The Death of a Salesman is a tragedy caused by a man's misinterpretation of the American Dream.
Willy, the main character, mistakenly believes that one can achieve the American Dream by being "well liked," and having character. He demonstrates this stubborn belief by not allowing his eldest son, Biff, to go to Summer school. He believes that Biff's football talent and likable personality is enough for him to achieve success. Pushing this belief on his son leads to Biff's failure in the business world as an adult.
Proof that Willy has the wrong idea about the American Dream lies in Bernard, Biff's high school classmate and next door neighbor. Bernard is smart in school and tries to convince Willy that being "well liked," isn't enough for Biff to pass math class. Willy was annoyed by Bernard, but he envies Bernard's success and resents his own stubbornness in the future.
The repeated mentioning that Biff failed math, shows readers that mistakes made during one's youth can effect the rest of his or her life. I think the author wishes to show his readers the importance of having good decision making skills because every action or choice a person makes will effect that person later.
The author also wants to clarify what the American Dream is about. The American dream is not: Being likable and having character will get you far. It's that a person with a disadvantaged background can achieve success through hard work, like Bernard.
In conclusion, The Death of a Salesman teaches important lessons about making wise decisions and how to achieve the American dream.

effectiveness of examples; logical organization

Holden, the main character of Catcher In the Rye, is very wary throughout the book about entering adulthood. He describes adults as phony. Phoniness, according to Holden, is characterized as perceiving oneself as something one is not. While adulthood is filled with phoniness, childhood is all about honesty and purity. However, Holden's behavior and state of denial falls into the phony category.
Holden is phony, because he's a habitual liar. For instance, on the train to Penn Station Holden met on of his ex classmate's from Pencey's mother. He lied to her about how nice and well-respected her son was. This was an unnecessary lie and a meaningless conversation.
His fear of companionship also makes Holden phony. He longs for companionship, yet he pushes people away. Throughout the book, he thinks about Jane Gallagher, a girl he used to date. However, he's unwilling to make any real effort to get in contact with her. He does end up contacting another girl he dated in the past, Sally Hayes. When they meet he cuts their meeting short by upsetting Sally with his rude remarks.
The phoniest thing about Holden is how he analyzes the flaws in everyone around him, but fails to recognize the phoniness in his own character. If he'd quit being concerned about others and focus on himself, he'd be able to improve his character.
Overall, Holden uses the phoniness of adults as an excuse to remain isolated. And spends so much time analyzing others that he fails to recognize his own phoniness.

Validness of ideas; effectiveness of examples; grammar

Nathaniel is not a mentally ill musician, ...but a musician with mental illness.
This was a striking quotation for me in The Soloist. Its comes at the point in which Stella March, the mother of a man with schizophrenia, tells Lopez that he must recognize the person before the illness.
All people can take this quotation and think about it before they pass judgement on someone else or apply a label to a person. For instance, I have a slight case of cerebral palsy on the right side of my body. However I'd never refer to myself or classify myself as a disabled girl, maybe a girl with a disability, but I'd even be wary to call myself that.
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Another important subject that The Soloist explores is the stress and hardships caregivers go through. In the specific case of Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers, Lopez begins to feel that caring for Nathaniel is forcing him to alienate his family and neglect his work at the LA Times. Looking after Nathaniel becomes so difficult, that Lopez begins to believe that forcibly treating Ayers is the only way for Ayers to get better. When he presented this idea to the founders of Lamp, it becomes clear that forced treatment wouldn't help Ayers. It would help Lopez be rid of the story that's become a burden.
A situation that more people can relate to can be caring for an aging parent. Many older people have trouble getting around, because of pain in their bones and joints. Some elderly people even suffer from memory lose caused by diseases like Alzheimer's. Caring for the elderly can be a difficult task that can alter all other aspects of the caregivers life. For example, many people are forced to choose between continuing their careers and caring for their parents.
The Soloist can help people appreciate caregivers much more.

grammar; effectiveness of examples

What genre is the soloist?
The soloist is a combination of a biography for Nathaniel Ayers and an autobiography for Steve Lopez. This book is biographical in that it includes information about Nathanial's education, family life, musical training, and recounts his experiences with Steve Lopez. This is also an autobiographical piece, because it describes Steve Lopez's life as well. He describes his own career, education, family life, and experiences with Nathaniel Ayers. Essentially, Ayers has effected Lopez's life as much as Lopez has effected Ayers's life. For instance, in chapter 7 Lopez spends the night in the "Toy District", on the street, with Ayers. His descriptions of the rats, roaches, drug dealers, drug addicts, and prostitutes show how Nathaniel lives every single night. However, it still describes one night of Lopez's life.

What issues does the soloist explore?
By analyzing the particulars of his own experience with Nathaniel Ayers, Lopez explores many universal themes. For instance, Ayers is a homeless person. However, he's not he only homeless person in the world. His experiences with the risks of disease, violence, and many other tribulations are similar to people in every city in the world. By describing the inadequate care provided for the homeless in Los Angeles, Lopez is suggesting that all homeless people are inadequately cared for and efforts must be taken to help their situation.
Ayers is also Schizophrenic. People that suffer from Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses have problems and experiences that are similar to Ayers. Medication and treatments have failed to help Ayers with his problems and inovation in treatment for the Schizophrenic is necessarry (not only in Ayers case, but in many cases).
To address problems that apply to himself, Lopez mentions the risk of his career. It's scary for him and many others that a lot of newspaper readers are dying out and turning to the internet for news. Without readers, writers for the LA Times won't be able to make a living and will lose their jobs. This also applies to other newspapers, like the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. Both the Inquirer and the Daily News are facing bankruptcy and extreme measures are being taken to keep profits flowing.
Lopez addresses many important issues in the soloist.

Effectiveness of examples; grammar; validity of ideas

1)Has blogging been valuable to you as a student, thinker, reader, and writer?
Blogging has been valuable to me as a student, because I'm very busy at this time in school. Preparing for the musical and completing my National Honor Society paperwork has led to a lot of stress and no other classes have been sensitive to that. However, blogging is flexible and less intimidating than the other assignments in other classes.
Blogging has been valuable to me as a thinker, because I get to read the writings of others and think of different perspectives.
As a writer, blogging has helped me, because I get comments from several people for every piece I write. The comments of my readers are helpful and their criticism is taken into account for my future writing pieces.

2)How do you feel about doing and continuing to do this kind of work?
I think we should continue this kind of work, because it's not intimidating, yet it's accomplishing our overall goal: to become better readers and writers.

3)Is this work different from other experiences that you have had in English classes?
Yes. Other English classes I've taken and are more formal than this one. There's more focus on grammar and specific techniques in effective writing. While I value the American literature we're studying and the life lessons our readings teach, I think it would be worthwhile to analyze more writings more closely (after the King and I) for organization, literary devices, etc.

4)Looking forward, do you have suggestions for how you want to be graded on this writing?
I think we need a clearer rubric for your grading. Sometimes I get an A and think, "Oh really!" Then other times I get a C and think, "Why'd I get that? What's he basing this stuff on?" I'm always shocked at my grades and that wouldn't be the case if I knew specifically what you were looking for.

5)Has doing this work changed the community within your own class or between classes (11-1 and 11-2) in any way?
I don't think so.

"He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: "I never loved you." After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house-just as if it were five years ago" (page 109).

This quotation from The Great Gatsby is filled with specific diction and I believe it reveals Fitzgerald's opinion of Gatsby.
Saying "he wanted nothing less of Daisy" tells critical readers that Gatsby wanted a lot from Daisy. If he had reasonable expectations, I think Fitzgerald would have said he wanted "nothing more of Daisy." This would make Gatsby's request seem minimal and easy. However, Gatsby's request was great and inconsiderate.
Fitzgerald reminds his readers also that fulfilling Gatsby's request would obliterate the last four years of Daisy's life. The strong negative connotation of "obliterate" is of great importance. Obliterate means to kill or delete. It's totally unreasonable for one to request someone else to obliterate the last four years of his or her life. It's also impossible for Daisy to obliterate four years, because she has a young child with Tom. Therefore, Gatsby isn't only unreasonable, but unrealistic and impossible.
The irony in the second sentence is very striking. After Daisy obliterates the last four years of her life (which is physically impossible) Gatsby plans to "decide upon the more practical measures to be taken." This is an oxymoron! It's almost as bad as the books Fun With Shakespeare. Describing their next step as a couple as "more practical," shows readers that the first step (deleting four years) is totally "impractical."
The third sentence takes the irony to another level of ridiculousness. Gatsby and Daisy's "more practical" measure is to pretend "as if it were five years ago." This is a less practical step if anything. How could Gatsby honestly believe that it's more practical to pretend that they're living five years into the past?
Overall, I think Fitzgerald sees Gatsby as foolish. His diction and use of irony shows readers his personal opinion of Gatsby and Daisy's relationship. While readers are free to have their personal opinions, Fitzgerald does a good job of making his opinion known.

Journal entry

"All I kept thinking over and over was, 'You can't live forever, you can't live forever."

At this point, Myrtle was describing her first meeting with Tom. She expresses how unworthy her husband is of her, by saying he's not fit to lick her shoes. However, he's a faithful, loving, hardworking man, even if he lacks intellegence. Myrtle is a lying, cheating woman. And if she believes that Tom intends on marrying her, she's more foolish than her husband. It's quite ironic that Tom, whom Myrtle adores, could slap her across the face and make her bleed. And mentioning Daisy was the cause of the slap! Does Myrtle need the picturer painted for her? Tom never defended her around Daisy, but he won't allow her to badmouth his wife.
Why would Myrtle choose an abusive man over a loving one? She's also gullible to believe that Daisy's Catholic faith is the reason Tom remains married to her. Tom has exhibited little respect for his wife so far. If he wished to leave her, he'd do it without hesitation. This should be obvious to Myrtle.
The only character that exceeds Myrtle's dumbness is her sister Catherine. What is the point in contemplating Myrtle's next move with Tom after they marry? They're clearly not geting married!
I just wish Nick would set everyone straight. People should stop worrying about his love life and focus on their own. Why would Daisy and Tom try to play match maker, when they don't know how to keep their own marriage together? Regardless, keeping quiet is Nick's best bet as he meets more and more people that can help his career.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Cross of Snow"

In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face--the face of one long dead--
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died, and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

1) After reviewing Longfellow's biographical information, I understand why his tone is so depressed in this poem. It's probably about his late wife. He visits the room she died in and seems very sad. He feels like the days stand still nor are "changeless since she died.
2) Rhetorical Aspects-
Imagery is a huge part of this poem. Longfellow creates an image of his wife's ghost in front of him. The gentleness of her face and the roundness of her head can be visualized by readers, through Longfellow's description.
Comparisons are also effective in this poem. Comparing his wife's life to the life of a martyr and a very blessed person.
3) I also read "Changed" by Longfellow. Once again the images were very vivid and helped me visualize the scene. The topic of a person changing after being away from a familiar place for years was interesting. This is a phenomonon that all men and women experience at least once, so the subject was very good.
4) I don't know if Longfellow's works were distinctly American. I think his themes were universal in that when people lose love, like in "The Cross of Snow" they may feel like Longfellow and be able to relate to him. The subjesct of "Changed" is also u niversal in that people might leave their childhood place and return many years later. Somehow, the place looks very different upon their return.

1) How do the writings of this author compare to those of the American Romantics we have read? Can we note some progression from American Romanticism into American Realism?
The writings of Kate Chopin are different from the writings of the American Romantics, in that Chopin wishes to depict the lives of simple everyday people. In contrast, the American Romantics tended to use super human characters to depict more extreme situations. There are some romantic aspects to the short story "Lilacs." In this story, Choplin discribes a lot of nature's beauty and emphasizes a love for blooming lilacs in Springtime.

2) What topics, themes, social/political issues does this writer take up in his/her work? What might these tell us as readers about this author and his/her worldview?
Kate Choplin seems to focus on the lives of independent women in her writing. In "A Pair of Silk Stockings" the main character, Mrs. Sommers, was married with children, but she wasn't pampered by her husband. There were several daily tasks that she had to deal with on her own. It was evident that her family depended on her and she always sacrificed for them. It wasn't a surprise for me when she couldn't resist spoiling herself for an afternoon. Adrienne in "Lilacs" wasn't married and lived a very independent life. People always counted on her throughout the year, so she loved to take two week vacations to the convent, to relax.The fact that she focused on the lives of working independent women shows that she valued the roles of women in the world and wanted to tell others about the importance of women. When her characters, Adrienne and Mrs. Sommers, had moments of weakness in which they thought only of themselves, Choplin might have been telling her female readers to take time for themselves every now and then.

3) With regard to author’s purpose consider the following: To whom is this writer writing? For whom are they writing?
Choplin is writing to women that feel pressed in their everyday lives. She wants them to know that it's not a crime to be self-centered every so often.

4) What relevance does this author’s writing hold for you as a reader?
This author's writing tells me that I have a some-what stressful life ahead of me as a woman. This is just as relevant to me as it was to Choplin's readers in the early 1900's, because the roles of women are just as hard today (if not harder) as they were back then. It's a great balancing act that all women must master.

5) What drew you to the work of this author? Pick a short passage from one of his/her works and write in response to his/her words.
When I saw that "A Pair of Silk Stockings" was the shortest writing in the text book, I was drawn to Kate Choplin. I also knew that I wanted to choose one of the female writers, because I wanted to know a female perspective of the Realist era.

"... a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever"
This was the last line of "A pair of Silk Stockings," after Mrs. Sommers' glorious day of pampering was over. She didn't want the feeling to end and she didn't want to go back to her real life. I feel like this every time a shop. Shopping is like entering a fantasy in which you are the only one that matters. Everything is about what makes you look good or feel good. I personally couldn't care less about school, boys, and the other stresses of the world when I shop. I always call it "retail therapy." After a long day at school I love to go down town and go to Daffy's or the Gap and spend all of my money. It's just so refreshing. I feel like I need it. I can totally understand where Mrs. Sommers is coming from. She's constantly stressed by her kids and her husband and her chores. So when she get a few extra dollars she can't help but to splurge on herself. And guess what, she deserves it.

Nina Blalock
February 22, 2009
11-1
English III

Writing has the power to enact social change. All artists, including writers, are responsible to society to promote justice and change where it’s necessary. Writers have a special ability to awaken an audience’s imagination and bring them into a new world. This can be instrumental in bringing major issues to light.
In 2002, June Jordan wrote “The Bombing of Baghdad” in response to Americans bombing Iraq. This really bought the scene of Baghdad to reality. Americans knew about the bombing, but we couldn’t ever possibly imagine what it’s like to have our homes, schools, places of worship, businesses, towns, and cities destroyed by an enemy on the other side of the ocean. As a nation, we’ve never experienced anything like the bombing of Baghdad. However, Jordan used her power over language to create this scene in the minds of her readers.
If it wasn’t for writers and other artists, governments would get away with doing a lot of inhumane things. They already get away with spying and being corrupt, but writers help to fix some problems in politics. By labeling the bombers of Baghdad as American terrorists, Jordan showed her readers that just because an American does something doesn’t make it right. If anything it makes it twice as bad and hypocritical, because America is supposed to stand for justice.
All forms of creativity have the power to enact social change from Diana Ross singing, “I’m coming out,” to Leonardo DiCaprio showing the world the truth about, “Blood Diamonds.” Artists are truly the social workers for all of society.

Nina Blalock
January 30, 2009
English III
Mr. Fiorini
Breathe

The indescribable joy motherhood brings
The horrific misery slavery holds
What if the same man that causes your oppression fathers your beloved child?
What if you’ve always known that your spirit is born to be free, but your beloved baby boy isn’t part of that freedom?
What’s the price of a child?
Is it less than the freedom of three of God’s children?
Is it more than the haunting, sleepless nights you’ll long to hold your baby?
What do you do when you’ve waited a lifetime for one moment, but it’s not exactly perfect when it happens?
Do you take a chance and wish for the best?
Do you play it safe and pray to God that this wasn’t your last opportunity?
How do you live with knowing you let the opportunity of a lifetime pass you by?
How do you live with knowing you’ll never see someone you loved so dearly ever again?

On the ferry the moment of truth,
All eyes are watching the great drama of your life unfold
Strangers urge you to claim “your freedom.”
It’s yours.
Just stand! Just stand! Stand up!
You hear it in your head; you feel it in your heart.

Then like a massive blow to the gut that takes your breath away, you return to reality.
Your child is in Virginia. You’ve left him. It’s so hard, too hard to separate.

You stand.
You love your baby boy; but you’ve always wanted to be free.
“You are entitled to your freedom according to the laws of…”

You stand; you walk; they watch;
“Breathe”