money you had and what social class your parents fell into. Women could move up and down in classes by marriage, and men by becoming more wealthy or becoming friends with people in higher classes. this relates to the play because maraige is something that is greatly satirized but something that is also taken seriously. Especially by Lady Bracknell who is determined her daughter marry into a higher standing social class, and Gwendolen makes fun of it stating that she may marry often and many times. This is both funny and serious because that would mean her husbands had died, and it's serious because who she married meant everything, who she would be, how she would live, if she would live in comfort. There were many other examples of things that I had researched in my victorian research that were also brought into the play; Including the education of the time. I had learned from doing my researh prior to reading the play that to go to school you had to have money. The more money you had the better education you had. If you had alot of money then you could go to a private school or have a tutor. This relates to the play, because Cecily has a tutor or a governess who educated her. Cecily is the ward of Mr. Worthing, who is a wealthy man, but Cecily herself is also very wealthy, because she had alot of money she was able to pay for a tutor to educate her which was one of the best educations that you could get at the time. Both of these are examples that show that what I learned from doing the victorian era research helped me in understanding the book better.

animal farm poem

Animals taking over the farm
to avoid the farmers plan to slaughter.
No one wants to come to harm
when the farmer wants to slaughter

The pigs devise a scheme
to avoid the farmers plan to slaughter.
With one specific theme
when the farmer wants to slaughter.

The animals begin to rebel
with hope for a better life
And the Jone's reighn fell
with promises for a better life

The animals start to rebuild
with hope for a better life
While the pigs get their bellies filled
with promises for a better life?

The pigs break the rules
leadership can cause corruption.
And act like selfish foold,
power can lead to corruption

The animals hopes were shattered,
leadership can cause corruption.
Had it ever really mattered,
power can lead to corrupion

Jashua Kelly

Jashua recited the poem Dulce et Decorum Est, he used body language, tone, attitude and appearence/facial expression to show the meaning and his understanding of the poem. He speaks faster/slower or louder/softer in different parts of the poem to express the feel of whats happening in it. He uses an upset/terrified voice in a part of it where the poem tells about an attack and a stumbling man.
I felt that the poem was about an army unit marching on through a war, and about a man within the unit and the things that he experienced and saw in the war. I felt that the tone of Mr. Kelly used throughout the poem made the poem stand out. He uses a softer afraid tone when he is talking about the man that he saw die, and a rougher louder voice when he describes the ambush or attack. These emphasized things makes the poem, and helps show how much Jashua understood what was happening in the poem "Dulce et Decorum Est".

MOTIF

Reading the book to kill a mocking bird helped me to understand the meaning of motif, because the book had a lot of examples and references to the motif of the mockingbird. In the book Atticus tells his kids that it's a sin to kill a mocking bird, because mocking birds do nothing but share their sweet melodies, never hurting to annoying any one. Through out the book the motif of the mocking bird is displayed through characters, rather than just the obvious bird. For example, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson were mocking bird characters. They both never hurt any one or did anything to upset anyone else, all they ever did was did what they could to help other people. And so "it is a sin to kill the mocking bird" meaning that it was a sin to lock up Tom Robinson after all he did was help Mayella Ewell with what ever he could. Or that it was wrong to even consider taking Boo to court when he had never hurt a soul, only saved two innocent childrens lives from a bad man.
The Motif of the mocking bird helps to elaborate or built backround for the other themes in the book. The theme of bravery sits hand in hand with the motif, Boo came out of his house after 20+ years of being inside never showing his face, and keeping to himself, so that he could do what he could to save the lives of Atticus's children. Another theme that the motif helped to inspire was the theme of justice vs. injustice. Being when Tom was taken to court and tried for raping Mayella, the people that were in the court all knew that there was no real evidence that Mayella had been raped. The only thing that was there was a black man's word against a white mans, and Tom was convicted guilty and taken away to prison. Tom was the mocking bird, everyone knew that he had done nothing wrong all the evidence proved that he was innocent, and the people killed the mocking bird by stating he was guilty.

Best Friends

I have quite a few friends, of those friends I have exactly two BEST friends. NICOLE DANDRIDGE is one of two, we met in the seventh grade in Ms. Clears class. Nicole is short, she has originally dirty blond/light brown hair. She might be one of the shortest people in my group of friends, but she's deffinatley one of the loudest, funnest people I know. When she gets nervous her face lights up, literally, she turns bright red, thats something that we have in common. When you see her in the hall you'll notice she wears her vans and her hoodies, skinny jeans and a band T. She has a loud laugh that no one else posseses. NIKKI HERBISON is my other best friend, Nikki and I met also in seventh grade in Ms. Clears class. Nikki is one of the sweetest people I know, she may be quiet but she makes friends easily with everyone that she comes across. Nikki has a fun outlook on life, she is a semi-hippy girl, she and nicole are vegitarians, and Nikki is a GO GREEN type of girl. She tells me on a regular basis to save the trees and not litter. Nikki has the most amazing naturaly curly hair that I have ever seen in my entire life, she has perfect brown ringlets that are beautiful.
Nicole is a very oppinionated self spoken young individual, that is more than happy to tell you how she feels and not afraid to speak her mind. Nikki is more reluctant to speak her mind but she will when given the opportunity. Nicole is anti beef, "It tastes like murder" is what she said when she accidently had a little nibble of pepperoni on a piece of pizza at vics. Nikki and Nicole are the lives of the party, we all "feed" off eachothers energy, when we all get together its like one big sugar high most of the time, but in the end what goes up must come down... we crash. Nikki is very clever, she comes up with the funnest, and funniest things right off the top off her head. Nikki and Nicole are great friends, and I know that we will be friends for a VERY very long time

Looking back

When I was four years old my mother and my father took me and my new baby sister to a family friends house. Sitting in the car was boring, it took to long to get there, all I wanted was to be out of the car and to see the two adults that I considered my own friends instead of my parents. Pulling onto the curb you could see the little cottage looking house with small windows down a little hill. I jumped out of the car to rush my parents, they told me i could go on without them, but I had to wait I was to nervous to go on my own. Once they were finally ready to go inside I ran down the little steps leading down the hill to the little house holding my dad's hand and dragging him along.
We finally made it inside the house, and we said our hello's and i sat down listening to them visit, bored out of my mind. When my mom asked if i wanted to go outside with her for a moment i launched into action and took my opportunity. My mother and i walked to the back of the house where there was a sliding glass door, the door lit up the dark house, through it you could see the brightness of the outside. We went outside as the sun was setting, and looked out beyond the grass and the large weeping willow that was drooping over a picnic table. Past these was the sun setting over the lake, the sun was low and the clouds a pink and orange color that made my eyes wide get wide. Seeing the reflection of the sun on the calm rippling lake water looked like a mirror image of the sun just above the water. We watched the sun set and then went inside to visit again, and for me to be yet again bored out of my mind.

The bean trees: imagery

I believe that the author used the element of imagery so heavily to enhance the books potential, and really create the scene. By doing thins like describing people and they way that they look, and describing scenes the author really sets the mood, and gives a great mental picture in the mind of the reader. I think that that's the main reason that the author chose imagery for the main literary element, just so that the mental picture could be made in clear view for the reader.
I think that the author might also have used this element, because she wanted the story to be full of life, and seem realistic. I think that her way of doing this was by creating the scene and describing how she saw fit in the best way that she could, so that the book would be more exciting and/or intriguing.

outside reading

"The Bean Trees"

So far I really like the book "The bean Trees", in my opinion it is not the kind of book that grabs and rips your attention into the book, but I also think that it is not a hard book to get into. The book starts out by describing how the main character is afraid to put air into tires ever since she saw one blow up and fling a man into the air. The way that it was written makes it interesting s that the reader wants to keep reading, but not so interesting that the reader feels they can't put the book down.
The literary term that is most obviously dominating my book is the element of imagery. Of all of the elements it is the one that is standing out so far (half way) through my book.
I think that the author might be using this element most frequently, because she wants the reader to feel like they are a part of the book. I think that the book was written this way because the story is kind of slow, not the unbearable droning on type of slow, but slow enough that the writer feels the need to give the reader mental pictures of things that are occurring throughout the book
The tone in the story from my perspective is what i believe to be satirical. The main character Taylor, makes fun of a lot of people and things throughout the book. I think that in the chapters the tone is almost always satirical or is written in a satirical manner. I don't think that it varies often.

Writing about reading

Getting into a book that is not interesting or fascinating at first is hard. It can be confusing and frustrating, and most of the time i just want to stop. When i read a book that is confusing it helps to just push through it, to think about what I'm reading but don't linger on things that aren't making sense. Usually if you push through a little farther then it will start to make sense.
When there isn't a place that is quiet and comfortable to read in, then i usually go to the quietest place that i can find. usually in my room shutting the doors so that i only have to listen to a minimal amount of sound. If that still isn't good enough, or quiet enough then i can ask my mom to tell everyone else to be quiet so that i can do my work.
Usually i read in a place that is quiet, i find it easier to concentrate on my book when it's quiet. That way i don't get distracted. When i read i usually read two to three chapters at a time depending on how long the chapters are. I get distracted easily by TV, movies, my cell phone, or the computer, so it makes it hard to sit still long enough to get through a book in a day; or to read more than two chapters.
I read mostly because i have to. There is the rare occasion that i will find a book that I am really interested in, interested enough that i would want to read it on my own that is. I like fiction books, because they are more interesting then the droning on, mostly fact non-fiction books. The only reason that i would read a non-fiction book is because it was for school, or required. There is almost no way that i would want to read a non-fiction book on my own time just for fun.