Harris

=**INTRODUCTION**= = = In this digital portfolio, I hope for any readers to see that I am a very complex person. That I’m capable of doing these interesting pieces of writing, although they may have mistakes, they’re still me giving my effort towards my schoolwork. I guess one of my biggest strengths in English is my ability to be involved in the discussions at hand and be able to contribute with valid arguments. A weakness on the other hand is the fact that I usually don’t think my projects aren’t going to be very great in the end. My experiences with the the portfolio are a bit mixed. On one hand, I’d slack off and not exactly focus on working on my portfolio. But on the other hand, I get to come back to my old essays, and reflect on how much of a better writer I’ve become over my 9th grade year. I’d have to say my favorite piece of portfolio would certainly have to the creative Macbeth project. It shows me that I have come a long way, in my writing experience in 9th grade. I still can’t believe I wrote a 4-page story, in iambic pentameter no less! Well enough of my rambling, enjoy!


 * Odyssey Thesis Essay**

Swords clashing, love starting and ending, betrayal, intrigue, and pure action are the things that make up a truly epic story. Most people believe that the most epic of stories are the stories of Greek mythology. The story of The Odyssey written by Homer has all these and many more. The Odyssey is truly an epic poem because it delves into problems that are still relatable today, it explores parallel stories, and has an excellent cast of complex characters.

One relatable problem that The Odyssey delves into is the relationship between Telemachus and his father Odysseus. Telemachus is on a journey to find himself as well as his father. When he meets King Nestor, he tells him “You’re truly Odysseus’ son? You’ve sprung up so! Uncanny resemblance… the head, and the fine eyes-“ (pg. 84 lines 238-246). This King Nestor, a man who’s probably seen Telemachus once in his twenty year lifespan is shocked to see that boy looks just like his old war comrade. This information comes as a boost to Telemachus, yearning to see the father he never knew. This shows how a person could really use a father or father figure of any sort in their lives in order to feel good about oneself. Another problem that arises in The Odyssey is the love triangle of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Aegisthus. There is a powerful kingdom and the ruler Agamemnon is found murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegithus. “Once he’d killed Agamemnon…Prince Orestes home from Athens, yes cut him down, that cunning murderous Aegithus, who killed his famous father….to bury his hatred mother, craven Aegithus too” (pg. 117 lines 346-351). It is a love triangle gone awry. Clytemnestra who tried to juggled her husband and lover but decided to have her husband killed anyway. Many have seen these problems all around the world. One of those love triangles was the one between Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Mark Antony. Julius Caesar is this powerful ruler of Rome, and he got involved with Cleopatra. Cleopatra is this beautiful women and great pharaoh. They fall in love with one another yet when Caesar is murdered, she meets Mark Antony. The two fall in love, but when Octavian hears that Mark Antony, gains the power that was suppose be his, he tells Mark that Cleopatra was killed. In this fit of distress, Antony commits suicide. But Cleopatra was not dead. When she got wing of this, she was devastated. So she killed her self as well. Showing the power Caesar had even after death. One more would be Telemachus’ journey towards manhood & standing up for himself. Telemachus, a boy becoming a man struggles with emotions. He stands up for himself. As he states about the suitors in his palace: “They infest our palace…. They butcher our cattle, sheep and goats…. We hardly the ones to fight off.” (pg. 95 lines 59-67). The young man is finally letting the warrior spirit inside of him out! He is really living up to his father in the way that Odysseus was a strong man both physically and mentally as well. This very similar to Telemachus is starting to show a different side of him. Albeit, Telemachus is faced with great problems throughout his lifetime, he shares these problems with many of the characters in The Odyssey. The parallel story of The Odyssey also makes it epic. One of those stories being Poseidon and his son Polyphemus. The warrior Odysseus injures the Cyclops son of Poseidon. Poseidon begins to plot his vengeance. “But now Poseidon, god of the earthquake and seas, saw him…he spied on Odysseus sailing down the sea and it made his fury boil even more.” (pg. 161 lines 309-314) Imagine being Poseidon with your son attacked by this man. You’d do anything in your power to stop this man from hurting your child. Then Odysseus would see how it is like to have an injured son. Just shows how vicious certain people can truly be. Another story is Telemachus and Athena. The goddess comes to him in a voice of warning (pg. 86 lines 312-317 saying: “Take my words to heart. Tell the suitors to scatter each to his place. Athena is sort of a motherly figure to Telemachus as Penelope is dealing with her own problems as well. When a child usually lacks something like mother, they seek for anyone to fill that void and Telemachus has substituted Athena for Penelope. One can obviously see that because she is the only one that he truly trusts throughout his journey. One more parallel is Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Orestes. There is a royal family with father off to war, the wife questioning her loyalty to her husband and her son struggling with his own social and psychological problems. “He lay siege to wife of Agamemenon…Clytemnestra the queen…and there was a man, what’s more, a bard close by, to whom Agamemnon setting for Troy gave strict commands to guard his wife.” (pg. 116 lines 300-306) This situation is almost identical to the predicament of Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus. A king/husband/father of to fight in the Trojan War, a wife/mother worrying whether or not that her husband is alive and is prone to temptation by other men and finally a young son with self-esteem problems fearing that his father is dead. With lots of stories like this one would think that the characters of the story would be equally as interesting, would one not?

Finally a way The Odyssey is an epic poem is the complex cast of characters. One of those characters being Telemachus, son of Odysseus. First a shy and insecure boy in the first few years of his life but ascending into self assured man able to stand up for himself. Such as when Telemachus stood up to the suitors Antinous and Eurymachus: “How can I drive my mother from our house, the one who bore me and reared me too?” (pg. 97 lines 144-146) It quite frankly took all of courage for someone like Telemachus to speak in that tone to these suitors who are in numbers like an army. And the fact the suitors had no legitimate way of talking back showed that Telemachus is someone who just can’t be pushed around anymore. Furthermore another character is Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. A man’s man both quick and cunning yet can be deceiving at the same time “Well I know the famous god of earthquakes hates my very name!”(pg. 165 lines 462-467) This also shows a very human side of the warrior. Able to realize his mistakes and wrongdoings and knowing that has affected another person as well. At last Athena the goddess of wisdom. She’s the guider of the mortals in many forms such as Mentes in which she first meets Telemachus for the first. “Her eyes glinting goddess Athena answered: I am Mentes, lord of Taphian men who love their oars.” Being a goddess she can’t just visit mortals in her god form because it draw way too much attention and she would not be able to reach the person she want to reach. With relatable problems that can be dates back to today, parallel stories, and an excellent cast of complex characters, The Odyssey written by Homer is truly an epic poem. One can see that many Greek mythology stories are a force of literature to be reckoned with! Try to think of many other creations of literature and try to find a world one could just get lost in.

This is my 2nd Quarter Benchmark. It's a digital recording of a memoir vignette I wrote as a class project. Please ignore my horrible speaking voice, and I hope you like the story! ** media type="file" key="Harris - EngBM2digital.m4a" width="270" height="45"
 * Digital Memoir Vignette

This is my 3rd Quarter Benchmark. It's another thesis essay but this time it uses the book, __Kindred__ by Octavia Butler as a reference **. Enjoy!
 * Kindred Thesis Essay

“On the inside”

Haven’t people always wondered why people bully one other?” Some say they just born that way. Others have no clue. But for the most part it stems from the fact they have been bully or hurt at some point in their lives, so they put the hurt on other people. Well that how Rufus’ character is the novel //__Kindred by Octavia Butler.__// Rufus may appear, as an evil person throughout the book but deep down he’s only human. He lives in a world where the dominant word to called black people is “nigger” Which is realized when; Dana meets Rufus and his mother for the first time. His mother is a quick to snatch up her son from Dana, and with his young voice tells her: “Mama said she tried to stop you when she saw you doing that to me because she was some nigger she had never seen before.” (Rufus pg. 24) Rufus identifies Dana as a nigger, a word brought down from the Portuguese to the slave-owners. It is embedded in his mind that he should called black people by that name. Also, right after Dana saves Rufus from drowning, they are taken to the Weylin Household where young Rufus still ignorant tries to explain why his parents were looking at her with puzzlement: “Just some strange nigger. She and Daddy both knew they hadn’t seen you before” (Rufus pg. 25) Just like children they will copy what their parents will say and Rufus sees it as nothing to call Dana and his father’s other slaves, “niggers”. He’s just mimicking what he sees. Yet like most humans, he can change who he is. The older Rufus is less ignorant, yet even more insecure. As when Dana tries to save Tom Weylin and fails. Rufus gets so enraged he calls a man by the name of Evan Fowler and has him punish her for what she did. Dana is sent to cornfields to shuck corn whilst being whipped by the Fowler man. “I raised the knife and chopped at the first stalk. It bent over, partially cut. At the same moment, Fowler lashed me hard across the back. I screamed, stumbled, and spun around to face him, still holding my knife. Unimpressed, he hit me across the breasts.” (Dana, pg. 211) He’s grieving over the death of his father and he is also thinking irrational and going by what he is told. If a slave disrespects you or in this case, killing a family member, you punish them. This is similar to dog owners and how if their dog doesn’t obey their command they are usually beaten with something like a newspaper. Furthermore his insecurities are further showed when he rapes Alice in a drunken stupor. He explains to Dana how the attacked happened: “I didn’t want to just drag her off into the bushes,” I never wanted it to be like that. But she kept saying no. I could have had her in the bushes years ago if that was all I wanted. “ (Rufus, pg. 124) Whilst drunk Rufus was overcome by his emotions towards Alice causing him to rape her. Yet the attack was much more than him raping her, he could have had Alice if all he wanted was sex. He loved Alice, and he thought that she loved him as well. Yes, what he did was horrible but in his mind, but in his mind, Rufus didn’t think that way at all. In the end Alice didn’t feel for him the same way, making his self-esteem take a serious downfall. In the end it’s Rufus’ controlling personality that shows his true self. The two most controlling moments of Rufus in __Kindred by Octavia E. Butler__ is one where Alice is healing from the dog bites given to her from the men who cut her husbands ears off. As she is recovering Rufus jumps into her bed and begins to “cuddle”. And Alice tells to Dana what she thought of what he did. “You could have said something, got me out of his room…Oh Lord, his bed! And he may as well have cut off my Isaac’s ears with his own hands.” (Alice, pg. 160) Even though he rape Alice, cause her husband’s ears to be cut off and had her attacked by dogs yet he still felt he had her for his own finally. In his own weird way, Rufus got the woman he always loved. The other moments was whenever thing had fell apart for Rufus. Alice had died, her children were sold and he was an emotional mess. Finally trying to still keep control of the world falling apart around him, Rufus tries to keep Dana with him. He thought of her as the person who was always there for him, but he tried to get something more out of her. Dana dramatically explains the altercation: “Rufus was Rufus – erratic, alternately generous and vicious. I could accept him as my ancestor…but not as my master, and not as my lover. He understood that once. I twisted sharply, broke away from him…. I raised the knife, even as I sank into his side.” (Dana, pg. 260) Rufus had finally done it. He cause the love of his life to kill herself and in his state he tries to go for Dana for “comfort” Dana sees through his ruse, breaks free ultimately causing his death. Yes, Rufus seems like this insecure, over controlling man who won’t stop to get what he wants, because it’s been given to him all his life. Rufus is capable of sympathy as most people are. With Alice giving birth to her and Rufus’ first child Joe, who is of a light skin tone, Rufus starts to spend time with him. The spend time as a father and son would. Even Dana notices this as she sees the two bonding, “He likes Joe. He ought to. Joe looks like a slightly darker version of him at that age. “ Rufus has come terms and has decided to take up his responsibility, his son Joe. He’s willing to look beyond the fact that he’s raising half-black child, and just see it as a father taking care of his son. But even, the relationship between Rufus and Dana, to Rufus was one of the best relationships he’s ever had. Dana was the one helped him when he needed help, saved him constantly, and helping him stand up to his parents, mainly to his mother. As when Rufus had injured his leg and Dana began reading to him, and right when his mother barges in, he angrily says to her: “Go away Mama! Just leave me alone! You’re making me sick, Mama. Get away from me!” (Rufus, pg. 104) Albeit this relationship has two sides to it concerning Rufus. One being that he doesn’t depend on his parents anymore, but one the other side he became more dependent on Dana as a mother/father/friend. In the end, throughout //__Kindred by Octavia Butler,__// Rufus is seen as a dangerous individual for all the pain he causes a lot of people. But that pain he had to come from somewhere, he was hurt throughout his natural life as well. He like may other people have been hurt during their lives, so to ease that pain he inflicts pain on the others surrounding him. Rufus may appear, as an evil person throughout the book but deep down he’s only human.

This is my interpretation of Shakespeare's play: Macbeth. It's my favorite part of the portfolio. Basically I decided to do a monologue (iambic pentameter) from the perspective of Macbeth's ghost, detailing all the keys points of the play through Macbeth's eyes. Hope you enjoy, it took 5 hours to complete!
 * Macbeth Creative Project

** (I walk in slowly)

Good marrow, to all of you, Ghostly yes, For I am the ghost of a poor fool The one you may know as Macbeth, the king False king more so, yet still kingly in stature Intros passed gone, for now I reveal, Tale of fallen bastard by name, Macbeth. Great warrior I was in the warzone Even captain wounded praised of my greatness “For brave Macbeth, for he deserves that name Disdaining Fortune with his brandished steel Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valor’s minion carved out his passage” Thane of Glamis I was, praised by many pure souls My blade only swing the side of sheer justice A king’s man no less, evil never come my way Yet that loyalty was swayed ever so when I, And my fellow friend Banquo encountered, THE WEIRD SISTERS! Both ugly and evil in face Demons would shiver at their faces in haste But looks aside for what they said streaked And bounced up threw my mind in all word “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!” Thane of Glamis, Yes I was, confusion none But Thane of Cawdor? Perplexed me much so For he lives, alive and well, no health problems But even more….. KING? Duncan is most alive here Old, yes but still very much alive in his state These witches speak of nonsense I had said Yet thoughts clashed when Thane of Cawdor Died. Betrayal in his soul, to Norway Hanged away and done with by the kingsmen force Thane of Cawdor given to me, Macbeth Just as the witches said to me, most odd I told my love Lady Macbeth of news And of the witches fortunes they told me Quick in her mind she spoke to me the words The words that would usher us in bad taste Plan of killing Duncan, for the Kingship I called for him, an assembly Of king and his lords of devil wife For we created a plan, he shall die In, he sleeps, forevermore in his sleep I struck, the dagger that ended Duncan In haste, a voiced screamed “Macbeth murders!” In rushed to my Lady with dagger swift “Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care” And that’s where I truly changed my soul A man forever loyal to the king Now a sinner, the killer of the king For now I SLEEP NO MORE!!! Sleep has escaped My wife she replies with upmost anger “Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go carry them and smear, The sleepy grooms of blood.” I sigh in hate Hate of myself, a man, having a woman Need to set me straight, Macbeth, a knight For I could spilt a man in two in war But to murder aside from war, and the king Reduced to a whimpering fool, how sad Having her dispose of the evidence What a man I have became……most horrid Alas, a shed of light shines through this ordeal Macbeth is King of Scotland, as foretold But when the King is found murdered a sign, A sign of murder, fixated on me Macduff, the other thanes, and Banquo Even Banquo, I am king, and it must be so He must die, for he knows too much of this He was there when the sisters spoke of this I sent away someone have him dealt with And his son of course, but he escaped me Too much distress kept me most off balance No one could be trusted anymore now I sped off to the witches to see more More of what they had to say to me then And what I saw was a most horrid sight Spirits similar to Banquo in face And Banquo himself mocking in death I spoke to them, with anger in my lip “Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo! Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs and thy hair….. Now I see ‘tis true; For blood-boltered Banquo Smiles upon me and points at them for his What? Is this so?” I couldn’st believe that Yet given these other prophesies, I Felt UNTOUCHABLE!!! Man not born of woman? Ha! I laugh to think such a thing is real I returned to my castle, swift in step To find my wife Lady Macbeth distraught I told to the doctor to finish his job “…Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister a to a mind diseased, Pluck from the ministry a rooted sorrow….. ….Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff, which weighs upon the heart?” I had no time to look back and see what we did then No time to save my “love”, to save myself Couldn’t be stuck in past, had to move And finally the clash with him, Macduff We met with swords ready, lurks aplenty here now Confident I was, in my victory Macduff stared at me with revenge in him Then uttered that he was not pure Not born of woman, and untimely ripped Shock came over me but I kept my composure “I will not yield, to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet And thou opposed, being no woman born, Yet I will try the last before my body, Throw my warlike shield, Lay on, Macduff, And damned be him that first cries “Hold enough!” Our swords clashed in a battle I would lose Where I would lose my life, my false kingdom, My wife, in her pure evil, and most important My precious sanity through my own mind Thus the fate of a sad, lonely tragic hero

Here are some journal entries that I have worked on for the past few months. They're fraught with some really interesting view points and stories of mine. Have Fun!
 * Journal Entries

** Journal Entry: “How does childhood effect the world around you?”

I believe that childhood greatly effects a person’s outlook on the world. For those first few years, the people closest to you (i.e. mother, father, etc.) they are your world. How you see them and the things teach you, can greatly effect on how you view the world around you. For example, say a child’s parents believed that the world was flat. They’d want to pass this ideal onto their child as well. The child would grow believing that the world was flat because he or she had no other way of that being disproved. Another example would be from my own childhood. My childhood overall has greatly shifted my personality over the years. When I was a lot younger, I would have considered myself a bit of a push over, in the sense that people would want to hear my opinion on really anything and I was strong enough to do anything about it. It made me feel as though I was stupid or didn’t belong on this earth. I HAD NO MEANING TO MY EXISTENCE. Through all of this, I became a person that just didn’t care about anything like that, and I began to focus on my school work. I became a straight-A student. I always did my homework on time, to the best of my abilities. I received Honor Roll in my school for 3 years straight. But even with all those acknowledgements from students, teachers, and anyone else, I felt empty inside. I felt like a robot, it was always homework, homework, homework. So, one day I decided to just to just say SCREW IT. I’d always do homework at the last minute, while before that I’d hang out with friends, play video games, and overall procrastinate. Albeit, my grades didn’t drop, I wasn’t necessarily put my best work into everything I did. But as of today I guess I still haven’t moved away from that side of me that, feels as though nothing well ever get better. But there’s always tomorrow....

Journal Entry: “Have you done anything and tried to cover it up by lying? If so, what?”

Quite frankly I have done a lot of stupid things in my life, but not really THAT bad. I remember once when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I was home alone and really wanted something to eat. So I began rummaging through cabinets and things until I found some microwaveable popcorn. I thought to myself “Sweet Finally some food to eat!” I removed the packing crap from the bag and put it in microwave to pop. To passed the time I began surfing the internet. After about 2 minutes of boredom, I found a cartoon to watch. To my knowledge I didn’t realize that I set the time to high, and about 10 minutes had passed! I sprung up from my chair, dashed to the microwave, and quickly opened the door. A blast of gas blew into my face, I dashed to recover but it was already in my eyes. I fell to the ground trying to clean my eyes but it was all for naught. So in haste I ran for the back door and gasped for air. I let the room air out for awhile and then had to dispose of the burned bag. Without really thinking, I rushed outside with the burned bag and flung it into the trash can. I thought all my problems were gone. But it all came back to me when my family came back home. The first words out of their mouths were: “Why is there a burnt bag of popcorn outside?” In fact I even tried to cover it up by saying: “I don’t know”. But in the end, they all knew it was me.

Journal Entry: “How was your week/weekend?”

I felt this was going to be a good week. MLK day was my middle school’s reunion, I got to meet most of my old friends and it was great! At the end of the reunion we all made PB & J sandwiches for the homeless but it was really weird. The peanut butter was almost like a liquid and when you shook it, it jiggled! And the one utensil we had were spoons! Throughout all of this, 2 of my friends were having an argument about which is better: Indian or Native American? I had like 4 friends that were part Native American versus the one Indian friend. So she was alone representing Indians. The 4 friends were saying all these great things about Native Americans while I had to be the moderator of sorts, in fact most of them didn’t have their facts rights they were making up a lot of crap. And finally on Facebook, they all decided that at least the aren’t white and just like that the problem was solved. My friends are insane. Journal Entry: “Which diary do you feel you can identify with in FWD?” At first I thought that I wouldn’t be identify with any of these diary entries but the last entry I read, 40, really connected with me. The last writer basically said what I’ve always been thinking, “No one cares about teens anymore, even though we are the future.” You always hear about the crazy things that teenagers do and it’s just sort of brushed off as it’s nothing and teenagers, get the idea in their heads that they can do anything. Yeah their parents will get mad, most parents don’t care about what their child is doing when they aren’t at home. Most of the time, teenagers are just seen as these idiots who do anything right, and I won’t have that.

Journal Entry: “What is the power of writing? How does it help the people in FWD?” I believe the power of writing is something like a “voiceless voice” where your real voice just can’t get the actual words out. For me it’s something where I can just say whatever I want and no one will have to see. It’s just my secret to keep. For the teens they use writing to speak their true feelings anyway they want without anyone interfering. It’s true freedom, no restrictions or limitations. Journal Entry: “How do YOU tell stories?” How I tell stories is I try to add a lot of dialogue between characters and let them describe the story and setting instead of me narrating it. (I’m not a very good narrator of anything) When I tell or write a story I want to keep the reader’s attention by always have something going on. Now that doesn’t mean all my stories have to balls-to-the-wall action but create a setting & characters that are complex and able to keep ones attention when reading. These are photos of my "me magazine" A project I did early in the year. Had a lot of fun putting this together. Excuse any backwards writing, a bit of a fail on my part ^_^. **
 * Me Magazine