That Not- So Beautiful Face

She’s tall, but not too tall. Her eyes are the Sea of Cortez, a beautiful blue. Her long, luscious, locks of hair fall perfectly among her shoulders.  There is not, nor will there ever be a single flaw to her appearance – and people notice that.  She has every guy at the tip of her fingers, waiting to be picked up. And sitting in that sea of eager  men is a young Scott Fitzgerald.  The author always centered his stories around the “it girl” of the town, the girl who everybody wanted, due completely to her looks. However when we get little glimpses of their personality, we see that a pretty face doesn’t always mean a pretty person.  The girls that Scott Fitzgerald wrote about are all just a beautiful casing to a not-so-beautiful inside.

Marjorie Harvey -- from Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” – was the queen  bee of her town.  At a dance, a guy cut in on her every 30 seconds. Just speaking a single word to her instantly made you beg for more. Marjorie knew what she had going for her. She knew that any guy out there would do anything for her, and she wasn’t afraid to use that for her benefit. The outer layer of Marjorie is a perfect painting, one only an artist could create, but inside, something must have gone wrong.  Marjorie is that manipulative girl. If she doesn’t like you, she will find a way to build you up, then break you down.  In the story “ Bernice Bobs Her Hair” she takes it upon herself to get her cousin to become as cool, if not cooler than herself, then completely ruin everything and once again reclaim the position of top dog.  Marjorie Harvey may been the talk of the town for her perfect looks, but in reality, she is so much more than beauty, in a bad way. Being attractive to people’s eyes is different than being attractive to their hearts.

The story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” isn’t the only Fitzgerald story that has the infamous perfect girl. The story that initially sparked up “The Great Gatsby”,  “Winter Dreams” also has a top notch beauty: Judy Jones.  Judy has that porcelain doll face on the outside, but that devil mask on the inside. We are first introduced to Judy Jones when she was about 11 years old, and she already walked around like she was the best person around town. She knew her position, even then, and knew that because she was pretty, she could – and would – get anything she wants.  As the story continues, Judy grows up and supposedly stays as beautiful as she was as a child. However, she always had this dark side to her. Judy had an overwhelming amount of confidence. After leaving someone she loved, for a long time, when she returned she stated that he still loved her because who couldn’t love her. Judy Jones seemed like a lovable, sweet girl on the outside, but on the inside was one who had immense amounts of confidence.

These stories of the two faced girls are still going on today. In 2004, a major motion picture, Mean Girls, was released. It tells the story of the perfect princess, Regina George. Everybody wants to either be with her, or be her. On the inside, though, she is a perfect mixture of Marjorie and Judy. Regina had the confidence of a major league sports player, the face an angel, the hair of a mermaid, but the thoughts and actions of a demon. Regina had no care about how she treated people, as long as she was treated right. Though Fitzgerald wrote his stories over 30 years ago, the same situation is happening everywhere in the world right now. These pretty girls hide their personality, a evil dark one.

Those beautiful blue eyes are a trap. That perfect hair is used only to reel you in. Her face, though it seems so perfect, hides a demon. These pretty girls that Fitzgerald writes about, that are made into movie starts, the ones that are in our school, all have a hidden dark side.  I’m not saying that every girl out there who has beauty on the outside isn’t beautiful inside, and I’m not saying that it’s impossible to be nice and pretty; I’m just saying that more times than not, the beautiful outside is just a casing to a dark, evil inside.

Remembering the Living

Author's Note: This essay is written to explain how one death "ruins" many people's lives, more than we think. In this essay I talk about the book "The Lovely Bones" and a real life experience.

Every day hundreds of people die.  Some are murders, some are health problems, some are just natural, but all of them are deaths. And tagging along with each and every one of these deaths is an army of grieving friends and family members. When thinking about a person’s death, we tend to focus in on how they are probably in a better place, or how they got cheated out of life, and all the thoughts of others lives get pushed to the back of our minds. When in reality, a loss of a loved one affects many more people than we think.

The book The Lovely Bones  is written focusing on the murder of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old girl who was killed by George Harvey. Along with her two siblings, her parents were just minutes away from where their daughter was being killed, and had no idea of the horrifying things that were happening at the neighbor's house. Once finding out about their daughter's death, Mr. and Mrs. Salmon were devastated, and their lives, and the lives of their other children, would never be the same again.

I guess that you could say the children were the reason the parents were still together. They weren’t always the most affectionate kind of people, and their relationship was held together with the children. After the loss of their daughter, Mrs. Salmon was completely insane. She felt incapable of staying with the family, and left them with their father. Now, as a cause of Susie’s death, Mr. Salmon has complete responsibility over the children, which may not be best  thing ever, because Mr. Salmon is also going insane. With Mr. Harvey killing their daughter, both of the parents are not sure how to approach life anymore, and both of them have lost every bit of normalcy they ever had.

Susie’s murder didn’t only affect the life of her parents, her little sister was also very distraught from this tragic event. “If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?” is a quote from the book My Sister’s Keeper; however it seems to explain the relationship that Susie had with her sister. After Susie’s death, her sister pretends that there never was a Susie. She pretends that there was no time that her and her sister had together. For her, it is easier to cope this way, though she is truly just a disappointment to Susie. I can only imagine that the worst thing than being gone, is pretending that you were never there.

With all the lives affected by Mr. Harvey’s actions, I have to say that I think Susie’s younger brother got the hardest thing to deal with. He was only four when Susie died. He never really got anytime to live with his parents and sister when they weren’t depressed over Susie’s death. He will never have both of his parents in his life together, and he will never have any sanity from his parents at all. His older sister will never talk about life with Susie. Because of Susie passing away, the brother will never get a chance to live a normal life; he will always have to live with the changes from the murder.

Many lives were affected by a death in a book, but that doesn’t  mean it only happens in books. Recently, at my church, a little boy named Jackson passed away. He was two years old. Correction, he was one  year and 364 days old. On the morning of April 20, Jackson’s parents laid him down for a nap. His mother left to go to the store, to buy birthday presents for him, and his father stayed home with their five year old daughter, Kate. After sleeping all day, when the parents  went to wake him up, he wasn’t breathing. They called 911, but it was already too late. Their son was gone. 

Little Jackson should never have died, but he did. Even if he had to die, his mother shouldn’t have been the one to find him, unconscious, in his bed.  For the rest of her life, she will never be able to get the image out of her brain, her son laying there, dead. Though it has only been days since his passing, she has already slipped into depression, and can’t find answers to any of her questions. But she still has another kid, and she still needs to try to keep her composure. She has already lost a ton of weight and looks tired at all hours of the day. For the rest of her life, she will fear going to bed at night, or laying Kate down, because she will  remember how her son never woke up. Though she is breaking inside, she has to keep her cool for the sake of her family.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        It’s not fair to assume that the mother is the only one that will be upset, the dad will be too. The dreams he had about playing baseball with his son, or teaching him how to treat women right are all in the past now. For the rest of his life, I can imagine the father will feel as its partially his fault, for he did not check on Jackson earlier. I don’t believe there will be a day that will pass where he won’t blame himself for this horribly tragedy.

Not everybody in this planet is lucky enough to have a brother or sister. Not every kid is blessed with the opportunity to grow up with a best friend, but Kate was. Kate had her brother, Jackson. She had the pride that went along with being a big sister, too. Every time you saw her she had some story to tell about how she was a big sister. But now she isn’t a big sister anymore. She doesn’t have a brother.  Kate is only five years old, which means that from now on, she will always have this memory in the back of her mind. She will always remember that she once had her brother. Just in the past few days, she has already shown signs of not doing certain things, because when he was alive Jackson liked to do them. She doesn’t like to go to places alone, and she doesn’t like to go to bed.  Little Kate is only five, and has already dealt with something that most people never have to go through in their lives, and she will always be affected by it.

Every minute approximately 102 people die in the world. Along with those 102 people, we can safely say that many more lives than that get ruined by these deaths. Next time you hear or read about a death, I bet the main focus of the article will be about the person who died, how they lived such a wonderful life, and how it ended too soon. Not about the family and the friends left behind that are suffering without this person in their life. I’m not saying that we should completely forget the lost ones; I’m just saying we should remember the ones still here, the ones affected by the death.

A Clean Well Lighted Place

The story "A Clean Well Lighted Place" was written to show how a lot of people need to find light, just to save themselves from the dark. In the story, there is an old waiter, a young waiter, and a old man drinking at the bar. The whole purpose of this story is to get the point across that many people need places where they can be in the light, so they don't get taken into the dark. 

In class, we had to watch a movie version of this short story. My initial thoughts on this film was that the directors did not capture the true meaning of the story. When people were supposed to be in the dark, or specifically in shadows, they were in broad light. I, personally, don't think that the directors did a good enough job making the true meaning of the story come out. I was really waiting for some variation of the tone of the actors voices, so it could show the true meaning of this story. 

Hemingway

Out of the two Hemingway stories that we have read, they both have one thing in common. Darkness, anger, frustration and suicide (or steps to suicide). When we look at what Hemingway did in his life, the last thing he did was kill himself. An author writing stories with the characters struggling with depression and anxiety, and ending up killing himself makes it seem like he was trying to be honest through his characters. His stories were like a call for help, that no one seemed to understand, no one seemed to pick up on, no one seemed to answer.

Statement of Faith

Author's Note: This May I am getting confirmed at my church. In order to be confirmed, you need to write a statement of faith, which is basically some long essay saying what you believe. It's been done for a while, but I feel like sharing it now. Here you go my lovelies.


I believe in God. I believe that He created the Heavens and the Earth, and everything in them.  I believe that Jesus Christ walked the earth as man and God at the same time. I believe Jesus was born to the virgin Mary, died on the cross for our sins, and now sits at the right hand of our Lord in Heaven.

The Ten Commandments are ten rules that God instructs us to live by. And when we break one of them, we sin. Some sins seem more serious than others, but a sin is still a sin. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, suffering in pain, he was doing it for us. He died for our sins so we would be able to have eternal life. Knowing that humans aren’t perfect, and will sin against His ruling, God forgives us for our sins. All we have to do is admit to the wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I believe in the Father. I believe that he is the creator of all things on this Earth. I believe that without him, nothing would be here. There would be no world, no people, no life.

I believe in the Son. I believe that Jesus Christ was sent down from Heaven to die for our sins. I believe that he is the savior of all people who put their faith in the Lord.

I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe that God is with us today, wherever we are. I believe that his word is floating among us. I believe that God is actively in each and every one of our lives.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16 states. I believe that there will be a day that Jesus Christ comes back to this Earth, and everyone who believes in him will go up to Heaven, where they will live eternally with the Father and those who don’t will go to Hell.

Everyone on this Earth is here for a reason. We all have a purpose in life, and the only one who will lead us in the right direction is God. Jeremiah 29:11 says,“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I believe that as a Christian, it is my responsibility to share the word of the Bible with people who don’t have faith in God. “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned,” is written in Mark 16:15-16. As a human being, we cannot force someone to think certain things, or have trust in the Lord, however I do believe that we need to share the Lord’s word with nonbelievers. Everyone deserves to know the Father. Everyone deserves to have a relationship with Him, some people just need to be introduced to him. I believe that is my job.

I believe that God has the answers to all of our questions. I believe that any problems we have, God knows how they will be solved. I believe that it is our duty to live up to the Lord’s expectations, and be as Holy as we can. I believe that because he gave us so much, the least we can give him is our trust, our faith, our life. I believe that anything we say, anything we do, any decisions we make, we should do all with God in mind. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

The things that God has done for us are breathtaking. The fact that he let his own son die for all of us, and now lets everyone live eternally through him, is really quite amazing. I believe that God wants us all to find hope in Him, have faith in Him, put our whole entire lives in his hands. I believe that if we trust completely in God, our lives will be nearly perfect, we will find ease in the struggles, and rejoice in the love of our Father.

N. 92nd Street

Please read this article. 

December 28, 2005 -- Mike 

"Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four," I said, counting the change I needed to give back to the customer. 

"Thank you!" A very happy happy customer, with very long brown hair said, as she sat down to eat her egg roll. 

It was a Wednesday night, the Wong's Kitchen was slowly heading downhill. We made a whole whopping $200.00 today, which means that if I want to get enough money for food, I have to stay later. I was supposed to pick Kristie up, however she was at the museum with Sherry's parents. 

Around 5:00 pm, a car pulled up. 

I had my back turned to the door. I was making some chicken, and had to turn the burner on. When I turned around, everything changed. Men dressed in black, with masks, holding guns.

I blinked.

"GIVE US THE MONEY, OR WE'LL SHOOT" they screamed. 

I had no choice, I went to open the register, but I was too late. I heard a gun shot, and felt immense pain in my chest. I fell to the floor.

I heard the door close, they got away. 

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me," she sang to me. I had no idea who she was, none at all, but she was there, holding me. Until the end. 

December 28, 2005 -- Sarah 

"Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four," he said, handing me back my change. 

"Thank you!" I smiley said, looking back at him, while taking a seat. I had just gotten out of work, and needed something to eat, so I decided to try Wong's Kitchen. So far everything was great, the food, the service, I decided that I would start coming here more often. I continued on with the meal, going up and down between my laptop and my meal. 

The door opened.

I assumed that someone was coming in to buy food, but this was no time for making assumptions. 

I was busy typing as I heard it. A gunshot.

I looked up, but not it time, they had already ran through the door, and the nice man who had given me my food, had already fallen to the floor. 

I sprinted over, and held him in my arms. I didn't know the man up until today,  but now I will remember him forever. 

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me," I sang to him, until he took his last breath. 

December 28, 2005 -- Darleen

I had just settled down after a long day, to watch the 5 o'clock news. This was my favorite news show, because you got all the inside scoop on the dirt that happened in Milwaukee today. 

"Hello, viewers, this just in, a man shot and killed at a Chinese food resturaunt today," I tuned into the TV, "for more information, stay tuned." 

"Larry! Get in here!" I called out to my husband. Just as he walked through the door, the screen switched to a live view, and there, in sight, was my son. He was laying on the floor; dead. 

Tears rolled down my face, crying so hard I was shaking. "Why?" I sobbed out, "Why my son?"

December 28, 2005 -- Sherry

Driving down 92nd street was a part of my everyday schedule. I started by picking up my dry cleaning, then I would get some grocery's and then stop in at Mike's work. I loved my husband, more than anything. We fought, all the time, but I still loved him. 

I was running a little late, because I had to drop Kristie off at my parent's house, because they were taking her to the museum, which then pushed my whole day back about 20 minutes. And of course, with my luck, an accident must have been up further on the road, because there were tons of police cars, and ambulances driving down the road. 

After I had ran my errands, I was on my way to stop in by Mike. When I got to the exit, I saw that it was blocked off, and all the ambulances and police were in Wong's Kitchen. 

"What's going on in there?" I asked a police, from inside my car. 

"Some cashier was shot. Dead." he said, "Sorry ma'am, but there'll be no dining in there tonight."

"Do you happen to know the man's name?" I said, praying that it wouldn't be him.

"Mike. Mike Tabbert. Why? You know him?" 

Tears ran down my face, in an instant. I ran out of that car so fast, I almost forgot to put it in park. "He's my husband, I hollered."

Walking in, I saw the unimaginable. Mike, my husband, the love of my life, laying there lifeless..and he wasn't coming back. 

December 28, 2005 -- Kristie

I loved the museum. I loved the fact that whenever I was there, I would be with my grandparents, even my cousins sometimes. But it was different that time. Grandma's phone kept ringing. It was mommy. 

"Hello?" Grandma said.

"Hi, hurry, leave the museum and come to the Chinese restaurant," I heard her crying trough the phone. 

We left in the blink of an eye. Traffic was bad. I kept on asking what was going on, and the only answer I got was that we needed to go see my daddy. 

It took an hour to get to the restaurant. When we showed up there were blinking lights and roaring sirens. 

I ran inside, only to see my other grandparents, my uncle, and my mommy crying. My daddy was there, too. 

But he wasn't crying. 

He wasn't moving, or talking, or breathing. He wasn't alive. 

I dove down onto the ground, and held my daddy's hand, asking him to wake up.

He never did.

December 28, 2005 -- Marissa 

We had just gotten back from my brother's indoor soccer game. Me and him were now watching TV.

Then my mom walked in. She was crying, and holding a box of tissues. 

"Kids, your uncle Mike has been shot, and killed." she said. And from that moment on, nothing was ever the same. 

Demons

Villains crowd our head with thoughts. You’re not good enough.  The demons surround us, praying that we’ll fail.  The devil watches our every move, hoping at some time we’ll mess up, and be on his side: the dark one. Evil is surrounding us, trying to trap us, trying to take us. They try to disguise themselves, hoping we think those thoughts and actions are our own, ours by choice. They try to get inside our brains, as deep as possible, so that when they leave, we still have those thoughts; but this time they come from you, telling yourself, I’m not good enough. 

Changing Gears

The impulse kicks in. For a second, my mind flashes to a memory. I see my dad, eye level, and in a moment, my father’s hand hits me, fair and square in the eye. Reality comes back. I am waiting. The clock ticks from 12:02 to 12:03. Caitlin, who is probably just getting out of class, is still not in the car. And I don’t like that. Something about being late..it got to my father, and now it gets to me.

I sit in the car, and wait for another 3 minutes, still no sign of Caitlin. Just as I am ready to change gears, and drive away, the handle clicks, and the door opens.

Scrambling in the door, Caitlin starts to ramble on, “Hey, I’m so sorry, Mrs. Johnson wanted to talk to me after class, and I told her I had to go, I really did, but she said –“

“Enough. I’ve heard it all before.”

“Rogerson, I know you’re mad, but I tried. I really did! I got out of this place as fast as I could,” Caitlin pleaded, as she knew what was coming.

“Wasn’t fast enough,” I murmured under my breath.

The drive to lunch was silent, in the most awkward of way. I was upset, and she knew it. I was right, and she knew it, too.

Twenty minutes past, when she finally decided to open her mouth.

“I’m still sorry,” she said, looking at me with those big eyes, pleading for some romance scene. For some reason, this hope, this happiness, this joke in her eye, it got me frustrated. I turned back towards the wheel, now parked in a parking lot. From the corner of my eye, I still could see her. Just as she was about to speak, something came in me. My second nature. I leaned in real close, and punched her. Harder than ever before.

As she sat there crying, I sat there driving. Maybe I should feel bad about what I did, maybe I should feel like such a horrible person, but I don’t. If anything, I think I let her get away easy…this time.

---

Dreamland is a book that shows abuse in a relationship. The whole story is told in the point of view of Caitlin, the girl who is being abused. It is great, we get to see how she feels, how she takes the pain. We get to see the struggles it puts on her life.

Then there’s Rogerson. All we know about him is he hits Caitlin. If the book was told in his point of view, rather than hers, we would see so much more depth to the story. We would see why he hits her, what it does to him. We would see his thoughts in the moment, not just hers.

Having the story be told in the point of view of Caitlin, automatically makes us think that she is the angel, and Rogerson is the devil. If the story was told differently, there would be a whole different vibe, a whole different setup, a whole different story.

Float Away

Author's Note: When looking at the picture that Mrs. Reagles showed us, this is what I came up with. 

When we’re born, we start perfect. We start with no flaws, no mistakes… noting weighing us down. Then we grow a little, and have more experiences. And with more opportunity, comes more failure. Parts of what used to be us, get lost – drift away.

As we continue to get older, we lose more and more of ourselves, our sanity. Soon, more is missing than what’s still here. We’re lost. Our brain and our bodies aren’t connected, we know nothing. We think one thing, do another. Any comfort, reassurance we had, now leaves  -- runs away.

And there comes a day, when we’ve made too many mistakes, when we can’t find ourselves anymore. When all the pieces are spread too far apart, vanished.  All in a moment, everything is gone. Our bodies can’t stay together.  So our bodies get picked up, find their way home – float away. 

In Cass's Shadow

When it comes down to the bottom of every situation, there are two options: let it happen, or don’t. In the book Dreamland Caitlin is in an abusive relationship. Rogerson hits her. If she is late somewhere, he hits her. If she talks to another boy, he hits her. If she does anything that he doesn’t like, he hits her. Why doesn’t Caitlin find the strength to leave him, because he is no good? Why is she staying in this abusive lifestyle, when all she needs to do is leave? Though she could have left, Caitlin stayed because this situation set her apart from her sister, gave her new friendships, and make her feel special, when she was being ignored by the ones she thought were always there. 

Growing up, Caitlin was always compared to her sister. Anything Cass did, Caitlin was expected to do, too. Then Cass ran away from home on Caitlin’s 16^th birthday. There was no one there for Caitlin to be compared to, she could finally be her own person. On page 146, Caitlin says, “All I’d ever wanted to make was my own path, far from Cass’s. And even after what had happened, I wasn’t ready to give that up yet.” Cass would have never dated such a mysterious bad boy. This boy, though he hits her, sets Caitlin apart from Cass, and she likes that.

Caitlin never had many friends. She wasn’t alone in life or anything, but mainly hung around one or two people. However dating Rogerson, Caitlin met someone who would soon be her best friend: Corinna.  Rogerson hung around with Corinna’s boyfriend, and eventually introduced the two girls. She knew that if she had to leave the situation, she would also lose her friend Corinna, and that wasn’t something that Caitlin was willing to do.

When her sister left, Caitlin’s parents interests all focused around finding Cass. Calling Cass. Cass this, Cass that; all Cass. In my opinion, part of Caitlin staying in this relationship was because she wanted a cry for help. I think a small part of her wished that her parents would find out, like they eventually did, so then their attention would be back on her. I think Caitlin was really hurt that even when her sister wasn’t there, that her parents still worried more about Cass more than her. All she wanted was attention that she deserved.

Those two options that you have may seem easy on the outside. Yes or no. Letting things happen, or not letting them happen. However, you have to take the whole situation into account. Yes, if Caitlin left Rogerson she would get out of being hit, but she would also lose her individuality, her best friend, and her parents' attention. Even if she wanted out of the relationship, I don’t think Caitlin would ever have the strength to leave. 

The Fight

There are many different stories of the Revolutionary War.  Many people have written their own version of what happened, with each one having different plots and characters. However, the more you look into it, many stories do in fact have the same general idea. The movie The Patriot  and the book The Fighting Ground are very similar, yet also have their fair share of differences.

Both of the tales told make the authors interpretation of what they think happened in the war come alive. In the book The Fighting Ground, Jonathan would do anything to be able to fight in the war, but being only 13 years old, his parents tell him that it is not safe, and he is not old enough to do so. In the movie The Patriot, Gabriel is completely convinced that he will fight in the war, because his father was a war commander in the past. However, Gabriel’s dreams get crushed when his father tells him that there is no chance that he will fight, because he does not want to loose his son. Both stories have a character who wants to fight, yet is held back by their parents.

Not only do both characters want to fight in the war, both end up going behind their parents back, and sneakily sign up to fight.  Jonathan realizes that if he wants to fight, he will have to run away and sign up for the war himself. Gabriel’s story goes a little differently. He is 17 and can sign up no problem if he wanted to, however he had to make the heartbreaking decision to either follow his heart, or follow his dad. No matter how you look at it, both boys in the end go against their parents’ wishes and decide for themselves that fighting would be the best decision.

After signing up, the only thing left for both boys to do is fight. However, being young can cause problems in war. Inexperienced fighters are more likely to get killed or captured. And for both boys, getting captured was the case. Thinking he was being spied on by the Hessians, Jonathan was taken by the British, and held hostage. Gabriel was captured by the British and being taken with them. Both boys eventually found strength, and got out of this situation, yet the both were captured. The boys both were too young to be in the war, and both of their lives were risked.

I would argue that the book and movie are very similar, or at least these two characters are very similar. Yet, if we look at how the books end, you will see that the boys journeys end differently. Jonathan escapes from the British, and then that’s it. That story is over, however the movie goes on a little more. Gabriel still decides to fight, even after being taken, and in the end Gabriel gets killed. Though both tales seem so similar, they still end differently.

The Revolutionary War was a very hard, yet victorious time for our country. Families went through different troubles and hardships, with no two exactly the same. However I think that The Patriot and The Fighting Ground are two very similar stories that show how families do fight, and kids do rebel against their parents, because if you really want to fight – you will find a way. 

Winter Wonderland?

You slip on ice. You burn your tongue with hot chocolate. You're constantly sick. You can't spend longer than 20 minutes outside without thinking you have hypothermia. You have to spend time with those annoying relatives you avoided for the past 11 months. You have to spend your money buying people gifts, when you may not even have enough money to eat dinner every night. You listen to the same songs you've heard since you were 7, everyday since November. You have snow days, which then cause you to go to school longer in the summer. You anxiously wait for December to come, yet when it's here, you realize its not all is polished up to be. But, yet, somehow Christmas is the "most wonderful time of the year", right? 

Heartbroken

I don’t know why when people get “heartbroken” they call it heartbroken. Our hearts are organs that pump blood, and in no way have any affiliation to our emotional feelings. When you love someone, or have very strong feelings for them, those sparks of interest come from your brain. With that being said, it is physically impossible to say that when someone who means everything to you, leaves you, that you are heartbroken.

Move your fingers around. Now wiggle your toes a bit. If you didn’t have a heart, you wouldn’t be able to do those things. Our hearts pump blood to every part of our bodies, which in return lets them work. They don’t control our emotions. Now sing the ABC’s. Or at least say your name, maybe even get up and take a few steps. These things would be impossible to do without our brains. The brain controls everything in our bodies. It tells us when to do things, and how to do them. It tells us what to say, what to move, even what to think. When we fall in love with somebody, we feel it emotionally and mentally, we feel it in our brains, not our hearts.

Saying you have a broken heart when somebody leaves you would be incorrect. You love people with your brain, so then you would have a broken brain..right? No. When you emotionally lose something, nothing in fact is breaking. You are losing the presence of something in your life, and the emotions that came along with that thing, but nothing is physically breaking. You feel sad when something leaves you that you had strong feelings for, but that is it. Your brain is missing those feelings or actions that were in place when that object was still in your life, but that is all.

Society has established that the heart that runs inside us is the same shape and has the same meaning as the one that people use to symbolize love. When you fall in love with someone, you are falling in love with their personality, which is generated from their brain. Same goes with breakups, or losing a loved one. You are not heartbroken. In fact, those emotions have nothing to do with your heart. Saying that you have a broken heart is not true; in reality, you just have a brain that is missing someone special.

Winning The Lottery

The lottery seems like a good thing to everyone in The United States. If you win the lottery, you get a lot of money. It’s yours, to do whatever with. However, winning the lottery in the short story “The Lottery” isn’t such a lucky thing. One name  is chosen at random and the winner is stoned to death. This has been happening for as long as the citizens can remember, but what will happen in the future? I believe that if the lottery continues to take place, the whole community will revolt, and leave the country destroyed.

If we look into the future of the lottery, I see the stoning stopping, because I assume that everyone will already be dead, that is, everyone besides the leaders.  If citizens don’t like what’s happening to them, it’s their natural instinct to change it. Think about Wisconsin this past year. So many people did not like what Scott Walker was going to do, so they attempted to get rid of him. I expect the families of the people who have been killed by the lottery to get so angry one day, that they go up to the government officials and ask them to stop, and when they say no, they fight. After an intense battle over what will happen, the Government will continue stoning  (that is if any citizens are left alive).

Not many people like to constantly be controlled. No one prays that their freedom will be taken away. So, when the lives of people are in the hands of the someone else, people are obligated to upset about this. The community will rebel because they will eventually realize that the lottery isn’t a good thing at all, and brings nothing positive to anybody.

If you look at Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, you can see that my prediction for the future of The Lottery could very well be true. In Animal Farm, the Pigs control all the other animals, without them having any choice. After a long summer of hard work, the animals decide that they don’t want to work anymore, and rebel against the Pigs. In the end of the book, the Pigs are still in charge, and in all honesty, nothing really changed. Because these books have very similar plot lines, I think that my reasoning is very likely.

The Lottery could have seemed like a tradition that needed  to be done, but soon the people will see the truth. They will notice that the government has been brainwashing them for so long, they will realize that it’s not right, and that they don’t deserve that. But, in the long run, nothing will change. People will still be stoned to death, families will still be heartbroken, and the Government will still control everything.

It was a cold, stormy, Tuesday afternoon when Bill Hutchinson burst through the doors of the City Hall.

“I want to speak with Mr. Summers,” he paused, waiting for an answer, “NOW!”

“Yes..?”Mr. Summers said, approaching Bill from behind a desk.

“The Lottery has gone on way too long. We have lost too many precious lives because of it. And if you think I’m alone on this one? You’re wrong, all these people agree with me,” as speaking, the doors open behind Bill, revealing the whole community standing there.

“Oh, so you all think I’m wrong?” Mr. Summers paused, waiting for an answer, “YOU THINK I’M WRONG? I run this city better than any of you ever could. Ever.”

“I understand you feel that way sir, but nobody else does,” Bill stated.

Right about then, Mr. Summers took out a gun, and shot Bill Hutchinson.  In front of everybody.

“Alright. I killed one. If anybody has anything else to say, I’m sure Mr. Hutchinson would appreciate some company,” he paused, watching to see if anybody moved, “now get along, I’ve got things to do and places to be. “

As the sun set that day, the citizens sat in their houses, and realized, that the lottery would not stop, unless they MADE it stop. 

Casey at the Bat Response

I think that because Casey struck out, he will change greatly. His whole reputation was ruined in that one game, so now he will have to change his ways to once again be the might Casey. He will change because in the poem, if he doesn't like a pitch, he doesn't even go for it. After having this accident happen, I think Casey will be more cautious of striking out, to save him from the embarrassment of losing a game...once again. He will change because reputation is everything to him. Everything. He relates to like Cato in the Hunger Games, all coincided and thinks that he can do everything, but once he fails once, he needs to change otherwise bad things will happen again. 

Unimaginable

Author’s Note: This is the Cause and Effect piece on The Best of Me, by Nicholas Sparks. If you have not read the  book and are planning to do so, just a warning, I spoil the ending!

The unimaginable can always happen. As a nation, we tend to think that nothing bad will happen to us, until it does. Amanda, the main character in Nicholas Spark’s The Best of Me, thought these things too. She always assumed that even if she made mistakes, nothing extremely bad could happen to her. But then, one night, her son gets in a car accident, and is told that there is a rare chance that he would live. However, none of this would have happened if he was never in the car, none of this would ever have happened if just a few simple events changed.

The point of no return for this book was when Amanda’s son got in a car accident. You can’t reverse that. As much as the reader or the characters may want that event to change, it can’t.  Once the car was hit, the mark was left forever. Once the crash was set in stone, the passengers of the cars would be injured from that day on. Once the son was in dangerous health, the story had really started.

Amanda’s son would have never been in the car if it wasn’t for his father. Getting overly intoxicated that night, Frank needed to call his son to drive him home. If he wasn’t a responsible adult like he should have been, their son would have never even been in the car in the first place. Calling the son to come and drive may not have seemed like such a big deal, but in the long run it is what caused the accident.

Though getting in a car accident may have seemed like the end of the world, there were a few positive effects in the result of it. Being very sick, and in need of a replacement heart, Amanda’s son was about to die. Hopes were high to get a donation heart, but reality showed them that it wasn’t very likely. Through torturous days of painful waiting, Amanda’s long lost love from high school died, and his heart was a perfect match. Amanda’s son got her old lovers heart. This would have never happened if not for the car accident.

Thinking that nothing bad could ever happen to you is horrible. Awful things will happen to you, it’s true. However, when they do you have the choice to either be prepared and positive, or negative and not understanding. Even when things go wrong, you have to keep your head up because even through bad things, wonderful things can happen.

Fighting

Author’s Note: This piece was written to explain my knowledge of Conflict/ Resolution.

There is not a single way you can explain the conflicts in the book A Child Called It. Many disturbing things happen, but they all center around one issue, the mother abuses the son. David takes on loads of abuse from his mother. Fighting against his mother, we see a great example of person vs. person conflict, but we also see a struggle with person vs. self, too.  

It’s easy to see how this is an example of person vs. person. The mom is literally fighting the son, by hitting him, kicking him, making him eat poisons substances, and ruining his life, but in this book he is also fighting himself. When somebody is constantly telling you that you are not good enough, you start to believe it. When literally living in Hell, David had to fight against himself to make sure he didn’t let the things his mom was telling him, get to his head.

Getting out of hard situations can be the most difficult thing ever. In David’s case though, he had to sneak his way out, and take risks while doing it. One day when he was at school, he told the teachers what happened, and that got him out of the conflicts with his mother, but how did he resolve the ones with himself? He told himself that even though his mother was telling David those things, they weren’t true. She was lying to make herself feel better. Even though it was a long road, David eventually gained back his confidence.

These two types of conflicts may be hard to find in other novels, yet I found extreme similarities to these problems in the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. In that book, Melinda was fighting against other people because of popularity issues, her social issues, and her past issues with a boy; much like David was fighting his mom. Also, she was fighting herself because she was sexually assaulted and felt like she was worth nothing. That, once again, sounds like David.

Throughout fighting with other people, and yourself, you gain a lot…but also lose a lot. These conflicts were things that nobody should have to deal with, yet we now know that they can be resolved.

The Dark

Some people are afraid of heights, others may be afraid of pickles, spiders, even spoons, but me? I’m afraid of a little girl. A 5 year old “angel” to her family, but the devil to me and my friends. She may  seem innocent and sweet, but don’t be fooled, this little girl was anything but.

It all started after a day of laser tagging, my four friends (Mandy, Taryn, Shelby, Haylie) and I were relaxing in Haylie’s basement, when it occurred to us that hey, it was 4:30 pm, and we should watch a horror movie. After looking through Netflix movie suggestions, we settled on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which is a movie about, well , not being afraid of the dark. We watched the movie with countless jumps and screams from all.

After eating dinner, we decided to go outside and swing on the tire swing. Taryn, who was always afraid of hitting the tree, had agreed to go on the swing. She was, as you can expect, scared and screaming. While all of the attention was on Taryn, I saw Haylie’s neighbor, Sammy, appear out of the woods. She reminded me of a fairy, in  her little shorts and a shirt, shoes and dark brown hair. Her skin was pale, with dark brown eyes. Her face was painted, and she looked like a pirate. Momentarily, the others noticed her, too. She inched closer as the swing came to a stop. “Can I try,” she said, I her voice which was a high sounding pitch. The only thing I remember for a while, was Sammy eyeing down Taryn, saying “wee” , in a monotone voice, obviously making fun of when Taryn was afraid on the swing.

Following the swing, we did some dancing, and some chatting, but then Sammy turned to Haylie – who was obviously her favorite – and asked to see her room.  Shelby, trying to take charge, told Sammy that maybe in a little bit we could go upstairs, but we should maybe just stay outside. A glare was given, followed by a scream, then we took her hand and marched up the stairs.

When we finished taking her to Haylie’s room, she looked up at us, and said “Now come see my room.” After making her ask her mom, a group of five teenagers walked into a five year olds room.  She had the classic room: butterflies, stuffed animals, and only one toy though, a light up wand from Disney. Her door also had a lock on it.  She took us out one by one and showed us how to lock the door, then unlock it. After all the lessons, she turned off the light. The reason behind this was to show us her little spinning light up wand.  After showing us the wand, the kept the lights off. She told us all to get on the bed, and as good people, we climbed up on the bed. Prancing around us, the pulled out all of the night lights, saying “We’re going to turn off these, and unplug these,” then reaching for the blinds, letting in barely any sunlight and saying, “and close these.” By the time she was finished, she had made sure all light was gone.

Being trapped in that room, dark, with her taking light steps  around us on bed for about 3 minutes, Sammy told us all to get up, and then go out of her room. We all stood up to leave, when she stopped Taryn and told her to stay in her room. From the outside, we could hear them fighting over whether the lights should be on or not. Finally, Taryn said that she needed to go to the bathroom, so she could get out of there.

Taryn, being the idiotic person she is, told the little girl that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom. Sammy grabbed Taryn by the hand and pulled her to the master bedroom, where there was a bathroom.   Dragging her around a corner, Sammy pointed to the bathroom and told Taryn that she could “go in there.” As Taryn closed the door, she saw the master bathroom light turn off, then she looked out and Sammy was locking the door. Taryn, like a right-minded person would, asked, “What are you doing?” And the response, from a five year old, in a high pitched voice, “We’re going to play in here.”

Sprinting out of the room, Taryn told us that we should go, because something was not normal about this little girl. Sammy, then back in her room, took me, and told me to give her my phone. Sammy  knew I had phone my , so I had no other choice. She collected the other phones, then made Mandy and I go in a timeout.  Still with no lights on, we were all thinking about the horror movie we had previously watched, and all just assumed that we were not going to make it out alive. Sammy, who had put us (Mandy and I)in the hallway, then left her room to go to the bathroom.

As she returned into her room, from the inside, she put her head through the crack and told Mandy and I that she’d be back for us. With that, we booked it to her room, and then got our friends and left. When we were walking down the stairs, she followed us, and said in the voice that gave us shivers  “Come back and we can play some more.”

Looking back on this story, I know it doesn’t seem that scary. I mean, we took harassment from a five year old. But being locked in a room, with all the lights off, and a girl with pirate makeup pacing around you, it was terrifying. I can’t believe that something is normal about a little kid who likes to be in the dark.  From that day forward, I can still hear her voice screeching in ears, I can feel her cold hands up against mine, I can see her face haunting me in the dark…but only in the dark. 

My Sister's Keeper

Author's Note: This is a piece to help show my understanding for the retelling skill. 

A young girl, who has been giving body parts to her cancer positive sister, suddenly decides that she doesn't want to donate anymore. She hires a lawyer, signs some forms, and fights against her family to get medically emancipated in a court hearing. After getting the rights to her own body, a surprising event leaves one sister dead, and one alive.

Over the summer I went to a church confirmation camp. As part of our itinerary, we had to learn about the Bible, or biblical things for hours at a time. Now, I’ll be the first to say that sitting in church listing to someone preach isn’t always the most interesting thing; but I can say that something our leader told us has stuck with me ever since.  It was a story relating to the Holocaust. He said that the Nazi’s took 30 Jewish infants, who were destine to die, and placed them in one big room. They fed them, read to them, even gave them toys to play with, but there was  a catch. Never, in any condition, could they touch the baby. Not to burp it, not to move it from one place to another, not even to simply hold it. And guess what?  All the babies died. Every last one of them.

That story has always blown my mind; how important touch must be that not  1, not 2, but 30 infants died without it. I get that you can’t live without water, it’s a fact known to everybody. If you go without water for 4 days you are going to die.  The things water does for our body is unbelievable. The water we have in our body helps our organs work, and without your organs working, good luck living (Living Without Water). But, what about touch? Is touch really so important, that you can’t live without it?

Digging deeper into the subject of touch, I figured out that the human touch and stress go hand in hand.  Everyone has stress in their life. For adults, it could be getting a presentation ready for work, yet dropping the kids off at soccer practice, too. For kids, it could be studying your spelling words, and practicing your flash cards in the same week.  For babies, maybe it’s trying to get the toy to make that sound again, or make the food in the bottle go faster. Regardless, we all have stress. And the human touch is scientifically proven to minimize stress hormones, and maximize the “good feelings” that your body wants to put out (The Health Benefits of touch). Everyone needs a stress reliever, and many choose the method of touch. With the babies not being touched, they would have had no way to get the stress to vanish, which then in return could have been a factor in killing them.

Aside from stress, the touching sensation also helps get rid of pain. I know what you’re thinking, how does touching people with your germy hands get rid of health problems?  Not all diseases are just made up out of cells. Many times diseases can cause bruises, aches, and pains (The Health Benefits of touch). Let’s say you’re a baseball player, and the constant swinging of the bat just makes your shoulder swell up. You are going to want someone to give you a massage, to help the swelling go down.  Or maybe when coming down from a jump to try to catch the ball, you land on your shoulder, and it dislocates. The fast and easy “quick fix” for this is someone to pop back in your shoulder, and then continue to massage it to then make it feel better. Health problems are vital to us, many die from them each year, so it’s not surprising that these babies died without touch, as it pertains to health problems.

Stress and pain need touch to heal, but on the flip side, touch is also a very emotional thing. On days when you are just not having it, it always helps to curl up next to someone you love, and just feel them. The warmth from within their skin, warming up you; warming your heart. Touch is an expression of love, and without love, you having nothing. It’s so cliché, the whole “you can’t live without love” thing, but it’s true. The secrets to life are hidden in the clichés. Touch is the way of showing our love. Holding hands, being hugged, and being held are the most important factors of life, and these babies got none of them. They got no love.

Listening to that story the first time, the one about the 30 infants, I just couldn’t imagine living life without touch. We were made to touch, it’s why we have hands and feet. To reach out and touch the world; it’s an important thing, it heals us, relieves us, and shows us love. Touch is amazing, and those infants, even though they only lived for about a month, were being robbed from the most amazing thing in life; touch.

Bibliography

Living Without Water. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2012, from How Stuff Works: http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/live-without-food-and-water2.htm

The Health Benefits of touch. (n.d.). Retrieved Sept 12, 2012, from Health and Healing: http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandhealing/getcontent.aspx?cid=13623