Calloway

=__Introductions:__= __The Odyssey__ was my first essay of the year. We practiced using three point thesis to write this paper. We had to write about the mortals' and gods' relationship with each other and how it helped or hindered them.

My Memoir Vignette was my second of the year. First we read a little bit of the book __Funny and Farsi__ to get an idea of how some memoirs are written. We had to write about an event in our lives that we remember, we also had to describe using figurative language and other literary devices.

The third essay that we wrote this year was a one point thesis paper based on the book __Kindred__. We had to get quotes from the book then analyze them.

The fourth major project that my english class was a __Macbeth__ quote analysis then a creative project. For our project we had to use quotes to show how the characters' behavior changed throughout the book. For the creative piece we had to integrate our quotes into a creative representation.

My first journal entry is about how childhood can influence a persons' behavior.

My second journal entry was a free write.

For my third journal entry I responded to Tom Robinson's' death from the point of view of Jem (__To Kill A Mocking Bird__) My fourth journal entry is about how people cold switch according to their environment. =__The Odyssey__= People seem to think that supernatural things interfere with their lives. In The Odyssey Gods and Goddess intervene with the mortals lives throughout the entire book. They encourage them, take advantage of them, and even try to kill the mortals.

In book one of The Odyssey Athena encourages Telemachus. She encourages him because he had no control; he let the suitors run all over him. They ate his food and killed his cattle. Athena sees this and goes to his house disguised as one of Odysseus’ old war buddies Mentes. She says to him “You must not cling to your boyhood any longer its time you were a man.” (Line 341-342) After Athena says this Telemachus immediately mans up. Telemachus then has a meeting with the suitors and he speaks to them like a true man, and he tells them that he will go and find his father.

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Odysseus was taken advantage by Calypso the goddess of love. Once Odysseus landed on her island she held him there by force. He could no resist her charm, so he has sex with her. After he realizes that he had no way home and he was stuck with Calypso, he became truly depressed. He sat on a rock and wept all day. Odysseus certainly wants is to go home and see his family. Athena knows how much he suffers so she goes to Zeus and says “… Now he’s left to pine on an island, racked with grief. He has no way to voyage home to his own native land.” (Lines 15-16) After Athena’s conversation with her father he sends Hermes to Calypso’s cave to tell her to release Odysseus. Calypso goes and finds Odysseus and tells him that he is free. At first he didn’t believe her, he thought it was some kind of trickery. Then she explained to him that Zeus told her to let him go. Then Calypso prepares Odysseus for his journey and she makes him a small raft to sail on.======

 As Odysseus was sailing when the god of sea and earthquake Poseidon spotted him. Poseidon was still angry that he blinded and insulted his son Polyphemus. So he decided to go against his brothers Zeus’s orders and make Odysseus’s journey more difficult. Poseidon grabbed his trident and made the winds churn the water. As this happened Odysseus knees quaked, he was terrified. Odysseus says to himself “Wretched man-what becomes of me now, at last? I fear the nymph foretold it all too well.” (Lines 329-330) At this point Odysseus questioned if his life would end now. Then a massive wave came and smashed onto his head. The blow knocked the oar from his hand. Right now Odysseus probably thinks he was going to die for sure.

The Gods and Goddess in The Odyssey do in fact interfere with mortals’ lives. Athena encouraged Telemachus. Calypso took advantage of Odysseus and Poseidon tried to kill him. Beings with power will probably try to interfere with other peoples’ lives.

=Memoir Vignette:=

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I knew one thing for sure I hated turbulence. It was the night before I got on an airplane to go to Northern Ireland. I was so nervous my stomach was in knots. At this point I wanted to back out, but I had no choice. I had done so much to get to this point. I had already bought my passport and plane ticket. That night my brother and I went over the list to make sure we had all we needed. After that I went to sleep I had to be at the church at 10:00 am. That night I slept uneasy, all I think about was the plane crashing. I awakened from my dream to find that it was only 2:00 am. Tired I staggered to the bathroom and washed my face. Somehow the cold water on my face reassured me that everything would be fine.======

After a few attempts I finally managed to go back to sleep. It only seemed like a few short minutes before the sound of my alarm woke me from my sleep. My brother spared no hesitation as he quickly jumped into the shower. While he did that I opened my suitcase and made sure that I had everything one last time. After completing all the morning necessities my mother drove my brother and I to the church. We were among the first people there, so we waited. Next thing I knew everyone arrived so we prayed and headed for JFK airport. The ride to JKF was a long especially since my iPod wasn’t working, so I decided to catch up on my sleep. Which didn’t work out to well since I was in a van with three and girls and I was the only boy. A few hours later we arrived at JFK, then we checked our bags and went to our gate. Now all we could do was wait. After waiting thirty minutes they announced that our plane was ready to board. Next thing I knew it was my turn and I handed the man my ticket. I walked down the long winding hallway to the plane. It seemed as is if the hallway went on forever. Now there was no second thoughts I had no choice but to go walk down the skinny walkway and seat in my seat. Luckily I sat in the middle of two of my friends. Suddenly the pilot announced that we were about to take off. My stomach was bunched up in twenty different knots. It was as if a boy scout was practicing how to tie knots wit my stomach. Then we started to move, I could feel the bumps in the runway. All I could was remain calm, which actually worked until we were in the air. My ears felt like they going to bleed from them popping so much. Eventually the popping stop and I was so relieved.

Then the stench of burnt lasagna, baked potatoes, and chicken crept up my nose. My stomach churned, I was so hungry since I didn’t eat anything that morning, but I didn’t want burnt lasagna. The stewardesses strolled the walkway asking everyone if they wanted to eat, then they gave them the choices. The stewardess finally came to my row, she asked what I wanted, and I guess she knew that I was hungry. I chose to get the lasagna because it didn’t look as bad as the chicken. Later on I realized that I had made the wrong choice. My stomach started to bubble and I let out a loud belch. My stomach continued to bubble, so I decided to go to sleep, about an hour I woke up and my stomach stopped bubbling.

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The smell of burnt lasagna still lingered in the air. Then the pilot announced that we had to put on our seat belts because we were going to experience some turbulence. Then all of a sudden the plane started to shake with great force. For a second I thought that my dream was going to come true. That’s all I could think about and that scenario kept replaying in my head over and over. I was terrified, all I could do was hope that everything would be okay. We still had another three hours to go until we landed in Northern Ireland. I knew one though, I hated turbulence.======

 =__Kindred__:=

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Dana might see Rufus in a different way because of his actions. An example of this is after he gets into a fight with Isaac and he is lying on the ground talking to Dana. Rufus says to Dana “I begged her not to go with him, then he repeated quietly “Do you hear me, I begged her! (pg. 123)” Rufus “loved” Alice so much that he begged her not to marry Isaac. At this point Dana might see Rufus as a weak man. He just tried to rape Alice because she wouldn’t have sex with him. Another time when Dana’s opinion about Rufus might have changed is when Dana sees that Rufus had sold Sam and Dana says “Please Rufe. If you do this, you’ll destroy what you mean to preserve. Please don’t …” (Dana pg. 238). Right now Dana might feel as though Rufus is insecure. He sells Sam because he thinks that Sam might take Dana away from him. While Dana’s opinion of Rufus is weak and insecure Alice might see Rufus differently in a different light.=====

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Alice might see Rufus as a jerk. An example of this is when Dana comes to Carrie’s cabin to tell Alice that Rufus wants her in bed. Alice says “He sent you to tell me that?” (Alice pg. 166) Alice was probably in shock; first he tried to rape her now he wants her to go to bed with him. Not only that but he had sent Dana to tell her. Another reason why Alice might see Rufus in a different is because other slaves are starting to talk about her. Dana comes back then Nigel tells Dana that people have been treating Alice bad and Alice says “Who cares what a bunch of niggers think!” (pg. 207) Alice probably resents Rufus because she has no choice but to go to Rufus. Like Tess had no choice to go to Tom Weylin.=====

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Tom thought of Rufus as unintelligent, Tom thought many of the things Rufus didn’t much thought behind them. An example of something that Tom thought Rufus made an asinine decision was after he bought Alice and she looked terrible. Tom came into the room and said “Kindest thing you could do for her would be to shoot her.” (pg. 153) Tom thought that it wasn’t very smart for Rufus to buy Alice because she looked so limped. Tom also said that it would be better if he just had Dana. There was another occasion when Tom got the impression that Rufus was made idiotic decision. Tom learned that Dana had written a letter and Tom was shocked. He says, “Boy, you don’t have any sense do you.” (pg.162) Tom said that it was unwise to let her write a letter. Especially since slaves weren’t supposed to be able to read or write.=====

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In conclusion people thought different things about Rufus. He was the most two-faced person in the whole book. Rufus beat women, lied, and did irrational things. So throughout Kindred people’s opinions of Rufus changed due to his changing nature.=====

Macbeth:
== =__Journal Entries__= 1) Childhood is where you are shaped. When you are a child your parents teach what is right and wrong. At that point in your life your parents try instill their values and other important values into you. Some people say what you do in your childhood affects your for the rest of your life. It is also where you pick up most of your habits. A persons’ childhood could them in many ways. If a person grew up with domestic violence in their household then they might grow up and have it in their house. Or if a person grew up with a loving family that was in their life and asked how school was, then they might grow doing the same thing because that’s what their parents did to them as a child.

2) Lately I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with my life after high school and honestly I don’t know what I want to do. Once you think about you don’t have much time in high school. Next thing I know I’ll be a senior graduating then I’m an adult. I wonder when will get an idea of what I want to do with my life. I might get an idea when I get my ILP next year. It might give me a general idea of what field of work I want to work in.

3) Wait I don’t understand why would Tom get himself killed like that. It was obvious that that tom was innocent; the Ewells are good for nothing scum. Atticus had this case and everyone in the courtroom knew it. Maybe if the “regular” people of Maycomb like Ms. Maudie or Ms. Rachel were on the jury then Tom might have had a chance. It was because Tom was a negro and everyone thinks that negro men are dirty lying cheat and can’t be trusted around our women. Even though Tom was convicted, Atticus said that the case could be tried in a higher court and he still had a chance. I guess Tom didn’t think so.

4) People tend to act according to there the environment. People also tend to cold switch when they enter a different environment. For example when you’re with your parents you might act polite and quiet, but when you are with your friends you might be loud and acting wild. Sometimes cold switching is necessary for survival. Some people might have to act tough in their neighborhood in order to keep themselves form getting jumped. Other times you might not want to bring your habits from home into your work place or your place of learning so you cold switch. =__Reflection:__= My portfolio is a reflection of all my major assignments in english. It's suppose to reflect how I did and how I progressed throughout the year. It's also suppose to reflect how I take constructive criticism and use it to make my writing better. My strength in english I think would be my writing. My weakness would be asking for help. I would like to work on time management. If you don't ask for help and manage your time well then your writings can't be as good as you want them to be. I think that's what happened with me. With some of my assignments I procrastinated until the last minute and my grade suffered for it. Making this portfolio wasn't to hard since we had so much time to work on it. Also because we had our feedback for each project. The piece that I'm most proud of would be my Macbeth creative piece. I'm not the creative type, so I feel that I did pretty well putting it together.