Author: Ipri

PW 7 – Christmas

This december, my family and I went to Nigeria. It is a Family tradition to go back and visit family at least once a year, regardless of where you are. This year, we went back to a place my family used to live, Bonny Island. I like traveling out, but going to Nigeria is a very long and stressful journey. From Victoria, we have to go to Vancouver airport by Ferry, then back to kitimat, B.C. . I stayed there for 2 days before we went back to the vancouver airport. THen there are 2 flights to land in Nigeria, and one in nigeria to get closer to our stop. It takes over 2 days to get to nigeria from where I live, and an extra day to get to our destination in Nigeria. So in total 3 days. It’s the second time i’ve made this trip and we plan on doing it again next christmas.

PR – A Christmas Carol

We just finished reading a christmas carol by Charles Dickens. My original thoughts on the book at the beginning were a bit odd, as the book started with a stern reminder that somebody was dead and had become a ghost. There was a lot of eerie vibes in the book because of this.

The book was still a good book to read, and i enjoyed it, however, i would have enjoyed it more if it was longer. I also wanted to know how Marley died – not that it would have improved my reading of the book, but i would have had a deeper background knowledge of the book.

This was a good, appropriate book for grade 9, not too difficult to understand, and I would definitely recommend it for the next year learners and the following too. I would give this book an eight out of ten mainly because of its length, and lack of a complete backstory. but i gave it an eight because it has a good and well thought out plot.

Setting aside the odd feelings of the presence of a ghost, it did give off a lot of christmas vibes in the book, and it would set someone into the christmas spirit. Dickens also made multiple comments in the book that are supposed to make the laugh and feel relaxed. Only a few of the jokes were funny, in my opinion of course, but his sense of humour may not be shared with other people as much as it is with himself.

To sum up everything, this was a good, interesting, well thought out and written book, and i would support the idea of setting the book to be read by upcoming english learners as it has fundamental vocabulary – old and new – and it is also very interesting and fun to read book for the christmas period.

IJRE # 6: The Alchemist

Over christmas, I read the alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This book is about a boy named Santiago who a young, adventurous shepherd. He has a recurring dream that troubles him. In the dream, he is told, by a child, to seek treasure at the foot of pyramids in egypt. He goes to a gypsy to interpret what this dream meant. On one of his journeys to a small town, he meets a man called Melchizedek. He tells him that it is his personal legend to go to the pyramids. On his way to the pyramids, he gets robbed, works for a year, and learns many life lessons as he does so. Santiago falls in love with a girl named Fatima, in an oasis, but has to leave her to pursue his personal legend. He meets the alchemist who teaches him an important life lesson, and he continues his journey. He gets to the pyramids and begins to dig where he thought the treasure would be, but he gets beat up and left half dead. one of the men tell him about his dream that he gave up on. he says that there is a treasure hidden under a sycamore tree next to an abandoned church in Spain.

“…every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don’t want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons that I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I’m going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don’t want to do so.” pg 29

This quote means that if you ignore what has been put in your path, it will come back to haunt you. The Merchant’s eyes were opened to the possibilities of his dreams, so he was given the zeal to do them.

PW # 6 – Sketchy park

One afternoon, a couple years ago, i was hanging out with some friends, and we were on a relaxed walk. We were walking by a little park that someone had put together. It was just a tree and a rope attached to a plank of wood at the end. At first sight, it looked very sketchy, and when we got closer to examine it, it was even worse than we thought. The plank was mouldy and inhabited by termites and different insects. The rope was intensely frayed, and the tree branch had certain cracks in it that made it look like it would snap any moment from then. But being the kids we were we that time, we still decided to give it a go.

I went on it, carefully, took a couple swings and hopped off. My first friend went on it, swung a little bit, then heard some unsteady cracks and jumped off. Then my last friend got on, it stayed pretty steady throughout, just a couple cracks. But when he tried to jump off, his motion was cut short with the rotten rope snapping, along with the tree branch, and he came tumbling down. He rolled his ankle pretty badly, but he wasn’t that injured. We laughed it off as we walked away, but his limp and 60% laugh said it all.

PR – Jeckyll and Hyde

The strange case of dr.jekyll and mr.hyde was a very interesting book. R.L. Stevenson really dived into the complex natures of a human, and its two sides, good and evil. It teaches us that we have to embrace that humans have a natural tendency to do evil, but we also have the tendency to do good.

I love the way stevenson creates a mysterious atmosphere with his vivid descriptions of the scene and various characters. for example when he said, “He lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr. Enfield’s tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures.” (pg. 12) He describes the room he is in, in such a way that creates a very eerie and depressing feeling. The reader can tell this by the way he describes the lighted pictures, curtains, and the night.

Another thing that interests me in this story is his psychological depth in the characters. He really shows his ability to do this when Dr. Jekyll confesses, saying, “I am very low, Utterson,” “very low. It will not last long, thank God.” (pg. 40) this quote really builds up tensions as it foreshadows death and a little bit of suicidal thoughts. He used this quotation to show how fragile the human mind could really get and how different people think about or deal with the battle of good and evil within them.

All of these aspects, put in one book, make a great, deep, psychological and emotional novella that pushes the reader through many different emotions. I would describe this book as a rollercoaster, because we never know what is going to happen next, especially with Mr. Hyde, because of the way he is portrayed and described by Stevenson. I would definitely say this is a good book to read in class, and even an interesting book for the next class to come. I enjoyed it, and I am sure many others will.

IJRE #5 – 1984

I am currently reading a book called 1984 by george orwell. It is about a character named Winston smith, and it takes place in a “dystopian future” where the government is in absolute control of the public and society. Winston is a minor government employee who works in ‘The Ministry of Truth’ under oceania. He is not happy with the living conditions they are offered and he thinks about rebelling multiple times. winston is a thirty-nine year old man with poor health due to the state of living.

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy.” Ch VII pg 83

This quote shows us how controlling the party is and it tells us about how the party controls the minds of people by forcing them to believe whatever they wanted and convince others that what the party says is right – ‘Psychological manipulation’.

IJRE #4 – The end of the catcher in the rye.

I just finished reading the catcher in the rye and the ending was a bit sad. Holden meets up with Phoebe to talk, but he waits for her for a long time before she shows up. When she does, she comes with one of his old suitcases filled with some of his clothes from home. He takes her to the zoo, and they talk for a while before he pays he pays for her to go on a ride. He is filled with happiness. When it’s time for him to leave, Phoebe begs to come with him, but he denies and tells her that she cant. He tells her that he is not leaving and he will go home at the end of the walk at the park.

“Then the carousel started, and I watched her go round and round…All the kids tried to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say or do anything.”

He had many thoughts when phoebe was on the carousel, the thoughts that were made clear to us showed that he was afraid of something, it shows that he was afraid of her falling of or injuring herself on the ride, but he is probably just scared of missing her too much. At the end, he says:

“Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody”

These were Holden’s last words to Phoebe before he left. this phrase could have multiple interpretations. The main one tells us that Holden has started to change and is hopeful for the future he has ahead of him, and he is no longer bitter and angered by the thoughts of having to deal with everything and everyone.

PR on Our Town

Our town was a nice play. I enjoyed reading it, and even more, watching it. I would recommend this book for the next class because it is very interesting. I will give it a 7.5. The ending was a bit sad and depressing. But overall, it was a nice story. The plot was thought out pretty well for a play as old as this one. The actors added to the vibes as the bodied their roles perfectly switching tones exactly when they needed to and their body language also seasoned the acting too.

I would change the house layout. We didn’t really get to feel that it was a house because it was just a couple pieces of furniture in the middle of an open stage. Although we could use our imagination to see the actual intended lay out of the houses, it would have helped to have a couple walls surrounding it.

I would not change the actors, as they played a key role to the delivery of the lines and the display of expressions shown by the characters they played. The acting couldn’t have been much better that it was and that is the reason i wouldn’t change it.

Once again, I recommend it, especially the actual play, and critical thinking is needed to completely understand it.

IJRE #3 : The catcher in the Rye

I am currently reading a book called “The Catcher in The Rye” , and it is quite interesting. It is about a kid named Holden Caulfield, who got expelled from prep school because he failed most of his classes. The story recounts the two days after the expulsion and dissolves us in the mind of the 16 year old. He is confused and disoriented, he becomes exhausted and mentally unstable. Holden describes his fiction of being “the catcher in the rye”, that was inspired by a song he heard a little boy singing: “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye.”

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

“This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.”

The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.

In the first quote, his teacher teaches him about the importance of playing by the rules.

in the second quote, Holden uses the hat as a mark of individuality and independence.

in the last quote, the museum gives him this vision of life that he is able to understand: it is frozen, silent, and always the same.

PW#3 – things that are special to me.

There are not many things that are special to me, but the things that are, i could never let go. My family is the first thing that I would never give up for anything. I have 2 brothers and a sister. Being the older kid, looking after younger ones gives a sense of purpose and makes a person more independent. And having an older person gives a sense of direction and person to look up to. The second thing is music. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do if i didn’t have music, i would be a completely different person. I love making music too, it is just so interesting, and it is one of the only things i would actually give 100 percent when i am doing it. Another thing is probably sports, especially football. I love the feeling of having the ball at my feet, it makes me feel free to do whatever i want and having so many of my favourite people doing it too, it helps with socialization. The last thing is travelling. I am a proud Nigerian, but i am also proud to be studying oversees. None of it would have been possible if my mom and dad didn’t work hard to get where they are today.

IRJE 2 – Oryx and Crake

I am currently reading a novel called Oryx and Crake. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world with most of humanity being wiped out due to a man-made pandemic. Jimmy (snowman) and Crake are both in love with Oryx. Crake and Jimmy baisically fight to win over Oryx throughout the story and they are both jelous when they see the other talking to her.

“Immortality,” said Crake, “is a concept. If you take ‘mortality’ as being, not death, but the foreknowledge of it and the fear of it, then ‘immortality’ is the absence of such fear.” (Page 303)

This Quote by Crake shows his philosiphical views of life and death. He suggests that true immortality isn’t exactly about living forever, but it is mastering how to eliminate the fear and anticipation of death.

IRJE #1 – Romeo and Juliet – Ipri

I recently reread the oxford school Shakespeare version of Romeo and Juliet, and I learned a lot of stuff that I missed the first time I read the book.

At the beginning of the book, Romeo is depressed about his wife to be, Rosaline, not being able to marry or have kids as she became a nun. Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin, tries to cheer him up and convinces him to go to a ball and meet a new girl, “Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow” (Act 1 Scene 2). He was unsupportive of the idea at first, but then he eventually agreed to go. He fell in love with Juliet, and she did too with him. Her dad wanted her to marry someone called Paris, and this caused problems. Romeo was eventually banished because of the death of one of the characters related to Juliet, and pretends to kill himself to make Juliet come to him. He didn’t wake up in time, and Juliet killed herself. Romeo wakes up, sees what has had happened, and kills himself too.

For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
(Act 5 Scene 3)

I sourced this quote because the narrator really shows how heavy and beautiful this love story is. The quote literally means, “there” is no love story as sad as this Romeo and Juliet.

PW #1 – Paris.

When I was younger, my mom had this nice, red, fancy trench-coat. She loved it and wore it every winter. People knew her for this coat, and she often got compliments for wearing such a beautiful, bright red coat. she took this coat to Paris, when we moved there and the compliments just got better and better. I was about 8 at the time, and my dad suggested we went to this carnival at the one of the piers. We all said yes, and a few hours later, we were playing games and eating junk.

You know, the 8 year old brain only functions on games, junk food and crying. and that is exactly how mine functioned at the time. I was so enveloped in the game, that I didn’t notice when my parents began to talk to their friends. I didn’t exactly care…

Less that 10 minutes later, I was playing different games in other areas, not even thinking about where the rest of the crew could be. It didn’t take too long to get questioned by one of the game attendees who bare spoke English. It was then I noticed that my parents were nowhere to be found, neither my two other brothers.

The police were called, and my parents were found. The only description I could give was her red jacket. She still has that jacket. It is a lovely jacket.

Personal opinion on The novella. Master and man.

Master and Man is an Novel by Leo Telstoy, about a rich landowner called Vasili Andreyevich Brekhunov  and one of his laborers, Nikita, who embark on a journey and learn that life is better when you don’t live for yourself only.

The novel is an interesting and entertaining short story. It has a good spread of well-painted characters, and it doesn’t focus on only one character too much; It’s almost as if there isn’t only one main character, but everybody plays a main role in the plot of the story. I would not change the plot, because it was very good and interesting.

The settings are well depicted, and perfectly pictured in the book. I can see the snow storm in my head when I read the chapter that the journey begun. I would change the way they talked about the homes. they didn’t put too much emphasis on Vasili’s or Nikita’s house, I would have talked about them more.

The words used in the book are perfectly in context and they are easy to understand even if i didn’t know what the word meant. I wouldn’t change the the way they used their wording, It fit the context very well.

I would rate this book as an 8.5 only because of the lack of emphasis on the houses.