Blog Reflection

 

Beginning of the Trimester Post:

 Theme-The theme of the Half Blood Prince is one must trust others. This can be seen through out this book and several of the other Harry Potter books.  In the text when Harry is questioning Snape's loyalty to the Order and Dumbledore replies with this statement, "I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely."  Dumbledore has put his complete trust into Snape that he is no longer a Death Eater and that he is truly changed to the good side.  Dumbledore also put much trust in Harry to retrieve Slughorn's memory which was the key to moving on in Harry's private lessons with him. These lessons are very important as stated here, " 'I shall tell you , Harry, when you have retrieved that memory from Professor Slughorn,' said Dumbledore. 'When you have that last piece of the jigsaw, everything will, I hope, be clear... to both of us.' " This shows just how much trust Dumbledore is putting into Harry to get this memory because it not only effects Harry's future, but it could effect the future of everyone because this memory could contain some sort of hint to the number or what objects Lord Voldemort  has selected for his horcuxes.

 Summary- A summary of the chapter The Seer Overheard -Chapter 25- is Ginny and Harry have started dating. Hermione thinks she has figured out who the Half Blood Prince is a girl named Eileen Prince but she can not yet prove that it truly is her who is the Half Blood Prince. Harry disagrees with Hermione completely and is still hot on the trail of Malfoy trying to figure out what he and Snape are supposedly up to. Harry receives a note from Dumbledore he's all excited because this means that Dumbledore has found another horcuxe and he wants Harry to come with him to destroy it. As Harry makes his way to Dumbledore's office he hears Professor Trelawney scream and he investigates and finds that she was in the Room of Requirement and she heard whooping and then was thrown out of the room when she was hit with a spell by an unseen person. Then Trelawney lets it slip that Snape was the one who overheard Harry's prophecy and told Voldemort what he had heard of the prophecy which caused him to come and kill his parents and attempt to kill him but of course he failed. So , Harry is furious and goes on Dumbledore about trusting Snape and how Snape is up to no good with Malfoy etc. Dumbledore tells Harry to get his Cloak of Invisibility and meet him at the entrance hall. Harry does so but also grabs his Felix Felicis -Liquid Luck- and Marauder's  Map and tells Hermione and Ron to watch Snape and Malfoy while he's gone and to alert members of their group -Dumbledore's Army- if they had any problems. Then he meets Dumbledore and they apparate to a cave where the horcuxe is hidden.

 

End of the Trimester Post:

 Theme- One of the many themes of Rick Riordan's House Of Hades is that one must choose their own path.  This is illustrated in House of Hades when Annabeth talks to Damasen, '''The Prophecy of the Seven,' she said. Percy had already climbed out of the bed and was shouldering his pack. He frowned at her. 'What about it?' Annabeth grabbed Damasen's hand, startling the giant. His brow furrowed. His skin was as ruff as sandstone. 'You have to come with us,' she pleaded. 'The prophecy says foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.  I thought it meant Romans and Greeks, but that's not it. The line means us - demigods, a Titan, a giant. We need you to close the Doors!' The drakon roared outside, closer this time. Damasen gently pulled his hand away. 'No, child, he murmured. 'My cruse is here. I cannot escape it.' 'Yes you can,' Annabeth said. 'Don't fight the drakon. Figure out a way to break the cycle! Find another fate.' Damasen shook his head. 'Even if could, I cannot leave this swamp. It is the only destination I can picture.' Annabeth's mind raced. 'There is another destination. Look at me! Remember my face. When your ready, come find me. We'll take you to the mortal world with us. You can see the sunlight and stars.'"(Riordan 314-315)  And we see Damasen's decision when it says, "The Maeonion drakon spread its frilled collar and hissed, its poison breath filling the battlefield with the smell of pine and ginger. It shifted its hundred-foot-long body, flicking its dappled green tail and wiping out a battalion or orges. Riding on its back was a red-skinned giant with flowers in his rust -colored braids, a jerkin of green leather, and a drakon-rib lance in his hand. 'Damasen!' Annabeth cried. The giant inclined his head. 'Annabeth Chase, I took your advice. I chose myself a new fate.'"(Riordan 524). This illustrates the theme because Damasen is a giant a son of two evil forces- Gaea(Mother Earth) and Tartarus (the abyss)- he was born to oppose Ares, war god, so he is the opposite of Ares so Damasen is peaceful and gentle Damasen was crused because he helped mortals. His curse was that every day he must defeat the Maeonion drakon. Annabeth pushes him to break the cycle of the curse to choose his own path, to be who he wants to be. That he can overcome his curse all he needs to do is to believe in himself and build his own path.

 

 Summary- Percy, Bob, and Annabeth are traveling through Tartarus when they come upon arai. If you kill these monsters you will receive a curse of someone you killed that they made with their final breath. Percy of course kills several before learning his lesson. Leaving Annabeth blind(curse from Polythemus) and abandoned (cruse from Calypso). And himself eye twitching, sides bleeding and poisoned with gorgon blood. Bob eventually was able to kill the remaining arai and both he and Percy ran over to Annabeth. Bob touched Annabeth and cured her curses. Bob also tried to heal Percy but the gorgon blood poison was too strong and they needed to find someone to heal Percy. Bob being a Titan knew where they could find someone to heal him. They reached Damasen's hut and Damasen heals Percy and Annabeth tries to convince Damasen to join them on their quest to find the Doors of Death. Their discussion was cut short when the drakon came back and Polybotes ( the anti- Poseidon giant) was on their heels and they had to keep moving to avoid a confrontation with the giant because even though Percy had defeated Polybotes before he and Annabeth were in no shape to be fighting a giant.

 

Analysis: The quality of writing has improved because at the beginning of the trimester I didn’t really go into detail about how my quote supported my theme. I spent more time retelling every single thing that happened in the chapter form which I was pulling the theme instead of focusing on how the theme was conveyed in the text. I also cited more than one place in the text that could back up my theme later in the trimester making my claim stronger. I feel that I gave a little more background info later in the trimester to give the reader more of a sense what’s going on and why things are happening then I did at the beginning of the trimester. This would help them understand even more why I chose the theme I did and how the theme applies to the text.

Questions: One thing I struggled with when blogging was how much detail I should put into summaries because I felt as though I would spoil people if I added certain details but without those details I felt that the other events wouldn’t make sense. I overcame this by being as vague as possible but still giving enough detail that it would flow with the other events and made sense. A strength I had with blogging developed over the trimester. This would be the amount of detail I put into my analysis of the quotes I used to back up my claim. I feel like every time I dissected the quote more and more sometimes mentioning something from a couple paragraphs or pages before the quote I had chosen to show how what I was saying tied in with the rest of the story. I did not reach my reading goal I completed about a third of that goal this trimester. I used good reads to track my reading progress and to like quotes from my favorite books and author.