Call of the Wild review

Jack London’s Call of the Wild showed me a side of adventure I never knew I had. I really liked the book because of themes and writing styles represented.

One of the themes is eat or be eaten. The main character Buck is a monstrous dog that got taken from his cozy home in California and was used as a sled dog. He soon learned that the Klondike was a harsh environment and he had to look out for himself. Dogs would regularly fight to the death, hence eat or be eaten.

Jack London used a very vivid style in this book. He shows the story not tells it. He makes it very easy to see and hear as if you were actually in the 1900’s Klondike gold rush. In many of the action scenes he has a very brutal form of writing but it is also extremely realistic.

Another theme is taking a stand. Buck takes stands in many instances that are life and death. He fought a dog to the death, wolves and even a group of natives that had bows and arrows. He inspired me to also take stands because he took stands in deadly situations so I decided I could stand up to the everyday challenges.

Call of the Wild is an early 1900’s book but I was a really simple read. I really enjoyed reading it because it was a nice change from reading about humans all the time.

Antigone Review

In Sophocles Antigone many different themes are represented. The strength to take stands against curses and rulers.

Losing her brothers in battle, Antigone must decide whether to take a stand against the ruler, King Creon, who would not allow her to bury her brothers or not allow her brothers to pass to the afterlife.

Taking major stands can have detrimental tolls both physically and mentally. Some are minute some are huge. Even though Antigone was faced with death she did not even have a second thought about burying her brothers and saving their afterlives.

Many say Antigone is much like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet because of the ruined relationships from suicides and murders. I agree though I think Shakespeare modeled Romeo and Juliet after Antigone because Sophocles was a much earlier writer.

Antigone was a very hard read for me because of the time period it was written in but the message still came through clear.

Standing Up for What is Right

Parties can be a very fun place to be, but they can also be a very prominent place for trouble.

The party was raging, and everyone was having a great time. The partiers got so excited that they brought out the alcohol and that is when everything began to go bad. The brew started flowing from the bottles and cans and every one began drinking except me.

I sat in the corner unnoticed, but then someone noticed unfortunately. Soon everyone decided to get me to drink. After refusing multiple times, every one was saying “come on” and “just have a drink”

I kept refusing because I could hear my mom’s voice in the back of my head saying, “Don’t do anything stupid.” Finally I got so annoyed with all of them that I just got up and left the party. Though probably because I feared my mom, I am proud of the peer pressure I withstood.

Sophmore.5

My first high school, as a sophomore, is half over. It has been a little bit dull, but I think it will pick up in the second semester. In the second semester conference in basketball starts and soccer will start.

This first semester I have made pretty good grades and I have actually learned quite a bit. Math is a whole lot harder but I think I have learned more in this semester than I have in most other whole years. This is the first year I have really gotten in depth in a science class. In my other English classes I had learned how to spell and read, but in this English class I am actually trying to learn a lot of grammar.

I have learned a lot this half semester and I plan to learn more the next semester, and I will hopefully have fun with basketball and soccer as I do it.

Fate Vs. Free Will

In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar the theme of fate versus free will is very relevant. I think Shakespeare believes that fate and free will coincide with each other and the line between the two is very delicate.

Fate is represented in the many prophecies and omens mentioned throughout the play. Free will is represented by the characters making big decision. Many characters had struggles between their fate and free will. Caesar, Cassius, and Brutus are the main ones. Caesar fate was prevalent in the beginning of the book when he ignored the soothsayer saying. “Beware the ides of March.” and later Calphurnia had a dream about Caesar dying. Later in the book Brutus and Cassius make many rash decisions that changed their fate drastically. For example, killing Caesar and then killing themselves.

In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare many of the characters support some sort of a leadership quality. Caesar himself was a great military leader Cassius and Brutus both were very influential public leaders, in Rome, and were the leaders of Caesar’s assassination.

In this play I believe Julius Caesar had the greatest leadership amongst all the characters. He had leadership qualities that were positive and negative towards Roman society.

He was a great military leader. Conquering lands for the Roman Empire, the Roman people worshipped the ground he walked upon. Caesar was a fascinating public speaker and a very intelligent man. The people loved him so much because of his people skills and public speaking skills.

In the contrary, he was very ambitious and Brutus, Cassius, and many others were frightened that he would become to powerful. Becoming powerful, Caesar could have become the dictator or king. Had he become the ruler the whole of the Roman Republic would have collapsed because it was based on everyone getting a say in government. Had he not been too ambitious he would probably not have been murdered.

Think Win-Win

There hasn’t been many instances that I thought about making a situation into a win-win situation, but I do every once in a while. There is one time that really stands out in my mind though about a win-win situation.

My family and I were having dinner one night. All the way through dinner we conversed and all was well until dessert, a batch of brownies, came out of the oven. As my mom was bringing them to the table my brothers and I were drooling over them. My mom is reputable when it comes to baking brownies. It was a small pan so every one of the six of us got one and there was one brownie left. Well my brother and I both being heavy eaters really wanted the last brownie and we started bickering. This happened for probably a good ten minutes while every one else was cleaning up. So I decided to compromise. If my brother got that brownie then the next time we had dessert I got whatever was left over. He agreed as he devoured his prize. The next week my mom made muffins and there were two left after supper. My brother mad with himself kept his promise and we both won.