Journal Twenty- Sherlock Holmes' The Speckled Band

The Speckled Band is about a lady named Helen Stoner who asks Sherlock Holmes if he can help her out with her case. Her sister Julia has just died and she does not know why. Helen told Holmes that one day they were talking and Helen heard a scream. Julia tells Helen right before she dies that it was the speckled band that killed her. Helen tells Holmes that they have a very violent stepfather, so Holmes first thinks about him as a suspect. When Holmes goes to investigate the house, he finds that there is a cheeta living outside and a baboon. He has an idea that gysies might be the cause of her death. Dr. Roylott, Helen's stepfather confronts Holmes and wants to know what his stepdaughter has told him, but Holmes does not say and will not say. Roylott gets very upset and takes an iron poker and tries and scares Holmes by bending it. The whistle that makes the noise and then sees the bell chord after sneeking into Helen's home without Roylott's permission. Holmes figures out that the bell chord is in fact a transfer rope for a deadly snake, which is the "speckled band" that Julia saw. He also concludes that the whistle noise is Dr. Roylott who trained the snake to go down the chord when the noise sounds and then to come back up. Holmes attacks the snake after it is sent to kill Helen, and in turn, kills Dr. Roylott instead.
Out of all three stories, this story was my favorite because I would have never guessed what happened to Julia, while with the other ones, I had an idea of what was going to happen by the end.

Journal Nineteen- The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, is about a man named Jack Worthing but the odd part about it is is that Jack's name is only Jack in the city, but in the country his name is Earnest. Jack has a friend named Algy who has a cousin named Gwendolen, who Jack is in love with. Algy's aunt does not approve because she wants Gwendolen to marry into money, but Gwendolen has always wanted to marry someone named Earnest. Algy's aunt questions Jack about his life, but does not like his answers. Later, Jack goes back to his hometown where his ward Cicily after Algy finds out that "Earnest" is living a double life. After talking to Cicily, Algy shows up and immediatley falls in love with Cicily. He tells her that his name is Earnest and that he is her "Uncle Jack's" brother, and Cicily has also always wanted to marry someone named Earnest. He causes a little uproar when he lies and the police come to the house. Algy's aunt comes to Jack's house later when she comes after Gwendolen because she has come down to see Jack. The girls find out that neither one of their names are Earnest. The say that they will be babtized to recieve the name Earnest, but they never do. When Algy's aunt finds out that Algy wants to marry Cicily she does not approve, until she finds out that Cicily has money. Jack says that. since he is Cicily cannot marry until she is 35 that Algy cannot marry Cicily until Algy's aunt says that Jack can marry Gwendolen. Finally, Jack finds out from his maid that he is actually Algy's brother because he was dropped off in a suitcase. So finally Jack finds out that his dad's name was Earnest, therefore, his name is Earnest. So when him and Gwendolen were wed, Gwendolen does get to marry someone named Earnest.

Work Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. "The Importance of Being Earnest." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print

Journal Eighteen- Hamlet

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is about a man named Hamlet who has just lost his father. He is confused because his mother Gertrude is now married to his father's brother Claudius. Claudius is now the king, husband of his mother and his stepfather. Heratio, Prince Hamlet's best friend, comes to tell him that he has seen his father walking around, but Hamlet does not understand because his father is dead. One night they all wait for Hamlet's father's ghost to appear. When he finally appears, he speaks to Hamlet and tells him that his brother, Claudius is the one that has killed him. He also tells Hamlet that he must avenge his death. Hamlet begins by starting to "act" as though he has gone insane, but in reality, he has truely gone insane. Hamlet is in love with the King's counclor Polonius, Ophelia, but his father does not want them to be together. It is not truely a relationship because they only exchange love gifts from distances and only see eachother from time to time. After Hamlet creates a play to show to the kingdom about how Claudius killed his father, Claudius realizes that Hamlet has figured out the truth. When Hamlet confronts his mother about what he has found out, his mother does not understand and does not really believe him, especially when Hamlet tells her that he sees his father's ghost. Polonius is hiding in the room listening to what Hamlet is saying and Hamlet mistkenly kills Polonius through a rug on the wall. This is the turning point in the story where Hamlet truely starts to become insane. After Ophelia finds out that her father is dead, she too, starts to become insane. Soon Ophelia kills herself by drowning. When Polonius' son, Laertes, returns from France, Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for the death of Polonius and Ophelia. Then Laertes and Hamlet begin a sword fight. Laertes and poisoned his sword and stabs Hmlet with it. Laertes was also wounded by the poison sword and then Laertes tells Hamlet that Claudius killed his mother. Then Hamlet stabs Claudius with the sword and then they all three die.
This story is a tragedy is one of the more interesting Shakespeare plays that I really enjoyed. The only thing about the story that I would change is that I would have allowed Hamlet to live longer than what he did.

Work Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. "William Shakespeare's Hamlet." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print

Journal Seventeen- Songs of Innocence and Of Experience

William Blake's, Songs of Innocence, is about mainly children. It is about the children stories of time where it was published on some type of wood. It was colored and filled with designs to make it look attractive. In contrast, his Songs of Experience is about the "adult life" and what happens afterwards when you make such choices in your life. He also adds a little bit of religion into it, which makes it interesting.
The most interesting set of poems from the Songs of Innocence and Experience is the Tyger (from the Experience section) and the Lamb (from the Innocence section). The two poems compliment eachother and stand for same kind of story. The Lamb is in the correct place because the Lamb is an innocent animal, which is more directed towards Jesus and heaven, and it has the light hearted mood that is more directed for a child if it was to be read to them. The Tyger is more of the suspenceful, cruel animal that fits in the opposite part of the "Songs of Innocence". In the poem, it even says "thy fearful symmetry", which puts more fear in the heart than the grace being put into it by the Lamb poem. The Tyger poem even makes referece to the Lamb poem when it talks about "does he who makes the Lamb make thee?", implying how could something so graceful and innocent be created by the same one who makes something so cruel and fearful.

Work Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. "Songs of Innocence and Of Experience." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 1207. Print.

Journal Sixteen- Emily Dickinson

The Album for Emily Dickinson is all about Dickinson and her life. It starts out talking about where she was born, Amherst, Massachusetts, and how she died in the same town she was born in. It says that she rarely ever left her home, but even though she rarely left, she was still very educated. She was educated by a woman who taught her many things such as science and she also read a lot of books in her lifetime. Her father was a lawyer, so she associated a lot with many people who associated with him. Even though she did not get out much, she had a variety of friends in which she exchanged letters to constantly. Dickinson is most famous of all for her poems, though. She had created almost 1,800 poems all without a title. She created her poems about many things such as other people that she knew, and even herself. She wrote poems about how she was feeling, what she did, and even what she wanted to do.
One of my favorite poems by Dickinson is Success, because it talks about how "Success is counted sweetest/ By those who ne'er succeed" which is really true. She means that people try to act like they have actually done something significant in there life, and try and gloat and take credit for someone else's work, when they have nothing to show for it and have nothing to do with it or have not done anything at all.
Another good poem is in the "album" and it is called "Because I could not stop for Death-" and in this poem is where I first noticed her use of capitalizations in the strangest places. This is also where I noticed her use of "-" at the ends of the lines.
Overall, I really like Emily Dickinson's poems because they are interesting, and they make you think about things when you read them. They also make you wonder how she really felt and what she really meant when she said the things she said in her poems.


Work Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. "Emily Dickinson: An Album." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 1160-169. Print.

Journal Fifteen- Haiku Poem

Working here makes me
Tired but feel like I'm on
The edge of glory


I chose this poem to write and I called it On the Edge. I made into a Haiku because it was a mood poem and it had the 5-7-5 syllables. I work at Pizza Inn and I work so much that I get tired everytime I even step in the door, but Pizza Inn pays my insurance, clothes, food, gas, etc. for me to live off of because I have to provide for myself. Even though I work so much I still am able to provide for myself with my job and it makes me feel good about myself, which is where I got the "edge of glory" part from. Being able to live and not need the help of any other person gives me a good feeling about myself and makes me feel like I can live for myself and no one else. I had a difficulty finding a way to put these feelings into words, but I found a way to put it into words so that I can keep it into Haiku form.

Journal Fourteen- Eve Names the Animals

Eve Names the Animals by Susan Donnelly is about the biblical story of Adam and Eve. It is from a feminine perspective about how Eve does not agree with Adam on the names of the animals. She does not understand why he is naming the animals what he is and she believes that she can come up with better names than he can. Then she starts to name the animals and she thinks that she named them for particular reasons and that man (Adam) just gave them names that did not mean anything to them at all. After she gave the name lion to the lion she started naming all of the animals because she believes that she did it because she got to know them. She gave them the names for a reason.
Eve claims that Adam named the animals according to their size. The end of the poem was interesting because the last line is "I liked change" (1253). It is interesting how she said "I liked" instead of "I like". Eve made all of these changes and it makes me wonder if she regrets it or if the last line means anything at all.
This poem had a story behind it. It was more for the women rather than the men becuase it kind of spoke of the "man" as uncaring and slow and the "woman" as analytical and smart.


Work Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. "Eve Names the Animals." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 1252-53. Print.