____I would consider myself a more-accomplished essay writer than I was last year, but I'm not perfect. The literary analysis tools we have learned have helped me go beyond literal ideas and questions. I think literary analysis will help me write better-quality essays and reports on books in the future.

____I need to work on getting more commentary into my essays. I used to have a lot of commentary and not too many concrete details. I need to find a good balance without overloading one or the other. I think that my comma and general punctuation could use more work, even though the spell cheker can find some errors.

Summer Reading List!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.
It sounds like a good twist on the original.
1984 by George Orwell.
My mom liked it, and it sounds like 2012.

Theme and Motif: Fate

____I looked up the astrology for when I was born. I am a Gemini, but I already knew that. The sign for Gemini are twins. The symbol looks like II. I looked up something called a birth chart andI put in my birthday and time and place and it made a birth chart. The birth chart showed where the planets and sun were aligned when I was born. Gemini are supposed to be lively and free. They're supposed to be happy and creative. Gemini are known to live life to the fullest. I think that most of these traits are true for me. There are some traits that I know don't fit me like how Gemini are supposed to be religious.
____Romeo and Juliet talk about how the stars determine their fate, and how they were meant to be from the start. I found many things about Gemini that aren't true for me, but some of them are true. I think that Romeo and Juliet fell in love too quickly. They rely on the stars and fate too much. Silly things like how Gemini are supposed to favor the color green over other colors being true for me, might not be as life-changing as a true fate being wrong.