Journal 3- being held hostage

If I were being held hostage by an Indian tribe, like the one in the story we read, I feel like I would do something similar to the woman. I would do everything the people told me to do because I would be afraid of the consequences if I acted out against what they said. I would pretend to be content with what was going on, or fine with whatever they were making me do. Deep down, though, I would be very angry. The Indians would be taking me away from my family, my friends, my home, and everything I had ever come to know during my life. If they were nice, maybe it could be like a little adventure. Somewhere back in my line of family history, there is some connection with an Indian tribe. The Sioux tribe, if you want to get as accurate as possible. They would most likely not be the tribe kidnapping me, but it would still be kind of cool to see how they lived. When I was little, I used to be obsessed with the idea of Pocahontas. I thought she was the most beautiful person ever, and I always wanted to know if she ever stepped on anything as she was running through the woods without shoes on. I admired how majestic and free her life appeared to be. I would probably attempt to live like that if I could bored enough in my wigwam camp. I think the only thing that would make me not want to stay in the camp at all would be if sexually assaulted or something like that. Besides that, I could deal with physical labor or taking care of other Indians. I am a creature of adaptation, so I can usually deal with anything that is thrown at me. I honestly would not mind being an Indian for awhile, as long as I was fed properly and did not have to sleep on rocks. Bring it on, Indians.

Journal 2 - the messy puppy

Once upon a time, in the small city of Springfield, there lived a little puppy named Sophie. Sophie was the sweetest puppy in the whole world and her owners loved her. She was only four months old, but she was already eighty pounds. She was a Great Dane, so this was very normal. Sophie's owners loved her very much. Sophie loved to snuggle, and her saggy skin made her even more adorable. The families next door also had dogs of their own, so Sophie was always taken over for puppy play dates. Her owners were very busy, so Sophie was often taken to one of the neighbors house so she would not be lonely. Although her owners loved her, the dogs of their neighbors did not like Sophie. Sophie was a messy puppy. Whenever the other dogs heard the owners talking outside of the door, or smelled Sophie's scent, they were instantly unhappy. Before the door opened and let the Great Dane in, the dogs would quickly run to find their toys, treats, blankets, anything that had any sort of special value, and hide them wherever they could. Sophie had a growing problem with being messy and playing with the other dog's toys too much. At first, the other dogs did not mind. She is just a puppy, they thought. She will learn someday. After so many play dates, the dogs realized that Sophie's behavior was not changing. One day, the dogs all gathered on the corner. They needed a way to make Sophie realize that she was ruining the fun and destroying their toys. Most of them had told her before, but Sophie was still a puppy so she had trouble listening. The dogs came up with a plan, which would have some consequences, but it was decided that it was better in the long run. They waited for an afternoon when Sophie's owner went on a walk, and crept into the house. In just a short amount of time, they had slobbered all over Sophie's toys, eaten her treats, and pottied in her yard. Sophie was passed out asleep in the front yard. She was woken up by the sound of her friends sprinting away from her house. Sophie was very upset about her things, especially her treats, but she understood what she had done. Deep down, she was also really mad. From then on, every time Sophie was dropped off next door, she was very careful with the other dogs' things. The end.

Journal 1 - how the elephant got it's trunk

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a time before elephants had their long, magnificent trunks. Instead of the protruding mass, there was simply a flat surface with two pointed nostrils sticking out. There was a certain little elephant who changed her herd forever. Her name was Lola. Lola was a naughty elephant, and was often caught telling lies to the fellow elephants in her family. Lola liked to explore and always managed to get herself into trouble. Lola liked to scare the other small elephants. This always made the adults very upset with her, but Lola only wanted the attention. One day, Lola wandered off from the rest of the herd as they surrounded a small lake. No one had paid much attention to her that day, and she was feeling extra mischievous. TheJre was nothing but desert and grassland around them, so the elephants were not worried about predators for they assumed they would be easily seen. Lola came running back to her family. "Lions! Momma, there are lions coming!" All of the adults ran to find their children to protect them from the danger. When they finally got a chance to look around, there were no lions anywhere in sight. "Lola, why would you make up such a story to scare everyone? That could be very dangerous." Lola looked around. All of the elephants scowled at Lola, but she only felt more distant and deprived of attention. Lola wandered farther out. Being only a small elephant, the tall grass took away some of Lola's ability to see. She was not paying attention to how far she was going out. This time, Lola was not looking for trouble or attention. She felt sad and lonely, and the angry faces of her family would not leave her mind. Slowly, Lola made her way across the vast, deserted grassland. She wrapped in her thoughts. Back at the watering hole, Lola's mother looked around for her baby. "Have you seen Lola?" She went around asking all of the elephants to see if any of them had noticed where Lola had gone. "Oh do no worry about her," they all said. "She is probably hiding to get a rise out of us. If we act like we do not care, she will be back before sundown. Baby elephants do not like to be out past dark." Lola's mother hesitantly agreed with them, and resumed enjoying the water. By now, Lola was far from her herd. She finally noticed just how far she had gone, but had no idea where she was. The only thing fr miles was tall grass and sparse trees. "Momma?" Lola waited for an answer. She could not smell or sense any elephants with her short snout. All of a sudden, a pride of lions surrounded the little elephant. Lola ran as fast as she could, but she had no idea where she was going. The poor little elephant could not yell because she was out of breath. She tried and tried to make some sort of sound so her family could save her. She heaved and heaved, when all of a sudden, and huge, low tone exploded from the snout of Lola. It could be heard for miles! Lola persistently made her new sound, warning the herd of the pride. The lions were so startled by the sound that they ran away, but Lola was not the same when she came back. A massive trunk hung from below her eyes where he nose used to be. Lola took her place as the "protector" of her herd, and after many years evolution allowed all elephants to have the trunk.

Summer Work - Opinions

Another reason why I really, really did not like doing these blogs was the fact that I felt like I was repeating myself over and over and over again, and not just in a singular blog. I feel like every single one I did is exactly like that last one. I do not need three-hundred and twenty-five words or more to get my point across. I can do that in like three or four sentences, maybe ten sentences if you want to get crazy. There should have been more topics or structure to what we were supposed to write about instead of desperately babbling trying to get the last few words in. I could write more three hundred word blogs on how much I hated it than I could about the books we were supposed to read, and I actually read them! There was not enough structure in the directions of how to do them, so that leaves so much room for diversity in each students blogs. Is that what they are supposed to be about? That seems like it would be almost impossible to grade or talk about in class if everyone is talking about different things. I really hope that the blogs were allowed to be opinionated because that helped take up space. It is impossible to write fifty, three-hundred and twenty-five word blogs without your opinions mixed in. Otherwise, every single one of my blogs would have been a summary of the book I was writing about. I am very interested to see what happens to these blogs once school starts. How are we supposed to get graded on these, is it completion? In ways I think that is fair because they are all going to be so different, but it is not fair at all in other ways too. Some people did not even read the books so their blogs do not even make sense. It is definitely not reasonable to have the exact same grade as someone who slacked off when I actually read the books. Every aspect of the blogs is infuriating. Thank god I’m done.

The Catcher in the Rye

There are many reasons why I did not really like the main character, Holden Caulfield, of the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. Hopefully, there are enough reasons to fill an entire blog. One reason why I was not a big fan of Holden was because he was always very negative. He never saw the good in anything or anyone around him. It made me so mad when he would be walking the streets of the amazing nineteen-fifties New York City and would only be thinking about how depressed he was or how his life was horrible or all of his problems. I wanted to jump in there are say “Holden, what the heck is wrong with you. Open your eyes, look around you, and stop feeling sorry for yourself. It is boring to read. Thank you.” Holden was very judgmental towards the people around him, which I think goes hand in hand with the negative attitude. He always had something bad to say about everyone, whether it was his jerk roommate, his grimy, dirty friend across the hall, his parents, or his teachers. There was literally one person in the entire book he was not negative towards, and that was his little sister Phoebe. Phoebe saved the story. I did not like how Holden Caulfield created his own problems and then tried to run away from them. The only thing he did not do was blame someone else for his problems; he was very aware and exceptive that he did that to himself. I wish he had had more fun while he was by himself in New York City, instead of moping around being bored and trying to find somewhere where he could drink underage. The story feels like it is going a lot slower when the main character is bored and feeling sorry for himself. Let me tell you something, depression is not fun to read about. Holden should have taken advantage of his youth and had the time of his life before he faced his fear and went home. There is a lot that Holden did that I did not agree with.

The Catcher in the Rye

In my opinion, I think that my favorite author out of Ernest Hemingway, author of Old Man and the Sea, John Steinbeck and Robert DeMott, authors of Grapes of Wrath, and J.D Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, I would pick J.D Salinger over all of them. The Catcher in the Rye was not my favorite book by a long shot, but when I think about it, J.D was the best author. I have never read a book like The Catcher in the Rye before, and I think the thing that set it apart from other novels is the way it was written. It is written in first person from the point of view of a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. The story takes place in the nineteen-fifties in New York City. This is not your average kind of first person story telling, though. J.D Salinger made his character come alive and makes the reader feel like they are actually being spoken to by a teenage boy. J.D Salinger does this by using certain words, phrases, language, thoughts and ideas. Teenage boys, and teenagers in general, do not always use the best grammar. By not writing formally like other authors do, J.D Salinger wrote Holden Caulfield’s story in the exact way it would have been spoken. He also did not filter any of Holden’s thoughts. I think that during the time that this was written, it must have been absolutely scandalous. Nothing J.D Salinger is completely inappropriate, or would not be thought of as inappropriate today, but I can see where it could be seen as offensive in the nineteen-fifties. The times then were so much different than they are now. I think that the story would not have been the same at all if J.D Salinger had filtered or altered what a sixteen year old boy thought or said. It would not have the same impact on readers. I can see where J.D Salinger might have taken a risk by writing and publishing it during his time, and I always appreciate courage.

Summer Work - Opinions

If you ask me, I have very strong opinions about this summer work. Very, very strong opinions. And most of those opinions are not positive in any way. I did not dislike the reading; I am actually very glad I had to opportunity to read Grapes of Wrath and The Catcher in the Rye because they are both classics, I had heard so much about them, and I had time to read them. I guess I was lucky to be able to read those two books because usually I hate required reading. I probably would have enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye more if it had not been required and I had read it on my own time. Every summer reading experience I have had in the past has been inconvenient because I do not have time to write a two page paper over a book I did not like. This summer was different though. I hated everything about the blogs. Not only were they more inconvenient than the papers in years past, there were way too many required. I do not understand how every student was expected to do this because they are so time consuming, and the internet is not a stable thing to work with. Internet connections go out all the time for no reason, especially if you live in the country. I would have much rather written a paper over the books we were required to read than spend my time staring at a computer screen. I do not see any point of the blogs because they are not helping or teaching students anything but how to use as many words as possible to meet the minimum. I can guarantee that at least forty-five percent of the Honors English 332 did not even read the books. I can imagine it is much easier to summarize and paraphrase someone else’s blog (because they are public to any user of the world wide web) than to make up your own ideas in a paper. It is a good thing the required reading was not that horrible, or else this would be the most pointless summer homework ever.