My Antonia

In Willa Cather's novel "My Antonia" she talks about how she views the pioneer time.  She says that they lived the simple life only needing necessities.  During that time needed alot of land for farming, know how to communicate with other farmers, money and needed people to help work your farms to grow enough food to survive.

My Antonia is told in the perspective of another main character. Jim, but if the story was told in Antonia's perspective the whole story would change and be told in a different way.  Jim came from a whole different background. He was obdurate, richer, born and raised in America and had plenty of land.  Antonia on the other hand was poor, struggled to grow enough food to survive and was a immigrant to America.

Willa Cather being a woman was trying to tell this novel in a mans point of view, showing the situation that Jim is in.  If the author would have been a man, this story would have been completely different. Jim would have acted like a totally different person. With the author being a woman it sounds like a woman trying to sound like a man, she tells all of Jim's feelings and about how much he cares for Antonia. She does not sound like a man at all.

Jim changes the title in my opinion because he understands Antonia, he knows what she has gone through and what she has lived through.  Though they may have never became a couple he still cares for her and they were really close. 

This novel shows the way that pioneers struggled during that time period. It also showed all of the hardships immigrants faced as they came to America.  I believe that a sequel in Antonia's point of view would be a very good sequel to this book.

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: Comment the effect of the setting on the characters within the novel.
The setting in the novel plays major roles on the characters.  It affected Antonia by making her learn to work and manage a farm, if she did not learn to do so she and her family would not survive. The setting effected Jim because living in the society that he lived in it helped him know his social class or standards since he was a lawyer.

Chunk #2: discuss the effect a setting on you, including imagery (lots of adjectives) and a simile or a metaphor as you describe the land.

The baseball field is peaceful to me, especially on game day when the lights are shining bright and the fans are screaming.  Standing on the mound, my arm as a whip as it slings the ball to the plate. Hearing the words "strike three" come from the umpire is one of the greatest feelings, as if I struck out Babe Ruth.  The baseball field truely my oasis, where I go to get away from the stress from school or parents.

Gun Control Pros and Cons

Assertion / Claim

• People should have the right to own guns.

Evidence / Concrete Detail

• "A well regulated militia, being necessary to secure a free state, right of people to bare arms shall not be fringed."
• The control of fire arms by people may one day help us secure a free nation.
• The second amendment protects peoples individual right to keep and bare arms.
• If we did not have guns there would be no way to protect your family from criminals. You would lose your feeling of security in your own home.
• If the right to own guns was taken away, only law enforcement would be the only ones allowed to have guns.  Criminals would find a way to own them via black market.  Drugs are illegal and we yet have stopped them from selling them.
• When the criminals break in you will have no way to defend yourself, which would take away your feeling of security, a cop can only get there so fast.
• Opposing Claims
• Some think that owning guns would be a good thing, I believe that we should take guns away so that law enforcement should own them. This would help keep criminals from owning guns which would make the world a better place.
• I think that guns do kill people, if we got guns out of the hands of citizens this would decrease the number of people killed due to firearms.
• My Rebuttal
• How ever, I believe that it is necessary to secure a free state.  if only law enforcement had them criminals would get them off the black market. This would risk the lives of many more citizens who are unable to protect themselves.
• My Paragraph
• People should have the right to own guns.A well regulated militia, being necessary to secure a free state, right of people to bare arms shall not be fringed." The control of fire arms by people may one day help us secure a free nation.The second amendment protects peoples individual right to keep and bare arms. If we did not have guns there would be no way to protect your family from criminals. You would lose your feeling of security in your own home.If the right to own guns was taken away, only law enforcement would be the only ones allowed to have guns. Criminals would find a way to own them via black market. Drugs are illegal and we yet have stopped them from selling them.If people were not so tractable by drugs then guns would not cause as many deaths as they have today. When the criminals break in you will have no way to defend yourself, which would take away your feeling of security, a cop can only get there so fast. Some think that owning guns would be a good thing, We should take guns away so that law enforcement should own them. This would help keep criminals from owning guns which would make the world a better place. Guns do kill people, if we got guns out of the hands of citizens this would decrease the number of people killed due to firearms.How ever, I believe that it is necessary to secure a free state. if only law enforcement had them criminals would get them off the black market. This would risk the lives of many more citizens who are unable to protect themselves.
• My Thinking
• I think I am a inductive thinker. I think that because I thought of all of the consequences then thought of the theory that only law enforcement and criminals would own guns.
http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/second-amendmenthttp://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/second-amendment

wounded warrior project

The wounded warrior project is a project to help soldiers who were injured while fighting for our country.  This is a great foundation, one that I would like to volunteer my time and money for. This is for a great cause if it wasn't for these soldiers we would not be the free country we are today.  It is the least we can do is to send them a gift to let them know that we are thankful for what they have done and risked for our freedom.

Henry vs Forrest

     Henry and Forrest are similar and different in many ways. One being they both ran. Secondly they both were very scared.

     Forrest ran into the war to save all of his friends, especially Bubba. But Henry on the other hand ran away from the war because he was a wimp and didn't want to die. They also both ran because of their Lt.'s. Forrest ran because his Lt. told him to though. Henry ran from his Lt. because he was scared.

     Henry was scared because he didn't want to lose his life while fighting. Forrest on the other hand was scared because he wanted Bubba to live, along with all of his friends. So he went back into the woods and carried every single one that was alive to safety.

     As you can see Forrest and Henry were alike and different in many ways.
 

War Is.....

War is needed, protecting our rights.
War is bloody, killing our citizens.
War is loss, mourning over a loved one.
War is hated, destroying a nation.
War is money, costing us billions.
War is necessary, expanding our power.
War is death, changing lives of families.
War is victorious, winning the war.
War is the past, remembering the soldiers who died.
War is always, remaining till the end of time.

Remembering 9/11

The terrorist act of 9/11 has effected many people in the United States.They have murdered a countless amount of people not only in the United States but our soldiers over seas, also people in their own country.  The murders affected more than just the ones who lost their lives, the family members and their friends also mourn for their loss.  9/11 also made some Americans lose the feeling of safety while doing some everyday activities, such as the people who were killed in the attack most of them were just at work or catching a flight. People may have quit their jobs due to being scared to be on a plane, flight attendants and pilots may have been without a job.  They may not have been trained or skilled to do other jobs making them in search for a job, some of them could have lost their house,cars, and other items due to a loss in income because of this.

 Who in their right mind could kill that many people for something that might not even happen? They believed they were doing this for a good cause for their country, they also believed they would have 72 virgins waiting for them in heaven. The attackers deserved more than just death, but there's nothing they can do now. All we can do is win the war on terrorism and hope that nothing like this ever happens to the United States again.