Year in Review

     As the year wraps up I have grown as a person, and the AP program prepared me for the future.
    I have grown as a person through the year. Young and inexperienced as a writer I entered the AP English Language and Composition class. After loving The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, and despising In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Struggling on the Multiple Choice Questions and roaring through the all essays. Gaining new friends not gaining enemies. All the ups and downs on English happened.

     This class prepared me for my educational future. Starting with a solid construction, but lacking the punch is how my essays started out. After the course with a little help from APUSH, my essays can take any shape and still delivers its purpose. My easiest essay was the argumentative essay because I knew a large amount of facts that I could use. My hardest essay was the rhetorical analyze just because searching through the text to find rhetorical devices was timing consuming. Utilizing writing skills will help me in any collage major that I am willing to take.

     This class prepared me for my general future. It taught me essential writing skills to express and analyze others feelings in a set work. It taught me that deadlines are hard and cannot be compromised. AP English taught me speed and stamina are essential to accomplish cumbersome tasks. It also taught me to express my feelings in an indirect manner.

     I would like you to know even on the most soul crushing days your class made my troubles melt away. The year closes out and I have grown as a person, and I have a bright academic and general future.

The Things I Carry

     Everyone believes they have a normal life with normal memories but they don't. They have specific memories that make the who they are. Physical things, hopes, love, persona, and memories are burdens that we have to live with and makes us unique from others.

     Physical thing are thing we carry that defines us. I have always have kept a card with me. I was given to me by ******* for Christmas. She is a good friend and I will honor all the decisions made by her. The card probably will never mean anything to her but it means everything to me. I can leave the house without it but I always know where it is. As time goes on we see each other less and less but the card will always be with me.

      Hopes and dreams are things that define us. I have hopes to be accepted into the top colleges in the world but that dream is diminishing quickly (thanks Ms. ******). I also have hopes for the future such as having a job and children. These hopes are what I strive for or else I would become sadistic which I am not.

      Love. Oh Love. I might need a page on this. I am lovesick because ***** is unattainable but I love her. Anyway, I have to haul around the this burden around because if anything I cannot get her out of my mind, sometimes bury my head in a pillow. Maybe I should go for ******* or ****** actually not the latter because ***** will declare war on me so that's out the window, but I don't love them as I do *****. I have to carry this with me in secret or else my soul will rip open. The impact she has on me is immense. She has made me what I am today help keeps me going through the bad times.

     Personas are things we carry that define us. I have to carry an intelligent and studious persona so I can achieve my goals. If I deviate from this people will give judgments on how I have changed. I sometimes want to be lazy and be a regular kid but I have to stick with who I am "because I will never change and I'm on my way"

     Memories are things we carry that defines us. My childhood all my bad experiences and all my good times go through my head. Some things such as ** ***** ******* **** ** ************, are things I want to burn up and erase from my mind, but it has happened and all I can do is take these things and learn from them. This makes me a better person.

     Physical things, hopes, love, persona, and memories are burdens that we have to live with and makes us unique from others.  Everyone believes they have a normal life with normal memories but they don't. They have specific memories that make the who they are.

The Third Option

     To break away from the parent culture is difficult in that it offers the challenge of either moving along or being fanatic with it. There is a third option out there and it is to blend the parent culture and the new one to form the new personal identity.
     Since I'm am Irish and Pakistani, I get a good blend from my parents. Even though I don't despise their culture there is some things I would change. I normally don't like South Asian food and I wish it would taste better. Also I don't believe in Catholicism. To form my culture I take these aspects out of it.

     Now with the things from my parents culture that I do like. I respect not eating pork. Also I love the St. Patrick's Day festival. Along with these things I will take aspects such as music form American culture the culture that I am living in right now.

      I will respect my heritage by honoring my families traditions and striving for things better than what my parents achieved during their lifetime. This blend has moved farther from my grandparents roots, but has become mine with the process of selection.

Hauted House Story Idea's

     In the short story Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, he uses personification, imagery, symbolism, an unknown and untrustworthy narrator, and a mysterious illness in the characters who live in the house.
     In the story, Edgar Allen Poe gives the house human qualities it that the house has a mysterious force that controls the characters who are in side the house at all times. Also Poe vividly describes the things that go on inside the house, such as the house itself, and Madeline Usher's death-like state. Using these ideas would create a good haunted house story by created a mood of gloom and creepiness throughout the story.

     Edgar Allen Poe uses symbols in the novel. The creepy pictures in the house symbolize Roderick and Madeline Usher. The falling of the house symbolizes the end of the Usher's incestual family line. Using symbolism will create a good haunted house story because it will heighten the mood and suspense.

     Poe uses an untrustworthy narrator to give the reader a mind game by guessing if the events actually occurred or if the narrator was going crazy. Poe also gives Roderick and Madeline mysterious illness to create a post-mortem feeling before the characters are actually dead; thi
s moves the plot forward. The idea of an untrustworthy narrator and a mysterious disease is a good idea in a haunted house story because the readers brain will be arguing back and forth if the events actually occurred and the detail of the illness could be a supporting argument.

     In the short story Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, he uses personification, imagery, symbolism, an unknown and untrustworthy narrator, and a mysterious illness in the characters who live in the house. 

The USA's obbsesions with the dark side

     The unknown supernatural world fascinates the average American because of it's intriguing mysteries. Multiple genres of American literature has an element of darkness.
     In the short story Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, he shows the narrators obsession with the old man because of his creepy eye. The narrator was so bothered by the super natural eye, he goes on and kills the old man. This shows that Americans are obsessed with these dark forces and are willing to do anything to get away form the occult.

     Another example Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, she connects Frankenstein's obsession with artificial life to the dark because in the process of scientific advancements Americans are reaching for some untapped darkness inside them. While Frankenstein's intensions are good he create a monster which people are still fascinated in today.

     In Ender 's Game by Orson Scott Card, he make the people on earth fear the aliens, because they are new and unheard of. This shows that Americans fear that thing that they do not know, but people are curious of things that they are fascinated while being a little frightened.

     The unknown supernatural world fascinates the average American because of it's intriguing nature.  

Greg Heffley and Ichabod Crane are Anti Heros

     Greg Heffley and Ichabod Crane are both anti-heroes. An anti-hero is the protagonist of the story, but are not the best of people. Greg Heffley and Ichabod Crane are similar in three ways, greed manipulation, and lack of others feelings.

                          

   
    Greg Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney and Ichabod Crane from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving are both greedy. Greg dreams about living rich with millions of people adoring him. Ichabod also wants to be rich by setting out to marry Katrina. Greed is not a characteristic of a hero because the average hero is compassionate toward others.

                    

     Ichabod Crane and Greg Heffley are both manipulative. Ichabod uses his students as menus so he can have a good meal whenever he feels like having one. Greg uses best friend Rowley to gain popularity, be a scout, and all the little things Greg wants him to do.
     

                  

     Ichabod Crane and Greg Heffley both don't about care what others feel. Ichabod disregards Katrina 's emotions nor wants to be a perfect husband for Katrina. Ichabod also ignores Brom Bones ghosts story until it is too late. Greg disregards Rowley's feelings believing he is too childish to understand middle school even though Greg doesn't see that Rowley is gaining popularity without him. Greg also stereotypes everyone into categories as weird, smart, dumb, attractive, stay away from and popular.

     In conclusion Greg Heffley and Ichabod Crane are both share greed, manipulation, lack of others feelings.