Non-Fiction Article From Upfront on “The Fly in the Ointment"

            An idiom is a phrase that means something completely different from its literal meaning. We use idioms everyday without even noticing, for example: “riding shotgun” or “spill the beans” or “Achilles’ heel”, sound familiar? Of course it does. Have you ever wondered where all these idioms come from? How they were made? It all comes from real things from the past.

            The example I mentioned earlier about “riding shotgun” comes from the days of the Wild West. In the days of the Wild West traveling by stagecoach was dangerous because it could take hours, and sometimes, even days, to get from town to town and so bandits and Indians often carried out attacks or ambushes. For protection, an armed man would usually ride near the driver to serve protection. Nowadays, “riding shotgun” usually means riding in the front seat next to the driver.

            The second example I used was “spill the beans” which comes from ancient Greece, where people would give their vote by dropping an either black or white bean into a jar. If someone were to knock over the jar all the beans or votes would be exposed, the secret of the votes would be exposed. Today, we say “spill the beans” when we are trying to convince someone to tell their secret.

            The last example was “Achilles’ heel”. Achilles is one of the great heroes of ancient Greek mythology. When he was a baby his mother took him by the heel and dipped him into a river with special powers that made him immortal called the Styx. Years later Achilles was murdered in the Trojan War when an arrow stuck in the one heel where the water had not touched him. Nowadays the “Achilles heel” means a flaw or a weakness.

            All of this is a different way of showing what the past was like and what ways people would do things differently from us today. I found this really interesting when I first heard about how and where these phrases came from. There where many of these idioms that I was shocked to hear where they came from. These examples are only three of hundreds of other interesting idioms that exist. Try thinking of and idiom, look up its origin, and get your mind blown.

Second Critical Thinking Question on The Death Cure Publish

For my second critical thinking question I wanted to focus on: Who has “power” in your text? How does that power get shown? At the moment I am still reading The Death Cure by James Dashner and I feel that this question is really one I thought a lot about as I read this book. What I find interesting about this question is that it not only relates to my book but it relates to the real world.

I think that it is pretty evident who has power in my book: WICKED. WICKED is the organization assembled by all the surviving governments around the world and it has been created to find a cure for the Flare. The problem is that all these remaining governments have devoted every last cent to create WICKED and allow it to have the best equipment and people. Because of this, this makes WICKED very powerful and respected. Also, not only does WICKED have all the money, people around the world believe in WICKED and this makes them even more powerful. The only reason though why people believe in WICKED is because that is all people can believe in. If WICKED fails, there is no more hope and the whole world will go to ruins. Another way this power gets shown is that WICKED can practically do what ever they want and can’t be stopped by anyone because of all the power and money it has, this shows total power. One way this is shown in the book is that to find the cure WICKED creates in experiment that basically tortures teenagers, the worst part is that they don’t know anything because their memories have been taken away, so from when they are put into the trails to when they die they will never get to remember their childhood or their parents. All of this, once again, shows you how WICKED was able to do such a thing without out anybody stopping it.

            The way power is shown and who has power is shown in this book relates to how power is shown and who has power in the real world. It all falls back down to the governments and other organizations that have money and how they are always making big decisions whether it is international, national, or in a certain area/state. What I realized in reading this book is that power almost always comes from money – without money you usually can’t have power.

Second Critical Thinking Question on The Death Cure

For my second critical thinking question I wanted to focus on: Who has “power” in your test? How does that power get shown? At the moment I am still reading The Death Cure by James Dashner and I feel that this question is really one to think about as you this book. What I find interesting about this question is that it not only relates to my book but it relates to the real world.

I think that it is pretty evident who has power in my book, and that is WICKED. WICKED is the organization assembled by all the surviving governments around the world and it has been created to find a cure for the Flare. The problem is that all these remaining governments have devoted every last cent to create WICKED and allow it to have the best equipment and people. Because of this, this makes WICKED very powerful and respected. Also, not only does WICKED have all the money, people around the world believe in WICKED and this makes them even more powerful. The only reason though why people believe in WICKED is because that is all people can believe in. If WICKED fails, there is no more hope and the whole world will go to ruins. Another way this power gets shown is that WICKED can practically do what ever they want and can’t be stopped by anyone, this shows total power. One way this is shown in the book is that to find the cure WICKED creates in experiment that basically tortures teenagers, the worst part is that they don’t know anything because their memories have been taken away so from when they are put into the trails to when they die they will never get to remember their childhood or their parents.

The way power is shown and who has power is shown in this book relates to how power is shown and who has power in the real world. It all falls back down to the governments and other organizations that have money. What I realized in reading this book is that power comes from money – without money you can’t have power.

Reading Response on Critical Thinking Question

          The question that I decided to focus on is how the book The Death Cure by James Dashner, part of a 4 part series, relates or involves the issue of justice in the world. I chose this question because I felt that it is a big issue in these books as well as in the world. The main focus in these series is that there is a disease spreading throughout the whole world called the Flare, so the remaining governments in the world that have survived have come together to create and organization called WICKED – World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department. This organization has been created purposefully to find a way to beat the Flare. To do this though they have created an experiment by wiping out teenagers’ memories and using them like lab rats. All of this makes you think about the decisions governments/organizations have to make and whether or not these decisions are fair.

            I think, justice comes in account in this book because there are really two main views of which one can agree with: One is to wipe out any memories of these teenagers’ family, childhood, and everything else and make them go through torturous trails and experiments just to study their brain responses and potentially find a cure for the rest of the world, or, not do any of that and find another solution to this problem, maybe less torturous. I don’t really know which is worse and which is better but it is definitely an issue in the world that the government always has to make a very difficult decision in society, for example: sacrifice tens of thousands of people to save millions more or not sacrifice anyone but risk losing many more than the other. These are all situations and problems that I think all fall in the category of justice and fairness. In this book, The Death Cure, the teenagers and Thomas, the protagonist, piece by piece have put together ideas and solutions and so they all rebel and escape WICKED believing that there must be another way. Trust is also an issue that comes up because after all WICKED has done to them they simply cannot believe a word they say anymore.

            All in all, I believe that the main issue that this book brings up is justice in society and in the world. Justice and injustice is everywhere in the world and it will never change, but that doesn’t mean it is not important and that nobody should try and do something about it.

Monday Muses Promt: Inspiration in Art

Fine arts is my greatest passion. For all that I can remember, I have always had a pencil in my hand. When I was a toddler, I started out drawing creatures and monsters from my imagination and then, in kindergarten, I extended my interest into drawing people, portraits, and landscapes. From then on I never stopped following my love for art and I kept trying to improve. Drawing is a hobby of mine; I often do it on my free time. Whenever I get new art supplies I can’t wait to get my hands on them. In fact, just two days ago, my mom brought me back from her trip to Paris three really cool color sets: soft pastels, oil pastel, watercolors. I have already tried them all!

Drawing is very relaxing and stress relieving. I find it much easier to concentrate on what someone else is telling me while I draw. When the teacher talks to us in class, I like to doodle on post-its as I take notes because I can focus more on what the teacher says. Sometimes, I even use my doodles as visual notes.

Drawing for me is also a natural way of communicating with others. For example, I love to draw “characters” from my imagination that express my feelings. I portray my friends to emphasize their unique facial features showing how I see them. I draw comic strips of what happened on a certain day or to express my thoughts on the world. In elementary school, I made bookmarks with my funny monster drawings on them to give in class as “valentines”. I was so proud to see that my friends appreciated and actually used them!

I’m lucky that my mom is an art restorer and she comes across many famous paintings, so I have opportunities to see all these beautiful works of art. My mom also brings me to many museums and galleries of contemporary and modern art, antiquities and jewelry. I visited art museums in many different cities in America and Europe, like New York, Philadelphia, London, Rome, Florence, Arezzo, Pisa, and Venice. A really great experience was to go to the Biennale in Venice, a huge art event with artists representing countries from all over the world. I took lots of pictures and also made a few short videos.

I think that my passion for art has helped me in many other activities. In group projects, for example, my group members ask me to illustrate and organize information with diagrams and images. In social studies, I enjoy drawing political cartoons and laying out maps and timelines. In math and science, I find organizing my work/data into graphs and tables easy. It may sound weird, but even in soccer art helps my vision of the game. I see the movements of the players, the lines of passes, and the trajectories of the shots as one big moving drawing.

Art connects everything.

First Draft of Argument Essay

            Throughout America books are being banned and stripped from our school libraries preventing kids, teens, and in some cases adults from reading what they want. One of the many books that is high up on the banning book list is “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. Although “The Catcher in the Rye” has been challenged many times, I believe that access to this book should not be limited because of the important message it delivers and because it is unfair and banning books unconstitutional.

            One reason “The Catcher in the Rye” should not be banned is because of the important lesson it teaches. The lesson and the meaning of this book is a very universal lesson that can be applied to any kid. The lesson Salinger gives is that if one does not work hard enough in school, then their future will end up being awful. The whole book is about the protagonist, Holden, living a life out on the streets with no where to go and no one to help him after getting kicked out of school because he failed in four subjects. As said in his words: “They kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all.”(Salinger 6). He was also too scared to tell his parents so he decided to try and wait until the end of the school year. Although he “couldn’t” tell his parents about what happened he did need someone to help him out morally, an example is: “I thought of maybe hanging up if my parents answered, but that wouldn’t have worked, either.”(Salinger 87). In this scene he was thinking of calling his little sister Phoebe for some comfort but he decided to not take the chance of being caught by his parents.

            Another reason this book should not be banned is because it is unfair to people who want to read it and because banning books is unconstitutional. As said from the article Eve Samples: Martin County mom trying to get 'Catcher in the Rye' banned from classes: “It would not be right, however, for the school district to ban it [The Catcher in the Rye] from English classes simply because it does not mesh with her values.”(Samples). This is an article about a mom who wants to ban “The Catcher in the Rye” mostly because it takes the lords name in vain. The point, however, is that it is unfair to restrict others from reading a book just because it does not meet someone else’s book appropriateness. In addition, banning books is unconstitutional because it breaks the rule of the first amendment in freedom of speech, meaning that taking away someone else’s words is taking away freedom of expressing themselves however they want.

            The other side of the argument claims that “The Catcher in the Rye” should be banned because it inappropriate for kids and teens because it includes prostitution and underage drinking. For example in this scene Holden asks for a prostitute in his room:     “ ‘Okay. I’ll send a girl up in about fifteen minutes.’ He opened the doors and I got out. ‘Hey, is she good looking?’ I asked him. ‘I don’t want any old bag’.”(Salinger 119). This is not a valid point, though, because these are real life problems that many adolescents come across in their life and it is right for younger people to know about and know the effects of this. Also, this book brings up another deep feeling problem; Holden had a younger brother named Allie who, as said near the start of this book, died a while back because of leukemia. I believe that this is a problem Holden faces every day and that it is the cause of some of the issues he has in his life. As said in the article The real message of 'The Catcher in the Rye': “Throughout the story, Holden tells us it's all about Allie… For me, that is the thread that links all of Holden's good and bad choices together, that is the layer we must reach to really understand this story, and that is what we adults can look to in order to really recognize the weight and beauty of Salinger's book.”(Kahane). This shows how hard life is for him and how this affects him a lot in his action.

            The writers main purpose of this book is to show how hard/depressing life is for some kids who have lost someone in their lives and how important it is to keep up hard work in school and to have your loves close to you in times of trouble. Salinger really wants to emphasize how hard life is for many adolescents by bringing the reader into the shoes of an adolescent who has big problems of his own. The best thing to do is to just keep pushing forward fight through all the hard and painful times because out there is a great future awaiting every single on of us.

Monday Muses On "Lean On Me"

One of my favorite songs is definitely "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers. The first time I heard it I was 4 year old and it was played at my Pre-k graduation and from then on I have been listening to this song many times. The two main reasons why I love this song is because of the great lyrics and because it is a very comforting song. This song is about friendship and makes you reflect on what being a friend really means.

            The artist is able to deliver a very simple message: a friend is always there for you. The whole song is about Withers describing his thoughts on what real friendship is and I like it because I completely agree with him. He has many lines throughout the song that I truly like, for example: “Lean on me / when you're not strong / and I'll be your friend / I'll help you carry on / for it won't be long / 'til I'm gonna need / somebody to lean on”. In this verse, he is essentially saying that friendship is trusting and understanding each other, and it is an exchange of help and support. Withers is showing that real friends should always be there for each other. Another line I like is: “If there is a load you have to bear / that you can't carry / I'm right up the road / I'll share your load / if you just call me”. This is probably my favorite verse in the song because Withers gives an example of friendship by using an everyday common experience.

            "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers is my favorite song because I grew up with it and because friendship is a value I believe in very much. I think it is very important to have friends in anyone’s life.

Theme Oriented RR on The End Of Infinity

        In the book The End Of Infinity by Matt Myklusch the theme is how valuable trust is and how it can crush friendships. The rustov, or the enemies, virus infects Jack, the protagonist, and he has admitted that in the future he is supposed to be a super rustov warrior but he believes that he can not only prevent this future but be that only person who can stop the war. Because of his virus, though, no one except a couple of friends still have trust and faith in him, the rest just want him dead.

            Throughout the book Jack does not only search for the solution to his grave problem he also is on a search for the trust of his friends and the trust of the people of Imagine Nation. Jack understands why everyone hates him and is afraid of him because deep down he is afraid of himself and he doesn’t really know if he will be able to defeat his future and save the world. The thing that I found funny or I should say ironic is that he is trying to save the world from himself. Every once in a while the author throws in some small jokes or funny scenes and I feel that it is a nice addition to the usually intense and almost stressful writing.

            All in all, I like how the author incorporated the theme of trust in such an action and adventure filled book. Myklusch throughout the book includes even the smallest details to hint at the theme of trust and I found that very interesting and cool.

Character Analysis on The Secret War

        In this book the protagonist, Jack, has many issues he has to face and many problems that only he can solve. Throughout the book, Jack has to go against not only the enemy but also his friends. Jacks life is complicated and so he holds many secrets, this causes trust problems between him and his friends, so in addition to having to fight the enemy he also has to solve his problems between him his friends. Jack has many enemies in this place and only a few friends who he can really trust. Jacks main enemy in this book is a man named Smart.
        Smart is the antagonist and his power is his intelligence, he is the smartest man on earth but only the super humans in Imagine Nation know this. The problem with him is that all he cares about is money and power which he both has a lot of. He was a circleman, more or less the presidents of Imagine Nation, but the he was voted out of office. Smart would do anything to get rid of Jack, the boy who caused him to get voted out. Smart accuses Jack of every criminal action happening and for working with the Rustov. Ironically, the only thing Jack has been doing this whole time is fighting against the things Smart said. Smart, being rich and owning many news programs, was able to also turn all the people of Imagine Nation against Jack. Smart wants Jack dead or jail.
        Jacks power is that he can control machines, do if there is anyone who can stop the Rustov, it's Jack. But he can't do it alone, not without the help of his reliable and trustworthy friends. Allegra, Skerren,Trea, and Zhi. Allegra is able to control the molecules of her body, meaning she can turn liquid, solid, and can stretch as much as she wants. Skerren is an outstanding sword fighter and his swords can cut through virtually anything. Trea is able to split her self up into three people with three different abilities. One is a great fighter, one is extremely smart, and the last one is her, a mix of both. She can also make each of the three have the same ability. Finally, Zhi's power is that he can summon mythical dragons and keep them under his complete control, he is also an excellent fighter. Without them Jack could never accomplish what's right and save the world. Even though Jacks friends are mad at him because of all the important secrets he keeps from them, they still know that he is doing the right thing.
        All in all, this book has taught me one main thing and that is: trust is one of the most important thing in a team and amongst friends.

         One of the books I read this summer is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This book is about a 14 year old boy who lives with a poor family in a Spokane Indian reservation and has many medical problems. This boy's name is Arnold and he has a friend who starts hating him after Arnold moves into an all-white school. Despite all the people in the rez (reservation) who now accuse him of being a traitor, Arnold finds the power within himself to push that aside and move on. What impressed me about Arnold is that what other people said and thought about Arnold affected the way he thought of himself.

        After all those years of being bullied and being made fun of, Arnold believes that those people are right and that he is in fact weird and stupid. The negative influence that Arnold has experienced and has been exposed to throughout his life causes him to run into a sort of depression where he becomes almost ashamed of himself. But when he moves to the white school to obtain a better education he also finds the possibility for a fresh start. Some events occur where he starts to gain respect from other people. For example, he stood up for himself in front of kids who were bulling him by showing no fear of them. In basketball games, he plays his best and stands out by scoring points and leading his team to victory. In class he meets a girl and she becomes his girlfriend. All these cases lead people to change their view of Arnold and to respect him. Arnold then starts to realize that he is not as weird and stupid as he used to think he was and he gains self-confidence.

        All in all, I really liked this book and I think that Alexie did a great job in developing this character and his unique characteristics. I also liked very much the main problem he created in this book because the issue of identity in young adults is very important but it is not commonly talked about with the sarcastic tone used by the character.