Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for all of the interesting conversations we have in this English class. I'm thankful for all of the smart people in this class and for all of their input and knowledge that they give. I'm thankful for my group work buddies, Alex, Peter, and Dillon because they're smart and funny. I'm thankful for all the kids in the class that say stuff in the discussions when the rest of us are too scared, tired, or just too stupid to say anything. I'm thankful for all of you. Happy thanksgiving!

I Celebrate Myself

In society today it is hard for most people to express themselves for who they really are. People are afraid of judgement, and often do not even realize who they actually are. There is a sense of conformity that almost everyone follows, they go through trouble to be who they should be, not who they are. If people could realize how much potential they had, and how much they could accomplish; great things would happen. Everyone is different, they should't try to be something else, or be held back by societies  
views and restrictions.
During Thoreau's time everyone was focused on self realization and self thinking. People wanted to find out things for themselves and learn and become great things. Now, most people don't strive to gain knowledge and understanding of their capabilities.
The ability to celebrate yourself is extremely valuable and helpful when you are trying to accomplish things. With celebration of your abilities, and self realization, you are confident and better able to do things that are tough. Confidence is key in life, without it it is very hard to try new things and be social.

Poe

When Poe was two years old his mother died, and his father had already left the family. The Allan family adopted him and he began writing in his early teen years. He was always writing. He went to The University of Virginia and gambled to get money to pay off his debt but that didn't work, his only choice was to leave the school. He later applied to West Point, after schooling he began working as a writer full time. He started as a critic for newspapers and magazines. Many people saw him as the harshest critic. He released multiple works in the book, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.

Because Poe wrote in first person and he wrote about Opium many people thought he used drugs when he wrote. All of his horror works, mystery works, and vampire works led people to be confused by him and they saw him as a kind of dark presence. Poe's death was equally mysterious as his stories, he was found roaming the streets of of Baltimore and taken to the hospital. A few days after arriving at the hospital he died, the true reason is unknown, like all of his stories it was very mysterious and "unwritten."

What is an American?

Technically an American is someone who lives in America, but most commonly Americans are people who live in The United States.
What I think describes an American is someone who lives in America, and who has experience in all types of cultures. The U.S. is known as the melting pot for a reason, there are so many types of people, religions, and cultures here. To live here and not have experienced at least two different cultures in your life is nearly impossible.
To be and American also involves being free, or that is what it's supposed to mean, when explorers came to America they were seeking a few things but freedom was a main treasure they wanted. An important group that came were the Puritans, seeking a new world of their own, without people with different beliefs.
Another part of Americas history that shows freedom was the conflict between newly formed Americans and Britain to establish a new and free people.
To be an American is to be culturally diverse, to be free, free of religious conflict, free of slavery, and free of persecution.

The Modern Puritan

I don't think there is any group of people that can be compared to the Puritans because they were so strict and unforgiving, and that mind set and belief just doesn't prosper today. So I am going to write about how a Puritan would feel in today's modern world.
A Puritan in modern times would definitely be outcasted for their beliefs, because they are so radical. I also feel like the modern Puritan would be pretty judge mental towards people not of their faith, by thinking they are better than everyone. Almost everyone in today's society would be going to Hell if what the Puritans believed was true. 1) nobody dresses like the Puritans did, conservatively and dull. 2) many people don't go to church and keep the sabbath day holy, as the Puritans strongly believed should be done. 3) most people don't even know their 10 commandments. As we see in The Crucible, in extreme cases doing these things lead to people getting hung, granted we aren't going to have a Witch Trial; but still, we can see that the Puritan's were very strict and very opposite to the morals we, as a society, hold today.
In The Scarlet Letter we see Hester, being outcasted and completely ridiculed because of a sin she committed. The world today is filled with sinners, big or little sins, but sinners none the less. If Puritans were in our world they would attempt to outcast the sinners, but it would be difficult to do, seeing as just about everyone sins.
This is all not to say that there aren't any groups of people, and religions that do believe in strict rules and laws, but there aren't any quite as extreme as the Puritans.

John Proctor, Hero or Stooge?

            In this play John Proctor really cares about his “name” and what the town thought of him. Through out the play this shows in the way he interacts with the rest of Salem. A major example of this is when he is reluctant to confess his affair with Abigail.

            I think John is a hero because in the last scene he is about to lie and “confess” to being a witch, but he then decides on integrity. Proctor rips up his signed confession and goes to be hung. John chose to have integrity even though it was so easy for him to lie and not be hung. John stated that to lie and stay alive it would be a dishonor to the people who chose to not lie. I also think that he did this to not dishonor his name; Proctor wanted to be brave enough to die for something that he didn’t do.

            I enjoyed this last scene because of the emotion and dialogue between John and Elizabeth. John asks Elizabeth for forgiveness, to which she replies, it’s not mine to give. He later asks again and she tells him that she doesn’t need to forgive him, he needs to forgive himself. I think this means that he has been so caught up in holding his image and hating him self for his sins that he forgot to forgive himself. Even though Elizabeth was hurt by the affair she still loves John and John still loves her. This was a nice ending because John was able to see himself and he was able to choose integrity.

There goes the neighborhood

Written in a child’s perspective from Carthage Illinois in the early 1840s.

             I woke up on Monday morning to my parents arguing about the Mormons, those dang Mormons. They think they can just come to Illinois and have so much power, they have so much political influence here; at least that’s what my parents say. At school I heard some kids saying that their parents said the Mormons were bad, that they tried to take our stuff, and our land. I asked the kids why they would try to take our things, they told me that the Mormons steal everything, and that’s why they’re in Illinois. They used to be in Missouri, but they were kicked out because they wouldn’t stop stealing people’s stuff, so they moved here. Now the Mormons are taking our power in this state and in Hancock County.

            Months later I heard that the state had called for Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith’s arrest, Joseph Smith was the founder of the Mormon church. I wondered why they would want him arrested, I knew that yes everyone was worried about his growing power, but he didn’t commit any crimes. A lot of people told me things like, he’s a bad man who wants to steal our stuff, and take our land, but I knew that wasn’t really why. I finally found out that he had ordered that the facilities that produced the newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor, be destroyed. He didn’t like that newspaper because they published an issue saying that the Mormons practiced polygamy. My mother told me polygamy means that a man can have more than one wife.

            Joseph was finally arrested and he was to be kept here in Carthage. A lot of the people in the town were angry that they were to be staying here. I heard some people saying they wanted to hurt them, but they couldn’t because Governor Ford promised them safety. Despite the promise, one night a mob attacked the jail and shot Joseph and Hyrum. Everyone in the town talked about how they deserved it, about how these men were awful.

            After the men were killed, everyone in town still hated the Mormons. In Warsaw, a nearby town, they called for a wolf hunt; the wolves they would be hunting were the Mormons. When the Governor heard about this “wolf hunt” he ordered that it be stopped. The people of Hancock County continued to hate the Mormons.

            A year later I woke up to people rejoicing in the streets, I hadn’t seen people so happy in year. I asked my mom why everyone was so happy. She said that the Mormons are finally leaving Illinois. I learned that the Mormons said they would peacefully leave Nauvoo if they were left alone.

The Mormons were forced to leave Missouri in 1838, they fled to Nauvoo and built a very successful town. Other towns in Hancock County were nervous and jealous of this extremely powerful town. Persecutions began and eventually the Mormons were forced out of Illinois too. When the Mormons arrived in Illinois the people there felt that they were “taking over the neighborhood.” This is the story I thought of when given this prompt. I think its interesting that even when people don’t do anything wrong specifically, and they don’t mean to do harm to others it can still threaten and worry the people around them.

Me...

My name is Elli, and I am a sophomore. I'm moody, controlling, and easily annoyed. 

Music is the love of my life, I spend most of my free time either making music or listening to it and finding new artists. My favorite bands are probably, Stars, Lorde, Andrew Bird, Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, and Sufjan Stevens. I play the guitar, and attempt to play the drums. 

I'm a photographer, I take a lot of family photos, baby photos, and senior portraits, but I enjoy artistic photography more. 

I play soccer, well..kinda.. Last year the JV girls team at Whitney Young didn't have a goal keeper, and since I have a lot of friends on the soccer team they begged me to do it, and I did. I went to two soccer camps over the summer and I've gotten a lot better, so I plan on playing again this year. 

I have three brothers and one sister. We are a pretty close family because we move a lot, so every time we move and we don't have friends yet we just hang out with each other. In my fifteen years that I've been alive I have lived in seven different houses and gone to nine different schools. People always ask which place I liked living in the most, and it's hard to decide 'cause I like each place for different reasons and also dislike each place for some reasons; however when it comes down to it I would say that either San Jose or Chicago are my favorite places to live.

Something that really defines my life style and my personality is the fact that I am a Mormon. A lot of people misunderstand my church and that bothers other Mormon teenagers, but I don't really mind, I'm chill about it. 

One last thing, I absolutely LOVE food.