Comments Week 12

Sophia – How to survive life with a younger sibling

Caroline – Symbolism Story

Symbolism

      The school classroom is always a lively, active place. Dorothy is a girl who likes to go around and give out candy to her classmates. Grace is one of Dorothy's friend. She became friends when Dorothy offered her a piece of candy. Grace came from a poor family that could just barely afford a living, so she was not used to being given things by others. Nevertheless, she was touched by Dorothy's kindness and became close friends very quickly. Then there is Jessica. Jessica was born into a very rich family, and was granted everything she wanted by her parents. Therefore, when Dorothy offered her a piece of candy like always, she held her nose up high and stalked away. 

      In preparation for the Thanksgiving atmosphere, I decided to symbolize these kids with the feelings revolving around Thanksgiving. Grace is the embodiment of thankfulness, as she was very excited and grateful towards Dorothy's small kindness. Meanwhile, Jessica represents thanklessness, as she ignores Dorothy's offer and does not associate with people like her. I also symbolized in the story how the environment that we are brought up in can affect our feelings of thankfulness. Grace came from a family that held on with the bare necessities of life, while Jessica was brought up to where she treated everything she had for granted. Therefore, these two different environments reflected on their reactions toward kindness

How To Survive Thanksgiving Break (Or Really Any Break) Without Wi-Fi

      This Thanksgiving break, my aunt brought me here to Dallas, Texas. There's one problem, though–we don't have wi-fi at our house. We bought a house in Dallas recently, but since I still have high school in Louisiana to finish, we haven't moved in yet. It also means that my aunt is unwilling to pay for monthly wi-fi fees in a house that we don't even live in yet. So there it is–I'll be spending this break without wi-fi. (See if any of you guys can do that!) However, I am still going to be having a fun time, and here is how you guys can too. (You know, if you guys do get into a situation like this. But hey, who am I kidding, right?)
      Step 1: Bring your favorite pastime. (Surely you do have some besides social media, right?) If you are offline, then bring something else that you can waste time with, such as books, be it comics or novels. In my case, I decided to bring along my electric guitar and some comic books. Whenever you get bored of not getting text notifications on your phone every five seconds, spend a little time on whatever you bring. It can speed up those agonizing times without wi-fi.
      Step 2: Look for work. You may not believe it, but manual labor takes up much more time than you think. I needed to help build the new furniture that arrived at our house, and after we finished, I could not believe how much time had passed. You may be reluctant at first, but try it out! Let it be some minor chore, such as folding laundry, mowing the grass, cleaning, or some heavy-duty construction like me. (But still, I really don't want to recommend this to you guys. You don't want to work on Thanksgiving break, do you?)
      Step 3: Sleep. (Finally, something you guys actually like!) If all else fails, taking a nap is the way to go, and I'm pretty sure that you guys like to do this a lot. (Don't lie, be honest.) Time flies by when you're asleep, so you might as well.
      Step 4: Look for outside help. (Very situational, personally only recommend it if you guys have a backup plan like I do.) So when all these steps listed above don't work, what do you do? Well, in my case, I used to have a friend who lived in Baton Rouge. He moved to Dallas, however, so before the break started, I called his parents to see if I could stay at their house for some time. They gladly agreed (YEESSSS), so I will be having a fun time with my friend. Like I said earlier, this only works if you have a backup plan like I do, so try to make do with the steps listed above.
      Well, I hope that this blog post can help you survive a holiday without wi-fi. But probably the best thing to do is to prevent a situation like that from happening in the first place. But if it ever happens to you guys, then you know where to look for help!

Comments Week 11

Caroline - Free Write

Sarah - Critical LOTF scene-Piggy's death

World War Z

      One book I am reading right now is World War Z written by Max Brooks. I have not finished reading this book, but I think that is a fun and exciting fiction story.I would definitely recommend it to people who are looking to read something light and casual. The reason I like World War Z  is because of the storyline and the interesting point of view of the narrator. 

      The narrator of the story is an unnamed character who interviews multiple people who are trying to survive an outbreak of a plague that reanimates the dead into walking corpses. This may seem like a typical zombie apocalypse fictional story, but it feels different than others because the point of view is so different than most novels. We also get to hear different accounts from multiple people throughout the book, which means that the story does not stick to one character. The interesting format of this book and a light storyline that does not require deep comprehension is why I would recommend this book to others.

Lord of the Flies

      I think that one of the most important part of Lord of the Flies is when Simon talks with the Lord of the Flies. This takes place on page 143, where the Lord of the Flies tells Simon "You know perfectly well you'll only meet me down there–so don't try to escape!" , implying that the beast resides in all of the boys who crashed on the island. This is an important fact, because the beast is something that is mentioned throughout almost the entire book. 

      When the littluns who crashed on the island first start to refer to the beast, it invokes fear into everyone and makes the boys scared of each other. The descriptions of the beast that we hear from the boys is that it has sharp fangs and claws–normally what we would expect from a typical imagination of a beast. However, what the Lord of the Flies is saying is that the beast is the fear, madness, and bloodthirst that resides in the minds all human beings. This is proved when Simon, after his encounter with the Lord of the Flies, stumbles into the group and tries to tell the boys that the beast does not exist. However, the boys, who do not know this fact yet, mistakes Simon as the beast, and then brutally murders him as a group.

Comments Week 10

Caroline - Blog Prompt and Answer

Sophia - Q2 Week 4 LOTF Reading Response

Write Your Own Prompt

      I have decided to write a prompt about Lord of the Flies. While reading, I thought, "What is the author trying to convey through this story?" I believe that what William Golding is trying to tell us is that the human psychology is easy to distort and manipulate. Throughout the novel, we hear many cases of a beast scaring the boys. This proves how easy it is to manipulate people's minds.
      The beast is continuously covered in a veil of mystery. All we hear about the beast are vague descriptions that are somewhat doubtable, such as the beast having sharp claws and large fangs. These are what we typically imagine beasts to be like, and as such, the boys all imagine the same thing. However, as the story continues, the beast is revealed to be something much more sinister, one that resides inside the human mind, such as our insanity. The boys start to go more and more savage, and forget about their desires of getting rescued and wish for bloodlust. A lot of the boys who were loyal to Ralph ends up joining Jack, which once again proves how easily changed the human mind is. This is the message I thing William Golding is trying to convey through Lord of the Flies.

Lord of the Flies Response

      Chapter 8 of "Lord of the Flies" was a very crucial chapter to the story, where we got information of Jack leaving the group and making his own, and some insight to what the beast that is referred to so often in this story actually is. In this chapter, we hear the characters have this conversation:[Piggy:] "I don't agree with all Jack said, but with some.  'Course there isn't a beast in the forest.  How could there be?  What would a beast eat?"
"Pig."
"We eat pig."
"Piggy!"
"I got the conch!" said Piggy indignantly.  "Ralph--they ought to shut up, oughtn't they?  You shut up, you littluns!  What I mean is that I don't agree about this here fear.  Of course there isn't nothing to be afraid of in the forest.  Why--I been there myself!  You'll be talking about ghosts and such things next.  We know what goes on and if there's something wrong, there's someone to put it right."
He took off his glasses and blinked at them.  The sun had gone as if the light had been turned off. [...]
"Life," said Piggy expansively, "is scientific, that's what it is.  In a year or two when the war's over they'll be traveling to Mars and back.  I know there isn't no beast--not with claws and all that, I mean--but I know there isn't no fear either."
Piggy paused.
"Unless--"
Ralph moved restlessly.
"Unless what?"
"Unless we get frightened of people." (83-84)

      This conversation between Ralph and Piggy is important to the story because it gives readers some insight to what the beast could be. Up until now, the only descriptions of the beast are given to us by the boys who either think they witnessed it, or try to imagine what it would be like. For example, we hear descriptions such as the beast having sharp claws and big fangs, but we can deduce from Piggy's dialogue that the beast may be one of the boys, that the beast could be born from their fear of one another, or that the boys are needlessly implementing the image of the beast into one another's heads, despite there not being a beast at all. Either way, this lets us know that the beast is not what the boys think, but something much more sinister. This will be important because we will be hearing about the beast often throughout the book.