Passage based essay on Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

This is the first time in my life I got a solid A for my English essay! I think it would be quite useful for those who are looking for inspiration online (like I usually do). It is based on Act 3 Scene 2 starting when Caliban says "Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him,/I' th' afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst brain him...". Here it is:

 In Act 3 Scene 2, Caliban, Triculo and Stephano are plotting to overthrow Prospero. In 

this rather comical scene the reader is exposed to a never-seen-before side of Caliban. 

Throughout the play Caliban was portrayed as a savage native who uses rude language and 

insults. In this passage, however, it can be seen that Caliban is not as uneducated as he might 

seem at first.
Caliban makes a speech that could also be seen as a monologue, telling the others how he would 

like the plan to be carried out. It introduces a different side of Caliban. In this sense he can no 

longer be seen as an educated fool, but is rather looked at as a scheming man who is thirsty for 

revenge. The aspect that stands out the most is Caliban's language. Instead of cussing and using 

insults Caliban suddenly uses more sophisticated language. He calls Miranda a "non-parail" 

which is a very unusual thing for him to say because has never complimented anyone in the play 

before.
Caliban's use of language is not the only concept that stands out in the passage. Caliban's ideas 

are also superior to those of his companions. He has thought ahead and can now be seen as 

someone who is very scheming and revengeful. He explains Stephano and Trinculo that books 

are Prospero's source of power. "Burn but his books; he has brave utensils" Being the least 

educated character of all, he was the only one who has thought of the idea of getting rid of the 

source of Prospero's power before getting rid of Prospero himself.
Caliban's plot to overthrow Prospero echoes an event that took place earlier in in the play. In 

Scene 2 of Act 1 Prospero was telling his daughter Miranda the story of how he got to the island. 

He said that his brother Antonio took his power and sent him there. Luckily, Gonzalo put books 

in the boat Prospero was travelling on. Thanks to them, Prospero managed to gain his power 

over the island. Despite Antonio's education, he could not think that his brother's books were so 

important. Caliban, on the other hand said that it was the first thing to do in order to rid Prospero 

of his power. “Remember first to possess his books; without them he’s but a sot, as I am” 

Caliban's ideas and the language he uses show that he is much more intelligent than his 

companions. Just by looking at the text the reader can see that Caliban's lines are written in 

poetry form, while the others' are written in prose. This represents Caliban's knowledge 

compared to the simplicity of Stephano and Trinculo's thoughts. Caliban thinks ahead of things 

while Stephano's thinking is much more simple. He says to Caliban, "Monster, I will kill this 

man. His daughter and I will be king and queen".
By expressing himself the way he does in the passage, Caliban wants to be seen as an intelligent 

gentleman. It is a side he wants to develop and be respected for. The thing Caliban wants the 

most is sharing and equality. He wants to be loved and respected. It can be seen that Caliban will 

never fulfil his needs for he is constantly being looked at as a slave. Everyone judges him on his 

appearance and not what he wants to be.
In conclusion, Caliban has a more sophisticated and scheming side to his personality. It can be 

seen that in most ways he is more intelligent than Stephano and Trinculo, but he will never be 

respected for this side of him since everyone sees him as a slave. 

Procrastination here!

Hey! Today I met my old friend Procrastination! She's such a kutiya!
I have an English test tomorrow and an English assignment and another English test on Thursday. Have I done anything? No... Instead of doing my assignment I wrote an essay about tolerance... What a nice way of procrastinating!
(Also I played with Siri for a while)

I found something!!!

Today I decided to write something again.
(Good job, Sonya! You have an English assignment due the day after tomorrow that you haven't even started! And you want to get an A in your marking period? Of course, you will!)
For inspiration I found some of my old stories and essays on my computer. I also took my old laptop that I forgot about and looked at some pieces of writing I did in 5th and 6th Grade. To my surprise I realised that I still have some of my old essays and writing assignments that I thought were good. They turned out to be horrible.... And I blamed my teacher for giving me a B-...? If I were her I would have given myself something bellow a D.
After reading my essays I started reading my creative writing stories. Holy crap those are scary! If I didn't know I wrote that I would have thought that the child who wrote that had issues! Just listen to this:
"You remember the day you left home. It was a cold November night when winter comes to power and plays with her white scarf, causing storms and hurricanes. Her hand reaches out for you to take you to a place where you feel like you’re on the other side of the mirror. You left the people you loved to love another place, without fighting.
One more sound and the ice will crack. There’s sadness in those eyes. You feel like they’re asking for something. The creature looks like an innocent child, looking for a place to hide from the big world. You think of kissing it, imagining how your lips would unite in an alliance of love. You reach out to grab the creature’s arm, but it disappears, leaving nothing behind. You turn around and find it behind you with its eyes wider than usual. It takes your arm and pulls you up."

What the hell was I thinking of back then?
My writing skills are very good, actually! How did I come up with all this stuff about winter's white scarf and the other side of the mirror? I like it, but it's just... So creepy and random!
I also realised another thing about my writing. I come up with such random names! Now I would never write a story about someone called Madeleine...
Before I had so many big writing projects. I started writing a story in 6th grade and I haven't finished it. I can't remember how I wanted to end it! It's a story about a girl who hit her head during a fire and lost her memory. She was called Sophie before and now, since she couldn't remember her name, she is called Amanda (random names strike again!). She goes back to school discovering that everyone is in love with her old self, but she doesn't remember being the girl she was before the accident. (Such a cool story line!) Here's a fragment from it:
"“Tell me more about Sophie,” I asked Lena. “I don’t remember myself being Sophie.”
            “What do you want to know about her?” Lena responded.
            “What did she like, for example,” I answered.
            “She liked to think,” Lena said, thoughtfully. “She liked to think about how things work not only in machines, but in life. She even found an answer to the hardest question in the world: What’s the purpose of living. Sophie was clever – wise. We would sometimes come to her and ask what to do. She solved our problems. She was a psychologist for all of us. Everyone liked her.”
            I thought about what Lena had told me about Sophie. It was like she was talking about someone else, not me. I’m not wise. I can’t solve problems like a psychologist. I wished I could.            “I feel sorry for myself now, really,” I pronounced my thought out loud. “I’m not like Sophie now. When I lost my memory I think I lost my wisdom too.”
            “I feel sorry for you too,” Lena replied. “You would just sit there, look at the fire and say something that would touch my heart, that would make my eyes water. You loved to look at the fire then, look at those flames disappear into the air. It made me feel joyful, but also jealous. I thought why you chose Liz to be your best friend. Why wasn’t I your favourite?”"
In fifth grade I was more into writing dialogues. Reading it, I realised that I haven't used the word "said" once. Here's an example (some more random names!):
""I'm not a little girl like you, Sue. I think I have a better idea," she whispered. "It's private. Up to my room."
The children ran to Susan's room quickly. Susan locked the door, so nobody could get through.
"Do you know, what Mum locked in the bottom floor and why?" she asked in a low whisper.
"I really want to know," Sue whispered back."Let's go to the bottom floor and see," Susan suggested.
"When?" Andrew asked. "Aunt Katy and Steffanie are always in the house."
"Not all the time," began the girl. "When Mum's away and Steffanie's at her friends' we can go down there and nobody would see us.""
In fifth grade I thought my grammar skills were good too. Nope!

I hope you enjoyed reading some of my old stories as much as I did. So the morals (I learned) are:
1. Don't blame your English teacher for giving you a bad grade! You deserve it! She knows better!
2. Read what you wrote from someone else's point of view before saying that it's amazing!
3. Don't be afraid to change your writing style!
4. Writing in first person and in past tense is too easy (and too mainstream)!
5. Avoid the word "said" when writing dialogues (because it's too mainstream)!
(6. Use random names..... No... Don't, actually... Random names are random... Don't use names...)

The faith of the world

Just for you to know I got my English essay back. Yes... The one about "To kill a mockingbird". I got a B- and threw it in the trash immediately. Haha.

Recently I have been really interested in religion. So now Yasmin and I are working on this project about it. We decided to call it "The Faith of the World". We are going to study four religions:

Christianity
It's all around us and it seems very interesting to study. I'm supposed to be Christian, but I know nothing abut it. I would also like to find out about the difference between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church.

Islam
I studied it a little bit last year and I don't know much about it. I have many questions about it.

Buddhism
Actually, Buddhism is a way of life and not exactly a religion. It seems very interesting to me.

Hinduism
It looks very interesting to study and it is very different from the other three. Most of the books I borrowed from the library are about it so I hope I'm going to have enough information.

The maximum time to study a religion is a month. (And a minimum is a week.) We're also planning on visiting different places (Cathedrals, churches, etc.) and maybe even libraries. We can also interview others and ask for opinion
Yesterday, I went to the school library at lunch and got six fat books about Christianity and religion in general. At home (instead of doing my history haha) I read some of them and wrote stuff in my notebook. I made a quick summary of the life of Jesus and what Christians are. Today I'm going to continue.
Wish me luck!

What I expect my grades to be

The marking period ended so, hopefully, my grades will soon arrive.

I don't normally do this, but I just want to give myself a grade and compare it to my actual one that I will find out in the future. So let's start!

Maths I'm sure I'm getting somewhere around an A for this subject since I got a couple of 100% for my tests. 

English Oh chod.... I think I'm getting a C or something like that. Our teacher told us that our essays will not count and I totally failed the rest. I still don't get why I got such a bad grade on my portfolio... =( 

French Honestly, I have no idea...

Science B-? All my homework assignments were late and I got bad grades on them. Plus my test results weren't good either. 

German I'm probably getting a B... Getting an A in German is impossible...

History I actually enjoyed what we were studying this marking period and I was very proud of my test results. I would give myself an A- or a B+.

Geography This class is always at the end of the day and I'm tired so I don't really pay attention to it. We had several pop quizzes that I failed and my test results are average, so.... B-...?

Art My skills are very good! I love art (not as a school subject)! I made my self portrait purple (!) and.... we weren't supposed to do it the way I did it. I didn't give my sketch book in either. And I never do anything... And I'm on Pon Pon the whole time.... So.... Not getting a good grade.

CSL Computers I made my presentation on Nyan Cat, Totoro, Purple and everything I like when we were supposed to do it on something important (university, school and your future). Ms Lemale always tells me to be quiet because I talk to Yasmin the whole time. And I'm always late! So I could be expecting a "below class average"... >_<

         Class We never do anything in this class. During my PLP meeting with Mr Woodbridge I was just talking about how I hate English class with Yasmin. That was very fun.

Sports It's obvious. I'm getting a "fail". But who cares about sports anyway?

So..... Yay! The marking period is over!

Just a little 'something': When I was doing my "Study in Scarlet" portfolio for English I didn't try at all. When I was doing my "To kill a Mockingbird" portfolio I did my best. I got a better grade on the first one... 

Today we were "running" the mile (a mile and a half). Well... The others were running, but I was walking. I didn't try at all and I got 14.14. In sixth grade we were only doing one mile. I tried really hard, but my score was worse than my score this year.....

So the moral is.... Don't try....?

English essay!!! Finally!!!

So here is my English essay... Yes, I did it... Finally! I got it over with.... I hope I don't fail like last time (I don't remember if I published my Study in Scarlet one here or not).... I'm glad I finished it today and I'm proud of what I've done... It's not my best, I know....

In the book “To kill a Mockingbird” the reader discovers the world of justice, prejudice, empathy, stereotypes and ignorance through the eyes of a young girl called Scout. Her and her brother Jem are forced to grow up in a very hypercritical community where you are judged upon your appearance and not who you are inside. This essay is going to talk about stereotypes and ignorance towards two innocent people, the ‘mockingbirds’ of the book.

At the beginning of the story we find out about Boo (Arthur) Radley. Scout describes him being “about six-and-a half feet tall”. She says that “he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time”.  As the story continues we discover that Boo is the Bogeyman of Maycomb. Legends and rumours are passed on around the community. “A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked.” This shows us that even the children were afraid of him.

Scout’s attitude towards Arthur doesn’t change until the end of the book. When Boo ‘jumps out’ to save the children, Scout realizes how ignorant she was before. She could have never thought that the ‘bogeyman’ could be an honest person who has feelings and who could risk his own life for the sake of others.

As the story continues, the reader discovers that Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman. Even though the Ewells were very poor and were not highly respected in Maycomb, the jury still accuses Tom.

Scout’s father, Atticus is defending the man. He wants to prove the judgmental community that the person’s skin colour doesn’t reflect on their personality. The quote “Yes, suh. I felt sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em.” shows us that Tom, as any other person, has the ability to experience pity for others, no matter what race or religion they are. The people in the crowd were shocked by that statement because all of them were taught that “[…] all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immortal beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around women.” The statement shows us that the Maycomb community was very stereotypical to black people.

This essay shows that different communities have different attitudes towards certain people. Both, Arthur and Tom, were judged upon their appearance and not their personality. The society of Maycomb would rather insult the person because of their skin colour or habits then accept them the way they are. Scout grows up to understand that no matter how different the person is from the others, you should get to know them before judging them and not be ignorant.

Tears

I don't know who's going to be reading this. I have too much in me now and I can't keep it that way. I have to express it somehow.

Sunday was a beautiful day. The wind was cold, but overall the weather was great.
Mum, Dad and me went to the lake. It was so great two have both of them close to me. I would get the feeling of having a perfect family again. All of us got along so well. We would talk, laugh and discuss things.
After walking along the right side of the lake, we took a boat and crossed to the opposite one. We decided to go to a restaurant in the city centre.
I was very happy.
All of a sudden Mum and Dad started arguing. I don't even know how it started. We were just talking peacefully and it just happened... I didn't want to be involved so I plugged my earphones in and stated listening to Vocaloid. I made the music so loud I couldn't hear anything else.
The song I was listening to ('Last night, good night' by Kaito) ended, I brought my eyes up and saw mum shouting at dad. She got up and left. She was calling for me, but I didn't know what to do. My mouth was open and I took my earphones out.
Dad and I were walking home. Mum was infront of us as if we were not related. It was windy, but I didn't even zip my jacket up. I didn't feel the cold. I felt like the only person in the world.
I was happy to be home. I was looking forward to showing Dad Joe Hisaishi's music, but I didn't have the opportunity to. As soon as we got home, he packed his stuff and shut the front door behind him. I opened it and stood there looking at him, not knowing what to do. Mum ran out and tried opening the elevator door (at our house the elevator has a door with a handle), but it was too late. She put her boots on and ran outside.
I dropped onto my bed and allowed myself to take a deep breath. I let out a loud cry from the deep of my soul. I couldn't understand what was going on with me. My upper lip was shaking and vibrating. I could not know wheather I had sweat or tears on my face. My cries were echoing in the empty appartment.
I sat up and put my arms around my legs. It might have been 5 mins, but to me the moment lasted for ages. I knew that he was never coming back.
I was right.
The door bell rang and I saw Mum at the door. She told me that she was running after him till the end of the street, begging him to stay.
I spent the rest of the evening downloading and listening to music. Mum was crying in her bed.

This morning I did't feel like doing sports. The coaches got mad at me and accused me for not checking my schedule and stuff..... I told them that I couldn't do it. They got even angrier and started talking about me in third person as if I was no where around. If they have the authority, the shouldn't be rude.
In English class, I was very thankful that Miss Manchala let me write the essay for tomorrow, but that's a different story.

When I came home I started doing my English work right away. In two hours I've only done 200 words. None of it made sense because I would always get distracted. At the end, my dad called me on skype. I got very  sad and started crying again. I did not finish it...

Doing my english essay.... -_-

Since my dad is coming tomorrow (yay!!!!!!!! party and party and party!!!!!! wooohoooo!!!!!!) I had to do the English essay today... -_-
I came home quite late since I had choir after school today and had to take the bus home.
I sat at the computer and opened a blank Word document. I started writing some crap I could think of at first, but failed every time. This is how it turned out:

I went on Facebook since I didn't have the instructions paper and asked Yasmin for it. I tried to start writing again.

Soon, Yasmin sent me the paper. I was hoping it would help me, but this is what I got (with some corrections in red):

So I decided to do the essay another day.... -_-

Sweet Revenge!
Yasmin asked me to send her 'Problem Solving'!

 

Expository Essay. Trust.

warning: i wrote this when i was like 12 and i thought it was a good idea to post it online but guess what this is shit dont use this as reference

This summer I learnt a lot about trust and trusting people. The more time I spent with my friends and family the more I learnt about trusting people. You trust different people differently. Some of them seem trustworthy and make you want to tell them your biggest secrets from the very start, whereas you still wouldn’t rely on some people even if you’ve known them for “100 years”.  So this essay is going to be on what I have learnt about trust during the summer.

               Let’s start from something many people would agree on. Most of us think that we trust people we know a lot. Our parents, our best friends, relatives, or cousins; these are the people closest to us. They have known us since a long time and we know them too. These people surely know what present to give you on your birthday or just how to make you happy. So do you. But sometimes when it comes to things like secrets you would rather not tell them anything. Telling a stranger something you might be even ashamed of would be easier than telling the same thing to a close friend. Even if a stranger will always be stranger, it sometimes easier to tell them something you don’t want anyone to know about because you know that you’re surely not ever going to see them again. Looking into the eyes of your best friend every day and knowing that they know your biggest secret in the world could be tough. What if it’s a secret that you’re very ashamed of? Knowing that you’re not the only one in this world knowing it makes it easier, but knowing the person who knows it too is not.

               So sometimes is talking to a stranger is easier than talking to a friend? But people we feel easy to talk with are the people we trust. So we trust strangers more than friends? What’s so special about friends then? The thing about people who are close to you is that you surely know that they won’t let you down. That’s how we trust them. You know that if you’re having a hard time they’ll help you even if means risk to them. Trust isn’t only about secrets. It also is about help. Would you want a stranger to help you even to hold your bag? You surely wouldn’t because you don’t know them. Strangers can’t betray you either because they’re not your friends. You can’t blame them for not being honest with you. That’s why there’s a difference between friends and strangers.

            So my conclusion is that there’s no such a thing as trust.  You can’t define it with one word because it has such different definitions. You trust different people differently. Some are good for keeping your secrets and some are the best advice-givers. Indeed, sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger than a friend, but it doesn’t mean you don’t trust them. It’s your choice who you want to talk to or get advice from. After I discovered more about trust I don’t feel ashamed of myself anymore that I, sometimes, don’t want to tell my friends something. It made me understand that trust can be described in different ways and doesn’t always have to be about friendship.