Reading response: Madison Mitchell 804 I the story The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, By Heidi Durrow, the main character Rachel, survived an accident that took place in Chicago when her and two siblings and mother mysteriously fell from their roof top. Rachel is taken by southern grandmother and and learns how to live in a whole new life for her. Rachel changes along the way as she struggles through the troubles of growing up. Along the way, the story flashes back to the times of the accident told from different points of view. Rachel refers to herself throughout the story by calling her "the new girl". Rachel struggles with finding herself and fitting in. So far Rachel is beginning her brand new life as grandchild who lives in Oregon. A bossy grandmother, gospel,church,haters, boys.This is all pretty much new to Rachel. Rachel is struggling with fitting in, something that many teens struggle with in the process of growing and becoming your own person. As Rachel calls herself the new girl, it shows that she is out of her element. For example when her grandma took her to church, they sang gospel but not Rachel. She talks about how much she likes it, but has never heard it before being that her mother was Danish. Another example of how Rachel adjusts to fitting in is her skin color, hair and eyes. Rachel is half black and and half white. She chides not to tell people (that she now lives around) that she is mixed. In her school it is a little bit of a problem when black and white children are friends with each other. Rachel hides when she is with her white friend Tracie. She fears Tamika who is a bully and and hates on Rachel for having long hair and blue eyes. Rachel also hides her other half from her friend lakeisha because she doesn't want people to know and she knows what people would think of her. Rachel feels different from everyone else she is surrounded by because she half white and feels smarter than them and learns "black ways" while it comes naturally to everyone else. Rachel feels different else which is something most of use will experience whether it's going into a new high school or feeling like an outsider for any reason. Rachel and Brick, the two characters in this story so far, are finding themselves and becoming their own people. Brick, who's is also know as James or even Jamie,may not the kind of person he is trying to be just based off of his name changes. James was his real name but people Jamie to feel mire childish. Jamie felt too childish and Jamie wanted to be a stinger person so he made the final switch to Brick. Teens feel sometimes that maybe something about them they've grown out of such as hair styles, clothing,personality evan names and "Brick" seems to have grown out of his name. Rachel once again, also has problems with her true identity. She doesn't let people know her true or full ethnicity. And she calls herself the new girl but then again sometimes she doesn't. Rachel seems to feel inside that she is not new to this but on the outside knows she is. It seems Rachel hasn't fully adjusted to to this life. Kids around their coming of age may find it difficult to figure out what or who they orientation wise and just as people.

Reading response

Madison Mitchell
804
Reading response

In the story " Life as We Knew it", Miranda and her family are hanging on tight to what's is left of life. The world is ending at the second and know one knows if things will happen for the better or worse. Conflicts are approaching Miranda all time whether they are internal issues or external issues. But sited of letting things get worse, as anyone would do, she is trying to fix her problems. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and that's what not only Miranda but her whole family try hard to keep things together. I can relate to Miranda during this time because I have had many experiences where things were not great, but I had to make the best of it.
Miranda and her family are facing all kins of problems, and they all seem to never end. Not only is Miranda still trying to get over the fact that the world is coming to an end but there are many things that come along with that. The food supply for family isn't going to last forever and there is a scarcity of food. It worries Miranda that they will starve to death. She feels like all of the things that she has accomplished have all been wasted and all her hard work is for nothing. Schools almost don't exist they are open for use but being that most people have gone away or passed away. Miranda is also dealing with the emotional stress that she may never see her father again along with her boyfriend and best friend. All of the worries lead to bad arguments with her mother which gives Miranda mental stress and that only causes more issues.
Handling all these issues is difficult but they have to have a way to keep things as good as possible. Even though they may not all live, Miranda and her brothers still do their school work and take turns eating food everyday. Times are really tuff but they work their ways to make things as good as they can be. Though miranda tries not to fight with her mother sometimes she can't help it. They both know that they love each other and at the end of the day that's what keeps them close. They check the post office everyday to see if they have heard from Miranda's father but there is usually nothing. They make the best of each and every day to the point where canned string beans are a privilege. I know that dealing with these kinds of issues is probably very difficult. I think it would be terrible to not know what tomorrow would bring.

Miranda scared? Or not? Unpacking a loaded sentence

Miranda maybe the only person who remains unafraid of the meteor that is soon to hit the moon. Although she is beginning to feel afraid since her brother Matt became afraid. She said if he's worried she's worried as well because he doesn't usually get worried. The meteor is set to hit the moon which will get pushed closer to earth.
Miranda relates how she feels about this situation so far to her mother. She says "sometimes when mom is getting to write a book,she says she doesn't know where to start,that the ending is so clear to her that the beginning doesnt seem important anymore." She relates this to how she feel about the meteor hitting the moon bringing it closer to the earth.I think that Miranda feels actually very worried about what the future hold swith this meteor. I think when she says the ending is so clear to her mother she is relating it to how she can feel what may happen at the end of all of this but she is not 100% sure. She also says " I feel that way now only I don't know what the ending is." she doesn't know the ending but she has a feeling somthing terrible is bound to happen being that she she feels the ending is much more important than what is happening now.
At the moment, Miranda could care less about what's going on which also contributes to the fact that the present could be much less important the the future. Miranda is constanly co plaing about how the teachers find every little excuse to give them more work to do. They having to do a report on the moon. Miranda whom is not taking this as seriously as everyone else, is completely against the reports and doesn't fully believe in what might happen.
Miranda has two conflicting emotions. One saying that she is scared because her brother is scared. And another saying she isn't scared and this is all just a bunch of bogus. But I were to to make an inference I would say Miranda is scared deep inside of her. She may be fighting it because she doesn't want to believe it but all in all I think Miranda is worried about the future.

Reflection:Baz Luhrmans Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a tragic love story about two love birds who take measures to be together forever. Light, color,water and camera angles all have meaning in this movie.
Blue light represented Tybolts apperances and blue backgrounds as well. When the camera was on Tybolt, most of the time he was positioned to the left ofbthe screen while others were on the right. A sort golden light shined over and Romeo in the movie which showed peace. A blue light usually was to show a bad guy. A lighter light was to show the good guy.
Water was used very much in this movie. In the beginning, Juliet was fully underneath the water in her bathtub while her mother was calling her. I thought that this was so that Juliet didn't have to hear her. Also when Juliet and Romeo first met each other, Romeo had dunked his head under water and then the two were looking at each other through a fish tank. Once again, Juliet was being call for near water. Another time would be when Juliet and Romeo fell into the pool several times together Juliet was being called by her nurse and was near water. Water could represent Romeo when he has won something like when he won Juliet and when he won the shooting with Tybolt, it began to rain.
I think the colors that are golden and orange represented peace when Juliet was "dead" because it didn't look like death but it looked peaceful as when Romeo died they both looked peaceful andin a happier place together

Walk two moons - setting

This story "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech, is anstory about a girl who is in search of her long lost mother but on the way she tells a story that is much like a parellel world to her real life.
Salamanca lost her mother long ago when she was young.this part of the story takes place in a valley full of lush green grass and a hollow tree filled with leaves. Salamanca describes the place as heavenly. This apparently reminded Salamanca of her mother. This setting represented a memory that sal had of her mother before she was gone. She says that her mother would just love the grass and trees and flowers and it connected her to nature.
Not only did this connect Salamancas mother to nature but it also connected Salamanca to nature and this is what united them both together.
I think that the author chose this setting for this part of the story because it is symbolic to Sal's mother. It represents her and relates very much to her personality. I think this is also why Sal chose this place to describe her mother and remember her. I think that everything about this story is symbolic and the way that the stories that Salamanca tells about a girl named phoebe, her life resembles Sal's real life. Everything that is described in Sal's stories are always described in detail of the setting. Salamanca's travel with her grandparents and them getting lost, may represent how her grandparents minds get lost and are constantly unfocused when it comes to getting to their final destination. It think that an example of this would be the twisted turny roads that worry Sal but not her grandparents. This can also represent their personalities. This says that oddly, her gram and gramps are more open minded and loose while Sal is more conscious and stubborn.

Hungry, too Hungry to eat... Unpacking a sentence

Giselle is a young women who is 22 and looks younger and smaller than her 13 year old sister. The only reason she looks this way is because she is anorexic. She is frail and fragile and has no desire to eat. Giselle says that she is hungry but is too hungry to eat. I think that part of this is just Giselle's mind telling her that she can not eat and it is also her heart telling her that she is hungry.
In a way it is like conflicting emotions because her body is hungry and she is a human being of course and we must eat but her mind refuses to eat shush always gets the best of her. Giselle constantly starves herself. I think that at this point she she is used to it and When she gets hungry she learns to ignore it. I think that Giselle has thoughts about eating food but her emotion almost always get the best of her. This reminds me of sometimes when I get so tired that I can't go to sleep but it is not conflicted emotions, it's out my control. No matter how much I want to go to sleep I can.
This makes me think maybe Giselle is not doing this entirely out of her own will. Maybe it is uncontrollable and as hungry as she is, something is stopping her from eating. I think that this could also mean that Giselle is depressed after the death of her father. Once again I relate it to personal experience. Once when I was going through a tough time, I could for not eat for about a month. Sometimes mental sickness can play a big part on your eating habit. This could be reason why Giselle feels this way?

Beginning of hunger games Catniss is the strong one and world seems different

Catniss seems so far stronger of her mom and sister prim. She seems like she is taking the place of her father and using what she learned from him and is using to protect her family. She has so much responsibility on her shoulders that seems like she is putting on to herself. She has a lot of secrets that she needs to keep on lock because she seems to know more than most people. She even must hide it from her little sister whim as she says if she were to tell, she would not know where she and her mom and prim would end.
To me this seem s like a very hard thing to do that Catniss is doing. She seems like she is taking the lead and is doing what she has to do now. The world seems different in comparison to the way that the world is now. Ahead in time, which is where this book takes place life seems harder but in a nonchalant way. It seems less high tech and social like everything you do you must be extremely careful, well at least that's how it seems from primes point of view. And from the beginning of the book that I read I can tell that I is sort of like going back in time because they have bow and arrows and they have to hunt to get what they need. According to Catniss, it's not even called america anymore.
Life seems like a big game here yet it is taken so seriously. I haven't heard about adults that much but teenagers seem to be as adventurous as they want to be. Catniss just wants to save keep an eye out for danger and and keep herself and her family safe. She has good skill that she learned from her father. I think that Catniss needs to trust some else tomhelp her.