Bagel

Every morning I go to Panera and get a bagel for my breakfast, but this morning was different.  I got up later than I usually do, which was okay because it was a Saturday and I was planning on sleeping in anyways but not this late.  I knew I had to get ready quickly because if I didn’t the bagels would be gone before I got there.  I got ready took a shower and cleaned my room like I do every morning and then left for Panera.  As soon as I got there I saw that there was only one bagel left.  It was a cinnamon crunch bagel, which are my favorite.  I was sprinting to the check out but right as I got there an elderly woman with her walker knocked me over right on the floor.  And then a man walked up and got my bagel I was so mad that I looked him right in the eyes and said " that is may bagel I was in line about to get it and that woman over there knocked me over ".  Now before this gets ugly why don’t you just hand me my bagel and we can just go on our ways.  But no that will not do for this man.  He took that bagel and stuffed it right in his mouth as if he was mocking me.  I turned around and was so mad that my day started off so awful.  This was a start to a horrific day.  As I walked out the door very disappointed I hear my stomach growl.  

Traditions

Author's note: This is a response to "The Lottery"  by Shirley Jackson about one of the important themes in the short story.

This short story has many themes but the one theme that stood out the most to me was traditions.  The reason this is one of the most important themes is because the lottery has been going on for 77 years, they have used the same black box for all of those years.  Each year they would be promised that the boxes would be replaced but never was.  The lottery starts every year on June 27th, everyone in the town comes and hopes they will not be picked which seems silly because the lottery now a days is you win something like money or a car.  Not during this time period the lottery was when the man of the family would have to pick a card in the old black box.  If there was a mark on that card your whole family would have to pick a card and a member of your family would be stoned to death.  To me this sounds more like a death ceremony than a lottery.

Many towns around this small town have decided to stop doing the lottery, but not this town.  They say that it is a tradition that should not be stopped.  Men in the town say that it is all of the young folks that are deciding to stop the lottery, because they are scared.  In my mind why would you not want to stop, if you know someone is going to be killed and it could be you why not stop the lottery.  

Crack in the Mirror

Have you ever heard if a mirror cracks as you walk by you will get 10 years of bad luck.  Well that happened to me the other day.  And it is completely true.  But before I get into my misfortune I will tell you how this nasty old mirror cracked.  I walked into a antique store to buy a cute little thing for my mother (because this weekend is Mother's Day and I needed something for my mother).  Just as I walked in I saw the most perfect thing, it was a little mirror that went perfect with the décor of my mother's bedroom.  Just as I looked into the mirror it cracked, I felt so bad.  A sales lady then came over to me and said did you do this? With the most angry face I have ever seen.  I said well no not really I just wanted to look at it because I was thinking of buying it for my mother.  She said so you broke it?  No I did not, I said.  Now you are going to have to buy it whether you like it or not.  I looked at the price tag and it said $1999.  I looked at the sales lady and said I am very sorry but I am not going to pay that much money for something I never broke will never be able to use.  Then she said if you are not going to do the right thing then you will have 10 years of bad luck for cracking a mirror.  I walked out of that store as quickly as I could as soon as I got out of the doors the misfortune started to happen.  It started pouring rain so I tried to go back into the store and wait for the rain to stop buy the doors were locked.  So I had to take a long, cold, wet walk back to my car.  Her car was locked and she forgot the keys in the store so she had to walk back to the store.  The day turned out horrible but after the day was over the misfortune was over. 

Organic Compounds

Author’s note: This is a research essay that is writing on the topic organic compounds for science, which is also for language arts. 

Have you ever wondered why you don’t feel the greatest sometimes, this could be because you are not eating enough or too much of the five organic compounds.  Your body needs five organic compounds to work properly.  These five compounds are fats/oils, carbohydrates, protein, enzymes and nucleic acid.  Without just these five compounds your body will not work right.  But giving your body too much or not enough of these compounds will also not make it work correctly.  These organic compounds are important in many ways, and it is necessary to eat enough of them.  Organic compounds give you many things, but if you eat too much of them then you may have a high risk of getting a stroke or cancer and other things around those lines.   

First off, the organic compounds give you many things.  Eating fats and oils is very important because they give you the “Fats that are needed to carry and store essential fat and vitamins for example vitamins A and D” (Ltd.).  Also digesting carbohydrates gives you energy (Mr Richomnd's Food Technology on the web).  Your body uses protein in your diet to build new cells, maintain tissues, and synthesize new protein that makes it possible for you to perform basic bodily functions (Mr Richomnd's Food Technology on the web).  Also, enzymes are a source of energy that if not used for activities will turn the protein into fat (What are Enzymes and Why We Need Them).  Nucleic acids are very important because this is what makes you unique.  

Unfortunately, if you have too much or not enough of one of these five organic compound then you are at a higher risk of getting cancer or something around that line.  “Eating too much fat may also increase the risk of getting diseases like cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure or stroke” (Ltd.).  Eating too many carbohydrates is not bad for you it just makes you gain weight (What can happen if you eat too many carbohydrates?).  Many people in other countries and our own say that there is no such thing as to much protein.  If you eat to hot of foods the enzymes will stop working and are then useless to the body (Enzymes ).  When you eat too much nucleic acid, your body creates too much uric acid, leading to gout, a disease of the joints (Redzic).        

Although getting the right amount of each organic compound is important they have a very important purpose.  Fat is a nutrient that is an important source of calories (Ltd.).  Carbohydrates do not just produce energy it also protects your muscles (Diet & Nutrition Glossary).  If the protein you have in your body is not used for activites the protein will be turned into fat (Mr Richomnd's Food Technology on the web).  Enzymes can build structures inside the body, can help provide the body with energy or can break down structures or molecules in various places in your body (What are Enzymes and Why We Need Them).  A nucleic acid gives you your outer features. 

        

Organic compounds are very necessary to have in your diet, but getting the right amount is key.  Although they can cause cancer and other awful things from getting the wrong amount, they are still something you need to have.       

Diet & Nutrition Glossary. Dummies.com. 24 April 2012 <http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/carbohydrates-do-more-than-make-energy-for-your-bo.html>.

"Enzymes ." 2005. blobs.org. 24 April 2012 <http://www.blobs.org/science/article.php?article=24>.

Ltd., Glow Web Services Pvt. "Fats." whereincitymedical. 17 Apirl 2012 <http://www.whereincity.com/medical/fats/>.

"Mr Richomnd's Food Technology on the web." 7 Febuary 2007. Food Technology. 17 Apirl 2012 < http://www.design-technology.info/foodsubsite/page7.htm>.

Redzic, April. Foods Low in Nucleic Acids. 14 June 2011. 24 April 2012 <http://www.livestrong.com/article/280738-foods-low-in-nucleic-acids/>.

"What are Enzymes and Why We Need Them." BetaForce. 17 April 2012 <http://www.beta-glucan-info.com/enzyme_facts.htm>.

"What can happen if you eat too many carbohydrates?" Wiki Answers . 24 April 2012 <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_can_happen_if_you_eat_too_many_carbohydrates>.

Conflict Resolution Piece

Author's Note: This writing piece is a conflict/resolution piece about the story The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

 Katniss and Peeta are very brave when it comes to the Hunger Games. Fighting until death is not an easy task. When Katniss takes her sister's spot in the Hunger Games her life changes forever. Peeta and Katniss are from a very poor district. District twelve.  The only District 12 victory that has ever come out of the Hunger Games alive was Haymitch. There are also important people that are apart of this story, like the game makers for example. They control everything that goes on in the Hunger Games. One thing that they did was when the games got boring they added fire bombs that tried to kill Katniss. I believe that the game makers made this a conflict, because this was repeated many times by the head game maker.  The main conflict in the book the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the fact that the game makers and the capital thought that they could control the tributes.

First, during the Hunger Games the job of the game makers was to make it not easy for the tributes and for them not to be ever be at rest.  For insistent if someone hasn't died in a few days then the game makers will make a obstacle, such as throwing fire bombs at the tributes for days.  These fire bombs ruined many of the tributes camps.  The capitol thought that to have more viewers  and to get more money they would have to have more  tributes fighting so it would be more interesting.  Also the people that are watching the games in the districts want more action so the capitol tries to either kill or bring together the tributes to fight.         

While the game makers made it hard for the tributes they do this because they think they can control the tributes.  The game makers think that they have the tributes at their finger tips.  This is the conflict in the Hunger Games , the capitol thinks that they can control the tributes.  Katniss knows this so she tries to do her best and fight through the obstacles the game makers throw at her.  Because Katniss plays with their minds, she can get through anything that throw at her.  The game makers try to make it really hard for her, but she defeats them and fights until the end.    

Although the games were difficult Katniss and Peeta to get out they did.  They fell in love so that they can get out of the games alive. This helps them, because then they both came out alive.  This made the game makers and the capitol a little mad because they are in district 12 which means they have the worst tributes for the games.  So it was a big surprise when both tributes came out of the games alive.  If Haymitch was not helping them, and using the money form their sponsors to give them the things they needed it would have been very hard for them to make it out alive.  For example Haymitch gave Katniss burn medicine which was a good thing because it would have been very hard for here to gain back her strength without the medicine.       

The game makers made it very hard for the tributes to get out alive Katniss and Peeta did.  They surprised everyone, and told them they even though we are from district 12 we still can win.  District 12 is the last district which means they are the lowest is winning the games and the least amount of supplies.  Katniss and Peeta proved everyone wrong in the end. 

New Retelling

Author's note: This is a retelling piece that I redid to get a higher score.   The retelling is on the book "The Gorgeous Game".

A high school girl enter a literary contest,  which she wins and gets to work and write a book with a priest and novelist, Mark D. Brendan.   Olivia was ecstatic when she found out that she won, until she found out that he was a stalker.  Olivia finds the courage the ask for help which she gets from her mother, friends and the church. 

The difference of mood when a poem is put into a song

Author's note:  This piece is about two poems "Big Yellow Taxi" and "The Field Below" and the difference on how you feel when it is put into a song.

The author's purpose of "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell was about how you don’t know what you've got till it's gone.  Also the poem was about nature and it is being taken away for buildings and roads.  The tone of this poem was depressed and sad.  The mood was sad and sympathetic.  The author's purpose of "The Field Below" by Regina Spektor was about you don’t know what you've got till it's gone as well.  Also this poem was about nature as well.  I feel that these poem were very similar in these areas.  The tone of "The Field Below" was sad.  The mood was homesick and again sympathetic.  These poems were very similar.

I feel that when "Big Yellow Taxi" was sung it was very up beat giving the listener confused if they really listened to the lyrics.  Once you listened to the song the tone was not sad anymore so the mood was not sympathetic.  So the music really changed once it was sung.  In "The Field Below" the music really fit the lyrics.  How it was sung was slow and nice.  You really did feel sympathetic.  I feel that "The Field Below" was sung a lot better with following the lyrics.        

Were free blacks really free in the North

Author's note:   This is a research essay on were the free blacks really free in the North.  I have 4 websites I used for this essay.  

 During the 1700-1800's there was a problem with the blacks and the whites.  The problems was that blacks had no rights, although some states in the North let blacks vote, marry whites, file law suits, and sit on juries, but blacks rarely filed law suits because whites majority didn't allow it.  Although blacks had these rights there were many more rights they did not have, I think that free blacks were not free enough for many reasons. 

In some states in the North blacks could vote but women had not rights in the political field.  Anything blacks cold do they had to be segregated from whites.   Blacks could not pay taxes, or perform taxes.  Also they could not marry white’s child, nurse whites, drink, and blacks could not dine with whites.  To me laws like these are silly the only reason for this is because of skin color, it just does not seem right.  Although in the North blacks began to get few rights but it’s better than nothing.  Blacks started to have the right to speak in public.  This was a great step in the right directions for the black. 

Although blacks were beginning to have few political rights, their prosperity rights had barely started.  In the North there were very few churches for blacks.  But if blacks had a church it was their favorite place to be.  The reason for this was they had no boundaries.  They could speak out and do almost anything they could not do in public.  The only thing that was bad about these churches were that they had to be segregated no whites could go to this church.  As well as being able to go to an all black church blacks could also own land and a house.                    

            Lastly, black’s social freedom, this was the worst out of all three of these topics.  A black person could not go anywhere a white person went.  Also blacks could not associate with a white if this were to happen you could get arrested.  The rules and laws about blacks and whites were ridicules.  I mean talk about favoritism. 

            With all of this is mind I think that blacks were not free enough.  Although some states in the north blacks were free they had many more restrictions whites did not have.  How would you like to be a black person at this time and not be able to talk to a white person just because of your skin color?  I do not this was right at all.  So in all I think that blacks were not free enough during the 1700-1800’s.          

Your hip, delightful Ipod

Author's note: This is a parity that I did with Sarah that is a spin off "This is Just to say".  Ours about an ipod.

I have borrowed

Your ipod

That was in

Your room

And which

You were most likely

Going to take on your trip

To Mexico

Excuse me

The music was delightful

So hip

And so new

Katniss, Katniss you're so brave

Author's note: This is a parody that I did with Sarah about our book "The Hungry Games".  And it based off the song "Twinkle Twinkle little star".

Katniss Katniss you’re so brave

How I wonder how you’ll do

Up above the others in trees

Like a hovercraft in the sky

Katniss Katniss you’re so brave

Like a tiger catching his prey

This parody is about the novel "The Hunger Games", the person speaking this or singing it would be Prim and everyone at home watching the games they would say this parody every time they saw Katniss on the screen.  They are saying she is so brave to volunteer for her sister.  They also are wondering if she will win the hunger games.  Katniss sleeps in trees for protection at night.  And the game makers watch over then tributes in their  hovercrafts.  Also Katniss is as careful and sneaky as a tiger when she is getting food.  The audience is Katniss although she can not here them.  The tone of this parody is bravery.  The mood of this parody is questioning.                

What does "Mother to Son" Mean to you?

Author's note: This is a short response to "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes, about what this poem means to me.

Have you ever had someone tell you don't give up?  In the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes this is exactly what this poems meaning is.  A metaphor in this poem was "Life for me ain't been no crystal stairs".  To me this means life will never just be a fairytale, there will be some hardships.  The tone that I think that Hughes was trying to get across was really want the metaphor means to me.  Life will never be a fairytale there will always be a hardship you have to jump through.  The mood of the poem to me is, if something does not go exactly how you thought it would go it will be alright.  You just have to get through it and you do not have to go through it on your own.   This story to me is a very great lesson to everyone.

Retelling for "The Gorgeous Game"

Author's Note: This is a retelling piece for "The Gorgeous Game".

Olivia Peters enters a literary contest,  if she wins Olivia gets to work and write a book with a priest and novelist, Mark D. Brendan.   Olivia was ecstatic when she found out that she won.  After a while Olivia finds out that he is stalking her, Mr. Brendan wrote a book about Olivia and their time together.  Expect at the end of Mr. Brendan Olivia and Mr. Brendan get married.  Olivia is very over whelmed with this and needs help, Olivia finds the courage the ask for help and she gets it from her mother, friends and the church.  This book starts slow but by the time you are in the middle of the book you will not be able to put it down.      

Katniss Everdeen

Author' Note: This short response is about the main character, Katiniss Everdeen in the story The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

 Katniss is a 16 year old girl from District 12.  Her hair is as dark as night, and is in a braid that is as neat as a maid, and is as  long as a horses tail. Her aim is as if she was a professional, which comes in handy because she has to kill wild animals in order to keep her family alive and food on the table. 

Katniss is like a mother bear to her little sister, in other words she does all she can to keep her little sister, Prim safe.  When their father died in a tragic mining accident her mother checked out of life.  Now more than ever ,Katniss is being a mother bear,  she had to try to raise Prim by herself and keep them all alive and safe.  In order to keep her family alive, they need food, so  Katniss had to take what her father taught her with hunting and put it to the test.  As Katniss fights to get wild animals, she learned a few things on the way.  Katniss is as quick as a tiger, as sneaky as a mouse, and can kill almost anything with her bow and arrow.  This helps her when she volunteered as tribute in the  hunger games.  Since Katniss has to leave for the hunger games she is terribly worried about her family especially with getting food on the table.  Since they don’t have the mother bear around to get their food. She has to believe that Prim can do the job.       

Katniss

Author's note: This short responses is the characteristics of Katniss the main character in the "Hunger Games" and her roles in her family before she had to go. 

  In the "Hunger Games" by Susanne Collins Katniss a 16 year old girl in district 12.  She has long dark hair that she wears in a braid often.  She has great aim, which comes in handy because she has to kill game in order to keep her family alive and food on the table. 

Katniss does all she can to keep her little sister Prim safe.  When her father dyed in a mining accident her mother checked out of life so Katniss was trying to rise Prim by herself and keep them all alive.  In order to keep them her family alive they need food so Katniss had to take what her father taught her with hunting and put it to the test.  As Katniss fights to get game, she learned a few things on the way.  This helps her with the hunger games.  Since Katniss has to leave for the hunger games she is trebly worried about her family especially with getting food on the table.   

Explorer

Author’s note:  This is a made up scene from my speech.  I am doing this piece to get a 10 on prediction.    

"Congratulations you all are now adults and will be getting your very first jobs, I would like to start off with Loon" said the mayor.

Loon came up to the mayor's bag and picked out a little piece of paper that said explorer.  This was a new job in the City of Ember so no one knew what it was. 

Loon looked up at the mayor and asked "What does explorer mean?" 

The mayor just shook his head and said "You have got to be joking how to you expect me to know all the definitions of all the jobs in this city I am just one person, find it out on your first day which is tomorrow so don’t be late."

Loon sat down and was very discouraged he thought perhaps he would like a job like this because he is a very courageous person.  But how is he suppose to know if the mayor won't tell him anything. 

"This mayor is not a good mayor he does not help the people of Ember all he does is sit and eat" said Loon.    

A few other students went and discovered what their jobs would be.  Next up was Dina one of Loons best friends.  Dina took her time picking and before she could pull the slip of paper out of the bag the mayor screamed "just pick a stupid card"

Dina looked up at him is fright and quickly pick a card out of the bag and ran to her seat.  She look at the card and she read to herself "explorer".  Dina thought "this is the same job Loon got this will be great we will explore together".

After class the two friends got together and thought of all the possibilities explorer could be.  They thought of "explorer bugs, what is in the river, survey people".  The next day Loon and Dina went to work together.  They got to where they were supposed to be but saw no one.  Finally they saw someone coming in the distance.  Their leader, before she could get one word out of her mouth Loon and Dina asked "what is an explorer what do we do?"   

The instructor said to them “it doesn’t matter.  The mayor and I have been think and talking about it and decided that it is way too frightening for anyone to go out there.  So we have decided to not have this job.  You both will be reassigned tomorrow.”

She then walked away before any of them could say a word.  “Oh I guess we will never know what is out there”

They were so discouraged as they walked home together.   

Ember Government

Author’s note:  This piece on how all the citizens of Ember feel about their government. 

Have you ever disagreed with a person who is in power?  In the novel The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, Lina and Doon the main characters in the book do just that.  They so strongly feel that the government is not right that they feel they need to take it into their own hands.  The government in Ember is appalling and all the mayors in the past have lead the city to disaster. 

In the book “The City of Ember”, the reader can discover that the government does not help and support the city.  A quote that helps support this though is "Something is going on that we don’t understand.  They say the builders made the city.  But who made the builders?  Who made us? I think that the answers must be somewhere outside of Ember." said Clary page 68.  This quote represents the troubles that Ember’s government has.  No one in Ember quite knows how the city was built or a way out of the city or even how they themselves were created.  Also Ember’s government lies about almost everything.  The Citizens of Ember never know whether the government is telling the truth or not.

Also "Some paper with writing on it.  I think it might be important." said Lina page 97. This quote also has to do with the government but more specifically the mayor’s of Ember.  This quote is referring to a piece of paper that has directions of how to get out of Ember.  Lina, one of the main characters, thinks that this piece of paper is very important however; she does not know what it is because her sister ripped it into pieces.  Lina tries to show the mayor but he doesn’t seem to care, neither do all the adults she shows.  The only people who care about this piece of ripped up paper are Lina and her two friends Doon and Clary.

Both of these quotes have an enormous impact on the novel in the sense of how the citizens of Ember feel about their government.  These quotes are a great example of how the citizens feel about their government.  The citizens in Ember don’t really know much about their history or how to keep the city running.  Also both of these quotes have something to do with getting out of Ember and the city knowledge about what is beyond where they live. 

The government in Ember does not have all the citizens to back them up on anything.  In these quotes no one knows what to do.  They have no one leading them and they don’t know much about anything outside of Ember.  All they know is what is happening now.  The mayor in the city could care less about helping anyone or giving direction on what to do with the problems in the city.  Overall these two quotes are great examples of how the citizens feel about their government.          

       

A City with no Sun

Author's Note: This is a piece that is about two quotes in the book The City of Ember and how they are very important to the story.

Quotes are very important to stories.  If there were no quotes then it would be hard to know what the characters are feeling and thinking.  The two quotes in this short response really stood out to me with their importance to the story.   

There are two quotes that are very important to this story.  The first quote is "Can you explain to me about the generator?" asked Doon page 48.  This is very important to this story in many ways one reason is because, Doon, one of the main characters wants to know and explore the generator to help the problem with the lights. The light problem is that the city is running out of light bulbs and the lights are dying, this would not be such a problem for our world because we have a sun but in the City of Ember the sun does not exist.  Unfortunately no one in the city knows how the generator works even the people that have been working there for decades.  Now Doon needs to figure out how the generator works on his own.  

This quote really affects the story, the reason that is, is because Doon is a very smart guy he knows how to take apart and put together almost anything by just looking at it.  The one thing he cannot figure out is the city's generator.  This really makes Doon mad because Doon asked "Can you tell me how it works?" page 48.  But no one who works of the generator could tell him a thing. All the workers do is replace and take off wheels, knobs and things like that when they are breaking.  

I think that the generator in these situations could be a metaphor for life.  When the generator dies; then Ember will die too.  This is why I believe that Doon is so interested in trying to repair the generator.  Also Doon is a very curios guy that wants to know how everything works.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing.  His curiosity might end him up in some trouble.   

What Happens with the Lights?

Author's Note: This is a piece for prediction on the book City of Ember.  I am going to be predicting what I think is going to happen with the lights.

For my book club book I am reading The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau.  The City of Ember is about a city where the sun does not exist.  The only thing that produces light in this city is light bulbs.  Also the people in this city do not have very many rights.  One right that you do not have is that you do not get to pick your job.  Lina and Doon the main characters in this book just found this out when they were graduating school.  In this city how they determine your jobs is by the mayor coming to your class and one by one students in the class pick out of the mayor's bag.  His bag consists of little slips of paper that tells you what job you get.  After a three year period of time the mayor comes and sees if you are doing your job correctly if so you get to keep your job for another three years.  If not you have to re pick a job from the mayor's bag.  Lina picked pipeworker which she thought was the worst job.  Lina wanted to be a messenger in fact this is the job Doon got.  Doon was so upset he got this job because he thinks that the city needs help, the main reason is because the lights go out to much.  He actually threw a tantrum in front of the mayor.  After class Doon and Lina traded cards.  Now they both like their jobs appose to both not liking their jobs. 

I predict if nothing gets done with the lights very soon then the city will not last much longer.  The reason I think this is because you cannot last very long with absolutely no light.  Also with some of the lights going out and not coming back on for a few hours is not helping this problem.   What if that happens to all of the lights at the same time? People in the city would not be able to do their jobs.  If they needed something they would not be able to see a thing because again sun does not exist in this city.   I think one way they could get more lights would be to send one or two people into the darkness (our world) and explore.  They could find lights and bring them back.  Also they could make this a job for the newly graduated students.                    

The Revolutionary War Had an impact on everyone’s Life

Author's Note: In Social Studies we read a book and watched a movie both, happened during the Revolutionary time period.  In this essay I comparing the movie to the book.

 Imagine being in the time period where the Revolutionary War was going on.  This would have been a horrific time to have your childhood.  In social studies we were a assigned a book to read during this time period the book I read was War comes to Willy Freeman by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier.  Almost all of the books that we read were in the perspective of a child.  We then watched a movie call The Patriot by Robert Rodat.  Through both the movie and the book there were similarities and differences during this time period.     

First off the similarities, in both the novel and the movie there was at least one loved one who died because of the war that was going on.  In the novel Willy the main character her father died fighting in the war.  This made life difficult for her to live because then her mother was taken by the British.  In the movie Benjamin had multiple family members who died first in the beginning of the movie his second oldest son his name was Thomas he was shot by Colonel Tavington trying to save his brother.  Later in the story Benjamin's oldest son was stabbed by colonel Tavington fighting in the war.  In the beginning of the movie we were told that his wife died. 

Although there are similarities there are also differences, in the movie The Patriot it was in the perspective of a widow father of seven, his name was Benjamin Martin.  The novel was in the perspective of a little girl named Willy.  These stories took place at the same time however they are told from two different generations.  If both the movie and the novel were told from the other side of the war the British we might not have like the main characters.  Or if in the novel it was told by an adult or the movie if it was told by a child.  The perspectives of the novel and the movie would have totally changed the way you thought of the characters.  

Though both The Patriot and War Comes to Willy Freeman they are written in the same time period they had some differences and similarities.  But over all war had a big impact on both the novel and the movie.   

Thank You Ma'am

Author's note: This piece is a short response to "Thank You Ma'am"  by Langton Hughes.  The prompt to writing this was "What if this happens…".  I wrote about what would have happened if Mrs. Jones brought Roger to the police.    

After reading "Thanks You Ma'am", I thought "What if Mrs. Jones took Roger to the police instead of her house".  If this happened Mrs. Jones probably did not want him to be her son anymore, or perhaps Mrs. Jones was not in a very good mood when Roger tried to steal her pocket book, and Roger trying to steal just made her mood go from mad to extremely furious.  Once Roger and Mrs. Jones got to the police station, Mrs. Jones might have told the police man that she wanted him in jail no matter how far or hard she had to push it she wanted him in jail.  I mean just picture that sight of a larger woman with a teenaged boy dangling by his neck walking into the police station.

After about a year or so when ever Roger got out of jail he saw Mrs. Jones walking down the street.  He went up to her and she stepped back swinging her large purse ready to hit him but Mrs. Jones was presently surprised that Roger came up to her to say thank you.  He knew that it was the right thing to do at that time and he learned from his mistakes.  

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                              The Gorgeous Game

By: Donna Freitas

Pages: 224

Genre: Fiction

When Olivia wins a literary contest she is over whelmed with happiness that she gets to work with the famous writer Mark D. Brendan.  That’s until she finds out he is stalking her.  While this book may start slow for some it quickly becomes a page turner.      

What Happens Next?

Author's note:  This piece is a prediction on what is going to happen next in the Dead Man's Path.

Have you ever made a change and then later you regret it?  In the story Dead Man's Path by Chinua Achebe, Michael Obi the main character did this. Mr. Obi was just promoted to be the headmaster in the school he was teaching at.  Since he was in charge he wanted to change the school to be more modern.  This meant he was going to remove and shut down the path that connects the cemetery and the school.   Which he though was disrupting his school.  This did not sit well with the villagers. 

Mr. Obi was an incredibly remarkable guy with lots of ideas.  Obi was married and was dedicated to his school.  Since he was married and most of his calices were not married and did not have kids he thought they would do anything for the school.  Also Mr. Obi was a bold, cocky, pushed for greatness, and rude to the village.   

From what I know so far I think that if this story would to be continued it would eventually end with Obi fired.  Mr. Obi would be so ashamed in what he did and open the path back up.  If he did not want to do this we would be forced to by the villagers.  Once Mr. Obi opened the path back up the spirits and the villagers would still not be satisfied with that, even his wife turned against him.  The villages will most likely try to stone him because of his horrible actions over trying to make the school a better place.   

Character's Are very Important to the Story

Author’s note: This piece is about how characters change throughout the book. In this piece I am specifically talking about how Ponyboy changes throughout the novel.

You may not think that characters change from the beginning to the end of the novel. This is true for some characters in a novel, but there is always one character that will stand out and makes a difference. In the novel The Outsiders by SE Hinton, the main character's name is Ponyboy, in this story Ponyboy is a dynamic character in many ways.

First off, Ponyboy in the beginning of the novel was getting good grades and had no bad reports from the police like almost all of the other greasers. Ponyboy and his friend Johnny were the only greasers who still had their innocences. Ponyboy would get made fun of if the greasers were in a fight with the socs no one expected Ponyboy to fight back. The socs and the greasers did not get along very well together. Ponyboy's innocence almost disappeared until one of Ponyboy's fellow greasers said that he should stay innocent.

Although Ponyboy’s innocence was important for him to keep his innocence, this contributes to Ponyboy being a dynamic character. Towards the end of the novel Ponyboy’s best friend Johnny dies. Through Johnny’s death the socs and the greasers had a fight; whoever won the fight was better than the other group of people. The greasers won the fight. At the end of the fight Ponyboy discovered at the scos will always be socs and greasers will always be greasers. One will not be better than the other.