I personally like using the website because while I don’t like how what I have to say is out in the open for everyone to read, I do like the feedback and positive criticism I receive. Also, I like being able to style a website to my own personality with quotes and different photographs.
Using a website for an English class isn’t a new experience for me, since I did have to use a weebly website last semester. There are some positives and negatives. As far as technology goes, I hate it. There’s usually always a problem with connection and speed or the website being down for maintenance. On a positive side, it’s a different way to express writings and thoughts that most students don’t get to have a chance to experience while in school. Being in a new age and time, everything relies on technology. There’s facebook, twitter, Instagram, google and without these most people of the college generation wouldn’t know where to go for information. It only makes sense that using a website for an English class to blog our writings would be the next step.
I personally like using the website because while I don’t like how what I have to say is out in the open for everyone to read, I do like the feedback and positive criticism I receive. Also, I like being able to style a website to my own personality with quotes and different photographs.
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Hi Mommy,
There was this neat short story I read called A Fable of the Living. This story touched on a very sore and vulnerable subject that I believe everyone has a hard time accepting. That is the death of a loved one and how a person copes after it happens. This story is about a small town. In this small town, when a person dies their loved ones will write notes on pieces of paper to their passed loved one and then go to a certain field. This field has fissures where they can put the notes into and then it is believed that this is a way of speaking to their passed loved one. A new fiancé had unexpectedly died and his, what would have been, widow was having a hard time coping with the loss. She went awhile with not writing anything down. Then, by the summer, she had written down a pile of notes for her fiancé. The notes were sent into a fissure in the field and the, to her disbelief, she received a note back from her dead fiancé. They started communicating to each other through these notes. In one of the final notes that she received from her fiancé, her fiancé says that he wants her to join him and that he can’t wait. The story ends with her ending her life to be with her fiancé. I know when Daddy died that you had a very hard time coping. You would sit in the living room all day and watch TV. I barely saw you smile for the first year. Writing notes to someone who has passed is a great coping mechanism. I don’t know about finding a field to put them into, but otherwise I think that it would be a good idea for you to write any notes down that you still have to say to Daddy. Just don’t do anything dire. I love you Mommy, Your Sunshine A Small Place
This writing starts off as the narrator is step by step going over what happens when a tourists goes to visit Antigua. Kincaid talks of how people venturing to her home country are naïve to see the sights in one way when really there is another point of view that they should be seeing the sights in. For example, a tourist will take a cab in expensive Japanese car and wonder if the cab driver also owns an expensive house. When in reality, the government will fund loans for cars easily, but not so easily for houses and so the natives of Antigua don’t have houses in the best shape. Kincaid then reminisces of when England had control of their country and her dislike for Queen Victoria. Tourists will worship Queen Victoria and believe she did good in the world, but to the Antigua natives May 24th-Queen Victoria’s birthday-is a reminder that she has passed. I enjoyed reading this writing by Jamaica Kincaid. It was set up in a way that I don’t believe I have ever read before. The way she would say the word “you” in a way that you could tell she has a let of resentment for the tourists really caught my attention. There was a lot of emotion and fact that was hard to miss. She would say that the doctor wasn’t racist, the school headmistress wasn’t racist, the English were racist, but you could tell by how she was saying these that she felt and knew they were racist. You look lost. You looked confused. And you should. This is dangerous territory. Anyone can get angry at the smallest glance. If you count wrong, you don’t answer the phone fast enough. Don’t even think about wasting a few precious moments to run to the bathroom. No, you don’t get that luxury. So, don’t look at me confused. Get out there and fill those prescriptions. Speak to those insurance companies about the rejected claims. You will have to toughen up. You might think this is easy, but it’s not. Some of these drugs people depend their lives on. If you don’t have it in stock, you’re screwed and they’re screwed. Those drug addicts you might have noticed from high school or at parties that twitch and jitter around uncontrollably, they’ll be there. They will want the drugs and they will expect you to provide them those drugs. What’s worse is, you will have to deny them of those drugs and get the repercussions. You might not belong here. You will get tired, frustrated, angry, but you won’t be able to do anything about it. It’s get tough or move on. Pharmacy is risky business. 1.After working a long shift on a hot July day, I grumpily laid in my cozy bed with my stuffed animal, Stripes. All I wanted to do was relax in my room under the covers and listen to the sounds of the robins chirping outside of the window. My sister was not letting me achieve this. She laid across her bed six feet away from my bed reading a book. I was thrilled to share a room with her. Her clothes everywhere, the ceiling fan on all time freezing every inch of me, and now the loud sounds of her flipping the pages of her book. Trying to drown out the sounds of her page turning by listening to the bird, I hugged Stripes closer.
I must have just started drifting to sleep when I heard a loud pop. This woke me up right away. Considering it was two days away from Fourth of July, I had figured that some neighbors were getting an early start to celebrations with fire crackers. A couple seconds later I heard another pop. This time it sounded curious. I look over to my sister, but she had already gotten out of bed and was looking out of the window. The next thing I know, the robins were being drowned out by the sound of my sisters screaming. Instinctively, I hopped out of bed and ran to the back door and out of my house. It took only a few long strides to reach my destination, and that was to my dad laying on the grass a couple feet from our shed. 2.It was my silly idea to walk from The Venetian to the Stratosphere in flats. Normally, I was all for adventure. I crave new sights and exploring every new opportunity that comes my way. So, when one of the workers at The Venetian said that the Stratosphere was only about a mile away, but that he doesn’t recommend anyone walking the way there, I shrugged it off and assumed that it couldn’t be that bad. Boy, was I wrong. The walk was easy enough, maybe not in flats, but still it wasn’t too bad. It’s what we saw along the way that spooked me. Two blocks away from the Venetian in the direction we were heading, it was like a whole new world. We left shiny and clean and took a walk on the wild side towards hookers and drug deals on every block. There were little business cards on the ground everywhere we looked with nude pictures of escorts and strippers. I had already expected to see something along those lines here, it was Las Vegas anyway. Of course my boyfriend was trying to steal every glance he could at the business cards when he thought I wasn’t looking. What’s worse was the people that we encountered on this walk. There was a skinny, high looking boy who was screaming that it was his 21st street and it took all four of his friends to force him out of the street. On every corner there would be an old, half-demolished hotel with a sign out front saying “$7.99-All you can eat crabs”. I don’t eat crabs (or any seafood) but I can still tell when I see a shady looking deal and that was a shady looking deal. The very worst part was seeing all the drug deals happening. It was too noticeable to not be recognized as a drug deal. They were happening all around us while we were walking and we never saw a cop do anything about it. The cops must have bigger fish to get in Las Vegas. Once we arrived to the Stratosphere, we agreed to take a taxi back to our hotel. I’ve seen one too many “CSI:Vegas” episodes to know what could happen here. 3.I love going to see the Flyers games. The feeling that all of the people around you from your home town are all rooting for the home team to win. The variety of food that they serve. Lorenzo’s and Chickie’s and Pete’s are a must have every time. The only thing I don’t enjoy are the long lines, but once we get to our seats it’s on. Before the game even starts I finished all of my crab fries from Chickie’s and Pete’s and start on my humongous slice of pizza from Lorenzo’s. I wish I could say that being at the games make me want to eat more, but I eat that much all the time. Once the game starts I sneak my food tray under the seat for now so that I have some standing room for when the Flyer’s score, which I know they’re going to. Seems like only a few minutes into the game when the first fight breaks out. I don’t usually approve of violence and it makes me really uncomfortable to be around, but when I see a Flyer’s player go at it with a Penguin’s player, I jump out of my seat so fast I knock over my boyfriend’s food. He gets a little annoyed, but he doesn’t show it since if I hadn’t knocked his food over, he would have done it himself. Once a break comes for us to move around, I run to see how long the bathroom line is. It’s long. Too long. Guess it means I stop drinking beer now because I won’t want to wait in this line twice. In no time, we’re back in our seats ready for the Flyer’s to come on the ice again. There were a few more fights and a few more times of my jumping up like a lunatic that just got freed from the loony bin. Next thing I know the Flyer’s scored the winning goal and I was smiling and jumping up and down along with every other Flyers fan in the Wells Fargo Center. They need to make hockey games longer, they go by too fast. Author : Tobias Wolff
Publication : 1995 Setting : a bank Plot Summary : A man named Anders enters a bank right before closing. He gets into line between two women who increasingly begin to annoy him. When one of the tellers closes her position at the counter, the one woman in front of Anders makes a comment that sets Anders off. They get into a small banter and suddenly everyone goes quiet. This is because two masked, armed men entered the bank and was holding the guard at gunpoint. They begin to tell the tellers to start getting the money into bags and meanwhile the one robber makes a reference of “dead meat” that makes Anders reply with sarcastic comments. The robber hears this, gets angry, and has Anders look at the ceiling. Anders laughs at the bull on the ceiling and as the result, the robber shoots him in the head. The story ends with Anders looking back at events in his life. Not important events that you would assume a person would have, but an event where he was playing baseball as a boy and he hears another boy say “they is”. Conflict : A conflict in this story would be Man vs. Self. Anders has a personality where he says what comes to mind. In this case, when the robber turns to Anders and gives him the task of being quiet, Anders cannot complete this task and continues to say what comes to mind. He ends up laughing at the painting on the ceiling and can’t control himself. For this he gets killed. In the beginning of the story, when in line for the teller, Anders also gets into a small confrontation with the woman in front of him because he’s unable to keep his thoughts to himself. Another conflict could be Man vs. Man. Anders goes up against the robber and in a way has a match against him. There’s a lot of back and forth banter which ends with him getting shot in the head. This week in class, we read a story by Ernest Hemingway called Hills Like White Elephants. I really enjoyed reading this story. Literary Analysis of Hills Like White Elephants Context Author Biography: Ernest Hemingway wrote this story. He is from Ketchum, Idaho and served in both World War I and World War II. He was married multiple times with failed marriages to each wife. Seven years after winning a Nobel Prize, he committed suicide in his hometown of Ketchum, Idaho. Date of Publication: 1927. Setting: On a train in Spain. Text Genre: Short Story. Plot Summary: This story is about an American man and a woman whom the man calls "Jig". The man and woman have an uncomfortable relationship throughout the story. To try to make conversation in the beginning, they order a round of drinks. Once the topic of the woman having an operation comes up, the woman gets tense. Although, they never say what the operation is, you can assume it's not an operation that the woman wants. However, the man keeps pushing the subject onto her. POV: Third Person. Tone: Tense and uncomfortable. Subtext Themes: A theme is when the man and woman continue ordering drinks. Whenever a new topic arises that is not something that wants to be talked about, the couple orders a new round of drinks. Symbols: A symbol would be comparing the hills to white elephants. There's a saying "elephant in the room" which is referencing something that isn't out in the open. An "elephant" could be referencing the surgery that neither man or woman is specifying. What's left unsaid: What's left unsaid is what the surgery is for. What is assumed is that the surgery that the man is referring to is an abortion for the woman's pregnancy. This story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is about a woman who has an illness. Her husband, John, is a physician and has diagnosed her with having a temporary nervous depression. Throughout the story, she talks about the room on the top floor that she doesn’t like because she would rather have a bedroom on the ground floor surrounded by flowers. She doesn’t like the bedroom her husband picked on the top floor. She thinks that the wallpaper is patchy and is out to get her. She talks about there being a woman in the wallpaper that “creeps” on her in the daylight. At the end of the story, she rips off all of the wallpaper on the last day of them being at the house and her husband sees it and faints.
The story was first published in 1892. I did suspect that the 1800’s was when this story was written by the words that were used and how they were used. A theme in the story could be feeling trapped. The narrator throughout the story talks of how she has to watch what she says in front of her husband and Jennie. She has to act a certain way around them and tries anything she can do to please them. The wallpaper also portrays how she feels trapped. She is constantly putting her thoughts and energy into watching the wallpaper that she starts obsessing over it. I liked the story Wrong Channel the most. This story had humor in it which drew me in at first. Then as I started reading the story and could tell the direction it was leading in I started to enjoy it more. The story is about a foreigner who can’t speak much English and so she brings her family member with her to the doctor to translate. The family member translates incorrectly which makes the doctor get the wrong information. This happens to me often working in a pharmacy and getting many patients who can’t speak English. I felt like I could relate to this story the most.
Wrong Channel Confusion was the influence in this story. No one could speak the same language to translate well and everything was misinterpreted. Mockingbird Lust was the influence in this story. Rachel says how she was still in the swooning stage of love with Peter and how their neighbors are successful and have expensive things, but they have love. Land’s End This story is about poverty. She is in Mexico, a third world country, and is cut by a broken bottle and sees an older woman with no teeth. She talks about being surrounded by unfortunate situations, but she still had hope for the future. Waiting This story is about depression and about repeating. This woman has the same routine every day as a substitute teacher and is not happy with her life. He dad tries to cheer her up, but even with that she still is depressed. Her foot begins bleeding on the beach, cut by the jagged funnel of a broken bottle. She should have kept her shoes on, but she had spilled a beer all on them and took them off. She shrugs it off and continues walking. The shrieking of the girls nearby hurt her already hurt ears. How could she have a hangover already when it was only 7pm? I guess it doesn’t help that she had been drinking since 11am for the country concert her and her friends were at. Word is that drinking more cures a hangover so she grabs another bottle of Yuengling and heads to the music. Her friend calls her over. They start dancing and before she knows it the concert is over and everyone is saying their goodbyes. Once everyone leaves and she is packed up to go she realizes she had left her keys in the ignition and locked the doors. Now, everyone has left and she has no one to help her. Plus, her phone is dead. The House on Mango Street
The theme that I took from this short story was a sense of “displacement”. In the opening paragraph, he talks about all of the different houses he has lived at in different cities. When the nun asks him where he lives and he points to the place and the nun says “you live there?” he feels like nothing and tells himself that he has to have a permanent house. The areas where his family always lives are in poverty neighborhoods which influenced the story. What Is the What The theme in this story is innocence. The character sees a strange girl in a parking lot and smiles at her. Then she shows up at his place and asks to speak on his phone and he lets her in. All this time, she was planning on robbing him. I assume he is young since he says that he’s been studying all day which means he could be naïve to let a stranger in. |
Alana PArenti.
"She slept with wolves without fear, for the wolves knew a lion was among them." - R.M.Drake Categories
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