rockin the rocking horse?!

wow. im not gunna lie. that discussion in class today was pretty disturbing. what is going on with this kid?? so let me just get this straight..hes old? like 17?? i kept picturing him as like a little kid so i didnt find it that disturbing. but after we talked about it today..well wow. thats all i can say. i mean who even thinks about writing anything of this sort??

also, i feel like i kind of understand it much better after our discussion. so he basically associated luck with love and approval so that why he felt the obligation towards being lucky. i still dont really understand why he wouldnt want his mom to know that he is the one who won all the money..that part i get confused about. you would think that if he thought he would be loved  much more if he was lucky and brought in money, then he would be overjoyed to tell her that he is the one who one the money. i guess he didnt want to hurt his dad or take his place or something?? i dont know..

Flannery O'conner....

Well, i think i dont even need to point out that O'conner has pretty weird stories. They are just the oddest thing ive ever read so i definitely thought i should blog about her as well..is she just as weird as her short stories?

well to start off this short description of her life, i would like to let everyonw know that she taught a chicken to walk backwards at age 6. thats pretty much amazing and makes me love her already. ok anyway, she is a very devout catholic. She is from the south, as im sure we all could have guessed, and she writes in a very Southern Gothic style. Her stories all most likely always disturbing. she was very morally flawed characters and some even describe the stories as horror stories. but O'Conner doesnt like this, she says she just laughs when she reads this. she says her stories are about christian realism. i guess this is what ms. Clinch was saying about how The Misfit is like a deluded version of Christ. I still find this so weird though. I guess because the Misfit brings people to their realization of the world. She finally understands the world i guess? i really am not sure but O' Conner really does make you think...

naked hemingway?

so ive been pretty interested with Ernest Hemingway after we read that story of his. 

i thought id do a little research on him. my guess was that he was a major alcoholic based off of his novel, The Sun Also Rises, alone and yeah i was right. He was a very heavy drinker. Many think that later in his life he was in a depression, and it kind of shows in his writing as well. He had been through a lot in his life including WWII. he was also wounded in the war. He was a very infulencial writer in the 2oth century. he won both the nobel prize and pulitzer prize in 1953 and 1954.  Many of his works are now considered classics of American Literature. It was cool because over Thanksgiving break i went down to florida and we went to this restaurant called Hemingways and there were like pictures of him everywhere and i went into the bathroom and there was a naked picture of him on a boat. i though ms. clinch would appreciate that and probably just love it haha 

SEX.

I thought i would write a blog purely devoted to sex just for Mrs. Clinches enjoyment. i really have nothing to say about it i thought it would jsut make you really happy Ms. Clinch. I just want to point out that i still dont really think everything in literature is about sex. not blackberries, not peaches, not walking into libraries, not a dinner, not going sailing. why cant it just be what it says it is!?? i think thats about it.

pilgrim poem. wow.

wow. so yeah props to Chaucer. ive been working on this stupid poem for maybe 4 hours now, and im not even close to being done. its acutally pretty amazing that anyone could write a huge book in complete iambic pentameter and rhyming scheme! its so hard..it makes me want to cry right now. i guess you were trying to show us what it was like for him ms. clinch! well it worked..because its the worst. 

William Faulkner

William Faulkner is the author of my outside reading, As I Lay Dying, so i thought I'd do some research on him. 

Faulkner is known as one of the most influencial American writers of all time. In 1949 he won the nobel prize for literature. He is from Mississippi and a lot of his works take place there. he was also known for having a serious drinking problem. He never drank while he wrote though, just as an escape. he had 2 affairs throughout his life. He is known for his experimental style, diction, and cadence. he writes very grotesque stories too. O'connor is also a fan of him so yeah, i though that was all interesting. so far im liking As I Lay Dying, so we will see how it ends up.

Taylor Swift

so i was listening to this artist, Taylor Swift, and then i noticed that she basically alluded to Romeo and Juliet of some type of love story in every single song. it actually got really annoying. All of her songs are about a boy, Romeo, coming and saving her or a boy breaking you with her and then shes depressed or her being like the scarlet letter. its really funny and i thought youd like that ms. clinch. i guess everything does allude to something..

A Cinderella Story

so im finding all these modern day allusions so why not blog about them??

Well, if anyone has ever seen A Cinderella Story then im pretty sure you know the allusion. Cinderella! basically the whole movie is an allusion to Cinderella.  Its like a modern day version of cinderella of someone who lives in the 2000s. its actually pretty good. its kind of a chick flick though. The girls dad dies and then is taken care of by her step mom.  But then she meets this prince and they fall in love even though her step mom tries to sabotage  them but she fails. the girl then finds out that she was accepted into Princeton and she inherits all of her dads money after all. its great, eveyone loves a happy ever after ending!

Enchanted

Enchanted! what a great movie. I was watching it the other day and that is just full of beautiful allusions. are you wondering what they are? well i will tell you..

Giselle is the main character in this movie. Its funny because it starts off as a cartoon movie but then she becomes really. she is the princess and is waiting for her prince like every other disney movie. All throughout the movie things happen that also happen in other Disney movies. She has to clean the house and she sings this song and then all this rats and birds come in and help her clean and they finish in like 2 minutes. Its amazing. thats also a lot like Snow White. 

Also, she has to make dresses each day for her to wear. She cuts out cloth form the rugs, draps and comforters to make her dresses. its funny becasue its just like in cinderella. This movie could also be like The Little Mermaid in a way because in the beginning of the movie Arielle is a mermaid and then goes onto the land and is all confused. Giselle is just like this because at first shes just a cartoon and then when she comes to the real world she is so lost and confused and doesnt know whats going on. she also doesnt know what a fork and things are, just like Arielle. Its also an allusion to sleeping beauty and snow white because her "prince" kisses to awaken her. Its just a really good movie.

Harry Potter...

Since we have been talking about the hero’s journey basically all semester, it got me thinking about Harry Potter. I know I know, I need to read it already; but I just don’t have any time so I’m terribly sorry I haven’t yet, maybe over thanksgiving break. But here is what I think is going to happen in Harry Potter…I know that the hero is ignorant at first and Harry fits that description perfectly. Then, I know we defeats many monsters ect..and that makes him become the hear, but no the ultimate hero yet. In Beowulf, Beowulf had to give up his life in order to kill the dragon, so I am thinking that is what is going to have to happen. I think Harry is going to basically sacrifice himself in order to kill Voldemort. I am very upset about his, if it actually happens. I really don’t want Harry to die but I think it is what has to be done don’t even tell me what happens! I’m just writing about it because I think about it a lot.

The english video

I thought they English video was very interesting. I loved hearing what our language sounded like many years ago. It’s so fascinating as to how we used to say our vowels and how we do now. I’m confused about some of it though. Like how did we change it? And why don’t we have a British accent? I kind of like how they talk because it sounds so eloquent and now it sounds almost trashy. Also, I love the way people used to write. How it looks now to how it did then is a huge difference. I would love to have handwriting like people did back in the day. I was also very interested in how Chaucer saved English. So was it because he was just very popular and so people read his book and it just spread? I thought it was cool hearing the kind of English that Beowulf was written in. It was just overall really cool and I’m glad we got to watch it.

Frankensteinnnn

Frankenstien! i really like this book so far. and its so fitting to read it around the time of Halloween. So far i am only confused on a little things. Justine? she was raised in Victors family right? and i really feel bad for her. i think Victor was being ridiculous. why wouldnt he just admit that it was his monster that killed william!? he even said that he wanted to admit it..so why not? he was just the cause of 2 deaths now instead of one. he could have easily saved Justines lifeif he wouldnt have been so selfish. he was driving me nuts. and also i think he should take responsibility for his monster that HE created. why would he do the amazing thing of creating life and then leave it out to fend for its self? the monster is starting to act and feel like a real human does, so Victor needs to take him into the family, even if he does think his creation is grotesque. i just feel bad for the monster. i think its so cool how he teaches himself how to read though. So its really not like he is just some mean, ugly brute. he can think, and is thoughtful and has feelings. and we were talking about this in our lit circle..since he has the brain of another person, does he think like that person and have their memories? i thought that was very interesting. Michael brought up a good point that no it doesnt but i forgot all his smart reasoning behind it, but it was good. well so far im loving this book and im curous as to what will happen!

Beowulf is pessimistic

ok so..im doing a little updating on my blog so everyone get excited. hopefully it will work.

I really liked our disscusion on beowulf today. I thought everybody had a lot of good  points. I still think though that overall beowulf is a pessimistic book though. I think that beowulf is an optimistic character because he comes to save the day and kills Grendel, Grendels mom and the dragon. but when Beowulf dies, I think it almost symbolizes who the optimism dies. No one was willing to help Beowulf when he needed them and now they are going to be defeated by the one city. i think it shows how now that beowulf is gone, they are basically screwd. So overall, i think that Beowulf is pessimistic but i really liked hearing everyones thoughts. 

Gardner's letter

oh gosh..where to start? well first of all, i think i got a little confused during this letter, yet i found it very interesting. I definitely agree with his opinions about Beowulf so that just made me really happy. He just put it in such good words and it made me think of our lit circle we had about it. i just dont see how it can be optimistic either. I also liked what he said about how they read too fast because i feel like i do that a lot. It was funny because when the kids said they thought he  believed what the dragon thought-well thats what i thought too. i guess i read like a child haha. but i also thought it was interesting to hear that he said he was actually inclined to believe theres a god. thats funny because when i read Grendel I thought there was no way Gardner could believe in god, but i guess i cant assume that whatever is in a book is what the author believes. i feel like i really would have like to read the essays that Robin, David and Teresa wrote, then maybe would i be able to understand this a little more? i dont know but although i was a tad confused during this, i still really enjoyed it. i think its really cool though that he actually took the time to respond to this class. but throughout this letter i get the feeling that Gardner is just very cocky or loves himself or something..i dont know though maybe not?

mary shelley?

so did this mary shelly  have a pretty messed up life or what?

well as i am reading Frankenstein i cant help but think that maybe Shelley's life was really sad or something or maybe similar to this. I don't know but i was curious to know what inspired her to write this novel..

so yeah, Mary's life was pretty horrible. Her mother died giving birth to her, so she never met her. She was raised by her father and then ran away with Percy, her soon to be husband. her first baby dide in the womb, so thats the beginning of her troubles. she then had 2 other kids who died. they finally had their 4th and last child but he lived. then her husband drowned. so basically she had a pretty depressing life. but she wrote Frankenstein because she was with a group of friends and they had a "most scary story" contest. im pretty sure she probably won but that is also how Dracula came about. Ok, i just thought all that was pretty interesting so i thought I'd share!

Frankenstein and Grendel!

I saw a lot of similar things between Grendel and Frankenstein. I got really excited. Frankenstein starts to get feelings and thinks back to when he was first created. he gets really mad when he finds out that hes creator thinks hes grotesque and he wasnt to know why he lives then. i felt really bad for him. He also gets really curious about the cottagers and wants to get close to them and see if they will accept him and be his friend, but they dont. Its similar to Grendel because he is also an outcast and Grendel is sad about this. He find out also how he was "created" or finds out about cain and why he is different. Also no one accepts Grendel, just like Frank. Grendel was really excited when the humans tried to help him, and wanted to be accepted by them, just like how Frank wants the cottager to be his friend. Then Frank kills William and Grendel goes on his killing strike. i actually feel quite bad for both of these creatures. i want to be frankensteins friend, its so sad. i wonder if he's going to start getting really mean? or what!? and wow i just realized that i refered this whole time to the monster as Frankenstein, my bad just ignore it.

the apple in enchanted

So my allusion group was the fairy tale one. We talked about how the apple represents temptation, sin, lust and evil in a lot of fairy tales and literature in general. well i found this to be true in the movie Enchanted.

This movie is like a funny mock of other disney fairy tales. its really good but anyways the princess is going to marry this prince but the princes mom doesn't want him to get married. she wants to be queen for ever and rule so she hates Giselle. She sends her servant to try and kill her. There are 3 apples that are poisoned and so the servant had 3 chances to kill her. The apple in this movie represents hate, jealousy, lust(in a way because the step mom wants to be queen), evil, and tempatation. it symbolizes all of these just like we talked about in class so that made  me really excited. In the end, just in case youre wondering, Giselle tries the last apple and is unconscious but of course, true loves kiss wakes her up :) 

Grendel the baby!

ok so i really like little baby Grendel and i feel bad for him. the first few chapters make him seem so innocent and nice. I feel like When he got caught in the tree is when he turns kinda against humans. at first he wants his mom so bad, and i think he realizes she isn't coming and at this point, that they are 2 separate people. It like what we learned in Pyscoholgy, you dont start realizing that you are seperated from your mom until a certain point when your a toddler. When he keeps thinking everything is his mom and then realizes she isnt coming, i think is when he realizes he is by himself. When the humans came, you could tell he didnt hate them and they werent afraid of him yet. they thought he was a fungus though haha. but i think its when he started to get really happy they were getting him food and they thought he was roaring at them, and then they started throwing things at him. thats when i think Grendel started hating the humans. But Grendel doesnt even like being in a war with the humans. he thinks its ridiculous and stupid. but idont know im excited to see what happens! so far i feel bad for him and i kinda like him..but i dont know that could change..

Spanglish?

As we were talking about how our language will sound in many years, I found myself getting quite sad. I really don’t even know why. But is our language really going to start becoming more Spanish than English? It made me sad I think because our country is based off of English, and I really don’t want it switching to Spanish. I know everyone should have the equal opportunities that were have, but I feel like the Spanish speaking people should speak English not we change to Spanish. I know I’m being ridiculous, but this is just what I as thinking over and I thought id blog about it. I know that our language evolved after many years, but I just don’t really want to it to have to switch to Spanish. Are there any other theories on what it will become in many years down the road?

Candideeee

oh candide! This book brings many thoughts into my head. In the beginning it is just like the garden of eden. they live in a perfect place and then, they are removed and horrible things start happening. i felt so bad for Candide at first. he got thousands of whippings and other things that he just couldnt live through. I realized that this book was a satire very quickly because there is no way that any human being could live through anything they went through. i also got sick of how literally everyone came back to life. at first i would get excited when we found out someone was not dead..but then i just came to expect it every time someone was "killed." I think voltaire was making fun of organized governmnet? and just authority and life in general. Candide would stick to Pangloss' theory even when it got stupid to continue believing it. Obviously, Candide was not in the best of all worlds, yet he refused to come up with his own thoery and believe in his own thoughts on life. I just wish they would have stayed in Elderado to begin with. thats the only place they were happy at.

Even when Candide and Cungededjldfk were re- united, Candide was not happy. Cung lost her beauty and then Candide didnt love her anymore. i guess that proves what their love was base off of. I think in the end, Candide came down a long road and in a way discovered himself. He basically didnt believe in Pangloss' thoery on life anymore that everything is for the best, finally. and he came up with his own theory a little bit, that they must cultivate the garden. Now i am not even sure what that means, and thats just a whole other blog. im so confused at that ending and i was kinda bummed, not gunna lie. but it was a good book, it had me laughing.

spongebob squarepants!

so theres a pretty cool allusion in spongebob considering spongebob is the best ever.

There are these 2 heros of bikini bottoms and they are called Mermaid man and Barnicle boy! they are always there to save the day! they have this awesome cave thing that they live in and a pretty sweet car that looks like the batmobile. Even Mermaid mans costume looks like Batmans costume. so if you havent quessed it, then yeah, its an allusion to Batman and Robin! they basically do the same thing and even enter rooms the same way. they even have similar theme songs. its pretty sweet.

sisterhood of the traveling pants

ok...so yeah..i watched this movie the other day and saw a big allusion in it! although it wasnt the best movie ever i thought id blog about it

So this girl, Lena, goes to visit her grandparent in Greece for a Whole summer. Well anyway, she meets this guy and she starts to like him and hes all charming and everything. well she tells her grandma about it and her whole family freaks out. It turns out that they have been family enemies for an extremely long time and they hate each other. She is forbidden to see him again. Well, of course she doesnt listen and then they fall in love. Then Lena has to leave and they kind of fall out of love, but they still secretly love each other. Well, many years later they re kindle their relationship and then i think they will eventaully get married. but anyway, its just like Romeo and Juliet except they dont die at the end. its pretty good except the 2nd one is pretty horrible. the end just ruins it all. 

the office.

i just want to let everyone know that i love the office and its on very soon!!! and i cant even wait!

i thought id blog about my excitement.

also there are a lot of allusions in the office, like they allude to Home Alone, jeopardy, the simpsons and much more. :) i thought youd like that ms. Clinch

Wuthering Heights Characters

I thought the characters in Wuthering Heights were pretty lame. they were devolped very well, i just had so many mixed feelings about them. I mean i really liked the stroy and everything, but i got so sick of Cathy and Linton. I did not like Linton at all. He was just so whiny and always complained about his life and all i wanted to say was get over yourself! he was so mean to Cathy too and it was just weird. I dont see why she would want to marry him anyway. I know Heathcliff locked them in the house until they got married, but i just dont see why she would agree. and plus she said she was going to marry him anyway. i dont know why it just drove me nuts. I also had mixed feelings about Heathcliff. At first, i really like heathcliff and i felt so bad for him for some reason. i really didnt like edgar at first and then its weird, it just switched like half way through. Heathcliff just turned into the devil and then i started feeling so bad for Edgar because he loved Catherine so much and i dont think it was mutual. it just got so weird at the end. I thought it was just werid and way overbaord how Heathcliff went insane and had to own and have everything Edgar owned. overall, i was a little confused on some things, but i really liked it. i dont know if i would call it the ultimate love story though, like some people do. i mean, i thought Heathcliff was pretty creepy and i didnt really think it was THE ultimate love story but it was good. im glad i got to read it. 

Grendel

i thought our discussion about Grendel was very interesting and helpful. it was also helpful clearing up the Beo and beowulf are two different people because that kept throwing me off. i was also wondering what Grendel he looks like though! im imaging him as a monster but i dont get it because he is the son of Cain so i picture him as somewhat human...yet he does live in larr so i guess thats not like a human. i do somewhat feel bad for Grendel though...even though i know thats lame and that i shouldnt...but hes such an outcast and the story shows that he does have feelings too because he feels sad when he sees the guards and humans talking and stuff. also, you know how he is the son of cain, did the monks add that in there when the were writting the story down? because i thought that the anglo saxons didnt beleve in a God or bible and they didnt have anything religious in beowulf so i was wondering if the monks added this part form the bible like they did for the other parts...?

Aslan and Christ

Aslan is the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia. He is an allusion to Christ. 

Narnia has been waiting for Aslan to come and save them from the evil witch. She has taken over their country and is freezing everybody. Well, Aslan comes and the evil witch doesnt know waht to do. The bad people take Aslan, and he goes without fighting wven though he could have easily killed them all. they whipe and beat him and then kill him. well a few days later he rises from the dead! he then saves narnia and gets it back from the witch. its great and just very exciting. its a direct allusion to the story of Christ basically. 

Favorite Summer Reading

My favorite summer reading book was Wuthering Heights. it definietly kept my interest, although i did get confused at some parts. this novel had a lot of major themes in it. one of the main ones was good vs. evil. it is shown throughtout the whole book. heathclliff starts off as a good guy, or at least it appears like that and then he basically just goes crazy after catherine dies. he wants to basically ruin edgars life and posses eveyting that he posses, which he basically acheives at the end of the book. he is constantly trying to be better than edgar and does things just out of spite of him, like marrying his sister. another theme was love and passion. heathcliff is so passioniately in love with catherine and his life is just ruined when she dies. he was still haunted by her and thought about her all the time, even 20 years later. cathy and linton are supposedly "in love" even though i dont think is was real. and then cathy and hearton were in love and catherine and edgar were in love. Basically everyone falls in love with Cathy or Catherine.

The Sun Also Rises

so i thought id blog about this book. i basically felt one thing while reading the sun also rises, this is pointless! their lives are are really waste. I felt kinda bad for them actually. Basically all they do is drink and drink and drink. im surprised they can even function. Throughout the book i was wondering how they even make a living. none of them do anything! ughh it drove me nuts. and the other thing that drove me insane was Brett and Jake!! the whole time i read that stupid book i was wondering why dont they just have sex and get married if they love each other so much!?? then i recently found out that Jake is impotent and that cleared up a lot. i was so mad i didnt know that earlier..it really would have helped me out. i guess i didnt catch on that that was his war injury. but anyways i also got really annoyed with Brett. Shes just a slut and Jake is just always so sad he cant be with her. they all had miserable, boring lives and i feel bad for them. the one thing that kept me reading was the hope that they would all make something of their lives and stop being alcoholics but that never happened, unfortunitely. When i finished the book, i wondered what the point was and i yet to know...

Garden of Eden

Candide has another allusion yet again! it is to the Garden of Eden. I think someone briefly mentioned it in class and it inspired me to blog about it.

In the beginning of Candide everything was perfect. They lived in a beautiful mansion and had everything they could ever want. They had a lot of money and food and Candide was in love with Cungedonge. it was great. then came the fall. Candide was kicked out of the palace along with everyone else. he was whipped many times and tortured a lot. he had no where to live and no food. His life turned horrible. He had no wehre to go and everyone basically died along the way..except not really because they all cam back to life. BUt his is symbolic to the Garden of Eden because in the beginning Adam and Eve had an amazing life and everything they could ever ask for. They had each other and amazing food but then they ate the forbidden fruit and they fell from there. the committed the one sin that they werent allowed to do. they then went from living in the perfect place to living in the most sinful world.

This is just like how Candide went from living in the perfect place to the most sinful.

harry potter and david and goliath

ok so i thought if a good allusion to David and Goliath. Hrry Potter is just like David. He is the unexpected hero. 

David and Goliath is a story from the bible. It is the story of an underdog winning. Goliath was a huge giant that no one could beat and a young boy, David, was willing to try and fight him. Goliath had killed many people and David was no match for him. David got a sling shot and a rock and killed him with this. Everyone was shocked and so happy. they couldnt believe it.

Harry Potter is just like this. Voldamort is the most powerful evil wizard and kills so many people. even the most powerful wizards are scared of him. Voldamort tried to kill Harry when he was a little baby and HArry defeated him. People were shcoked and just could not beleive the news. Voldamort eventually returns but it is the similar allusion.

this also is like the heros journey. Neither harry nor David know they are going o be heros so they are innocent and niave. then they turn out to be really big deals. its awesome. everyone loves an unexpected hero!

Merlin and Dumbledore!!

There is an allusion to Merlin in Harry Potter. It is Dumbledore! 

Merlin is basically alluded to by all books that use a wizard. he is the wizard of all wizards. He is from King Arthur and he is a very wise and powerful. wizard. He is a very popular character and well recognized by all. Rowling probably wanted Dumbleodre to be liked and knew how loved Merlin is so she based Dumbledore off of him. Dumbledore is also a very powerful wizard. He is the only one that Valdamort is afraid of. If he knows Dumbledore is going to be somewhere he tries to avoid being around him. When people first think of or see Dumbledore they automatically think of Merlin, which is good because that puts a good connotation on Dumbledore which is good.