May 29th Blog Post: Dynamic Character

Grover Underwood is Percy's best friend and his protector. Grover has stuck by Percy ever since sixth grade and has kept watch over him. Here is a description of Grover from Percy's perspective before Percy found out that Grover was a satyr: "Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria." Grover is a great character in the story that helps show us that things are not always as they seem. Percy sees Grover as a handicapped sixth grader who may have failed many grades and is not able to do much. In reality, Grover's a satyr who's capable of a lot, and he's also Percy's protector. Grover changes greatly throughout the text. In the beginning of the book, he's more of an independent guy that has trouble when he's put up to the task of sacrificing his life for others. Towards the end of the book however, Grover volunteeringly sacrifices his life for Annabeth and Percy many times. He also becomes more caring and compassionate for Percy and Annabeth and he starts fighting together with them. Grover comes out of his shell to fight for what he thinks is right and he earns his searcher's license, something that every satyr dreams of.

May 27th Blog Post: Book Review

The Lightning Thief is a book about Percy Jackson, a boy who leaves home without a choice. Percy is being forced to go to Camp Half-Blood, otherwise he's in grave danger from monsters, demons, and other evil creatures. On his way to Camp Half-Blood, Percy and his mom encounter a vigorous minotaur. After a rough fight, Percy looses his mom but defeats the minotaur. At Camp Half-Blood, Percy discovers that his scrawny, disabled best friend, Grover, is actually a satyr that was sent to protect Percy. Percy also meets a courageous girl named Annabeth who he sticks with in fights. Percy then realizes that he needs to save his mother because of all the things that she has done for him. This doesn't seem too hard, however, a turn of events will leave Percy clueless regarding the people he loves and he will also have to complete the most rough and dangerous tasks imaginable. This leads us to the question, will Percy be able to save his mother and stop the wars between the gods?

This book is aimed towards young adults or teenagers who could be interested in Greek mythology or just any book that has adventure. The Lightning Thief would score a 5 star because of the way Rick Riordan gave each character their own original personality. The writing style was very casual. It was written in the first person perspective of Percy, and easily shows the personalities of every character, from Percy to even the minor characters who don't play big roles. Each character had their own way of expressing themselves, and their attitudes were clear in every sentence. The Lightning Thief was greatly written and didn't get repetitive or confusing anywhere. The plot line also stayed on track and didn't get difficult to follow anywhere.

May 20th Blog Post: Character Symbols

            Throughout The Lightning Thief Percy, the main protagonist, reminded me of gas prices, because of the way he's always going through changes. Percy's feelings for his dad are always changing and can never seem to stay constant. In the beginning of the book, he is extremely infuriated that his father had left him and his mother with some good for nothing "guardian", Gabe. However, by the end of the book, he decides that he should give his father a break. After all, he was a God and was in charge of many things. In the end, Percy decides to stay away from his father because his father's apologies might not be from the heart and Percy didn't want to hear them. From the beginning of the book where Percy needed to hear what his father had to say, to the end of the book, where Percy decides he doesn't want to talk to his father, Percy changed in many ways. This is a quote from Percy in the beginning of the book: "Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom sawyer from the internet and now they were going to take my grade away. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book." As we can see, he became more mature and changed the way he thought. He also became more caring about his friends and family.

Voice Assignment 5/13

3.  Oftentimes, we tend to think of imagery as simply creating a visual picture for the reader.  However, imagery includes any experience with the five senses.  Effective imagery is built on effective diction and detail, so as you can see, voice involves multiple building blocks all depending on one another.  Which of the passages creates the most intricate sensory experience for you, as the reader?  

The passage from Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard and James Marshall gave a better sensory experience because of the better use of voice and diction. Instead of just saying, "Never mind, open those books", the author decides to add voice to the character and says,“Never mind that!” snapped Miss Swamp.  “Open those arithmetic books!” Miss Nelson’s kids did as they were told." This shows Miss Nelson's frightening personality much better than just bluntly saying "Miss Nelson is scary and bossy and the students do as they're told."

6.  Tone is examined last because understanding the tone of a work requires an understanding of all the elements writers use to create it:  diction, detail, figurative language, imagery, and syntax.  Remember that tone is the expression of the author’s attitude toward his / her audience and subject.  There are as many different tones as there are feelings (i.e., serious, light-hearted, playful, sarcastic, accepting, bitter, anxious, forceful, harsh, humorous, sympathetic, nostalgic, detached, etc.).  

The tone of Miss Nelson is Missing! is bitter. The excerpt is bitter because the kids are yelling and fooling around when they have the kind and caring teacher, Miss Nelson but then they get taught a lesson when the new mean teacher comes in. "“Now settle down,” said Miss Nelson in a sweet voice. But the class would not settle down. They whispered and giggled. They squirmed and made faces. They were even rude during story hour. And they always refused to do their lessons." The story quickly takes a turn when Miss Nelson disappears and leaves the kids with a harsh teacher that bitterly makes children obey her.

The tone of Speak is harsh and distasteful. The main character's best friend, who has now become a completely different person due to a foreign exchange student, is filled with harsh feelings and words for the main character. The main character is annoyed by the fact that they were once best friends because of the way that the old best friend is being a jerk. "Rachelle:  [Snorts.  Stands back from mirror, turns head from side to side to admire the black mess that looks like goose poop across her cheekbones]  “Pas mal.”" Both the main character and her best friend, Rachelle, are viewing each other in harsh ways that are full of distaste. The main character makes fun of the way Rachelle puts on her makeup, and Rachelle responds to the main character (that is in pain), with French words that aren't helpful at all to her.

7. Characterize or explain the voice of your creative non-fiction piece so far.  How do you know? How would we know it is YOUR piece? What purposeful choices have you made to create voice? Is this a strength or weakness of your writing? 

My creative non-fiction piece sounds much like a huge complaint. It is about how social media is getting out of hand and everybody's always on they're phone or the internet. The piece sounds like a big complaint because I use facts to prove how social media is flawed. I also use a personal experience in the piece. You can tell that it's my piece because in my personal experience, I talk like myself. I use adjectives in a way that nobody else would even want to use. I use a bit of sarcasm in my writing to really bring out the parts of me that hate how everybody spends too much time on their phone. Using my own voice in writing is both a strength and a weakness. It strengthens my writing because it helps give the push I need to really persuade the audience into believing that social media is bad. Using my voice can become a weakness because sometimes I say some really dumb things that people are better off not hearing.

Column

Kunal Patil

Mrs. Cronin

Honors English 1B

5 May 2014               

"Have No Regrets"

In the Style of Mary Schmich

Inside every crusty, old man lurks a young teenager dying to get out. Some mischievous, trouble-causing kid eager to venture through dangerous places and go on dates with girls that are a major catch. Now I know what you're all thinking. "We've already lived through our dangerous days." Well first off, ask yourself, "How jealous would my fellow senior citizen friends be if I had a motorbike, played 10 sports, and had a girl around my arms that was 20 years younger than me?" The answer is quite simple. They would be jealous beyond measure.

Ladies and gentleman who need dentures, have white hair, or have been called "Old Man Jenkins",  I encourage you to try this and thank me later:

HAVE A MIDLIFE CRISIS.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, it would be to engage in a midlife crisis. Imagine yourself right now. You've been married for eighteen years. How many times a week do you get fed up with your wife? Ten, fifteen? You have three kids and another one on the way. How much money have you spent on them? I don't care, probably too much. On top of that, you're wasting your money on your house insurance when in reality, you should obviously spend it on a brand new golden corvette. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth! Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until you've divorced your wife (preferably in a vivacious, dramatic way), leaving her with the children while you enjoy your young life in a brand new corvette. But trust me, in 10 years, you'll look back at your photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how wild you really looked. You are not as obedient as you imagine.

Don't worry about what's to come. Or worry, because you might be getting a stranger pregnant, but know that worrying is as pointless as actually paying your bills. The real troubles in your life are things that you never actually tried.

Do one thing in your life that's gonna leave you saying "Wow, I surely have no regrets".

Be bad.

Be a jerk. When you're in your grave, you won't know who actually attended your funeral.

Change the way you live.

Don't waste your time reading the newspaper, trying to learn a new language, or travelling the world (unless you're running from that wife you should have divorced).

Forget the angry, disapproving faces you'll receive. Forget the head shakes. If you succeed in receiving these, you should feel accomplished. The imbeciles are just jealous that you're "livin' like Larry" (If you will).

Throw away your old love letters, the past is the past and right now, we're here in the present.

Call everyone dude.

Don't feel guilty if you get an evil eye from your boss for calling him a "dude". He doesn't know your past. He doesn't know what you've been through. The most interesting people I've known have gotten to meet the president... And have called him a dude.

Get plenty of credit cards. Make some new teenaged friends. Buy them shiny cars that make them seem smug, then bribe your new friends to sneak you into their school's dance.

Mess your hair up because all teenage girls dig it. When you've lost all your hair, buy a wig and start this cycle all over again.

Don't pay attention to the people who say "But you'll have to pay child support, alimony, and still have your 'great life' to pay for." If you really feel the need to actually respond to this questioning buffoon, simply chuckle a little and nudge them till they're sore. Then say "Silly you should ask my friend, that's what credit cards are for."

Midlife crises are a deep, traditional form of nostalgia. Going through one is a way of fishing through the past to find something you deeply miss.

As mentioned before, you can thank me later for making transforming your future into a past.