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.

Family Effects Life

Family Effects life

Authors Note: This is a comparative essay that shows the similarities and differences of broken families in The Outsiders, and Johnny Tremain.


Johnny Tremain, from the 1700’s, and Ponyboy, from The Outsider which is based in the 1950’s sound way different form the way they dress and how they act, but they have a lot in common. They both come from broken families and are affected severely by it. They both come from broken families, but they have their differences.
In the first place, both novels exhibit the main character is greatly effect by it. Johnny has to go and live with a family that makes him work to get food and shelter. Ponyboy lives with his two brothers and his older one yells because he loves him, but Ponyboy doesn’t always understand and he takes it offensively. Johnny had to deal with the other children who either make fun of him, or sabotage him.

In addition’ both of the broken families have death involved. I figured that was why the main character was affected the most. Ponyboy’s parents died in a car crash without warning so now he lived with his brothers. Johnny Tremain had his mom die and the book never talked about a father figure, but he has no relation he lives with or even ever see’s

On the other hand Johnny has no family he lives with or even hardly knows. Ponyboy at least has his brothers and a bunch of really close friends he can talk to and share feelings with. Johnny has no one really close see he remains a solitary figure bottling everything up until, at one point I predict it will all blow.
To conclude with, broken families are shown in both Johnny Tremain, and the Outsiders. The books may sound very different and one being about a 1950’s Texas gang, and the other a 1700’s boy working as a silver smith they have their similarities. Broken families are displayed it similar ways with some differences.