Journal #26 - Thanksgiving Break

Over Thanksgiving Break, I went to my aunts house in Athens for a nice Thanksgiving lunch. We did not do the typical Thanksgiving dinner, but instead we had a very heavy lunch filled with all of your typical holiday foods. I had a great time at my aunts house because we celebrated my birthday as well as my dads birthday. My aunt is very creative and created a chocolate cake that looks like a turkey. She used bowl shaped cake pans to form the body, and then put a cupcake at the front to look like a head. Then she iced ice cream cones and stuck them in behind to look like legs. There are some things that I learned about my family though. We have it pretty good compared to many other families in the world. For my birthday on Friday, i recieved everything that i had asked for as well as a birthday lunch and dinner with my friends. Life is really good for my family. Also while I was working at Barnes and Noble on saturday, I was having a conversation with one of my co-workers about families and Thanksgiving. What I had noticed was that the woman I was talking to had no respect for her family as well as no nice things to say about her family. This woman hated spending time with her family, where as I realized I love spending time with my family. I get along with all of my cousins and aunts and uncles. There are no conflicts in my family that can not be resolved, but this woman kept saying how much she hated holidays because she hated spending time with her family. I realized there how lucky I was to have a loving family that has good morals and values, because I do not think that having the added stress of hating your family is a very good thing to have on top of school, extra ciriculars, and work. Therefore, on this Thanksgiving I am thankful for the clique (clee shay) of family, because of the high regard we have for each other. It makes life a whole lot easier having a family to be there for you.

Journal #25 - Red Badge of Courage

I read a critical review written by Harold Bloom himself. He made many valid points about this book, but there are some things that I do not agree with that Bloom had said in his critical analysis. Bloom relates Crane to many different writers that preceded his lifetime, and I do not like this very much because it makes me feel that Bloom is taking away from Cranes originality put forth into that book, Even though he had to attain most of his information fom interviewing people who had actually ought in the Civil War, he did an amazing job at reliving the war and writing about something that he actually was not even alive for. Bloom may have a valid point to get across, but I feel that he could have done it in a much less condescending way. I agree with most of Bloom's analysis however. Bloom makes the comment at one point which says that the story is mostly a story about fear, which is kind of obvious but very true nevertheless. Bloom also made the point that Crane's writting style was impressive because he had not been there during the Civil War, he noted how amazing the imagery had been comparable to the actual events that had happened. I completely agree with Bloom on this sense because while I read the book, I also noticed the great sense of imagery. This was very useful so that we would have the opportunity to relate to the people who were in the battles. I could get a feel for why he was so scared throughout the whole story, because of the great imagery. The amount of fear in the book makes you think about how horrible the war was to people and how greatly it altered the soldiers lives. These people were constantly living in the face of death, and I never even stop to think about that. Bloom says how this book is such a great representation of what really happened in the war and how the real soldiers reacted to the war. I completely agree with this because it is totally true.

Journal #24 - Red Badge of Courage 9-20

In chapters nine through twenty of the Red Badge of Courage, Crane represents realism in many different ways. He represents a realist hero during this portion of the book because of the changes that occur to Henry. During the beginning of the book I have noticed that Henry was an immature teenager who thought that he was indestructible. After he runs away from the battles during the previous sections in the book, he gets a chance to redeem himself in these chapters. What he does is he ends up firing his weapon wildly into the enemy, which then his captain considers Henry a war machine. This boosts Henry's confidence even though he really had not done anything too heroic. At this point, Henry regains his indestructible thoughts, but now he is much more responsible which how he thinks. He ends up gaining the confidence to run out in the midst of battle and grab the flag and wave it around. I do not like how he acts towards Wilson during this part of the story because he is very rude to Wilson and almost competes to be more patriotic than Wilson is. I think this is not good because this is not a good way to be patriotic. The qualities of a realist hero also ties into the human nature aspect that Realism represents. These traits of guilt and taking advantage of the events to better your situation are real traits of real people, and this is why they represent Realism. I think that because these actions are so natural to humans, it gives credibility to the story as well as giving the characters a realistic touch. The author does not mention religion very much in this story, which is fitting to the realistic writting styles. Imagery is a big part of the figurative language that takes place in this novel. The fighting scenes are described very vividly to were you feel as if you are there.

Journal #23 - Red Badge of Courage 1-8

Chapters one through eight of The Red Badge of Courage are a very interesting way to look at the Realism literary period. One of the characteristics of the realism period is the hero, which is supposed to be just the average person who can be put into extraordinary situations. This is shown by the novel because the main character is an ordinary teenage boy who aigns up for the army during the civil war with the dreams to become the real American hero. Another quality is the reflection of society in the novel, which in this story is shown during the beginning of the novel when Henry signs up for the army. This exihibits society because in doing this action, all of Henry's peers are sad that he is leaving and everyone congragulates his for signing up for the army. These people treat Henry almost as if he had already fought in the war and had already killed many people in route to become the true American war hero. Nature is represented during the realism period as a form of protection against society and it's harms. This is proven as Henry runs away from the battle, because the forest is concealing him from all of his comrades as he runs away. Human nature is also i big part of realism, becuase the authors give real uman emotions to represent what happens in the story. Henry feels very guilty after he had run away from the battle, however he tries to justify himself. I think that he tries to justify himself because this is common human nature to try to make yourself not come out as the bad guy. He also shows human nature in the beginning of the book when he signs up for the army. I think this becuase when he first signs up for the army he is very confident and he has the "superman" complex where he feels as if he is invincible because he is so young. But this changes throught the story considering he runs away from the battle during these first eight chapters.

Journal #22 - Veteran's Day Field Trip

Last friday we took an all school field trip to four different sites in Springfield. This was a very interesting experience that provided me with a lot of information as well as a day off of school. I do not know the names of the places that we went, so please bare with me. The first place that I was at was at some building that was built in like 1900 or something (Mr. Langley I was in your group so you should at least know what I am talking about). I thought that the different wax sculptures were a good representation of the people who fought in each of the wars. The day in general was long and tedious, but I think that was due to the fact that we were bused to so many places, the busing has a toll on your body and mind. Anyways, the most notable thing that I remember from that place was the trophy looking thing that was silver and had a man stabbing a bison looking thing. I thought that that was a really cool looking sculpture. The second place we went was the memorial place. I did not like this place very much, mostly because it actually required thinking to complete the worksheet, however it was not so bad. I think it was neat how we took traces of the names on the wall in crayon. I also really liked the giant soldiers inside of the bell thing that represented a person from the four different types of armed forces. We then went to the airport, which would have been better if I was not dying of hunger. After we went there we went to eat lunch, which was probably the highlight of my day. That is still saying a lot because it takes a lot to beat a footlong spicy italian sub on wheat with lettuce, tomato, pickle, banana peppers, and mayo. Then we went to the cemetary to end the day, which I thought was a very nice gesture in giving a carnation to a grave. After I had my person found and completed, I walked around for the rest of the time looking for a veteran whose birthday it would have been (it was Noevmber 13). The weird part was that after searching for 35 minutes, I was yet to find either a birthdate or a date of death on november 13th! I thought this was amazing because I had looked at hundreds of graves! But I was respectful in doing so and I tried to avoid disturbing anyone. Then we went back to the school.

Journal #21 - Lifelike Dreams

I have had some dreams in the past that have felt like they were actually happening to me. I also have had a reoccuring dream that I have dreamt about a lot of times. It is actually very similar to the music video for "It's Not My Time" by 3 Doors Down. If you have not seen this music video, then I can probably just describe it to you. In this dream, I am getting chased throughout a residential area by various things. Sometimes it is people I know, or sometimes it is imaginary characters that I have seen on the television, or something along those lines. This seems so lifelike, because this is something that can actuallly happen (not the imaginary character part, but you catch my drift). It is scary because in one of these dreams, I am getting chased by an attack dog. This has never actually happened, but I am honestly scared of that because I would probably get hurt very badly when the dog catches up to me. Whenever I wake up from this dream I always am very paranoid and I do not like waking up to this. It has been a very long time since I have had this dream though. There is another dream that I have had many times, which is when I get in a car accident and end pu getting paralyzed from the waist down. This is something that scares me and could be very realistic. If this were to happen I would no longer be able to play golf or run track as well as people would be looking at me differently. This dream really freaks me out because I love to do these things and I do not know how I would live with myself if I could not do these things. These dreams scare me and I think that they have a conection to our real lives. I really do not remember a lot of my dreams so I do not get these dreams very much.

Journal #20 - My favorite Tall Tale

My favorite tall tale is the tortoise and the hare. I like this story a lot because I like animals. I also like it because I run track and this story has to do with a race. The main moral to the story which is slow and steady wins the race is a timeless message which teaches a good lesson to people. Honestly, I think that most tall tales are not very good and I get really bored while reading them. but this one happened to catch my eye. The fact that a rabbit is racing against a turtle is a fasinating subject. Here is a little background on the story for all of you that may not be able to remember it. So there is a hare, obvously, and he boasts a lot and says that he is the fastest animal in the forest. He was always giving the tortoise a hard time because he knew that he was the slowests animal in the forest. But, the tortoise is a bold reptile and he says that even the hare can be beaten so he challenges him for a race. The course was set and everybody was eager to watch the race. At the start of the race, the hare and tortoise were ready to go. At the start of the race, the tortoise took off at a slow speed. Seeing that his competition was soabsolutely slow, he decided to take a nap right there on the spot. He woke up some later and raced ahead to see that the tortoise had not made it very far at all. So, seeing how he was hungry, the hare stopped to eat some cabbage. The hare checked the tortoise again, and he was only half way through the track. Speeding ahead to get infront, the hare stopped again and decided to stop for another nap. Waking up with a jolt, the hare saw that the tortoise was meer feet away from the finish line. He speeded at an outrageous speed and tried to get there in the nick of time. But, to his dismay... he was too late. The tortoise had crossed the finish line and he had won the race. The tortoise said "Slowly does it every time!"

Journal #19 - Vengence

Vengence is not good. I do not like it when people avenge themselves if something had gone wrong. I honestly do not think that there is ever a good reason to have vengence on someone. I like to think what goes around comes around. If you are to to have vengence on someone, you are stooping yourself down to their level and you are showing how truly weak you are. This is why I like to let things go, because usually when someone does me wrong it is not very important. One time a long time ago, a person to be left anonymous stole one of my pencils in broad daylight and broke the lead. I was very mad because I had to go to my math class next, and this was my only pencil. I decided to not take vengence on this person because I knew it might lead to an all out war. This was not a very big deal, but if I had gotten back at this person, then we would have just gone back and forth and it might have gotten out of hand at some point. We would take each come back to the next level and eventually it might turn into something serious. I am glad that I stayed calm and just borrowed a pencil from someone else because a war like this is not what I would want to fight. This is a good examlple of why vengence can not be a good thing, even when someone deserves something bad to happen to them. I like to think that I am a calm person and that i think rationally. But this is a good reason why vengence can be such an awful thing. On the contrary, vengence can be a good thing when batman gets revenge on his parents death. He avenges his parents by killing two face, in the originals, this is set right because two face was a corrupt individual. Batman aslo makes this up by serving Gotham City and protecting it.

Journal #18 - Biggest Fear

My biggest fear would have to be not achieving my best. I have already been sucessful in a lot of things in my life, such as golf, track, school, and other things. One of my biggest fears would be if somehow I lost all this and could not do this anymore. One thing that would take away the athletic aspect of my fear would be becoming paralyzed such as if I had gotten in a car wreck. Then I would not be able to use my legs which would end my athletic career. Another thing that could end my acedemic career of having very good grades would be a head injury. I do not like to think that I would not be able what I have always done before. Another big fear that I have is getting in very big trouble, such as with the law or even just with something at school. I have never been much of a trouble maker and I like to think that I keep to myself when it matters. But I have such a strong concience that whenever I mess up or am mean to someone, I usually feel very bad and do not want to continue being mean. I do not like to be mean becuase of this feeling, I never feel good after saying something rude to someone. I have been raised by my parents in a way that promotes good behavior as well as good manners. I like to think that I use these qualities in everyday life. I try to follow the good example that my mom and dad have presented to me. I have always been afraid of getting in trouble with the law, even though I have stayed away from bad things such as drugs or other illegal substances. I have only had one detention in high school, and it was for inconvienently taking a trip to the bathroom during Mrs. Blemlers class. So considering that, I think that I have stayed away from this fear and have stayed out of trouble.