For your final blog assignment, please choose ONE SENTENCE from either of the summer reading books that you feel is a well-crafted sentence. Quote the sentence directly and then analyze (or just explain) why the sentence is good--or preferably great.
A lot of our focus this year will be on syntax and diction so please choose a single sentence that is worth examining.
I look forward to getting to know you this year. From your posts so far, you seem to be a highly determined group.
"Once night came, we kids all lay in our rope-and-cardboard beds, reading by flashlight or a candle we'd set on our wooden boxes, each of us creating our own little pool of dim light." Page 168, The Glass Castle.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a well crafted sentence from The Glass Castle because from reading this, you can see the hardships and the struggles that Jeannette and her siblings all faced growing up. Sleeping in a cardboard bed and not having electric was just one of many problems the Walls children had to overcome.
"We pigged out on chocolates, and from then on, whenever Mom was too busy to make dinner or we were out of food, we'd go back to the Dumpster to see if any new chocolate was waiting for us."
ReplyDeletePage 73 The Glass Castle , I thought this was a well crafted sentence because like Dean said they struggled a lot. This just shows you a glimpse of what the kids did to just get by and be able to eat so they didn't go hungry.
"I have seen Colonel Lloyd make old Barney a man between fifty and sixty years of age, uncover his bald head, kneel down upon the cold, damp ground, and receive upon his naked and toil-worn shoulders more than thirty lashes at the time."
ReplyDeletePage 10, The narrative of Frederick Douglas.
I think this sentence is written preferably great because it is very descriptive and you can imagine in your head exactly what he's trying to explain and how it happened. To me, I felt sadden reading this sentence because you can imagine what the old man went through and how Frederick Douglass explained it. He put emotions into his words. To me, I think Old Barney didn't deserve to be wiped, and he was innocent.
"Mom gave me a startled look. I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure."
ReplyDeletePage. 10, The Glass Castle
This part occurred when Jeanette and Lori ate the last of the Walls remaining food. Their mother accused both of them calling them selfish. Although later in the book, Jeanette's mother is hiding chocolate under her sheets and did not share any of it with her children or her husband. I chose this quote because when times were tough for the Walls they would do anything for food and supplies to survive, even if you had to go behind their family members backs.
"I wondered if the fire had been out to get me. I wondered if all fire was related, like dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected to the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn't have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes."
ReplyDeletePage 34, The Glass Castle .
I chose this quote because the way that Jeanette says this really makes me think about how things really are, How everything isnt always what its meant to be. Like Jeanette says , "it was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes". This was a very well- crafted sentence which made me start to think about the things I've never even thought about.
"The fact is, I'm dying."
ReplyDeletePg. 278, The Glass Castle.
This sentence is good because it shows that even when something as dramatic as death became of there father, there father still just wanted to drink his booze and be by his self promising he'll be okay. As just like the rest of the book he wasn't sentimental with his family but still tried to take care of them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYour father and I are who we are. Accept it.”
ReplyDeletePg. 8, The Glass Castle.
I felt that this sentence was perfect because it let the reader and the author (Jeannette) know this is how life was for them and there was no changing it. No matter how hard you try you can't change it, so it was either be mad or embrace the way we are.
"If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim."
ReplyDeletePg. 65. The Glass Castle.
This sentence stands out to me because it not only explains the situation she was in when this was said, but how she living growing up. She always had to adjust to different living conditions to get through them better.
"Everything's going to be okay" "I said over and over again"
ReplyDeletePg.45 The Glass Castle
This quote stood out to me while reading the glass castle because I feel like even though Jeanette was saying this she was also very dubious about the statement too. Also adding to that i feel like when she said it, it also spoke for the fact that she was probably telling this to herself her whole memoir, hoping that things turn for the best. Trying to persuade her family and herself.
"Have you ever known your old man to get himself in a situation he couldn't handle?"
ReplyDeletePage 260
The Glass Castle
Throughout the whole book the dad was the rock in the family he called the shots, he could always find something to keep them occupied and when the family became homeless he handled the situation greatly.
"I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back until she was literally covered with blood."
ReplyDeletePage 4, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
I chose this sentence because it shows how harshly the slaves would be punished and how cruel the man who enjoyed whipping them was.
"If you give a nigger a inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master."
ReplyDeletepg. 39 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
This sentence was significant because it was showing how bad black people were treated back in the 1800's. It was telling you that black people should have no sense and to only obey there white masters. They were not aloud to know how to read or write.
"So we could be a family again." Page 253
ReplyDeleteI thought this quote really stood out because the more I read into the Glass Castle the more I realized how crazy it sounds to be a family again when in my eyes they never were much of a family. Yes they did all live together at a certain point and grew up
together the parents never were average parents, they wanted their kids to be independent and strong but taught their kids life lessons in a very different way than I would. Plenty of times throughout the book the parents had left their kids many of times to fend for themselves and even starve, to me I wouldn't see them as parents. So my point of view of a family is completely opposite of what the Walls were so when their father refers to being a family again its seems wrong to lable them as a family.
"Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy", Mom told me. Page 129
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a good sentence due to the irony behind it. Where was the comedy at in Jeanette's life? Her father being an alcoholic? Her mother living a pipe dreams of a child? Starving to the point where margarine is the last option? I know I have no room to judge, but when she said that I chuckled. If we were to live Jeanette's life all I could see is tragedy. Sad to think that's all she was use to and no comedy which I believe is important in someone's life.
"You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip" Page 38
ReplyDelete-The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas
I thought this was a great sentence. It simply shows the envy that slaves held towards those who were free. A slave must suffer many hardships such as working in fields, walking miles behind a horse and carriage to get from one plantation to the other, and getting whipped for disobeying their master or being wrongfully accused by an overseer. They went through hell and back as slaves because of their skin color, and they hated it. It was hell. They wanted so badly to be free as the white man was and to just be able to live on their own and make their own money, raise their own family, and be their own "master". They adored the idea freedom but most had no slightest clue of how to obtain that right to freedom, so they reluctantly accepted the only life that they knew...
"We were resolved to succeed or fail together, after the calamity had befallen us as much as before. "
ReplyDeleteThis sensentence is great to me because it shows that no matter what people are going through they can stick together and still have faith in one another. They feel that if one fails they all fail and if one succeeds they all succeed.