I've started reading Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and for this first assignment, I read the first four chapters:

In the first four chapters, we are introduced to some of the characters (Scarlett O’Hara, Gerald O’Hara, Stuart and Brent Tarleton, Ellen O’Hara, Ashley Wilkes, and Mammy) and we learn that Ashley Wilkes is marrying Melanie, though Scarlett wants him to marry her. Scarlett is going to try to win him back and run away with him, which could lead to some interesting results and, consequently, future plotlines and problems. Some big themes are jealousy, pride, gender roles, relationships, racism, and the culture of the South in the 1860s.

Racism and the relationship between whites and slaves is a huge part of Gone With the Wind, because it is set in the South in the 1860’s, in a slave-holding community. The O’Haras are slave holders, and they have hundreds of slaves. It’s interesting to read, because you can see a bit of bias in Margaret Mitchell’s writing. She writes that the slaves don’t mind being slaves, and that they are fiercely loyal to their masters, and that they are perfectly happy. In this book, the slaves have social classes, where even the lowest-ranking field hand is higher than any white or black who is a member of a plantation that has fewer slaves than their plantation does. According to Jeems, the Tarleton twins’ slave, “[Jeems’s] own social status was assured because the Tarletons owned a hundred negroes and, like all slaves of large planters, he looked down on small farmers whose slaves were few.” The slaves apparently enjoy being in their masters’ services, and wouldn’t ever think of running away. However, you can see that the white people definitely hold themselves higher. There are slaves to do everything from carry your sewing box from room to room to swat the wild turkeys away from the porch to work the best cotton land in the world, which of course the white slave owners would never, ever think of doing—that’s for the lesser folk. They treat the slaves like inferiors, just like many of the actual whites did in the days of slavery. While the slaves seem to like being slaves, you can definitely see racism is a big thing in this book and will probably develop into something even bigger when the war starts. I wonder how the slaves will react to the war, and if they will be so keen to stay with their masters once the promise of freedom starts circulating.

Here's some writing on "Song for a Dark Girl" by Langston Hughes

First, the actual poem:

Song for a Dark Girl by Langston Hughes

Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
They hung my black young lover
To a crossroads tree.

Way Down South in Dixie
(Bruised body high in air)
I asked the white Lord Jesus
What was the use of prayer.

Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.

"Song for a Dark Girl" by Langston Hughes is about the plight of African Americans in the South. The narrator, a young woman, is talking about how the white men lynched her lover and how Jesus is "white" and can't help her. This is a sad, morose tale that happens to be full of irony. One ironic thing in this poem is the fact that it's really only the white people creating the image that Jesus is white that makes people think that. In reality, he wasn't, as he was born in what is today the Middle East. I think that another ironic thing is that they 'nailed her black young lover to a crossroads tree'. For me, the word 'crossroads' means that two roads (or something a road is representing) are intersecting and converging. However, in this poem, I believe that it represents the fact that the two roads (or whites and slaves) could not merge; they could not intersect. It is ironic that they hung him there because it kind of symbolizes an obstacle in the path to desegregation and the intersecting and merging of the two races. The song Hughes incorporated in the poem is ironic, as well. "Way down south in Dixie" is something that racist whites would sing, and Hughes put it in his poem about the horrible injustices and crimes the African Americans had to go through. This poem is a sad reminder of the challenges and prejudices of the past and the challenges and prejudices we have yet to overcome.

Hola, Geekwad here...

Here's some more homeschooling documents. I've read "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton and done some writing on it and the concept of irony.

The story “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton is laced generously with irony, some blatant and some hidden. In this story, two women are talking about their youth in Rome while on a Roman holiday and a secret is revealed, probably ending their friendship.

Irony is first revealed when you see the two women's interactions. The author informs us that they lived “opposite each other their whole lives,” meaning not only that they were nothing alike but also that they lived across the street from each other. It talks about them having an “intimate relationship” and being friends since they were young girls. However, when you look at their interactions and conversations, you notice that it's full of snide comments and one-upmanship. Mrs. Slade is very blatant and says some rude things meant to get a rise out of Mrs. Ansley, and Mrs. Ansley is obviously shaken up and kind of mutters and whispers things. Then at the end, we learn Mrs. Ansley's secret and all of a sudden she's at the top and Mrs. Slade is on the bottom, instead of the other way around.

Irony is revealed to us as well in the two women's children. Barbara, or “Babs,” Mrs. Ansley's daughter, is out-spoken, confident, and generally much more like Mrs. Slade than Mrs. Ansley. Jenny, however, is Mrs. Slade's daughter, and is typically quiet, sweet, and angelic, much more like Mrs. Ansley than Mrs. Slade. Mrs. Slade confesses that she would rather have Barbara as a daughter unless she was an invalid, which is ironic, as Barbara is actually Mr. Slade’s daughter.

At the end is some serious irony that absolutely no one expects. We learn that Mrs. Ansley had an itch for Mrs. Slade's betrothed, and that Mrs. Slade had written a fake note to Mrs. Ansley that the man would meet her at the Colosseum after dark, and this is what caused Mrs. Ansley to catch Roman Fever. However, we then learn that Delphin, Mrs. Slade's fiancée, was at the Colosseum because Mrs. Ansley had written back to him and told him that she would be there. Then, the biggest surprise of all, we learn that Babs is actually Delphin's child and not Mr. Ansley's at all! At the end when Mrs. Ansley breaks the news, she becomes the outspoken one in our minds, and the roles are completely reversed.

Irony was a big part of the story. What we had first believed was completely turned around and we ended up with a surprise ending that nobody would have thought of. The irony makes the story extremely interesting and much more fun to read than just a transcript of two people talking about their youth. Irony turned this story into an extremely interesting and fun tale to read.

I've also written an alternate ending to the story:

“Well, I should feel sorry for you! I mean, I had him for twenty-five years and you had one letter that he didn’t even write!”

“But I didn’t need that letter,” Mrs. Ansley said softly.

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t need the letter,” she said a little more loudly. “I didn’t need the lette,r because in the end, he was mine.”

“Y-yours?” spluttered Mrs. Slade. “You never had him except for one night in the Colosseum!”

“Yes,” Mrs. Ansley said thoughtfully, “I did have him then. But that night, many years later, that night when he didn’t come home, and you stood by the door waiting for him to accompany you to the Jones’s party—I had him then too. And he never came home after that.” Her eyes were filled with malice.

“Wh-what are you saying?”

“I’m just saying”—Mrs. Ansley gave a mirthless laugh—“I’m just saying…well, let me put it this way: I never invited you over to my house after he died, did I?”

“No…” Mrs. Slade nervously glanced at the wall surrounding the two women, as though wondering how fast she could hop it.

“Well, then, you never saw the new carpet in the back room, you know the one, overlooking the river?”

“No, I didn’t see that. But why does-“

“Alida. I put the carpet down in the back room to cover up the bloodstains.”

Here's some things I've written for my homeschool class for LA:

This was written in response to the story "Story of an Hour"--

Mrs. Louise Mallard had two kinds of heart trouble: one physical, and one mental. The most prominent one was her physical trouble. She had an obviously significant heart disease keeping her from being able to exert herself or take shock very well. Her husband kept her from doing really much of anything in the hope that it would keep her safe and healthy and prolong her life, until he died and she found herself “drinking in a very elixir of life.” He never looked upon her “save but with love,” and she “had loved him—sometimes.” However, this led to her other heart problem, this time causing her emotional and mental grief.

She had never really noticed that she had no life save one inside her home where she was perfectly safe until after she got the word that her husband was killed in a horrific train accident. Then she looked out of her window onto the world which she had never experienced—both metaphorical and physical. She could see her freedom poking down through the clouds and in the words of a far off song, but she could not reach it and grasp it until she opened herself up. Louise had closed herself off from the world just like her family members and husband had in order to keep her safe, so this was not at all easy. In her husband's absence, his friend Richards took over—first breaking the news to her as gently as possible and then shielding Mr. Mallard from her when he came home, though he wasn't fast enough. Her sister also contributed, whispering through the keyhole: “Louise! What are you doing? Come out, you'll make yourself ill!” Everyone tried so hard to keep her safe, but in the end, it was the two heart troubles that killed her.

This was written after rereading "The Fellowship of the Ring"--

Lord of the Rings: Poem Form

The Fellowship of the Ring

Up in the Shire, where they're all half-grown

Where they dwell in holes in the hills green and brown

Gandalf was late coming with the fireworks

But he came in time, and created sparks!

Bilbo Baggins was eleventy-one

The party was a lot of fun

With everyone full from food and drink

Of the evil present, no one would think

He said at last his great big Speech

Many manners and etiquette he did breach

But at the end, as he was done

He vanished with a flash and ran off home

He left on his trip to mountains tall

And valleys wide and Dwarves' halls

He found the Fair in Rivendell

But left the Ring where Frodo dwells

“Keep it secret; keep it safe,”

Gandalf leaned in, whispering to Frodo with haste.

“I'm going to my leader, the great Wizard wise

To see what we can do about the Dark Lord's spies.”

Frodo lived in peace for awhile

but then he found himself without a smile

The Nazgul had taken up to the skies

and were searching for the Ring with hisses and cries.

Gandalf insisted he make for Bree

“It's the only place safe for your company!”

Frodo met Strider, a Ranger of the North,

Who would save him from Man, Wraith, and Orc.

They were headed for Weathertop, the great Amon Sul,

Where Men of old could watch o'er the moor

They could see far and wide all across that land

But it had fallen into disrepair by the Dark Lord's hand.

The Hobbits set up camp in a nice little hollow

Not seen by anyone, not a finch or swallow

But the Wraiths caught up, called by the Ring

And attacked the four, not daunted by Sting.

Strider came up, like a King of Old,

And his face was full of fury terrifying to behold

He seemed full of light, a lion ready to roar

But once the Wraiths left he became small once more.

The Witch-King of Angmar drove his sword

Through Frodo's left shoulder, while the rest of his horde

Had kept the others busy, they didn't know

That Frodo had put on the Ring and the Witch-King spoke

Where the heck was Gandalf? The three hobbits asked

And Strider said he may have already passed

Three days ago, from the look of this rune

Let's hope that up here he did not meet his doom

They fled to Rivendell, where the Elves call home

And Arwen came to fetch Frodo alone

She outrode the Wraiths up to the Fords

And the Wraiths were washed away from the shores.

As Elrond extracted the Morgul-blade shard

Embedded in Frodo's shoulder, Gandalf came up, riding hard

Saruman turned traitor, he warned them all;

He had turned and answered Mordor's call.

“Oh, what will we do?” asked the Hobbits four

“We cannot make it all the way to Mordor!”

They held a High Council in Rivendell then,

To find a team to trek over hill, knoll, and glen.

Frodo whispered, “I will go,” and much to his surprise

He would be accompanied by Gandalf most wise.

And Strider with sword and Legolas with bow;

Gimli with axe and Boromir with his horn to blow.

The four Hobbits short, with their Wizard guide,

And two Men and an Elf and a Dwarf by their side,

Formed the Fellowship of the Ring, the second group of Nine,

To rival even the group by the Dark Lord's design.

They found out also on that infamous day,

That Stider wasn't a lone Ranger like they say,

He was the descendant of Isildur of Gondor,

Heir to the throne, though he chose to wander.

They made for the Pass of Rohan, but the crebain blocked that,

And it went too close to Isengard, where Saruman sat,

So they made for the mountain Caradhras tall,

But then the great peak began to fall.

Caradhras was breaking, and rocks were plummeting down,

And Legolas leaped up from the ground,

saying, “There's a fell voice on the air!” to all that could hear,

And to which Gandalf turned a listening ear.

“Saruman!” he cried. “What the devilry is this?”

You betray us and now you seek to keep us from our quest!”

He added some wizardry and spells of his own,

And Saruman, giving up, let them backtrack down.

“We cannot go that way, certainly not, oh no,”

Said Legolas walking on top of the snow,

“And where else can we turn? The North? The South?”

“Nay, said Gimli, “But if you hear me out,

“I will tell you one other way we could go,

Underneath the trees and hills and snow,

Away from the spies and deadly foes.

To Moria! To Moria let us go!”

Gandalf sighed; his face gray,

He proclaimed that there was no other way.

“We'll have to go,” he whispered with regret.

“But there is danger there that we have seldom thought of yet.”

They trekked down to Moria, the great halls of stone,

Hollowed out by dwarves in ages long ago,

The Mines of Moria are famous, but some say

That they're cursed by the one they call Durin's Bane.

A creature of fire, of doom, of death,

It resides in Moria, woken by the breath

Of living creatures once more roaming the halls

Casting lantern-light on the once dark, dark walls.

They met on the bridge of Khazad-dum,

Gandalf, Wizard, and Balrog, creature of doom,

“You shall not pass! Never!” he cried,

But he fell, and he told them, “You fools! Fly!”

Gandalf had wanted Aragorn to lead them then,

And they made for the safe woods of Lothlorien

Where they met Galadriel, Lady of Light,

And she listened to them and heard of their plight.

Frodo looked into the Mirror with her,

And saw what had not yet been seen nor heard,

He saw the Shire, his home, his heart,

Being taken over by the Lord of the Dark.

“What can I do?” he cried, uncertain

Of whether or not the final curtain

For the last act of the great play of the Shire

Had fallen yet, or was still hanging higher.

“You can destroy it,” she whispered, and he offered the Ring

To her, and it seemed the air began to sing

As she grew great and terrible as the dawn,

But she refused to take it, for its hold on her would be strong.

“It must be you,” she insisted. “Me?”

Frodo asked. “I'm not at all ready!

“I'm just a little Hobbit from the Shire afar,

Me? No, I can't. I'm much too small.”

“No one is too small to save the world,”

she said, and she turned without another word.

She gave them gifts as they departed

All of them downtrodden and heavy-hearted.

They passed through wood and field and fen,

Across moor and plain and gorge and glen

They found Rauros tall and made camp there,

For they heard the Orcs and trembled with fear.

Aragorn found the high seat Amon Hen

And sat upon it, then rose again

For it gave no better council than Elrond wise,

And he looked over the land and then looked to the skies.

He looked in time to see a splotch,

Getting bigger all the time, now more than a dot,

But a monster with wings and a fell rider,

And still it grew ever larger and wider.

Legolas knocked a single arrow

And pulling it back, he let it go

Up past the trees and birds it would fly,

Until it hit its target high up in the sky.

He shouldered his bow again and turned around

Saying, “They're no longer just on the ground,

I've stopped something but that was just his steed,

The Nazgul are getting powerful indeed.”

The Orcs caught up and attacked right then,

having chased the group up, down, and up again

The hills and vales and valleys low

But still they had a long way to go

To Mordor, though it seemed these Orcs would make sure

That they would never get there ever, or worse,

Slaughter them and take the Ring,

Which would, of course, be the end of everything.

Aragorn and Boromir, the two Men tall,

Stood back to back and let their blows fall

And cut down Orcs left and right,

Until Boromir left did the two Men ever think of flight.

Boromir was taken by the Ring,

TO him it meant everything

And he wanted it for himself, for his very own,

Which caused him to leave battle and track Frodo down.

He fought Frodo for it, but Frodo got away,

And ran to the boats, and with Sam still on the bay,

Tried to escape, but Sam caught up,

And rode away with Frodo down the River, and then what?

Legolas and Gimli found Aragorn down

On his knees, and Legolas said with a frown,

“Are you ill? Wounded? What did you do?”

And Aragorn stood up, and they saw and they knew,

That Boromir had been slain in battle at last,

And though he was mighty, the Orcs were too fast,

So they sent him down the falls on a boat,

With the swords of his enemies down by his foot

And his mighty shield on his chest and his hair spread out,

He looked in his glory, and they sent him down

The great falls of Rauros, and sang a song

About his glory and mighty life long.

And they turned away and went back to the woods,

And Legolas stopped and looked through the goods

Then looked up and said with dismay

“Where are the little Hobbits? I cannot find the boat at the cay.”

Aragorn sighed and said in a low tone,

“Frodo and Sam have gone on alone.

I let them go, it will be easier with two

Than five of us to follow through.

“But,” he said, “I intend

To help them even if from five or ten

Or one hundred thousand leagues away,

And I hope you will too, though that they won't need us, I pray.

“Now, about the other two,

Merry the bold and Pippin the true,

The Orcs captured them and took them west,

Towards Isengard, or Rohan at best.

“Who will go with me west, I ask?

Who will carry the burden and shoulder the task?

You must be strong, and loyal, and brave,

For we will run through the night and on through the day!”

“I will,” said Gimli,”

“And I,” said Legolas,

And they all turned and started running through the woods and far to the west,

To find their friends who were stolen by he who at Isengard rests.

Message from Saruman:

Ha ha ha! You three companions bold,

Who run over field and plain and Wold,

who are you to think that you can stop the power

Created by the union of the Two Towers?

Duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Hope you enjoy them!

Sincerely, Geekwad :)