Veterans Day Poem

Our dearest veterans who have
fought with bravery
With the feeling of courage
From not being knocked down with discouraged

On this day we honor
The courageous and brave,
Those who have sworn their lives
For this breathtaking and extraordinary country

News Story

As there were flashing lights in the sky, was the day the Chicago Cubs advanced to the World Series. On October 22, 2016, When the Chicago Cubs won against the Los Angeles Dodgers, fireworks were going off in towns and cities celebrating the glorious victory.

On Saturday, October 22, Chicago Cubs fans were celebrating due to the Cubs advancing because it had been about 71 years since their last appearance in the World Series, making it very important to their fans. According to WGNtv.com, it states "Overjoyed fans streamed out of Wrigley Field on Saturday night after the Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series to earn their first trip to the World Series since 1945. Many people were wearing Cubbie blue and holding “W” flags." This tells us the excitement of the stadium's crowd exiting the stadium.

1907 and 1908 were the only years that the Cubs won the World Series which is about 108-109 years ago. This would explain why thousands of people were roaring with contentment. The Cubs' next opponent are the Cleveland Indians and will face on October 25. If the Cubs were to win in 2016, many cities and towns (that are fans of the Chicago Cubs) would surely be celebrating that moment for months. 

1st Quarter Reflection

So far into the end of the quarter, I have been reading a couple of books for the 10 Book Challenge. The 10 Book Challenge doesn't end until the last day of the school year. Some of the books I've read were Papertowns, The Harlem Globetrotters, etc. In total, I would've read about four books and a half (halfway done with a book). These books were actually good since I thought they'd be overrated but some of them were underrated.

    My blogging experience has improved since we're writing more blogs than all my past years combined. The TIQA (Topic Sentence, Introduce Quote/Example, Quote/Example, Analyze) strategy/format helps a lot with writing blogs since it tells you what you need for a paragraph. Almost all of my blogs were made from following the format.

     My writing has progressed/improved  since I could now stop myself from creating run-on sentences every so often. Most of my previous blogs had a least a couple run-on sentences but so far, I've been lowering the amount of these sentences in my blogs. The author’s tone has helped my writing for book blogging since it helps develops a story/writing.

Overall, this 1st quarter had both progressed and improved my writing.

The Giver Compare/Contrast

The scene in the book about Jonas escaping and the scene in the movie where Jonas escapes is very different from other. In the book, Jonas just takes his dad's bicycle and Gabriel with food and water and escape easily without anyone noticing until the next day. "First, he had left the dwelling at night...   Second, he had robbed the community of food.. Third, he had stolen his father's bicycle... And he had taken Gabriel, too.  This quote shows how easily Jonas had stolen from the community since he was able to do this before everyone noticed until the next day. However in the movie, it doesn't go like this. In the movie, Jonas had a difficult time trying to escape from the community since he faced many obstacles. Jonas had to knock out Asher in order for him not to tell security that Jonas is escaping, He had to get Gabriel out of the nurturing center, and Jonas had to escape/lose security with  a motorcycle while the security force had planes  as well as motorcycles. This is far different from the book since the movie is way more difficult for Jonas to escape while in the book, No one even noticed Jonas escaping the community until the next day.

In the film, the director made The Giver community way different from what readers had expected from the book. In the movie, the community is far advanced to the point to where they live on floating islands and their technology as well is advanced. I think the director did this action to accelerate the flow of the plot since the movie did start off with Jonas being at the 12s ceremony very early. It changes the story since the plot events are different from the book. Doing this might've confused people since they might've read the book and noticed many changes. I think it was a good idea to do these changes since movies have limited film time due to funding/budgets.

Out of either the book or movie that gave me the most impacting understand is the book. The novel "The Giver" gave me better understanding of the story since it gives more details unlike the movie. One major difference from the movie is that the novel gives a better understanding of the characters. The director (Phillip Noyce) made the movie so that those who haven't read the book would have a better understanding. The book however gives a backstory to most of the characters and what they  do. This is why the book gives me a better understanding of the story rather than the movie.

The Giver Theme Paragraph

Jonas is a dynamic character since throughout the story he starts to change. After Jonas receives memories for a year now, he says “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliest of it” (154). This quote shows/tells us about how Jonas changed from the beginning towards the end. Jonas had never experienced pain but was curious. After Jonas kept on receiving the memories, he changed how he acted towards other like his friends and family. The memories made him feel alone since he's the only one besides The Giver who have the memories. Since he felt alone, he kept on trying to make his friends understand the feelings in memories but never could make them understand. He stops caring for himself and now cares for others (only cared for himself in the beginning). However, Jonas becoming a dynamic character has to show how he is one. In the beginning of the book, Jonas only cared about himself only, like so. “Jonas was careful about language. Not like his friend, Asher, who talked too fast and mixed things up, scrambling words and phrases until they were barely recognizable and often very funny” (3). This quote tells us that in the beginning of the book, Jonas was only caring for himself. His friend Asher had problems speaking and Jonas seen it as a way of being funny.

 The theme “Importance of Memories” relates to the story since it’s shown in the characters and setting. After The Giver gives Jonas the memory of a rainbow, Jonas begins to wonder. "But now that I can see colors… I was thinking: what if we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose? Instead of the Sameness” (98). This quote tells us that the theme “Importance of Memories” is taking place since Jonas is beginning to wonder that what if their society could make choices instead of being everything the same.  This changes how Jonas thinks later on throughout the book. Second of all, Jonas is shown using “Importance of Memories”  This quote could fall into both character and theme paragraph since after The Giver told him that the community making choices for them were safe, Jonas was mad that he couldn't do something. "He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. and he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them” (99). This could show the theme “Importance of Memories” since Jonas sees colors and could make choices instead of choosing the same thing all over again. However, he was mad that his groupmates from school couldn't experience what he sees now and is mad at himself too for not able to help support change.