Animal Farm: The Storybook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkYqymrY8fM

Theme: Power Corrupts

~Poetry outloud performance Reveiw~

The dry humor you could hear from the voice of Jackson Hille when he performed "Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins was really the key reason why he was one of the finalists. The satirical way he spoke the poem made it even funnier. The articulation helped you understand it more. His pausing and hilarious, facial expression made it seem like he was reading it as if he knew that he would coincidentally forget the poem himself. His Physical Presence is funny and awkward, like his trying to show the strange,weirdand the way you feel while being forgetful.

Jackson truly captured the meaning of being forgetful and how the poem showed it. I felt that Ihfully agreed and understood the poem. How it really portrayed that annoying ironic feeling that you were forgetting something as you remembered something else. Also that the memory just leaves you brain on some "Mystical river" I got How all the random knowledge that is stored in you r head just leaves without your control and the only way you realize it is if you try to remember it.

~Mockingbird Motif~

Through reading To Kill a Mockingbird I got to understanding the literary elements that we have been learning in English. One of these elements being motif. In To Kill a Mockingbird the motif of the novel is actually killing a mockingbird. This basically symbolizes doing something wrong to someone who doesn't deserve it. There are a few examples of this in the novel. One being repeatedly shooting Tom Robinson to kill him for escaping when really one would have done the job. Another Example is when there is an argument about whether Boo Radley should be put to trial for killing Bob Ewell. Even though he did it to save the Finch kids.

This novel has helped me understand what the definition of motif is by showing clear and obvious examples. All through the book, the characters would say, "This is just like killing a mockingbird." Many of the themes have to do with bad behavior of one person to another. These being hypocrisy, prejudice, and racism. The motif shows how strongly theses problems are in a southern community and with people in the time in general.

~Life Lesson~

Through out my life there has been one lesson that has been repeated over and over to me, whether it was intentional or not. This lesson is that things happen for a reason. I know it sounds sort of obvious, like everyone knows that. But for me it was a big lesson and a very reassuring one. The lesson would usually pop up when I would feel bad or angry about something that has happened, and my mom would just say " Things happen for a reason." It would also come up when bad things would happen to others in my family, and I would hear my grandma or mom tell them the same thing they tell me.

I still hear this lesson from my wiser family members. in some ways the lesson makes me feel better. I learned not to dwell on little things. I learned to just look on the bright side and move on. It also makes me feel better because if bad things happen in my life or to those I care about, I can just know that this was meant to happen and there is a silver lining.This lesson as I mentioned before is big one that I have learned, and I am glad that I live by this lesson because it has taught me many important things that will help me get on through life.

My Best Friend!

My best friend is Nikki S. For many of the obvious reasons. We laugh at the same stupid things and agree on most of the same topics. We also have our own strange language called izzity, where we can have long conversations about anything without anyone being able to tell what we are saying. She is tall, a brunette and Jock. ha ha. She would hate me for saying that, but that's how our relationship is, we are jerks to each other. When we talk it seems like we hate each other, but if we talked nice to one another then we would laugh and say..."Well this is weird"... So yes she is a huge sports person. She plays basketball and softball. Softball is her life as she would say. That's all she does, literally. She is dedicated to the point of it almost being annoying. Other than playing, She watches a lot of sports. ESPN is like her favorite channel. If its not baseball its football or basketball. But other than sports she is a huge...HUGE...HUGE Will Smith fan. Ask her anything about him and she will know what the answer is. No pun intended. There are multiply pictures pasted on her wall. She says she is married to him constantly. Though everyone tries to tell her of the massive age difference and that she is not, she just brushes it off and says, "It's only 26 years..." and, "I like Jada Pinkett only because he likes her but,I know he really likes me not her." What else can I say... Maybe that in wood shop all she made was Willard Christopher Smith Jr. signs. Or maybe that she knows all of his songs and all 19 movies of his. ( Sad how I know all this to. This is how much I hang out with her). And also that she knows all his kids names first, middle and last. I could could go on but I don't want to. I think you get the picture. Besides there is the fact that I hate to say Nikki always seems to not act the smartest. She is, but she can fool you a lot. She is constantly trying to convince me otherwise. Yet she still hasn't. Let me give you a few good examples. Well for one she likes to purposely make herself look dingy. And sometimes she gets really super hyper and really funny and crazy. Its so bad that she is only this weird around me.

I guess this shows that Nikki is dedicated to what ever she sets her mind to. Which I'm glad about. I wouldn't want my best friend to always give up. Talk about lame. This shows that she is a loyal friend because though she loves sports she is good to her friends and family. Nikki is kinda a altruist and an ambivert. She helps people when she can is normal in the way that she likes to be around other people and by herself. She would be surprised that I'm talking like this. Usually its the opposite. But you can write a lot of different things about a friend you have had since 2nd grade... so yeah we're cool and stuff.

Earliest Memory

One of my earlist memories is in daycare when my friend got to start school before me. She got to have a special party where we made awesome beady braclets. I didn't like that everybody was talking to her. Why did she get a special party. No one cared that I was going to school and why did she start before me.

So I decided to not talk to anyone that way they would have to ask me whats wrong. But nobody did so I was sad all that day. Everybody seemed to like her more than me. I t wasn't fair. My day was really runed because of her. But luckily they through me a party later and I felt all better.

~Rebecca- Motif~

In Rebecca the strongest literary element was motif. The motif of the story was the Manderley. The Manderley is the large mansion that the main characters live in. It hold many secrets That are waiting to be told. The author uses the motif of the Manderley to enhance the characters. It enhances the characters by helping create the feeling that the characters are feeling.

I think that the motif is so strong in this book is because of what Manderley also means to the characters. To the characters like Maxim it represents the terrible past that he had there and is still haunting him. To Mrs. de Winters it reminds her the terrible events that once happened there and of Rebecca, the ex- wife, who seems to haunt the halls. But besides being scary the Manderley can also represent elegance and the great life that one must have living in a place like that.

Outside Reading

For my outside reading book, I am reading Rebecca. So far it is interesting but it is a little hard to get into. This is because it is slow in the beginning. It did immediately grab my attention because at the beginning the narrator starts talking about her past at the manderley which makes you want to read on. Out of the five literary elements imagery seem the most dominent because of how discriptive the author is. So far it seem pretty obvious.

I think the autor is using this to give a larger idea of what happen in the past at the manderley. it makes it more interesting to the reader to read about a discriptive detailed past. The tone of the book is nostaggic and dramatic because it is refferring to the past and the author is emotional about it. The tone doesn't change often. It stays the same so we it has the same feeling of not knowing or understanding what is happening.

~Writing About Reading~

Um reading yeah to get into a book, it has to get interesting in the beginning. I often read books with interesting covers. I do judge a book by its cover. It weir d I don't want to read books with really ugly pictures of people on them. If I can't get into it then I will either stop reading it or start another book and barely ever return to the boring book. If the book is confusing then I just push through it and keep reading until it is not confusing. Usually I have been lucky and found book that get exciting.

I can really read anywhere. I doesn't really matter. I don't get car sick. noises don't bug me. the only distractions for me would be really loud music that I hate, music that I like and have to listen to, or people trying to talk to me. ohh yeah and TV. My reading style is broad. Any author that as good details and parts that make you want to read more grasp my attention. I also like book that have some sort of love story. They don't need to be romantic or anything.

Why do I read fiction?.... I read fiction because of the infinite world that an author can create inside my head. I enjoy thinking up characters in my head and imagining what they look. The thing about fiction is, is that there are so many different genres inside it to fit your style. So that these worlds can either be close to how my world is or far from. Some of fiction could never happen, but reading makes you wish that our world was much more interesting. I guess to some it up, the reason why I read fiction is because it can't happen and it is fun to make what can't happen in your mind for yourself to enjoy.