Tell Tale Heart

This story was full of confusion.  For me, it didn't make a whole lot of sense at times, but it kept the reader guessing, and it left a lot up to you to figure out on your own.  I noticed a contradiction in the story.  At the beginning he admits that he is very nervous, but then through the ending of the story he wonders about his insanity.  The narrator calls himself a calm man.  That is his defense to insanity.  He is to calm to be mad. This turns out to be a contradiction, because at the end he kills the man because of a constant heartbeat.  The constant noise cracked him, and the so called calm man was seen as a lunatic after this.  In the story there is affection shown from the narrator to the old man, but he still ends up (in my opinion) killing him.  The story shows the difference between the old man, and his evil eye.  This falls in line with some Edgar Allen Poe biography's I read.  They say that he likes to use a mysterious, and unreliable narrator.  The narrator from Tell Tale Heart was absolutely unreliable, insane, and showed only his point of view.

Short Story

It was a saturday morning in the neighboorhood.  The weather was perfect, and the sun was shining bright.  Every kid sitting on those steps knew it was one of the most rewarding saturdays of the year.  It was the first day of summer vacation.  Before noon everyone was already outside, in shorts, flip flops, tank-tops, whatever.  It was summer, and by looking at all of us, anyone could see this.

We weren't bored, but we weren't doing anything.  Just sitting on the steps of Tony's apartment.  Are group spent lots of days on these steps, not bored, but just hanging out.  After about an hour of not doing much someone said...  "baseball?"  We all agreed, and headed down the block to play a game.  It was going good, everyone was enjoying themselves, and then my brother Charlie hit a bomb.  It went over the fence and smashed the glass of our neighboors window.  This is the typical neighboor that all the kids hate.  The type of guy that would give you a toothbrush on haloween.  The same guy who has called police for us playing in the street in front of him.  We were already sure he would be calling the fuzz, so we left quickly, and as we were leaving we saw him starting to chase after us.  We ran back to Tony's steps, scared of this angry King Kong sized man, and just waited, back in the same position we were... To be continued

If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)

Life..... I wonder....
Will it take me under.... I don't know

[Verse One: Nas]

Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassin
Imagine going to court with no trial
Lifestyle cruising blue behind my waters
No welfare supporters more conscious of the way we raise our daughters
Days are shorter, nights are colder
Feeling like life is over, these snakes strike like a cobra
The world's hot my son got not evidently
It's elementary, they want us all gone eventually
Trooping out of state for a plate knowledge
of coke was cooked without the garbage we'd all have the top dollars
Imagine everybody flashin, fashion
Designer clothes, lacing your click up with diamond vogues
Your people holdin dough, no parole
No rubbers, go in raw imagine law with no undercovers
Just some thoughts for the mind
I take a glimpse into time
watch the blimp read "The World Is Mine"

[Chorus: Lauryn Hill, Nas]

If I ruled the world
Imagine that
I'd free all my sons, I love em love em baby
Black diamonds and pearls
Could it be, if you could 
be mine, we'd both shine
If I ruled the world
Still livin for today, in
these last days and times

[Verse Two: Nas]

The way to be, paradise like relaxin black, latino and anglo-saxon
Armani exchange the reins
Cash, Lost Tribe of Shabazz, free at last
Brand new whips to crash then we laugh in the iller path
The Villa house is for the crew, how we do
Trees for breakfast, dime sexes and Benz stretches
So many years of depression make me vision
The better livin, type of place to raise kids in
Open they eyes to the lies history's told foul
But I'm as wise as the old owl, plus the Gold Child
Seeing things like I was controlling, click rollin
Trickin six digits on kicks and still holdin
Trips to Paris, I civilized every savage
Gimme one shot I turn trife life to lavish
Political prisonner set free, stress free 
No work release purple M3's and jet skis 
Feel the wind breeze in West Indies
I make Coretta Scott-King mayor the cities and reverse themes to Willies
It sounds foul but every girl I meet to go downtown
I'd open every cell in Attica send em to Africa

[Chorus: Lauryn Hill, Nas]
You'd love to hear the story how the thugs live in worry
Duck down in car seats, heat's mandatory
Runnin from Jake, gettin chased, hunger for papes
These are the breaks many mistakes go down out of state
Wait, I had to let it marinate we carry weight
Tryin to get laced, flip the ace stack the safe
Millionaire plan to keep the gat with the cop camera
Makin moves in Atlanta, back and forth scrambler
Cause you could have all the chips, be poor or rich
Still nobody want a nigga havin shit
If I ruled the world and everything in it, sky's the limit
I push a Q-45 Infinit
It wouldn't be no such thing as jealousies or B Felonies
Strictly living longevity to the destiny
I thought I'd never see but reality struck
Better find out before your time's out, what the fuck???






Nas was born and raised in Queens Bridge, in Queens NY which is rough to say the least.  What I like about him and this song, is that he tells stories, and adresses problems that he has seen in his life, and everything is real, and it means something to him.  Lots of images are in this song, and I think he tries to show some of the issues he  sees, and are going on around him.  Hypothetically if he ruled the world it would be a better place for him, and people who are close to him, and like him, but not necessarily everyone.  The song works on two levels.  How he hopes life could be in a perfect world, and the reality of this world, and how it isn't fair sometimes.  

On The Reservation

I don't know what to think of when I hear reservation.  Native Americans past has been hidden from me.  I don't know much about their lifestyle, but they lived how humans were intended to live.  Instead of them being forced of of their own land, their way of life should have been embraced.  They were the ones living here in America before anyone else came.  Today Americans aren't living the way we were supposed to.  Our food, clothes, materials, and are general lifestyle is destructive to the human race, and the planet.  On the reservations, Native Americans where one with the land.  They respected it, and used what it offered them.  The world today could use that viewpoint.

Propoganda Today

Today, what really catches my eye is advertisements.  America spends billions of dollars on them, and it's what fuels Americans materialistic lives.  We see them everyday, and they influence are perception, and image of certain brands, and items.  These advertisements are everywhere and seen by everyone, and at times without knowing we buy something because it's engraved into are minds.  A certain type of advertisement I have a problem with is an advertisement where a celebrity is wearing, eating, watching something he/she knows absolutely nothing about.  People buy these things because they ascosiate the product with the face, and right away it influences their opinion.  My example is Tiger Woods.  I am assuming that Tiger Woods doesn't know a whole lot about watches, but he tells people to buy it.

Black Boy

A lot of people say bad things about Richards mother in previous chapters, but I thought she did a good job of raising him given the family's circumstances.  People say that she senselessly beats Richard, does not teach him right and wrong, and isn't there for him.  I can see why people would think this, and sometimes she doesn't always do the best thing for Richard.  She is a single mother for most of Richards life so far, and she doesn't get a whole lot of support from Richards father, or outside of the family.  She works with what she has, and she tries her best to be a mother and a father.  Traditionally fathers are the disciplinaries in the family, but she has to take this role, while being a mom, and supporting the family.  Richard also has to grow up quicker than most kids.  He doesn't go to school, and that is another place where children grow up.  Richard is being raised completely by his mom, without help from others.

Richard Craving Attention?

I do think Richard is looking for attention.  Richard is just doing what young boys do.  Obviously most young boys don't kill cats, or light homes on fire, but young boys do get into trouble.  He is doing a normal thing, just way that is worse than most kids.  Some of the things he does are things that he knows he will get into trouble for, but he doesn't care.  He just does them anyway.  He might be looking for attention becasue he never gets it.  He has a single mom, and a brother, so he won't get as much attention as other kids.  This backfires, because he needs something to do.  He has to occupy his time with something, and he chooses to do the wrong things.

On Being A Mexican American

I liked this story the most.  Even though I am not faced with any of these problems and I consider myself an American I think it is a challenging decision to try and identify yourself.  He was living in America, but was living in a culture that had many people just like him.  He was speaking spanish, and in a Mexican American school.  I think to identify yourself you should say whatever you are most comfortable being, and whatever you consider yourself.  From these readings, I can tell that there are sub cultures in America, and people living here who do not consider themselves to be American.

King Still King

Martin Luther King Day is coming up, and the question is being asked again.  Have we reached equality in our country?  If we look back to Dr. Kings time, and what was going on then, we have come a long way as a country.  It was common for people to be beaten, and jailed for their color, and they were forced to learn how to "deal with it" and accept it, as hard as that may seem.  There was seperate everything back then too.  Churches, schools, water fountains etc.  When I look at what is going on today it isn't even comparible to back then.  At least in Chicago there aren't seperate places for blacks and whites.  There is still segregation, and there will always be segregation.  If you look at a certain neighboorhood, or a certain event, there is always a possibility that one race will be the majority there.  That will always happen.  What this country has cut back is brutality and hatred towards other races, and we keep on becoming more and more acceptant of different types of people.

Response

In young, gifted and black, I liked how he described his summers growing up.  It was very short, and he didn't give it a whole lot of detail, but that was the part of his story that I could most relate to.  In his summers, he would play with all the kids around his neighboorhood all day.  That's what  lot of my summers were like.  Hanging out with kids in my neighboorhood, staying in the city, and playing all different types of sports and games all day long.  Thats what I liked about his story because it's what you see in every neighborhood in Chicago, and probably everywhere else.  Kids playing whatever just to have fun and enjoy their summer.

Pac Div

Pac Div is a rap group from Southern California.  They are starting to get noticed more and more, and still have maintained what made them famous.  In their first to mixtapes they rap about being average.  They grew up, had normal lives, normal neighboorhoods, and where average rappers.  They have a sort of mainstream sound, but unique lyrics, and relatable lyrics to all types of youth.

Jay and Nick

First off, Gatsby is a fake.  It seems like he is just using Nick to get closer to Daisy.  Many of us have done something like this at any point in our lives, so it isn't a huge deal, and it doesn't portray Gatsby as a villain.  Nick seems like he wouldn't be crushed if Gatsby told him he wasn't his best friend in the whole wide world.  Their relationship is real since Gatsby knows what he wants, and Nick has accsess to it, and they seem like friends.  Through Daisy, the two have met, and without her they might not have ever seen eachother.

Winter Peom

Winter time is here.
Christmas day at my moms house
Smell of ham and pies.
Lights cover the tree
Gigts cover the ground like snow
Christmas time is here

Who I'm thankful for

In my 7th period class I am thankful for Clark Shimoda!!  Clark and I struggled through spanish I last year, but this years American Lit class is different.  First of all it isn't painful like last years spanish, and Clark makes endless comments that leave everyone clueless.  He makes call more enjoyable for me, and everyone else. Clark also might have the coolest afro and mustache combination ever.  I have never seen anyone come even close to having a better one.  He is also a jr master scuba diver!!!

I am a plow

If I were to call myself plow I would have to say there are different people pushing me.  If I am a plow, obviously my family and friends would be pushing me along with teacher, coaches etc. but to be a sucsessful plow you need to be able to operate on your own.  In anything that you have to "plow" through in life, you have to push yourself.  In school you need to want to do good, because if you truly don't care, but your parents are pushing the plow, you won't  do good in school.  For example, I play soccer.  Not because other people think I should play, or my parents force me to play, but I love the game.  Whatever you choose to do you need to do it for yourself.  If you are doing something for someone else, you won't be happy, and you won't put the effort you need to put into something. 

Direction the class needs.

I'm not going to lie and say I look forward to going to American Lit everyday.  I don't have a single class that I can't wait to get to, but American Lit is a more enjoyable class, and most students would agree.  There is always loads of trash talking I hear behind teachers backs, and I haven't heard any about Mr Mcarthy.  So if it were a popularity contest...you won.  Now, what teachers care about.  I don't think the class needs direction.  Part of what I like about the class is that it doesn't have a direction.  Obviously we have a curriculum, required reading, and assigned work, but the rest is up in the air.  The students of the class have more of an opprotunity to run disscussions, and contribute to the class, and on certain days we dictate which direction are class goes which is a great thing.

Modern Day Slavery? No such thing

I don't think it's right to compare anything to slavery.  We can say that people are manipulated, and exploited, but we can't compare any of these instances to the actual slave era a couple of hundreds of years ago.  A case where I think groups of people are forced to do something is going to school.  Students are forced into doing things they aren't interested in, and many things they won't ever even think about in their future lives.  Teachers and school officials can say we are rewarding kids with an education, but like I said most of the stuff we learn ends up being useless knowledge.  Don't get me wrong though.  I like school, and I'm sure most kids do like school, but if we had the opprotunity to have a say in what we are tought it would be more enjoyable for everyone.

Blogger: American Literature Blog - Manage Posts

Blogger: American Literature Blog - Manage Posts: "Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachucettes. He was born a puritan, and came from a long long line of puritans. The reason for the w in Nathaniels name was to distance himself from Judge Hathorne. Nathaniel Hawwthorne is related to Hathorne(the judge from the salem witch trials). It is clear to me that he was born into something he wanted no part of, and he disagreed with his families past, and perhaps the puritan religion. You can't blame him for that either. He might have just been a person who came to their senses, and thought that puritanism was just silly, and he wanted to distance himself from all aspects of their life. I think that there are still things in our society today that can relate to puritanism. Something on a personal level for most of the sophmores at Whitney Young would be the sex ed teacher from PE also known as the "abstinance lady." She didn't try to scare us away from sex, but she focused on all of the consequences and showed us some pretty disturbing footage. This makes me think about Puratinism because of all the fear they tried to instill in every day life.

The moment I knew I was an American

The moment I considered myself American was when I was seven, and I went to Ireland.  Before that, I considered myself Irish American, but I realized that I wasn't Irish American, but I was American with an Irish background.  When I was there people called my family Americans, and considered us full blooded ameriicans.  It wasn't like they told us we weren't Irish, but I realized that I wasn't.  To call myself Irish I would have to be born and raised there, and I realized, and finally considered myself to be american with an Irish backgroung.

Till Death

People die for lots of reasons, but sometimes those reasons just seem silly to other people.  All types of people are against terrorism because they think it's "wrong", and so do I, but what I also understand is that the terrorists think this is the "right" thing to do.  What it boils down to for me is what is right and what is wrong.  Everybody knows their own morals, their families beliefs, and their religious beliefs, and they live by these definitions of right and wrong.  In my opinion nobody has the power or the knowledge to say what is right and wrong for humanity, so conflicts come from this.  Since their are so many different beliefs people will always get into disagreements that seem stupid to eachother, but it's simply what they were brought up to think thats creating big problems in the world.