Paragraph- Short Story

Francesco Argentina

Casie Cobos

English Language Arts

12/8/17

Paragraph Practice

Prompt: What character do you find most interesting in the story? Why? Point to specific parts of the text to support this.

The grandmother is by far the most interesting character in the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. It is the way she constantly manipulates the other characters in the story, that makes her so interesting. For example, the first line of the story almost directly states this “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to go visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (1). Another example of the grandmothers’ manipulation can be found in a quote where she tries to convince Bailey she is injured, to avoid being scolded and to gain some sympathy “The grandmother was curled up under the dashboard, hoping she was injured so that Bailey’s wrath would not come down on her all at once” (12). It is clear that the grandmother frequently engages in manipulative behavior throughout the book. This trait of her’s not only adds to the depth and complexity of her character, but indefinitely makes her the most interesting.   

OHP- Reflection

Francesco Argentina

Casie Cobos

English Language Arts

10/28/17

OHP- Reflection

Now that I have completed my oral history project, I discovered that there were things that went well and things that didn't go as well that I can improve the next time I participate in a similar project. To start, I will discuss the things that I feel went well. I think that the questions that my group came up with were very good questions, they were engaging and thorough which resulted in a lot of good content coming from the interviewee. Also we asked good follow up questions at the appropriate times and executed little details well, that generally helped the interview run smoothly. As well I think my group worked very well as a team, we were organized with the formatting and tech set up, we managed our time well, and we distributed the work evenly among each member. Overall I would call this project a success for our first time.

Although I would deem the project a success that doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement. There were certainly a few things I wish I had known when we started the project. The first is that keeping a conversation going is no easy task, this is something we learned along the way during and after we had our interview. Even though our questions were engaging and the information we got back was valuable, we had nowhere near enough questions. Our interview ended at around 25 minutes when we thought we would easily exceed at least 35 minutes, however we now know that it's better to overshoot with the amount of questions you have and maybe not get to all of them, than to undershoot and not have enough to say. Also I think our class section could have done much better on our final movie that we made. I believe this is partially due to a lack of time, however that still is not a valid excuse. Our biggest problem was not having enough editors working on the project, as we underestimated the amount of work it was for them in comparison to the other groups. Although we made our mistakes, I am glad we got the opportunity to explore a completely new type of work that before this, was absolutely foreign. I had a great time participating in this and hope to work with oral history some more in the future.             

Journal Persepolis #3

Francesco Argentina

Casie Cobos

English Language Arts

10/25/17

Persepolis Journal

What led to Marjane's grandmother yelling at her? Was the yelling justified? Why or why not?

On page 291 we see Marjane’s grandmother yell at her for the first time in her life. This is because Marjane laughs at a story about her framing an innocent man for saying obscenities to her, as a way to get out of trouble with the guardians (Pages 285-287). In my opinion, her grandmother’s explosive reaction is without a doubt justified. First of all, It has been a long time since Marjane has been in contact with her grandmother so it makes perfect sense for her grandmother to be caught off guard in the moment, as she is not yet familiar with the modern rebellious Marjane. I don't think that a younger Marjane would commit such an act that would compromise her integrity considering her interests in becoming a prophet earlier on in her life (Pages 6-9). Also, her grandmother has had plenty of relatives in the past that have been wrongly accused and put in jail or put to death. She brought up Marjane’s grandfather and Anoosh as examples, and for Marjane to laugh it off as if she were glorifying the act she had done, it must have felt like a slap in the face to the grandmother. The yelling was definitely justified, however I think it was especially good for Marjane to hear it coming from somebody she trusts like her grandmother, so she can then take some time to reflect on her core values as a person.    

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?