Incident

This poem is about a boy who visits Baltimore. He says that when he first got there he say a little boy staring at him. He smiles at the little boy, but the boy calls him a "nigger". This poem is showing how people were back in those times.

A Dream Deffered

This poem is about what happens when you put your dreams off. Deffered means to postpone. Alot of people do that. They say,"oh, i'll handle that next week or next month and never gets around to it. The poem is saying that a dream can die if you put it off for to long.

Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington Robinson

This poem is a good example of modernism. This story is about a man named Richard Corey. He was a very rich man. All of the poor people wanted to be in his place. Every day he walked by he had a smile on his face, and spoke politely. But the obviously didn't know him very well. They just knew what they saw. Richard Corey had to be a very depressed man, because one day he went home and killed himself. This is a very good example of modernism.

The Harlem Renaissnace

I chose the Harlem Renaissnace because I am very interested in learning more about this. Alot of cultures, movements, music poetry, and art came about with the Harlem Renaissnace. Comparing this to other moverments in modern times falls under the standard: ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

Realism Poem

Every time I turn around
I see
Either an ambulance or a police
Is it just me

Trouble's all around
You better watch your back
Because you never ever know
When you could be under attack

The world's getting worse and worse
Am I the only one that can see?
Because I'm always seeing trouble
Maybe its just me

I consider myself a realist.
What about you?
The world needs peace.
My life does too.

But I know it'll get better.
I'll just give it time.
Because I know there is many more realist
Whose mind frame is just like mine.

The Wire

The Wire is a show out that is a really good example of realism. This show shows the harsh environment young boys have to grow up in. It shows how young boys have to grow up dealing drugs just to get the money they needed. And I know people say getting a real job is way better than dealing drugs, but when you aren't old enough to get a job, and your mother isn't doing anything to help you, you have to do what you have to do. These boys have been victims of killings, and some of these boys are doing the killings. I think this is a good example of realism because this show shows how hard it really is growing up in the slums and that's how realist wanted it. They wanted people to realize how hard real life is.

"A Story of an Hour"

This story is about a lady(Mrs. Mallard) whose husband is killed in a car accident. Her friends and family are afraid to tell her because she has a heart problem. When they finally tell her she doesn't take it so well. Josephine her sister is trying to make sure that she breaks the news in a way so it doesn't hurt or stresses her sister out. Josephine tells her sister the news, and instead of being sad, Mrs. Mallard is very happy. She's happy that her husband is dead, because that is one less thing she has to focus on. Now all she has to focus on is herself. At the end of the story, she finds out that her husband isn't dead. When she saw him she died instantly. The doctor said it was the joy that killed her. But "we" know she died from disappointed shock.

The Black Cat

This story was really long. It’s about this man that has a cat. He loves animals, it says "Pluto--this was the cat’s name--my favorite cat and playmate." but he says “The furry of a demon possessed me. I knew myself no more." then he grabbed the cat by the throat and cut his eyeball from the socket. After a while the cat healed, but then he is possessed again and he hangs the cat by a tree limb. I’ve never read anything quite like this. To me this man was a little psychotic. I could tell that this story was a Dark Romanticism because he is listening to the voice inside his head but the outcome isn't good, so I guess what this what I mean is dark romantics believed to do everything that popped into their head, but a lot of it wasn't good it was very dark and evil.

Georgia Performance Standard:ELAALRL4

The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.

This basically means to understand the different types of writing, and to be able to point out the differences between them. This standard also wants me to write different types of literature. I also think we will be talking about important ideas and parts of the text to other texts that are relevant to each other.

"The Raven"

Fist impression of “The Raven” is that it was just an OK poem. It uses several literary terms to boost the mood of the poem. As I read again I found a deeper meaning to the poem. The poem was not just about a man mourning over his dead lover. I compared the situations between the main character in “The Raven” and Poe's own life tragedies. This poem is actually a reflection of Poe’s own loss, his wife. Everything he wrote about Lenore is exactly what he felt and thought about his own wife. It relates to anti-tranacendtalist on many differ ways. A good example in the story was “but the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; This shows that the raven is treating his pain as a joke showing a sign of evilness. I think it’s saying that the raven doesn’t care about the mans feelings and taking it as a joke. I also realized that the story is about a mans pain for his lost of his wife, Raven is a sign of death and that’s why the raven was put in the story.

Another Example is "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil!--Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted--On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore--Is there--is there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me, I implore!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." This is another example of anti-transcend lists because it’s talking about the devil. He is using the bird to haunt the main character, or the raven is an evil spirit of Lenore his lost love, and he's thinking that the house is becoming haunted and he starts to become insane and losing is mind. The raven keeps replying to everything he ask "Nevermore" and its making him upset and thinking the devil is evolved with the raven beings at his home.

Self Reliance

The story Self-Reliance is talking about how much work and the thought of trusting no one was taken so seriously. It was trying to get at the way boys where raised up. Working to them is a way to show their strength and manhood, and how powerful they were. ‘‘A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best’. This was a perfect example of how much work meant to them and their everyday lives. I think what he was saying was you should do what your heart and god tells you to do, because that is what god wants you to do.
This is a good example of Transcendentalism because they really think that it’s what was in god’s heart that he wants you to do. They feel that god wants you to be different from everyone. So you should just do what you think is right. This is a good example because they are going against what everybody thinks about you. One example of this is “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” What he is saying here is that you are going to look crazy but you shouldn't care because god is with you.

"Nature"

This passage compared nature and the world to humans and how the worked everyday. They felt that work kept everything copacetic. This passage took a lot of imagination. He was basically saying that when you gout into nature all you troubles go away and your mind drifts into a moment of peace. He says he feels like he is one with god whenever he goes to explore the nature around him.

I think this was a very good example of Transcendentalism. They believed that the individual human mind was one of the most powerful instruments in the world. And in this passage he explained how the how your mind goes to a peaceful state. They believed that if you where to go out into nature that you could talk to god because it’s just you and him. An example of this in this passage is "standing on the bare ground-my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all." He is sayings in this his body and everything is gone and he is in the sky and is one with god. They didn’t believe in sin because they felt everyone was good.

What is Romantic about Rip Van Winkle?

1) In the story, Rip was a very lazy man. His wife always let him know that. He and his wife had a home in the Katskill Mountains. Romantics centered their stories around nature because they didn’t want to deal with the harsh lives that they had.
2) In the story, Rip falls asleep for twenty years and awakens to a very different village than when he fell asleep.Every thing is different. His wife died, and his children or friends were no where to be found. There is no way someone can fall asleep for twenty years!!This is a good example because when romantics are writing they use a lot of fiction in their stories.

Alone in the Wilderness

This clip is about a man who is about fifty years old. He decides to go live in the wilderness and stay alone for a while. This alone shows a sign of Transcendentalism. He is off to live alone in nature where his mind can be tranquil with God. So he constructs himself a home out of wood. This is another sign of Transcendentalism because he is being independent and doing all his work by himself. Transcendentalists believed that relying on other people meant that you were weak and that you were not being the person that God made you to be. For example, Emerson said"there is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better or for worst, as his portion" The man ended up living in the woods by himself for 35 years before he gave up his home and went back to live with his family.

Tia’s List of Virtues

1. Be more assertive (I need to learn to be surer of myself)

2. Have more Self confidence (I need to learn how to be more confident with myself)

3. Be more cooperative (Sometimes I am difficult to deal with)
4. Focus on myself (I tend to focus on things that aren’t going to help me in the long run.

5. Personal commitment (It would help if I would commit to a lot of things that can help me in my life. School for example.)

6. Diligence (I could be more careful in my work and the things I do)

7. Be more moderate (I need to eliminate a lot of extreme and bad things from my life)

8. Have more Intuition.

9. Don’t be to Modest.

10. Non-Violence (Me being violent sometimes gets me in trouble)

11. Be more Optimistic

12. Piety (I need to learn to respect my religion and culture a little more)

13. Self Discipline

How is Ben Franklin a Rationalist?

In this autobiography, Ben Franklin tells us how many faults that he has in is life that he wants to change. In the passage he quoted," I wished to live without any fault at any time," But unlike a puritan, he wants to figure out human nature scientifically. Not let god figure everything out. That is how he is a rationalist. He made a chart of how he could improve his life. He basically did an experiment on himself.

Puritans VS Rationalist

Puritans really believe that god put us here, and that everything that happened in the world was up to him. That wasn't the case with Rationalist. Rationalist believe that everything that happened in the world had something to do with science. They believed that anything could be understood through science. Puritans took this as an insult since they believed that god controlled everything, and humans had no business trying to explain or deconstruct god's work.

Writing One

Tupac Shakur

Tupac was the best rapper that lived. Of course that is my opinion, and there are many more in the world. But I just can’t help myself in saying that. Tupac was born June 16, 1971(1971-06-16) East Harlem, New York. He is also known as 2Pac or Makaveli. His mother an original Black panther and his father was one of FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives.
Tupac talked about all the real problems and tragedies in the world. He was as real as any person that I’ve ever met. Of course he talked about being in the streets, and how the street life was, but most of his lyrics talk about the struggle he and his family had to endure throughout his life.

Tupac has sold 75 million albums to date and is one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He was a promising actor, and also a social activist. Although some people portray him as a black male who had no respect for the police, and a gang-banger, most of his raps were about him growing up amid violence, hardship, racism, and much more.

Some people say that Tupac only raps about selling drugs, shootings, and how bad he hates the police, but in reality he tells us how the street life is, and how he is trying to get away from it. I don’t think that he wanted to harm or hurt anyone. He just wanted the best for himself. He became the target of lawsuits, and experienced legal problems. But to me, he was just speaking the truth and a lot of people couldn’t take it.

Tupac spoke his life through many of his songs. One of my favorite songs from him was Changes. He was telling how there should be a lot of changes throughout the world. In one of his songs he quoted” I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself is life worth living should I blast myself? I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch!” in this he was just telling how hard the world is and how far people have to go just to be able to provide for their families.

In another song he quotes” Now ain't nobody tell us it was fairNo love from my daddy cause the coward wasn't there. He passed away and I didn't cry, because my anger wouldn't let me feel for a stranger.” This part is telling how it was hard for a single mother top raise a boy. Today over half of children today will live without their father throughout their life. This just shows the relation that Tupac had with a lot of people in the world today.

Now I saying that Tupac is the best rapper that ever lived is in my own opinion. But I have a lot of evidence to prove that he was. And I’m not alone with this. I won’t be the last person to say that. And I’m not the first!!!

So in conclusion, I am going to forever say that Tupac is the best rapper that lived and still is today. I would have loved to meet Tupac, but that task is impossible, so I guess the closest I will get to that is remembering him through his words.

RIP
Tupac Amaru Shakur
June 16, 1971-Septmber 13, 1996

Unit 1 Standards

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.
ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.
ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

These standards really means that we should be able to understand and interpret what type of material we are reading. this also means that we need to think of some things in the present and depict it to literature that we are learning about.

How do Puritans Differ from Native Americans?

Their Puritan vision was for the New World to be a 'city set upon a hill', and a light to the world. This is how they came upon 'manifest destiny' and a belief that America will lead the world into a new era of peace and security. Puritans also believed that everyone was born a sinner, and god only saved a certain few. And everyone couldn't earn god's grace. They thought that only saints could get you to heaven. One of the saints sermons was called"Sinners in the hands of an angry god." Some puritans got so scared that they fainted.
Native Americans have one God. They may call him by different names but they believe in the same God as Christians do. Native Americans sometimes pray to animals. It means they are asking the animals to help them. It doesn't mean that they are praying to a false god. Native American culture revolved around their spiritual beliefs. They believe that all people are connected and that we all are part of the web of life.

Native American Literature

I look to the long road behind
My heart is heavy with my people’s sorrow
Tears of grief I weep - for all that we have lost
As we march ever farther from the land of our birth
On the Trail of Tears
Mile after mile and day after day
Our people are fewer with each rising sun
Disease and starvation they take their terrible toll
And though we suffer still we march on…On the Trail of Tears

The Coldest Winter Ever/ Independent Reading Project

This book is abut a young girl named Winter growing up in the ghetto in Brooklyn. She lives with her father Ricky, her mother Mrs. Santiaga, and her sisters Lexus, Porsche, and Mercedes. She has to go through many things in her life. Her father is a drug lord in Brooklyn. He always provided her with whatever she wanted. She says that her father is a king, her mother is a queen, and she is a princess. To me she was a little bit arrogant. In the book her attitude was,"Hey...bow down to the family who puts food on the table for you and yours."
Winter had a crush on one of her father's workers named Midnight. But he showed no intrest in her. He was always listening to Sistah Souljah a radio personality. He really liked her. Winter wasn't really into Sistah Souljah. She said that she was trying to make herself look good by helping alot of people.
When Winter was about fifteen her father revealed that they were going to move into a house in Long Island. She did not want to leave her home town. Their new house was huge, and everybody seemed to enjoy it but Winter. She missed Brooklyn so much. She always found a way to sneak back to Brooklyn just to see what was up.
A couple of months after they moved, Winter's mother was out with her father and was shot in the face. That really changed her mother. She wasn't the same after that. Her mother didn.t dress the same, didn't act the same, sometimes Winter was embarassed to be with her, and she has never had that problem before.
A few months after her mother was out of the hospital her father was arrested on many drug charges. Eventually they gave him 2 life sentences. Because he killed 2 men in jail. They took everything from them. Their house, cars, furniture , jewelry and everything. Everything was repoed. Her sisters were put in a foster home, because her mother could not take care of them. Her mother moved with her aunt back in Brooklyn, so Winter was on her own. She had to handle business.
Winter was only seventeen, so she wasn't supposed to be out on her own. The authorities caught up with her, and put her in a group home. It was called The House of Success. She really hated being there, but she had a good hustle while she was in there. She did hair, makeovers, sold clothes, basically everything you could think of to make money.
While Winter was in the home she met a girl named Natalie. She was very religious and very quiet. She also liked Sister Souljah. She went to her book meetings a lot. She tried to encourage Winter to go, but Winter wasn't having that.
Winter ran away from the home, and moved with an older man she met. She stayed in touch with Natalie. Natalie begged her to move with Sister Souljah, so she could help her. Winter agreed with her, and decided to move in. Sister had a huge house. She stayed there with her younger sister Lauren. Winter and Lauren kind of hit it off from the beginning. Winter had more class than Lauren. Lauren was jealous of her.
Eventually Winter ran away from the house and moved with a boy named Bullet who she had known when she stayed in Brooklyn. Everything seemed good at first. He was spoiling her. He was buying her what she wanted. She felt like the old her. She got an apartment in her name. And they also got a car. Bullet was selling drugs, and her mother was one of the junkies buying it. She felt so bad for her mother.
One day Bullet asked Winter to rent a car in her name so they could go on a vacation. She didn't know that he had guns and drugs in the car. The police pulled them over, and they were both arrested. Bullet was released because everything was in her name. The apartment, the rental car with all of the drugs in it. Everything!!!! She had to serve 15 years in a federal prison.
7 years after Winter was in prison, she had to attend her mother's funeral. she had to be escorted by police officers. Her mother died from a blood clot in her brain. At the funeral she seen her sisters, Midnight, her father and a lot of other people she had known. Midnight adopted her sisters, and got married. Her father was also escorted by police officers at the funeral. They were happy to see each other. Her family was together again.

Thank You M'am/Short Story 3

This story is about an elderly woman named Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. she was walking down the street when young boy came and tried to steal her purse. He must have not been that good at it, because she ended up draging him down the street. She asked him why he did it, and he said he wanted to buy himself some blue suede shoes.

While she was still dragging him down the street, she asked him why his face was so filthy. He asked her why she wouldn't let him go, but she just kept walking. She kind of figured that the boy was in need of a lot of things.

When they arrived to her house, she made the boy wash his face, and fixed him something to eat. she didn't get into his business by asking him where he lived or who his parents were. She just fed him and talked to him. When they were done she gave the boy $10 to buy himself some blue suede shoes and showed him the door. On his way out the door the boy said,"Thank you Ma'm" and he was on his way.





The subject of this story is teaching young people the right things to do. The theme of this story is whatever you want it is better to ask for it rather than to steal it. I agree with the author and what he was trying to portray. The only way you can have what you really want is to work hard for it. Ways that the author supported the theme is when Mrs. Washington said that the boy didn't have to snatch her purse just because he wanted some shoes.

My favorite movie is Set it Off. The subject of this movie is women on a bank-robbing spree. The theme of this movie is four women trying to get enough money to get out of the hood. The author delivered the theme by showing how all of the girls were living, and showing that they are in desperate need of money.

Lay My Burden Down/ Short Story 2

This story is about Mya Angelou when she was growing up. In the beginning she was telling the readers about how clean her mom wanted her to be. She said that if her feet were dirty when she went to bed that she would get whipped with a switch. she said her mom said,"Cleanliness is next to Godliness."
Maya's mom owns a store and some land that a couple of white people live on. I thought that maybe she would get a little respect from them because they live on her land and bought groceries from he store, but they still treat her like she is a slave. Sometimes they boss her around, and Maya doesn't like that very much.
Towards the end of the story Maya's mother is being taunted by a couple of the white kids. One of the kids go as far as doing a handstand without any underwear on. But Maya's mom just stands there a hums a hymn. she lets them know that she isn't bothered ablout anything they do.


I think that there are many important things you can get out of reading this story. The first thing is that you can ignore people who try to pick on you. Another thing is that even if someone is treating you bad, doesn't mean that you have to do them the same way. There are many examples of this in the story.
In the story, maya's grandma ignored all of the children, and didn't say a word to them. She just hummed her hymn and looked. Eventually they left. My mom always told me that,"you kill a person with kindness." I think that that little phrase goes good with this little passage.
In this little passage after the children left Granmother addressed all the children as "Miz." Maya wasn't very pleased with that. Even after the fact that they had made fun of her she still showed them respect. Maya was to young to realize what was going on at the time. Sometimes when you look over pety stuff like that, and turn the other cheek, you get blessings.


I think that these stories are so popular because these are real moments. People like to read about true events in a person's life. I think that there are a couple of events in my life that would be intersting to read about. Maybe I should make my life into a story.

The Lottery/ Short Story 1

This story wasn't an easy story to understand. I really didn't understand what the story was about until I read over it again. there weren't really that many main characters in this story. The three main characters to me were, Mr. Summers, Tessie Hutchinson, and Old Man Warner.

The Lottery was a gathering that a small town of 300 people had every year. every year whoever was the head of their household would come up and choose a slip of paper from a black box. whoever had the slip of paper with the black dot in the center of it, won the lottery. "Winning the Lottery", sounds like a good thing, but in this small town if you won the lottery you would have to get big rocks and stones thrown at you until you died.

Mr. Summers conducted the lottery this year. He also conducted alot of other clubs and programs throughout the town. Most of the people felt bad for him because his wife died, and he never had kids. He also had a chance to be apart of the Lottery.

Old Man Warner was the oldest man in town. He had been in the lottery for 77 years. He isn't the nicest man you will meet. He is all for the lottery. In the story he said, " A Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon."

Mrs. Hutchinson is the woman who won the lottery that year. At first her husband won, but she declared that they do it over. When the did it over she had the paper with the black dot on it. When she won, Old Man Warner quoted," Come on, Come on everyone!" Even her kids had to throw rocks at her.

In this story, I think that The Lottery is a sacrafice for good crops in the near future. The reason I think that is because of what Old Man Warner said in the story. I really don't like how they handled this situation. i really don't understand how people in this town go to these lotteries knowing what is going to happen.

Character Descriptions

Mrs. Hutchinson seemed like a sore loser. I knew she was when she said,"I tell you it wasn't fair. You didn't give him time enough to choose. Everybody saw that." I think that just because she wante to re-do it, that's the reason why she chose the black slip of paper.

Mr. Summers seemed like he didn't care much about what was going on. He knew what was going to happen, and he was in the front of the crowd joking with people. If I were in that situation, it wouldn't be a time for me to be joking. I really think that he is so used to the lotteries that it doesn't affect him anymore.

Old Man Warner is the oldest man in town. He is a kind of bitter man. in the strory Mr. Adams told Mr. Warner that they were giving up the lottery in the North Village, and Mr. Warner called them a "pack of crazy fools."

Definitions:
simile- a figure of speech comparing two unlike things
metaphor-directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects
personification-gives an object or idea human traits and qualities
allusion-making casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event
hyperbole-a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated
irony-using a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or normal meaning

a Metaphor in the story was when Mrs. Hutchinson craned her neck. This is a metaphor because, the two unlike things are "crane" and "neck."
a Hyperbole in the story is when Mrs. Delicroix said," it seems like there is no time between the lotteries anymore." This is a Hyperbole because there is a lottery every year, and there is alot of time between lotteries.
The whole story was ironic. you would never guess that whoever won the lottery was going to die. in the story Mr. Summers quoted,:let's finish quickly" and they all stoned Mrs. Hitchinson to death.