Blogging

Being able to to blog and do assignments online has been a fun experience. We get to have two periods in class with the laptops and spend time doing the assignments. By blogging, we are able to see other people's work and comment on them. As a student, blogging is valuable because I get to have my work commented on and get other people's opinion about my work. I also like to read other people's blog and see what they have to say about certain topics. Commenting other blogs are fun and they get to see my point of view on what I think about their assignments.

I think continuing this type of blogging in school is fun for us to do. We are able to interact with each other based on school work. The only thing that I don't really like about blogging is the website itself. I think the site should have a tracker of what you have done on its site. This would really help on the comments because I usually forget if I comment on some one's blog or not. Just to be safe, I just comment on someone else's. Being able to blog, we can interact with the technology we have available at school too.

This type of work is definitely different than what I have done in other English classes. Every work or assignment was always hand-written or presented. I like this idea of having a laptop every Friday because it's a lot easier to type work out than to write it. I can fix mistakes easily and get other people's opinion through their words visually instead of verbally.

With blogging, this has enabled both 11th grade classes to read and comment on each other's work. We have never done this before for any of the classes we have had in high school. We can know how other students think and how they express themselves through words. I usually don't talk to the other students in 11-2, but now I can comment on their work. Within our own class, people who usually don't talk to each other are able to comment on each other's work.

Blogging has many pros that can benefit us. It expanded the amount of communication available for both classes. People can read and comment on each other's work easily. Plus, the idea of using laptops in school to do English work is fun and new compared to other previous years in school.

The Great Gatsby Connection

The Great Gatsby was a very interesting book that kept my attention unlike other books that I have read in high school. The plot included cheating, killing, and revenge, which really held my interest. F. Scott Fitzgerald gave each character in the book his/her own interesting personality. Gatsby’s and Nick’s personalities seem to be the strongest ones that were developed.

“Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.” –Letter, Aug. 1936, to Ernest Hemingway
I thought this quote was developed into how Gatsby’s personality is. Even though he is rich, he worked extra hard to gain the money. His love for Daisy Buchanan was his main purpose to becoming wealthy. The book introduced Gatsby as a crazy host who threw parties every week. Later, his personality is more developed into a loving, caring person who accomplished the goal of being rich and wealthy. Gatsby’s dreams and hopes became his reality.

"That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton…I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works." –F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters
This quote represented how Nick is like. Fitzgerald connected his life to his character, which gave Nick a stronger personality. Nick lived in West Egg with Gatsby as his neighbor. He went to Yale for college and fought in World War I. In the beginning of the book, the reader gets told that he’s open-minded and a good listener. Because his father taught him to be tolerant, many people can open up to him easily and tell him their secrets. While living in New York, he enjoyed the party life which was filled with fun, but by the end of the book, he realized that the New York life isn’t all that glamorous. After the death of Gatsby, Nick felt the shallowness of living a fun life.

These two characters’ personalities and lives add to what Fitzgerald’s personality and life was like. He fell in love with a woman named Zelda and tried his best to prove that he’s a success, just like Gatsby did. Fitzgerald later got caught into the thrilling party life, but ended up seeing the flaws and shallowness under having a life like that, just like Nick.

The Great Gatsby

"Civilization's going to pieces. I've gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things... The idea is if we don't look out the white race will be--will be utterly submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved ... It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things."

This quote was said by Tom in chapter one. It was said when Daisy was talking about books that Tom has read. He believed that the book "The Rise of the Colored Empires" by Goddard was proof that minor races are going to rise up. Tom seems to be a white supremacist and would do pretty much anything to have the white race stay at the top. I thought his character represented a lot of the white people and their opinions towards other races during this time. Most of them didn't like African Americans and other minorities, therefore being racist. By including people like this in "The Great Gatsby", Fitzgerald makes his story seem more realistic to how the world is.


"I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited--they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby's door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement park. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission."

This scene was in the third chapter as Nick was describing how he felt about the people at Gatsby's party. He knew that he was the only few people who were invited while a lot of others just crashed the party for fun and enjoyment. Nick's thoughts really stuck out to me because it's still true today. Many people randomly go to parties that they weren't invited to and usually wreck the place up. These people usually have their "party attitudes" as they are doing whatever they do at parties and have bad manners. They do not clean after their messes and definitely do not conduct themselves properly. Some people do actually go to the person who made the party and introduce themselves, but it rarely happens. After this little section, I liked how Nick also described how he was invited. I guess it was a really big honor for him to be invited to a rich person's party. Is there another purpose or reason for Gatsby's parties or are they just created so people could socialize?


"It takes two to make an accident."

This quote was said by Jordan Baker in chapter three as she was arguing with Nick in the car. In this scene, they were talking about how bad her driving skills were because as she was driving, her car came so close to a man that it took off a button from his jacket. She said that as long as no one is in her way, she'll be fine. After all, it takes two things to cause an accident. I feel that this quote is very true because it does take two things to cause something like an accident. One could not happen without the other. Later on the page, it was interesting to see that Baker said that she hates careless people, while she is one. She did point out, however, that Nick isn't a careless person and she likes him for that.

Poetry Supermarket [Anne Bradstreet]

To My Dear and Loving Husband
Verses upon the Burning of our House


Anne Bradstreet was born as Anne Dudley in Northampton, England in 1612. When she was 16, she married Simon Bradstreet and moved to America in 1630 on the Arabella, which was one of the first ships to bring Puritans to New England. Anne had a hard time adapting to her new home because of the constant struggle for food and survival. During hard times, she reminisced about her life in England and let her belief in God help her get through the day. Anne and Simon had eight kids in ten years. They all survived and were healthy despite the diseases during the time. Because her husband was always busy with politics, Anne spent most of her time reading books and educating her children. Reading expanded her knowledge and even helped her cope with her new life. She soon fell in love with poetry and started writing some of her own. Most of her poems were based on her life experiences or her love for her husband and family. She didn’t share most of her works because Puritan women weren’t allowed to learn and express their views, so she only wrote for herself, close friends, and family members. Anne’s poems were secretly taken by her brother-in-law to England and published in a small book. The book was pretty popular but not as popular as her later works. She soon gotten tuberculosis and died at the age of 60 on September 16, 1672, in Andover, Massachusetts.
Anne’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is about her love for her husband, Simon. She admires and honors him while asking the heavens to reward him for his love. She wrote this poem to express how she felt toward Simon and how their love is eternal. Most of her poems were about affection for people she cared about the most. It showed me that she was a very passionate and faithful woman and I respect that.

Anne’s poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, has a two-line rhyme scheme. For example, the first two lines are “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.” Another kind of rhetorical aspect she used is iambic pentameter. Anne also used anaphora in the first three lines. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of the line. For example, the first three lines are “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man”. By using these rhetorical aspects, it made the poem more fun to read and gave a deeper meaning to the poem with repeating the phrase “If ever”. Her tone was very intimate and passionate as she described her lasting love for her husband.

After reading “Verses upon the Burning of our House”, I realized that she doesn’t need materials to be happy. In the poem, everything she owned was burned in a fire. Her faith in God helped her get through this tough time. The basic message of the poem was that materials and wealth doesn’t matter in the end. People should be grateful for what they have such as friends and family.

Several ways contribute to show that Anne Bradstreet’s poems are distinctly American. Her writings were slightly feminist because she expressed herself during the time when women were only looked on as housewives. Puritans believed that women were inferior to men and were not allowed to express how they feel. Another way that demonstrate this are her religious experiences and views that she talks about in her poems. Anne talks about how God has played a major role in her life. She mentioned God as a punisher if you don’t follow the religious beliefs correctly. On the other hand, she mentioned God as a savior through hard times. The reader can easily tell that she is an American writer, as she was one of the first American women writers to have her works published.

Kate Chopin [Reading Journal]

Kate Chopin’s writings have a somewhat slight tie to the American Romanticism era. Romanticism writers create stories describing Nature and her beauty, expanding on individual feelings and emotions. In her story, “Lilacs”, Adrienne Farival visits the church every spring where she spent her childhood. At the first bloom of spring, lilacs bloom and remind her of her past. There were also many descriptive images described in the story that gives it a touch of romanticism such as “the sweet odor of lilac blossoms” and “the notes of birds, just as we hear them now, and the humming of insects”. The connection with nature and lilacs gives the story a slight bond to the romanticism writings. The rest of “Lilacs” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” are pure American Realism writings. Both stories depict reality how it is. For “Lilacs”, Adrienne was kicked out and banished from the church in the end because she was impure compared to the other nuns. In “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, Mrs. Sommers spoils herself with the money she finds. It shows that people have fantasies and would like to try to live another life even if it’s only for a day.

A major theme in Chopin’s writings deals with feminism. Both of her stories revolved around a main female character that had slight issues with their individual life. In “Lilacs”, Adrienne lived a double life and that ended up conflicting with one another. In Paris, Adrienne is a lazy, immature woman who throws flowers at her maid when she gets irritated. When she goes to visit the church, she is a calm and happy lady. After Mother Superior found out about her Paris life, she banished Adrienne from ever coming back. The main idea in this short story was the strict boundary between being pure and impure in the Catholic religion. It states that you cannot be both sexually active and chaste at the same time. In “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, Mrs. Sommers is a poor mother but she does her best to keep her children happy. After encountering fifteen dollars on the ground, she ended up spoiling herself with the materials she could have never afforded before. Mrs. Sommers did think about her children at first, but she later fell under the spell of materialism. Chopin does use some humor in her stories to give a mini lesson about several situations in life.

I believe that Chopin’s audience could be anyone who is willing to read and learn from her stories. She included mini facts/lessons in both of her stories and probably more in other writings. In “Lilacs”, she was probably trying to say that living a double life would most likely not work out in the end. She also mentioned about religion and how strict it is when it comes down to being pure or impure. In “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, she was trying to say that anyone, rich or poor, has a fantasy to be someone they are not, even if it doesn’t last long. Her writings were probably written for the women in the 1890s. During that time, women couldn’t vote, own property, and had a low chance of finding a job. Chopin probably wrote it to expand on a woman’s life during her time.

As a reader, I liked her story “A Pair of Silk Stockings” the most. The lesson about how materialism can effect anyone is what stood out to me the most. This is true today because many people, especially teenagers, are constantly wanting new items and things. Some people are even greedy enough to steal, murder, and kill others to obtain it. Her writing style made this story appealing too. It included imagery, humor, and a bit of irony.

“She descended the steps with a nerveless and dragging tread. Once as she was walking away, she turned to look back at the imposing facade of the convent, hoping to see a familiar face, or a hand, even, giving a faint token that she was still cherished by some one faithful heart. But she saw only the polished windows looking down at her like so many cold and glittering and reproachful eyes... After a short while, a lay sister came out of the door with a broom, and swept away the lilac blossoms which Adrienne had let fall upon the portico.”
This scene happened after Mother Superior banished Adrienne from ever coming back to the church. She looked back to see if anyone felt pity for her, but no one was there for her. After she left, someone came out to sweep away the lilac blossoms that Adrienne dropped as she became heartbroken. This passage from “Lilacs” made me feel extremely sorry for Adrienne. She got turned down in a very cruel way and the lilac blossoms that were swept away was symbolic. Nothing of her remained at the church after she was exiled. The way Chopin chose to write this scene brought out many emotions that could be felt by the reader for Adrienne.