Trains come and go

Authors note: this piece is a figurative language piece and the poem The Railway Train  by Emily Dickinson.

Figurative language comes from almost every piece of writing for as long as people can remember. Figurative language can be as little as a DRIP or something much more complicated like anaphora or personification. The poem that I think showed these best was The Railway Train by Emily Dickinson. The poem had sentences and phrases that made you start thinking and some that didn’t make sense.

Furthermore the author had wide variety of figurative language in the poem that included Allusions. The allusion from the poem was "And neigh like Boanerges"  which provides the reader with vivid imagery. This phrase gave me the impression that the train was a big train who moved loudly as if it was a god. The tone of the phrase keeps the reader feeling the same way as when they started reading the poem. It continues to give the impression that the train is majestic and powerful. 

Finally  this particular piece of writing had a lot of personification that gave the train somewhat human traits. First it says “and lick the valleys up” and since trains can’t lick it makes me think it’s going at tremendous speed. The second line of personification which was “and stop to feed itself at tanks” made me think, well trains can’t feed themselves so it kind of sounded like the poet was trying to say it was a hard working train.

Throughout the whole poem there was multiple examples of figurative language and gave the reader great imagery, it also made it easier for the reader to like the poem and not get board. The poem doesn’t have to make sense as long as you imagine the main character or object all the way through.

change is always an option

Author's Note: I wrote this as a character development piece on Trent and how he got his life back on track after being around violence for as long as he can remember, and he does it through basketball.

25% percent of kids failing school say it's because they have a bad home life, this could apply to Trent from the book Night Hoops. Whether it is his mother getting caught for the use of marijuana, or another crime committed by his brother, it seemed he could never get away. That reflected on him too, because he had no one to look up to but them, and that made him think it's ok to be a criminal. At 15, he already had a criminal record. He didn’t want to live this way, but he couldn’t find anything to keep him away from his family long enough to figure out how to turn his life around.

School was hard, but he had one passion that never changed; basketball. The varsity team tryouts were just around the corner, and Trent wanted in. Sure enough, he played well both sessions of the tryouts, and made the team first string. Trent became a better teammate, and his team became his second family. Overall, he became a better teammate and a better kid, and that had a positive influence on his family and friends, and with that, it helped their team win. 

Throughout the story, Trent grew as a basketball player and as a teammate. He found that his teammate lived down the street from him, so he played basketball with him every night throughout basketball’s long season.  Basketball kept Trent out of trouble and turned his attitude about life around and ultimately made him a better person and will make him a better man for the rest of his hopefully long life

Living the dream

Authors note: this is a creative story of what i think will happen to Drew Lawson of the Book Game by Walter Dean Myers, after the story ends.

All eyes are on Lawson as he bring the ball down the left side. He fakes right and then makes a quick move across the middle. Now he stop and goes straight up with the ball.. he scores! He scores! And DePaul  Blue Devils win the game. Drew Lawson the second year Blue Devil has just lead his team to their 4^th consecutive win, and come tomorrow DePaul could move up to the 5 spot in the top 25.

“Wow, great game drew”. Said Worrel Clahar in the locker room after the game. Yeah! everyone else chipped in. Drew your leading us to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 6 years. Said coach Purnell.  Let’s keep it up guys and we could earn a 3 spot for the Tourney in March. That’s it that’s what I’ve been waiting for all my life. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the NCAA tournament, I mean it’s march madness the numero uno of college ball.

The next day we were off no practice or nothing, so Worrel me and a few other guys went downtown to watch the Bulls game. I was so excited to watch one of the top point guards in the league Derrick Rose, or D-Rose as some people call him.  The Bulls pulled away in such a good game, it was like I was in it. After that we went to grab some food at McDonalds. You must be thinking McDonalds right now, but come on we’re college students we don’t have money. Me and the guys went on like this for about a week having fun and going to practice, but now it was an hour before game time and it was on.

This game was the last of the regular season and we needed to win, it either meant that we got a solid 3 rank in the tourney, or we fell to a 5. But before that happened we had to defeat 6 ranked Marquette and their star guards vander Blue and Todd Mayo. After it was all said and done we had won the game, not only had I played great but I could feel that everyone wanted it as much as I did. We celebrated that night, but I knew what we still had ahead of us.

It was now that I was the most tired out of the whole season. Sweat was dripping and it was a close game, their team knew I was going to get the ball with only seconds left on the clock. I could hear the announcer speaking as I brought the ball down. He said. All eyes are on Lawson as he bring the ball down the left side. He fakes right and then makes a quick move across the middle. Now he stop and goes straight up with the ball.. he scores! He scores! And DePaul wins the NCAA championship in a terrific overtime thriller one of the best I’ve seen in years maybe ever. Now I just laid there as everyone mobbed the court thinking ” that move gets them every time”. 

The View is always Different( point of view)

 Authors note: this is a point of view piece written on the book The Underdogs   , which is changing the perspective, from the main character named Will to a sub character named Hannah.   

          Wow! Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be out there every play. I can’t believe I’m not out there on the field, instead were just a weak spot in the wide receiver position. It’s all his fault! That was what I think the point of view would be if Hannah from the book The Underdogs was the main character and not Will. If Hannah was the main character the plot would change a lot, here’s what It might look like.

 Instead of the plot having will make the make a new football team struggle to get enough players, then lose their first 2 games and after that come all the way back to the championship. It would be Hannah moving to Forbes, meeting Will and becoming friends. Then asking to join the football team, struggling to play at first and blaming Will, to finally realizing that it was for the better of the team and then go on to win the championship.

There is lots of points in this book where Hannah thinks very differently from Will. The two probably disagree the most in football. One of the parts in which they disagree is after the game, and Hannah gets upset with Will because she sat out the final play. On this play Will and the coach thought we really need this and Hannah hasn’t quite got this and sat her out. But on Hannah side it looks like this, why do they do this, I thought he promised me a chance, I shouldn’t have trusted him! Throughout the book it was that easy to tell they had very different point of views.

Back when Mike Lupica was writing this book, if he did decide to write it in Hannah’s perspective the whole book would have changed from the readers point of view. By this I mean that most of the plot would be there, but when they win a game instead of having the book seem like there all happy, it could have had Hannah complaining. Over all every ones point of view would be different but if the author had chosen Hannah it would have changed everything no doubt.

After all you can see and tell that everyone has a different point of view on everything, especially thing that matter most. For instance, like sports if they really matter to you then you always think you should be out there making the play that counts. This point of view makes more sense after you change something in the book. If you were to rewrite the book with a sub character from this book a lot would be a lot different. That’s why you always have to keep your head up even if you are not first in line.

War destroys families (compare- contrast)

Authors note: this essay was written to compare the book jump ship to freedom and the movie the patriot, about family and war. 

War is a deadly thing, take it from Daniel and the 7 sons and daughters  from the book Jump Ship to Freedom  by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier and the movie The Patriot by Roland Emmerich and Robert Rodat. These two are related in many ways and also different, but the two that I could compare the most were war and family. 

Family means a lot and when something happens everything can go wrong. Each family is similar because they both had fathers that fought in the war. They’re also similar for a bad reason, their families have to live with knowing that one of their loved ones are gone. In the book, when Daniel is took away from his mother, it’s kind of like when Benjamin Martin ( the father) from The Patriot, has to take off to the war and no choice but to leave his family.

Secondly war affected each family in a variety of ways. The martin family was effected by war because it warped their fathers mind he was always worried about another war. For the Arabus family it was much different because Daniel and his mother lost his father or her husband. War also resulted in something good for both families. One being Daniel would have never freed his family if his dad didn’t earn money from the war, and Benjamin Martin saved his son in because of the war so it evens out.

Even though families are different they still have their similarities, and this lets them know that maybe they’re not the only one that lost a family member, or don’t see their father or mother for months of time. So these families would be good examples of that you always should love your family and keep them close, because you’ll never know when they’ll be gone.

Knowing When to Stop

Authors note: I wrote this essay on the themes of “Jump Ship to Freedom” and why I thought the themes fit the book right.

I couldn’t stand it the smoke was too thick, but then the door opened. I couldn’t believe that my plan had worked and the next thing I knew I was in the water.  “Jump Ship To Freedom” by James and Christopher Collier, show the adventure of the life time for Daniel Arabus. A fourteen year old slave brought on his masters ship to trade, but turns shocking when he overhears that he’s being sold away. Daniel has to make a plan not only to escape but how to get free. Theme’s of this book can range from segregation to determination, but I want to talk about justice / freedom.

First of all justice fits this book well because of how Daniel and his Mom deserve justice or freedom because they have the soldier notes to buy freedom but their master Captain Iveres won’t let them go. This book somewhat revolves around the whole theme about getting justice and becoming free. And for just this one thing Daniel take off with determination that some day he and mum will be free.

Next a theme that also fit well was courage and bravery, because without this Daniel would have never thought up the plan to get past Captain Iveres. This really was a big theme not only for the past reason but also for Daniel having the will to keep going and to get to Philadelphia and try to make things right. By the end all of that helped Daniel realize that he wasn’t just a dumb slave, he was something special.

Another book that had the same content and idea was a book called “The Captive” by Joyce Hansen. The Captive, is about a young boy name Kofi who is captured by poachers on the African coast. It also has somewhat same themes like, justice because towards the end Kofi get freed and is brought in a better family that doesn’t believe in slavery. Kofi also needed the themes of bravery and courage for when he ran away and was in hiding.

When you think about it most books have more than one theme, and looking back at “Jump Ship to Freedom” it does have multiple themes and there were points in the book where those themes were explained. Theme in every book is fun to find because just like Daniel you never know what you’ll end up with.

The True Underdogs (predicting essay)

Authors note: This story is a prediction essay on the book “The Underdogs” by Mike Lupica. It shows what I think is going to happen throughout the rest of the book and what it all comes down to.

Here’s the handoff and the back breaks loose there goes Will Tyler sprinting down the sideline 50 ,40, 30. The Underdogs by Mike Lupica, shows what 12 year old Will Tyler will do to have football in Forbes, Pennsylvania. My prediction for “The Underdogs” will result in Will the main character getting a team together, because not only him but other kids want to play also. Then after Will and the other boys get the team all organized they’re going to work really hard and make their way back to the championship, where they will take on the defending champs, Castle Rock. And when it’s all said and done Will is going to come out victorious.

First off this prediction is mostly accurate because, Will is a die hard for football and will do anything to get the team there wasn’t going to be back on the field. And to get back on the field you need a team. It’s a good thought that they will make it to the championship game, because the team knows they’re the underdogs of the league.

Secondly the prediction would make sense because one year earlier Forbes fell short of the championship and lost to Castle Rock and Will and his teammates want revenge. Not only is Forbs hungry for a championship, but the defending champs Castle Rock are looking to make it two in a row. That’s why my prediction also makes sense because Forbs knows that Castle Rock is out after them so they work hard and in return I think that will help them win.

Finally this prediction plot is very similar to the book Travel Team also written by Mike Lupica. In the book Travel Team, the main character Danny gets cut from the basketball team becomes the underdog, works hard, gets a new team together, and goes out and wins the league. When the season is all over and your looking back you realize, yes winning games is fun but you can’t win without a team.