The Life of Diana

Before reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie we had to make power points on Chairman Mao that we would present to our class. The powerpoint on the history of Mao's re-education program was confusing to me at first because I did not quite understand what the re-education program was about. All I knew was that the program was created to keep China in a peaceful state. Now that I am two-thirds done with reading this book I have gotten a better understanding of what the re-education camps were like through the perspective of the narrator and his best friend, Luo. It gave me a broader view on how the program was really like and how it had changed many peoples lives. Sijie shows how Chairman Mao's goals for the program did not go as planned due to the fact that the narrator and Luo found a way to bring Western influences to their village through the books they stole from Four-Eyes. The novel increased my understanding of Mao's program because it shows how...

For the past week and a half we have been reading the book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress  by Dai Sijie. This story takes place during the Cultural Revolution when the re-education programs were taking place. The two main characters, Luo and the narrator, are sent to a re- education program where they have to work at all times. During the revolution, books and any western influences are banned. The two boys have no hope in this program until they figure out that one of their close friends, Four-Eyes, has a suitcase full of books. They make deals with Four-Eyes in order to get a hold of those books. This shows how valuable books are to Luo and the narrator. My point of view on this story is that books and literature are the foundation of our civilizations and without books we will not be able progress in our lives. I read a list of the most banned books and one of the books included in the list was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This book was banned because it c...

It is now the end of the first quarter of my sophomore year. My English class has helped me improve my writing and analyses because of our lectures on the stories we read, thesis statements, topic sentences, and transition sentences. Even though I have polished my writing skills this year, there are still areas where I can do better. This year I have improved my vocabulary skills. Although I always leave studying for the night before the quiz, it has become easier for me to learn the meaning of our vocabulary words due to the fact that we have a quiz once every week. Additionally, our class lectures have made me become better at writing thesis statements that include a strong point that I will easily be able to prove throughout my essays. On the other hand, I usually procrastinate the short stories and poems that are assigned for homework until the night before we have a quiz, which causes me to receive a lower grade. If I read the stories the day they are assigned, make quality anno...

Service learning is an important experience that gives me the opportunity to learn more about the community while allowing me to teach my buddies new things. It provides me the chance to act as a leader and to collaborate with others. I hope that through this experience I can improve my leadership and social skills throughout my years in high school. This year I have been assigned a partner from my English class to work with a small group of four fourth graders. We will teach them how to write paragraphs, plan group activities, and form friendships with them. A couple of my goals for this year's service learning are to help my buddies improve their writing skills and encourage them to become friends with each other if they aren't already. In addition, my experience from last year will help me to better socialize with my buddies.

Two weeks ago my whole English class and I had to write an in-class essay based on the book we read over summer called  The Thing Around Your Neck . I had revised my thesis statements only once coming into the in-class essay. I was not very confident because I was not sure if I would be able to pick quotes and write my whole essay in the amount of time we were given. At the end of the essay, I felt like I had tried my best. Next class we had a thesis statement workshop where we learned more about how to write the perfect thesis statement. It included how a thesis statement must have an arguable point and it is supposed to inform the reader what you're argument is going to prove. Although I knew much of this already, I was motivated to revise my thesis statements and make them better so that anyone who was reading my essay would be able to understand what the story is about without having to read it. A few days ago we were given the opportunity to revise our essays. This gave me...

This month I have been reading a couple of the short stories in Chimamanda Adichie's collection, The Thing Around Your Neck. She stated in a quote "How stories are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told are really dependent on power." This quote means that power has a significant influence on how, when, and how often stories are told. In one of Adichie's short stories, "The Headstrong Historian, "Ayaju wants her son to "learn the ways of these foreigners, since the people ruled over others not because they were better people but because they had better guns." Due to the fact that the foreigners have weapons, they are more powerful. Ayaju sends her son to school to keep her family safe from these foreigners. In another one of her stories, "A Private Experience," the main character, Chika, wrongfully assumes that a Hausa Muslim is poor and lacks an education. After spending time with her during a riot Chika r...

Literature has had a major impact on my life. My essays, projects, and knowledge of new words have improved because of the amount of books I have read over these past few years. Literature plays an important role in improving one's command of language, helps us express ourselves, and more accurately convey our messages. Overtime, I have improved my ability to understand the books I read and have been able to make strong analyses based on simple quotes.  In my "What Do You Value" word cloud I list all my values, including the ones I am still working on. Some of the important values in my word cloud are responsible, creative, and determined. I picked the word responsible because being responsible means that people can depend on you to get things done and it therefore brings you respect. Creativity is important to me because I believe that without creativity one will not be able to succeed and make progress. Lastly, determination is in my word cloud because it lead...