Loosing Your Family

Authors Note: This writing analyses  the theme from  the book Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen. I really focused on getting the theme across to the reader easily.

Imagine you being gone from your house then coming back in a hour or so and everything is burned down and everyone is dead. Tragically your parents are captured by the redcoats and are being held in New York city. This is what Samuel experiences when he finds his whole town in fire and everyone but his parents are dead. Living without your parents is one of the most difficult things somebody could ever experience and Samuel learns that throughout the book. In the novel Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen the main character has to survive and find his parents in the time of the Revolutionary. Throughout the book the main theme that Samuel has to experience several times is loss of family.

Throughout the book Woods Runner there are many occasions when Samuel has to experience people losing their family.  During the novel the author writes about times when Samuel experiences people he knew die, for example “Caleb and Ma were immediately gunned then four soldiers jumped to the porch and bayoneted them”. Samuel had to experience this as he watched his family die right in front of him in the book. As the book progressed Samuel experienced many things kids should not experience in their life and as you can clearly see loss of family is definitely the main theme.

Like Woods Runner, the Book Hunger Games by Susanne Collins also deals with the theme loss of family. At the begging of the Hunger Games Katniss volunteers for the Hunger Games and is taken away from her family, where then in the Hunger Games she finds out that surviving without your family is so easy.

As Samuel found out throughout the novel just like Katniss did that living without you is very hard, for example to author stated “He had no idea what to except to follow his parents as he saw their tracks now and then”.

Despite loss of family being the main theme, Samuel finds out how hard it really is to live without your family being beside you. Considering loss of family being the main theme Samuel experiences some scenes that many kids should never observe, as you can see loss of family is defiantly one tragic theme.

My New Mom

Authors Note: This piece is prediction to the Short Story Thank you Ma'ma. I used text evidence from the story to support my prediction on the short story.

The boy wanted to do something in return for Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones so before she closed the door on him he asked her “is there anything I can do to make up for this”. Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones replied in a shocked voice and said “yeah I got some things for you to do, be here tomorrow at 7”. Roger helped Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones a lot over the summer and when Mrs. Bates found out he really had no legally guardian she decided to adopt him.

When Roger received this intervention from Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones he really felt like he wanted to do something in return for her as he thought when he said ”The boy wanted to say something else other that "Thank you, ma’am" to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones". So I predicted that Roger would go back to Mrs. Luella Bates and help her with everyday stuff. Despite Roger helping her I predicted that she would adopt him, but another thing that helped me make that prediction was when she did this in the book “she led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. "Goodnight!" Behave yourself, boy”. Near the end of the book Langston Hughes left the end of book hanging leaving a lot of room for anything to happen. Using the text support from the book my prediction can be considered accurate.   

Taken Hostage!

Authors note: this piece is a character analysis of the book Zach Lie by Roland Smith. I focused on closely on analyzing  the main character throughout the  book. I wrote about how Zach changed throughout the book and how other characters changes him.

At the beginning of the book Zach’s Lie by Rolland Smith, Zach is just a normal kid who has normal friends, but he experiences one thing not many people want to experience in their lifetime . As the book begins to progress three men take Zach and his family hostage and tell them they are not allowed to tell anyone about what happened. This totally changes Zach because before he was a social kid and now he a shy kid. Zach and his family are forced to go to the Witness Protection Program and located in a new town. When Zach is in the Witness Protection Program Caitlin(his new best friend) shows him the true meaning of friends and life. Throughout the whole book of Zach’s Lie many characters cause him to change many times, which results with Zach finding the true meaning of friends and Life

Throughout the book Zach changed various times. At the beginning of the book Zach’s life is affected in huge way as the men take his family hostage. This affects Zach because he basically becomes petrified he never talked to anybody or made eye contact. As the book begins to develop Zach becomes friends with a girl called Caitlin. Caitlin totally changed Zach’s life as she made Zach become more of a social person instead of being that on kid who never talks. She also taught Zach what the real meaning of life and friends is.

When I read the book Zach Lie’s Zach kind of reminded me of Peeta in Hunger Games. Zach was shy at the beginning but the main character changed him dramatically and made him a more social and friendly person to talk to. Just like in the book Hunger Games Peeta was always shy to people but Katniss changed him in such a dramatic way that he became more social. Another connection I made with Peeta and Zach is that they both experienced things not many teenagers experience like Zach was held hostage, and Peeta was forced to fight until death in the Hunger Games.

Despite the dramatic changes Zach has to go through throughout the book it really helps him throughout the book. During all of the changes Zach went through he learns one of the most important lesson of life, what friends and life really means.

 

America's True Heroes

Authors Note: This piece is a letter to the Founding Fathers about what I would tell them. Most of the letter is about what I would have done rather than what they did.

Dear Founding Father’s

I want to start off this letter by thanking you for everything you have gave us like , The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and all of the freedoms. There are some things that you did that I thought weren’t some of the smartest things when the colonist first settled. You gave the Indians blankets that were contaminated with small pox and you told the Indians it was a present, that really isn’t one of the nicest things you did when you first settled. Alongside giving the Indians infected blankets you also allowed slavery which later led to the Civil War and almost the destruction of our country . Despite you creating the laws and bills that made and created our country to be so successful, you also almost destroyed it without banning slavery.

Slavery was a massive thing back in the late 1700’s, most if not all of the Founding Fathers were salve owners. There were some notable names that were against slavery like Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Jon Adams. Despite Benjamin Franklin being  against slavery he and Benjamin Rush set up a program against slavery. During the program it later got slavery banned in some states including Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. After a while many of states started abolishing slavery and later Rufus King and George Washington signed a law which prohibited slavery in the Midwestern States, but not the Southern States. Slavery is one of the things the Founding Fathers could have improved on, such as maybe not being slave owners themselves or banning slavery all together right away as it started to become popular.

Although the Founding Fathers of America made some mistakes along the way are still the ones that created our country to make it so successful today. That is why the Founding Fathers should be recognized as some of America’s true hero’s.

Sincerely,

Jake M

Fake Identity

Authors Note: This piece is about the conflict and resolution in the book Zach's Lie. I focused on the climax(the point of no return)  and the events that lead up to that lead up the climax.

Imagine being placed in the Witness Protection Program so you have to move to whole different place and change your name and looks, you basically have to change your life. Then every day you worry if these people who want to kill you know where you are, and with one little slip up like you telling your friend who you really are and the secret spreads and just before you know it these people who want to kill you know where you live. This is what Zach to face throughout the whole the book, and when Zach make that one little slip it creates the cause of the story.

Zach creates the Cause the story when he leaves his journal in his mom bookstore and it falls into the wrong hands. In that journal it contained all of Zach journals about who he really was before he was in Witness Protection program. When the journal fell in to the wrong person hands this is how the climax was starting to be created.When Zach creates the cause of the story the effect of it is the people that are looking for Zach find were he is living and take him The climax of the story is when the people that are looking for Zach are holding him captive and threatening to kill him, this is the turning the point of the story because Zach has to leave Elko and go back in the Witness Protection Program leaving all of his friends behind him and have to start a whole new life. A connection that I make with Zach, is that I saw a movie about a women in Witness Protection Program and it's not an easy thing keeping your secret which is the problem Zach faced throughout the book. Zach's life in the Witness Protection Program was not easy, considering you couldn’t tell anyone who you really and it probably is the same for people that are in the Protection Program today.

Are you Hungry?

Authors Note: in this two paragraph writing piece, I wrote about the conflicts and resolutions in the book Hunger Games. Please give me any feedback if you think any changes need to be made.  

Visualize being trapped in a arena full of other teenagers wanting to kill you so they can stay alive and be the outright winner of the Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games there are many conflicts like Katniss having to leave her family and sadness that Katniss and her mom and sister experienced, the biggest conflict of the story though was  Katniss fighting for her life against 23 other contestants wanting to kill her.

In Hunger Games there were many conflicts that sometimes would drive Katniss crazy, but towards the end of the book most of these conflicts were resolved in different ways. The main conflict of the story is an example of a person vs. person as Katniss fights for her life against 23 other contestants. There is a little of person vs. nature in the story, because at one point of the book it talks about these poisonous bees attacking the contestants in the games.One connection I can make with the main conflict of the story, is when I'm playing paintball it's me verses 9 other people fighting for their life not to get hit by a paintball. Even though Katniss had to go through all of hard times she faced in the games like starvation, being attacked by people, and seeing people in her alliance die, beyond all of these conflicts all of them were resolved including the main conflict from Katniss winning the Hunger Games.   

Every Kids Dream

Author’s Note: This piece is Personal Narrative of my family trip to Florida that my Family and I take every year.

Envision yourself in a scorching climate down in Florida, then entering through the gates to where every kid’s dream is to go to Disney World. Then after you spend the day in Disney World you and your family go to a beach by were your staying and you see many things you never see at beach like jellyfish and exotic fish. Lastly you spend your last day at a swimming with dolphins place and also getting to hold stingrays. Swimming with Dolphins, Disney World, and Exotic Beaches were some of the things I experienced on my family trip to Florida.

On the first day of our trip we took a direct flight to Tampa Bay. Once we arrived at Tampa Bay we had to drive to Englewood, Florida to my grandma’s house where we would be staying for most of our trip. When we arrived at my grandma’s house we got settled and swam in her pool till the sun went down. We went to bed early that night because the next morning we were going to swim with the dolphins. That next morning I woke up very early to see if any alligators were in the pond behind my grandma house, and sure enough a alligator seemed like it was stalking its prey(a duck) on the mini Island.

Finally just as everyone in my family was woken we were going to swim with the dolphins. All my sisters filed in the car and we were off, the drive the drive was long and tiresome but when we got to Dolphin Cove everyone was ready and energized . We entered the building and my dad quickly paid for us; we got a fast tutorial on what we were going to do when we with the dolphins. My family and I all entered  the water quickly eager to swim with the dolphins. We all got to touch the dolphins and do other things together as a group, then once we finished with that we got to ride on the dolphins back while they swam. The dolphins were very friendly and they were as smooth as silk, this was a once in a lifetime experience. Once my group finished with the Dolphins, we trotted over the sting rays were we got hold the sting rays and pet them. My second day in Florida had been a blast and I knew I’d never forget it.

Seeing that yesterday was a great day I was excited for today. My grandma gave us a suggestion of going to the beach near their house, despite my grandma saying that we deiced to go check it out. When we arrived there we ran right for the water but instead of jumping in the water we sat there in amazement. As we looked in the water we saw all kinds of different fish, beyond that on the shores of the beach we saw tons of shark teeth this beach this was one great beach. We spent the rest of our day at that beach having a great time, snorkeling and looking at the fish or searching through the vast amount of sand for shark teeth.

On our last day in Florida we got to tackle Disney World, I was really thrilled because I hadn’t been to Disney World in a long time and I hadn't really remembered it a lot. When we arrived in Orlando went straight to the Animal Kingdom and rode some of our favorite rides. After we rode the rides we wanted to go to a different park and we still had some time, before it got dark so we toke the monorail to Magic Kingdom to ride some of my mom’s  favorite rides. As soon as we got to magic Kingdom we headed for my mom’s favorite ride Splash Mountain, on the ride Splash Mountain we got soaked during the ride. After the ride it started to get dark and we watched the exciting light parade, alongside the light parade we had a enjoyable time at Disney World.

As we bordered our plane I sat there in my seat thinking of what great things we did in Florida, beyond that this trip was a great bonding experience for our family and we all had a entertaining time. Some of things we experienced in our trip were Disney World, Beaches, and swimming with dolphins were great memories that should never be forgotten.