Snape and Achilles Save the Day

The character Achilles reminded me of Snape from Harry Potter since they were both neutral until the end of the story and then they made a huge difference. In the stories both heroes died and they were supporting what they believed in. For Achilles he died for Sparta winning the war and for Snape it was fighting Voldemort and the death eaters so they wouldn't take over the world. The only difference was that Snape pretended to be the bad guy the whole time while Achilles never knew what side he was on until they killed his cousin.
   I think that the reason they have these people is that they need the good guys and bad guys to be going at it and it can't be clear on which side is winning until the end where a hidden hero comes out of nowhere and flips and side so the good guys have enough power to win.

Achilles and Snape Saving The Day

The character Achilles reminded me of Snape from Harry Potter since they were both neutral until the end of the story and then they made a huge difference. In the stories both heroes died and they were supporting what they believed in. For Achilles he died for Sparta winning the war and for Snape it was fighting Voldemort and the death eaters so they wouldn't take over the world. The only difference was that Snape pretended to be the bad guy the whole time while Achilles never knew what side he was on until they killed his cousin.

Solving Conflicts

Author's Note: I wrote for my compare/contrast goal and in the book Brian get's stranded and survives in the wild
Your  body uses twice as many calories when it’s freezing cold and wet. This is just one of many factors that made Brian’s survival in the winter so much harder in the book Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen. There are many conflicts in this book acting against Brian testing him to survive but in the end he always had to solve the conflict. 

                Along with the amazing survival fact Brian also had to worry about animals attacking, hypothermia,  his house collapsing, tornados and food supply dwindling.  In the book he had everything going for him until he got attacked by a moose and broke his ribs. Now there’s a pretty big conflict right there but to add to that, he got his house destroyed by a bear that was looking for the meat hidden in his hut. And then it rained for a week so he was stuck in a destroyed hut injured with no food since the bear ate it all. This could be person vs. person since he had to will himself to continue to survive even with broken ribs and broken confidence but also person vs. nature since he had to protect his hut and food from animals and tornado's.

                Since everything in the recent paragraph would be almost impossible to come back from ,Brian still tried and didn’t quit. The resolution to everything was that he rebuilt his hut which fixed the problem of hypothermia and shelter from intruding animals.  With that problem fixed Brian went hunting with the weapons he made from scratch and hunted for food to survive.  He killed food and had food which solved all the problems. Person vs. nature would work well here too since the animal he killed needed food and he needed food so he had to compete with nature to get the food.

                This story compares well to the book Old Yeller by Fred Gipson since the dad leaves and the son needs to survive and will do anything to survive. The person vs. person is similar since each person has their mind on surviving and have the determination survive  . Also they each have to drive themselves in the story to keep living which they do.

                Hunger games by Suzanne Collins shows the same person vs. nature similarity since in the Hunger Games it’s a free for all in nature against 24 other people to survive the wild animals and people that are trying to kill them. In one point in the story a forest fire starts which almost kills one of the contestants but she outran it and got in water to cool off her body. This is similar to the tornado that destroys Brian’s home since they’re both natural disasters.

                Although these aren’t all of the conflicts in the book these are many. From person vs. person to person vs. nature every side has tough hard conflicts that all have resolutions which can be good or bad.  Also in real life Brian escapes before winter so that part was fiction and maybe even impossible.

Works Cited

"Survival Facts - survivor-magazine.com." - survivor-magazine.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://survivor-magazine.com/home/survival-facts/>.

Ancient China

Author's Note- This book has points where it differs from Chineese culture and where it stays to it.

In 16^th century Japan they had a Shogun, and leader of Japan young and weak with 6 Shogunate that had equal power and served the shogun although they all secretly wanted to be him. Eventually four were killed or downgraded until there was only two Shogunate and a shogun. The story stays true since this is exactly what happens in the book. There are also some parts that cannot stay true to the story like vampires and ghosts.

            In the book Blood Ninja by Nick Lake a young boy who’s destined to be the Shogun one day is attacked by ninja.  In ancient China they called ninja kyuuketsuki which is what they call it in the book. (pg 7)”The ronin said that a kyuuketsuki had killed a peasant near here”.  This shows how they based their book of ancient China history.

            Although the book stays on track with the ninja it changes greatly when they start talking about spirits like gaki(ghosts), Ninja Vampire and a Buddha ball which can control the earth. Since all these things are true in the book they obviously wouldn’t have been real in ancient China. They did believe in these things but it never actually could happen which makes the book differ from the real 16^th century China.

            Furthermore the book stays on topic as best as it can considering there is ninja vampires and a ball that can control the world. One way it does is it’s weapons. In both the book and real life the main weapon for the ninja was a katana, which was carried on their back and could be used for more than one reason. Other weapons included darts, spikes, knives, bows, a chain and sickle and sharp star shaped metal called shurikens. This was how the ninja fought.

            A lot of things stayed on track of the book but also a lot of things were different which makes the book easy to get hooked on and a really good read. The way the book stays with the weaponary and tools of a ninja but at the same time makes ancient Chineese folklore true makes a great mix and changes and keeps the idea of how life was back in the 16^th century.

Response to My Dear Alphonse

This shows how everyone has some sort of blind eye and that they even though aren't trying they can be racist  Also this story showed false assumptions towards the negro boy since every time she assumed that he had a bad life he proved her wrong and had it just as good as the white family.

    Since Pewaukee is such a small suburb there isn't a bad neighborhood or a "east side" where races are diversified. This shows that racism shrank to where it doesn't matter where you live or sit but in Milwaukee where it is big there is some bad neighborhood and bad racism. What Shirley Jackson is trying to show us is that everything isn't so diversified anymore and that racism and false assumptions still go on in everywhere.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

I enjoyed how the older guy appreciated life more but I didn't like when he started speaking Spanish. Also I kind of felt bad for the man who tried to kill himself since he deserved respect and didn't get any and the younger man even told him to kill himself.

Someone said that this could even show three sides of the author, Ernest Hemingway, since the first man he was young, confident and didn't have time to waste. The second man was beginning to understand the older man since all he had was his job and the last man didn't have anything so maybe that's how Hemingway felt in the three stages of his life.

Waking Up For School

Author's Note- This piece is about how people in school need their sleep and the arguments to and for moving the time back to start school.

Waking up and getting ready for school can be one of the hardest things to do in the morning. Students hate waking up early and love staying up late. Some students even sleep in and miss school! The tough part in this is that if schools did start later then it would end later. Ben Franklin once said “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”.

           Although waking up later is great the downside to school's starting later means that they end later and there would be less time for after school activities and homework. For high schooler’s this means no job which can lead to no money to get into college and no money to buy a car. Also this would encourage students to stay up later and therefore cancelling the effects of the extra hours of sleep.  Lastly getting up later means that it doesn’t prepare them well for jobs where they have to constantly wake up and go to work every morning.

            Advantages of waking up earlier is that there is less chance of being late or sleeping in to class. Better sleep could also lead to better behavior in class and less sleeping during class. With students paying better attention it would lead into better grades which leads to better collage offers which leads to better jobs and more money. The last point is that people say that breakfast is the most important meal and sometimes there isn’t enough time to eat a good breakfast. If student are hungry at school it can lead to less focusing and worse grades.

            In conclusion the best option is to meet halfway. Maybe there could be optional resource in the morning instead of the afternoon so students will be getting out at the same time but still having the option if they want to go to school early. Also there would have to be an enforcement to make kids go to sleep earlier since the whole thing comes down to kids not getting enough sleep. Lastly there is a great problem where people don’t like change and if you changed the time school starts and ends parents would complain and maybe even lose the amount of enrollment they got the previous year.

Works Cited

"School Start Time and Sleep | National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety." National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety | Information on Sleep Health and Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/school-start-time-and-sleep>.

"Schools should start later | Debatewise Where great minds differ." Debatewise | Where great minds differ Where great minds differ. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://debatewise.org/debates/1364-schools-should-start-later/>.