English 06B Assignment Blog

     Nostalgia is defined as, " a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations." Memories, both good and bad, are made everyday, but often only the ones with the strongest emotions attached to them remain. For example, a person might recall their sixth birthday party, which was themed after their favorite Disney character or movie where all their friends showed up, but won't remember what they did in school on a Tuesday when they were in first grade. Just the same, that same person might remember being bitten by a dog when they were a child instead of hugging and petting the dog the day before they were bitten. There are many things is an person's life they will remember because of the strong impact the events had on them, including current events and societal standards.  One specific historical example of how a childhood experience stuck with them and shaped their life is the case of the fam...

     A Christmas Carol,  by Charles Dickens, is a classic novel depicting the separation of people by class on a line dividing them between rich and poor. There is no middle class in the novel, where people can live comfortably and have some luxuries in their life with a little wiggle room in their finances. There is only the rich, the poor, and the homeless. Having been written and published almost 200 years ago, it would seem that too many things have changed for it to be any more relevant than another Christmas story. While the disparity between classes has lessened and programs exist today to help the less fortunate, there are still many lessons to be learned from the novel, and scenes that depict conditions similar to what some people continue to live in today. Most notable of these is the poor family, like the Cratchits in the book, and the streets that were "...foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly." ...

     Well-known author, Toni Morrison once stated, "I was afraid to use the word 'I am a writer,' and in fact didn't until somebody suggested to me that this might be what I was doing." Morrison is famous for her novels such as Beloved, Song of Solomon,  and Paradise, and for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. From an outsider perspective, only seeing the famous person as an image rather than the actual human as a person just like anyone else, it would seem strange that someone so well-known and successful in what she does would be hesitant to call herself what she is-- a writer. As she explains, however, she was working and raising children while writing at the same time. She was doing things many people would call necessities while also attempting something those same people would call a hobby. Writing is an art no matter what is being written, and like most arts, it is considered nothing more than a hobby or interest and holds no importance to society unl...