Tuesday, December 20, 2011

alike but different

Austin Johnson
Alike but Different
This essay is comparing the main characters and their books
            When you are a kid everything bad seems so far away but when something bad happens to you start to see the world differently.  The books “The Outsiders” and “April Moring” both have the same theme of loss of innocence even though both of the main characters are both clearly different 
Even though both main characters have different events happen to them they both lose their innocence.  Both books have death in it in the Outsiders there was a lot of death.  Ponyboy’s parents died, his friend died from burn from a fire and a man named dally died from police bullets.  While in the book “April Morning” Adam has never experienced death, but because the British are coming he enlists to defend his town, because he enlists he has to kill or be killed. 
Another way they are alike is the way they both lose their innocence.  The way they both lost their innocence is through the death or the reality of death. Ponyboy’s wakeup call was when his parents died it made him realize all the things that he takes for granted.  His whole life changed when that car accident happened.  While Adam’s wakeup call was when the rider came to the town and told everyone about the marching British army.  He had to defend his village from the attack.

Even though their stories have the same theme they are two very different characters.  One example is Adam has to kill and Ponyboy would never kill anything.  Ponyboy had so much death around him that he hates it, two of his friends died and his parents died. While Adam signed up for killing the enemy soldiers he has no experience with death so he does not care.  After all they are the people who attacked him, he is just defending his village.  Ponyboy’s first death he experienced was his parents’
The last example of how they are different is the difference with their family.  Ponyboy’s family was fine until that car crash. His parents were good parents and gave him and his brothers a good life.  But after the car crash his brothers Darry, Sodapop became his new guardians.  While Adams parents did not very love they still loved him but were not showing it very well.  His dad was the worst he constantly put him down and found everything wrong with him and yelled at him for it.  It was not until the enlistment that he gained his father’s respect.
Even though the characters are different the two books still have the same theme of loosening innocence.  The most common way of loosing innocence is through the experience of death of a loved one or the knowing of death.  Death the way both characters lost their innocence.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Point of No Return

Austin Johnson
The Point of No Return
Authors note this is a four paragraph essay about the climax of the book “April Morning”

No one in the United States has ever experienced war in their own backyard for 160 years.  but during those times of the revolution many villages where a battle ground. In the book April morning the plot line starts out with average people doing things the way they always done then war came and everything changes.
            The climax or point of no return for the novel April Morning was when the rider came to the village.  Usually anything that happens at night is a bad thing, but in this case it was just bad news. The climax isn’t person verses person it was person verses society. What the rider did was simply tell the main problem of the story. Before the rider the village was a peaceful village and most people thought that the war was far away
            Secondly the reason that, that was the climax is because before the rider everything was normal. All that is happening in the village was farming and committee meetings.  Most of the towns’ folk knew that there were tensions with the colonists and the red coats, but they did not know that they were at war they where only fit to fight an Indian raid. Without the riders they were going to be easily captured.  But because the rider came they knew that the British would be coming so they got prepared
            Lastly the rider made them stop butting heads and work together to prepare for the British. Also the riders are the climax because after them is the battle, and every battle has casualties so maybe the dad or even the main character will die in battle.  For the main character it is a lose, lose if the militia wins he will still get brought down by his dad, but if they loose then he dies.  Usually war is very far away but when it is in your back yard everything changes. The climax changed everyone in this novel there is no going back.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

One Sided

Austin Johnson
One Sided Everything
This essay is about what stories would be like from another person point of view
During WWII most of the people in the world agreed that the Axis side of WWII was the bad side. But the German people would not have thought their government to be bad; after all it was their soldiers protecting them from the rest of the world.  Their point of view was different from our point of view during WWII; most of everything written has a point of view. In the novel “April Morning” the point of view in the book was the main characters point of view and would be extremely different in the eyes of someone else in the book.
In the novel “April Morning” the point of view is from the main characters point of view, but it is not all one sided.  The second sentence in the book is his point of view where he says “my father said in that way he has of saying that cuts you down to half your size” he makes it seem like his father does not care about him.  Later on in the book he tries to make you think that his brother is annoying and selfish but in reality most little brothers are like that.
The point of view of a main character towards other characters is often just the way the other character acts towards them, but is not true about how they really are.  Adams dad, Moses cooper usually act frustrated to Adam.  He does this so much that Adam begins to think that his dad hates him and likes his little brother better than him.  But in reality what father doesn’t love his son.  He also thinks that his brother is out to get him in trouble.  He is probably right about that most little brothers or sister love to get their older siblings in trouble. In the book Adam over hears his dad talk about how he does not get why Adam thinks that he hates him.
If this book had been in the dads’ point of view it would have been a lot different. Then you would probably think that Adam was like a little child trying to get you annoyed and angry. Also you would think that most of the people at the council are not thinking straight, because they want to go to war with the British. When the rider came you would think that his worst fears have been realized.
The huge difference in point of view is big even though is just one persons view not the other peoples view. Most of the point of view is from view is from the main character therefore it is one sided. But if you put the point of view to someone else it is a huge change.  It is easy to see one side of the story but hard to find both sides.  


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

jugement

 
Austin Johnson
Judgment of People
Author’s note: This essay is about how the author uses the theme of defying stereotypes.

Whenever you see someone in the hallway or in a store that you never met, you most likely characterize that person into a certain category. That is judging them on how they appear. One of the themes in the novel “The outsiders” is defying stereotypes, which is proving people wrong about what they think of you.
            Most of the time, the first glance (or stereotype) of a person, is usually wrong. For example Johnny, was a guy who defied his stereo type. He was a kid from the bad side of town who looked tough.  But in reality he was unliked by his family and would have never hurt anyone, this phrase describes him in how he looks to others and how he looks to his best friend Ponyboy Johnny had a blank tough look on his face-you’d have to know him to see the panic in his eyes. He was extremely nice to his real family the gang he was in called the greasers. In a way he is kind of like his best friend Ponyboy tough but smart and misunderstood 
            Ponyboy is not the kind of guy who you think would be a greaser. Ponyboy is misunderstood by many people he looks like every other kid in the greasers, tuff, and greasy hair and never alone.  But really he gets real good grades in school and is nice to most people he even saved kids from a fire. He befriended one of the people who stereotyped him and tried to beat him up. His parents died tragically in a car accident which is something rob never knew.  He defied his stereotype so much that he befriended a person from the opposite social party, unlike dally he was exactly what people thought of him.
            Dallas Winston otherwise known as Dally, he is very tuff went to Juvie and owns a gun. He is what the opposite party of the Greasers the socs form their stereotype of the greasers from. The only person he cares about is Johnny and when he gets taken away from him he does his own special form of suicide. He makes the people he hates the most the police shoot him up in front of all his friends.
             When people stereotype you, you would always like to prove them wrong like the theme defying stereotypes.  Both Ponyboy and Johnny are great examples of defying stereotypes.  The novel the outsiders most of the main characters defy their stereotypes.   


Monday, November 21, 2011

a new family

Austin Johnson
The Other Type of Family
About why Johnny liked the greasers better than his own family
The definition any group of persons closely related.   When most people think of family they think of blood relatives but a family can be a group of people you hang out with in the case of Johnny Cade from the novel “the Outsiders” his family was really the Greasers.
            Johnny’s family was so mean to him that he chose the Greasers as his family.  From we know his parents were abusive and don’t pay attention to him because of that Johnny never wanted to go to his house.  He would rather stay out in a lot than at his parents’ house. The story tells us that he would sometimes be at his friend Ponyboy’s house. He was with the Greasers a lot and liked them way better than his family.  The Greasers treated him so well they came to see him while he was dying and when his mother came to see him he told the nurse to keep her away. He was so angry he fainted trying to move and sit up. When he died it hurt the Greasers more than it hurt his mother.
            The greasers were Johnny’s real family not his blood family. The Greasers cared more about Johnny than his family ever did .

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Johnny’s’ redemption

Austin Johnson

Johnny’s’ redemption

Going off of what I read I think: Johnny will go to the hospital in a coma and will wake up the police will forgive Johnny for his murder because he has saved the children’s lives and things will go back to normal.

                Bob was one of the main reasons of how the police will forgive him. Bob could be at the most 17 or 18 so he was an under aged drinker. Bob was also drunk at the time of his murder while trying to kill Ponyboy.  So Johnny used self defense while bob was doing something illegal so he cannot get arrested.  Also Bob’s friends were also drunk in a place that they couldn’t possibly be doing something good. It is just not the kind of characteristic of Johnny to be cold hearted killer

                Johnny is the kind of guy who looks tough but usually won’t hurt anyone.  Even though Johnny had a gun he would not have intended to use it.  He even forgot about it when the church was burning down. If anything Johnny is a hero for risking his life and saving those children trapped in the church. I think he got his own punishment when he got those burns.

                If they treat Johnny like they should then Johnny should not go to jail because it is not what it looks like Johnny is innocent.  

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My Country

Austin Johnson
Why I’m proud of my country
I am proud of my country because we have freedoms, unlike some other countries like Egypt also we have a military that can help maintain our freedoms. The freedom that we use the most is freedom of speech. Freedom of speech states that anyone can state, write or broadcast their opinion, because we have freedom of speech and other freedoms like it we have excelled as a nation. From us excelling we have extra materials that we must share
We have so much resources that we take for granted and other countries are less fortunate we are nice enough to give to those countries. While others want our help some wish to harm us, a good example is 9/11.  9/11 was the one time that our country failed to protect us, but sent a powerful message to all who wish to harm us when we invaded Afghanistan and destroyed all the tanks and air force in 2 days. So now we are safe from any other attack. The military helps keep all the freedoms that we love

Friday, October 14, 2011

The bomb

Austin Johnson
The Bombs
Autors note: this is a persuasive essay on why we sould not have bombed Japan.
The world never excepted the power of the atomic bombs and that power changed the way we think. When the Atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy were dropped they set the gears in motion for nuclear caused global warming.
            The bombs were dropped to end the World War quickly but anything done quickly is not always finished. The emendate problem was what the bomb did to the people. The initial explosion blew down brick buildings set millions of homes on fire and melted people.  There was a man who was walking home from work and his shadow was permanently burned on to wall of the building he was by and is still there today. After the explosion those who survived died slowly from radiation sickness. There is still radiation on sites today. All that could have happened to America if the wrong countries found the way and materials to make a nuke.
            The bombs being dropped started the nuclear age where now we are carful who gets nuclear technology.  But one the countries we did not want to have nukes was the U.S.S.R.  After Fat Man and Little Boy were dropped they watched the exploitation and want one for their own. So they bribed one of the guards protecting the plans and stole them and gave to the Russians. After that we were in constant fear that they might nuke us until the 90’s when they fell apart. But even now we still fear that one nuke will find its way to an unstable government. Those chances are very high because there are 36 nukes in the world. That’s enough to blow up Earth 1.5 times and with all the radiation in the atmosphere and the soil it will kill all life on Earth.
             There has all ready bean more than five nukes tested in the deserts and on lakes. They were huge contributors to global warming and caused more than 50% of global warming. We wouldn’t have to change anything about the way we use gases if we would not have polluted with our nuclear testing.  But they weren’t the only factors long lasting radiation and melt downs also helped. There was a Russian town Chernoble were nuclear power plant melted down and melted through all its containment and leaked a lot of radiation in to the atmosphere. Now if there was even a small scale nuclear war say for example Luxemburg and Israel. There would be lasting effects on our climate for more than a decade.
            After the end of WWII we made our own nuclear crises.  The bomb would be better if they were a government secret. So we would not have to fear our last days are a race.

Monday, October 3, 2011

8th grade essay one

Austin Johnson
Storm Breaker
This is a essay on what could have been done to stop the bad guy (and I forgot the names of the C.E.O. and the prime minister)
The bad guy in the book “Storm Breaker” is a rich successful C.E.O. of a mega million company.  Usually the bad guy is only bad because something bad happened and corrupted him.
            In the case of this book this book what happened to the bad guy was, when he moved to the U.K. and was bullied. The thing that everyone that was bullied wants is revenge or bad things to happen to the bully.  In the story the bully later was the prime minister of the U.K. and the victim later was a millionaire.   In most stories the bully was the bad guy but in this story the bully was the good guy.  The plan was that every computer had an incurable version of the smallpox disease and the computers were all over the U.K. and were activated when the prime minister presses a button.  The people would then think that it was the prime ministers fault for pressing the button.  But in theory if the prime minister never bullied the C.E.O. then the C.E.O. never would have turned bad and this would have never happened.  It’s really a cause and effect, the bullying of the C.E.O. was what made him evil and if he was never evil then there would not have been any problem.
            The bad thing that happened in the story could have been prevented.  The real cause to the problem is bullying and bulling is everywhere.

Friday, June 3, 2011

hero of the century award

Hero of the Century
It all started on a cold rainy day on the planet Venus.  Margot was building a machine that according to her calculations, would even out the amount of water on Venus with the amount of water on earth.  Five years earlier the sun came out for one hour.  The planet Venus has so much water that it rains continuously for seven years.  Mean while Earth has very little water and most of the oceans have retracted 50 feet.
The machine would collect water from Venus and teleport it to earth to help out earth in its drought.    Many of the people she was friends with, didn’t believe that the machine would work or that it would create a drought on Venus.  As Margot made the final adjustments to the machine a crowd grew to see if the machine would work.  Most of the people in the crowd came to see the machine fail and they would make fun of her. As the machine started up it a bluish light started to illuminate from the machine.  As the light got bigger people where able to make out an image the image was of where the ocean on earth once was.  Then something weird happened. It stopped raining then a stream of water from the clouds started going into the image.  In the image the large barren desert started filling up with water meanwhile the storm clouds started disappearing or turning white.  Just as the sun came out the machine turned off and the image disappeared. The sun stayed out for the rest of the day on venues and at night people could see the stars for the first time ever. On the radio people would hear about plants growing back and animals are starting to get better.  A week after the machine performed a great achievement, a man from the United National Space Corps (U.N.S.C.) came to Venus to give Margot the hero of the century award.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

essay


Movie vs Story
A planet that had all of its color washed away:  With all of its inhabitants wishing that the sun would come out after seven years.   The short story “All Summer in a Day” and the movie “All Summer in a Day” have a lot differences.
            The movie starts with Margot standing alone in the rain and all of the children playing kick the can. The movie probably did that to signify that Margot was the outsider in the group.  Next in the movie Margot has one friend who tries to cheer her up, which is completely opposite of what the story type line is. After that, the movie makes its ending with Margot being let out of the closet (from the kids puting her in there) and she walks outside. Then all of the class gave her flowers to show they’re sorry because Margot did not see the sun. William (the bully) was pleading that it was just a joke, while the class walks inside with Margot. Even the movie ended abruptly when they go inside.  The movie has mixed facts such as; the sun came out every nine years so that means that some of the children have never witnessed the sun.  They were all nine years old.  The second one, if she had a friend, Margot would probably not get caught in the closet but the friend in the movie did not do much to help Margot. 
 This story starts out with the kids in a class room talking about if the scientists are going get the prediction right of when the sun will come out. This symbolizes children gossiping about current events and friends.  In the story said the sun came out seven years ago so the kids might have seen the sun. The story ends with the kids forcing Margot into the closet and the entire class opening the door to the closet that Margot was in.  This story ends abruptly; you don’t know what happens to Margot, she could be very sad and run home or forgive the class.  The class could apologize to her and try to make it up to her for locking her in the closet while the sun was out. In the story Margot feels alone, no one likes her and William is in control of the class through being the bully. I never had an instance where I felt everyone was against me because I’m a pretty likeable guy. In many stories the bully plays a key role like in the short story. In “The Glorious Whitewasher” by Mark Twain the bully is basically what made Toms plan to make other people do his work, worked because no one would stand up to the bully.
            Movies and the books are always different.  Movies usually miss some important details so if you are just seeing the movie “All Summer in a Day” you might be missing something.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Song Lyrics

Is this the real life?
Wondering if this is a real life
Is this just fantasy?
Wondering if this is a dream
Caught in a landslide
No escape
No escape from reality
Nowhere dream to
Open your eyes
Stop trying to ignore what is happening
Look up to the skies and see
Pray for help
I'm just a poor boy (Poor boy)
He has no money
I need no sympathy
He is no better than anyone else
Because I'm easy come, easy go
He comes and goes
Little high, little low
He changes identities
Any way the wind blows
Goes anywhere people go
Doesn't really matter to me, to me
He doesn't care

Mama just killed a man
He killed somebody
Put a gun against his head
He killed somebody 
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
He killed somebody

Mama, life has just begun
 he is not very old
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
He is going to jail
Mama, ooh
Expression

Didn't mean to make you cry
He did not want her to know
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Going to jail
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters
He wants her to move on

Too late, my time has come
There is nothing he can do
Sends shivers down my spine
He is scared
Body's aching all the time
He knows he has done something wrong
Goodbye, everybody
He says bye to all his friends 
I've got to go
His time to go to jail
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
He is going to court
Mama, oooooooh (Anyway the wind blows)
expression
I don't want to die
He is afraid
Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
Regretting his murder

[Guitar Solo]


I see a little silhouetto of a man
He is being interrogated
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango
They are asking him if he did that murder
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
Setting the picture for the setting
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro

Magnifico-o-o-o-o

I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me
He is feeling like he has no rights
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
He is being made fun of
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Some people have sympathy for him

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
He is asking for a second chance
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
Family of the murdered
Let him go
His family
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Family of the murdered
Let him go
His family
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Family of the murdered
Let me go (Will not let you go)
Him
Let me go (Will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Him
Let me go, o, o, o, o
Him
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Him
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go
Mom please  move on
Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me!
The devil has a place for him
So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
You think you can torture  me
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
His family is not helping him get out
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby
You can't send me to jail
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here
He wants to get out of jail
[Guitar Solo]
(Oooh yeah, Oooh yeah)


Nothing really matters
He has nothing now
Anyone can see
Now every one knows about him
Nothing really matters
He feels he has nothing
Nothing really matters to me
He sees all that he takes for granted