Mary's Readers Blog: 2010

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Charles

The story "Charles" by Shirley Jackson. Is about a little boy who lies about school. He made up an imaginary character that he can relate himself to, but not tell that to his parents. He made up an imaginary character so his parents won't get mad at him, so he tells them many things "Charles" did. But it was actually himself.

The story takes place in many different themes, You can relate this story to Character vs Character, when "Charles" gets himself in trouble to get attentions. or Character vs Parent, when Laurie's mom speaks to him about "Charles". The narrator of this story is the little boy ([Laurie]), The plot starts off when Laurie comes home from school. He begins to tell his parents about a boy names Charles. (p.1) " The third day, Charles bounced a seesaw onto the head of a little girl. He made her bleed. The teacher made him stay inside during recess." As you can see from this quote Laurie is telling his parents how "Charles" did that to a girl, but in all reality it was Laurie himself who did that to a girl. I think the author "zooms in" on the next parts, when he begins to tell a new story everyday about this Charles boy.

The ending of this story ends up, by Laurie's mother going to Laurie's school for parent teacher conference. At the conference Laurie's mom begins to speak about Charles, When she then comes to find that their isn't any Charles. (p.2) "You must have your hands full with Charles. Charles ? she said , we don't have any Charles in kindergarten."As you can see from this quotes, Laurie's mom finds out that there isn't any Charles. So if you can conclude everything Laurie has been saying. It all relates back to him, he was the one misbehaving in school. But he made up "Charles" to hide it.

Laurie made "Charles" up maybe to get attention from his peers, or maybe just to misbehave. Because he did lie a lot and personally I think he should of just came forward and told his mother. But this isn't rare because many kids under second grade lie, they think its okay ? and they do it for attention. But Laurie lied a lot, and misbehaved a lot. I wonder why the school didn't call his parents in soon ? Why did the teacher wait for parent teacher conferences ? This is all my opinion on the story "Charles" by Shirley Jackson.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Eyes And Teeth ,

In the story "Eyes and Teeth", Their's a character named Buzz, he's dark skin. Yet his mother doesn't like him because he's dark skin. She thinks dark skin people are ugly. This story is a little racist because the main characters mom, doesn't like him because of his skin color Buzz's mom is "black" too, they are a poor family with Rats in their house. Buzz suffers a lot just because of his skin color, he always gets talked about, his own family talks about him. Also he is very miserable. But in the end it all works out for the best.

This story has many themes, One of the themes of this story is personality. At beginning of the story Buzz says how much he likes to be around the girl. It’s also personality because when Buzz hears his own mom say bad things about him he starts to change and act different, It’s also personality because when Buzz hears two conversation between his mom and the girl’s mom he reacts to it in a angry mood and very sad mood. This is when he really starts to change, and feels very miserable.

Another theme that goes with the story is racism. This theme is another theme that can be found in the story. When Buzz’s mother says “ I can’t stand to look at nothings but black”. This shows that his own mom is being racist against Buzz. Yet his own mom is also "black", but she just doesn't like Buzz ((her own son)) because he's very dark skin. When Buzz hears that he su changes and thinks that his mother is being racist to his color and how he looks. When Buzz hears this he feels very sad, and miserable. Then he starts to doubt and feel uncomfortable about himself, all because of the things his mom says.

In conclusion to the story is after he hears the conversation between his mom and the girl’s mom he goes away for twenty years. The no one sees him for that tine. Until he comes back to go to his moms funeral , and when he was younger his mom always thought he was going to be unsuccessful with his life. But he returns to his moms funeral with his beautiful wife and two babies. He is also very wealthy, and you can say everyone was jealous of him.

Bastard Out Of Carolina

Bastard "Bastard Out Of Carolina" is a story about a girl who stole candy from a store and her mom forces her to return the candy. The mom is very disapointed by her daughter, she never wanted her to be a shoplifter. So the mom forces her daughter to go back to the store and return the candy. When they return to the store they get an unprepared for action from the guy that was in the store. This action connects to the theme, plot and conflict. This is a very big turning point that puts a huge click on the whole story.

In the story the main characters feels an uncomfortable feeling after she steals candy from a store. But not quickly after she steals the candy, she gets this feeling when she takes it back and the old man in the store says and does bad things to the girl.This connects to the theme because a couple of themes in the story that always shows up about how it uncomfortable feelings and hate. This is how the theme in the story connects to the main characters feelings.

The conflict in the story reaches a turning point when it changes from the main character stealing the candy to when the old man tries to make sexual moves on the young girl. This is when the girl began to hate and feel uncomfortable around the man in the story. The clues are when the old man says "Don't cry, honey. It'll be all right. We'll take care of it, it'll be alright". As you can see he's talking to her very sweetly, and he knees down and holds her shoulder. The main character feelings very uncomfortable, and just cries.

The conflict of the story is that the girl stole candy from the store, and her mom made her return it to the store. The little girl felt very bad because she didn't want her mom to find out and feel bad. But it was too late, the mom found out and was very mad at her daughter. So the only right thing the mom suggested was to returned the candy to the store. That's when the old man who worked at the store tries to make sexual moves at her. Then the mom notices and just looks at her daughter, and soon after they both feel very weird.

Most of the whole entire story revolves around when the girl and her mother take back the stolen candy. Because that's when all the weird tense starts to form, and all the weird conversation forms. Then at the end the little girl is banned from the store, until the mom says it's ok for her to go back to the store. This is mainly the theme,and it's also the turning point of the story.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Stop The Sun By Gary Paulsen

In the story "Stop The Sun" by Gary Paulsen. It's a story about a boy who's father had has a veteran syndrome. The boy is extremely embarrassed by his dad, bu the finally finds out why his dad does weird things. Then the boy soon doesn't feel as embarrassed by his dad. The main character learns a lot after he really has a talk with his dad, the boy acts by what is on his mind. He doesnt really think of the things he does before he does it.

In the beginning of the story the boy is embarrassed by his dad. "His father was squirmming across the floor on his stomach, he was crying" (P.2) .This shows the boy is embarrassed because he thought he wanted to walk away fast but he didn't. He helped his father up, a lot of events had happened like this, But the conflict reaches a turning point when he actually starts to feel bad for his dad. After he learns what his dad has ((Veteran Syndrome)).

Towards the middle of the story the boy began to learn, why his dad was acting like he was. Then at the end they have a conversation about his dad's Veteran Syndrome. Then the boy feels bad for being embarrassed of his dad. This story connects to theme of "Man Versus society" because whenever something went wrong with his dad, a crowd will be around him. "Terry squeezed through the crowd until he got to the front." (P.2). This connects to "Man Versus Society" being that everyone just watched/ laughed no one cared about the dad having a Syndrome. They all just thought he was weird !

The point of view of this story is by the First person and Third person. First person because the dad has his own thoughts and feelings towards his Veteran Syndrome. Then he has to go out to the world and see what everyone is saying about him. This also connects to the Third person because it has the perspective of his son's idea, and the boy has his own thoughts towards his dad's Veteran Syndrome.

Class Blog List :]

Mr. Schiff:324readers.blogspot.com
Mr. Donahue: samsreaders324.blogspot.com
Abdue: abduesreaders324.blogspot.com