Animal Farm Trailer

BY RANDY L.
FORREST L.

Poetry Out Loud Performances

I watched Branden Emanuel Wellington perform Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa, his performance was one of a kind, his stage presence was perfect, his voice was clear and powerful, even though the poem is extremely difficult his drama and voice tone reflect what the poem really meant. The way he expressed his feelings and emotions with both the tone of his voice and the simple little pauses not only shows his deep understanding of the poem but also his feelings towards it.
The poem is sad, and every deep breath he drew in with the pauses and facial expressions enhanced the poems true meaning. His performance is the only one that proved he actually understood messages inside.

Mockingbird Motif

Reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD really enhanced my knowledge of "MOTIF" because in the beginning I had absolutely no clue what it meant and didn't really want to find out, reading Novel gave me a clear understanding of what it means and why some authors choose to put motif in their stories.
The Mockingbird motif is basically a meaning that its a sin to convict the innocent and blame your mistakes on them, just like its a sin to kill a mockingbird because they don't do anything bad, just good. This Motif really brings a symbolic meaning to other themes like prejudice and racism or justice vs injustice in this story because Tom Robinson, the main mockingbird in this story was convicted and sentenced to death, Tom was just like a Mockingbird, he was the only that actually treated Mayella like somebody but in turn she testified against him. It's a sin to kill a mockingbird, and Mayella killed the only Mockingbird had and ever will have.

Extra Credit

To me, I find that Mayella Ewell is like a sun in a solar system and her father is a black hole, the sun gives life to planets and does so much, Mayella gives so much to her family but gets nothing in return just like the sun, and gets sucked into a black hole to become something she doesn't want to be, just like how her father made her become during the trial

Life Lessons

to me a really big life lesson that kids really take likely is when your parents always nagg you about looking both ways before you cross the street, or double check everything I can personally relate to that because when I was younger my mom would always tell me to look both ways to make sure no cars came, surprisingly she still does it especially when I am in the car with her, everysingle time she would tell me " Always look both ways and make sure no car is near because most accidents happen when you rush" it gets really irritating but she is right as well. I finally realized the importance of that lesson when my dog died because it got ran over by a car, the dog was my favorite too and its really unfortunate that I had to loose something before I finally realized how important it was.

My Friend

My friend that I enjoy talking to and hanging out with doesn't go to this school anymore,but he is the most overconfident person I know. He is like the biggest egotist ever, he would brag about EVERYTHING and he is competitive and becomes even more competitive when it comes to me, last year he got an A in English, and I did too but his was 98 percent or something and mine was 96 and he still wouldn't let me forget about it. Even though he is an egotist he is also introverted as well, he is social, but when working in groups he prefers working with two or less people because he hogs everything, like a ball hog in basketball he is a hog in projects, to tell the truth I really like working with him, I rarely have to do much and he does everything which is really good because all my other classes I have to do everything and its good to take a break from doing that once in a while.
He can also be a egoist sometimes too,because he is really selfish as well, that is like the only thing that I find he has to work on, because he doesn't think about others thoughts on other things, and would only want the good things to himself, he is nice and smart( I have to admit)and it was really fun, but too bad he moved to go to a new school, it would have been fun if he were in this class as well.

Earliest Memories

The earliest memory that I can describe in detail, is when I was at Guangzhou, eight years ago, it was just a few hours before I was about to take the plane to Seattle, Washington where my cousins would be waiting. I was at this huge city that I have been to for the first time, everything was so loud, the cars were all backed up, teenagers just cross the streets on their skateboards or bikes and occasionally a driver would literally open the window and start cursing in Chinese and to what would be now flipping them off too with the middle finger, I personally found it extremely funny and would always laugh at the driver. My mom was doing some last minute shopping walking around the streets, checking out the shops and stalls, it was Autumn, close to Winter then, even though the city was fairly warm people would still wear their Winter coats and white gloves just to show off, from where i came from a little quiet town like Olympia almost and occasionally i would nag my mom to take me along to buy groceries, but at Guangzhou I was scared, I was grabbing onto my moms sweater as hard as I could, because if I let go I would be lost and my mom wouldn't hear me if i cried for help, but i couldn't help looking around, it was night and the streets signs were illuminating bright colors and cars horns were blaring.
I was finally able to leave the streets and go to the airport, it was quiet there and I was tired, I found a chair and slept on it, when my mom woke me up I was walking into the plane, I couldn't read then but I remember vividly it was a American Airlines plane, with its red white and blue strips.

The Catcher in the Rye: IRONY

In the Novel the Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger uses irony as the main literary element. This book is written in the point of view as a 16 year old teenager, the irony in this is because this teenager wouldn't be the brightest kid around and he isn't, he has already got kicked out of three soon to be four really nice school, and one of them he left because he thought one of the staff was too much of a phony and he couldn't stand it, his grades are really bad, flunking all class except for english. Another irony in this book was when Holden said he wanted to preserve his child hood innocence, but the thing is it was long gone, he smokes, drinks, and has hookers going to his room very late at night, and gets beat up soon afterward when he spent all his time talking with the hooker and paid her too little.
But my favorite ironic situation was when Sally Hayes went on a date with Holden, at first site Holden felt like marrying her, but ask their date went on it got worse and worse, for Holden at least
but after their date was finished Holden found a new way of saying good bye, and that was telling Sally she was a Pain in the ***, and he just walked away leaving Sally to find her own way home

Reading another book 0_0

The book that I have chosen to read, would be the Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, I have to admit with this book that was basically assigned to me it is pretty sweet. I am actually enjoying this book because the main character in this book says whatever he likes to say and he doesn't have to be all nice about it which is really funny, and the slang in this book i can relate to, most of the books I always have to reread and reread to understand, but this one i understood right away, this book got my attention in this first page because its not all serious like most the books I read.

The element that I think is most dominant so far when i read the book would be irony, I am really not sure though because I'm not that far into the book, the author probably used irony in this book because it could relate to some of the characters. The Tone? I am still not sure yet though, but i have a good idea it could be moralistic because Holden is really judgmental of others appearance and behaviors, I am not sure though, maybe if I read more I might make my decision.

Reading new books by Randy '',

It is really hard for me to get into a new book because almost all the book I've read are assigned by teachers. The only series/books that I've actually chose to read were Alex Rider and Series of Unfortunate Events, those books were the best books ever because the first chapters were easy to read, and the story was interesting to keep me wondering what will happen next? Unlike Treasure Island which Mr. Rorem made the class read which totally sucked, the movie was not much better either. Whenever I have a really boring book like that I just force myself to get through it, when my ideal reading place is taken or not available, I usually just go to my room to read and listen to some music to drown out the noise that distracted me, for some people the music would just distract them some more, but not me ^__^
Why I read fiction? well that is because fiction books are often more engaging than non-fiction, fiction books have endless possibilities, and allows the author to really express himself.
Reading style??? whats reading style, I just read...........
The reason why we breathe is to stay alive, because if we don't breathe then we collaspe and die pretty badly.