Reflection

Part 1

Cattle Chase

This first piece that I wrote is called "Cattle Chase". It is a memoir about my past experience of getting chased by a herd of cattle. I started out writing this by making a list of everything I thought of when I thought about my story. Then I wrote my rough draft. I had to go back and include the brushstroke rules. This really helped to enhance my writing. I also got classmates to read over my story to help aid me in my writing process. All of these things helped me to better my writing and strengthened my skills.

Hester's Downfall

This piece that I wrote is called "Hester's Downfall". It is an essay about how the Puritans' punishment affected Hester's life and personality. This essay's theme was how Hester was a scapegoate and how it affects that person. I chose a topic, then brainstormed. Ideas just flew into my head. I then wrote a rough draft. I didn't have do too many revisions. This essay helped me to analyze literature better. It will definetly help me for future essays.

Part 2

Cattle Chase

In the revision stages I had to add many brushstrokes. My sentence used to be "I look up and the whole herd is chasing us." After adding ther brushstroke absolutes it is now "With legs quivering, I look up and the whole herd is chasing us." I also changed the awkward sentence "I started out having fun, but quickly turned into something scary." The new and improved sentence is "I started out having fun, but quickly became scared."

Hester's Downfall

In the revision stages of this piece I had to fix my thesis statement. I had to say what Hawthorne was trying to show through the punishment. At first it wasn't in there, but now the sentence is"Hawthorne was making Hester the "scapegoat" of the novel. She was the one who got recognized for her wrongdoing when I'm sure many other people in that town did it too." I also had to change things to present tense. I had to change the sentence from, "Hester made a mistake by committing adultery.'' To "Hester makes a mistake by committing adultery."

Part3

The three most important things that I learned from my classmates are voice from Cauley Simmons. "...of a little thing i like to call 'gravity'." This shows her personality and makes the essay more fun to read. It's important for me to remember so that I can enhance my writing. http://princessllama.blogspot.com/ Another thing that I learned from a classmate is from Allie Elrod, "Hot, the dark, black shingles." This is great detail that I need to remember to include because it helps you to really feel like you were there. From Natalie Royals I got this quote,"Through the whole play we see what a strong and sweet character Elizabeth is." This displays how she can persuade in an essay. I need to learn to do this as well because many essays are showing your opinions and I need to know how to do that.

Hester's Downfall
Ellen Ashley


In society people have gotten the want to put other people down and make them feel inferior than everyone else. This is not anything new. It's been going on for many, many years. By doing this it can really make a person feel terrible about themselves. This is exactly what the Puritans tried to do to Hester Prynne by forcing her to wear the scarlet letter. Hawthorne was making Hester the "scapegoat" of the novel. She was the one who got recognized for her wrongdoing when I'm sure many other people in that town did it too.
Hester makes a mistake by committing adultery. To punish her, the Puritans force her to permanently wear the scarlet letter A to signify what she did. This publicly humiliates her and that is just the goal. Hester's spirit is immediately broken. She is embarrassed and feels like she will lose control.
"But under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of lungs and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once" (55).
Clearly it is already beginning to take a toll on her. It will only get worse.
Hester gets more and more secluded as the book goes on. She lives in a cottage a little ways out of town. Also she doesn't speak to anyone when she does go into town and she got to a point where she would put her hair up in a bonnet and not let one pretty dark lock be shown. That shows that she doesn't take pride in herself or think that she is worthy of even the slightest thing like saying hello to someone. She is so ashamed that it makes her not happy. "Hester's first motion had been to cover her bosom with her clasped hands" (94). Hester doesn't even want it to be shown at times. Her shame and guilt will soon become more than she can handle.
Not only is she ashamed and miserable, she is also lonely. "Her only real comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep. Then she was sure of her..." (89). After everyone has abandoned her and treated her badly, Hester finds comfort in knowing that her daughter is there. Hester feels alone but knows she has a daughter and that she does have someone in the world that loves her. Though this doesn't always mend her broken heart.
No one can blame Hester for the way that she's feeling. She lives outside of town and is looked down upon by everybody. It is no wonder that she is lonely, ashamed, and sad. People need to learn that making others feel badly about themselves and putting them down doesn't do any good for anybody. Society needs to change its old ways for the future.

The Cattle Chase Ellen Ashley

I started out having fun, but quickly became scared. My sister Katie Beth, her friend, Kris, and I were playing at our barn. We acting silly that day, decided to go swimming (active voice) in our pond-in our clothes. So we were swimming and having a good old time when they decided that they wanted to go play in the pasture where all the cows were. So they hop out and start running that way. Well, me the younger and impressionable adjective out of order-Ellen Ashley 8/31/07 11:09 AM one and wanting to play with the big girls, I followed. Now, in this pasture were a lot of cattle. It started out the cows were on the other side of the pasture opposite of us and they really didn't care we were in there...until Katie Beth and Kris began mooing. There's this little trail going to the water trough all around the pasture, it's basically like a dirt line that the cows walk on; and Katie Beth and Kris started acting like cows walking on it. They were too busy acting like cows to notice, but I saw a black cow starring at us and he did not look happy. I was getting nervous and wanted to leave so I told them, "There's a cow that looks really angry. Let's go." They completely ignored me and before I knew it, he was running towards us. "Y'all, that cow is coming after us, get up!" I tried to warn them, but they still didn't listen. With leg's quivering (absolute) , I look up and the whole herd is chasing us. I didn't waste anytime, I started running as fast as I could yelling "Get up! Come on!" They finally got the message and took off. Running quickly (participle) my bare feet were going so fast I wouldn't be surprised if my feet were a blur. I turned around and saw them coming up behind me, with the black one in front. I was almost to the fence, then I'd be safe and no more terror. I was horrified. All I could think about was an old western movie that I had seen with my dad a couple of days earlier, where a boy had fallen off of his horse and gotten trampled by a herd of cattle and died. Geez el that's pretty morbid... -Cauley I thought that the same thing was going to happen to me. I finally got to the fence, holding up my wet shorts and jumped over that thing like a bunny rabbit. Katie Beth and Kris just stood there trying to catch our breath thinking about what a disaster that could have turned out to be. We calmed down and began to walk back down the driveway to get back to the barn-we weren't going through the pasture again!

My favorite quote is "it's just chill"