Naturalism

"The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings" (Campbell). This means that when authors are writing in the naturalism period, they are talking about how people interact and why that act the way they do. It also studies the way people act in nature. This is the main point Naturalism. It is because "Since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings." (Campbell). Naturalism is a different type of literature it confronts how people's relationships are affected by nature and their surroundings. Since naturalism deals with a lot about peoples interactions with nature, Campbell says,"Nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings." (Campbell). I like naturalism because I like to read how people deal with nature. Everyone deals with situations in nature differently. Since every author is different it is interesting to read what their perceptions on people's thought on nature. Naturalism is very different from realism. It is because realism "focuses on literal technique" (Campbell). That is because realism was pertaining to how people were with each other and not how they were in nature. "Naturalism implies a philosophical position" (Campbell). This is different from realism because realistic writers believe in the thought that there is a reason beyond everything. Naturalistic authors also thought like this but it was a little different. I was different because authors thought that the reasons of why people do what they do in nature could be studied and understood (Campbell). Naturalism writers think about their writings with a scientific way (Campbell). They think about the environment and how it effects the characters(Campbell). They also think about heredity (Campbell). They studied how nature effects how the people act in their society. Naturalism is a neat topic of of literature. I like it and how it shows how they can compare science to how people react to their environment.

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 27 July 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

Realism

Realism is a writing style that tries to give a story that has real aspects in it. It shows real parts of life "not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past."(Werlock) This means that the author shows the truth in his writings. The author does not make up things to be how they wish they would be. In the story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the man is up to be hung(Bierce). This is a real part of life. In the day that the author is writing, hanging is what they did normally. While the man is on the rope, he has a day dream about seeing his family (Bierce). This day dream tells the reader what the author would happen to the man, but instead real life hits and the man is thrown over the bridge and killed (Bierce). That acts shows realism because the character did not widdle his way out of the situation and he was actually killed.

Romanticism replaced realism. Romanticim is an idea that people can create what they want. "In this sense realism is opposed to romance, which represents life as we would like it to be" (Quinn). This is true because Romanticism is all about becoming who you want to be a realism is finding the truth behind what is happening. The American Dream comes from self made man. A self made came around when Americans were given equal rights to have a chance to become rich. This also created the hero for realism. It did because the men who actually did become rich were a hero in a way. They were because it shows that anyone can become rich if they know how. Realism is a topic that addresses the issues of today's society. It does because it pertains to actual occurrences that happen. It does not sugar coat things to make a good story. Realism tells the truth and everything is for themselves.

Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce; I Page 1." Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. Web. 18 Jan 2011http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Ambrose_Bierce/An_Occurrence_At_Owl_Creek_Bridge/I_p2.html

Quinn, Edward. "realism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/

How to Write

Writing an argumentative essay for the Act is actually quite easy. The test givers asign the test taker a topic to agrue what they think is right and then they must go one from there. The grading rubric for the ACT is graded on a holistic grading scale. There are six different levels for grades. The worst grade is a one. The real reason a person would get a one is if they do not take a side to the argument or the language is a foreign language. There is no support to the writers points. To get a two for your score you would have to be pretty dumb. To have a two would be to show none, or very little effort. You are demonstrating that you do not know what you are doing. The writer does not show a deffinate answer to the question and the essay is very weak with support. People who receive threes show that the writer understands what the topic addresses. They show the writer has some skills of writing. The do not have a stated counter argument. A counter argument is something that shows something that is the opposite of what the writer is arguing. A three has lame translations. A good transition flows with the following paragraph. To get a four the writer would have a lot of grammar mistakes. Grammar mistakes count off an essay if they distract form the essay. For example, using the wrong word is a good example of a mistake in grammar. To receive a five, the writer must show complexity in their work. To do this, the writer has support of the topic, but the writer could have better ones. They have transitions that are good. They also have a counter argument to express other feelings for the topic. If a writer receives a six, they are a god. It means that they show a lot of support, a counter argument, and good grammar. These are the different levels of scoring for the writing portion of the ACT test.

MEEE

I am an originally piece of art work to the city of Springfield Illinois. I was born on May 9th, 1994. I was born in St. John's hospital in the middle of the capitol of Illinois. As you can tell, this blog is going to be all about me! I love things that are about me. I have blond hair and blue eyes. I am sixteen years of age and I have four parents. Having two sets of parents is pretty cool, most of the time. When I become tired of my annoying mother, I can go to my dads. Or when my step mom is starting to become a wicked step mother. Also Christmas's are awesome because it means double the presents. It also sucks because they both want to see you and I am only one person and I can not be at two places at once. My sister and I usually dread the holidays because my mother is a little baby. I have a sister named Renna. She is two years older than me and she is a freshman in college. She goes to Lincoln Land Community College. She also is a bank teller at Carollaton Bank. I have a step sister named Hannah who is a senior college at Northern. I also have a step brother who lives in Florida. I went to visit him this summer. My mother Karen works for the state. My father Eric is a vice president at a bank. I have the cutest dog in the world. He is a Rottweiler. His name is Rez. He looks so pretty in the white snow because he is black. I have a boyfriend named Josh Cornett. He is very hansom. He is not at school today because it is really cold out and his mother told him that he does not have to go to school. I miss him. He is a good boyfriend. He takes me out ot dinner and he takes care of me when I'm sick. He is the only thing besides my mother are not original pieces of things from Springfield.

A memior

Over the duration of my winter break I did many fun things. First of all there was not school. No school is always a great thing for students of my age. During this break, it began to snow. I love to play in the snow. Yes, it is very wet and cold, but if the snow is just right the sledding is awesome. So, on this glorious winter vacation in the beautiful snow, my sister,Renna, her boyfriend, Trevor, her friends, Torie, Brittaney, and Claire, and Claire's boyfriend, Lucas all went to Centennial Hill to go sledding. It was Christmas Day Eve the night of our trip to Centennial Hill. The snow was perfect and the sky bright. We all plied into Trevors' car with our sleds and we took off to the hill. The hill is not far from my house so it was not a long journey to our destination. The hill was huge!! The ground was icy and I did not know how I was going to be able to get up the hill to go sledding. The people who are in charge of the hill had hay bails that we could use to get up the hill. They were not slippery and it was nice and it made it easier to get up the hill faster. The first time I went down the hill was epic! Torie and I went down together. We took out a fence we were going so fast. It was really funny. We completely tore the orange fence in half. We almost went into the pond also. Torie stopped us before we did. We went down the hill a lot more. It was a lot of fun. On the last time we went, Torie and I were in a tube that went really fast. We went down the hill and over another little hill. Over the other little hill, there was a guy walking to his car. We completely leveled him. He was not hurt, which is good, but it was really funny because he fell over. I realized that I should go out with my friends because they are a lot of fun and not just stay at home like I usually do.

Realism

Realism is writing with realistic characteristics. According to Donna Campbell, "the faithful representation of reality" (Campbell). This means that the writings in this period were written about real things in life. Characteristics of realism are, "Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot and characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past." (Campbell). The story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a great example of the realism period. First of all, the story is mostly about the main character (Occurrence). "Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject." (Campbell). I know this because from the very beginning of the story I can tell the story is going to be about the man and how he is going to be hanged off the bridge at Owl Creek (Occurrence). This story reflects the effects of Realism because it deals with real issues of the time. The man is being hung for a crime he did not commit (Occurrence). This is realistic because he was not given a fair trial (Occurrence). He states that he is going to miss his wife and child (Occurrence). This shows realism because it is dealing with the emotions of the main character. Realism seems like something I would like because it deals with real things. Sometimes I like imaginary things, I do use my imagination a lot when I write stories, but I like solid facts that I can base my information on. In Realism I feel like they are real feelings that people are going through. I like to relate myself to people in the books I read.
Abby Werlock has a criticism on what realism is talks about he real aspects of realism. "Realism is the attempt to depict life as it actually exists, not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past." (Werlock). This holds true for the aspects of Realism. From my understanding, realism deals with people and who they truly are in society. It also talks about how they act. The story, "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" goes along with this because it talks about the feelings of the character in the book. The character in book, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is about to be hanged (Bierce). He tells the feeling of himself and the others around him (Bierce). "He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck." (Bierce). This sentence describes the feeling around him. The story has a lot of example of things of this nature. That is a big part of realism. It describe the real affects that his body is going through. Realism is a cool aspect of literature. I like that it pertains to the real aspects of life and lets the reader know in detail what is going on during the book.


Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce; I Page 1." Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. Web. 18 Jan 2011http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Ambrose_Bierce/An_Occurrence_At_Owl_Creek_Bridge/I_p2.html

Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. 21 March 2010. http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/

Day Dream.

Today I had the best day dream I have ever had. First of all the reason I was distracted was because I needed to figure out a topic for my english research paper. I did not have any idea at all what to write about. I was sitting in English class on day when my amazing day dream started. So, it all starts when Mr. Langely was giving one of his lectures.... they are very interesting... and I started to zone out. I rarley ever do this so I went along with it because it made the time go by much faster. Well, Mr. Langley was talking about what important things that I need to put on to my research paper. Since I was day dreaming, I did not hear what he was saying. He was giving us ideas of what to write on our paper. I did not get any of these papers since I was day dreaming. The dream that it had while I was day dreaming was about running around on a cloud and playing with puppies. They were the cutest things that a person has ever laid eyes on. They were really tiny. The perfect size to hold and the play with. They were furry and they had black and white and brown fur. They had a bunch of energy and they loved to be held and they liked to play games. There was four of them. We played for the whole day. After we played in the rain that the cloud had stored up waiting for the next rain, we went into the fluff of the could and took a nap. The was so adorable. The puppies were all cuddled up with me and we all settled down for our nap. This was the time that I woke up from my day dream. The bell woke me up. The day dream that I had insprired me to write my research paper on the effects of day dreaming.

No schoool uniforms!!

Pleasant Plains has never had a school unifrom. They have always been a free dressing school. I think that it is a good thing that students can wear what they want. It shows indivuatility. Uniforms are outfits that are always the same. The school picks out the outfit and the students must wear it everyday. Privite schools usuallly are the main schools with a uniform. SHG is a school that has a uniform. I think that uniforms show mean that you go to a certain school and you should be proud of it. SHG is an expensive school and it is a good thing that the students that go there are proud. I am glad our school does not have a uniform. Yes, it would save me a lot of time and money. It would save me time because I would not have to find outfits to wear to school and making sure it is cute. It would save me money because I would not need as much clothing. It would also benefit the school more. They would not have to deal with the dress code violations and then everything would be fine...Or so they think. I believe if we had a uniform, our school would rebel and we would not follow it exactly. I think that uniforms take so much away from kids. Whenever a teenager goes somewhere and they have their uniform on, they are immediately judged for the school they go to. I know when I see a person in a uniform I think they are a rich snotty brat. I think this because the only uniform school around here is SHG and my personal opinion is that some of the kids to attend that school think they are much better than others and I immediately write them off. I know not everyone is like this. Everyone is different and I bet there is more nice kids than snotty kids at SHG, but it is just their reputation that they have been giving because of the high rates to attend the school. Since uniforms take away from indivuatilty, kids at our school would spice them up. They would wear scarfs and different types of jewelry. A big accessory that would be used would be shoes. The girls in our school would have many different types of shoes to show who we are. There is also the weekends where students can wear their clothes at. I would not like to have a uniform. I am so used to wearing what I want to wear. If I want to wear sweat pants to school, I think I should be able to because I could just be having long day and I want to be comfy at school. I would guess that all of the school would not want uniforms. We should conduct a survey to see if anyone wants them. I would say they would not.

No schoool uniforms!!

T Swizzle

Taylor Swift's new album Speak Now is a wonderful album. Speak Now is basically a diary of her life. It is also the next CD in her life. The album shows that changes that she is making and has made in her life. Like any other Taylor Swift CD, she has things in common. In her album Fearless, her day of the week is Tuesday. Her time is 2 in the morning and she loves to dance in the rain. This album talks about her big move to New York. She also talks about the many troubles of love she has had recently. We know this because Taylor's life has become more and more public. The public always knows who she is dating and what she is going through. She has this things about being burned. This goes along with her relationship with John Mayer. She says his name in one song. She has many memorable songs on her album. She talks about things that have happened in her life. Though she is a famous artist, she still goes through the same problems that every other teenage girl in America is faced with. She talks about the mean girl that is in school and takes your boyfriend away from you. The song, Better Than Revenge reflects these events. Taylor is talking about getting revenge on a girl that stole her boyfriend. The best line in the song is... "She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress". It is a classic line in the song. Speak Now, the cover song is about her wanting a guy that is getting married. She is at the wedding and she is going to speak up to get her man back and to save him from a horrible guy. All of Taylor's songs all have a point to them. Taylor has a song for every occasion in the teenage life. She is amamzing. Taylor has helped me to get over things in my life and she helps me realize that I am not the only girl going through the events of growing up. Go out and buy the CD and you will love Taylor and her genius lines.

Convencieing

One time there was a dog named Chloe. She was beautiful dog. She had light brown hair that gleamed in the sun light. She had this best friend named Monica. She was not as pretty as Chloe. Monica had brains. She was very smart. She was ranked first in the class at obedient school and got all A's in everything that she did. Monica was not as popular as Chloe. She spent a lot of time studying. She did not go out every night like Chloe does. Chloe is very popular. She does not devote much time to studies. She is more interested in going and hanging out with other male dogs. She is dating the star of the Frisbee team. He is a very handsome guy named Dave. Dave was very hot. He also did not respect the others too much. When Chloe and Dave started to date, they were the dynamite couple. They were both incredibly good looking and some day they are bound to make beautiful puppies to run around on the grass and have fun. Monica saw Chloe and Dave as a disaster. Chloe forgot all about school. She would always go to the Dog Biscuit. It is a club that all the cool dogs go to. Monica became to get outraged. Whenever she tried to talk to her, Chloe put her off and thought she was jealous of her. Chloe stopped hanging out with Monica. She told her that she was hanging out with Dave every night. At school, Monica and Chloe were partners in a big project due that week. Monica needed help on the project. She asked Chloe if she would help. Chloe said that she would not. Monica tried to convince Chloe to help her with the project. Chloe kept saying no. She really tried to get her attention. Monica decided that she would do the project by herself. That week in school, Monica turned in the project. Chloe came up and asked if she could put her name on it and take credit for it. Monica, being the pushover she is agreed. The teacher then passed out a peer evaluation sheet. Monica told the teacher everything. The teacher read this and she then made Chloe do the whole project by herself to be due the next class, or she would receive a zero. Chloe was upset with Monica. Monica told her that she tried to convince her to stay and help with the project and she did not listen.

Persestence

Persitnece to me is very annoying. To me it means that a person is always bugging anthoer person. A big example of persistence is a teacher giving homework. Home work is incredibibly annoying. We have eighty minutes in class to learn. I do understand why we get homework to make sure that we understand the topic that we are dicussing. Mr. Scropos is a very persistant teacher. He assigns his students, including myslef, a packet and two essays due every week. There is never a week when we do not have homework. This persistence that Mr. Scropos shows is quite great. He makes kids come up to him after school to get the homework. The homework is quite easy because most of it is online and I can find the answers there so it is easy to get it done. Sometimes I can see the reasons for his persistence to help us to be able to understand our work. Sometimes though he does not explain the home work and he does not go over it and the answers that we get wrong so we can fix it and understand. I think that he does not really care and the only reason he is persistant is becasue it is his job to omake sure we get all the work requiered done for the class to count. Parents are also persistent. They are becuase parents are also looking for the best for their children and they want their children to go far in life. They are also persistent to show their children how to be responsible. For example my mother is always on my to do my chores and clean up my messes around the house. My mother's persistence helps me out a lot in life. It teaches me many lessons to be able to do things on my own in my life and to know how to do them. Other parents I know, Josh's mommy, is persistent to Josh and him finding a college to go to. She looks online to find schools that he might like to attend and she is always asking him what he wants to do after school. This persistence will help him to decide the best college for him and what his interests are.