Blog 16: Final Reflection

Well i enjoyed eng 102 because of the creativity of the assignments. I have never done a supernatural theme before or any theme in a class for that matter. Interesting how we did all are assignments on blogs for the whole semester. We looked at movies, heard some interesting poems and we wrote on a poem of are own choice. I would recommend this class to one of my friends because he is going to major in journalism but the sad part is that he doesn't go to Laguardia. I hope eng 103 will be as fun but i doubt having to write research papers will be so enthusiastic.

Blog 15: Final Draft "In the Forest of the Night"

In The Forest Of The Night


Amelia Atwater-Rhodes was born on April 16 1984 and is a writer of fantasy dealing with adult situations. Amelia became famous at the age of fifteen when she published her first book "In the Forest of the Night". Since her first book she has written eleven more books all critically acclaimed by magazines like Seventeen, Entertainment Weekly, and The New Yorker. She even managed to get an article about her in the USA Today newspaper. Amelia got a lucky break publishing her book because her teacher was also an literary agent and pushed her manuscript to publishing companies. After high school she went to University of Massachusetts with a surprising double major degree in english and psychology. "In the Forest of the Night" its about a vampire who overcomes her problems and learns to deal with her past. The story has a hero's quest and has symbols that have a pacific meaning to almost each item.

The story is about a three hundred year old vampire named Risika who lives in Concord, Massachusetts. In her home Risika awakes to a black rose laying on her bed with a card telling her to "stay in her place" and she goes into a flashback of a time in 1701 when she was human and her name was different. Rachel Weatere was Risika's original name before she was transformed. She is calming her brother Alexander down because he believes he has telepathic powers causing a fire to happen burning their little sister Lynette. Rachel talks him out of his crazy babble but she suspects that somehow he might be right. Risika snaps out of her daydream and ponders how the rose came to her but she suspects who did it.

She explains that she went hunting in New York City but in another vampire's territory. While she is stalking a pray, a human minion of a vampire interferes with Risika and the female meal. So Risika then attacks the minion and finds out who he belongs to but she already suspected it. The dead minion belonged to Aubrey, who is an old and powerful vampire. Aubrey had left her the card and the black rose so Risikia had burned both objects, put them in a plastic bag and dropped it off at Aubrey's usual hideout. Risika then daydreams again of the same black rose when Aubrey appeared to her and her family in 1701.

She describes that when she touched the rose she had cut herself on a piece of thorn causing Aubrey to stare at her wound in such a manor that it scared her but he leaves immediately. The next day Rachel finds Alexander sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night. She comes to find out that he isn't alone but he is with two other people. She see's Aubrey and a mysteries lady dressed in black but gets noticed by them real quick. Alexander begs for them to leave them in peace but Aubrey kills Alexander by stabbing him in the back with a knife. The lady in black named Ather kills Rachel and gives birth to Risika.

After waking up from her dream she gets another strange letter but this time the aura around it is different. It's not registering to her as a vampire she would recognize but on the paper it says Rachel. It confuses her because no one knows her human accept for Ather, Aubrey and her dead family. Ather is long gone and Aubrey's method of torturing someone is a lot more destructive. So this leaves her confused and brings on another flashback of now Risika fighting Aubrey but losing with a scare that will never heal. So know after wanting revenge for this wound she figures out after 300 years how to defeat Aubrey in a battle so she challenges him at his favorite cafe.

Aubrey tries to use the blade on her but she manages to over power him taking the blade from him. She then uses it not to get revenge for destroying her life and her families but to embarrass Aubrey by showing that he is just a weak vampire and leaves him with a similar scare he left her many years ago. After the battle the aura that had left her the note showed up and right before she attacked him, Risika saw who it was. Her brother Alexander had been alive the whole time for three hundred years and didn't say a word to her. Alexander explains that his telepathic abilities mixed with witchcraft kept him alive and made him immortal like she was. Alexander then tells Rachel that the reason he didn't show his face to her was that she had become a monster killing the innocent. Risika then tells Alexander that Rachel is dead and that their is nothing that can change it. But each moment of her life she wishes it had all been different circumstances.

The hero's quest was pretty straight forward in this short novel because she went after her biggest enemy and defeated him. She had gone threw a few challenges to beat him because she had to become a vampire which is the threshold. Then the revelation occurred were she realized how to beat Aubrey. She ended up taking his main weapon and using it on him to defeat him. Then their is atonement when her brother shows up and is disgusted at what she becomes and she feels bad for what he has seen. Finale at the end which is the return as Joseph Campbell puts it, she states that she is who she is now and that their is no one that can stop it, so live your life your way.

There are a few symbols that stand out in the book like the knife, the black rose, Rachel's name and the letter. The knife is symbolic because it shows power to the person that holds it like the sword excalibar. Then you got the black rose because it symbolizes death coming for you like a calling card. Rachel's name is another symbol because having your name taken from you by force and their is nothing you can do to stop it can sort of in a way demoralize you. The last symbol is the letter with her name on it causing her to feel confused and sadden by it because she is having thoughts of her human side and it can also mean that no matter were you go your name will always follow you even though it has been changed.

"In the Forest of the Night" is a must read book that you cannot pass bye. I have read a lot of books and I would have to say that this is one of my top ten favorite books of all time. I haven't read the twlight books and I never will but if you like reading them or even the True Blood adaptation books then you should at least read "In the Forest of the Night". Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is a magnificent writer and if she can write so good at a early age imagine what she can write when she is much older.

Work Cited

Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. In The Forest Of The Night.New York: Delacorte Press, 1999. Print.

"Amelia Atwater-Rhodes". Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 11 June 2010 .

"Monomyth". Wikipedia. 2010. Wilomedia Foundation, Inc.. 11 June 2010 .

Blog Entry 12: Initial (Pre-)Writing

I still have not finished reading my book but I'm about half way done. The book is called "In the Forest of the Night" and I'm going to give a brief bio of the author, then give detailed description of whats going on in the book. I will discuss the symbols in the book and focus on the heroes quest. Their is also a poem by William Blake "The Tyger" that plays an important role in the book, and I will analyze the poem and explain how it works with the book. The book is about a 300 year old vampire named Risika who lives in Concord, Massachusetts who is being hunted by a mysterious person. The mysterious person has left her a black rose but it reminds Riskia of the same rose that was left for her when she changed from human to vampire. Seeing this rose brings back memories for Risika like her family and their fate in her new world of madness.

Blog 11: My Chosen Story

The story I chose is "In the Forest of the Night" by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I picked it because it was a supernatural vampire story that I read when i was like 13. I'm not into the whole twilight scene because of the sparkling people but Amelia makes twilight look like a children's story. Its just a dark book to read in general. The plot is about this girl who became a vampire and 300 years later she still roams the land killing but has flashbacks of her past to better times were their was no pain. But someone is scheming to kill her in a way her brother was killed. Can she find out who in time? I will approach this essay with monomyth because it has a heroes quest to it. I will be talking about the symbols that play major roles in the main character's life. I will also talk about the poem that you read in the opening pages of the story called "The Tyger" by William Blake and the significance it plays to the story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Forests_of_the_Night

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

http://www.allreaders.com/topics/Info_17576.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tyger

Blog: 9 Hero's Quest and Film

The film I will be discussing is Blood: The Last Vampire, which is a 2000 manga directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo. The main character Saya follows the hero's quest very well by her call to action, challenges, revelation, atonement and her disappearance from society which is like her return to never being seen again unless called upon. Each item she uses to stay alive is symbolic to getting her mission complete. Saya's background is unknown to the viewer but the only clues you get is a picture of her in the year 1892 with the word vampire next to it and being called the "the only remaining original".

Her call to action is by her human commander David, informing her on her next assignment which takes place in a high school to kill demons called chiroptra. The symbols that help guide her through her mission and high school is her school uniform which blends her into the environment, her katana which is a Japanese sword to kill the demons hidden in a backpack, a shovel, and a fake sword. Another symbol she uses is her vampire senses like sensing the demons.

Well her challenges are pretty easy to identify like killing the demons at the high school before they kill another student. Saya's other challenge is to do it without causing a scene but nothing is ever done quietly because the nurse ends up seeing Saya kill one of the demons causing her sword to break and watches the second demon transform in front of her. The demon then uses the halloween poster to disguise itself and kidnaps the nurse to try and prevent Saya from attacking it. She ends up using the broken end of the sword that snapped off when she killed the first chiroptra but merely wounds it.

Saya's revelation begins when she notices a third demon appears and the second sword she gets is a fake while trying the kill the second demon causing no damage at all. She finally kills the second demon using a shovel by decapitating its head. David her commander comes to the rescue with a brand new katana and they both hunt down the last chiroptra. With a final swing on a airfield tarmac, she mortally wounds the demon but before it dies. You can see Saya have some atonement for killing it by offering it some of her blood as an apology for the pain she caused. She then disappears with David to never be seen again by any of her associates like she just wants to be left alone or she moved on to another mission.

What the movie is trying to say is that, you should never give up on tough situation's, no matter how hard it gets. We all have to keep in are minds that we can overcome any obstacle presented in front of us. To always help, not just are self's but anyone in need of assistance. Then we all can make are hero's quest come true for others to read and hear about.

Work Cited
Blood: The Last Vampire. Wikipedia.Web. April 27, 2010.

Blood: The Last Vampire. Dir. Hiroyuki Kitakubo. Wiriter. Kenji Kamiyama. Perf. Youki Kudoh, Saemi Nakamura, Joe Romersa. Production I.G.,2000.

Blog 6: Essay 3

I Have A Rendezvous With Death
by Alan Seeger

I have a rendezvous with Death

At some disputed barricade,

When Spring comes back with rustling shade

And apple-blossoms fill the air-

I have a rendezvous with Death

When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand

And lead me into his dark land

And close my eyes and quench my breath-

It may be I shall pass him still.

I have a rendezvous with Death

On some scarred slope of battered hill,

When Spring comes round again this year

And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep

Pillowed in silk and scented down,

Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,

Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,

Where hushed awakenings are dear...

But I've a rendezvous with Death

At midnight in some flaming town,

When Spring trips north again this year,

And I to my pledged word am true,

I shall not fail that rendezvous.

Alan Seeger was an american poet born on June 22, 1888 and died July 4, 1916. During his life he wrote poems but none of his work got the recognition like his "Rendezvous with Death" poem. He had also served in the French Foreign Legion in WW1 but was gunned down at the Battle of Somme. Seeger had written his poem during his time in the war but was unable to published it until a year later after his death. His poems and diary were published all together the same time rendezvous with death was published but didn't reach fame as it did.

The poem has three stanzas with six lines in the first stanza then goes to eight lines in the second stanza then goes to ten lines in the third stanza. The poem has a rhyme scheme for example in the first stanza its ABAAAA . Then in stanza two you have more of a better rhyme like in (line 7 and line 8) " It may be he shall take my hand, and Lead me into his dark land". Notice how at the end of line seven the word hand and the word land at the end of line eight rhyme together. Then when you try to use line nine and ten's last words with seven and eight's you find that they don't sound like their is no music to it. But in all the stanzas one word that sticks out to rhyme with everything is the word death.

The summary of stanza one is that a scene is going on and the writer of the poem is the speaker. Alan is saying that he is waiting for death(line 1) to come at a barricade(line 2) during the spring with apple blossoms are all around him in the air(line 4). In stanza two he depicts a scene where he gives death his hand(line 7) and have Alan guide him. While doing this he closes his eyes and hold's his breath(line 9) hoping that death will pass him(line10) on a battered hill(line 11) during the first meadow flowers(line 12). In the last stanza he depicts a scene of silk that is scented down(line16), love shows its self during sleep(line 17). Then he shows a town in flames during the spring and pledges to see death(lines 21, 22, 24).

In Seeger's poem their is a lot of symbolism in it like the words rendezvous, death, spring, and quench just for example. Their are many more to this poem but it would require an extra full page to explain them. The word rendezvous means "a meeting at a prearranged time and place" but its symbols are appointment, and tryst which is an arrangement between lovers like a date. Then you have the word death which means departure from life and it's symbols are demise, last, and bereavement which means to leave desolate or alone. The word spring had two meaning with two symbols for it like one meaning was to move suddenly and its symbol was natural spring which is a natural flow of water, then the second meaning was the season of growth with a symbol called springtime. Quench means to suppress and its symbols are slake which mean to lessen the force and the word quell which is to suppress also.

The tone in Seeger's poem is some what weird becuase he is talking about death, dark lands, flaming towns, and scarred slope of a battered hill. Then makes it sound beautiful with words like spring, apple blossoms, blue days that are fair, meadow flowers appear, and love throbing. He switches up his mood in each stanza like in the first stanza starts off dark then half way into it he transforms it into something beautiful. The second stanza has a horrific feel from lines 7 - 12 but lines 13 - 14 he says " When spring comes round again this year, and the first meadow flowers appear" seeger softens it up to make it seem like good will come out of it. The third and final stanza he flips it around starting off nice from lines 15 - 19 then goes dark from lines 20 - 24 talking about flaming towns and not wanting to miss death when he shows up. The last two lines lines 23 - 24 " And I to my pledge word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous" is by far the creepiest lines in the whole poem. Waiting to embrace death is something no one wants to do but the narrater invites him with open arms.

In "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" it talks about a soldier in a battle that gets shot and killed during the spring. In it he describes how death will guide him to the afterlife threw destroyed areas like "scarred slope of battered hill"(line 12). Then Seeger talks about how death is coming again next spring to a town in flames where people are asleep and love was once in the air. The poem then seems to fade out in the end with the narrater waiting for death to come and take him away without a problem.

Work Cited
Archer, William. Poems by Alan Seeger. New York, 1916. Google Books. Web. 19 April 2010

"Rendezvous". The Free Dictionary. Copyright,2010.Web. 18 April 2010

"Seeger, Alan". Wikipedia. 22 March 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. .18 April 2010. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Seeger

"Alan Seeger". Poetry Archive. Copyright, 2002.Web. 18 April 2010

Blog 5: Essay 3 Preview

For the third paper I understand what i have to do like describe the poem by analyzing it. I need to also go into more detail about the author, symbolism, tone, mood, give a thesis and not to forget my work cited. I'm confused on the poetic form like the rhyme scheme but I seem to understand everything else. What i need to know to complete the paper is the poetic form, symbols that give a definition of what the poem is about. I need to know connotation and denotation. I actually don't know what poem or song I might write about but I guess I might use essay 2 poem since you said we could use it but I might change it because its starting to get old talking about the same poem.