The Conclusion.

As the year is coming to an end, I direct my attention to my Honors English blog. Before this post, I have accumulated 23 posts. Each and every one is written with a master's ability of knowledge and outstanding wording. But I did notice a slight change between every post. There is a pattern where I found that my wording became more clear, which most likely came from the many essays we had to meticulously and creatively write. Even if I didn't notice that I learned anything, my gain in thought and knowledge gained week by week and had been continuously shown in my blogs. And after reading my later works, I realized that Honors English has really improved my writing.

I knew that when I came into this class, that it will be different than any other class that I have had before. And that was proven when we started with blog assignments. My first blog that I ever posted was the first blog I ever posted for Honors English class. It was about reading, and I have to say that is is pretty crummy. But as the year went on and as the blogs got created, I got to be a pretty creative writer. I found that week by week, the blogs became easier and easier to write, and that the sounded better each and every time.

As I read over the past blogs, the memories of writing them flow back into my head. I remember all of the thought that went into my writing to make it sound original. I wanted to have my blogs radiate my personality as someone read them. But there are a few that I know are bad, shallow and are unoriginal. Those were times when I wanted sleep more than good earned credit.

Writing can only be as the the person who writes it, and when I didn't try I got lower scores. I learned from those mistakes and went on, and persevered. My Dad tells me a lot, "There's no free lunch." And when I didn't get all the points I wanted some of these blogs, I didn't complain, I went on, hoping that I will try harder when the next week came along. I saw that if I didn't try, I got exactly what I thought I would, and some of my blogs were a perfect example of not being 100%.

Essay Writing

When the school year began, I dreaded the idea of writing a full blown essay. I was not the best at being and essay writer, and I also only knew a few things about what an essay should contain. But during the course of this year, I have picked up a few tricks of the trade such as essay structure, (thanks to the Gilman Method) as well as using theme motifs and symbols to be the driving force in my writing. Thus, I will hopefully end this year being a great essay writer, and by next school year, I will be a magnificent one.

I believe that my essay has many things that I can learn about from my mistakes. If I want an A, I will need to be less redundant and have original ideas instead of dull ones. As these are the two most difficult ones for me to fix, I will need to try a little harder to think of new ways to say "fate", and to have thoughts of my own that will stand out of the crowd.

READING IS SO FUN.

My summer reading list is golden. Included in the striking assortment is Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone ( A.K.A. The Philosopher's Stone) by J.K. Rowling. If I have time I would like to read, and these two books are at the top of my list.

The reason I would like to read The Color Purple is because I heard that it is a great piece of work that is not only inspirational, but is also elusive and vivid. The reason why I want to read Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone is because I haven't read it yet. People make fun of me because I only have seen the movies.

-FATE-

I was born on August 19th, making my astrological sign the Leo. I should be a person who enjoys pushing themselves to the limit, both physically and mentally; Which I do because I am the chief. Also by what is said, I am a real go getter, and will work nearly nonstop to achieve a goal. Some bad news is that when I am older, I will become fat because I will be in love with food. And that, I admit is a fact.

I am meant to be a very productive, disciplined and realistic worker, which I really should be, and want to be, but I have to say I am a little too lazy. At times I can withhold those characteristics, but only if the tasks are important and/or short. And I would have to disagree with the myth that I am an extremely charismatic man. I wish I had all of the characteristics given to me, but being a new person would be to much for a person like myself who is not cut out to meet those high standards.

What I found in my horoscope would be me if I was a perfectionist. Of course I would love to be that kind of person, but it is just not me. In Romeo and Juliet, astrology is used constantly by the characters to show the emphasis on their emotions. The stars and sky references give perspective on how significant Romeo's feelings are for Juliet and vice versa. And coming from the dark sky of the night, are forms of fate that always comes with destiny. The stars symbolize fate in a way that also reveals love.

Culture Shock.

Romeo and Juliet started the romantic stories that we have today. All movies based on love can be reflected back to the original love stories. A great example of forbidden love is from the musical/motion picture, West Side Story, as seen in this picture.


In West Side Story, two rival gangs, Jets (American) and Sharks (Puerto Rican) are in a dead heat battle. Long story short, Tony who is a Jet, falls in love with the Shark's leader's sister, Maria and the huge controversy ends in Tony killing the shark leader Bernardo, and Tony gets gunned down by Bernaro's friend chino.

West Side Story relates to Romeo and Juliet mainly because of the forbidden love factor. In both pieces of work, there are two enemy families who disapprove on mixed relations between themselves. I see West Side Story as a modern and moderately altered version of Romeo and Juliet because of its qualities embedded into the plot.

Engrish X.C.

I guess you could call English class the bomb, or maybe even stupefying. At parts yes, the class is a place I would rather not enter, but most of the time it's fresh. I got to say I have learned more in this class than any other class. I also must say that the only thing I have not enjoyed one bit this year was memorizing and reciting a poem in front of the class. Otherwise, I have really enjoyed the class altogether. I see it that Honors English has opened new doors for me in the future, and with the final locked doors ahead of me, I am the one who embraces the key. (Can't touch this.)

G. E. Scene Skits

The skits I would like to see are:
1) When the Convict first encounters Pip in the marshes and showing how scared Pip was.

2) When Joe and Orlick fight, and Mrs. Joe and Orlick smack talk.

3) And the best part, when Mrs. Havisham Catches on fire after talking with Pip about her poor life.

Question Two.

The one thing I do not get from my readings is why Ms. Havisham pretended to be Pips benefactor. Even though her own relatives thought she was the one making Pip a gentleman, she never said anything to prove otherwise. She might being doing it because it is somewhat amusing, but it does not seem like she would get anything out of it.

Molly?

Within this week's readings, one thing I didn't get is the importance of Molly.(Jaggers' Maidservant) Her wrists are shown to e cut on page 288, when Pip is dining at Jaggers' place. "I'll show you a wrist. Molly, let them see your wrist. 'Master,' she again murmured. 'Please!' 'The last wrist was much disfigured; deeply scarred and scarred across and across." Jaggers seems very abusive to Molly, though she does not seem like she would do any wrong.

My question is, Why would this part of the story be so significant, if not much is explained about it afterwards?

This picture is a road, which represents Pips future. As seen, there is either a storm rolling through, or the sun finally breaking between the clouds. The nasty storm is seen as a bad, dark and gloomy future, while the sun represents happiness, riches and good fortune. Behind the road is the past poor village life, and looking forward, is the future, which will end up either good or bad.

Great Expectations: The First Stage

The quote refers to Pip how his actions forever got him into his situation. Just having contact with Miss Havisham altered his life forever, for she is the one who introduced Pip to Estella. She herself is the sole purpose of why he wants to change. He wants to be with her but she was trained to ruin him. He thinks if he changes, she will love him. All he wants to be is the upper class, which he is the exact opposite. And the only way he would reach that goal is to leave his past life behind him.

Today, I am who I am only because of one important day. My "chain" day started the first day of 3rd grade. Previous years before that, I went to a private school where everyone knew everyone, and all together, the school had about 50 kids. But when I came to a public school with over 500 kids, I felt overwhelmed. Everything was a change. A cafeteria, big assembly's and overfilled classrooms. That day and that year forever changed me to get used to real life. Although I was very young, I learned so much about what it was like to have changes in my Life.

The Importance of Being Earnest

My group topic is on dishonesty. Since I found out that my two partners had chosen to explain the low and high levels of lying, I decided the only thing to do was explain the importance being dishonest within the story, title, and how it develops the characters. Lies would consist of sarcasm and plain old lies. My paragraph should come first of the three because it will give ideas of the theme, which will be explained by the next two points.

Just to verify, the three points that will be in my paragraph will be how dishonest affects or is explained in the:
1.) Title
2.)Story
3.)Characters

Commentary will consist of my point of view of the story and the characters reactions. I explained what the lies mean and how they affect what is within the play.

Victorian Research

From the Victorian research, I gathered enough information to relate it to the play. One key subject I found in the research as well in the play is on the subject of marriage. Women got married young and men married a little under their middle age. Also men worked for their family and social status, while the wives did house work and looked good for their husbands. I found that in The Importance of Being Earnest, these examples are clearly shown to show the average people of the Victorian society.

In the play, Cecily is a 18 year old girl that is expecting to get married, which was not uncommon. Miss Prism tries to teach Cecily to be smart and proper, by making her study German. During the Victorian era, if a woman was smart or intelligent, she would have a better chance of being with a man of higher status. Algernon says that marriage is more business than pleasure which was mostly true after a man and woman of the Victorian age are married, which is another example of the facts of the the Victorian age and of the play.

New Year's Resolution

This year is a brand new beginning. This year I want to make sure to get all A's. I am doing good in my classes but in order to keep it up I really need to be consistent with everything. I just really need to stop procrastinating because that is my biggest problem. It seems like I do all of my homework after nine and I finish it all but not until well into the night.

Other things that I can do to get good grades is to finish as much work as possible in class, and study for tests well before test day. I really want to do good in school and make my parents proud but I must work a whole lot harder in order to achieve all of my goals. I really need to focus for the rest of the year so hopefully I will develop an actual schedule for the next three years.