The Last Song

The book that i'm reading is The Last Song. Right now, I am at the part where Ronnie and her brother Jonah, arrived at their father's house and are getting ready to go the the carnival. My essential question is "How do others decisions impact others?" In the book, Ronnie and Jonah's parents' decision made the biggest impact on them. For one, their decision to make them stay with their father the whole summer made Ronnie act out the way she did. It made her be very rude and rebel against everything her father said, or wanted to do. For example, "All right. how about this? I'm not going to play the piano for you." She said this because she knows that her father wants her to play the piano because she has such a talent for it. But when her father left she vowed she would never touch anther piano again.

The Rwandan Girl Who Refused to Die

The article that I read was The Rwandan Girl Who Refused to Die. It was a sad story about a 13 yr old girl, and what she had to go through during this terrible time. She tells a story to a reporter about how people were murdering others, even children and pregnant women, and how she recognized one of the murderers to be her neighbour. For this article, it relates to the essential question, Does evil or fear lead one of the following; experience of violence, infliction of violence and/or observation of violence? I think that after reading the part of the article where they were interviewing a grandfather who was murdering children is a good example to answering the EQ. He said, "You see all those people in the church had children. Many were carrying them on their backs but none survived. Everyone was killed. We couldn't spare the children's lives. Our orders were to kill everyone." Linking back to the essential question, does evil or fear lead to the infliction of violence. I would say fear is what makes them do it, not evil. The grandfather said that some of his crimes and has implicated some of his friends and neighbours, hoping to save himself from the firing squad. He was scared of death coming upon himself, so he gave it to others so that he could survive.

The part I found really sad was not only just the deaths, but the way people were killing them. Smashing in their heads, throwing grenades, and decapitating them, all in front of everybody, even their own children. Valentina, the 13 yr old girl, got her fingers cut off and had 2 big gashes in the back of her head. It's amazing how she managed to survive through it all.

The author conveyed imagery into the article, because they used very descriptive language and you can see it all as if you were there. The pictures on the sides also helped me get a sense of how bad the wounds actually were. Some words that made the article more powerful were, for example, dramatically, massacre, brutally, etc. Just by looking at those 3 words, it pretty much sums up the whole article.

The Cask of Amontillado

The Cask of Amontillado was a story, about how two men, went looking for Amontillado's crypt. A dead man. The author made it seem like you were in the underground with them. He used very descriptive words and explained what was happening very well. The mood of the story was kind of spooky and exciting. It was spooky because of all of the dead bodies that were surrounding the two characters as they were walking, and it was exciting because they were looking for a crypt that no one else has ever found. Some good techniques the author used was using good punctuation. For example, "You? Impossible! A mason?" The exclamation points in this dialogue helped me read it how it was meant to be said. If there was none, than the effect of the sentence wouldn't be that effective. The setting is developed around the underground and how all the dead bodies were surrounding them for about the whole time they were under there. The author conveyed evil into this story very well, because he used death. Death isn't evil, but it was the way he exclaimed it and made it sound very eerie that some people might automatically assume it is evil. It wasn't the two main characters that represented evil. I think it was Amontillado at the end that did, when he woke up from his crypt when he was supposed to be dead. Some factors that might of contributed to the characters behavior was the alcohol. Because when Fortunado threw the bottle upwards toward the roof of the bodies. The patterns in society that could've contributed to the behaviors of the characters, were the story and longing of finding Amontillado's crypt. Which no one has ever done before. The evil, darkness was conveyed in the story by mostly the setting. The setting impacted me the most, because of all of the dead bodies that were buried in the middle of a carnival. You'd think they'd be in a cemetery. It was also the setting because the whole time they were underground, there was dead peoples bones hanging out of the walls, and the roof.

response

I like how you have brought in some examples to show how power has corrupted Mac. What I would like to see you do is explain what he was like before and show the change. Also bring in quotes from the text to help develop your points as well. I have a post it for you to see more details in class. This will guide you when you write your essay.:)

Princess Bride

Today in class we watched Princess Bride. I have never seen this movie before but I thought it was very funny and very good. I liked the plot of the story and I'm looking forward to watching the end of it. The prince is like Macbeth, because he'll kill in order to get what he wants and he'll lie and cheat. In this case, he'll kill his own wife, just so he can start a war, and he lied to her about Wesley so that she won't suspect anything bad of him.

Essential Question

How does power corrupt?

In Macbeth, power corrupted him and Lady Macbeth to do things that they normally wouldn't have done. For example, if Lady Macbeth didn't want her husband to have all the power, then she wouldn't have convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan. Power corrupted Macbeth, by him trying to be a pleaser again and listening to his wife, and letting her convince him to follow through with her plan. Power is what also made Macbeth a tragic hero. He lost his way because he was so overwhelmed by the amount of power he attained, in such a short period of time. Greed and selfishness is also a main component in how power corrupted Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

comments

Thanks for keeping your blog up to date. I thought this way would be easier today as I am commenting on all your entries at once. Your presentation and process was creative and unique Adan I am glad that you enjoyed others. It is fun to see your learning curve. You have come a long way. As you have indicated you have a better understanding of the play especially by being so involved.

As for the tragic hero, you see him as a victim and you see how he and his wife are corrupted by their quest for power. Your have selected a key quote which shows LM and what she would do, yet I not quite sure how you see it fitting in with M. You've started, although I need you to go further.If you see me I can explain it to you. You are at a good starting point and I like how you have backed your thinking.:)