Characterization of Rayce Davis from "High Risk, High Reward" in "The Chronicle"

In "High Risk, High Reward", Rayce Davis is characterized as somebody who isn't afraid to take chances, or to put his body on the line. This is shown in the lines where Rayce says "There's so many different ways you can get hurt. It's high risk. You're always going high speeds, there are jumps, and you can get hurt real easily." Even though these factors haunt his mind while on the track, he continues to aspire towards his goal of being a professional motocrosser, knowing that he can get hurt at any time. Rayce Davis is, as described in this article, an achiever.

Theme of "Daily Divas" from "The Chronicle"

In "Daily Divas", two students are described for showing their "inner Beyoncé". The lines at the beginning of the article, "While most people see their ordinary reflections, some view themselves in a more glamorous light", tell what the theme of the article is: Take pride in both who you want to be and who you are.

Characterization

Character Analysis for Hans Hubermann

Hans is Liesel's foster father and one of the great loves of her life. He's a super nice guy. Early in the novel, this is how Death describes him:

"To most people, Hans Hubermann is barely visible. An un-special person. Somehow, and I'm sure you've met people like this, he was able to appear as merely part of the background. He was always just there. Not noticeable" (Zusak, 22)

Considering how memorable a character Hans is, Death's statement might seem a bit puzzling at first. But, we see what he means. If we saw Hans walking calmly through town, winging his paint cans and harmonica, we might not see the hero inside him. We might see just another poor man in a dreary, poor town.

But there's more to Hans. Perhaps, it's his gentle humility that hides him from the attention of most. And Hans's ability to be "not noticeable" (Zusak, 22) is a huge asset in this novel. A flashier guy might not have been able to successfully hide a Jew in his basement during the Holocaust. Even when Hans is caught giving bread to the Jewish prisoners marching to Dachau, the authorities don't search his house. Why? Because they can't imagine he would go that far.

Hans has true strength of character, as shown by his hiding of Max and his other acts of resistance against the Nazis. These acts, along with his general kindness, have a huge effect on Liesel and even on Rudy. Hans gives them a positive role model. He's a rare example of an adult that they can really aspire to be like in the ways that matter.

Reading Skills for "The Book Thief"

In "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, there are many clues as to what the plot of the story will turn out to be. For example, in the prologue it lists three different cases of detrimental things the girl has to face throughout her life. I think that this is signifigant because it might lead to tough times for the child which force her to make choices she doesn't want to. Will the girl steal something, like the title suggests? Or will she have to hurt somebody? I wonder if she will encounter death herself. That would make for a very interesting climax or building point in the story.

Book recommendation for "The Hunger Games"

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen has been providing for her family since her father’s death in a mining accident. She has done this by illegally hunting beyond the boundaries of District 12 and using the game she kills for food or for barter. Through her skill with a bow and her ability to track and snare rabbits and squirrels, her family has been able to survive.

They have also survived because Katniss signs up for the tessera, a ration of grain that is given in exchange for placing your name in the lottery for the reaping, the ceremony that determines who will be the district’s representative in the Games. Everyone’s name goes in the lottery from the time they reach the age of 12 until they turn 18. Each time Katniss exchanges her name for the tessera, her chances of being the one whose name is called increase. Only it isn’t her name that is called. It is her sister’s.

Prim Everdeen is the one person that Katniss loves above all others. She is only 12, quiet, loving and on her way to being a healer. She would not be able to survive the reaping and Katniss knows this. When Prim’s name is called, Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place as a tribute from District 12 to the Hunger Games.

Katniss knows that it is not only her own life on the line in the games, but that others will benefit as well if she is the victor and her skills as a hunter will give her an edge in the Games. But her life as a tribute becomes more complicated by the other tribute from District 12. Peeta Mellark, the baker’s son, is a boy that Katniss owes a favor to because of a kindness that he showed her when she was most desperate and her family’s survival was at stake. And Katniss knows that now her survival will mean his death.

Katniss is whisked away from her family and Gale, her best friend and hunting partner, to the Capitol, where she is prepped and primped to participate in the Games. She and Peeta are to be mentored by Haymitch, the only tribute that District 12 has had who was a winner in the Games. But Haymitch is a reluctant and seemingly inadequate mentor, so Katniss realizes she must rely on her own strengths in order to survive.

As the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, "The Hunger Games" is a compelling read and makes the audience want to read the next book immediately to find out what has happened to Katniss and Peeta. Katniss is a strong character who solves her own problems and takes charge of her own life. Her struggles with her divided affections between two boys are realistically portrayed but not overwrought. And her tendency to inadvertently create problems can spark many conversations about whether she was right or wrong and whether she stayed true to who she is. Katniss is someone that readers will not forget. In my opinion, "The Hunger Games" will appeal to teens, ages 13 and up. The writing is excellent and the plot propels the reader through the book at a rapid rate. It is definitely a book that everybody in the recommended age group should check out.

Analysis of the prologue in "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

Death introduces itself as the book's narrator and describes its work: after one dies, Death carries one's soul off from one's corporeal body. Death describes itself as affable, yet not nice; in discussing this work, Death is candid, noting that the reader is going to die, but that this is "nothing if not fair." In the prologue, Death acquires a cynical, sarcastic, and bluntly dark tone in addressing the audience and describing its work. 

Death explains that it deliberately tries to notice colors, not bodies and people, in its line of work as a way of distracting itself from the survivors, whom Death considers to be more tragic than the actual dead. Death introduces the story of a "perpetual survivor," later identified as Liesel Meminger, and briefly reveals the three episodes in which Death interacts with Liesel. Death thus foreshadows three key events expanded later in the book in the following three parts of the prologue.

BESIDE THE RAILWAY LINE

Death describes the blinding white of the snow and paints a small scene of two guards, one mother and daughter, and one corpse on the ground by a stopped train. The guards argue over what to do with the corpse. Death tries to focus on the snow but becomes curious about the girl and instead waits. The girl is described as "the book thief." Although not revealed here, the daughter is Liesel.

THE ECLIPSE

A plane has crashed, and a boy with a toolbox arrives first at the scene. Liesel, the book thief, arrives next, and even though "years had passed," Death recognizes her. The boy takes a teddy bear out of his toolbox and puts it on the pilot's chest, and a crowd appears. The pilot's face appeared to be smiling; Death calls this a "final dirty joke," "another human punch line." Death carries off the pilot's soul and sees a momentary eclipse, one where time seems to stop. Death says it has seen millions of these while carrying off souls, more than it cares to remember. Although not explained here, the pilot is an American who has just participated in an air raid; the boy, Liesel, and the rest of crowd has just come from bomb shelters.

THE FLAG

Death: "The last time I saw her was red." This is the fiery sky of a massive bombing raid. Death finds piled bodies stuck to the street and rhetorically asks if fate or misfortune glued them there. Sardonically, Death answers its own question: "Let's not be stupid. / It probably had more to do with the hurled bombs, thrown down by humans hiding in the clouds." Death finds the book thief kneeling among rubble, clutching a book. Death wants to console her, but "that is not allowed." Instead Death follows her; she drops the book and Death later takes it from a garbage truck. Death: "I would keep it and view it several thousand times over the years."

Death explains that these three colors -- red, white, black -- most resonate with its memories of Liesel, and draws them on the page as a dash of red, a circle of white, and a swastika for black. These are the colors and symbols of the Nazi flag; the implication is that Nazism is responsible for the deaths in these three episodes.

Finally, Death explains that it carries a small legion of stories of perpetual survivors like Liesel, and that each one is "an attempt (an immense leap of an attempt) to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it."

Death cautions the reader that it is not a violent or malevolent entity, that it is instead a "result." On a practical level, death is a biological process, the "result" of the end of a living being's metabolic processes. Yet in the frame of this novel, Death implies that it exists as a result of humanity's actions, that Death is kept busy by men who kill other men. The capacity of men to do evil, along with the capacity of men to do good, is a central theme of the prologue in "The Book Thief" and Death is both fascinated and conflicted by these extremes. Hitler and Stalin represent one extreme, Liesel and Hans Hubermann another. The novel invites the reader to consider the "worth" of humanity along with Death. I chose to analyze the prologue because I thought it was a salient part of what I've read so far in this novel.

Theme of "Ender's Game"

The theme of Ender's Game is "One's focus determination to be rid of a game can dispel one's problems". The concept of a game is the book's major theme. All of the other important ideas in the novel are interpreted through the context of the games. Ender wins all of the games, but it is not so clear what that means. He thinks for a large part of the book that the games are no more than they appear, and he does not realize the real meaning of his final game until it is far too late. The difference between what is a game and what is reality becomes less and less clear as the story unfolds. The very first game played in the book is "buggers and astronauts," a game that Peter makes Ender play, and it is a game that all kids play. However, in Ender's case the game is more than it seems, because Peter's hatred for him is real, and he inflicts physical pain upon Ender in the course of the game. This is one game that Ender never wins.

At Battle School, Ender faces two different types of games. On his computer he plays the mind game, a game that even its creators do not properly understand and one that effects Ender's life in direct ways. It is through the mind game that Ender is able to come to terms with the changes that are occurring in his life and it is the images of this game that the buggers use to communicate with Ender at the end of the book. In the battle room Ender plays war games. These games are everything to the kids at the school. Their lives revolve around playing games, and so the meaning of the word itself shifts from a voluntary fun experience to a necessary and crucial aspect of life. These games and their implications cause Bonzo's death and create rancor and jealousy throughout the school.

Finally we come to the greatest games that Ender plays, while he is the commander of the Third Invasion. Playing these games is debilitating to Ender's health. He cannot sleep, he barely eats, and he is forced to be a leader and not a friend to those whom he cares for. Ender destroys the buggers because he wants the games to end, and he is successful, but if he had ever known that it was not a game he never would have participated. In the end it is not very clear how to separate a game from reality, for the playing of a game can have a profound impact on a life, and sometimes the game itself is reality.

Complex Characterization

In the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, the characters play a major role in the development of the plot. Ender, the protagonist of the story, is a Third. This means that he was the third child who was only there to be monitored and tested. Because of this, Ender starts out as a little boy who is timid and afraid to face his fears. He is reluctant to do anything against anybody for trepidation that somebody might hurt him or his family. He knows that he is being monitored by the IF, or International Fleet, so he tries to carefully plan his every move. One day, Ender loses it. Some kids had been bullying him for a while so Ender decided to take action and end it. He beats all the kids up with an abundance of wrath. He went from the sweet little boy who always got picked on to a rage monster who shouldn't be messed with in a matter of seconds. This changes the IF's view on everything about Ender.

They choose Ender to go to Battle School, where the most promising recruits from all over the world went to train for the war. The war that Ender, as chosen by the commanders of IF, was supposed to curtail. Every step Ender took was being watched. He was expected to be great, to be the best possible soldier one could be. Ender started training harder and harder, which meant that he was becoming less and less of the kid he used to be. Sometime in the middle of the book, Ender begins to play a virtual game in which the computer bases the game off of Ender's old life. This game brings Ender depression and melancholy. He was made to believe that all of this training and fighting was useless. He began to lose hope of being the soldier he was destined to be. However, he managed to pull through. Once he got his own army, Ender build up confidence after winning battle after battle. The commanders of IF want to test whether Ender could handle true pressure, so they made Ender face multiple armies at a time with severe disadvantages. Ender still handled it, which led the commanders to believe he was ready.

I think that this shows Ender was a very dynamic character. He went from the little boy who was afraid of himself to a young man who could take on armies. He became more of a leader, and somebody to look up to throughout the course of the text.

Analysis of "Learning Persian"

"Learning Persian" by Reza Shirazi is a poem that describes the experience of somebody who tries to speak a language after a very long time. The author manages to use words in a way that is totally unique.
     For example, the line "A hibernating language lying in the dark corners of my mind, awakens slowly after a ten year sleep" (Shirazi, stanza 1), is basically saying that this language, Persian, has not been used in 10 years and is sitting in the back of the narrator's mind. The next stanza, "Naked, bones creaking, it crawls forward, searching for the lost pieces of clothing in forgotten nooks and crannies" says that the narrator is attempting to speak the language again. The personification in this stanza allows the reader to picture how the author's experience is going. The audience can see that although the narrator hasn't used this language for 10 years, he/she is trying to piece it together, bit by bit. In the third stanza, the author says that the narrator has started to speak the language again, albeit not that fluently. This is shows with the words "It ventures out on a wave of words." The final two lines of the poem, "The world lies before it waiting to be sung" show that there are a world full of opportunities with the narrator's ability to speak this language.

Theme of the "Rocking-horse Winner"/Characterization of the mother

Statement of Theme: A plethora of greed, shared by many and especially for wealth, can lead to one and their family's downfall.

    This is the theme of the story because the family's need for money drove Paul to a point where he died. For example, the mother received 1,000 dollars for her birthday, but instead of taking the thousand and using it for the family's good, she asked for the whole 5,000 and didn't even use it to pay off her debt! That was one of the greediest things that happened in the story. Also, when Paul was going crazy about the horse races, the mother only pretended to care about him because she wanted more money. The mother was so hung up on money that she wasn't able to care about anybody. On page 10 of the story, the mother gets anxious about her children. She probably thought that if she pretended to care, maybe she would deserve the money that her child, Paul, earned. A major contrast in the mother's character is how she felt at the beginning of the book to how she felt towards the end of the book. At the beginning, the author says "...When her children were present, she always felt the center of her heart go hard" (Lawrence, 1). This signifies that she had no adoration for her children. "Then he fell with a crash to the ground, and she, all her tormented motherhood flooding upon her, rushed to gather him up" (Lawrence, 11). This shows a major growth in character from the beginning of the book. She suddenly has all this motherhood taking hold of her that she never had before. The mother's major downfall was the loss of her son. She has all the money, but no son to share it with.

Reading Skills

       Haze by L.E. Modesitt Jr. seems like a very interesting book. I haven't read too much of it yet, but there are a lot of predictions that I can make about this book based on what I've read. So far, the main character, a "Major Roget", is part of the Federation, one of the biggest space corporations in the universe. He has to find a way to get to a new planet called "Haze". I think that once he gets to Haze he will discover something that will set the plot line for the book. Maybe, there will be aliens on the planet. Maybe, he'll have to save the Federation from something. Even better, he might have to go against the Federation because of something they might have hid from him.

It seems like the head of the Federation is a very sneaky man. When he sat down with Roget, I felt like he was hiding something. The author was also hinting at that because he said the head was blasé when the two were talking about something nobody should be blasé about. I really hope one of my predictions comes true because that would make for a very interesting plot for this book. I think that the book I did a review on, Ender's Game, can possibly be similar to this book. Both take place in space, and both have a protagonist who has to do something for a major company or corporation.

Book Recommendation

         Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is definitely a book that I would recommend, to anybody our age and above, to read. It is a science fiction book that talks about a young boy's journey to ending the war between mankind and aliens. I think that this book has a great plot, a descriptive setting, and dynamic characters. The main character of the book is Ender Wiggin, and he is the boy who has to "save the world". The setting is mainly space, but in the middle of the book, it reverts to Earth only to go back to space after a chapter or two. If you are into anything that has to do with a hero's journey, or a "defeat the enemy" kind of plot, then this book is definitely for you. Also, the book was published back in 1985, but there is a movie based on the book that will be released this winter!

Theme of "The Swimming Contest"

The theme of "The Swimming Contest" is ''Memories can be hard to overcome. "Memories" is the subject and "can be hard to overcome" is the author's point of view on the subject.

Interlopers new plot structure

When our group rearranged the story, the most significant change was putting the ending line "Wolves" at the start. We thought this would be a major plot twist because the characters have to deal with wolves attacking them throughout the story. Both of the main characters believe that their men will come to save them from the wolves and that the other will die, but once it is known that their men aren't coming, they must end their family history and become friends. Another reason why we thought the ending should be at the beginning is because it adds suspense to the story. Once the reader sees "Wolves", they will want to know what happens next, but they must read on. After the first line we cut to the first section of the actual piece to give a little background of the story. So, ultimately, the choice to put the climatic part of the story is a crucial one.

As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/as-i-grew-older/

The poem "As I Grew Older" by Langston Hughes talks about achieving dreams that you had as a child. You have to overcome obstacles to be who you want to be in life. I really enjoy the lines "To smash this night, to break this shadow, into a thousand lights of sun, into a thousand whirling dreams of sun!" (Hughes, 25-29). This part of the poem talks about the achievement of your goal, or dream. It talks about getting rid of the obstacles that stand in your way and throwing them aside like a rotten tomato. If you read these lines and put yourself in the author's shoes, then you can truly feel where the author is coming from. This is the main reason for why I incorporated the link. I want you to feel what Langston Hughes felt when he was writing this poem.

I find this poem very inspiring because it makes my aspiration to become a surgeon even stronger. I feel like I can accomplish anything.
Nihar Rama

1. All of the authors had moral lessons that could help people overcome obstacles.

2. It gives the audience a purpose to listen and connect to what the author is saying.

3. We could use moral lessons to help interact better with the text.

4. The standard for the class was to identify different techniques that authors used to captivate their audience. Authors did this to incorporate a moral story into their texts.

Summer Reading Blog Post (Practice)

       My summer reading book, "Scarlet" by A.C. Gaughen was not that great of a book. Out of a ten, I'd give my book a 6. My novel was about Robin Hood's band of thieves. However, it focused on the girl of the band. She was the only girl and she felt like the others took advantage of that. Scarlet, the main character of my novel was determined to make the other band members respect her and treat her as an equal.