Something Interesting

During our fishbowl discussion on the poem "Lobsters", many different views on the symbolic meaning were given. The idea that stood out to me the most was not that the lobsters and their lives were a parallel to a person's life, (because that was what I had gotten out of the poem), but that the lobster's careless, almost absent-minded movement could be compared to a human bumbling through life, completely unaware of their surroundings and the inevitability of their death.

I had what I thought was an insightful view of the first and last stanzas, but the second that talked about their "somnambulist"-like movements confused me for the most part. The comparison between crustaceans and sleep walkers seemed nothing short of random. But, once that connection was made, the whole poem seemed to make much more of a statement. Now, not only were people carelessly buying a killing living creatures whose existence was horribly similar to their own, but now people were going through life with a blissful ignorance to their own mortality. I suppose ignorance is bliss... but this whole poem just makes you feel like the most unenlightened species, doesn't it?

5 Part Paragraphs

Over the past few weeks of listening to both positive and negative comments about the class's first five part paragraphs, there are a few qualities I noticed about virtually all of them. Almost everyone had at least one problem with their quotes; they weren't embedded correctly (using the word "pg" or just having incorrect lead in), they were too long, or they weren't in chronological order. After awhile, it became almost inevitable while listening to critiques that someone would bring embedding up eventually. Another popular mistake was not having all the needed transitions. I slipped up in that area, along with quite a few other people. The quality of the papers diction seemed to decrease as the paragraph went on. In the beginning, most people had strong, unique word choice that slowly faded to 5th grade vocabulary during the end, or just having words repeated quite a bit, which gave off the impression of running out of things to say. Even most concluding sentences were considerably weaker than most topic sentences.

Considering this was my, along with everyone else, first five part paragraph, I wouldn't say I did too badly. It might take a little bit of time to perfect this kind of structure because it's pretty different than anything I wrote in middle and elementary school. Transitions will definitely be the hardest thing for me to get comfortable doing. Even in less structured paragraph formats, I've struggled with using transitions. I also need to work on embedding. For my lead in, I need less plot summary and more in-depth analysis about the quote and why I chose it. Hopefully, after seeing so many great examples of paragraphs and hearing where we all need to improve on not only from the teacher, but from our peers, that all of us will be writing almost flawless paragraphs.

My Lovely Car Misadventure in Formal Diction

Whilst driving to my establishment for education, Olympia High School, a seemingly trivial drizzle of rain fell, dampening the roads around us. Mid conversation, much to the dismay of my step mother and myself, a herculean force jolted us forward in our seats. My seat belt dug itself into my chest, while my neck simultaneously slammed my head into the headrest. My step mother let out a shrill, bloodcurdling scream. The car behind us had hit us. What had seemed like overwhelming, brutal collision was, in fact, nothing more than a infinitesimal dent in the rear fender.

After an insignificant amount of time that went on for what felt like eternity, the blaring sirens and bright, flashing lights of a police car could be seen.

At a quarter past the hour, I walked into the school, I remained slightly disoriented. But, before I knew it, I was back into a haze of drowsiness, almost identical to the one I felt just before the misadventure.

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is quite possibly one of the strangest things I've ever read. In the beginning, it gives absolutely no information about what has happened to Gregor, the protagonist, apart from his waking up as an abnormally large insect of no specific species. Because the story is a total of 55 pages, the plot goes by very quickly, which occasionally leaves me a little bit dumbfounded and confused as to what just happened. I can't say that it's my favorite book, but I am enjoying it because of the slightly dark, comical undertone to Kafka's writing. I especially love the very beginning when his reaction is not screaming in terror or even being confused, but simply thinking that this could be quite the complicated situation and is more concerned with missing work than being transformed into a large bug. Quite frankly, I cannot relate to his reaction at all. Personally, I think I would have fainted.

The plot really is very important because the story is so short. Things happen fairly quickly, and are not particularly subtle (for example, his mother fainting at the sight of her beetle son and his father almost immediately attacking him isn't the most toned-down way of expressing his parents' feelings toward the new Gregor).

I can't say that I've read anything that really strikes me as very similar to The Metamorphosis, but it does loosely remind me of Christopher Moore's book, Blood Sucking Fiends. Both have a dark, slightly comical tone. Jody, the protagonist in Blood Sucking Fiends, become a vampire and runs away from everyone she cares for, like Gregor hides from those he loves. Both books also have writing style's that strike me as very unique.

For my outside project, I think I want to make a cartoon-like poster depicting the section where Gregor shows himself to his family and boss toward the beginning of the book. This part is important to the book because, for one, his family seeing him as a gargantuan insect effects the rest of the story quite a lot. His sister and mother both eventually coming to the conclusion that he is still a part of the family and at least attempting to make his new life easier is a big part in the story so far. But this scene really sets up the rest of the story.

My Blog.

My writing style has always sounded strange to me in comparison to others. I'm not sure if the impression I get from my work is the same impression other people get, but I always feel as though I come off as incredibly aloof. I sound detached and slightly arrogant when I read over my writing pieces, which is definitely not the tone I'm aiming for. Honestly, I don't know how to fix this. I don't even know if it needs fixing. There's a good chance that I'm being hyper-conscious about my work and the thought of my writing sounding arrogant hasn't crossed the minds of anyone but myself. But I somehow doubt it will change, regardless of the circumstances. I'm fairly set in my style. The transitions I use from topic to topic also tend to be weak or nonexistent. My paragraphs end abruptly, and the new paragraph starts as if the last paragraph was never written in the first place. Now that I've pointed this out, that factor might become painfully obvious when reading this post. The transition I'm using now should make that point clear.

When it come to reading, I'm generally slow and I need to read over things once or twice to go beyond the obvious plot and meaning. Reading between the lines takes me awhile sometimes. Reading has never been one of my absolute favorite things, a big part of that being that I take forever and a day to finish a book. Despite it not being my strongest suit, it is still leaps and bounds more developed than my public speaking skills.

I do realize that the third part of English is communication, which means speaking in front of a large group. I have never been comfortable with reading my work aloud or sharing my ideas purely on the grounds that I'm afraid I'll sound ignorant or that I've completely missed the point. But it's not just projecting my own thoughts that terrifies me, even just reading aloud from a book to the class makes me nervous and tense. I blush and start slipping up on words, which sometimes people don't even notice because I speak so quietly. I know that this is mildly irrational, and it's something that I need to improve, because there's so much room for improvement.

English classes that help develop these three skills are very important, which is why English is required in all four years of high school. Why? Every class, every job, every social situation, everything demands one or more of those three skills. Writing is used in virtually every class and almost every job we will ever take. Everyone reads constantly every day, whether it be Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, or even a price tag on a new pair of shoes. Communication is a vital skill as well. We talk daily for a good portion of the day, and being able to talk comfortably and intelligently to others is important. Just think, if it weren't for English classes, we'd be running our mouths about every thought that crossed our mind like we did when we were little... or maybe that was just me as a toddler. Having a good sense of language is completely necessary to anyone. And strengthening myself in reading, writing, and communication beyond the required class is why I chose to do Honors English.