I have learned that I really am not that great a writer. Most of my posts are somewhat boring and not very enjoyable to read. I have also learned that my writing started out decent at the beginning of the year and slowly began to get worse as the year went on. I have written about Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet, poetry, To Kill a Mockingbird, and what I think about myself as a writer at the beginning of the year. We have pretty much gone full circle. My blog is all about everything that I have been assigned to write about throughout the year. Most of it is my feelings or opinions about a poem or a book. Some of them are connections I feel towards a book or connections I make from a book or poem to another book or poem. I think the meaning of the blog is to keep us thinking about the things we do in class outside of class, so we don't just blow it all off. The blog also gives us the opportunity to look at what other people post and get a different point of view on what we are writing about and what we are learning in class. The blog a lot of the time forces us to think more in depth about what we are learning about and this helps us when we come into class the next day because it made us think more deeply about everything we are doing in and outside of class. My blog probably has not been the most successful in the class, but it also is not the worst in the class. I have tried my best to be as in depth about everything I have written about in my blog, but I do not always interpret things the way they should be interpreted. Again I have tried very hard to make my blog as best as I can, but I wish I could have mad it better. This is my last blog post of my freshman year and I wish you all the best and good luck in the future. Goodbye blog.

Probably one of my favorite assignments that we have done is the first outside reading book project. The book I read was a very strange, but very good book. I worked hard making sure that I annotated it well and tried to get the meaning of the book. The book wasn't all that long, so it didn't take very long. It was a bit harder to follow because it jumped around a lot, but I still enjoyed it.

The small poster I made I worked on for a while. It required a lot of cutting, gluing and all of that fun stuff. It turned out looking pretty nice and represented the theme of the book fairly well. When it was my turn to talk about the book, I didn't really have anything practiced to say so I was kind of nervous. When I did get up there and began to talk I relaxed and it went better than I thought it would.

Of the few experiences with poetry that I have had, the poetry out loud experience was probably the most positive one. It allowed me to find a poem that I actually enjoyed reading and made me memorize it. I may have had a tough time figuring out what it meant, but I still enjoyed figuring out what it meant and then reading it. So far, it has been one of the few poems that I have actually enjoyed. I'm sure there are others, but I have yet to find them. I hope to find more to help make me enjoy poetry.

Most of the poetry we have read in class I haven't really liked. I don't know what kind of poetry I like, but none of the poems we have read in class have fit what I liked. Most of the time when I think of poetry, I think of it as really boring and something I don't want to read or analyze. Poetry really doesn't excite me and that may be because I don't understand it.

One of the largest conflicts in Romeo and Juliet is Romeo and Juliet loving each other, but there families are enemies. The Montagues and the Capulets have had many fights in the streets and have caused mayhem in Verona because of the hatred for each other. Even when Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio are at the Capulet's party, Tybalt had wanted to kill Romeo when he was doing no harm. The families hate each other with a passion and they would possibly disown their children or blame it on the other family for this happening.

We are unsure as to why the Capulets and the Montagues hate each other, but they do. The only people who know outside of Romeo and Juliet is Friar Lawrence and Nurse. If anyone else in either of these two families knew, either Romeo or Juliet would be killed. Also, Juliet's parents are pushing her to to marry Paris, without knowing that she is already married to Romeo. Romeo's banishment also doesn't help her not get married to Paris.

I know this may seem strange that I would pick this, but I have a 12 year old sister who loves Taylor Swift and I get to hear her music all the time, so my connection to Romeo and Juliet is the song Love Story by Taylor Swift. In her song she talks about how they have to be quiet in the garden because if they are caught they are both dead. She also talks about how they say hello to each other at a ball. The only difference between the play and the song is that the song has a happy ending and the play has a tragic ending.

I connect with Romeo in not the way of being in love or being depressed, but seeking out advice from friends or family. I get advice most often from my parents, but sometimes from friends to. Really I get advice for a variety of things ranging from unimportant things that I am indecisive about or major things like what to do with my life. Romeo receives advice from Benvolio about what to do when he is depressed about Rosaline. He takes Benvolio's advice and meets the love of his life.

I like doing the reading at home and then coming in and getting the help understanding it during class. It shows me how wrong my interpretation of some of the things are and it helps me to begin to understand how to interpret it. I really am not getting much at this time, but it is slowly becoming easier. I'm not sure if it helps other people, but it has helped me greatly.

One of the lessons that Charles Dickens seems to be trying to impress upon the reader in the novel Great Expectations is the importance of being content with what goes on in your life, but don't lose sight of who you are. Throughout the novel one of the characters finally gets what he wants, but he is a completely different person than he ever wanted to be, causing him to be unhappy again. The small things in life can have the greatest affect on your life. At the very end, the last, new character helps the other character see who he really is and really was, helping him to be happy at last. Dickens wants the reader to be happy, but he doesn't people to change from the great people they once were to be happy.

Reading

I, personally, was not a huge fan of the book. I thought there was to much time where it was extremely slow and boring. Even when it was exciting, it didn't pull me in. I don't think Charles Dickens is a bad author, but I did not like his book. I liked Pip when he was young and at the end of the book, but in between he was not the nicest guy. He did some nice things like helping Herbert get a job. I would have to say that Herbert is my favorite character. He is a good friend, trustworthy, and loyal. I don't see how you couldn't like him.

On most nights I kept up on the reading. There were a few times where I did have to finish up on the bus on the way to school. Most of the time I did my reading in the rocking chair that is in my room. I did not really keep up on my annotating though. I did many of those the day before they were due. I wish I would have just done them while I was reading because then I don't have to go back and pretty much re-read the whole section so that I can annotate. I did keep up most of the time.

Connection

The novel Great Expectations reminds me of the movie Radio. I'm not sure the whole book will be similar to Radio, but at the part we are at it is similar in ways. For one, they both rise from where they happen to be. Pip gets his expectations and moves to London. Radio is accepted by people at the school and helps with the football team and basketball team. Both of these stories have people rising from where they don't want to be in life to a place more suited to their wants.

In the second stage of the book Great Expectations Pip begins his life in London. He meets up again with the pale young gentleman who turns out to be Herbert Pocket. Pip meets many new characters who could possibly have a role in the future in the book. Pip also gets a visit from Joe who Pip has almost grown a loathing towards. Pip is annoyed at Joe for calling him sir all the time and how he doesn't have the manners a gentleman should. Pip really does not want any connections to his old life except for maybe Biddy and most definitely Estella and Mrs. Havisham. Pip is not proud of his old life.

A motif that keeps coming up is mystery. If Estella was going to turn up again was a mystery. Who the pale young gentleman was was a mystery. If this pattern keeps up, all of the mysteries in the future are going to be solved also. So any questions about who people are or what someone or something has to do with the story will most likely be solved later.

Pip has changed very slightly over the first nine chapters. He has gotten a little bit older, he has grown more intelligent, and he has gotten more anger towards his sister and everyone else who bullies him, like Mr. Pumblechook. Everyone grows older over time so it is expected, but the amount of time that passes is kind of difficult to grasp. He has grown more intelligent by going to see Biddy who promises to help make him more uncommon because that seems to be his goal. It seems that he wants to be more uncommon for Estella than anyone else. Also, he slowly builds up more rage towards everyone who bullies him. The only person he still likes who bullies him is Estella.

"...invited the sergeant to take a glass of brandy. But Mr. Pumblechook said sharply, 'Give him wine, mum. I'll engage there's no tar in that!'..." (31) Why does it matter whether or not the sergeant has tar in his drink or not? Also, why does Mrs. Joe give all the soldiers beer? They are on duty are they not?

I have changed small bits and pieces of my paragraph but nothing huge other than what I have been suggested to change. What I did change helps my paragraph fit better with the thesis. That's really about it.

Dishonesty

Dishonesty relates to epigrams because they are pretty much lies that contradict themselves. So really the lie lies about itself. Dishonesty is tied into satire of social situations because satire of social situations are not always true they are just making fun of the things that are wrong with all of the social situations. Dishonesty relates to earnest/Ernest and the title of the play because Jack is Jack in the country and he is Ernest in the city. He lies about who he is so he can enjoy himself and see Gwendolyn. Dishonesty ties into the pursuit of pleasure because Jack and Algernon both lie about going to see a made up person to either do something they want or get out of something they don't want to do.

Wilde seems to be saying that the characters seem willing to do anything to hide the truth about them not being who they say they are or who they are going to see. He also seems to be trying to say that dishonesty will get you in trouble more often than not. In the book, nothing good every really happened to Jack or Algernon until they started telling the truth about who they are. Once they do, they both end up with the girl they love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_jL_MUz8oY
This is the link to my animal farm project.