Do as I say.

The “Lottery” is a short story based on irony because if you win you get stoned until you die. You have no choice or way to get out of it and if you’re picked you die no other options. This shows us that the theme of the story is control they are controlled and they have to follow the traditions.

They are controlled to show up and each father or man in the family picks a slip if there is a black dot on it their family is chosen. If a family is chosen they all draw slips and if they have a black dot on theirs they get to have the whole town throw rocks at them until they die. This obviously shows the theme control because they have no option to die or not and they all know that so people don’t put up a really big fight.

The whole story is based on control they show up and have no choice not to come. They pick a slip and have no choice not to picks one. Not even the family that is chosen argues that one their loved one is picked and has to die they all know they are being controlled and it is shown widely throughout the story and is one of the biggest themes that controls the story.

"Wash me"

Here I am ignored and full of dust and dirt and lonesomeness. People see that there is dirt all over me and they think I'm bad just because I don't look okay if someone would spend some time fix my problems and wash me up I could be a as clear as day, but since I have dirt on my people don't because I look bad that isn't the motive that should be flying around the world. If you spend time with something they slowly become clearer and cleared the most care I have seen is someone writing in my dirt wash me. Turns out the little bit doesn't go a long way I have never been cleaned or cared for just a window with the word wash me sprawled across but nobody cares.

That's what you think

Authors note: This is a writing piece on a quote to meet a goal of using quotes in at least three writing pieces.

                Hal Stevens or better known as Ralph Steven’s son spends his time living in a huge shadow of an all-star third basemen and heavy hitter for the Cardinals. People start to think that Hal gets to start on his baseball team just because of his dad knowing the coach and being famous. People always think about people before they really know who they’re really dealing with and they can be wrong and way off from the real thing.

               

 “It’s not easy being Ralph Stevens” is stated throughout the book and it is a really big quote in the book. A senior on the team especially doesn’t like hall because he beat him out for the job at second base and he made an excuse so that in his own mind he doesn’t have to face that Hal was better than him.

                

 People often think of other people from what is around them and not from the real person and they are really never completely correct. The quote in this book really states that just because his dad is famous doesn’t make his life easy it can actually make it worse.

Little Boy Big Heart

Authors note: This is piece for point of view for the book Old Yeller to meet a goal of getting a ten in point of view.

Travis is just a boy on a farm with a little brother that causes trouble and mother that has many things to do and a Pa who works hard for a living and mentors Travis. When his Pa has to leave Travis is the man of the house and steps up to provide. Travis meets what is to become his new best pal with a rude awakening and starts by instantly hating him because from his point of view the dog is a “thieving rascal”.

                 

“He was a big ugly slick-haired yeller dog.” From Travis’s point of view and needed to be disposed of and ran out of there sight. Little Arliss doesn’t see it that way instantly he loves the dog and was happy because the yeller dog was stick thing and starving and he sees it as helping the yeller dog out, but since the book is told by Travis’s point of view the reader views the dog as a thief and doesn’t like him.

               

 Little Arliss was just a young kid maybe four years old and he didn’t understand what it meant that they had no meat because of the dog he saw it as a new pet for him to have. If Little Arliss was the one that had to provide for the family he might have hated the dog too because he would have to go hunting for more food when they had a whole deer ready to be eaten.

               

 Travis has a point that the dog was a thief, but it is natural for a dog to seek the easiest way possible to get meat when they are starving, but the book doesn’t add that because it is told entirely from Travis’s point of view. If the book was told in third person a reader might have the choice to see it from another point of view and then they wouldn’t like Travis. The point of view decides how the reader feels a d shaped if they like the book or not they same sequence of events could happen is Little Arliss’s point of view and the book would be totally different.

               

 Little Arliss has a completely different point of view than Travis and the book is told by Travis’s point of view so the entire time you are relating to Travis not little Arliss so you feel for Travis about how he has an annoying little brother that always ruins everything. From Travis’s point of view at the beginning of the book old yeller is a rascal that has no business with him because he is a thief.

The Truth behind the Cough

The common cold is the most common illness and the most contagious. Universities and medical science are always trying to come up with a cure, but try they do they have never succeeded. The common cold is pretty interesting and remarkable yet simple.

               

 First off getting infected is hard to prevent and is easy to do. You can catch a cold by getting contaminated fingers or touching even the smallest of droplets from coughs and sneezes (How Cold Virus Infecction Occurs). It doesn’t take much to get infected just a few tiny droplets that you don’t even know are there so they get ignored and you become infected.

               

 The simple infection matches how the cold virus works a cold is simple and like many other viruses that infect by direct contact. A cold is an illness when you become infected in your nose. It also affects you sinuses throat and ears (What a Common Cold Is). A cold usually passes in one to two weeks but can lead to bronchitis and other illnesses that last a lot longer (What a Common Cold Is).

                 

There are no proven cures for the common cold. There are medicines that are always advertised to cover the symptoms of a cold but never cure it. They might have found a cure for the common cold. It is a thing that can kill viruses even after the person becomes infected, but it is not yet tested on a cold virus and most likely will just cover symptoms (New Clue to Fighting Viruses ). On the news we see things like this all the time and this is from a couple years ago and there is no cure now so apparently it failed like all the others, and the common cold continues on its path of nasal destruction

                 

The common cold can’t be stopped. The cold virus rampages on even though people are working countless hours trying to conquer the virus, but the virus always wins. The common cold is intriguing and question raising although it is a simple virus that isn’t complicated to understand how it works. 

"How Cold Virus Infection Occurs." 2007. Understanding Colds. 18 April 2012 <http://www.commoncold.org/undrstn3.htm>.

"New Clue to Fighting Viruses ." 2 November 2010. NHS Choices. 19 April 2012 <http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/11November/Pages/common-cold-viruses-fought-in-cells.aspx>.

"What a Common Cold Is." 2007. Understandiong the Common Cold. 18 April 2012 <http://www.commoncold.org/undrstn2.htm>.

Huge Changes

Auhtors Note: This is a character development piece on the main charecter of the book "Woods Runner" to work on my goal of getting a ten.

Going from a provider to a savior may not seem like all that much, but for Samuel he never saw it coming and was changed and formed completely. Samuel is a innocent boy with little worry, but just to hunt and feed his family and other families he helps out, but when the task changes Samuel also changes greatly.

When death comes into a young man’s mind it can mold him and he can take either of two ways he can change for the better becoming a great man or can take the easy route and use death as an excuse for everything. The thought of death pushed Samuel to go on a great journey, death pushed Ty Lewis to become great at the things he does, and keep pushing on. Without Samuel his parents would have died because Samuel was a hunter and knew the woods and had to get all the food for his family. He affects his entire village because he’s only thirteen and is the main provider for his family.

Sam is a natural hunter, but is not used to a man hunt, he has to go after his parents and survive in the woods. This molds Samuel to learn more about man and their tendencies and the knowledge of the woods allows him to do that. Samuel changes greatly because he gains so much more knowledge from people he has met and people that have helped him.

Samuel gets helped by many people, but there is one in particular that changes him the most. The narrator even states that "Sam Can't believe how much his life changed". Annie a little girl and her family he came across that fed him and offered him knowledge of how the Brits were that captured his parents. Hessians come and kill the little girl’s parents and now he has to take care of the little girl. Without Samuel Annie would have died a long hard death of starvation. By now Samuel had went from a hunter to a care taker, man hunter, and savior. Without Samuel’s maturity growing with all his responsibilities others would have died.

To conclude on Samuel went form a hunter to a caretaker, man hunter, and savior in just a few months. There is a part in the book the narrator explains the Samuel was amazed by how much his life had changed when he had just ate dinner with a nice family and within two hours he had a little girl to take care of and a family he just met had died. Samuel goes through huge changes and take the higher route and changes for the better.

Song vs. Poem

The Poem Big Yellow Taxi has a mood of Big Yellow Taxi is sad and depressed and it makes people feel sympathetic. The tone the author wants you to feel is sympathetic and regretful. As compared to the song when the singer sings with an upbeat voice and the mood is almost happy and you feel picked up and feel good and that’s what the singer seems to want you to feel.

The author probably didn’t like the song because it contrasted everything he wrote the poem for. When he wrote that with a tone of sympathy and sorrow he wanted the audience to feel that way and when people heard the song it contrasted what the poem said and the song made it seem weird and think how that’s not right.

I Always Win

Authors Note: This is a parody of the poem"This is Just to Say". That / worked on with Sean in class to show we learned what a parody is.


I have joined the war in the south pacific. Will you forgive more for what I have done? I have made the right decision and I’m overjoyed that I joined.

It relates to the novel because he wanted to go to the war but his mom did not approve but he still felt good about serving his country. The main character Adam is speaking to his mother who is speaking to the audience. The tone in the beginning is sarcastic. It makes the reader think at first that he is asking for forgiveness and at the end the reader sees the sarcasm and takes it in as humor.

Parody for just to say using hereos don't run

I always win

I have joined the war in the south pacific. Will you forgive more for what I have done? I have made the right decision and I’m overjoyed that I joined.

Responce to Mother to Son

Keep Going

Authors Note: This is a piece to show how figurative language is used to set the tone and mood in “Mother to Son” Langston Hughes

The author uses a lot of metaphors, by having the mother talk about her life as if it was a crystal stair or a floor of a house when he says some boards torn up and bare places. The figurative language used gives a sense of comparison and it’s used to set the tone of hardship and sadness with a little bit of reassurance when she says she’s okay and for her son to keep going. The way I felt when I read the story was that if, I were the boy I would want to find my mother and help her even though she says to keep going. It makes me feel sorry for the mother.

Research Essay

Not Really


Authors Note: This is a research essay I created for Social Studies, and then I found I could use it for one of my goals in Language Arts.


A dog gets let outside, he gets a sudden rush of excitement, and he sees bird, rodents, and sticks to chase. The dog takes off happy as can be with no clue about the chain hooked to his collar restricting him to do anything he planned on. This was the same situation for the “free” blacks in the north they were told they were free, but really they were still considered different and restricted form things. It’s like a feeling of relief that only last for a short period of time to be followed by more grief. The free black in the north were not free they still had different laws and weren’t allowed to do all the things a white man could


A free white man could go and vote for his government and could serve as a juryman against criminals, and have a say in government. A “free” black man in most states was not allowed to vote or serve as a juryman; he had no say in how the country was run and how crime was handled. Often times if a black man and a white man were both suspects in a crime the black man was sentenced without much investigation and nobody cared, because there were no blacks serving for the jury.


Economic freedoms were debatable, because technically they were allowed to have a job and own their own house and land to live and thrive. The blacks argued that they couldn’t get a job because a white man would never hire them, and It was hard for them two own a business. Blacks did own land and homes, but they could only afford them in undesirable places and rundown homes, because they couldn’t get a job, and they weren’t allowed to house in the same neighborhood with the whites.


To continue on the segregation, this was the most restricted. Black men weren’t allowed to marry white women by law, and they weren’t allowed to dine or go to a theater with whites, and they had designated areas they were allowed to go. The black hated this because they were considered free, but they had laws that didn’t apply to a white man that was ultimately free and free isn’t at different levels the definition states; not subject to censorship or control by a ruler, government, or other authority, and enjoying civil liberties.


Blacks were considered free by whites, but that was just an excuse to try to get them off their backs for starting slavery. They weren’t free not by definition or in any way besides they didn’t have to be a slave on a plantation.






"Slavery in the Western Hemisphere:Â Free Blacks in the North." Slavery in the Western Hemisphere:Â Free Blacks in the North. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. .
"Northern Exclusion of Blacks." Slavery in the North. 2003. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. .
"North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial." North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. .

Why Me

Authors Note: This piece is on the development of dynamic character Ty Lewis a thirteen year old boy much like the rest of with some very different experiences.

Ty Lewis who went from a boy with dead parents who slept in the laundry room of his uncles old rickety house, and bathed outside with crick water in a rusty tub because he wasn’t allowed to use his uncles bathroom. To a boy living with his brother who plays for the New York Jets living in a mansion without a care in the world until the mob comes back out to kill this time.

The first book Football Hero starts when Ty lives with his uncle who mistreats him and makes him bath outside in a rusty tub, and use a 100 year old outhouse as a bathroom. At first Ty is shy and he is a loner at school whose only friends are books. His uncle wants information on the Jets so that he can bet on games with the mob. Ty is told that he can play football if he gets injury information from his brother “Tiger”.

When Ty starts to get the information, and tries out for the football team, he starts to feel confident. He aces the tryouts and that gives him even more confidence and he starts to fit in at school. That is a pretty big leap from where he was, and he has a whole lot more ahead of him to learn.

The FBI finds the gambling and that Tiger was leaking information Ty and his brother are accused of the crime. Tiger admits he was telling his brother things, but Ty thought it was for his uncle’s fantasy football league. This changed Ty because then he became a target from the mob because he helped the FBI, and his Uncle and his family were put into the witness protection program. Ty was friends with his cousin who had to go with his Uncle without any contact with people she formally knew.

Ty now went from shy outcast who was mentally abused by his Uncle to a #1 target of the mob. That’s a huge change and affects Ty’s life because a mad mob member turns on Tiger and Ty had to jump and shove him down stairs so that Tiger didn’t get beaten with a crow-bar. After that the first book ended with a big cliffhanger.

The second novel Deep Zone is about Ty’s life with his brother and he has become the star football player for his school and gains tons of friends and is going to try out for a seven on seven team lead by a former giants quarterback coach. During the football season his Uncle comes back for a trial, and the mob gets stirred back up and sends killers after Ty. Tiger gets injured in a play-off game really bad and gets and infection and is moved into an ICU, and an undercover FBI agent is sent to protect Ty. During that time TY forms a bond with the officer, and the officer starts to change Ty’s life even more. The agent gives him advice to work through a cut on his hand to try-out. The coach notices Ty’s toughness and grants him a spot on the team.

While on the team one night a mob killer tried to break into Ty’s house, now Ty has even more to worry about. Ty feel the problem is fixed when he goes down to Miami to play in the championship game for his seven on seven team, and meets a girl who he seems to like. Now Ty has a girl, a mob, and a game to worry about. This changes Ty in the biggest way because he meets new friends and he goes on to win the game and he feels on-top of the world and he feels amazing, when about a year ago he was thinking he was nothing and his Uncle, would start beating him.

Ty went through huge changes in both books, but mainly the second book. Because that’s when things rise to murder attempts, (I would tell more about the murder attempt, but it would ruin the book) and Ty knows it so he has changed so much from a “nobody” to a star football player escaping death.

Character Description

I’ll do it myself
Authors Note: This piece is a character description piece using figurative language to describe better. 
Adam from the book heroes don't run is a very independent character. He is a tall boy with eyes as blue as the pure water of the Caribbean, brown hair, and a muscular frame as sturdy as a rock. When he enters the war he is only seventeen, yet appears much older. Besides age he is a lot like the character from where the red fern grows not physically, but mentally, and is motivated by a lot of the same things.

The character from where the red fern grows wants dogs, but his parents won’t do it so he takes things into his own hands with the assistance of his grandfather. Billy wants dogs which isn’t the same as war, but he deals with it the same, he goes to his grandfather and does things on his own. They both have wills of fire that never give up and never stop. Adam wants different things, but the two books are very similar.

A.J Wiesman 2/22/12

“Through the Storm”

            Authors Note: The theme survival is universal it can mean multiple things in a book this piece is to explain how the theme survival in the book “Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelsen is portrayed in different ways throughout the novel.

           

 When someone says survival what do you think of? The theme survival in book generally means physically surviving in the outdoors and is a very universal theme in books like “The Hatchet” or “Touching Spirit Bear”. Ben Mikaelsen adds some different elements to the theme as well as physically surviving.

             

Right away the book jumps into the physical aspect of surviving. This is shown after Cole beat the heck out of the other kid and has to go and survive on the island with a bear that will really put him in his place. Cole thinks that he can make the bear be scared of him, but the bear has other plans and Cole has to cope to survive.

             

Contradicting physically surviving Cole needs to battle himself and survive mentally. Not far into the book Cole starts to go a little crazy and tries to swim off the island. You would have to be a little crazy to try and swim off of an island especially in Alaska. This shows that he starts to have to battle himself to survive because if he were to go any crazier he could end up killing himself.

            

 The elder puts it in a perspective of physically and mentally surviving when he says to Cole "Animals feel the same way. Don't forget that. You aren't the only creature here. You're part of a much bigger circle. Learn you place or you'll have a rough time."  This quote shows the theme survival first physically by summing up that the bear will kill him if he doesn’t respect it. Mentally the elder is telling Cole that he needs to think for a while and fins his place before something even worse happens.

 Survival is definitely the most obvious theme is Touching Spirit Bear. The author was very clever in how it was portrayed physically and mentally to really set in the theme. Survival is shown in many ways throughout the novel.

A.J Wiesman 2/22/12
Dude you need to Think

Authors note: This creative essay is to show cause and effect in the point of view of a different character from a different story

Dear Cole, this is Ty Lewis writing to you about the effects you are casing on yourself because of the action you take without thinking. When you beat the crap out of that kid you weren’t thinking and you know it. If you were thinking of the effects that would have on your life you might have just walked away and let it go. In a way though your punishment affected you life in a good way.

The major cause was that you were dumb enough to beat the kid to a pulp so badly you permanently crippled him. The effect from that was you had to go to the island for a long time to fend for food and water. This made you go mad and you tried to swim off the island just to be carried back in by the current.

This all could have all been avoiding if you thought about the stuff you do and the possible effect I think you would be a lot better of a person and people would think a lot better of you. You seem like you don’t care at all, but you have to admit that you would wish people would stop calling you criminal or a bum. The island changed you so in the end you got lucky that the effect affected you in a good way.

The Big Picture

 Authors Note: This is a piece on the quote when the potbellied elder tells Cole"Animals feel the same way. Don't forget that. You aren't the only creature here. You're part of a much bigger circle. Learn you place or you'll have a rough time."

I feel the biggest quote of the book is on the first cover page. It is the potbellied elder basically telling Cole that he need to change. Before that Cole was a careless I'm "gonna" beat you up for reason I don't care type of guy. Without the old man telling col about this he might have never change, this is the most important quote of the whole book.

This was most important because it is Cole's affinity of what he need to do.. Without it Cole would have been probably killed by the bear. This almost sums the whole moral of the story up in just a few lines. The moral of the any story is the purpose of the whole thing. In some book's the moral is stared in a quote from teh story the is a clear case of that.

This quote is a great one for any story. When I opened it up and saw it on the first page, I really knew that it was the most important part of the story. Really this quote is awesome in hit me straight on and I knew that's what i wanted to write on. This quote is the absolute most important of the whole entire book

It's all about Location

It’s all about Location
Authors Note: This is a speech I prepared to explain the importance of the setting from the book "Touching Spirit Bear".

To me this book is all about location, not directly but it is the biggest aspect of the book “Touching Spirit Bear”. When Cole beats the heck out of the other kid and is sentenced to a year in prison or a year on an isolated island with a wild spirit bear you feel how the book is going to move forward. If Cole would have chosen prison and he would he would have never learned the lessons he learns on the island and he would still have the mindset the he’s right all the time and anybody who doesn’t think so shall be beaten to a pulp.

                 

On the island setting he sees a spirit bear and want the bear to afraid of him like other people. He throws rocks at the bear. The bear came back and beat him to a pulp. Cole starts to realize that the bear is more powerful than him and the bear has dominance and he must listen. This gets Cole thinking about how he could be wrong in his home life and that other people have the same feelings and should be respected This  would have never happened if the book had a different setting.  

It's a Big Deal

Roger looked at the door—looked at the woman—looked at the door—and went to the sink.
Authors Note This is a response to "Thank You Ma'am" by Langston Hughes, abut the importance of the above quote and how big of deal it was to the story.

This quote is very important to the story because it shows an act of trust. This is when the boy starts to realize that the woman is placing trust in him so he has trust in her to trust him and he doesn’t want to be mistrusted.

When that happened I was surprised at what the boy did It made me think of what I would do in the situation. I Probably would have ran just out of pure awkwardness, but this is a story that takes a different mind set to understand. Most people might think about how awkward that would have been, but you have to think of it from a different point of view which is hard to reach.

This also shows the boys impulse, he sees a way out, but the woman put him in his place and he listened to her. At first he seemed he only wanted a way out. When he sees his chance, instead of ceasing the opportunity he thinks and he realizes the woman trusts him and he doesn't want to let her down.

Besides the boys impulse that made him decide to listen, the woman's confidence played a big roll. She didn't stand there and keep a close eye on the boy or look at him suspiciously as if he would run. She simply told him to do something, and acted as if she had no doubt he would do it. That made Rodger think that she was a good person and didn't immediately lose her trust and investigate him like a "CSI" member would search a room for clues. This quote basically began the climax of the story and may be the most important piece to this story.   

Responce for Dead Man's Path

Key Changes
Authors note: This is a response to Dead Man’s Path for goals for reading.

Obi is a character that didn’t change, but as the story goes on you start to think different of him. When the book starts out he seems very innocent. The development of the story ties in a major theme of the story which is loss of innocence.


At the beginning of the short story they introduce Obi as a hard working nice man that is assigned a school that he is to improve. The story goes on about how he is educated and how the school hasn’t been making any progress, and about how Obi can fix that.


Near the middle we start to see a different side of Obi he starts to think about all the recognition he’s going to receive and he is thinking all about himself and not the children out the village and the school which he is to improve. He starts to come off as a very inconsiderate.


When the story starts to wrap up Obi does something very inconsiderate. He cuts of a very religious path which is said to be the path souls of dead men walk. The priest comes to talk to Obi and tells him to re-open the path so the souls can pass on. He refuses and the path is torn up. This shows that the society is also now against him.