Being Earnest and Victorian research

Victorian Era research has enhanced my understanding of The Importance of Being Earnest by giving me and understanding of a woman's position in Victorian Society, the class system and the differences between the social institutions of then and now. The Victorian Era research helped me understand why some things in the play seem a little dated or strange, and why some of the stuff happened or why it happened like it did. Being written in a different age than now sometimes the woman's character or the discussion of classes is hard to relate to or understand so the research spread some light on why that is. Jack says "Oh! One doesn't blurt these things out to people." on page 30. He doesn't want to tell Gwendolen about his ward, partly because of what issues that'll bring up but also because Gwendolen is supposed to be sheltered as she is a lady and shouldn't be in the light of the bad or dishonest things people do. The same applies to Cecily, the entire reason Jack bunbury's is because he feels he needs to be a positive role model to Cecily and show the utmost proper behaviour. Woman are supposed to be protected and sheltered and not have to live in the real world or see it for what it is. This applies because in the Victorian Age woman were subservient to men and were not treated as equals or allowed to make their own decisions.

The research also gave me insight on the class system. I learned that all actions made during the Victorian Era, particularly by the upper class, were made in the attempt to gain social standing. Lady Bracknell says "You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter-a girl brought up with the utmost care- to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?" on page 27 showing that she will not allow her daughter to marry someone with no family connections and is does not have a good name to bring to the table.It matters not the love between Jack and Gwendolen, it only matters what strength the family will gain from a union. This is a deep segregation done by the people of the upper class who feel they shouldn't fraternize with those below them. The research helped me understand why she wouldn't allow her daughter to marry Jack and has given me insight into the play's happenings as a whole.

Animal Farm Theme Project

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Poetry Out Loud Performances

Kaleena Kovach of Colorado was one of the Top 12 national finalists. In her recitation of Somewhere to Paris she spoke with amazing volume and speed, she was audible and spoke very well. Her voice and articulation was really good. She had appropriate dramatization during her performance and talked in a way that showed knowledge and understanding of the poem's meaning. The poem was very difficult, it was long and difficult. The only problem I noticed is her physical presence left a little to be desired, she looked like she was slouching and rocked her head around oddly. Overall her performance was very good, but some parts were slightly lacking.

Somewhere to Paris was a very difficultly worded poem with a deep meaning behind it. " I am this solitude, never more beautiful, the arc of space I travel through for a few hours, touching nothing and keeping nothing, with nothing to deny the night, the dark pines pointing to the stars, this life, always moving and still." This conclusion of the poem represents the meaning very well. That to enjoy life to the fullest you must be happy being unstimulated, living in your own thoughts. An action will eventually fade but you will always have the times when you are alone, and enjoying those times will let you live life well.

Characterization: Your best friend

I'm gonna write about an old friend, doesn't live around here anymore and don't see him much, but he's still a friend. His name was Walter, but he asked to be called Will. He was a little on the heavy side with long hair down to the back of his head. He wore odd clothes and sometimes was made fun of for that, but I didn't care. He would make up these funny and cool stories, which hold their quality to me today, I always thought he'd be a writer like he wanted to be. I hope he's getting his chance today. People always thought he was a little weird but they didn't get to know him, and he had a hard time getting to know people.

Will was always very creative and when you got to know him he was energetic and even hyper. But he was also an introvert, and rarely even spoke to people he didn't know well. Which is why it took his and my mom being best friend's for me to get to know him. Other kids thought he was weird because they didn't understand him and he never told them how he felt.

I still miss Will and regret the day I heard he was moving, his father was in the army and his frequent moves may have been the reason for his unwillingness to extend friendship to people.

Early Memory

It was another day of kindergarten, I'd just woken up and was excited for another day of school, something I realize was stupid now that I look back on it, I never enjoyed school and that day was particularly bad. I went to school and saw we were working on something that was not fun, cursive writing. It was boring and always felt like a pointless task. I never planned nor plan to write in cursive. It was the first day, we were learning A through G.

I learned how to write without picking up my hand and how to make the letters curve and loop together. A, no problem. Same with B, and C and D and E and F. But then there was G. I don't know what it was about it but I couldn't manage to make a G that looked at all professional. Then Mrs. Spohn, our teacher(and not a very good one), decided to "help" me. By watching me and telling me " to do it right!" I got frustrated and told her, so politely, to go away. She then decided to make me stay in at recess.....and work on G. This has been burned on my memory and was the first experience I can remember that prepared me for how school is.

For Whom The Bell Tolls: Imagery

Ernest Hemingway uses imagery in For Whom The Bell Tolls enough for it to be the dominant literary element of the novel. He writes in a descriptive way and has full pages and sometimes almost full chapters of imagery. The book is about war and the imagery describes the fear, violence, and labor of war. It makes the story seem realistic and gives his perspective on war in a fashion that we can understand and comprehend it.

The imagery in a way is the story. All the major events are accompanied by loads and loads of imagery, and whenever something is important to him or the story it's obvious by the 2 pages of imagery preceding it. When he works on his duty and when he deals with those he has to work with it is described in detail. The imagery is the backbone of this story, giving it fullness and life.

Outside Reading

For Whom the Bell Tolls did not immediately grab my attention but as I went I got drawn into it. He has a very steady, almost bland writing style but the characters are growing on me and I'm getting into the story.

I'm fairly sure that imagery is the most dominant, there are long paragraphs and full pages of imagery throughout. I'm not completely sure but it seems like that as of now. He writes like this to build realistic characters and settings. To make the story come alive. He builds up a setting so we can have insight into the character's feelings about their scenery.

The tone is very informative and impartial. It switches back and forth, though, with impartial because it states that someone is bad, is not good. But it states this as fact, as a given. It seems that the writing is always impartial and just represents the character's honestly.