My literary analysis

Ok now I know that no one ever reads school assignments because they bore us to death, but I need time to think of better ideas. Bear with me on this one until I can think of something else to write about.

My literary analysis.......

This book is about a young boy, Pip, who is born into a simple English life in the country. He is destined to become a blacksmith, that is, until a mysterious benefactor fulfills his hopes and dreams by supplying him with all the money a wealthy Englishman could want. The theme that comes across in this book is: Be thankful for what you have, don’t constantly yearn for something bigger and better, but find happiness in what you have. As Pip progresses through the story, he finds that all he ever wanted he had at his original home. By becoming an English gentleman he spoiled his chance at a happy life.

Page 344: “I would not have gone back to Joe now, I would not have gone back to Biddy now, for any consideration: simply, I suppose, because my sense of my own worthless conduct to them was greater than every consideration. No wisdom on earth could have given me the comfort that I should have derived from their simplicity and fidelity; but I could never, never, never, undo what I had done.”

In the passage, Pip is realizing for the first time what he has done to his life. Until then, he thought that his new way of life was making him happy. Then his benefactor reveals himself and Pip realizes that it was all just a fantasy and that he is actually miserable. He wishes that he could take back what he had done, but knows that by now it is too late to do so.
This part of the story is a huge shock to everyone who reads it. In fact, it was a part of the book that I really enjoyed. The total shock that the criminal is his benefactor is clearly presented in Pip, and therefore in all the readers. He is feeling sad and regretful, realizing what road his fantasies have led him down. The only reason he wanted to be a gentleman was to impress Estella and before she came into his life he was destined to be a very happy man. He It is a terrible moment for him. He realizes that he always felt safe and content with Joe and Biddy but never realized it. This is a turning point for him in the story.
The passage clearly conveys how Pip feels; he knows that without the revealing of his benefactor, he would never have gone back to Joe and Biddy. He realizes what kind of a person he was being towards those who had always been so kind to him. It’s a sad moment for him, solemn and gloomy. If he could go back he would, but it is impossible at this point.
What the author is trying to tell us in the passage is that we should be grateful for what we have and not greedily climb upward for more. Pip lost happiness by trying to be someone he could never be happy being. He tried to get more and more, and ended up helplessly falling before his friends pulled him back on his feet. The theme of the novel is told through Pip’s story, and we can learn from it if we try to.
The author is giving us advice on how to be happy in life by telling us a story of a boy who dreams of a classy life; which is a symbol of an average person like us dreaming of great fame. Overall, the theme teaches us to be content with our lives and find the good things, not the coarse hands and dirty boots, in our own lives.

We are such complainers.

From watching my friends and stepping back to take a look at myself, I have realized that we teens are really obsessive. About what? Well… our grades (some of us), our looks, but mostly if seems like we obsess about are the problems in our lives.

I think that realistically, our successes outnumber our mistakes. But whenever I talk to my friends, four out of five responses to "what’s up?" are about some sort of way that they messed up or how somebody else messed up and caused them problems. I am positive that a bunch of good things happened to them also, but they chose to focus on the bad. When I realized this, I thought that by chance I had chosen every pessimist in the school as my friend. Then I realized that I do it to! Everything I tell my friends is usually about some injustice I have been unfairly faced with in the past twenty four hours. Just yesterday I realized I had accidentally forgotten to bring home an important homework assignment I was supposed to finish over the weekend. It was a group assignment, so my mistake affected four other people’s grades. Through some luck I found a way to work it out. But when I got home late last night from a regional dance, I realized that one of the topics I used when an awkward silence happened between me and the person I was dancing with was the story of my magnificent mistake. Of course I presented my story in an amusing way so that I didn’t sound like a complainer, but I being negative nonetheless. *Slap myself in the face* Why was I using my shortcoming as a topic for friendly conversation?!?! Like a complete stranger cares that I messed up! Like they will fondly remember me as "the girl who told me all about her forgotten homework assignment." Obviously I need to think twice about my attitude before I let things slip out of my mouth!

The sad thing is that I hear stories of woe much like mine from friends almost every day. Why do we complain so much? Is there some unwritten rule that we must complain no matter what? Do we WANT our friend to pity us? Are the good things that happen to us extremely boring in comparison to the bad? Depends on the way we present it… I think many of us find it easier to make a C- we got on a math test sound exciting than the A we got on the science test. If we say "Mrs. ______ is so dumb! She gave me a freakin’ C- on the math test!" then we get sympathy from everyone. In comparison if we said "Guess what! I got an A on the Science test!" then we could expect people to say "so and so is such a bragger, all they can talk about is their good grades."

We hate the people that brag, and I complain about the people that complain. How do we stop the circle? We are drawn to those who are positive and happy all the time; they are the ones who are fun and calming to be around. The people that complain constantly we generally draw away from, they only add their problems to the ones you already have and make you stressed.

So, how about when you see your friend in the hall, you tell them one good thing that happened before telling them the dozen bad things you have been longing to tell someone all day? Who knows… it could work.

*How ironic… I am complaining in a blog about not complaining*

Goodbye Fairfield...

Recently I realized that 4th term is in two weeks. Where did the year go? Where did junior high go? There is only one term left in our junior high experience! To me that is really scary!

We have spent our last three years of life at Fairfield, from the time when we were puny 7th graders trying not get stepped on in the halls to the present day where we are trying not to trample the shorty squeezing past us in the hall. I have spent my best and worst years of school here at Fairfield. Every day for the past three years I have walked the same halls and seen the same people. I know the names and faces of 95% of the 9th grade. For years I have swapped stories with my friends of the times the hall nazi terrorized us, the time we almost got caught with our cell phone out, the time we DID get caught with our cell phone out and had to go get it from the office. I don’t know if I can even explain it, but Fairfield feels like a second home to me and I’m sad to leave it in three months.

It’s not that I’m not excited for high school, I am. High school sounds like it will be really fun, and I got lucky enough that most of my friends will go to Layton with me. Still, there are the other friends whom I have made these past two years, whom I will really, really miss when we have to say goodbye on the last day. Among them are my two oldest and dearest friends, ones I have shared classrooms with since third grade, who will not be going to Layton (and they happen to be in our honors English class, you know who you are.) To all my other friends: I love you guys tons and I look forward to seeing you in high school! Even all the people whose names I know, but nothing more about them. I’m still sad to see them go, I don’t know them but I have heard their jokes, seen them in the halls, and been their rivals in the war to get good grades (we all know we secretly compete, just a little.)

I don’t know how to explain it, but I am really going to miss Fairfield. The teachers I’ve had were amazing (for the most part) I have met some very close friends here, I have spent my life five days a week here, and I can’t imagine what I will be doing on the last day of school, when we are signing yearbooks and saying our final goodbyes to the halls, the amazing teachers, and our beloved friends; never to see them again. We can visit, but it doesn’t replace it. Somehow the previous summer vacations were much more inviting because I knew that I would see everyone again in a mere three months.

Does anybody else feel this way? Or am I thinking too far ahead and making a big deal about nothing? In closing I say this: A tribute to Fairfield! Those new 7th graders have a great experience ahead of them!