Janie

      Janie is a very interesting character and her growth as the story moves along is shown. In the beginning of the story she was lost and was, according to Janie later on in the text, misguided by her grandmother.

     Janie's dream is to love and to be loved, but she didn't find it in Logan. Janie then runs off with Joe hopeful to find that love, but she doesn't find it with Joe. In fact, because of Joe's dominance and controlling personality, she fell even deeper into her loneliness and becomes more confused on who she is as a person and her own dreams.

  

    It is not until after Joe starts to be even more cruel to her than usual that she starts to realize that is not what she wants for herself. Joe is not the same man she tried to find love with. The death of Joe truly liberates her. It gives her the opportunity to be herself and to come to terms with what she wants, what she likes and what her dreams are. It is a time to focus on her own development as a woman and as a person, without anyone instilling their own dreams and beliefs upon her.

     Realizing that her grandmother led her to believe love was not what it really was, she was forming her own beliefs. The process of trying to achieve her dreams and learning more about herself is a sign of true growth.  I admire Janie for speaking out to Joe at last and standing up for herself, that was one of the real signs of her development as a character and by establishing herself as a person with her own beliefs. 

Thankful for a Classmate

          On this Thanksgiving morning as I spend some quality time with my lovely (yet slightly crazy) family, I think of other people in my life that I am also thankful for. There are a lot of people in the school and out of school that I am tremendously grateful for, but since I am restricted to a first period English class, I can only think of one student that I am truly grateful for. This student is Tikal, we met this year and she is very nice to not only to me, but to everyone. We also share another class in which we both try our hardest to make it through together (the struggle is real). Mostly I am grateful for her because she is funny, and very helpful. Tikal was the one who was kind enough to tell me about completing   this blog post and any other work I was missing when I was unexpectedly absent on Tuesday. This among other things are why I am grateful for Tikal. 

A Principle We Should Keep

     The book The Road  expresses the difficulties of sticking with your principles in extreme situations. Challenges come up in many parts of the book that make it difficult for the characters to follow their principles and beliefs.  In the real world, almost everyone follows their own principles and are encouraged to stick with them no matter what.  One principle I think is important to follow is to treat others the way you want to be treated.

        Treating people the way you want to be treated is usually taught at a young age. It is known as the "golden rule." If you live by this principle, you will likely do good by others. I also believe in karma, so if you do bad unto others, it is all going to come back to you. People should treat each other with respect no matter what, be civil and polite to other people no matter what your preconceived ideas are about who that person might be. Treat people as if those people were all copies of you. I don't think anyone would want to disrespect themselves or treat themselves badly. Following the golden rule is very important beacuse it allows people to be more empathetic and compassionate toward one another. This golden rule would eliminate a lot of problems in our society.

Hemingway (10-26-14)

   
      Ernest Hemingway was known to be the greatest writer of his time. I believe his work is rather impressive and unique compared to other authors' writing. Perhaps that is why so many believe him to be one of the best authors in American literature. One aspect of his writing that is impressive to me, is that all of his stories follow the "iceberg theory". The iceberg theory is that in a story there is the surface, this is what you read and what you are told in the story. However, there is something beneath the surface the deeper meaning of that story in which the reader has to figure out what that is. I think that this a genius theory that he created and help get a deeper understanding in not only his stories, but any other stories that the reader is required to think deeper about the text. Ernest Hemingway was a great writer, however how he is as a person is a very different story. 
      Ernest Hemingway was not a bad person, however there were some choices he made in his life that are rather questionable. Those life choices he made are of course heavily influenced on his childhood, in which he didn't have the best relationship with his mother. This might be why so many of his relationships ultimately failed or why he had so many affairs. The way he treated his children based on what the       documentary said, was that when they came he would give them his full attention and take them to do many things. However when he doesn't see them they no longer exist, he didn't try to talk to them or contact them at all. The balance of how he treated his children was a little off, one extreme to the next, which could show that there was something in unstable in Ernest Hemingway as well. Either way for those reasons, his own personal struggles and experiences that are reflected in his writing is what made him so legendary and unique. Ernest Hemingway told stories about life just the way they were, that is why I think Ernest Hemingway is a great writer, but a man who sometimes not always did the right thing. 

       

6 six word stories

Breaking news: We are still unbroken

Breathing in poison, breathing out antidote 

Escaping to worlds on written pages

Waiting for the extraterrestrials to arrive

The jigsaw puzzle that came together 

It all started with a look 

John Proctor Hero or Stooge??

     
    
      John Proctor is a very interesting character to define. He can be viewed as either a stooge or a hero. On the one hand, he made the choice to have an affair with Abigail, which helped put this entire event into motion. On the other hand, he did sacrifice himself, which I think of as a heroic act. Originally he was going to confess (lie) and claim he saw the devil, but when they told him to sign a paper that states all of these things are true so they can show the entire town, he decides to rip the paper instead. Of course this leads to his ultimate death. Had he just signed the paper everything would be good and dandy right? Well, I don't necessarily think this is true. Throughout the play, there have been lies on top of lies and John and several other people just wanted the truth. If he signed that paper, it would be just another lie to add into the mix and not solve anything. For him to refuse to sign that paper and to deny that he or anyone else was a witch, was his way of showing the light. In the beginning of the play John was the one lying about his affair and having a hand in the cause of all this mess, but in the end he ends up confessing everything to everyone and tried to show the truth to the town of Salem in his death. He died for the truth which I find heroic. However, in the end did his death really solve anything? Did anything really change for the better or for the worse? I cannot really say exactly, but it is a good example of standing for what you believe in and ironically for John in the end it was the truth. So I guess I must say he was a hero.

There Goes the Neighborhood....

 It was supposed to be another ordinary day, not a day that would change life as we knew it. They came in a giant canoe they called a "ship" and we rushed to where they landed, but stayed hidden in the trees. They didn't look like us. They were very white and had strange features I've never seen before. Some had hair the color of the sun and some had eyes the color of the sky. The small group of us that observed them from afar, finally retreated to our tribe to report what we had seen. The chief decided that the next day we would try trading with them or at least try to communicate with them to see why they were here and we all agreed. 

   The next day, we approached the small settlement of the strange visitors. They spoke in a language we didn't understand, but they offered to trade these strange but very interesting objects with us. It seemed that they weren't harmful and we started to communicate through movements with our hands. That one day turned into weeks, and soon enough they started to teach us their language and that was the new form of communication. Their small settlement grew larger and they slowly started occupying more space. Then, there was less trading and a lot more taking from us. 

  They started taking away our culture and our gods and told us all about how we must all believe in a man called "Jesus" and how there was only one god. They told us to wear more clothes and to act more like them, instead of like us. They started taking away our lands, chopping down more trees and making more and more settlements for themselves. They didn't listen to us when we told them that it was enough, and that this was our territory and homes they were taking. They just took and took, and eventually it wasn't our land nor our culture, it was our lives. 

  Something started to happen to our bodies. We were coughing and bleeding and dying by the minute. We didn't know why, they didn't know why, and if they did they were no longer willing to help us. We were being kicked out of our own land, and too weak to take it back. This was officially our end.

ME

Who am I?

My name is Isabella Pena, I am fourteen years old going on fifteen. I am part Puerto Rican and part Mexican. The two things I love the most, otherwise my friends and family, are books and chocolate. Oh how I love books! I love getting lost in the different worlds that so many books provide. My tastes in books range from aliens taking over to an alternate world full of winged creatures and evil kings. Then It's back to the heart wrenching sob fest that is the Fault in Our Stars. As for my other love which is chocolate... Well, I am pretty sure I'm a certified chocoholic. Everything of chocolate is accepted by me, dark, milk, any kind. Music is another love of mine, for me, music tell stories of their own through instruments and beats. Singer's voices are so unique, there are so many types of styles and voices out there that I love to explore. Speaking about exploring, one day I would like to travel all over the world. There are just so many countries in the world, all so different from each other, in language, in culture, and in people, and I want to experience all of it. In a perfect world the dream for me will be to live in a giant library filled with chocolate, and to have my own private jet to travel anywhere I want to go, with a giant stereo blasting all of my favorite songs! Oh, and let me not forget I also want my own private movie theatre so I can watch all the movies I want! So, that's me in a nutshell, just a little insight on what is going on in my mind.


Bella