Weekly Blog for Nov. 17th, "If I Stay"

Date: Nov. 17th
Prompt:  Describe what was either believable or unbelievable about your reading.

Defend your opinion.

Pages read: 0-Ending 

     "I see Dad first. Even from several feet away, I can make out the protrusion of the pipe in his jacket pocket. "Dad," I call, but as I walk toward him, the pavement grows slick and there are gray chunks of what looks like cauliflower. I know what I'm seeing right away but it somehow does not immdiently connect back to my father. What springs into my mind are those news reports about tornadoes or fires, how they'll ravage one house but leave the one next door intact. Pieces of my father's brain are on the asphalt. But his pipe is in his left breast pocket." This is what shocks me the most because Mia's dad's brains are on the sidewalk! According to Mia she knows what she is seeing but it can't connect back to her dad. The other thing is while his brains are on the floor his pipe did not eject itself from the pocket, which I thought was weird too. 

     The next thing I find shocking about the book was when Mia finds her Mom on the sidewalk which is not as gruesome as finding her Dad, but is pretty much cold. "There's almost no blood on her, but her lips are already blue and the whites of her eyes are completely red, like a ghoul from a low-budget monster movie. She seems totally unreal. And it is the sight of her looking like some preposterous zombie that sends a hummingbird of panic ricocheting through me." I find this shocking that there was no blood from any part of her mom's body on the sidewalk. I also find shocking, most of you might have not noticed, in fact I didn't notice until I read it a couple of times. Although in the last sentence "And it is the sight of her looking like some preposterous zombie that sends a hummingbird of panic ricocheting through me." The hummingbird in panic ricocheted through Mia. 

     Now you might say that simple things blow my mind, well you may be correct but if you read this sentence "you wouldn't expect the radio to work afterward. But it does," this simple sentence shocks me because the radio is still working when the car is eviscerated! Mia says later on in the book that it was quiet except Beethoven's Cello Sonata no. 3 playing still. That shocks me because the car was just in a terrible car crash which Mia describes as a metal skeleton without seats or passengers, 

Weekly Blog November 10th- "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Date: 11/13/14
Prompt: Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.
Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence.
Pages Read: 47- 81

     "No," said Miss Stephanie. "Shot the air. Scared him pale though. Says if anybody sees a white n***** around that's the one. Say's he got the other barrel waitin' for the next sound he hears in that patch, an' next time he won't aim high, be it a dog, n*****, or- Jem Finch!" This paragraph said by Miss Stephanie has a negative connotation built for the book because the word choice she has in her sentence, and the place she is in (which is outside the Radley house, which is a super creepy house that houses Boo Radley a mysterious man living in the house.) Another part of the book that has a negative connotation would be "Mr. Nathan Radley was standing inside his gate, a shotgun broken across his arm." This proves the text has a negative connotation because he has a shotgun for Pete's sake! I mean for me I would think of a shotgun representing a negative connotation because of what people do with the guns and what they are related to thought wise and history wise.
     ""I'm goin' after 'em," he said. I sat upright "you can't. I won't let you"" Scout as, revealed in here, is now proclaiming to be the protective and worried sister of Jem Finch. This sentence shows that Scout is now more worried compared to the beginning of the book where she was care free and willing to do anything crazy with her older brother. "I'll be dogged," I said. "I didn't know no better to read than not to read to her, and she held me responsible-- listen Atticus, I don't have to go to school!" This also proves or reveals that Scout also worries a lot more than an average kid, prior to this sentence was when Scout was scolded by her teacher for reading the alphabet and plain reading incorrectly.
     She doesn't want to go back to school and she doesn't want to read with her father because the teacher told her to stop reading at home. Atticus tells her it's fine and she won't know, but she won't listen to him and she's worrying that the teacher is going to find out. I have a connection to this part of the story because I too worry a lot and I also get like nervous or overly scared because I think I am going to get yelled at or in trouble for doing something, like even if it's as simple as being out of uniform.

Reflection On Edgar Allan Poe

     After I read about Edgar Allan Poe I knew a lot about him, like his background, and how he grew up. Now I know that Poe's parent's died and that he had to live in a foster home with the Allan's, but his foster father did not like him. I also know that Poe went to college but his father did not send him with enough money to live off of, so he threaten his father to send him enough money otherwise he will get himself kicked out of school. After that he moved to Baltimore with his aunt and cousin (who he later fell in love with) and his cousin robbed him! I mean how rude! His own cousin who he could trust robbed him! When his father d
ied he completely left Poe out of his will, oh did I mention he was so poor that he had to burn furniture to keep warm? Yikes! Right? Later on he got a job with the "Messenger" and made it a big success, he asked his aunt and cousin to move in with him and he married his 13 year old cousin Virginia at the age of 23 years old. Poe later died of an unknown cause and his death remains a mystery.
     His background probably affects his writing pieces because I mean if you read the paragraph above ↑ you would see he has kind of a dark history. If you have that kind of background you would think that person (Poe) would only think dark, and if that is to be his state of mind than he is going to end up writing some pretty dark stuff. We read the "Tell Tale Heart" earlier this week and it was pretty dark I don't know where in his life he would get this story from but maybe it could be like the old man could be his dad (I am not referring to the narrator being Poe, but some authors have people they know as characters but just change their name and characteristics, but it's really meant for that one person.) Since his dad didn't like him that much to leave him out of his will (I mean that's harsh right? Am I the only person to think that?) his will! Maybe there was something about his dad that always got to Poe like one freaky big toe, or one freaky small finger, and the eye could represent that one thing.
    The one thing I find most intriguing is that he had to burn furniture for his warmth, I mean furniture! He had to be very poor in order to become that low where he couldn't afford wood or a match or lantern. I never thought someone could be really poor, don't get me wrong I know there are poor people in the world and that can't afford food and warmth but just to burn furniture?!? With all the smoke that comes from that he probably kept warm but he must have also had a terrible cough or inhaled some bad smoke. Another thing that shocked me was that he married his COUSIN at the age of 13!!! It shocked me for one because people in America don't go around marrying their cousins, like you don't think your cousin is cute would you? I wouldn't one because it's a family member we share some DNA (I think not completely positive with all the science stuff) and again it's your cousin! The second thing that shocked me about that was she was 13, not even like that old. That's like one of us marrying a college kid or someone that just graduated college.
   

Week of: Monday November 3rd "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Book: To Kill A Mockingbird 

Prompt: • Draw 4 objects that represent your reading. Write a sentence for each, telling

what each item says about what you’ve been reading.

Pages Read: 0- 47

     4 objects that represent To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book, a creepy old house for the Radley house, two large living oak trees, and chewing gum (Wrigley's Mint Chewing Gum.) I choose the book because Scout loves to read with her father Atticus Finch, but on the first day of school she was scolded by her teacher to tell her father to stop teaching her because he was teaching her wrong. She told her father this when he wanted to read with her, in reply he said "If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading every night just as we always have." Atticus is afraid however if Scout tells her teacher this he will be a target of her. 

     

      Another object that I chose was an old house for the Radley house. The Radley house is a big part of the story because I think it kind of like has to do with the history of their county, Maycomb County. The story is that "The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb's ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only. Of all days Sunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes. But to climb the Radley front steps and call, "He-y," of a Sunday afternoon was something their neighbors never did. The Radley house had no screen doors. I once asked Atticus if it ever had any; Atticus said yes, but before I was born. " 

     I chose two large oak trees to represent To Kill A Mockingbird because in chapter four that's where Scout finds the chewing gum and where Jem finds the two 1900 pennies. In the book Scout see's something glistening in the tree so she goes up to the oak tree and takes the tin foil out, she was going to put it in her mouth but she decided to do it at her house after she remembered she was in front of the Radley house. When Jem got home from school she told him of the gum and she was forced to spit it out and wash her mouth. Later on Jem and Scout find two Indian head pennies and they decide to keep the pennies that were found in the oak tree. 

     

     The last object I picked was Wrigley's Double Mint Chewing Gum, I picked this object because that was the first thing Scout found in the oak tree by the Radley house and if she hadn't saw the gum then she wouldn't had seen the two pennies. In the book "two live oaks stood at the edge of the Radley lot; their roots reached out into the side-road and made it bumpy... Some tinfoil was sticking in a knot-hole just above my eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun. I stood on tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers."