Monday, November 22, 2010
Advertise Book-of-the-Month
This interesting, eye-catching book is called The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This book has an extreme amount of suspense, it has a mystery that you want to try and solve. I would say this book has a creepy, eerie fell to it. If you get easily scared, i wouldn't read this book. Other teens should read this because it tells a story that you wouldn't normally think would happen. It's shocking and disturbing, some ways good, some not. I haven't finished the book yet, but I would give it 4 stars. I encourage people to read this book, they won't regret it.
Monday, November 8, 2010
O. Henry
- O. Henry is just a pen name, O. Henry's real name is William Sydney Porter.
- O. Henry is best known for his ironic plot twists and surprise endings.
- He was not always a writer. He was a clerk and bank teller, and than around his mid 30's he became a writer.
- He was being accused of embezzling funds from the bank he used to work at, so he ran away to Honduras. Although he ended up coming back when he learned his wife was ill, and after she died he turned himself in.
- He only served 3 of the 5 year sentence in jail, and that is where he began writing his short stories.
- After O. Henry was out of jail he started writing full time in New York City.
- During the last ten years of his life, O. Henry became one of the most popular writers in America, publishing over 500 short stories in dozens of widely read periodicals.
- Some of his most famous stories were "The Gift of the Magi", "The Furnished Room", and "The Ransom of Red Chief".
- His style of storytelling became a model not only for short fiction, but also for American motion pictures and television programs.
- Writing at the rate of more than one story per week, O. Henry published ten collections of stories during a career that barely spanned a decade.
Masque of the Red Death Essay
Katie H.
Mrs. Zurkowski
English 9 Greens
The Masque of the Red Death
In the short story “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the colors that is defined is green. The color green in this story symbolizes adolescence and money. The story consists of seven rooms that are all different colors. The color scheme has more meaning than just being different colored rooms. Every color counts up through the ages of life, starting at birth and ending with death. This color is not the beginning mark of life but it is still in the early years. The story has a much symbolized meaning, especially through the colors. This will help make the story more understandable and relatable.
Green symbolizes the ages that people go through around the teenage years up to being a young adult. As time progresses this stage in life will come and go, and people will move on to the next stage, or like the story, the next “room”. Green represents adolescence, going through the years in life. Green could also represent the freshness of starting to grow up and become something of yourself. Being in this stage of life you are ready to start exploring things that you do not know. It’s possible to have that drive inside you that makes you want to learn more. One thing people at this age are exploring is money. Money is yet another symbolization for green. People at this age are really starting to understand how to make money, spend money, and save money. This is the starting point for growing up, and becoming an adult. The stage of green is a life starter. Of course there was life before this stage, but this is about just really getting ahold of things. Growing up is a big part of adolescence. Every year of this stage, something different is coming along and making people grow and mature.
This color relates to my life because this is the exact stage I am going through right now. I am a teenager in adolescence. I think reading this short story and learning about the symbolism. It helps me understand the stages of life more, and how they can be related to something such as colors. The color scheme in this story goes: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and lastly black. Green is not exactly at the middle, but it is very close. The stage right before it is purple, outgrowing the stage of being a toddler, and becoming a kid. The age group for this stage is 5-9. This stage is about having fun, being a kid, and being happy. I feel like the next step, which is green, is a lot different than this because things get a little more serious. The fun does not go away, but it is just not all fun and games anymore. The stage after green is orange. Orange is the actual middle stage in your life. This is when you have really grown up and headed right into your life. This is one of the longest stages because when you have a lust for life, time just flies by. The age group for this stage is 20-50. During this stage, you also might experience a mid-life crisis. I want to emphasize the “mid” meaning middle. People are realizing they have already been living life for a while now and they are starting to think about when they get much older. I think that this story has way more meaning than what meets the eye. You really have to dig down and unravel what the author is saying, and let it sink into the brain. I think this story was a lot more understandable once I understood the symbolism of the colored room scheme. I think the color scheme represents the stages of one’s life perfectly, especially the green because that color is relatable to where I am in my own life.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Edgar Allan Poe Web Quest
1. .Provide the following biographical information: birthdate; birthplace; death date. Birthdate: January 19, 1809; Birth Place: Boston, Massachusetts; Death Date: October 7, 1849.
2. What tragic childhood events influenced his writing? When he was sent away to college with barely anything, then returning to his fiancés home and saw that she was engaged to another man, all these things made him want to become a poet and to find adventure.
3. There are 13 theories on what caused Poe's death. List five of them. Epilepsy, Hypoglycemia, Diabetes, Delirium Tremens, or Toxic Disorder.
4. .According to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, what state did Poe call home? Virginia.
6. What famous military academy expelled Poe in 1831? The US Military Academy at West Point
7. Who did Poe marry? How old was she? Virginia Clemm. Nearly 14.
11. When was "The Raven" published? 1845
16. ..Listen to the audio version of the Raven. What do you think of it? I think the voice helps you picture everything that is happening more easily.
17. Who is the Poe Toaster? He is a mysterious figure who went annually from 1949 until 2009 to Poe’s grave and left three roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac, then would run away.
18. .List five examples of "Poe in Your Life."
1. Baltimore writer Laura Lippman's 2001 novel In a Strange City is a murder-mystery set in modern-day Baltimore. It explores a plot to unmask the Poe Toaster, the shadowy figure who visits Poe's grave every year on the anniversary of the writer's birthday.
2. Heavy metal band Iron Maiden included the song "Murders in the Rue Morgue" — the title of one of Poe's best-known stories — on their 1981 album "Killers."
3. At least 81 films have been based on works by Edgar Allen Poe — and many of them are about the same stories. There have been ten versions of "The Tell-Tale Heart", and nine of "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Black Cat."
4. In 1999 The Hollywood Reporter reported that singer Michael Jackson was slated to star as Poe in a feature film to be called "The Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe." The status of that film project remains unclear, but it seems even the King of Pop wants to pay tribute to Poe.
5. In 1945, the Mystery Writers of America, Inc. established an award to recognize outstanding contributions to various categories of mystery, crime and suspense writing. These awards are known as The Edgar Allan Poe Awards. The statuette that winners receive is called an Edgar.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Fresh Start (:
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