Divergent

In the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, a sixteen year old girl named Beatrice faces a decision that will change her life forever. She has the choice of staying with her family and being selfless, becoming brave, becoming smart, becoming kind, or becoming honest. In this story, there are five factions, and six ways of life. Each faction is one way of life and follow their rules. The other is to be factionless and live in poverty. At age sixteen, each teenager must choose one. Beatrice chooses Dauntless, the brave faction. This choice shapes her entire future.

In the story, Beatrice decided to leave her family and try something that she had never done before. This one choice is the most important in the entire book. I think that the way to choose your life is really unfair because she was surrounded by everyone in the factions.m This made her feel uneasy and nervous. But, even though her family was right in front of her when she made her decision, she still chose what she thought was right. This part of the story shows that you should never be pressured into doing something from other people and that you should always make your own decisions.

This stories theme is that people should always make their own decisions. The way that Beatrice made her decisions may inspire the reader to try and follow her footsteps in making their own choices. Beatrice handled the decision with courage and didn't let anyone convince her. If everyone in the real world could handle their decisions the way she did than peer pressure wouldn't bother anyone. Everyone would make their own choices and no innocent people would get into trouble.

You Killed Wesley Pane

In the novel You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin, a teenager named Dalton Rev who is in in junior high school solves cases/mysteries for money. He refers to himself as a "Private Dick" and everyone else does as well. He gets the money for two reasons: to support his family and to get armor to send to his older brother in the army. He is very determined and uses the personality of a courageous detective from a series of books he'd read. They are from the author Lexington Cole. In You Killed Wesley Payne, Dalton presents the themes of self-determination and being yourself.

The way that Dalton shows the theme of self-determination is that he never gives up trying to get the body armor for his brother. The body armor is extremely expensive. Although the book doesn't tell you what the price was it can be inferred because Dalton gets thousands of dollars but still needs more. In the book, Dalton solved several cases, all of which were very dangerous and life-threatening. No matter what, though, he keeps working towards his goal.

Another theme that Dalton presented was to be yourself. Throughout the entire story, Dalton was inspired by the Lexington Cole stories that he read and wanted to be just like the main character. So, he became him by acting like him. But, he didn't let his true feelings out until the end, when he realized that writing was skill.

This novel tells people to never stop working towards their goals until they have been achieved. It also tells people to find who they are and to be themselves. Personally, I like this story and recommend it to anyone that likes to read a story about a teenage detective.

Romeo and Juliet: Interesting Characters

In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, there are some very interesting characters. The one that stuck out to me most, though, is Benvolio, the Montague's kinsman. I think of Benvolio as a peacemaker, or at least someone who tries to avoid fighting. So far, throughout  the entire story , he hasn't started a fight. He always stuck up for Romeo and was even kind to his enemies, the Capulets, and tried not to fight them. Unfortunately, he didn't stop any fights that happened and was forced to take part in one of them.

The play starts off with a fight between the Montagues and the Capulets. Benvolio tried to stop the fight before it got worse. He said in Act 1, scene 1, lines 65-66 "Part, fools! Put up your swords. You know not what to do." This means that he told them to stop their fighting. Right after, Tybalt, who is the Capulet's kinsmen and is very violent and is a troublemaker forced Benvolio to fight him. Later on in the play at Act 3 scene 1, Tybalt fights Mercutio and Romeo fights Tybalt. Benvolio did not want them to fight in the first place but fortunately didn't get himself involved. This shows that Benvolio is a good person and shies away from fights and tries to prevent/stop them.

In the world, I think that Benvolio would be an antiwar person and would be against all types of violence. I think he would be someone who steps in between two people who are about to fight. He would be someone who would never pick a fight with someone and only get involved if it was absolutely necessary. He would be kind to everyone.

Romeo and Juliet: Love

Currently, I am reading the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and I find it a very difficult book to read. But now I am starting to understand it better. In the book, one of Shakespeare's main themes is love. He introduces it in the beginning many times, all from a different perspective. I really like this because it gives you a chance to agree with one of the characters.

One of the first people to talk about love is Benvolio, Romeo's cousin. Benvolio seems to think that love isn't that hard to find. He thinks that it can be controlled easily and that it has no dark sides. Romeo is heartbroken that his love, Rosaline, doesn't love him back. So Benvolio is trying to help him find someone better. In act 1, scene 3, lines 93-94, Benvolio says to Romeo "Compare her face with someone that I will show\ And I will make thee think thy swan a crow." I think Benvolio is saying that he can make Rosaline seem not as special as Romeo sees her now if he finds someone else that is a lot better.

Another person that has a very interesting view on love is Mercutio, Romeo's best friend. In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio and Romeo have a heated discussion about why Romeo should go to the party. Romeo doesn't want to go because he is sad about what just happened with Rosaline. Mercutio, on the other hand, believes that Romeo should go to the party and have a good time. In lines 25-26, Romeo says"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,\Too rude, too boist'rous, and it pricks like thorn." I think Romeo said this for two reasons. one is that he is giving excuses not to go to the party. The other is that he hasn't fallen in true love yet. He hasn't seen the good sides of love. Right after Romeo says that, Mercutio says in lines 27-28 "If love be rough with you, be rough with love.\Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down." I think Mercutio is trying to say that Romeo shouldn't be bothered by love and be so depressed. He should take more risks and be more adventurous with it. Even a little reckless, too.

With all of these perspectives on love, I agree most with Benvolio because he is not bothered by love. He is more neutral and is not taking any risks. Also, he has a good mood about it.

Horse Meat in European Food Products

The article "Horse Meat Found in Ikea's Swedish Meatballs in 13 Countries, Authorities Say" by The Associated Press, is about how "The meatballs had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland, an Ikea spokeswoman said."

This pushed people to test other foods such as Ikea's hamburgers. Sure enough, horse meat was in that, too. Now, all over England there are people testing foods in supermarkets (and other places as well) searching for horse meat, and finding it, too. The author is trying to tell the reader to know what you are eating. Also, even if you think you know, you could be wrong.

The author wants us to feel very angry about what is happening. We should know what is being put into our foods, not lied to about it. "Consumers have every right to the greatest-possible transparency," a German minister insisted. The author also wants us to stand up to these people that are lying to us and to stop them from doing it. The author used a lot of statistics and factual information to help get his point across. He was very specific about which countries were involved.

Although I live in the United States and the US is not one the countries involved, I am still disturbed by the thought of people I  don't know putting whatever they want into my food. I feel like I should know exactly what is in it. I know food labels say it all, but sometimes it may not be the truth. There should be a law stopping people from doing it. 

You can find this article at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/horse-meat-found-ikea-swedish-meatballs-article-1.1272594

The Testament

"The Testament" by John Grisham is about a old man named Troy Phelan who has made many mistakes and 1 success in his life. His mistakes were his marriages, which all ended in a divorce. But his success was owning the largest company in the world and having over 11 billion dollars. Troy was getting old and didn't know what to do with his money. Also, he was tired of life. So seconds before he jumps to his death, he signs a will giving all of his money to the only successful child he has. Her name is Rachel Lane. No one knew he had this daughter so the rest of the family fight for what they think is rightfully theirs: the money.

In the real world, no one is perfect. But they still have to try. In this book, Grisham introduces a family that is far in debt, spoiled, not so smart, know-it-all, and most of all, greedy. In the real world, there are people like this. But, if they try hard and do good deeds, they can redeem themselves. Personally, I don;t think there are lots of people like this. Most people are only like this a few times in their life. But they can try not to be.

The moral of this story is to not be greedy. Because if you are, you will get nothing. Good only comes to good people but bad goes to all. Unfortunately, this is the way it works. I wish that there was a way to change it. So try to be good, and when bad comes to you, don't change. Be good.

Twinkle

The song that I chose was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I chose this song because, as a child, this song inspired me a lot. I think that this song was was an inspiration of hope. When it says Up above the world so high it inspires me to do my best. It reminds me that the sky is the limit. This line helps me to push myself and to do my best. Whenever I am doing a project or a homework, I push myself to do my best. This blog is an example. I could have gone and chosen a random song that meant nothing to me. But instead, I chose this deep and meaningful song.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is a little kid's song. Most little kids, when they hear this song, like it just because of the feel of it and the rhyming. Also, it grabs their attention. It calms them down, almost like it tells them to go to sleep. This is why I like this song. It calms people down and it is child-friendly. It rhymes and, at the same time, is slow and calming.

Most people don't stop and notice the small things in life. They are always in a rush and trying to get somewhere. Especially in New York City. In New York City, every hour is rush hour. I feel like the song I chose kind of slows things down and gives you the time to notice small things. Maybe, if everyone wasn't always in a rush, they would be able to notice the little things in life. They would, most likely, be happier and less frantic. But this will never happen in NYC. I mean, after all, it is the city that never sleeps.

The Street Lawyer

The book "The Street Lawyer" by John Grisham is about a lawyer named Michael Brock who worked for a large firm in D.C. One day, Michael and several other lawyers were taken hostage by a homeless man with a gun. The man did not kill anyone, but he did something worse. Before he was killed by the S.W.A.T. team, he reminded them how selfish they had been. Together, they made over three million dollars, and yet none of it had been given to help poor people, such as the attacker himself. The homeless man didn't kill anyone, but he scarred them.

John Grisham wrote his story in a unique way. First, he started writing as if the attack was just starting. But then, he writes as if it had already happened. Then he goes back again. He just keeps switching back and forth. I think John Grisham did this for a reason. I think he did it to emphasize his message. It really makes his story more interesting.

Grisham has a good message in his story. He shows how some people even make millions of dollars each year yet they don't give to those who make a lot less than that. He reveals a big social injustice in the world around us: greediness. If no person in the world was greedy and everybody shared what they had, the world would be a lot better place.

I think that Grisham did an amazing job with his story. He really made it interesting while he introduced a big issue in the world. He empowers people to give and not to be greedy. He showed people how they should help and what to do. He really changed my way of thinking.

An Eye For an Eye

The article "Is 'an Eye for an Eye' Ethical?" by Ariel Kaminer, published in the New York Times Upfront on November 5th, 2012, Kaminer explains a story about a man in New York named Anthony B. who chained his bike to a pole. Then, a delivery food person chains his bike to Anthony's bike. When Anthony comes back, he can't take his bike so he chains both of them to the pole. Later, after Anthony ate lunch, the delivery food person is angry.

What Anthony did to the delivery food person was like a small punishment for doing wrong things to the people around him. In the article, Kaminer wrote "The guy was asking for it. He knowingly inconvenienced a stranger, so he couldn't have been all that shocked when someone returned the favor." Ariel Kaminer wants you to think about the question in the title: Is an eye for an eye ethical? Although it might seem like the right thing to do, is it?

I completely agree with Kaminer. In his article, he wrote "Your solution seems so elegant: Use the very tools of this man's discourtesy to teach him a lesson about respect. But as satisfying as eye-for-an-eye justice can be, it's unlikely to cause him to reflect on how he wronged you. It will probably just make him hate you and therefore care that much less about inconveniencing you or anyone else he might proceed to lock up." Now that he has pointed out to me that not everyone agrees with the saying "an eye for an eye", I might have second thoughts about what I do.

The Pelican Brief

In this story, Grisham talks about a 19 year old girl who is on the run from a group of people who want to kill her. They want to kill her becaause she wrote a brief about who killed two Supreme Court justices and she guessed correctly. It was the same people that later on, killed anyone who tried to contact her. She was forced to escape her city, New Orleans, and flee around the country.

In other stories, Grisham usually talks about lawyers and about their lives. He has great examples, too. In his other books that I have read, he talks about a kid in law school, a very important case, and much more. He tells you real life things that would be very important in the world today. I think he does a great job in this.

Besides informing you about lawyers, he also teaches you other things. For example, in this book he teaches you about life on the run and the life of a reporter for a newspaper. In other stories, he also shows you the life down South and a lot more.

The Pelican Brief

In this book, John Grisham writes a story about how two Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. The assassin is extremely professional and did not leave behind any evidence for the FBI to track. There were no witnesses, either. Now, everyone is trying to find the assassin but there is no one to blame. But one law student from New Orleans has a far-fetched idea that somehow has gotten all the way to then president. It's a long-shot, but it is the best that they have to offer.

The way that the author writes the story, there is no single main character. He has the view of all of the important people. It skips form one person to another throughout the entire book. Also, he tells the reader who the assassin is through his own perspective but all of the other people have no idea who the assassin was. What this story is really showing you is the way that the government handles the situation.

I find it very interesting the way he wrote the book. It is a very advanced piece of writing. It is also a little confusing to read. But while making it confusing, he shoes a lot of other things that you normally wouldn't know about the story. I feel that Grisham is a great writer and he uses many ways to write his stories.

The Lorax

"The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss is a children's book that teaches children to respect the environment in a kid-friendly manner. He does this by making the story rhyme. Also, it is based on a made-up world with made-up animals. He give these animals wacky names and gives them fake characteristics. For example, the fish get out of their pond and walk away.

In the story, a man finds a world that has a lot of fluffy trees called truffula trees. Lots of animals live there. The Lorax is an imaginary animal that represents all of them. The man cuts down the trees to make clothing out of their fluffy tops. The Lorax asks him multiple times to stop but he doesn't. Eventually, all of the animals start to leave because the business has destroyed their habitat. When the last truffula tree is cut down, the Lorax leaves, too. In the end of the story, the man is old and he gives the last trruffula seed to a child. This shows that the book is calling the children to action stop hurting the environment.

This connects to the real world because in the past, there used to be a lot of nice places such as forests, jungles, and lakes. Now, just like the man did in the book, people are destroying these fantastic environments to build factories and to mass produce items. When this happens, trees are cut down, animals are turning extinct, and water, pollution is happening. In the story, the air is smogged, the water is dirty, the trees are gone, and the animals left. Thhis shows how the world is in a perspective of an imaginary wolrd.

A Painted House

In the book "A Painted House" by John Grisham, people of different races are treated differently. This might have to do with the fact that it is the 1950's. As everyone knows, people were treated differently in the past based on their race. But in this story, black people are being beaten up. Also, the mexicans and the black people are being treated as dirt. They have to work for a living by picking cotton. They earn one dollar and sixty cents for each one hundred pounds of cotton they pick. The mexicans arrived to the farm in one small truck. There were 60 of them crammed in a little truck.

In the story, the women seemed disgraced at the way these poeple were being treated. For example, when the mexicans arrived in the crammed little truck, Luke's mother was furious with the people that sent them. Last year, they did the same thing and she asked them to send the mexicans in a big roomy bus. But they ignored her. Also, she brings the minorities a lot of vegetables from her garden. She is really nice too the less fortunate people and feel bad for them.

I think back into the story and I now realize how much the world has changed. Now, minorities are being treated a lot more human-like as opposed to being treated like dirt as they have been in the past. Although they are being treated dealt with more fairly in life they are still being mistreated.

A Painted House

The book "A Painted House," by John Grisham takes place around the 1950's in Arkansas. This was around the time that blacks and Mexicans were being paid little to gather their crops. The Chandler family own the cotton farm. They are not wealthy people, but they are poor, either. They are in the middle class. They don't get hot water. They still have lots of debts to pay but they're farm is paying for it. They barely cut even each year. They're dream is to have a painted house.
I think that they're "painted house" symbolizes wealth. They want to pay off all of their debts and start making money. So far, they haven't done that well. Slowly, year by year, they are sinking further into debt. So far in the story, it has explained they're daily lives'. It is showing how much the everybody has changed since the time-period of this family.
In the book, the Chandlers don't have hot water. Today, every single person that owns a house has hot water. Also, the Mexicans and black people do not do the same thing that they did a long time ago. They are treated the same as any other person. Lastly, Our "painted house" would be more than just a fresh coat of paint. It would be a lot more. This shows how people have changed.

The Rainmaker

The book "The Rainmaker," by John Grisham is about the life of Rudy Baylor. Rudy Baylor is about to graduate from Memphis State Law School. He is in a small firm. He is getting a salary of about 30,000 dollars.His life is a pretty good one and he expects to get into the "big leagues" and make millions.

As fast as he had gotten the "good life" it vanished. So far, the only person he has ever loved has dumped him for an Ivy League graduate that she met years ago. He lost his only job and can't get another one because they are all taken. He's been evicted from his apartment. Rudy is having a horrible life. Now he is trying to find a job and make something out of his now meaningless life.

I feel that there lots of people in the world around us that have this sort of problem. It might not be the same one, but it could be similar. Right now, millions of people are unemployed and looking for jobs. These people will try whatever they can to get their life going again.

Cats Aren't the Only Ones With More Than One Life

In The Partner by John Grisham, Patrick Lanigan is having a horrible life. His wife is cheating on him. He has a child that he realizes isn't even his (from a blood test). People who he thought he could trust turn on him and cheat him out of millions of dollars. Patrick can't stand his life. He has a horrible life, a child he's supposed to love as a father, but isn't one, and he gets cheated out of millions of dollars. So what does he do? He kills himself, at night, in a car crash off the side of the road. The fire was so intense the only thing the people find is his ashes. Or so they thought.

In Patrick's "second" life, his name is Danilo Silva. He loses tons of weight and shaves his beard, looking nothing like before. It turns out that Patrick had faked his death. But why? To steal the money that he was cheated out of. But he doesn't only take his share. He takes the whole ninety million and runs. He runs to Brazil to hide, not spending any of the ninety million. There, 2 years later, he meets the woman of his dreams. Her name was Eva. After a few days, he finds her trustworthy enough to tell her about everything. He gives her the money and she hides it in banks around the world. She never betrays him. 2 years after that, the people who lost the ninety million found Patrick/Danilo. They tortured him and asked him where the money was. He didn't know since he gave it to Eva. Eventually the FBI came and arrested him.

Now that Danilo/Patrick is in custody, he is thinking about how if he could escape one more time. Live with Eva and the ninety million without ever being found. He starts thinking: Patrick is dead. Danilo has been captured. He starts thinking: Why you can't just start over? Why can't you have more than one life? So Patrick decides to press his luck one more time. To see how it all ends.

The Partner

John Grisham is a great author when it comes to criminal justice. I've read many books by him. They were all outstanding. For example, one series I read was the Theodore Boone series, by John Grisham. This was about a kid who was 13 years old and obsessed with the court. I thought this was a great book for me because it was about the justice system but it didn't get too complicated because it was in a 13 year old's head. Another book I read by Grisham was The Last Juror. This book had the same idea as the other book except it was more mature. The perspective of this character is from a man in his later twenties. The book I am reading right now is a different category all together.

Like I said before, the Boone series is from the point of view of a 13 year old. The Last Juror is from the view of a 27 year old man. The Partner is from the view of a dead person.
Or at least a guy who's supposed to be.
Patrick faked his own death so he could steal 96 million dollars from a pact that he was in before and getting cheated out of. In the other two books, the main characters had done nothing wrong. But, obviously, Patrick had done something wrong since he had been chased down after 4 years of running. But for some reason, Grisham has decided to defend this thief. I think I understand why. The people in the pact were vicious, money hungry people. Though Grisham is defending a criminal, he makes him look like a good guy.

These books aren't completely different, though. Grisham still manages to connect these books. These books are all about the court. They defend the most innocent person and prosecute the criminal. The Partner is a different story, like I explained. Grisham's books are complicated. The book is the court, and Grisham himself, is the judge.

"Am I Blue?"

In the short story, "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville, Vincent gets beaten up by a kid at his school because he thinks he is gay. The truth is that Vincent doesn't know. After getting beaten up, his fairy godfather, Melvin appears. Vincent doesn't know if he should trust the man but decides to talk to him. Melvin helps Vincent by talking to him and explaining to him that there are tons of straight people that believe that they don't know any gay people but really they are just hiding. Vincent started to change when he met Melvin and by the end of the story he is a different person.

In the beginning of the short story, Melvin is trying to hide from his problems like the bully, Butch Carrigan. Melvin appeared and started to teach him that it's okay to not know whether to know if he was gay or not. Melvin taught Vincent that there were lots of gay people in the world. This made Vincent feel better that he wasn't alone. When Vincent's fairy godfather appeared, Vincent got three wishes. One was wasted on his coffee. The other two were still untouched. At the end of the story, Vincent decided to use one of his wishes to turn every gay person in the US blue for a day. Vincent did this so that they would stop hiding and so the straight people would accept the fact that there are gay people in their lives. Vincent was a lot less afraid at the end of the story than he was at the beginning. He decided it was okay.

This story relates to the real world because there are lots of gay people hiding in the real world. Also, many people judge others by their appearances, like Butch did to Vincent. There are lots of people in the world that bully others based on their appearepances. You should never assume anything about anyone else because it could not be true and it could really hurt them.

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

In "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" by Ray Bradbury, Joby the drummer boy is the protagonist. Joby changes throughout the story. He goes from feeling alone and afraid of what was going to come to prepared and not concerned.

In the beginning of the story,Joby is feeling lost, hopeless, unprepared, and uncertain. For example, Bradbury says "If he stayed very still, when the dawn came up and the soldiers put their bravery on with their caps, perhaps they might go away, the war with them, and not notice him living here, no more than a toy himself." He was afraid of what was going to happen in the battle.

In the middle of the story, Joby is talking to the general. The general is helping Joby by teaching him how important he is. For example, in the story, the general says to Joby "He must keep at it, at it! Long and steady, steady and long! Then even though shot or torn, those wounds got in hot blood-in blood he'd helped stir-would feel less pain. If their blood was cold, it would be more than slaughter, it would be murderous nightmare and pain best not told and no one to guess." He tells Joby that if he is slow and unsure, the soldiers will be. But if he is fast and steady, so will the soldiers.

In the end of the story, Joby is ready. "He swallowed. He wiped his eyes. He cleared his throat. He settled himself. Then, at last, very slowly and firmly he turned the drum so it faced up towards the sky." Joby is prepared and ready for battle. Joby will go into the battle beating a sure and steady beat to the battle.

The Unnameables

In the book The Unnameables by Ellen Booraem, Medford Runyuin is on an island. On the island there is a very strict society. Medford wasn't born on the island. The main rule on the island is that everything must have a purpose. If it has a purpose it has a name. If it doesn't have a purposemit does not have a name. Everyone is named after what they do. For example, if you were a weaver then your name would be Weaver. If you made something that didn't have a use, then you would be banished and brought to the mainland. The problem is that Medford doesn't want to follow the rules and be like everyone else. He let his mind go wild and carve whatever he wanted. One day a goatman appeared in front of his house one day. He could call the wind but couldn't control it. The peopel found out that Medford had created these useless objects and had a trial to banish Medford. The way the conflict was resolved was that almost everyone on the island had something useless or unnameable. The council decided to allow these useless objects on the island. They decided to name them runyuins.

One theme to this book is that it's okay to be different. I think that the theme was showed when Meedford didn't have a meaningful last name like everyone else. Another theme was let your imagination flow. Medford let his imagination flow into carving. He carved things like seagulls, fancy bowls, and anything he had on his mind. The last theme that I saw was to ignore what others think about you. In the beginning of the story, kids made fun of him and called him names for being different. Medford didn't let this stop him.

The way that this book connected to the real world is that the island was just an island off the coast of the any place in the real world. The island was just an example of what the people thought was a "perfect society." Some of the problems are the same as problems people have today.