How do you think the setting helps the story? Use evidence from the text to back up this discussion.

[The setting in the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," was very important to the story because it helped isolate the characters.] In the short story the characters were traveling through Georgia on their way to Florida, when the family gets in a car crash on a gravel road off of the main road. The mother stated after the crash, "Maybe a car will come along," because this was not a well traveled road and the family was in immediate need of help. When somebody came along to "help" them it seemed as if the family was going to be okay. Having the story be set in such a secluded area the reader was kept focus on the area immediately surrounding the family. The reader would not be focused on anything going on outside of the families interactions with "The Misfit." Once The Misfit killed the grandmother the setting also gave the reader a sense of helplessness for the family because they had a broken down car in the middle of nowhere. If the story had been set in a less secluded place then the story would have gone very differently because they would have been able to get help from somebody else or have had easier access to help when The Misfit began to shoot. 

Oral History Project Reflection

I found the OHP to be really interesting and also very difficult. I have always been someone who works well in group project because splitting up work and doing my portion has just always been one of my strong suits. However, in the past I have never taken a lead on a group project. I used to sit back and let other people disperse the work and I would take whatever people didn't want to do. In this project I was forced to take the lead and keep my group organized. I got the sense early in the project that nobody else was willing to step up and I am glad that I did and was able to get the project done. I did have difficulty with someone in my group doing absolutely nothing but at one point my whole group just decided we had to pretend they weren't in the group and do things on our own.

The advice I would give to somebody else doing this project is to not be too focused on exact information you want to get out of somebody. The questions in an interview that give the interviewee more room to explain almost always give you more meaningful and explained answers. If you go into an interview thinking you want an exact story from somebody you will most likely get them to share it with you from just asking them to elaborate on some things. It is also very important to have everyone in your group understand their responsibilities from the start so that there is less confusion about what you should and shouldn't be doing to help. Once everyone understands what they should be doing if someone doesn't you then have a very clear picture of who is slacking and you can then figure out if this person just needs more explaining and help to get their part done or if they are just being lazy and don't plan to do any work. I loved this project and it has definitely taught be a lot about how to be a leader for a project and I was already able to use those skills on the collaborative section project that we did.

In what ways did Marjane find it difficult to fit back into Iranian society? In what ways did this surprise you (or not surprise you)?

Marjane did not feel like she was fitting back into the Iranian society because she had grown and changed so much in the four years she was gone, and after she returned nothing and nobody seemed to be the same as they used to be. The years that Marjane was gone was a time when she was growing and becoming an adult. With those changes she had a change in interests, opinions, and personality. After being away from home for so long coming home had both a sense of comfort and unfamiliarity. As it states on pages 248 and 249 her desk was now too small for her, the art she had drawn on the wall was no longer of interest to her, and the music she used to listen to was not what she wanted to hear. Coming home may have felt like the right thing to do because that gave her a sense of comfort and familiarity but in reality it was an eye opener to show her how much she had changed and how different her home land had become. Marjane was also made uncomfortable on page 259 when she saw her old girl friends and could not remember what they use to have in common. The girls she used to be friends with had followed a different course in life than she had, and after spending four years apart Marjane was really able to see how her personality had changed. After Marjane returned to Iran and everything felt so different than it was before I am not surprised that she had such a hard time feeling comfortable in her own home.

Why did Marjane's parents decide to send her to Europe? Do you think this was the right decision? Why or why not?

Marjane's parents sent her to stay with a family friend in Europe because she is a very opinionated young women. If she was not sent to another place she might be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and be injured or even killed. I think if her parents had found out about her being brought to the committee of nuns on pages 133 and 134 she would have been sent away even sooner. Her mom mentioned to her that her rebellion could lead to her imprisonment or murder and that really upset her mom. Marjane has a very interesting view on who a hero is and since she had thought of her uncle as a hero, her parents may have been seeing her actions and thought she was going down the same path as him. Going to Europe was the safest place for Marjane at the time even though she didn't get to stay with the family she was expecting because she ended up with Julie who she was very happy and comfortable staying with. For Marjane getting out of Iran was a way to avoid a very cruel death for fighting for what she believes in.

Summary of Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

The book Milk and Honey written by Rupi Kaur was a collection of poems that were split up into 4 sections and each section was poems about a different topic. The sections were called The Hurting, The loving, The Breaking, and The Healing.
The first section, The Hurting, had a lot of poems about a daughters relationship with her father. The poem, "A daughter should not have to beg her father for a relationship," was one of the poems I was affected by most because I have always had a special kind of bond with my father and I have always taken that for granted but after reading that poem I realized some people don't have that and I can't imagine what I would do without my dad. The first section also had a lot of poems about rape and I am sure that a person who is a survivor of rape would find it to be very comforting but at the same time probably bring up some feelings and memories that they have tried to forget about.
The second section, The Loving, had poems that talked about how a guy can make a girl feel. I was able to connect with this chapter a lot because a lot of the feelings she brought up I could remember a time were I had felt the same way. There was a poem in the section that said, "I am learning how to love him by loving myself." I found that poem very interesting because that was the first time in the book she had talked about a women loving themselves, before that she had only talked about how people love women or the difference between someone saying I love you and actually being loved.
The third section, The Breaking, felt a lot like a chapter to support people after a break up. This section had poems about guys leaving and a lot of ideas about how a guy will not be over a girl but the girl will have already moved on. My favorite poem from this sections was, "Don't mistake salt for sugar if he wants to be with you he will it's that simple." I liked that poem because it talks about how if a boy loves you then he loves you for you and he will stay.
The fourth section, The Healing, talked about self love and how everything will be okay. One of my favorite poems from this section was, "you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first." I really liked that poem because to me it meant you have to love yourself and be happy with yourself before you can love somebody else and be happy with somebody else.
This book also had a very nice aesthetic. There were a few simple drawings that seemed to look like a sketch on the page. Everything was in black and white and all the poems for the most part were very short. There was no capitalization used in the entire book which I thought was interesting. I really liked how the book looked because it was all very basic and simple.
I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I have personally not had to face a lot of the struggles this author has faced but I still really enjoyed it. I have not found myself enjoying a book as much as I enjoyed this book in a long time. This book is great for anyone who has gone through a break up, been affected by rape, had boy issues, girl issues, broken heart, family struggles, or just any struggle someone can have is addressed in this book in one way or another. One of the best parts is that the book is made of poetry so the reader has the freedom to read the poem and make it apply to their life in someway and make them not feel so alone.

Of all the texts that we've read this year, which one is your favorite, and why? Which one is your least favorite, and why?

Out of all the books we have read this school year my favorite has been The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. It was the first formal book this year but as I reflect back on what we have read I was able to enjoy that book the most. I have always had a hard time reading about slavery and I just always feel so horrified knowing what used to and in someways still exist in our society. I found The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas to be very informational and also inspirational in a way because he was able to never give up even when put in very very difficult situations. My least favorite book this school year was The Merchant of Venice. I found the book very hard to read mostly because of the language that Shakespeare's plays are written in. I also didn't find the story very compelling. I did like how we learned about how much Shakespeare's writing has influenced today's writing and learning basic structures of a play. I would probably enjoy The Merchant of Venice more now because after taking Theatre I learned a lot about how to read Shakespeare.

What interested you about this novel and what do you have to say about it?

One thing I wondered as I read The Great Gatsby is how did Gatsby overlook the entitled attitude that Daisy had. It was very interesting to me to see how Gatsby had this amazing image of Daisy in his mind but her personality did not match up with all the amazing things he made her out to be. I wondered if maybe he had just remembered such amazing things about Daisy and thought about Daisy so much that after five years he was willing to over look any of her flaws. After so much time had past maybe he just saw her as the woman she was five years ago. I also thought it was interesting how different Daisy's personality was in the movie production of the book. In the movie Daisy did not seem as entitled as she seemed in the book. I wonder why the producer of the movie made the decision to change her personality or to just tone it down a bit.

Choose one of the themes in the book that we identified and discussed in class (this should be in your notes) and decide which one you believe is the primary theme of The Great Gatsby. Explain why you think this is the primary theme and provide three pieces of textual evidence to support your position.

I believe the American Dream is an unsustainable ideal that gives false hope and artificial happiness is the theme of the book. That theme is the one I wrote in class so I may be a bit bias towards mine instead of the others but I will explain why I think it is the one I chose. The American Dream was something that was not always formally brought up in The Great Gatsby but it was often something that was referenced and when it was referenced it never seemed as if it was being described as a good thing. When the American Dream was brought up or referenced it was talked about as a sort of deceiving thing or something people can't rely on to be a good thing. The reason I put unsustainable is because The Great Gatsby made me believe the American Dream wasn't something you could live forever and that was shown a lot when Gatsby died. The green light, as we talked about in class, was a symbol for the American Dream so on the last page when Fitzgerald wrote, " Gatsby believe in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us." If the green light was a symbol for the American Dream then Fitzgerald was saying the American Dream every year moved farther and farther away which made it less achievable even though Gatsby still believed in it. Also Fitzgerald wrote, "For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant." Since Daisy was living the American Dream basically Fitzgerald was saying that Daisy's world was not real and everything she thought to be so good was not actually.

What is the climax (turning point) of the novel? How do you know? How is the central conflict addressed in the climax? Use textual evidence to back up your claims.

For me the climax, or the turning point, was when Gatsby was shot because it got rid of the love conflict in the book. When Gatsby died there was no longer to guys for Daisy to chose between because the choice was made for her in a way. When Tom Buchanan's mistress died then Tom didn't have somebody to cheat on Daisy with even though he could probably just find someone else in the city. Even if Tom didn't have anyone to cheat with there is still the conflict of who does Daisy love. The climax of the story usually happens during the middle of the book but to me all the other characteristic of a climax were met when Gatsby died. Also, after Gatsby died everyone started leaving and going off on their own. Everything seemed to calm down and separate after Gatsby died.

In chapter 5, when Daisy and Gatsby meet, how is weather used to create mood, and what mood(s) is created?

The scene where Gatsby and Daisy meet exposes a lot about who the characters really are. For the first time in that scene you see the walls of these characters come down and they seem more genuine and show emotions. Gatsby acts like a nervous mess and is clearly hypnotized by Daisy. Daisy also seems to act more genuine and seem like she cares. Daisy seems less sarcastic and shows more part of her personality that she usually hides. The scene where they met also seemed kind of awkward and that is not something that was common for these characters before. These characters usually seem to be able to be normal in social situations and around others. This scene kind of helped put the characters together and tell the readers more about their personality.

In the first two pages of the novel, Nick Carraway claims that he is "inclined to reserve all judgment." Do you find that this is true so far? Please provide textual evidence to support your position.

In the first two pages of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway said that he is, "inclined to reserve all judgment." There are times in the first few chapters where I started to question if that was really true. Most of the time Nick Carraway just played the narrator and explain facts and visual details to really give the reader an insight into what Fitgerald was envisioning. However, there were other times when Nick Carraway seemed to make judgments on people which he said he would not on the first two pages. On page 6 Nick said,"one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty or that everything afterward savors of anticlimax." He says that about Tom Buchanan who is Daisy's husband. By him saying that it seems like he is judging him for having success young and he is making assumptions about what the rest of his life will be. Nick also said on page 7,"It was a boy capable of enormous leverage, a cruel body." That may have just been a way to describe Tom but I found it as Nick making a judgment about Tom and his capabilities just based on the way he looked.

Describe the characteristics of the type of play that you are reading (history, tragedy, or comedy). How does your play conform to these characteristics. Does it differ? If so, in what way?

I am reading a Midsummer Night's Dream. This play is a comedy. For a play to be considered comedy it has to end in a wedding, feast, or a birth. Comedies also revolve around young love and the struggles a relationship has gone through. A Midsummer Night's Dream has one major characteristic of a comedy because it ends in a marriage. It is the marriage of Theseus and Hypolita. The play also fits the characteristic of showing the struggle of young love. The play shows this with Hermia and Lysander because Hermia's dad wants her to marry someone else. During all of this, the fairies are going around with their potion that makes people fall in love with the first person they see. All in all this play definitely follows the characteristics of a Shakspearean play.

Reflect on your project. How did it go? Do you feel like it was successful? If you could change something about the process or the outcome, what would you do differently? Would you do this type of project again? Be sure to briefly describe your project before reflecting upon it.

For my response project to The Merchant of Venice, I wrote an act 6 with Sydney. We decided to do it because we both thought the speculation about Bassanio and Antonio being secret lovers was really funny and wanted to make it come to life. We also wanted to make it funny because The Merchant of Venice is a comedy and I think we succeeded with that. I believe our project went really well because as we were performing it everyone in the room was laughing and caught on to the little jokes that we threw in throughout the script. I really liked how after the class we had a lot of people come up and tell us they thought it was really funny and well written. I think it would have been even better if we could have really performed it as if we were actors because that just really helps a script come to life. I would have also liked to rehearse a little more with the extra boys that we had to help us out. I did really enjoy this project though and it turned out the way I expected.

Write about anything having to do with The Merchant of Venice that you did not already write about that interests you.

Something that has not been brought up much in any of the conversations about the book is the relationship between Portia and Nerissa. I feel like it is a relationship where Nerissa constantly depends on Portia and just followers her every move. I think this because after anything Portia did Nerissa would follow and do the same. I wonder if that was happening because Portia has more power then Nerissa so she thought she had to follow her and kind of kiss up to her. I, however, think that is a really unhealthy relationship and if Portia was too loose Nerissa Portia would finally realize the friend she had. I think this is a lot like the saying, "You don't know what you have until it is gone," because it seems like Portia takes Nerissa for granted. I would have liked to see the relationship between the two of them to seem a little more genuine and treat each other like best friends.

In Act 4, Scene 1 (pp. 78-79) Portia gives a speech about the mercy vs. justice ("The quality of mercy is not strained..."). Explain what Portia is saying about justice and mercy, and why is this important in the play?

In Portia's speech about justice and mercy she reveals a lot about her religious beliefs. Portia is saying in her speech that god is merciful to humans so we should be merciful to each other. She says, "Though justice be thy plea, consider this: that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation." When Portia says that she is saying that even though Shylock is wanting justice he will not be free of sin because what he is wanting is wrong. Portia clearly ties in a lot of things about god and how mercy is a characteristic of god. That means that if Shylock was to get justice he is breaking the rules of god. Portia also says, "We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teaches all to render the deeds of mercy." I read that as she was saying we all pray for mercy which will teach us all how to have mercy for others.

According to the 5-act play structure, the climax or turning point of the play should have happened in the third act. Did it happen? If so, what was it and what central conflict was addressed? If not, discuss the central conflict that has not yet been resolved.

By act three a lot of different things have happened. Jessica has run away from Shylock The Jew with a large portion of his money to live with Lorenzo. Antonio's boats are rumored to have crashed at sea. As well as Bassanio chose the right chest winning Portia's hand in marriage. Portia and Nerissa have also left to go to a monastery until their husbands return home and left Jessica and Lorenzo in charge at home. These things leave a lot of things unanswered and unaddressed. This part of the book is definitely the climax because everything is all becoming very dramatic and in the next two scenes things might become resolved and people might all come together. Either way, the problems that came to our attention in the third act will be addressed.

In Act 1, we are introduced to the major characters in the play. Which one do you find most interesting and why?

The person who stood out the most to me in act 1 was Portia. Portia is a woman with various suitors. He dead father's will said she does not have the choice of who she will marry she has to let her suitors choose the correct chest. The fact she does not have control over who she will marry makes her seem kind of helpless but then once she begins talking about characteristics of each suitor she begins to stand out and seem powerful. The way she expressed her feelings towards the suitors seemed to have a lot of attitude behind it. I think that makes Portia interesting because even though she does not have a way to control her fate she is still voicing her opinions. Portia is also a very wealthy woman. Most wealthy people have more power but the fact of the matter is Portia does not have power over who she will marry. So far in the book, she does not seem to have a lot of power but she looks for ways around the rules to make them work for her.