Ariela Ojalvo American Literature Blog

  Pick one of the  connection based questions  and answer it in your blog. Be sure to write out the question.   How do you typically respond when people give you advice? Do you usually accept it, question it, or ignore it? Explain your reasoning. I usually listen to advice, but I don’t automatically follow it right away. It really depends on who’s giving it and if I feel like they actually understand my situation. I tend to question it a little and think about whether it makes sense for me before deciding what to do. If it’s someone I trust, I’m more likely to take it seriously. But if it feels irrelevant or judgmental, I’ll probably just ignore it. At the end of the day, I like to make my own decisions. Summary:  I was on a field trip so I was not in class.

  Based on the first 40 minutes of the film and Chapters 1–11 of the book, does the visual version of Chris’s journey make his choices seem more justified or more reckless than the text does? Explain how the medium (film vs writing) shapes your perspective. Based on the first 40 minutes of the film and Chapters 1–11 of the book, the visual version of Chris’s journey make his choices seem more more reckless than the text does because it makes all of Chris´s choices seem very impulsive and his choices seem like the product of a single one of Chrisś thoughts  and not super well thought out. The book makes Chrisś choices seem like they are each very meaningful and well thought out with a lot of lore giving it understanding but the movie does the opposite and makes his journney seem super unplanned and just the product of Chris being Chris.  Summary: Today in class we watched the first part of the Into The Wild movie and answered questions on it.  Reflection: Today in cla...

Think about a moment when your understanding of your family changed as you got older. How did that shift impact your perspective, and how does that connect to Chris’s realization about his parents in Chapter 11? A moment when my understanding of my family changed as I grew up was whenever my dad told me to get a job. As a kid, I never really realized that I would have to make my own money and there would Not always be someone to give me money for clothes and whatever food I wanted.This shifted my on my family because I no longer saw them as So much older than me and wiser than me because I had a job and I felt more equal to my parents who also have a job.Disconnects to Chris’s realization about his parents because we both saw our parents in a different light after coming to realization and changed after both of our realizations. Summary: today in class, we read another chapter about Christopher And two worksheets comparing our family lives with Chris’s. Reflection: Today in class, I go...

  Reflect on your reading of  Into the Wild  chapters 1–10. Which chapter stood out to you the most, and why? In your response, explain what specifically made this chapter meaningful, interesting, or impactful. You may consider elements such as McCandless’s actions, a key event, a theme, or Krakauer’s storytelling. After reading Into the Wild chapters 1-10 the chapter that stood out to me the most was chapter 1. Chapter 1 explains McCandless's mindset and idea of what he thinks his journey is going to be. It shows a good introduction to his character and especially stood out to me because of its great use of indirect characterization. I felt like this chapter was very informative of what this book is going to show and gave me a good first impression of Christopher McCandless. This chapter also displays the themes of the book giving each person an opportunity to form their own opinion on each of the themes present throughout the book.  Summary: Today in class we did a...

  Choose a vocabulary word from Lesson 10 that resonates with you personally. Write a blog post explaining why this word is significant to you, including any personal memories or experiences that link you to the word. One vocabulary word from Lesson 10 that resonates with me personally was delirious. This word means having harmful effects which resonates with me because I think that this is a word many people choose to ignore rather then listen and understand. Most people when finding out something is bad for them they ignore it and continue on with their practices. We see this in everything non-a-days like in use of AI, smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and so much more. Everyone chooses to ignore harmfully effects because they are not yet directly impacted. I think that everyone later down the line will look at themselves from now and wish they listens and resonated with the word delirious because then they would be in better health or the world would have been a better place....

  Chris McCandless rejects a traditional path of success and instead defines success on his own terms through freedom, experience, and personal meaning. Reflect on what success means to you at your current stage in life. In the response, explain how success is currently defined (grades, college acceptance, achievements, happiness, etc.) and where those ideas come from. Then, consider whether that definition truly reflects personal values or if it is shaped by expectations from family, school, or society.  Success currently means getting into college, relying less on my parents, and setting myself up for a wonderful future. I define this further with getting good grades right now in order to get accepted into University of Georgia, University of Florida, Florida State University, maybe even University of Virginia. Along with  achieving other goals like getting an internship, getting a job, and leading my club to success. Finally I define success as maintaining happiness th...

  Chris chooses independence over relationships. When have you chosen to be on your own instead of relying on others? What happened, and would you make the same choice again? One time when I have chosen to be on my own instead of relying on others was for most group projects in AP Physics. In AP Physics I pay attention in class 100% and give it my all. The people at my table often do not do the same and are very confused overall in the class. Every Wednesday we preform a lab and are allowed to work with our table. I choose to just do it for my table rather than taking them up on their offers to help because I have come to realize that it is ether I just rely on myself and do it all or I take them up on their offer and have to teach and explain it to them as they preform the lab and do the equations. For these reasons I have chosen to kind of be on my own and form independence in my work.  Summary: Today in class we read a chapter of Into The Wild and had to think of critical t...

  For most of you, yesterday you took the SAT. If you did not, you  will  take it before you leave high school. What is your  desired SAT score ? Identify your  top three colleges  and explain  why each school appeals to you .  My desired SAT score would be between 1400-1500 but I take the ACT so I am not too worried about what my score comes out to be. My top 3 colleges are Florida because it is a very good school academically, the sports teams/games seem fun to go to, the Greek life seems enjoyable, the people there seem happy, I love the campus, and my parents went there so I have history there. Georgia because it is a good acedemic school, the Greek life seems fun, there campus is nice, they have good sports teams, and my sisters currently go there. Finally, Georgia Tech because it is very strong academically, their campus is nice, I know many people there, I like their teams, and the social aspect seems fun.  Summary: We read and did a w...

  Twice a year we adjust our clocks for daylight saving time, but the change can affect our sleep, energy, and daily routines. Now that we have  sprung forward ; reflect on how this time change impacts you personally. Do you find it easy or difficult to adjust your schedule? Explain how the time change affects your mood, productivity, or daily habits. This time changes has impacted me personally by throwing off my Sunday horribly. I woke up at 10 am and then continued to wake up and fall asleep throughout the day. I then went to school Monday and fell asleep throughout my 1st period class. I find it difficult to adjust my schedule because the change just threw off my entire day and left me too tired to go back to sleep Sunday night but then tired Monday morning from not sleeping enough that night. It made me so tired and unproductive to the point where I did not even eat or drink anything leaving my stomach hurting extremely and my body being dehydrated.  Summary: Today i...

  In Chapter 5 of  Into the Wild , McCandless is strongly influenced by writers like Jack London, whose stories shape the way he thinks about adventure and wilderness.  Has a book, song, musician, or artist ever influenced the way you think about life, goals, or the world around you?  Identify the specific book, song, musician, or artist and explain how their ideas or message affected your thinking. One artist who has influenced the way I think about life is Christopher Nolan. Each of his movies are extremely well written with a very deep and meaningful plot. Specifically the movie Intersteller has changed my perspective on the world around me giving me a more in depth look at what space is and what it means for life. It shows the ideas of different dimensions and what they would do for if the world were to end but overall shows that love means the most out of any of it. It shows the relationship between a father and daughter and it shows the lengths a father would g...

 In Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless gives up many of his possessions in pursuit of freedom and meaningful experiences. If you had to simplify your life and keep only a few important possessions, what would you keep and why? What would be hardest to leave behind? If I had to simplify my life and keep only a few important possessions I would keep a journal, a multipurpose blade, and a durable pair of boots. The journal preserves the internal journey, the blade ensures survival and feels overall necessary, and the boots are for my ability to keep moving . The hardest thing to leave behind would be digital archives the photos, voice notes, and curated memories that serve as an external hard drive for the soul along with my communication with the people I love and without it I would grow confused as to my location.  Summary: Today in class we read chapter 4 of Into the Wild and we did a writable assignment on it.  Reflection: Today I learned more about Christopher's...

  People sometimes feel the need to step away from their normal routines or environments in order to better understand themselves. Describe a time when you needed distance from a situation, place, or group of people in order to think more clearly or gain perspective. What did that experience teach you about yourself? One time when I needed to distance from a person was in sophomore year when I had a friend who I was having a world of issues with. During this time I found myself more miserable then ever in my life and I kind of stepped back and realized that that was not the real me. I felt trapped in a situation that left me feeling like a different person. I eventually fully removed myself from the situation and I found people that left me feeling like I was really myself and this taught me that I am not miserable and I am worth something. It made me realize that some things were never meant to last and if something doesn't feel right it probably isn't.  Summary: Today in cla...

  After reading Chapter 1 of  Into the Wild , consider your first impression of Christopher McCandless. Based solely on the events and details presented in this opening chapter, do you believe McCandless truly understood the risks he was taking when he entered the Alaskan wilderness? Why or why not? My first impression of McCandless is that he is extremely confident, stubborn, and determined. One detail that showed me his confidence is his persona throughout the ride with Gidion conveying his relaxed, excited, and single sided mindset going into this showing how he is confident in his abilities to survive and thrive. One detail that showed me his stubbornness was his refusal to listen to much needed advice, allow Gidion to buy him better gear, and understand what the driver was trying to tell him because of his confidence of success. Finally the detail that showed me his determination was his inability to allow himself to turn back and back down this also spawned from his conf...

  Today you worked on creating your Vocabulary Digital Cards in Adobe Express. In one well-developed paragraph, reflect on the assignment by explaining which vocabulary word was easiest for you to understand, which word was most challenging, and how creating your own sentence and selecting an image helped strengthen your understanding of the vocabulary. Use specific examples from your work. Creating my vocabulary digital cards in Adobe Express helped me understand the words better. The easiest word for me was benign because it means kind or favorable and it says Ben in the beginning which is my really kind and favorable cousin's name. I wrote a sentence about a benign teacher who is always nice to students, and the picture of a friendly teacher helped me remember the meaning. The hardest word for me was recrimination because it was harder to understand that it means blaming each other and I could not think of a correlating phrase or idea to help me remember it. I wrote a ...