The Adventure by Angels & Airwaves

Hey, this is something I'm doing for Pyschology. Will you read and comment please?

Lyrics

 I wanna have the same last dream again,
the one where I wake up and I'm alive.

Just as the four walls close me within,

my eyes are opened up with pure sunlight.

I'm the first to know,

my dearest friends,

even if your hope has burned with time,

anything that's dead shall be re-grown,

and your vicious pain, your warning sign,

you will be fine.

Hey, oh, here I am,

and here we go, life's waiting to begin.

Any type of love - it will be shown,

like every single tree reach for the sky.

If you're gonna fall, I'll let you know,

that I will pick you up like you for I,

I felt this thing,

I can't replace.

Where everyone was working for this goal.

Where all the children left without a trace,

only to come back, as pure as gold,

To recite this all.

Hey, oh, here I am,

and here we go, life's waiting to begin.

Tonight,

hey, oh, here I am,

and here we go, life's waiting to begin.(2X)

I cannot live, I can't breathe

unless you do this with me(6X)

Hey, oh, here I am (do this with me),

and here we go, life's waiting to begin (do this with me).

Hey, oh, here I am (do this with me).

And here we go, life's waiting to begin,

life's waiting to begin.

The singer starts out describing a dream where he is alive to the fullest. He creates an image of epiphany with the idea of sunlight and closing walls. He gets a glimpse of something better that could be before his vision goes back to the way things are. The chorus shares this idea of something more, something beyond life up until this point. “Life’s waiting to begin.” I can totally relate to that line. The whole song embodies the longing for more out of life, the position of someone not totally satisfied with their life. I relate to this longing; I think there is more to life than what I am experiencing in high school, and I cannot wait until I experience what is beyond high school. The second verse describes a sort of utopia. He describes it as a community in which “everyone was working for this goal”. The song in general sends the message that life could be better, and will be better if we just let it begin. This closely matches my outlook on life right now. I feel almost over prepared with all the advice and preparation for my future. I know that the advice, for the most part, is good, but I don’t think any amount of advice will keep me from making mistakes. I will, hopefully, not make any dumb mistakes, but messing up is a part of life and I am sure that I will mess up several times, which is not a bad thing. I’m ready for the rest of my life to begin.

The general sound of the piece is upbeat. There is a steady beat all the way through and the chord progression repeats every 4 bars. This format is very comfortable and laid back. It fits with the whole idea of letting life just begin. The song is also upbeat which also adds to the sense of security.

Wallflowers - Poetry Blog #1

I really enjoyed reading "Wallflowers". It is a poem about words. The words in the poem are like little characters just waiting to be noticed. The form of the poem is very loose. There are 5 stanzas. The 1st, 3rd and 4th stanzas have four lines, the 2nd stanza has two lines, and the last stanza has 6 lines. I could find no rhyming pattern. I think the free verse fits the topic. The poem is very light and cheerful. It starts out playfully; the author plays with an idea that has just recently occurred to him. Then thinking about it deeper, the author wonders what the lonely, unclaimed words feel. The first idea is solemn. It would be depressing if the words felt that way. The second idea is more merry, there is more chance for hope, for a better future. In the last part, the author comes up with a way for the words to shine; the author invites the words into his poem glow. The poem follows the natural progression of idea, and flows really well, even without a set structure.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby was a bit more upbeat than The Kite Runner, but not much. The Great Gatsby highlights the hypocrisy and the effect of misunderstandings in the upper class in the 1920's. The main example of this is Tom. He has a wife, Daisy, and a mistress, Myrtle, yet he is appalled to find that his wife is in love with a man, Gatsby, that she has not seen for 5 years, and that she wants to split up. Daisy is a bit whimsical; she abandons Gatsby at the first sign that Gatsby has a bad past. Gatsby is one of the only gentlemen in the whole book. His love of Daisy is such that he will do anything for her, included covering for her when she accidently hits and kills Myrtle while driving Gatsby's car. Tom believes Gatsby is responsible for killing Myrtle, so he tells his Myrtle's husband that Gatsby did it. The husband, Wilson believes that Gatsby is the person that was having an affair with Myrtle, and that Gatsby was angry with Myrtle, so he killed her. Wilson confronts Gatsby and both men end up dead. Nick, the narrator of the whole story, appears to be one of the only true friends Gatsby had even though Nick knew him the least. Nick is one of the few people to show up at Gatsby's funeral. Niether Tom nor Daisy realized the effect that thier actions had on the life of Gatsby. Nick ends up being disgusted with them and concludes that life is an endless struggle to the past with the hope that this time you'll be able to make, this time you'll get what missed the first time. That is what Gatsby was doing. He wanted to marry Daisy, to make things the way they were 5 years ago.

The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is a disturbing but well written book. It focuses on one man's struggle to rid himself of guilt throughout his lifetime. I don't really know where to start with this book. I haven't read anything like it before. Parts of it are really hard to relate to because I have no experience in this type of environment. The whole book has to do with events going in circles. Amir, the main character is constanly getting a second chance, in a convoluted way. He is saved from Assef by Hassan. He then stands by and does nothing while Assef rapes Hassen a few years later. As an adult, Amir finds himself in a simular situation: Assef is only thing standing in Amir's way when Amir goes back to Afganistan to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab. This time Amir fights Assef. Assef still has the upper hand and probably would have killed Amir if Sohrab had not rescued Amir with a slingshot. Ironically, this is the same way Hassan protected Amir years earlier. After Amir gets Sohrab out of Afganistan, the book seems to be almost dragging, like getting out of Afganistan was where it was supossed to resolve everything, and life goes on, happily ever after. But this is not to be, before getting to America, Sohrab tries to commit suicide rather that go to an orphanage (which, ironically, he never had to go to). This development makes Sohrab and Amir have troubles with thier relationship, which makes Amir feel guilty again. At the very end of the book, Amir "runs a kite" for Sohrab just as Hassan did for Amir so many years ago, bringing the whole book full circle with the hope of a better future.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The Heart of Darkness was one of the shortest long books I have ever read. It was only 72 pages long, yet it took a couple weeks to get thourgh. As near as I can tell, Conrad uses the book to show what drives different people. In the jungle, the men reverted to their simplest forms. Each man had to find something to live for in order to not give up on life. Mr. Kurtz, for example, lived for the acquisition of ivory and power. The Russian was so devoted to Kurtz because Kurtz represented a greater purpose. Even outside to jungle, Kurtz's Intended needed his memory to live for. The other thing the jungle did was bring out the faults of the men. Kurtz was power hungry, and with no people around to judge him, Kurtz was barbaric. Once he was among white men again, he seemed to understand what he had done (his dying words being "the horror, the horror"). Another point that Conrad seemed to push was that women create an alternate world. The two main examples were Marlow's aunt, who thought that the jungle was this savage place full of adventures and missionaries, and Kurtz's Intended, who believed that Kurtz was faithful to the last, and would have been heart broken to learn otherwise. In a way, though, the men also created thier alternate worlds. Kurtz had his savages to worship him. The trading company had its ivory. People within the company were focused on different positions to hold. Everyone had a focus upon which they built thier world.