Polished Journal-Bluest Eye

Ugly/Pretty
When people are pretty, usually things come easier for them. People like them because they are easy to look at and they feel no shame for the way they may feel about their appearance (unless it is jelousy). For some reason, people just like pretty people more, and they want to be nicer to them, and do things for them. I don't really understand why. Sometimes though it is problematic because people think that beauty is all you have, and don't account you for inteligence, or creativity. When your pretty also, usually you may feel uncomfortable around certain people, because you are threatened by some possible sexual drive they have for you (?) It's not like all the time like people walk around and are just like "oh my goodnes he wants me!" but its just like the possibility of rape and stuff. When people are ugly though I can imagine they feel shame for the way they look. Our world is so programmed to accept beauty, and for everyone to be pretty, that there is no room for ugly people. That is really sad, but it's pretty much the truth. Ugly and pretty is so hard to define, I mean everyone has their own opinion, and there is no sure definition for ugly or pretty. You can't really define it.

Bluest Eye Themes:
hate (in all forms)
sadness
loss of innocence
secrets
hurt, pain
growing up, maturing
lack of self confidence
trust (lost,gained)
abuse
shame
ugly/beautiful
acceptance
jelousy

When I think about the themes in this book it makes me sad and I can almost feel the hurt for these characters because I'm taking the time to understand how they must feel. All that is in their lives is pain, shame etc. just bad feelins all over. I mean there are times of love, but they aren't as abundant in the story as sadness and pain. I feel the worst for Pecola, because every substantial thing in her life has hurt her. When anything seems okay, life turns around and hurts her, and she is so numb and so programmed to be scared of everything, that she doesnt even do anything. She is so bland to me, because she has so much pain in her life that she can't even focus on it anymore, and she has to just take everything with a shot, so she can't even feel. I know she doesn't realize this though, she just does it because she has to. All of these people are trapped in this world that they live in, and nothing really is that great for them. They all strive for a moment of happiness and for something to be right, but it never comes. Its all depressing, but it's still beautiful in a dark way.

R&J start to finish

_We learned about Shakespeare, and his theatre and his wife and stuff
_And about Monologues, Motifs, Metaphors etc.
_We were tested on all of this ^
_Then we started to read the play
-And be tested on little sections
_We listened to that really annoying tape thing
_And watched the movie with terrible acting (and love scenes)
_We continued to read
_And be tested
_We wrote about it in our journal
_It was basically stuffed down our throats but thats okay because I liked it, promise
_I think there is something I am missing but I'm not sure

I enjoyed reading Romeo and Juliet I think more than everyone else. Even though I got frustrated with it. I liked to figure out what all of it actually meant. I liked it when you cut in, to tell us what was going on. So all in all, Romeo and Juliet was pretty great, and I can't wait to watch the Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes version. :)

PJ-Suicide, for love lost and only fair time?

I think Romeo and Juliet react to everything irrationally, and I think that they are very very stupid. I am kind of annoyed by how stupid they are really, I mean they didn't have to go off and kill themselves because they thought they were in love. You can't possibly even be in love after one day anyways it just doesn't work. I mean they like meet, and look at each other and are totally smitten by each other's appearances, but SO WHAT. Then they like make out or whatever and are totally sure that what they have is love, when it's really lust. When Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona they have so many options. Come to think of it, they have so many other options throughout the whole play. Like not deciding to get married after one day, or not killing your new wife's cousin (even though he killed Romeo's best friend), there are more i just cant think of them... Anyways Juliet could have just run away with Romeo to Verona, I mean if she was willing to sacrafice her life for him, then she could have lived in poverty with him for the rest of her life. That is better than being dead. Things were down hill from basically the beggining, you know that they are going to die, which kind of ruins it. When people usually think of Romeo and Juliet, they think of the romantic love story, about the two lovers who die for each other. When you really read it though it is so annoying because they keep on screwing things up and being really dumb. They are blinded by the "love" I guess. I mean the story is fun to read, and figure out what Shakespeare is actually saying with all that olden speak, but the story is so utterly frustrating. I think I will end on that.