Who is Courage?

Courage is the thing with wings,

that soars through your heart,

and when it has landed,

throws his enemy fear out of course.

 

Courage looks as camouflage.

Wearing the same color as its surrounding;

so similar that you cannot tell it's there,

until you slowly depict its existence.

 

Though don't be fooled by the looks.

Its appearance is as soft as a feather,

but when used is as powerful as a bomb,

rapidly diminishing anything in its way to success.

 

Mentored by daring itself, it is a risk-taker.

One that has never been fearful of what is to come,

because just as a tight rope walker,

it never lets the fear come to its head

for it intervenes your previous mindset.

 

So find courage in your inner self,

because it is waiting without a doubt,

to do what you thought was impossible,

and lead you to your finish line.



The Word

                                                

Jealousy; even a small interaction,

kills lives of young at a deeper level.

A harmful weapon yet powerful battle tactic,

that portrays danger ahead and incorporates craving, of the greater good of others.

Reader's Response to Part I of I Am The Messenger By Markus Zusak

In Part I of the novel, I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, there was one particular scene that really made me feel emotionally connected with Ed and Milla. Ed is given three addresses to go to and 1 of the 3 is to a lonely, elderly woman by the name, Milla. Milla thinks Ed is her husband and so they have an emotional ride together from eating together everyday to talking about how much they love each other. One day, Milla asks “Jimmy” if she treated him right and he replied, “You treated me right. You were the best wife I could ever…(Zusak 57)”. This brings tears of happiness to her eyes. This scene makes me emotional because I remember doing the same for my grandmother. Not all of my aunts were very close with her. In fact, they refused to take her into their homes but my mom loved my grandma dearly. So, she moved in and she was about 85, and I was 10. With having so many siblings, it is hard to get the amount of attention a 10 year old might want. In this scenario, that was me. I was 10 and I had no one to just talk to myself and having a long conversation with. My parents would scold me if I did trouble and send me to my room all the time and instead, I would go to grandma’s room and stay with her. Sometimes, she would want tea or oatmeal so I would make some and give it to her. She would tell me stories about her childhood when she was around my age and how fast they had to grow up because of the culture. She told me work hard and never give up. In this section where Ed spends time with Milla, he gradually starts to create a bond with Milla and is happier. The same thing happened to me. Everyday I became even more attached to her and spent more time with her than anyone else. Then everything took a huge turn. Two years after moving in with us, my grandma got very sick. It wasn't the first time she had gotten sick and so everyone acted as the norm. Give pain meds, food, and sleep. But, I could tell there was a bigger problem going on. Grandma became less talkative and more quiet as if she was daydreaming all day long. Two weeks later I lay beside her on her hospital bed. She was moved in the hospital because her heart rate dropped rapidly one day. As she was breathing her last, she said to me, thank you Leyla for coming back and taking care of me so well, I love you. I was shocked because Leyla is one of my aunts and I then only realized she confused me with a whole other person the entire time. Tears strolled my face instantly and I was sobbing loudly. I said, “I love you too, Grandma”. I knew it was reassurance she needed in her last breathe. Five minutes later, she had passed away. Even today, I still remember this day and I can't stop the tears from coming. I realized that no matter what, you never forget your past. Milla had thought Ed was her husband just like my grandma thought I was her daughter. In contrast, Ed and I both melted in such emotional feelings with the people we had met and really loved them. To conclude, this may have been a fictional novel, but I was able to relate such a sensitive and heartwarming experience in my own life with Ed and Milla’s from the novel, I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak.

Charles Darnay Biography

Picture this. A good-looking 25 year old dressed in all black and grey with a small ponytail tucked at the back of his neck.His character is that of which is great with confidence, love, and virtue. This man is Charles Darnay, a teacher in the novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by: Charles Dickens. We see these characteristics in him in the novel and can be proven by Dickens descriptions of him.First, Dickens states “ He was otherwise quite self-possessed, bowed to the Judge, and stood quiet” (Dickens;46).
In this quote, it shows how Darnay is very confident in the fact that he will be proven not guilty and in general. It also says he was self- possessed which shows how well he is confident in himself as he enters the court and does a good job radiating his confidence throughout the courtroom for everyone to see. His confidence makes him look less as a criminal and more as an upright and strong man. Confidence is something Darnay has a lot of and helps him a lot! Next, Dickens says “ … Charles Darnay’s way- the way of the love of a woman. He had loved lucie Manette from the out of his danger” (Dickens;99). This quote reveals to us Darnay's love for Lucie Manette. It shows how he is loving for he said he loved her the beginning he got out of trouble. We also figure later on he does not only love Lucie, but he also loves the relationship Lucie and Dr.Manette have and would never dare to break it. All these actions show his love towards anything surrounding Lucie. Also, when Dicken says Darnay's way- way of his love for Lucie, it shows that it's only his way of love Lucie and love he has is very special. Finally Darnay replies to his uncle about taking his position after him by saying,
     “If it ever becomes mine, it shall be put into some hands better qualified to free it slowly (if such a thing is possible) from the weight that drags it down, so that the miserable people who cannot leave it and who have been long wrung to the last point of endurance, may, in another generation,suffer less” ( Dickens;95).
This shows how Darnay is not like the rest of his family. His family is selfish and don't care about anyone other than themselves. Darnay on the other hand, if given the throne, though he said he would never actually do it said that he would give all his inheritance to others who are miserable so that maybe one day they would be less miserable. This shows how much virtue and kindness he has throughout humanity and he doesn't want to people to think of him as a nonvirtual person so he leaves the land where he believes is a curse and goes to England to change his name and live a place where nobody connects him with them. So, we see here that Darnay is a good person and virtuous. We all know the quote “ Never judge a book by its cover” and when we first visualized Charles Darnay and figured out he got in trouble, we let our head get the best of us and assumed that he wasn't a good person. But as we move forward, we see that the man Dickens presents to us is a very lovingly, confident, and virtuous young man.

Light and Darkness

              Charles Dickens uses light and dark to the tone of hopelessness into hopefulness for Lucie and Dr. Mannettes' kinship in chapter 6 of A Tale of Two Cities. First, Dickens writes, " Darkness had fallen on him in its place" (Dickens;32). This quote expresses Dickens hopelessness through darkness. When he says " Darkness had fallen on him" , he is stating that hopelessness has been put in Dr. Mannette and his surroundings. Being locked up in a jail cell for 18 years, Dr. Manette didn't encounter people and lost hope. Next, Mr. Lorry states " You can bear a little more light?" And then Dr. Manners then replies saying " I must bear it if you let it in" (Dickens;30). Mr. Lordy has been Dr. Mannette's business partner when Dr. Mannette was not in jail and goes to the jail cell with Dr. Mannette's daughter he has yet to meet. So, when Mr. Lorry asks him if he could bear anymore light he didn't literally mean light. He meant his daughter, Lucie. Lucia is implemented as the light because she is the only one who could find the hope he needed inside him. Finally, Dickens says " On her fair young face that looked as though she passed like a moving light"(Dickens;32). In this quote, not only does Dickens show how Lucie replaces Dr. Mannette's hopelessness to hopefulness, but he also uses personification to compare Lucie's appearance to moving light. We can rewind back in the past chapters and see Lucie having the same blue eyes and blond hair of her mother. By Dr. Mannette seeing a mere image of his now dead wife, except younger, it brings lots of hope. He may not have fully shifted into the hopeful zone but has definitely took a big step towards it within the time span of Lucie and Her father meeting. As we see, Dickens does a miraculous job implementing light and dark to the the tones between Lucie and Dr. Mannettes' relationship, which has evolved from being hopeless to being hopeful. 

Charles Dickens Foreshadowing

     In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses the tool of foreshadowing to predispose the events that will occur during the French Revolution in chapter 5, The Wine-Shop. First, Dickens writes" The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled" (Dickens;21). Here you see Dickens putting emphasis on the wine being red and we can visualize the bloodiness of the French Revolution. It also says "it will stain.." Referring that this revolution will stain French's history and land forever. Next, Dickens states " It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet.." (Dickens;21). This quote expresses foreshadowing of the extreme bloodiness of the revolution. Hands, faces, and feet will be stained with blood because of fighting. You also see Dickens repeatedly saying "many" to really express and make an image in your head of what is to come. Finally, Dickens says " The time was to come, when the wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there" (Dickens;22). This quote really confirms our thought of whether or not Dickens is forehead owing the French Revolution. Not only that but it also relates back to the wine as well as saying that the red wine will stain many. He uses red wine as a symbolizer of blood. As we see, these quotes significantly show us readers an insight of what is to come and therefore hints that Charles Dickens is foreshadowing what is the next upcoming event to occur.

Family

             Family. When you hear that word… What pops in your head? By definition, family is a group consisting of parents and children living together but, we all know that's not always the case nowadays and that the true definition of a family is not one we could effortlessly put in the dictionary. Why you say? Because every person in the world has their own way of believing what a family is to them. I believe a family is not necessarily those of people who share DNA with you, but stand by you no matter what happens and showers you with unconditional love. In a family, every person functions as one just as a heart beats as one. Authors Barbara Kingsolver as well as Betty Smith do a beautiful job conveying their insight of family in their pieces of writing; Stone Soup and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
             First, in Stone Soup, it states " The sooner we can let go the fairytale of families functioning perfectly in isolation, the better we might embrace the relief of community(Kingsolver;25)." In this one sentence you get a huge understanding of how Kingsolver feels and interprets family. She believes once we stop being singular minded and think of all the other families that are not our traditional "dollhouse" family, that everyone will live a happier life. Although this is true, Betty Smith introduces her character's view on family in a slightly different direction. Because divorce was such a bad thing back then, It really wasn't a view of a family or considered a family if you were divorced but Katie said something that really brought them all together. "From now on," she said, "I am your mother and your father." (Smith;299)." This shows how Katie, the mother of Francie and Neeley, shows her insight of family. Her perspective of family changed and she believed she was the mother and father of the household.
              Next, is back to Kingsolver. She says a line that is elegantly written and it goes like this " Any family is a big empty pot, save for what gets thrown in.(Kingsolver;31)." In this quote, what it really means is that every family is the same in a sense of their interpretation and everyone else's. Either way you still have a family and don't waste time looking at every family or empty pot instead look at the things that happen during your family and try to resolve the crisis.
              Last but not least is my own experience and one I can relate to Betty Smith's quote, "Somehow during their aimless but oh-so-significant conversation with its delicious pauses and thrilling undercurrents of emotion, they came to know that they loved eachother passionately (Smith; 59)." I think what Betty is trying to take out of this quote is how young they were when they decided to get married and have a family and not necessarily being good but how hard it was since they were soo young. My parents also had this similar situation where they fell in love but really didn't know much about eachother (other than the fact he was a buisnessman at the time and all the girls were smitten for him!) They went through some tough times immigrating to America and my dad was no longer the man everyone knew and it kind of saddened her. Overall, she still loves him no matter what and stook with him all these years and are happily married with 8 kids! Of course, just as Katie fights with her husband once in a while just as every other husband and wife, my mom and dad have arguments here and there but nothing that I can't handle. Reading this book really made me grateful of having a father and should cherish his presence for as long as it should last. Love should determine marriage because ultimately at the end, love is what truly holds a family together.
               To conclude, now you must be thinking... Wow.. How much things have changed over a period of time. And every period has their own interpretation of family and changes all the time. But no matter what happens I will always believe in my head that family is not those of people who share DNA, but stand firm amongst eachother side by side. Now the real question is... What does family mean to you?