THE CONCLUSION.

Honor's English 9. Good times. Bad Times. But I can come out of the year saying I've learned so much stuff that I doubt I would've learned if I hadn't had chosen Honors to be in. While I was looking back on all of my blogs, I thought it was weird how much I've grown as a writer and how much more I can comprehend and analyze out of things given to me, then I would've been able to at the beginning of the year. I saw that at first when we started the blogs, I apparently thought that it was suppose to be more serious and structured, then include more of our own personality in it. I thought that you were going to grade us down if we accidentally made a grammatical error or if we typed in different ways than what is correct. An example being, a lot of the time I put double periods (..) instead of commas just because I like the way it looks and I think I can get my point across about what I'm trying to say better.
Coming to an end is going to be both easy but yet also annoying. It's come to be a weekly routine even though I do forget sometimes, but I always know at the beginning of the week to ask Mrs. Gilman if we have a blog for the week, and if so what it is and when is it going to be due. "Just do what you can, while you still have the time to do it." That was how I wrapped up my first ever blog. I think, that if we had the same assignment to introduce ourselves again, then I sure as hell wouldn't say that. I'm not that much of a meaning person, and I like writing more literal things. I've proud to say that this year has had it's ups and it's downs, but I'm glad that I'm ending on the upper end of the spectrum with all the new knowledge that I have.

REFLECTING MEMORABLE ASSIGNMENT.

        This is a hard one, but I'm going to say that after recalling all of the assignments we've done this year, I'd have to say that the most memorable was the the Great Expecations annotations assignment. Last summer when I first heard that we had to annotate a book, I was REALLY dreading it. I don't like annotating because usually it distracts me from what I'm actually reading, but not in this case. I don't know, but I guess that Dickens' was just a good writer.
        I think what made this book for me, was because there was so much going on which kept me interested but it wasn't like an overload of stuff that I couldn't keep track. I thought not only was this the most enjoyable assignment for me but also I thought I did a great job on everything that we were assigned to do including the annotating. I did over 150 annotations for that book which I'm proud of for me. I learned so much having to do this assignment, and annotating got a lot easier for me after that which made reading Romeo & Juliet just that much easier.

POETRY

        To speak the truth, I've never enjoyed poetry or have had that great of an experience with it. I was in my sixth grade block class when I first learned about poems and what they are and all there different types. I know this may sound kind of cliche but the first poem I remember listening to (I believe it was sometime in sixth grade even) was "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. Now, I'm positive that I heard some poetry of some sort or another before this but this is just the first of the ones that I remember really listening and analyzing to. This wasn't my favorite type of poem to write though was a Haiku poem. I thought it was fun because you had to count the syllables of poetry instead of just writing down words that had a meaning. My first one that I wrote about had to do with trees and birds I remember. I couldn't tell you what it was about though to save my life.
I have to admit that I've changed a lot this year, having to do with the books I read, the music I listen to, what I wear, and even the way I write and analyze things. Poetry has taken some affect to that as well because listening and reading to what other people write in their way is a way that I get into touch with me.

CONFLICT

        At one point or another in this play, a character has a type of conflict whether it's with itself, another person, or society. The one that probably pops out to most people the most because it really is the main conflict in the play is the feud between the Capulet's and the Montague's. This can connect to the love between the two "star crossed lovers" because they're each a child of the families meaning they were born enemies. It's hard for their love to be together because of their parents and/or families hatred for one another. It wasn't helping them be together when Romeo killed Tybalt. It made it that much worse.
        I can't relate to this much at all because my family hasn't ever and I hope will never have other family rivals. I feel like that would make you feel like you have power that you don't actually have because if you have an enemy then it lets you feel like you're allowed to do any mean thing you want to them just because your parents wouldn't care. This isn't a good thing at all either. I'm sure it can still happen now a days but not to the point where whenever you see a member of the other family that you're going to have to kill them. That's taking it a little over the top there. This conflict is both external and internal because there's physical battle going on but yet there is also the hatred/love (depending on the family member) that is happening between the different people.

ROMEO AND JULIET: IT'S EVERYWHERE!

        A song that fits very well to the tale of Romeo and Juliet is the song "Check Yes Juliet" by We The Kings. This song talks about wanting to be together with someone even though other people might dissaprove of your decision. It's a situation where love conquers all and no matter what others do, they won't get in the way of the love. A parallel that I found when I listened to the song was during the balcony scene in the play and the song lyrics "Rain is falling down on the sidewalk...I'll keep tossing rocks at your window". There are many other connections that can be made in modern times.

CONNECTING WITH ROMEO AND JULIET.

        Romeo and Juliet is a very old play. My first impression was "what is this? I don't understand what thy is saying." The majority of the people that I talked to about this book said that Shakespeare is kind of hard to understand and that I would probably have trouble with it. This wasn't necessarily the case though. I had heard that this play has a bunch of humor in it, so I thought if I could find the humor in the book then I would be able to relate it more to modern times because there was a lot of sexual references in the book which many people find humorous today. Which is why I said, easier to relate to. If you can connect concepts of books/plays to something that's connected with you, the plot becomes a whole lot easier to understand than it did in the beginning. I think I could relate to Benvolio because he's there to help a friend in need even if he doesn't want the help.
        First off, I must say that even before starting this book.. I went onto Sparknotes and printed out the summaries for each scene because I wanted to make sure that I understood it fully. I read the Sparknotes summary before I read the scene that we're suppose to read because then I already have some understanding of what the plot is about and I can concentrate more on the language, and hidden meanings within the text. One night this past week, I only had about ten minutes to read the part in the book because I had other extracurriculars taking up my time. I had to speed read the part in the play and even though I read the summary of it, I still didn't understand most of what was going on. This is why reading in class as well helps me. Especially because in class we also talk about what we should be annotating for and we take pauses in the reading to analyze what's going on so nobody gets to lost. We should continue doing this process for the rest of the book because when I'm reading it sometimes I come up with different meanings of what's going on then what other kids in class comprehended it to mean.

WRAPPING UP GREAT EXPECTATIONS

        I believe that the overall theme that Dickens' wanted us to convey was that the things you need should come before the things that you want. Such as the people you love and care for you are the things you need because if you didn't have anyone like that then you would become a very angry and judgemental person. The things you want are things such as wanting to be a gentlemen and be higher up in the social class, or also wanting someone to marry. Mostly just being able to put the people before other things. The things that you want don't have feeling but people do, and if you hurt someone you're going to regret it. I can easily relate this to people who work wanting to get a promotion or something and they'd do anything to get it.. even if it involves hurting people in the process. This relates to Great Expectations because the main character is wanting to go higher up while he was hurting his own family to get there.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS THOUGHTS ON READING

        Great Expectations was the one book that I wasn't looking forward to starting at all. My sister, was in Honors English last year and she had to read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and she said that the book was horrible and it was really hard to get through. Then realizing that this book was by the exact same author, I began to dread the moment of opening to the first page. Very surprisingly though, I found myself intrigued by the entire book itself. I enjoyed the plot until the unrealistic parts began to happen. I mean, how can three unrelated characters(Estella, Molly, and Magwitch) all have significant parts in the book(unrelated) and then all end up being connected in the end? That brought my overall rating of the book down. I wasn't used to Dickens' writing style, which made it hard to get through and really time consuming but I really liked the way that he scattered small hints throughout the novel about little things about the characters.
        I wasn't ever looking forward to reading this book. I mean, I like the book but I never liked it enough to come home and jump right into it. Since, during the week I'm busy after school until about nine o'clock or so. I didn't ever get to do my reading till pretty late at night which is fine with me because I'd rather read in the night. I always jumped onto the fouton/couch thing in my room, grab a blanket and get reading. For the first half of the novel, I placed annotations right away after I found something useful. After I got done reading a chapter I would read the summary on Sparknotes and see if I understood it properly or not. Oh by the way, I printed out all of the chapter summaries off of Sparknotes before even starting the book because in case I ever had to read while I was not at ome then i would be able to have the summaries with me.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS PHOTO POST.

In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, crime is a recurring idea that has happened all throughout the novel so far. All the convicts in this book are at one point trying to be free and escape what they've done wrong and to run away. Magwitch, being the main example in my case, ask's Pip for Joe's file so he can cut through his leg iron and escape. No matter what they have to do, they will do it for their right to be free. Pip encounters convicts throughout his whole life. Starting when he was a young boy until now in the novel where he is still with Magwitch but also has Compeyson stalking him. :0. I think that everyone deserves a right to be free, but once you do something against the law then I do think that you should have to pay for what you've done and not be able to just break out like they did in the book.

CONNECTION

        A connection that I made while I was connecting Great Expectations to another book was the Harry Potter series. First of all, they are both told from the same perspective. Yes, the Harry Potter books are written in the third person and Great Expectations in first person but both of the stories revolve around two young boys and their lives. Neither of the boys have very good childhoods, Pip not having his parents and having to grow up with his sister that detests him, and Harry not having parents either and having to live with his awful relatives who treat him like crap.
        Another connection that I made between the two different books were that after their awful childhoods, something great happened to them. They both came into money and got to live a totally different life than before. Pip was able to move to London, get educated, get money and learn to be a gentlemen. Harry came into money as well, moved into Hogwarts away from his awful relatives, became educated, and learns to be a wizard. Both of the boys had their hard times that they had to get through but weren't they worth it all in the end?


Harry as a young boy.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE SECOND STAGE.

        Pip's meeting of Herbert Pocket or "the pale young gentlemen" enhances themes and motifs in the novel. Also, along with Mr. Jaggers. They're characters who at first don't have much to do in the First Stage but are come back towards the end of the First Stage or in the beginning of the Second Stage and they're to play a greater or larger part in Pip's life. At first, Herbert plays the "pale young gentlemen" and gets into a fight with Pip in the first stage at Miss Havisham's house but during the second part he comes back to become a great friend of Pip and the son of Pip's tutor. Mr. Jaggers is also first brought up in Miss Havisham's house when he encounters Pip on the staircase, and he is brought back into the novel when he informs Pip that he has a benefactor and wants to give him his "great expectations". "Becoming a gentlemen" is the main motif in the novel right now. Pip is off in London working his way up to becoming a gentlemen along with the help of Herbert who teaches him table manners. As Pip grew older, he started wanting more and more for himself until he wanted to be much more than stuck at home working as a blacksmith such as Joe.
        Pip entering London was a large disappointment among his part. He was hoping for it to be fancy and more "upper-class" but to his astonishment "...it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty." (161). His dreams are to become a gentlemen and being around Estelle and Miss Havisham are what I think to have brought on his high hopes of his "great expectations". Thanks to the mysterious benefactor, he has a place to live, learn and even the money to live out his new life. Entering London though brought down his hopes I believe though, because it's like finally being able to go somewhere you've been wanting to go to, only to realize it's nothing like you expected it to be and it caused disappointment. I just hope that Pip will come to reason with reality and that becoming a gentlemen all isn't what it's cracked up to be. He'd be better off living back with what little family he has left, working as a blacksmith and to be loved for who he truly is and not what he's turning into.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS PASSAGE

        In this passage, Pip is referring back to the day when he first met Mrs. Havisham and how she impacted his life from then on. Mostly the relationship that the two of them share. I think that the iron and gold, thorns and roses, are a way of saying that whether the situation is good or bad, you are stuck with it without a way of getting out. Confined in a way. In chapter nine, he returns from Mrs. Havisham's and lies to Joe and Mrs. Joe what it is that he did while he was there. He's in a situation where is stuck because he starts feeling guilty about hiding the truth and lying to Joe but he doesn't want to have to share with anybody what it was that he did over there. Meeting Mrs. Havisham introduced Pip more into the life of the high-class. This is the turning point for Pip, and it's a positive one at that. He knows that he doesn't want to be common and mistreated anymore, so he tries and gets a good education from Biddy and learn what it's like to be high-class from Biddy. He's achieving more and realizes that if you want something, you're going to have to work for it.
        One thing that started a "chain" in my life was when we moved when I was seven. It's not that we moved far or anything, just from Rochester to Olympia. It impacted me A LOT though. I had lived in that house ever since I was born and the thought of leaving it was just terrifying, but then I was also kind of excited because I got to go and explore my new house and imagine what adventures lie there waiting for me. I was young at the time, but I realized that there was no turning back. I couldn't have influenced the decision about not moving. I was stuck and I was going to have to deal with what was going to happen. On top of all this, it was even the year that I switched schools. Private to public. Having to leave my friends was tough to deal with but looking on the brighter side, I set new goals to make friends!

QUESTION ABOUT A PASSAGE.

Citation: "You'll drive me to the churchyard betwixt you, one of these days, and oh, a pr-r-recious pair you'd be without me!" (Mrs. Joe Gargery pg. 9)

My book has different page numbers, but it's on the second or third page of Chapter 2.

Questions: There are two things that I got confused about. One, what does the word betwixt mean? It's used multiple times in the novel already and I just don't know what it means! Second, I understand that she thinks that if she wasn't in Pip's life, his life would be awful, but why does she include saying that Joe wouldn't be good without her because he hasn't done anything wrong!?

GROUP INTRO PARAGRAPH.

This is only posted for editing purposes:

INTRO PARAGRAPH:
         To be honest, sometimes you have to lie to be truthful. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, dishonesty Is used by many of the characters so that they can be honest to themselves. Like a veil, their lies hide who they are in truth. These lies trickle into their social lifes and allow, or hinder, them to get away from their social positions and act on what they really wish to do. Lying allows the characters to be with those they truly love and care for, rather than having to lie in a relationship that they get forced into. Another way dishonesty is displayed throughout the book is in Algernon’s “bunburying” or rather his hunt for self-gain. Not telling the truth to avoid what you’re afraid of is how the characters protect themselves.

GROUP ESSAY COLLABORATION.

        Okay, so I know that Mathew doesn't have a blog and not sure if he is even going to read this or not but for Enola; I know that we weren't at the stage on Friday to even share our paragraphs so I'm going to post my paragraph and do the best that I can with the post anyway.

2nd BODY PARAGRAPH:
        Wilde has the characters pretend to be those who they aren’t, just to be with the people that they love. First off, having an affair with someone was considered normal believe it or not. During the conversation Algernon and Jack were having about marriage and bunburying, Algernon says “…three is company and two is none.” If you can’t be loyal and truthful to your marriage and are just going to go off and have an affair, then don’t go through all of the trouble of getting married. If there are two people in a relationship and one doesn’t love the other, than they should just tell them that up front rather than going behind their back and being dishonest. On the other hand, John plays the role of Ernest because he thinks that he’ll be thought of lesser as a person if Gwendolen knew his true self. This is first shown when Jack says “…you don’t really mean to say that you couldn’t love me if my name wasn’t Ernest?” If you want a relationship to last, then you think that getting down the basics such as knowing the real first name of your partner would be one of the first things to do. Jack is using dishonesty to impress the girl he wants to be with, but eventually realizes that he was never being untruthful in any way. In addition, the ladies in this play seemed to be attracted to the name of Ernest no matter whom the person may be. Gwendolen first shows her attraction during a conversation with Jack when she says “The only really safe name is Ernest.” Love isn’t based on name or even social standings but of pure attractions between one another. Wilde shows that the women are being dishonest without even realizing it because on the inside, they’re attracted to the person and not their name. The women are doing this to fulfill themselves and their personal pleasures. All in all, Wilde showed us that not all lying is bad if you’re lying to be truthful.

        Yet again, we haven't shared our paragraphs yet so all of this is new to you. For all of my concrete details, I have quotes. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not or if it blends nicely or not, so let me know. I tried making all of my commentary so it wasn't summarizing my concrete details because I know that it's not good to have that. I've proof read it already to make sure I didn't have any "I" statements but it'd be nice if you could double check that for me. Also, for my last two "topics" or whatever, I don't know if they sound to much a like or if I should just leave them like that.

DISHONESTY IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

        A large theme in the play The Importance of Being Earnest is the dishonesty. Almost every character in the play probably lies one time or another. Whether it's lying about your whole name, or just a little white lie about why there aren't any cucumber sandwiches. It's difficult not to lie, we all do it. The characters seem to have a lot of trouble with not lying though. The dishonesty of the characters add a good amount of humor in the book. An example being that when one character dislikes another, the act overly nice to them that it's to the point where they're over the top. It gets to be funny in the actions that they make. Being satirical about social classes also incorporates into the idea of being dishonest at times. Such as when Lady Bracknell doesn't like or find Cecily attractive until she finds out that Cecily has 130,000 dollars in her funds. After Lady Bracknell hears about this, she starts being extra nice to Cecily as if she is just going to give it all away to her. John Worthing is dishonest about his name/brother throughout the entire play. He lies about his bunburying deeds and makes up a character named Ernest. You'd think that if there was a character named Ernest then they'd be earnest themselves. However, Jack lying about Ernest isn't being earnest at all. Many characters in the book make up other people that they pretend to be or they just lie about their identity. They do this just for their own pursuit of pleasure.
        During the time period that Oscar Wilde wrote this play, people acted way different then they do today. He is making fun of the upper class and how ridiculous they had been about their everyday issues. One being all the lying they did. They even lied about their age! Another issue being that women and men acted so differently. When getting married, they sometimes weren't even allowed to choose their partner. Men got married to one women, but yet he went out with another women to fulfill his pleasuring needs. When Gwendolen and Cecily found out that both their Ernests' weren't really who they said they were, they forgave Jack and Algernon a little to easily. Oscar Wilde seemed to be stereotyping each of the genders.

ANIMAL FARM PROJECT EVALUATION.

1. Name: Kady
Type: Movie
Comments: This was very well made, you can see that it took a lot of time to make. It showed that she understood the story and that showing the cruelty of animals and then having them befriend the humans.

2. Name: Maddie
Type: Picture
Comments: Maddie showed what the animals were feeling all throughout the book. She used arrows to show how the storyline went. It's easy to tell what's happening because they start off sad, then get happy because they're equal, then sad again because they're being ruled over.. again. Great understanding!

3. Name: Meghann
Type: Picture
Comments: Her picture was very creative and well thought about. It looks nice because she used actual pictures instead of drawing them. The elements were all shown well, but the words were a little hard to read because it was so small.

4. Name: Jake
Type: Picture
Comments: He showed how Napolean was the ruler and that Snowball was innocent. Also showed that Napolean had his guards and that they were a big part in the Revolution also.

5. Name: Nic
Type: Picture
Comments: Nic's project was nice and simple, but he added the writing to explain his thoughts. It symbolizes all the different parts of the pigs wanting to be human.

6. Name: Aaron
Type: Picture
Comments: You can tell he took time planning out the cycle in this. He used the literary elements and showed which characters are parallels to those in the Russian Revolution. He showed all the different animals instead of just the main ones talked about.

7. Name: Kyra and Amaya
Type: Video
Comments: I like how they used puppets. It was something I hadn't seen yet. I enjoy how they showed the commandments and how the pigs disobeyed them and changed them throughout the book.

8. Name: Daryl
Type: Picture
Comments: Very creative, and used sort of an advertising thing instead of just drawing out the plot. He showed the different parallels and he also showed the irony of the different animals.

9. Name: Olivia
Type: Picture
Comments: Nice, and shows how the pigs start acting exactly like humans. Shows the irony but not really much else.

10. Name: Emma
Type: Picture
Comments: I like how she had the truth smudged out because there were some many lies that Napolean was telling. It also shows the parallels to the Russian Revolution.

After looking at my classmates projects, I really don't think my project met the standards. I did something simple and easy and should've thought of something else to show in the picture to show more of the literary elements instead.

EXTRA CREDIT - NEW YEARS RESOLUTION.

        So, for 2011 I'm going to start taking control of my life. The first thing is that I made a list of resolutions/50 things to do before the end of 2011. I'm not finished yet, but I'm not going to start any of it until February. The main thing that I'm doing is making a big list of all these different books that I want to read this year. Last year, I wasn't that big of a reader. This year, I'm going to expand my books and try to read at least fifty! I think it's good to read a lot because you expand your knowledge on all different types of subjects and it never hurts to take in good literature.

ANIMAL FARM CREATIVE PROJECT.

        So, for my Animal Farm project I created an image of the how during the beginning of the book the farmer is the leader/ruler over everyone and all the animals. But as the book progresses the pigs take over the farm and are starting to run it just as the humans did. They act so human like that all the other farm animals can't tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.