Journal Entry- Persepolis

Francesco Argentina

Dr. Cobos

ELA

9/29/17

Why does Marjane want to "make her past disappear" (194)? And how does this affect her development as a person?

On page 194, Marjane reveals to us that she wants the past to disappear. This statement, makes us as the reader really start to wonder, considering how far in the book we've come, and how much we've learned about Marjane already. I chose this prompt because I feel that there is no direct answer to this question and it invites an interesting conversation. We know that Marjane is proud to be Iranian and has a lot of love for her country as it states on page 197 where she lashes out on a group of friends at the cafe “You are going to shut up or I am going to make you, I am Iranian and proud of it!” But where there is love, there is also hurt and pain which I believe Marjane is feeling when she says this. The pain of her past may be too much for her to bear at this moment in the book, and she wishes nothing more but to just let it go, However she can not. This also greatly affects the way Marjane grows as an individual. A quote that supports this is on page 222 where she says “This is how, for love, I began my career as a drug dealer. Hadn’t I followed my mother's advice? To give the best of myself? I was no longer a simple junkie, but now my school's official dealer.” This quote really gives us an insight to how Marjane is feeling at her current situation in life. It seems that she thinks she has not only let her mother down, but herself as well. It’s interesting to imagine how Marjane would have developed if she was still under her mother's influence in Iran, instead of in Europe making her own decisions. To conclude this post, I believe that although the past can be hard at times, at least for Marjane’s sake, she shouldn't try to forget it, because her difficult past is what is responsible for shaping her into the woman she has become.  

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.

Blog Post 22

Francesco Argentina

Ms. Harrison

ELA

4/24/17

Blog Post 22

What is the climax (turning point) of the novel? How do you know? How is the central conflict addressed in the climax? Use textual evidence to back up your claims.

    For this weeks blog post, I chose to write about what I thought the climax of the story was. Finding the climax of this story was incredibly difficult for me to clearly identify and it wasn't until after I read the last three chapters that could truly see a few possibilities. It was interesting to me that the climax came so late in the story as from personal experience I would have predicted it to be earlier in the story than it was, but up until chapter 7 there weren't really any central conflicts that were presented. In chapters 7 and 8 however, there were a few possible climaxes I could point out, for example, when Tom confronts Gatsby in the suite, (Then Tom's voice incredulous and insulting…Tom glanced around to see if we mirrored his disbelief, but we were all looking at Gatsby. Pg. 129) when Myrtle gets hit by the car (Myrtle Wilson’s body wrapped up in a blanket… Pg.138) or when Gatsby gets shot (The chauffeur- he was one of wolfsheim’s proteges- heard the shots… Pg.161). I came to the conclusion that when Myrtle gets hit by the car fits the climax role the best as It is when everything starts to go downhill for Gatsby. This part of the book really convinced me to think it was the climax because it is the first really big obstacle that faces Gatsby so far. And even though it doesn't even directly involve him, It later affects his future incredibly as this incident leads him to getting shot.   

Blog Post 21

Francesco Argentina

Ms. Harrison

ELA

4/17/17

Blog Post 21

Prompt: In chapter 5, what is revealed about the characters of Gatsby and Daisy based upon their reactions to each other when they finally meet?

    In chapter 5, Nick throws a tea party in attempt to reintroduce Gatsby and Daisy to each other, so Gatsby can try to win back Daisy’s heart just like he did in Louisville. By the end of this whole experience, a lot of light is shown upon a different side of Gatsby’s personality that is quite interesting. First off, Gatsby shows up an hour earlier than the event was supposed to start, perhaps giving the impression that this is indeed was very important to him, and that much thought went into preparing for it. Then, after he gets there, he begins to have second thoughts about the whole idea and starts to skepticize if Daisy will even come. And Finally once Daisy does actually show up, just before, Gatsby runs out of the room and appears at the front door creating the illusion that he wasn't waiting for her all this time. As soon as the two meet, Gatsby instantly becomes incredibly awkward especially when he knocks over Nick’s clock, but eventually the two become comfortable with each others presence and it seems to be going smoothly. After they talk for a while, Nick leaves the room for around 30 minutes and returns to Daisy crying joyfully and Gatsby glowing as the two have finally admitted their feelings for each other.

There is a lot we can learn from this whole tea experience with Gatsby and Daisy. For example, we found out that there is much more depth to Gatsby’s character he hasn't shown us yet. Referring to this situation specifically, he showed us an element of extreme nervousness, and discomfort, something I had no idea he was capable of. Daisy on the other hand didn't surprise me too much in terms of her actions, but I think it's incredibly important now that we know she probably has very strong feelings for Gatsby just like the two had in the past, and I’m intrigued to find out if she will cheat on her husband Tom, just like he has repeatedly done to her, and if what Gatsby believs to be true about recreating the past with his money.