Romeo & Juliet : Was Romeo in love?

To answer the question "do Romeo words suggest true love ir youthful, rash behavior?" I believe that in the story Romeos actions convey both sides to this. He is young, and at times I do believe that it is this that controls his actions making him do things in the spur of the moment. This can lead to rash decisions in the story, like killing Tybalt. But when he is with Juliet I do believe that they hold a connection that can be recognize as love. He looks at Juliet as if she was the only girl in the world and treats her this way too. His words suggest that he truely does love her and that there love is something real, not somethings forced. Reading Romeos actions throughout the story show that yes, I do believe he loved Juliet but that sometimes the decisions he made with (or about her) were very rash and made in the moment and weren't fully thought through.
            Lines such as "with Rosaline? No. I have forgot that name and that names woe" show how Romeo can make some rash decisions and almost lie to himself to push something her really believes in. Yes, this line does show that he did love Juliet but in the context it seems as thought it is more pushed that true since he was so very in love with Rosaline not too long ago. Another line to add to this side of Romeo is "O let us hence. I stand on sudden haste." Although this line too shows that he does really want to be with Juliet he seems to be rushing it. He want to be married to her as soon as possible with seems like something that does not need to be rushed if they truely did love each other. These lines and actions show that although Romeo did seem to love Juliet that at times he would rush things that didn't need to be rushed and made very rash decisions on important things like marriage.
          But!! Even thought Romeo may seem like most of his love decisions were made very quickly, many of his actions did convey his true love for Juliet. Lines such as "Her I love now doth grace and love for love allow. The other did not so." This showing that the way he has felt for Juliet is truely something different, she is special to him and she makes him feel a way no other has. This, proving his love for her. Another line showing this is "Than love-devouring death do what he dare, it is enough I may call her mine". This showing how Romeo didn't care what would happen even if it was death. And that Juliets love for him was everything and that nothing mattered but her love. Even though sometimes Romeos age showed through his actions, many of they showed love that was true.

The Maze runner

    The book "The Maze Runner" by James Dasher there are 3 major groups of important power that each add to the book. You have the creators, aka the evil or "wicked" people who have placed the gladers in the maze. Automatically by being on the outside world they have a huge advantage in power not only to mention that they also have the power to control everything in the maze. With one single touch these people can kill everyone,  start a famine,  create a drought,  and do just about anything they please to the people in the maze giving them complete power. Up against them are the people in the maze, also known as the gladers. 
          Although within their community they have all different levels of power depending on the person, they as a group come together to create a strong enough power to go against not only the creator's but also the maze. Although it may seem like a maze wouldn't have power in a book it definitely plays a part in this one. The maze is what controls who comes in and out of the maze. It has the power to kill, banish, and creates the main story line of the book. These 3 groups and how they fight and resist is what makes up the story and without it there would be no book.
        The main theme of power placed in this book connects with the world we live in on many different levels. Just like the gladers, we in our everyday lives have our own groups that contain people of different powers in our lives whether that be friend vs friend, school vs school, etc. Like the book we in our lives have a groups that not only have many different levels of power in it but also when together they create a power of their own. Although like the gladers we may all have our differences from the people in our communities we still come together as a team, as one when we need to go against a much larger force. Power and it's different levels not own play a large part in this book, but also play a huge role in our lives.

Non fiction blog post

In the article "Invasion of the Drone" by Patrick smith,  the author talk a about a past experience with Mandy Lingard and droned. She continues on with this topic of drones in our current world by beginning to explain the risks and benefits they will have in our lives. Some of these risks include a variety or accidents the drones may encounter like getting stuck in plane engines or falling on someone. To defend this the author goes on to explain how accidents with these drones can be prevented with things like mandatory licenses to fly one. Last, the article explains how these drones have other used than just delivering pizza. She goes on to elaborate on how these drones can be used in warfare and people's perspectives on using the drones in this way.
           The article goes over many of the dangers and improvements these drones may make in our lives. They come with many other things besides the fact of just receiving pizzeria quicker. The author let's the reader know that they can have a bigger purpose in our future, and that this is what seems to have many people worried about what these purposes may be. Her article seems to lean more toward the bad outcome of these drones if we allow them onto our everyday lives. She supports this by stating more of the problems they will cause than the little benefits they may have. She uses quotes by people worried on what these drones will be responsible of and includes a story on a bad experience with a drone. This makes me feel as though the author personally doesn't agree with the usage of drones in our lives.
          After reading this article it really made me think about how much the world is changing. Not only that but also the problems and benefits these changes come with. Something like receiving pizza faster doesn't seem like such a big deal but the fact that these same machines could be used in warfare is quite surprising and really makes me think about what the future will consist of. It really makes me think about what will change and be replaced in the future. Reading this article I have learned that some new creations may seem perfect and impressive at first also come with a darker and more problematic side to them.

"The Giver" By Lois Lowry blog post

What would happen it we lived in a world where we lived off of rules and fear. What if we had to live everyday knowing just as little as everyone else, knowing something was missing from life but never completely understanding what that certain things was. This idea of a world with no difference is played with in the book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. Jonas is forced to live in a world of sameness, unknowing of the past left behind by his society. Jonas is left in the unkown just like everyone else, well that is until he is chosen to become the new receiver and his view on his entire world changes forever.
            Sameness, was created in this community to create a perfect world in which no one knew of death, hungry, war, and everyone was treated the same. This idea seems pretty fair until you get into the consequences they cause in everyday lives. Once this idea of "sameness" entered this community many things were forced to be forgotten by everyone, that is until Jonas finally receives the memories of the past these memories containing all the things that were forgot by his community when they transfered to sameness. Thinks like the feeling of affection, colors,  seasons, the ability to lie, and so much more were stripped away from this community keeping them in sameness. With the power of the memories of the past Jonas tries to show people in his community that their is more to life than just living by rules and sameness, but how do you teach someone something that's never been done.
            The book introduces the reader to the idea that being the same and living by rules isn't all that great. In fact it seems to have more consequences than benefits from all that is taken away in the world your forced to live in. Knowing about a world where sameness is not what people live by makes Jonas restless and eager to change the way people in his society look at things in their everyday lives. But which is better, a life of sameness without feelings at all or a life of color and life and diversity but living with things like death and war?

            Hana Jang
            Blog Post
            November 25, 2014

                         Most books now a days play with the idea of power, both large and small and the idea of overcoming the power or fighting it off. In the book Insurgent, the second book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth uses this as one of the main conflicts in the book. It not only includes one big fight between the powers of each fraction. It also includes smaller conflicts over power between person to person. 

                        The story portrays the idea of having an extremely powerful group/fraction trying to take over everything and control everyone in every fraction. This group is known as the Erudite in the book. They implant divices into the physically strongest fraction to create stimulation, using them to take over. But the fight doesn't end there. 

Not going down without a fight the dauntless, fractionless, and divergents refuse to be controlled and riot breaks out. Unable to fight the dauntless and fractionless without an army and not being able to contoll the divergent's with stimulations the Eurdite are left with a huge weakness. A weakness so large that the dauntless, fractionless, and divergent may finally be able to fight back, but only if they team up.

Hana Jang
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Ela Current Event


            In the article "Role Reversal" By Patricia Smith found in the October 2014 Upfront "World Affairs 2015" By the New York Times, the article talks about how much times have really changed for people of color. Not only now are do we have a varity of different judges of different races, but we also have developed in equaltity a whole lot over time. This article shows just how much change we had to go through just so everyone, no matter what race or gender, had equal rights. 

            In the piece, the author includes various ways of showing how much times have really changed for people of color. She shows things such as this when she includes quotes like how " A black woman judging a white man would have been unthinkable under apartheid". She says this because of the recent murder trial of Oscar Pistorius a famous white man who was judged in court by Judge Masipa, one of the two black woman to be appointed to the judiciary.  This was a huge step from in the 20th century, when "blacks were exluded from the judiciary and all facts of government. In a nation that was than 70 percent black, a white minority ruled, denying blacks with basic rights". Not only were things like these inforced, but "nonwhites had to use separate facilities" This was known as being under apartheid" showing that not only was it blacks that were treated unfairly, but anyone who wasn't white. These quotes really give the reader a visual of what times were like before, and how much they have drastically changed over time for the better.
           

Response: "Darkness to Visible" By Megan Cox Gurdon

Hana Jang
803
ELA

     
             In the article "Darkness to Visible" By Megan Cox Gurdon written in the wall street journal on June 4, 2011, the author explains how young adult books have drastically changed for the worse. Gurdon states that her and many others feel "thwarted and disheartened" at the sight of the current young adult books on display and are being sold now. She wants the reader to understand that these types of topics are not appropriate for these books targeted audience of young teens. She describes young adult literature as a "fun-house of mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is". This shows me that the author wants me to believe that the current topics of many young adult books are unacceptable and much too negative for someone so young.
           The author wants the readers to feel just as aggravated and upset as her. She does this by doing things like spinning the retells of some young adult books. By doing this she only highlights and displays the negative and dark themes portrayed in these books. When she does this she tries to further prove her claim of being against young adult book topics, instead of telling a full retell of these books including the positive parts. Gurdon also constantly repeats words like dark in her article to represent her negative opinion on teen novels. By doing all of these things she makes the reader constantly look at these young adult books in a negative way.
            I personally totally disagree with the way Megan Cox Gurdon sees and writes about young adult books. Not only does she not get the opinion of the targeted audience of these books but it seems more like these book disturb her more than any teenager. Just because she personally doesn't like a book topic shouldn't give her the right to take it away from a young reader who may enjoy it. Throughout the article she never states the good aspects to these somewhat darker books. They teach important lessons and whether there extremely unlikely to happen or happen to every teenager they show how wrong choices can lead to better decisions in the future, the consequences of some serious mistakes, and more. I think that every reader knows their own limit, and no adult, teacher, or anyone has a right to control what teens or anyone reads.