50-50

50-50

Eleven year old John Webster had no idea what was about to happen to him. He was an innocent little child who was carrying just a little too much cash in his hands for the mean streets of Detroit. Everyone knew carrying too much cash often caused a lot of trouble, very fast.  Even as a child, John Webster knew what happened on the streets of Detroit, and it terrified him incredibly. His parents didn’t know he could see their TV through his cracked open bedroom door, and that was how John knew about everything that happened, as long as it was on the 9:00pm news.

As John continued down the mean streets of Detroit, suddenly he heard something, or someone stirring behind him. I should really be heading home now, he figured. Impatiently, he picked up his pace and noticed a figure out of the corner of his eye. Could It be?, he wondered, no I’ve just been watching the news too often, he concluded. But as young John turned the corner, he was mugged by three men that apeared to be wearing big numbers on their black jackets.

Hours later, John’s parents, Martha and Mike, sat anxiously beside his hospital bed. It terrified them to think of their son laying helplessly in a coma, when just hours ago he was walking home through the streets of Detroit. The doctors had recently informed John’s parents, the longer someone is in a coma; the higher the chances are they won’t wake up. After hearing this the Webster parents were shell shocked. They asked the doctor what the chances were John would wake up. After a painfully long silence, the doctor answered, “It’s a 50-50 chance.” Astonished, John’s parents gasped in horror.

“Y-you-you mean that his chances of life and death are the same?” retorted Martha, furious at anyone who could think to hurt her son.

“Yes,” the doctor answered nervously, “Sadly, that is the case. I wish I could tell you better news, but there is nothing I can do at this point, but wait along with the two of you. I am so sorry.”

“Well, I think that we need a little bit of time alone, Doctor Jones,” said Mike.

“Yes, of course,” Dr. Jones replied.

Mike and Martha closed the door behind Doctor Jones. Martha was uncomfortable, and it showed with the long silences between the two of them. “I can’t believe we let John walk around the mean streets of Detroit alone,” Martha said as she broke the silence.

“Well,” stated John, “it wasn’t really our fault.”

“Not our fault!” Maria yelled, “How could you possibly think that this was not our fault?”

“Quiet down. This room isn’t sound proof,” Mike snapped. “People can hear us.”

“I don’t care how crazy we sound! It’s our son and he was so badly injured his life is on the line!”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean that we need to be yelling. You know we could be adults and talk with inside voices,” Mike retorted with impatience toward Martha.

“Oh, pish posh! You and your kindergarten talk. Talk in inside voices, blah, blah, blah.” Maria stated mockingly.

“Hey, I was just resorting to what I know best! We always had to talk to John’s teachers about that,” Mike declared. “But never mind that! What we should be talking about is why we gave him that much money to walk with around town. Maybe if he didn’t have all of that money for the night, or if we would have communicated better, and he had gotten picked up on time, then he wouldn’t have gotten mugged.”

“Of course he wouldn’t have gotten mugged! The only reason he got mugged in the first place is because someone knew he was carrying all that money,” Maria yapped.

“Fine, whatever, what we need to know is…” Mike retorted before he was cut off when the door instantaneously burst open.

Dr Jones cried, “Little Johnny just woke up!”

Maria sat speechless, but Mike answered, “W-w-what do you mean, is he out of the coma? Is he back with us and among the living?”

“Yes! Amazingly, he is alive! I just happen to be in the room checking his pulse when I noticed he opened his eyes,” the doctor excitedly stated.

“I am speechless, but it’s the, it’s the, the, the best news I’ve heard all evening!” Martha stuttered.

“I would have to agree with you on that, Martha,” Doctor Jones said.

“Soooo…” Mike and Maria stated simultaneously.

“So, do you want to go see your son, or keep talking about it out here in the hallway?”

“Okay, take us to John!” Mike said with a certain excitement in his voice.

Swiftly, John’s parents walked out of the conference room, and Maria whispered to her husband, “We should be so thankful John is awake and with us again.” As they walked down the hallway, Mike thought to himself, am I dreaming this, or will I really see my son looking into my eyes once again?

 They continued down the corridor until they reached John’s room. “After you,” said Dr Jones.

Impatiently, Mike nodded, opened the door and noticed that there was a TV with the news on in the background… Mike saw his son lying up in his hospital bed. For several minutes, Mike stood motionless realizing he would not have been able to stay strong for his wife if he had lost John.  Their son meant the world to both of them, and they had nearly lost him. “Hey Dad,” John whispered in a hoarse voice, “I just woke up, how long was I out? What happened? Why is-”

Mike shot John a, We will talk about that later look, and John closed his mouth and just smiled. Mike then asked his son if he felt alright, and John replied, “I’m fine, I guess. Just a little sore.” When Martha first saw her son awake and talking, it stunned her into another silence. Martha hadn’t really known what she would do when she saw her son come out of the coma, but she there would certainly be tears of joy. Abruptly, Martha started sobbing on her husband’s shoulder as she tried to focus on her son’s whispering voice.

“Dad…Mom, listen to the news,” John said in a scratchy voice as everyone looked up to the television.

A reporter came on and announced in an unemotional voice, “The police have just found evidence that eleven year old John Webster was mugged by three members of the 50-50 gang..."

Montag's Key to Freedom

Author's Note: This is a cause/effect piece on Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451. It is a spoiler.

Montag’s Key to Freedom

                In the book Fahrenheit 451 by: Ray Bradbury, a 30 year old firefighter lives in a society where books are outlawed. Guy Montag experiences the cause of the climax of the book and his life when he sees a woman getting burned in a fire that was meant to burn her books. The effect is that Montag realizes that me must find out what makes books so special, so he steals some books from the old lady’s house. When Montag is safe at home he starts to read the books and he learns the wonderful secrets that they hold, but when he goes to visit an old friend, the government begins to chase after him. Montag survives the chase and meets a group of men who have each memorized an individual book and one day hope to reprint them for the whole world to enjoy.

                If Guy had not realized that he needed to help save the society from the government then everyone in the city would have lost sight of what was important. Additionally, the government would have them thinking the craziest thoughts. Guy also would not have made the same friends that he did. He would have still been a lonely firefighter his whole life.

                The events in Fahrenheit 451 are similar to the events in Alex Rider: Stormbreaker. In Alex Rider Stormbreaker, Alex realizes that he has to change his frame of mind so that he can find out what happened to his parents. Alex understands that he has to help the MI6 so he can have the information he needs. Alex changed just like Guy in the sense that they both knew that they had to change so they could do what was right. Both of these characters reflect each other in few but important ways.

Pi's Purpose

Author's Note: This is a theme piece I wrote that analyzes the themes in the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel and compares them with other books such as Artemis Fowl, the Arctic Incident by Eion Colfer.

Pi’s Purpose

                Being able to immerse myself in the events and experiences of the characters I read about is what makes reading exciting for me. Add to that the element of surprise, and I can easily get lost in a book. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, did just that for me. The story begins with Pi Patel and his family traveling overseas to begin a new life in Canada. The decision to relocate to Canada was a result of the government of India closing down the family's zoo. The family begins their journey aboard a heavily loaded cargo ship which also carries several of their precious zoo animals. However, the ship tragically sinks, and Pi is the only human survivor of the cargo ship. Pi ends up being stranded on a lifeboat with nothing but a few supplies and a bloodthirsty tiger. His survival adventure continues so long that Pi ends up with the record for the longest time stranded alone in the sea. Life of Pi includes many themes such as survival, life struggles, hope, determination, and others. Throughout the story, Pi's hope and determination intrigued me in many ways.

                The author intrigued me with his use of hope throughout the book. During the long journey to survive, Pi read the survival manual that was included in the supplies on the life boat. Without the manual Pi would not have survived. The main thing the manual stated was to never lose hope, and for the 227 days Pi was on the life boat he never lost hope. Even in the first week on the lifeboat when Pi was without food and water, he still had the littlest bit of hope left in his soul. Luckily for Pi, he did eventually discover a storage locker which contained food and water, but even without that he always believed God was with him throughout his journey. The hope Pi held onto during this difficult experience was what he needed to know God would not let him down.

                Another theme the author communicated well was determination. During this book, Pi is determined to tame Richard Parker (a tiger that was on the boat with him). He tries many times to tame Richard Parker and finally succeeds by blowing a whistle until the tiger gets seasick from the obnoxious shrill. The reason this worked for Pi was Richard Parker began to associate the blow of the whistle to sea sickness. While Richard Parker was dealing with sea sickness,  Pi was able to access the food and water whenever he wanted without being threatened by the tiger in the lifeboat. If Pi wasn't determined to find a way to reach the supplies, he certainly would have died at sea. Another example of determination was Pi figuring out how to get off the carnivorous island before being consumed by would die there. He could have easily stayed there and eaten the algae but he would have died there alone in the end. Throughout the novel Pi demonstrates great determination.

                The themes of hope and determination play a large role in Life of Pi and they also play a major role in many other books such as Artemis Fowl The Arctic Incident by: Eion Colfer. Although Artemis Fowl is a 13 year old criminal mastermind he is determined to rescue his father from the Russian mafia. Young Fowl is very hopeful and optimistic about his father’s rescue. But when a wildcard is thrown at Fowl, his bodyguard, and two of his fairy friends, everything goes wild. The underground fairy world is under siege and the fairies must do what they can to save it, but Fowl continues on searching for his father. Artemis is hopeful that he will get to see his father in exchange for the ransom money that he is prepared to give the mafia. During this book Artemis proves that he has hope and determination just like the main character from the Life of Pi.

                Life of Pi has many themes that were established from the beginning of the book. The themes that reached out to me the most were determination and hope. During the book Pi always was determined to defeat the sea and survive, and with the help of god he was able to defy all odds. He always hoped he would survive. Without hope he would have died because he would not have had the power to go on living. Life of Pi can teach many lessons and has many themes.

Rebuilding Alone

Rebuilding Alone

 Imagine having to rebuild and restore civilization to an area that has been destroyed by a bomb during a reckless war. Guy Montag, from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, experiences this incredible undertaking firsthand, after a bomb is dropped on his hometown. Montag and others start the rebuilding process in hopes of creating a less controlling government. Although he has practically no resources to work with, Montag does have special friends with exceptional knowledge they previously memorized from books. This knowledge enables Montag and his friends to access a great number of lessons and teachings in order to help them create a more democratic government.

Throughout Fahrenheit 451, the government controls the city and its people by not allowing citizens to obtain, read, or own books. The government believes they are protecting people from the contents of stories that may offend them. However, Montag believes the government has gone overboard in controlling the people by removing books from their lives. Therefore, while Guy is working as a fireman, his curiosity of books inspires him to salvage what books he comes across. For this reason, I believe Montag and his friends will rebuild their city with hopes that people will live by their own free will.

Bradbury suddenly ends Fahrenheit 451 as Guy Montag witnesses a bomb being dropped on the city. When his life unexpectedly flashes before his eyes, Montag realizes everything in its entirety is gone. What I presume would happen afterward is Montag would attempt to recover anything he can find from his life before the bombing. Also, I believe Montag and his rural friends will go back into the city to rebuild what they can. It will be up to them to reconstruct the city they once called home in a more democratic way by allowing books to be part of the people’s lives. Although Montag might not have the resources he has the heart to at least try to reconstruct what was once a great city.

Guy Montag’s situation in Fahrenheit 451 is similar to a scene in The Roar, by Emma Clayton. In The Roar everyone in the world is forced to move into the northern third of the world behind a giant wall while the wealthiest people are allowed to stay in the remaining two thirds of the beautiful world. When a young boy realizes this, he tries to rally together as many children as he can to reclaim the world for everyone to enjoy. This is similar to Fahrenheit 451 because both characters try to regain, or rebuild the world the way they learned it had once been.

                Guy Montag is faced with the seemingly insurmountable problem of reconstructing the city.  He and his friends each use the lessons they have learned from the books they memorized to recreate a peaceful and democratic life for everyone in the city.

The Beast Ending

Authors Note: This piece is a prediction of the end The Beast, a short story we read in the Reading Lab.

     When Steven turns around he sees a gigantic beast even bigger and scarier than he expected. Wait he thought this isn't a beast it's just Chance. "There you are Chance!" Steven would shout. "I was looking all over for you. You scared me." Most story's that have cases like these end up not causing any trouble just a large misunderstanding, which would be the same case as with The Beast .

     I was very wrong with my prediction. I thought that he wasn't going to get hurt at all and Chance was the beast. But in the end Steven did get mauled by the beast.