Great Expectations "Quotes" Chapters 1 to 11

Chapter 1
"He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weathercock." (page 3) I picked this quote because it helped me get into reading the book. I love it when people describe something in a creative way.

Chapter 2
"Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame." (page 7) This quote tells me two important things. First, that Pip's sister believes in harsh punishments, and second that Pip still hasn't learned how to be a good boy (at least to his sister's standards).
Chapter 3
"'Curse this iron on my sore leg! Give us hold of the file, boy.'" (page 18) This is an interesting quote. I feel that it shows how the convict was affected. Just like in Chapter 1 (page 2), the convict says "us" instead of "me". This might mean that the convict might be a little crazy. This trait gives the convict a unique personality.

Chapter 4

“’let us have a cut at this same pie.’” (page 26) This quote is the breaking point of Pips apprehension throughout this chapter. He was worrying about his deeds in the beginning, and had a lucky break a few minutes before, but with the mention of the pie that he had stolen, Pip knew that he would be punished for his deeds.

Chapter 5

“’I took some wittles… and a dram of liquor, and a pie.’” (page 35) This is another quote from the convict. It might be Charles Dickens saying that people that go to jail are not always bad, or it might be a lesson that Pip will remember in the future. I chose this quote because it shows mercy, and not, “when I fall I’m taking whatever I can with me”.

Chapter 6

“and assisted me up to bed with such a strong hand that I seemed to have fifty boots on,” (page 38) This quote is another one of those quotes that describes a character and increases their personality. Because this chapter was so short, I thought that this would be a fitting quote.

Chapter 7

“I had just enough learning to be able to spell them out.” (page 39) This quote describes what is happening throughout chapter 7. Pip has barely picked up the ability to write, and that shows clearly in Pip’s epistle and other parts of this chapter.

Chapter 8

“It was paved and clean, but grass was growing in every crevice.” (page 51) This quote describes the characteristics of Miss Havisham’s house. Her house is old, dusty, and in the past, but it still has a cleanness to it.

Chapter 9

“’She was sitting,’ I answered, ‘in a black velvet coach.’” (page 61) This quote is a small example of the lies Pip tells in chapter 9.  This is just another characteristic that hopefully was crushed before it increases.

Chapter 10

“but with a file.” (page 71) This quote shows that Pip is not over his self blame when he stole the file and food from his family. Pip is still worried that he will be caught. That seems like something important to remember.

Chapter 11

“I never have been so surprised in my life as I was when I let out the first blow, and saw him lying on his back,” (page 84) This is a great quote from Charles Dickens. It is a funny outcome to an interesting fight. I thought that it was a great way to end the chapter.

Shakespeare past and present

When I was first forced to read a book by Shakespeare, I despised it. I’m pretty sure that it was A Midsummer Night's Dream. The main thing I remembered was that the book wasn’t written in English. There were a few words I knew like “enter” and “exit” but I needed my teacher to translate the conversations. Looking back on that moment in life I can’t believe how dumb I was.

            After reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a senior in my honors English class, I have started to notice how smart Shakespeare really was. Macbeth is a great book about a man who ruins his almost perfect life by trying to get more power. Macbeth (the character) is introduced into the play as an honest, wealthy, loyal, and completely sane person. As the story progresses, witches tempt him into getting more power. The play ends with Macbeth, now a king, dieing after killing the previous king and anyone who stood in his way. The play is depressing but there is a powerful lesson to be learned as long as you pay attention. I noticed that Shakespeare’s Macbeth is sort of like the Christian Bible.

            First, I need to introduce you to the bible. The Christian Bible consists of stories from long ago. In these stories, the Lord gives his people rules. As his people mature and become more responsible, the Lord may change his rules. For example, in the Old Testament, the people obey variations of the laws of Moses. There were many rituals and sacrifices, of sheep not people, during this time. In the New Testament the laws change. Now sacrifices are not needed. The people stepped into a higher state of conciseness and noticed that the sacrifice of sheep was not needed.

            Shakespeare’s Macbeth also has something similar. Witches were added to make it seem like they were making Macbeth (the character) insane. People now believe that the Witches were added to keep those people back then satisfied. Those people would not believe Shakespeare if he said that anyone can turn evil. The witches and many other parts of Macbeth can be translated in many different ways, and as we gain a higher understanding of the world we live in, more parts of Shakespeare make sense in different ways. Maybe that’s why our teachers have been forcing us to read Shakespeare.

When Plans go Wrong

Santa Claus was frustrated; it had been many years since he moved from the toy business to education, and children were still trying to find ways to shut down his Teaching Units, T.U.s for short. He remembered when he upgraded his robotic elves so that they could teach children instead of make toys, the difficulty of introducing himself and his robots to a world that had stopped believing in him. His robots were first tested at a small elementary school where they soon became known as TURKEs or, Teaching Unit Really Knows Everything. Santa never charged anything for his robots, so after a few years the TURKEs spread to other elementary schools to increase the pay for the High School teachers. Now Santa was having problems with his TURKEs at a school. Some were acting strange, stumbling around acting like the zombies that so many kids knew about from watching T.V.. When he had tried to reprogram them, the picture of a goblin dancing around would pop up on his computer screen. Some children were being naughty, and he intended to find out who they were.

            At the Haunted House, the Goblins were planning their next attack. This group of hackers, now in sixth grade, had formed in first grade when one of them convinced a TURKE to teach them more about computers. Many children were sick of school, so they had created a virus they called the Z-virus. The Z-virus destroyed a TURKEs memory, and replaced it with a simple walk command. The ones that hated the TURKEs loved it. They had no teachers now, and could do whatever they wanted to. There were a few Goblins though, that wanted to learn more. These club members started creating an anti-virus that they hoped would soon be able to counter the effects of the Z-virus, for if it didn’t, the new Z-virus would harm many lives.

            The new Z-virus was ready. The Goblins had made this new virus more vicious. Besides the walk command, this new virus spread on contact. Now other TURKEs that had not been tampered with by the group would also be under the influence of their virus. It was time for the test to begin. Each Goblin held up a remote, and as they started wiggling the joysticks the infected TURKEs started moving with a purpose. After a few minutes the school was theirs. “We did it” said one. “What do we do now?” asked another. The group decided that nothing more needed to be done. They had rendered all the teachers useless, and could now ditch class without getting into trouble, and that is all they wanted.

            By this time Santa Claus had located the trouble makers. He had planned to act swiftly but his communications with the school had been cut off when a TURKE affected with the virus had touched the schools main computer. The virus had started to spread across the internet to TURKEs at other schools before it shut down the internet. “Those children have caused more trouble than I thought possible,” muttered Santa under his breath as he wondered what people would be doing with the internet down. “I’d better get down there fast,” thought Santa remembering the good old days riding his sled to deliver toys to the increasing population of the world. “I hope it still works,” he huffed as he sped through dusty corridors.

            The Goblin's plan had gone horribly wrong. Their virus had affected more than the TURKEs. Any computer touched by a TURKE lost all of its memory and refused to start up. Instead, a picture of a walking goblin would appear on the screen. It seemed that they had even managed to shut down the internet. Their holiday was ruined. Fortunately the anti-virus program was working, and Good Goblins (as they had named themselves shortly after the improved virus was made) were doing every thing they could to spread it: but the internet was down and they didn’t have the tools to spread it physically. It was then that they decided to steal the tools necessary from the Goblins. The Haunted House was a mess. The Goblins had tried to get just one computer working, but the TURKE that they had experimented on had gotten loose and touched every electronic device in their club house. “If only we could get a computer working, then we could get rid of this virus,” said one of the Goblins. Another Goblin had sat down in the corner of the club and started to cry. Every thing was ruined.

Movie Review "Beowulf and Grendel"

There are many movies out there based on books. Some are really good, others are terrible. These movies either follow a book’s story line almost word for word, or the movie director is able to portray the main idea (names, places, events, etc.) and add their own ideas. Beowulf and Grendel was the second option, and I felt that it was a terrible movie. Over the weeks before watching this movie, I was able to read this epic poem in my English class. I thought that Beowulf was a great poem. Beowulf was a great hero, different from how we portray heroes today.

                Beowulf has a lot of religious symbolism. The director of Beowulf and Grendel decided to expand on that. He added a Celtic Witch, a Christian Monk, and a lot of big buff men that believed in Norse Mythology. These three beliefs create an interesting conflict with in the movie. Most of these conflicts included long boring speeches, but the victor seemed to be Christianity due to many of the buff men being baptized throughout the movie. To me the religious conflict in this movie was pointless, and boring. The Celtic Witch seeing when people would die, and the Believers of Norse Mythology giving into Christianity.

                I thought that the plot of Beowulf was ruined in the movie Beowulf and Grendel. Instead of being a prideful man that fought for fame, Beowulf was an ordinary man with feelings, and could believe that not all monsters are evil. This was not the Beowulf I had hoped to see. The director even added a love story into the mess he created. But I feel that the worst change made was Grendel. Instead of being a monster people see in nightmares, Grendel was a troll, or, a very hairy human. He turned Grendel from a monster to a semi human with good intentions. This changed the plot, and, for me, ruined the movie.

                I did not like the movie Beowulf and Grendel. I felt that all of the changes made the movie horrible. I might have been able to enjoy this movie if I had never read the poem, but over all I felt that this movie was a waste of time. I feel that if the director stuck to the original plot, the movie would have been much better.  

Dreams of War (A Sonnet)

I watch them come I see them fall they die
A bomb goes off and I am left alone
The gas sinks in the trench and in my eye
With battle won we rise, the wounded moan

Wisked away to fight another battle
My older brother on the other side
A fight in a field that once held cattle
It's times like these I want to run and hide

I go again a battle of my choice
They had us beat outnumbered four to one
Thanks to our bows we silenced every voice
And in the end they realized we had won

The school bell rang I exited my dream
Walked out of class and ran into a beam

Another post against time travel

As you can tell from my title, and my posts, I do not like time travel. But one thing that I've noticed that I strongly dislike, is the fact that thinking about time travel affects how people react towards life. Time travel can become an excuse for why you are failing here and now. I know that I've had moments where I thought, "I'll be better in the future," or, "When I grow up I will be a billionaire." I might say these things, but I will not start taking the steps to reach those goals. I believed that I would reach my goal with no effort.

Time also became my excuse. I thought that as the days passed by, I would become a better person. I knew deep down that doing nothing was not the way to learn how to become better, but I still did nothing. The idea of time travel makes doing nothing easier to rationalize. People most likely won't be thinking, "when scientists learn how to time travel, I'll be first in line to change my life," instead it will make people think that time doesn't matter. This is a big problem for me. My life used to consist of fun and games with stressful nights to get the homework done that was due the next day. I didn't even study for tests. I had large amounts of time but I never used it wisely. I felt that time didn't matter, and this belief influenced me to delay any work that I had to do. 

Time Travel not needed

 I started this blog with a post describing time travel so I had decided to name my blog after it. I wanted something catchy, something that others would notice. As I described in my title, I feel time travel is not needed, it is usually too confusing. After my first post, I was required by my teacher to put other posts on this blog. Now I am trying to make all my posts relevant to time travel, which is really hard to do with real world situations. But it is a fun challenge.