Sunday, May 1, 2011
"The Tyger"
The poem "The Tyger" by William Blake is my favorite poem in the book. I like this poem because it rhymes and when I read it outloud, it kind of sounds like a song. I like the meaning of this poem too. The author is questioning whether God; who made the lamb, also made this fierce creature.I like the words of the poems also. He uses interesting vocabulary that I can hardly understand. Even though I did not understand some of the vocabulary at first, I then got the hang of it and began to understand the author's purpose. When I was in 9th grade, I had to memorize this poem and I did not like it. I said it so many times over and over that I got used to it and eventually started liking it and I even began to understand it. Now that I have read it again, I dont think I would be able to memorize it again but I still like it.
When I Think of Poetry
When I hear the word poetry, I think of peace and tranquility. Most of the poems that I have read are peaceful and mostly about nature. I imagine someone sitting under a tree on a lovely spring day writing a poem about their feelings or even about their surroundings. I think that all poems come from deep within a person's heart. I think of poetry as a unique way that human beings have of expressing their feelings. I always think that people write abou their feelings while they are in a peaceful and tranquil environment.
Spring Sonnet
Spring is the year's most beautiful season
The weather is just great to go outside
It makes people glad for a good reason
And it is also an amazing sight.
I love to see the flowers everywhere
Pink, red, yellow; such beautiful colors.
The soothing wind always blows here and there
And pretty plants rise with unique odors
Children are always running all about
Especially in a pretty spring day.
I love to go to the park and hang out
While watching butterflies who fly away
When walking my two good dogs all around
I see new flowers rising on the ground
The weather is just great to go outside
It makes people glad for a good reason
And it is also an amazing sight.
I love to see the flowers everywhere
Pink, red, yellow; such beautiful colors.
The soothing wind always blows here and there
And pretty plants rise with unique odors
Children are always running all about
Especially in a pretty spring day.
I love to go to the park and hang out
While watching butterflies who fly away
When walking my two good dogs all around
I see new flowers rising on the ground
Works Cited
"The Sonnet is a Versatile Poem of Fourteen Lines. "Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th ed. New York: Pearson, 2009. 900. Print.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
An Interesting Prize
The prize of the lottery in short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is very strange. I had never read any story similar to this one in my life. This story did not have a happy ending. It was creepy and peculiar. I found this story shocking to an extent level because of the prize the winner of the lottery received, the reaction of the people, and the many years this custom has lasted.
When I first read the title of this story, my first thoughts were of someone who was in desperate need of money, and then suddenly won the lottery and changed his/her, life for the good and forever. I realized that I was wrong about this though, when found out what the prize of the lottery was. Everyone got to choose a piece of paper and whoever got the black dot was the winner. The prize was getting stoned to death.
The reaction of the townspeople to this kind of event is very shocking. Even though they know the person getting stoned very well, they still proceed to harm them. I cannot imagine myself and my family stoning to death one of our neighbors, or worse, our neighbors stoning one of us.
As I read further into the story, I began to wonder more and more how was it possible that this custom was still alive after this many years. No one wants to win a lottery in which the prize is death; so why continue it? Most of the time, the people of this town did not put thereselves into the winners shoes. They were so used to this custom, that they thought of it as only a matter of throwing rocks.
Overall, this story is like none other. It is very wicked and deplorable. The people of this town stone their own neighbors, friends, and even family to death. They act as though this is not a horrible act. They act with no remorse whatsoever. Not only is the prize of the lottery awful, but the reaction of the townspeople is horrible and the time this custom has lasted is impacting. It is unbelievable that this custom was still alive in this story because of the grisly and unusual prize.
When I first read the title of this story, my first thoughts were of someone who was in desperate need of money, and then suddenly won the lottery and changed his/her, life for the good and forever. I realized that I was wrong about this though, when found out what the prize of the lottery was. Everyone got to choose a piece of paper and whoever got the black dot was the winner. The prize was getting stoned to death.
The reaction of the townspeople to this kind of event is very shocking. Even though they know the person getting stoned very well, they still proceed to harm them. I cannot imagine myself and my family stoning to death one of our neighbors, or worse, our neighbors stoning one of us.
As I read further into the story, I began to wonder more and more how was it possible that this custom was still alive after this many years. No one wants to win a lottery in which the prize is death; so why continue it? Most of the time, the people of this town did not put thereselves into the winners shoes. They were so used to this custom, that they thought of it as only a matter of throwing rocks.
Overall, this story is like none other. It is very wicked and deplorable. The people of this town stone their own neighbors, friends, and even family to death. They act as though this is not a horrible act. They act with no remorse whatsoever. Not only is the prize of the lottery awful, but the reaction of the townspeople is horrible and the time this custom has lasted is impacting. It is unbelievable that this custom was still alive in this story because of the grisly and unusual prize.
Works Cited
Jackson, Shirley. “The lottery”. An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New York. Pearson Education. 2009. Print.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Lottery
"The Lottery" is the short story that impacted me the most. When I saw the title of this short story, I immediately thought it would be a story about someone winning the lottery and their life being happy forever after. I was very shocked when I realized that the prize of this particular lottery was getting stoned to death. This made absolutely no sense. Why would anyone invent such a strange custom? I can not imagine being a part of this horrible act. While reading this story, I wondered many times how this custom had lasted for so many years! After analyzing this situation, I have come to the conclusion that this is a type of control over the population. The reason that no one wants to do anything about this horrible situation is because they do not want to be singled out and they are aftraid to go against the flow. Many times we are the same way. When we see something wrong we are afraid to fix it because we do not want to go against the flow.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
"The Parable of the Prodigal Son" from the book of Luke in the bible is my favorite short story. I like this story becasue it has to do with God and his infinite love for each and everyone of us. In this story, the father represents God and the son represents us. Even though we sin in many ways, God is willing to forgive us if we repent and come back to him. This story not only shows us that God will forgive us and others, but also that we shoudl be happy and not mad when one of our brothers is trying to redeem their mistakes. The brother of the lost son is angry because the father has not only firgiven his brother, but is also making a celebration in his honor. In the same way, many times we criticise our brothers when they are trying to redeem theri ways. For example; when we see someone at church that we know does bad things such as drinking and smoking, we often time think "this personis such a hypocrite because they are bad and they come to church". Instead of being happy that they are trying to redeem their past, we are many times judgemental towards others like the brother of the prodigal son in this story.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is truly one of Shakespeare's most amazing plays. Even though I did not really understand some parts of it, I am convinced that this story is very significant. Shakespeare is difficult to understand but also unique because of the vocabulary, the accent in the movie, and the time it takes place in.
From the instant I looked at the first page of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, I knew that reading it would be a challenge. One of the things that makes Shakespeare one of the most amazing playwrights, also makes hime one of the most difficult writers to understand. His writitings are so difficult, many of them have to be translated into versions that are much easier. The vocabulary in A Midsummer Night's Dream was very hard for me but reading the footnotes and watching the movie made it much easier for me.
The movie of this play was very helpful for me except for the accent. I sometimes have trouble understanding regular movies but shakespeare's movies are like a foreign language I had never heard of before. For me, it was as though they were not speaking English at all. Maybe it is just me, because I am bilingual and I can not understand some things very well. This play was very good though and I enjoyed it, but maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I did not have trouble understanding the accent in the movie.
The time the movie takes place is confusing to me. I did not understand why Helena was riding a bicycle. Shakespeare was born in the 1500's and the bicycle was invented in the 1800's. This made the play seem more realistic in the actual movie but it made it seem unrealistic in real life because it did not go with the way Shakespeare meant the play to be.
In conclusion. Shakespeare has been and will always be one of the greatest playwrights to have ever existed. Even before I knew who he was, I would always hear about his plays. I had heard of A Midsummer Night's Dream even before I knew Shakespeare had written it. This shows how truly great his plays were and how famous they have come to be. Even though Shakespeare's play was difficult for me to understand because of the vocabulary, accent in the actual movie, and because of the time it was written, I still enjoyed it because of its uniqueness.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. No Fear Shakespear: A Midsummer Night's Dream.
1595. New York: Sparknotes, 2003. Sparknotes. Web. February,
21, 2011.
From the instant I looked at the first page of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, I knew that reading it would be a challenge. One of the things that makes Shakespeare one of the most amazing playwrights, also makes hime one of the most difficult writers to understand. His writitings are so difficult, many of them have to be translated into versions that are much easier. The vocabulary in A Midsummer Night's Dream was very hard for me but reading the footnotes and watching the movie made it much easier for me.
The movie of this play was very helpful for me except for the accent. I sometimes have trouble understanding regular movies but shakespeare's movies are like a foreign language I had never heard of before. For me, it was as though they were not speaking English at all. Maybe it is just me, because I am bilingual and I can not understand some things very well. This play was very good though and I enjoyed it, but maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I did not have trouble understanding the accent in the movie.
The time the movie takes place is confusing to me. I did not understand why Helena was riding a bicycle. Shakespeare was born in the 1500's and the bicycle was invented in the 1800's. This made the play seem more realistic in the actual movie but it made it seem unrealistic in real life because it did not go with the way Shakespeare meant the play to be.
In conclusion. Shakespeare has been and will always be one of the greatest playwrights to have ever existed. Even before I knew who he was, I would always hear about his plays. I had heard of A Midsummer Night's Dream even before I knew Shakespeare had written it. This shows how truly great his plays were and how famous they have come to be. Even though Shakespeare's play was difficult for me to understand because of the vocabulary, accent in the actual movie, and because of the time it was written, I still enjoyed it because of its uniqueness.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. No Fear Shakespear: A Midsummer Night's Dream.
1595. New York: Sparknotes, 2003. Sparknotes. Web. February,
21, 2011.
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