5th Post: Reflection of 1st Quarter

Wow, this quarter was really long, yet it flew past in a flash. I only hope second quarter doesn't fly too fast and thus give me a bad grade. First quarter was alot harder than i'd expected, it seems I plunged right into the thick of things. And I did in a sense, the very first few weeks I was struggling to get my first analytical essay of the year under my belt. After the MLA citation test, I realized that Ms. Froehlich was no lenient grader. After coming to terms with the fact that I might actually get a poor grade in this class, I was then genuinely surprised when getting a B on my ELIC essay. My ELIC essay then gave me hope that with hard work and determination, I might be able to come out of this class succesful. Though my success in this class is still limited, I hold out hope for the future, maybe second quarter will bring good fortune with its new opportunities.

I'll have to work my butt off during second quarter if I want to recieve a sufficent semester grade. I also understand that missing class is much more severe to my grade and performance than it was last year. After missing three days of school simultaniously, I became dangerously behind in my school work which still tarnishes my grade. Over all, my first quarter performance was less than what I'd expected of myself. As Ms. Froehlich said, first quarter is just the bar being set, you can now only improve.
Which is exactly what I intend to do.

Outside Reading - post #5...Done!

After answering all of the required questions for my outside reading blog posts, I am going to write my fith and final blog post about my favorite parts of the novel, Halfway House. The very first few sentences of the book start out as, “Nights, the girl came and stood at the edge of the yard. From inside his unlit kitchen Pieter Voorster could just make out her dark shape, bulky in a parka, beneath the oak. A car passed, a sweep of headlights. Hoarfrost covered the grass, and for a moment the girl flared into relief, dark against the silver lawn like the negative of a photograph” (1). Just with those few lines, I already have a clearly detailed image in my mind and a beginning sense of the book’s mood. The first scene of the book also ties in with the last scene of the book which ties up all the loose ends in the novel. Everything is as it should be.

In the last scene, Luke is outside the house taking a moment to reflect, “He stood motionless under the oak, trying to see his house as a stranger might: solid and unremarkable, small squares of lights where a man and a woman separately began the day. He wanted to hold on to the feeling of suspension; there was something he almost understood, seeing his life from the outside like this” (365). In the beginning scene of the book, a random girl is standing outside the house looking up into Luke’s second-floor window. The girl has an obsessively mad crush on Luke and stalks his every move. In the end of the book, it’s as if Luke is seeing his life for that brief moment through the eyes of Kristen, the crazed stalker. From begining to end, the characters make a full circle and end up where they started much more prepared for what life has in store for them in the “circle of life” (The Lion King).

Outside Reading - post #4

In the novel Halfway House, the main characters are motivated by others. Pieter, the husband, is inspired by his wife Jordana. He lives his life unknowingly according to Jordana. Only when Jordana leaves, does Pieter realize just how much he depends on her everyday presence. Pieter is constantly thinking of his absent wife, “Without Jordana, Pieter found himself imagining what she would notice or say. He couldn’t turn it off, which meant he walked around flayed, open to all stimuli” (310). Jordana was Pieter’s light at the end of his dark tunnel which consits of Angie’s illness and his lackluster career. Now that Jordana is gone, Pieter doesn't know what to do with himself.

Pieter’s son also finds motivation in another human being. Luke’s girlfriend and future wife, Wendy, is the typical girl-next-door. No one, including Luke’s parents, expects him to fall in love with such an ordinary girl. Jordana eventually understands that Wendy inspires Luke:

Why had Luke chosen her? Wendy was pretty and apparently she was smart-Jordana knew she’d graduated summa cum laude-but she was so self-contained that no personality leaked through. Maybe she was different when they were alone. Luke’s other girlfriends had been drastic and messy-sexy girls who got their clothes at thrift stores and called Luke in the middle of the night, drunk and apologizing but could they talk to Luke please? With them, Luke had always seemed to be sitting back, lazy and contented as a cat, while with Wendy he was forcused, touching her constantly: her hair, her knee (299).

Unlike other girls Luke has dated, Wendy keeps him focused and attentive. Luke deeply cares for Wendy and is motivated to do his best when in a relationship with her. Having someone as a source of motivation is inspiring and uplifting as long as the inspiration doesn't turn obsessive.

Outside Reading - post #3

The novel Halfway House is similar to the film The 400 Blows. The director of The 400 Blows, Francois Truffaut, states that one must lose the innocence of childhood in order to fing one’s self- identity. This same theme is true for my outside reading novel. While Antoine loses his youth by stealing a type writer, Angie, the main character of Halfway House, loses her youth when she becomes a slut. During one of Angie’s manic stages, she hooked up with guys on the streets in hopes that would help her figure out where she belonged. Looking back on those dark moments, Angie views herself as completely different, “Manic, her skirts got shorter, make-up brighter, heels higher. But she knew that only from photographs and fleeting memories of feeling charming and irresistible, filled with wit and power. She’d felt more in touch, saner, than at any other time in her life” (320).

In the end of the novel, Angie is at most with herself when living with four other roomates. Growing up and moving out of the house is a natural way of losing one’s childhood innocence. Dealing with her insanity in the real world has lead to Angie’s personal growth. Angie has a hard time accepting the idea that her roomates have such an easy time with life, “When she’d lived at halfway houses, everyone had battled demons just to get breakfast or get dressed. Angie had usually been the most together person there, her functionality a source of wonder. These housemates were the first friends outside the System that Angie’s had since highschool, and they stunned her a little, how easily they accepted the world” (292). Antoine and Angie start their life journey of self discovery after completely losing their innocences, but finding their identities will be just as hard as losing their childhoods.