Wednesday

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Post#2.B

I am anxiuosly awaiting the next section of my book. At this moment, Caroline has fled town with the Dr. Henry's baby daughter that he rejected. Caroline had payed a visit to a home where Dr. Henry had wanted to place his daughter. However, it was in an unacceptable condition, so upon her own whim Caroline left the home and took the baby, Phoebe, back to home. On her way back she realized she didn't have any equipment and supplies for a baby so she needed to stop at the supermarket, where she locked herself and the baby out of the car. She got a ride home with Al, a truck driver, who then stayed at her house. Her neighbor who loves gossip, had questioned what Caroline was doing with a baby and a man in her apartment, so she told her that it was her cousin and his baby. Meanwhile, Dr. Harvy and his wife were going through a tough time. I cannot perdict what events will come, i have no clue where Caroline will end up. But i have a feeling Al is not completly written out of the book. I really hope that Dr. Henry's wife finds out about the daughter she thought was dead, and spent so much time crying over and feeling her daughter's presence.

Tuesday

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Post #1.A

Vocabulary:
1.Transfixed (page12):to make or hold motionless with amazement, awe, terror, etc.
2. Sluicing (page31):to drain

Figurative Language:
1. "...fatigue sluicing through her body like water down a rock". (page31) This quote is an example of a simile. You can tell because the phrase is comparing two things using the word "like" or "as".
2. "She was so tiny, five and a half pounds, smaller than her brother though the same rich dark hair". (page30) This quote is an example of imagery. It is portraying something using descriptions of the 5 senses.
3."...and the naked branches if the trees turned white". (page3) This quote is an example of personification. It is giving human characteristics to an unhuman thing. Quote: "...she had risen out of the croud like some kind of vision..."(page5) This quote signifies how beautiful he thought she was the moment he spotted her amongst a crowd.

Emerging Theme: I believe one emerging theme in the book is honesty. When he sends away his daughter without his wife knowing, just because she has a birth defect, i believe it will come back to him years later and his wife will leave him.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Post #1.A

Vocabulary:
1.Transfixed (page12):to make or hold motionless with amazement, awe, terror, etc.
2. Sluicing (page31):to drain

Figurative Language:
1. "...fatigue sluicing through her body like water down a rock". (page31) This quote is an example of a simile. You can tell because the phrase is comparing two things using the word "like" or "as".
2. "She was so tiny, five and a half pounds, smaller than her brother though the same rich dark hair". (page30) This quote is an example of imagery. It is portraying something using descriptions of the 5 senses.
3."...and the naked branches if the trees turned white". (page3) This quote is an example of personification. It is giving human characteristics to an unhuman thing. Quote: "...she had risen out of the croud like some kind of vision..."(page5) This quote signifies how beautiful he thought she was the moment he spotted her amongst a crowd.

Emerging Theme: I believe one emerging theme in the book is honesty. When he sends away his daughter without his wife knowing, just because she has a birth defect, i believe it will come back to him years later and his wife will leave him.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Post#1.B

Response: Dear main character, (Dr. David Henry) I am appalled at what you have just done. I cannot under any circumstance understand why you would send your daughter away just because she has a birth defect, and secondly sending your daughter away without your wife even knowing. After all your wife did having two children and you just toss one away just because it wasn’t good enough. I hope you will regret the decision you have just made. And I also hope that your daughter never finds out about you or how horrible of a “father” you were. But I do hope that your son and daughter will have the opportunity to know each other to have that special brother-sister relationship. However, I was happy when I read how well you took care of your wife. It was nail-biting to wonder if you could plow through the snow to get her to a clinic on time, even though there wasn’t a doctor there to deliver your child. The control you took over the situation was hart-warming to read about how focused you were on making sure your wife was going to be safe.

Sunday

The Sea Inside Post #3

Refer to your notes on camera technique, camera angles, and camera movement. What scenes, in particular, do you remember where the film technique underscored meaning and added to the message the director was sending? Describe the shot, its significance, and its meaning in detail

The most significant scene i remember is a close-up of when Ramon hits his head on the ocean floor. This shot is a close up because Ramon's head takes up at least 80% of the shot. I believe the director chose to make this shot a close up because he wanted the audience to see clearly the difining moment of Ramon's life. This is the single moment that would mold the rest of his life, in order for the shot to have meaning i belive it was an excelent choice on the directors behalf to make it a clase up. A second shot i reacall was a tilt. It was used when Julia was in the hospital and she looked to the sky, as the sky continued and the camera came back down it was the sky of the view from Ramon's window. I belive this shot showed importance because it conveyed that they are not far apart from eachother, and are connected wheather they know it or not. A third shot i vividly remember is when the director used firehosing to show the environment of where Ramon lived. The shot continued along the hills and around his home. I belive this shot was important because it showed where Ramon would no longer go, he couldn't hike in the hills or take a walk down the street from his house.

The Sea Inside Post #2

Compare and contrast The Sea Inside to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. What similarities and differences do you notice? In your opinion, which was more powerful.

The Sea inside and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were in my opinion two very similar tales with very different smaller points. For instance, they were each the tale of a man with who is confined inside his body, unable to move. However, in The Sea Inside, Ramon, is able to move his neck and head and he is fortunatly able to talk. Whereas, John Bauby spoke to the world with the blink of an eye. In The Sea Inside, i felt Ramon's frustration to be more vivid and intense than Baubay's, this could be because Ramon suffered from his condition for over two decades. One major difference between the two tales is in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Bauby has no desire to die. He does not want to end his life out of frustration that he is unable to move. This contradicts the purpose of The Sea Inside because the whole purpose is to demonstrate how Ramon wants to end his life. In my opinion, The Sea Inside was a much more powerful story to hear. It may have been because i got to actually see and see his emotions being portrayed on film. I think it was because he was a man who was not fighting for his life, but his death.

The Sea Inside Post #1

Q:What is your general reaction and response to the film? What do you think of Ramon's request for assisted suicide, the court's response to him, and his eventual actions? What do you think of his friends who agreed to help him?
My first and foremost reaction to the film was that it was very sad. Towards the beginning of the film i was angry that he wanted to kill himself. I just couldn't even imagine what it would be like to want to live anymore, i thought he was out of his mind. But through out the film i began to understand how difficult it would be to want to do so many things but have to live with the reality of not even being able to wiggle your fingers. The thought of being confined solely to your body for numerous years would give you infinate time to think about things. I know i would not want to end my life not being able to do the things i love. So in conclusion, i was very inspired by this film and was very interested in the way it helped me understand someone like Ramon's position on how he feels. My thought on his friends who agreed to help him is disturbing. If one of my friends who i cared about and loved was in a situation like Ramon there is no way i could ever help them end their life. I understand that i would want to help my friend who trusted me to ask for help, but i know i would never be able to do it. I would not be able to live with the thought that i ended my friends life, even if it would make them happy, i know i would be unable to proceed with it.

MR HATTEN-

Mr. Hatten,
My 3rd and 4th post are opposite order, i talked about it to you in class but you told me to give you a reminder on my blog.

The Glass Castle: Final Post

Summary:
In the final section of the book, The Glass Castle, Jeannettes older sister, Lori, escapes Welch and persues her life in New York City. Jeanneatte follows in her sisters footsteps, and a year and a half later, after she finishes high school. In the early time of her new life in New York, Jeannette and her sister lived at the Evangeline, a woman's hostile in Greenwich Village. Jeanette landed a job a hamburger joint. In mid summer, the two girls moved into an apartment in the South Bronx. In the fall, Jeanette began working an internship at, The Phoenix, a local newspaper. About a week later, Jeanette landed a permanent mob at The Phoenix and quit her job and the hamburger joint. Jeanette wrote to Brian ofter, and the day after he graduated his junior year of high school he hopped on a train to New York City to live with his big sisters. Jeanettes eyes were opened to the thought that she could have a better job, so she enrolled in Columbia's sister college, Barnard. When Maureen was 12 years old she moved to New York City. Three years after moving to New York, Jeanette's parents joined the rest of their family and moved to the Big Apple as well. They lived in various places. Jeanettes father got sick and ended up in the hospital for 6 weeks. Jeanette graduated from Barnard in the Spring, Brian was the only family memeber to attend the ceremony. Jeanette met a man named Eric and they were married. Lori was working as a freelance artist. Brian joined the police force right as he turned 20. Maureen graduated from high school, but never applied herself in city colleges. She stabbed her mother, her mother was fine but Maureen was arrested. When Maureen was released she moved to California. Rex had a heartr attack where he was kept alive at the hospital by machines, but the family decided he would not want to live like this so they turned the machines off. A year after her father died, Jeanette divorced Eric. She later married a man named John who had two daughters.
Reaction:
I was very pleased to have read this book . At times it could be very frustration with the continuous moving and Rex constantly screwing up. However, i believe it really nailed the thought family. The Walls' family never gave up on eachother even though all of them messed up a time or two. But over all i enjoyed this book, and will recommend it to others.

About the author: Jeanette Walls


Jeanette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Her family moved around a lot, before they settled in Welch, West virginia. Jeanette graduated from Columbia University's Barnard College. She became a reporter for New York magazine, Esquite, USA Today and MSNBC.com. She has appeared on numerous television shows such as, the Today Show, CNN and PrimeTimeLive. Jeanette now resides in northern Virgina, she is married to writer, John Taylor.



Information from:

Monday

Reaction: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Reaction: The Diving Bell and the Butterly

My thoughts on the Diving Bell and the Butterly are that it was a very complex book written with a dry sense of humor. His thoughts obviously had significant meaning to him because of the fact that he blinked his was though to get his thoughts accross. However, I think it was a little difficult to understand with the confusion of each chapter. I think Baubay began to understand the true importance of life through his devistation experience, and that things we may think are important, are really not. I thought his ability to imagine all different kinds of things, his chilren, delectable meals was incredible. His story inspired me not to take anything, even the smallest things in my life for grantid. He showed me that just the smell of french fries could brighten someones day. I am so fortunate in my life right now, this book really inspired me to understnad that everything could change at anytime. Today could be your last so live every day to its absolute potential of greatness. When Baubay says " I need to feel strongly, to love and to admire just as desperatly as i need to breath" (p. 55), it really spoke to me about his characer. It helped me understand how his compassion showed through his illness, he wanted so badely to show his love and admiration, but he was limited with only the blink of one eye. It made me sad to find out all of the things Baubay wanted to go and do in his life once he returned to his old self, but he did not live long enough to do those things. In conclusion, I believe even though I had some trouble understanding this novel, it opened my eyes to the way I will go about my life day to day.

Sunday

The Glass Castle Post #3

Summary
In the third section of this book, the Walls' family was still living in Phoenix, but Rex was getting tiered of the city and wanted to move back to the wilderness. He was starting to drink heavily again, and was becoming reckless while he was drunk. He became so bold as to steal a portion of the familiesincom to support his habbit. One afternoon after Brian and Jeanette had returned from school they realized that their fridge was bare, yet they werefamished. They decided that they should check out the dumpster a ways down their alley in search of food. They found a few scraps and were satistifed for a while. The most dissapointing event of their life in Phoenix was Christmas, the Walls' children had learned to not expect gifts on Christmas, but this Chrismas was different. Their mother had let each of them have a dollar and they had all preceded to buy gifts for one anotherEveryone was overjoyed, except her father who lit everything on fire while he was enraged. On Jeanette's birthday there was only one thing she wantedso she decided to ask her father for it. She asked him if he could stop drinking, he was afraid she was ashamed of him, and then he sat and thought for a while. Then they were gone again, on the move unaware of where they were going to go. They ended up in Welch at Rex's parents house.The children enrolled in Welch Elementary School, Jeanette got into a fight with the black girls at her school. Jeanette's parents drove down to phoenix for a while to retrieve things they had not been able to bring the first time

The Glass Castle Post #2

Loaded Words
1.raucous (page 71) The author uses this word to show the extreme harshness of the fight between Rex and Rose Mary.
2.wheedle (page 76) The author uses this word to express how Jeanettes' mother could be easily persuaded by Rex when he said the right things.
3.searing( page 79) The author uses this word to really emphasize how hot it was.
4. hunch (page 87) The author uses this word to show the Jeanette had more than a thought because it was her intuition that made her think so.
5.cojones (page 88) The author uses this word to show the amount of courage Billy thought Jeanette lacked.
6.flourish (page 93) The author uses this word explain how much Rose Mary's art career will grow when they move to a more urban area.
7.canopied (page 95) The author uses this word to demonstrate how many trees there were covering the sky over the streets.
8.wondrous (page 100) The author uses this word to express how fortunate the Walls' were when they purchased all of their new appliances.
9.spongy (page 101) The author uses this word to give the reader an idea of how dingy the floor was.
10.coexist (page 101) The author uses this word to explain that the Walls' will continue to live with the bug infestation, not harm them.
Summary:
In the Second section of the book, The Glass Castle, The Walls family lives in Battle Mountain. Jeanette's dad got a job as an electrician and her mom was working non-stop on art and writing. The Walls children were enrolled in the Mary S. Black Elementary school. Six monthes later Rex lost his job. One night Mr. and Mrs. Walls got into a huge argument that was quite the spectacle for all the neighbors, Mrs Walls ended up hanging out the window. The next morning Rose Mary went to begin a job at the Elementary school. Jeanette was raped by a boy named Billy. The family ran out of money and decided to move to Phoenix with Rex's mother.
Reaction:
At this point in the story i am very frustrated with Rex. I don't like his ability to keep messing things up for the family. I really want him to leave the family so the rest of them can get their life in order.

The Glass Castle Post #1

Summary:
Throughout the first section of the novel, The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls spots her poverished mother digging through garbage in the streets of New York. She continues to drive by without acknowledging her mother. The rest of the first section of the novel Jeanette is reflecting on her childhood. She recalls the time she was cooking hot dogs, at age three, when her dress caught up in flames her mother rushed to use the neighbors phone, because the Walls' did not own their own, and then rushed her to the hospital. After about six weeks in the hospital Jeanettes' father, Rex, snuck her out of the hospital. The Walls family which consisted of Rex, Rose Mary, her mother, Lori, her older sister, and her younger brother, Brian, were always on the move, usually during the middle of the night. Her father was afraid he was being chased by the FBI. The Walls family would live in scattered, old towns usually in Nevada or Arizona. During all of this time running around the coutry Rex was determined to find gold and strike-it-rich. He worked on numberous projects, which rarely ever worked. However, the project he was most determined to accomplish was the Glass Castle. A home made entierly of glass where they could hapilly live and stay there. While on their way to the desert to live for a while they were driving over some railroad tracks when the back door flew open, Jeanette flew out as the car continued to drive. Hours later the "Green Caboose", what they had called their car, came rolling down the road ahead. Her father explained that Brian was trying to explained what had happened, but he was blubbering so they could not understand him. The Walls' moved to Las Vegas for about a month before they moved to the "Tenderloin District" of San Francisco. They lived in a hotel for a little bit before sleeping in the "Green Caboose" along the beach. They left San Francisco and headed to the Mojave Desert. After a while of living In Midland her mother announced that she was pregnant. The Walls children had come to understand not to expect anything for Christmas, as they did not have very much money. This Christmas was different, one by one Rex took out his children to the middle of the desert and had each of them pick their favorite star and explained to them they could have it for "keeps". The Walls moved to Blyth. A few months after living in Blyth Jeanettes mother gave birth to Lilly Ruth Maureen, however they would just call her Maureen. Her father decided they would move to Battle Montain, Nevada. So they rented a U-haul with the four children riding illegally in the back.
Reaction:
I believe i will enjoy this book. I am already captivated by the non-stop excitment of the Walls family excursions. I like the story being told from the perspective of Jeanette, she seems as though she will have very interesting opinions on her family. I am beginning to get frustrated with Rex Walls, he seems very controlling as though he is the only one that is "right". I suspect he has an interesting past, which will be revealed later in the story. I am on the fence about Lori, i don't know how much i will enjoy her character in throughout the story, she seems a bit bland, and uneventful. On the contrary i believe Brian will develop into an interesting character. I am thrilled to continue to read about Jeanette, i don't understand her, which i find very intruiging for her position in her family.

Wednesday

One goal for myself in my sophomore year is ...

One goal for myself in my sophmore year is to succeed in what i do. I would love to exel in academics and sports, continuing to push myself even more than i have previous years. As well as succeeding academically and in sports i would like to succeed as a regular high shcool student. Another goal i have for myself in my sophmore year is to become a leader, and to set an example for those around me.

The thing I am most anxious about at Edina High School is...

The thing I am most anxious about at Edina High School is not having the comfort of two days to complete your homework. I wouldn't call myself a procrastinator, but i certainly am not used to doing things the second i have a chance to. I feel like this could be a challenge realizing that with many other extra curriculars going on i will need to complete homework during my limited free time. I am anxious to see how i will succeed at managing my time wisely.