Jounral 2: Using Animals as Characters

Once upon a time there were two squirrels. One squirrel was nice as can be, while the other was selfish and rude. It was fall, which was the worst time of the year for the squirrels. They had to rush to get a bunch of nuts and acorns to store for the winter time. The nice squirrel, named Sally Squirrel, was finding a bunch of nuts. She put them all in a pile in her home. Once she was sure that she had enough nuts to last her until the spring, she set off to help her fellow squirrels. The mean squirrel, Sammy Squirrel, was taking the easy way out. He thought he was too good to search for nuts. He waited until his friends left their homes until he made his move. He broke into each of his fellow squirrels houses and stole their nuts. Sally Squirrel happened to lock her door that day, so when he tried to break into her house, it was locked. When the day was all over, each squirrel went home and saw to their horror that all of their food was gone. The squirrels could easily tell who had stolen their nuts. It was clearly the squirrel that had so many acorns and nuts that his windows would not even close. That night, the squirrels decided to take part in revenge. Sally said she thought that was a bad idea. the squirrels successfully stole all of their nuts left. Sammy was left with nothing to eat at all. When winter came the other squirrels were eating just fine. Sammy was starving and since he was mean to all of the other squirrels they would not share. He begged Sally squirrel to give him some of her nuts. She was hesitant at first, but then decided that revenge is not the answer, and she cannot just let a neightbor starve. She gave hims some of her nuts, and they shared for the rest of the winter. Sammy Squirrel learned a lesson to be nice and not steal. the next winter came and he picked so many nuts that he did not have room for all of them. He was tired of being an outcast so he gave all of his extra nuts to his fellow friends.

Journal 1: Native American Culture

I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to Native American culture. I know that there are a lot of different tribes and a lot of them have different beliefs. I also know that there are not a whole lot of them left. Most of them, however, live on reservations. They are very wise when it comes to living off of the land and they even taught the Pilgrims how to grow food for their survival. They are usually spiritual and some tribes have bonfires to honor them. I also know that they made tools out of rocks and other things that were found around on the ground. They were good at hunting and they made their clothing out of fur. That is not so popular now because they can get clothes from stores. Several of them lived in homes in the shape of a pyramid. These were called tepees. They look very small on the outside, but once one walks inside they are spacious. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of tribes. A lot of them do not get along. They live differently or the people in the tribes are mean. I know that the Cherokees were forced to walk on the Trail of Tears, which caused many of them to die. In the history point of view, I know that we forcefully moved them off of their land. America has signed many treaties with the Indians, and each and every single one of them has been broke. A lot of Indians open up casinos on their land. If I were an Indian, I would not move from the land that was given to men in fear of it being taken away or given to someone else. I also know that if people are a certain amount of Indian, they can apply for some kind of government funding and receive money from them on a monthly basis. Indians also have some special privileges. It is illegal to have an eagle feather, unless a person a certain percentage of Indian. As for more information on the culture, I do not really know because I have not learned much about the Indians since grade school.

Journal: Symbolism

Out of the three novels I read this summer, I would say the one with the most symbolism is the Grapes of Wrath. The symbols are always obvious, which is typical of a lot of books. I noticed a few symbols, the turtle, the mountains, and Rose of Sharon's pregnancy. You may be wondering how a turtle that is only breifly mentioned can be so symbolic, but for the short amount of time it was in the novel it seemed to foreshadow the future events. The turtle was heading in a direction and was having a very difficult time getting there. Once the turle got to the road, it began to cross. Two cars came by. One car swerved to avoid hitting the turtle, and the other car purposely hit the turtle. The turtle still managed to make it across the road. It does not seem to significant, but by reading in between the lines it makes sense. The cars are people and all of the bad things that can happen to a person. A car that swerved would be a good person or something positive happening in life, while the car that purposely hit the turtle is hardships and corrupt people. This also reminds me of the bank because the bank targets people and moves them off of their land. The turtle's dedication to cross the street shows that he is determined and will not let anything get in his way of getting to where ever he was going. I think that this symbol is a good subtle way of bringing in a lesson. I enjoyed how simple it was, unlike the Old Man and the Sea. The Old Man and the Sea has such complex symbols in it and they were way to subtle for me to pick up. I also know nothing about the bible so I had no impression that it was being hinted at the whole time.

blog number 50!!!!!:)

The Old Man and the Sea kept reminding me of a book we had to read for freshman year's honors english. The book I am talking about is the Life of Pi. They are both out at sea and they both are dealing with animals. Life of Pi is more of symbolism though, while the Old Man and the sea is mostly about morals. I am not sure why I kept thinking of this book because I have forgotten all about the Life of Pi and I remembered it when I read this. They were both okay books, but I would have not picked either of them up if I was reading for leisure. I am really glad that I am done with my blogs and I feel very accomplished and proud of myself because I thought I would never be done. :)

all three books combined

Overall, the accelerated english assignments were not very difficult. The books were okay and they were not horrible. The essays were easy to write for the most part because I enjoyed 2 of the 3. The only kind of difficult thing for this class was writing enough blogs. To keep up with my english and not wait until last minute, I made schedules for each month with how much I was going to read and when. It kept me on top of things for the most part, and due dates were not an issue. I was surprised how easy writing the essays came for me because usually I am very bad at writing them. I am really glad that I can say that I have read all three of the novels, and I am relieved that I only have one more blog after this.

Thoughts on the Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea took me about 45 minutes to read. It was very simple and straight to the point. In one of my previous blogs, I said I had heard very bad things about this book and I was not looking forward to reading it. The book was not bad, and it was not nearly as bad as people made it out to be. I liked the moral of the story, which is dedication. I thought the end was sad and funny at the same time. I thought it was sad because the old man went through so much for that fish. He cut his hands and stayed awake for long periods of time. He even let the fish take him so far out into the sea that he was stuck until he drifted home. I thought it was funny because the sharks kept coming up and eating the fish and the old man kept fighting them off. I am not sure why I find that funny because it should not be, but the thought of an old little man fighting off sharks with wooden oars makes me smile. I would not have picked up this book if it was not required for school, but in the end I am glad I have read it.

Characters of Old Man and the Sea

There are two characters in the Old Man and the Sea. The main character is the old man. He lives a simple life and is a fisherman. He loves what he does, but he is not very good at catching fish. He is very old and does not have any family. The only thing he has besides fishing it the boy. He seems to put a lot of hope and faith into the boy. I think the boy is his only companion. It is the only person that he has that he can communicate with. If it was not for the boy, he would be totally isolated from everything. He talks to himself a lot, but that is probably because it can make people mad without someone to talk to for long periods of time. He is very caring and he values hard work. The boy, as I mentioned before, is not in this book very much. He looks up to the old man, but his parents will not let him fish with the old man because when they fish together they never come back with anything. They also think the old man is unlucky. He takes care of the old man and keeps him company.

Setting of the Old Man and the Sea

The are only two settings in this story. The old man's home was a small cabin with hardly anything in it. It was newspaper on the floor to keep him warm at night, but that is pretty much all he had money for. He was a simple man and did not require much. The next and most obvious setting is the sea. The sea is vast and wavy. The old man gets lost at one point in the book and is stuck out in the middld of the sea without any food besides bait or water besides the small bottle he took with him. The sea is filled with large fish and sharks. The water is salt water. This book does not really have a time period that I could put on it because it was reallyd detailed enough to make a conclusion for that.

Lessons from Old Man and the Sea

The main and only lesson I noticed in this book was that hard work may not be seen by others, but it should still be just as important to a person. It should keep a person happy knowing that they accomplished something. The old man was very disappointed that no one saw what he worked so hard for. I think this is a great lesson because self-accomplishment is just as important as people noticing your hard work.

Summary of Old Man and the Sea

This novel cut straight to the point The man went fishing on the sea and was out there for 43 days. He was having a difficult time catching anything and he also had horrible luck. Out of nowhere he caught a huge fish, except this fish would not give in easily. The fish was so immense that it took days for him to finally catch the fish. When he finally got the fish he had to kill it and tie it to the side of the boat. He was on his way home and sharks kept coming up and taking huge bites out of the fish. He kept fighting away the fish, but they still got most of him. When he finally got home it was before anyone was awake and when he woke up the fish was just a skeleton. He was disappointed that no one would see all his hard work and just how big that fish was.

Setting of a Catcher in the Rye

The fisrt setting of this story is at Pencey Prep. This is Holden's highschool. He did not really describe the actual school much, but he did describe the dorms. The dorms were all connected and there was a common room for everyone with couches and bookshelves. There were bathrooms in between each room to and people could go through these and get to the other rooms. The next setting is New York. To be more specific, Holden's hotel. His hotel is not very nice, and he does not spend much time in here. He, instead, goes to a bar and a club. The club is very dark and crowded with tables and people. There is a piano player there. The next setting is at his home. It is a very nice, upscale New York apartment. It is very fancy too. The last important settings are the school and the carousel. The school is where Holden sees all the curse words written on the all and we learn just how innocent he is. The last scene, the carousel, is very important. This is where he tells Phoebe he is leaving and she begs him to stay, and he does.

Grapes of Wrath setting

Grapes of Wrath had several settings. Uncle John's home was one of the first. It was small and cozy and the whole family was there living. It was very cramped, but it was very upsetting to leave. The next setting is on the highway ( route 66 ). It is a long stretch of road with a few places along the side of the road. They are in their car, which is another setting. It is very cramped with the whole family inside with all their things too. The next setting is a cmap in California. It is a camp in California. It is spacious and contains a lot of families and tents. The last setting is a boxcar. It is shaved with another family, and they all must squeeze inside. The Grapes of Wrath is set during the depressin era, which is the 30's.

My thoughts on Grapes of Wrath

Personall, I loved this book. I thought it was interesting the whole time and I was drawn in until the very last page. I loved the amount of tradgedy and how it did not just tell of one family, but it told of every family of the time period. I feel like I understand life during the depression. I loved how the ending was more realistic unlike a lot of books where everything happens perfectly. I also liked the random chapters in between the chapters. It gave readers an insight to all sorts of people ranging from car dealers to waitresses. I would actually consider this book to be one of my favorites. I also really liked how it had the perfect amount of details. Some books are way too detailed and they take too much time in things that should only be mentioned in passing. I enjoyed very reading this book very much and I am very glad it was on the reading list.

determination

This book has another valuable lesson which is determination. Each and every member of the Joad family had to deal with something very difficult. Tom had to go into hiding. Rose of Sharon had a stillborn baby, and she was left by her husband. Grandpa had to leave his hometown where he had lived his whole life. Uncle John lost his wife because he would not take her to the doctor. Ma lost her mom and had to take care of everyone. Pa had to put his pride aside and let Ma help him make major decisions. They all had to look for money, food, and jobs to continue going. If any member of the family had given up, the survival would have been impossible. I think this is a great lesson because a lot of people give up on things if they are too hard or time consuming. Not everything in life comes easily and patience and determination are key.

family

This book gave a valuable lesson on family. It stressed how much people need their families in order to continue life. Without the Joads being together, survival would have been next to impossible. They split up little by little from each other and by the end when less than half of them were together, life got to be unbearable. They may not have had a lot of money or food, or even a nice place to live, but they had each other to get through the hard times. I think this is an important lesson because a lot of people leave their families because of simple fights or altercations, but family is forever and people should stick together.

the mountains

The mountains were mentioned quite a bit in the Grapes of Wrath. The mountains the family is referring to are the Rocky Mountains. The mountains, I believe, are a symbol of hardships or difficult times. The family was dreading the mountains. They wre worried they were not going to make it through. A reader could take the mountains in a literal sense or a reader could take them to be something emotional. The mountains I think are going to be the hard times of the family, like finding a new job or feeding the family. They were worried because California was so far away from their home. It is also physically difficult to get throught the mountains. They have a lot of stuff, and a lot of people. They also don't have very much money and the longer they take to get to California to find work, the higher chance they have of running out of food and money.

Pregnancy as a symbol

Pregnancy is the beginning of a new life. It is a symbol of hope and it promises a future. Rose of Sharon was the only pregnant character in the Grapes of Wrath. She was also the one who was left by her husband. Having a baby creates a family too, but Rose of Sharon was left by herself. I see this to foreshadow the events that would follow in the book. Everything seemed like it was going okay between Connie and Rose of Sharon and he left out of nowhere. It was expected and I think this symbolizes the unexpected bad events that happened to the Joad family. The baby was really all Rose of Sharon had left. It was part of her lost lover and even that wasn't born okay. She had the baby, and it was stillborn. All hope was lost for a new life, and I believe this to tell readers that the Joad family would never be truly stable or content money or job wise.

the turtle in the Grapes of Wrath

A turtle is the main focus in one of the first couple of chapters in this book. When I finished reading the chapter I was really confused as to why a whole chapter was written about a turtle crossing the road. When I thought about it, I realized that I had to read in between the lines and not take the turtle crossing the road so literally. I realized it was a symbol. It is a symbol of determination and progress. The turtle, like all turtles moved slow. He spent a lot of time getting to the road, and then when the road came along, he attempted to cross it several times. Some people swerved to avoid hitting it, while others purposely hit it. I believe the drivers to be people that will come along in your life and situations that will occur. Bad things will happen along with bad people that are not looking out for your best interests, but along with this there will also be good people that look out for you and help you get going. The adventure across the road took dedication. He could have stopped and let cars kill him but he kept going. The time it took him to get across is also seen as progress in a person's life. I also see this to be foreshadowing the events of the book. Now that I have finished the book, I see that it kind of outlines the Joad's journey to California. They had many hardships and a few good things happened to them, but no matter what, they kept on going.

the road in Grapes of Wrath

In the Grapes of Wrath the road stands to be a symbol. The family spend a lot of time traveling on the highway and many deaths happen along the way. On a road you can move forwards or backwards. By the Joads moving forward they are going to an unknown land where they hope to be prosperous. By moving back, the Joads could stay in their homeland and know that there was no hope. They would have each other either way. The road stands to be a symbol of life and moving forward. In life, you can have regrets and you can dwell on the past and know what happens or you can look to the future and have hope. I think this is the main symbol of this book,

Ivy, Sairy, and Noad Joad

Ivy and Sairy Wilson

The Joad family came across the Wilson's on their way to California. They were stopping for the night to rest and the Wilson's car was broken down. The Wilsons let grandpa stay in their tent while he died so he was cozy. Al fixed the Wilson's car as a thank you and eventually the families decided to travel together. Sairy was sick and her and Ivy had to let the Joad family go on, because Sairy knew she was going to die.

Noah Joad

Noah seemed like a loner the whole novel. He isolated himself a lot and left the family on their way to California. He said he would not leave the water. Noah is deformed from not being delivered properly and has felt like a reject since.

Grandma and Al

Grandma

Grandma is a victim of Grandpa's cruelty. She is mean back though so pity is not felt. She was not in the book long. She is very religious and she died soon after grandpa. Ma laid with her in her final moments and for several hours after she was dead.

Al

At first, Al seemed to be jealous of Tom, but by the end of the novel I figured out that it was not jealousy, but it was admiration. Al looked up to his older brother, but he eventually got over that and grew up himself. He is very skilled when it comes to cars and he is obsessed with girls like most teenage guys. He plays the girls though, but we see him transition into an adult when he matures enough and decides to marry a girl named Aggie.

Ruthie and Grandpa

Ruthie

Ruthie is the youngest sister. She is the sister of Winfield, but they seem to act more like best friends. They constantly talk to each other and joke around and play. They are good for each other in this time because they help each other through and they keep each other entertained. Ruthie also spoiled that Tom killed another man and the whole family has to take action to make sure Tom does not get caught. This is what causes Tom to go into hiding in the woods.

Grandpa

Grandpa is very set in his ways. He does things traditionally. He loves his grandchildren. He is very mean to his wife though. They seem to be mean to each other. He is very excited for California. However, the morning when the family decides to leave, grandpa refuses to go on. The family has to drug him to get him to come. On the road shortly after they leave grandpa dies and they bury him illegally.

Winfield and Casy

Winfield Joad

He is the youngest of all the Joads. He is ten years old and his bestfriend is his sister Ruthie. He is not mentioned in the novel very much, and he does not play a very important role in the book. Ma worries about him growing up to be a rebel.

Jim Casy

Casy is a preacher. Well, he WAS a preacher. He seems to still be searching for who he is. He doubts his faith and is not sure of what is real or what is not real. He does not think much of himself and when people ask him to pray he often says he is not worthy or good enough to say the prayer. He is not part of the family biologically, but they have bonded with him and he has become part of the family. He is selfless and in an attempt to keep the Joad family together, he takes the blame for a fight that Tom took part in. He went to jail and the Joad family continued on their journey. Casy became the leader of a rebel group and leads people to fights and strikes. Casy got killed by a cop for trespassing and that was the end of him.

Uncle John and Rose of Sharon

Uncle John

Uncle John is a very regretful person. Years ago his wife died because he would not take her to a doctor. Since then he has been filled with remorse and hatred towards himself. He turns to drinking on occasion to drown away his problems. He knows he cannot keep up his drinking habits because they have gotten to be too expensive and the family needs that money to spend on necessities. He believes he will go to hell because he sinned and he seems like he will never get over the loss of his wife. I feel very bad for him because he did not know that if he didn't get help for his wife she would die. He was under the impression that she had the flu or ate too much.

Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon is Connie's wife. She is several months pregnant and she worries a lot. She is constantly fretting about her baby and it's safety. She is very gullible and believes a women who told her that her baby would be dead because of dancing sinfully. She was left and devastated by Connie because he was her lover and she wanted to raise a family with him. She also lost hope when he left because he told her about his dreams to make a lot of money and to have a nice house just him, the baby, and her. At the end of the novel Rose of Sharon has a baby that is still born. She is very upset and depressed because the baby was all she had left of Connie and it gave her hope.

Pa and Ma

Pa Joad

Pa is Tom's father. He is a farmer and has lived in Oklahoma his whole life. He and his family were evicted from their home, and were forced to move else where. He is the one that actually got the family moving in the direction of California. He loves his family very much. Once they get to California, they have horrible luck finding support and money. Ma begins to take over his roll and steps into his place.

Ma Joad

She is a very strong women. She can do anything she puts her mind to. She cooks dinner and takes care of the family. She does most of the housework and helps Rose of Sharon through with her pregnancy. She overtakes Pa's authority, which was very unusual because men were in charge of the household decisions. She is very level-headed and helps keep members of the family sane. She is very loving and caring and she will do anything for her family.

Tom and Connie

Tom Joad

Tom is the main character for most of this book. At the beginning of the novel we learn that he was in jail for killing a boy in a fight. He is very strong-minded and he follows his own instincts. He is very protective of his family and he seems to want to do anything to please them or to keep them safe. He killed another man in the middle to end of the novel to protect Casy the preacher. This shows his braveness and willingness to do anything to keep his family from harm. He went into hiding to keep the family from being punished. He is very selfless and ambitious. He found work easier than many others and he led his family to safety several times.

Connie

Connie is only in the novel for a short amount of time. He has big dreams and talks up a lot of fantasies of his, but he never followed through. In fact, he actually abandoned his pregnant wife, Rose of Sharon. He always told her he would never leave her and that they would have a house of their own and they would make a lot of money and go to radio school. He is a coward and he did not contribute to the family in any positive way.

First 50 pages of the Old man and the Sea

This book started off great and it caught my attention easily. After the first 15 pages or so, it went in a bad direction. It is entirely too detailed. He talks about everything, even what kind of bait he is using and how big he cut it. I really hope this improves. It then got interesting again when a fish started biting on his line. The old man seems to think this is a huge fish, but he does not tug the line because he is afraid the line will either break or scare the fish away. He even fell asleep while fishing. The fish was carrying him in a different direction and he could not even see the shore anymore. The old man seemed really calm about this though, probably from his years of experience in fishing. He decides there is nothing that he can really do about the fish and he then sleeps and waits until the morning where he can follow the sun. When morning rolls around the fishing is still going and the old man must sit and wait patiently. I would be very scared to be that far out in the sea without someone there with me. I would constantly be worrying about a big storm hitting that could cause huge waves to tip over my boat. I would also be scared of running out of food or never finding land again. He did not bring any real food onto the boat with him. He even resorts to eating some bait. I personally find that disgusting, and I think that he should have waited until he was out on the sea for a couple of days before eating the food.

The Old Man and the Sea

I have heard many things about this book, and by what I have heard, I am not looking forward to reading this book at all. I have heard that this book is short, but extremely boring. Apparently, the whole book is about a man fishing for a fish that he cannot seem to catch. This does not sound appealing to me at all. I am going to try to read this book without these opinions in my head to form one for myself. I really hope this book turns out to have a good ending or an interesting plot because it is really hard for me to remain focused in books that are too detailed or dragged out. The book is very thin, so regardless of how great it is or isn't, it should be an easy read.