Tips on memorization

For anyone who was in Mrs. Byrne's 5th period Honors English class sophomore year, you know I have lots of tricks on memorizing things. Hopefully some of these will come in handy for our memorization assignment this week.

POETRY #1

1)	The poem used by the Levi's commercial is called "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.
2)	The commercial's use of the poem is ironic because it urges the audience live their own life, be independent, and think for themselves. Except the audience is actually supposed to sit there like an empty-headed consumer and do what the commercial really wants them to do, which is not think and buy Levi's.
3)	I don't think the poem reflects Bukowski's reputation. I read Bukowski's biography, and his life was difficult-- his childhood was filled with beatings and bullies, and his young adulthood was spent working menial jobs and drinking. Knowing the poem, I was expecting a happily ever after ending, something to the effect of "...and then he started writing, gave up alcohol, became wildly successful, and died a happy man, The End." However, his writing career never made him enough money to support himself, so he was forced to continue working terrible jobs, and was unable to stop drinking. The poem is about finding your way out of darkness through self-determination and bravery, but it seems that Bukowski never overcame his own darkness. Maybe the poem is his attempt at making sure no one suffers like he did.
4)	To find the poem, I Google searched "you are marvelous the gods wait to delight in you" because the last line was the one I remembered most easily. I skimmed over the results and found "The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski," which I Google searched again. When the right poem came up, I knew I had the right title. Next, I searched "Charles Bukowski biography," and found/read three sources: one at Poets.org, one at Wikipedia, and one at PoetryFoundation.org. I got most of my information from the Poetry Foundation article, and used the others as supplements/double-checks.

ESSAY #1

Here is my response to essay prompt #1, concerning exile.

Big Question (plus me talking about my illness)

That's right guys, two for the price of one! This is an expanded version of the comment I posted on the main thread. I was considering making a special post to talk about my chronic illness, but when one of my Big Questions naturally led into it, I figured this is as good a time as any.

Poisonwood Bible alignment system

Depending on your interest and whether you've read my previous two posts, this will either be further explanation of my beloved alignment system using characters that you know well (or at least I hope you do... less than a week before school starts........ The Poisonwood Bible is 500+ pages.......... if you haven't started reading it then GOOD LUCK), or simply notes on the characters in The Poisonwood Bible with some slightly obscure terminology.

Alignment system part II

I promised a Poisonwood Bible alignment system post, but as I started writing it, I realized a large part of it was explaining some other additions to the original/canon alignment system. So now I'm making a dedicated post for the additions, titled "Alignment system part II"!

Alignment system

One of the reasons I'm super-excited about having a blog for English this year is because now I finally have a place to talk about my semi-academic musings which, until this point, I've mostly kept to myself.

I've always been intrigued by the Dungeons & Dragons "alignment system," and I actually think it can be a great tool when applied to literature. The alignment system is a way of classifying people and characters according to two axes: laws and morals. The law axis defines lawful vs. chaotic; in other words, one's willingness to follow rules, as well as traditions and social customs. The moral axis defines good versus evil; good means willing to sacrifice the self for the benefit of others, and evil means willing to sacrifice others for the benefit of the self.