Literature Analysis: The Happiness Project

There is a book called the Happiness Project, so happy someone else has come up with it too. It is like a present I didn't even know was there for me to enjoy. However, I am still waiting for the book to become available at the library, if anyone has a copy please let me know!

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

Masterpiece Talk: Jisu

Masterpiece Talk: Victoria

Masterpiece

1. My topic is making someone else feel valued and important and loved. Sometimes high school life can get dry and dull and lull us to sleep rather than wake us up to all the great things out there. Whether giving someone new friendships or just giving them a smile, I hope to complete that in my project. I became interested in making people happy when I found myself not happy. I realized that other people can feel that way, but a little light in their world, whatever it may be can bring them up to the surface of happiness.
I think this topic will enrich my life and others because it shows what a little bit of kindness can do. Simple smiles and small gestures is all it takes to made a terrible day a little better. Sometimes letting our terrible days get others down is also something that can be avoided when you let someone know. Maybe it doesn't have to be a terrible day, maybe it can be a great day if you have the willingness to let it. Also this is to inspire people to be kind and aware of what is happening around them and giving them a little shove to sacrifice some of their time and love for someone else.
This project needs some social skills, some that I may not posses but maybe others will. I hope to include the whole senior class in this project maybe a few from other classes. If I can find enough people willing to participate, I think everyone's social skills combined will make this a project for the books.
Learning how to decipher people's mood or feeling will be one of the first peices. We will be learning about how people respond when something nice and unexpected happens and also seeing how we feel after we have accomplished something amazing and thoughtful. Then hopefully translating that over to our own life and the actions we take in it that we may not have taken before.
I would say we need money for purchasing gifts for the special person of the week or month, then also time from people to see who needs it the most, what to get them and then how to execute the plan in secret. I would like each way of presenting the surprise to be different each time.
to tell my story I will probably use my own blog, my technical skills are not advanced and I try to not "social media" my life away, but I think whatever does come out of this might also get posted to Facebook to try to get support for what we are doing. Also to get ideas of who to surprise, we might post signs up that says nominate someone who you think is deserving of something special, to get the word out about the project, why we are doing it, and hopefully get deserving applicants.

There is a book called The Happiness Project that I am excited to read and see how someone else found a way to become happier. Sadly it seems very popular at the moment because the libraries are fresh out of copies. I have to wait for it to become available but I am exciting to read and learn from it and hopefully get some more inspiration for my project and also how to make it better, more organized.

The author has a blog that I am trying to find to possible contact her to get involved (I am dreaming) but after I got the magic wand, I just couldn't stop. I am ready to hear others opinions and advice for making htis project amazing and still trying to find the right people to approach.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Notes

Today we discussed:

how the story was being told, but in different parts

 bottoms of trousers were rolled, then he went to the beach

he thought he should have been a crab instead of a person, because if he switched bodies with a crab, the crab would enjoy life, unlike him, who kept on regretting the what ifs

in the end when it talked about waking up from voices, I thought about if that really happened.

maybe Prufrock did live the crazy, packed to the brim glamorous life that he was unable to escape from. So in his dreams he wished his life, was simple, easy, boring to the point of just listening to women talk about Michelangelo. I got this idea from the last words, "...we drown." If he was woken from his sleep and he is forced to return to the hubbub that he so desperately wanted to escape, then it would be similar to drowning in so much "life" it means no life. It is like a royal family trying to take a break for two seconds, but that is impossible because there are schedules and deadlines. The same comes around senior year, when we are bombarded with so may things, to do lists that never end, it seems that only in sleep and dreams are we able to escape it for a minuscule second, but then wake up from the alarm to "drown" in another day like Prufrock possibly did. 

Poem Comparison Essay

Working together

Tangible and intangible things work together to create somethig better amazing. It is us working with the intangible, things that don't really work and it is the tangible 

Tone is optimistic and positive. 

It makes it seem like everything is right but it puzzles you too

From the flying part to the next part

Trust is theme