Hatred from the beginning

The thesis statement… why is it so dreaded? Because it has been in our lives for so long and we are still getting it wrong. Okay, so this may just be me, but that why I hate it. It’s one sentence… you’d think it would be easy, but its not. It is one sentence that you have to base your entire paper on. So, if your thesis is bad, like mine usually are, your entire paper will be bad. Analysis papers are my least favorite things in the world. I am the kind of person that needs there to be a right answer. Analysis is somewhat based on opinion. Opinion that I feel like will be wrong. But can opinions be wrong? This is something that I have yet to learn. But back to the thesis, how to I express my opinion into one sentence? Another thing that I don’t like about the thesis is that there has always been a set formula to write one, like we talked about in class, but now it seems like all that has gone down the drain. It should be easier not having a set formula because you get to do what makes sense and what is easier for you. Well… it doesn’t seem easier and I will continue hating the thesis statement.

Outside Reading Essay

I read The Bonesetter’s Daughter for my first outside reading book and enjoyed it a lot more than I usually enjoy school assigned reading. The story was really enjoyable to read and I found myself getting very close to the characters. There was not much that I didn’t understand about the book, I feel like I read it very well. But when it came time for the essay I struggled. The whole time I was reading the book I caught myself stressing in the back of my mind about having to write an essay about it. And even though I feel like I knew all the main ideas and understood the theme, essay writing is way out of my comfort zone, especially when I am restricted with time. I don’t understand how to get the ideas from a 400-page book onto paper in an hour or less. It is also hard for me to choose which subjects in the book I need to talk about. The prompt starts you out but it’s hard to choose what evidence to use and what commentary makes sense with the prompt. I guess just doing essays more and getting comfortable with them is the only way to improve but it seems like I will never get there. 

Amazed by the word amazing

It’s amazing how much I use the word amazing. I really liked the article by Philip Goldberg, even though it is criticizing my vocabulary, because he makes a good point. However, I feel like people in general overanalyze things too much and I get irritated. Yes, the word it used way too much and people probably should find other words to use to describe how they feel, but it works. I use amazing all the time if something makes me happy because people my age understand what I mean. Goldberg says that amazing shouldn’t be a slang word, but it is and you have to accept that because it is not going to change. I like to read things and learn about how other people think but that doesn’t mean I agree or will change my ways. It seems like older generations are always finding some way to rag on younger generations and this also makes me upset. Goldberg talks about the word groovy and acts like it was okay for his generation to use that word, but not okay for people to say amazing. I think that words can have a literal meaning and a slang meaning and that that’s okay. If you need clarification on what a person is talking about, ask them. But, I also understand that sometimes people need to use literal meanings, like in English essays. 

darkness

I hadn’t realized until today in class that all we read is depressing and dark, all the stories so far have been this way. Even the “humors” Drunkard was very depressing because of the way it talks about alcoholism. I strongly think that all literary fiction is dark, depressing and violent, or at least has a dark, depressing or violent part of it. This is because literary fiction exposes the world. Commercial fiction stories are the ones with happy endings and happy people where nothing really happens. Literary fiction is about the real world, and the real world is not a happy place. Yes, there are many happy things about the world but there are also many depressing things that take over literary fiction. If more good things happened in our world, authors would talk about it, but that’s not the way it is. You read literary fiction because you want to think, if everything were perfect everything would be boring to read. Also, if real life were like commercial fiction we would no longer find it fun to read because they wouldn’t be anything special, it would be just like real life. However, people find the joy in actual reality because it is so harsh and in some cases inspiring.

point of view and elephants

Hills Like White Elephants blew my mind. While I was reading it I had no idea what was going on. My only thought was that they were planning on killing someone, which I guess was not that far off but I still did not see the abortion part of it until class. This was because of the way that it was written, the point of view was very confusing. However, I think the way he wrote it is more the way real life is. This may sound odd, but if you were to be eavesdropping/spying on the "couple" you would only get the dialogue and be just as confused as reading it, which I think is a neat way to write. This way of writing also makes it very hard to pick out a theme. Should the theme be about relationships, cultures, and responsibility, or all of the above? I feel like the couple should not have been together and therefor the theme should express something about that, but this point of view makes it hard to know what the couples history was. Maybe he was traveling and had a one-night stand and they weren’t really together so he didn’t want the baby and she did. But because of this weird/neat way of writing we may never know.  

Theme and Life

I have been learning about theme since I can remember yet the concept still seems so distant. The talk we had in class helped a lot, but why am I just grasping the concept? If I have been taught something for at the very least 4 years, I feel like I should know everything there is to know about it, but I don’t. I don’t like the way high school does this, I feel like I have been learning the same things in all of my core classes for all four years. Maybe this is just the senior coming out of me, but I have grown to hate high school. It’s not just English either, I feel like all of my core classes have grown to be pointless. I know that I am working to graduate and it is necessary to graduate, but I’m ready to get out and work toward something that I want to be learning. Senior year of high school is known for being easy, but I don’t see it yet. Maybe it will start to get easier, but right now I am not enjoying myself at all. I hope it gets better. That was my rant.

Interpreter of Maladies

I just read Interpreter of Maladies and I really liked it. I can't imagine someone being able to keep a huge secret like that from their family. The fact that her son is not her husbands and he doesn't know is ridiculous. Some people might say that because she didn't love him that she wouldn't feel guilty about it but I think that she did because she knew him all her life so she obviously cared about him even though she didn't love him. Her trusting relationship with her tour guide was a little creepy. He felt as though she liked him when in reality she just wanted an outlet for her secret. Everyone has secrets and, in my opinion, no one is trustworthy enough to keep them. This is a flaw that humans have, we cannot keep things to ourselves. People always have that one person, friend or lover that they tell everything too. If one of their other friends tells them a secret they are going to want to tell someone else just to brag or any other stupid reason. It's a chain that never ends and someone with always end up upset.