The End

Looking back on the all of the blogs I've done this year, I truly see how much I have grown as a person and as a writer. To be honest, I thought that the blogs were merely icing topped upon my massive amount of homework. I am happy to say that I was wrong. I've learned that blogging can be fun and is a great way to freely express myself. Although the blogs were assigned and structured...I felt like it was me. The blogs were my ideas, my thoughts, and my opinions being expressed. Knowing that my peers could possibly be reading, I tried to make my writing relatable and somewhat humorous (if possible).Throughout the year,my style of writing has not changed, but it is safe to say that it has definitely become stronger.

The importance of having the blog is to express and expand our understanding on what we are doing in class. With blogs, we were able to enhance our knowledge not only by creatively writing but also looking at what our classmates thought as well. Instead of being spoon fed a bunch of the right answers, we get to express how we feel.This is very important because it makes the students feel important. Personally, it makes me feel like my thoughts and opinions matter.  As much as I hate to admit it, those Saturday nights spent blogging actually helped me. It is not until now that I can finally realize their importance in my growth as a writer.

As Mark Victor Hansen once said “Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” This is so true with blogging and overall life. Even though some blogs, assignments, and projects were challenging, they all helped me grow in the end. With these experiences, I will continue to grow both as a person and as a writer. Blogging is beautiful in a way that something so small can make such a big impact on you.

Reflecting on a Memorable Assignment

When asked to think back on all of the assignments we have done this year, I had to stop for a moment and really think. The assignment that stood out over all of the rest had to be one of our first discussions. I've never really had a class discussion without it being complete chaos or complete silence. I was ready to share my thoughts and listen to others as well. I was actually excited because I had so many questions to ask and I was hoping my classmates would too. The assignment seemed difficult and not to mention confusing. Why would I write 10 questions I had....and then write the answer to them? I had difficulties writing my questions but in the end I walked into class with my thoughts typed on a clean sheet of stapled 8x11 paper- ready to share. I was nervous at first, but I got over it once I realized everyone else probably was too.

Once the discussion began, it was very exciting. Some people agreed, some argued, but everyone benefited. We were able to discuss topics on different levels which helped me really understand the literature. Viewing things from a classmates perspective felt so much more relatable. It was hard to say everything I wanted to and comment on everything I wanted to as the topic changed quickly. I learned how to work my questions and comments in while being respectful and attentive to the others as well. I worked hard and I was pretty proud of myself for trying something new. As we went through more and more discussions, everyone got used to them and knew what to do. Luckily, nobody was excessively rude or immature towards one another and although there were arguments, most people were still respectful. Discussions would have to be one of... if not my favorite parts of English this year.

My Experiences with Poetry

Of course we have all read/heard of nursery rhymes and poems when we were young, but we did we really analyze them? I know I didn't. My first encounter with poetry was with "Humpty Dumpty". I don't really think this had any significance in terms of a strong message or meaning, but then again I never really looked at it in depth. I was around five or six years old when my Norwegian grandma read this to me. Aside from her accent, I really enjoyed listening to the rhymes and silly ways of this widely know riddle. To be honest, I mainly focused on the pictures so I could easily follow what was going on. Anyway, I learned to like nursery rhymes and it was not until middle school when I really began to read real poetry.

It was around seventh or eight grade when my class began to read poetry from the blandly beige literature books. I guess I didn't mind the poems we were reading...I was pretty neutral at the time. I though it would be easy, fun, and fairly enjoyable so I kept an open mind despite what my classmates were saying. The poems in the dreaded literature book were not half bad, such as Edgar Allen Poe. I actually really liked reading them although I had a psycho teacher that decided to scarily act them out in front of the class. Other than that, this is was a GOOD experience for me. When discussing the poetry amongst my peers I realized that there are so many different interpretations to poetry and this I loved. I'm not the kind of person who wants a straight shot, one way answer...I like options and different perspectives. Poetry gave this to me.

I learned that poetry is such a beautiful thing. No matter how small a poem may be, a very large thought or message can be carried out through those few words, lines, or whatever it may be. When I hear the word poetry, I get excited because I get to not only analyze what the author is saying but have that connection with what it means to me.

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet there are so many different conflicts going on. One example of conflict is internal/personal conflict. This conflict occurs when Juliet is deciding who she loves and is sad for after Tybalt's death. "My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband." (3.2.115) This shows Juliet's angst about Tybalt's death. She loves Romeo... but he kind of killed Tybalt who was her cousin...woops. This conflict is important to overall themes of the entire play because it is a smaller battle in the huge fight between the two familes. The conflict that Juliet has with her self is showing that her character is unsure and sort of innocent about what to think. This is an important conflict in the play because Juliet keeps changing her mind about Romeo or Tybalt, Tybalt or Romeo. In the whole play, people are always changing their minds.
      
In my life I find that I do think things through a lot. I will have conversations in my head, not out loud like Juliet in the play, but I will think things through the way Juliet did. I think that I do argue with myself the way Juliet does People today think things through all of the time either out loud or in their head. Personally, I reason things out in my head. When I'm making an important decision or just thinking about what I need to do for the rest of the day I have a thought process. I'm not necessarily arguing and having a conflict with myself. This isn't really conflict for me, but if I am thinking about something I will just try to relax and maybe make a list to get all my thoughts out.

Romeo and Juliet.....It's Everywhere!

Romeo and Juliet is such a famous play and pretty much everyone roughly knows what it's about. There are movies, TV shows, and even songs today that share the same message or theme as this classic love story. Some are more obvious than others of course and when thinking about it...the movie Shrek popped into my head. Yes, yes, of course Twilight and West Side Story were in the back of my mind but for some reason I began to realize that these two are alike in so many ways (of course not in every way). I found that the characters somewhat match up and saw the similar message that "these two can't be together" even when Shrek/Fiona and Romeo/Juliet are madly in love. Here's a video that shows a little bit more on what I'm talking about..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5wWROI4oEU&feature=related
It's actually really weird, but funny at the same time. Overall it shows how they relate so that's all that really matters!
(There are sequels to this video that can be found in the sidebar if you are still interested.)

Connecting with Romeo and Juliet

Through reading the first few scenes of the play, I find myslef connecting with the Prince the most. In the beginning of the play, the Prince is the one tries to end the fight. This reminds me of myself because I really do not like when people fight and I like to have peace between everyone. Other than the Prince, Mercutio also reminds me of myself. He is always sarcastic towards Romeo's overly dramatic attitude. I find myself very sarcastic especially in High School with teenage girls (including myself) who are extremely dramatic about everything. All in all, I feel like I have the Prince's "keep the peace" attitude but also Mercutio's sarcasticness (Although I'm sure I can be as dramatic as Romeo sometimes).

Reading the scenes at home and then in class helps me so much in understanding the language. I have my own interpretations when I'm by myself and then at school I can see it as something completely different (in a good way). The old time language can be difficult and is difficult most of the time, only making the book harder to read. Sometimes I'm having a hard enough time trying to understand what's going on that it's hard to see imagery and metaphors let alone any annotations. It really helps to come to school to have Mrs. Gilman/ Ms. Smith not only tell you what's going on, but reword it into modern english.

Wrapping it up

Great Expectations. I feel very satisfied and accomplished reading a book this difficult. There are so many messages in this book that it is hard to choose just one but the main message of the book for me was that money isn't happiness. This message, in my opinion, relates both back then and today. For example, Pip and Miss Havisham have lots of money to spend are not happy with their lives. Today, some of the happiest people there are have little to nothing. This always makes me wonder why rich or wealthy people are not happy. I always come to the assumption  that all of their stuff and the things they have don't fulfill their needs. Money is not a friend you can talk to, share thoughts with, or have a conversation with and a friend is. Stuff is not the answer to your problems, people are because they can listen and be there for you. At the end of the day, you need friends and family, not money. Happiness is  something money cannot buy.

Photo Post

One of the most important concepts that occurs in the first two stages of Great Expectations is Pip becoming a gentleman. This picture illistrates one thing slowly evolving into another thing completely different (which is what happened to Pip). The poor boy Pip, living by the marshes,slowly turned into an aristocrat living in London. This photo is not to be seen for its background or theory behind it, that is a different story. This simply illustrates how one thing can evolve into another which can be seen in the first two stages of the book. Even though one changes, its not always for the better. Pip slowly becomes more and more snobbish as he furthers his "gentleman career". From this, him and Joe grow farther apart and continue to do so even though they try and mend things back together. Pip's feelings about Joe's arrival were "Not with pleasure....I had the shapest senstiveness to his being seen by Drummle" (p.203). Here, Pip is ashamed of Joe because he is from the lower class. Not only that, but Joe treats Pip differently by calling him "sir". From these changes that occured, Joe explains that he needs to leave by saying"Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man's a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come...." (p. 209) This is just one aspect of Pip's life that changed because he changed. So many other changes happened in his life dealing with Estella, Miss Havisham, Jaggers, various convicts and more. I could have explained each, but I think Joe is the most important change being that he is truely close in Pip's heart and that will never change.

Making Connections

While reading Great Expectations, I couldn't help but notice that the book reminded me of  J.K Rowling's series Harry Potter.  Both Harry and Pip had bad childhoods and had parents that died while they were at a very young age. A striking similarity I found was the way the family members treat each boy. Pip is told he should be grateful that he should be alive, and Harry is told that he is lucky he gets what he has (which was very little). So in a sense, they both are treated like they aren't worth anything. I also found another connection dealing with their home life. Pip sleeps in a small room with a small bed, and Harry sleeps in a small room (almost closet-like). After leaving home, both seem to not like the memories of these rooms, it's a part of their past they wish to not revisit.

 Pip and Harry in their younger years.










Just as they were connected in their younger years, they are connected in another way as they get older. For instance, Pip and Harry both come into fortune which changes their lives completely. Harry moved away from his horrid home and moved to Hogwarts where he was educated in becoming a wizard. Pip moved to London, became educated, and learned to be a gentleman. During this time, Harry and Pip both had a good friend to help them out. Pip had Herbert and Harry had Ron (with the exception of Hermione). Herbert showed Pip the ropes of becoming a gentleman while Ron showed Harry the ropes of the wizard world.

 Pip and Harry as they become older, have come into fortune, and moved away.










Pip and Harry both have  lady troubles as well. I find that there are certain similarities in Estella and Hermione. Both are described as very pretty, but they are condescending as well. Estella criticizes Pip on his commonness and his lack of education. Hermione also does this with Harry (and Ron) by treating them like they are silly children who know nothing. Both seem to think they are better than Pip/Harry.

Hopefully this helps you connect Great Expectations to something more modern or just something relevant to you.

The Second Stage

An exceedingly important event which occurred in the second stage was Pip's arrival in London. Once Pip heard the news of traveling to London, he was excited and was looking  forward to his journey. Not being what he thought it what would be, he was disappointed. He came to find that it was over crowded, dirty, and gloomy. The only really blissful thing that came out of the situation was being reunited with Herbert (the pale young gentleman). When having arrived in London, Pip narrates "While I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty" (pg.161). It becomes clear that becoming a gentleman in London isn't always perfect, let alone alluring. Dickens obviously didn't have "high expectations" of London or the upper class life and inferred that it would lead you to a life of dismal unhappiness.


Traveling and arriving in London all has to do with the central idea of Pip becoming a gentleman. At first when Pip was going to become a blacksmith like Joe, he saw it as a respectable job. As Pip grew older, he started to want more for himself and became ashamed of himself and his family's commonness. Now having the opportunity and fortune to fulfill his dream, of course he will do anything to pursue it. Hopefully, Pip will realize that "becoming a gentleman" is causing a negative effect on his personality and his life. Being a part of the upper class may have its ups, but it definitely has its downs.

Pip's quote

   At this point, Pip has had his first day at Ms. Havisham's house. He has met the odd ball (Ms. Havisham) along with young Estella. Estella costantly critisized Pip and made remarks about how common he was, how filthy he was, and how unknowladgable he was. From that, Pip realizes that there is a better life with the upper class. This thought alone makes Pip look at Joe differently. He feels dissapointed of Joe and who he is and wants to refrain from becoming similar to him in any way. This change in Pip, in my opinion, is not a postive one. The majority loves Joe, so you could see why most would be unfavorable of this change in Pip. This quote is undoubtedly the turning point for Pip, he wants more for himself. and overall wants to be a part of the upper class. This is just the beginnig of the chain for Pip, and the life he aims for.


The day that began my "chain" would probably be the day I moved to Japan. Not knowing anyone, let alone their language, was an obvious struggle of mine. I learned to make friends and also learned about their culture. From there I was respectful of the things they did even though I didn't quite fully understand it. I think that learning about other cultures and respecting them is important in one's character. This has shaped me into the person I am today, and I'm so grateful for being able to see other perspectives rather than my own.

Great Expectations -Question about a Passage

"One black ox, with a white cravat on-who even had to my awakened conscience something of a clerical air-fixed me so obstinately with his eyes, and moved his blunt head round in such an accusatory manner as I moved round, that I blubbered out to him, 'I couldn't help it, sir! It wasn't for myself I took it!' Upon which he put down his head, blew a cloud of smoke out of his nose, and vanished with a kick-up of his hind-legs and a flourish of his tail." (page 15, Chapter 3)

This whole passage just kind of threw me off while I was reading. A couple questions I specifically had about it are...

1. Did this actually happen? I felt like the way it was written that Pip was dreaming or imagining.
2. Is this symbolism for something? I mean why would he just put that specific part in there? I felt it was a little odd.

Hopefully you can answer my questions!
Thanks!

Group Essay Collaboration

Kylie and Kelsey,

My body paragraph (on pursuit of pleasure) hasn't changed from what you saw on Friday. I made slight alterations in word choice so that it would be so repetitive, mainly synonyms for "deception". I have found that world coming up A LOT in our paper as a whole but also in my separate paragraph. KELSEY, Kylie and I have not seen your body paragraph! This would be super helpful for you to post so that we know how it ties in and what/who you are writing about.If you could post it or email it to me that would be great. Kylie, you said you weren't going to be in class on Monday so would it be possible for you to post/email me your body paragraph? So Kesley and I can put the paper together even though you won't be there.

If we have all of that we should be fine, we do have our introduction but we still haven't finished our conclusion!

We should try and finish it through the blog so that we at least have the majority of it complete!

Please comment and reply on this post!

If you need to email me anything my email is emm.jaqs@gmail.com

Thanks.

Dishonesty in The Importance of Being Earnest

Disohonesty is a large part in the play The Importance of Being Earnest  by Oscar Wilde. It ties in with satire and humor when people are telling lies in a humorous manner. An example being the pursuit of pleasure. John/Jack lies to everyone by saying he has a wicked brother name Ernest who always gets into trouble in the city. When "Ernest" gets into trouble, Jack goes and "helps him out". Truth be told, Jack has no brother and he is actually the make believe Ernest. He does this so that he can go out in the city and get away from his dull life without anyone knowing.This is also expressed through the satire of marriage. Cecily and Gwendolyn both think that they are going to be married to Ernest. The truth is that Ernest is made up person from a result that Algernon calls Bunbuying. Both Jack and Algernon get into a twist from lying to Cecily and Gwedolyn about "Ernest". Humour is also shown in the play through epigrams. For example, "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his" (pg.28). This is basically saying that women she be less like their mothers and men should be more like their mothers. This is quite contradictary due to the time period. Men were supposed to be these strong and fearless characters while women were weak and emotional. Satire of education also takes part in the play. For example, "Dr. Chasuble is a most learned man. He has never written a single book, so you can imagine how much he knows." (pg. 56). Jack and Algernon are both very dishonest when they pretend to be Earnest  and decide to marry Gwendolen and Cecily with that lie. By this, they were  not being very earnest by pretending to be "Ernest". It is very funny when Gwedolyn says "He is the very soul of truth and honour." (pg.59) because he's lying to her about who he is and she is blind to it.


I think that Wilde used dishonesty through the characters in the play to sort of poke fun at this society in their time period and particularly the upper class. Dishonesty is not necissarily seen as a good thing but in the end everything seems to work out because of it. Jack turns out to find out more about his family and the couples become engaged. He was making fun of all of these "serious" ideas that were going on at the time and really made a point about how ridiculous all of it was. Another humorous part of his play, because they were dishonest...everything seemed to turn out alright.

Evaluation of Projects

1. Kayla Thaller/Kelsey Eagan. Comic strip

I felt that their comic strip conveys the message pretty well. It clearly shows that the pigs had the control over all of the animals even from the first picture. Although it only shows one aspect of the book, it is a very large and very important one. Overall, well done.

2. Daniel.
-Drawing

I think that this picture is great! Rather than it being all about the animals its nice to see something that shows the books biggest parallel, the Russian Revolution. Replacing the animals heads with major people dealing with the Russian Revolution showed the resemblance between the two and was very clever. Nice job Daniel.

3. Emily
-Drawing

Emily's parallels show a lot about the book's meaning. Showing the different levels and how they compare between the people and animals really paints the picture for you. It also shows that there is always a leader. Swell job Emz.

4.Levi
-Movie

This movie was SO good. Levi did an extraordinary job on the script and conveyed the characters well. Quality was 100% as well as completeness. Way to go.

5.Annie
-Movie

This movie represented the animals well and shows what went down in the book. I loved how she used real animals and took the time to give us that effect. Very well done.

6. Sidney
-Poem

I really love this poem and it obviously had a lot of time put into it. It tells the reader step by step what happened but in a fun way because it is a poem. It shows that Sidney understood the book and would be helpful for someone who didn't have such a good grasp. Nicely done.


7. Angela
Pyramid/Artwork


I think that this was a great way to represent the book's meaning. It clearly shows that there were different levels and greed rose to the top. It relates our society and the book well by comparing and contrasting the animals and humans. Great job.


8. Hailey
-Poem


This poem was something that was nicely done. It has all of the key elements to tell the story. It looks like a lot of time and effort was put into it and you can tell. This is great. Nice!


9. Dan
-Comic strip


Dan's comic strip shows the major parts of the book such as corruption of power and use of speech. Way to go, this was nicely done.


10.Kylie
-Drawing/artwork


Showing the seven commandments really showed what the animals were trying to do. The crown on the pig's head in the picture is very clever. Well done.

Creative Project for Animal Farm

Here is a link to my Creative Project. It's an Animal Farm movie trailer. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdFReGbZx6I&feature=BF&list=ULClkIY8xBavY&index=3

New Year's Resolution

The year 2011 has come to us with a fresh start. What will I do differently this year is a question many ask themselves during this time. My New Year's Resolution is to show at least one act of kindness each day. A lot of the time a resolution will be mainly beneficial to you and you only. In this case, I can be brightening up my own day and another's at the same time. I mean who doesn't want a "You look nice today." or a "Let me help you with those." I am not limited to the common phrases I just listed, they are only examples. So many small things can be done in a day that will leave you and the other person posting on Facebook "good day" or just smiling. Especially in Olympia,Wa where it is dark and grey 95% of the time... I know I don't walk out my front door into the cold smiling as I ride off to school. I'm almost positive that no one walks into a high school somewhere around 7:30 am with a positive, upbeat attitude. If someone spills their coffee on themselves in the morning, thats a bad day. If I'm there to help clean it up and perhaps lend them a spare shirt/jacket, I believe it just got a little bit brighter. I am going to try to show these acts of kindness at least once a day in an effort to make someone happier. How will this benefit me? I will leave the day knowing that I did something to make someone's day just a little bit better.

Lending a hand to another.

Helping an elderly women cross the street!