My Continuations

The truck could only be heading in our direction.

A pang of fear enveloped my body, and I cringed in my seat. I looked back to the truck then to my mom, to the truck then to my dad, the truck then to my brother. Then, the world went spinning.

My eyes opened to a new world.

Coming off the plane, the stench of manure and sweat filled my nostrils. The crowd outside the terminal was immense, as if they were waiting for me. I knew I came here to serve others, but the DR seemed to serve me.

Movement was not an option with all the wiring around my body.

I rubbed my eyes to see a nurse standing over me. A clipboard was in her hand, righting down the information from the monitor. All I was thinking was, "What just happened?"

Worry suffocated my heart as I looked upon the limp frame of my mother.

Some men ran towards the wreckage and lifted her up. I was on the ground looking from some ten feet away. The car became a bunch of metal scraps tossed everywhere. I lay on the ground, worrying how my mother was. The trail of blood was my answer.

She made my heart skip a beat.

Every time I saw her, I could not stop looking. Something inside had a feel for her. I wanted to know her. I needed to know her. She was mine. 

Dora's Continuations

I saw him everyday that summer, never imagining that I will never see him again, nor will anyone else

After he showed me the letter from the Guard, my eyes began to well. Tears began to blind my vision; my mouth remained closed. This blindness and silence would remain for a long time.

"I got your back, and anything else you need" my best friend said as we walked by a group of girls who we disliked.

Wrath grew in my soul. They looked with disgust, as the devil inside was fighting to come out. Eyes were met, and the atmosphere grew with intensity. The girls stepped in front of our path. I turned to see that Raquel was with me. I turned back. Pain. Anguish. "Yo, let's go!"

It wasn't meant to be.

His presence always brightened my day. His face glowed every time I saw him, making me feel special. He was the sunshine in my life. When I heard about Laquisha, the sun would never shine again.

There I was in the lunch line, standing next to a stranger, not knowing that a couple of months later she would be my best friend.

Walking down the line, I tripped on my shoelace and fell to the ground; papers flying, my face crying with closed eyes. Roshanda bent to to help me up. Her voice opened my eyes.

I've never cared about someone as much as this.

Love. Affection. Purpose. I felt that life could not be any better with Leonidas. Our feelings were mutual; we were one. Then, Patunia split us apart.

Cliffhangers

The truck could only be heading in our direction.

My eyes opened to a new world.

Movement was not an option with all the wiring around my body.

Worry suffocated my heart as I looked upon the limp frame of my mother.

She made my heart skip a beat.

I am right, you are wrong.

            From infancy to the present, being wrong has never been an option. If I had an answer, it had to be right. No one could change my opinion. If one tried to defy my view, I would shoot them down with my intellect. I made sure that they knew I was right, and they were wrong. This characteristic has often led me to look a fool.

            My brother and I are close at heart, but we do have our differences. My brother was always the type to be organized and to have a schedule, while my lazy self could care less to be neat. I was always “right” anyways. We may have been at odds with our views, yet we did share a bedroom. The room we shared was neat and organized to my brother’s preferences. Once 1999 came along, our family decided to move. I was finally achieving a lifelong dream of sustaining some sort of privacy. The move was smooth, and I finally got my own room. My brother kept on telling me to keep my things together so I would not lose anything important. Obviously, I did not listen. It was my way or the highway. He persisted to tell me to clean myself up, or that I would regret it. The threat seemed harmless.

            A month into living in my room, it was a disaster. I remember not seeing any part of my rug for a long time due to the huge clutter of papers and clothes on the ground. I would not be able to find anything in my dump. My brother would come in and say, “I told you so,” which completely irked me. I could not argue for I was a mess.

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by Sedaris Questions

1) Sedaris adds little jokes about his actions, uses sarcasm against the teacher, and pokes fun at the reality of some of the rules of language to turn this into a humorous essay. His inability to speak French correctly and how he makes fun of his misunderstandings of the teacher evokes humor out of the reader. He will only understand parts of a sentence, but also add in the French word that he does not understand. When speaking of the teacher, he makes fun of how serious she is about correctly speaking French. One of the funniest moments of the book was when Sedaris gets the gender wrong for a French word and wonders to himself how some things could have gender, for example, "Lady Crack Pipe" (276).

"Deadpan" humor is showing humor in an expressionless tone. Some examples from the passage are when he talks about Carlos who "loved wine, music, and, in his words, 'making sex with the womens of the world.'" Sedaris sounds serious when one reads this, yet the line is hilarious. Another was when he talks about his teacher, “She hadn’t yet pushed anyone, but it seemed wise to protect ourselves against the inevitable” (276). He sounds serious about protecting themselves against the teacher beating them, but Sedaris intends to make the reader laugh. These statements are true, yet a sense of humor is evoked.

Sedaris reveals parts of himself throughout the story by always giving a reaction to something that is occurring in reality. His teacher may be talking, and he will make fun of her, or someone is answering a question, and he will  give his opinion of the answer. This continues throughout the story, and he keeps the reader attentive with his humor. Through each self-evaluation of the situation, the reader is shown some characteristic or view Sedaris has.

Ball Hog

Daryl Thomas is my name, and soccer is my game. Give me a ball, cleats, two nets, and a team to punish. See, I did not write about having my own team. Whenever it comes to soccer, I always play thinking about where I can position myself or what I can do next. I forget that I have 10 other players to help me out. I remember every goal I have ever scored from every season that I played soccer. Come to think of it, when did I ever give an assist? My cockiness on the field did bring All-star and team MVP awards, but it did not matter, for my cockiness ruined one of the most important and memorable games I ever played in.

            The first stage off the Division 3 North Bracket started with Trinity Catholic against North Shore Tech. Racing out of Algebra II, soccer was on my mind. How many goals would I score today? Are we even going to win today? Will I make my brother proud? As I changed into my uniform with sternness on my face, one could tell that I was in “the zone”.  I kept myself alone form my teammates, mentally preparing myself for the big game. I had always wondered how the likes of Tom Brady in the Superbowl or Ronaldo in the World Cup final felt before their games. Now I felt it. I was incredibly nervous. I was about to play the biggest game of my life.

            Once we got warm-ups over with, Coach called us into the huddle. I did not really pay attention but just prayed that God would be with me. As the whistle blew, all the fear disappeared. It was my time to shine. North Shore was a tough opponent, and they played hard. They were the first ones to strike. I kept telling myself, “Zero to zero, Daryl”. I could not let that bring me down. Late into the game, I got into a break away with a defender leaning on me. I saw the goal in sight as the goalie came off his line to charge me. I closed my eyes ready to be knocked by the keeper and kicked the ball. I flipped in the air and rolled on the ground. I could hear the celebration from the crowd. Pride overwhelmed me. I could see all my friends applauding, the glee on Coach’s face, and my brother on his crutches clapping on the sideline.

            As the game continued, the final whistle was soon to blow. North Shore forced a corner kick. I set myself at the top of the 18-yard box ready to collect the ball. As they kicked, our keeper, Sean Lydon, knocked the ball out towards me. As the ball ran past, I remember looking at Robert Stuke’s face who was saying, “I got it, I got it”. I turned to control the ball, weary of the fact that a North Shore defender was running towards it. I knew he would get there first, so I slide tackled to kick it out of his away. I just missed by a couple centimeters and followed the path of the ball as it sailed over Sean’s hands. I had lost the game.

            I will never forget that memory. The tears were unending. I felt like such a loser, a disappointment to my Coach, brother, and now my team. I always look at the article from the Daily News Tribune about the game as a reminder of how I should and should not play soccer. My cockiness absolutely ruined that day, but taught me to be more open-minded and to seek help from others. It has definitely worked, seeing that I have more assists than goals this year.

Shooting an Elephant Questions

How is this a story about two disparate major themes? How are these themes intertwined?

In "Shooting an Elephant", a British officer is serving for the British Empire in Burma. The story brings about two themes:  imperialism and peer pressure. The imperialistic British empire has now reached Southeast Asia. Imperialism is the ruling of one country by another from afar. Britain has taken control of Burma, and the officer in the story serves there. He hates his job and believes imperialism is wrong. He is in support of the Burmese people, who were treated poorly by the British. Even though he was uneducated and young, he could tell that imperialism was wrong. The officer felt broken between his duty and hurting these innocent people. 

As the story continues, the officer talks about one day when an elephant went wild. The animal killed a man and damaged the village. The Burmese people looked to the officer to do something about it. The officer did not want to kill the elephant. He felt that it was murder and the fact that its owner would become angry for an elephant is worth a lot. His dilemma grew to peer pressure. The Burmese looked to him to finish off the elephant and they made a huge crowd around him and the elephant. There was also the other British officers who would make fun of him if he decided t not kill the elephant. THe peer pressure led him to kill the elephant and go against how he really felt.

What tactics does Orwell employ when revealing unflattering aspects of himself? 

One unflattering aspect he reveals is that he can give in easily to others. The officer falls for peer pressure and pride to please the native Burmese people. This is possibly a representation of Orwell himself. He even states at the end, "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that i had done it solely to avoid looking a fool." The officer did not act true to his feelings but those of others.