blog reflection

For the past nine months along with many other eighth grade students at William Alexander Middle School I created a Reading blog. With motivation from my teacher I would post on it almost every week. That school is slowly and sadly coming to an end I finish this collection of posts with a final reflecting post.

         When I first created my reading blog I quickly realized my normal reading routine didn’t produce enough ideas for weekly blog posts. From this realization I pushed myself to read more and think more about what I read. Instead of my usual readers diet of a half an hour a day I began to read more and more every week pushing my self to read almost every day.

         Having a reading blog although increased the amount I read and thought while reading had some restricting factors as well.  Personally as a reader I know from experience that getting down ideas can be difficult for me. By this I mean that I can formulate a good idea in my head but translating it onto paper or into sentences can be hard for me. While using my blog this difficulty of mine often got in the way of my posts. Because blogs are open for the world to see I often create high expectations for my self, which in the end results in a form of writers block.  This limited myself from showing true thoughts on books. This restriction did however create well-formed ideas, instead of simple notebook notes that often pretty useless these ideas could end up being well thought out and valuable to the story.

         

Romeo and Juliet Essay

People have the choice to be whoever they want to be. We have the ability to make our own decisions and create our own opinions. However, many people in this world conform to society and lose sight of their free will. In Romeo and Juliet Montagues conform to the Montague way and Capulets conform to the Capulet way. The feud between the families has gone on forever and no one has challenged this tradition. A major theme in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the lack of free will in society.

Through out Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the Montague and Capulet families have an ancient grudge. They fight, insult and disgrace each other from the very start of the play. “I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as / they list. (1.1.36)-37” Gregory says to Sampson while messing with Abraham a Capulet. The hate is not uncommon in the story; it is widely know the Capulets and the Montagues hate each other however what’s not known is why they hate each other. Not once in the story do they mention why they hate each other however even with the questioning root the characters still condemn to the family hatred. Tybalt, Abraham, Sampson, Gregory, and Benvolio all follow this hatred and hardly follow their own beliefs or even create their own beliefs.  By lacking the ability to create or follow their own opinions, these characters also lose site of their free will.

            It may seem that Romeo and Juliet attain free will by breaking away from their hateful family beliefs however they are replacing the control of their families with the control of fate and love. Romeo and Juliet are known as rebels in the play; they break away from their hateful family tradition and become lovers instead. Juliet says, “'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;/Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. (2.2.39-40)”After meeting Romeo she realizes the stupidity in all the family feud. She realizes even though Romeo’s a Montague and she’s a Capulet it doesn’t change how they feel. Romeo feels the same way. Immediately after meeting her he realizes that she is a Capulet but it doesn’t change his thoughts of her. Some people may think that these two characters, Romeo and Juliet, do indeed have complete free will however I believe differently. Unlike Tybalt, Sampson, Gregory, Abraham and many other characters that are known to conform to their name, Romeo and Juliet lack free will because every move they make is forced by love. An example is when Juliet was forced to take the Friars potion; in the scheme of things she wasn’t forced at all, what I mean however is that she had no other choice; it was either marry Paris or fake her own death. Through out the whole story love and fate are controlling Romeo and Juliet.

            The only character that obtains free will and independence is Mercutio. In the story Mercutio chooses to be neutral, he is neither Capulet nor Montague. At the moment Tybalt stabs Mercutio he screams “a plague on both your houses. (3.1 88)” What he meant is that even though Tybalt, a Capulet, stabbed him that didn’t stop the fact that the Montague’s were also murderers. This moment brings reality into the play; at this moment you realize its not that the Montagues are good or the Capulets are bad, instead it’s an ancient unforgotten grudge. Mercutio is one of the only characters to go beyond that grudge and realize his death is result of hatred across the board. Mercutio is the only rational character in the play: he makes his own decisions, opinions and actions without any influence of anyone else or any power. This includes dreaming too when Romeo says he dreamed a dream last night Mercutio responds “ and I did too (1.4. 53)” followed by “That dreamers often lie (1.4 55)” what he’s saying is that he doesn’t care what Romeo or he dreamed about because it doesn’t change what’s happening in the real life.

            Shakespeare’s characters in Romeo and Juliet lack independence and free will. They are influenced by hatful family standards and forced by ruling fateful love. They become so blinded with hate and love that they forget to rationalize decisions and opinions. 

Perks of Being a Wallflower: Poem analysis

In the book Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, The main character at one point reads this poem for his friends. 

"Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines

he wrote a poem

And he called it "Chops"
because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
and a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door
and read it to his aunts
That was the year Father Tracy
took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born
with tiny toenails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a row of X's
and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it

Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Autumn"
because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
and asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because of its new paint
And the kids told him
that Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
And sometimes they would burn holes
That was the year his sister got glasses
with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed
when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why
his mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad
when he cried for him to do it.

Once on a paper torn from his notebook
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question"
because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A
and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because he never showed her
That was the year that Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end
of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed
or even talked
And the girl around the corner
wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
because that was the thing to do
And at three a.m. he tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly

That's why on the back of a brown paper bag
he tried another poem
And he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door
because this time he didn't think
he could reach the kitchen."

In the book when Charlie read his poem I was very touched. It sounds cheesy but its true, the poem made me think to no end. The poem, if you haven't read it has four parts. The first part started "Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem And he called it 'Chops'" the first part continued showing his perfect early life, with his A and his uncle bringing him to the zoo. The next section started the same way just this time it was named autumn (because that was the season and that was what it was all about). The section then followed with  the boys life and how it slowly got worse, and his uncle smoked cigars and his sister needed glasses.

The last two sections needed a new paragraph because thats how much they change. In the 3rd section It starts normally but this time it was written on a torn piece of notebook paper with the name "Innocence: a question" because that was the question about his girl, and that was what it all about. the section continued explaining how   his life has gone down hill. his sister has a boyfriend and his uncle has died and he cant confront his mother about a poem. From this section it moves to the second where a death letter is written on a paper bag and he couldn't show it to his mom because he died before he got there. 

This poem is so screwed up yet so relatable, its about growing up and adapting. At first the family is perfect and the mom is loving as he grows up slowly he realizes this is false. By the end he is so drained out from all the childhood lies that he puts an end to his life. 

The theme of child hood lies and realization connects to the Book because charlie in the book is realizing the same things. I think the poem in its depressing vibe brings out the golden stuff in Charlie's life. In a way this is Charlie, he has a dead uncle (instead of aunt) a grown up sister less connected family and a hand full of lies. However there is a twist Charlie in the book has friends to rely on and from those friends he is stopped from killing him self in a way. 

Friendship is a huge theme in this book, all people go through the same life changes once and a while and having someone there to help you through them can sometimes be the most important thing ever. 

Erics Play review

Recently I've been a part of an after school playwriting program. In this program we write a play a week then perform everyones plays for feedback . In my past class a member of the program Eric stanford wrote a terrific play on growing up, and the problems/structures of society.

In the play a group of teen kids run prepare a play about high school drama while in their own life, things are exactly like the play. Eric does a very good job metaphors with and hidden meanings of the play. Erics other strength is that with the dialogue he uses you find your self very engaged, it sounds like something actual people might say. My personal favorite part of the play is the character Entity. Entity is the "fool" of the play, a fool of a play is the one person out of all the characters that tells the truth but looked at as mad or a jokester (ex. Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet.) In this play Entity is kind of a stranger, he sits by all the kids completely ignored muttering only simple poems about the world and its constant robot form.

Eric's play consisted of strong characters, dialogue, and meaning but in some ways needed a little bit of a booster. Eric's biggest struggle in the play is tying everything together, this comment has a big range of meaning. For one thing the characters could be a little more developed, the only problem with them is that they are very similar, I think any addition of  dialogue would help him with that. Eric also in some way had little scene and conflict development. The solution to these two problems are simple he just has to elaborate, adding more diolouge and exaterating the conflicts between characters.

Perks of Being a Wallflower #3

 Perks of Being a wallflower is an amazing book, its structured characters, creative Ideas, relatable reactions, and funny jokes leads me to a conclusion that an author like Stephen Chbosky would never leave a hole in a character by accident. Despite this assumption I notice one part of Charlie that is left out, he never talks about his older dead friend in any sad or detailed way. At first I thought this was a mistake on the authors behave, it was unrealistic of anyone to get over a dead relative or friend so quickly.

Then I thought a bit more and realized this was not a big gap in reality but an extra stretch of character development. I had blanked out on the bit that charlie is in fact the writer of the story and has a complete control over what he mentions. This means that maybe he is in fact still getting over the friend and just chooses to him out.

Romeo and Juliet and books I've read before

Currently I am reading two books, in class I am reading “Romeo and Juliet” and out of class I am reading, “Perks of Being a Wallflower”. While reading my book recently I realized that characters in books I’ve read could easily relate to all characters in “Romeo and Juliet” and other Shakespearean performances. I find it strange because Shakespeare wrote these plays in the 1600s and now in 2000s you can still relate to situations and characters in the plays. I later thought more about this and thought maybe this is why it’s considered a classic.

 Plays have been made since before Shakespeare but the thing is that Shakespeare writes about relatable topics, even though its 400 years later we still have similar morals and thoughts as these characters. For Example in Romeo and Juliet one might think that it’s different because they have swords speak in long sentences. However you could also think about how similar Montague’s and Capulet’s are to current gangs.

While reading Romeo an Juliet I tried to find the characters with most similarities to modern day movie and book characters. In my opinion Mercutio is the most relatable character, he is funny, nice, and a bit like screwed up. There’s always that one character in movies that tends to be the one telling inappropriate unneeded jokes like Barney on how I met your mother or Seth Rogen’s character in 50/50 (I could go on). Mercutio however is also relatable because he’s normal. He doesn’t let his friend by on everything and he’s not always partying. When he gets stabbed his personality switches completely to this angry character with so much to say in so little words and no will to speak. This character is by far the most relatable because we’ve all been that person who gets hurt and cant speak words yet have the need to blame everyone for what happened to you.

Romeo and Juliet could be related to many topics, books, movies, situations and more and its important to acknowledge that.

Perks of Being a Wall Flower

I recently started reading "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. So far I love the book and i can tell that i will like it more as I continue. Stephen is in my eyes the ideal writer. He writes about a easily imaginable character, in imaginable situations with imaginable solutions. So far in the 40 or so pages i have read, although i love the book, nothing much has happened. First we are introduced to this character Charlie who has recently moved to high school. We learn his previous friend killed himself but in his new life he has started to move on from his old friend and grow up.
       In the text charlie is fitting in to the "new high school world" but i think theirs more than just fitting into high school i think its fitting into the world. So far we've already seen him trying to talk to girls, forming opinions on the world, and more things you grow into. This is something that me and most kids could relate too. at our age kids start becoming more then just kids. When we were kids we would listen to our parents music, watch what's on TV, eat what's on our plate and agree with everything that our parents stood for in politics. Yes once and a while we would say we didn't like broccoli but no one listened, we still were pretty simple we ate, we slept, and we copied what everyone said. However at a certain age this changes, we start becoming a part of the world in all different ways. We become independent and start to branch off from what we thought before and start to formulate new opinions.
        In "Perks of Being a Wallflower" Charlie is slowly growing up. His friends patrick and sam are their too help and guide him but he is slowly realizing his place in the world and I am exited to find out how it ends up.