Hello, my name is Alyssa and this blog contains work from my ninth grade english class. Enjoy the different creative pieces and reflective posts I write throughout the year,
IRJ#22 Death:The Ultimate Leveler February 28, 2010
Death: The Ultimate Leveler
When Telemachus reaches Pylos in search of information regarding his father, Mentor, the king of this land, begins to tell the story of Agamemnon’s death. In the middle of his tale, Mentor comments on this subject by saying “the great leveler, Death: not even the gods can defend a man.” (Homer, 115)
Throughout this story, life and death play major parts. The idea that because everyone dies, in reality we are all equal, leaps out of the pages of The Odyssey and portrays the same message to modern times. Throughout society and the world, everywhere I look, selfishness and greed lurk in the depths of each other’s minds. Society ends up taken over by desires of one another. Rarely do people think of anyone but themselves.
Yet, as Mentor implies, the humbling fact that in the end everyone will be six feet under the ground, surrounded by dirt, and half way forgotten, seems to slip their minds. What is life if your world circles around what YOU can get out of the experience? What is life if it’s about getting as much as YOU can, without thoughts of others?
We aren’t living alone on this planet. We need to realize that in order to get the best out of life, everyone should look to others for inspiration. Look outside and realize what the world offers. If more people looked at life as a group effort instead of a one-person team, the world may not be better or healthier, but everyone might open their eyes to what’s right in front of them.
IRJ # 20 Crime and Punishment: Just Find Another Way February 12, 2010
Crime and Punishment: Just Find Another Way
A common motif of God destroying His own people appear numerous times in The Bible. For instance in Chapter 19 of Genesis, the outcry of the people in Sodom against the Lord results in God destroying the city. After Lot and his family flee, Sodom quickly gets destroyed, along with all the people.
Obtaining much power and strength, God represents a leader to all the people he has created. Yet over and over again he seems to be the cause of violence and death. Even in modern times we elect people to powerful and vital roles in our society, and this same motif of rulers killing others continues.
In examples as extreme as Hitler, people in power use their titles for violence and in other negative ways. However, a president or a prime minister or even a king should use their role as a leader not in violence or for upset, but instead they need to use their power to help the bad and cure the sick. Instead of this, God simply kills whoever does not obey him or seems rebellious. Instead of instant punishment, people should be given a second chance or find help and peace in their leaders, instead of severe punishment.
IRJ # 19 Good Vs. Bad: A Never-Ending Battle January 29, 2010
Good Vs. Bad: A Never-Ending Battle
In Genesis 11 the descendents of the original Man and Eve have finally united. But of course, this unity and happiness cannot last for long. God intrudes and splits all the people apart, confusing and disrupting them.
Nothing good lasts. Even from the beginning of mankind, as told in The Bible, bad things occur just as happiness and content set in. This never-ending cycle lays gloom over my mind whenever I find myself in a pleasant state. Happiness only appears as a warning to the evil ahead. But why does this occur? Why can’t peace live permanently throughout our world, leaving the earth and people’s state of minds free from evil? If peace were to occur, the world as we know it would exist as an entirely different place.
However, would this different world be more preferable? I don’t think so. The juxtaposition of good and evil in our world needs to occur in order to appreciate our happiness and even sometimes our unhappiness. The times that people cherish mostly derive from experiences of joy. This only happens because people understand dread and compared to that unhappiness, they can enjoy the delight in their life even more. Even in times of unhappiness, people realize and understand the different aspects of life and therefore put things in perspective and come out of this dread in a better, clearer state.
In order to appreciate the better things in life, unhappiness and pain must occur. No matter how much peace on earth seems better, good and bad combined will bring forth a more interesting and profound life.
IRJ # 18 Black Or White?: We Don’t Need to Choose January 28, 2010
Black or White?: We Don’t Need to Choose
In The Bible, God gives a command to “’Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1.3-1.5) This quotation from the Bible is known and familiar throughout the world. It symbolizes the beginning of life for those that believe in this religion and is believed as a common theory to the question of how the world was created.
As I read this opening to this astonishing (in size) book called The Bible, I take note on this repetitive concept of light and dark. So far, every book I’ve read in ninth grade, as well as many others I’ve read in my lifetime, portray this same concept of juxtaposition in color. Whether the contrast of color is used symbolically or not, everywhere in our culture we see this extremity between good or evil. Light indicates purity and dark indicates sin or evil, this concept is even stated by God.
What interests me the most is not the repetitiveness of this concept, but instead the irony that in so much of our culture the idea that things are black and white, when this could not be further from the truth. In reality, people are not always purely good or purely bad. Humans consist of juxtaposed morals and complicated emotions that define them as neither good nor bad, but instead the combination of the two define us.
Every person is a mixture, a different concoction of morals and sins. We come from different backgrounds and display different ideas on life. Our actions consist of sin as well as morality. Just because someone has evil inside, does not mean that is what they consist of all the way through. In truth, the balance of these two extremities displays our inner self, not one alone.
IRJ-CP#17 Youth: Old With Worry November 18, 2009
Youth: Old With Worry
After the meeting with Lord Asriel, the Master and the Librarian set out for the Master’s lodging in order to reminisce on the previous happenings. As they talk about Lyra’s future, the Librarian comments on youth and the elderly by saying, “’That’s the duty of the old,’ said the Librarian, ‘to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.’” (Pullman, 32)
The idea that the old worry on behalf of the young, and the young resent this concern appears in numerous examples throughout our society. The archetypal concept of the anxious old appears in texts such as The Giver, where the elders run the social order. However, this concept strays vastly from today’s culture.
More and more pressure from grades, college, and the future weigh heavily upon the shoulders of today’s youth. Although parents worry about their children, a lot more of the anxiety exudes from the adolescents that carry these burdens. Everywhere, examples of kids getting no sleep or panicking from the amount of work schools present them flash in today’s news.
Maybe thirty years ago the belief of the Librarian’s take on youth might stand true. Yet, as the years passed the amount of stress and anxiety laid on kids increased more than imaginable. What will more time do to the worry placed on adolescents?
Proposition: Although some worries take place within the elderly, most of the anxiety exudes from the youth.
IRJ-CP#16 Emma: A Name Filled With Fear November 11, 2009
Emma: A Name Filled With Fear
I was halfway to the street were my car was parked on the other side. By now my mom had walked down the steps and was in the doorway watching me as I walked away, disappointing her one more time. As I reached the curb separating me from the street, waiting to be inside the car that could take me away the memory of when I first got my car flashed through my mind. It was the day of my sixteenth birthday and me and my mom went to the dealership early that morning. I had been pestering her ever since I got my permit to get a punch bug. I thought it was the cutest thing in the world, and I had to have it. All my friends would be so jealous. All of them had their permit, but I was one of the first to get my license because my birthday was in August. Now, not only would I be envied for being able to drive but for also having the cutest car, I thought to myself. So we went to the dealership and before my mom even had a chance at saying no, I threw a fight and got my car. From that day on I felt more freedom then I ever had before. It was my pride procession the thing that could now separate me from the hell that my house was. I wasn’t stuck with having my mom drive me around anymore (the less time the better). Now when I wanted to get out I could, and that meant so much more to me than the actual car itself.
“Emma!!” my screeched lauder then I have ever heard her scream, with a voice more drenched in fear then furry it sent shivers down my spine. Surprised, I slipped out of my memory and turned to see what she was yelling about. Then before I could even flinch I found myself in the middle of the street with a red mustang rushing toward me. The lights flared in my face as I swallowed what was happening.
Then before the car was about to collide with me, I saw my mother’s face. It was so twisted with panic and fear I couldn’t help but feel it. I felt her emotions and her pain and they hurt, they hurt more than any of her words ever had. It was a hurt that I hadn’t felt in so long. Then I realized I was screaming at the top of my lungs. And before I could think anymore about her face-the face that made the pit in my stomach-the darkness took over me. It was the darkness that swallowed me whole and never let me out. The darkness that left my mother’s face haunt my memories. It was that last picture in my head that I would never forget; my mom’s face screaming my name; the name that I loathed and now the name that I feared.
IRJ-OP#15 Hands: A Sculpting Tool November 10, 2009
Hands: A Sculpting Tool
Last year, the brilliant book The Diary of Anne Frank, caught my attention as it lay on my sister’s bookshelf. Attaining so much fame and history, I decided to read this novel I heard so much about. Now looking back on such an amazing story, one quote still stays present in my mind. This quote says, ‘the final forming of a person’s character, lies in their own hands.” (Anne Frank) Character refers to the kind of person someone is. As the quote says, the idea that a person creates their character holds true in many ways. All the time, evidence of people growing up in bad circumstances and coming out with good character or morality, appear. Anne Frank most certainly displays herself as proof of this theory. Even though a part of her life took place in hiding while people searched to kill her, the hope of a better day and belief in others remained. Throughout the years she lived in hiding, this strong character never disappeared.
Anne Frank: Background information
Character: A description of what character means
On the other hand, can someone really resist against change from dramatic events? Even though we try, people cannot control life. Good and bad throw themselves our way and change us. The importance of Anne Frank’s quote still holds true, however sometimes outside forces will change people no matter what. Holocaust survivors live with the death and pain in their past. Obviously the gap of their lives that was taken away from them, must force an impact on their character.
Proposition: A person can control their character only to a certain extent.
IRJ-CP#14 Dance: A Medicine November 3, 2009
Dance: A Medicine
She starts out discreetly, slowly sauntering on to the dance floor. No plan appears in her head, so she acts desultorily. The music leads her, acting as a map, telling her where to go. The music heightens, and she leaps up into the air. Her legs reach high above the ground, as her calf muscles suddenly appear, showing the ability of her strength. As the music gets more frantic, her movements became faster and more pronounced. Her mind goes torpid, as the music takes over. Both of her arms sway through the air at the same beat of the music. Her breath goes up and down to match the rhythm of the sound.
Dancing pacifies her. It creates a door, only visible to her, where she can express everything that hides inside her. As the music reaches its pinnacle, her emotions finally come out and she precipitously falls to the ground and dances everything she feels out. Nothing else in the world heals her as dance does.
Yet, her mind quickly flashes all the stress that firmly sits on her shoulders. However, the weight gets less and less with every move of her body. Nevertheless, in the back of her mind she knows this can’t last forever; that at one point she will stop dancing and all of her problems will then stare right into her eyes. She will try and run, but no matter what she does, the only thing that helps her to forget lays in dancing. Yet, the music still impels her body and she quickly turns and jumps again. The music builds and builds, complete joy pervades her body; nothing matters. Everything seems ok. Then the music stops.
