This Year in Review

This year has been amazing! I have learned so much this year such as how to write an effective essay. The easiest essay this year was the rhetorical analysis essay because  its structure was the easiest. The hardest essay was the argumentative essay because I had trouble with the warrant and backing. I also enjoyed the novels we have read this year. My favorite was "The Things We Carried" because I loved the plot. I loved all the novels we read so I can't single any one out.

I would like you to know that I had a blast being in your class this year and I wish that you could be my AP Lit teacher and I will definately miss you.

The Other Choice

 In Everyday Use, Maggie and Dee are examples of the two extremes. Maggie is a model for people that stick only to their cultural roots/traditions without branching out. Dee on the other hand represents the people that have completely left their cultural background. Many believe that you have to choose one of those two polar opposites, however that is not the case. Their is a third choice.

 

Believe it or not, the other choice is all around s today. This other choice is the group of people that respect and uphold their cultural background, but at the same time venture out into today's society. Personally, I see these people all over the place, in and out of school. This is mostly seen in the youth because they get the nice blend of culture when they go home to their parents and when they go to school everyday and experience the modern world.

 

Personally, I see myself as Dee. As a child, I felt extreme pride of my roots and heritage, but as time passed, I slowly but surely was sucked into the modern world and I lost my pride. I think this is because my parents and I have lived here so long that even they have begun to lose touch with their roots. I believe that I should start celebrating my heritage more by first learning about my background. Then I should experience it myself, for example, i should should visit Chinatown more often and experience  the culture of my people more. I believe that this must be done to get myself back to how I was when I was a child. 

 

Stealing From The Best 

The Fall of the House of Usher is the original haunted house story that has many different techniques to make the reader's blood chill as they read the story. Some of them are so subtle and simple, but make a huge difference in the effect of the story. Honestly, because of the techniques used, this story is scarier than about 90% of the horror movies that have been released in the last 5-10 years. Here are some of those techniques that I would steal from Poe if i was making my own haunted house story.

The first technique Poe used was the unclear ending. What exactly happened? Did the sister and the main character's friend actually die? Did they even exist? That was absolute brilliance from Poe. He did not guide you through the story. This allows many different interpretations of what actually happened, which will leave the world guessing until the end of time.   

Another techniques I would steal from Poe is his use of extreme detail to describe the house. He described not only the appearance in such great detail that the image is burned in my head, but he described the feelings that the house was giving off. He did an excellent job of putting the reader at the doorsteps of that house.

This one isn't a technique but it was equally as effective as the techniques were. It is the absolutely disgusting mind that Poe actually has. When he described the family tree as " Having no branches" I was utterly repulsed. It took the story to a whole new level of disturbing. To realize that the brother and sister were lovers just sent shivers down my spine.

The next technique is the use of very few characters in the story. This technique has a profound effect because it allows the reader to focus only on the important character and not be distracted by any unimportant characters. It makes the reader care more about the characters because that is all you get!

The last technique is the background characters given for each charter. this allows the reader to understand fully who these characters are and why they are in the predicament that they are in at the start of the story.

The last technique is the background characters given for each charter. this allows the reader to understand fully who these characters are and why they are in the predicament that they are in at the start of the story.

Why Are We So Sick?

The story "Young Goodman Brown" is essentially a sick twisted story about a man walking in the woods with Satan, while at the same time running into other devil worshippers. However, this story is extremely popular piece in American literature. Why is this? What really interests me is why we love this kind of stuff. We know the devil and demons are bad, but we can't stop ourselves from getting together with a group of friends for the big premiere of the next big horror movie. everyone (especially those from a religious background) knows how evil this kind of stuff is, but we still surround ourselves with it. Look at movies like Paranormal Activity which was a huge commercial success.

The Exorcist is movie about a girl that is possessed by the devil and a priest is called to exercise the devil. It is regarded as one of the greatest movies ever created, but it depicts the aboslute most evil being in existence. This brings us back to the question "Why?" In my opinion it is not that we secretly  are a bunch of devil worshippers ready to sell our souls. I believe that we just get a rush when we dig into concepts that we know are taboo such as the devil. We know that these things are wrong, which sparks our curiosities even more.

There Might be a Connection

When someone says the word hero, you imagine Superman or Captain America. You think of people that are 100% good and do everything to help the people. However, anti heroes are those that are flawed. Anti heroes can be greedy, or self centered. They are littered all throughout American literature. The first antihero was Ichabod Crane. He was a greedy self-centered man that manipulated his students and chased women for their money. When i think of Ichabod, another antihero comes to mind, Walter White from Breaking Bad.

Greed

Ichabod Crane and Walter White were both greedy men. Ichabod only went after Katrina for her family's money. He never loved her, he just wanted the money for himself. Walter White was greedy because although he started cooking meth to make enough money for his family to survive after he was diagnosed with cancer and was most likely going to die, he continued to cook meth long after he reached his goal of about $750,000. His earnings were in the tens of millions and had to be stored in oil drums.

Manipulation

Ichabod and Walter White were experts at manipulation. Ichabod manipulated his students into letting him live in their homes and eat their food. He also manipulated Katrina into believing that he actually loved her, but all he was was a gold digger. On the other hand, Walter White completely manipulated and used his assistant, and some would say friend, Jesse Pinkman.

Self-Centered

It is hard to find any person more self-centered than these two men. Ichabod thought that he was superior to others because he was a teacher. He saw Katrina's other suitors as barbaric. Walter White doesn't start off as self-centered. He was once a humble Chemistry teacher, but as his meth empire grew, he began to develop an ego. For example, in an episode, he told a leader of another meth organization to "Say my name." When he did, Walter said "You're damn right!"