Flexing my Favoto I strapped my helmet on and prepared for my first solo Favoto trip to soccer practice. My dad was still at the office, and my mom was at the Rotary club, stuffing shells for the big Women’s Gala coming up on Friday; Alice had left for college 8 months ago, and I Read more…
A Journey Through the Familiar: William T. Vollmann’s California In 2006, Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland came up with an idea to write a book. It took them two years to pull together a collection of travelogues, detailed narratives, and encapsulating essays. State by State: a Panoramic Portrait of America, was to be a compilation Read more…
The ending of Book Four (The Two Towers) is abrupt and somewhat of a cliff-hanger. I think it’s kind of sad that Gollum didn’t have a better character development. I expected him to change into a better person because of Frodo’s kindness, but after all, he’s been wretched and wicked for quite a long time Read more…
From Comfort to Despair: the Cozy Lairs of J.R.R. Tolkien In reading The Hobbit, one would think Tolkien to be a man of great comfort, as comfort is celebrated by most of the characters. When individuals read this extraordinary book, they would most likely do so while in a comfortable position, enhancing the book’s entertainment Read more…
Melody has just begun Intro to Rhetoric and is succeeding with her quick analyses of various state essays. Having read the preface by Matt Weiland, she understands the purpose of the book, and we can see here that she is responding to the standard set out by Weiland with brief reviews. Bechdel arranges her essay Read more…
Setting: A story’s support and meaning By Michael Lin “Authors use setting to create meaning, just as painters use backgrounds and objects to render ideas.” ~Eudora Welty Often overlooked and brushed past, setting is the main supporting column of any great story. Without setting, the characters wouldn’t have a place to be at all, anywhere, Read more…
The Mysterious and Captivating Saola In the 20th century, there were only a few discoveries that rocked the zoology field, and one of these occurred at nearly the end. An antelope-resembling cousin of the cow was recently discovered. In 1992, a team of biologists and zoologists set out on an expedition to survey a newly-established Read more…
The Character Development of Gollum The first time we ever met Gollum is in The Hobbit. And even though he has been discussed in The Fellowship of the Ring, he was never really shown up. We finally get to meet him again in Book Four, Chapter One, where he has been tailing Frodo and Sam Read more…
Jason is just beginning Intro to Rhetoric which uses State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America as textbook. Many years ago (10) another student wrote an essay on Joe Sacco’s inimitable style, but in Jason’s foray into the unit, he hit a line drive that kept on sailing until … HOMERUN! One of the Read more…
Saruman was first mentioned in The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien in Chapter 2, The Council of Elrond. It was where everyone meets up, including Bilbo, and talks about what to do next about the great evil rising, and what to do with the Ring. Gandalf tells his story about Saruman’s Read more…
