Snow

SNOW
N......O
O......N
WONS

Snow is really cool and white and fluffy and nice. I like snow, I like to sled too. Sledding is pretty fun, except when you get your nose really cold. Snow is awesome and we could really use some snow. Snow really needs to be on the ground during christmas, christmas without snow is not really hristmas and it is really dissappointin. Ive enevr understood how people could have christmas' in like california and stuff where it is like 80 degrees during Christmas like whenever I think of Christmas the first thing I think of is snow. Like looking out a window and seeing the ground perfectly white. Its so beautiful and awesome. When you see the first snow on the ground where it fully covers the ground and doesn't leave any grass showing is always the best. Cause then you get excited about the idea of missing school and having fun with your buddies. Or sitting inside all warm and cozy. Sometimes the best part about winter is the fire. Cause you can look outside and know how cold it is out there yet your super warm and super cozy so you feel pretty awesome. Snow is really a pretty awesome a natural phenomenon and I like it. Ill probably move somewhere where it snows a lot when i get older cause I really do hate dirt or brown Christmases. Thought he worst kind have to be like rainy sludgy Christmases. Because one when it gets sludges like that it is really gross and dreary ad two because then you cant go out and have fun on Christmas like you should. Even looking outside can put a damper on your mood during Christmas. In clsoing snow rules and it does not matter what all of the grinches say about how they dont like it Snow is awesome and we should have a lot more snow.

The Ministers Black veil

The Ministers Black Veil was a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American author who lived during the Romanticism period. Most of Hawthorne's stories, like The Minister's black Veil, are in the Dark romanticism subcategory of Romanticism. Dark Romanticism is a retaliation against the picture of perfection that Romanticism tries to portray. Dark romanticism does its absolute best to focus on all things bad about humans. Often in Dark Romanticism books the main character has large character flaws that are detrimental to himself in some way or the story serves to display an inherent human flaw.

The Minister's Black Veil had quite a few Dark Romanticism characteristics. Several of them being; a scary undertone, something frightening and strange, a man with large character flaws, and lastly a human sin that was exposed. To start the story off people are happy and ready for church until the minister shows up wearing a black veil. Everyone is frightened and afraid of what it means. That day the minister talks about how we all have hidden sins but it doesn't matter because no matter how well we hide them God can still see our sins. Many people in the crowd begin to feel uncomfortable about this sermon, feeling as if they are speaking directly to him. "Each member of the congregation, the innocent girl and the man or hardened breast felt as if the preacher had crept upon them..." (Hawthorne) The preacher by himself is a man with many character flaws. Something we don't normally see in romanticism. The minister ruins a wedding later in the story by showing up in his black veil. The mood becomes very sour. As the story progresses I at least began to feel the veil was concealing more than just his face but it was his own personal shield against his own doubts. In the very end the climax of the story happens as it is ending. While on his death bed the minister, who is still wearing the veil, becomes angry not for his own death but angry at the towns people who are feeling bad for him. " Have men avoided me and women showed no pity and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil?" (Hawthorne) This is the ending of the story and the part where the reader is supposed to begin thinking about it. Dark romanticism often talks of human flaws. The minister was referring tot he fact that everyone of the towns people avoided and pitied him for the simple veil he wore. Nto for him as a person or as a minister but simply for the veil. This was what the story was trying to get across. The idea that people can be so simple minded at times with prejudices against the unknow. Even something as small and insignificant as a piece of cloth. This story was really cool and ahd a nice ending. I thought it was alll presented nice and cleanly and it also had a pretty cool message in the end.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Glencoe Literature. 283-93. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.

Dark Romanticism in the pit and the pendulum

Dark Romanticism was a period in literature and a type of writing. This type of wirting was known to commonly be very morbid, and well, dark. Often the author who was writing a dark romanticism novel would include things like death and human nature. Things like greed, anger, sin and things liek that. Stuff that romanticism tried to forget and not focus on. Dark romantiicism was really in it's simplest form a rebellion agaisnt the perfect world of romanticism as well as a result of transcendentalism. Whcich is a literary period that focused on your inner self. Some people felt that their inner self was bad and evil sot hat is what they wrote about.

The story the Pit and the Pendulum was very much a dark romantic story. The basic summary of the story is that a man finds himself in a jail, being accused of heresy by the Spanish inquisition. Just from that much information we can begin to imagine all of the different things that could be evil and dark in this setting. The man begins to wonder around, believing he has fooled his captors. It is only till later in the story the man realizes he was being played the whole time. In reality his captors were doing they're best to make the man crazy. The most interesting and morbid part of the story was most likely when the unknown man was strapped down and a pendulum begin to swing overhead now normally this would not be a bad thing but this particular pendulum had the head of an ax strapped to it. The pendulum was slowly getting lower and lower always moving closer to cutting the man. This torture is not so much physical as it is mental. Something like this would have never been seen in a romanticism period story. Things like these were far to gruesome for the authors of the time to write about. In the end of the story the ax is slowly descending and lightly cutting the man swing by swing. Dark romanticism is obviously about the darker aspects of human life. Things that are on exhibit in this story. Ideas like torture being gruesome. Death being long and drawn out. That is something really different form romanticism. If someone did die they would quickly and honorable. There was never ever a mention of a long drawn out death or a painful and dishonorable one. The idea of a man forsaking his principles and pleading for mercy would never have been popular in romanticism times. Mean were supposed to be storng and iron willed. Without flaws. Stuff like that is pretty strong characteristics and really show how ingrained the idea of dark romanticism was in the writng of this story. Dark romanticism is pretty interesting and a cool off shoot of romanticism it is always good to get so many different views on these literary periods, so thigns like this are really coola nd show how people differ even when writing.

Criticism on the Criticism of The Raven

This was probably the best criticism I have read on any literature this year. Seeing as we have done quite a few of them that is a pretty heavy comment. There were a lot of things I positively loved about this criticism. The first and foremost was how plain and upfront the author presented all of the viewpoints of critics or fans. For instance the author wrote: "Literary critics focused attention, instead, on technical concerns of verse, such as parallelism, internal rhyme, and what were termed inconsistencies or absurdities in Poe's imagery, including his reference to angelic creatures whose “foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.”(" Rather than talking about a bunch of nonsense only professors will understand the author lays on the viewpoint in a simple way and straight up. No beating around the bush with him. Another thing I loved about the author was he FINALLY talked about ALL of the viewpoints and talked about their pros and cons. So many of the criticisms I have read this year are so biased it is painful. They so completely forgo any possibility of another viewpoint that you finish the article wondering what else there is. With this article the author talks about both view points, those for the poem and those against it. You do not get the idea he is trying to persuade you to think of something this way or the "right" way. For example: " Critics of his day also speculated somewhat unkindly on the inspiration and genesis of the poem, focusing their attention on the works of others from whom Poe was accused of lifting ideas and images...“The Raven” is generally accepted as one of Poe's most characteristic works in theme, tone, and execution, and Poe is highly regarded for his inspired, original imagination and deft command of language." From that quote it is obvious that the author attempted his best to give both view points in a scholarly way. I would have to say I really preferred this criticism over any other I have read this year. I found it a much much easier overall read than any other criticism this year. I would gladly read another article by this author. Several of the criticisms that I have read this year did things all wrong when compared to this criticism. Some of them tend to be bias and focus on one topic or view point. Some tend to over analyze the literature and ruin a simple thing with over thinking. Some even tend to alienate the reader b using literature jargon that is lost on many readers. This author did a beautiful job of not doing any of these. Granted there was a part where he talked about how the raven could represent black people and the angelic woman could represent white people. Though it was more of acknowledgement of the idea rather than a championing of it. I positively loved this criticism and it was actually a good and interesting read.


Works Cited

"Edgar Allan Poe The Raven Criticism." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. .

Analysis of The Raven

I know were supposed to do a literal analysis for every sentence but thats just to many. I'm going to analyze the whole poem. In the Poem The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe wrote about a young man trying to forget about a lost love when a raven comes to his house. The Raven only says the one word Nevermore. THe young man claims the Raven will leave him like everyone else. The Rave says Nevermore. Finally he succumbs and asks when he will be reunited with his love in heaven and the Raven says Nevermore. He goes nuts and the poem sort of ends. Poe used a ton of literary devices for the poem. Some oft he imagery was absolutely fantastic, his rhyming scheme was complex and rhythmic. He also had some allusion in his work. At the beginning the man in the poem is reading a book by another author to help him get over his lost love. So it was sort of a shout out from one author to another. The Raven seemed to be a symbol for a broken heart. When he says that it will never leave him it means he is going to be reminded for it the rest of his life when he thinks about the lost love. The figurative meaning has to do with heartbreak. Heartbreak happens to everyone, we will never completely forget it and ti will always be there. Sometimes it will drive us mad.

Analyzing the Critcism

The criticism that I read of Thoreau was exceedingly long in length. To be fair it was mostly about Thoreau rather than about Walden. But you cant know anuything about the paper without knowing about the man. This piece from Bloom Literary Reference talked about Thoreads Life. One of the first things visited is how he was not as stoic as a man as some people may believe. The author of the criticism claims the Ralph Waldo Emerson is largely to blame for giving people the idea that Thoreau was such a stoic man. He even claims that Emerson edited certain facts about Thoreau's life to fit his image of the man. "To Emerson, Thoreau was a stoic. When he composed Thoreau's funeral address, he overemphasized the negative elements in Thoreau's personality. When he edited Thoreau's Letters to Various Persons, he purposely omitted all homely, personal remarks because they did not conform to his preconception" (Harding). I thought this was pretty fascinating. Everyone rationalizes things to fit their own impressions but to go so far as to change the public perception of a man in taking it to far. These were some of the things I did like about the criticism. Some of the things that I did not like was how the author tried to interpret certain actions. It seemed like the author felt EVERYTHING Thoreau did had a meaning and something deeper behind it. For instance while talking about Walden the author says: "Thoreau went to Walden not to escape from civilization but to discover the true civilization that would permit and foster the greatest development of man's spiritual nature."(Harding) He clearly has no basis for this assumption but his own ideas about who and what Thoreau stood for. There are several more examples where he gives his own interpretation of things that in all honesty were just simple actions. For me at least this was the largest reason in why I personally did not care for the criticism. Maybe his assumptions gave an air of arrogance or self importance that I did not like. I am not very sure I just found myself to dislike nearly everything the author said. I tried to keep an open mind about the criticism as I read it but it just got harder and harder especially when I read things like "But I am not convinced that Thoreau ever more than wavered from his original principles. To the very end he held to his belief that reform must come from within." (Harding). That quote is absolutely rediculous. The man admits the thought he is using as a fact to be one conjured form his own head. Not since the fourth grade have I been allowed to use my own facts that I decided in a paper. How this man felt it would be ok for someone to put their own thoughts so blatantly into such a prestigous paper is befuddling. Though there was some maddening parts to it overall the criticism did keep my attention through most of the reading

Works Cited

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=1&iPin=BCHDT05&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2010).

Tales from a man wwho aint ever scurred

In my life there are only two things that scare. One is nuclear war. Want to know what the other thing that scares me is? Carnies, strange people, smeel funny, small hands. Haha get it? Like from the movie with Austin Powers. Its a quote. In all honesty the last time I started playing tricks on myself and got anxious was maybe the first football game of the season. I was really nervous and it felt like I had to peee every five seconds, all i could think of was that i was going to mess up or do something worng. I just kept working myself up and by the time the game came i was really nervous and i was scared out of my mind. This actually sort of helped me with doing well in the game because it kept me so hoenst during the game. i was cared i was going to get beat by someone on a play so instead of cheating on a play asnd thinking it was goiing to be a pass or a run and getting ready early i jsut did nmy best to do my responsibility every play. Even though there were some plays i didnt do great on this really did help. sometimes being scared can be really helpful during sports because another good things about it is that it helps to clear your mind overall and the number one reason people screw up in athletics is that they tend to over think it all to much. being nervous helps you slow everything down. I dont get very scared or nervous very often for the most part im really of the opinion if it will happen let it happen. Some things you really can not control and there is no use to worrry about things like that. I try my best to take things slow and easy so that i can think through them

Unplugging

In such a plugged in age where everyone is always texting, chatting or facebooking. Or even when you are working out or trying to relax you are listening to something on your ipod or whatever music player has. Most people would find it pretty hard to unplug as you put it. They simply can npot imagine a day without their precious electronics. Me personally I actually have and pretty often i do go without electronics. Well maybe not commonly but i have done it. We go on a yearly canoe trip for a few days. For the last two years it has been pretty out of the way. Like last year for instance I didn't even have phone service for like a week. It was actually kind of nice, aside fromt he fact that i was sick during the trip and didnt have the best time. But back on topic the whole idea of unplugging was kind of novel and interesting it was really peaceful. I mean it was kind of annoying when i came back and did not really know whar had been going on for the last week in the world and i had to catch up with my friends. overall it is not something that i would do like weekly or something i think it something you need to sparingly so that it really has the full effect of calming you down and all of that good stuff. Some people probably could not handle it. I know several people who would have despised the experience i had because it took them away from their perfect little world with elctronics.

Thoreau and Gandhi

Thoreau was an American philosopher who wrote a paper called Civil Disobedience. In Thoreau's paper he talks about government and the things he sees wrong with the government.He talks first about how the government should be for and by the common man. Claiming that the people with the most power should not run the government but rather everyday people. After talking about a time when he had gotten in trouble several time with the law for not doing things. One such occasion he did not pay a poll tax so he was in jail for a night. He says that the individual is as important if not more important than the group which is a new concept. It is quite obvious how he feels when he says things like: "There will never really be a free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power" For example if their are two of you and one of me, your a majority but that doesn't mean if you wanna kill me you can because of your majority.

Gandhi on the other hand was not so much worried about an individual being wronged as he was a whole nation. It is really difficult to compare the two speakers when one is worried about himself while the other is worried about his country. Gandhi wanted to tell people what to do when he was gone and how they should behave as a group. Whereas Thoreau simply wanted to tell people they were being wronged and a few of his ideas on how to right the wrong and what not. Something really cool about Gandhi's speech was he knew that he was most likely going to be arrested the next day and that he was going to march and get caught but he had decided to march anyway because it was what he believed in and nothing was going to take that away from him no matter how fast or how many times they arrest or even beat him it was his belief and nothing was going to change that. He said things like: "In all probability this will be my last speech to you. Even if the government allow me to march tomorrow morning, this will be my last speech on the sacred banks of Sabarmati. Possibly these may be the last words of my life here."

Which such strong sentiment and feeling from Gandhi is is easy to see that he is far superior to Thoreau's civil disobedience. Aside from the obvious differences being on what they focus, one being on small individualized perspective of government. While the other is on a much more grand and encompassing scale than Thoreau's. In comparing the two papers it is very clear to anyreader that the speech prepared and given by Gandhi was far superior than the paper written by Thoreau, Gandhi's speech had a very revolutionary tone while Thoreau's seemed to almost seem like he was whining at the idea government was not fair for everyone. Gandhi's paper was absolutely fantastic.

Works Cited

Gandhi, Mohandas. "On the Eve of Historic Dandi March." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. November 13, 2010.

Thoreau. "Civil Disobedience." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. November 13, 2010.

Breaking the law

Sometimes in certain circumstances it is ok to break the law. Sometimes there is necesity for someone to break the law. In our constitution their is a section that states that it is sometime necessary for the average citizen to cast off laws that are unjust and to rise up against an oppresion that the government may cause. This is in the US Constitution so basically it is saying that though you should gollow the law if you can feel in your gut that something is wrong you shoul do something about it. People can make much better choices than a law could ever. One instance I can think of where breaking a law would be a good thing to do is if your at your hosuer and someone breaks in. If a bad person is holding you or your family hostage I thorughly believe that if you have to harm them to protect you or your belongings then you are well with in your rights to do so. This is a sort of legal gray area as you can defend yourself. So I dunno if it is technically breaking a law but I personally think either way you are within in your own rights. I personally think that something have gotten rediculous 2 hundred years ago if you were caught killining someone then you were put to death for it. If someone killed someone else in self defense then that was ok because the other person ahd it coming to them. That is the easiest thing I can think of where you would be within your own rights to kill someone else or to break the law. Im sure there are plenty of other things that are jsutifiable and have a legitimate reasoning behind them

Emerson and the Melancholia

The essaqy on Emerson was veyr informative. It contained a lot of stuff that I did not know but once I found out about them Emerson began to make a lot more sense as a writer as well as a person. One of Emerson's core beliefs and the idea that really influenced his wirting when he was still a romanitcist was his belief in not mourning. According to the essay: ""Getting over the deaths of loved ones is no tired or traditional 'spiritual' vision for Emerson precisely because it is a literal breathing in, or inspiration, of the death in life," Cox writes.". In his earlier writing there was a definite romantic style to his writing. He believed that dying was a part of life and was natural. This was very typical of the romanticism period because they were really big on nature in that time period. So the fact that Emerson believed nature was not someething to mourn showed his romanticism. This really sutied Emerson for hisw wirting bewcause he really did believe in the romanticism principles. In his later years Emerson began to break off of Romanticism. The single largest reason for this was the death of his son, Waldo. When Waldo dided Merson wanted to mourn for him but he did not know how to mourn because he had never before. Once Emerson realized mourning was a good thing he began his break with Romanticism. It is very evident in his writing as it becoems darker and more self interested than happy and about nature like some of his early ones were.This passage formt he essay really exempliefies Emerson's journey after his son dided

"Yet the grief for Waldo's death, we are told, eventually makes its full weight known by way of a delayed reaction. At the time of the boy's death, Emerson put aside his journal (lettered J), saving it for his recollections of his son. He returned to the journal in April to begin "Threnody," the elegy for Waldo, which was completed and published in 1846. And there, the received understanding goes, we see the authentic toll of Emerson's loss. Until this point, he has cast himself in the image of Hegel's belle?me, lacking "the power of alienation, the power to make himself a thing and support being." In The Conduct of Life, published in the year Lincoln was elected president, 1860, and particularly in the seminal "Fate," this story continues: we can see how Emerson has adapted himself to the new stance. He recognizes his place in the world and understands that fate, not spirit, is the dominant force in his and every life."

In my own opinion Emerson's break with Romanticism came at a good time as the whole Literary period was winding down. He also seemed help accelerate the break form romanticism. Emerson's life was full of tragedy but he also helped to further our own literature. Emerosn was a great man and he will be forever remembered for nhis contributions to the english stuff.

Works Cited:

Edmundson, Mark. "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987).New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. FactsOn File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?.

Journal 21

Emerson in self reliance talks about how everyone should reallyworry about themselves and not otheers. His reasoning was that if everyone worries about themselves then their is nothing to worry about because we will all be good people. Then we will all be good people and there wont be any bad people since we are all accountable to ourselves. Ben Franklin believed in a lot of the samething but in not like exact word for word. He was really big on self improving and stuff but he didnt seem to care nearly as much about the other people when we read that stuff about franklin he seemed almost like he was a little bit of a sort of standoffish kind of guy the guy who is worried about himself and doesnt really care about other people. Not like he is a jerk of anything but he just doesnt really worry about other people. Not in a stuck up way that people might think of it bbut sort of the same way i think about othe rpeople, i am nice to them but i really dont care about what they think or anything like that. I try to be self reliant and all the junk so i can sort of understand how each man feels about the whole self reliance thing and all that good stff. These two guys are pretty similar but they also seem like they could didsagree on somepretty big issues and stuff so thatd be interesting too i guess.

Journal 20

People get burnt out all the time. Sometimes when ou have been really stressed out for a long period of time you can really see performance drop and you can feel how your beginning to need a break. Sometimes we all jsut need a break from society you jsut need to relax and take a few days off. Sometimes you do not need a few days but it could be just a long nap or a quiet evening reading a ook. Everyone deals with strees in their own way. One thing we all need to do is to reflect on our self for a period. This is called self reflection, self reflection is completely different for every person, some people like to jsut be alone and think abbout everything that is happening. Some good ways from these people to do this is by campining or walsk or anything like that. Stuff that leaves them alone. Some people liek to talk to others. The interesting thing aboutt these people is they are not talking tot he other people but they are more bouncing the ideas off other people and in reality they are talking to themselves more than they are to someone else. Me personally I liek to exert myself physically. It always helps when Im stressed, I love to be able to go and jsut lift and run and get all my frustration out. I watched a video somewhere about power lifting and it said that most power lifters see the weight as the enemy and they get out all of their anger on the weight. Some guy finsihed a lift and screamed the f bomb. Everyone deals with stress in their own way and everyone needs to deal with stress the best way is whatever you think the best way is the important thing is that you do it

Ideal America

An ideal america for me personally would be somewehere where i would never ever have to go to school if i did not want to because school is no dumb and not important and know one needs to go to school. Next an ideal america for me personally would be being able to play video games all day every day or really do what ever I want to do. Sometimes though I would want to do othe rthings than jsut ame. Gaming is fun and all but sometimes it can get boring if you do it for to ong. American would be very good if they did theset things thaat I suggest then America would be the best thing ever so that would be really cool. My sugestions should probably besent to my congress man in a letter of something or givn to obama in a book. The country could beneift greaty from my suggestions since they are not partisan in anyway for josh. Josh is a pretty swell guy though. Josh soemtimes refers to himself in the 3rd person. tHough I think it is pretty weird that people refer to themselve in the third peron. I usually do not r f e r t o m e self in the third person.

Italy Poetic analsysissies

THe poem Italy by John Greenleaf Whittier was a pretty good poem to analyze. The literal anysis was that the poem was about war and how in the end there would be no war because God would show us the promised land and we could lay down our arms to let them rust. But untill then it will be our fate to fight and kill each other over pointless squabbles. Whittier used several different poetic devices, the coolest one was onomonopeea. Onomonopeea is when the author uses several words in a row that sound gthe same in order to provide emphasis on that idea and stuff, He also used imagery pretty well but not as good as say Longfellow did or anything like that. Lastly the figurative meaning of the peom in my own opinion was that the poem stood for how everyone hopes that one day war will end and everyone can be happy together.

Romanticism Poem

I wish I was a Cat, lazy and fat
Or can I be a Cow, so strong and tall
What about something small and gross, like a rat.
It's to bad, that I'm none of those at all.
As I sat down to have a teensy chat
With my Mom about how Id like to call
Everyone around to listen to Nature's mat
Of flowers on the ground, the end.

Poetry Analysis

I decided to analyze A day of Sunshine by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A day of Sunshine is about those perfect summer days, the ones where you do not want to work at all. Then the poem goes on to talk about how nature seems to dance and make music with itself. The wind dances around nature and how it is all so beautiful. Then at the end of the poem he asks if man can be as free as the wind.Some of the poetic devices that Longfellow used was a lot of imagery. In the poem he says

hear the wind among the trees
Playing celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument. (Longfellow)

this just make me think of a song and I can clearly see the image in my head. I thought it was really cool how he did that so masterfully and easily. The figurative meaning of the poem that I found was that even though people may feel free and happy, in reality most people are still bound by their own thoughts and boundaries. No on will ever be as truly free as the wind is and it is sad.

"A Day Of Sunshine. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Second) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 28 Oct. 2010. .

Naturegrass

Nature is all around us. Nature is the trees and the wind and the sea and the sky and the dirt and the ground and so much more. Sometimes I do not like nature. Like this morning when I went outside and it was really cold and there was frost on my windows. Then nature sucked and I did not like it. I had to sit in my truck for like five minutes shivering waiting for the frost to get off my windshield. By that time I was still really cold. Sometimes like that I really dislike nature but sometimes I do like nature. one of the times when I did like nature was like a few summers ago when I went on a canoe trip and that was one of the first actual time I spent a lot of time in nature alone. It was really cool. I was outside for hours at a time just canoeing through this really beautiful river. I really got a lot closer to anture during this trip than I ever had been before I also came to really appreciate nature like I never had before. It was a pretty cool trip a pretty cool experience. I love being outside whether its hot or cold. So usually I am in nature or playing xbox. I like to play xbox a lot too. That does not really involve nature thought I guees i could if you took the tv and xboxoutside but that seems really unlikely. All in all I like nature mostly. SOmetimes we have issues like any good couple does. But nature and I always work through them the ebst we can. Nature all in all is a pretty cool thing and I like it.

My Favorite Game

My favorite game to play as far as video games are concerned is most definitely Halo: Reach. I got halo not to long ago, like one or two weeks. I really like the game. I bought a new xbox for jsut Halo, and it eas worth every single dime of the money I spent on it. One of the most fun parts is the fact that I can play with alow of my friends at the same time thatr I am on. If I ever sdtop being lazy i can go y a microphone and then i could talk to them while i play with them online. having a mic is pretty helful in all honesty since it not only helpss you talk to people and enjoy the game more but it also helps your team to communicate better and you guys work as a team better than you would. My favorite type of food is probably mexican egg rolls. These are absolutely delicious, my mom invented them when she and my dad first got married sicne they are cheap and easy to make. They are deep fried egg rolls with the cheesy meat super bowl dip on the inside of them. You can put some lettuce on top and sour cream. They are ppositively delicious. I have to beg my mom to make them though because they take a long time and are very labor intensive to make so she does nt really like to make them very much any more. All of my friends really like them too. One, Dylan Calhoon loves them so much he has forbade my mom from ever making them when he is not at my osue because then he wouldnt get any. My mom has really never had a single person try them and say they did not like tem. People s.imply love the one and only mexican egg rolls that everyone loves. Mexican eggrolls are super delicious.

Declaration of Lemonade

Lemonade is delicious. This is the one thing all people can agree on. No matter what typer of man or woman you are all people are equal when drinking a glass of lemonade. That sweet bitter tasting drink going down your throat so smoothly and nicely. Is their a thing better than a ice cool glass of lemonade ona hot summer day? We all know the answer to that is a resounding no and that few people would turn down lemonade on any occasion much less a hot day. Lemonade beleives that the borders of Lemonade should be protected and that if people would like to enjoy lemonade then they must simply becoem a nation fo this lemonade confederation. Lemonade also believes that people msut act and behave responsibly to enjoy the sweet nectar that is this beverage we call lemonade. If someone is lucky enough to be born in lemonade they will have obtained the ultimate act of being immersed fully in lemonade. I really lvoe lemonade. And Nerds, nerds are really good too. they go well to together like beans and potatos. Nerds are also delicisous and in my contritution I love nerds and lemonades they are great!

Literary Crticism

The author of the literary criticism of Benjamin Franklin is a very strange person.First of all he thinks that Franklins best literary work was his letters (Lamay) of all the things that Benjamin Franklin ever ever wrote Lamay chose his letters. How can you assess someones letters? Unless he is talking about formal business mail, which I am sure he is not exclusively talking about this. I know for one when I am talking, writing, emailing, or even texting someone that I do not write my best. When I am conferring with someone I have known for a very long time I usually tend to go faster and be less worried about mistakes. So how is it then that Lamay is able to claim that Franklin's best work was his letters. personally I believe this whole paper is a tribute to Franklin, the author made absolutely no attempt to be without opinion. I understand that everyone is going to have an opinion on everything but I also believe that as a scholer or academic that when you talk about something, someone, or anything for that mattter. In a formal paper that you opinion should not be in the paper what so ever. If you want to only focus on the historically accurate information that only paints a person in a negative or positive light you are free to do that. By all means you can choose what information you bring forth to support yourself. But do not lavish praise and explain that this or that is the absolute best according to you. I for know that for me personally I do not give a hoot about some one else's opinion. I would much rather be told the straight hard facts than listen to someone ramble about why he believes so and so was good or bad. On the lighter side I thought it was pretty cool how the author tried to relate Franklin's autobiography to the American dream. it really did help for comprehension to relate the book, which I personally have never read to something I can relate with. I mean everyone has heard stories of the American Dream and how anyone can do anything in America. It was cool to see how Ben Franklin did live the American Dream but he did not brag about or let it defin his a person, but rather used examples from when he was living the dream to further his writing or to drive a point home. Overall I thought it was a pretty cool essay thing and I thought some of the concepts were interesting. To be honest I thought the author seemed a little one sided and did not give the negative side of Franklin and talking about. Otherwise I though it was a really good essay thing and I would most likely recommend it to other people who were also interested in this sort of thing.

1.Lamay, J.A Leo. "On The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin." Blooms Literary Themes (1978). Blooms. Web. 13 Oct. 2010.

Spirit Week

Spirit week is a pretty fun thing since it is a whole big event. My favorite day is eithere 80s day or spirirt day. 80s day was really cool since veryone gt so into it. A few people went all out and spiked their hair and wore glasses and jumpsuits and stuff. Dylan robinson has been a very dedicated spirit person all of this week. During 80s days he had a pink jump suit and spike hair with glasses. Today is class color day it is one of my more boring dasys. I do not really like to dress up in a specific color and stuff. Besides i think our class color is really reeally really dumb. It is light blue like north carolina blue.The seniors got white and the sophmores got black. How jank is that. Why would our class officeres pick light northcarolina blue rather than black. Black is way way beter than blue. Besides tommorrow we are doing a black out since the seniors are doing a whiteout. How dumb is that. Black is not even our color. Juniors and seniors should always ave opposite colros since they compete the msot. Spirit week is a opretty fun thing to do and I like it. I dont know what I am going to do for spirit day. Im thinking nothing like really big but I dont know for sure what I am going to dress up as as

Having partners

Working in partners i ok. But only if you have good partners if you get stuck with a bad partner then it sucks. Like I hate working with partners for the most part since I always get a dumb partner then it s dumb to work in partners since te wole idea of partners is for both of the people to do equal work. But if you have one really good partner and one really bad partner then the good aprtner will be doing most of the work and that is not fair at all. Usually I get bqad partners whihc is why I dont like to work in partners I always end up doing the most work in the group since I am always worried that they will mess it uo and get me a bad grade. So I always end up doing it myself and ten I get mad that I had to do it myself. Sometimes group work can be good though like if you get in a group with a bunch of people who do nothing but school. Then they think you are dumb and they do it all themselves since they think that I am dummb. Then I get to do nothing which I really like to do. In general I prefer not to work in partners or group or classes or even with other species since I dont like to work in groups. If it were up to me I would either b e in a group with a bunch of people who prefer to do all of the work or I would jsut prefer to d it mself. My ultimate preference would just not doing any work t all. I really dislike doing work a a a a a and I really wanna go. Wow I need twenty some odd words to finsih this blog and then I am done with this blog for the day and I really think that I am alsmost done

Science vs Religion

Science and religion are always in contrast. In science people are always trying to prove something or trying to find concrete proof about something. Science may know something is true but they still want to be able to prove that it will always be true and under any circumstances. It is not just enough to know that the apple falls from the tree scientists want to know why thee apple falls from the tree. How fast it falls, whether it only falls under ceertain circumstances, what tiny little bugd are in the apple and so on. Religion on the other hand wants to believe in something they do not so much need to know why even though they may nt know why it is usually enough for them to believe it in their heart that their is something beyond them and something bigger and better than them. Usuallly people who are very religious find comfort that idea of something beyond this life, something bigger than them that they have to aim for with their life and the idea that their good deeds will go rewarded whether in this life or in the next. Whether or not you believe in science or you believe in religion there is a plce for both and it is not black and white one or the other. SOme people fully believe that science is the answer to everything and that everything can be explained by science. Where as some people believe that religion and fiath will get you through anything. It is more important to be a good person and I need a biunch more words blah blah blah. You should not evever allow someone to tell you what to believe and you should always decide something for yourself based on your own values and your own morals, rather than simply allowing other people to tell you what you believe or what is right or wrong. a a a a a

Puritan Exam

Organized Religion

Organized religion is a very important part of the world. Without organized religion a lot of people in the wrold would have not hope or dreams. Religion gives people hope and reasons to live. Without religion a lot of people in our world would not now what to do with their lives. Imagine a world that does not have any sort of moral ideals. There are things that are unwritten laws in the world. Be nice to people, dont kill people, help others. All of these ideas can be traced to religion, telling people that in order to be saved the people must follow certain rules and ideals. After so many years these ideals are almsot ingrained in to the head of people. If there was no religion people would have no reason to be nice or to not kill each other. The idea would be that if tyou did not get caught then it would be ok. Where as with religion the idea is even if you do not get caught their is always someone bigger than you who is watching and knows how and what you do. This person will judge you when you die and you will get your just reward.Many people do not do bad things because they think that the punishment would be worse than anything that could happen on earth. I mean what is worse, spending a life in prison on an eternity in the fiery pits of hell. In my own opinion I think religiion is a very important part of the world and without it there would be mass choas and absolute asnarchy, not from just people who feel losrt without religion iut also from people who suconcsiously would allow themselves to start doing bad things to other people and to steal and stuff.

Superstitions

There are several superstitions that I usually adhere to. The most common one that I do is eyelash wishes. The superstiton is every time you get an eyelash on your hand or anywhere you can blow it away while you make a wish. the wish will come true, that is why its called an eyelash wish. Whenever I have an eyelash i always always always make a wish on. Some are funny and others are serious. Sometimes on Fridays I will wish I do good at my football game later during the day. Though one thing I have always wondered about is whether you can cheat. Like sometimes I will have an itch in my eye so I kind of pull at my eyelashes, I usually make wishes on those but I do not know if they count. Do they become void since I pulled them out.? These sort of questions keep up at night. the other citation that I do is wishing on stars, the idea behind this superstition is that the first star that you see at night you say " star light star bright first star I see tonight I wish i may i wish i might have this wish i wish tonight." This one is something I do most nights. though sometimes you do it and then you see another star and you have to wodner whether or not your wish still counts in the long run. It is pretty hard to cheat at this superstitions since you cant really pull stars out of nowhere or make some appear before other do. Even though I occasaionally may do something like a rain dance there really are not any other kinds of superstitions I adhere to. I think ones like wearing the same. underwear for an entire season in order to win mroe often is dumb and those are about it I need like eleven more words and then this blog is done.

Blaming people or stuff that they did not do

Blaming people for stuff that they did not do is a very bad thing. When you blame people for things they did not do those people can soemetimes get in trouble for the things that they did not do. To start with no one likes to get in trouble and some times to keep from getting in toruble peopl blame what ever happened on someone else even thought hat person may not have done anything to deserve getting in trouble. When we blame other peoplefor things and stuff that they did not do we can get just get ourselves in to more trouble than we would of been in the firdt place. Causwe then we get in trouble not only froo doing something wrong but sldo for lieing about about doing something wrong then we get doubly in trouble and we have no one who we can blame it on so were up a river and we have not a single paddle in order to row with. Then the people who you blamed get really mad at you and say that it is your ebst friend and they never talk to you again, then you jsut blalmed something you did on your best friend who definately did not do the thing that you did. Now everyone who you have blamed things on hate you and you have no friends. You jsut could not get in trouble. The bottom line is you will become a bad person when you get older and you will ahve no friends and nobody will like you. So if you lie and blame stuff on other people when they did not do it you will go to jail and then some man named tiny who is giant will make you his best friend then your life is bascially over for the rest of yo life. Dan I just need sixteen more words in this blog and then I can finally be doen with the blog.

Punishments

My parents always tell me that they will take away the computer or my phone when I misbehave. Though lately it has moved from more electronic things to them threatening that they will take away my car keys and I wont be able to drive. I think taking away electronic things and privliges is a perfectly fine punishment. The idea of a punishment is to take away something that people like so that they will listen to you. When my parents were kids they got things like Tv and being outside taken away from them because that is what they did. Kids today play on the computer and sue electronic alot more than they are outside so it would make sense that as punishment they would lsoe those privliges rather than going outside or something that they do not care about as much. You will make a much bigger impact on someone if you really do not like the punishment as opposed to something that is maybe not as big of deal to you and something you can deal with no problem. When I have kids I will probably ground them from electronics rather than going outside or anything else, but it really will be what they most enjoy doing and what they do the most. So in my own opinon taking away thigns like phoens and internet and even facebook is a great punishment since that's what people do more than anything else. The main idea is to take away things that will make the biggest impact on the person who is getting in trouble. In the future even more things that we think wird will be taken away, things like games will be taken away more and more and even things like internet acces at all. Or maybe more grounding fromc ertain sites or things like that. I myself have not been grounded in quite a long time sicne Im a great kid.

Journal 3 The Tale of Being a Hostage

I think that if I were in a hostage situation I would probably be pretty scared. Like I would probably be sitting there minding my own business when all of a sudden a crazy guy would come in the door telling everyone to get down. He would be waving a gun around like the crazy guy he is. I would get on the ground and try not to get noticed. I think a lot of things would e going through my head. Or who knows I could do one of those superhuman people who like zero in on the guy with the gun. Like they block everything out but the gun, sounds and movement included. Then if I was blocking things out I would wait for the right opportunity to tackle the guy with the gun. Another situation that could be a possibility would be where they are multiple assailants and they are trying to rob a bank, then one of the guys hides in a wall for a whole week. That would be completely different since if I were to tackle on of them the others would simply kill me. What I would probably do then would be try to draw as little attention to myself as possible because the main thing the I would be worried about would be living. One thing that I do not think would happen to me is the whole having issues and flashbacks to the incident afterwords. Like how some people can not go back to normal life because they become so paranoid. I really doubt that something like that would happen to me. think I could just go back to my every day life. Who knows though we never really know how we will react to something until that thing really happens. Beng a hostage would definitely not e an easy thing on someone and no one will really know how they might react to something until it happens

There once was a Rhinoceros named Ricky, he was Ricky the Rhinoceros. Ricky was always trying to meet girls. Ricky was girl crazy and was always hanging out with some elephant bimbo or the new giraffe in town. Ricky had a very big problem though. No matter how many leaves he bought the girls or how shiny his horn was none fot he girl would ever go on a second date with ricky. This made Ricky very sad he was crying to his friend Alfred the Ape one day when Alfred finally decided to tell Ricky something he had never told him before. Alfred sat Ricky down and in a very serious tone told Ricky "Your a super duper jerk and no one likes you." Ricky was devastated, "Why"? He quietly asked. "I am always nice and I always buy people lots of stuff and I impress them with my shiny horn." Alfred told Ricky that he should go talk to all of the girls he had gone on dates with and see what they said. Ricky went to the first girl, Patty the Platypus, and asked why she did not call him back. Patty said " All you did was try and impress me with your shiny horn, you never even asked about me." After Patty told him that Ricky went to the next girl, Betty the Baboon, she said "You were so rude, all you did was talk about yourself!" Finally it began to dawn on Ricky that it was not that people did not like him or his horn for that matter but that e could not only talk about himself. Everyone want to be heard and that if he wanted people to like him more he would have to talk about them more. Later that night Ricky went on a date with Darla the Duck. Rather than talking about himself for the whole time Ricky asked her what she thought about things. He asked what she wanted to do with here life. Darla called Ricky back the next day and they went on more dates. Ricky became a better person, always placing others before himself.

Native American Culture

I know a fair amount about Native American culture. I know for instance that the Indians have lived in North America for like 20,000 since they were nomadic people who lived in Asia and decided to follow the animals that they hunted for their livelihood. As the animals migrated the nomadic tribes followed the animals to the Americas. Indians were pretty cool, they had a lot of technology that the Europeans did not have and they did not have a lot of things the Europeans did. The Indians that the Europeans met were pretty normal Indians, there were all kinds of Indians in America. In the south the Anasazi and other cool Indians were really good at farming even though they lived in like a desert area and farming was hard. They got really good at irrigation and the Europeans were surprised about how sophisticated it was. There are still a lot of Indians left alive now but there used to be more. Lots of Indians live on reserves, that is land they the government gave them for killing all the rest of them. Indians also get to have casinos now on their reservations. They have a bunch of cool laws that say they can gamble as much as they want or something since the U.S. was so mean to them a long time ago. Native American culture is pretty cool and contains a lot of fascinating things form the Cahokia mound builders to the Pueblo to the Iroquois. Native American culture has been lost to time for some time but a lot of fascinating rituals and ceremonies are still performed by the descendants today and will probably go on to fascinate people for a long time. Indians are really cool and I wish that I could learn more about them and their culture so that when I have to type another journal about them I can put a lot more cool information in it.

Summer Novels - Symbolism

This summer I read the Old Man and the Sea and Fahrenheit 451. Both of these book were chalk full of symbolism. From a fish standing for trials and tribulations to a wall-to-wall television screen representing societies indulgences. In the Old Man and the sea I felt their were a lot of symbolic meanings having to do with life. The fish's life ending, Santiago's life ending, the fight before his life ended. It really seemed to me that everything sort of came back to life and death.

In Fahrenheit 451 there was not as much symbolism but still quite a large amount of it. I got the feeling that the Firemen represented the fear and prejudices of society, rather than learning about the books and embracing them they simply burn them and hide. Something else I sort of felt the whole book was symbolic for was racism. In the same way a lot of people hated books, some people seemed to have an open mind and be willing to learn about. Others were willing to die for the books believing they were wonderful. In the end the hatred and fear killed them by destroying their life. Both these books were full of symbolism for sure and I could probably keep going but I am pretty tired right now.

My Final Blog

Well it is finally here. The long awaited long anticipated final entry. To say I have been working towards this is an understatement. After writing a lot of words about both Ray Bradburys american classic Fahrenheit 451 and Ernest Hemingway's nationally acclaimed The Old Man and The Sea I am finally on my last blog. This blog will be about why I am glad I read both of these extremely unique novels, and even though I may not have like both of them I am still happy I read it. Like I said I am glad that I took the time to read these two novels and very glad these were the two novels that I read. The Old Man and the Sea was not my personalty favorite book as I am sure any one who read my blogs can attest to. Even though I disliked it I still am glad to have read such a classic novel. When I was in preschool I was taught the expression I liked it but it is not my favorite. We were told to us this for something we disliked and it was a nicer way or saying it. So I must say I like this novel but it is not my favorite. next up is the best book to ever be put on a summer reading list. I am thoroughly glad I read this awesome book. I positively loved it as well as the message. I thought it was just such a cool book to read. I am overwhelmingly happy that I chose to read this instead of any of the other novels as I heard from several people that they were exceedingly boring and tough to read. It was the exact opposite it with this novel. It was easy as pie to read and very hard to put it down! Well that wraps it up for my blogging. It has been a very interesting experience though I think I prefer essays to blogging as they seem to be much quicker. In parting I will just say See you tomorrow.

Fahrenheit 451 - Final Thoughts

As the end of my blogging draws ever nearer I figured it would be a wonderful time to say the final thoughts I had as far as the book Fahrenheit 451 goes. In my own opinion I thought that Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was a pretty sweet book. I really loved all of the plot, the settings, all the small details and I adored the character development. This was really my kind of book, a lot of information, some action and tons of cool stuff. I must say my favorite part had to be how everything was different than one would think it would be in the future. The technology was better, the living was better but... The people were worse and more oppressed than ever. It seems like society as a whole regressed backwards towards more primitive times. Another really cool fact was how bent on figuring it all out for him self that Guy Montag seemed to be. He really understood that be self aware you can not really ask people how to do it. You mostly have to do it and deal with your mistakes as you do it. I would suggest this book to anyone who likes to red. It is really a fantastic story that can appeal to all types of people old and young. Do not take my word for it, take the millions and millions of copies in print and how loved the book is around the world. Movies have been made about it, cultural references and much more have been spawned from this gem of a book. In closing I would just like to say that this is a great book and most likely my favorite book I have ever had to read for English summer reading and I am immensely glad that I chose this rather than any of the other options which I think would have definitely not been as good as this book.

The Old Man and the Sea - Final Thoughts

Sadly, well not really sadly, this will be my last blog on the Old Man and the Sea. As after this and two other I shall be done with those fifty blogs I was assigned. Do not be sad for someday I will probably be assigned to blog about something again and I very well may come back to the old man and the sea. As for my final thoughts on the book there really is not a lot I have not already discussed but a few parting words might be... I thought this book was really really dumb and boring. I did not like the story line, the ending or the characters. I found few redeeming qualities about this book. BUT, that does not mean I would tell other people not to read it Inf act I strongly suggest that everyone reads this book. Just because I did not like it or it's message in no way means that you would not like it either. That is something you rally should find out for yourself. There is a reason this book has become so popular and that is because a lot more people like it than people who dislike the book. How knows maybe you will get something out of the book that I did not. Maybe you read it and it clearly addresses you and your own personal issues. You could instantly fall in love with the book. Even though I did not like the book I still appreciate the message that this book tried to convey. I understood and respect the message, why I may even like the message that the book tries to get across. Millions of people all over the world love this book. I know I would trust millions of people over one person any day. The choice ultimately falls to the reader. In my own opinion I would suggest you read this book and decide whether or not you like it for yourself.

Fahrenheit 451 - The Other Countries

In the story Fahrenheit 451 at one point Guy mentions the fact that his country had already been in two nuclear wars since like 2000 or something like that. What caught mt attention was the fact that there were other countries. It really got me wondering what the other countries were like. What I came up with really resemble 1984 by George Orwell. In that book there is totalitarian government that control every single part of every ones life. This government run state is always in war. They are in war with two other countries who you get the idea that they are fighting for freedom. In my own opinion I get the same feeling when reading about the other two countries that Guy's country is fighting. Would it not make sense that if there is an evil government there is probably also a good government fighting to stop the evil one? My guess is the evil government want to control more and more land and it started messing with the good governments. Finally the good governments had no choice but to declare on the evil government. Most likely they figured hey while were at it we may as well free all these people who are lied to by their government. In all probability I am reading in to this story way to much. It was probably something used by the author as simply filler. It just happened to be something that really caught my attention and I figured I could expand on it a little more as well as draw some parallels to a story I feel is very similar which is 1984. Maybe Guy's government is the good one though and the other ones are even worse than Guy's or maybe it is a best of the worst sort of situation where all the governments are bad but one is less bad than all of the others. I do not really know either way.

The Old Man and the Sea - How Manolin Reacted to Santiago Dying

In one of my previous blog I explored whether or not I believed that Santiago died at the end of the book when he came home and laid down to go to sleep. In my own opinion I really think that he did die at the end. Now I will discuss what probably happened after Santiago died. I do not think anyone would have known that Santiago died until the next morning when Manolin went to check on him and the old man did not wake up. I think the very firt thing that happened would be Manolin double checking to make sure the old guy was really gone. Then he would pull the covers over my head. Afterwards he would run off to tell his boos that he would be busy for the day taking care of this dead guy do he would not be able to come out and fish today. After that he would start to dig the grave. Slowly but surely, most likely it would take him most of the day to dig a proper grave. By the time he finally got the right size hole dug most of the fishermen on the island would have come home for the day. Almost all of them would turn up for the funeral. With Santiago being so respected especially by the older men. Even more people would have shown up when they realized that Santiago had died making the catch of a lifetime. There would be a really touching ceremony. He would get buried and then that would be that. The ending of the whole issue would be the next day. Manolin would really dramatically go to the old mans boat. He would set sail and begin fishing much like Santiago would have. Manolin would use all of Santiago's things and this would be Manolin's own certain way of keeping Santiago alive in his heart and immortalizing the old fisherman. Three More words.

The Old Man and the Sea - Santiago's Wife

In the book The Old Man and the Sea we learn something pretty interesting about Santiago. Even though he only mentions it in passing while he was monologuing he mentions that he has a wife. It is very briefly and easy to miss the quote says " He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women , nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. " Now even though he only mentions it one time and he mentions it very quickly that quote shows that Santiago had, at one time, a wife. This leaves the obvious question of where she is now. In all likelihood there are two possibilities. The first and most obvious one being the fact that she most likely died. The story did say Santiago was old so she could be dead. The second more out of the box solution has to be the idea she got fed up with him being so obsessed with fishing that she finally decided to leave him and find a better life. In my own opinion I think the first option is the more likely of the two. For several reasons, one being that Santiago seems like a family first type of guy who would never let anything come between him and his family. The other reason is the fact that he talks about her with great pride and love still. You get the feeling that he loves her still and she passed away naturally rather than hurting him by running out on him. Santiago's wife was probably very near and dear to his heart. Someone he loved unquestionably, willing to do anything for her. He probably misses her very much but believes she is in a better place now.

Fahrenheit 451 - Irony Pt 2

Welcome back to my amazingly interesting blog. I know you must have been in suspense waiting for this next installment in the Irony series. Now to our feature presentation in the Irony series. Fahrenheit 451 Irony part 2!! Last blog we explored how the first two ironies of the book had to do with people and with firemen. The next irony has to be the fact that there is a mechanical beat called the hound. Most fire houses have a dalmatian type of dog you know the kind we all knew as kids the stereotypical fire dog. well in the sorry they have a machine the call the hound in a sort of tribute to the now extinct fire dog. The real irony is that the hound differs from a real fire dog in the fact that rather than saving people like a real fire dog may the hound is made specifically for killing people. With high tech sensors that allot he contraption to keep track of 10,000 different smells at once and a hypodermic needle for killing it's prey the hound is vastly different from the average fire dog. Another glaring irony is the fact that the wall to wall television Guy's wife, Mildred, likes so much is called the family. It insinuates that technology is taking the place of the family. Something that is supposed to give us more time to be with those we love by making less work is giving us more enjoyment than other people. we are becoming recluses in to technology.Fahrenheit 451 is a short novel full or ironies and funny situations. When you are reading this book you can not help but wonder what if something like this was real and you without even thinking about it compare your life to the story. Well I hope you enjoyed my small blog series on the ironies of Fahrenheit 451 there is much much more but to much to cover while blogging.

Fahrenheit 451 - Irony

Fahrenheit 451 was a very ironic book. With tons and tons of examples all over the place, I really do not even need to explain the but I will anyway because school starts tomorrow and I still need to blog a few more times. Alright there are so many examples of irony in this book I really do not know where to start. I guess I will start with the most obvious one. That being the fact that firemen, who when we think of them are people bravely running in to burning buildings heroically saving young children and dogs alike. Now the ironic part of this story is that in the book Firemen are people who start fires. Rather than being courageous and heroic they are cowardly and agents of terror, always keeping people scared for their lives. They are the exact opposite of what we might expect a fireman to be. This is the very first little piece of irony that I personally noticed during the book. The second irony is how people have seemingly regressed backwards as far as a morality is concerned. I know whenever I think of the future I think of people smarter than me, better morally and really cool technology. In this book though people have become more and more jaded towards other people. Rather than being more humane, more perfect than those that cam before them they are less of a utopia society. That may really be the ultimate irony in this story. the fact that the one thing we believe in, progress, humans becoming better and better may not always be true. This book really uses ironies very effectively, making you think about certain things and making you think about possibilities. There quite a few other ironies in this book. I will have to cover them in my next blog as I am quickly running close tot he 325 mark for words wait for my next blog.

The Old Man and the Sea - Irony

When you first think of The Old Man and the Sea quite a few things may come to your mind. I would be willing to bet money that one of the things that you think of most likely would not be that it is an a very ironic book. Sure on the surface it is very easy to take very thing at face value. You really really really have to try in order to pick up on a few of the subtle ironies inside this book. The biggest and most glaring one is obviously the fact that even after spending so much time fighting the fish so that he could sell it. After all his work and effort, everything that Santiago had been fighting for for three whole days. Even after all that his catch of a lifetime gets eaten by sharks on the way to the shore. This is the epitome of irony. Something you work and work for, believing that once you have this thing everything will be better. All of your hard work will be worth it as soon as you have this one simple thing. Then you finally get your treasured item and you realize it is pretty cool but just ok. Finally you realize all of your hard work, all of your sweat and toil was for nothing. As you do not even like the new item much less love it the way you seemed to think you would while you were working for the object. That is exactly what happened to Santiago, he worked and worked and worked so that he could catch this thing he just knew would make everything better. Then he finally catches the fish and what happens? It gets eaten on the way to the shore. So that everything he did was for nothing. He is even worse off than he was before he hooked the giant fish. Now he is hungry, fish less and sleepy. Oh the humanity Oh the Irony!

The Old Man and the Sea - What the Water Means

I realized that I never talked about what the boat and the water mean. During the story Santiago is trying to catch an unbelievably large fish. The fish keeps dragging him further and further and further out to sea. This whole time Santiago in a rather small fishing boat. Two of these things are very important. One being the ocean, in the story the ocean is the provider for Santiago, giving him small fish to eat so he may keep his body strong enough to fight the great beast. Though at the same time the ocean or sea is also something to fear. Capable of smashing his little boat like a toy. Killing Santiago even, all this with a single wave. Santiago seems to respect the ocean and to know what it is capable of. Mainly he knows that the ocean can be a great friend or a fierce enemy. The second important thing I originally happened to over look was the boat. It was only after someone asked me what it represented that I began to think about it. Some of the things I came up with are that the boat represents home. In the swirling unknown of the ocean and even under great the pressure Santiago's home at sea is always his very own safe haven. The other thing I think the boat represents in time, at in in conjunction with the ocean moving around it. I feel like the ocean swirling around Santiago represents all the time that has passed for Santiago during his life while he was at sea. I am not positive on my interpretations of these two things and of course everyone sees things differently. These just happen to be what I believe they stand for during this novel. Perhaps people see them as something completely different. The important things is that you decide for your self and not just take some other persons opinion and say you agree.

Fahrenheit 451 - The Old Lady That Died Pt 3

So once again I find my self needing another blog to properly convey my thoughts on such an interesting topic from this book. I am surprised at how long this blog has become. The main reason the old lady makes such an impact on GUy is the simple fact of her willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for some crummy old books. Guy finds this hard to wrap his head around, in his life there is almost nothing he would be willing to give his life fore. Perhaps he might for his wife of ten years or perhaps he would not. Recent discovering that the two did not know each other nearly as well as the thought. TO make the ultimate sacrifice is the biggest thing someone can do with their life as well as the most impacting thing. A martyr will always be more popular than someone who is living and breathing like you and I. A martyr paints an almost god like persona around the person and people instantly become more interested in some thing someone would be so dedicated to. Personally there is int o a book pile big enough in the whole word that I would consider going up in flames with it. There are a few people I would be willing to die for, like five tops. But to die for something that can be remade or something that can be reinvented even is a bit to far for me. I value my own life way more highly than I value several pieces of id paper. But who knows maybe the old lady did it on purpose that way so that she could put some doubt inside the Fireman's head and were she to just simply talk to the men she would have been simply ignored with would be worse than deaht some times. I really do not think i would have done the same thing if I was in the shoes of the old woman who decided it would be better to burn with her books rather than to watch them burn

Fahrenheit 451 - The Old Lady That Died Pt 2

My earlier post was on the same subject but it had gotten to be over three hundred and twenty five words so I decided to split it into two blogs rather than just one. Any back on track. The old lady undoubtedly died in the blaze that took down the whole building. Guy becomes bothered by the simple question of why. As he begins to think about it he realizes this was not just some crazy person but it must have been something about the books. This only piques Guy's interest in books. Leading him to wonder what could possibly be so interesting in those dusty old things? The Old lady was really important in the story because she helped set Guy along the path that eventually made he realize that he had been living life completely wrong and that he wanted to change. This woman really helped to awaken his conscience almost as much as Clarisse did in the very begging. The old lady did it in not as much of a direct way as Clarisse did though. Changing Guy's opinion through actions and character rather than through words and innocence like Clarisse does. Guy realizes that something must be really important in books if people are willing to die for them. Then he realizes hat why is the government forcing them to burn books if such an amazing message could be inside something so small. Should they not be learning form these books and find out what secrets these ancient tomes hold? Guy realizes all of this thanks to the old lady who decided to die with their books rather than to see them be burned indiscriminately. I do not know how much she must have loved those books for her to die for them. There are not any things that come to mind when I think of non person objects I would be willing to die for. Continued on next blog entry.

Fahrenheit 451 - The Old Lady That Died

Right before Guy Montag goes nuts and loses it. He is about to burn down this house full of books. Walls and walls and walls of books. All of these belong to this little old lady. She is absolutely horrified he precious books are going to be burned. This is not not crazy cat lady type of person but a regular person just like you and me. But she has a ton of books. Any way shes so sad that her books are going to burn. As the Firemen spread gasoline every where and prepare to burn the house down to a crispy pile of burned paper she begins to do something very odd. Rather than running to get out of her house and save herself she pulls out a lighter. All the firemen get really nervous since there is gas every. One false move and the whole place could go up in flames with each and every one of them along with it. This is the point where the scene begins to take on the symbolic qualities that make it stand out so much in the book. The old lady tells all of the firemen to get out of the house unless they wish to die along with her and her books. At first the firemen try to reason with her. Telling her she would only be in custody for a short while and she could be back out in the world again. But she has stopped listening to reason at this point she becomes almost hysterical. I am pretty sure at one the firemen even say she an keep her book if she really wants to but she still says that they need to get out because pretty soon she is going to drop the lighter and the whole house is going to go up in flames. The firemen finally oblige with her wishes, jsut as they get out of the door the whole place goes ablaze with her inside of the old building surely dead by now.

Fahrenheit 451 - If I Were Guy

Guy Montag makes a lot of tough choices that would really stop a normal person in their tracks as far as decision making goes. So that really got me to wondering how would I react if I was in Guy's situation myself? I decided to think about it a little more here are a few I cam up with. If I were in Guy's shoe when Clarisse walked up to me I do not think I would have stopped and talked to her. I am nota big on talking with random people I do not know. I probably would have ignored her and kept walking. I may have started to listen the third or fourth day though, if she kept pestering me enough. Next up, when that old lady refused to leave her house when we had to burn it. I really do not think I could have done that. I would have had a major issue with someone willingly dieing for their books. I probably would have been forced to carry her out kicking and screaming. I just do not think I could live with myself if I allowed someone to die because I refused to act. The other decision I think would have had an issue with was pulling out all of the book in front of his wife Mildred and then again in front of all of her friends she had over to our house and reading them poetry. Man that was a dumb choice, I would like to think I would make smarter choices than that. Like maybe hiding the books and reading them when no one else is around. Definitely under no circumstances would I ever pull out my books and start reciting poetry t o my wife and her friends who already think that I have lost it. That is just a completely terrible idea and I am sure one that right after you do it you sit there and go Ooo bad idea.

Fahrenheit 451 - Alternate Ending

After I finished this book I went online to a get a few varying opinions on the book and something pretty cool I found out was that in the movie that was made about this book there is an alternate ending in which Guy finds Clarisse living with all of the Hobos. I thought that this was a pretty cool alternate ending though I am really interested in how she go there. In the story it says she got hit by a car and died. I would love to hear them explain that one. I think it would go some thing like... My uncle and I needed to trick the government so we pretended I got hit by a car and he moved away in anger. Then we came out here to live with these Hobos so that we could be happy and live in peace with nature. I think that would be pretty funny. In all seriousness though I thought that the alternate ending was a lot better than the normal one. Even though I loved the normal ending the alternate one seems to be a lot more happy than the first one. What can I say, I am a sucker for happy endings. I would still want most of the book to go the same way, especially the ending part where he remembers where him and Mildred met as I think that is a pretty stinking sweet ending to the book with just the right amount of drama and just the right amount of awesome. I do not really know how they would tie that in with the alternate ending but that would be for someone with writing skills to worry about. Something else I think would be cool is like an epilogue where it shows the group a year or two later and how everything has changed and what progress they have made in beating the mean government if any. Whether or not Faber made it to his friend who runs a printing press or whether or not he died as is probably more likely.

Fahrenheit 451 - Had Faber Not Been There

Faber was arguably the most important factor in Guy Montag deciding to rebel against his current life and against the fire station. Faber is an old man, once a prestigious professor at a university. He has now been reduced to an old hermit, just a kindly old man who does nothing but stay in his house all day reading and dreaming of revenge. Guy met him almost a year ago in a park. They had a very strange conversation in which Faber seemed to hint that he had books. It seemed almost like an invitation to a sort of underground resistance group. When Guy began to question everything around him, people, places, rules, society. He needed some one he could turn to for answers and direction. He went to Faber as a sort of instinctual way of seeking out those with more knowledge and experience. It took a while to gain Faber's trust but once he did Guy did not look back. Faber told him that he was right to want to start thinking for himself. Guy asked what he should and Faber told him the most amazing thing. Guy should do whatever he wanted, nobody can tell you how to live your life but yourself he said. Faber set Guy on to the path of thinking for him self. Rather than telling Guy how he must do it he let Guy figure it out on his own. A vitally important step to Guy deciding he wanted to live with the Hobo's. If Faber had not been there Guy may have gotten the courage to change everything he stood for. He may not have even began to question his own life and the way he was living. Faber changed the entire story for the better without him the story would have been about a guy who burned books and nothing more. Faber made everything in the story happen. Faber was vitally important to the story.

Fahrenheit 451 - Where They Met Pt 2

My other blog on this subject ran over the three hundred and twenty five mark and seeing as I need a whole lot of blogs still I shall make it two. Who knows how the fact that Guy and Mildred both forgot such an important fact could have affected his decision to change his life. In my opinion I think it greatly contributed to his change of heart. It most definitely made him realize that the person he had slept with for years was an almost stranger to him. Some one he thought he knew and loved turning out to be completely different sure can put a spark under your butt. Another really interesting sort of twist to this part of the story is at the very end of the book. While he is with the hobos Guy suddenly remembers where he and Mildred met, Chicago. I thought this was a pretty cool thing for the author to add. It signified that the reason he could not remember where they met was not because it was unimportant, but rather because he had changed as a person and so had Mildred. This sort of ended the story when he remembered. In my opinion it was a great ending to this novel. It really seemed to wrap every thing up as, in my professional opinion, it signified that Guy had gone back to what he really was. Not what everyone else thought he was or should be. Who he was as a person, what kept him at peace within himself. This is at least what I think all of the whole can not remember where they met thing represented, the fact that he was at odds with his own being. Sort of in an everlasting internal conflict with his brain on what and who he should be as a person. His heart knew what was right but his brain wanted what was best for his body and his material life.

Fahrenheit 451 - Where They Met

In the first part of Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag ask his wife, Mildred, where they met. Guy is unable to remember where they met, for a moment Mildred can not remember either. Then she decides that it really is not a very big deal and forgets about. Something about the fact he can not remember where he met his wife troubles Guy greatly. All this is during the time where Guy is beginning to think about the things that Clarisse, a young girl, has been saying. Guy is incredibly torn between the life he has known for his entire existence and the strangely interesting and different life the he feels Clarisse is offering. Guy is reluctant to go at first but as realization of how fake is life is dawn on him he feels the urge to join in with Clarisse. I think the point where he wife and him were unable to come up with where they met was of huge importance to how Guy eventually decided to change his life. Imagine, the one person you should love unconditionally and should love you back without pause or thought about it. That one person is unable to recall how you even met each other. A moment celebrated in our reality by many couples. It is not rare to see two people late in their life, possibly even close to death fondly recalling the exact day an moment they met each other. Where they were, how they met, what they said everything is clear as day to many people. So why is it then that Guy is completely at a loss for figuring out such an important thing, and his wife is at a loss for it as well. It is rather sad to read about, it seems as if Guy is realizing he barely knows the person he has lived and loved with for almost ten years. They can not even remember where they met each other. They seemingly are almost complete stranger, trophies on their respective mantles.

Fahrenheit 451 - Why Did Mildred Turn Him In Pt 2

Continued form my other blog which had reached the 325 word mark. Finally, he lets you go to bed. The next day Captain Beatty, the captain of the firemen comes to your house looking for Guy. In an almost eerie manner you feel Beatty knows that you have books in your house. Guy is absolutely terrified of Beatty now. You finally manage to convince Guy that he must go back in to work if only to show Beatty that he has nothing to hide and certainly does not own any books! You try to go on with your normal day. Doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Then when you finally feel normal again you decide that you will have some friends over to watch the family. Every one is enjoying them selves having a wonderful time. Then Guy comes home and you can immediately tell something is wrong. He seems to gives off a sort of bad vibe. Of course he instantly kills all conversation in the room. Then he really begins to act strangely beginning to yell at you and your friends. Making no comprehend able sense he then does the unthinkable. He pulls out a book and even begins to read in front of you and your friends. Reading some nonsense poetry he evens tarts screaming. All of a sudden your friends are crying, and demand they go home for the night. You stay awake that entire night wondering what happened tot he man that you married as this is obviously someone entirely different than that man. Finally you realize that there is only one thing you can do. Even though it makes you feel empty inside you realize you must turn in Guy for having books. He needs help you reason and the government can help him better than anyone else can. Finally the time comes. You pack your bags and belongings, call the fire station and report your husband has books.

Fahrenheit 451 - Why Did Mildred Turn Him In

In the book Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag is turned in for having books. Not surprising seeing as pulled a book out and started to read while his wife had guests over. The surprising and rather sad part of the whole ordeal was who turned him in. Not only did his wife's friends all call and turn him in for having books but so did his own wife. The person that is supposed to love him no matter what happens, no matter how bad the situation is or how mad one is. His own wife called the fire station, and basically sentenced Guy to life imprisonment. Obviously Guy is devastated by the fact that his wife turned him in. It is easy to say the wife is at fault and to condemn her but why don't we try looking at it from her perspective. Imagine if you can that your life is going marvelously and all is well. Then one day your husband begins to act strangely. He comes home talking about this odd young women named Clarisse, you shrug it off but he continues to act different. Finally one day he seems to have lost it. He absolutely refuses to go in to his work which he has always loved. Then he pulls out boxes of books! In your house hidden away from you! He begins to seem almost hysterical claiming that their is something important in them something you must see. You finally decide to calm his nerves and read a book with him to calm his nerves but you find nothing but words. He begins claiming they are of utmost importance and that you must at all costs read these books almost as if it is life or death. So you stay up long in to the night reading those darn books, you find nothing of importance and yet he still claims to know something important that the government is hiding is in them.

The Old Man and the Sea - Why I Didn't Like It

I personally did not like this book very much, at all. I sat in my room and read this book from front to back all in one go. It started off very interesting I mean who does not like a good fish chase? But then he catches it, the fish gets eaten bam end of story. I mean what!? The whole story just ends, no warning no nothing. There was positively no closure to it, nothing is resolved, we never find out what happens to Santiago. Nothing, just ending. I was really mad when I finished the book, I felt like I had been cheated out of the ninety minutes it took me to read the book. I remember thinking did I really just read this supposed American masterpiece or did I buy the wrong book.surely this could not be the same book that had sold millions of copies all over the world. Not the same critically acclaimed book. But sadly it was and this left me with the elephant in the room. How could anyone like this book? There is positively no character development, not single bit interesting dialog, not even one surprise in the whole book. I have no idea how so many people like this book. I thought it was downright terrible. I understand the message and how the book and everything in it is supposed to represent life and all that jazz. But still it felt like the author just got tired of writing and decided to simply end the book rather than to continue on with a normal ending. I mean he just goes to sleep, does he die, does he wake up. What happens? I will probably never understand why so many people in the world seem to like this book, which I think is a giant rip off. Maybe someday when I am older I will understand why everyone loves it but probably not since it was a dumb book.