Blog of the Week 11/11/15

 Prompt: Theme

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Page 263-263

Finished

     In the book, Flush by Carl Hiaasen, theme develops by character, conflict, and plot events. Throughout the whole story, theme develops. Some of the themes are abuse of power. You will learn different characters, which are loving or hateful, could develop theme with their abilities and their power.

     Before I can tell you about the themes in Flush, here is a summary about the book. A kid named Noah Underwood has a dad who got accused for sinking a ship. It was not his fault though. Noah and his dad knew the sneaky things the ship was doing, which is called the Coral Queen. Noah has to face Dusty and create a plan to defeat him to get his dad's name cleared.

     The book has this character called Dusty Muleman was polluting the ocean, which is the person running the Coral Queen, who has abuse of power. This character is stopping Noah to solve this case. The reason why is because he owns the government, the fire department, and the police. He can't go to the police since they are friends with him, which is a challenge for Noah. Since Dusty runs the whole city, he abuses his power and does illegal activities without getting in trouble. After 263 pages of Noah running around like a chicken with his head cut off, he pulls it off and Dusty got into major trouble. Dusty developed a universal theme. As you can see, theme can be developed by conflict and character.

     Another theme developed is family by plot events. Every time Noah and his family try to rattle out Dusty, Noah and his family loved each other more than ever. Noah and his sister bonded. Now they are very close with each other. Each event they hit, more family time is spent. Once they got the family back together, they were unstoppable. So, maybe each time a problem arises, it would be a good thing to involve your family. They would work together and get along very easily.

     As you can see, theme can develop throughout many different ways. Characters, conflict, and plot can do with theme development. Some themes are love, faith, nature, and more. Every book has a theme, which is a message about life or human nature that the writer shares with the reader.

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1st Quarter Reflection

     Being a 7th grader that excels in classes can be tough. You have loads of homework, along with a yearlong challenge on the other hand. That is not all. You have to learn strategies to be organized frequently and to get your work done. Having an accelerated class can be challenging, but that is the main point. You will be surprised how much I learned in ELA in just 1 quarter, which is about 2 months worth of 88-minute classes each day.

     A challenge came up during the beginning of school.  The challenge was to read 40 books in a whole school year. For the challenge, you have to read certain types of books to complete it. Today, I read 3 1/2 books this year, which is not a lot. I have been very busy with homework that I haven't had that much time to read. Powerless by Matthew Cody is the one holding me back. This taught me how to keep track of time. There, you can finish your homework before the clock strikes 10:00 PM, which is when the computer turns off.

     Blogs of mine had a big increase over the weeks. Reading books with new vocabulary can cause better writing style and diction. Before, I was so discombobulated about the word diction, along with the word discombobulated. I have written more often and thinking about having a journal at home to write down my thoughts. This relates to my challenge and affecting the way that I write. I think about the benefits on what to add to blogs to make it even better than before. I've decided to go over the limit of 3 paragraphs to make my blog more descriptive.

     Strategies are huge in 7th Grade. Time management and organization should be 2nd nature by now. Annotating is now easier; all I have to do is write down what I think to help me understand the article more. Spending a number of free time effects how my homework is done, which the maximum is 1 hour for me, until I finish. Using folders in your advantage to stay organize and avoid losing files. These strategies had big impacts on how my homework is done and how I should do it.

     As you can see, being a 7th Grader learns a lot in only 2 months. Every day, homework stacks each day with other things as well. All that work is worth it. You really have to manage life to exceed life. Memory plays a lot, which is why we always learn to strengthen our memory. Thank you Mrs. Larson, thank you.