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.

review for Rosie Vasen's non-fiction post

       I recently read Rosie's post about a gun violence, Rosie summarizes and discusses an article about a recent political debate, gun control. I read many posts today to find one to review but Rosie seems to be one of the best. 

       She does a lot of things that I like, for starters she is obviously amused by the article. Rosie explains what her stand is on the issue, Rosie believes in what many people believe, gun laws need to change because guns are too easy to buy. another thing that Rosie did is that stayed strictly on what Ms. Rear taught us, Introduce the article, present the authors thoughts and how they showed them, and then her thoughts and reflections.

        I could really see Rosie's effort and to tell the truth she had one of the best blog I saw. Rosie i saw has been getting better and better in her blog posts. Her blogs are getting longer and longer every week, which does not mean they were short to begin with, her early posts were huge. Rosie unlike others is passionate about her posts, she seems to like all her books and believes all her beliefs she states. 

        I also read her "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" post and really liked it, I liked how its a book about 9/11 and she picked an entirely different topic to discuss. The post really made me want to read the book and made me wonder about her questions she left us with. The question was do we think that the key will open something that might hurt him and is it safe for him to go out and search like that.  It was a great and got me hooked. 

picking books

Everyone always has their favorite books, and least favorite books that they could name, but this year during reading I've been trying to think deeper then that. I've learned that I like books with characters that I can relate to easily, with not realistic plots exactly but realistic characters, solutions to problems, and actions made by characters. I thought that this had been a recent interest of mine however recently I've proved my self wrong

I have recently been reading a child hood favorite of mine called "Nicholas And His Gang," My mom mom used to read it to me in elementary school. I thought these stories were absolutely hilarious they are about young kids doing things adults are meant to do. These things include talking in high class formal words, acting like they know everything, and creating rules to life like "glasses make you smarter." The book plays a joke on how kids these days act so much higher then kids in the "olden days." While reading this book I had multiple flash backs to my elementary school reading days. I like "My Side of The Mountain," "winnie the poo" and "the box car children"along with of course Nicholas and the gang. In all of these books i realized a common connection that connected to my current favorite books, they all have realistic characters. Although its hard to relate to a run away boy, talking stuffed animals, and homeless children Its easy to Imagine this and to relate to deeper meanings in the books.

When i realized this I thought of another realization all these things can be "stolen by me in my writing. I promised my self that from now on i wont write about unrealistically made characters but instead write about connectable characters that can be related to other world and personal issues.

Nicholas and The Gang, Matthew gets glasses

     Recently I've been re-reading one of my favorite books, "Nicholas and The Gang." the book is a collection of short stories about an elementary school "gang" from the point of view of Nicholas a member of the gang. When i first read this book I was in 5th grade and although I loved it although it was a bit challenging for me however now reading it i realize the issues and jokes a lot easier then before.
          In the book a main repeating joke is that all these young kids are so mature, they talk perfectly, have a "gang" and they act like they know everything. In the first story a member of the gang gets glasses, when the gang found out they all were super jealous. They all said that it was unfair because now that Matthew he'd be at the top of everything. I found this chapter hilarious because although its stupid that they thought glasses made you smart its relatable. Everyone in their elementary school days thought stuff like this, like all girls had cooties. However the authors had a different approach as well not only did they want to make that joke they wanted to pass a message to the audience. Kids always act superior, like they know it all. From ages 5 to about 14 kids act like they don't need school (this might include me I cant say). In school we are thinking about how we will approach our elementary school students while reading our picture book, from reading "Nicholas and The Gang" I reminded my self that kids always think their perfect, and right so when i read my book to them i will be sure to treat them this way.

oakland avenue short story

Oakland Avenue is a story about 3 characters Mike, Chris, James, and Andrew that look back on their childhood as they attend their missing friend Chris's funereal. In the story it talks about the 4 kids as pranksters. they pulled pranks on neighbors and kept them up all night. However now 30 years later their adults and everything they did then is in the past. 

When I read this story I realized at some time I'm going to be in their places. My friends and I sometimes play pranks and do stupid things but we forget we someday will grow out of all that and become adults. Mike Chris, James and Andrew in the very end leave a shoe filled with flowers on Mrs. Anderson's porch. I thought that was really sad because it was symbolizing both how Chris gave her flowers every weekend and how they all would prank people every friday.

The only problem with the story is that their is no conflict. the kids simply remember when they were 12 while they are at a funeral. (the author) wanted the reader to look back on their child hood however because i have little conflict their is also little relating. However after reading this story the author succeeded by making me wonder how i would feel about my childhood life. Would i be disappointed or ashamed. Sometimes we have to think about this and remember what we really want to be like as a kid and an adult. We do this so we remember not to throw it away by pranking people and doing other things we may think of as "stupid" because someday we will look back and judge our childhood and we in no way would want to make our future self feel ashamed.

teen angst? nahh. and walking dead

          Recently i took a couple days to read the walking dead volume 2 walking dead is one of my favorite graphic novels (and tv show.) In the books they follow a group of people in a world controlled by zombies. In my last post i explained how each of these people demonstrate the certain ways of dealing with the world. The thing i really like about the book is that it really brings out the science in science fiction. by that i don't mean that it is science based like star trek but it in every way (but the zombies) feels like our world. The characters have basic needs and in no time in the 2 books so far has there been a part in which you disbelieve something. These people cant run forever, don't want to live, keep secrets, and even still love.
            After finishing the walking dead volume 2 i thought about its relation to my first book i read this year "teen angst?. . . nahh." Both these books are really different like strange to relate but after reading walking dead I've realized one thing that both share which is the relation to reality. ":Teen angst? nahh." follows Ned Vizzini through his childhood. While this story is a comedy it shows his way of surviving through high school. Its not that high school is in anyway like a zombie apocalypse but the books show this common topic of survival and adapting.
            An example this is in "teen angst? nahh." Ned like many others in high school sees drug use and alcohol use all around him.  Ned found ways of pushing that life away from him and continued to strive for jobs and go through school "clean". In walking dead an adaptation is quite easy to find all the characters have one and thats what differentiates them.
          Its probably the reason I love these books so much but I've realized all my favorite books characters seem so real. they all have basic needs wants adaptations and details that make them special. However in a pure fantasy book like twilight its a lot harder to relate to vampires and therefore  a lot harder to read.

WALKING DEAD

     currently I am reading the 2nd volume to the walking dead books by Robert Kirkman.These books are my favorite comic books by far, not only because I watch the tv show and love zombies but because it animates a world with these horrible creatures by showing everyones separate ways of dealing with them  with it in their own way, whether it be through doubt like Hershel , power like shane, or through relying on others and creating a team like Rick does. Or even simpler do you kill them or no?
         Currently in the comic the starting crew has come across a farm and are staying there due to a member getting shot.
             In this place immediately you are introduced to Hershel, the head of the farm, Hershel is showed as a older religious wise and friendly man. he immediately opens his arms to the group. The author wanted him to look completely normal. In my opinion he is more normal then any of the Characters.
           However after about a day you discover a weird side of him, in the mist of all these zombies he has been saving his sick loved ones in a locked barn. Hershel explains its because they are "only sick" and no one knows what's really going on. It really makes you think, in the whole story you see people killing zombies so naturally and you never think that there is any other choice. its as if the human instinct is too kill things that stand in the way but Hershel goes against this. Truthfuly i would probably do the same to bring my self to kill my best friend would be really hard even if they were a zombie and if there was a small chance of them living if i kept them i would most defenatly keep them.