The Catcher in the Rye

I thought The Catcher in the Rye was a really good book. Although the novel didn’t have the normal set up like most books, (beginning, middle, end, climax, resolution, ect.) it still had a good storyline. The whole book was about Holden Caulfield and his life, and all of the problems he faces in New York. I noticed that the book was written as if it were pages from a journal and that made it more interesting in my opinion. Throughout the whole book you can tell everything that Caulfield is thinking in detail. It makes the reader apart of the book. I read through some of the blogs that my peers wrote and I noticed that in someone’s blog post they mentioned that Holden Caulfield says “you” throughout the whole book. It makes it like he is speaking to someone he knows or a friend. I never thought about it like that. I really liked the wording in the book too. Holden is speaking to the reader as if we are sitting across from him. J.D. Salinger is a very unique author and this book was very interesting to read. I think it takes a great author to make a book good without a climax or normal book set up.
The book was a little bit depressing. It makes me feel sorry for Holden because he is always alone and seems like he is seeking something that he will never find. In the book Holden’s brother Allie died and I think that had a huge impact on his life and made him the way he is in the book. He is always alone walking the streets of New York looking for someone to talk to. It makes me wonder if his whole family is like this because of Allie’s death. Holden sometimes gets himself in trouble in an attempt to have some company. For example, the prostitute that he hires, when she arrives he just wants to have a conversation because he is desperate to talk to someone. He underpays her and then gets beat up, and he is back to being depressed.

After reading The Death of a Salesman I realized that Willy, the main character is similar to Gatsby, the main character in The Great Gatsby. They both had a dream and died before it could come true. Gatsby’s dream was to be with the love of his life, Daisy. Most of the time he thinks about the all of the “what if’s” and always wonders what would have been. When the time finally came to be with her, Gatsby dies. The novel is very depressing but it taught me that sometimes, some dreams are not meant to come true. There is a difference between a dream and reality. The dream for Gatsby was to be with Daisy, the love of his life. The reality was that she was married to another man.
Willy Loman’s dream was for his sons to be come successful businessmen. He himself was a successful salesman, but he tried to live a better life, one that he wanted through his sons, Biff and Happy. Willy put a lot of pressure on his sons. The years of pressure eventually lead to resentment. Biff, Willy’s eldest son was under more pressure than Happy simply because he was the oldest. It wasn’t his dream but Biff just wanted to make his father proud. In the novel, Biff witnesses his father having an affair with another woman and ever since then things have not been the same between. Willy begins to hallucinate scenes from his past and his wife and sons begin to worry. In the end of the play, Willy kills himself.
The two stories are very similar. Both characters strive for their dreams and don’t think about their consequences. Unfortunately, in both cases the consequence was their own death. Gatsby did not care if Daisy had a life with another man all he wanted was her and he would stop and nothing until he got what he wanted. Willy wanted more than anything for his sons to follow in his footsteps. He pushed Biff so hard it got to the point where Biff grew resentment toward his father. I’m not saying that Gatsby and Willy are wrong for wanting something so badly, but they let their dreams get the best of them. They were unconsciously hurting people along their path toward their dreams.
After reading both of these stories I learned that you have to look at a situation from every angle. Figure out how you are going to go about solving a problem and consider people’s feelings. What goes around will always come around.

third quarter reflection

I really enjoy using blogger. Everyone has their own personal page and everything is much more organized than the google group. Blogger has definately been valuable to me. All of my writings i wrote over the past several weeks are well organized. I can compare my writings from my first week to my last. I can edit and change things whenever i want. Its like i have my own little website for my personal writings. I like how both 11th grade classes are mixed up into one. i also like how even though everyone has a blogger, you dont see everyones like you did on google group. You only see someones blog post if u go on their page. You still have your privacy. Blogger is really a great experience. I like the fact that its over the computer. I find it eaiser to type than to write. I just have one suggestion...if we can see our grades after each post. I like to know what i got on my paper so i can improve my writing. I also like that you comment on each paper because i use your advice and it helps me.

The great Gatsby

“Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.
–Letter, Aug. 1936, to Ernest Hemingway

This quote says a lot to me. First thing that comes to my mind when I read this quote from Fitzgerald is, money cannot always by you happiness. Money can by you a lot of things accept the important things like love, and family. For example, Jay Gatsby was extremely wealthy and lived the lives most wish they had. He had the fancy mansion and the nice clothes. He had more than enough money but he was not as happy as you would think he would be. His former love, Daisy was marred to another man and he Gatsby was devastated. He lives by himself in a big mansion with no family. He is a very mysterious person, mainly because he doesn’t let a lot of people in. Gatsby could have the world at his fingertips, but it doesn’t mean anything f you don’t have someone to share it with.
The second thing that comes to my mind when I read this quote is the changes money can do to someone. Money can do very devious things to someone. I think Fitzgerald is trying to say that sometimes money can change people for the worst. It is so easy to get greedy and power hungry. People can loose sight of who they really are and I think that is what Fitzgerald is trying to say.

The Great Gatsby Journal (Wordle)

The first page of “The Great Gatsby” caught my attention. When Nick Carraway quotes his father, it was a very original way to begin the novel. The quote is: “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone just remember that al the people in the world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” To me this quote is self explanatory. It clearly means don’t criticize people when you don’t know their side of the story. The details in the first chapter are very vivid and sometimes threw me off.

_The main characters in the first chapter are:
-Nick (narrator)
-Daisy (Nick’s cousin)
-Tom (Daisy’s husband)
-Jordan Baker (Daisy’s friend)
-Jay Gatsby (Nick’s neighbor)

Nick moves to New York where he rents a house in west Egg. In the novel West Egg is a home to the rich. Nick visits his cousin Daisy for dinner in East Egg. While there he learns that Daisy’s husband, Tom Buchanan was a former member of his social club from Yale University. Daisy’s friend Jordan Baker is there and after she goes to sleep, Daisy and Tom suggest to Nick that he should take interest romantically in Jordan. When Nick arrives home he notices, next door, Mr. Gatsby, his extremely wealthy neighbor, on his porch. Nick finds Gatsby very mysterious.

In Mind

There's in my mind a woman
of innocence, unadorned but



fair-featured and smelling of
apples or grass. She wears



a utopian smock or shift, her hair
is light brown and smooth, and she



is kind and very clean without
ostentation-



but she has
no imagination



And there's a
turbulent moon-ridden girl



or old woman, or both,
dressed in opals and rags, feathers



and torn taffeta,
who knows strange songs



but she is not kind.

-Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov was born in Britain, in Ilford Essex England on October 24, 1923. Levertov was home schooled and was very passionate about writing at an early age. She published her first book of poetry “The Double Image” in 1946. Levertov married Mitchell Goodman, an American writer in 1947. She moved to the United States in 1948 and lived in New York City. Her first American book, “Here and now” was published in 1956. Later in 1959 she published another book called “With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads”. She began to publish many prize-winning books of poetry. Levertov became involved in anti-war movements. From 1982 to 1993 Levertov taught at Stanford University. Denise Levertov died on December 27, 1997 at the age of 74 from lymphoma.

“In Mind” I think, is about someone’s perspective on another person. “There’s in my mind a woman of innocence.” There are two sides to everyone, a good side and a not so good side. In the beginning of the poem she is speaking of an innocent woman who is kind and then in the end of the poem she refers to the woman as “turbulent moon-ridden girl” with “no imagination” and “is not kind”. Denise Levertov is very creative in her writing and manages to her point across without actually saying it. Since Levertov starting writing at such a young age, she is very experienced in writing.
As you read, a white bear leisurely

To the Reader
As you read, a white bear leisurely
pees, dyeing the snow
saffron,

and as you read, many gods
lie among lianas: eyes of obsidian
are watching the generations of leaves,

and as you read
the sea is turning its dark pages,
turning
its dark pages.
-Denise Levertov

For the third part of my English assignment I had to pick another poem by Denise Levertov. I read a few pomes but “To the Reader” really stood out to me. It was so creative. She uses personification in the last stanza: “the sea is turning its dark pages”. While reading this poem I pictured each stanza in my head with detail. Levertov used imagery throughout the whole poem. I really enjoyed reading this poem; it was very different, and original.

Denise Levertov wrote a lot of different poems and I didn’t read all of them, but I did read a few. The two I focused on in my assignment were “In mind” and “To the Reader”. Both of these poems are original and creative. Denise Levertov was born in Britain, but if I didn’t read her biography I would not have known that based on the poems I read. Her poems are, like I said original, but they have no reference to Britain in any way. I only read a few but they sound American.

For this weekend’s assignment I chose to write about Kate Chopin. The two short stories she wrote are: “A Pair of Silk Stockings” and “Lilacs”. “A Pair of Silk Stockings” is about a poor woman who stumbles upon fifteen dollars on the street. She spends the fifteen dollars on gifts for herself, a treat she never experienced before. This short story does not show any Romanticism. “Lilacs” is about a woman names Adrienne who use to live in a Convent with her nun friends. Every year she goes back to visit her friends, the story doesn’t tell why Adrienne left the Convent. This short story is called Lilacs because the smell of Lilacs reminds Adrienne of the memories of her past at the Convent. This short story shows a little bit of Romanticism. It shows the reader that something as simple of a smell can remind someone of their past.
Both of these stories show America Realism because the focus of the story is on a certain person. People that read these stories can relate to them. For example in “A Pair of Silk Stockings” the woman finds fifteen dollars on the street and treats herself to a gift. That has happened to me a few times and I’m sure a lot of other people. In “Lilacs” the smell of the flower reminds the main character of her past. There are plenty of smells in my life that remind me of things. For example, my mom use to make me a certain meal when I was younger, when I smell the food I get a flashback of my childhood.
I believe the topic that Chopin tries to cover in both of these short stories is change. Without change a person would not be who they really are. As you grow up not only your body goes through changes, but your mind too both physically and mentally. In “A Pair of Silk Stockings” The woman is poor, but when she finds fifteen dollars on the street, and treats herself, she changes into a person who can afford fancy things. In “Lilacs”, Adrienne changes her life a little more drastically then the woman in “A Pain of Silk Stockings”. She changes when she leaves the Convent starts living a different life.
Chopin is a great writer. The two stories that I read over the weekend were very interesting. Chopin uses a lot of real life examples in her stories that can connect the reader easily. While reading “Lilacs” I understood why Adrienne visited the Convent and her nun friends. She wanted to revisit her past. I love how she connected something as simple as the smell of a flower and made that the highlight of the story. I had a connection when I read”A Pair of Silk Stockings”. Finding money on the street is exciting, even if it is a dollar, or one hundred dollars, epically if you are poor like Mrs. Sommers. When you have the ability to go out and buy whatever catches your eye is a very good feeling. Chopin showed Mrs. Sommers excitement a lot through the story. She really connected the reader to both of her short stories.