Monday, November 30, 2009

the jumping frog

Amber James


Period 2

“The Jumping Frog”

I like the introduction to the story because the author uses his opinion of the tale that we read first. He actually challenges the realism of the story and feels that Simon Wheeler wasn’t a sufficient source. It’s as if he’s guiding us into the story with ease, he even tells us how the man narrated the story to him so we could picture it in that exact way, with the imagery that he provides. The way the author described how the man felt about the story was that he was excited and proud to tell it but he told it with such seriousness, hinting that it had to be a true story.

The story to me was very unbelievable but in a way can be realistic. On the unbelievable side, it’s like Smiley was too perfect. Usually when someone places a bet for money they bet on something that they seem to be sure of and for Smiley to take either side of a bet and be successful most of the time really seems unbelievable and illogical. Also he takes useless animals that no one else has use for and makes money off of them too. He named these animals after great political leaders who were undermined but persistent, just like the animals. No one believed in the animals but him and that’s what gave him such a good hustle. The part that gets me is when Andrew Jackson won many fights against bigger and healthier dogs but it took for a handicapped dog with no hind legs to defeat him all because of a flaw in his strategy. Now on the other side, which is the realistic side, with confidence, practice, and belief many things are possible. None of the things that smiley did were impossible. Yes it is possible for someone to be lucky. Maybe Smiley placed buts on the opposite side on purpose just to get a taker and his intentions were for someone to make him switch sides anyway. He could have been a smart man and knew how to handle the different types of people. One very intelligent thing that he did was take the frog that he had educated himself to another area because all of the fact that all of the townspeople new of what he was doing with the frog. He was a hustler at heart and would do anything for money. He even taught his dog how to hold out until all of the money was in the air to finally win the match. So in actuality this man could have been very greedy and money hungry and he did get caught up a couple of times. Also with his animals he showed that looks can be deceiving and to never underestimate your opponent.

Monday, October 19, 2009

"the minister in the black veil"

Amber James


“The minister in the black veil”



Hawthorne is a very talented author and he paints a very clear picture. His stories are interesting to the point where you always want to know what’s going to happen next. The suspense is great. The stories have so much mystery and such dark tones. It gets to the point where u start to feel for the characters and wonder what’s really going on in their heads and the reason why they do everything they do.

For example, in his writing “The Minister’s Black Veil” in the beginning of the story he just talks about this man who walks around with this black veil on his face, who is just so mysterious to everyone. Then he goes on and tells us that this mysterious man is actually a preacher. Something that was never expected, a man wearing a veil which usually represents darkness and death, preaching to and leading others on to “heaven.” This is not an ordinary situation that’s why Hawthorne’s type of writing is so unique.

During most of the story no one knows the preacher’s reason for wearing the veil. The author doesn’t even let the readers know or give any type of hints. So throughout the story it’s like a guessing game and u never know if you’re right or not. The veil is what makes this character so special. He’s such a loving and caring man that no one knows what the veil is needed for his own wife has no type of idea.

The preacher wouldn’t give up that veil for anything. His wife even threatened to leave him and he still didn’t budge. He made a comment that the veil will stay with him for all his mortal life but come off when he goes into eternity. Meaning all the days he is on earth the veil will be on him but once he dies he will no longer need it and he can be free from it. When he tries to explain the significance of the veil to his wife he even speaks of it in a mysterious way not giving her a clear answer.

It was not until towards the ending of the story where the audience finds out the real reason for the veil. The veil was only a symbol. In a sense everyone was wearing a black veil but only his was visible. He talks about how everyone made him seem like a freak and someone to be afraid of when in actuality he was just the same as them only he showed his in an alternative way.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

aint i a woman

Amber James


Period 2

Aint I A Woman

Many women in those days were scared to talk to men and defend themselves like Sojornor did, but the women were happy that what they all were thinking was said. She cleverly contradicts everything that these men are saying and shocks everyone with her intelligence and the fact that she has a point and really makes sense.

Sojornor first addresses a white man who says that woman should be treated like queens, such as being helped into carriages. Sojornor tells him that she doesn’t get any of this special treatment and she is indeed a woman herself. She asks the man “aint I a woman?” and she shows her womanly qualities. She talks about how she has given birth to thirteen children, which is something only a woman could do. Then she tells him that she is infact a woman but can work harder than any man.

Then she goes to the minister. When you think of a minister you think of someone who cares about all people, is fair, and has godly like qualities. Well this minister is nothing like that and that’s exactly what Sojornor talks about. She asks him “ if my cup won’t hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?” this question refers back to equality. She’s asking them does it seem right to them what they are doing and would it hurt just to show a little equality? She also challenges his thought of what god is. She said man had nothing to don with got undermining his whole understanding that god was a man.

Sojornor then talks about all of the women working together to make the world right and a better place again. She wants them all to be united and equal and she makes this clear in her speech.

Throughout her speech Sojornor made eye contact and let everyone know exactly who she was talking about when she was talking about them. She didn’t show any type of nervousness at all. Sojornor was fierce with her words and meant exactly what she said. Even though the author made it seem like Sojornor didn’t know how to use proper english she still seemed intelligent. She made great points and continued to get the applause of her audience.

By her writing you can tell that the author enjoyed Sojornor’s speech. She seemed like a supporter of Sojornor and had them same feelings as Sojornor.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

kate chopin the story of the hour

Amber James


PERIOD-2

“THE STORY OF AN HOUR”

In Kate Chopin’s writings she always seems to take unexpected turns. This particular story consists of irony, imagery, and plays with the emotions of the audience. Kate Chopin is a wonderful and talented author and I love the way she keeps the audience on their toes. Whatever is expected to happen never happens. You couldn’t even guess what the ending of the story would be because you would be completely wrong.

When Louise hears the news of her husband’s death Chopin uses imagery to give the audience a clear image of her facial expression. Then when she goes to her room the author tells the audience exactly what Louise does so they can visualize it. She gives details from her body language to the gaze in her eyes. She does this so the audience can feel the emotions that the character has. Everything that goes on in the story plays in your head as if you were watching a movie on the television and the details that she gives makes it so realistic.

Usually when a woman hears about the lost of the love of her life she is depressed and very down. Well at first Louise was sad, she even shed tears, but not for too long. While she was sitting in her room thinking about the tragedy that was at hand she realized that she can now do whatever she wanted to do without having to worry about how it affects anyone else. In a sense she was now free. So she begins to become happy and joy takes over her. Her sister is sitting at the door trying to console her, thinking that she was depressed and might do something crazy, not knowing that Louise was the happiest she’s been in a while. The author makes a point that Louise did truly love her husband but she was so used to sharing everything and being tied down that she forget what freedom and doing only for herself was like.

At first she was staring out the window mourning the death of her husband but now she realizes that a new window has been opened: freedom. Louise was so happy and excited of her newly found freedom. Then all of a sudden everything comes tumbling down. Her husband comes home with not even a scratch on him. Everyone thought that hearing the death of her husband would kill her in addition to her heart disease, but ironically finding out that her husband wasn’t dead was the cause of her death. His unexpected arrival killed her and ruined her joy.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

learning to read and write

Amber James

Period 2

Fredrick Douglass

When learning to read and write Douglass had a very hard time with little help from his mistress in the beginning. Douglass was a slave and for them reading and writing was forbidden. They had no real rights as human beings. They weren’t even treated like people but as property.

Ironically the person who began teaching him how to read and write, was the one who began to hate to see him even pick up a newspaper. At first he says that his mistress was a sweet, kind, and tender-hearted woman and he never knew why she treated him so well. As time went on slavery began to change all of her nice characteristics. She stopped all efforts of instructing him but luckily she taught him the alphabet before she began to change. So now he had no support and had to sneak to further educate himself. Just knowing the alphabet wasn’t enough for Douglass he was determined to learn how to read and write. He tried to learn more every chance he got. While running errands he would give poor white kids he met on the streets bread to help him read. He wanted to know everything they knew and even more. In the passage Douglass talks about the boys for a brief moment and he says that he would like to mention their names to show his gratitude but that might be embarrassing to them because it was almost an unfavorable offense to teach slaves to read in this Christian country. He capitalized Christian as a gesture of sarcasm. It’s like he’s saying how can they refer to themselves as Christians and still treat people the way they do, which is not the Christian way. He always told them “you will be free as soon as you are twenty-one but I am a slave for life.” he already knew what his future would be.

Reading had some highs and lows, yes it did give him hope but it also was depressing. Douglass read several books that talked about emancipation. These books gave him hope that one day he could be the slave that his owner set free because of his intelligence. Just knowing that it was possible and has happened was enough encouragement for him. But in some of the books he read there weren’t so great of endings. Some of the things he read began to scare him and opened up his eyes to what slavery truly was. He began to realize why the masters didn’t want their slaves to be able to read. All Douglass did was think about the cruelty of slavery but that’s all he could do. Douglass had no type of power to stop anything all he had was his thoughts that he couldn’t get rid of.

Once Douglass perfected his reading skills he was determined to learn how to write. There was no stopping him he had so much ambition. Douglass began to think about escaping but he was being smart about it. He paid close attention to everything that was going on around him at all times and he wasn’t naive of frantic. Before escaping he wanted to know how to read and write, skills that he may have to put to use. To learn how to write he watched the ship carpenters and the marks they made on the timber. He watched them so much that he began to understand what the marks represented. He also learned how to write by started competitions with boys that already knew how to write and tricking them into teaching him more. Another way that increased his writing abilities was sneaking and using his master’s son’s copybook and trying to match the handwriting. By taking all of these steps Douglass finally succeeded in learning how to write.

Douglass was a very determined man and he stopped at nothing to get his education. Because of his determination he did in fact get what he was going after.


Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Wiz Essay

Amber James
P-2
The Wiz

In the beginning of the movie Dorothy doesn’t really understand the importance of family. Throughout the movie she starts to realize how important family really is. She starts to meet new people and she sees how miserable and alone they are. She begins to realize that everyone needs someone else to help and support them as she did her new friends. For example, the scarecrow would have never known how to get down off of that pole without her help and the tin man would have been stuck for forever if she and the scarecrow didn’t remove everything that was on top of him.
Then when she finally gets to the wiz, she sees all of these people in green dancing around. When her and her friends got there everyone was looking at them funny. It was as if the people didn’t except them for their clothing and not having “green”. None of the people cared about who they were as people but what they wore on the outside. It’s clear to say that they put appearance over friendship and family, the things that should really matter. The people didn’t even try to say hi to them, or try to see or understand who they were; they just looked and kept singing their song wondering what the new color would be. It was like the new “in” color was all they cared about and they didn’t even pick the color the Wiz did and they just followed right along.
The Wiz wasn’t any better than the dancing people. He only wanted to speak to Dorothy because of her shiny silver shoes. The Wiz only wanted Dorothy not the lion, not the scarecrow, and not the tin man, only Dorothy. This moment in the story shows how much Dorothy cared about her friends because she told him that she wasn’t going anywhere without her friends. By making this choice Dorothy sacrificed ever getting back home just so her and her friends could have a chance at getting what they needed.
As the movie began to wind down Dorothy started to realize how much she missed home. She missed her aunt. She even missed the most annoying things, like her aunt nagging her about going away and having independence.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Desiree's Baby

Amber James
Eng III
“Desiree’s Baby”
P-2
This story consists of a lot of irony. It has a lot of unexpected turns. The audience never knows what to expect next. When u do expect something to happen it goes the exact opposite way.
First the baby changed the father’s life. He was so excited about the baby in the beginning. He was even nice to his slaves which was unusual for him. So for a moment life for them was pretty easy. Then in the matter of 3 months he began to be distant from his wife. She didn’t know what was wrong with him and he gave no effort to let her know. So everything just started to go downhill for them. He didn’t want to be touched nor bothered by her it was as if she irritated him with her presence. Desiree cherished and loved her husband and her baby and she didn’t know what was tearing their family apart.
Then one day Desiree was in the room with the baby and just began to stare at the baby. She thought something was wrong with the baby. She had no idea what it was. So she asked her husband and he told her that their child was not white and she was not white. Desiree argued with him about this subject she even made a point that her skin was whiter than his. Desiree didn’t believe that she was black for one minute she even wrote a letter to her mother asking if it’s true or not. When her mother wrote back she neither denied nor confirmed that it was the truth. So this gives the audience reason to believe that Desiree really was not white. Her mother even foreshadowed this event happening in the beginning of the story by the way she was looking at the baby and when she said,” This is not the baby.” As if it was already something wrong with the baby.
So because the husband believed Desiree had a little bit of black in her this changed all of his feelings for her. They were so in love at first but because she has a drop of black blood in her body he wants nothing to do with her. He even wanted his wife that he “did” love so much and the mother of his child leave and go be with her mother. He was so quick to say the child was black on Desiree’s behalf but never thought that that one drop of black blood could be in his body.
He made a fire outside of the house and had his slaves burning what all belonged to her. Desiree sent him letters and he wouldn’t even respond back, this showed that she still had love for the father of her child. While looking at her letters he discovered a letter from his mother to his father. The letter explains how his mother belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery. So the reason that the baby is not white is because of him. He was the reason the baby was black not his wife. So he treated her wrong for no reason at all and he was the one to blame for it all. This part was at the end of the story and this moment changed the whole story around. The ending left the audience with shock and it was so unexpected. Everybody believed that Desiree was really at fault for the reason the baby was not white no one would of guessed it to be the fathers fault. An ending like this just leaves the audience wanting more and wondering what happens next.