Survival

Authors Note: I wrote this piece to compare theme of survival in two different books. I would like feedback on if I compared the two books with enough examples. 
Throughout life, you will probably find yourself surviving through many different types of things. Maybe it’s a health issue, financial issues or anything else. I am comparing the theme of survival in two different books that I have read this year. Both books had many similarities, but they also had many differences as well. The two books I am comparing are Breathless and Give Me Liberty. Within both books I noticed a common similarity: many people have difficulties throughout life, and they have to find ways to survive through the things they are facing. 

In both books, no one understood how the main character felt as they were trying to survive.Nathaniel from Give Me Liberty felt unwanted, disliked and basically useless. Since he was a slave it was probably really hard for him to do things for his owner, Owen, because if you don’t like someone; what would make you want to do things for them? Travis from Breathless was dying of cancer. His parents wanted to send him to a different country to receive a new special treatment. All he wanted to do was die because he was already suffering due to the affects of the cancer. A lesson that I learned from reading both those books is to always look at things from a different person’s perspective, because you never know how the other person feels.

There was also another big similarity I saw in both books. Many people have anger in life, but some people have a much deeper level of anger than other people. Possibly due to something that happened in the past. Some people still have anger about something that happened ten or more years ago. Nathaniel is a disrespected young boy until he meets Basil his new master. Prior to being a slave for Basil, his master beat him and treated him with little respect. In the long run that can do bad things to someone. Having anger is a common theme because in Breathless, Travis is faced with major anger. He is basically angry with the world. I mean I probably would be mad with everyone if I found out I had cancer too. Being faced with cancer took down all his dreams .At his High School, he was the best diver and once he got his leg amputated; that was the end of his diving career. Even though reading Breathless was really sad, I really learned to be happy with my life and cherish every moment of it.

There were also some differences in theme in both books. As I read both of these books, I noticed many differences. Once of the big differences is what each character is actually surviving through. One character was surviving through cancer, and the other is living through a war period. Breathless, is a real like book; that could end up happening to anyone on any given day. Give Me Liberty couldn’t really happen right now because we don’t have slavery anymore. Nathaniel is trying to protect himself from getting shot, and on the other hand Travis is living through cancer and all the affects of it. Unfortunately one day his battle with cancer ended, when he died in the hospital.

The main things I took away from reading both books were some very deep and life changing lessons. No matter how hard life is you just have to keep fighting through it, you can never give up. That’s the most important thing. Reading these books showed me how bad other people’s life’s are and then it really made me realize how much I need to be thankful for. Next time you’re having a bad day just think that you’ll get through it, but also remember how much worse your life could be.

Conflict & Resolution

One of the conflicts in the book Give Me Liberty is when Owen and Nathaniel get into their major fight. You could tell they were going to have a “Fall Out” because Owen was never satisfied with the work that Nathaniel was putting forward. Part of the problem could have been that maybe Nathaniel really wasn’t giving his best efforts but it also could have been that Owen just simply expect way too much from him. If you set your standards too high from the start it, the outlook isn’t very good! Also prior to having Nathaniel, Owen might have had older kids and therefore they would probably be able to do a lot more work then he could.

After their fight, Nathaniel was really beat up. He looked really bad, like someone said that if it would’ve continued on Nathaniel could have died! I can’t imagine how bad that must have been. A while later, Owen really was just done with Nathaniel so he knew he needed to sell him to someone else, and that’s when Basil came in! Basil bought Nathaniel and now that is who he is working for. I think that was a good resolution to the problem because Nathaniel is a much happier person with Basil. He is treated with a lot of respect and I think that makes a big difference in how hard he would want to work for someone. In my opinion I think that was a great resolution, just the way it had to come about wasn’t good at all!

Shopping in Chicago with Patricia and Carry

Authors Note: I wrote this creative piece in class, and it is terrible, so don't judge people!!!! 


One weekend in December, Patricia was really bored because her 7 children, Bertha, Minnie, Bessie, Fred, Arthur, Edward and Henry were at their grandparents house. She normally is at home because she is a stay at home mom, so since she didn't have the kids with her she wanted to do something fun for herself. She thought that it would be really fun to take a bus to Chicago, and it makes total sense because Christmas is coming soon and she still needed to get gifts for some people. Her oldest daughter Bertha really wanted some "trendy clothes" and she knew that Chicago was the place to go!

She got in her 2001 mini van, and drove to the local park and ride where the bus was stopping for a pick up. When she got there she parked the car, and then went into the little shelter and waited for the bus to arrive. 20 minutes later the bus arrived to make the pick up and about 30 people were there to get on. Immediately Patricia was trying to figure out who she would sit by, she walked to the back of the bus where no one was sitting and then she took a seat. Everyone got seated, and the bus drove off to the next pick up. When they arrived there were only about 10 people there and one of them decided to come sit right next to Patricia. It was a 32 year old woman named Carry, she was really nice. Her and Patricia started talking on the drive, and then later became best friends!

BEEP,BEEP,BEEP, the taxi's were all honking as they entered the city. Patricia had never seen anything like this because her family lives in a small city, there is hardly anyone there, so this was a new experience. 4 hours later, the bus finally arrived at its destination, Michigan Ave. Everyone slowly got up from their seat and filed off the bus. Patricia and Carry decided that they were going to shop together. Carry wanted to go to the American Girl store, Patricia didn't even know where to start! Carry started walking towards the American Girl store and Patricia started following her along. Once they got in, they were looking around at all the amazing dolls and Patricia decided that it would be a really nice gift to get one for her youngest daughter Minnie.


To be continued….

Point of View

Give Me Liberty is mostly being told by Nathaniel. Since he is telling the story you really get a lot of emotion because he’s a servant, and is facing a lot of hard times in his life. One event that happened was when Owen sold Nathaniel to Basil. He was explaining how they got in a fight and you could just sense the pain that he was feeling emotionally and physically. Also you were given a visual of what the fight looked like. Another time Nathaniel was explaining just how terrible it was being a servant for Owen, like when someone is expressing their feelings like that you really can connect to the character. One time Nathaniel was telling about how he was excited that Basil was going to teach him to play the German flute. When he was saying how he wanted to learn how to play the instrument and everything you could really sense the excitement he had. From Nathaniel's point of view, the reader can see how slaves lived, and they don't take things for granted.

The book would have been a lot different if it was being told in maybe Owens point of view. Now Owen was the guy that Nathaniel used to be a servant for, and from what was said in the book it sounds like they never really got along. I mean I can’t imagine having to work for someone that I don’t like and at the same time they really hate me, that would be just awful! I think the fighting scene in Owens point of view would be really bad. I’m guessing that it would have a lot of harsh words towards Nathaniel because he really didn’t like him, and then it got so bad they got into a physical fight. Then when he sold Nathaniel to Basil I think Owen would have been making comments about how happy he is to not have to deal with him anymore and probably a lot of other rude things too. But I think overall if this book was written in Owens point of view it would be a lot different.

Creative Story

A crash, like that of a window breaking, woke me with a start. It was 2am, on a Monday morning so I was really confused as to what could be going on. My first thought… OMG I'm getting robbed. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window to see if I could see anything. But I couldn't. Then I ran downstairs to see if there was a person or something in my house. I went in the kitchen, living room, and lastly the bathroom and laundry room and I didn't see anything. What a relief, it was nothing in my house. But I still needed to know what that sound was. So I walk upstairs, turn on the lights in my room and I noticed that there was a big spill of glass and water on the floor. Oh, yeah then I remember that I had a glass of water on my nightstand and it must of spilled off on the floor. All that stress for nothing, running around the whole house and then the issue was right in my own bedroom. Wow did I feel stupid! After I found the broken glass I had to pick it all up and then I put a towel down on the water so it would dry. Then I could finally go back to sleep after my minor scare.