Thesis development activities from this week> Megan Beers

             This week in class we worked in groups to create an outline for our opened ended question that we had to write on Friday. My group came up with good themes to connect with the book and the question, those themes helped us create a thesis. I feel that this process helped me quite a bit to understand more themes within the book and view different perspectives of how people saw the book. A problem that I found while writing my timed writing was that it was hard to connect with the question. The question being how does the first paragraph and chapter tell the reader what the story is going to be about? Overall this process did help me think more analytically and look into more themes of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
              Throughout the process of creating this outline we were force to find themes within the novel and connect them to the open ended question given to us. To support these themes we were to find examples and quotes within the book and analyze how they also connected to the question. For this week our focus was connecting the themes to the how the beginning of the book tells the story. Our group came up with great themes, but the best one that we found was how the character used art work to hide their true-selves. Now that I look back using this theme for my open ended question, I realized that this theme appeals more to the whole entire book rather than the beginning. Throughout our process of finding quotes we only found one that was in the first the chapter. The activities that our class did throughout this week helped me find new themes and helped me think more analytically, but it didn't really help me understand how to keep focused on the prompt for this week rather than the whole book.
               This process I believe did help me because it set up the boundaries of an open ended question. This was my first open ended question that I have had to tackle, these activities that we did this week definitely prepared me more than I would have been without preparation. This was definitely worth the work and collaboration. If I could go back and add more information I would find more examples that supported the question. Next I will think a little more about how to structure my essay as well. This week time was nit on our side because we never hide time to collaborate with other groups on their ideas which could have been really helpful when coming up with a topic to write about. it would have given me more of variety of themes to think about. It would have also helped if we could have had more time to review our entire outline with the teacher, so we could have gotten advise on what to fix and about connecting it back to the question. Overall I think this experience has taught me how to find themes and look for reoccurring symbols that support those themes.
               

Megan Beers Period 3 Blog #1

Over the summer I chose to read Three Little Words, by Ashley Rhodes-Courter. It is a memoir about a young Ashley Rhodes-Courter, who was taken away from her drug addicted mother and was bounced around fourteen different foster homes within nine years. Throughout her journey, Rhodes-Courter, is forced to endure manipulative and humiliating treatment from abusive foster care families the, being juggled between caseworkers, moved from school to school, and living with the horrific memories of being taken away from her home. This memoir I believe has literary merit, because of complex plot and the capability of changing perspectives to makes its readers reflect deeply on the morals of humanity.



One of the key elements that give a book literary merit is the complexity of the plot. Complex meaning that it makes the reader think about the story and what the story is saying in a deeper meaning; what's underneath the surface? The plot of this book has very complex ideas about the norm within society. Throughout the novel the plot twists and turns; through each change that Courter faced, within the book, she presents a new perspective that challenges her reader to think about how society perceives foster care children. Each section of the plot is designed to question different part of society, one of the most important themes being acceptance. What also makes the plot complex is the use of imagery, motifs, and symbolism. Throughout the plot Courter uses a lot of imagery to bring the reader closer into her situation. By using these elements of literature she make more of an impression on the reader and emphasizes the key elements of her plot that are meant to move the reader.



Another major element that give a book literary merit is the ability to challenge and change perspectives about a certain idea. This book challenges the way that society views foster children. It brings aware the troubles that each one goes through when within in the system.  For a book to have strong literary values it must make its readers question the way society works. One of the main challenges that Courter faces in the book is the morals of society and how foster children are viewed within the social norm. Another major element that gives a book literary merit is the ability to make its reader question the structure and morals of humanity. The main purpose for her writing this book was to bring aware the flaws within the morality of foster care society. Throughout her book Courter questions the difference between norms of society and foster care. Throughout the novel the major question I found myself asking was how could humanity let children be treated poorly and never make a change to fix it? Like many books that I have read for literature classes this one presses and important message about how society works. The struggle with society I believe is seen within many books that are considered to be literary geniuses. Courter portrays these struggles in a very unique way that makes her original and literary.