Q3 Wee 4 Posts A/B

Vocab
Emulation (79) - ambition to equal or excel

Fastidious (88) - giving careful attention to detail; hard to please; excessively concerned with cleanliness

Figurative Language
1) "Until Martha's Vineyard she'd seriously considered doing so, but now she was pretty sure she couldn't. After being with a boy who actually liked her, she was willing to be friendless, at least for now. What saddened her the most was the cost of this new knowledge. Could it be that getting the taste of affection, so sweet and new, from somebody who wasn't your father or mother, meant that she'd have to forgo other companionship entirely" (80). This is an example of foreshadowing because it hints to an event that happened in the past. But the reason this is important is because that past event might spark something happening in the future.

2)"Miles was in no hurry to have him give in, either, since the old man was a careless, resentful worker. In his opinion any dish that came out of the Hobbart was clean by definition, no matter if it was stained yellow with egg yokes" (88). This is an example of imagery/description. It shows the character of the character being defined here.

3) "The old man was nimble, Miles had to admit, both of foot and conversation. Miles had given up trying to corner him long ago" (88). This also connects to the previous example. This also gives the reader a sense of how the character is and how he acts.

Quote
"I don't think helping me paint is a good idea, Dad," Miles Said.
"Last month you fell off a barstool. I don't want you falling off any ladders."
"That's different," his father explained. "I was drunk."
"Right," Miles said. "As I'm sure you'll be when you fall off the ladder" (86). I just thought this quote was a good example of the author's writing style. Also I thought it was funny so I decided to choose it.

Theme
An emerging theme seems to be just being a regular human being and having flaws. There are a lot of characters in the book and they all have their experiences and things going on in their lives. So the theme just seems to be that even though we're all different, we all have flaws and we should just live life and enjoy it.

Post B
For this post I thought I would talk about an interesting quote I came across. The quote is, "In any other man his age a desire to paint the church might have represented nothing more than longing to spend some time with his neglected son, but Miles doubted this was the case with Max, who'd never given much evidence of enjoying the company of either of his sons, though he did appreciate anyone who'd spring for a donut so he could put the price of the donut toward a pack of cigarettes. No, the only conclusion that Miles could come to was that old age generally played havoc with personality. I thought this was a really interesting quote because it's an interesting example of the way the author writes and even a theme possibly. It kind of shows what type of father Miles has. He says that he wants to do the job for the money compared to somebody who would want to do it to spend time with their son. Also the last sentence in that quote is interesting because I could agree and disagree with it at the same time. On one hand I agree some people change with age in a negative way but that isn't a blanket statement in my mind.