Tell the Wolves I'm Home Pre-Reading

                       The quote "don't judge a book by it's cover" means to judge something by it's appearance and it's something people do everyday with or without realizing they are doing it.  I remember a time in intermediate school I judged this one girl because of the friends she hung out with.  When I ended up having class with her I thought I would hate it.  All because of the friends she would hang around.  I remember telling my friend about her and she was in the same situation.  I remember trying to ignore her and it just wasn't helping.  One day I had to sit by her in class and she ended up being really funny and nice.  We ended up becoming really good friends in the future and she was nothing at all how I expected her to be.  After I found out what kind of person she really was, I ended up feeling really bad for the way I judged her.  I was being rude to someone who I didn't even know.  That story ended up helping me in the future to try my hardest not to judge a book by it's cover.
                      It's very important not to judge someone by their "cover" because you may end up being very wrong about what you thought about them.  Sometimes you might be right, but a persons personality doesn't show on the outside; you have to get to know them on the inside first.  A lot of times you may find yourself surprised about what you actually learned about them rather than just judging them.  Sometimes, people judge other people without even knowing they are doing it, and I feel that people should try their hardest to stop judging people and get to know them first, if that happens we could have a whole lot of more friendships on earth.  I feel that it's not just teenagers that do this, but everyone, adults do it, little kids do it, even elders judge people.
                      I hope as time goes on, more people will stop judging books by their covers and start to read the book first.

Chocolate War Post-Reading

                     "Do I dare disturb the universe?" a quote from the novel Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.  Anyone can disturb the universe, even by one simple action.  In my point of view, this quote can have a big impact on someone because it can get stuck in their head and they start thinking about how everything might change if they make one decision.  This quote can help someone for better or for worse, because it can be good to help them make better choices but it can also be bad because they might over think some things and they will get anxiety.  The quote to me means that one choice can disturb the universe and it can impact your whole life, so before you make decisions you should first stop and think about how it will impact your life.
                       This quote relates to the novel because that's what Jerry asked himself when he was deciding whether to sell chocolates or not, he also has the quote on a poster hanging up in his locker.  It can also relate to the other people accepting assignments from The Vigils because they can either refuse to do it or accept it and both choices can change a lot of things in their universe.  At the end of the book, Jerry tells The Goober to never disturb the universe because it's not worth it.  If I went through the same things Jerry I would never want to disturb the universe either.
                       When I read this book, I never thought about the quote and I feel like I will start thinking about my choices more carefully now.  I also looked back at my past choices and how they affected me.  For example, by not going to the doctors when I felt sick one time, got me even more sick.  And so I thought back and thought about only if I went I would've gotten better quicker.  People my age and in high school can use this when thinking about their future.  They can make better decisions about school and a career and further investments in life.

The Chocolate War Pre-Reading

                    School pranks can happen often, more so in high school than middle school.  Sometimes the pranks can be harmless but other times someone can end up getting hurt or maybe someones property might get damaged.  To me, if a school prank is funny and no one gets hurt or nothing gets damaged than school pranks are good and funny.  If someone pulls a harmless school prank and than gets in trouble for it, I will be opposed to that because they didn't do anything wrong and shouldn't get punished.  During class someone might do something funny and then the whole class might laugh but the student that made them laugh will get in trouble for no reason, no one got hurt (inside and out), no ones property was damaged, and no one was offended by it.  But if someone does get hurt, offended, or something's broke, then I support the decision to punish them.
                    People might get confused with what pranks are harmless and what pranks aren't and even though they don't know, they'll still do the prank even though they don't know if someone's going to get hurt or not.  Some harmful pranks that people might think are okay but aren't might include: tripping someone, throwing stuff, and writing on stuff.  All of those pranks could either get someone hurt or offended and get you in trouble.  Sometimes pranks just aren't worth it.  Only do a prank if you know it won't get you in major trouble or someone offended/hurt or something broke.
                    School pranks can be fun and make other people laugh but that's the only time it's good to do a prank.  All of the other times is wrong and you shouldn't do them.  And if you get in trouble for pulling a school prank even though you didn't brake any rules, then say that you did nothing wrong, or that you won't do it again.  So next time you thing about pulling a school prank just take into consideration about how other people might feel.

Eleanor and Park Post-Reading

                    "Yesterday happens...." is a quote for the novel Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell has a deep meaning.  I feel that the quote is talking about the past and about forgetting about it and moving on to the next day.  It's saying how things will happen and soon they will turn into yesterday and yesterday is in the past which you have to forget about.  And you should forget about it because a new day will happen and you can just start over again and forget about everything.  A new day will happen and whats in the past is in the past.  There's nothing you can do to change it.  I can relate to that because sometimes a have a bad day and sometimes I just need to forget about what happened and look forward to the next day and forget about that day and move on.  And so yesterday happens, once it hits 12 a.m it's in the past.  So when it's in the past I just try to forget about it because I know there is nothing I can do.  
                           This quote can relate to this novel in some ways.  It can relate because sometimes Eleanor has something bad that would happen to her and she knows it will soon be in the past.  She knows that what's in the past is in the past and she can't change it.  I feel that everyone can relate to this quote because they've all had the same feeling of having a bad day and it being in the past.  Along with the quote, people can relate to the novel.  And this quote can have different meanings so people can use their own perspective and say what they think this quote is about to them.

Eleanor and Park ~ Pre-Reading

          

         In life, people have their family.  A lot of families now are very different.  You could have a dad, or a mom, or a dad and a mom, or each of the same ones, maybe you might be adopted, but everyone has a family.  Usually the mom acts different than the dad on raising a child.  Moms are the ones who (in my definition) are the ones who are more the care takers and the more loving ones.  When I grew up I only have small memories of my parents being together and when they split up I stayed with my mom for most of my life and so I was used to her being the more caring one.  I feel that moms are the ones who will do pretty much everything.  Since they fed you when you were born and carried you for nine months I feel that the mom should be the more caretaker of the child.  But the dad should do the working.  For example, if something's broken he would be the one to fix it, if the grass needs mowing he would mow it.  He would also be a good example on how to act.  He would show his kids how to act properly and have manners and if he has a son he would show him how to be respectful to women.

           Some people may disagree with what I felt each parent should do because I came from a split family.  It was very hard because both parents had to start being caring and hardworking, they would have to do both roles.  And it was even worse when you get a step-parent because they would have to adjust to your lifestyle and you would have to adjust to theirs.  And when you've been living with parents spilt up and not married for a couple of years it gets hard when they get married to someone else because you don't know what it's like living with two parents.

        I feel that everyone has their own point of view about what should make up each parent and that nobody's going to have the same family as someone else because every single family is different.

The Other Wes Moore Post-Reading

 

               "I guess it's sometimes hard to distinguish between second and last chances".  That quote is from the novel "The Other Wes Moore" by Wes Moore and the quote has a really deep meaning.  In middle school if we get in trouble, it's usually not something bad enough to really mess up our future; we just get punished by either getting sent home or just getting talked to by an administrator.  Because of those punishments, we never really know if something is going to be our last or second chance, we've always been given a chance to start over even if we used like fifteen chances.  So if we end up doing something stupid in high school, it may be our last chance and we wouldn't have known it because we're so used to being given all of these chances.

                 To me, this quote means that people never really know when they're all out of chances, when something is going to ruin their whole life or when they still have a chance or two left.  In life we are never told when our chances are up.  One day you could do something and not get a big punishment but then the next day you could do something stupid and have it ruin your entire life.  If people knew how many chances they have left there would be a whole lot of people who wouldn't be in jail right now.  Maybe sometimes you aren't really given any chances and you do something so stupid that you are sentenced life in prison. This quote relates to the novel because Wes did a lot of stupid stuff when he was growing up.  For example he tried to stab someone but he got lucky and since he was a minor got charged with attempted murder, he also tried to shoot someone but never got a full time in jail, he got a girl pregnant, but then he got caught selling drugs and was in jail for a long time.  He used up all his chances there, his daughter could only see him in prison growing up.

                 I feel like this quote is telling people to be careful of their actions because they never know when they could have some more chances left, or it could be their last.

Human Nature Essay

“What I mean is… maybe it’s only us” that’s a quote from the novel The Lord of the Flies and it means that it’s really the evil inside us.  But I believe that people are born naturally good instead of evil.  If they weren’t than there wouldn’t be any charities or donations or armies fighting for their country.  If people were born bad then why do people save others before themselves.  Think about how Martin Luther King did anything to fight and get people rights even if that meant he would go to jail.  Also, in the book Night, Elie was willing to die if that meant his father would live.

Most people believe others are evil for no reason.  But a lot of times, it’s because they probably had a bad past experience with something to make them turn evil.  It’s like in the poem The Cold Within, all of the men don’t like each other for a reason, it was probably because of a past experience.  For example, one of the men didn’t like the one because he was poor, it’s probably because he had a bad incident and that changed him.  It’s like a school dress code, one day hoodies are allowed but then someone decides to hide something with their hoodie and they get caught.  Then the next day hoodies end up being not allowed anymore all because of that one person.  One time I tried to be nice to a cat but then it scratched me so now I don’t really like cats.

If people were born naturally bad then there wouldn’t be good, love, or selflessness.  All of the people who changed the country in a good way did it because they love their country.  Mothers and fathers care, love, and usually put their children before them.  Families love each other, charities love to help and make a difference, all of these things people love and care and put others before them.  If they were evil they wouldn’t be doing these things.  LIke in The Lord of the Flies, Ralph would’ve killed all those people and probably wouldn’t have cared about the others and would’ve only saved himself and no one else.

Humans are naturally good and not evil. If they were born bad there wouldn’t be any good, caring, or selflessness in this world.