The Goldfinch - Figurative Language

Time and time again Donna Tartt, author of The Goldfinch, manages to impress her audience with her masterful use of figurative language. I often find myself reading her work and trying to emulate her style in my own. On page 115, Theo begins to talk about how hard it is for him to fall sleep and how it "was like tumbling into a pit" (Tartt 115).
           To me, this metaphor quite profoundly resonated with the rest of the story because of the earlier events. In the first chapter, the art museum that Theo and his Mom are in explode. He is knocked on to the dusty and hard ground. When he tries to stand up, he breaks through the extremely friable floor onto a lower level of the building. This metaphor of "tumbling into a pit" is the authors way of alluding to Theo's experience in the art museum. This metaphor may also allude to why he is having sleeping problems. This metaphor shows that he is not able to fall asleep because he keeps reliving a traumatic moment of his life. As exemplified by this quote, metaphors always connect two seemingly unrelated sections of the text on a higher level.

After reading this section of the text, I was prompted to learn more about metaphors. I found the section about "dead metaphors" and "mixed metaphors" very interesting because it was new learning for me. I used this website. Click the link below to visit it yourself.

http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/figures-metaphor.htm

The Goldfinch - Best thing about my book

The best thing about the book The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is the voice that she shows. I really love how she manages to connect with the reader. She talks like she lives in New York as a thirteen year old. Many times, she connects with the reader by using casual diction. She uses the vernacular of the area she is in. She also explores issues that the main character would face as if she herself were facing them. This allows the reader to think about these issues in a deeper way.
            In other passages she decides to use upper level/ elevated diction to convey an idea in the text. She says "That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.". This diction makes the passage much more meaningful. The use of words such as grovel, immerse, cesspool, midst, and ignominously let the message of the passage sink in and resonate with the reader.

The Goldfinch recently won a Pulitzer Prize! Read the Story here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/donna-tartt

Columnist Research - Krista Ramsey

1. The article I chose was titled "Reading Teacher wants students to pass test, love books."

           Jeni Ernsthausen, a third grade reading teacher, is working hard to prepare her students for the rigorous new Ohio Achievement Assessment, which will determine whether or a student has to repeat the Third Grade.

2. URL
         
         http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/15/krista-ramsey-third-grade-reading-guarantee/6475723/

3. The best written line.

"She also has a very good handle on something the state’s not measuring at all: not just if her students can read, but if they will read." I thought that this line was well written because of the use of the colon in the middle of the sentence. Ramsey wanted to emphasize how Ernsthausen is trying to tailor each child's education to their specific needs. This is highlighted by saying before the colon, "... something the state's not measuring at all:". This shows how what she is doing is not at all required by the state education standards, and that what she is doing is going above and beyond to help her students. More emphasis is shown after the colon by saying "... not just if her students can read, but if they will read." Ramsey wants the reader to realize how important understanding each student's disposition towards reading is, and that what Ernsthausen is doing is important.

4. Author's Writing Style

I believe that Krista Ramsey's writing style is blunt, and to the point. All of her titles reflect this style as well. They do not joke around, but rather tell you exactly what the article is about. One quotation that supports this from "For better vision, kids need more time outdoors" is "But before parents claw back the iPhones, experts say the problem may not lie in the technology itself, but the amount of time spent on it, the environment in which it’s used and the activities it’s replacing." A quote from "Reading Teacher wants students to pass test, love books" is "For her students, the stakes couldn’t be higher: Pass the 2½-hour Ohio Achievement Assessment or be retained in third grade, at least for language arts" A quote from "Superbowl QB's score points for great style" is "Whatever magnificent things Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson do on the field Sunday at the Super Bowl, some of us appreciate what the two quarterbacks have done off the field all year. That is, helping to bring back the art of dressing well." All of these quotations get to the meat of the situation and don't "dilly-dally" in getting to the point

5. Three Questions

            1. How do you know what to write about? Are you given stories? Do people E-mail you?

            2. How did you learn to master writing craft techniques? What are some strategies that                          
                students can use to better their writing?
            
            3. How do you let the reader hear your voice shine through the article?

The Goldfinch - Predictions for Chapter 3

In Chapter 2 of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Theo goes back to the apartment that he and his mother share, like they are supposed to in an emergency situation. After waiting for hours, he finally decides to call the rescue hotline he heard on TV to see if they have found his mother. They had not. Finally, he wakes up in the middle of the night to hear the telephone ringing. It is a social services worker who wants to speak to his Dad. Earlier in the chapter the reader is told about Theo's history with his father. We learn that his Dad was a drunk who left his family. When the lady asks to talk to Theo's father he says "He's not home right now...". Before anything else can happen, Theo hangs up the phone. The chapter ends with a pair of people knocking at the door.
             I predict that for chapter 3, we will find out that these people are Social Workers who have come to tell Theo that his Mom died, and to take him to a foster home. Then, I think that we will be brought back to the present time in the story, and told what crime he committed whilst he was in Amsterdam.
         This chapter was relatable to me, because it got me thinking about what I would do in an emergency situation. Theo and his Mom have a plan to go back to their house if they are separated, and to call one another. That made me realize that my family has no real plan for what we will do if something bad happens. The only thing I can remember is my parents telling me to go to the mailbox outside if we hear the smoke alarms. :) This prompted me to go talk to my parents about what we should do in a crisis. I would suggest that everyone talks with their family as well.

To read more about what you can do in a crisis, visit http://www.ready.gov/make-a-plan to learn more.

The Goldfinch - Chapter 1 Thoughts and Reactions

The first chapter of the book The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt catapults the reader to several years before the events of the book with the main character in Amsterdam. This technique hooked me into the story right away. The character, Theo (Although, at the time, we didn't know his name), is trying to read a Dutch newspaper article about something that had happened earlier that day. He is very concerned that his name will show up in it. This leads him back to the memory of his mother, and that  segues into the events that occurred at the Frick Museum of Art in New York. Theo and his mother walk around the museum while they wait for the rain to stop outside. Theo's mother explains what all the paintings mean because she was an Art History major. After a while, the pair become separated as the mother wants to go look at some other paintings. Then suddenly, a bomb goes off. Theo is able to escape the building after a while and is sent away by a fireman before he can go back and look for his mom.  The Chapter ends here.

The beginning of this book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I began reading with very little knowledge of what was going to happen. All I knew was that something was going to happen with a painting called the Goldfinch. I also loved how Tartt was able to connect me with Theo and his mother within a few sentences of describing them so that I would be emotionally invested in them. This allows for a more realistic and gut wrenching experience while reading the book.

Below is a picture of the titular painting, The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius (1654)

To read more visit http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/mauritshuis/605

The Goldfinch - About the Book and Author

As a new trimester of blogging begins, I have decided that a new book must begin as well. For this next round of blogging, I have decided to go with The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. It tells the tale of a boy named Theo Decker who survives the Terrorist attack at an art museum in which his mother was killed.

Donna Tartt was born December 23, 1963 in Greenwood Mississippi. She received her education from the University of Mississippi in 1981, and then from Bennington College in 1982 and onwards.  

She has written two books prior to the Goldfinch, The Secret History (1992) and The Little Friend (2003). Both were hailed as masterworks of their time. Her book The Little Friend won the WH Smith Literary Award in 2003.

Below is an interview with Donna Tartt about The Goldfinch and her writing.

House of Hades: Internal Conflict

This week while reading the House of Hades, I was really trying to take a look at the conflict that the characters were experiencing. Specifically, the internal conflict of the main characters.

For anyone who has ever read Rick Riordan's work, you know that he loves to tell you what the characters are thinking. This book is narrated by several different people throughout the story. It shifts every chapter.

Annabeth - She feels guilty because she thinks it was her fault that she and Percy are stuck in the underworld. Annabeth is conflicted against herself. (Person -vs- Self). I believe that we all, to a certain extent, blame ourselves for something that wasn't our fault.
             Annabeth provides the an example to all of us that says we are not perfect, and that we can't blame ourselves for every little thing that goes wrong in our lives.

Hazel - Hazel has a boyfriend named Frank who is a halfblood on the ship with her. However, she is from the past, (cerca. 1945), and she liked Sammy, who is the grandfather of Leo, who is also on the ship. Normally this isn't a problem, but she sees mannerisms in Leo that remind her of Sammy which make her conflicted between two people. Frank and Leo. (Person -vs- Love).    
                Just like Hazel, at some point, we all have to make a descision between two things. They might not be about love, but usually they will be important. Hazel represents these types of descisions
and how we deal with them. She can become a role model for all of us to follow when we make our descisions.

Frank - Frank feels a little bit out of place with all of his fellow demigods. He was never very coordinated, and because of that, he was utterly failing in the area of combat. Throughout the previous books, he begins to get better at fighting. This comes in handy in the current book because he needs to step up and be a leader while Percy and Annabeth are gone. (Person -vs- Self)
         Frank must step up to protect his friends, just as we all will someday have to step up to protect and help our families. We can use Frank as an example of how to deal with these types of situations. He steps up, even when he has doubts about himself, and helps to lead his friends to safety.   

The House of Hades - My Favorite Thing...

My Favorite thing about the House of Hades, and about all of Rick Riordan's books for that matter, is that they contain such believable characters. All of them seem to have flaws and are more human than the image of perfection we see so many times in stories.

In all of his greek and roman mythology books, Riordan attributes conditions such as Attention Deficit Disorder to being a demigod. He says that the characters are like this because their brains are hardwired to read greek/roman, not english.

Flaws such as this allow many people to connect with the characters and get a sense of what they are going through. These traits that would normally alienate someone, now bring them closer together with the hope of being a "demigod".

House of Hades - Figurative Language

One thing that I really like about the book House of Hades by Rick Riordan, is the copious amounts of figurative language. He seems to love to chalk his writing full of similes and metaphors.

One such is example of this impressive talent is on page fifteen. While describing one of the main characters, the text says "he looked as if he had been run over by a locamotive." (Riordan 15)

Another example is on page 30. Riordan, at this point, is describing something moving across the landscape. He says “something small and beige racing across the fields at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane’s.”

Both of these examples contain great similes that really inspire the readers imagination.

Excerpts From: Riordan, Rick. “The House of Hades.” Disney Hyperion. iBooks.
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