The Soloist: Final Post

This was a pretty good book compared to most of the readings we have read throughout the year. This was a true story which made it more interesting for me to read because i really wanted to find out the story of Nathaniel Ayers. I feel like this book has really come a long way. From lopez first hearing Ayers playing his violin with two strings to now Where Lopez and Ayers have a great friendship with eachother that is still going on today.

In my opinion i would say Lopez is pretty crazy for putting a lot of his time and effort into working with Ayers. I thought that maybe after a newspaper article or two that both Lopez and Ayers would go on living their lives but Lopez sticking with Ayers turned out to be good for both of them in the long run. They ended up having a great friendship due to all Lopez' hard work. There was one fight that occured in these final chapters between Lopez and Ayers. Lopez could have just walked away right there and maybe never even see Ayers again. But instead he understood his illness and did not think much of it just to keep their friendship.

Lopez and Ayers still hold their great freindship up to this day. What started off as a few newspaper articles changed the life of Ayers, who basically was living a bad life as a homeless person. My final thought of The Soloist was that it actually was a pretty good book, which i didnt expect it to be. It was a good book to finish off the year with.

Focus: Second paragraph

The Soloist 13-22

Throught these chapters i began to notice a little bit of the writing style of Lopez through his Skid Row series. His story of Nathaniel Ayers is beginning to become noticed by many people. I do not think that lopez writing about what he noticed on skid row is a very professional thing to do. I do not think it is right for the lives of the unfortunate to be put out there just because of one person, Ayers, who spends most of his time there. The mayor begins to take interest also and finds out a few things about Skid Row that he supposeably did not know about.

Also throughout these chapters, many people keep trying to move Ayers into an appartment that they had reserved for him but Ayers still will not leave his somewhat of a home on Skid Row. I feel that there are two problems wrong with what they are trying to do. Just because Ayers has been in the L.A. times because of Lopez does not mean that he should get special treatment from people and have a reserved appartment for him when there are many other people out there just like him and do not receive anything. Also, trying to persuade someone like Ayers with the illness of schizophrenia to move somewhere he is not comfortable with can make him feel very uncomfortable with the people that are trying to persuade him to take the open spot in the appartment. Lopez should have a put a stop to his Nathaniel Ayers story when many people began taking interest because problems are sure to come.

Focus: I'm curious to see if my recent posts have had good details and if i get a good viewpoint across to the readers that have been reading my recent blogs.

The Soloist 7-12

Chapters 7-12 of the soloist are somewhat different than the first six chapters. Lopez is more into getting to know Nathaniel Ayers and his way of life. Lopez tells Ayers that he is willing to spend the night with him over at Skid Row. As Lopez starts walking down Skid Row he begins to feel a sense of discomfort as he watches all the prostitutes,alcoholics, and drug dealers proceed in doing there nightly routine. He thinks to himself how a man like Ayers could survive here every night with any harm being done to him. Also, Lopez tells how Skid Row is such a horrible area in Los Angeles but right down the street is the Disney Hall.

Throughout the night Lopez asks Ayers questions pertaining to his little sleep spot here on Skid Row and many times tries to persuade him to live in a more safe place. Ayers had an answer for everything Lopez was saying and he eventually just dropped it and let Ayers go on with whatever he was doing at the time. I agree with Lopez when he tries to persuade Nathaniel to move away from his home and Skid Row. Ayers is nothing like the people that reside there because he is not involved in the drug and alcohol abuse that is taking place over there. I feel he deserves a better spot where he can sleep comfortably and play his violin in a quiet space where he can really get some work done. Unfortunately, Ayers illness stops him from doing anything out of the ordinary to him. But on the other hand Ayers feels like he is at home each day and is happy living under the conditions he is in.

Chapters 7-12 took another step in the book and gave me more detail about Ayers and the way Lopez feels about him and the situations he is in. Im still looking forward to find out more and how the true story of Nathaniel Ayers unfolds.

Focus: sentence structure and how i can make some sentences better.

The Soloist

The first six chapters of "The Soloist" have been pretty good so far. I feel Steve Lopez has a different type of writing style then the past couple authors of books we have read. As Mr. Fiorini said, he writes his books kind of like a newspaper article, but i think this is a good change compared to the past couple books we have read. Its a little bit of an easy read and its easier to pick out the main points and main events throughout the chapters.

This book is based on true events which makes it a little bit more interseting for me. The story is based on Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man who has a fetish of playing the violin on busy street corners. Not to mention that he is playing a violin with only two strings on it. Steve Lopez, a journalist for a local newspaper comes across Ayers one day while searching for his next story to write about in an upcoming newspaper. Lopez notices how well Ayers is playing a violin with only two strings and thinks to himself that this maybe could be in his next newspaper article.

Lopez becomes quite fond of Ayers and his violin with two strings that he often goes searching for him to ask him questions. He keeps trying to find out Ayers' story of why he is on the streets and how did he get that good at playing the violin. After visiting Ayers a few times he discovers that he attended Julliard and is diagnosed with the illness schizophrenia. He also discovers that Ayers illness led him to drop out of Julliard. These first six chapters have been interesting and i am looking forward to find out the rest of the true story about Nathaniel Ayers.

Focus: Paragraph structure

The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in The Rye is a book based around the main character Holden Caulfield. The book begins with Caulfield standing on a hill watching his schools football game. This was his fourth school he has attended after failing out of his first three schools he had attended. Caulfield is now about to be expelled from his current school, Pencey High, after failing four out of the five classes he takes there.

In my opinion i feel Holden Caulfield has many social issues that he does not tend to properly and ends up affecting his life in a negative way. Holden seems to have many problems with his roomate Stradlater and his neighbor to his dorm, Ackley. The smallest things about these two people seem to annoy him very much. I feel most of his problem with Stradlater is because of his recent date with Jane, who Caulfield had recently dated before. Throughout the book there were many examples that made me believe that Caulfield basically liked being alone and very kept to himself. He seems like he would be fine if he was the only person that existed. Because of his recent incident with Stradlater hes decides to leave Pencey three days early and head to Manhattan.

I also feel that Caulfield has a problem making up his mind on what he wants to do. He will put his mind to something then when he is about to do it he backs out and tries to find another option. For example, when he agrees to pay five dollars to the elevator operator at the Edmont hotel for the prostitute. He payed the money then when the prostitue came up to his room he made up an excuse that he has had a spinal operation to get out of the situation hes in. Caulfield also seems to have many problems with the women he encounters in New York. He goes on a date with Sally Hayes amd tries to persuade her to run away with him to Massachusetts or Vermont. When she refuses he becomes annoyed with her and she then leaves shortly after and refuses to listen to his appologies.

I do not exactly know what happens to Caulfield at the end of the book but i know he does not fulfill his dreams of becoming a "catcher in the rye." He says he plans to attend a new school in the fall and is very optimistic about his future.


Focus: I had kind of a hard time writing this blog entry because there was no specific prompt to respond to but i did the best i could. If there is anything to focus on out of my blog I think it would be the way I portray the character of Holden Caulfield and his social problems.

Death of a Salesman

After reading both The Great Gatsby and The death of a Salesman I noticed a few similarities bewteen each stories main character. Willy Loman and Gatsby both lived their life by trying to live a dream. Gatsby wanted his dream life to be with Daisy because that was his true love. Gatsby eventually gets a chance to be with Daisy but he ends up dieing. Willy Loman has somewhat of a similar story as Gatsby. His dream life was becoming a very successful business man. I think this was his dream life because thats all he really knew how to do because thats basically what he did his job his whole life. The only problem he has was that his sons Biff and Happy did not have successful careers and that hurt Willy a lot. Biff and Happy tried to make their father as happy as possible but Willy had one plan in his mind set out for his sons which did not work out and ended up being the result of Willy's death. Both Gatsby and Willy tried their best to accomplish what they wanted done in their life, and they tried at any cost possible but they both ended up losing their lives in the long run. Maybe if they were of the damage they were causing people around them that really cared about the both of them then the reuslts of each story might have been different. I believe that Gatsby and Willy really were good men but just let the dream of living a perfect life get in the way of them really living a long and perfect life with people around them that loved and cared for them.


Focus: one thing I would like readers of this blog to focus on is the similarites between both characters of Willy and Gatsby. Also, how they ultimately ended up having the same result in their lives because of the way they lived it.

Third Quarter Reflection

So far blogging has gone well for me and I really like it a lot. Blogging has been valuable to me as both a reader and writer. With blogging I get to view the other wrtings of the students a little bit more easily then with the old way we used to do it and its easier to find whoevers page you want faster. Also, as a writer I get to compare my styles of writing with the styles of writing of some of the other students. If blogging continues the way it has been going then I would not mind doing blogs over the next quarter. Blogging has not changed the community between my class and the other class that much but it did give me a chance to view a lot of my classmates writings and some writings from the other class that I probably would have never read before. I think blogging is a good thing and if it is effective then it should be continued throughout the rest of the year.

A Selection of Quotes

“Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.”
–Letter, Aug. 1936, to Ernest Hemingway

I think this quote means that you can have all the riches in the world but without the greatest charm or distinction then all the riches mean nothing. I think this quote relates to Fitzgerald in that he issaying richesare not that important to him.Fitzgerald could also be saying that riches change some people for the worse. Sometime when people become very wealthy they forget about who they really are and become a greedy heartless person that does not care about anything but their money. I think he could be saying that if riches change you for the worse then there was no reason to gain them at all because now all you have is yourself and your money.

This quote could also be related to The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was a rich man with plenty of money and lived a lifestyle many people probably wish they had. Even though he had the riches he was not all that happy. As the quote says, he did not have the charm of a loved one or the distinction of a truely good person. His past loved one Daisy was now married to someone else but he felt love for her still. This situation proves the quote true that even with all the riches you can not buy happiness without the charm or the distinction along with it.

The Great Gatsby

Halfway between West Egg and New York City is a gray valley where New York’s ashes are dumped. Standing tall is a billboard of big blue eyes; these are the eyes of doctor T.J. Eckleburg. When the book first introduces the big blue eyes of Eckleburg I did not know it was a billboard until I read further into the chapter. It seems like the big blue eyes of doctor T.J. Eckleburg watch over everything that happens in the valley of ashes.

One day as Nick and Tom are riding the train into the city Tom forces Nick to follow him to George Wilson’s garage that is located on the edge of the valley of ashes. Tom has been having an affair with Wilson’s wife Myrtle. Tom orders myrtle to come to the train with them and them Tom takes her and Nick to New York City to an apartment that Tom uses for his affair. Tom has a part here also inviting Myrtles sister, Catherine, and a couple named the McKee’s. The group of them really start to drink a lot and seem to be having a good time.

The behavior and the conversation at the party make Nick want to leave. Tom then gives Myrtle a puppy as a gift. Myrtle starts to talk about Daisy, Tom’s wife. Tom angrily tells her to never mention his wife but Myrtle says she will talk about whoever she wants and begins to chant Daisy’s name. Tom becomes even angrier and ends up braking Myrtles nose and bringing the party to an end. Nick leaves drunk and ends up taking the 4 A.M. train back to Long Island.

Poetry Supermarket

http://plagiarist.com/poetry/636/

Anne sexton was born November 9, 1928 in Newton, Massachusetts and she died on October 4, 1974. She died by committing suicide in her car in her garage. Sexton is seen as the modern writer of confessional poetry. Her work is primarily written around the issues of women such as menstruation, abortion, masturbation, and adultery. She wrote about these topics before any of these subjects were addressed in a poem. After reading “The Starry Night” I could see maybe why Sexton was contemplating committing suicide. In that poem she talks about the way she wants to die. I do not really understand what she means in some of the lines of the poem but she ends off each stanza with “this is how I want to die.”

In the poem “The Starry Night” Anne Sexton uses a lot of figurative language. She talks about the ways she wants to die on this starry night. She keeps the same structure throughout the poem, giving details of the ways she wants to die then ends off each stanza with “this is how I want to die.” The tone in this poem seems to me to be real mellow. She is talking about the ways she wants to die in a very calm and mellow manner which makes me think that she maybe was a little bit out there. Normal people probably do not talk about the ways they want to die and talk about it in a real calm fashion through poetry.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/anne_sexton/poems/18153

The poem I read by Anne Sexton is called Courage. I like this poem because it has a lot to do with events of real life and how courage can pull you through. After reading this poem I experienced the not so crazy side of Anne Sexton. She talked about the hardships of life and how if u can have courage to outlast these hardships then you will be ok in life. She also says when death comes around if you still have courage then you will stride right out the back door into your new life.
If you ask me I wouldn’t say that there is anything about Anne Sexton that makes her distinctly American. She writes in the same style as the American writers but that is about it. She wrote about things that other poets didn’t write about during her time period which separated her from the other poets.

American Realism

During the week I read three writings of Mark Twain. Twain has a different style of writing compared to the other American Romantics that we have read. Twain does not talk about nature at all really in the three stories that I have read. Many Romantics only write about nature and its effects on people and their daily lives. I personally like the style of Twain better because it seems like he is more down to earth and the way it really works compared to the Romantics who only focus in on nature. I feel that there is some progression from American Romanticism into American Realism because Twain write about the realism of the world and not about nature like the Romantics. I feel it would be better for people to read about the world and how it really is instead of some made up nature filled world.
I feel Twain had the tendency to write about what he thought was going on in the world around him. He does not write “by the books” so to say instead he writes about what he is feeling at the time. I get this feeling from the stories of the good little boy and the bad little boy. He repeatedly says, “in the Sunday-School books this does not happen this way,” which gives me the feeling that he writes by his own style of writing and nobody else’s. Twain probably had a different worldview at the time of his writings because his writings were a lot different then many other writers during his time of the switch from American Romanticism to American Realism.
In my opinion, I think Twain is writing to the people of his time period to try and persuade them to focus on the realism of the world that take place in his writings compared to what takes place in the writings of the romantics. Out of the three stories I read Twain writes about things that happen in the real world and does not portray the world as a world controlled by nature and its effects on people. Twain might also be writing for himself to give himself that feeling that he is telling the people of the world the truth about how the world really works.
I think through his writings Twain reveals his normality. I was much more interested in the writings of Twain then the Romantics because they appealed to me as real life situations. Not once did he bring up nature and how it helps him through the day like many Romantics write about. To me Twains writings are normal because of what he writes about. I would much rather read a writing of his then many of the writings of the American Romantics.
One of the passages that drew me to realize that Twain wrote about realism was from “The Story Of The Good Little Boy.” He says, “This was not in accordance with any of the books.” This shows me that Twain does not write by the books or live by the books. Especially in this story, what is really supposed to happen to the little boy never happens, the complete opposite occurs. Twain probably lived his life as a normal person because he did not live his life according to a book or how it is really supposed to be. Instead he lived day by day and took things how they came.

Social Change

Yes, I think writing does have the power to enact social change. Many great leaders of the past and of the present used writing to try to enact social change during their lifetime. After reading “The Bombing of Baghdad” by June Jordan I began to feel what she was feeling about Iraq. She uses great description while talking about all the bombings and it left me with a vivid image in my head about what was really going on in Iraq. In class we read about King, Gandhi, and Thoreau’s writings and what their message was about social change. King and Gandhi fought for their change and eventually made progress toward the change they were aiming for.
Another great leader who enacted social change during his life was President Abraham Lincoln. He delivered many speeches on many important issues in the United States while he was president. I think one of his best speeches that he delivered was the Emancipation Proclamation. This was the speech that emancipated the slaves from the south after the Civil War. I feel president Lincoln delivered a great speech to his audience to enact social change in his country.Enacting social change through writing seems like a very hard thing to do. I think that’s why only a few leaders in history have made an impact on changing something. Of all of the leaders that have enacted social change I feel that King contributed the most. He made great progress in gaining rights for the African Americans here in America.

The Price of a Child

Nicholas Coppola
January 30, 2009
11-2
The Price of a Child
Dear Mattie,
I am here living with Tyree’s Aunt Zilpha. I finally arrived, the trip to Westchester was not too bad. I really do miss you and Etta, but this is for the best. How are things going with the Quicks? I’m sure Tyree and Blanche are taking care of you and keeping you both safe.
Today, Harriet thought it would be a good idea for me to go speak with a woman of the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Her name is Eliza Ruffin. I am going to meet her because she knows my situation. She asked me to sign an affidavit which will make it seem more legal that we left Jackson Pryor on our own. I am so happy that we got away from his ownership Mattie. Eliza wishes us the best on our quest to have a free life. She wants us to be as successful as possible against Passmore. This means that I will have to go to court for the trial against Jackson. This could threaten our freedom Mattie but I will do my best to not let it. This is why Eliza Ruffin will help.
The Ladies Anti-Slavery Society was nice. I was asked to talk about all my experiences as a slave. It was a little difficult remembering it all and talking about it, but it was nice to be with others who experienced it too. I met a woman, Mrs. Eugenia Pitts and she is going to bring me to New York so I will meet Mr. Henry who will help me prepare for the trial.
The fact that I have to appear in court is scary Mattie, but I have the feeling it will only help us to freedom. I have to go now to New York so I could make all of this happen as smoothly as possible. Wish me luck and I hope you are doing well in Philadelphia with the Quicks. Give everyone my best.
Love,
Mom