Brandon's Blog

As Ginnie says in the novel, "You don't pass or fail at being a person", I have to arguably disagree with this statement. In my opinion, a person is someone who makes an effort in their life to love or be compassionate for someone, and someone who tries in the best of their ability to make a difference in this world. In my mind their are a few things that someone can do to fail as a person, they can first of all promote violence in their country, have a negative attitude towards everything in life, and have an overall hate for mankind. If someone is apart of a gang and kills people for no reason, that is someone I would say is not considered a person. We seen an example of this in the short story, "The Frolik", as Joe Doe likes to kill innocent children for plain enjoyment, as he proclaims he's protecting them from the dangerous world that lies ahead. Some people may do violent acts such as killing, just to repay for acts done to them, or they see it as a se...

Neil Gaiman uses the tension from the adult world and the world of children, to show the extreme levels of differences from the natural and supernatural world. When studying the theme of borders, it's easy to recognize the different borders that are present in this novel. There's a border from what the narrator believes his world is, and a border from the supernatural aspect of his childhood. We can recognize how the author uses the supernatural world such as Ursula and her flying bird species, to develop the narrator into his adulthood and building of reasoning skills. The author ends the book with the narrator sitting by the pond, and he doesn't remember any of the supernatural events that were explained in the story. This is a perfect example of how as a child we have a bright imagination and can almost force ourselves into believing something is true, even if it seems unlikely to our peers. As an adult, we become educated in what our real world is, and can judge whether...

When studying the triple goddesses, it's not difficult to see the relationship between the three figures, with the members of the Hempstock family. The Maiden goddess is labeled by a new waxing moon, and she embodies purity, youth, creation, pleasure, naivety, and new beginnings. By this definition, it's easy to see how this connects with Lettie of the Hempstock family. Lettie throughout the story, makes the effort for a new beginning for the narrator, as she tries to isolate him from the dangerous Ursela, from destroying his home life. The mother goddess is labeled by a full moon, and she embodies love, fertiitiy, nourishment, responsibility, patience, power, and self care. By this definition, it's easy to notice how this connects with Old Hempstock. As seen in the early portions of the book, especially the persuading the parents seen, we notice the extreme powers that Old Hempstock possesses. Old Hempstock in this story manages to cut fabric into making the narrators pare...

As my childhood went on, there was a secret that my family wasn't telling me. As a little kid, visiting my uncle Dave's house, I noticed that their was something wrong with his eye. When I asked my parents about this discovery, they insisted that he had been in a motorcycle accident several years before. I took this statement as the truth, as he did have a motorcycle at the time, and it was an answer that seemed to fit the situation. The summer before the start of my sophomore year of high school, I received the truth about Dave's eye. My parent sat me down, and began to tell me the story of how my uncle Dave tried to commit suicide. The story goes back to Dave's first marriage, and the moments after his divorce, in times of depression, he tried to take his own life. He took his pistol, which he owned to protect himself from burglars, and shot himself in the side of his face. Luckily, the bullet went through his right eye, which is the main reason why he is still alive ...

For this blog post, I'm going to rewrite the fairy tale story, known as the "Three Little Pigs". The goal of rewriting this famous story, is to hopefully change the ending in order to make it more of a modern based type of ending, seen throughout today's stories. The story will start off very similar to the original story written in 1890, but the overall message is changed to connect today's audience with the meaning behind the passage. Instead of having the wolf splash into a kettle of water at the third pigs brick house, I would change the ending to include the wolf trying to sneak in through the back door. The wolf would say, "Let me in little pig or I'll huff and I'll puff and blow your house down". The pig would respond with, "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin". The wolf would once again huff and puff, but the house would not blow down. Then the wolf would then try another method, as he would go around to one of the windows an...

According to Hjortshoj a predatory reader is one who views reading as a peaceful, pleasurable activity that transports us to other times and places, other ways of viewing the world. Adapting predatory reading skills is very important in college, as your going to be assigned a variety of articles, books, and other reading assignments, which will be discussed throughout classes. If you acquire the skills of a predatory reader, you'll often find yourself easily going through the different reading assignment's, instead of being bored with the material and not reading it. Once these skills become an automatic thought in the mind, you'll have a different feeling about reading, and you'll be comfortable reading the assigned passages. The ability to maintain the skills of a predatory reader is a significant asset in college, to ensure your understanding of the class readings for lectures, discussions, and other class activities. In chapter five, Hjortshoj goes into detail about...