Snow Falling on Cedars

I will be reading "Snow Falling on Cedars" by David Guterson.

Mrs. Nylander suggested it to me, and when she retired I got her copy of the book. Seems like a good place to start this year.

Beowulf my answers

Kaitlyn Brooks and I split the questions.

Prologue: The Rise of the Danish Nation

1. The reason it was unusual that Shield became the ruler was that he started out an orphan but them rose to power.  Like Egyptian rulers and other such royalty, His funeral consisted of his personal treasures being put into a boat; including his son, and was sent out to the sea. After shield's death he was succeeded by Hrothgar.


Heorot is Attacked

1. Hrothgar built the hall of Heorot. Grendal attacked it every night for twelve years killing many people. In response the Danes do not dare go to the hall due to fear.


The Hero Comes to Heorit

1. when Beowulf hears about Hrothgar's problems he creates an army to stop Grendel.

2. When the Geats first arrive in Denmark they come across a nameless watcher whom guarded the shore and Question Beowulf whom explained he was there to cast out Grendel and meet king Hrothgar.

3. This nameless watcher is actually Hrothgar's Herald. he goes to his master and tells him about the Geats insisting that his master invite them.  Hrothgar agrees to this, at which time he remembers Beowulf because he knew Ecgtheow, Beowulf's father.

4. Beowulf tells Hrothgar he plans to fight Grendel. Hrothgar paid the family of a man whom Beowulf's father killed.


Feast at Heorot

1. Unferth accuses Beowulf of having lost a swimming contest, but Beowulf denies this saying he came across many sea monsters and killed 9 by the time he made it ashore. This is important because Beowulf shows no fear when telling his story. At the end Beowulf accuses Unferth of weakness because he has not fought Grendel.

2. Queen Wealhtheow during the feast is taking care of Beowulf's men and thanks him for coming.


The fight with Grendel

1. Beowulf's preparations for battle with Grendel is different from heroic poetry because instead of putting on armor, he takes it off because he ants a fair fight.

2. When Grendel enters Heorot he tares the door off, and drinks the blood of a great warrior. With no weapons Beowulf fights Grendel whom tries to escape but loses am arm which is left behind.


Celebration at Heorot

1. Beowulf and Sigemund are alike because the have both slayed creatures. Beowulf slayed Grendel a monster, and Sigemund slayed a dragon. They are different because Beowulf is not afraid.

2. When Beowulf returns Hrothgar adopts him as his own leaving Unfirth silent.

3. The song is about how the Finns defeated the Danes, but their king made a truce to live separate but under one rule. It also suggested it wise to use marriages to unite tribes on common grounds.

4. Weatheow asks Hrothgar not to make Beowulf heir to the thorn, because they have two sons.

5. The necklace Wealtheow gave Beowulf is later in the hands of Hygelac. the queen asks Beowulf to watch over her sons.

6. many men end up sleeping in the beer hall because grendel has died and it they think it is safe. this is a mistake because Grendels mother goes after them for revenge.


Another Attack

1. Grendel's mother comes to Heorot no to finish her sons work but to take revenge for his life.

2. Hrothgar is devistated by the death of his retainer and sends Beowulf and Beowulf's men with his own.

3. The mere is a bog like lake where Grendel's mother lives among many other monsters.


Beowulf Fights Gerndel's Mother

1. Beowulf tell Hrothgar to revenge the death of a loved one, not morn them.

2. Before Beowulf enters the mere they find Aeschere's head. Beowulf kills a monster.

3. Beowulf prepares for battle by putting on his chain mail, golden helmet, and takes his sword called Hrunting given to him by Unferth.

4. When Beowulf enters the mere he is attacked my monsters. Grendel's mother takes him to her hall where the water could not hurt him.

5. The sword Beowulf borrowed from Unferth melts.

6. Beowulf escapes when he wiggles free from the rubble.

7. Beowulf uses the sward to decapitate her. He also findes Grendel's body, decapitates it and takes the head home. The sword he used melts.

8. When Beowulf leaves he finds everyone left (except the great warriors),  him because  they expected him to die. The warriors are ecstatic at his return.

Essay #1, Give me feed back!

Essay #1 George Eliot once personified leisure as a man whom lived life in a form that is near extinction today. To Eliot leisure was taking the times to stop and smell the roses, not about getting your book club novel of “The Other Boleyn Girl” done, or checking something off the list. It was literally doing nothing and being content. Unfortunately for Eliot, She lived in an age of activity. With the advancement of the industrial revolution, even free time was done “doing” something, farthing something, knowledge, and activity. The minds never go still. “Old Leisure” to Eliot is presented through personification as a man whom did not live in the fast lane. He did not go above and beyond; he did not search but beauty but merely took in what was around him. Eliot lived in a world that only seemed to drive in the fast lane, even its slow mode was “70mph” compared to her ideal speed of a residential neighborhood speed of “25mph”. Described through the metaphor of leisure taking mans form.

Essay #2, Give me feed back!

Essay #2 In the novel “Never Let Me Go”, by Kazuo Ishiguro girl named Kathy attends a boarding school cut off from the rest of the world. It is cut off because the school is home to “clones” who are being raised to be organ donors. Ishiguro writes through the perspective of Kathy in three stages of her life. Youth, Adult, and Carer (clones who care for clones in recovery) showing us how she went through life like most kids; school, homework, friends, boy drama, sex, work, and finding herself. Through this he makes an appeal to the end for clone organ harvesting (though does not exist yet, is more of a warning to the future). In the book, Ishiguro wrote in characters (the teachers) non clone to pose as ideal personalities for us. The teachers try to better the student’s lives, and make them as normal as possible while collecting the students’ art work to show at science debates about whether or not the clones had feelings and emotions. Ishiguro’s writing argued that clones would have emotions and feelings. Ishiguro did not write in the opposition of cloning on a scientific stance but on the more grounds of the clones having souls themselves. Just as scientists can’t prove where the little voice in our head is when we get that sixth sense that someone is watching us or the “oh I should have said that” line that goes off ten minutes after an argument. Ishiguro demonstrates that just because you can’t prove its there or where it comes from doesn’t mean they don’t have it. The three stages of Kathy’s life is much like the set up of “To Kill a Mocking Bird” from innocents to maturity, learning life lessons in a coming to age tale of a clone. Ishiguro sets up his novel this way to mark a different level of problems and a different level of discovery, through a character that you find many resemblances in yourself and you find yourself rooting for; hence rooting against harvesting/ cloning.

1987 Exam

1) C 2) A 3) C 4) E. Never liked when questions use the word primarily, sounds more like an opinion. 5) A 6) D 7) E. Best to interpret, sounds more like an opinion and throws me. 8) C 9) E 10) C 11) B. Struggled with this one 12) A 13) B. Thought it also could have been A 14) C 15) A. So didn't read the EXCEPT part and had he thrown for a while. 16) B. What does mirthful mean?? 17) C. Going with this because its the only word I don't know and the others don't fit. 18) E 19) A. Hard 20) D 21) E. Compulsion! 22) E 23) A 24) A 25) C 26) E 27) D 28) C. Easy 29) B 30) D 31) D 32) B. Hard. Hard. -This poem I found difficult in general. 47) A 48) A. I went back to the line to read read out of uncertainty. 49) C 50) D 51) C 52) B. I don't know what desultory means. 53) B 54) C. Uhhh???? 55) A 56) B 57) A 58) D 59) E 60) A. Could be A or B, having a tad bit of trouble. 61) A. Easy Essay #1 George Eliot once personified leisure as a man whom lived life in a form that is near extinction today. To Eliot leisure was taking the times to stop and smell the roses, not about getting your book club novel of “The Other Boleyn Girl” done, or checking something off the list. It was literally doing nothing and being content. Unfortunately for Eliot, She lived in an age of activity. With the advancement of the industrial revolution, even free time was done “doing” something, farthing something, knowledge, and activity. The minds never go still. “Old Leisure” to Eliot is presented through personification as a man whom did not live in the fast lane. He did not go above and beyond; he did not search but beauty but merely took in what was around him. Eliot lived in a world that only seemed to drive in the fast lane, even its slow mode was “70mph” compared to her ideal speed of a residential neighborhood speed of “25mph”. Described through the metaphor of leisure taking mans form. Essay # 2 In the novel “Never Let Me Go”, by Kazuo Ishiguro girl named Kathy attends a boarding school cut off from the rest of the world. It is cut off because the school is home to “clones” who are being raised to be organ donors. Ishiguro writes through the perspective of Kathy in three stages of her life. Youth, Adult, and Carer (clones who care for clones in recovery) showing us how she went through life like most kids; school, homework, friends, boy drama, sex, work, and finding herself. Through this he makes an appeal to the end for clone organ harvesting (though does not exist yet, is more of a warning to the future). In the book, Ishiguro wrote in characters (the teachers) non clone to pose as ideal personalities for us. The teachers try to better the student’s lives, and make them as normal as possible while collecting the students’ art work to show at science debates about whether or not the clones had feelings and emotions. Ishiguro’s writing argued that clones would have emotions and feelings. Ishiguro did not write in the opposition of cloning on a scientific stance but on the more grounds of the clones having souls themselves. Just as scientists can’t prove where the little voice in our head is when we get that sixth sense that someone is watching us or the “oh I should have said that” line that goes off ten minutes after an argument. Ishiguro demonstrates that just because you can’t prove its there or where it comes from doesn’t mean they don’t have it. The three stages of Kathy’s life is much like the set up of “To Kill a Mocking Bird” from innocents to maturity, learning life lessons in a coming to age tale of a clone. Ishiguro sets up his novel this way to mark a different level of problems and a different level of discovery, through a character that you find many resemblances in yourself and you find yourself rooting for; hence rooting against harvesting/ cloning. P.S. Written while on heavy duty cold meds :)

The 5 Lessons

Since we were just talking about the man in class:

Assignment #1 Dr. Preston's AP Lit Comp Blog

Do you know what scares me more than AP classes?
Stupid people.
Now maybe i'm being slightly harsh, but if you have ever transitioned from, lets say "average" English to AP English you would think you'd died and gone to heaven. The students think different, talk different, act different. In AP, i find myself surrounded by kids that don't make me feel like Einstein. In fact, I'm more than likely on the lower end of the AP totem pole. This pushes me, and gives me room to thrive. It's like going to a gym. I once heard some comedian or another say he would go to a gym where everyone one looks fit enough to beat him up, instead of a gym where hes the most fit. If he goes to the "though guy gym" he has to push himself to bulk up and to work all the more to fit in, while at the gym where hes the most fit why improve? Hes already the best there? No challenge, no inspiration.  I truly feel I can relate.

Sometimes I worry that despite my efforts to be among high level thinks, I might drowned. To be up front I got 2's on all the AP tests I've taken including: AP World History, AP US History, and AP English. I don't ace all my tests, and some times I think I'm better off in college prep classes. I know though, if I did that, I would go insane due to simplicity. So here I remain. Aiming high, hoping working to success, but accepting and moving past my failures.

I know better than to expect this course to be simple, what kind of fool would that make me? But I am also aware that this class could possibly be more benefiting than half the others put together. I have your average high school student's goal to get an A, but I also aim to get a 4 on my AP Lit exam (the minimum requirement for my desired college), but more than good grades, I just hope to learn, so that one day I may not be at the bottom of a totem pole.