Semester 1 Reflection

The independent reading I did this semester consisted of Lexicon, by Max Berry, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, and Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. I'll start with Lexicon. It was pretty good but it was very confusing. It always had me "on the eadge of my seat" even though it was a book. Overall I enjoyed it and I'm glad I read it. Now on to my multicultural memoir. I loved this book. It was hard to read at some times but it really taught me not to take things for granted. I also enjoyed connecting it to The Color of Water and learning how people stand up for their beliefs. Life of Pi was my favorite of the three and I loved every bit of it. All the symbolism and metaphors intertwined into the characters, animals, and struggles Pi went through. It really helped me see past what I remember from the movie. I read all of these books through suggestions on good reads and suggestions from friends.

I think overall that my blog was strong and experienced lots of improvement despite the fact that I completely fell behind the on-task mark. I started strong with Alex Woods and Lexicon but drifted off during the month of October. I thought my multi-cultural memoir post was strong as well as my Life of Pi posts. I thought I did a really good job on displaying symbolism, also figurative language, and the deeper parts and meaning of the novels. My weakest blog post was probably the Lexicon one because it was all over the place. It felt like it was just a bunch of summarized sentences. I mostly did great with textual evidence and visuals and supporting my quotes with good reasoning.

I have three goals I really need to work on following for the upcoming semester. I want to read a lot more balanced out instead of having to cram for the blog post due dates, I want to be on top of my blog and care a lot more about it than I do now, and I also want to be more active in my friend's blogs and try to regularly check their posts. By doing those things I think that I will want to read more than I do and it will help me be more enthusiastic about writing and English as well. Blogging is only labored if you make it that way. It is supposed to be fun and is. I hope to improve as a student next semester.

R&J

I'm really enjoying the Romeo and Juliet unit so I thought I'd put up the argument writing on whether or not R&J are really in love. I thought I made some pretty valid points and I wanted to take a break from independent reading.

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet I believe that no true love occurs, lust simply blinds the two “star crossed lovers,” Romeo and Juliet, into believing they are in love. Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time at Capulet’s party (Juliet’s father). Romeo sees Juliet from across the room where the party takes place and begins talking about how beautiful and amazing she is. Little does he know, she is the daughter of his family’s sworn enemy. Romeo speaks of Juliet,   ”Her beauty is too good for this world; she’s too beautiful to die and be buried, (1.5.66-67).” At first you may think that I am supporting the wrong claim but Romeo has just recently spent days in depression over his other quote: “love,” with Rosaline a young lady who gave herself to chastity. He tells Mercutio that he can never love again and never find one as charming as his previous when he falls in love with a different girl the same day they talked about this. This goes on to support my thesis that lust is what is taking ahold of the two. Keep in mind also, that they met and kissed within 30 seconds of their first encounter, and quite honestly she is 13 and he, not much older, probably don’t lack the hormones to drive them to this lust. I think that Romeo and Juliet can’t possibly be in love due to their circumstances, it is driven by the lust between them.

J. B. Bernstein

I want to do a blog post on a book I am reading for next semester that I was thinking I should start. I want to read it over winter break so I can get ahead. It is called Million Dollar Arm by J. B. Bernstein. I want to do a post on my first impressions of what the book will probably be about. I received it as a gift from my Grandma over Thanksgiving break. I saw the movie on my birthday last year and it was just so-so. I'm hoping the book is a lot better.The author is a pretty well known sports agent who has dealt with athletes such as Barry Bonds and Barry Sanders. He launched a reality TV contest in 2007 by the name of Million Dollar Arm. It consisted of a competition where two boys/men, from India, are selected to win 100,000 USD and a trip to the US to enter a bonus round. The two also have an opportunity to play for and MLB team if their tryout is up to par.

Now onto the movie. I kind of liked it and kind of didn't as I said before. To me it was a little bit unrealistic but still enjoyable. The plot for the entirety of the movie didn't really have an antagonist, just the people who doubted the likelihood of their Major League Baseball potential. The antagonist in a book or a movie is really important to me and I sometimes find myself relating to the bad guy more than I do to the good guy. I think some authors and producers/directors do a really good job at this, and in this case, it just didn't do it for me. I am hoping the book does a better job of leaving me hooked and keeping me believing the novel, because after all it is a nonfiction novel. But either way I am looking forward to this read.

Good So Far

In this blog post I have decided to state and address some of my predictions after reading the first few chapters of Life of Pi. We meet Pi as a character and he goes into detail about his name and its meaning. It is derived from Piscine and means pool in French. It is funny to me that Pi's parents have never cared much for water and actually shy away from it. This leads to something ironic that I noticed. First off Pi is taught to swim by his family friend, Francis Adirubasamy. Pi begins to feel a relationship with water and feels the opposite of his parents. Little does he know he will be trapped on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for months. I think this definitely foreshadows that the shipwreck and his surviving struggle will occur.

I also think that Pi's journey is symbolized by the zoo creatures he takes care of until the zoo is shut down. He speaks about the life of luxury the animals live on a day to day basis and compares it to the way humans live. A paradise if you will. It is not until Pi is trapped in the middle of the ocean with a tiger and an assortment of other animals that he realizes what it is like to be a wild animal. He has to fight for food and water and the psychological factor of not having human relation for as long a time as he didn't. Pi states, “Only a familiar territory will allow them to fulfill the two relentless imperatives of the wild: the avoidance of enemies and the getting of food and water, (P. 20 Martel)." Again I have seen the movie so I know what mostly happens in the book but it seemed like a great read so here I am. The picture below is a depiction of the Pondicherry zoo and botanical garden.                                                                              

New Book

I am starting a new book to read over Thanksgiving Break. It is called Life of Pi by: Yann Martel. Shout out to Alex Fortson for the suggestion. The novel is about a young man named Pi Patel, hence the name, Life of Pi. His father is a zookeeper who decides to move to North America and take all the animals from the zoo with. I have seen the movie and now want to read the book so that I can further understand the meaning. I remember in the end of the movie there was something that confused me. Pi writes about his experience in which he has to survive on a lifeboat with some hyenas, a wounded zebra, and orangutan, and a tiger. There was a part in the movie I don't quite remember but it suggested that none of the animals were actually with him on the life boat. That maybe he created them with his mind to get through the struggle of surviving by himself.

I think I am going to find some differences between the book and movie version. I am excited to see what these are. In the movie I remember being kind of sad throughout the whole film. The way he was torn from his family by a ship wreck, the way the zebra and orangutan died while he was right there, how the tiger walked into the forest without ever turning back around after all that Pi had gone through with him. It left me with a lot to think about which is why I'm so excited about reading it. If you want to see a trailer to the movie press play. I strongly suggest watching the movie By the way. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment!

Multicultural Memoir: Text-to-Society Blog Post Assignment

My memoir, A long Way Gone by: James Beah, has opened me up to a new understanding of how great we have it here in the United States. We have a military that can and will protect us from sources of evil and terror. I also get to see my friends and family every day. The memoir has taught me not to take those things for granted. Many of you reading are probably aware of the summary and main idea of A Long Way gone. I am going to restate it anyways. It is about a young boy living in Sierra Leone, Ishmael. There is a war raging in the country that Ishmael thinks will never reach him. Little does he know it will become a part of his life every day. Constantly on the run, losing loved ones, switching groups, he struggles to find himself a midst the chaos. He is captured by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) a radical rebel group who uses child soldiers against their will.

The child soldiers are shown in the picture above. They were forced upon drugs and learned and adopted a brutal way of life in order to survive. Child Soldiers Article

The research is focused on how the RUF forces children that decided to have no part in the movement (even demobilized ones) to rejoin. The RUF threatened to kill everyone in the demobilization camps if not. The article states that over 50 children were removed from refugee camps dude to falsely created rumors about reuniting the children with their families. It also states that female abductees are regularly raped by RUF members. This connects to my realization because the horrors of the war in Sierra Leone are so shocking to me. How the government could allow those things to happen. It once again makes me realize how safe it is here . I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like. This video has more info on Ishmael.                           

Note: (I forgot to publish this blog post and it was just sitting in my drafts). Sorry you haven't heard for me in so long. I have decided to do two  mini blog posts on The Color of Water because I have enjoyed reading it so much. I chose the prompt in which you find and argue for the most important sentence in the chapter and I'm torn between two.

The first sentence is from chapter 12, Daddy. It is the chapter where James talks about his stepfather, Hunter Jordan. He is a classic, old timey, man, who I think James should be thankful for having. Until he doesn't have him. Hunter suffers a stroke during James's adolescence. He becomes closer and closer to Hunter realizing his values of church and academics. He relapses and dies after having one last important conversation with James. This is where the prompt comes in. The most important sentence to me was, "I wanted to tell him that I loved him, that I hoped with all my heart that he would get better, but I could not formulate the words in my mouth. (127, McBride)." This was so important to me; and I'm assuming James, because this happened when he was the oldest of his siblings still living in the house. Hunter influenced him so much that it had to be traumatizing to James and his siblings as well.

I'm Confused

I have gotten a few chapters into the new book I am reading, Lexicon. The beginning was really confusing and still is but I have some predictions. In the first chapter two men drug up a man named Wil who is the protagonist for the time being. They are trying to get him out of an airport with minimal resistance but will is trying to get to his wife so he can escape safely. He plans a small escape and a woman named Rain in a blue dress is mentioned multiple times. He makes his way to his wife's car after he gets away from the two men but he is back in their grasp minutes later.

Wil is in a van with the two men and they see Rain ahead. One man tells he other to kill her. Then out of nowhere Wil's wife wrecks into the van with her car. I am assuming she is trying to get Wil back. "It was a white SUV. It's front was crumpled against the wall. Steam issued around its bent front wheels. The sticker on the rear window said: Virginia is for lovers... "'No! No! Cecilia!'" "'She's dead,'" said the tall man. I was just as surprised as you are. As they are regaining their footing and what not Wil sees Rain's dress in the mirror. She is trying to get to Wil. The men catch her and shoot her. She is almost dead when she mysteriously whispers the words, "Contrex helo siq rattrak," The man who shot her suddenly puts the gun to his own head and pulls the trigger. 

In my previous blog post I mention what this novel is about and I think there is already relationships between that and what I have read. According to the synopsis Elizabeth(we haven't met her yet) uses words as weapons and I am assuming that is exactly what rain did to the man when he shot himself. Another strange connection I found was between the cover of the book and the quote, "... but he could still see that her eyes were the same blue as her dress." The picture below makes me wonder...

What to read

I have gone through my Goodreads and looked at my suggested books and I think I have decided to read a book called Lexicon By Max Barry. Unfortunately I have not yet purchased or read any of the book but I am going to tonight. The reason I want to read this is not only because it was suggested but it was on the same this I got my summer reading book from.

The book is about a girl named Emily Ruff. She is a run away. Emily is recruited, based off of her actions of which I do not  know, to a mysterious school. At this school they don't learn typical everyday academics such as algebra and history. They learn how to use words as weapons and the art of persuasion. I think the setting of Lexicon will be key in the book because it's a mysterious and unknown school that will probably have all kinds of menacing professors and rival students.

How I feel about Alex

When reading The Universe Versus Alex Woods I found that I really enjoyed the protagonist, Alex. He had such a unique personality due to the fact that he spent all his time reading in a small room for an entire year. He was so advanced intellectually and he was one of those characters I really wish I was in common with. But at the same time he was so naive and not street smart since he hadn't been in much human to human contact. He was witty and his personality was so unique.

I admired the way he understood stuff that was so beyond his years. A quote that displays his funny personality is, "'God you're
weird!' she said. 'Yes I know,' I conceded. 'It's not an insult,' she added. 'It's just... well, there are certainly worse things to be.' 'Thank you.' To me that was as good as a compliment," (Extence 169). It bothered me that he was bullied so much since he is such a nice kid. He is one of my favorite characters of all books I have ever read.

Summer Reading: The Universe Versus Alex Woods

The theme/central idea in my summer reading book: The Universe Versus Alex Woods is that sometimes the hardest decision to make is the right one. Once Mr. Peterson is diagnosed with a terminal illness Alex has to make a decision he doesn't want to, but knows it's best for Mr. Peterson. "He wants the right to choose for himself. Then, after some time I crossed out eight and rewrote as follows: 8) He should have the right to choose for himself. That was the second hardest thing I've ever had to write," (Extence 299). The theme forms after we find out that Mr. Peterson is going to deteriorate in his mind and mobility until he dies of the terminal illness.

Book Review 

My article is about the book. It shows its strong points and weak points. It is basically a detailed review which talks about character development and plot.