Elijah Of Buxton - Fin

Summary:

In 1860, Elijah Freeman is only eleven years old when he is brought into the world in the Buxton area in Canada where he lives with his parents and slaves. Elijah knows about slavery and the meaning of freedom. What he does know is that Mr. Leroy is willing to risk everything to buy his wife and children out of slavery. Unfortunately Elijah learns a  lesson about the untrustworthiness of strangers when the Preacher, offers to help Mr. Leroy but ends up stealing his money. Mr. Leroy's journey ends sadly, but Elijah's effort to help him. As a baby, Elijah was made a symbol of hope by Mr. Frederick Douglass, and now he has earned this distinction by becoming the youngest conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Theme:

The book's theme is "not to judge others because of their appearance."  Throughout the entire book, Elijah, the people of Buxton, and other African American people are being judged by the white people. They are mainly judged because of their skin color. But, this does not hurt the people of Buxton and they still act civilized and kind to others. There are a small number of people in the book that view them as equals.  One of these people is Mr. Benjamin Alston.  This white man is kind enough to look past skin color and help people out. An example of this is when he helps Elijah's friend, Mr. Highgate, after he is shot.  This theme of "not judging others because of their appearance" is important in life, because with a more open mind towards others, you will be less likely to hurt people in any way.    

Elijah of Buxton

Summary: 

We start off with a boy that goes by the name of Elijah, of course. Why wouldn't we? Ok ok. On a Sunday afternoon, Elijah's friend Cooter wants to solve a mystery.  Both of them like too play around with one another and sometimes try to scare each other. That day they had told Elijah to watch out for the "rolling hoop snakes". Elijah, who is terrified of any type of snake, goes running to his mother screaming. She has tried to teach him not to be so afraid of things, by explaining the ant hill and what they call "toady-frogs". So both Elijah and Cooter try to prank Elijah's mom by planting a frog in her knitting station and when she gets scared, it sends them laughing. Expecting a whipping, he is proud of his mother for taking the joke so well. 

What I Think About This Book: 

I think this book will have a lot of lessons for us to take. Whether it be a BIG or small lesson. Like previously mentioned with the snakes. Cooter tries to have fun by scaring Elijah with leads him to go running to his mom. And what does she tell him? "Be brave. Don't be afraid of anyone or anything.." Right there is a mini lesson (well for me). That I shouldn't be afraid and to be a brave man

Back From The Journey

Summary:  

After a prank goes wrong, Digger sent to jail. But he manages to escape from the juvenile detention facility that nearly killed him. When injuries stop him, Digger hides at a riverside campground, where he befriends a young boy and a girl his own age. With his new friends, a job, and risking his life to save animals make Digger realize that the journey back is not just about getting home,  but about discovering what he's really running from, and how to face his past.

Theme:

The theme of this book is you can't always run away from your mistakes. Digger pulled a prank that lead to someone being killed. And of course he was sent to jail but he managed to escape. By the end of the book he realized that maybe he had to face his mistakes. "At some point I have to go back" he told himself. Every mistake has their consequence. And that's something we all have to learn.

The Journey Back

Summary:

Fourteen year old Michael (Digger) Griswald thinks he is set free and could do whatever he wants. Not exactly true. After he did a prank to a innocent kid AND left him dead, his freedom was taken away. So right now police are still trying to find out who the killer is but as we know, it is Digger. Can he runaway? Or will he get caught?


Conflict:

The conflict of The Journey Back is Man vs. Self. For example, Digger is dealing with these thoughts telling himself "I have to leave everything" but the he also tells himself "I have a family here". Meaning he can't concentrate well with himself. It also shows that he is fighting to leave and to stay. But he can't due to the thoughts he has.

American Indian Assessment

Paragraph 1:

American Indians were marginalized because white people would take them away, try to force them to learn a new life style, and do things they wanted to do. In the article "Would We Be Killed?" it stated that "They marveled at the girls in long woolen dresses and pulled-back hair working at their sewing machines, at the boys with their military haircuts and neatly pressed trousers sitting obediently in their classes." Another example is that from one government agent after visiting Carlisle, “We have solved the Indian problem!” This proves that American Indians were pushes aside because many white people wanted to "kill the indian" inside the American Indians. 

Paragraph 2:  

The purpose of Shanice Britton’s essay was to let the readers know that just because they are American Indians, doesn't mean that they still live like before. Shanice tells us that other people "have all these ideas about what that means— that I live in a teepee and wear moccasins and a headdress. But those are misconceptions." This shows that people exaggerate on the life of American Indians when they clearly don't live in the environment as before. Shanice also wants readers to know that American Indians still and will carry their traditions. On page 16 Shanice states that "It’s a tradition that’s been passed down from generation to generation." This means that the things they do will always be brought down for many more generations. 

Darkness

Summary:

To sum the book, Shorty is a Haitian boy trapped in the ruins of a hospital when the earth is crumpling down around him. He his surrounded by dead bodies and growing very very weak from lack of food and water. Shorty waits in darkness for a rescue that may never come, he becomes aware of another presence, one reaching out to him across two hundred years of history. It is the presence of slave and revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose life was enhanced by violence, and whose own end came in darkness. Now what unites a poor child with a man who would do anything to to free your country out of slavery? Is it the darkness they share or is it hope? I suggest you read it. 

The theme of the book, "In Darkness" is to never quit no matter what goes on. As mentioned before in one of my previous blogs, Shorty is having a rough time getting through his life. He has to see the world as a dark place that people live in. For example the dead bodies everywhere in which Shorty describes them as "nasty". The thing is, Shorty never gave up. He kept on striving for hope and see if he could changed the world in order for it to be a petter place for everyone.

Darker

Summary:

Shorty is know knowing who he truly is. What all of this means and why he is marked. Marked in a way that links him with Toussaint L'Ouverture. Toussaint L'Ouverture is Haitian rebel who two-hundred years ago led the slave revolt and faced down Napoleon to force the French out of Haiti. But Shorty has a secret revenge towards Site Soleil and a burning wish to find the twin sister he lost five years ago. The only problem is, by the day he's getting weaker and weaker. He can't seem to focus well but still continues to try and find his sister in order to make him happy.

My Feeling (So Far): 

Throughout the book I've there have been many feelings towards me. This book has rely set a serious mood towards me. Everytime I start reading this book I feel different. I mean this is a book about a young boy trying to survive in Haiti. He is trying to find his lost twin sister. I know that maybe there are kids right now fighting to survive somewhere. And if people really saw all of these problems they should and could help them out.

Tolerance

People could be tolerant by just not opening their mouth. Sometimes people don't know what they are saying. As a result,  they are discriminating against one another. I think that people should just think before they start to talk. It's better to just think about the outcomes when saying something to someone. I mean yeah people will say "I wasn't trying to make someone feel bad." That's why it's always good to think before you say.

In Darkness

Summary: 

Shorty a Haitian child that is going through a rough time. He's seeing things that many children wouldn't want to see at their age. Dead bodies everywhere, people starving to death, and just tragic things that we wouldn't expect to see here. Unfortunately, it's an everyday thing for him to see everything. He tries and tries to ignore everything, but every time he walks out they're right in front of his eyes. 

So we can probably already guess what the conflict of the book is. It's Man vs. Society. Shorty is trying to live a better life but he can't. He can't due to everything he's experiencing. He talks about how everything is "unbelievable" and "nasty". No child should be dealing with a situation like this.

More Calling.

Summary:

Coming back to this book. The team changes human management with new drivers and the new people don't seem to be very skilled. They’re bad drivers and end up killing everyone, including themselves. Fortunately, Buck is saved by a kind man named John Thornton, moments before the group had wanted to kill themselves by the icy river. Buck becomes attached to Thornton and even saves his life several times. As seen Buck tries to connect to John because after he was stolen he lost a bonding with a human. 

Genre:

You may wonder what the genre is since the dog is the main character. Well of course it's fiction, but what type of fiction exactly? Well to be honest, I wouldn't know the answer, but if I had to pick a type of fiction it would be a adventure fiction. You really can't argue it like come on. In the whole book it has a dog talking. Like that really can't happen and of course adventurous because he has a journey when he is taken. 

The Call of the Wild

Summary:

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be a dog while living the good life in California? Thats exactly how Buck, a husky, is. He's physical impressive dog but then after he got stolen. For him, this means pulling a really REALLY heavy sled through miles and miles of frozen ice. Buck is out of his touch until he begins to adapt to his surroundings, and learn from the other dogs. Buck also starts having strange dreams about the primitive days of dogs and men. Buck becomes involved in a struggle for power with another dog, Spitz. They end up fighting and Buck wins, taking over as leader of the sled dog team.

Conflict:

This book so far is a man (dog) vs self at this point. Buck is struggling to sleep because he tend argues with himself. He tells him self what he can and can't do because of how he looks and what he does when he is around other dogs/people. In my opinion, I found it crazy on how you could be living a good life and all to be gone in a blink of an eye. We should always be grateful for what we have and the things people do for us. Sometimes we tend not be appreciative on the things we have. So we have to appreciate everything because they could disappear from us in a split second.

Presidential Years of Bill Clinton

Summary:

After winning most of the election back in 1992, President Clinton had promised to some good things or the people and economy. He swore to boost the country's weak economy, make immediate progress on health-care, to act on gun control, crime prevention, and increase police protection for citizens, to sign NAFTA and GATT that would help make trade from North America to the rest of the world, reform the welfare system, and to make the government less WASTEFUL. The economy is doing good right now by the way. When President Clinton was in office, many Republics took office too. Leaving the Democrats out of most of the government. Coming up on the 1996 election many people thought that President Clinton could have lost to his opponents, Bob Dole and Ross Perot. But it didn't happen because President Clinton had won 39 of 50 states, Dole had 19 states, and Perot only 8% of the popular vote.



Theme

What I believe to be the theme is to never give no matter what. In the book, the author writes that Clinton had lost for governor back in 1976 to Frank White, he didn't give up. He lost but he still went out to go help the people and gather their respect and love so that they could vote for him in the next election. And surely, with the help of the people Clinton was now the governor ofArkansas. This shows that even famous people had to go through struggles to get where they're at now. You can't just give up. And don't. Stop. BELIEVING.

Older Years of Bill Clinton

Summary:

Later after finishing college, he campaigned for the Attorney General of Arkansas in the 1976 election. Eventually he won and the Republicans liked him so much that they didn't put a candidate against him. Four years later he ran for governor in 1980 but lost to other Republican Frank White. Later in 1982, Clinton grew more and more popular that he got many people on his side and he cruised off with the votes. He was then elected for governor and reelected four more years and another year in 1990. Back in 1989 President Bush asked him to be his co-chairman of a national meeting full of governors. And in 1990, Clinton was named chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. Even later in 1991, Clinton admitted to run for president in 1992. By November 1991, Clinton started campaigning in New Hampshire, site of the first presidential primary & by late November, he had swept through the Democrats to win states like Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Illinois, and California.

Aha Moment:

After losing the election for governor in1980, Clinton stepped aside from politics and wasn't really known anymore. But after seeing that Governor White was doing a poor job as a governor, that's when Bill Clinton stepped up to try and help his people of Arkansas. On page 22, it says that "Clinton was soon back in public view, making speeches critical of Governor White." This shows that Clinton was setting a strong voice towards the people about Governor White that he was hurting the people instead of helping. And in 1982, Bill Clinton was now the new governor of Arkansas.

BIll Clinton

Summary:

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was born on August 19, 1946 in Hope Arkansas. After Bill was born, his mother, Virgin Dell Cassidy, went on to go study nursing school leaving Bill in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy. In Hot Springs, Bill attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School  in which he was a student leader, dedicated reader, and musician. During his high school years is when Clinton got into politics in his Latin class. After finishing high school, Clinton attended  Georgetown University in Washington, D.C to continue his political learning.


Character Trait:

 After reading about his childhood, I can say his step-father was an abusive father. In the book, the author wrote,  "His stepfather abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton, Jr." This clearly show that his dad was probably an alcoholic because he would gamble and drink a lot. Clearly making him an aggressive type of person towards his family.  An maybe why Bill wanted to get in to major politics having to die with family and then continuing with laws.

Deadline.

Summary:

We left off when I had said that Ben has been meeting new people like Rudy in his last weeks. Ben starts to grow a close relationship with Dallas, and also becomes close to Rudy. He then agrees to have a counselor work with him o see if he can escape what he's going through. Surprisingly he counselor can't handle his case because it gets to her and she becomes emotional.He doesn't try to think about all the negative incomes about his life, but what he can do to make people and himself happy. He learns that at the end, he shouldn't have kept his secret from anyone. He then goes on and tell his secret to his love and in which it helps him get through his final days.

Theme:

What I think that the theme is? The theme, or message, of the book is to face the truth no matter what. Ben's spiritual guide, Hey-soos, says that truth is the "only one thing that's universal." This is important to ben because it's showing him that you can't hide. Many things can be untold if the truth isn't really discovered. From Ben hiding away his secret, many of his love ones really didn't think that something was wrong with him. You really can't hide anything because something can happen if you do. So my point is, don't hide the truth but to face it.

Getting Closer and Closer To The Deadline

Summary So Far:

So we left off when Ben finds out that his high school sweetheart, Dallas Suzuki, has been hiding secrets from everyone at school. Ben then thinks to himself, "What's going to happen to the people I truly care about?" But the person he is really worried about is his mother. She suffers from depression and both Ben and his father are always helping her. Except one thing, Ben's father is busy with many other busy things and can't sometimes help out his wife. Wait? What about Cody? Well Cody is in football and as an after school activity, he can come home very late. He also gets to know new people during his last year like the town drunk, Rudy.

Conflict: 

The conflict of Deadline is Man vs. Self and Man vs. Society. It's Man vs. Self because Ben can't deal with the fact that he only has one year to live. He also has to make the best of it. Another thing is that he's keeping it a secret from everyone else, even his own brother. The conflict is also Man vs. Society because he has to face the reality of dying in a year and he doesn't know how to live it. I mean yes of course he set goals but at the beginning he didn't know what to do.

Almost At The DeadLine

Summary So Far:

Can you imagine how it feels knowing you had one year to live? That's how Ben Wolf is wondering. He won't tell anyone, not even his older brother Cody. Ben knows he must do everything and anything live his last year at the fullest. One thing is that, even though he was headed for State in cross country, Ben goes out for football with his brother Cody. Some other plan he wants to accomplish is to go out with his high school sweetheart, Dallas Suzuki. When Dallas asks Ben to homecoming, they become closer than before and Ben realizes that she is concealing from secrets of her own. 


Genre:

I sorta know and don't know the genre but I'll give my opinion. I feel like it's a realistic fiction even though someone can't really know how much time they have left to live. You know it could happen by just the author. He writes a lot of realistic fiction because he pretty much writes books relating to his own experience. The only thing is he puts a twist in his books making it a realistic fiction. Like I said before, no one can know how much time they have left to live. Or do they?

Goals For The Quarter

Academic Goal: 

This quarter I want to finish with mostly all A's. Try to do my best in all my classes no matter the cost. If I have to sacrifice my time just to do my best work for each and every class.  Last quarter I finished with mostly B's. I mean I wasn't mad that I had gotten them but I was disappointed that I knew I could have done better to raise my grade. I know that I have to do better in order to get into the High School I want to get in and for my future. I need to also do good to be able to play in the sports I would want to participate.


Personal Goal:

Wanting to graduate from Heritage. I would be able to do this with the help of my teachers and friends. But most importantly, with the help of my parents.  Through what they had helped me throughout the years is what will make my future come true.