"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe 10/20/14

Prompt - Draw 4 objects that represent you reading. Write a sentence for each, telling what each item says about what you've been reading.

1. A Tree

This represents the tree in the garden that the man used to hang Pluto (his cat). I chose this because the story is mostly about the black cat. That's why the story is called The Black Cat. So, the tree was associated with the cat. Also, the second cat that the man got after hung Pluto from a tree was when he was drunk; this cat looked a lot like the original. The only difference was that it had a white patch on it's chest. But, when it grew out, it formed the shape of the gallows (a wooden device to hang people) After that, the man was afraid of it.

2. A Grimm Reaper

This picture represents death. This story has a lot of deaths in it. One of them is when the man killed Pluto by handing it from a tree. The second one is when he killed his wife with an ax in the head when she tried to stop him from killing the second cat. Lastly, I picked this picture with the Grimm Reaper holding a suitcase because the narrator wrote this the day before he died in jail, confessing what he did. So, the suitcase represents nearing death or traveling there.



3. Guilt


This picture shows a weight/sack of guilt. The man felt guilty, so, he confessed by writing what he did the day before he died. Every time he did something bad he regretted it, but he did a bad thing after another, and they kept getting worse.





4. Bad - Temper




This picture shows a bad-tempered and easily mad face. This describes the narrator because he got mad easily and did a crazy thing after another.

The Twilight Series 10/14/14

Write the biography for one character

Character - Edward Cullen

     Edward Cullen was born on June 20, 1901 in Chicago Illinois. His full name is Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. He was an only child to Elizabeth Masen. His father provided him with a lot of opportunities. For example, he had music lessons and the chance to go to a private school. However, him and his father were distant because of his busy career as a succesful lawyer. The absence was made up with the relationship of him and is mother: he was the center of her life.

     Edward exceeded in his studies and soon became a skillful pianist. As he grew older, he became in love with the life of a soldier. World War I raged during most of his adolescence, and he dreamed of joining the army as soon as he turned 18. He reminisced about his dreams of becoming a soldier in the Midnight Sun, saying that the love of his mother was the only thing that made him reluctant to the thought other than his underage. That changed, however, when he and his parents became sick with The Spanish Influenza in 1918. His father died in the first wave of the influenza.

     Edward's mother later contracted the Spanish Influenza and begged the doctor who was taking care of them, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, to do everything within his power to save her son. (quote from the book) Elizabeth said "You must do everything in your power. What others cannot do, that is what you must do for my Edward." Carlisle acted on her wishes when Edward was near death himself. Shortly after Elizabeth died, Carlisle took Edward from the hospital, brought him to his house, and there changed him into a vampire.

     He and Carlisle formed a deep bond with each other and Carlisle became a fatherly figure to him; gaining Edward's trust and love the way his natural father never had. It was Carlisle who first realized  Edward's telepathic abilities; he noticed Edward answering questions that Carlisle had not asked aloud. Edward always had a knack for reading people; after his transformation, this ability turned into  a true psychic talent. In 1921, he finally got a mother. This happened when Carlisle changed Esme into a vampire to save her after her suicide attempt. Edward was still young enough to appreciate a mother's care, and Esme gave it to him.

     Edward did have a rebellious side at the beginning of his vampire life and he left Esme and Carlisle on 1927. He used his mind reading ability to attack the worst people of society. He thought he was serving justice; but he still was feeding on humans. His first victim was Esme's abusive ex - husband, Charles Evenson. A few years later, he regretted his decision and returned to Carlisle's family and their diet of animal blood in 1931. 

     Carlisle and Esme were concerned about how Edward was lonely and didn't have any love in his life. So, in 1933, Carlisle found a girl named Rosalie Hale on the street after she was left dead by her fiancé. He changed her into a vampire to save her, and for Edward to not be lonely. As stunningly beautiful as she was, Edward took no interest in her because of her shallow and self-absorbed mind. So, the two became nothing more than siblings and were not always on good terms. Later on, Rosalie found Emmet near death from a bear attack in 1935, and she fell in love instantly.  So, she took him to Carlisle and he became Edward's adoptive brother. 

     Then, in 1950, already-vampire Alice and Jasper sought out to find Carlisle's family to escape their tragic past. They found them by Alice's talent of seeing the future. While living in Alaska, they encountered the Denali coven; the only group that shared their diet of animal blood. The leader Tanya showed affection toward Edward, but he did not share that interest. 

     By 2005, he had attended several colleges and universities, earned two medical degrees and studies several subjects. When his natural parents died, he inherited his the Masen house in Chicago, about every 50 years, he would inherit the family fortune from himself, pretending to be a new heir. 

    Since his talent was mind reading, he never encountered a person that was immune to his power. Until Bella shows up and he realizes that her mind is impenetrable. At first, this infuriates him. but it's also the start of his obsession with her; How and why is her mind a mystery to him? As Bella finds out the truth about The Cullens, she continually begs Edward to turn her into one of them, She dreads that fact that she grows older than him every day. 

      His brother, Emmet teases him about being the smartest, but since he can not sleep at night, he has a lot of free time. He has become the most fluent in foreign languages, and he has read the most books, second to Carlisle. He also loves to run; he is the fastest runner of them all. He is also the most musical. He's always composing songs on the piano including Esme's favorite, and Bella's lullaby.

    His siblings include Alice, who can see the future, Jasper, who can control your emotions, Emmet who has supernatural strength (even for a vampire), and the amazingly beautiful Rosalie. Alice and Jasper's parents remain unknown. 

    In the books, Edward is described as being impossibly beautiful. His face is portrayed as angular with perfect high cheekbones, a strong jawline, straight nose, and perfect lips. He is said to have a dazzling, crooked smile. His hair is an unusual bronze shade inherited by his biological mother. As a human, he had emerald green eyes; now his eyes are golden brown or topaz. But, when he has not had blood in a long time, his eyes are onyx or coal. He stands at 6' 2", has a slender yet muscular body, and is physically 17 years old.
   

   

New Ending to "The Lady Or The Tiger?" 10/7/14

"Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right, and opened it."

   The arena went silent with anticipation. He had put all of his trust in the princess. Now was the time to see if the she lied to him. He had not the slightest idea what awaited him. With a quick inhale, he placed a firm grip on the handle of the door and gave it a hard pull. As light floods the space revealed, a growl is heard as well as gasps from the onlooking audience.

     His own breath is still being held in his lungs despite their silent cries for release and a new supply of oxygen. The tiger creeps out of it's confinement, eyes set on his meal. A small low exhale is barley heard as he can not hold his breath any longer. He backs away slowly, though it's more instinct as he knows there is no possibility of saving himself.

The princess still keeps her face expressionless; she is determined to let not even a small grimace take upon her features. She will not amuse her father with letting him see that he has reached his goal. Though he knows he has, her decision never wavers. She attempts to occupy her mind with this but her thoughts of her decision make it difficult to.

She had stayed up all night deciding which door she should tell her lover to open. She decided on the door of the tiger because she would be very jealous if the man she loved married the woman she despised. But, even as she sat in her spot looking down at him, her heart begged at her to reconsider. But, it was too late. She watched as her lover got mauled by a blur of orange and black and he screamed in agony.

Half of her was enjoying this; her semi - barbaric side! Then, on her other side she is very miserable. She suddenly realized that she has turned into a sobbing mess, her tears fogging up her vision, as she wipes them away trying to silence her cries. She has killed him! she thinks, with her choice. It is she who has done the deed.

The arena starts to empty, the people going back to their daily duties, the tiger back in the cage on a full stomach, and the king back to his throne to have his own meal. The princess stays a while longer, before painstakingly realizing that it is over.

1st Quarter Reflection 9/30/14

     This quarter, I have learned a lot of thing in Mrs. Larson's Lit/La class. I have learned about how to annotate, write proper paragraphs, new vocabulary, and a lot more. Now that it's the end of first quarter, things like these are easier for me. One thing that we did in class every week is vocabulary and root words. I learned a lot of new words from practicing them each week. I even saw a lot of these in the book I last read; Twilight.

    I read Twilight for my 40 book challenge. This is another thing we are doing. So far, I'm on my seventh book. This challenge is very good to help learn new things and vocabulary. I like this because we learn about totally different topics because we have to read a certain number of different genres; instead of reading our favorite genre the whole time. That way, we wouldn't learn that many new things.

     Another thing I learned was how to write a proper paragraph and use correct punctuation. There are some things that I had to learn again because I forget things. For example, I learned that I had to indent each paragraph. I forgot how to do that over the summer. Another thing that I remembered is how to use the semicolon again. I also know synonyms to a lot of words now. When I am writing something and the words are to easy, I have to use the thesaurus.

     Lastly, I learned how to do research on certain topics. We did this in the Aow's. Something that I learned from this was how to look for something instead of taking it straight from an assignment. Like, instead of being told what to do in step by step directions,  you have to go out and look for your answers. So, so far, those are some things I've learned in first quarter.

New Moon 9/23/14

Direct and Indirect Characterization -

     From the book New Moon, that I am currently reading (again), there is mostly direct characterization. On page 8, it says "Of course Edward and Alice weren't really related (in Forks the story was that all the Cullen siblings were adopted by Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme, both plainly too young to have teenage children), but their skin was precisely the same pale shade, their eyes had the same strange golden tint, with the same deep, bruise-like shadows beneath them." This was direct characterization. It show that they were related because it was describing the similarities between them.

     The second piece of direct characterization that I found was, "Uh-oh," Jessica said apologetically as she returned the camera. "I think we used all your film." on page 64. This was direct because it said that she said it apologetically. So, this means that she was upset or sorry that she used all of the film on Bella's camera.

Lastly, on page 94, there was a part with indirect characterization. "Charlie's fist came down on the table. "That's it Bella! I'm sending you home." This was indirect because it didn't describe any of Charlie's (Bella's dad) emotions. But, readers can assume that he was most likely angry. A clue that shows that he was mad, was that it said his his fist came down on the table. Also, what he said he said it loudly, because of the exclamation point.

Twilight 9/16/14

Prompt - Draw 4 objects that represent your reading. Write a sentence for each, telling what each item says about what you've been reading.

 Pages Read - 0-416

     The book I'm currently reading is Twilight. I really love this series and I'm reading it over again. This book is about a 17 year old girl named Isabella Swan who has a normal boring life; until she moves to Forks,Washington to live with her dad Charlie (her parents are divorced). She doesn't expect anything to change in her life in the beginning of the book. But, it all changes for her when she meets Edward Cullen. She thought he and his siblings were so beautiful, she couldn’t stop staring. That’s because they were vampires; which she realized later. At first, she tries to ignore him, pretending that he is annoying, but really inside, she’s dying to get to know him. Even though Edward tells her it’s dangerous for her to be with him, she proceeds to try to talk to him at school and finds any excuse to be near him. But, overtime, their relationship strengthens and they run into a lot of danger along the way.

Picture 1: an apple

     The apple represents the forbidden fruit from the book of Genesis. It symbolizes Bella and Edward's love, which is forbidden, similar to the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as is implied by the quote Genesis 2:17 that is quoted at the beginning of the book, It also represents Bella's knowledge of what good and evil are, and the choice that she has in partaking of the "forbidden fruit, Edward, or choosing not to see him. Stepenie Meyer (the author) also stated this herself. 


Picture 2: worn-out shoes

These shoes represent Bella's clumsiness. In the book, she always is falling down or getting hurt. That's why Edward always feels he has to be close to her. He always is protecting her. Also, all of the vampires always choose to target Bella. For example, one in the first book was named James. The Cullens had to take her out of the state to protect her!

Picture 3 - Wonka Chocolate Bar

The chocolate bar represents how much Edward can't resist Bella. Just like the Wonka bar was irresistible, he couldn't resist the smell of human blood. He was the most attracted to Bella because he said she had a special scent that he couldn't resist. He also found it unusual how Bella's mind was the only one he couldn't read. So, Bella was different, so he was attracted to her.


Picture 4 - a red truck

The red truck represents this book a lot. First of all, when Bela arrives to Forks, Charlie (her dad) gives her this truck as a gift. He bought it off of Jacob's (childhood friend) dad. Next, this was in the part when Bella almost got run over by a car but Edward pushed her away. Lastly, when Bella and Edward weren't as close to each other yet, they would always fight about who would drive whose car. It was mentioned at least three times.