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.