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