The Conclusion

My writing has developed so much since the beginning of the year.  It was funny looking back and remembering writing all of those blogs.  I couldn't believe how many we have done!  I definitely feel like I used to be too formal when writing my blogs.  They didn't sound like me talking as much as my blogs do now.  Also, I realized that I have developed sooo many more strategies for analyzing books and writing in general since the beginning of the year.  I read my blog about personal questions in Great Expectations, which wasn't even that long ago, but I could have brought up so many other ideas and questions that I know I had.  I just didn't think about all of the things I was confused about, and how they may relate to the story.  I also thought it was funny looking back on my "So many paragraphs, so many skills" blog, because  I definitely haven't struggled with the problems I had then in my recent essays.  I remember how it was difficult to just write a five part paragraph, but now that seems so easy compared to writing essays containing three of them, which isn't really all that difficult if you have a good topic.  I liked looking at the comparisons I made from literary works to real life, because if I had to do it again, I probably would have picked the exact same examples.  Like my comparison of Great Expectations to Mean Girls in the "Making Connections" blog, that's exactly what would pop into my head today if someone asked me.

I think that my blog is a really strong indicator of the way I think and the way I see English.  You can see a lot of my strengths and weaknesses by reading my blog.  Also, you can see my development as far as English goes for my freshman year.  I think that my writing and the way it all sounds also tells about me as a person.  You can see the things that I was passionate about, and the things that I really didn't care about all that much.  Like the poetry out loud blog, it isn't all that great and I don't exactly sound excited about it in my writing, because to be honest I was dreading it.  Yet my Great Expectations blog is more interesting to read, because I was happy that I finished the book and also happy and surprised by how much I actually liked it.  I would say that my blog really says a lot about me, and how much I have grown as a writer and even a reader.  I can't believe how my writing has changed as time has gone on this year, and as Robert Frost said "Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."  I know that I will keep growing, and not go back to bad habits or writing styles that I had at the beginning of the year.

Reflecting on a Memorable Assignment

I would say that I definitely remember Poetry out loud the most.  I still remember all of the time I spent reading that poem, and I can still recite it to this day.  Although it was kind of stressful, it turned out well in the end.  I didn't forget any of my lines, and I placed in the top ten in the class.  It was different than any other school assignment I have done.  I also hadn't done anything with poetry in a long time, so it was cool reading and listening to so many poems!  I liked how we made it so legit too, with the little reading area in the library and the judges and everything.

I am definitely proud of how I did in Poetry Out Loud, and I think that the experience made me stronger! Reading a poem that you memorized in front of your class and judges can be a little intimidating, and I was pretty convinced that I was going to forget my whole poem when I went up.  However, it turned out fine and I was happy with how I did, and just happy to be able to stop repeating that poem in my head every minute making sure I didn't forget it!

A Good Experience with Poetry

I still remember doing our fourth grade poetry unit at Centennial.  It was like my favorite part of the whole year.  We didn't have to follow too many specific patterns or get too specific, I just liked writing a lot.  We made a book with all of our poems in it, and we got to decorate it and everything.  I also remember reading "The light in the Attic" in elementary school, and I loved those poems.

I haven't had much experience with poetry since.  When I hear the word now, I think of Poetry out Loud, which wasn't my favorite experience, but wasn't terrible either.  It was just a little stressful cause I waited too long to start memorizing my poem, and I felt like it kind of took the joy out of it and caused a little too much pressure.  However, I have liked what we have done in class with poetry lately!

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

There are many conflicts in Romeo and Juliet, and almost every character experiences conflict at some point in the story.  Juliet is conflicted at the beginning, because her mom thinks that she should already be in love.  She then falls in love with the one person that she really shouldn't fall in love with, a Montague.  Juliet's family completely disapproves of their relationship, but Juliet stays with Romeo anyways.  She is conflicted by her family disagreeing with her, which also creates self conflict, because she is still trying to please them even though she knows she wants to be with Romeo.

These days, parents often do not agree with who their children date.  Also, children still experience guilt for disobeying their parents.  When I do something I know is wrong, I often feel bad about it.  We as people like to try to please everyone, but often end up doing what is best for ourselves, because ultimately you can't please everyone and you are the one that has to live with your decisions.

Romeo and Juliet-It's Everywhere!

Even though this was an example given, Twilight is a great modern take off of Romeo and Juliet, and I had to use it because I love Twilight.  Bella and Edward, like Romeo and Juliet are thought to be the exact opposite of meant for each other.  They are completely different from each other, but for some reason they cannot live without one another.  The people around the couples in both stories do not approve of their relationships.  However, all that really matters to them is that they get to be together.  Both couples fell in love the moment they saw each other.  Edward tries very hard to stay away from Bella to keep her safe, and Juliet tries to stay away from Romeo because she wants to obey her parents... but she only lasts for a very short amount of time.  Both couples are unique and although a strange combination, perfect for each other.

Great Expectations Stage 2

In stage 2 of Great Expectations, Pip's surroundings completely change as he moves to London.  He meets new characters and changes a lot himself.  Herbert is reintroduced in the second stage of the novel, as a kind gentleman that we learn is the same boy who Pip fought in the garden at the Satis house.  We know this character as the "pale young gentleman".  Pip becomes bestfriends with Herbet and they end up moving in together.  Herbert teaches Pip the manners that come with being a gentleman.  I questioned throughout the second stage weather Herbert was more of a positive or negative influence on Pip, because although Herbert seemed like such a nice character, he was helping Pip become a gentleman, and Pip was becoming a worse and worse person as he was becoming a gentleman.

Dickens uses the new characters and settings in the second stage of Great Expectations to further develop Pip as a character.  The theme of becoming a gentleman is greatly continued in this stage of the story, and Dickens uses characters such as Herbert to portray this theme and make it into a huge part of the novel.

Making Connections in Great Expectations

Great Expectations weirdly relates to Mean Girls.  Pip like Cady Heron, used to be a kind, innocent character.  However, as the story goes on both characters take a turn for the worse.  Pip and Cady both become greedy and ignore the things and people that used to be important to them.  As both the reader of Great Expectations and the people watching Mean Girls are forced to sit through several chapters or minutes of watching these characters be horrible people, we are forced to think about what is really important, as it is easy to see just how terrible we can really be when we watch someone else who has quickly changed.  Both Cady and Pip end up getting a much needed wake up call in the end, and learn what is truly important.

Great Expectations Wrap-up

I found Great Expectations to be overall a good book.  I enjoyed Dicken's constant theme of mystery throughout the story, because it kept the long novel entertaining.  I liked how Dickens made us feel differently about all of the characters, and how in the end they all got what they deserved.  I feel like the only parts of the story I didn't enjoy were just the parts that were difficult to understand because of the time period in which the story was written, so I don't have many complaints about Great Expectations.  I liked how the main character changed throughout the story, and how Dickens wasn't afraid to make the reader not like Pip for a portion of the story towards the end.  I also like how he changed Pip back to the same lovable character, just a little wiser now, that we knew from the beginning of the story.

The outside reading went very well for me at the beginning, because I knew it needed to be a priority.  I got my chapters read every night before I needed to go somewhere.  However, about halfway through the book I started to slip a little bit and started staying up a little later every night to get the reading done. I felt like annotating and reading that much every night was difficult, but that is probably just because I have many priorities and I don't like reading in general.  Although I never got more than about one night behind, I should have managed my time a little more wisely and avoided the last minute reading I encountered towards the end.  I also think that this would have helped me to understand the story better, because I would have had more time to focus on it.

Great Expectations Questions

Throughout the first few chapters of the story, Pip's sister and other characters continuously mention the fact that she brought Pip up "by hand." I didn't fully understand why they were bringing this up so many times, and was wondering if it had more meaning than her simply raising Pip all on her own and with no outside help.  I also was wondering if Pip's sister really hated him as much as she acts like she does, and if Pip truly hates her as well, or if they still have some love fore each other because they are the only family each other has?

Group Collaboration- The Importance of Being Earnest

I didn't make any drastic changes to my paragraph since Friday.  The only thing I changed was adding a connection to the thesis in one of my transition points.  I think we will only need to altar a few things in our topic sentences of our individual paragraphs to make the essay flow better.  And for the conclusion I liked the ideas that Catherine had in her blog post yesterday.  Other than that I think we are good to go :) Catherine-Did you change the concrete detail that we both had to start with?

Dishonesty in the Importance of Being Earnest

Marriage in the Victorian Era is easily made fun of because of the extreme dishonesty that people put into it.  Marriage isn't based off of love, but money and social ranking instead.  Characters often lied about their feelings for each other when they knew that they were basing their feelings off of what others would think. Family relationships are also easily made fun of because families lie to each other and act fake just to get through the time they have to spend together.  The reoccurring "bunburying" that is one of the whole points of the story is basically the center of the lies and dishonesty that takes place in the story.

I think that Wilde is trying to show us that dishonesty is a huge part of our lives, and is a trait that we don't always even realize we have.  Lying is so easily done that we don't even see the harm in it sometimes.  The characters in the story go through many ups and downs because of their lies, and in the end the truth comes out which is what often happens in our lives.  However, lies don't always work out so well as they did in the story.

Animal Farm Creative Project