Sucker, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and The Sniper

            I have read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Sucker, and The Sniper.  Each of these stories talks a lot about death or something life changing and how it affects people in different situations.  This would vary depending on the time period and the situation that people are in. 

            The time period greatly affects the reactions to life changing events and how life-changing events occur.  During the civil war, death and life changing things would happen much more often than in a setting that is not as violent and unpredictable.  In a modern time when there is always the question of who you killed and how they relate to you.  In The Sniper, the young man wonders who he has killed and risks his life just to see who he killed. He ended up finding that he killed his brother, so it may just be in that situation.  In modern areas where there is no war, there is still a way to harm people with words and actions, rather than guns and weapons.  In Sucker, the boy and his cousin were best friends until they got in a fight and they said things that were so hurtful that they damaged the relationship they had forever. 

            The way people accept life changing events and death vary according to the situation that they are in.  In really bad situations where there is war or diseases, death is not as uncommon as it would be in a peaceful community where there is not a lot of fighting or death.  In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Sniper, the main characters that have occurrences with death or near death are both during times of civil war and get caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.  In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the man had been tricked and caught by the enemy soldiers during the Civil War.  In The Sniper, the young man is on “guard duty” and was in a one-on-one gunfight with a man on the enemy side.  The man turned out to be his brother.  In both situations, both men accepted death pretty well.  One had a flashback/ fantasy of himself getting away to his wife and children, where as the other just looked down into the face of his brother.  Both were sad events, but taken well.  In Sucker, the boys get into a fight that leaves one of them wanting to kill the other.  When someone you love makes this kind of wound, just saying, “I’ m sorry” doesn’t fix it. 

            The situations and the time periods of life changing events effect the reaction of people that they happened to and the overall community of a family or group of people.  

Reading Minutes

The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Claire
10/15- 148 pages; 2 hours 15 minutes
10/16- 130 pages; 2 hours
10/17- 143 pages; 2 hours 5 minutes (approx.)
10/18- 85 pages; 1.5 hours

The City of Bones by Cassandra Claire
10/19-176 pages; 2.5 hours
10/20- 208 pages; 3 hours
10/21-140 pages; 2 hours 5 minutes (approx.)

Reading Minutes

The Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare
10/11-155 pages; 2.5 hours
10/12- 192 pages; 3 hours
10/13-102 pages; 2 hours

Characterization

In To Da-duh, in Memoriam, the reader can see a lot of characterization.  The reader quickly learns that the story is told from the 1^st person perspective.  Almost immediately after the introductions of the characters, there is a series of indirect statements describing the grandmother.  The narrator describes the grandmother as having “an ugly rolled-brim brown felt hat, her back was beginning to bend, old-fashioned white dress” etc. All of those descriptions are indirect, showing the appearance of the grandmother when she first saw her.  The narrator then continues to describe the grandmother’s face saying “it was as stark and fleshless as a death mask, ruined skin and deep wells, and her eyes were alive.” These are also indirect statements about the appearance of the grandmother.  The narrator then observes her grandmothers actions towards her and her family.  Her mother was reduced to the narrators status when they grandmother calls her child, showing characterization in an indirect way through the grandmother’s interactions between her and her daughter.  The grandmother then turns and interacts with the granddaughters, saying that she wishes they were white boys.  This is also an indirect characterization through the grandmother’s interactions.  Later on throughout story, the grandmother is constantly interacting with the youngest granddaughter by “competing” with her.  The grandmother challenges the thing is New York and asks the girl if they have anything as tall as or a great as something in the grandmother’s world.  The grandmother continuously shows her curiosity about New York, but at the same time, doesn’t seem to completely believe everything the girl is telling her.  This is indirect characterization because it shows the grandmothers interactions with the granddaughter.  Indirect characterization is important in any story because it helps bring the characters to life, and it lets you have more freedom with how you imagine the characters. Without indirect characterization, books and stories would be badly written and not as flowey.  Characterization is important in any story to help bring the characters to life in the readers mind and mesmerize them with the actions and experiences characters have in books and stories

Class Participation

This quarter, I think that I participated fairly well.  I always have all the things that I need for class.  For example, I always have my pencils/pens, notebook, reading book, binder, and short story booklet with me.  I usually use my breaks during the day well and get water and go to the bathroom then, but every now and then, I might need to go to my locker to get my ipad because I don’t like carrying it around, because then I am tempted to read during other classes.  I check the EHS website multiple times every night to make sure that I have done all of my homework, and when possible, I try to get ahead.  During class, I try to participate, as much as possible without being the only one answering the questions.  At then end of the class, I usually only pack up early if I have somewhere that I really have to be, like when I had to do the sermon in chapel, or on Monday when the cross country team goes to Highland Road Park for practice.  Other than those days, I usually don’t pack up until the very end of class. 

            When Dr. D is lecturing us and showing the class the power points, I always take notes, especially when she emphasizes something, says it twice, or says we will need to know this. Whenever she asks us questions, I try to give a goo answer that is correct, but sometimes I don’t answer because I don’t want to be wrong, and I am not completely sure my answer is correct.  I don’t usually ask that many questions during class because I feel that Dr. D explains everything very and doesn’t give us that much room to be confused.  Whenever people do ask questions in class, I listen to make sure that I know the answer and to make sure that I won’t ask the same question later.  I never do anything else in English but English and reading when I am allowed.  I don’t usually have any other conversations because there are not any other people I could talk to.  When Brennan and I do talk, usually it is one of us asking a question to the other one.  I rarely ever use my computer in class.  When I do use my computer, it is when we are writing a paper, so I don’t ever do anything I am not supposed to do on it. 

            When we do group work, sometimes I am quite and don’t always put my thoughts into the group discussion (I am a little shy), but when they ask me something or they get stuck, and then I put out my thoughts a little and see what they think.  Usually, they like what I say, and it helps everybody get past a mental block (or some such thing).  I am usually lucky and get in a good group, so we always stay on topic.  We always complete the task(s) assigned to us and I try to put a little more than what is asked for. 

            Sometimes when I write, I ramble on and on and on, and can easily get off topic.  To fix that, I am going to try to write a little bit more concisely, but not as concise as Richard.  He can fit huge ideas in such a small space because he chooses his wording very carefully and spends FOREVER on one sentence.  Woops…rambling again.  My goal to improve my writing during the second quarter by shortening it.  

Reading Minutes

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
10/4-208 pages, 2.5 hours
10/5-190 pages, about 2 hours 15 minutes
10/6-197 pages, about 2 hours and 15 minutes

The Warlock Plot

The Warlock is about a pair of twins who are separated.  One of them is on the good side, the other on the bad side.  They have to fight for the side they think is right, but they love each other and want to help each other.  The protagonists in the book are Sophie Newman and Nicolas Flamel.  The antagonists are Dr. Dee, Virginia Dare, and Josh Newman.

The conflict in this book is between Nicholas and Sophie against Josh and Dr. Dee.  Nicolas Flamel is dying and he needs to get the Codex back from Dr. Dee and save the golden twin, Josh.  Sophie is helping him.  The climax of the book is when Josh decides to side with Virginia Dare and Dr. Dee against his twin Sophie and Nicholas Flamel.  He does this because he thinks he sees Sophie kill a pretty girl, but actually, the girl is a snake lady and is evil.   Virginia Dare and Dr. Dee want to destroy the world, but they don’t tell Josh that.  They tell him that they want to save the world and make it a paradise.  After he switches, Nicolas Flamel and everyone on his side know that Josh is truly lost to them.   

To get to this point, there was a lot of rising action.  Many people that are usually enemies decide to join together to stop Dr. Dee.  Mars Ultor was one of those people.  He had been an enemy of Nicolas, but realized that Dr. Dee needed to be stopped.  The Witch of Endor released him from prison so that he could fight.  Other people, like the Elders and the Next Generation, have to work together to stop him from destroying the world. Machiavelli and Billy the Kid also team up together to help stop Dee.  Originally, they were working with Dee and Virginia Dare, but once they learned what he was really planning to do, they felt that that was not what was right and that his plan would never succeed.  They tried to get Josh to join their side, but once again, he chose Dr. Dee. One of the most important rising actions was when Sophie Newman learns that her aunt is really the One Who Sees.  This is important because the things that the One Who Sees tells Sophie start to make all the books in the series fit together to make one final outcome. 

There was not a lot of falling action after the climax in The Warlock. Dr. Dee tries to get Machiavelli, his new enemy, to tell him how to release all the monsters on Alcatraz.  When he doesn’t, Dee threatens to feed Machiavelli’s new friend, Billy the Kid, to the sphinx.  Machiavelli and Billy the Kid both agree that it is better to loose one life than loose an entire nation.  The last and most important falling action is when Sophie Newman makes it to the island and tries to convince her brother that he should come with her.  This is important because it shows how much she loves him and how much she is willing to sacrifice for him..

The resolution of The Warlock is also a cliffhanger.  Josh tells Sophie that Dr. Dee and Virginia Dare need his help.  Sophie knows that her brother will not come with her, so she decides to go with him.  They all end up at the beginning of the world on Danu Talis.  This is important because it shows how much the two siblings love each other, and that Dr. Dee’s plan is not actually what he told Josh.  His plan is something bigger and something much more dangerous than just taking over the world.