english blogg.

Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper November 19, 2009

Protagonist Character Description (Andy Jackson)

• Black
• Athletic
• Tall
• Depressed
• Emotional
• Guilty
• Suicidal
• Heart- broken
• Mournful
• Caring
• High- tempered
• Unforgiving
• Crazy
• Reckless
• Lonely

Antagonist Character Description (Depression)

• Lonely
• Sullen
• Ill- tempered
• Dark
• Contained
• Helpless
• Corrupt
• Killer
• Mysterious
• Emotional
• Casted-  out
• Isolated
• Moody
• Dispirited
• Hurting

Theme: The themes in the novel are…

• Killing ones- self (suicide)
• Drinking and driving
• Pondering and not letting go of the past
• Affecting other people’s lives, not only your own, with your depression
• Trying to control your emotions

Setting: Southeast City in the US around the 1980s – 1990s

• Southeast City, USA
•  Fall through Spring, 1980s through the 1990s
•  Andy Jackson, basketball player
•  Depression, man vs. oneself
•  Suicide, man vs. oneself

Conflicts

• Andy Jackson vs. Friends & Family/ Man vs. Society
• Andy Jackson vs. the Past/ Man vs. Himself
• Andy Jackson vs. his dad, E.J. Jackson/ Man vs. Man
• Andy Jackson vs. his girlfriend, Keisha/ Man vs. Man
• Andy Jackson vs. his emotions/ Man vs. himself

Character’s hobbies

•  Plays basketball
•  Drinks alcohol
•  Cares for his brother, friends, and girlfriend
•  Raps free- style and songs
•  Spends  countless of hours with his girlfriend
• Dreams about the unimaginable
• Vents about his emotions
• Jokes around constantly
• Criticizes about black people stereotypes
• Babysits his 6year old brother, Monty

5 sentences of parallelism from book ( Author and Pg. #)

•  “Here I come… cold… cold… so cold,” (Draper 88)
•  “Like talking to Rob’s parents. Like writing a letter to Rob. Like talking to other kids who might consider drinking and drinking,” (Draper 93)
•  “ – he killed his best friend, he killed women and children, he killed the king,” (Draper 106, 107)
•  “I was always conscious of improving myself- making myself better- making myself good enough, bright enough, proper enough, respectable enough,” (Draper 153)
•  “Some of ‘em smiled a lot. Most of ‘em just kept pilin’ on the homework like nothin’ had happened. None of ‘em ever took the time to sit down and talk to me,”  (Draper 44)

Exposition

• The boys win an important basketball game.
• The boys go out and drink to celebrate their victory.
• The boys drive out late night, drunk, and crash into a wall.
• The boys arrives at a hospital; leaving with nothing major, except one. Rob Washington dies.
• The boys, along with friends and family, are devastated and were affected greatly; especially Andy Jackson.

Rising Action

• Andy Jackson faces his emotions, as they try to overpower his mood.
• Andy Jackson faces depression, as it tries to take over his life.
• Andy Jackson faces a psychologist, who tries to help his depression.
• Keisha faces her depressed boyfriend and tries to reform his life back normal.
• Gerald and B.J. face their best friend live through guilt; they try to cheer him up.
• Andy Jackson faces the decision of jumping of a bridge or not on a snowy day.
• Andy Jackson faces a fight between him and his girlfriend, causing them to break up.
• Mr. & Mrs. Washington faces Christmas without their son for the first time.
• Andy Jackson faces a wall. He has to let his emotions out, but neither Dr. Carrothers nor Keisha was available.
• Andy Jackson faces the increased black stereotypes and racial comments.

Climax

• Andy Jackson picks up a rifle, lifts it up under his chin, and pulls the trigger. Andy ended his own life, resulting with suicide.

Falling Action *Not real quotes from the book, they are twisted around. The people are talking about what happened.”

• “Why is there blood on the ceiling mom?” – Monty
• “Why wasn’t the suicide prevention/ grief counseling team here before?! Before Andy killed himself?” – Tyrone and B.J.
• “Why did he leave without saying good- bye?” –  B.J.
• “Why did Andy end his life? Why didn’t he tell me? We should have never broken up; I could have saved him. He needed somebody to be there for him, and I just left him…” – Keisha (Grieving)

Resolution

• Friends of Andy talks to him by making letters for him, keeping the letters for themselves to remember.
• The brother of Andy talks to him by visiting his grave and having a little brother to big brother talk in front of Andy’s tombstone.
• The mother of Andy tries to talk to him, but she just couldn’t walk to his grave.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque November 5, 2009

Found Poem

Horror of War

Promising

We went courageously

To begin the disentanglement of life and death

With pale faces

Heavy fire is falling on us

Retreating

Death is working

Machine guns rattle, rifles crack

He’s killed at sight!

His head torn off!

Breathes no more….

Hit in the back

I was mad with pain

Death- throes are stronger

Artillery opens fire

I drop down to my knees

I remain quiet

My weakness haunts me

Terror

It kills if a man thinks about it

I stand up

My hands grow cold and my flesh creeps

Low spirits

The earth sudders, it crashes, smokes, and creeps

We need more reinforcement

Comrades are dead

The fight ceases

No Man’s Land

The dead pile up in the field

Their faces have the awful expressionlessness of dead children

The night roars and flashes

The wounded

Helpless

We listen to them dying

Their life is at an end

Life is short

There was nothing

Left

Alone

The horror of war

All Quiet on the Western Front: Vocabulary

1. Reverberation

• The roar of the gun makes our lorry stagger, the reverberation rolls raging away from the rear, everything quakes.
• Reverberation: An echo
• Reverberation: noun; a reechoed sound
• As the tanks fired their cannons, the snarl from the shot caused a reverberation echo through the valley.

2. Belaboured

• We sit as though in a boiler that is being belaboured from without on all sides.
• Belaboured: Being battered around
• Belaboured: Verb; to beat severely; thrash
• The reinforced door of the church was being belaboured by a giant pillar carried by German soldiers.

3. Debauched

• *Sentence was too long, the following is a part of the sentence* Our gasping is the scratching of a quill, our lips are dry, our heads are debauched with stupor- thus we stagger forward.
• Debauched: Aching; Sore
• Debauched: Adjective; unrestrained by convention or morality
• The debauched soldier was on the verge to give up on life, so he thought about standing in the open waiting to get shot.

4. Cur

• He draws up his legs, crouches back against the wall, and shows his teeth like a cur.
• Cur: An object resembling a creature that sticks their teeth out
• Cur: Noun; a despicable or cowardly person
• I think one of the soldiers in my squad is a cur because he hardly ever gets in the action of a battle.

5. Smutty

• Then Leer and Tjaden stroll up; they look at the poster and immediately the conversation becomes smutty.
• Smutty: Perverted
• Smutty: Noun; Obscenity in speech or writing
• Smutty language is common in the military; everyone talks smack to each other.

6.Dysentery

• They have dysentery; furtively many of them display the blood- stained tails of their shirts.
• Dysentery: A disease that inters with the digestive system
• Dysentery: Noun; An inflammatory disorder of the lower intestinal tract, usually caused by a bacterial, parasitic, or protozoan infection and resulting in pain, fever, and severe diarrhea, often accompanied by the passage of blood and mucus.
• Most of my squad suffers from dysentery ever since they drank water from the dark, murky stream. Every once in awhile, a groan could be heard from the latrine.

7. Idyll

• So we zealously set to work to create an idyll– an idyll of eating and sleeping of course.
• Idyll: An agenda
• Idyll: Noun; a simple descriptive or narrative piece in verse or prose
• One of the soldiers wrote an idyll to his loved one back in the states before he departed for battle.

8. Eiderdowns

• Then we furnish ourselves with blankets, and eiderdowns, luxurious soft affairs.
• Eiderdowns: A warm, thermal blanket
• Eiderdowns: Noun; The down of the eider duck, used as stuffing for quilts and pillows
• My mother sent me an eiderdown, so I could keep warm during the winter.

9. Perambulators

• On the way we meet the fleeing inhabitants trundling their goods and chattels along with them in wheelbarrows, in perambulators, and on their backs.
• Perambulators: A movable device that holds numerous items 
• Perambulators: Noun; A baby carriage
• Mothers from a village, that was being attacked, ran with their babies in perambulators.

10. Aberration

• Anyone might have known that his flight was only homesickness and a momentary aberration.
• Aberration: A black- out; fainting
• Aberration: Noun; A defect of focus, such as blurring in an image
• The smoke grenade blinded my eyes causing aberration in my vision.

The Last Mission by Harry Mazer October 25, 2009

1)     I think the title The Last Mission means that every assignment in any branch of the military can be your last chance in life. I would compare this to the saying “Live life as if it was your last”. What I am trying to say is that you never know if you are going to live another day while in the military. The main character, Jack Raab, was in the air force during WWII. Jack had 35 missions to accomplish, but he only completed 25 of them.

2)     The theme in the novel is war. I think the author, Harry Mazer, was trying to say a few things in the book. I believe Mazer was saying that war is not what people see in movies. War is full of hate, blood, the killing of the innocence, luck, and sorrow. Some movies display war with heroes with tons of skill that seem to never get killed even when death is just around the corner, but that is not really the case in real life. Of course we have heroes in life, the heroes that give up their life to protect and keep up us safe; those are the real heroes.

3)     Will be submitted in class.

4)     The cover of the book has 5 air- crafts crashing down. One of them has a wing blown off, and there are small puffs of smoke in the clouds. A plane battle is most likely happening right now in the cover. The cover appropriately corresponds to the novel because the theme is war and the military. More specifically, the novel is about the Air Force, a branch in the military. Throughout the book, there are plenty of air battles and many planes crashing down with blown up parts.

5)     Will be submitted in class.

6)     One aspect of the novel that I enjoyed the most was when Jack Raab’s air- craft, The Godfathers, Inc.,  got shot down from the sky and it lose one of its wings. All of the Jack’s squad was killed execpt him. I enjoyed this part the most because it was the first exciting scene. The scene got me looking forward to the rest of the book. I got worried if Jack would also get killed like the rest of his squad. Fortunately he survived. After this plane crash, the story became more interesting with every turn of the page.

7)     One aspect I did not like about in the novel was the fact that Jack was a smoker. Jack said he started at the age of 12. That is the only thing I found not interesting. Personally, I think that that idea is favoring on the fact of it is okay to smoke at this young age. Twelve is just too young to start smoking. Smoking in general is rather disgusting, but I know a big amount of the military smoke. Therefore, it was necessary to add the fact of smoking into the novel.

8)     “We dropped a lot of bombs. They did plenty of damage, but not ust against war facotires and bidges and thigns like hat. A lot of those bombs fell on ordinry people.” (Pg. 176, Paragraph 2) I chose that quote because Jack realizes that when he is dropping bombs, he is not only destryong factories, military bases, etc. but also killing innocent people, like women, children, and the elderly. So soldiers are not the only people dying and getting killed.

    ” I don’t like war. I thought I’d like it before. But war is stupid. War is one stupid thing after another. I saw my best friend killed. His name was Chuckie O’ Brien. My whole crew was killed. A lot of people were killed. Millions of people. Ordinary people. Not only by Hitler. Not only on our side. Was isn’t like the movies. It’s not fun and songs. It’s not about heroes. It’s about awful, sad things, like my friend Chuckie that I’m never going to see again. I hope war never happens again. That’s all I’ve got to say.” (Pg. 188 Paragraph 2 & 3) I chose that quote because Jack is at his high school giving a speech of his army life. I like it how Jack says he thought war would be cool at start, but then says it ss not how looks like in the movies. War is way different in real life.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers October 14, 2009

1.        I think that the book Fallen Angels was a great book for me. The book got my attention right away in the first chapter. It started with, what I thought was, an excellent attention- grabber. I whole theme of the novel was war, specifically between the U.S. and South Vietnam against North Vietnam. The war theme was something I thought would be interesting and exciting to read about. Nevertheless, my proposition was correct. In truth, I indeed liked the book. As I got deeper into the novel, more action and conflicts occurred which got me eager to read more and finish the book. I admit, thought, the book had a rather slow start.

2.        The author, Walter Dean Myers, seems to be a proficient writer. I say this because I really enjoyed his book. Like I said, the book grabbed me right- away. Once I had started reading it, there wasn’t any way out because I was already caught into the action in the book. Walter Dean Myers’s writing style seems to be simple. I believe the book was written in first person; to me, I think first person is awfully easy to understand. Astonishingly, I didn’t get lost and confused that much throughout the book. I stayed right on task majority of time. I am willing to read another book by Walter Dean Myers. I feel that would enjoy his others as much as I enjoyed this one, Fallen Angels.

3.        The main characters are Richie Perry, Harold Gates (Peewee), Lobel, and Monaco. Richie Perry, the protagonist, is about 17 years old from Harlem in New York. Perry is a black high- school student. At first in Vietnam, Perry was lost and confused. He didn’t know what to do in a war. AS the story progressed, Perry started to learn a few essentials about life, such as, how to build his life, friendship, and trust. Harold Gates, or Peewee (his nickname), is from the harsh streets of the Chicago ghettos. Peewee is a black young adult, and Perry’s closest friend in Vietnam. The streets shaped Peewee’s personality of having a rash behavior. This personality was carried over to the war. Peewee faced a battle with a brutal, savage mentality. Later on, Peewee began to show compassion, kindness, and loyalty. Lobel is a Jewish man. He suffered through many prejudice remarks like his other fellow black comrades. Lobel is addicted to watching movies. He basically compared life in Vietnam with how life in movies is. Monaco is an Italian man on Perry’s squad. He showed lots bravery in battle. He was the courageous in the squad that took risks. Unfortunately, that attitude of his got him to deep danger.

4.        I do recommend this book to other students. However, I believe this book isn’t for everyone. The book contains many curse words throughout the whole book. The curse words doesn’t necessarily make the book bad because Walter Dean Myers wanted to give the full war- time experience, and soldiers like to trash talk when in war. Also, there were a few sexual references. The book even has some gory scenes since the plot is during a war. I would recommend this book to teens from 8^th grade to 10^th grade. I don’t think the reading level is high enough for teens past 10^th grade. More specifically, I would recommend this book to boys because of the war- content. I can see a guy like this book more than a girl, but I am not saying a girl can not read Fallen Angels.

5.        The story begins with a 17 year-old black male from New York named Richie Perry, who joins the army. The Vietnam War was going on at this time. During training camp, Perry injures his knee while playing basketball. The injury made Perry have a medical profile which should have him not go in combat. With paper works all mixed up, Perry was issued to fight in the war anyway. On his way to Vietnam, Perry meets a nurse named Judy Duncan and a comrade, Harold Gates or Peewee (his nickname). At their first base, Perry meets Jenkins. Here, Perry, Peewee, Jenkins all gets transported to a new base in Chu Lai. Perry meets another soldier named Johnson. That night Jenkins steps on a land mine and dies. The following day, one of the Lieutenants, Carroll, leads a prayer. Carroll called Jenkins an “angel warrior”.

After a few days, Perry meets Monaco, an Italian, and Lobel, a Jew. Lobel and Perry become friends with young Vietnamese girl named An Linh during an expedition.  That night, Perry and Lobel was put on guard duty, and Lobel tells Perry that how likes to compare his army life to a movie. During a patrol, Perry’s squad accidentally lays fire on their soldiers. Many Americans were killed out of carelessness. That night, the squad goes on a journey to a nearby village. Here, they try to set an ambush attack on some Vietcongs. Perry becomes wild and randomly shoots in this battle. Lieutenant Carroll was hit and later died in a hospital in Chu Lai. That night, Perry writes a letter to Carroll’s pregnant wife that her husband has died, but died with great honor.

Perry’s squad got a lieutenant and his name is Gearhart. Gearhart accidentally renders their position to the enemy during a patrol. Only one death took place. In a random village, the squad got some rest. Perry goes in a hut and he gets taken by surprise by a Vietcong. Perry turns around and shoots the Vietcong with multiple bullets with desperation. Later, the squad gets sent to another new base, Tam Ky. At some point in a current patrol, the squad was ambushed by the enemy. Luckily, the squad was able to unleash some heavy firepower on them and defeats the ambush. Many were injured though, and some were even killed. Even Perry got injured; he suffered from a broken wrist and a few flesh wounds around his upper leg. The soldiers who were just injured got a purple heart for their bravery.

Perry was sent back out to the squad because his injury was not too serious. In a recent patrol, Perry and Peewee become separated form the rest of the squad. The two guys spend the night in a spider hole. In the morning, Peewee peeks out and sees a battalion of North Vietnamese. One of them even checks the hole they were in; in self defense, Perry and Peewee kills in the soldier. When the choppers came in, the two guys opened fire onto the battalion to let the choppers know where they are. Once the choppers found them, they began to open fire.  Both the men were wounded in the battle. In the hospital, the two men finally get sent home to because they were both seriously injured. On the plane ride home, Perry finds out that Judy Duncan has died in a hospital bombing.

Setting: Vietnam

Exposition: Richie Perry joining the army & headed to Vietnam

Rising Action: When Lieutenant Carroll dies and when Lieutenant Gearhart releases a flare

Climax: When Perry and his squad all get brutally injured in an intense battle against the Vietcongs in a slope with rice paddies everywhere

Falling Action: Perry and Peewee stays in a spider hole for the night

Resolution: When Perry and Peewee finally gets sent home because of major injuries and when Perry learns that Judy Duncan is dead

Characters: Richie Perry, Harold “Peewee” Gates, Lobel, Monaco, Lieutenant Carroll and Gearhart, Judy Duncan, Johnson, and Jenkins (Others not mentioned in summary: Sergeant Simpson and Dongan, Corporal Brunner, Brew, Turner, and Walowick)

Conflicts: Prejudice & racism, Heroism, the truth of war- good vs. bad, and loss of purity- morality vs. immorality

So you want to know about me? August 28, 2009

  Hello there, my name is Carlo. I’m fifteen and a sophomore at East Peoria Community High School. I entered this world on May 31st, 1994.  I have one sister, a mom, and a dad who all (hopefully) loves me. Of course, I love them back. My favorite sport is deffinately basketball. I’ve been playingthat sport probably since i was like 7 or 8. I also played for the freshmen team for my school last year. This year, I’m aiming to make the sophomore team. Over the summer, I played AYBT (American Youth Basketball Tour) for the second year in a row. It’s pretty awesome because I get to play against kids all over central Illiois.

Another sport I play is Track and Field. I don’t do the field part, so therefore I do running events. Uhm, I don’t do long distance… it’s toooo much running. Basically, I just sprint; my events would be the 100m, 200m, 400m, 4×1 relay, 4×2 relay, and a 4×4 relay. I admit, I’m not that good but I’m not horrible ;).  Right now, I’m in marching band. I play the trumpet and  I’m not so great at it also. Our show this year is Cirque de Soliel: La Nouba. Honestly, I am pretty excited for this year and we probably will end up being better than last year!

Friends and music is a big part of life. Before arriving at EPCHS, I came from a small private school in Morton. I was really close to all of them because I’ve been classmates and friends with them for about 9 years (Kindergarten – 8th grade). Fortunately, one of those people came with me to EPCHS, and his name is Johnny Haller. We’ve been buds since kindergarten. Like i said, music is a huge part of my life. I generally like any genre but I prefer pop and hip- hop. Some bands I like are Fall Out boy, Hey Monday, Linkin Park, Relient K, The Rocket Summer, and Every Avenue.

When I have free time, which is rare becuse I’m usually busy, I like to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the day. Also I am a BIG fan of naps; I think they are absolutely wonderful and rejuvanating :). Furthermore, hanging out with friends is one of the best things to do. Things we would do are go to the movies, biking around (preferably to DQ in Morton), drive randomly around the city, play some ball, xbox, or party!

I am a person who usually doesn’t think before talking. More often than not, I’m mostly likely be joking around, so if I don’t look too serious, most likely I’m not (;. I am a very shy person, therefore it takes awhile for me to break this shyness, so bare with me at times. Trsut me though, I’m a fun person to hang around with. Well, that’s all I have to tell yall.. if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I don’t bite 😀

Hello world! August 18, 2009

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!