Irony and Drunkard

This week we had to read a section about humor and irony. This section helped to refresh my memory on the three different types of irony. We also had to read a few more short stories. One of them was The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence. I thought that the boy was trying so hard to get his mother’s love but all she cared about was the money. I was sad at the end when the boy died. Another story was Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates. I found this story a little strange at the end. It was strange because of the way that they acted at the end. I thought that the boy was just an older man that liked to trick girls into going with him. The third story was The Drunkard by Frank O’Connor. I found it sad at the beginning because it started off with the death of an old man. But later in the story I found it funny. I thought it was funny when they were going back to their house and the boy got mad at the old ladies. This week we also got our new vocabulary list. This time I will try to study since we have more time.

Views and Elephants

This week we had to read a section about point of view. In this section I learned about a fourth point of view and it is the objective or dramatic point of view. In this point of view the narrator only tells you what the characters see and what they hear. It is not used very often so that is why I think that we don’t really talk about it as much as the other three. We also had to read the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. When I read it for the first time I did not understand what it was talking about at all. Then in class the teacher told us that it was about abortion but I still did not see how the story was about that. But when we were doing some group work over the story, I reread some parts of the story and started to understand how it talked about abortion. I was sort of relived when the teacher told us that we would have vocabulary lists less frequently. I don’t have good study habits so I kept on doing badly on the vocabulary quizzes. Now I will have some more time to study the words and get a better grade on the quizzes.

Lesson and She Went

This week we read How Far She Went by Mary Hood and we also read The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara. When I was reading How Far She Went I got a little sad when I read the part where the grandmother had to kill the dog so that they would not be found. I think that the granddaughter should have thought more about what she was doing when she decided to get involved with the bikers. In The Lesson I think that the way that Miss Moore taught the kids a lesson about life was unique.  I found the things that some of the kids said to be interesting. One of the things that the kids said that was interesting was when they were talking about the sailboat. They talked about how it cost one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars and then they talked about the sailboats that they had. We also read a section about characterization and a section about theme. I can usually only get the generic theme of the story. I cannot find the deeper meaning in the story, so I have trouble when I am asked to explain the theme. We also got a new vocabulary list that I need to study.

Plot and The Destructors

This week we read the short story The Destructors by Graham Greene. We also had to read a section about plot and structure and then take some notes on it. I am not a very good note taker so I was starting to get a little worried over not getting the important information out of the section. Thankfully we were given a sheet of paper that helped me organize and overall take good notes. In The Destructors I did not really like the gang of boys because they made Old Misery’s house fall. Old Misery did not really do anything bad to the boys for them to have a reason to take down his house. Trevor was the one that came up with the plan to make Old Misery’s house fall so I liked him even less than the boys that followed his orders. Another thing that we did this week was we got our second vocabulary list. Our quiz is next week and since I did not do so well on the first one I think that I should try to actually study the words this time. I am going to study because I want to get a good grade this time. This vocabulary list seems a little harder than the first one so I might need to study the words a little each day.