Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

        "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer is a book about a young boy named Oskar who is trying to find closure after his father dies in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After 2 years, Oskar goes through a closet full of his father's old this things. In that closet, he finds a vase with an envelope containing a key. He sets out to find what the key opens, and ends up finding out that it has nothing to do with his father, but instead it opens a safe deposit box for a man who sold his father the vase and forgot that the key was in it. Oskar is devastated by this discovery, but it able to find some closure a different way by digging up his father's empty grave and filling with letters that his grandfather wrote to him.
          I find the ending of the book a bit unexpected, at least from a writer's perspective. Because Oskar, the protagonist, is only nine years old, and he is put through so much to try to find an answer to this question, the ending comes off as a bit cruel. The only thing that this little boy wants is an answer that will bring him comfort over his father's death, and he is deprived of that. Oskar spent 8 months of his life looking for an answer that ends up not being worth looking for. There's really no way to sugarcoat that, because it's sad in every sense of the word.
          As depressing as that may be, I believe that there is a message that Oskar learns which makes his journey worth it. He learns that sometimes you just have to learn to live with problems on your own. There isn't always going to be something to ease something to soothe your pain, and, as hard as it may be, you have to try to adjust to new living conditions. In the beginning of the book, Oskar refuses to allow himself to continue living without his dad. He is even angry at his mother for trying to move on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Oskar should just completely forget about his father. He is human, and sadness should be his reaction to as much of a loss as he went through. But he learns that you cannot spend your entire life looking to the past and sulking. Eventually, you have to embrace the present, and look forward to the future.

Into The Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a retelling of the journey of a man, Chris McCandless, who went against social expectations by traveling into the wild (See what i did there?). McCandless was born into a wealthy family and was expected to go to college and have a successful career. Instead, he traveled around America alone. He traveled to Alaska to embrace nature, and it cost him his life. But Jon Krakauer shows that we can learn from the unique human being that was Christopher Johnson McCandless.
     McCandless was driven by the very basic need for adventure that has becomes less prominent as humans become comfortable with their surroundings and lose the need to see different parts of the world. McCandless was different, since he never could stay in one place too long. It is quite possible that McCandless felt that the many practices of society were pointless, and he wanted to get away from the looming pressure of social expectations. No matter how he specifically viewed society, his distaste for it cost him  his life.
     While McCandless' story is an example of how adventuring can prove to be fatal, but perhaps that is not how it is meant to be interpreted. Maybe his story really shows how humans should strive for more than just an average life. Christopher McCandless was completely happy with his life before it ended. Maybe people are meant to see more of the world than we really do. The world is full of beauty an amazement, and we just have to struggle a bit before we find it, and if you do find it, it is well worth the struggle.

The Government is Spying on You

          In June of 2013, former NSA worker Edward Snowden released extremely secretive files about government surveillance programs to the public. The files contained information many ways that the government spies on its people following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The government has used social networks and phone calls to track its citizens. Government officials have defended the surveillance programs by saying that it has been used to prevent over 20 terrorist attacks in the years that it has been used.

          The people of America have had mixed feelings about Snowden's actions.Some have called him a hero, because the public feels that it is necessary to know how our government watches over us. Other people have called him a traitor, since him revealing the files also revealed the sites that the government tracks, which will cause terrorist groups to steer clear of those sites. He has also been called a coward after fleeing to Russia rather than facing the long prison sentence that waits for him in the States. Some people have also suggested that he collaborated with Russia when he leaked the files.

          In my opinion, what Snowden did was completely wrong. Sure, it is ridiculous that the government has to spy on its own people to ensure their safety, but, unfortunately, it is a necessary precaution. The benefits of the surveillance programs outweigh the harm that it does. It basically does no harm, other than the government being able to see your most recent facebook statuses and how expensive your phone bill is. Many Americans simply have to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect world, and you cannot have total privacy as well as total security.

To Kill A Mockingbird- Critical Thinking Question

 I find myself writing very frequently about To Kill a Mockingbird, mainly because it tackles many social issues that are relatable even in today’s world. Justice and power are major issues in the book, and since I wrote about justice last week, the process of elimination demanded that I choose to write about the critical thinking question about power. To be a bit more specific, who holds the power in the book? The answer is quite simple, and it sums up the way that modern civilization works. The one that holds the power is the greater part of society. The ideas that are wildly accepted as truth, and the people that spread these ideas, hold the majority of the power. In this case, and many other cases, the ideas that are being spread are not the best of ideas. The people of To Kill a Mockingbird’s society accept the ideas of racism and inequality that have been spread since even before this country’s existence. It is quite difficult to pin-point the exact person who spread these ideas, but a man named Jim Crow comes to mind. Or perhaps these ideas were the fault of our founding fathers, who had the power to stop the terrible thoughts that all of society thought, yet they didn’t because they thought that the rest of society would not accept their new way of thinking.

            The people in To Kill a Mockingbird know that Tom Robinson is not guilty of the crime that he is being accused of, but they still call him guilty because his skin is a different color than theirs, and they don’t like that. Men like Atticus Finch try to loosen the grip that this way of thinking has on society, but even Atticus knows he can’t convince the world that everyone is equal by himself. He still attempts to make some progress in having his thoughts heard by everyone.      

            It takes good people who can see through the heavy mist dark ideas and thoughts to break their hold on society. But to break through that mist takes patience and persistence, and many people get lost in this mist before they can make any real impact. It’s sad to think that the good people are silenced simply because the bad people can shout out their ideas louder, and they can spread them farther. Even now, the good people are fighting for equality and fairness for every single person, and even though the bad voices get quieter, the good still hasn’t broken through that mist of evil that looms over society. It’s quite possible that all of us won’t be around when the goodness finds its way into everyone’s heart, and I sincerely hope that all of the voices that fought for the greater good in the past will be remembered when the good ideas finally win.  

To Kill a Mockingbird: How does this text make you think about justice in the world?

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee takes place in the 1930’s. During this time, the justice system in America was not exactly fair. So when Atticus Finch, a respected lawyer, is tasked with defending a black man in court, he knows that it is a case that he cannot win. Still, he tries his hardest to persuade the jury that his client, Tom Robinson, is innocent. And although all of the evidence points to Tom being innocent, the jury still says that Tom is guilty. After reading the book, I realized that the justice system has drastically improved through years of patience and slow change. People like Atticus Finch helped to pave the way for a new and improved justice system in the near future. He knew that he was given a case that was unwinnable, but he still fought, because he knew that if he could sway the jury just a bit, that it would be a step towards more just courts in America. Harper Lee wrote the book in 1960. This was a time when the Civil Rights Movement was starting up. I think that Harper Lee wrote the book as a reminder of what would continue to happen if people continued to allow the unfairness throughout the country to continue. Lee’s book sent a bold message that helped to make the dreams that she held in her book a reality.

Argument essay 2nd draft

Alexander Schell 809 Argument Essay Second Draft As an author writes more and more stories, it becomes more likely that someone is going to be offended by some of their work. Edgar Allan Poe wrote sixty-seven short stories, thirty-one poems, and one novel, so it’s safe to imagine that some of his work may have been taken the wrong (or right) way, and some people may have attempted to ban him. However, Poe is a brilliant and classical author and his work should not be banned. Edgar Allan Poe’s work can help people to understand his time period better. Poe was born in 1809 and died in 1849. The way that people spoke and wrote back then was completely different than we do now, and most of his work can perfectly capture the differences. For example, in the first page of his story, “William Wilson”, he says, “The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation.” (Poe 1). In this sentence, he says sullied, meaning to stain or tarnish, and appellation, meaning name or title. He then goes on to say, “This has already been too much an object for the scorn—the detestation of my race. To the outermost regions of the globe have not the indignant winds bruited its unparalleled infamy?” I can honestly say that I am not sure what half of this sentence means. My point is that Poe can teach people about the history of our language and how it has become more complex (or less complex, in this case). Much of Poe’s work is told through the eyes of insane people. His stories can help sane people better how the minds of crazy people work. One of the most notable examples of this type of story is “The Tell-Tale Heart”. It is about a man who committed murder simply because he did not like the way an old man’s eyes looked. What I noticed is that throughout the story, the man is convinced that he is not crazy. He even says, “You fancy me mad. Mad men know nothing.” (Poe 4) He is describing a situation which would sound crazy to any sane person, yet he has convinced himself that he is not insane. Poe, unlike many authors, can accurately portray an insane person in his stories, which is probably because he was a little bit insane himself. He once said “I don’t suffer from insanity, but enjoy every minute of it.” He was also an alcoholic who suffered from depression, so…yeah. Lastly, and probably most importantly, Poe’s stories can get people to question their mind and to understand themselves better. In a story called “The Cask of Amontillado”, A man decides to kill his “friend” Fortunato, simply because Fortunato insulted him. This story can make people ask themselves an important question: at what point would I be willing to commit murder? How far over the edge would I have to be driven in order for murder to be my only way out? In another story, “The Black Cat”, it only takes one bad day for a man to kill the one thing he really loves in the world. So, how many bad days could you endure before being driven to insanity? I personally think that I could only handle about six, maybe seven bad days before I just went absolutely insane. Poe can write a good story while also getting the reader to question basically their entire life. After reading Poe’s stories, I can confidently say that they are great works of art and can be appreciated by mature minds. So I’m not saying that Edgar Allan Poe’s work should be put on the shelves of first grade classrooms, but I think that 8 grade students are perfectly capable of understanding and interpreting Poe’s work the way it was meant to be interpreted, and they are capable of not being driven insane by all of the fancy words that his stories contain.

My Favorite Picture Book

My Favorite picture book is “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” by Dr. Seuss. The book is the perfect combination of poetry, strangeness, and absolute brilliance. What makes the book strange, in my opinion, is the fact that there really is no clear message behind the story. It is really just an almost childish story that has the potential to make most people smile.

            What I love about this book and most of the author’s other work is that he doesn’t need to create a perfect storyline or complex characters to make a great book. Part of what makes his work so great is the pictures in the books. Try reading any of his books without seeing the pictures. They’re still great, but I don’t think that they would be remembered as well as fondly as they are today. Every single picture in every single book is just a bit over the top, with an extreme amount of bright colors and strange characters.

            Another reason why I think that the book is so great because of the feeling of nostalgia that comes with every page. I remember always reading the book when I was six or seven years old. I loved that the book was so simple that even a child could have come up with the ideas in it. I also loved the very simple rhymes that the story contained. The very first lines are the most memorable example. “One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish. Black fish, Brown fish, Old fish, New fish. This one has a little car. This one has a little star.” When I think about it now, that is one of the simplest books that I have ever read, yet it also impacted my life the most.

            Dr. Seuss and all of his great books taught me many things. They taught me how to read. They taught me how to write a poem. But most importantly, they taught me that a good imagination is the greatest gift that a person can have. I sincerely hope that in the distant future, the work of Dr. Seuss will still be remembered, and that it will make both children and adults smile. Because even now, we are failing to remember that there is no such thing as too much imagination, and sometimes that’s all it takes to make a good story.