"Big Yellow Taxi" and "Field Below"

 Author's Note: We read two poems as a class: "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Field Below". They both had the same mood while reading them.

These poems both sound sad and have a sense of regret to them. In "Big Yellow Taxi", they paved paradise and put up a parking lot, which sounds sad. In "Field Below", they wish they could see a field below giving a sense of regret and sadness. The song of "Big Yellow Taxi" sounds energetic and happy almost, unlike the poem. However, the song of "Field Below" sounds the same. It has the sad and regretful feeling of the poem. I didn't expect "Big Yellow Taxi" to be a happy song just by reading the poem. I expected "Field Below" to sound sad though.

Mother to Son

Author's Note: I read a poem called Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. I noticed a lot of figurative language as I read.

In the poem, Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes, there is a lot of figurative language. There are a lot of metaphors that play into a bigger one. The big metaphor is the stairs. The mom isn't really talking about stairs, she's talking about life and that we shouldn't give up. When she talks about it having tacks and splinters, it means painful times. Torn up boards and places without carpet mean lonely times or poor times. Reaching landings and turning corners are like resting or easy times. She tells her son these things like she is scolding him. The mom tells him not to give up. I think that we should never give up.

Pi will Survive

Imagine being stranded at sea. Now imagine being stranded at sea with a wounded zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. That's Pi's story. The boat Pi and his family were traveling on just sank and Pi is alone on the Pacific. I predict that he will survive on the boat with the zebra and the tiger, Richard.

One reason I think this is because up to this point in the book, there have been little parts about Pi when he is older. Pages 91-93 talk about Pi and his children. If he doesn't survive, how could he have children.

He is also the son of a zoo owner/keeper. He might find a way to 'tame' Richard so that he won't eat him. Earlier in the book Pi talks about lions at a circus. The circus trainer enters the ring first to establish that it is his territory, not the lions'. The lions respect that. They will do want he wants possibly in return for protection (pages 43-45).

Lastly, lifeboats usually have some sort of supply and I don't think this lifeboat is an exception. The supply might consist of food, water, or other necessities. I think Pi will make good use of these items to survive.

Pi will survive this dreadful disaster. It might take everything Pi's got to live to tell this tale. It might be hard to keep the social status in line. It might be rough with what they've got. Putting a positive spin on this situation won't be easy, but Pi will figure it out and live through this mess.

Pi Patel

Author's Note: This is how I think Pi Patel in the book, Life of Pi, would act walking into a classroom. Please comment on figurative language.

He would walk in like he was on a mission; straight to his desk and sit down. He wouldn't say anything. Not to the teacher. Not to other students. Not to anyone. As soon as the teacher called his name for attendance, he would go beyond the usual 'here' by rushing up to the board and start writing like he owned it. Absolutely nothing could stop him. His name would no longer be the center of bullying. He would write it so no one could confuse it. He made his point so no one could forget it. When he finished, the room was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. Finally the teacher would move on signaling his approval. Pi would confidently walk back to his desk.

Rules of the Road - Symbolism Poem

Jenna's job, a safety place

Free from problems

Enjoyable and easy

Mrs. Gladstone, a Cadillac

dying, being worn away

Being replaced and losing control

Jenna's life, the road trip

Unknown obstacles

A learning opportunity during both

Symbolism in Rules of the Road

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines 'symbol' as: something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance; especially : a visible sign of something invisible <the lion is a symbol of courage>. Using that definition, I looked though Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer. There are important symbols in Rules of the Road.

The first symbol I found was Jenna's job. I thought it represented a safety place for her. One reason is that she is good at it. Jenna can forget everything and just sell shoes. Another reason is that no one there really knows about her problems. She doesn't have to worry about her alcoholic father. Lastly, she likes it, which makes it an ideal place for her.

Another symbol I found was the Cadillac. It represents Mrs. Gladstone. They are both all over and being worn away on the road or in life. Also they are somewhat dying and losing control. Things are replacing them, like new cars and Elden.

The last symbol I found was the road trip. Their road trip can represent Jenna's life. She does not know what she will encounter in either the trip or her life. Because of this, she also learns things on the road as well as in her life (page 113).

Symbols are in books to illustrate a deeper meaning. Instead of just a car, we can see Mrs. Gladstone. The road trip depicts Jenna's life. Finally, Jenna's job represents her safe place. As you can see, the symbols in Rules of the Road are important.

Greed - Treasure Island

When I think of pirates, a few things pop into my mind. I think of boats, swords, and adventures. But what are pirates all about? What is their goal? They're all about the treasure. This may affect their actions very much like in the book, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

There is a common theme throughout this book. Greed takes hold of the pirates, changing their behavior. The crew at the beginning, sets out to find treasure on Treasure Island. The crew is made up of some pirates. Pirates, of course, want the treasure.

One place were greed was at a maximum is when the pirates rebelled against the remaining crew. Only the squire, captain, doctor, Jim, and a few other of the crew, were left. They wanted this treasure and didn't want to share it. There is no doubt that if they had gotten the treasure, they would have killed each other for it.

Another area we find greed in is the constant fighting between the pirates and the rest of the crew. The pirates wanted the chart, or map, and killed people to get it. They also wanted the stockade which was hard to attack because of the open space. The stockade was in possession of the loyal party. Throughout the rest of the book, it is pirates vs. loyalists.

As the pirates near the treasure burial site, "Their eyes burned in their heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was found up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure…" (page 265) Do you see how much they wanted the treasure?

In the end, it cost about twenty lives of the people who set out to find the treasure in the first place. Was it really worth it? Twenty lives? Even though the pirates worked together, they were each fighting for themselves. They were so wrapped up with greed, they killed others, some of whom used to be part of a crew long before this. Greed changes your actions and thinking, and is definitely a theme throughout this book.

Rules of the Road

Rules of the road is being told from Jenna, the main character's point of view. This is important because we get to know how she feels about things. If this changed, we might not understand how she really feels about personal things like her dad being an alcoholic. This book takes place on the road. Starting in Chicago, where Jenna lives, she drives the owner of the Gladstone's company to Texas. On the way they stop at different Gladstone shoe stores to check how they're doing. This setting gets Jenna thinking. She wonders why their aren't road signs in life. Signs to tell you to watch out for jerks and when you're doing something right. If the setting stayed in Chicago she wouldn't really be thinking about these things.

"Where's the Money?"

This was an assigned piece. I had to pick a sentence and include it in my piece. I chose: 'David froze, checking his pockets. Where was the money?'

David and I walked into the movie theater. We were going to see the last movie in the Space Battles series We came a whole hour early because we wanted good seats.

"Two tickets for Space Battles 4, The Ultimate Terminus please," I said to the guy at the box office.

"That will be ten dollars and forty-seven cents," He replied.

I looked over at David who froze, checking his pockets.

"I can't find the money."

"Hold on a second," I said to the ticket guy. I turned back to David, "What do you mean you can't find the money? You insisted that you hold on to it when my mom gave it to us."

"I know. I'm sorry. Now can we focus on finding it instead of me messing up?"

"Fine. Let's retrace our steps." I replied.

We walked all the way back to my house and we didn't find it.

"Maybe we should tell my mom," I suggested.

"Okay, but don't blame it all on me."

We told my mom and she said we were going to have to pay for it ourselves. David and I decided that I was going to buy the tickets and he was going to buy the popcorn and sodas. I grabbed some money out of my room and then we walked over to David's house. We walked in the door and were welcomed by his mom.

"Hi boys. Aren't you supposed to be at that Space Station Wars movie?"

"Mom, it's called Space Battles. And we needed to get more money because we misplaced it on the way," David informed his mother.

"Well that's nice," she replied.

We quickly got the money and left.

"Have fun at your Space Wars movie," his mom called to us as we ran out the door.

"Sometimes I think she does that to annoy me," David thought aloud.

"Well she at least got the first part right," I added.

"I guess," David agreed.

We arrived at the movie theater at 2:24; 16 minutes before the movie started.

"We're back," I said to the guy at the box office.

"You know the price, ten dollars and forty-seven cents," He responded.

"Here you go," I said handing him the money.

"And here you go," he said and gave us the tickets. "Enjoy the show."

"Thanks," we both said rushing to the theater. We walked in and found some good seats right in the middle about two thirds of the way up.

"I'll go get the snacks," David said. "What kind of soda do you want?"

"I'll have Mountain Dew." I replied.

"Okay," he said and he walked off.

I sat down and looked around.

To be continued...

Michael Obi

Author's Note: This is a character analysis of Michael Obi who is the main character in the Dead Men's Path.

You've probably wanted a certain job before. Would you have disregarded someone's beliefs to get there? That's what Michael Obi did in the story Dead Men's Path. Michael is only looking out for himself.

Michael Obi is the new headmaster at the school. He is getting the school ready for inspection but there is this old path across the campus. He decides to block the path and the priest asks him to re-open the path because the path is used for the dead and children coming to be born. Obi is educated doesn't believe in this superstition and therefore does not really care. Michael blocks the path because superstition will not look good at a school.

He is too egocentric. Obi doesn't listen to the priest because he only cares about his needs, which in this case is his job. This is his flaw. Because he leaves the path blocked, the school is destroyed in the night. The school got a bad report because of how it looked and more seriously about the “tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster."

If Michael had removed the fence he would have at least gotten a report on the school even if it wasn't good. Also, the village members wouldn't be mad at him. However, because he doesn't, the school gets a very bad report and Obi finds himself without his pride or his job.

During break

Author's Note: Over Christmas break my brother, my cousin, and I had some fun and I wanted to tell you about it.

The last time we visited my cousin, we built a go-cart out of pieces of wood in my grandma's garage. During Christmas break we got to test it out. We went to the soap-box-derby track and went down a few times. Our cart was very hard to control. My cousin almost crashed. After a while we stopped and decided to leave. That's what happened when we tested out our go-cart.

Nathaniel and Ponyboy

Author's Note: This was an assigned essay. Please comment on organization.

As I wasreading Give Me Liberty, by L. M. Elliot, I realized how much the maincharacter, Nathaniel, and Ponyboy, from The Outsiders are alike. It washard coming up with any differences. From their families to the way they act, Nathanieland Ponyboy are very alike.

Onesimilarity between Nathaniel and Ponyboy is that they are both missing parents.Nathaniel is taken away from his parents to be an indentured servant. Ponyboy'sparents are killed in a car accident. While they are both missing parents, theyboth have some sort of family, even if they aren't related to them. Nathaniel'smaster, Basil, and Ben, an apprentice, are Nathaniel's friends, but they arealso like family: "He mattered to Basil. Family didn't have to be bloodrelations, he reckoned"(342). Ponyboy's older brothers are obviouslyhis family but he also has the gang, which looks out for each other:"...one of the four boys Darry and Soda and I have grown up with and considerfamily" (7). "...all the noise I had heard was the gang coming torescue me" (10). These quotes show that family is important in both books.

The waysNathaniel and Ponyboy act are similar too. Both of them sometimes act withoutthinking. When Nathaniel stole from Basil to help his friend, he "didn't stopto consider or worry about consequences. Within five minutes, Nathaniel hadslipped into the house, fished out two pounds from Basil's meager savings whilehe snored,..."(195). He would later see the consequences. Ponyboyacted without thinking too. On page 7, Ponyboy is walking home from the moviesby himself. He's thinking that he should've called one of the gang members todrive him home or walk home with him. Soon some Socs drive up and beat him up.

There isone difference between Nathaniel and Ponyboy; that is the time period in whichthey live. Nathaniel lives in the 1770's. Yet Ponyboy lives in the 1960's. Thatlarge difference in time does not seem to affect their similarities. It does,however affect the way they speak. The time periods impact the plots of the twobooks. The amount of work and responsibility Nathaniel has leaves him almost noidle time. Ponyboy has a lot of time just to hang out and do stuff with thegang. This is largely due to freedom from slavery and advances in education.Further, Nathaniel's friend Ben wants to be part of the war to help hiscountry, while Ponyboy and his gang don't really think beyond their town.

Besides the physical features, people can have similar personalities like the way they act. That is the case with Nathaniel and Ponyboy. Even though they're fictional characters, they resemble the way we are alike with other people even if they lived long ago.

Text structure assignment

At the very beginning of Give Me Liberty, Nathaniel has a problem. His owner is going bankrupt so he's selling all of his slaves, servants, horses, everything. Nathaniel is going to be bought by a blacksmith named Mr. Owen. A selfish, mean, blacksmith. He's already hit Nathaniel and he hasn't even bought him yet. Owen wants Nathaniel to pick out a horse. Nathaniel decides to have a little fun. He picks a wild horse. When Owen sees the horse, the horse leans forward and kicks Owen with her back legs. Owen lands a few feet back. The horse turns around a rears up and stomps down a few times trying to hit the rolling Owen. Soon the horse runs off and Nathaniel chases after.

Instead of being bought by that mean blacksmith, Nathaniel is saved. After getting the horse under control, Nathaniel gets beat by Owen. Owen's first blow hits Nathaniel right in the right eye. The second, his lip. On the third Nathaniel used his hands to block. Then Owen switched to pounding his back. The man in the carriage, with a horse, that Vixen, Nathaniel's horse, had messed with, came yelling at Owen. He was telling Owen to stop beating Nathaniel. Soon he bought Nathaniel from the auctioneer. Owen gave him up saying that Nathaniel would rob him in his sleep. Nathaniel thought that would not be true. Later, that prophecy will be fulfilled.