Persi's Blog

The book that I chose for ELA was Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick, who also wrote Silver Lining’s Playbook. The name of the book is taken from a quote it references from the novel the Picture of Dorian Gray. It focuses on our main character, Nanette O’Hare-starting off with her being a regular 17 year old in the end of her junior year. Her favorite teacher is Mr. Graves, who gives her a book that he read when he was her age. This book is called the Bubblegum Reaper. It’s about a boy named Wrigley who is also in high school. He always talks about “quitting”, but we and the other characters never learn what it is he wants to quit. He develops a crush on a twin after seeing her tell her secrets to a turtle, who is later named Unproductive Ted, yet he doesn’t know which of the twins she is because they are so similar, yet he can’t say anything to either of them out of fear of the other’s secrets being exposed. Nanette gets in touch with the author, an old man named Booker who wro...

My favorite book that we read this year was definitely the Great Gatsby. It’s a novel suspended in time, and opens a portal to the Golden Age that’s magical. It’s a bit fantastical and exaggerated, but that’s my favorite part of  it. It’s an odd bird of a book-it’s story seems like an attempt at a telling of regular life, yet a very unrealistic one. My least favorite book was probably the Merchant of Venice. Don’t get me wrong, I do really like Shakespeare, I just felt like some of his other plays are much more fun to read. Also, it’s a bit of a gory play to read. Not as bad by far as some of his other works, but everything surrounding the pound of flesh just makes me uncomfortable. Next year can we read Twelfth Night instead?

With every well written book comes character development. Jay Gatsby shows quite a bit of this, although it’s not him changing, rather, it’s Nick’s and our changing perspective on Gatsby. In the beginning of the book, Gatsby is a mystery to be found out. Not only does Nick not know him, it doesn’t seem like anyone else does either. At his lavish party, Nick talks to the host for a bit without even realizing who it is. In the beginning, his character is skewed. We don’t know much about him and soon come to realize most of it is false. “What part of the Midwest? I inquired casually. “San Francisco.” As the story continues, however, we learn the truth about his past. This helps us to understand why Gatsby does what he does. Once Gatsby and Daisy finally reunite, we can see that she is a big reason for most of his life choices and it becomes clear how obsessed he has been with her.