growth?

last cycle, for twisted lit circles, i analyzed three characters: rachel, adah, and nathan. since both leah and i were character analyzing, we decided to split up the characters so we could analyze them with more depth.
this cycle i continued with analyzing characters so i could see their personal growth throughout the book. instead of just doing three this cycle, i did the four daughters.

LEAH-i have seen so much growth in leah this book. especially her first pasaage. she shows the friendship with pascal, and explains how jealous she really is of him. we see a side that we haven't seen of leah before because she wishes she wasn't white for the first time in her life, and we see her think a different way about nathan. through this point in p.w.b. we see leah as kind of the "daddy's girl". she seems upset at her father for bringing her up a certain way and not that way pascal was brought up. i also thinks this friendship shows growth because earlier in the book, leah sees ruth may playing "mother, may i" with the congolese kids, and she wishes she could do that as easily as ruth may can. and in this book(the revelation), leah lets herself accept one of the congolese kids.

RUTH MAY-i haven't seen that much growth in ruth may, just a little. she is still so innocent and young, she doesn't really know what's going on. even though she's the first one to acccept the congolese children and play with them, she's been like that from the beginning of p.w.b. it's not like anything that happened so far in p.w.b. would have made her change her mind. she still repeats what her mom and dad say, and she still gives us mostly facts and not very much opinion.
what i did like in one of ruth may's passages was the paragraph about the bugs and the light. ruth may says:

the mosquitoes and big white moths came in the door and went out the windows. some of them decided to take off their coats and stay awhile, so they flew in the kerosene lamp and got burned up. that is what happens to you if you're bad and don't go to heaven, you go and get burned up in the bad place instead. so that night our house was the bad place for the congolese bugs. ha ha (157).

this is definitely a metaphor and she even states that it's a metaphor, probably because of her young age, but it's still a metaphor, and she didn't get it all from her parents, so it shows some growth in ruth may.

RACHEL-i haven't seen a lot of growth in rachel either. she still isn't used to the idea of staying in the congo for a while, and she still wants to go home. we still constantly hear her talking about materialistic things such as diamonds, even though they are relevant because they are plenty in the congo, and picking at her cuticles when mr. and mrs. underdown are arguing with her parents about moving back to georgia. because she wants to go back to georgia.

ADAH-adah is my favorite character. i think she is constantly growing and will keep growing because there's nowhere she can stop. she is very relaxed and practical, which is what i like about her. i like that when she knew there was something behind her that one time in the forrest, she kept calm and just walked calmly home. snce she knew it was alive, she probably figured if she doesn't bother it, it should leave her alone, like any living thing in this world. i especially like how she describes things to show you what happened, instead of straight out telling what happened. like, at the end of the revelation, she shows us a picture of knowing methuselah dead. she doesn't say, "methuselah died!" instead she talks about all his feathers on the ground. i like showing a lot better than telling, and that's what adah does.

so, that's basically it about the four daughters and how they've grown.
em...♥

nathan's walk

at our school, we walked throughout our campus for about 15 minutes and then were told to describe the campus through the eyes of one of the characters' from the poisonwood bible. mine person was nathan, and he was hard but easy at the same time. i had a hard time because he's not one of the narrators in the book, so i don't really know what his "voice" sounds like. but, at the same time, that was the easy part, cause i could write it the way i thought his voice was.

the school we went to today was very nice at the beginning. the campus is lucious green and beautiful. the students must have a wonderful time learning in this environment. at twenty-five past the hour, the campus filled with high school students. that' when things started going downhill. the students obviously had a dress code of some sort, because i saw no knees and only certain colored shirts. but, it was not a typical christian school. i expected uniforms--not a dress code, and i was quite disappointed. another thing i disliked was the fact that the main building on the campus was called cooke hall, and it was all the techers' offices and their lounge. the chapel was very far away, and i think it should have been right where cooke hall was situated--the main building on campus. the students spoke fouly and gave me weird looks because they knew i didn't fit in--just like the kids in the congo.
i thought it was going to be different, but it was really quite the same.

okay, that's it from nathan's point of view...
em...hearts;

rachel.adah.nathan

i was the character analyst for genesis and i was in kristina and leah's group. and, we did very well, may i add rachel: i wrote about her in the reading quiz but i said that she was the character i identify with the least. she's conceited and spoiled and i hate how she talks. she talks about how all the kids in the congo love her hair and they're all staring at her cause they're jealous of her hair. but, of course, there could be other reasons they're staring at her, she's just so self-centered, she thinks they adore her. she always talks about tangible items like her hair product or hand mirror or nice dresses, and that doesn't seem like the most important think in the world to me. she's rude, too, cause in her very first section, she thinks to herself "we got fumigated with the odor of perspirating bodies" (22). but that's not what irritates me...what irritates me is that right after, she says, "hey ade, leah, aren't you glad you use dial? don't you wish everybody did?" (22). that is just so completely rude to me! like, you can say it to yourself, but don't say it out loud, right? adah: she's a genius! i was a little confused about her character in the beginning, cause i wasn't sure if she was retarded or if she was a genius, but once you read her section from page 55-63 about the palindromes and reading backwards, i came to the conclusions that she's a genius. people may look at her and think, poor girl, but really, they don't even know how smart she is cause she chooses not to talk. it's not that she doesn't know how to talk--she chooses not to talk cause she thinks it's a waste of time...and, she's actually quite accurate. i love talking, but many times, it's unnecessary. nathan: we had a huge conversation about him in class today. i think we get to know a lot about him even though he's not one of the narrators. he's not one of my favorite characters because i don't like that fact that he beast his daughters and thinks he's helping the congolese people when he's really just forcing unwanted opinions into their minds. i think he needs to realize what he's really doing for them and he needs to step back and change his approach. he needs to be willing to accept change, and he's not yet, so nothing's really going well for him up to this point. so far, we don't know much about the characters, and i'm sure they'll change throughout the book. so, i'm gonna character analyze throughout the whole book to see how much each character changes and why. em...♥

resolution to my problem-kind of

so, last night i wasn't able to post a commonplace after i came back from work cause my mom didn't want me on the computer...even for homework...cause she's like that... so, i talked to one of my bosses and he said he can talk to my other boss and figure out a schedule where it's like i'm on call, but not. like, i'll be called to pick-up rehearsals (which are rehearsals within 24 hours before a show to get you back into the swing of things, fyi) and just only do shows when they absolutely need me, cause i know all the parts now and they don't need me at rehearsals as much as they do at shows but, i kinda wanna do it all...like i wanna be there for rehearsals and shows, cause you know how when you miss a day of school and you come back the next day and you feel out of whack cause your friends came up with some new inside joke that you missed cause you weren't there? yeah, well that's how i feel when i miss rehearsals and shows for my job, and it sucks cause for us, inside jokes stay around for a long time... so, i still hate this and still don't know what to do...so if you guys have any suggestions, please let me know, cause right now i'm pretty desperate... em...♥

i hate this

right now i am really sad and mad and screwed up cause i had this huge fight with my mom last night about managing my time. i know i do have a lot going on right now, and that's fine with me cause i absolutely love having a busy schedule...i think it makes me feel useful in this world or some shit like that... so...i'm in this musical, beauty and the beast at saint louis, and if you don't know, musicals take up tons of time. a rough estimation shows that for every minute of showtime in front of an audience, the cast and crew needs two hours to rehearse it. two hours for one minute! that's crazy...i just opened this weekend, so i've been busy with rehearsals and shows this weekend, and it's gonna be like that for the next two weeks... i also have school, which i normally keep under control, except recently i've been getting behind in my work, especially english cause i don't spend a lot of time at home by a computer... i have a job which is also performing. i go to various middle schools and teach them about the danger of smoking tobacco. i also go to various high schools and tech them about teen pregnancy and std's. because i perform and middle schools and high schools, i need to take time from my school schedule to work, which is what i did this morning. i also have to go to various trainings every so often so i can be educated about the stuff i educate people about. i really love performing--it's my passion--and i've seriously thought of dropping out of school and just performing for the rest of my life. but, i know that unreasonable...well, i'm supposed to go to this tobacco training for six hours on saturday, but i can't cause my mom said so. only, i think i can, cause i have nothing going on during that time and i won't have to laze around the house all day. but, my mom thinks it's too much cause i had a three hour rehearsal last night, a three hour rehearsal tonight, a show earlier today (which takes three hours counting set-up and break-down), and another show on thurdsday. so, she thinks i shouldn't go to the training on saturday cause it's too much. ...only, i came late to the rehearsal last night, the show today, and i'm coming late for the show on thursday cause i have school or beauty and the beast. so, i haven't even been working full time. and now i want to quit. as much as i love this job, i just wanna quit cause i hate not being able to do something i love. it just kills me cause i'm physically capable of doing it, but she thinks it's too much. only, ow does she know what's too much for me, she just thinks she knows what's too much for me. but she really doesn't so, now i have to quit this job, which i've been pulling off for over a year, and i love it so much...and in 45 minutes i have another rehearsal, and i'm gonna tell my boss i'm planning on quitting. i'll commonplace after to let you know what's going on. bye for now...em...♥

sat essay reflection

i think all the sat practice essays i read were good. they all had intro and conclusion paragraphs, and they all had two or three main body paragraphs supported with facts and observations. what i noticed is that the practice essays were kind of like our this i believes cause they both had our opinions, facts and observations proving why we make sense, our individual voices shining through, and relatable information. i thought all the essays i read were pretty darn good for something we threw together in 25 minutes with no warning! good job, guys! em...♥

sat practice essay

so, this was just a fast little essay mr. watson decided to make us do yesterday.
we only had 25 minutes to write it, and this is what i came up with:

i do not think the media determines what is important to most people, however i think that the media influences what is important to most people.
on blog sites, such as myspace or facebook,or even this one, many people have multiple pictures of themselves, family, and friends all over their site. before i had a myspace, i didn't take too many pictures of myself or my friends. but after i became a myspace member, i noticed myself taking more pictures to post on my page. whenever i took a funny picture with my friends, i would say, "myspace!", meaning that that picture would get posted on my page. even though i've taken more pictures since i got a myspace, i don't set up dates just to take pictures for myspace. i let the pictures happen, and then think about posting them on myspace.
when i see ads in magazines with slim, tall, gorgeous girls, i admit i become quite jealous and self conscious. before i read magazines, i was perfectly fine with my body, and had high self esteem. but once i started reading magazines, i realized how opposite i was from the models. i see saw myself as short and chunky, not slim and tall like the models. i became more self conscious and worries about how i looked more often. even though i was worried about my appearance, i didn't become overly obsessive. i've never had an eating disorder, and i never will because for one thing, i love food, and for another, even though i worry about my body, i'm fine with it most of the time.
i watch many types of movies, but mostly chick flicks. they influence me a lot,but don't completely determine what's most important to me. after watching a chick flick, i usually catch myself talking how the characters did in the movie, or recalling how extremely adorable some skirt was. yet, i never find myself going out to buy that skirt, or continue talking the way the characters did. i might find myself quoting the movie when the time is right, or trying on that exact cute skirt if i happen to come across it by accident. but, i never find myself purposefully trying to be just like the characters in the movie.
overall, then media somewhat influences our decisions and makes us re-think what's important to most people. although they don't change us completely, they change us a little.

i just realized how extremely crappy this essay is, and my only excuse is that we had only 25 minutes to do it...unless saying that i suck at analytical writing counts as an excuse...?
em...♥