Third Post: Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Choice #1 - Reactions. So far, do you love/hate/can't stop reading the book, watching this film? What makes you feel that way? What reactions do you have to your own writing, the writing of your peers, the world around you? What made you choose the book/film? Who recommended it?

Book: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So far I am about half way through the book, and Katniss Everdeen has already been obviously chosen for the hunger games and she is competing for her life and is targeted by a gang formed by Cato and a couple alliances. The game makers recognize Katniss's strategy and decide to act upon it by setting fire to a certain area that Katniss is traveling towards. This gets Katniss traveling back in towards the other groups and this is where the real story begins. I find this book interesting because for the first time I strayed away from the usual genre that I usually like to pick which is non-fiction, and for once I actually very much enjoyed it. When I write something, most of the time is I lay out everything that I have in my mind onto a piece of paper or document depending on whether I am writing on a piece of paper or typing it up on a computer. This means that when I have a lot of pre knowledge about a topic that I am about to write about, all that pre knowledge and maybe a little more research will be portrayed on the piece that I write about, but if I have to write about a topic that I know very little about that too will show in my writing. Most of the time I feel very proud of my work though, because I know that I have tried my hardest and and have given it my all. Reading the writing of my peers is what has developed me into the writer that I am today. I am not an efficient reader at all, and tend to be very picky about my book selection, this can be proven even in my SAT scores, where I am strong in my writing section, but weak in the reading. Through reading and revising my other peer's work or essays, I have learned the things that work and don't work, which has shaped the writer that I am today. I chose to read this book because one, it fits the genre that we were assigned to read, and two, in early high school the movie was the talk of the year, so I felt left out having not watched the movie and instead of taking the easiest route of understanding the story, I decided to read the first book of the Hunger Games Trilogy.

Movie: To Kill a Mockingbird 

The reason for watching this movie was a big surprise when I actually thought about why I wanted to watch this movie. I wanted to watch this movie solely based off the reason that I enjoyed the book more than anything I have ever read in my life. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee was always the dreaded book to read in 10th grade because of all the deep meaning and the boring amount of time that it took to finish the book, but for some reason I loved the book. I finished the movie in one sitting, and even though the movie is in black and white because of how old it is, I still enjoyed the movie and wouldn't mind watching it all over again. But one thing that I didn't quite remember after reading this book all the way back in 10th grade, was the mystery of Boo Radley and how he finally revealed himself in the book that changed Scout and Jem's perspective of Boo Radley. This finally becomes clear to me of how Boo Radley saves the day by tackling and killing Bob Ewell from attacking Jem. At first, Mr Bilenky my english teacher for last year recommended us to watch it, but that suggestion literally went in one ear and out the other because I didn't take it into consideration at all, but finally I remembered it and watched the movie, which I have no regrets doing.

Second Post: Monday, October 7, 2013

Choice #11: Conflict: Identify the conflict in the novel/film and explore this.

Spoiler Alert:

Book: Elijah of Buxton

Elijah is in trouble when Mr. Leroy takes Elijah and is faced with more of a coming of age conflict, this is because he has to grow up fast, despite all of the doings in the past. Mr Leroy takes him to Detroit to try and catch up with the preacher, who has stolen thousands of dollars that was saved to buy Mr Leroy's family's freedom. Both Elijah and Mr. Leroy go on a pursuit together, chasing after The Preacher who has an incentive in stealing money that once belonged to Mr Leroy himself. Comparing this part of the book, in which The Preacher has slowly became the bad guy, to the beginning of the book, where The Preacher is helping Elijah, the conflict is to never trust somebody that may seem suspicious, because in the beginning of the book, The Preacher gives away that he is a lier because he joked about Elijah about the hooper snakes, and created a fuss when there actually was no such thing. Although the Preacher shoots the man who was accompanying them, who was from Buxton, Elijah and Mr. Leroy still persist in tracking the Preacher down. Tragically, Mr. Leroy suffers a death from a heart attack, and Elijah is left to continue onwards with his pursuit on finding the Preacher. Another important conflict comes here, and this is when Elijah is faced with the choice to continue onwards or to give up the pursuit,  there is no point in continuing because the man he was helping was no longer alive, but Elijah comes to the conclusion that he is going to "continue Mr Leroy's legacy" in a way. Elijah does manage to find The Preacher after a while, but at the same time finds a family of escaped slaves, one of them named Mrs. Chloe. Elijah leaves without helping Mrs. Chloe, Mrs Chloe's husband Kamau, Kamau and Mrs Chloe's daughter Hope, and two other slaves in an attempt to look for assistance to finish tracking down The Preacher. Just before Elijah decides to start his journey back to Buxton alone, he feels the need to try and help Mrs. Chloe so he goes back to her and the other slaves in the barn. During the moment, Elijah tries to assess the problem like an adult would, and this is when the coming of age conflict comes to place, Elijah ends up lying to help rescue the baby, and he returns back to Buxton with the baby.

Movie: Toy Story (1995)

The movie Toy Story revolves around two main dolls, Woody and Buzz Light Year. Woody, a cowboy string doll has earned his spot as being the favorite toy of a six-year old Andy. The movie starts unfolding when Buzz Light Year, a space ranger action figure, takes Woody's spot for being the favored doll, this shakes Woody's confidence. In the movie Toy Story, there are many different conflicts that happen during the movie, but I have chosen two conflicts to discuss. The first conflict is an internal conflict, when Woody is sad and puzzled because he has been replaced by Andy as being the favorite toy with Buzz Light year. This internal conflict develops into the main conflict of the story, where Woody is accused of killing Buzz light year when Woody and Buzz get into a fight and Buzz falls out of a window. Woody is then faced to go outside and help to find Buzz so that they can both return to Andy's room, but they get into all sorts of other conflicts in the outside, the main one being when they get stuck in Sid's house, who is a toy torturer and the adventure of trying to escape from that house begins. Sid's house is the beginning of an external conflict, and is a battle between good vs. evil, together, Woody and Buzz must push through the obstacles that are preventing them from getting to Andy's house safely, including defeating Sid and saving the other toys.