My Red Hunting Hat

A red hunting hat is supposed to protect you from other hunters while keeping you hidden from the deer that you are hunting.  For me the red hunting hat is my personality.  It protects me from other hunters because I can give as well as take a joke.  Rather than taking jokes directed at me by friends in a bad way and getting angry I just turn it around at them and laugh about it.  This is a good thing because it allows me to always keep a positive outlook on things rather than getting upset and ruining my day.  My personality also keeps me hidden from the deer in the sense that if something is upsetting me at the moment you often cannot tell because I try to act the same.  This keeps my emotions hidden sometimes making everyone the deer.  The last way is because it makes me stand out from the crowd.  If you see someone walking around in a red hunting hat you notice.  I am a rather loud and noticeable person so because of my personality I stand out rather than just going along with things.  Overall my personality fits every description of a red hunting hat.

Class Direction

I do not think there is anything about our class structure that should be changed.  I think that it is a very enjoyable class as well as being very interesting.  I love the fact that we get independent reading days every Thursday.  I also think that all the required readings are very interesting rather then dull.  The last thing that i really love about this class is the discussions that we have.  Many interesting ideas come up in all of them and i am never afraid to voice my opinion, nor do i ever feel like i have to make up something to share.  Overall I love this class and look forward to the rest of the year.

Holden The phoniest real person

Up to chapter 16 in The Catcher in the Rye we have been shown many times that Holden both hates people that he considers phony and that he loves people that he considers to be “real”.  Holden considers himself real and takes it upon himself to protect the other people that he considers to be real.  However I do not think that he is really as real as he sees himself.

If he was actually a real person why would he not tell the phonies what he thinks of them?  Outwardly he acts as if he does not have any of these feelings and ideas about all of the phonies around him.  Doesn’t that make Holden phony as well because he changes who he is as a person.  Also the fact that he constantly lies to the people around him about unimportant things when there is no reason to tell the lies at all.  For example when he wanted to leave Mr. Spencer’s house there was really no need to lie about going to get his stuff.  He could have just asked to leave.  Then an even better example is with Mrs. Morrow, there is no reason for him to have lied to her he could have just said nothing to her and been on his merry way but he decided to make stuff up for his own enjoyment.  These are two reasons that in my opinion make Holden himself is extremely phony.

Thanksgiving

                This Thanksgiving I am very thankful for my family.  This Thanksgiving I am spending the weekend with my mom’s family in Saint Louis.  When I think about my family I am thankful because of how lucky I am to have them all still.  My grand-father was a full colonel in the Vietnam War so for him to have survived is something that I am very thankful for.  Many people that had family in the Vietnam War were not as lucky as I am.  I am also thankful for my grand-mother.  She had a heart attack a few years ago and I cannot imagine my life without her.  She helped me and is still helping me to be the best that I can be and has always supported me in everything that I do.  I am also thankful because of my aunt.  A few years ago she had breast cancer and after that she lost her job.  However she fought through and has since gotten married and has an even better job than before.  Finally I am thankful for my parents.  They do so much work for me and my siblings to be happy.  My dad drives my sister and I to school on the way to work and after school my mom drives all four of us out to Schaumberg for soccer practice.  When I look at my family I see how lucky I am and it makes me very thankful.

Cormac McCarthy interview

A major theme in The Road that Cormac McCarthy talks about in his interview with the Wall Street Journal is the relationship between father and son.  In the book the father to son relationship is the very center of that type of relationship.  The things that cause this relationship to be less loving at times in our world are gone.  In the world we live in today kids fight a lot with their parents so this super close relationship between the father and the son that we can see in The Road is a lot less obvious.  However when you look past all the trivial arguments that kids have with their parents I think that most father to son relationships are similar to in the book.  In his interview with The Wall Street Journal Cormac McCarthy talks about three letters that he got from fathers who had read his book.  He says that they all said the same thing, they had started reading his book after dinner and finished it early the next morning and afterwards had just gone up and held their sons close.  I think that Cormac McCarthy does a great job getting to the very center of the father son relationship in his book he shows that when all those unimportant fights are removed the bond between father and son is a very powerful one.

Letter to Cormac McCarthy

Dear Mr. McCarthy,
I think that your book is an amazing novel.  I think it has a great plot and is fabulously written to match it.  Your novel has a plot that makes people think about things that they would not necessarily want to think about.  For example cannibalism, this is something that in the modern day United States people don't think about because it does not happen.  However the fact that these people are resorting to cannibalism shows the ugly side of human nature.  It shows that humans would be willing to do anything to ensure their own survival.  This is especially well shown when they find the people locked up in the basement because they are being penned up like animals to be slaughtered.  Your novel is also very well written.  This shows in the emotion of the characters.  When you describe their feelings you know exactly how they feel and you almost get those same emotions.  Also you describe everything in such detail you can really see it in your mind. One last thing you mqnged to do is emotionally attach us to the characters we really care what happens to them. Overall I think you have written a great novel and can't wait to find out how it ends.

Hero or Stooge?

I think that John Proctor is both a hero and a stooge depending on where you look at it.  For us looking at him in the 21st century America he is a hero.  He is risking his own life just to stand by his principles.  In modern day society your principles is something that people often use to define you.  This means that our principles and whether or not you stand by them will effect they way you are viewed in the society.  John Proctor has good principles and the fact that no matter what he is standing by them makes him a hero from the view of modern society.
However in the Puritan society of Salem at the time of this play he seems like a stooge.  They seem to think that it is best to just keep their heads down and blame the problems on others or lie to get that lesser sentence of jail time.  This makes his actions that go against the general opinion of how to deal with this situation if it arises.  He would have been looked at as foolish or straight stupid by his fellow puritans.
Whether John Proctor is a hero or a stooge is an idea that changes through time with people in one time period having a totally different opinion then even the next generation.