Tone?

"She's rude." The girl said with disgust. "I can't believe she would do that to you." The group of girls scowled at their ex friend as they walked past her. They believed she was a boyfriend stealer and didn't want anything to do with her. She wasn't a boy friend stealer at all really she had asked her friends boyfriend for the homework, and the other girls didn't believe her. They were astonished that their friend could do such a thing. They put their noses up and ignored her and wouldn't listen to her pleas of innocence. She felt alone and terrible. She hadn't done anything wrong and was being accused of something terrible! She felt alone and abandoned. How could her friends do that to her?! She thought they had her back and would believe her in any situation, but she was wrong. They were boy crazy and mean and wouldn't forgive their friend for something she hadn't done. she realized she wanted new friends that would support and believe her over a stupid rumor. So she picked herself up and started hanging around some of the other girls in her class. She realized her old friends were mean and snobby to everyone.

New Poem Packet

This week I'm doing "Vergissmeinnicht." I read the poem before I actually looked up what the title meant. It made it harder to understand what the poem was telling me. But that big long word that I don't want to type again means forget me not. Then I read the poem again and it's about a dead German soldier. Well it's about an American soldier seeing a dead German soldier. Anyway, the American soldier sees this enemy and doesn't feel remorse, and then he spots a picture of the dead guys girlfriend and that word is written on the back. She probably gave it to him and can't wait for him to come home and be with her. The author even writes about how the American soldier thinks she'll feel. "But she would weep to see today how on his skin the swart flies move the dust upon the paper eye, the burst stomach like a cave." She would have cried and been sick to see what happened to the man she loves. I believe the last stanza is showing that the German soldier was a lover and a killer mixed into one body. The last two lines were a little hazy, "And death who had the soldier singled has done the lover mortal hurt." I couldn't tell if he was talking about the soldier and the killer is one and he killed the soldier and hurt the lover half of him forever, or if it was that the soldier died and it left HIS lover in mortal hurt. I can't help but think that it;s the first option. The mass killer and the lover in one body. What would his girlfriend of said if she has known the terrible things he had done? Would she still love him?

Thankfulness?

Should I be thankful for a stroke?
Should I be thankful for Alzheimers?
Is there a way to be thankful
that eventhough she can't do everday activities
She's not in pain?

Could I ever be thankful for cancer?
Could I ever be thankful for the smell of a hospital?
Is there a way to be thankful
that she's in the most pain ever
but can still recognize my face and tell me she loves me

Is there a way to be thankful to watch your loved ones pass?
No, but there is a way to be thankful for what you had with them when the were alive.

There is a way to be thankful for my family dinner sitting around the table
Sharing memories and laughing together

There is a way that eventhough she can't remember my name I know she loves me.
I am Thankful even through the hard times.

BREAK!

Mrs. White!!! I forgot we were suppose to say when we were taking a break from a blog!!! My fault :-) I'm taking a break this week!

New poem packet!!

This week the poem I'm doing is "The Snow Man." I really liked this poem. The author uses great figurative language to describe a winter scene. I love the line "To regard frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow." My favorite thing about winter is how pretty the trees always are when the are totally frosted over and the sparkle in the morning!! It's so beautiful! The last stanza was the difficult one for me to understand about the person in the snow beholding nothing. I thought about those times when I admire the frozen tree's or I'm playing in the snow with my nephew and you get so tired from hiking through the 5 foot snow that you just plop down to rest for a minute. The person sitting there doesn't bring anything to the beauty of the scene. When ever I find myself resting in the snow it's to sit and appreciate the beauty around me. I'm not bringing anything to the actual beauty I'm bring admiration for it. I believe that might be what the author is trying to get at.

From the new poem packet!!

The poem I'm doing this week is "Toads." I didn't really understand the poem until Justin (in class) said that that's what his name for work was. Like he was comparing and naming his work toads. He talks about all the things that work does to him. Like he works for six days to pay a few bills, and some wives may be skinny but they don't starve. He's saying that he works and works and it's a pain just for a little bit of money to pay the bills and to eat, but not eat plentifully to eat just enough. Then at the bottom of his poem he says he can't get "the fame, the money and the girl." Here he is saying how he can't get love and money and all the glory in one sitting he has to work his whole life to achieve these things. He uses several different poetic strategies though! Like he uses an alliteration to describe jobs that he believes are not very dedicated. "Lecturers, lispers, losels, loblolly-men, louts..." they all coincidentally start with the same letter as Lazy! He also uses sarcasm to explain how he feels about pensions and money. "Ah, were I courageous enough To shout Stuff your pension! But I know, all too well, that's the stuff dreams are made of..." He knows that he isn't going to make a lot of money working so hard and he is being sarcastic saying oh it's just a far off dream it's not really achievable.

The New Poem Packet!

This week I'm doing "Disillusionment at Ten O'Clock." I thought it was appropriate with it being Halloween :-) "The houses are haunted by white night-gowns." So the author starts off the poem with a picture of someone in the generic white sheet dressed up as a ghost. Then he goes on to say there aren't any colored ones no lace no rings of any colors. I believe the author is relating these plain white sheets to people's lives that seem to do the same thing over and over and over. There's no vibrant color's to their lives nothing exciting. The author wants our sheets to be colorful and lively. Then he has a weird line about people not dreaming of baboons and periwinkles. Well periwinkle I know is a color and a plant so I think he might be saying that generic people don't enjoy the contrast and wonder of those two unfamiliar things. But the sailor who dreams about catching tigers in red weather. He is a sailor a man that has been around the world and back and he has seen adventure and can now dream of catching red tigers in red weather because he has the imagination for it. He has lived for those moments unlike those of us that do the same thing every day we are white sheets.

New poem packet!

This week I picked the Poem "Curiosity." The poem is centered on the famous line "Couriosity killed the cat." Parents are usually the ones to say this to theri children so they don't touch something and hurt themselves. However, this whole poem is about disproving that whole line. Because the cats have suriosity their lives are better spent (he is comparing cats to people who dare to do what they want live better better and more enjoyable lives.) "Face it. Curiosity will not cause us to die- only lack of it will. Never wanting to see the other side of the hill or that improbable country where living idyll (although a probable hell) would kill us all. Only the curious have, if they live well, a tale worth telling at all." This is the entire third stanza and it's the part of the poem where the author is being very blunt about what he is saying. You can't die from being curios, although you could get hurt once in a while, and people that are content at where they are don't want to see if the grass is really greener on the other side of the hill. Those are the "dogs." They eat good lunches, marry suitable wives, and live their lives in the safe zone. And the author is saying they don't have any stories to tell. They aren't living their lives to the fullest. "Dying is what living do, that dying is what loving do, and that dead dogs are those who do not know that dying is what, to live, each has to do." Everyone is going to die it just depends if you're going to do it loving everything about your life, or playing it safe and tolerating life.

New Poem Packet!

The poem I picked is "Unveiling." I read it and I was kind of afraid for the writer. Her whole family has passed away and she goes to visit them and feels left out? I know she's trying to say she misses them but it's rather a creepy way to do it. She's relating how they sat at the dinner table to how they are buried. When I read the part about family dinners I remember how at Thanksgiving the kids had their own table so I can see how she can feel "left out," but this is a totally different left out; she feels like she's left out because she's alive? Than I started to think about the title. What was being unveiled? The secret that they all were keeping from her? Then I thought about the funerals I had gone to. My first one was when my cousin Nicole passed away I was 7 years old and she was 8. Back then I had no idea that I had just lost one of my greatest friends. Being a child at a funeral there is a kind of secret about it because you can't really understand what's happening. Or for instance when my grandma passed away and my nephew wasn't really upset I was angry because I had lost someone very special to me. He was 5 years old he didn't know what was going on. That's what the author is trying to portray here. She is trying to show how being young you can't really understand the aspect of death or losing someone forever. Not until you grow up are these things "unveiled" to you.

Poem

The poem i'm doing this week is "Little Apocalypse." I love this poem! When I read it for the first time I didn't like it I thought it was dumb about bugs, but I did understand the last few lines about the horses. Then I was thinking about how it could be the end of the earth will affect even the smallest of life. That was how the title worked into it! It's not really a little apocalypse because there realy can't be a little one, but its a representation of how even the little things will still be affected as well. Like I discussed in class i think there is a little bit of each horse in the poem as well like war with the warrior robin, death with the graves, conquest by the grass and how it bows to everything, and famine is a stretch but like the bones washing away could be a long term cause of famine. The bones a brittle and have blown away because they were sickly. I really enjoyed this poem I thought it was a different perspective on what's to become of the world adn it's small things.

Poem

This week I'm doing "The Halo That Would Not Lite." It's a rather dark poem about a really sad subject. It's about a small child dying and not being able to have the chance to grow up. "Endless Childhood"is the biggest line in the whole poem because it finally shows what the whole poem is about. It's about this death of a child who's soul is in heaven as a child. I believe that when you die you're soul will go to Heaven with the experience of what happened in your life. And that's why this line is so big. The child died young and will go to Heaven having only seen a childhood of life and forever stuck there. As for the structure of the poem I think the indented lines are there for emphasis of the sorrow of the poem. Like it starts out, "When after many years, the raptor beak Let loose of you..." Then "He dropped your tiny body" is indented and has a very negative connotation. Dropping someones tiny body would be very traumatic and reading it shows how torn up the author really was. The next one also does the same thing, "left you like a finch." Anyone who is dropping or leaving a small child is clearly upset. These lines that are pulled over are bringing that emphasis over to how upset the author really is about the death of the young one. It makes me feel like the author wants the reader to feel that pain right along with her. Otherwise I really liked this poem she uses such descriptin that you can see like the swings swaying back and forth with no one in them. It reminds me of those creepy scary movies when the swings are barely moving adn are making a soft squicking sound. It's a great poem about a sad thing :-(

Dating Game

Welcome! You're on the Dating game show and you have the choice between three beautiful ladies here's a little about each of them and then you'll have to decide which girl is for you!

Freshman year- Hope Failana, and successly all have the same classes, they are good friends from middle school, and all want to have a great high school experience. Failana is very outgoing and wants to fit in so badly she really wants the upperclassman to like her, so she joins volleyball in hope of being accepted. Hope is is a soft spoken girl but once you get to know her she is very outgoing and nice. She's nervous because she wants people to like her, but also wants to do well in school. She joins the drama club in hope she can juggle both. Successly is very shy and soft spoken. She just really wants to get good grades on focus on where she is going to college and her career.

Sophmore year- The volleyball team goes out to celebrate a big win and Failana falls into peer pressure and tries smoking, but just this once with her team! She also finds out that she has to sit on the bench for the next game because she is failing biology. Hope is way involved in drama but wants to play a sport too. She figures that she is doing a good job maintaining her grades and doing well in drama so she goes to basketball try-outs. She even made Varsity as a sophomore! Successly doesn't like failana anymore and hope is really involved with her club and team so she joins band and looks for some new friends there.

Junior year- Failana LOVES to party. Getting buck wild is her thing. She has tons of Friends and quits volleyball. She's the upperclassman now she thinks those stupid underclassman should look up to her and want to be her like she did. Hope has a way tight group of best friends. All 5 of them hang out a ton and have some really fun times. She's still playing basketball and doing drama her grades slip a little but a 3.3 isn't bad at all! Successly has a very close best friend and they do everything together. They love to read and just hangout at home. She is also way involved in the band and has excellent grades.

Now which one of these lovely ladies would you like to date!?!?

If you picked:

Failana: In her senior year, Failana gets a 1.9 GPA but she has tons of cool friends and has to perfect social life...or so she thinks. Halfway through her senior year she gets pregnant and wants to keep it, so she has to drop out of school. Thankfully she goes back in 9 months to get her G.E.D and goes to a junior college with baby Johnny in her arms.

Hope: In her senior year hope decides she wants to play basketball in college she loves it and it's her life. But then UNC offers her a scholarship to be in their drama program and it's a full ride. There are a bunch of small colleges offering her to play ball though. She doesn't know what to do. But her friends ease her mind and take her out on the town to do their thing. Her head may have hurt in the morning but her mind was clearer and more open to listening to all her options.

Successly: She has made her decision in life and is going to Harvard Law, but she looks back on her high school years and regrets many things. She didn't have a lot of friends, she hadn't met many of the people in her class, she didn't go to the football games, and she never did anything unsafe. But she has a 4.2 and is ready for the rest of her life maybe she'll learn to live it a little more.

Poem

The poem I'm doing this week is "Still Memory." The whole poem starts out asa "dream." But like we talked about in class I believe it's really a memory. But in class we talked about how this was a happy memeory of her childhood, and to be honest it's not like an evil memory that haunts her, but from her vocabulary and the way she says certain things makes me think it's a little less happy more gloomy. "My father in thwe doorway, not dead, just home from the graveyard shift..." That isn't a happy way to describe your father coming home. "Not dead" is no way to happily describe when your father comes home. Then later in the poem, she uses the adverb "throbs", and when I think of throbbing I think of a throbbing head ache or pain. "my house starts to throb in it's old socket." Like an old pain she had that's starting to throb again. Then she talks about heat in their house, "becasue the tiles are cold and we have no heat other than what our bodies can carry." It's a cold house, it throbs, and her dad is back from the graveyard shift, that to me doesn't sound like a happy memory. It sounds like the only good thing was her mom in the kitchen and the flowers opening up. Maybe those were some of the better aspects of her childhood, but I'm not sure. Mary Karr is a professor at Syracuse University she has multiple books and is a well known author.

Poem

The poem i did this week was "For A Duro." After reading the poem I infered that a Duro was a type of money, and it's a peso from spain. "Franco", who's face was on the coin, was a leader of the Nationalist group and lead the Civil War in Spain. He said he was put there "by the grace of God." So then throughout the whole poem the author is talking about all the things you could get with a "duro." I did some research on the leader guy but I can't tell if the author likes him or not. The first time I read it I thought he was bing sarcastic with "the hooked nose tipped upward as though he alone recieved the breath of God." It sounds like the leader thinks he is the only one that God blesses, so I thought that the author didn't like him very much. Then I read this article about how the Spanish nation didn't know what to do when he died so I was confused. Then when he is saying all te thing's you can have for a duro it seems like he is switching back and forth between what HE had for a Duro and what Franco had maybe? Like the author could have coffee and a bad roll while the other guy had everything like cars and women. I didn't understand the milky nape part really why is he still waiting? Like he was in the military then came home and didn't have money or anything so he is homeless and waiting for a duro? Then I know in the end he is talking about an animal hospital with all these animals but I'm not exactly sure why. I believe it's because the Hotel he talks about earlier isn't there anymore and now it's the hospital. The "Riotous colors" was the other section that made me feel like it was sarcastic.

Poem

The poem I'm doing this week is "in Blackwater Woods." when I first start reading it I get this scene of like the white massive pillars of Heaven's gates. "turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment." It reminds me of a sweet smelling safe place with these big grand white pillars I.E. Heaven. Then it kind of turns the slightest bit just a tad dark "every pond no matter what its name is, is nameless now." This darkens the mood a little but still kind of gives that feel of Heaven because once your soul goes to Heaven it really doesn't have a face or a name any more. "the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation..." This to me is the climax. It's building like this black river is dark and mean and cold but on the other side is salvation where you can live eternally. So it's dark and sad for us who are still on this side of the river but for the one you lost it's their salvation. This is my favorite part of the poem, "to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, let it go." Love someone with everything you have but be able to let them go when the time comes because they are on the other side of the river. They're on the salvation side. :-) The author breaks the poem up into 9 4 line stanzas but breaks the sentences up so the last thought ends on the first line of the stanza after it. i believe he does this is to keep the poem flowing through all the stanzas and to build upon these ideas he is building. Like he breaks the idea of whats on the two sides of the rivers. He wants you to antcipate what's coming. He wants you to be eager to read the next stanza.

Poem

The poem that I picked this week is the poem I taught, "Wallflowers." I really liked this poem. The first thing that stuck out to me was the weird words at the bottom of the poem. When someone has a disease that makes them think they are an animal which totally didn't fit the poem at all. Then after I read it another time I realized that the words at the bottom were the examples of words the whole poem was about. They were these wallflower words that no one uses. And the author really personifies these words as people. She gives them these human characteristics. When I thought of wallflowers it was those middle school kids at the dance just waiting for someone to pick them to dance with. That's exactly what the author wanted to have the reader perceive for these words. They aren't used very much and are waiting on the side for someone to use them more. This poem was really that straight forward. I'm sorry it was on Monday but i was visiting colleges this weekend and didn't have access to a computer till I got home!

Poem

"Lost Brother" is the poem I picked to analyze. I liked this poem a lot and I liked the way that it was tought in class. I like the fact that we teach those in class it gives different people's perspective's on the same poem. So to begin I thought the poem was mostly about how the author feels we are losing nature. On the ACT there was a reading about the tallest tree's and how they could survive in those conditions. When I read this poem it reminded me of that story. We could lose the tree's that have been here longer then any of us have, and we wouldn't bat an eyelash. I believe in a way the author is trying to show us that nature shouldn't be treated like simple plants but like family. We need to cherish it and take care of it like we would a brother. Or "Mother" wuld be sad. "Mother" in this poem represents Mother Nature. Because she takes care of all living things like tree's. The tone of the piece is rather admiring towards his "brother" but yet sorrowful that he is lost now. I kinda wondered why people ahd cut it down, this 4,862 year old tree. Was it in the way of some new building? It wasn't important enough? And this poem shows you that this tree has a story adn has seen many more years then we have and suddenly his story is no longer important. "His company" gone, "pink mounain pennyroyal" gone, "White Angelica" gone. The "prepared to live as long as he did" line shows the authors religiius side. He obviously isn't going to live as long as that tree as a human. But he knows he can live an eternal life in God that will be longer than the tree's. The last line is the climax and sarcastic "bag of wind will cut me down." that's the big Climax it shows that yes we're cutting down tree's for no reason. And It's really sad.

Heart of Darkness

I actually kind of liked the book. The story was rather slow but the way the author wrote it was really cool. I would bet you $10 that most of the students say it was hard to read. The thing is, high school students don't like doing extra work so they won't go to the back of the book and read the notes in the back! The problem with that is that as a reader you won't be able to understand a lot of what is going on. Like Marlow's first speech about Caesar was confusing unless you looked in the back and realized who it was actually about. In the actual speech Marlow just says "he" in the back it says it was Caesar. I didn't just love having to flip to the back either but at least I understood! For this book I did the "learn to write" marking the text strategy. The author loves using metaphors and similes. I believe the first big one he says is the Congo river is like a snake. He compares the two because of the twisting and turning way of the river it's like how a snake slithers (not in a straight path). I think the other kind of way he meant it was the river is vicious like a snake can be when it bites. He uses them in describing everything! He uses elaborate detail in describing the forest like every new patch of forest he is in he describes it differently. Like the forest right when he gets to Africa, "like thinking about an enigma." (simile) and "There it is before you- smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage." (personification). Then 200 miles up the river, to the first base he goes to a place I call "Death Valley" where all the Congo residence go to slowly die. "These moribund shapes were as free as air-and nearly as skinny too." Here he is comparing these dying people to air. They are so little and unhealthy they have almost dwindled away to nothing. Later on in the book he describes his voyage to see Kurtz and he uses simile's and metaphors and comparisons and allusions and personifications left and right. That's what makes this book so difficult to read you have to see the comparisons and see how they connect the two things being compared. The allusions are harder I haven't ever heard of some of them unless I look in the notes and see what the real allusion is. Like "...into the gloomy circle f some Inferno." I never would have known that was an allusion unless the back notes had showed me that he was actually mentioning how "souls suffer punishments appropriate to their sins." The last writing style that I picked up on was when he would make his own prediction, through Marlow's story telling, but then say that it might or only could be true. He kind of rips the rug out from under your feet and is like it might be this but only maybe. "I did not know the motive. Perhaps he was just simply a fine fellow who stuck to his work for his own sake." Here he is talking about how Kurtz got so much Ivory and then went back into the forest and just sent the Ivory down to the river.

The Great Gatsby

I enjoyed reading this book, but only at certain points in the action. When it was slow, it seemed to drag on and on. I used the Create Trails commintating for this book. The first major plot thing was the breakfast at Daisy's. that's where you meet Jordan, Tom, Daisy, and even Gatsby is mentioned. You also find out that Tom has a misstress. The significance of this part is that it opens up the whole story. It shows how the relationship between Tom and Daisy is on the rocks, but they won't get divorced. You also meet Jordan who is the first one to ever mention Gatsby. I thought that it also kind of showed how either oblivious or sheltered Daisy was. Jorda knew all about Gatsby and how he lived next door, but Daisy didn't! The next big thing that happened was Nick met Tom's misstress. They went to New york adn you find out they have an apartment together and even the misstress has a husband. I thought it was rather strange that they both wouldn't leave their spouses! I thought of it as the smallest hint of forshadowing with Daisy adn Gatsby. Then is the party with Gatsby! The author loves describing things in great detail. Like how he characterized the party people was rather clever that way the reader what type of people they were and how they would behave at the party. Nick met Gatsby at the party but didn't even know it was him. That was a huge sign of how people didn't really go there because tey liked Gatsby it was juts for the great parties and the house. I think the author didn't introduce Gatsby sonner was because he wanted to build anticipation for who this character was. to the reader you could have thought of anything, with the big house, the grand parties, and everything in between, but then the author kind of lets you down a little. He's not that great of a guy, he is pretty ordinary: he was a soldier, went to college (but dropped out), and got his money through crime. There were a lot of smaller parts in the book, but the next really big thing was when Daisy came over to Nick's and Gatsby was there. It's their big meet since before the war. Towards the end of their meeting Gatsby shows Daisy the house. For me, that was the biggest clue to his personality flaw. He was so engrossed with his house and thought that it would impress her that he just assumes it will win her back! That sad part is I think it kind of worked. She was so shallow. Even in the flashback he lied about his past and liked her nice things that both times she was with him she fell for the materialistic Gatsby not the actually person. So Daisy and Tom come to one of his grand parties. Gatsby even goes around showing off all the famous people at his parties! Then after the party I start to get the feeling that Daisy doesn't want Gatsby but she doesn't want anyone else to have him. She has been the center of his world and she loves the attention, butwhile I was reading I got the feeling she wasn't going to pick him. The last and most important point in the book is when Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan all go to New York for "ice cream." That's where all hell breaks loose Gatsby demands that Daisy tell Tom she doesn't love him and is leaving him. He was pushing her into a decision she wasn't ready to make! And this fight between tom adn Gatsby evovles and they throw out comments and banter back and forth about whom she loves more. Tom was being a bit hippocritical though with all those "family institutions," for he had also been cheating. So it was ok for him to cheat but not Daisy? Then everyone goes home all flustered. Even I know how people drive with their emotions. When people are mad or upset the have very very poor driving abilities!

I finished The Kite Runner today. It was a great book; written really well, but it made me sick. I hate books that show the real evil in people. The biggest styling portion I picked up was that at the end of each chapter he would give a foreshadow. Like "...that would be the last time I would see him smile...", or "...he wouldn't talk for a full year..." That was his biggest styling thing. The biggest symbol in the book was the Kite. It showed how Hassan was really loyal and loved Amir. When the last kite fell so did their relationship. Then in the end of the book with the flying of the last kite, it shows the rekindling of a new kinship between Amir and his nephew. Little symbols I picked up were like his car when he was a teen was his get away, and the ocean was like a new beginning that he couldn't reach. For this book I did the "establish territory" annotation device. I put faces in the things I liked and didn't like. I made comments of what I would have said if I were in that situation. I would comment on every foreshadowing example he used and I would make a prediction. I would relate some of the things in the book to my life, like how Rahim was a better dad than Baba was, but then how Baba grew and was a better father throughout their lives in America. I made note of all the major plot turns and shocking outcomes made comments on those, and any changes I would see in the characters. Like I already mentioned Baba changed, Amir significantly changed, and Hassan changed, even Rahim changed. Amir changed multiple times in the book the first was with what happened to Hassan. He turned dark and mean and didn't like himself or anybody around him. Then when he moves and met his wife he made a big turn for the better. He was in love and sweet and even opened up. Then, he went back to Afghanistan to get his nephew and he changed again he became brave even humble towards God. Hassan's change was pretty obvious he changed after what happened to him and was no longer a happy child. I found out he changed when he met his wife and had kids and moved back to his home. Rahim changed from the sweet father figure he was in Amir's childhood to a man who knew what happened and wanted Amir to take responsibility. He changed into a stern man. The book had a lot going on and it was very clever and good, but I didn't just love it.