Eclipse 2 11/17/14

Prompt - Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be real people)? Why or why not?

     Most of the characters in this book seem like they are not real; this is because there is vampires in this book and of course; they are not real. For example, the Cullen family are all vampires and have non-human like qualities. Sometimes, a vampire is born with a special talent. Some of the members of the Cullens can do supernatural things.

     Edward can read people's minds, Alice can see the future, and Jasper can control a whole room of people's emotions. Some of them have less strange talents, for example, Emmett, who is unbelievably strong (even for a vampire). Also, another way that the characters aren't realistic is that her best friend Jacob is a werewolf. Wolfs are real, but, in real life; humans can not turn into giant wolves.

     The Volturi (vampire royalty), who are in charge of the people who live in the same place as they do, are kind of realistic. I say 'kind of' because in some places there can be royalty like a king or queen, but, they are vampires and they have very strong talents. There are still some realistic characters in Eclipse which are most of the students that go to Bella's school. They have no supernatural powers, and, they are not immortal. Even in page 133, Bella thought "Angela's easy human dramas were oddly reassuring. It was nice to know that life was normal somewhere." This shows that in Eclipse, most of the characters are not realistic, but some are.

Eclipse 11/10/14

Prompt 1 - Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.

     In my personal opinion, I think that the book Eclipse has very good word choice. Word Choice in books is something that makes the book a lot more interesting. In this series, they (the author) are every descriptive.

     One part that had good word choice that made the mood/tone clearer was on page 9. "I felt my face harden. "What about him?" I asked through stiff lips." The mood here was nervousness in the atmosphere. I know this because it shows that Bella wasn't expecting to talk about this topic (Jacob) and was nervous to talk about him with her dad.

     A section that impacted the text was "My former best friend who was now... what? My enemy? I cringed. Charlie's face was suddenly wary. ... "Well, it's about Edward too" My eyes narrowed. Charlie's voice got gruffer." This was on page 10 and it was all directly telling us how they felt which helped make the text better. The tone here was confused because Bella didn't even know who Jacob was to her anymore and Charlie didn't know why Bella didn't want to talk about Jacob.

Prompt 2 - Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence.

     In Eclipse, one scene that revealed something about one of the characters (Charlie) was on page 18. "Good evening, Charlie." Edward was always flawlessly polite, though Charlie didn't deserve it. Charlie grunted at him, and then stood there with his arms crossed over his chest." This clearly showed that Charlie (Bella's dad) disliked Edward.

     Another part that revealed something about Charlie was when on page 15 he wanted Bella to spend more time with Jacob. "And then you were always so happy after spending the day with Jake."(Jacob) Charlie sighed. "I'm happy now." I growled fiercely through my teeth. The contrast between my words and tone broke through the tension. Charlie burst into laughter, andI had to join in. "Okay, Okay," I agreed. "Balance." "And Jacob" he insisted." This section showed how much Charlie like Jacob and encouraged Bella to talk to him again.

   

Reflections on Poe 11/3/14

     Before I did read about Poe's life and his stories, I knew nothing about him. In the beginning of the year, I just knew his name but I had no idea who he was. Now I know a lot more about him. Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic. He loved to write and he mostly wrote mystery short stories.

   
     Poe went through a lot of difficult tragedies throughout his life. One of the major (bad) things in his life was when he lost his wife, mother, brother, and foster mother all from tuberculosis. Also, he had a very hard time being poor for a long time so he even had to burn his furniture to keep warm. Another bad thing that happened was when he left college to come home only to find that his fiancé cheated on him.

     While working for The Messenger, he was dissatisfied with the low pay and lack of editorial control. So, he decided to move to Pennsylvania; he spent his time wiring for different magazines. Poe always wanted to become famous for is writing; and that came true. The January 1845 publication of his short story "The Raven" made Poe a household name. He was now famous enough to draw large crowds to his lectures, and he was beginning to demand better pay for his work. 

      His life may have affected his writing a lot. I think that when he wrote, he based some of the character's emotions on what he was feeling and expressed it in his stories. Since he suffered a lot of tragedies, he probably made one character insane because of all of the emotions and things going on that would be enough to drive someone mad. 

     Life in the 1800's compared to the 2000's was very different. Back then, people didn't have advanced and modern things; they also didn't have much ideas on how to create a cure for diseases. That's probably why a lot of Poe's family died of tuberculosis. Also, not everybody had a job (that they get paid for); now, most people can at least work somewhere like McDonalds, but still get money enough to buy things that they need. Poe even had to make a fire with his furniture to keep warm so that shows how different life was then and now.

     There are still some similarities between both the 19th and 21st century. One thing that they both have in common is that there are still the wealthy, the middle class, and the poor. Edgar Allan Poe was first the poor, then when he got famous, he was wealthy. You can still go from poor to wealthy, then back. Lastly, in both times, there are famous writers/authors. There are still a lot of famous authors today. 

New Moon 2 10/27/14

Prompt - Describe the most important event. Give at least three reasons why you think it

is the most important event.

     In New Moon, there is actually two major events. The first one is when Edward moves because he thought it wasn't normal for Bella to be hanging out with vampires the whole time; and Jasper almost killed her (Bella) after an accident when she got a paper cut. This was a major event in the book because Edward leaving caused Bella to be really depressed. So, she started to become less depressed when she started to hang out with her best friend Jacob which she later found out is a werewolf. 

     One day, Jacob started to avoid Bella, then completely, and Bella became depressed again. He was avoiding her because he was going through the transformation of becoming a werewolf; which Bella didn't find out right away. Since she was looking desperately for something to do, she noticed that when she did dangerous things, she would hear Edward's voice in her had. So, one day she jumped off a cliff. Alice (Edward's sister) saw Bella jumping off the cliff in her mind and thought she was committing suicide and died. Alice saw this because she's a vampire also and can see the future.

     When Edward found out, it caused him to go to the Volturi (vampire royalty). He wanted to show the humans that he was a vampire so he can get in trouble and the Volturi would kill him. He didn't want to live without Bella. When Alice saw this, she (and Bella) went to Italy to try to save Edward. They ended up making it on time and saved Edward.

     The second major event was when Bella and Alice went to save Edward and the Volturi saw that Bella was human. This was an important event because it was 'illegal' for a human to know about vampires. So, they said if one of them didn't turn Bella into a vampire soon, she would die. This was probably the second most important event because Edward leaving caused all of this, so, that would be the first major event.