Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

   There are many types of conflict in Romeo and Juliet, but one of the more subtle ones is the internal conflict all the characters face against themselves.  Romeo and Juliet must battle their consciences every time they decide to defy their parents and see each other.  When Romeo meets with Juliet under the cover of darkness he tells her that his name is an enemy to himself for it is her enemy.
   This conflict is present in my life all the time, maybe not in the same form as in the play but it is still a battle against my will and body.  Whenever I am in a race and I start to tire I have to fight it out against my own body and carry on.  I have to take my mind somewhere else and only think of what is ahead.  You can never let your tired lungs win the fight, you must battle and win against your muscles.

Romeo and Juliet = Edward and Bella

   It took me quite awhile to think of something that would really fit into this blog.  Finally it came to me. New Moon of the twilight saga features two people who have met and fallen in love even though they should not be together.   I immediately ran to my computer to blog about it...then i read the assignment and noticed how it had already mentioned the twilight books.  That was a little irritating, I thought it was a pretty good idea until I found out that Mrs. Gilman stole it from me!  Oh well, I'm going to write about it anyway.  So in New Moon Edward hears from a friend that Bella had gone cliff diving, mistakenly though he thinks that she committed suicide.  He then travels to Italy to anger the world's most powerful vampires so that they will kill him.  When Bella hears about this she decides to travel to Italy to save him, in the end all is resolved and nobody dies a tragic death because of some stupid mistake, unlike Romeo and Juliet.

Connecting with Romeo and Juliet

   One thing that I notice in Juliet's family life is that her parents are exceptionally controlling whereas Romeo's parents appear to be more relaxed and laid-back.  When you read throughout the first few acts Romeo's parents seem to be more concerned with how his health.  When Juliet is first introduced to the reader, her mother is trying to wed her off to a man she hardly knows.  I can relate to Romeo and Juliet when their parents don't always understand them and that the only people they can talk to are their closest friends.
   I think that reading at home and then going over it in class is extremely effective.  It helps me to realize if I have been pronouncing a word wrong or if I don't quite understand the sentence because of the wording.  I do feel that I'm reaching my goals and that the resources I'm using really are helping.

Wrapping things up with a message

I felt that the main message in Great Expectations was to not have regrets.  Charles Dicken constantly shows that as you live your life you don't want to do anything that you will regret later on.  This is a universal experiance for everyone. Everyone knows what it's like to have done something and regretted it afterwords.  You realize what hass happened and, if you're a true person, only wish to right the wrong.

Thoughts on Reading

   Over all I enjoyed reading Great Expectations.  Once I had finished it gave me a feeling of accomplishment and ease.  Reading did turn out to be a bit of a stress on all of my other work though, finding the time to read and annotate usually led to late nights of sitting in my bed with my lonesome self trying to stay awake to finish the last few chapters and find some piece of information worthy of one of my awesome sticky notes.  I felt good knowing that I didn't need any help solving any of the mysteries from spark notes or people who had read the book before.  In the end I think I enjoyed Dickens style of writing and may try some of his other novels.

   My nightly reading would usually consist of finishing all of my other extremely boring homework while trying to procrastinate and distract myself from doing any form of work.  After this was done I would go and get a snack, change into my pajamas, climb into bed and start my reading.  Usually I was mostly caught up so I only had about twenty pages to read.  Those pages sometimes seemed like the longest I had ever read at times.  Eventually I would finish though at around 10:00 and at this point I could rest my tired eyes and get ready to do it all over again the next day.

   Boy...I cannot wait for Romeo and Juliet.

Connected Photo

I felt that this photo really connects to GReat Expectations because in the novel there really isn't anything that Pip cannot do.  This was the Album cover for U2's latest album, No Line on the Horizon.  I feel that this is vaery symbolic and has a lot of meaning in it.

Making connections

I think that Great Expectations and To Kill a Mockingbird are very much alike.  Through the main characters real life experiences are shown and true human nature is exposed such as judgement and fear of the unknown.  Both authors convey that people are imperfect, but that you should not judge them for their views or how they choose to live.
Both Pip and Scout go through many challenges.  Pip does not know how to use his money or how to treat ohers like a gentleman. Scout doesn't know how to treat African-Americans.