Turning Eleven

Authors note: This is a analysis on Sandra Cisnerros' Eleven.  Rachel just turned 11, but for her, that's not a big deal at all.

Eleven may seem like a big deal to most kids, but to Rachel it's just another birthday.  She doesn't think it's such a special day because she still feels like she's 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1.  The author makes you wan't to read this short story because of her figurative language, she uses a lot of similes throughout the piece.  This story would be very boring without her similes.  It would basically sound very monotone and a worthless story to write.  But with her figurative sentences, it adds spunk to the piece and spices it up.

The author includes multiple similes to engage you into the story.  She says, "like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk."  She is comparing growing older to an onion, or the rings inside a tree trunk because the rings inside a tree, you can see all the different ages.  Rachel doesn't feel like turning 11 is such a big deal because she still feels like all her younger ages.  The overall tone of the piece would have to be annoyed and frustrated.  It's annoyed because Rachel's teacher puts this sweater on her desk and Rachel knows it's not hers.  She tries to tell her teacher it's not hers, but her teacher just walks away.  The tone would also be frustrated because Rachel can't get rid of the awful sweater on her desk and she still doesn't feel any different age wise.  

While the author included a lot of similes, she also painted a great image in your head while you read her short story.  When she says "I pushed the ugly red sweater to the edge of my desk and it looks like a waterfall."  When I read that I thought of Niagara Falls and a girl sitting in a desk pushing away a really ugly red sweater.  I also thought of kids teasing the girl because she was just yelled at by the teacher and the fact that she owns a hideous sweater.  I would hate to be in her situation especially on my birthday because on your birthday you want to be happy and be around the people that love you, but in Rachel's position she was in a classroom filled  with kids that are annoying her and a teacher that refuses to take the sweater off of Rachel's desk.  The imagery throughout the piece was strong because of her figurative language.  Her similes help draw an image in your head of a sense of annoyance and frustration.

Even though the author creates great images throughout the story, the story also has a good meaning in the end to tie up the story.  With all the similes and the figurative language, the meaning is really shown at the end.  I think what the author was trying to say was that even if you have a terrible day and everything goes the wrong way, there's always something good in the end.  Rachel felt like she wanted to be 102 years old, anything but 11.  When her teacher put that sweater on her desk, it really made her upset and she just wanted to brake down like a 3 year old and cry, which she did do.  Even the littlest thing on your birthday can make you cry.  That's how I felt Rachel felt because I mean she started crying over having a sweater on her desk.  If it weren't her birthday, I don't think she would've cared as much.  In the end of the story, she went home to her mom's cake and her birthday song. 

The authors good meaning towards the end  really wraps up the story.  With Rachel turning 11 and everything that happened at school, she was happy to come home to cake and singing.  Even though she didn't have a good day at school and she wasn't happy about turning 11, she was excited at the end of the day.  Sandra Cisnerros'  figurative language added spice to the story as well as imagery.  It all helped create a scene in your head.  Lastly, the overall tone and figurative language portrayed a lot in this particular short story and helped readers get engaged.

Beatings After Beatings

Author's Note:  This is a short scene from the Mom's point of view from the book, "A Child Called it."  Besides the fact that she's a major alcoholic, she's also in a unhappy marriage.  Her husband is too weak to stand up for himself and his kid.  The mom believes in beatings, the father doesn't.

"David, get down here!  Time for your punishment!."  I scream.  David comes down the stairs and is forced to go into the bathroom to puke up his crackers that he stole from the grocery store. After he pukes it up, I make him eat it.  I got a phone call from the police saying that he stole crackers from the local grocery store.  I was so ticked off and I didn't know any other way to punish him.  The next day, I get a phone call from David's school.  The principal says that he stole some kids lunch.  I mean, REALLY?!  I know I don't feed him at home, but that does not give him the right to go and steal.   He has been so out of hand lately and all I want to do is beat him!  I know people may say that I act this way because I drink, but it's not my fault that this kid steals and chooses to do stupid things for food.  He also goes through our garbage can to find food.  He's almost in second grade, does he really need to eat every day?  

David is the reason that my husband and I are in a unhappy marriage.  He is always like, "I'm hungry," or "I don't want to eat his diaper."  This one time I was changing David's little brothers diaper, and I tried to make him eat it, but he refused.  Since he didn't do what I said, I beat him.  I don't when he's going to learn to respect me.  Maybe he'll learn to start doing what I say, then his beatings will stop.    

Letter To Bunny From Oreo and Peanut

Dear Bunny (Sophia),

I am writing this letter to you because I am very frustrated with you always pooping in my kitty litter.  You do know you have your own cage, right?  GO IN THERE!  Peanut and I do not appreciate your little rabbit pellets always in our litter when we are trying to do our business.  I understand that when you hop around the house you can't just jump into your cage whenever you plead, but you should just poop on the carpet.  Our owner has to clean it up anyway.  Besides, your turds are the size of a pea.  They can clean it up!  Anyways, you think you're all hot stuff because you have a nice little lamp and a blanket.  Well I am here to tell you that we were living in this house way before you and for you to just come into this house and take over?  No!  Peanut and I (Oreo) run a tight ship around here, and we don't like unwanted guests.  I understand that Tiffany (your owner), may seem to take care of and play with you a lot, but ever since you came last year November, Tiffany hasn't been paying an abundance amount of attention to us.  We would like our friend back please.  And more importantly, our litter box!  

Trevor and Stanton don't even like you anyway.  Besides the fact that you are constantly pooping in Trevor's room, they think that you are a wild bunny taken from the woods. Now I know that you're not, but the boys seem to think of you as a evil little thing.  And I just want to go along with what everyone else thinks.  I don't need my owners hating me as much as they hate you.  Well I have to go because I am due for a petting in the living room.  Lastly, stay out of our litter box!

Sincerely,

Oreo and Peanut

Don't Run Away From Change, Welcome It!

Author's Note:This is my prediction piece.  I was trying to work on body paragraphs and sentence fluency.

Imagine yourself having to choose between your parents or your siblings to live with for the rest of your life.  But, the other thing is, you're dead.  You have to go live in a place where your surrounded by dead people.  In the book, Radiance, by Alyson Noel, a young girl named Riley, is torn between living with her sister or parents for the rest of her life.  After choosing her parents, she lives in a place called Here and Now.  There is no time at Here and Now , because everything is at the time of Now.  Riley is used to eating, showering, and having a normal life.  Well, now she gets to manifest anything she wants, doesn't have to shower, and doesn't have to eat (although she still does because she likes the the taste of pop tarts).  Sadly for her, she still has to go to school.  I predict that Riley is not going to fit in at her new school and she will be a social outcast until she meets a boy of some kind. Also, that she will become used to her new life and forget about her old.

 The reason I think Riley won't fit in her new school is because she just moved to Here and Now, and she is still trying to get used to everything and how it all works.  Sure that's how all stories normally are, but for some odd reason, I feel like Riley just won't cope with the fact that she can't go back to living a normal life.  The first day of her new school, she sits right in front of the teacher and next to a nerd.  Riley is a strong minded individual, so she judges the nerd by saying "move over geek",  and, "do you mind?!".  What she doesn't know is that this "nerd" could really be a big source in her new life.  Riley is still shaken up by this whole situation.  I would be too though if I was in her shoes.  I wouldn't know what to do I would want to die, but I would already be dead.  

By the time Riley settles down and gets used to her new life she will forget about her old one.  One reason I think this is because Riley's character seems like a type of person to get attached to something and forget about what she first started with.  I sometimes am like this because I get too happy with what I am currently living with or doing, and then I forget what I first started with.  Second reason, it says in the book that Riley is a person to forget her past.  So with that being said, it makes it pretty darn clear to me that Riley will forget about her old friends,home,and life as time goes on.  She will realize that her new life isn't as bad as she thinks it is and she will move on from her old life.

When Riley meets the "Radiant boy" she realizes that he is very strange at first.  She thinks this because he has glasses and he skateboards.  What she doesn't realize is that he knows a lot about Here and Now and that he is her guide for this place.  She gives him a hard time at first and teases him.  But then she gets a little vision of her and him walking together and he doesn't have his glasses on and she thinks he's a cute boy.  Then she snaps out of her vision and goes back to being Ms. Sassypants.  Later on in the book Riley figures out that this "nerd" might be a great friend to have.  I think that she will want to be more than friends and she will fall in love with him.  At the end, I think that they will end up together and she will regret being so cruel to him at first.  Just remember, don't judge a book by it's cover.

In conclusion, I think my predictions will end up more than likely to happen because the genre is a fairy tale.  Remember that vision I said in the beginning?  Well think about it now, did your decision change at all?  I would have went with my parents just like Riley did.  Lastly, don't judge a book by it's cover, don't be afraid of change, and always stay true to yourself!

Point of View of David

Author's Note: This is a point of view essay on the book, A Child Called it by Dave Pelzer. I was trying to work on having strong body paragraphs so I only wrote 2 because I wanted to see if I could get a 10 in "body paragraphs".  

In A Child Called it, a young boy is being abused by his mother.  The father is afraid to stand up to the mother, because he does not want to get abused either.  The name of the little boy is David, but the mother refers to him as "it".  She has 2 other sons, but for some reason, she likes to pick on David.  The story is written in David's point of view.  From this perspective, a lot of events and characters are described in a way that creates the reader to feel bad for David because he is being very abused and neglected. David's father feels very bad for him, but he is too much of a coward to say or do anything.  When young David gets thrown down the stairs, the father tries to yell at the mother, but she just yells back and storms out of the room.  "Its" brothers, are also afraid to stand up to their mother because they don't want to get awful punishments along with "it".

From David's point of view, the reader feels sympathy and compassion.  When David is forced to eat his own feces, the reader feels disgusted, but at the same time they felt bad for him because he did nothing wrong and he was getting treated this way.  In the mothers perspective, David is the most annoying, brattiest, rudest, disgusting child there is out there.  She treats him poorly because she doesn't know how to take her anger out on anything else but him.  When I was reading this book, I felt as though David was getting treated this way because his mother was always drinking.  My opinion on the mothers perspective; well I could never feel that way about a little innocent boy.  She just doesn't get how to handle bad situations when they occur.  And yeah, I mean David eventually learned to stand up for himself when he got older and stronger, but if he never got the opportunity, he maybe wouldn't be alive today.

 On the contrary, the reader would feel a lot differently about David if they were put in the perspective of his mother.  If you were her, you would be fed up with his stealing and lying too.  Well, maybe if you were drunk all the time like she was.  The reader might feel anger, zero patience, and the lack of love for this child.  I personally, would always love and care for my child no matter the circumstance.  If the novel was written in the dad's point of view,  you would feel shy and empty inside because you have no guts to fill it.  If If the reader was in the dad's point f view, they would be saying, "Oh, I can't stand up to her, she'll kick me out of the house".  I think that the dad needs to put his big boy pants on and stand up for what's right.  He needs to tell off his wife and lay down the lay in the house and tell everyone who's boss. 

  As you can see, the point of view of a story makes the reader only see one side of the story.  Which in this case, the reader can only see David's point of view.  In A Child Called It, the narrator's perspective makes the reader feel sorrow.  I think that in this story the author was trying to send a message across. What message I got from David's perspective is, "Be strong, stay strong, and MOVE OUT and go live with your dad".  I can't have a message from the mom's perspective because it was only written in David's point of view, and I would never be able to think/act like her.  Just remember, don't take things for granted because there will always be someone who has lesser than you!

Comparing a Book to a Movie

Authors Note: This is a compare and contrast essay.  I am comparing and contrasting a book to a movie that we watched in social studies.

The Revolutionary War was a very sad time for many families, towns, and villages.  The movie, The Patriot by Roland Emmerich, was about  a father and his 2 sons that fought with him during the war.  Both of his sons end up dying during war, but the father stayed alive.  The book I read which was, Cast Two Shadows, by Ann Rinaldi, is about a family of 3 that only can stay on one room of a house.  It’s a girl named Caroline and her sister named Georgia Ann and their mama. There are many more differences than similarities from the movie that I saw, and to the book I read.

One of the many differences from the movie to the book are the main characters.  The theme would be participation in the war.  In the movie The Patriot, Benjamin is a widowed father of 7 children. But, in the book, Cast Two Shadows, the main character is a little girl named Caroline.  As you know women were not allowed to fight in the war so that is a big difference between the two.  Benjamin has to fight at war to protect his town and his family.  Caroline has to stay in her one room to pretty much protect herself.  It is very rare when she can leave the house.  On the other hand, Benjamin is rarely AT his house.  He is always busy fighting at war and planning schemes to kill the British.

Another big theme was family problems.  Caroline got her Mama taken away from her.  Benjamin got his family taken away from him.  Caroline only was with her mom for 3 years of her life, then she got her taken away.  Benjamin is fighting in war so he obviously can’t be with his family.  So in both stories the family is being torn apart.  I would be depressed if any of my family members got taken away from me because even though we aren’t the closest family, we still love and look out for each other.

One of the other big themes I caught onto was bravery and courage.  In The Patriot, Benjamin has to show bravery and courage by fighting in the war for his family.  He has to protect them and be a smart man to not do or say anything stupid to the British.  And in Cast Two Shadows, Caroline has to show bravery for herself as well as her sister. Her sister, Georgia Ann, likes to tease her sister Caroline a lot, so if she doesn’t show bravery her sister would make fun of her for being scared.  I honestly would be so terrified of the war because I would be afraid that all of my brothers and dad would die.  Both characters show bravery and courage throughout the entire story.

In conclusion, The Patriot was a lot more gory and interesting than Cast Two Shadows.  However, they both shared some common themes, but there were definitely more differences.  I enjoyed The Patriot better, because personally I like movies better than reading.  To wrap things up, the differences were a lot more significant than the similarities. 

Bibliography

Emmerich, R. (Director). (2000). The Patriot [Motion Picture].

Rinaldi, A. (1998). Cast Two Shadows. Orlando, Florida: Hartcourt, Inc.

Bravery And Coping with Change

Authors Note: This is a theme essay about if you have bravery and you cope with change, you can fight off diseases.

In the book Between Shades of Gray, the main characters (Lina and her brother),  struggle with snow storms and very, very little food rations.  Most people are dying because of the temperature and no food.  The author teaches us that with bravery and coping with change, you can fight off diseases.

One of the major themes in this book, is bravery.  Lina is 15 and her brother is 11.  They struggle with very little food or nothing at all each day.  Lina is showing bravery by giving up herself to the NKVD or the "Soviets".  She has to do countless chores for them such as, collecting wood for them during the winter,  getting them food, and pretty much overall being their little slave.  Bravery is in Lina's character because she doesn't want to show fear because her brother might start to worry and freak out.  While bravery is in a lot of novels it is showcased a lot in The Hunger Games, and Twilight.

A great book/movie called, Twilight, also has bravery as one of its themes.  The main characters Edward, Jacob, and Bella, all have to have bravery in them because they are fighting for themselves and their daughter.  If you have read the book or have seen the movie, you know that Bella and Edward have a child.  But the "rulers" of the town think the child is dangerous because it's half mortal half immortal.  Bella and Edward show bravery by protecting their daughter from the "rulers" and they have to keep her safe where no one can see her.  This book/movie connects to Between Shades Of Gray, because in both stories the main characters have to protect themselves as well as their loved ones.  In Between Shades Of Gray, Lina has to protect herself, brother and Mom. Next, in Twilight, Bella, Edward, and Jacob all protect Renesme (Bella and Edwards daughter).  Another theme is Between Shades f Gray, would be coping with change.

Lina has to deal with change because she was used to living in a nice home, getting food every day, being able to be independent, and overall living a normal life.  She now has to deal with the EXACT opposite of that.  Her brother, her mom, her and a couple of other people are all living in a jurta in the Arctic.  They had to build this little shack out of sticks and moss.  Imagine living in a little hut with very little food and no heat for the whole winter with the temperature dropping as the days go on.  Pretty vivid picture right?  Well, Lina deals with this major change by taking the little things out of this situation and making them happy.   For example, she has a rock from Andrius (boy she likes and has a thing with but he works at a different camp), and she keeps it in her pocket at all times.  When something goes terribly wrong, or someone is ill, she just reaches in her pocket an rubs the stone.  I think that this is her way of escaping her life for just a couple of seconds.

To conclude, in the book Between Shades Of Gray, Lina and her brother end up staying in the arctic and continue to work for the Soviets.  On the other hand, in Twilight, Edward and Bella get to keep their kid because one of their relatives shows the rulers what’s going to happen if they try and take Renesme.  Both books tell you that if you really put your mind t something, you can achieve anything you want in life.