Short Story Reflection

            The three short stories that I read independently were “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “Rise of the Flapper,” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” I have noticed that each story takes place in a different time period and different place. Another thing I have noticed include that each story contains a psychologically dark mood.

            These are highly important because, some of them could explain what life was like in those times. I think that using the knowledge; we could learn more about many ways of life from those times. Plus, we could learn about survival skills.

Literary Elements

I have noticed many examples of literary elements in the short stories we have read so far. For example, in every short story that we've read, we can tell from the 1st paragraph that they are sad stories. Plus, many of the stories end with the main character dying while other stories end with the protagonist feeling sorry for themselves. These stories are not really interesting to me in any way whatsoever because of their endings.

This paragraph contains the amount of time I spent reading “The Book Thief” and the short stories this week. 10/8/12:  30 min.  10/9: 30 min. 10/10: 30 min. 10/12: 30 min. 10/13:  30 min. 10/14:  30 min. 

First Quarter Evaluation

I have mixed feelings about my performance this quarter because of many problems. Although I did wait to be dismissed, check my e-mail and the website, and use appropriate communication through e-mail, I had a small problem with coming to class prepared. This is because I can have a hard time keeping track of my belongings. If only I could go back in time and present this from happening. Sadly, I can't prevent what has already happened. However, I can prevent the same thing from happening in the future by pushing myself even harder and making sure I keep track of my belongings.

            Unfortunately, the problem does not end here. The 1st quarter of freshman year has been a disaster for me. To make matters worse, I have so many terrible grades in English that I don't think I can make it through high school. If I can't pass English, then I might as well give up my dream of becoming an author. 

Reading Details

October 1: "The Book Thief" 10 minutes
October 2: "To Da-Duh, In Memorium" 10 minutes 
October 3: "A&P" 10 minutes
October 4: "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" 20 minutes
October 5: "The Book Thief" 30 minutes
October 6: "The Book Thief" 30 minutes
October 7: "The Book Thief" 10 minutes

"I am a writer who..."

I am a writer who enjoys writing because it gives me a way to express my imagination. Using ideas I think of while watching TV, movies, and reading in books, I can explore new adventures for my main characters. One of my favorite stories that I have written is “Heroes Rising.” The main character of the story is Jake the Snake who enters a martial arts tournament and is forced to fight his way out by defeating the fierce opponents. 

Reading Response to The Book Thief: Plot Support

The exposition for The Book Thief includes that the angel of death, which reveals that this will not be a happy story, narrates the story. What’s more it’s set during World War II, adding to my suspicion that tragic events will unfold.

Rising action: At the very start of the book the main character, Liesel’s, brother dies on the train, and we learn that Liesel is the book thief. This makes me wonder why he considers her a thief and why she is stealing books. Also, it makes me wonder if she will continue to steal books. Other events in rising action include the plane crash, and the family harboring a Jew to protect him from the Nazis.

Conflict: It’s war so people are being persecuted, Liesel is living with a foster family, food is scarce, the Hubermann’s are in conflict within their family due political views, and there is conflict in their community for political reasons as well. Liesel also experiences conflict at school, and even while playing soccer.

Climax: The climax of the book is when Max, the Jew who they will protect, arrives at the Hubermann’s door.

Falling Action: Conflict continues as does suspense because of the risks the Hubermann’s are taking protecting Max. Also, Liesel is growing up, and acting out by stealing books from the Mayor of the town.

Resolution: I haven’t gotten to the end! 

Free Post: Yom Kippur

Free Post: Yom Kippur

            On Wednesday, September 25, the Jewish people will be celebrating a high holy day called Yom Kippur. Every year, we cast our sins into the sea for Adonai. We also fast in order to make amends for our sins. After all, Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement.”

            On this day, we also reflect the days we have sinned and look to the future. We also repent and think about how this can make us better people. Every day I think of the past when I should really look to the future. On Yom Kippur, I usually work on controlling my anxiety, temper, and several other components. I think that people should work on their problems every day instead of just on Yom Kippur.

Reading Responses to The Book Thief and Studying the Torah

Reading Responses to The Book Thief and Studying the Torah

            I am still reading The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I have also started my own literacy narrative, Studying the Torah, which is based on the 2 years I spent studying for my bar mitzvah. The following paragraph shows my reading/working log.

            9/17. 20 min. 9/18. 30 min. 9/19. 20 min. 9/20. 20 min. 9/21. 60 min. By the end of the week, I reached page 180 and started draft 2 of my literacy narrative.

            In The Book Thief, Lisel’s foster father has found out about her stealing of books. He promises not to tell Lisel’s foster mother as long as she does not steal any more books. In my literacy narrative, I explain the different methods of studying for my bar mitzvah. It also explains my speech and the story of Nadab and Abihu. Plus, I am currently typing this post, my cat Hester is laying on my keyboard, and he is the cutest thing ever.

Reading Response to The Book Thief

Reading Response to The Book Thief

            I am currently reading The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. This book is really sad because it takes place in World War II, and thus describes millions of deaths. The following paragraph shows my reading log.

9/12. 20 minutes. 9/13. 20 minutes. 9/14. 60 minutes. 9/15. 20 minutes. 9/16. 20 minutes. By the end of the week I reached page 101.

            This book is about an orphaned girl named Liesel who is stealing books that are supposed to be burned by the Nazis during World War II, hiding them under her mattress, and using them to learn how to read. Doing so, she is saving the books from being burned. Therefore, in my opinion, Liesel is not actually a thief. This story explains how in World War II, not only Jews were persecuted, but communists and several others were also persecuted. To make matters worse, Liesel’s foster father is communist and he mysteriously disappears. Nobody should have had to experience the events of World War II, but these events were very real.

            It is hard to understand why anybody would destroy books and ideas written by others. Disrespectful! Could this possibly happen today? I hope not. But my dad tells me things like that are still happening due to those people who want to intimidate others and force them to change their beliefs. Yikes! How do we stop this sort of thing? This question is basically impossible to answer, but I have 4 words for everyone: Fight for your beliefs.

My Literacy Narrative

            Although I have enjoyed writing for many years, I have never been a fan of literacy narratives. For some reason, I get terrible writer’s block, much worse than with creative writing. However, since Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) begins tonight, I thought I would explain my experience with the stories of the Torah, which consists of the Old Testament, which Jews follow and our religious foundation.

            The Torah has been around for thousands of years and passed down by generations of Jews. Each section of the Torah contains a story about biblical characters from a certain time. The Torah portion I studied for my bar mitzvah was about the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. I wrote a speech explaining their story. While writing this speech, I learned that many scholars created different interpretations of the narrative. My interpretation from what I saw was unique.            

            I think it is interesting that Jews have debated this and other stories from the Torah for thousands of years. I wonder how much modern interpretations differ from older ones? It seems these opinions must be an important part of why Judaism has been around for so long and continues today.

Response Post In Defense of Creative Writing

Response Post

In Defense of Creative Writing

            On August 26, I posted a blog called In Defense of Creative Writing. Eventually, I found a comment labeled, “I like this post and I agree that creative writing is important. Why do you think it needs defending though?” Today, I will answer that question precisely.

            There are many reasons why creative writing needs to be defended. Some people might think creative writing shouldn't exist because of the facts of reality. However that is not true. In fact, almost every popular book on the globe uses creative writing. Plus, people need to understand that creativity leads to wonderful ideas. Creative writing is highly important and you nobody should forget that.

Reading Response to Cherub: The Killing Part 3

Reading Response to Cherub: The Killing

Part 3

            I have just finished Cherub: The Killing, by Robert Muchamore after reading another 150 min. Last time, I explained how this book relates to bullying. Now, I will explain how it relates to horrible tempers and there consequences.

           

            In this book, short-tempered police officer, Michael Patel, faces several problems with aggression. He has lost his temper multiple times, hurting and sometimes killing other people in the process. In one part of this book, Patel hit the main protagonist’s head against the wall of his own car during one of his temper tantrums. At the end it is also revealed that he was responsible for throwing a reclusive 18-year-old boy off a rooftop 13 months earlier after completely losing control of himself. For this reason, Patel is now in a cell for the rest of his life. This is why people need to control themselves. Especially when they are adults because completely lose control of yourself may cause you to commit serious crimes and end up like poor old Patel.

           

Reading Response to "Cherub: The Killing" Part 2

Reading response to “Cherub: The Killing”

Part 2

I am still reading Cherub: The Killing by Robert Muchamore. Now, I have spent a total of 12 hours reading it. Last time, I explained how this book relates to labels. However, now I'm explaining how it relates to bullying.

In this book, the Cherub Organization’s head trainer, Mr. Large, is an extremely tough drill sergeant. A drill sergeant’s job is to push his or her cadets extremely hard and toughen them up, in order to put them in shape. However, their job does not involve bullying the cadets. Mr. Large crossed this line multiple times and punished cadets for the fun of it. However, this ended after a training exercise, when he crossed the line again, by bullying a cadet and her group. Because of this, Mr. Large has been demoted to an ordinary training instructor. Bullying affects everyone at one time or another. It is important to stand up to bullies and it is good to see bullies face consequences.

           

           

            

How Hurricane Isaac’s Impact Affected My Dad's Office

How Hurricane Isaac’s Impact Affected My Dad's Office

My father runs a company called Starmount Life Insurance with more than 150 employees. I have been to the old and new buildings multiple times. Sometimes I even work there. Usually, the business is crowded with employees, working to help customers all over the country.

            However, on August 30, 2012, due to Hurricane Isaac's impact, every other business on the street, lost electricity. But thanks to the generators in the building, our electricity, Internet, and customer service still worked.  There were fewer people working than normal and so the office was pretty quiet, but the people who were there were working really hard. Plus, in most areas, including my dad's office, the air conditioning was not working which means it was incredibly hot. Therefore our employees, many who also did not have power at home, came to work anyway in a very hot and sweaty office. The employees came to work because their families needed money, they had customers all over the country, and they took their jobs very seriously.  It would have been easy for these people to stay at home and just not go to work. I was really impressed with their dedication and hard work.

In Defense of Creative Writing: An Author's Manifesto

In Defense of Creative Writing: An Author's Manifesto

Jake Sternberg

8/26/12

Block 3

Creative writing has always helped people to express their imaginations and creativity through stories. Plus, creative writing has also led to the creation of science fiction, realistic fiction, comedy, mystery, and fantasy novels such as Harry Potter, Moby Dick, Alex Rider, Cherub, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes, and several others. One of the greatest science fiction writers in history, Ray Bradbury, wrote incredible novels throughout his life.

Throughout history, writers have expressed their ideas through creative writing. This has not only led to the creation of novels, but fiction movies, short stories, comics, graphic novels, cartoons, live-action TV shows, and even video games because the 1st step to creating any of these is creative writing. I have been writing since 2nd grade, and gained most of my ideas from other books, movies, video games, and TV shows. To avoid plagiarism however, I make several changes to the plot, setting, name, and characters, thus trying extremely hard to make the stories my own. As I write, I think about Albert Einstein's quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” and mix my creativity with everything I have learned so far. Creative writing has been a wonderful tool for writers all over the world and I think it will do the same in the future.

Reading Response to "Cherub: The Killing"

Reading Response to "Cherub: The Killing"

Jake Sternberg

8/26/12

Block 3

I am currently reading the forth book in Robert Muchamore's Cherub series. Plus, I spent 6 hours during the 2 weeks of school reading it. This book is called Cherub: The Killing. This book relates to the fact that many people label the way others make money. Usually they may assume that someone either won the lottery or robbed a bank and when it's revealed that the person did not win the lottery, it makes the police highly suspicious.

However, I have many questions to ask about this book. First, why are people always labeling others? Second, why did the police believe a rumor that somebody won the lottery or robbed the bank? Just because they didn't win the lottery doesn't mean they robbed a bank. People shouldn't assume those labels on others.

CHERUB: Maximum Security Reading Response

The book, CHERUB: Maximum Security, is about a top-secret organization that uses kids at the ages of 7-17 to perform top-secret missions, which the CIA, FBI, and MI5 have never been able to accomplish. This book contains a lot of action and adventure, which I enjoyed because they put a vivid picture in my head about what was happening.  These details brought a number of interesting questions to my mind, especially about the role kids play in society.

In particular, I question of how child criminals are treated by the justice system. It is ironic that while CHERUB missions usually involve kids putting adult criminals behind bars, this time, the main protagonist, child spy, James Adams, is supposed to break a child criminal out of a maximum-security prison. The 14-year-old criminal, Curtis Oxford, was convicted of killing 3 innocent people and is being held in a maximum-security prison in Arizona. It’s hard to believe that if a child commits a serious crime, they can be sentenced just as adults by the justice system. I can't imagine being sentenced to life in prison or worse. As a citizen of my community, I understand that the larger good in society sometimes requires tough discipline, even for kids. However, I wonder if a harsh punishment means that child may miss a chance to truly change. Can we trust the system to do the right thing? How do we help kids avoid committing crimes?

Free Response Essay My Incredible Summer

           

        

          Over the past five years, I have been going to a summer camp located on Echo Lake, in Fayette, Maine. This paradise is known as Camp Winnebago. Every summer my family and I go to New York on an airplane, and a few days later they bring me to the Museum of Natural History where the camp’s bus picks everyone up. Next, the campers and I take a long bus ride, while sharing many wonderful snacks, watching a movie, and making a stop for lunch on the way. Finally, we arrive at Camp Winnebago where we give our cell phones to the camp director, Andy Lilienthal, a counselor escorts us to our bunks, and we unpack our luggage. The summer is ready to begin!

            This summer was known as the Summer of Virtue. I was in Bunk 33 with three other campers, Daniel Perreault, Gabe DeSantis, and Kenny Rosenfeld. I went on two camping trips, which we re highlights of my summer. My first trip was a six-day canoeing trip on the St. Croix River. A few weeks later, I went on a trip to Acadia National Park, which was my favorite. On this trip, we went sea kayaking, hiking, and mountain biking. Although all of these activities were incredible, the best part of these trips was that I made many wonderful new friendships.