Montresor's Undoing, By:Stanley Suter

1st Option

          The man called me into a room as two guards followed close behind me. I was brought into the station because they had found new evidence on the death of Fortunato. I don't even know why they brought me in, there's no way they can catch me now. 

          After carnival, Fortunato's wife started to get worried. She no longer believed that he had gotten drunk and lost when he didn't come in for the night. The story had given me a chance to cover up what would have been detected. I unclipped him from the ground, where he died of dehydration. So as not to be suspected, I moved him, setting the bottles of wine on his lap deep within the catacombs. The police, if they found the body, which they did, would have thought he got lost and couldn't survive without water.

          "Sit" the man said. 
          
          "I'm officer Berkley, and we've recently visited the site of the murder of your dear friend Mr.Fortunato." 
        
          "Murder? How dare you accuse me of such a thing?" I said. "You have no proof!"

          "But on the contrary!" He accused. "We know your motive, the reason you would want him dead."

           It's true. I once had a wife and son. While they where with me I was the happiest a man could be. You know, Fortunato's drinking problems where not from birth. He owned a trading business, the one that brought his family such a noble name. On account of the approaching winter, my family and I where to go on a trip to Italy, as a way to get away from the cold as well as view the varieties of wine. My wife and son had boarded the ship, a small barge, and I was to steer the ship with supplies and the rest of the Wardrobe. Thats when Fortunato came into the bay. 

          "See, the job is all about training." Berkley explained."It isn't about being able to see, it's what to look for."

          "In the long run, you really think that if I did it, you could catch me?" said Montresor.

          "I didn't need to, you told me." Berkley said.

          It was a mistake to have thought we could leave without the march fleet, especially not while merchants felt safe enough to cross the sea's unharmed. Fortunato, the fool. He incautiously allowed himself to be trailed by two pirate slave ships. They easily took over his ship, and kept him hostage. I yelled at they top of my lungs, "TURN AROUND! PIRATES!", but this was in vain for the ship had caught fire. As the Pirates unloaded to the docks, they raided our town, pillaging, abusing, and killing, everyone or thing in sight. Fortunato's wife was killed in the raid, but this was no excuse for what he had done to me.

          "When you think about it, it was quite simple really." Berkley said. "Draw him in with an object, bring him to his grave, and get your satisfaction."

          "So where was I wrong?" Questioned Montresor as the men behind him handcuffed and pulled him back.

          "The Amontillado" Berkley said. "Fortunato died with it in his arms. Another thing that tipped us off where the holes in the ground, with the staples next to them" 

          "The marks on his arms?" Montresor said.

          "You bet-cha" said Berkley. "Even a man of Fortunato's stature couldn't get his hands on a bottle of finely aged Amontillado, so we knew it had to be you. When we put the pieces together under your name, it all made sense"

          "And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling full grown, certified police officers!" Exclaimed Montresor.
     

"Small Steps" By:Stanley Suter

 Prompt-Who is your favorite character? Who is your least favorite character? Why?

          This week I have been reading "Small Steps", the sequel to "Holes" and I really like it. It is completely different than "Holes" because instead of focusing on Stanley Yelnats, they focus on Armpit and X-ray. I'm at a point in the book where Armpit has denied getting into a business with X-ray for scalping tickets (selling them after the concert has been sold out for a much higher price. The only problem for X-ray is that the tickets already cost a fortune to begin with. Thats where I left off for this week.

          My favorite character in the book so far would have to be Armpit. He is the only person from Camp Green lake that actually learned his lesson. He used to steal, but he now has a job as a landscaper, digging out large area's for a good 10$ an hour. X-ray is still into getting money fast for as little work possible, and so he went into the "consumer" marketing, where scalping is illegal. As you could say, all the digging in Camp Green lake actually prepared him for a career.

          My least favorite character would have to be Tatiana. She's so selfish and when Armpit and her break up she looks for ways to embarrass him. Being a celebrity doesn't help either. When he goes to work and can't get back in time for one of their dates, she breaks up with him. Now, other than that being a major overreaction, she pretty much yells it and storms out, leaving Armpit to suffer the crowds. Even when tries to apologize, where there was no reason to, she would not accept, maybe because she was brought up rich and spoiled, and turned out a colossal brat.

Chesapeake By: Stanley Suter

 Prompt-Who is your favorite character? Who is your least favorite character? Why?

          This week I have been reading "Chesapeake" and I continue to like it more and more as I go through the book. This week we find that Rosalind's sons come back from over a decade at a church, having learned french, latin, and english and went through Harvard in England. Rosalind has won the fight against women being whipped for minor injustices, and Judge Hank and his court have practically been warring against her. When she goes into court for two days, they first speak her rudeness throughout the community, mainly with the "disgusting" but true things she says. The next day the mood within the court is greatly shifted when the own Judge Hank is tried for abusing his child.

        My favorite character in the book would have to be Edmund Steed. I like him for the reasons of bravery as well as strength through morals. He was the first man (other than the Spaniard ship) to set foot on Devon Island, which soon became his home for many generations. Because this was in Missouri, where all things at the time where savage and hostile he made peace with Indians by showing them devices like his Compass, and giving them new ways to grow crops and hunt with a rifle. This was also at a point where catholics and priests where hanged in England, and very few catholics where still alive. He continued to practice his faith, even though he could have died because of it.

         My least favorite character would be Judge Hank. He is the slimiest person that we've seen so far in the book. For little things, such as the words a woman says in public, he would charge a huge fine, such as two tons of grade A tobacco. But, when he abuses a child, or gets drunk and says something stupid he doesn't get penalized. He even went against a contract saying he had to cloth, feed, and take in a child. Instead, he simply gave her a single dress, which she was forced to wear all week until saturday, when she washed it and wore it still damp to church the next morning.

Time Travel, Ancient Greece

Q: Where would you go?
        
A: I would travel to the time where indians where still undomesticated. I would bring along many modern day appliances and toys so that we may form an alliance with them, just as the english once did.

Q:To which year or period would you travel?

A: I would probably travel to the Chesapeake bay, in the fall of 1880.

Q: Who would you want to meet or what event would you want to witness?

A: I would like to see the tribes fight one another, and would like to meet the indians of one of the war tribes, then gain their trust by helping them survive for the winter.

Q: Where would you find this person or see this event?

A: I would find the tribe on the North West side of the bay.

Q: Why would you want to meet this person or witness this event?

A: I would want to meet the tribe because I've heard a lot about them throughout my time at school, but I still feel that their history has been very blurry. From the tools they used to their way of life, we can only guess how some that where wiped out used their tools. 

Q: How might YOU change history?

A: By helping the indians through their winter totally unharmed, while the english where being destroyed in the cold weather, I might accidentally change the course of history because even that one year could have wiped out the indians that had helped the English survive, indirectly killing the English and keeping the war tribe savage.

"Chesapeake" by Stanley Suter.

How does the author use characterization/character development throughout the book?

          This week I have been reading "Chesapeake" and its been a struggle. I'm finding it very hard to follow how fast the Author is going through timelines with deaths and births, the whole family tree is extremely confusing. When I was reading this week I found that Fitzhugh and his son, Rosalind's step-son had died because of old age and pirates as well as her own daughter, while Rosalind's step son's wife had a new baby, and then moved back to where their house used to be, all within the space of two pages. In the book, Rosalind is looking to make a new house after a pirate attack on her house that killed two children. She was also forced to take care of the children that her husband was helping from the swamp.

          First I would like to explain how the author uses characterization for Rosalind. He starts "She had the strange feeling that she had been ferried up the bay to bring order into this household, and that without her it could not be achieved." From this, as a reader I felt that she thought her biggest priority was to be a mother and take care of the house. Later on we find her disregarding her families safety and trying to reshape the entire city. I believe that the author did this because he wanted the readers to see Rosalind as a sort of protagonist, or lower than society standards so that you could feel how the others despised her and often brought her into court.

          The other character that I would like to discuss would be Fitzhugh, the husband of Rosalind. When we first meet him, he says "You know of course, that Flora Turlock, thats Nelly's  mother... Have you seen her Rosalind? Mrs.Steed shook her head." From this quote I am next to positive that the author wanted to put a negative look on Fitzhugh. He showed him cheating on his wife, and her having to hear it from someone else. He did this because he wanted to show the Steed couple, having the most noble name on the island, pretty much fall apart just because of that couple, and really showing how easily you can fall from such great heights.

1st Quarter Reflection, Stanley Suter

 Prompt-Where are you in your 40 Book Challenge? How have your blogs been progressing since August? What strategies have benefited you? What has it taught you about the world?

         It is the end of the first quarter, and I am supposed to reflect on how my blogging changed from last year. I felt that I have improved in almost every way possible, but I'll try to trim that down a bit.

          In my 40 book challenge, I am on book nine out of 40. I have noticed that my books are much more based on action and adventure instead of books such as classic literature or poetry. I however have had some non-fiction adventure novels, that I find strangely 
interesting because of events that had taken place in real life, had taken so much energy and thought process, but where pulled off as if they where easy.

         Since August I have been progressing with my word choice as well as with the length of my blogs. I have recently been able to retrieve more information from my books than I feel I used to be able to comprehend. Especially when using character development, I have predicted the actual ending to a very good number of books, although that could also have to do with my reading of very similar stories. My vocabulary has increased greatly, as I read from my first blog in August, I realized that I could be using a better choice of words. Instead of "meets" I should have used "Rendezvous". Even though it would have taken more time I would have made my writing just a little more interesting while doing so.

          Through my writing Blogs, I have found that the world is a "get what you pay for" kind of place. These writers put in such great hours, and an amazing amount of effort and a lot of the time they don't become famous. But It showed me that luck is very scarce in our world, and that hard work is your only sure way to become successful.

Reflective Writing, Stanley S.

          My writing has changed from last year by my use of new and higher tiered words. I've read some of the passages I wrote last year and I found myself using words such as "bad" and "happy" instead of increasing the use of my vocabulary with words such as "substandard" or "ecstatic". This year I felt that this has increased because the books I have read are of much higher difficulty, and I feel I am getting used to how they speak, and maybe sort of reflecting it.

         
          Another part of writing that I think I greatly improved on would be my sense on where to uppercase letters and just general formatting errors that I possessed before. Things like "Im" to "i'm", to which I feel that my teachers in elementary school didn't cover as well as they should have. I increased this by, again, reading better books, and also I think that the work that I did over the summer really helped me get a head start into this year because it is known that children lose about two months of school over summer. Instead, I gained at least the equivalent.

Chesapeake, By Stanley Suter

               Prompt-What are techniques used in your book?

               This week I have finally restarted reading "Chesapeake" and I really like it. A woman from across the Chop-tank river is sent for to be married to a Steed. This was celebrated unusually because the man, Fitzhugh Steed, had been married before. However, he was part of the first family on the Chop-tank river and his family was of the highest nobility. The woman's name was Rosalind, named after a character in Shakespeare's play, was set on making the world in Massachusetts as good as possible for her children. While doing so she embarrasses her husband and children, earning her a very bad spot in the town's court, where she is being persecuted constantly for the smallest of "crimes". Thats where I am in the story so far.

               The first technique that I think is crucial to the story is James Michener's purpose in his writing. The purpose of this story was a Narrative, because it slowly goes through the lines of generations of three different families, with certain explanations and comments through the chapter. This allows for much better understanding for the chain of events and how the families interact. Without his narrations, we would not know the storyline behind Fitzhugh being the father of three children that where not Rosalind's. Without his narration, we would be completely lost in the story.

               The second technique that I think was very important to the story was James Michener's style through his writing. I found a page in the book that had four vocabulary words from about two weeks ago. He uses very high tiered words that I used to have trouble understanding, but now it really enhances the old-agedness of it. I think it makes it much more exciting as a whole when the well educated characters have arguments about some things so simple, and some life and death situations. The words that James uses improves scenes in the story that would have otherwise been plain and boring.