black + white = grey

Everything in Macbeth is somehow compared to light and dark, an action, a person, and feelings, include a few. Whenever the death of a character is being plotted, by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, they call upon the darkness, the night, to aid in their miss doings. "Come, thick night, and pale thee in the funnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wounds it makes." In this scene Lady Macbeth is calling on the night to conceal her immoral actions. Here we see darkness being used as something to cloak wicked exploits. In scene one, act four, Macbeth says "Let not the light see my black and deep desires", here he is referring to his desire to kill Duncan and his hopes that Duncan will not look past Macbeth's facade of courtesy. Darkness represents the heinous and destructive side of human nature while lightness describes the good of human nature, or the countenance of moral correctness.

In Macbeth light is often used to describe innocence. In Macbeth many of the characters often wish of lightness of darkness to protect them from the consequences of their actions. "Come, selling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, and with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale" (3.2.50). In this scene Macbeth wishes for the night to arrive and cast out the good of day, so that the night may cast out Banquo.  Macbeth wants night to come sooner so that he can take off his mask of "paleness" or blamelessness. In Macbeth the themes of light and dark go hand in hand with death which is a prevalent concept in the play.

(click 'read more'  for reading/work times)

Mournful Macbeth

Act 2, Scene 3 (p.65)

"The night has been unruly. Where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death,

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird

Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth

Was feverous and did shake."

The night as wild and disorderly, as though something in the universe was amiss. While I was asleep wind came through our chimneys and blew the fires out. Many said they could hear cries of grief, screams of those dying, heinous voices prophesying cataclysms that will bring a new age of terror. I could hear the owl squawking through the night. Some said that the ground shook like the earth had a fever. 

In the quote above Lennox is describing to Macbeth the strange occurrences of the previous night. At the time Lennox is not aware that the previous night King Duncan was killed. These lines above foreshadow the discovery of Duncan's body. Shakespeare also uses dramatic irony to evoke apprehension in the audience. We, the audience, are aware the Duncan has been killed and his the cause of these bizarre events occurring that night, but Lennox is unaware. Lennox notes that "lamentings [were] heard" and that voices were predicting cataclysms, which foreshadows the entire play. This passage is important because Duncan's death does not only affect the people around him, but the balance of the world. 

(click 'read more'  for reading/work times)

The End of an Era

As all of us know, freshman year of high school is coming to an end. I can honestly say I happy to be closing this chapter of a fairy tail novel. This year has gone but unbelievably quickly. High school is definitely a step up from eight grade, not being chaperoned by adults for eight hours a day has it perks. I delights me to know that 1/4 of my high school career is almost officially over. If I were to rate freshman year I'd give it three stars, it wasn't particularly thrilling but it did have it's high moments.

Summer is on the horizon and I'm ready. This summer will be thrill packed,  and I'll make sure of it. I'm leaving the country for a week, and will be away from home for over a month. I can't wait to leave the classroom and enter the real world to experience my youth. I most excited for the lack of school work and information that can be used later in life. The end of school couldn't arrive sooner.

(click 'read more'  for reading times)

Connect to Macbeth

Everyone is capable of lying, betrayal, and violence, which are basic parts of human nature.

I strongly agree that doing things that are morally incorrect are a part of human nature. I've witnessed betrayal and lies from people that seemingly would never do such things. It's common knowledge that everyone lies, and it's true everyone does, even if the lies someone tells are small or white lies. Some people may be physically violent, but more people are verbally and emotional violent. People don't necessarily have violent personalities but certain situations can bring out an ugly side in all of us. Although everyone is capable of betrayal and violence some people are less susceptible to allowing those feelings to overcome them and to act upon them, after all how were supposed to be civil if we don't. 

In the first couple scenes that class went over in Macbeth, we were introduced to a cast privy to lying, betrayal, and violence, first scene was a bloody battle. The reader already sees an upcoming betrayal on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's part on King Duncan. As a reader/audience we see the manipulation of the Weird Sisters and how their prophecies bring about the worst in Macbeth and his wife. We can see that violence will following this betrayal, just as violence followed the betrayal of the former thane of Cawdor. Lady Macbeth is a prime example of a character willing to use lies, betrayal, and violence in order to gain the upper hand.

reading/working times

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
pg. 1 -96
2 hours

Nervous Conditions work
dessert - 1.5 hours
appetizer - 2 hours
side - 45 minutes

work times

Reading:

The GoldFinch - Donna Tartt
pages 167-705
2 hours (throughout the week and in class)

Studying for poetry test:

Thurs. 2/20 - 1 hour (made flashcards and review terms)
Fri. 2/21 - 1 hour (looked over poems and looked for meter)
Sat. 2/22 - 1 hour (reviewing flashcards and handouts)

Be Happy, Because I Said So.

Be a teen,
a young adult,
a young person, 
a kid,
a jerk.
be ignorant,
never belligerent 

Be skinny, flawless, pretty, 
and modest. 
Never be good-natured
Mean is what I really mean.

Being mean is, 
is different than 
being opinionated.

Be boyish, tough, emotionless, 
and cruel.

Be fake.
"Stupid is funny."
"You're funny."

B+, F, C-, D, D, D, B.  ibuprofen.
School. 
Sport.
Sleep.
repeat. cry
Men don't cry.

Be perfect.
Never condemn what defines you.

Be the label that defines you,
don't define yourself.

Become the person to rewrite it.
Erase,
so hateful.
Helpful.

Achieve the pursuit of a youth that will only be cruel. 

Be happy.

Because I said so.
"Don't forget to smile."


 (click 'read more' to poetry techniques)

I Am a Rock

In Paul Simon and Art Garfunkels' song "I Am a Rock", Simon and Garfunkel develop a metaphor by claiming the subject of the song 'I' is a rock; this metaphor is used to show the rock’s feelings resentfulness against the outside world. Simon and Garfunkel create a character that disapproves showing emotion and "feels no pain." The metaphor is reiterated by using an anaphora all throughout the song. The alliteration of the 'eye' sound emphasizes the anaphora, 'I am".  A cacophony is created several times using the 'd' sound in-between lines that contain the anaphora, "A winter's day, in a deep and dark December", is the best example of the usage of a cacophony. 

This song displays a feeling of disdainfulness for the subject’s past, and the subject’s refusal to "disturb the slumber of feelings that have died", or in other words to ignore the past.  While the subject ignores their past they also ignore current feelings, “I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.” The song’s subject is “an island [that] never cries.” Although the metaphor is obvious deeper meaning is revealed throughout the song.

Listen to the song live and here are the lyrics.[btw this is one of my favorite songs, enjoy!  (˘‿˘ʃƪ)]


(click 'read more' to reveal reading times)

reading 2/3 - 2/7

Monday, 2/3 - 15 min ATD in class + 2 1.2 min. finalizing draft
Tuesday, 2/4 - 10 min ATD in class + 30 min. ATD 
Wednesday, 2/5 - 50 min: 2 ATD posts
Thursday, 2/6 - 60 minutes: The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt 
Friday, 2/7 - 1 hour: The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

my research paper

I feel confident that I have all the information I need to create a clear story of the event I am focusing on.  It was easy putting similar information together, but difficult putting the sorted information all together to create a larger picture. Outlining my information although time consuming helped me overcome this difficulty. I was surprised to learn that transferring the research from my outline to my paper proved annoying. I'm concerned about writing my conclusion, for some reason it seems to be the biggest cause of my worries. I think I am going to have trouble making another point about my topic instead of simply wrapping it up as I normally would.

 I need to change the focus on my paper from the denial of the current Turkish government to how the Armenian Genocide defines genocide, through person first-hand accounts. This was not easy considering most of my research was pertaining to my original thesis I found a couple new sources and have gotten good usage out of those. I would appreciate feedback on my organization and writing style because I feel that for this paper those are the two things that are most important.

❆ winter break take two

I can honestly say that I accomplished as much as I could during out little break, considering that I was sick with a nasty cold and had also come down with a slight wave of procrastination. Most of my break I kept myself shut indoors reading with a cup of tea, or intensely watching Netflix/Hulu marathons, which really wiped me out. I did 'make' churros and hot chocolate for Spanish; I ended up just drinking the hot chocolate which was really good.  Working on my research paper collecting more sources and reading excessively long treaties, took up a lot of my time.

I can say with pure confidence that our snow break was a dream come true. I had been praying for our Mardi Gras break to come sooner, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind. This break honestly gave me a chance to relax right after receiving and completing a somewhat excessive amount of work from our teachers. Although, I must admit I'm at little bit happy to get back into a routine. I won't be saying that at the end of this week though.
Good Luck.

Martine ✿

(click 'read more' to reveal snow day work and reading times)

the Armenian genocide

I decided to speak to my dad about my topic, the Armenian genocide, since he was the person to originally suggest it to me. I showed my dad gripping pictures of the genocide. He was surprised to find out that not only was the genocide a series of massacres, but there were also detention camps in the center to the desert. Detention camps as terrible as Auschwitz, before its conception. My dad was also shocked by the scale of the event, around two million dead. I told my dad ,"I am still surprised that people are still denying this even happened." My dad knew about the genocide, and was aware of the Turkish government's denial, although wasn't surprised by the thought of this he was saddened. My dad said, "...that [the genocide] was a series of massacres in different cities and towns." He wasn't aware of how systematic the genocide really was. The death marches, remote detention camps, systematic killings, and the shooting down of navy vessels carrying Armenians. In summary according to my dad, "they de humanized the Armenians." My dad wasn't aware of long the genocide occurred. He was stunned about, "How similar the initial response of the Armenians to the Turks was to the German Jews to the Nazis." Throughout my research I strived to find out, "How the Turkish government came about killing 1.5 million people unnoticed, and how personal stories from survivors shape this image?"  

Armenian massacres occurred before the initiation of the genocide and World War I, these killings were by the Ottoman Empire. Soon the Young Turks party gained control of the once Ottoman Empire during World War I, and became focused on nationalism. The CUP a subgroup of the Young Turks is often acreddited to planning the systematic take down of the Armenians. The CUP begins their demise of the Armenians on April 14, 1915. Prominent Armenians leaders are rounded up from their homes to be killed, this action taken by the CUP is an attempt to eliminate rebellion with the CUP ulterior motives are realized by Armenians. After the killing of over 200 Armenians authority figures, other steps are taken on a larger scale to eliminate the empty threat the Armenian people pose on the Turkish government. Many Armenians are exiled, forced into the boxcars of trains never to return or in death marches towards detention camps in the Syrian desert. The first hand account written in the Armenian Golgotha, by Grigoris Balakian, paints a clear picture of life in detention camp. Most Armenians are simply murdered or left to stave. Towards the end of the genocide many Muslim families forcibly adopted Christian Armenians and involuntarily imposed Islam on them. Many girls above the age of twelve were sold as slaves and sex slaves. Many Armenians fled the country an headed to the United States, many of them live in the Los Angeles area today. Turkey still actively denies the systematic slaughter of the Armenians, often using the excuse that during times of war many innocent lives are lost in the crossfire. During World War I and during it's aftermath more than one million Armenian lives were systematically taken by Committee of Union and Progress, or the CUP, their forced journeys toward death are documented in personal accounts and photographs. These recordings create a strong web of evidence against those who appose the reality of the genocide.

reading 1/27

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexi
75-171 
1 1/2 hours

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
320-400
1 1/2

reading 1/20

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
160-320
3 hours

4 hours of work on annotated biblography

research.

My topic for National History Day is the Armenian Genocide. My topic is refers the annihilation of the Armenians from Turkish soil during world war one. I cover the deportation and the detention camps at which many Armenians were kept. I also discuss the role of other countries in aiding the Armenians, and the Turkish government's role in carrying out the killings of Armenians.

My topic is important because it's greatly ignored. More than two million people were killed and lead into detention camps against their will, and the world choose to sweep it under the rug. It is critical that people know about the events that took place on 1915-1918. This tragic event isn't even covered in history books, and is still denied by the current Turkish government.



The Goldfinch - Donna Tart
75-160
2 1/2 hours

A Letter To Younger Me ♡

Dear Martine,

Let's clarify something now, it gets better. School doesn't really matter in middle school so don't try too hard. Smile more, everyone looks better smiling. Find what makes you happy and stick to it. If your friends don't appricaite you find someone who does. Overthinking causes stress so avoid it all costs.  Oh, and you don't get any better at soccer.

Don't wear anything you'd regret seeing in pictures five years later. Your brother gets a little less annoying. Stay true to yourself and don't apologize for it. Learn to relax, it'll come in handy. Take a chill pill every once in a while. Most importantly don't miss out on any astounding opportunities.

Love,

An older and slightly wiser you ❁


P.S. you look better without braces