What were you thinking, Edgar?

I was getting scared, my palms were sweaty, I was trembling. My life flashed before my eyes. I remembered everything I went through and I couldn't quit now. I've worked too hard. I thought so hard. Harder than I ever have in my life. "How can I get out of here? How?" Then, before I knew it, the walls were so close, I had to jump in the pit. I had no choice. "I'm going to die, I'm going to die", was all I could think. I landed on something soft. I thought I was dead, but I felt around and realized it was a mattress! It was a trick! If you tried to escape, you wouldn't have survived, but if you just accepted the fact you were going to die, you got to live! I was so happy and relieved!

Poe vs. Irving

     Since we have to choose one of these Romantic era poets, I would have to say that I enjoy Poe's writings more than Irving's. Irving uses humor whereas Poe uses horror to represent things and events. I think the writing style of Poe is more interesting. He seems to be a lot more descriptive so I can really visualize what's happening in the story. I also like him more because all of his poems are scary and involve horrific events which I think is really fun to read about. It's really cool how he comes up with all of these different events and how he uses his imagination to create these fascinating stories. If I had to choose to read a poem by either Washington Irving or Edgar Allan Poe, I would definitely choose Poe.

Romantic Poem Reflection

    Today, we read the poem "A Psalm of Life." I really liked this poem and thought it was really cool. The message was that we have to live our lives to the fullest and not be afraid of death. We have to pursue our dreams and goals now because if we wait, it could be too late. It also says we have to live in the present of today and don't think about the past or the future. There's nothing we can do to change those. I totally agree with this. I think we have to live every moment to its fullest and see the bright side of things. We never know when our life could end and everything we ever had or wanted could be taken away. We never could be able to do the things we really wanted or accomplish our goals. Finally, this poem is very inspirational and I think we all should learn something from it. 

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Political Climate of the 1950's - Joseph McCarthy Interview

            I find this video very interesting. I never knew Joseph McCarthy was so self- absorbed, arrogant, and stupid. He was a senator from Wisconsin that accused people of being communists just so he felt like he had more power. This was just like the Salem Witch Trials. People were being accused of things they weren't just so others felt powerful. This video shows how he had absolutely no morals. He accused people without proof and put hundreds of people through a terrible situation. He claims he was just fighting communism and doesn't admit he did anything wrong at all. He is so full of himself which made, and still makes, many people angry.

The Crucible: Act One

     This week, we started reading The Crucible. It is a play by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials. When I first saw how long it is, I thought it was going to be boring and take forever. Once I started reading it I realized it's actually pretty interesting. It's fascinating how all those people were accused of being witches. People would just claim other people of being witches to make themselves seem better or because they didn't want to get in trouble. For example, Abigail said they were dancing and Betty got scared because Parris jumped out and scared her. Parris doesn't believe her and thinks Betty was actually bewitched. Mary Warren thinks they should just confess what they did so they don't get in even more trouble. Eventually, Abigail claims it was Tituba that called the devil. Tituba confesses and wants to be healed. So they finally know the truth, but don't know how to fix it. I think it's strange that when Betty heard the psalm she whined and they said that she doesn't like to hear the Lord's name. She was obviously conscious and could hear what was going on, but no one thought twice about it. Finally, I think this play is going to turn out to be very interesting and I think I'll learn a lot from it.

Puritan Week

     This weekend, we had a volleyball tournament in Sterling. I observed that if we work together we can be very successful. We won our first two games, but lost the rest. In the first few we really stepped up and played as a team. We encouraged each other when we got down or made a mistake, and congratulated one another when we did something good. Our last few games on the other hand, we did the complete opposite which resulted in us losing. We didn't pick each other up or encourage each other. Once we started losing, we just completely gave up and didn't try to come back. I observed that if we work as a team, we can accomplish a lot.
     There was also a religious lesson in this. When we play as a team, we know we are using our talents to glorify God and praise Him. Once we start losing, we just get selfish and try to do everything by ourselves without helping our teammates. God gave us these talents and we should use them to glorify Him and thank Him that he gave us these abilities. God wants us to do well in life and use our gifts to help God and others.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

     The story, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, was very intriguing. I started reading it today and thought it would be another boring story we had to take notes on, but it turned out to be very different, but good at the same time. It's about God's wrath and Him holding people over the burning flames of hell. It goes into a lot of detail. For example in lines 15- 18, it says "the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them..." Another metaphor I thought was very interesting was in lines 40-42. It says, "...without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood." It's just so descriptive and in depth. I didn't expect it be like that. At the end of the story it says that this is the case for anyone who was not born again, so we should encourage everyone to repent and be free from the eternal wrath of God.

The original sermon by Jonathan Edwards

Second Assignment

     So... we watched a movie in class about Jamestown and I thought it was really cool and interesting so that is what I'll be focusing on in this post.
    Some explorers came to America from England to search for gold. They landed in Jamestown and met some Indian tribes. The Native Americans didn't like the colonists at first, but once they decided to trade items for food, they became friends. After a while, the Indians felt like the colonists were taking over their land and they didn't like that so they fought each other. The colonists had muskets and guns while the Natives had bows and arrows. Many people died in total, but the colonists eventually won which was the start of the new world in America.

The Colonists and Native Americans in Jamestown

First Post!

    Finally, after a long time of going through the whole list of blogs, I think I am following all of them. Well, this is my blog for Honors Junior English. Most of my posts will be about the class, but who knows? Maybe I'll get creative every once in a while. We'll See.

   Lately, we have been talking about early Native American Indians. We have read many stories about different tribes, their cultures, ways of life, and most importantly, their stories of creation. Each tribe has a different theory and they are all very interesting. For example, in the story "The World On Turtle's Back", it says there are many gods who exist in everything already created. The pregnant woman wants roots from the Great Tree, even though she knows that is breaking the law, she does it anyways. This results in evil throughout the world. Also, the Iriquois Constitution was very cool to learn about because parts of it were used in the American Constitution. I think it's so interesting how cultures hundreds of years ago can shape our ways of life now.

Indian Myth: The World on Turtle's Back