In the quote, "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.", Pip is referring to the first day he went to Miss Havisham's house. The first day he went there, he was introduced to Estella and Miss Havisham, who are of a higher class than Pip, so it was a different environment for him. Once Estella tells Pip that he is common, he immediately tries to become uncommon, just so he can impress Her. By this, he eventually doesn't even want to become Joe's apprentice anymore, just because he knows Estella would never want to be with a blacksmith. He changes what he wants to do and how he wants to live his life just for a girl who treats him like dirt.

There has been many memorable days in my life, but the one that i feel started my big chain is the day i started playing volleyball. My dad introduced me to the sport when i was just a small baby. He was a coach and he would bring me to his practices, and ever since then I have been in love with it. From the day of my first tryout, it has been 7 years since I started playing. I know that my life would be completely different if I never started playing volleyball. It has helped me become who I am today.

Dishonesty

For my first concrete detail, I am going to discuss how the author uses dishonesty to develop the characters in the play. Wilde uses it to give the personality traits and characteristics of Ernest and Algernon to show how their lies contribute to the play and how it gets them out of bad situations. For my second concrete detail, I will discuss how dishonesty reflects Victorian society. The characters do this by living up to the social expectations, even though that means they try to be something they're not, basically by acting fake. Finally for my third concrete detail, I am going to discuss how dishonesty develops the play as a whole. Wilde portrays the idea of dishonesty through dark humor and reflection on the way they lived way back then. It also shows the satire on social expectations and marriage throughout the entire book. The next paragraph will talk about the different levels of dishonesty.

So far, the book The Importance of Being Earnest has been very interesting to read. There are many parts throughout the it, that without my knowledge of the Victorian Era, I would have been lost most of the way through the it. For instance, social class was a very big thing back then. If you were of a higher class, you were expected to marry someone of your own class or even higher. Its like when Gwendolen gets engaged to Ernest, who is actually Jack, and if he were of a lower class, she would not have paid any attention to him. It seems a little unfair to me, just the fact that if someone was of a lower class, it would be very hard for them or maybe even impossible to move up.

Another big part of the Victorian Era was the role women played. There were certain standards made and women were expected to follow them. In my research, I found out that the men were expected to do all the work while the women were to stay home and do all the house chores and take care of their children if they had any. Gwendolen and Cecily are two very good examples of what the women stereotype was back then. They both were very lady like and they were both beautiful. They were of a higher class so they were very proper. Cecily was very sheltered when she was being raised. She has a fond interest in so called bad boys, who happened to also be "Ernest" who was really Algernon. All in all I am very glad we did the Victorian research. It helped a lot with the understanding of the book and how and why they lived their lives the way they did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3BxfD2JwGQ

Sympathy, by Paul Laurence was performed by Stanley Jackson this past year. I watched his performance on the website and thought he did a great job. He had excellent stage presence, voice and articulation and his understanding of the poem. He didn't use too much dramatization, but did use enough to get the audience intrigued and it helped them understand the poem. I would give his overall performance either a 10 or 12 because he did a very good job. I thought that the poem itself was not that difficult to understand the real meaning, which is why I would give him a 10.

The way he used the transition from the first part of the poem to the second part helped me understand what the poem was about. In the first part he used a light voice and talked of the caged bird who has dreams and who is like himself. The second part gives more of an edge and tells about how the bird beats its wings and wants to get away but must always come back to the cage. I think that it means that the bird feels trapped and would rather die than keep living the life it is living. The poet relates to the bird and says how he is like it. He obviously feels the way the bird does and he tells his story through the bird. Overall, I thought that his performance was excellent and I learned a lot from just watching him.

Motif

Reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has helped me understand the meaning of motif. By using the motif "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird" in the book, it introduces the concept of it's a sin to kill or wrongly convict someone or something who is innocent. Before reading the book, I did not quite grasp the idea of what motif was, but after reading it, I now understand it so much better, especially because the motif of the book was captured by the major themes of the book.

Some of the major themes in the novel is racism and justice verses injustice. The Tom Robinson case is a good example of racism. The motif exemplifies the fact the Tom was wrongly convicted and killed just by the fact the he was black. It also conveys the aspect of injustice verses injustice. Tom Robinson is like the the mockingbird. Everyone who convicted him of rape were all committing the sin.

Overall I thought the book helped me understand motif better in many ways. It has also given me a lot of practice at analyzing literature. I feel that I am much better at getting the deeper meaning of a book or novel. Plus, I enjoyed reading the book, which made everything a lot easier.