IRA#5 The Red Pony Junius Maltby

Junius Maltby: Comparing and Contrasting Historical Facts with Actual Story. (Final Chapter)


Summary Junius Maltby


I figured out the mystery behind Junius Maltby. He is the guy in which this story is based on. Let's talk a little about him. He was born and raised on a small farm outside of San Francisco and also had a nice education. After his father had become bankrupt, Junius had got involved in clerkship. However, like his old man, he did not do as well. He started reading many books such as Travels with a Donkey to relax after those hard days at work.

At the age of thirty-five, Maltby fainted for no reason and found out that his breathing is not doing as well as it should. The doctor prescribes that he get out of San Francisco and go someplace with an even warmer climate. Junius traveled to a valley known as Pastures of Heaven where he decided to live as a tenant on a widow's farm in 1910. A year later,  the widow Quaker started to worry about what everyone else would think about a single women with a man living with her, so he married her and helped her take care of her two sons. Junius began to get better and started to get even more lazier and at that time his wife had let the hired help go, making her husband actually do something.

Through the years, the family became very poor, and at that time his wife was expecting a child. In 1917, the flu epidemic spread to their sons and they passed away a few days later. Eventually, Mrs. Maltby had her baby, but because of the epidemic, she didn't live to see the kid. There was much talk about how Junius read his books while his children and wife perished. This was most likely an escape. Ever since, Junius Maltby had been very well know throughout the town. He lived with the hired hand Jakob and he  finally named his son Robbie. Many concerned mothers were worried about Robbie because he had such a poor life. By the time Robbie turned six, Junius was forced to take him to school. Kid started to make fun of Robbie for his ragged clothing, but some liked listening to his stories about his dad reading all day under a tree and doing nothing else.

 Soon Robbie had lots of friends and began a group that hates the Japanese and predict that we will have a war with them someday. (THEY WERE RIGHT!) Soon the teacher, Miss Morgan found found out that Robbie is very smart, and has a great vocabulary, but he can't write. Later, she checks out the farm that Robbie lives on and first thinks it is a horrible place for any person to live, but then she enjoys the stories that Maltby tells. Soon the school board decides to visit the classroom and the class acts horrible. Later, a school board  member wonders about Robbie and if he could give him some clothes. Clothes are given to Robbie and he is put back into reality figuring out that he is indeed poor. During Christmas Break Miss Morgan decides to got to San Francisco and finds out that the Maltby's are also going there, but  to find work.


Journal Friday December 30, 2011


This is the historical background that brings this story to life. I have read two other books written by Steinbeck and I don't think I even have seen another chapter that didn't go with the previous story because I'm still kind of confused why this was put in the book. I barely see anything about the horse except the time that Junius visited one. I would like to point out the contrasting places where this and historical information and the story takes place because Junius Maltby was concentrated in San Francisco and the valley of Pastures of Heaven, while The Red Pony takes place in Salinas. Let's talk more about Maltby! When I read about his feeling sick, and not being able to breathe I figured it out that he has tuberculosis and that's why he needs to move to a warmer and dryer climate. As for his extreme amount of reading,  I could tell that his reading was really more of an escape because he lost his job, but then it became a hobby. The way he just read while his sons and wife were dying was very sad and unusual.

"You know, when the children died, I though I reached a strange peak of horror. Then I thought about it, about it and the horror turned into sadness and the n it turned into more sadness because I figured out I didn't know my children or my wife very well. Perhaps they were too near to me. It is a strange thing knowing. It is nothing but many details. There are long visioned minds and short visioned minds, and I can never see things that are close to me. I am more aware of the Parthenon, than my own home" (Steinbeck 100).

I feel terrible that this husband and father did not get a chance to interact and learn more about his family. It is like the old saying. "you never know how good you have it until you lose it". I can relate this to Carl Tiflin, the father in The Red Pony because he was never really portrayed in the book as the father who would hang out with his family. What if something happened to Jody and his wife? Would he ever forgive himself for not being there or will he live with that burden for the rest of his life?

"You better come with me. I'm going to drive over the hill. You better come and get away from this" (Steinbeck 32).

Despite Junius being a slight comparison to Carl Tiflin, he also a complete opposite. Junius Maltby is lazy and we all know that because it is mentioned throughout the book. Carl Tiflin is not lazy and I can label him as more of a work-a-holic. The time Junius is left with just his hired help and his newborn son as companionship, while Mr. Tiflin uses Billy Buck just as someone not only to help him with the farm, but also someone to talk to and listen. When Jody was getting ready to go to school it made me sad that he didn't really have any nice things and that the kids made fun of him. I was also surprised that when he was offered clothes, he didn't take them. Robbie must have had such a great imagination that he didn't feel poor at all so I can thank his father for helping him become attune with his imagination.  I would like to compare Robbie to Jody now. When I read about Robbie and that the only way he made friends was to have his father tell stories, reminds me about the time Jody got a horse and had a group of boys to pet him. I'm glad they made friends, but are they really your friends? Do they like you for you or your things? Now for the last thing. When I read in the story on the last page that Junius and Robbie were going to San Francisco, it made me think that Robbie is going to be living without a father because Junius is going to get sicker and sicker slowly deteriorating until he's gone. That's a sad feeling knowing that this kid could end up in foster care, waiting for a family to take him in.

 

IRA #4 The Red Pony

The Red Pony


New Characters:


Grandfather-  (Mrs. Tiflin's father)


Summary: The Leader of the People


The story starts out on a Saturday with Jody wondering around around the barn talking to Billy Buck about the amount of hay in the barn, and that there will be lots of mice. For months, they have seen that the amount of mice has increased and that they should have the dogs hunt them. Jody wants to set traps for the mice, but he must ask his father who must be in charge of the entire family's decisions. Later Jody notices a man carrying an envelope who we all know as mailmen. (there weren't any women in this profession back then). Carl Tiflin picks up the letter and brings it inside. The letter is addressed to Mrs. Tiflin and is from her father saying that he will be coming for a visit. Mr. Tiflin is upset at this unexpected surprise because he doesn't like her father. The next day Jody finds his his grandfather and welcomes him. The entire family gathers for dinner and grandpa tells one of his stories about traveling across the plains that everyone has heard. The main character and his grandfather decide to trap mice the next morning, but Jody was the only one who caught any. Grandfather just sat down and talked about how he should be telling folks about other things that he remembered from his past, and not just the same stories.


Journal Friday December 23, 2011


This is the last chapter of The Red Pony. First of all I would like to point out that it stopped at a very interesting place. Now there is a new chapter at the end about Junius Maltby, but it isn't mentioned in the table of contents. It is very weird, but I will discover the mystery behind this person in my next blog.  The major themes I would like to point in this novel are Carl Tiflin being a complete piece of crap,  and Jody's luck changing . Throughout this story Carl Tiflin has been viewed as a terrible father figure to Jody and a terrible husband to Mrs. Tiflin. I just don't like the father in this story. I know Carl is trying to be a good father, but he is not doing anything to try and have a good relationship with his wife or his son. In one of the chapters, it talks about Carl being jealous of the bonding between Billy Buck and Jody. Instead of feeling bad about it, maybe he could talk to his son and find ways that they could have a good father-son relationship.  I have a great relationship with my dad. I know some girls my age may despise their dads because they may be a little overprotective. There are some days where I can be mad at my dad, but then I forget about it because it's over with. Another thing about the father that I don't like is that he is completely rude and has no consideration of other people's feelings. I can go back to the chapter where they met Gitano, an old man who said he lived there some time ago. Mr. Tiflin was so terrible to this man. The night they took this poor man in, he asked Gitano if he had family somewhere else and why he wasn't living with them. In this chapter, I would also like to point out the terrible form of sarcasm in Carl's voice when he talks about the good times with his horse when he was young and how his horse should be put out of it's misery. (WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!). Another chapter that I would like to point out is when the grandfather came to visit. Carl is so mean toward the grandfather because he tells the same stories about his golden days. The worst part is that he talks behind this old man's back and makes fun of him for trying to relive his glory days by telling the stories. Now I'm sure everyone understands what it is like when an elderly person tells you a story. I know some stories that you have heard before will be repeated, but sometimes if you listen closely the events change or it gets more interesting. I'm sure all of you have at least one person in your family that does this. In my opinion, you should just listen to them. Don't be disrespectful like Carl Tiflin. The stories may be extremely boring and you have probably heard them a million times, but all they want to do is have someone to talk to and pass these stories on from one person to the next. The second and last theme I would like to point out in this story is Jody's luck changing from the beginning to the end. in the beginning, we all know the poor little boy's horse died. I thought the boy would be scarred for life after finding his horse dead on the ground thinking that it was his fault. He came along way since the first chapter. His father decided to let him have a colt and then Jody was happy again. I didn't really comprehend too much information about the colt in the last chapters. It just talked about Jody's extreme worry for the care and health of the baby horse. Anyway, the story showed how a sad little boy's luck could change and he finally gets a new horse and his life is complete. This boy talked a lot about the Gabilan Mountains, but I always wondered if he was ever going to visit them and meet up with their old acquaintance Gitano. Jody always talked about the mountains. but he didn't get to visit them.

IRA#3 The Red Pony

The Red Pony by John Steinbeck


Themes:


Carl Tiflin's decision to let his son have another horse-  when you read this book you find out that it is very sad because the boy's horse dies. Carl Tiflin finally decides that Jody should be responsible for taking care of a colt (baby stallion). This leads to a motif that Jody is doing everything he can to make sure that he earns that horse.


Motif: 


Jody's willingness to get his horse- Jody is doing his chores and some extra chores including cutting  hay and milking cows to prove that he can do this.

Jody's apprehension about the horse-  After thinking of Gabilan, he is so worried about the colt. He is asking Billy Buck if the birth of the horse will go well and that he hopes it does.


Summary: The Promise


It is a new season and Jody is walking home from school. When he gets home, he looks through a catalog, but is interrupted by his mother saying that his father wishes to speak to him. Jody's first instinct is that he may have done something wrong, but then he hears his father talk about how well he took care of his last horse Gabilan. Billy Buck talks to Carl Tiflin about having the main character raise a baby colt. The next day, Jody takes one of his horses Nellie over to the neighbors for breeding. Then he and the horse hear a scream and the sound of chopped wood. A stallion runs out of the barn and Nellie joins her. Jody cries hoping that their neighbor Jess would separate them. The protagonist stays waiting for the Nellie hoping to take him back home because he is the person who is supposed to take care of her.

The next day Jody really concentrates on his chores showing his father that he is responsible enough to take care of the colt. Billy Buck explains to Jody that it will take a long time until the colt gets here, but Jody grow more impatient. Three months after the breeding of the mare and the stallion, Jody wonders about the colt. Billy Buck hopes that the mare will give birth to a stallion and  explains to Jody that colts are hard to control and that his father might not want to deal with it. After hearing about what happens when a horse gives birth, Jody thinks about Gabilan and start asking Billy Buck if the colt will be all right.


Friday December 16, 2011


 The theme is that Carl Tiflin is letting his son take care of a newborn horse. It seems like so far in this book that Jody is always given a second chance. I think this is a good. I mean everyone deserves a second chance. I believe that this will be the perfect responsibility along with his chores and school to learn how to manage time and work hard. Now just something to add here. I think that maybe this will somehow fix the father-son relationship between Carl and Jody because I don't really see a paternal figure, but more of a authority person. I don't know if this was common back then, but I just hope that maybe their relationship will get better.  Lets go to our motif which is Jody's willingness to get his horse.   I know that Jody was very traumatized, but now I think he will be way more responsible. Of course, he is also going to be completely paranoid with this little colt. I'm sure its perfectly natural. This will be kind of like taking care of a regular baby and when you think of new parents they are usually paranoid about certain things.As a horse lover and a girl who has been to Girl Scout Horse Camp for eight years or so,  I'm really hoping that everything goes okay with this colt because this poor little boy has suffered enough already. I just hope he finally gets what he wants a horse that he can enjoy. I remember my first time I rode a horse. I always needed help getting on the horse, but then I got the hang of it and I learned how to control the horse, gallop, and ride the horse on trails (which is really fun).  Another motif is Jody's apprehension about the horse.  Jody continually asks about how the birth of the colt will go. Billy Buck explains that the baby must come out a certain way or it miscarriages. This really scares Jody and he wants Billy Buck to tell him if the horse will be all right. He is counting on Billy Buck. Like I said in the first motif, could you blame Jody? His horse died and now he just wants to make sure everything is all right. I am always like that with my pets. Now both of my cats are dying, but right now I'm just trying to enjoy them and make sure they are comfortable.
 My Reflection on the Author. 

IRA #2 The Red Pony

The Red Pony by John Steinbeck


Character List:


Jody-Where we left off, Jody was very sad about finding his horse dead on the ground.


Carl Tiflin- He is still seen as the father that barely talks to his son and starts getting meaner when talking to the Hispanic.


Mrs. Tiflin- She is finally starting to get a little backbone and tells her husband off.


Billy Buck- He is the same, but he really doesn't do anything in this chapter.


Gitano- (new character) he is the elderly Hispanic man that drops by unexpectedly at the Tiflin's home.


Theme:  


Carl Tiflin's rudeness and negativism After reading a couple chapters, I still see that Jody's father is just the meanest person to walk the Earth. I don't know what his problems is. He's has such a negative attitude especially when he is talking about how he wants to shoot his horse because he thinks that it is going to die anyway. He is so mean to Gitano even when he says that he would like to live here and work until he dies.


Motif:


Jody's obsession with the Gabilan Mountains- Jody showing by the name that he gave to his horse in the last chapter is really interested in these mountains. He has asked his father about the mountains and he says that he thinks that there is an ocean and that there are more mountain ranges. The protagonist talks to Billy Buck about life on the other side like villages, but he doesn't think so. Jody asks Gitano about the mountains and he doesn't remember. Then he finds out that Gitano left for the mountains which makes Jody extra mad.


Summary: II The Great Mountains


The story leaves off when Jody found out his horse was dead. The next day, he watches the birds. Then as an impulse he grabs the bird, and kills it by cutting off it's head and disemboweling the poor creature. The protagonist wonders about the Gabilan mountains and what is the other side. He has heard many opinions about what was on the other side of the mountains from his father and Billy Buck.  Later, he encounters an old Hispanic man who says that his name is Gitano and that he has come back. Jody runs inside the house to tell his mom and she tells the man that he may stay here for the night, but Carl is not okay with that. Gitano explains that he was born here and that he wants to work and spend his last days at his place of birth. Jody shows Gitano where the barn is and they look at Carl's old horse Easter. Carl makes comments on how Easter was so young back then and that now he should be shot and put out his misery. The main character finds out that Gitano has been to the mountains, but Gitano doesn't remember anything. The next day, Jody goes into the barn and finds Gitano and Easter gone. A neighbor tells them that a man and a horse were heading toward the mountains. Jody feels upset because the anticipation is killing him about what is really on the other side of the mountain.


Journal Friday Dec 9, 2011


My theme is that  Carl Tiflin's continued meanness in the chapter. Carl Tiflin has been a huge pain in the butt . He is rude and he has such a negative attitude. I'm surprised Billy Buck can put up with his boss. I would also like to add that he has a bit of  stupidity also because he is a business man that will not let another man work even though he wants to and even for a small amount. I can see that he and his son still don't have that relationship that fathers and sons usually have. This is very common for families who have workaholic dads. Of course back then, they referred to the man as the one "bringing home the bacon'" and the woman staying home taking care of the children and the chores. I noticed in the story that Mrs. Tiflin finally got her backbone told her husband off when he was being mean and selfish. She showed him who truly wears the pants in the family and they go back their duties. I'm starting to get that this is definitely before the Equal Rights Movement. However, I still can't figure out which era this is.

The motif is that Jody's anticipation of knowing more about the Gabilan Mountains. The Gabilan Mountains are located in San Benito County, California. It is 3,455 feet above sea level. Evidence shows that the mountains are real and that it is located by the ocean. So Mr. Tiflin's suspicion was correct. Now we still don't know if there is life on the other side. Billy Buck of course said that there isn't enough resources, but couldn't there have been ancient villages and people living there if there was a body of water?


Recommendation


I am starting to really get into this book. Jody really believes that there is something special on the other side of that mountain and I hope to figure that out. After thinking about it, I figured out that my guess about the time era was wrong. I think that it is before World War II if you think of the date it was written. I will figure it out by continuing to read and looking at context clues.

The Red Pony IRA#1

The Red Pony by John Steinbeck


Character list:


Jody Foster- This is the protagonist. He is the little boy who receives something that makes him truly happy.


Billy Buck- He is the equine doctor and also helps his father Carl Tiflin with the farm as a hired hand.


Carl Tiflin- He is Jody's father who is very strict and doesn't really have a relationship with his son. 


Mrs. Tiflin- She is Jody's mother, is the stay-at-home mom, and tends  scold Jody when he doesn't do his chores.



Gabilan- (Jody's horse).



Doubletree Mutt- (farm dog)



Genre: Fiction


Settings: This  novel takes place in Salinas, California on a small family farm.


Time Period: This story doesn't really give the exact historical era, but I'm going to guess that it is set in the Post Word War II time. It even be later than that. I will find out more as I keep reading. 


Themes: 


The protagonists unconditional love for his pony- When a child is given a pet, they promise to do anything to take care of that animal. Like a young child given a special pet , Jody does everything to take care and pamper his horse. While reading, I can tell the love that Jody has for his pony Gabilan.  Jody is willing to do anything for his horse. Even when the horse gets sick, he is standing by trying to help Billy Buck treat him.

The father's perseverance toward a better relationship with his son- 
In the story, you can tell the father doesn't have a really good relationship with his son. He is barely home and he doesn't really talk to his son. When he gives the horse to his son, this could be a way of buying his affection. The problem is that Jody spends more time with Billy Buck and the horse than his own father.


Vocabulary:


scaled- to burn with hot liquid or steam(page 6).
vicinity- nearby surrounding or state of space; proximity (page 6).
carrion-dead and decaying flesh (page 6).
airedales- a large terrier breed having long legs and a wiry tan coated with black (page 10).
disparagingly- to speak in a slightly disrespectful way (page 11).
hackamore- a rope or rawhide covering that goes over the horse's eyes (page 11).
cayuse- a member of his people (page 15).
riata- long- noosed rope to catch animals (page 16).
lax- lacking rigor or firmness (page 16)
ague- chill or fit of shivering (page 27).
quartz- very hard mineral composed of silica (page 34).




Chapter One: The Gift Summary (p 3-36).


This is a story about a boy and his family living on a farm. The boy's life is pretty normal. Like any farm boy, he gets up early to tend the animals, goes to school, and then after school he does his chores. Then one day, his dad tells him that he needs to get some rest and be up early the next morning. The next day, Jody gets up and heads down to the barn finding a red colt standing in the stall. His father explains to him that he must take good care of the horse, otherwise he will sell it to someone else. The next few days, he spends all his time with the horse he calls Gabilan after the Gabilan Mountains. The protagonist brings his six classmates over and they wonder why he can't ride the horse yet. The next couple of days, Jody asks Billy Buck if it was going to be sunny so he can let Gabilan outside before he goes to school.

The entire day he notices the dreary sky and pouring rain, and when schools out, he runs home to put his horse inside. Jody is upset that Billy Buck's prediction about the weather was not accurate. The main character tries to keep the horse warm hoping that he will be better in the morning. The next day, he checks on Gabilan and he looks very sick with of his eyes shut and a stuffy  nose. Billy Buck assures him that it is just a cold, but then it gets worse. The horse handler does everything from giving the horse steam back to operating on the horse's windpipe, and lancing a huge socket full of puss, hoping to get the horse to breathe easier.

Jody is so worried about the horse that he can't sleep. One night, he wakes up, runs to the barn, and finds the doors open and horse gone. Luckily, the horse didn't get too far. A couple days later, after Billy Buck told Jody that he has done everything he could, the horse gets loose again. The boy runs after his horse, but soon finds his horse lying on the ground surrounded by many buzzards. In total hatred, he lunges toward the birds and beats them until they could not fight back anymore. Billy Buck finds Jody and brings him back home. The main character is sad and told by his father that the birds didn't kill the horse. They don't know what happened.

Journal Friday December 2, 2011


Tiflin is jealous of the time that Jody spends with Billy Buck and Gabilan. I feel really sorry that he seems to not have a good relationship with his son. I'm hoping that things will work out between the father and son. The best way in my opinion to think of this relationship of father and son is to think of "Bye Bye Birdie". I know this is a musical, but if you look at the son and the father instead of worrying about Kim, Conrad, and Hugo, you could see that the son tries to do anything to make his father happy and yet his father just won't give. You can't impress him at all. Now in The Red Pony, the Jody doesn't really try to make his father happy unless you consider doing your chores at home, but it explains the father's inability to relate with his son or understand him.


Recommendation


I like this book so far. Even though I'm sad that the horse has died, I hope that the boy will get past this and continue living his life. He is a young boy and he should be enjoying himself.

IRA# 6 The Historian Ending

The Historian
(Death of Dracula finally)


Vocabulary:


Acuity- sharpness

Bacchanalia- feast in honor of Bacchus

Scimitars- curved single-head sword

Idiosyncrasy- something that is strange to an individual

Deference-respectful or yielding to judgement

Indubitable- cannot be doubted

Precocious- unusually advanced or mature development

Disquisition- a subject is examined and discussed

Perspicacity- ability to show mental perception and understanding

Iconostasis-  screen where icons are placed (separating sanctuary from church)


Summary
Chapter 45-79


Paul gives his speech at the conference at the University of Bucharest in Romania. Then they travel to Istanbul to visit Helen's mother. They find letters from her mother giving information about Professor Rossi. They find out about how he said he was going to marry her, but he didn't come back. They read many of the letters and find out that Rossi traveled to Dracula's fortress . Paul and Helen profess their love for each other. They get a message from Turgut that they must go to Bulgaria because there is a library where they will find more rare documents. While back in Istanbul, they find out that Turgut and his scholar Selim are part of the Crescent Guard which is a secret guard that was thought of years ago. Their librarian friend gets bitten three times and he is killed out of misery. When they finally visit Bulgaria, they meet a researcher who they hope will help them find something.

While all these events are happening earlier, in the present time Elsie and Barley find her father's room and it looks like her father left in a hurry.

In Bulgaria, Helen and Paul are looking at manuscript from fourteenth century monks. After a while, they figure out why Rossi didn't come back to Helen's mother.  He has dementia and that's why the letters don't make sense. The historians visit the Rila Monastery with a local researcher named Ranov, and look at the records of the earlier monks. After hearing the story about how the Ottomans decapitated Dracula's body and took his head with them, Helen figures out that Dracula is looking for head in Constantinople. Paul asks Helen to marry him and she's worried about what their married life will be like.


Elsie and Barley find some letters. These letters are address My Beloved Daughter. Elsie realizes that her mother is not only Helen Rossi, but she is alive. 


Paul wakes up one morning to wake up Helen, and finds out that she has been bitten again. They don't understand how the librarian (vampire) could have gotten to her. The monk, Ranov, and the main characters, visit the Sveti Georgi Monastery and find Professor Rossi in a sarcophagus. They think he's dead at first, but he's not. He is killed out of misery by his daughter  knowing that her mother loved him and he loved her back. After searching the monastery, they are betrayed by Ranov, their old researcher , and Helen's old colleague. Finally they get home safely, get married, and have a daughter named Elsie. After a few year, Paul finds Helen becoming weaker and depressed. One morning he wakes up and he finds out she is dead. 


Elsie and Barley find the monastery where her father is and they try to help him kill Dracula. Dracula  was not in the sarcophagus. So they tried everything to distract Dracula so Helen could shoot him in the heart with her gun. The family gets back together and they live happily ever after with no vampires!


Friday, November 25, 2011


There are a few parts that happened in this story that intrigued me. First of all I would like to point out that Rossi was kidnapped by Dracula the entire time, so there is our answer. I feel sorry that he had to die, but death is better than the vampire virus any day. You won't be able to go outside in the sunlight, you can't eat good food, and you watch your loved one's die one by one. It doesn't seem like a happy life, and in some movies they show how a vampire suffers loss and blood lust, but others  say being a vampire is cool. What's important is that Professor Rossi has been found and he is at peace. Now for the romance between Paul and Helen. I just knew they were going to fall in love. I knew that Helen had to be Elsie's mother because of her father's letters, but I couldn't just assume before I read it. When Helen and Paul traveled together, they have been through Bulgaria, Turkey, and Romania trying to find answers. The good thing was that they have always gotten results, but they were always tracked by something. I found it funny that they had to lie in order to have time alone to talk. They couldn't talk in their rooms because there were microphones. Of course they were in a few communist countries so you get the reason why. All in All,  tracked down Dracula and now Vlad Dracula is no more.

Rossi really helped bring on the death of Dracula. The main reason is that Barley risked his life by helping Paul distract the vampire, and then Helen, the last piece of the puzzle, shoots the vampire with silver bullets. Despite Paul, thinking that he was going to save Helen, she actually saved him. It's funny how things work out. I was extremely happy when the family go back together because that is just how I am. I love happy endings!

Recommendation


I would like to say that this author is long-winded. The book just took forever and I was just hoping for it get more interesting and then it finally does and I was pretty happy. One thing that really was interesting to me was that it didn't talk about the girl's first name or idea of her mother in the beginning. I found it interesting that she put that towards the end. This author definitely did her research about Dracula. In almost every chapter, there is more and more history about Dracula and how he ruled the Carpathians and killed anyone who disobeyed him. Overall I actually liked this book. I don't think I would read it again, but that's just me because I tend to remember books that I have read. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the history of eastern Europe and Dracula.

IRA# 5

The Historian


Themes:


Always traveling- It seems like wherever they go, Helen and Paul just can't stay in the same place. They go from Oxford, to Istanbul, to Budapest. 


Romantic tension between one another- At first. I really didn't think that Helen was seen as more than a colleague, but now after reading and feeling their love for each other, but they just don't take it to the next level. They remain colleagues for now.

Distrust and Secrets- When having access to these kinds of historical documents, you can't rely on anybody. You can only very few people because everything bad is happening. Innocent people are being harmed just by knowing this information. Every time, Paul and Helen go someplace to learn more, they risk their lives and somebody else's.


Vocabulary:


Peremptorily- positive or assertive in speech and tone (291).


Virility- loving your characteristics such as masculinity (295).


Voluble- continuous flow of words (299).


Redolent- having a pleasant odor; fragrant (301). 




Summary
Chapters 35-41


Turgut suggests an expert that has connections with the library and specific documents. Paul and Helen find out that this expert is an impostor and a vampire. Helen scares him off. They find out that the three maps that were in their possession about Dracula's location have been stolen. While this story is going on, we switch back to the present where Barley and the protagonist are staying in a barn in Boulois, France.  Then we switch back to the previous story. Paul is looking at the Topkapi Palace where many people were put to death by Dracula. Paul and Helen take a plane from Istanbul to Budapest, where Paul will give a lecture on the Ottoman Domination of the Carpathians at the conference. Paul meets Helen's aunt Eva and figures out more information. He inquires about how the aunt is so high up in government that she can sneak an American into a communist country.


Friday, Nov 18, 2011


The main point is that you can't trust anybody in this story. You can't say a word about anything to anybody. We know this because of what happened when Paul and Helen were accompanied back to the books store by the so-called expert Selim. However, we know that that expert was not Selim, but most likely a vampire. HA HA Vampires in Istanbul? No! I'm just being sarcastic that's basically where they were popular. Everyone wants to get a hold of the documents to cover up the fact that Dracula is still alive. Why wouldn't there be vampires? As we can see nothing is going on with the potential couple Barley and the protagonist, but things are starting to heat up between Paul and Helen. While they are working together, you can tell they both have some form of love for each other.


                         Helen
"If it had not been for my aunt and uncle, my mother might have died. Both of us actually" 

                      Paul


"I'm thankful to your aunt and uncle, too (309).





OK now I am going to answer a question from my last blogs. Who do you think is the mother? I believe without a doubt that Helen is the girl's mother. I really just wish that this novel would kick it up a notch and allow this romance to happen. It is happening way too slow. I really just want to tell each other that they are both in love, but no because they work together. As one of my themes for this perfect couple, I said traveling together because they both want the same thing proof, they want answers, which means they won't stop until they get them.  of course their romantic tension because there is something going on even if they don't want to show it. It has to happen sometime in book because I know for a fact that Helen is the mother.

Next section I want Helen and Paul to admit to each other that they are in love. I want to know more about the protagonist and Barley because they were rarely mentioned. Also, I want to know the protagonist name! This book is so weird! It doesn't seem to give you name until you get to the middle.


Recommendation
I'm still kind of liking this book, but it needs to go faster. I still have trouble telling apart the father's story and reality. Overall this is still a pretty good book. I'm learning a lot about Dracula and how he was a bloodthirsty ruler who killed anybody who was disloyal to him.

IRA #4 The Historian

THE HISTORIAN


Themes:


Suspicion: As the story goes on, the protagonist and Barley sense suspicion everywhere whether it's an old guy who stares at you attentively, or  a women dressed in black looking for something on the train.


Chapter 25-35 Summary:


So recapping from last chapters, the girl finds a letter in her father's office dated six months ago that he was going to find her mother. She is dropped off at school by cute college boy Barley, but decides to skip school and catch a train to Paris. While waiting for the train to go, she reads her fathers letters, learning more and more about what her father left out of his story. Soon Barley catches up with her and tries to convince her to get off the train. Barley reads through her father's letters. While this is going on in one part of the story, the other part is the story being told in the letters. Barely first thinks she's crazy about the Dracula's existence, and heading for lots of trouble ahead so he decides to stay with her.  They stop in Belgium, and Paris. The protagonist and Barley notice a woman in dark clothing looking for something in the train, and an old guys who won't stop starring at her.

                                                                 
So in the letter, the father explains why he only told his daughter bits and pieces of the story. This letter talks about how he meets Helen Rossi. He explains that this letter will give her more information than she ever had in the beginning about her family. He and Helen traveled together to various places including England,  Romania and Turkey. They are approached by a Professor Bora, a scholar of Skaespeare, who ask if they are American. Paul (father), Helen, and Professor Bora (Turgut), inspect Sultan Mehmed's box of secrets. While all these new discoveries are happening, I believe there is some sort of romantic tension going between Helen and Paul. They find a name and translate it to Bartholomew Rossi. The Shakespreare professor shows an ancient vampire hunting kit.


Vocabulary:


Acerbic- sharp and fortnight
Lurid-very vivid
Meticulous- showing great attention to detail. 
Erudition- profound scholarly silence


Journal Friday November 11, 2011


Now I definitely can't put this book down. So we know the girl finds the letter about how her father has been looking for her mother, but there isn't any more information on that subject. I will probably find it out in the end.

There are a few quotes in the book that I just can't get out of my head.

"Now I fear I may not manage to tell you all you should know about your heritage before I am silenced or unable to inform you myself" (181). 
"In the worst case, you will inherit my house, my money, my furniture, and books, but I believe you will treasure these documents I have given to you" (181).

These quotes are just foreshadowing that something bad is going to happen. This expedition that he is taking sounds more like a suicide mission.


 So the main character decides to play hooky and take a train to Paris, but unbeknowst to her she has Barley who stops her which I still don't know how he found out. I kind of think that the dad made Barley follow her and be her bodyguard. So Barley believes why she needs to go and search for the truth, and he knows that there are more things coming ahead. The protagonist see two suspicious characters: a lady in dark clothing who was coming near their seats. Luckily, she didn't. You wonder could she be a assassin or someone working with Dracula. She definitely fits the part because of the black and the scarf around her head. She wakes up and finds an old guy reading the paper, but she notices that he hasn't turned a page. It he hasn't turn a page you know something is wrong so he was watching her. You can definitely tell the theme is once again suspicion. It's kind of weird what this girl goes through. I don't know if I would be able to run away from random people who might or might not want to kill me. It is just scary what she has to deal with.  Barley suggests that they should get on the next train to Perpignan, and this shows that he's learning more about how she thinks and what she will do next. Yep I still think he's more of a bodyguard in secret going to college. Hey, it happened in the movie First Daughter.  So despite the suspicion of weird people following the girl and her bodyguard, the story of her father and Helen is just as good. He and Helen travel together whether it is from England to Communist Romania and Turkey. Wow that's change!  They find Sultan Mehmed's box with the name of Bartholomew Rossi on it. Here it goes ago we are finding some sort of clues to get this mystery solved. Scholars in Turkey think he is dead. Helen asks her aunt for information on Rossi. Gee doesn't this sound familiar. Well of course it does because when the teenager pretends to be a Professor and meets Helen, she agrees to talk to her mother in a few years. Okay when Turgut shows the vampire hunting instruments of death, I was just yes finally proof of vampires.


Recommendation


Every time I read this, it just keeps getting better and better. I do have to say that this is getting a little difficult to comprehend because there is a pattern where the books talks a little about the father's past and then  the current. It gets a little confusing sometimes.

Comedy in Loves Labours Lost

Discuss the aspects of comedy in Loves Labours Lost. Give an example and explain why it is funny.


There is much comedy in this play. I think my main examples are the scholars and their worthless oath, the princess and her ladies, and Costard. In the beginning, the men decide to take an oath to avoid women, seeing them as distractions. Then women come and they're just like forget that rule! The princess comes hoping she can find some sort of man who can take over for her father when he passes away. But then she finds out about the oath and is like okay, really? She just needs someone. Instead she uses her wit to make fun of the men for their dumb oath. It is also very funny that the men are all hiding their love letters from each other to their ladies. They specially don't want Biron to know because they think he's following in the rules, but actually he is about as love sick as the rest of them. The guys decide to forget the silly oath and continue to woo the women. The guys wear costumes at the ball and thanks to Boyet, the women know about the costumes so they have a little something planned in order to confuse the men. Now lets talk about Costard. He basically is a fool especially when he gets all the letters mixed up and everyone knows about their passion for the women including the ladies and Holofermez and Nathaniel, who spent their time critiquing and making comments on the letters. So all in all, the men are lovesick, the women have them wrapped around their little fingers, and Costard is still and to this day a fool. They all play a huge role as the humor in this play.

Loves Labours Lost Act V. FINAL REFLECTION

THE END


Trace the idea of truth and lies. What does the play imply about the relationship between truth and love? Between truth and language? How does this apply to human life?


We all know that truth is entirely different from lies. The truth is always the right thing unless there are different circumstances. Lying is not the best thing to do because nobody will ever know if you are being honest or just saying something that is not true. When reading Loves Labours Lost, you think more about the relationship between love and truth.  In the play, the men make an oath to abstain from three things, but the most important one was no women. However, a princess of France and her ladies in waiting changed that and made them rethink their oath. They started to become attracted to these women. That's called a crush. King Ferdinand, Biron, Dumain, Longaville, and even the fool Costard, had a crush on a special woman. These men have completely fallen in love with these women, but they don't know about the women falling in love with them.  The men are lovesick, but not each of them know about each others infatuation with the women except Dull and Boyet. The women are playing with their hearts which is really sad because that's not honesty or love. Their language and form of decorum shows that they are just playing with emotions of the men and they are totally dissing the contract.

"Good wits will be jangling: but, gentles agree: This civil war of wits were much better used. On Navarre and his book-men for here 'tis abused"

"Sweet health and fair desires consort your grace!" 

That's worse than lying about it because you are pretending to love someone. When the men finally admit their feelings to the women, the women still kind of mock them. Later, the women make the men show their commitment to loving them by having them live their life alone for a year and then they can be together. Biron's special job is to make the sick smile with his power of wit. All these conditions must be met in order to prove their love to them. So you know if they are truly your love if they follow your rules and expectations. I definitely think the play tells about truth and love because you learn if there is dishonesty between individuals, and you also learn about what they will sacrifice to achieve love.


I think this very much applies to human life? When I think of relationships between love and truth, I think of high school. In high school, I could just be speaking as a skeptic, but what happens is that a boy may pretend to like a girl but then he's actually laughing about it behind your back. This shows total dishonesty because he is not telling you the truth about what he likes about the girl or why he is dating her? Girls are more likely to hear this and believe it. This could also happen to guys. Some guys are happy when they get the coolest girl to go out with them, but they could be making fun of him behind his back.   Girls can be as mean as the guys, of course you could see that in this play. These men are so in love with these women and the women are just stabbing them in the heart. I look at my school and see some relationships last, while others don't because of lies and secrets are hidden from one another.

Loves Labours Lost Act IV. Scene III. and Act V. Scene I and II

Berowne's Speech


Vocabulary


forsworn- to reject or renounce under oath
triumviry-same thing as triumvirate which is a government of three officers or magistrates
coxcomb- conceited, foolish dandy
peremptory- having no opportunity for denial or refusal






How does he prove the men aren't forsworn by loving the French ladies? What is the progression of his argument? How does he convey his argument through rhetorical devices, and what is their effect? 

"Tis more than need. Have at you then, affection's men at arms, consider what you did swear unto. To fast, study, and to see no woman; Flat treason against the kingly state of youth. Say, can you fast? your stomachs are two young; And abstinence brings maladies. And where that you have vowed to study, lords. In that each of you have forsworn his book, Can you still dream and pretend and thereon look? For when would you, my lord, or you, or you, Have found the ground of study's excellence Without the beauty of a women's face?"

Biron believes that the contract that they all signed is a big joke and none of them including him should have agreed to it. This contract is making everyone a hypocrite. Everyone isn't following it. He proves that they are not forsworn because they are studying the true nature of beauty. These women were distractions that hindered their original studies. They are studying the physical characteristics and beauty of women and they have learned more than they could ever know. So they continue to woo the women because they believe that they are learning something from a women's beauty. Biron says that you can learn a lot by looking at a women's eyes. An example of a rhetorical devices would be using the words how, what, and why.  'For when would you my lord, or you, have found the ground of study's excellence without the beauty of a women's face""For where is any author in the world that teaches such beauty as women's eye" . "Do we not likewise see our learning there?"






Act V. Scene I and II.


Vocabulary:

sententious- abunding in pithy maxisms aphorisms
audacious- extremely bold or daring
impudency- lack of modesty, shamelessness
quondam- former, recent


The Princess


In Act V. Scene II, if I was the princess I wouldn't be as mean toward the men. I would be a nice person. I dislike the princess and I think she's totally mean and can remind of you of a early Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.  I wouldn't treat them like crap or insult them about their funny contract. I wouldn't ignore them, but maybe talk to them to see if they are truly in love with the  ladies-in-waiting or if they are mocking the girls just as the girls are mocking the boys. I wouldn't have my friends make fun of the guys. I mean I'm sure it's funny that they are in costumes and you can recognize them, but  I would play along and then tell them after a while that I knew all along. That way everyone would get a good laugh in. If any of the men express their love, I don't know what I would do. I guess be like everyone other girl in those romance movies that falls in love too. If my father died and I had to marry someone else, I guess Ferdinand would be a good choice because in the story the princess and the king have so much chemistry. They flirt and he's totally in love with her. Also during that time, marrying for wealth was more common than love.

Loves Labours Lost Act IV.

Character List


Vocabulary:

pernicious- causing harm or ruin.
indubitate-  not questioned or doubtful, certain.
videlicet- that is to say; namely.
coppice- dense growth of small trees or bushes.


Describe their style of language


Holofernes- (Scene 2) This guy  thinks he knows everything. When talking about the deer that the princess killed, he believes everyone else doesn't know a thing about the subject of deer. He notes it as a pricket, which is a two year old buck deer. He tells Dull a story of the death of the deer. He comments and critiques  the letters with much humor.

"Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer?
 And, to humour  the ignorant, I call the deer that the princess killed a pricket" (Act IV. scene II).

       "And, the text most infallibly concludes it' 

Nathaniel- He is another teacher like Holofernes. Holoferenes and Nathaniel are considered the major entertainment of this scene because they are reading various different letters and using abusive commentary on them.

"Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to put an end to to this abusive humor" (Act IV. scene II).

            "And thank you too; for society, saith the text is the happiness of life" 

Dull- He is the constable, that usually hangs out with Holofernes and Nathaniel. He believes that it was not a held creed or answer for the deer. He believes its a pricket. He tries to fit in with both of the schoolmasters.

"Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket" (Act Iv. scene II). 

Don Armado- He gives a letter to Costad, who by accident distributes all of them, getting them mixed up encouraging the schoolmasters to read them.

Jacquenetta- She is asking the schoolmasters to read the letters. She cannot read. She finds her letter is not from Don Armado, but from Lord Biron to Rosaline.

"Good Costard, go with me. God save your soul"

This quote explains that she and Costard are going to tattle on the unfaithful lords.


Moth- He is Don Armado's page or assistant. Just a historical note, a page was a person in the medevial times who was most always a man that helped the lord when they went to war. He and Don Armado have an interesting conversation about Costard and his broken shin. He doesn't really know too much, so he asks his master lots of questions. 

"By saying that a costard was broken in a shin, then falled you for the l'envoy" 

IRA #3 The Historian

The Historian


Theme:


Suspicion: 
Everything is starting to get weird. The creepy librarian is looking for them. The librarian is mysteriously killed after they get some information from him. She finds her dad in a library reading a book about vampires, and the next day he leaves her with garlic and a crucifix, and tells her to go home. She knows there is something her father is not telling her. She finds the letter about how her father is going to look for her mother.


Chapter 20-25
Plot Summary
Protagonist is starting to get closer and closer to the truth. She and Miss Rossi  meet at a church where they discuss the maps and the letters written by Professor Rossi.  The protagonist and Miss Rossi still talk about the man that was in the library glancing at one of them. Main character figures out that this was a librarian, but she doesn't want to tell Miss Rossi about the interesting mark on his neck. Soon they see the creepy librarian coming into the church and decide to hide. After a few moments, they decide to leave. They are both scared about what the man wants. The teenager thinks that he is after Miss Rossi and that she should stay somewhere else beside her dorm in fear that he might meet her there.

Helen and the the teenager decide to set up a plan to interrogate the creepy gentlemen at the library. Helen uses herself as bait for the individual and goes all the way to the special books collection. She intrigues the man by talking about Rossi's map. Then in a furious gesture he jumps on her and bites her.  Helen and the main character hold him down and get information that this guy was a vampire and that Professor Rossi was taken to Dracula's tomb. The next day the teenager finds the creepy librarian dead in the middle of the street with his body twisted.  She  tells Miss Rossi that she will go to Istanbul to find her father. Miss Rossi wants to go with her.


 Later, she travels with her father to Oxford where he has his business meetings and she gets to tour the college. She is showed around by a cute undergraduate student who she feels is kind of cute. She is starting to realize what it's like to talk to guys since she is so sheltered. She finds her father in a library reading some vampire literature. The next day she wakes up in the morning and finds a note from her father saying that he has some last minute business  meeting and that she will be accompanied home by the tour guide Stephan Barley. Later she comes home, searches her father's desk and finds an envelope of letters addressed to her. She picks up the letter written six months ago with the words "My Dear Daughter. If you are reading this, forgive me. I have gone to look for your mother" (171).


Journal Friday, November 4, 2011


I'm really starting to like this book. Everything is starting to pull together even though I'm in the middle of the book. So finally, Helen believes the teenager that her illegitimate father's disappearance has something to do with supernatural beings. Helen and the main character figure out that Professor Rossi has been taken to Dracula's tomb. I think it is very weird how the creepy librarian got killed a day after spilling his guts about Rossi's disappearance. They find out that this creepy guy was  jealous of Rossi because he wanted to use the maps and that is why he was so anxious to get them. He is murdered in the most brutal way and you wonder what kind of person or thing could have done that. We have all heard of the expression. "Don't shoot the messenger". Well he wasn't shot, but he definitely was in trouble for letting important information get out and he paid for his mistake. I don't exactly know if this guy was a real vampire or he could have been a half vampire. Wow, can't you see I have seen way too many movies and read too many books.  I'm a crazy supernatural movie and literature fanatic and  I personally think it was a full vampire.  A vampire has complete strength and could do that easily, but then again it could be anyone.

I find it great that the main character is getting the chance to visit the college in Oxford. She is given tour by a cute guy and starts to feel a little less sheltered than she was. She visits the library and finds that her father is reading a book about vampire lore instead of attending his meetings. So the question is Were his meetings canceled? Did he skip them? Why was he reading a vampire history book? I know there is definitely something that he is not telling her.  The next day I figure out that there is something wrong, when he leaves her a letter with a crucifix and garlic, telling her that she must carry these items with her at all times. I 'm wondering if her father knows where Rossi is and he's going to to Istanbul to save him or if  it is one last-minute business meeting. Yeah right! Something is Wrong! Look at the clues. Garlic. Crucifix. The words "Take these with you at all times".  He's not trying to convert her or anything. These are things that keep vampires away.

She goes to the library to find the book that her father was reading, but was in a hurry to get home. I noticed something said from the tour guide. During the tour, he was talking about in the medieval times that oxford was loaded with vampires back then, but he explained that it was just lore. So the next day when he takes her to the library before the train station back to Amsterdam, he tells her to hurry up or he will get a stake through his heart.  Those words just sounded creepy to me. I wonder if he knows more about vampires than he is owning up to or he is just joking. I partially think that he should be suspected for some reason. I always want to know why did her father  send a college guy  to go with a high school girl to take her home? I understand that he is paranoid right now and that he wants his daughter to be protected, but I wander if that guy is something more than an average college student. I could be wrong about all my assumptions, but hey I'll figure out the answers. It's like a scientist hoping that their hypothesis will be proven. I hope my assumption or correct if I was way off and I just overestimated this book.

The six month old letter she finds in her father's desk is also interesting. I have yet to read about this letter, but I will because I want to know if her mother's disappearance has something to do with Rossi's disappearance. The beginning of the story never talks about her mother so maybe I will figure out why her mother was taken, and when she was taken to see if there is some sort of correlation with everything happening now.

Recommendation: Likewise in the last blogs, I like this book. Sometimes it's hard to understand where the plot is taking place, but you get the hang of it. This whole thing about Dracula is starting to get more mysterious by the minute. I like to ask myself questions about what I think will happen and I wonder if I'm correct.

Love's Labour's Lost Character list

Describe the following characters. 
Character list for Act I- III. 


King Ferdinand- He is the ruler of Navarre. Navarre is a place between France and Spain. He falls in love with the beautiful witty, yet flirty princess. Her speech is very witty, yet it is sharp with an attitude


Lord- He is the head of the Acadamia program. He is the one who sets up the contract where all of the men are sacrificing three square meals a day, eight hours of sleep, and love. They are especially not allowed to fall in love in fear that they will be severely punished.

Don Adriano- He is very full of himself and the story talks about how he looks like King Philip II of Spain. He loves Jaquenetta truly and is upset that Costard is courting her. He uses his poetry to express his passion for his love.

Jaquenetta- She is the maid in the household. She is in love with Costard and Costard is in love with her.

Costard- joker, clown, target of jokes. He is the comedic relief in the play.

Biron- He is a guy living at Ferdinand's court hoping to study at the Acadamia. He doesn't agree with the no falling in love policy. He falls in love with Rosaline. At first sight, he tells her that he will make her love him. He explains that his heart is breaking when Rosaline thinks he does not have a heart.

Longaville- He is another lord at the court where he also breaks the rules and falls in love with Maria. He reminds me of Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet play when he asks the page who the women was.

Boyet- is another lord, but he is travels with the princess and her ladies from France. He tends to be a big flirt when he asks Maria to let him kiss her in exchange for food and she denies.

Dumain- He is also a lord of the court who sacrifices love for academics. However, he and the others are finding themselves falling in love. Big no no!  He loves the woman Katharine.

Princess- She is the girl who the king tries to attract. She uses insults when talking about the no falling in love policy. She thinks that will is most powerful thing. Their will is going to overpower them and they will crack.
She wants to get married because her dad is on his death bed and she needs a new benefactor.



Maria, Rosaline, and Katharine- They are the ladies of France that decided to accompany the Princess of France. They speak of the "book-men" as complete romantics. They believe in love at first sight more than the men do.

Vocabulary:


gelded- to take strength from
expositor- someone who is a expounder
bedecking- to adorn in a showy manner
remuneration- reward, pay

Pedantic Proverbs

Proverbs


1. Santillate, Santillate, asteroid minific
     Twinkle, Twinkle, little star

2. Surveillance should precede saltitation
     Look before you leap

3. Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate.
    Birds of a feather flock together

4. Polchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.
    Beauty is only skin deep.

5. Neophyte's serendipity
    Beginner's luck.

Pedantic Proverbs

Proverbs


1. Santillate, Santillate, asteroid minific
     Twinkle, Twinkle, little star

2. Surveillance should precede saltitation
     Look before you leap

3. Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate.
    Birds of a feather flock together

4. Polchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.
    Beauty is only skin deep.

5. Neophyte's serendipity
    Beginner's luck.

Love's Labour's Lost Act I

Loves Labour's Lost Analysis: Act I.


Vocabulary:
cormorant- a greedy person
vicegerent- officer appointed as deputy by sovereign or supreme chief
tharborough-  constable
minstrelsy-  musical instruments

In Act I, I find this play to be sort of funny. You got to love dramas. I find this play funny because of the major hypocrisy when the four men and King Navarre commit themselves to academics, restraining themselves from three normal meals a day, getting more than three hours of sleep, and staying away from women. This Acadame they call it, is a no woman zone for anybody working for the king. As you keep reading, you know the men are not happy about this rule.  Biron especially doesn't like this rule, but signs the paper anyway. Costad, the king's joker, breaks the rule by falling for the maid Jaquenetta. This becomes a big soap opera  because it turns out that Don Adriano is also head over heels in love with her too. He uses his deep poetry to show his love for Jaquenetta. This is pretty funny because there are two guys who love her, but Don Adriano is having trouble deciding whether Jaquenetta is really his true love and if she is worth more to him than being a scholar. So like in many coming-of- the age comedies, usually one guy decides to hinder the other guy from getting the girl. Don Adriano tells King Navarre that Costad had broken the no woman rule, and now he will be punished. I think that we would find this more funny if we were used to comprehending the special language that  shakespeare wrote in  his plays. Maybe centuries back, like in the rennaisance we would see this play and think it was hilarious.

IRA #2 The Historian

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova


Protagonist- Anonymous Sixteen year old girl
Antagonist- there is someone who is trying to get rid of everyone who knows that Dracula is still alive. This antagonist is violent and brings about unexplained homicides.
Themes:
Victimization- everyone who knows or helps this girl with her research on Dracula, is getting killed, becoming weak, or is in danger. The librarian that helps the girl ends up dead in the library, but no one knows the cause. As her father tells more of the story, he is growing very weak and she is worried. The sixteen year old girl finds out that someone else has a copy of Dracula and is in danger.
Coincidence- the girl is starting to see a pattern with her life and Professor Rossi' depicted in his letter. Whenever someone is  getting closer to the truth about Dracula, they end up dead and nobody can figure out who the killer is or the next target.

Vocab:
peripatetic- walking or traveling about (81).
compunction- uneasiness or hesitation about an action (90).
pedantic- overly concerned (90).
innocuous- not interesting,  significant, or stimulant pallid, insipid (91).


Summary
Chapters 10-20


As the anonymous teenager balances schoolwork, traveling, and research on Dracula, she is getting into something that is even more scary than life itself. She keeps reading the letters and is finding out more from Professor Rossi's letters. She starts to have this obsession and will not stop searching. In order to get a hold of classified information, she impersonates a Professor at the University. She tries to look for Bram Stokers novel Dracula, but it is checked out. She really needs the book so she does everything she can to find out the name of the patron who has the book. While doing this, she notices a dark scary man who hasn't taken his eyes off her. When he asks her if she needs help with anything, she tries to lie and say that she wasn't looking for Dracula, but something else. Soon she finds out that the book has been checked out to a graduate student named Helen Rossi. The teenager finds the last name to be quite familiar. She sets up a meeting with the student, still impersonating a professor, and tells Helen that she might be in danger by holding onto that book. Unfortunately, the women doesn't believe her and thinks she's crazy. After talking with Helen, she finds out that Helen is Professor Rossi's illegitimate daughter from Romania. She is a History grad student hoping to publish research about Dracula before her father, therefore getting revenge for him leaving her mother with a child out of wedlock.

Saturday October 29, 2011


This book is getting really good. She finally learns more about the crimes of Dracula. When studying the history of the Carpathians, you don't realize that if you look at someone wrong even once, you are dead.   At the end of Professor Rossi's letters, she must rely on information from the library. I find it cool that the girl impersonates a professor and succeeds. This concludes that either she is a very good actor or the library faculty is really stupid. I feel really bad for this girl because every person who has helped her with her research is dead or going to be dead.
"I might for a second-- not knowing him-- have said he was dead" (130).  I have a feeling that because her father is becoming weaker by the minute he probably has cancer and is not going to live very long. Everything that is happening in the letters is happening to her and that's freaky.  The story keeps getting more interesting with the mystery of not knowing who is behind all these unexpected deaths. I really am curious about who is actually behind these murders. I have a hunch that its a scary guy who wears black, could be the same guy who was stalking her at the library. It could be the same guy who killed Rossi's friend according to his letters in 1931. However, that murder was mostly likely a vampire because of the teeth impressions in his neck. When the teenage girl meets Ms. Rossi, she figures out that she is Rossi's daughter and I know she can't be to blame for these murders because her only goal in life is to belittle her supposed father by publishing an article about Dracula's true existence. She didn't even realize her father disappeared from his office. Heck, she doesn't know anything about him, except his accomplishments and what he is currently working on. As I read more and more of this story, I hope I will find the answer of why someone would go to so much trouble to kill all these people. There is something that the sixteen year old is getting very close to that not only can endanger her life, but also the lives of others around her. I really hope that the girl and Ms. Rossi put their heads together and figure out what is going on. Is there a chance that Rossi maybe staged the kidnapping and he just fled to Romania to keep searching for Dracula's tomb or has he really disappeared? Who is the killer? Are my assumptions correct about the creepy guy in black?  I'm really looking forward to reading more of this because I want to answer my questions.

Recommendation: This is actually a really good book so far, but if you don't like slow starters and you can't bear to read a book that is more than 400 pages, then this book is not for you.

Things Fall Apart Critique


I would like to say that I like this story so much better than Beowulf. It was easier to comprehend and I enjoyed it. I learned more about the roles of men and women in society where the man is always in charge and women are treated as second-class citizens. In some parts of the U.S. that is still in affect, but it is more likely in small poverty stricken countries. I found it ironic that I was studying Gender Inequality in Social Problems while we were reading this. This book concentrates on Okonkwo and how he tries so hard to be better than his own father because he was basically a nobody. The fear of resembling his father haunts him. When Chapter five was talking about masculinity and how the man must control his women and children, you start to  think about how that still happens in today's society. The man is afraid of being weak. When he finds out that Ikemefuna must die, he finishes the job in fear that he would become weak and the other villagers would kill him.

Learning about the culture was actually interesting because hey I know what an obi is and an ozo is.  When you understand the culture, you figure out why the people are the way they are. For example why they have so many wrestling matches? Physical Strength is greatly admired by the Ibo people . This shows that one must have physical strength and power to take the big step in winning matches and gaining wealth. The book explains how there are things in your life that you can't change or control no matter how much you try. Okonkwo is living large with a big family and titles, but when a few bad event affect his life everything changes. When he leaves for seven years, he comes back a stranger, feeling out of place in his home village. He is furious about the villages lack of rebellion against the Christians.

What Okonkwo doesn't know is that this conversion to Christianity and change is inevitable. It has to happen because its pure destiny. Not everything can be fixed or changed, sometimes you just have to learn to live with it. Sadly, Okonkwo takes his life not thinking about how his family will cope after his death. I would like to say that the  Literature circles really gave us the chance to express what was happening in the story in our own words, and talk about other information that could be relevant to the discussion. For example that Wrestling could be a theme and a symbol.  Overall this was a great book! I would recommend it to anyone.

Tragic Hero

My definition of tragic hero is someone who tries to be strong and tries to help everyone, but he doesn't succeed because of the tragic events happening in their life. In the story, Okonkwo was seen as a strong wealthy man that pretty much had it good until the bad things kept happening like the poor harvest, his exile, and his return to his village where he finds out that everything has changed. You can say that sometimes events in your life are inevitable and you can't control them. Okonkwo tries hard to make sure everything is constant, and get everyone to rebel and  take back their previous religion and customs, but in truth very rarely does anything stay the same. Change is a part of life and some people can deal with it and some can't. Okonkwo, as we all know, couldn't deal with the change and  just didn't feel like anything was worth living for or enjoying.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova


Fiction


Copyright 2006


Protagonist- sixteen-year old girl who continually wants to learn more about the legend of Dracula. 


Antagonist- there really isn't a bad guy in this story.


Themes: 


Mystery- when the father tells the story of  how the letter came to be, more and more strange things happen that can't be explained.


Motifs: 


Anticipation- the daughters impulse to research more about the medieval times in Central Europe and why her father has trouble revealing the story to her.  I can probably argue that this could be a theme also because in the majority of the story she wants to know more about Dracula and her father's story. 


Brief Plot summary


Chapters 1-8:


The story is about a sixteen-year old girl who travels a lot with her diplomat dad. She becomes interested in a letter with the My Dear and Unfortunate Successor printed on it. She begs her father to tell her the story and origin of this letter. As she travels from Amsterdam to Italy to Spain, she learns bits of pieces of the story. The part of the story that interests her is that Dracula may be alive.


Sunday October 16, 2011


I have to say that this book is going at a slow pace, but I'm actually kind of enjoying it. This book is becoming very interesting to me because of all the places this girl gets to visit and all the history that surrounds her. If I had that chance to travel to so many countries every other weekend or month, I would be so psyched. This book also interests me because of the vampire legend. This fits so well considering my love for vampire literature and movies. It was strange finding out that Vlad was a real person, but he wasnt' a vampire.

My main theme is Mystery. Many interesting things happen as this story goes on. I have an example of perfect foreshadowing.

"I picked up my shabby suitcase, opened it and pulled out an envelope labeled in Rossi's handwriting. It said SAVE FOR NEXT ONE" (Kostova 51).

The girl's father looks at the documents that Professor Rossi, his adviser gives to him. This tells use that something bad is going to happen and that his successor must continue his work for him when he's gone.

"I had the feeling that he had been promising me this outcome, this equality, all along just waiting for the perfect time when I was ready" (Kostova 52).

He had the feeling that Professor Rossi has been prepping him for this information all along, and that this information wouldn't be passed down to him until later when he was able to handle such important documents.


The motif of this section is Anticipation.The young daughter of this diplomat has this unusual urge to research everything about Dracula and the Carpathians. Of course, her father is giving her bits and pieces and I can tell he is having trouble giving out this information to her and that he's trying to keep as much as he can from her. As she reads the letters she's starting to notice some patterns in his writing such as the print and the behavior toward writing the letters.

Final overview:

I have a feeling that this story is going to get more mysterious by the minute. I want to find out if Dracula really is alive and why was he supposedly killed. I hope my questions are asked as the story continues.

Personal reflection:

This story is going pretty well. I kind of envy this girl. She has a great education,  studies in England, and she gets to travel the world. I have a pretty good attitude about this book so far. It will take me a lot of reading, but hey what's wrong with a little bit of a challenge.


Character reflection
The characters are not named in the story so it's sometimes confusing. This girl is starting to to act more and more like her father when he was younger as the story goes on and her curiosity increased rapidly about this subject of Dracula.


Recommendation

 So far this book is going great. As he read more I'm sure I'll have a better understanding.

Time period

This book is set in the early 1970's , all I know is that it doesn't talk about the era at all. It talks about how the daughter is sheltered away from all the excitement and rebellion happening in this time era.

Fearfulness and Fearlessness


Why do we have fears? We have fears mainly because of experience and psychological issues. When we have fears we want to do anything in our power to get rid of them. For example when you are scared because you think there is a monster in your room, you ask your mom or dad to check leaving you with peace and mind that you are going to sleep. How do we relate to the human kind in the story? Everybody has fears and those you say they don't are hypocrites. You even have the fear of not knowing what's going to happen. Why are we afraid of other countries? Well lets think about September 11th. We didn't know that there was going to be a terrorist attack headed for New York. We are scared of other countries because they may have certain ammunition and military that can threaten the National Security of the United States. When I think of Ikemefuna being taken away from his family and land that he has known for so long, I believe that I could probably adapt.
However, if they tried to kill me I would run like heck.

I would like to visit another country because I like to learn about other people's cultures. I know it will be hard to learn new customs, but hey hard work pays off and you might learn to like it there. Of course I would miss my family, but hey technology is awesome and I can call my parents on the cellphone, email, and even visit them every now and then. In my opinion, visiting another country is a great opportunity that shouldn't be passed up.