Journal Due 5/26/14

Critique your novel of choice. Did you like it? Is it well-written? Did you connect with a particular character or plot line?

I am really glad I read The Golfinch by Donna Pratt. The figurative language made it so that I could picture everything that was said, even though I've only been to New York a few times and have never been to Las Vegas. I think that the author did a great job of developing the characters. For example, in the beginning of the book, the reader only knows what Theo's dad is like from Theo's flashbacks and descriptions of him. Later on in the book, when he goes to live with his dad, the reader slowly learns more about his dad so that he seems like a realistic person. The one thing that I really did not like was the spelling and grammar in the book. There were several occasions where words were misspelled or there were run on sentences. Donna Pratt is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and I was surprised and disappointed in the fact that her book hadn't been copy edited well.

Journal due 5/12/14

Write a character sketch of the main character(s) in your novel - the primary protagonist and antagonist. You should include information such as age, gender, appearance, primary goals, personality traits, and backstory.

Theodore, or Theo as everyone calls him, Decker is a fifteen-year-old boy who lived with his mother in New York City. He gives the impression of being a good kid, but the book starts out with him and his mother going to meet with his school because he was suspended. He's a very smart kid, but he doesn't do his work, so he has average grades. When the book starts out, he doesn't really have an appreciation for art, but he has a great eye for detail once he starts working in an antique store in downtown NYC. He is bitter because he feels that his mother's death was his fault, despite other people telling him that it wasn't his fault. He has good intentions, but oftentimes, like when he took a painting from the museum because it was a dying man's last request, he doesn't make the best decisions. He's fairly trusting of people, which is interesting because a lot of the time people pull away from society when they lose a loved one like he did. I think it will be interesting to see how his willingness to trust people he just met continues as he grows into adulthood.  

Journal due 5-5-14

This ad is made by Maybelline. I would definitely say that the target audience for this ad is women because the only thing in the ad other than the product is the face of a woman using the product. This woman had a flawless face and yours eyes are drawn to hers because they are outlined in black and bright blue. There isn't much else that distracts you from her eyes. Her hand partially covers her mouth, but it doesn't really pull your attention away from her eyes. The message of the ad is that is you use their mascara, you will have very thick, long, eyelashes. However, if you look closely at the bottom left hand corner of the ad, it says that her lashes are "styled with lash inserts." This means that it is probably extremely unlikely that your eyelashes will actually look like the models even if you use their product.