Comparison Essay

Author's Note: This is a Comparison Essay on The Trojan Horse, and Safe Haven.

There is an essence where Helen compares to Katie, from Safe Haven.  Katie may not know she's beautiful, but that doesn't mean she isn't.  Unlike Helen who knows she is the most beautiful goddess in the world.  Another difference there is between the two character is how selfish Helen is.  Katie is the complete opposite.  She didn't want to hurt anyone when she ran away from home.  When she realized she'd hurt Alex and his family she made a run for it.  Katie, doesn't like being the center of attention.  While, Helen let war occur over her.

While there are many small differences between the two characters, there is one major similarity.  There was war over Helen, because two guys fell in love with her and wanted to win her over by winning the war.  In Safe Haven the plot is quite similar.  In Safe Haven, Katie runs away from her husband and meets a new guy named, Alex, that she falls in love with, and Alex loves her back.  One day Kevin, Katie's husband, finds her and Alex, and there's a fight over her.  The way the two characters reacted is different, because Katie tries to break the fight up.  Helen let there be war, but overall there's still that major similarity.

The Trojan Horse Reading Response

Author's Note: This is a reading response on the old story of, The Trojan Horse.

Not only were the Greeks and Trojans in war, but after that Greek Army departed an odd gift, a wooden horse, was left behind for the Trojans.  This was the conflict of the story, the Trojans either thought that they should burn the wooden horse or praise it.  After the priest stabbed the wooden horse the conflict was resolved by Sinon sharing his knowledge with the Trojans.  The whole thing was so sneaky, because the whole time the Greek band of warriors were hiding in the belly of the wooden horse.  This devious scheme could happen nowadays, because there are wars going on today.  None of that could happen at a school or small work place, because today a tactic known as, compromise, is used in schools and work places.  Lastly I haven't seen any thing relatively close to this story in novels, films, or real life of this century.

What is True Beauty?

Author's Note: This is a reading response on, Ribbons.  I've gone back and updated this piece and turned it into an essay for my next conference.

Superficial beauty can be defined as the way our country insists we carry ourselves to fit in with our society.  In this country people buy the most expensive clothes they can find, wear as much make-up as they have, and invest in plastic surgery. All to make themselves look beautiful to our current day society.  Our society doesn't allow people of all shapes and sizes in, which results in many people not being able to feel good about themselves.  People of both genders and all ages have insecurities.  In many cases people are insecure about their weight.  Sometimes girls are even concerned about how big their feet seem to be.  What they don't know is that in China girls go through physical pain to have small feet.

Foot binding is the process in which a female child's mother bends their feet backwards slowly when they are growing up.  The reason this occurs in their country is because their belief is that no man would marry a girl with big feet.  To them it may be tradition, but I see it in from an awful perspective.  While we Americans are crying over our shoe size Chinese girls are putting up with the pain of growing up with small feet.  The worst part is that the gentlemen of America don't care what shoe size you are, if they love you they'll marry you.  Simple as that, but the men in China actually refuse to marry a girl with big feet.  You can't put blame on these men because it's simple tradition, but the first man to break this unwritten law I will bow down to.

As these ladies grow up with their feet being bound, they are put through many struggles.  Eventually they'll get used to the certain way they have to walk, in order to cause them the least amount of pain.  Now imagine someone, with those conditions, trying to dance with bound feet, you could practically feel the amount of discomfort they would endure.  Now think about how popular dancing is in America.  Every dancer knows that there's a price to pay when it comes to wearing ballet shoes.  They're tightly wound, which make them very uncomfortable to wear.  Yet we wear them anyways, because it's part of the dancing culture we have.  As different cultures teach people alternate ways, their assumptions cause misunderstandings.

 A misunderstanding is the conflict in the short story, Ribbons.  The grandmother has gone through the foot binding process, which caused her to demand the burning of her granddaughter's ballet shoes.  In her eyes the ribbons reminded her of horrific childhood memories.  I assume the grandmother would’ve reacted in the same way, even if she wasn’t her granddaughter.  It seems foreign to her, the reason anyone would do such a thing to themselves.  Although her granddaughter wasn’t self-harming herself, other’s do to achieve superficial beauty.  In China foot binding is not a choice girls have, otherwise they will never get married.  We look at foot binding like it’s a crime, think about how people of other cultures see Americans superficial beauty.

In China girls go through physical pain to have small feet.  This is something people don’t understand.  All in all, the people that see how wrong foot binding is, may be the ones that look at themselves in the morning and wonder why they weren’t blessed with a smaller face and bigger eyes.  Maybe there’ll always be some form of superficial beauty lingering around, keeping people up at night, but I hope not.  I wish for one day where everyone can get up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror and thank god for what he has given them, because that’s not superficial beauty.  That’s true beauty, no matter how other people see it, it’s still true beauty.

What Will It Take?

Author’s Note: This is a text analysis essay that is based off of the online, unpublished, story, Forever and Always His, by RiceLover.  This is also an edited piece to help me improve in Text Analysis and score a 10 in body paragraphs.

In two years, I’ll be able to drive.  In two years, I’ll be half way through with high school.  In two years, I’ll either have my future decided or will be trying to figure out a plan for my future.  A lot can change in two years.  In the beginning of Forever and Always His, by Ricelover, Everett loves Riley to no end, until one day his mother, Collette, dies.  Throughout the next two years Everett builds up so much hatred towards Riley, by blaming his mother’s passing on Riley, that it takes Everett and Riley practically another year to become lovers again.  Since, the book is written from Riley’s point of view, readers have already have pity towards her, but if you were to read the story in Everett’s point of view, you’ll also see how over-powering Everett is, and gain more pity for Riley.

Riley put up with taking Everett’s sarcastic remarks for two years after Collette’s sacrifice, but only because she loved him.  She may’ve thought it was unfortunate for her to run into his dad at the grocery store at the time, but in the long run she was grateful.  She became closer with Everett, but she still blames herself for his mother’s death.  Unintentionally Everett’s father gets remarried and it brings them even closer together, yet Riley is still rebuking.  Immediately after Collette's passing it was easy for Everett to accuse Riley of the incident, he even had other things to hold against Riley.  After two years though, his personality has changed drastically and it takes a mistake of his to notice how awful his attitude had gotten, since he broke up with Riley.

Long after Collette’s death and Everett and Riley’s reunion, their relationship is once again ruined, but this time around Riley can’t be blamed for what happened, yet Everett tries.  In the following quote Everett proves the control he had in their past relationship.  “”You have to believe me Riley.”  Everett suddenly said, making my heart sting.”  (Chapter 23, page 2)  If this had happened during the time before Everett’s mother’s passing, Riley would’ve believed him, because he was never at fault in their past relationship.  He was always right, never wrong.  This time a lot has changed between them and even though what Riley says next isn’t forgiving, it still hurt her.  I don’t think it should’ve hurt her, but she was and still is fragile and Everett knew it.  It was easy for Everett to use that against Riley during the two year period of him lowering her self-esteem.  Reading this certain section of the book made me feel victorious for Riley, for not only because she stood up to Everett, but for shutting him down as well.

Unlike the first quote, the second quote is taken from a part later in the book where Everett is trying to regain Riley’s trust, once again.  ““Riley, one thing,” I heard a whisper before I went into a deep slumber, “I don’t want you to blame yourself for my mother’s death anymore.  I never wanted you to blame yourself.””  (Chapter 27, Page 5)  For one, his apology is quite late.  Which leads me to suspicions of other last-minute apologies in Everett and Riley’s past relationship.  Considering Riley  isn’t one to decline one’s justifications, this could potentiality be another reason why Everett considers himself the boss.  The power Everett has doesn’t allow Riley any choice but to accept his pleas.  From my viewpoint I find this perverse for Everett to do, because he knows Riley lacks confidence, which should only lead him to question Riley's true feelings.

You’ll see how over-powering Everett is, and gain more pity for Riley, if you were to read the story in Everett’s point of view.  Even if he gradually changed back to the Everett he was before his mother’s sacrifice, he still has his over-powering aspect.  He will still expect Riley to buy his lies and he will still expect Riley to forgive him and his late apologies, but she’ll slowly put him in his place.  After a whole year of trying to regain his love, she deserves to have some say in their relationship.  Hopefully she will, and if not I hope he loses her again and notices how much he misses her.  Knowing that, they’d be a perfect match, and he would be worthy of her as well.

We Are All Humans

Author's Note: I was to write an analysis of how the story, After You My Dear Alphonse, relates to the topics of naivete and reverse racism.  How it compares and contrasts to our city's society and other areas of the world, and also what lesson I thought Shirley Jackson was trying to teach us.

Back in the days, racism was common, now-a-days that isn't always the case.  In our small city's society and other areas of the world, there are both older folks and younger souls.  The younger souls are being raised into a non-racism world, while the older folks are the complete opposite.  Less then 100 years ago, racism was not only taught, but preached through ministers of churches and educational teachers.  The elders grew up learning this way of life, which effects their lives today.  This seems to be the cause of mostly all racism that still occurs today.  Since this was how their generation grew-up, that is how they act.  Later racism disappeared, but some parents disagreed with the movement and continued to teach their children otherwise.  I feel that this was the lesson Shirley Jackson was trying to draw attention to through his writing.  I believe he wanted the next generation to have an idea of how unfair this olden day  life style was.  The naivete was cruel and I think Shirley was one of the few people that was against racism.

Let's Get Physical!

Author’s Note: This is an essay based off of the following question asked by my Physical Education teacher, “What value does physical activity provide you?”  I chose to use this essay for Language Arts as well, in order to score an advanced level introduction and AB transitions.

Feelings the cool air rush from my head to my toes as I’m extended into the air is the best feeling in the world.  A short girl who’s feet dangle from her chair because they can’t touch the floor gets to feel likes she’s on top of the world.  I look up instead of down because I can only see what’s above me and nothing that’s below.   This is the feeling I get from hitting a single cheer stunt and I wouldn’t be able to experience this fulfillment if I didn’t build up my strength.  In able to properly hit a cheer stunt the flyer (that’s me) has to pull her body weight up through her arms and keep her abs tight.  To be able to pull as much body weight up as possible I have to do tons of push-ups to strengthen my arms and even more sit-ups to strengthen my core.  Even though I may not enjoy doing push-ups and sit-ups, it’s worth it because I get to enjoy cheerleading.  Cheerleading definitely wouldn’t be as fun if I didn’t have the strength to stay up in a stunt and experience the feeling of being on top of the world.

Aside from the my own personal advantage from psychical activity, cheerleading, an advantage everyone can receive from the work of psychical activity is a healthy, long life.  Depending upon what you would like to attain through the works of psychical activity you can usually accomplish anything.  If you want to have stronger arms, push-ups will become your friend.  If you want to have stronger legs, you’ll become familiar to squats and if you want a strong core, crunches will act as if they’re your annoying aunt.  The time it takes to succeed may vary, but your hard work will eventually pay off!   You could also choose to look at it in a life-long way because you could live even longer off of your good health.  I learned once, that your heart has a certain amount of beats, so even running can pay off in the long run.  Although I don’t particularly enjoy running, I like the idea of living a healthy, long life.

As I said, running isn’t exactly enjoyable, in my opinion.  Neither are most psychical activities, once again, in my opinion, but the ending result is usually good, with the exception of a few cuts or bruises (meaning I don’t require myself as, “balanced”).  Which makes me strive to keep participating in physical activities.  In conclusion, I don’t always enjoy physical activities, but I have a motivation, my future self.  I don’t want to be one of those people that will never be able to join a sport with their friends because I’m out of breathe by the time I make it to first base.  I want to be one of those people that gets to encourage their friends or children to join sports to stay fit and active.  If I stay the way I am today, I will get to be that person.  It’s almost as if physical activity is a cheat on a test.

Author's Note: This is a poem that I wrote for a Social Studies assignment.

You see this girl working for money

Money that she doesn’t have

And guess what

It still isn’t enough

And yet you still watch her make a shoe

That she will never be able to wear

Never be able to see on her family

Or friends feet

Never even be able to see in a store

And that doesn’t make you sick

You refuse to pay her

Even two more dollars per day

Not even one

You have more than enough

You flaunt expensive clothes

While you drive in an expensive car

To your expensive home

That you can afford