outline

introduction:

thesis- the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is very different from today's love stories: many factors play roles in love stories like the setting and time period.

body paragraphs:

on act 2 Romeo and Juliet get married. Nowadays people don't usually get married when they first meet.

act 1 scene 3 states that Juliet is 14.

act 1 scene 2 shows how Juliet's father is playing a major role in her love life, along with her mother and the nurse.

conclusion:

the text relates to the world by the theme of "star-crossed lovers" and the theme of love in general.
the reader should understand that this topic depends on the person who is 'in love' and that this topic is affected by the outside environment.

Reading Response

"I'm just damned. I am utterly and completely damned. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do, because that's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. After I write this confession, if you don't shoot me and if I ever make it home, I'll be tried as a collaborator anyway." (page 5)

The book I'm currently reading is "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein. The main character is "Verity." I have just started this book, but as far as I am reading, Verity is a spy that has just been captured by Nazis. Verity is confessing what she has done inside the book. Wein makes Verity has an "I'm gonna die anyways so I can do whatever I want to now" attitude.

On page five she states that she's gonna be shot anyways so she might as well just do anything she wants to (the quote above). The author makes Verity have this sort of attitude to make the reader think that Verity gives up. 

The fact that Verity is a spy, and she is giving up, makes the reader question the book. Spies aren't supposed to give up. They are capable of lying until death to accomplish their mission. This makes the reader infer what will be happening throughout the story.

This is just the beginning of the book. There is much more to read about. It would be logical to think that there will be more than just one confession throughout the book, since all of this is going on in just the first five pages.

Reading Response

I've just finished reading Fifty Shades Darker by E.L James. The author wrote this in first person, and also included the narrator's thoughts throughout the book. The main character is Anastasia Steele and throughout the book she is the one describing everything by her point of view.

In some parts of the book, Anastasia does things without telling the reader. On page 116 she explains how Christian, her boyfriend, pulls on her bottom lip, making her stop biting it. She never said anything about biting her lip before, this shows the effect that her boyfriend has on her, he makes her forget things and just focus on her.

It almost seems like E.L. James didn't write the book, but Anastasia Steele did. It's like if Anastasia is a person in real life with all of the descriptions she gives in the first, and in this book. It makes you forget about the actual author completely.

Throughout the book, the author includes some of Anastasia's personal thoughts to actions around her. On pages 366 through 370, she includes her short thoughts in italics, and her inferences on the actions of others in the regular fonts: "Oh. What's he doing in here? Oh, fuck." "Keep him talking, keep him talking, keep him talking." In these pages, Anastasia's boss is hitting on her, and possibly trying to rape her.

Throughout the book, she includes many of her inferences, but most of all, questions: "why doesn't he let me touch him?" page 117 "where is he going with this?" page 369 "how did all this happen?" page 349. Throughout the book she seems completely confused from all the questions she asks, most of them get answered, some of them don't.

Reading Response

Reading Response

Ned Vizzini, the author of The Other Normals, makes the main character, Perry Eckert, seem like a geek. In the book, Perry is fifteen, but is described as a ten year old. Perry has an older brother who is always at parties getting drunk, Jake. 

On the first page, Perry states that he was “alone in a room playing with myself. Not in that way – playing Creatures & Caverns, the popular role-playing game.” He describes the game as popular. The name that Vizzini gave the game doesn’t make it sound popular: it makes it sound childish and geeky. 

Throughout the book, Ned Vizzini makes Perry do things he thought he couldn’t be able to do, but for his games. On page 55, Perry punches a kid on the forehead and leaves it bloody. On page 44, he fights with his brother to get his game back, and the author describes Perry and his brother both being surprised of Perry’s speed, since Perry is usually very slow.  

When I was getting through the beginning of this book, I actually understood Perry. I understand his addiction to these games and how he wants to have them with him all the time. I was addicted to playing Pokémon. It was a huge addiction. I always stood awake from seven to twelve in the morning playing it. Like Perry, it also affected my school grades.

But unlike Perry’s parents, my parents never sent me to a camp to recover from my addiction. 

Non-Fiction Reading Response

In the article "Obama Urges Speed on Immigration Plan, but Exposes Conflicts," the writer, Mark Landler, observes President Obama's actions and makes his own inferences. He shows what he thinks about Obama by using adjectives to describe his actions.

"President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship" (Landler 1). Here, Landler uses the word "challenged." Using that specific word in this context, the author is making Obama seem like he wants to give the immigrants of the US an easier way to become citizens of the US. Using that word in this context also makes congress seem like it doesn't want to give immigrants an easy time becoming citizens.

The author of the article also shows Obama's prudent, and caring side by stating that he also warned people about his plan: "Mr. Obama warned, however, that 'the closer we get, the more emotional this debate is going to become.' He said that if Congress did not move forward 'in a timely fashion' on its own legislation, he would send up a specific measure — something the White House has put off for now — and demand a vote." (Landler 1).

Reading Response

I’ve only read the first ten pages of Waiting For You, by Susane Colasanti, and I can sort of infer what's going to happen. Marisa is one of the main characters. She has just left camp and is going back to school. 

In the beginning the author talks about a love triangle that is going to happen. The situation the author is describing is that the girl falls in love with the popular guy and the geek falls in love with the girl. What the author is doing is that she adds problems and issues outside of the central problem to keep the reader from loosing interest. Marisa’s, the girl who falls in love with the popular guy, best friend wont stop falling for older guys and her family isn’t acting normal to her.

Nash is the geek of the story. The author describes a situation that most teenagers have been in. Nash asks Marisa for advice on love, but he wont tell her who is the girl he’s in love with, and then Marisa takes it as a hint and starts questioning his moves. 

Almost every teenager has been in that situation, either giving hints, taking hints, taking possible hints, or just thinking nothing and giving advice.

Nonfiction Reading Response

"Fall is upon us, and that means the school year is in full swing. Along with the stress of homework assignments and extracurricular activities, unfortunately some students bear an additional burden -- bullying" (Goldman 1).

Carrie Goldman, the author of "Why Telling Bullying Victims to 'just fight back' Doesn't Work,"makes the title of the article self explanatory. She starts the article of how every bullied child starts the school year, and continues the school year. She explains the stress school puts on us and the more stress bullied children go through. The author talks about how just telling children to fight back isn't enough. Telling someone to 'fight back' just confuses the person. How does he/she 'fight back'? Verbally, or physically? Some people just ignore this "advice" because it isn't giving them any courage or ideas at all. 

"Fighting back" is most people's way to approach bullying. If you tell someone you're being bullied, most of them will tell you to "fight back." The author talks about physical fighting. How fighting just worsens the conflict more.

"When multiple kids are targeting one child, the situation can feel completely overwhelming. Felicia Garcia, a 15-year-old New York student, threw herself in front of a train in October, allegedly after being taunted by multiple football players at her high school. How would it have helped her to simply punch one of them? It would not have done anything, except possibly put her at risk for physical harm.And earlier in October, Canadian teen Amanda Todd committed suicide after making a YouTube video detailing her history of being bullied mercilessly, online and in person. Both girls were allegedly the victims of sexually explicit bullying, which is not something easily combated by punching the bully in the face." (Goldman 1). The author here talks about how physically fighting back only will worsen the situation because no bully likes to be embarrassed.

Barbara Coloroso says: "As severe bullying continues, an element of terror is created. The bullied child is rendered so powerless that she is unlikely to fight back and she will not even tell someone that she needs help. The bully, who can act without fear of retaliation, counts on bystanders to either join in or at least do nothing to stop it." She talks about the actions that a bullied child is most likely to take because of the fear that's growing in the child. Fighting back doesn't make sense to a bullied child because the child already has this idea that the bully is always stronger. 





Works Cited

Goldman, Carrie. "Why Telling Bullying Victims to 'just fight back' Doesn't Work." CNN Living 31 Oct. 2012. Living. 30 Jan. 2013 <http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/31/living/bullying-fight-back/index.html>.