The book I read was Stargirl written by Jerry Spinelli.
The main character of this book is Susan Caraway, but everyone knows her as Stargirl. Stargirl is about 16 years old. She is in 10th grade. Her hair is the color of sand and falls to her shoulders. A “sprinkle” of freckles crosses her nose. Mostly, she looked like a hundred other girls in school, except for two things. She didn’t wear makeup and her eyes were bigger than anyone else’s in the school. Also, she wore outrageous clothes. Normal for her was a long floor-brushing pioneer dress or skirt. Stargirl is definitely different. She’s a fun loving, free-spirited girl who no one had ever met before. She was the friendliest person in school. She loves all people, even people who don’t play for her school’s team. She doesn’t care what others think about her clothes or how she acts. The lesson that Stargirl learned was that you can’t change who you are. If you change for someone else, you will only make yourself miserable. She also learned that the people who really care about you will like you for who you are. The people who truly love you won’t ask you to change who you are.
The setting of the story is Mica Area High School in Arizona. The kids who attended this high school all wore the same clothes, talked the same way, ate the same food, and listened to the same music. They were pretty much identical to each another. The city had been built around an electronics business park. The city was only 15 years old. It was a town in the middle of the dessert where everyone’s front yard was made up of stones and cactuses. This story could have taken place in another time because the issue that the main character, Stargirl, is dealing with is a timeless problem. People always have trouble accepting other people who are not like them. Not to mention that cliques and popularity in high schools have been since anyone can remember. We all need to belong, even Stargirl.
The story begins with a new girl at school. The story is told by another 10th grader, Leo Burlock. Susan Caraway, better know as Stargirl, is a 10th grader who has just come to Mica Area High School wearing a pioneer type dress, strumming her ukulele, and carrying her pet rat, Cinnamon, on her shoulder.
In Under a Cruel Star, Heda Margolious Kovaly details the attractiveness and terror of Communism brought to Czechoslovakia following WWII. Kovaly’s accounts of how communism impacted Czechoslovakia are fascinating because they are accounts of a woman who was skeptical, but also seemed hopeful for communism’s success. Kovaly was not entirely pro-communism, nor was she entirely anti-communism during the Party’s takeover. By telling her accounts of being trapped in the Lodz Ghetto and the torture she faced in Auschwitz, Kovaly displays her terror experienced with a fascist regime and her need for change. Kovaly said that the people of Czechoslovakia welcomed communism because it provided them with the chance to make up for the passivity they had let occur during the German occupation. Communism’s appeal to
"Constant Star" by Tazewell Thompson is a play which sticks out in my mind as being one of the best I have ever had the priviledge of watching. The play is centered around the life of Ida B. Wells, a black woman who stands up for equality at all costs. Although the content of the play is moving and very interesting, the lighting, songs, costumes, props, and special effects are what made the play so extraordinary.
We don't see many people in the world who express individuality. However, we see popularity and amount of followers we have on our Instagram to represent our reputation in the public. In the novel, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, we can see that individuality can still be expressed even if the whole school despises you. The main character, Stargirl, demonstrates how to be yourself and how it's better to be yourself than to become someone else.
Summary and Response to Barbara Kingsolver’s “Called Home” In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability.
The fundamental characteristic of magical realism is its duality, which enables the reader to experience both the character’s past and the present. In the novel, Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson uses this literary device to address the the trauma and mistreatment of the Haisla community in Canada by unveiling the intimate memories of the protagonist, Lisamarie, and the resulting consequences of this oppression. Monkey Beach illustrates how abuse in the past leads to another form of self-medication in the future - a neverending, vicious cycle for the members of the Haisla community. Many characters in Monkey Beach are scarred from childhood sexual abuse and family neglect, and resort to drug and alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. These appalling memories are an account of the impact of colonization on the Haisla territory which continues to haunt the Aboriginal community throughout generations.
She’s just so weak. If she would stand up for herself, no one would bother her. It’s her own fault that people pick on her, she needs to toughen up. “Shape of a Girl” by Joan MacLeod, introduces us to a group of girls trying to “fit in” in their own culture, “school.” This story goes into detail about what girls will do to feel accepted and powerful, and the way they deal with everyday occurrences in their “world.” Most of the story is through the eyes of one particular character, we learn about her inner struggles and how she deals with her own morals. This story uses verisimilitude, and irony to help us understand the strife of children just wanting to fit in and feel normal in schools today.
The preserving modern folk tale that is the invasion of aliens, is fully knotted within the cultural fear that one day in the near future, a threat of some unknown origin will be more powerful, more capable at warfare than we American’s can ever be. No mater the impossibility, it is a perceived end to the very short colonization of the North Americas. In 1947 a few miles from Roswell, NW, Mack Brazel found debris from an unidentified flying object scattered in a three-mile arc on his land. According to the myth told by the International UFO Museum Research Center in Roswell, NW, the metal had strange pictorial writings on the “I” beams and were purple in color. (IUFORMC NM Inc.) This tale is so widely told in Roswell, that there has been a whole industry developed there to preserve this ledged of the alien crash landing and the Military’s collection of the debris and cover-up of the visitors from outer space.
After comparing and contrasting the views of mankind of Franklin and Edwards by looking at the personal background, religious views and evidence in their writings, it is clear that their views were very different. Franklin’s education was based off of philosophy books he read while Edwards’ education was based off of the study of theology and a biblical background. The religious views of Franklin were that mankind was basically good, but Edwards’ views were that man was basically evil. The evidence in the writings of Franklin showed that he relied in being morally good without God’s grace, while Edwards understood that the only way man could become good is through God’s grace. While both men were very influential and important in history, their views were very different.
Locke provided valuable evidence to support his thoughts and did not contradict himself like Hobbes. I agree with John Locke that the purpose of government is to protect and serve its people for the common good. As he would say, the purpose of government is “ being only with an intention in every one the better to preserve himself, his liberty, and property…” (Locke). In other words, although men give up some of their freedoms from when they were in the state of nature, they gain many benefits that are worth
Setting: This book starts out in this kids house his name is crash. Then they go to the arcade. That is where they spend most of the story. Then close to the end they go to the riverside.
An important point which Edwards writes in his sermon is his belief that when man is truly following the path of God, he will reach a sense morality that has beauty. In the sermon, Edwards writes, "And if we consider the…moral excellency, the same will appear…God is infinitely the greatest Being, so he is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent" (14). He is referring to the Puritanistic ideal that God is everything that is good and right. Therefore, God is the most moralistic entity in existence and striving for a godly life will eventually lead to one's own moral beauty. Although John Locke's ideas of morality are more political, they are passionate ideas, much like Edwards's ideas. John Griffith, commentating on Edwards's The Nature of True Virtue, states, "Edwards begins by accepting Hutcheson's proposition that virtue is moral beauty. Beauty, he says, is always a harmony, or 'consent and agreement'" (2576). Griffith is stating, like I previously stated, that Edwards predominantly focused on the moral aspect of his beliefs.
To what extent does Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Medusa’ challenge stereotypical masculine and feminine attributes?
Sylvia Barret, a new teacher is starting her first day in room 304. She finds out that teaching isn’t all that she thought it would be. Her first friend is Bea a veteran teacher who helps Sylvia out by explaining how Calvin Coolidge high works. The writer takes all the craziness of a normal high school and embellishes them; for instance the school guidance counselor is always using big words and thinks all the students need help. And Mr. Mchabe the administrative assistant who is nosy about everything. The Janitor who is never available.
What comes to mind when one thinks of the word ‘puppy’? It is probable describe a puppy as a lovable, adorable, and cuddly companion. However, one might also identify the animal as a menace and a liability or even as a delicious source of food. Why does this single word hold so many meanings? One’s past experiences and biases influences these conflicting views and attitudes. For instance, an individual’s fond view of puppies may exist because they were raised with puppies and consequently grew affectionate toward the animals. On the contrary, if another individual has not bonded with puppies as pets, then they will share the latter point of view. In the short story “Puppy” by George Saunders, the multiple characters view single events and objects with contrasting perceptions. Therefore, instead of painting a precise picture of the characters and the plot, the story expresses several views regarding the morals of the characters, the motivations of their actions, and the meaning of the events that take place. In “Puppy”, George Saunders explores the theory that perception is not an elementary, universal definition of an object or idea, but a complex interpretation that is influenced by one’s unique and varying past experiences and opinions. The complexity of perception is evident in one the story’s narrator’s, Marie’s, vantage point.
In the novel Stargirl their was a girl in high school who was named Stargirl who didn't care much to conform and just did her own thing . Stargirl started to make a name for herself half way through the year by joining the cheerleading squad and did things that got the school buzzing . At first when she was doing this people thought it was something that they should conform to but some popular people like Hillari Kimble thought this was foolish and nothing to give any attention to. But it did so that was angering Hillari Kimble and towards the end Stargirl was remembered different and she must have been aware the way she would be remembered .