April 11- Make up blog

For the most part, I have liked the novels that have been assigned in my English classes. I can only think of a few that I really disliked. One that I didn’t particularly like when I read, but I think I would like now was To Kill a Mockingbird. When I read it freshman year, I don’t think I really appreciated it because I just viewed it as something I had to read. When I look back on it, I think this is one of the books that I would most like to reread because I think I would appreciate it more now.

            One of my favorite things I have read in an English class was “The Crucible” which I read last year. I didn’t know many people in my class that really liked it as much as I did. I can’t really pinpoint why I liked it so much; I just found it really enjoyable.

            My favorite novel we read this year was probably The Road. Even though it took a while to get used to, I liked the writing style a lot. I also really enjoyed subject of the novel.

April 18- Make up blog

 From the time that I was really young, I have always been a pretty big reader. It all actually started when I was in preschool and my family read me a book so many times that I memorized it (it was that “brown bear” picture book, so it wasn’t that difficult to memorize). What really got me into reading where the “Little House on the Prairie” books. I remember borrowing them either from the library or my elementary school teacher so many times. I read and reread them each so many times that I couldn’t keep track of it.

Then in middle school, I read all of the “Harry Potter” books. While I had read a lot of other books, these were the ones that I enjoyed as much as the “Little House” books.

            The books that I read in high school that really impacted me were John Green’s books. I first read Looking For Alaska right before I began high school. I remember this book having a really strong impact on me. The way it is written is just really amazing and I think that it can appeal to all types of audiences. After reading that book, I read his other two books that were out and ended up getting to meet him in 2010. In the beginning of last year, I read his newest book, The Fault in Our Stars, and it had the same impact that Looking For Alaska had on me. From the books I have read in high school, John Green’s books are the ones that have really stood out.

April 25- Make up blog

The book that I read for my outside reading that had the least influence on me was On Canaan’s Side. I think that out of all of them, this one was the least helpful in terms of learning more about my topic. The main character had to leave her family, in Ireland, in the beginning of the book, but it didn’t really show how they influenced her life. The main way that her family influenced her life was with the death of her grandson. This caused her to become really depressed and suicidal. This was on of the main problems I had with the book. She was very suicidal the entire novel and had even planned how she would take her life. In the last few pages, she has a sudden realization that this is not what her grandson would want her to do. The novel doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending, but I think the author wanted readers to be more satisfied with what she did, instead of the alternative. I don’t think this is very realistic. It was like she suddenly woke up and realized what she was about to do was wrong when in the entire novel, she was set on doing it. I think that if the author was going to put this into her novel, it should have been resolved in another way.

Once Upon A River

        Of my three outside reading books this semester, my favorite was Once Upon A River. It wasn’t because I necessarily connected with the main character, but I just found it really interesting to read and learn about her life. She had so many bad things happen to her, things that I could never imagine enduring, and she just kept on surviving.

            Since my topic for my project was family, I thought her story provided a really good insight into what I wanted to learn more about. Even though she had no family to take care of her by the end of the book, she took what she learned from them to be able to take care of herself. The one person in her family that I could not understand why she acted the way she did was her mother. Her mother abandoned her and then chose her new husband over her daughter. I see how the author could want to portray the mother as just a purely selfish person, but I didn’t see that as very realistic based on the back-story.

            I thought that not only did this book deal with family issues; it also dealt with some women’s rights issues. The book gave an overall message that you shouldn’t have to depend on someone, just because you’re a girl. This ties back to the main character’s issue with her mother because this is something her mother did.

The Road

I am really enjoying reading The Road so far. I think it’s really interesting, and some of the topics that were brought up in class, about the book, really made me think. One topic was: is suicide really that bad when faced with a situation like this? When I was reading the book, I thought it was selfish of the mother to just leave her family like she did. When the point that would it be worse to suffer rather than just ending your life was brought up, I began to finally see why she would do something like that. I don’t necessarily agree with the decision she made, but I do understand why she did it.

            Another thing that this book made me think about is what we take for granted. This man and the boy don’t have anything except for a few items. They don’t have a proper home or access to food like we do. I think this book can help people realize that we shouldn’t take these things for granted like many do.

            Something else I found interesting was that this book is written very similarly to The Blind Assassin, which I read as one of my outside reading books first semester. The subject is very different, but I find this book easier to follow because the books have very similar writing styles in some parts.

Final Blog Post of the Semester

          One thing that I have liked this semester has been our outside reading. I actually liked all three of my books and reading them made me want to read more literary fiction because before I really hadn’t read much of it. I did like how I had to think while reading them, but not so much that it took me forever to get through them. I am most excited for next semester’s outside reading because it will revolve around a topic I enjoy, but still be similar quality to this semester’s books. Another thing I liked about this semester has been some of the things we read in class. I liked starting off with the short stories. I thought a few of them were really interesting. I also liked Hamlet. I thought some parts were a little confusing, but I do feel like I understood it a lot better than when I last read it.

         Next semester, I hope to really improve my essay writing. I feel like that is one of the things I am not very strong with. I think a main part of that is I have some trouble relating things back to the work as a whole. I think I will need more practice with this next semester.

Hamlet

    I think that Hamlet started off acting insane, but slowly he has begun to lose his sanity. I think that his act of insanity might have started to make him actually believe that he has gone insane. He has had to act this way around almost everyone, so now he is starting to believe it himself. I do believe that he does still have some hold on his sanity though. An example of this would be when he has a brief conversation with Horatio before the play. When he is speaking to him it seems as though his insanity act was off and he was thinking clearly.
    I don't think Hamlet has done anything yet because I don't think he thinks that the timing has been right. When he had the opportunity to kill the king, I think that he thought it would have defeated the purpose. The king was praying and asking for forgiveness for killing his brother. Hamlet thought that since he was doing this, then he would go to heaven when he killed him. If he was supposed to get revenge, then sending him to heaven really wouldn't be total revenge. Instead, he wants to kill him when he is doing something sinful. So, when he dies he won't go to heaven and Hamlet will feel like he has actually gotten revenge.