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.

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.

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.