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Maybe it was his dirty clothes, greasy hair, Southern slang, short height, whatever the reason no one seemed to want to be his friend. His name was Jacob. It took a day or two till we started to jeer at him. The sharp, condescending way we said each insult, the menacing glares we gave, daring him to say a word, to protest against our petty insults. Despite all the taunting it never reached physical abuse, but always we made walls, walls that prevented him from becoming part of our group. If he approached we turned away, pretended to be grossly engaged at coloring the dinosaur, tossing the tennis ball, viewing the white fluffy clouds. If he spoke we would ignore him. I was terrified that if I looked at him, sat near him, breathed him, his unpopularity would breach my defenses. I didn’t like it, the way everyone treated him, but why argue with the rest of the group? It’s not like I owed him anything, and besides, I was too scared to risk my own acceptance for his.
About three days into the camp Jacob seemed to realize that he had made no friends. He went around trying to talk to us, butt into the group we had already made. Each time he tried everyone would reject him, and it just got worse and worse. Some ignored him, others called him names and told him to go away. I didn’t think much of it, it’s not like it was my issue.
“Hello?”
“Hi.”
My brain thought fast, reviewing the past few seconds with rapid speed, verifying what I just did. Jacob tried to talk me, and I had responded in a friendly way. It was just a reaction my body had, I didn’t actually mean it. I quickly turned away, hoping that no one else noticed my mistake. I retreated deep into my group, eighteen boys who I befriended. I prayed that even thought I just ta...
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...uld take on the world. I had won respect of my friends, what more could I ask for? After a brief exclusion from the group, my respect was fully restored. “Let’s go eat at the gym.” At that moment I felt proud, I felt like a gladiator who emerged from the Coliseum strong and unscathed, walking along with the crowd of Rome, congratulating me on my great triumph. Jacob was still at the end of the hall.
There always will be regrets when I look back at my childhood, but the day I succumbed to peer pressure and abused another person just to be cool is something I deeply regret. What makes me feel worse is that no one asked for me to threaten Jacob, I did it on my own will. I was so desperate for everyone else’s friendship I was willing to hurt Jacob to be friends with everyone else. Friends that were willing to ditch me just because I talked to someone they didn’t like.
Threats made him great because they made him think about what he was going to do with his life if he did not behave, and his future didn't look so bright. Also, others not reacting when he misbehaved made Jake a greater person because he just wanted attention and when he didn't get it he stopped. Finally, discovering his passion made Jake great because it gave him joy and he started to relate to others and want to also give them happiness. To summarize, Jake went through a lot, his parents were in jail, he moved in with a new family, and was threatened to be locked up. Jake's life was an emotional roller coaster, and he could have sat around feeling sorry for himself. But instead, he helped the Applewhites, worked hard and tried to please others. He realized that he could change his future. He stepped up to the challenge and made a difference in his life. Jake became
In novel Water for Elephants, the author, Sara Gruen, was able to present many different acts of loyalty and disloyalty within the story. Acts of kind, honesty, faithfulness or hatred from characters throughout the novel towards Jacob, resulted in the same acts from Jacob. Seemingly, Jacob was a deceiving and disloyal character to some characters, such as August. However, as the novel progressed, it became obvious that Jacob would learn his lessons of loyalty from others before he has showed it himself. Jacob showed utmost respect for the ones whom truly cared about him. He continued to grow, and show characteristics of a man as he learned different lessons. Ultimately, it became evident that Jacob Jankowski’s actions were solely acts of repayment.
By even being a suspect for the murder, the rest of the world has shunned him away, isolated him and his family, and treated him as if he himself deserves to be killed. During a conversation on Facebook, another student verbally attacks Jacob by telling him “you shd keep your head down and be quiet” (Landay 88). Before a case has even developed, Jacob is already being attacked for his comments and being told to quiet himself, unable to speak his opinions. His thoughts and ideologies are feared by others as they do not want to even hear any sign that Jacob is alive and may be negatively impacting others around him. Very similar emotions develop when a knife is present in the room. As soon as an individual notices a knife, they feel compelled to back off, creating ample distance between it and themselves. They feel as if the knife possesses an aura, a deadly aura, as if it is specifically designed to be used against them. A knife is a common object that no one would consider “safe” or “appropriate” in most situations. The fact that others act very similarly towards Jacob demonstrates that he is dreaded by his friends and the rest of the world. This supports Jacob’s culpability as it exposes how others view him very negatively. Jacob does not deny it, but he does show minor signs of supporting it, even posting a picture of himself portrayed as a psychopathic figure. Jacob accepts
I froze. I had forgotten about the dance and now was uncertain about whether I was going or not. "Yeah, probably," I answered. She nodded and we discussed other things, but my mind never wandered away from the question she had posed. Suddenly, the bus appeared and I climbed on and took a seat in the front. I needed some time to think.
Modern society demands that humans form friendships, which is echoed by Salinger through Holden’s lack of friends and irrational decisions. J.D. Salinger uses Holden to show how self-alienation affects human being and the people around them. Critics of the book have said, “Holden is an outcast like Huck Finn, and like Huck he tells his story in his own idiom, Holden's voice is not merely a virtuoso recreation of contemporary adolescent speech” (Sandock). Holden is considered an outcast because he refuses to solidify a friendship with anyone but at the same time Holden always wants to be around humans. Salinger uses Holden to stress the importance of friendships and how they keep humans sane. Holden’s lack of friendships has led him t...
The impressions of Jacob are from many different types of characters in the book. There are random people that we don’t even get the name of, Jacob’s own mother, those that love Jacob and even those whom Jacob love. All these impressions are woven on a common thread, that all human being’s have a need to break isolation and cherish attention, love and concreteness.
I unwilllingly walked through the entrance of regret and guilt. With teary eyes from what happened the night before, I didn’t know what I could say. All I thought was ‘It was an accident’ but that didn’t matter anymore.
I made it my obligation to undo my wrong and be more of a leader and was able to have others follow by example. By being more friendly and thoughtful the individual was able to feel some relief and make new friends while attending school. By me being in this situation at a young age help me become fully aware of what I wanted to do in life which is helping others because of me helping and supporting this individual it made me feel positive about my change in uplifting another human being. The impact it has had on my view of bullying and torment to others now that I am older and more, wiser is when I’m in a situation where I’m thinking cruelty or someone is being cruel in my presence. I always think back to fifth grade and put myself in that persons position I also believe that this life experience will go a long way in helping others to the best of my ability with their problems or issues they are dealing with by looking beyond myself and helping my future patient I’m able to look beyond myself I feel I can be more useful and valuable to my community and peers I can teach them my life experience and what I learned so they won’t have to make the same mistakes that I have , I want my experience that I faced to change
“It’s not enough to be friendly. You have to be a friend,” R.J.Palacio. Though Summer was the only one to really be a friend to August in the beginning, Jack was friendly and learned that just being friendly was not enough. He needed to be a friend. I started to think about how kids and I would realistically act around August, and I concluded that I would react much like Jack did.
One thing that really bothers me is how much I changed. I used to play games all day, not focus on school, wouldn't get in serious trouble, and was very innocent compared to my present day self. There are cons and pros of my past self compared to how I am currently. I am more happy of how I am now then I am before. As time changes, so do I and I can not stop that. What’s done has already been done and can’t be changed so you always have to look towards the future and never the past. The past will not definite who you are today unless you let it. I would have never expect that I would be transferred to a continuation high school in my freshman year. It is a bad thing to many people, but I am thankful that I am sent to it because I will learn
The opening scene of Jacob’s Room depicts Mrs. Flanders and Archer searching for a young Jacob along the beach, already showing that the titular character is detached and separate from those around him. Instead of walking with his mother and brother on the shore, Jacob is more interested in the escapades of a crab in a tidal pool, an early indication of his future pursuit of knowledge and his penchant for isolation. Aside from this first mention, Jacob’s biological family is mentioned very rarely throughout the remainder of the novel, as Woolf focuses on his social and academic family instead. However, Jacob’s tendency to distance himself from many of his friends probably stems from the slightly distracted air of his mother, who seems to love and care for him but at the same time is scatter-brained and somewhat unaware of her surroundings. Jacob i...
There are so many events that change one’s life that it is rather difficult to try and decipher which of those events are most important. Each event changes a different aspect of your life, molding how one’s personality turns out. One of these events occurred when I was about twelve years old and I attempted to steal from a Six Flags amusement park. My reasoning for stealing wasn’t that I didn’t have the money, or even that I wanted what I stole all that badly, it was that all of my friends had stolen something earlier that day and didn’t get caught. After getting caught I resolved, because the consequences are just not worth it, never to steal or give into peer pressure again.
I was disobedient and it still has a big effect on me now. This little act of mine
Jimmy looked around. The rest of the class was already seated and ready. Sitting on the right of Jimmy was a fat brown haired kid named Karl. Karl snorted when he laughed and Jimmy thought that to be funny. Karl was Jimmy’s other friend. On the other side of Jimmy, was an enormous and tall kid that always used to pick on Jimmy. He was called Max the bully by the rest of the class.
It was moments like this that I wish I could take it all back. I made a mistake. Don’t we all? I was being childish and stupid. I didn’t know what I was d...