Thoughts on Animal Farm ~ Reading Update!

Animal Farm written by George Orwell mainly focuses on the issue of the Russian Revolution stating his stand indirectly through the events that happen on the Mason Farm. The Animals on the Mason Farm decide to revolt against the humans and gain control over the farm. After succeeding in taking over the farm, the more "intelligent" animals slowly started developing human characteristics. From sleeping on beds to drinking to wearing clothes to finally walking on only their hind legs. It surely won't be a disappointment to anyone planning to read it!

Reading Update!

So I recently started reading the book "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio and I've never felt more thankful for everything in my life. This book talks about a little boy named August who was starting middle school after being home schooled and born with a lot of defects, and I mean A LOT. His eyes aren't in place, his nose is too big, he didn't even have  jaw bone at his birth, his earlobes are nonexistent, and he has to wear hearing aids. The author describes how brutal his experience in school is, he is seen by many parents as a "disabled", defected child who wasn't supposed to be accepted at the school. Let alone how the other students created " The Plague " behind his back where if anyone touches him or any of his belongings, they had thirty seconds to wash their hands or else they're infected with the "August Plague " too. This book helped me realize how blessed I am in life and to not whine about little things since someone at this very second could be suffering with much more than I am.

-D.A

A Book Review

Over the past few days I've been reading Dave Pelzer's "A Man Named Dave", the third book of this wonderful trilogy of "A Child Called 'It' ". This trilogy tells the saddest, most beautiful autobiography of how the author, Dave Pelzer, lived his childhood being abused by his alcoholic mother and broke free from his mother's curse to try to make something of himself. As harsh as it may sound, his mother would beat him on the back of his knees till he can't stand anymore, feed him spoonfuls of ammonia, trap him in the bathroom with a concoction of ammonia and Clorox, and  have him sleep in the basement with the sheer clothing she had given him. She would have him go for weeks without food and skate around the neighborhood in cold winter wind. He then escapes the prison they called his house to foster care as he studied and tried to save money for his coming life as an adult where he joins the Air Force Academy and goes on trying to pursue a happier life than the one his father lived. I do recommend reading this trilogy for the wonderful story of the child who lived through child abuse and was still determined to make something out of himself and pursuing his dream.

-D.A

"Speed"

Hello everyone!
Yes, it's literally been almost a year since I've last posted.
But a few days ago in English class we watched a couple of snippets from movies and were assigned to write a short story, in pairs, about one of the clips we saw.
This is what me and my partner, Shaden, wrote about the clip from the movie "Speed" .

" Everything was normal on the highway that day, until a bus came hurtling down on the wrong lane. Chaos ensued; cars swerved to avoid the bus, streetlights crashed to the ground, and at one point, a baby’s trolley flew off the road. The bus driver’s main objective was to keep the vehicle’s speed above the 50 mph mark so that the bomb planted on the bus doesn't go off.

The driver was burdened by the fact that she had to get all the passengers to safety. Taking many risks, she crosses red lights, swerves between lanes, and turns to unfinished roads. Then she takes a larger risk that ensured little success by attempting to jump across a 6 feet wide gap. After successfully landing on the other end of the road, she makes her way to the airport, an emptier spot where they can’t cause damage to civilians. They end up circling the airport’s runway multiple times while trying to dismantle the bomb. While making their way around the runway, they spot an empty airport bus driving past them. One of the passengers signals for the driver to align one of the bus’ doors with theirs at the same speed, and the passengers start moving from one bus to the other. After all the passengers safely board on the second bus, the bombed bus is steered away. When the speed of the bus goes under 50 mph, the bomb detonates at a distance from the second bus, and all the passengers are safely rescued. "

-D.A

A Visit to Grandmother

For the past few weeks, my classmates and I have been reading the short story " A Visit to Grandmother " by William Melvin Kelley. The author presents the characters' traits throughout the story using two different methods, direct and indirect characterization. For instance, the author presents the characteristics of Charles's brother GL in direct characterization where he clearly states GL traits and they are not portrayed through dialogue."GL, who seemed part con man, part practical joker and part Don Juan." Then also comes the example of describing Grandmother's characteristics, also through direct stating and not dialogue. " She looked like a doll, made of black straw, the wrinkles in her face running in one direction like the head of a broom. Her hair was white and coarse and grew out straight from her head..." While on the other hand, Charles's characteristics can be inferred from dialogue, "but Charles wouldn't never send my grandson to see me. I never even hear from Charles." We can infer that Charles and his mother aren't close and there seems to be some kind of conflict between them. Even though the grandmother is directly characterized, she is also indirectly characterized, " The old lady eyed his father."Rose, who that? Rose?" She squinted. " We can infer from the above selection that the grandmother has poor eyesight. Although she squinted, she still couldn't identify who was at the door.


-D.A

The Wind—

"The Wind—tapped like a tired man " by Emily Dickinson is one of the best poems I have ever read. We can depict that the wind symbolizes someone or something that's is so special to us that we try to hold on to, but find no way of anchoring it in our belongings. It could be a happy memory or a sad one, but we just like its presence in our lives. The poet conveys her feelings to us readers by using sensory language and figures of speech, thus creating a clear image of the setting and mood. We can understand from this poem that the poet misses a certain incident or person in her life that she wants to keep close to her. We can also see how much effect the memory has on the poet's life when she says "and I became alone—" , and that the sound of the wind symbolizing the memory is like listening to the sound of numerous Hummingbirds flying off off a bush.

-D.A