I Know What You Did Last Summer

Prediction: 

My prediction of this book is that the main character Julie, had a little incident last summer with her old boyfriend Ray. What really caught my attention was the sentence "Then he left home and took off for the coast." When I read that sentence I thought right away that something terrible happened between Julie and Ray, that Julie had to "end" the relationship between them. When I mean end I don't just mean a little sad break-up or something that you can forget about over time, no I mean like this was a permanent thing that Julie wouldn't be able to forget.

Not only did that one sentence make me feel like something horrible happened but on the cover of the book there is a little quote saying "some secrets refuse to stay buried." When I read that I figured that Julie is the one keeping the secret and when it said buried I figured that Julie had either buried Ray after she murdered him or her and Ray buried a "curse" or something like that and that made Ray move out to the coast. 

Ribbons

People get defined by a lot of things, looks, style, actions. One way that people are defined is by their culture, people can just look at someone and say "oh their from China." Here in the U.S our culture is what we are taught from our families. In China their culture is different from ours, for instance back in the older days in order for a girl to be considered beautiful they would have to have small feet. Therefore if the girls had long feet some of their parents would either tie ribbons around the feet or make them wear really small, tight shoes to make their toes curl under their feet.

Here in the U.S you are noticed for your features. Many girls wear make-up to make their faces look "prettier." When people wear make-up and dress in nice clothes, people tend to think that they are popular. Some people wear it because their friends where it and they want to be like their friends.

In my opinion I think that doing things to look pretty or to be popular is a bad thing, because I think that people should either just like you for who you are or don't like you at all. Eventually you will find someone who is right for you and will treat you how you should be treated. 

Who may I be?

Two left feet and still walks straight? Has holes that can sing the beautiful tune of a violin. Yeah I’m pretty cool! My best friend has 5 arms and lives under a rock. I have a great neighbor that loves me dearly. Plays his music ever so well. I have a job that I love, and I am the best in the business. I always am ready for work. Always riding my unicycle, happy as ever.

My boss has an evil nemeses, who ever so sadly, works right across the street from us in a bucket. Always trying to steal something dear and important to my heart. It’s not so bad that he lives, and works in a bucket, because he is right across the street from a lobster trap. Ever so famous in the rough waves, down deep with all different creatures.

I’m as yellow as the sun, and as square as box. My teacher is very puffy and ever so lovely. I have been in school for as long as I can remember. I started way back in December. Always trying to achieve that main goal of getting that rectangular piece of happiness. I always end up going back home to my favorite snail, that thinks he is a cat. 

Here are a few tips to you,

The best time to wear a striped sweater is all the time. Especially the ones with the turtle necks! 

Black and White

Author's Note: This essay is written to show my understanding of text analysis. Make sure to pay attention to my introduction. 

‘“After you, my dear Alphonse,”  “No, after you, my dear Alphonse,”’ equal outlooks on race are obviously shown through the this text by the two little boys in the story “After you my dear Alphonse,” by Shirley Jackson. Showing that without a influence by a parent, teacher, or towns people children don’t notice the difference between black or white. How a child often shows more respect or gratitude than an adult of more than twice his age is shown very much in this piece. 

In the story "After You, My Dear Alphonse", Mrs. Wilson is a very judgmental person, she makes a lot of assumptions that are not true. Just saying these few words gave me an idea that she is an example of reverse racism; meaning she doesn't try to be racist but it comes out sounding that way. "Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat." Mrs. Wilson wasn't trying to entail that but ended up sounding like that. 

In another line Mrs. Wilson was trying to force Boyd to eat stewed tomatoes because she thinks that he is so poor that he will eat anything that he can get. To me it sounds like she is trying to help him but yet she is saying it in a not so nice way. Reverse racism doesn't just happen in stories or novels, it happens here in Pewaukee, it happens in Waukesha, it happens everywhere in the world. 

There are many times in the story that Mrs. Wilson sounds rude. In this line: "And he certainly has to be strong to do that -- all that lifting and carrying at a factory." Mrs. Wilson is implying that Boyd's father is a poor man who has to work in a small factory and make very little money. It was only till Johnny said "Boyd's father doesn't have to, he's a foreman." that Mrs. Wilson thought she knew everything about Boyd and his family.  

The short story, "After You My Dear Alphonse," children seem to show more respect and make less assumptions than the adults do. There are many lessons that can be learned from this story. Overall I think that the main lesson here is to try to teach not only kids but also adults to not judge other people by what they look like. You always want to get to know someone before you give them a "name."

After You, My Dear Alphonse Analysis

5/1/13

Write an analysis of how this story relates to the topics of naive and reverse racism. How does it compare and contrast our society in Pewaukee? Other areas of the country/world? What lesson do you think Shirley Jackson is trying to teach us? 

In the story After You, My Dear Alphonse Mrs. Wilson is a very judgmental person, she makes a lot of assumptions that are not true. Just saying these few words gave me an idea that she is reverse racism. "Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat," In another line Mrs. Wilson is trying to force Boyd to eat stewed tomatoes because she thinks that he is so poor that he will eat anything that he can get. This doesn't just happen in stories or novels, it happens here in Pewaukee, it happens in Waukesha, it happens everywhere in the world. 

There are many lessons that can be learned from this story. Overall I think that the main lesson here is to try to teach not only kids but also adults to not judge other people by what they look like. You always want to get to know someone before you give them a "name". 

A Clean, Well Lighted Place 2 paragraphs

When I pictured the cafe, I pictured it as a small little shop that was near other shops and it was gonna be really light and comforting. Then I watched the film and the cafe was dark, pretty big for a cafe and it didn't seem so comforting when the one of the waiters was yelling at the customer to leave and be done so that he could leave. In the beginning of the film they showed the cafe with a few lights on outside, it looked kind of like one of the little shops that you found driving in the middle of no where that sits on the side of the road. Also when starting the film the music the director choose was kind of creepy and depressing, that definitely made me think different things about the film. 

Overall I thought the short story had a good point to it, but personally I didn't really like the story. I thought the overall point was that you should have patience because there are people less fortunate than you, are lonely and who want someone to be with. I didn't like the story because I am really interested in mystery books, so I guess the story didn't really grab my attention. 

Two things that I liked about the movie, were the characters and the cafe. I liked the choice of the characters because I feel like it was interesting to have sottish characters. I liked the cafe because I think that it was a nice big area to film a movie.

Two things that I didn't like about the movie, was the setting and the lightning. I didn't like the setting because I feel like it was in the middle of no where. I did't like the lighting because I think that it was too dark for a movie to be shot. 

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Comparing to something else

The impatient waiter from the short story reminds me a lot of my sister because my sister is a very impatient person. Just like the waiter she does not like waiting too long for other people, appointments or movies to start in the theaters. The impatient waiter also reminds me of violet from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Violet is a little impatient girl who does not like waiting for things. She was told specifically not to eat the gum because Mr. Wonka hadn't fixed all the glitches yet. What does she do? She goes ahead and eats it. Like the waiter she is a very impatient person.



Willy Wonka part, credit to : Madison Moroder