I really enjoyed our English class this semester, and I really appreciated the writing workshops we had.  I thought that my writing skills improved an enormous amount from them.  I learned how to write a strong thesis statement, and it helped to improve my writing not only for English class, but for all my classes.  My history teacher even wrote “strong thesis” on my paper!  Anyways, I felt that this class was extremely beneficial to my writing.  Last semester was a total waste when I think of what I learned about writing, and this semester more than made up for it.  I learned more in these past 15 weeks I feel than I did all last semester.  The writing workshops helped me to become a stronger writer in so many ways.  It helped me to write strong introductions to my papers, to write well developed body paragraphs, a good conclusion, and solid thesis statement.  I always knew the analysis in my body paragraphs should come back to my thesis statement, but I feel that I learned how to do it so much better this semester.  I feel that the things I learned this semester will be so beneficial to me, and I really enjoyed improving on my writing.  I love writing, in fact I would much rather write an essay for a class than take a multiple choice test.  Although I do not always look forward to writing (I tend to be a procrastinator), when I do have the time necessary to work on my papers, I feel the work I put into it can be easily seen.  All in all, I really appreciated everything I learned this semester.  I know I will be able to apply everything I learned to my writing in the future, and it will make me a person with strong writing that can be depended on by others. 

Another thing I liked about this semester was the books we read.  I LOVED Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, yet I know it is a book I would have never chosen to read myself.  I loved the story, the originality of everything, and it was just such a good book.  However, I was not the biggest fan of The PowerBook.  I just never really got into it, and I found it hard to read.  I always put it off, and could have thought of a billion other things I would rather do than read it.  That said though, I thought the book was somewhat interesting, it was another book that I would never have chosen for myself, and it opened the horizons of my reading selections (I am kind of stuck on any Jodi Picoult book right now).  I also really enjoyed The Bloody Chamber.  I had already read most of the stories in it last semester in my German Fairy Tales class, yet I still enjoyed reading them.  The discussions we had on the stories were much different from the ones I had in my class last semester, and I thought the different things the people had to say about it were interesting.  I really enjoyed the discussions we had in class, and I felt they really helped me to understand the novels we read and it helped me when I went to write my papers.

Also, I really liked our blogs.  I thought it was a really original way to integrate risk into our class, and I had fun posting on my blog for class.  Additionally, I think it helped me to think about what I read before I went to class and discussed it with everyone. 

In conclusion, I think that I learned so much from class this semester.  I know my writing improved by leaps and bounds, and I was very excited about that.  I think the way I analyze books is much more thorough, and it is helpful in my writing too.  Have a good summer, and thanks for such a good semester! 

The significance of the fiddle in this story is the life of an instrument.  The fiddle, like any instrument, works just fine when it is brand new, however, without proper care it will need a tune up.  And, over time, a tune up is necessary.  The Erl-King, like the fiddle was in his prime, when he captured many girls and took their virginity.  However, over time his “tricks” began to wear out, and he needed a tune up.  Yet, since he did not have a tune up, he becomes sloppy and careless.  When he does not have a tune up, he is left susceptible to others, and that is how he suffers his fate.

Well, since I took German fairy tales last semester, I have read many versions of alot of fairy tales, some of which I had never heard of before.  So, after reading so many, I decided to chose my favorite one to reread again.  The one I chose to write on is Cinderella.  I thought the Charles Perrault version of this was very different from the Disney one I had grown up knowing.  I thought it was funny the way he said things.  For example, it says “She empoyed her in the meanest work of the house: she scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and scrubbed madam’s chamber, and those of misses, her daughters…” (Perrault).  Cinderella, as the only child of her father, is forced to do the work around the house that would normally be left for the maid.  Also, in this version, the godmother, sends Cinderella to get seven lizards.  In the Disney version, however, the fairy godmother brings the mice to her with the flick of her wand.  In addition, the finer things which the girls have are made out of velvet, gold, silver, and jewels.  I thought that the different things in the story were very interesting.  I couldn’t find it online, but in the Brothers Grimm version, the two step sisters were walking home from the ball when two birds came and plucked out their eyes.  Until I took that class, I had never read anything like that before and I thought it was very interesting, and funny. 

Another quote is “It was night.  He sauntered onto the terrace and was shown a table by a waiter….I went quickly into the hotel, up to the third floor and along the corridor to Room 29.  She was just coming out in a little black dress…” (Winterson 109).  This quote also has alot of risk in it.  Once again, the husband easily could have seen her.  Had he notcied her lurking around him, and appearing to follow him, he could have become very angry and called the police on her.  She also snuck into the room, and her lover could have been angry with her for doing that.  Maybe she wanted this time with her husband to forget her lover, and realize it was a one time thing and they may never see each other again.  But, despite all of this, she still took that risk and went up to the different floors and into the room.  She risked being caught and rejection in this seemingly small act.

My hypothesis (for the time being) is… I argue that despite numerous chances of being caught or rejected, the woman in this sub-story forgets the amount of risk involved, and only sees the prize of time spent with her lover.