Blog Post 26

Francesco Argentina

Ms. Harrison

ELA

21, May 2017

Blog post 26

    For the last blog post of the year, we were asked to read a final book of our choice, and blog about it.  The book I chose to read was called The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, who was actually associated with the Lost Generation documentary that we were assigned to watch in preparation for the Great Gatsby. The book summed up is all about an old Cuban fisherman by the name of Santiago. He and a young boy named Manolin have been on an eighty four day “unlucky streak” where they have not caught a single fish.  The boy’s parents eventually transfer him to a more prosperous boat. On the eighty fifth day however the old man finds the biggest fish of his career, a gigantic Marlin, however it’s not very easy to catch. He goes through a grueling three day process of attempting to tire the fish out, but the fish puts up a fight. He eventually shoots the Marlin with his harpoon, but on his sail back to shore, sharks start surrounding it and eat all of the meat leaving just a skeleton to remain. When he gets back to shore, he sleeps all night, and wakes up to being reunited with the boy who was very worried by his absence. Finally, he sees that nearby observers have gathered around to admire the marvelous skeletal frame of the fish. In my opinion, this book was very pleasurable to read. Although there were not many characters, and some could argue that the plot wasn't very complex, I noticed that this is the beauty of Hemingway’s style. His writing was so simple, yet so powerful with the way he communicated the story.  I would definitely recommend this book to others because it is simple enough that those of a lower reading level could understand it, but would still be an engaging read to those more advanced. 

Blog Post 25

Francesco Argentina

Ms. Harrison

ELA

16 May, 2017

Blog Post #25

Prompt: Of all the texts that we've read this year, which one is your favorite, and why? Which one is your least favorite, and why?

    Considering all of the books we have read in ELA class this year, I would say I enjoyed reading most of them, but there were definitely a select few I would consider superior to others. My favorite book would have to be The Great Gatsby one, because it is fresh in my mind being the most recent book we read. And also because I feel this book did the best job of contextualizing Fitzgerald's life, and the time period where he decided to write the book. I feel it was through all of the contextual studies we did inside and outside of class that really provided me with a better appreciation of the novel, The Lost Generation documentary especially. My least favorite book however would have to be The Odyssey. I have never been a fan of greek mythology, and this book directly expressed my dissatisfaction with it. Combined with the fact it was written in a poem like format, this was not a recipe for my indulgence. Sure there were moments in the book I enjoyed, but evidently it resulted in an unpleasant experience.  

Blog Post 24

Francesco Argentina

Ms. Harrison

English Literature

7, May, 2017

Movie vs Book

This past Wednesday I had the privilege of watching the film The Great Gatsby, which is of course an adaptation of the book, The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This week for my blog, I chose to write about my overall thoughts about the movie in contrast to the book, and how I thought it was represented. After finishing it, I thought the movie adaptation stayed very truthful to the book in many ways and was represented very accurately. I thought that the choice of cast was very intelligent and worked very well, especially Nick Carraway's character played by Tobey Maguire and Jay Gatsby’s character played by Leonardo DiCaprio. A few minor details such as a few of the songs used in the movie were confusing to me as they didn't really fit the situation in my opinion and I think a different song choice would be better suited. However this small detail didn't take away from the films overall brilliance. Something that I thought was interesting was Nick’s little subplot with the doctor who referred to him as “morbidly alcoholic” and how it showed him looking back on the experiences with Gatsby, then proceeding to write it down by hand and eventually type it into his finished work. This was an interesting addition to the movie that I thought for the most part worked quite well. For the rest of the film, it stayed right on track with the book without any major differences, other than little details of course, that I could find.      

What do you guys think? Did the movie do Fitzgerald's masterpiece justice?

Blog post 23

Francesco Argentina

Ms. Harrison

ELA

5/1/17

Blog post 23

            Choose one of the themes in the book that we identified and discussed in class (this should be in your notes) and decide which one you believe is the primary theme of The Great Gatsby. Explain why you think this is the primary theme and provide three pieces of textual evidence to support your position.

        In the Great Gatsby we discussed in class what possible themes could be for the book. We also studied what exactly differentiates a theme from a topic because there is some confusion there, for example, some people would say the theme of the Great Gatsby would be “The American Dream”. This would be incorrect because the American Dream is a topic of the Great Gatsby, but a theme would need to be a complete sentence. For instance, I would say the theme of the Great Gatsby is related to the topic of the American Dream, but it would need to be said like this; The American Dream is an unrealistic goal that will ultimately disillusion anyone who strives for it. A piece of textual evidence to support my claim would be on the last page of the book where Nick says “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close… Into the past” pg.180. What I took away from this small passage in the book was that Nick is saying Gatsby ended up spending all this time on reaching his goal of the American Dream and it was wasted in a sense because he ended up wishing his life away instead of enjoying it. On page 161 Nick says “If that was true, he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream”. I think what Nick is saying that a person should have a variety of goals and interests and that if there is just one single motivation behind every decision you make than you can miss out on incredible opportunities and experiences. Overall, there are many themes to be identified inside of the great Gatsby, but the one I previously stated is the most important because examples of it can be found all throughout the book and it seems to be what drives the plot of the story.