Blogging to the End

I remember the first time we were told we were going to have a blog for assignments. My first thought was that I would never remember to do the assigned blogs each week. Another thought I had was that I could write really cool things and people would like what I said.

 Looking back at my very first blog, Giselle’s intro, you can tell I was just trying to add more than I really wanted to say. I tried to make my first blog post look impressive so classmates might be interested to read my blog.

Some of my earlier blogs I always felt the need to check about books before I wrote them because I wasn’t completely sure of a point I was trying to prove in a piece of writing. Reading my blogs in order, you can see the total difference in tone. From my blog post, My writing My way.. (Extra Credit!), you can read that I have more of an opinion on things, and I have fun writing it. The blog posts from then on sounded more like how I would explain topics like the poem “Lobsters”. What I learned is that I just need to write what I think with supportive evidence, and I shouldn’t babble on something that I don’t know about.

“ But these are flowers that fly and all but sing: And now from having ridden out desire” This quote is from the poem, “Blue-Butterfly Day” by Robert Frost. I really like this quote from his poem because not only does it talk about the nature of butterflies, but talks about children. I think these lines represent how I have the knowledge to put the correct answers but I don’t and I am “ridden out desire”, meaning that I wished I would want to include more in my blog. When I do my blogs I second guess what I wrote worried if I will sound stupid or something is inaccurate or wrong. 

My favorite blog posts are ones that we did reading Great Expectations. We made many references to different literature writing, and objects. Mainly we did the important metaphors to enhance a certain theme. I really enjoyed reading my, GE Photo Post, about comparing Pip to a flower. Here is some analysis I did on Pip and the flower on that blog, “I compared Pip to a flower because he was a daisy in spring, healthy and full. As time goes on flower petals fall off, the events happening to Pip makes indecisive. The flower cannot restore it's petal in one day, the daisy will come back in spring and repeat the process. Pip is loosing all his petals, he isn't becoming his true self.” I think if I wrote like this for majority of my blogs, it would enjoy writing blogs more because it is fun to make comparisons and your originally viewpoint on something.My other Great Expectations post I liked was, Making Connects with GE. I connected the story to Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell Tale Heart I liked it because I connected the stories and it wasn't as difficult as other posts were.

Honors English this year was very fun! We got to practice our essay writing skills and improve our vocabulary with some help of word power. We also got to experience routine blogging on the internet. Quite a year it has been; and there will always been at least one great highlight each day in English!

So long Freshman Year!

-Giselle

Memorable Assignments

     Thinking back through assignments and projects brings back good and bad memories. The most memorable project was Poetry Out Loud. when we started to memorize "Fire and Ice" it was oddly fun using hand motions to remember what the next line was. I got "Part for the Whole" by Robert Francis. Before memorizing the poem, we did a class analysis of our poem, and I was confident that I understood the poets message.I started the technique when I first got my poem, it worked very well. I usually practiced my poem at night so no one could hear me. Now that I look back, it's really funny how frustrated I was when I messed up, I had to start from the beginning until I got it right. When I memorized halfway through the poem I stopped the hand signs and started memorizing anywhere I went. My friends usually were my audience hearing my practice and practice and practice.
     I got my poem memorized about a week until the class competition. No doubt I was nervous the day of the competition. The main thing I was afraid of losing points was how dramatic I told the poem. I did a surprisingly good job! Got tied for second place and went to the school competition. This was the most memorable because it was hard but fun, and it really felt like exercising an important skill. 

My Experiences with Poetry

      I personally like poetry, it is a gateway for emotions but not always sad, sappy poems. There are types of poems that people don't know about and I think everybody will like some type of poetry. when I was younger my parents didn't really introduced me to poems, but many nursery rhymes. I just remember reading Shel Silverstein poems in his "large" books and showing how funny the type of writing was.

     First time I worked on poetry thoroughly was when I made multiple haiku's in 5th grade. Mine mostly consisted of bugs and nature.In middle school I really got to work with poetry and making my own original poems. In my 8th grade language arts class we made a poetry book including 2 poems by known poets and 10 poems made by me. As I'm looking at one of the poems I wrote, I remembered sitting at the front of the classroom thinking of what to write then, I saw the buses enter, the trees, the sun reflecting off of everything and started writing. Looking back on that, I realize it is simple to be motivated if you really wanted to. when my 8th grade teacher graded my poetry book, she added that I had "great imagery throughout" . I think I just loved to describe things I see, hear, touch, feel, and smell it's very easy but the way you describe something is interesting. 

     Ninth grade, our class started analyzing poetry, and I have notice that I chosen Emily Dickinson in middle school and my second choice for reciting poetry. I did poetry out loud, my class and school recitation was "part for the whole" by Robert Francis. It was fun learning different ways to express my poem and make certain parts of it more dramatic.

     Poetry is representing something and looking at something in a different direction, then you might see in person. I like deciphering poems and looking over different styles of poets. when I heard we were doing poetry, I was kind of happy. However, I don't think from the poems we read in class are going to motivating or going to move someone.

 

Conflicts in R&J

     The obvious conflict is the two families, the Montague's and the Capulet's, their own child has married their enemy's child. when things got really drastic was when Tybalt killed Mercutio and Romeo was angry then killed Tybalt. Prince declared the result of Tybalt's death was to banish Romeo from Verona. This also meant that he had to be separate from his love of his life, Juliet Capulet. We were introduced to the hatred of these families at Capulet’s party in Act 1. Romeo comes uninvited to the party and Tybalt was enraged, “It fits when such a villain is a guest. I’ll not endure him.” (1.5.84-85). This starts the man vs. man conflict between Romeo and Tybalt. An act later it’s the romance between Romeo and Juliet, which Tybalt utterly disliked. He challenged Romeo to a duel and Romeo almost got killed. Instead of Romeo dying his best friend ended up with an injury. While Mercutio is dying  he said, "A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me, I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses!" (3.2. 111-113). Romeo and Tybalt fighting and representing  their families had caused Mercutio’s death. Mercutio sensed that Romeo changed for the worse, the fight didn’t do good for him. Romeo couldn't think for a better solution for the fighting between families.  He missed that he wasn’t droven crazy over girls, Mercutio saw his friend change before his death. 

In present time we don't duel out each other when something is wrong, well not the way they do it. Everyone has moral conflict to improve something about themselves. Romance stories are more interesting/ noticeable for a character's controversy between choices. In reality it is at work, home, anywhere; this decision could be based on the better health or educational purposes. About a month ago I had to decide if I wanted to pick this subject in honors or regular, I made a pro's and con's list to help think about the factors that are included with this class. And I couldn't choose what was best for me or my education track.What people usually do is they think of it briefly, go home and sleep on the idea. Then they ask the opinions of their friends to help them decide.

Seeing Romeo and Juliet Everywhere

Romeo and Juliet has a big impact on modern culture such as songs. I've been listening to the same song over and over again cause I really like this song. It is Somewhere Only we Know by Keane. while listening to this song I think of Romeo's perspective, how he feels about not seeing Juliet. Second verse is saying that he is ready to be committed, but committed to only one girl he truly loves. I think the "fallen tree" represents him, he's looking at himself. He wants to go to the place where he knew he loved her, and try and get those memories and feelings back. If Romeo and Juliet went to "somewhere only they knew" meaning forgetting the familiy feuds, then that is a place without any problems just for them two to love. Saying "this could be the end of everything", Romeo wants to be together but there are too many reasons why they shouldn't be together. He just wants to be in a relationship with Juliet, and forgets his other choices.

This is the Glee shortened version of this song.

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

So if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
So why don't we go

This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know? 

Connecting with Romeo and Juliet

      Reading at home I get original ideas of what's going to happen and how I interpret the lines.  In Act 1 Scene 1, Benvolio and Tybalt interrupt the servants fighting; this is showing that there will always be a peacemaker and an over-prided person in a situation. These two men also foreshadows the relationship between them, and there will most likely be another situation like this further in the play and the reactions may be different. The nurse in the Capulet family is more of a mother to Juliet than Lady Capulet is. The show case mom, Lady Capulet, is very egotistical and her comments are going to be hateful but satirical. I think her lines we could usually find a pun in. In Act 1 Scene 4 Romeo's character is firstly introduced. when Romeo is talking to Benevolio we sense Romeo's personality easily. I think Romeo will be fun to read, he will be saying romantic lines with many metaphors.

      Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare has truly interest me. All the general plot summary just sounds like a sappy love story but Shakespeare's language and the way he tells the story is hard and interesting to decipher at times. When I read at home, I usually keep track of character personalities, relationships, and motifs. During class while reading I usually notice puns and metaphors whether a classmate points it out or re-reading it just made the lines more clear. It's easy to keep up with the reading assignments, there aren't many pages we have to read each night. I can usually decipher what the general idea of the whole page, but in class I learn more in depth of the lines I missed. Sometimes I look up words up in the dictionary and try to decipher the lines. Reading aloud in class does help me, what I think I read, is further in depth in literary devices than I thought.

    

wrapping up Great Expectations

Morals and themes are easily found in Great Expectations, but is it easy to tell the specifics of the universal meaning? Guilt goes hand in hand between the different linked relationships through characters. Also, feeling guilty comes in a package deal with always striving to self improve. In real life it is like constructive criticism; lets say a journalist is writing a big news story, and the editor in chief told the journalist that he/she forgot to interview the main person who it's about. The journalist feels guilty for forgetting such a silly mistake and wants to show his/her boss an excellent story next time. My example I just showed you really demonstrated that there are steps to guilt, I think that's why Charles Dickens wanted to include the dishonoring of characters. Everyone experiences feeling bad what they have done. It is also important to know Dickens intention for the guilt factor, it shows that having a satisfactory life is worth more than living a high financial life because you miss out on friendships and family.

GE Thoughts on Reading

Let me start on saying this, I wouldn't pick Great Expectations as a choice for reading outside of class. I understand that in English this novel shows a unique writing style of Charles Dickens, and has important morals and literary devices/techniques. In the beginning of the book, it was overwhelming how there were so many literary things coming at you, sometimes it was hard to catch everything. For me, it was boring at the beginning but I understand it was building the structure of Pip's life before becoming a gentleman; and of course it was exciting right in the middle of stage 2 until the end. I liked the characters background stories, because they all connected together. It was also fun trying to figure out the rumors of relationships. There were many settings throughout the book. At first it was confusing and now that I finished reading, I thought it was very realistic how people call places by the street and not by name. For example, when we say we are going to school we do not keep repeating Olympia High School because that would be repetitive and sound odd. Sometimes I have to keep remembering that the narrative is from Pip, but him as an adult looking back and telling us. Dickens writing was fun to read from, and you can compare his style to other authors like Edgar Allen Poe. I liked Biddy as a character because nowadays, there are more teenage girls that are like her instead of Estella. Her character is easy to relate to, but the funniest character was the Aged Parent. He lived in the "castle/fort" and was fun. My absolute favorite parts about books are the mysteries that lie in them, they are fun to figure out. I was excited that I find out Estella's parentage, and the reason why Miss Havisham is dark and twisty.

The second week I got behind in my reading, by Friday I had to read around 100 pages. I always caught up in my reading before the week was over so i could do my annotations and weekly journal on Thursdays. Usually before I go to sleep I try to read the assignment, but then I get tired and stop then I only have a chapter or a few pages left to read before school. Sometimes I tried to read before even getting into bed but I got distracted with something else. My favorite spot reading is on my living room couch where I hear some noise from the kitchen where there are faded conversations. I think I like reading with some noise because it'll focus me to read instead of doing something else. In the middle of the book I didn't annotate much while reading, If I haven't done enough annotations I do it before school  Friday. however,  during the end of the book I annotated a lot. I always do my weekly journals around 8 pm, I always remember because I watch Grey's Anatomy at 9 pm, and always wanted to finish the journal before the show started. Having a routine of doing my weekly journals was easy, sometimes during that I put few more annotations in. Half-way through the book I got my routine down and it was easier to look back on what I read and not cram everything before school started on Friday.

GE Photo Post

 

The character, Pip, in Great Expectations was very lovable when he was younger. He was more interesting when he was naive and childish; we liked Pip because we could relate to his feelings more than we can now. He is older and making decisions that he is not completely liking afterward. As we read the book we see him getting older and having relationships with different types of people like Wemmick. I compared Pip to a flower because he was a daisy in spring, healthy and full. As time goes on flower petals fall off, the events happening to Pip makes indecisive. The flower cannot restore it's petal in one day, the daisy will come back in spring and repeat the process. Pip is loosing all his petals, he isn't becoming his true self. In chapter 40 he learns that his benefactor is someone who was even lower class than he originally was. Pip is learning the true facts about people and society and is uncovering the lies. When pip becomes happy again with his life, he will bloom next spring once more.

Making Connections with GE

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens reminds me of a short story I read, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. Starting from the second stage of Great Expectations, I notice Pip's narration feeling more sad and extremely guilty in the last few chapters we read. My mind instantly thought of Poe's work including his books and poems. Poe usually written his work from a dark perspective that looks back at past things that already happened; like Pip's narration. I think that's one reason why classmates and I are sometimes confused that Pip's character sounds present tense and we get so caught up, we forget he's looking back when he is older. The unnamed narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart represents Pip, he has reached what he always wanted then feels ultra guilty about it. If my prediction goes correctly, then Pip will tell all his loved ones his faults of being a gentleman to be relieved. Pip's expectations are represented as the old man's body pieces underneath the floorboards. The cop that enters the old man's house in the short story is simliar to Pip's loved ones such as Biddy and Joe.

 The suspense from Poe's short story seems more noticeable to feel the guilt; but in Dickens' novel, the suspense of Pip learning from his guilt trips are interesting to readers. In The Tell-Tale Heart ,the narrator begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, the narrator comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. The sound increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no attention to it. Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that not only are the officers aware of the sound, but that they also suspect him, the narrator confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the body. I think Pip is going to do the same with his expectations because between chapters 27-35 viewing all the guilt, but in chapter 35 he really wants to come back to visit Joe and Biddy. He is revealing that he can solve the problem but it is going to be hard to actually do it.

Pip's Second Stage

At the start of the second stage of Great Expectations, Pip arrives in London disappointed in what he sees. Pip was excited that he is growing to be a gentleman when he arrived there. Since he already feels superior over his family and friends It seemed that he started a new perspective of his life after the first stage, it is expressed in the ways he talked to his old friends like Joe and Biddy. Pip was getting But for the readers sake, you get more of an understanding of events that happened earlier. The reader knows now the story behind Miss Havishams so this shows that the motif of mystery is there for a reason.


In the first stage Pip was trying to prove to everyone that he desperately wants to be a gentleman. Everyone made him feel unwanted and doesn't deserve the things he gets from his sister and Joe. The motif of doubles occurs through characters a lot. They are pairs for every character to show how Pip reacts to each character of the pair. It also confuses his opinion on things like who to trust. The two convicts on the marsh Pip met that he does favors for and then soon felt guilty. Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham are the two "invalids", according to Pip. Also the two girls that Pip likes are Ella and Biddy. Pip's convict asks for food and the file; but the other convict gave him money this lead Pip having people wanting him but not the "right people". I found that Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham are oddly similar, but they haven't had an altercation or made contact yet. Estella and Biddy are two different girls with very different aspects that Pip likes. Estella was told to break Pip's heart right in front of him, she just wants to play with Pip's feelings. He wants Estella because she is uncommon, he wants what seems to be unpractical for his social class. Biddy actually understands Pip's situations and makes him feel better, this makes Pip's decisions hard to make because there will always be two choices and only one decision to make.

Chapter 9 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 thinking about what he has already done and is going to do, can really affect his future. The narration is telling the reader to think of a moment from your life and if you haven't done a certain actions led to an important thing in your life. when Pip first went to Miss Havisham's house began his "chain". It soon leads into other mischief and meeting Estella.
The beginning  of a "chain" would be the start of every school year for me. You don't know what is going to go on from the first moment you are there. Going from class to class you get your feel from the routine and friends. I look back from that and I see progress being more happy and learning from old school days.

Great Expectations Questions

In the beginning of chapter 6, the context confused me, so it's hard to understand what Charles Dickens is meaning Pip to say.

"My state of mind regarding the pilfering from which I had been so unexpectedly exonerated, did not impel me to frank disclosure; but I hope it had some dregs of good at the bottom of it." (40)

What does this text from the book mean, and how does it relate to information about Pip's guilt later in chapter 6?

Group Essay

I don't know if either of you guys got my paper from Mrs. Gilman and i couldn't have seen the corrections you may or may not have made. so here is my paragraph, I've made a few adjustments on my commentaries from my first draft paragraph. I stuck with the concrete details we found together. Please let me know what you think about my paragraph, I know i need definite work on my conclusion and commentaries. 

My Paragraph:

Jack and Gwendolyn are suitable as a couple for each other in society, that’s why they are in a relationship. Whenever this relationship focuses on the interests on what they want, “The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.” (20) Gwendolyn wants the personality trait, being earnest, to match with Jack’s honor and respectability when he is in the town. Jack wants to be loved by Gwendolyn, when he pretends Ernest is his name; Gwendolyn feels the romantic bond more when his name is Jack. In addition, during the marriage proposal there are expectations from Gwendolyn and Jack. Gwendolyn feels there should be a correct proper way to do everything; it is expressed during the marriage proposal. The couple doesn’t want choices, they want decisions based on what they think is the right way. However, when there is a stirring conversation, the couple talks in epigrams such as, “If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”(89) The epigram used by Gwendolyn represents the way she talks, her phrases contradict each other. If Jack took a longer time than he insisted on, Gwendolyn wouldn’t wait at all. Therefore, Jack and Gwendolyn’s relationship is based off the image of what the society sees. 

Dishonesty with Ernest

Jack and Algernon abuses the character, Ernest, to have a double life where they can "bunbury" or be different than they really are. The play is often humorous because the characters are always thinking something extreme, then when finding out the truth, the say that is was their idea the whole time. Like when Gwendolen knew Cecily and her would be great friends, then two minutes later she says that she knew that Cecily was distrustful from the start. Some characters go back and forth with their opinions which makes it easy to fool people with the truth. it is very satirical when the play talks about marriage. Algernon explains to Jack that marriage is business not pleasure. This makes me think that marriage can just raise or lower your image in society. Spouses that did get married during this time period could have liked each other, but from this play it seems that it is based on society. In Act II Algernon and Jack are not being earnest even though the character they play is the earnest guy Gwendolen and Cecily ever knew about. when Jack learns that his real name is actually Ernest he becomes then acts like he is very sincere, like he inherited his own character. Algernon admits to being a bunburyist, that is how he has fun when he wants to be secretive. Even Jack is a bunburyist, but doesn't realize it. The name changes fulfills the characters' wishes they wouldn't be seen or heard of doing.

Oscar Wilde has the word earnest literal meaning of serious but sincere. in this book it is used as the notion of false truth and notion of right and wrong ideas. i think the Victorian Era had high expectations for what wealthy could and could not do. Algernon and Jack to invent made up characters with alter egos so they are can be able to escape all the high society expectations and live a different life, a perspective that is different than there regular life.

Animal Farm Project Evaluation

Angela: Pyramid Poster.           

I thought Angela had a creative way to represent the class system on animal farm. She also compared animals in a class with a known person in reality. Her intention was the class system would always be someone at the top, and I think it was appealing that she showed the president on the same class level with Napoleon.

Connor:  Slide show.

There were many representations of symbolism in this project. Equality with the animals really stood out by the dialogue of the animals and pictures of the animal farm commandments. The chart near the end shows exact relation with all the other characters in the book. Connor showed relations especially with charts and pictures that indicated the irony of equality.

Daniel M: Comic Strip

This shows what makes Animal Farm, the four statements about Animal Farm all represent foreshadowing, symbolism, and plot. The pictures state these four points, I thought the project was simple, but affected the important literary elements with just a look.

Thomessa: Artwork.

            Thomessa’s project showed how the commandments change over the ruling of Animal Farm.

The commandments are important that creates the plot and understanding the theme. By adding the pictures you can see how those characters foreshadow something in the plot.

Ragan: Artwork.

I really enjoyed looking at Ragan’s project. There is a parallel to the Russian revolution and Napoleon.  The picture was very well done and the windmill adds the included importance with the pigs.

Kayla/Kelsey: Comic

I like how the windmill was included as the main element of inequality. This shows foreshadowing and great symbolism of the windmill.

Adora: Poem

The poem is in a unique perspective that other people could see different meanings. I understand the parallel to old leaders and power. This poem was well written, it has many key points that make the story.

Kylie: Poster

This project feels like a flyer you hand out to invite someone to Animal Farm. I think it’s pretty ironic that it is set up that way, because it is not a place you would not want to go. Kylie has the seven commandments that are changed, and a picture of the king pig napoleon.

Emily: Pyramid Poster

I liked how she did two pyramids that really pictures the parallel the animal farm characters to the Russian Revolution. It’s really simple but informative.

Emma/Catherine: Movie Trailer

The movie trailer included the seven commandments, which is the key to the story. The burning windmill was a smart idea representing all destruction. I liked the trailer very much, it kept me interested and wanted to watch the movie.

ME

I could see much effort in a handful of classmates, but some didn’t do something extraordinary creative project. My project showed what necessary elements to build off the story were. I put a good amount of effort in my project, but not compared to some. I think I did pretty well, considering it’s just a slide show of pictures.