Poetry Response

      The poem I'm going to be responding to is "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. The plot goes like this: First, the father warns the son to be careful of the Jabberwock, as well as some other beasts. Then the son takes a "vorpal sword," sits by a tree and gets surprised by the aforementioned Jabberwock. The son subsequently kills the Jabberwock, which leads to a happy ending!
      I think the author wrote it so he could try using Shakespeare's method of "insert random made up words into piece: become famous!" In order to do that, however, he needed people to notice it. Cleverly, he thought, "Why not have a man's son take a sword and slay a vicious beast? Everyone loves those stories!" We did love it, once we figured out how to pronounce the first and last stanzas.

       This image here is a reference to the Sisters Grimm series, which has the mentally unhinged Little Red Riding Hood imagining the Jabberwocky as a dog, which is itself a reference to the poem. The stuff in the Jabberwocky's mouth is fire.  Red is seeing this in first person, hence why she's not in the picture. To end this slightly lengthy post, have a nice day everybody!

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Second Quarter Reflection

      Well, we've nearly reached the other half of the year, so that means another reflection blog! I think I really improved this quarter, but that's just my opinion. Some of you may say otherwise, and I respect that. Now then, on to my actual improvements and accomplishments.
      First, the area I've most improved on (at least in ELA): my argumentative writing, as I have now completed an essay with it (and the essay is good quality).  Relating to that, the most challenging part of this quarter was me cutting slightly opinionated and satirical bits from that essay (which hurt me on the inside a bit, but don't worry). However, I managed to do that without making it sound like a fill-in-the-blanks kind of essay.
      Something I've accomplished since the New Year that I'm proud of is acing all of those vocab quizzes, which sometimes can get a little complex. Fortunately, I've been staying atop those, and the accompanying homework. However, we have no more space on the fridge for the quizzes, which is kind of sad.

Happy 3rd Quarter everyone!

This is an antler mirror. Just wanted to point that out.

Book Talk 1/21:Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

Transcript

The book my book talk is going to be on is Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos, a realistic fiction novel. Dark Dude is set in modern day New York City, but transitions to the modern day countryside in Wisconsin. The main character is Rico, a part Irish Cuban who, because of his more Irish appearance, takes a lot of flak at school. He's an aspiring comic book writer and guitar player. He had to hitchhike to Wisconsin, and thus experiences a sort of cultural shift, thus creating the conflict. The mood shifted frequently, but it was kind of depressing for the New York chapters, and happier for the rest of the book. A theme of Dark Dude is family. Rico's family, whether physically present or not, affects him in almost every chapter.

(pause)

Now then, onto the review. I found this book interesting because it gave me more of a glimpse into a life somewhat less fortunate then my own. The thing I remember most is the concept of Dark Dude, the made-up hero that lends the book its title. It's an African American twin who gets fused with his white counterpart when they get struck by lightning, giving them the power to shift between light and dark, and I'm assuming some more form-specific powers here too. I would recommend this book to lovers of more cultural books, as this has that in spades. You should get it because, even if you're not into cultural identity type books, Rico's view of Midwestern style is...interesting, to say the least. That's all for now.

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