Hacking My Education

This semester is my final semester in high school...EVER!Its honestly kind of scary not knowing what's coming next but I intend to try to live out the rest of my high school career the best I can with a positive and patient attitude. Even though I feel like this semester is going to kick my but, I need to make sure to stay on top of things and not start winding down just yet. In this class especially I'm kind of excited for our big ideas and masterpieces that everybody comes up with to be shared!Mine personally will be something I enjoy a lot and is the career I want to go into, which is fashion. So I'm anxious to see what kind of project I present and how it all comes out in the end. I know we will have other English assignments like reading and writing,which are not necessarily my favorite but I look forward to getting involved more with my masterpiece and big idea. I also expect to hopefully stay on track with my other assignments and try not to stress so much about the assignments and just do them with ease and try to produce quality work that portrays me as a person.

Winter Break Homework

My Big Idea: I  had different ideas and I haven't chosen one just heat but I was thinking of possibly doing a fashion show where I can style the models or just the people I get and have other people with their big ideas get involved in some way if their ideas coincide with mine in different aspects such as music or the layout of it or just whatever other work it takes that goes into a a fashion show or I was just going to find some students who wouldn't mind helping me out and letting me style them in different looks and I would showcase that to the class along with a blog that I would make up that included outfits that I wear or other people that I style with a little description of that look and also include my own inspirations and other little fashion tips!

Other Big Ideas: Okay so mine is spreading better quality Medicare to countries and places over the world who are scarce of it. To do this I am going to speak to teachers, doctors, professors, etc in search for help, links to success, etc. - Stevie

So I kinda have been rethinking my masterpiece but there are two roads I could go down that I am interested in I guess. So the first one is setting up a clinic for a week or so where I go into a hospital and help out the patients. I don't know if it will be cancer patients or I guess just any patients in allowed to visit and I want to get a group of kids together to do it. This came from the idea of disformations or asymmetry on face or sorts of the body that people are drawn to look at and it makes the people with those things feel bad and. So I want to give those people self confidence or just a memory of someone who looked at the words and stories they told rather than what they looked like. Number 2 is going along more reaserch and the idea behind how we change ourselves to have the same characteristics as the people we hang around? Still developing that concept haha - Hannah

Quote of the Day

"sometimes 

I like to be quiet

so no one will look

so no one will stare

so no one will judge me

but I have so many things to say"

- (h.c)

Today in class we had our Hamlet discussion and so many different ideas were being thrown around and I could've jumped in at any moment, but I didn't.

This quote sums up me today. I wish I could jump into conversations more but I guess I'm sort of afraid because I think my ideas won't be valuable to the discussion or I'm just afraid.

Literature Analysis #3

1.The story starts out by Nick Carraway who is one the main characters in the story narrating the life he lived when he met Jay Gatsby. Nick is the narrator throughout the whole story. The story takes place in New York City and mainly around where Gatsby and Nick lived in the West Wing in Long Island. The inciting incident is when Nick meets Gatsby for the first time at one of Gatsby's lavish parties he throws. Nick and Gatsby become friends instantly in a weird kind of way. The rising action happens when Gatsby and Daisy meet for the first time. Nick sets up the date for them after Gatsby's request that he wishes to meet Daisy again. Daisy and Gatsby rekindle a secret romance that only Nick knows about. The climax occurs when Tom, Daisy's husband finds out about the affair with Gatsby and the whole situation blows up and ends up with Myrtle, Toms mistress being killed by Daisy's reckless driving which Gatsby covered up for her. The falling action happens when Daisy starts drifting away from Gatsby and falling back towards Tom but Gatsby still tries to keep Daisy but all his efforts fall though because she feels guilty for having an affair with Gatsby and realizes she has loved Tom. The resolution is when George, Myrtle's husband kills Gatsby because he believes Gatsby to be the one to kill his wife, but really it was Daisy. Everybody who were supposedly "friends" with Gatsby didn't show up to his funeral. The one person that should've, Daisy, was leaving town with Tom and her daughter. The only person who has been there for Gatsby the whole time was Nick. Who never left his side and grew very close to Gatsby after he heard his real story about how he grew up. Nick was the only one with Gatsby's father and a few other people who attended his funeral. Nick was the only one who ever knew the truth about Gatsby and believed him to be the greatest and strongest man he ever knew.

2. The theme of the book is know the story to know the person. I mean "story" by someone being able to know the background and the truth about someone too actually know why they are the way they are. For instance Gatsby, nobody ever knew the truth about him besides Nick and that's why Nick saw him as the greatest man he knew. Daisy too she is portrayed as this sweet vulnerable woman who has many insecurities and never likes to address conflict. She tries to avoid being seen as a bad person and wants to please everyone but really shows her true colors and that all she ever really loved was her wealth and image.

3.Nick has a very cynical tone throughout the story.  He reserves judgment on the characters, but still manages to criticize through his tone. In Chapter 1, when Nick is hanging out with the Buchanan's and Jordan for the first time, “I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn't he?” She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation "An absolute rose?” “This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. She was only extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words.” Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house.” Nick may be aware of the ridiculousness of certain social circumstances, but he's also aware of the seductive quality of the upper class. The tension between the two produces this cynical tone, where it's almost as though he's mocking himself for being taken in by it. “Untrue,” he says: "I am not even faintly like a rose." At the same time, he responds to her words, seeing them as “stirring” and “thrilling.”

4. Character foils: Daisy and Myrtle. Myrtle was more of a flapper, as a person in the working class that wore a variety of colors to show a sense of freedom. Daisy, on the other hand, was a person of the upper class, wearing white, to show her wealth. They both marry people related to their class, but try to look outside of it. Myrtle looked towards Tom, a person who had riches, while Daisy looked towards Gatsby, a person who worked for his wealth.

Foreshadowing: In Chapter 1, Gatsby was staring and stretching his arms out to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. This foreshadows Gatsby's later meeting with Daisy.

Imagery: Chapter 5- "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes."

You can imagine seeing him standing hunched over with sad eyes.

Irony: Situational Irony in chapter 8, when Wilson kills Gatsby it is unexpected because you would expect Tom to kill him due to the fact that Gatsby was having an affair with Daisy.

Simile: In chapter 4 "With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Astoria..."

The fenders are being compared to spread out wings using the word like.

Metaphor: In chapter 3"...I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and wandered around rather ill at ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn't know..."The people were being compared to "swirls and eddies" without the use of "like" or "as".

Symbol: The "Green Light" at the end of Daisy's dock symbolizes Gatsby's dream for the future of him meeting Daisy again.

Characterization 

1. Examples of direct characterization Tom and Nick. First Tom portrays himself as this character that's all high and mighty and gets what he wants which Fitzgerald tells the audience through his diction. Nick is more of a subtle person who has a good heart and sticks by Gatsby's side throughout the whole novel. He honest and believes that people should be given a second chance which shows through how Fitzgerald writes about him. Examples of indirect characterization are Daisy and Gatsby. On the outside you can't really figure out what is going on in their mind. Gatsby is a very secretive and quiet man who know what he wants but is timid to go after Daisy but starts to express himself more through his words and actions as the story progresses. Daisy is sweet and innocent and indecisive who thinks she wants one thing but believes she joule choose another and she has good intentions but horrible timing and judgement.

2. The authors diction and syntax does change as he focuses on each character. For example when he talks about Daisy his syntax become more fluid and his diction acts more innocent. If he talks about Myrtle it's harsher and short lived. For Gatsby and Nick their diction is more precise and the syntax is longer because they are two of the main characters and he chooses to give a lot of background and insight into their actions and thought processes.

3. The protagonist is dynamic. Nick starts out from being this quiet little guy not from the city who is coming into a new life and not knowing what to expect. To meeting different people who change life and lead his journey down a different and more bumpy path that he would've never expected. He would've never imagine becoming so close and living exactly next to Gatsby and Daisy who is his cousin being past lovers with him. So he was connected to many different people on many different ways and the people around him and the city started to mold him into a person that he never expected to become.

4. I came away feeling sad for Gatsby because I knew everything he went through. From remaking himself to the heartbreak all to live a better life and for a girl I love him back just as much as she loved him. One thing or symbol that connected to me was the green light. The book started with it and ended with it and was slightly mentioned in between. That was a sign of hope for Gatsby, his dream to love again and feel like he was whole. He shortly lived that dream with Daisy but that has his heart broken all over again but didn't know it because he was killed for a crime he didn't commit. Gatsby did get involved with a lot of wrong people and lied his way to the top but he did this for himself and the love of his life and he would've done anything to protect the people he cared about most. Nobody besides Nick and of course myself as the reader knew that Gatsby was really the strongest and most sane person in the book.

Literature Analysis #2

1.The story takes place latter in the nineteenth century and starts of in the Thames River in England and then travels into the Congo. The author uses more than one setting to compare the parallel between England and Africa. To show that white and black men aren’t that different from each other, and Marlow and Kurtz are similar in many ways. To use comparisons between the Thames and Congo River to show that they are connected. The story is told over a year period. The inciting incident is when Marlow sees the horrible circumstances that the company’s employees are under. The good and questionable information he hears about Kurtz which make him suspicious to find out more.
2. The central message is there is evilness in all of us and the universal theme is racial prejudice.
 The authors purpose was not only to portray some of his personal experiences through his story but to make connections between good and evil, and parallels between white and blacks.

3. The title “Heart of Darkness” relates to the content because the whole book has a dark and eerie tone to it and is centered on this idea that the journey the characters go on through the heart of the Congo River, is like going into the darkness. The journey becomes about discovering what the darkness really is and if it’s the characters state of mind or the darkness filled in their hearts.

4. When the author described that there was free wood for Marlow and the crew to   take, that seemed strange to me and felt like it was foreshadowing danger. Something bad was going to happen to the crew or ship. The tone of the book had a weird feeling like something wasn’t right, and somebody was watching them. Conrad’s dark and suspenseful diction allow readers to be prepared for a new twist or discovery that comes along throughout the journey. Through Conrad’s uninformative        story he creates a lot of foreshadowing elements so the reader can try to figure out what is going to happen next. The author uses more description to help the reader try to comprehend and keep up       with understanding the book. It is very easy to misinterpret a part in the book so Conrad drags out the descriptions to make the reader more anxious to find out what is going to happen next. The tone of the book was fearfulness, and it made me feel anxious and worried. When Marlow and the crew were getting deep into the Congo River. I was worried something bad was going to happen to them or to Kurtz. There is some dialogue but mostly narrating by Marlow and he is the one telling his story so I get a sense of how he is feeling and thinking from him being the one describing his journey. The irony in the book is that Marlow is the one who has been anxiously waiting to meet. When he finally does Kurtz is not himself and soon after dies. So it was kind of bittersweet for Marlow.

"…seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” The journey is sort of almost coming to a full circle again and it is saying that the adventure was only part of the darkness. The person themselves is what was captivated by darkness.“...that was exactly what I had been looking forward to—a talk with Kurtz.” After Marlow thinks Kurtz is dead he realizes that the whole reason he had gone on this journey to find Kurtz was so he can get to know him. He was devastated when he thought he was not going to. “I was within a hair’s-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say.” Marlow felt that his life would’ve been worthless because he would’ve died without having something left to say. Kurtz   died saying something so Marlow though Kurtz life was memorable.

Characterization:

1.Marlow is a man who sets out to find a job but really goes on a journey. He is an independent hardworking man who is skeptical of people around him that he doesn’t know. As the story progresses he learns to be a leader and stick up for who and what he believes in. He learns how to persevere through many obstacles that come into his path. He stays strong and fights through devastation and casualties, and grows intellectually through his journey. Indirect Characterization

2.  Kurtz is the chief of the Inner Station who has gone missing. He has many talents and people look up to him and adore him because of his wisdom. He has a powerful influence over all the people that are in his life because he is in a way a teacher who has so much knowledge about life. His intellect is part of why he gets into trouble with the African Americans. He is consumed by umbrage of darkness that is cast upon him and he can’t get out. Direct Characterization.

3.These aren’t people I’d like to know because Marlow and Kurtz resemble each other in many ways and agree on some of the same values. Both of them seem a little bit consumed by this imaginary meaning on life. Kurtz has been influenced by the tribal   group he was surrounded by and Marlow is very interested with what Kurtz has to offer.They both seem to be locked in a dark state of mind with each other.

4. Yes, both characters are realistic and do resemble people in real life. Many people have a role model or somebody they look up to. That is how Marlow thinks of Kurtz; he doesn’t at first because he is skeptical about Kurtz. Then when he finally realizes he wants to meet Kurtz. He finds that Kurtz is a wise and somewhat lost man that he can.

Working Together Poem Remix

Idea: 

As a group we started out by just throwing out ideas about how we can translate "Working Together" into a creative project that has some symbolism behind it. So we came up with creating a puzzle that sort of would resemble the world and we would each have an individual piece that we can make into whatever we want and later explain how it relates to working together and making the pieces all fit.

My Piece:

The piece of the puzzle that I received in a way sort of resembled a girl with her hair or long dress blowing in the wind and that reminded me of Pocahantas and "The Colors of the Wind" song. So I just went along with that idea and decided to be a little more abstract and take fashion magazines and cut out different shapes of colors from them and glue them onto my piece. 

My piece could be conveyed as combing all the different colors that were derived from yellow red and blue and with black and white to contrast them, to end up making an abundance of different colors that mixed together to make a new color. With the white and black to contradict each other and resemble the light and dark aspects of the poem.

Final Product:

When we all came back together in class we combined our pieces and they all fit together but were all different at the same time. Each piece contributed to a different view of working together in a unique and personalized way.

Poem Comparison Essay

We shape ourselves to fit into the world but by the world we are shaped as well. The world is full of contradictions light and dark, happiness and pain, and the list goes on. Out of all of these contradictions everything seems to form together to make sense. Just as a sea of colors are derived from yellow blue and red but just with those three bases, seem to make an array of colors with the help of white and black to make brighter and darker colors. All things are connected in some way shape or form its just a matter and sometimes a challenge to find the common link that connects one thing to another. By being able to have things and people work together, eventually everything will fall into place one way or another and life wont be as bad when we have an optimistic outlook.
Every person is born into the world not being able to choose our family but rather we are born into one. We may not be a movie stars daughter or son or we may not even be going from shelter to shelter, we may just be an average teen with an average family and lifestyle. It's kind of lucky though that we get to wake up everyday and breathe and live, even though for some it may be harder. There is always something we should be thankful for whether it's our hearing because someone can't see or theie arms and hands for someone who doesn't have legs or it be the education we are given the chance to receive to make a better life for ourselves. Things may not be perfect in the world or in our own personal lives but being able to connect through people or things makes living just a little better. Emotions can make us feel and react in crazy ways, such as love or hate. We are able to feel because of something or someone that made us feel and without that person or thing we wouldn't be considered humans. One trait that every person has is the ability to feel though our emotions and sometimes that can be a good thing or bad thing. By working together things can get a litter easier and turn out alright.
There are many different backgrounds and cultures that a single person came from, but somehow and someway at some point in life humans came to be either scientifically or religiously. We are all derived from a common ancestor which connects to many different life forms. Both poems "Working Together," and "Everything is Going to be Alright," can connect through many different viewpoints because of their optimistic and reflective tones. We as humans have to ability to connect and work together and just by being able to do this great things can come out of it or even great failures that let us learn from them. In the end everything is going to be alright and by working together it gives us just a little glimmer of hope for humanity. From the wise words of  Pocahontas "you can paint with all the colors of the wind."