Of Mice and Men...Versus Men

      Of Mice and Men has many conflicts. Said conflicts serve as plot hyper-acceleration, and if you know the types of conflict, then you'll understand the pun in my title. For those who don't: Great job finding my blog from the outside world! Here's a refresher as to what is what:

• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Self
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Society

Those are all self-explanatory, so I will skip that part and now move back to Of Mice and Men,  and two large conflicts within: Lennie vs Curley and Carlson vs Candy.  
      Lennie vs Curley is a physical conflict that has a large effect on the plot, being Man vs Man. In the book, it states, "He cried, 'Make 'um stop, George.'" This shows that the matter has gotten physical, whatever the matter was. Lennie losing anything is serious business because he's mentally disabled. However, this is quickly and crushingly brought around. A page or so later, it says, "He started crying, his fist lost in Lennie's paw." This reveals Lennie's strength, and the first rule of being a minor character: Don't attack the hero(es) unless you want your butt handed to you heartily. This advances the plot a chapter and a half.

      Carlson vs Candy is a less noticeable conflict, but it kills off a minor character and advances the plot forward as well. In the book, Carlson says he'd, "'...shoot him right in the back of the head...'" Candy protests a while, but eventually gives in. Later, he brings it up. He says, "'I shouldn'tve let a stranger shoot my dog.'" This quote reveals that Candy wishes it occurred differently, which goes with my position of Carlson being evil.
   

Yes, this cat is starting a conflict, and with the end of the year fast approaching, I thought some humor best be added.

Of Mice, Men, And A Bunkhouse

      The atmosphere of the bunkhouse is very much like sharing a bedroom with a stranger: you each have your own reason for being there, you keep your head down, and you don't engage in any true friendships. Sure, there's the occasional card game around a "big square table" and an even more occasional side conversation, but that's just to pass time from payment to payment between working hours. They stay apart because they have no reason to unite.
      I think the reason Curley's wife is nameless is that she's such a minor character she doesn't get a name. We know next to nothing about her personality, but we know something about the personality of every other minor character. Perhaps it's that she's just a set piece we don't need to know about, as she has had few lines thus far, and they've just shifted further focus onto Curley, Lennie, and George (i.e. "I'm looking for Curley" and "You're the new fellas...") rather than trying to develop her as her own character.
    But what message was Steinbeck intending to send with this? I believe that the message was, "Not all minor characters are needed to ensure a rich story." She is literally used just to explain Curley's behavior, as shown by "Seems like Curley is cockier'n ever since he got married.") That is her only purpose, and my point.

EDIT:Edited to focus less on the creepy aspect of Curley's wife. 

You and I both know who this is supposed to be...

Third Quarter Reflection Blog

      Well, the end of third quarter is nigh. This means—you guessed it—another reflection blog must be written.
      I think the area I have most improved in (ELA wise) during this quarter is my writing skills. Before this, I wasn't as good with stuff like poetry, but practice makes perfect, as they say. The "practice" that I did produce was pretty good, however. Just look at my AoW poem, "An Apology by a Toxic Metal." Despite the bad subject material, it worked! My rhyming also improved, though that may be because of my genetically ingrained humorous tendencies. (That is actually a thing that's been proven.)
      Something I've accomplished this year is staying atop the monstrosity mudslide machine labor that is homework. In the beginning of the year, I missed a few assignments via inadvertent circumstances ingrained protocols incorrect assumptions logical errors. In second quarter, I still kind of muddled along with the homework. This quarter, I truly picked up steam (although that may have been because I really didn't want to miss Shadowhunters, and possibly because of technological shortcuts). I am now able to accomplish certain assignments much faster, but they haven't invented a machine that can copy people's handwriting into a notebook, so that's what really takes up time. I should probably try to invent that, because automation is fun.
        The most challenging part of third quarter was staying organized. One time, my homework sticky note was nearly rendered useless by a real-life problem (Mrs. Larson subbing for Mrs. Pancer).
If she assigned homework I couldn't put it anywhere on the note, as it was categorized by teacher. She didn't assign homework that day, luckily. I then added "subjects taught" into my sticky to prevent such an error from wreaking havoc again. The other problem was more files were being created than I could organize. To fix that, I buckled down, color tagged my folders, and organized their contents. The next step is to organize my downloads into this system. The third step is to feed my google drive files and Photobooth pictures in. Once all that is done, I can put all that into a single folder, transfer it onto a USB, and have 7th grade life all backed up.

Enjoy fourth quarter and whatever secrets that may hold.

Lit Circle Blog: Fahrenheit 451

     Our group read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The essential question I have chosen for this blog is:What caused Ray Bradbury to write a novel about book burning/censorship? This tied into my study in a few different ways. First, we never quite found the answer in the plot itself. This led to about 5 minutes of discussion that resulted in the logical outcome of this being a rebuttal to the Nazis' practice of book burning. The outcome was two different articles being chosen: one on book banning, and the other on book burning, as you will see below.

The firemen in the book are very similar to Nazi book-burners in method and reason. On the back cover of the book, it says, "The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden." This would seem to just be attention-hooking. However, there is in fact a reason for the book burning. "Just what is that reason?" I hear you thinking. This precise reason is brought up on the Holocaust Encyclopedia website, on the page marked "Book Burning", where it states, “...the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question." This is, in fact, brought up-spoiler alert- in the book. They burn books for this exact reason, which ties back to my EQ (Look at me, tying things together!). Writing this has also sparked a bit of pyromania in me.

     There is also a historical reference to the burning of books. In the book's altered history, there is a line, which states, "Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin." Obviously, this never happened. But clearly there is a reference to the Nazi's historic symbolism of book burning! The historical symbolism was mentioned in the article too. In there, it is clearly written,“In a symbolic act of ominous significance, on May 10, 1933, university students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of ‘un-German’ books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture.” Clearly, this was in fact written as a Nazi rebuttal. Even the references to a war being over before they can start again make sense in the wider context!

That was my blog. Enjoy your spring break and the party!
The article

Symbolism. Pyromania.

Poetry Reflection Blog

      This is the final blog for our poetry unit. I know you're all thinking "Yes!! New unit!!" However, I'd prefer it if you kept those comments to yourself, as this is VERY important and for a grade (according to Mrs. Larson). But, enough about that, let's get to the actual blog!

   The first question I have to answer is this:"Poetry can be a vital, real part of everyone's life. What place or importance does poetry have in my own life? Does poetry belong to everyone? How do I know?" Poetry has a lot of importance in my life, as any other form of literature does. It can express things in ways unique only to poetry itself and is a great way to spread the word about something. It can also make me laugh like no other written medium.  Also, poetry does belong to everyone. Why? Well, it's easier to get a point across as a poem than as an article, as well as being a favorite childhood (and possibly adulthood) pastime. Poetry has even worked itself into every inch of popular culture. Poems can be songs, if just put them to music and sing the words. Poems can be raps, if you just add music in the background. This connects to my last point about pop culture because, as most of us know, song and rap drive culture, and poetry drives them. That means that poetry is our culture, and some might say everyone's culture. Therefore, poetry belongs to everyone, from the smallest baby to the oldest great-great-grandfather.

       The next question that must be answered says, "How does the life and experiences of a poet affect the poem he/she creates?" My answer to that is, "That is often the core of poems: life experiences." However, it goes beyond that, as people who have had tough lives often write more glum and gloomy poems, and vice versa. This can be evidenced by Edgar Allen Poe; his poems were gloomy, as was his life. On the opposite end of the spectrum is me: I've had a (mostly) happy life so far, therefore my poems are mostly happy. It is really simple.

     Now I have to analyze some poems, so I'll be analyzing "Jabberwocky" first. It is written in quatrain stanzas, which gave Mr. Carroll a solid excuse to make up nonsense words. This allowed the single meaning of "complete nonsense" to thrive. All the nonsense words added to the nonsensical and humorous effects within the poem. There was also a trope from a certain game series in there where you repeat things without giving them any logical meaning and let the players/readers figure it out for themselves.

     The next part is one of my own poems, which will be my AoW poem. I wrote it with hints of rhyme in mind, without it rhyming per se.  I also have it as image-heavy as possible specifically to add to the effect. I designed the stanza breaks so that it would seem as if the speaker was pausing for a moment before going on with his tale. The meaning is "If you are used as a pawn, you'll regret it later." I have accomplished that easily with the tricks above.

Links 
-Bio-Poem
-AoW Poem
-Where I'm From Poem
-Spine Poem
-Found Poem
-The poorly formatted nonsense poem

Nonsense Poem: The most nonsensical poem that ever was or will be.

Click here to view "The Barven Quest"

Sorry, Blogger hates PDFs apparently...

"An Apology by a Toxic Metal"

This is my AoW nonfiction poem.

“An Apology by a Toxic Metal”

It is I, lead. Yes, I-who-poisoned-Flint.

But I’m not here to talk about my crimes.

I’m here to apologize.

The industry wanted me to keep people safe

but I could not.

All I could do

was hurt people (I’m toxic)

and when I tried to tell them

they denied me.

We had known since Roman times

and my crimes did not shift names (unlike their gods).

However, this was lost

and I was used to prevent

cholera and typhus

and thus, fear.

My ads were like Donald Trump,

spouting ludicrous lies

but I, honestly, tried to prevent the awful, atrocious

fate that befell those who drank from me

and ended up having another industry use my miniature Danger Dolan doughboy

to hurt and kill people.

The outrage against me and my corroded corpse

is deserved.

I failed at my job

and I am sorry.

Inspired by "'Lead helps guard your health': How U.S. companies sold a toxic product"

Lead:This is me and my brothers in 2009.