Since the beginning of the year, I think I improved as a writer by the vocabulary I use. I make less errors when I'm writing.

Analysis of Surviving the Applewhites

"Surviving the Applewhites" by Stephanie S. Tolan is an fantastic story about a kid name Jake who is always getting into trouble. This story is an amazing example of a comedy that can relate to real life.

"Surviving the Applewhites" is a comedy because it starts out normal, with Jake going to the Applewhite house. Next its there is a minor flaw when everybody relinquish the play that Randolf is planning. And the story ends with normalcy.

This story can definitely relate to real life because there are people like Jake out there that have no other option but to get home schooled. And this story can narrate to another book I've read called "Touching Spirit Bear". The boy in that book is in the same circumstance as Jake, he has to go to an island and survive on his own to learn his lesson.
 
This book had a great message of respect.  And if you act like your the coolest person in the world for burning a school down, not everyone would agree.

Analysis of Speak

In the book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson there are excellent examples of symbolism. And also has an interesting character named Melinda that everyone hates after she called the cops at a party in the summer.

A list of symbols in “Speak” is the couch, Melinda’s room, the mirror, the mascot, and the trees. First, the couch represents two identities like Melinda, a good side and a bad side. Then Melinda’s room doesn’t reflect her personality at all and that symbolizes that she doesn’t really know who she is. The Mirror symbolizes that she doesn’t like who she is. There school mascot keeps changing which symbolizes that the school doesn’t have an identity. And finally the trees represent growth in Melinda’s identity and how she grows to be more comfortable throughout the book.

Melinda is a teenage girl who called the police at a party where everyone was drinking at and she got a lot of people in trouble. When school starts she becomes an outcast and everybody hates her. In the book Melinda seems to be lazy and has no motivation in life. She says that she would rather sleep than do homework and her parents make her stay after school everyday to get help from her teachers.

This book had very good examples of symbolism, and many interesting characters. This book shows what not to do during your summer vacation.

patriotism

I think patriotism still matters because without patriotism, there would be no motivation for our country to celebrate anything. So for example the Forth of July wouldn't really matter anymore. And also without patriotism there would be no motivation for our country to move on in life.

The Story of an Hour

Imagine thinking your husband is dead and having him walk in the front door unexpectedly. Well, that’s what happened in “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin. This story is an excellent example of a tragedy and she did a good job on making the symbols hard to find.

First of all this story is a tragedy. It starts out realistic by her husband dying. Her tragic flaw is that she thinks she is free by her husband dying, which is also her tragic fall. And in the end of the story she ends up dying because her husband walks in the door, and dies of a heart attack because she was so happy to see him.

The symbols in this story are the stairs, the open window, the locked door, and the season spring. The locked door symbolized the isolation between the wife and the rest of the world. The open window represented all the new opportunities she has with her husband dead. The next symbol is the season spring which represents life. And lastly the stairs represents the rise and fall of the main character.

“The Story of an Hour” was an awesome story with some very good examples of symbols and a tragedy. And it has an important message that you should not marry unless you actually like the person. I recommend this story to any one who is thinking about reading it.

Ribbons

Imagine having your Grandma from Hong Kong coming to America to live with you. That what happens to Stacy in the story, Ribbons.
It was very hard to identify the mode of literature, but it is a comedy. At first I thought it was a romance because it had a life affirming symbol at the end it but then I realized it wasn’t because it wasn’t a perfect world. But it had a the requirements for a comedy. I know it’s a comedy because first of all it started out with normalcy, the conflict arises when her Stacy’s grandma won’t let her put on the ballet shoes, the resolution is the grandma realizes that the shoes are for dancing and it’s a return to normalcy.
It seemed like her grandma was being mean because she was not letting Stacy dance. But in the end her grandma really wasn’t mean. She was just trying to protect Stacy because she didn’t know what the shoes were for. Her grandma thought the shoes would make here feet all crooked like her parents did to her.
This story reminds me of every-day life because there is a lot of misunderstanding things that people think is bad but are actually good. It also relates to every-day life because there is a lot of people’s relatives moving to America from different countries

What would I buy if I won the Lottery

I was sitting in my living room watching the TV, when all of a sudden, I heard my lottery numbers on the news. It felt like I swallowed my heart, and I almost blacked out. I rushed to the Lottery office to pick up the check.
The first thing I would spend my money on is a big house out in the country with huge, wide open fields. I don’t think I’d like a big and fancy mansion, just a normal sized house. I would live out in the country because I don’t like the sound of cars driving by my house all the time, I like places that are quiet and there are barely any cars. And I really like the scenery in the country.
The second thing I would buy is a big recording studio for my bass guitar. It would have a huge editing system, a sound proof room, a huge case for all my basses that I bought, and a big computer that I could mix all my CD’s on. If I had all that I would freak out, I’d spend all my free time I had in my recording studio. That would be my number one wish to have a recording studio in my house.
The last thing I would probably buy with my money would be a gigantic dirt bike trail. That’s one of the reasons I would want to live in the country, because of all the land I would have. It would be so fun to just ride around on a dirt bike along a long dirt trail with beautiful scenery. And it would be cool to have friends over so we could race or something.
If I had a billion dollars I would probably buy a lot more things than just these, but these would be my top three things on my list to buy. Hopefully some day I will win the lottery, and actually have all these amazing things.