Joshua's English Blog

Today we popcorn read from Amy Tang's Joy Luck Club which was pretty neat. Despite how harrowing the subject matter was, I think the novel as a whole is a fun read. It feels very authentic, placing the reader in the shoes of someone whose life could be very different from theirs without alienating anyone. The writing is actually just that good. i'm looking forward to seeing what else the novel has in store since we aren't finished yet. 

 So, during the COVID pandemic in 2020, when things were real bad outside and I was still doing virtual schooling for eighth grade, my mom and I had a big schism over my grades. During that time we were living at my mom's friend's house in Port Washington-a beach town in Nassau County, Long Island-and things had gotten so sour between the two of us that we'd go days without speaking to each other, a habit of ours which we still haven't quite grown past yet. The aforementioned friend of my mom's had a live-in South African au pair named Neo who we both clicked with because the three of us accounted for the only black people in the house (and the rest of the town, damn near) and Neo acted as a mediator to help us simmer down and talk things out like adults. This in-fighting was pretty serious before her intervention, though; my mom confronted me about failing a class and dismissed me from her bedroom by saying "Go be a failure somewhere else". I've neve...

 Today we screened our group presentations concerning Emily Dickinson's poem  I'm Nobody! Who Are You? . I kind of enjoyed this assignment despite the fact that Angelo's lack of work ethic was more than just a little embarrassing. Despite that, I had a fun time working with Isadri and Alejandro and I'd be down to do it again sometime. Everybody else had a cool presentation and I can tell effort was placed into each one.

 I quite enjoyed Monday's lesson, in all honesty. Langston Hughes is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Afro-American poets in the history of the genre. I think I, Too is one of his best works and it has a lot to say about harboring a dual identity and what it means to be black in a world which seeks to diminish and discard you. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.