Essay Writing: Challenges and Conquests

Before this year essays were always pretty simple for me, but I never really gave any thought to the deeper meaning of the book. However, now that we have to do in-depth commentary to support our ideas it has forced me to analyze books on a different level. I never before realized how important a strong thesis statement is, as that can make or break an essay. I think the Gilman method has really helped me write my essays and I will definitely use it in the future!

I think my Romeo and Juliet essay is not bad, but I think a B might be in my future. I have been doing better at thinking of original ideas, but I think they might not come across exactly how I wanted them to in my essay. It was hard to organize them so it all made sense and supported the thesis. Besides that the "B grade or lower" list has really helped me go over my essay and fix it so that I hope I can get an A!

Summer Reading List

1. Over the summer I really want to read The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. It's about a doctor who gives up one of his children at birth because he thinks he is saving his family from the pain of losing her later on. I want to read this because I've started reading it multiple times this year but I can never get through it because of the reading and homework I have for school.

2. The second book I'd like to read over the summer is Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult because my friends recommended it to me last year and I never got around to reading it. It's about a school shooting in a town and how no one truly knew the boy.

Fate

My birthday is August 3rd so my astrological sign in Leo. I think that occasionally horoscopes are correct, but I don't think it's set in stone what will happen. However, my astrological sign is pretty accurate.

Leos born on August 3 have star quality. Like most people who have an extroverted nature, they are talkative and friendly. They also are extremely ambitious. They work tirelessly toward their goals and do whatever they can to better themselves. They possess great personal charm and are deeply committed to causes that benefit others. They also make exceptional actors, teachers, media personnel, and lawyers.

I think this paragraph actually sums up a lot about my personality. I'm fairly outgoing and I like to do whatever I can to reach my goals. Also, when I was younger all I wanted was to be an actress, and I was recently thinking about maybe being a lawyer like my parents so it's interesting that was in there.

The idea of a pre-determined fate is constantly coming up in Romeo and Juliet starting in the very beginning with the prologue forshadowing their death. Romeo almost uses fate as an excuse when he says, "This day's black fate on more days doth depend. This but begins the woe others must end." (3.1.124-125) Anything could happen and Romeo could use fate as his reasoning. I think Romeo and Juliet put too much faith in fate and believe there's nothing they can do to change the path they are on, but if they only did something they might be able to avoid death.