To kill a mockingbird

Honestly , i think that reading this book AFTER having to read the old man and the sea was completely and utterly the worst decision ever ! I mean the old man and the Sea put me to sleep in like the first two sentences , and now this ? These books are too dry and they're sucking the teenage life right out of my teenage brain and is going to turn me into one of those annoying adults who read boring books when they were my age and grow up to be an extremely annoying person who doesn't do anything but sit their and read Mary higgins clark at 4 in the morning . Why can't we read more books that relate to this time period , and this generation ? Because sooner or later we're going to die of you teachers wringing the fun out of our still developing brains (not offence Mr. BG, you're awesome) . Unfortunately I still have to write this essay .. I hope this paragraph grabbed your attention because i really didn't know how else to do so with the lack of excitement towards this book . And that's what Mr. BG taught us in English 9F , to grab the readers attention and if I couldn't do it the correct way .. Well atleast I tried .

    The time period of now , is very different of the way things were 80 years ago .. If the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" were different and written in 2013 I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be the same . It’s taking place in Alabama , one of the most racist parts of the U.S in 1930 and all of this was way before the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King and all that mumble jumble . So let me fill you in . Back in the golden days , children didn’t have cell phones and laptops and facebook , they had themselves , and a few paper dolls . Of course , it was around the time of the great depression so no one really had a lot of money . The adults gossiped and spread rumors and in this case it fell on the shoulders of the kids , and they were mostly affected by the thoughts being put in their tiny little children heads . Ew .

Boo Radley was made out to be this big evil man who was mutated and ugly and creepy . When in reality he was a good guy who wouldn’t hurt a soul unless he had to defend himself . All of the drama over him kept him in his house for decades . So basically everyone judged something they had never seen .. They told their kids to stay away from the house , and the kids went and made up dumb stories that the whole town believed and this made Radleys life miserable before he ever decided show his face . Do you think they would have done this if they could have texted Boo Radley or facebooked him saying , Yo Radley , are you a monster from another frickin dimension ? I think not ! I'm pretty sure if they had this thing called a cell phone all this mumble jumble bull about him being this creepy little man would have been squashed long before someone got hurt . Can i get an A Men ?

Another example , racism ! The time of this book was taken place before the civil rights movement and therefore there was a lot of racism . In the book a black man was being accused of raping a white woman . Now let me remind you hes black . The evidence didn't add up but the jury still found him guilty . Even though it wasn't true .! You wanna know why ? Cause he’s a nigger to them . Harsh right ? Well , look at the times now , if the court had technology to find DNA , they wouldn’t have been able to wrongly accuse him . But since it was a white womans word against a black mans word , AND the whole jury of WHITE people , he was wrongly accused , cause hes black . This made it hard on Atticus's reputation because he was a white man , defending a black man in a racist southern town but he was taught that everyone is equal and that is exactly what he taught his kids . But unfortunately his bad reputation for representing the case falled on his kids , and put them in an unsafe position .

In the book , To kill a mockingbird , Jem and his sister didn't really have much entertainment but eachother . Malibu barbie and her super awesome surfer boyfriend Ken wasn't exactly invented so they had to find a way to stay occupied . But at times they got bored , and when you get bored it leads you wide open to get in trouble . Now I'm not saying they did get in trouble , but im pretty sure there's a law clearly stating that you can not step on someone's property . Let a long going and running across their lawn and touching their house . But the kids found it to be amusing to test Boo Radley , so they did . Little did they know , Boo Boo knew what they were up to , and i personally think he decided to play with their heads even though it didn't say it anywhere . I mean , why else would he have taken Jems pants after they were ripped up and left out and sewed them back together and placed them on top of the fence where they were abandoned and not leave a name ? 'Cause he knew it would screw with the kids heads . You can't honestly think he was doing it to send signs or something . To me Boo Radley seems like a pretty cool dude , i mean , no one folds my clothes for me ..

Well , thats the best i have for this essay . Basically the book is telling us that life isn't fair .. If it wasnt fair back then what makes you think it will be now ? Nothing , because LIFE ISN'T FAIR . And that's the end of the story .

Santiago always has a friend

The old man and the sea , By Ernest Hemingway , Published in 1980 ,A work of  Fiction .

"It is unsurpassed in Hemingway's oeuvre. Every word tells and there is not a word too many" -- Anthony Burgess . I honestly chose this quote because i couldn’t find any others on amazon.com that didn't sound complete and udderly boring and dorky although this just about does it . I feel like the review wasn’t clear at all , I kind of feel like he was quoting something but then again i could be wrong . I guess I agree with it , because this story doesn’t only tell a fiction but means something . It’s not just a pointless story , it tells of a man who’s old and doesn’t let age get in the way of his pride , and therefor he continues to fish and doesn’t give up even though hes aging and getting weak .

I honestly could related this book to a movie i watched called “Courageous” , and I chose this one because the meaning of the two stories are strong and both lead brave leaders . In the movie , there are like 4 or 5 men who are cops for a town that has a high level of crimes . They all have families and just wanna be good dads but life is kind of spiraling downhill . There was one man , who was pumping gas , and in the backseat was his daughter . He walked away for a quick minute and immediately a man jumped in the car and started driving . The dads first instinct was to grab the car and don’t let go in order to save his kid , so that’s what he did . And he never let go and eventually the cops noticed something fishy and took control over the situation . It reminded me of the man in the boat because he tried catching fish for a long time and never could , but finally he caught a merlin and when he was taking it back to his shed his merlin was attacked by sharks . The old man , Santiago automatically started fighting the fish and didn’t give up until the sharks were killed or backed down , but when got back to shore his merlin was nothing but bones from the attack . Although the man from the movie got his daughter back , and the old man from the book didn’t get to eat his fishy , it still kind of relates because they both put up a good fight to save what was theirs . The only thing different is the setting , the time period , the conflict in a way , and the characters . Oh and the story altogether .

The quote “A man can be defeated but not destroyed” basically to me means , that a MAN can go through so much and still be standing strong . He might be hurt , and let down and on the merge of giving up but no matter what he never gives up and always does what he needs to do , and that basically is what it is saying . Not just in my words but in general . I definitely agree with the quote all the way . It’s my dad’s life all the way . He gets knocked down on a constant everyday , deals with more than he should but never never gives up . On himself , and on his family . An example from a book would be Speak . She was raped and then labelled as a social outcast and was basically bullied until the very end of her freshman year when people found out what happened and gave her support . She stuck through the whole year and never gave up , and it payed off .

This book kind of relates to the time i did hurdles in the 2nd and 3rd grade at my school . I had practiced and practiced and always succeeded when i wasn’t actually competing and when i got ready to race i thought i was completely prepared . The first few hurdles i did fine , but the last one my foot caught on the top and i fell onto the ground hurting my ankle really bad . So I said okay better luck next year and trained again for it . Again , the first few hurdles were completely fine until i got the last hurdle and the same thing happened again . I got burned and knocked down (literally) but i still did it the year after that , and never gave up . I trained really hard and ended up coming in 2nd place . I ended up doing track for a few years after that but stopped in the 7th grade . So yeah , that’s how my story relates to the book , i never gave up and neither did Santiago .

I’d rate the book The old man and the sea a 3 paw for pursue it because it’s not really my type of book . I liked the way it was put together and the irony of it but other than that I didn’t think it was that great . The author is a good writer though , his book was kind of boring , and if i could change it up i’d change the whole storyline altogether but that’s just my opinion .

- What makes 2013 different from 1990 , Emily Thorne
In Mr. BG’s, he had us make a list of 10 things we can put a price on and 10 things we couldn’t, And then pick one from each on both lists. The first I’m going to start with is the things I can’t put a price on, and that was Music.
        Every morning I wake up and the first thing I do is put my earphones on, and listen to my every morning songs. Different things like, R&B or Reggaeton. My day isn’t complete if i don’t have music. Throughout the school day, I’ll listen to all different songs. Sometimes I’ll listen to the song over and over if I want to learn it. When I’m at home, doing my homework or on tumblr I’ll have my earphones on. In the car, driving, or at the store walking around. You’ll almost always see me with earphones in.. Teachers can’t even get me to take them out sometimes. I find it easier to listen to the teacher when I have 1 earphone in because A) it blocks out the other kids and B) i feel different without them in and I just can’t deal with it. BELIEVE ME, I really am listening to you at the same time. When I’m doing individual work, I like to have my earphones in so when other kids or people talk to me I won’t hear them and therefore I can’t get distracted. Basically, music helps me function.
    I listen to all types, and I also go through phases but I grew up around R&B. Things like Keyshia Cole, and Tyrese to 50 cent. My Dad lived in Poughkeepsie and I lived in Tribes Hill and he worked in Balston Spa, so imagine the time. He would always pick me up and bring me to work with him and we’d always be on the road, so more time to listen to music on the radio. Different channels like 93.2 or 96.3 or 101.2 and they all play Hip-Hop, to Reggeaton.
    The other thing I wrote about was what I can put a price on and that would be my cell phone. I don’t go anywhere without my my cell phone. It’s always on me. I feel like If it’s not next to me it has an easier way of getting stolen and it’s an expensive phone. I’m not big on texting anymore but a few months ago I HAD to be texting someone and it got to the point where my parents had to set times for me to get off my phone. I always bring it to school, especially now with all the shootings and bomb threats because I never know when I’m going to need it. I’ve been trying to keep it in my book bag during school, since I realized I don’t need to stay in contact with my friends during class but as soon as I get the chance I’m on it. It’s sad. My phone has everything on it, From Games to Email and I use everything on. I can even use it to type this essay, But I prefer my laptop. My phone is also used for my mp3 player which, in case you didn’t know is my music. My phone is the way I stay in contact with everyone. If I don’t write down a homework assignment I can just call Cayleigh and ask her or if I’m going to be home later and I can just send my dad a text.
    Phones in my opinion aren’t what everyone makes them out to be though. I’m sure if I was living in the mid 1900’s I could survive without it but now it’s a way to keep yourself busy, and I can find other ways to do so but if you took away TV and computers I’d be clueless. You’ll hardly ever see me without my phone, and now you’ll hardly ever see any of my friends on it because they’ve abused my trust. I can set a code on it, that makes it so only I can access any part of my phone.

    The only way I can put these two together is both in the music category. I love music, and my phone as all my songs on it and I can listen to music anywhere I go. Music and my phone are a big part of my life. But not my whole life. I enjoy both but I’m not obsessed, although I couldn’t live without music.

WTF . By, Peter Lerangis , Simon Pulse 2009 Genre : Fiction .

-Lerangis tells a story of 6 kids looking for a way out on one Friday night.

(SecondQuarterOutsideReadingBook)

In this realistic fiction book, WTF, everyone is sort of connected to each other. So, I’ll break it down person by person, Jimmy. Jimmy is, basically the 17 year old virgin that know one wants to talk to. He gets picked on, and is most of the time avoided and ignored. Ge gets good grades and is basically the goody two shoes. His best friend, Byron, is the boy who is so “perfect” he doesn’t really get in trouble. But lately, Byron has been getting close to Cam, the guy Jimmy can’t stand. Cam, is the popular athlete of the school and he captures everyone’s eyes with his good looks and good grades. He’d also the one known to barrow drugs and ‘nd sell them to others to pay back his dealer which, he never does. Cam, has Reina’s heart. Reina is a smart, pretty girl who everyone knows about. She’s naturally sweet and kind, and sort of shy, but she knows how to stand her grounds and isn’t exactly easy to take advantage of. Waits, has this dream of being with Reina. He’s sort of the Mystery guy, who has all the girls lined up to hook up with next. If one girl doesn’t work out, well he’s on to the next. But, he’ll never have a chance with Reina being he’s a drug dealer who graduated from high school a year ago and did nothing with his life besides work for the mafia. Oh, don’t forget his life is in danger if he doesn't pay his boss back before 12 am. Mc, who comes along at the end of the book is a hyper active, annoying little teenage girl who if isn’t careful can ruin everything. She’s a country, North Dakota child on the inside and gets involved in a big drug deal and basically holds Byron’s life in her hands with the pills she stole from him. She’s just an idiot minor character in the story and annoys me to no ending and I don’t understand her point in being in the book. BY now, you should know this book is about a major drug deal, that goes very wrong very fast. Don’t they all?

The setting is in NYC, present day. I’ll tell you the short story that doesn’t give the ending away. Cam barrows drugs from Waits who got the drugs from the Mafia for half price and if he doesn’t get the money back to them before midnight, well he’s dead. Waits tells Cam and Byron about the party about an hour away from them and tells them to go buy drugs to sell at the party for a bigger price. Byron and Cam agree and when Byron leaves, Waits tells Cam a few secrets. The only problem with getting to the party is Cam and Byron don’t have licenses, but Jimmy “does” .. So they tell Jimmy that the party will have mad girls there and it’s the perfect way to get screwed up and laid. So, he agrees, of course. What the boys don’t know is that Jimmy doesn’t have his license, he just knows how to drive. So they’re on their way to the party, Jimmy hits a deer, kills Cam, moves Cam to the drivers side making him look like he was driving and then they flee the scene. They drop their phone, arrive at the party, and Jimmy is arrested by the police. Jimmy tells them Cam was driving and they were heading to the party, got scared and continued on,a dn the police brought him to Cam showing him he was alive. Cam and Jimmy talk, bada boom, bada bing, and Jimmy knows about the drugs. On the other hand, Byron meets MC, and they go to a club to start selling drugs, Byron chickens out and leaves and becomes an Illegal taxi service. Wtf? Byron wrecks the car, and flees the scene again heading back to the club to MC. Byron tells Reina the whole story, and her and MC cry in the bathroom of Gino’s club. Reina goes out, throws everyone Waits money and tells him off, Cam walks in the club with Jimmy and tells everyone he’s okay. Everyone hugs, kisses, and makes up and no one gets arrested for their actions. Cam’s family pays for the car, and the drugs. Waits gets out of the game and becomes a good guy and everyone lives happily ever after. Literally.

“This book is the best thing ever” says an anonymous character. I can agree with this book, I really like it and how it relates to teenagers common day problems in a way. The only thing I disagree with is it wasn’t realistic with the consequences of their actions.

I’ve never read a book like this before. I’ve seen shows like skins but never read books like it. Wtf makes me want to read more about the subject and more books from the author. He’s probably an adult but knows exactly how teenagers who grew up too fast are like and that’s why I have a connection with his writing.

My favorite quote from the book was, “ ‘If I close my eyes....’ It felt good to hear music. It felt good to be indoors. It felt good to have found a bottle of single-malt scotch hidden away in the kitchen cupboard, let’s not forget the mary being passed around with x-tasy.”

I can relate to this story because I’m young and looking to love in any possible way and just have fun, but every time everything begins to get really good, something bad happens and ruins it. But just like the teens in thi s book, I’ve learned from my mistakes and am moving forward trying to do the best I can to succeed, sometimes I just need an extra boost to get me back on track. My mistakes though, don’t stop me from doing what I do, and neither do people. Just like the kids here. I really do love this book, and I give it a “4- pounce on it” , only because the ending was so simple with no consequences to their actions even though they all broke laws. It’s almost like the author got sick and tired of writing the book and had to think of a quick conclusion to get it done and over with.

Life Without You

Em Thorne

Daisy - How I live now
Alfred - The Contender

How I Live Now - Part Two .
As much as I love you “I can’t stay here, with you” .. The room stayed silent after those few words. It’d been 2 years after Daisy came back to London, and things had changed after the war she’d experience at first hand. She had fallen in love with her surroundings. She had fallen in love with her cousin who had shown her much emotion 8 years ago, but he hangs on to the fact that she “left”. “Then leave..Again” he said. First words I’d heard in 3 months from him, thought Daisy, I would have expected a fight. But he said 3 words, and I was kissing Piper on the forehead goodbye, and left for the United States. “Well, back to the city life of New York.” she said. She’d fought for a while the tears, held them back, locked them away, but she couldn’t fight how much she’d loved him. How much she wanted him, but he didn’t try, so why should she? ..So she cried, for a while. And wished Piper were with her to comfort her sobbing, but when she turned to her right a snotty child was playing her Nintendo DS kicking the seat ahead of her which seemed to be her father. Next to her sat a man, who appeared to be upset too. “Damn, is everyone upset..?” She thought to herself. She couldn’t stand it, so she stood up and left and as she walked down the aisle he said, “Excuse me ma’am. My name is Alfred Brooks..” “Oh, uhmm.” She’d stopped crying for some reason. Maybe it was the look of innocence in his eyes. Maybe it was because she felt welcomed, but either way she had stopped crying. She smiled, said Hello very politely and walked to find the nearest bathroom. In the bathroom the smell was so horrid she couldn’t take it, was everything going to be wrong today? After all she went through to find this man she loves and he kicks her out of the country. She left the bathroom and when she came back, Alfred was gone. She wished she’d never walked away from him, the look he gave her made her feel special. It made her feel comfortable. It confused her and so she kicked the thoughts out of her head and ordered some sparkling apple cider and a nice little dinner. She soon fell asleep.
    She woke up a few hours later and to her surprise Alfred was back, but this time the little girl was gone and seated ahead with her father sound asleep. Alfred looked at her with a funny smile and Daisy realized she was drooling in her sleep. Embarrassed she wiped it off like nothing happened. He laughed. Oh, such a sweet laugh. He began to talk and whiles later they were just finishing a debate about how Movies are better than books and vice versa. But it was his stop and he needed to go home to Denver, Colorado. They exchanged numbers and soon began to talk over phone conversations and frequent video chats. He’d become her best friend, and she became his. She discovered that life doesn’t need to be about silence. She got back into the city life and found a job. She didn’t need London, and London didn’t need her...

The Contender- Life after a Dream.
“What if we were all a dream, and when we died it was the person who was dreaming us waking up” Alfred said to Daisy over an ooVoo video chat. They both had ordered Chinese food hoping it would come at the same time but of course, NY was faster and she was already half done when he received his. She moved her china food around a white container with chopsticks trying to find the right lump of noodles to eat. “HELLO, Woman.” he said..”Did you hear me?” “Oh, calm down Alfred, I was thinking.” She replied. “I think it would be quite amazing, maybe when we die we meet her in our next life” ..”Well, what if it was a he, He stated” “Oh my goodness, Alfred, Where did you hear about this?” “I don’t know, honestly” he said, thinking at the same time. He’d always done this, he’d gone from a Brooklyn hoodlum to a study type college kid, and he liked it. He had his group of friends and Daisy, that was all he needed. He wanted to see Daisy so bad, her long black hair and big blue eyes were always on his mind, but he never would show the indication that he totally loved her. He’d send her gifts and she’d send him gifts, they’d have Chinese get together when they ooVoo’ed, and surely she only liked him as a guy friend. Typical though. “Well, I have to get going, I don’t want to be late for work. I’ve got night shift.” She said. But he didn’t want her to go, he wanted to stay for a long time. Maybe forever, but that was impossible. She was always on the move. He accepted her though, she did what she had to do and he admired that. “Alright, no problem” he said, “Chat ya’ tomorrow” and CLICK she was gone. and the computer screen was black once again. Alfred grabbed his boxing stuff, head for the door and as he got ready to close the door he said “Love you.” As if she were his wife and he was still ooVooing with her. He shut the door. He walked down the apartment hall, down 3 flights of stairs and out the door into the cold winter night. It was snowing. And he could barely see anything. He heard some gun shots and everything was over. Alfred was dead.
    How I live now2 - I got a call, with news I’d hoped I’d never have to hear. They said Alfred was gone, and I refused to believe, but when i arrived in Denver, Colorado it was true. She walked into a quiet room and looked at the vase that holds her best friend. She held her faced and sobbed. “I never got to tell you I love you.” She said.