Chapters 1-5 of The Great Gatsby

        While reading the first five chapters of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I have noticed many things. I’ve noticed that there is a lot of relationship drama. Daisy is married to Tom, but in chapter two, we meet Tom’s mistress, Myrtle- his “woman in the city.” Myrtle is married to George Wilson, a gas station owner in the Valley of Ashes. Nick, the narrator of the story, is Daisy’s cousin and is Gatsby’s neighbor. Gatsby is in love with Daisy and in chapter 5, the the 2 of them meet for the first time in 5 years. It is very awkward at first, but by the end of the gathering, they’ve re-kindled their love for each other. All of this love triangle craziness is, I think, a symbol of the love craziness going on in the 1920’s time period. I think this represents not only love, but the craziness of the decade in general. 

        I’ve also noticed how he uses the settings of the book to represent some aspects of the 1920’s. The East Egg represents the people of the time who were born into money and the West Egg represents the people who earned their money- whether it be through business, gambling, etc. This is important because money was a huge deal during the 20’s. The Valley of Ashes represents the downfall of American Society.  

        In my opinion, people who live in the West Egg, in a way, represent American Dream. They are “new money” which means most of them, have been in a low social class, and have worked their way to the top. After all, that is the American Dream to many people, isn’t it? Doing whatever it takes to get to the top. 

        The Great Gatsby is a very interesting book and I have really enjoyed reading it so far. I hope to find it even more entertaining as we continue reading. 

"The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

           In “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about a man named Alymer who is married to a woman named Georgiana. Georgiana is a very beautiful woman, but she has one small birthmark on the side of her face. It is shaped like a small hand and is crimson in color. Alymer is not phased by this at the beginning of his marriage, but soon realizes that a birthmark is Nature’s way of marking imperfections in a person. His imagination and fear of this lead him to constantly fear about Georgiana’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death. He was afraid og her morality. This caused him much horror and grief. He asks her if she has eve thought of removing the birthmark and she is then embarrasses and slightly offended.  Alymer becomes obsessed with her having it removed. Alymer then brings Georgiana to the laboratory, where he works, to have the birthmark removed. He sees and tries many experiments on which to remove the birthmark, including a magic flower, immorality globe, etc. Georgiana constantly begs him to just forget about her blemish and leave it be. Later, Alymer claims the hand upon her face has taken over her and that the hand upon her face is causing hr to be mortal. Georgina then begs Alymer to remove the hand on her face, no matter what he has to do. Alymer then brings over a liquor that then she drinks. The potion removed the hand, but then Georgina ends up dying shortly after. 

      This short story’s theme is very similar to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The theme of The Crucible. is that you are what you fear the most. This means that what you fear happening to you the most, is what takes over your thoughts and dreams and you end up making it happen yourself while trying to prevent it. In “The Birthmark” that is exactly what happens. Alymer is afraid that his wife’s birthmark will make her die, and so he gives her a liquor to make the birthmark disappear in hopes to make her immortal. The poison ends up killing her- which is exactly the fear he was trying to prevent.

On Writing- Final Essay

On Writing by Stephen King

Final Essay

        Writing... That is the key. Writing as often as possible is the key to becoming a good writer. Stephen King expresses this in many aspects in his book On Writing. King uses real life stories and literary examples to show that the best way to become a great writer, is to write. 

        Stephen King begins the book by telling his life experiences. These life experiences show how King evolved into the writer that he is today. He tells of how he began writing in the first grade when he was forced to be at home because he missed too much school due to strep throat and ear infections. (Page 27) This shows that he was, for lack of better terminology, almost born a writer. So what if it was only copying comic strips? At such a young age, most kids are running in circles or playing with toys. King wanted to write.

       As the section goes on, King tells of many other experiences with writing. As a teen, he helped his older brother with his newspaper, Dave’s Rag, and then became the editor of his high school’s newspaper, The Drum. (Page 50) This shows that he continued to love to write though his teen years and kept the interest alive. King wrote about what was important to him. (Even though it may have gotten him in trouble a time or two.)

       King also tells of his many horrifying experiences. King was hit by a truck while on a walking on a vacation and at one point, was addicted to drugs and alcohol. (page 87) These things normally would’ve kept a person from writing, but Stephen King chose to fight through all of this and take these opportunities to write. 

       To me, this book is inspiring because King shows a true love for the art. King is proof and is an example and a role model to know that no matter what I’m going through, I can still write. I can take the situation I’m in and use it to my advantage to better my writing. To become a great writer, I must write as often as possible- no matter what. 

On Writing- Third section

       In this last section of On Writing, King focuses more on how to revise and end with your finished product. One of the first things mentioned in this section, on page 201, says, “... but it seems to me that every book- at least every one worth reading- is about something. Your job during or just after the first draft is to decide what something or somethings yours is about.” This stood out to me because it is such a simple and seemingly obvious statement, but for me at times, is so forgotten. When writing, I often find myself getting easily off topic and then I end up being unsure about that I was writing on in the first place! Then when I go back and revise, I do not realize how off topic I am.

       Also, throughout most of this section, King mentions in some way about waiting a while to work on your next draft. This is hard for me because once I start writing something, I feel as though I am “on a roll” and I have to finish all of it right then. I know see how that can be a problem. If I don’t wait at least a day or so, I will still have the same mind set I had while writing and I won’t catch my mistakes. 

       The last thing that stood out to me was this quote from the section On Living: A Postscript. King says, starting on page 268, "I’d gotten going, there was that much. The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better." I feel as though I can relate to this the most because every time I write, getting started is the hardest and most stressful part. I always sit and stare at a blank page for what seems like hours waiting for my brain to start working. But once I finally have my topic and come up with my thesis, ideas start flowing, and, like King said, things only get better. 

The State of the Union Address

            Watching the State of the Union Address was quite difficult for me. First of all, my father was commenting on every other word that came out of President Obama’s mouth. Second, as a sixteen year old, it was very hard for me to understand some of the issues brought up such as business and taxes and foreign exports, seeing as how I have never had to deal with any of these. But, I tried to relate to whatever I could and form opinions.

           President Obama mentioned wanting to stop student loan rates from doubling. He also mentioned requiring colleges to cut costs instead of raising tuition. This would directly affect me in the next coming years and I fully agree. College is ridiculously expensive as it is and having to pay more money would only make things harder. 

          To improve the school system and education, Obama proposed a no- dropout policy. This policy says that each and every student must either graduate or stay in school until they are at least 18. I personally, do not agree with this. Not all students are meant to stay in school. The students that don’t want to, or don’t need to, be there often disrupt the classroom and keep other students from continuing their education. 

         While I did not understand everything that President Obama brought up, these few things stood out to me. I’m sure that the older I get, the more relevant the other issues will be to me. I look forward to one day being able to form opinions on all of the country’s issues.

On Writing by Steven King- Blog 2

What Writing Is, Toolbox, and On Writing sections

   I love how Steven King opens the next section by saying the writing is telepathy. That was a great way of putting it into perspective and a great use of figurative language. In my opinion, it was a very good analogy.

  On page 118  King says, in reference to vocabulary, “Use the first word that comes to your mind if it is appropriate and colorful.” This is very helpful to me because while I am writing, I often debate with myself on which words to use and how to use them. I usually  find myself not going with my first instinct and end up wasting time. King also says on page 124, “The adverb is not your friend.” I am the world’s worst at using adverbs. I tend to use many adverbs in my writing to describe objects and feelings, and I do not realize that I am being redundant. This will help me remember to look for redundancy next time I write. 

    Steven King uses a very vast amount of figurative language throughout the section. He suggests using figurative language such as similes and metaphors. I believe this is very important because it keeps thing interesting. I know that’s certainly how King keeps me interested while reading. 

     King also suggests that to improve your writing you must read.... a lot. This is a very big problem for me. I, honestly, just do not find reading interesting. I’ve never been a very avid reader. The only times I ever read are when I’m forced to in school. I now know that this has to change, though, to improve my writing. I have made it my new goal to read for pleasure more often to hopefully give my writing the boost that it needs!

    Steven King does a great job of outlining writing tips and principles. This will definitely help me in my writing in the future. 

On Writing- C.V. Section

           I’m going to start off by being completely honest... I was not looking forward to reading this book at all. This is mainly because I’m not much of a “pleasure reader”, I guess you could say. But I was pleasantly surprised when I began reading these 100 pages. Steven King really makes these stories come alive and very easy to get into. I actually very much enjoyed reading these first pages. I loved how he managed to tell his whole story of how he evolved into the writer he is today while just casually, and enjoyably, sharing about the rest of his life experiences. 

           The very first story was one of my favorites.  On pages 18 and 19, when he was talking about being at his Aunt’s house at around age 3 pretending he was the Strongboy in the circus, this made me reminisce back to when I was young child and how crazy my imagination was. Also, when he got stung by the wasp and later dropped the cinderblock on his foot made me laugh because I was just as clumsy when I was a toddler. My other favorite story was on page 61 when he was talking about how he and his wife met. I am such a romantic and any sweet little story like that just makes me smile. 

          I hope that the rest of the book is just as interesting.