This week our class finished reading Harrison Bergeron. It had an unexpected ending. Our whole class was surprised! It's the year 2081, and George and Hazel Bergeron have a son, Harrison. Unfortunately for them, the government took him away when he was fourteen years old. See, someone once decided that George Bergeron is of above-average intelligence, so he's had a radio implanted in his ear. Piercing sirens, crashes, and booms go off periodically to hinder his thought process. (His wife, Hazel, on the other hand, is spectacularly average. No handicaps on her.) Anyway, one night in 2081, the Bergeron's are sitting in front of the TV watching ballet—bad ballet, with ballerinas wearing masks to hide their beauty and weights to hinder their grace and strength. The Ballet is interrupted when one of the ballerinas has an urgent government news announcement to make. Harrison Bergeron has escaped! An escaped convict is just what any boring ballet, opera, or interpretive dance routine needs to liven things up a bit, and boy does it get lively when Harrison himself rips off the door to the stage and storms on screen. He declares himself Emperor and takes one of the ballerinas as his Empress. Just what this society needs to pull it from its homogenized doldrums: a crazed monarchy. Anyway, the two of them dance, fly through the air, kiss the ceiling, then kiss each other. There's a whole lot of kissing. But the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, doesn't seem to care much for kissing , since she shoots them both dead with a shotgun. The Bergeron's' television blows out and goes dark. Must have been a faulty bulb—no way it was government intervention, right? But then it turns out that George had gone to get a beer, so it appears he missed the whole thing. Hazel cries, but soon can't remember why. Life quickly returns to normal.
0 Comments
Today in ELA class we started reading Harrison Bergeron. It is a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922, Indianapolis, IN. He died April 11, 2007, Manhattan, New York City, NY. He was an American author. Kurt Vonnegut published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He had seven children. Vonnegut attended Cornell University, but dropped out in January 1943 and fought in world war two. After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, with whom he had three children. He later adopted his sister's three sons, after she died of cancer and her husband died in a train accident.Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. The novel was reviewed positively, but was not commercially successful. In the nearly twenty years that followed, Vonnegut published several novels that were only marginally successful, such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964). Vonnegut's magnum opus, however, was his immediately successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The book's antiwar sentiment resonated with its readers amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, and its reviews were generally positive. After its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. He was invited to give speeches, lectures, and commencement addresses around the country and received many awards and honors. Later in his career, Vonnegut published several autobiographical essay and short-story collections, including Fates Worse Than Death (1991), and A Man Without a Country (2005). After his death, he was hailed as a morbidly comical commentator on the society in which he lived, and as one of the most important contemporary writers. Vonnegut's son Mark published a compilation of his father's unpublished compositions, titled Armageddon in Retrospect. Numerous scholarly works were released, examining Vonnegut's writing and humor. This week in ELA, our class we watched a slide show on how to read a poem. There’s really only one reason that poetry has gotten a reputation for being so darned “difficult”: it demands your full attention and won’t settle for less. Unlike a novel, where you can drift in and out and still follow the plot, poems are generally shorter and more intense, with less of a conventional story to follow. If you don’t make room for the experience, you probably won’t have one. But the rewards can be high. To make an analogy with rock and roll, it’s the difference between a two and a half minute pop song with a hook that you get sick of after the third listen, and a slow-building tour de force that sounds fresh and different every time you hear it. Once you’ve gotten a taste of the really rich stuff, you just want to listen to it over and over again and figure out: how’d they do that? Aside from its demands on your attention, there’s nothing too tricky about reading a poem. Like anything, it’s a matter of practice. But in case you haven’t read much (or any) poetry before, we’ve put together a short list of tips that will make it a whole lot more enjoyable. Follow Your Ears. It’s okay to ask, “What does it mean?” when reading a poem. But it’s even better to ask, “How does it sound?” If all else fails, treat it like a song. Even if you can’t understand a single thing about a poem’s “subject” or “theme,” you can always say something – anything – about the sound of the words. Does the poem move fast or slow? Does it sound awkward in sections or does it have an even flow? Do certain words stick out more than others? Trust your inner ear: if the poem sounds strange, it doesn’t mean you’re reading it wrong. In fact, you probably just discovered one of the poem’s secret tricks! If you get stuck at any point, just look for Shmoop’s “Sound Check” section. Read It Aloud. OK, we’re not saying you have to shout it from the rooftops. If you’re embarrassed and want to lock yourself in the attic and read the poem in the faintest whisper possible, go ahead. Do whatever it takes, because reading even part of poem aloud can totally change your perspective. Picture has a link. This week in our class we learned about intensive and reflexive pronoun. Most Intensive and Reflexive pronouns end in self or selves. Some examples are: myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, and themselves. An Intensive pronoun is used to emphasize a preceding noun or pronoun. An example is, my mother paid for her education as a vet herself. The Intensive pronoun is "herself". Another example is, I myself want to become a doctor. In this case, the Intensive pronoun is "myself". A hint for Intensive pronouns is if you can take out the Intensive pronoun in the sentence does it make sense? If it does than it is a Intensive it is an Intensive pronoun. If it is not than it is a reflexive pronoun. A reflexive pronoun is used as the direct or indirect object of a verb or as the object of a preposition. For example: We considered ourselves considerate enough to handle a dog. The reflexive pronoun is "ourselves" and it is the Direct Object of the sentence. A second example is: They bought themselves a dog yesterday. The reflexive pronoun in this sentence is "themselves" and it is an Indirect Object. The last example is: Mike takes care of his pets by himself. The reflexive pronoun in this sentence is "himself" and it is the Object of the Preposition. Intensive and Reflexive pronouns can either be first, second, or third person. First person Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are: myself, which is singular, and ourselves, which is plural. Second person Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are: yourself, which is singular, and yourselves, which is plural. Third person Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are himself, herself, and itself, which are singular, and themselves, which is plural. |
Julia Godinez
I am creative and helpful. I also love to make new friends Archives
June 2016
Categories |