Final 8th grade Exam
Eighth Grade Final Exam
This year was a year filled with Bloom’s Taxonomy, ESLRs, reflective journals, and long hours in front of the computer trying to regurgitate what we have learned in class in the most interesting and different way possible. In total we have read four books Lord of the Flies, The Wave, Anne Frank, Tempest, have had one poetry unit where we ourselves created the books, and the Teen Life project. I find that this year really stressed on analyzing situations and really dissecting a book, page by page trying to find the hidden meanings or in the case of the Tempest, deciphering old English. I honestly believe that this has been an enjoyable class this year, filled with multimedia, arts, and languages, it has shown me that there is more to English than conventions and grammar, more than long words or conjugating nightmares. It is a whole new world left to explore, always changing and evolving, like water with no shape of its own and only to do what you will it too.
Writing is a very flexible subject, it can be as complicated and structured as a mathematical equation of (y=mx+b), or as creative and wild as modern dance. People each have their own styles of writing, some like to have everything in order and to follow standard rules, such as meter and rhythm in a poem, where as another individual might depict an original, sensational piece of work to be more of value. All this has to do with perspectives and the lenses people use to view situations in. As a saying goes, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Now based on the current world today, there are those who grow up with constant stereotypes shoved in their faces and run through their ears. It’s something that is very common in our modern society of today and is continuing to happen. Everything always starts small, like a simple joke or an insignificant parody, but as one thing leads to another, the tension builds and soon it gets into the media’s system, in magazines, commercials, television shows, internet, which provides countless citizens with the knowledge they had retained. This is something like an everlasting fashion trend, which sticks in juvenile minds and the knowledge given to them is what shapes their views in life. The environment of one’s place determines the person’s way of life and thinking. Sadly racial discriminations and sexism has risen to a high point in statistics and is causing people who have a phobia of black people or the common thought that a woman is supposed to be a house wife and the man should go out and earn the meat for the family. Some examples I would like to share is that in Lord of the Flies the author was trying to show how there are two sides of a human and if not kept in a proper society your savage side gets the better of you. The author had tried to deliver the message of that animals are of a lower class than humans and there are many other books who degrade the animal’s class in society. In effect of these acts, people really do believe that animals are lower than human and should not be given the same respect, but there are those who rebuttal and state that respect is demanded from to humans to animals, for after all according to the geological time scale, the animals have been here for billions of years here before we came. Another analysis of literature is about poetry; poetry is written in a way that one really has to ponder on every word and try to create meaning from mere phrases. The goal of a poem is to create vivid images in the viewers mind, the person however may not always see our writing in the way you have willed it to, since as I had last said, everyone has their own perspectives and people as people all have different eye sight powers, people have many lenses. For Anne Frank the Nazi’s had seen the Jews as unworthy and dirty, but it was not always this way. It all started from small jokes and gossip of the Jews that really rallied the Nazi’s up, in the end. All in all people need to be more open minded because we have to many close minded people ho are not available to new information, but the time will soon come since we are now emerging from the industrial age into the information age.
Another topic that I would like to bring up is about mercy and revenge. Again there is a stereotype, mercy is good and revenge is bad. In my personal opinion and my perspective of this topic I would say that revenge maybe sweet and fulfill your emotional satisfaction, but it never really helps in any other way unless that is all you are really going for. Revenge is a side in a human to get back at someone who have wronged them before by trying to place the person in the shoes you had last worn and to show the them the feeling they had inflicted on you before. A person who has such thoughts of deceiving someone in life, has low self esteem because if that person can be affected by another so easily and allow the other party to control their thoughts, the power of the opposition usually has a stronger reign on the situation, but if they too revenge both are equal and are most likely to continue until one realizes that revenge probably isn’t the best solution. Mercy is something like the UN, where everyone comes together and talks about the conflicts they face by submitting resolutions to solve these problems and coming to peaceful agreements. To ensure a brighter future, mercy should be sided on and revenge should be more or less left out, but since utopia is only imaginary there will always be those one or two who fail to see the good of mercy. Some examples of mercy and revenge is that in lord of the flies Jack was angered with Ralph for blaming him about the fire, because of this Jack would purposely go against Jack and soon enough he formed a tribe of his own. The continuous battle for Ralph was ongoing and never ending, until soon the final hunt for Ralph was set and the fight had ended in fiery flames of where the whole island burned down. The smoke caused from the fire allowed the island to be sighted and there they were rescued, so this revenge had benefited some, but in another way had caused some of their lives.
Fear is something people use to control our lives everyday such as, grades, consequences; financial stress, relationship arguments and we live through these things so daily that everything seems to be normal. However what these really are, are forms of fear in a neutral form. The Nazis and the Wave were using fear against people to get them to be infused with their group and if you were not in it, you were to be considered and outcast and someone unprotected. This fear quickly arose in the people and some who are weak willed or those who like the idea, join the group and so the Nazis and the Wave grew. Fear is something like an irremovable file that you can’t delete, you may hide it in a file or recycle it in the trashcan, but there is always that possibility of someone finding it and unleashing it. It’s simple like a lock and a key, if the key fits, the door opens and so if someone pushes the right button you will back down in fear. Threats is another common thing in the world, when burglars raid a bank they capture a hostage and use people’s fear of the citizens getting hurt to escape. In Lord of the Flies jack used fear to control everyone on the island, he would threaten to hurt Ralph and often show of his vulgarity to scare the children into siding with him. When a child did something of which he believed wrong, the boy was punished and set as an example to others, to not misbehave or the consequence will fall on you. The world is constantly filled with these factors of fear, punishments, power and much more, many lead life under this ruling and some have fear instilled so deeply in them, that a bit of them will always be scared of the effect in their situation and what may follow after their actions. Fear may be a good thing sometimes though because when the terrorists hit Washington DC, the twin towers security around the world immediately tightened and so defenses were improved in other nations, ensuring the citizen’s safety.
There is much more area to cover in all of these topics, but this essay can only take up so much time that one can type in. In my perspective the time remaining will only be sufficient enough for a conclusion, but maybe in someone else’s lens like the person sitting next to me may feel that this time would be just enough time fore a few more sentences of their final paragraph and their conclusion. Everyone finishes at different times and type different lengths. These are my views of these topics, this is what I feel, and this is my lens. I do believe that I have done 99% of this quarter to the best of my abilities, but the fear in me wills me to write longer since I fear the grade I will receive. All in all this year has taught me a great deal on looking at things differently and really picturing thoughts in my mind and how to create vivid images in people’s minds in a few quick descriptive words. This experience is something I am sure to have again, but now I know and will continue to learn and expand in my fields of knowledge in literature.
