Ma Chérie Amie

Red, white, and blue

Are made not exclusively with stars and stripes.

The rings in the trees of nations are often forgotten.

Revolutions and invasions are both like each other.

We all need each other.

We’ve all needed each other.

Resistance to kings or fascists, require an act of allegiance

Among those who fight the good fight.

Nous étions amis; Nous sommes amis; And we will be friends.

Viva Tout le monde.

Uhhh ya totes

Disillusionment at Ten O’Clock

Wallace Stevens

(1879 – 1955)

The houses are haunted

By white night-gowns.

None are green.

Or purple with green rings,

Or green with yellow rings,

Or yellow with blue rings,

None of them are strange

With socks of lace

And beaded ceintures.

People are not going

To dream of baboons and periwinkles.

Only, here and there, an old sailor,

Drunk and asleep in his boots,

Catches tigers

In red weather.

Oki doki, this is an interesting poem. My interpretation of this poem: Its a love story.

First the bit of information given is that " the house is haunted," by a spirit, by a memory, something.

Then it describes night gowns, white ones. Not Green nor purple nor yellow. And this makes be believe it is about a women.

The man loves this person for who she is, and he does not need socks of lace and beaded ceintures.

But there is no dreams of playful things like baboons and periwinkles.

Only thing that is here and there is old saloirs, drunk and asleep.

But in his sleep, in his dreams, he catches tigers in red weather, making me think of war.

So now his wife is gone the only thing that fills his heart is sorrow and anger.

Although its been brought to my attention

That the white robes might by a reference to society and they don't have the ability to have wonderful dreams, and the sailor who can have those dreams is forced to drink and sleep in his clothes by the rest of this plain society.

Arachnid in searching

A Noiseless Patient Spider

Walt Whitman

(1819-1892)

A noiseless patient spider,

I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launched forth filament, filament, filament, filament,

out of itself

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the

spheres to connect to

Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile

anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O

my soul.

Alright, lets get right into it.

Theme: I think the purpose of this poem is to exaggeration the importance of feeling like you belong somewhere.

In the first stanza, the author creates a metaphor between a spider and his soul (named in the next stanza). Whitman tells how this spider gazes on the infinite space around it and begins to spin a web, trying to make a home for itself. Spinning, and spinning, and spinning, giving all of its effort into this mission.

In the second stanza, the author tells more of the feeling of the search. Telling how in the vast emptiness.; trying to find a sturdy, strong place where it can feel some belonging. It gives its entire self into trying to catch this somewhere, until something holds and it can be at peace.

"Actual" Poetry Analysis

My last few posts have all been songs and, to stay with the contents of the class, for this one I'll pick a poem from out packet of poems (alliteration).

The Coming of Wisdom with Time

William Butler Yeats

(1865 – 1939)

though leaves are many, the root is one;

Through all the lying days of my youth

I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;

Now I may wither into the truth.

We've touched on this poem in class, but I just wanted to give my perspective on the poem-because my opinion matters sooooooo much.

It's hard to analysis this poem line by line, but if you look at the poem as whole you can relate parts of the poem to each other. The relations I see is between "leaves" and "roots," "lies" and "truth," "swaying" and "wither(ing)," and "youth" and "now." I feel these contrasting words relate to each other and therefore thats where we should start. Leaves, lies, swaying, and youth I think are all one part of the poem; and the other part is composed of roots, truth, withering, and now.

Lies are leaves, swaying, always moving, flourishing in our youth, hiding the base of itself (the branch). Truths are roots, withering, simple, and is now. The withering part of this is the only one of these that really doesn't immediately sound like it fits but when thinking of a tree when the leaves are gone, or the branches brake, and perhaps erosion has been swept away, the roots (truth) will always prevail.

Day in the Lit

Ok so I was driving on my way to work today and heard this song and remembered our poetry analysis in class, thus I decided to get to work and, while on brake, blog about this song.

I read the news today, oh boy . . .
About a lucky man who made the grade;
And though the news was rather sad,
Well, I just had to laugh—
I saw the photograph . . .

He blew his mind out in a car;
He didn't notice that the lights had changed.
A crowd of people stood and stared;
They'd seen his face before;
Nobody was really sure
If he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today, oh boy;
The English Army had just won the war.
A crowd of people turned away;
But I just had to look,
Having read the book.
I'd love to turn you on . . .

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head;
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup;
And looking up, I noticed I was late.
Found my coat and grabbed my hat,
Made the bus in seconds flat;
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke;
Somebody spoke and I went into a dream . . .

I read the news today, oh boy;
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire;
And though the holes were rather small,
They had to count them all.
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.
I'd love to turn you on . . .

Ok so in the first stana it tells how this man read the news about some guy who "made the grade." and the author laughed at it. Then in the second stanza he tells how the man "blew his mind out in a car," (ie. went crazy with anger). And these people watching him wondered if he was a government official. Next stanza tells how english won the war, people looked away but the author kept looking because he's read "the book" (Bible?) and also he'd love to turn you on...like sexually or turn me on to a better way of living.

Next stanza is completely different. The rhyming scheme in the last three stanza had only one pair of lines that rhymed, usually at the end as some after though. This stanza every other PAIR of lines rhyme. Where the stanza rhymes the narrator is doing something good (ex. getting up, brushing his hair, getting dressed, taking the bus); however when the rhyme brakes the author is late, smoking, day dreaming, all things that society condemns.

The last stanza goes back to the original rhyme scheme ending with "turn you on" again. This stanza makes many reference to british culture with I have neither the time, nor will to look up.

To finish I feel this song is a prospective of a day in the life of two separate people, signified by the difference in rhyming schemes and is making a comment on how people who "make the grade," who fill their life with monotony and busyness don't live a full life, but rather people who are free, dreamers, poets, singer-song writers live lives that are full, at least to them.

Now and Then photo of Kabul

"War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace." - Baba"
— Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)

Song for Gatsby

It's the good life, full of fun, seems to be the ideal,
Yes, the good life, lest you hide all the sadness you feel,
You won't really fall in love 'cause you can't take the chance,
So be honest with yourself, don't try to fake romance.
Yes, the good life, to be free and explore the unknown,
Like the heartache when you learn you must face them alone,
Please remember I still want you and in case you wonder why,
Well, just wake up, kiss that good life goodbye.

[musical interlude]

Please remember I still want you and in case you wonder why,
Well, just wake up, kiss that good life goodbye.

So this song discusses "the good life," and what this life should look like (ex. full of fun). Then, in the second line, it shifts from what it should be to what it is, a place to hide all your sadness. Falling in love means sometimes getting hurt; love is a risk and in the good life there is no room for hurt and therefore no room for love. And since you cannot love, romance is the next substitute but romance that does not grow is a romance that will not last. Be honest with yourself. Then I feel it makes a jump, in line 5, back to the theoretical where you can be free and explore. The heartache is like the newly adventured lands, they must be explored in solitude. But in spite of the freedom, the fun, and the adventure, the author wants you instead of the solidarity of "the good life."

I thought of this song when we talked about The Great Gatsby because we decided Gatsby found The American Dream, but not his dream. This song is about choosing the path of Freedom and Fun, or rather choosing the path less traveld by of risk, romance, and Love.

It's a love story

Rapid Enlightenment Movement

Life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

So to begin with the first stanza I notice the broken syllogism, and comparison

between the narrator and the "other subject." Knowing this is REM's "Losing my Religion.”

I feel the narrator is saying that the restrictions which apply to the "other subject"

don't apply to him.

Next he begins with saying he's on outcast; yet he's also the one in the spotlight

He's trying to keep up-maybe like sympathize with theologians.

He says he's said to much, perhaps he insulted someone,

and then he hadn't said enough, like he wants to spread the truth.

I'm not really sure what to make out of the

"I think I thought I saw you try."

In the third stanza I think he's making a comment

on how the hurt lost is better than the blinded fool.

The hint of the century, the slip (faith) that brought him to his knees

,and all these fantasies are things that are reasons not

to "buy in to religion."

But all in all, the hope of ridding the world of its religious shackles

Is "just a dream"

My apologizes

Due to the absence of many poetry responses, I feel the need to make it up to everyone. However seeing how grades have already been due, and the work is ridiculously late, I will pick a few poems of my choice rather than the poems for poetry responses.

So be on the look out!

Thank you,

Dustin Trembath

An intro on America

Three men sit on a bench. These men are waiting for the bus. They all have in mind to go different places for different reasons.

As they wait for the bus they see another man walking by. The first man on the bench sees the other man has a nice hat but it’s tarnished and his watch is gilded. He notices that the look on the man’s face looks like he’s lost, but not too concerned. The second man sees that the other man has a wedding band, and though it may be gilded too, it is kept as clean as if it wasn’t. He also slightly recognizes the man from someone he might have seen at a church or a volunteer project. The third man sees that the other man looks slightly at the other two men on the bench but pays no attention to him. He resents the man, but knows that he will get on the bus and go to the places he wants to with or without the man.

I am the bus driver. I pull up and let the men in, hearing their murmurs about what they just thought as they go by. I think about what they said as I too look at the man walking. I consider what the men, now in the bus, said but I do not dwell on what he looks like or what he’s doing or what he might say. I wonder at where he’s going, and why he’s going there. I hear the criticisms for how the man may be getting there, but I believe in the man, and I believe in his Ideals, and I believe in where he might go. So I pull up a little farther and ask if I can help get the man to where he is going.

School is like....

Casually walking down the sidewalk, you here this faint sound of music. You fallow the music, like you would the smell of freshly baked bread, wondering from one place to another waiting to see if the sound gets louder. You see the place that the music could be coming from; the outside looks just like you’d imagined, brilliant white with rails leading strait to doors. You walk to the doors proud of your ability to find this sweet Mecca of music.

You walk in and the doors slam shut behind you, doors looked. You walk across the lobby and a woman who looks like Mosses’ ex wife stares up at you from the ticket booth saying one arm, one leg please; in a voice that was just short of 400 year old smoker. At first you refuse, outraged, how could this woman demand so much of you for something your not even sure you want. But after trying to unlock the doors several times you take the saw from her desk and gladly give her what she wants.

She points you in the direction of the music. You start to crawl and pass a sigh that says Main stage, now you know that you’re in the right place. As you walk in you stair at the countless people surrounding the stage. You gasp in amazement on how they were all able to get where they were with the loss of so many limbs. You see that the people around you are like you, crawling and not able to get to the stage. You see two people use each other to help stand up. You find someone, point to the example, and start to mimic their action.

You two hop toward the front can now focus on how the music sounds; the pure elegance of the artists creation makes you want to cry and laugh at the same time. You want to see the composers of this joyous invention; but the crowd in front of you is blocking the way. You and your partner begin to force your way through the crowd. At first its simply asking some people to move, but then you have to shove people out of the way, then you have to ram anyone in front of you. Soon your hit with a bombardment of elbows, firsts, knees, all making you want to head back but you push forward and finally reach the front.

You reach the rails lining the stage; glance up at the band that is only a few feet away, and you notice that they are missing limbs as well. Your confusion sits in on how someone like that could create something so masterful as the music crashing in your ears. Then you realize they were just like you, forced into something then had the drive to work their way to the top.

Things that go bump in the night-Like lit students

Berry Bush
The winter they abandoned Long Point Village—
A dozen two-room houses of pine frames clad
With cedar faded to silver and, not much whiter
Or larger, the one-room church—they hauled it all
Down to the docks on sledges, and at high tide
Boats towed the houses as hulks across the harbor
And set them on the streets of Provincetown.
Today they’re identified by blue tile plaques.
Forgotten the fruitless village, in broken wholes
Transported by a mad Yankee frugality
Sweating resolve that pickled the sea-black timbers.

The loathsome part of American Zen for me
Is in the Parable of the Raft: a traveller
Hacks it from driftwood tugged from the very current
That wedged it into the mud, and lashes it
With bitter roots he strips between his teeth.
And after the raft has carried him across
The torrent in his path, the teacher says,
The traveller doesn’t lift the raft on his back
And lug it with him on his journey: oh no,
He leaves it there behind him, doesn’t he?
There must be something spoiled in the translation,

Surely those old original warriors
And ruling-class officials and Shinto saints
Knew a forgetting heavier than that:
The timbers plunged in oblivion, hardened by salt;
Black, obdurate throne-shaped clump of ancient cane-spikes
At the raspberry thicket’s heart; the immigrant
Vow not to carry humiliations of the old
Country to the new, still infusing the segmented
Sweet berry, illegible ingested seed, scribble
Of red allegiances raked along your wrist;
Under all, the dead thorns sharper than the green.

—Robert Pinsky

UHHHHHH...Well this is the poem that Addie and I are doing for the class, and with my understanding of this poem, we'll epic-ly fail.

I've read this thing twice and thus far I've got nothing for the theme or meaning. So in absence of my deep incite to this poem, I will substitute what imagery I find and what phrases strike my interest.
In the poem there seems to be there separate stanzas with different situations; my analysis will break apart the stanzas rather than "reading" the poem as a whole.

Stanza 1:
I imagine a small 1930's eastern seaboard town, with gulls in the air and this house like thing being troughed through the streets. Moving a house from one dying town to a different one is all I get from this stanza.

Stanza 2:
I think of the book "Into the Wild" when picturing this stanza. The guy spends all this time and effort to make this boat thing then once he success' he ditches the boat. I'm interested in the connection between the boat and house. What’s up with the translation comment?

Stanza 3:
I picture Christ’s crucifixion. Warriors and ruling officials are those near the very top in the caste system in India, and Shintoism is a religion out of classical Japan (my trivial knowledge.) I feel the berry or seed that it refers to would make the poem make a whole lot more sense if I knew what it was; wonder if there’s a connection between it and the boat/house. Also what’s up with the dead v. alive conflict in the last line?

Well all together I've basically restated the poem without and incite than my mental imagery and fun facts,

Sorry for wasting your time but thank you all the same,

Dusty Trem-mc-mc-bath'n

HURRY

To Myself, by W.S. Merwin

Even when I forget you
I go on looking for you
I believe I would know you
I keep remembering you
sometimes long ago but then
other times I am sure you
were here for a moment before
and the air is still alive
around where you were and I
think then I can recognize
you who are always the same
who pretend to be time but
you are not time and who speak
in the words but you are not
what they say you who are not
lost when I do not find you

Ok so what I get from this poem is that the narrator is doing some self-searching, hence the name "to myself," and the rest are observations that the narrator makes when looking. The narrator tells how he thinks he would recognize him self, like saying he thinks he knows who he is; then he says he remembers himself from long ago, and just a moment ago; I'm actually really confused about the air thing; and then he says he pretends to be time, because time is eternal, so like his memories are eternal, but his memories aren't eternal, but he is not lost just because his memories are last.

Thanks for reading,

Dustin Trembath

Poetry Response 2 (pretend its not late)

Like the great philosopher Three Days Grace once said, "Its not too late, its never too late."

Moving on to this weeks poem I've decided to read "Blackberries for Amelia."

So just giving my first impression of the poem: while reading it I picture scenes from The Sound of Music -although I think they pick blueberries, also what I immediately notice is the chronologic pattern in the story going from spring ("June"ish) to fall ("August"ish.)

Reading it over more, in the first stanza I picture the scene from Fantasia 2000 where mother earth simply touches barren ground and it bursts out with plants and trees.

I'm confused with the relevance of the third stanza. It seems to be talking about the expansion of the universe and how all the stars are moving away from us; but I don't see its relevance in the seasons, or flowers, or grandchildren.

I like the time vs. change comparison between autumn and the author.

Also I don't understand the relationship between picking ripe berries and the need for (a) grandchild(ren.)

Sorry for the brevity of the post and its lateness,

But thank you for reading,

Dustin Trembath

You're a racist and you didn't even know it...

So seeing as I wasn't there for the "White Man's Burden" analysis, I figure I'll kill two birds with one stone and tackle the poetry blog post and the potential racism at the same time.

Lets see it:




Alright, I was going to begin with this epic explanation of how "I've used this in history and think it's satirical" but rereading it, I don't have a clue what its about.
How about we try taking it but stanzas.

Stanza 1: Of course "best ye breed" is a reference to Crackers
"Sons to exile"-maybe like sending them to colonize foreign lands; but that doesn't make sense with-"To serve your captives need;"
And the "half-devil and half-child" reference to myself, or the fact these people are evil and ignorant.

Stanza 2: Vail terror-by showing our domination, Check pride-by criticism for being hegemonic.
"To seek another's profit, and work another's gain." Strikes me as interesting but I’m not sure what it means. Use of parallelism signifies its importance, but an example of searching for something someone else has, then profiting of it... is something that just doesn't come to mind.

Stanza 3: I think this stanza is mainly " Humanitarian efforts (peace) is always cut by minority nature (savage wars.) Even if you feed the hungry and heal the sick, when your task is nearly completed, the laziness and folly of heathens will ruin you're entire effort."

Stanza 4: Summery: "don't deal with the flashy cheapness of politics, but deal with the workings of servants. It is servants and not kings who will allow you to explore. Like the pyramids have living servants make it, and fill it with dead kings." alot of this is a stretch.

Stanza 5:Contains some kinda of soliloquy but have no clue what it means.

Stanza 6: Basically saying don't do less than your best, don't run from your task, for if you do the people will judge you and your god based on your actions. "Look good for Jesus"

Stanza 7: This one makes me think satire again because of the stress with " Judgment of your peers." Which is basically the only statement I can make out of this one.


So all of this considered I feel the poem could be either; but if this were a poem on the AP test I’d make a poorly supported argument saying he was racist using some examples I pulled out.

Over all I feel this post was an epic fail.

Apologetically and Thankfully yours,

Dusty Trem-mc-mc-bath'n

Gooooooooddddd Morning Viet....Well Loveland [Heart of Darkness.

Well good morning campers and welcome to My blog-worst intro ever.

Alright some pre-comments before we get into the meat of this book, Never read a Pre twenty-th century book right after you read a New York Times best seller. You will be heavily disappointed.

Now on to the good stuff
Annotating process: Ok this book i annotated the least, mainly due to the fact the book was filled to the brim with such detail that finding and significant or note worthy writing was Dang near impossible. I annotated ALOT of words I didn't know, also I annotated allusions the author gives like, Jupitor, which makes Kurtz Zeus like.

Plot: So a Guy is on a ship and tells this epic tale to his fellow seamen about a time when he "was looking for a job to explore the nile, his aunt made some connections to land him the job with an english company-probably joint stock company. He makes his way down encountering several Peculiar white men and gives notice about the different labels they give the blacks in the region. As he travels deeper into the forest, and deeper into the darkness, the name of a man called Kurtz keeps coming up as a very significant and influential character in the Ivory trading markets along the river. The guy takes a steamboat much father down the river than usual and is at one point attacked by natives, killing his...driving person. Any way, they finally arrive at the place where Kurtz lives and meets the man who has claimed to aid him in his illness's. The admeration this fellow has for Kurtz is baffling to The main guy and he finally meets Kurtz after almost being raided by his native entourage. Kurtz is ill so the main guy trys taking him up river, but he dies on the trip up there uttering the last words, The horror, the horror. After he arrives back in England people come to take these and those things that belonged to him leaving at the end only a stack of Personal letters which our main character feels the need to deliever back to it's owner. After some deep conversing the main guy lies to Kurtz's women saying his last words was her name....

Characters: Main guy. Marlow
Kurtz. Kurtz
Kurtz admirer-er. The Russion-Song by iron maiden
Kurtz's women. She?

Review: Oh dear god, I honestly can't wait to get to class so that I can make sense of this book because so far I see no point and no greater meaning beyond Life in the African jungle is hard.

Whatever else strikes you: In order of appearance:
So this is just like some four hour uninterupted story told by a sailor to his sea men. I was waiting the whole time for a Shut-up by one of the ship mates. Makes me think of Jaws scene where the creepy old guy tells the story of the Shark.

This was literally the most boring of all the books, I noted it should be read by strongbad of homestarrunner.com

Again I hate finding textual errors in Books. page 55 near the bottom.

Quote "who's that grunting?" -should be the next black eye peas top selling hit

Says the title like three different times in the book.

I ever hear the word RIVETS again, i'll shoot someone.

Why the random tangents about the guy who though there were men on mars. WHO CARES??????

By Jove

and my final note, I love the smell of Old books

Structure:....it was divided up by like Three Chapters?

Style: Old crappy hard to understand english

Themes:...I got nothing

Figurative Language: first the definition: A technique in writing in which the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particular effect. If there was something I didn't note it, I usually jot down those kinda things

Imagery: LIKE Seventyfive percent of the book was Imagery, Boring description of things Nobody cares to have describle. MESSAGE TO ALL AUTHORS: unless your writing Sci-fi, we live in the same world you do, You do not need to take Large secions of text to describe things like sunsets, oceans, sand, or African Americans. just do us all a favor and keep your poetic Crap to yourself.

Symbolism: I really hope we find something inclass because if not i'm burning this book.

Sorry that you had to read this, '
but thank you anyway,

Dustin Trembath

Tone:

And now what you've all been waiting for...Kite Runner

So Its the night before school and all through the house every one was panicking, even the mouse.

Ok so this post is long over due, but lets not think of it as procrastination, rather think of it as tactically keeping it fresh in my head.



Now on to specifics about the book

Annotating process: Very similar to the last book-just noted my thoughts or things that sparked my interest. Sometimes I mark every other work, other times it'll be blank pages for awhile.

Plot:Guy has kid, his brother slash servant has kid around same time. Two kids grow up together, one master other servant. Kids enter Kite flying tournament, master kid wins. Servant kid runs after kite for master kid and servant kid is cornered by older kids who rape him while master kid sits and does nothing. Master kid feels guilty, frames servant kid for stealing so that his father kicks them out. Father forgives the servant kid. Servant kid and his dad move away anyways. Master kid and his dad a few years later flea Afghanistan and move to america. Dad works hard to put his kid through high school and most of college. Master kid meets pretty girl. Girl and Kid marry. Father dies. Flash forward several years, Kid is moderatly succsessful author and wife is happy teacher. Kid recieves a call from an old friend of him and his father requesting to see him before he dies. Kid flies out to pakistan to see him, dying friend tells his epic tale since the kid left and says that the servant kid and his wife have been murdered in his hometown and requests that the master kid go save the servants kid from the life of an orphen in Afghanistan. Master kid reluctantly agrees. Master kid gets to old hometown, the orphenage directer says that the terrorists have taking him, master kid arranges meeting with terrorists. Finds the older kid who raped the servant kid is the ringleader. Ringleader changes Master kid to a fight for the child, Ringleader....well words can't describe the ultimite destruction he had on master kid-i guess except the words in the book...then servent kids-Kid? slingshots a brass ball into the eye of the ringleader. Servants Kids Kid [SKK} and Master kid run off and eventually end up in hospital back in pakistan. They leave pakistan to somewhere else where the terrorists wont find them, the Master kid tells servant kid he's temporaraly placing him back in a orphange and the SKK slits his wrists almost bleeding to death. The master kid returns to america with SKK and master kid raise SKK who wont speak and stays sielent. at the end SKK flies a kite with Master kid and there's a slight moment of happieness between the two.

oh and the Master and servant Kid are half brothers.

Characters: Master kid. Amir
Master kids Dad. Baba
Servant Kid. Hassan
Servant kids dad. ali
Old friend of the family. Rahim khan
Rapist. Assef
Master kids wife. Soraya
SKK. Sohrab
and i think thats all i mentioned.

Review: So what did I think of the book, Well I'm not sure. Now I don't mean this as well uhhhhhhh...I guess it was good and all, I mean I've been raised on American, Disney movie endings where, The hero wins, the pets find there way back home, and the democrats take the House and Senate. But this book is different in that I feel anger/sadness toward the author at some points, at the charecters, at the culutre, so much of this book is filled with unfairness and it really breaks my heart. So its hard to say "OMG I love this book" through my tears.
I remember when I finished Nineteen Eighty Four where the ending MCsucks, and I said I hated it; of course I later on recomended the book to anyone who would listen.
So my final feelings on the book are this: Although it is a heartbreaking story, the fact the author was able to write in a manner that struck that hard to my emotions, I would be a idiot to say it wasn't a great book.

Whatever else strikes you: In order of appearance: The number one biggest thing was i bought an audio book, read by the author and it cut out well over half the book. Its interesting to see what the author did and didn't think was important.
To say I didn't like amir in the beginning, is a major understatement.

Why is Baba such and ass in the beginning then turns into this kid understanding person in america, - I think theres something in the book on this but did baba just not have hassan to be nice to so he had to take out his understanding/loving side on amir instead????

Flea market drama would probably get better ratings then Days of Our Lives "Like tears from the reader, So is the 'Gossip at the Flea Market"

I hate it when I find printing errors in books, especially best sellers-Page 177 seventh line.

I think there should be a shadow series to this switch prospecitives between Rahim khan and Soraya so that 1 Rahim khan can bash on his fathers imprefections and 2 so Soraya can vocalize the sexist BS that is Afghan culture.

Taliban= Nazi's in terms of Ethnic cleansing. So we should WWII or Kosovo the crap out of Afghanastan-You got the thumbs up from me bush.

Structure: Lots of repitition. Books broken up into chapters but each chapter has different passages signified by ALL CAPS AT THE BEGINNING of the sentence that fades to regular gramantical stylings.

Style: Itilized important words, sentances, and passsages. never used bold that i can remember.

Themes: Utter sadness.

Figurative Language: first the definition: A technique in writing in which the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particular effect. This interruption takes the form of one or more figures of speech such as hyperbole, irony, or simile. Metaphore: "My legs blocks of concrete, My lungs empty of air, my throat burning." Irony: "In Afghanistan, the ending was all that mattered"-hence why you wrote a 371 page book???

Imagery: O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!

crap sorry I meant

"Buildings that hadn't completely collapsed barely stood,
with caved roofs and walls pierced by rockets shells.
Entire blocks had been obliterated to rubble.
Childern played in the ruins of a windowless building
amid jagged stumps of brick and stone."

Ya Afghanistan, just remember that we'll always be better.
Symbolism: ohhh, i really want to know what the symbolism behind Amir's dreams were, because as of now, I haven't a clue.

Tone: Somber.

and as always,

Thank you for reading.

Dustin Trembath.

The Great Gatsby

As a starting note to everybody reading this, know that this is my first time trying to give thoughtful analysis on a book via blog and most of this entry probably will make little, to no sense at all. With that being said, let’s get started.

The Great Gatsby, a book that was first introduced to me in my AP US History class as a novel of the roaring nineteen twenties, was a book that I feel both likeness and annoyance towards. To answer everyone’s first question, yes I liked the book, all though the class snobbery was long and hard to read through, I on balance did enjoy the love story and the tragic ending that kind of left me in a weird funk. As for the rest of the book I’m not very sure exactly what to comment on, so I’ll take what was posted on Mrs. White’s blog:” the annotating process, the plot, the characters, a review, whatever else strikes you”. In addition I will try including the AP board’s recommendations for reading: “structure, style, and themes, as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.”[In that order.]

Annotating process: Well seeing as I’ve yet to visit the site suggested on Mrs. Whites website, my annotation is much like that of any high school student, or if above not by much. I annotated basically whatever I saw fit to be significant words, sentences, rhetoric, and other such things. In the first chapter my mind was still stuck in AP Lang so I was annotation every metaphor and hyperbole I saw. Later I was more selective of my annotations and I only noted unfamiliar words and sentences that I felt the author emphasized. Most of what I talk about in the later elements is things I annotated along the way.

Plot: The plot is quite odd. So basically: There’s a rich kid, named Nick Carraway, who’s trying to make a life of his own and he lives in New York state; He’s friends with the neighbors [Tom and Daisy Buchanan] and visits them one day meeting Jordan Baker; Baker asks if Nick knows Gatsby and Nick does not; Fast forward a few weeks and Nick along with Jordan Baker are at a party of Mr. Gatsby’s upon Gatsby’s invitation to Nick; Gatsby meets Nick and Nick successes in making and epic first impression; Later that night Gatsby takes Baker away to discuss something secret; Fast forward some more weeks and Tom brings Nick to see his mistress, that Daisy knows about but Tom doesn’t know she knows; Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, is wife to a friend of Toms, Mr. Wilson, who wants to buy a car from him; Myrtle and Tom, later at their apartment, introduce Nick to Myrtle’s sister, and her husband; Fast forward some more, after Gatsby and Carraway become friends and Gatsby tells how he is going to ask a favor of him, later that day Miss. Baker tells Nick the favor which is to invite Daisy over for dinner. She tells Nick that the secret Gatsby had told her earlier was that the two of them were once lovers. Nick agrees to the favor, even though he doesn’t feel it’s that burdensome, and invites Daisy over three days later. Gatsby is at first shy to see Daisy again but soon they are back in love and Nick starts to suffer from TWS [Third Wheel Syndrome.] After Nick and Miss. Baker get to know each other more, Gatsby invites the two of them in addition to Tom and Daisy. At the party Gatsby smoothly dismisses Tom to guess as “the polo guy,” and precedes to spending the rest of the night with Daisy until she goes home. Later on Gatsby invites them all to dinner and after words the go to town under Daisy’s and later Tom’s request. After they get in town they stay at a Hotel and only after a little Tom and Gatsby are having it out about who Daisy loves. Daisy is taken home by Gatsby and a little while after the rest of them leave they see that a person has been hit on the road, Myrtle. After further investigation they find it was a yellow car, the same kind Gatsby drives. Later after talking with Gatsby, Nick finds Daisy was driving and she swerved to hit her. The next morning, under suspicion that the man who killed his wife is the man she had been cheating on him with, Mr. Wilson hears from Tom that Gatsby was the driver, and Mr. Wilson shoots Gatsby and then himself-I think. Soon after Gatsby dies, Daisy and Tom move away, and Mr. Caddaway and Mr. Gatz, Gatsby’s father, are the only two to attend the funeral. Nick, afterwards decides to leave the east, and Mrs. Baker, and that’s that. The beginning is filled with semi-colons to try to make the sentence feel longer, because that’s what character development in classical books feels like, long and boring. But if not for the last sentence in this book I would think it was about how love can’t last and the bad guy wins. Nick, Jordan, Mr. Gatsby, Myrtle, Mr. Wilson, everyone is left unhappy or dead at the end of the book, except for Tom, that racist basterd.

Characters: [Please read last paragraph.]

Review: [Please read second paragraph.]

Whatever else strikes you: In order of appearance:
I. What’s up with the repetition of certain words like “riotous” or “ghostly?” Does the author have a limited vocabulary or does he have certain hidden meanings behind the repetition of these words?
II. What’s up with the random racism made by both Tom and Daisy? Tom says we can’t let blacks beat us, and she says “Beat them down?” You crazy 20’s idiots. I can see why its better to make Tom, the antagonist, look to be an idiot but why Daisy?
III. WHOOOO TOM, Brake that chicks nose :]
IV. I would see why the author would like to make Tom look bad in comparison to Gatsby but when talking of the two houses, the author makes Caddaway’s house seem like a refuge shelter and Gatsby’s house look like Bill Gates house.
V. Over use of the------ as an interrupter of sentences.
VI. What’s the point of giving the long stories of people’s lives?
VII. Page eighty three I wrote in large text “PLOT???”
VIII. Who cares about the story of Dan Cody and Gatz past? Notice in my plot I didn’t even mention it. Story goes on without it, save us some pages will you?
IX. I had to read the beginning to chapter six twice, very confusing.
X. For paragraphs that share one thought there is not space but for different thoughts there is a space.
XI. At first when Tom mentioned the sun getting hotter every year I noted it was ironically true, but as he corrected himself saying it got colder every year I noted, Nope, still stupid.
XII. I like how the author refers to Tom, in his informal first name, and Mr. Gatsby, formally by his last name.
XIII. Although he’s a douche bag, I believe he has honest feelings for Daisy and vice versa.
XIV. I think Gatsby could have been far more clever with his and Daisy’s escape rather than just announcing she’s leaving Tom.
XV. Don’t cheat on your husband or he’ll lock you upstairs.
XVI. I think it’s pointless to have “Goodbye, I enjoyed breakfast, Gatsby” as Nicks last words to him as opposed to the sentence preceding that.
XVII. The holocaust was complete?
XVIII. I literally noted, “Who reads this and doesn’t cut themselves afterwards?”
XIX. When leaving Jordan, Sebastian should have sang “Kiss the Girl.”
XX. I think the point to this book based off of the last paragraph is you can’t relive the past.

Structure: I hate the nine years of boring character development in the beginning. I found the paragraph spacing discovery interesting. I’m sure there is some huge literary structure technique I’m overlooking but hopefully I’ll catch it in mental comparisons between this and the other three books

Style: well, I really don’t know. This writing style seemed to use weird inteuptions and repetition of seemingly random adjectives-or maybe their adverbs?

Themes: Like morals? Read XX. Or is it like themes of the era of the nineteen twenties with flappers, and new jazz?

Figurative Language: first the definition: A technique in writing in which the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particular effect. This interruption takes the form of one or more figures of speech such as hyperbole, irony, or simile. He uses a wedding cake metaphor twice and one hyperbole is that seagulls confuse the two eggs of New York which look nothing like eggs if you look at a map of the area.

Imagery:”A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up towards the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-coloured rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.” I hate the British “Colour.”

Symbolism: Huh, I guess the closest to symbolism I can think of is the Daisy’s green light from across the bay, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us.”

Tone: The book contains several tones, causal when speaking about funny subjects, calm when talking of Tom’s affair, serious or enraged at the hotel fight, etc.

Once again as always…

Thank you for reading,
Dustin Trembath

Remarks on Outliers

I’ve never been a hard worker. I see the value in hard work and I also believe that diligence is a virtue, but I’ve never really subscribed to the nose to the grind stone mentality. My parents, teachers, grandparents, and almost every adult figure in my life have tried to persuade me towards fallowing a hard working lifestyle; some have had little success but none have been nearly as convincing as Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book Gladwell tells stories of people who have lives out of the ordinary; or in other words outliers to society. Some of these people consist of Bill Gates, Robber Barons, Bill Joy, Airplane Pilots, A man with an IQ of over 160, and many more, all who have had incredible and often well know lives; The interesting thing that Gladwell tells is how these people became rich, famous, or in some other way successful and why, or sometimes more importantly, why not. The author uses many, many real world examples, both humors and serious tones, and an anthology of respectable observations in order to argue that it is a mixture of willingness to work hard, and an amazing opportunity that allows ordinary, or extraordinary people to become outliers.

I highly recommend this book.

Thank you for reading,

Dustin Trembath

Test Post

Since I have nothing very interesting to say about the assigned literature, I'll simply post what my goals are for this year.

First and foremost my goal is to improve time management ability and be more diligent about my work. My freshmen and sophomore where, as my GPA shows, crap. Trying my junior year to improve this was a hard and somewhat successful step; however again my GPA shows, not completely successful. This year I hope to do well enough that I may use it as an example to colleges, as to what my abilities actually are.

My second and more specific goal, mainly because its the only other one that comes to mind, is to finish the summer homework two weeks before the school year begins. The college board recommends:

"students should consider a work's structure, style, and themes, as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone."

know this, I hope to identify an example of each of these elements in all three of the books.

Besides these two goals I only hope to develop a more analytical mind and a better critical thinking skill.

Thank you for reading,

Dustin Trembath