My Antonia

 Willa Cather in her novel My Antonia offers her view of life during the pioneer time. In this story Willa writes in the perspective of Jim Burden, a boy who lost his parents and was sent to live with his grandparents, and you see how he views the events that happen but if the book was from Antonia point of view I think you would see how she survived those years before the meeting of her and Jim. It would tell of what she did in the times when we only knew what Jim was doing. Cather was very effective at narrating the story from a man's point of view because she knows how she wants him to portrayed. Jim sound like a man has wrote it with a hint of a famine touch. I think Jim changed the title to My Antonia because  no matter what happens between them or no matter how far the distance they have between them he will always see her as his Antonia. Willa Cather has captured the time period that she writes about with the ability to show the hardship that the settlers went through.

The Effects of Setting

Author Willa Cather embedded literary devices, such as metaphors, similes, and personification, within her writing.

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

"The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island."

"Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie. The wind that sweeps in from the open country strips away all the leafy screens that hide one yard from another in summer, and the houses seem to draw closer together. The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops, now stare you in the face, and they are so much uglier than when their angles were softened by vines and shrubs.

.
The effects the land has on the characters is that they see the land as a person and how the appearance changes with the changes of the days. The land changes the characters by showing them that is like objects they have seen in many ways but is also very different in the way that it is the same. The changes show them what they are feeling about the way the day is happening.

The fields around my house have a effect on me by the fact that the tall grass and open spaces on a nice windy summer day is where is spent my childhood and to me the grass is like a ocean as every single piece of grass sways with the wind. Someday's the grass is a calm sea with the sun shining and the clouds giving off just enough shade that someone does not get sunburned and other day's the ocean is a mad frenzy going back and forth with such strength that the swishing hurts as it hits you.

Speak

Welcome to Merryweather High.That is the first thing I saw when I opened the book. Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak captivates me in ways that are beyond belief. I think the book it'self "speaks" the main idea of what I got out of it.

The summer is suppose to be the time for fun and carefree behavior but what happens when somebody takes that carefree behavior over the line. Melinda Sordino went to a party one person by the end of the night was someone completely different. So when school starts and everybody hates her what is she suppose to do? She cant tell her friend because she doesn't have those any more. She won't tell her parents because they would just pass it off as if it was her own fault. Melinda is scared, scarred, and lonely. Then she meets the new girl and try's to make it work. She does all the things you are suppose to do with friends; going over to each others house, eating together at lunch, talking to each other. Heather is more about the future than the now and she is trying to join all the clubs and be friends with all the right people. Soon she is leaving Melinda behind because she has a "reputation". Mr. Freeman is the art teacher and he believes that everybody has a story to tell through art. When Melinda draws for trees he won't let her change it. As she try's to keep her secret her tree's stay dead, not going any where. As I was reading this book my mind kept going back to a song I heard before. Like the book there is a girl who was heart by a guy and he broke her. The song goes on to tell of the other girls he hurt the same way as her. In the song she tell's of him "collecting his jar of hearts" and in the book when Ivy show Melinda the list she added IT's name to it goes on to say thing about the way he was a bad person and should be stayed away from and showed that he has hurt others in the past. Laurie's style of writing affected me in the sense that I wanted to know who did what to her and make them pay. What  could IT have done to her to make her call the cops that night?

Speak is a great book for people who like to see good thing happen to people who deserve it and for the right thing to happen to the people who cause bad thing on the people that are to weak to defend themselves at the time.

Book review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games...... In the eyes of the people like Katniss are stupid, but not very many people are like Katniss. She has been doing what ever she could to survive all the rest of the days in District 12. While her and Gale, who is the only person she has ever been open too, hunt to keep their families alive, they also have to worry about who is going to get chosen to play. The chaos starts when Prim is picked. Now Katniss must do every thing in her power to make sure her sister doesnt go through the pain, even if that means Katniss herself takes her place. Not only that but Peete is picked for the boy champion. Peeta, the boy who years before burned a loaf of bread so that she could have it, Peeta, who has always been better feed because his father owns the bakery. She feels that she still owes Peeta.

Things get even more complicated when Peeta loves her. How is she suppost to kill him now. To add to that all the district think that she loves him as well. Is this Peeta plan to get to her so that when the time comes it will be easier for him to kill her. Then she meets a small girl that reminds her of Prim. Could she stand the thought of killing a little girl that is so much like her little sister, the only person in the world she nows for sure she loves.

She then finds out that she is consitered a ditzy little girl that must be watched carefully because of her score. She is dangerous because that is who she is. Her father taught her everything she knows before he died, and now she uses these skills to survive. Surviving the games is hard enough but what about love?

Henry vs. Forrest

Henry Fleming and Forrest Gump are two different people. One way is that Henry is scared of running away from the fight. Forrest Gump is not afraid to fight but he does run away but ends up coming back to save everybody he can so that he can get Bubba. Henry becomes a hero by carring the flag in the battle. Forrest is a hero because he saves everybody in his troop and only gets a single wound but doesnt care about it until he has his best friend. The stories might have to do with war but the characters are very different.

Wounded Warriors Project

My thought of the wounded warrior project is that the people who do what they do for the hurt are angelic. The project that I would like to help with. Sending the money to help the wounded is a great way to help America when you can not be the one out there fighting. If I could, I would volunteer my time to help the soldiers that are suffering with their therapy. Helping people such as Chad Brumpton or Anthony Villarreal would be sweet. Wounded Warrior Project is a great project.

War is.....

War is a lose, losing friends and family.
War is costly, spending money that we don't have.
War is stupid, fighting over ridiculous things.
War is needed, protecting those we have left.
War is a conflict, believing in different beliefs.
War is destructive, destroying places and families.
War is forceful, dictating other countries.
War is reliving , standing out of the rubble can come a new life.
War is a master piece, planning the perfect attack.
War is loud, shooting and bombs being dropped.

Remembering 9/11

Do you remember what you were doing on 9/11? I don't but I do know the effect it has had on America, Before this happened most people did not know who Osama was, let alone what he did at the time. Since then we have tightened up security. Before, when you go to the airport, you could have no worry about being accused of being a terrorist because you have hair products in your bag that if put in the formula could be a bomb.The things that have happened are way over my head. Being young when it happened I don't remember much of what time was like before. I was young and the things I worried about were small things. Things that I would not remember two days from then.
Ten years later I can look at it and say that I am kinda glad that I don't remember it that much because being the person I am, a horror like that would leave me crying for days. I do know that in a way Osama got what he deserved but I cant help feeling that way because it makes me feel like him if taking someone else's life is nothing or "a blessing". I feel guilty about it .