George the Giraffe-Manners-Journal 2

George the Giraffe was walking home from school once day, when Dave the duck stopped him and invited him over for dinner. George was very hungry and could not decline an offer for free food. He was scared though because George had never been over to a friends for dinner before and was afraid his manners were bad. When he got there he wiped his feet at the door, said thank you for inviting him, and even helped make dinner. He was still paranoid thought that he wasn't showing good manners and wasn't being socially acceptable. George then sat down for dinner and ate a huge meal. He did not talk with his mouth full, he did not chew with his mouth open, he even held his utensils correctly. Once dinner was over George helped Mrs. Duck clean up and did the dishes, while Dave sat around watching the television set. George was confused and wondered if maybe he was being too good and had too much manners.

When he got home, his mom told him to sit down. He was scared and wondered what Dave's mom might have told his mom over the phone while his walk home. When she sat him down she told him that he wasn't in trouble, but needed to work on a few things and that was why they were talking. As it turns out, George worried too much and actually was too good. His mom said to settle down on how much he was helping out with. Mrs. Duck was very thankful for all of the help he gave her, but she said she would have been happier if he would have had fun playing with his friend. As it turns out George learned that manners are good, but most of your good manners are habits and you just have to be yourself. From then on, George went to Dave's house weekly and every time Dave's mom gave a good report and said he was the most well mannered kid she had ever met.

George the Giraffe

George the Giraffe was a small giraffe who spent most of his days in the fields. His parents were the biggest giraffes in all the land and George's father hoped that he might one day be the same. The problem was George didn't have a long neck. He had all the spots, all the looks, even the legs, but he did not have a long neck. One day George's dad was eating and could not reach the leaves towards the bottom of the tree. Since giraffe's can't bend their necks too far, this was a huge problem for the giraffes in Africa. When George was eating his dad saw that he could reach the leaves on the bottom of the tree since his neck was abnormally short. Garry the Giraffe, George's father had a great idea, to make George a legend just like him. He immediately told George and informed all the other Giraffe's. From now on George was to pick all the leaves from the bottom of the tree and store them in baskets that the other Giraffe's could eat. From then on everyone loved George for doing this, except George. He got bored of picking leaves and hanging them in baskets up in the trees for the others. He wanted them to like him for who he was. After that days work George went to talk to his dad, who was not happy with George's decision, but accepted that George didn't like his job.

Everyone went on in life just eating the leaves from the top of the trees, skipping the bottom ones. As the years past, George grew greater and greater becoming the biggest giraffe in all the land. He had the biggest neck and was known for something different than leaf picker. As Garry grew older, he turned over the responsibility as king of the giraffe's land to George who worked hard to be an equally great leader as his father.

Grapes of Wrath- Would I Recommend this Book

No, I would not recommend this book to anyone on the simple account that I did not enjoy it. I am not trying to ruin any intentions someone else might have had to read the book, but for your sake it is not worth it. To me the book was a huge descriptive novel and nothing but that. As I have said before I think the thing that made the book bad for me and no fun to read is the constant describing of what is going on.

There is a line that is crossed when an author goes out of his way to describe what it was like for Ma to sleep with the corps of her husbands mother or what it was like drugging Grampa Joad. Im not saying that it was incorrect doing this and mentioning it in the book, but you don't have to take up a paragraph or a page doing so. All it requires is one sentence and then talking about stubborn old Grampa or about more packing that had to be done. When you spend one paragraph writing about the drugging and another writing about stubborn grampa, thats when excessive description comes into play.

I know that John Steinbeck worked really hard on this book and I'm not trying to crush his little heart. Mostly because I'm pretty sure he will never read this, and second he makes more money each day selling this book than I do in a month. I have a feeling though that someone else thinks the same thing I do. If he would have cut down that book by a hundred pages that would have been a really good novel because it would have been the correct length and it wouldn't have bore the reader like crazy. In the end, although I didn't enjoy it, I am happy and proud to say that I have read this book because I have a feeling it will come in to play sometime later on in life even if that means when my kids are in high school and have to read it.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Rating and Reason

For Grapes of Wrath, I would give it one star on a scale of five because of how boring the book was. I usually like adventure books, but not this time. This time the author used way too much description and made it hard to even continue reading.

Description is considered a good and helpful attribute to a book, I think that there is a fine line between helpful and beneficial and excessive and overused. Although many people wouldn't agree with me, I feel that the description was taken overboard and used way too much. When you describe things so much that the reader can forget whats actually going on, you know you need to back off. I feel that Steinbeck took what could have been a 200 page book and turned it into a huge novel of 400 pages.

John Steinbeck was and still is a popular writer, but to me this book was not very good. He used his past esperiences of being in the Great Depression and what not to help describe his book which is very helpful, yet it is an easy way to over describe things. He definatally did not find the balance inbetween the two and stuggled with that. I would have enjoyed the book more if there was very little description compared to his page long thoughts about one little thing. If I were him I would have cut back on some of it just in case. This was a prime example of when too much descriptive writing is used some of the readers fail to be impressed and to enjoy the book properly like the author intended. This definatally happened to me when I tried to read this book. I would have to take many breaks to regroup and start reading more about the same thing being repeated and continuing to be described over and over again. In the end I was happy I had read the book, yet I had wished it would have been more exciting.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Fahrenheit 451- Clarisse

Clarisse was a teenage girl that lived down the street from Montag. He met her one night while walking and ever since then had been friends. She would walk with him on his way to work every morning and they would talk about miscellaneous things. Each day it would be something new and they would always wonder new things. One morning Clarisse explained to Montag that she had decided to quit school since it was all brain washing her and it was a waste of time explaining that they just repeated themselves all day everyday taking knowledge away from her, not giving any.

Clarisse was an accomplished girl and had a unique outlook on life. She wasn't a lot to tolerate and she always stayed positive. She would walk in a lot of different places simply wanting to admire nature and her beauty. As her and Montag would walk she would tell him of different stories of her family and how they had come here and what they did. She would explain all about her uncle saying he was the coolest man on earth. She said that he knew a lot about books and had a lot of knowledge that the government would have him killed if they found out. Truth is, they already knew because when Montag asked about Clarisse to Betty he said he had been eyeing her and her family for a while. Saying this, Montag grew scared yet not defeated. He still kept his books and went on in life in his daily routine of getting up, going to work, going to bed, repeat. This book was very interesting to me and I feel that the character Clarisse really took it to a whole different level with her wittyness and kindness. Unfortunatally she was taken out of Montag's life prematurely when a car had hit her while she was walking. This is extremely sad yet good that she was able to move on and be away from this horrible would Montag was in.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Mildred and Betty

Since Mildred and Betty would be considered major characters by many people I decided they deserved a blog analysis too. Since they didn't play a huge role in the book I found that it might be easier to put them on the same blog yet different paragraphs neither pertaining to the other in order to make up my amount of words I had to.

Mildred was the wife of Montag, who called the police and turned him in. She had had enough of his nonsense and just wanted to get back to watching her three walled television set. She was addicted to the thing and kept on begging Montag if they could get the fourth. She would ask him every night and every night he would explain that they just got the third and its extremely expensive. Then she would say something like, "we can go without a few things." After that Montag would have to explain to his persistent yet annoying wife that they already are and that he doesn't plan on getting a fourth television wall anytime soon. Although Montag didn't like the television I found it a clever idea and thought that it would be cool to have one sometime.

Betty was the fire marshal at the fire department where Montag worked. He would continuously harass Montag, who was scared of the Hound saying it tried to attack him the other day. Betty would insist he is imagining things. Betty would also try to brain wash anything Montag had once learned and explain that books are no fun, and are just a waste of time. Betty wasn't the only one that would say this for the entire community thought the same including the government which is why they made books illegal and invented firemen, to start all the fires to burn the books. Towards the beginning of the book I found it interesting that they would use firemen to start fires instead of put them out.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Montag

Montag was a unique character that enjoyed the spontaneous events. He would go for walks outside always being curious of the world around him. He would think of things the city didn't want him to think about and always acted a little different.

I would say Montag's personal role model would be Clarrisse because she always would walk and talk with him, more advanced than he at thinking about stuff. She was always wondering different things and usually would break rules in order to figure out what it was like. Since they both always wondered they were both great role models for each other. When Clarrisse died, Montag had no one to turn to and was very lonesome in the world until he decided to steal some books and run away to save his life with the police. When he killed Betty (his fire marshal) he knew he was going to be punished severely. After being on the run for quite a while he finds a group of men he stops and talks to and eventually becomes friends with. They give him a special drink that gives him a new genetic code so the dog "Hound" cannot sniff him out and kill him. Then they say they were expecting him and are carriers of books too. Unlike Montag they have memorized many parts of them and have them stored in their brains. This is so a book like the bible is completely wiped off the face of the earth they can eventually regroup and write a new copy to be printed and distributed to the communities and people so that religion can be apart of their everyday lives again. I found this very interesting and a unique idea that Bradbury had when it came to finding a way to store books before they were burned if they were burned so that more copies could be made. I liked the idea of thousands of people having to come together in an upraise in order to put the full bible back together.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451- Rating and Reason

For Fahrenheit 451 I would have to give the book a three star rating on a five star scale. The only reason being that I didn't like the style of the futuristic based setting and what not. To me it didn't click like other futuristic based setting books do. This is probably because in this one it isn't a long time from now as some of the other books are, so the author doesn't think of really cool gadgets to put in it for the peoples enjoyment.

For Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury used a futuristic setting with a twist. The twist being that he didn't use a very far off time and use it, but he went just a little farther in time, and based it off of our lives now but with a couple of new things. I think his goal was to make it a laid back community which is cool, but not my favorite. The book was interesting and I was able to read it no problem, but if I could have chosen the setting and time period I would have made it a lot different.

Instead of subways or cars we would just teleport to most of our destinations, instead of wall television sets, I would make it hologram figures walking around in your own house. Even the houses would be decorated different with futuristic furniture and appliances that could work by themselves. The reason being for appliances and all other things in the house, including the house, to clean itself is because I know no one likes doing that chore to this day. I know that whenever my mom ask's me to help her clean something I dread every minute of it and wish that I could invent a robot to do it for me. That brings me to my next idea which is robotic animals and helpers. If you could keep a couple human-like robots in your house you could make them clean the dishes and rub your feet whenever you wanted.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Would I Recommend this Book

This book along with Old Man and the Sea were my top two books of the summer reading. For this one I enjoyed the futuristic setting and the mystic style that Ray Bradbury wrote in. Rather than dreading through all of the books I actually enjoyed reading these two.

For the futuristic setting, I have read a couple like this before, but for some reason I didn't like the style of this one. That is probably the only problem I had with the book which is a good thing to say about it. Earlier on in the blogging I stated why I liked the futuristic style and this book didn't have a lot of it. That is probably why I didn't like the style as much. The overall content of the book was very good and I really enjoyed it, but the way the author portrayed it in writing wasn't his best of works.

I haven't read any other books of Ray Bradbury, but I know he has written better only because I saw the potential in this one. By the way everything I have just said is opinionated so to someone else this book could be the bomb and their favorite book and argue that this is the best work of Ray Bradbury, yet others might not like it as much and side with me saying that he could have done better. I think that some authors should write a book, get one hundred test subjects and have those people then read the book and provide input. I think that if you do that and pay each person one hundred bucks you could really make a great book. Of coarse it wouldn't be as fun of a read to those one hundred people off the street because they helped provide ideas, but for everyone else in the world it would be amazing. I also feel that it would pay up for the one hundred dollars you owed the people and increase the revenue by a great margin.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 8

Considering that Fahrenheit 451 was written in a futuristic tense, I don't think that there is any history that will match up with it, or at least not now. Many authors around the time that this book was written would write about a futuristic city or state of what life will be like fifty years from now. Some even wrote of a time much farther away than fifty years. Some of them wrote of a lifetime like thousands of years from now. When we are able to fly from place to place and not having to worry about paying for gas because we will use the sun as our infinant source of energy.

Since this takes place in the future we can't even know if during that time the people will be racist, sexist, or anything else. Guessing from previous events in history a long time ago I would guess that it would be a racist and sexist plus some other rules would be changed. Even though my educated guess was very accurate, you can't completely tell til the time comes and you can say for yourself with some good proof to back yourself up.

While answering most of the questions a lot of my answers have been the same of "we cant tell for sure until..." or "I cant relate it to historical events since it hasn't happened yet..." It was things like these that were hard to answer because it was ninety percent guessing and ten percent luck. Again, as i said before this is one of the main reasons I enjoy futuristic based settings and time periods, because you can keep on guessing about what it might be like but you will never truly know until that time comes and you can experience it for yourself and see if you actually were right and got some of our futuristic happenings correct. Although not very likely, that would be extremely cool if you were right about something.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 7

This author uses mystery and suspense to connect his readers to the story. Bradbury keeps you always wondering what would happen next and on the edge of your seat with different possibilities and outcomes. The thing I enjoy most is always guessing what he might say about the story or put down and then being wrong and it being something completely different. This happened every time to me. Like in Fahrenheit 451 I always wondered when and where Montag would see Clarissa next and every time I would be wrong. It really struck me odd when the book said she was struck by a car and died. I thought it was horrible that something so quickly could come up out of the blue and take her life away. This was one thing I was able to adapt to my own life easily. Thinking about all of the car accidents that have happened over the years is sad and makes me wonder if its going to get worse as the years go on or if less accidents like this will happen as the years go on.

The other thing Bradbury used was suspense. Suspense is a lot like mystery always wondering what would come next, but more of a temporary thing. An example of suspense is when a demolition team rigs a building with dynamite. You wonder from the time they say "fire in the hole" when it might go off and then it finally does. That feeling before it goes of is suspense unlike mystery which is when you wonder about the story and what will go on next even after you set it down. In the end, there really is not a big difference between the two because they both mean the same thing, and are representing almost the same thing in this story if not the exact same thing. Thanks to these well used techniques I was entertained the entire way through and I really enjoyed this book.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 6

The most timeless part about this book is the fact that it is futuristic. Considering that, it wont be history and go out of date, until the date it is set in passes. I also feel that with futuristic novels they are more exciting to readers because they want to know what to expect or to plan to expect within the next fifty or more years.

Take me for instance, as I said before I enjoyed this book because I enjoy books that take place in a futuristic state. I am all for the future and the curve balls it will throw at us. These books make me really geeky and enjoy different cool gadgets that will be invented. When books are written from a future setting I get anxious and can't stop reading. The reason being that I can't wait til the author throws out a really cool idea of a toy or tool that hasn't been invented yet, but sounds likely to be made someday. Even if it isn't likely to be possible to even be made I enjoy imagining things like that.

Saying that this book wasn't hard to pick up and read and I always got hooked on it and couldn't stop reading it. I liked it a lot, but the main reason for new cool gadgets only happened a few times and even those weren't very good. My favorite thought was the invention of a television wall. The fact of being able to invent a four dimensional television is amazing. They will be very exciting if it is possible when invented. It will mean being able to interact with the shows on television! I'm excited about it so much now I want one.

What I have learned from this novel is that you can't always trust what might come in the future because it might not come at all. Or it could change into something completely different like in this book. When I found out and understood that the fire department was created to start fires I immediately thought that this future we might have would be great! Then I read on and found out its not all its cut out to be.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 5

Considering that Fahrenheit 451 was written in a futuristic tense, I don't think that there is any history that will match up with it, or at least not now. Many authors around the time that this book was written would write about a futuristic city or state of what life will be like fifty years from now. Some even wrote of a time much farther away than fifty years. Some of them wrote of a lifetime like thousands of years from now. When we are able to fly from place to place and not having to worry about paying for gas because we will use the sun as our infinant source of energy.

I enjoyed this book because I enjoy books that take place in a futuristic state. I am all for the future and the curve balls it will throw at us. These books make me really geeky and enjoy different cool gadgets that will be invented. When books are written from a future setting I get anxious and can't stop reading. The reason being that I can't wait til the author throws out a really cool idea of a toy or tool that hasn't been invented yet, but sounds likely to be made someday. Even if it isn't likely to be possible to even be made I enjoy imagining things like that.

Saying that this book wasn't hard to pick up and read and I always got hooked on it and couldn't stop reading it. I liked it a lot, but the main reason for new cool gadgets only happened a few times and even those weren't very good. My favorite thought was the invention of a television wall. The fact of being able to invent a four dimensional television is amazing. They will be very exciting if it is possible when invented. It will mean being able to interact with the shows on television! I'm excited about it so much now I want one.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 4

The hero in this book is obviously Montag, because he is the only main character, but I feel that this books hero isn't so much a hero as a detective. In this book the only heroic thing Montag does is outrun the cops in order to learn more and be able to comprehend books like we do. And even that isn't all that heroic as his choice on the outcome of his life.

The harder Montag would work on trying to learn how to read, the closer he would be to failing and going to prison for his life or quite possibly death since he killed one fireman, knocked out a couple others, and destroyed the mechanical robotic dog they called the Hound, which they could use for many different miscellaneous things. Some of them included search and rescue, some included finding books, but most of the time they used the Hound to sniff out someones chemical compound and kill them by injecting anesthesia into their body making them get loopy. If enough is injected then the person can die. Fortunately for Montag, in his first physical encounter as a fugitive he is only nicked by the power of the Hound. If Mondag didn't have his flame thrower handy he would have been dead before he could have learned how to understand books. If Montag hadn't yelled at his wife earlier in the night of his disappearance he wouldn't have had to run. And it would have been smarter if Montag had agreed with the fire marshal about how much of a waste of time books are instead of raising suspicion about what is going on in Montag's house.

I think that Montag should have collected a larger number of books before going to the leader at the fire station so he could have put on a fake burning of the books with a bunch of junk old ones no one will ever want to read. All in all, Montag was a good hero, but he was more of an adventurer than anything else. I found him brave doing all of those things.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 3

I felt that Ray Bradbury had a good understanding about human nature and how we react to situations and decision making. In fact, I felt like I was learning a little something or two from him about decision making myself. He must have done his research about human nature before sitting down and writing this entire book about making decisions, because he sounded very intelligent about everything he said. When i say everything he said I really mean everything he left clues about or hinted about in the book.

When you are able to make a story that long and that correct it takes a certain skill and level of talent in the writing industry, because it takes a lot of work to make a good story come from it. The context of the book and its popularity aren't always the biggest things to be worries about when writing. If you are a truly passionate writer you don't write for the money, because unless you are extremely successful you don't make a lot. The biggest thing and most important thing about a book to an author is the overall theme of the book. Its the main point the author is trying to get across to the public. Its an easy way of showing your emotions and explaining what you are passionate about and whats important to you without boring them half to death. That is why I felt like Ray Bradbury was one of the best authors of his time. He did a perfect job of representing everything that I stated above.

In human nature we do things that we don't expect ourselves to do or we do something we have to. Take breathing for instance, we must breath in order to survive. In this book Montag's desire to read is almost like us breathing. We must have it if we want to survive. That is what interested me the most about Montag's decision.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 2 (cont.)

Besides the causes there were gains and losses that went along with the conflict. As I had said before the conflict was Montag wanting to read books and being punished or Montag not reading books and being curious the rest of his life. The choice for Montag to make was pretty obvious to me since the options aren't evenly weighted.

Some of the gains for Montag if taking the first option I stated, which was him reading books and being punished and possibly killed in the process of becoming more knowledgeable are more knowledge and not regretting not doing it the rest of his life, being able to understand books and comprehend what people were saying easier, and all around smarts that he would see an increase in daily. The gains I said weren't the only ones, but they were the best I could think of. If I were Montag, my decision would have been difficult to make too. It was hard for him to give up everything simply to gain knowledge about different things.

Some of the losses that were in for Montag to discover were his wife, his house, everyone he knew, his job, his freedom, and quite possibly his life. The decision Montage had to make would mean risking a lot of things and giving up even more. I found it brave of him to choose to give up everything in order to learn more about books. It was definitely the correct choice yet the wrong choice at the same time either way he went. I liked the way he did choose which was predictable because if he did not there wouldn't have been a good story. In the end I think that Montag was content with his decision and happy that he did choose that path. In the end there is no going back so just deal with it and think back about everything positive in life and about the decision.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 2

The conflict dealt with in this book is the struggle between Montag that wants to read books and Montag that wants to burn books. Towards the end Montag falls in love with the books and is determined to figure out how to understand them. This creates another challenge of finding someone to explain them and finding a way to hide all of the books without people finding out.

When the Hound is released to find Montag, I thought the book would be over soon and the rest of the pages were to summarize what all happened. It was confusing finding out that he would survive since I had the fact that he was going to die glued to my brain. Once Montag was on the run, the story got interesting again. He was finally able to learn in peace though when the nice men he met in the woods helped him out. They gave him a drink that changed his chemical complexity so the Hound wouldn't be able to smell him out. I found it interesting that he had finally found some friends in his life that believed what he said, didn't find him crazy, and understood why he wanted to learn so bad.

The cause of the conflict thought was obviously his wife not understanding what he was doing, him wanting to read books in the first place, and the government being crazy. If we ever live in a world where books are illegal I do not think I could survive. I know that I am not a huge reader, but if I had constant exposure to a screen I am pretty sure I would go blind. I can also understand the fact that he wanted to read more so he could become smarter than everyone else and have more common sense. If his wife had not called the police and ran though, Montag would have never been caught and been in this mess.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Q. 1

The authors attitude towards this book is positive yet mysterious. He never says anything that is too negative and if he does it is for a short while then on to a new subject. Along with rare negative text and sections in the book, he always would leave little hints to questions on what would happen next. He would never reveal anything prematurely, but he always left me wondering. He was able to use this effectively an keep the reader reading. You would never want to put the book down it was so good and I continued to read. This came in second in my choice of favorite books behind Old Man and the Sea because in Fahrenheit 451 because it was an interesting read and it always left me wondering what would happen next.

The story was written in third person just like in Grapes of Wrath, but unlike that book Fahrenheit 451's author used effective adjectives so that it wouldn't bore the reader. In Grapes of Wrath the constant repeating of words made the book feel like it took forever to read. I was excited when both of them were done, but for obvious different reasons. For one, I hated Grapes of Wrath so anything other than it was better, and second the ending to Fahrenheit 451 was a lot more interesting and intriguing. I overall enjoyed the futuristic setting of this book written from a third person's perspective.

Fahrenheit 451 was an overall good book, and had a huge effect on what I thought about summer English homework. Last year all of the books bore me and i dreaded reading them, but this year the books were fun and entertaining. I'm glad that I picked a book I liked, because it is a lot easier finishing a book you like than one that might be smaller. I didn't realize this until this summer which is shocking for the amount of books I have read for school in my lifetime.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.

Old Man and the Sea- Manolin

Manolin was a hard working young man, quite possibly the hardest I've ever known. He would get up extremely early every morning, go to bed every night after everyone else, work the hardest on the boat trying to make a living for his family, yet he never complained.

Manolin was a young boy who fished for a big boat down the dock. Although he wanted to fish with the old man, since he was his mentor and he learned everything from the old man, he couldn't because his parents wouldn't let him. They called him un-lucky and not a good fisherman. Even though he couldn't fish with the old man, he would spend every minute he could with Santiago. Every night the little boy would help Santiago get prepared for bed, then he would leave and go to bed for himself. In the mornings he would awake before Santiago and go wake him up. Then he would get the two of them coffee from the bar/cafe up the street. Before he ever went fishing he would walk the old man and his stuff out to the little skiff of Santiago's and watch him set sail. Then he went to his bosses boat and worked for the day doing the thing he loved most.

Working hard every day didn't bother Manolin because all he wanted was to learn something new from the old man. Manolin strives to be better at something everyday. He knows he wont be the best at fishing for a while and for sure not without practice. He knows the person to teach him is Santiago because Santiago is the best. He hopes that after many years of fishing with Santiago, he too could teach a kid to do the same, or at least thats what it looks like. Working this hard for something you love everyday is difficult, but I respect him for it. Shoot, I respect him for working so hard to put food on the table for him and his family. A guy that age usually doesn't want anything to do with work all he wants is to hang out with friends.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Old Man and the Sea- Santiago

Santiago was a very old man who had spent most of his life fishing for a living. As the days drew slim, and the hours even less he knew his time was limited. He planned to go fishing one morning and had a feeling that that was the day he hooked the big fish he had always hoped for.

Before his fishing trip though Santiago was cared for by his young friend Manolin, Manolin was a young boy who fished for a big boat down the dock. Although he wanted to fish with the old man, since he was his mentor and he learned everything from the old man, he couldn't because his parents wouldn't let him. They called him un-lucky and not a good fisherman. Even though he couldn't fish with the old man, he would spend every minute he could with Santiago. Every night the little boy would help Santiago get prepared for bed, then he would leave and go to bed for himself. In the mornings he would awake before Santiago and go wake him up. Then he would get the two of them coffee from the bar/cafe up the street. Before he ever went fishing he would walk the old man and his stuff out to the little skiff of Santiago's and watch him set sail. Then he went to his bosses boat and worked for the day doing the thing he loved most.

The old man was a willing little determined robot of flesh and bone, every day he did the same thing for many years. One of the old mans best attributes was his determined heart to finish a job. He would never leave something unfinished and that included catching fish. He never gave up, and the marlin was living proof of this. After spending one day and one night at sea the old man was tired and ready to head back, but he never did he waited til the deed was done and he had beaten the fish.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Old Man and the Sea- Would I Recommend This Book?

Out of all honesty, yes I would recommend this book to a friend, hands down, without a doubt in my mind. Yes, the book is semi educational, and yes, I did read it for school, but it didn't feel that way. Whenever I opened the book to read I obviously didn't want to do it for fun because its summer, who would? I mean come on, when I have to read I miss out on lots of things I would rather be doing, but when I would finally discipline myself enough to sit down for an hour or more at a time and read some I would start to enjoy it. Whenever I would read for a while I felt like I was actually in the book as one of the characters. By the descriptions Hemingway used, I sometimes felt as if I was at a harbor and I could smell the fish and the sea. I felt like I was walking on gravel roads and shell filled beaches.

An overview summary of the book, without giving away any major details is hard to do, but I will try so if anyone is interested in reading an amazing book they know what they're in for. It starts out with an old man and a boy explaining the setting and time of year. Then the boy helps the old man go out fishing, and it talks about what all the old man does while fishing. Once he is in for the night Hemingway explains how the boy helps Santiago get ready for bed. The next day the old man sets out for sea with some bait from the boy and his blessings. While out there Santiago gets the bite of a lifetime and hooks the biggest fish he has ever seen. The majority of the book is about the battle between the old man and the great fish, master of land versus master of sea, mono y mono, human and fish. The rest of the book is very entertaining, but I can't tell you more you will have to read it for yourself.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Old Man and the Sea- Rating and Reason

For Old Man and the Sea, on a five star scale I would give it four stars. The reason being the book was short and straight to the point, yet interesting and entertaining too. With a book this short it was easy for me to read quickly so I was able to remember everything that happened throughout. When the books get too long, I can spend a while working on reading them and once I do finish it I tend to forget parts of it. Using the short book to my advantage I was able to read the entire book very quickly and enjoy it at the same time.

Another reason I enjoyed Old Man and the Sea is for the flowing plot of it. A couple of the people I talked to about the book didn't like it, but I really enjoyed it and this is why. Usually when I read a book it can flash back and forth from point of view to point of view, but in Old Man and the Sea it is all told from the old man's perspective. Because the author did write it from Santiago's point of view it made it a whole lot more interesting. Instead of the author having to put Santiago did this, then he did that, and after all of that he did this, he can put I just did this, then I'm going to do that, and after that I'm going to do this. This makes the reader feel like the "I" in the story might be them and that's when the reader gets involved. This happened to me on a couple of occasions when I would get excited and read a good twenty five or more pages than I had planned. When I, Casey Young, the greatest reading hater of all time reads this much extra you know its a good book. I was able to relate to the characters really well and I enjoyed that. Being able to envision me as the character really helps with the understanding of the story. I like the feeling of watching television in my head.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 8

The Grapes of Wrath, was very accuratally related to actual events in history, because the author of the book went through these events personally from first hand experience. Some of these events that Steinbeck went through were The Great Depression, the huge stock market crash, and The Dust Bowl. Although as I've said before I did not enjoy this book, having the author go through the same events that the characters are going through makes it even more accurate.

During this story there wasn't any racial discrimination because the novel took place in the 1950's which is well after the civil war. Even thought there wasn't any racial discrimination doesn't mean that there weren't any huge conflicts. The bad thing about the Great Depression is that it left many families without houses or jobs and roaming the streets in search for work. So few people were able to make a decent living anymore, Tom Joad decided to move his family out west where he had heard that there was plenty of work and plenty of houses. Truth is, all of that information was false. The Joad's had to work even harder to be able to put food on the table each night. Even when the entire family was working it was difficult.

The sex discrimination between males and females was too for the most part over. except when it came down to what types of work. The women would help with picking fruits or other plants in the fields while the men did the laborious work of shoveling and paving roads. The women would cook the meals and the men brought home the main source of money. The anti-racism and anti-sexism was a huge step for the country and made everyone happy and peaceful until the Great Depression came along. I even think that during the Great Depression the job differences changed for the men and women because everyone would take whatever jobs were available at the time in order for them and their families to survive.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 7

John Steinbeck, is and was a legend of his time. He still is today. Many people would say, "how is he a legend, I have never heard of him,"but the truth is he's only a legend when it comes to writing descriptive novels.

The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most detailed books I have ever read. Being over four hundred pages of pure description of the Joad's journey I say that it has earned that title. Although description is considered a good and helpful attribute to a book, I think that there is a fine line between helpful and beneficial and excessive and overused. Although many people wouldn't agree with me, I feel that the description was taken overboard and used way too much. When you describe things so much that the reader can forget whats actually going on, you know you need to back off. I feel that Steinbeck took what could have been a 200 page book and turned it into a huge novel of 400 pages.

Besides descriptive passages, John Steinbeck uses his memory and past experiences of the Great Depression to write an effective and eventful book about how life was during that time. To say you were born during the Great Depression would be considered horrible by the public, but actually to be an adult during that time was the worst part. If you were a baby apart of a normal family, your life is put infront of your parents on the importance scale because you have so much more to experience in life and because they can survive on just water and little food a lot longer than a baby.

Although people would consider it polite and socially correct to say im sorry to a situation like that I feel that it is not required. Yes it would have been hard growing up in the great depression, but if you don't know how good life use to be you aren't missing out on anything. That is why I feel that The Great Depression took a greater toll on the parents due to finances than to the kids.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 6

Truth is, when it comes down to it, Grapes of Wrath isn't a very old book. Written in the 1950's means that it is roughly 60 years old and compared to some books still just an infant. What makes the book still common to this day is the point the author was trying to get across. The point being, families during current times should act like a family sixty years back. He is not trying to say we should kill people or specifically act like them, but to look out for your family, treat them out of respect, and always protect them no matter what the cause or outcome for you might be.

Learning how to treat your family members right proved to be very important to Steinbeck as he wrote this novel. Actually, it seemed so important to him, I wonder if he had any family problems of his own. I wonder if his parents got a divorce or if they abused him. He almost makes it sound like he is insecure and needs to tell people how their families should be in order to function. Besides learning how to treat your family members properly, there are other life skills and lessons to be learned from the book. Although I didn't personally like the book doesn't mean there isn't valuable material to be read.

Many people enjoy this book and still read it to this day, as they do many books to learn from them. Many people want to gain knowledge from the books, not get bored and waist their time. When you are learning something, depending on how you learn it it can be fun. Although I didn't like this book and didn't have fun reading it or feel like I learned a lot from it doesn't mean someone else shouldn't read it. It simply means I didn't do a good job comprehending it and thinking about what I had just read. All in all, there was a good life lesson intertwined within the story and I was happy I read the book to learn about it.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 5

During Grapes of Wrath, many people were struggling financially. This was the first clue in finding out the time period. Once it mentioned the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, I knew what to search for to find it more accurately. The book was written right after these tragic events and is a story about what many families went through.

The Great Depression came from the huge stock market crash in the 1930's which was caused by all of the investors selling their stock, scared of what might happen to the market. Since everyone was selling and no one was buying, the country was out of money and it caused everyone to struggle financially. During the days when no one had any money it was considered the Great Depression because everyone was poor and many people were starving to death. I found it very interesting that Steinbeck would write a book right after he himself had gone through the Great Depression. I would think that going through it once would be enough.

When writing a book you are constantly thinking about ideas for your next chapters, but when you are writing about something that happened in history you constantly think about what went on during that time and how hard it was for the people. The benefit to Steinbeck writing this book is that he went through it and who is better fit to write a book about the Great Depression than someone who experienced it first hand. Using the Joad's as a common everyday farming family that was affected by the depression was very effective in the story. Once major symbolic event was the Joad's journey to California in search of jobs and a better life. It symbolized hope in their minds that maybe far out west they weren't affected by the Great Depression. Unfortunataly the closer the family got the worse the outcome looked. It got worse and worse and eventually caused even more depression and really made the book attract the reader emotionally and dramatically. It was sad the entire time, but got even worse towards the end which made the book popular to many, but not me.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

"WGBH American Experience . Riding the Rails . Timeline | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 20 Aug. 2011.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 4

The hero of this book is definitely Tom Joad, not questions asked. Tom was the main character and the only character that would make sense as the hero. He was the only one besides Ma Joad that ever tried to fix any of their problems.

When Tom got out of jail he noticed that the economy had changed a lot. He realized that he and his family wouldn't be able to survive on the farm anymore and must risk everything to start over. They pack up anything they could bring and Tom and Ma lead the group out. Since he couldn't travel with them, because it would be breaking his parole, he goes off the beaten path and travels through the woods for the first leg of the journey. Once they are a safe distance away he was able to reunite with his family.

For Tom, being a hero didn't always mean doing the legal thing. Once the family reached California they worked in a peach field picking them and making enough money to survive. One day near the field Casy, the preacher apart of their group, was attacked and had his head bashed in by an ice pick. Immediately after watching his friend die, Tom stepped in and avenged his friend's death. By doing this it meant he was on the run again this time for committing murder a second time. If he got caught he would very likely go to prison for life.

Tom represents courage and bravery along with some trust. He had the courage to begin his journey taking his family to California, but along the way he was able to stick up for them. When the incident at the peach farm during a protest happened Tom was brave enough and had enough courage to step in and avenge his friends murder. The trust came in in the beginning when he trusted in what the people said about California, but we all know how that plan backfired on him. All in all, I thought Tom made a great hero in this story and had some great attributes.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 3

The universal theme represented in this book is that poor people should be treated just like everyone else. They shouldn't be left to die with insufficient pay and no way of getting more. They shouldn't have to pay more than the regular people for their food and they should be given fair jobs.

Basically the theme of this book is to be fair. When a landowner pays their workers less than sufficient pay they are considered a jerk, but when they don't even give them enough to survive because they are too selfish and worried about their own income, they are considered killers. That is why there is a new law enforced that you must pay a minimum wage to every employee, so that they can have enough money to live.

What Steinbeck new about human nature, is that people do whatever it takes to help out their family members. In this case if that means to steal some peaches from the peach farm, or to steal other foods from people they will do it. Just look at Tom Joad for instance. Along the trip he wasn't able to ride in the vehicle so he walked along side in the woods and during different times the family would take him food and water.

This stories theme is a lot to consider, but a horrible thing to think it happened. After the Great depression a lot changed and most of it was to help out the poorer people and get their lives back on track and out of life threatening situations. Once all of this happened life in the U.S was a lot easier and less hechtic. More people had fun and less people died everyday from starvation and low income situations. With less death meant more people and more people meant more jobs that needed to be created. Considering what happened during the Great Depression this was not a huge deal to fix. From now on if someone is poor, it is usually their fault and they brought it upon themselves since there are so many laws by the country now to help avoid poverty.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 2

Throughout the timeline of The Grapes of Wrath, there were many little conflicts along the way. These would be great answers for what are some of the conflicts the Joad's had along their trip, but it wasn't the main conflict. The main conflict was the entire journey the Joad's were on from their home farm all the way west to the great state of California.

The overall conflict, was being able to find work and survive as an entire family. They also struggled with the minor difficulties along the way like sickness, starvation, and death. All the way to California, they were never given a break of struggles and conflicts that stop them from reaching their destination sooner. Right when everything looked good and they were going to be good from then on out, something would happen, like the truck breaking down. The overall conflict was caused by too many people hearing false rumors and heading west in search for work, the stock market dropping, the Great Depression, and many stubborn people wanting proof with their own eyes that there wasn't any work in California.

Some gains from this wide open conflict are seeing your family more often and not having to be disappointed of what they find in California. That is just about it and that is being positive too. The losses heavily out-weigh the gains with the death of family members, becoming broke and without money, not always having a meal for dinner, becoming enemies with all your friends and family, and lots more. This is one of the main reasons Pa Joad is close to death because there is not good outlook in the near future and everything in life kept getting harder and harder. It is horrible to think about what all happened to this family, but when you think harder this is what it was like for many of the families that lived through the Great Depression. They would lose everything and have no other option, but to put their faith and hope in each other and head for where there was a chance of work, food, and a life.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath-Q. 1

Throughout the coarse of the book I noticed different particular things that I could tell meant something to the author. The biggest one that I noticed though was how much the author cared about the family staying together through everything.

No matter what the problem or struggle was they made sure that they didn't get separated. Even when Grampa Joad wanted to stay behind and it would have been a lot more easier for the family if he did Ma insisted that they don't leave anyone behind. I could tell that this was coming straight from Steinbeck and that he definitely cared about his family and he made it a point in the story to make sure that his family represented as the Joad's, never get separated because it would be a disaster and they are all stronger when together. I couldn't quite tell if he had gone through a separation in his life or if he wanted to show that families weren't meant for that to happen. At first I thought his parents had gone through a divorce and it had played a big role in his life growing up and impacted his outlook on families because of that.

While reading this book it is obvious what point of view the book was written from, but I wanted to know why. It was written in third person and it flowed good that way, but I kept thinking if there was a reason that Steinbeck didn't write it from Tom's point of view or Ma's. I think that he wrote it from third person so that when someone thought about the book they would notice, like I did, that he found it important for the family to stay together and from a third person view he could dictate that. When you write from a first person view, you struggle with the dictation of others and being able to control their character and make the book flow easily and smoothly.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- dislike

During The Grapes of Wrath there were the occasional chapters that I thought were interesting, but overall it really wasn't that great. I thought that the author used too much description and detail, by dragging out a idea that could be represented in a couple paragraphs into a chapter. I feel there is a fine line between good description and excessive description.

During the story, it was all cut and dry and I didn't enjoy reading it. I think that this is because it didn't strike a large interest in me because there wasn't a great backbone to it. I felt like the book was just explaining the people's lives along the journey and I never really felt a connection and a motivation to want to keep reading. After I got into the book for a while it was occasionally funny or had a good chapter here and there, but I never really noticed the overall plot of the book and it never really connected or clicked in my brain. I always struggled to understand what was going on mostly because I didn't want to pay attention. Another one of the big problems was how long the book was. I have noticed that the longer the book I have to read the more I dread to get through it and the more I put it off. I was hoping though that once I started it it would be an easy read, but i never really got a connection with the point that the author was trying to get across. The story to me was a bunch of words on pages talking about the lives of people. The worst part was it talked about the lives of people that didn't even succeed in finding work in California.

I'm not trying to say that the choice of read was bad because I'm sure it will be useful in my lifetime, but to me it wasn't very exciting and was pretty boring. If I didn't have to read it for English class I don't think I would have made it more than thirty pages in. I definitely enjoyed Old Man and the Sea more

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Al Joad

Al Joad is the common teenage guy in this book. Al enjoys all different cars and the only thing he likes more is women. Al goes around on the trip talking to girls and putting his mechanic skills to work.

Al finally finds the girl of his dreams and stays there. When the family is ready to head out Al tells Ma that he wants to stay behind with the girl that he loves. Ma can't say no to her own son who is ready to settle down for his life and start a family. I think that it is really cool how we can watch Al throughout the book transforming from a regular old teenage guy into a full-fledged man who is ready to make a living and start a family.

You would think that a guy like Al wouldn't be very useful for the family, but he proves me wrong multiple times throughout their journey. Al is a mechanic that has a passion for cars. While they are on the road, they have to stop many times from car failures. Most of the time its nothing big and can be fixed and have them back on the road within a couple of hours. Sometimes though they would need a professional mechanic and that's where Al's expertise is really admired. He was able to fix their truck on different accounts for different reasons along with any friends the Joad's had met along the way that had car problems. Basically if your vehicle was struggling and needed a tune up in the camps, Al was your guy. He usually worked hard and did most of it for free. This reason being most of the work he did was for their "neighbors" and friends they met and traveled with on the roads to California.

Al was a good guy that proved many assumptions wrong in the beginning. He was admired by many for his good work and loved doing it. I thought it was cool having a teenager in the story, so that people of all ages could relate to a character. I don't plan on being a mechanic, but there were times that I could relate to something going on in his life.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Granma Joad

Granma Joad was a true fighter and an inspiration til the end of her life. Even though most of the ideas she inspired were threats and horrible comments about her husband, she did provide them til she died. Granma was the strongest mentally, right behind Ma Joad herself.

Granma went through the most tragedies along the trip because they all applied closely to her. Granma had to go through the miscarriage of Rose's baby, while hoping she would have been alive for another generation to be born. She also had to go through the tragedy of her husbands death and the peace to follow. After Grampa Joad died the truck was a lot quieter without his shouting and rude comments ablaze. The loss of a family member can take a toll on a person, but a loved one is even more tragic. When you lose a spouse you lose a part of yourself. This is because when your husband or wife dies, the person you loved with all your life, the person you married and spent many years with was now gone.

Besides losing her husband and going through Rose's miscarriage she had to deal with a terminal illness that was due to her missing her husband. I call it a terminal illness because after he died she was never her original self again. She was confused and lost mentally the rest of her life and didn't know what to do when the man she loved with all her heart was gone. Unfortunately shortly after they reached California Granma Joad passed away. I repeat myself when I say they weren't able to afford a proper burial so they had to perform their own, out of the respect for her. She was an inspiration to all of the kids and to everyone that met her and she was a great christian woman, that was a great role model when she wasn't yelling and cursing at her husband.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Grampa Joad

Grampa Joad was a stubborn old fellow. He was the founder of the Joad's farm, but he was a constant pain. When he got older he decided to take his anger out in language and would always tell people what he thought about them or something. Although he was rude and annoying he was very funny and could always make people laugh. The worst quality about Grampa, yet the funniest of them all was how stubborn he was and how committed he was to go through with whatever threats/ideas he had.

The weirdest thing about Grampa Joad was the fact that he never wanted to leave places once he had got attached. In order for the family to head west and leave the farm they had to get Grampa on the truck. He was so stubborn he wouldn't even move and insisted that they leave him. Because Ma didn't think that this was a good idea, she thought of a plan. They got ahold of some sort of drug and drugged Grampa, forcing him onto the truck. I think this is funny because of the mental picture it puts in my head. Just thinking about my grandpa going around and being angry about things cussing people out and telling them whatever non-sense he wanted to is enough, but to think that he would tell them rude things about what he thought about them or be flat out mean is another story. Then to think that he would sit in a chair and force our family to leave him out on a trip, only to lead to us drugging him and putting him in the car is hillarious.

All in all, I think that Steinbeck did a great job representing the comical character of the book. Using an old grandpa that doesn't know what he is doing is wrong and making him super stubborn is a great mood lightener for the serious tragedies and events that occur. I really enjoyed reading different stories about Grampa Joad.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon was a very unique and cool character to do an analysis on. I enjoyed her because she was walking proof that good can come from the bad. While on the journey she was pregnant with a child whom she failed to give birth to due to a miscarriage.

Because she was pregnant her whole body had prepared for the baby. Everything inside her had changed expecting to be providing for a baby along with its normal needs. While on the journey they are stopped by a young boy in desperate need of assistance. Due to a flood of one of the camps, the little boy and his old man had climbed up a hill and stayed in a barn in order to stay dry. While waiting for the waters to go away so they could continue work, the boys father gave him all of his food hoping for one of them to survive. Since he had not had solid food for so long and had deteriorated physically he needed immediate liquid diet. Because the family didn't have any money to get any food and they didn't have any soup Ma Joad forced Rose of Sharon to breast feed the old man. From the miscarriage Rose was able to save a different persons life.

I found the fact that Rose did this very ironic. The fact that she had lost her own child was very sad, but I liked how the author used a tragic incident to bring out the good. If she had never become pregnant with the child the father of the young boy would have died leaving him an orphan. I just found it very impacting and awesome how something so simple in writing was able to really bring out Rose's character. Its also the little things that can make or break a book. Its just living proof that you don't always know the overall plan for things in life.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Pa Joad

Pa Joad was a good man. He worked very hard and spent lots of time making money so his family could survive. When the work grew slim he decided to find another way to put food on the table.

Once he had found out about the work in California it stuck in his brain. He told his family and packed everything he could. After lots of planning and thinking they set out heading west in hopes for many well paying jobs. Once on the road they were soon aware that the west wasn't as cut out as they were told it to be. There was work, but it was slim and didn't pay well. After gambling on the decision to keep on going instead of turning back they soon found out that they had lost. Every camp they stopped at they were given worse and worse news until it didn't look like they would ever make it or that there was any work at all.

The thought of this really took a toll on Pa and he struggled to stay optimistic. As they got closer and closer, he got even worse, not tending for his families needs, being the man and leading the way, or even worrying about any responsibilities at all. He almost acted like a young child just going along eating the food supply not being beneficial at all. This is because the loss of everything he had once knew shocked him and he struggled coping with it. When they finally arrived Pa had hit his own personal wall in his brain. The loss of the farm, all their money, and struggling to keep food on the table paralyzed him and made him completely useless for the family. Once this happened it forced Ma to take over and act as the head of the family or the father of the family. She got everyone back on track and really helped them all out. I thought it was really odd how Pa Joad deteriorated so quickly and how Ma was forced to be in charge.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Ma Joad

Throughout the story I learned a lot about Ma Joad. She was by far the strongest and most diligent mentally out of the group and was the one that kept the family together. She did whatever it took to keep the family functioning and out of fights.

One time while the Joad's were traveling Ma spent the entire night with her mother in laws corps just so the kids wouldn't worry and everyone would be able to function. She told everyone she was very tired and to not touch her because she didn't want her to wake up. Once they had reached the camp for rest she decided it was time to tell everyone. They had a small ceremony just as a family. Because they couldn't afford the proper burial equipment and services they did it illegally by themselves.

I feel that a woman that strong to not show any emotions until she broke the news about her husbands mother dying is a definite leader. She was harsh enough when it came to times to make sure everyone obeyed her and she was sweet when someone was going through a tough time. Regardless of what the problem was Ma Joad always took care of it and kept the family going.

I don't think that the family would have been able to make it all the way west and into California if it wasn't for her. She was the one that was able to cook all the meals, tend to all the injuries, and do any other miscellaneous work. If people were to say that men are more important or that Ma wouldn't be able to handle it they would have been wrong. She was one of the toughest women of all the camp, or at least that's how I understood the authors idea. He almost made it sound like she was the man of the group and could have easily taken just her and the kids and made it there successfully. All in all Ma Joad was one tough and stubborn woman that did whatever she could, always thinking of others and never of herself.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Tom Joad

Going off of my previous post about The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad is a good willed man that is nice to everyone. In my last post I pointed out that he killed someone, but he has learned from his mistake and now pleases everyone he meets. He doesn't keep regrets and always lives life to the fullest and day by day.

Tom was in jail for four years and finally got out. When he got home he was greeted by his entire family, happy that he was back. I know it is horrible to play favorites when it comes to your kids, but Ma and Pa Joad did. Ever since birth Tom had been their favorite son and that never changed. Even though you shouldn't play favorites I don't think my mom would be too pleased of me after four years in prison for the account of man slaughter. I have a feeling that she would care for my younger brother more and not worry about me as much. I know she would always love me, but like is a whole different story.

When the family decides to head west in order to find more work they know that Tom cannot keep the same name. The reason being he was on parole and leaving the plantation and areas surrounding it would be against the parole and he could be sent back to prison. The family comes up with a unique plan of having Tom sneak around and follow them in the woods. With them on the trails where the cops were searching wagons, Tom would be able to sneak by with no problems at all. At night the family would take him food and water and he would prepare for the next day of doing the same thing. It wasn't ideal, but it was the only way of keeping the entire family together.

That is what amazes me about families. One part of it could be perfect little angels never making a mistake and never breaking the law and the other could be the exact opposite being in and out of jail their entire life. When it comes to families though the bonds between each other is inseparable. The perfect little angel side of the family risks their lives and everything just to help another family member out, even if that means breaking the law. The love between family members cannot be broken.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Old Man and the Sea- Like or Dislike

I really enjoyed reading this book. I know that many people say they love a book to the teacher, but in reality they don't actually like it they just want the easy way out. I know this because I have said and done the very same thing. This time the book was really interesting. I don't normally like reading and I always dread summer English homework, but this time I didn't care if I had to read because this book was actually good.

Old Man and the Sea was very interesting because it was written in a newer sort of fashion that was easy for young readers to understand and comprehend what is going on. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much was the details the author used. In some books, the author will use a little description and details to explain where and when things are going on, but good authors like Hemingway use lots of details and in the right places to catch the reader and make them feel like they are actually in the book. The reason I liked reading this book so much was that exact thing, I like to feel like I am in the book doing what the author is saying.

Hemingway didn't stop with his attention to details, he also made sure he had a very strong story line and that his values in life and the overall meaning he was trying to portray were intertwined perfectly. Even though this book was the shortest of the group I read I think it was the one that was packed with the most detail and meaning. The author was able to go in depth with parts of the story that needed more emphasis and able to stay on the edge with just the basics when it wasn't an important part. That is the difference from a good book and a bad one, the attention to detail and an author that can judge when the important parts of the book need more of an impact or not.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Grapes of Wrath- Ch. 1 and 2

During chapters one and two of Grapes of Wrath, not a lot happens. Like most books the first chapter was mostly introduction stuff explaining the time, season, and time period. Towards the end of chapter one and throughout chapter two the author introduces the first main character named Tom Joad.

Tom was in prison for four years for manslaughter. I think that only four years in prison for manslaughter is outrageous. If Tom was accused of the same crime in a more modern time period he would be in prison for twenty-five years to life. Its just amazing to think about how much times have changed. Some people of today's time can be sentenced the death penalty for such a crime. We don't have this in Illinois, but in other states around the country there is.

On his way home he convinced a truck driver to give him a ride, even though the truck driver's boss told him not to, saying its the right thing to do (Steinbeck). This was the first main clue that made me think that Tom wasn't really a bad guy, he must have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Tom was in the truck the man told him that many local small town farmers have been run out of their land by the banks. I'm sure that by the time Tom got home he was relieved to still see his families farm standing off in the distant.

Chapters one and two weren't very eventful, but they set the foundation for more interesting chapters to come. I think that it is crucial when writing a novel that you have a serious foundation and one or two main characters introduced within the first twenty pages so that the reader doesn't get bored. Talking about someone being in prison is an easy way to stimulate the readers mind and make them keep reading. Steinbeck did a great job in keeping me interested in the book at the beginning.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Old man and the Sea-Q. 8

The responsibilities that take place in this book are what is common to this day. The fishing was primarily a man's job of any gender and bar tending was also a man's job. These were the only two jobs that actually took place in this story so it wasn't hard to think about these answers.

Many of the women in the 1950's would stay at home doing laundry, cleaning the house, and preparing meals for the family. The son's and men of the families would go out and find work in fields or in this case fishing for larger boats that needed cheap manual labor. Fishing was popular because the workers could use their earned wages and immediately turn around and buy fresh fish for dinner. Since the Civil War took place in the mid 1800's, there was no racial discrimination between blacks and whites. When I think about what life would have been like, I feel it was a long time ago, but truth be told some of our parents were born only a couple years later. When I think about it this way, I have trouble wondering why I thought it was so old. Thinking more I realized that the women didn't stay home as much and would go out and get work too. Along with there not being any real difference in the importance between men and women, they didn't work in fields as much anymore either. They would find work in stores and different occupations all around their city.

This novel does accurately reflect the actual history and what went on during the time period this book was set in. One of the major characters in history that played a huge role in this book was Joe DiMaggio since he was Santiago's idol. I thought that the time period the book took place in was a lot older and different than what it is now, but when I think about it there aren't very many major differences. Considering that reading a fairly modern book was a cool change in what I'm use to reading for summer English.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Old Man and the Sea-Q. 7

Some different techniques that the author uses in Old Man and the Sea are suspense and symbolism. Since the story takes place mostly out at sea Hemingway had to be very creative to not bore the reader. By using descriptive phrases, constant suspense of when the old man would reel in the fish, if he ever did, and using symbolism to show the differences and similarities between the old man and Jesus.

By using suspense, he was able to keep the reader reading wondering if the fish would get away or not. I personally kept wondering if the fish would get away or not because he didn't just reel it in immediately it took three days for him to do so. Besides suspense Hemingway used symbolism and description to interest the reader. Some of the symbols he used were comparing the old man and Jesus as I said earlier and the old man to Joe DiMaggio. Description is one thing though that authors must be good at if they want to be successful at all with writing. In this book there weren't a lot of give away's that Hemingway used to show detail, but the few spots here and there that helped explain the surroundings more really helped. Some examples are like when he describes how small and dirty the old man's shack is or when he describes the small skiff that Santiago makes do with every day while fishing (Hemingway). He even describes the water and what it looks like at different times during the day which really made me feel like I was out at sea (Hemingway).

I normally do not like reading, but the style of writing and the modern English text really clicked with me and made it easy for me to read. I enjoyed the book a lot more and it was a lot easier to read too. Besides the different techniques the modern writing style really helped pull the entire book together.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Old Man and the Sea-Q. 6

I think that we still read this book because the message will always apply to our lives no matter whats popular, what generation it is, or how old we get; our lives will always apply to this meaning or interpretation. Life doesn't matter about what other people think, as long as you are having fun you should keep it that way and enjoy yourself.

In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago spends most of his time mentoring and teaching the little boy about fishing so once the old man passed away the boy would know how. I think that when the old man went out and caught the big marlin, he didn't do it completely for the fame and to be known by the people there for catching the biggest fish they had ever seen. I think that he did it for the little boy Manolin so that he would think that the old man was still really cool and that he is a great role model and wish he could catch that big of a fish someday. I think that the old man just wanted to have one true friend and wanted to impress the boy into it by catching the fish, but in reality Manolin already enjoyed being around Santiago and he didn't have to catch the fish. I have another theory that maybe the old man did it to gain respect from the locals and for them to stop mocking him and making fun of him.

In the end, you don't have to do something to impress someone into becoming your friend if they are a true friend they will be your friend just because they enjoy being around you. Nor do you have to impress people who make fun of you for if they do its their fault and immature of them. One last thing we can learn is that if you put your mind to something you can accomplish great things.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print