The Bees by Dan Chaon

Welcome to another post. In this post, I will be using quotes and pictures to help explain different elements in the story The Bees. The elements will be characterization, mood, and foreshadowing.

The picture represents the main character.

Characterization: “He thinks of the way she leaned over him and brushed his hair as he stared at her, imprisoned in a full body cast, sweating his way through withdrawal and DTs.” This quote gives us an idea of Gene (main character) in the story. It tells us that he had a rough past and alcohol/drugs were heavily involved in his life.



This picutre represents Gene(main character) thinking.



Foreshadowing: “He can’t sleep. The presentiment that Mandy and DJ are dead has lodged heavily in his mind.” Mandy is his former wife and DJ is his son. He hasn’t seen them for a long time. From this quote we can guess that he may go back to drinking to take the thought out of his mind or maybe try and find them.



This can represent the mood of the story which is a dark psycological story. Death is also thought alot through out the story.



 Mood:“Here is a high empty wail that severs Gene from his unconsciousness like sharp teeth. It is the worst sound Gene can imagine, the sound of a child dying violently.” The narrator is describing Gene’s mental reaction to his son Frankie who sometimes wakes up and screams randomly. This sets the mood of the story to a psychological horror type. 

How Far She Went by Mary Hood

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/725851.How_Far_She_Went -I think this is a good discussion website. People post their thoughts and feeling toward the books and even recommend other stories.

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Mary_Hood- Very good website that gives us background information on Mary Hood, author of How Far She Went. It tells us biography and her writing stlye.

http://uk.ask.com/beauty/Analysis-on-How-Far-She-Went-by-Mary-Hood- This site provides links to various discussions such as themes and criticism. This could help understand other people's point of views.

http://prezi.com/ke07qoomloiy/how-far-she-went/- This link will take you to a prezi that gives us more detailed information about the author and the stories she published. This will help students get a better idea of the types of story they are reading.

http://books.google.com/books?id=2FGahwDJFu4C&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=how+far+she+went+mary+hood+discussion&source=bl&ots=rfYejN7hKB&sig=A5sJjMN7ZIWoE6qauByeV2P5pAY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SdlWT5n5NZK_gAeVkJn3DA&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=how%20far%20she%20went%20mary%20hood%20discussion&f=false- This link takes you to a discussion page. It compares themes with other stories and writing style of different female authors.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1000- This link shows all the awards Mary Hood won throughout her career.
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/how-far-she-went-id-0380699729.aspx- This link takes you to a discussion page. This will help students understand different points people make. Good way for social interaction.

http://www.chacha.com/question/what-are-the-themes-of-mary-hood's-how-far-she-went- On this website, you can post a question about the story and recieve different answers from people. You can decide which answer scales best with what you think the answer is.

http://engl611-nixon.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/Hood,+How+Far+She+Went.PDF- This site offers a printable copy of the story. You can choose the font size and type of font. Good website for free story prints.

http://books.google.com/books/about/How_Far_She_Went.html?id=vP9eLWaRSUUC- This site takes you to a comment and rating page about How Far She Went. This is website gives people a chance to leave there opinions and thoughts about the book.

http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/how_far_she_went- This link will take you to a website where a summary of the story is listed. Under the story, it tells us a little about the author and how she came up with the story. This would help students make connections between real life and the short story.

Blog Post # 6

Blog Post #6
Today I will be blogging about what I learned and what still satnds out to me in English class first sememster. Can you belive the sememester is already over?? Well, it had to finish sometime.

One thing that I really enjoyed about English was blogging. I love blogging and reading other's blogs. It seems that you understand people much better when they write out their feelings or opinions. I know for sure that people will understand me alot better when they read what goes in my mind. To me, it is alot better to write out what you think of something because you can take back the words you typed, not said. Another cool thing about blogging was responding to other people's blogs. It creates a more social environment and gives you a chance to express yourself freely. It gives others a chance to know who you really are. For example, I never really knew Ben Pellow that well. I began to read his posts and discovered he is a very very creative and funny person. This creativity of his gave me a chance to know him better now we are good friends. I am very thankful that we are given the oppurtunity to blog and I hope we continue blogging.

Outliers Blog 4

In todays blog, I will be responding to other student's responses. Sounds a little crazy, but I will do my best.

Response #1. Calli Palmer's question "How would you deal with the pain of losing a family member?"
Ry's response-I would try and continue living and not make a whole lot of changes too my life. I would still be sad but i would try and go on like I was before. I wouldn't try and hold in my feelings though. Too get over the pain I would just try and remember them for all of the good times together.
My response to his response- I totally agree with Ry. Recovering from a tragdey requires alot of change and time. Also, thinking about the good times of your loss can really help alot.

Response #2 Calli Palmer's question "How would you deal with the pain of losing a family member?"
Morgan's response-If I lost a family member, I would be very upset and probably be in a stage of not knowing what to do anymore. Eventually, I would start to accept the fact and move on. It isn't easy losing a loved one, but sometime, you just have to let go and go on with your life. It would be tough, but we have to realize they're in a better place. To deal with the pain, I'd think about all of the good times we had together and then start to move on because there is nothing I could do anymore to make them be with us still. 
My response to her response- I definatley agree with Morgan. Its true, losing a loved one puts us in a state of not knowing what to do but accept what happened. I also think that letting go and moving on with life is the best thing to do. Remember the good thingd about your loved ones can for sure help.

Response #3 Jason's question " Do you enjoy high school?"
JayLynn's response- I do enjoy high school for the most part. I believe this is one of the better high schools, because we are allowed to have some say in what we want to learn about and that makes it a much more enjoyable experience. Friends also help make the high school years that much better because the friends you make here help shape who you become and how the time her goes. But on the other side sometimes stress can get to you and it can come from anywhere such as over zealous parent, school work, peers, teachers, and even the sometimes overwelming idea of the future.
My response to her response- Jay couldn't be more right. Its the society and friends you have that puts the flavor in high school. But still highschool gets stressful. Keeping up with your classes and grades can really be a pain!

Outliers Blog 3

This is now my 3rd blog. In today's blog, I will discuss the three interesting quotes that I have chosen from my IRU book Outliers and respond to some level 3 questions asked by my peers.

Quote 1.
"It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't"(Gladwell 19).
I think this is one of the key quotes in the story. The attention getter. The book is about success and how we view it. This quote grabbed my attention thus I continued reading and later found out the environment in which success devolps. The way we view success maybe wrong afterall.

Quote 2.
"All the outliers we've looked at so far were the beneficiaries of some kind of unusual opportunity"(Gladwell 53)
This quote sums it all up. Malcom Gladwell's goal is to prove to people that success isn't just hard work. Alot has to do with luck or an "unusual opportunity." In the first 4 chapters of the book, Gladwell did a great job of proving the unusual opportunities of successful figures. He was indirectly telling us that success comes from luck. This quote pretty much told us that the outliers(successful people) were luckier than the average man.

Quote 3."The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forbears shape the patterns of our acheivement in ways we cannot begin to imagine." (Gladwell 19).
This quote basically tells us that our acheivements in life can be something that our forbears already accomplished. Success doesn't just come from the work of one person.

Response to Ry's level 3 question.
How would you get over the grief of your kids being the killers or victims?
Answer- If my kids were the victims of the Coloumbine Shooting, I honestly wouldn't know how to deal with the grief. The grief would be unbearable knowing my kids were killed by someone who went to school with them. The only way to deal with this grief is just let time pass. There are some things in life we just can't get over and time is the only way out. Knowing that my kids were the not the only ones who died would help a little.

Outliers Blog 5

"I will argue that there is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success"(pg.18 Outliers Gladwell).
This is probably the reason why Malcom Gladwell even wrote Outliers. The way we look at success is somewhat off. When we think of success, we think of the effort that was exerted. We think of the outcomes of our efforts. What we lack to see in success is the opportunities and luck that lead us to success. We lack to observe the environment in which the patch of success started.

"People don't rise from nothing"(Pg .19 Outliers Gladwell)
Basically what Gladwell is saying that we all start with something. For example, Bill Gates had an opportunity that most Americans didn't have. He had access to a computer. His parents were wealthy enough to buy him time to use a computer. He was in a club that raised money for computer use. He went to a college that had a computer lab.Which most colleges at the time didn't have. Bill Gates pretty much saw his future. He started with a tool that most Americans didn't have. Bill Gates is very successful and is appreciated for his work, but he was still given an opportunity almost no one had. Bill Gates didnt rise from nothing.

Links-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/23/outliers-story-success-malcolm-gladwell, clicking this link will take you to the success story of Malcom Gladwell and how he came to discover the opportunites and luck of others.

http://blog.success.com/success/landing-the-big-one-the-story-behind-success-profiles/. This link takes you to the cover of  Success Magazine. It discusses different stories of success from movie actors to average people. It contains a variety of success stories.

http://hr.toolbox.com/blogs/search-for-mutual-success/business-enlightenment-success-from-how-we-see-our-environment-45331
This link will take you to an explanation of how we view success. It talks about how success is the oppurtunities you make, not the ones you find by mistake. I think this article definatly relates to Outliers. It may even be sending a more clear direct message.

Outliers Blog 2

   In last week's blog, I discussed the first chapter of Outliers. I have now completed 2 more chapters since then. These 2 chapters talked about success in sports and how most of the professional athletes had birthdays in the first 3 months of the year ( January, February, and March). Somehow, there birthdays played a major role in their success. Their birthdays put them a year ahead of everyone giving them a physical and mental advantage when they were kids. Today I will be asking a variety of questions that have certain levels.
Level 2 questions-
1. What caused Roger Barnsley to research more into pro hockey players' birthdays.
2. Why do most pro hockey players have birthdays in the first 3 months of the year.
3. How are hockey players' birthdays an advantage to them?
4. How does the "Matthew Effect" apply to pro hockey?
5.How did Smith Wasden discover his love for hockey?
Level 3 questions-
1. How is your birthday an advantage to you?
2. Does your birthday affect you in sports?