Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling is an amazing book that invites the reader to a magical story that introduces us to the main protagonist, Harry Potter. Harry’s story starts off with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, they are not the nicest people. Harry became an orphan at a very young age and was left with the last resort of Harry’s mothers sister, Aunt Petunia. One morning, Harry goes to do his normal chores, wash the dishes, make breakfast, and to fetch the mail. Although one morning when Harry was grabbing the mail, he noticed something strange. This time, he had gotten a letter… but he had never gotten mail ever before in his life. He had but utterly surprised because he somehow had gotten accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when he didn’t even know he applied for it. With resistance from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon on his decision on going, Harry was easily convinced to be escorted by a representative of Hogwarts, Hagrid. After little to no time, Hogwarts became his home, a place where he could be himself, explore his capabilities, make new friends, and find happiness.
Category: Film
The Shining Book Review
The Shining is a book written by renowned horror author, Steven King. The book is about a man named Jack Torrence, a complicated man who is a retired alcoholic. He is looking after the Overlook Hotel as his last chance for a good job. He brings with him his wife Wendy and his son Danny. Jack has had a rough past with abuse, with him being abused by his father when he was a child and assaulting his son while he was drunk. He was also fired from his last job for assaulting another child by popping holes in Jack’s car. While Danny is at the hotel, he envisions many horrible things, even one entity strangling him. After a few months in the hotel, Jack starts having strange envisions as well, and starts to go insane. As he descends into madness, he is told by the hotel to kill his family, and eventually attempts to. Unfortunately for Jack, Danny is able to use a special ability called shine to call a man named Dick Halloran to save him and his mother. With Dick arriving, he is able to save Danny and Wendy while Jack is left in the hotel, accidentally causing it to burn down because the boiler exploded.
After finishing the book and the film, I can say both pieces are great horror. They both have an off-putting feel to them, making the viewer always on the edge of their seat. The characters are exceptionally written, making me care even for Jack during the story. Story-wise, I think that the novel is superior to the film because it is able to develop these characters, although the film is much more enjoyable to ingest. Overall, The Shining by Steven King is a fantastic horror read and I highly recommend it.
The Shining-Second Reading Update
The Shining is a horror novel written by Steven King. I have not finished this book yet, but I am deeply invested in it. Previously, I stated how the book goes into much more depth into the backgrounds of the characters than the movie did which I something I really enjoy. The more I read, the harder it is for me to see Jack start going to a murderous mindset because the book tells us how much of a terrible life he has had and makes us sympathize with him. Because the book is much longer than the film, we only at first see little signs of him going insane, which progressively get worse over time. This makes us fear for Jack’s wife and son, Danny and Wendy. Danny is also progressively getting more haunted by the hotel, luring him closer to his demise. Wendy is also starting to see the dark side of the hotel too, which the film did not cover that much. Overall, it is a very suspenseful but intriguing read.
The Lion King
In the 1994 film The Lion King, there are many scenes that reinforce many dominant narratives and stereotypes of the creatures and environments of Africa. The movie contains a wild and primitive land with no human life. Showing stereotypical environments, like wide open savanna landscapes, and stereotypical animal roles, which include lions being the king of the jungle. During the beginning of the movie, the viewer is shown stereotypes about Africa’s landscapes and terrain. Showing the viewer a wide savanna landscape with the sun rising in the background, which is often used in the media when talking about Africa. Reinforcing those single stories about Africa to the current and younger generations
Response to Mulan Group’s Thesis
I agree with their thesis that Mulan challenges the dominant narrative that women are less capable than men. It demonstrates this by showing Mulan doing heroic acts that the men couldn’t do. I think the way the movie starts off helps to reinforce the challenging of the dominant narrative. At the beginning, Mulan is encouraged to be ladylike and let the men fight. However, Mulan decides to challenge the idea of what a woman should be and go and fight anyway. Even though she has to disguise herself, the movie still depicts how strong and powerful women can be.
Blogging Kickstarter: Disney’s Dominant Narratives
Make a short post in which you respond to another’s group argument, agreeing or disagreeing with their thesis and briefly explaining why.
Then …
Make at least one comment on one of your classmates’ posts — not just saying you like it, but providing a brief, but substantive response to their points.
More Class Blogs
For many years, we used the Blogger platform for my classes. Since it is owned by Google, it integrates pretty seamlessly with your Google accounts — which made it easy to use, in some respects — but it is a very limited and bug-ridden platform. So we have decided to construct a new class blog from scratch using the most more powerful and stable WordPress platform.
If you are interested, though, in seeing what past American Studies students have been thinking and writing about, feel free to wander over to Take Control of Your Culture.
You can also check out my senior AP Lit students who are presently blogging over at Story Power.
English A Blog - Our Stories 