BEST OF AMERICAN LIT

Throughout this school year, I believe that what I understood the most were the poems because I like to find out the meaning each one has, and what I did best this year was probably doing the Vocabulary.

JOHNNY CYBERPUNK

I didn't really understand this story that much but what did understand is that the story takes place in the future where there are many people who sell drugs and many people have had a sex change. The story involves a man called Johnny who has a data file implanted in his brain which wants him to go to a specific destination. Along the way there is cyborg dolphin type of creature who i believe is taking down Johnny for that file. That is about where I understood the story, from then on I was pretty lost.

SCHLACHTOF SIEBEN (chapter 7)

• Billy got into a chartered airplane.

•  He knew that it was going to crash, but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so.

• There was a barbershop on board called "The Febs" which stood for "Four-Eyed Bastards." 

• Billy once accidentally saw a Pole hanged in Dresden, a farm laborer hung for having sex with a German woman. So it goes.

SCHLACHTOF (chapter 6)

• Billy Pilgrim went to Dresden after his morphine night.

• He dozed and awoke in the hospital again.

• Englishmen were building a new latrine. 

• Billy records himself saying that he will die, have died, and will always die on February thirteenth, 1976. 

• Billy dies and comes back to life a couple of hours later

SCHLACHTOF FUNF (Chapters 4 + 5)

Chapter 4

• Billy could not sleep on his daughters wedding night
• Billy was forty-four 
• Billy knew that he would be kidnapped by a flying saucer when he went down the hallway.
• He went downstairs and found half a bottle of champagne. It said "Drink me," but it was dead.
• So it goes

Chapter 5

• On the trip to Tralfamadore, Billy asks for something to read.
• After reading the only Earthling novel onboard, he is given some Tralfamadorian books.
• He is unable to read the alien books but tries to make out the symbols that are in groups instead of rows
• He finds himself back in 1945 Germany
• Billy is surprised to learn that the Tralfamadorians are not alarmed by the acts of murder and war carried out on Earth.

Gatsby Essay

           In "The Great Gatsby", Nick Carraway helps us (the reader) get better insight on who Gatsby is by giving us good descriptions about how Gatsby's parties were, how he is as a person and how Gatsby is trying to erase all the bad he did in the past by doing a lot of good in the present, basically putting the reader in Nick Carraway's shoes. Through Nick, we can see Gatsby's emotions toward Daisy we can also feel all of the heart pounding tension at the ending chapters through Nick. We can also see the struggles Gatsby goes through in the story and we begin to appeal to Gatsby through Nick because who else doesn't want to change something bad in our past by doing something good, like what Gatsby is trying to do.

BNW Essay Reflextion

    I believe that I did well in understanding the prompt and explaining my answer but I didnt have time to continue my essay and something I could have done better is to get a little better understanding about the ending chapters because I don't remember the last three chapters very well.

MAP (1): INTRODUCING (Woolf, Virginia)

1. Using such female authors as Jane Austen and Emily and Charlotte Bronte, she examines women and their struggles as artists, their position in literary history and need for independence.

2.Woolf was among the founders of the Modernist movement which also includes T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein.

3.The effects of bi-polar disorder at times caused Woolf protracted periods of convalescence, withdrawing from her busy social life, distressed that she could not focus long enough to read or write.

4.Virginia Woolf died on 28 March 1941 when she drowned herself in the River Ouse near their home in Sussex, by putting rocks in her coat pockets.

5.After her death, Leonard set to the task of editing her vast collection of correspondence, journals, and unpublished works and also wrote an autobiography.

Vocab: March 4

Chronic: (of an illness) Persisting for a long time or constantly recurring

Sentiment: A view of or attitude toward a situation or event; an opinion.

Morality: Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

Remorse: Deep regret or guilt for a wrong committed.

Defect: A shortcoming, imperfection, or lack: "genetic defects"; "the property is free from defect".

Acquaintance: One's slight knowledge of or friendship with someone.

Sanity: The ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health.

Implication: The conclusion that can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated.

Alternative: One of two or more available possibilities.

Savage:  (chiefly in historical or literary contexts) A member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized.

Phenomenon:  A fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, esp. one whose cause is in question./A remarkable person or thing.

Modern Writing

The way i write now is very different from five years ago because of all of the experience i have had in those five years. Some of the things I have learned that has changed my way of writing are things like, not everyone is as it seems and that you shouldn't always trust people around you not matter how well or how close you are to them. I also think that the world has changed its way in expressing its self, some of the things that have changed the world is all of the new technology that has been developed. It has made obtaining information much easier but because of that, people have stopped the way they usually communicate and now mainly communicate through a screen.

My Modernist

My Modernist is Woolf, Virginia. I picked her because i liked her name, it sounds interesting

Vocabulary: Spring List 5

brouhaha: A noisy and overexcited display of interest

 cloy: Disgust or sicken (someone) with an excess of sweetness

 demeanor: Outward behavior or bearing

 deference: Humble submission and respect

 enigmatic: Difficult to interpret or understand

 definitive: final - conclusive 

 bumptious: cocky

 choleric: Bad-tempered or irritable.

 bulwark: A defensive wall

 curtail: shorten - reduce 

 adamant:  uncompromising

 profligate: wasteful

 mawkish: Having a faint sickly flavor 

 thwart: prevent

 onus: burden  - responsibility 

 requisite: necessary -required

 mollify:- soothe - pacify  

 sartorial:  relating to tailoring, clothes

 presentiment: premonition  - hunch 

 impromptu: Done without being planned

 forbearance: patience - endurance - tolerance

 remit: Cancel or refrain

IN MILDRED'S PARLOR

Laughing Heart

your life is your life

don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

be on the watch.

there are ways out.

there is a light somewhere.

it may not be much light but

it beats the darkness.

be on the watch.

the gods will offer you chances.

know them.

take them.

you can’t beat death but

you can beat death in life, sometimes.

and the more often you learn to do it,

the more light there will be.

your life is your life.

know it while you have it.

you are marvelous

the gods wait to delight

in you.

I AM HERE

  Since the beginning of the first grading period, I think that I have done pretty well in the course. I have had fun experiences in a collaborative working group and have made some new friends in the process. I also have worked on one of my goal of becoming a better people person in the process of doing my work.

I haven't posted in awhile because i was sick of a fever of 104 since Friday and i could barely get out of bed

ESSAY POST GAME ANALYSIS

In my essay i believe that i did well in explaining the symbolism in what the phoenix, at the end of the book, stood for and how it reflected toward humans. I don't believe that i can do better because I did all i could possibly do to prepare myself. If I were to give myself a grade, I would give myself either a C+ or a B-.

PARLOR POETRY

If i were able to pick and read a poem to a women in a parlor it would be "Laughing Heart" because it shows us that the only person you should rely on is yourself.


Montag (Bradbury) chose to include the poem "Dover Beach" in his novel to try and appeal to any emotion left in Montag's wife and her friends and to try and change the way they thing.

My F451

Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in a futuristic American city. In Montag’s world, firemen start fires rather than putting them out. The people in this society do not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio” sets attached to their ears. Montag meets a very different seventeen-year-old girl named Clarisse McClellan, who opens his eyes to the emptiness of his life with her innocently penetrating questions and her unusual love of people and nature. Over the next few days, Montag experiences a series of disturbing events. First, his wife, Mildred, attempts suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills. Then, he gets called to a house where an old woman had a stash of hidden literature, the woman shocks him by choosing to be burned alive along with her books. A few days later, he hears that Clarisse has been killed by a speeding car. Montag’s dissatisfaction with his life increases, and he begins to search for a solution in a stash of books that he has stolen from his own fires and hid from everyone including his wife.When Montag fails to show up for work, his fire chief, Beatty, pays a visit to his house. Beatty explains that it’s normal for a fireman to go through a phase of wondering what books have to offer, and he delivers a dizzying monologue explaining how books came to be banned in the first place. According to Beatty, special-interest groups and other “minorities” objected to books that offended them. Soon, books all began to look the same, as writers tried to avoid offending anybody. This was not enough, however, and society as a whole decided to simply burn books rather than permit conflicting opinions. Beatty tells Montag to take twenty-four hours or so to see if his stolen books contain anything worthwhile and then turn them in for incineration. Montag begins a long and frenzied night of reading.

Overwhelmed by the task of reading, Montag looks to his wife for help and, but she prefers television to her husband’s company and cannot understand why he would want to take the terrible risk of reading books. He remembers that he once met a retired English professor named Faber sitting in a park, and he decides that this man might be able to help him understand these books. He visits Faber, who tells him that the value of books lies in the detailed awareness of life that they contain. Faber says that Montag needs not only books but also the leisure to read them and the freedom to act upon their ideas.

Faber agrees to help Montag with his reading, and they concoct a risky scheme to overthrow the status quo. Faber and Montag will plant books in the homes of firemen to discredit the profession and to destroy the machinery of censorship. Faber gives him a two-way radio earpiece so that he can hear what Montag hears and talk to him secretly.

Montag goes home, and soon two of his wife’s friends arrive to watch television. The women discuss their families and the war that is about to be declared in an extremely frivolous manner.In the middle of there conversations, Montag takes out a book of poetry and reads “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold. Faber buzzes in his ear for him to be quiet, and Mildred tries to explain that the poetry reading is a standard way for firemen to demonstrate the uselessness of literature. The women are extremely disturbed by the poem and leave to file a complaint against Montag.

Montag goes to the fire station and hands over one of his books to Beatty. Beatty confuses Montag by barraging him with contradictory quotations from great books. Beatty shows that books are dangerously complex, and have no meaning. Suddenly, the alarm sounds, and they rush off to answer the call, only to find that the alarm is at Montag’s own house. Mildred gets into a cab with her suitcase, and Montag realizes that his own wife has betrayed him.

Beatty forces Montag to burn the house himself; when he is done, Beatty places him under arrest. Montag turns the flamethrower on his superior and proceeds to burn him to ashes. Montag knocks the other firemen unconscious and runs. The Mechanical Hound, a monstrous machine that Beatty has set to attack Montag, pounces and injects Montag’s leg with a large dose of anesthetic. Montag manages to destroy it with his flamethrower; then he walks off the numbness in his leg and escapes with some books that were hidden in his backyard. He hides these in another fireman’s house and calls in an alarm.

Montag goes to Faber’s house, where he learns that a new Hound has been put on his trail, along with several helicopters and a television crew. Faber tells Montag that he is leaving for St. Louis to see a retired printer who may be able to help them. Montag gives Faber some money and tells him how to remove Montag’s scent from his house so the Hound will not enter it. Montag then takes some of Faber’s old clothes and runs off toward the river. The whole city watches as the chase unfolds on TV, but Montag manages to escape in the river and change into Faber’s clothes to disguise his scent. He drifts downstream into the country and follows a set of abandoned railroad tracks until he finds a group of renegade intellectuals (“the Book People”), led by a man named Granger, who welcome him. They are a part of a nationwide network of book lovers who have memorized many great works of literature and philosophy. They hope that they may be of some help to mankind in the aftermath of the war that has just been declared. Montag’s role is to memorize the Book of Ecclesiastes. Enemy jets appear in the sky and completely obliterate the city with bombs. Montag and his new friends move on to search for survivors and rebuild civilization.

Vocabulary: Spring List #12

Praetorian- of having the power of a praetor

Sieve- a strainer

Veiled- to obscure with a veil

Saccharine- artificial sweetner

Harlequin- a jester

Toil- work extremely hard or incessantly

Delinquent- characterized with a tendency to commit crime

Gibbering- speaking rapidly and unintelligibly

Insidious-proceding harmfuly im a subtle fashion

Strewn- to scatter or spred

Pratonage- the act of buying something

Cadence- pace

Suffused-to spred through or over

Centrifuge- a machine with rapidly rotating container

Dentifrice- tooth paste.

Leisure- freedom from work

Vessel- a large craft

Phonograph- record player

Profusion- an abundance of stuff

FAHRENHEIT 451 #4

1. The American society in this novel, is a society where books are outlawed and where firemen burn any house that have books in them.
2. This is a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.
3. Guy Montag is the protagonist and fireman who presents the dystopia through the eyes of a worker loyal to it.
4. The novel is frequently interpreted as being critical of state-sponsored censorship.
5.  He said in a 2007 interview that the book explored the effects of television and mass media on the reading of literature.

Theme For English #3

• I believe that i am the person that my teachers think i am because i am the same inside and out the classroom (respectful, i do what Im told to do, willing to help anyone in need, etc.)
• When searching for my place in this world, i can be my true self because i am always my true self
• I never have to check any element of myself when i get the gates of my school
• I believe that i can take ownership of my own learning process and demonstrate my understanding but it will be very difficult for me because i usually just get an asignment and i get told what to read and learn so i just do it

Spring Post #1: Music As Literature (LATE)

I believe that music can be considered literature because there are many songs out there that make a connection with us and they can tell us a story in a different way, instead of reading a book. People in this time of age no longer consider being literate as just being able to read and write, people now consider being literate as someone who knows their culture (music, T.V. shows, media, etc.), In the many forms of self expression or enjoyment such as a novel, a poem, a rap, a song, an opera, or a symphony, there is no real difference between these except the way they are presented to an audience