Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Response to The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favourite authors. He writes mystery stories that creep you out a bit. The Tall-Tale Heart was an unsolved mystery that filled me with suspense. It made my blood rush. Edgar uses extraordinary words that make his stories all the more interesting. His words fill the sentence with juice and gives them stronger meanings. Words like: dissimulation, vex, stealthily,audacity, vehemently, derision...... In his story, the line, " Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased " is what caught my eye. The way he describes the beating of the character's heart is incredible! I wish that Poe could have lived a little longer to have written more stories.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Pandora's Box- Is curiosity a gift or a curse?
Pandora's Box was a short story about the Greek gods. They sent down Pandora with a box that she was not supposed to open, but her curiosity took over her and she opened the box. It released everything bad and evil.
Is curiosity a gift or a curse? I think that curiosity is mostly a gift but can be a curse. Curiosity is a good thing to have, it helps you discover new things that you never knew of. With out curiosity the world would be bland and boring, it wouldn't have any excitement. Sometimes when you're curious and dying to know the answer to something, and you finally get that answer, it upsets you. To me, that's the only way curiosity is a curse. Besides that, curiosity is a blessing that everyone should appreciate.
Is curiosity a gift or a curse? I think that curiosity is mostly a gift but can be a curse. Curiosity is a good thing to have, it helps you discover new things that you never knew of. With out curiosity the world would be bland and boring, it wouldn't have any excitement. Sometimes when you're curious and dying to know the answer to something, and you finally get that answer, it upsets you. To me, that's the only way curiosity is a curse. Besides that, curiosity is a blessing that everyone should appreciate.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Relationships - Breath, Eyes, Memory
In the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat describes different relationships in which the characters encounter conflicts with each other. The characters respond in different ways to the conflicts they have. Some of the relationships include: Sophie and Tante Attie, Sophie and Martine, Sophie and Joseph. The characters' relationships vary throughout the novel. Sometimes they have fun and are happy while other times it is the opposite. Edwidge Danticat shows the reader the complexity of Sophie's relationships with others and how it defines who she is.
Sophie grows without her biological mother, but she always had someone beside her. Her Tante Attie is her best friend and acts as her mother. Sophie, although bitter with her mother for abandoning her, still longs to be with her. When Sophie has the opportunity to go to her mother in New York, she feels guilty and hurt about leaving Tante Attie, and confused about going to live with her mother who is a complete stranger to her. Additionally, Sophie has to deal with learning a new language, new food, new school, and making friends. Sophie grows up with trust and love from her aunt, and she finds it difficult to trust her mother. They had a difficult time saying good-bye when Sophie left. It devastates them both. It's highly unlikely that Tante Attie would have tested Sophie as her mother does. In this way had Sophie stayed with Tante Attie, she would have possibly grown into a healthy young woman with out so many problems.
Sophie and her mother do not blend well. They don't talk about things like mothers and daughters often do. Martine does not know how to be a mother, and she herself is angry and emotionally disturbed due to her own past. Sophie's mother works hard to get Sophie the education she needs and therefore she feels that she is in control of every aspect of Sophie's life. She promises Sophie that when she reaches the age of eighteen, she would be allowed to be in love. When Sophie turns eighteen, her mother breaks her promise and does not allow her to be in love. This is when she began "testing". She tests Sophie to see if she is still pure and whole. This makes Sophie despise her mom, so she runs away with her love, Joseph and gets married immediately. Sophie's mother does not provide love in an emotional way. She is also a hypocrite because she allows herself to be in a relationship with Mark yet condemns Sophie's relationship with Joseph.
Because of many traumatic events in Sophie's childhood, she has problems in her marriage. Sophie may have experienced a more normal marriage had she taken therapy before hand. Martine makes Sophie feel guilty for wanting love and marriage – normal human desires. The testing is what causes most of her problems though. The testing makes Sophie feel disgusted about herself: her body image, her ability to trust or to be trusted. Ultimately it causes her physical pain and depression which nearly destroys her marriage and family. Joseph, despite all these things, still loves her and takes care of her and her daughter, Bridgette.
Sophie evolves throughout the novel. She becomes more at peace with her past, her mother, and the testing. Tradition affected the relationships: a daughter should be with her mother, a daughter should be tested for purity, and in her family's case, a woman should remain at home with her mother and feel guilty for leaving and loving. Sophie had to overcome all these things in order to be happy and healthy. It was necessary for her to face and deal with her family's negative traditions so that she could prevent passing it on to her daughter. In the end she succeeded and she still loves her family and culture.
Sophie grows without her biological mother, but she always had someone beside her. Her Tante Attie is her best friend and acts as her mother. Sophie, although bitter with her mother for abandoning her, still longs to be with her. When Sophie has the opportunity to go to her mother in New York, she feels guilty and hurt about leaving Tante Attie, and confused about going to live with her mother who is a complete stranger to her. Additionally, Sophie has to deal with learning a new language, new food, new school, and making friends. Sophie grows up with trust and love from her aunt, and she finds it difficult to trust her mother. They had a difficult time saying good-bye when Sophie left. It devastates them both. It's highly unlikely that Tante Attie would have tested Sophie as her mother does. In this way had Sophie stayed with Tante Attie, she would have possibly grown into a healthy young woman with out so many problems.
Sophie and her mother do not blend well. They don't talk about things like mothers and daughters often do. Martine does not know how to be a mother, and she herself is angry and emotionally disturbed due to her own past. Sophie's mother works hard to get Sophie the education she needs and therefore she feels that she is in control of every aspect of Sophie's life. She promises Sophie that when she reaches the age of eighteen, she would be allowed to be in love. When Sophie turns eighteen, her mother breaks her promise and does not allow her to be in love. This is when she began "testing". She tests Sophie to see if she is still pure and whole. This makes Sophie despise her mom, so she runs away with her love, Joseph and gets married immediately. Sophie's mother does not provide love in an emotional way. She is also a hypocrite because she allows herself to be in a relationship with Mark yet condemns Sophie's relationship with Joseph.
Because of many traumatic events in Sophie's childhood, she has problems in her marriage. Sophie may have experienced a more normal marriage had she taken therapy before hand. Martine makes Sophie feel guilty for wanting love and marriage – normal human desires. The testing is what causes most of her problems though. The testing makes Sophie feel disgusted about herself: her body image, her ability to trust or to be trusted. Ultimately it causes her physical pain and depression which nearly destroys her marriage and family. Joseph, despite all these things, still loves her and takes care of her and her daughter, Bridgette.
Sophie evolves throughout the novel. She becomes more at peace with her past, her mother, and the testing. Tradition affected the relationships: a daughter should be with her mother, a daughter should be tested for purity, and in her family's case, a woman should remain at home with her mother and feel guilty for leaving and loving. Sophie had to overcome all these things in order to be happy and healthy. It was necessary for her to face and deal with her family's negative traditions so that she could prevent passing it on to her daughter. In the end she succeeded and she still loves her family and culture.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Outsiders ENTRY (1)
The Outsiders is a novel written by a fifteen year old girl. It's about a group of guys that are in a gang, they're called the Greasers. The main character is Ponyboy who is fourteen. His parents died, he lives with his two brothers, Sodapop and Darry. Darry is the oldest, he's in his twenties. Sodapop is closer to Ponyboy, he's about seventeen. So far in the novel, the boys have gotten into trouble and had fights. This novel fills me with thrill and excitment! It makes me want to continue reading. Right now, Johny ( one of the gang members ), and Ponyboy got attacked by the Socs ( which is another gang), and Johny killed one of them. I hope that they won't get caught!
Hair
By: Dalia Barayan
Mohawks
UP-DO
French twist
Lupe-ti-Loes
Highlights
Low lights
Streaks of pink
Braids
Hairspray
Feather bangs
Long bangs
Up straight
Fried out
Cut it off
Grow it out
Get angry
PULL IT OUT!
Breath, Eyes, Memory ENTRY (3)
The novel Breath, Eyes, Memory was an amazing novel. Sophie's feelings were really strong and easy to understand. I can relate to Sophie in many ways, except the testing part. I don't believe that testing is the right way to keep your daughters pure. If I were ever to be tested, I wouldn't accept it, whether it was my mother or anyone else. Although, the story was quite sad and the characters seemed to face a lot of conflicts, it was also very interesting. It could be possible that the author wrote the novel based on a true story. The only part in the novel that I really didn't understand was the letter from Edwidge Danticat. If anyone knows what she meant, please comment and explain. Besides that, Edwidge Danticat, you are an outstanding writer!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
My Red Shoes
Ranya Barayan
Memoir
Language Arts
December 16, 2008
It was a sunny day where I lived, no surprise there, it was always sunny. I was playing in our compound park with my sister, when boom, something hit my sister right in the head! I went to check on her. She was on the ground unconscious. I started to laugh at her! I know, I was mean. Right there and then something hit me in the eye. It swelled up and I couldn’t see. Unlike me, my sister got me an icepack and was really concerned.
I continued playing. I was not a cautious person. I would climb the highest of all poles and jump off of slides and always get hurt but never complain. When I was about to beat my record of jumping off of the highest pole in the park, something hit me in the head and knocked me off the bar I was on. When I got up, it was war!
I was not friends with any of the neighbors because for some reason they always picked on me. So there I stood alone with no one in my army but me. They had four boys with sling shots in their hands and five girls with water balloons, a total of nine. I was not scared of dying. I was afraid I would get my clothes dirty. But I had no time to think about that, rocks were flying at me. I dodged the rocks and balloons.
Then, and just then, my worst enemy of all stepped up. He was holding a big bag filled with something brown that smelled. The bag had a rip in it. It all happened so fast. A balloon in the stomach, a rock at the ankle, and a huge pile of that smelly gunk on my new shirt. That was it! I was mad! I ran home crying and tripped on my way and scraped my knees and broke my toe nails.
I went and changed and tried to calm down, then, I realized that I had left my favorite red slip on shoes at the park, so I went back to get them. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find them. I went and rang all my neighbors' doorbells to see if they knew where they were. Two of the boys told me that they saw them in the gym, and they took me there and told me to look in the farthest corner. Next thing I knew, I was locked in the room.
I pounded hard on the door, but no one heard. I gave up and sat in a corner, scraped, bruised, and bare foot, crying. My sister found me about five minutes later and rescued me. I went home feeling hopeless. My shoes carried my soul, and now that they were gone, so was my soul. I sat in a dark room under a table sobbing. My mother came in worried; she was looking for me everywhere.
I told her the whole story and she decided to go over to the neighbors' mothers and talk with them. They forced their children apologize. They apologized and despised me even more than before. I began to cry again not because they hated me, I was used to that; it was because I still didn’t get my red shoes back. So one of the girls walked up to me and opened the nap sack that she carried around and took out my shoes. I was really angry with them but also happy that I had my shoes back.
Memoir
Language Arts
December 16, 2008
It was a sunny day where I lived, no surprise there, it was always sunny. I was playing in our compound park with my sister, when boom, something hit my sister right in the head! I went to check on her. She was on the ground unconscious. I started to laugh at her! I know, I was mean. Right there and then something hit me in the eye. It swelled up and I couldn’t see. Unlike me, my sister got me an icepack and was really concerned.
I continued playing. I was not a cautious person. I would climb the highest of all poles and jump off of slides and always get hurt but never complain. When I was about to beat my record of jumping off of the highest pole in the park, something hit me in the head and knocked me off the bar I was on. When I got up, it was war!
I was not friends with any of the neighbors because for some reason they always picked on me. So there I stood alone with no one in my army but me. They had four boys with sling shots in their hands and five girls with water balloons, a total of nine. I was not scared of dying. I was afraid I would get my clothes dirty. But I had no time to think about that, rocks were flying at me. I dodged the rocks and balloons.
Then, and just then, my worst enemy of all stepped up. He was holding a big bag filled with something brown that smelled. The bag had a rip in it. It all happened so fast. A balloon in the stomach, a rock at the ankle, and a huge pile of that smelly gunk on my new shirt. That was it! I was mad! I ran home crying and tripped on my way and scraped my knees and broke my toe nails.
I went and changed and tried to calm down, then, I realized that I had left my favorite red slip on shoes at the park, so I went back to get them. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find them. I went and rang all my neighbors' doorbells to see if they knew where they were. Two of the boys told me that they saw them in the gym, and they took me there and told me to look in the farthest corner. Next thing I knew, I was locked in the room.
I pounded hard on the door, but no one heard. I gave up and sat in a corner, scraped, bruised, and bare foot, crying. My sister found me about five minutes later and rescued me. I went home feeling hopeless. My shoes carried my soul, and now that they were gone, so was my soul. I sat in a dark room under a table sobbing. My mother came in worried; she was looking for me everywhere.
I told her the whole story and she decided to go over to the neighbors' mothers and talk with them. They forced their children apologize. They apologized and despised me even more than before. I began to cry again not because they hated me, I was used to that; it was because I still didn’t get my red shoes back. So one of the girls walked up to me and opened the nap sack that she carried around and took out my shoes. I was really angry with them but also happy that I had my shoes back.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Breath, Eyes, Memory ENTRY (2)
After Sophie moves in with her mother, her mother sends her to a French school. When Sophie is eighteen, they move to a one-family house. She then starts collage. Slowly, slowly Sophie starts falling in love with her neighbor Joseph, who was much older than her. Her mom would not let her see him, so while Sophie's mother was at work they would visit each other. Sophie confronted her mother and told her that she had fallen in love but with a guy named Henry. One night Sophie got back from a dinner with Joseph and her mother was home waiting for her. Her mother started testing her to see if she was still pure. Her mother now knew the truth about Joseph and her, so she tested her every night. Sophie wanted to break free and get married to Joseph, so she took a pestle and tore herself. That night she failed the test and her mother let her go. She went over to Joseph's house and got married the next morning.
I don't believe that what Sophie's mother did was right. Sophie's mother told Sophie that when she was younger, her mother tested her too. Sophie's mother told her that she hated the tests. I'm wondering why Sophie's mother would do that to her daughter after telling Sophie her childhood nightmares about it. Her mother also promised that after the age of eighteen Sophie was allowed to fall in love and make her own decisions. Breaking those promises was not far to Sophie.
I don't believe that what Sophie's mother did was right. Sophie's mother told Sophie that when she was younger, her mother tested her too. Sophie's mother told her that she hated the tests. I'm wondering why Sophie's mother would do that to her daughter after telling Sophie her childhood nightmares about it. Her mother also promised that after the age of eighteen Sophie was allowed to fall in love and make her own decisions. Breaking those promises was not far to Sophie.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Breath, Eyes, Memory ENTRY (1)
In the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, the setting begins in Haiti. Sophie, the main character, is living with her aunt. She is a twelve years old young girl who longs to be with her mother again. She does not have many friends. Sophie's aunt, Tante Atie, is a big colored woman who always wears a scarf on her head. She never went to school and she cannot read, so Sophie is always trying to encourage her to learn, but Tante Atie says she is too old and that her school is the things that she must do now: cooking, cleaning, taking care of others. She grew up with Sophie's mother working in the sugar-cane fields. Since Tante Atie never received a proper education, she's making sure that Sophie gets what she needs. They live in a small house and share a bed. At night, Sophie dreams of being with her mother again. Sophie later finds out that she was going to be moving in with her mother in New York. The novel talks about daffodils and the color yellow which the author might be using to foreshadow an upcoming event.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
25 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME
1) I am cautious about:
* fingers and toes
* teeth
* finger nails and toe nails
2) I'm scared to have kids.
3) I smell my hands after everything I touch.
4) I get mad when someone bumps into me and does not apologize.
5) For a snack I eat:
* cucumbers and ketchup
* apples and peanut butter
* tomato juice on bread
6) I like the way my dog's collar smells.
7) My favorite two colors are green and blue.
8) I hate my:
* nose
* lips
* arms
* name
9) I'm scared of fish.
10) When I travel, I miss my dog more than my dad.
11) I love chocolate!
12) I'm really sensitive on my inside elbow and under my mid-foot.
13) I tap my nose when I think.
14) My favorite position in hockey is right wing even though I'm left handed.
15) I use the bathroom 8 more times than the average person does.
16) I was born in Vancouver, Canada.
17) I hate blood and veins.
18) I play the piano.
19) I'm the eldest and have two sisters and one brother.
20) I don't want to live in Saudi Arabia.
21) I hate hypocrites.
22) If I'm not looking in the mirror; I don't know what I look like.
23) I shiver a lot for no reason.
24) I get jealous easily but never admit it.
25) I love solving equations in Algebra.
* fingers and toes
* teeth
* finger nails and toe nails
2) I'm scared to have kids.
3) I smell my hands after everything I touch.
4) I get mad when someone bumps into me and does not apologize.
5) For a snack I eat:
* cucumbers and ketchup
* apples and peanut butter
* tomato juice on bread
6) I like the way my dog's collar smells.
7) My favorite two colors are green and blue.
8) I hate my:
* nose
* lips
* arms
* name
9) I'm scared of fish.
10) When I travel, I miss my dog more than my dad.
11) I love chocolate!
12) I'm really sensitive on my inside elbow and under my mid-foot.
13) I tap my nose when I think.
14) My favorite position in hockey is right wing even though I'm left handed.
15) I use the bathroom 8 more times than the average person does.
16) I was born in Vancouver, Canada.
17) I hate blood and veins.
18) I play the piano.
19) I'm the eldest and have two sisters and one brother.
20) I don't want to live in Saudi Arabia.
21) I hate hypocrites.
22) If I'm not looking in the mirror; I don't know what I look like.
23) I shiver a lot for no reason.
24) I get jealous easily but never admit it.
25) I love solving equations in Algebra.
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