Blog #9

After reading and analyzing "The Headstrong Historian", I came to realize that I truly enjoyed the chapter out of  Chimamanda Adichie's novel and that I learned a lot about the culture, lifestyle, and people of West Africa. After reviewing the quote of Ayaju, it strikes me with the display of power of the Western Europeans and how they affect and influence the people. The Europeans are definitely seen as bold, intimidating, and of an extreme amount of authority, taking vast control in power over the common people. My experiences in English II consist of understanding power to its maximum. From a small example of the quote above to the numerous novels we have read over the course of the school year, power socially and politically have been actively depicted and represented through the literature and have enhanced my understanding of the subject immensely. From the topics of the gender inequalities and political struggle of Iran to civilization vs village/rural life and of the dictatorship and authority of Mao Zedong, my knowledge of power has not increased but power has also increased my understanding of the texts. 

Blog #8

Personally while reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress this year, I believe that I have learned a lot about the people and nation of China during Mao's Cultral Revolution. Dai Sijie has done an amazing job in depicting the topic of re-education in China, which is not an easy one to explain and analyze. Before reading the book, I had no idea that educated people were even sent to re-education camps outside of their cities and "civilization". Sijie has given me a more vivid understanding of re-education most affectively through the description of the working and living conditions at these re-education camps. The work is extremely tedious, not easy to complete, and physically demanding and Sijie clearly conveys this message to his reader. Learning about another time in history is more intimate through historical fiction rather than through a factual historical account because numerous ideas and stories that are extremely similar to those of being factual can be expressed in the writing and more flare can be added to the story which may not be try to the actual event of the story, but it is authentic to the historical time period. A true historical account may not entail of all of the culture, point of view, and people of China during the Cultural Revolution. After reading a majority of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, I feel much more aware and sensitive to the history of China and I can't wait to continue to learn more about this time period.

Blog #7

As summer began to come to a close, the pages of Persepolis over took my days and I was excited to begin a new English class for the year in English II. I had no idea if I would be able to keep up with the pace of a more advanced English class, however I believe that I have succeeded in doing so and I love the class immensely. I believe that I completed my summer homework to my greatest ability and the quality of my work was displayed through the grades I received on these assignments. I also feel that all of the annotations that I have collected whilst reading these books has helped me for better when writing essays and it is an aspect of English II that I have succeeded in. Lastly, I feel that another strength of my work this year would consist of my Persepolis expository essay, which I believed to be one of my best pieces of writing that I have produced for quite some time. However, there are other aspects that I can improve upon in English II. I believe that I should prepare myself for reading quizzes in a more affective manner by reading the text and then going back to review plot, dialogue, and other significant pieces. This would help me to achieve excellent scores on my reading quizzes and would better prepare me for the assessments. On the other hand, however, I feel that I should be not just trying to retain plot ideas to prepare myself for the reading quizzes and for essays, but also enjoying the text itself. Last year I did not make use of enjoying the texts we read and I was so focused on just memorizing points of the story that I missed the exquisite writing styles found in the book. Therefore this year, I want to read the required texts this year and not just continue to analyze, memorize, and pull out themes, but to truly value what the stories have to offer. Overall, I have loved English II this year and I cannot wait to see what English II has to offer me for the rest of the year. 

Blog #6

As a former student at St. Margaret's Episcopal School, each and every year in lower school (kindergarten through 5th grade) we would visit the library and for a week have certain excerpts of banned books read to us during National Banned Books Week. Thus, I am aware to the great works of writing that are banned and questioned each and every year. After viewing the list of banned books, two novels clearly stood out to me, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Animal Farm by George Orwell. I read both of these books in the 8th grade and I really enjoyed reading these novels. These texts were extremely intriguing to me and I still cannot wrap my head around why someone would want to challenge/ban the book in any way. To Kill a Mockingbird could've been banned due to the crime of rape being mentioned in the novel, however the book mainly highlights the life of the protagonist, Atticus, his family, and his process of proving Tom Robinson innocent. Therefore, there are no true reasons to ban and/or challenge the novel. In Animal Farm, a possible reason that it could have been banned or challenged could have been based on the fact that it criticized the Soviet Union, however the United States has never supported or promoted the Soviets in anyway, thus there are no other true ways of being able to ban or challenge the book. I personally believe that whoever challenged or tried to ban these books is extremely uneducated and oblivious to the fact that we should not be censored to the realities of life. I would go very far to read something that is deemed "illegal" by the community if the book conveys an intriguing topic that is politically and socially correct in a fluent way. Overall, National Banned Books Week is an extremely significant week that raises awareness to the fascinating texts that surround us that may be never noticed or to the controversy of some extremely recognized texts being banned.

Blog #5

Personally, I believe that inequality does have to exist for there to be creativity and free thought in our society. Some are more skilled than others in certain aspects of life and there would be no sense of creativity, due to everybody being equivalent to each other and each person having the same amount of creativity inside themselves. Free thought would also not be evident if everybody was equal because the mental capacity and intelligence of every human would be equivalent, producing the same thoughts. Overemphasizing the importance of praise and trying to hide the feeling of failure from children produces a generation of wimps undoubtedly. If children are not exposed to the sense of failure in their early life they will never be ready to face the sense or cope with the sense of loss or failure. Life is never full of just victories, thus if kids are taught early that failure and loss is apart of life, then they will be accustomed to it and will be able to cope. Overall, if society consisted of only equality and success, then there would be no feeling of not being as skilled as another person or failure which is vital because good cannot exist with bad. 

Blog #4

Personally, after reading and analyzing "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin, I could connect to the short story on numerous levels. First, my own "suffering child" would consist of when my former middle school best friend and I got in a disagreement, where he ended up trying to diminish my credibility among my peers, teachers, and coaches. My credibility was in fact diminished among my peers and everybody agreed with his unkind, hurtful, and untrue words even if they knew he wasn't telling the truth. Nobody had stood up for me in that moment just like nobody took the action of freeing the boy suffering in Omelas. I promised myself that if I was ever a witness of anything like this situation, then I would stand up for what is right and I would make sure that the situation was handled in the most professional and socially correct way possible. However before this event, I have in fact "stayed". I saw a fight between two kids in my religion class in eighth grade and nobody, not even the teachers took action to this event. I knew that I was the only one who could take action between the two tangling on the floor, however I decided to stay back and let them take their anger out on one another. I realized that I should've taken action even though I was not extremely close with either one of the two people because one of the kids in the fight was clearly a victim and it was very tough to see the fight go down. After the event of the falling out between my former best friend and I, however, there were numerous events where I "walked away" and one that stands out in my head as a very significant one. Towards one of the last days of middle school, I had heard about one of my former friends gossiping and stating untrue facts about a friend who was very close to me. I did not want to confront that former friend because we had numerous fun times together before we drifted apart, but I knew that I had to stand up for what was right and to stay true to my promise. I called him out for what he had done in front of a large group of kids in my grade. Some viewed me as a hero, some viewed me as a zero, but in my heart I knew what I had done was the right thing and I was proud for my actions.

Blog #3

Personally, after reading and analyzing the quote from George Gerbner, I truly believe that George Gerbner is accurate with his argument and backs his opinion up with valid points. It is a given that when almost anyone sees any "brutality" or "cruelty" on TV, one is going to feel depressed and vulnerable to the dangers of society, establishing numerous fears and doubts. The media constantly displays these dangers repeatedly, thus people will become more paranoid and will feel that anywhere they go is dangerous. This also leads to more and more people buying weapons and other tools for protection as all of this is stated by Gerbner. The media constantly brainwashes their viewers with repetitive segments of violence and danger, thus it is bound to impact people's happiness and our criminal justice department, and legislation make decisions. If society is constantly exposed to these dangers that are made much bigger than they actually are, then people will become less tolerant of mistakes, our legal system will eventually become much more strict, and it will affect the point of view that everybody has of certain situations of crime. Gordimer's "Once Upon a Time" clearly relates to the words of George Gerbner. Americans are over informed with news that is distinctly blown up which makes society want to make sure that they are safe and well-protected from the "dangers of reality". Eventually however, society will become too caught up in trying to protect themselves from this "danger" and will become less secure. This is exactly like Gordimer's short story because the family becomes so caught up in securing themselves from the "others" that they become less secure and the little boy in the family ends up being killed by the barbed wire "protecting" the house. Overall, fear haunts over the whole realm of society and we believe that by blocking out the evil realities, we will be safe nd protected, however it is exactly the opposite. 

Blog #2

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Due to much speculation this week concerning my favorite goalkeeper in the world and idol, David de Gea moving from my favorite club Manchester United, I chose to use this image and discuss how it significantly impacts me as a person. I am in love with the game of soccer and I play the goalkeeper position, thus I draw inspiration from David de Gea, one of the world's best goalkeepers. Playing soccer has given me and amazing work ethic and the game constantly pushes me to my limits, physically, mentally, on the field, and off the field. The game motivates and pushes my limits on the field clearly on the field, but off the field it has a whole other impact on me. The success that I constantly strive for and am hungry for in soccer allows for me to be hungry in all other aspects in my life such as in school. This image is of David de Gea when he made a crucial penalty kick save against Everton FC in possibly one of the best games he has ever played as a professional. This picture affects me significantly because it motivates me to try my hardest in anything I do, even when the circumstances are against me. The image makes me want to become the best goalkeeper, student, and person I can be. Before every soccer game I play, I will watch the video of his penalty kick save and this photo to make myself even more hungry and to strive for a save like this in a game. This image forces me to strive for excellence in everything I complete and it makes me want to stand out from the rest. I believe that this one image evidently impacts me every single day as not only an athlete, but as a scholar and as an overall person. 

Chase R.

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Blog #1

Hello, my name is Chase Rebeil and I am a first time blogger. Although I have little knowledge in this field, blogging runs in my blood. My two older sisters Remington and Sophia are fashion bloggers that create content for corporations such as Teen Vogue, Sports Illustrated, and many leading fashion houses. My sister Sophia who graduated from Sage Hill School this past May also began a philanthropy called "The Shirt off my Blog" that donates clothing, beauty products, shoes and other items to local women's shelters. As you can see no pressure little bro! I am one of five children all of whom attended Sage Hill School and together we love to travel, attend sporting events and spend as much time as possible together. Our rule is Family First. From a very young age I have loved sports, at the age of 4 I was featured on ESPN where I was interviewed on my sports statistics and player knowledge. I played basketball at age 5 and averaged 28 points per game and after I broke my ankle took up water polo where I was one of the top three players in my division. Today I am a Goalkeeper and play club soccer for FRAM in Los Angeles. My social media is all about sports so I will definitely incorporate my love of all games in my blog. My siblings are also published authors and have instilled in me a love of writing. I am very excited to enter the world of blogging and hope to inspire others with my passion for life.

Chase R.