Cinquain

Authors Note: This is a creative poem that we brainstormed in class. 

Echo

Loud, reflect

Speak, Stutter, repeat

Recurring all the time  

Comeback

Run

Jog, trout

Endurance, rumble, dash

 Darting through the air

Sprint

Elephant

Big, Huge

 Eat, run, hunt

I am super heavy

Mammoth

Lottery

Author's note: This is a response to the short story “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.

                How would you feel if you won the Lottery and all you received is death? Well in the short story “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Tessie wins the lottery and she gets the reward of death. The whole city was brain washed by the government to do this, boys cheerful, and collecting rocks. Why would they do this kill an innocent person for no reason? It comes down to tradition the people felt like they need this when they really didn’t.    

                You would think winning the lottery would be the best thing ever but it really isn’t. You expect getting a million dollars or a new car but in this story you get stoned. People would all throw at the winner even the loved ones they had to do it it’s their tradition. And the one who is anti-lottery is chosen to die. I feel like Tessie didn’t want this to happen because she didn’t believe in this silly tradition like the rest of her family and friends.

                This was a very ironic story it demonstrated that through-out the book. Tessie even complained that the rules were unfair. She was doomed and she didn’t even go down for a good cause like some of the others might have liked to. Overall the tradition in the town was not needed and I think some of the people noticed that through the lottery.  

Birthday Card

I am  a birthday card filled with joy. I give a lot of happiness but I never receive any. You might think that being a birthday card is the best thing ever but it really isn't. I usually only get used once and never get seen again. All the other birthday cards that I'm stacked up with are just so depressed I can't handle it. A birthday card is not what its cracked up to be. You know if I could have a friend I think this whole birthday card thing would be a lot easier. The one time I actually had fun was when I was first being born in the factory all the cards around me had high hopes and so did I. Now there probably in a dump right now or in the same situation as me.  I get used once and thrown away like I'm nothing who do these people think they are. Why don't I get a card for my birthday, I just don't get it.

                                                                                                                                               Drew Barth

Author's Note: This is a research paper on cloning. I will show what cloning is, how it works, and my opinion towards cloning. 

What is Cloning?

            According to Human Genome Project more than 90% of cloning attempts fail. These cloning projects cost a lot of money with little success. This little success makes cloning a very controversial topic. Some people believe it is not humane to perform cloning to animals and people. But others say this is a great accomplishment to science.  Even though there can be upsides and down sides of cloning I think there are more downsides so right now we shouldn’t be cloning. 

                First to know why cloning is not the right decision at the moment is to figure out what cloning is and how it is done.  There are three types of cloning Therapeutic, reproductive, and DNA cloning. Reproductive cloning is the most used type of cloning. Reproductive cloning is taking DNA from the donor to the reproductive system of the receiver (Human Genome Project Information ). They take this DNA from a nucleus from an adult egg. From there they have to keep the egg preserved with chemicals until it is ready for birth and it is given birth from the same genetic animal (What Is Cloning). The first animal to go through this was a sheep named Dolly who was born in 1996 in Edinburgh Scotland (Humane Genome). The second type of cloning is therapeutic Cloning it is when embryos are collected to harvest stem cells in humans to help cure diseases (Fetzer). Therapeutic cloning is not to clone animals but to help cure human dieses through cloning stem cells, some day they hope to cure heart dieses. DNA cloning is when you transfer a DNA fragment of importance into a different host cell in the same animal breed.

                Even though knowing how cloning works is important, knowing the pros of cloning has the same importance.  The pros of cloning are the dieses that could possibly be cured. With these advancements through stem cell technology scientists hope that someday they will be able to cure some heart conditions.  Other positive things about cloning are if your dog dies there is a service that will clone your old dog for you but for a price. That does not mean the dog will have the same personality and will be exactly the same.

                Although knowing the pros of cloning is important, knowing the cons has the same importance. Some cons of cloning is how animals that get cloned have been known to die early in their life with no explanation. Another con of cloning is the expenses there are involved it takes 100,000 dollars to clone your dog which is a huge cost. Also more than 90% of cloning attempts fail which is an awful statistic (Human Genome Project Information ).

                Next I will explain why cloning is not the best thing to do with our time and money. Cloning takes a long time to get just right and the money to do this is crazy. I don’t think we are at the point where stem cell technology is really getting to the point to cure dieses.I think stem cells can be the next big thing in the medical field but for right now we are not at the point where we have perfected this technology.  Maybe in a couple of years there might be a breakout in cloning and it is cheap easy and everyone can benefit from this. I think it is just too much money and time that goes into cloning and you don’t get a lot of upsides to all of that money.

As you can see Cloning is not worth all the spending and time. Although there are a lot of upsides there are a lot of down sides of cloning.  Cloning is hard to perfect and takes a long time it simply is not worth all the time we put into it.

Bibliography

Fetzer, Scott. World Book. Chicago, IL: World Book Inc., 2000.

Human Genome Project Information . 11 May 2009. 18 april 2012 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml>.

"Humane Genome." 11 May 2009. Cloning Fact Sheet. 16 April 2012 <http://www.genome.gov/25020028>.

What Is Cloning. 4 April 2012 <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/>.

               

Drew Barth

Sorrow

Authors Note: This is a point of view piece on the book Fallen Angels.  

How would you feel if you were in the Vietnam War just so you could support your family back home? Well in the book Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Perry a seven-teen year-old boy has to go to war to help his mom and his brother through the rough times. He soon finds that war is awful and wishes he could be back home.The way he tells the story makes us feel sorrow and sadness. He also struggles to tell the reader the full story because of his fear of war.

When Perry writes letters to his brother back home he refuses to tell him what goes on in this war. He does this so much that he forgets the truth himself so you never know if he is telling the real story or not. Perry's friend Pewee writes his girlfriend and always tells her the truth so if she knows what it is like she will understand what happened if anything would go wrong. Perry is just way to afraid of the things he has seen so he never wants to share these events with anyone even the reader.

Even though knowing how Perry deals with his problems is important, knowing how he talks to his unit has the same importance. Perry is always talking with his group of friends in his camp but never will repeat what has happened when they are out on patrol. He locks up during war and after he keeps all his feelings to himself. I think that he should share his feelings with someone so he doesn’t have all those feeling locked up in him. Perry says “I knew Mama loved me, but I also knew when I got back, she would expect me to be the same person, but it could never happen. She hadn’t been to Nam. She hadn’t given her poncho to anybody to wrap a body in, or stepped over a dying kid.” This is an example of him holding feelings in without people knowing what actually happened to him. He wants us to know that people will never understand what happens in Nam unless you have been there.

While he is out on patrol a lot of bad things happen to his unit. He freezes up in these situations which make his point of view change throughout the book because he doesn’t what to reveal what goes on in war. Perry says “We spent another day lying around. It seemed to be what the war was about. Hours of boredom, seconds of terror.” This line shows us how much war frightens him and how he can change the way the story goes because of this and just those seconds of terror scare him so much he doesn’t tell the story truthfully.  
Even though knowing how sorrow and sadness is important, knowing how Pewee Perry's friend would tell it and the mood he would bring to the story has the same importance. Pewee is a fun guy who doesn't really care about anything. He is very open minded and war doesn't affect him much. He would tell the story just like it is so he could give the reader a better story. Unlike Perry he likes the adventures and the thrill so he would include all these things in the story. He would probably add more violence to his story to make his story look better. Instead of feeling sorrow and sadness from Perry's point of view Pewee's mood would be happy and adventurous. This is the differences between Perry and Pewee and how they would tell the story.

As you can see Perry shows us that he consistently changes the point of view in this book because of his fear of war.  Perry Says “My father used to call all soldiers angel warriors,” he said. “Because usually they get boys to fight wars. Most of you aren’t old enough to vote yet.” This is another reason Perry might not have been ready for the war he is only seven-teen. He doesn't tell the reader the full story because of his awareness of war. 

You Don't Know What You Have Until it's Gone

Authors Note: This is a reaction/response to the poems Big Yellow Taxi and Field Below.

    

       In these two poems they repeat the same meaning of you don't know what you have until it's gone. Like in "Big Yellow Taxi" the person is said that they "paved over paradise and put in a parking lot."  They could not take that back and will never become that paradise ever again. In the "Field Below" the character wishes there was a field below but that has been taken away also and will never be replaced. Both poems want the reader to feel sympathy and sadness. The author feels angry and disappointment for what people have done to their paradise or field. The music of big yellow taxi is the totally opposite of what I thought it would be. I thought It would be a sorrow song but it was more upbeat and fun then sadness would have been. The song to Field below fit it's poem because it had sorrow and sadness in it. I don't think Big Yellow Taxi sang the song right there should have been more sadness and disappointment in that song.

Injury Guarantee

Author's Note: This is a prediction piece on the book fallen Angels.  

How would you feel if you got sent off to Vietnam to fight in the war? Well in the book Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Richard Perry is seventeen In the middle of the Vietnam War with no friends. He soon finds his unit and is sent into his Vietnam camp where he has to make friends and survive with his unit. He gets out into Vietnam were he gets stuck in a ton of combat where he is scared out of his pants. He soon makes a friend with Pewee Gates and finds that the war is easier when he has a unit that feels like family to him. But when one of his own dies and he gets injured he falls back in his frighten body. I predict that Perry will find himself in the middle of the war and will get re-injured and will never be able to go back to war because of his injury.

First of all, back then in Nam there was a ton of fighting and a lot of people died.  Which makes it easy to imagine that Perry will get hurt and then have to travel back home. They are also in an unprotected place for the enemy to attack them. They are in a middle of a field with no surrounding landscape.  Perry already has got hurt so he is more prone to injury then the rest of his company. Perry has a huge chance of getting hurt in the harsh environment of Nam.

Even though Perry's mental state is a key reason why he might get injured, Vietnam's Environment has the same danger. Perry has to take a malaria pill everyday because of the disease that go around Nam. The mosquitoes are also a disease spreader if they get a bad bite they could get a rash or get a sickness that might kill them. Close to three men in Perry's unit have gotten sick, and two of those three died. As you can see Nam is not a good environment to live in because there are so many diseases.

Last of all Perry is totally freighted of the war which makes his instincts drop a lot. He is so weak with his fear of getting re-injured. Perry also has a lot of scared friends which makes his unit weaker and easier to spot in combat.  Perry also has bad feelings about places and sometimes freezes in battle due to these bad feelings. Perry is an easy target because of his quivering body and because of that his chance of injury is way up.

In conclusion, Perry is exposed from his recent injury, the environment, and his fear towards war. I think that my prediction is going to happen due to these examples he is an easy target with all these weaknesses. He will get re-injured and sent back to America where he can recover with his family. 

Mother to Son Parody

Authors Note: This is a poem parody on the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes.

This parody relates to Mother to son because a solider is telling the main character that he has respect him and the situation just like mother to son.  The speaker is Johnson a solider in the Vietnam war and Perry's friend. He is telling him that he will be okay and that he needs to stop worrying. The audience is Perry because Johnson is telling him what he needs to do and that he will be okay. The Tone is that Johnson is trying to care for Perry so he doesn't get hurt. The mood is making the audience feel Perry's  Perseverance and drive for the war. 

Well Perry I'll tell you

War for me ain't been no paradise

It's had barbed wire's

And claymores

And mines

And places that are so hurt it leaves a scar

But in this war

I'se been fighting

And reaching new heights

And turning older each day

And sometimes wishing I could be home

Where there was life

So Perry don't turn your back on me

Don't you give up on the American cause

because you find it will get better

Don't you quit now

For the war stills going

I'se still fighting

And war for me ain't been no paradise.

Crystal Stair

Drew Barth

3/14/12

Crystal Stairs

Authors Note: I am doing a writing piece to show how this quote means so much to a poem and the other fugitive language. My life ain’t been no crystal stair. Poem is called Mother to son by Langston Hughes.

           
           This quote means that the boy’s mother is telling him that she hasn’t had a perfect life like other people and he has to deal with it. She has been working her but off and her boy doesn’t even see that but she wants him to know what he does for him. The grammar in this story makes the tone and the mode change throughout the book so you get a view of how the mother is talking to her son. The author makes it seem that the mother is exhausted from the kid and wants him to know what she does and he should care about it.

Pewee

Drew Barth

3/9/2012

Pewee

Author’s Note: This is a word choice and context piece about Pewee from the book Fallen Angels.

            He has dark black skin and is from the big city of Chicago. He is a skinny lad like a broken twig off a tree. His name is Pewee a soldier in the Vietnam War,Vietnam for Pewee is like the sierra dessert with all the humidity and warmth. In the book Fallen Angels Pewee has become friends with the main character Richard Perry. Perry sees Pewee as the hilarious clown of his unit always making jokes and trying to have the best time he can in the war. Pewee also knows how to pick a fight and how to push someone’s buttons just to have a good time. Although Pewee is immature he is truly brave and would do anything for his country. 

Pewee is as brave as Lion defending his pack. He is really tough in his unique and fragile body. I think of him as the unit leader that shows his people where to go and does everything positively. Like a bird defending his flock, Pewee is a great fighter and a great leader and no one can ever dispute that. Also Pewee is a great friend to Perry and I think they will be friends forever due to how they fight together and their same look on the war and the people around them.

Ark Angel

Authors Note: This is a retelling piece on the book Ark Angel.   
     In the book Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider a fourteen year-old boy is working for MI6 as a teenage spy. Soon he finds himself friends with one of the biggest criminals in the world. He is in a tough situation and comes to the conclusion that he will tell MI6 about this and get him into jail as soon as possible.

Government Gone Mad

 

Drew Barth

2/22/2012

Authors Note: This is an essay explaining the conflict and the solution of the book The Giver.

How would you feel if you lived in a world full of no emotion, no feelings, or personality? Well in the book The Giver by Lois Lowery Jonas a twelve year boy discovers the history of the world through his new job the receiver. He likes his new job seeing all the different styles and adventures of the old world. Jonas wanted all of the community to feel the pain and the pleasure of life so he didn't have to bare it all by himself, but the only people who have these memories are him and the giver. The conflict in this book is that Jonas and the Giver want the government to release the secrets of their community to the people.

The conflict in this story is person verses person. It is this way because Jonas has to change how the elders look at the world and has to trust him on what he wants to do. But they don't know the old world and decide that there community is fine just the way it is. Jonas just doesn’t understand why it has to be like this where you can't show your personality or your emotion. Jonas really believes in this and doesn’t want to just let it go because the elders don't think it is the right choice.

Next the giver and Jonas come to the conclusion that this is totally wrong. Which it is people just can’t be controlled without them knowing this was a mistake by their government and it should be fixed now. Jonas and the giver need to do something fast before it’s too late. I agree that this is totally wrong and this should be outlawed. Jonas and the giver are making the right decision. This is all because the people can’t show their true feelings about someone or something.

  

            This conflict is resolved due to him moving out of the community which is a forbidden think to do. One day he will pass away with no apprentice and will give all of the community the bad and good memories of life before sameness. This will make him and the giver feel much better that they know the world will get to appreciate life the right way. He becomes super brave from this adventure and when he finds elsewhere he feels complete because now he can live a life he wants and will join the old world.

 
       The giver and Jonas wanted people to experience life with excitement and happiness without sameness. So then they could do a job that they really want marry a person they really want instead they get bossed around by the elders. This will all happen because of the heroic act Jonas did to move to elsewhere and some day release the memories to the people of the community. This book shows us to be thankful for what we already have. Because I would not want to live a life like that, It teaches us a valuable lesson that you will always remember.

"Call me the Giver"

Drew Barth

2/22/2012

Authors Note: This piece is to explain the importance of this quote in the book The Giver

"Call me the Giver" the old receiver said. This quote was so important in the book The Giver by Lois Lowery because it showed young Jonas that he was now the receiver and was in control of his community. Jonas lives in a community full of sameness which means that everyone is the same there is no emotion or feeling towards anything or anyone. When Jonas gains access to the government by becoming the new receiver he sees what they are doing to people. Jonas wants a stop to it that's when he decides that he wants to help people figure out what the world used to be. This is why when the old receiver called himself the giver Jonas knew that he was on his own now and he could make his own decisions. 

                 This quote mean's so much to this book because it tells us that the Giver is ready to let Jonas go and retire from the receiver of memories. Also it told Jonas that someday he will be overwhelmed with severe pain and stress of holding the memories of the past. Jonas is a very brave and courageous boy but he doesn’t think he could handle this responsibility. Soon all Jonas wants is to live life with emotion and feelings because of the new memories he is receiving. The Giver agrees with Jonas and they design a plan for Jonas to escape the city and find elsewhere were there might be civilization. While Jonas is gone the Giver will teach the people to accepted and believe in the past world so they don't have to be controlled by the Government. This is all of the result by the old receiver saying "Call me the Giver".

      This quote was such an important event that it affected the whole stories events. This is the most important quote from the book it was clear to Jonas what his assignment was and what he had to do to live the life he wanted. Jonas didn't want to endure such pain but he did and gained wisdom about life and himself and decided to go and find elsewhere.

The Giver Speech

Authors Note: This is a character development on the character Jonas from the book The Giver.  
   

    My book is The Giver by Lois Lowery and the main character of this book is a twelve year-old boy named Jonas. He lives in a world full of sameness and never realizes what he is missing in his live until one day when he gets assigned the role of the receiver.  He finds out the secrets behind this government system he is so confused and worried about this. His parents have been lying to him this whole time about their jobs and other important issues. He now has to bare all the memories of the past before sameness and he doesn't want to go through live like this. He believes that everyone should be able to show their feelings and do whatever job they want. He changes through the book on the way he looks at his world. He wants difference in his life and in other people’s lives too. So they can see and recognize colors or taste food or see that bright sun but they can't because they just aren't aware of it. He completely changes throughout the whole book he starts out clueless about his community. But when gets assigned as the reviver he sees the world in a whole new way he gains knowledge about the world and wants it to change back to the way it was.

Jonas

Author's note: This is a character Analysis on Jonas from the book the Giver.  

       How would you feel if all your life the government makes your decisions for you. In the book the Giver by Lois Lowry Jonas a twelve your old boy finds out the secrets behind this system he is so confused by this. His parents have been lying to him this whole time.When he get's his assigned role as the receiver he finds out more about this whole life that he lives and what life would have been without this. 

        Jonas is having a tough timing believing what he knows everyone is the same no colors no likes no anything. He things this should all be different. He thinks we should were blue clothes yellow pants and green socks show our emotion. But no one understands what all of this is. Since Jonas is the new receiver he gains all of the old memories of the old world before sameness.  He is good at controlling and having wisdom that comes with this new skill. Jonas can't take this cruel world anymore filled with sameness and no emotion he and his new found little friend flea the city which is a huge rule you can't break. When they find elsewhere they feel complete to live their own lives without being told to do.

What she saw

Authors note- This is a piece that shows what the old lady saw through her eyes.

In the story" Thank you ma'am" an old woman is about to get her purse stolen when she catches the boy and took him back to her apartment. When she was in the apartment with him she was feeling a sense of forgiveness towards the boy and felt she should help this kid out with his dirty face and give him ten dollars. I agree with her choice I'm sure it made him feel real good and it probably made her feel better. She made a good decision with herself and because she had gone through that road she knows how it feels like.  In the end it all about knows how being in a bad community feels like this old woman knew about.

Year of the Hangman vs. The Patriot

Drew Barth

Year of the Hangman vs. The Patriot

             How would you feel if your two of your sons died in the Revolutionary war? Well in the movie The Patriot A farmers boys both want to go into war but there dad doesn’t want them to. So the eldest boy Gabriel goes in the war and fights until he comes back to his dad’s house wounded and his brother Thomas tries to protect the family and dies. Soon later the eldest boy dies too ; now his dad Benjamin Martin has lost two off his children and he wants revenge. Revolutionary war was such a big influence of what America is today. Now imagine if we didn’t win like the book Year of the Hangman. We would maybe still be a part of England. In The Patriot the Americans did win and we became a free country. These stories are nothing alike and it shows us what could happen in every scenario. This is why these stories show us that the war was a triadic lost on both sides the Americans and the British.

            The Year of the Hangman and The Patriot are two very opposite stories. In the Patriot they win the war and all is well. But in the Year of the Hangman they are struggling to survive and need to get some help from people because the British is after them. In the book year of the Hangman George Washington is caught and hanged right away in The Patriot George Washington leads his troops to victory with the French.

            Some Similarities between these stories are the close loved ones who were lost in war. Like the Patriot who lost both his sons. Also in the Year of the Hangman the main character Creighton lost his father in war when he was very young. And then when he moved to America because his mom didn’t like him very much she shipped him out to stay with his uncle. Later there ship got taken over by Patriots. When they got back to their camp they considered him harmless and allowed his to stay with them where he made a lot of friends. One day the patriots were planning a sneak attack on the British and one of his best friends Colonel Arnold died in battle. The people in these stories get hurt the most by their love ones missing or dead.

            These stories show that this war could have gone either direction. These books show that if General Washington didn’t lead us to win the war who would? The British had the better army and supplies but we had endurance and won. Both sides had a chance of winning. But on both sides there would be terrible lost of loved ones that would bother families for the rest of their lives.