Last AP English Blog of 2012

I cannot believe that the first semester of senior year is almost over! This class has taught me so much. I think I benefited most from all the essays we write. Even though they are not the most fun thing to do, I feel that my understanding of the prompts and my writing in general has improved tremendously. Some things that I liked are the clips from Hamlet, the movie The Importance of Being Earnest, and the DI's we talked about with our small groups. 
One thing that I did not like was the short story unit. I found it hard to find all of the hidden meanings in the texts. Most of the stories were dark and depressing which makes them more difficult to read. I didn't mind some of the stories like "Most Dangerous Game" and "The Drunkard", but most were just not fun to read.
I am looking forward to the project we will do next semester with our final project proposals. I think this is a really good project and I am very interested in it. Next semester I hope that we have a unit on poetry; I have always been a fan of poetry. I am quite content with the class, and I don't feel anything needs to be changed. 

The Importance of Being Earnest

We have been watching the movie adaptation of the play "The Importance of Being Earnest", and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. At first I was skeptical of any movie we would watch in AP English, but it grew on me.

I think I liked it so much is because it had an excessive amount of drama. While watching the movie, the schemes and tricks of Algernon (Ernest) kept me on the edge of my seat. I also thought the idea that one can have a persona in the city and another in the country was very interesting. It allowed Algernon and Jack to live how they wanted to when visiting each other. There were many "funny" parts in the movie. I put quotes around funny because they were not laugh-out-loud scenes, but scenes that used puns and irony to poke fun at an uptight society. For example, the scene where Gwendolyn says she cannot love anyone that does not have the name Ernest, but does not know that Jack is not actually named Ernest. Another scene that caught my attention was between Aunt Augusta and Algernon, where Algernon says he cannot come to her party because of his sickly, and imaginary, brother Bunbury.

 

This is a very good movie, and if I have some spare time I would love to read the play!