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.