Sam Ehmann AP Lit Summer Blog

The independent reading novel that I chose to read,  The Shipping News , takes place in a small Newfoundland town that is heavy into the fishing and shipping industries. In some way every job is connected to the sea, be it writing about ship wrecks for the paper, doing ship repair, or just working on a ship. And this reminded me of our town's own shipping industry. And while it is nowhere nearly as large as an international port in Newfoundland, it is still a large part of my childhood memories. My grandparents have a house on the north side of lake Mackatawa on a place called Chippawa point. Their living room has an immense window that faces the lake, and I would spend many summer days sitting and watching the boats go past, the Holland Princess, the Sunquest, and the large coal barges. The lake has a large shipping channel spanning its length from the outlet to Lake Michigan, to the now abandoned coal plant at the other end. This is regularly used for deliveries of coal or grav...

My independent reading book The Shipping News  is very nautical themed. Centering on Newfoundland, and its long history and people, the book calls upon a bygone era of hardworking men and women who are almost gone. Almost every chapter is named after some kind of knot, and begins with a diagram of said knot, and a brief description from The Ashley Book Of Knots . These descriptions vary from explaniations of their uses, to old stories about their history. And it was this constant exposure to knots and their long significance that made me interested in them. On top of this the most recent pair of shoes I purchased have diagrams of how to tie knots in the soles, so really knots have just been on my mind. Last week on the day all of the seniors were "sick" I went out to lunch with a friend at the windmill restaurant, and after explored the windmill antique store. While meandering through the long halls of shelves, I stumbled across "The Boater's Knot Tying Game,"...

Before starting this unit, I was unfamiliar with the work of Lucille Clifton, having maybe heard the name once or twice but never in association with a particular poem. But this exploration has been extremely enlightening for me, both to her and her work, but also the deep topics that her concise poems address. The poem that completely captured my attention and made me pause, was "wishes for sons". Based on the title alone I expected to find her doting a mother's hopes and dreams on to her children, imagining all the wonderful things they would accomplish in the world. But instead what I was confronted with was a curse, wishing them to experience the pain and problems of womanhood, the cramps, clots, hot flashes and white skirts. It was so unlike what I was expecting to experience, that the venom in her voice penetrated deep into my thoughts, creating a home for itself among my other notions. But perhaps I was simply foolish in my expectations. Her poems often encompa...