Victorian Research

As I read the play, The Importance of Being Earnest I notice many similarites between the play and my research on the vitorian era. Woman in the Victorian Era had one goal in life and that was marriage to a man with a good social class. Cecily and Gwendolen are following that victorian stereotype because they are both looking for marriages. Cecily is having such a hard time finding a marriage that she makes one up in her diary. Gwedolen, on the other had is having a hard time finding someone because her the man she marries has to live up to her mothers expectations. The fact that Gwedolen's mother is taking the duty of finding her daughter a husband was also common in the Victorian Era. Most marriages in the higher classes were not out of love, but out of the social class and the amount of money the man has. In Gwendolen's place she is not aloud to marry "Ernest" because he was found in a leather bag as a baby, and that does not live up to Lady Bracknell's standards.

It is also stereotypical for higher class people to be snobby in the Victorian Era. Algeron is a great example in the book of someone of such a high class that he is rude. He is so rich that he thinks he can just rip up his bills and nothing will happen to him. He also thinks that he can say what ever he wants to say and do whatever he wants to do. He often comments Jack's outfits and does whatever he wants by going to Jack's house without his permission. Those are only two bits of information that I have learned and compared to the Victorian Era. There are many more examples in the book.

New Year's resolutions

This year my biggest focus is school. My new year resolution is to focus more on school than my social life. My inspiration is the realisation that school is everything. It's my future. I want to keep my grades up. I want all A's. The highest A I can get in each class. I plan on trying my hardest for put school first. For me that is really hard to do because my social life is pretty much everything for me, but I know school is more important in the long run.

My plan is to get an organizer and write down all of my homework and the classes that I could work on. I also plan on informing my friends about what I am going to do and my plans, so that they understand that I still want to hang out but I want to get my school work done because it is much more important to me than anything else.

animal farm poem

The Revision of Commands
by Julia McNamara

No animal in England is free
so rebellion it shall be
You take our produce everyday.
Equality we say
The overthrow of the human race
is what you get for this disgrace.


We have now rebelled
New commands we must now tell
Whatever goes upon two legs is enemy
but not now
no not for me
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend
but not when I slaughter you towards the end

No animal shall wear clothes
because everyone knows
animals shall not wear clothes
But alas we have lied again
It is okay to wear clothes, they bring no sin

No animal shall sleep in a bed
with sheets that is
never question us,
never quiz
No animals shall drink alcohol,
to excess
We revised the rule for the best

No animal shall kill any other animal
without cause
The revision of the commands has no flaws
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others
Sorry again I lied we are nothing like brothers
We changed the rules oh, yes we did
We are power hungry because we are pigs

No animal in England is free
so rebellion on you pigs is how it should be
But we shall not break the commands
because we are trstworthy as you can see
Rebellion it shalt no be.
You are human now and out efforts are lost
but for trusting you we now pay the cost.

Amanda Fernandez "Unknown Girl in the Maturnity Ward" by Anne Sexton

"Unknown Girl In The Maturnity Ward" by Anne Sexton, performed by Amanda Fernandez was exhilarating. When Amanda was performing the poem she made it feel like you were actually there in the ward with the girl. Amanda read the poem like a story and not in a sing song way. She told the story that went with the poem very well. All the imagery in the poem was very vivid. I enjoyed watching her perform. I watched at least 5 other performances and Amanda's was the best. She conveyed the poem better than the other performers, that must have been why she was in the top performances. She had a great physical presence and great voice and articulation also. This poem told a great story

The poem was about a teenage girl who had just given birth to a child. She loved the child and wanted to keep the child, but had no one to keep the child with. The father had left them both and the child was up for adoption. The poem shifts from her being happy for having to being upset with the doctors for scolding her. At the begining of the peom she says the childs lips are like animals and that hunger is not wrong at first, but I think she is talking about herself and the "hunger" and lust that she had for the man she had sex with to produce the child. She knew she had sinned when she had sex and then got pregnant without a father to care for the child. She loves the child, obviously, but can not care for it so she hands the child off to another family so that the child can have a better life. I think the message for this poem was to do the right thing and that mistakes happen, but you can always fix them in some way.

mockingbird motif

After reading the novel To Kill a Mockingbird I understood the meaning of motif more than I did before reading the novel. I know a motif is a reoccurring symbol in the book, but now I better understand how to look for a motif. Though, it was not hard to find in this novel because the motif is stated in the title.

The "mockingbird motif" in the novel is innocence. When Atticus says it is a sin to kill a mockingbird he means that it is wrong to kill something that has done nothing wrong. The themes in To Kill a Mockingbird were racism and predujice towards others. Tom Robison and Arthur Radley are both good examples of the themes and they both tie into the mockingbird motif. Tom is judged by his color and everything he does has to do with his color/race. Tom is judged unfairly by others becuase of the stories people have made up. People in Maycomb were always saying how he ate cats and only came out at night, when, in reality, he stayed in his house becuase he was scared of the outside world and his brother, Nathan Radley. Another thing that is predujice in the novel is the way men treat woman. Woman must be lady-like. They must wear dresses. It is wrong to cuss in front of them and woman can not be involved in the jury or any other type of government. I believe that everyone should be treated like equals and that that was the message the other was trying to portray with the novel.

Life Lessons

When I first started school I was accepted and everyone liked me, but who wouldn't I was only five, but as I grew older it seemed that others were "maturing" faster than me. I remember I was only in fifth grade and many kids were "going out" and kissing. I was still playing with my toys and running around the playground doing anything. I lost many friends that year because I was considered weird. People shunned me where every I went. Well, most people anyway. I had a few close friends. So, when I switched schools I decided I needed a new start. I tried to changed everything about myself. I didn't want to be that child that no one liked. My mom noticed that I was acting different and told me, "Julia, you shouldn't care so much about what others think." I still till this day care what everyone around me says and thinks about me, but then again who doesn't.

This is my second new start. Highschool. It is was a huge change. So many more people to care about every move I make, what I look like, and what kind of grades I have. I know I'm not like everyone else and sometimes that bothers me. Sometimes I wish I was "normal." Whatever normal is. It's really to bad I want this,but it's true. I have toned it down quite a bit now and I am definantly more stable than I was in elementarty school. I also know that people don't really care that much about how I look and what I do, but everytime someone gives me a put down I remember what my mom said and keeps telling me. I also remember one other thing my mom and dad both say. Lifes not always fair. I think both of those quotes are great life lessons. You honestly shouldn't care what others think because the truth is they really don't care that much and you truly aren't that important to them. I think people only say mean things so that they feel better for themselves and it isn't fair that people say mean things just to make themselves feel of more importance, but thats life.

best friend...late because my computer has a virus

"I'm dancing with myself. Oh, oh, I'm dancing with myself!" I began to sing.
"Your so weird, Julia. I love you anyway," said Emmelia. Boy, I sure have a weird friend. It's odd how alike we are, thought Emmelia. We both begin to belt out "Dancing with myself". Emmelia and I both enjoy being crazy people.
We are at Lions Park. One of our favorite places to go when she stays over. We are attracting a lot of attention, but we don't care. This often happens. We are now heading home, back to 5th ave. As we walk through my front door, we decide to check our emails.
"Julia are you insane? Honestly, what were you thinking?" I had no idea what she was going on about. I didn't realize she had been reading my emails. "Why would you talk to somone you don't even know. It suprises me how dumb you can be sometimes."
"What, it's harmless. It's not like they know where I live or anything." There she goes again I thought. What is she thinking? How could she put herself in harm? What if something terrible happens to her? Someone could hurt her, stalk her down, or who knows what else. These are the types of thoughts running through Emmelia's mind as she reads my conversation with this stranger. After she yells at me we get on with the rest of our day.



Emmelia is a very beautiful person. Inside and out. She has long, brown, curly hair, brown eyes, and a child like face. She can look innocient, daring, and strong all at the same time. She knows how to take care of herself most of the time. She also knows how to take care of the others around her. When she was reading my emails and telling me how dumb I was being, she brought out her mothering side. Emmelia is a responsible person who likes to keep her close friends safe and out of trouble. We both make mistakes, some more stupid then others, but she is the best at solving the things she gets into. But I'm always there for her when she needs me, just like she is always there for me. Her caring personality is what makes her so mother-like. I know we'll be friends for decades.