Blog Post #8

Benighted – intellectually or morally ignorant, unenlightened

Redemption – an act of redeeming, or the state of being redeemed

Scornful – derisive, contemptuous

Diabolic – having the qualities of a devil; devilish; fiendish; outrageously wicked

Zephyr – a gentle, mild breeze

Verdant – green with vegetation, covered with growing plants or grass

Variegated – varied in appearance of color; marked with patches or spots of different colors

Knowing what these words mean helps me understand the poems better because it helps me better understand what the author of the poem is trying to get across. For instance, “taught my benighted soul to understand.” She taught herself that there was a God and a savior, and that he does exist. “ Or when she says “their color is a diabolic die.” I think that she meant that they look down upon her race and thinks that they are a sign of the devil. In “An Hymn to the Morning” she says “on every leaf the gently zephyr plays” she means that the leaves are rustling in the gentle wind.

Blog Post #7

Dear Diary,

I am sorry to say that my husband has changed for the worst. He has succumbed to the evils of alcohol. (27) Before he started drinking he was kind and loving. He loved me and all of our animals. Especially this all black cat we had. It would follow him everywhere he went in the house, and it was hard for him to leave the house without him following. (26-27) One day he was returning home very intoxicated. He searched for the cat and found it. When he did he took his pocket knife out and cut its eye out. After that the cat avoided him. (27) Not too long after that he took and wrapped a noose around its neck and hung it from a tree. (27) That night our house caught on fire and for the first time he looked scared. But that quickly faded.  He had seen the cat and the noose on the wall that survived the fire. However, if faded because he rationalized it with someone throwing it in his window to scare him. (28) Not long after that he was on his way home and stumbled across this black cat that looked almost exactly like our Pluto did. (28) He let it follow him home but soon became annoyed with it because it took to me instead of him. He was about to hit it one night because it disturbed him, but I caught his hand and stopped him. This made him angry and he ended up murdering me with an ax to my head. He took me down the basement and put me behind the wall with the cat. (30) So you can see that alcohol has turned my husband into a horrid man.

Blog Post #6

Http://www.stuffyoushouldread.com/episode-018-young-goodman-brown-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/

It was really interesting to listen to the story.  What I like about it was how they added music and sound effects to it to create the mood and set the scene. Like on page 32 when “he takes the dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest...” they play slow music to build up an eerie feeling. Or for instance on page 36 where “the hoofs clattered again, and the voices, talking so strangely in empty air…” they added hoof sounds to help create the image. On page 37 they added a scream where it says “there was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices…” I kind of liked but kind of didn’t like how they did the different voices. I think that some of them sounded way too similar and it got kind of confusing. I think that the elder traveler’s voice was the best one. They really did a good job in making it sound scary. However when the lady comes in on page 34 I thought her voice sounded a little too similar to Goodman Brown’s. They really didn’t depict a girl’s voice.  Over all I think they did a pretty decent job of telling it.

Blog Post #5

I missed a few things when I read the first time that I caught while reading the second time. When I first read it I didn’t quite understand why they had to shoot Bonaparte and Noble. But as I read the second time, it was because they had 4 of their men shot and one of them was a 16 year old boy. (12) I also missed that Belcher would do stuff for this woman when he was twice as strong as she was. But I found out that it was because he liked her. It’s what my understanding of that part of the story had concluded to. (9) I also didn’t get why they were keeping them until I read it twice. I found out it was because their men had English hostages and they were the hostages the English took in retaliation. (11) I didn’t get why they shot Hawkins instead of the men they were supposed to be shooting. After I read it a second time I think it was because he would have snitched on them and then they all would have been shot and killed at the expense of not killing their enemy’s men.  (15)

Blog Post #4

How I relate to Michael in “Homework” is that when something is bothering me I don’t normally tell anyone. For instance when his dad asked him what’s wrong on he told him nothing. (20) Or when his guidance counselor asked him, and he told her nothing was wrong as well. (22) I just find it easier to deal with things on my own then to tell someone and get a bunch of confusing advice. I can also relate to him because he likes to do math. I found math to be a fairly easy subject for me, including algebra. I used to have my mother make up problems for me so I could do them. He however makes up his own in the story. (20)

How I relate to Rachel in “Eleven” is that I don’t see my birthday as any special day either. It’s just another day and it feels no different; like she explained it in the story. (18) Also how she doesn’t like talking in class. (18-19) I absolutely hate talking in class. I don’t like being put on the spot. If I know what I’m talking about I will gladly share, but if I have the slightest hint of doubt I won’t. I’m very precautious.

Blog Post #3

"The Flower"

"The Story of An Hour"

Blog Post #2

I think a good sentence that would describe Madame Loisel in the begging of the book would be
“Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.” 
― Harold G. Coffin
because instead of accepting what she had she always envied her friends lives and what they had. Thus never appreciating what she had.
. A good sentence that would describe Madame Loisel at the end of the story would be
“The bittersweet about truth is that nothing could be more hurtful, yet nothing could be more helpful.” 
― Mike Norton, Just Another War Story

because by learning the truth I'm almost certain she learned that she should not take what she has in disguist and accept it. Also it ended up both hurting her and helping her.