Title Book, Author, total pages, pages read up to date
Choose one particularly powerful or rich paragraph (t least 5 lines) that captures one major theme in your independent reading book. Copy down the paragraph and specify the page number the paragraph is from. Then:
Write a 1-2 paragraph analysis of that passage in which you analyze how the writer uses literary devices to give voice to that theme. Summarizes what the passage says in terms of the big ideas/theme. Then, discuss the use of specific literary devices (how it’s said): powerful word choices, syntax, figurative language, tone, mood, setting). Lastly, explain the effect of these devices on the reader and how they help the writer illuminate the theme you identified (why it’s said that way). Use specific textual evidence, cited with correct MLA format.
This post is due on Thursday, March 20 by 11:59 pm. Posts submitted after this date will receive half credit.
To post, click "comment" below.
“After I took control the plane, two thoughts went through my mind, both rooted in disbelief: This can’t be happening. This doesn’t happen to me. I was able to force myself to set those thoughts aside almost instantly. Given the gravity of this situation, I knew that I had seconds to decide on a plan and minutes to execute it. I was aware of my body. I could feel an adrenaline rush. I’m sure that my blood pressure and pulse spiked. But I also knew I had to concentrate on the tasks at hand and not let the sensations in my body distract me.” [Sullenberger, Pg. 211]
ReplyDeleteChesley Sullenberger includes this paragraph in his autobiography in his description of the event that he is most famous for- his landing on the Hudson River. In this section, Sullenberger has just taken over the controls of his crippled A320 jetliner, which has lost both of its engines above one of the most congested areas in the world- New York City. Knowing that he cannot make it back to LaGuardia, Newark, or Teterboro airports, he must control his emotions and make correct decisions in order to save his and everybody else’s lives onboard. A major theme of this paragraph- and his entire book- is that remaining calm under even the most stressful and pressure-filled situations is essential to providing a positive outcome. Despite your inner emotions of denial and stress, one has to accept the fact that something has happened, remain calm, and make quick, smart decisions on how to get out of this situation. It is evident that Sullenberger was able to accomplish this, taking his crippled jet and communicating calmly with his First Officer and Air Traffic Control in order to make the decision to ditch in the Hudson. I listened to the radio script on Youtube of the incident, and throughout the entire process, Sullenberger sounds as calm as if nothing were the matter. This is essential to being a pilot, and more importantly- a leader; staying calm and performing in the face of adversity.
His initial use of the phrases “This can’t be happening. This doesn’t happen to me,” [Sullenberger, Pg. 211] provides the shock value of the situation to the reader. This is a very natural reaction to a bad incident, the belief that denial will make it go away. However, Sullenberger knows that he does not have much time before his jet collides with the ground, and he is able to shake off this denial, accept the situation, and begin looking for solutions to it. The author also uses powerful words such as, “gravity, situation, execute, and concentrate” [Sullenberger Pg. 211]. All of these words have very strong connotations, and help create the sense of seriousness- yet calmness required- of the situation. Finally, the overall tone of the passage seems to be very serious, yet calm at the same time. Sullenberger is very serious in his description of the current event, but he does not sound panicky. He includes the sentence “I knew I had to concentrate on the tasks at hand,” [Sullenberger Pg. 211] to make it clear to the reader that despite his concerns, he had the situation under control. These devices help the reader illuminate the theme because it provides the sense that in this extremely stressful situation, trying to land a powerless airliner in a river, Sullenberger remained calm and controlled the situation. The author is trying to say that in our own lives whenever we are found in a panicky situation, in which we feel stressed and under pressure, to remain calm and assess the situation and any solutions to it. Considering my problems are very small as compared to Sullenberger’s, I think that’s a good piece of advice.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Sweet-Blood, Pete Hautman, 180 pgs., 180 pgs.)
ReplyDelete“Dying has a curious effect on a person. I recommend it to anyone who thinks that they need more insight about themselves. But don’t expect to get any happier. When comes to self realization, the more you know the less you like. At least that’s how it worked for me. I have tremendous insight, but I am miserable.” [Hautman, Pg.167]
The theme of this is finding yourself and how it gets worse before it gets better. The author is saying that self-realization is difficult because most people don’t want to realize some things about themselves, but if you hang in there you can get to the other side and have a better outcome. You can free yourself of being lost and whatever problems you had when you were lost. What says that it gets worse before it gets better is the phrase: “I have tremendous insight, but I am miserable.” This shows that it’s positive by saying she has “tremendous insight”, but negative because it says that she is miserable. The author uses insight as the word that codes for finding yourself. The author conveys the message by using the repetition of the word “insight” to stress the importance of finding yourself and how it can be a double edged sword. The author also draws a contrast by using the words “insight” which is positive and “miserable” which is negative. That contrast shows the theme of it gets worse before it gets better. You can tell that self realization by the author using the word miserable. It’s better to have insight and know what’s going on and be miserable because that way you can get better. The author looks at finding yourself more as an adventure and exploration then just simply finding yourself. It feels this way because he uses the words “curious”, “tremendous”, and “self realization.” Those words are all deeper then what people think of in the everyday term of finding yourself.
“Divergent” by Veronica Roth, 487, 435
ReplyDelete“ “Weak-willed,” Tobias scoffs. “It requires a strong will to manipulate a simulation, last time I checked. Weak-willed is mind-controlling an army because it’s too hard for you to train one yourself.”
”I am not a fool,” says Jeanine. “A faction of intellectuals is no army. We are tired of being dominated by a bunch of self-righteous idiots who reject wealth and advancements, but we couldn’t do this on our own. And your dauntless leaders were all too happy to oblige me if I guaranteed them a place in our new, improved government.” ” Pg429 paragraph 3
This passage summarizes the major theme in “Divergent”. Jeanine explains that intelligent people are not good for fighting, and that brave people are better suited for an army. Jeanine is essentially explaining why each faction needs the other, alluding to the fact that people are not made to uphold one attribute to be the best, people are a mix of all of them. Divergents’ are the people who break the rule of one attribute per faction. Both Tobias and Tris show that you can be brave, smart, selfless, honest, and kind all at the same time. Tobias also hints that to be all of these attributes takes a strong will, alluding that the best people are the ones that have all of the attributes in moderation. The moral here is that each faction needs each other, because society needs each attribute to function.
Veronica Roth illustrates this by using tone, mood, setting and powerful word choice to illustrate both this message and its importance. By placing Tobias and Tris in a dangerous situation, Veronica illustrates that the points they are talking about are important. Furthermore, having Tobias and Jeanine fight, depicts each point they are making as important evidence, like they are in a court room. “Weak-willed is mind-controlling an army because it’s too hard for you to train one yourself”. Also, each person in this situation is choosing their words wisely, Tobias so that he does not get killed, and Jeanine so she can show Tobias up. Lastly, her use of words like “Weak-willed” and “self-righteous” to drive this moral home to the reader. She calls divergents “weak-willed” because she is afraid of them. They are an unknown, uncontrollable species, a mixture of a variety of factions. This word illustrates that she feels inferior to someone who has many different attributes. Furthermore, the use of the word “self-righteous” illustrates her desire to gain power, and her obvious greed. She does not like abnegation because they are selfless and do not want to gather wealth or possessions for themselves. This combination of literary devices helps the reader to understand that you cannot live upholding just one attribute.
Sam Smith
ReplyDeleteEnglish 2 Honors
Mrs. Dima
20 March 2014
Blog Post #4
("The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz 335 pages in total, 315 pages read)
"Beli, who'd been waiting for something exactly like her body her whole life, was sent over the moon by what she now knew. By the undeniable concreteness of her desirability which was, in its own way, Power. Like the accidental discovery of the One Ring. Like stumbling into the wizard Shazam's cave or finding the crashed ship of the Green Lantern! Hypatia Belicia Cabral finally had power and a true sense of self. Started pinching her shoulders, wearing the tightest clothes she had. Dios Mio, La Inca said every time the girl headed out. Why would God give you that burden in this country of all places!" (Junot Diaz, 94)
In "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" there is a lot of talk about political power—the kind of stuff a dictator like Trujillo has. But in this quote, Junot Díaz points out that everyday citizens have power, too. Take Beli, once she becomes a woman, she has men swooning over her. She uses her beauty to her advantage, this is the third type of power that we experience in the book, the power of gender and sexuality. In this quote, Junot Diaz illustrates Beli (the mother of Oscar and Lola Wao) as a young girl, realizing her power. She uses it to her advantage "spa started pinching her shoulders, wearing the tightest clothes she had", she embraced the fact that she was becoming a woman. Diaz uses word choice a lot in his writing, in this passage he uses "concreteness" and "Hypatia Belicia Cabral" to help support his theme. The word "concrete" in "concreteness" makes the reader think of something strong, it's big, powerful and sturdy, nothing can break it, relating this to the desirability of Beli shows how strong her power of desire is, it hints at the fact that she is able to manipulate people just by using her looks. The face that Junot Diaz uses Beli's full name "Hypatia Belicia Cabral" is extremely important, normally people's full names aren't used at all, even in real life. Full names are only used in times of extreme importance, when an impact is meant to be made.
Dariel Cardona
ReplyDeleteEnglish 2 Honors
Mrs. Dima
19 March 2014
(The Way Home, George Pelecanos, 315 pages, currently on page 193)
“Chris raised his head and squinted through the red and blue shafts of light coloring his yard. His Father was standing outside their clapboard colonial, framed beneath the portico he’d built himself, his hands buried in his pockets, his eyes black and broken. You made your folks real proud tonight, said the police officer. Chris didn’t care.” (Page 31)
I choose that paragraph because it has a lot to do with the theme of the book which is that Chris’s mother and father don’t really take the time to talk to there song about anything pertaining to his life. They basically allow Chris to do what he wants. So Chris see’s this as he can do whatever he desires so he starts doing a lot of criminal activity. He starts robbing people and stealing cars with his group of friends. He criminal activity leads him to no good and because of his bad actions he faces having to go to a juvenile detention and serving time.
Chris has a I don’t care about anything personality and its understandable because he doesn’t care about the trouble that he gets in and his parents don’t take the time to talk to him about his bad choices. They also don’t really care about their own child. Whenever Chris is in trouble with the law all they do is go bail him out, but never talk to him to see why it is he acts the way he does. The author described Chris’s dad’s eyes as black and broken which does show that he was hurt to see his own child in handcuffs, but he doesn’t take the time to actually interact with his child. As Chris gets older he see he really has no future, but to work with his father and that’s it, but since he has that I don’t care attitude towards everything in his life he doesn’t care if he has no future now.
Dariel,
DeleteWhat you are mentioning is a plot issue (mother and father don't take time to talk), not a theme. The theme refers to the universal message that the author is trying to send across by creating this plot and characters. The theme you mention might be: "Isolation of teens because of lack of communication with parents."
The Liar Society
ReplyDeleteLisa & Laura Roecker
on pg 287 , total pages 358
" Dead friends dont send emails. I shook my head fiercely in an attempt to clear my thoughts . It was the aniversary of her death , and I missed grace more than anything. Maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me . Maybe this wasnt really happening" . Pg 214 paragraph 2
Kate the main chracter reaction was surprised and scared at the same time because why would her dead friend email her out the blue ? Katie was in ann dramatic irony because she wasnt aware the grace was going to email her or even be alive. The author uses figurative language expressing the charcters feelings such as " shook my head , clear my thoughts , and fiercely ". Katie was freaking out in her room . Maybe the book is called The Liar Society because grace is lying about her death. Kate heart will be broken if she finds that out be cause its been a year that shes been gone and she has been playing tricks on her .Something like that is not funny .
(The Shining, ByStephen King)
ReplyDeleteon page 313, total pages 447
"Abruptly he leaned over the Skidoo's motor compartment and yanked off the magneto. It came off with sickening ease. He looked for a moment, then went to the equipment shed's back door and opened it."
From here the view of the mountains was unobstructed,picture -postcard beautiful in the twinkling brightness of the morning. An unbroken field of snow rose to the first pines about a mile distant. He flung the magneto as far out into the snow as he could. It went much further than it should have. There was a light puff of snow when it fell. The light breeze carried the snow granules away to fresh resting places. Disperse there, I say. There's nothing to see. It's all over. Disperse. I feel at peace.
(pg 282)
This phrase capture the the indecisiveness of Jack, which seems to be an affect that the Overlook hotel has on him. In the text Jack's wife requested for Jack to look into the hotel's snowmobile to see if it works, and if so the plan is for the snowmobile to bring the Torrance family to safety from whatever gave their son Danny those profound bruises on his neck and whatever else is lurking in the Overlook hotel. So Jack finds the snowmobile and the battery that allows it to work, but when I read the he threw the magneto into the snow, I became confused and worried for the safety of Wendy and er son. The text tells me that Jack threw the magneto into the snow because he believes that the Overlook hotel doesn't want him to leave and he is afraid of what his life would be like if he left his caretaker job at the hotel.
In this paragraph the author uses descriptive imagery to paint the setting of the scene. The phrase " From here the view of the mountains was unobstructed, picture-postcard beautiful in the twinkling brightness of morning. An unbroken field of snow rose to the first pine about a miles distant.' From reading this particular phrase I can picture the white winter season that consnow and all the tall evergreen pine trees, standing tall on top of the mountains. The author also uses powerful word choice to show the mood of Jack Torrance. I know this because of the phrase "Abruptly he leaned over the Skidoo's motor compartment and yanked the magneto. It came off with sickening ease." The word (abruptly) has the denotation of very sudden not expected. Another word Stephen King uses is (yanked), which has the denotation to suddenly pull something in a quick, forceful way.These powerful two words tell me that Jack is in a rushed and restless mood. I discovered this because Jack made a quick decision, to through away the magneto that goes to the snowmobile, which was the only way so far for his family to get off the snow filled mountain and escape to safety. Unfortunately I believe that Jack made the wrong decision to stay at the hotel.There are some spooky things going on in the hotel, which I know of I because of my previous reading.
(The Shining, ByStephen King)
ReplyDeleteon page 313, total pages 447
"Abruptly he leaned over the Skidoo's motor compartment and yanked off the magneto. It came off with sickening ease. He looked for a moment, then went to the equipment shed's back door and opened it."
From here the view of the mountains was unobstructed,picture -postcard beautiful in the twinkling brightness of the morning. An unbroken field of snow rose to the first pines about a mile distant. He flung the magneto as far out into the snow as he could. It went much further than it should have. There was a light puff of snow when it fell. The light breeze carried the snow granules away to fresh resting places. Disperse there, I say. There's nothing to see. It's all over. Disperse. I feel at peace.
(pg 282)
This phrase capture the the indecisiveness of Jack, which seems to be an affect that the Overlook hotel has on him. In the text Jack's wife requested for Jack to look into the hotel's snowmobile to see if it works, and if so the plan is for the snowmobile to bring the Torrance family to safety from whatever gave their son Danny those profound bruises on his neck and whatever else is lurking in the Overlook hotel. So Jack finds the snowmobile and the battery that allows it to work, but when I read the he threw the magneto into the snow, I became confused and worried for the safety of Wendy and er son. The text tells me that Jack threw the magneto into the snow because he believes that the Overlook hotel doesn't want him to leave and he is afraid of what his life would be like if he left his caretaker job at the hotel.
In this paragraph the author uses descriptive imagery to paint the setting of the scene. The phrase " From here the view of the mountains was unobstructed, picture-postcard beautiful in the twinkling brightness of morning. An unbroken field of snow rose to the first pine about a miles distant.' From reading this particular phrase I can picture the white winter season that consnow and all the tall evergreen pine trees, standing tall on top of the mountains. The author also uses powerful word choice to show the mood of Jack Torrance. I know this because of the phrase "Abruptly he leaned over the Skidoo's motor compartment and yanked the magneto. It came off with sickening ease." The word (abruptly) has the denotation of very sudden not expected. Another word Stephen King uses is (yanked), which has the denotation to suddenly pull something in a quick, forceful way.These powerful two words tell me that Jack is in a rushed and restless mood. I discovered this because Jack made a quick decision, to through away the magneto that goes to the snowmobile, which was the only way so far for his family to get off the snow filled mountain and escape to safety. Unfortunately I believe that Jack made the wrong decision to stay at the hotel.There are some spooky things going on in the hotel, which I know of I because of my previous reading.
(Heart's Desire, Laura Pederson, 376 pg., pg. 376)
ReplyDelete"As much as we both might like the situation to be different at this moment, and not have busy lives playing out eleven hundred miles apart, we agree that it's better to leave things as they are rather than be consumed by a bonfire of broken promises later on"[Pederson, pg.376]
What this passage is trying to explain is that, what people or your friends have told or taught you can help you throughout life because whatever happens, one point in your life you are going to have to use what your friends have taught you so that you can continue to understand the problems that you have throughout your lifetime.
The devices the author is using in this passage is tone because the way Pederson is telling this passage is compassionate because she uses Hallie to say this passage, but in her mind and it's a compassionate paragraph because in the sentence "we agree that it's better to leave things as they are rather than be consumed by a bonfire of broken promises later on". To me the way Pederson uses her words is compassionate since she uses words like bonfire and promises which sounds like words that have to do with friendship because in the first sentence Pederson uses the word both which means not only is the passage relating to Hallie, but with her friends that she has met and had met along the way that have helped her throughout her college years, like Bernard, he was Hallie's landlord of the apartment that she lives in and Bernard knew that paying for her rent was going to be a problem for her so he told her that when she had the money, she could pay, and her parents were supporting her by giving her at least 1,000$ a month so she could pay her loans and tuition little by little.
Alex Rosario
ReplyDeleteEnglish 2 Honors
Mrs.Dima
20 March 2014
( The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. Extra credit book, Page 78 of 89, shorter amount of pages because of iBooks.)
The theme of my book is "life doesn't have to be perfect for love to be extraordinary."
John Green uses powerful word choices by using the emotions of a girl friend (Hazel) who suffers from a life altering disease to talk about The death of Augustus.
"I can’t talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician,
but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There’s .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I’m likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.” (page 73, last paragraph)
The paragraph summary is how Hazel Grace is grateful to have been given "forever within the numbered days." And how she wishes that Augustus got more days than he did, Though she is still grateful for the infinity they were able to spend together.
The effects of the powerful word choices Over whelmed me. John Green really touched my heart, and I'm not going to lie I cried reading this book, even just that paragraph made me teary eyed. The book really makes you think about how love can change someone so much and how "life doesn't have to be perfect for love to be extraordinary."
Anthony Livingston Livingston 1
ReplyDeleteMrs. Dima
English 2 honors
Who killed me griffin
Lois Duncan
Pages 243 of 243
20 march 2024
Blog post # 4
"He's an asshole. He's out to flunk all of us." Mark explaining to Susan why they must kidnap Mr. Griffin".
This little quote showed how mark , the ring leader of this whole little prank turned big had cared about his teacher and was just trying to get even because mr. Griffin failed him along with a gang of his friends. This quote played a huge part in the story because it shows emotions that are pouring through the characters , also the language might not be the most appropriate language used but I see why it was used. I think that it was used to show the emphasis on how crazy and ruthless these kids are and how far they will go to because they failed themselves and got angry at the teacher for doing his job an what he was there to do. These New Mexico kids seem like they aren't the brightest when it comes to school and evidently common sense. I understand that David wants good grades to help his mom who has a deadbeat job. David honestly had good intentions when at school but the f because of the paper late. I don't understand why David let mark steer him on a bad path and basically make him feel like he owed mark something because of his curiosity and kindness to the other kids. Don't get me wrong Susan, Jeff And Betsy had parts in this so called prank. it wasn't only mark who played in the part of the kidnapping and the accidental murder of their teacher.
The book had some good details and had some figurative language also. The powerful words where the cuss words because it added the emotion to the sentences. These words almost enhance the sentence to where I feel like I can feel what the characters felt. I can't really find a theme to be honest but I think that the moral of the story was to try to take action positively and effectively not un needed force or bribery or any other thing that isn't necessary. I guess you could say this is a theme after all. I recommend this book to anyone who likes suspenseful mystery books and likes Books that have very surprising endings and leave you wanting more.
Book: The Daughters
ReplyDeleteTotal pages: 297 Pages read: 88 Chapter: 9
"Lizzie turned to look in the store mirror. It did look good on her . . . but would Todd think so? She tried to see herself through his eyes. Was her skin too white? Maybe she should have dug out the Jergens self-tanning lotion from the back of her bathroom cabinet. And her upper arms . . . why did they have to be so thick and shapeless? She'd almost forgotten about the weird cluster of moles on her back in the shape of the Little Dipper. And then what would Todd think if she showed up in this?."
8 Lines
Literary Devices: Setting.
Lizzie was on a clothing store with her friends, looking what to buy for Todd's party at his house. Both used to be very close friends, but he moved and they stopped talking. But one day her friends recognized him. He came back to stay. And went to Lizzie's school, and they keep talking as friends even though Lizzie's friends thought that he liked her, and he invites her to his party on a Saturday night. All this was happening at New York. A very famous place. And at the party he showed Lizzie a garden at the top of his house, a beautiful view from all the buildings and parks they used to go together as childs. This mostly happens in Movies made in New York. That city has a very beautiful view and the author uses that to make it more Romantic.
Summarizes:
Lizzie just wanted to look good physicaly, at Todd's party. And also feel good with herself. She didn't want to feel weird and Todd think stuff about her.
Specific LD: Mood
She feels very undecided and uncomfortable on what to wear on Todd's party. She didnt want to look stupid or ugly infront of everyone, but mostly infront of Todd.
Why is that that way?:
All this LD help us know what the author want us to focus on most. And to help us understand how Lizzie feels about herself, mostly when it's infront of Todd.
The Fault In Our Stars, John Green, Finished
ReplyDelete“Augustus Waters was a self-aggrandizing bastard. But we forgive him. We forgive him not because he had a heart as figuratively good as his literal one sucked, or because he knew more about holding a cigarette than any nonsmoker in history, or because he got eighteen years when he should have gotten more…He was pretentious: Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonance of human waste production. And he was vain: I do not believe I have ever met a more physically attractive person who was more acutely aware of his own physical attractiveness. But I will say this: When the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and they tell me to try them on, I will tell the scientists to screw off, because I do not want to see a world without him.”
This passage was spoken by Augustus’s best friend Isaac at a “fake funeral” that Augustus held for himself. Since Augustus always pondered whether or not there was an afterlife, he didn’t want to take any chances of not attending his funeral, so he created a fake one. It was a very heartbreaking section that sums up how painful and empty one feels after someone he/she loves dies. I found the most powerful line in the passage to be “I do not want to see a world without him.” This line is specifically powerful because Isaac is blind from the cancer that ruined his eyesight. He loved and cared for Augustus so much, that he never wants to fully accept the fact that he is dead. The sentence structure of that line was very important to the emotional effect it had on me. It started off positive during the first part of the sentence but slowly becomes more and more touching throughout it by using commas to separate the different parts. Another literary device used in this passage was repetition. It was used while explaining Augustus, and it really helped me understand how saddening it is to lose someone. Each and every human being is unique and interesting in their own way, and we all have stories to tell and memories to laugh about. I believe that’s why death is so upsetting, by losing a person you lose everything about them, except memories you once shared together, and you are from then on unable to make any more. By naming off different memories and characteristics of Augustus in a row, one after the other separated by the word “or”, really made me understand how amazing of a character and human being he really was.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen, 383 pages)
ReplyDelete"It was so easy. Academics, like an old friend, had just waited patiently for me, and returning to it felt safe and right. Unlike all the things I'd been doing with Eli, which were new and challenging and way out of my comfort zone, studying was my strength, the one thing I did well, no matter what else was going badly." Pg. 294.
A theme I saw developing in the text was change, and how change is okay. This passage is a perfect example of that theme. It is showing the main character, Auden, admitting to herself that she has changed overall as a person by changing her habits and priorities. She says how the things she did over the summer were "way out of her comfort zone", and returning to her old ways "felt safe and right." It proves that over time she experienced things that weren't expected from Auden. This gets to my point that change is okay. It's okay to step off track every once in a while if you're not definite about your final plan yet.
Sarah Dessen used this passage to show the realization of the main character. She chose specific words such as "old ways", "new", "comfort" , and "challenging" to show how the story is different now then how it started. The story starts off with this innocent, reserved, and academically involved girl who then turns into this wild child. She runs off with this boy and creates a whole world behind her real one. I personally think that all along Auden knew what was best for her and she knew what the conclusion of all this was going to be but she still wanted to experiment. I think that as you read on you put the pieces together. This is because honestly in the beginning I didn't expect this but then it happened bit by bit. For an example she meets Eli and hangouts with him, then they start getting serious after half way through the book. It's interesting how it's stretched over a long period of time leading up to an ending that was simply expected. They end up together.
There was a mood set behind this passage. Even with one hundred pages left to go, this was sort of the point where it all comes down to truth and reality. It was the turning point in the story. Even though it's her realizing what she did wasn't part of the plan it still supported the theme . This passage claims that even though what she was doing was wrong it made her feel complete and content. So at the end of the day it leaves the reader questioning is it about being happy or choosing the right thing? I think leaving the audience in this suspense is a good way to wrap up the book. I say this because it allows the authors skills to be recognized. It shows that the ending doesn't always has to go as planned, which relates to the theme, but also it shows that the characters different emotions and experiences throughout the text did matter all along. She had a story to tell at the end of summer.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKaige Barnabei
ReplyDeleteHoop Dreams
Ben Joravsky
“Well, you better start treating folks around here with the same respect you got for those people at St. Joseph.”
He glowered at Arthur, froze him with a stone-cold glare. His jaw jutted out in anger and his cheeks quivered. Arthur slunk back unto the room and apologized. From then on he kept his eye on Bedford, not certain what to make of the coach. Most people were easily softened; even Pingatore, for all his sternness, allowed himself to be captivated by Arthur’s charm. But Bedford was a rock; his stone face never cracked. “Ain’t none of you guys gonna fool me ‘cause I already heard it and seen it all before,” he told them.
It’s gonna take awhile to figure this guy out, Arthur thought. (Joravsky Pg. 209)
I chose this paragraph because I really felt it stood out as kind of a life lesson. I say this because I think he was applying the statement to life rather than just a rule to stay on the basketball. I feel this paragraph helps show the impact Bedford had on Arthur in terms of becoming a man. I say this because Arthur, as a kid, didn’t really fear or worry about anybody. He didn’t watch over his shoulder for anybody except Bedford. This paragraph and its meaning also compliment the theme of the book. That theme is not relying on sports to get your way through life, and with that it allows you to step on everyone you encounter along the way. You still have to return home to your neighborhoods, community, and family. At the end of the day they’re going to remember the type of person you were; not how high you could jump, how fast you could run, or how many points you scored. Now some of the literary devices that the author used were his word choice. He used terms like “stone-cold glare”; to show the seriousness of Bedford when he spoke. He also said stuff like “glowered “and “stone face”; to show the intensity of when you were in his presence.
Ayslinn Rafferty
ReplyDeleteEnglish 2 Honors
Mrs. Dima
6 March 2014
Legends, Editor Robert Silverberg, page 713
"Azver the Patterner stood with his left hand holding his right hand, which her touch had burnt. He looked down at the men who stood silent at the foot of the hill, staring after the dragon. "Well, my friends," He said, "What now?"
Only the Doorkeeper answered. He said, "I think we should go to our house, and open all it's doors."" ("Dragonfly", Ursula K. Le Guin, pg.395)
This quote is talking about after the girl Dragonfly, or Iriun, has left Roke, which is basically a male-only Hogwarts from the Earthsea series, after turning into a dragon. It's particularly chilling in context, because previously the doors to Roke had been closed to all for centuries, save to let a select few men in. It's also relatively humorous, as, well, one does not expect human girls to go turning into dragon girls in the middle of a posh school's forest, and thus the characters react relatively realistically.
In reading "Dragonfly," I had noted quite alot of the sexism present in the Earthsea series mirrors our own. Women are cut off from opportunities simply because they are women, and the only thing they are seen as good for is for sex and labor. This is focused on largely throughout the novella, as the whole chain of events is set in motion when a wizard boy decides he'll make an elaborate scheme to coerce Dragonfly into 'making love' with him. This fails in Dragonfly's favor when they get to Roke, to my personal thankfulness. Still, she continues to face sexism in Roke, where she is not allowed to take part in the school. Still, the patterner takes her under his wing, and allows her to live in the forest. As stated before, she later proved them all wrong by destroying the main reason why she wasn't allowed in the school and flying off with her new-found wings. The doorkeeper is insinuating that they begin allowing everyone who wants to come into the school, in a way of creating change.