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"The girl slid off the motorcycle and stood halfway between her choices."

          This Blog is for the short story "How Far She Went".  In this story there is a teenage girl, and she is very disrespectful to her grandmother.  She doesn't like living with her, and she likes living life the way that she wants to live it.  When she finds some bikes, when she is out on her own, she gets herself in a lot of trouble. Then both grandma and her have to run away from them, because if they get caught they could possibly get hurt very badly.  In this blog, I tried to represents the girls choice's, the blue being a good choice and the red representing a bad choice.  The good choice would be to mind her grandmother, and show her some respect, and then do as she is told without contradicting her.  The bad choice would be not to listen to her grandma. an then stay with the bikers, which could get her hurt, or even killed.  The quote that I used, was really the motivation for doing this blog the way that I did, because this just enforces the idea that she had choices, and she was the only one who could make them. 

The Bees

In our English, we have just finished reading the story The Bees.  I thought that the best way to tell you about the story, was through song.  This song was written by Alexander Morozov, and I this piece really describes the story.  After listening to this piece, it gave me the feeling of being scared, and I felt like I was in a horror film.  This reminded me of The Bees, because this story was scary, and it seemed to follow the mood as well.  A dark place, not necessarily outside, but in someone's head.  Another reason why I picked this piece, was because it is called the Elements of Fire, and in the story, there is along section, about how he thought that is previous family died in a fire, and then at the end, about how he present family died  in a fire.  This also shows, how that he may have been going crazy, and nothing was happening at all.  All in all this was a very good, creepy, and scary story, and from those elements I thought this song had as well, so I thought it would be a good fit.

The only Traffic Signal....

In the story, The only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't flash Red anymore, is about these two guys, Adrian, and Victor.  For the most part in the story, it tells of them sitting on a porch, watching all the different kids go by.  While there, they see this group of kids, walk by, and among the group, there is a boy named Julius. Victor and Adrian start talking about how good of a basketball player he is, and this makes Victor remember how good he used to be.  Then the story goes ahead one year, and we see this kid, who is drunk, and we find out that it's Julius.  Victor and Adria, start talking about how good he could have been if he wouldn't have started drinking.  In the story, there is a basketball game tonight, and instead of Julius doing good, he doesn't make any shots.  Then the story ends, with another basketball superstar, and it ends by her walking down that same street.
I think that the thing that that this story is trying to get at, is that this reservation has some really good potential, but because of poor decisions, they cannot accomplish something that is great.  But instead of leaving the story off, to assume that this new girl Lucy, who is also a star basketball player, to go down the same path as many others did, I want to extent the story, and this time it will have a different ending.

Lucy was walking down the street, to her next basketball game.  She was playing for the sixth grade team, even though she was in the third grade.  At the game, she makes 30 points, and shows up all of the boys. Everyone has such high hopes with this little superstar, hoping that she will be the one that will end up making it all the way, going to the WNBA.

Five years have passed now, and Adrian and Victor, are still sitting on the porch, watching the only intersection with a stop light, when they see a girl walking.  She is skinny, and is walking with a limp.  The girl gets closer, and they can tell that it is Lucy.  "Man that girl can sure play some basketball", said Adrian.  "Ya she played really hard last night, but I sure hope that Ankle will heel up in time for the next game, says Victor with a sigh".  "Do you think that she will still make it to the big time", asked Adrian.  "Of coarse, From what I hear, she is doing very well in school, and has already had college's looking at her", said Victor.

Another 5 years pass, and instead of being on the porch, Victor, Adrian, and all of folks from the reservation are huddled around a small TV, watching Basketball.  On the screen,  a face pops up, and says that she has 45 points this game, setting a new record.  The women on the screen, is Lucy, and she is playing professional women's Basketball.  She is the first person who is from the reservation who made it to the big time.  In a live interview, after the game, she was asked, "What makes you such a good basketball player", and she answered, "At my home on the ranch, not everything was easy, and I had to work very hard, for the easy things, but while living on the ranch, I learned to never give up, and always follow your dreams, because if you work hard, then anything is possible".

Demension Discussion

 In our 10th Grade English class, we have been reading short stories, and the last one that we have read, was called Dimensions, by Alice Munro.  This story was about a lady, Doree, who's mother died, and then when she was in this ruff period of her life a man named Lloyd came into the picture.  We find out that while she is with him, that Lloyd is very controlling and only lets her do certain things.  Anyways Lloyd and Doree, have three children that are home schooled.  One day, a she and Lloyd and her get into an argument, and the Doree leaves.  Because she walks out Lloyd kills their 3 kids, because he didn't want the kids to know she walked out on them. So Lloyd goes to jail, and one day while she is traveling to go see him, there is a big accident, that she plays a part in.  She doesn't go, end of story.

 Our teacher has set up a discussion, on Wiki spaces, so we as a class can talk about the story, and the main things that we received from the story.  If you are interested in this discussion, then please go to the link below.




http://dunnenglishii.wikispaces.com/message/view/Dimension/50116982

Picture's that Represent On the Rainy River

                                  These are some pictures, that i think Represent the story On the Rainy River

                                  This represents, how the main Character didn't want to go to war.

                                             This represents, where the main Character lives.

                                    This Represents were the main character works

 

                                                       This picture represents the War and the Draft

                                         This is the War he is being drafted for, Vietnam 

                                  This Represents his to choices... Go to War, or go to Canada.

                                    This is what a draft notice that Tim, the main character recieved

                        This picture Represents how Tim  was feeling, which was lost

                     This represents, How our main Character, just left one random day while working

                     Tim says that he feels something inside of him rupture, and then he heads for Canada

                              After driving for a while, this is were Tim Ends up 

                            This is the man that Tim meets, Elroy, a very old man

                     This represents that Elroy was very quite and didn't get into people's business

                           This is one of the things, that Elroy and Tim do, while he is staying there

      This is the moment, when Tim had the chance, to Jump, and swim to Canada, or stay and go to War

Chef's House

      The reason that I picked this image, is because in the short story Chef's House This is one of the major symbols.  I tried insert different words, that I thought represented the story.  For instants, I used Old ways, because the main character is an alcoholic( I used alcoholic for that reason as well), I picked the House, because it kind of symbolizes the main characters love and without the house they could not love anymore.  I really liked making an image chef, because it was different, and it also got the massage that I wanted to get across in a really cool way

Short Story Blood

So in the second semester, in our 10th grade English class, we have been told to resume our blogs.  This time though, we are not going to be blogging about our independent reading book, but rather on a different type of reading material.  This semester, we are focusing on short stories.  Throughout the semester, we will be reading many different short stories, and blogging, on different aspects, that we feel are important from them. Hope you enjoy!!

        To start off, I will begin my blog, about the short story Blood, by Zdravka Evtimova.This was a very good short story, about a character that remained unknown throughout the story.  We begin the story off, in a failing pet shop.  The owner tells us that business, is very slow, and few people come in.  Then one day a lady, came into the pet shop.  This woman wasn't looking for pet food, or a puppy, but rather the blood of a mole.  The owner, said that he had no such thing, but when the lady said that the blood of the mole could cure her son, he felt sorry for her.  He told her to wait, and he went in the backroom, and cut himself.  He gave his blood to the old lady and said that it was the Blood of a mole.  The lady then left.

       On a random morning, a few days after giving the strange lady his blood, this woman returned to his store.  She was very happy, and was kissing and hugging him, because she said that the "Mole Blood" worked.  Of coarse the shop worker was surprised that his blood had worked.  The lady wanted to give him a gift of money, but he would not accept.  The same day that the lady came in and said the the Blood worked, another man came in and asked for the same stuff, the blood of a mole.  The man grabbed his arm, were his cut was, and made it start to bleed again. Then he collected his blood, and then took off.

This story abruptly ends, because the next morning, there is a mob of people outside his door with knifes.

1. What do you think happened to this man in the pet shop? I believe that everyone found out, that he had this very special Blood, and they wanted it, and with everyone having knifes, they killed him.
2. Why do you think that his blood worked? I think that maybe because he was around animals so much, that he had acquired an adaptation, that made his blood like a moles
3. Would you consider the mob of people greedy?  I think that this mob of people are greedy,. because they are only thinking about themselves, and they do not even care if this man dies.

   Please share your opinion!