Meaningless

If a young boy always agrees with everyone so he never has to stand up for himself and goes through life unnoticed with no friends, he will grow old staying the same way and never learn what love really means. Putting on a smile as fake as the matching look in his eyes, masking the fear and emptiness that he feels does nothing . Because he goes through life untouched, also not touching anyone else around him; there is no point in his existence. This boy is unaffected by, literature, a great gift of life, and no others are affected by the gift either. At first Montag goes through life without changing anything in the world from the way it was before, and when you do that there is no point in existence, for life then, is meaningless.



"Are you happy?" Clarisse asks Montag. Maybe it's a question that more people should find themselves asking. It served as a wake up call for Montag, and really made him think about his life and if he was happy. He in fact, was not happy. Knowing this, he looked at his life and found things that made him unhappy, forcing himself to make new opinions and have new thoughts about things in his life he never would have thought twice about before. One of the many things he was unhappy about was his wife. The person he was supposed to love, and the person that he thought he loved, he didn't love. Their love was fake. As fake as his smile, as fake as the look in his eyes.


Realizing the faults in your life, is an important thing, because consciously knowing they're there, can help you turn them around. A couple of the two most important things in a persons life are their job and their family. Montag was unhappy with both. His close family was only his wife, and after thinking about it, he didn't and never did, love her like he thought he did. Relationships shared between a husband and wife should be full of love and communication . Their relationship had neither, and when Montag tries to fix that his wife does nothing except complain. Mildred, his wife, agrees with his job as a firefighter just wanting to keep their somewhat stable lives, but he on the other hand disagreed with the whole meaning of his job, and had gotten into it because of his father, just going along with what people told him to do. Now he began to act out on this and was diligent to fix the mistakes they were making, which ended up getting much better in the end.


Montag made many mistakes in his life, and couldn't take them all back. The reason of these mistakes is because he did what he was told and said what he thought people wanted him to say always agreeing with people. Sometimes disagreement is a good thing, because opinions are what make the world work. Going along with everything people tell you to makes you unhappy when you disagree with the things they tell you, and that is why it is important to stand up for your beliefs or your life will end up being meaningless.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Have you ever made a huge mistake that hurt you, and now wish you could take it back? Almost everyone has, but think back to your mistake. There should be a lesson that you learned from it, so it ends up that your mistakes benefit you in the long run. Neitzsche said, "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger," and, to me, this means mistakes you make that hurt you, but don't kill you, make you stronger by teaching you and strengthening your intellect.

In Fahrenheit 451 Montag makes a huge mistake, but it helps him a lot in the end. In the beginning of the book Montag is just an ordinary fire fighter who goes to work daily to burn buildings and books, but when he meets Clarisse she asks him a couple important questions that were a wake up call to him. One was "Are you happy?" and the other was "Do you ever read the books that you burn?" Montag most definitely was not happy, and I think it really took her questioning that to make him start to realize it more. At first in the book he is the type of person who just goes along with what everyone else tells him to or says, but Clarisse showed him that he doesn't have to do that. After Montag reads a book he realizes that everything he's been doing is wrong, and things need to be changed.

Montag's mistake in going along with everyone else really helped him fight hard in the end, because it taught him not to make the same mistake again leaving him unhappy. This concept can apply to many situations, big or small, and it really is true if you think about the lessons that you have learned from mistakes you've made. All of the lessons build up to make you intellectually stronger.

Showing Your Patriotism

When was the last time you thought about soldiers far away, fighting for America? Veterans are easily forgotten about in our everyday lives, because you don’t hear very many stories of events going on in Iraq now. Just because stories aren’t there to remind you, or there to make you think about it every day, doesn’t mean you showing your patriotism is now suddenly becoming unimportant.


Heroes accomplish so much with little or no reward in return even when they deserve it the most.  Veterans are like our own real world super heroes and they deserve a lot more thanks and reward than the get. They do so much for our country and many of them don’t get rewarded at all or if they do it’s something small. Many of them don’t want anything huge, because they feel like it’s their job and it’s just what they have to do for their country, but saying thank you to them can go a long ways.

Soldiers don't want much in return, they just want thanks and very little things like that can show your patriotism, and next time you see a veteran you should thank him for fighting for our country. You just have to walk up, shake his hand and say thank you for your service. It means an incredible amount to them and it's not a hard thing to do. They were away from their families for month’s maybe years and all you have to do is take out a little piece of your day to say thank you to them.

 Showing your patriotism and letting soldiers know that you care really does matter. Everything they had to go through made a huge impact in their lives and they deserve a thanks, and to be shown some respect. Although, it is easy to forget about something that we aren’t constantly reminded, you should still think about the people sacrificing their lives for our country and feel grateful to have them. Simple things like saying thank you to a soldier or reciting The Pledge of Allegiance mean so much and can really make a person feel better and confident about the work that they have done and achievements that they have reached.

Stand Up For Your Beliefs-Response to Animal Farm

By Delaney McCabe

4/28/10

Everyone has their own beliefs and they could be about anything, from politics to religion. Beliefs and opinions are a big part of what makes people individuals and what would it be like if everyone dropped their beliefs because our government wanted to change them? That is similar to what happened in Animal Farm. Beliefs are an important part of how you live your life so they cannot be forgotten about or changed, because of what someone with greater power tells you, to favor themselves, and you must stand up for what you believe in no matter what.

The pigs are great hypocrites in Animal Farm, and by the end of the story it becomes very sad. Once the humans are chased out of the farm the pigs write rules on the wall for the farm stating things like "no animal shall walk on two legs," or "no animal shall drink alcohol," but by the end of the book all of the rules had "suddenly" been changed on the wall to favor the pigs. One example is "no animal should drink alcohol excessively." All of the pigs were drinking alcohol and walking on two legs while other animals watched them do this like nothing was wrong with it.

While the pigs changed the rules they also abused their power. One of the reasons that the animals wanted the humans gone in the first place was so they could all have more food, and that's how it was at first, but then the pigs started eating much more than their share. The pigs also got the dogs to kill any animal who spoke out against them which went against the rule "all animals are equal" which was later changed to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." It was very disappointing for them to use their power for evil instead of good, while no one could speak out against them without going "missing" the next day. All of the pigs were turning into humans, and that made a lot of the animals wonder if it was truly much better without the humans.

All of the animals made the wrong choice letting the pigs have absolute power and it caused corruption. They all let the pigs change their beliefs and what they stand for leaving them less equal than the pigs, because all of them became gullible and didn't stand up for themselves when they should have. That is why no one should ever forget about what they stand for. Everyone needs to stand up for themselves and their beliefs, because that is where the animals were flawed, and this is an example of what that can lead to.

The Presence of Love and Hate

How can someone absolutely hate an idea while another person loves and completely believes in the same exact idea? This happens the same way people decide which party they will be for politics. Everyone creates their own opinion. In The Host love and hate are both very present once Wanda is with the underground community of humans, and all of the different humans have many different emotions towards the situation.

It's important for everyone to have their own opinion, because otherwise we would only look at things from one point of view, which isn't the right thing to do, and it's very boring. Everyone involved in the underground community has their own point of view on what happened with Kyle and Wanda. Even though they all know that Kyle tried to kill Wanda, some of them think that it was for the best and it would have been better if he succeeded. Others think that Kyle should be killed for it to follow the rules. That's why they went to "court" to see which opinion was the majority.

In a way I'm glad they went to their court to decide how to deal with the situation, because it really brought out everyones' opinions. I'm not sure if I agree on what they decided or not, but I think that it's probably best if a human doesn't have to die because of something they did to Wanda. There are many different ways to look at the situation and it would be wrong to dismiss Wanda's point of view, because she didn't do anything wrong. This is why it is very important to look at situations from every point of view and never to decide anything before you have done so.

They Still Love You

When you get into the most trouble you think is possible does it feel at all like the parent or gaurdian punishing you really loves you? A lot of the time it feels just the opposite and there's nothing you can do about it. Almost everyone has moments or days like this, but when things like that happen you have to know that they love you and realize that they have to do something to correct your mistake.

Tom always takes things to the extreme and when he feels that nobody loves him he runs away to Jackson's Island with his friends thinking that it will make people realize how much they appreciate him. Once he's back Tom feels atleast a little bit guilty for leaving his aunt thinking that he is dead, but then as he thinks more about it he decides that they deserve it for how they treated him. Although he got respect from his classmates and friends he really hurt his Aunt Polly for not telling her that he was leaving and this could've been avoided if he would've thought about it more before he left and realized that she still loved him even though she gets mad at him sometimes.

Going to Jackson's Island is one of many things that Tom did to upset Aunt Polly and there's many other events. Another thing Tom has done is play hooky when he's supposed to be doing his chores, so, with all of the trouble he gets into, of course Aunt Polly becomes livid with him and has to punish him for things he does wrong. Tom is always doing something mischevious so he obviously gets into trouble many times, but this makes him feel like Aunt Polly doesn't love him as much as she loves Sid or other relatives who are boring and always do as Aunt Polly says.

Many kids with other siblings feel like their parents don't love them as much as their siblings but you have to realize that they still do. You also have to realize that they can't let you do whatever you want and let you get away with it without any punishment. This idea is one that Tom Sawyer couldn't grasp when he decided to run away and I hope that nobody in real life could be that arrogant and oblivious to think somebody doesn't love you because they give you a punishment.

Curiosity

If there's an opened envelope with bold letters and fancy print laying on your kitchen table and nobody's around, what are you going to do? Most people would probably read it. Why is that? There's one thing that makes you do that. Curiosity can get the best of people and it makes them do things they shouldn't do and this can result in very bad ways.


Tom Sawyer has a lot of curiosity and he shows it by searching for treasure. Trouble is what his curiosity results in when he gets too curious and goes on an adventure. While on the island too he had a lot of curiosity about what people were thinking about them being gone and how long they would stay. He could’ve gone back sooner and listened to his curiosity but this time when the curiosity was good Tom didn’t listen to it as much as he did when it was all about hunting for treasure or going on an adventure to an island.

Tom gets into a lot of trouble because he has such great curiosity and so does my brother, Dylan. Dylan opened his Christmas presents early one year because he "just couldn't wait any longer," and he got into immense trouble and I think that Tom should and will too for leaving his home yet again to treasure hunt after his adventure to Jackson's Island.

Many people do terrible things because of their curiosity and it can get you into a lot of trouble. It could even get you in trouble with the law. That is why sometimes you have to use self control and walk by the open letter without thinking a thing about it.



    

A Tree Grows In Brookly Essay

By Delaney McCabe

3AB

1/8/09

 
Many people make the change from innocence to experience, but how do they do that? People who make do change are all still the same on the inside, but the way they think and the everyday things they do change a lot. Everyone changes on the outside, but not everyone can change from innocence to experienced, and it's what’s on the inside that counts. As Francie, in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, goes from innocence to experienced she changes tremendously and learns a lot while experiencing both enchanting and troubling things along the way, that effects her life in both virtuous and vile ways.

Francie’s experiences are all meaning full and important, but most of them have very different themes to them. One life changing experience for Francie is her dad dying. This would be a life changing experience for anyone who has a dad that they love and care about. After her dad died things got much worse before they got better. For example their money got even more tight than before and they had to live even more on a budget than they already were and, like every family when someone dies, they were all somber, which didn't help their moods at all when it came to money. Plus they had to buy mourning clothes for the funeral and that was expensive for them.

Francie, yet she had terrible times in her life, also had many extremely exciting moments in her life too. One of the most exciting experiences that stands out to me is when Neeley and her brought home their first pay checks. I think that one of the things that makes Francie the most pleased is when she makes her mother happy, and on that night Katie was definitely ecstatic with both of her children. Another memorable experience was when Francie was at her graduation and she went back to her desk. There were flowers on them, and when she looked at the card they were from her dad. It was so sweet of her dad to give Sissy money for Francie's graduation flowers incase he forgot when she was graduating.

Francie’s life was filled with many different difficult things like money and love and hate but even though some of these things aren’t good, they helped her go through the change of innocence to experienced. Francie, once she was more experienced, was more mature, yet she didn’t see things with excited eyes like she used to. The important change that she experienced effected her life in both good and bad ways.