TANGLED

The sparkling lights fly through the air every year, signaling another year that the princess has been missing. Tangled  is exciting and is a never ending adventure. Her long hair is kept a secret in the tower by the witch. This twist on Rapunzel teaches kids to follow their dreams and never give up.

Everyone has dreams in life. Whether it's becoming a millionaire, acing a test, or going bungee jumping everyone has something they want to achieve in life. In the story Rapunzel's dream happens to be wanting to see the floating lights. To achieve your dreams in life you have to work hard and be brave. Rapunzel wouldn't have left the tower if Flynn had never come to the tower. Everyone needs someone to give them that final push so they will achieve their goals.

Rapunzel wasn't the only one with a dream in the story. Almost every character in the story had a dream. I didn’t realize this at first because their dreams weren't broadcasted as much. The wicked mother had a dream of staying young forever. The parents had a dream of finding their long lost daughter, and Flynn had a dream of becoming rich. This story taught kids a good lesson because all the characters worked hard and all their dreams were achieved (except the wicked mother).

Although people think kids movies are cheesy and boring, it's good to watch one with a good lesson every once and awhile. Because Rapunzel never gave up and kept working her dream was achieved.

A Big Symbol in Tangled

A big symbol in the story is the sun. The sun is what made the magical flower. The sun is a symbol of life and the sun flower kept the queen alive and it makes the witch stay young. Rapunzel found out she was the princess because the suns popped out in her painting and she remembered the sun on her crib.The whole plot basically revolves around the sun and the sun flower.

The Three Leaders in "Animal Farm"

Author's Note- This essay is about the first few chapters of "Animal Farm" and who the characters resemble. At first I wasn't quite sure who everyone resembled but I think I know now.

During the Russian Revolution many people were critics of the revolution and the communist idea. One of those critics was Orwell, mainly a critic of Stalin.  Orwell was so fed up with it all so he wrote a book named "Animal Farm". In this book he made fun of the people in the Russian Revolution and the ideas. Each animal develops the personality that resembles someone in the Russian Revolution. Orwell makes fun of the events and as you read on you can really tell who each character is supposed to be.

" The problem is -man. Get rid of man and overnight we could become rich and free. Men are enemies  and all animals are comrades. And always remember that all animals are equal."Old Major said this a few nights before he died.  Orwell based Old Major off Karl Marx who came up with the idea of the Rebellion. After this happened the pigs all followed Old Major's idea and agreed that all animals were equal. But as time went by the pigs realized that they were smarter then most of the animals. Together three pigs, Squealer, Snowball, and Napoleon slowly made themselves the leaders without the other animals really noticing. Those three pigs resembled the three leaders who were fighting to lead the Russian Revolution. Snowball the speaker and nicer of the three pigs resembled Trotsky because he got overthrown(chased into a hole) right away. Napoleon's ideas were always the exact opposite of Snowball's. Napoleon emerged as the leader right after the Rebellion. He uses his military force to intimidate the other animals and gain power.  Napoleon is based off the controlling Stalin. Lastly is Squealer. In the first few chapters Squealer doesn't do anything major he just seems to agree and do what Napoleon does. Squealer resembles Lenin but so far he hasn't had a major part.

Orwell had a great dislike for Stalin and his ideas. Because of this he made the book "Animal Farm" to mock and share his opinion on the topic.

 

FINAL PIECE

Authors Note- This is the final prompt for the book "Peace Like a River". The book was hard to understand but it had a strong message. I still haven't finished the book but I wrote about what I knew.

Do you believe in forgiveness? In church we are taught that forgiveness is one of the most important things if you are a Catholic. But if someone came to your house and broke your windows, what would you do? I bet most of you answered that you would go to their house and break their windows or call the police. Most people would do that but then they would go to church on Sunday and call themselves a Catholic. They are wrong. By breaking the windows they had revenge and revenge is not forgiveness. So if they had gotten revenge they could no longer call themselves a true Catholic. But revenge has become so normal that no one thinks about it before they do it. We would all not be Catholics but God has forgiven us. In the book, “Peace Like a River” I learned that forgiveness is always the best choice and revenge can lead us to consequences.

In the book Reuben’s family is faced with a problem, that his brother wants to deal with one way and his dad another way. His dad wants to forgive them and when his son asks him what they are going to do about it he replies “Nothing, what the fellows don’t realize is we have already won. The victory is ours.” He means that they are going to be the bigger person and forgive them and not make revenge. While his dad handles it his way Reuben’s brother, Davy, is handling it another way.  He decides to get revenge and in the process he ends up killing two boys. This is what I meant when I said revenge always leads us to consequences. If Davy would have just followed his dad’s example it wouldn’t have happened. Forgiveness makes us the bigger person and we are following the Catholic way.

The plot of the book leads me to believing the mode of the novel. The mode was definitely irony. A few examples were Reuben was born not breathing, another one was when Davy shot the two boys the police cars showed up right away but the cars weren’t there when the boys attacked Swede. Throughout the book it just had an ironic feel .In the whole book the characters were trying to fight someone or run from something. Like in the beginning when they were fighting against Tommy and Israel and when Davy was running from the cops. Symbolism also helped me figure out the mode. One really important symbol was Jeremiah Lands blew life and air into his son who was described as a clay baby. This reminded me of God who made Adam a clay man then blew air into him. The symbols and mode was strong throughout the book and was easy to figure out.

The author of, “Peace Like a River” is Leif Enger. He wrote “Peace Like a River” in an unique way. He wrote it as a flashback. The narrator, Reuben, was telling what happened as a flashback. He also included lots of poems. The style of writing was fiction. He wrote a reader-friendly book about a Minnesota family in 1962. The message he was trying to get out is forgiveness is always the best choice and you can’t always get revenge.

“Peace Like a River” is a book full of decisions. The decisions make them who they are and they decide what happens next in the book. In the book they have to decide if they will get revenge or if they will be the bigger person and forgive.

 Authors Note: The beginning of this story was part of a journal entry. We had to include certain words in our story.I'm going to add onto it. 

The dilapidated house stood in front of me. The car honked then drove away. Why did my parents have to go on some dumb vacation and leave me here alone. They were going to Hawaii, "perfection" my dad called it. Did they think that I didn't want to go with them, where there was sun, palm trees, and ocean? Anyways, they left without me and dropped me off at my Great Aunt Wilma's. I had never met the woman. She could be a creep or crazy rambunctious killer for all that I knew about her. I started towards the door. As I said before, the house was rundown. There was a board over a upstairs window. I could tell the grass hadn't been cut for awhile and there were weeds everywhere. I continued to walk up the cobblestone path until I reached the door.The front door was closed and the shades were drawn.I rang the doorbell and a bald man answered the door." Excuse me mister, but is there a Wilma here?"
"Sorry, but Wilma died years ago. I bought the house after she died." Great Wilma's dead and my parents are on a plane heading across the country. " What did you want from her?" he asked.
"Well I'm her niece and my parents dropped me off here because they are going on vacation." I explained.
"They didn't come to the door with you? That's weird."
"Well they were really excited to go on their vacation."
"Ok, you can come in for right now." he said. The man seemed nice enough. I walked inside then realized I had made a mistake. In the living room there was a pigeon on it's perch. There was also a turtle in a tank, three cats, and a huge St. Bernard dog. "Wow, you have a lot of pets." I said. He smiled then nodded.
" Are you hungry or thirsty?" he said as he started opening cupboards and drawers. All the drawers and cupboards were filled with bags of marshmallows. Now I was sure that I shouldn't have come in here. The man seemed nice at the moment but now he seemed like a freak. " Excuse me sir, but can I please call my parents?"

He showed me where there was a cord phone on the wall. I picked up the phone then dialed my dad's cell phone number. "Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message...............". the operator told me in a monotone voice. Why would my dad have his phone off? He should be on the plane already and they let you turn your phone on when your on the plane. Whatever, I hung up the phone, then decided I should try my mom's cellphone.Again the operator repeated the message telling me my mom's phone was off. I hung up the phone then decided I would try later. Back in the living room, the man was watching T.V on a old T.V with an antennae. "Did you get a hold of your parents?" the man asked me.
"No both their phones were of but I guess I'll try later."
"OK, you are welcome to stay here until you get a hold of them." I agreed to staying but asked the man what his name was. He told me it was Chucky Carver.It was kind of a creepy name but I decided to go with it.

BASKETBALL POEM

We walk on the court,
to play the best sport.

The fans are all here,
and our competition is near,

We warm up hard,
and I shoot with the shooting guards.

The game suddenly starts,
and I know I must I must play smart.

Our team has possession of the ball,
we must play physical because we are small.

We make a lot of shots,
and our fans cheer lots.

The game is finally done,
and we have won.

Our fans are loud,
and we are proud.

We wait for our next game,
when we have to do it all again.

Real-Life Issue

 Authors Note: I really liked writing this piece.The introduction was different and fun to write.

Killing someone is wrong. I could never take someone's life and live with the guilt for the rest of my life. All my life I have been told think before you act, be kind and respect everyone. Killers in the world today are known as bad people, that’s their only reputation. They get thrown in jail for most likely the rest of their life all because of a mistake. So what I, Reuben Land, am getting at is that I would never and could never kill. But, I still remember the day my brother ruined his life by killing two boys.

Reuben Land is a normal American boy. His life is normal except for the minor problems and conflicts. But, his whole life turns upside down when his brother makes the mistake of killing two boys. His brother, Davy, doesn’t seem to care that he’s going to be in jail and says it was to keep his family safe.

Everything seems different for Reuben, including his little sister, who locks herself in her room and won’t show her face. With everything changing so fast Reuben doesn’t know what’s coming next or what will happen to his once normal family.

In my opinion killing is wrong. You ruin the rest of your life because you made a mistake and killed someone. I don’t know how people can live and realize they killed someone without feeling bad or regretting it for the rest of their life. This part in the book reminded me of the real world. In the USA about 16,000 people are killed every year. Most of the people are innocent and have done nothing wrong and are just killed. To me it’s sad that that many people have their lives taken from them. These people could be kids or teenagers that have a whole life ahead of them but die because of an accident. Killing is just wrong no matter what the circumstances are.

By reading this part in the book I realized that something that happened in a minute could change your life forever.