Tom Sawyer Final Essay

Have you ever had a friend that you would travel to the ends of the earth for, and know that they'd do the same for you? A friend that you'd support, no matter what? Well, that's like the friendship of Tom and his comrades Huck and Joe. They stick with each other through thick and thin, and look up to one another. Like brothers, they have their fights, but in the end they realize what fools they've been, and forgive each other. I think Tom is very lucky to have Huck and Joe, and they're lucky to have him, because everyone needs a friend.

Honestly, at times I think Huck and Joe are crazy. They stick with Tom, even when he gets them involved in a murder, drags them away from their life and civilization to a desolate island, gets them lost in a dark, gloomy cave, and brings them into his love life. But then again, isn't that what friends are for? To take with on your adventures and journeys, and help you through your problems?

I believe that Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, knows how important friendship is, and that's one of the reasons why he wrote Tom Sawyer the way he did, with friendship being one of the most important things in the context. He knows that without Tom's friendship with Huck and Joe, the story would be quite dreary. If the main character doesn't have a friend, he would be a lonely, poor fellow, and since Tom Sawyer's overall mode is obviously romance, the main character can't very well be a lonesome chap feeling sorry for himself throughout the entire book. Everybody needs a friend.

Tom Sawyer Quiz

*Authors Note:  PROMPT-Select one of the more interesting chapters we've read so far and discuss what you found of value in the text.

The chapter I’ve chosen to respond to is chapter 9, which is the graveyard scene where Tom and Huck witness Injun Joe murdering the doctor.  I find that this chapter is very key to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, because it’s where the first real, severe conflict is formed.  Without this chapter, Injun Joe wouldn’t have become the murderer that the characters fear, and the book’s plot would be weak.  It would be weak because without Injun Joe and the graveyard scene, this book would be mainly about Tom’s on and off relationship with Becky, and his pirate adventures.  It would have no real seriousness in it.

Chapter nine is obviously irony.  It's very unrealistic, because what is the chance that two 12 year old boys happened to be at the exact same place at the exact same time as a terrible killing occurs?  Injun Joe, the evil in the chapter, is completely in control, and Huck and Tom are weak and stupid compared to him.  The only other character that had any potential to be good is Muff Potter, and he’d had a few too many drinks that night, and is therefore also weak and stupid.  The chapter starts off with Tom and Huck going off to the graveyard to use a dead cat’s body to remove their warts, then all of a sudden, three mysterious men arrive and Huck and Tom witness a murder, which is the major conflict.  In the end, the death symbolism is that if they don’t tell someone in authority, Injun Joe will get away and Muff Potter will be blamed and possibly hung for the murder, and if they do snitch on him, Injun Joe will most likely seek revenge against them and try to murder them as well.  Some symbols are the barking dogs that Tom hears, as well as the graveyard at midnight, the weeds that they’re lurking in, and the worm-eaten graves.

In conclusion, I believe chapter nine is one of the most important chapters in the book, because it’s where all the evil business with Injun Joe unfolds, and the plot begins to form.

Patriotism Matters

Have you ever felt you were lost, with no one to turn to, no way to get out of what you have gotten yourself into? This is a feeling many of our soldiers get when they are in the midst of a war. They wonder what they're going to do, how they're going to get through these tough times, how they're going to survive. Then, they pull out that picture. The picture of their family, friends, and country. They realize that they're just going to have to push through and stay tough, so that they can fight for freedom for themselves and their loved ones. They have to fight for our country so that we may live and be free.

To me, that's what patriotism is all about. It's about normal people like you and me, going out and serving our country, even when the odds are grim, when nothing is going right. I’m not saying that you need to go and join the armed forces, of course. Patriotism is about serving your country, but you can do that in many ways. You can donate money to people less fortunate than you, volunteer, support our servicemen and woman, and give them hope. You could simply put up an American flag outside your house to show you care! There are endless ways to show love and devotion to our country, and they're all very simple.

Patriotism matters to me because if we didn't have patriotism, what would our country end up being? If patriotism is what drives our servicemen and women to stay strong and fight for our country, what would happen if there wasn't any of that? Where would America be? Would we have been taken over long ago by a ruthless dictator? Would we be slaves, with no freedom, no hope? What would've happened to our beloved country without patriotism?

So, if you ask me if patriotism still matters, I would immediately respond with these words: "If it didn't, then where do you think our country would be? Not where we are now, that’s for sure."

                                                    

Snow White

*This is an Analysis of Snow White and its Literature Mode

The movie Snow White is a very romantic piece.  It starts with a conflict (hint hint) of her stepmother, the Queen, asking her mirror this question:  "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"  The mirror replies that Snow White is the fairest, instead of her, which causes her to become very jealous.  So a hunter comes to kill her, but cannot do it because she is too beautiful, and sends her into the woods to hide.  There, she immediatly befriends all the woodland animals and the dwarfs that live there, who invite her to stay at her house and keep her safe from her evil stepmother.  The Queen tries to kill her again with a poison apple, and succeeds, but when trying to escape from the vengeful seven dwarfs, a boulder falls on top of her, and she dies. Of course, her true love, who has been looking far and wide for her, comes and saves the day with true loves kiss, (love conquers all evil) and they run off and get married.  (Ends in marriage, birth, ect.)  Some other things that make this movie romantic is that Snow White is a sweet, innocent, young princess who can do no wrong, and the movie is very unrealistic.  Examples of this are when Snow immediatly befriends the animals and lets them snuggle up to her, when in real life, most woodland creatures are fiercely protective of themselves and their young, possibly rabid, and don't smell very pleasant, how the seven dwarfs are singing in the mines, having a great time, when in reality mining is one of the most dangerous and dirty jobs ever, and the Queen preforming  magic spells to turn herself into an old lady and an apple to poison. 

Lightning

{This is a Stream of Conciousness journal entry}

 

The willow tree's long branches thrash around madly, and rain is pelting down from the sky, through the branches, in 40 degree weather.  Lightning strikes, illuminating the sky in a florescent blue-ish white, terrifying me, yet mesmerizing me at the same time.  The thunder crashes loudly, and it rumbles on and on, lasting at least half a minute, although it seems as though it lasted a lifetime.   I smile with the pleasure of the storm, its 45 MPH winds whipping my hair around my face, threatening to blow me away.  I strip off my rain poncho and hoodie, so I'm standing under this weeping willow, in just a T-shirt and jeans.  I feel the cold instantly- the temperature threatens to freeze me, but that's nothing a toasty fire, some blankets, and a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup can't fix.  I step out into the rain, and am immediately drenched and cold as can be.  And I love it.  I love the feel of the ice cold rain, pelting against my skin, soaking me to the bone, and the dangerously strong winds knocking into me.  I love the sensation of purity, like the rain is washing away all my insanity, anger, rage, sorrow, hopelessness.   I close my eyes and spread my arms out, opening myself to the clouds above, urging them to rain harder.  I start to laugh from pleasure as I spin in circles, enveloped in pure joy and peace of mind.  Then, even through my eyelids, I see a blinding flash of white light, and then every single particle of my existence burns.  I feel as though I'm being fried.  The pain is so intense, worse than anything I've felt before.  This lasted but a second, but it seemed to drag on for eternity.  Right then, I learned why it's so dangerous to stand outside when lightning is flashing and thunder is booming.  I collapsed, dead.    

Who's on First?

I don't know if any of you guys have ever seen this short clip, but it's so hilarious!  It's called Who's On First?
http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=170045&title=Whos_on_first

Forest (Stream of Cousciousness)

Forest

        I'm sitting on a stump in the middle of the forest- or what used to a forest.  What used to be my forest, where I would play with friends, climb trees, listen to the birds, sit and think- and now the forest-my forest-was gone.  The once skyscraper-tall trees had been reduced to stumps.  The twittering and chirping of the magnificent, beautiful, free birds was gone, and the chatter of the animals had been ceased.  The green had left the forest- the yellow had taken over.  The yellow brown of the once luscious green grass, the yellow of the horrific monsters-bulldozers and cranes and construction-that killed everything in its path, the yellow of the sunshine shining through, burning my face, because the shade of the trees isn't here to stop it.  The trees that had taken millions of lifetimes to grow were gone because of the yellow that took it in one night. 

        "Excuse me," said a gruff voice from behind me that sounded rusty, like a smokers'.   "I need you to get outta' this place because we're about to gas it." 
        I turned around and saw a big, burly man with overalls smoking a cigar. 

        "Gas it?" I asked tentatively, not sure what he meant, but already knowing it was bad.

        "Yeah, gas it.  We fill the forest with toxic gas so that all the animals will die, so we can build the mall here." 

        A thousand terrible thoughts rushed through my head.  Those poor animals!   It can't happen!  It couldn't!  It wouldn't!  Deadly images danced through my brain of poor innocent creatures slowly suffocating from the fatal toxins that filled the atmosphere.   Death everywhere.  Tears streamed down my face as I opened my mouth and let out a silent scream.  And that's when I fainted.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to Olivia's Cooliomazingness Blog!  I hope you enjoy it!