My Hero

There are many heroes in my life, real and fictional, but the person I feel is the most heroic is my father. He is one of the most compassionate and caring people I know.Being a doctor, my father is trained to help people. Although he only works for part of the day, his job of caring for others never seems to end. THere have been so many situations that I was walking with him when we run into one of his patients or a friend that he has helped in some way. All of these people are so thankful for my father. But he does not help these people for popularity; he genuinely cares for these people. Another role that my father plays that shows his compassion is a father. He is a father to four children, my three sisters and I. Obviously being the father of four children is no easy task. Being the only other male in the household, I know frustating things can get. But no matter how tense our household gets, my father's love can still overcome it.

Methods of Characterization

In class we were asked to identify six methods of characterization of a character from our family story. I decided to use myself as the character.

Appearance

8 years old
bags under eyes from lack of sleep


Inner Thoughts/feelings

Mom is wrong, of course I'll be able to wake up even if I stay up.


Environment

Own house


What they say

Okay, sure mom, I'll go to bed.


What others say about them

I told him to go to bed. I knew he wouldn't be able to wake up.


Actions

Lied to mom
Disobeyed mom
Fell asleep in closet

Interpretation of Maxine's Thoughts

The first chapter of The Woman Warrior is composed of Maxine's thoughts about her aunt. We can interpret these thoughts to expose characteristics of Maxine. I picked two quotes that I interpreted to reveal something about Maxine.

1. "For warm eyes or a soft voice or a slow walk--that's all--a few hairs, a line, a brightness, a sounnd, a pace, she gave up family."(pg. 8)

This quote shows that Maxine thinks that her Aunt should not have sacrificed her family for a man. It reveals Maxine's idea of men-- she believes that looks are not the most important characteristic in a person. This quote also shows that Maxine feels her family is more important than men.

2. "She often worked at herself in the mirrror, guessing at the colors and shapes that would interest him, changing them frequently in order to hit the right combination. She wanted him to look back. (pg. 9)

This quote is so specific that it seems that Maxine must be doing the same thing or something similar. This shows how Maxine cares about what she looks. It is also likely that Maxine has met a boy that she likes and has tried to change her look for him.

Family Story

Today our class was assigned to write about a family story that teaches a valuable lesson. The story I chose happenned back when I was about eight years old.

It all started one night when I popped an Aladdin video into the VCR. Right about half way through the movie, where Aladdin rubs the magic lamp, my mom steps into the room and tells me to go to bed. She warns that I can't stay up too late, otherwise I won't be able to stay awake the next day. It was all old news, I've heard it nearly every night of my life, so I replied with the don't-care-but-dont-want-to-get-in-trouble phrase, "okay, sure mom, I'll go to bed," and turned off the t.v. But of course I had to see Genie's song when he comes out of the lamp, so as soon as my Mom left the room, I turned the movie back on. But that one song soon turned into the rest of the movie and before I knew it, it was two hours past my bedtime. The next day I barely made it through the day of school due to my lack of sleep. And when I came home from a hard-hitting day of second grade I could hardly keep my eyes open. So, when I went to the towel closet before my bath, I was so tired and the towels looked so cozy, I decided to lay down on the bottom towel shelf. It was not brightest idea but those towels just looked so soft and I was so tired so I couldn't resist. Once I layed down my eyes immediately locked shut and I fell into a deep sleep. A few hours later, my slumber was interrupted by the sound of a women screaming at a deafening volume. I quickly sat up, and groaned in pain when my head collided with the towel shelf above. After recovering from the pain, I anxiously crawled out of the closet to see what was going on. I followed the sound of the screaming until I saw my mother with tears sliding down her cheek. I immediately run over to her and ask what was wrong. She suddenly grabbed me and hugged me with the strength of a boa constrictor. She manages to ask through her crying "Ryan, where were you? I thought you ran away or was kidnapped!!!" I regretgully replied, "I was sleeping on the bottom shelf of the towel closet." By the look of my Mom's reaction I quickly realized this was probably the worst thing I could have said. She furiously told me that she was about to call the police and that it was the scardest she had ever been in her whole life. Feeling terrible, I apoligized and explained what happened.

Although, my parents didn't punish me, I felt horrible. I frightened my whole family, made my mom cry and even hit my head. It was probably the most regrettable thing I have ever done and it all could have been avoided if I listened to my Mom. If I went to bed when she asked I wouldn't have been so tired. So, I guess the moral of this story is to always listen to your parents because despite what you think, they really do know best. It is either that or never fall asleep in your towel closet, no matter how tired you are or how soft your towels look.

The Woman Warrior Quotes

Our class has just started reading the book "The Woman Warrior." So far, all that we know is that the story is about a chinese girl whose aunt killed herself because she was hated among the village people for having a baby with a man other than her husband. Now the Chinese girl is thinking about her Aunt and what she must have been like.
Today we were assigned to pick two quotes from this book and describe why we think the quotes we picked are significant.
"My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil." (pg. 6) I feel that this quote is significant because it shows how Maxine's culture has affected the way she thinks. Because the Chinese think that the women do not choose when to have sex, she thinks that the only way her aunt could have gotten pregnant is if she was raped.
Another significant quote that I found is on page 7. "In a commensal tradition, where food is precious, the powerful older people made wrongdoers eat alone. Instead of letting them start separate new lives like the Japanese, who could become samurais and geishas, the Chinese family, faces averted but eyes glowering sideways, hung on the offenders and fed them leftovers." I think this is an important quote becuase it shows how Maxine views her culture. In this quote it seems that she doesn't agree with her cultures beliefs and that she agrees more with another culture, Japanese. This also shows how the Chinese didn't forgive someone for doing something wrong.

Moodle

Over these past few weeks we have been experimenting with the wiki called Moodle. Moodle allows our entire class to share our work with eachother and collaborate as a class to create something together. I really enjoy using Moodle. Some things that I like about it is that it saves paper because everything is online. I also like how we can share our work with the whole class and how we can help eachother by editing eachothers work and giving advice. One way Moodle makes it easy for us to give advice is by messaging eachother. Although Moodle is great, there are some things that could be better. One thing that I don't like is that there are some technical difficulties. For example only one person can post something at a time. This makes it harder for us to share our ideas. Overall, I think that Moodle is very unique and a very effective way for our class to share our work and to help eachother.

Significant Quote from "Lost Sister"

Our class has read the poem, "Lost Sister." This poem is about a girl born in China who moves to America and misses her old culture. We were asked to pick a quote from this poem that we thought was significant. The quote I picked is around the part of the poem where the author has just finished talking about the daughters named Jade and is beginning to tell us about someone across the sea. The author says, "diluting jade green with the blue of the Pacific." I feel this quote is significant because I think it means that she is losing her Chinese culture or the "jade green," and it is being overcome by the American culture or the "blue of the Pacific."

This poem reveals many things about ourselves and how we are created. I think it shows us that our ethnicity or the culture we are born into significantly affects the way we live. It also reveals that the place that you live can affect who you are. This is shown by how the Chinese girl wasn't happy living in America because she missed her life in China.