The Conclusion

After reading all of my blogs from this year it has made me realize how much we have done together in the class and how i never would have read any of those books or even thought about reading them unless I was in Mrs. Gilman's 3rd period honors English class. I had realized all of the things that we had done this year has really impacted my way of thinking and how much the little things someone can do to change a person. Before this year, I would have seen Great Expectations and I would have, for sure, passed on reading it. However, being in this class and being required to read it made all the difference and I read it and enjoyed it VERY much. Sure it was a little slow but you get into it, especially when I think about it very much. From this year, I have learned, literally, not to judge a book by it's size (or cover) because you don't know how it's going to be unless you read it for sure, just like Great Expectations. My blog this year has been about my journey through my first year of high school and shows how I have developed through the year from the books we have read and the things we have done together as a class. I have evolved as a writer very much from the beginning because at first, I always thought that those five part paragraphs were essays and then.... I learned what a real essay was... The hard way... The whole year we have been together reading and analyzing books and we have been writing and posting these on this website the whole time and, together, we have grown up together and really found out what it means to be a writer. Romeo and Juliet was definitely a strange read. It wasn't necessarily hard, but it was exteremely confusing and I saw not much very good about it. I thought it was kinda stupid because nothing in that book would have happened in real life and it didn't really make sense that Juliet would kill herself over a guy that she had just met two days before... However, my favorite book this year was To Kill a Mockingbird. It was a really good book and the only book that I reallllly enjoyed this year. I loved the story about the kids and how the controversy conflicted with everyone in the story and the suspense and just everything in the story just made me love it more. Animal Farm was a pretty funny story. I liked how the pigs had practically turned into humans and how they were being jerks to everyone.I especially enjoyed how the author portrayed the Russian Revolution through the animals on a farm, because when it comes to war, we're all animals. However, through this blog everyone in this class is related in a way because we all had spent this year together and read the same things and thought the same tings and shared the same ideas.
" Friendship isn't one big thing- It's a million little things"

Favorite Assignment

My most memorable assignment that is best remembered for its feeling of accomplishment and achievement during completion was our summer assignment. I read To Kill a Mockingbird over the summer and paid attention to it. In truth it was the one book that I REALLY paid attention to. The book was great and my summer assignment got me an A which gave me a good feeling of  accomplishment. It took most of the summer to complete and all the hard work paid off.
It displayed how I was able to capably do a large assignment on my own and I was very proud of that fact that I read that book and did a large assignment on it. It was a great accomplishment for me and was pretty fun in doing it. The summer assignment was the only assignment from English that I enjoyed doing. I don't exactly know why it was, but I just enjoyed doing it. Probably because I had to just read the book and then answer some questions. Which is a lot easier than anything else that year.

Romeo and Juliet: It's everywhere!

There are not many instances in my life where I've noticed a reference to Romeo and Juliet. I used to read a lot and listen to music and watch a lot of movies but I just don't remember anything that connected to Romeo and Juliet very well. The closest thing that I could probably think of is Beauty and the Beast. There are some similarities, but it probably is just trying to go along with the whole princess locked in a tower stuff. I guess it's alike in ways because Bell and Beast fall in love but when the town's people hear about where she was for the whole time, they try to "rescue" her. She says that she's in love with Beast and doesn't want them to hurt him, but they believe that they shouldn't be together. From the way that they believe, they try to kill Beast and end up failing and then Beast and Bell kiss and he turns into a handsome prince, then they get married against the town's will. There are some relations between the two, and again, a lot more differences.

connecting with romeo and juliet

Personally, I have little connections with these title characters. The things they do and what they say and just how they talk is much different from me and how I do what I do. I see not many relations with me and the characters but if I had to choose one I would say that I am closest related to Benvolio. I look out for my friends and I'll help them if they need it so that's as close to a character in the play as I can get. I think that the way the characters act in the play is very peculiar and extremely dramatic. I realize that this is a play and it's supposed to be dramatic but it is dramatic and sometimes overly dramatic. An instance of  over dramatizing something was when Tybalt wanted to "strike down" romeo for being at the party. I find it funny how Romeo and Juliet are "star-crossed lovers" and all these things happen when in our time that rarely ever happens and is most likely that it doesn't happen at all. I've noticed that all of the people in the play have a lot of pride and dignity because if they are willing to fight to the death just because they've had a grudge against each other for years upon years then they must have high opinions of themselves.
I'm reading fine on my own. However, there are many occasions where i don't pick up on a specific idea or happening because of the way Shakespeare likes to word things and how different he talked from now. I think that reading at home is a good idea because you get time to try and decipher Shakespeare's unique language on your own which expands your horizons and then going over it in class only strengthens the foundation of your knowledge. On my own, I'm able to get what is happening but I do have trouble understanding what is happening sometimes and why and i also have trouble with the setting.  I don't really pick up on the hints on the setting. Yes, deciphering Shakespeare's language is getting easier and has begun to make more sense. Being able to read at home and then read in class is, in my opinion, a really good thing. being able to read and try to understand on your own and then coming to class and reading together to hear how things are said and then talking about it really helps to understand where I am in the play and what is happening.

Wrapping up the book

I feel that the overall message in the novel is to make good choices. Choices that don't only benefit you, but others as well. Friendship is a benefit for two people. Money is something that only benefits one person and friendship is not based on money. At one point in everyones lives, they will have to make a dire choice. In this case, between money and friendship. Everybody wants money, and some prefer money over friendship. Everyone wants money and everyone wants friends, and they can have both as long as they make good choices. However, people are something proven to be more powerful than money, and friends and family should be valued more than finances because of that. This is what I think the overall theme in Great Expectations is.

Picture post

I realize that this is the cover of a book...... i thought about the criteria for the blog and thought about how Pip was so little but he wanted to be so much more. So, it made me think of a small creature in a large world filled with unexpected twists and turns. Pip was small and unheard of, as are small creatures in our big world such as a mouse in a large city. Pip was just living his life every day in the same place until he decided to be something more. He left home and aspired to be a gentleman in a big city that he had never been to before. The little mouse in the picture looks like he's trying to get people's attention but they are all just walking past. That wasn't really the case for Pip. Pip went to London and was disappointed with what he saw but he also caught the attention of many people....Unlike this mouse. However, Pip was slightly overwhelmed by all of the stuff that happened so quickly. Just like the mouse.

(Picture from other post)

you see the similarities

Making connections and posting a picture

Throughout however long I've been reading, the only book/movie that I could compare to Great Expectations was Harry Potter. It was kind of a stretch to find comparisons but it worked out okay. Pip and Harry both have pretty cruddy lives when they were little. After all of the stuff they had to do, they both ended up being happy adults, often troubled by their pasts. Pip and Harry's parents both died and left them orphaned and to live with mean relatives. Pip and Harry were both mistreated at young ages but had both made some decisions in their lives that they didn't want to do or had to do to get to their happy spot later on. Harry had to break a lot of rules but ended up being rewarded for it. Pip had to leave his family and everything he loved at home to pursue his happiness elsewhere just like Harry. Harry was not proud of where he lived and neither was Pip. Harry and Pip lived with what they had and made the best of it until they both got their expectations. Harry was to grow up and be a great wizard like his parents and fight bad guys. Pip's was to just live his life and not know who gave him a bunch of money.
While Pip and Harry are out on their own living their lives they meet strange things and come across a new mystery at every turn. Harry finds many people along his travels with backgrounds that you don't find out until way later such as Snape, Lupin, Malfoy, etc. Pip meets people with mysterious backgrounds too such as Molly, the convict form the beginning, and Ms. Havisham and her creepy self. Once again, you won't find out what the mystery is behind the characters until the end of the book. Pip and Harry also come across women they love to. For example, Ginny and Estella. Sure, Estella is a jerk at first and Ginny almost fainted at the sight of Harry but it's the point that I'm trying to get across that matters.  Harry goes on many adventures with his friends Ron and Hermione. Pip goes on his adventures with Herbert and maybe Estella. However, as you can see, Harry and Pip are very much alike and also very different.

Second Stage

One of the more recent characters is Mr. Wemmick. He works with Mr. Jaggers as an attorney for the defensive court. Throughout the times that Pip meets Mr. Wemmick, he notices every time that his hands smell like hand soap. Mr. Wemmick admits that he washes away the guilt from defending criminals in court with the hand soap. Through that, Pip is exposed to more of the real world an how a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get into a good place in life.
One of the motifs in the book, Great Expectations by, Charles Dickens, that we had discussed in class was guilt. Pip felt guilty for being ashamed of where he was raised and where his life was going and so he made a difference and did what he had to do change that, even though it made him feel so bad. Even though he didn't like his sister one bit he still felt guilty for not being with her enough and now she's gone and he hadn't once actually appreciated his sister "raising him by hand".

Question in early chapters

One thing I didn't understand was why the convict treated Pip so much better and didn't hostile at all to him after he brought the file and "wittles". I know that he was probably just being grateful that he brought the pie but still, if I was a runaway I would take the food and leave the boy......or get rid of the boy. If someone would like to shed some light on this topic it would be nice.

Question about a passage

I'm thinking that Pip is talking about a metaphorical chain of good and bad events throughout  a person's life. The gold and iron links are supposed to symbolize good and bad things and the thorns and flowers mean the same thing. The flowers are for good things that a person chooses to do in their life and thorns or bad choices. I feel like Pip was hinting towards the way he felt about lying about the event at Ms. Havisham's house. This has been an iron chain link in his life because of the way he felt about lying to Joe and Mrs. Joe. It changed him because now he is more conscientious about his actions.
 I think that the first event in my life that had created my chain was when I was five and I playing on the slide on the playground and i slid down a metal pole in the side of the slide and got a very thin piece of metal about an inch long in my knee. It hurt a lot and scared me too because I couldn't see it. All I could see was the glimmer of the top of it sticking out of my knee. My brother helped me get home and the he took it out with a pair of tweezers and i immediately felt better. That had changed my life because now I am a lot more conscious about what I do. Now I give things more thought before I do them.

Dishonesty in the importance of being earnest

Dishonesty relates to epigrams in the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, because to say an epigram is contradicting to whatever you just said. By saying something is one way then saying that it is something completely different is being dishonest for it is not the truth and is the opposite. In the play they talked about something called bunburying. Bunburying is related to satire of social institutions and dishonesty because, by bunburying you are changing your name and going to a place where people don't know you then telling them fibs by saying that your name is what it isn't. They also took part in the rewards that had come along with their character. By doing that, they had lied and had been dishonest. The play had a main character who went by the name Ernest when his true name was Jack. His bunburying character was a different person than who he actually was. By bunburying he had lived his life as a lie and had deceived many people even though, in the end, his name turned out to actually be earnest in the end. Many people in the story had been dishonest in the pursuit of pleasure. The whole concept of bunburying was related to being dishonest for it used the tool of deception for the user's pursuit of their pleasure. They used their personas to get away from their normal lives and responsibilities to have fun using a different name.
My perception of Oscar Wilde's use of dishonesty in the play was to show the readers that there is no way to escape dishonesty throughout your lives. People will always be somewhat dishonest and a bigger point that I caught from this assignment was that to have a really fun time dishonesty is the key. From now on I am going to lie about  everything to have fun!!I'm just kidding but seriously, Oscar Wilde is definitely trying to say something about having to have some sort of dishonesty in everything that anyone does.

Animal Farm Evaluations

1. Paden-artwork- His artwork show the irony form the story. It shows what roles the animals play in the story. You can get from it that he's trying to show how the story relates to the Russian Revolution.

2.Thomessa- artwork- I think that Thomessa was trying to show how the pigs were able to change the beliefs of the Animal Farm so much by the end of the story. From her project you don't really realize how much the pigs changed the commandments until you see it all in front of you.

3.Tim- artwork- Tim's project shows how the pigs, by the end of the story, had become so much like humans. Through a painting that showed how the pig is being brutal towards the sheep to get it to do what it wants just like a human would.

4.Hailey R.- song- Hailey's song rally shows the difficult trials that the animals were forced to go through to become free and then end up the same way maybe even worse.

5.Sidney- song- Sidney's song showed the struggles that the animals had to go through for their freedom. In many ways it was similar to Hailey's.

6. Levi- video- Levi's video talked about the struggles and morals of the Animal Farm. It talked about how the animals made the concept of animalism and what they did to ruin their beliefs. At the beginning they enforced the belief and as time went on it deteriorated.

7. Leanna- picture- Leanna's project showed the similarity between the Russian Revolution and did a good representation of how it went down.

8. Adora- poem- Adora wrote a poem that showed what had happened on Animal Farm during the rebellion from Benjamin, the donkey's point of view. I though that it was very thoughtful and was easy to tell she had put a lot of time into making it good.

9. Emma- video- Emma's video was a trailer for a bigger movie and it had quickly summarized what had happened on the Animal Farm and what they did to make all that happen. It was very good and obviously thoughtful.

10. Daniel- picture- Daniel's picture showed which characters symbolized people in the story and which people they symbolized. I thought it was a simple way to show an important part of the story.

              I think that I did just as well as my classmates. Some were better because they put  a lot more time into it than I  did. I would consider myself to have put in enough effort to get my point across. My project showed the irony in the story and the characters in the story that related to people in real life.