Monday, January 31, 2011

Naturalism

Naturalism "has been devoted to documenting, with apparent objectivity, the extreme experiences of characters existing on the margins of society (Sommers)." It is a type of writing used in the late 1800's to the early 1900's that was derived from Realism. The main difference between the two different styles of writing are that while Realism is based on the nearly average life of the middle class character in society, naturalists usually "focused on the desperate existence of characters trapped in slums or in other oppressed settings (Sommers)." Therefore, naturalist writing was based on the struggle of a character rather than just telling about his or her life as the author sees it. Realist writing is usually based on characters living in society where they are put in a struggle with a force within that society that is very often overwhelming or miscomprehended. Once a naturalist writer has laid out the main conflict for a character in a story, most of the writing from that point on is based on how the character faces the challenges, or grows throughout the rest of the story (Sommers). Therefore, most of the beauty or appeal that comes from naturalist writing comes from the simplicity of seeing the character in the story mature and grow in the eyes of the author or audience as he or she faces or comes to deal with the conflict. Usually the city is the most favored setting of realist writers because of the many examples of flaws of society found within one. In many stories written my naturalist authors, one of the main conflicts that the character would face was the need to get away from people because the main character in the story would easily notice the many flaws in the society (Sommers). The characters' main goals or ways with dealing with the many flaws that they have noticed would be to just escape from society. Also, to try and fix many of these flaws that was faced by the character would be a very common theme.

Sommers, Joseph Michael. "naturalism." In Maunder, Andrew. Facts On File Companion to the British Short Story. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CBSS450&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 8, 2011).

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Realism

Realism is "the attempt to depict life as it actually exists, not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past (Werlock)." This means that it is much different than the former Romanticism writing period because in Romanticism, the author clearly depicts life as it is truly seen rather than the distorted way in which romantic writers claimed they saw it. This includes the vision of the American Dream and also the vision of the Hero. Since Realism is the attempt to depict life as it actually exists, not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past, it gave readers a new idea of the American Dream (Werlock). Rather than wanting to expand westward, the new idea of the American Dream first appeared in realist writing when freedom just in general was a massive appeal to the citizens of the United States rather than moving west. The idea of the Hero was also introduced through the realist writing. The hero was introduced as a man of usually middle class who always fought certain moral to always tend to do what was right (Werlock). Realism is usually distinguished as writing that shows society's true colors or shows how society truly seems to be. Unlike Romanticism, which basically shows the society how the author just simply wants it to be. The change from Romanticism to Realism came when writers like Mark Twain and Kate Chopin started releasing very famous works. Instead of having a romantic view on the world, they saw the world almost from a neutral point of view, beginning the change in writing style from a Romantic point of view to a Realist point of view (Werlock). This change occurred because people of society agreed with the thoughts of these authors and embraced these ideas and got tired of seeing the world as perfect as the authors from the Romantic period did. (Werlock)


Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gamshrtsty0575&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 31, 2011).

Journal #34 ACT Writing

So, this blog is about how to write to ACT essay. It is funny because i was informed just recently that there are some essays that do not have a writing portion, and therefore the writing portion of the ACT is actually not required by some colleges. But whatever, anyway, when writing an essay for the ACT, the first thing that you will always want to do is that obviously you will always want to read the prompt very carefully. You need to know what the writer of the prompt is talking about and you will know which side you will want to take. Now, the common mistake that people make when they start to plan out for an essay is that people will only plan out to write about the one side that they support. If you look at the grading scale for the writing portion of the ACT, you will realize that for one to get the highest score possible, the writer of the essay must cover both sides of the topic. When i say cover, i do not mean that the writer of the essay must support both sides of the essay. I mean that you must explain why the side that you are against will not work. Once again, for the writer to get a six, he or she must have this information included in the essay. When writing writing the essay on an Act, one thing that is much different about it from an actual essay is that you can use personal experience when trying to use support for the main argument in an essay. This means that the writer can use words like "I" and "me" that shows that the author had personal experience with these events and can explain what it has to do with the argument and also how it supports the author's argument. Well i guess that those are the main things that one would need to know when writing an ACT essay.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Journal #33 The Post Be-Bop Disco Era

I really do not know what started in the area that we live in today. I could say something like the selling of horseshoes, but that is kind of very boring. So, i will talk about something that started somewhere else. Actually no i will not because i now can think of something that actually did start in this area. That is officially the post be bop disco era. Don't act like you haven't heard of it! It's kind of a big deal. So, around the city of Springfield, Illinois in the year of 2011, a band called "The Panzies" created a revolution. They created a new type of music that was almost jazzy with a hint of funk. Now to whoever is reading this, you have to realize that The Panzies had a bigger impact on the post be bop disco era than Nirvana had on grunge. So yeah, they were kind of a big deal. So, anyway, this band started making music in 2008, but did not get a record deal until 2010 when they signed with Island Records. They did not realize that The Panzies were going to be such a bit hit. But anyway, when they released their first self-titled album, they also released their first ever single-"The Battle of the Noodles." Now Americans, being typical Americans, fell in love with this song. In fact, within the first week it came out, it became a gold selling single. Now, that is what i call pretty impressive. So, anyway, instead of being the typical one hit wonders, the Panzies had three other singles on their debut album. Today, there are many stories about what has happened to the Panzies. It has been two years since the Panzies have released their first album. It is rumored that they are actually working on their second album, but that has not actually been confirmed yet. Anyway, in conclusion, that is the story behind the new born post disco be bop era that is still spreading fast around America today.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Journal #32 Memoir

So, over winter break, i went to McDonald's. This may not sound like the greatest blog ever but just wait. You will be surprised. So, anyway, i sitting there in McDonald's just by my lonesome self eating my chicken nuggets, and suddenly i looked in front of me and saw a bright light. It was a blinding bright light. I looked around the restaurant to see if anyone else was affected by the light, but no one seemed to notice it. Suddenly i heard a voice saying my name. I cannot tell you my actually name, because if i told you that the voice was repeatedly saying Kirk, then i would have to kill you. Anyway, so i looked around and i could not see anyone who turned to me and said anything. Suddenly, the voice said "Over here" and i realized that it was coming from the light. So, with no one really noticing, i starting talking to the light. I know it sounds really obvious, but it was quite a strange encounter. I cannot really explain what happened that day, but something changed within me. I guess that it all came when the voice told me that i was bound to do great things in life and that i will be going very far in life. I cannot really describe how i felt at that moment, quite honestly, i cannot quite remember, but i guess that it was a reassuring encounter because i never knew that that was going to happen to me on that certain day over my winter break. Anyway, the encounter only lasted around thirty seconds, but at the same time, it felt timeless. I actually could not believe that it was only thirty seconds because when i looked to see what time it was, it was the same minute as i remembered it. I never actually asked what the light was and how it knew who i was, but for some reason i am not very worried about that.

Relating Owl Creek to Realism

There are many comparisons to the Realism period in the story "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." First, the main character in the story is middle class. This is one characteristics of Realism because people of the middle class basically supplied the voice of the Realism period(Bierce). In the story, the reader will tend to notice that the main character is not rich but not very poor leaving him to be in the middle class. Another way that "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" reflects the realism period is the way that the author makes the main character appear to the audience as a very likable man(Bierce). For example, in the story, the main character is from the North. When he goes to the South, he finds a war uniform of the Confederates and he tries to get members from the Confederate army to destroy a bridge that would really help the Union Army in the war against the Confederates(Bierce). He almost gets the Confederate men to do this by convincing them that the Union has built up a huge army that was going to attack the Confederate settlement by catching them off guard and using the bridge to get across the river. This is actually not true at all though. The main character is actually doing this because the Union army is actually very weak on the other side of the river and they could easily be taken control of on the other side of the river(Bierce). Because he is doing this, this makes the main character a very likable man within the story(Bierce). If people read this story during the war, there would have been many mixed opinions on this story because there would be people from the South who would think that the main character would be a bad man, but people from the North would think that he is a hero because in the story, he is fighting on the side of the Union(Bierce). Today, however, since the majority of people do not believe in slavery anymore and we have good morals when it comes to the abolishing of slavery, the audience sees this character as a very likable man, which is a characteristic of Realism. The last example that shows characteristics of Realism in the story "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is the fact that the author uses lots ans lots of detail to describe the setting in which the story takes place. For example, in the story, the author describes the river, the bridge, and the forest with plenty of detail for the reader(Bierce). For example, when describing the bridge and the creek, the author describes the water within the creek as well as the dimensions of the creek as well. The author then goes on to describe the bridge by telling the reader or the audience what kind of shape the bridge is in, how big the bridge appears and also most importantly the author describes in vast detail what the bridge looks like.


"An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce; I Page 1." Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. .

Friday, January 14, 2011

Journal #31 Daydreams

So today in this journal, i am supposed to be writing about how a day dream has helped me solve a problem sometime in my past. So, this one time, i was sitting in math class in fifth grade. My teacher Bohrer (at least i think that that is how she spells her name). So, anyway we were all taking a test, and i was one of the first ones done with the test in my class. So, naturally when i was done with my test, i had to wait for everyone else to finish their tests too. So, i obviously started day dreaming. I had a dilemma on my mind. I had to decide whether to get a drink or go to the bathroom first between the five minute passing period. This was quite the decision, so i started daydreaming to see if i could make a decision from doing that. In my day dream, i was invisible and i snuck out of the class to go to the bathroom first even though i was very thirsty. After that i then got a nice cold drink from the water fountain which was very nice, but i realized that while i was going to the bathroom, it was difficult to deal with the horrible thirst that i had because i did not get a drink first. Next, i ran the day dream back and started anew. This time while i was invisible, i got a drink first and then i went to the bathroom. The drink was great, but i realized that while i was getting the drink it was very hard to fight off the urge to go to the bathroom. Luckily i did though. So after running both of these possibilities through my mind, i realized that nothing really worked out that well. So, when the bell actually rang and when i walked out of math class to go to my next class, i just went to the class and did not get a drink or go to the bathroom.

Journal #30 Dress Code

I do not think that Pleasant Plains High School should have a dress code. By saying that we should have a dress code, i do not mean that we should be required to wear uniforms, but i mean that i like the way that we have it right now. I think that it would be very stupid if we had to wear nice uniforms to school every day because quite frankly, i do not see the use for that and what it would solve. In my opinion, i think that kids my age have the right to express themselves through the clothes that they wear and they should get to choose what they want to wear. To me, i do not really understand what the point is of having very strict school uniforms. In my opinion, it makes that school look very stubborn because it makes that school seem like they are not ready to accept how society runs now. I dunno. That is all i can think of saying about dress codes. Although at the same time i do think that it is necessary for schools to have dress codes. This is because in my opinion, i do not think that a person can wear something very bad or inappropriate to school that shows too much skin or whatever. If there are kids coming to school that are dressed like this then i think that it can give the school a bad reputation for letting kids dress poorly in school where they are supposed to be well behaved. It is always necessary for kids to be dressed well in public or especially in school but at the same time, i do not think that it is very useful to have a very strict dress code because in my opinion it makes the school seem to strict. School should be a place for children to learn, and in my opinion, focusing so much on a strict dress code gets in the way of doing that.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Journal #29 Convincing Someone to Buy a Record

So, today for a journal topic, we have to write about how we would convince someone to buy our favorite album or record. So, whoever is reading this blog, you should buy the record "The Colour and the Shape" by Foo Fighters. In all honesty, this is the best record i have ever listened to. For anyone who knows anything about the Foo Fighters, this album includes songs like "Monkey Wrench," "My Hero" and "Everlong " These are some of the greatest songs that Foo Fighters have ever made. Not only does this record include three very well known songs, but it seems like all of the other songs are just as good. People who are reading this blog may think that that is not possible, but if you listen to the record, then you will realize that it is very possible. For example three very good songs that are not very well known that are actually very good are "My Poor Brain," "Wind Up," and "February Stars." I actually like these songs more than the popular songs because it seems that the songs that are not as well known relate to me personally rather than to everyone who knows the popular songs. Another things that i really like about this record is that there is very angry music mixed with some very slow songs. It shows the listener that Foo Fighters are very musically talented and that they can really play any type of song that they want to. So, anyway, that is why this is my favorite record of all time. It really speaks to me because of the types of songs that are included on the album and the lyrics that the singer uses to describe his emotions and feelings. I guess that this is what i would say to someone if i were trying to convince them to buy my favorite record. I guess that that is all folks. The end.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Journal #28 Convincing Someone To Do Something

So, one time my friend Tim and i were walking through a forest. We were hanging out at my house and we got really bored so, we decided to take a fun little stroll through the forest in my backyard with flashlights. In retrospect, i really do not see why we decided to do that because it sounds really scary to me now but we did. So, we were walking through this forest, and we approached the creek that is at the border of our property and our neighbor's property. So, it was a summer night, but it was not really that bad because it was not that hot out because it was night, and the mosquitoes apparently all went to bed because they were not out either. Also, it was really cool because there were a crazy amount of fire flies all around lighting up the forest. But anyway, so i grab a stick and throw it into this creek. The creek was pretty deep, so i got the great idea of seeing how cold the water was. I laid down on my stomach to see how cold the water was. It was actually a pretty refreshing temperature. So, i got up and dared my friend Tim to jump into the creek because it was a very good temperature and it would be very funny. Well, i have to mention that my friend Tim is not very adventurous, so he obviously said no. I then just kept telling him to jump in and he kept replying no. Then after a few minutes we were both bored again so we were still trying what to do. Well it took us a long time to figure out what to do. I'm saying like a whole fifteen minutes. That may not seem that long, but in a forest while alone, that is a long time. Finally Tim decided to feel the temperature of the water in the creek, and when he learned over to feel the temperature, i pushed him into the creek. The End.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Journal #27 Persistence

Ok, so the topic for the blog today is persistence. apparently, persistence is when someone endures greatly or gets through obstacles. I find this topic kind of interesting because of the fact that it is a word that has a very deep meaning. I also find it interesting that the topic for today's journal is just that simple word. Persistence. The one thing that bothers me about this word is that fact that when everyone looks up this definition, they will think that the word relates to them specifically. I mean, sure everyone finds a way to endure through things every once in a while, but i think that it is stupid to take it to heart when others think that their life is so hard. i mean i understand that if someone is secretly depressed and walked over everyday by others that they can call themselves persistent, but if someone thinks that they are extremely persistent because they think that they overcame many obstacles when you have done nothing, then i just cannot respect people like that. it just makes me angry i suppose when people think that they are so tough and can withstand anything when they have never really faced a tough obstacle in their life. I guess that that is really all i can say about persistence. I really do not want to start listing qualities that make me persistent because first off all, i just kind of ripped on people who do that, and also i know that there are many more people out there who are much more persistent than i am. so, i guess that that is my little rant against persistence. I really do not know what else i can possibly say about this topic. In conclusion, persistence is basically what it means to overcome obstacles according to dictionary.com. Also, i do not like people saying how persistent they are when they really are not very persistent at all.