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 Author's Note: This short response to the story "Thank You Ma'm" is to show person vs. self conflict.
  
Roger from Thank You Ma'm is fighting against himself on the inside to make the right choices. He doesn't very well understand right from wrong because his family is either gone or away. The main event of this story, is when he really wants a new pair of blue suede shoes for himself, so he peeks around a corner looking for something. He sees a large woman with a large purse and decides to try to get some money the hard way. Secretively, he sneaks around the corner, and hits a full sprint. He latched onto the heavier-than-he-thought purse, kept running, broke the bag's strap, and fell over still with the purse. Later that night, she had changed him forever by teaching his right from wrong by teaching him to ask and be clean, and making Roger her son.

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Social Studies; Novel or Video?

Author’s Note: This a piece to compare and contrast the events that occurred in “The Patriot” and the novel My Brother Sam is Dead.

            For the past few days of Social Studies class, we read our fictional novel, and watched the movie “The Patriot”. The book that I decided to read was called My Brother Sam is Dead. Although the book and movie were fictional, they were packed with real events, detail, and they described what times were like back during the Revolutionary War very well.

            One of the main things that stand out in these two stories is the plot. They both are placed around the same time in history; Revolutionary War time. Sam and Gabriel both decided to enlist themselves without their parent(s) permission. Also, they are the oldest sons in the family. Each brother has one or more than one younger sibling to watch over and set good examples for. One more thing that they have in common though is the fact that at least one of their siblings dies by shooting. For Gabriel, his younger brother Thomas was shot by Colonel Tavington, while Tim’s older brother Sam was shot for execution.

            As you can see, they have had very similar lives, but in fact, they are very different. For example; Tim only had one sibling in the beginning of the book, while Gabriel had seven in the beginning of the movie. By the time the book was finished and the movie was over, Tim had none, and Gabriel had six and was dead. Their siblings were very different as well. Tim was completely against the war, like his parents, and wishing his brother wasn’t fighting in that bloody war. Gabriel’s oldest, younger brother Thomas was indignant that he wasn’t allowed to fight, but he was only fifteen. His father, Benjamin Martin, told Thomas he would have to be seventeen to go off to fight. Another difference is the Father’s of the story. Tim’s dad went off to fight when he was only fifteen years old and hated war forever after that. On the other hand, Gabriel’s Father went off to war at a young age, resigned, hated war, and came back to become a colonel in the Revolutionary War. In some ways, both of these families fall apart piece by piece. Tim’s only brother dies because of something he was falsely accused of, while two of the oldest boys in the family died from war and the other five kids are heartbroken.

            In conclusion, these two stories explain what times were like for many people fighting in the war, and families of soldiers. Times were hard and the British killed many innocent families. Overall, the movie and book were more similar than different. The Revolutionary War was a big bad battle that was worth the freedom of everyone.

Character Development (Michael Obi)

Author's Note: This is a writing piece for Language Arts. The purpose is to improve my character development score.

 

Michael Obi is a determined man who decides to try and make a difference in his new community. He became a headmaster at a new school and decided to make the most of it. When he made a big mistake though, his expectations and attitude dropped by a bunch.

He is an younger man who got a new job as a headmaster or principle of a brand new school and district that he has never been involved in. He is young and has a nice wife that really cares about him and his job. She decided to plant a beautiful flower bed near the school. Michael was a very proud man at this point in his life, but he still didn't know the special traditions or the school and community. This doesn't sound very important, but later in the story, he finds out just how much that place where the flowers were planted really meant to the community.

One day, he saw an old lady hobble through what his wife planted in her personal time. Obviously, his wife wasn't so happy about this. In fact, Michael himself was furious and frustrated about this event. He was standing and talking with another friend/teacher by a nearby window at this time so he clearly saw what happened. Later though, he found out that that part of the campus played a humungous part in the lives of that community. They believed that that was the place where their ancestors descended and where they will go when they die. They also believed that they could visit their ancestors by going there. Obi made a fence blocking the access to the flowers and special area. When he came to school within the next week to find the place completely vandalized, he went from ecstatic to feeling terrible.

In conclusion, Obi's life went from ecstatic to in the dumpster within only a few weeks. Obviously he is a dynamic character in this short story because of his actions. He went from all nice, happy, and encouraging, to fencing off one of the most important things in town.

My Guess

Author's Note: This is a piece written to describe what is going on and what I think will happen to the three demigods in later chapters in The Son of Neptune.

Hazel, Frank and Percy are on a quest sent to find and free Thantos (Death) from wherever the giants trapped him before the Feast of Fortuna. Percy has lost his memoryu so he can't remember a thing from his past. Slowly it is all coming back to him though. Frank's father, Mars, was the man who sent them on this quest. The job of Death was to keeps the ghosts from leaving the underworld. Without him there, spirits could just walk out and go and become part of the new world that never dies. This is what I think will happen in the next few chapters.

First of all, I think the demigods will find out where the giants are holding Thantos. While on their way there, I think they will have to fight and beat other giants that are planning on raiding their camp. If they don't win, the giants will take over their camp and later take over the world and end humanity as we know it. Next, I think Grover and Percy's other close, Greek friends will find him and Percy will have to choose between Roman and Greek since he can't remember his past. We know that he can't remember his past because earlier in the book it said "Since he'd lost his memory, hiss whole life was a big fill-in-the-blank.". So far I like this book very much, but I'd recommend you read the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series first, and then The Lost Hero, and then this book.

Compare and Contrast

Author’s Note: This is a LA piece to help compare and contrast the childhood lives of two characters from different books and completely different time periods.

            Tim Meeker and Michael Oher have had had similar childhoods trying to grow to be a successful adult. Although they have some major differences, they have had quite similar pasts. One of the biggest differences that stands between them, is time their time period. Tim was from the Revolutionary War times, and Michael is from the modern day ghetto.

            Times during the Revolutionary War were hard, especially for the Meekers. Tim’s father and best friend Jerry were kidnapped and killed when the war was just starting up. His mother is taking it all in, with Sam fighting in the war, and only one person left to help run the Tavern. She is relying on Tim more than ever, and Tim has his own things to worry about, like keeping the tavern running, and helping Sam not get executed as an example.

            Although Mike and Tim are completely different, they are very similar on the inside in some ways too. Tim has had a brother executed as an example to other soldiers on what will happen if you break the rules, while Michael has had at least two of his youngest brothers or sisters taken by the DCS Department of Children Services. As you can most likely see, they have both suffered through hardships [that they might never get over] at about the same age while they are still growing up.

            On the other hand, they are completely different in many ways. The fact that the time period is different is one of the main reasons of their differences. In our time these days, you don’t go off to fight in the war when you are 15 or 16. This is exactly what Sam did but without his parents’ okay. Now Mike grew up in the ghetto, while Tim grew up in a Tory town before and during the Revolutionary War. Many kids are/were growing up in situations like these, but these two people have made differences, and publically spoke about their life because they aren’t embarrassed about it.

            These two guys are two very influential men that have had similar hardships throughout their childhoods, while other have had similar ones, but not spoken them to the world. Yes, their stories have taken place many years apart, but they did both do the same thing to express their feelings and previous lives; they wrote books. Michael’s book is called I Beat the Odds, while Tim’s is called My Brother Sam is Dead.

Text Structure Piece

Sam Meeker is fighting the British in the war, and Father is somewhere kidnapped by the British for no  clarified reason. Climaxes in stories are the point of no return in a story because one the climax occurs,  nothing will ever be the same. The climax of My Brother Sam is Dead, would be when Sam and the  British come to Redding.

Father and Tim were riding home from their trading by the Hudson River with some other people. On  their ride home, Father rode up the road a few miles to make sure there were no more cowboys up  there to cause any more trouble. Father was jumped from the cowboys and Tim had to make it all the  way home all by himself. On the other hand, Sam had been fighting for 2 years in the military. The  climax is when the British troops come and camp out in Redding, but then they decide to attack the  Generals in Redding and take hostages is when the real point of no return takes place. It sort of seems  like everyone becomes a little bit tougher and more defensive when the British attack and the  Continentals come and camp in their houses.

The consequences of these events, are good people being killed, slaves mauled, and innocents being  captured and held hostage. Some great examples of these events are when Ned (slave) gets his head sliced off by a British troop, when Jerry S. was captured and held hostage and eventually died of sickness in a British ship, and last but definitely not least, when Father was jumped and later murdered. All of these events have effected the people in Redding more than you could think. Although Redding is a Tory town, they fought against the British like true soldiers on their first trip to the country in search of food and weapons.