Book Project #4

    The Call of the Wild by Jack London is a book about a dog named Buck thats living a good life in California and then gets stolen and put into dog slavery. He ends up having to pull a heavy sled in the freezing snow for many miles. Throughout the book Buck has to adapt to his new life and in order to that he faced many challenges. He has to learn from other dogs and do what they do. If he screws up he gets whipped and punished. As Buck gets better and better at his new job he decides to fight for power against another dog. The fight was violent but in the end Buck pulled it off.

Now that Buck was in power he had everything he needed and the other dogs would not challenge him now. He thought he had everything until the sled got new people and these people were bad. They beat the dogs and planned poorly. Half way through the journey they ran out of food and everyone started going hungry. When they got to ice it was melting and Buck refused to to go. They start beating him and then the other guys knife falls and cuts Buck free. They left without Buck but before they even got a quarter mile the ice collapsed swallowing everyone including the dogs.

After that Buck is saved by a man named John Thornton. He becomes attached to him and saves his life many times. Buck now sets off on journey with his new owner and other men loving his life. At the end Thornton is killed by the Yeehat tribe and Buck wants vengeance. But for now Buck is free to run the wild with wild packs of dogs. Only if he’s the leader.

English Reading Project #3

To Kill A Mockingbird 

        To kill a mockingbird is about a girl Scout Finch who lives with her brother Jim and widowed father, Atticus in Maycomb Alabama. Everything is going good until her dad takes a case defending a black guy, Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping a white girl. After that times got pretty rough because no one liked that they were helping a black guy because it was the time of civil rights still. They were pretty much treated like blacks were at that time. 

       Throughout the story her dad is trying to protect Tom Robinson and times were really hard. On the trial day Atticus was really good because he said that she was beaten by a left handed man and her dad was left handed. But at the end Tom was found guilty. Then later when Tom was in prison he tried to escape and was shot and killed. Throughout all that hate and hard times one good thing happened and that was that Scout got lead role in a play at school. 

        On the day of the play when Scout was performing and the white girls racist dad tried to stab her. But before he could Boo Radley saved her. When people wanted to make him famous or interview him her dad would protect him because he was more private. At the end of the story the main point was that Boo Radley was like a Mockingbird because he didn't hurt anybody that didn't deserve it. 

Unit 2 Book Project

              The book I read was called Rumblefish by SE Hinton. The genre was sort of like a drama or action or a mix f both. The book centers on the relationship between Motorcycle Boy, a revered former gang leader wishing to live a more peaceful life, and his younger brother, Rusty James, an uncool teenaged hoodlum who aspires to become as feared as Motorcycle Boy. Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the book begins in a diner called Bennys Billiards, where local tough guy Rusty James is told by Midgit that rival group leader Biff Wilcox wants to meet him that night in an abandoned garage lot for a fight. Accepting the challenge, Rusty James then talks with his friends the wily Smokey, loyal B.J., and nerdy Steve  who all have a different take on the forthcoming fight. Steve mentions that Rusty James' older brother, "The Motorcycle Boy," would not be pleased with the fight as he had previously created a truce forbidding gang fights, or "rumbles." Rusty James dismisses him, saying that Motorcycle Boy  has been gone for two months, leaving without explanation or promise of return.
                 Rusty James visits his girlfriend, Patty, then rendezvous with his cadre and walks to the abandoned garage lot, where Biff and his buddies suddenly appear. The two battle, with the fight ending when Rusty James disarms Biff and beats him almost unconscious. Motorcycle Boy arrives dramatically on his motorcycle and this distracts Rusty James who is gashed by Biff in the side with a shard of glass. Incensed, Motorcycle Boy sends his motorcycle flying into Biff. The Motorcycle Boy and Steve take Rusty James home  and nurse him to health through the night. Steve and the injured Rusty James talk about how Motorcycle Boy is 21 years old, colorblind, partially deaf, and noticeably aloof  the last trait causing many to believe he is insane.
                The Motorcycle Boy and Rusty James share the next evening with their alcoholic, welfare-dependent father, who says that the Motorcycle Boy takes after his mother whereas, it is implied, Rusty James takes after him. Things start to go wrong for Rusty James: he's kicked out of school after his frequent fights. Despite Rusty James' desire to do so, The Motorcycle Boy implies that he has no interest in reviving any gang activity. Rusty James fools around with another girl and is dumped by Patty.
                   The two brothers and Steve head across the river one night to a strip of bars, where Rusty James enjoys being away from his troubles. The Motorcycle Boy mentions that he located their long-lost mother during his recent trip while she was with a movie producer, which took him to California although he did not reach the ocean. Later, Steve and Rusty James wander drunkenly home, and are attacked by thugs, but both are saved by the Motorcycle Boy. As he nurses Rusty James again, the Motorcycle Boy tells him that the gang life and the rumbles he yearns for and idolizes are not what he believes them to be. Steve calls the Motorcycle Boy crazy, a claim which the Motorcycle Boy does not deny  further prompting Rusty James to believe his brother is insane, just like his runaway mother supposedly was.
               Rusty James meets up with the Motorcycle Boy the next day in a pet store, where the latter is strangely fascinated with the Siamese fighting fish, which he refers to as "rumble fish". Officer Patterson suspects they will try to rob the store. The brothers leave and meet their father, who explains to Rusty James that, contrary to popular belief, neither his mother nor brother are crazy, but rather they were both born with an acute perception. The brothers go for a motorcycle ride through the city and arrive at the Pet Store where the Motorcycle Boy breaks in and starts to set the animals loose. Rusty James makes a last-gasp effort to convince his brother to reunite with him, but the Motorcycle Boy refuses, explaining they are too different to ever have the life Rusty James speaks of. The Motorcycle Boy takes the fish and rushes to free them in the river, but is shot by Officer Patterson before he can. Rusty James, after hearing the gunshot, finishes his brother's last attempt while a large crowd of people begin merging on his body. Then all at the end Rusty James finally reaches the Pacific Ocean  and enjoys the shining sun and flocks of birds flying around the beach.

The Boy Who Never Lied

        There was once a boy named Ben who lived in a small town called Coldgrove. Apparently he has never lied to anyone. But these two boys really wanted to make him lie. So one day after school the two boys told him to tell the teacher they won't be at school tomorrow. So he went to the teacher and the teacher asked him whats the problem. He told the teacher that the boys said that they won't be here, but he wasn't sure because he only says what he saw. So he just said they might come and they might not come. The next day before school the boys came to the teacher laughing and told them that Ben lied to her. The teacher said that he did not lie he only said what he could see with his own eyes. Then the two boys realized that he really never lies he is a man of his word and only says what he knows.

The Pearl Theme

In this story by John Steinbeck there is many tones and it is always changing. At the beginning of the story Kino and Juana's baby gets stung by a scorpion and the doctor won't help them because they don't have enough money. Then as the plot progresses Kino finds the pearl. Then all of the sudden everybody listens to Kino and wants to serve him just because he has the pearl. Know the pearl's power is starting to take over Kino and he wants to sell it so they can be rich but Juana says no. So know they go to the doctor and the doctor says he will serve their baby just because he wants the money. So then he doesn't exactly know what to do so he poisons the baby to stop the other poison. Which really isn't a treatment so Kino is kind of mad. I think the theme of this story would be greed and evil, because lots of people of act evil and once Kino everyone in the town becomes greedy of Kino's pearl.

Constructed Response to The Day I Got Lost and A Dark Brown Dog

          

         In the story The Day I Got Lost by Isaac Singer it is about an old professor named Shlemiel who can’t remember where he lives, and the whole story is about him trying to find his way home. All he can remember is that it is his birthday. The point of view of this text is first person because the author is using words like I, Me, I’m, etc. In this story there is many tones that you could use to describe this story but one of the best would be confused or paranoid. I chose these two tones because throughout the story he is always confused and paranoid of what’s going to happen next. An example from the text would be “ I'm always misplacing things. A hundred times I asked myself, Where is my pen? Where is my money? Where is my handkerchief? Where is my address book? I am what is known as an absentminded professor.” This quote from the text shows how he is always misplacing things which shows the confusing tone and also shows he is paranoid of where it is.

        In the story A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane it was about a boy that finds a dog that is beaten and becomes from the dog. But when he brings it home his family doesn’t want the dog but allow it for a little while. The father of the kid never liked the dog and would hit it sometimes. But one night the father became extremely drunk picked up the dog and throw it out of the window of the five story building. In this story you could say it has a very dark tone due to the fact the dog got thrown out a window, but a better word to describe this would be depressing or despairing because it’s very sad that the dog dies at the end. A quote from the story that states the tone of the story would be “ When they came for him later, they found him seated by the body of his dark-brown friend.” Which states how much the boy really cared for the dog.

Response To The Poem We Breathed You In

    In the poem We Breathed You In by Patty Tana, her purpose seems to have been about what happened on 9/11 and how we can remember those people that risked their lives to save us. In this poem the author writes about how we will never forget those people and that they did the right thing. But for doing what they did we always remember them and not forget their names or who they are. You could say the tone of this poem is very miserable or dramatic due to the fact it is about 9/11 and the people that lost their lives that day.