Snow

I hate snow. I really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really hate snow. It is cold, and it gets all dirty and gross really fast, and it is wet. It is just a bunch of yuck. I mean sure, snow is all magical and awesome when it snows for the first time of the year. I do like it then. And yeah, if you have to right kind of snow it is really fun to make like an igloo or something or go sledding when the snow is really slick and you go fast. That is fun. But if the snow is all poopy and bad for sledding then it is worthless. And most of the time, snow is worthless.

Driving in the snow is bad. Trying to walk in the snow while wearing a nice outfit is bad. And you know what is super deduper bad? I live on a big hill. My driveway is a big hill. Every time it snows I have to go out and shovel the driveway which is super long and is a hill. It is really hard to shovel. And when it is icy, you fall down the hill which hurts really bad. My dad slides down the hill almost every year. Ok yeah, it is extremely hilarious, but he gets really mad which makes it not extremely hilarious really fast.

So yeah, shoveling my driveway is a terrible task. It takes forever too.

And I just hate the cold. I really really really really really really really really really really really hate cold weather. I used to live in Florida. I was born there. I would love to move back there. That way, I would not have to deal with yucky snow or cold whether. Just the feeling of the freezing wind smacking you across the face is terrible. It is probably one of the worst feelings in the world. I really hate it. I would rather get poured on by warm rain then have to walk from my car to the school with freezing wind biting away at my face.

In conclusion...I hate snow. That is it. The end.

The Minister's Black Veil: Characteristics of Dark Romanticism

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil is a dark romantic short story filled with dark romantic characteristics. There is also a huge psychological aspect to the story.

A young minister to a church decides to wear a black veil one day to church. All the people have no idea what he is doing. They are all scared by the dark and mysterious veil. The minister's fiance asks him why he wears the veil, and he says he cannot tell her. He says to just have patience with him. He says the veil is only a mortal thing, but when he dies he will be able to take it off. -Weird. His fiance becomes very mad at him for this because she cannot understand why he is wearing the veil. She tells him they are done. For the rest of the minister's life, he hides behind his black veil and watches as life goes on. Once he is finally on his death bed, with his ex fiance, Elizabeth, at his side as the nurse, another priest asks if he can take off his veil yet. The minister freaks out and says no. Then he dies. They bury the minister with the veil still on his face.

This short story is really weird. It has a lot of characteristics of dark romanticism though. The black veil, is obviously a characteristic of dark romanticism. It is mysterious, black, and kind of spooky. It is just a symbol, but it makes all the people freak out when they see it. For example:

"Such was the effect of this simple piece of crepe, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them" (Hawthorne).

"At the close of the services, the people hurried out with indecorous confusion, eager to communicate their pent-up amazement, and conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil. Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering in the centre; some went homeward alone, wrapt in silent meditation; some talked loudly, and profaned the Sabbath day with ostentatious laughter. A few shook their sagacious heads, intimating that they could penetrate the mystery; while one or two affirmed that there was no mystery at all, but only that Mr. Hooper's eyes were so weakened by the midnight lamp, as to require a shade. After a brief interval, forth came good Mr. Hooper also, in the rear of his flock. Turning his veiled face from one group to another, he paid due reverence to the hoary heads, saluted the middle aged with kind dignity as their friend and spiritual guide, greeted the young with mingled authority and love, and laid his hands on the little children's heads to bless them. Such was always his custom on the Sabbath day. Strange and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy. None, as on former occasions, aspired to the honor of walking by their pastor's side. Old Squire Saunders, doubtless by an accidental lapse of memory, neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table, where the good clergyman had been wont to bless the food, almost every Sunday since his settlement. He returned, therefore, to the parsonage, and, at the moment of closing the door, was observed to look back upon the people, all of whom had their eyes fixed upon the minister. A sad smile gleamed faintly from beneath the black veil, and flickered about his mouth, glimmering as he disappeared" (Hawthorne).

These two quotes show the agitation and confusion the parishioners feel when they see the minister's black veil. They have no idea what to think of the veil. They wonder if he is hiding from a terrible sin or from God. The mystery of the veil almost drives them crazy (as seen when the women gets up and leaves in the middle of his sermon). When the parishioners see his black veil they think of some of their darkest thoughts. The veil is some type of psychological thing that drives them mad. Because they have no idea why the minister is wearing it or what it is for, they let their imaginations run wild with crazy ideas as to why the minister wears the veil his whole life.

""Why do you tremble at me alone?" cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. "Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!" (Hawthorne).

Not until the end of the story do we see why the minister wears the veil. As the quote above tells us, the veil symbolizes the lies and sins of everyone. The minister makes an example of himself by physically wearing the veil, but he says he sees a veil on everyone because everyone is guilty of something.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister's Black Veil” In American Literature. Willhelm, Jeffory, comp. McGraw Hill. Columbus, 2009. Print.

Wearing A Mask

People pretend to wear a mask all the time. Most people do it because they are afraid to do something, they are embarrassed, or they just do not want to be noticed. I cannot think of a time when I wore a mask, but I can think of some examples when you would wear a mask.

Sometimes you wear a mask when you do not want people to see your emotions. So here is an example of a time when you would wear a mask.

You wake up in the morning. You are still sad and really cranky from the day before when your boyfriend/girlfriend broke up with you. You go downstairs to eat breakfast. Your mom says good morning and how are you, and you just shrug and say fine. You finish eating, and you get dressed. After brushing your teeth and doing all the rest of the usual getting ready activities, you get in your car and drive to school.

On your way to school you listen to sad music, but then you start to feel annoyed, so you turn up some angry music as loud as your ears will allow you to. You get to school at around 8:00, and your best friend comes up to you because he/she can tell that you are feeling bad. They ask you what is wrong and you say you just had a bad morning. Your friend can still tell that something else is bothering you, but they decide to leave alone for now. You go to your first class, which just so happens to have your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend in it. You feel terrible and you want nothing more but to leave, but you put on your mask, and pretend that everything is okay. You do not want your ex to see how upset you are about the night before. You laugh at everyone's jokes and pretend to have a good time in class.

So far that is a pretty bad beginning to a day. The main character in this story is wearing a mask because he does not want anyone to know about his true feelings from the night before.

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is a dark romanticist, so the story obviously has some dark romanticist qualities. The story is about a man who is put in jail. At first the cell is very dark. The man makes his way around the cell to try and see how long it is. He then tries to walk across the cell. He stumbles and realizes that he is right in front of a giant pit. Scared, the man returns to the wall. He is given something to eat that has a type of drug in it to make him fall asleep. He awakes to find himself tied to a table with a giant pendulum swinging high above him. After struggling for a very long time the man realizes that he has to wait for the pendulum to get very close to him so it can cut off the rope around his hands. He manages to free himself of the ropes of the death from the pendulum. The pendulum then rises back up to the ceiling. A little while later the walls start to move in slightly. They are metal and very hot, so the man cannot touch them. The walls are trying to force the man into the pit: a horrible and tragic death. Right before the man is about to be forced into the pit, the walls stop and a man grabs his hand and saves him.

There are many characteristics of dark romanticism in this short story. There are black robed judges. Black is a very dark color. (Obviously).

"I was sick, sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence, the dread sentence of death, was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum" (Poe).

This quote shows some characteristics of dark romanticism because it talks about death, being sick, long agony, being sentenced to death, and loosing one's senses.

"And now, as I still continued to step cautiously onward, there came thronging upon my recollection a thousand vague rumours of the horrors of Toledo. Of the dungeons there had been strange things narrated -- fables I had always deemed them -- but yet strange, and too ghastly to repeat, save in a whisper. Was I left to perish of starvation in this subterranean world of darkness; or what fate perhaps even more fearful awaited me? That the result would be death, and a death of more than customary bitterness, I knew too well the character of my judges to doubt. The mode and the hour were all that occupied or distracted me" (Poe).

This quote also shows some characteristics of dark romanticism. It too talks about death. It also says that the man heard stories about the prison, Toledo, that he was in. He says he heard weird stories of things he thought were a myth. This statement from the man brings a lot of scary pictures to the readers' minds. I know it brought some sick pictures to my mind...pictures of horrible death traps and other unimaginable things.

I final example of dark romanticism in the story is when all the rats come and kind of attack the man. That part is extremely nasty. When the man is tied to the table, all the rats come running up from the pit. They run and jump all over the man, but the man cannot do anything about it because he is tied down. The rats eat almost all of his food. One of them even goes in his mouth! Sick! I do not know about other readers, but when I read this part, I freaked out. Poe uses a great amount of imagery and other devices to make the reader really sense everything that is going on. It was a great story, but very, very disturbing.

Works Cited:

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature. Ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill. 2010. 263-273. Print.

The Raven Literary Analysis

The Raven is a poem written by Dark Romanticist poet, Edgar Allan Poe. The poem is about a man who is reading in the middle of the night and trying not to think about his lost love Lenore. He soon hears a knocking at his door, and he becomes frightened. After sitting in terror for a while, he finally goes over to the door and opens it, but there is no one there. He soon hears the knocking again. This time he thinks it is from his window. He goes over to this window and opens it, and a raven flies in. The raven flies up to a bust, or statue from the chest up, of Pallas Athena (the goddess of wisdom and war). The narrator has a conversation with the raven and all the raven says is "Nevermore".

I read a critical analysis from Bloom's Literary Reference Online called Review of "The Raven" by P. Pendleton Cooke. Cooke had nothing but good things to say about the poem. I would have to agree with Cooke in some of the points that he makes. Cooke says,

"Observe how artistically the poet has arranged the circumstances of this opening—how congruous all are. This congruity extends to the phraseology; every word is admirably selected and placed with reference to the whole. Even the word "napping" is well chosen, as bestowing a touch of the fantastic, which is subsequently introduced as an important component of the poem. Stanza 2d increases the distinctness and effect of the picture as already presented to us. The "Midnight Dreary" is a midnight "in the bleak December," and the "dying embers" are assuming strange and fantastic shapes upon the student's hearth. We now pass these externals and some words of exquisite melody let us into the secret of the rooted sorrow which has led to the lonely night-watching and fruitless study" (Cooke).

This is a very good observation made by Cooke. The certain words and phrases like "in the bleak of December", "dying embers", and "Midnight Dreary" do portray a kind of dark and mysterious tone to the poem.

I, personally, like the dark and mysterious tone of the poem. I really like Dark Romanticism, and Edgar Allan Poe is actually my family dark romanticist. In all honesty, he is the only dark romanticist I know right now, but I have read a few of his works over the years and I liked them a lot. I really like mysteries in general, and his poems and short stories are really good mysteries. I also love ghost stories because I am kind of weird like that, and I like that kind of stuff.

Cooke goes on to say,

"The rhythm of this poem is exquisite, its phraseology is in the highest degree musical and apt, the tone of the whole is wonderfully sustained and appropriate to the subject, which, full as it is of a wild and tender melancholy, is admirably well chosen. This is my honest judgment; I am fortified in it by high authority. Mr. Willis says:—"It is the most effective single example of fugitive poetry ever published in this country, and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift. It is one of those dainties which we feed on. It will stick to the memory of every one who reads it...I hear of persons haunted by the Nevermore, and one acquaintance of mine, who has the misfortune of possessing a bust of Pallas, never can bear to look at it in the twilight" (Cooke).

While I would have to agree with the writing style of Poe's The Raven, I would not be so over exaggerate as Cooke is. I feel he goes a little over board in praising Poe's poem. I am not saying that the poem is not full of wonderfully colorful words and great poetic devices, I am just saying that I would not be so crazily enthusiastic about it. I am also not so sure about the part where people were actually haunted by the word "Nevermore". I did not find the poem very spooky at all. The setting makes the poem pretty spooky, but, in my opinion, I think the raven makes the poem really stupid. Maybe back when Poe was alive it was creepy, but today, not so much. For people to actually be haunted by the word "Nevermore" is pretty ridiculous. I mean, come on, it's just a poem.

Works Cited:

Cooke, P. Pendleton. "Edgar A. Poe," Southern Literary Messenger (January 1848). Reprinted in The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Eric W. Carlson (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966): pp. 21–23. Quoted as "Review of 'The Raven'" in Harold Bloom, ed. Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMPEAP21&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 22, 2010).

Walden

Henry David Thoreau was, among other things, an American author, poet, abolitionist, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. Thoreau is best known for his book Walden and his essay Civil Disobedience. Thoreau wrote his book Walden about the times he had living in a cabin near Walden Pond. Thoreau said, ""I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" (Wayne).

Wayne says,

his most lasting literary legacy would in fact be the account of his stay at Walden, an account that has come to represent the core of a Transcendentalist perspective on self-reliance, frugality and economy, humanity's relationship with nature, and environmentalism. In going to Walden to live alone in a one-room cabin, Henry David Thoreau sought to separate himself from what he and other Transcendentalists saw as the increasing materialism and commercialism guiding antebellum American life. Thoreau wanted to get back to the basics and live in the simplest manner possible so as not only to remove himself from those negative values he associated with a capitalist economy but to look within himself and to nature for his physical as well as spiritual and intellectual needs (Wayne).

From this account, I would believe that Thoreau was a true Transcendentalist because he wanted to isolate himself to ponder the real meanings of life. He wanted to live a simple life in order to see what was really important to him.

Wayne continues to say, "Thoreau, of course, intended to spend his free nonworking hours and days in bettering himself through study and through spiritual communion with nature. It was as a poet, one who drew his inspiration from self-sufficiency and from nature, that Thoreau was most effective in presenting the main theme of Walden" (Wayne).

I would have to agree with Wayne here. I think that because Thoreau isolated himself so much and thought about the real meaning of life all day made him a more effective writer. I do not think that someone who just decided to write about Thoreau's topic, and did not go through what he did, would be as effective as Thoreau was.

So says Wayne,

Walden Pond itself served as the best example of Henry David Thoreau's dual perspective of nature as having both physical and spiritual aspects, but also of having both knowable and unknown qualities. The pond itself is the symbolic center of the text, a place that Thoreau had known as a child and thus was, in a sense, part of his own self that he had come to learn about in new ways. The pond symbolized for Thoreau the human spirit or soul. Local legend was that the pond was bottomless, but Thoreau had set out first to measure the pond's depth—which he found to be more than 100 feet—and then to see that not as a limitation but as representative of holding specific identifiable truths that just have not yet been fully comprehended or mined. The fact that these truths remained unseen, in this case literally underwater, was the source of their mystery (Wayne).

I thought this quote was very interesting, which is why I put it in my blog. I did really think about the symbolism of the pond or anything, so I thought Wayne had a good grasp on what everything meant, which helped me to understand the story a little bit better.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Walden." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ETRA402&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 17, 2010).

The Raven: Evaluation

Literal Meaning:

The narrator is reading a book around midnight when, before he is about to fall asleep, someone taps at the door. The narrator tells himself that it is only a visitor and nothing else.

It was a December night, and his fire was burning in the fireplace. The narrator wished it was the next day; he was reading because he could not stop thinking about his lost love Lenore.

Every movement scared the narrator, so he kept telling himself it was only a visitor at the door and nothing else.

The narrator finally got a burst of courage and opened the door, but no one was there. The narrator became very scared and started thinking about the worst things he could when he said "Lenore" and then something whispered "Lenore" back.

The narrator went back into his room then hurt the tapping again, but it was louder this time. He then thinks that the sound is coming from his window. The narrator opened the window, and a raven flew in. The raven flew right in and landed on top of a statue of Pallas above the narrators door.

The raven makes the narrator laugh because he looks so serious. He asks the raven his name and he says "Nevermore". The narrator was surprised and a little excited that the raven spoke so clearly to him.

The raven did not say anything else until the narrator said that all his friends have left him, so the raven will leave him too in the morning, but the raven said "Nevermore".

The narrator says to himself that "Nevermore" is the only word the raven could speak. That someone taught only that word to him. The narrator then pulled up a chair and sat beside the raven, and he thought about what he meant by saying "Nevermore".

The narrator sat and pondered and wondered about Lenore.

All of a sudden the air grew denser, and a scent filled the room. The narrator says, "Please give me things to help me forget Lenore!" and the raven says "Nevermore".

The narrator asks if there is any relief for his suffering, and the raven says, "Nevermore".

The narrator asks if Lenore is in heaven, and the raven says, "Nevermore". The narrator then becomes mad and tells the raven to leave. The raven says, "Nevermore".

The raven still stays completely still on top of the statue, and the narrator stays there with his soul never being lifted again.

Poetic Devices:

symbolism: I think the raven symbolizes death, because he comes when the narrator is thinking about death, and at the end of the poem, I think the last line kind of means that the raven and the narrator become one, which means that the narrator dies.

Personification: This is used when the raven speaks and says "Nevermore". I know some birds can actually talk, but I do not think ravens can speak.

Imagery: A great example of imagery from the poem is "Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor." This is good imagery because I feel like I can see the the incense floating around in the room, and I can almost smell because I know what incense smells like.

Figurative Meaning:

I think the figurative meaning of this poem is that the narrator is thinking and feeling sad about his lost love Lenore. A raven, whom I believe symbolizes death, knocks on his window because it is his time to go. The raven says "Nevermore" to all of the narrators questions because he is about to die too. At the end, the raven and the narrators soul kind of become one, which means that the narrator dies because I think the raven symbolizes death.

Emerson and the works of Melancholia

Ralph Waldo Emerson was considered a Romantic poet. Romantic poets write a lot about nature, love, patriotism, God, religion, and feelings. Later in his life time though, he was considered a Transcendentalist. Transcendentalists usually thought things through with their intuition, and it took them a long time to evaluate and examine things. Emerson moved over to becoming a Transcendentalists through his life experiences. All people change, and for Emerson, he changed from a Romanticist to a Transcendentalist. His changes (obviously) showed up in his writings.

Emerson started to become very melancholy in his works. He starts out with "Self-Reliance" by saying that all men should think on their own and not follow in other mens' footsteps. He says men should have a mind of their own and work well independently. Soon, Emerson starts to hide a bit of grief in his works:

"The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible society … I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are. And, of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat [sic] you have stated in this or that public place?" (Emerson).

Emerson's grief is obvious because he is talking about death and dead things. He asks why a man should be concerned with things that are dead (or just not of use) and drag them on along side them when they do not need them.

From his essay, "Compensation", Emerson says:

"Every soul is by … intrinsic necessity quitting its whole system of things, its friends, and home, and laws, and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth, and slowly forms a new house. In proportion to the vigor of the individual, these revolutions are frequent, until in some happier mind they are incessant…. And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day…. But to us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooperating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks" (Emerson).

Here Emerson is saying that our mind wants to make its thoughts be like real things. Whether the real thing is church, nature, or anything else. Emerson says that to think these things are the absolute truth is where our chief sorrows lie.

As the reader can see, Emerson starts to reject the ideas of Romanticism. He becomes a lot more melancholy, and he asks questions about why men do things, or why they think things that make them feel sad or sorry. He becomes more like a Transcendentalist because he goes over these questions and ideas several times in several essays, and he tries to find the meaning behind it all.

"Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987). Quoted as "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= MCVRWE007&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 17, 2010).

Journal # 24: I'm Scared!

During my childhood, there were a lot of times where my mind played tricks on me, and I became scared. As a child, I had a very active and crazy imagination. I remember one time in particular when I got really scared at night. I still lived in Florida, so I was seven or younger. There was not a bathroom near my room, so I had to walk over to my parents room to go to the bathroom. In order to get to their room I had to walk through our living room. Because we lived in Florida we had a lot of windows looking to our backyard (so we could see all the beautiful nature stuff outside). So when I was walking back from the bathroom, for some reason I imagined a wolf with red eyes looking at me, and I ran back to my bed as fast as I could. My mind was obviously playing a trick on me because I am pretty sure there was not a wolf with red eyes in my living room.

Another time I was scared at night was when I moved to Illinois and I got some American Girl Dolls. At night, those things are scary!! I have three American Girl Dolls, Molly, Kaya, and Kailey (I think that is her name). In other words, I have the one that was from WWI or II..not sure, the indian one, and a special edition surfer girl one. At night I would think that they turned their heads to stare at me sleeping, or that they would crawl up onto my bed to get me. I imagined them being like Chuckie Dolls. THAT is why you should not allow your children to watch things that they should not be watching.

Obviously, my dolls were not going to magically come alive to get me during the night. Most children have over-active imaginations, and they imagine that their toys come to life. Things like that can thank Toy Story and other children's movies/books for those false ideas. Don't get me wrong, I love Toy Story, but sometimes I was a little freaked out to be around my toys by myself...

Journal #23 Unplugged

I think it would be pretty awesome to go camping without any appliances. Of course, it would take some getting used to, but it would be pretty fun. I do not use my phone very often, so that would not be an issue for me. I mean, if all my friends were there too then why would I need to text anyone? Eating food only from a fire is not that big of a deal either. I actually like to go camping, but my family does not do it very often.

So if I had to go on a camping trip without any technology, I would probably just go somewhere by a lake. I do not really know where. Just somewhere where it is not going to get too cold or too hot. I hate extreme weather. I would take a bunch of my friends and my parents...not my siblings because they would get really annoying.

To pass the time I would swim in the lake A LOT. I love swimming. I would go hiking and have fun little adventures. Yes, I just said I would have fun little adventures. I would go fishing and canoeing also. (Because I can canoe because you do not need electricity or anything to canoe..so ha.)At night everyone would gather around the campfire and sing songs, tell stories, and eat smores...the usual camping stuff. Ummm, I can not sleep just straight on the hard rocky ground...so before we would leave for the trip, I would blow up an air mattress for myself. I do not care if that is cheating, and I do not care if you say that it would inflate eventually or that it would not fit in my car....in my story, everything goes perfect.

So yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. I also think it would be even more fun to go camping with just my friends, but like somewhere close to where our parents are so we do not die. It would be fun to just hang out all day with my friends. The only thing that is really gross and bad about this situation is that you can not take showers, or go to the bathroom in a real bathroom. That is just straight up nasty. I can not handle that.

Journal #22 Breaking the Law

Breaking the law is bad. It is bad to break the law. I do not break the law. Sometimes you have to break the law though. I have never had to break the law. Sometimes you have to break the law to save someones life..at least I guess you do. I do not really know. I am not an expert on breaking the law. I do not really care about it. I just want to go to sleep because I have had boring musical practice all week and I am so tired. I am about to fall asleep, and I am about to start crying because I am so tired. I have no idea what to write for this blog. Breaking the law is bad. Sometimes you have to break the law to save someone's life, or get rid of bad people. Like I said, I do not know anything about this at all. I do not go around and read newspaper or something about people breaking the law for the common good. I am pretty sure there is not a newspaper in town that would have a heading like that. Only superheros can break the law and get away with it. But superheroes are not real because that would be too cool. Instead we live in a boring world filled with boringness.

I do not even think I have seen a movie or anything where someone has had to break the law for good. So I have nothing to go on. Okay I guess you could say in those action packed movies with huge car chases. Car chases are against the law because they drive really super fast and they weave in and out of traffic which is bad and they run away from the police which is bad. That is against the law, but the person being chased by bad people is kind of doing something good because they are trying to safe someone I guess. I do not really know. This is a dumb blog and I am sorry that my writing on it is really bad, but I do not know what to say and I am so tired and I just want to go to bed and I am not in the mood for anything. I am not inspired to write anything so how am I supposed to write something that is actually worth writing?

Journal #20 Self Reflection

It is important to be self reflexive and take time away from society. When you take time for yourself, you can reflect on many things.

I usually do not get a lot of time for myself because I do a lot of things. During the day I go to school (obviously)so I am not alone there, then I go to work, then after work I have been going to pit band practice, so I do not get home until 8:30ish. Once I get home I have to do homework. Usually if I am going to do any self reflecting, I do it on the weekends. During the school year I am really busy, so during the weekend I like to just hang out at home by myself, or go do something really laid back with my friends. During the weekend I work on bettering myself and catching up on my homework. I usually like to make plans for things I want to do later in life and what I can do now to make that happen. I practice my clarinet a lot on the weekends too.

When I actually do some self reflecting, I do it when I am alone. Usually I just kind of space it while I am doing something, like watching T.V. or doing homework, or even taking a shower. Yes I self reflect while taking a shower, and no, it is not nasty you sicko. It is nice and quiet in the shower because I am away from my family, and no one can disturb me while I am taking a SHOWER.

So yeah self reflection is really good because you can reflect on what you really do value in life. If you have been having a bad week, you can sit and reflect about it, and decide on what you will do next time that you are in the same kind of situation. I love doing some self reflection because it keeps me focused on the things that are really important to me in life. For example, sometimes I feel annoyed when I see couples walking around and stuff, but then I do some self reflecting, and I think to myself, I really do not need that right now because I need to focus on my grades and music to get into college. It is way more important for me to get into any college I want then to have a boyfriend. I have my whole life to have a boyfriend, but right now is the time for me to be preparing for college.

Journal #19 The Ideal United States

In the ideal United States, everyone is actually created equal. There is not any racism or prejudices against religion, culture, or anything else. Everyone gets a long just fine. We will all speak english because it will be easier for people to understand each other. Yeah...I do not really know what else to say for this. This is kind of super hard subject. I will be more creative with this then...

So the ideal United States will have all the things that I said above, but it will also have the following. Free ice cream days in the summer every Wednesday. Um, holidays will be celebrated to the max. There will never be school or work on holidays, or the five days leading up to the holiday, and at least one day after the holiday. That way, if Halloween is on a Sunday, we can still stay up late and stuff and not have to go to school the next day. I think that is a great idea. People will look after each other very well. If someone has a terrible addiction or something, someone will always be there for them to get them help because addictions are really bad. In the ideal United States nobody should have an addiction.

The zoos will be decked out in every animal that is on this earth. Scientists will be really smart, so they can even bring back some of the nice extinct animals. The amusements parks will have a perfect ride for everyone, and there will always be an amusement park at least twenty minutes from your house. I love amusement parks.

If you do not live by the ocean, there will be a huge, cool indoor beach thing. It will be like a beach inside. It will have salt water, and there will even be nice marine life in the fake ocean so you can go scuba diving and stuff. I love to scuba dive.

So that is MY ideal United States. It sounds pretty awesome to me.

John Whittier: My Playmate

The first stanza of the poem depicts the atmosphere. It says that it is dark, and it is May. The blossoms on the trees fall from them in the wind like snow. The birds are singing a song that is sweet and sad.

The writer says that his playmate left her house and moved away. The writer used to work on her father's farm. She told him goodbye then left in May and never came back.

The writer goes on with his life, but he still misses her. All of nature waits for her to return to him, so they can be friends again. The writer wonders if his friend ever thinks of the times they had together. He wonders if she remembers him like he remembers her. He says she does not care that the spot where they played has been taken by other people now. He says that she has forgotten him, and that he and the woods where they played are sad and miss her.

Poetic devices:

This poem uses personification and imagery. Some examples of personification are, "And still the pines of Ramoth wood are moaning like the sea," and, "If ever the pines of Ramoth wood are sounding in her dreams". An example of imagery is "Our mossy seat is green".

I cannot really think of any deep meanings to this poem. I think it is just about a boy who lost his friend and misses her. I think the poem is just trying to express how sad the boy feels about losing his friend.

Childhood Memories

The waves in the ocean are nice to hear.
They whisper and tickle inside my ear.
Singing songs of love and some beauty too,
I wish to not leave them and say adieu.

They start soft and low, but soon they grow strong.
Their mists and salty smells are far from wrong.

When I go to the beach I feel so good.
It reminds me so much of my childhood.
Laughing and smiling and just having fun,
I wish to go back and soak up the sun.

But now I must stay in my teenage years,
and watch as my sweet memories appear.

Thanatopsis

Thanatopsis is a poem about death. It is a pretty good poem though. I do not exactly know what you meant when you said do an analysis for the poem, so I am just going to summarize it.

Thanatopsis says if people love nature, nature will talk to them. Nature will help them get through any feelings they have. If the person is happy, nature is happy, and if the person is sad, nature will cheer them up. Thanatopsis says when you think of death go into nature and a calm voice will talk to you, and a few days later you will die. When you are buried you will become one with the earth, and you will be equal with all the other people who are buried too. It does not matter if they were kings or queens, you will be equal. All of the trees and mountains and everything will be decorations for your tomb. The poem asks, once your gone, what if people will forget you? But it answers that it is okay because everyone dies. Everyone will go through the same process as you, and soon they will join you. The poem tells you to live life well, but when death comes, embrace it and go happily. Do not be scared.

Some poetic devices used were personification and imagery. Personification was used when the poem said that nature talks to you or the stars were sad when you died. Imagery was used when the poem said your tomb will be covered with mountains and trees and everything else of the earth.

I think the figurative meaning is to always look forward to things in your life and to not have fear for things. Everyone goes through the same kind of stuff, so you should not feel alone or scared about it.

Journal #17 Bonding With Nature

I like nature. I love all the different seasons. My favorite season is fall, but I have a certain thing I love about each season. I will only tell about I time I bonded with nature in the summer though.

In the summer I love to go to the beach. I love swimming in the ocean and seeing certain things I normally do not get to see everyday. I used to live in Florida, so the ocean also means something to me. It reminds me of my younger childhood, so I feel really good and young when I go back to the beach. I feel like I am a little kid again playing in the sand. The only thing that is different is that I am not afraid of drowning as much, and I can swim a lot better. One of my favorite times at the beach happened this summer. We went to Florida for a wedding for someone we used to be good friends with when we lived in Florida. We stayed in a really nice hotel that was on the beach. That part was awesome because we usually never stay in a nice hotel on the beach. We usually stay in a condo, and it usually is across the street from the beach. We only stayed in a nice hotel though because it was right by the wedding, and we were only there for one or two nights. Anyways, the beach was absolutely amazing. We had our foreign exchange student with us, and she loved it too. The sand was warm, the water was the perfect temperature, and there was even a small reef right off shore.

The reef was the best part of the vacation. It was small, but it was awesome. Really it was just a bunch of rocks and stuff, but there were small tidal pools with all kinds of crabs and cute little fish. It was really cool because the water was not very deep, so I just put on some goggles and swam with the fish! There were two parrot fish that I followed, and I could have touched them but I decided to leave them alone. I was bonding with nature when I was swimming with all those fish because I was swimming with them, but I left them alone and just watched them. It was amazing!

Journal #16 My Favorite TV Show

I have a lot of favorite TV shows. There are too many to choose from. Some of my favorite TV shows are That 70s Show, Tosh.0, Glee, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars. I love those shows so very much. I like TV shows that can make me laugh. That is where That 70s Show, Tosh.0 and Glee come in. I love That 70s Show because it is so funny. My favorite character is probably Fez. He is so funny all the time. I also love Red. Fez is funny because he always wants..certain things..and he loves candy. I love candy too, Fez. Red is hilarious because he is always so serious and he thinks his son is super gay. Even though he is not gay because he has a girlfriend. When my brother was still in high school we would watch That 70s Show together every day after school.

I love Tosh.0 because it is also really funny. It is basically a show that shows a bunch of youtube videos, and the host, Daniel Tosh, makes fun of the people. It sounds kinda mean, and yeah it actually is pretty mean most of the time, but it is hilarious. It is on Comedy Central, so what else would you expect? It's crude humor. Sometimes though it's really funny because he says things that you will be thinking but you don't want to say it because you don't know if other people think that too. My brother and I also used to watch that show together too. Whenever he comes home from college we always watch those two shows together though.

So not only do I just love those two shows, but I also love that I watched them with my brother. I have five siblings, but my big brother is my favorite. He and I get along so well. We always have. I am a lot like him now because he is pretty much my role model. I love when he comes home and we can hang out.

Glee is also one of my favorite shows. It is really funny, and it has musical numbers in it which is awesome because I am a band/music in general nerd, so I love it. I really wish I was in a glee club. There are new characters now too and one of them is super hot, except he has a really big mouth. I don't like that.

I like The Vampire Diaries because it is pretty interesting, and it is actually pretty intense. Also, pretty much every boy in that show, except for Damon, is super hot. That's not too bad. I don't know how they could find so many good looking people for one show. Some people may think The Vampire Diaries is like Twilight, but it definitely is not. Twilight is dumb. The Vampire Diaries is actually pretty good. It makes my Thursday night.

My last favorite show is Pretty Little Liars. It's not on right now which upsets me a lot. That show is pretty intense too. It's like a mystery for teenage girls. It has a lot of drama, good looking people (again), mystery, and fashion. I like all those things. I like to look at what the girls wear and get fashion ideas from them. Haha. So yeah I just love this show because it's a mystery and I go crazy for a good mystery.

Journal #15 Logic and Reason

I use logic and reason all the time. We are forced to use logic and reason all the time in school. I use it for pre calculus, physics, AP chemistry, psychology, AP American History, and pretty much all my other classes. I have gotten pretty good at using logic and reason with my work. A lot of the time during a test or something we will have to give the answer to the question, and then explain why or how we got that answer. By doing this we are using logic and reason.

Another time I use logic and reason is when I use common sense. Common sense is pretty doing things the logical way. The way that makes the most sense. You also use reason with common sense because you obviously have to have a reason for doing something. I do not really know what else to say about logic and reason. I use it during school. I use it all the time and everywhere I go.

Logic and reason are both good to use. If you do not use logic and/or reason every day you will probably do something wrong. You could do a lot of things wrong. You could do a math problem wrong, walk on the wrong side of the hallway, budge people in the lunch line (not a good idea because people get really mad when you budge them in the lunch line!), crash your car (really bad!), eat something that is bad for you or is spoiled then vomit or have bad bodily functions...yuck.

To stop all these things from happening all you have to do is use logic and reason. They are two very awesome things that come in handy....a lot.

Today I used logic. I used logic in my pre calculus class. I had to do a redo for my test that I got a B on...booo. I used logic and reason to figure out why I did some of the problems wrong. For most of the problems I just had one little part wrong, which messed up like everything else. That made me really mad. So I could I easily gotten an A on the test if I had actually used logic and reason in the first place while taking my test. I should have triple checked my answers, so I would know for sure if they were correct.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Thomas Paine was mainly a political writer and a figure for the Revolution. He wrote many things, but probably his most important work was Common Sense. Common Sense was a pamphlet that told people to declare independence from Great Britain right away. Common Sense had a very big impact, and it helped to persuade Americans to believe that they could successfully wage a war against Britain.

In Common Sense, Paine talks about how a monarchy is bad. He says that rule by a king is not very good, and that the rule should be by the people. Paine makes it pretty clear that he does not really like government and that he believes society is very good. He explains it in this quote:

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. (Paine).

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labor out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death, for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die. (Paine).

In this quote Thomas Paine continues to say how much better society is than government. He is obviously trying to move the American government into a democracy.

I agree with what Thomas Paine says about society and government. I also think government was way too controlling back then, especially with Great Britain and it's monarchies. I think Paine does a good job in Common Sense of telling people how much better the society is then government. He makes a good argument for America to establish a democracy.

Works Cited

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Common Sense (1971). Archiving Early America. Archiving Early America, 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2010.

Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream Reflection

Benjamin Franklin was a man of many things. He was an inventor, scientist, statesman, printer, philosopher, musician, and economist (The Franklin Institute). Benjamin Franklin is well known for many of his inventions. Some of these inventions include the lightning rod and the bifocal glasses (The Franklin Institute). Along with inventing things and other activities, Benjamin Franklin also wrote many things. He has a set of his own virtues, he wrote newspapers, almanacs and journals, and an autobiography. J.A. Leo Lemay writes in his, Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream, about how Franklin's Autobiography compares to the "American Dream".

There are many ways in which Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography could relate to the American Dream. Lemay points out one huge relationship between the two. He describes the "rags to riches" opportunities and the "rise from impotence to importance, from dependence to independence, from helplessness to power" (Lemay). All of these things were very important to the American Dream, and they were all apart of Benjamin Franklins Autobiography.

Lemay describes how the people viewed Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography in this quote.

This aspect of the American Dream motif gives the book much of its allegorical meaning and its archetypal power. Readers frequently observe that the story of Franklin's rise has its counterpart in the rise of the United States. Franklin was conscious of this. In the later eighteenth century he was the most famous man in the Western world. Even John Adams, in an attack on Franklin written thirty years after his death, conceded: "His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed than any or all of them."11 And Franklin was famous as an American.12 He frequently wrote about America, was familiar with all the eighteenth-century ideas about America, and knew that his Autobiography would be read, at least by some Englishmen and Europeans, as a book about America. As Benjamin Vaughan pointed out in a letter urging Franklin to go on with the Autobiography: "All that has happened to you is also connected with the detail of the manners and situation of a rising people" (p. 135). And critical articles, such as that by James M. Cox, show that the book has frequently been read as an allegory of the rise to power and to independence of the United States.13 (Lemay).

The people saw Franklin as a model to what America was. When they read his Autobiography, they thought they could become rich and do what Franklin did. His Autobiography was a light of hope for the new world, and it was a historical marker for new American life.

A more fundamental reason for the book's power and popularity lies in the archetypal appeal of the individual's rise from helplessness to power, from dependence to independence. In that normal development that every human being experiences from nebulousness to identity, from infancy to maturity, we all recapitulate the experience of the American Dream.14 That is why the American Dream has been and is so important to so many people, as well as to American literature. That explains the appeal of the myth of the log-cabin birth of our American presidents and the popularity of the role of the self-made man. The American Dream, on this archetypal level, embodies a universal experience. (Lemay)

Once again, Lemay describes how important the rags to riches, dependent to independent, helplessness to power concepts were to Americans. They are still important to people today too. People still come to America for a "better life", and sometimes, they find that life. America may seem like a magical place to some people, but in reality, it is the faith, hope, and perseverance of the American that makes things happen.

Works Cited

Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." InThe Renaissance Man in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. Quoted as "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BLTTAD005&SingleRecord=True (accessed October 13, 2010).

The Franklin Institute. PECO, 1994. The Franklin Institute Science Museum. 13 Oct. 2010

Journal # 14: Declaration of Halloween

Halloween is a great holiday. Everyone should celebrate Halloween. All the old people who only leave out candy for children to take a bunch are boring. Especially if they leave a note that says "Take One!" Do they really think that people are only going to take one? Losers. So yeah, people should go all out for Halloween. It is the most fun holiday. You can be whatever you want, and you get a bunch of candy! So here are some amendments for my Declaration of Halloween.

1. You must have a good costume. It can be scary, cute, crazy, funny, whatever you want, but it must be good!

2. For all you parents and old folks who are giving out candy, do not, I repeat, do NOT give out the crappy candy that only cost you 50 cents to buy. The good stuff is chocolate.

3. To all you awesome people out there who give out soda, giant candy bars, or even brownies...you are gods. Keep up the good work.

4. Unfortunately, if you are part of the portion of grownups who think they are being unique and cool by giving out coupons to the local ice cream shop...$1 off oh boy! - you might want to watch out because your house will most likely be tee peed that night.

5. If you go to any Halloween party, you must make sure that you have a haunted house and a game of bob for apples. Those two things say Halloween all over it.

6. And now for the final amendment. If you think you are too old or too cool to go trick-or-treating, you are soooo wrong. The cool kids are the ones who go trick-or-treating because we are get free candy. Hello??? Anything that is free is cool. Duh.

So let us see. There can be a billion more amendments to my Declaration of Halloween, but I feel like these ones are the most important. Some other amendments could include no trashy looking costumes (college girls...), no sleeping all the way through Halloween, no going to bed early, you must tell at least one ghost story before the night is through, you must visit a cemetery, and when you are done trick-or-treating with your friends, you all must trade candy until you get pretty much what you want. (The best people to trade with though are your younger siblings because they will trade something gross like gummy vampire fangs for something yummy like a kit kat bar!)

Journal # 13 SPIRIT!!

School spirit is good. I have some school spirit. I am in band. In band we have to have a lot of school spirit. Our band teacher makes us. Our whole school has a lot of school spirit, minus a few people who are boring.

So every homecoming week we have a day at the end of the week called spirit day. Spirit day is very fun. Usually our school day is a full day, but this year it is a half a day so the whole day is spirit day. Usually we have classes in the morning then spirit day after lunch. So at the beginning of the day the band goes up to the band room to get our instruments. Then we walk through the hallways playing the school song and everyone comes out of their classrooms and lines the hallways and claps and cheers. We walk all up and down the stairs a few times and it gets pretty tiring. Then everyone files into the large gym and the band goes in and plays pep band songs while people are filing in. Once everyone is finally in, the band can go sit down in our class sections. Usually some classes dress up as black out or white out. This year the senors are doing white out and the juniors are doing black out. White out and black out are when we all dress up in black or white. It looks really cool when everyone has the same color shirt on. Some people go crazy with what they are wearing.

Once everyone is in the gym, the cheerleaders do some cheers, the poms people dance, and last year the teachers did a dance. It was hilarious. Then people who are doing a lip sync do it. Sometimes its pretty funny, sometimes its just dumb. Then we start the games. Some of the games we play are balloon stomp, tug of war, hike and pass, refrigerator box race, baby bottle race thing, and a bunch of other stuff. We play classes against each other and girls against girls, boys against boys. It is really fun. My freshmen year things kind of got out of control, so last year the student officers (I am class secretary) had to have talk with the whole school before the festivities began saying that we should all have good sportsmanship and everything. Last year everything was fine, and I think this year it will be okay too.

Journal #12 Working With A Partner

Sometimes I like to work with a partner. Working with a friend is very fun. Sometimes it depends on what friend you are working with, because you may not get a lot of work done. I am usually a hard working person though, and so are most of my friends, so we can work and talk and stuff at the same time. Usually, when we are working and talking and having fun, the work is done before we know it!

I really do not like working with people that I do not like or do not get along with. No one likes to do that. We usually butt heads or do not have to same ideas. Sometimes I just cannot understand what other people are thinking. It is really hard to do a project or something when you and your partner have totally different ways of thinking.

Middle school was really hardcore when it came to working with partners, especially the ones that you could not pick. I have had some pretty bad groups for projects. I remember one time we had to do a meidivel project in the sixth grade. We had to pick something that was medievel to research. My partner and I chose to do a project about jousting. I am not trying to sound cocky or anything, but I am pretty smart. In middle school I was hugely known for being the smart quiet girl. I still kinda am, but I am not as quiet anymore. I am only quiet around people that I do not know very well. Anyways, my partner was really dumb. I ended up having to do a lot of the work. We had to make a poster, and I am kind of a perfectionist, so I wanted the poster to look perfect. Well, my partner, being pretty dumb and artistically challenged, made the poster look like poo.

I guess the moral of that story is that I just do not work very well with partners. I am a huge perfectionist and I like to do things my way. I am pretty artistic, so artistry and perfectionism mixed together equals me not wanting anyone to do any of the artsy work because I do not want them to ruin it. I especially hate when people mix really ugly colors together. That makes me mad.

Journal # 11 Ethics and Values

A lot of people have a lot of different values. Christians have different values then non-Christians. Different cultures have different values too.

Some of my ethics and values include not cheating, and stuff like that. Pretty much I try to follow the Ten Commandments. No lying, no cheating, no saying the Lord's name in vain, no stealing, do not commit adultery, honor your father and mother, and all the rest of them too. I think the Ten Commandments are some pretty darn good rules to follow in life. I try to follow them. My family tries to follow them. I think everyone should try to follow them. They are awesome. They are great.

OK, I have a pretty good story about ethics and values. The other day I was at work. It was Wednesday I believe. (I work at passage at the Elementary School.) So I was supervising the children on the playground, and two little girls come up to me with a twenty dollar bill and say they found it in the tire. I said OK and took the twenty dollars and I said I would take it to my boss. Naturally, me being a very poor teenager who looooooooves money (why else would I have a job?, I contemplated whether I should actually give the twenty dollars to my boss or if I should keep it. It was only a little kid's twenty dollars right? And why would the kid put their TWENTY dollars in a tire on a playground that kids play with and not remember to get it back? Usually little kids are just as obsessed with money as the rest of us. I know my little brother is. (He's seven.) So when I finally walked inside the passage the room and came upon my moment of truth, I decided to give the twenty dollars to my boss. It was the right thing to do. Of course I said to myself, why do I always have to do the right thing? Most people would just keep the twenty dollars and say SCORE! But the truth is, I like doing the right thing. I like the feeling of helping someone or doing something that is right even if I do not feel comfortable doing it at first.

So that's pretty much what I learned from that experience. It is good to the right thing, even if I am still poor. (Although I'm not 100% poor anymore because today is my birthday and I'm getting money from people, and I got my first paycheck yesterday which was like 178.67 or something like that. Pretty good.

Journal #10 Science vs. Religion

There are a lot of controversies between science and relgion. One of the biggest controversies is the formation of the earth. The Bible states that the earth was formed in seven days, but science believes in the Big Bang Theory.

According to the Bible, God made the earth in seven days. On the first day God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens include everything outside the earth like outer space. On the second day God created the sky. On the third day God created dry land and plant life. On the fourth day God created the stars and heavenly bodies. On the fifth day God created all the life that lives in the water. On the sixth day God created all the life that lives on dry land and man, and the seventh day was a day of rest.

Scientist believe in the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory says that the earth was created by a bunch of atoms floating around in space, and all of a sudden, they all line up perfectly and BAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNG! the earth started to form. Honestly, I think that idea is just a little bit stupid.

I actually do not know what I really believe when it comes to religion vs. science. I usually believe more in religion because my family is very Catholic. I grew up learning that the earth was made in seven days by God. I guess that could be true. Honestly there is no way anybody really knows how the earth was formed. I am actually starting to get really frustrated thinking about it. Science vs. religion questions are really deep thinking question. I do not really like to think about them. I do not really want to type anymore about this. Do I have enough words yet? No. Boo.

So pretty much when it comes to science vs. religion I believe more in religion. All the science people are so contradictory, and I think they are annoying. Religion is good. It is good to have faith in something. Like religion.

Puritan Exam

The Puritans were a simple group of people. Their writing style was very plain and simple. They did not use very elaborate metaphors or anything like that. The Puritan's writings were very factual and had a lot of religious beliefs in them.

Journal #9 Organized Religion

Organized Religion? What am I supposed to write about? Ummm, I am Catholic. I go to a Catholic church. We believe in God. We believe in the Bible and that Jesus was resurrected from the dead so that our sins could be forgiven and so that we could go to heaven. That is pretty much the base of our religion. I do not know pretty much anything about any other religion. Except for that weird "religion" that just believes in science stuff. Whatever religion Tom Cruise is, that is what I am talking about.

So an hour at church goes as follows:

We walk in and bless ourselves with holy water with our right hand doing the sign of the cross. Then before we get into our pew we genuflect. Genuflecting is getting down on your right knee and doing the sign of the cross again. Then you sit in your pew until the music starts. When the music starts everyone stands up and the priests and alter boys/girls walk down the aisle. One priest is holding the Bible at the level of his head, and one alter boy/girl is carrying a pole with Jesus on the cross at the top.

The priests and alter boys/girls stop before the go on the alter and they bow. Then there is an introduction thing then a first reading then a second reading then a reading from the Bible then the priest says some story they made up. In between a bunch of these the choir sings some pretty boring songs. At some churches the songs are cool, but my church is super boring. At some point we all kneel. Then we finally get communion. Then mass is over.

I guess some of the main points of the Catholic church today are to help other people. Obviously. We have fundraisers to help people in 3rd world countries. We try to make our church better too. We pretty much just do things to help the community.

Journal #8 Proofreading

In class we watched a youtube video about proofreading. The video was called "The The Importence of Proofreading". It was really funny. The video was about a man who was kind of giving a lecture about proofreading, but he was speaking like he was reading from an essay that was not proofread. It was pretty terrible actually. It was funny because of all the mistakes that were in the essay. If you do not proofread your essay you really do sound pretty dumb.

Obviously, proofreading is very important. That was what the man in the video was trying to get across. After typing or writing anything you should proofread it. I will admit, I sometimes do not proofread certain things. I usually do not proofread these blogs, so sorry if they are kind of bad. I just try to get them done in class because I do not want to do them at home. I always proofread my essays though. Well, sometimes I do not proofread my reflections, so sorry if those are kind of bad too. But I do proofread really important papers. Any paper that I know is probably going to be worth a lot of points and stuff I will proofread.

When I proofread papers I usually go over it a few times. I reread everything and make sure the paper flows nicely and that everything is spelled correctly. I also make sure I do not have any "you"s in my essay because you can not have those, and I make sure I do not have any contractions because you can not have those either.

Most teachers say you should have someone else read your paper too. I used to have my mom proofread my papers, but she would always change things a lot and make it all messed up. Usually now I do not have her proofread my papers. Sometimes I might send it to a friend or have one of my older siblings read it. Unfortunately, all my older siblings are out of the house now though, so they can not exactly read it. I used to have my brother read them because he is pretty good at English.

Journal #7 Superstitions

I do not particularly believe in superstitions. There are many different superstitions that other people believe in though. There is, of course, Friday the 13th. There are black cats, walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors, braking glass, throwing salt over your shoulder, stepping on cracks, and a lot of other things. There is also the number 666 that people believe has to do with the devil. I guess you could also say that believing that the world will end in 2012 is a superstition.

So pretty much I think all superstitions are dumb. I do not think any of them are true. I will admit though that I do not walk under ladders. I step on cracks all the time though. Also, all that stuff about ghosts and goblins and witches and stuff are superstitions too.

I remember a story thing my friends and I used to tell when we were younger at sleepovers. We thought it was fun to tell ghost stories and do all that stuff like Bloody Mary, the thing where spirits are supposed to come and levitate you in the air, and this one story that I will tell.

I was at a friend's sleepover birthday party, and we were in her basement having fun, playing truth or dare, and telling ghost stories. My friend told us a story about a cat. To tell the story she needed a volunteer. The volunteer had to lay down with her head on the storytellers lap. The storyteller would then tell the story to everyone while massaging the volunteers temples. The volunteer also had to close her eyes. This is how the story went:

There once was a family that just moved into a new house. Every day the father would go out and get the paper, and he would see a black cat roaming around the outside of his house. He told his wife about the cat, and they soon decided to adopt the cat.

During the day the cat was good, but at night he did weird things. They cat started to really hate the father of the family, but he loved the mother. One night, the dad woke up and say the cat staring at him in his bed. All of a sudden the cat jumped on the dad and started clawing away at his face and body. He left three big slash marks on the father's back then ran away.

Once the story was finished being told, the storyteller made the volunteer sit up and lift up the back of her shirt. If the story was told correctly, there would be three huge red marks on the volunteers back.

Journal #6: Blaming People

It is not a good idea to blame someone for something they did not do especially if you are the one who actually did it. Like many other children, I used to blame others or even objects for doing something that I actually did. Not only does it probably hurt the person's feelings that you are blaming, but you also sound pretty dumb when you blame an object. In The Crucible there is a lot of blaming going on. Once someone lies about something they did, the lies just keep piling on and everything just goes downhill.

A prime example of a character who is accusing other people of witchcraft in The Crucible is Abigail. I really do not like her. At first she manipulates the other girls into saying that all they did was dance around a fire. Soon though, the story was changed because Parris saw them doing other things. Abigail then blamed Tituba for performing witchcraft. Tituba, not wanting to get in trouble, said she did perform witchcraft, but the devil made her do it. She says she wants to go back to Christ, and then she is forgiven for what she did. At the end of Act I Abigail and Betty are shouting names of people that they said was with the devil. All of this is pretty much a lie. The reader knows that Abigail, Betty, and the other girls have something to do with the witchcraft, and they are blaming everyone else so that they do not get in trouble. Their lies get bigger and bigger, and their accusations get worse and worse. Abigail even accuses Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft because Abigail wants John Proctor to be with her again.

The girls keep accusing innocent women, and soon, I think, they will get in trouble for it. I at least hope they do. They deserve to get in trouble for blaming innocent people of terrible crimes. They were to be found guilty of witchcraft all they would get is a whipped. The other women could actually be hung for being accused of witchcraft.

Journal #5: Fair Punishments

I think taking away internet and other electronics is a good punishment for our time period. A lot of kids today use a lot of electronic toys. Technology is becoming very advanced, and it is an important part to our every day lives.

Some examples of the the technology that kids use today are the computer, TV, x-box, Wii, PlayStation, hand-held gaming devices, and cell phones. The biggest of all of these is cell phones. Almost every child in our modern time period has a cell phone. If you ask me, that is really ridiculous. I did not get a cell phone until my freshman year, and I only got one because I was on the soccer team and I had to contact my parents a lot. The biggest part about kids have cell phones is texting. Teenagers and pre-teens are constantly texting. Some people even text their friends when they are sitting right next to them.

I think a great punishment for today's world would be to take away texting. It does not really bother me because I do not text a whole lot. I do not really care about the whole texting thing. Usually if I text someone I am just asking them a question about homework or if they want to hang out, but to other people, texting is their life. There are some cases of teenagers who do nothing but text. Their social skills go way down because they do not know how to have a regular conversation with someone verbally.

Besides taking away electronics as a punishment, I also think doing a big clean up job around the house is a good punishment. A big clean up job would be like cleaning the garage, the whole house, washing the windows, power cleaning the outside of the house, something that would take a really long time to do. Those are the kinds of punishments that my parents give out. If we get in a lot of trouble, we have to do one of those long and boring jobs, and we can not see our friends until it is done. We may also get the car taken away. I think doing a big job like that is a good punishment because it gives you time to think about what you did. It makes you tired, and yeah, you will be really mad at your parents while you are doing it, but when you are done you feel pretty good about the work that you did, and your parents are usually pretty happy too.

Journal #4: Traveling

My family travels a lot. We go on maybe two big vacations each year. We usually like to go to Florida because we used to live there, so we have friends that we can visit. We drive everywhere we go. I have a lot of people in my family, so flying would cost a fortune.

I actually really like to go on long car rides. I like to look out the window and see things that I do no see every day. My family goes to Maryland a lot because my oldest sister and her husband lives there. The drive to Maryland is one of my favorites because we go through the Appalachian Mountains which are so beautiful.

Besides Maryland, my family likes to go to a lot of other states on the east coast. We have been to almost every state there. My favorite states to go to on the east coast are South Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, and New York.

Driving to New York for the first time was a great experience for me. Once we got to New York, it was awesome because New York is so different from Illinois.

Usually I really like to go on long car rides, but there has been one car ride in particular that was absolutely terrible.

My family and I were driving down to Texas for Christmas to visit a bunch of aunts and uncles that live down there. In a mini van, we had my mom, dad, Laura, Robert, me, Emily, and my little brother Matthew. So yes, it was pretty packed. When we got to Texas everyone in my family started to get sick one at a time. We had all caught some nasty stomach bug, and we were all throwing up. When we finally left to go home after Christmas was over, we thought we were all healthy again. We were wrong. For dinner we pulled over to a buffet, but a lot of us younger kids did not eat a lot because our stomachs were still hurting a little. After eating for a little bit, my little sister Emily started to throw up. She vomited right into a bowl from the buffet. All of the rest of us kids started to freak out because vomit is nasty (obviously). We pretty much made a huge scene, and after Emily settled down a bit, we left. For the rest of the car ride home, Emily was throwing up the whole time. I felt so bad for her. We had to pull over several times so that she could go out of the car and relax. We also had to air out the car a bit. It was one of the worst car rides I have ever been on in my life.

Journal #3: Held Hostage

It would be a very scary situation to be held hostage. It really kind of depends on who is holding you hostage though. If there is a really terrible and cruel person holding you hostage it would be super scary, but if it was someone who is not really bad it might not be as scary. No matter what being held hostage is just a terrible situation to be in. I do not think it will ever happen to me, but if it does here is how I might act.

Say I was being held hostage by a big scary perverted man who wants money from my father(in this situation my dad is filthy rich). The man blind folds me, puts tape over my mouth, and ties my feet and hands together. When he captures me he throws me in the back of his shady white rapist van, and I try to scream, but he and his creepy followers knock me out.

When I awake, I am sitting in the chair in the middle of a nasty warehouse with yellow flickering lights overhead. The man who has taken me hostage tries to interrogate me. In the situation of being interrogated I would most likely tell the truth. It is pretty hard for me not to tell the truth, especially if my life is at stake. If he asks me where any of my family or friends are though, I would probably not tell him. For the most part, if I was taken hostage by a super creepy man I would probably cooperate. The only times I would not cooperate is if he asks me anything shady about my family or friends, if he tries to hurt me, or if he tries to rape me. In the case of him raping me, I would have to use the self defense moves that my big brother or Mrs. Jenkins taught me. If none of his nasty followers were around, and he was trying to hurt me, I would try to kick/hit. whatever him where it hurts the most (you know where that is) and maybe I would try to make a run for it. I am a pretty fast runner, and I am a champion at hide n go seek.

Journal #2 Mr. Chubs

Once upon a time there was a hungry bear. The bear's name was Mr. Chubs. Mr. Chubs lived in a forest all alone in a cave. The only possesions that Mr. Chubs had were a small fire pit, a blanket, and a pillow to sleep on. Every day, Mr. Chubs goes into the forest to gather berries and other foods. Mr. Chubs is kind of a grumpy bear, and he does not like to share any of his food that he gathers.

One day while Mr. Chubs was gathering food, a small rabbit asked him if he could spare a few berries for him and his family. Mr. Rabbit (the rabbit's name) has a very large family. He has twelve babies and a wife. It is very hard for Mr. Rabbit and his wife to collect enough food for their large family.

After seeing the sad and pathetic look on Mr. Rabbit's face, Mr. Chubs completely turned him down in a very cold manner. Mr. Chubs does not like to share any of his food. He has to eat enough to be able to hibernate all winter after all.

When Mr. Rabbit was turned done he told Mr. Chubs has he is very inconsiderate, and that he should not ever ask him for a favor.

One day, the day before Mr. Chubs was supposed to start hibernation, he was running low on food. Mr. Chubs started to run around to his neighbors in a panic. He did not want to starve through the winter! Every house that Mr. Chubs went to put him down. They said that he did not let them have some of their food, so why should they let him have any of theirs? When Mr. Chubs got to Mr. Rabbit's house, Mr. Rabbit reminded Mr. Chubs of how cruelly he treated Mr. Rabbit and his very large family.

Disappointed and confused, Mr. Chubs gloomily stalked home. He thought about all the times he was mean to his neighbors and did not share his food. Mr. Chubs started to regret the time that he let the poor little rabbits go hungry, and it was all because he was too worried about himself. Mr. Chubs realized that if he had shared with his neighbors when they needed his help, they would probably share with him when he need their help. So Mr. Chubs went back to Mr. Rabbit and all the rest of his neighbors, and he apologized for the times that he was mean to them. His neighbors, being way more courteous then he is, forgave Mr. Chubs, and they helped him get enough food to survive the winter.

Journal #1

I know a little bit about the Native American culture. I have visited a few remakes of Native American villages. I have been to Jamestown where Pocahontas was, and I have been to an indian village in Cherokee in the Smokey Mountains.

I know that there are several different "types" of indians. The Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs, where among the first indians in South America. They were very intelligent. The Aztecs were involved in a lot of human sacrifices, and the Mayans created one of the first calenders. The Spanish conquistadors massacred all the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs.

The first of the indian tribes in North America used tepees to live in. They were called nomads because they moved from place to place for food. They did not know how to plant crops yet, so they moved around for food.

There were several other indian tribes in North America. One group of indians were called the Mound Builders. They lived in the Great Plains. They are called the Mound Builders because the built a lot of burial mounds. Some tribes built burial mounds in the shape of several animals. A common animal to make a mound in the shape of was a snake. One of the most well known Mound Builder tribes is the tribe that lived in Cahokia Mounds. Cahokia Mounds is in Illinois right outside St. Louis. Cahokia Mounds is probably the largest Mound Builder civilization. They were pretty advanced.

There were also Native American tribes that lived in Arizona and around there. They made their houses out of adobe, and they lived on the sides of cliffs. They were called Cliff Dwellers. The Cliff Dwellers were also pretty advanced. They made irrigation canals to bring water to their villages. They had to do this because they lived in the desert where there obviously is not a lot of water.

The Iroquois league was probably the most powerful group of indians. They set up there own form of government and had a good military. I'm pretty sure they lived in longhouses. The women were looked at as equals to the men. They took part in council meetings and other men dominated events.

The Seminoles were another type of indian tribe. They lived in the Everglades.

Most indian tribes were somewhat the same. Some tribes lived in tepees, some in lounghouses, wigwams, houses on stilts, or in adobe houses. The later indian tribes knew how to plant food which gave them more time for leisure. Some indians invented a game that is very similar to lacrosse. The men usually dominated the tribes. They were chief and participated in tribal meetings. They also did the hunting. The women typically did everything else. They made clothing, beads, baskets, prepared food, took care of the children, and other like things.

Journal: Symbols in The Catcher in the Rye

I think the Museum of Natural History is one of many symbols in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden tells the reader that he likes the museum because it is always the same. He likes how everything is always in the same place every time he visits the museum. Holden also says that he does not like the fact that every time he goes to the museum he is different. He does not like how he changes, and he wishes he could stay the same like the statues in the museum.

From these explanations I have come to the conclusion that the Museum of Natural History probably represents Holden's fear of growing up. The entire novel is about Holden's struggle with knowing that he must become an adult. Holden wishes he could stay the same forever, which is why he idolizes the museum so much. At a certain point in the novel, Holden decides to go to the Museum of Natural History, but he does not go in because he is afraid that it will be different. This act symbolizes that Holden is still not ready to grow up, and that he has a fear of things that he is not certain about. Not knowing if the museum has changed would symbolize the fear of things that Holden is not certain about.

Final Thoughts On All Books

I managed to read all of the books on the summer reading list for junior 332 honors english. I started with The Old Man and the Sea, then I read The Catcher in the Rye, then The Grapes of Wrath, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Fahrenheit 451, and to wrap it up I read My Antonia.

The Old Man and the Sea is not a big book, but it took me forever to read. I thought it was so boring. There were only really three characters in the novel, which can get kind of boring at times. Almost the whole novel took place out at sea, which is also kind of a boring place to be. It would be fun if it was on a cruise or doing something fun, but it was not. I had to sit there and read Santiago go on and on about this huge fish that is so beautiful that he must kill. That he is a worthy opponent and all that stuff. Some people may have liked the book, but I just thought it was one of the most boring things I have ever had to read.

The Catcher in the Rye was one of my favorite books. I could relate to Holden because he does not want to grow up. I do not really want to grow up either. I have no idea what I want to do with my life or what college I want to go to. I have spent my whole life so far preparing for college and the rest of my life, but I have no idea what I want to do. It is kind of silly. I loved Holden's strange sense of humor. I zoomed through the book because I could not get enough of his cranky but hilarious attitude.

The Grapes of Wrath was an okay book. I do not really have a lot to say about it. I liked how it showed the farmer's point of view of the Dust Bowl. I also liked how the family went through so many things and almost fell apart, but in the end we see that there is still hope for them.

Their Eyes Were Watching God was another pretty good book. I would recommend it to a friend or family member. I loved how the novel took us through Janie's life and her journey to "the horizon". I also liked reading about her different husbands, and how they treated her and how she responded to them and grew as a person for it.

Fahrenheit 451 was definitely not one of my favorite books. I do not really like any novels that take place in the future. I think they are just kind of weird. I really like novels that take place in the past. I guess I like fact more then fiction. I like to know what was and how it affects our community today instead of how it will affect our community in ten years.

Finally, I kind of like My Antonia. Like The Grapes of Wrath and Their Eyes Were Watching God I liked how the novel took me through a long journey that the main character went on. I like the idea of having a long and beautiful relationship with someone just like Jim and Antonia.

My Antonia: Keeping In Touch

The novel My Antonia takes place in the late 1800s and early 1900s. During that time there were not a lot of ways to keep in touch with someone. You could either write them a letter or go to see them. Keeping someone in your memory was a big deal. Seeing someone after a very long time and barely recognizing them was a huge deal. Of course, it is still a big deal today, but there are a lot of other ways to keep in touch today.

In our world today we have several ways of keeping in touch with someone. We have home phones, cell phones, texting, facebook, instant messengers, skype, myspace, twitter, letters, and many other things. Today it is almost impossible to not keep in touch with someone. I think this is a great quality for our society to have. I think it is very important to keep in touch with people that you were once great friends with.

I used to live in Florida. I was born there and moved here to Springfield, Illinois when I was seven. I attended St. Agnes for my first grade year, and then I moved to Farmingdale Elementary for my second grade year. I have been going to Plains ever since.

Because I have been to kind of a lot of places, I have friends from a lot of different places. I remember a few years after we moved to Illinois we took a trip back down to Florida. We met my best friend Chloe and my brother's friend Isaac and their family for a day. It had been a few years since we had seen them, and Chloe and I were both very shy. After being left alone to play, Chloe and I started to pick up right where we left off. We started to talk about our old memories together living in the same neighborhood. It felt so awesome to be able to talk to someone about some of my most loved memories. It was especially special because I shared those memories with Chloe, and she cherished them too.

Today, facebook is a huge help in keeping in touch with many of my "lost" friends. I am friends with a lot of people I went to elementary school with in Florida and at St. Agnes.

Just like Jim and Antonia think, I believe keeping in touch with someone is a very important thing to do. I hope I can be friends with someone for as long as Jim and Antonia are friends.

My Antonia: Memories

The narrator, Jim Burden's, memories play a big part in My Antonia. The novel opens with Jim explaining to an old friend that he wrote down all of his memories with his friend Antonia. At first he titled the works "Antonia", but he soon changed it to "My Antonia". This change shows how special Antonia is to Jim.

Jim and Antonia have been friends since they were children living in the country in Nebraska. They stayed friends in their teenage years, and Jim even tried to kiss Antonia once. As Jim grew older and went to college they did not see each other as much. When Jim is in college he thinks of Antonia often. Jim visits Antonia after her first fiance runs away to Mexico. Jim promises that he will return again, and Antonia promises that she will never forget him.

Soon, Jim goes to law school and becomes a lawyer. He does not see Antonia for several years, but on the way home from a business trip, Jim visits Antonia and her family. After a little while, Jim and Antonia are talking like they are best friends again. They pick up right where they left off.

Throughout all the years that Jim does not see Antonia, he thinks of her often. Jim has a special place in his heart for her. He treasures the memories that they have together, and that is why he decides to write them down. A friendship like theirs is a very special and unique one.

It is also very cool for Jim and Antonia to be able to pick up their relationship right where they left off. I have been able to do that maybe once with a best friend from Florida. It is a very cool and awesome feeling to be able to keep a friendship going after not seeing each other for several years.

I think everyone should try to have a friendship like Jim and Antonia's. It would be really cool to be able to keep your friendship going for so long.

Along with Antonia, Jim also keeps the memory of Nebraska in his heart. He is always thinking back to Nebraska and the quiet beautiful plains.

My Antonia: Final Thoughts

My Antonia was the last book that I read for the summer reading. I thought it was an excellent novel. It is full of compassion and it is kind of sad. Throughout the novel Jim and Antonia lose many friends and family members, but they manage to always be there for each other.

I would recommend this novel for teenagers and adults. I think teenagers could learn a lot from it. They can learn that friendships are very important. Jim and Antonia show this to us. Also, keeping in touch with someone can be very rewarding because then you will not lose a friend that you loved so much.

Besides friendships, family was also very important in this novel. Antonia is very connected to her family. When her father commits suicide, Antonia and the rest of her family are completely devastated. They mourn for a very long time. Antonia still mourns for her father even when she is a lot older. I can not relate to her experience because I have not lost my parents or my grandparents. I have lost my grandma and grandpa on my mom's side of the family, but they died before I was born or when I was very little. I do sometimes think what they were like though, and I wish I could have known them better.

Jim and Antonia are very easy to relate to. I can especially relate to them in their teenage years (umm probably because I AM a teenager...).

I love how the novel took us through Jim and Antonia's whole friendship. It took us through their very happy and very sad parts. There was a time when the reader thinks that Jim and Antonia may become more then friends, but it never happens. I am actually glad they never became more then friends because then the novel shows people that a man and a woman can be great friends but nothing more.

All in all, I thought My Antonia was a terrific book.

My Antonia: Lost Characters

There are many characters in My Antonia that we do not see after the leave. The first characters, the Russians, vanish after Pavel's death. Peter and Pavel ran away from Russia when they fed a bride and groom to the wolves so that they could live, and now Peter ran away again after Pavel's death. These two characters share a very sad history.

Another character, Mr. Shimerda, leaves us towards the beginning of the novel. Mr. Shimerda never feels at home in the United States. They moved here from Bohemia. Mr. Shimerda can not take the feeling of homesickness, so he commits suicide. The rest of the Shimerda family mourn him for a very long time. Antonia often misses him very much.

Jake Marpole and Otto Fuchs, two men that were hired by Mr. and Mrs. Burden decide to move out west to seek their fortune when the Burdens move into the city. We never hear of them again. Jake traveled with Jim from Virginia to Nebraska, and Otto picked them up at the train station.

Tiny Soderball also moves out west, and she makes a fortune for herself from the Alaskan Gold Rush.

Larry Donovan, the man Antonia was supposed to marry, also ran off. Antonia took a train to Denver where they were supposed to get married, but Donovan soon ran off the Mexico. Antonia took a train back to Black Hawk feeling very sad. She had a baby soon afterwards.

Although Jim and Antonia lost touch with many characters from the novel, they never trully lost touch with eachother. Of course, they do not see eachother for long periods of times, but they are always in eachother's thoughts and hearts. Jim and Antonia had a friendship that could never be lost whether it stays in their memories, or it grows even stronger from being together. No matter what the case, Jim and Antonia will always be friends. Their friendship is way to precious for either of them to forget. Jim even writes down all of their memories and titles it "My Antonia", which is the title of this book.