Post 03-10-10

_____I didn't understand the newspaper aricle section that clearly on page 231. I don't know what it has to do with Pip or the story. And then he starts talking about the North pole and eskimos. Why? Then he says something about a patron, and I don't even know what that is. This whole section was very confusing for me.
_____I think that a patron might be like a customer... ...maybe? I still don't know what eskimos and the North pole have to do with anything. Also, I am still pretty confused about the importance of this article and how it is relevant to the story.

Group Writing

The most obvious ways that Wilde portrays the motif dishonesty in his play is through the characters’ physical actions and what they say. When Lady Bracknell is interviewing Jack to see if he is worthy of marrying Gwendolyn, no matter what he says, she seems to make it even more impressive than it should be. Wilde uses this scene to tell how the Victorian society is always lying to make themselves higher than the rest. Then, Algernon goes bunburying to meet Cecily, and he pretends to be Jack’s made-up brother, Ernest. Making up a fake identity is a bad form of dishonesty, especially in the case of Jack and Algernon, where they’ve both gone bunburying under the name of Ernest to get married. Wilde uses dishonesty in bunburying to show how often the Victorian society lies, and how big of lies that they are. Also, Miss Prism never told anyone that she left a baby in a bag. Wilde did this to both give an explanation to why Jack was found in a bag and later adopted, and to show how people in high society hide both big and little secrets from others to make themselves accepted. Wilde’s incorporation of dishonesty and untruthfulness in this play makes it more interesting and gives it excitement and suspense.

Poetry Out Loud

I watched Allison Strong perform William Shakespeare's "Sonnet CXXX; My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun" Allison put her hands on her hips to look proper because the poem was about a mistress who was proper. She talked in a kind of a British accent to emphasize the properness of the poem.

She sounded like she was complimenting on her mistress' beauty, but really she was saying that she was disgusting and ugly. She was disguising her complaints so that they would sound like compliments. It has irony because she sounds like she is saying compliments with that tone of voice.

Life Lessons

When I was about two years old, my little brother, Jack, was born. I thought that he was a kind of new toy or a baby doll because, when he was starting school, I would call him little innocent names like "baby," or "lap-snatcher." My mom would warn me that if I continued that, he would grow up and be even worse back to me. She would tell me that someday he would be taller than me and would be able to tackle me like how we played when we were little. He would also tease me like I would back then.





But no matter what my mom said, I still called my little brother names and made fun of him... ...Now I regret doing that. Now the annoyances are constant. Just a few moments ago, he was in the computer room and I was working on this assignment, and he really wanted to read it. (He still does.) He kept insisting that it was illegal to post something without the other person's permission. He kept it up until finally my mom told him to stop. These are the times when I regret bothering him when we were little.

The Alchemist: Imagery

The author uses imagery in his novel because it would be fairly hard to describe how Santiago "hears" some inanimate things tell him what to do. For example, he sometimes tries to listen to his heart, and then his heart actually talks to him. This happens many times throughout the story. The things that do it are his heart, the desert, the wind, the sun, and the Soul of the World.
It would be challenging to try to tell the reader how Santiago can use signs to get messages from those inanimate things. So the author uses personifacation to make it easier for him to tell the reader about the signs that Santiago is getting from those inanimate things that tell him what to do and/or how to do it.

I like The Alchemist so far. It isn't the book with the most attention grabbing introduction, but it is kind of intriguing. It's not that hard to get into, but I'm still wondering why it's called The Alchemist.
I'm not sure what the most dominant literary element in my book is because it has mostly just been talking and explaining about how he came to be a shepard.
So far, the only literary element has been "scared to death." and such. So that isn't that much of a literary element since it's just a maxim, but this book is about this kid's journey as a shepard, so there might not be many literary elements in it.
The tone is kind of somber because he talks about how his father wanted him to be a priest, but he ended up wanting to travel around and see new places, and the only way to travel that his family could afford to fund was being a traveling shepard.

When I start a book in which the first few pages aren't that appealing to me, I usually try to keep reading because sometimes they get better. Sometimes, however, I just can't get past those first few pages, so I have do put that book down and start another book.
When I just can't find a good place and/or time to read a book, I usually either read at night or during school when we have silent reading time.
My reading style is mostly fantasy because I like stories and books that are about magic wizards and dragons and fairies (Oh my!).
I like to read fiction because it is sometimes funny to think about what it would be like if I were the person riding on a dragon's back, or taking journeys through time.