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.  

The play that my group is reading is Henry V, which is a historical play. This play primarily focuses on the story of Henry V and the events of the Hundred Years War. Historical plays primarily focus on the monarchs and royal families of England. Because these plays can be dramatized, there can be problems with the authenticity of characters and plots. Although Shakespeare loved history, he could make his plays more dramatic then the actual events had been. He also sometimes mis-portrayed characters, leading us to have incorrect histories on them. It is interesting, though, that despite the historical misconceptions made by Shakespeare’s history plays, we continue to believe them more than actual history.

Me and Angela worked on an essay that explored the reasoning behind Portia and Nerissa dressing up as men. Our idea was that Portia was actually the most powerful character in the play. I think we would have gone into more detail about Jessica and Nerissa and write our essay with more key points and contextual evidence. It was really fun to just sit down and write an essay, and I promise I’m not being sarcastic there. I also would have put more detail into our presentation. We gave a slideshow but I think we could have gone more in depth with it. All in all, the project was surprisingly fun.

    In ELA, we talked about the Hero's Journey, a common cycle seen in many books and stories. One detail we did not go over as much happens at the end of the journey. The purpose of a hero's journey is to get to achieve something in the end. Maybe it's a cure for their little sister(The Last Book in the Universe). Or winning a fatal competition(The Hunger Games). In the Odyssey, I believe that what Odysseus is hoping to get back is his wife, Penelope. During the course of his journey, he is reminded of her and this spurs him onwards towards home. Rather than become rich or famous, Odysseus just wants to get back home and see his wife once more. Pretty romantic guy.

       When Penelope asks Odysseus' old nurse Eurycleia, to wash his feet, Odysseus becomes extremely nervous. He knows that as Eurycleia is his old nurse, she will recognize an old scar that his has above his knee. Of course, he is correct in assuming this, and once Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus, she becomes joyful at having found her old charge again. But he doesn't seem as happy to see her. Penelope is in the room at the time, although she has been distracted by Athena and does not notice the exchange. The nurse tries to explain to her who the old beggar truly is, until he grabs her around the neck. "Do you want to destroy me?" he asks.        Odysseus needs to disguise his identity so that he can both find those who are disloyal, and so that he will be able to rid his home of the suitors. In order to make sure those who know his true identity do not slip up, he uses force to scare them into keeping quiet. It's a wise tactic, and Odysseus is c...