Keystone Honors English 11

LIAR GLOG

2011-05-31T10:08:00.001-04:00

Just Ella Glog

2011-05-31T10:05:00.002-04:00

Again, the printer won't work, and I can't get glogster to actually put the glog on here, so here's the link:

http://footfungus.glogster.com/just-ella/

The Road Glog

2011-05-31T10:01:00.000-04:00

Printer wont work...Soooo...Heres a link.

http://taylorbest.glogster.com/the-road/

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (jordan)

2011-05-30T23:27:00.005-04:00

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

2011-05-28T22:02:00.002-04:00

GoAnimate.com: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Faith

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Corvino; CIty of Bones; (wouldn't let me print this)

2011-05-27T12:08:00.000-04:00

City of Bones, Mortal Instruments series book 1

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: Young Adult

Author’s Purpose is to Entertain

Main Conflict: Man vs. Man

Theme:

Love conquers all. This is the theme of City of Bones because throughout the story the love that is shared between the characters is what drives the action and, in many cases, what sees them safely home.

Plot:

Exposition: Clary fights with mom and she meets Jace.

Rising Action: Clary’s mom is missing, Clary fights a demon and Jace takes her to the Institute to heal.

Climax: Clary and Jace find the Mortal Cup and turn it in to Hodge, who then betrays them by summoning Valentine and giving him Jace, trapping Clary in the process.

Falling Action: Jace discovers that Clary is his sister, and Valentine his father.

Resolution: Jace rebels against his father and stays with Clary and Luke.

Main Character:

Clarissa Fray is City of Bones main character. Throughout the book she changes in that she matures and becomes stronger. During her time at the Institute she discovers who she is and what she can become. She learns about her mother’s past and all the secrets Jocelyn kept from her.

Literary Devices:

Throughout the book, Cassandra Clare uses literary devices in a way that drives the reader to finish. She takes advantage of Irony in the use of a common expression among Shadowhunters, ‘By the angel’. This is ironic because Jace uses this expression quite often, though he tells Clary that he doesn’t believe the myth that Shadowhunters are the descendants of man and angels, Nephilim. She also uses personification when speaking of the Mortal Cup. Foreshadowing plays a major role throughout the story, and gives the reader a hint of what may come at the end. Allusion is the back-story of this series in that, the events occurring in Clary and Jace’s time are the result of a cult’s plot over twenty years before, as well as, the entire Institute and the Shadowhunters themselves are supposedly descendents of man and angel, created by the Angel Raziel.

Characterization:

Cassandra Clare has created in her series a set of characters so diverse, so deep in their unique personalities, as to feel real to the readers and derive a personal and emotional connection from them. She has written both dynamic and static characters throughout the Mortal Instruments series and the prequel series, the Infernal Devices.

Five-Seven words to describe City of Bones: Suspenseful, Heart-breaking, Emotional, Thrilling, Compelling, Inner Strength, and the bond of Family

Research Paper Help from Colleges

2011-05-09T09:11:00.001-04:00

These websites offer links for any formatting or citing question you may have. Example MLA research papers also included:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocMLA.html

This website offers step by step help to create research paper:
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/mla_style.html

This website helps you create an A+ Research Paper:
http://www.aresearchguide.com/1steps.html

Sapphique Glog

2011-05-02T09:34:00.000-04:00

Poison

2011-04-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Poison by Chris Wooding
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Suspenful, Thrilling, Mysterious, Driving, Terrifying, Sick, Disturbing, Thought provoking, Ironic

Poison is a sixteen year old who is living with her little sister, her step-mother and her father in the Black Marshes. Her little sister is kidnapped by phaeries and replaced with a Changeling. Poison decides to leave her house and get her back. On her journey she finds new friends and makes many enemies, but she also discovers who she is and where she belongs.

Exposition: Posion leaves her home
Rising Action

Meets Pepercorn, Anderson, Bram and the Witch
Meets the Phaerie Lord and steals from Lady Asinastra
Meets the Hierophant
Attempts to die; everyone else begins to fade away

Climax: Poison decides to live and to write her own story
Falling Action:

The Hierophant was murdered
Lady Asinastra kills the Phaerie Lord
Poison becomes the new Hierophant

Conclusion: Poison stays in the Realm of the Hierophant.

Chris Wooding's main character, Poison, is a static character throughout the book. Before the book began, Poison had changed her name herself as a kind of rebellious act against her step-mother. From then on, Poison is her own person and she isn't afraid to show it. She remains true to her inner strength and strong beliefs throughout her journey, even when facing monsters such as the Witch, Lady Asinastra and the Phaerie Lord. In the end, she takes control of her life and of the world around her.

Wooding uses figurative language multiple times throughout Poison. Foreshadowing is used most often and with great effect. For example, Poison meets Myrrk who tells her, "You've only just set out! Do you think the Phaerie Lord will just give you your sister back? No, there have to be tests, trials, a struggle, setbacks, twists, revelations. You have to earn your sister. You haven't met half the cast yet! Mark me, you've still a long way to go."
Wooding also utilizes Irony in the book. Poison left home to find the Phaerie Lord and free her sister (Main Plot), yet she discovers at the end of the book that the young girl she passed in the first city after leaving home, was in fact her sister. (Time moves differently in the Phaerie Realm).

Man vs. Society and in the end, Man vs. Himself. Also, Poison's struggles were Man. vs. Man
The story is told in Third Person Limited p.o.v.
The Authors' Purpose is to Entertain

The Theme of Poison is about Inner Strength. Poison is a story of a young, sixteen year old girl who is trying desperately to save her sister and I think in saving her sister, she is also trying to regain that naive little girl inside herself that has been lost. Poison is confronted with challenge after challenge in the story and never falters to the point of no return. At one point in the book, Poison gives up and decides to let the world fade away because she is angry. The fact that she returned, that she didn't choose to die, shows an incredible will and strength of character. Poison refuses to let anything in her journeys defeat her or break her.

The Long Winter

2011-04-15T20:49:00.002-04:00

1. The Long Winter By: Laura Ingalls Wilder 2. Genre: historical, nonfiction 3. Fierce, unpredictable, victorious, long, anxious, chilly 4. This book is about a young girl named Laura and her family living in the late 1800’s. They have recently relocated to a new town and are beginning their new life there. However, frost and snow appear long before expected and the family, along with many others, foresee a difficult winter ahead. As a precaution, the family moves into town for the duration of the winter. Soon, the first of many blizzards strikes upon the town and as a result, the trains are unable to make it through. This leaves the town helpless and in desperate need for supplies and food. Now the only question is, will they survive till spring? 5. The theme of this book is even in the most desperate of times, never give up hope, because without hope, success is out of reach. The Ingalls family encounters many hardships throughout the winter. From the cold, the isolation, the constant fear, the limited food, wood, and other essentials, they experienced it all. However, they were always optimistic. They knew that eventually, the last snowflake would fall and spring would greet them with open arms; they knew that they would make it.6. The author uses thoughts, feelings, dialogue, and actions to reveal the book’s characters. Laura, the protagonist, is 14 and just beginning to assume the responsibilities of a woman. She is eager to help and tries to set a good example for her younger sisters, especially Carrie. Laura knows that her mother and father depend on her to hide her fears and be strong and optimistic for her. She is strong-willed and smart, and determined to fulfill her responsibilities. She is definitely a dynamic character because at the beginning of the book, she still seems to be a young girl though is starting to mature. However, with the many difficulties winter brings, she grows up much faster than imaginable. 7. In this book, the author uses a lot of personification. With the use of this literary device, she is able to make the atmosphere surrounding the Ingalls family much more real to readers. With this, she was also able to convey the idea that the weather and surrounding land had a mind of its own. One example of personification in this book is “The low ripples of softly-colored land stretched far away and the sky was gentle over them. “ Another was “The cold had crept into the front room and was sneaking in under the door.” Still another was “…winds that squealed along the eaves, split shrieking at the corners…”. 8. The main conflict in this book is the difficult winter. The Ingalls family and all of the other townspeople are in a scary situation and they must somehow find a way to make it through until spring. In this case, the conflict is man versus nature. 9. The author’s purpose for writing this book was to both entertain and inform. She was writing it about her own life experiences and probably wanted others to know what life was like back in that time. It was also a nail biting story of survival, which made it pretty entertaining. 10. This story is written using the third person limited point of view. This helps the reader(s) to better understand how, in this case, the protagonist/author felt/feels about the whole ordeal. One can better understand that person’s viewpoints on things and can better understand why they do the things that they do.

City of Fallen Angels

2011-04-15T13:41:00.005-04:00

1. City of Fallen Angels
Book four in the Mortal Instruments series
By Cassandra Clare

2. Supernatural Fiction

3. hysterical, entertaining, action packed, amazing, addicting

4. City of Fallen Angels, the fourth book in the Mortal Instruments series, tells the story of Clary Fray and her friends. Clary is training to be a Shadowhunter-a person with human and angel blood whose job it is to protect mankind from demons- while at the same time trying to find out why her boyfriend Jace is pulling away from her. Clary's vampire friend Simon is trying to discover why mysterious people are following him. It is found that Jace pulling away and Simon's stalker situation are connected, and Clary is left desperately trying to fix what she learns she has set in motion.

Introduction- Simon is summoned to talk to Madame Camille Belcourt, an ancient vampire. She wants his help to take over the New York group of vampires because Simon is a Daylighter- meaning he can stand to be outside in the sunlight. She tells him he has five days to think about it, and that as much as he might try to be human he is a vampire.
Simon's friend Clary also tells the story, with the book switching back and forth between knowing her thoughts and his. Clary is busy with helping her mother plan her wedding to Luke and training to be a Shadowhunter, all the while trying to deal with the feeling that her boyfriend Jace is pulling away from her.

Rising Action- Simon is trying to decide whether or not he should accept Camille's offer. His mom discovers he is a vampire so he leaves home and moves in with Jordan, a new member of his band. Meanwhile a few Shadowhunter bodies have been found in Downworld territory. (Downworlders are werewolves, vampires, warlocks, etc.) The Shadowhunters are trying to solve the mystery of who is doing it, and they decide that whoever it is is trying to pit Downworlders and Shadowhunters against each other. Simon is walking down the street one day when he is attacked. In the previous book, Clary had drawn the Mark of Cain on Simon to save his life- but the Mark came with Cain's curse. Anyone who tries to hurt Simon will receive God's revenge sevenfold, so the man attacking Simon dies and turns into salt.
Jace reveals to Clary that he has been having bad dreams tormenting him at night, so Clary takes him to the Silent Brothers, who are very wise. The Brothers discover that on a previous adventure Jace had died, and an Angel gave Clary one wish. she wished that Jace would be alive again, and Clary and Jace never told anyone about it. When he "died", Jace's body had exited and re-entered his body, leaving him without the protection from demons he had received in a ceremony as a child. That night Jace is attacked again in his dreams and he is given the mark of Lillith, the oldest demon alive and the first wife of Adam who had been cast out of the Garden of Eden.

Climax- Jace, now under Lillith's control, kidnaps Clary and drags her to meet up with Lillith. At the same time Simon is lured to the same location. Lillith reveals her plan to have Simon bite her dead son, Jonathan, and then give him Simon's blood, so that Jonathan can live. She says that Jace has to be there, because for a person of the Dark to be brought back to life a person of the Light had to be brought back to life also- which Jace had already been brought back to life- and present for the second rebirth.

Falling Action- Clary manages to deform the Mark that Lillith had given Jace, destroying her control over him. They get into a big fight that goes back and forth. Lillith tries to harm Clary and Simon jumps between them. The Mark of Cain triggers from Lillith hitting Simon and a huge ray of light comes down and Lillith becomes salt. Everyone thinks they are now safe and that things will go back to normal.

Resolution- Jace, who had been left in the room with Jonathan's body while the others contacted the other Shadowhunters, is shocked when Lillith's mark on his chest reforms. He watches as Jonathan wakes up and Jonathan tells him that though Lillith is dead, he has her blood in his veins, and therefore he has her power. Jace is brainwashed by Jonathan, and the book ends.

5. The theme of this book is that actions have consequences that effect not just you but everyone. Clary set everything in motion by choosing to bring Jace back to life when the Angel granted her one wish. If she had told someone about it, then the Silent Brothers could have done a ceremony to give Jace another wall of protection. That would have eliminated Lillith's ability to take control of Jace, which would have kept all of those bad events from happening.

6. the main characters are dynamic. Clary learns that every action she makes has a consequence and that she needs to think things through before making decisions. She changes in the story and grows as a person. Simon is also a dynamic character. He goes from thinking that he can ignore the fact that he is a vampire and be human, to accepting that he is a vampire but that that doesn't mean he has to be a monster. Both characters are relatable and likable.

7. The author uses a lot of foreshadowing. When Simon is attacked you know that whoever is doing it is going to get killed. Also a lot of the small details point to the eventual outcome of the book.
Imagery is also used a lot. The author describes things in detail and it is easy to get mental pictures in your head.

8. Man Vs. Man is the main type of conflict in the book. Clary, Jace, and Simon are fighting against Lillian so that she can't kill them and bring her son back to life.

9. The author's purpose is to entertain. She created this fantastic story world that the reader can just disappear into, purely for the purpose of enjoyment. She isn't trying to inform the reader of anything or to persuade them.

10. The book is written in omniscent point of view. This enhanced the book because in order to understand the book it had to be told by different characters. i was able to understand what was going on with the different characters and what was happening in their heads.

Cryer's Cross

2011-04-15T07:50:00.005-04:00

1.) Cryer's Cross

Lisa McMann

2.)Fiction

3.) 5 words: Adventurous, Mysterious, Old-fashioned, Heart-breaking, Memorable

4.) 1. Tiffany Quinn goes missing.

2. Marlena and Jacian move to town.

3. Nico goes missing.

4. Kendall notices new writing on a desk.

5. Nico's and Tiffany's bodies were found because of the desk, and the desk got burnt.

When Tiffany Quinn goes missing the small town of Cryer's Cross freaks out. Two friends Kendall and Nico also find this very strange, and when Nico goes missing, too, then Kendall starts investigating. Kendall has OCD, so she knows everything about her classroom at school. She discovers that on the desk that Nico and Tiffany had both sat at, that there was new writing on the desk that said "Save Me", and that is when she decides to sit in it for herself. When she does she finds herself tranced and ended up finding Tiffany's and Nico's bodies.

5.) The theme of this book is not to give in to anything. Since Nico and Tiffany gave in to the voice they ended up losing their lives!

6.) The author chooses to portray Kendall as a person with OCD. Which makes the character fit just right. Kendall is the protagonist in this book, but she is not a dynamic character because she sticks to her morales and herself the whole book.

7.) A literary device that the author uses is foreshadowing. This is shown whenever something big is about to happen because the author uses something little right before it does. Such as, when Kendall touches the desk and hears the voice of Nico, this unravels to her finding the bodies.

8.) The main conflict in this book is that Tiffany and Nico are missing. It is a man vs. nature conflict, also. The reason being because these two people had to face a freak nature accident, and did not get saved before it was too late.

9.) The author's purpose in this book is to entertain. It would not be anything else because she is just writing about something that people would be want to get excited over because it is not true, but it has the entertainment to be true. She takes you on a journey the whole way through the book.

10.) The point of view used in this book is First Person Point of View. From using First Point of View it helps the reader become connected with the story better. Since Kendall is telling the story, the reader is able to know how Kendall's mind works and what drives her to do the things she does. This certainly the best choice to be where the point of view is coming from!

Willow

2011-04-15T06:38:00.002-04:00

Willow
Julia Hoban
Young Adult
1.) Emotional
2.) Intense
3.) Grief
4.) Pain
5.) Love

When Willow's paernts die in a car accident she believes to be her fault, she must move in with her older brother and his family. Feeling as if she's an inconvience to David and as if he blames her for their parents' death, she turns to cutting. Willow sinks further and further into depression when she meets a boy named Guy who could possibly be her saving grace.

Exposition: We are introduced to Willow as she sits in class and contemplates her situation, we are also given some background on her, and "witness" her cutting for the first time in the book (this isn't the actual first time).
Rising Action: While Willow is working in the Library, she meets Guy and they begin their odd relationship.
Climax: Willow and Guy return to the crash site and her childhood home.
Falling Action: Willow and David sit down and begin to reconstruct their relationship.
Resolution: We see that Willow is recovering and has found friends in Guy's friends.

Allusion is used frequently in the book by talking about certain places and things which gives the reader something to identify with. Flashbacks are also used quite a bit when Willow recalls memories of her family and friends, and of the accident that took her parents' lives.

The theme of the book would be that no matter how terrible life seems, there is always someone out there who can help.

The main conflict of the book is Willow trying to overcome her depression and addiction to cutting with the help out there.

The story is told in third-person-limited, conveying Willow's thoughts and feelings. Written in this way, the reader can connect with her and feel what she is feeling, and yet be able to picture her and her surroundings.

The Joy Luck Club

2011-04-14T22:44:00.000-04:00

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Novel / fiction / postmodern
Narrative, story-telling, capturing, enticing, enriching, heart-felt, long, entirely worth it
Four mothers, four daughters, sixteen relate-able stories: these are the contents of the novel The Joy Luck Club. The Chinese immigrant mothers come from varying backgrounds, and came to America with hopes of something outstanding for their daughters. The daughters, pressured by their mothers to be something they aren't, have become unstable and reminiscent. This novel is the story of their lives, from their points of view.

Exposition- This is the first two sections: Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, and The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates. In these two sections we learn about all of the mothers, and all of the daughters, respectively. This section of the daughters' explains their childhood stories.
Rising Action- This would be the third section, American Translation. In this section, the daughters explain their adult problems. Their marriages that are falling apart, their loss of self-image, and their determination to disregard their mothers' advice is all mentioned here. This would also be most of the fourth section, Queen Mother of the Western Skies. Here the mothers realize that their daughters are not what they thought they were. Each one is different and unexpected in their own way.
Climax- This is when June Woo travels to China and teaches her unknown step-sisters about their now dead mother.
Falling Action- This would be when June's father explains his side of her mother's story to her. It wraps up every loose end we have in the story, and is a nice conclusion.
Resolution- This is when June brings her sisters back to America. Together, they realize that their mother lives on through them. It is a very heart-warming ending to an enriching story.

The theme that I gathered from this book was to embrace cultural differences. The mothers and the daughters differ a great deal. Other than having different first languages, they have different beliefs, morals, and views of family. Through all these differences though, the mother-daughter relationships stay intact. They found a way to bridge the cultural gap, and make their relationships work. They used their differences to strengthen their bond. We should all learn from this and embrace this philosophy.
Amy Tan utilizes characterization through characters. We learn a lot about family members through the story telling of the women of the novel. Though each character is relatively equally represented, June is most definitely our protagonist. She is a dynamic character because she starts a confused girl, who doesn't really understand her place in the world, or her mother. Yet, by the end, June has become an incredible young woman who has learned the hardships and joys of her mother's multi-cultural life.
Amy Tan uses quite a bit of foreshadowing in this book. My favorites is when she chooses to do it through Chinese sayings. At one point, Lena's marriage is falling out from under her. Her mother is coming over though, so she makes an attempt to make everything seem normal. However, in her mother's bedroom there is a table that Harold made in high school. It's heavy, lopsided, and unable to carry any weight that is placed on top of it. The only thing it will hold is a thin black vase. When Lena's mother tries to place her handbag on the table, Lena mentions that it isn't too sturdy. Lena's mother looks her straight in the eye and says, " What use for? You put something else on top, everything fall down. Chunwang chihan." This is her mother's way of foreshadowing the end of their already unstable relationship. Things like this are thought provoking, and occur multiple times throughout the story. These keep the story moving, and make the reader hunger for more of the addicting story-telling.
The main conflict is woman vs honor. June is struggling to maintain the memory of her mother, and knows that she must go and meet her mystery sisters to maintain her mother's honor. Even through June is terrified of this journey, she knows she must go through with it for her mother. This is a mainly internal conflict, though it can be considered an external conflict if you view honor as pressure from her mother's peers.
The author's purpose is to entertain. These characters (as far as I know) are entirely fictional. They are made vague enough to be considered relate-able by large audiences, but are not real. This enables the author to entertain lots of people who are looking for a heart-warming story of generations of Americans. It's entertaining in a soul-fulfilling kind of way.
I like to describe the point of view of The Joy Luck Club as being an omnipresent stream of conscience. You get to follow the lives of these eight incredible women through what reads like their journals. It makes you feel as if you've been privileged with their thoughts and histories. It's a very satisfying way to experience a book like this. Others describe it as being a 'story-telling' point of view. This is also a very accurate explanation.

I must admit, I've had this book on my shelf for years and thought it would be a stupid read. I never gave it the time of day. Then TayBe did that excellent presentation of The Rules of the Game, and I was hooked. It sounded really good, so I picked the book up for the first time. I never put it down. I would literally read entire sections, of 100 pages, at a time. I strongly recommend this book.

The Secret Garden

2011-04-14T19:43:00.005-04:00

1. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 2. genre: Romance; coming of age 3. magical, magnificent imagery, childish, strange, moody 4. After young Mary, an orphaned child from India, moves to her wealthy uncle's house, mysterious things and magic start to occur. While board at home one day, Mary goes for a venture in the gardens where she find the Secret Garden. After many times of hearing strange cries Mary discovers an equivalent character to herself; her cousin Colin. The magic these two find helps the world we live in come alive. This is a story of a young mistress and her cousin's coming alive as their secret world unfolds and comes alive as well. Exposition: Mary is introduced as a spoiled child of wealthy people living in India. Mary is also orphaned at this point and moves to Misselthwaite with her wealthy uncle. Rising Action: Mary finds her secret garden and her cousin Colin. Mary also meets Dickon and he helps Colin conquer his fear of illness and dying. The main struggle is keeping their secret to themselves. Climax: Colin feels strong enough to stand on his own and he walks in the garden. Falling Action: Dickon, Mary, and Colin start to let others in on their secret and Colin is trying to gain strength to impress his father. Resolution: Master Craven comes home full of life and not his usual dismal self. He realizes the improvements in his son and in himself. 5. There is magic in all aspects of life. I also think that the theme everybody dies, but not everybody lives could also be an appropriate theme. 6. Mary an orphaned 10-year-old moves in with her wealthy uncle and she is not too fond of her current situation. Throughout the book Mary tries to keep her secret life and garden only to those she cares for. As she discovers the magical world around her, she herself starts to change. Mary starts the book as a sickly, "most disagreeable-looking child ever seen," had a thin face, thin hair and a sour expression. But the author's choice of characterization of Mary changes throughout the book. As the story progresses Mary, once stubborn and selfish changes into a kind, light-hearted, healthy looking girl with thick hair and a round face. Therefore the author's characterization creates the dynamic qualities of Mary. This also holds true for Colin. Colin is a fearful, sickly, ill-tempered, selfish, and hysterical boy who changes throughout the story along with Mary. 7. One main literary device in this novel is the secret garden itself. The secret garden itself is symbolism for life; as the garden starts to grow and blossom into something wonderful so do Mary and Colin. The garden is also symbolism for all of the magic that occurs in this world. The redbreasted robin is also symbolism for Mary's befriending Colin. Mary first befriends the robin a wild creature which correlates to Mary becoming friends with Colin, who also acts as if he is a wild creature. Foreshadowing is another element used in this book. It occurs when Mary first goes to Misselthwaite and starts to befriend Ben Weatherstaff we can get a glimpse into the true relationships to come. 8. The main conflict in this story is man vs. self and man vs. society; Colin vs. Colin and Colin vs. society. Colin struggles with himself because of his feelings of dying and his low self-esteem. The conflict of Colin vs. society is when society is pushing him down and telling him he isn't going to live and how he won't be successful in life. 9. The Author's purpose is to entertain. The author does this by writing bits of romance, humor, and and lots of elements of conflict and the wonders of childhood magic. 10. The point of view of this story is third person limited. The effect this has on the book is by giving the reader the viewpoint of all the kids in the story and we get to see the true childhood qualities coming from the main characters.

The Catcher in the Rye

2011-04-14T19:27:00.002-04:00

By: J.D. Salinger

2. Genre: Realistic Fiction

3. Angst, Cynical, Troubling, Vulgar, Non-Conforming, Gloomy

4. After getting kicked out of yet another school, Holden Caulfield decides to take a trip before he has to be home and tell his family that he was kicked out again. His trip takes him to New York where he encounters a wide variety of people, from prostitutes and pimps, to old friends, to drug dealers, to beautiful women in bars. We get inside of his head and start to understand how he views the world and the people in it while he continues on his trip through New York.

Exposition: Holden gets kicked out of Pencey Prep, and he starts to explain his life and the people in it.
Rising Action: Holden travels to New York City and has his encounter with Sunny, the prostitute, and her pimp, Maurice. Holden also goes to many bars and gets a glimpse of the world and the people in it. He deicdes to sneak back into his own home to see his sister.
Climax: Holden tells his sister that he is going to move out west where he will start a new life.
Falling Action: His sister becomes angry at him for wanting to leave, and ignores him, which has a deep impact on him.
Resolution: Holden decides to stay rather then move away, and realizes he has to accept growing up and the pains of the world.

5. The theme of The Catcher in the Rye would be that everyone eventually has to accept the world and their lives, rather then run from it. Through out of the book, Holden is criticizing adulthood, comparing it to falling off a cliff and calling adults "phonies". He tries desperatly to not have to step into the mature world, and doesn't want to give up childhood and the sense of innocence. Holden also wants to help children keep their innocence by becoming the "catcher in the rye" and saving the children as the run through he fields of rye (childhood) and catching them before they fall of the cliff (adulthood).

6. Holden Caulfield is a dynamic character, but it is a very subtle change, compared to the usual dynamic character you would find in a novel. He gradually starts to realize that the way he constantly judges people is wrong and feels guilty about it, and he also accepts maturity and adulthood by the end of the book. Holden Caulfield's character is a very cynical and bitter person, viewing the world as a bunch of liars, phonies, and low lifes. He isolates himself from the world around him, and that allows the reader to really get into his head and see the world the way he sees it in his angst filled mind.

7. One literary device that was used over and over in this novel was irony. An example of irony from The Catcher in the Rye is when Holden is constantly referring to people as “phonies”. One line from the novel says “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies.” Then throughout the book, Holden often deceives people by making up different identities and coming up with extravagant life stories to tell people. I found it ironic that while he criticized people for being “phonies”, he went out of his way to be fake. The irony used in this book gave Holden Caulfield a deeper character, because we as the reader can catch the subtle traits of his character, whether they are good or bad.

8. The main conflict of The Catcher in the Rye would be Holden's refusal to grow up and accept the world. This would be a good example of man vs society, because Holden doesn't want to conform to society's ways and become an adult, who are fake and lifeless.

9. The author's purpose in writing this book was to allow the reader to see the world in a different way. Even though the way he portrays the world is a very cynical and sarcastic way, we still get a different perspective of everyone and everything by seeing how Holden Caulfield views the world.

10. This story is written through a first person point of view, where Holden Caulfield is narrating the story and we only get his view of the world. This point of view only allows for the reader to see Holden's opinions, so as the reader, you get a deep connection to him, since you know all of his thoughts.

Cat's Cradle

2011-04-13T20:26:00.003-04:00

1. Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut

2. Historical Fiction

3. strange, confusing, uninteresting, random, and different

4. John, the narrator, sets out to write a story about one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. While trying to write the story he somehow manages to become the next president of San Lorenzo and his life completely changes.

Exposition: John decides he is going to write a story about the day the atomic bomb was droped.

Rising Action: John meets with Newt Hoenikker, son of Felix Hoenikker, who is one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. Then he travels to Ilium where the Hoenikker family lived during world war 2. Here he hears about the solution to mud Felix came up with for the troops,ice nine. Later John is hired to write an article about Julian Castle, who lives in San Lorenzo.

Climax: John is named the new president of San Lorenzo because the current president has cancer and his successor doesn't want the job.

Falling Action: John is summoned into presidency while the late president has been killed by ice-nine.

Resolution: A plane crashes into the cliff where the castle stands causing a land slide and all the ice-nine that was in the castle falls into the ocean. All the the water of the world freezes within seconds and John survives long enough to write his book "Cat's Cradle".

5. The theme of this book is be careful of the things you invent, for if they are put to wrong use they become dangerously powerful.

6. The author chose John as the protagonist because he had a purpose in life. He went out to tell someone elses story but ended up with a story of his own. He pushed the plot forward and made surprising things happen. No he is not a dynamic character his thoughts and views pretty much stay the same.

7. "The doctor's pupils were a yard in diameter," is and example of hyperbole. An example of a simile would be "Her lips bloomed like a spring flower."

8. The main conflict of the story is to use the ice-nine or to not use it. This could be either man verses self or man verses society.

9. The authors purpose is to entertain because this was just a story about World War 2 events there was no persuastion in the text. The story also wasn't giving information the events were made up.

10. The story was told through first person point of view. The reader got to know John and his thoughts real well. I got to feel like I was going through Johns experiences with him and not feel detached.

The Great Gatsby

2011-04-13T19:34:00.001-04:00

1.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2.) Genre: Romance, Fiction
3.) Colorful, suspenseful, intriguing, romantic, realistic, strange

4.) Nick Carraway has just moved to West Egg, Long Island in the 1920s to get away from the west. Little did he know the he would get caught up in the confusion of his neighbor’s and cousin’s love affair.

5.) Love can make you do strange and/or desperate things. This is shown when Gatsby takes the fall for Daisy, Gatsby moving to be close to Daisy and throwing grand parties in hope that one day she might come to one, and even changing himself for her approval.

6.) The author chose to make Nick Carraway, the protagonist, the narrator of a story that didn’t really involve him. He’s the one telling us what happened between Daisy and Gatsby and relating the story to us, the audience. Nick is a guy who doesn’t like to get involved in situations that don’t concern him, but he does care about doing what he thinks is right and helping others out. He is a dynamic character because Gatsby changes the way he looks at life.

7.) Fitzgerald uses dramatic irony frequently in the book. It’s most prevalent when Mrs. Wilson is hit by a car and the characters hear about the accident, but they don’t know who was injured. Tom gets excited, but when he finds out it was his mistress, he gets very angry. Fitzgerald uses a lot of figurative language to describe Gatsby’s parties and his guests. It plays into the 1920s era very well.

8.) Man vs Man: Gatsby and Tom basically fight over Daisy and Tom wins.

9.) The author’s purpose is to entertain. The author is just telling a tragic story about love and loss. He’s not trying to convince or inform you of anything.

10.) The story is told from Nick’s point of view, so that means it’s in 1st Person. It gives the story a more realistic touch and makes you think it actually happened to someone once upon a time.

Exposition: The audience learns about Nick and his past while also getting a touch of his strange and mysterious neighbor, Gatsby.

Rising Action: Gatsby’s parties, meeting Gatsby himself, Nick helps Gatsby talk to Daisy and they meet, Gatsby meets Tom and confronts him.

Climax: Daisy runs over Tom’s mistress, Mrs. Wilson.

Falling Action: Gatsby dies, Daisy leaves, Gatsby’s father comes over to his house, Gatsby’s funeral.

Resolution: Nick reflects on all that has happened and decided to move back west.

A Clockwork Orange

2011-04-12T21:47:00.009-04:00

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Adventure, Philosophical genre

This book can be described as disturbing, shocking, blatant, disgusting, frightening, and wrong.

Summary: Alex, a crime-loving teenager, spends every night out with his friends doing illegal acts. Alex is the leader of his "droogs" for years, but they eventually turn on him and he's arrested for murder. He is then released from prison early because of a new program that "cures" his want for violence, but the result of the program ends up hurting him more than helping him. Exposition: The story begins with Alex's history, his description of himself and what he does, and an insight into his friends. Rising Action: Alex's friends lead him to be arrested, he's sent to jail, "cured" and released. Climax: When Alex can't function in society any longer, he forces himself to commit suicide, only to fail. Falling action: The doctors then bring Alex back from his "cured" behavior, which leads to his ability to function again. Resolution: Alex then gets the people to side with him in believing the jail's process of making violence seem horrible is very wrong.

The theme for this book is that all bad things can' t be taken away from someone, or else they fear life itself. Alex had everything that was considered by doctors as "bad" removed from his thoughts, leaving him afraid of everything in the world around him and even himself. People can't live happily or sanely being taught that they can't posses bad or cruel thoughts or actions.

The author chooses to express Alex's feelings through an invented language. When he speaks to others, he uses a rough, kind of rhyming scheme to create his character. He's seen by others as a leader in crime, but eventually the author chooses to change the way other characters interact with Alex. The others start to treat him badly and almost mock him in the middle of the book. I suppose that Alex is the protagonist, and he is a dynamic character who gets reversed to become what he started as. He changes into a violence-fearing, forgiving, and caring young man after he's "cured," but he is instantly changed back to the horrid, terroristic boy he began as.

The author chooses a TON of onomatopoeias to let the listener understand what Alex is hearing. He describes coughing, laughing, and a variety of sounds throughout the book, so that the reader can relate to Alex. For example, I remember him saying "Bam bam bam," but I don't remember what it was for!!! The author uses the atmosphere literary device to set the mood and tone for the streets, the prison, and the various houses he's in. For instance, he describes a basement full of meowing cats in a nice, rich looking home; this provides a way for the reader to connect and visualize Alex' s situations.

The main conflict is man versus society. Alex has been stripped of his right to make his own decisions when he was "cured." The doctors have made it impossible for him, and soon to be more, violent inmates to make choices based on what they, themselves want. The conflict is Alex vs. the government, because they brainwashed and ruined his mind.

The author's purpose is to entertain. He wanted to create a thrilling, psychologically troubled story that left readers thinking. He wasn't informing or persuading, but just writing to make a reader interested and enlightened.

The point of view is in first person, but it's very close to being stream of consciousness. The author only ever gives Alex's thoughts, and never exact dialog either. The author only gives a one-sided story that leaves the reader with one interpretation of the situation: Alex's. It's very interesting.

glogster

2011-04-09T10:02:00.000-04:00

Beastly

2011-03-22T23:33:00.001-04:00

Glogster

2011-03-21T22:46:00.001-04:00

Corvino (2)

2011-03-21T21:14:00.002-04:00

Corvino

2011-03-21T21:10:00.005-04:00

Glogster

2011-03-21T20:54:00.001-04:00

The Sea Wolf Glog

2011-03-21T18:52:00.002-04:00

http://samelectron.glogster.com/false/

Glogs

2011-03-20T21:55:00.002-04:00

Fried Green Tomatoes

http://jwiant.glogster.com/fried-green-tomatoes/

The Hunger Games

http://jwiant.glogster.com/the-hunger-games/

Fahrenheit 451 Glog

2011-03-20T21:43:00.001-04:00

http://taylorbest.glogster.com/fahrenheit-451/

The Great Gatsby Glog

2011-03-20T21:37:00.004-04:00

http://taylorbest.glogster.com/the-great-gats/

Because I don't know how to embed the actual glog to the blog like you guys. So you'll have to click the links.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Glog

2011-03-19T23:27:00.000-04:00

Dracula Glog

2011-03-19T23:19:00.000-04:00

BONUS POINTS-2 ways to earn them:)

2011-03-16T13:55:00.000-04:00

1. Buy a copy or download to your e-reader Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer by March 23. You will earn 10 bonus points for the 3rd quarter!!! If you purchase it by March 28, the 10 points will go on the 4th quarter.

2. Sign up for the ELEM reading program with Mrs. Tharan (former Spanish/French room) by Friday, March 21st. Earn 5 points PER session (6 sessions/ Tues and Thurs/starting March 22). Potential to earn 5 points for 3rd quarter and 25 for the 4th quarter, based on Mrs. Tharan's evaluation of your participation.

Tangerine Glog

2011-03-07T23:04:00.001-05:00

Daughter of the Drow

2011-02-21T00:03:00.002-05:00

Title: Daughter of the Drow
Author: Elaine Cunningham (American)
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
FORGOTTEN REALMS, Starlight & Shadows Series Book 1
Five to Seven words that I would use to describe this book are, Tragic, Appealing, Compassionate, Gruesome, Inspiring and Revealing.

The Plot is centered around a magical necklace, a charm, called the Windwalker. The main character, Liriel, is a young Drow (a young dark elf). Her skin is pitch black, her hair stark-white and her eyes are a unique amber color. Liriel is around the age of forty at the beginning of this story, compared to human age, she would be around my age, around eightteen. She wishes for more than her underground city of Menzoberranzan can offer her. "Beautiful as she is deadly, Liriel Baenre flits through the shadows of Menzoberranzan, city of the dark elves. Amid treachery and murder that are the drow's daily fare, she feels something calling to her... something beyond this dusky world far removed from the sun." The book begins with a Prelude that introduces the reader to the dark elves' world, "There is a world where elves dance beneath the stars, where the footsteps of humanfolk trace restless paths in ever-widening circles. There is an adventure to be had in this land, and magic enough to lure seekers and dreamers with a thousand secrets. Here there are wonders enough and more to fill a dragon's lifetime, and most who live in this world are content with the challenges life brings. A few, however, remember the night-told stories that terrified and delighted them as children, and they seek out the whispered tales and grim warnings so they may disregard them. Intrepid or foolish, these hearty souls venture into forbidden places deep beneath the lands of their birth. Those who survive tell of another, even more wondrous, land, a dark and alien world woven from the fabric of dreams- and of nightmares. This is the Underdark."
"Life in the dark elves' city has always been dominated by the worship of Lolth -the drow goddess of chaos- and by her constant striving for power and position... Echoes of their common elven heritage can be seen... Yet no surface-dwelling elf could walk among her dark cousins without feeling horror, and earning a swift and terrible death. For the drow... have been twisted by centuries of hatred and isolation into a macabre parody of their elven forebears. Stunning achievement and chilling atrocity: this is Menzoberranzan."
Fyodor, another major character in Daughter of the Drow, of Rashemen helps Liriel on her journey. "But Fyodor was at home with the harsh climate. This was his land, and he had spent all of his nineteen winters within its borders. Rashemen was written in the broad, chisled planes of his face, the straight dark hair the color of bare-limbed trees, and his winter-pale skin. Fyodor was a strong man, stocky and just a bit short of six feet. He was also a simple man; he traveled clad in layers of warm, sturdy peasant clothes and a practical cloak of dark wool. His only weapons were a blunt, roughly hammered sword of some dark metal and a three-foot cudgel fashioned from light, rock-hard driftwood. He used the drift-wood club now as a staff, plunging it into the snow again and again as he hauled himself up the hill."
Fyodor had been sent away from his people because of his unstable nature, “By some quirk of fate, a stray bit of magic broke free and lodged itself in young Fyodor. He had become a natural berserker, able to enter an incredible battle frenzy at will. At first his new skill had been hailed as a godsend, and when the Tuigan horde had swept in from the eastern steppes Fyodor stood beside his berserker brothers and fought with unmatched ferocity.” Now, Fyodor was traveling to find a fabled amulet. “It was a simple trinket, a tiny golden dagger, not more than three inches long, hanging from a thin chain. The dagger’s sheath was carved with runes from some long-dead language, and the metal was worn and darkened with age… The Witches had made no promises, but they had suggested this ancient amulet might be the key to Fyodor’s release.” Upon discovering this amulet, Fyodor comes upon a drow party battling Gnolls, "...tall, dog-headed warriors clad only in their own furry hides." Fyodor attempts to remain impassive to the battle and to remain hidden, but his curse overtakes him. "'No,' Fyodor whispered. 'Not again, not now.' He struggled against the rising tide of heat and fury, but it was too late and he knew it... Then the battle rage took him."
Fyodor fights the gnolls, until the house of the Red Wizard begins attacking the drow. "Like a crazed chicken, the hut chased the dark elves around the clearing, kicking and scratching... The human charged in... Two blows, and the hut began to stagger. Three, and the leg gave way. The hut wobbled, then toppled to the ground. It rolled several times and came to rest on its thatched roof, lying feet-upward and looking very much like a dead, one-legged bird. Then, to Nisstyre's horror, the hut simply faded away." Nisstyre is a merciless, evil drow wizard. Upon seeing the hut full of magical treasures that he had been stalking, he entraps Fyodor in ice and leaves him to die, stealing the amulet in the process. Fyodor's battle rage, however, melts the ice after the drow have left and the battle-lust wears off of him.
Meanwhile, Liriel is planning a trip to the surface; this will be her first time in the Lands Above. "Only one day, Liriel thought grimly as she lashed her supplies into the long, barrel-shaped craft. The life she knew would end in just one day." In the Underdark, her only friends are a two-headed dragon, named Zz'Pzora, or Zip as Liriel fondly calls her. "Liriel stood absolutely still as the deep dragon stalked toward her. Both of its sharp-fanged maws dripped with hunry anticipation... The two-headed beast began to circle Liriel... The head on the right wore an expression of weary resignation, the one on the left a sly if slightly dim-witted smile... 'Small, she is,' chirped the smiling dragon head... 'Hardly big enough to bother sharing...' ...'Don't be such a dolt,' snapped the right-sided head... 'We go through this ridiculous game every time she comes. It's getting old. Eat the drow or don't, and have done with it!' 'Hello, Zz'Pzora,' Liriel said, addressing both heads and holding out her hands to show she held no weapons. 'I've brought you the usual goodies.'"
Zz'Pzora's right head is more level-headed than her more flighty twin, however, both prove throughout the series to be true friends to Liriel, even if all three remain unsure of the limits of that friendship.
Liriel is a stubborn, daring character. She does what she wants, when she wants and thrives on breaking the rules. However, she has many deep-seeded believes of what has to be and of what cannot be, rather than a true sense of right or wrong. "She pointed the rounded prow at the opening and then threw herself facedown into the boat. The craft tipped and then shot down into the tunnel, falling rapidly and gaining speed by the moment. Liriel seized the guide ropes and used the paddles to nudge and bump her way through the twisting tunnel... The roar of water soon became deafening as the flow grew deeper and faster... Then, suddenly, the tunnel was gone. Water flowed in from a dozen similar passages and converged into a white-water river of astonishing speed and fury... Wild, exultant laughter burst from Liriel and was snatched away by the rush of wind and water. Few of her friends enjoyed this sport- it provided little opportunity for intrigue, and there were merely survivors, not winners- but Liriel loved every wet, bruising moment."
Fyodor at this point is pursueing Nisstyre into the Underdark to take back the amulet. He and Liriel meet for the first time. "She had never been this close to a human. Curious, she crept closer. This one was young, about her own age as humans reckon time, or perhaps just a bit older... The human was designed backward, dark where she was light, like some inverted mirror." When Liriel sees Fyodor fighting deepbats she decides, for no real reason, to help him. She throws her knifes and together, they defeat them. Afterwards, Liriel decides to take him as her slave. "'I want to learn more about the surface,' Liriel said frankly. 'Knowledge is a good thing,' he agreed, 'and certainly no man could wish for a more beautiful mistress. But no man or woman of Rashemen lives as slave to another.' Liriel lifted a sinlge white brow. 'Perhaps you'll start a trend.' 'Perhaps not.' he said mildly, but Liriel saw the flash of anger in his blue eyes and she tensed in preparation." They fight, Liriel won, and they started off toward the city, him as her new slave. When they stop to rest later, Fyodor tells Liriel of a story about a man helping a wolf and the wolf then betraying the man. It is a story much like the scorpion and the frog that we all know of today. The moral of his story is, 'Old favors are soon forgotten.' So, although Liriel saved him from the deepbats, Fyodor tricks Liriel with some oil and, setting it on fire with a touch, manages to escape her. "A slow, admiring smile spread across her face. The blue-eyed human had shown rare cunning. He'd played a good trick on her, one she would long remember."
Liriel continues returning to the surface to meet up with strange drow females. They live above ground. They also worship a different goddess, Eilistraee. Liriel also learns of an ancient people called the Rus, who write a unique magic involving the use of Runes, created by spellcasters to use as they wish. Liriel hopes to find this place, to use this magic as a possible solution to keeping her magic above ground. Upon speaking with Qilue', one of the surface drow, Liriel learns of a magic amulet. "...the amulet will store magic from places of power, but only temporarily... But legend suggests the Windwalker can make such powers permanent." Liriel realizes that the amulet Fyodor was seeking may have been the Windwalker. "If the amulet Fyodor sought was indeed the Windwalker, then this ancient device was somewhere in the Underdark." She decides that if she can find this amulet and store her magic in it, then she would be able to live on the surface.
Liriel meets up with Nisstyre and gains the amulet, mainly because he does not know its power, and wishes to win her to his cause. She studies it to see if she can infuse it with her magic. Liriel uses Zz'Pzora's help to obtain a special rock. With it, Liriel belives she create and invoke her own Rune and bind her magic inside the amulet. However, her aunt and her father have discovered that she is holding an artifact that can take drow magic to the surface and scheme to take it from her, to use it to their benefit. Liriel has also made another enemy at Arach-Tinilith, a part of the Academy, where Priestesses of Lolth are trained, as well as others. This enemy is Shakti. Shakti forms an alliance with Nisstyre. She wants the amulet Liriel carries, and Liriel dead. He, meanwhile, acquires a novice in his worship of the god, Vhaeraun, and an informant of the followers of Lolth. Liriel finds that she did have another loyal friend in Mezoberranzan, her teacher, Kharza. He forces her to flee out a magical gate, to save her life after Nisstyre tries and fails to talk Kharza into killing Liriel and taking the amulet. Nisstyre kills Kharza after Liriel has fled.
Fyodor, is still in the Underdark, looking for the amulet, which he still believes Nisstyre to have. He meets up with Nisstyre and his gang out in the tunnels of the Underdark and, after going into a berserker rage and killing a few drow, he manages to escape. On the surface now, the two of them, they meet up again when, Liriel asleep in a cave hears the sounds of battle, with Fyodor, the center of the comotion. He is fighting a mated pair of quaggoth fighters. Once more, together they defeat their attackers. They make a truce to help each other, but Liriel quickly breaks it. She had planned to steal the amulet from Fyodor and run off whenever he was no longer useful, but surprisingly the way that Nisstyre gains back the amulet is because Liriel lied to save Fyodor's life.
In the end, Liriel kills Nisstyre and Fyodor kills Pharx, a male dragon whom Nisstyre hid the amulet among its gold horde. With Zz'Pzora's help, Fyodor was able to slay him and recover the amulet. Sadly, Zz'Pzora died. Eilistraee's followers also helped the Fyodor and Liriel recover it as, they hate Nisstyre and consider Liriel a friend now. In the end, to stop Fyodor being consumed by his battle rage, Liriel traps his berserker magic in the amulet, giving up her drow magic. Liriel is not saddened by this, she simply moves on to travelling to an ancient tree in the land of the Rus, where she will carve her Rune and gain her magic. Fyodor decides to go with her. "But what pleased him most of all was the knowledge that their journey together was just beginning."

The Theme of this book is about Finding Yourself, and discoving who and what you want to be. For Liriel this quest, meeting new people who hold different beliefs than she has ever encountered and discoving true friends, as well as losing a few, forces her to look deep within herself for these answers. In this story, she found a fragile love in Fyodor, and because of her ways, she lost it temporarily. Now, she must discover who she is if she ever wishes to find a place for herself on the surface. She undertook a journey that all young people, whatever race, must undertake, and she survived.

Elaine Cunningham uses many examples of literary devices in this book, many examples are in the quotes I have already used above. Allusion, to this world's earlier history was used multiple times, as well as many, many uses of detailed imagery. Cunningham also takes advantage of the use of metaphors and of irony. The fact that Fyodor told the story with the moral, 'Old favors are soon forgotten', before he tricked Liriel to escape, is an example of irony.

Fahrenheit 451

2011-02-20T21:21:00.002-05:00

1. Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury

2. Science fiction

3. interesting, thought-provoking, futuristic, out-there, deep, amazing

4. The book begins with Guy Montag, the main character of the book, burning down a house because it has books in it. Owning books is against the law in this futuristic society. Guy Montag is a fireman, and it is his job to help burn any books that are discovered. On his way home from burning the books, he runs into his seventeen year old neighbor Clarisse McClellan, who is standing on the street. She seems very odd to him, and he notices a strange light in her- shes different somehow. He goes inside to his house and kicks an empty pill bottle, one that should have been full, and upon looking at his wife, Mildred, he realizes she overdosed. He calls for help and two men come to the house and get the bad stuff out of her body. The next morning she does not recall what she had done and refuses to believe that she had done it. He heads to work and again bumps into Clarisse. She remarks that he is different from the other firefighters, that he doesn't seem like he should be one for some reason. When he reaches work, he has a run in with the Mechanical Hound (a metal machine of the firefighters) and makes a statement to Beatty, the fire chief, that he thinks the Hound doesn't like him. Beatty tells him that this is impossible, the hound doesn't like nor dislike anyone. Over the next several days, Montag looks forward to his encounters with Clarisse and enjoys talking to her. And then suddenly she is gone, and he is left wondering what had happened to her. At work again, he and the other firefighters have to go burn another house for having books. The old woman there decides she would rather die with her books than leave, and this is what she does, though Montag tries to save her. This leaves Montag shaken up; he goes home and to bed. While at the house he had burned, he had taken a Bible, and brings it home and shoves it under his pillow. Laying in bed, he finally starts to question his life. He feels like he is somehow separate from his life, and from his wife, that he does not know his wife at all. He realizes that he cannot even recall where the two of them had met, and when he asks Mildred, she cannot recall either. He remembers when she had overdosed and nearly died, when he had realized that if she had died he would not have cried, and he starts to cry at the knowledge that he wouldn't cry at death. He realizes that he is empty, and so is Mildred. He asks Mildred about Clarisse, and she lets him know that she had been killed by a speeding car a few days ago. When he woke up the next morning, he is sick. He has a conversation with Mildred, and tells her that there must be something amazing in books that would make a woman be willing to be burnt with them. He tells her that he had realized that behind each book he had ever burned there was a man who had put a lot of time and thought into writing it, and he had been coming along and destroying it. Captain Beatty shows up at the house and they have a conversation. He tells Montag that sooner or later every fireman goes through this, and he is going to tell Montag the history of firemen. He explains that growing technology made everything go so fast, everyone just wanted the snap ending, books were shortened. Life was immediate, pleasure was what mattered after work, there was no need for learning anything besides pressing buttons and pulling switches. There was a problem with minorities; this book stepped on this minorities' toes, etc, and everyone was afraid of offending someone, and this made the books boring. People stopped reading. Books were burned so that everyone was the same; that way the few people who did want to read couldn't, and the majority of people who did not read did not have to feel inferior to the people who did read. Beatty leaves, and Montag decides to read several books that he had stolen and hidden away. He reveals this to Mildred, and she is not happy about this, but she agrees to read with him. He recalls meeting this man called Faber, who he had once caught reading, and decides he wants to meet with him, to see if he can help explain the books to him. He visits Faber, who tells him it is not books that he is looking for, but the elements that were once in books. They come up with a plot to print books and plant them in peoples houses, to start a rebellion of sorts.
Faber gives him a microphone to put in his ear that he can talk into and hear Faber's voice through. He returns home and two of Mildred's friends arrive, and what they say set him off to the point of him reading a poem to them. They are not happy at all and neither is Mildred. The friends leave, and Montag hides the books outside in the garden, to prevent Mildred from burning them. Montag goes to the fire station. The bell rings and they head to the place they are supposed to burn; it is Montag's house. Mildred runs out and gets into a taxi, and Montag realizes that she had moved the books back inside and pulled the alarm on him. Beatty makes Montag burn his own house, and precedes to verbally berate him. Montag gets a hold of a flamethrower and burns Beatty to death, and then he starts to run toward Faber's house. The Mechanical Hound almost gets him and manages to get the needle of anesthetic into his leg before Montag kills the Hound too. Montag makes his way to Faber's house, and learns that there is another hound that has been let loose on his trail. Montag manages to get to the river, and he realizes that the chase had gone away from the river and back towards the city. He gets out of the river and follows the railroad tracks until he meets up with fellow men like him. They mentally store books in their head, hoping that one day it will be of use to the world, at the conclusion of the war that has just been declared. He sees on their tv that the police had killed another man in his place to save face with the city. They watch as jets move in toward the city and it is completely destroyed with a bomb.

5. I think that the major theme of this book is censorship. We can't allow ourselves to let the government control what we can and cannot read, and we cannot allow history to be destroyed- and we cannot let ourselves get to the point that no one notices or cares. We need to remember and realize the power and importance of books, we need to realize the value of them. Because without them, the world would become a place that we would not like or recognize. Also, freedom to speak our minds without being terrified of offending someone is important. If we are constantly afraid of offending someone, things that need to be said, written, and expressed never will be.

6. Guy Montag is an interesting and dynamic character. He goes from living an empty life to realizing the emptiness of it, and making steps to fill the void that he sees in his life. You can follow his thought processes and understand what he his feeling, and the confusion this world he his living in is creating for him. He is trying to fix what is wrong in his life and with the world, and it is frustrating him that he doesn't quite know what to do to accomplish this. The author clearly shows his internal struggle, as he realizes that the life he had been living was empty and desires the knowledge he his seeking within books.

7. The author uses many symbols and some foreshadowing. One symbol he uses is a dandelion. At the beginning of the story Clarisse holds a dandelion under Montag's chin and when there is no mark under it, she makes a comment about him not being in love with anyone. Montag denies this, but later realizes Clarisse was right- he doesn't love Mildred, he hardly knows her because there are walls between them. Another symbol is a sieve; Montag remembered as a child trying to fill one with sand only to have it constantly drain out, and he says that his mind feels like that when he is on the subway, when he is trying to absorb the Bible he is reading into his mind but he cannot seem to retain any of it. A third symbol is fire; at the beginning of the story it is a weapon of destruction and Montag does not see fire as serving any other purpose, but later in the book he realizes that fire can be used to warm too, without destruction.
The author uses foreshadowing as well. One example is that before we realize that Montag has hidden books, he makes reference toward something being behind the ventilator shaft, and this is in association with guilt. It wasn't a big jump to infer that he must have books hidden behind there. Another form of foreshadowing was when Montag mentions that he feels that the Mechanical Hound does not like him and has it out for him. The Hound very nearly ends up killing him, and a second Hound kills another man in Montag's place.

Faithful

2011-02-20T20:37:00.004-05:00

Title: Faithful
Author: Janet Fox
Genre: historical fiction, coming of age, romance
Describing words: mysterious, imaginative, questioning, adventurous, determined, deserted, amazing

This book begins in Newport, a very wealthy town located in New England in the year 1904. Margaret Bennett is a 16 year old girl who is just about to start the most important time in her young life. The next few months will essentially determine what her future holds for her. She is in the beginnings of planning her debut, her introduction into society, when her father plans a trip out west. He tells her that the purpose of the trip is to find her mother, who has been missing for nearly a year and is thought to be dead. However, Margaret does not believe that she is dead and she also believes her father does, too. From her memories, Margaret reveals her dissappointment, struggles, and fear of her mother. Everyone in Newport thought her to be mad. Margaret (Maggie) hopes that by going out west and bringing back her mother "cured" will show everyone that her mother is not mad and neither is she, for she is often said to be very like her mother. However, upon leaving home, Maggie is disturbed by a reaction made by her maid and is not sure what it is about. Upon arriving in Yellowstone National Park, their destination, Maggie's father reveals that he is broke and they are going to make Yellowstone their new home. At first, Maggie is horrified and feels betrayed and that her whole life has been ruined. So far, the only thing that she has liked about this strange place is Tom, the son of a geologist who is only a few years older than herself. Tom loves Yellowstone: all of the animals, the sights, its wonders, and its mysteries. Overwhelmingly drawn to him, Maggie tries to see the Yellowstone the same as he does, and begins to fall under its spell. She begins to question what it is that she really wants out of life, and recalls a letter that her mother wrote to her right before she dissappered. She is torn between the life that shes always known and a chance at a life that she could never have imagined. However, her fantasies are soon interrupted by the wealthy, powerful, though horrible and appalling George Graybull. Her father then makes it clear to Maggie that George Graybull is interested in courting her and is essential for securing not only her own future, but her father's as well. Maggie, though forced to endure this horrid man, takes any chance to escape reality. Tom is enough to help her to forget all of her troubles and see the good in her situation and Mrs. Gale, a park photographer, helps Maggie discover a vast new window of opportunities for her. Not long after arriving at Yellowstone, Maggie wrote a letter to her grandfather, telling him of her situation. His answer comes, telling her that he intends to fetch her at once. However, Maggie's sighting of a young girl and her assurance that her mother is still out there somewhere causes her to send a reply telling him to wait, for she believes that there are secrets that she must discover about her mother and her father's reason for coming here, of all places. An opportunity arises for her to get away from her father and Graybull, and she rides away on "The Tour" with her friend, Mrs. Gale. While on The Tour, the party encounters some highway robbers and they are forced to surrender their most precious belongings to them. They try to take her mother's cameo, but Maggie will not give it up. The man looks as though her recognises her, and then allowes her to keep the cameo. After this incident, the party heads off to Lake Hotel, the place where Maggie can find her uncle, and hopefully the answers that she so desperately wishes to aquire. At the Lake Hotel, she finds her uncle and demands that he tells her all that he knows about her mother and father. He then tells her the whole story of her mother's kidnapping back when Maggie was just a baby, and all of the rumors about her having fallen in love with her captor. There was even a rumor about a child, a child that her father believes is his and is searching for. Now the whole thing makes sense. After her discovery, she meets again the young girl who reminds her so much of someone. Kula was now a worker at the hotel. After having spoken to her, Maggie asks that she come and work as her maid and companion (at the expense of her now fiancee, Graybull). Not long after, the party leaves to finish their tour of the park, and disaster strikes again. Mrs. Gale, trying to take a photograph, slips and tumbles down a cliff. Kula hurries to the rescue while Maggie, paralyzed by her fear of heights, cannot muster the courage to go to her friend's aid. After this, Mrs. Gale is unable to continue with her work and asks Maggie to finish it for her. Maggie accepts and heads out again for the wilderness. There, she meets Tom once more and he joins Maggie, her father, and their driver. This time was a wonderful time for Maggie, who is finally deciding what she wants for her life and is taking the first steps towards that life. However, on their journey back down Mount. Washburn, they encounter a grizzly. After a failed attempt to calm the horses, the wagon topples down, down, down over the mountainside. Maggie, for the most part unharmed, rushes to the rescue of her friends. She finds Tom, hurt and weak and then Bill, their driver, dead. One of the two horses is dead and the other, hurt though thankfully, not lame. Then she discovers her father, pinned underneath the wagon and badly hurt. Any attempt to move the wagon would only hurt him more and would probably send the wagon off the edge of the cliff. Maggie has no choice but to ride for help. She rides for hours until she discovers smoke from a campfire and then meets the same highway robbers that she had met before. Then is when she finally puts the final pieces into the puzzle. The man who tried to take her mother's cameo was her mother's captor all of those years ago, the man that she had loved. Kula was this man's daughter, her half sister. After some time, Maggie convinces the robbers to go with her to her father's aid. When the arrive at the scene, the grizzly is back and they cannot approach the wagon until it has gone. Maggie fears that he may go over to her father, trapped and helpless, but he eventually leaves and they go and get her father out. He is unconcious, badly hurt, and in need of immediate medical attention. They then return to the robber's camp and then head to the nearest doctor, arriving there late in the night. For the next few weeks, Maggie stays with her father as he recuperates. She has finally made the decision to take control of her life, and gets rid of Graybull first. Then, everything seems to fall into place. She is ready to take on the challenges and uncertainty of the life that she has chosen.

I think that there are several themes that can be assigned to this book. One is that life will not always turn out the way that you expect. Another, fear is the unknown and uncertainty of a situation. Anyone can conquer their fears if only they face it and discover it for what it really is. Another would be to always fight for what you believe in, despite the consequences.

Maggie is definately the protagonist of this book, and she is a very, very dynamic character. Throughout the novel, she changes from being a wealthy, stuck up girl who is bound to a certain destiny to a poorer girl who discovers a higher purpose in life. Now she is granted her freedom and her life will be unpredictable, even difficult at times. However, she is no longer scared and ready to take on life. The author does a very good job of describing her character to the readers by making known her thoughts and situation to the readers.

The author uses a lot of imagery in this book. How else would she be able to depict the look and feel of Yellowstone and the feelings of the characters? One example is, "I know a place on this Earth that contains wonders enough to stop the breath. A place where the very rocks whisper and whine, where the rivers boil and the snow-studded peaks thrust into a bowl of blue; where gret shaggy beasts press the earth with cloven hooves or threaten with claw and fang; where new life and lurking death coexist in the shallows of varicolored pools." Another, "Old Faithful thundered before us. I felt the tremor under my feet, and a spray of warm water dappled my face. Steam swirled in the air around us; the wind whipped my hair into a banner.", and another, "The trail wound closer and closer to the cliff's edge-I could feel it-until we emerged at the head of a gully." There was so much imagery in this book that finding these examples was a matter of opening to random pages and reading the first thing I saw.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

2011-02-20T20:29:00.000-05:00

This Fannie Flagg novel is a beautiful work of fiction, and I would recommend it to all of you. It has an absolutely addictive story line and beautiful character development. I would describe this book as being heart-warming, heart-breaking (yes, both of them), inspirational, relatable, hilarious, and emotional.

When we enter this story, we are at a nursing home. Evelyn has come because her husband wants to visit his mother. However, she finds these visits boring, and walks down to the visitor center to eat her candy bars in peace. Mrs. Threadgoode, an 85 year old woman, sits there with her, and begins a conversation. Actually, its more of a giant monologue, because Evelyn tries her hardest not to respond to the endless chatter that comes from Mrs. Threadgoode's mouth. She does listen though, and we are launched into the charming stories of 1930's Whistle Stop, Alabama. We learn about Idgie, a stubborn, independent tomboy who is a prominent figure in the town. We learn about Smokey, and Stump, and Ruth: Idgie's loyal friend, adopted son, and lover. Buddy is spoken of in the earlier parts of the book, before he was run over by a train well before he reached his prime. There is a black family who lives in Troutville that we also follow throughout the book. Sipsey's son Big George, and his wife Onzell, have several kids that befriend Stump. Artis and Jasper are twins, and we follow them throughout their lives simply because they are so different.
Through all this we also learn about Evelyn, her personal insecurities, and how she learns to overcome them. We also see Mrs. Threadgoode and Evelyn become the greatest of friends.

The theme of this exquisite book, in my opinion, is to just be yourself. Evelyn struggles through a lot of the book with her weight and self image. In some of the first chapters we are told that she openly thinks about suicide, and knows exactly how she would do it. Mrs. Threadgoode tries to straighten her out by telling her that a lot of these thoughts are associated with the menopause she is going through though, and eventually Evelyn starts looking forward to at least her Sunday visits with her new found friend. We also see how the stories of Idgie's boldness and prevalence in society influence Evelyn to be more proactive. She creates an alter-ego Towanda, who is an Amazon-woman type figure. When bad things happen to Evelyn, she imagines being Towanda and beating the offender to a pulp. Towanda becomes her personal defender of justice and righter of wrongs. However, this is not the true Evelyn, and she doesn't feel completely happy until she goes to a black church and discovers the joy in natural life. Once Evelyn learns to be herself, she becomes a productive, cheerful woman who sees her life as having half left, instead of being half gone. Evelyn is most definitely a dynamic character.
Buddy Jr (Stump) also learns to be himself. He finds himself not able to do many things after a horrible train accident that takes most of his one arm. He can't play with double guns like the other boys. He's afraid to let himself love because he's afraid of having sex. He doesn't think he'll be able to maintain his balance. Idgie refuses to let him think pitiful thoughts about himself though, and does everything in her power to show him how much he is really worth, physically disabled or not. Through Idgie's lessons Stump learns to be himself, and becomes not only Whistle Stop's best shot with a rifle, but the high school's star quarterback.

This wonderful story's protagonist would be our lovely Mrs. Evelyn Couch. She is a very troubled woman when we first meet her. In our first encounter with her history, we learn that she tried to be the good girl in school. She never smoked, drank, or had sex. She married a nice man and did everything that he told her to. She wasn't happy though. She never understood the pleasures of sex; she only did it to please her husband. She didn't like childbirth, even after seeing the baby. She hated how Ed (her husband) told her to leave her kids alone, and not raise them with the endless amounts of love she wanted to. It disturbed her that her daughter was smoking marijuana and having sex and fifteen, but she didn't know what she could do to stop it. All these things taught her that, even though she had been a 'good girl' in her teenage years, it did nothing but make her miserable during her adult life.
We learn a lot about Evelyn through direct stories of her life. A lot of the characters of Whistle Stop are revealed to us through stories of others, but Evelyn's characterization is flat out told to us. I think this is interesting, and it might have been done to bring special attention to her character.

Our author uses a lot of figurative language in this book. You see a lot of hyperboles because Idgie is so good at telling tall tales. Once, she told her hobo friend Smokey that a flock of geese flew off with a lake frozen to their feet! These hyperboles are hilarious and very refreshing. Sometimes they are used as a sort of comic relief, because this story has a lot of serious chapters in between the funny ones. We also see similes and metaphors in this novel. Once, Flagg describes the circus elephant Miz Fancy with a simile. She wrote "She took the peanuts from the little girl, one at a time, as gently as a gloved woman getting a dime out of a change purse." I like this example in particular because it's not only a very good simile, but an excellent use of imagery. Personification is also used in Fried Green Tomatoes. They describe Evelyn's release from her emotional struggle as being like a heavy burden flying away.
Most of this figurative language is used to describe stories of Whistle Stop life, but some of it is used to describe Evelyn's change of heart and perception. I believe this is the author's purpose, to teach us to change for the better, to be ourselves.

I would recommend this excellent book to ALL of you, and I, personally, can not wait to go and find the movie on Netflix!

Be More Chill

2011-02-20T20:11:00.001-05:00

Be More Chill

Ned Vizzini

Young Adult, Comedy

1.Confused
2.Unstable
3.Longing
4.Crazy
5.Metamorphosis

The book begins in the point of view of obvious outcast Jeremy Heere. He talks about the two popular girls around him in math class who only talk about all the hot gossip and he introduces us to his love interest Christine. As the day goes on we learn more about Jeremy and his unhappiness he feels being in the social position he’s in. at play rehearsal, Jeremy is cast as Lysander and Christine is cast as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During the read thorough Jeremy tries to talk to her, which he succeeds in, but the conversation ends in disaster when he accidentally offends her. As things go worse and worse for Jeremy’s social standings he struggles to find an answer, which comes in the form of one of the “cool kids” Rich. Rich tells Jeremy about a life changing swallow able supercomputer called a SQUIP. The squip is essentially a voice in your head that tells you how to be cool. Rich tells Jeremy where to get one and Jeremy begins his quest to “be more chill”.
Jeremy finally gets enough money to pay for his squip and immediately sets off to get it. Once paid for and swallowed the squip begins to communicate with Jeremy. First order of business: get new clothes, second: chat up some girls. Though Jeremy scores with the girls, he begins to lose his best friend Michael, much to the squip’s delight. As Jeremy’s status goes up his friendship with Michael goes down. Jeremy convinces the squip to let him bring Michael to a huge party though to get there, he must “borrow” his mother’s car. When they get there Jeremy looses Michael within the first five minutes and hooks up with one of the most popular girls in school Chloe. Chloe gives Jeremy ecstasy and he begins to trip badly. Brock, Chloe’s boyfriend, comes after Jeremy and in a panic, Jeremy turns on the squip, who distinctly told Jeremy not to turn him on while in this state, begins to speak Spanish. With no help from the squip, Jeremy evades Brock and ends up passed out on a couch.
Jeremy is woken up by Christine to see that the party is basically over. The living room only consists of him, Christine, Chloe, Brock (who have since gotten back together and forgiven Jeremy), and Rich (who has become somewhat of Jeremy’s friend). They all joke around in friendly banter until Jeremy’s squip turns back on. The squip informs Jeremy that he should go home so Christine and he go on a search for Michael. They find him in an upstairs bathroom with a girl sleeping in a bathtub. Feeling good, Jeremy gathers up his friends and takes them home. On the way, a bunch of fire trucks pass them, but they all get home safe. Before he goes to bed, the squip informs him that there was a fire at the house where the party was held, badly burning Rich and Jake (Christine’s ex-boyfriend).
In the morning the squip reveals a new plan to win Christine and Jeremy happily agrees. The school is in turmoil and as a result there’s only one showing of the play. At the play the squip’s plan is revealed, in the middle of the play, Jeremy will stop and talk about the tragedy of the fire, then will ask Christine out and kiss her. Of course this plan epically fails and Jeremy gets kicked out of the rest of the play on top of loosing Christine. The squip tells Jeremy that it is unstable and needs to be shut down. Before Jeremy shuts it down, he has the squip do a data dump in the form of a book to give to Christine in a final attempt to win her back. This is how the book ends.

The theme of this book would have to be above all that you don’t have to change to be happy. Jeremy had Christine before the squip, and he lost her because of it.

Jeremy is your average teenage boy, focused on getting girls and having a good time. Jeremy is definitely a dynamic character as he changes dramatically with the installation of the squip. Ned Vizzini right off the bat begins to describe Jeremy as having brown hair with a ton of dandruff, and being a quiet reserved kid. He also tells most of the story through Jeremy’s thoughts to give us a better view of how Jeremy and the squip interact.

Ned Vizzini uses a lot of literary devices throughout the book, the most prevalent being alliteration. There are references made to icons like Eminem, Keanu Reeves (the voice of the squip), Weezer, popular clothing stores, a Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Star Wars, just to name a few. Foreshadowing is also used when Rich tells Jeremy of the squip. Onomatopoeia is also used a lot when the director of the play talks (he likes to use a lot of “maaas” and “laaas”).

A Million Little Pieces

2011-02-20T16:50:00.004-05:00

Author: James Frey
Genre: Fictional Autobiography

Five words that describe this book would be powerful, realistic, emotional, self-reliance, and sympathetic.

The story begins with the main character, James, waking up on a plane not knowing where he is or where he is going. He has various injuries including a hole in his cheek, and dental problems, but he also doesn’t remember how he got into this condition. Soon he arrives in Chicago, where he meets up with his parents who are there to pick him up. The next day his parents check him into a rehab center, because he is very involved and addicted to drugs, has a heavy drinking problem, and has a history in crime. In the rehab clinic, he is forced off of drugs pretty much cold turkey for detoxification, and is given minimum medical drugs to help with the pain of a root canal. Part of the rehabilitation includes therapy, both physical and mental. While his physical therapy is often painful due to the side effects of withdrawal from the drugs and his root canal, James still finds the physical aspect easier then the mental and emotional therapy he has to undergo. The twelve step program is practiced almost religiously by the patients there, but James refuses to accept it. He has a problem with the aspect of God and religion in the twelve steps, and doesn’t want to rely on a higher power in order to recover, because he would rather rely on himself. He is often getting into fights with the doctors and therapists of the clinic, because of his reluctance to accept the twelve step program. James also doesn’t want to think of his drug and alcohol problem as an illness or disease, because he believes he can overcome it with will power if he believes in himself. Aside from the twelve step program issues, he is enrolled in the clinic’s family therapy, which he is reluctant to go to. This is maybe one of the most emotions parts of the story, as we get to see into James’ past and see the pain he has put his family through. While he is trying to find himself and overcome his problems, he develops a close relationship with two people, Lily and Leonard. He meets Lily while getting medicine one day, and they had a very powerful connection from the start. Their relationship grows while they sneak out at night to see each other, and soon they find themselves much closer then friends. His closest friend in the clinic is Leonard, who James often has deep conversations with, and Leonard had stopped James from running away from the clinic. At one point Lily runs away from the clinic to see her grandma before she dies, and James follows her knowing that she will not be able to stay off of drugs. After searching for her for a couple days, he finds her in a crack house. James takes her back to the clinic, where she once again has to go through detoxification. James’ recovery starts to speed up though because of his views on self reliance and willpower. When he goes to leave the clinic, James and Leonard have another deep talk, and Leonard assumes a father figure for James. The last scene in the book is James being picked up by his brother, and going to a bar. James bravely orders a glass of alcohol for a test of his willpower, and to see if he truly has recovered. James is able to pour the alcohol down the drain, showing that he is no longer a slave to alcohol or drugs.

The theme of this book is that you can overcome any obstacle if you believe in yourself. James chooses a different path for recovery that involves completely blaming himself for his addiction, and therefore he relies on himself to overcome it. He knows he will die if he starts to use drugs again, and that is enough of a motivation to keep him going through with his detoxification and therapies. His willpower was the most powerful element in his recovery, and it outweighed the constant want for alcohol and drugs. This creates the theme that you can overcome obstacles if you believe in yourself.

James is a very dynamic character, and is seen as the protagonist against his addiction, which is seen as the antagonist. He is one of the most dynamic characters in any story I have ever read. He completely changes himself in the rehab clinic, almost like he goes through a metamorphosis. James’ different views on recovery and the path he needs to follow in order to recover, shows his stubbornness, but it also shows that he is strong for being able to recover with almost no help. James is a character that shows the willpower people have within themselves, and how people are capable of overcoming the worst of addictions and circumstances. His characterization is that of an almost real life super hero. James is able to go through so much pain, recovery, and self discovery, while also helping Lily to get her life together.

The author, James Frey uses metaphors, imagery, similes, and personification mostly to convey his story to us effectively. With the use of metaphors and similes, he can describe the pain he feels, the recovery process, and the deep emotions James felt throughout the story in a way that we can better understand. Imagery and personification are used to better describe the setting and allow us to have a deeper connection to the story. James Frey uses these literary devices to allow the reader to understand the story better, since most of the readers probably have not experienced these situations first hand.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

2011-02-20T12:25:00.007-05:00

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

By Benjamin Franklin...

Genre: Autobiographical, Adventure

Words describing the book: Adventurous, Choppy, Changing, Inspiring, Confusing, Wordy, Unfinished, Incomplete.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a three part book, which is separated by the years in which he wrote it. The first part was written in 1771, second in 1783, and third in 1788. The first part was wrote when Franklin was young. He was a bright, enterprising teenager that cared about his future. He began his life in the workforce as an apprentice to his brother, a printer, but their incessant fighting caused Benjamin to leave Boston for Philadelphia. He began to notice women more, and he finds two on a boat while traveling, but finds them to be thieves and criminals. Throughout the first part, he discusses the women who he has encountered, and eventually marries one woman, who he adores and appreciates her help and assistance with his matters later in life. While in Philadelphia, Franklin becomes a well known and sought after printer of The Pennsylvania Gazette. He also writes Poor Richard's Almanac during the course of his life. He explains to the readers how, and why, he came up with the idea of the public library system. The first section of this book is a more immature, young style of writing, as compared to the next two, which includes much more substantial wording and maturity.

Part two focuses mainly of finding oneself; in it Franklin focuses more on finding ones' virtues than in the previous part. He reflects on letters from friends, and explains them to the reader. In this part, he struggles with narcissism and vanity, but decides it is a positive aspect of a person. He talks mainly of his book, instead of events in his life in the second part. He's also confused about what was already written in his book, since it was left in America while he's in England.

Part three elaborates on the idea of the American dream. Franklin has, by this point, accomplished a great amount of responsibility and achievements in his life. He discusses his founding of the Union Fire Company, the Franklin Stove, a political party, a street cleaning system, and militia battery, among other inventions. He focuses on doing the right thing, and how possessing perseverance can get you whatever you desire. In this part, you can see how he is a very complex person. He discusses war, Indians, Quakers, and religion, all which had a huge impact on his character.

Theme: I think that a recurring theme throughout the autobiography is that by caring for people and the quality of life, you can achieve anything in your sights. Also, by creating close relationships with everyone you know, they can help you become who you want to be or back you up on what you want to do.

The protagonist in the book is Benjamin Franklin. He is a dynamic character; he changes throughout his life and in the course of his book. He becomes more educated, more seasoned, and more involved. He characterizes himself by being honest about his thoughts and views. He describes that others see him as a great, achieved man, and that he is well respected in multiple countries. Refer back to the summary for a longer description of him, because the book is about himself! :)

The autobiography doesn't contain many literary devices. It includes allusions though, when talking about the French and Indian War, his favorite book was Pilgrim's Progress,(which he is impressed by and aspires to write that way), he refers to many previous kings, and he compares some acquaintances he has in the government with those of other countries.These all help us to understand some people/events based on how we know the ones they're being compared to. He doesn't use many similes or metaphors, or hyperboles and personifications, because he would rather just tell us exactly how it is.

Revolution

2011-02-20T12:20:00.004-05:00

Title: Revolution
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Genre: Historical Fiction

Five words I would use to describe this book would be; emotional, devastating, gruesome, captivating and victorious.

Plot:
The story starts with a depressed Andi Alpers on the edge, literally. After her younger brother was killed she blamed herself and catches herself planning her own demise. Since she's facing expulsion from Brooklyn Private School her father makes her come to France to finish her senior thesis. Her major conflict in the story is between her and her dad. She thinks he blames her for Truman's death and is angry at him for leaving when her and her mother needed him the most. While she's in Paris she finds an old diary from over two centuries ago, written by Alexandrine Paradis, a girl who dreamed of performing on the Paris stage. Andi becomes obsessed with the diary. As she reads the diary she finds that Alex impressed the lost king of France, Louis Charles. She was then hired to make this small boy smile. She came to love him and one day during the French Revolution the people revolted and the royal family was imprisoned. Alex tried for years to save the boy but she died trying. In the climax of the story Andi is devastated by the ending of Alex's story. She thinks if there was no hope for Alex then there's no hope for her either. Luckily, Virgil, a guy she has met saves her from trying to end her life again. She ends up going to a party with him, but the police come to break it up. To escape the police Andi runs into the catacombs of Paris. Then as she runs she somehow finds herself in another life over two centuries in the past. As she walks through the town she realizes that everyone thinks she is Alex. It seems that she was sent to finish what Alex started. After she succeeds at what Alex wanted her to do she comes back to the present. As the story comes to an end Andi's life is no longer so desolate. She graduates from high school and moves to Paris with her mother so she can be closer to Virgil.

Theme:
The theme in the book that I found is always believe in what you're doing. No matter how many people told Alex she was crazy for what she was doing she never gave up. As a result her diary inspired Andi to continue on with her life without ending it early.

Protagonist:
The protagonist of the book is Andi Alpers. Her internal and external conflicts drive the story foreward. Even when you're reading about Alex you can still see how Andi is the one changing. Andi is a dynamic character. Through most of the story she's popping/overdosing anti-depressent pills, just so she can get through the day. By the end of the story this all changes. She is now graduated from high school, no longer needs the pills, and has a brighter outlook on life, thanks in part to Virgil. The author's choice of characterization is to make the main character more relatable. We all go through really hard times in life where we think life is never going to get any better. Andi is going through the same situation but as we read we see how her life got better. This book could inspire those of us like Andi to keep going on with our lives knowing it will always get better.

Literary devices:
Literary devices that were used were hyperbole an example of this is when Andi said "sliced my hands to ribbons." Some examples of simile that were used are "the women all with spun sugar hair and bosoms as white as meringue." "His glance is like God's touch- under it all things spring to life." Personification was also used. " jewels winking on their fingers." All these literary devices help to get the Author's purpose across. They give us new ways of imagining what the writer is trying to say. They make the story more interesting and more detailed.

The Everafter

2011-02-15T13:42:00.002-05:00

Title: The Everafter

Author: Amy Huntley

Genre: Young adult fiction

This book is about a girl named Madison who is dead. She does not understand how she died or why though. She is in one big place of darkness, except that there is a glowing light where all the things she lost in her life are floating. Some of these things include a rattle, bracelet, and a ring.

Later, she discovers that by touching the objects could take her back to that event in her life. This makes her realize that she could change moments in her life, and maybe even her death. After messing with a few things in her life though, she discovers that she does not want to mess with her life because she does not want everything in her life to turn out differently.

I believe that the main theme of this story is life and death. Explaining to us to live our life to the fullest and enjoy every moment of it. Also that you should not ever want to change anything about your life even if you had the chance because things could end up worse or just change who you are completely.

5 words

1) Heart-wrenching

2) Death

3) Life

4) Loneliness

5) Memories

The Catcher in the Rye

2011-02-11T21:01:00.003-05:00

The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger
Genre: bildungsroman (coming of age novel)

Plot:
The novel starts out with Holden Caulfield at his high school Pencey Prep. He is describing to us that he has failed out of Pencey and is concerned about going home and confronting his parents. The rising action is when Holden starts to have trouble connecting to his classmates and peers. He is also struggling with his teenage life and feeling a lot of angst. Holden's conflict in The Catcher in the Rye is with himself. He is fighting against the urge that he himself is corrupt or simply not normal. He knows something isn't right with himself, but he isn't sure if it is all in his head. Holden also doesn't know how to address this problem and if he will be okay. The climax of the novel is after his date with his friend Sally. Holden knows that he doesn't love her, but he wants to escape society so badly that he is willing to run away with her. He wants his life to change and to become a different person. When Holden meets with Phoebe, towards the end, and they go to the zoo and the carousel in the park is the falling action. Holden is so joyous of his sister's childhood innocence and realizes his problems aren't that big of a deal. The resolution of the story is when Holden realizes that he isn't going anyway in life but home. He is also realizing that reminiscing the past brings back memories, good and bad, and that the people he thought he hated, he actually misses. Holden finally says to not tell anybody about anything in your life because you'll start to miss it.

Theme:
Take the time to really examine life; from the littlest things to the big picture, everything is important. It's good to reflect upon your actions and to analyze life. Life is precious and if you don't take the time to appreciate it, are you really living life to the fullest?

Main Character/Protagonist/Characterization:
Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy just trying to make it through the daily struggles of life. He is confused and shows some depression throughout the book, but is ultimately a caring boy, especially when it comes to his siblings. Hold is a dynamic character in the fact that he starts the book with a laid-back, lazy attitude toward school and how his family will take the news of expulsion/failing out of Pencey. But by the end of the story Holden becomes more responsible and really starts to worry about the feelings of his sister, Phoebe, and his parents. Salinger chooses to write Holden in this way for all of the teens going though some of these same problems. He writes Holden so the kids who read The Catcher in the Rye can realize that there is always something to look forward to in life and that the sun will always be shining. Salinger also puts Holden as the narrator to make the story more personable and realistic; also for the benefit of the audience, Holden is the narrator so we can see the events through the eyes of the person who is experiencing them.

Literary devices:
Salinger uses a lot of symbolism through the novel. One example is when Holden says, "one nice thing about carousels, they always play the same song." This is symbolism for the simple things in your daily life. Even thought the world may be changing and advancing at a rapid pace, there will always be something that stays the same to keep you grounded. Another literary device used is irony. Holden is describing to Mr. Antolini that he likes when someone sticks to a point or topic and doesn't digress from it. This is ironic because Holden only sticks to his points about half of the time. He starts out on one subject, then ends up in another direction. Although he usually does eventually get to his point. These devices serve the author's purpose of entertaining and informing in many ways. They give the reader a different view of Salinger's opinions and Holden's experiences so that we as readers are not biased. They also cause us to form relationships with what Salinger is trying to say and something we have experienced. These devices also keep us entertained and not to become bored with the book as well.

Some words I would use to describe this book are concerning, young-adult, questioning, depressing, caring, cynical, bitterness, and understanding.

Stranger in a Strange Land

2011-02-10T18:35:00.003-05:00

Stranger in a Strange Land
By Robert A. Heinlein.
Genre: Science fiction

“Stranger in a Strange Land” focuses on Valentine M. Smith, or Mike, a human raised by Martians on Mars from birth until a recovery vessel was sent to search a crashed ship from an earlier mission discovers him. The newcomers bring him back to earth, as due to some complications with his dead parents, Mike is heir to a large fortune and very desirable to have under control. The book focuses on Mike’s confusions and adaptation to the human race, so very different from that of Mars. Mike teaches himself, along with his Water Brothers’ (someone very close to him) help, what it is like to be human, teaching others along the way just how it is to live without putting yourself under stress or causing unneeded worry. That was one of his major confusions: Why humans have the need to make things harder than they are and stress themselves out.

The first half of the book is focused on Mike learning about the human race and trying to imagine himself as one of them. He comes across many questions, such as religion (a concept very confusing to him), love, jealousy, humor, and general or complicated emotions humans as a whole experience.

The second half of the book is how Mike lives after he becomes ‘aware’ of how humans function and the realization that he is one of them. He feels the need to teach others about the Martian ways, forming a church of sorts with strange, unusual, and very controversial methods that bring on the scorn of people who do not understand and do not take the time to try. Many of the ideals were spurned from gurus in the U.S. during the 1960s. You could say they were very Hippie centric. In the end, Mike ‘transcends’ his human life and his followers continue his mission without him.

A common and very obvious theme throughout “Stranger in a Strange Land” is the parallels between Mike’s story and the story of Jesus Christ’s journey to bring humanity love and peace. It could even be taken as a modern retelling of Jesus’ story; even down to the way he was killed to help others. Another very common theme in the second half of the book is the spiritual importance of sexuality. Compared to the Martians who only have one gender (they’re born female and then grow into males), Mike finds that sex between two people is one of the greatest ways to grow closer with another, something everyone should share with those they care for most. He believed that the mental bond between lovers creates the deepest understanding between individuals. It should only be done between someone you trust completely.

Valentine M. Smith was basically a blank slate, absent of most, if not all, human ways and concepts when he came to earth. He was childlike with his curiosity and ambition to understand everything there was to the human race. Instead of focusing on Mike’s every growth throughout the book, Heinlein focuses on his companion’s reactions to said growth. Mike changes abruptly when he believes he finally understands why humans do the things they do, like make themselves or others suffer needlessly. He then loses his childlike quality and becomes more mature as he strives to teach humanity to let go of their suffering, which is one of the reasons he founds his church, The Church of All Worlds. The book is almost entirely focused on how Mike makes the transition from someone who does not understand his own race to someone who knows it all too well. His figurative slate has been relatively filled.

A common literary device Heinlein uses throughout the novel is when he switches focuses between one character and the next; perhaps even to a whole planet like when he focuses on Mars and what the elders are thinking of. Sometimes he goes over some of the current events between planets, sometimes acting like a clicker for the news and others with depth and plot relevancy. At a couple points in the book, the narrative view changes to a life after death view, a ‘heaven’ of sorts in which all religions are connected to one another, rather like roommates in an apartment complex (that’s how I pictured it at least).

This book was thought provoking, insightful, humorous, interesting, and maybe a little hippie-friendly.

Book three

2011-01-17T02:12:00.001-05:00

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Young Adult/Comedy

Lessons/Themes: The reoccurring theme of this book would have to be Nick's inability to let go of his previous relationship with Tris. As Nick holds onto the idea of him and Tris, he is unable to move forward with Norah. The same idea goes for Norah as she holds herself back and doesn't let herself have fun with Nick. The ultimate lesson to this book would have to be not to let your past bring you down. You may be caught up in your heartbreak, but there just might be the one person you've been looking for your entire life right in front of you.

Plot: With the point of view switching between the two, it makes for a very interesting, very comical evening. At a club where Nick's band just played, Nick sees his ex-girlfriend Tris with a new guy. Heartbroken, Nick looks for an excuse not to talk to her, which comes in the form of Norah, a girl he has never met, he asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes. Of course Norah says not, and Tris approaches them. Tris reveals that she knows both and in anger at realizing who Nick is hates him for being basically her soul mate, yet being head over heels for Tris. Norah kisses Nick and that sets off the evening. The two go through the night on an emotional rollarcoaster, in a fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants kind of way, all the while falling "in and out... and in and out and maybe in and maybe out" of love. Both carry EXcess baggage (emphasis on the EX), and meeting up with that baggage along the way proves to be trying. In the end, the two finally decide to trust each other and forget about their respective exes and just indulge in what the have.

Main Character(s): Nick is described as being laid back with "ugly shoes" as proclaimed by Norah's best fried Caroline. He just can't seem to get over Tris revealing his sweet charming side. Norah is much the same, only ver loud and obnoxious when the time calls for it. Both are music lovers and very much kindred spirits. Cohn and Levithan describe the two in a way that makes them irritable to love.

Literary Devices:
Allusion: the authors use actual bands and places in the story.

1. Musical
2. Vulgar
3. Uplifting
4. Addictive

Book two

2011-01-17T02:11:00.000-05:00

Interview With the Vampire

Anne Rice

Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction

Lessons/Themes: The lessons in this book are deep and not incredible obvious, but when you dig deeper, you realize the underlying pain and suffering. Ultimately there are many lessons taught. First there's Lestat's lesson, he couldn't stop as just Louis, he had to create Claudia as well, and when Claudia upset him, he taunted her, ultimately getting himself killed for the first time. Claudia's and Lestat's lessons could be considered the same, don't get greedy. Claudia's greed led her to Europe where the very things she'd been searching for destroyed her. Louis' lesson can be said as: know what you want and realize the consequences to your life changing decisions.

Plot: The book begins with Louis sitting down and telling his 200 year story to an interviewer. Louis talks about how his brother dies and he falls into a very deep depression. That is when he meets Lestat. Lestat lures him in with false promises and Louis takes the bait. As Louis struggles to retain his humanity, Lestat tries everything to rip it away from him. The years pass and the riff between Louis and Lestat grows, Louis threatens to leave and Lestat struggles for a card to play to make Louis stay. Louis goes off and ends up biting a little girl who lost her family in the plague. Horrified Louis runs thinking he killed her. Lestat finds out and takes Louis to an orphanage where the little girl is very sick. The two steal her and Lestat changes her, the three beginning a new chapter of their lives. As Claudia becomes more and more out of control Lestat goes in search of another companion. Claudia presses for answers that Lestat refuses to give and Claudia decides that she and Louis need to be freed from Lestat. Following on her impulse, Claudia fools Lestat into drinking dead blood, poisoning him, she then slits his throat. Louis is very distraught, but helps Claudia dispose of the body. As they prepare for a journey to Europe in search of other vampires, Lestat comes back from the dead and attacks them. Louis kills him for the second time and the house is set on fire. Louis and Claudia flee to the safety of their ship.
Once in Europe, Claudia and Louis begin their search for other vampires, only to find mindless beings that provided no answers. They then travel to Paris and almost to the point of giving up, stumble upon those which they they had searched for all along. The vampires they find belong to the Theatre des Vampires headed by the mysterious Armand. Claudia, realizing that Louis wished to be with Armand and not her orders Louis to turn a woman, Madelene, into her new "mother". Bending to Claudia's will Louis complies. One night vampires from the Theatre des Vampires abduct them. Lestat, having survived the fire and second murder attempt, has come to Paris and told the other vampires of the attempted murders. Louis is locked in a coffin and Claudia and Madeleine and locked in an open courtyard. Armand saves Louis but they are not able to rescue Claudia and Madeleine before they are charred by the sun. Devastated Louis returns to the theatre before dawn and sets fire to it, killing all of the vampires inside, then escapes with Armand.
Armand and Louis travel for several years but incredibly depressed by Claudia's death, Louis returns to New Orleans. Louis meets Lestat only one other time, but other than that, lives life alone. The interviewer begs Louis to turn him into a vampire. Enraged that his story had not made the intended impact, Louis attacks him and leaves him unconscious. Upon awakening, the interviewer sets out to find Lestat.

Main Character: Louis is never out-right described, you only pick up on certain things, such as his beauty and brown hair. Along with his physical appearance, his other characteristics are left to be discovered, you realize that Louis always hangs on to a part of his humanity, he is caring and very intellectual. I believe that Anne Rice describes Louis as being this way so that it creates conflict within the characters. Lestat loathes this about him, and it is how Claudia becomes such a large part of the book, his love for her.

Literary Devices:
Allusion: Anne Rice continuously refers to historical events such as the burning of the French Quarter, and she also hints to the Romantic Revolution.
Metaphor: There is a lot of comparison of that such when she describes setting and people.

1. Dark
2. Inquisitive
3. Conflictive
4. Nostalgic

Book One

2011-01-17T01:02:00.002-05:00

It's Kind of a Funny Story
Ned Vizzini
teen novel, comedy, young adult
Lessons/Themes: The book really focuses on the struggles of life, and how people deal with them. The lessons I gathered from the book are very meaningful, like how no matter how bad your life is at the moment, there's always someone out there to help, you are never alone. Also, there was an indication of not to focus too hard on your future, there's always a certain amount you should think about, but if you notice that you're stressing too much over it then you need to just "chill" and let things run their course.

Plot: Craig Gilner is a fifteen year old boy attending Executive Pre-Professional High School. We instantly see that something is wrong with Craig as he is at his "best friend" Aaron's house. Craig denies the weed that is being passed around the room as an "experiment" with his brain, to see "if maybe pot is the problem; maybe that's what has come in and robbed me.". Craig explains that he enjoys spending time in bathrooms and he describes himself as if he always looks like he's going to cry. As the chapters go on we meet Dr. Minerva, Craig's "shrink" as he affectionally calls her. He goes through the back story of his life, about how he enjoyed drawing maps as a four-year-old, about how he met Aaron, and how his studying for the Executive Pre-Professional High School's admissions test took over his life. Craig goes on to describe the day he received his acceptance letter as the happiest day of his life, but also traces it to being the beginning of all his problems. That night Aaron had a huge party in celebration of all of their acceptances and that's when Craig frist tries pot, it is also when Nina--the girl Craig is "in love" with-- and Aaron begin to date. On their way home from the party, Craig crawls out over the water on the Brooklyn Bridge shouting a battle cry from a children's book he'd read.
Craig begins school and is instantly overwhelmed, and that's when his stress-vommitting begins. Everyday reveals to be a new challenge for Craig as he never wants to get out of bed but never sleeps, he never eats either as it only results in vomiting again. Craig finally makes the decision that he is going to kill himself, but having second thoughts calls the Suicide Hotline. They talk him into checking himself into the nearby hospital where they admit him to Six North, the Adult Psychiatric Unit.
In Six North Craig is fed the first meal he could actually hold down in months and realizes that he feels at ease. Craig calls Nina from the hospital and explains his situation to her but she ends up only making it worse by insisting that the reason Craig wanted to kill himself was all because of her. Craig has to use a shot of Atavan to sleep that night.
As Craig's stay in Six North progresses, so does his attitude, attributed to meeting a girl his age named Noelle and making friends with most of the other patients. He has a relapse after Aaron calls basically making fun of him for where is, but Craig decides that Aaron and Nina are actually part of his problem and decides to cut them from his life. Craig also begins to do art during his stay and realizes that he has both a passion and a talent for it.
On the last day of Craig's stay, it is expressed how much Craig has helped the other patients. He leaves with the intention of transferring to an art school and returning to volunteer at Six North. Craig leaves the hospital not fully recovered, but immensely better.

Main Character: Craig Gilner is at first a very shy, not sociable person. Vizzini describes him as frail with brown hair and brown eyes that always looks like he's going to cry. He is also described as incredibly smart, even at his lowest point he worries about his family and how his death will affect them. As the book progresses, Craig is revealed to be a very caring personable human being. I think Vizzini describes Craig in both ways to evoke a feeling of relation, I think Vizzini wants you to be able to imagine yourself in Craig's position, and if you're already in Craig's position, realize, just as Craig, you can get out.

literary Devices:
Foreshadowing: Craig tells his back story and also what is going on in the present, none of this is pleasant and the entire way thorugh the first part of the book, you get the feeling that something huge is going to happen.
Symbolism: Six North is Craig's recovery, it represents his journey to a better life.

1.Struggle
2.Odd
3.Comical
4.Recovery
5.Enlightening

Book Three: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

2011-01-16T23:41:00.003-05:00

Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Author: Lewis Carroll
Genre: fiction

Alice is listening to her older sister reading to her and is becoming more and more tired, until suddenly she sees a white rabbit run past with a pocket watch. Curious, she follows him down a rabbit hole and finds herself falling, falling, falling. Finally, she makes it to the bottom and sees the rabbit running down a passage. She follows it and finds herself in a hallway with many doors, all of which are locked. On a table in the middle of the room there is a key that will only fit the smallest of the doors, the one door she will never be able to make it through, for she is much too big. She then drinks from a bottle and eats cake that change her size dramatically, though she runs into some problems with that. Finally, she makes it into the small door and finds herself in a pool of her own tears that she had cried when she was enormous. There, she meets some other animals that are swimming in the pool and they all go to shore and try to figure out a way for them all to get dry. Once dry, Alice says some things that will drive them away, one by one. She had not meant to do this, but that is what had happened. Then she saw the white rabbit once again. He called out to her and told her to go and get him her gloves, which she went to do. In his house, she finds another bottle and drinks from it and becomes very large, so large that she fills the entire house up. Then the rabbit comes back and he sees a huge arm coming out of his window and wants it out of his house. He and another try to get her out without success until she finally eats some cakes that shrink her back down. Then she escapes into the woods where she encounters a very large puppy. After escaping from him, she finds herself talking to a caterpillar sitting on top of a mushroom. He then gives her some advice and talks to her. She is troubled by her changing sizes all of the time and he tells her "one side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter". She then finds out that he is talking about the mushroom and takes a piece from each side and tries it. She then grows very tall and comes upon a bird who thinks that she is a serpent trying to eat her eggs. Eventually, she gets away by adjusting her size once again. She then walks through the woods and comes upon a small house. There, a footman brings a letter inviting the duchess to play croquet with the queen. After he leaves, Alice goes into the house and meets the duchess, her baby, the cheshire cat, and her cook, who is throwing pots and pans all over the place. The duchess then asks Alice to hold her screaming child. She then takes it outside and finds that it had turned into a pig. She lets it go and then goes back into the woods where she sees the chesire cat. They have a conversation and then Alice goes on her way. She then comes upon a tea party at which the Hatter, the Dormouse, and the March Hare were present. She then finds that everyone there was mad and decided to leave. In the woods, she comes upon a door in a tree. She decides to go in it and finds herself in a grand garden. Here, she meets the queen and plays croquet with her, using a flamingo as her club, a hedgehog as her ball, and the soldiers (which were playing cards) as the arches. The queen seemed to like to behead people and kept sentencing people to this fate until none remained but Alice. The queen then wished Alice to go and meet the mock turtle. So, she goes and also meets a gryphon. They have a conversation until Alice returns to the queen for the trial. Finally, Alice is called up as a witness and has been restored to her full size, so now she is much, much bigger than anyone else. This makes her much more bold and this angers the queen. The next thing she knows, all of the cards are upon her and then she wakes up in her sister's lap on the bank. She then tells her sister of all of the adventures that she had in her dream.

I think that one lesson to be learned from this boook would be that you should never push others around because you are bigger than they, or you have more power, because you could always turn out to be much smaller than them later, or compared to other people. Also, some things may seem ridiculous, though they might just have some sense in them, if you think about it. Maybe they are not at all visible, but they are there.

Alice is a young girl just starting to get out of the idea of imaginary things and places. She is curious and open minded and sometimes, easy to anger. Lewis Carroll describes her thoughts and feelings to the reader(s) and we see all of her actions throughout the novel. These things tell us a lot about who Alice is and how Carroll envisions her.

This novel contains a lot of imagery. This literary device is critical to it because it is very important to be able to imagine what the various animals and places look like, for they are very different from anything that we normally see every day. Imagery is very important if you want to see into Alice's world, the one that Carroll created. From the dark, endless tunnel with the cupboards on the sides to the deck of playing cards who were soldiers to the queen, to the white rabbit in the waistcoat and the door in the tree, this world is truly a different one than anyone has ever seen before.

I would describe this book as fun, imaginitive, funny at times, exciting, and adventurous.

Night

2011-01-16T23:20:00.000-05:00

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Genre: Non-fiction

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night..."
Night is the story of a Holocaust survivor. It is the story of endurance, the loss of humanity, of decency... of right and wrong. It begins in Transylvania, in a small Jewish community at the beginning of World War 2. Soon, the Hungarian police arrive and force the Jewish people into small, ugly little ghettos. Here they remain, getting little news of the Russian and German armies for several weeks. In the beginning, Elie is very devoted to God and spends almost all of his time praying and reading his people's religious books. Yet, as his story unfolds, he gradually loses his Faith. After some time in the ghettos, being mainly left alone by the Hungarian police, the Jewish people are gathered and in a few serperate groups, over several days, are herded onto trains. They are not told where they are going. They are not given any food or water, they are not able to lie down. They can barely breathe, some die. They finally arrive at a place called, Auschwitz. Here they are divided, men on one side, women on the other. This is the last time Elie will ever see his mother or his siters. He and father lie and make it through. This is the first time they see the Crematories. "But I told him I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it... 'Humanity? Humanity is not concerned with us. Today anything is allowed. Anything is possible, even these crematories....'" Elie and his father are sent through the showers, assigned a number, clothes and a barrax. They stayed at Auschwitz for three weeks. They had easy, relatively, work to do, they had a kind prisoner in charge of their block. Then he was replaced by someone much crueler. After three weeks, they were transfered to another German camp, Buna. Here, they worked in a warehouse. The German's looked for anything of value and discovered Elie had a gold crown. In order to keep it, Elie faked being sick. Days later, that dentist was thrown into prison. In the warehouse, Elie met a french girl who, while in reality was Jewish, passed off as an Aryan in order to survive. One day Elie was beaten badly by the Kapo, that day was first time she spoke to him. "Many years later, in Paris, I was reading my paper in the Metro. Facing me was a very beautiful woman with black hair and dreamy eyes. I had seen those eyes before somewhere. It was she." Elie eventually gave up his gold crown in order to get extra rations, this did not last long however. Later, Elie caught his Kapo ... with a girl during work hours. In retaliation for this, the Kapo beat him twenty-five times with a whip. Days later, the Allies bombed Buna. A week later, a man was hanged in the center of camp, in front of ten thousand prisoners and SS officers, for stealing food during the raid. Over time, more hangings were conducted. One that Elie and his father witnessed, was a child. "For more than half and hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" Next, Elie and his father were forced to pass Inspection, where you ran by a doctor. If he thought you infirm, your name was written and you were cremated. Both Elie and his father passed. Then Elie hurt his leg and had to have surgery. He survived and when the camp, and everyone inside, was forced to either remain behind as the Russians approached or flee with the German's... Elie and his father left. They were told those who stayed would be shot before the Russians could claim them. (This was a lie, sadly). "I learned after the war the fate of those who had stayed behind in the hospital. They were quite simply liberated by the Russians two days after the evacuation." The SS forced the Jewish prisoners to run all day, away from camp. Elie promised not to forget, or leave his father. They finally stopped to rest in some buildings, in the snow. Many died. Then the SS gathered them and forced them into barracks, where they were forced to lay atop one another and fight to get to the top. Many were crushed or suffocated by the weight of bodies. Elie and his father both managed to survive this. Finally, they arrive at Buchenwald. Here, Elie's father is struck down with dysentery. After several days, he dies. "His last word was my name. A summons, to which I did not respond." For three months, Elie remained in this camp alone until, on April tenth, "the first American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald." The story ends with this, "One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me."

The main character, as this story is his story, is Elie Wiesel. In the beginning, he is an innocent boy, young, naive and completely devoted to God. Throughout his story, his is plagued by sorrow, tragedy and terror. He loses everyone dear to him. He loses as well, his very beliefs. In the end, he is forced to grow into someone---something---that no one should be forced to become. He became someone devoid of emotion, of compassion, of empathy, of anything outside self and preservation. He became something totally ruled by survival instinct. He later was ashamed... lost, and devoid of faith. Yet, his change was unavoidable and unstoppable.

The Theme of this book is Terror. Terror ruled these people lives, ruled his life. This is a story of how people can surrender everything to their fear. How they can become completely ruled by it, if the circumstances allow. It is the story of how terror has plagued our history, how it can contaminate our lives. This is the story of the darker side of our history, one that deserves to be and must be told.

Literary terms used in this book are imagery, foreshadowing and allusion. The allusion is obvious, as it is a non-ficiton story and alludes to a War in our history. Foreshadowing occurs in the beginning when they are forced into ghettos and then onto trains, and not told where they are being taken to. It is used especially when Madame Schacher screamed of flames rising into the sky. (the crematories). An example of imagery is, "As dusk fell, darkness gathered inside the wagon." and, "Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever."

Five words I would use to describe this story are, agonizing, horrifying, maddening, shameful, and awful.

A Wind in the Door

2011-01-16T22:01:00.000-05:00

A Wind in the Door, by American author Madeleine L'Engle, is a very inspirational sequel to the Newbery Medal recipient A Wrinkle in Time. I would classify this fantastic book as fantasy fiction, and would very highly recommend it to all of you. Some words to describe it? Heart-warming, adventurous, exciting, and a stimulus to your imagination.

This book begins where A Wrinkle in Time left off. Little Charles Wallace has just started school, and he is being beaten up almost everyday. Meg is extremely worried, and is doing whatever she can think of to stop the ever-present violence against her favorite brother. When Charles Wallace mentions seeing dragons, Meg assumes that he is delusional from the beatings he has received. However, when they go to inspect the rock where Charles claims to have seen them, they find a feather that is far from a birds. It has a metallic inside, and it silver and gold colored on the outside. After the rest of the family inspects the feather, Meg becomes more interested and goes, by herself, back out towards the rock where they found it. She is stopped, however, when she hits the wall of her twin brother's garden. There, she stops, and her former high school principal, now turned elementary school principal, Mr. Jenkins tells her that he has coming looking for her. She finds this odd, as it is a wet cold night, and Mr. Jenkins never visits parents, let alone former problem children. Just at that moment, Louise, the family snake that lives in the garden wall, rears up and goes to attack Mr. Jenkins, her first act of violence that Meg has ever seen. Mr. Jenkins screeches and flies into what appears to be a rip in the sky.
Meg is frightened beyond comprehension, and hopes desperately that this is all a dream. Her boyfriend Calvin shows up then, coming to apologize for his brother, who is one of the boys who beat Charles Wallace up that day. Calvin is surprised to find Meg hysterical and helps her calm down. She then continues, with Calvin, to the rock where they found the dragon feather. Once they arrive, she shows him the pile off other feathers, and Charles Wallace shows up. He explains that he was just about asleep when he sensed Meg's intense fear. Naturally, he came to investigate.
It is then that a mysterious man steps out of the shadows. This man is over 8 feet tall, and calls himself a Teacher. This Teacher, Blanjey, says that Charles Wallace's "dragons" is to be their classmate. The children are confused, but then an odd creature materializes. It looks like a fluffy ball, with a multitude of wings and even more eyes. Little bursts of flame shoot out every once and a while, and an ever-present wind surrounds it. This beast introduces itself as Proginoskes, a cherubim. (Yes, it is the plural form of the word describing one being. It is how it is written, I promise.)
Blanjey tells them that they are needed to help restore the world's balance, and each of them has a mission. Charles Wallace is to learn to adapt so he doesn't get picked on as much at school. Meg, teamed up with the cherubim Progo, is to pass three unknown tests. Calvin's mission is a mystery until later in the book.
The book then focuses mainly on Meg and Progo, and we follow them through a multitude of heart-pounding trials and scrapes with the evil forces known as the Echthoroi. I don't want to tell you much more, as it would give away much of the book's surprise, and that, my friend, is the best part.

I found several literary devices while reading this story. I found a rather interesting simile early in the book, and it describes how Charles Wallace can sense Meg's (and their mother's) feelings and infer their thoughts. Our author compares this ability to gather information to a child gathering daisies in a field. This implies that it is easy, and pleasurable, not at all painful, for him.
Later on Madeleine uses a figure of speech that I had never heard before. It is when the children have met Progo for the first time, and Charles discusses, briefly, taking him to school the next day for pet show and tell. Progo gets very offended, and Meg assures him that it was only a "whistling in the dark". I found this a very interesting figure of speech, and will have to add it into my everyday conversation.
L'Engle uses foreshadowing as well. At one point, Meg and the twins are walking to their school bus and Sandy (one of the twins) asks his brother Dennys what he thinks will happen that day. Dennys responds with "Nothing. As usual." This is foreshadowing because, a few lines later at the beginning of the next chapter, Meg and Progo discover their first test, and their whole day turns into one giant adventure.
Our author uses a lot of metaphors in this story. It's understandable though, because they are necessary to ensure complete understanding of the fantasy story line. The one that I like the most is when Progo is describing the Echthori. He says that they are "Sky tearers. Light snuffers. Planet darkeners. The dragons. The worms. Those who hate." I found this to be a very powerful metaphor, as well as extremely descriptive, even though it used so little words.

Meg is our main character in this novel. Because this is a sequel, you are supposed to know a lot about Meg already, but we learn a lot more about her in this book. Most of what we learn comes though Progo, as opposed to our author. Progo, being assigned to Meg by Blanjey, feels the need to get to know her through kything. Kything is what cherubim do to communicate with each other; we would call it mental telepathy. As he explores her mind and tries to get her to think like a cherubim, we learn what makes Meg feel most like herself. Math helps calm her down, and thoughts of Calvin and her family make her feel complete. We learn lots more about her through Progo, but if I go on it will ruin more of the book for you. =)

This book can teach you a lot. Some lessons that I gathered from it were to see the good in people, believe in the impossible, and I learned the importance, and power, of love. Multiple times in the story, Meg is forced to see the good in people she really doesn't like. One time in particular is when she has to find a way to love her hated former principal Mr. Jenkins. She is baffled until Progo explains to her that love is not a feeling. It is what you do that is love. I found it very heart-warming that this book teaches you to love people you don't necessarily like.
A Wind in the Door also teaches you to believe in the impossible. Not only from the fantasy point does this apply, but from a more realistic point as well. At one point in the story, Meg has to coach Mr. Jenkins into believing in their impossible situation. No one thinks that she'll be able to do it, but after much hard work, she breaks through to him. Then he starts to understand their situation in ways that Meg and Calvin hadn't even thought of. Never underestimate the power of the seemingly impossible.

I love this book with all my heart and strongly encourage each and every one of you to read it. I promise that you will find some way to connect with it and love it too.

Towers of Midnight

2011-01-16T21:51:00.000-05:00

Title: Towers of Midnight, Book Thirteen of THE WHEEL OF TIME series
Authors: Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy Fiction

Towers of Midnight is the thirteenth book in the Wheel of Time series, started by Jordan in 1992, and is now being finished by Brandon Sanderson, upon Jordan's death in 2007. This book, as I am not going to describe the plot of the entire series, begins in the prologue, quickly skipping through several characters points of view, in different places on Jordan's world. Towers of Midnight describes the lives, thoughts, dreams, beliefs, decisions... of many characters and of many different types of people. Jordan, and later Brandon, do a brilliant job of creating unique and very individual characters that everyone can relate to. From Min, a simple girl who wishes to live a normal life in peace, who has fallen in the love with the book's main character, to others who are more complicated. Min sees visions of the future and now accepts them, because they may be all that can save her love's life. She does what she can to help; she reads. She reads the histories, the Prophecies... anything, if it means helping Rand. Always though, throughout the books, she stays true to who she is.
Aviendha, who in the beginning was a simple warrior, a Maiden of the Spear, who believed in honor, duty and fighting the Shadow, is now more. She lives by ji'e'toh, honor and duty in the Old Tongue, as do her people, the Aiel. She too, fell in love with Rand. She grew through the story, but never betrayed her values and beliefs, remaining fiercly loyal to her friends, to her duty and to her people. In Towers of Midnight, she is forced to confront the fact that her descendants may be the cause of her people's demise. She is shown vision after vision, life after life, of her descendants' choices that lead to the ruination of the Aiel. However, Aviendha is strong, perhaps the strongest character in the book, and she continues forward. "There were tears in Aviendha's eyes. There was no shame in crying over this tragedy. She had feared the truth, and she could no longer deny it... Tears streaking her face, she took the next step." ... "Aviendha took another step forward... Her tears flowed freely now. She felt like a child. Being Ladalin had been worse than the others, for in her, Aviendha had seen hints of true Aiel ways, but corrupted, as if to make mockery. The woman had thought of war and associated it with honor, but hadn't understood what honor was. No gai'shain? Retreat? There had been no mention of toh. This was battle stripped completely of point or reason. Why fight? For Ladalin, it had been about hatred of the Seanchan. There was war because there had always been war. How? How had this happened to the Aiel? Aviendha took a step forward."... "'I don't want to go on,' Aviendha said to the empty forest of glass. ...The worst part was, the woman---Oncala---had thought of her mother's mother. Her greatmother. Inside Oncala's head, there had been a face attached to that title. Aviendha had recognized it. As her own. Cringing, closing her eyes, she stepped forward into the very center of the radiant columns."... "Her tears were dry. How did one react to seeing the utter destruction---no, the utter decay---of one's people? Each step had seemed logical to the people who took it. But each had taken the Aiel toward their end." ..."'Can I change it?' she asked. If I can't, she thought, will that stop me from trying? The answer was simple. No. She could not live without doing something to avert that fate. ...She opened her eyes and gritted her teeth. Aiel took responsibility. Aiel fought. Aiel stood for honor. If she was the only one who knew the terrrors of their future, then it was her duty---as a Wise One---to act. She would save her people."
In Aviendha, I see many people also struggling to change the world. I can also see the point I believe Jordan was making, "...there was war because there had always been war."
Other characters include, Perrin, who began as a simple boy, aiming to become a blacksmith, now forced into being a Lord, leading an army. He is also struggling in this book with the fundemental question of who he is. Perrin can hear the thoughts of wolves, has sharper eyesight than us, better hearing and can smell others emotions. He fears that he will lose himself to the beast within, Young Bull as the wolves call him, if he allows to much of himself to be the wolf. Yet, embracing the beast within may be his only hope of defeating Slayer. In the end of Towers of Midnight, Perrin finds a balance. "He understood. This did not mean that the way he let himself lose control was not a danger. But it was the final piece he needed to understand. The final piece of himself. Thank you, Perrin sent. The image of Young Bull the wolf and Perrin the man standing beside one another, atop a hill, their scents the same."
Another character, Mat, struggles in this book against enemies he has already faced, the Snakes and the Foxes, the Eelfinn and the Aelfinn. Creatures that feed on human emotion. Mat, along with two friends, though they lose a third, strike a bargain with the foxes and manage to escape the snakes, Mat losing an eye in the process. Mat, though not the purest man, as he loves women and loves to gamble, is one of the bravest, loyalist, and most straight-forward character in the book. He risked his life to save a woman trapped by the Foxes and willingly gave up his eye to do so.
Elayne, Egwene and several other characters also appear in this book, and while they play major roles, their hardships and major revelations were in previous books.
One character however, Lan Mandragoran, does make a remarkable revelation at the very end of Tower of Midnight. Named Aan'allein by the Aiel, meaning, "a man who is an entire nation". He is the last King of the Malkier. His country was overrun by the Shadow-souled, as the Aiel call them, when he was a babe. But his oath was sworn over his crib and he fights for his country alone. The oath, "To stand against the Shadow so long as iron is hard and stone abides. To defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains. To avenge what cannot be defended.", is his entire life. In this book, he marches to his death at the edge of the Blight, to face the Shadow in a last show of defiance. Yet, his love, his wife, Nynaeve, has sent word out among the Borderlanders that he rides. To him, they gather. "He had thought the Malkieri gone as a people, broken, scattered, absorbed by other nations. Yet here they were, gathering at the faintest whisper of a call to arms. ...The Last Battle comes, Lan thought. Must I deny them the right to fight alongside me?... 'Our ancestors swore an oath,' the young man said. 'An oath to protect, to defend. That oath is stronger than blood, Lord Mandragoran. It is stronger than will or choice. Your wife told us to wait here for you; she said that you might try to pass without greeting us.' 'How did you notice me?' Lan asked, containing his anger. 'That horse,' Kaisel said, nodding to Mandarb. 'She said you might disguise yourself. But you would never leave the horse.' ...And then with a deep sigh, he gave in. 'The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai'don,' Lan said softly. 'Let any man or woman who wishes to follow join it and fight.' He closed his eyes as the call went up. It soon became a cheer. Then a roar. ...'I am al'Lan Mandragoran,' Lan bellowed. 'Lord of the Seven Towers, Defender of the Wall of First Fires, Bearer of the Sword of the Thousand Lakes! I was once named Aan'allein, but I reject that title, for I am alone no more. Fear me and know. I have returned for what is mine. I may be a king without a land. But I am still a king!'... The end had come. They would meet it with swords raised."
Lan, was a man, a king, that is not around anymore, anywhere in the world today. He was a man worth following, the kind of man whom armies flocked to follow, who had the skill, the ability and the compassion to lead. He was a king of a homeless people, but not of broken people.
The main character, Rand al'Thor, also known throughout the later part of the series as, the Dragon Reborn, underwent a dramatic and marvelous change in the last book, book twelve. For some time he had been fighting madness, fighting the crushing weight of duty,... and had been losing. In the last book, he finally snapped, almost ending the war, indeed ending all life, in his fear and anger. Then, he realized that life was worth fighting for, that love was worth living, worth dying for. In this book, he attempts to make up for all the wrong he has done, to avoid making the same mistakes of others. He continues to lead now, but with a new sympathy, a new compassion for others. Instead of things dying around him now, life blossoms. As was said in the earlier books, "Death is lighter than a feather... Duty is heavier than a mountain."

The theme of this book is Love Conquers All. Over and over, the characters are put through test after test, hardship over terror. Yet, they make it out with help from friends. In every book, they put themselves in grave danger for those they love. And because of that love, they survive. Rand had turned away from Min, from his friends, from his own father toward the end. Yet, his love for them was what saved him from destroying himself, it was what gave him a second chance.

Literary terms used in this book are numerous, the most freguent being imagery and irony. Some examples of imagery used in Towers of Midnight are, "Lo, it shall come upon the world that the prison of the Greatest One shall grow weak, like the limbs of those who crafted it. Once again, His glorious cloak shall smother the Pattern of all things, and the Great Lord shall stretch forth His hand to claim what is His. The rebellious nations shall be laid barren, their children caused to weep. There sahll be none but Him, and those who have turned their eyes to His majesty." -from The Prophecies of the Shadow
The irony in the book, is that the Dark One's followers wish for a world in which darkness, death and destruction hold sway. They wish to be the ruler of this world--- that is completely devoid of life. They worship one who wishes to torment them for eternity, yet they are willing to risk his anger for power. Power, that they know they are highly unlikely keep, let alone recieve. In the last part of the Prophecies, there is a part full of irony, "And the Lord of the Evening shall face the Broken Champion, and shall spill his blood and bring us the Darkness so beautiful. Let the screams begin, O followers of the Shadow. Beg for your destruction!"

Five words I would use to describe his book are, enlightening, thoughful, sorrowful, devastating, and demanding.

The Child Thief

2011-01-16T20:18:00.000-05:00

Title: The Child Thief
Author: Brom
Genre: Dark Fantasy

'Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief---and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life. He appears to lonely, lost children---the broken, hopeless, and sexually abused---promising to take them to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive, and you never grow old. But his promised land is not Neverland...'
The Child Thief is the dark story of Peter Pan. It begins in the point of view of the Child Thief, Peter. He is in our world, in this time, looking for another child to steal away. He is waiting for the cover of dark, staying silently in the shadows, searching for a lost soul to take. We are then introduced to Nick, a boy of fourteen, living with his single, poor mother in modern day New York City. Tonight, he has run away from home, from Marco, with a bag full of stolen drugs. Marco, a next door neighbor, is a vicious drug dealer. Afraid Nick would go to the police, Marco had his boys brand an 'N' on Nicks arm as a warning. Nick, ticked off and afraid, stole some of Marco's stash and ran. Peter finds him in a park, being beaten by three of Marco's boys. Peter then begins a 'game' with them. He wins this game by pulling down all three boys pants and beating them up. Two manage to run away, while Peter kills the third. Still afraid of Marco and still angry about his situation in life, Nick runs away with Peter, who takes him to the Harbor. Here they are confronted by a wall of Mist. Peter asks Nick if he has somewhere to go, and realizing that he does not, Nick tells him no. Peter tells Nick about a place called Avalon, a magical place full of faeries and trolls and magic. Peter tells Nick that he has a fort there, full of other children where there are no parents to tell them what to do. Peter asks Nick if he goes into the Mist with him willingly. Nick answers, "I go willingly." In the Mist they are confronted by phantoms, human bones, evil things. When they make it out, something has changed. Nick hates Peter and demands to go home. Peter tells him that he can never go home now. They are chased then by things Peter calls the Flesh-eaters and by the Barghest. They arrive safely at the hide-out, where Peter says to those inside, "I bring fresh blood." This is the end of Part 1.
Part 2 reveals life among the Devils. (What the children Peter has stolen call themselves.) It is a harsh life. Daily and nightly, they are tormented by blue pixies. Outside, the land is dying and the children are starving. They are also hunted by the Flesh-eaters and many of the magical creatures that live in Avalon. In Avalon however, they never age, they grow impossibly stronger, faster, leaner... their eyes turn golden. It is the magic of Avalon. It changes them. However, the magic changes children into stronger creatures, more like Peter. Adults, the magic changes into hideous monsters, unable to control themselves, paranoid and blood-thirsty. ...And Nick, it appears, may have been too old when Peter took him.
In Part 2, we also discover Peter's background. He was born over a thousand years ago, to a married woman, by an unknown, strange, man. The woman's family, fearing what he was, laid him out, injured, in the middle of the forest to die. He was found by a man who liked the taste of human flesh. However, Peter tasted of faerie, and so the man did not kill him. When Peter was six, he wanted friends and so decided to catch some human children and keep them to play with. But he was seen by the children's families, who saw something wild, something different about Peter. Frightened for their children, they sent out a mob to hunt him. Accidently, he led them to Goll, the wild man. They killed Goll, viciously, because they were afraid of him. Since then, Peter has hated adult humans, all except his mother. He ran from Goll's place where the villagers were into the wood. There, he was found by a young girl who lured him into another world. Here is where he met the Witch and her Daughters. They tried to kill Peter, but he managed to escape. In this strange new world, Peter meet the Lady and the Elves. The Lady, being reminded of her late son, Mabon, by Peter, took him in as a replacement. Ulfger, the son of the Horned One, the Lady and the Witch's brother, was infuriated by this impure, wild youth's presence. They came to blows and Peter was forced to flee or be slain. Alone, scared and angry, Peter wandered Avalon until he found a way back to our world. He began to plan. Take abused children, give them a new home in Avalon, build his own army... and later humiliate Ulfger as he had humiliated Peter. Return to the Lady.
Part 3 reveals to us who the Flesh-eaters are and how the war between them and the magical creatures of Avalon began. In the 1600's, English settlers came to New England, looking for a new home and religious freedom. Hundreds of years before them, Avalon moved to America for the same reason. Christianty was killing off the Pagans who used to dance with the wild creatures, the people who whorshiped the Lady, the Horned One and their father. In Europe, Avalon was dying. And so, they moved to America to escape. Here, they found new friends, new followers in the Natives. For hundreds of years, they were safe. Then the English came once more. The creatures of Avalon went down to the ships, to offer food and peace, to welcome the settlers. But the colonists were afraid, these talking, horned beasts looked like demons. The Reverend claimed them Satan's spawn. So the colonists attacked them with guns and cannons. The creatures of Avalon had never fought against guns before, they were afraid of them, but this was home and they had no choice; they had to fight. A war began then, between the settlers and the Magical Creatures. The colonists hid behind their wall with guns loaded, waiting, while the creatures, with bows, spears and swords drawn, charged them. Peter and his Devils fought beside the Horned One against them, for Avalon. Here, the Horned One fell and Avalon lost. In a last attempt to escape, the Lady gathered the Mist and removed the creatures and the magic from our world, and hid them away in a seperate place. But, the settlers were also trapped within the Mist, becoming twisted, blood-thirsty and full of hate and fear. With their prescence and their ceaseless killing of all the magical creatures in Avalon they could find, Avalon slowly began to die. To protect his lady and Avalon, Peter continued to steal children, to create his army.
Part 4 is in Captain Samuel Carver's point of view. It tells the story from a human's point of view. His only wish is to return to the world. The people do not know how much time has passed, but many still wish to return as he does. To accomplish this, they capture and torture Peter, Nick and some of the others. They learn of Avallach's Tree, the life-blood of Avalon. (Avallach is Modron, the Lady's, late father.) The settlers, the Reverend leading, set off to cut down the Tree and kill the Lady in order to return home. Peter tries to stop them but fails. They cut down the Tree, but the Lady escapes, as do many of her followers, as well as her sister the Witch and her daughters. Nick dies in the end, but not before he forces Peter to swear that he will kill Marco and protect Nick's mother. In the end, Peter finally kills Ulfger and it is revealed that Peter's father was the Horned One. Ulfger was his half-brother. Peter chooses not to go with the Lady, instead choosing to be free. (The Horned One is based on the Celtic God, Cernunnos, Herne the Hunter, Pashupati in Hindu, and the Greek Pan. This I believe is why in other stories, Peter's last name is given as Pan, as in the Child Thief, Pan is his father.)

The theme of this book is Sacrifice. It is not about whether you believe sacrifice is right or wrong, whether you would or you wouldn't... but about what you have sacrificed, what others have sacrificed, and remembering those sacrifices. No matter what, you must remember. Otherwise, those sacrifices, no matter their intention, were meaningless.
---"Your heart is heavy for the children," She continued in that low, deep, lulling tone. "Peter, that is understandable. But that will fall behind you in the new day. Once you are by my side. Once all the Faerie dances about you feet, you will forget them and the pain will fade."
"Forget them?" Peter said, shaking away the vision. "No." His voice was strong and resolute. "I will not forget them. I will never forget them." He took a step back. ---
... --- He slumped against the turtle as tears for Sekeu, Abraham, Goll, his mother, Nick, and all the Devils that had died for him poured freely down his cheeks. He slid to the grass. The list was long, but Peter sat there, eyes clenched, arms tight about his knees, until he could name every one--- every single one. ---

Peter's character underwent many major changes throughout the Child Thief. Although, his body never aged past adolescence, he was forced to grow several times. In the beginning he was innocent. He loved his mother, but was forced from her forever, shown a world of hate too early. He then learned to love Goll, and again was robbed once more. Soon after he was bewitched by the Lady, and yet a third time, forced from her side violently. Although Peter delighted in violence, in wildness, he was still affected by it. 'A chill climbed up Nick's spine. He's dead. He's dead for sure. And just for a second, Nick caught a haunted look on Peter's face. Then, as though knowing the boy's eyes were upon him, Peter's quirky smile leaped back into place. But Nick couldn't get that look out of his head. He'd seen something wild, something scary.' In the end, Peter was forced once more to grow up, to finally take responsibility for actions and to realize that he was guitly for the Devil's deaths. That maybe, he had taken them wrongfully. In this realization, Peter found freedom.

Brom uses imagery, allusion, foreshadowing and irony, to tell a story of troubled teens and hard decisions personally. An example of imagery used in the story is, "The Tree is the heart, Avalon the body, the inhabitants the soul, all three woven together, one living entity. One cannot be without the other. You are all part of this union." Brom shows us examples of allusion in the story as well by mentioning the times of Religious prosecution in Europe, and the time when English settlers arrived in America. "The new world left little room for magic or the magical creatures of old. Earth's first children were driven into the shadows by flame and cold iron, by man's insatiable need of conquest... She released the Mist to hide and guard Avalon, and the isle became a refuge, a sanctuary from the human world." He then goes on to use foreshadowing, "...Then the ships came... I watched them wade ashore in droves, boatload after boatload. Close to three hundred men and women landed, fouling our streams with their filth. Their priests planted a cold iron cross on the beach and tainted our land with their blessings. We'd fled to the farthest corner of the world to escape their tyranny and yet somehow, here they were on the very shores of our sacred Avalon." The irony in the story, is in the fact that Avalon tried to escape behind the Mist accidently trapping the settlers behind it as well. The irony here is that, the Lady will not recind the Mist to allow them to leave, for fear that more humans will come to hunt Avalon instead and that the settlers will not leave and will instead try to gain new weapons to attack her people if she does; while the settlers themselves are only killing the creatures of Avalon because they are trying to find a way out, not because they wish to stay. The irony is that if they had been willing to talk to one another hundreds of years ago, there would have been no need for all the killing. They each wanted the same thing, but both were too afraid of the other to discover this fact. And so, their fate was set.

Five words I would use to describe this story would be, chilling, infuriating, terrifying, gruesome and overwhelming.

The Catcher in the Rye

2011-01-16T19:48:00.002-05:00

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult

The Catcher in the Rye is a book about a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. It starts when he is attending Pencey Prep School. Holden has gone to many schools, because he keeps failing out of them. He receives word that he has been expelled from Pencey as well for failing at his classes, but he does not want his parents to find out that he has. After an angry encounter with his roommate in his dorm, that leaves him mad and causes him to get into a fight, he decides to leave for home and stay in a hotel for a few days until his parents will expect him back for winter break- this way they will not have to find out he failed any sooner than necessary. On the train home, he meets one of his fellow students mothers- and convinces her that her son is a well-liked,popular, talented kid at school even though that isn't the truth at all. He makes a statement about how easy lying is when you do it enough and get to be be good at it- you can make anyone believe anything. Upon checking into the hotel of his choice, he has several interesting encounters with people that leave him confused and cause him to evaluate people, his life, and life in general. He is very confused about girls' and love, and sex as well. He feels like he should be having it, but realizes that he is not ready for it. He ends up going home to see his little sister Phoebe, whom he really loves and has a lot of pride in, but he still does not want to see his parents. He admits to Phoebe that he has been expelled. Later, after having a bad incident with a former teacher, he decides to leave New York for good. Phoebe manages to convince him not to do so. Here Holden stops continuing his story; he says that he will not tell you of how he went home and got “sick”, but he does have plans to go to a new school in the fall and he hopes he will have a good future.

THEMES AND LESSONS

One of the themes in this book is the painfulness of growing up. Holden goes through so many things in this book that have a profound effect on him as a person, and cause him to grow up in the way he acts and also in the way he thinks about things; and it does not come easily for him. He can be very insightful and he has a strong hatred of people he refers to as “phonies” and he sees right into them and their superficial behavior; he feels that childhood is for innocent and carefree days and growing up causes you to become a “phony”. The phoniness of the adult world is another theme in the book. Holden sees it so easily in other people, but has a hard time seeing it in himself.

MAIN CHARACTER

Holden is a confused sixteen year old boy and is a very interesting and complex character. He is very insightful into the world around him and is very clearly troubled. The views you get into his mind and soul have a very profound effect; the earlier death of his little brother Allie has clearly stuck with him and helped create who he is. His life is changing around him and it is not something that he is comfortable with. He is so judgmental of others; but the person he really needs to be looking into his himself. The author has created a very interesting character in Holden, and one that has an effect on the reader, because on some level everyone can relate to him- and how painful growing up can sometimes be and the effect it can have on you.

LITERARY DEVICES

The book has quite a few symbols in it. There is the outrageous red hunting cap that Holden just loves. It is different and unique, something that Holden desires; he wants to be different than everyone else. He also has a love for a museum display in New York, giving the reason that everything is solid and definite and never changes. That is the world Holden wants to live in; he has a fear of change and of things that he can't understand. There is also foreshadowing in the book; he starts the book in a mental hospital of sorts and tells you that he is going to explain how he ended up there, so you have an idea of the direction the book will end up going.

Words to describe the book would be crude, interesting, frustrating, and confusion.

Book Two: The Catcher in the Rye

2011-01-16T19:10:00.002-05:00

title: The Catcher in the Rye
author: J. D. Salinger
genre: coming of age fiction

Holden Caulfield is a teenager from a well off New York family. It is almost Christmas break, and Holden finds out that he has gotten kicked out of another school due to his poor performance there. Other events lead to him getting angry and trying to fight a guy who beats him up. Holden is so tired of being at Pencey that he decides to board a train and return to Manhattan early, though without his parents knowlege. He knows that he will be in hot water when he gets home, and hopes that the letter that will be sent there will bring out most of the rage before he gets there. Anyway, when he arrives in New York, he has a few days until the letter is due to arrive, so checks himself into a hotel and tries to decide what he will do next. He decides to call a girl named Faith. It is late, and she is at first very annoyed that someone had called her so late but becomes more pleasant as the conversation goes on. They try to set up a date, but it doesn't happen. Then he hangs up and decides to go downstairs to order some drinks, but the waiter won't serve him because he is a minor. He then flirts with some older women and dances with them and talks until they leave. After that, he goes to the lobby and thinks about that girl that Stradlater was with again. He reminisced about how he met her, and some of their experiences together. Then he goes to a club somewhere else to get something to drink, but sees one of his brother's ex-girlfriends and decides to go back to the hotel. On the way up to his room, the elevator operator asks him if he wants a prostitute for the night and he says sure. She arrives, and starts to undress but he gets kind of nervous and unsure and lies to her that he had an operation and "couldn't" do anything with her. He insisted that she leave, with the five dollars. She leaves but then comes back with the elevator operater, claiming that he still owed her five bucks. However, he won't pay it and gets punched and they took the money anyway. He goes to bed and the next morning calls a girl and arranges a date for that afternoon. He had some time to kill before then, so he went and got breakfast where he ends up giving a couple of nuns ten bucks. Then he goes looking for his younger sister in the park but does not find her there. Then he goes to a museum that her class goes to weekly, but doesn't go in because he knows that she is not there. Then he goes and meets up with his date and they watch the show; then they go ice skating at radio city. She ends up getting mad at him for something that he said and leaves. He then makes a couple more phone calls, goes to a movie and then meets a guy he used to know. However, the guy gets mad and says he has to leave. Then he decides to sneak into his home to see his sister. At first, she is excited to see him and then becomes angry with him when he tells her that he got kicked out. Afterwards, he sneaks out of the apartment and goes to his old english teachers apartment. There, he tries to get some sleep but wakes up to find his teacher petting him on the head. He thought that he was a homosexual and leaves in a hurry. The next day, he goes to his sister's school and sends her a note saying that he is basically running away. She meets him with a suitcase and plans to go with him, but he will not allow it. Again, she gets mad at him and he walks to the zoo and then buys her a ticket for the carosel. While watching her, he decides not to leave and is really happy, for once. Then he just says that he doesn'f feel like telling any more and ends the story there.

I think that one theme of this book is don't just go through the motions in life, because you might miss out on the things that are worth something, or perhaps, make the best out of life. Throughout the whole book, Holden is very unmotivated and doesn't really care about anything and seems to hate everything about everyone and everything in his life. However at the end, he realizes that even though all of those people that he said he hated actually meant something to him and he was actually going to maybe try in the next school he goes to.

This book was written in Holden's point of view, with him as the narrator. Therefore, the reader knows everything that he is thinking throughout the course of the book. Also, the other people in the novel act in different ways towards him, which helps to tell what other people think of him. Other characters are described by Holden and have conversations with him, which help us to understand what they are like.

There was a lot of symbolism in this book. One that really stuck out to me was the museum of natural history. He talks about how everything looks exactly the same that it did before, and he likes it. I think that he is afraid of change, probably because of the dramatic change that came with the death of his brother, Allie. Death certainly has a great affect on people, and a lot changes with it. You are used to seeing this person every day and then suddenly, they are gone.

Some words that I would use to describe this book would be boring, descriptive, dragging and different than other books tha I have read before.

Book One: Pride and Prejudice

2011-01-16T16:13:00.003-05:00

Title: Pride and Prejudice
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: fictional romantic comedy

This story begins in the Bennet household with the news of a wealthy man named Mr. Bingley now residing in nearby Netherfield. This brings up a stir in the Bennet household, for Mr. Bingley is unmarried and the Bennets have five single daughters. After just a short time, the Bennet girls and their mother attend a ball, one which Mr. Bingley is also present along with his two sisters and his friend named Mr. Darcy. At the end of the evening, Mrs. Bennet is pleased to find that Mr. Bingley danced with her eldest daughter, Jane more than any of the other girls present and seems to have taken a liking to her. Elizabeth, the main character and the second eldest Bennet daugther has taken a disliking to Mr. Bingley's friend Mr. Darcy. This was due to an overheard conversation between Bingley and Darcy concerning her as well as his refusal to dance with anyone, for they were not good enough for him. Soon after, many of those living in the area have also come to dislike Darcy, but have taken a liking to Bingley. As the days pass, there is much talk of Mr. Bingley and his company and everything that has happened since the ball. Jane and Bingley seem to be falling in love and the reader discovers, that Darcy has begun to admire Elizabeth. Although, he cannot ignore the fact that the Bennets are not a wealthy family and would not be good to marry into. Elizabeth spends some time at Netherfield due to her sister, Jane falling ill on one of her visits there. She was invited to stay until she got better. During these days, Mrs. Bennet manages to reveal her foolishness to the party and Miss Bingley observes the admiration that Darcy has for Elizabeth and becomes jealous. Once returned home, the Bennets recieve Mr. Collins, a clergyman who is to inherit their home with the death of Mr. Bennet. During his visit, he tells Mrs. Bennet of his intention of marrying one of her daughters. As a result of the recent events between Jane and Bingley, she directs his attention toward Elizabeth. The Bennets then meet a Mr. Wickham from the malitia and find him very aimiable. During their visit with him, they encounter Darcy and notice a coldness between the two of them. Elizabeth then talks with Wickham and he tells her of his experience with Darcy. Elizabeth believes Wickham to be honest and as a result dislikes Darcy even more. A few days later, there is a ball at Netherfield. However, Elizabeth does not find much enjoyment in it due to having to dance with both Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy. The next day, Mr. Collins makes a proposal to Elizabeth, one which she refuses. Then, Miss Bingley writes to Jane telling her that she and the rest of the party will be leaving Netherfield and not returning for some time. She also says that Mr. Bingley will be wanting to marry Darcy's sister. The Bennets also recieve news that Elizabeth's friend, Charlotte will be marrying Mr. Collins. A visit from Elizabeth's aunt and uncle result in Jane going with them to London, where Jane finds Miss Bingley to be very cold towards her. After Charlotte's marriage, Elizabeth goes to visit her in her new home. There, Elizabeth meets Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine and her daughter, the one who Darcy is to marry. Then Mr. Darcy himself comes to visit his aunt and in the process, pays several visits to the Collins house. Elizabeth then finds out that Darcy had "recently saved a friend from an imprudent marriage". She realizes that it is Jane and Bingley and becomes upset. Then, Darcy barges into the parsonage and makes a proposal to her. She refuses and then makes her anger about her sister's situation and Wickham's known to Darcy. Soon after a letter arrives for her from Darcy explaining to her that he had driven away Bingley because he had thought that Jane did not feel anything for him and that Wickham is a liar. As a result, Elizabeth rethinks her feelings about Darcy and Wickham. Shortly after returning home, Wickham's regiment is restationed and Elizabeth's younger sister wishes to visit a friend there. Elizabeth then leaves home again with her other aunt and uncle and finds herself at Pemberly, Darcy's estate. Elizabeth is much enjoying her visit there when a letter arrives for her telling her that her younger sister had run away with Mr. Wickham. The disgrace of it was great and the family searched desperately for the pair. Then they were discovered and going to marry, as long as they were given an annual income. Elizabeth then discovers that the one who had found them and provided the money was Mr. Darcy. Shortly after, Mr. Bingley returnes to the area and proposes to Jane, who accepts. Then, Lady Catherine pays a visit to Elizabeth due to a rumor that she was to be married to her nephew. She insisted that she refuse him, though Elizabeth would not say that she would. Soon after, Darcy tells Elizabeth his feelings have not changed and she agrees to marry him.

I think that the theme of this book is to never judge a person before you get to know them. In this book, there are a number of characters that are judged based on what other people think, or what their family is like, their wealth, or short encounters with them. Darcy thought of everyone to be not worth knowing because they were not wealthy, when in the end, he finds that there are foolish and disagreeable wealthy people and interesting, aimiable poor people. Elizabeth was quick to jump to conclusions and formed her opinions based on short encounters with people and once her opinions were formed, it was difficult to change them. She then found that some people who may seem very likable might be truly dispicable people and others that she knows next to nothing about and thought to be awful might be very agreeable.

In this book, Jane Austen decided to help us to get to know our characters through diologue and the thoughts of our main character, Elizabeth. She also helped us get to know the characters with their actions. It was easy to see what Elizabeth was like because it was written in her point of view. All of her thoughts and feelings were made known to the reader(s) as well as her actions. Although other characters, like Darcy, were assessed by their conversations with other people as well as his actions. Mrs. Bennet was also a character that we learned a lot about based on diologue and her actions.

In this book, there is a lot of irony. One example of this would have been that it seemed that no matter where Elizabeth went, Mr. Darcy was also there. She went to see Charlotte, and Mr. Darcy came to visit his aunt at that same time. She went to his home which was supposed to be without him for a time, when he suddenly goes there, not knowing she is there. Also, after the ball Elizabeth is talking to Charlotte about Jane and Bingley. Elizabeth tells her that Jane is very much liking Bingley, but is concealing it. Charlotte says that it is a bad idea to not reveal these feelings, or she may lose him. What is ironic is that Darcy had thought her to not like Bingley due to her not showing her feelings and therefore, convinced Bingley that she was not good for him. She almost did lose him for the very reason that Charlotte had said.

I thought that some words to describe this book would be funny, clever, unpredictable, realistic and just plain awesome. :)

I'm sorry for the length, it was a long book and you couldn't leave much out. It's also really good, so I would highly recommend it. It is officially my sister and I's favorite movie ever. Just saying :)

Robinson Crusoe

2011-01-16T12:45:00.000-05:00

I would very highly recommend this book to anybody wishing to read a heart-warming story of survival and enlightenment. Daniel Defoe's addition to the genre of realistic fiction can be described with words such as dangerous, hopeful, caring, inspiring, and relentless. Lessons of blind faith and optimism are laced into the story of a boy who so longed to live at sea, and instead found isolation. Before I get into the intricacies of this wondrous story however, let us first review the plot to gain better understandings of the upcoming explanations.

Robinson Crusoe was a young lad who aspired to live a life of adventure at sea. His parents did not approve of his way of life however, so he stole away on a ship heading to London with a friend of his. On the first night, there is a terrible storm and Robin is convinced he is going to die. He prays to God and makes promises that he, ultimately, does not keep. After this encounter he is shaken, but boards another ship in London, and this journey is profitable. Again Robin boards a ship, but this one had the misfortune of being overtaken by pirates! Robin became a slave, and it took him a few years before he had the opportunity to escape. When he did, it was by boat and a kindly captain picked him up and took him to Brazil. There, Robinson created a plantation for himself, and was doing quite well. Still the allure of the sea was too much, and he decides to man a slave-gathering expedition for himself and a few friends. This journey, however, was cut short when a storm run their ship onto a sandbar.
Later Robin discovers that he was the sole survivor of his ship, and is now alone on a strange island. After exploring the island for food and shelter, Robin makes 12 trips to his ship (still on the sandbar) to gather supplies. He manages to recover clothing, guns, gunpowder, some parchment and ink, and even food. He erects a cross on the beach where he woke up, and makes a notch in it for every day that he spends on the island. It serves as a sort of calender to him. After many endeavors, Mr. Crusoe falls ill with a grave disease. He cannot eat or drink well, and lays in bed for days at a time. Finally he has what he believes to be a vision from God, telling him to repent or die. Robin realizes that he hasn't prayed or even thought of God since he landed on the island, and immediately falls to his knees and prays for forgiveness. After that he begins to feel safer and more confident during his island stay. He proceeds to train a pet parrot, take a goat as a pet, and develop skills in basket weaving, bread making, and pottery. He makes a few boats to attempt escape, one of which fails because it is too large. The other is too small and he almost dies because a current swept him very far away from shore. After that Robin tends to stay close to the coastline in his little boat, and he spends several years living peacefully.
One day, Robin finds a footprint in the sand. He is completely terrified, and he tried to hide all signs that he'd ever been on the island. He was terrified that the cannibals had come to his island, and he didn't want them to know that he was there. He spread his goat herd into three parts and concealed them each extensively. He never went out of his fortress without at least one gun, and he never felt safe on his island again.
One day, when Robin discovers some cannibals on his island, Robin decides to surprise them , and take one of their prisoners as a servant. This ambush turns out very well, and Robin soon convinces his saved captive that he is a good guy. Robin names his servant Friday, and teaches him English so that they can trade stories and otherwise generally converse. This works very well, and Friday is ever obedient to Robin. In fact, when Robin and Friday build a boat to take Friday back to his homeland, Friday admits that he does not want to go back if Robin does not want to go to. He says that he wants to be with Robin, no matter where that may be.
Friday is alarmed one day by an English ship off the coast. It seemed to have stopped, and rowboats were approaching Robin's island. Friday and Crusoe watch as eleven men take three captives onshore. Nine of the men explore the land, leaving two to guard the captives. Our two main characters easily overpower these guards, and discover that one of the captives was the captain of the ship! Apparently the sailors called mutiny and banished their captain. However, the captain explains, most of the man are honest, and only went along with the banishment. If they can convince them to take the captain back, they could regain control of the ship. Robin is delighted and gather up a small party to go aboard the ship. When they come back successful, Crusoe is overjoyed. he can finally go back to England!
The ship's calendar tell Robin that he was on the island for twenty-eight years, two months, and 19 days. It took the ship 6 months to reach England, and when he arrived Robin realized that he was very much a stranger in his own homeland. His only living relatives were two sisters he barely knew; both his parents were long dead. The captain he saved on the island gave him a considerable amount of money in thanks, but Crusoe knew it wasn't enough for himself and Friday to live off of. Robin tried to reclaim his plantation in Brazil, but it was a long process that involved proving that he was indeed Robinson Crusoe. Once this was done however, Robin discovered that his plantation was very profitable and he was indeed quite rich.
Despite being in his fifties, our dear Robin married and had three children. Friday stayed his faithful servant, and Mr. Crusoe's life became very comfortable indeed.

I believe that the theme of this book is to keep faith, even when life looks grim. Even though Robin was on his island for almost three decades, he never stopped looking to the horizon. The sights of ships always excited him, and he never stopped looking for salvation. Even when he became comfortable in his island home, he kept faith in the prospect of rescue. He also kept his religious faith, even when it seemed that God had abandoned him on the island. The bible became his tangible life-line, and he prayed everyday. Keeping faith is a very good lesson, and the story of Robinson Crusoe teaches it well.

I thought that the author came out and described the character of Robinson quite often. When it came to Robin's thoughts of killing the cannibals, Defoe came out and tells you that Robin couldn't bring himself to kill a man; he was too compassionate. When it came to Robin's "adoption" of Friday, the author comes right out and tells us that he is scared that Friday will try and take advantage of him, and that he feels he must maintain control. In this book you had to deduce very little about the main character, and most of it was presented to you.

As for literary devices, this book contains lots of symbolism. The footprint Robin finds in the sand symbolizes his conflicted feelings about human companionship. He is longing for a friend earlier in the book, but the sight of human evidence sends him into a panic. He never once thinks that the footprint could belong to an angel or fellow European. He immediately assumes it is the devil, or cannibals.
The cross that Crusoe sets up on the beach to keep time symbolizes his new life, just like Christians use the cross to symbolize their new life in Christ. Robin uses it to keep time, but it can be seen as a symbol of his movement into a new stage of his life, a stage completely revolving around him.
The things that Mr. Crusoe consumes are also symbolic. As Robin becomes more at ease with his surroundings and his condition, he begins to become more diverse. When he first arrives on the island, he eats nothing but wild goats and birds. However, as we progress further into the book, his diet diversifies to include things such as grains and fruit. When Robin is at the peak of luxury, he even has raisins to eat. The things that contribute to robin's diet symbolize Robin's status on the island.

I would very highly recommend this book to anyone searching for an exotic story of survival and keeping faith.

Book Three: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

2011-01-16T11:45:00.001-05:00

By: Ken Kesey
Dramatic Fiction

The story is told by a patient in a mental hospital in the 60’s, Chief Bromden, who is part Indian and pretends to be deaf and dumb in order to keep attention off of himself. Chief Bromden tells the story of when Randle McMurphy is admitted into the ward. McMurphy is admitted and starts to set everything off balance in the hospital. He jokes about the nurses and the policies of the ward, and ruins the normal order of everything there. He soon reveals that he is a gambler and a con artist, who talked his way into going to the mental hospital rather than going to prison, because it would be easier. McMurphy sees that all of the patients are scared of the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. McMurphy gets bored of the same routine in the hospital, so he makes a bet with the other patients that he can emotionally break down Nurse Ratched, so they will not fear her as much. McMurphy starts to do everything he can to get to her, including making fun of her, her orderlies, her policies, and even getting the other patients to join him in changing some of the rules. He eases up on the torment however when he finds out that Nurse Ratched is in charge of saying when he can get released of the ward. He eases up on her, but not by much. He gets Chief Bromden to talk to him, and very quickly they become close friends. He gets a new sense of confidence and sneaks the patients out of the hospital in order to take them on a fishing trip. During the trip, he notices that the patients start to act with more confidence and are slowly losing their fears. Even though the trip was actually beneficial for the patients, they are found and taken back to the hospital where stricter rules are put into place. McMurphy and Chief Bromden get into a fight with some of the orderlies and are sent away for shock therapy. Even though shaken up over it, they continue to rebel against Nurse Ratched. McMurphy and the patients plan for McMurphy to escape, but he stays when he thinks of his own plan to sneak a girl into the hospital to meet up with one patient, Billy. They sneak the girl into the ward and she spends the night with Billy as McMurphy and the other patients have fun throughout the ward while the orderly is distracted. The next morning, Nurse Ratched finds Billy in bed with the girl, and she threatens to tell Billy’s parents of his actions. Billy becomes very upset and terrified to the point that he kills himself so he doesn’t have to deal with the punishment. McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched and attempts to kill her, but is taken away by the orderlies where he is forced to get a lobotomy. When McMurphy returns, he is not the same in anyway. He no longer speaks or really has any life to him at all. Chief Bromden, frustrated, angry, and overcome with grief, takes it upon himself to kill McMurphy with a pillow so he doesn’t have to live the rest of his life in that state. Chief Bromden then escapes the ward and runs away.

I think a theme from this novel is very close to Sarah’s essential question from last year’s English class, that there is a thin line between the abnormal/insane and the normal. McMurphy was able to talk his way into going to the mental hospital instead of jail, so he really wasn’t “insane”, but was able to act the part and treated as though he was. The other patients, once they were able to get a taste of the real world, started to act normal, which showed how easily they were able to become normal, which makes one think if they were really insane in the first place.

Randle McMurphy, the main character of this book is an interesting person to follow. He represents rebellion and the real world when he enters the ward. He is able to give the patients a taste of life outside the hospital and allow them to step outside of their comfort zones in order to start to get over their fears. Although he is a criminal and a con artist, he is the protagonist and helps the patients to start becoming normal by rebelling against the rules of the hospital. He is a complicated character, because even though he would be seen as the “bad guy” in society for being a criminal, he was the only hope for the patients inside the ward.

The use of symbols is everywhere throughout this book. This book can be taken as Nurse Ratched represents society, and McMurphy represents freedom and rebellion. Imagery is also used to describe the hospital and the patients very clearly, in order for the reader to truly get what the author wants to get across to us as the reader.

Five words I would use to describe One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would be thought-provoking, rebellious, gripping, disheartening, and dramatic.

The Chocolate War

2011-01-15T21:18:00.003-05:00

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Genre: Young Adult/ Fiction

In this book Jerry Renault, a freshman at a high school by the name of Trinity, is given an assignment by the Vigils to not sell chocolates at the school's annual chocolate sale. The Vigils were a not-so-secret yet “secret” and elite group of kids, a gang really, that ran the school and took delight in forcing kids to do bad and challenging things through “assignments”. Brother Leon, a teacher at the school, asks Archie, the leader of the Vigils and the one who comes up with the assignments given to the students, if they would support the chocolate sale, and Archie agrees. Before the chocolate sale, Jerry is given the assignment to refuse to sell chocolates. For Archie to give Jerry such an assignment went completely against the promise he had made to Brother Leon. Everyone is shocked by Jerry's refusal and some even admire him for his guts to refuse. For a while, Jerry becomes a bit of a hero, for rebelling against the expectations placed on him, and the students consider following in his footsteps. Brother Leon is panicked until he finds out that the Vigil assignment was only for Jerry to refuse to sell chocolates for ten days, and he anticipates Jerry agreeing to sell on the tenth day, and so does the whole school. But on the tenth day, Jerry again says no, shocking the whole school and even himself. The Vigils decide to threaten Jerry to accept the chocolates and no longer refuse, but he holds strong and keeps on refusing. The Vigils decide to use social pressure to get Jerry to cave; They back the chocolate sale and make selling it and supporting the school cool, and make Jerry appear like a total jerk and against the school, and he is suddenly hated. Jerry still does not cave, even when the contents of his locker are destroyed and everyone treats him terribly. The Vigils decide to take physical action and he is beat up, and he still refuses to give in and sell. At this point all of the chocolates are sold, and Jerry hopes that the chocolate sale will be forgotten and and his torment will end. But Archie will not let this happen; he has something in mind for Jerry. He organizes a fight between Jerry and school thug Emile Janza, in which raffle tickets are sold to the students. The tickets give the kids the option to write down what hits Jerry and Emile will get to do to each other during the fight. Jerry ends up getting severely beat up and is defeated in body and in spirit; he wishes he had never fought against society because as he sees it, you can't win. The Vigils end up winning, and retain control of the the school.

THEMES

One of the themes of the book is disturbing the universe. This is what Jerry does in his own little universe, in the school and the way the Vigils run it- he disturbs it. He challenges the Vigils and the control they have always had, the natural order in which the Vigils always had complete control and no one ever dared to challenge them, before Jerry. That Jerry defies them disturbs the universe and has big ramifications. For a while, Jerry has other people questioning the Vigils as well, but this does not last long and Jerry becomes the outcast of the school for disturbing the universe. The fight at the end is a result of Jerry daring to disturb the universe that the Vigils have created, and them wanting Jerry's blood for threatening it. Psychological Warfare is another theme, in that the Vigils use it to try and deal with Jerry and force him to conform. Also Archie's ability to effect the students psychologically with his assignments has a lot more of an effect; he doesn't normally have to resort to physical harm.

MAIN CHARACTER CHARACTERIZATION

Jerry is a very interesting character. At first he is shy, timid, and just wants to fit in; he is emotionally damaged by the recent death of his mother. He joins the football team and wants to change his life for the better. The chocolate sale and his assignment catches him unaware, and so does what he discovers within himself; he does not want to conform to the school or the Vigils. He just wants to live his life the way he wants to, and he is determined to do that; even when the Vigils make his life a living hell, he thinks that he can somehow win. He is strong in what he wants to do and does not back down, until the raffle fight leaves him defeated and broken and feeling like the universe is not something that someone should dare to disturb and he was stupid for even trying. The author creates a very likable, relate-able, and root-able character in Jerry, and he creates the perfect villains striving against Jerry; the combination is a great achievement for the author.

LITERARY DEVICES

The author uses symbolism. The chocolates being sold, or rather the ones Jerry refuses to sell, symbolize his defiance and refusal to conform to the Vigils. Jerry's poster that he has hanging on his locker that reads, “Do I dare disturb the Universe?” is a symbol of Jerry daring to disturb the universe. There is foreshadowing in the story as well. At one point in the story, Jerry's friend Goober is given the assignment to destroy Room Nineteen and leave it just about to fall apart; the rest of the students, when they enter it, finish the job of destruction. The students helped with the assignment, the same way they help drive the situation with Jerry refusing to sell the chocolates to the point of the raffle fight and consequently create a even more solid control over the school for the Vigils.

Good words to describe the book would be male-dominated, relate-able, defiance, disturbing, and consequences.

The Secret Garden

2011-01-15T21:16:00.009-05:00

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Genre: Young Adult, Romance

The Secret Garden is a novel written in the early 1900's about life's journeys paralleling a hidden garden. It is a story of adventure, fascination, and friendship. It all starts when Mary, a young girl living in India, loses her parents (who have always neglected her) to cholera. She is sent to her uncle, Mr. Craven, to his home(Misselthwaite) in England. Mary is a selfish, needy, devil-child who has no friends, and doesn't want to try to make them. She wants everybody to always do everything for her. When she arrives at her uncles, she is told that she will not see him and that he does not want to see her anyway. She has a servant, Martha, who doesn't understand why the sour, ungrateful child has to have everything done for her. She was then told of the garden that had been locked up for years, because Mr. Cravens wife had fallen out of a tree and faced injuries that caused her death. Mary finds the secret garden's key thanks to a robin; but the garden was dead and gloomy. She became close to the garden through her want to make things grow and flourish, and she becomes a very flamboyant girl who is full of color, excitement, and energy. Her personality changes entirely from the secret garden that she found and tends to. She makes friends with another gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, who is very close to the robin and can read it very well. She also becomes friends with someone else who is very close to nature and animals; someone who Martha told her of. His name was Dickon, a bright, charming boy who lived on the moor for all of his life. He and Mary work in the garden together to make it grow and come alive.

One night, she hears a child's cries; she sets out to find the source, though she's forbidden to. She finds a boy, Colin, who she finds is Mr. Craven's son, or her very own cousin. Just like her, his parent wished that he would become fatally ill. Colin had convinced himself that he was going to die and have a hunchback like his father. He treated everyone poorly, except for Mary, who finds interest and creates a friendship with him. He changes; Mary is able to make him understand that he's in good health and that he will not die like everyone says. He begs for Dickon and Mary to take him to secret garden. They take him there in his wheelchair, and he comes alive, just like the plants do. Ben climbs up a ladder and sees them in there playing and laughing. He had been tending to the thousands of roses that were growing each year, because that's what Mrs. Craven would've wanted. He is shocked to see Colin, who everyone was led to believe had a crooked back and was a cripple. They let Ben into the garden, and there facing him was Colin; standing tall without his wheelchair. The rest, I'm not telling you. It will ruin it. :)

The book teaches compassion; it teaches to love one another and to reach out to others. It teaches us to respect nature and its bearings. We are taught to believe in ourselves and in the healing power of nature and its magic. There are many lessons taught in this book, some deep, and some very obvious. But, I'm not going to bring up personal opinions and views that can be paralleled from the story. Its a very enlightening story that leaves your mind to imagining the wonders of the world, nature, and God.

Mary Lennox is a very complex character in the story. She changes drastically from the beginning to the end, as she begins to grow up and see the world differently. She starts as a very harsh, rude character and blossoms, like her garden's flowers, into a wonderful, caring, compassionate girl. She is characterized by her vivid descriptions of her actions and thoughts. She has very dark thoughts about people and everything around her in the beginning, while by the end her thoughts are beautiful. Burnett (the author) does a great job of describing to us other people's thoughts, feelings, and reactions to her throughout the story. This makes us able to follow her changes in personality easier.

Burnett uses many literary devices throughout the story, a main one being imagery through metaphors, similes, onomatopoeias, and personifications when describing the plants, people, and animals involved with the garden. He uses allegory when describing events that parallel the bible; symbolism is used often throughout.

I would describe The Secret Garden as vivid, compassionate, interesting, moving, changing, and adventurous.

The Glass Menagerie

2011-01-15T19:59:00.002-05:00

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Genre- tragedy; family drama

The play starts with an older version of Tom, the narrator of the play and a main character, talking about how the play is a memory of his, and that he is turning back time to tell you a story about a period of time in his life. It becomes a story beyond just events in Tom's memories; some of the scenes Tom himself did not witness. The play is set in America in the 1930's. It tells the story of Tom Wingfield and of his sister Laura and his mother Amanda. Tom is working at a job he hates, not making very much money, to support himself, Laura, and Amanda. His father had left years before. He had been a telephone man who 'fell in love with long distances', and the only word the family had had of him since was a postcard containing two-words, “Hello-Goodbye!”. This leaves a lot of responsibility on Tom's shoulders. Tom hates the thought of working at the job he has for the rest of his life, and he deals with this by writing poetry and spending as much time away from the apartment, and his family, as possible. Amanda is not completely mentally there, and she imagines situations from her past, when she was young and rich and all of the men wanted her and she could have had her pick of them, but she had the misfortune to fall in love with Tom and Laura's father. Her denial of reality is her way of dealing with the terrible way her life has turned out. The fading of the glory that she recalls once having leads her to want Laura to be more popular and social, and when she finds out that Laura had quit a business course she had been taking because it made her nervous and sick, Amanda decides that Laura must get married for the well being of them both, because marriage is the only way Laura will be able to make something of herself if she refuses to work towards getting a good job. Laura is shy, and has a slight disability – one of her legs is slightly longer than the the other- that has always made her self-conscious. She is very reliant on others and has a childlike innocence, and a collection of glass pieces that she cherishes. She is childlike in a lot of ways, not very mature for her age, and keeps to herself. Amanda talks to Tom about the possibility of him bringing home a nice boy from work to dinner to introduce as a possible suitor for Laura. He eventually announces that he his going to bring home Jim O'Connor, causing Amanda to prepare extensively in the hope that he could become Laura's husband. On the night of the date, when Laura learns that the man's name is Jim O'Connor, she becomes very nervous because she had had a major crush on a boy with that name in high school, but had always been to shy to let him know. It turns out that it is the same man. Laura and Jim end up spending time alone together, and they seem to hit it off very well. Jim helps Laura come out of her shell and she opens up to him, and he tells her that she should have more self confidence, as she is a beautiful girl and her disability is hardly noticeable. She shows him her glass collection, specifically a glass unicorn, and he lays it on the table and invites her to dance. They do so, and in the process bump into the table, and the unicorn falls to the ground and its horn breaks off. Laura is not upset- she tells Jim that now the unicorn will feel more like the other horses, the ones who do not have horns, and she will imagine that the horn was removed to make it less freakish. Jim ends up kissing her, and then reveals that he is engaged to another girl and very much in love with her and must leave to go and meet up with her, and it was not his intention for this to happen or for him to hurt Laura's feelings. He leaves, and Laura is crushed, all of the hope she had been feeling is gone as well as the possibility of her gaining confidence in herself. Tom, sick of his work and supporting the family and thinking that he is his father's son and will act like him, has decided to leave, feeling the desire to travel and escape. He does so, after having an argument with his mother following Jim leaving the apartment, and doesn't return. The play then jumps back to an older version of Tom, reminiscing on what had followed. He says that he left St Louis, and followed in his father's footsteps, but every time he passed a store window front displaying glass, he could feel Laura's hand on his shoulder, and the memories would come back and he would think about how he had tried to leave Laura and his memories behind him, but he is more faithful than he ever intended to be and can't get her out of his head. He is always searching for something, anything, that will blow Laura's candle out.

THEMES

One of the themes of the book is the impossibility of true escape. Tom wants to escape the life he views as a prison, taking care of his mother and sister and barely getting by, and achieve freedom by leaving. But he cannot escape the guilt he feels for abandoning them and he is haunted by it; he achieves physical escape but not emotional escape. It shows that you can try and run from something but it will always stick with you, and you can never truly escape it. Another theme is how difficult it sometimes can be to accept reality. The main characters have all withdrawn into their own little worlds where they find the happiness and comfort that the real world does not give them. For example, Laura's love of glass animals that she views as being as delicate and fanciful as she is; Tom is able to function in the real world as far as holding down a job and talking to strangers, but he cannot form friendships or personal relationships and prefers absorbing himself in movies, literature, and alcohol; Amanda, longing for financial and social success for her and her children, but unable to accept that she is or should be in a lower status than the southern belle she used to be, or acknowledge that Laura is peculiar and Tom is not going to be a successful businessman and that she might be somewhat responsible.

Main Character Description

Tom is a very complex character. In the story he tells of his younger days, he is working at a job he hates and is trying to find a way to deal with his unhappiness. He works during the day and escapes to the movie theaters at night, seeking the adventure he craves. He takes joy in reading and in writing poetry, and is something of a dreamer. He loves his mother and sister, but he feels that his father is a bastard and he is destined to be one also and to leave just like his father did. His push for freedom and escape leads him to abandon his mother and sister, but he never gets over the guilt he feels for doing it, based on what the older Tom says. The author created him in a way that you can relate to him but you also feel anger towards him; You understand his desire for freedom and his own life away from being stuck taking care of his grown mother and sister and working at a job he hates without improvement, but the way he sometimes treats his family and the way he leaves and never contacts them again does not make him likable.

Literary Devices

The author uses symbolism as a literary device. For example, the glass unicorn represents Laura's peculiarity. Unicorns are different, unusual, extinct in modern times, in a very similar way to Laura. When the horn of the unicorn is broken off, it becomes more normal, in the same way Laura becomes more normal when Jim kisses her, but the sudden normalcy thrust upon Laura and the way it abruptly hits her only to be let down, leaves her shattered, just like the glass unicorn. The fire escape outside the apartment is also a symbol. Laura falls on it at one point, in a way showing her inability to escape; in contrast, Tom often goes out onto it to smoke and think about his eventual escape. The author also uses foreshadowing, giving hints throughout the story that Tom wouldn't be able to resist the urge he has to leave. At one part of the play, Tom is explaining a magic trick he had seen, in which the magician manages to escape the coffin without dislodging a single nail. He states that it is very simple for a man to get stuck in a coffin situation, but who has ever managed to get out of such a situation without even dislodging one nail? He says that that is what he wishes he could do; this foreshadows that he will eventually leave, and it is also symbolism in that Tom's life is his coffin and he wants to get out of it without causing any harm to his sister and mother.

Four words that could be used to describe the book would be interesting, thought-provoking, maddening, and well-written.

Go Ask Alice

2011-01-15T19:05:00.004-05:00

Go Ask Alice

Author: Anonymous

Genre: Bildungsroman (coming-of-age); epistolary

Themes/Lessons: Accept yourself for who you are and embrace it and don't let anything get in the way of who you are. A lesson I got from this novel is that sometimes, you may feel that you can trust somebody, but you really can't. Also, one lapse in judgement and your life can be ruined in an instant.

Plot:

An anonymous girl, who we learn to call her Alice starts off the story. This diary that she keeps describes the hardships and confusing time of a 15 year-old-girl's life. After her father gets a new job as a professor and moves Alice's family, Alice starts to experience troubles. After her new friend Beth goes to summer camp, she decides she wants to get out too and spends the summer with her grandparents where she unknowingly tries LSD at a party. She then struggles internally with herself; she enjoyed the trip from the LSD, but she knows drugs are bad and destructive. After her vow to not use drugs again, she starts using again and her life starts to spiral downward. She then turns "hippie" like after meeting her new friend Chris, alienates herself from her family, and starts selling drugs. After some more disturbing events Chris and Alice move to San Francisco. After more drug use, Alice realizes that her "friends," Sheila and her boyfriend have been sexually abusing her. Alice is horrified and moves back home where she is caught using drugs with Chris, put on probation and is forced to see a psychiatrist. When she hitchhikes to Denver later on, she learns of drug users' terribly life-styles and vows to never use again. After staying clean and moving back home, she develops a stable relationship with her father. She then starts studying at the university he teaches at and starts to turn her life around. She also meets Joel while studying and forms a strong bond with him. I'll stop here, for the end is worth the anticipation.

Main Character:

Alice is an anonymous protagonist who relies on her diary to get her through her troublesome teenage life. She is intelligent and sets goals for herself, but after she makes the choice to experiment with drugs, the rest of the book is her trying to claw her way out of the hole society and herself has dug for her. As an average teenage girl she struggles with her sexuality, trying to find her place in society, loneliness and her self-esteem issues. She is portrayed in such a way so that her character can reach out to readers and to show them an unpleasant side of society in the 1960's. Alice is also a person who people can learn from and maybe not make the same mistakes she has.

Literary Devices:

Personification: Alice's diary is an example of personification. As her only true companion she whole-heartily trusts it. Alice talks to her diary as if it is her best friend. She has conversations with it and tells her deepest feelings. Alice also acts as if it is a real person and can offer advice and tell her what to do or try to console her during her low times of life.

Foreshadowing: Alice's dreams of maggots and worms eating her alive is the telling of what is to come. The maggots and worms standing for drugs tells us that the drugs she uses will eventually take over her life and she will have no control over the events that are inevitable. Alice also dreams of the maggots and worms eating away her grandparents dead corpses, which tells us of her future downfall due to her drug intake.

I would describe this book as emotional, thought-provoking, sympathetic, scary, confusing, and compelling. Even though this book really hit me hard at first, I would recommend that every teenage girl or anyone should read this book.

Book Two: Wuthering Heights

2011-01-15T18:03:00.001-05:00

By: Emily Bronte
Gothic Romance

The story begins with Mr. Lockwood visiting his landlord, Heathcliff, at his estate, Wuthering Heights. He sees a young woman and a boy that appears to be a servant. He judges the scene as being weird, and it gets worse when he is forced to stay there. He finds books and notes from a girl named Catherine. That night he see Catherine in his dreams and leaves first thing in the morning, and when he arrives back at his house, Thrushcross Grange, his housekeeper begins to tell Lockwood the story of Catherine and Wuthering Heights. The story then goes back to 30 years before, when Heathcliff is a homeless boy living on the streets. The wealthy owner of Wuthering Heights, Mr. Earnshaw, finds Heathcliff and takes him to Wuthering Heights and adopts him into his family. Heathcliff meets his new family, a young boy named Hindley, and a girl named Catherine. Catherine and Heathcliff become very good friends quickly, but Hindley gets jealous of Heathcliff and the attention he receives from Earnshaw and Catherine. Three years later, Earnshaw dies, and Hindley returns from college with his wife, Frances, and Hindley takes over as the owner of Wuthering Heights. Hindley, still feeling bitter towards Heathcliff, makes Heathcliff almost like a servant. Heathcliff and Catherine are still close friends, and one day while playing in Thrushcross Grange, Catherine gets injured and is taken in by Edgar and Isabella. Two years later, Catherine and Edgar have become lovers, and plan on getting married. Catherine admits though that she loves Heathcliff, but could never marry him because of his social status. Heathcliff runs away to become a gentleman, and returns 3 years later after Catherine and Edgar had gotten married. To get back at Edgar, Heathcliff and Isabella develop a relationship. Heathcliff gets married to Isabella and return to Wuthering Heights. Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, but dies in the process. Isabella then runs away and gives birth to her and Heathcliff’s child, Linton. Hindley also dies, leaving Heathcliff as the owner of Wuthering Heights, and the guardian of Hindley’s daughter, Hareton. 12 years later, Isabella becomes ill and Heathcliff brings Linton to Wuthering Heights. 3 more years later, Cathy comes to visit Linton and Hareton at Wuthering Heights, and she becomes friends with Linton. When Edgar becomes ill, Cathy is held captive by Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights so she will marry Linton. Cathy escapes, but Heathcliff becomes the owner of Thrushcross Grange also, she is forced to live with Heathcliff and Hareton even after Linton dies. Cathy becomes distant from everyone and is now the girl from the beginning of the story. Lockwood informs Heathcliff that he is going to move, but ends up staying at Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff treats Hareton the way that he himself was treated, and confines Hareton to the barn. Cathey and Hareton develop a relationship, much like how Catherine and Heathcliff had, and they plan to get married.

The theme of this novel to me would be that history can repeat itself. The way they all treated each other caused a final outcome in which the second generation started to go through the same situation. Another theme could be that love is complicated. Catherine and Heathcliff married people who they didn’t love, and it caused a chain reaction of events, but everything would’ve been simpler if they had followed their hearts and married each other.

The main character, Heathcliff is a very complicated person. At the beginning he is the protagonist, and you want him to succeed, because you feel bad for him and we are use to the traditional love story. But because he was treated wrongly by Hindley and Edgar, and lost the love of his life, he had grown bitter and slowly became the antagonist to the second generation.

Emily Bronte uses imagery very well in this story so you can imagine the scenes easily and become even more connected to the story. Repetition is also used when the author has history repeating itself in the different generations.

Four words I would use to describe this novel would be vengeful, dramatic, heartbreak, and gloomy.

Book One: Pride and Prejudice

2011-01-15T15:34:00.001-05:00

By: Jane Austen
Romantic Satire

Within the Bennet family, lives Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, and their five unmarried daughters. Mrs. Bennet worries that if her husband were to die, that her daughters would not get any of the estate, which causes a panic in order to get them married. The novel begins with the Bennet family at a local dance in which two bachelors, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, also attend. Mr. Bingley is received by the community as charming and friendly, while Mr. Darcy seems to be more stand-offish, cold, and finds himself superior to the locals. The one Bennet daughter, Elizabeth, matches his pride by judging him prematurely and treating him with distaste. Elizabeth’s sister, Jane, takes interest in Mr. Bingley, and the two of them begin to grow closer. Mr. Darcy begins to grow feelings for Elizabeth, although Elizabeth does not feel the same after talking to Mr. Wickham. Wickham explains to Elizabeth that Darcy has done him wrong in the past, and that adds to Elizabeth’s bad impression of Darcy. Mr. Collins arrives to find a wife amongst the Bennet sisters. Collins soon proposes to Elizabeth, but she rejects him. Collins quickly moves on and marries Elizabeth’s good friend, Charlotte. At Charlotte and Collin’s wedding, Elizabeth starts to like Darcy, but those feelings do not last long after she finds out that Darcy was responsible for Bingley leaving Jane. Darcy does not know that Elizabeth had found out, and proposes to her. She rejects him and explains that she knows about Darcy’s mistreatment of Wickham, and that he had sabotaged Bingley and Jane’s relationship. Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth explaining that Wickham had lied and that he split up Bingley and Jane to protect Bingley. Elizabeth is left to think about her impressions of Darcy and questions her tendency to judge others. Several months later, Elizabeth meets back up with Darcy at his estate and notices that he has changed a lot and is now much kinder, politer, and has lost his sense of self superiority. She begins to grow feelings for him again, and Darcy soon proposes to Elizabeth again, and she accepts. Bingley also proposes to Jane, who also accepts.

The theme of this novel is to not be quick to judge. There are many lessons, some of which include that judging people prematurely can lead to you being proven wrong. I also got from the story that you should get both sides of the story, which would have made Elizabeth’s life easier if she had asked Darcy about the stories she had heard about him.

Elizabeth is the main character of this novel, and she is clever and witty, but also quick to judge others. There is hypocrisy in her character, because she judges others on first impressions, and will treat them badly if the first impression is not a good one. She dislikes people for acting snobby, but she also has a tendency to act that way too. At the end of the novel, she learns from her mistakes and not only changes the way she lives, but also taught her sister to not make the same mistakes as she did, and to be more open and not to judge based on first impressions.

A large literary device that is used in this novel is dramatic irony. There were several times when that was used, like when Darcy did not know that Elizabeth had heard bad stories about him, and he had tried to propose to her. Dramatic irony is also used when Collins tries to propose to Elizabeth, thinking that she was completely single, but she really had feelings for Darcy.

If I was to describe this novel in five words, I would use romantic, charming, clever, cliché, and satirical.

The Chocolate War

2011-01-15T10:30:00.006-05:00

The Chocolate War

Author: Robert Cormier
Genre: young adult; fiction
Themes/Lessons: Never back down; even through all the hard-ships, stand strong for what you believe in. The lesson I got from this book is that sometimes it is good to make a stand and name for yourself, but is it worth it? Should you put yourself out on limb to try to make yourself better, or stay where you are?

Plot:

Jerry Renault is a freshman at Trinity High School, an all boys school. As a freshman Jerry starts to experience the happenings at Trinity and who really runs the school; the Vigils. An elite mysterious and secret group or club headed by a brilliant, somewhat malicious, no fear Archie Costello. Archie's role in the Vigils is to create assignments for certain chosen kids to complete. The first of Jerry's acquaintances to be assigned is his friend The Goober. After that, no one is safe from the inevitable Archie. After this, the annual Trinity chocolate sale is underway. Archie is called in to the second-in-command headmaster, Brother Leon's office, to talk some business. Brother Leon knows about Archie's secret and the Vigils, although he is not supposed too. Sensing a bit of panic in Brother Leon's request, Archie commits to helping the chocolate sale become even more of a success than last year. When Jerry is given the assignment to refuse to sell the chocolates for 10 days, the "universe" is somewhat disturbed. When Jerry decides to act beyond the assignment, the tracts of many daily happenings are thrown off course and many people are angry, surprised and a little astounded. As the story continues, Jerry and other important characters start to question themselves, others, the Vigils, and the universe as a whole.

Main Character:

At first Jerry is a timid teenage high school students going through many new things at once. But as he starts to gain confidence, he starts doing things that have more of an impact than his original purpose meant to have. He is the type of person who, no matter what situation he is put in, never complains. He takes the punches, sometimes literally, gets back up and continues on with his life. Jerry is a level-headed boy just trying to fit in and gain respect from his peers. I think Cormier creates Jerry the way he does so he can be a relate able character to boys of his age and going through some of the same problems he is. He also puts Jerry as a protagonist, which in another story he would possibly be the antagonist.

Literary Devices:

Symbolism: The chocolate represents the chance that Jerry is given to take a stand that others are afraid of doing; like it is finally his turn to shine. question he asks himself.
Foreshadowing: Room Nineteen events; the doom and destruction that happens in the first part of the book, and in the room is evidence of what to come. Another piece of foreshadowing is when Jerry's locker poster, "Do I dare disturb the universe?" is mentioned in the beginning of the novel. This gives us hints of what to come and the internal & external conflicts Jerry will experience.
Repetition: Throughout the book Jerry says "I'm Jerry Renault and I'm not going to sell the chocolates" to drive the point of the book, the mood, and to set the tone. Another piece of of repetition is Brother Leon constantly inquiring the sale of the chocolates to all students and to Jerry who says "no" numerous times. This shows determination, which is a big part of the book.

Overall I would describe this book as defiant, relate able, male-oriented, and persistent.

The Catcher in the Rye

2011-01-13T19:55:00.010-05:00

The Catcher in the Rye. J. D. Salinger

Genre: Realistic fiction, Young-adult

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel is about a 16 year old boy making the transition from a child to an adult. He tells the story about a couple days after he failed out of school from a mental hospital. The whole book is telling us why he's in the hospital. Holden Caulfield is the main character, a confused, scared kid who failed out of multiple schools, and acts much older than he is. He is constantly calling and meeting with girls, going to bars, drinking, smoking, and trying to live on his own. He is afraid to become an adult all throughout the story; he wants to remain a kid but he can't anymore. He's trying to save himself, and his young sister from things in life such as sex. He focuses a lot on sex throughout the story-- he can't seem to help himself as a teenage boy. He even has an encounter with a prostitute in his hotel room, but he realizes that he's really not ready for sex and he made her leave. It's a turning point in the story, where he starts realizing he doesn't have to act like adults do at this time in his life. There isn't a distinctive climatic part of the story, but a few really. I'm not going to tell you them though. Oh, and since we discussed the ending in class, that's pretty much how the book ends; he just says he doesn't feel like saying more, and that he misses people who he told things to. It's really the most compassion he shows in the whole story, because he's always judging people and calling them "phonies."

The story teaches many things. It teaches us that we will outgrow our childhood someday, but we don't always have to be instant adults when we start to mature. It teaches that motivation and being persistent will create a better, happier life for you, especially on the subject of school. The book makes us aware of how different adulthood is from childhood; it makes us see that life doesn't get easier as you grow up. One of the lessons taught is to not completely forget about the people and events from your childhood, as you would see in the end. But, I'm not going to tell you it! The Catcher in the Rye also shows us the effects of always being alone. Sometimes in life you need to be with your family and friends instead of living your life by yourself.

Holden Caulfield is a 16 year old boy who lives at the schools he attends. His home is in New York City though, he has a younger sister, Phoebe, and a young brother that died. Holden is at times the only person who hates himself; he's very self conscious and he is focused on how others perceive him. Salinger characterizes Holden by making him a nervous, unsure teenage boy going through changes in life. He makes him say outrageous things, judging himself and others constantly. Sometimes, I even think he's lying to us. Other people see Holden as almost immature because he's trying to be so mature; his 8-10 year old sister even points out how ridiculous he's acting.

The author uses many symbols when paralleling Holden's coming of age to events in the story, and he makes Holden compare his life to other occurrences, using metaphors and similes. At the very beginning foreshadowing is the most important device used; he tells the story from the mental hospital. Hyperboles are used often, as Holden enjoys exaggerating.

I would describe the book as blunt, changing, vulgar, strange, and fearful.

Runaway

2011-01-13T13:42:00.002-05:00

Wendelin Van Draanen

Genre: Fiction

This book is about a girl named Holly. Her mom dies of a heroine overdose, and is now an orphan. When she is sent to her foster parents, they abuse her and lock her in a laundry room. Her teacher, Mrs. Leone, gives her a journal to write in because Holly will not open up. One day after school she decides to run away. When she does run away she only takes little with her, including her journal. In her journal she writes as if she is writing to Mrs. Leone, even though she does not see her after leaving. In the end, she ends up staying with two very nice women who take her in, and the comfort her. She also decides at that time to send her journal to Mrs. Leone because the one woman convinced her to after reading the journal. This is the only person Holly ever let read her journal, and only because she shared her journal with Holly. When you read this you follow her through the struggles that she had, and the scary moments in her life. Once you start reading this story you don't want to stop because the way she tells her story is just amazing. Such as her making poems and overall just making it keep our attention.

I believe that the main theme to this story is overcoming struggles. Holly had huge struggles throughout the whole story. You realize how hard it would be to be on your own, and not have anything. This just shows us how much we need to do to survive each day.

5 words

1. Intense

2. Struggles

3. Desperate

4. Fighting

5. Survival

Shooting the Moon

2011-01-11T06:37:00.000-05:00

Shooting the Moon, by Frances O'Roark Dowell, is a historical fiction novel about a girl named Jamie who grows up the Colonel's daughter.

Being an Army brat, she grows up with a very strong idea of what every American citizen should be like: strong, independent, dutiful, proud. Her father loves the Army, and highlights its good sides every chance he gets. Growing up, Jamie and her brother TJ begin to believe the same things, and have pretend wars with army men in their backyard. As they get older, Jamie mentions multiple times that if the Army would let her go to Vietnam, she would leave in a heartbeat. The glories of war are all she dreams of, and the news of TJ's enlistment is music to her ears. However, the protests from her father come as a surprise to her. The Colonel has done nothing but push the Army for as long as she can remember, but now he is encouraging TJ to get out of his enlistment contract while he can. Her brother goes to war despite his father's protests, however, and Jamie eagerly awaits her first letter from the war.
The first package doesn't contain a letter at all though, but a roll of film with the note, Jaime: No facilities here. Please develop and send contact sheets. Her parents get a letter, but it doesn't have any of the pulse-pounding details that she was expecting. Jamie knows that TJ was always particular with his photography, and if he had wanted her to have the film developed at the PX, he would have said so. Instead he wanted her to develop it by hand, just like he always did.
She takes it to the rec center, where she had been volunteering since the beginning of her summer break. There she meets a 'Nam vet who teaches her to develop her own film in the darkroom located towards the back. The pictures she gets however, only show huts and other soldiers. No battle scenes, no wounded men, no glory shots of TJ. Needless to say Jamie is disappointed, and hopes that future packages hold letters full of detailed battle stories. None of them do though. Package after package contains one to two rolls of film with the same instructions. The pictures start to become more gory, but Jamie begins to realize that war isn't full of all the glory that she imagined. That was why she never received a letter from her brother, she realized; he knew that she wouldn't believe him if he just wrote about war life. He had to show her through his pictures.

I believe the theme of this book would be following your heart instead of protocol. "...my duty is to my heart." -Mulan Multiple times in the book Jamie is surprised at people because they are acting on emotion, something she is not used to doing. Towards the end though she defies the system by asking her father not to send one of her new found friends to Vietnam. Through this she shows that she has learned that sometimes, following what you know to be right is more important than protocol. This book also teaches you about being nice to people that don't fall in society's norms. One of Jamie's friends has mental problems, and Jamie isn't particularly fond of her. She has lain claim on the most precious gift that TJ ever gave Jamie, and she is prone to pinching and poking. However, she is the only one that Jamie can relate too, because her older brother Mark is also in Vietnam. Towards the end of the book Jamie realizes that she does these things because she considers Jamie the sister she never had. suddenly Jamie feels really bad, but grows much closer with her. This is a very important lesson to learn in life.

Some words I would use to describe this book are independent, surprising, heartwarming, strong, proud, and addicting. I would recommend it to all of you. =)

The author uses a lot of similes and metaphor when describing the photos of Vietnam. These crucial bits of figurative language help us, the reader who only learns about Vietnam, understand what the soldiers experienced. O'Roark Dowell also uses the conflicts man vs. man and man vs. self. The man vs man conflicts are between TJ and the Colonel, and Jaime and the Colonel. The Colonel doesn't want TJ to enlist, and TJ wants to fight in Vietnam. They never have verbal arguments, but the Colonel hints at his disapproval, and suggests other options often. TJ always stands firm however, and eventually wins his way. Jamie is always vying for the Colonel's approval, but never seems to achieve it until she learns to follow her heart. The man vs self conflict is Jamie's. She fights her self-driven need to follow protocol with the want to follow her heart a lot in the book.

Child of the Dark

2011-01-08T20:50:00.009-05:00

Child of the Dark, by Carolina Maria de Jesus, 1955-1960.

Genre: Diary-style Nonfiction

Child of the Dark starts as Carolina is explaining to us her past and her current situation. She has three young children, and one of them, Vera, can not be left alone yet. Her kids are fathered by three different men, and she claims they don't visit her. She lives in a favela, a kind of slum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is a place filled with rickety wooden shacks with metal roofs, garbage filled streets rampant with disease, and extreme poverty. Carolina pays for food, electricity, clothing, occasional transportation, and many other things with cruzieros, the form of currency in Brazil. She earns this money by collecting paper in the streets, and occasionally scrap metal; she then sells this to a local favelado for money. From what I read, she made anywhere from 20-100 cruzieros a day. 100 cruzieros is equal to $0.01 in US currency. Throughout the story, she tells us of the horrible ways of the favela. The others fight with Carolina because she is the only one who tries to make her life better. Her writings(especially this diary) eventually get her out of the downward spiral her life was in since childhood, but not before her young son is accused of raping a toddler; her and her children are constantly targeted. She is asked by multiple men to marry, but she declines as she knows what women have to give up for marriage and what can go wrong, so she focuses solely on her children. She has a dark, recurring thought throughout the story about suicide, because she believes it will make life easier for her. Another favelado committed suicide, and that causes her to contemplate it herself. Also, Carolina follows politics closely, and blames all of the favela and poverty on the government systems. I'm not telling the rest, because you have to read to find it all out. These are only the main details to grasp the plot.

This book taught us what can happen when led a life of poverty. It teaches us that it is easier to be impoverished than well-off; and that the life of poverty is a rough, long, uphill climb to a better life. Carolina teaches us to care for our children and to always put others before ourselves. She teaches us avoid alcohol and violence, and to never give up, no matter how bad life gets. Reaching a happy life is a hard battle, but persistence in achieving it will pay off in the end.

Carolina Maria de Jesus is the main character, and her characterization is mainly described above. She is dressed poorly, with dirty, ragged, occasionally washed clothing. She is a black woman who is only educated up to the second grade. Her actions cause others to judge and persecute her; she is more educated than most, and if not, she uses what she knows to write and keep her sanity. The whole book is really about her and how others affect her, and occasionally about just other peoples' actions.

Throughout the story, she uses simple forms of literary devices such as imagery, allegory, and many allusions when speaking of others; similes, metaphors, and often personification when speaking of the favela.

I would describe Child of the Dark as definitely dark, insightful, helpless, and enlightening.

Glossary of Literary Terms

2011-01-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

I know LC was particularly interested in my Dictionary of Literary Terms, so I found some online for you all to reference.

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html

http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm

http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/

The End of Forever

2011-01-06T13:39:00.003-05:00

Lurlene McDaniel

Genre: Young adult fiction

The End of Forever is actually two novels in one-Somewhere Between Life and Death and Time to Let Go. They follow the same story line though and that is why they are combined into one. This story is about a girl named Erin Bennett who loses her sister Amy. One night they are at a dance recital of theirs and whenever it is over they have a cast party for all the participants. Whenever they run out of pop the teacher asks Erin to run and go get some more. Well Amy bugs Erin to let her go because she just got her license and wanted to drive by herself. Amy ends up letting her and it is raining really bad outside. Whenever Amy did not return to the party they then knew something was wrong. The police ended up showing up and Erin rushes to the hospital. After a couple of weeks in the hospital the doctors pronounced Amy brian dead and they took her off of her life support. Erin then one day decided to go the Children's Home and do a clown act for Amy since she couldn't. Whenever she was there she met this other clown and they kind of hit it off, but never revealed to each other who they were. Then we get into the second part of the novel after Amy has died. Erin then has all these problems with getting headaches all the time, and she is constantly getting tests done and seeing people about them. No one is able to figure out what is causing the headaches though. She signs up for a play at school though, and it is an all girl school, but they are doing it with the boys school. Whenever she gets the lead and a guy, David Devlin, who also gets the lead then she gets kind of upset. She s upset because he won't leave her alone because he likes her so much. As this goes on Erin ends up falling for him somewhat too, but does not want to show it. Then when he does a clown act in front of her she realizes that he is the guy from the Children's Home. In the end David and her like each other and want to be together. Erin wants to go away to school and so does he, and they end up wanting to go to the same place. They hope to see each other there.

Overall, this book shows so much emotion and the characters are just so lively. It is a wonderful story, and you don't want to put the book down!

I believe that the main theme to this story is the grieving process. The reason I think this is because a lot of people grieve in different ways, and this book shows us that. It shows us the parents grieve, how Erin grieves, and the way Amy's boyfriend grieves. There are many different ways, and no way is the right or wrong way.

The main character in this story is Erin and it shows all of what she has been through. It goes through her life of having to deal with Amy's death, and what she was doing for Amy when she was alive. I think that Erin is the most important person in the story, and without her the story would be pretty boring. She shows us sides of the story that no one else could.

5 words

1. Sad

2. Loving

3. Heart breaking

4. Serious

5. Realistic

Wuthering Heights

2010-12-30T10:39:00.004-05:00

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Genre: Gothic Novel; realistic fiction

Wuthering Heights is a story told through flashbacks from the point of view of a Mr. Lockwood, and the main narrator, Nelly Dean. It starts with Mr. Lockwood's arrival at Wuthering Heights, in 1801 as a tenant at Thrushcross Grange. Mr. Lockwood is greatly intrigued by his meeting with Heathcliff, his land lord, and later asks his house keeper Nelly of their history. At this point, Nelly goes on to tell the back story of Catherine Earnshaw Linton, Heathcliff, Hareton Earnshaw Edgar Linton, Isabella Linton Heathcliff, and Young Catherine and Linton Heathcliff.

Heathcliff, who the novel is centered around, is a person with many hidden motives, a man of impulse, instinct, deceit and is very diabolical. As an immigrant into the Earnshaw family, the mistreatment of him by his adoptive brother Hindly, fares too much upon him and he is transformed into the person we know him to be. At some points throughout the novel, the reader may start to see or feel a romantic side of Heathcliff, but it is usually interrupted by his malicious cruelty towards others. Catherine Earnshaw Linton is a very complex character. Throughout the story Cathereine is conflicted by her loyalties to Edgar, her desire to be a part of his social class and wealth, and her true love Heathcliff. In the end, Catherine marries Edgar due to her social ambitions which leaves Heathcliff bitter and out for revenge. Catherine is a childish woman who expresses her feelings through temper tantrums and by running wild. Edgar Linton, Heathcliff's only obstacle in being with Catherine, is a well mannered, civil fellow who Catherine has admired since childhood. Edgar eventually wins Catherine's hand, which leads to a loathing relationship between Heathcliff and Edgar. Isabella Linton, Edgar's sister, poses as the same obstacle for Catherine as Edgar does for Heathcliff. Isabella, a sweet, naive girl accidentally shows Heathcliff her interest in him, which sets the trap for Heathcliff. Heathcliff, having no feelings for Isabella decides to marry her, leaving Catherine jealous and Edgar angry. As the story progresses, 3 young characters come to evolve; Hareton Earnshaw, Catherine's nephew, young Catherine, Edgar and Catherine's daughter and Linton, Heathcliff and Isabella's son.

Young Catherine or Cathy, shares many qualities with her mother, whom she never met. They are both headstrong, arrogant, demanding, and care-free characters. Although Catherine inherits these qualities from Catherine, she also inherits gentleness and compassion from Edgar. The irony between Catherine and Cathy is that Catherine is born an Earnshaw, and her married name becomes Linton, and Cathy is born a Linton and becomes an Earnshaw. Although Hareton and Linton are of lesser importance in this novel, they still play key roles. Linton, a weak, demanding, childish, and manipulative boy is a tool very useful to Heathcliff in propelling his greed. Hareton, the son of the late Hindly Earnshaw, whom Heathcliff resents, is mistreated terribly by Heathcliff. Haretom is a stubborn brute, who has the yearning for young Catherine to accept him and to love him.

As the story begins we learn of Catherine, Hindly, and Heathcliff's childhoods, as well as meeting Edgar and Isabella. Catherine, intrigued by Heathcliff's wild side, falls in love with him. After Mr. Earnshaw, Catherine and Hinldly's father dies, Hindly's hate for Heathcliff is revealed and Heathcliff is mistreated. When Catherine marries Edgar, Heathcliff can't stand it and marries Isabella for revenge. Catherine then dies giving birth to young Catherine, who falls in love with Linton, after his mother dies and is brought to stay with Edgar. After Hindly dies and Heathcliff is left with Hareton, Heathcliff takes Linton to live with him. This is where I will stop, for those who have yet to read Wuthering Heights.

A major theme portrayed through Emily Bronte's novel is destructiveness of love that appears in all generations. This book is a parallel of two love stories, the more dramatic being between Catherine and Heathcliff. Heathcliff and Catherines' passion for one another is the major part of the story and also causes the most problems. This also happens later in the book between young Catherine and her developing love of Hareton. Although Catherine and Heathcliffs love of one another is set in stone, young Catherine and Hareton shows change throughout the second half of the novel.

Bronte uses a plethora of imagery throughout the novel. She uses it to set the tone and mood, and to develop a better characterization of the characters. The readers are able to feel like they are watching a movie and can picture the scenes perfectly. She also uses symbolism. Her constant talk of the moors and landscape symbolizes the wildness of Catherine and Heathcliff. Also since moors can not be cultivated and its uniformity can't be navigated, it also symbolizes the love between Catherine and Heathcliff.

A lesson that can be taken form this story of love is that love can change and it is okay for you to change with it. Another is to follow your heart and to never settle. It doesn't matter if the person has money or social class, you should not marry them unless you love them for the right reasons. True love is a force that can tear you down, but can also build you up to great heights.

Wuthering Heights is a dramatic, passionate, realistic, suspenseful and interesting novel that I would recommend to anyone.

( Sorry for the length, but I enjoyed it so much I couldn't control myself.)

Crime and Punishment

2010-12-24T17:04:00.000-05:00

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Genre: Psychological Drama
Crime and Punishment is about a man, Raskolnikov, who feels that he is above the law, that he is ‘special’. This man commits a crime in the form of murdering an old pawnbroker and, almost accidently, her sister. It is difficult to describe the psychological torment Raskolnikov goes through in trying to keep the crime to himself and stave off suspicion, slowly driving himself into an insane state of mind. He becomes sick and delirious, very suspicious of anyone who might be on to what he did. The novel follows him through the time before and after the crime, showing how his state of mentality slowly changes. The novel touches heavily on what really qualifies as a crime, bringing up philosophical debates and reasoning, and what a suitable punishment would be for said crime, the punishment not always being what one would suspect. It also dwells into the mind of a criminal under suspicion. It’s a great piece that keeps you on edge, knowing that eventually Raskolnikov has to answer to his crime, but when and how are always up in the air.
Themes of the book include alienation from society, which is shown in Raskolnikov’s life quite well, the idea of crime and punishment, and the idea of a superior race of humans separate from the laws of the ordinary. Because Raskolnikov had put himself into an alienable state in which he was almost always by himself with no others and nothing else to do but think, he began to get ideas that lead him to his feelings of superiority and the murder of the old pawnbroker.
Raskolinkov is a very divided individual throughout the book. He is a smart and proud man who believes that he is higher up in society, a part of the race of ‘superior’ or ‘extraordinary’ people like Napoleon. During the book he gradually comes to terms that he is not part of a higher race of man, and it’s difficult to accept this, but eventually he does. His state of mentality change throughout the book: his guilt at his crimes and yet still thinking that the murder he committed were completely justified.
Dostoyevsky uses suspense and psychology heavily throughout the book to keep the reader on edge and to justify the character’s actions and decisions in the book. He brings up many debates between the characters to give the reader some idea of what may be going on behind the masks of those we may not have access to. The author also switches points of views between characters after Raskolnikov has left them for a time. He always returns to his main character in the end though.
Suspenseful, psychological, exciting, thought provoking.

Fahrenheit 451

2010-12-24T12:18:00.001-05:00

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Genre: Science Fiction
Guy Montag is a futuristic fireman who starts fires instead of putting them out, he lives in a society where people cannot think for themselves and are constantly looking for some kind of entertainment or thrill, such as driving fast or watching TV all the time. Books are illegal. People don’t enjoy nature or complex thoughts in this future.
One day as Montag is walking home he meets Clarisse, a seventeen year old girl, who tells his about the wonders of the world. She opens Montag’s eyes to what is wrong with their society. Over the next few days a series of strange events takes place in Montag’s life: His wife tries to commit suicide with sleeping pills and then later forgets about it, he responds to a call from his job and is shocked when an old women chooses to be burned alive with her books rather than live without them, and he hears about Clarisse being hit by a speeding car. Montag becomes confused and dissatisfied with his life and tries to read some books that he has stashed away in an air vent in his house from previous burning jobs. When Montag doesn’t show up for work, it grabs the attention of his superior, Beatty, who pays him a visit.
He tells Montag that it’s natural for a fireman to go through a phase in which he tries to pull the significance form a book. He then explains a strange history in which books became illegal because of censorship and the need to dispel conflicting thoughts in the people. Beatty gives Monatg one day alone with his books before he has to turn them in. Montag begins a night of reading. He tries to get his wife to help him, but she refuses. She’s scared of books and would rather be watching TV anyway.
Montag remembers that he met a retired English professor in a park before and he read books. He goes to Fabor ask him to help him understand what is being said in the books he has. Fabor tells him that he not only needs to read books to understand what they tell but he also need time and leisure to read them. He agrees to help Montag with his reading and the two come up with a risky plan to overthrow the status quo. Fabor will contact a printer to start reproducing books and Montag will start planting books in other firemen’s homes.
After a scene in which Montag tries to read a poem to his wife’s friends at his house to make them see the meaning of it all, they file a complaint against him. Montag goes to work to hand over his books to Beatty and his superior quotes a few contradicting sentences from various great books and says that contradiction is why books had to be eradicated. The fire alarm sounds and they go off to start a fire only to find out that it is Montag’s house that needs to be lit up. Beatty forces Montag to set fire to his own house. When Beatty continues to berate him, Montag turns the flamethrower on him and knocks out the other firemen. He then runs for his life to escape the Hound, a mechanical monster designed to track, stun, and kill living things.
Montag runs to Fabor’s house where he finds out that Fabor is leaving for St. Louis to carry out their plan. Montag erases his scent around the house and flees to the river to completely wash away his scent. Montag manages to escape from the town and finds a group of people who have memorized great works so they can write them down again and reprint them around the world when the people come to their senses. Montag decides to travel with them as the country enters a war and the city he had previously lived in is bombed to smithereens.
Common themes in the book seem to center around the idea of Censorship and if Ignorance really does equal bliss. The idea of censorship and conflicting ideas is what brought on the illegalization of books and brought upon a society in which there are no free thinkers or truly living people. In the book, the Idea of Ignorance in most, if not all of the people lead to them needlessly looking for some kind of entertainment. There are more suicides and everyone is restless. They take away any higher education to activate their own thoughts, instead they shove any of their own thoughts away to a dark corner and become scared of them. The book is warning against our society as we know it turning into something like Montag’s world.
In the beginning, Montag, the main character, was just as flat and ignorant as all the others in this future, except that he seemed to think just a little bit more. This often confused him, but soon, after he met Clarisse, he began to embrace these new thoughts, even if they still confused him and scared him. We as readers get to slowly see his transformation as just one of the ignorant masses to someone who can begin to think on their own. His journey makes us reflect on how much we actually think for ourselves in many situations. It makes us feel that their lives were silly and that could never happen to us…and yet it easily could.
The author likes to show us Montag’s confusing inner monologues and how his thoughts are slowly changing. Often times some of his phrasing is muddled and confused, and yet the book is not written explicitly from Montag’s thoughts. It makes it feel like we are actually there experiencing every change of mind and thought.
Suspenseful, thoughtful, warning, pointed.

Anna Karenina

2010-12-20T21:10:00.002-05:00

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Genre: Tragedy, Novel of Ideas, Psychological

Anna Karenina is a novel about how humans need love and how sometimes, in the end, getting what you want may not always leave you with happiness. The novel starts out with Dolly Oblonskaya threatening to leave her husband after reacting to news of her husband’s affair with their children’s former governess. Stiva feels bad, but he doesn’t really understand what she’s getting so worked up about. Stiva’s sister, Anna Karenina, the wife of a government official in St. Petersburg, comes over to mediate the situation and she convinces the husband and wife to reconcile.
While all this is going on, Dolly’s younger sister, Kitty is being perused by two suitors, Konstantin Levin, an awkward landowner who she’s known since childhood and Alexei Vronsky, a handsome military man. Kitty turns down Levin when he asks for her hand, thinking that Vronsky would soon propose to her. Alas, not long after, Vronsky meets Anna Karenina at a ball and falls in love with her instead of Kitty. Because of this rejection, Kitty becomes ill. Levin, also devastated by his rejection, withdraws to his country home. Anna goes back to St. Petersburg, reflecting on her newfound feelings for Vronsky, but when she arrives at her home she dismisses the feeling as a simple crush.
As it turned out, Vronsky had followed Anna to St. Petersburg and their relationship grows as Anna begins to mix with more of Vronsky’s crowd. At a party Anna asks Vronsky to ask for Kitty’s forgiveness and in response he tells Anna that he loves her. While this is going on, Karenin, Anna’s husband, is having his suspicions, but whenever he speaks of them to Anna she dismisses them. Karenin believes her as he does not feel that it is right to doubt one’s wife.
Sometime later, Vronsky participates in the military officer’s horse race and ends up making a mistake, breaking the horses back in the fall. Anna reacts very peculiarly for a woman who seems to be only loosely tied to the man, showing great interest in his wellbeing. Karenin, of course, notices this and confronts Anna afterward. Anna admits (rather fiercely, actually) that she was having an affair with Vronsky and that she loves him. Needless to say, Karenin is stunned and furious.
Meanwhile Kitty is at a spa, attempting to regain her health. While there she meets a do-gooder by the name of Varenka. Kitty strives to be just like her. She also meets Levin’s brother who is also trying to recover from sickness. Eventually, Kitty is deemed healthy enough to return to her home.
After his rejection, Levin has thrown himself into his work running the farming business and trying to invent more efficient ways to go about the process of doing so, much to the irritation of the farm workers who do not like any form of change. He visits Dolly who tells him that he should try to rekindle his relationship with Kitty. He does so, and later, at a dinner party the two meet and feel their mutual love for each other. They end up getting married
Karenin refuses any idea of divorce between himself and Anna, worrying about his reputation and how it would reflect him in his work. Anna moves to their country home where she meets with Vronsky often and reveals that she’s pregnant. Anna’s childbirth is complicated and she comes close to dying in the process. Karenin forgives her upon seeing her on her supposed death bed, leaving any divorce decisions to her. Later, Anna resents Karenin for his generosity and does not ask for a divorce. Instead she and Vronsky go on a vacation to Italy where they lead an aimless life for a while. When the two of them return to Russia, Anna is scorned for committing adultery. They withdraw into seclusion, though Anna secretly visits her son (Karenin’s son) and gets caught. She begins to resent Vronsky for his freedom in society while she is scorned and shunned.
Married life is something new to Levin and the book goes through the newfound restrictions he now has on his life, but he finds them worth it in his marriage to Kitty. They receive news that Levin’s brother is very sick and about to die. The two go to be with him in his last days. Not long after his brother dies, Levin discovers that Kitty is pregnant.
Dolly decides to visit Anna and finds that she is not as happy as she seems and relies heavily on medication to go to sleep at night. Anna is still awaiting a divorce. All this time, Vronsky has been feeling pressure from Anna, an unsaid jealousy. He starts to leave her alone more often to get freedom from the house and time away from her to be with friends and have fun. Anna becomes very paranoid whenever it concerns Vronsky. She feels that he no longer loves her. Kitty gives birth to a son, but Levin has conflicted feelings for the child, unsure if he really loves the infant as he’s never experienced something like this before.
Anna and Vronsky have a quarrel about Vronsky putting off their visit to the country to please his mother, who does not approve of his relationship with Anna. Anna accuses him of loving his mother more than her. He tries to appease her but she remains angry. She threatens that he’ll be sorry he didn’t do anything. When Vronsky leaves to run an errand, Anna is distraught. She resolves to meet him at the train station. On the ride over, she is in a daze, despairing and in a stupor by the crowds, Anna throws herself in front of a train and dies.
The novel ends two months later with Levin finding spiritual peace, but still asking those age-old questions that cannot be answered by man.
A common theme in the novel is how people find love and then inexplicably lose it, only to find it once again. At the very end, Levin finds faith but is surprised that just because he’s excepted God, he hasn’t magically become a new and better person. It goes to show that you can’t expect God to change you with a snap of the fingers, you have to work on it yourself too.
This book has two main characters: Anna and Levin. Anna is a strong willed and proud woman. She is passionate, well educated and classy. Just the kind of woman you might not expect to have her life turned upside down by love, but in the end leads her motives and she doesn’t think clearly. By reading the book, you can slowly see the transformation of an elegant lady into a paranoid mess. Levin is basically the author written on paper, going through the motions Tolstoy himself went through. The evolution of his character is very gradual and believable, an ever-changing portrait you might see in the background if you looked hard enough.
The author uses irony in many cases such as when Kitty and Levin were caring for his sick brother. It was expected that Kitty would be the one who was uneasy with the sight of the dying man, Levin didn’t even want her to come with him to care for the man, but she did and she cared for his brother better than Levin himself who almost broke down at the sight of the dying man in the bed. He also incorporates humor into the story very well, as seen when Levin is having the stereotypical breakdown of the first time father while the doctor is calm and his wife seems relatively unaffected.
Passionate, tragic, developed, evolving.

(Sorry it's so long :) It's a really long book)

Book Three

2010-12-13T17:20:00.002-05:00

The last book I read was a young adult ,fiction by Robert Cormier called " The Chocolate War". Jerry Renault, a freshman at Trinity High School, is given an assignment by the Vigils, the schools gang, to not sell chocolates in the annual school chocolate sale. Archie gaves him the assignment despite the fact that he told Brother Leon he and the Vigils would support the sale. Everyone is shocked of Jerry's refusal until they realize the Vigils told him not to accept the chocolates until after ten days. To everyone's surprise he still refuses the chocolates after the tenth day. Other kids begin to follow his lead and sales drop dramatically, causing Brother Leon to panic. The Vigils start to sell all the chocolates to make it look like everyone is still participating in the sale. Jerry's life is going down hill because the Vigils are trashing his locker, taking his homework, and he gets beat up after football practice. Soon all but Jerry's chocolates are sold. To get back at Jerry, Archie creates a student only raffle that puts Jerry up against school thug Emile Janza. If you buy a ticket you can tell Jerry how to hit Janza or the otherway around. Read the book to see how it all ends.
Some of the themes that you can get out of The Chocolate War are disturbing the universe, or the power of fear. The Vigils uses the power of fear to rule the school basically. I guess one of the lessons one could learn is don't conform no matter what people do to you, but they way I see it is the book is practically telling you to conform. No one likes the thought of being beat up and that's what happened to Jerry because he didn't conform.
I think Jerry is pretty quiet for a main character. His actions seem to speak louder than his words. The reader pays more attention to what he doing than to what he's saying. I think that is important to the outcome of the story.
Figurative language that was used in The Chocolate War was metaphor and simile.
Five words I would use to describe this novel would be:
violent,
conformity,
bleak,
fear and,
disturbing.

Book Two

2010-12-13T16:49:00.002-05:00

The second book I read was a romantic comedy by Jane Austen called, "Pride and Prejudice". News of Charles Bingley coming to town excites the Bennet household, who has five unmarried daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. The Bennet family attends a ball at which Mr. Bingley and his close friend Mr. Darcy are present. Mr. Bingley is taken with Jane, but Darcy sees the evening as uninteresting. Although as the weeks pass Darcy finds himself more and more interested in Elizabeth. Jane goes to visit Bingley and catches ill from being caught in the rain and is forced to stay. On their return home Mr. Collins, the man that will inherit the Bennet's property, is there. He makes a proposal to Elizabeth but she refuses him. He later marries her best friend, Charolette. Elizabeth visits her friend in the spring and incounters Mr. Darcy, he then springs a surprising proposal on her which she refuses saying how he took Bingley from Jane and many other things. He later gives her a letter admitting these things and she reevaluates her feelings for him. Read the story to find out the rest.
The themes for this novel could be simply love, reputation, or social class. Pride and Prejudice deals with all these. Love drives the story while reputation and social class get in the way of love. Lessons that could be learned from this novel are don't judge someone without truly knowing them. Also having too much pride can be a bad thing. Another one could be you never know who you're going to fall in love with.
Elizabeth could be decribed as a prideful person, also witty, smart, and stubborn. I think Jane Austen chose these character traits because as it turns out Elizabeth is the one with the most to learn. She is seen as the smartest Bennet sister but in reality she knows nothing of love. She drives the plot forward.
The story is compossed of mainly dialogue so there is little figurative language used in it, but there is some simile and metaphor used.
Five words that I would use to describe Pride and Prejudice would be:
prideful,
witty,
light,
love and,
passionate.

Book one

2010-12-13T16:11:00.004-05:00

The first book I read was a gothic romance by Emily Bronte called, "Wuthering Heights". The man telling the story is Lockwood, he is renting a house called Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff is his landlord. Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights. Nelly grew up working as a servant at Wuthering Heights for Mr. Earnshaw and his family. Mr. Earnshaw travels to Liverpool one day and returns with Heathcliff, which he raises him as his own son. Catherine growes to love Heathcliff but her brother detests him for his father seems to prefer Heathcliff over his own son. Later Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights, and Heathcliff is treated like dirt again. One night when him and Catherine sneek over to Thrushcross Grange, Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay. She becomes infatuated with Edgar and things with Heathcliff become complicated. Later she gets engaged to Edgar for social advancement even though she's in love with Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away and three years later returns very wealthy. Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits Wuthering Heights, and marries Edgar's sister Isabella. Catherine becomes ill, has a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth. Isabella later flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff's son, Linton. Thirteen years pass and Nelly is now Catherine's daughter's nursemaid. Isabella dies and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. To find out the end of the book you will have to read it yourself.
The main character Heathcliff could be seen as dangerous, misunderstood, and vengeful. Like most romantic novels his character doesn't change to loving, compassionate, or understanding. He continues to stay selfish and greedy. By choosing these character traits and keeping them throughout the whole story the author puts a new twist in a romance novel. His vengeful ways drove many other characters to their deaths. His character is what kept the ball rolling, and caused unexpected things to happen.
The theme of the novel could be the pain of love. Love is what cause many unfortunate circumstances to happen. Heathcliff is determined to get revenge on the people that came between his and Catherine's love. Some lessons that could be learned from this story is, don't love someone just for their money or social statues. Also follow your heart no matter what other people think.
Types of figurative language used in Wuthering Heights is simile, metaphor, imagery, and personification.
Five words that I would use to decribe Wuthering Heights would be:
destructive,
dark,
romantic,
frustrating, and
vengeful.

Vocabulary Word

2010-11-15T18:40:00.001-05:00

Steatopygia (stee-at-o-fih-g-uh)- the condition of having a heavy deposit of fat in the buttocks or thighs

The woman's bathing suit revealed a lot of her steatopygia.

Thank you yourdictionary.com.

Word of the Day

2010-10-31T15:39:00.002-04:00

Hobgoblin- \HAHB-gahb-lin\

1: a mischievous goblin

2: a source of fear, perplexity, or harassment.

Max was convinced that hobgoblins had taken over his computer, which was why it was flashing garbled error messages.

This word of the day comes from Merrium-Webster dictionary.

Scarlet Letter Glogs

2010-10-31T15:30:00.001-04:00

http://taywe.glogster.com/scarlet-letter/

http://taywe.glogster.com/glog-1803/

Words To own...

2010-10-28T15:58:00.003-04:00

Alacrity ~\ə-ˈla-krə-tē\ ~ promptness in response: cheerful readiness

She reacted with surprising alacrity to her mother requesting her to help her sister with her homework.

Gourmand ~ \ˈgu̇r-ˌmänd, -mənd\ ~ one who is heartily interested in good food and drink

I wanted a honest opinion on my new recipe, so I went to my friend who is something of a gourmand and would willing try it and give his opinion.

Melancholy ~ \ˈme-lən-ˌkä-lē\ ~ a pensive mood: depression of spirits

Failing the test plummeted me into melancholy.

Preternatural ~ \ˌprē-tər-ˈna-chə-rəl, -ˈnach-rəl\~ extraordinary, exceeding what is natural or regular

She had a preternatural sense of when bad things were going to happen.

Thanks to Merriam-Webster.com

Yeah...

2010-10-27T21:01:00.001-04:00

This is my glog. :)

Just a question...are we supposed to post new words every week?

two new, because they looked cool...

2010-10-27T20:46:00.003-04:00

Effete: ef-fete (if-feet)
adj. Definition: Depleted of vitality, force or effectiveness; exhausted
Marked by self-indulgence, triviality, or decadence
No longer productive, infertile
Sentence: By law, he was required to divorce his effete wife.
[Latin efftus, worn out, exhausted : ex-, ex- + ftus, bearing young, pregnant; see dh(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/effete
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Decadence: dec-a-dence (deck-a-dense)
n. Definition: A process, condition, or period of deterioration or decline, as in morals or art; decay
The state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities.
Sentence: Wanton decadence and luxury; indulgence in pleasure and promiscuity;

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/decadenced
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Picturesque Expressions: A Thematic Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1980 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Words to own...

2010-10-27T16:15:00.003-04:00

Expunge-(verb)to obliterate, destroy, or eliminate

After knocking over the vase, the little boy attempted to expunge any evidence that he had done the misdeed, though he was caught with the fragments in his hands.

Perfidy-(noun)the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal

Never would a man say that his labrador is perfid; they are nothing but loyal to their owners.

Thank you Merriam Webster!

Antithesis

2010-10-26T16:59:00.002-04:00

(noun) Antithesis: an·tith·e·ses (sez)
-Definition: direct contrast; opposition; exact opposite
Sentence: Faith is the antithesis of suspicion.

[Late Latin, from Greek, from antitithenai, antithe-, to oppose : anti-, anti- + tithenai, to set; see dh- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Sambe's Glog

2010-10-26T15:12:00.002-04:00

Here is the link to my glog that I did for the Scarlet Letter. :)

http://footfungus.glogster.com/the-scarlet-letter/

The Man of the Red

2010-10-25T16:43:00.000-04:00

In the cold autumnal day
The sun shines bright.
The wind blows softly
Through shedding trees
With not a cloud in the sky.
The rustling of leaves
Across sparsely covered earth
Whispers like a child
To the Man of the Red
As he sits, still waiting,
To hear those words
One longs to hear.
Against a stone upon the hill,
The Red Man sits
With eyes to the sky
And a hand to his chest,
Wishing, waiting,
For his love to return.

CeCe's A Separate Peace Topic

2010-10-21T08:20:00.002-04:00

Why do you think Gene left school to go be in the war? His goal was to be head of the class at graduation, and he had the chance to do that but he left. Why do you think he would just quit on his goal like that? Do you think losing Finny had anything to do with it?

A BRAND New Word!!!

2010-10-13T11:07:00.001-04:00

From Faith and Bella.

Anathema
ann-a-theme-a
-noun
-someone or something intensely disliked or loathed —usually used as a predicate nominative
The anathema I felt for my essay led me to re-write it.

The Scarlet Letter

2010-10-10T20:17:00.002-04:00

Here is my glog on my interpretation of The Scarlet Letter's title's meaning.

Can I get a new word?

2010-10-10T15:50:00.001-04:00

Nihilism

(nee (h)e lizm)

Definition:

a viewpoint in which traditional values and beliefs are unfounded,

and existence is senseless and useless

Quote:

"I think there is an element of nihilism about,

but I don't think most artists feel their work is meaningless."

-Leonard Baskin

Sentence:

Having been suicidal before, I can say with complete certainty that

people who are that way believe in some sort of nihilism.

That was completely hypothetical. Honestly,

can you see me being suicidal?

Thank you Merriam-Webster dictionary!

Corvino 2

2010-10-05T15:03:00.003-04:00

Fain
[feyn]
Definition: adv. happily; gladly; rather
adj. ready; willing; obliged or required
sentence; quote by shakespeare: 'I would fain die a dry death.'

Sambe's words

2010-10-05T09:38:00.002-04:00

Epoch-a memorable event or date

Of the many events that occurred during the course of my childhood, only one particular epoch stands out to me crystal clear: the divorce of my parents.

Torpid- lacking in energy or vigor

Upon being awakened by the sound of his alarm clock, Tim was a very torpid being indeed.

Ignominy- deep personal humiliation and disgrace

Shelly's feeling of ignominy resulted from her lack of meeting the expectations of her superiors when she could have easily done so.

Panoply-a magnificent or impressive array

Upon entering the ballroom, the guests were impressed by the panoply of the room.

Thank you Merraim Webster!!!

Cece's Huck Finn

2010-09-29T13:39:00.003-04:00

My question during this whole book is why didn't Huck just say that he owned Jim, so that they would not have to worry about getting Jim Taken away. An example is when Jim gets captured and then locked up, while Huck is at Tom's aunt's house. At that point why didn't Huck just say to them "Hey, I own him." This is confusing to me!

words to ownnn:)

2010-09-22T15:24:00.002-04:00

Phantasmagoria-it's pronounced how its spelled... :)

Illusions or scenes that constantly change, they can be imagined or real.

an·i·mad·ver·sion- adverse criticism

Terry's Wonderous Word

2010-09-20T09:02:00.000-04:00

Somnambulism

Pronounced säm-ˈnam-byə-ˌli-zəm or sam-nahm-bue-liz-um

an abnormal condition of sleep in which motor acts (as walking) are performed

Jennifer has somnambulism, so she has to lock her door before she goes to sleep at night. Otherwise she wakes up her little brother, who is a light sleeper.

Word!

2010-09-18T09:49:00.003-04:00

Caprice (ka-pres) (n)- illogical change of feeling or opinion; a whim; a fancy

This is the root of the word capricious which is used in the book.

Capricious (kap-pri-shas) (a)

The student made a capricious decision after she found out that she would be grounded for her actions.

I found my word to own in the one and only Webster's Dictionary.

Love, Amy

Owned!

2010-09-15T18:35:00.003-04:00

Word to own this week: Laudable
Definition of laudable: \ˈlȯ-də-bəl\
1. adj. Deserving commendation; praiseworthy; admirable
n. laudability, laudableness; adv. laudably
“It is a laudable quality in one so young, to wish to become a leader”

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/laudable
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/laudable?show=0&t=1284590821
laudable." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010.
Merriam-Webster Online. 15 September 2010

Spark Notes

2010-09-15T16:35:00.003-04:00

Fun Fact! The Scarlet Letter is currently #1 on Spark Notes top 10. Interesting isn't; that sooo many people are reading The Scarlet Letter as well as us.

vocab...

2010-09-13T08:19:00.000-04:00

Once a week (or more if you can) find a new word to MAKE YOUR OWN---post it here, including its pronunciation, definition and a context clue sentence so that we can all make it OUR OWN.

The word can be from a reading assignment, dictionary or a random source (which I expect you to look it up for validity).