Victorian Poetry

1. The Poem I chose to read from Lord Tennyson was All Things Will Die. I felt like this poem is about death. He just seems to be talking about how everything seems happy kind of like spring and then everything goes down and dies kind of like winter. 

"Every heart this may morning i joyance is beating

Full merrily;

Yet all things must die.

The stream will cease to flow;

The wind will cease to blow;

The clouds will cease to fleet;

The heart will cease to beat;

For all things must die."

I believe that Victorian influence can be found in this poem in its seriousness. The victorians seemed much more serious about life and it shows in this poem. During the whole poem he's talking about how everything must die but he's talking about it in the most cheerful way. The rhymes are what really makes it seem cheery even though its about death.

2. The poem a read by Robert Browning was Meeting at Night. I think this poem is about Browning meeting some girl at night that lives near a beach. I feel like he write it because on this journey to see his women he notices the beauty of everything around him which happens to be the beach and the little waves ruffling on shore. 

"And the yellow half-moon large and low;

And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,"

I couldn't really find anything distinctively victorian in this poem. It just seemed like a normal poem about a guy going to see his girlfriend. It talked a lot about the beach and what not but I couldn't really ting of anything victorian.

3. The Poem by Matthew Arnold I chose to read was Growing Old. This poem is exactly what it sounds like. It's a poem about growing old. Arnold basically just talks about the aspects of getting old but puts them in a poetic sense. If you ask me it's not really that interesting. I have thought of these ideas myself and this poem seemed kind of boring compared to my thoughts. I feel like I could make an equally good poem about growing old even though I'm not even 20.

One trait I'm figuring out about Victorian poetry is it's boring. They talk about things that are obvious and make them seem much more important by putting a poetic sense to it. SO I guess this poem is Victorian because it's obvious.

"Is it to feel our strength-

Not our bloom only, but our strength -decay?

Is it to feel each limb

Grow stiffer, every function less exact,

Each nerve more weakly strung?"

This quote pretty much sums up the boringness of this poem and clearly states the obvious that we're all going to get old and these things will happen.

4. The poem I read by Thomas Hardy is The Man He Killed. The Man He Killed is about a guy who killed another guy, but what Hardy is saying in the poem is that if these two men would have met in another setting they probably wouldn't have minded each other. 

"Had he and I but met

By some old ancient inn,

We should have sat us down to wet

Right many a nipperkin!"

While reading the victorian poems I've noticed that they rely more on rhyming. All through their poems they have really nice rhymes and many different rhyme patters. I think that the clever rhyming in this poem is what makes it Victorian.

"I shot him dead because--

Because he was my foe,

Just so: my foe of coarse he was;

That's clear enough, although"

A Journal of the Plague Year

First I would like to start off saying that this text was one of the easiest text to read you have given us all year. It was really nice to read something that made sense to me and I didn't have to read over and over a million times. When reading this I was really captivated by it. It seems like everyone had the plague and was just dying in excruciating manners. The way he talked about how he was just walking down the street seeing people die in horrible pain was really intense and made it a very good read. " In these walks I had many dismal scenes before my eyes, as particularly of persons falling dead in the streets, terrible shrieks and screechings of women, who in their, agonies, would throw open their chamber windows and cry out in dismal, surprising manner." This is a quote describing him walking down the streets seeing the horrors of the plague.

I think what was important for people of this time was to be careful. Don't go anywhere near someone who was infected, and don't trust anyone.  You can tell that was the way people acted through the text when the man trying to get a hotel swears he doesn't have the infection " pretending to be going into Lincolnshire, and assuring them of his being sound and free from the infection." 

I also believe god was more important to people in this time because people were more religious back then, I'm sure they were flocking to the churches and praying to god not to get the horrible infection.

Romantic poetry

1. The first poem I read was from William Blake called The Shepherd. The Shepherd is about a shepherd who lives a quiet life. The shepherd William Blake is talking about is very connected with his lambs and I feel like when reading it that Blake might have been a little jealous of the shepherd because of his slow pace life. 

The romanticism that sticks out in The Shepherd is the individuality of the shepherd. 

"From the morn to the evening he strays; 

He shall follow his sheep all the day,

And his tongue shall be filled with praise.

I think that Blake is sort of jealous of the shepherd because of his peaceful life style. Blake probably wished he could have lived the life of a shepherd.

2. The poem I read by William Wordsworth was To My Sister. I felt like this poem wasn't necessarily about his sister but about bonds that can created between people when you just let things happen, and don't try to put names and labels on everything.

I felt like this poem was romantic because of the rebellion expressed in the poem.

"No Joyless forms shall regulate

Our living calendar:

We from to-day, my friend, will date

The opening of the year."

Here and in other parts of the Poem Wordsworth is expressing that everything doesn't have to be regulated. He saying that it doesn't matter what the date is lets go out and have fun.

"And bring no book: for this one day

We'll give to idleness."

this quote expresses how if you just go out and don't plan for anything sometimes the best connections will be made.

3. The Poem I read by George Gordon was called Remind Me not, Remind Me Not. I believe that this poem is about Gordon not wanting to be reminded of the love he shared with some girl. At the beginning of the poem it seems to be describing Gordon and some other girl right after they've had sex and they're just laying there loving one another. Towards the end of the poem he starts talking about how he dreams of the time they spent and wishes it could continue. 

"dreamt last night our love return'd,

And, sooth to say, that very dream

Was sweeter in its phantasy."

I feel like this poem is romantic because of the love shared between these two people. I know that romanticism isn't exactly the same thing as what we consider romantic but in this poem what we consider romantic is the romanticism in this poem. Wordsworth really loves this women and you and you can tell by reading this poem that him and the girl in the poem just had made really good love and after doing so it was being expressed very strongly through anything that they did. Even breathing.

"And lips, though silent, breathing love."

4. The poem I read by Percy Bysshe Shelley was To The Moon . I really liked this poem by Shelley because it was easy to comprehend and I didn't have to read it five times. This poem is about the moon being lonely. Shelley asks the moon "Art though pale from weariness." You can tell reading this poem that Shelley probably spent many nights looking up at the stars and wondering why the moon was all by itself.

I think that this poem is romantic because Shelley feels the loneliness of the moon. He looks at the moon like a person and feels sorry for it because it has no one to connect with. He feels sorry for it because there are all the stars in the galaxy and they all have each other but the moon is all by itself. 

"Wandering companionless

Among he stars that have a different birth,-

And ever changing, like a joyless eye

That finds no object worth its constancy?

5. The Poem I read by John Keats was Dedication. To Leigh Hunt,Esq. I feel like this poem is about a girl that he has gone away, but he doesn't mind. In the poem he talks about how things are leaving and going and I think that expresses how some girl left him. 

"GLORY and loveliness have passes away;

For if we wander out in early morn,

No wreathed incense do we see upborne

Into the east, to meet the smiling day"

I believe that this poem is romantic because of the fact that she is leaving him but he doesn't care. This really represents romanticism.

"Pan is no longer sought, I feel a free

A leafy luxury, seeing I could please

With these poor offerings, a man like thee."

As you can tell when he says he pan is no longer sought he saying that he doesn't want to be with her anymore. And when He says " Seeing I could please with these poor offerings, a man like these" he saying he's happy with himself and doesn't need her.

Step Three- The Victorian Period

The first historical event I will look at is the industrial revolution. Though the industrial revolution started in the romantic period it was still going in the victorian era and the effects were being shown. The industrial revolution caused for a rapid change in the way people thought and lived. I think because of this rapid change forward people began to think more highly of life and take things more seriously. 

Imperialism is the next historical event I would like to discuss. I feel like imperialism played a role in the victorian thought because just like the industrial revolution it was this big system of greatness that man (the british in the case) created.  Because of all this sense of greatness and fullness I believe people during this time felt much more importance to life and felt the need to improve their lives.

I think the normal people of the victorian era were a more serious and focused group of people than in any other time before. Because of all the rapid changes around them and the expansion of everyday life people had to become more serious and work harder at things. This being a direct cause of the industrial revolution.

I believe the difference between the romantic period and the victorian period is the same as the difference in a young man and an old man. The romantic period is more rebellious and free flowing. The victorian period is more serious and obvious. The romantic period was at the start of the industrial revolution and right after the enlightenment making a mix of new ideas and a lot of new stuff. The victorian period was more during the time of the industrial revolution when people were feeling the effects (e.g. child labor).I really like the romantic period more because I more rebellious. Maybe if I was an old man I might like the Victorian period more, but until then I would rather read romantic literature.

I think that victorian poets were expressing seriousness and the obvious in their poems, but like to cheer them up using rhyme. You can see the seriousness when you look at Lord Tennyson's poem All Things Will Die. This is obviously a touchy subject but in his poem he \ talks about it cheerfully and uses rhymes to make it seem not that bad. You can see how they commonly stated the obvious when looking at Matthew Arnold's Growing Old. This poem just talks about getting old. It gets really poetic and rhymes well, but really it's just states the obvious and makes it look poetic. I really didn't like the victorian poetry that much because it was kind of boring. The only thing I really liked about it was the use of good rhyming. Other than that I can't really get into it. 

Step one: The Romantic Period

The first historical event leading up to romanticism I want to talk about is the enlightenment. Even though Romantics hated and opposed the enlightenment they were very similar and also heavily influenced by it. The enlightenment was a time of reason. People were starting to think more logically and relying less on the church for reasoning. The romantics, the next generation, were almost the same but with a twist. The romantics strived more on individuality and expressing themselves. They too disagreed with the church, but hated the aristocrat. I believe that the romantics were to force that eventually led to the rise of the middle-class of the industrial revolution.

The second historical event I want to look at is the french revolution and the napoleonic era. The french revolution occurred right at the beginning of the romantic period and I believe was started from the romantic mood at that time. People were starting to gain national pride, or nationalism, in their country and culture. People were also starting to hate the aristocratic government and feeling the need to do something about it. I think that the romantics feelings of expression is what caused the french revolution. The napoleonic era also help fuel the romantic period because countries were so frustrated with France's nationalism that they also began to have pride in their countries and feel need to express themselves and culture.

I feel like normal people in this time were becoming more aware of themselves and the things around them. People didn't want to be held down by the church or some straight edged logic. They wanted to express themselves and become more individual. This shows through the romantics wanting to have pride and expression of their cultures. I also believe that the romantics might have been a little on the ass-hole side. After reading about them they seem like smart people who think way too highly about themselves (or in this case culture).

I believe that the romantics were mainly expressing rebellion and individuality in their poems. You can see the rebellion when you look at Wordsworth poem To My Sister When he's saying that things don't have to be regulated and the best way for two people to get to know each other is through pure improvisation of time. The individuality is expressed in poems like The Shepherd by William Blake. In this poem Blake is so jealous of the individuality of the shepherd and how he lives such a nice peaceful lives caring for his sheep and his sheep caring for him. I really like Romantic poetry in comparisons to other poetries. I think this is because I like rebellion and individuality.

A modest proposal

When I was reading a modest proposal I saw a lot of dark comedy. Swift expressed how kids are molded by other people throughout their lives speaking of them like meat that is prepped, bought, sold, and eaten. I think that his analogy of being raised kind of like meat is very true and I agree. A Modest Proposal is a good example of a satire because his comparison of children as meat is a use of dark comedy poking fun of something that is actually sad.

Definition of Satire

A satire is a genre of Literature in which the author will be attacking something that he doesn't agree with, with humor. The best example I can think of a satire is South Park. In every episode there is a meaningful point made, but with loads of humour. In one episode they make fun of Michael Jackson and makes the point that his son must live a very neglected life, and that law enforcement usually tends to attack rich black men ratrher than rich white men.

The Glorious Revolution

If you ask me The Glorious Revolution was nothing more than a whole bunch of drama. King James, a catholic, wanted to keep catholic control in England and didn't want the protestants in power. William his some in law, a big supporter of the protestants didn't like what James was doing and decided to take him out, but without too much force. First William got a bunch of support from many people ranging from many different places in Europe. Then he got the OK from the Dutch ( he had to get the OK from them because he was a Dutch Stadholder). The great thing about all this is William did it all super secretively. King James fears it but wasn't completely sure he was about to get invaded. So with OK from the Dutch William invades England with a fleet of ships twice the size of the spanish armada. The ships come in without any bloodshed. Just like William predicted there wan't much fighting because the king knew that his army was smaller and didn't have a lot of support for him. So William makes it to London and tries to start taking the throne but can't immediately because of politics, but gets it a few months later. Once he gets the throne there are a bunch of uprisings in Ireland and Scotland. King James even returns to Ireland with 6,000 French troops at one point coming to help out, but leaves once his army gets humiliated. Oh yeah, during all this the French declares war on the Dutch because of its invasion on Britian and they have an alliance with Britian. So William goes and battles there, but ends up just loosing a lot of money and putting the Dutch in a lot of debt forcing the Dutch to leave global politics and leaving Britain as the powerhouse in Europe.

So what good did all this drama do, because it was a whole bunch of drama. Well, because of the Glorious Revolution the Bill of Rights were made, Absoloute Monarchy ended leaving more power to the parliament, and catholic influences in english politics ended. All this I believe helped the people of Britain get away from the absoloute monarchies that they were used to, and help the everyday people start to think for themselves rather than what the king says they should think.

mentor logs

April 16th, 2008
3:15-4:15

Today Drew and I just talked about college and my work ethics. She told me that I need to stop being lazy and do my homework. She says that in college I'll really be hurt academically by not doing homework or studying. Doing homework and studying has always been super hard for me and I've always had trouble just getting it done. Hopefully by the time I'm in college I'll get my act together and study.

Drew was a little dissapointed in me today because I didn't get my college application turned in. I was going to but I forgot to get my dad's card one night and just kept on forgetting and forgetting all week. I need to make sure I get that done or she'll kill me.

Other than that we just talked about random stuff. We didn't get that much done but I had a nice time talking to her. Hopefully next week we can work some on my product.

Mentor logs

April 10th, 2008
3:30-5:00

When Drew came today I was working on my critical essays section of my noval project. Before she began to help me I explained to her the story of Brave New World. Once I had explained the story to her she read the directions on what I needed to do and began to help me. It helps to have her around because she's good at helping me get my ideas out on paper in a clean cut way. One problem though is it's hard for me to write with someone watching me.

It was pretty funny because even though she was helping me with my noval project we ended up talking about stock markets. When I was talking about how I think the great depression had an infuence on Brave New World it sprung a conversation on stock market crashes and how they affect everything around them. We concluded that we both think the great depression had a big impact in the writing of Brave New World Huxley was experiencing some of the side-affects of seeing the "perfect world" of the 20s go down the drain. When talking to Drew I can tell that she is very interested in the stock market and really knows her stuff.

Other than that we mainly just talked about random stuff. One of the random things we talked about is my college career. She really wants me to jump on it and apply for college and gives me due dates in which I should send in my application and get signed for the tests. This helps me because I'm lazy and sometimes need a little structure to get something done. Drew and I will be meeting again next week at the same time.

Mentor logs

Literary Importance of Brave New World

Does Brave New World deserve to be studied in an english class? I believe it does because it has such a meaningful message. Aldous Huxley puts out a strong message in the Brave New World that you cannot have utopia without people loosing their individuality. Brave New World also has a good deal of historical significance because of how much the mood of that time shows in Huxley's writing.


In BNW everybody lives in this perfect utopia in which "Everyone belongs to everyone else." In this world people are created, they are not born. Using the Bokanovsky's process they can create 96 babies from one sperm cell. Embyro's are conditioned to whatever their destined occupation is and raised in a government controlled nursery where they are fed propaganda their whole lives. In the pursuit of a utopia the government has almost completely ruled out the option of individuality."individuality is literally impossible. As a result, built on a large foundation of identical, easily manipulated people, the society thrives. Stability lives, but individuality—the desire and/or ability to be different—is dead." (cliffnotes.com). I believe that the loss of individuality from utopia is the main message in BNW. It is also a very meaningful message because not only is it a interesting idea, but in Huxley's time it really seemed like a strong possibility because of the great depression, the industrial revolution, and the rise of corporations.
Another message I picked up on from the book is that full happiness cannot be achieved without sacrifices. In BNW, John the Savage wants to show his love to Lenina but all she wants to do is have sex with him. "I wanted to do something first.... I mean, to show I was worthy of you," said John. Lenina replied, "Why should you think it necessary" (BNW 189). This quote shows how John felt like he should have to prove his love first, but Lenina didn't care. Lenina didn't care because she had grown up in the BNW and doesn't know better, but John knows that if he proves himself first that the sex will be more meaningful and he'll reach a higher level of happiness. It's kind of like when you build something yourself, or buy something with your own money. Since you've put the sacrifice into it you'll appreciate it more and it will give you more pleasure. In BNW everything is made to be easy and simple, with no conflicts.

When Huxley wrote BNW it was during the worst part of the great depression. Everyone was broke, unemployed, had no confidence in the economy, and was feeling the giant come down of the roaring twenties. During the great depression people were getting the feeling of what happens when something so big (e.g. the U.S. economy) falls to the ground. I think that this had an influence on Huxley because he got to see the bad side of something as big as the U.S. economy crashing.

I also believe that the industrial revolution had a big impact on the way BNW was written. All through Huxley's life he was witnessing the industrial revolution. People were starting to work in factories, do specialized work (like in BNW), and become more dependent upon other people (also, like in BNW). I believe that this was the main influence on the book because before the industrial revolution people generally worked for themselves. They planted food for themselzes, they hunted for themselves, they built houses for themselves, and made clothes for themselves. When the industrial revolution occured all the sudden people were producing things for other people and buying instead of making products from other people. Because of this people became more tied to their fellow beings, creating the famous quote of the book "Everyone belongs to everyone else."

I think that because of BNW's message on the importance of individuality and its historical background it is a must for english classes all over. Students everyone I think should read BNW because they need to know that their individuality is important and that if they let the government take it away from them they'll loose many of the simple pleasures that we all love.

mentor logs

04/03/08
3:15- 4:30

Today me an drew talked about how everything we had done in my research paper was erased. She was pretty bummed about it, but it's in the past. We actually just talked our last visit because I was writing my logs for the last time.

Today our main focus was at stocktrak.com. Stocktrak.com is a website were you can invest fake money into the stock market and look at all your returns. Her portfolio is actually grouped with her whole class and they have a competition who can make the most. Drew is 9 out of 51, which I think is pretty good. She showed me all of her stocks that were doing good and told me why she bought them. She also told me that she had just invested realy money in the real stock market, so I wish her luck.

After that we pretty much just sat around and talked. We talked about my future education and looked at a few scholorships and a few schools, but other than that we just sat around.

mentor logs

February 28, 2008
3:00-5:00

On Thursday, Drew came at 3:00 and she helped me on my Research paper. She knew a lot of stuff that I didn't and gave me a lot of insight. She also was really good at helping me write out the thoughts in me head. This helped a lot because sometimes a have writer's block and just can't think of the right way to write something.

Basically we talked about how stock markets affect their economies and how they can accelarate their economies. We also talked about how the stock market can liquidate money to consumers and how it affects people's everyday spending. Another thing we talked about was how the stock market can show a good index on how well an economies going.

She also showed me the website that I would be using in my product. The website is called http://www.stocktrak.com/. At this website you can use two million dollars in fake money to invest in the stock market for four months and see how well you would've done. You can also look at your portfolio in graph form, look at all the publicity around your stock, and also see how well everyone in your class in doing.

Aldous Huxley's Biography

Aldous Huxley was born in 1894 in Godalming, Surrey, England. He came from what seems to be a very intelligent family. His dad was also a writer. I feel like since he was raised in such a intelligent environment that this helped him develop complex ideas. Huxley was taught by his mother for a good portion of his life but when she became terminally ill he started attending Hillside. He started college at Eton college but got seriously sick and had to drop out. Once he had recovered he got his degree at Baliol College, Oxford.



After college and in his late 20s' is when Huxley started getting serious with his novels. He wrote many novels ranging from Crome Yellow and Antic hay which describe the mood of the 1920s' to Brave New World and island which are both about utopian worlds.



I feel like Huxley got his inspiration to write Brave New World because he grew up during the industrial revolution and saw how mass production was taking over. I can really see how he thought the world was going to be like that in a few hundred years or at least come up with the aspect of it happening.



I also feel like Huxley's great sense of humor played a big influence in the book. " Oh Ford" is a very common phrase used in this book. instead of having god they look at Henry Ford as a idol. They even use the term A.F. (after Ford) as a way of measuring time e.g. B.C. A.D.. When I first heard that I laughed hard. Another thing is the way that they condition the kids to be super sexualy active.



"What's the lesson this afternoon?" he asked. 'We had Elementary Sex for the first forty minutes,' she answered." This quote is from the beginning of the book when the director is kind of giving a tour of the baby factory/daycare. This really cracked me up along with many other creepy A.F. lines.



Huxley had a pretty interesting life. When he got ill in college he lost his eyesight for a few years which actually saved him from the draft (if you think about it, if he wouldn't have gotten sick he probably would've died a lot ealier and never even write a noval.). Once he started getting better his eyesight started coming back which enabled him to go back to college to study. Around 1939 Huxley started using the Bates Method in hopes of better vision. He claimed that the Bates method helped him regain his eyesight, but some people are skeptical how much better his vision was. Though it might not have gotten that much better it compelled his to write the book called The Art of Seeing.



Another interesting aspect of Huxley's life is his involvment in hellucinagenic drugs like mescaline and LSD. Huxley truely believed that hellucinagenic drugs could open your mind up to enlightenment. He believed this so much he wrote the noval called The Doors of Perception which is a book about psychadelic enlightenment. That book became a cult noval among hippies in the 60s.

Brave New World- Volume Three

In my last entry I was in a point of the book where Brenard (one of the main characters) sounded like a pretty cool guy and I thought his character was going to be character the plot of the book centered around, but it wasn't. Now that I'm finished with the book I think completely differently of brenard, but the plot is still kind've the same it just took a little different twist.

So once Brenard brings John and Linda back to the civilized world he becomes somewhat of a celebrity and everyone loves him and he starts getting a lot more attention, especially from girls. The bigger Brenard gets the bigger his head gets. He starts even being hateful to friends who have always been there for him. Eventually Brenard's big head puts him back where he started, being a loser.

Also while this is happening John (the savage brought back to the civilized world) and Lenina are kind of having an affair. Though they never actually do it they get pretty close at one point. The reason they never do it is because John feels like he has to prove his love to her, but Lenina doesn't care and just wants to do it with him. This just makes John extremely angry and puts him into a kind of rage like state, really scaring Lenina.

Right after John and Lenina have there huge fight the telephone rings for John. He answers and it's the hospital saying that his mom is dying. John is completely alarmed by this and immediately heads to the hospital to see his mom. When he gets there Linda (his mom) is in this really creepy hospital. The hospital is basically a giant death farm. All the rooms had the best synthetic music playing and all the patiently were in deep Zoma holidays. When John got to his mom she was basically dead in a deep Zoma holiday. He tried to talk to her but she couldn't really comprahend him and kept kind of dozing off. Then a nurse came and told John he had to be leaving because she had a batch of children coming. The nurse then brought in a bunch of kids all identical to observe the dying people. This drove John mad because he had to sit there watching his mom die with a bunch of kids all playing around like it was a gymnasium. As John is freaking out trying to talk to his mom she dies. This really puts John in a rage and he leaves the hospital, and on his way out he see's the workers of the hospitals getting there Zoma rations. In his rage and entirely fed up with the civilized world John goes to the front of the line and takes the Zomas and throw them off the air strip and started screaming " Free. Free. You're Free." This of coarse cause a giant outrage and these poilice like people came into the crowd with Zoma super soakers and sythetic music to get the situation under control ( I thought this was hilerious. It's so perfect for the world A.F.).

John, Brenard, and Helmholtz (one of their friends who got caught up in the matter also) all were sent to talk to the controller of western europe, Mustapha Mond. There the controller talked about how it is important to make sure that the people aren't exposed to certain literature, science, or solitude to insure their happiness. During this meeting John and the controller are in a constant debate about how happiness should be achieved, and matters of individuality. At the end of the meeting the Controller informs Brenard and Helmholtz that they will be sent to islands that have people like them, but says John has to stay so the experiment can continue.

John gets furious with this and decides to leave London and try to find somewhere, where he can live in solitude and support himself. He does this, and moves in an abandoned light house. During this time he feels the urge to cause massive amounts of pain on himself to purify himself to god. He feels like the civilized world has made bad and he wants to be good with god. One day while he's lashing himself some poeple see him and tell some other people and then reporters here of it and start coming by to his light house and constantly bugging him. One night John is thinking of Lenina and the pain he caused her and starts getting extremely furious makes him go into self inflicting rage. He goes outside and jumps into a thorn bush almost completely naked trying to make himself not think of Lenina. During his rage a reporter who decided to stay all night trying to get a good shot sees him in his rage and starts recording it. Within a week the video is released and becomes one of the best movies in A.F.. because of its deep pain and emotion. So the next day there is swarm of people all coming to John freak out. John tries to hide but can't, the people are everywhere. People start throwing gum and other highly civilized products at him urging him to use them just trying to egg him on. John is yelling for them to stop but they don't, they keep egging him on and start yelling for him to whip himself. Eventually John starts whipping himself and crowd goes nuts. Eventually everyone leaves, but the next day everyone shows again wanting to see him freak out. When they can't find him they go up to light house, but find him dead. He had hung himself.

I actually predicted John comiiting suicide pretty early in the book, but the way it got there was crazy. The ending of the book was heart thumping with intensity. The way they egged on John was horrible. I couldn't feel worse for the guy.

Even though the end of the book was really intense and climatic it wasn't my favorite part of the book. My favorite part of the book was when John and the controller were debating means of happiness. This part of the book got very deep and was kind of hard to understand fully at times, but during this part of the book the whole point of the book was explained.

Reasonings for Stock Market Crashes

Source- "Stock Market Crash." 2006. http://www.stock-market-crash.net/what.htm

Stock Market crashes always start with " Smart Money" ( corporation, big businesses, and smart investors) and end with " dump money"( average investor). What happens is when the stock market is low, big corporations and smart investors will buy a good bit of stock. Once these corporations buy these stocks, they'll start rising gaining interest from mutual funds, brokerage firms, and some smart investors. Once all these mutual funds and brokerage firms start buying the stocks they rise a little more a start making the everyday investor look more and more at these specific stocks. Once this happens a bull market is created. All investors start putting all their money into these stocks because they think they're great and will keep rising and everything is great. At this time all the "Smart Money" people are selling all those cheap stocks they bought when the market was low to the small investors who are buying at a ridiculous prices because they think the market will keep rising, what makes it worse is they'll buy on margin trying to greater increase capital.

So what happens now is the crash. Once the stock market reaches it's high it has gotten all the investors it's going to get and they have spent all the money they can in the market. So now there is no more money going into the market, it is at it's absoloute high, so the only way to go is down. Once the media catches on there's no more money everyone starts selling there stocks immediately. Once this starts to happen everyone gets nervous about buying stocks for awhile and all the people who bought on margin can't sell there stocks putting them more and more in debt. So eventually all the stock prices drop back down to dirt cheap and everyone's broke except the people who invested at the begginining when it was cheap. Well guess what, after the crash the markets cheap again and the companies buy the stock once again and renew the whole process again and again. taking all the small investors money.

Day Trading

Source- http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/careerplanning/l/aa032999.htm

Day trading is exactly what it sounds like. It's trading stocks constantly day by day. Day traders aren't investors, they are traders. They spend every hour the market is open glued to a computer watching every cent a stock rises or falls trying to decide the absoloute best time to sell, trade, or buy. Many day traders will only hold stock's just for minutes hoping the stock will go up just a few cents so they can make a nice little return.

"For example, at 10:00 AM a day trader might buy 1000 shares of stock XYZ just as the price begins to rise on good news, then sell it at 10:04 AM when it's up by 1/2 ($0.50). The day trader makes $500, minus commission. With today's cheap commissions of $29.95 or less per trade, that's a quick $440.10 or better, excluding taxes."

There are some day traders who trade up to 100 stocks a day. They are called SOES bandits. They will usually never hold a stock overnight and might only hold a stock for a few seconds.

the stock market

Source- Stock Market. Febuary 23, 2008. http/:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stock_market


Trading

trading is done by an auction market. Which means a potential buyer asks to buy a stock at a specific price from a potential seller. Once they both settle on a price an exchange is then made. Buying and selling generally is done on a floor or on the computer. Buying an selling on the floor is done by outcry ( screamning out an offer or a price.) and that's how trades are made on the floor. On computer stocks are traded and bought using the internet, it's pretty simple.

"The New York Stock Exchange is a physical exchange, also referred to as a listed exchange — only stocks listed with the exchange may be traded. Orders enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a specialist, who goes to the floor trading post to trade stock. The specialist's job is to match buy and sell orders using open outcry. If a spread exists, no trade immediately takes place--in this case the specialist should use his/her own resources (money or stock) to close the difference after his/her judged time. Once a trade has been made the details are reported on the "tape" and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Although there is a significant amount of human contact in this process, computers play an important role, especially for so-called "program trading"."

"The NASDAQ is a virtual listed exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. However, buyers and sellers are electronically matched. One or more NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask price at which they will always purchase or sell 'their' stock."

These are the two main stock exchanges that Americans buy, sell, and trade stocks in. As you can see, the New York Stock Exchange is done more of an old- fashoin style and The NASDAQ is just all on computers.

The Stock Markets Importance

The stock market is extremely useful because it gives companies ways to raise money to make capital, and give business's to go public and make lots of money. The Stock Market usually represents how the economy is going also, and how much the normal household has.

One really attractive reason to invest in stocks is you can quickly get rid of anything you don't want to invest in anymore, unlike other investment options like real-estate.

Stock Market Basics: Learning without Losing.

Thomas, Dwain Mandell, Phyllis Levy. School Library Journal; March 2004, Vol.50 Issue 3, p75-76, 2p. "Stock Market Basics: Learning without Losing."

Author- Thomas, Dwain1Mandell, Phyllis Levy

Source- School Library Journal; Mar2004, Vol. 50 Issue 3, p75-76, 2p

" 50 percent of Americans families currently own stocks"

This is something to look at when deciding on wether you should invest or not. It's clear to see that the market as gradually risen so as long as your cautious with your money and put it in good long term stocks, you'll make good money over the years.

Book Review: Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Didier Sornette, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2003.

Porra, Joseph M. "Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems."
Author- Porrà, Josep M. Journal of Statistical Physics; Nov2004, Vol. 117 Issue 3/4. p773-774, 2p.


" The build up of financial bubbles manifest itself as an overal super-exponetial Power-Law acceleratin in the Price Growth Accompanied by long periods of oscillation."

Basically, what he's saying here is bubbbles in the stock market are always the source of a crash in the stock market.

Book Review: Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Didier Sornette, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2003.

Book Review: Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Didier Sornette, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2003.

Author-

The Investor's Guide to Technical Analysis

C. Colburn Hardy. Stock Market Theories. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1978

Author- C. Colburn Hardy

Publisher- McGraw- Hill Book Company

New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, Auckland, Bogota, Dusseldorf, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Mexico, Montreal, New Delhi, Panama, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto

Copyright 1978

Stock Market Theories

The most Popular Theories in the Stock Market is the Dow Theory.

" To Dow, THe Stock Market Wasa Barometer of Business. His theory calls the turns of the market and forecasts the business cycle or longer periods of prosperity or depression. Under his concept, there are two major movements of the stock market: the Primiary movement, which last usually 23-33 months or longer, and the secondary movement, which usually last from three weeks to three months and, during this period, retraces one-third to two-thirds of the previous market action- the advances in a Bull Market, the decline in a Bear Market."

Their are many doubters to the Dow Jones Thoery. Many don't like it because it's out-dated. It uses Closing Prices which aren't that accurate because the price may change a lot here and there through the day.

How to Find Winning Stocks

1. Review Weekly Charts.
2. Check the Weekly Stock Market tables.
3. Watch the DAily and Weekly highs.
4. Py special attention to most active stocks.
5. Study the group stock averages.
6. look at the overall stock market.

Fortune's Guide to Personal Investing

Editors of Furtune. Fortune's Guide to Personal Investing. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962-1963


Copyright 1962,1963

By the Editors of Fortune

Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.

New York, Toronto, and London

Brokers

Not all Stock Brokers are good, some are bad. Even though it's illegal for stock brokers to advertise that they can make trades faster, some Brokers can. Because some Stock Brokers are so big they can have more representatives on the Floor at the Stock Exchange giving them a better chance to get the stocks faster, or get rid of the stocks faster. So when looking for a stock Broker you usually don't want to go with a new smaller firm. It's generally best to go with a bigger Broker.

" The number of men afirm as on the floor does matter to the customers, and sometimes it matters a lot- e.g. When a sudden new development inspires investors all over the US to ask their brokers to buy a stock, the first orders executed might be at a lower price than the later orders."

Brave New World- Volume Two

I've now Gotten to the point in the book when the plot is starting. At first the book was just explaining all about the new world A.F. (after ford), but now the plot is starting to unfold.

So in the story there is the main character Brenard. He is pretty much a loser. He is pretty much the outkast of the whole new world A.F.. He likes this girl named Lenina, she is pretty much as normal as anyone in the world A.F.. For someone reason Lenina likes Brenard and thinks he is interesting.

Brenard decides he wants to take Lenina to The Reservation. The Reservation is basically like an indian reservation, except the indians are actually really living the indian life. So once he takes her there he meets this mixed boy named John and his mom Linda. Brenard becomes facinated with there way of life, because he himself is somewhat of an individual. Lenina on the other hand is really appauld by indians and thinks they're savages. Once Brenard is there and talks to the boy and his mom for a while he realizes that the boy is the son of the Director, and that's where I'm at now.

I think it's really funny in this book how disgusted everyone from the world A.F. gets when they see things like mothers and fathers taking care of their kids. Lenina was constantly freaking out when she was at the reservation. It's also funny how they thing it's so weird that someone would want to sacrifice something to gain something e.i. trying and trying your hardest for a girl who might never like you.

Brave New World Post One. British Noval Project.

I would first like to start off saying that Brave New World is a very well written book and is enjoyable to read. Aldous Huxley does a very good job with suspense. Even though the story line ins't that suspenseful, the way he writes makes it suspenseful and keeps me glued to the book.

So far in the story they have basically gone over the whole aspect of making children in the new world A.F. (after ford), the use of zoma as an everything healer, and most importantly the importance of efficiency in the world A.F.. They have also introduced some characters that I'm guessing will be the main characters in the story.

The way they make babies in the world A.F. is crazy. Every human-being is conditioned as an embryo to serve a specific purpose in life. And everyone is a pre-determined caste. They can either be Epsilon (the stupidest people, used for labor jobs), Gamma, Delta, Beta, or Alfa which are the smartest and also the tallest of the castes'. All the babies start as Embryo's in a factory and our conditioned to their destined caste. In the process of conditioning embryo's are basically tortured, depending on their destined caste. The farther down the caste you are the more you will be conditioned. Babies and children are also fed massive amounts of propaganda. They don't live in houses with parents like we do, they are raised by the government and when they reach their adult age they go to work. While in these government houses they are constantly being fed propaganda through all types of methods, mainly they use hypnopaedic. Hypnopaedic is a way to feed children propaganda in their sleep and engrave it in their brains. The main slogan that every caste of children gets is " Everyone works everyone else."

The thing that stands out to me the most in this book is the lack of individuality in their society. Everyone is born into their occupation and never has a chance to be anything different. In the world A.F. nobody has any options. I have a feeling this is going to play a big part in the plot of the book because one of the main characters, Brenard Marx, is one of the few people in the world A.F. society that is somewhat of an individual.

Anglo-Saxon Project

Reading Beowulf sent me through many ups and downs. There were many parts of the book that I did really like and some parts I got really into, but there were also a bunch of times were I would just get bored and wonder what was going on or why they put a certain section in the book.

The parts that stood out to me were the battles that Beowulf was in. The one I liked the most was the fight against Grendal’s mom. When I was reading that part I really got into the book. The biggest thing that stood out to me while reading Beowulf was the way the text flowed since it’s written as a poem. During the fight with Grendal’s mom the text was just flowing and flowing.

One thing I didn’t get about Beowulf was why the book had so many conflicts. I felt like they should have spent more time building up the conflicts rather than using multiple conflicts. I think that Beowulf should’ve been broken into two books. One that goes into Beowulf’s battles with Grendal and his mother and the other should include the battle with the dragon and Beowulf’s death.

When I think of Anglo-Saxon culture I imagine a crazy scary environment. Back then they were much more rugged than we are today. They lived in what I think of as a brutal world. Kings ruled over small territories all over Britain and had a lot of power and exercised it willingly. When I think of an Anglo-Saxon person, I picture a very dirty illiterate person with a short temper and ready to fight.

When looking for how Beowulf illustrates the Anglo-Saxons I first looked at their strong belief in god, "The battle would have ended quickly, if God had not protected me. " All through the story everything is about god, and how god is this almighty power that will strike you down if you do him wrong.

One thing I picked up on through the book was how they talked about the world as if it was much smaller. Many times in the book they would say stuff like this, "Poets sang sad songs throughout the world," I really doubt that Arabs were sympathizing with King Hrothgar, but back then I think they thought of the world as much smaller.

The biggest thing that illustrated the Anglo-Saxon culture to me was Beowulf’s bravery and how he was such a great warrior.

"They saw me come from battlesstained in the blood of my enemies, when I destroyed a family of giants,when I endured pain all night,killing water monsters,"

When I think of Anglo-Saxons I always thing of the big, brave, warrior and that is exactly what Beowulf is.

Beowulf is pretty much the same as any hero story. Beowulf is the typical modest hero. Though he has great strength he is still nice and only uses his strength for good."The battle would have ended quickly if God had not protected me. Nor could I accomplish anything with Hrunting, that strong weapon, but the ruler of mengranted me to seea beautiful old mighty swordhanging on the wall." The biggest thing that stands out to me is how Beowulf only kills his enemies with his bare hands instead of using weapons. "scorn to carry sword or shield,but I shall seize my enemy in my hand grip and fight,"

One difference between Beowulf and a modern day hero is that he doesn’t have super powers. A lot of modern day heroes have superpowers like superman and Spiderman. Another difference Beowulf has from modern day heroes is he died at the end of the story. Most of the time in a modern day hero stories the hero lives.

I thought the way Beowulf died was very appropriate for the story. I kind’ve saw it coming, but it was still good. "He bit Beowulf's neckwith sharp tusks--Beowulfwas wet with life's blood;blood gushed in waves." I thought this was a good way for Beowulf to take his final blow. The only problem with it was that is was a really serious blow. There’s no way Beowulf could’ve picked up his knife and stabbed the dragon after being bit by a fifty foot dragon, but that’s why it’s a story.

I thought that it was really pathetic that Beowulf’s men were too scared to go help him. Beowulf had given them the best of everything, and when it was there time to return the favor they wussied out. I thought it was good that one of Beowulf’s men was loyal, but I think they should’ve killed the cowards. It’s already a pretty gory book, might as well throw in some vengeance.

The last little bit of the book is good when the author is talking about death.

"It's a mystery wherea good man goeswhen he reaches his end,when he can no longerlive in the houses of men.So it was with Beowulfafter he'd soughtthe keeper of the cave.He himself couldn't knowhow he would leave the world."

This little bit of the story is good for the ending because it kind’ve makes you think of death, and putting yourself in Beowulf’s shoes. I really like the part when the author says, " He himself couldn't know, how he would leave the world," because you don’t know what happens on earth after you die.