Category: English 11
This picture represents the light and darkness that Montag associates with his culture. The dark half of the page is nighttime and the bright side is the sunrise. Montag knows that his society is heading towards it’s demise, but he knows that there is going to be a new beginning. Muh like in the world, nighttime comes, but people always know that the sun will rise the next day.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab My group did pages 59- 65 from the big book. My role in this project was the literary luminary meaning I had to pick out quotes that contained figurative language and talk about their meanings and why they are significant to the theme of the book. I completed by role with care and detail and used notes that Ms. Shong gave us to complete it. After I completed the quotes, I moved on to putting it on the powerpoint. Closer to the due date I messaged group members outside of class to remind them to stick to the timeline we discussed prior. I also added group members work that they only put on the collaborative google docs and not the powerpoint to make sure it was completed on time.
Loading...
Read article here
The reason why this topic interested me is because of how I can relate to it. In this essay, the young author, Daniel, wrote about his struggle with sports. He has played pool his whole life and got so good that he made the most impossible shots. Except, one day out of nowhere, Daniel missed the simplest shot resulting in the loss of his momentum. From then on, his aim was off, his skill was minimal, and his power was gone. His continuous losses made him lose confidence leaving Daniel wanting to quit the sport he put many hours of his life into. Except instead of quitting, he practiced non-stop until he got his momentum back, in fact; he practiced until he was better than he was before. He started to win more games and make the shots he could before all while gaining the love he had for the sport he has played his whole life. The reason why his story resonates with me is because of a similar experience I went through. I started playing soccer when I was in elementary school and have worked hard since then to be where I am today, but it hasn’t been easy. It’s been tough on me not only physically, but mentally, too, experiencing countless moments where people that meant a lot to me didn’t believe in me. This made me lose immense amounts of confidence resulting in poor performance which made me want to stop playing soccer, but decided against it. I wasn’t going to let irrelevant people determine my fate in this game so, I went to the field any chance I got and trained hard until I perfected everything I could. As a result, I improved and proved all those people wrong by getting my skill better than it was before. I could have easily quit when things got hard, as could have this author, but we fought through it because we weren’t going to let a lack of confidence get it the way of letting go of something we love. That’s why I chose this article, because the experience the author described is something I have prominently struggled with, too.
What I enjoyed most about the author’s writing is how motivating it is. Hearing the author’s first line alone, “I believe that getting through the tough times will ultimately make us better,” is enough to motivate someone. Past the first line, too, the author continues to describe his experience with such encouraging words such as, “I realized moving past the hard times was the best thing I could’ve done. I could’ve just thrown in the towel and given up…but I knew that I could get through it.” These lines don’t even need to be in the context of just sports, it could be for anything. I loved how motivating this article was because it could not only help someone get through the same conflict the author and I overcame, but help anyone going through a tough time. This article could give some just an ounce of hope.
There are many movies I have watched and books I have read that have covered with someone at odds about the sport they love, much like the conflict the author described. There have also been movies, tv shows, and books about the same conflict, but not in sport scenario. It’s typically someone who has to overcome internal conflicts which is what this article is. The author lost his momentum in playing pool and felt the need to quit. I also experienced the same conflict where I told myself I couldn’t play soccer anymore when I was physically capable of doing so. It was just me telling myself I couldn’t. This is something that everyone in this world has to go though. Everyone’s conscious tells them they have to quit something when it gets hard, but it doesn’t have to end up that way. This article sums it up perfectly, “getting through tough times will ultimately make us better.”
Read Article Here
The topic of the essay that I chose to write on was the enjoyment of reading. The reason why I chose this particular essay was because the author establishes that “reading lends the soul and mind a place to escape,” which is a quote that resonates with me. There have been countless times when I have been laying in bed sick, feeling down, or stressed out and all I did was pick up a book to make me feel a lot better. I agree when the author says that it’s a place for the mind and soul to escape because I have experienced it to go to another reality to escape my own reality. Another reason this essay interests me is because it suggests how “reading teaches us…giving you new words and expands vocabulary.” I also agree with this quote because everyday after kindergarten I would sit on my mom’s bed and read with her. Since then I have been a book junkie and I believe if I wasn’t, my vocabulary or even my writing skills wouldn’t be where they are today.
What I liked about the author’s style of writing is that is was persuasive without being too “in your face.” I didn’t feel as if I was being persuaded by the author that to like books is better, I just felt like I was reading someone’s great experience with reading. But in the end, I realized that it’s somewhat persuasive because it made me want to read a book. When she says she has had the benefit of “being a Bollywood sensation, a teenage spiritual medium,… a sexy southern waitress,…a witch with a price on her life,…and many more things,” it made me want to be all those things; to experience their emotions and live their lives, even if it is for a temporary amount of time.
The connection I made with the article I read was with the television show Gilmore Girls. The reason for this was because the daughter in the show, Rory, is a huge bookworm to a point where she has drawers upon drawers filled with book that she has read and has many more that she still has to read. There’s a particular quote in the series where she says that she “lives in two worlds; one is a world of books,” which, again, resonates with me along with relating to the article. The thing I noticed about the series, though, is that she tends to be the only one that likes to read. This also shows in her knowledge because out of everyone, she was definitely the smartest. But everyone around her seemed to be a few steps behind because reading isn’t big anymore. A reason people chose not to read, especially this generations group of teenagers, is because it comes off as lame. I don’t see how it could be, but it’s somewhat concerning. As I mentioned, I see reading as a chance to gain knowledge and seeing people read less and less is unsettling to think about let alone what’s going to happen in the future if we all just stopped reading . It keeps the mind active and without it, can have serious affects on our brains. Carl Sagan said, “One of the greatest gifts adults can give- to their offspring and to their society- is to read to children.” This proves that everyone reading can lead to a more knowledgeable society.