Revolutionary War

Author's Note: In Social Studies we are learning about the Revolutionary War. We had to read a book that took place during the Revolutionary War, I read the book Give Me Liberty. Then we watched a movie that took place during the war called The Patriot. After we watched the movie we had to write an essay comparing the two. I worked on using more advanced transitions in my body paragraphs.

Through the novel Give Me Liberty contains true events from the time period of the Revolutionary War, the book contains even more events that did not occur in history, so it is realistic fiction. The book is very similar to the movie The Patriot, which is also about the Revolutionary War. In the book Give Me Liberty thirteen-year-old Nathaniel Dunn is an indentured servant laboring on a tobacco plantation in colonial Virginia. Life is hard, and it’s about to get harder when Nathaniel is sold.  (Elliot)On the other hand in the movie The Patriot, ashamed of his savagery during the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin, one of the main characters, decided he would sit out the American Revolution, while his oldest son Gabriel enlisted minutes after South Carolina joined the fight. (Emmerich) There are many similarities between the book and the movie and there are some differences too.

Some of the similarities between the book and the movie is one of the main characters is a boy. Another similarity is they both joined the war young, Nathaniel had just turned 14 and Gabriel was 17. Towards the end of the book and the movie some of the British soldiers burned down houses, stores, and churches, with people in them. Also if the slaves wanted freedom they had to fight in the army for 12 months. In The Patriot  and in Give Me Liberty  people had to make chairs, tables, desks and many more things by hand. (Elliot) (Emmerich)

From the similarities comes the differences. There were only a few differences, for example, in the book Give Me Liberty Nathaniel and one of the boys he worked with had gunpowder plot day, where you throw all the tea in a huge bonfire and watch it burn (Elliot) Another difference was that in The Patriot Benjamin Martin had to fight in the war alongside Gabriel and be there for his 5 other children and in the book Nathaniel doesn't have any other siblings. (Elliot) (Emmerich)

In conclusion, there are many similarities than differences between these two characters in the book and the movie. Even though Gabriel was 18 and Nathaniel was 14, it showed how much they wanted to fight for their freedom! 

Courage, Bravery, and Determination

 Author's Note: This essay is about the themes in Midnight Sun and how it relates to Martin Luther King Junior and the book Touching Spirit Bear. In this essay the introduction is about Midnight Sun and the thesis is about how it can relate to everyone can relate to in life. In the second paragraph it talks about the main character Edward and how he wants to drink Bella's blood. The third and fourth paragraph is the relation to the themes one is about a person and the other is a book. 

Imagine yearning for someone’s blood so much it feels like someone is ripping you from the inside out.  Every day you struggle to even be in the same room with them, as your mind spins uncontrollably. As the days pass by, the monster inside of you craves for their blood, but you manage to be by them. In the book Midnight Sun, by Stephanie Meyer, the main character Edward experienced various difficulties trying to control his thirst when he’s around Bella Swan. The author demonstrates three major themes in this book: courage and bravery, determination, and justice that people can relate to in life.

Edward, the main character in the book Midnight Sun, which is Edward Cullen’s point of view of  the book Twilight, was so determined about killing Bella. He ran all the different ways he could kill her and not leave any evidence. The monster inside of him was so eager to taste the innocent humans’ blood and if he did taste her blood he wouldn't be able to stop until she would die. In result of killing Bella, everyone in the Cullen family would be very disappointed and they all will have to flee Forks, Washington and start a new life somewhere else. With this, he was portraying determination, he was set on killing her and tasting her blood.

Some of the greatest people in history got very far in life because they were determined, courageous and ended up fulfilling whatever they set their mind to. For example, Martin Luther King Junior, he became a pastor at a church in Georgia 1954, which was during the time of segregation. After a couple years he was sick of being treated differently just because of his skin color. That was when he started the civil rights movement and in Washington DC he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. He was determined to influence people to not be judgmental. He was also very courageous and brave to stand up and speak in front of tons and tons of people, and not only is he the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

This book, Midnight Sun, and the themes in it also relate to the book Touching Spirit Bear. In Touching Spirit Bear, Cole was determined to kill the spirit bear on the island. After the bear mauls Cole over and he is taken to recover  Cole is brave enough to return to the island to finish his banishment.  Cole receives justice after he realizes that killing the spirit bear won’t make him feel any better.  

Edward had to overcome his urge to drink Bella’s blood in which took courage. In result of not killing Bella he felt the need to protect her and that led to him falling in love with her. Martin Luther King Jr.  was determined to have everyone be treated the same  as equals whether you were African American, Hispanic, Asian, German, or Caucasian. Cole from Touching Spirit bear found justice when he realized anger is not the answer to all his problems.  Bravery, determination, and justice are themes throughout the world  that can relate to people in life and in books.  

Edward and Bella (compare and contrast)

Matched and Hunger Games

Author's Note: For my prediction piece I wrote about Cassia and Ky in the book Matched. I also wrote about how Cassia and Ky reminds me of Katniss and Peeta from the Hunger Games.

In the first book of the Matched trilogy, Matched there are people who selected everything for you. For example: Who you will marry, what you will eat every day, and when you will die. Cassia is the main character and after she is matched to Xander Carrow, her best guy friend , in the informational card with Xander’s face on it, but instead of Xander’s face another person’s face shows up. Cassia recognized the face on the card. It was Ky Markham. From that moment on she started having feelings for him. Towards the end of the book Cassia thinks she makes the right decision but it unfortunately it ends badly. Ky is sent away. I think that in the next book Cassia will go against everybody else to go and search for Ky. I think Cassia will go look for him because she knows what he went through and also Cassia loves Ky. She will do anything to find him. 

This story reminds me of the Hunger Games when the Gamemaker announces that there could be two victors from the same district. Katniss starts to search for Peeta because she doesn’t want to die and she doesn’t want Peeta to die. She ends up finding Peeta under a rock with a cut in his leg. She nurses him back to health, she heals his leg, and they end up winning the Hunger Games. 

Character Developement

Author's Note: This piece is about character development. When I wrote this piece I wrote about Cole from the book Touching Spirit Bear and how his anger and attitude developed throughout the story. Also I wrote how Cole was similar to the character Roger in the story Than You Ma'am. In the last paragraph I explained what I learned from the character(s). 

In the beginning of Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikealson, the main character Cole has uncontrollable anger issues and an awful attitude. However, throughout the story, Cole learns how to control his anger and develops a better perspective on life, instead of having a bad attitude about it. Because Cole is physically abused by his dad, naturally Cole is a bully himself and feels unloved.  As the story unfolds, Cole starts to realize that he is loved by his mom and that people genuinely care about him. Throughout the book Cole grew up and matured in the wilderness of Alaska while on his one year banishment.

Ever since Cole was mauled over by the huge white spirit bear, he gained a respect for animals and people. Over the six long months it took him to recover from his traumatic experience with the spirit bear, his mother came to visit him frequently. Cole never felt that his mom ever loved him because when his dad beat him, mom never did anything to bring an end to the physical abuse. She just watched it happen and stood idle. He learned through many conversations they had, in the hospital, that his mother really does love him and that she felt her hands were tied when it came to the abuse.

In addition to Cole being mauled by a bear and finding out his mother loved him, he recovered “the circle”, a special type of court, and had another meeting. It was decided that Cole had to go back to the lonely, Alaskan island. As soon as Cole arrived at the island, Garvey has Cole re-build the cabin he burned the last time he was there. Garvey would wake Cole up every morning before sunrise and make him soak in the water. After wading in the water for some time, Cole carried a boulder, which represents his ancestors, up a large hill. When he got to the top, Garvey shouted, “this rock is your anger, now push your anger away.”

The book, Touching Spirit Bear, reminded me of Roger from the story Thank You, Ma’am. In Thank You Ma’am, the main character Roger, determined to buy a pair of new shoes, decides to steal a women’s purse but the purse breaks and he stumbles backward and hits the ground. The victim, a woman, takes him by his shirt collar to her home and teaches him a quick lesson about “right and wrong”. After she teaches Roger to be nice, she gives him ten dollars. He went from being a disrespectful, sneaky, unclean, determined thief, to a nice, trusted boy. Likewise, Cole was an angry, sneaky, impertinent bully and developed into a better person as well. In the end, he respected animals and people, as well as earned everyone’s  trust .

What if Cole’s attitude stayed the same in the book? His hatred, anger, and violence would have landed him in jail, and he would have been bailed out by his mom again and again. He would have beat up another kid and it would have been a continuous cycle. Likewise, Roger would’ve bought a gun with the ten dollars and found another victim to rob. The story line for Thank You Ma’am wouldn’t make any sense and confuse the reader because the story is about a kid, Roger, turning his life around. Both stories show that people can change for the better because of an event that happened in their life. It just takes time.

Conflict & Resolution.

Author's Note: In this conflict and resolution piece I went more in depth in explaining the conflict resolution.  The main conflict is Katniss vs. The Capitol and the gamemakers. 

One of the many conflicts was Katniss vs. The Capitol and the gamemakers.  The Capitol controlled all the districts and made  them work while the capitol got to enjoy all of the luxuries.  The Capitol also controlled The Hunger Games and sent well over a thousand children over the past 74 years  to kill each other. As the tributes treated it as a celebration they did  not care  about the mass-murders that were going to happen.  

Since Katniss was a tribute, she was disgusted by all of that and tried to defy  the Capitol. The gamemakers and the capitol changed the rules so that two tributes  from the same district could win. Katniss and Peeta waited for the capitol to crown them victors, but at the last minute the capitol declared that only one  person could win. The resolution to the conflict was when Katniss and Peeta were going to kill themselves so there wouldn’t be a victor. By doing this the capitol and the gamemakers were forced to crown them both victors. In the end she  started an uprising and rebellion of the districts.

Cause & Effect.

Author's Note: In this cause and effect piece I wrote about the Hunger Games and how the capitol effected the Huger Games and the districts. 

The book The Hunger Games the cause is the capitol created 13 districts. All the districts rebelled against the capitol. Only district 13 was destroyed by bombs and as a result everyone in that district died. Now only 12 districts remain in the country of Panem.

The effect of this cause is the capitol formed the Hunger Games.  In the games there is two representatives from each district between the ages of 12 and 18.  24 children battle to their death until one person remains standing. They are crowned as the victor of the annual Hunger Games. The capitol created the Huger Games to show the districts that they have complete control everyone in Panem.  If the Hunger Games did not take place the capitol would be forced to choose 24 people, randomly execute 23 of them, and have each district watch.