Journal Topic

I feel pretty confident in my essays. I feel like the ones that I have written do not properly show my skills in essay writing, but I always write better under pressure. So I am not too worried about the AP exam. The only thing I need to work on is my opening sentence. I can never come up with a good hook, so I end up starting with "in the novel by so and so.." and I know that there is no way I can get a good score on the exam with that. So I plan to look at previous essay topics and just write opening sentences for 5 or 6 of them just to get more practice in. As far as multiple choice, I feel like I am ready to rock and roll. I feel confident. honestly... I just want the test to be over with. I'm tired of the stress.

Essay Day 4

In the novel the Kite Runner, the main character is taken over by guilt due to what he didn't do as a child. It ends up haunting him his entire life. This helps the meaning of the novel to really be brought out to the attention of the reader.

The main character witnesses his best friend being raped, and does nothing about it. Everyone knows he witnessed it and he could have stopped it. But he chose not to because he was afraid of conflict. so he avoided the situation and it ended up that he best friend had to move out of town. They broke all contact before the age of 10. They didn't end up rekindling their friendship until they were both full grown men but the friend had died from a sickness. This realization destroyed the main character.

The friend is a minor character. He role in the novel is small, but his role in the meaning of the novel is huge. He was the reason why the main character couldn't sleep at night and couldn't really ever move on past the terrible scene he witnessed as a young boy.  He had troubles trusting people after that. He moved to America with his father and that helped him to forget, but it was always there in the back of his mind. To say that it ruined his life is an overstatement, but it for sure made a large impact.

This single event in the novel of the main character choosing not to stop the rape and choosing not to tell an adult about it helps to illuminate the central meaning of the work because it shows that what you do as a child will come back and hit you as an adult. What seemed like such a small decision at the time ended up being the biggest decision of his life. Yes, he ended up living happily ever after, but it took him 30 years to get to that point of being truly happy. All due to a lack of communication and lack of compassion as a child.

Essay Day 3

In the exerpt from Fasting, feasting by Anita Desai, Arun is confused and lacks understanding in his host families actions. The author uses speech and point of view to show the reader how he is really feeling.

Desai's use of an omniceint 3rd person point of view allows the reader to understand Arun's confusion and nervousness in lines 43-46. Arun does not understand why they prefer the country over the city. He sees the city as being a much better place to live. He feels safe and protected in the city, but in the country he feels alone and insecure. He decides that these people are crazy. His lake experience can be concluded as negative based on the passage.

The author uses phrases like "the hair on the back of his neck began to prickle, as if in warning." to show Arun's discomfort for the trip they are about to take. He seems to have this feeling of regret.
The diction that the author uses helps the reader to get a better image of Arun's discomfort and the fact that he doesn't want to go. Her words like sweaty, benighted, prickle, and pale are all examples of Arun's negative feelings.

Desai uses speech and point of view to show her readers how Arun is really feeling about the situation, even though he does not show it to his host family. She takes advantage of the omniscient point of view to really let the readers get inside his head and understand what is really going on.

Essay Day 2

Pre-write cannot be posted due to lack of a scanner at my house.. I have a hard copy if needed.

Desire. Its impossible to get away from. There is always something that one wants. Whether is be food, clothes, toys , or the company of another. In the poem The Blind Man's Mark by Sir Philip Sydney, the speaker has a negative attitude about desire. "Band of all evils."
The author uses elements like personification, rhyme scheme, and rhythm to get his main point across. Rhyme scheme an rhythm catch the readers attention and makes them become instantly interested. this helps the speaker to fully get his message out there because he has the full attention of his audience.
Personification is a strong element in this poem. Desire is being described as one would describe a person. This allows the speaker to reach out to the audience and get them to really fell the way that he does. People always feel more emotional and sympathetic towards other people. The author wants to use that to his advantage and extract as much feeling and understanding from his audience as he can.
The speaker has a negative view on desire. "Desiring naught but how to kill desire." He is saying that he doesn't want anything else, only to kill his desires and desire itself. In the poem the speaker discusses all the ways in which desire can ruin someone or himself.
Rhythm, rhyme scheme, and personification help to accentuate this attitude about desire by drawing the reader in so that the speaker can be more direct and will ensure that he audience's emotions are tapped with his words.

Essay Day 1

Pre-write cannot be posted due to a lack of a scanner at my house. I have a hard copy if needed.


Everyone expects different things in life. Some expect to lay low and go with the flow and others expect to defy gravity and actually do something. In the novel Brave New World by Adolus Huxley, Bernard Marx is unsatisfied with the world he lives in. he wants to make a difference. the change he makes ends up changing him for the bad.
Bernard goes to he Savage Reservation and finds a boy conceived by a woman who was left at the reservation long before. He takes the boy, John, and the mother back home and shows his peers his discovery. Bernard becomes famous and this causes him to change. the fame goes to his head and he goes from being shy and reserved to Mr. Popular and Mr. Conceded. He doesn't handle the fame well. the controlling surroundings he lives with doesn't held this change. Bernard also begins to speak his mind about the negativities of their world and it gets him into trouble. The Director the police and the soma distributors are all against him. he ends up getting sent to ice Land for disturbing the natural balance. The fame Bernard experiences for a short period of time immediately went to his head, he was no longer an outcast, but he lost his friends, his home and his job because of it all.
This aspect of the story is very minor. but it adds to the theme and meaning of the novel by teaching people to be thankful for what they have. Life was put that way for a reason. Just focusing on Bernard, John turned out to be a huge mistake. It basically ruined him. As for others, he had a slightly different impact but they were not effected in the same way.

SEVENTH READING

I have chosen to read "Oranges" by Gary Soto. This has been my favorite poem since 7th grade. I have read it thousands of times. But i still read it again and again and again.. Seven times. And what is different to me now is the final few lines..
"I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, from some distance,
Someone might have thought
I was making a fire in my hands"
I just realized that these lines can be interpeted as success. He is magic. He was able to pay for a candy bar with a nickle and an orange. His date was a success. They were both happy. The fire represents this happiness in the dreary darkness of December.

LIT CIRCLES: MULTIPLE CHOICE

Slaughterhouse Five

D
C
D
B
A
B
C
B
A
C
C
D
C
B
B
A
C
B
B
A
C
A
A
D
A
D
D
C
A
B
B
D
D
C
D
D
B
D
A
B
A
C
B
A
A
D
B
D
A
B

Kafka On the Shore

C
C
A
D
A
C
B
A
D
A
C
B
A
C
D
B
A
C
A
A
C
B
B
C
C
A
A
B
B
A
D
D
A
A
B
B
A
C
C
D
A
B
C
A
B
C
B
B
C
D

Life of Pi 1
B
D
C
A
C
A
Life of Pi 2
A
C
C
B
C
A
C
A
D
B
Life of Pi 3
C
C
B
A
C
D
B
C
C
B
C
D
C
C
C
D
B
B
A
B
B
C
C
B
D
A
B
A
A
D
C
A
C
D
A