Final Blog: Course Reflection

     When no one notices how fast the time flies, we are all already at the end of sophomore year. I still remember how I difficultly wrote Blog Post at the beginning of the year and how I did not like reading books. Recall back to what I have learned in our English class, I realized that I did learn a lot of things. 

     Most of what I have learned were from reading books. We read six books total this year in class. Those books were all different kind of types which allowed us to have different reading experiences. We had tests and quizzes while we were reading the book. Although we do not like them, they actually helped us to understand those books better. My favorite books among them were "Gathering Pearls" and "We Were Liars". "Gathering Pearls" created a resonance inside me, because I had similar experience with Sookan who was the narrator in the book. I could feel her emotional change in the way she told us her stories in America. Also, I love her characteristics of insistence and endurance. While I was reading, those good quality of Sookan made me think about myself. I learned from it as well. "We Were Liars", I will say, gave me an exciting experience of being a "detective". Its mysterious plots led me to make a lot of hypothesis about the ending. It also emphasis the importance of the family value. I love my family even more after I finish this book. 

     I think this year, the most prominent accomplishment for me is reading books. I didn't really like read books in English before. I had a difficult time reading it because I always had to search so many strange words, translate the sentence into Chinese and then figure out the connection between all these sentences. I could spend one hour only read three or four pages. Reading was really a pain of my life in school. However, I got a lot better by reading so many books this year. I start to read faster and really enjoy the story which the book is telling. There are also things I need to improve on, especially in writing and speaking. I feel writing can express my ideas or opinions better compare to speaking. When I speak, I feel I could not find the best word to describe my thoughts and what I think doesn't turn out to be the result I expect before. While I am writing, I have more time to put my thoughts in a logical way and rearrange my sentences. So the skill of speaking might be one thing that I really need to put efforts into. However, my writing has some problems as well. Although I can express my ideas pretty well when I write things, I have so many grammar mistakes that I don't even realize. I really don't know what the effective ways are, but I'm going to set it as a long time working goals for next year.

     In all words, all the knowledge I learned in our English class this year is not just learning from what our English teacher teaches to us, but a big part of the knowledge is from those books I read. I will continue my reading and try to improve my skills in both writing and reading. Hopefully, next year at this time, I can say I achieve my goals and feel confident in English. 

Bone Chiller: The Best Play Ever

     "Bone Chiller" is a show which was written by Monk Ferris. It combines both comedy and murder mysteries all together. It brought audience both laughs and surprises in the past few days in our school's Black Box Theater. I'm really glad I was able to see this show and really enjoyed it. 

     This show started with people coming on to the stage which was inside a house. They were there because they wanted to figure out Josiah Travers' will and who would eventually get his money. These people are not just family members, but also some odd people who didn't even have relationship with Josiah. Travers' will finally was revealed to those people and surprisingly, it was a puzzle containing pictures, symbols and words in it. Jerry led the way to try to solve the puzzle but they all were stuck in some very important sentences. They know that Travers' death was not a suicide but a murder, and his will refer that the murderer was among the people in the room. However, Mauve, the butler seemed to know who the murderer of Travers was, but then she was murdered after a sudden off of light. At the time people there were still trying to solve the puzzle, another murder happened on the cook, Lucretia. The murderer tried twice to kill Pippi and Jerry but failed. Lastly, the murderer or I should say the "murderers" came out: it was the lawyer and the policeman. 

     This ending was very surprising, but actually not really for me. During the break before Act One and Act Two, I asked my neighbors who they thought the murderer was and they all talked about how strange the leaving of the girl in a green dress was and probably the butler did not even die. After a while, a thought just somehow came out of my mind: the murderer was either the lawyer or the police. I didn't have any explaination for my guess, but I just felt a little bit weird at the appearance of the policeman and the behavior of the lawyer. However, I did not expect that the "murderer" was not only one person, but both of them. 

     This play was probably my favorite among those three plays we had in this year. Although the language was still difficult for me, I could follow along with the story line. I like the feeling how the truth of a mystery was exposed at the ending. I also like how the light was changing and all actors and actresses were at the best conditions of acting. Just like in the Spelling Bee, my favorite character among them was the one who Julia Rafferty played. I love the way she acted and how she interpreting the personality of her character. I also love her Russian accent. It was hilarious! I think she really did a great job. 

     One thing that I think the show can be improved is that maybe the parlormaid, Pippi, should speak in a lower voice and a more calm way. I really was shocked by her scream and I don't know if this should be an important part of the show or not. Her acting kind of took people's attention from the main story line. 

     In all words, I think this play is a real success. I love it, an I really hope there could be more plays as interesting as this exhibited to our audience. 

They Are Imaginary

In Summer seventeen, Cadence spent most of her time in Cuddletown with the other three Liars. However, the ending reveals that the three Liars had died two years ago. In my opinion, the three Liars in Summet seventeen were all Cadence's imagination. Cadence got migraine due to the accident, not just physically, but also emotionally. She was so sad and so painful that her body told her not to remember those things happened in Summer fifteen. In Summer seventeen, Cadence tried so hard to find out what had happened in Summer fifteen. Thus, imagination is the way which helped Cadence to gather her memory fragments. This is one outcome due to her head injury. It makes perfect sence that those three Liars were created by Cadence's imaginary. Just like what the ending shows, Cadence describes that she saw the three Liars swan farther and farther, and they left her alone on the tiny beach. Now because all her memories came back and she had recovered from migraine, her imagination problem disappeared with the three Liars as well. This is why I think the three Liars, Johnny, Mirren and Gat, are Cadence's imagination instead of ghost. 

Reaction to the Ending of We Were Liars

     After I finished reading the book "We Were Liars", I felt really sad no only just for the main characters but the whole Sinclair family. This book narrated things that happened between Summer fifteen and Sumer seventeen. Cadence had an accident which caused her memory lost, and she lived in her imagination and gathered her memory fragments all Summer seventeen. While everyone was wondering who caused Cadence's accident, it turned out that Cadence was actually the one who caused her injury. She also caused the other three Lars's death: Jonny, Mirren, and Gat. When her memories all came back, she found out that she killed the three people who she love most in the world. I think this is so sad as an ending, and it is such a cruel punishment on Cadence. Cadence did not mean to do this kind of thing; she will never hurt her loves, but the fact is that she did. Yes, she achieved her goal that the aunts never fight for the money after the fire, but she is going to live with guilt forever. She would always question herself why she was alive. The biggest punishment and pain are left to the survivors why they did not die while others were in heaven. 

     To be honest, I think this was not fair to Cadence. She did nothing wrong. She just wanted to have a peaceful and a real family. She wanted her family members really care each other. She just didn't plan it right. She just didn't know other ways to make her family turn better. There were so many things that a fifteen-year-old girl don't know. Besides, she didn't set the fire by herself. She shouldn't be the one who suffered and endured the aftermath. 

     Although this tragedy reunited the whole Sinclair family, its price should not be three young teenagers' lives. However, I really don't know if there could be a better ending than this. I don't really like tragedy, but I think it is the best way for people who read and acknowledge the story to actually think and readjust their family values. Tragedy makes people sad but think. 

50~70 new information

From Chapter 50 to 70, Cadence figured out more things about her accident. She knew that Clairmont had a fire in summer fifteen, and it was the four Liars who set the fire. The aunts were arguing about getting the inheritance and Granny Tipper's things. She remembered that on one dinner night, Grandad came to the four Liars and asked for their advice about naming the building which he donated money to in Harvard. Aunt Bess wanted the house when Candice and her mother live because she thought it was too big for them. She also remembered that Gat told him that Ed proposed to Carrie and was refused by her, because she wanted to get the money from Grandad. 

Questions

1. Why Gat's motto is "don't accept an evil you can change"?
2. Why Cadence created another fairly tale in Chapter 40?

Chapter 31~40 important events

Chapter 31:
Cadence and Mirren meet on the beach and have a conversation. Cadence asked if Mirren receive her old Barbies, but Mirren never did. Then, Johnny joined their conversation, Cadence told them about giving her belongings away.

Chapter 32:
Gat asked Cadence to start over their relationship after lunch, and Cadence finally compromised.

Chapter 33:
Cadence went to Clairemount and saw this house's opulent changes. Grandfather said there was a book for Gat but he yelled when Cadence said most of his books weren't here. She asked aunt Carrie if she went back to sleep yesterday, but she had no idea what Cadence was talking about.

Chapter 34:
Cadence tried to find out what had happened in summer sixteen from the littles,  but they were told to not mention about it by Cadence mother.

Chapter 35:
The four liars were redecorating Cuddledown, the three liars knew Cadence's lost of memories and they were also told not to mention anything to Cadence.

Chapter 36:
The four liars played tennis and Cadence told them about her journey in Rome.

Chapter 37:
Cadence mom asked her if Cadence was playing tennis because she heard the balls. Cadence remembers a night two weeks before her accident. The aunts were kind of arguing about ownership to the house in Boston in that summer, but right now, they were siting together in a lovely and peaceful sence.

Chapter 38:
The four liars played Scrambles at midnight in Cuddletown. They talked about mottos and Mirren told Cadence that she should never do what she's afraid of.

Chapter 39:
Gat told Cadence that her grandpa always sees him as Headcliff no matter how good he would become. He was seen as not good enough for dating with Cadence.

Chapter 40:
Cadence wrote another fairy tale talks about a love story between a princess and a mouse, which hints to the relationship between her and Gat.