AP Language and Composition

DONE!!!!! I am finally finished writing this project! It was extremely frustrating especially the last two parts. I found it hard to write with enthusiasm, yes I enjoyed the novel however it was hard to make it exciting when writing. So my Intro to Annotations did not get a check or even a check minus but I decided to put my effort into my General Intro. Even by focusing my effort on the one part I still failed miserably. However, at this point I cleaned it up a little bit and added the more enthusiastic part and I am hoping for a B- or C+ on that paper. Hopefully that leaves me with an A- in the class if I get a B overall on the entire project. I wish it was more of a book report because then I would have done better. At this point though I am happy to be done and I will take a lower grade than I originally planned for due to the amount of frustration this has caused. Thank goodness it is over.

I have now finished writing the annotations; however I still need to edit them. I found that writing the annotations is very difficult. It is hard to be as specific as Kreinbring wants them to be. Right now I have everything written except for the Intro to the Annotations and the General Intro and also the last tumblr post. Now that spring break is four days away I am finding my motivation to get this done increasing drastically because I know that time is limited and I want every part to be checked at least one time before I turn my final project in. This project has become more and more frustrating due to lack of time and also not knowing exactly how to go more in depth on my annotations. At least I have a majority of it written. I will be very happy once this is done and over with. It will greatly reduce my stress level.

Finally finished writing all three abstracts. Thank goodness those are done. They were not as difficult to write as I thought they would be but they were definitely tedious. It was nice that Kreinbring checked them so I know that I did them right. Next comes the annotations and I think that this will be a difficult task. My goal is to get all three done by the end of next week. Yes I realize I am roughly a week behind our intended schedule. I have one background source right now and I am finding it difficult to find others. However I shall keep looking for them. Luckily this project seems to be my only homework so I have time to work on it. I cannot imagine how much farther behind I would be if I had homework in my other classes.

From the three criticisms I printed out I first decided to read the 19 page criticism, The Decadence of The Turn of the Screw by Malcolm Pittock. This essay reminded me of the essays in 50 Essays that we had to read for Lang. I enjoyed reading the essay it was easy to comprehend and it gave me a new perspective on the novel that I had not thought of before. After that criticism I read The Literal Turn of the Figurative Screw, by Sheila Teahan, which was also 19 pages. This was by far the most difficult piece of writing I have ever had to read. I felt that I was looking up the meaning of every other word and rereading each paragraph five times to at least attempt to understand what was being said. I now think I know what the essay is saying, however I am still not fully confidant in my understanding. After being discouraged from that essay I finally decided to read Error, Misjudgments and Strategies in The Turn of the Screw by Christopher Moran. This criticism was 27 pages and I was very afraid that it might have a similar writing style to the essay by Teahan. Thankfully, it was relatively easy to comprehend. After reading all three criticisms I have seen the novel in a new light and continue to form my own opinion on whether or not the ghosts are real or just hallucinations.

Today Tailor and I went to the library at Oakland University. We had already been once and knew that we needed to pay in order to print out the criticisms. Little did we know that we could get a guest card and put money on it until her sister, Tori, told us. Once we figured out how to print copies we started to look online for criticisms of our books. I easily found two articles, finding the third one proved to be a harder task. Many of the links I clicked on were only 5-10 pages, not the minimum 15. Eventually I found a third article that covered a different topic than the previous two. Now that I have found articles to read my next step is to actually read them.

At the OU library

I finished reading The Turn of the Screw!!!! After reading the previous five chapters I felt the need to finish the book as soon as possible. I was not expecting the end of the novel. I was surprised when the governess told Mrs. Grosse to take Flora away so that she could be alone with Miles. After they left and she was alone with him he confessed to everything he did. This confession made me think that he maybe was no longer possessed or at least fighting against the ghost inside of him. I was shocked that Miles died after saying the name of the ghost. This made me think that maybe Miles was possessed throughout the entire book and the governess never met the real Miles. Overall I thought that it was a really well written book and I loved the parts involving the ghosts.

I find myself more and more interested in The Turn of the Screw as it progresses. I am fairly certain that both of the children have been possessed and one of the governess’s friends is under the influence of the ghosts because she has turned against the governess. I find it fascinating that no one wants to talk about the ghosts being there, probably because the ghosts do not want to verbalize their presence. I wonder why they decided to possess the children and not adults. This was the first time I sat down and read all 5 chapters in one sitting. I found myself excited to continue reading and not wanting to stop.

The Turn of the Screw is a very good book. As I am reading I find myself most interested in trying to figure out when the ghosts will appear next. I also find myself looking for signs that the children are possessed by the ghosts. So far I do not think they are possessed. There are times while I read that I start to skim over the imagery parts because they are long passages. However they do help to picture the scenes in the book. I also really enjoy reading the dialogue between the characters because I feel it helps me understand the other characters more. I feel this way because I am actually hearing their view point as opposed to reading what the governess thinks about them.

I really enjoy reading The Turn of the Screw. Now there is not only one ghost but two! It seems as if the male ghost is going after Miles, the young boy, and the female ghost is trying to connect with Flora, the young girl. I think that the young children will soon be possessed by the ghosts. I always think that the children are toddlers, not 8 and 10. I think that I do this because they are always described as being innocent and I associate that with much younger children.

Children and governess in The Turn of the Screw

I came to choose the novel, The Turn of the Screw, first by hearing about it for Mr. Kreinbring. After he told me about the title of the novel, I further researched what it was about. I read a short summary and was interested in the book. From there I asked my mom to buy the book for me because I was out of town. She ended up having to order it and it arrived on Christmas Eve.

I am a remix of a student-athlete. I am a 4.17 student and a starter on the Varsity Softball team. I take college classes during the school year and over the summer I play travel softball and have tournaments every weekend. I also volunteer at Karmanos twice a week over the summer. 

Theresa, Tailor, Abbey, Max, Christian, Patrick

This quote relates to Brent Staples’ essay “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” because the monster that was created in the essay was himself. Staples would walk down the street and people would be afraid of him and walk to the other side or in some cases run away. This is because he is a black man and people automatically thought that he was dangerous. This monster that people perceived him as was because of the color of his skin. This was created by stereotypes of black men being dangerous and always involved in crime. Staples tried to get away from this stereotype through different methods when walking down the street; he would whistle classical music, stay far away from people, and even walk past his destination and then double back so people did not think he was following them. He was trying to lessen the effect of the monster society had pinned him as.