Alternate Ending

    The walls kept coming closer and closer until I could not stand any longer.  I begin to fall, but I happen to have time to grab onto the edge of the pit.  I try to hold on for as long as I can, but I am so tired and I still feel drugged.  I attempt to pull myself back up, but all of a sudden I starting feeling tickling and tiny pains all over my body.  There are spiders crawling all over me! They itch and hurt so badly.  I decide that dying from spider bites would be a lot more painful and torturous than falling down the pit.  I let go and all of a sudden I am falling.  My life flashes before my eyes, and the next thing I know I am in some water.  I try swimming around, but I am just to tired.  I do not think that I can avoid anymore attempts at torture so I just decide to drown myself.  I take a big inhale of breath and pass out.  Everything goes black, then suddenly I see a bright light and I realize I am dead.

Poe vs. Irving

    I am definitely Team Poe and not Team Irving.  I believe that Poe had a better writing style and could write more to manipulate the human mind.  He knew how to almost control peoples thoughts by creating vivid mental images and tugging at our emotions.  It almost feels like you are in the stories.  I believe that Poe also had much more diverse writing, like horror stories, mysteries, and poems.  All of his stories almost sound poetic, too.  He uses so many literary elements in all of his works.  He uses so many great sounding words that fit well and even sound scary.  His works are sometimes difficult to read, but even if you do not understand all the words you still get the idea and are still captured by the story.  Poe's stories actually interested me, while Irving's did not.

Romantic Poems

    Out of all the poems we read this week, I liked "A Psalm of Life" the best.  It talked about how we have to seize the day and live in the moment.  We should not worry about the past and not be afraid of the future or death.  We need to make sure people remember us by the good things that we do and the impacts we have made on their lives, like footprints in the sand.  We should always try to be optimistic and see the bright side of things.  I try to live by these things, that are almost like life mottos, everyday. I try not to let the past or the future affect me.  I try to be optimistic about the present, because you do not know what actually will happen in the future, so there is no need to be negative about what may or may not happen.  Carpe diem!!

Nature

    Fall is a beautiful time of year.  It is the end of hot weather and the beginning of the cold.  The trees start to change color, and the colors are absolutely gorgeous.  The sun starts to set earlier, so we get longer nights.  The smell of people burning leaves is wonderful, and the smells of fireplaces starting to be used is great.  All the colors and smells mix so wonderfully with each other to create a perfect season for everyone.  I love fall because it reminds me that winter is just right around the corner, and winter is my favorite season!  It makes me excited every time it gets colder because it makes me think about the snow that will soon come!

Political Climate of the 1950s- McCarthy Hearings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4N46jLdhCU&feature=player_embedded

     I completely agree with this video.  The hearings never really did end instead it turned into a hunt for terrorists instead of communists.  Anyone can be accused and no evidence is really brought up.  In the McCarthy hearings Joseph McCarthy would accuse a ton of people and not really give evidence.  They would not really receive fair treatment in court, instead they were just convicted of being a communist, unless they gave the names of others.  It is so easy to just start blaming other people when you know that it will get you out of trouble, even if it is wrong to do so.  In the McCarthy hearings people would have to accuse their friends, so that they would not be put in jail.  This arrogant, self-centered man had no right to accuse all of these people or put them on trial for something barely any of them actually did.  I believe that we will always find a new group to persecute and accuse unfairly, just like the witch hunts, communism trials, and the terrorist scares. 

Crucible Reflection

    The Crucible is a story about the Salem Witch Trials and somewhat how they tied in with the McCarthy Trials of communism.  I believe that the story starts off seeming like it is fairly normal, then the craziness starts to escalate.  The accusations the girls make are just of people they do not like or outcasts that they want to have arrested or even killed.  The girls, while dancing in the forest, thought that they were just playing around and having fun.  They did not believe any of the witchcraft nonsense at first, but then when they started to lie and make accusations, they started to believe what they were saying.  They started to think that there were actually witches.  I believe that this could happen in any society, even today.  Someone can just mention something or tell a lie, and it gets way out of hand.  As soon as it gets out of hand everyone, even the people that started it, believe that it is all true.  The Swine Flu epidemic, for example, started and someone died from it.  Soon, everyone thought that Swine Flu was extremely deadly and a serious issue, when in reality it was not all that bad.  The Crucible is just about some girls, that may have either wanted attention or were trying to get out of a problem, telling lies and opening a big issue.

Write Like a Puritan

    Since this week is write like a Puritan week, I was more observant to common daily events and things that might tie in with a religious lesson.  I observed many things, but could not come up with a religious lesson until I thought of my dog.

    Dogs follow their owners around and do whatever they say.  If they get in trouble they try to get closer to you, and if they get yelled at the just forget about it later.  They do not care what you look like or how much money you have.
    We should act more like dogs, since they are so forgiving.  We should forgive others just as easily.  We should also treat everyone as equals, just as God wants us to.  One person is not better than anyone else.  We should also follow and worship God, just as a dog does a human. 

Squanto

   Squanto played a very important role to the English colonies.  He was brought to the colony by another Indian named Samoset, who could speak very broken and bad English.  Samoset told the English that Squanto could speak English well, since he had been to England.  He helped the Pilgrims negotiate peace treaties among the Indian tribes and create trading agreements.  He helped translate and negotiate between the governors and tribal leaders.  He also worked as a guide to the Pilgrims, by teaching them about how to utilize their natural resources that were new to them.  I believe that the Pilgrims probably would not have survived without Squanto.  The Indians may have attacked the English if there was no peace treaties. The may have all died of starvation if they were not able to trade with the Indians, or if Squanto had not taught them about the land.   
Source: http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/BiographyTisquantum.php
Picture: http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/01_02/AH/sq/sq.jpg1

Journals!

         This past week we have been reading different accounts of discoveries of the new world.  They all came from different writers that were expressing how the first settlements were.  Some were primary sources, like John Smith's journal, but others were secondary sources, like the video "Nightmare in Jamestown."  They all may be from vastly different authors, but they are all very much alike.  Especially in the bias views they all had.  They all described the Native Americans in negative ways, even the National Geographic movie did this! I thought that it was kinda ridiculous that they had barely even interacted with these people yet they were calling them salvages and barbarians.  They had already had these misconceptions about the Native Americans before they had even met them for themselves.  I believe that there were many misconceptions and bias views in all the journals and the video.  I believe that people, especially National Geographic, should just say what happened so we actually know the truth about history instead of just exaggerating things to make a good story.

My First Post Went A Little Like This...

Hey! So, this my very first blog, but it is going to be mainly about my English class.

This week we have been learning about the Native Americans, their culture, and their literature. I think that it is very interesting that they are so "in tune" with nature.  The earth is the center of their entire way of life, and I feel like our culture now takes the earth and nature for granted and don't appreciate it as much as we should.  We tend to destroy the earth instead of honor it like the Native Americans did.
I was also fascinated by the city, Cahokia.  I think that it is amazing that there was such a large well functioning city back then.  The structures they built all by hand are unbelievable.  I seriously can't believe that they were able to build such large and magnificent mounds and buildings with only their hands.  That would take so much work and time to build something that great.

The Native Americans have been fun to learn about these past few weeks.