Exercise #3

Reviews:
Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles
Try Not to Breathe
Black Boy White School

Elements:
1. Summarize the background of the novel and set-up the conflict so that the reader of the review wants to know more, but is left hanging.

2. A set aside quote on the left side.

3. The conclusion focuses on themes or moral lessons that the author writes about. 

Tuesdays with Morrie

Finishing up Tuesdays with Morrie came with many tears and realizations.  You only live life once, and Mitch Albom's classes with Morrie helped teach what life should be about.  Love is the biggest thing to consider.  Nothing matters without love and relationships.  People think that they are satisfying their time and having the best life by being busy and fighting for power and money; however, Morrie teaches us that enjoying each moment of the dull and exciting times makes one never regret anything in their lifetime.  He taught many moral lessons and new ways of thinking about death.  No one should fear death because the soul lives on.  Our body is like a shell and it wears out, but our soul will never die.

Tuesdays With Morrie was a really quick read and it helped me accomplish my goal of reading 150 pages a week.  Although I only read 3 nights this week, instead of my goal of reading 30 minutes each night.  Another goal was to read at 2 park benches, and unfortunately I only got to one park bench.  I realized that if I brought a pillow with me to the bench it would be a lot more comfortable!

The park bench I read at...

Any guesses where this is?
Clue: It is along the Aboite Trails and near Aboite Center Rd.
PRTW: 199
PRTQ: 435

Note #1: My Father's Diary

In the poem My Father's Diary, by Sharon Olds, the narrator reads the vague diary of her father and notices the quick changes from the young boy's perspective of everyday chores and activities to the perspective of playful and passionate feelings of love.  Though the poem gives the narrator a gift from her father, the narrator's language is full of simple yet delicate words that introduces the father's compassionate feelings of love.  The narrator is reading the diary, which shares a timeline of the young boy's, now her father's, events.  It starts off with plain, everyday activities that every boy does.  The boy "went to look at a car" as well as "went to try out some new tennis racquets".  The lack of emotion during the beginning of the passage suggests boredom with his innocent life.  However, the boy's life is boring and slow "until Lois" turned it around and the boy started to experience new emotions that transformed his life.  He started "worshipping her" as all he wanted to do was spend time with her.  The transforming sentences in the diary documents the first phases of his love for Lois.  First love can never be taken for granted; the young boy has fallen for Lois and doesn't know what he has "ever done to deserve such a girl."  The run on events of growing up happens so fast, and when it is written down in a diary, the pure and honest words reveal the unique and surprising emotions of one's first love.

My Father's Diary by Sharon Olds

My Father's Diary

My Father's Diary

By Sharon Olds b. 1942 Sharon Olds

I get into bed with it, and spring

the scarab legs of its locks. Inside,

the stacked, shy wealth of his print—

he could not write in script, so the pages

are sturdy with the beamwork of printedness,

WENT TO LOOK AT A CAR, DAD

IN A GOOD MOOD AT DINNER, WENT

TO TRY OUT SOME NEW TENNIS RACQUETS,

LUNCH WITH MOM, life of ease—

except when he spun his father's DeSoto on the

ice, and a young tree whirled up to the

hood, throwing up her arms—until

LOIS. PLAYED TENNIS, WITH LOIS,

LUNCH WITH MOM AND LOIS, LOIS

LIKED THE CAR, DRIVING WITH LOIS,

LONG DRIVE WITH LOIS. And then,

LOIS! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! SHE IS SO

GOOD, SO SWEET, SO GENEROUS, I HAVE

NEVER, WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE

TO DESERVE SUCH A GIRL? Between the dark

legs of the capitals, moonlight, soft

tines of the printed letter gentled

apart, nectar drawn from serif, the

self of the grown boy pouring

out, the heart's charge, the fresh

man kneeling in pine-needle weave,

worshipping her. It was my father

good, it was my father grateful,

it was my father dead, who had left me

these small structures of his young brain—

he wanted me to know him, he wanted

someone to know him.

Exercise 2: Analysis Scavenger Hunt

(2)"Grey and tall and stocky as the granite outcrop their town was built upon" are the inhabitants described in an unvarnished plain-dealing diction"

(6)"In her novel, Cruddy, Lynda Barry use of brusque, crude, and cacophonous language depicts and establishes the narrator’s dreary outlook on her gloomy life."

(1)Barry comes across as a bitter woman with the constant negative and degrading word diction saying "Roberta was writing the cruddy book of her cruddy life."

The blog that I really liked: Reading, Reflecting, and More Reading 

Exercise 1

In the opening paragraphs of Lynda Barry's Cruddy, words are filled with simplistic humor that suggests the authors young and rebelious personality.  The low diction and literal words make the passage easy to read.  The repeating use of the word 'cruddy' exaggerates the tone of the author and depicts her 'cruddy' life.  The character that writes a 'Cruddy' book is "the cruddy girl named Roberta."  Roberta's story is going to be about "the cruddy time on a cruddy street on the side of a cruddy hill in the cruddiest part of a crudded-out town in a cruddy state, country, world, solar system, universe."  The conflicting words with Roberta's sister suggest the natural state of bickering with siblings.  The frustration is implied through the cruddy words and poured out to "her little sister [who] will NOT shut up she will NOT shut up SHE WILL NOT SHUT UP."  Roberta's story, during the rest of her cruddy time grounded, uses personal language to depict the growth and maturity of a teenage girl. 

Reading Goals

I've never really read a book like Before I Fall; It was definately original and entertained me throughout the book.  There were many funny parts throughout the book, but the book also taught many lessons.  After reading it I really thought about how I could change the way I act towards people and if I were to die today if I would have any regrets.  Sam, the girl who died in the book, got a chance to relive her last day seven times.  It wasn't so that she could possibly get a chance to live again, but to help her deviate from her old, snobby personality.  She was able to enjoy a last day with no regrets and helped others before she fell to death. 

My reading goals for this 9 weeks:

1. Read at a random park bench two times a week.  I expect to find most of the park benches along the Aboite Trails or by neighborhood ponds.  I can never repeat a bench.   This will be really fun because I'll be exploring on my bike and finding peaceful places that I enjoy to relax and read.

2.  Read 30 min a night.

3. Read 125 pages a week.

PRTW:236
PRTQ:236

Theme Statement

I am going to focus my anthology work around the theme of one's First Love.  It is uncontrollable and exciting.

A few ideas for some works are from Nicolas Spark's book, The Notebook--which also was turned into a movie.  Also a poem I found on the Poetry Foundation is by Kevin McFadden, A Date.  It's interesting because it talks about first dates and how love can be a drug.  Also, another poem that I could include in my anthology is "I wish I could remember that first day", by Christina Rossetti.  This poem is about how she wishes to remember the feeling of the first time she laid eyes on her loved one.

Optimism is Key

On a rainy day it is so hard to wake up and get out of your warm and snuggly bed.  It's easy to become drowsy and bored--just because of the rainy day.  Being drowsy oftentimes leads to pessimism.  Many people live their life thinking the "glass is half gone".  What's the purpose of that when there is so much life to live, and so many experiences to experience?  Everyone has bad days, but your mentality can be changed and life will get much more fun just from being optimistic. 

Sam is having a rough time; she died, and now keeps reliving her day and she doesn't know why.  Is it to fix her mistakes?  She doesn't know because she's done a mediocre job at attempting to change and be nice but she still ended up dead and reliving Friday. Or is it just how death is?  And do you get the freedom to do all of the risky and naughty things that you were wanting to do when you were alive, yet you would have no consequences?  Sam can't figure it out why she is reliving Friday, but she does keep getting reminded how mean she can be to people. 

She doesn't only realize that she can be mean, but she also is getting very irratated and annoyed of repeating Friday.  Talking to the good boy, Kent, she says:

"It's not my fault I can't be like you, okay? I don't get up in the morning thinking the world is one big shiny, happy place, okay? That's just not how I work.  I don't think I can be fixed."

Fixed? I agree with Sam on that point, except you can be changed.  If she were to focus on becoming optimistic and thinking the world is a happy place, then Sam could easily transform her persona.  When she says this it is her fourth day living the particular Friday.  Hopefully she is realizing that living the popular life isn't as fun as it looks, and that she needs to relax and be herself.  Having positive views on things help make life more pleasant and enjoyable.  Life will quicken and entertain you when the "glass is half full."

Before I Fall

Have you ever been somewhere and you follow the crowd? Or get sucked in by peer pressure?  When that happens, usually dumb decisions are made and you definitely regret them.  Not only will you have to face consequences from the dumb decisions, but the decisions could affect who you are.  It could change your personality, who your friends are, and what you do from that point on.  Hopefully the dumb decisions that are made will help you change friends and change what you do, but in a lot of cases one will get stuck in a hole and keep making dumb decisions. 

In Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, Sam gets caught up in popularity.  She is at the top of Jefferson High, has the boyfriend everyone wants, and gets many roses on Cupid's Day.  However, while you read the book, you understand that Sam regrets many of the things she does.  One day she spends it by cutting classes, smoking, being arrogant, and going to a naughty party.  She makes so many mistakes and hurts so many feelings that she starts to realize she's not the nicest person; yet, she doesn't care because she is Ms. Popular.  At the end of the night, on the way home from the party, the car crashes and she dies.  Was she so mean that she deserved to die?

Strangely enough, Sam wakes up "the next day".  However, she really is just reliving her Friday.  The same exact things happen--Will she change her attitude toward things and fix her issues?

Luckily for Sam, she is getting a second chance.  In life, many people can suddenly die and won't get to say their last wish, last piece of advice, or fix many of their weaknesses.  Sam gets too, and hopefully she can redeem herself and find her true identity.