Finished Hamlet

This week we finished reading Hamlet. I think that overall it was a good play. It was a little difficult to understand at times but in the end I understood the main parts of the plot. I did not enjoy having to write an essay on Hamlet the first day back from our break. I did not know what to write about in the essay. I am also not good when it comes to writing essays especially when there is a set amount of time to do them in. We also had a vocabulary quiz this week. I was a little worried about the quiz because I had not looked at the words in a very long time. But the day before the quiz I studied the list of words for about half an hour. I think that I did ok on the quiz but when it came time for the quiz I got a little nervous and forgot a few of the definitions. I also got one of the words meanings mixed up with another word. We also started learning about satire by reading a speech. I did not find as many satire devices in the speech as some of my classmates so I think that I don’t completely understand it. But with a little more practice I think that I will get it.

Books

This week we read act three of Hamlet. I think that Hamlet should just tell someone that his father was poisoned. He should also tell them that it was the new king the kill him. After they find out the truth they should have the new king executed. I also think that Hamlet should not try to appear to be too crazy. I think that Hamlet’s mother should have been more scared when Hamlet killed the man hiding behind the cabinet. My second independent reading book was The Pesthouse. I think that this was a pretty good book. It was about people going east and trying to get out of the now ruined America. It talked about the problems that they faced on their journey. But in the end they decided to go back and make a life for themselves in this ruined America. Although I enjoyed this book there were some question that I don’t think got answered by the end of the book. My third book for independent reading is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Some of my friends have told me that it is a little weird and can be difficult to understand at times. But I think that it sounds interesting so I will try to read it.

Play & Book

This week we started reading Hamlet by William Shakespeare. When I first started to read it I did not really understand anything that was going on. But as I got further into the play I started to understand some parts of it. The foot notes really helped me to understand some of the words that did not make sense the first time I read it. And they also really helped me to understand some of what was happening in the play. But there were times that the foot notes made things a little harder to understand. I thought that I was getting better at understanding how Shakespeare wrote but then I got to the second act.  I understood some of the beginning but as I got to the end of scene two I did not understand any of it. And most of the foot notes really did not help to make things clearer. The book I chose for my outside reading was The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. Although I have not really read a lot of it so far I think that it is a good book. I am sort of worried that I may not have the book finished by the day that it is due.