TOPIC SELECTION.

Picking an individual for the National History Day topic wasn't that hard at all. The theme was about an individual in history.
So, I picked...
Elvis Presley: Rock & Roll !

I know it's kind of a big topic so I'm going to narrow it down to one specific subject. I'm satisfied with my idea though; it's fresh & probably original. =)

I chose this person for my NHD project because when I first saw his name; I was suddenly interested & wanted to research more about his life. I thought I knew him good but nope - I already found many information & that's just what I need to make my project successful.

I think this person is pretty important in history because he changed the society's views on music and things. One of his big impacts on the history were meeting Nixon, the president at the time. Also, his music - of course, Rock & Roll - contributed to more music and media.

For this week, I'm going to look into more websites and read the Elvis Presley book more.

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THESIS STATEMENT.

While in 1940's and 1950's, people never saw any sexual dances and rock music. So once Elvis' style & music popped out, it turned a lot of things around; leading to a new generation of modern music. Back then, people were conservative with soft dancing and music - so when they saw the new rocking music and dancing; it put an impact on them & changed a lot of things, like the culture, the fashion and the music.
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INTRODUCTION.

Elvis Presley, famous for his rock and roll music, was one of the most important figures at the time. While in 1940's and 1950's, people never saw any sexual dances and rock music. So once Elvis' style & music popped out, it turned a lot of things around; leading to a new generation of modern music. Back then, people were conservative with soft dancing and music - so when they saw the new rocking music and dancing; it put an impact on them & changed a lot of things; like the culture, the fashion and the music.
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MY ANNOTATIONS.

Primary Sources

1. Elvis Presley - Official website for Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. Legal / Web Design & Internet Marketing by Aristotle. 2008 October 24.

An amazingly organized website about Elvis Presley; with many links to photographs or important documents involving Presley. This enables me to gather much more information and find interesting facts about Presley's life. Simply, an offical website for Elvis Presley. From this website, I've found out that Elvis arranged an meeting with President Nixon & this encouraged me to research much more about Elvis. I think this will help me a lot with my research & make my project more successful.

2. Hamby, Betty. “Elvis Gallery.” Elvis Presley. Picture. 11 May 2000.

On this webpage, a few pictures of Elvis Presley singing at a concert. This can help with visual aids for my exhibit, and it also demonstrates the start of his fall (where he becomes overweight, gets hospitalized often and gets in trouble more often).

3. Kennedy, David M., Elizabeth Cohen & Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. 13th ed. Boston and New York: 2006.

This page was about how the King Rock Star Elvis Presley revolutionized popular music in the 1950's, and it was during the Eisenhower Era. I can use this to help with quotes and primary sources.

4. Kennedy, David M., Elizabeth Cohen & Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. 13th ed. Boston and New York: 2006.

There were traditionalists that were upset with this new generation of music, directly from Elvis Presley. There were also other famous figures at the time -- Marilyn Monroe. The magazine, Playboy, was also introduced at the time. I can use this to help with the timeline in my project.

5. Kennedy, David M., Elizabeth Cohen & Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. 13th ed. Boston and New York: 2006.

At the time, there were millions of baby boomers. Because of rates of people getting married flourished after the World War II. They were the ones that usually listened to this kind of music, after they came of age. They even danced to the music, which offended many adults.

6. Mandziuk, Mike. "Elvis in the 50s." Elvis Country. Picture. 11 Dec 2008.

On this webpage, there are three collections of photographs. Each one of them dating back in 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Although there aren’t many pictures – they can help with visual aids for the exhibit.

7. Mason, Ann Bobbie. Elvis Presley. New York: Penguin Group Penguin Putman, 2003.

A remarkable, well-written book about Elvis Presley's life. It was about how Elvis Presley was responsible for creating the music & puncturing the serenity and conformity of 1950's. But after joining the army; this disguised his rock and roll image - after many bad films, he gave up & went back into making music

8. Nixon Presidential Materials Project, White House Central Files: Subject Categories: Health (HE).

This is the best source so far. It provides a collection of documents written by President Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley. It was about them meeting. There were documents of Elvis Presley's note to President Nixon, the agenda, the approval of Nixon meeting Elvis and the Nixon thank you letter to Elvis. I can use these to help with my project images and quotations.

9. Quotes by Elvis: All About Elvis. Elvis Presley - Official website for Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. Legal / Web Design & Internet Marketing by Aristotle. 2008 October 24.

In this website, shows many quotes from Elvis Presley himself or some quotes about him. I thought the quotes were really inspiring and gave hope to people. Like for example, "Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes." - Elvis used this often to adapt the original saying. And another quotation, “When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times...I learned very early in life that: ‘Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain’t got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend - without a song.' So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you.” - This was from Elvis' acceptance speech at the 1970 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Award. So, this would look great for my research.

10. There are 28 Elvis-Nixon photos, shot by Nixon's chief photographer, Ollie Atkins, on December 21, 1970. They are identified as Roll 5364, frames 02 through 23, and Roll 5369, frames 12a through 17a.

This is another great source for me, because it provides many photographs (primary) of President Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley meeting. This shows proof that they met and goes along with the documents great. This can help me with my project more successfully.


11. "The Photos." The Nixon-Presley Meeting: The Documentation. 7 November 1999.

A good webpage with a collection of letters, photographs and documents. This was when Elvis Presley and President Nixon were meeting.

Secondary Sources

1. Elvis Presley. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2008 October 28.

This page reveals a biography about Elvis Presley; summarized and clearly understandable. This can help with facts and information for my research. This page even includes a list of available books, notes and some photographs that can be used for my annotations.

2. MacDougall, Susan. September 2006. "Book Review: "FORTUNATE SON"." 11 Dec 2008 .

This is a book review of “Fortunate Son: the life of Elvis Presley: the ironic history of the King of Rock and Roll”. Charles Ponce wrote this book, and it has information about the life of Elvis Presley (obviously, as it was written in the title of the book).
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May 15 Service Learning Reflections (Darfur)

In the meeting;
We presented our things, like the brochures, the documentary and etc. The meeting went overall well & we talked about what we should do to inform people. We said we could inform them at churches, post flyers everywhere, get the information all over the internet, link up with other groups that supports Darfur and try to raise money for Darfur.
We got a lot of things covered, so that's a good thing. We're still trying to figure out what to do and what we can do for the Darfur thing.

3rd homework - Debate

In the debate, Brittany v.s. John S. - my reflections is going to be mainly about Brittany. After John's speech; Brittany did a good job on the cross examination. It was impressive and she was able to catch John off the guard. Brittany behaved in a good, proper manner out of all the other members that debated in the past, in my classroom. After the cross examination, Brittany started her speech which was impressive - she stated her reasons and points strongly. She also had good explanations and evidence as well. Although, her rebuttal wasn't good - she still did a good job on the debate today.

Lennie's Puppy

Kaitlin K.
English 3&4

Symbols are something used to represent something. There is one thing that represents hope, dreams and new beginnings – that would be Lennie’s puppy in the book, Of Mice and Men. But of course, the puppy was accidentally killed, which crushed Lennie’s hopes, dreams and new beginnings.

Hope is usually something you are aiming for, like a goal. The puppy was a new hope for Lennie – he had always hoped and wanted to tend rabbits and other animals. Now that he found a puppy, he was happy and excited to tend something - that was a new hope for Lennie.

Dreams – something you want to have and succeed. Lennie had always dreamt of having a rabbit or a cute, small animal. He wanted to own rabbits or other animals and tend them, feed them, play with them. He was definitely an animal lover.

New beginnings are always good for people – it gives them a new chance and a new life. The puppy was actually a new beginning for Lennie because he had always wanted to tend an animal and he kept his word for George. He had to behave properly and keep out of trouble – that made it possible for him to have another chance at tending animals.

In closing, the new puppy may represent all these good things (hope, dreams and new beginnings) but it doesn’t mean it is completely good. Lennie had accidentally ruined his last chance at tending one because he killed the puppy – accidentally. There goes his hope, dreams and new beginnings.

Fraternity of Brotherhood

Kaitlin K.
English 3&4

As I read the book, Of Mice and Men – I could easily recognize the fraternity of brotherhood. It was the most obvious theme in the book. The theme was basically about the unity of men at work, protect each other and kill Lennie at the end.

The unity of men at work, described as men working together. It is basically men doing their work and helping each other. Lennie, on the other hand, helped out a lot because he is rather huge and strong, so he is able to do double the work faster than any other men.

Protecting each other is also something among men – they may want to look like they are ‘the best’ and pick on smaller (or bigger people, in Curley’s case) – but George would protect Lennie from Curley. What really happened was Lennie just simply laughed and it sparked Curley’s anger. Curley just started beating up Lennie but he was able to defend himself and crush Curley’s hand.

The unity to kill Lennie was mainly because Lennie had killed Curley’s wife – which was completely an accident. The people united to kill Lennie but it was too late – George had beat them to the punch. Even though that isn’t exactly a good thing, George just didn’t want to let a stranger (like Curley) shoot him so he did it himself. That was the ending of the story Of Mice and Men.

In closing, maybe the fraternity of brotherhood isn’t always a good thing as of Lennie died in the end. Let’s just say there are both good and bad sides to the whole brotherhood – there is the men working together, protecting each other and of course, killing someone over something tragic.

Corrupting Powers of Women - Motif Essay

After reading Of Mice and Men, I started to notice some corrupting powers of Curley’s wife, so this essay will address the motif about the corrupting powers of women. This book includes the seductive appearance of Curley’s wife, how she flirts with George and tempts Lennie – which results in the event of the wife’s death.

The seductive appearance of Curley’s wife consists of heavy makeup, gorgeous hair and clothes to impress & attract men. All of this is abnormal on the farm because normally people would not care about the makeup, hair, and clothes. They would really just throw on some sloppy clothes and leave their hair alone - this wife was different. She liked glamorous things and attention.

This kind of attention involves some flirting and unlady-like actions. Curley's wife liked to flirt with George by going to the barn alone with him, pulling her dress up and sitting on the stacks of hay like any normal farmer would (which means the legs would be apart too). She was just like any normal whore/prostitute.

Her death was mainly because of her letting Lennie touch her hair. She wanted to talk to him and tempt him into talking to her, so she told him to feel her hair. Lennie did and kept on touching her hair harder and harder, which made the wife get uneasy. Because of this, she started to scream for help but it was too late. Lennie had muffled her and gotten violent/angry; resulting in him breaking the wife's neck.

In closing, because of the corrupting powers of Curley's wife, she got a broken neck & I can make an assumption that whenever any woman keeps corrupting, it can lead to events like the wife getting her neck broken.

ten questions.

Kaitin K.
English 3-4

10 Questions

1. Why did George shoot Lennie in the end?
- George shot him because he knew he had to & he wanted to make sure he didn’t let a stranger do it. He didn’t want to be like Candy so he did it before anyone could.

2. How does Lennie feel about George?
- Lennie has many feelings about George – love, happiness and trust. He has love for George; he also feels comfortable and happy around him. He trusts only him 100% and he would hurt anyone who messes with George.

3. Would George still shoot Lennie if he was never mentally-retarded and never caused any trouble?
- Well, George probably would not shoot him but I still think he should have never shot Lennie – he was still innocent and happy with his life. I think it is kind of unfair to him but then maybe it was for the best.

4. What was Crooks trying to do after he let Lennie inside his room?
- He was trying to play tricks on his mind & make him think George was hurt or someone would hurt him. Crooks thought he had the power to play these tricks on Lennie but then Lennie got angry and he could have gotten violent if Crooks hadn't stopped.

5. Why didn't Curley's wife tell anyone about her dreams?
- She wanted to only tell one person and be able to trust someone - it probably hurts her enough knowing she didn't succeed these dreams/goals of her's - so she told Lennie and plus, she had no one else to talk to.

6. Was it fair for George to shoot Lennie in the end?
- Not exactly - it was mainly because he had no choice and he didn't want to let a stranger shoot his friend, Lennie.

7. Why couldn't Curley leave Lennie alone when he just simply laughed?
- Curley hates it when he is being made fun of and laughed at - he wants to act like he is the man of the place and all. Even though Lennie didn't do anything but laugh - it still sparked Curley's anger.

8. Why didn't Lennie worry and think a lot like any other people did?
- He is mentally-retarded so he doesn't worry and think much but it is good though. He can actually relax and chill, have fun and just do whatever makes him happy.

9. Why is Lennie obessed with tending rabbits or other animals?
- He drafted off from his aunt, who let him tend rabbits and have velvet. So, basically Lennie likes soft things and that has made him obessed.


- will work on this.