Movie Magic

Someone bring out the tissues because chapter 13 of Song of Solomon is a real tear jerker!! In this chapter we see a new side of Guitar. The once cold hearted killer softens up to give Hagar some valuable life advice.

"You think because he doesn't love you that you are worthless. You think that because he doesn't want you anymore that he is right - that his judgement and opinion of you are correct" (Morrison 305-306).

Oh. My. Goodness. If you aren't crying right now you have not seen enough romance movies. Also I highly, highly recommend reading pages 305 to 307 over again to really soak up the sadness and passion of Guitar's words to Hagar.
If you couldn't tell, I am a sucker for a sappy romance story, whether it be a book, a movie, it doesn't matter. I will be crying. So when I was reading this passage from Song of Solomon I pretended like I was watching it on a big screen in my head. I envisioned Hagar sitting helplessly on the bottom of the steps with her eyes empty, staring into nothingness. Then Guitar catches sight of her and a "deep wave of sorrow" (Morrison 305) engulfs him. The heartache and the sympathy practically radiate off the pages and create this beautiful, yet melancholy scene.
If someone reading this blog is a film maker (or wants to be one in the future) please, please make Song of Solomon into a movie just so I can see this scene in theaters! There is something about movies that brings a feeling of real life to a fictional story. The saying "movie magic" is, to me at least, certainly true. It is one thing to play a scene out in your head, but it is a completely new experience when you see it unfold with real actors and props and lighting and music! 

For those of you that aren't romance movie enthusiasts, here are some scenes from some of my personal favorites...
The Notebook  

10 Things I Hate About You   (This whole movie makes me cry)

17 Again

Love, Rosie  (Was also crying this whole movie)

There are many, many more but here are a few just to get your feet wet, enjoy!

Where my girls at?

George Orwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, Mark Haddon, John Steinbeck, Tim O'Brien, Mark Twain, Markus Zusak, Jonathan Safron Foer, Charles Dickens, Art Spiegelman, and William Golding (just to name a few). Now you might be wondering, what do all of these men have in common besides being old and white?? Well I'm glad you asked! Each and ever one of these TWELVE men have written a book, or two, that has been required by my English curriculum. In addition to these male authors I was only able to find FOUR female authors: Harper Lee, Julia Alvarez, Pearl S. Buck, and Toni Morrison. And out of all of these authors combined, male and female, only ONE African American.
 Women are under-represented in many areas and occupations, literature being a major one, and most concerning for high-school students. According to Jessica Sheather-Neumann , "female students make up around half of the secondary student population. With the under-representation of female authors in high school literature, there is a real risk that the texts being studied by these young women (and men) will not reflect their own stories and experiences." Now hear me out, I am not "man hating" (a term feminists are often associated with, which is a false accusation about feminism) on these male authors, it just makes you wonder "where my girls at?" (Beyonce).  
Back in the times of William Shakespeare and Mark Twain women were not seen as educated or qualified enough to be writers, let alone authors. But imagine if they were. What impact would it have on our literature today? Would we have more well known female authors? Would societies behavior/viewpoint toward women be different? The answer is I don't know, and it's a real shame we will never be able to find out.
  The dominance of men in certain aspects of life are often over looked or seen as non problematic because 'that's the way things have always been'. 
To that I bite my thumb. Our society is often blinded by its fear of change, that it misses many opportunities to progress and become a stronger, more united nation. The integration of female authors into the high school English curriculum may seem like a minuet change, but in reality it is a giant step in the right direction. The proper balance between literature written by female and male writers in schools has the potential to inspire young writers to freely express their thoughts with no gender limitations. It is never to late for change! So why not now? 
                                                 


How do you think the representation of female authors in the English
 curriculum will effect students? Society? Gender equality? 














Lets play a game! Try to match each author with its correct photo! Good luck, no cheating!!




                                                 








Hint: I looked up 'generic white guy' on google and put him in the mix!

Origin Story

How did you get your name? 

After our discussion in class about the origins of our names, I realized that I really had no clue where mine came from. So I asked my parents and they said in Latin the name Olive means peace. They loved the meaning of it so they adapted it to be more feminine, and came up with Olivia. Side note, Olivia was also one of the top ten girl baby names in 2001 (that's probably why I know like 6 other Olivia's). I became more intrigued with with idea of everyones 'origin story' so I began to ask around. One of my friends was named after the main character of the Home Alone movies, Kevin. My friend Monica's parents switched her grandmother's middle and first name from Helen Monica to Monica Helen. This got to be so much fun that I decided to interview some of my friends! Here's what they said...

"My parents were looking through a name book with their friends and they didn't know any bad Natalie's, and they liked the sound of it." - Natalie Eighmey

"My name comes from a fortune teller who was really famous for like politicians in Korea, and my grandparents spent 2,000 dollars to ask him what my name should be based on my birthdate and time I was born, and my name Jin Seok was decided." - James "Jin Seok" Ha

"My Chinese name, Mei-Ling, was chosen because it's the traits my parents wanted me to have. Mei means beautiful jade and Ling means musician. My American name was chosen because my parents liked Olivia Newton John." - Olivia Mei Ling Tu 

"My name is from my grandfather because it is tradition for the first born son in the Levant to have the name of his grandfather and his father's name second. So my name is George Kayed, my grandfathers name is George, and my fathers is Kayed. It really translates to "Azar the son of Kayed, grandson of George."  - George Azar

"My mom didn't want to name me with anyones name she already knew, so she mixed letters together that she liked and got Mallory." - Mallory Bouque 

"Won means lasting forever and Young means spirit." - Won Young Kang 

"My name is my dads family's surname (Oh) and then there's a list of what my middle character of my name is suppose to be, which is Min, and my parents got to choose the last, Suk." - Brian "Min Suk" Oh 

"My dad's coworker suggested it and said that it means 'protector' and my parents really liked it. It also has the same first sound of my Korean name." - Jamie Kim 

"My father was illiterate and found a group of words in the Bible that ended up being Pilate. He was to stubborn to change it so now i'm named after the guy that crucified Jesus." - Pilate Dead 

"It's kinda weird but I breast fed beyond the years that children are suppose to, so I got the nickname Milkman." - Milkman Dead 

How did you get your name? Leave a comment down below! 

The Troy High Dream

Everyone warned us that Junior year was the worst of them all. The countless AP classes, maintaining that perfect 4.0 or higher, acing the ACT/SAT, being on the board of one of your many clubs, varsity sports, community service, all while balancing a decent social life. Oh, and don't forget being especially good in class this year so you can receive that outstanding rec letter we all so desperately want. In an ideal world we would all be achieving this Troy High Dream. But in reality, we just can't. I hate to break it to you, but only a small percentage of students are going to live up to the, oh so glorified, Troy High Dream. And what does it mean if you are not included in that small percent? Well, you're a failure. 

Now that last sentence may seem ridiculous to most of you, but in reality it's what MANY students at Troy High think if they aren't accomplishing all the things the Troy High Dream entails. As my math teacher put it, "it's not normal to be achieving all these things!" And I totally agree. How can one person, a teenager mind you, balance all these expectations? The bar is set extremely high at Troy High, which also means that the pressure to due well is insane. It almost feels as though our job title is 'Full Time Student'. No where in that title does it say 'Kid'. As adolescents, our teen years are suppose to be spent making memories, being goofy with our friends, trying new things, falling in love, making mistakes, finding new dreams, and just living our lives. In the midst of all of Troy High's expectations, it's hard to remember that we are just kids. 

It's important to realize that the Troy High Dream is merely a dream. Something we may strive for but never quite obtain. "Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning" (Fitzgerald, 180) we will all realize how absurd the expectations of the Troy High Dream really are.