Reflection

My Writing:

Since the beginning of the school year my writing has impooved. When I first started writing my essays they were not clear, very vague and there was no analysis. I did not have clear thesis statements and I would list examples and not analize them. As I was getting more and more frusterated I wouldn't get any better grades, my essays were consistently D's and E's each and every one of them. After I was fed up getting bad grades I decided that the next essay I would be prepared, and I did do better but not A material. Now I am doing better at understanding the topics being discussed and having clean and concise thesis statements to work with when I write my essays. I still am fumbling a little every once and a while but trying my best every essay. I have gotten a few hundreds and a few 90's. I think when I have an opinion about the topic or I know background on the topic then I write better essays, and when I don't have an opinion or I'm not sure how to even approach the topic i don't do as well. I hope that I can change that and even if I don't understand that I can ignore that and write a good essay. My sister in law is an english major and she consistently helps me when I get stuck, and she is helping me become a better writer. I hope that i can still continue to get better at writing so that I will have lots of experience for college.

Symbolism of Piano Essay

Reflection: This prompt makes you not only think about everyday objects that are meaningful to us but how they impact our lives in even the slightest way. That piano impacted each and everyone of those characters and in good and bad ways. It just makes you think of all the everyday things that might impact your life with out you even thinking about it. 

Prompt: Storytelling proves to be one of the most powerful element of information transferred throughout the play. The Piano has it's own story. In a well Developed essay, explain the significance of the Piano's story and it's impact on the characters in the play. 

Essay: 
           In the book "The Piano Lesson" by August Wilson all of the characters have a connection and it impacts their lives everyday. This connection is the piano that was carved by Papa Boy Willie.  Berniece, Boy Willie, Doaker, and Wining Boy are all impacted by the piano, they all have a significant memory of thought about it and they all want to deal with it in their own way. 
                Berniece is impacted by the piano because she grew up with their mother putter her blood and swear into preserving the piano. Her mother would polish it and play it and then polish it some more. This memory impact Berniece everyday, she has not played the piano since her mother died and she doesn't want to sell it either, she wants to preserve the memory. Her father died over the piano and she wasted to respect that, Boy Willie want to respect that too but in a different way. 
                 Boy Willie is impacted everyday by the piano too, because he just sees it sit there and in his mine it is just rotting away. Boy Willie's Father died over the piano  and he wanted to prove to himself and everyone else that he could make something out of himself with the the money from the piano by buying the land that his family worked on for years. This is why he would like to sell the piano and buy the land, to make a living and a statement that he is just as good as any white man. This though is all Doaker and Wining Boy ever thinking about, everyday.. all day. 
                  Doaker charles and Wining Boy were the brothers of Boy Charles who is Berniece and Boy Willies father. Doaker and Wining Boy helped Boy Charles steal the piano from the Sutters. They didn't die but Boy Charles did and they are living with that memory.  Doaker lets that piano sit there day after day in his house and haunt him of his brothers death, but he never says anything, he just keeps it to himself. Wining Boy on the other hand becomes a musical artist and play out his guilt in the piano, he also gambles a lot and hies behind that after he stops playing the piano. All the characters have their own story with the piano and they all are dealing with it. 
                  Berniece, Boy Willie, Doaker and Wining Boy are all from the same family and are all heavily impacted by that piano. They all have their own idea as of what to do with the piano, and what is right or wrong. The carvings and the memories will never go away they will continue to linger. 

Wise Blood Novel by Flannery O'Connor

Wise Blood Presentation, about the author Flannery O'Connor, the synopsis, characters, meaning, themes, and symbols.

Reflection: When I read this book, I absolutely hated it. I made no sense to me, and I was getting frustrated. Once I read the book i had to re-read some parts, even then my understaning of the book was not to good, so instead I looked for book help online. I found some notes online and then started re-reading parts and the book started to come together. This isn't just a book you can read, you have to think about it.

Wise Blood Passage

Reflection: This passage shows the main theme of the book by the main character Hazel. It shows how he doesn't want to be told what he is, he wants to find a new identity. That is why he is arguing with the cab driver, he doesn't want to be a preacher or even look like one, thats what his grandfather was and not what he will be. 
Passage:
“Where’d you hear about her? She don’t usually have no preachers for company.” He did not disturb the position of the cigar when he spoke; he was able to speak on either side of it.

          
“I ain’t any preacher,” Haze said, frowning. “I only seen her name in the toilet.”

“You look like a preacher,” the driver said. “That hat looks like a preacher’s hat.”

“It ain’t,” Haze said, and leaned forward and gripping the back of the front seat. “ It’s just a hat.”

They stopped in front of a small one-story house between the filling station and a vacant lot. Haze got out and paid his fare trough the window.

“It ain’t only the hat,” the driver said. “It’s a look in your face somewheres.”

“Listen,” Haze said, tilting his hat over one eye, “I’m not a preacher.”

“I understand,” the driver said. “It ain’t anybody perfect on this green earth of God’s, preachers nor nobody else. And you can tell people better how terrible sin is if you know from your own experience.”

Haze put his head in at the window, knocking the hat accidentally straight again. He seemed to have knocked his face straight too for it become completely expressionless. “Listen,” he said, “get this: I don’t believe in anything.”

The driver took the stump of cigar out of his mouth.  “Nothing at all?” he asked, leaving his mouth open after the question.

“I don’t have to say it but once to nobody,” Haze said.

The drier closed his mouth and after a second he retuned the piece of cigar to it. “That’s the trouble with you preachers,” he said “You’ve all got too good to believe in anything,” and he drove off with a look of disgust and righteousness.

(Pg- 27,28)

Darkness Essay

Reflection:These poems make you think about darkness and how it is a part of our every day lives. Some may see darkness as a forgein place and other may see it as home, a place where they are comfortable. Everyone is different when they think about it and thats why you see different views in both these poems. 
Prompt: The poems below are concerned with darkness and night. Read each poem carfully. Then, in a well writen essay compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the significance of dark or night in each. In your essay, consider elements such as point of view, imagery and structure.

Esssay: 
                 Darkness is something that everyone has to face every-once and a while. Everyone has to face it even if they don't like the dark or it is not a familiar place. In the peoms "We grow Accustomed to the Dark" by Emily Dickenson and "Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost, these both have a ton that describes darkness as a time for one to be lost and confused; and the imagery conveys that the message of being lost in the night  and the darkness. 
                 In "We grow Accustomed to the Dark" by Emily Dickinson tone and imagery show that the darkness and night show hopelessness but eventually one gets used to it and we can find the way though the darkness and depression.  In the poem it says " we uncertain stop for newness of the night" this shows the uncertainty of the night and how scared you can be, then it says " fix our vision to the dark" which shows that a person can find comfort in even the darkest darkness. This poem shows darkness and a ways to be okay with it, while "Aquatinted with the Night" by Robert Frost tells actions of the darkness and feelings to go along with. 
                  "Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost uses actions, imagery and ton to convey that the darkness is something that a person can become accustomed to. "I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain." This is a quote from the poem that shows actions that convey adjustments to the darkness and depressed feelings. " One luminary clock against the sky" shows imagery  and the clock symbolizes the time that people have that is depleting, that the time is running out. The tone of this poem is less hopeful than"We grow Accustomed to the Dark" because this poem doesn't show any hopefulness.
                    The two poems "We grow Accustomed to the Dark" by Emily Dickinson and "Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost both use tone and imagery to convey that darkness is representation of depression and not getting anywhere in life. One poem has a light at the end of the tunnel while the other one the persons life is running out of time. These poems are similar in begging tone but tun 180 and go completely different ways by the end. 
     

Hagar Character Sketch

This is a character sketch of Hagar from the book Song of Solomon. A character sketch is the thoughts and feelings followed by actions of a character. 

Death Essay

Reflection: 

            Death is a topic that can arise any time in anyone’s life, everyone has so many people that they interact with that the chances of facing death is as common as someone having a child. Each person will deal with death in different ways. Some people even deal with death in different people different ways, I know I certainly do.  Death for me is a touchy subject because I have lost many who were close to me. These two poems give different views of death that I had never really though about, I thought they were interesting and I was glad that I could understand and interoperate the poems.

 

Prompt: In "Suicide's Note" by Langston Hughes and "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy, the poets reveal their attitude twords death. In a well-organized essay discuss their similarties OR their differences. Consider their poetic style, tone, devices, structure and imangery used to explore the theme of death.

Essay:

Everyone views death differently; one may think it’s a release while another may think that of death as the end to something great. Everybody thinks about death in different ways and no way is right or wrong.  Death is also a common thought in everybody’s mind. In the poems “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes and  “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy are both addressing death but with different views and feelings; these authors use tone, diction and imagery to describe the different views of death; not being afraid of death or dying and death isn’t in ones hands but comes when it comes.

 There are different tones in each poem and both addressing opinions about death.  “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes has a relaxing or inviting tone; this is shown when in the poem says, “Asked me” and “a kiss.” Both of those two quotes show the tone of being comforted or an inviting feeling of the thought of death and not being afraid to die because once you die you can be rid of all your problems and pain.  While in “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy has a tone of anger or upset and regret. “But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place,” This quote shows the anger and upset feelings in the poem as he has to shoot this man, just because he is his enemy not because he has anything against him. “ I shot him dead because—Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was.”  This is where the tone turns into regret because he didn’t know man nor did he know his life. These two quote from “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy show that the author uses these tones to show that his view of death is that life shouldn’t end that way, not because of a feud, not by someone else, and that everyone deserves a life even if you don’t know him. Diction in these poems helps understand the tones.

Diction is also used in each poem to address the viewpoints of death. In “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes diction is used to show how death is inviting and will relive a person of all pain. Using the words “calm”, “Cool face” and “a kiss” in the poem shows those themes. Calm and cool face have a reliving and relaxing thought and a kiss shows that the pain and problems in life will all go away once they have gone into the river/ died. “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy used diction to show the viewpoint that death isn’t something someone can choose nor can you take someone’s life away. This is shown in the poem by using the words “my foe”, “no other reason” and “shoot a fellow down.”  My foe and no other reason give off a feeling of not wanting to, or not having a compelling reason to kill the other man, and shoot a fellow down shows that there was no connection to the other man who was shot; shooting him was a distant feeling. He shot the man because he has to not because he wanted to. Tone and diction helps provide imagery in each poem.

Imagery is also a big part of understanding the attitudes towards death in each of the poems. In the “Suicide Note” by Langston Hughes it says “Cool face of the river” and that paints a great image, which is welcoming and inviting this is because it is a cool face, with no worries in the river. This further backs up that the river is inviting and your troubles will go away once you have gone in the river.   While in “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy they also use imagery to depict a different feeling of death. “Staring face to face” and “shot him dead” paints the picture of how they were staring face to face and didn’t want to kill one or the other, but he had to because it was his enemy even if he didn’t want to take his life. Shot him dead also shows that taking this mans life didn’t make him feel good, it made him feel bad, something he shouldn’t have done. Tone, diction and imagery all help reveal the authors attitudes towards death in each of the poems.    

These authors have different views on death and portray them in different ways. But they both use tone, diction, and imagery to portray their different views on death. Hughes uses a comforting tone and inviting theme in his poem to show that death is something that will rid you of pain and problems. Hardy thinks differently, his poem portrays a view that nobody should have to die until it’s his or her own time, you can’t play game maker for someone else.  

Power Essay

Reflection: 

             I thought that this essay topic was a good topic because you could relate to it easily as a teen.  Growing up under your parent’s rules, you don’t really have a say in what you can and cannot do sometimes. Also writing this topic as a girl was an interesting view because me, my family supports anything and everything I do, and if I didn’t have that support system I don’t think I would be as good at things that I am good at today. This essay was an advantage to me to see how privileged I am.

Prompt: How  and when were both women (Mariam & Laila) able to regain power over their own lives and who was essentail for them to gain their personal power?

Essay: 

 Everyone has the power and strength within themselves to have control over their own lives. To some people it is a little harder to find, they have to search to find their inner power. But once they find it, they know they can do anything, anything they would like to do with their lives. In the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” By Khaled Hosseini both Mariam and Laila are striving to gain power over their lives. Mariam finds her strength and power through Laila’s youth and her strength, she gives her courage to stand up for herself.  Laila always had her power she lost sight of it for a while but Mariam helps her find it again.

            Mariam never really had ay kind of control over her life until she finally stood up to Rasheed and killed him. First it was her mother telling her what to do and how to act, then when she dies her father just marries her off to Rasheed, she can’t say no she has to marry him. Then Rasheed becomes the puppeteer of her life, he tells her how to act, what to wear, when she can and cannot speak or leave the house and even how to cook. Mariam is powerless, she doesn’t even know she could have power over her own life; it has never been introduced to her until Laila comes along. When Mariam befriends Laila, Laila shows her that she can stand up for herself through her own actions. Laila was an essential part in Mariam finding her inner strength, because when she does she stands up to Rasheed and doesn’t take no for an answer, Mariam ends up killing Rasheed and thus freeing herself. From that point on Mariam knows she can make decisions for herself but since Laila could get punished, so she make s life changing decision and turns herself in so Laila can have a happy life with Tariq.

Laila always has done what she wanted to do, her dad told her that she could do or be anything she wanted to be. She continued to play with Tariq when they were younger even when people started to talk about them, she didn’t care as long as she was doing what made her happy and playing with Tariq did.  When she lost her family and then thought she lost Tariq is when she looses sight of her power, she thinks that she has nothing left and the only way she can survive is by marrying Rasheed.  Now Rasheed has control over Laila too, for the most part anyway.  Once Mariam and Laila become friends Laila starts standing up to Rasheed more and when Mariam kills Rasheed Laila can gain full control over her life again. Mariam gives her a life with Tariq who wasn’t dead like she thought. She is able to have a life with Tariq and when they move back to Kabul, that is when Laila’s power is finally full and she can have a happy life with her family. Mariam was essential in Laila’s process of finding her power because if Mariam hadn’t acted like a mother figure and protected Laila by killing Rasheed, Laila might be dead. 

Through out the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” By Khaled Hosseini both Mariam and Laila strive to gain power over their own lives. Mariam and Laila are important and essential roles in each other’s journey of finding ones inner power. They both help each other find that power and realize that they always have had it. 

Parchman Farm Presentation

The Parchman Farms were a big part of the south in the 1930's. They were jails for people but not just a jail, but it was a learning expirence for crinimals.

Reflection: When I doing this presentation I learned about a new type of jail system, the parchman farm. This is where the inmates are not only punished and locked away but they work together like a community. They help each other out, one section cooks while the other makes bed and the other folds laundry, and one more grows food and other things in the fields.