Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were best friends. That, dear reader, was a lie. Much like Fitzgerald’s writing.

When Fitzgerald wrote his stories, he wrote them for money, and Hemingway hated him for that.  He liked to party all the time, but his writing was usually about a false life he wished he had. When he was younger, he thought that he had found the love of his life, but she wouldn’t date him because he didn’t have money. He tends to write happy-ish stories, unlike Hemingway.

Hemingway’s writing was, for lack of a better word, dismal. His writing is dreary and mysterious, even though the vocabulary in his pieces are rudimentary at best. They are basic, but at the same time they have extremely complex symbolism. In his writing, he uses certain words or phrases that always lead to death or despair. These key phrases are usually something like ‘against the wall’, ‘in the dark’, ‘in the shadows’ or ‘in the rain’. In his stories, You really have to read between the lines to really get what the story means. You may also have to read it more than once.

Hemingway and Fitzgerald were very different people, and so they had very different writing styles. Hemingway’s writing is dark and mysterious. Fitzgerald’s writing was usually more up-beat, or about rich and popular teenagers.

"A Clean Well Lighted Place" Response

I hated the little film of "A Clean Well Lighted Place". I personally think that they ruined the short story. In the story, there was the symbolism of Light and Dark. In the story, there was an old man drinking his Brandy in the shadows of the cafe, while in the film he was just sitting there. The film followed the story exactly, but the scenery was way off. It was written in the 1940's, and the film was made in the 1990's. There was a TV in the cafe for crying out loud! Also, the characters were Irish, which to me made absolutely no sense. I just didn't appreciate how the film was completely off from the story.

Superficial Worlds (Theme)

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie, and the further in you got, the less you trusted the narrator? But did you ever think, that may be they were telling the truth, and that is what they saw, but they were the ones being lied to, they were in a counterfeit world that was staged around them?

There are plenty of books and movies where everything just seems a little… off: The Maze Runner trilogy, The Matrix, The Giver, and so many more. These all take place in superficial worlds that are either built around the main character and their friends, or around a community of people, and the main character wants to break free of these binds.

Each main character of The Maze Runner trilogy, The Matrix, and The Giver, all figure out at one point or another, that the world is false, and so is almost everything they see, feel, and hear. As they strive to break free of the binds of their fake reality, either they realize that the real world is just as bad as the fake one, the evil things they encounter break free along with them, or as they break free of one, they are pulled into another and have to break free all over again.

In The Maze Runner Trilogy, the main characters break free- or at least they think they break free, but are then sent to the real world, which doubles as a fake reality, and are required to travel across the treacherous landscape full of insane people trying to kill them. After that, they are then pulled into the real world, but they figure out that it is not as nice as they thought, and are nearly killed several times, but in the end, they survive, but with some losses.

In The Matrix, the world itself is a dream, and the main character needs to wake up. However, when he does, the evil entities follow him out to the real world, and he has to purge the world of them.

In The Giver, the main character discovers some disturbing things that his “community” does. His community frowns upon anybody being different or better than anyone else. At first it sounds efficient, but then he slowly starts to realize  that the community isn’t the only place to go, and in the end he escapes with a little boy, and ends in a way you’ll have to read for yourself.

So, in the end, almost all superficial worlds end well enough, but may have some sort of a tragic ending, that leaves something, or someone behind.

Zombie Story

Author's Note: Hey people, I need some help. Now, I have been debating whether or not to write a zombie story, and I have been back and forth, but I can't decide, thus why I need your help. For anyone who likes zombie stories, I need your advice. Here is the prologue to my story, and if anybody thinks I should or shouldn't continue it, please comment on it, and if there is anything you think I should change, also comment it, and I will take it into consideration. Thank you!
(P.S. I won't always change what you think I should.)

Prologue

Spring

Bank

“Oh… you’re right. I should have told you.”

“It’s too late now,” he replied.

“But-“

“No! He’s gone now, there ain’t nothin we can do,” he stated, cutting her off.

“I’m sorry Jack, I thought you were okay alone,” she said to the decayed corpse lying on the ground in front of them. It started to move, and he quickly put a bullet in its head.

“We gotta get outta here before more of ’em arrive, you know what happens when they howl,” James said, gesturing to all of the dead corpses on the ground, each one with at least one bullet hole in the skull.

“Okay, “ Maya replied with a little sob.

“I know he was our son, but it’s the Thaw, and there are bound to be more comin soon,” James quickly stated, suddenly in a hurry looking out the glass doors.

As she turns to look, she asks “What’s wro-“

She was cut off by the sound of breaking glass and moans from the double doors.

“Too late, here they come!” he shouted to her, as swarms started flowing in.

 The only thing to be heard were the moans of the infected, and gunfire.

After several hours, the gunfire stopped but the hordes were still flowing in, and the horrid screams of the undead continued.

In the dismal night from bird’s eye, two figures were seen fleeing from the bank, and into the night.

What if...

What if your entire life, everything you saw, felt, smelt, tasted, heard, was all fake-- all just a dream-- it was all counterfeit? Everything you lived through, what if it was all just a test-- an illusion, to see if you could understand-- to see if  you could make it out alive, or how you would end? What if, on top of everything you've seen been fake, you were constantly being lied to? Everyone around you- no, everything around you, was all fake and there to scare you? Maybe, just maybe, there is one person there- just one person, that was telling the truth- that was real. They were also seeing all of the lies and illusions just as you see them, felt things as you feel them, heard things as you hear them, and in the end, after all of the lies and illusions, you just disappeared, and you never came back-- you never saw the real light of day-- the real you-- your real life? What if...

Life of Pi (Cause and Effect)

Have you ever seen the movie Titanic? In the movie, the boat hits an iceberg, crashes, and few people survive. Boring, right? Well, in the book Life of Pi, a boat does crash, and many people are presumably dead, but the main character, Pi, survives because he is thrown into a life boat. Also, another life boat is also set adrift near him, and he hopes its another survivor.

However, when he lifts the tarp, he is startled to find a Bengal tiger, a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan. He covers the hole back up and gets back to his life boat. He takes a rope, and ties it to the front of the life boats, so that they are always together.

So, because he was thrown onto a lifeboat, he survives, and eventually lands in Mexico, where the only surviving animal, the tiger, goes running into the jungle. Pi starts a new life, and lives on.

Fire World (conflict and resolution)

Author's Note: To understand this piece, you must read the rest of the series before this book.

The book, Fire World, takes place on a peaceful world called Co:pern:ica where you can make or imagineer as they call it, anything and everything you want or need. But all is not right on Co:pern:ica, for there are many problems, that lead up to the primary conflict, which is that an evil force called the Ix are the trying to destroy Co:pern:ica, and the firebirds need to call upon the dragons for help, but they need to do it before the Ix manage to destroy everything.

The problems that lead up to the primary conflict are very important as well. Like the portal that opens in David’s sleep, as something is trying to get to him, and when his scientist dad recreates the portal, he releases the Ix and causes a 10 year time leap in the blink of an eye. Also, there is that David and his friend Rosanna need to find a way to get to the upper floors of the librarium so they can get the help from the dragons that they need to destroy the Ix.

If the Ix destroy Co:pern:ica, they could cause a ripple in the universe, that would prevent Earth, Co:pern:ica, and Ki:mera from being made and linked cosmically which would destroy the universe.

David does manage to destroy the cluster of Ix (a cluster of Ix is like a pack of wolves), specifically because he is ec:centric.

So, as you can imagine, in the book the Ix are bad beings, and need to be destroyed before they can destroy Co:pern:ica and the rest of the universe. 

Eragon

Eragon is the first book of the Inheritance series by Christopher Paoloni. The book tells the story of a young farm boy named Eragon, who finds a mysterious stone in the mountains. A dragon he later names Saphira hatches from the stone, which was, in actuality, an egg. When the evil King Galbatorix finds out about Eragon and his dragon, he sends his servants, the Ra'zac, after them in an effort to capture them. Eragon and Saphira are forced to flee from their hometown, and decide to search for the Varden, a group of rebels who want to see the downfall of Galbatorix.

All For Nothing

NOTE: Ricky is my step mom. I forgot to say.

It was the first day of winter break, and it all started when we got the mail. We lived in an apartment at the time, on the second floor, and you’ll see why this is important at the end.

“The mail man is here,” my dad told me, and it was all he had to say, for retrieving the mail is one of my many chores, along with taking out the garbage, and a several others. So I went down the front steps and, as usual, I forgot the keys. So, I ran back up, grabbed the keys, and ran back down. I put the key in, turned, and pulled. Then, I grabbed what was in the mail box, and sorted it out.

“Dad, Ricky, Ricky… Dad, from Best Buy?” I pondered, as we hadn’t been there for at least 2 years. I went back up the stairs and went back into the apartment.

“What did we get?” he asked.
“Ricky got 2 things, and you got 2, one of which is from Best Buy,” I told him.
“Really? Wow… I haven’t been there for years…” he said as he opened it. He took a minute to read it, and said “It’s some coupons, one if which is half off my next purchase of $15 or more. With this, you can your new game,” he said.
“Seriously? Awesome! Thanks dad!” I shouted in response.

“We’ll go later okay?” he asked.
“Yea!” I again shouted in response.

2 hours passed, and it was 3 PM.
“Are we going to leave soon?” I asked.

“Later,” he replied. This went on for several hours until it was 8 o’clock, at which point Best buy was closed.

“We’ll go tomorrow,” he lied.

About a week later, I had finally bugged him enough that he couldn’t take it anymore, and he finally took me. I put on my winter coat, because it was kind of chilly, and we set out to the car.

“Do you have the coupon?” he asked.

“No, I thought you had it,” I replied.

“You might want to go get it,” He said sharply.

So he gave me the keys and I sprinted up the stairs and fumbled with the lock. I finally got it open, and the coupon was on the bookshelf about 5 feet away. I grabbed it, went back out the door locked it, and started sprinting back down the stairs.

In hindsight, this was a REALLY bad idea, because stairs + running = tumbling down those stairs...

As I was running down the stairs, I started to gain just a little too much momentum, and lost control. I put my hand out to push the bar on the plate glass door, but the bar snapped like a twig between my weight the combined force. I went right through, the door shattered, my body went limp, and I hit the cement. Hard.

My dad, hearing the crash, got out of the car as fast as he could, and sprinted over to me. He checked to see if I was okay, and examined me thoroughly. He thought I just had a little gash on my neck because of the trail of blood flowing down, and a cut on the corner of my pinky.
          He took me back upstairs to the apartment, and washed of the cuts. To his horror, the gash on my neck wasn’t a gash, it was a long cut, about 2 inches long, and the cut on my pinky had a rather large shard of glass in it. As soon as he noticed this, he drove me to the hospital right away.

On the way, he texted my step mom and my mom about the incident. Once we got to the ER, the doctors assessed my wounds. After about 30 seconds, but what actually felt like forever, they carefully pulled the glass out of my pinky and cleaned and bandaged both of my injuries. The paramedic said that had the cut on my neck been 2 centimeters lower, it would have cut my Jugular vein, and killed me. My coat probably saved me from a lot of pain, for it was big and puffy, and sheltered me from a lot of the glass.

But what really upset me, was that I went through all that, and never got my game.

A Quotation

"A wise man first thinks and then speaks, and a fool speaks first and then thinks." - Hazrat Ali Ibn-e-Abi Talib. Dave Barry used to be a humor columnist, before he retired. After, he started writing books, and "Dave Barry is not Making this up," is one of them. However, this particular book is a book that contains a few of his articles, which were edited to fit in the book.

This specific quote, I believe this is his philosophy, but not the first half. I don't believe he thinks about what he puts in his articles, I personally think he just writes them, but maybe he does, as he is a humorist. Still, this quote fit into this book perfectly. "A wise man first thinks and then speaks, and a fool speaks first and then thinks." - Hazrat Ali Ibn-e-Abi Talib

The Twisted Thoughts of a Twisted Man

Authors note: This still has to be edited.

The thoughts of the man that went by the name of Edgar Alan Poe were dark ones. He wrote many poems and stories, and I have read several of them. All of the ones I read were twisted, involving death, torture, murder,  and/or tragedy. ....uses similar elements in his stories for a purpose....

There are some patterns in most to all of Poe's poems and stories. One of which is that it is almost always Fall or Winter, never Summer or Spring, Fall or Winter. In "The Raven" it is Winter with the snow falling. In "The Cask of Amontillado" it is Fall with the leaves falling off the trees. In "The Masques of the Red Death" it is Fall.

Next, it is always near or around midnight. "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Raven", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Pit and The Pendulum", and "The Masque of the Red Death" all take place at or near the time of midnight.

And lastly, the narrator is usually to be considered insane or crazy. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Cask of Amontillado", and "The Raven" the narrator is either insane or crazy with emotions.

But one question still remains, what happened to this man that made his thoughts so twisted?

Policeman's Point of View

In the cop's point of view, we see a perfectly normal human being inviting a policeman in to his house. You try to strike up a conversation, but this man is acting strange, but you decide to ignore it. He looks panicked and nervous, but you keep talking, and then all of a sudden he starts shouting random things, and admits to killing an old man.

Mother to Son

To me, this poem is actually quite... pertinent. Considering all of my life experiences, especially the one I am going through right now, I can totally imagine what they are going through. I can hear the controversy between emotions. I can hear sadness and hopelessness, but at the same time I can hear hope and warmth. If it had anymore emotions in it, it could be its own subconscious. I believe that this poem is supposed to let the reader make his or her own assumptions about what is happening. So, overall I like this poem because of its abundance of diversity.

You can tell that this poem is almost all metaphors. "My life ain't no crystal stair" means that her life wasn't perfect, and she also says that the stair has "Tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor”, meaning that she has gone through many hardships, like the "bumps on the road" metaphor.

Alaska Oil Drilling DBQ Essay

In Alaska, there is oil that the United States could use. Even though it only has enough oil for 6 months at our consummation rates, I think we should drill for it because of our current dependence on foreign oil. It would be much cheaper for us to drill there; however, the environment over in that area could be ruined if we drill there. Also, if we drill for those deposits, we could be ruining some people’s homeland.

If we were to drill for the oil in Alaska, it would be cheaper for the US because we wouldn’t need to buy as much oil from foreign countries, helping the US with its trillion dollar debt by bringing in 4.2 billion dollars after 5 years of drilling. It would also create many jobs for US citizens, but it would be hurting the environment.

Drilling in the ANWR would mean hurting the environment. I believe it should depend on what the people of America want to do. Drill for the oil and destroy the environment, or don’t drill for it until later years. It would depend on what the Alaskan people and the US citizens want to do.

I really don’t think that Alaska can stop the US government from drilling forever. I think that eventually the government will overrule Alaska's attempts to stop the drilling from occurring. The US and Alaskan citizens probably won’t agree on drilling, but the US has a remarkably larger population than Alaska does, and we will probably end up drilling in Alaska.

If/when we do drill for the oil in Alaska, I will not fight it because we will need that oil to get by further on in the future. That is why I think we should drill for the oil in Alaska. 

Speak Prediction

In Speak, what I think will happen is that she will have a flash back about what happened that made her call the police on that night. What I think happened to her is that Andy Evans did something bad to her that made her very... emotionally fragile. I think this because at first, instead of calling him Andy, she calls him "IT". What I think happened to her with Andy is that they engaged in coitus, or that he did something morally wrong to her. In the end, I think that she will end up standing up for herself, or telling someone what he did.

All for Twenty Dollars

It was loud. Really loud. All I could smell was the disgusting food headed my way.
"School lunches are really gross," I shouted to my friend Chris.
"Not always.Some of them are pretty good," He shouted back. Even though we were right next to each other, I barely heard what he said. As the lady walked up to me, I shook my head as if to say "I don't want any."

20 minutes later, after most of the kids were done eating the rubber in a can that they call macaroni and cheese, we were called out for recess. Finally, I thought. All I need to do now is kick a homerun in kickball, and Dominic would pay me my 20 bucks. The thing is, our schools didn't allow kickball balls because kids were "accidentally" breaking windows when they kicked the ball, so we usually played with either a tennis ball or a football.

It was finally my turn to kick, and the three people before me hit singles. Dominic was pitching, and could see the sweat on is brow from nervousness. If I got this homerun, I would be a hero because with the bases loaded, we would win by 1 seeing as we were down by 3. Also, I would have $20 from my best friend/worst nemesis, Dominic. I turned around and brought my hands up as if to have the spectators start cheering. So when they started, I turned around and that's when I realized that they weren't cheering, they were shouting "watch out!" I tried to duck under the football headed straight for my face.

Then there was nothing -- only a silence that filled my ears like honey. It dripped down, insulating me from the world outside my closed eyes. For several moments, I succumbed to this silence, welcomed it, and hoped that perhaps it would last an eternity.

It didn't. From a distance, I could hear voices calling. My name floated on the wave of voices as they crested and grew louder, disturbing my silence like the squeezing of a balloon.

When it popped, I finally opened my eyes and faced the world again.

Milkweed

          The book Milkweed takes place during the time of the Holocaust. The main character is a little boy named Misha that has lost his parents. Later, a boy named Uri takes little Misha under his wing and teaches him how to survive on food he steals, but tells him only to take what he needs. Uri is a mysterious character with a questionable past, but he has a good heart.

            Uri is the second character you meet in the book. He seems to be around 13 years old. He is a child that hates the Jackboots/Nazis. When he first meets Misha, he seems a little… odd. He seems like he doesn’t like the guys, but he hangs around with them anyways. He slowly leaves for longer and longer periods of time because he is doing work for the jackboots, but he still cares for Misha.

In this book, you learn that you are lucky to have what you do.

Big Henryk

"Yes," I said. I can't really say anything else. I don't know why. Its just, whenever I try to say something, all that ever comes out is "Yes." I can say other things too, but when the guys ask me questions, all I need to say is yes. If I ever need to say something else, all i really say is something simple like "Himler coming," instead of " Himler is coming to kill us all!" I know i have a disease, but I don't know what it is called. If it is fatal, it doesn't matter, we're all going to die of hunger, or get hung like Olek anyways.

"If..."

If the world was perfect, what would it be like? I think the world would be a terrible place. There would be no life lessons to learn, or anything that would be obtained through hard work. Without work, no one would have any life experience, or fun. Without life lessons, we would all make wrong choices and we would never choose the good path in life, I mean, nobody would really move at all because they would get whatever they wanted. I would hate that life because in my life, I am learning what is most important In life, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Do I love my country?

I don't even know how you could ask me that. Of course I love my country. I am proud of my country, but I am not proud of some of our countries' leader's decisions. I would protect my country with my life if I had to. I don't care about what anyone says, I believe that this country Is the best country in the world, no doubt about it. Our economy is going down the drain, but I don't care.

The Giver

Release

What would you do if people in your city were getting killed just for being different? Well, when that happens in The Giver, it is called Release. I think that the idea of Release is just revolting.

I think that it is revolting because it is just killing someone for a really dumb reason. Release is when they eject a type of liquid into a person, and then the liquid kills them. I think that it is bad because just because someone is different or has problems, they still deserve to live, not to get killed. If people around me were getting killed just because they were different, I would probably take everyone I love and take some food and some other supplies and run away with them and never go back or look back.

I think that if there was a city like that, no one would want to live there. I know I wouldn’t.

Bruce

As Bruce breaks the window, he hears sirens.  "Oh no! The cops!" He shouts.  He starts running further into the hospital. He is so drunk, he doesn't even know where he is. He hears the cops running down the hall. He opens a supply closet and dives in and closes the door. They run by. He slowly opens the door. They're gone. So he thinks. They start running back and see him. He starts running and there is a bed in front of him. He starts pushing it while he is running away. Then, he hops on for the ride.

Stars

As he slowly falls into a deep slumber, his eyes sees millions of little white dots.  Stars.

Stars always amazed this little boy. He knew, that some day, he would travel away from this world, and see what they were, what they looked like, where they were, and, most of all, see if he could become one himself.

After what seems like an eternity, he fell into a life of light and passes away, as another white dot is formed in the sky.