The book Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is about a boy named Brian who lives in New York. One day he is sent to visit his dad in the summer on a one passenger plane. On his way there, he suddenly realizes that the pilot is having a heart-attack. So Brian does what he thinks he should do and crash lands the plane in the middle of a lake. So from then on into the book, Brian is stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a hatchet he had gotten from his mother a few years back.…
The brick wall itself is a standing obstacle that someone would have to overcome or climb over. When you want something bad enough, your drive kicks in and takes over to make you successful. The line "The brick walls are there for a reason", represent that everyone has there individual obstacles that they face and how you approach this is what will create prosperity or failure. When given the opportunity to rise and prove ourselves to others,…
This quote symbolizing that the Walls kids can do everything no matter it is good or bad, safe or eathly. Even their Dad allows and lets them do it. Their parenting style has also “rarely discipline”.…
Belonging is feeling a sense of acceptance, familiarity and unity, whether it is in a group of friends, family or within the community; however, barriers to belonging can exist.…
Sometimes people are forced to undertake a difficult change in their lives. This is evident in the feature article Paul de Gelder composed by Caitlin Chang where various language and visual techniques have been combined to portray how events can effect and force upon change in an individual's life.…
“Poetry helps us to see ourselves and our world more clearly”, the poem “Enter Without So Much as Knocking” by Bruce Dawe, published in 1950 is true to this quote because it is outlining the passage from the hospital to the grave. It makes the reader realise that when you die you will eventually be forgotten, unless you have made an impact on the world.…
"You know what punk is? A bunch of no-talent guys who really, really want to be in a band. Nobody reads music, nobody plays the mandolin, and you're too dumb to write songs about mythology or Middle-earth. So what's your style? Three chords, cranked out fast and loud and distorted because your instruments are crap and you can't play them worth a damn. And you scream your lungs out to cover up the fact that you can't sing. It should suck, but here's the thing - it doesn't. Rock and roll can be so full of itself, but not this. It's simple and angry and raw." And you thought your life was complicated, welcome to the new world of Leo Caraway, straight laced student, a future student at Havard and for now an unsuspecting groupie for a punk rock band called the Purge. Let the fun begin.…
Dear Gary Paulsen: The first time I read Hatchet was when I was in the fourth grade. I have always liked survival stories and Hatchet made me really about how fast our world can be turned upside down. I really appreciate the section when Brian tells how his teacher, Perpich, told him to "stay positive and stay on top of things" and "You are your most valuable asset. Don't forget that. You are the best thing you have.…
After World War II, many regions of Europe were devastated and left to deal with economic and infrastructural problems. In 1947, George Marshall, the United States' Secretary of State, developed a plan called the European Recovery Program, most notably known as the Marshall Plan. This plan allowed the United States to supply aid to countries in Europe that needed it. It also was effective at slowing down economic problems and recessions that might have occurred. The European Union began to prosper as trade was encouraged between countries and the standard of living increased, all because of the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was successful at stopping economic instabilities, by making Europe more prosperous at trade, and most importantly,…
A boy addicted to technology of his era, separates himself from everything social including family and sometimes his own friends. To some people this may sound surprising, but to others, this is now becoming a reality with new technology. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag exclaims, “Well, wasn’t there a wall between him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally not just one wall but, so far, three!” (44). Montag realizes that technology has broken apart his relationship with Mildred. The walls he is talking about are referring to the T.V. walls in their home, but they are also referring to metaphorical walls that separate them socially between each other. If only people could learn to not abuse technology, we would have a much more social community with less problems.…
The poem “Where There’s a Wall” by Joy Kogawa describes the historical event of internment or concentration camps using a wall as a metaphor. The author does not outright identify and describe this unfortunate historical event but readers can use the imagery and symbols along with their historical knowledge to be able to determine that the author could be writing about a person in an internment or concentration camp. The poem is universal in the fact that it may not be interpreted in a historical way by one that does not have as much knowledge about history. These type of readers may interpret it as the wall being an obstacle in the way of a goal. This aspect of the poem makes it very interesting because it can be interpreted in many unique ways to different readers.…
A world composed of dystopian elements, hope and dreams are shattered, bashed by the greater power of the antagonist. Such a place of melancholy is unheard of in the society of today because the human race has been fortunate as to steered off from making those bad, negative decisions. Americans live head up high, carefree of the problems of 3rd world nations and arrogant when it comes to the topic of superiority all because of how spoiled they have gotten throughout the ages. They live such an easy, simplistic lifestyle. But in the tales of both Wall-E and Fahrenheit 451, ignorance and oppression has seized their once brilliant world. Human misery has been engraved into each of their members starting at birth and everything has turned into a test of brute force with only the strong surviving. It is a "dog eat dog world." Even though they both face misery and limitations, many elements between these two worlds are different. Those being how their societies are treated by their head leaders and many others.…
First of all, I chose this poem because I personally like things that relate to life and journeys. This poem consists of many different forms of symbols and imagery. The wall was used many times to represent a boundary in life, which is related to other concepts. “There are methods of torture for extracting clues” for example, could give a literal image of someone taken hostage who is being water boarded to confess answers. To reach a goal there will always be something in our way and there are also ways to get around them. In this poem, Joy Kogawa lists different situations that include the obstacles that one must go through to reach satisfaction. This poem gives a life lesson that tells us not to give up and that there should always be a way to find our expectations. When it talks about rockets, bombs and armies it could be talking about war or atrocities that occur around the world. In some people’s eyes this is the way to reach their success and to others we see it as destruction of society. There will almost always…
When the United States was founded, neither women nor African Americans had civil rights. This all began to change in 1800’s when people began to fight for equality. The Women’s Rights Movement and the Abolitionist Movement, although different in leadership and protest, were similar in their motivation and spread of ideas.…
After reading Jimmy Carter 's essay on assault weapons, I have come to an agreement with his position that the government should reinstate a ban on assault weapons. Americans do not need to be in possession of semiautomatic assault weapons like AK-47, AR-15,and Uzis. There is rarely a necessity for the average American to even use or own them.…