Journal 3

Journal 3 asks how it might feel if you were in a hostage situation. It also asks how you might cope and handle life as a hostage.

If I was in a hostage situation I would be freaking out. (Well depending on the situation. If I was kept hostage by someone attractive or famous like Justin Beiber or Josh Hutchersion I would be happy and do what ever they wanted me to.I would want  to stay hostage forever because its Justin Beiber.) But if I was held hostage, like a serious hostage, I would be an emotional wreck. I would probably cry everyday and be the weak one. I would depend on another hostage and probably beg to leave. Honestly I would do about anything to get out of the situation. Being held hostage or being involve in a mass shooting is one of my biggest fears. Therefore I don't really like writing about it. But since I need approximently 200 more words I will make up a story about being held hostage. So here we go...

It was a cool fall day in Minneville, Connecticut. I was walking around the town shops with my mom and decided to go out to eat. We went to a local diner called The Old Dairy. We were sitting there looking at the menu when two suspicious men walked in wearing all black. I am a very curious and cautionary person and I began to worry. Because this is something I normally do my mom said to not worry and order. I listened to her. Of course she was wrong. Before we knew it all the lights in the diner went off. I screamed. Then came the worst part: gun shots. My mom and I hid under the table. I was balling. What seemed like hours was only minutes. The lights came back on and there was a man talking. He told us to drop our phones and money if we wanted to live. We listened. Then he said that we were staying here and were his prisoners. He told us he owned the store and called off the cops. I didn't know who to believe. NO one knew what to say or what to do. Then the next thing I knew Captain America walked in. He shot the villains and saved us all.

Journal 2

Manners are something most people use and everyone needs. This is even true with animals. This journal entry is about a group of animals who do not use there manners but do to kindness no one is hurt or killed. They just learn a lesson. So here we go....

Once upon a time a long long long time ago there lived a family of lions. They were the leaders of all the animals and everyone loved them. When an animal went to the lions den the kind and respectful thing to do is bow. It was natural for all the animals to bow because they had been doing it all there life. However not everyone in the world new this was the appropriate behavior.

One day a new group of animals came into the Pride Rock and while all the animals were gone at the watering hole. The animals included a hyena, a giraffe, a zebra and a dark lion. They thought they had found empty land and they went to the lions den, making themselves at home. They were tired for they had had a long journey so they went to sleep. While the new animals were asleep the old animals returned and were not pleased. They didn't know what to tell the new animals so they let the fearless money Mufasa handle the issue. He took his large walking stick and banged it on the floor. It shook the ground and woke up the animals. They were not pleased. "Why are waking us up?" they asked.  

The Pride Rock animals started to laugh. "This is our town and cave." They said.

The new animals got defensive because they thought they would be kicked out, hurt, or killed. "Calm down", the monkey Mufasa said, "You guys are welcome to stay"

The new animals were shocked. “Really?” they said, “That is so kind”

“We know.” They animals said. “We learned our manners from them”, looking at the lions.  

Assigment 1

Mary Rowlandson Narrative of Captivity and Restoration is a true story about a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. The expert we read from the American Literature Textbook includes details about her religion and continuous faith throughout her captivity.

Mary Rowlandson was one of the thirty-seven captives held by Native Americans during the war. She believed in the Puritan religion.  The Puritans came to the New World as a business venture. The group of Protasents was seeking to purify the Church of England. They believed the spiritual world and the everyday world were intertwined. The Puritans also believed that religion was a personal and inner experience. They left England for a few reasons. One of these reasons was they believe Christian worship should be more simple and related more to the bible. By leaving the country they could for a religion that was more ideal for them. Another reason they left the Church of England was because many of the people were being persecuted. Obviously they did not want to belong or live in a society that was treating people unfairly. By leaving England the people were able to come up with their own beliefs and society. A major belief in the Puritan religion was “In Adam’s Fall, We Sinned All.”( I do not really understand what this quote means and do not want to discuss in because I do not like interperting and discussing detailed religion. But the Puritan’s believed in it. J) The Puritans believed in certain values such as self reliance and industriousness. They also believed in temperance and simplicity. The Puritain beleifs are shown through their writings. They believed the bible was a guide and model on how to live their lives. They believed by following this book God would provide and give them the tools or wisdom they needed to survive. I think this devotion to the bible, God, and their religion is shown throughout the narritive expert by Mary Rowlandson.  

Mary and her fellow captives were treated terribly while being hostages with the Native Americans. At the beginning of the expert she says, “I would rather be chose to be killed then held captive.” (Rowlandson 82).  Mary had a baby who was wounded and was taken from her on the journey. The baby ended up dying while she was in captivity. The captives were not given the approiate food wages or clothing. She and the other captives turned to God and passages in the bible during these hard times. This is prooven many times throught the expert reading including on page 85 when Mary says “So I turned to my bible (my great comforter at that time.)” I think religion is what helped Mary survive the captiviting. By being able to  believe in someone made her have hope which is why she was able to starve and lose people she loved and still come out alive.

Another poem in the American Literature Textbook relates to religion and god during the building of America. “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet is about a fire that destroyed her home and all her belongings. Because she was Puritan she believed God did this to test her and did it for a reason. She calls the fire a gift (Bradstreet 91). I think this relates to the first narrative because it really did happen and shows traits of the Puritan religion.

Journal 1

Write your own Native American creation stories.

Many wonder how the bird got its wings little do they now they their wings as punishment. A long time ago there was an athlete named Red Cloud. He was very fast at running and loved jumping up in the air. Everyone in the tribe looked up to him because he was so great at sports. However Red Cloud was not the noble guy people thought he was. While the town was sleeping he would go into the peoples houses and steal. No one in the town ever suspected the burglar to the famous Red Cloud. Everyone in the town believed it was his brother Blue Sky. Blue Sky was a sneaky looking man. He had long long long braids and a very hairy and long beard. He would jump high up in the air trying to fly. People thought he was weird and not very many people liked him.
One day Red Cloud put the stolen items in Blue Sky's satchel. Then he told the people of of the town he heard Blue Sky coming in late. Because Red Cloud was so respected in the town people believed him. Blue Cloud was arrested and forbidden to jump or go outside again. Red Cloud was not very smart though. He kept stealing even though Blue Sky was arrested. The town did not know what to do. They begin questioning everyone. The wise leader of the tribe decided to catch the thief. He had a town meeting and said to stop looking for the thief. Red Cloud thought he had gotten away with his bad deeds but it did not change him. The next night he snuck into the stables to steal the chief's horse brush. Little did he know the chief was hiding behind a hay stack.He hopped out from behind it and tackled Red Cloud. It was a loud noise because the chief was a big man. Many members of the town came running. They were shocked when they saw Red Cloud. The town felt terrible for how they treated Blue Sky. To show their forgiveness the tribe came together and made wings for Blue Sky. He was able to fly in the air. The wings were named after the four members of the tribe that make them. Bull. Iriqouis. Redneck. Dingho. And this is how the bird got its wings.

Sources

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.

Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down. New York: Penguin Group, 1995. Print

Blog 50!

Yay! I am finally on the 50^th blog of the summer. For my last blog I wanted to share my opinions about the readings. I started reading the summer books back in May. My goal was to get all of my blogs done before July. Obviously that did not happen. However I managed to write down my thoughts and opinions and was able to type them all out. (Which is why I posted them all in a few days). I think this was an okay approach. I mean I was able to finish before school starts (:

I thought the books for summer reading were better than last years. I still did not like them though. The books The Old Man and The Sea and The Moon is Down were so boring. I understood The Old Man and the Sea pretty well. I was able to comprehend the story and was able to write lots of blogs discussing the book. Unfortunately the Moon is Down did not go as well. I could not get myself into the book. I really tried but it just would not work. You can see this through my writing. I only did about ten blogs on the book. Catcher in the Rye was a good story. It did not seem like a book I was being forced to read and I really liked that. You can see I enjoyed the book because close to half my blogs are about it. I think that I understood this book more because I liked it.

The authors of the books affected my opinions of the book before I read them. What I mean is The Moon is Down is written by John Steinbeck who wrote one of my favorite books of all time. Therefore I expected to really like this book. Ernest Hemmingway wrote The Old Man and The Sea. I hate Ernest Hemmingway’s writings. I expected to totally hate this book. Honestly I was right about this one. I didn’t necessarily hate it but I didn’t like it. It was fine.

Overall I thought these books were okay. I survived summer reading!

Catcher in the Rye

 Even though The Catcher in the Rye was my favorite out of the three summer books I read there were parts I did not like. One particular part was when Holden Caulfield, the main character, was with the prostitute in his hotel room. I think that is so disgusting and immature of a sixteen year old boy to try to get with a prostitute. What did he think was going to happen? I just thought the entire situation was very weird and awkward. I almost felt bad for the prostitute because Holden was being so weird about it in the beginning. I was relieved when Holden politely asked her if it was okay if they just sat and talked instead. This is the part that made me mad. Shouldn’t the prostitute been happy or relieved or the least bit appreciative at all? For goodness sake, she was a child herself and I am sure she did not feel good about herself. I cannot imagine anyone who took part in such degrading acts would have very high self-esteem. The prostitute was mad! Even after Holden said he would still pay her! I just did not understand where those feelings were coming from her. Her only concern was whether she was getting paid or not, no matter what she had to do to get paid. I just felt like she would have been more than happy to sit down and have a conversation with Holden. She acted like he was the weirdest person on the planet for not wanting her services. She did not even give Holden a chance to show her that he was a fairly decent guy and was not joking around. And then when Holden paid her exactly what the man in the elevator said, he got in trouble for it. I feel bad for him that he got scammed. Not only did he get scammed out of ten dollars, but also out of a friendly conversation that could have helped get rid of some of his depression.