Archive for February, 2011

Emotional Conflicts


2011
02.18

So far I have been reading the book Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. The paragraph below demonstrates the strong emotion that comes from this book. While I have read this book, I have felt the need to help the characters in any way possible. I also believe this book can be thought provoking. During my brief explanation, it will show exactly how impossible their wishes are and how suspenseful this book can get.

The Main conflicts within the book Shiver contain all of physical, moral, and emotional. The most common conflict that should be focused on is emotional. The protagonists’ desire is for Sam to remain Sam and not a wolf. What is keeping him from doing so is that of the rules of a werewolf.

The rules or complication to live by would be that during a certain season and or temperature, he can transform into his wolf like self. This is a painful transformation for Sam; as it binds and bends bones and muscles in order to change. He is to change whenever it’s cold enough to shiver.

This is emotional because if he cannot remain a human, both he and grace, his girlfriend, cannot communicate or see each other again. This motivates Grace greatly as she will do anything to keep him from shivering.  There love for each other is too great and strong for them to give up now.

They have until the end of winter to decide how they are to keep Sam human, or to search for new answers.

Semester Reflection


2011
02.09

English has taught me about a variety of things; grammar usage, a larger vocabulary, but even some things I learned weren’t the most fun. Reading is important but if I’m assigned to read a book I don’t want, I will eventually give up on that book. It’s not an easy task. That’s why I loved it when we were able to read our own books. The blog post assignments are great for new ideas but sometimes I wish there were more choices so I could understand better what I’m assigned to do.

Last year was kind of fun, students mostly participated; my grades, not so great but I’m improving. Right now I don’t have any ideas on how to change this class or what I wish would be done. The end of the semester projects are pretty vague but still a challenge.

This wasn’t my favorite class, and it wasn’t my most hated class. It was neutral and was needed. It provided the skills I needed and helped me on my way to a more successful life. I have yet to fix my faults but in this class I’m sure it will happen.

I can’t say it was fun, but it was worth doing. The learning was a great intake of knowledge that I found very useful.  I’m sure this semester will be just as great.

Album of my book


2011
02.04

About the song titles below, I shall explain why I have chosen them to be linked to certain parts of my story…

  1. Death draw’s near while fear hasn’t awaken
  2. Yellow Daggers
  3. On the edge
  4. The Unexpected
  5. lost instinct
  6. Hiding in Another’s story
  7. Saving a stranger
  8. Unspoken Love
  9. Memories from a Nightmare
  10.  Running away from the past
  11.  Who were you?
  12.  Pain from all around

 

  1. The main character, Grace, has been dragged away by wolves and knows she could die, but focuses on the temperature rather than her life, almost as if her fear is sleeping.
  2.  The OTHER main character, Sam, is a wolf and is recognized by grace because of his yellow “daggers”, or eyes.
  3. This is when Sam, sits on the edge of the woods to watch grace, and he continues to do so to observe her.
  4. At this time, Grace finally is able to touch Sam while he’s a wolf; this is a first for considering she had waited 9 years for him not to be afraid of her.
  5. Grace is confronted by a white wolf who growls at her between her sliding window doors. She as if by ‘instinct’ growls back as if to tell the wolf to back off. This surprises her.
  6. Sam finally see’s grace while he is a human in the summer, he works as a cashier at a book store and hides his eyes in a book, a ‘story’.
  7. This is another season gone by, in the late fall when the death of a boy riles up the town, and decides to go hunting in the woods to get rid of the wolves. Grace finds out and realizes that her wolf is in there, she attempts to save him, knowing she hadn’t even met him as a human.
  8. By this time, Sam reveals himself to Grace and she knows it’s him. She realizes that she loves him right away and agrees to help him live.
  9. Sam has had multiple flash backs of his past with his parents and his wolf family, he shows Grace that he was tortured by his parents, them believing he was a demon.
  10. A couple of days have gone by and Grace learns a few things from Sam. Sam doesn’t wish to show Grace how he changes from his human form to his wolf form.
  11. Sam has to investigate the house where the boy who recently died had lived. He finds a room with many stuffed animals in the room, he believes the boy (who has turned into a wolf) was wondering around his old home, but the smell that Sam was detecting was a stuffed wolf who he then says “who were you?” when he’s very frightened that that wolf may have been apart of his own pack.
  12.  When the threat that he can very well change right in front of her, he panics. When Grace tries to help him he only feels pain and agony of his past.

Down below would be the CD art/cover. I chose this photo because it shows a wolf sitting on the edge of a wood. Also it shows a girl running away. The wolf would be Sam and the girl would be Grace. If you look very closely, you can see a shack. That shack belongs to Sam’s pack and lies deep within the woods behind Grace’s house.

Who’s Been Reading?


2011
02.04

Our student blogs are a great way to express what’s on our mind whenever we are reading a book or given a subject to think over. But who read’s our blogs after we posted them for anyone to see; peers, teachers? Who knows?

For me I’ve already noticed a couple of comments given out to support my posts or even to ask questions. I know there names and see them day to day. They are my peers and neither one of them gave me a comment as an assignment. Merely to just let me know that I’m doing a good job.

I am not certain if teachers were to read ALL of our blogs. They may just have time to read some of their students’ blogs to see how they’re doing. I haven’t received any comment from a teacher yet so I could only imagine what they would say about my posts.