The Nightmare

Author's Note: This is a FICTIONAL piece I wrote, inspired my my winter break, during which my family went skiing out west. No, this didn't actually happen to me, or anybody, I hope you enjoy it. Please comment and tell me what was good or bad.

Although Jack was unsure that he could tackle the nightmare, his friends had pressured him into doing so. There was no turning back now, he was already on the chairlift, rising up to his doom, slowly, he glanced down. There it was. The nightmare. So steep that professional skiiers from all around the world came to try and survive it. Finally, they got to the top. He looked down, and started to shake in nervousness. His friends were standing there laughing, then he felt a push. He stumbled forward , and started to glide down the hill. He started off okay, doing some usual turns and such, when he saw a small bump ahead.  He tried to swerve to the right, but his skiies hit an icey patch. He twisted sideways and flew off the bump. He felt weightless as he peered down through his crossed skiis to see nothing but 30 feet of air underneath him. He felt his stomach turn as he plummeted to his doom. Ten seconds later, he heard a loud "CRUNCH!"

A Good Man

Author's Note: I recently had to write an analysis on a quote from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I chose "He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world." This was towards the end of the book, when Scrooge starts acting like a regular jolly person celebrating Christmas. I know its short, but I hope it speaks  message. I might edit it some more and add stuff to it, but I think for now it is a good interpretation of the quote above. Please comment and let me know what was bad/good about it, and what could be improved.

I think this quote goes to show that if you keep up a positive attitude, you can make a huge positive impact on your friends, family, and neighbors and even yourself. Don't be the Scrooge at the beginning of A Christmas Carol, a bad friend, master and man. Instead, be the positive influence that you want to see in the world. Be a caring person, just like scrooge was at the end of the book. A good friend, master, and man.

Milkweed: Loss Of Innocence

Everybody knows that there are times in life, where we do something that we very well know that we shouldn't, but we do it anyway. Why? Because we have to. Sometimes it's because we really want something, but in Milkweed, Misha does things he shouldn't because if he doesn't, he, along with his family, wouldn't survive.

Back in the holocaust, it was a bad time to be Jewish. You had pretty much no control over your life, because the Germans made decisions for you. One of these was to move to the Ghetto, where you rarely had any food, and the Germans just tried to starve you to death. Your only hope was to smuggle food from the outside world, even if it meant risking your life in the process. Soon, the Germans caught on, and warned the Jewish to stop, or they would get killed. It took flamethrowers, guns, and clubs to convince the Jewish that smuggling food was a bad idea. But still, Misha cares about his family enough, to do whatever he needs to do, even if it means losing his innocence, for the survival of his family.

A similar case, is in Life of Pi, when Pi Patel is stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days, with no food. At one point he comes across an island, and finds a person. The person is a bit crazy, as he has no food either, but at one point, Pi has no choice, even if it means losing his innocence, he has to eat the man. He doesn't want to, but with his starvation, he would've done anything for his survival, just like Misha did when he smuggled.

We all do things that we shouldn't, and in both Misha and Pi's case, they do them for a good reason, survival. But have you ever done something that you shouldn't have, that wasn't for a good reason? Next time you're doing something you'll probabaly think, Can I live without doing this?

Point of View: Milkweed

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, is a book about rough times back in the Holocaust. This is told by a very young boy named Misha, who has no knowledge of his parents, or much of his previous life before the story, or of anything. As you can probably guess, the time period of the Holocaust was not a good time to be confused. If you unknowingly did something wrong, you were killed, and that was the end of it. Luckily, Misha has his friends, and adopted family, to guide him along.

One of Misha's best friends is Uri. Uri is almost everything Misha isn't. He's smart, patient, and is a lot less confused as to what's going on around them. The one thing that they have in common, is being a thief, which is how the two met. They both tried to steal a loaf of bread, but Misha got there first. Thinking that a small, quick kid could be useful, Uri builds up a type of "partnership" with Misha, and helps him survive. In my opinion, the story could be very different if told from the perspective of Uri.

Throughout the book, you almost want to yell to Misha, "No! Don't do that! You'll get caught!" or, "What were you thinking?!" but then you remember that he's just a little kid and he doesn't know any better, which also provides an interesting aspect to the story. It is fun to listen to Misha's point of view, because he is often a bit off on his philosophy, with simple facts such as things like milkweed. He thinks that milkweed is where angels come from, and doesn't think otherwise. When someone tells him something, he doesn't really have any reason to think that it is wrong, and he therefore believes it. On the other hand, Uri knows better, and his perspective would probably be more appealing to an adult audience, an audience who wants to hear the mature side of things. Instead of hearing "I saw people walking down the road, and I couldn't help marching along to the parade. I saw a nice man with really shiny boots and an eagle hat, so I started to talk to him," they'd rather hear a more mature point of view, like that of Uri's which would be something like, "I can't believe that Misha participates in these childish games, he has to think before he does things, because marching along to imaginary parades and walking up to Nazis will get you killed in an heartbeat."

This is one of the many reasons why I think that the story could be altered greatly if the main character's point of view were changed from Misha to Uri.

Uri

Uri, Misha's guidance for most of Milkweed, was a very important character in the book. He was a static character, because he doesn't change for most of the book, and never undergoes any real change. Although static, Uri still made a large impact on our main character, Misha, and without Uri, Misha probably wouldn't have survived.

Throughout the book, whenever Misha unknowingly makes a mistake, Uri is usually there to tell him that he is wrong. Without this guidance, Misha would keep making the same mistakes, and end up getting caught, or worse, dead. But, thanks to Uri, he corrects his mistakes, and ends up surviving. An example of this is when Misha wants to keep stealing food, but Uri knows that the Nazis are cracking down on thieves, so he tells him to stop. Luckily this saves him from getting caught, and probably getting killed. Similar to how Cairon is always guiding and saving Percy in the Percy Jackson series.

If it weren't for Uri, Misha would've made a lot of bad decisions, and probably would've ended up dead, but because of his guidance, Misha lives to have a good life after the holocaust, and even has a kid, and a grandkid. Is there anyone like Uri in your life, correcting your mistakes, and saving you from going horribly wrong?

A Perfect Metaphor

Author's Note: This is what I think Martel meant when he said, "The idea of a religious boy in a lifeboat with a wild animal struck me as a perfect metaphor for the human condition. Humans aspire to really high things, right, like religion, justice, democracy. At the same time, we're rooted in our human, animal condition. And so, all of those brought together in a lifeboat struck me as being... as a perfect metaphor."

 

What I think Martel was trying to demonstrate was how although any wild animal would simply give its life for the food of another, as in the food chain, any human will most likely pray to not die, and say that this “Isn’t right.” or something. We look for things with meaning, such as justice, fairness, and religion. The tiger could have simply killed Pi before the other animals, but that would defeat the purpose of the human aspects and beliefs. We long for that fairness, and justice, but really, in the wild, Pi is just another animal, and it was just luck, or chance, that Richard Parker, or even the hyena, didn’t eat Pi.

Our Country

Author's Note: This is a short paragraph that I threw together explaining some of the reasons that I'm proud of our country.

Our country is definitely one to be proud of. We have freedom of speech, wealth, elected government officials,  and a strong military force. We can stand up for ourselves, and fight. There isn't much that there isn't to be proud about in our country, except a bad economy. We have good schools, and can provide education for kids. We have homes, and food, and don't need to worry about starving to death. These are just a few of the reasons that I think our country is definitely one to be proud of.