Book From My Past

A book from my past is Animal Farm by George Orwell. I read this book my freshman year in high school. My english teacher at the time, Mr. Fusi, assigned for the class to read the book and write a few pages on what we thought of the story. The book takes place on a farm as the title suggests. There are many animals on this farm including pigs, horses, chickens, and a few dogs and puppies. Since the smartest animals on this farm were the pigs, they were the leaders. The pigs set up a series of rules and plans to get rid of human control. The animals wanted to be sovereign from human rule. When they manage to get rid of human control, the pigs create rules for the other animals to follow in order to keep everything civilized. These pigs would create very vague rules that benefitted mostly the pigs. They were the ones who would get the best food, shelter, and other supplies. These rules were very one-sided and only helped the top animals. In the end of the story, the pigs had become so similar to humans that they were unable to tell them apart. The pigs would walk like humans, sleep in beds like humans, and even talked like them. I remember this book because at first i thought it was silly. A group of animals that govern themselves, how ridiculous. It wasn't until my teacher began explaining what was going on that i began to see the similarities to real life. The animals were acting just like corrupt politicians do. It is a pretty eye-opening book. I would recommend this book to anyone in the class. It helps to show how corrupt people and the government really are.

Two Truths and One Lie

1. Back when i was in high school i was on the cross country team for CUHS. I tried out my freshman year and i made it to JV. I was a pretty good runner but i knew i could be better and i tried harder. My sophomore year i tried out again and i made varsity. I was really happy. I was also in soccer so i had a bit more endurance and stamina than the rest of the people i completed against. When i was a senior, my teammates and I were doing really well and we went on to compete in CIF. We competed against teams from San Diego and we would do pretty well against them. We went on to win CIF that year and we all got medals and our CIF patches. It was a pretty good year.







2. An interesting fact about me is that I'm into all kinds of cars. Anything from imports to muscle cars to even supercars. I like old and new cars aswell. My favorite old muscle car would be a 1967 Shelby GT500. I think old muscle cars are really cool because they were more mechanical back in the day. I prefer cars that have V8's because they have more power and because they sound way better than 4 or 6 cylinder cars. I like going to car meets here in the Valley and sometimes in San Diego. I think cars are pretty cool.






3. I like to skate. I got my first board when i was around 12 years old. It was a pretty small board so doing tricks on it was kinda hard. Eventually i got a bigger board that fit my feet better and doing tricks is easier now. Whenever i have free time, i like to go to the skatepark with my friends and practice new tricks. About 2 summers ago, my friends and i were really bored so we decided to skate to Walmart from In n Out. It was a really long ride over there and took us about 45 minutes back and forth. My feet were hurting at the end of our little trip.

Movie Poster Analysis - Pearl Harbor

1) I chose to do my project on the movie Pearl Harbor. This movie came out in 2001 and it depicts the events that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Both of the movie posters i included have a very gloomy look to them. The colors used in these posters are all very dark colors such as grey, black, and brown. These colors were purposefully used to give the viewer a glimpse as to what the movie will be about. The poster also show the three main characters of the movie. A plane flying can be seen, and this is because in the attack of Pearl Harbor, Japanese fighter planes would drop bombs on American troops and ships. Smoke can be seen rising in the background and this is to show that the Japanese did a lot of damage to American troops, they went on to sink the USS Arizona.

2) The creator of these posters were out to show that this a serious movie about a very serious event in US history. The attack is basically what got the US into war and it is a very important event. They wanted to set a very dark and gloomy mood with the use of the dark colors. The use of the American flag is there to symbolize that even after the attack, the US were still standing proud.


3) The intended audience for this movie would be people who want to learn about what it was like back in the 1940's. It was a very tough time because the US was on the brink of war and then after the attack, they were in war. Anyone could really watch this movie as it could apply to many people. Obviously the main audience would be Americans, but anyone can watch the movie. If you like learning about history or you like war movies then this would be a good option.


4) The visual element that grabs my attention first is the main characters. Their faces are enlarged and it is one of the first things you notice. However, when you look closer into the background, you notice a war ship with smoke coming from it. This is the USS Arizona that was sunk in battle. The movie poster shows a lot of dark grey smoke surrounding almost the entire middle section.


5) A persuasive strategy used is pathos. Pathos is appealing to emotion and this movie has a lot of that. Not only is it used in the movie poster by showing a burning, smoking, and sinking ship; but its also used throughout the movie. It depicts the lives of soldiers and how hard it was on them. Being surprised one day to find out you are being bombed by fighter planes is a very scary thought and this can be seen in the movie. Many lives were lost that day and a lot of people were injured. It was a very tragic day.


6) Not much can be deciphered by the words used in the poster. This is because there is only the movie title along with some names and that is about it. If anything it was kept this way to make it more simple and straight to the point. The words "Pearl Harbor" can be seen in an easy to read white font. This , i think, was done to show that this movie is about one thing and one thing only, Pearl Harbor.


7) What is being shown is the American side of the damages. We can see the USS Arizona is being sunk, but we do not see the Japanese side. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, many Japanese fighter planes were doing suicide dive runs. They would fly their planes straight into American ships and buildings, causing as much damage as they could. These Japanese suicide planes were know as kamikaze planes. These Japanese soldiers did not care about their lives at all. They would do anything for their country and they meant it. Taking their own lives was seen as a necessary thing for them.