Isabella

LIFE...

[isabellariver87-blog]

Fictional Date

I would take Harry Potter to prom, simply based on his personality because of the author’s writing, not to appearance of the actor who plays him. He is too short. I would chose Harry because HE IS THE CHOSEN ONE. Let’s face it he has a hot scare in the shape of  LIGHTNING BOLT, that is sweet. 

Harry truly cares about everyone and has a unique perspective on the world, which would give us something to talk about. He is not much of a player even though a lot of the girls obsess over him, at least it doesn’t go to his head. Also I want to know about the wizard world and fly on a broom stick. That’s it, it is settled I’m taking Harry Potter to prom. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

Reading the Work #6

Parable of the Sower

More people are starting to join Lauren’s quest to the north. The grouped saved two ex-prostitutes (Jill and Allie) from being killed and now they have decided to joined, because they would not be able to make it on their own. Also an older man has joined their “possy” in search of a better life. He has now pursued Lauren in a romantic way, which I did not see coming at all, and she is accepting. He has offered to marry her. 

Also there was almost a battle the group and outsiders, for no reason which is what their world has turned into, unnecessary violence. From this they found a baby whose mother was killed. They decide as a group to take it in and Allie chooses to be the primary carer for this three-year old. Now there is a total of 10 people in the group traveling around, which explains why no one bothers them, when they come in contact with people. 

Now two more unexpected travelers, have joined. The group believes they were former slaves, which is interesting because this book is set in the future. It is like the socialization is going back in time. 

They were attacked again, but this time people got hurt, Lauren got shoot and Jill died from a gun shoot wound in her back. From this, Lauren learns that the new people they picked up Emery and Greyson are sharers like her. This means they experience others pain and pleasure. They explained how slave owners wanted to own sharers, so they wouldn’t have to punish the slaves themselves. 

The violence is getting stronger, and more frequent, as they get closer North. Based on what others are saying, it is way worse South, so it is a good thing they left when they did. 

Each time people join, Lauren explains Earthseed, the religion she created. She does not make them join, she just explains what it is and offers them a choice. She believes it is a way to live. 

They have come to Bankole’s house, which was destroyed but now everyone is debating whether or not to stay. Thy are all given a choice, to stay at this place or leave and continue North. In the end, they all end up staying because they know it is the best way to survive. All this time they were in search of community, once they got North, but the truth is they had it all along. 

Yet the world is still messed up, they are content with themselves, well as much as they can be. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

Research/ Writing #3

I am in the middle of writing my first annotation, and it sucks. I have had the passages picked out for a week now, but I have been putting off writing the actual annotation. After annotating  my first passage, I gained a lot of ideas, but now my problem is putting it together. Right now I have the first paragraph done, and four paragraphs started. I have not figured out how to organize all of my ideas and connect them in a way that flows. My plan is to get as far as I can and then show Krienbring on Monday. Hopefully this will give me more direction. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

Reading the Work #5

Parable of the Sower 

They are still continuing on their journey to the North and have now asked a couple with a baby to join them. the people that join them area mixed racial couple, which I found interesting that Octavia Butler the author felt the need to point out. It was almost unheard of, from the way he said it, in this society. Then there was a comment made about their mixed baby, that I found weird. This could be a theme that the author is trying to point out, possibly the intolerance of race?

 Lauren the main character, has now begun to learn about the husband and his thoughts about religion and God. Lauren has created her own religion called Earthseed, which I am still trying to figure out because she doesn't exactly say what it is. the both  of them have this huge conversation about their thoughts on God, which I think  I am going to use for an annotation. So basically Lauren thinks people believe in God, for a person to look up to and blame when things go wrong. She believes it gives people a sense of security, and heaven is something to look up too. By the end she thinks she has converted Travis to her religion, which would be her first follower. This marks the true beginning of her religion. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

Research/Writing #2

So I have just finished my first abstract and I have no idea if it is correct. I explained the authors assertion on my book and talked about how she explained her reasoning and the moves she used to accomplish it. I feel like what I wrote is confusing because because I am talking about the author of my book and the author of the criticism. I just hope it is easy to distinguish who I am referring to. I am going to have Krienbring look at it tomorrow and I am praying that it is correct and then I will move on the next one. I do want to wait, to make sure this one is right before I work on my second one. 

[megan-demarois-blog]

So my trip to the library was interesting. I thought the librarian was going to be a lot of help but he wasn’t at all! I asked him to help me find criticism on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and he loomed at me like I was crazy. He had to have me spell out Anna Karenina multiple times because he had never heard of this book before. Red flag right there. What librarian has never heard of Anna Karenina or at the very least Tolstoy! He then proceeded to search the database to find articles rather than find books in the actual library. Eventually he found the section they would be in and told me what level to go to and which area. That was it. That was all the help I got. According to other people, their librarian showed them exactly where the books were rather than tell them. Plus their librarian also helped them pick out the books they thought were best. I was shocked at how little I could actually find on my book since it is so popular. Luckily I did and they seem like they will be just what I need. I just wish I had a little more guidance by an expert.

[isabellariver87-blog]

I also went to Oakland University's library and found the research desk to be questionable as far as them helping me. I did not have the same librarian as you but the one I had was not helpful either. The lady that I had seemed almost rude, even with the first question I approached her with. I did not find this experience very pleasant, and I think this is going to be the easiest part of the whole project. 

[allison-silverman-blog]

So I just finished my first annotation. I am a little concerned about its organization and flow of ideas, so I may work on it a little more before I show Kreinbring on Monday. I plan on picking out and annotating my other two passages right now. I am hoping to write my second annotation today as...

[isabellariver87-blog]

I really appreciate this advice and I think I am going to use it when I am ready to write my annotations. Today in class we discussed how to go about writing the annotations and I learned the criticisms can help us develop our own ideas, which I thought I was going to have to come up with my own ideas different from the ideas they discussed. So I don't think it is going to be as hard to do the annotations as I thought.  

[shima-sblog]

Writing an abstract is harder than I thought it would be. It doesn’t help that my criticism (although short) is hard as hell to read. I had no idea what half the words in the criticism meant. I would have given up altogether and found a easier-to-read criticism, but, once I actually had some...

[isabellariver87-blog]

I would agree  that it is difficult to start the abstract, because I have no idea how I should go about it. I am also confused about how I should pick out important parts from it.

[isabellariver87-blog]

Reading the Work #4

In Parable of the Sower:

It fast forwarded 8 months and now it is 2027 and the world has turned to total chaos. A group of people have attacked the wall, who and how is not clear, but now Lauren is on her own outside of the wall. The first image I got was while reading was her running trying not to be killed. She watched her step mother and brothers run faster than her because her disease slowed her down. 

Now she is all alone unsure who is alive and who is not. She goes back to try to find others that might be alive. Out in front of her old house there is a dead women lying on the ground and when she tries to walk up to see who it is,a group of people approach her and tell her to to leave the dead woman alone because she has saved everyone. ( this seems important but I am not sure why yet) Now she knows that she is going to head North and try to reach Canada. On the way out of where the wall used to be, she runs into two people from her old community ( the wall) and learns that everyone is dead including her family. They now are working together to head north. 

Lauren dresses up as a boy to protect herself, because it is dangerous for anyone to even walk around especially a teenage girl. I found this interesting because she changing her gender to protect herself and gender roles is a major theme of the book. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

So this is me at the O.U. Library. I found 3 criticisms online, through their online database. The research librarian wasn't that helpful but i figured it out. I hope these criticisms will work. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

Reading the Work #3

Lauren's brother Kieth continues to go outside of the wall and returning with money for his mother, sneaking in each time he returns, so his step father does not catch him. But then he died outside of the wall a few month later. The strange things was nonchalant while explaining her brother's death. I had to reread it to make sure I read it correct. 

Soon after this many more in the wall are dying and questions are raised about moving to a safer place, a place called Olivars. This is the type of place you would trade your freedom for protection. Cory wants to move their while Lauren's father is opposed. 

Then all the sudden her father goes missing and again their is no emotion with her concern. It is clear that she is very concerned but she seems emotionless, her thought process just seems odd. He never returns and they declare he is dead, which Lauren is conflicted about, because she is trying to be rational about the situation but at the same time she doesn't want to believe he is dead. 

Cory is now falling apart, losing first her son and now her husband, she walks around numb. Now Lauren is unsure of what to do because she has been planing to leave but now everything has changed. She doesn't know if she can. 

[abbithachomama]

One of the things I want to focus on when it comes to characterization is the relationship between Janie and Nanny. We discussed it a little bit in our harkness, but we kind of moved on before I had the chance to take it in the direction I wanted to. When we were in our individual groups, I went...

[isabellariver87-blog]

We actually talked about this today in my small group and I found it interesting because I never really thought about there relationship, because I always thought of Jannie's relationships with guys. I do think this book is trying to touch on all relationships not just romantic ones. If you think about it every relationship we make kind of takes away our independence because now we care about this person, rather than focusing on our self.

I don't think Jannie actually hates her grandmother, she is just upset with what she did and her thought process, because she did not agree.  

[andrewgretkie-blog]

During the first 5 chapters I have noticed how hard it is to understand what each character is trying to say. You pretty much have to read everything at once or you lose where you are and have to restart. I’m also kind of confused about things as we are discussing how the book is about female...

[isabellariver87-blog]

I agree it is a hard book to follow and it also took me longer to comprehend what it was saying, which is why I started listening to it on an audio book online. I has made it a lot easier to understand. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

In the first section of Their Eyes Were Watching God I noticed how a lot of motifs are tossed around especially in the first chapter. For example the ship metaphor relating to time is the first line which sets up the entire novel. Then there are the nature and mule motifs. Later these ideas start to fade out, when the story is being told because the author wanted to develop the characters. Then we start to see new ideas and possibly themes emerge. Power seems to play a key part of the story, the way Jody has power over the people in the town and most of all power over his wife. Also the power theme applies to the gender roles. This was a major point we discussed in our group discussion. A major question I brought up was is this a feminist book? This got the discussion going. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

Reading the Work #2

so far what has happened:

-The three year old neighbor was accidentally shoot threw the wall and killed, which causes Lauren to question the safety of everyone in the wall. 

-Lauren is worried about the future, and believes the wall is not going to withstand for much longer. She has heard all kinds of bad things on the news about outside the wall. (floods, disease, starvation and blizzards) Then she shares her concern with her best friend Joanna, which turns badly because Joanna then tells her mother what Lauren has been saying. This causes Lauren not to trust her along with people in general

                    -then her dad gets involved and explains how you can't just come out saying this, to get people to change/ do something- because no even knows what is going on. He is saying she can't scare people into doing something, until it is the right time and it is not that time yet. 

-Then there was a thief in the wall- which caused a neighborhood watch to form, and there goals are to scare robbers with guns. Lauren's dad is apart of the watch, which worries Corry her stepmom, she doesn't want anything to happen to him because then basically they are screwed. 

on page 79 a quote is repeated that was in the first chapter

All that you touch, 

You Change. 

All that you change, 

Changes you. 

The only lasting truth 

Is change. 

God 

Is change. 

I think one of the themes of this book is change, because Lauren always comes back to the idea of change, whether she is saying how much it is needed or how much people hate it. 

Quick note: on pg 57 the word change was mentioned over 10 times in one paragraph

[annahorton123-blog]

[isabellariver87-blog]

Before I even read Faust, I had to, of course, do some research. However, an interesting part about Faust is that it wasn’t originally written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, or the author who wrote...

I think it is really smart that you did research before reading your book, because that will only benefit you in the future. Hopefully that gave you a better understanding of your book's plot, characters and theme. 

[ryaleelee-blog]

so i am reading this book dune and i reached the point where we see the first dune worm on the planet arrakis.  For those of you who don’t know, Arrakis is a sand covered planet and one of its native fauna is the majestic sand worm.  However, its descriptive literary beauty has been spoiled because all i can picture is the alaskan bull worm from spongebob. 

[isabellariver87-blog]

I like how you made this connection, and shared this visual, I personally found it intreging to look at.