Reflective Essay Preparation 10: Ocean City

This week I'm on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland. It is very relaxing and has given me time to think. It made me realize that this is my last week of summer and Wednesday I'll be back in school. I enjoyed my summer and didn't realize how fast it was going by. I mean at certain points in the summer I knew how many weeks until school started but they seemed farther away at the time. Even just last week I thought this week would last longer, unfortunately I was wrong. In fact I didn't even realize today was Friday until this afternoon. This contributes to my character because it reminds me that I need to cherish things at the time because before you know it they're over.

Reflective Essay Preparation 9: Band Camp

Yesterday I finished my third band camp. Only one year to go! During band camp I have learned a lot of lessons that have changed my character. Through band I have learned self discipline and self respect. I have also learned how to respect others and that if you want others to respect you you must have respect for yourself. I learned that if you don't put in the effort you don't get success. Practice doesn't always make perfect. You perform the way you practice, so if you do a poor job practicing it won't do you any good. However I think the most important thing I learned at band camp, and through all my years in band, is that when you are a part of a team or a family what you do affects everyone around you. If you make a bad decision you aren't the only one that has to suffer. Band has taught me so much and continues to teach me lessons that make me a better person that I will have with me through the rest of my life.

Literary Analysis 3: The Joy Luck Club

The speakers in The Joy Luck Club are the mothers of the Joy Luck Club and their daughters: Jing-mei "June" Woo, An-mei Hsu, Rose Hsu Jordan, Lindo Jong, Waverly Jong, Ying-ying St. Clair, and Lena St. Clair. The mothers change from being young girls in a male dominated China during World War II to becoming old women in America. Although they had new lives and families now they still carried the pain they endured in China. When the daughters were younger they did not fully understand nor appreciate their mothers ways or customs. As adults the daughters learn of the struggles and adversities their mothers suffered while living in China. This is acknowledged when Jing-mei "June" says "Over the years, she told me the same story, except for the ending, which grew darker, casting long shadows into her life and eventually into mine."(Tan 7) The quote demonstrates how as she grew older June understood fully the oppression her mother suffered.  The daughters realize how little they truly know about their mothers and they gain a deeper understanding and love for them.
The purpose of this novel is so mothers and daughters can better appreciate each other. It is to show that mothers have lives before they are married and have children and sometimes that is easy to forget. However it also shows how children grow up and start lives on their own which can be hard for parents to adjust to. In the following quote Suyuan tells Jing-mei a part of her life that surprises her. "Your father is not my first husband. You are not those babies."(Tan 14) It can be difficult to imagine that your parents had a life before you especially when it involves other children. The novel also shows that even though cultural differences in culture and generation can set you apart the bond between mother and daughter is unbreakable.
 The target audience for The Joy Luck Club is mothers and daughters, especially those who grew up in different countries with different cultural beliefs. Tan relates this book to mothers and daughters of a variety of ages. Mothers of all ages especially those of older children can relate to the struggle of not connecting with their kids. Younger daughters (around their teenage years) can relate to the stories of the daughters when they were growing up and feeling their mother's expectations for them were different from their own. Daughters who are in their adult years can relate to the later stories from the daughters of their mothers trying to control a part of their life that is supposed to be their own. Tan uses the common topic of differences between mother and daughter to entice her target audience.
The tone of the novel is sorrowful yet hopeful. In the early part of the novel each woman experiences a tragic loss, yet each of them survive and come to America with hope for a better life. In the beginning of the novel there is a story about a woman coming to America with her duck who turned into a swan. She says "In America I will have a daughter just like me...And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan - a creature that became more than what was hoped for."(Tan 3) The sorrowful tone makes events that happened more dramatic. However the hopeful tone contrasts it and leaves the end on a happier note.

Literary Analysis 2: The Scarlet Letter

The speaker in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is the narrator. The narrator does not change in the story because he knows the story already and is just repeating it. For example, the narrator says "Finding it so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and present it to the reader."(Hawthorne 56) This quote shows that the narrator already knows what is going to happen. He is saying that he witnessed the story and is now going tell it to the reader because he found it so intriguing.
The purpose of The Scarlet Letter is to entertain readers while informing them of dangers of secret love. Hester Prynne never tells anyone (except for Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale) that her unknown husband is Roger Chillingworth the "doctor" that arrives in town at the beginning of the novel. She also never tells anyone (except for Roger Chillingworth) that the father of her illegitimate child is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Although Hester is married to Roger she does not love him, it is the reverend she loves who she meets after she is married. The town knows Hester is pregnant with a child who's father is not her husband so they throw her in jail. Her sentence is to wear a scarlet letter A (for adulterer) but her punishment is not as simple. As Hester said "It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!"(Hawthorne 78) Even if you remove the physical letter the disgrace it brought will always be there. She also will take the blame for Dimmesdale because she knows that she will have to bear it anyway and does not want to bring him down with her. Because of their affair the punishment will stay with Hester for the rest of her life.Hawthorne's target audience is people who like a mystery. In The Scarlet Letter you are trying to figure out who Pearl's father is. Once it is revealed that the reverend is Hester's lover you are realize the clues that pointed to him. The following quote demonstrates how the reader knows Hawthorne's target audience "Of a truth, friend, that matter remaineth a riddle; and the Daniel who shall expound it is yet a-wanting,..."(Hawthorne 72) It explains how there is something that needs to be solved but no one has yet. Automatically a reader who is a fan of mystery would decided that they are going to try and solve it.
Hawthorne conveys a tone of mystery and suspense throughout the novel. You are waiting for Hester to reveal who Pearl's father is but she never does, he does himself. When Dimmesdale admits to being Hester's lover you are surprised. The tone made that so much more dramatic as it did with many other scenes  in the novel. When the minister tells Roger "There can be, if I forebode aright, no power short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart." (Hawthorne 156) you take it as foreshadowing to the minister revealing his own secret. Because of the tone of mystery and suspense you are more susceptible to read into the quote than if it were a happier tone.

Reflective Essay Preparation 8: Work

This past week I started working. I am a junior counselor at the YMCA and I love my job. However I now understand the phrase if you love what you're doing you'll never have to work a day in your life. While I really enjoy my job and most of it was fun, there were moments of  work. For the first time I really felt responsible. I mean I've had to be responsible for myself before but if I failed at my duties I would be the only one hurt. Now if I mess up my failure affects children whose parents relied on me to take care of them. I feel like this past week I have been more careful while carrying out my responsibilities than I have ever been before. I have blossomed into a person who realizes how their actions affect others and is more responsible.  

Reflective Essay Preparation 7: Wicked

Last Sunday I went to New York to see a Broadway show as a birthday present from my cousin. We planned on seeing Sister Act  because it was starring Raven Simone and I think she is a very talented actress. So we got to TKTS (the ticket center in Times Square that sells Broadway tickets the day of the show), waited in line, got to the front, asked for two tickets to Sister Act, and got the response "Just so you're aware Raven Simone is not playing it it today." Since the whole point of wanting to see it was because of Raven we decided not to buy the tickets. I was extremely disappointed and I was having a hard time picking something else to see. My cousin suggested we go to the box office for Wicked to see if we could get tickets. I have wanted to see Wicked for years. When we got to the front of the line at the box office we were told that there were tickets left and I started crying. I was so excited I couldn't believe what just happened. I got something I have been waiting for at an unexpected time. Wicked was amazing and I want to see it again! My character has been improved because now I know what it means when they say when one door is closed another one opens. 

Reflective Essay Preparation 6: Lazy

This week I didn't do much. I tried to take a walk through the park every morning, but I often found myself sleeping late. I would start on my summer assignments but there was always something more interesting on my t.v. then in my SAT book or The Grapes of Wrath. After wasting about three hours watching Boy Meets World I found myself wandering into a room without any television so I wouldn't be distracted. However that didn't help much because I found I can sleep almost anywhere. This is different from previous weeks because I was so busy trying to get everything done that I actually did. Yet for some reason it seems now that I have more time I've been using it as an excuse to be lazy. My activities this past week contribute to my character because I realize that I don't manage my free time very well. From now on I will try to work harder to get things done while still having time to myself.