Janie

In order for Janie to marry her first husband, Logan, Nanny had to continuously convince her that marrying Logan would be the best option for Janie's future. She assured Janie that the most important thing was for her to have stable surroundings and financial support, which was what Logan could provide her with if they got married. Janie's dream was always to find love and the reason for her to be hesitant about marrying Logan was because she knew that she didn't love him. Although she knew her feelings, Janie allowed herself to be persuaded by Nanny that she would naturally grow to love Logan after marrying him. I think Janie was naive in believing that love comes after marriage because if she didn't love the person, or even know the person, in Janie's case, and didn't find any attraction towards that person, I don't see marriage as a reasonable decision in achieving that love. Quickly after marrying Logan, Janie realized that she will never love Logan and ended up leaving Logan for another man, Joe Starks.
Being the businessman that Joe was, he became a highly regarded "government official" in Eatonville by establishing new and improved institutions and with Joe's responsibility, he quickly provided Janie with financial support and impressive living conditions. He added to Janie's life everything that Nanny had ever dreamed of for her granddaughter. But this was not what Janie dreamed of. Being married to Joe for more than two decades, he had not showed her much respect nor affection, making their relationship extremely hard to bare. Janie did everything Nanny had told her to do in terms of marrying well and becoming stable in life through a man, but because Janie listened to Nanny, this caused Janie to resent her. She hated Nanny for twisting her ideals about love and giving her false pretenses that if she was well off, that she would also be happy. Even after Nanny died, Janie wanted to grant Nanny's wish so she did what she thought Nanny would want her to do, but once she met Tea Cake, Janie realized that she should think for herself, instead of her grandmother. I think that Janie did the right thing in listening to her heart, even if trusting Tea Cake was risky, because she had followed Nanny's wishes for so long that she never had the chance to act upon her own dreams.

Thankful For My Classmates

Around this time every year, people often take more time to reflect and think about what aspects in their lives that we appreciate the most. Thanksgiving is a time to share thanks for what you have in your life. I'm grateful for the family that has remained so reliable in my life, for the old friends that have basically become my second family, and new friends that have continuously introduced themselves into my life. In my English class, I am most thankful for my classmates that sit around me, including Josh, Max, Kyle, and Sally. I am thankful for Josh because in addition to the other 5 classes we share together, having English class together has allowed us to become more familiar with each other as friends. We're able to ask each other urgent questions we might have concerning the other classes that we share together. I am thankful for Max for accompanying me every day to the second period study hall that we have together during passing periods. Because I didn't know Max before this year, I'm glad that English class brought us together to become friends. Although I have known Kyle for quite a while, I'm thankful for him because we were able to become much closer as friends this year. He's a good listener and we're able to understand each other's problems. I'm additionally thankful for Sally because she's able to guide our discussions very well and offer interesting input during our group work.

A Principle We Should Keep

In Cormac McCarthy's The Road, we see that a key principle that the man and the boy are keen on keeping is never resorting to cannibalism no matter how desperate their situation gets. We also see that this principle isn't followed by some that the man and the boy encountered in The Road. The man and the boy is keeping this principle because cannibalism is the last straw that strips away a person's humanity. In The Road's post-apocalyptic world where hope is gone and death always surrounds them, the boy and the man aren't going to allow themselves to stoop to the level cannibals, in order to keep their humanity intact.
I think that in our world, a principle that we should keep is to not harm any other person, unless the purpose is for self-defense. I believe that no matter how far into the future we get, people shouldn't harm others solely for the purpose of harming them. There are also instances where the reason for hurting another person is for revenge because that person had hurt them in the same way, but I don't think that revenge solves anything. Harming another person will only cause more trouble and won't relieve the pain that they had felt. When we hear about people intentionally hurting others, I think that the two most common reasons for their behavior is either for self-defense or because they wanted to instigate revenge on someone else. Revenge only allows people to take their anger out on another and when they do, they aren't making the situation better in any way. Revenge never fixes the situation, and often only makes things worse. I see self-defense as being the only acceptable excuse, if any, for intentionally harming other people.

Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway's distinctive writing style is simple and direct, although his exact words were, "Yet, I sometimes think that my style is suggestive rather than direct. The reader must often use his imagination or lose the most subtle part of my thoughts." In every one of Hemingway's short stories, his descriptive writing plays a big role in how the story comes across to the readers. Because understanding the setting often adds great comprehension to the plot of each story, Hemingway dedicates a large part of the text to the description of the situation. He puts emphasis on nouns, rather than adjectives, and strings those nouns along by means of conjunctions to paint a clear and distinct picture of the story's conditions. Hemingway describes every sight, movement, sound, smell, and feeling that he wants the reader to experience with him, creating a captivating scenery that brings the readers along into the story. Following in the footsteps of Mark Twain, Hemingway also takes advantage of commas and semicolons to write long, detailed sentences, where even some good-length paragraphs are only formed by one continuous sentence. By using this method of writing, he captures a snap-shot moment of what is occurring and it also creates one simultaneous action. In Hemingway's short stories, Nick Adams is the name that he gave to the fictional persona, largely autobiographical, whom he often wrote about. Like Hemingway himself, Nick is the son of a doctor ("The Indian Camp") and he relishes fishing and hunting in the northern peninsula of Michigan ("Big Two-Hearted River").

Six 6 Word Stories

He stared at the picture longingly. 

In bed, she closed her eyes. 

I can't believe that just happened. 

Everyone stood up to show respect. 

Why don't you take a stab?

Furrowing my brow, my thoughts collapsed. 

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

Although I can easily argue both sides to this argument, I would say that I would have to judge John Proctor as a stooge by the end of The Crucible. When Proctor was testifying to the court at the end of Act 4, he was "confessing" that he had worked with the Devil before, even though that was a complete lie. Even as Danforth, the judge of the court, continuously interrogates Proctor to name the others in Salem who he has seen with the Devil, John Proctor refuses to call out any names because he doesn't want to wrongly persecute any more innocent people. He wants to end the witch hunt once and for all, using only his life without having to drag anyone else into the terrible situation based on vengeance that had been spreading around town. At this point in the play, I saw him as acting very noble and honorable and being a character that could be respected, unlike the many others in Salem. A few dialogue lines later, Danforth asked Proctor to sign a document admitting his confession that he was guilty of using witchcraft alongside the Devil, but he refused. John Proctor would not sign the document because his reasoning was that he had already confessed his sins out loud and God had already taken record of his confession, meaning there was no use for him to write it down on paper. When I was reading this part of the play, I saw this as a sort of meaningless argument because the result of this conflict was him and Rebecca Nurse getting hung. If Proctor wanted to "sacrifice" himself to end the witch hunt, signing the document would be exactly what he should be wanting to do. I understand not giving up the names of any other people in Salem because that would be lying and accusing others for practicing witchcraft, who honestly didn't, so John Proctor did the right thing in that case. On the other hand, if John Proctor had just admitted from the very beginning the truth about his affair with Abigail being the reason for her vengeance on Elizabeth and thus, much of the town, then the entire witch hunt situation wouldn't have gotten as out of hand as it did. If he confessed his lechery initially, he would have still been giving himself up, which is what he ended up doing anyways, except revealing the truth from the start would've saved countless other innocent lives. Even though John Proctor's intentions may have been to try to do the right deed, I would consider his choice of actions to result in him being more of a stooge than a hero.

Arrivals...There Goes The Neighborhood

There has been great talk traveling around the tribe about these new white men here to take over our land and people. They have only just landed, but it seems like they had traveled to our living quarters on big wooden machines that float on the water. Many of us believe that they were sent here from the heavens because of their seemingly magical appearance into our lives. Some others don't quite have the same views and are insistent on the fact that these people have set goals on destroying our way of life. I personally don't think I have experienced enough interaction with their people to quite yet make a certain judgment on their true intentions, but I can sense that them entering in on our world, one we've known our entire lives, won't result to be an honest blessing. The moment they stepped onto our land, everyone in our tribe saw these people as strange white beings. They spoke in a language completely foreign to anything we have ever heard before, leading to communication between the two groups only possible through excessive hand gestures and signing. Ones of the tribe that have physically met and spent time with these new people have exposed news that they have attempted to inform us of a ridiculous god by, I believe, the name of Jesus. All of us that caught ear of these words caused us to become somewhat bewildered, while another part of us were intrigued by the idea. Although they have only begun to approach our lifestyle, changes are already quickly influencing the lives of both groups, and I can easily announce that none of us enjoy this abrupt change.

Me

My name is Ellaina Yon and I am a 15 year old student at Whitney Young High school. I graduated from John C. Haines Elementary School. My birthday is December 12, 1998 and I'm actually really fond of my birthday. Most people would say that they just enjoy celebrating their birthday, but I think that the fact that the physical date of my birthday being on 12/12 is pretty neat. My favorite color is purple and has been for as long as I can remember. My favorite artist is Ariana Grande and because I enjoy watching practically any superhero movie, it could easily be said that my favorite movies are produced by Marvel. My favorite sports are volleyball and swimming, and I am currently on the Whitney Young Girls' Swim Team. I absolutely hate running with a passion because I honestly feel like a fish out of water. I love reading either romance novels or fiction genres,especially scientific fiction. I find Greek mythology fascinating and the topic never seems to bore me. If I could choose a location I would like to travel to, I would choose to go to Hawaii or the Maldives because no matter where you go or what you do in those places, being able to surround yourself with the amazing views that they offer will make any vacation perfect.