The Things They Carried: Blog #3

     Hearing Wes Hamilton talked about his war experiences about how he can't even remember his squads real names and only by their nicknames when they started the war. I take it that the war must of been that intense where they could remember their nicknames and not their actaul name. I don't think the men in the book, knew how intense the war was going to be when they first started out. This must have put the men in a lot of emotional thought about the war.
     I think Tim O'Brien put a strong fearless woman as a new chararcter for many reasons; positive and negative reasons. The positive about having a woman in the book shows that woman can do the same things that men can do, instead of working at home. It shows that they can be as strong as the men can be. But, the downside on that is, they can take it way to far where they go crazy, and thats what happened to Mary Anne; Mark Fossies girlfriend. I believe she just had to do everything to just survive in the war because it was a lot to handle back then. She was just enjoying killing people, but before she was a sweet loving woman and was also in love with her boyfriend. It was a horrible change where everybody thought she went crazy. I believe that Tim O'Brien wanted to show what war can do to a person when they are the complete opposite.
     I don't think Tim O'Brien was honest through much of the book. A lot of things he would say was made up because it made the story better. I also remember Wes Hamilton telling the class that he would make up stories just so the people he was telling the stories to, would be like "wow a lot of bad and amazing stuff happened in the Vietnam War" they just wanted that satisfaction to make them look cool, especially when they lived through the war. But, I think it is good thing that they did make up stories because it shows that they went through a lot in the war, it can change a person where they just want to be heard. It just effects people then and now. Wes Hamiton also had things that he remembers from the war: pictures, his helmet cap, and now he has a curl behind his ear so he can remember that he was always had someone backing him up. "Gunner" was always behind him so he always felt safe to trust him. That's why hes alive til this day.
    

Perfect School

In a perfect school many things would be different. I would change that we would be to do whatever we wanted at a dance and actually grind on each other because not being able to go 90 degrees is bull. Plus, Mr. Maguire should go cause of his strict rules about everything is dumb, its not needed to get pissed all the time if we wear a tank top and short skirts. I want to be able to wear whatever I want without getting in trouble. If our parents bought the clothes for us, then obviously it's okay for us to wear it. I also think that we should pick our own classes that we want to actually take and we could also do whatever in that class because obviously if we pick our classes that we actually want then we should be able to do what we want in that class. Then, P.D.A should be able to be aloud and not getting in trouble for kissing and hugging. It's not that big of a deal. We should also have good candy and not the stupid non-fat crap and same goes with drinks. I think that the teachers to be laid back and chill so everything could be fun and not boring. I want school to be fun and not dumb, stupid, controlling or boring.

The Great Gatsby: Symbolism in Chapters 1-4

In the book, The Great Gatsby, i think the most interesting character would have to be Gatsby. Hes so mysterious and weird. Hes always has these parties but doesnt join them, he only invites Nick that lives next door because I guess they were in the same war together. Gatsby is lying to Nick about his education, its just weird because everybody else is always lying about Gatsby being things that they think he is. Its like he wants people to think hes just so amazing. But, by lying about your life is just going to make things worse. Everybody is going to think your a hyprocrite. People just think what they want about him and hes making it worse.
I would have to say that Gatsby likes showing off his money by like throwing all those parties every couple weeks and how big his house is, his clothes and just everything about him. The money shows that he has a lot of power and goods so people want to be his friend and go to his parties because there is free alcohol. There was people that are associated with light and the colors yellow and white. And, some other colors but those are just describing the colors of things, like his car being white, the girls in yellow dresses, it also had blue, gray and gold. Blue means like its sad or gloomy, gray means like cloudy or boring, and gold its like a fake way to show you wanting to be rich and attitude, like they want to be something else better but there not.

The Great Gatsby Chapter One

 It jumps from character to character a lot between: Tom, Nick, Daisy and Jordan. Nick is the narrator was explaining from his point of view about things. Tom was his next door neighbor, and described him to be rude, nicely dressed, big house that is a copy from somewhere else, rich, buff and everything hes not. He compares Tom and him because he is not that rich, has a small house, and his parents the rich ones. His parents pay for his payments for his house. Then, he mentions Daisy, Tom's wife, she knew that Tom was cheating on her with this chick from New York. Tom doesn't know that Daisy knows, shes keeping it to herself. But, she's not doing anything about it. Jordan Baker is the next person Nick mentions, Jordan is friends with Daisy and tells Nick about the affair between Daisy and Tom.
 My first impression of The Great Gatsby, was very confusing. It was always jumping from character to character and explaining some pretty weird stuff. The writing style was confusing and I didn't really understand most of the meanings. I wish it was more understanding and that I could follow what was happening because that would make me want to read it more and more. The colors and symbols that represent that book so far is "white and light".

The Great Gatsby

I predict that the book will have lots of alcohol smuggling because of all the research about the prohibition. There's probably going to be lots of drunk crazy people... Since alcohol got banned in the 1920's and then lots of crimes started happening shortly after that law passed. Not only the crimes started happening, I believe that the women will fight for more rights. After the men went off the war the women had to pick up everything.

Since women lost their husbands during war so soon, they wanted more rights because of what was happening during the war. The women had to take over their husbands jobs, taking care of the children/homes, and taking care of everything. From all the research, women had fought so hard and strongly about their rights and thought.

Poetry Out Loud

My poem was "Love Lives Beyond the Tomb" by: John Clare, well, I only read the poem and memorized it when I was about to say it in front of the class because I memorized the wrong poem... but it was about love and how you might love certain things in life. It talks about sleep, flowers, the spring time, and voice. I love lots of things too, like my boyfriend, family, friends, the spring time because my birthday is in the spring! and many other things. well since i already did the poem to the class, I think I need to work on my voice and actually remember the whole poem, my face was just blank since I didn't really remember the whole poem, and my gestures, I think I need to work on and actually be into saying my poem.

What I am doing this Winter Break

This Winter Break I'm going to be hanging out with my friends, family, probably going skiing with my boyfriend and his parents, and sadly doing homework... and of course going to my aunts/uncles house and my grandparents house for Christmas Eve, that's also my uncles birthday! and on Christmas Day, we are having everybody at my house. My mom makes the best cinnamon rolls in the world on Christmas! I'm gunna have lots of presents to open! I'm so excitedddd.(: This Winter Break should be a good one, I'll be spending lots of time with my boyfriend and family.
I hope you have a good Winter Break to Mrs. Gilman.