Creating a Self-Identity

Throughout Invisible Man, the narrator seeks to create his personal identity and get rid of his invisibility. In an attempt to create a name for himself, he willingly sacrifices friendship, his past, and loyalty to the Brotherhood. His ability to give powerful speeches is a unique gift, and can potentially define his identity. He is rewarded a college scholarship after one speech. He also gains recognition in the Brotherhood after giving a speech in Harlem. However, no matter how close he comes to making a name for himself, he is eventually stripped of his accomplishments and demoted to his status of invisibility once again.

Similar attempts of establishing reputations and identities are made by high school students everyday. Many students want to be popular, hangout with the cool kids, and be the talk of the campus. Just like the narrator, they are willing to sacrifice the important things in life to achieve this status of "coolness." A few students may actually be successful in their attempts but it comes at a  high cost. Is it really worth sacrificing everything you ever stood for just be noticed by your peers? The legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, once said, "Your reputation is what people think you are and you have little control over that. Your character is what you really are and that should be your only concern.

By Dane Johnson

Bittersweet

     Since a lot of posts seem to be dealing with graduation, going to college and so forth, I would like to reflect on the past four years that we have spent at Los Osos. Since freshman year many of us have challenged ourselves and pushed ourselves to greatest potential. We have yearned for the "perfect" transcripts, loaded up the AP classes, gone to tutoring, and gone the extra mile to prepare ourselves to not only get into our "dream school" but to be successful there as well. When filling out college application, we see the reality of what we have done the past four years and how it will affect our futures. Were we successful in getting good grades, or did we slack off, and does that show in a part of our applications. One thing that I have discovered from talking to students that have already graduated is that many of them hold regrets and wish that they would have been more focused and gotten better regrets. Though I can honestly say that I tried my hardest and that my grades reflect my full potential, a lot of us find ourselves in positions of regret. Do you feel as though you did your best or do you wish you could go back and perhaps try harder?

Lexie Cantarero

Too Close to Believe

I am feeling a sort of liberating anxiety with this huge milestone in our lives is rapidly approaching. Through our entire existance the only real goals we have been working towards was graduating and getting into college. Now that the time is here it is very surreal and difficult to grasp. True I can not wait to move on with my life and take the first steps in pursuing my future, but still I am reluctant. What about everything I am going to leave behind and all that is going to change? What if I make a bad decision and completely alter the course of my future? With so many auditions, tours, and interviews I am only questioning which path I should follow more than ever recently. Up until now we have only dreamt of the future and bragged about what we were going to accomplish in our lives, but now the future is here and I wonder if we are ready for the challenge of really working to pursue the successful life we have always assumed we could attain.

-Jaclynn Enriquez

Frankenstein: Creature’s Narrative, Human kind reviled

The creature’s tale is one which Mary Shelley attempts to show the torture  in which the creature had to endure. The audience is compelled to feel compassion for the creature. The hatred displayed towards him by the towns folk due to his  hideousness enlightened the nature of  people in a different light, they did not care if he wished to harm them or his purpose of coming to them they just instinctively despised, distasted, and distrusted him. His heart appeared pure at first though the people’s hatred changed it. Even though he was pleased with the simplest of pleasures, longing for what the poorest had. Though he was not greedy, he took only when he did not know better, then he would repay that which he took and more, In the dark. Within the creature’s tale, Shelley reviles how even though humans may be accepting to their own kind, they shun those who seem to be different than them just like the creature. They only saw him as a beast not a living breathing human. He was too different from them to be accepted.
By: Josiah Keagy

Multimedia Presentation

My table group selected Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez as the play we are to read, study, and create a multimedia presentation. The major issues that are addressed in the play are cultural stereotypes, assimilating Mexicans into the American culture, and conflicts between educated and uneducated. However, it was none of these issues that attracted my table group to this particular play. My group, predominantly male, enjoyed the fact that the play contained profane language and some comedy. After reading the play and then analyzing the text with my group, we noticed the issues the play addresses and we began brainstorming how we could present the material to the class. We concluded on creating a short reenactment with according costumes and voice-overs. We will also incorporate the issues and the impact they have on the meaning of the play and the audience.

We will be meeting in one hour from now to complete our presentation. I am anxious to get together with the group and get to work on our play. I am not entirely sure how our project will turn out, but I am anticipating a fun and efficient time with the group and I look forward to successfully completing our project in exactly the manner we intend.

By Dane Johnson

Why?

     As we are finishing up our study of Frankenstein, and after examining the poem on promises today, a question is left in my head. Many times in literature we not only read a work, but follow our reading with a study of the authors techniques and strategies used in the writing. The point I am trying to come across at is whether or not you believe that studying a work after reading it is important? Isn't the purpose of reading to be exposed to the storyline and become familiar with what the writer has to say, or is it evolving into a study of the writers techniques instead?    


     I love reading and fully enjoy the kinds of things that I learn from literature, but I do not always love examining a piece of work long after I am done reading it. I know that understanding rhetorical techniques and strategies will only add to my understanding of a text, but don't get me wrong for missing the days when all I had to do was read a book. I believe that by asking high school students to look for techniques and strategies in a novel while they are reading, they are being distracted from the whole point of the book... the storyline. Perhaps if we studied certain works and only read certain ones, more kids would actually want to do the reading instead of turning to sparknotes.com. So my question is where do you stand? Do you miss the days when reading a book was the only assignment? OR are you accustomed to what literature has evolved into now... a study of rhetoric, technique, and strategy in a piece of writing?


  
Lexie Cantarero

The Ancient Mariner

“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
utilizes many forms of figurative language to enrich the poem as a whole. This exert in particular applies imagery, repetition, and subtle alliteration. This impacts the poem as a whole by highlighting aspects that are important for the reader to understand the full meaning of the poem by the use of repetition. In addition, the imagery allows the reader to visualize and experience the poem rather than simply read it.