First 10 Sentences of a Vignette

Sept. 6, 2010
Dear Diary,
Summer is almost over and high school begins tomorrow. But I had a really fun time with my best friend Jessica. We had a sleepover at our tree house every Saturday and Sunday. We talked about boys and shopping, read magazines, and watch our favorite movie, Kung Fu Panda! We also took a lot pictures and put it on the tree house's wall. Our tree house was built on the same year as me and Jessica became best friend. I really don't want to go back to school because I have to face the presumptuous princess, Jennie. Uhhh! She's really mean with us last year. Well, I better sleep now. Write to you later.


Sept. 7, 2010
Dear Diary,
I was almost late for school this morning-- yeah, the very first day of school. This is not only the bad luck, Jennie is in three of my classes.

The 26 Malignant Gates

Rules of the Game:
This started when Waverly got a lifesaver for Christmas and her brother, Vincent, got a chess set with two missing pieces for Christmas. Winston, her other brother, plays chess with Vincent. Then Waverly wants to play, but Vincent does not let her. When Waverly offers lifesavers in place of the missing pieces, Vincent let her plays. Waverly learns how to play chess and once she met a man named Lau Po, who teaches her everything about chess. Waverly then gets to play in a tournament and she wins every tournaments. Her mom is proud of her and show her off, which annoyed Waverly; then Waverly and her mother get into a fight.
The Voice from the Wall:
When Lena St. Clair and her family move to Oakland due to her dad's job, her mother alwayss rearrange the furniture. Her mother says that the house is not balanced. When her mother is pregnant, Lena sees that her mother is not excited about it. Then the baby is borned, but it died afterward which is a big blow for Lena's mother. Ying Ying,Lena's mother, talks about a baby boy in the past that she killed. Ying Ying never talks about her past in China. At home, Ying Ying is quiet and lay still on the sofa for the whole day. While that's happening, Lena hears argument between mother and daughter across the wall. Lena thinks the the girl is beaten to death, but she sees that the girl has no blood on her. Then one time, the girl rings Lena's house and walks toward Lena's room to use the fire escape stair to climb back to her room. The girl got kick out by her mother and she wants to play a prank on her mother.The mother thinks the girl was outside, but actually the girl is in her room. Then Lena hears the argument between the girl and the mother, but this time Lena also hears some laughing.
Half and Half:
Ted wants to divorce with Rose because she never makes a decision. Rose's mother tells her to save the marriage, but Rose sees no point in doing that. Then Rose talks about the past where her family is going to a beach like an American family. Her dad walks to the edge of the beach and onto the reef to fish. Rose's mother tells her to look after her siblings, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing. Matthew, Mark, and Luke go play and Bing plays alone because he's too small to play with the other. Then Bing wants to go to his father. As Bing goes toward the reef, there was a fight between Luke and Mark. Rose's mother tells her to stop the fight and at that moment Bing fell into the cold water. The family tries to look for him, but it was unsuccessful. Rose says that she knew Bing was in danger, but she let it happen and how she sees the sign in her marriage, but she let it happen.
Two Kinds:
Jing Mei's mother tries everything to find something that Jing mei is good at, so Jing Mei can be a prodigy. Everything that Jing Mei tries fail, but her mother is very determined. Her mother asks Mr.Chong to teach Jing Mei how to play piano in exchange for house cleaning services. Mr.Chong is deaf, so he cannot hear the dissonant sound that Jing Mei makes. Jing Mei never wants to be a prodigy, but she is forced to by her mother. Her mother and Auntie Lin brag about their daughters, which encourage Jing Mei to put a stop to her mother's pride.Then there's a talent going on, and Jing Mei's mother and Mr.Chong sign Jing mei up to play piano in the talent show. Jing Mei's playing is terrible and Jing Mei thinks that her mother would not made her piano again, but apparently her mother still wants her to play. Jing Mei refuses to play, which makes her mom angry. Jing Mei is so angry that she wishes to be dead like them (the twin babies). This stops her mom immediately and her mom goes out of the room. When Jing Mei is thirteen, her mother gives her the piano as a present and now Jing Mei finds the songs are not hard to play.

Vocabulary!

1.) The arid weather makes her drinks a lot of water.
2.) The assiduous students always turn in their assignments on time.
3.) The crazy man was sent into the asylum.
4.) The benevolent sisters care for the poor and children.
5.) My friend and I maintain our camaraderie for 7 years.
6.) Her mom nods in censure as the girl walks outside wearing a short skirt.
7.) The boy takes a circuitous route to avoid the bully.
8.) The clairvoyant fortune teller tells what is going to happen in the future.
9.) We collaborate with another group to work on our project.
10.) The girl shows compassion for the unfortunate kid.

Extra Credit

Paton characterized the gender differently by describing the clothing of men and women. Kumalo was on a carriage and saw women in "strange assortments of European garments, some with blankets over their strange assortment, some with blankets over the semi-nudity of their primitive dress, though these were all women. Men travelled no longer in primitive dress."(p.43) The women still hold their customs, while the men are not. The effect of this difference is that women follow the old customs, and take care of the children, cooking, farming, and obey their husband; and the men are not following the old customs because they have to work in city. They are the man of the house, they have to earn money; no white men is going to hire them if they're in their primitive dress and dancing their traditional dance. I think the difference is fair because man is the leader of the family and they have to have a job to take care of the whole family; the women's job is to be a mom, and take care of the children and do other chores. Then there's different characterization of gender in Johannesburg. This gender's characterization is the antithesis of the the gender's characterization in the country. Paton describes gender differently by conveying to the reader that women in Johannesburg have jobs, too. But, the jobs are bad. Msimangu and Kumalo was going to Claremont to look for Gertrude and Msimangu tells Kumalo that "this is bad liquor here, made strong with all manner of things that our people have never used. And that is her work, she makes and sells it. I shall hide nothing from you, though it is painful for me. These women sleep with any man for their price."(p.53) Women going to city become a prostitute and they make and sell illegal liquor. Men become bad guys and stop working because they are having fun with girls and gambling. The effect of this is men become criminals instead of becoming good workers, who would send money home to their family; women on the other hand try to earn money, but they don't have a decent job, instead they have a sinful job, which are prostitute and making and selling liquor. The is difference is not fair, since the women have to work, and the men don't want to work. The women lost their chastity and men get their name on criminal record.

Coding Cry, Beloved Country

Passage:Jarvis sat, deeply moved. Whether because this was his son, whether because this was almost the last act of his son, he could not say. Whether because there was some quality in the words, that too he could not say, for he had given little time in his life to the savouring and judging of words. Whether because there was some quality in the ideas, that too he could not say, for he had given little time to study of these particular matters. He rose and went up the stairs to his room, and was glad to find his wife not there, for here was a sequence not to be interrupted. He picked up the Abraham Lincoln and went down to the study again, and there opened the book at the Second Inaugural Address of the great president. He read it through, and felt with a sudden lifting of the spirit that here was a secret unfolding, a track picked up again. There was increasing knowledge of a stranger. He began to understand why the picture of this man was in the house of his son, and the multitude of books.




Key:
repetition
figurative language
characterization
allusion
3rd person point of view
odd diction
sentence structure

Gender roles

Paton creates gender roles in the novel by describing the South Africa's land and it's culture. "Stand shod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men." Paton uses the word 'men' a lot in the quote, so he could show the reader that men are more important than women. Paton didn't mentions women a lot except the part when they are working in the valleys, "[d]own in the valleys women scratch the soil that is left......The men are away, the young men and the girls are away."(34) Women consider by Paton and South African society, are hardworking housewives. Women's jobs are to care for their family and to farm. Women are not consider important as men since men are strong and the leader of the family.The effect of the differences between the gender roles are that when the soil can't support the people anymore, people have to move to city. Women will have to stay back to do their chores and take care of the children; and the men have to go to city to make money.

Similarity and Differences in Power Structure between Power of One and Lord of the Flies

The power structure in Power of One is similar to Lord of the Flies because there is a bad leader and his group. The bad leader and his group are really violent and act like savages. In the Power of One, the Nazi boys form a circle and the leader kills the chicken and  injures PK, a British boy. Before this, the Nazi boys have bully the British boy because of his race. In the Lord of the Flies, Jack and his group kill Piggy and Simon because they maintain their morals. The boys in Power of One and Lord of the Flies all become violent and aggressive. There are some differences in the power structure between the Power of One and Lord of the Flies. The difference is that in the Lord of the Flies, there's a conch, representing authority and civilization, which protects Ralph, Piggy, and Simon for a short time. Also there are two power; Ralph who has power to keep the boys civilized for a while and Jack, who came to power later, brought the boys to savagery.  Most of the boys follow Jack's leadership because they want to survive. While in the Power of One, there are  Nazi captains abusing and hitting black prisoners because of prejudice. The German have power to do that to the black prisoners. Even normal black people are treated unfairly by the Nazis. The Nazis have power because they have weapons and they always hit black people in order to maintain their power. Also the setting in Power of One is in a civilized place, while the setting in the Lord of the flies is in an uncivilized place, so the way power is used is different.