Category: From Mr. MacKnight

IRJE #4 – Lies

I am reading Lies by Michael Grant. Its the third book in the Gone Series. This series is about if one day, all the people over 15 disappeared. In this book there is a character named Drake Merwin and he is a complete psychopath. Later in the book when he came into contact with the main character of the story, Sam, his arm was burned off by him. Unfortunately this lead to him getting a ‘whip hand’ from a dark force. And Drake became even worse. Later in the book Sam (the main character) was confronting Drake for doing something bad. However, in that certain time and place they where in a Nuclear plant and if Sam resisted Drake he would wipe out the entire FAYZ with uranium. So for a long period of time, Sam was useless while Drake hit him so hard his skin spit open and he was bleeding a lot leaving him traumatized. And when Sam’s brother Caine, finally buried Drake, along with the uranium, Sam was able to put himself a ease. However, eventually Sam found out that he was alive, he was panicking.

But he had endured. And he’d lived through the next nightmarish hours, the
morphine hallucinations, the staggering, stumbling, needing-to-scream hours.
He had fought Drake again, but it was Caine who had finally killed the
psychopath. Caine had thrown Drake down a mine shaft that then collapsed on Drake’s
head. Nothing could have survived.
And yet, Drake was alive.
He’d coped since that day by knowing that Drake was dead, buried under tons of
rock, dead, gone, never to be faced again. That fact had let him cope.
But if Drake was unkillable . . .
Immortal . . . (p. 305)

Fear can change a person for the worse. In this text fear turned the strongest and most fearless person in the FAYZ into a mess who was terrified of everything.

IRJE #2 – Star Girl Laila

Star Girl, Is a novel by Jerry Spinelli. The book is structured at the boring life of Leo Brolock a high school student in Mica Arizona, who falls in love with a very interesting new student named Stargirl Caraway. At first Stargirl was a sensation of excitement, but she then faces challenges as her unconventional behavior, kindness, and clash with the desire for acceptance and popularity. The novel Explores the different of themes of identity, true love, and the authentically of connecting with others.

“She was elusive She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, nut the pin merely went through and away she flew.” (p.130)

This quotation is given by the narrator giving the sweet and light description of Stargirl herself. How she cares for others, and doesn’t care what the world thinks of her. Star girl is a monumental example of a good person.

What i think about Our Town

When we begun to read our town i thought it was fairly interesting, a small town with people about two different families. As the book went on i found it kind of lifeless there were only a few main events and it felt like reading fifty shades of gray or like watching paint dry, personally i like romance/action books so that was just from my own opinion. there were a few parts where it was kind of interesting like when they were on the latter looking at the moon, it was just cool and it would have been funny if the moon came and hit them. i still don’t understand what she meant by

“they don’t understand do they?

i didn’t understand that (probably because their dead). that is why i would give this book a 3.5/10 there just felt like there was no action and fair to little emotion.

Personal Response# 2 Our town

The play Our town by Thornton Wilder, is, in my opinion boring. I would rate it a solid 5/10. I thought it was really boring, specially when the stage manager talked. Half of the play is him talking about what is happening, for one thing it’s a good part in case you don’t understand the acting, but, he is really bad at explaining things and he doesn’t get to the point, he just starts saying random things like the time and stuff. It might be helpful on one side but it is also kind of unnecessary. I also found it very confusing because it it switches the times back and forward; One minute it’s 1901 and the next it’s 1913 or something. On the other hand I kind of liked it because at least there is a climax to the story that is kind of interesting. I liked that it was a play too because the book really confused me. I didn’t like that the stage manager spoke in most of the story then the characters. I found their acting a little over the top. I also didn’t like the setting because it was literally two tables and six chairs, so I also found it confusing. Overall I thought it was a boring play but I still liked it a little bit.

What I think about Our Town

When we started to read Our Town I was curious and excited because it was different from the other things we had read. At the beginning I thought it was kind of boring because not much was happening and I was a bit confused mainly because I was still trying to figure out who the main character was supposed to be. When I finished part one I had started to like it because of the detail. However, at the beginning of the second part I got more confused on why they skipped 3 years and I was wondering about why they skipped that part. One of my favorite scenes was in the intro when Emily and Wally where heading to school and Mrs. Webb said that Emily could wear the blue dress that she had made ready for her and she said she didn’t like it because it made her look like a turkey. Also, near the end I felt it went from boring to overly crowded with all the deaths. Also, I found that they where introducing a lot of characters that they only showed once which made me confused because I couldn’t tell who was who. Overall I didn’t really like the story because I found it a bit boring and uneventful. However this is just my opinion and this is coming from a person who likes action and fantasy books. This is why I give it a 3/10.

Master and Man Diego

After reading the book i found it a little boring because i found that in the plot it was very simple that he goes gets lost in a snow storm trying to make a trade there was noting that really stood out to me. All the way up to near the end, However at the end of the book i found that it taught good lessons. Such as to not be greedy and the importance of family and life. So even though i found the plot boring. In the end i kind of enjoyed it. I think this book has great meaning to it. My rating would be a 5 out of 10.

 

Welcome to the MYP4 English 9 Class Blog

We will use this blog for Independent Reading journal entries, for Personal Writing, and for occasional responses to the literature we study together and to our class discussions and activities. All of the writing you do on this blog is part of what I call “piano practice”: the ungraded work that improves your skills and produces better results on your assessments.

This is not Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. You need to edit and proofread your writing. You need to use standard English and follow the conventions of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Comments on this blog must be specific, kind, and helpful.

You will learn a tremendous amount by reading each other’s work. Sometimes you will think, “Ah, that’s really good, I could do that, too.” At other times you will think, “Ah yes, I make that same mistake, but I usually don’t notice it in my own writing.” Or you may think, “Wow, my writing is better than I thought.” Together, we can learn faster and make more progress.

Sample IRJE #3: block quotation without dialogue

Gordon Bowker’s James Joyce: A Biography describes a man who, though he may have been a great writer, was a terrible husband and father. In 1907 Joyce is 25 years old. He is living in Rome on a negligible salary as a bank clerk, supplemented by funds borrowed from his brother. He has a young son, and his wife is pregnant. He is constantly eluding creditors, falling behind in his rent, and moving his family from one shabby apartment to another. He decides to leave Rome, and gives notice to his employer. On his last day of work,

he drew a month’s salary (250 lire) at the bank and went on a farewell spree—a drunken adieu to the Eternal City, which he had come to consider ‘vulgar’ and ‘whorish.’ When [he was] suitably drunk, two congenial bar-flies took him to a backstreet and relieved him of his bulging wallet. He returned home penniless and completely soaked from an evening downpour. (p. 165)

Many have questioned the ethics of enjoying art created by people who have been misogynists, rapists, racists, or fascists, for example. It seems difficult to reconcile beautiful art with such ugly behaviour. In Joyce’s case, such questions have been asked, but in this instance the behaviour is not only bad, but stupid—and this raises a slightly different question. How is it possible for someone like Joyce—who read, wrote, and spoke several languages fluently, and whose work, whatever you think of it, is undeniably brilliant—how is it possible for such an obviously intelligent man to make such stupid choices? If intelligence did not save Joyce from making stupid choices, what about us? What can save us from making stupid choices?

Sample IRJE #2: “We was attacked!”

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of English school boys are evacuated by plane from a war zone, but the plane crashes on a remote tropical island, and the only adult with them—the pilot—is killed. Soon after they meet, Ralph and Piggy argue about what happened to the pilot of their airplane, and we see right away that Piggy is more of a thinker than Ralph:

“He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn’t land here. Not in a place with wheels.” 

“We was attacked!” 

“He’ll be back all right.”

The fat boy shook his head.

“When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it.” (p. 8)

Whereas Ralph unthinkingly believes that everything will work out for the best (“’He’ll be back all right’”), Piggy has kept his eyes open during the crash and is brave enough to speak the frightening truth: there are no adults left to take care of them.

Sample IRJE #1: “You reason like a block of cheese.”

In The Viscount of Bragelonne, by Alexander Dumas, the old soldier, d’Artagnan, proposes a business opportunity to Planchet, who was his squire in their younger days but who now owns a prosperous candy shop in Paris. D’Artagnan’s idea is to raise a small army and restore Charles II, rightful King of England, to his throne. Planchet is reluctant to invest without understanding more about d’Artagnan’s plans.

“Since you are proposing a business deal, I have the right to discuss it,” says Planchet.

“Discuss, Planchet; from discussion comes light.”

“Well then, since I have your permission, I would like to point out that in England they have, first of all, a Parliament.”

“Yes. And then?”

“And then, an Army.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“And then, the people themselves.”

“Is that all?”

“The people of England, who consented to the overthrow and execution of the late King, father of Charles II, will never agree to put the son back on the throne.”

“Planchet, my friend” said d’Artagnan, “you reason like a block of cheese.” (p. 417)

In French, the line is more beautiful: “Planchet, mon ami, tu raisonnes comme un fromage.” It made me laugh out loud the first time I read it, and it reminded me of something my French friend Christian said to me years ago when he noticed that I was wearing a new shirt: “Tu es beau comme un camion.” “You are as handsome as a truck.”