Monthly Archives: November 2007
John Steinbeck’s Use of Intercalary Chapters
In my advanced English class with Mrs. Nelson, we each wrote a literary analysis on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck to venture deeper into its pages. We were assigned to write an essay that was at least four paragraphs long, each paragraph around 15 sentences in length. Here is my essay if anybody is interested or bored enough to read it…
When imagining the Great Depression of the 1930’s, rarely does a person suddenly feel a deep and pure sympathy for each individual person who suffered through the historical event or quickly visualize the scenes the migrants had struggled through and the pain they had felt. Most people are unable to suddenly feel sorrow for something they don’t know much about or for something that seems so vast. When John Steinbeck wrote his book, The Grapes of Wrath, he kept his main purpose always on his mind. He wanted to inform the public of this impacting tragedy and wished that his piece would move people so deeply that they would actually act upon what they had just read. To make people feel so emotional, he had a great writing technique in mind that broke down the unimaginable sorrow in the Great Depression and first showed the reader the Joads, a compassionate family, strong-willed and always looking out for one another. Once he had snatched his reader’s heart, he then spanned out and showed them that just about every migrant suffering from the Great Depression was like the Joad family allowing the reader an easier transition from a single family to the society in whole. John Steinbeck used intercalary chapters to give the effect that he wanted.
Check Up: November 25, 2007
Dude, I have been so busy, I didn’t even have the time to do a Check Up! Seriously, I didn’t mean to miss it, and I did remember it, I have just been so swarmed with life and stuff that I haven’t been able to do much of anything else. This also means writing, so this week from November 18 to November 24, 2007 I only managed to write a total of 925 words. Most of it is on my third chapter of The Club which I am still working on. I officially decided last night that this school year is the worst I have had for a few reasons. The bell just rang though, so I have to return to my busy life. Maybe I will have the time to type up a rant later on…
Check Up: November 18, 2007
This week from November 11, to November 17, 2007, I wrote 1,352 words on Magic Pens and 3,020 words off to make a total of 4,372 words. I read the last 65 pages of The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck, but then re-read 206 pages again making a total of 271 pages. I’m sorry that I didn’t do more than that, but I was really busy and was once again bombarded with a lot of homework.
The Club: My Chapter 2 – Difficult Desicion
I tried making this as real as possible and even asked my dad what he would do in this situation. I wrote what he said that he would do and the next chapter will also be what he suggested that I do because of it.
Should I go? The question drifted within my mind, invading all of my other thoughts. I couldn’t stop thinking about it each moment of my day, and it had been keeping me awake at night. I yawned and stretched out my arms, leaning my back over the worn cushioning of the backrest of my quaint computer chair. I had already been tired, yet homework insisted that it take more from me.
