Eh.

Here are a few things I work on when I get in bored in class.
I'm a little rusty.
Also, I don't give any of these titles, I can never think of a good title.


Shimmering, Glittering
The moon is reflected perfectly in the lake.
Relaxing in the hammock
Fireworks dancing in the sky
Burning bright,
The fire is perfect for roasting marshmallows.
Summer nights don't get any better than this.

Stuck.
Trying to escape
To get out
To leave
Reaching for your hand
I want your help
I need your help
Please.

ASP Prompt 1

Everyone has a few flaws, the Achilles heel of their personality. In some people, its insane jealousy; for others, it could be a short temper. Although both of those personality traits tend to stand out a lot in a person, one of the most deifined flaws within one's character is fearfulness. In the novel A Seperate Peace by John Knowles, the author places himself back in time when he lived at the Devon School. His main character, Gene, lives in constant fear of almost everything.

Gene's fear clouds his vision and causes him to become quite paranoid. When re-visiting Devon School, Gene looks back on his time at the school. He recalls the deep, chilling fear that continuously haunted him throughout his school years. Gene admits to his fear when he thought "looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it" (2). Back when he attended the school, Gene was in a chronic fear of anything and everything. Phineas, or Finny, wanted Gene to jump off a tall tree into the river below and the only reason Gene accepted was so he wouldn't look foolish. Often would Finny want to break the rules, Gene went along so he wouldn't look afraid, even though he was usually scared senseless.

When people get scared, they make rash decisions that tend to have negative effects on their lives. Gene's fears and unwillingness to accept them always put him in some kind of danger. One day, Finny and Gene decided to climb the tall tree to make their infamous jump yet another time. Finny climbed out onto the branch to make the jump and Gene jounced the limb, causing Finny to lose his balance and plummet to the ground. Although Gene purposely hurt his so called "best friend", he feels no regret as he recalls, "with unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fears of this forgotten" (52). Once he doesn't have to compete with Finny for attention, Gene's fears vanish. He is a huge coward and it's quite sad that Gene has to hurt someone else to finally forget his own fears.

Gene is an easy character to relate to for everyone, fear is something we all have in common. It's how we deal with the fear that makes or breaks us. Fear is a flaw that can be very dangerous if it isn't handled correctly. Gene bottles it up and finally lets it explode into violent actions which is something that should never be done. He is truly a danger to everyone at Devon School.

SOS

Hello to anyone and everyone who still uses these blogs!
I'm trying to write the dreaded balance and comparison paper right now but sadly procrastination has yet again gotten the best of me. Dilpreet and I were talking about our essays and somehow the topic of last years blogs came up. We both feel that it would be really great if some students from last year's advanced english class would use the blogs again every once in a while; I think I speak for many when I say that the blogs are sorely missed. Also, it's a great place to be able to share our essays and get positive feedback without the negative comments from some pupils in our midst. If you see this, please leave a comment or a post!

The Power and the Glory Essay

If no one in this world ever suffered, there would be no compassion. Suffering and pain give our actions so much more meaning. Take Martin Luther King, for example. If he hadn't died for his cause, he wouldn't of been so popular. Rosa Parks went to jail for standing up for what she believed. Both real people, who suffered for their beliefs, but eventually became heroes. In the novel The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene illustrates the importance of pain and suffering with his main character, the "whiskey priest".

Throughout the novel, the priest goes through so much just to do what he believes is the right thing. When he went back to hear the Gringos confession, he knew it was a trap. He knew he would get caught and brutally killed. But going to hear the confession was the right thing to do, so he went and suffered for his decision. All the suffering the priest went through gave alot more meaning to his actions. The priest had a love for his religion, a love for his people. "But I do know this -- that if there's ever a single man in this state damned, I'll be damned too...I wouldn't want it to be any different. I just want justice, that's all." (p 200) The priest really does care about his people, which is exactly why he goes through so much for them.

The priest knows the importance of suffering, but on the other hand the lieutenant does not. "Suffering is wrong." (p 176) He doesn't understand that without suffering there would be no hope. Hope for better things to come, hope for the future, the lieutenant just doesn't get it. If no one suffered or had pain, nobody would care about each other. "If you see somebody in pain, people like you reason and reason. You say -- pain's a good thing, perhaps he'll be better for it one day." (p 199) The thing is, pain does make you stronger. The lieutenant just doesn't get that.

Pain and suffering is vital to our existance. Without it, there would be no love, no hope, no compassion. All things that we absolutely need to live life fully. The priest is a very heroic character in the novel, when things got difficult, he never gave up hope. If only more people in the world were like him in this way, too often do we give up hope when we go through hard times. If only more people could see the bright side in pain and suffering, that things will get better. If only.

Chapter 4 Response

In chapter four, Graham Greene describes the priest in two very different, yet very alike situations. When he finds the wounded dog in the abandoned house, a very animalistic side of him is exposed. On the other hand, when he is with the mother and the dead child, a more compassionate, caring side is shown. Both sides are vital in any person; without an animalistic side covering the basic needs like eating and sleeping, survival would be impossible while the more compassionate and loving side is very important too.

When the priest finds the starving dog, he covers his own basic needs before the dog's. Survival in mind, he takes the bone for himself and eats the scraps sticking to it. "Hope is an instinct only the reasoning human mind can kill." p 141 Even though the dog was slowing dying it didn't give up hope. The indian woman didn't give up hope either, even when the little boy died. The sugar cube placed by his head was a small symbol of hope for a miracle, although the priest ate it to try to satisfy his animalistic needs again. His caring side was exposed in the second situation; worry for the indian woman made him turn around to check if she was still by the dead baby. The priest's actions in both situations help us see a few different sides of human nature that are needed for survival.

Pet Semetary

Life of Pi Essay

The gigantic ugly ship slowly chugs its way through the Pacific. On it is a Hindu family, my family, prepared to start a new life in Canada. Suddenly, the ship goes down and I am on a lifeboat. Alone. I never got to kiss my mother goodbye, embrace my dad, or say a word to my only brother. My family has been unwilling taken away from me and I’m lonely and heartbroken. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the reader is thrust into Pi’s position and it soon becomes clear how valuable, unbelievable and precious life really is, and how we should never take it for granted.

When drifting in the Pacific, Pi witnesses animals savagely devouring each other numerous times. He starts to realize that what animals have done, people have done too. The animals are meant to say: What are we not capable of? Whatever you believe, no matter how crazy or weird it is, live it to the extreme. So many of us take our lives for granted and never express who we really are, even though we could be dead in a heartbeat. “Now I will turn miracle into routine.” (page 148) Life itself is a miracle! Everyone needs to start treating life as that, it really is a miracle.

“It was something to pull me out of my limited mortal ways and thrust me into a state of exalted wonder.” (page 233) The lightning Pi sees is wondrous; he’s getting a taste of how beautiful life really is. The sooner the rest of the world can see it, the better off we’ll all be. There are those in the world who choose to see everything in a pessimistic view. “That’s right, we believe what we see.” (page 294) Well, if we decide and believe what we see, why can’t we decide to see things in an optimistic view? People start to believe that life really is terrible and they give up hope, just as Pi does at one time in the novel. “With the very first rays of light it came alive in me: hope.” (page 119) Pi believed he wouldn’t make it through the night alive, but when the sun came up, hope came back. His hope did begin to dwindle though, as the day went on and he wasn’t saved. Martel seems to be telling the reader to never give up hope—no matter how bad things get—everything will get better. I fully agree with him.

“Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer.” (page 297) This quote is definitely my favorite from the whole novel. All of the ideas mentioned in the quote are so unbelievable, but with faith many people believe all three. If these hard to believe ideas were gone, life as we know it would be demolished and gone forever. Our beliefs are what make us who we are and define us from every other being in the world.

After drifting on a humungous for an enormous amount of time, the sandy beaches of Mexico are heaven. Right away Richard Parker deserts me and I feel as though part of me just left forever. Thankful is the only word that can describe how I feel now. Thankful for my life, thankful God let me live, thankful that after leaving for a while my hope of survival came back. Never again will I take any part of my life for granted; I see now how much of a miracle it really is.

Sun

To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

"Somehow, if I fought Cecil I would let Atticus down...I could take being a coward for him." p. 77 To some of us, the word hero invokes a picture of someone with superpowers and tights. Someone who always does the right thing and saves the day. Someone who always defeats the evil villain. There is a more realistic version of a hero. A hero can be someone who does the right thing, someone who is looked up to, someone who never holds grudges. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are a few very definite heroic and non heroic characters that can be easily recognized.

Atticus is definitely the easiest heroic character to recognize. His two children never want to let him down, and they look up to him. Always doing the right thing, Atticus suffered from a lot of ridicule from children and adults. No matter what anyone said, Atticus stuck to his guns and defended Tom Robinson; it was the right thing to do. "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand." p. 112 Being the great person that he is, Atticus wanted Jem to see the real bravery in Mrs. Dubose, she never gave up fighting her sickness even though death was inevitable. If a disgusting man, inside and out, spat in my face, I would of probably lost it and hit him square in the face. When Bob Ewell spat in Atticus' face, he kept his cool and didn't do anything irrational. "I wish Bob Ewell didn't chew tobacco." p. 217 Atticus didn't lose his temper, didn't throw any punches, didn't even name call. He is a true heroic character.

Although not as recognizable, I believe Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are also heroic figures in the novel. Tom always helped Mayella Ewell, even though getting paid was out of the question. "It occurred to me that in their own way, Tom Robinson's manners were as good as Atticus's." p. 198 Black people were looked down upon a lot in this time period, so saying an African American's manners are as good as a very polite white man is definitely saying a lot. Tom was a very polite, very good man and he didn't deserve to die. Boo Radley was also a hero in his own way. When Miss Maudie's house burned down and Scout was sitting on the curb practically freezing to death, Boo covered her up with a warm blanket. Bob Ewell attacked Jem and Scout and Boo saved them. He is definitely a very heroic character. "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mocking bird, wouldn't it?" p. 276 Shooting a mocking bird is a sin, sending Boo to court would be a sin too.

On one hand, there's the heroic figures. On the other, there's antiheroic and Bob Ewell is as bad as they get. Ewell forces himself upon his own daughter and he won't admit to it at the trial, even though the evidence clearly shows that it was him. He was completely ready to let someone else take the blame and be killed to cover up the truth. "The witness said he never called a doctor to any of his'n in his life, and if he had it would of cost him five dollars." p. 175 The safety of his own daughter wasn't even worth five dollars to Bob Ewell. He also carries terrible grudges against everyone connected to the case. Sure, he's really mad about the case with Robinson going wrong, but that is a terrible excuse to attack children. Ewell is just a nasty, disgusting villainous man, like many that live in our world today.

If only there could be more people like Atticus, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. The world needs more heroic people and less anti heroes. Everything could be so much safer, so much better. Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird shows the heroic type of people that we need more of, and the non-heroic type that we need way less of.

Cave

One way in, one way out. We have created this mess for ourselves, and we expect it to resolve itself. One way to resolve it, one way out of the cave we are stuck in. The darkness of the cave shadows our relationship, but not for long. Soon we will resolve, we will see each side, we will both understand. Soon we will be free of our cave, free and able to be friends again?

Stars

Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Fire. Our savior, burning everything in sight. Every book will be burned. Books are the roots of all evil. Who would ever of thought that kerosene could smell so sweet? I, as a fireman, have the most important job in our society. To dispose of books and whoever is hiding them. Watching the flames swallow houses whole fills my body with raw joy. These are the nightmarish thoughts of a "noble fireman" in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In the novel, Bradbury shows the reader that for some people, no matter what happens, it is never too late to change.

When the word "wife" is said out loud, the first thing that comes to my mind is a woman that love and cares about her husband. Mildred, Montag's wife, is the exact opposite of what a wife should be. Montag was changing right before her very eyes, Mildred didn't care for him enough to change with him. "Ladies, once a year, every fireman's allowed to bring one book home from the old days, to show his family how silly it all was, how nervous that sort of thing can make you, how crazy." (p. 94) Not wanting anyone else to witness the drastic changes being made, Mildred tries to hide them. Finally, when she is unable to avoid change any longer, she flees.

Faber was always a good person but he was too cowardly to do the right thing by himself. It took Montag's help to make Faber do the right thing, instead of hiding and doing nothing. "I feel I'm doing what I should've done a lifetime ago." (p, 131) Faber is one of the characters who shows that it's never too late to change and make the right choice.

Of all the characters who underwent changes, Montag made the biggest change of them all. He goes from a depressing, ignorant "fireman" to a man with a reason to live again. "Last night I thought about all the kerosene I've used in the past 10 years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that before." (p. 52) Meeting Clarisse was the beginning of all these changes, and witnessing a women burn was the turning point of Montag's life.

Freedom at last. Breathing in the smoke free air and relishing on the sweet escape. How could I ever of thought books were bad? Firemen and the government are the evil in this society, not the books. Walking through the darkness, so alone, but finally feeling good inside. Change is always possible, no matter what circumstance.