"Red Sky in the Morning"

I think that there were some good points and interpretations during class. From what I understand, people have an urge to share their experiences through stories, but whoever is hearing the story really can't fully understanding or experience from only listening to what happened. Not everything can be conveyed through words and the person listening to the story can take their own interpretation and create their own mental picture. The experience itself can't be duplicated or relived by words coming out of someone's mouth who was there. The sequence of events and thoughts or even emotions can be vocalized, but they can't be recreated in the exact same way. The person telling the story only has a mental picture or memory and may not even be able to convey the story accurately. Stories are the closest we can get, but they can't be the same as the experience.

Thoughts about class so far...

I wasn't really sure if I wanted to take AP English, but for the most part I'm glad that I made the decision to stay. Even though I have not participated, which is mostly due to the fact that I don’t think I have anything not obvious or meaningful to say, I enjoy listening to others discuss and share their thoughts. The themes and ideas that are discussed make sense to me and I can follow and understand most of it. It is also interesting to watch the topics take different paths. I like the depth of the discussions because it makes it more meaningful and forces me to think at more than a superficial level. The types and content of the discussions, especially how the reading is related to modern day life and society, is what has made the class enjoyable for me. By relating the events in the reading to current life, the reading becomes more real and easy to understand and relate to. The only down side so far is the amount of work. I was aware of the fact that I was signing up for an AP class, meaning that I would have a lot more work, but I didn’t realize how much work, effort, and time was actually involved. It was overwhelming at first, but it’s not as much as a shock anymore when I am assigned homework. Even though it's not my first choice to spend long amounts of time on homework, it has benefits such as practicing reading and writing skills and homework/study skills in general. I think that it’s been a good start (except for my summer reading, but that’s done now) and I think it’ll be an interesting year.