My Antonia

How would My Ántonia be different if it were told from Ántonia's perspective?
If the story was told from Antonia's perspective, i do not think that very much would change. The outcomes and hardships would be different because they would be more in the point of Antonia and not of Jim. However the overall theme would be the same. Both Jim and Antonia would still have to overcome all the hardships in their childhood.


How effective is Cather, a woman, at narrating a story from the point of view of a man? Does Jim sound like a man writing, or does the narrative sound like a woman pretending to be a man?
I think that Willa Cather does an excellent job at narrating My Antonia. Jim sounds like a man writing, even though he sounds calm, and very certain of his thoughts, he sounds very carefree.


Why do you think Jim changed the title from Antonia to My Antonia?

I think he changed it to show how important Antonia was/is in his life, that she was the main reason he became the person he ended up being.

The Effects of Setting

 

Author Willa Cather embedded literary devices, such as metaphors, similes, and personification, within her writing.

"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."

"The grave, with its tall red grass that was never mowed, was like a little island."

"Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie. The wind that sweeps in from the open country strips away all the leafy screens that hide one yard from another in summer, and the houses seem to draw closer together. The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops, now stare you in the face, and they are so much uglier than when their angles were softened by vines and shrubs.


Chunk #1: 
The setting makes it difficult for the characters to survive, they have to work harder and struggle more Than they should. Also their relationships with each other makes it very difficult they are growing more apart and they have to do their own things now. Antonia is growing up she is going to parties and out with her friends, and Jim is still the same as he always was.
Chunk #2:

The setting that effects me is Winter, I have a very weak immune system, like a baby I get sick very easily. Usually during the winter I miss a lot of school because of being sick. This effects me because I get behind in school work and it is very hard to get caught up.

"Argument: Child Abuse"

Assertion Claim

• Child abuse could physically and mentally harm your child.

Evidence/Concrete detail

• Child abuse is not any way to punish a child or try to teach them a lesson, it will only make your child afraid of you, and inundated with everything.
• Commentary 1: In many cases children get hit, or brutally abused from something as little as breaking an item. Some parents leave their kids with babysitters and the babysitters will harm the children or punish them in ways the parents would not like for them to be punished.
• Commentary 2: Most runaways, adolescent prostitutes and teenage delinquent's report having been victims of a form of child abuse, and there has been reporters that violent criminals suffered abuse, either physical and/or sexual abuse.

Evidence/concrete Detail 2

• Child abuse can mentally and physically harm the child in many different ways that can leave them scarred for many years or the rest of their life.
• Children who suffer from child abuse often times see themselves as the way their abuser did if the abuser were to tell them "you are ugly and you will not amount to anything" the abused child would most likely believe that for a very long time.
• any form of abuse is destructive to a child's self-confidence and self-esteem. That can affect a child's emotional development, resulting in a sense of and inadequacy.

Opposing Claim

• What some might say is abuse others might say is just a punishment and is the only way to get their child to listen. They may say that everybody has different ways to punish their child, and that a few bruises wont hurt them.

My Rebuttal

•   I say it is not "punishment" if you are physically harming the child which will affect them their whole life, punishment is not hitting the child 10 to 20 times or kicking them or neglecting them, that is not punishment. Bruises may heal, but the mental damage will not. That will be with them for a very long time.

My Paragraph:

     Child abuse is not any way to punish a child or try to teach them a lesson, it will only make your child afraid of you, and frightened of everything.  In many cases children get hit, or brutally abused from something as little as breaking an item. Some parents leave their kids with babysitters and the babysitters will harm the children or punish them in ways the parents would not like for them to be punished. Most runaways, adolescent prostitutes and teenage delinquent's report having been victims of a form of child abuse, and there has been reported that violent criminals suffered abuse, either physical and/or sexual abuse Child abuse can mentally and physically harm the child in many different ways that can leave them scarred for many years or the rest of their life.Children who suffer from child abuse often times see themselves as the way their abuser did if the abuser were to tell them "you're ugly and you will not amount to anything" the abused child would most likely believe that for a very long time. Any form of abuse is destructive to a child's self-confidence and self-esteem. That can affect a child's emotional development, resulting in a sense of and inadequacy. What some might say is abuse others might say is just a punishment and is the only way to get their child to listen. They may say that everybody has different ways to punish their child, and that a few bruises wont hurt them. I say is not "punishment" if you are physically harming the child which will affect them their whole life, punishment is not hitting the child 10 to 20 times or kicking them or neglecting them, that is not punishment.Bruises may heal, but the mental damage will not, that will be with them for a very long time.

My Thinking: This paragraph is mostly deductive thinking because of the website i got this information from.

Source:
http://www.nccafv.org/child.htm

When faced with fear we all act in different ways.



In The Red Badge of Courage Henry lived on a farm and found himself to be bored all the time so he thought he would enlist in the army because he thought it would be better than living on the farm. Though Henry finds that the War is not quit what he expected. He is afraid and finds himself having an internal conflict with himself always wondering if he will stay and fight or run away from battle. Surprisingly Henry finds himself prepared and fought in a battle. They win that battle and he goes to sleep somewhat satisfied with himself, but the next morning they get a surprise attack, and Henry unable to prepare himself runs away from battle. Henry ran because he was afraid and scared that he would die. He did not have time to mentally prepare himself. So with Henry when faced with fear he runs away because he feels he is not ready.



Forrest Gump is completely different from Henry. He finds himself in many situations and just "goes with it." When Forrest is in Viatnam he fights relentlessly, he only stops fighting when lieutenant Dan tells him " Run Forrest run." Well Forrest runs and finds himself all alone "which is a very bad thing" so he goes back because "Bubba was his best good friend he had to make sure he was ok." and while he is there he finds other soldiers who are wounded and are asking for help so he carries one by one soldiers back to safety. To me I find Forrest to be very brave, I do not think he thought about fear or dieng he did what he did because he is a warrior. Unlike Henry he does not run from fear but runs to it.

Remembering 9.11

I do not remember much about that day, but what I do remember is blurry. I remember sitting in class when my teacher started crying and turned on the t.v, I still did not know what was going on. I remember just about every teacher and parent I seen that day talking about planes and people dieing it scared me.


When I got home that day I asked my mom what was going on and she told me " bad people crashed an airplane into the World Trade Center, and many people got hurt" to me I still thought it was not true. I asked my mom questions like " why did they do that ", "are they still here" ," why did this happen" and my mom could never answer me she just said " i do not know i do not have the answers to that Hun"
 
The next day we went to school, and everything was the same nothing had changed. Now when I look back everything had changed. I just did not realize it cause I was so young. The security at airports changed a lot, you could no longer carry certain types of accessories and a lot of other changes happend as well.

It is so sad to think about all the wife's, husbands, moms, dads, daughters, sons etc that will never come home and family's who will never see their loved ones again. Those were innocent people and so many peoples lives were affected by this.


 I am sure everyone else will never forget September 11. It will be a day that will always be remembered and will never be forgotten.

Wounded Warrior Project

  The Wounded Warrior Project lets veterans know they have people who care and appreciate what they have done for our country, also it lets us show our appreciation which is something we cannot always do. The mission of the WWP is to " Honor and empower wounded warriors". The WWP also enlist public aid to severely injured service men and women, to help service members aid and assist eachother to provide direct programs and services that fit thier needs.

I think its good that they have so many programs that can be helpful for these veterans.This Project has numerous programs that helps the mind, body, economic empowerment, and engagement. In my opinion I think it will not only help them but also help their familys who are going throught this with them also , to keep their thoughts away from all the bad that has happend to them.

It also shows americans that these soldiers are not just fighting for our freedom they are losing so much more then just thier lives at home, but their arms, legs, and flesh. I think it really opens so many peoples eyes to truly appreciate what they are doing and also gives a way to try and help them.

I think that this should make people proud of these veterans if they are not already, they risk everything for us while we are here living our lives complaining about things that do not even matter at the end of the day like, how much homework we have, or not being able to hang out with our friends or go somewhere. Maybe if we look more into all these veterans have done and what are soldiers are doing right this second, it will make us more grateful.

 I think that it would be great for our english classes to support the Wounded Warrior Project.

Book Review

Andrea Busfields born under a million shadows interested me with its detail about the country and what was going on in the main characters thoughts and lives.

The theme of the book is struggle, I think that the lesson is to inform readers how hard life is for many people and sometimes you learn to trust others to get you through it, also no matter how hard your life is somebody's is probably worse. One reasoning on why I think this is because Fawad the main character always said after telling one of this struggles " But that is just Afghanistan everybody knows pain and death is just death" Other struggles that Fawad had was he lost his whole family but his mother. His mother ended up getting very sick he had to deal with being without her for the first time.

The characters were very believable, because when the author wrote about them she put so much detail into what they were saying or feeling. Fawad the main character was also my favorite character because he was so smart and very sweet. He put a lot of thought into what he said like " This was my family, as complete and happy as it would ever be. Then one by one like leaves falling from a tree they began to die" George was also a very good character she was always calm.

I can compare this book to the Kite Runner because it also talks about struggles in the Afghanistan, its about a little boy as well. And I think The authors had similar ways of writing their books cause they both had so much detail I could really paint a picture as I was reading the books

War is..

War is devastating, ruining our soldiers lives.
War is painful, killing many.
War is expanding, getting bigger.
War is spending, costing a lot of money
War is a argument, nobody wins.
War is destroying, ruining our country.
War is killing, infinently many.
War is abducting, stealing soldiers lives.
War is agonizing, it never ends.
War is "assuring", it keeps us safe.