The Life of Diana

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...