class directions

I have to say that I really like this class and there is not much which could be done better. I guess it would be cool if we did some more group work, though. That is always fun and probably good for the class community. I hope we will watch some more movies such as The Crucible and The Road while reading the books which go along with the movies. Then it would be cool if we did more creative writing exercises like essays or poems instead of simply answering questions to a book or something like that.

My December

This is my December,
This is my time of the year,
This is my December,
This is also clear.

Watch the snowflakes falling down,
Watch people being happy all around.
I watch myself being kind,
But I have other thoughts on my mind.

What is this for, is this real?
Does anybody feel the way I feel?
Everything´s superficial, smiles are insincere,
I cannot stand this, I have to get out of here.

So I escape into a secret place,
To live my life in my own pace,
To not see all the lies under the christmas tree.
What is wrong with me?

This is my December,
This is my snow covered home,
This is my December,
This is me alone.

J. D. Salinger

Jerome David Salinger was born in 1919 and died in 2010. The authors moste popular book is "The Catcher in the Rye" which was published in 1951. That book became a worldwide success and Salinger got a lot of unwonted attention. He couldn´t really deal with that, so he moved to Cornish, New Hampshire, to be alone with his family and without the press. Since then, he never gabe interviews to a newspaper or anything.

The only thing he would do, was giving a few interviews to students who wanted to ask him about his writing.
Eventhough he could have made a lot of money, he refused and stayed by his on trying to protect his privacy.

"I am a writer, I will continue to write, but not for "the people". I write for myself, and my family. I never owed anyone anything. I gave something and now I am done"

You could feel sort of sorry for him, but he somehow seems to me a litte bit selfish. Like his daughter was never able to live a normal live cause she had to pretty much stay with him in his lonelyness.

Holden

In "The Catcher in the Rye", Holden is the main character. He is sixteen years old and about to get expelled from Pencey High. Before he went to Pencey, he got expelled from a couple of other schools. So his life is described as a typical teenage life which goes down the drain. However, Holden is not at all a typical teenager.

He actually has a very interesting personality. And that is not meant in a good or bad way, I just think he is somehow special. It kinda seems like everything annoys Holden and no matter what someone does, it gets on his nerves. Holden thinks that almost everyone in the world is phony, and he hates phony people eventhough he himself sometimes acts in a phony way and even admits it. The special thing about him is, that there are certain people in his life, who, in his mind, never do anything wrong, be always perfect and be innocent forever. And he wants to protect those people from bad influence.

I really wonder how his life would go on as he was an adult. Cause sometimes you have to make compromises in life and be dedicated to a job or a task. You cannot get along in life hating everything and everyone and be annoyed by it or them. You have to be positive to make your life better and that is what Holden might wanna start doing.

My Red Hunting Hat

In the book "The Catcher in the Rye" the red hunting hat symbolizes Holden´s hate for phonies. So that he would hunt a special kind of people which he strongly dislikes. I don´t have a hunting hat but if i had one it would propably represent that I`m hunting for people who are absurdly brutal. For example when like a group of people beat up a lonely guy just to have some fun. I think that is just unbelievable unfair and extremly gutless. Those are the kind of people I hate.

Other than that I would rather hunt for good things like happiness and having a good time with friends or something like that. Basically anything that would make my life better or more interesting.

Thankful for a classmate

First of all I have to say that I really like everyone in this English class. Everyone is really nice and I enjoy going to this class. It is very interesting to hear all the different opinions on questions and topics cause we all got other values on our mind to judge different situation in different ways. Especially Harlans and McKinleys comments are really inspiring sometimes.

I also think that Mr McCarthy is a very good teacher since he knows how to make the lessons interesting. He always finds a good balance between fun and learning at the same time and that is why I like this class so much.

Then there are Filip and Jack sitting right next to me. They became good friends of mine and helped me a lot to understand things when I didn´t know what to do. Our group work was always very productive and fun. Thank you guys for being in this class with me!

Cormac McCarthy Blog

The Road is a very  special book which makes people think more about our own world. The dark and depressing athmosphere of America after the apocalypse with those the two nameless heroes, the father and the son, makes us reflect a lot, since any of us could be one of them. Where does McCarthy get his ideas from for such an affecting book?

I think for Cormac McCarthy his surrounding and the people who are close to him give him a lot of inspiratione to write his his books. He sais that many lines from the book where are taken from conversations between him and his son. Also he gave some of the character traits his friends live for to his characters in the book such as being  the good guys for father and son.

"A lot of the things that the kid [in the book] says are things that John said. John said, "Papa, what would you do if I died?" I said, "I'd want to die, too," and he said, "So you could be with me?" I said, "Yes, so I could be with you." Just a conversation that two guys would have."

"I have friends at the Institute. They're just really bright guys who do really difficult work solving difficult problems, who say, "It's really more important to be good than it is to be smart." And I agree it is more important to be good than it is to be smart."

His ideas obviously kind of come from everyday life, from conversations with people. And thats where he got his interpretation of the apocalypse from. In an interview the "Wall Street Journal" asked him what kind of research he did for The Road. He said that he was often talking to his brother about what would happen if there was a serious catastrophe and only some people left on our planet. They came up with everyones would be part of a tribe and they would eat each other. Just like in his book the bad guys.

"We talked about if there was a small percentage of the human population left, what would they do? They'd probably divide up into little tribes and when everything's gone, the only thing left to eat is each other. We know that's true historically."

I guess the thing which makes his book so affecting is his way he presents the relationship between the father and the son and the language which is held very simple. You probably have to be a great author AND a father to be able to describe the relationship in the way he does.