The Conclusion

This year has been a major milestone in my life. I have learned many different elements of English. One of the most important lessons was writing.  The blogs helped me write in a less formal way but touched on deeper subjects. The blogs allowed us to share our personal feelings and read about other people’s thoughts and ideas. Throughout my poems I discussed life and the choices we have to make. Life as I’m beginning to discover goes by pretty fast. It almost seems like yesterday that we were turning in our “To Kill a Mockingbird” summer assignments. These blogs have helped me develop my writing skills by forcing me to sit down and write. I have always had a problem with getting my thoughts on paper but this blog really help me expand my mind and helped with creativity. By reading my past blogs I could see how different prompts led to different levels of effort and imagination. When I was presented with a prompt I wasn’t too excited about my answers would seem to lack. When I was presented with the opportunity to express my own opinion I would jump at the chance. It seemed that it was the easiest thing to talk about. In most of the blogs that discussed my opinions and thoughts I talked about life and the choices we make. In life our choices define us and who we will become. One of my best friends found a quote and it is now one of my favorites, “To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are”-unknown. This quote encompasses many things we go through in life. Life is all about dreams but dreams are only dreams. The effort and choices you make is the only way to make any dream actually happen. These blogs have helped me develop my skills as a writer in so many ways. It was a very different method but in the end I believe it was effective and accomplished what it was set out to do.

Memorable Assignment

One of my most memorable assignments was our outside reading project first semester. We had to choose a book we had never read before. The book I chose was Wuthering Heights, this novel has a tragic love story and our job was to create a poster or another kind of visual aid to explain the book. I decided to create a poster and I wanted to try and convey the feeling of forbidden love and mystery. I drew the two lovers on a cliff overlooking the ocean and sunset.

I really wanted be artistic and I enjoyed doing a different kind of project much like this poster. I feel the creative project is more fun and enjoyable than an essay. As much as I enjoy writing papers I discovered in this project that I can draw and create something beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and will always remember Wuthering Heights because of it.

Good Experience with Poetry

As a little kid I was introduced to poetry but I didn’t fully appreciate poetry until this year. When we had to recite poems for Poetry Out Loud I was scared. I thought that memorizing would extremely difficult but I was wrong. I decided to recite Invitation to Love by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.  The poems imagery is so strong, all I wanted to do was show it to other people.

 Invitation to Love is one of my favorite poems because the message is so strong and convicting. I learned that poems aren’t just thrown together on a piece of paper but they can show us some of the deepest feelings a person could possess. They give us hope and excitement, carrying the readers from one line to the next.

For right now I do enjoy poetry, I like trying to figure out different meanings to the same poem. Poems can show you different feelings some you can relate others not so much but poems are a great way to show pain, hope, love and many other feelings.  

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

There are many different forms of conflict in the Romeo and Juliet. One of the main conflicts is the internal/personal conflict that is consistent throughout the character's lives.One example of this conflict is of Juliet's reaction to Tybalts death. She says, "but wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my husband? That villain cousin would have killed my husband." (3.2.110.) She is not sure whether to be relived to hear of her husband's escape or be distraught over her cousin's death. This circumstance allows Juliet's character to build through her thoughts and actions. The conflict also takes a toll on Romeo, now that him and Tybalt are cousins he trys to not fight and instead stops Tybalt and Mercutio. The internal conflict hatred consumes Romeo causing to fight Tybalt to the death. He is overcome with grief knowing that the chance of Juliet and him ever being together is growing slimmer.

In life everyone is confronted with internal conflict and their response can define their future. The conflicts are all different, but most involve decisions. In my life I have to made choices involving sports and school which have impacted me greatly. But all those choices have other options that must be taken into consideration. Our choices define us as people and I am proud of my choices.

Romeo and Juliet: It's Everywhere!

In Francine Rivers novel A Voice In The Wind the main character Hadassah was taken as a slave and brought to a very high aristocratic house in Ancient Rome. There she falls in love with Marcus the son of political man. Marcus then falls in love with Hadassah. But like Romeo and Juliet they cannot get married. Marcus is not allowed to marry a slave and Hadassah cannot marry him because of differences in religion. Much like the differences between the Montagues and Capulets. Francine Rivers use of mythological references is also similar to that of Shakespeare. In the end they love they have for each other allows them to be together.

Romeo and Juliet

Each character is different in his or her own way and adds to the overall depth of the play. From reading at home and in class I feel that I can somewhat relate to Benvolio and Juliet. Like Benvolio I do not get wrapped up in the dramatics of love. Yet I am the friend that will help others when they feel the world is coming to an end. But when compared to Juliet I will try and do what my parents ask and try to be a good daughter. I have found that reading Romeo and Juliet is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I understand most of it but the reading at school is a lifesaver. Talking about the play in class offers different ideas about a passages I had previously not considered. This adds to the overall understanding of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Wrapping up Great Expectations

In Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations many different themes are introduced and interpretations can be different. A theme I noticed woven through the book is that self-improvement and ambition can be virtuous things but can be corruptive when constant shame is involved. In our lives we all have had times when we want to for example; get an A on a paper or do better in a sport. These things are great in themselves but if our goals cut out our past then how do we really know who we are? Our past shapes us into who we are now and who we will be in the future. Self-improvement should be something that we are proud of but if shame haunts our every step than how can we really improve ourselves and become better people? Dickens uses Pip to show how this is something that everyone goes through as they grow up. Growing up is hard in its self, but if shame follows our every move we will never reach the potential that we have inside ourselves.