Speak Up

Author's Note: I know this is very bad but I intend to improve and tweak it.

In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is a normal girl in high school, but when she calls the cops during a party, everything takes a turn for the worse. Her friends won't speak to her, she's doing bad in almost every class except art, and she's afraid to speak. She needs to learn to speak up if she wants to get her friends back, or if she even wants to accomplish anything in life.

This may seem simple, however, throughout Speak, a reoccurring  theme is the negative consequences for speaking up. Every time someone speaks up, they seem to get punished. While speaking up may seem daunting to  Melinda, if she wants things to be better, she's going to have to face the consequences and speak up. At the point she is at now, what does she really have to lose? Her parents don't treat her well, she has no friends, she has bad grades, and it seems as though she might as well give speaking up a shot, because the worst  case-scenario is that there is no difference in her current life.  If she starts speaking, people will see her side of things, she will gain confidence, and she may even gain a few friends.

What Melinda really needs to do is look at her life and say, "What is the worst that can happen if I speak up?" If she does, she may realize that speaking is in her best interest, and is the first step in solving her problems.

Thy Dystopia

Author's Note: This is my second draft of this essay, and I would appreciate any feedback.

In Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games, the power of the government has become so strong that no one questions the decisions that the government is making for its people, even though it really isn’t in their best interest. In both books, the citizens' extreme apathy to stand up to their governments is based on their inability to trust one another, and the fear of the repercussions of questioning authority.

In The Hunger Games, the government has set up a system of oppression in order to control the standard of living of their people. Those deprived of food and other basic necessities are motivated to participate in “the hunger games” in order to improve their standard of living. Others who are living a higher lifestyle are made to think it’s fun and "normal" to watch people kill each other on T.V. because they believe it’s ok since the government itself is sanctioning the hunger games. In a rational world, it would seem counterintuitive that people would watch, let alone volunteer, to participate in a killing game. But this government has positioned the games as a necessity for some, and as a form of acceptable entertainment for others, and neither group thinks to question the system.

In Fahrenheit 451, the government has banned all books based on the fact that they believe that books can be offensive.  There are people who try to keep their books, but if anyone is caught with them, the government quickly sends firefighters to burn the books. Friends and family members turn on one another, so no one knows who they can trust. The government works so hard to try “not to offend anyone” that they actually stifle individuality and many people lose their interest in life.

Both novels demonstrate that when a government has excess power, it can cause downward spirals in their societies. Burning books in the name of “making everyone happy” ends up causing a loss of intelligence, purpose, and meaning in life, so many people are actually not as happy as the government intended. On the other hand, having people kill each other causes much violence, and as people are taught this is okay, the world becomes a dystopia, all at the expense of a bit of entertainment, that could be provided by other means.

These books are examples of the how extremely powerful governments can be damaging with their ways, causing people to greatly alter their way of life. If governments change something to please someone, or themselves, it is often at someone else’s expense. So they can't change things too much, or they could reach the tipping point in which everything becomes a downward spiral, where instead of creating a positive society, they have instead created a dystopia.

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?